Final Advice and Closing Thoughts

Hey, it's friend Mel, and welcome to the Mel Robins podcast We to start our conversation today a little differently because right now, I am holding a spreadsheet of Dream guests. You can hear it it's multiple pages long from July of twenty twenty three. I'm talking way back in the early days of the show. and at the very top of Mel Robins list of Dream guests Rhonda Patrick doctor Patrick is a biomedical scientist who's known for her deep research on micronutrients, exercise, and longevity, But here's what I love about her She has this genius ability to make the science somehow So Understandable And simple to apply to your life, I'm not kidding This is why she was the number one expert that I wanted on the show. Now look, it may have taken a few years to get her here, but she finally flew across country and came to our Boston studios and I had very, very high expectations. Well let me tell you Dror Patrick Just blue us all away. this is one of my favorite episodes that we have ever recorded. And the reason why I can say that is because Dr. Patrick took a topic thought I knew a lot about and flipped it on its head Everything she shared is relevant and doable for you and every single person in your life And today, she is going to boil down extensive research into five core lifestyle changes She also will make super easy to implement. and that's a tall order. and she delivers. In fact, one of them you can do in just one minute I will do it live while we tape the episode. D Patrick is here to teach you We'll add your to your life It is easy to do and it gives you exponential gains in your health. It puts you in a better mood. You're going to love this. I cannot wait for you to hear and learn from the extraordinary doctor Rhonda Patrick The Mel Robins podcast is proudly sponsored by Aica Insurance, our exclusive insurance partner You know when someone finishes your sentence because they already understood what you needed That's what working with Aica feels like. They don't guess They don't assume They take the time to understand what you're trying to protect and why it matters. Most companies talk talkk, talkk about putting customers first. Aika really does it. You feel it. in the way they listen, the way they follow through, the way they treat you As a customer owned company, Amica puts your needs first Visit amka. com and get a quote today This episode is sponsored by Colgate Total. Look. You've heard it a thousand times. You don't wait for a crisis to change your life. You take action now. Real power is being proactive, not reactive That's where Colgate Total Active prerevention toothpaste comes in It's clinically proven to prevent oral health problems like cavities and gingivitis before they start. so you don't have to worry later Stop reacting and start preventing Pick up Colgate Total Active prerevention at your local retailer today. Your future self will thank you It's your friend, Mel, and welcome to the Mel Robins Podcast. I am thrilled that you're here. It's such an honor to be together and to spend this time with you. And if you're new here or someone sent you this particular episode, I just want to take a moment and personally welcome you to the Mel Robins Podcast family Today, you will learn the science of living a longer and healthier life Today's guest is someone I've wanted to sit down with for such a long time because if you've been doing all the quote healthy things And you still feel off Dr. Ronda Patrick will explain why and exactly what to change Dr. Patrick is a PhD trained biomedical scientist who has spent her entire career. stududying nutrition, aging and disease prevention with research experience spanning mitochondrial metabolism, cancer biology, and neurodegeneration She completed her PhD in biomedical science at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center And her graduate research was conducted at Saint Jude's Children's Research Hospital. doctor Patrick's work has been published in major scientific journals, and she's also the founder and host of the top podcast and online platform, Found My Fitness, where she's known for taking peer reviewed science and translating it into practical guidance total transparency about what we know. What we don't know. And what's just the internet hype of the moment So please help me welcome Dr. Rhonda Patrick elome to the Mel Robins podc I'm so excited you're here So excited to be here, Mal Thank you. I know how busy you are. I really appreciate you hopping on a plane and coming and spending time with us. Here's where I want to start, doctor Patrick. If the person who's listening is overwhelmed likeike I'm overwhelmed all the advice about health And they follow your research back approach that you're about to teach us today What might change about their life or their health outcomes? I think for the person listening, it's really important to understand that they don't have to do fifty different health hacks to improve the way they feel and ultimately the way they age The way I like to look at health is What are the few behaviors that we can adopt? that are going to effect many different underlying biological processes in our body that will affect These things that we care about that's going to improve our mood, reduce inflammation, improve metabolism, ultimately, you know, improve cardiovascular health, brain health and just the way you age. And I think that if we sort of zoom out and take that approach, We realize there's just a few core behaviors that we should be doing that are really not that difficult to do and that are ultimately going to make us feel better and age better. And so are those behaviors? And I'm sort of going to speak in a sort of just ten thousand feet up, you know big zoom out sort of picture because I think again, they're very easy for people to do. firstirst top of the list Move every day. And when I say move every day, we wantna make sure we're getting some vigorous exercise We're going to talk about what that means And we're going to challenge our muscles. veryy, very important because Your body is very resilient and if you can put type of stress on it, which exercise is It's going to adapt And when stress is thrown at you later in life or in the day or in the minute, whatever Your body's already dealt with stress. It's adapted And so when that stress comes, you're going to be stronger and you're going to be able to deal with it. Mental stress as well by the way Challenging your muscles, doing exercise vigorous exercise. This is challenging many systems, your lungs, your heart, your b. brain as well because it's hard to do hard things. And so again, You want to be resilient and that's what it's doing. Number two, make sure you're just eating a nutritious diet that is you know giving you the proper nutrients that you need. And we'll talk about that notot that hard to do Number three, make sure you're focusing on good sleep. You have to be able to repair cover Rejuvenate and that's what sleep is. Could you just tell the person who's listening? based on your expertise why they should trust these recommendations and really just focus on this Yeah, I mean, because there's a lot of research that has been done by amazing scientists all over the world for decades lookingoo at what? we can do in our diet and lifestyle to improve things like mood and metabolism and inflammation and the way we age And so we have the evidence here. We can see what type of robust gains we're going to get. So I just think the reality is is that we have science and science has 've done amazing things for advancing human life expectancy and also helping treat and prevent disease. And so If you look at the data, It's there. You just have to look at it and I think that's kind of my role. I look at this data and then I help explain it to people. So it really is that easy. It really, really is. And we're going to talk about what kind of gains that you can expect. It's kind of mind blowing to be honest. Well, I'm ready to have my mind blown and my life simplified and the gains made easy. So let's jump into the first category which is moving every day. And you know I think we've all heard this obsession around ten thousand steps that we should be getting every single day. Is that a useful goal? What does the research say, Dr. Patrick? So I think that we need to replace ten thousand steps a day ten breathless minutes a day Breathless, Breathless And what I mean by that is ten mininutes of vigorous intensity exercise which means you're breathless I don't want to throw walking out because walking is better than sitting So what are you comparing it to? Okay, walking is better than being sedentary, not moving But you know this ten thousand steps a day originated back in the nineteen sixties from Japan. There was a Japanese group that was trying to sell pedomometers And that's where it came from. It didn't come from science, it didn't come from medical research. It came from a Japanese company wanting to sell a pedomometer. And it was very catchy Now since the nineteen sixties, of course there's been a lot of research on walking and moving and not being sedentary. So there are health benefits But let's talk about why I want to replace ten thousand steps with ten breathless minutes ten minutes of vigorous intensity exercise. And why I say breathless is because It depends on where you're coming from. If you're already exercising and very fit Breathless for you might be sprinting. It might be running If you're someone that doesn't really exercise a lot, maybe you only walk then breathless for you might just be walking uphill you know, going up the stairs So it all depends on our starting point. and that's why I like to say breathless instead of heart rate or you know any other definition, because I think we can all relate to if I am the point where I can only say a few words and then I have to take a breath And then a few words and then I have to take, you know, you can't talk. You certainly can't sing breathless would be that. We just a couple of words in And then you have to take a breath because you're really working hard Why is that important and why do I want to replace the ten thousand steps today? There has been overwhelming research over the years, but even as of most recently, within the last few months, a very brand new study came out Now research is done very differently than it was twenty years ago when we were relying on people's memory and questionnaires, how frequent do you exercise? And they have to think back and remember. Now we can actually measure it. We have these accelerometers on people's wrists where they can measure movement and how fast they're going And so there was this huge study that was published showing that people are moving more vigorously It's exponential in terms of health benefits versus moderately moving. So that would be where you're not breathless, but you're not able to sing. So that's kind of like you can kind of talk a little bit, but you're still breathy while you're doing it versus the light activity, which is kind of like just walking around the house maybe. So we know that for every one minute of vigorous exercise, you have to do four minutes of moderate intensity. that would be brisk walking, for example to get the same drop in all cause mortality, dying from cancer, dying from respiratory diseases, dying from cardiovascular disease, right? All non accidental causes four minutes. If you're gonna do light exercise for every one minute of vigorous you have to do about fifty three minutes of light walking, gentle walking around. Wait, hold on a second. I want to make sure I understand this. Because first of all, I love the idea of replacing the ten thousand steps because that might take me an hour and a half. And I don't really have that kind of time to walk five miles, right? Because it feels like this goal that's very hard to achieve if you're somebody that's working and taking care of people and you've got a very busy life, which most people do. So when you say, doctor Patrick, okay We really want to look at the research and I want to replace this idea of ten thousand steps with T minutes of breathless exercise which to me, I would love to have you unpack breathless just so that as we're trying to absorb this information, we understand what you mean by that. And I've heard you talk about the talk test What does that mean? Right? Yeah. So the talk test is really test of, okay, I'm talking to you right now. Yeah right. I'm talking to you and I'm not breathless. I'm not breathing heavy, right? It's easy. I could even sing if I wanted to. Right? So the talk test is you can't sing When you're talking, you're a little bit breathy That is, you know That is moderate intensity exercise. The talk test means if you can talk a little bit, but you're breathy, that's moderate intensity. That would be like briskly walking If you are doing vigorous intensity exercise, the breathless type of exercise. Okay. This is a little bit more like jogging, running This is where you are Okay, Mail Oh, yeah This is a bigigorous intensity because you have to take breaths, quite a few breaths in between words. That would be vigorous intensity exercise. So that's the breathless type of exercise I'm talking about. Got it. Okay, so I'll give an example. So there's a walking loop by my house And I would say for three quarters of it, it's four miles long. loveove to walk it with my girlfriends. Shout out to my Wednesday walking group Three quarters of it I'm chatting up a storm. We are catching up. We're sharing details about our family. Dogs are running wild. There is a hill where the entire Kill everybody's silent because nobody can talk because we're going That's the vigorous part. That is exactly the vigorous type of exercise I'm talking about. That's the breathless moment, the breatl breathless minute or two minutes or three minutes or four, however long it takes you to get up that hill. Okay Yes. Okay. now I just want to make sure I'm tracking because that's the breathless part, but you also talked about moderate And so would moderate be like this is kind of a long hard walk, but I'm still able to talk to you and I feel myself sweating and I'm definitely exerting myself, but I can still carry on a conversation. That's correct. That would be moderate, where you can still like carry a conversation, but you're kind of like this, you know, You're just like if you're on the phone, you weren't with someone, or if you werere recording it and like the person listening was listening to it. Yeah They could tell that you were walking. rightight now, it's obvious we're not walking, right. That would be the moderate intensity. Okay. And the vigorous is so much more powerful. So I said for every one minute for all cause mortality reduction, you have to do fifty three minutes of light. just walking around. Well, that's the piece I wanted to unpack. So you're basically saying the one minute that I am Walking up that hill and I can't actually really talk because I'm exerting effort I'm getting a fifty three minute gain in that one minute against the other fifty three minutes I'm walking the rest of the loop? No. Okay. other fifty three minutes you're walking the loop would be moderate. Okay. That's moderate. Okay. If you were just walking around your house. Oh, I see. That would be more light. Okay, so this is the thing to understand that you could clock ten thousand steps a day. It might take you an hour and a half to do it. You could be walking around the house, you could be getting out of the car and walking into the grocery store You could be walking around the office You're saying one minute walking up a hill is the equivalent to fifty three minutes of just kind of walking around. That's correct. That's incredible. That's It's incredible And it gets listen, there's more, Malt. Okay, We're just talking about all cause mortality. Okay? Let's talk about cardiovascular related mortality. I mean, this is the number one cause of death in the United States developed countries. For every one minute of vigorous intensity exercise, you have to do minutes of the moderate intensity And you have to do an hour and a half of the light type of just walking around the house. All right, so break that down again. So you basically just said Walking up the hill breathless one minute is the equivalent of eight minutes of the moderate. So you're still cooking. You're still exercising But you're getting still with your walking group. Yeah. you're still with your walking group. but you're catched your around. you have to do eight times more than you do if you're walking up the hill. Whoa And if you are just walking around the office, walking around the house, doing some chores You have to do an hour and a half for every one minute of that walking up the hill You know what's so cool about this And also I slightly hate you a little bit, Dror Patrick, is one of my big excuses for not exercising is I don't have time Exactly. basically say it, you do Yes Yes, yes. And not only do you have time It has to be something that you go, oh my gosh, I have to do this I have to do this and I can do this, right you know, there's other outcomes too. Cancer is another one and this one's really mind blowing for every one minute a vigorous intensity exercise you have to do two and a half hours of that light type of exercise walking around the office, walking around your house So what is that for cancer mortality reduction dying from cancer Dying from all types of cancer. So there is also what you're saying, Dr. Patrick, if I'm listening closely is this isn't just the gains that you're making an hour or one minute. This isn't just the gains that you get by doing one minute breathless walking up that hill versus the fifty three of strallling around the house It's also that there's something powerful that one minute of walking up the hill and what it does to your immune system, I suspect, or to other aspects of your physiology and biology that have a meaningful impact long term over things like your ability to fight cancer, your longevity, your longer range health outcomes. That's exactly true So What I'm trying to get at is Intensity matters. your body responds more robustly and adapts more robustly to the more intense exercise. The adaptations to your heart Your cardiovascular system, your lungs, your immune system, your brain, everything, the bigger the stress you're putting on it, which happens when you're doing a more intense type of exercise, the better the adaptations are. And so when life happens and you're aging, it's all a stress, aging itself every day, we're being stressed. We can't see it when we look in the mirror, but it's happening the cellular level Your body has adapted to that big burst of stress that it is able to handle all the little types of stress that are happening every day so much more robustly And so that's the point here is that Why not just do the more intense exercise? And we can talk about, well, I've never done that. How do we get there? And there are definitely ways to do that are very easy. But the point is you have to understand the powerfulness of it. It's like mind blowing I don't know why more people aren't talking about it It's so mind blowing I just think it's one of the most important things to talk about right now in health, in health, for sure. Well, what's a really incredible paradigm shift is if you take the example of how ten thousand steps a day created by a company marketing a pedometer in Japan in nineteen sixty And we all just were like, okay, ten thousand steps a today. That sounds like a good marker I'm sitting here thinking, given that this research has been around a while and we know or at least you know as a researcher and a scientist that this has the biggest positive impact on multiple health outcomes for you long term in terms of the breathless exercise I started to think as you were talking, I wonder why Why do I think I need an hour Why do I think I need a half an hour? Why do I think it needs to take that long? And I wonder if it's because, especially as women, we've been socialized to go to an aerobics class that lasts an hour or to a certain class that and there are certain exercises that it's nice to have a long yoga class when you're really thinking about I've got a little bit of time. And I want the maximum positive impact in terms of my health. breathless exercise is a complete shift. It's a game changer for people that don't have a lot of time that want to get health benefits that feel overwhelmed when they have to think about getting a gym membership, getting in their car, driving to the gym, working out for an hour. it seems like a lot and they just say, I can't do it. And so then they miss out. And yes, there's of course benefits doing that. I mean, so in these studies that I'm talking about where people are wearing accelerometers There are also many other studies that are very tangentle where they're measuring people doing these types of what are called exercise snacks. So when I'm talking about one breathless minute, perhaps two breathless minutes, maybe three, this is something called an exercise snack about it before, but it's essentially like you can either have it structured where you're getting up and you're doing a minute of body weight squats or you're doing some jacks or high knees or burpees or whatever fill in the blank you want to do to get your heart rate up and to be able to be in that zone where you can't really talk but a few words, right Um, or it could be taking advantage of everyday life I work on the fourth floor of an office building I am not going to take the elevator. I'm going to walk up the stairs. I'm not only gonna walk up the stairs, I'm gonna walk fast up the stairs or I work a few blocks from my house I'm not going to drive there. I'm gonna to briskly walk or perhaps even jog or bike You know, so you're basically taking advantage of everyday life I have a grandkid or I have a child. I'm going to play tad with them for a couple of minutes I have a new puppy. I'm going to run around with my puppy These moments add up. they're cumulative and we have the research to show that This is called vigorous intermittent lifestyle activity, Vilpa for short. It's these people that are taking advantage of everyday life to really get that vigorous minute or two or three in multiple studies have shown that if you do this, you actually get the same type of benefits as people that exercise. They've directly compare them. When I say people that exercise, I mean people that are identifying as going to the gym, taking some block of time out to go and get the heart rate up. So very different types of ways to get your heart rate up, right? One is just taking advantage of everyday life and just going for it. I'm playing tag with my grandkids, or one is taking time to go to the gym What do we see? We see that people that do Th minutes of it. The three minutes of this breathless it could be walking uphill for three minutes. It could be playing with your tag with your grandkids for three minutes, right Three minutes, three times a day. So we're at nine minutes a day. This is where I get the ten from. We're at nine minutes a day Those individuals have a forty percent reduction in cancer related mortality, forty percent reduction in all cause mortality and a fifty percent reduction in cardiovascular related mortality This is even in people that are not identifying as going to the gym and exercising. If you were to ask them, do you exercise? they would say no because they don't count those moments. They don't count when they're playing tag with their kids or grandkids. They don't count when they're you going fast up the stairs to get to work, but it does count exercise and the way our body adapts to this exercise, it doesn't matter if you go to the gym or not, right? It just matters that you're doing it. And so I think again, this is so It's like, take a breath of relief because and when I talk to people about it's like, o, thank God, some people don't like going to the gym. I love it. love I love it, but not everyone does. Some people literally don't have time. They don't have time. But do you have time to do three minutes after breakfast, three minutes after lunch, three minutes after dinner? Yes, you have that time. You just have to take it do it. it's fast. It goes by very fast. I also have for the exercise snacks, I have a free guide out there how to train guide according to the experts and essentially talks about the different ways to do exercise snacks. what exercise snacks, you know you can do, how to do them and also a variety of other training know Matol' out there they can help improve your brain health, your mood and also the way you age. It's how totrainguide. com if people are interested in picking that up. Awesome. And we will link to that in all the show notes with all the resources related to this conversation. You know, Dr. Patrick, a couple things. First of all, I really like the name exercise snack versus the vigorous, intermittent lifestyle, whatever the last word was. Exercise snack sounds. Like like I could do it I wantna make sure as you're listening or you're watching right now that you really God the very simple instructions from Dr. Patrick based on the research. It's just three minutes. Three times a day of this vigorous kind of breathless activity. And in fact, you know what I'm realizing, my husband, Chris often Like first thing in the morning. He drops and does like eleven or twenty pushups or whatever it is he's doing it And I'll see him do it in the kitchen, midday and I never really kind of understood why I was like, oh, that's kind of interesting and sexy, but I don't feel like doing that right now. But I didn't feel like it counted. I live in the old world where in my mind, it doesn't count as exercise unless I'm in The exercise clothose And I am doing something for at least a half an hour and that it is a form of exercise that I tend to not like. And what you're saying is, no, no, no, no Three minutes, three times a day, whether you're doing squats or kind of jogging up a flight of stairs or you are going up a hill playing tag with your grankets, anything that gets you in that state This counts and has massive impacts on all kinds of health outcomes. Absolutely. how long do I have to do this? Like for the rest of my life is what you're going to sayve, but you know When do I tell better? ten minutes a day. Yeah So look you will feel better after Okay you're going to feel better because you're going to get increased blood flow to your brain. So How does Forcing yourself to do something that's hard physically challenging your muscles Do breathless exercise vigorously, even for short bursts of time. How exactly in the brain and body does making yourself do something hard you manage the challenges of life You know what I mean? Like I've heard people talk about the is it the anterior single like, I can't even say. Yeah, the anterior singular cortex. Yes. I don't know if that's kind of what you're referring to in terms of the researcher, but if you could Dr. Patrick just explain, when you challenge your muscles, it boosts your ability to handle the challenges of life. And the more you force yourself to do hard physical things, the easier your life starts to feel There's a lot of things that happen. One of them is activating that part of the brain as well, which seems to also play a role in protecting against neurodegenerative disease. So we have an endogenous that just means in our body opioid system. okay? opioids We're usually thinking of, you know, maybe exogenous ones that people take to help with pain relief, right? L morphine, for example. We make our own opioids, endorphins, right? Endorphins are something that we make. Those are the feel good opioids that we make in our brain, they make us feel good You do make that with exercise, but you also make a type of opioid that makes you feel uncomfortable It's called dinorphan. It's responsible for that uncomfortable feeling, that feeling that's like, o, I want to stop. I can't do this. It's hard, right? Dinorphin is that uncomfortable neurochemical that's being produced And what that does is when your brain is making that and you don't give up, you keep pushing past it It has this feedback loop in your brain where then your brain goes, oh, this is that bad I don't want to call it bad. It's the dysphoric feeling I better figure out a way to deal with that and adapt and make something good So that later when I have that uncomfortable dysphoric feeling I don't feel so uncomfortable. And so what happens is your brain starts to make more of these receptors. Receptors are things that neurochemicals and neurotransmitters and things like that bind to have an effect So they make more of the receptors that bind endorphins. They're called mu opioid receptors, and they become more sensitive to endorphins This happens only when you're getting that uncomfortable dinorphin flooding your brain. And so what happens is then later on when anything happens a little bit pleasant, you're going to feel it better and for a longer period of time And so that just makes everything easier when you have that sensitive that sensitization to these endorphins, which we are making all throughout the day, little things like Yo, seeing your friends, smile, like all these little things. They're making you make endorphins and it's just a matter of How powerful are you going to feel that endorphin And so the uncomfortableness of the dinorphan is what is doing that, But you have to engage in the hard, uncomfortable thing that makes you feel that dysphorgic feeling. That makes that so much sense. If you force yourself to do And we're just talking about moving your body to do some form of exercise, even just for a minute Even for three minutes, even for ten minutes that What's happening because you're experiencing all of that discomfort is it paves the way for you to know really magnify all of the beautiful and wonderful and comfortable things that follow it because you got the discomfort out of the way. Isn't it amazing? It's actually amazing because I think we've all had an experience and as you're listening or you're watching right now Think about something that you push yourself to do physically, whether it was a five K or it was some trail that you hiked that was harder than you thought, but you got to the top or maybe you climbed a ridiculous amount of stairs and you get to the top and you surprise yourself and you're out of breath It is true that when you look up, the view is spectacular The rest of the day is downhill, so to speak Because you got the hard thing out of the way. You got the hard thing out of the way and your body adapted to that hard thing and said, hey, I'm going to make the good things feel even better because I got to negate some of that hard stuff that I know I'm going face again In the old world, Mel Robbins would have gone straight to the refrigerator and grabbed a snack to make me feel comfortable basased on hearing all of this research I suspect that if I were to do an exercise snack instead and I were to do a minute to three minutes of air squats or go just walk up the hill by my house or climb some stairs or high knees or whatever, and I'm breathless in the kitchen. That would have a massive benefit on how I feel right after and my ability to handle the stress of whatever I'm in in that moment. Is that right? Absolutely right. Massive, massive benefit. Exercise snack is exactly what you should do in those types of moments. until you do it You don't realize how powerful it is because you hear one minute, three minutes No way But when you do it, actually then realize so powerful. She's right the exercise snack You know, Dr. Patrick, I'm just sitting here reflecting on everything you've shared so far. I'm so grateful that you're here Thank you for flying across country. Thank you for sharing this with us I have so many more questions, but I want to take a quick pause because I'm sure you have people in your life that you're thinking about. And go ahead and share this link with them while you take a moment and listen to a few words from our amazing sponsors And don't go anywhere. Patrick has so much more to teach you and to share with you and unpack for you, and we are just getting started. so stay with us. You know When I heard the word probiotics I always think about my stomach And it's true Proiotics support your stomach, but they support so much more Our sponsor, Ollie just launched a new product called Precise Proiotics, madeade with clinically studied strains to support not just your digestive and immune health but your metabolism and your skin health and even your stress response. So instead of guessing, support your body in a more intentional way that gives your body what it needs, not just reacting when something feels off. proactively giving your body the precise probiotics it needs to show up at its absolute best and help you achieve your full potential precise probiotics with skin, stress response or metabolism support at a Walmart near you These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease You know those times where your cat or your dog is being all kooky and stubborn? Let them. ' that's when they're at their lovable best. To be their best crazy selves, pets need the right nutrition the kind they can get from a canot pet food. The people at Acana are as stubborn as the pets they feed. They never compromise. They never take shortcuts, they never accept second best. They insist on high quality meats like pasture raised beef and all sorts of farm fresh fruits and vegetables like butternut squash, whole cranberries, and golden turmeric If you want whole food nutrition for your pet Turn over a pack of a canna and read the list of ingredients. You wouldn't normally want to do that with pet foods but Aanna is different. You'll be blown away by all the healthy foods in there. Acanna is stubbornly good. And you can find out more about their ingredients and where to buy it at aanna. com That's AC A N A d. com If you're trying to make it through the day with lots of caffeine, I'm here to tell you that real energy comes from quality sleep And that starts with what you're sleeping on. Mattress firm knows that there are common sleep problems that keep you up at night, like how about this one? Waking up drenched and sweat at two AM? That's not normal sleep That's a sauna And of course, the next day, you don't feel rested You're exhausted That's where Mattress firm can help you mattress firms sleep experts will match you to the right cooling mattress like the Temper Breeze. It has advanced technology to deliver unmatched cooling comfort for hot sleepers get matched to the perfect sleep solution for you For the great sleep you deserve, visit mattress Firm and get five hundred dollars off Temper breeze mattresses. They make sleep easy. Restrictions apply, see mattressfirm d. com or store for details Welcome back It's your friend Mel Robins. Today, you and I are here with Dr. Rhonda Patrick, and she's teaching you about the five supplements that she believes every person should be taking. We're digging into the research. We are going through them one to one So let's keep going Dror Patrick, my next question is this You know, one topic that I hear a lot of people talking about is visceral fat And I'm not even sure I understand exactly what it is and Is that like when you see a guy that's relatively skinny and then they look like they're kind of pregnant? Or I don't mean to be offensive to anybody, but I don't really understand what visceral fat is Viseral fat is the kind of fat that you cannot pinch. So the fact that you can pinch is subcutaneous fat. That's a fat that's stored as energy, it's energy storage Visceral fat is, yes, it is usually around the midsection, this belly fat, but it's the deep, deep belly fat. It's actually surrounding organs like the liver, the kidneys, it's surrounding the organs and unlike the subcutaneous fat This fat is not just stored energy. it's like an endocrine organ, endocrine organs like make hormones. It's making hormones. It's making inflammatory molecules causing inflammation that are wreaking havoc on your body. It is something that not necessarily someone that looks maybe lean They might actually have visceral fat So waist circumference is an indirect way of measuring it. So for a woman, if you have a waist circumference of thirty five inches or higher That's a pretty good indicator that you have a high amount of visceral fat For men, it would be about forty inches or higher. It doesn't necessarily have to be the waste circumference because some people are lean And they don't eat good diets, we can talk about the main drivers of it, they can increase their visceral fat Why is it something to care about is also a really important question, I think, because you know most people when they think about fat, they're thinking about Well, I don't, you know, my looks I don't look good.. But they're thinking about their long term health. You know, obbesity and being overweight is obviously a major driver of increasing many different diseases, typed of dabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, for example, right But visceral fat is It doubles mortality. so people with a high amount of visceral fat died, you know, sooner. so you're talking about double risk mortality. It also increases cancer incidence. So people that are making these inflammatory cytokines, inflammation drives cancer And so people that have visceral fat, have like a forty four percent higher risk of having cancer It's insulin resistance, it's causing insulin resistance, you know, metabolic dysfunction, but I think what people relate to more is the effects that are happening on a day to day basis because visceral fat is causing inflammation, it's activating your immune system each day, right? You don't want your immune system to be activated each day. You want it to be activated when you're exposed to a pathogen. That's what the immune system is there for, right? It's there to fight off foreign invaders, whether that's a virus or a bacterial invader, or whether it's a cancer cell right? This is what your immune system is meant to do and be activated for. When you have this chronic inflammatory signal that's being produced by your own body, inside of your own body It's activating your immune system, which is extremely energetically demanding. It is taking energy. I mean, when you're sick You're sleepy, you're tired. You're fatigued. You have no energy Well, that's happening To some degree when someone has this chronic inflammatory signal from visceral fat It is going to make you feel fatigued because the energy is literally being sucked away to your immune system because that's what it needs to activate the immune system is a lot of energy So you're going to feel chronic fatigue The other thing that's going to make people feel is they're going have these energy crashes followed by cravings. And the reason for that is because Visceral fat is metabolically active. It is breaking down fatty acids. and these fatty acids because the location of it, right around your liver, it's going straight to the liver. And essentially, it's the livers prioritizing that fuel Rather than the feel you eat, perhaps you eat a meal you're going to have your blood sugar, your blood glucose is going to go up. Usually you'll make insulin. in a response to that and the glucose will then go into your muscle or go into adipose tissue. What happens when you have viseral fat is that whole process is completely dysregulated because you're constantly making fatty acids. those fatty acids stop the body from making insulin So after you eat a meal, the glucose stays around. Your body freaks out and goes, I better make more insulin. so it overcompensates, makes a lot of insulin All the glucose goes out of your bloodstream, goes into adipose tissue or muscle, whatever. And all of a sudden, your blood glucose drops and you are crashing. Your energy goes down thenen your brain is sensing that and going, Ohh my gosh, I need energy. What's the quickest way I can have energy? and you start to get these cravings for the quickest type of fuel typically processed junk food So this is kind of the vicious cycle of visceral fat. causing fatigue, causing energy crashes, causing cravings, and then insulin resistance sort of in the making and eventually type two diabetes Okay. The thing I want to unpack is how you described it So I personally found it extremely helpful to understand that there are two different types. One is the kind we can pinch And the other is this visceral fat, which as you were describing it is something that is surrounding your organs It sounded like a invvasive species that is coding certain organs and then starting to expand out And in doing so creates almost like its own little toxic ecosystem around your organs and personally, maybe somebody's explained to me like that. I've never visually imagined it like that And the second that you described it that way, And that it, you know, is the kind of thing that's like a dense, like it, you're not going to fix this with a crunch at the gym. I immediately thought, my God, if I have that assertive you know, invasive species encasing my organs, how the hell do I get rid of this? because I don't want that happening underneath the surface robbing me of years on my life, robbing me of energy, disrupting my metabolic systems What is the research say, Dr. Patrick about specific thing you should do. If this is you or somebody that you love. Well, the good news is is that it is easy to get rid of it. It is. It is. It is actually the first kind of fat you lose if you're on any type of weight loss program. The way that you lose visceral fat is kind of an entangled in with how you can gain it easily as well. And I think they're both important to understand because you can gain it very easily quite quickly you eating a lot of calories. So there's studies showing that men, healthy young college men, you know, they're eating twelve hundred more calories a day for five days, they will gain excess visceral fat without even gaining weight. So you get on a scale, really not much weight gain at all, but you are gaining visceral fat. importantm to point out because I think sometimes people think Oh if I'm not gaining weight, if I'm weighing myself every morning, then I'm fine. notot necessarily the case. So if you're eating excess calories, particularly in the form of processed foods, things that don't have a lot of fiber, you're eating refined sugars, reallyally easy to gain visceral fat Good news is Also easy to lose The ways that you can lose visceral fat, for one would be caloric deficit, any sort of weight loss program. In fact, it's one of the first types of fat that you lose H intensity interval training, vigorous types of exercise. That is one of the most robust ways to help lose visceral fat. Again, you will lose it without even seeing that reflected on a scale So just know that if you are doing your're ten breathless minutes, pererhaps you're doing thirty minutes a day, you're adding in some moderate intensity. you're adding in some walking risk walking in addition to the ten breathess minutes, the ten vigorous minutes that you're doing That is really has been shown to help lose visceral fat, even if you don't see that reflected on the scale. Very important to keep in mind. sleep is extremely important and that is because Being in a chronically stressed state, can cause your body to react and start to accumulate visceral fat There's studies showing that two weeks of sleep deprivation. So for an individual going from nine hours of sleep per night to four hours, For two weeks They will gain about eleven percent of visceral fat justust in two weeks. Wow. So big, big time making sure you're prioritizing your sleep and not being chronically sleep deprived veryer important. alsoso stress. you know, a lot of that psychological stress being able to deal with that stress better. and again, that comes down to the exercise. It's going to help your reaction, your cortisol response to the psychological stress is going to be buffered by that exercise that you're doing. So that's the key Those are the main things that are really helping you lose fat and the drivers of it. so making sure you're not sleep deprived, making sure you're dealing with your stress are important. But any sort of weight loss and then doing the vigorous exercise is the most important type of exercise. Resistance training is important. You don't lose as much visceral fat but it does overall help your metabolic health, which will help you prevent you from gaining as much visceral fat if that makes sense. So engaging in resistance training is a very important part of your exercise program. You want to make sure you're maintaining muscle mass. Those body weight squats are a way to do that, but you can also do them vigorously and get the best of both the worlds, I would say. Dr. Patrick Hold that thought I have a follow up question, but I need to hit the pause button because we have amazing sponsors that I want to give a chance to share a few words with you. Don't go anywhere. Dr. Patrick has so much more to teach you when we return, so stay with us You know how life can become routine? It's like the same old, same old. Well, one way to snap yourself out of that is have a thrill And the fastest way to do that, get behind the wheel of the Genesis GV seventy because it is built to thrill Its elegant design always will make driving the GV seventy an exhilarating adventure It's powerful athletic stance screams performance and it's going to turn heads Take that joy ride and experience a class leading standard three hundred horsepower. Plus it's got different dynamic drive modes all different terrains. The Genesis GV seventies award winning technology and performance lets you drive with comfort and confidence. It's a thrilling SUV with intuitive tech that can make your ridees smooth. evenven when the road isn't And its blind spot cameras allow you to see what's next to you and keep you and your passengers safe Its performance is measured not only in power but in how it makes you feel It' thrill The Genesis GV seventy, learearn more at Genesis d. com and feel the GV seventy You know those times where your cat or your dog is being all kooky and stubborn? Let them ' that's when they're at their lovable best. To be their best crazy selves pets need the right nutrition kind they can get from a canot pet food. The people at acana are as stubborn as the pets they feed. They never compromise. They never take shortcuts, they never accept second best. They insist on high quality meats like pasture raised beef and all sorts of farm fresh fruits and vegetables like butternut squash, whole cranberries, and golden turmeric. If you want whole food nutrition for your pet Turn over a pack of a canna and read the list of ingredients. You wouldn't normally want to do that with pet foods. Aanna is different. You'll be blown away by all the healthy foods in there. Acanna is stubbornly good. And you can find out more about their ingredients and where to buy it at acanna. com That's AC A N A d. com. Let me tell you about Verizon's brand new simplicity plan. It's one plan One price. thirty dollars a line per month even for a single line with their best five G network for all. That's it That's the plan comes to your phone You can do what works for you. Already love your phone? Great. Cheap it orr it's easy to buy a new one Or you could upgrade to the newest phone every year for a monthly charge. So let's get this straight One plan One price thirty dollars a line per month plus your phone and your way Best five G network I guess the simplicity plan is just that. suuper simple. Maybe that's why they named it that. One plan, one price, and the best network for everyone. Switch to Verizon todayod. For new customers, thirty dollarars a line includes auto pay and switch discount Additional taxes, fees and terms apply. Unlimited data is restricted to on device smartphone usage. Domestic data roaming at two G speeds. Welcome back at your friend Mel Robbins. Today, you and I are getting to learn from the extraordinary Dr. Rhonda Patrick. Dr Patrick, let's jump right back in where we were. I have a quick question though. If somebody's listening to you and they're saying Oh my god. I've been doing everything I've been going to the gym. I've been watching what I eat I've been drinking my water. I've been trying to sleep and nothing changing Dr. Patrick What is the first thing you would have them audit about their lifestyle I think for someone that really thinks they're doing all the right things. firstirst of all, I would ask, are you getting seven and a half to nine hours of sleep Not being in bed for seven and a half to nine hours. I mean, sleep I would ask Are you getting bright light exposure within thirty minutes of waking up For at least fifteen to thirty minutes because that is what is resetting your biological clock, your circadian clock. So every organ in our body has a clock And everything is running on a clock, our metabolism, our neurotransmitter synthesis, like making neurochemicals, our immune function, everything hormone production, right? And so You want to reset that clock every morning and the bright light exposure is the reset. It's the master regulator in your brain. It's called the supra chiasmatic nucleus region. Light is what is resetting it so that your brain and your body know this is the reset, start of the clock It's going to start making the hormones at the right time. So that bright light is going to make something called cortisol. We've all heard of it. we're all scared of it. we shouldn't be It's very important. It's a hormone that you want to be making first thing in the morning and you want to make a lot of it because it's regulating twenty percent of your human genome. A lot of important things that it's regulating. What you don't want is that slow drip cortisol, where it's not getting the big amplitude peak. It's just a little peak, a little drip, drip, drip throughout the day. It's making that stress response and it's dysregulating all those twenty percent of genes, right So that happens first thing in the morning because cortisol actually wakes you up, gives you energy. You want that So the bright light is really important because it'll also help you, your body will know when to go to sleep. It'll start to make melatonin, that sleepy hormone at the right time. Your core body temperature will dip at the right time during sleep so that you can stay asleep All these little things you don't think what your heart rate will be going down right. All those little things, that's all controlled by your circadian clock. And if you don't reset it, it's not going to be working properly, right? So bright light exposure, are you waking up at the same time every morning? Very much like bright light exposure, that's also a reset for your clock. Your body anticipates when it's supposed to wake up When you start to get these erratic wake up times, let's say you're socializing and you're out late and you're doing it constantly, your brain can't figure out when it's supposed to wake up. And so all these hormones and all these things that are important and on a clock don't happen. So it really affects your sleep thenen I would ask, arere you eating within three hours of going to bed because that also really affects your sleep donon't want to be digesting food when you're sleeping. So if you're eating an hour before you go to bed It takes about five hours to digest your food When you're digesting food, you're activating what's called the sympathetic nervous system. That's the fight or flight response. It's when your heart rate's going up. It's signaling to your body timee to be awake, time to be awake. So you might be sleeping, but you're fighting your body iss going, no, no, I'm digesting. I'm supposed to be awake. so your sleep isn't going to be good. You're going to have more awakenings It's also been shown in studies, you're not going to have that robust cardiovascular reset. Your blood pressure won't dip as low. It'll dip a little bit, but it won't have that big amplitude dip. and that's very important again for preventing. In fact, there's studies showing that if you don't have that cardiovascular dip as robustly you're twenty percent more likely to get cardiovascular disease earlier in life. So very important. And then alcohol consumption would be the thing. I would also ask, arere you drinking alcohol too close to bed? because A lot of people have this misconception because alcohol can help you fall asleep faster That's why people like to drink alcohol at night. It disrupts your REM sleep. You're going to have and also causes more awakenings in the night. That would be the first thing I would ask. I know that was a lot, but it's important because I don't think that many people are realizing perhaps their sleep isn't optimized. And there are a few core behaviors that you can sort of tweak that will really affect your sleep. And that would be a place to start because if you're not getting if you're chronically sleep deprived, like I mentioned, you're going to be getting visceral fat. You're gainingisceral fat. And you're going, why am I still gaining it when I'm, you know, doing some exercise and you know, you're battling. It's like the battle. like it's Tug of war essentially First, Dror Patrick, I want to thank you Because when I ask you that question of what would be the lifestyle audit that you would focus on if somebody feels like they're doing all the right things, but nothing is changing about their health or their body composition I thought you were going to say lookook at what you're eating. And so the fact that you said, you need to do an audit of your sleep was both surprising to me And it was also very helpful to have you walk through those five questions that you need to ask yourself because those questions around How much sleep are you getting And are you getting bright light in the morning Are you waking up at the same time every morning when are you eating in terms of how close are you eating to your bedtime and then finally, are you drinking at night Th five questions give you almost like a treasure hunt, the answers to the things you need to change in order to get a better night's sleep. So now, Dr. Patrick, I want to shift gears and go into the category of nutrition. And you have a daily smoothie recipe. that makes it simple and easy for us to get a lot of the things that we need every single day in one smoothie Let's do it All right, let's step out of the studio and head into the kitchen here in Boston So Dr. Patrick, you are about to teach us how you make the smoothie that you have every day. And for those of you that are listening, I'm just gonna to tell you I see kale, I see blueberry, I see avocado, I see protein, and I see something I can't pronounce. Okay It's a beta glucan powder made from barley Before we get into the smoothie I make every day, I kind of want to give a little bit of reason why I like to do a smoothie every day. And it really comes down to Realizing that what we do in our lifestyle and our diet really is impactful on the way we age and our life expectancy. A lot of people think genetics are the most important thing And when it comes down to it really, eighty percent of how long we live and how well we live has to do with our lifestyle. Mhm percent eightighty percent, aboutbout eighty percent. Yeah. I would say about twentycent to twenty five percent is genetics But what I'm going to tell you is say you actually came out of Harvard here' in Boston And it was really, I mean, it was a few years ago, but it was really a compelling study. because what it did was looked at people's diet and lifestyle and their life expectancy and found that if people followed just like five different lifestyle factors, it could increase their life expectancy between twelve and fourteen years. So women On average that we're not doing all five of these lifestyle factors which is a big part of it is what we're going to be looking at here They lived on average about seventy nine years. If they did include all five of the lifestyle factors, they lived to the age of about they added fourteen years. so they lived to about ninety three What? fourourteen four,teen years. If they started at age fifty Five different healthy lifestyle factors included all five They lived to age ninety three. So it was a fourteen year increase in life expectancy. For men that started at age fifty, it was a twelve year increase in life expectancy. they were living on average seventy four point five seventy five point five years And they went up to about eighty six years. What are quickly those five like five are adopting a healthy Lifestyle pattern, which we're going to talk about. Okay. notot smoking. doing three and a half hours of moderate or vigorous intensity per week, we talked a lot about the vigorous intensity exercise ten minutes a day. that would be seventy minutes a week. And so you're basically going to add on to that by doing some of the more moderate intensity exercisees. Okay. So that was number three. Number four is not consuming excess alcohol So women were consuming fewer than one drink per day And men consumed about one drink per day or fewer. Okay And then the last one is maintaining a healthy BMI Those were the five lifestyle factors that could add between twelve to fourteen years to your life expectancy. And on top of that, those individuals were free from diseases like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease cancer, right? So you're living healthy years, which is what you want. Yes The nutrition part is a big component of this. So those individuals were eating they were in the top forty percent of the what's called the alternative healthy Eating. And what that includes is first and foremost, you have to have four to five servings of fruits and vegetables per day So those vegetables, what's a serving is the question. A serving was either a cup of leafy greens So you have to have four to five of that. And so you can see here, this is a measuring cup. This is a cup for those people that person that She' packing just Packing it ye Regular old kale. Nothing fancy about it right into the one cup M metal measuring cup. Kle and remember, you gott to get five of these per day and this is why this is efficient We've been talking about efficient. We've been talking about what can we do Ey. that's going to give us the biggest bang for our buck I find it's easiest for me to get five servings of vegetables if I can at least you know, get a smoothie end So here's the kill. that's one cup I'm gonna add another cup here. So you're getting two servings in. I'm getting two servings. Probably gonna to get around three serervings of kale into that. Three cups of kale Three cups of kale There we go And that is And then I can substitute the rest with my salad. Kale is really high in loutine. Luteine is that thing that's going to prevent your eyes from macular degeneration. It also seems to protect the brain. It improves cognitive processing, cognitive speed Fuid intelligence, that's the kind of intelligence that you've accumulated throughout a lifetime and then can still incorporate when you're older. That's what we want, right? So kale has a lot of that. It also has magnesium It has calcium It has vitamin K. It's got a lot of these micronutrients that we need to get from our diet The next thing I like to add is blueberries And blueberries are Part of that serving size of fruit and vegetables. And again, it's about a half a cup is a serving So if you want five Servings of that. you're gonna to get about two and a half cups of the blueberries I also like blueberries because they're high in polyphenols, a specific type of polyphenol called anthocyanins. And those have been shown in randomized placebo controlled studies, that's very important because placebo effect is real, as we've talked about The blueberries have been shown one cup a day to improve cognition That's important, right? You all want to improve cognition. It's shown in young adults. it's been shown in older adults. it's been shown in adults with mild cognitive decline. So everyone has every reason to try to take at least one cup of blueberries a day So I'm going to put one cup Yep. And we use frozen, which I alsoize because they're cheaper than buying them fresh. And I do have I do like to usually use organic because I don't want a lot of pesticides I do like frozen also because it keeps this mooothie cold And it just gives it a better like, you don't want your smoothie really warm. So I add two cups, two cups of blueberries. I three cups of kale. I'm gonna do two and a half cups. Wow, Okaykay. Two and a half cups of blueberries And then One thing I do not add to my smoothie is a banana Now, why don't you like banas? I mean, I love bananas. I love bananas. They're high in potassium They're good to refuel. I love to do them before a run. It gives me enough fuel without cramping, right I used to put them in my smoothies. Dr. Patrick, what happens when you put a banana in a smoothie? What happens is there's there's something in the banana called polyphenyol oxidase. That doesn't sound good. Itesn't sound good. Polyphenols are what I just said are beneficial. Yes. Oxid, polyphenol oxid, is essentially an enzme that's breaking down the polyphenols. And there have now been studies that have come out showing If you add Bananas to blueberries, you're not getting as many polyphenols. In fact, it's quite a bit lower. So the banana is killing the benefit of the See, this is why I need you because I am sitting here making smoothies thinking I like the texture of the banana in it. It gives a little heft, creams it out a little bit then I'm putting in my blueberries and I just blew it because the banana cancellled the blueberries. It's true. I also used to add it to my blueberries for the exact reason, plus the taste If you go to any smoothie place, you'll see they always add bananas to any blueberry smooth. Yes, of course. But that's where the avocado comes in. because now you're gonna get the creamy texture that you want, which is what I also want. Yes And on top of that, there have been studies showing f So this moto unsaturated fat in this avocado. It actually increases the bioavailability of the luteinee and another carotenoid coid called zezanthin in the le by four fold. OkayK, well hold on. Let me just make sure I'm tracking with this So if I sub the avocado for the banana Right? then the fact that the avocado, which is a good healthy fat source is going dance around and mix it up with the kale That fat source superpowers the benefit of the kale? It does. That's cool. It makes it where you're so the getting rid of the banana mix where you're getting all the polyphenols from the blueberries and then adding the avocado gives you the creaminess and it helps you. suuperpower and get those carotenoids that are in the kale that are so beneficial for our eyes and brains and making it four fold more likely to be absorbed. So you're getting a lot more. And there are studies showing this. addding an avocado. carrots have carotenoids in them, so you can get the beta carotene is probably the most well known carotenoid. You get four foold more beta carotene. So you can even add a carrot in here if you want. In fact, I often like to add carrot as well So I'm gonna just use my fingers and put that., That was a good ide.ually I usually do about half of an avocado. half avocado. and you can save the other half for the next day. And then you know what I do? I put this little top that's empty on top of the other one and then it doesn't like turn brown. R. ask cap on lemon juice well. lemon juice can prevent it from oxidizing. a little tint. All right, so this is really the core of this movie. this moie here. Now these are the optionals here. I like to add some protein powder, particularly on days when I'm really busy I'm not getting, I know I'm skipping a meal because I'm not getting all the protein that I need for day, which is about one point two to one point six grams per kilogram body weight per day. And so I'll add sometimes a little bit of whey protein powder as well. You don't have to do that if you're getting your protein. This is again, an optional add. I think it's very hard to get the amount of protein we're supposed to get. so I' always adding it got a lot like I do. So I'm going to go ahead and add the protein powder I do like I'm not I have no affiliation with Mentus currently right now, but I do like their protein powder because it doesn't have any fillers that affect my gut. And so I'm just scooping down to get their scooper because their scooper is the actual serving size There it is. It's so funny, they're always hidden down there I'm going to take One scoop of protein powder which for this one twenty thousand twenty three grams. Ges If you're sharing it, you can do two scoops. I think I'll do like a scoop and a half Does that mean you're sharing it with me? I hope it does. And then An optional add, this is actually a type of prebiotic fiber. You've probably heard of that. It's like biotic fiber I've heard fibers and I'veard of probiotics. Probiotics are the beneficial bacteria. If you take those, it helps Prebiotics are the type of fiber Soluble fiber, fermentable fiber feed the bacteria in your gut. Okaykay So that's why it's called a prebiotic. Got it. Okay Being it. So it's a type of prebiotic. It's beta glucan, and it's isolated from barley in this case The reason why I have now added this to my, I would say regimen soon to be smoothie regimen is because This has been shown in studies one to lower LDL cholesterol, which is a type of cholesterol that can build up in your arteries and play a role in cardiovascular disease But what really piqued my attention was the fact that there's studies showing that beta glucans can decrease the amount of forever chemicals. Rubver chemicals that last usually last in your body anywhere between two to five years They're associated with cancer. It's really terrible. and we're being exposed to them all the time, even on our fruits and vegetables. They're in the soil You know, it's something that even kids are being exposed to. So now I'm something I've been giving to my whole family. Okay, how much do I need? So usually I do one gram. And one gram, it says here's three tablespoons So I'm going to grab that tablespoon out Okay one to plus accounts fiber, which is great. Yes. Okay. Now the study that showed it reduced forever chemicals, it was three grams a day, so you have to do You have to do the three Tablespoons three times a day. T get wow to get that. Yeah But. Yeah yeah O where you can add Perhaps you can add more and get it in one serving, but we're gonna start with the three g. Okay. Th add a little bit of water. just to mix it up a little bit And as I'm standing here over the blender Malt, I just want to point out one thing in that this blender is made of plastic. Okay. And there is a little bit of a concern that pllastic blenders can shed microplastics more readily because of the friction with everything that's in there. So you should have a glass one. If you can have glass, there's also some Metal ones that you can buy as well I hear that everybody? We got to get a glass blender around here Okay. Thank you for giving us the pass Dctor Patrick, here she is about to hit the blend. everyverybody, cover your ears. Here we go. Oh That's really purple. Yeah. I like the cally me healthy I just want to see what's the consistency looks like? Yeah, I think we're good. Excellent. Well, I got two wine glasses since we're not drinking alcohol, we might as well. It's polyphenol hour. Yes, there we go. Yeah, and the polyphenols I feel them immediately. It's been shown to increase blood flow to the brain in an older adults. What exactly do you feel I It improves my mood and gives me energy So I like I do I do take this midday. do a little I'm actually kind of excited to try this. Well, everything always tastes better when somebody else makes it. I mean That's true So Poly funeral hour Cheers Cheers to youralth,. doror Patrick. Let's try her new smoothie recipe here we go That tastes like health It's not sweet enough for me That's not bad. It's not supposed to be sweet, though, right? It's not You can add the extra I would add moreberries, I think to make it sweeter. And of course, you can never get enough blueberries You definitely taste the kale. And it has the same consistency as if we had put a banana in. It's creamy. Yeah. I love the And actually the prebiotic fiber didn't really mess with the consistency to be honest. Well I don't know, becauseuse you're the that makes this all the time. I wouldn' be to. It really didn't. Okay. Now, if I'm putting that much fiber in my smoothie, do I need to drink more water? is that gonna back me up No, this is not the kind of fiber that you have Ct worry about that This is prebiotic fiber that's A little bit different M know. Beuse I know if you werere doing like csillium husk or some of the other stuff, you gotta really make sure you're hydrating you' got to make sure you get more water in you, right? Amazing. We're gonna go back in the studio and talk about what else we could be eating in the bucket of nutrition. And here's to your health One of the other things that I noticed Dror Patrick about the smoothie is that it had five ingredients. And here're talking about those five healthy lifestyle index factors that really have a massive impact on the quality of your life and your health The smoothie was terrific, and again, you promised easy ways to apply the advice every single day What are other foods we should focus on eating? Yeah. so some of the other foods that are important First and foremost getting omega three fatty acids. Some people don't like fish, which is why the supplementation of omega three is great. But if you want to take the healthy alternative healthy eating index has two servings per week of four ounces of fatty fish like salmon or mackerel, right? So that would be two servings per week, four ounces each And then you want to make sure you're getting enough whole grains. And these whole grains in this, you know, healthy eating indeggx come from Oat, Barley. Qinoa, brown rice, fararo those types of whole grains, women need to take in about seventy grams per day and men need to take in about ninety grams per day. Just to give you a little background here ninety eight percent of the population is not getting enough fiber every day. And that plays a very important role in our colon health and our overall health, LDL cholesterol as well And then Red meat, processed meat. These are also foods that are on the list How much should you be eating? and seems like The sweet spot for red meat is about twelve to eighteen ounces per week Not going over that. And then almost no processed meats like less than one serving per week So really cutting out the lunch meats and the processed meats, the hot dogs, the bacon That stuff is processed meats and that also has been associated with colon cancer. The other thing on this healthy eating index is sodium intake. So you want to make sure that you're not really above Usually it was like two thousand three hundred milligrams per day, ideally one thousand five hundred milligrams a day. And I do think sodium intake is really also just a proxy for our ultra processed foods You want to really be minimizing that. A lot of those have a lot of high sodium. If you're getting foods that are if you're eating at a restaurant, you might have a lot of sodium in that as well So that's also important. And then Also making sure that we're not eating and drinking suugar sweeted beverages, so that's zero of those.. This is all part of that study where we're trying to really like be at the top forty percent of the healthy, you know, eating index. And so you want to make sure you get zero sugar sweetened beverages per day, including juice So if you're going to eat fruit, it has to be with the whole fruit and the fiber that changes the way your body is processing and absorbing glucose, veryy important