The Evolution of Food

Fructose tells our body winter is coming and the signaling mechanism is uric acid. The rise in uric acid from 1920 at 3.5 to the average today at 6 milligrams per deciliter. And more recently, the higher levels of fructose because of the development of the technology to extract fructose and create high fructose corn syrup.

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The elevation of uric acid in the body is a causative mechanism in the development of metabolic diseases and contributes to weight gain and fat production. Uric acid is one of the key links between obesity, diabetes, heart disease, neurologic diseases like dementia, ADHD, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and more. Dr. David Perlmutter talks with Dr. Casey Means about why we have excess uric acid, what foods cause uric acid production, and what simple steps we can take to lower our uric acid levels to be optimal. Look for multiple new shows per week on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations about metabolic health and how the Levels startup team builds a wellness movement from the ground up in the health and wellness tech industry.

They also cover:

How uric acid causes cellular dysfunction and insulin resistance, including oxidative stress, and inflammation, and even prevents insulin from getting out of the bloodstream effectively.
Why uric acid would have benefitted us evolutionarily in terms of low access to food and water by letting us more easily pack on weight and raise blood pressure—but how that fights against us today because we now live in an evolutionary-environmental mismatch where this survival mechanism hurts us in the face of caloric abundance.
The different dietary and environmental factors that generate uric acid, including fructose, purine-rich foods and umami foods, dehydration, alcohol, and more.
How uric acid impairs our hunger signals, drives us to eat, and even promotes risk-taking behavior.
How to reverse high uric acid levels as a way to unlock optimal health.

🎙 What Dr. David Perlmutter & Dr. Casey Means discuss:

(00:00) - Intro

(03:12) - More than just gout

(05:06) - A causative role

(07:44) - The number one cause of death

(15:24) - Evolutionary environmental mismatch

(16:58) - High fructose corn syrup

(22:27) - The dangers of uric acid

(23:38) - Uric acid and dementia

(30:33) - Too much fructose

(41:32) - Erectile dysfunction and cardiovascular risk

(01:03:17) - No need to eat sugar