True Life Medicine Podcasts

The topic today is the value of play. Now as soon as I say that, some of you will be turned off, as I used to be. I get it. For the aspiring and success oriented individual the topic of play and fun can sound like a frivolity or luxury and lacks the valor of just pushing toward the big goal. And yet, this is how sleep used to be viewed as well. The hero doesn’t sleep! Getting more than 4-5 hours is wasteful to the truly committed! Now we know better. If you want to perform at the top level, you need great sleep. Quantity and quality. Among the truly successful I see a priority given to play. Budgeting time for non-productive work that gives our emotions a break and our inspiration a boost. In this episode we dig into the concept. Join us.

#100: Every moment of every day, we are becoming. Something. There is no neutral. We are taking actions to further our transformation into something. Something we WILL be…next week, next month, next year…” This can be both daunting and exciting, but regardless it is just happening. We happen to our transformation or our transformation happens to us. Dr Randy James and I have a candid discussion on this that is not a big call to arms for positive transformation as much as a humble look at our propensities as humans and the challenge this reality can be even for us aspiring people.

We talk diet and exercise and sleep and all our habits and routines around them, and it can often sound like a chore. How about elevating our efforts to…rituals. Rituals transcend mere chores and instill a reverence and even sacredness to the effort. In this episode Dr James and I talk about taking our daily health and wellness habits and treating them as true rituals that give them far more depth and meaning which of course help dramatically to how we perceive them and therefore, consistently engage with them for the benefit we truly desire.

We continue our walk through a fairly comprehensive list of menu items on treatments for depression. Apathy, or even just feeling blue and unmotivated and fatigued. In the previous episode, 97, we discussed solitude, outside time, exercise, positive input, having purpose and surrounding yourself with inspiration. Here we continue on with about nine other menu items you can pick and choose from to raise your spirits and increase your hope. We really worked to be compassionate and gracious as we discuss this very serious issue, and not showcase any one thing as the holy grail, and recognize you could engage in so many of these and still have a clinical problem. But none of these efforts will hurt, and they will most assuredly help give you the best chance to combat what is holding you down.

We see sugar as a gift and honor it like we honor wine. And like wine, it’s probably not best to have it in excess. For the greater span of time, humans went most of their lives with little to no sugar outside of the occasional fruit when it was in season. In America it wasn’t until around 1619 when sugarcane came on the scene. Today sugar is added to everything. The American Heart Association recommends up to 25 grams, or 6 teaspoons per day. Though the average American consumes 88 grams, about 22 teaspoons a day. What’s best for our physical health? Zero. Today, 1 in every 3 Americans has diabetes or prediabetes. Another way to look at it, around 122 million Americans have a sugar related disorder, while only 14 million have an alcohol disorder. We are sicker and fatter than ever and sugar is the primary culprit. In this episode we talk about how to best view and manage sugar. Something again, we love too!

Fat is good. Say it again, fat is good. Empty carbs, bad. If you lived through the 80s as I did, they vilified fat and we pounded ourselves full of low and no fat carbs. The result this? I’ll read it to you as quoted by the NCBI: The prevalence of obesity changed relatively little during the 1960s and 1970s, but it increased sharply over the ensuing decades—from 13.4% in 1980 to 34.3% in 2008 among adults and from 5% to 17% among children during the same period. Then…the national adult obesity rate has increased by 26 percent since 2008 and today the U.S. adult obesity rate stands at 42.4 percent, the first time the national rate has passed the 40 percent mark. No fat has made us fat. Now let me clarify; a pint of Ben & Jerry’s is 16 oz, and if I have it, I eat it all. The whole pint. A pint of Chubby Hubby has 1,320 calories and 80g of fat. A 16 oz slab of salmon has 944 calories and 59g of fat. However that Ben & Jerry’s Chubby Hubby also packs in 140g of sugar and the salmon has zero. The fat you want is from fish, meat, olives, avocado, seeds and nuts, and some dairy…but not the Ben & Jerry’s kind. Stay tuned and we’ll help you decipher what you want.

Where should fruit factor into your diet? At all? A little? A lot? And then, if any fruits, which are the most beneficial to your wellness? It seems so basic, but these types of questions on food categories and value of different varieties are stumbling blocks in our decisions on diet, and fruitions of health. Yes. Pun intended. In this episode Dr James and I talk through whether we are generally best to eat fruit or not, and if so, which ones and how much.

Continuing on with our series on the most nutrient dense, life-giving foods, we now hit on grains. In the health and wellness world these have gotten much rap as the enemy. Carbs! I won’t hold you in suspense. Do we advise never eating grains? No. Are some types better than others? Yes. Are we best to minimize them in our diet. Yes. The greatest struggle with grains is simply the cultural norms and social friction we must deal with in a time when grains, and generally the least healthy, are still the primary food consumed in America. And being so countercultural is a bigger effort than merely managing our taste buds.

Eating meat or not is one issue, but if you choose to, are they all equal? Absolutely not. Again, we’re talking about food, the item we ingest every day that is intended to build, repair, heal, and help us flourish. So if the next meal has meat, does it contain the natural ingredients it was intended to? Ingredients that give us life? Or is it made up of synthetic hormones, antibiotics, waste products, and an overall soup of refuse and pharmaceuticals? It matters, hugely. The type of meat to a degree, but moreso, the life of the animal it came from. Dr James and I walk through meat to help you understand what will best support your…true life.

Not all vegetables are created equal. In a recent episode, Dr James quipped about his kids going for the most sugar-full veggies like carrots and snap peas and it sparked a listener to ask which veggies were in fact, “better”. We intended to discuss the “better” foods in five categories but found just getting through veggies was a complete episode. To give you some Cliff’s Notes, his “top tier” picks for the most nutrient dense veggies were broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, spinach, cabbage (especially purple) and kale. Tier two? Peas, corn, carrots and okra. Why? You’ll serve yourself to understand, so listen on to the episode.