Undoctrinate Yourself - #17 - Ryan Walker

Episode Date: March 12, 2025

Ryan Walker is a lover of food and life, a self-taught chef, and recent participant on Master Chef. He's the founder, chef, and mastermind behind The Steak and the Egg: an outdoor farm-to-table dining experience located in Central New Jersey. Find Ryan on instagram at:⁠@cooking_it_keto ⁠⁠@thesteakandtheegg⁠⁠@blood_sweat_yoga⁠Support the podcast by becoming a patron www.patreon.com/undoctrinateyourselfpodcastFollow the podcast on Instagram ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@undoctrinateyourselfpod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow Dr. Alexis on Instagram ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@dralexisjazmyn⁠

Hello and welcome back to the Undoctrinate Yourself podcast. We've been on a little bit of a hiatus, but we're back with a great guest for you. This is Ryan Walker. And in past episodes, I've been doing some brief introductions for people, but I really want to start pivoting to having people introduce themselves a little bit because I feel like what I might think is important or just like relevant about somebody's identity, maybe not is not what they would represent themselves as. So I want to give people that opportunity to describe themselves in the beginning. as they would like. So welcome, Ryan. And do you want to just give us a little brief intro or just some gist of what you encompass, what you do in life? And then we'll obviously dive into the details of your journey and what that looks like. Yeah, yeah. I'm happy to be here. Not happy to give an introduction. I think I suck at these. But I'm going to go ahead and give it a shot. I'm Ryan Walker. I'm a steak and egg enthusiast. I have cooking accounts. I do, I talk a lot about physical fitness, mental health, nutrition, ingredients sourcing, a little bit of a checkered past. I'm sure we'll get into it a little bit.

And yeah, I'm just a lover of life and all things good food. Amen. We're in good company here. And same. And also, you guys might know him on Instagram as cooking at keto and is it Stades. The steak and the egg, but yeah, the abbreviation is steaks. Love it, love it. Absolutely amazing. And I actually found you in a very random way. A friend of a friend who lives in Germany sent me your account and was like, do you know this guy who lives in New Jersey? I was like, no, I have no idea who this is.

And I went on your page and I was like, kindred spirit immediately. Like, we need to talk. And so we started DMing and I also just found out you were 20 minutes away or so. So like had to do it in person. I'm glad we're out here. I love it. love those small world stories like your friend in Germany and it turns out on down the street and yeah it's great. It's wild. It's wild. So I know you have a bit of a journey and I'd really

like to discuss it here because I think it's always so interesting to see how people's experiences have formed their trajectory in life and like same with me as well. I've been on a very like winding journey to where I am today and so I always love to hear about how people got to where they are. So do you want to share a bit about maybe what you did before you got into this line of work and in these interests and maybe your past life because based on some like before and after pictures I've seen on your page, it seems like you've had quite the transformation. Yeah, yeah. I'm a, uh, yeah, let's dive right into it.

Um, so I was not always into like health, food, fitness, like all the mental health. I was not always into all these things. It was actually like quite the opposite. So from the age of about 18 until 28, like I was like a very, very. captured severely depressed drug addict mainly prescription pills which you know is given me a lot of the insight that I still hold now about the pharmaceutical industry which I'm sure we'll get into but all drugs you know I didn't really discriminate so you know I was a freshman in high school trying crack and

heroin for the first time yeah right in from the heartstone. Yeah, then kind of drop back to prescription pills. But everything was always in the mix. I like to say as a drug addict, I didn't discriminate. So it was all fair game. But yeah, I was really just in such a bad place for a long time. Like if you see videos now of Philadelphia or something where you see all the people sleeping and standing up,

that's like how I operated for. years. Wow. Yeah. So, you know, and then along with that, along with like the drug use was like, you know, I went multiple years without drinking water. Like my diet was fast food, candy, gatorade and soda. And, you know, so like just like kind of even contrasting my state of mind now with like how I was back then. It's just, it just like gives me goosebumps, like, just to think, you know, how I once was. But, um, also how resilient the body is. I mean, same with me. I was not eating well my entire childhood and I had a lot of issues with mold exposure and I was very obese and all the issues. And, you know, once you decide to make a change and start doing things

the right way, the body can just bounce back so quickly, especially if you make these realizations when you're younger and it's just so miraculous. Yeah, yeah. I remember when I was, you know, this was probably like the last year of my addiction, we had like a volleyball net set up in the backyard. And I was a very skilled drug addict in the fact that every day for 10 years, I secured what I needed to. Limited limited withdrawals in between. So I was like high and we secured the volleyball net and like had a bunch of people over there playing. And I remember after like 30 seconds or like maybe a minute, like I felt my whole like chest collapsing, my like legs getting weakened. I was also 50 pounds overweight, you know, and had a bunch of other issues.

But yeah, just to go from from that to then fast forward to where I am now, especially at a physical fitness level, it's just, it's night and day. It's a complete game changer. Truly, I mean, you're a different person. Yeah. Ultimately. And so what was the, was there a specific moment or a trigger or something that was brought into, was brought into your field that made you want to get curious about changing the way you were living? Or what was the impetus?

You know, I, I've talked about this before. It's, it's so weird. It's weird to say. But I don't know if I, I've never heard like other people say this, but I guess I'm just one cocky son of a bitch in that. Like, even when I was at my work. like driving half asleep like not owning a pair of like a piece of clothing that wasn't covered in cigarette burns like I literally didn't have one shirt one pants like nothing that even when I was like that I still had this like image in the back of my head of myself that looks like where I'm at now like from the fitness to the health to the food everything I just always had like I always had a thing that like, uh,

one day we're just going to check it into gear and you're just being, you know, like the absolute like, you know, you reach, you could reach your physical and mental potential. Like I just never let go of that. So then,

you know, going back to when I was, um, 28, you know, I'm at the, I'm at the end of a, of a 10 year run here and just burning bridges.

horrible mental health like you know pretty severe depression lack of no no dry like no love life no drive for it burning bridges with friends just totally just torturing my family

and it just it was just a buildup and one day I was like you know what that's it let's go for it and that's what I did I didn't go to rehab

and do the whole AA thing, nothing against that. That's like amazing that helps so many people. And if somebody was in, you know, a bad spot, that'd be something that I would recommend for them to do. But for me personally, I just, I knew that it wasn't going to be a good fit for me. So luckily, my drug dealer also sold Suboxin, which is what they give you in those rehabs. But the problem with that is that, you know, a lot of people will. go to rehab, go to AA, do this, and they'll stay on Suboxin for like years, maybe even like permanently.

Yeah. And, you know, that's that's not something that I wanted anything to do with. So I got myself some just to avoid like some of the really intense physical elements of the withdrawal. But just kind of wean myself with that Suboxone for a month. And then I actually used a lot of like, I call it THC therapy. but you could also say smoking weed because there's actually a lot of good science

for opioid addicts and that like THC can help repair the neural pathways that you damage like there's a really cool scan you can see of a brain of an opioid addict and it looks like an abandoned city and then you show the scan with like a little THC therapy and it looks like New York City at night

like everything's lighten up firing so yeah use some I quit on my own cold turkey, used the Suboxone for a month, did some THC therapy, and then slowly started falling in love with food for the first time ever. Wow. I mean, that's a different way to get dopamine, right? Much healthier way of getting good dopamine hits. But that's also really interesting about the cannabis, too, because we know, like, the endocannoids

are stimulating the dopamine system as well. And if you're using opiates, like, you're basically, like, flooding your brain with dopamine all the time to get that feel good chemistry. And there's so many different ways that we can acquire that too, like through lifestyle, through nutritional means, through just like finding your purpose and your passion. It's like all engaging these, these, these mechanisms and pathways as well. But I think food is amazing and we definitely share that as well. Like I've always been a major foodie and it's been a major outlet for me to like just show my love

and my care and just like a way of just being able to kind of shower people with health and also with something that feels good and tastes good too. So I love that. What was your initial exposure to food? Had you been exposed like cooking or anything as a kid? Or what was the like motivation there? Yeah. So growing up and like maybe like in college a little bit like this is like during my addiction.

I might like hop on the grill a little bit like grill like grill like grill burgers or something like not even steak like just something easy like but I was never really like into cooking or did it. took a passion about it. But, you know, going 10 years, like, eating fast food. And before that, I was kind of like a picky eater in, like, high school and childhood. Not picky in, like, a general sense, but compared to where I'm at now, you know, extremely picky. So then when I got sober and I started, like, eating these different foods for the, like, first time really ever, like with a sober mind, the clean palate. And, you know, It was just, it was amazing. Like, I just fell in love and I just, you know, just immediately just started diving in and just trying everything.

And, you know, it was actually, it was actually the home fries at the gas station where I got my sausage egg and cheese that like really got me into it. Because I never, like, they had like a little bit of peppers and onions in them. And like my whole life, I never like ordered them. And then, you know, I'm in this like sober mind. Like, hey, screw it. French and out. Yeah, try them. And then I tried them.

They were like amazing. So, you know, and then it just started growing from there. I tried all these different things and really fell in love with it. But so this is how I got into cooking too because eventually down the line I'm sober for about like a year and a half or something like that. And I wanted to lose weight. So my dad did like a keto Atkins kind of thing. that was something I was familiar with. And I didn't even like look into like health benefits and, you know, all I wasn't really

concerned about ingredients or like overall nutrition really, but I wanted to lose weight. So I started doing keto. Problem with keto is you can't really be going out to eat ordering, you know, keto meals. But if you learn how to cook, you could kind of like replace a couple ingredients and make some like delicious food. So that's what I did. I started teaching myself, like, very simple recipes. And then eventually one of my buddies convinced me to start the Instagram page.

And then after that, it just was like a compounding effect. Like, you know, then all of a sudden you're exposed to, like, different stuff. You start pulling from here, there. It's like opens up your creativity. And, yeah, it was off to the races for me. Wow. So when did Master Chef enter the? picture. All right. So I was actually doing the cooking for a couple years and I was actually

really successful in my construction career. I told you before I was doing a lot of hospital work and I was managing big sites and it was really, it was a great job. But Master Chef contacted me a little over a year ago and I was in the middle of a transitional period with work so I took the offer and they found me on Instagram so I had like a you know like 14,000 followers or something like that

so they found me it's like this cooking a keto page this guy thinks he could cook so like you know they thought they were setting me up but what they didn't know is that when I confirmed to be on Master Chef, I'm like, okay, I could cook proteins better than the rest of them. I like cook eggs, steaks, chicken, like, all that's good. But I had never like baked the cake, really, like a real cake. I did some keto ones, but never like baked the cake, never like made pasta. So a month before Master Chef, maybe a month and a half, I just went straight up like culinary

school in my kitchen, just every day, all day, just videos, just. studying recipes, trying stuff out. And yeah, then I went on the show last year, got stabbed in the back by Gordon Ramsey. Gordon, I know what you did. Coming for you. But it was great, though. Master Chef was amazing.

I'm so happy about being on the show. Just because when I came back from filming prematurely, I shouldn't have been back that quick. But when I came back, I didn't go back to my construction career. Like, I went all in on the food stuff. So this is where me and my dad, we built the outdoor kitchen that I used to host my dinners right now at the steak and the egg. You know, I started doing that. And then that kind of blew up, grew organically.

And, you know, now I got my butter and my butcher shop, Dutchill farm in Spring Lake. I just, you could go in and buy my butter, like, right off the shelf. And, yeah, we're about to open up the steak and the egg for my tasting menu again in the next, like, I think towards the end of April. And best food in New Jersey. And yeah, so I'm so thankful for Master Chef, but, you know, the actual, the actual show, I wasn't, I wasn't too happy at the time. So I always wonder how much of that, was it, was, did it feel staged? Like, what was it like? So generally speaking, like reality TV, you know, they like, people are malleable.

So, you know, like if they want to, if they want to have like a certain thing said or like kind of produce a storyline, they can put somebody into a like a little interview room and they can get what they want out of you. But so like, yeah, there's always like a little bit of like drama inducing things that they'll kind of like pull up and. Some people are better than others for that. So like, you know, they might bring person A in and like two minutes later they got the good line they want. They might person B in and an hour later, it's not going too good. They're not saying what they're supposed to say. So is it scripted or are they just suggested? It's not scripted, but like any reality TV, you got to realize that you're watching like a 60 minute show.

There's probably 10 hours of interview footage for that. So, you know what I mean? It's not scripted, but you can make it feel or look how you, how you please in the edit room. But the one thing I will say about Master Chef is the cooking is real. Okay, that's good. Like, when you, when that timer goes off, like that timer starts and you're running to grab your ingredients. And when that timer is counting down, you're plating your food and like everything that happens in between is it's all you and the food. Like, you know, it's real in the fact that you have to cook that dish in that amount of time.

That's why I always wonder like on chops, too, it's like, do they ever get wiggle room at the end? Or is it just drama for the show or is it real? But I mean, I'm assuming it's similar between the two. It seems like it would be very stressful. Yeah, yeah. Well, sometimes, like, a lot of shows will be like, you know, just to make sure you got the proper end shot. They'll, like, you might have to like start your plating with a certain amount of time left. So if you pick a dish where you have some extra time in there, that's not good for TV.

But you're still cooking that food in that amount of time. And hopefully you get it plated. That was actually a problem I had. You didn't see many of my plated dishes on the show. But when I would plate at home, I just like, I never did it with a timer. And with a timer, it's like kind of difficult. Like you got to get a little artsy in like 60 seconds or two minutes. minutes it's it's not the easiest thing and me i have i still have construction fingers so they're

they're really good for the grill and that i don't get burnt but plating that's a much yeah that makes sense so walk us through like when you first you know got accepted on to master shop you go where was it filmed first of all where did you have to travel to went to l. okay how was that uh weird this was last year so and like la is probably still to this day is probably still to this day, like, and especially in the film industry, like, they're like, they still have all their COVID protocol. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

And then plus, I mean, this I understand, they don't want to like, you know, Fox Master Chef. They put a lot of money into these, into filming these setups. So they don't want you to, like, compromise with the outside world. So I was, you know, basically locked in a hotel for a month. Wow. Like I was like at the end of it, I was like, I need to touch grass. Like you need to bring me to the park. I need to touch grass.

But yeah. And I'm like, I, you know, I cook all my own food. Every day I cook, you know, pretty much every meal. So for me to go out to L.A., no yoga, no hot yoga, no cooking, no going outside. It was, I'm like pasture raised. So that was a lot for me. That's rough. Yeah, yeah.

It was a big, it was a big change. So that was tough to get used to, but raw milk is legal in California. So that kind of brought my spirits up. That's one thing. Yeah, I was just chugging raw milk for a month. Oh my God, it's so stupid here. Yeah. I mean, there's some, I'm not going to say here, but like there's some ways you can order

it and it's fine. Like, we have a couple farms in PA that you can get from. But it's just the idea that you can't buy raw milk, but you can go and buy alcohol and you buy cigarettes and you can, you know. So every two weeks, I go. to the, I cross the Pennsylvania border. And there's an awesome farm there, the family cow. They have a couple locations.

They have a couple locations on the border. And yeah, I just go there, pick up a couple gallons. Raw milk actually stays good, like, way longer than regular milk, which is weird. You wouldn't think that. But it is weird. Yeah, so, yeah, it's my current setup. But I'm really nervous because the Amish MPA, There's this guy, Amos Miller.

The Pennsylvania government is trying to not only stop him from selling his products, they like destroyed a bunch illegally. They're trying to stop him from being able to eat his own products. So they're telling him it's illegal for you to milk your cow and drink that milk. It's illegal for you to get this off your farm and feed it to your pigs. Like it's absolutely insane and super scary, especially for someone in. Jersey who's relying on Pennsylvania to not be complete psychos. Right.

I mean, talk about government overreach. I mean, there's certain aspects of government that are important to make society run, but not like, why are they policing what people are putting in their mouth? Meanwhile, they're like endorsing fast food and other bullshit food that, like, is actually harming people and making the things that are actually going to help people illegal. It's like, what are they actually up to here? Yeah. And their big thing is like salmonella, E. coli, like, where are you most likely to get that produce? It's like in the lettuce at Taco Bell. Like, you know what I mean?

Like that's where people get sick from. And it's like the produce that's shipped from other countries. It's not even like if people were just buying like locally produced food, seasonal foods from maybe they're growing their own food or raising their own animals or from a local farm. Like you're way less likely to get contamination from those. But I guess they don't want to actually look at the data to just, you know, see what's actually going on. And there's clearly some other agenda going on. Yeah.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. 100%. Like the best, the best chicken eggs you can. get are like covered in a little bit of poop and like have a feather on the shell like that's the best stuff like it's real it's real food yeah i mean the direction things are going is just you know between like eating bugs and and the the fake meat she's like what are we doing here yeah and then and then you have the whole water thing that we were just talking about so like my whole life um you know for when i was younger

it was probably more like a financial thing with my family we have like there's an oaken spring like 15 minutes away. So like literally a pipe just coming out of the ground that's connected to a natural spring and you go fill it up. And, you know, so my whole life, we've been drinking out of this thing. Obviously, when I was in my 10 years of zombie, zombification, I really didn't give a shit. But since I like embrace this whole like health conscious journey, like that spring was huge to me. Like that was like, I don't drink like bottled water like, Plastic bottles. I'm good. No thank you. Tap water, fluoride. No thank you. So I had this, like, awesome spring water source. And they have like a little sign there that says like waters from an

unknown source, like boil or something like that. It's just like kind of to protect them. Liability. But, you know, as you, they just closed my spring a few months ago. And then I started looking into it. They've been doing this all across the state. And if you look at it, countrywide, like water rights, like farmers, like regular citizens have been getting absolutely screwed with water rights and just access to like real spring water that hasn't been flooded with some chemicals or purified or laced with microplastics. And it's, you know, it's scary. Luckily, I was able to find a spring in Neptune, Kepwell. And so I've been going there now. And, you know, it sucks. I shouldn't have to pay for it. But it's better than,

drinking poison. Absolutely. I mean, I'm just thinking right now about this amazing doctor. I don't know if you know I'm Dr. Jack Cruz, but he's big on like decentralization in general in money, but also in health. And you can, I think the water story is just a perfect example,

but also the food story about how like everything goes to shit when you start to centralize. Because you can only like from centralized entities perspective, like you can only control so many variables and things are going to slide or you're just going to have blind spots. and the people or the consumers are going to be the one suffering. And so I mean, I think really, and it seems like this has also been your journey too in like your healing journey, but it's certainly been the case for me as well, that it's like

the personal responsibility piece is everything. And it's like basically decentralizing your life and trying to take as much control of the variables that you can within your own power. So like trying to find good quality water, maybe raising your own chickens or growing some food or finding a source of good quality food near you from a local farm or something like that and that really can make the biggest difference because you're now, you're consciously, like you're putting your awareness somewhere that is going to kind of create energy in that area. So if you're focusing on your food and your health, then you're going to build health.

You're going to build awareness in that area. And so a lot of what people run into, I think, is really just like being unconscious about things. And if you follow the status quo, then you get the status quo diseases. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, I'm a libertarian. And so decentralization is my love language.

Yeah. You know, so, and that's like huge. It's huge in our food supply. And I, you know, I kind of a big supporter, like, you know, on Twitter or Instagram, like, always shouting out these guys. They're like, I'm a big proponent of regenerative animal agriculture. And like the big, like a big reason why why this is like not. it's not more mainstream, it's not propped up, and it's kind of hidden by like mainstream entities is because it's not scalable. Exactly.

It's replicatable, but that's replicatable on small scales. So that like decentralizes the food system and that's less control, that's less profits. And when everything's owned by Black Rock and Vanguard, you know, they're not going to be too happy about that. So it's it's tough. but decentralization and especially in like a state like this like where we're that's why I really believe in regenerative animal agriculture because like people people say like that there's no way you could feed everybody like that and like I'm like yeah with with our current mindset like how we how we currently operate but like New Jersey is one of the most densely it is the most densely

populated state in the country and you know if everybody had you know some chickens in a garden instead of a manicured lawn, like, that's huge. That's like half the food for the state right there. And then, you know, we're the garden state. Like, if we could do that and pull that off, then anybody can.

But that, that's like a huge mental shift in like all of society that would be needed for like something like that. Absolutely. I mean, lawns are just kind of BS. Like, actually, in my dream home, I'd love to have like a clover lawn because clover is it re adds nitrogen to the soil too, which is really helpful from like a strip topsoil perspective.

But also just like using your land for something productive. It just doesn't have to be for show. And I remember seeing a stat recently that like in 1900, like people grew 50% of their food in their own yards. Yep. And it's been what, just over 100 years and we've made such a wild shift. And you can see just everything, all health metrics and happiness metrics going downhill. And it's like, you know, we can kind of get back to what we were doing and or at least reinvent it in a way that makes sense for today's society. But I think there's certainly something there.

And I don't know why there's such a resistance to understanding this. And unless people are just actually, I have some theories on this, but I don't know if you have thoughts on it. I do. I do. First, I want to say like last summer, maybe two summers ago, whatever. I do it all the time. So, but it never gets old. like me like I wanted a little breakfast so I go out in the morning and like go down to the garden

and pick something like pick a pepper or something or some maybe an onion something like that and get some eggs from the chicken coop and like cooking breakfast with those ingredients that just got picked like a couple minutes ago that egg that just got laid of my spoiled chickens that I love to give treats to every morning like there's nothing there's nothing there's like that. It's it's so it's so magical it's such it's so much more than just mouth pleasure and I feel like if more people like got to experience that like it'd be it'd be a way way easier battle but everything's you know the one one thing I've come to realize in last few years is just that literally everything's connected you know so like what you

consume to like your physical fitness you know to the to the food you eat to the TV shows you watch, the podcast you listen to. Like, it's all connected. So when you're putting that food from like that was, you know, prepared properly, raised properly into your stomach, your stomach that has actual neurons in it. Like that, it's just, it's good for your body. But it's also like good for your like your mental health, like your soul.

Like it's just like there's just something to it. And like we've become so disconnected. with the food system and and what we eat. And there's definitely a direct, I would say correlation, but I'm going to say causation with the mental health in the country and our disconnected nature of the food system. Well, I was literally just, that's so funny you said that, because I was literally just thinking disconnected from nature,

like those words, but the nature of the food system, but also nature itself. We're just disconnected from the fact that we're a part of nature, first of all. But that has like physiological ramifications. Like if we're not exposed to sun, I mean, I've talked about this adenosium on the podcast, but just like how important sunlight is for so many different pathways in the body. And what do people do? They wear sunblock and they wear sunglasses and they completely block out the sun

because that's what the centralized power is to be said, you know, that's what you're supposed to do if you want to be healthy. Meanwhile, the opposite is happening. And I think that just reflects at every level because it really jacks up our dopamine systems too. If we're not getting grounded or we're not get our bare feet on the earth, we're not, you know, eating real food and exposed to the right microbes and, and getting the right inputs that we need from our natural environment, that regulates our system. And so when we're disregulated, we tend to reach for things like fast food or drugs or alcohol or whatever it is to get

that dopamine system firing because we're no longer getting that baseline level of happiness that we would get if we were living in a way that was conducive to our species. Oh, yeah. Yep. um when you um like that the the the dopamine system from from like you know that you you look for like in drugs or alcohol like when i when i started like getting into like the food stuff like i i notice like it's a it's a it's like exact same like so when people some people people people would ask me like oh like because i i'm not like a sober sober person if you will i i have some drinks i i you know i i literally like don't even put any rules on myself like that's good um but like people ask me like oh my god are you like what if you relapse like this and that i'm like i'm like dude

do you know how high i've been the last few years it's like like everything i do like getting some sun working out like having a good meal like these things i feel i feel like i feel like i feel like i feel like i feel like I'm in like a video game and I'm just like, you know, just like boosting up my character and like, and you're also tasting these good things and feeling these good things. Like I do hot yoga three nights a week and like it always sucks driving there. Maybe like walking in, but it is always like absolute bliss after that class. And it's just like it's the highest of highs. And yeah, so I'm still a junkie. And no, I will not be an addict. again. Well, that's the thing that I think people understand is, and this is actually really

interesting also in like traditional Chinese medicine and Iroveda, they have a whole like study on this, which is like what substances do people gravitate towards naturally and what that indicates about deficiencies in their system? Because we're supposed to be high on life. And if we're not, that's a problem and we're going to reach for the junk food TV, the junk information, the junk media or the junk food, whatever it is, to fill that void because ultimately that system does need to be engaged in some way in order for us to basically be sustained and to like live a fulfilled life. But those are only like short term hits instead of getting that long term like enhanced baseline of just like bliss on a daily basis. Yeah. You mentioned the sun exposure part.

Are you are you team vitamin or team hormone for the D? Uh, hormone for sure. It's just crazy. No, like I'm not. Obviously, I'm not like a very, like, literate and, like, scientific, you know, terms. And I'm not like a PhD, like, you know, nothing like that. But it's just so crazy that, like, how many things sunlight and vitamin D does for the body. And, like, you know, it's just so much more than just like a run in the mill vitamin. Well, the crazy thing about it, and I think that people think about vitamin D so wrong. I totally look at it as a biomarker for sun exposure.

I don't look at it as like this thing that we just need to optimize by itself because if you look at all the studies actually that have been done clinically for vitamin D supplementation, you don't see very many positive health outcomes. And that's because we're totally missing the point. It's like vitamin D, your vitamin D levels are telling you how immersed you are in nature, essentially. And if you're not out in nature, you're not getting sunlight, then your vitamin D is a really good way of being able to determine how deficient you are in UV light, but ultimately that's just reflecting sunlight. So I think it's really, really important to think about it that way because then it allows you to actually actually make the actions that would make the biggest difference in your life versus like, oh, I just need to pop a pill for that. Yeah. The sunlight thing was so big for me, not from when I, you know, when I first got sober, it wasn't for a couple, a few years that I started really like looking, looking at health differently and nutrition. So like one of the first things is like I did the keto for a while, but really didn't

give a shit about nutrition. One of the first things, I think it was like 2020 when I really started getting into the health and nutrition spot was cutting out like all seed oils and processed foods. Now me, when I was a kid as a child, I mean, I was like, I'm pretty pasty right now. It's winter. But I was very, very ghostly white Irish child. If I was out in the sun for like 30 minutes with no sunblock, I was burning. And it was going to be painful and it was going to be horrible. And that's just like how I operated my whole life.

Fast forward to 2020, you know, I like clean up my diet and like stop eating seed oils, stop eating processed food, mostly steak and eggs. But my relationship with the sun has completely shifted. Like I fast forward, so that's 2020. Fast forward a year later, I'm in Costa Rica at a bachelor party with like 20. 20 people. I'm like there's a bunch of like even like Spanish kids that I'm friends with like darker skin complexions to me. I'm like the only one not wearing sunblock and I'm like one of the only ones that didn't get sunburn. And like it's just it's just night and day difference.

And that's like, you know, I'll keep going back to it. Everything's connected. You know, so everything you do like how what you eat might affect the way your body receives sunlight. Like it's just it's, it's crazy. It's crazy when you think about it, but it really kind of makes sense. It does. And another scary part of that is that a lot of people are on medical drugs that make them like photosensitive, quote unquote, so that they do burn more easily or that they start to fear the sun because, you know, my doctor told me it's going to harm me if I go out in the sun while I'm on this drug. Meanwhile, the sun could replace like all of your drugs plus more if you were using it in the right way. And the really interesting thing about the seed oil's part of the

story is. So saturated fats, which you'd find in like me and eggs and a lot of animal-based foods, they are very stable and they stack really nicely on top of each other and they make really strong, robust cell membranes. And our skin turns over so quickly that the fats that we're eating through our diet are directly influencing the way that our skin barrier is being formed. And so if we're eating a lot of seed oils, which are like the polyunsaturated fats, those don't stack nicely on each other and they have a very low melting temp. That's why they're a liquid at room temperature and it makes your cell membranes also more fragile and more like liquefied, let's say, so that when you go into the sun, now your skin no longer has that tight barrier

to actually protect itself from some of the intense rays that are coming down and you're going to burn more easily. It's just the way it is. And so it's an amazing testament that you've directly seen that in your own life when you're switching to more animal-based fats and cutting out the junk that you can directly see like now you're tolerating the sun and that's how it's supposed to be. I love when scientifically literate people like you embrace like a holistic, like you know what I mean? Like you don't just like see some study that was paid for by big sunscreen and like, no, no, no, no, no, no, son, that's it. Like, you know what I mean? Like, it's just, it's just so nice to hear. Thank you. You're welcome. I fully disdain people like that.

And there's many of them on Instagram that are just like, you know, if there's not a PMID for it, they're not going to think that it's real. Versus like my approach is really like in alignment with Dr. Jack's approach, which is like nature is the ultimate randomized control trial. We should be trying to mimic what's going on in nature if we want to create health in our own bodies. And just because there's no clinical trial for it doesn't mean it's not true. Because the way science is, like the way it's conducted isn't the perfect tool for answering a lot of the questions in health because health is so multifactorial. and there's so many different variables that you can't control. So, like, if you're doing a scientific study or, like, a clinical study on something, like, you might get a negative result on, let's say, I don't know.

I was going to say sun exposure, but there's not been a single study on sun in any context because you can't, like, isolate as a variable, so they'll just do, like, just UV light. And all the studies that show that UV light is harmful is from UV light in isolation. It's absolutely crazy because you never get UV light in isolation. It's always with the full spectrum of sunlight, which is a lot of red and infrared. 50% of sun is like red and infrared. But anyway, so the studies that are being conducted in science are just not very well formulated to actually answer the questions at hand when it comes to health. And so it's not really a good way to kind of assess what is best for you to incorporate

into your life because health is so individual and it's so N of one. And if we're not paying attention to what's going on in our own bodies and how we're feeling and we're constantly just outsourcing our responsibility to X, Y, expert, or this paper, that paper, then we're totally missing the point, is like the way that you're feeling and the way that you're reacting to your environment and the way that your health is is a direct reflection of how you're behaving and if you just pay attention to those different factors that are influencing the way you feel then you can you know crack the case and you can be the own like master or your own expert yeah yep from like from from from like from what we're talking about now like health and nutrition to like

political debates to social to even like dating stuff like you could get on these podcasts and like everybody has a study for everything yeah you know what i mean like i like if pick pick a one random opinion and like as long as it's not too absurd like i will go find you a study that says yeah that's correct but like one of my favorite quotes ever i'm gonna butcher it but it's uh richard horton editor of the lancet towards the end of his career I mean, this is a major scientific paper. And like towards the end of his career, he said, the case against science is like pretty straightforward.

Like, I'm butchering the quote. But he goes on to say, the case against science is pretty straightforward. Out of all the scientific research, perhaps half is simply untrue. You know, from small sample, to biased people doing the studies to, you know, there's a million different ways that a study or a paper can be just butchered, doctored, manipulated. So this is like literally the editor of

the Lancet saying that like, yeah, like out of all this stuff we got on here, half of it's garbage. So like any time, like if I were to go into like any kind of like debate or discussions like i like to start off with that that quote just so we know that like you know when you not you but somebody like brings up some study to tell me that you know no you have to use sunscreen it's like all right well half of the sign at least half i think i think it's closer to like be honest i think it's closer to like 80 90 percent is of the scientific literature that these like papers that people cite papers this is information that your doctors use to prescribe you something. If you're lucky.

Yeah, usually, you know, all right, so usually the doctors just get the note from the pharma companies and then go from there. But some of them look at studies. So, but Richard Horton says, half. I say 80 to 90% are not true. But it's just, you know, it's, we're, we're in the information age. Yeah. So now it's not, you know, it's not like, it's not like you, you have all information at your fingertips, you do, but then you also have 10x of false information. So it's not like everybody can get information, but like more than half, most of the information out there is just simply not true. Yeah, it's all about discernment today because we're constantly flooded with information. And if we don't have the ability to discern what's true or what's false, then it's

like just totally overwhelming. The one thing that I was thinking of why you're saying that is like, well, actually two things. There was a paper in nature a couple years ago showing that about 80% of published results were unreproducible. So that goes to what you're saying. There's a lot of, it could be due to bias. It could be due to falsified data. It could also be due to a specific context. Or like, maybe the researchers have a certain variable that they don't know about

that they're doing every time. But if somebody else in another lab tries to do it, then they can't get the same result because of whatever the variable is. And then the other thing that's really interesting about this is like the paradox of the fact that you could look up. So let's say, sunscreen's good, sunscreen's bad. You could look up PubMed papers on both sides probably, and you could get reputable scientific articles that represent each point of the argument, which means that there's a paradox there, like, which is basically pointing to you like you need to do more work to figure out what's true for yourself, because there's experts on both side of the field that are saying totally opposite things. And so there's truth somewhere in there

And it's just a matter of finding the context And what makes sense for you Because there is always the context of like the n equals one The individual like in your lifestyle With your goals like what is best for you Because the literature is only going to tell you What's best on average And the average may not apply to any one individual

In a population. Yep Who is the who is the guy that you said nature? Oh, Jack Cruz Okay Like that's So like when I'm when I'm trying to navigate through this world of like I'm actually like very interested in like science like I love

talking like about studies and like learning more I don't just like blindly trust them but it's like something I'm interested in so um like with the I just overall like big picture of you like you have to develop like pattern recognition skills like so when you're when you given a new piece of information or, you know, a new, a new study, a new paper, a new pharmaceutical product, like, O-ZMPIC comes out, like, you know, something like that. You have to have to have these pattern recognition skills where you're like, okay, who's benefiting from this? Who's making money from this? Who's speaking out against? And then you have to, like, you have to weigh all these variables and you know it's i i think that i have like superhuman pattern recognition skills

um that i developed from you know my weird and weirdly enough like my time is a drug addict you know what i mean like like just seeing like that's like goes back to you know um big pharma during the initial prescription pill push and double the dose double the dose you know they have doctors selling these things to people when i was an addict, most of, like, that's what we would do. We would go to doctors and the doctors would write prescriptions. Like, so, you know, it kind of gave me, like, a very, you know, unique, unique view at, like, just like the medical industry, the pharmaceutical industry. And then I took that same view and looked at the food industry, the health fitness industry, you know, all these different things.

So you really have to develop a. pattern recognition skill because nobody's able to read everything. You know what I mean? So you have to like and the other thing is like find people like that were right about stuff and then trust them on that. You know like not blindly trust, but like what boggles my mind like not to get political, right? Please do. It's fine. Right. So so the war in Iraq is horrible. We killed a million Iraqis. We killed a half a million children. When we have another war pop up, like, let's say Ukraine, are you just going to like just blindly believe all of the same talking heads that were so wrong that were responsible for a half a million children being killed by our tax dollars?

Or are you going to maybe see what the other person has to say that was right about that? You know what I mean so and that's like you know the past few years like with with like COVID um the jabs like you know what to do and what not to do like just try to take a deep breath take a step back and try to like identify people that weren't blatantly wrong about the last thing i'm not saying nobody could ever be wrong but when you when someone has different incentives you know, financial, malicious, when they have these, usually if you kind of like take a step back and then look at their history, it kind of shows itself. So that's, you know, pattern recognition is a very useful skill today. Absolutely. And I was also thinking when you're

saying about finding the people who have a track record of being right is just also the people who are brave enough to stand up and say what they feel is true even when it's not a popular opinion because that, I think COVID was a big wake-up call for a lot of people that like the people in control of things don't actually know what they're doing and they've just caught in multiple eyes time and time again like over the course of the past few years and there's no sort of like retribution for anything that they've done or the harm that they've caused society to people's health and they can't be trusted and they need to be held accountable and they're seriously not being at all. Like people are just, I feel like forgetting about what happened and just trying

to move on with your lives. But like, it's really, really important to understand that the people involved in that decision making with regards to the lockdowns and the, in the mandates and just like holding them accountable and never letting that happen again. Because it's just, I honestly think that it was a big wakeup call for a lot of people because even me, like before COVID happened, I, when COVID first started, I was a little bit wary about. I didn't know if it was actually as bad as they were saying it was. And so my partner and I were just like, wary about it. We weren't really going out much.

We were just trying to figure out what was going on. They said six weeks to stop the spread or whatever. And then that turned into like months and months. And we were like, okay, this is a whole weeks. It was two weeks. It was two weeks. First, then six. And it was like months.

And then we were like, this is clearly bullshit. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that this is bullshit at this point. And then we wised up real quick to what was going on. prior to that, I mean, we kind of just trusted that they were going to do the right thing in the case of like a global pandemic, for example, or Plandemic or whatever you want to call it. And so now I am much more critical of the system than I was. And that's even saying a lot because I've always been very critical of the system because it failed me so much as a child and like just my health growing up and just never served me. And so I've always had a critical eye of like authority figures in general, but specifically in medicine. And now they just have none of my trust or like even my respect. this point like i think everybody should be forced to earn your trust and respect it's not a given and it shouldn't be and these people need to be held a higher standard because they're literally killing people yeah oh yeah what i mean so this is um one of the reasons that i'm

actually thankful for my checkered past because like i you know i if like i didn't if that didn't happen to me i could easily see how people get you know, they pick a side. So nobody wants to admit they're wrong. You know what I mean? And then like, when you pick the side that like has like, you know, all like the head doctors, the guys, you know, the head pharma guys, the guys, you know, speaking, speaking on something with authority, when you pick that side, it's really, really hard to like turn around and be like, oh yeah, like, I was wrong about that. So like, you know, people get sucked in and like there are still people like advocating for like pregnant women and like young children to like get these medical procedures.

And it's, it's scary to me and it's sad. I also get angry about it. But it's just, it's weird to think about like we're like, you know, years later, I mean, everybody knows what really happened for the most part. And yeah, there's still, I think, I think I just saw like an advertisement for shot 10 coming up this fall. And I don't know if they're fake Twitter accounts or if these people are real, but there's like people out there reping it hard still. They must be bots at this point. Who are you? You got to be. You got to be. I don't meet them in person, so it's got to be bots, but I don't know. And that's crazy given the context of, I think it was the Cleveland Clinic that put out a paper showing that the more boosters you had,

the higher your likelihood of getting COVID. It was the opposite effect. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then I like, oh, I mean, I just feel so bad for like, you know, all the, all the young athletes with like myerkiditis and health conditions. And I would tweet this out sometimes because like how serious that is. I would tweet out like your heart.

doesn't heal, it's scars. Yeah. And like, some people will be like, no, that's BS. And they pull up this study and like this. And I'm like, dude, like, have you actually read that? Like, trust me, you can like regenerate. There's like techniques to like regenerate tissue and stuff. But for the most part, like you do not want a heart injury, especially at a young age,

because that'll carry with you through your whole life. Absolutely. It's totally different than organs like liver or skin that have a very high regenerative capacity. The heart really does. like it can hatch over, but that damage is going to be reflected like throughout the course of your life. It's not just going to go away by itself. So you are really setting yourself up for potential issues down the line, which is really sad because these demographics of like young men

in particular are at the highest risk and they're at the lowest risk of getting issues from COVID. So it's like, why are we doing this? Yep. Yeah. And kids are basically no risk, but there's still let's risk at all and give them something special. It's scary. It's really scary. And then like when you when you also combine that with like with like, you know, the knowledge that the pharmaceutical industry basically owns the news and newspapers from all their advertisements that they do. That's not to turn over customers. That's to basically handcuff, you know, that news agency or whatever, pick one, Fox, CNN, any of them. but these companies benefit off people, they don't benefit off people being healthier and more independent.

So that's when they'll start to release this new stuff that says like, hey, exercise is linked to white supremacy and like don't get sun exposure. And like, you know, when COVID, like, when the first year of COVID, like, I'm on my, I'm on my Twitter timeline, like, telling like, like, screaming, like, listen like white people yes but especially black people i'm like yo you guys need to get vitamin d like you're like because it was winter and like there's something like you know it's depending on your your skin you could absorb it easier or you need more so if you're if it's winter and you're in new york and you haven't you know felt the sun on your skin for months like you know and like

and then and then they they turn around and they turn the turn the back scene thing into a racial saying, hey, these, this group's first up. And it's just, it's, it's, it's so disgusting to think about that that, that happened and it's still happening. It's, it's just, it's horrible. It's so sad, but it has woken a lot of people up. And me, me for one of them, like, 2020, I was in Boston, uh, working a construction job. And then, um, COVID happened two weeks to slow. So I came back. I was like, why? why stay in Boston when the city's shut down? So I came back to Jersey to stay with my family in the woods,

like nice, beautiful thing. And I was like, oh, I'm going to work out every day for the next two weeks before I go back to Boston. I'll go back to Boston, Jack. And then two weeks turned to six. Yeah, it turned to two long. Turned to two years. And I haven't missed the day yet.

But, yeah. So that's like, that's when I really started getting the fitness thing. but then also like the nutritional aspect. And like that's like, it all happened at the same time. Like, you know what I mean? So like the COVID stuff, the nutrition stuff, the fitness. So I was just like a melting pot of dangerous conspiracy theories that make me never go to the doctor. That's like you know they're good conspiracy theories.

Yeah. The real conspiracy theories are the ones that are telling you that you need to see doctors to be healthy. And meanwhile, they're just so. limited in their tool sets like you go to a doctor if you want to be diagnosed with an illness or given a drug that's the only tools that they are have available that's what they're trained to do they're not trained to they have no nutrition training they have no training in any sort of lifestyle interventions either so you know you're you're actually better off googling shit versus going to your doctor for issues on nutrition because they have no information on that and i was actually

recently talking to um a physician down in tennessee and this was related to the conversation we had earlier about like pub med and reading papers because She was saying that she was talking to a colleague of hers at the practice. She works at like a general practitioner's practice and there's multiple doctors there. And she was saying, you know, there's a bunch of papers on, you know, the benefits of sunlight and UV exposure. And the doctors, the colleagues said like, oh, like, where could I look that up? And she said pub men. He was like, what's that?

That's funny. So, yeah, your doctors aren't staying up to day on the literature. and the information that they're taught in school is at least 20 years outdated typically. So it's very slow to like update based on the cutting edge science. It's just a very slow moving field. And so your doctors are in medical school. They're already 20 years behind.

And then by the time they get into practice, they're just so burnt out from the awful hours in training and the immense debt that they went into that are just trying to make their money back and make ends me. And they're not worried about like staying up to date in the most recent literature and making sure that they're like improving your health

to the best of their ability. They're just trying to survive themselves. Yep. Yeah. And they, I mean, I love doctors. Not all of them. So one, one, you know, I guess semi, maybe not controversial here in this space, but in the outside world, controversial view I have is that like, when I look at like all,

like, if you give me a hundred doctors, I would say, like, I'm going to be general. I would say like maybe 60 of them are pharmaceutical sales reps. They're not like they're not they're not trying to like make you healthy or find root cause stuff like or like actually like better your life. They're trying to, you know, numb the pain, get you on a script, keep you stable, keep you generating. It's a it's a it's what I like to call a slow profitable death. they're farming your life force energy yeah for money yeah it's scary it's scary but that's why that's why you have witch doctors like myself that are I'm here to help you out you know but it's it's wild though just to think about it's a system that's set up to fail from just like the educational

standpoint if we think about just public education starting in very young grades you're already being indoctrinated with specific information you're just being taught to regurgitate information. You're not taught how to critically think. And then that just creates these kind of like automatons that are just going into society and being like hogs in the wheel versus people who are actually challenging the status quo and trying to grow and trying to change things. Like the system is actually set up to prevent against that, which makes sense because the system is built to preserve itself and it doesn't want to be changed and it's by its nature going to be rigid in that way. And so I think a lot of the issues that we

face really comes down to like an educational level because if we're, we were training people how to critically think, then we wouldn't be running into these issues because we would be open to the point of like, oh, this isn't working. We're just going to change it. Yep. What's the problem? And COVID really opened my eyes up to this because, you know, early on, there was a lot of doctors speaking out because they were getting, they were getting like, you know,

like, I don't know what you call them, but they're like direct commands on what to do. So like, COVID person comes out, has this reading, put on ventilator, give. this, give that. And that's not doctorate. That's not what doctors do. Doctors, a patient comes in, you know, engage, discuss, do this, do that. Like, it's like, it's more like independent of each situation rather than like just a big like a mandatory to do. So like that summer of 2020, I remember like, you know, the ventilator things going on. And I remember hearing one doctor speak on the COVID thing. And it's not about oxygen getting to your lungs.

It's like similar to scuba diving. What's that poison? Like whatever that's called. No, no, no. When you like rise too quickly or something. Oh, like the bends? I don't know. It's like some blood thing that you get from scuba diving.

And I was like, and then like so I'm looking into that. And like what do they do with those people that like, you know, that happens to? They like give them a steroid. So like, so I'm thinking to myself, this is this is me like an, an ex-dose. oped. And I'm like, oh, if the COVID reaction is similar than that, then why don't we give the COVID patient steroids? And then like, you know, this is summer 2020 when they're killing thousands of people on ventilators. And then, you know, a few months later, like, oh, shit, the ventilators didn't work. They actually killed people. And shit, part of our process is going to be to treat

people with steroids. And then I'm like, I'm like, wait a minute, like, dude, I'm a next dope head. I never went to school for this. I like went to Montclair State for business management and cheated my way through college. Why aren't you guys? Like, how are you not able to like recognize this pattern? You know? So I was like, that's why I, you know, look at, look at majority of doctors like that. But for that being said, there's also like amazing doctors that like actually care about you and want you to be healthy. And, you know, finding them is difficult, but they're out there. I mean, I think a lot of people go into the field with the right intentions. But again, the way it's structured is just like structured to burn them out, make them in massive debt.

Like I have a friend who initially wanted to go in and really like improve people's lives and do general practice and like try to help prevent disease to be. begin with. And she ended up going in like 200K debt and worked like 18 hour days. And she ended up pivoting to go into plastic surgery because she just wants to pay her fucking bills and live her life now. She doesn't, she doesn't have the bandwidth or the energy to actually try to change the systemic issues at hand now. And so that's the system that we're dealing with. It's like designed to burn these doctors out and like help. It kind of just like leaches away their passion that they went into the field for. And now they're just trying to just get by essentially. Yeah. Yep. And one, one, you're just making, making this click in my head. Like one big, big thing that like has, like, the pivot in the medical industry, like, right now, I think that, I think that humans right now in America should have a life expectancy of like 100 to 140.

Like, I really think that's like a hundred should be like minimum still moving around good. The problem is, it's like, we have. have like hundreds of thousands of years of holistic approaches that we've developed. And then sometime in the early 1900s, then you have this, this like industrial like BS Rockefeller, you know, where they're taking oil products to make pharmaceuticals. Like it's like, it's like this crazy thing. And like part of that was bastardizing the holistic approach. So like when you bring these two things together. Like, I'm not a holistic, like, there's this guy SoulBrah on Twitter that was just like telling people like not to give them antibiotics if they have septic shock in the hospital. And like, I'm like, dude, dude, dude, do, do, do. Relax, bro. But like, it's like this beautiful

unions possible where you still like have holistic and nature and you also have technology and innovation. And when those two things like come together, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's going to be a game changer for human existence. It's lovely. I think that the first time those two things are coming together is like right now for a very select group of people. And we're going to see over the next 20, 30, 40, 50 years, like what really we're capable of.

But it's just scary how hard it is to find that niche of the balance. between the two. Yeah, I agree. And I mean, I think everybody could agree that the Western medical approach is amazing for acute care. Like, it can keep you alive in a pinch. If you have some sort of like life-ending injury, you could have your life saved by the approaches. But they really fall short in the chronic care sector because they're trying to use the same tools they use in the acute sense for the chronic sense and it doesn't work that way. So I think a lot about like germ theory and when that started also, I think, in like 1800s, maybe late 1800s, also in like the industrialization era. And we started like looking at everything mechanistically and like breaking things down into smaller

and smaller pieces to try to understand like what things are made of. But we never actually thought about like putting the pieces back together to look at the picture as a whole. So the perfect example of that is like we think, go around thinking that like bacteria are bad and viruses are bad. Meanwhile, we literally wouldn't exist without them. And so it's like we're just so fixated on also like the intellectualization of it like we're we can't see bacteria with their eyes we just assume they're there and we assume things are dirty and germy and we need everything to be sterile and that would be paradise meanwhile the exact opposite is true like we want bacterial diversity and viral diversity and fungal organisms and we need all of them in order for our bodies to actually

function properly so i think it's also like a mindset thing that's been like programmed into us from only the past couple generations it's it's not an old thing it's very recent thing and so I think once we can come to the realization as a society that like germs are good quote unquote or like there's a context within which they're potentially bad or there's like maybe a state of your body that makes you susceptible to infection versus like this bug causes this infection. No, like if you're exposed to salmonella on some lettuce, you're not necessarily going to get poisoning from it. But if your microbiome is compromised in some way or you're not healthy, then you're going to be more susceptible to those organisms overgrowing causing an issue. So I think that's really

the context that's missing in a lot of cases. And I think once we can get that, it's going to be a real game changer with regards to like the systemic way of thinking. Oh yeah. Yeah. And then back to everything's connected. That's your bacteria in your gut. That's your gut microbiome. And like I said before, you actually have neurons in your stomach. You have neurons in your heart. You have neurons, most of them in your brain. So like not only are all those things going to react, like have a physical reaction, but you're also going to have a mental reaction. So that's like, you know, just everything's connected. Actually, I think you'll find this interesting. I just recently finished up a postdoc at UPenn. And the lab that I was in, his name is Christoph Tice, but he has a member

of his lab that was working on this really cool project relating to exercise and dopamine. And she published her paper, I think it was at the end of 2021 or maybe early 2022. And the paper was really cool. And it showed that if this was in rodents, so you basically had rodents. exercising at like free will, they'll go on like the wheels and they'll run and it's part of like their natural behaviors. They like feel the intrinsic motivation to run. If you take away their microbiome, they run less. They engage in less exercise. Then basically they did some studies and they found out there's a specific group of microbes that's making endocannabinoids that's getting secreted into like through the gut and interacting with the vagus nerve that's traveling up to the brain

and it's sending information to the brain to release dopamine in response to exercise, via this endocannabinoid, yes. And so they were able to actually give back no microbiome, but they just gave the endoconabinoid, and they restored the wheel running. And they showed that essentially there's a group of bacteria that make these endocannabinoid molecules are called lipidamides. And when those are present, people feel intrinsically rewarded to exercise, and they will engage in regular exercise as part of their routine.

But if these molecules are missing, these bacteria are missing, people are going to be like quote unquote lazy but really they're not getting the inherent dopamine reward from the exercise and they don't have the intrinsic motivation to actually get them to engage in an exercise routine that's that's very interesting you love it so it's fascinating i mean it's just one testament to like the importance of these bugs that live in us and then and alter the way that we're feeling and thinking and the way that we're behaving in a way that we're just only beginning to understand but ultimately i think like we don't have to understand that we don't have to understand the mechanisms in order to understand what we should be doing and really it just comes back to

nailing the basics like getting sunlight getting grounded having good quality food having good quality water moving your body having good relationships what more is there oh yeah oh yeah avoiding glyphosate that's oh my god it's unavoidable today apparently well that's why at the steak in the egg at my tasting menu i know that there's some places in the u.s but i haven't done like a deep dive so hopefully somebody could shout them out. But right now, like at my tasting menu, anything that I eat myself, anything I make for other people, it is always imported flour from Italy. Amazing. Because it's like when I was talking about GMO the other day, like when they GMO produce or, you know, whatever kind of plant you're eating, it's not the actual like GMO that's like a big scary monster to me.

I don't care about that like that much. Like that's not really a big deal. Ideally, I would not want it. But what's the big deal is why they GMO it. Yeah. They GMO it so they could spray it with glyphosate like literally right before they harvest it. So, you know, you have all these people with like gluten sensitivities and like, you know, people with like mental health problems, skin disorders. Like the list goes on.

And like it's like, no, you didn't you didn't eat like. one piece of food that poisoned you, you ate everything for the last how many years that's been sprayed with this chemical that we know gives you cancer. Like, you know what I mean? So, but I, I get all my, all my flowers imported, all my sugars, like minimally processed, no seed oils on the menu. And the whole, the whole thing is like farm to table. So it's all my chickens that are, that are the eggs. And I've, I have a big garden that me and my mom do, all my own herbs. So it's, yeah, try to keep it as natural as possible. That's amazing. I can't wait to come experience it. It's going to be so good.

You're also making me think with regards to the glyphosate story. Like there's a lot of research showing pesticide X, Y, or Z, whatever chemicals are spraying on. It's like, oh, it's not dangerous for human health or whatever from some isolated study. The problem is, and this also goes with the vaccine story too, is that there's no research showing that if you combine all these things together, they're not harmful. And the same with the vaccine schedule. You look in 1992, that was the year I was born, the vaccine schedule like blew up. Now it was like 75 shots within the first two years of life. There's only ever been safety studies on if you're lucky, like the individual shots, but some of them

also just get like grandfathered in because they're similar to other shots that were already used. But there's no studies to show like if you give all of these shots within two years that you're not harming that child or you're not creating long-term issues. And I just think that's crazy, especially in the context of like autoimmunity, like the rise of autoimmunity. Like we really just don't know what we could be causing with just our ignorance. And the same thing occurs with like food additives. Like we study food additives in isolation. We're like, oh, it's safe.

But what about in combination? And what about over the course of years of eating these things every day? Like we don't know. Yep. I call it, I forget what it's called. I call it like drop bucket theory. Okay. So it's like your body is a bucket.

Uh-huh. And like each like little thing is a drop in the bucket. Like each toxin. So like the glyphosate, glyphosate they sprayed on your lettuce, the BPA that's lining your can, like the microplastics in your water bottle. You know, like each one is a drop in a bucket. And like it's just like all the positive things in that if you go outside and touch grass, like you're not going to change tomorrow. But that's a one drop in the bucket. So in the negative aspect, it works the same.

I think, you know, everybody's different. So we have different tolerances for certain things. But when you're when you're bombarded by all these toxins and everything you do, everything you touch, like the clothing you wear, the receipt paper you're handed. Oh, cringe. Yeah. Yeah. So like when you're when you're bombarded by these things, it just adds up. And that bucket's going to get full.

And when that thing overflows, you're dead. But the same for like the positive things. Like, you know, like me eating chicken or eggs from my chickens as opposed to like some BS, like factory farmed like chicken never saw sunlight eggs. So that's like one small little thing and like me touching grass and like drinking out of metal and, you know, not not drinking like bottled water. It's like little tiny things that all add up. You have, you know, every day you're going to make like a thousand small decisions that you don't even. notice you're making. Yes. I mean, that's the crazy thing is like ignorance is not bliss when it comes to health because just because you're ignorant of something, it's still going to harm you.

It doesn't matter whether or not you're aware of it. And I mean, in some ways, if you're aware of it, it becomes worse because then you also get the stress response to like, oh my God, I know I'm doing this harmful thing. But you can also use that like anxiety around that, whatever it is to just avoid the thing. So like, I think awareness is so important in that case because we're just in an environment that's totally novel to our bodies. We're just not equipped to deal with this. And so we just need to try to just be as cognizant of what we're putting in and on ourselves as we can. All right.

I'm going to make a big admission now. Okay. What is it? So I don't want people to freak out and think you like have to do every little thing perfectly. Like me, like I'm still not like even at my ideal space. So like I still like. drink some diet soda like I'm not

but like there will be people who I engage with on social media that are like you know diet soda is not bad for you look at these studies they proved it and I'm like dude aspartame is the fecal matter

of E. coli there's no study you could show me that like tells me that this is like either even or not bad for you you know what I mean like there's nothing there's like that just the pattern recognition side of my brain says no E coli fecal bacteria like fecal matter E. coli sweetness no like that's just like doesn't work but I with that being said like I'm not like a completely like a hundred percent clean person so I have a diet soda like here and there like you know like you you don't have to be perfect but you have to be aware

so like when I when I speak about it I tell people like no diet soda is not healthy for you ideally you shouldn't drink it and yes i do drink it sometimes like i'm not i'm not i'm not perfect but uh you know we all have like little vices here there and um you know it's just about being being aware and conscious about what you're doing so like you know when you're having a positive or a negative so like i have some like regular bacon sometimes like regular grocery store bacon or chicken but you know general practice i am a lot more concerned about sourcing my poultry or pork as opposed to my beef because beef or ruminants they have four stomachs they they basically get rid of a lot of the toxins that might be in their diet while

chicken and pork have measly one stomach systems like us and they hold on to those toxins in the fat and they're fat so you know do i never eat bacon or never eat grocery store chicken no but i'm aware of it i limit my consumption and you know it's just if you if you have a bucket filling with toxins you better know which toxins are going into that bucket you know so you don't want to you don't want to be ignorant to these things but at the same time you don't have to be like holier than now and never touch like a bad thing you know totally you got room in the bucket yeah exactly and it's matter of like feeling guilty about it. It's like you said, it's just building the awareness so that what you're doing on average is going to matter the most and things you do here and there.

That's not going to really move the needle much versus like what, like the foundation that you've built and the way that you're living your life on a daily basis. That's going to make the biggest difference. And that's what people really need to focus on versus like, I mean, I've been on this journey now for, oh my. It's been like 13, 14 years. And it started out with just like losing weight and then just like counting calories, right? And then going to the gym. And then developing an eating disorder and IBS and then figuring out that, oh, it's actually the food quality that matters, not the quantity and not the calories. And then that's- This is funny. You went from calorie counter to food quality. I went from strictly macros keto to food quality. See, we could all find the path eventually, the way, the way.

It is the way. I mean, I think maybe in some ways anything in the wellness culture can be a gateway drug to like everything. as well. It's just a matter of like just following the threads because I mean once you make one change your life and you start feeling better, it's like, what else can I change? What else can I do? And then you just keep feeling better and it's like I'm going to just keep following this, obviously, because why wouldn't I want to feel good? Yep. Oh yeah. That's like my circadian rhythm. I love it. Really good. You were in bed early last night, not really? I have the chickens. So, and I, um, you know, I'm a very good chicken dad. So when that sun's up, they want to get out of that coop and they'll squawk and let me know. So I got to run down there with my, I use all my, I bring

down my table scraps every morning. So during the day, I, you know, save them up and then they go out and get their morning breakfast treats before they go and declare war on all the bugs in my yard. Is that before or after they cannibalize their kin? You was telling you earlier that they like to eat chicken carcasses. Yes, chickens do love to eat chicken. They love to eat scrambled eggs. That's their favorite and if you want to like i put a lot of like red pepper and oregano in their feed so like if there's ever like something that's really good for them immune system wise so if there's ever something you want to want them to eat you just scramble it in some eggs and they will suck it down yeah but yeah they're they're they're not preferred cannibals i don't think i don't think they really care if it's

chicken or duck or cow but they are preferred carnivores like if they had one option it would be meat and bugs over, you know, greens. I give my chickens a balanced diet. You know, they get all the, all the vegetable scraps as well. But, yeah, when I, I think I've seen, like, I think I've seen eggs sold as like, vegetarian fed. That's the biggest crock of shit of everyone. So crazy.

I'm like, dude, those are some, this are some weak-ass chickens you got. Same with humans. Like, we're not meant to be vegetarians either, folks. Yep. It's wild. I was actually just having this conversation earlier. It's like we understand for all other species that there's a species appropriate diet that animals are supposed to eat. But when it comes to humans, now suddenly it's all ideology. Instead of the facts, like what do we do best on? There's some flexibility. Like we can basically survive on anything. But what is leading to optimal health? I mean, that can, I would say vary based on your ancestral region. Like if you're from more northern regions where the ground froze, maybe you'd do better with higher fat, higher protein during the winter. Compared to somebody who maybe lives more equatorial, maybe they have access to more carbohydrate-rich food, maybe it makes more sense for them to eat more of those. But even still, those cultures are always having like meat as a staple as well or eggs or some sort of animal products. Yeah. So I think.

And that, you know, this all goes back to our like, you know, research talk earlier because like when they'll they'll put out of paper saying like, oh, lower meat consumption like, you know, is better for longevity and age. And they, they cherry pick which regions they use. And it's like, oh, like, you totally forgot about those Japanese people that eat more beef than anybody. It's like, come on. Like, so, you know, you could literally like make a paper or a study to support anything that you want in the nutritional space. Like, if that wasn't true, there wouldn't be like vegan propaganda out there. So much vegan propaganda. The documentaries are really getting out of hand on that place.

And I'm not a carnivore. I'm carnivorous. Yeah. But I'm not a carnivore. I like my desserts. I like my vegetables. I even, you know, I love my fresh pasta. So, but I mean, like the carnivores, you know, they'll, I have a lot of carnivore, like, followers or engagement.

And, you know, some of them get a little crazy. But I like to say they're not vegan crazy. Special type of crazy that comes out when you're protein deprived and fat deprived. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the weirdest, the weirdest part, too, is that like, so, like, for me, like a big passion mine is like I like look at factory farming of animals and it's like it pains me. It's like absolutely first of all, it's disgusting to eat. Second of all, it's just horrible what they do to these animals. And you know, it's like, I don't know why, but I like talk to

a lot of vegans. I'm like, all right, we we don't agree on this, but can't we just get on board to like maybe like be on the same team and stop like torturing things? Yeah. And they'll be like, No, nope. Eat your dogs, eat your kids. It's all the same. Oh, my God. Yeah, yeah. So it's like, it's like, there's got to be a middle ground.

But, you know. Yeah, I mean, you would think the regenerative agriculture would be the middle ground because also the topsoils are required to grow your freaking vegetables, too. Like, if we don't topsoil, which the animals are needed to make that, then what are we doing? Like, you're not going to be able to grow your vegetable foods either. So we got to do something. And regenerative ag is the answer. Yep.

this it is it's the only it's the only way you could produce humans produce food with like a net negative carbon impact exactly um i'm not a big carbon believer i mean i think that's how green mcworld is right yeah no i mean it's great like love carbon yeah exactly exactly they literally pump that shit in greenhouses so like make them grow better exactly but yeah it's balance hopefully we will find our way eventually I mean I think we're going to have to it's either that or we're going to go to think as a species I mean the earth will be here without us if we can't figure it out then I guess that's how it's going to be but I think we will I mean I think humans are very innovative and very flexible too when it comes down to it as a species like we're able to adapt to so many

different environments and that's what's made us pretty successful Very easily manipulated, though. Yes. That's true. I mean, there's going to be weeding out of the population for sure. Yeah. Yeah, that's what, you know, that's what it's like, I don't think like I have all the answers, you know. I just, I think I have a lot of the good questions, you know, it's like, but I just get, I just get so, I see this whole thing as like, like, like intentional.

population reduction. So like from the from the easy answers from the pharmaceuticals to like the COVID to the food at the grocery store. It just all feels it feels like so intentional and malevolent that, you know, I try not to I try not to think about that side of it too much because I'm I'm not a pacifist. So, you know, I try to, but I just try to stay in like a positive mindset and just, you know,

tell, speak to as many people as I can and just, you gotta, you gotta kind of like live by example and just do what to do and just, you know, when people, people DM me about, you know, changing their life, whether it was the addiction part or getting into physical fitness

or starting to care about what they ate, Like just getting those DMs and messages is just, it means a lot. It's, it makes, makes the whole battle worth it. Yeah. I mean, truly leading by example is the piece that, I mean, you could just talk all day, but if you're just a talking head, then ultimately, I think that's going to show, versus if you're embodying what you're saying and you're living the life and you're like exuding that energy, people are going to want to be around it.

They're going to want to learn more. And they're going to want to try to emulate that too. So I think that's the best way of going about things. You can only just like force people to believe so much, you know. So I think that's really the best approach. And that's also what I try to do as well, also pride and good information. And what you said before, like not having all the answers.

I think the best thing about that is like nobody's ever going to have all the answers. But if you have a reliable way of thinking about the world, then you don't need to have the answers because you can figure it out. Yep. That's it. This was fun. Amazing. Maybe we'll wrap it up.

But I think we'd probably have more. conversations on the show. I think people are going to love you, but do you want to just share again where people can find you and maybe where they can eat some of your delicious food if they're in the area? Yes, of course. All right, so the tasting menu, the steak and the egg, Central New Jersey will be open. Hopefully, or not hopefully, definitely sometime in April. I just have to be a little cautious because the weather has to turn. But besides that, just follow me on Instagram, Twitter, cooking underscore it underscore keto, or the steak in the egg. Amazing. And I'll also include the links to everywhere you can find Ryan on the show notes so that you can easily go give him a follow and check out his work.

And thank you so much for coming on. This was so fun. And I'll do it again. Appreciate it. Thank you.