We are being bombarded with disrupting

chemicals. A lot of them, they're in art

products.

>> Okay, let's go to my kitchen. Come with

me. So, this is my fridge.

>> So, the first thing I notice is this,

cuz that's like the worst.

>> Can I get a bin bag?

>> This is made from recycled electronics.

>> What about this?

>> This is a problem also.

>> And this?

>> Ding, ding, ding. This is great.

>> I'm going to do utensils next.

>> Heating it up. The plastic is getting

into your food.

>> What about a receipt?

>> That's bad. that's covered with BPA and

study in adolescent boys showed that it

was associated with a 50% reduction in

testosterone. And then this is one that

people often miss.

>> The biomedical scientist and anti-aging

doctor Rhonda Patrick is back.

>> This time she's talking about health

optimization, maintaining peak

performance

>> and the environmental toxins disrupting

your body.

>> Dr. Rhonda Patrick, let's talk about

something that I've never heard of

before. Peak span. What the hell is peak

span? So it's essentially being within

90% of your peak function. For example,

muscle mass, bone density that kind of

peaks around 25 years old and then they

kind of steadily start to decline.

>> You're joking.

>> And the same goes for cognitive

function.

>> So I'm on the way down.

>> Yeah. And I'm definitely on the way

down. But we can do things in our life

to help maintain that peak span. Like if

you exercise 5 hours a week, do some

highintensity interval training in there

and you can reverse heart aging by 20

years. And then sleep very very

important for preventing your immune

system from aging rapidly. And then

another thing that you can do that's

really important for brain aging is this

is associated with a rapid decrease in

Alzheimer's disease risk. But what I

really want to talk about is

intermittent fasting supplements and

being sedentary.

>> So I want to talk about all of that but

we've got to talk about this in my hands

at the moment.

>> So if you have this it's going to double

your risk of early mortality.

>> Double your risk.

>> Double.

>> Okay. So talk me through this. I want as

much detail as possible.

This is super interesting to me. My team

given me this report to show me how many

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And some of you have told us according

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guests and conversations that you want

to hear. I've stayed true to that

promise since the very beginning of the

Dio, and I will not let you down. Please

help us. Really appreciate it. Let's get

on with the show.

Dr. Rhonda Patrick, I am fascinated by

so many of the things that you talked

about and they're front of mind for me

at the moment because I'm a 33y old man

and I know from doing this podcast and

looking at graphs like this one, which

we'll talk about today, which I don't

think most people have ever seen in

their lives, that this is the age where

things might start changing direction

from here on over the next decade. And

there's things I can do to set myself up

now if I listen to your advice for the

remaining decades of my life to be

remarkably different. I'm playing with

this in my hands at the moment. It's for

anyone that can't see, you should

probably look at the screen right now.

It's a yellow blob of squidgy, slightly

disgusting material. What is this and

why does this matter?

>> So, this represents visceral fat.

It's something that most people haven't

heard of. Many people have heard of fat.

They know fat is bad, but they don't

realize there are different kinds of

fat.

>> There is visceral fat. And this is the

kind of fat that you can't really pinch

atapost tissue kind of fat, right? I

mean, if you opened up your body, you

could pinch it because it's deep deep

within your body. It's often referred to

as belly fat

>> and it's it's surrounding your organs

like your liver, your kidney, you know,

your intestines. This is a very deep

belly fat and it's very different from

subcutaneous fat. You can actually be

lean but have a high amount of visceral

fat. We call these metabolically

unhealthy people. So visceral fat, you

mentioned you're 33. The average 33 year

old male has how much visceral fat?

>> According to the data, it says roughly

1.2 pounds at the age of 30. And then

for a woman,.5 lb of visceral fat at the

age of 30. At 40, it's 1.7 lb for a man

and.7 for a woman. At 50, 2.2 lb for a

man, £1 for a woman. And at 60, 2.7 lb

of visceral fat and 1.54 lb for a woman,

which is the highest risk for metabolic

syndromes at that age. But I mean, all

of them are pretty scary.

>> It is. And as you notice, the trend is

as you get older, you have a higher risk

of having more of it. 70% of women over

the age of 50 have a high amount of

visceral fat. 50% of men over the age of

50 have a high amount of visceral fat.

This visceral fat, for one, it's going

to double your risk of early mortality.

Full stop. That's that's you know it's

it's going to double your risk. Double

your risk. Double double. Visceral fat

is as I mentioned different from the

other kind of fat. The subcutaneous kind

of fat the atapost tissue kind of fat

>> in several ways. One is that it is

metabolically active. It is secretreting

inflammatory cytoines. These are, you

know, molecules that are signaling to

the immune system, but they're also

involved with damaging our cells. And

for this reason, people with a high

amount of visceral fat are 44% more

likely to get metastatic cancer. That's

cancer that's going to metastasize. Very

dangerous types of cancer. They're also

more likely, you mentioned metabolic

syndrome. This is a big big thing with

visceral fat. This type of fat is

constantly

breaking down triglycerides into free

fatty acids. It's constantly doing it.

>> What's triglycerides?

>> Triglycerides are how your body is able

to store fatty acids and fat and use

them for later, you know, energy, right?

So, they're constantly breaking them

down and using them. They're using these

these fatty acids. But typically what

happens in your body when you eat a

meal, you have your glucose levels go

up, right? Your blood sugar elevates,

your glucose levels go up and that

signals to the pancreas in your body to

make insulin. Insulin is this hormone

that plays a role in many things. One of

it is to tell different parts of the

body to take gluc glucose up like your

liver, your muscle, your atapost tissue.

Well, the problem is is this visceral

fat is constantly making those free

fatty acids. And so those fatty acids,

it doesn't it doesn't respond this this

we call it it's not really an organ, but

this type of fat doesn't respond to

insulin. So whereas the subcutaneous fat

will stop breaking down fat and using

fat as energy. It says, "Okay, look, I

have energy here. I got to do something

with this energy. Let me let me store it

for later use." Right? Well, that that

doesn't happen with visceral fat. What

happens is it just keeps going, keeps

going, keeps going. What happens is when

your visceral fat is metabolically

active like that, it is basically making

it where insulin can't work its job. And

so what happens is that glucose can't go

into your liver. It stays in your blood

system.

>> And you really want it to be stored in

your liver, right?

>> You want it to be stored in your liver

as glycogen to be used as energy when

you're fasting or when you're, you know,

physically active or when whenever you

need it, right? Also in your muscle.

same thing, stored as glycogen or stored

in your atapost tissue. Um, and so and

so none of that happens because insulin,

it's not able to to basically act on

your your your organs. It's there's no

signal. So no, nobody's getting the

phone call, hey, time to take the

glucose up. It's not happening, right?

So the glucose sits around. So what

happens is your body freaks out because

it's not good to have glucose sitting

around in your bloodstream for a while.

It causes a lot of damage, right? Mhm.

>> And so what happens is your body makes

even more insulin to try to

overcompensate. Your body goes, "Oh,

maybe that wasn't enough insulin

because, you know, the glucose isn't

coming in to the organs like the liver

like it's supposed to. So, let me put

some more out."

>> And for anyone that doesn't know,

insulin is kind of like the taxi driver

that goes and picks up the glucose and

takes it home.

>> Exactly. It's taking it home. It's

taking it back to the liver. And so what

happens when you make more insulin,

you're overcompensating in such a way

that now glucose really does get taken

up into these other organs like the

liver. And it so much so that it causes

your blood glucose levels to go down and

and you're crashing. And all of a

sudden, this is responsible for that.

You know, people that eat a meal and

they're kind of insulin resistant. They

eat a meal and then all of a sudden

they're crashing an hour later. We're

like, why am I why do I have no energy?

Why am I hungry? Right? Because when

you're after you crash, your blood

glucose levels go down. That's what I

mean by crashing. Um really f far down.

Not not normal levels, but like below

that. And so then your body tries to

overcompensate by going, "Oh, I'm

hungry. I need to eat." And so you start

to have these cravings for like energy

dense foods. And that's part of this

cycle of the beginnings of insulin

resistance. And so when I'm talking

about here with visceral fat, it causes

insulin resistance. And that's

essentially the take-home here by by

it's constantly metabolizing fatty

acids, it's it's stopping that taxi car

from going and getting the glucose. It's

it's not happening. It's not responding.

You're not picking up the driver, right?

And so you become insulin resistant. And

that has a lot of problems. One, it's

going to affect your immediate energy

levels. It's going to affect the way

you're feeling. And two, it's going to

make you more likely to become type two

diabetic because eventually your body

will won't be able to produce enough

insulin to bring the glucose in. And so

then you become type 2 diabetic. So that

is a big consequence of having this

visceral fat in addition to those

inflammatory molecules that are being

generated from this fat. It's just so

metabolically active. And that

inflammation that you're generating not

only does things like raise your cancer

risk by 44%. It also makes you tired. It

gives you brain fog, lethargy. When your

immune system is being activated by this

inflammation,

you're taking energy away from your

brain. It c it's a lot of energy to

activate your immune system. And so,

yeah. So, that energy is now going to

the wrong place. It's not going to your

brain.

>> So, you can feel you won't feel

cognitively as sharp and

>> absolutely won't just think about when

you're when you're when you have an

infection. Your immune system is very

active. You're fighting off a pathogen,

right? Do you feel like you're tired or

do you feel like you're cognitive

cognitively at your peak?

>> Uh yeah, I'm like I'm I'm out of out of

action for several days usually,

>> right? You're tired and your brain isn't

working. And part of that reason is

because your activation of your immune

system is sucking energy away from your

brain. And the other reason is because

the inflammation being generated gets

into the brain and disrupts

neurotransmitters and things like that.

So you're it's like a double whammy.

You're not your your brain isn't working

working properly. And so there's a lot

of people walking around constantly

feeling tired, feeling lethargic,

feeling brain fog, and they might have a

high amount of visceral fat and not even

know it. So typically,

>> looking at the data, I mean, most people

have too much visceral fat.

>> Most people do have too much visceral

fat. And typically a really high amount

is I would say a proxy for it would be

measuring your waist circumference. So,

like if women have a waist circumference

of 35 in or greater, that is a sign of

too much visceral fat. If men have a

waist circumference of 40 in or more,

that is a sign of too much visceral fat.

Ideally, you would go and get what's

called a DEXA scan. Now, this is not

something that's routinely done, and it

doesn't necessarily have to be done

unless you're that person that really

likes to go the extra mile and directly

measure things. That would be another

way to do it. You really want to have

below 300, you know, grams of visceral

fat. ideally closer to zero the better.

>> Me and my friend went and got a DEXA

scan done and the remarkable thing is I

weigh a lot more than him and I'm much

bigger than him. He's skinny but after

the DEXA scan they said that he had too

much visceral fat which I I thought vis

I thought you must be like big or obese

to have visceral fat but he's a skinny

guy and the DEXA scan said too much

visceral fat.

>> Yes, that's the thing. You know, I was

involved in clinical research for many

years when I was doing my post-graduate

training. And we were looking at

populations of people that were

metabolically unhealthy or maybe

overweight, obese in some cases, and you

would have someone come in that they

looked skinny, they looked like they

were metabolically healthy because they

weren't overweight. And yet all of their

biomarker data was showing the opposite.

Like they looked on paper, if you would

have shown me their metabolic data, I

would go, "Oh, this is an overweight

obese person." So these are these are

lean but metabolically unhealthy people

and a large percentage of that has to do

with an increase in visceral fat. You

won't even necessarily know that you're

getting higher amounts of v visceral

fat. It's not necessarily going to be

reflected on the scale. You know, you

mentioned maybe a pound, maybe a little

bit more. That's like daily fluctuation

in some cases, right? Like I mean I

don't know about you, but like I I can

fluctuate a pound from day to day for

sure. If you're talking about 500 grams

or less, that's not going to be, you

know, reflected on a scale either. You

might be going, well, what why visceral

fat? What's causing visceral fat? You

know, I mentioned age, that's a big one.

Hormones is a big one. Women are very

susceptible as they go through

pmenopause and menopause because

estrogen actually tells helps tell the

body how to store energy and it tells it

to store energy and fat in atapost

tissue, not viscerally. So when your

estrogen starts to go down during par p

parmenopause and then menopause, women

really start to gain a lot of vis this

belly fat. They gain a lot of the

visceral fat. Testosterone also it

doesn't tell the body how to store the

fat so much. It helps you burn visceral

fat. So men are a little bit more

protected when they're younger as well,

but as they age, of course, testosterone

goes down as well, and that affects the

visceral fat. But mostly, it's our diet

and our lifestyle that's really

affecting visceral fat. It's kind of

mind-blowing how quickly you can gain

visceral fat. Like there was sleep is a

big one. When you're when you miss

sleep, that is something that can really

you can start to store you can start to

gain visceral fat very quickly. Um there

was a study in healthy young men. These

men were sleep restricted. Typically

when sleep restriction studies are done,

you're you're looking at four hours of

sleep per night. So pretty severe. Not

out of the ordinary. I did many of those

college graduate school deadlines.

Definitely as a new parent, I mean it's

unfortunately drags on for months. So

these men were only sleeping four hours

a night for two weeks. Okay, these are

healthy young men, college age students.

Okay, young. They gained 11% visceral

fat after that two weeks, but not a

pound on the scale, but they had 11%

higher visceral fat after just, you

know, two weeks of not getting enough

sleep.

>> And they weighed the same

>> pretty much. So, it was the composition

of their body that's shifting.

>> Yes. Also, the visceral fat, like like I

said, you're not gaining pounds and

pounds and pounds of it necessarily. You

know, you're gaining grams and grams,

but like it's happening and and any

amount that you're starting to gain is

unhealthy, right? It's going to start

causing insulin resistance. It's going

to start, you know, causing fatty liver.

That's another thing. It does it because

it's around the liver. It basically the

liver doesn't know what to do with all

the fat. So, it starts to make and store

it around the fat. And so you start to

get this non-alcoholic fatty liver which

is happening now in like young people.

So sleep is one another major major I

would say lever for gaining visceral fat

is your diet quality and quantity. So if

you start to be in a caloric excess

constantly you can start to gain

visceral fat and that's also been shown

in studies. So, there was a recent study

that again was in healthy young men

given about 1,200 extra calories a day

and it was mostly from ultrarocessed

foods, right? I mean, they're 1,200

calories, so like Big Mac and a Coke,

Big Mac and fries, whatever, you know?

So, you're you're talking about almost

like an extra meal a day and from

processed foods, ultrarocessed foods.

For 5 days, they were given, you know,

this extra caloric intake. After that

five days, they started to gain visceral

fat. They started to have signs of fatty

liver after five days. And their brains

became insulin resistant. And this is

important. Yes. You

>> How many calories were they having in

excess?

>> 1,200 to,500.

>> In excess.

>> More than what they were usually going

to eat. Yes. Okay.

>> Yes. So, you know, it's a lot of people

are eating caloric excess, you know,

daily. They're not they're not

exercising and there's no energy

expenditure and they're eating more and

so they're in in you know 1,200. Now

this is the extreme end right I'm giving

you an extreme end because that's what

they do usually in in studies like this

because they want to get a significant

result but after 5 days they they were

gaining visceral fat their brains became

insulin resistant. So insulin is also

very important for the brain. the brain

is telling the body how to store the fat

and how to store energy. And when the

and when insulin is not able to to get

into the brain and have its action, then

you start to not have the brain tell the

body how to store this energy and it

ends up storing it viscerally. It's like

this default.

>> Do you know putting those two things

together, the thing I've noticed that

impacts my performance the most as it

relates to articulation, cognitive

performance, my ability to think is

those two things coming together. You

talked about sleep and diet. It's when I

h I eat late

>> close. It's when I eat close to sleep.

If I do that a couple of nights in a

row, I feel like my brain no longer

works.

>> Yes. Yeah. You know, obviously we all

have to like live our lives and there's

social things and it's fun to go out and

have a dinner with your friends or an

event, right? But it's not a good idea

to eat a meal, a big meal three hours

before, fewer than three hours before

bed. So, you want to stop eating 3 hours

before bed. And three is really the

magic number in multiple studies because

when you eat a meal, it is activating

your sympathetic nervous system, right?

That's the fight orflight response.

That's not what you want active when

you're about to go to bed. When you're

activating the sympathetic nervous

system right before you're going to bed,

let's say you eat a meal within an hour

of bedtime, you're digesting all that.

It's your sympathetic nervous system is

active. And even if you're sleeping,

it's not good sleep. It's fragmented

sleep. And so it's disrupted sleep

because you you need to be in that

parasympathetic

part of, you know, the nervous system.

That dominance needs to be

parasympathetic, which is the rest

restore. It's called rest and digest.

But I don't like digest because actually

digesting is what activates the

sympathetic nervous system. So it's like

the recovery, right?

>> So should I stay up then for three

hours? If I if I eat at midnight,

>> should I stay up till 3:00 a.m.?

>> No. No. You should just go to bed, but

don't do it on a daily basis, right? I

mean, the the key is the habit, you

know, the habit. And so, if you need to

eat something before bed, you should do

something that's light. Maybe a protein

shake with some almond milk, you know,

something that's not super heavy.

>> I've heard you talk about fiber.

>> Resistant starch does, interestingly,

seem to help improve sleep. And so, you

know, maybe some rice or a potato,

>> a little bit of rice or a potato,

>> some fries or something.

>> Maybe not a fried potato, baked baked

potato and then cool it because then

it's resistant starch, right? Because

then it's good for your your gut

microbiome.

>> Why?

>> It changes the composition of the fiber

>> and and you can cook it, let it cool,

and then heat it again if you like to

eat it heated as long as it went through

a cooling part.

>> Wow.

>> And then you can eat it. But that's

resistant starch. Resistant starch is

also in green bananas. very beneficial

for the gut and also for interestingly

for improving sleep. So things that are

really moving the needle to to make you

gain visceral fat or being in basically

being in a caloric excess especially

from refined highfat high sugar foods.

And then not getting enough sleep, move

the needle. Chronic stress is an

amplifier of it. So if you're constantly

having cortisol that's kind of stopping

the body from storing energy right the

right way and it's going viscerally as

well. I would say that amplifies

especially if it's like in the context

of being in a caloric excess and not

exercising. Alcohol is another one. If

you drink if you're excessively

consuming alcohol you're going to store

a lot of the energy that you're also

consuming is going to be stored

visceral. I mean you've seen the beer

belly right? I mean that's like a thing.

It's visceral fat. It's it's not beer.

It's visceral fat. So alcohol is another

one. In terms of losing visceral fat, I

mean the good news is is that you can

lose it quite easily and quite rapidly.

I

>> was going to say parents have a hard

time because you're naming those things

about like sleep and stress and and I

was thinking gosh parents have like a

have it coming from them from all sides.

>> They do. Um the but see this is where

the good news comes in because you know

part of the reason why sleep is causing

you to gain more visceral sleep loss is

causing you to gain visceral fat is

because it's causing your body to become

insulin resistant. It's like this

vicious cycle. Visceral fat causes

insulin resistance. Insulin resistance

causes more visceral fat. Right? And

becomes this and that's why once you get

into that cycle it just spirals out of

control, right? And you start to gain

more and more and more.

>> Sorry. Insulin resistance. What is that?

That is when your body no longer

produces insulin or

>> No, no. Insulin resistance is when your

body is no longer responding to insulin.

So, it's like it's like you're waiting

for the phone to ring and it's ringing,

but you can't hear it, right? Like you

you're not getting the signal and so

your your cells are not responding to

the insulin that's made. Insulin is

really helping your body bring move the

glucose out, right? move it move it out

of your bloodstream where it can cause a

lot of damage if it sits around

>> and if you put too much pressure

pressure on the insulin system then it

kind of shuts down

>> eventually shuts down

>> and the thing that puts too much

pressure is consuming too much glucose

or too much activity

>> too much glucose refined glucose can do

that visceral fat is one of the I would

say bigger causes of insulin it's

actually one of the major major causes

of insulin resistance because if you are

physically active and eating a lot of

glucose, that glucose is going to your

muscles. Physical activity makes your

muscles very responsive to glucose

without needing insulin. Your the

transporters that transport glucose are

super super responsive when you

exercise. That's why physical activity

and this is what I was getting at with

parents is so important. The visceral

fat is the really big like concern with

insulin resistance. This is and this is

the thing that again it's like people

don't even know about it. A lot of

people are thinking about glucose and

oh, I got to watch my glucose. And

that's all fine. I mean, yes, to some

degree that's also playing a role, but

it's it's it's the visceral fat that's

the real underlying problem that's

that's causing you to become insulin

resistant. You mentioned parents have it

like bad because they're stressed out

and they don't get sleep. I was wearing

a continuous glucose monitor when I

became a new mother. I was appalled by

my fasting blood glucose and by my

postprandial blood glucose levels. Never

>> postrenal. Postprandial means after a

meal. Okay?

>> So your levels go obviously much higher

after you eat a meal versus in the

morning when you haven't had anything to

eat.

>> And my levels were were so high. It was

pre-diabetic

>> and and I was just I couldn't believe

it. And it's not like I'm eating, you

know, drinking Cokes and eating

terrible, right? But there was a period

of time when I'm not as physically

active, particularly in the first couple

of months. It's really, you know, that's

the time when you're kind of just in

this cave. I immediately was looking

into the scientific literature and found

that high-intensity interval training

and exercise can help almost negate most

of the those poor effects of causing

insulin resistance and causing your

glucose regulation to not be normal.

That's the good news for parents is that

you should prioritize new parents should

prioritize exercise and exercise does

cause you to lose visceral fat. It's not

just any type of exercise really has to

be aerobic and the more vigorous the

better. So for people that don't know

what that means, aerobic and vigorous.

>> Yeah. So what I mean is resistance

training and lifting weights don't

really move the needle in terms of

helping you lose visceral fat. It does

help you improve your metabolism. It

does help with like glucose, you know,

sensitivity and all that like because

your muscles are going to be more

sensitive to take the glucose in. But if

you want to lose visceral fat, you're

going to have to do running, jogging,

cycling, swimming. You want to like get

your heart rate up a little more.

>> Why? It's energy expenditure. It plays a

role in getting you to that caloric more

caloric deficit and that's better. So

that's one way. And the other thing is

weight any any weight loss program. So

intermittent fasting, caloric

restriction, you know, even GLP-1

receptor agonist and all the classes of

GLP1, anything that is going to make you

lose weight, lose fat, visceral fat's

one of the first to go. And in fact,

people on on these these weight loss

programs or even on exercise training

program, visceral fat's the first fat to

go and and so you can lose it quite

quite quickly.

>> So on this point of fasting, are you a

fan of fasting to combat visceral fat?

And also, could you give me your

thoughts on being in a ketogenic state

as it relates to visceral fat? Yeah,

people when they think about

intermittent fasting, they kind of think

about,

you know, one thing and they think about

weight loss, right? But there's a lot

going on here. And I like I like that

you mentioned being in a ketogenic state

because there's also a metabolic switch

that happens. This metabolic switch from

burning carbohydrates and glucose to

burning fatty acids and getting in

ketosis, right? That's a metabolic

switch. And it's very important. There

are two different things happening here.

But intermittent fasting is essentially

a good tool that people can use to

reduce their calorie intake without

having to count their calories. That's

why I like it. You can you can lose

weight by counting your calories and

reducing your calorie intake. I

personally think that's a lot of work.

Some people love doing it and that's

great. I think whatever works for a

person. But the way in which

intermittent fasting helps people lose

visceral fat is by reducing calorie

intake. That's what I'm getting at. It's

like a tool that some people like to use

because I like it for one because I can

not think I just I'll skip one meal

making sure I get enough nutrients in

the the meals that I eat and protein in

the meals I eat. But I'll skip a meal

and it gets me in a caloric deficit

without having to think about and count

everything. So it's easier on me

>> to fast

>> to fast versus counting calories.

>> And how how do you do that? So, I like

to fast in the morning. And the reason I

like to fast in the morning is for the

exact reason you mentioned, and that is

the ketosis, which I like to call the

metabolic switch. You're not eating

while you're sleeping, obviously. So, if

you're sleeping for 8, if you're in bed

for 9 hours, 10 hours, you're not eating

during that time. And it takes about 10

to 12 hours for your liver to deplete

glycogen. glucose that's been taken up

by the liver is stored as glycogen so

that you can then use it for energy

later if you don't have energy coming

in. Right.

>> So the glycogen is like the the petrol

station.

>> Yes.

>> So it runs out of petrol.

>> That's right. And and so um it takes

>> it switches to diesel.

>> And it switches to diesel. And so after

that switch, that metabolic switch when

you deplete that glycogen while you're

sleeping or while you're not, you know,

not eating after about 12 hours. And by

the way, this is all relative because it

depends on the kind of foods you eat and

how physically active you are. So, if

you eat a lot of high carbohydrate,

refined sugar stuff, you might take even

longer to deplete your glycogen because

you're you're putting a lot of input in

there. You keep filling up the the fuel

tank, right?

>> But if you're eating things that are

more low carb, you might deplete your

glycogen sooner. So, when you deplete

your glycogen, you get into this

metabolic switch because your body still

needs energy, but there's no nothing, no

glucose around, right? So, you start to

switch to, you know, your fatty acids

are mobilized. They come out of your

atapost tissue. This is why people lose

fat. They come out of the visceral fat.

You you start to use those fatty acids

and burn them as energy. And as a

product of that energy, you're making

ketones, ketosis. And the reason I like

to do this in the morning is because

then I can really get into that ketoic

state where if I'm fasting, I do it

typically I fast for about 16 hours a

day and then I eat my meals within eight

hours a day. Typically, that's my what I

do. The reason I like to be in that

metabolic switch state is many reasons

actually. One, the ketones themselves

are providing my brain with energy, very

e easily utilizable energy, but they're

also acting as a signaling molecule to

my brain going, "Hey, this is a

stressful time. There's no food. You

better be cognitively sharp. You got to

find that food. You got to like know

what you're doing, right? It's an

evolutionary adaptation." You know,

humans for thousands of years were going

through this metabolic switch because we

didn't have Instacart. We didn't have

Postmates. We didn't have all Uber Eats,

right? We had to find our food. We had

to hunt our food. And we always didn't

always do that, right? And so when I get

into that metabolic switch state, I feel

it. I feel more cognitively sharp. And I

feel less anxious, which is part of it

because those ketones also help increase

something called GABA. That's an

inhibitory neurotransmitter. It's

essentially, you can just think of it as

like it helps you feel calmer. When I

feel calmer, I'm more cognitively

focused because it's like the background

anxiety is down, right? It it's like you

can focus. And so, I love being in that

state in the morning because that's when

I get my work done. I also like to be in

that metabolic switch state. And this is

why I like fasting in addition to, you

know, the calorie, the fewer calories

I'm consuming, right? Your body has to

be in that fasted state to repair. If

you're constantly in a fed state, fed

states are important for anabolic

growth. We need it to grow, right? But

the repair state is also very important

because with the growth comes damage.

Damage comes along with that and you

want to repair that damage because

damage will accelerate aging. And so I

like to be and give my body enough time.

I don't want to just wake up and eat

where it's like, oh, I've only barely

depleted my liver glycogen. I'm not even

in that repair state very long, right? I

want to extend it a little bit. And so I

like to have that repair process active

and that it is active during it's

fasting activates it but also you have

some amount of active repair going on

even when you're in a fed state. It's

just heightened when you're fasted. So

those are the reasons I like to be I

like intermittent fasting. I feel good

when I do it. I also do a lot of

training, not all of it. I do a lot of

training fasted. Cardiovascular aerobic

endurance exercise. So running, biking,

that stuff I like to do fasted. I'm not

going for a 10-mi run. I'm going for a

three- mile run, right? I mean, this is

So, if I was going for a 10 mile run, I

wouldn't be fasted. I would need some

fuel. But there are studies, me,

multiple studies showing that if you do

aerobic endurance training, this kind of

running, cycling, swimming type of

training, you actually have better

adaptations if you're fasted versus fed.

>> What does that mean? So much of the

benefit from exercise, right? Aerobic

exercise when you're breathing in,

you're you're you're you're right,

you're working hard is from the working

hard, but your body responds to that,

right? Because the working hard is

causing inflammation. It's causing

oxidative damage. And your body is

responding to that by going, "Oh, we got

to get better at this stuff." So, you

have anti-inflammatory pathways

activated. You have antioxidant pathways

activated. Your body needs to burn fat.

You need fuel. And so if you're fasted,

you get better at burning the fat and

oxidizing the fat and you continue to do

that throughout the day better as well.

So you have what are called

mitochondrial adaptations that are

better. You make more mitochondria.

Mitochondria are very important little

tiny organels inside of most of our

cells that make energy and they, you

know, they're very important for

everything. I mean, they're running our

brains right now so we can talk, our

heart, you know, so we can breathe, our

lungs, everything, right? And so

exercise does make you increase the

amount of those new mitochondria that

you make that are young and healthy.

>> If you're fasted

>> both, even if you're not, but if you're

fasted, it's even better.

>> This has been a big debate around

whether this applies to both men and

women.

>> Should both men and women exercise

fasted?

>> This is my read of the literature and my

thoughts on this from also having

experts that have studied male versus

female responses to exercise. First and

foremost, how do you feel when you

exercise fasted? If you feel terrible,

that's a sign. I think listening to your

body is the most important thing that

you can do. There are times when I have

to eat before I exercise and I listen to

my body. I that's it. I'm I'm going to

eat. When it comes to women versus men

and doing exercise fasted, it also

depends on are you again, are you doing

a 30 minute run? Are you doing a 2hour

run? If you're doing a 2-hour run, you

need to fuel. That's a lot. That's a big

stress. When it comes to a 30-minute

run, you don't really necessarily need

to. Now, the problem with women is that

they're often if you're in too much of a

caloric deficit and you don't eat enough

food within, you know, like afterwards,

you're not refueling enough and you're

doing very very long high volume types

of exercise, then you can basically

disrupt your, you know, some of your

hormones, your your follicle stimulating

hormone, luteinizing hormone. These

things will make you become amenoretic.

So you basically stop ovulating and you

stop getting your menstrual period.

>> And what's the evolutionary reason for

that? What's going on?

>> Because your body's like there's not

enough food and energy around to sustain

a ba, you know, a growing fetus like

they're growing shutting down.

>> So it's so it's basically like, hey,

we're not going to allow you to have a

baby basically. So you stop you stop

ovulating, right? So you can't you're

not making you're not making those eggs.

Is this often the case with women who

exercise a lot and no longer have their

menstrual cycle?

>> First of all, this is not a common

thing. This is like this is something

that happens in, you know, like

athletes, elite athlete, women that are

not eating enough food. Like I I did

this to myself when I was in my early

20s and I was running I was racing

marathons and I was running 10 miles a

day, you know, eight to 10 miles a day,

five days a week and then I was eating

carrots and hummus and you know, I just

I wasn't fueling myself and I did I did

this to myself, too. So, how do you feel

if you train fasted? Do you feel

terrible? Don't do it. If you want to

train somewhat fasted, go for the

protein, you know, protein shake with a

little bit of almond milk or something

like that where you're not eating a full

meal, but you're getting something. So,

I do a lot of my training fasted and

that has helped me. You know, I'm 47

years old and penmenopause.

>> You're in phenomenal shape.

>> Thank you. Thank you. Um, but I did

notice, of course, as as I started to

reach that pmenopause part of my life

that I had to be a little bit more

aggressive and put a little bit more

effort in to not get this fat right here

on my belly cuz it started coming up and

I didn't want it. I didn't it wasn't it

wasn't an option for me. Speaking of uh

studies done for women, you I've heard

you talk in the past about the Swan

study, which kind of relates to what you

just said there. Um when relating to

women in visceral fat, and they found

that women experience an accelerated

increase in visceral fat starting 2

years before their final menstrual

period.

>> Yeah. Because that's when their estrogen

is about it's just it's plummeting,

right? You're just going off a cliff

because you're you're about to go into

menopause.

>> Again, what age would that be? Average

age of menopause is between 50 about 50

52 for women. A lot of that there's a

lot of things that can affect your

reproductive lifespan, your ovarian

aging I guess we can call it. And

unfortunately, one of them is when you

the age you were when you got your

menstrual period. So the younger you

were, the younger you're going to be

when you experienced menopause. So also

when your mother experienced menopause

is very very indicative of when you're

going to experience it. But lifestyle

and diet play a role too. Obesity

accelerates ovarian aging. So you're

more likely to go into menopause earlier

with obesity. Also these chemicals that

we're exposed to and we can talk about

those as well. A lot of these endocrine

disrupting chemicals affect the age of

menopause as well and and accelerate

that. So some in some cases women go

into menopause two years earlier than

they would have otherwise.

>> And you're so you're 47

>> Mhm. and a half

>> and a half. And the data that I'm

looking at here says when we think about

permenopause, it usually starts in

mid-40s, which is the age range you're

in. This is where the 8 to 10% annual

visceral fat increase begins.

>> It is. And and I

>> Yeah. I can tell you from people in my

life that I've seen going through this,

it's pretty sudden that you'll see

someone in your life that's a woman

that's going through Mary Pen Perry

menopause and maybe hasn't had any other

symptoms yet, so they haven't really see

any treatment. Now, you can you can try

to do some hormone replacement therapy

as well to help with that, but they

start to gain visceral fat and it shows

up around the belly quite rapidly. And I

noticed this in myself. It almost feels

overnight. Seriously, this is the only

symptom that I noticed in myself where

it was like all of a sudden my belly was

like growing and um you know, not super

super large, but enough where I was like

there's something wrong. It's not even

necessarily reflected if you get hormone

tests cuz mine all seemed normal. The

thing is is that the estrogen when it

drops that estrogen is so important for

telling your body to store energy

differently, not around the organs, but

to make it around, you know, other parts

of your body like your your thighs and

your butt, right? Like your atapost

tissue. And so when that estrogen goes

down and declines, it's like boom, it

starts to go right to the belly. So that

is why for me intermittent fasting has

been really important. Like with any

weight loss or calorie restriction

protocol, you do need to make sure

you're getting enough protein because

that's important for muscle, right?

Muscle growth and preventing atrophy of

your muscle. And you need to also do

resistance training. That also is a very

important signal for muscle. Because the

problem is some people calorie restrict

and eat fewer meals and then they're not

getting enough protein and they're not

training and they start to lose muscle

in addition to fat and you don't want to

do that. You want to kind of just lose

the visceral fat and keep the muscle

ideally keep gaining muscle.

>> And for men, I was reading that

testosterone and growth hormone

typically peak in their late 20s. So I

guess mine's peaked already. Um and

starting at age 30, testosterone drops

roughly 1% a year. So between the age of

25 and 65, men typically see a 200%

increase in their visceral fat even if

their total weight stays the same. So

is that linked into testosterone

decline? Is that what's going on there?

What's causing it?

>> Yeah, I mean it's it's testosterone does

you burn even if you're gaining visceral

fat, it helps you burn it. It's it's

also why some women that are in

pmenopause want to do testosterone

because it helps them burn the visceral

fat. M um so it is it is linked to

testosterone decline as well but also as

men are aging their they become more

sedentary they send they tend to eat a

little bit they're consuming more

calorie like all these things are

handinand so it's like a it's not just

like a one punch right it's like

multiple angles are kind of all

compounding and coming together whereas

you could get away with it a little bit

easier when you're younger because the

testosterone was helping you burn it

more

>> when you're declining it doesn't it

doesn't work that same way so even

though you're gaining it you're not

burning it as quickly so you start to

have a net gain in it. Uh if that makes

sense.

>> So going back up to the top then we were

talking about things you can do to lower

your visceral fat and we talked a little

bit about exercise, sleep, diet. Is

there anything else in that category?

>> Yeah, I think those are the main ones.

Obviously avoiding excess alcohol

consumption. Yeah.

>> And also

>> stress. Stress.

>> Yeah. Yeah.

>> The stress like you know trying to to

relaxation techniques buffer that

stress. That's a big one. It's an

amplifier.

>> Yeah. People don't talk enough about

visceral fat, you know, they look at

other markers.

>> No. Well, most people just want to lose

weight and look good.

>> Yeah.

>> Or Yeah. They look at, you know, HBA1C,

your long-term glucose, or they're

looking at lipids, and visceral fat is

just it's it's insidious, right? It just

starts increasing, increasing,

increasing. You can't see it. You can't

see until all of a sudden belly, right?

I mean, it's it's it's bad. And it

affects the way you feel daily. On this

point of testosterone, why is it the

case that testosterone seems to be

dropping amongst men? I think it said

something like I wrote it down. Yeah,

testosterone levels in men have dropped

by up to 20% over the last two decades.

>> Um, which is quite terrifying.

>> It is. So, look, there's a lot of

factors that can affect testosterone. I

mentioned dietary factors, refined

sugar, sleep is a big one. people aren't

getting enough sleep, lack of sleep

drops testosterone, micronutrients, not

getting enough zinc, for example, zinc's

very important for testosterone

synthesis and magnesium. Like there's a

there's there's important nutrient

components, but I think the big player

here is actually environmental. I think

that

we are being bombarded with what are

called endocrine disrupting chemicals.

These are man-made chemicals. A lot of

them are part of plastic. They're made

to help plastic be more durable or more

robust or they're found or they're water

resistant. So there's probably three

main endocrine disrupting chemicals that

are found in our environment mainly

because they're in plastic or they're in

they're also in things that are water

resistant, oil resistant, fire

resistant, flame retardant. BPA

bisphenol AA is one. Another one is

phalates. PH phalates. And the last one

would be PAS. These are the forever

chemicals. These are the three main I

would say players in terms of disrupting

endocrine function. Endocrine being

hormones. Sex hormones like

testosterone, estrogen, but also thyroid

hormone. Very important for regulating

our metabolism for example.

>> Are they really causing a problem?

>> Absolutely.

>> Really? Like

>> absolutely. cuz I'm looking at the

picture you have there of Pa Pas

>> PAS

>> PAS and it's got like a coat and shoes

on there. You're telling me my the

clothes that I wear are having an impact

on my hormones.

>> They can, but I think it's it's it's

less of a direct effect and more

downstream. So the the the PAS chemicals

or the forever chemicals, they're used

in things to make them oil resistant,

stain resistant, water resistant. So the

teflon pans would be the biggest

example. You remember those non-stick

pans? They have teflon that has PAS on

it.

>> We're going to go into my kitchen in a

second. So, I'll take all of the viewers

that are watching now into my kitchen.

We'll have a stroller around my kitchen.

You let me know if there's some things.

>> Oh gosh, I hope you don't have Teflon.

But, I mean, my mom used it when I was,

you know, growing up. I remember the

non-stick pans that stuff is coming off

into your food and so you're eating the

these PAS.

>> How do we know that they're dangerous?

>> Okay. Well, I'll tell you how we know.

like let's let's start with so the PAS

chemicals are ones that are really

they're more affecting the thyroid and

they're affecting I would say ovarian

aging they seem to target the ovaries

and accelerate the age that you're going

to get menopause so you're going to get

it around two one to two years earlier

if you have a high amount of these

forever chemicals but there's been

studies a lot of studies looking at

let's start with BPA okay bispenol A

that's a big one because you see a lot

of marketing around BPA free. This

plastic water bottle is BPA free. Well,

it's BPA free, but it has another

chemical called BPS, which is very

similar, if not worse, than BPA. So, BPA

is something that's found in a lot of

water bottles. It's in those plastic

water bottles. It lines the cups of uh

paper cups, like these to-go coffee cups

that you're getting at your favorite,

you know, coffee place. Plastic is

lining them. Yes, plastic lines them

because it's protecting it from the

liquid, right? BPA has been linked to

many different diseases, but really

really it's an endocrine disruptor. So

what it does is a couple of things. One,

BPA acts as an estrogen mimemetic. So it

kind of mimics estrogen and it binds to

the receptors that estrogen do to do its

function. And so it sometimes binds to

estrogen and either makes it seem like

there's estrogen around or it blocks

estrogen from working. So it's it it

depends on the dose and the

concentration. So it can do both, but it

also binds to androgen receptors that

interact with testosterone, right? And

so there have been studies that have

found that men that have high amounts of

BPA also have low amounts of

testosterone. That there was also a

study done in teens. This is when you

know your sexual development is

happening, right? Testosterone is very

important during this part of of your

life during puberty. Teens, adoles, ad

adolescent boys that had the highest

amount of BPA

had 50% lower testosterone than men than

the boys, sorry, that had the lowest

amount of BPA. The biggest one that's

affecting testosterone is the phalates.

These phalates, they are present in a

lot of PVC piping. They're present in a

lot of our food packaging. all those

like thin art or you go to the you know

to the grocery store and you get a filet

manon steak and it's wrapped in plastic

poultry all that plastic wrapping and

all the foods that we're eating has

phalates in them that make it more

flexible and stuff and it's also found

in our hair products our cosmetic

products our creams and it's also very

lipid

soluble it likes fat it is drawn to fat

so when you have plastic around fat like

cheese you know things like fat meat.

It's getting into that meat. It's

getting into that cheese, the phalates.

These disrupt our hormones in ways

similar to BPA. So, they're binding to

the androgen receptor, but they're also

going into the testes and disrupting the

synthesis of testosterone. So, there was

a study in men that had the highest

phalate levels, those men had 20% lower

testosterone compared to men with higher

levels. And

>> and this is Yeah. And this is like it's

affecting not only just the

testosterone, but it's affecting sperm

quality. So the shape of the sperm

wasn't good. It's affecting the number.

So sperm count is down if they're higher

BPA or higher phalates. And also um

motility, the the ability to swim.

Pregnant women that get exposed to high

levels of phalates and if they have if

they're carrying a a male fetus, right,

they they're having a boy. What's been

shown is it's also affecting sexual

development. So these boys, they're

getting something called hypospadia.

That's where like this the slit on the

ur on the um on the penis is like moved

backwards kind of closer to like what a

a woman would have. And they're getting

undescended testicles. So one of their

testicles is not descending. And that's

associated with you know infertility,

cancer, testicular cancer being the big

one. This is happening at a alarming

rate. like something like 20% of boys

now have an undescented testicle. I

mean, it's crazy

>> because their mother had high phalates.

>> Well, it's this is definitely something

that is known in our environment to

cause that. I don't know if that's the

only cause, but it in my opinion is a

very very concerning cause that nobody

is talking about and that should be

addressed. And it's everywhere. We have

these in all of our all of our plastic

wrappers that we everything that we're

eating. you know, you you even getting

your meat, you're you think it's well,

it's meat. It's, you know, but it's

wrapped in plastic and that phalates are

getting into the food. So, they're

getting into our bodies and they're

disrupting hormones. They're disrupting

sexual development. They're disrupting

our ovaries, estrogen, you know, ovarian

aging, age of menopause. They're

disrupting thyroids, the thyroid

hormones. I mean, there's there's even

studies now with women, pregnant women

that have high levels of BPA.

they have they're six times more likely

to have a child with autism spectrum

disorder compared to women with low

levels of BPA. Again, BPA is disrupting

the estrogen and androgen receptor. And

this is very important because

the androgen you you want to have it's

it's disrupting aromatase as well, that

enzyme that's involved in converting

testosterone into estrogen. So,

believe it or not, when you're a boy

developing in your mom's womb, estrogen

plays a very important role in your

brain and brain development and what's

called masculinizing the male brain. You

actually, it's kind of contradictory.

You're like, "Oh, well, wouldn't

testosterone do that?" Well, actually,

estrogen is very important for

masculinizing parts of the male brain.

And so when you have aromatase being

inhibited by bisphenol A by this

endocrine disrupting hormone that is so

ubiquitous everywhere

>> that is found in plastic bottles

>> plastic bottles it's it's found in yeah

it's found everywhere.

>> So what what do you recommend?

>> First of all I think if you can uh

eliminate and not drink out of plastic

bottles as much as possible. If you do

want to go coffee either drink it there

in their mugs or bring your own to- go

mug. Like I bring my like I have like a

Yeti kind of to- go coffee mug that I'll

bring into a Starbucks or wherever

coffee bean and I'll have them fill it

up. Soup cans canned soup are lined with

BPA. They're lined with plastic and soup

usually goes into the can hot sterile

technique. I mean they they want to make

sure it's so you're getting the soup has

been classically shown in multiple

studies to me to to increase BPA levels

by a thousand%.

Crazy amounts. So, don't eat canned soup

as much as possible. I mean, obviously,

this is about the habit, not the

one-off, but but you know, try to avoid

cans, drinking out of even soda cans,

even like your your favorite sparkling

water cans. Don't make it a daily habit

because they are lined with plastic.

That's a source of BPA into your bodies.

There are ways that you can excrete BPA.

So, the major way to get rid of it is

through urine. It's excreted through

your urine, but it has to become water

soluble first. It's a fats soluble

compound. And so there are things that

we can eat in our diet that will

increase that excretion. Compounds in

broccoli. Broccoli sprouts being the big

one. Sulurophane activates a pathway

that are enzymes involved in making BPA

become water soluble. So they come out

your urine.

>> Oh, so broccoli is like a cleanser.

>> It's like a cleanser. It's like we we

actually do have these it's called phase

2 detoxification enzymes in our body. We

have the ability to detox a lot of

things. We just have to give our body

the right, you know, input so that it

can activate those pathways. I

personally take a supplement of that

sulfurophane because I want a

concentrated amount of it because I used

to do broccoli sprouts. Broccoli sprouts

have a hundred times more sulfurophane

than mature broccoli, but you have to

sprout them and then there's

contamination issues and it's just, you

know, some people do it. It's great, but

I used to do it. I don't anymore. I just

take a supplement.

>> That supplement's called

>> The supplement I take has is called

Avacol. It's by a company called

Neutramax. I don't um you know I'm not

like affiliated with them. I like their

supplement because one they've got 12

published studies using it. Clinical

studies too showing that it actually

helps with um autism children and

adolescence with autism that take the

sulfurophane supplement that they have

improved symptoms because it's a detox.

It helps interestingly people with

autism are like 30 times less likely to

excrete BPA. It's a weird thing going on

here where BPA increases autism spectrum

disorder, but then kids that have it are

not able to detoxify it as well.

>> Wow.

>> Yeah, it's interesting. Again, I think

that excretion is important, but

avoiding avoiding the plastic as much as

you can. Make it a habit. Don't freak

out. I mean, obviously you can like make

yourself crazy and stress is not good.

As we talked about, I see you like

going, "Oh my god."

>> Yeah. Know, I'm thinking about just how

casual I am about these things, though.

And I could I could easily make small

changes. I I could frankly I could easy

make big changes in the position I'm in.

I could just say I can say in my company

we no longer buy this kind of stuff. I

could say in my kitchen cuz you know to

my team or whatever. Let's not buy this.

Can we go look at my kitchen now?

>> Let's do it. Let's go. Let's go to my

kitchen. Be right. No, you guys can come

too. So we're going to go to my kitchen.

If you're Listen, if you're listening on

the dog walk, this might be a nice time

to sit on a bench and look because

you're about to go into my kitchen and

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Okay, so the team have been here for the

last couple of days. We've been getting

lots of takeaways. And so this is a

higgled piggledy of everybody's food.

What's wrong? You got you're pulling

>> black plastic.

>> What's wrong with the black plastic?

>> Um, we talked about plastic. It has BPA.

It has phalates, but it also typically

is made from recycled electronics. And

the problem here, Stephen, is recycled

electronics have flame retardants in

them because you don't want your

electronics catching fire. And there

have been a variety of studies now that

have found that black plastic has a high

amount of these flame retardants that

are leeching into the food and getting

into people's bodies that way. Not only

do you not want to eat out of black

plastic, you don't want hot food going

in there, right? Cuz that's like the

worst.

>> Can I get a bin bag? I need a bin bag.

Okay. Okay. So, let's throw that in the

bin. What else? I'm going to take all of

it out.

>> Okay. This is the other thing that

really reaches out. Stands out to me

because

spicy foods, anything acidic that goes

into plastic causes the chemicals to

leech into it even more rapidly. Kind of

the same way the heat does. So, heat,

acidic foods, not good in plastic.

>> So, my spicy sauce, if it comes in a

little plastic tub, it's going to leech

in.

>> Look, if it's the oneoff, okay, but like

not a habit. Yes. A big time leech in

it. You're you're you're eating BPA hot

sauce.

>> Okay. So, the black stuff is out and

>> it's going in hot.

>> Yeah, this has phalates and had BPA. I

mean, look, are you drinking this every

day or is it the oneoff?

>> No comment. No comment. Mind your

business. Okay. What else? What about

this?

>> This is made of paper.

>> Here's my little thing I do. See that

waxy? There's a waxy

>> a pas

>> on the edge.

>> Yeah. Does it seem like it has a waxy

substance to you?

>> Yes.

>> This is This is better than the black

plastic. If you had to like if there's

like tears, this is better than black

plastic.

>> Okay. And this

>> ding ding ding. This is great. This is

the best thing that you can do if you're

going to have food made for you or you

want to order takeout, have someone make

it for you and deliver you in this.

>> And this is a bamboo lid.

>> Bamboo lid with with GL Pyrex glass,

right?

>> Okay. So, this is what this is good.

>> This is great.

>> So, I need more of this.

>> You need more of this and get rid of all

I mean, this is already looking better.

This is on the scale. At least it goes

in cold. So, here's the thing.

Microplastics are also shedding into

this. We didn't talk about

microplastics. They're shutting into

here. the chemicals, not as much in

something like this, but they're still

getting in. So, this is a little bit

better when it comes to like the the

tears here. The hot food is the worst.

This is a little bit better, but I still

would get lettuce

>> because it's cold.

>> Because it's cold.

>> So, it's not seeping.

>> Exactly.

>> Okay. So, I might be able to keep that

then. What else do you notice here?

>> So, I noticed that I really like your

glass sparkling waters. That's great

because, you know, glass is is less

likely to have microplastic shedding,

less likely to have the chemicals.

>> There was a study that actually found,

interestingly, there were more

microlastics in on the top. So, the

paint that's on these lids, plastic

polymers are used in that. And during

the processing and, you know, bottling

up of these things, they get into the

the the water. And so, believe it or

not, glass bottled water has more

microlastics than plastic bottled water.

Okay, this is terrible. But I'm going to

tell you why I think this still is

worse. Okay, so this is got

microplastics, but it also has BPA and

phalates. They're in this water. This

was not always cold. It's, you know, it

was some warehouse shipping container.

Who knows how it got here? It's been

heated up, I'm sure, several times. The

problem is is that there was a study

showing that glass bottles have a higher

amount of microlastics than than

plastic. And you might go, why is that?

Because they're all coming off on this

paint and getting in. When it comes to

microplastics, size matter. I'm not as

worried about it having more

microplastics because it would show that

they were large microplastics. Your body

doesn't absorb a large ones very well.

They come out through your feces. These

This has tons of what are called

nanoplastics, very, very small particles

that get into the gut and get into your

bloodstream. So, I still go for the

glass water. So, I would avoid drinking

out of these as much as possible. So, I

like how you have these condiments in

the glass. This is how my refrigerator

looks as well. I'm very, very obsessive

about anything that has acidity in it,

like hot sauce and ketchup. It needs to

be in glass because the acidity is

leeching microplastics and BPA and

phalate chemicals into your condiments

and then you're putting that on your

food and you're eating them. Again, this

is ubiquitous. It's everywhere. Plastic

is everywhere. The chemicals are

everywhere. And you're not even thinking

about the fact that your hot sauce and

ketchup are also, you know, vehicles for

delivering these microplastics and, you

know, their associated chemicals into

your body. So, I really like these.

Like this one, I would go for a glass

mustard. Those those are better.

>> Glass bottle. So, this is plastic. Same

thing. It's acidic. I would say um you

know, for the most part, the butter. Oh,

yeah. This is bad. Is this butter? Oh,

cheese. Yeah. So, this is a problem

also. So if you look at this um it's

that flexible plasticky stuff, right? It

has phalates in it.

>> Well, this this

>> Oh, that's even worse. This is Yeah. So

this is the plastic that basically, you

know, phalates are in this and they're

fat soluble and they are just leeching

into this fatty cheese. They're leeching

into the fatty cheese. So you can buy

cheese that's like without this in just

the container that's a little bit

better.

>> You know what I mean? Like like I'm

thinking of feta cheese for example.

Like some feta cheese comes in this

plastic wrapper, but you can buy it with

just the container and at least it's not

like close like with juices like just

seeping into it, you know, getting the

chemicals into it.

>> Ah, but this is fine, isn't it?

>> Eggs.

>> Yes, eggs are great.

>> There we go.

>> Eggs are great.

>> We found something.

Okay, Vonda. So, spatulas and kitchen

utensils. Are these good? Are these bad?

What's What's the best?

>> Yeah, good question. These are great,

right? Okay. There's no plastic here. No

possibility of plastic leaking into your

foods. You got your nice pasta spoon.

These are silicon, I'm imagining. Um,

>> in theory, the silicon should be okay.

Um, the problem is is that there's a lot

of silicon that actually still has it's

mixed with plastic, too. So, I go for

the wood ones that are like this, like

the wooden spatula. That's what I use.

You in theory should be good. In

practice, a lot of silicone that's been

measured out there and tested does have

plastic. So, I would say if you want to

really be careful, I would switch.

>> But most people at home probably have a

plastic spatula. Is that accurate?

>> Most people at home have plastic spatula

and a lot of people also have black

plastic spatulas, which again back to

that black recycled electronics, flame

retardants, these are cancer-causing

chemicals in there. Bromelated chemicals

that are causing cancer. So yeah, I

would say that even shifting from the

plastic to this is probably a step up,

but I don't know that this is just pure

silicon. I I I I would guess that

there's some plastic still in it. And so

if you're heating it up, the plastic,

it's getting into your food.

>> Okay. What about um my my pans? So what

about Got my pans here.

>> Great. All clad. This is what I use.

These are amazing.

No plastic lining, no PAS, no nonstick.

So, most people's pans at home have a

sort of a protective layer here that's

nonstick so that they can cook their

food and their food doesn't stick to the

pans. Like scrambled eggs, they're kind

of a pain in the butt if they stick to

everything. That has the forever

chemicals in them and that is being

heated up and is leeching into your food

and you're eating it. So, really what

you want to avoid the most is uh Teflon,

right? Anything that's nonstick.

>> It's harder to cook with these though.

>> It's so much harder. But you know what?

you're healthier and that's what you

have to imagine.

>> The other thing I want to talk to you

about is this.

>> The blender.

>> Ah, yes. The blender. This is one that

people often miss. The problem is most

blender

tops here that's blending your stuff is

plastic. And there are studies showing

that when you have a lot of friction on

plastic, that releases orders of

magnitude more microlastics. And of

course, their associated chemicals are

hitchhiking along there. There are

companies that make a stainless steel

version of the blender, and I highly

recommend if you're someone like myself,

I like to do my kale blueberry

smoothies, that you switch to the

stainless steel. I did. I switched for

my family. Um because essentially the

friction, you're drinking microplastics

and chemicals. So that's bad.

>> A receipt.

>> Yeah, don't touch it.

>> What What do you mean don't touch it?

>> Um so receipts are

>> Why are you touching it like that?

covered with BPA. I mean, literally just

covered. That's how it prints it, right?

This isn't like a printer. This is

printed. It's a thermal paper and and

the BPA is allowing the printing to

happen. And so, they're covered with

bisphenol A. People that are handling

receipts, like cashiers that are

handling receipts, have really high

levels of BPA. Um, particularly if they

use like hand sanitizing lotion or any

lotion, any sort of cream makes the BPA.

Again, BPA is fat soluble. these creams

um the hand sanitizers are carrying it

inside to your inside your bloodream

about a hundfold higher than not having

that. So, first of all, you can opt to

have an receipt emailed to you if you

need the receipt. I would do that or,

you know, don't touch it. But also, if

you work in the cash, if you're a

cashier and you work in this industry,

really, really, please wear nitrial

gloves. I mean, this is like your BPA

levels. If you were to go get them

measured, which you can, there are

companies out there now that do measure

BPA levels in urine, you will see that

they are extremely extremely high. So,

um, nitro gloves will protect you from

from the BPA getting across your your

dermal barrier and getting to your

bloodstream. Uh, latex gloves do not.

So, make sure they're nitro gloves. And

for people that are not in the industry,

try to avoid the receipts. I mean, it's

a really big exposure to BPA that people

aren't even realizing.

>> I can tell by the way you're like

grabbing the corner of it like it's

feces or something.

>> Oh, it's terrible. And my son, like, you

know, kids love paper. And of course I

don't want them touching it because we

talked about that study in adolescent

boys where they had high BPA levels and

that was associated with a 50% reduction

in testosterone. I mean this is at a

part of your life when testosterone is

you know important for sexual

development and development in general.

So really really really important to

remember receipts are a very big source

of BPA that people are not thinking

about particularly people that are

routinely handling these receipts. And

um the other thing I want to talk you to

you about is water.

So here is one of my water filters. I

also have a filter attached to the tap.

What are your thoughts?

>> So this is filtering water, but it's

filtering it into plastic and it's also

got plastic filter.

>> So I think that you know you're probably

filtering away some other things,

pathogens, gross other chemicals that

might be in the water, but you're

essentially reintroducing the plastic.

So I don't know that that's necessarily

the best way to get the filter. What you

have over here is a reverse osmosis

water filter. That is absolutely the

ideal reverse osmosis water filters

filter out microplastics, nanoplastics,

BPA, phalates, chemicals, all these

things that we're talking about today.

People can get a tabletop one kind of

like this is tabletop, but it's a

tabletop reverse osmosis water filter.

These only filter out the bigger, larger

plastic size, microplastic size. And

then the last thing I want to mention,

Stephen, because you do have a reverse

osmosis water filter, is that it does