Dr. Eric Berg - Founder and CEO, Dr. Berg Nutritionals, Inc | Life Changing Health Hacks

We as a society are getting healthier or sicker. We're going down big-time fast. Especially in America It's the worst of the worst. It's so bad if you think about that. That's so bad How could you literally create health by eating something dead? It's impossible. The biggest mainstream Accepted health idea that is probably the most damaging. There is no bad foods if it fits your macros kind of the thing or There is no such thing as any bad foods as long as you're eating and moderation you're fine You can't shame food. Some of the shit that you see on social must make you just wonder like what happened? What happened to society? The key is going to be educating people and then like you you feel better So it's going to be really hard for anyone to change your mind about those foods and get you back to junk food because you know you have a knowledge Welcome to success story. I'm your host Scott Clary the success story podcast is part of the HubSpot podcast network HubSpot has been a huge supporter of the show since day one and I chose to partner with HubSpot because they support entrepreneurs at the end of the day I'm an entrepreneur a lot of people that listen to this show or entrepreneurs and it's hard and HubSpot creates solutions For entrepreneurs, so it's not as difficult one of the number one problems that all entrepreneurs have is keeping Customers happy it's one thing to acquire customers keeping them happy boosting customer satisfaction is a whole other Can of worms it's not easy but there is an all-new service hub from HubSpot and it makes it infinitely easier to scale Customer support and increase customer retention remember the cheapest customer to acquire is a customer you already have By bringing service and support together in one powerful platform you can deliver the best experiences for your customers And your team you free up time for your reps focus on complex issues because HubSpot has an AI powered help desk You proactively drive retention with customer health scores to keep your business ahead Stopping churn and it's track and give your entire go-to-market team the data They need to operate as one unified powerful front also you can easily support strengthen and grow your customer base What's the point of acquiring customers if they all just leave the secrets out HubSpot's service hub is a game-changer All so you can better connect with your customers and keep them happy visit HubSpot.com slash service to do more for your customers today Dr. Eric Berg I really appreciate you coming on I'm excited to have this conversation with you I think that how I want to start this off is a very broad question very open and the question is all as all good Podcasts are known for asking do you feel like we as a society are getting healthier or sicker We're going down we're going down big time fast especially in America It's the worst of the worst so you can look at the trends Part disease cancer autoimmune is now surpassing both heart disease as well as cancer So we're going downhill very fast accelerated And so okay, that's obviously very very doom and gloom What do you think what do you think you know is the biggest cause of us going downhill so fast because When you zoom out You feel like we have access to more technology. We should be more knowledgeable Information is is truly democratized in terms of what's good what's bad But I think there's a lot of noise out there too. So it could be confusing you can sort of touch on that as well But what is what are the biggest Things or or levers that are pushing us in the wrong direction in terms of health wellness Diet nutrition all of it. Yeah, I think the whole system is rewarded to treat disease right We're not into creating health or into treating symptoms. You don't go to a doctor unless you have a symptom And so you have this you have a combination of a lot of money to be made in drugs Food chemicals And so if we take a look at just the United States We spend more on health care than any other place in the world yet. We have the worst statistics So throwing more money at it just has not worked because we You know It's like more drugs, right? So I like my neighbor for example I live in a small town population 400 and so There's some people in the country here that just you know, they're just Very low awareness on what to eat and things like that. So this this gal. She's 36 years old She's on 12 different drugs and she's just like disabled and Like they keep giving her another drug, right? So I think the problem is the system the system is based Not on creating health is creating on just treating disease and symptoms So kind of that's where everyone's stuck in so what what we're doing as on a positive thing is where I changed my goal this year to really get down to this basic element of introducing real food into the average person so I took a family To start with I videoed the whole thing or which of their house went to their groceries I mean their pantry their refrigerator and I saw what they're eating and so I did a little little quick intro on basics and food and how to read the label and And then we went to the grocery store and We switched out kind of their their foods with some healthier foods and I was literally shocked that they never ever ever ever ever read or even looked at the label That they just buy food so so we did a whole thing and they it was really good because From now on they're going to be looking at labels and identifying the key factors in these these foods They have to avoid and I made it really simple But I think what I want to do is I want to do that on a bigger scale So we're doing a whole campaign on just getting people to to eat real food and it's not necessarily a diet but They also had the realization that you know, all to process food or junk food is actually 90-thin food based on the definition of food so It was a huge realization on that part It's so interesting because Even in I mean you're talking you said like you know in a in a rural town People aren't as focused on what they're eating, but I don't even think in I don't think it matters where you live. I think it's just I think that everybody especially in the US I think food is for a small select percentage of the population maybe it is a priority to eat healthier and eat better But then it's very expensive or there's a perception that's very expensive And it feels like it's very expensive and even when you are trying to eat healthier And maybe you're if you go to a restaurant you don't know really what's in the food and then there's like the The common idea to hear a lot well, you know when I go to Europe I seem to lose weight and eat anything but when I eat anything in the US even if I try and be healthy It I feel like bloated and kind of like shit So is it as simple as just Getting the right foods at the grocery store or is there something more that like we have to be aware of like what is your I guess what's your definition when you say all to process food you're talking about like Chips and junk food and stuff like that that is like very traditionally Ultra-process and I think that everybody would be like that's not great But if I once in a while it's not going to kill me, but are there other more um uh, maybe Types of foods that we don't immediately think of as ultra-process that we eat on a day-to-day that makes us feel like garbage or effects our health wellness disease whatever um That we're not as cognizant of You know, you mentioned several things I want to cover first of all the expense right how much is it cost for for this is it cheaper to get white bread for example um well think about the cost Of your long-term health, right? I mean, it's so much cheaper To invest in your your true insurance, which is good food, right? Because if you're eating this junk food, you might save a little initially Not much and then but you're in a pain you're paying for for your health and you know your your Vitality and your enjoyment and good health So um if we take a look at just the word ultra-processed food right the definition of process means To remove so we have this process food they remove things they remove fiber Nutrition vitamins minerals antioxidants Uh, they're moving water. They're just taking everything out of it and they might start with like corn and then they have to Ultra-process it which means severely Take away things right to the point where they have to pressurize it Eat it high temperatures. They have to decolorize it deodorize it take solvents and extract certain things And then you're left with this little thing of powder, right? It's like a like a modified food star Something like that or maybe gluecoast syrup, right or maybe seed oil. So those are the three things like you have You know Starches sugars and oils So let me ask you this would you actually eat that as is No Of course not we have to we have to color colorize it We have to it's a flavor on it and hand says we have to make the texture a little bit better than powder And then preserve it so then we package it in these beautiful little boxes cereal boxes and Then we can eat it But that's you're when you're eating ultra-process food you're eating something that is so far Down the scale of Zero life. There's no more life in the food so The definition the word food is that which is eaten to sustain life Provide energy and promote the growth and repair tissue. Well, it doesn't sit the definition So how that how could you literally create health by eating something dead? It's impossible. So I think what's happening is that You know, we're surviving Just barely we're running on adrenaline Because when you don't have enough energy your body starts running on adrenaline. So you got all these people that are um, they might You know have their symptoms managed by medications, but They're not they're not healthy on the inside and so they're coping and um They're nor it's become normalized to eat these junk foods But what's interesting about it? I'm normalized to feel like garbage too and then you're just yeah, right You're hitting old. They're like right now. I'm I just churned um 59 Okay, so there's the yeah, and so I'm running up mountains right I run mountains right now That's what I do and so the other dad some people over and They're all younger than me Yeah, and no one was interested in running them out and so I ran them out and they're they're taking pictures. I'm like Like come on. Let's go. They're like now. I can't too so um I think that it's been been normalized that as we get older, you know, we have to Move less to know less other crap. It's not true. So Yeah, I think um, you know, there's a lot to unpack in this topic, but I'll let you guide me what you want to know about but well Yeah, right No, I was gonna say um So The other piece that I just mentioned was I just want to Frame or or maybe just make people aware of things that are are not ultra processed but are still very very negative and and impactful on your health that are Probably like a little bit more under the radar because Of course, ultra processed and I want to speak about the things that it does to the things that these types of foods do to your body But what are the under the radar things that we have to be aware of that maybe we're not well Well first of all, if you if you look up junk food, there's there's this huge narrative People talk about saturated fat in the salt and sugar when in fact Um, you don't actually find a lot of saturated fat in junk food Um, it's unsaturated fat and that's interesting with the seed oils now People tend to consider like a hamburger ultra processed food only because it's associated with like the fries and the soda but like A burger on meat is is not necessarily ultra processed food the the the bun is but not the meat So there's definitely been this huge movement to get people away from anything meat-wise to go plant-based and there's a whole reason for that Which I won't get into but um, I think um one of the big omissions that no one's talking about they talk about sugar talk about salt Talk about fats But what about starches and I'm talking about synthetic starches because if you look at any Label the ingredients and any junk food um, it has a couple ingredients that are the starches It doesn't we're gonna talk about potatoes. We're talking about modified food starch modified corn starch multi-dextrin people even know those are but those are the the powders that come from Orn and and similar things that are literally Way worse than sugar Because even on the glycemic index like multi-dextrin is way up here sugars right here. So People think oh, it's there's I'm eating this thing. It's no sugar, but it's fine But yeah, but look at the amount of starch. In fact, I'm gonna do a video tomorrow Showing you two labels and I'm not gonna show the ingredients. I'm just gonna show you the the nutrition facts And see if you can pick out which one is healthier and most people when I've done this Pick out the one on the right which is Doritos and versus an avocado And they'll put date because it because you you can't really get a lot of information from a nutritional facts Because it you just looks at fats carbohydrate sugars. You have to forget that And look at the ingredients. That's the important thing And then when you go beyond like just the the the calories and and the nutrients because you just mentioned macro nutrients And of course you're missing on the micronutrients as well if you're eating all this ultiprocess Which is really what's removed um what are some of the long-term health implications metabolism Maybe hormones autoimmune appetite regulation all this stuff that goes haywire when you eat garbage There's nothing else That is more causative for disease than ultiprocess food. I I don't know if you can think of anything I mean, yeah, you have people again infections You know toxicity in the environment preservatives all our rings all that stuff doesn't even compare to The refined synthetic sugars refined synthetic starches and the seed oils So that's like the bottom of the barrel That's the stuff that shortens your life Increases rift for cancer cardio vascular disease inflammatory conditions autoimmune Especially since some most most of these problems start in the gut So they involve you eating something that ends up going in the gut and creating holes in it and problems So Yeah, you go to the doctor What's really missing is the evaluation on foods they don't have the The focus on like what are you eating they never ask that question It's not it's not part of the equation So but it is the the thing that is the the root of most of these problems yet um Yeah, people say oh you just have to eat better and eat eat everything moderation Oh, really is that gonna help we've tried that it doesn't work So yeah, it's I think it's identifying This simplicity of what to avoid those three things Uh, and then the other things are less important Um, but if you can just get those out of the diet you'll instantly start feeling a lot better um And not having to wait a long time because it'll create the biggest impact If you do that so we have you know see the oils actually are very highly inflammatory they can Leach into your cell membranes and your brain and your nervous system in the fat cells for literally um About two and a half years Kind of gets stuck in there And we we've switched from saturated fats to the unsaturated seed oils Um, you know a few decades ago and and that really is a kind of a day coincidence of things started going downhill So that's a that is a big huge factor um the seed oils and it's in You salad dressing. It's in all the ultra processed foods It's in all when you go to the restaurant right try to find the food without The seed those every restaurant, you know has this soy corn oil canola oil That's what they're putting it that they cook and then they use that to cook anything So now that's my point so it's not even just The the Doritos right now. It's like you're eating Your vegetables or your steak or whatever or whatever from the restaurant and it's it case delicious And I'm sure there's probably some you probably have some ideas to whether or not These types of oils or or ultra processed foods could maybe even be like addictive to a degree I'm sure there's something in there that makes them chemically exciting for the brain but um Even the the quote-unquote healthy foods you're trying to get at a restaurant or not Great if they have this shit in it. Yeah. I I think what I need to do now is do um a video on what to eat at a restaurant because I don't think people now like to go to the restaurant. What what to order? How do you know What to avoid that's I'm focusing on the grocery store right now, but I'm gonna be shifting to the and also want to get restaurants to start like there's a couple restaurants in Texas that are like no seed oils. I'm like great. That would be awesome Um, I don't know when you grew up, but I know when in the 70s when I grew up by I didn't see many overweight people and we ate a lot of junk food but we didn't have the amount of seed oils back then Like that happened a little bit later And so that that's interesting because I remember yeah, maybe we had like It's like wow. It's hardly any overweight kids, but now So it's well now it's really bad. Do you think that there is um, I mentioned before people feel like when they go to Europe They feel like they're healthier Have you looked into like regulation in terms of what's put into food? Is there any science behind that or or reason behind that or is that just because you're walking around You know, you're rock you're walking around Rome for like eight hours a day and then you have that That bias that you're actually losing weight when you're really just doing a lot more activity Is there like a real food reason? Yeah, I went that's what inspired me. I was I went to Europe Rome I went to Italy and I went to France and other countries and I'm like wow Why aren't I bloating? Why do I feel so much better despite You know eating Some of the bad things well couple couple reasons for that um, first of all they The ingredients are are very very different. They don't use as many seed oil still like even fry with like olive oil Um, if you go to a restaurant Uh, they really take a lot of pride in their cultural foods like um, they get food from the farm Yeah to a certain farms that they get their food from and um and so the whole farming in the cheese uh and they um Like uh, here we have craft craft uh, I think they um They patented or something or trademarked uh parmesan cheese over there They have a little different. It's the authentic uh, I think parmesanian In a zonio cheese. It's completely, you know authentic here. It's like It's degraded um also the wheat over there is different and they also uh ferment The um the bread Here we barely for fennel for we might Fremantage for like an hour or something or two hours or maybe even a day, but there it's like a couple days So now we have uh something that's easier should I just they don't also have as much as enrichment like the heavy um iron fortification So when you eat food here, you feel like there's a rock in your stomach So it's definitely it's a there's a lot of Like even in France it knows to tell they have a lot a lot of different recipes that you're eating Um, much higher quality food. So that's one of the things that I really want to support the small farmer in america so people can um Find food from their local farmers that can get close to the quality that you would get in europe Much better in europe. Absolutely raw milk cheese, right? You can't it's hard to get it if impossible in america um So raw milk chill cheese is super healthy and uh, you know, even like the you you buy some cheese That from boats that are on a mountain top in france Like just eat that cheese. Let's just say i'm see how good you feel it's it's so much different than here You know, you meant like a lot of the a lot of the conversation revolves around um seed oil I guess the first question would be Is it just a commercial reason as to why it is the most viable or or or the the most commonly used type of oil for a lot of these types of foods Um, is there is there any reason why we wouldn't use more i guess healthy oils or or Is it a i guess i'm just confused as to why we've gone down this rabbit hole and we're stuck here It's basically you can the reason they do it is to decrease uh or increase the shelf life Because if you were fine, you're taking away enzymes you're taking things away from it You're preserving it so it can sit on the shelf longer if you go to the dollar general store in america You will find a lot of food that has been sitting in the shelf for months and months and months So could you imagine how expensive it would be to Have real food that you have to replace every week right because it goes bad So financially it makes much more sense to preserve food and to be able to keep it on the shelf and it can and a box Something like that so financially and in the other thing that's Some of these companies are rewarded um because They're subsidized by the government which is actually you so They you pay on the front end because they go think If i'm not mistaken, it's 1.6 billion trillion subsidized so corn soy wheat Sugar beat beat sugar and so here we Taxpayers pay the farmers to grow this right get it such a cheap rate These companies then turn in and junk food and then we buy it again second time And then we pay a third time at the doctor because basically Much of the disease out there is just side effects of ultra-process food not all but a lot of it and so There's a huge incentive with this system of um Staying in this area of ultra-process food And uh, you know, it's gonna take a lot to shift this this uh This whole idea because the market is set up And it's uh, it's just like Incredibly profitable. Yeah, yeah I was gonna say if the market supports it is tough to shift a consumer However, if you can get somebody so like what this family that you mentioned where you're taking them shopping You're showing them how to look at what's in uh, what's in an actual You know product or what the actual ingredient makeup is and and they change the reading habit If you can get somebody on a path where I think they immediately start to feel better I think that that is probably the quickest path to changing a habit if they feel but I mean So for example like when I cut out I'm not like I'm not gluten intolerant per se but if I cut out gluten and I go on a Lower carb or even keto diet. I'm like Cognitively I feel better like I feel sharp or I feel more energy. I feel more balanced I don't have peaks and valleys. I know that from a scientific perspective I know my glucose is more regulated I'm not having a huge high and then a crash after eat a big meal So I'm not you know falling asleep at my desk around four So there's a lot of reasons as to why I like to incorporate like a lower carb lifestyle And it's like yeah, you look good. Yeah, that's cool. I don't mind the food Um, but then also you just feel better. So if you were and this is just My you know my personal experience, but if you were gonna Talk to that family and you say look at this is like the one change that I want you to make because I want you to get hooked on a better lifestyle What is that major change that will produce that immediate positive Feedback loop where they are like yes, I get it. I feel it in like the first week You know, I've been in this area for 30 years or longer than that and even in practice and you can't just tell people Just to change their diet. They didn't need to know why so you know, I I spend a little time educating them What's what's happening in the body when they eat real food versus The fake food So that's one part is the education and then the second is uh doing it trans aren't deep dive into where actual food comes from and where the fake food comes from um because You like certain food you can't know where it comes from you don't know where it comes from like try try to go to Isis chicken where they have the huge buildings and see if you can get a tour To see your chicken that you're gonna eat you can't it's private They don't want you to know or um have you ever seen the factory where they make um multi-dextrin of modified food starch You can't you can't know that I hired um a food scientist who used to work in that area and uh I got a little inside of That whole world It's super secretive. I don't want people to know. It's it's like wow crazy. So um Yeah, they have pictures that these wonderful uh, you know chickens that are free range. It's all natural and then Uh, I bet you that's probably not what's really happening No, that's just the marketing campaign uh When you when you think about okay, so there's education um, but taking it a step further So talk to me about meta-balomics what what is meta-balomics? I want to understand sort of like from um From a deeper level So from what I understood and listen, this is me researching before this podcast This is not me being a subject matter expert in this by any means, but it's just helping you understand like How you react and is that on a biological level is that uh is is certain genes or DNA Um, maybe they react to different foods in different ways are or is there like one diet that really everybody could subscribe to that would be better are some people Easier to uh to some people like us operate better when the e-carbage food. I'm just very curious about what this sort of the science or this study or this practice sort of unlocks Metabolomics uh is going to be the way of the future for medicine You you probably heard of uh genomics, which they talked about the gene therapy people get their DNA tested and that was supposed to be the The thing that was going to just change medicine forever, right? There's like 20 Thousand to twenty five uh thousand genes. That's a lot of data. There's a lot to to look at um, but it only tells you Potentially what could happen So then as things evolved and i'm going to skip a couple steps and go right to metabolomics which you're basically taking um A lot more information from your blood or your urine uh that goes way beyond just a simple blood test and looks deeper into your chemistry So if i were to be able to um look deeper in the chemistry and see all the different Steps so if you do a blood test, maybe you have i don't know 15 to 20 things you're looking at yeah, but then when you've metabolomics you have 3000 So you can actually get a picture of the dynamics of what's happening from the the assembly line from food All the way down to waste in all the different factors so you can get a real good real-time picture Of what's happening to your your body from your diet your lifestyle your stress everything together real-time What's happening like if we take just let's just take the monocondria, which is the energy factory the cell You have you have like 12 12 little steps there, okay that basically go from food Into energy um and each step Has certain enzymes that help make this chemical change from one thing to the next If you can measure each one of those and see where the bottlenecks are You can then see what's missing For example Uh, for an enzyme to work you need This is where you need vitamins and minerals people don't realize that the vitamins minerals are actually help the enzymes to convert one thing to another so um I consume a really healthy diet But they found out severely deficient vitamin C I like what wait a second. I have normal vitamin C in my blood Yeah, but the demand is so high Because I actually I run up hills and so my body sucks it up So to be able to see if you have sufficient nutrients If it's all working that's way more important than what's what's going on your blood You can have You could have like bone loss osteoporosis and have normal calcium in the blood It doesn't really the blood is the kind of the is not the best place to identify problems because the body will compensate and things like that I mean just today we did a metabolic testing on my dad who's in his 80s and uh His doctor found his too much vitamin D in his blood, okay, so he said stop taking vitamin D up I'm sorry b12 and That we looked at his metabolic test. He was like severely deficient in b12 Well, first of all when you take a b12 Supplement and then you go to the doctor and get it tested It's kind of show high amounts in your blood because you just took it If I could stay in your blood for like seven days So to be able to see at the cell level what's really going on That's very valuable. I wish I had this when I was in practice because It takes the mystery about Of what's going really going on with your metabolism Uh, on the whole not just like weight loss, but you're overall health so you can pick up Uh, amazing information and then do this over time to keep improving it And so that way we don't have to put everyone on the same diet We can just use this testing to tell us What they need more of or less of It's because everyone you know some people respond On this diet and this that it's like you can't put everyone on the exact same thing Uh, one thing my father um the big thing about him is like he's severely low on on um protein I mean he if it has normal on a protein, but you can see it's muscle wasting but on his mitochondria There's like this hardly any protein going into that little that little feedback loop. So um, it's very valuable and I think Going into the future if a doctor could use that I mean this would change everything because now you're you're not focusing on disease You're focusing on okay, how can we create more health versus oh, let's let's treat this symptom with the drug But you haven't even looked at the root cause you haven't even addressed the diet. I mean like why would you want to do that? It doesn't make sense So there's a lot of value and and really um Um, having the data to tell us what's going on for real um And going deeper Just want to take a second and thank the sponsor for today's episode HubSpot now HubSpot has an incredible podcast network the HubSpot podcast network my show success stories part of it But if you love great podcasts you have to listen to imperfect action hosted by stef Taylor She cuts to the chase she dishes out actionable strategies on online marketing Content creation social media and more stef is your marketing obsessed friend She's been in the trenches for years. She shares what works and what doesn't So you skip that costly trial and error if you crave friendly Educational content that gets results in perfect action is your new favorite podcast check out in perfect action Wherever you get your podcasts When you look at so you answered you answered all my questions So there's no one diet that solves every every problem for every person that's better or worse It's really at the meta metabolomics really Unlocks all the things that are broken within our bodies as to why Um, whatever reading is not doing the job that it's supposed to be doing So there is a massive amount. Yeah. Yeah, if you have like initially like most people have insular resistance And they're webway problems and they might be a pre-diabetic and so of course we want to they're not very Metabolically flexible So you they can't handle any sugar at all. So you have to get them off carbs and stuff but you do that over a period of time and They're now they're in much better shape. They can handle healthier carbs And so we're not talking about putting them on a lot But but they could they have more flexibility over time when they start healing the system And um depending on I mean just think about how many It's so hard to do a test to determine what everyone needs As far as a diet because you also have different like you have Asians you have people from different You know, parts of the world that have their whole generations have lived on different types of food. So you can't You know, what's what's good for some people is not actually ideal for another person So you really need you have to look at the whole picture and um and the bottom line is If if we could since most diseases Are at the mitochondrial level if we could just get that thing to work Then whatever that person is doing is it's going to be successful Is that well, I was gonna say I was no, I was gonna ask I was gonna say what diseases can you Can you sort of look at there's like a biomarker or a signal of an increased risk of some sort of disease or or health problem what What can you what can you look for with this type of tests like it's you just answered like cancer heart disease like this is all Like when you run these types of tests you see all the leading indicators for all of these types of diseases autoimmune all of it before they happen Wow Decades before they happened So you you you can start looking at oh wow High amounts of oxidative stress. Okay, inflammation. Okay, so we're gonna have a lot of problem Or even insulin resistance or or problems with the microbiome or inability to detoxify So you can you could predict things with this data which is super valuable to be able to predict Long before you even get a symptom wouldn't that be cool? Um So this is good sir. Well, I mean let's say for example, you're tired right now, right? I mean You can drink an energy drink, but there's about a hundred different reasons why you're tired We can find out we can find out why you're really tired by looking at this test and going This is why you're tired or Or no, this is not why you're tired. I will tell you this and this is really really important The worst thing you could possibly do to a patient is to give them the wrong diagnosis It's kind of like Telling your wife what their problem is. It does it. It's like you're gonna mess things up Like you'd ever want to tell you know your problem is something, you know, like don't ever do that So it's with a patient You got to be very careful not to give them the wrong thing because they will get worse just by that What would be like the gold standard if you look at the people that are offering this test right now or where people can actually explore this because this is the first time I've ever heard of it and I'm I would assume I think just because of my background and I played a lot of sports and I focused on health awareness that I'm more Clothed into this community than then even the average person then probably that family that you helped by By food at the grocery store. So that being said, I've never heard of this. So So where would somebody go to get one of these tests if they want to actually explore is it like is it viable for you know Public is it is it gonna cost them 20,000 bucks? Is it something they go to their local doctor like where do they go? It's very very new even though it's been around for a long time The problem with this testing is you have to understand biochemistry. So it's a little bit like a lot of doctors Even school. I went I went through pre-med myself We all just memorized Bama biochemistry and got through we don't understand it until After you graduate and you relearn it and you have time to play with it and learn it So there's going to there's a little learning curve right to biochemistry because that's you have to be able to understand that you can't just read this So there's not a lot of clinics out there. There's one that There's one really good one. It's in Greece. They do track people remotely Um, that one is really good because they have you know, they've done 60,000 people so far. So they they're database They have the right normals to compare things with and So that would be one but um What I'm um, I reached out to this Group that I said listen let me translate the course in English for you so we can bring it to americans start having doctors learn and get this Information because I think there's a lot of doctors that would want to know This data so there's all course. I'm helping them do the course on it. So more doctors can get trained So that's happening soon, but in in the meantime, you know, there's like this team of nine doctors They they do it all over the world right now and from Greece and Rome. That's where they're located Um, but there's not a lot of places, but it's I mean it last year there was I think 81,000 different research studies on this topic. So it's It's definitely coming up and there's a lot of people Getting involved with it. They're talking about it. It's called personalized nutrition um but um As right now, I wouldn't recommend a lot of different clinics because You gotta you have to have the experience and it's like okay, you see the test, but now How do you relate that to the person's Diet? And so that's why I like I like this doctor in Greece I feel you know, I I had my parents go there myself my family so I like it, but um and I personally just You know, I do YouTube it is I want to learn everything about it. So I'm physically taking his course now Just not that I'm going to practice, but I want to know everything about it. So And this little bit of learning curve, you know, because you have to understand Uh, about chemistry from a whole different level so you can apply it Versus memorize it. I was gonna I was gonna say so that I see things in the market. I see things like people You you give someone a little bit of your saliva and they do like your disease history via your DNA I've seen people do Like gut flora checks and they Prescribe a diet based on what they find in your gut Are any of these things I like are these things be asked are these things are these compared to the level that of what This would do the problem with them palm The microbiome it's no one really understands it yet. It's just too much data This to you're dealing with DNA from microbes right yet you're doing with you dealing with Thousands of different species. It's like this is going to take some time to really figure that out So we don't know a lot about microbiome you get the analysis done And it's like okay, we're kind of guessing here um Now as far as DNA testing You're dealing with 20 20,000 to 25,000 genes. It's a lot of data You can't really Initially it got into that and I started learning it, but the problem is um, it doesn't tell you what's happening in real time right now Because it's just your DNA. It doesn't mean those genes are expressed Because you have epigenetics which is life that activates these genes So you're going to treat someone based on their genes. Well, they might not even have a problem with that Yes, it's a weakness But it's not if you have a lack of absorption of vitamin D doesn't necessarily tell you you're lacking vitamin D So it's good to know that but it's not the best test And the microbiome Um, I kind of it's just too too much data. It's too it's That's going to I don't know if we're over going to figure that one out because that's like extremely complex And no one really understands that yet. So you also get into um looking at Proteins and stuff like that uh, but that the if you go up keep going up the ladder The meta-balomics is going to be the best thing because that tells you You're only dealing with 3000 metabolites and uh, and you don't need to even know all of them Um, maybe 600 of them And then what you can do is um, you can understand that and you can work with that and you can You know, when you go to a functional functional medicine doctor, they'll they'll do um, they might do They might even do a meta-balomic testing But then they switch to a hormone test and then they switch over over here to your genetic test That's not how you want to do it. You want to stick with one thing over time and really improve it The problem with blood test Is that only tells you the tip of the iceberg this symptom. It doesn't allow you Like even like if you take magnesium or potassium Um, and you're looking at the blood well 99% of that it's inside the cell So you it's kind of worthless. You can do it. It's okay to test the blood But we want to go deep into the chemistry and it's just it's so much So basically obviously this This presentation is just bringing the awareness up and just to put it on the radar Because I don't think many people even know that there was a test like this that was in existence, but there is amazing um I I'm super curious because out of all the different topics because like I mean you've done YouTube videos on Everything and two of the topics or two of the supplements that you focus on more recently is niacin and Omega's and I'm curious like I want to maybe just speak about those in more details to your thoughts on them And I think that people have probably heard about omegas maybe heard about niacin But why are those the two things that are sort of like top of mind to you in terms of all the different You know all the different things you could be taking or focusing on that impact your health As you dive into the mitochondria and there's something called the crebs cycle which is kind of a series of the Steps in that mitochondria that generate energy There's there's one thing in there that's um That's a heavy lifter that basically helps Helps make the battery ATP helps extract electrons and helps move things along and it's called NAD And you maybe you've heard of um NAD as a supplement Or NADH And there's different versions of it Well that particular molecule is the precursor for that is vitamin B3 niacin niacin And there's a tremendous amount of research on niacin For cholesterol but there's A lot a lot more it can do in higher amounts because It feeds that NAD in the mitochondria so There's a there's a You could actually improve Just about everyone's mitochondria by giving them higher doses of vitamin B3 Uh and in the form of niacin you you're going to feel Much more energy you're going to feel better. It's quite interesting as I was looking at this. I'm like For a lot of different reasons mainly to fix to help the mitochondria work better niacin is a no brainer But you don't necessarily want to take it in the small RDA amounts which are out dated by a hundred years and the only are there to prevent Diseases as a prevention like there's a Have you ever heard of Pellegrin? Pellegrin. No. I have no no. I was gonna ask you a question about NAD Just very briefly but tell me about Pellegrin first because I've heard about NAD being like a very like Trendy supplement, but going to Pellegrin first. Sorry. No, basically there's certain vitamin deficiencies you like Skurvy would be invited. Let's see Deficiency you have rickets is vitamin D berry barriers B1 But then you have Pellegrin which is vitamin B3 deficiency and this occurred in the early 1900s where it was epidemic I mean people were we're getting serious terrible inflammation look like the leprosy on their skin It was called the four d's Dermatitis, which is the stuff on the skin dementia Diarrhea and death, okay, I mean this is how bad it was and this is all because of a vitamin B3 deficiency Now how do you become deficient vitamin D3 by eating refined corn and junk food and ultra-process food so What really I think is happening is We're getting a subclinical a lot of people have a subclinical legra dementia A lot of digestive problems Neurological issues things like that and if you look at the the food fortification where they and you know Anytime you eat anything with wheat they fortify it they enrich you with synthetic vitamins, but they don't actually I've never seen a The ad B3 that's interesting to me so Anyway, um I've been recommending it to um in some of my videos and I'm getting the feedback I'm like wow people are really like that I'm taking it. I really like it, but you need it in higher amounts And so then now of course because I'm seeing a lot of results. I'm like I'm really doing a deep dive into This topic because when you find something that works Um ortho ortho- ortho molecular medicine. That's they use higher doses. These are a medical group that uses higher doses of certain vitamins Like vitamin C and niacin to create these really cool effects So I'm finding um fascinating Interesting benefits even especially like it's niacin is similar to nicotine too So if you want to get someone off smoking it like addiction nicotine addiction just give my niacin and the cravings go away Um, but you have to use high amounts Also, it's great for ADD ADHD and in that form you'd want to get them in niacidamine which is a slightly different version But anyway, I was that's that's why I got interested in the niacin recently. There are a lot of videos on it Because just to follow them on the last thing that I just mentioned because NAD I've seen in oral pill form. I've seen people taking NAD intravenously But is that like a marketing gimmick? Is it that just well should you be knowing the point is should you be taking niacin? The precursor for NAD or should you be taking NAD directly? Here's the thing You could take the NAD or you can just take niacin. It's a lot cheaper. Just take it or of it It'll do the same thing and so NAD has been recommended for longevity, okay? Because it helps you live longer Why would it do that? Because it helps your mitochondria And most diseases relate to the mitochondria so you're gonna you're gonna create some interesting cool effects So NAD is an electron Carrier it carries these electrons. It's like the carries the the battery Charge so you could you could actually have this energy storage, right? But there's also another one that no one's talking about Called FAD. You don't even find a supplement on that But the question is what builds that? It's about to be B2 not B3 And so what is that good for? Well, that's really good for tremors Neurological stuff MS migraines Chaturaxes and I cancer So anyway as as I do deep dives in this stuff I found I'm like asking questions fun. I'm like learning all this interesting data and research that You have to kind of like where I found this as I found it in in patents bi neurologist Who had all this data? I'm like what like why isn't this broadly promoted and then You know you have to understand the basic chemistry to be able to correlate and understand it So I like to take different puzzle pieces put it together and then do videos on it So I will be doing a video on tremors Arkansas, but Anyone that has tremors or Parkinson's needs to take high doses of vitamin B2 not B3 It's almost like everything can be solved if you know that the right the right mechanism or the right the right supplement It's just Again, we don't focus on that like you said we focus on disease and and and what drug to prescribe versus true health And it seems like a lot of the stuff that you know people people have issues with it's just a matter of Again, knowing what that that deficiency is really Yeah, you know just just getting back because you were talking about the mitochondria Have you heard of co-NZM Q10? Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's another one people take for different things That's another one that works in that mitochondria that also helps to this make this battery thing Helps to get energy One of the things about co-NZM Q10 You have to when you take a statin Which is a cholesterol blocking medication It to bleach your co-NZM Q10 and you get all these Muscle diseases and symptoms from it So but you also get neurological stuff too. So um Oh, and a high doses of co-NZM Q10 Uh, does miracles for things like Tremors and neurological issues and muscle problems as well, but um The point is that look look at how many people are on statins right now And there's a phrase of this cholesterol um cholesterol is um The most important um tissues that uh that is needed for cholesterol is your cell membranes Having like every cell has a membrane It's the outer part and so you start decreasing your cholesterol and man do you you suffer a lot of issues uh with in your brain and the nervous system and the cognitive function and the mood um, so Again, it's like it's kind of like taking some of these These myths on on health and educating people on it because Unfortunately the Some of these medical schools only give you like eight hours of Education in nutrition eight hours That's not quite enough That's what an average doctor like an average PhD would be Be going through before they I don't know about a PhD, but I know a medical school insert medical schools It's like eight hours. Wow. That's nothing. That's absolutely nothing um The other thing that you you speak about quite often you speak about omega-6 And I know that that is I think that's found in seed oils as well, but Omega's are usually considered to be healthy like I put an air quotes healthy, right? And so what is what is the what is the risk or impact of Maybe taking too many Omega's is that something that's good for you bad for you Um, what's your opinion on that? So It is true that we need These Omega's are essential fatty acids are essential fatty acids It means that our bodies would make them so we need them right so But we definitely don't need we don't need 30% almost Well 25 to 30% of all of our calories are seed oils. We don't need that much. That's way too much So we do too much of that that competes for the omega-3 Which we need we need more of that and and especially our brains um in our hearts and our cell membrane So we're we're way out of balance with that and so we have a lot of inflammatory issues And also the quality of the seed oils is very very low um and so Certain food companies are using a couple study is that show that Omega-6 oils do lower cholesterol and and then they're assuming well. That's going to improve your heart But in reality It doesn't it makes things worse, but they're still holding on to those studies is Well, we're going to use this. I mean this take look take for example Like grains in oats like uh Cheerios Now is it Cheerios? Yeah, cheerio. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If you look at the bot the the label heart healthy You know way with that That's insane That that's because they're operating off of those studies that show that a decrease is Class trial, but what I would like to do In fact, I might do this myself. I'm going to be the human gaining pig I'm going to consume that food. I'm going to do my blood profiles. I'm going to test everything And see if it really makes my heart healthy from the metabolic testing. I will guarantee it won't but um, yeah, so Or what about uh, uh, you look at the seed oils and says heart healthy seed oils really Unsaturated those unsaturated fats are so unstable. How can you even keep them In a clear bottle on this shelf For any period of time without going rancid so It's it's it's it's kind of going to it's going to be one of those things uh, we're trans fats people are going to go Wow, we made a mistake for 80 years. Yeah. How long was margarine on the I was like for oh my goodness Almost a hundred years margarine really. I mean how did they get away with it the same thing they keep doing it and so Unfortunately a lot of people have to die before we find out it's bad for you But there is a there is a movement in people that are trying to focus on their health and wellness I think especially post-COVID. I think people are very cognizant of it so I've never seen such a focus on People at least trying to learn what they should put in their body And how they should treat their body and what they should eat and they want to work out more in their trying You know now Cold plunge this and red light sauna and they're switching diets every two seconds But what I like the point is it's like a journey of learning which is better than ignorance And but they're a parallel with that. There's a lot of campaigns going on To get people to eat clean protein and get off meat, right Because because they consider red meat being toxic and you know, they mesh in there. It's harmful for the environment So we need to get off meat because it causes cancer. It's really really unhealthy In fact, even made Red meat and processed meat are carcinogen So really that but in reality, I don't know what other food could heal you as much as that red meat I mean, it's like super healing so So anyway, it's kind of like I think what happens is a lot of good things out there eventually get inverted The step that's really good becomes the like the stuff that's really bad and the stuff that they're recommending is actually the worst thing You could even recommend so a lot of my material on my videos. I get Simply by going through what is recommending in the mainstream? Okay, good now I need to go in the opposite direction and I'll know will be a hundred percent correct every single time It's so bad if you think about that. That's so bad. So like the food pyramid all of that All of it is so bad. Well, you wrote a book on keto, right? I think you the healthy keto plan Yeah, so I mean you know that the like and I don't even know if you'd recommend it everybody does pure keto or some some iteration of it I mean for me it's been It's like it's like a 180 in terms of how you feel like yeah Maybe on the weekend I won't care as much, but I can guarantee you I feel like garbage like absolute garbage Compared to when I'm eating like a like a strict keto diet But it's just I mean, I think if people listen to their own body more I think that would also be smart but What can you do? What can you do? What is the what is the biggest um What is the biggest and I mean there's going to be so many so pick one that's just fun the biggest mainstream accepted Health Idea that is probably the most damaging I think the biggest one is um There is no One there is no bad foods Like the if it fits your macros kind of the thing or well just there is no such thing as any bad foods all as long as you're Eating in moderation you're fine. I can't you can't shame food because yeah, that's discrimination Um, and that's put out by the the junk food industry and like um, and then this is why they even hire dietitians to I've even to go to their conventions. You'll see this huge slide Off the churios into this pool of churios. I mean So um, they're putting out there's no such thing as you food shaming And then it's okay to be fat, you know, it's okay to be unhealthy um don't discriminate again Like what are you talking about, you know um you take um you go to the store like I we went to Walmart to find some food for this family and I showed them the aisle on the infant formulas and uh Um, I go I said go ahead and read the ingredients. It's exactly all to process foods on steroids So you start these kids out young and then you turn them into an um a You know a money machine uh ATM for big pharma eventually. So Start them out young get them on medication riddled in and then But I think things are changing and I think um You know thank goodness with social media you can bypass a lot of stuff stuff and go viral Because it works But of course that it then you have the ozambic, you know thing that's going viral too and even the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that for kids So, you know, it's just one of those things where I think that um If you it's the key is going to be educating people and then having them do it And then like you you feel better So it's going to be really hard for anyone to Change your mind about those foods and get you back to junk foods. I don't think that's going to happen because you know You have the knowledge and you can't go backwards. It's going to be really hard to anyone to change your mind The only issue with the with the internet and social media is you can also have bad ideas It's spread very quickly too, and I'm sure like as a as a As a like a an expert and a doctor in this space you must Some of the shit that you see on social must make you just wonder like what happened what happened to society Because I see I see a lot of pretty wild health advice So it's also like People need to expose themselves and yes, good ideas can go viral, but also I think people need to Like I'm just a fan of of critical thinking regardless like you you have to be a critical thinker To To be the best version of yourself and that includes With the people that you listen to and the and the information that you that you study and that you you know Keep yourself exposure to so I think that listen You also have to be very critical and I think that's also also always been a big issue in the health of wellness space It just seems like there's always so many opinions And everyone are like the zealots of their own opinion and no other opinion can ever be correct or right So I think that's also probably not great for the for the layman who's just trying to figure out What do I do next week? I don't know who to listen to so I appreciate that you know The studies that you do and the research that you do think is important to show people Why you come to the conclusions that you do versus some people just spout off facts Which is also not good. Yeah Well, it's if you take a look at how valuable is an opinion, you know How valuable is your opinion or my opinion or any analysis opinion I think it the value is is based on how well That opinion is been evaluated like for example, um, I have I have 28 million subscribers on all my channels and I get about 200 million views a month Okay, and One of the things that I do that Other influences don't do in a video is um, I'll take a topic And I'm not just gonna give my opinion. I'm gonna evaluate that a lot of it from every different angle I'm talking about inspecting it from upside down backwards both viewpoints So we can play with it and look at it and and because if For example, there's doctors that I interviewed that disagree with me and they say well People aren't deficient you can get all your nutrients from food. We don't really need to Use supplements and I go That's your opinion, but you haven't evaluated that very because I tell you right now. There's like tens of thousands of research studies that you haven't looked at so they're They're basically making this conclusion without really inspecting and looking And so what I do with my videos is I'll like I did a video recently on Why are there hardly any fat people in Colorado? That's weird So I went through some interesting data about What's unique about that also What states have the most obesity and the correlated with that and then I also brought up the wild variables the paradoxes that are like weird And I found something that correlated with that and so Obviously the truth is going to be correlating more with things that satisfy most of these arguments Or and explain those exceptions to the rule That's going to be way more valuable than someone just giving their opinion because they're an expert or they have a degree Does that make sense? Yeah, it makes perfect sense. So yeah, and that's why I think um I think that's what more videos should do rather than just give their Opinion is like, okay, why be back at a level degree like that first of all you're getting your information from senior university Which um that's that doesn't tell you what anything So tell me about why you think that and show me the data show me both sides Someone likes people are against meat eaters, right or even keto. It's going to kill you but Why do you explain all the people that benefit it from keto? I mean there's a five eight thousand success stories explain that Oh, I don't want to talk about that. Okay If you wanted to first of all, I wanted to just uh give you this the chance to just tell the audience you know What to look forward? Uh, what to look forward to with what you're doing in the future. I mean obviously you're going to keep putting out videos um New books anything that you want to focus on going forward just so they know what to expect One thing I'm very interested in because we're talking about food is um supporting in the local farmer I'm real I so I live in a farm and I had animals. I'm learning about farming. I spent half the day farming and fixing fences and learning about this stuff and also feeding animals certain unique foods and then sending the that meat to the lab to see What the nutrition profile is out So that that's the area of research. I'm really interested in just just to um To find a way to grow healthier food um using Food that doesn't cost so much money to feed these animals because I'll give you an example like the pigs that I have You know how much it costs. I mean it was like it's twenty five thousand dollars a pig I'm like first of all that's insane Secondly, no one's going to afford that and uh, how do we find an alternative to that? I mean how can How can a farmer actually get aid To be able to produce high-quality food. I'm like wow. That's hard. That's a hard problem So that's one area of research Also, I have a greenhouse. It's an 80,000 square foot greenhouse. We're building in West Virginia um and i'm growing um Lettuce Not in the crappy hydroponic water but in six inches of Soil it's not sterilized um So I wanted this uh because uh, you know, I do like salad and um as part of it and uh, so um I can't find good salad. I mean, I can with my own garden So we're trying to experiment on that and as just as a side thing just to figure that out And it's kind of an R&D type thing. We'll have videos and And teach people about that and um learn from experimentation So that's another project that that i'm doing on the side I love it. So if people want to connect I mean they they probably have you on on youtube dr. Eric Berg All the socials are dr. Eric Berg um website. They can see anything you're working on there if you wanted to So last two last two things i want to put up you just one last sort of message call to action Word of warning piece of advice bit of insight to the audience Uh, what would that be just one last message that you want to leave the audience with as they go Sort of on their own health journey after they listen to the show I think there's always always the solution is out there And it's usually even in the literature. It's in the research. You just have to find it So i'll spend a tremendous amount of time trying to find you can't find it on the first 20 to 30 to 50 pages of google Okay, it's not going to be there. It's not going to be on youtube. You have to dig deep Just you have to assume that the answer is out there. That's number one. That's really important That's how i always do it and i know they find it You have to find this little piece of gold or the solution and then um And then um You know to solve your health problems. So you just have to assume that's out there and then find it But not look in the usual spaces because it's been It's been censored. So i that's why i study patents a lot of older textbooks To find certain pieces of information and then summarize it and put it out there. So I might have the video that you want or um, you know Maybe you just do your own research and figure it out. So that's I guess that would be the answer to your question. I love that if you were gonna, you know It can be from a health and wellness perspective or it could be from like a just like a You know a life Well-lived and lessons learned perspective if you were gonna look back and tell your 20-year-old self one thing What would that thing be? Wow, uh, that's a really good question. I i think that um Of course about to do it over if i knew what i knew back I mean now what i knew back then or now i've just reversed that if If i knew back then what i knew now. Oh my gosh, it would be It'd be a short circuit But i think i think it really it was good to go through a lot of stress and failures and injuries and sicknesses and Doing the wrong diet to force me to um certain like if i'd never had any health problems Okay, and i had never stressed. I would not be doing this because I kind of grew out of The school of hard knocks stress pain injuries um failures Years of suffering and just trying to figure it out and then that forced me to look in other places and and find Find someone that could help me, you know But if i if everything was great, i probably would never even gotten into health. I I was it's terrible. I was the worst junk food junkie on the planet And i had just about every single health problem. I think that's On one hand that forced me to Go into this area and now i'm helping a lot of people so That's it's fun to help people. I think that's a therapy. I think helping people is Is like my therapy. So