Latest / Age Defiantly with Mark Young / [Ep 22] Is Keto a Metabolic State, Not a Diet? | Ben Azadi

Transcript

[Ep 22] Is Keto a Metabolic State, Not a Diet? | Ben Azadi · Age Defiantly with Mark Young

0:00
Welcome to Performance Driven Living, the podcast where we question everything.
0:05
We don't tip to around tough topics, we walk right into them, not to provoke, but to
0:11
get closer to what's real.
0:13
You might not agree with everything you hear, and that's okay.
0:16
The show isn't about being right, it's about being real.
0:20
These conversations are meant to stretch your thinking, challenge assumptions, and spark
0:25
something deeper.
0:26
The views shared are those of our guests and may not reflect those of the host or team.
0:32
And while we dive deep into health, performance, and transformation, this is not medical advice.
0:38
Talk to your doctor before making changes to your health or lifestyle.
0:42
Take what lands, leave what doesn't, but whatever you do, don't stop questioning.
0:55
We're back on the Performance Driven Living podcast, and we are here, and I have the honor
1:00
of introducing you all, not that you're introducing, you're probably introducing
1:03
me, not him.
1:05
This is the infamous, world famous New York Times bestseller and my friend Ben Azadi.
1:11
Mark, Mr. Radical Generosity, Bobby Brock, great for the beer.
1:15
Mr. Kido, can you?
1:16
Let's go.
1:17
I know, let's go.
1:18
I'm going to read this, though, because I always say I have to read because I'm terrible
1:22
at actually using any kind of show notes.
1:24
They put together these intros that I would never say all these nice things about you.
1:28
But it says, you're one of the leading voices in the world of metabolic health fasting
1:34
in the ketogenic lifestyle.
1:37
As the founder of Kido Camp and the author of four bestselling books, Ben has empowered
1:41
millions to reclaim their health through science-backed nutrition and mindset shifts.
1:46
Ben, welcome to the show.
1:48
We're thrilled to have you here.
1:50
I love the intro.
1:51
It's good to see you're some nice things coming to your mouth about me.
1:54
It's true.
1:55
I mean, they've got to be scripted.
1:56
Yeah, exactly.
1:57
I mean, what else?
1:58
I'll take it, bro.
1:59
I can at least read.
2:00
I'll take it.
2:01
Ben, I'm thrilled to have you here, first of all.
2:03
Thank you for taking the time out of your conference here to come up and join.
2:06
It's an honor.
2:07
I love what you're doing.
2:08
I appreciate that.
2:09
But I'm, so this entire thing, like you just had a New York Times bestselling book, which
2:14
congratulations.
2:15
Thank you.
2:16
That's amazing.
2:17
And I'm going to just tell everybody that I have the first signed copy.
2:19
You do.
2:20
I remember.
2:21
I just got the author of that.
2:22
That's a moment for me.
2:23
I have the first signed copy of a New York Times bestselling book.
2:27
The first copy, like not even, I mean, it was signed, but the first copy, like that I
2:30
ever gave away of the book you have.
2:32
It's true.
2:33
And it actually wrote that in the book.
2:35
So I actually have in your handwriting the proof that that's the first signed copy.
2:38
So I'm, we have to receive that.
2:40
Correct.
2:41
I've got it on tape.
2:42
We're good.
2:43
But so I want to actually, this is actually really funny because I'm going to say my first
2:48
understanding of anything biohacking related.
2:51
It's like, I think what this happens, like we all biohacking for most people and I actually
2:55
hate the word biohacking, which were the biohacking conference.
2:57
So I suppose I've got free liberty to use it this week, but this, the biohacking, right,
3:02
the longevity, the functional medicine, whatever we want to call it.
3:06
And that can take 17 different avenues and run to ad nauseam.
3:12
But I got to be honest with you, the first time I ever understood a body hack was with
3:17
a keto.
3:19
And this is going to sound ridiculous because I think I told you this.
3:23
I grew up a fat kid.
3:24
I'm not ashamed of saying it.
3:26
I mean, I'm ashamed of that as me, but I'll gladly tell the story and grew up with terrible
3:31
body age.
3:32
And like to this day, I look at myself as being this big fat monster, okay, which I realized
3:36
logically is not true.
3:38
But I think a lot of people who grew up with that, you know, body dysmorphia kind of mindset,
3:43
like, you know, it's, you know, I actually, like, you saw a meme the other day that says
3:47
something along the lines of his body dysmorphia real or am I really this ugly?
3:53
I was like, I don't know.
3:56
But it's like, I grew up a fat kid, like whatever, and I'll tell people, like I grew up in an
3:59
Italian family where no one ever gained weight, everybody ate whatever they wanted.
4:04
And you know, it was almost like you were dared to eat as many pieces of pizza as you
4:07
possibly could because that everybody got a laugh out of how much pizza you could eat
4:10
and so on.
4:11
I grew up with my grandmother and my cousin who could eat six pizzas and be 97 pounds,
4:17
right?
4:18
Because that's just the way his body worked.
4:20
Mike, and I never understood how to hack into that.
4:23
I never understood what a diet was.
4:25
I never understood that.
4:25
Like we, I was a, I was a latchkey kid, so it's like I never played high school sports.
4:30
I never played in the band.
4:32
Like I literally, you know, I wasn't engaged in that way because I went to a private school.
4:36
In fact, my senior year of high school, I owned a business.
4:38
Wow.
4:39
I actually owned a business at 16 years old and I would leave school to go.
4:44
I had half days because I had a co-op and I would have half days and I would go to work.
4:48
So that's what I've done my entire life.
4:50
I worked.
4:51
And, but it was like that was, that became my identity was work and performance, you
4:56
know, not a surprise that we're on the performance driven living podcast, but that became so much
5:00
of that.
5:01
But it wasn't until my 20s and two good friends of mine, Kathy and Jeff are their names
5:05
and they had been married for probably six years or something, wanted to have children,
5:10
never had children.
5:12
And it became the joke that I was like the third wheel.
5:14
Like I would just hang out with them all the time and we had a bunch of mutual friends.
5:18
So we'd all get together and stuff, but through college they were two of my closest friends
5:21
and still our close friends today.
5:24
But out of nowhere, Kathy ended up getting pregnant, which is kind of funny because like I think
5:29
she didn't get pregnant because she wanted it so badly and screwed up all of her own,
5:32
you know, hormonal balance and whatnot.
5:34
And then when she finally like just kind of accepted life ended up getting pregnant,
5:37
which is kind of funny.
5:39
She got pregnant, Jeff and I got fat, which is kind of funny.
5:43
And then we discovered Dr. Atkins.
5:46
Okay.
5:47
Right?
5:48
Yep.
5:49
You of course know Dr. Atkins.
5:50
Yes.
5:51
And Dr. Atkins came along and Jeff and I ended up, you know, doing this because Kathy's
5:55
breastfeeding, she's losing weight, hand over fist and we're like, okay, wait a minute,
5:58
like you're losing weight, you had a baby, we didn't have babies.
6:02
So we start microwaving pepperonis with mozzarella cheese on them and creating fake pizzas
6:07
on paper plates, which in retrospect is like one big carcinogenic disaster, but I'm
6:14
like, so I mean, but literally like we'd like spread pepperonis all around a paper plate,
6:18
put some mozzarella on it, a little bit of pizza sauce.
6:20
That's keto.
6:21
Right.
6:22
Except super dirty keto, but but keto and it became very much that Atkins game, you know,
6:28
and then I would end up going to Wendy's and eating the burger off the bun and ended
6:33
up dropping like 25 pounds and I was like, wait a minute, like this can't be normal.
6:38
Like I'm eating fat foods, right?
6:42
And losing weight on this and I'm like, this can't even be normal and again, not necessarily
6:47
sustainable.
6:48
So it's like, by weight bounced up and down and so on and you get sloppy and whatnot.
6:51
But I attribute that to being my first biohack.
6:55
That is.
6:56
I mean, it is.
6:57
Like Terry biohack.
6:58
I'm a metabolic biohack, yeah, but you literally are like the father of keto at this point.
7:03
I know, I know that you would defer to Dan Pampa and Steve Gundry and all these other people
7:07
as being more advanced than you in the spaces, but like literally you're the keto guy.
7:13
Like they're definitely into digestion and definite into metabolic health and gut health
7:17
and so on.
7:18
But like you're the keto guy.
7:19
Like you're the keto camp guy.
7:20
Yeah.
7:21
What is it?
7:23
The more I've learned about keto over the years, like I do keto totally different than
7:29
I did back then.
7:31
Like when I eat high protein low carb nowadays, like it's not microwave pepperonies with
7:37
my throat cheese, right?
7:38
It's not cold hot dog.
7:39
You advance.
7:40
You advance.
7:41
Yes.
7:42
Like what do you see?
7:43
And I don't want to lead you too far in this conversation, but I thumbed through I haven't
7:48
read metabolic freedom yet, but I did go through and read a bunch of it, like sections
7:54
that I thought were interesting.
7:57
What do you see when people start this keto thing, like what is the misunderstanding?
8:03
There's a lot of there's a lot of misunderstandings.
8:05
Well, the first one is this people call keto a diet and it's technically not a diet.
8:09
It's a metabolic process and there's nothing new about keto.
8:12
It's just nuanced or maybe new to some people.
8:15
But in reality, ketosis, this metabolic process, it's been around Mark since humans have
8:20
existed.
8:21
Sure.
8:22
All of our ancestors did keto.
8:23
How do I know that?
8:24
Well, they didn't have food available all the time.
8:26
They were forced into fasting when you fast, you burn body fat, you produce ketones.
8:32
So what unlocks this process of ketosis is insulin.
8:36
Insulin needs to be lowered.
8:38
Insulin is a hormone that is elevated when you eat carbohydrates.
8:41
So when you lower your carbohydrates for most people under 50 grams total per day, you
8:45
lower insulin, lower blood sugar, then you flip a switch to using stored body fat for
8:51
energy.
8:52
Your stomach, your belly fat, your hips, your love handles.
8:55
Those fats are sent to your liver.
8:57
Personal, you can stop them.
9:00
I was a fat obese kid too, bro, I understand.
9:03
So the fat that's being used for energy is now sent to your liver and your liver produces
9:07
ketones.
9:08
The first misunderstanding is that it's a diet, it's a high fat diet and there are many
9:12
different ways to do it.
9:13
You did it with like pepperoni and cheese and that's one way, it's not the healthiest
9:16
way.
9:17
No, it's not.
9:18
But one has done the right way, it's highly anti-inflammatory.
9:21
It lowers inflammation at the cell level, lowers insulin as I mentioned, it also upregulates
9:26
glutathione, which we know is a very important antioxidant.
9:30
And 93% of Americans are metabolically unhealthy, according to a 2022 study that I talk about
9:35
and metabolically.
9:36
Yeah.
9:37
93%.
9:38
Correct.
9:39
Correct.
9:40
Here at the conference, there's our 4,000 people, but let's say we walk around, there's
9:43
downtown Austin, and we just, dude, I was at the airport here a couple of years ago,
9:46
like you need to explain, like you can go to the airport and you see it with your eyes,
9:50
right?
9:51
So, 93 out of 100 people are metabolically unhealthy, Harvard is saying by 2030, 50% of people
9:56
will be obese.
9:57
Oh, it hits the movie Wally.
9:58
It is the movie Wally, exactly, it's turning into something that's not good.
10:03
Well, the reason why metabolic diseases like obesity, diabetes, cancer, etc., are on
10:08
the rise is because of insulin.
10:11
That's the first domino to fall.
10:13
When you have high levels of insulin, it will trigger a cascade of metabolic diseases.
10:18
And almost every single conventional doctor does not run a fasting insulin blood test.
10:25
It's the most important test for your metabolism, and they don't run it.
10:28
You know why?
10:29
Because there's not a medication to prescribe if you have a high fasting insulin.
10:34
But you're saying that lifestyle choices could actually replace medications.
10:38
I am.
10:39
I know, right?
10:40
It is said completely against the paradigm of conventional normal, right?
10:45
Yeah.
10:46
And you understand this, but when we test a fasting insulin, it shows you if you're burning
10:50
sugar or burning fat.
10:52
And they're testing a fasting blood sugar, which is great, or an A1C, the three-month
10:57
average of your fasting glucose, or overall glucose.
11:01
But your insulin levels could be elevated for six to 14 years without your blood sugar
11:06
is changing.
11:07
Meaning, you could have full-blown insulin resistance, hyper-insulinemia, for six, ten,
11:12
14 years without you being diagnosed because your blood sugar is not shifting because you
11:17
never ordered the fasting insulin.
11:20
So the most important test is a fasting insulin.
11:22
You want to see that between three and six.
11:24
The ketosis is the best way to lower insulin, to lower blood sugar.
11:28
So it prevents these diseases, it reverses these diseases, especially diabetes and insulin
11:33
resistance.
11:34
The next thing here with keto is that it helps you feel full and satiated.
11:39
In a lot of people that are overweight, I'm sure you could relate, you have all these
11:43
cravings for carbohydrates and sugar, right?
11:45
You just want more food.
11:47
When you eat protein and fat and lower your carbs, a lot of that goes away.
11:50
You adjust your palate changes completely.
11:52
So now you craving like avocados and eggs and beef.
11:55
Well, in the Atkins program, it's that two-week induction period is what they always call
12:00
it, right?
12:01
It's like a transition.
12:02
And Atkins, for anybody listening, if you don't know what Atkins is, I mean, I always
12:04
say that it was the old name of keto.
12:06
Yeah, it was like the original version.
12:08
Dr. Atkins came out with it and then we called it carnivore and then we called it cave
12:12
man.
12:13
Sourced diet.
12:14
Yeah.
12:15
We just keep renaming it.
12:16
And but it's literally a ketogenic diet.
12:18
Correct.
12:19
It's just a different way to get you into ketosis and you know, those 93% of people that
12:29
are metabolic and unhealthy in the book, I say they're in a keto deficiency.
12:33
They forgot how to burn fat.
12:34
We need to teach them again how to burn fat because when we're born into this world, where
12:38
you breastfed, do you remember?
12:39
You were in breastfed.
12:40
I don't remember.
12:41
I mean, now I remember that.
12:42
I was not your mom tell you.
12:43
No.
12:44
Okay.
12:45
I grew up in the formula generation.
12:46
I'm older than you.
12:47
You did breastfeed me.
12:48
But so babies that are breastfed are in ketosis and studies show that I actually referenced
12:52
something in the book.
12:53
So we're naturally designed to be born into this world and burn fat and use ketones.
12:57
But then we go on the baby formula, we start snacking and grazing and we take this beautiful
13:02
baby that's designed to burn fat and we teach it to burn sugar and now it's stuck burning
13:06
sugar 30 years old, 50 years old, high fruit dose, corn syrup, all that crap.
13:10
Yeah, they're snacking and they're grazing.
13:12
So keto is the one of the answers, the solutions to the problem there.
13:17
Yeah, that's insane.
13:18
So I obviously the keto thing, we've got an obesity pandemic in our country that's
13:23
off the charts and I will say that there's, I've got a friend of mine and I want to
13:28
say it was Easter of last year or something like that and a bunch of us, I live in South
13:32
Florida and I don't have family there.
13:36
So a bunch of us had gone out for lunch or something after church on Easter and we were
13:41
sitting at the table and it's funny because it was, a friend of mine was across the table.
13:45
The other friend was next to me and her parents were across from them and the whole family's
13:50
obese.
13:51
Like I don't even mean a little bit, I mean like it's, it's bad and Sharon is her name
13:57
and sorry Sharon if you're listening but works out like a freak.
14:01
Like at one point in time she was so committed and she's like I can even do that and I'm like
14:04
look you are so committed to working out like I will pay your gym membership so you can
14:08
continue because it was a financial burden for her at the time.
14:11
Like I want you to keep doing this and it's like I look at her Instagram photos and stuff
14:17
like that and I'm like man like she doesn't seem to ever get smaller but we're sitting
14:21
at Easter and something came up and the friend of mine that's sitting across the table were
14:25
of course, we're at like some Mexican buffet or something ridiculous on the beach and
14:31
if you ever go to Lona over on court a lot of the obese, I'd recommend it on the weekend.
14:34
They'd be like a big Mexican buffet, you'll probably be sick to hear something.
14:38
But literally it's like it's you know Barracoa and all this other kind of stuff and it's
14:42
like so our plates have their food on them but it's all the meat.
14:47
It's you know some salad, it's you know a little bit of you know coquita cheese on the meat
14:52
and some guacamole and stuff like that but it's like it's none of all the other nonsense.
14:57
It's none of those sweets it's none of those and it's like they come back with you know
15:02
tacos and they're making their tacos right and it's like a different and a taco by itself
15:08
is not necessarily the worst meal choice to be honest like if you're eating it with like a flower
15:12
tortilla but if it's a corn tortilla and it's meat and cheese I suppose it's probably not the
15:16
worst thing that could happen but then after finishing the tacos go back and get a waffle
15:21
because there's a waffle bar and it's like and my friend and I are sitting across the table and
15:24
I'm like oh my god like and you're always the one wondering like what's going on well
15:29
and I said something and I forget what it was but I'm just pretty outspoken about stuff and I was
15:33
like you know that waffle's not doing any favor after the workout right like aha and I got the
15:37
well your body needs some sugar and I went that's it yeah well yeah your body needs sugar
15:44
and I just got a point I was like but that's it well yeah that's science like you you have
15:51
your body needs sugar and I'm like nope I hate to break this to you but no your your body
15:59
literally needs zero refined sugar yeah like your body will make its own sugar out of glucose
16:06
right but if this is not a sugar problem that you're just giving your body what it needs because
16:12
that's part of the pyramid here like that's that's not okay and but here's the deal like I'm not
16:16
I'm not throwing shade on her I'm it literally like my my other friend and I afterwards we were
16:23
talking we were actually at the gym and talking I'm like here's my issue it's not her it's not her
16:28
family like it's not like that it's what in the world happened to our education system
16:35
and she's a teacher and like you're literally a freaking teacher and you are sitting here giving
16:43
me a lesson about how your body needs you to have a waffle periodically because sugar makes the
16:48
body run and I was like what has gone so wrong yeah in in our system in our education system that
16:56
we think that's normal yeah well it's gone right for the pharma pharmaceutical companies
17:02
yeah yeah it's done done the right way for them it's I used to say the system is broken but it's
17:07
operating very well designed you know very well designed it's operating the way that it was
17:10
designed yeah it's a brilliant subscription model I mean you know you're an entrepreneur you've
17:14
been one since you're 16 years old subscription models are great and this is a really brilliant
17:19
effective subscription model but big pharma is just evil and there is a collective
17:28
agreement like Sharon I think his inner name was and others that believe sugar is the most
17:34
important like energy source for the body for the brain and to your point we don't need any sugar
17:41
especially refined sugar but even glucose I hear people say we need to eat food to increase glucose
17:46
to fuel the brain yeah and it will but there's no such thing as essential carbohydrates in the
17:52
medical textbooks there's nothing there's essential fats essential proteins but no essential
17:57
carbohydrates because to your point your body could make all the glucose it needs from fat from
18:03
protein from cortisol it will do whatever it needs to do via gluconeogenesis so glucose is not
18:09
the most important fuel for the body it's actually ketones and fat and but to back to your point
18:14
here we we have our nutritional guidelines are the complete opposite of what we should be doing
18:21
we'll actually bleep when you actually say what our nutritional guidelines are we won't call
18:27
you out on that dude it's you know have you seen there's an episode of South Park from like 12
18:31
years ago where they talk about the food pyramid yes and they're like oh we have you actually
18:38
headed in one of your presentations yeah exactly I played during a keynote lecture or even one of
18:43
my videos as well I did yeah I saw yeah yeah I did I did it also in a lecture but it showed like
18:48
Cartman saying it's upside down like flip the pyramid upside down and then okay everybody got
18:53
healthier right they nailed it bro totally if we do the Kennedy's actually use that oh has he
18:58
used that yeah I didn't realize that that's where it is yeah so like how the Simpsons always
19:02
predict what's going on days in the world yeah it's crazy it's it's absolutely crazy I know this
19:07
to be true though human body is incredible it's absolutely incredible it has the this innate
19:10
intelligence that is designed to heal itself we just need to remove the interference when we're
19:16
eating carbohydrates and excess when reading processed food and excess when we have environmental
19:21
toxins in our in our environment it's interference the body can't heal then we'll get a symptom the
19:26
body will show us a symptom or many symptoms to get you back on a course as the bodies check
19:31
engine light but we've been brainwashed to believe oh we need a medication for that symptom or we
19:35
need a surgery we need something to do something very extreme but it's actually a blessing to have
19:40
a symptom it's not a go to the mechanic it's an oil change yeah exactly figure out what's going on
19:46
uh and then your body is communicating and as long as you remove the interference it will heal
19:49
itself ketosis and a ketogenic approach is a powerful tool in the shed to do that because you
19:54
eliminate the process carbs you eliminate the carbs and excess and then when you're in ketosis you
19:59
don't snack in grays you end up doing intermittent fasting it's very very powerful so I want to
20:04
fasting yeah next topic I want to talk about so obviously you know your books and I've read your
20:10
first book not first book what was the keto flags the previous one yeah so I've read keto flags
20:15
absolutely love the story that you told about your dad and everything else I thought that was
20:18
amazing but the in reading keto flags and and one of the things that you point out in there is
20:24
actually the function of autophagy through fasting yeah and for people who don't know what autophagy
20:29
means most of you probably do but that it's it's clean of zombie cells it's like when the body is
20:33
starved it starts to eat itself and it starts with the garbage first yeah right like easiest way
20:38
to get rid of the garbage just let your body clean itself up it's right right easiest thing to do
20:42
and everybody's just like oh I need to antioxidant I need to detox and if I grow it there's an easy way
20:46
to do that just quit the inputs just don't eat yeah quit the inputs you're good and I think that's
20:51
very little understand now this but I want you to give us some very strict guidelines on what fasting
20:58
means and then I want to go one one layer deep because I know people who who specifically say
21:04
things like oh I I intermittent fast every day and I'm like well that's not good for you
21:08
and they're like why do it every day and I'm like four times a week is good like you don't need to
21:12
intermittent fast seven days a week like it's not necessarily hurting you but you're not getting
21:17
much extra benefit out of it in my opinion like then I know people who think they're intermittent
21:22
fasting because they just you know skip lunch hmm it's like well skipping lunch didn't solve
21:26
the problem either because you didn't actually get into a state of autophagy between breakfast
21:29
and dinner because you're literally doing a meal every 12 hours yeah like you're not doing
21:35
anything for yourself like but I think there's such a misunderstanding because intermittent fasting
21:39
is now the next fad conversation that everybody's talking about and again well I think it's great
21:44
that people are trying it you know practice doesn't make perfect practice just makes permanent
21:50
and I think we need to make sure that people are practicing perfectly yeah in order to do it
21:55
perfectly what what is your ideal windows for fasting and frequency like what do you recommend to
22:02
people who are who are trying to make this move fasting is a very very powerful tool I related to
22:09
a chainsaw if you've read the user manual for a chainsaw you get the job done you get amazing
22:14
results but if you haven't read that user manual you can hurt yourself fasting is very similar
22:18
it's a very powerful tool and you need to know how to use it as a tool and read the user manual so
22:24
you know I like to get the person into ketosis before I do any fasting I like to get them fat
22:28
adapted to get them there with burning fat then we shift them into some fasting protocols and
22:34
it varies on the person their health history their goals on on what the best schedule is I have
22:39
found that an 18 six works the best for most people and for those who don't know an 18 six is
22:45
a 18 hour fast out of a 24 hour period with a six hour eating window where you have two to three
22:51
meals in that six hours so most people do 12 to six as that window of eating and then fasting outside
22:56
of that that works well for for most people to do and they could do that even every day as long as
23:02
they get enough protein and nutrients within that six hour eating window but if they're not to your
23:07
point they might need to have some days where they're not fast yeah under nourished and I think
23:12
fasting is great but too much of a good thing like autophagy is great but too much autophagy you
23:16
could weaken your immune system you could lose muscle mass so too much of a good thing could be a
23:20
bad thing we need to balance out the fasting with the feasting so as long as you're balancing that
23:26
out and getting enough protein and nutrients you could practice daily intermittent fasting with the
23:31
problems that people feel so good when they're fasted like I'm faster right now and I feel great I
23:36
feel better when I'm faster that you want to do more right and you want to do more and I've been
23:40
guilty of doing too much myself so you need to feed as much as you need to fast we need to just
23:45
get back and forth and do both but here's a timeline that I you know share about on my my
23:49
YouTube channel and it does really well when I explain like a 24 hour fast like what happens inside
23:54
of your body when you don't eat food for 24 hours the first 14 hours which is the first step to
24:01
practicing fasting you go 14 hours without food there are two major benefits at the 14 hour mark
24:06
the first benefit is that you complete digestion and you know it takes a lot of energy and blood flow
24:12
and bandwidth to digest food so you're not digesting food anymore at that 14 hour mark and there's
24:17
a process called energy diversion which means the energy that would have been used for digestion is
24:22
now being diverted towards healing the brain the liver of the kidneys wherever the innate
24:27
intelligence needs to send it it sends it there through energy diversion and then it's a bandwidth
24:31
issue for the body exactly so much energy you only have so much bandwidth and you're making it work
24:35
doing this so I can't do that so now you have all this bandwidth up to your point and it's being
24:38
sent towards healing at the same time insulin is dropping at that 14 hour mark so you're going to
24:43
notice some extra waterway coming off you're just going to feel less bloated and puffy now as you
24:48
shift into 16 17 hours of this fast without food no food for 16 to 17 hours a top of G that
24:55
process that cellular cleanup starts to get enhanced so it's kind of like Pac-Man going within
24:59
yourselves cleaning out junk as you mentioned the body so smart it goes for bad cells first
25:03
that's getting ramped up around that 17 to 17 hour mark once you go about 20 hours into this
25:09
without food you're going to see a surge in brain derived neurotropic factor which is you know brain
25:16
fertilizer so you're more creative you have more energy 24 hours in so this is the day without food
25:22
there's a huge increase in human growth hormone and human growth hormone is anti-aging it's fat
25:27
burning it's an energy producer yeah muscle building muscle preserving and studies show and I
25:33
put the study in metabolic freedom a 2000 percent increase in human growth hormone after 24 hours
25:39
with without food in men and a 1300 percent in women huge increase and then you also are
25:46
resetting your gut microbiome right this is just 24 hours without food now I would recommend that
25:50
every day a 24 hour fast every single day but I would be called starvation that would be
25:54
car starvation exactly but once a week of that and then 18 six outside of that that's a good
26:00
general rule from the fall I like that protocol I love that too because I'll do that quite a bit
26:05
right say that's my routine yeah like I'm just done and it's like and I the funny thing about it
26:09
is because most people are like oh but then I just get weak I don't have energy and I'm like
26:12
that's funny because I don't believe you yeah it's because they did too much too soon right you
26:17
know very well could be or it could also be because they're loading up on caffeine instead that
26:21
could be it too yeah you think because you're not having food but you're pounding all sorts of
26:25
other things and even even like coffee for some people could break a fast right so for some
26:31
people there's a blood sugar spike from drinking coffee and that breaks fast so you got to test
26:35
your blood sugars before right in 45 minutes after and this is the most popular question I get asked
26:39
does coffee break a fast the answer is it depends for me it doesn't I've tested right the only
26:44
way to know is to test so you're you're one of the blessed ones as well I don't drink coffee so
26:48
it doesn't really bother me but but caffeine itself doesn't you don't drink coffee my friend
26:52
sorry what kind of an alien are you I know it's just one of the things wow I am I know
26:58
concern is that weird it is weird I love coffee I just am not a coffee drinker I've tried
27:03
I like to try to be a coffeeer tea guy I do like tea like iced tea is probably like my favorite
27:08
I'm not a tea guy you know I'm just doesn't do it that's alright I still love you bro I appreciate
27:13
but so this whole idea like people going into fasting autophagy so on so forth and obviously
27:18
people think of keto for weight loss yeah you know which of course it's very effective at that
27:23
but keto has benefits way outside of weight loss oh for sure I mean you're you're talking about
27:29
your tropic benefits yeah like literally 24 hours without food and your brain is sharper oh my
27:35
gosh yeah you know partially because the energy that your body would be using for digestion is
27:39
actually moving into your brain instead your organs are functioning at a higher level you're
27:43
actually focusing attention on healing immune function goes up everything about that happens
27:49
but I want to go one step deeper than that that is I was actually talking to somebody earlier
27:53
today who's been diagnosed with cancer and you know I know this but I want to make sure that you
28:00
explain it better than I ever could is this idea that the best thing to possibly do with a cancer
28:06
diagnosis is fast and most people don't even think of that because the the and when I was talking
28:15
with him earlier he actually has cancer and has been on a 25 day water fast wow and Mike which
28:22
is impressive first of all yeah like that's that's impressive that he can even do that but deliberately
28:28
scheduled a 25 day water pass because a number of six months ago or something got a diagnosis that
28:34
his cancer is just spread it's aggressive they can't do anything with it I want a lung cancer was
28:40
what he just said but I actually believe it actually started as a throat cancer and ended up
28:45
metastasizing wow so and and again if you're cancering your throat and stuff normally goes to
28:51
a lymph node and and that's bad news various business so but he had a tumor
28:58
and the reading and research that I've done through this type of stuff and I will tell you my
29:03
dad actually I'll say had prostate cancer took no conventional treatments ozone bypass fasting
29:11
so on so forth mistletoe therapy did everything completely undetectable now but this guy that I was
29:17
talking to him was Henry and when I was talking to him it was this he's like 25 like this is what
29:22
they told me and I'm like well I remember you know sugar was a conversation because we were talking
29:27
about muscle deterioration and whatnot and I said you know when my grandmother had lung cancer
29:31
you know all they kept telling her was we'll keep your weight up keep your weight up keep your
29:34
weight up and she's like I just can't eat that much and they're like that's okay like get a milk
29:39
shake do this type of stuff so she's like wow so she like went on the milk shake diet while she's
29:43
going through cancer treatments and I'm like this makes no sense like you're literally cancer feeds
29:48
on sugar like more than anything cancer will feed on sugar I'm like you're literally feeding the
29:53
cancer at this point like you're helping it grow he went on a 25 day water fast which means
30:00
water only for those who don't know yes what water only like not even a flavored anything
30:04
not coffee not tea just water only for almost a month zero tumor undetectable wow it's amazing
30:12
and the doctors are like we don't understand like they literally were like look it's growing there's
30:17
nothing we can do wow you really you know just enjoy the last bit of your life you know and then
30:23
of course I'm sure he did other naturopathic things as well because he's versed in the long
30:27
jet space but literally says like 25 day water fast and he's like and now I've come out of this
30:32
this water fast recently and he's like but I'm only eating you know in fasting window I'm high
30:40
protein you know and I'm this very specific I'm whole foods only and it's like yeah you fixed your
30:47
problem like you're the one that thing that surprises me more than anything then is how resilient
30:53
the human body is like it's been made to live yeah we weren't born to die and and I think we we
31:01
treat life as if we're just trying to figure out the expiration date as opposed to that dash in
31:07
between right yeah and and listening to his story I'm like fasting has so many other benefits
31:13
outside of and again I'm not telling everybody that you know fast and your cancer will go away
31:20
but it certainly never hurt anybody with you know with it right like but he's also doing things
31:24
in the meanwhile to make sure that muscle mass continues to work roll like you got to continue to
31:29
work out muscle mass whether that's you know the EMS or whatever like doing something to make sure
31:35
that he's protecting muscle while doing that um any thoughts on that you're you're the study guy
31:42
you know the stuff yeah no I love hearing stories like that because it illustrates how powerful
31:47
the human body is the innate intelligences as you mentioned we're designed to uh to live and to
31:51
thrive 25-day water fast it's it's extreme but for an extreme situation like yeah if you've
31:58
been given a death sentence come on I would do anything to to try to survive when you yeah
32:03
to your tier-point many cancers not all but many cancers feed off of sugar and we know this
32:10
because they do these these scans on individual cancers and they haven't drink this formula and
32:14
then they they do the scan they see the cancer cells light up and it's the formula it's a sugar
32:18
formula and it lights up like a christmas tree if they have active cancer and they could see how it
32:22
spread because it feeds off of sugar most cancers do not all but almost the majority of them
32:28
and when you fast you are starving the cancer your your keytones are also anti-inflammatory you're
32:35
you're destroying the fuel supply chemotherapy and there's a time and place for it or
32:41
the time and place for conventional medicine but chemotherapy doesn't get to the root it cuts
32:47
off the flowers right the cancer growth which then okay yeah it's got rid of the cancer growth
32:53
but the root still there so three years later five years later it comes back and then they do chemo
32:58
therapy again right fasting gets to the root when you fast you produce keytones anti-inflammatory
33:05
your body is so sophisticated you mentioned the atophagy part but it goes a step farther
33:09
atophagy is cellular cleanup and if there's a cell like a cancer cell a pre cancerous cell
33:15
or a mitochondria that I have no function they're called senescent cells you mentioned zombie cells
33:19
earlier the innate intelligence will send a signal called apoptosis program cell death
33:25
to get rid of that cell and that could be a cancer cell and then it produces a stem cell to replace
33:31
that cancerous cell this gets enhanced with these longer fast so I think fasting is one of the
33:37
greatest ways to harness the innate intelligence one of the greatest ways to reset your microbiome
33:42
and if you have cancer I would definitely explore if you know somebody has cancer I would definitely
33:47
explore adding fasting these other metabolic tools to your toolkit because it could be a game
33:53
changer for them just like your example of your friend yeah and that's the stuff that that blows
33:58
my mind and you know we can get into the subscription model of pharmacology yeah you know more and more
34:03
which just like the deeper we get into this stuff and the more that even like the maha reports are
34:07
exposing and stuff like it just makes your head want to explode but when we get into this like
34:12
there's so much just natural function that we just turned off and I made this comment I forget
34:19
it was talking to you but I probably said it a dozen times like we're finding out that ancient wisdom
34:24
like was right yeah and fasting is another one of those things like I mean I've been talking about
34:29
a hundred things but you know I was giving a conversation with even with with Brian just a minute
34:34
ago you saw him and it's like we were talking about quantum energy and I was making a comment about
34:38
you know how bio fields attract like bio fields and so on I was like which means like doing to
34:42
others as you would have them doing to you right that which you admit is that which you attract
34:46
like which kind of means the golden rule is really kind of more of a science lesson but if we really
34:50
want to take it in that term and it's like but I look into this you know even biblical text like
34:56
any religion of the world it doesn't even need to be a Christian tradition like fasting has
35:01
been a clear part of them of decision-making and prayer every major religion in the world promotes
35:09
fasting it's like why well because fasting brings mental clarity and it's like removes the
35:16
interference correct and growing up in Christian tradition and in the churches that I went to when
35:20
I was young and even as an adult and today you know fasting is it you know I'm giving up something
35:25
so that God will give something back to me and I'm like sure like I get it I'm with you like the
35:31
idea is that you're making a sacrifice and you're making your sacrifices in active obedience so
35:37
that God will reveal some type of something to you and I'm like but actually fasting is kind of like
35:42
a because you're actually going to put your body you're going to let your digestive system shut
35:47
down for a minute which increases energy bandwidth which actually goes into healing process and
35:51
increases neutropic results in the brain which actually increases mental acuity and the increase
35:57
in mental acuity may actually let your brain problem solve itself like you actually just went into
36:02
overdrive in your head okay not to say that it's not God speaking to you but I think God can only
36:07
speak to people who have clear heads anyways so like perhaps this this ancient wisdom is just
36:14
coming back again just one more example of how you know perhaps everything was good and like I've
36:19
gotten into these conversations about you know cellular trauma and how cellular trauma is carried on
36:25
like if an animal is killed in in an inhumane fashion there's trauma stored at a cellular level
36:31
that perhaps we're ingesting like that's a thing maybe kosher laws or halal was not wrong either
36:38
like there's so many things from back then and fasting is like it's such a no-brainer
36:43
um and now I think like people like you people like Dan people like Steve like when you're talking
36:50
about it all the time it's kind of like it to me anyways and I'm like yeah it just makes complete
36:55
biological sense on on stuff that we've turned into a spiritual thing and the fact that I mean
37:01
I always use the example and I probably said it 15 times if I've said it once in the last two days
37:06
but you've got the spiritual camp here in the scientific camp here and I'm like and I feel like
37:09
I'm standing in the middle sometimes going y'all aren't that different yeah but you're saying
37:14
the same thing you're just looking at it from two different POVs here like you're saying the same
37:19
stuff like I agree with you we can both agree that fasting fasting is a great thing to do
37:24
when you're trying to get a deeper understanding or a deeper spiritual walk or deeper
37:29
what will because you're heightened in your mental care yeah like that only makes sense and by
37:33
the way all these other things are happening too yeah right and here's the reality like people
37:37
are fasting typically during stressful times of the lives which I do want to ask you and I know
37:42
that we're going to wrap up here in a second but for a person who gets into this bandwidth conversation
37:49
when a person spends too much time in a sympathetic nervous system does fasting and keto and
37:55
stuff help down regulate sympathetic nervous response I would say if you're overly stressed in
38:02
in a heightened sympathetic state and that suppressed parasympathetic state I wouldn't add more
38:08
fasting in ketosis too much fasting in ketosis because that actually will overstress
38:13
they're both stressors correct yeah so no that's that's a great question because if you're already doing
38:19
18 hours fasting 24 hours fasting but you're so stressed right now you're in a you're in a
38:23
sympathetic state you see that with maybe your HRV declining you're resting hard weight up you need
38:27
to dial back the fasting and even dial back a little bit less ketosis because they're both
38:33
stressors they're amazing amazing incredible stressors when you adapt to it but if you're a
38:38
stress book it is so full right now I would recommend more feeding more rest and recovery and then
38:43
going back into it so no I would not add too much fast other stressors into the mix that goes
38:48
for all bio hacks too red light cold plunge sauna agreed all that stuff but because all of it is
38:52
is a trigger all of it is a stressor on the body because we're literally hacking into the body's
38:56
defenses in most cases yeah like I use the example when people are like well I don't understand
39:00
by and hacking and like well let me give you a really easy example you go into a taming bed
39:05
and literally using shortwave and longwave ultraviolet light UVA and UVB light you are actually
39:09
triggering the production of melanin in the skin and the oxygenation process turns it brown
39:13
you are literally triggering your body's defense to the sun because you like looking brown better
39:19
like that's a bio hack makes sense simple right I got the result I wanted by hacking into my
39:26
body's defense yeah because there was nothing to be afraid of but I triggered my body's defense
39:31
system for an aesthetic yeah you know people like oh all right like that that makes sense and
39:36
my that's all tanning is yeah tanning is just triggering a melanin production that oxygenates
39:42
you know shortwave triggers it longwave oxygenates it and now we've got brown skin congratulations
39:48
you've bio hacked right Ben I know you've got another commitment that you've got to get to but
39:53
man it's been great having you here buddy dude I appreciate you Mark I love what you're doing
39:57
I had a great time having you on my podcast um for your audience if they want to get the book we
40:01
have a free course for giving away on the metabolism uh over at metabuck freedom book.com you
40:06
can get the free course the books available a hardcover kindle audible Spotify narrated the uh those
40:12
myself I told you I went to some some uh Barnes and nobles and signed a few copies for you signed
40:17
with copies for me where was that that was in the Arizona is that Arizona all over Phoenix okay
40:22
so if you're in Phoenix I didn't do that I swear you had to I was like you sent my signature not so
40:27
funny yeah it's that bookstore as well so there are fraudulent copies of Ben's book out as well
40:32
but thank you I appreciate your support I appreciate what you're doing brown it's an honor to
40:35
be on your podcast like was buddy and everything that we've just talked about will actually be in
40:39
show notes down below you can actually see the metabolic freedom book.com link um as well as links
40:44
to keto camp and all of Ben's contact information this is the man when it comes to understanding
40:49
keto and metabolic function uh highly encourage that you follow him and also watch his podcast
40:54
and everything that you got going on man like you're crushing it New York Times best selling off
40:59
it's an honor bro like that that's incredible it's pretty so proud of you thank you you're doing
41:03
crazy work honor to be on the in the trenches with you bro let's keep going and we got to fight ahead
41:07
let's go thank you good see you buddy