Well with Arielle Lorre - 248: Your Guide to Better Gut & Hormonal Health, Inflammation, Blood Sugar & more with Robert Yang
Episode Date: May 24, 2023Robert Yang is a highly sought-after nutritionist, strength and conditioning specialist, international presenter, and author who works with athletes from the NFL, MLB, NHL, PGA, LPGA and X Ga...mes. He joins the show to discuss his fundamentals of health including hydration, nutrition and supplements, as well as how to optimize gut and hormonal health. We cover how stress affects your health, surprising tips for better digestion, the connection between breakfast, blood sugar, cortisol and your circadian rhythm, social jet lag, using electrolytes to improve health, supplementation, SIBO and so much more. This episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct, or indirect financial interest in products, or services referred to in this episode. FARFETCH is currently offering 10% off when you spend $200 up until June 22nd 2023. Use code ARIELLE at checkout. Brand exclusions apply. For a limited time, House of Macadamias is offering listeners a free box of their best-seller, Namibian Sea Salted Macadamia Nuts (worth $35) with your purchase at houseofmacadmias.com/blonde +20% your whole order with code BLONDE Visit CleanSimpleEats.com and use code BLONDE at checkout for 20% off your first order. Go to SundaysForDogs.com/blonde or use the code BLONDE at checkout for 35% off your first order of Sundays. Find more balance with BetterHelp. Visit Betterhelp.com/files today for 10% off your first month. Subscribe to Earth Breeze today and receive 40% off. Go to EarthBreeze.com/blonde to get started. Produced by Dear Media See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Welcome to the Blonde Files podcast. I'm your host, ARILEB.
I'm here to talk all things wellness. From how to achieve optimal health and well-being to the best beauty tips and everything in between, no topic is off limits. I know there's so much information out there, so I'm bringing on expert guests and sharing my own experiences to help you sift through all the wellness stuff without the BS. Enjoy the show. Hi, everybody. Welcome to the show. Today is kind of a special episode. I actually just went
back to confirm if in fact today's guest was my first ever guest on the podcast. And he was. So I'm
talking to Rob Yang. He has been my nutritionist for, I think, around seven years, kind of off and on.
But as you'll hear in this episode, he's so much more than a nutritionist. And I'll get into his
background a little bit here shortly. But he was my first guest ever on April 17th, 2019. Please do not go back and
listen to that episode. Now that I've said it, I've probably piqued a few people's interest, but just
take my word for it. I remember recording it at the house in Malibu. I think we did it over Zoom,
maybe. And this was like pre-pandemic, pre-Zoom, didn't know what I was doing. Like, it's just not,
we don't need to listen to it. And today's episode is so amazing. And we go over a lot of the kind
of fundamentals that we talked about in that episode anyway. But it was really fun to
have him back whenever I have any kind of health issue. I always refer to him and he always is able to
help clear up whatever it is that I have going on. It's pretty amazing. So a little bit about
Rob, he has a highly sought after nutritionist, strength and conditioning specialist, international
presenter and an author who works with athletes from the NFL, the MLB, NHL, PGA, LPGA, X Games,
Yours truly, the most elite athlete of them all. And today he is on the show to talk about his
fundamentals of health, including his kind of updated version of what the food pyramid should be,
including hydration, nutrition, supplements at the top. So we get into kind of the nitty gritty
of that. And then we also talk about how to optimize gut and hormonal health, how they are so
interconnected. We talk about how stress affects your health, kind of from the
the top down. And we really get into detail on all of these things. So I'm not doing any of the
discussion justice by just rattling off these topics. But it is super fascinating. He has a lot of
really surprising facts and tips about digestion. I think some of the things that he suggests
are things that you can all implement today that will help your digestion. And we talk about the
connection between breakfast, blood sugar, cortisol, and circadian rhythm, including
including why I am now eating within 30 minutes of waking up, which I referenced in my last
solo episode and promised that we would get into more in this episode. And we talk about the
importance of protein, how much protein. We talk about electrolytes and how they affect hormones and
overall health and neurotransmitters. And we talk about SIBO, gut issues, FODMAPs, supplementation,
this really interesting concept of social jet lag. There's just so much in this episode.
Rob is really amazing at taking these kind of complex mechanisms and, you know, different
functions of the body and how they all work together. And he's able to break it down in a
pun intended, not really, really digestible way. And he makes it really easy to understand.
Like I said, a lot of practical, easy tips that you can do.
you know, for free starting today that can help to improve your health and just your overall
well-being, how you feel. So please enjoy Robert Yang. Welcome, Rob. Thanks for having me. Good to
see you. I should have checked before I came here, but I'm trying to remember if you were my first
ever podcast guest or maybe my second. I mean, definitely like the very, very beginning. Maybe top three. Yeah.
Maybe. I think you were either my first or second. I should go back and check. But you and I have
kind of been working together off and on for a long time. And you're my go-to whenever I'm having
any kind of health issue. You're just so talented. And so I'm really honored to have you back on.
And we'll probably discuss a lot of things that we talked about in the first episode. But, you know,
four years later, I think we can revisit those. Maybe some changes, updated information.
For sure.
So to start out, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and then tell us what your
fundamentals of health are.
Sure.
So I started back in probably 94, 95, started working with people on the exercise part, a little bit of
nutrition.
And it was mostly, I would say, strength and conditioning and training people.
And then I have my license as well as my master's degree from nutrition.
and it just over the years, that's always been a personal interest of mine, nutrition and health
and performance. And then the sort of functional medicine model I found out about that. And then I
really took a deep dive into it with seminars and more education. And it just evolved over time
where now more than half my practice, probably 60, 70% is working with people with gut issues
or hormonal balances, liver detoxification,
could be skin issues at times.
So that's, you know, my background.
And I'm also a full-time strength coach.
So I do have a studio, Encinitas, California.
And I would say the, I mean, the number one fundamental
in my sort of basic food pyramid is, you know,
the base foundation is water hydration.
So I put on my glasses, oh, yeah, Mountain Valley, Springwater.
You know, I haven't had this water in a while.
You're looking at the total dissolved solids.
Oh, yeah, you already know where I was going at.
But real generally, the base and foundation of the food pyramid is just water hydration.
And I think people should start with half their body weight ounces of water a day.
First, with a little bit of sodium, because that's the main electrolyte in the body.
And then the middle tier would be whole foods.
And one of my sort of common themes that I try to get across to people is your BFF for bloodshed control
is PFF, and that's protein, fats, and fiber. And we can get into that a little bit if you want to.
And then the top's your supplements. And they are on the top because water and whole food is that
base and foundation for the supplements to be effective, to supplement in a diet, essentially.
I'm curious, since you are so heavily passionate about the nutrition piece and the strength
and conditioning piece, if you could only do one, what do you think is more important,
nutrition or physical exercise?
I mean, that's a tough one.
I would say the nutrition side if I had to choose one.
If someone said, you look, I can only choose one thing to really focus on because I've got
10 million things going on my life.
And I don't say, okay, let's focus on your nutrition.
Just because with exercise, an average person might have, you know, twice a week with
a trainer or they go to the gym, Pilates class, and then they might walk every.
other day, something like that. So it's like maybe one exposure a day that can influence your hormones
and burn calories. And that way, I would say, you know, nutrition. I would say choose that.
But then, you know, in the context of health and fitness, people always say, well, what's more important
in nutrition or exercise? Well, they're both important. Like, if you want to put muscle on your
glutes or your shoulders or you have to do exercise, but you also have to eat well. You can't just
eat Doritos and chips and soda and expect to put on the...
muscle. So in that context, you know, they both matter.
In this episode, Rob and I are talking about the importance of protein, fiber, and fat in our diets.
And we're also talking about the importance of stabilizing blood sugar early in the morning
because that will essentially set the tone for your blood sugar throughout the rest of your day
and your circadian rhythm, which is something I did not know until we recorded this episode.
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Hey guys, I'm Whitney Port and this is WithWit. A lot of you may know me from reality TV and the reality
is a lot's happened since the Hills. WithWit is dedicated to have a lot.
real, raw, and occasionally ridiculous conversations with the people who have had a profound
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are available every Tuesday on all platforms. Yeah, there's the saying, and I think you did
a post on this too. Like you can't outtrain a bad diet. Yeah. Well, I mean, I did say that
I think, but then I've had people contact me and they do out train a bad diet in the context of
maintaining their weight.
Right.
So essentially what they do is they over exercise.
But then they run into problems like they have runners knee or they have plantrophagitis because,
you know, they have to run the three to six miles every day or go to the gym as well for an hour,
you know, four times a week and they just can't maintain it.
Yeah, I was going to say it sounds like they're just making it harder.
for themselves. Yeah, in one way, and then it's sort of do a boughammy because at one point the knee gives out or they
tear a meniscus or they just can't exercise at that point. And then there goes your calorie
burning, right, essentially. And then you still have a poor diet and then, of course, weight comes on,
inflammation increases and you get a snowball effect. Okay, so let's start with hydration. This is
something that you really ingrained in me when we were first working together years ago. And that was
water first thing in the morning, also adding the electrolytes, you know, adding salt to the water.
And then more recently when we've been working together, not drinking too much water.
So I've kind of been on both ends of the spectrum.
So where is like the sweet spot there when it comes to hydration?
Yeah.
You mentioned half your body weight now.
Yeah.
It's a really good question because, you know, you have one extreme or the other where you have a person
that maybe drinks a glass of water to take their medication at night.
And then they have a couple cocktails.
You know, they might have, you know, coffee, tea, soda during the day.
And that's the extent of their water intake, right?
And when I say half your body amounts as a water, I'm talking just plain water first.
And then on the other side of the spectrum, you have a lot of fitness professionals or, you know, people promoting health.
Mostly I would say it's kind of a bodybuilding that sort of category.
You know, like the badge of honor when I was younger was, I'll carry my gallon jug of water.
Now, at that time, that was probably maybe the appropriate time because I was bigger at that time.
But that's sort of touted for everybody to drink that much water or the more water the better.
But the problem becomes as if a woman is 120 pounds and they're drinking that gallon of water,
that's almost three and a half liters, which is almost double of what they should be drinking.
and essentially what happens is you get a dilution of the electrolytes.
And the main electrolyte is sodium.
So that's why you see a lot of the, you know,
LM&T formulas and all the other electrolyte formulas.
I'm drinking that right now.
Yeah.
The most amount of the electrolytes is sodium in the body.
So that's, you know, the starting point.
And then obviously if you're going to summer or you're a PJ golfer
and you're playing in hot human weather, you know, 90 degrees with 90% humidity,
and you might need more water with more electrolytes in those cases.
But I would say half your body weighs a good start.
And then you alluded to earlier a lot of water in the morning.
And I try to get people drink 25% of their total intake in the morning.
So just to keep the math really simple,
if you have a person who's 200 pounds,
half their body weighs 100 ounces for the day.
So when they wake up in the morning,
they're drinking that 25 ounces right away.
And the reason why I say that is because it's what they call insensible
fluid loss. So we don't think about it, but most people lose water when they're sleeping. That's
why they want to weigh themselves first thing in the morning. Because, you know, if you weigh yourself
at 10 o'clock at night and then you weigh yourself at 7 o'clock in the morning, you weigh two,
maybe three, four pounds lighter because through respiration, people don't really, they sweat
at night. Obviously people will wake up, go peeve, they don't even remember that. So you're losing
water. So you're waking up in a dehydrated state. So that's where it's important to get the
water, but also the sodium right back in your system as soon as possible.
And what role do those minerals and like the sodium and potassium, right, magnesium,
a lot of the things that are in these electrolyte mixes?
What role does that have in things like the functioning of your hormones?
I know that it can affect your neurotransmitters, right?
Your fluid balance, all of these things.
So can you explain that to everybody?
Yeah.
So, for example, you know, one of the markers who may look at someone, someone's blood markers is sodium.
So normally you want to see it, you know, 138 to 142, 143.
So once it starts dropping like a 135, 136, they're sort of going in a sort of hyponetremic state,
which means they're diluting the sodium.
So one of the things that people don't realize is the more stress you have within your system,
the more sodium that your body uses.
So oftentimes people always talk about adrenal glands and cortisol and stress.
But they also forget that your body, your cortisol, or your adrenal is produced cortisol,
but they also produce aldosterone.
And the adosterone's job is to help your body retain more sodium so you can keep a proper amount
of water within the cells of your body.
So in many cases, a lot of people that are highly stressed, whether it's mental, emotional,
training for triathlon or they just have stressors from many different sources, they need more
sodium. And it becomes even more important, especially for females that are very petite,
trained a lot and have low blood pressure. So with those types of people that I work with quite often,
you have to ramp up the sodium and they feel much better when they do that.
Mm-hmm. Can you explain, isn't there a correlation between, like, reproductive hormones and sodium? Or is it cortisol and reproductive? I remember something that you were explaining to me a long time ago.
Yeah, there is definitely a connection between sodium because of adosterone and then cortisol. And so I think maybe, I think I wrote maybe a blog for you a while ago where essentially what it is is that the brain essentially has essentially has.
a hierarchy in terms of what's the priority.
So number one is safety.
So you're trying to get safe and not getting by your predator,
like a rabbit, not tie hanging from the snake
or the bear, whatever that is.
And the second is sussinant.
So you're trying to look for food.
And then the third is procreation sex.
So essentially what happens, especially in the context of stress
and then sex hormones, is that when you're highly stressed,
The last thing that your body wants to do is make your sex hormones.
So oftentimes if you just look at, it's a concept called pregnant on steel, when you're
highly stressed, the resources are shunted to deal with the stressor, whether it's an attorney
with high profile case and they're staying up, you know, to one o'clock in the morning,
waking up at five in the morning and only getting four hours of sleep, that becomes a stressor.
That's like the bear chasing them.
you have someone who's, you know, in school, dental school and they're taking, you know, exams
and they're highly stressed.
They don't know if they're going to pass or not.
These are all accumulate.
And so that is that bear chasing the particular person.
And essentially what happens is that for a female, the estrogen or progesterone, suffers because
that's not the priority.
The priority is to survive from the bear, so to speak.
And then for a male, it could be lower testosterone models because they have too much stress
within the system.
So obviously it's a very basic general explanation, but that's where we have to go hunting for those issues,
especially when people are taking biodendical hormones or, you know, they're doing creams and all kinds of other things and are not getting better.
They're symptomatic.
Or there's a honeymoon phase, right?
They feel, oh, I feel amazing for Lennox two months, three months, and then the symptoms come back when they get worse.
and that's because basically they didn't get to the root cause of the problem.
Yeah.
Yeah, I was going to say I feel like a lot of people treat, I mean, there's the whole conversation
about upstream downstream, right?
Like, I feel like the hormone imbalance is pretty downstream and you have to go upstream
and how upstream can you get?
Yeah.
And when we started working together years ago, I was like, well, my hormones are off.
And you were like, yeah, but like we have to fix your gut first, you know, because that
was more upstream and we can get into that and how that affects everything as well.
And I would imagine cortisol and maybe stressors or even subconscious stressors if you're
having relationship issues or if there's just a constant stressor in your life, that has to
be addressed even before or simultaneously with the gut. I mean, because like you're saying,
it sounds like you can treat these more downstream things. You can treat the gut. You can treat the hormones.
but if you're not getting to the root, eventually it's just going to go back to.
Yeah, I mean, that's where I think people will get some marginal results.
So they might use a biodontical cream and they, oh, I feel a little bit better, but I'm still having symptoms.
You know, we obviously, when we initially started working together, I said, look, I think there's definitely some gut issues involved.
And in order to resolve your hormonal issues over time, we need to definitely address that.
that. Otherwise, we're going to be kind of a, you know, run, run circles. The best way I can
explain to people of how the gut impacts your hormones is that if you, you know, I just, earlier,
I just mentioned about stressors, whether it's, you know, an attorney, big case, dental student,
or someone's got a death in the family. Like, I just had a woman the other day where, you know,
everything went downhill for her health. And then I always ask, okay, well,
how are you before that?
Well, it's fine.
Like, I wasn't having a problem sleeping, but now I, like, you know,
I sleep four hours of night.
I wake up three, four times a night, and my hair's kind of falling out,
and my nails are weak, and I can't put on any muscle.
And then you go back to, okay, well, what happened previously?
And then there was, you know, my father had horrific death.
And then, you know, empty nesters.
And then third thing is my dog died.
And, you know, so I understand it because our dog died,
and I can only imagine what she was going through.
So these are all stressors that typically happen.
And so at least with some of the mental most stressors, work stress or family stress,
you sleep, right?
And so obviously subconscious you might be grinding your teeth and stressing out and
might disturb your sleep.
But at least you get some break from it from a conscious level.
When you have digestive distress, so that could be anything such as a parasite overgrowth,
bacteria, fungus, yeast, and people don't really know about it,
They just know that I wake up and I have diarrhea five times, six times, and that's normal.
But that's not a normal bowel movement.
And so if they do have an overgrowth going on or if they're having leaky gut all the time because they drink wine every night, whatever that is, then that inflammatory process or stress or the gut is constant.
So when they're sleeping, it becomes a 24-hour day stress.
It becomes a 24-hour day, seven-day, a week's stress.
and weeks go by and months go by.
And so basically the person never gets a break from that stressor.
So it's sort of like you leaving on your faucet and dripping water all day long
and you're wasting your water.
Essentially your body's going, what else going on?
We've got to try to fix this.
So your body will strategically try to up its cortisol levels.
And you're essentially wasting your cortisol throughout the day but also throughout the night.
And then obviously there's a trickle effect of, okay,
if you're constantly being stressed, then your body doesn't have the capacity to make your estrogen,
testosterone, testosterone, DHA, you name it for the sex hormones.
And is that the process by which somebody would maybe not become like immunocompromised,
but their immune system would lower?
Right.
So it's sort of like a snowball effect, right?
So it's the perfect storm.
So obviously you have a compromised GI system.
normally most people say oh well the the gut is about 70% of your immune system and if if you read through
the literature it's it's true when you look at the interaction of the gut and the immune system and so oftentimes
when the gut is compromised for a period of time and then your body's basically predisposed
towards picking up things or maybe they were there before we don't know that and so that's where
for example with traveling i try to get people to
be prophylactic in terms of obviously probiotics. So travel with probiotics that you don't need to
refrigerate. Use those whenever you're going anywhere, whether it's, you know, domestic or international.
Like we were, I was just in Barbados for three weeks with my son for surf competitions. And then,
so I planned on, okay, we're taking probiotics, you know, twice a day. We're taking some oil
of oregano just to help just in case we come across anything. That way we can try to try to
try to minimize that effect and keep our immune system strong. So, you know, you travel so that's
something we'll definitely try to implement for you moving forward so that we can try to keep the gut
as resilient as possible. And that's the thing is that you're going to always come across,
you know, parasites or yeast or bacteria. You might get a batch of sushi when you go out to eat.
So we want to try to create that environment where your gut can be resilient. Okay, yeah,
maybe you might have some loose stool for a couple of days, but it should be able to bounce.
back. And that's the thing is that, you know, I have some people that are like, oh, I, you know,
I had perfect poop for a week. And I'm like, that's great. But then it might go off for a
couple of days and they freak out and they go, oh, my God, something's wrong. No, no, no. As long
your body comes back online, you know, if you had exposure to food or something, then that's okay.
It's just a matter of, okay, if you're having diarrhea three or four times a day, every single
day and that's your normal, then there's something maybe going on with that particular person.
This show is sponsored by Better Help. I don't know about you guys, but I usually go through my weeks going 100 miles a minute. I am booked. I am busy. I am distracted. And yes, you guys know that I have a lot of self-care practices that I try to work in throughout the day. But I really need some time for myself, some time to navigate certain things in my life. And I get that time. I get that time.
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Okay, so let's talk digestion and gut health.
What mistakes do you think people make when it comes to digestion?
Or taking care of their digestion in their gut?
It's a really good question.
I think from a digestive perspective from north to south.
So, you know, obviously we live in California.
So if you look at the top of California, like I think the city that's on the top is at Crescent City or Truckee, California.
So if you start there and that's going down to San Diego's like the bottom of digestion,
that's in terms of the thoughts and the chewing of your food, I think that's one of the biggest
mistakes people make.
That's what we call the cephalic phase of digestion.
So when you sit down to a meal, you might put a few bites of food in your mouth.
And she thinks my wife thinks I'm weird because all people watch at a restaurant or eating them.
And she's like, what are doing?
What are you?
And I'm just watching people chew their food because counting.
Counting.
Because literally they will take huge bites of food and they chew six, seven times.
Swallow.
And they'd swallow.
Or they'll just chug down their water to push down the food.
And that's the chewing process is really important because you're telling your stomach, guys, food's coming, get ready.
So when you're chewing and you have that cephalic phase of digestion, you're getting the proper amount of acid to be reproduced in the stomach.
So you don't chew your food enough.
You're probably not going to get enough hydrochloric acid in the stomach.
And we know that's the digestive spark plug for digestion the rest of the way.
And so I think that's where I really have to educate people on, you know, eating at a peaceful arm.
So eat in peace.
Try not to work through lunch.
I have to continue work on it.
Even today, before we came, I had some leftover pork chops and carrots.
And I sat there and, oh, okay, I better to count.
So sometimes I'll check myself, okay, did I really count enough?
So I just tell you a lot, just shoot for 40, 40 chew before you swallow.
And people go, oh, my gosh.
But I have people do an exercise to say, okay, I want you to do a chew assessment.
So next three meals, breakfast, lunch, dinner, no distraction, no TV, no iPad.
no phone, just sit there and eat and then have a conversation with your spouse, roommate,
whatever that is, it was in your life. And sometimes that surprisingly affects people 30, 40,
50 percent because one, they're breaking down their food mechanically, right, but they're also
getting more acid production. So that in turn is going to affect bile acid production. And then
when it gets to the small intestine, it's going to affect pancreatic enzyme output from your
pancreas. So it's something that is not addressed, especially obviously in this day and age,
are just constantly go. So I think that's where people make the biggest mistake. So I literally
have to tell people, look, you don't have to do it now, but you have to schedule a lunch because
this environment, at work environment, every works from home. So it's great in that way, but people
don't take breaks. Yeah. And so there's huge ramifications of that, right? They just, yeah,
they live at work basically, or work is at home now. So their blood sugar is not stable. They're not eating
a piece or they're not digested into food and they're like oh god why don't I feel like I got a baby
gut or you know baby belly so that's probably one of the the biggest mistakes that I see people make
I think it's so much easier for people to do things like take digestive bitters and digestive enzymes
and the probiotics and do all these kind of external or additive things instead of doing that
because it feels so foreign like I remember that was another
thing that we talked about. And I think one of the events that you and I did together with Hello
Wellness, like you did an exercise where we closed our eyes and we visualized something like a
lemon or something. And you could feel salivating. I mean, there's a whole process that happens
that we just override because we're sitting down to eat, scrolling TikTok and Instagram with the
TV on and whatever, you know, and just so much distractions. And I mean, I'm super guilty of it, too.
Oh, I mean, I'm guilty of it.
I mean, Angie makes fun of me all the time, but I love action movies.
I mean, it's not the best thing for digestion, right?
Like your chlorosol almost go up.
And I mean, and I know this because I can't remember, I can't believe I remember this,
but in undergrad, we had to do, we had to do studies on rats.
So if you think that's animal cruelty, this is what we had to do for a class.
Basically, we would do that and we would test hormones.
And one of the classes, we actually tested ourselves.
So the professor had us do a saliva test, which I had you do before for cortisol.
Because you get a real live time, like actual time of, okay, what's your chorus level at that time as you collect?
So we did that as a baseline.
And then one, we watched the sound of music.
And then we tested our cortisol after.
And then the next movie we watched Texas Chainsaw Massacre and then test our cortisol.
I mean, right then and there, I mean, you saw huge increases in cortisol.
all. So obviously for me to watch, you know, Fast and Furious or, you know, some kind of action
movie, I still do it, but for the majority of the time, you're chewing 40 times. I try to do that
and I try to be a better example to my boys because, you know, they're watching surf videos or
whatever as they're eating. But it's, you know, it's, it's, it's what you try to do is, you know,
80-20 year old, right? Try to do 80% of the time. And then you can handle, you know, if you want to be on
TikTok or whatever eating your meal is fine. But the thing is to be conscious of, okay, let's get you
to actually chew your food. And then obviously from a body composition perspective, most people
eat less because they're actually chewing their food, enjoying it. Feeling satiated. And feeling satiated.
That's one of the big factors as well. You mentioned something about thoughts while you're eating
as well. Could you go into that a little bit? Yeah. So with thoughts, it was that,
that everybody do at that event for hell and wellness.
And just with your thoughts, that starts that cephalic phase of digestion.
Okay, got it.
So obviously smells involved.
So if you drive by a fast food joint, you're like, oh, fry smell really good.
And your thoughts can create that salivary response.
And so that even promotes digestion as well.
So if you think about carbohydrate digestion, it doesn't just start in your stomach or your small intestine, it starts in your mouth because your saliva has amylase.
So if you chew three, four times, you know, your carbohydrates, then obviously it has a higher chance or probability of fermenting a little bit more in the wrong places.
And so, and that's the other thing. I think I saw someone said fermentation is so bad for your gut and those kinds of things. That's totally incorrect.
Fermentation is not bad in your gut. It's just if it's the wrong place. So fermentation should happen with the undigestable carbs in your colon because that's not bad in your gut.
that's where your bacteria makes short-chain fatty acids,
and that creates this whole sequence of feeding the bacteria,
the colonocytes, that whole thing,
and you get protection of your body.
So obviously, if happens in a small intestine,
then that's when people get bloated, gas, farting, belching,
even stomach pain,
if that can be an issue for this person as well.
Is that the food combining people who talk about that,
about the fermentation?
Yeah, I think maybe it was something like that with food combining.
If you don't know what food combining it,
is typically it's separating, you know, your proteins and fats from carbohydrates and having
your carbohydrates separately. But my feeling is if you have to do that, then you might have some
digestive, it might be indicative of a digestive issue because we do produce protease, amylase,
like all the enzymes at once. And that goes kind of like what we talked about higher up the chain
is that sometimes if a person responds really well to digestive enzymes, sometimes that's not the
primary issue. It's a secondary issue. The primary issue is that maybe they're not producing
enough hydroclic acid. So that's where I help people do an acid test. So basically, you can use
ACV, absolute vinegar. But I have found the hard way. Half the time, people hate it, where, you know,
people are like, oh my God, I'm so nauseous when I do apple cider vinegar. So I go, fine, you can
use lemon juice. It's pretty similar acidity. And then you just take a tablespoon of that,
maybe dilute a little bit of water, take it like a shot before you eat a meal, a protein meal.
And oftentimes it's like, oh my gosh, I feel much better.
Like my gas is reduced like 50%.
I go, that's a telltale sign.
You need more acid support in your stomach.
And then you don't need to use this expensive enzymes anymore.
Or maybe you cut down on that.
And maybe you take a calpsor or two of hydrochloric acid.
Obviously, it's contraindicated.
And just so people know is if you have history of ulcers or anything like that,
reflux, then, you know, you have to console the physician or a practitioner who,
actually knows how to deal with some of these digestive issues.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
How much, obviously, this varies from person to person,
but how much does food play a role?
I mean, after the, you know, if we're going top down,
right.
After the initial chewing and enzymes released in our saliva and all of that,
how much of the response that we get is from the actual food that we're eating
versus whether we are, you know, properly engaging in the eating process.
Right.
It's a really good question because obviously the chewing and having enough acid in your stomach
is a big part.
But that's where if you're reacting to food, then that can be part of it too.
And so obviously there's a big, you know, always big talk about food sensitivities.
And that's not the end-all, be-all of your digestive issues, whatever they may, you know,
whether you have floating or gas or indigestion.
It's just part of the process.
So I try to give people an analogy.
I just say, look, food sensitivities or your reaction to food, whether it's, you know, FODMAPs or, you know, obviously like a big talk is histamine, right?
Histamine response.
But if we just kind of just talk about food sensitivities in general, the food sensitivities is sort of like if you went on a hike up in, you know, like, I don't know, Los Angeles Mountains or somewhere, your local mountains.
And you get a pebble in your shoe or your hiking boot, right?
You're like, oh, it's such a hassle to take off my boot.
Like I have 20 different laces or whatever that is.
So you just keep hiking.
Well, obviously the pebble is going to be in there, like rubbing you against your wherever it is on your foot.
And you're going to probably get an irritation, blister eventually, start limping.
And then from there, you're probably going to have some knee soreness or eventually hip pain and then low back pain because you have to make it back from a 10 mile hike.
That's sort of similar like a food sensitivity.
So if you are not aware that you're sensitive to eggs or dairy or wheat or corn,
it's sort of that irritant that's just inflaming your intestinal tract that you need to remove over time.
Otherwise, you're not going to heal eventually.
And I'm not saying that it's the end-all be-all.
Like I said before, I mean, if you look from north to south, you're not chewing your food enough,
you're not producing enough acid.
Maybe you need more enzymes later down the chain.
but this is part of sort of peeling the onion, so to speak,
of resolving someone's issue.
My advice for people, your listeners,
is that if you do remove the food sensitivities
and you have sort of a marginal reduction,
like 30% reduction in your symptoms,
then you've got to go hunting for other things.
It's not to say that it wasn't effective.
It's just I think people misunderstand the use of that,
and they go, oh, well, I had like a 50% reduction,
but it didn't work.
I'm like, no, you had a 15% reduction
or even 30% means you're on the right track.
It's just you got to go hunting for other things that are causing your issues.
And I sometimes have that mentality of the magic pill effect, right?
Like people are looking for, okay, if I just do this and I'll be better.
But unfortunately, it's not the case.
And it can be a marathon, not a sprint.
Yeah, yeah.
And it's a marathon.
And I just try to tell people, look, you know, yeah, all these things are coming upon your lab markers,
your blood markers.
But this is kind of a good sign.
it gives us light at the tunnel to say, okay, we've got a lot of things to kind of work on,
but it's a process.
Yeah, it's a journey like, you know, we talked about.
Yeah, and I think it was you who said to me once, if you're not assessing, you're guessing,
or something like that.
Yeah, so there's a lot of things if you're not testing, you're guessing.
I mean, that's where the testing comes into play.
You know, I think some, I just did a live a couple days ago and someone asked, oh, do you always
use blood work or you just can you just use lifestyle. Do both. Oftentimes, blood work is just
a guide to let you know, look, your HSCRP is really high. It's a marker for systemic inflammation.
Okay, we know inflammation is really high. Okay, so where is it coming from? Like, is it coming
because your blood glucose, fasting glucose is like a 110, 110. I feel attacked right now.
No, no. You weren't. You weren't. Or, you know, you know. Or, you know, you know,
Maybe, you know, your omega-3s are way too low and your omega-6s are way too high.
So that's where some of the testing comes into play so we can pinpoint and go, okay, let's make a strategic plan and not play darts in the dark, you know, and go, okay, well, let's see if this works or that works, you know.
And oftentimes, you know, lifestyle is, and changing lifestyle is a big part of improving someone's health.
So that's why I always tell people, look, if you're not willing to really change your lifestyle round, then I'm probably not the person to help you.
Yeah, so we can use myself for this example.
Like we recently did comprehensive blood work where we checked everything from inflammation to cardiac biomarkers to omegas to just a regular blood panel, hepatic function, like everything that you could really think of.
And based on that, you did make some lifestyle tweaks to improve things.
And one of those was what my morning looks like in terms of hydration and food.
So probably everyone listening knows that I like to start my morning with my match with a little bit of maple syrup.
And then a couple hours later, I'm eating breakfast, maybe oats or something.
And you were like, yeah, no.
So you're having me do water first.
and then within 30 minutes of waking up have protein and maybe some berries or something like that.
And then my matcha.
So let's talk a little bit about that and about timing of meals and we can talk about PFF and all of that.
No, I mean, it's great that you're totally open book to willing to share, obviously, you know,
some of your labs and your experiences of what you're going through.
So for my recollection, yeah, your blood glucose was on the higher end.
However, I had had my macho with maple syrup before the blood work.
Right, right.
So obviously we're kind of taking that into a fact into consideration in regards to how that can impact your blood glucose.
However, I remember two markers that were more pointing to the issue of hypoglycemia.
And so one was hemogloin A1C.
So a lot of people say, oh, they'll probably hear about a commercial like, oh, test your A1C, you know, like we're either a drug commercial for diabetes or, you know, your continuous glucose spond or that whole thing, right?
So it always baffles me because there's reference ranges that we use and I use functional ranges.
But for some reason, if it's really high, that's a problem, right?
Like, oh, you're kind of going towards pre-diabetes, really need to watch this or I need to put you on some medication or, you know, lifestyle changes.
But then what if it goes below a five, like it's a 4.8, I think it was like 4.6, 4.7.
That's a problem too.
And that's where it points to the fact, okay, there's hypoglycemia involved.
But then another marker that we ran with you was LDH, lactose dehydrogenase.
And so anytime we start to see that underneath 160 and then gravitating towards 140,
then we go, okay, this sort of confirms that, okay, there's some hypoglycemia involved.
And then that's why I said, well, what's your morning routine been?
been like because I think it's been a while since we had talked. And so, you know, you explained,
okay, well, I wake up. I have my water, which that's the foundation, which I haven't changed,
and then you have your match, and then two, three hours of you had breakfast. I'm like, uh-uh,
no more. Because for you, you're petite, your fit, and when your blood triggers dropping,
that's when you have major effects on your physiology. Like one of the things I think will
prove over time is nausea, which you had that complaint. And so your blood sugar is not stable.
And so, yes, you might feel okay because obviously you're getting the macha, a little bit of
some maple syrup, and that kind of holds you over. But it starts, well, it'll start to affect you
later in the day where you're going to have maybe energy that's not as stable, or you might have
sugar cravings towards the end of the evening. And I find clinically, from my experience is that
once you start improving someone's blood glucose from the very get-go, their sleep improves quite a bit.
Because essentially what you're doing is whatever you're choosing to consume in the morning,
that's setting the rhythm of cortisol throughout the rest of the day.
So just like there's a big push, people saying, oh, you get sunlight exposure, right, first thing in the morning
because it sets your circadian rhythm because it's a zeitaber.
It's one of the main ones with light exposure.
Well, food is another major one.
So if your food is all over the place where you're skipping meals or not eating meals, then that could set your circadian rhythm as well.
And so that's why food can be very powerful.
And people go, well, I don't see that happening.
I go, well, just travel to Europe, right?
I mean, you go to a different time zone, eight hours difference or 12 hours or whatever that time zone is.
Your poop is kind of different.
You know, maybe you're consubated.
You're tired, right?
Your food is all over the place.
Maybe you junked out on the plane, whatever that is.
So that starts to change your rhythm.
And for some people, it's really hard to get into rhythm when they go to different time zone.
And sometimes people are creating their own jet lag, technically what we call social jet lag, by what they're choosing to do with their lifestyle.
You know, so, you know, one night they're up until 1 or 2 a.m. playing Fortnite, you know, and then the next night, oh, I'm so tired.
I'm going to go to bed at 9.
And they wake up at, you know, 6.
And then the next day they're at 4th night again.
and they wake up at like 12 afternoon.
And in that way, they're creating their own jet lag, essentially.
That's so interesting.
I never thought about that.
Yeah.
So although a person may say,
ah, you know, you're too rigid and you're too structured, you know,
I like to just fly off the seat in my pants.
Well, your body doesn't like it.
Yeah, your body doesn't love that.
Right.
But I would imagine there are some people who are kind of forced into that,
like people who are working overnight shifts,
nurses, doctors, you know, I mean, whatever.
There are so many people that have kind of strange hours like that.
I would imagine that would be very difficult because I'm like you, like I don't consider myself regimented.
But I just, I don't know, I just thrive more off of like a routine like that where I'm going to bed.
I'm in bed at nine usually.
Like unless it's a weekend, we're going out to dinner or something like that.
But I feel best if I'm like asleep by 10.
I wake up at six naturally.
Right.
just how my body is.
Yeah.
And then,
and I just know over the years,
like what makes me feel best.
And it's definitely not having this circadian for them all over the place.
Yeah.
I mean,
I mean,
I'm,
I was,
you know,
I'll be 50 next year.
It's just,
yeah.
I mean,
I'll be 50 next year.
I know.
It's kind of time flies.
But it's so funny because my,
when I was in my 30s,
40s,
my clients were talking,
Rob,
you just wait till you're 20 or 45 or 15.
50, you know.
You're like still waiting.
Well, I mean, I do realize that things slowed down.
So one of the things that I really had to take to heart was my sleep because either I would,
you know, train and then surf a couple hours with, you know, my sons and then, oh, I got to work
on this next book or whichever.
So I cut the sleep short, right?
So I'm not getting seven and a half, eight hours of sleep or maybe a little more.
I'm getting maybe five and a half, six hours.
I cheat.
and then I'm getting, oh, I'm getting sore thrill, I get sick.
And I've done that many times to myself.
And it got to the point of like, okay, like I'm getting aches and pains.
Like I got to start emphasizing my sleep more.
And yeah, there's nights where I might watch a show a little later.
But I try to get that point of, okay, get the seven and a half, eight hours of sleep.
Which, as you know, is so important.
Yes.
It's the foundation of my life.
If I get less than eight hours, I can do it for like a day or two.
but everything unravels.
And I talk about it here all the time.
I probably sound like a broken record.
But I mean, my appetite is all over the place.
My energy is all over the place.
It's just, I just can't do it.
Some people can, you know, like my dad is a doctor.
I think they train you for that in med school to be able to function.
Because every doctor that I know, like, has the weirdest sleep schedule.
You know, they sleep five hours a night and they feel great.
Whereas I would be like hospitalized if I did that for like.
like three consecutive nights.
Yeah, when you said it just triggered my thought about sleep and, I mean, you said, like hunger or satiety.
And that was one of the things that I talk about.
And I'm trying to write a program right now for gut health.
And so one of the interesting things about research when you start reading it, it's sort of like, you know, like a black hole.
You go in it, you're like, oh, my gosh, there's so much information.
And then, but you find some interesting things where, you know, when you start to get sleep deprived and it becomes where, you know, you get four or five hours a night of sleep and that sort of thing, it affects satiety hormones. So, you know, ghrelin is a hormone that increases appetite. So they show that as people, subjects are sleep deprived, that grelin levels go up. And so you look at that sort of pattern. And basically what ends up happening is when people are sleep deprived, their choices of foods changes.
because of the grellin levels.
And so they don't pick like organic, you know, or grass-fed beef and then, you know, wild salmon and kale and broccoli.
They choose processed foods, pretzels, you know, chips, donuts, those kind of things.
If I'm tired, I eat like I used to eat when I was hungover in like when I was 20 years old, you know, like I just, I don't care.
Like I crave that.
Totally.
Kind of salty, oily, greasy food.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's so interesting.
So it all completely makes sense.
And then obviously then you do that.
And then processed foods are probably inflammatory your gut.
And then you get gut issues and then you get a compromised immune system.
Then people wonder why they get sick after exams.
Oh, yeah.
And so that is wholly reason why.
Are there any foods that you think people universally should be eating?
Obviously, people have different sensitivities like we were talking.
about before, different dietary preferences, but are there any kind of quote-unquote super foods that
you just think are super beneficial? I know you love sardines. Like it's not one of them. Yeah, I mean,
that's just my, I mean, that's my quick sort of protein, you know, meal. But I, it's not to,
I don't have anything to sell with PFF or anything like that. The story behind that is that when I
wrote my first book, colon one nutrition, I worked with a lot of golfers. So I'm the
nutritionist over at the Tad's Performance Institute. And so, the,
So if you know anything about golfers and their eating habits, I learned the hard way because
I was like, oh, you got to eat organic food and you got to do this and that.
And all the guys over there, like the chiropractor and the golf pro and, you know, all the
other people, they're like, Rob, like, we're dealing with golfers.
Like, if you tell them maybe, okay, cut down on the beer, maybe at, you know, the turn,
that's probably what they might be able to do.
So that's where your BFF for blood drink control for PFF came about.
that's where I think the protein, fat, and fiber is really important.
Protein, you have a threshold of protein that your body needs.
So that's where people will go looking for more food if they don't have enough protein.
So oftentimes with Angie and I got to eat dinner, protein costs the most, right?
So they don't, they kind of skimp you on the protein unless you pay for double or if it's a huge amount of a huge steak.
So oftentimes I go after dinner, I'm like, okay, I'm hungry.
Or I want other food, right?
will eat other foods or more carbohydrates or other types of foods at home. So I think that's really
important for people to do. And what is that threshold? Well, in terms of amount, you know,
if people want gram amounts, you know, I would say eventually maybe a gram per pound of body weight
is not the upper limit, but it's probably maybe where someone may want to go to. But I tell people,
look, that's not always the case with everybody because sometimes if a person, you know, does a protein
sort of assessment and they go, oh, I actually looked at how much protein I only get like 40 or
50, 60 grams a day and they weigh 120 pounds. I go, well, then don't go to 120, just go to like 80
or go to maybe 100. You're still going to get some great benefits just by increasing your protein,
stabilizing your blood sugar or probably feeling better, recovering from exercise. So there's no need to go
to that one gram per pound. Probably the most important thing is just to assess where you're at first
and then make some changes. And then the fat's very important.
because fat will help stabilize your blood sugar, but also keep you satiated. And then the fiber's a big one. So I know people are into carnivore and there might be cases for that. And I have some personal opinions as to maybe why people are feeling better on that. The fiber is really important because do need fiber. And I know there's people, they're always asking me, well, you know, what about the lectin thing and there's lectins and that sort of thing? And that can be an issue, FodMaps. But that is
where I alluded to earlier about the fermentation, right?
So you need short chain fatty acids.
That is what your colonocytes use for fuel.
And that is basically produced by bacteria breaking down the fiber in your vegetables and
your fruit, and that produces a short chain fatty acids.
That's really important because there's research showing it helps with inflammation.
With NF Kappa Beta, it helps with leaky gut.
It helps with the mucin, what we call it.
the mucosal lining as a protective mechanism for your intestinal tract.
So if you're not eating vegetables and fiber, then that's a problem over time.
So I think the PFF really helps not only for blood sugar stability, but for gut health in the long run for a lot of people.
Now, it's not to say you don't ever have rice or carbohydrates because obviously if you have resistant starch with rice or potatoes,
then that's a great way to feed your gut microbiome as well.
Yeah, I was going to say, I remember when I started doing more PFF, I felt like there was a period where I was tired a lot.
Is that common for people when they switch from a more like carbohydrate heavy diet?
Yeah, it can be.
So I tell people, look, there's always a switch that takes anywhere from 10 to 14 days, maybe longer for it to happen.
So if someone has a predominant diet where they have starches or carburets every single meal,
then just increase the vegetable intake in ratio.
If you're transitioning, you want to try PFF protein fats and fiber and you're predominantly
like a big rice eater, you know, that's like a lot of rice you eat.
Well, just simply cut down the rice you do eat at a meal, but just up your vegetables.
So, you know, if half your plate is rice, we'll, you know, make it a quarter of rice
and then increase your veggie intake, whether it's broccoli or a low-fat, you know,
if you're following a low-fod-mat diet, then increase those types of vegetables.
You know, that's important.
Like, it just jogs with memory because I have this high-profile NFL athlete.
And I said, you know, I mean, his inflammation marker.
I mean, everything was off.
And I'm like, you have a lot of room to improve.
And, I mean, this guy's the number one or I think first round draft anyways.
So just wants to improve his performance.
I said, well, I want you to add, like, what vegetables would you eat?
I always typically ask that of a client.
He's like, he just shook his head.
I'm like, why are you shaking your head?
I don't eat vegetables.
And so.
Oh, my God.
I said, well, I mean, how about like some carrots or onions and like chicken soup?
Mm-mm.
I'm like, well, how about some fruit?
Oh, yeah, I'll do some frozen berries.
Okay, let's start with that, you know?
So, you know, sometimes it might be, yeah, meet them where they are. Yeah, meet them where they are. It might be as extreme as that. And then you might have to work towards, you know, reduction. But yeah, if you're going to go straight from a very pretty high starch diet to a PFF based diet mostly, then, yeah, you're going to see fluctuations energy or drop in energy. If they're a particular person that's very active, so they do CrossFit four times a week, five times a week, that may not be the avenue where they want to go.
or they have meals where it's timing.
So maybe what they would do is they would sandwich their workout with carbs before and after.
And then the rest of the day, they sort of go with a PFF-style meal.
And then that way they stabilize your pleasure before they go to bed.
And they stabilize the first thing in the morning.
But then after their workout or before and after their workout from 12 to 1, they would have carbs.
You know, there's all kinds of ways to kind of skin the cat, so to speak.
Okay.
So I want to touch quickly on supplements.
Yes.
That's the top of your triangle.
So are there, again, kind of similar question to the food?
Are there universal supplements that you think everybody should be incorporating?
Or do you think that people should get testing and be evaluated and see where they're
deficient if they are deficient in certain things and then supplement based on that?
Yeah, I think testing is necessary over time.
So, you know, you could just generally take 5,000 I use of vitamin D and be fairly safe.
but you just don't know if you're at an optimal level with vitamin D.
So that's why it's very easy to get your vitamin D levels tested from your doctor.
They just have to take off a box and most docs check it these days.
And then the other one is omega-3s.
We have the ability to test the percentage of your DHA and EPA.
Those are the two omega-3s.
And there should be a certain amount.
And also ratios should be a certain ratio because if it's not,
then that's just one source of inflammation that could be running out of control, so to speak.
Yeah, I think yours is 40.
But, I mean, it's surprising that's not even that high.
I have people over like 110, 115.
Oh, wow.
So, like, I had a couple labs come back, and a woman was, I think, 115, 120.
It's what we call their erocodonic acid EPA ratio.
And then I think it went down to 40, which is great, right?
It's a great improvement.
From supplementing or through diet?
from supplementation. So normally we change a diet first and then we try to do the supplementation
later. And I'm going, gosh, we should have seen a much better drop. But then I ended up finding out,
well, when are you taking it and then she was only doing the one dose. So she was only doing,
I think it is a gram and a half, so three capsules where she needed to do it breakfast and dinner.
oftentimes if there's source of inflammation running throughout the body that affects hormones it just
doesn't affect joints and connected tissue that sort of thing people always think oh inflammation
I got inflamed shoulder or my low back or my hip or my knee inflammation that's out of control
that's chronic in the body is a problem so that's hope you got to go hunting for sources of that
and then help to resolve that and it's not that you don't want any inflammation like if you
you know, spraying your ankle, you want a certain amount of inflammation, but it's a chronic
inflammation that becomes a problem, which can drive some of these problems or dysfunctions,
whether it's, you know, your gut or your hormones.
And it can also be from something like your gut as well, right?
Right. So it can be part of that. So, you know, there's always talk about SIBO,
you're a small intestinal bacterial bacteria overgrowth. So one of the ways that we can see
if that's possibly happening is we may test leaky gut markers. So,
oftentimes they're, yeah, you're replicating in your small intestine.
They want to survive too.
So they'll release what we call lipopolysaccharides LPS.
That's highly inflammatory to the intestinal tract.
So that's one of the reasons why people feel better when they take an antibiotic.
Not always, but they take it.
And they're like, oh my gosh, I feel so much better.
But then they don't do anything else for two months.
And then it usually is the occurring sebo.
Yeah.
Interesting.
Amazing. Well, we're out of time, but thank you so much for coming back on. That was very comprehensive
and I think going to be so helpful for so many people. So tell everybody where they can find you.
Website at robertyang.net. You can reach me there. Info at robertyang.net. If you would like to
set up a consultation, Robert Yang on Instagram. So all kinds of ways to reach me. Thanks.
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