To me, like incredible data and then the other one is that um getting ferment ingesting fermented foods one or two servings a day sauerkraut

for the brain

yeah sauerkraut for the brain or i get whatever given culture because that what i learned and and this is very new and emerging data there's a guy at duke he's incredible he was a nutritionist but then he has phd nutrition excuse me and now he's a neuroscientist um his name is uh diego borges not to be confused with the argentine writer borges he's ecuadorian and he found that there's a there are neurons in our gut of the vagus nerve so these are neurons that live in the gut endothelium and they sense three things They fire electrical signals to the dopamine centers of the brain in response to fatty acids, right? When fats are, you know, meats and things are broken down in the fatty acids, amino acids of other kinds. So from protein and sugar. And so these neurons can easily be tricked into signaling the brain to release more dopamine and because dopamine is really the molecule of craving into craving more of whatever activated those neurons. And so if you give these neurons enough EPA or enough amino acids, so protein and essential fatty acids, the dopamine centers of the brain are just firing like clockwork, which is going to enhance mood, energy i mean dopamine in proper amounts is a beautiful thing too high obviously you don't want but you're not going to get it too high people aren't don't get addicted to chicken breast but they get addicted to sugar right and i think that's i actually think that's because they're they are these neurons seem to be responding best to particular amino acids they seem to want glutamine of all things. They seem to want the omega-3s. And what's interesting is that even if they numb the taste so that people can't taste sugar, if people ingest sugar, these neurons fire- The sugar receptors in your gut, right? And they crave more sugar, even if they can't taste the sugar. So I always thought that the dopamine release to sweet things was because it tastes so good. But the Borges Lab results and some other work on dopamine more generally from my colleague, Anna Lemke at Stanford, shows that dopamine isn't so much about pleasure. We all, including myself, were taught it's about pleasure. Dopamine is about craving more of whatever it is triggered dopamine release. Yeah, whether it's heroin or cocaine or sugar. Or sugar. Or sex. And so these neurons that trigger dopamine release, they are powerfully affected by these quality omega-3s and by amino acids. And then what's really interesting is that they trigger the release of dopamine, but then you say, well, okay, that should be pretty simple. We should, like you said, people don't get addicted to chicken breasts. And I wonder whether or not that's either because omega-3s are too low. So these neurons are not, the full concert of these neurons isn't active. Or it could be that for some reason that the other things that people are ingesting has messed up these neurons and so the whole brain body relationship is disrupted and it's uh i guess robert lustig is his name at ucsf yeah yeah and others are now showing that some of the emulsifiers and foods and other things like that what they do to the gut endothelium i never really understood how the gut brain thing worked but what i realized is is that these microbiota they don't care about us what they do is they, they're trying to find conditions in the gut where the mucus is pH of the mucus is just right. And that if people ingest emulsifiers and sugars, what happens is these neurons and Borges lab has shown this, that these, that these neurons that are in the gut endothelium and can sense amino acids and can sense essential fatty acids. They actually start to retract their processes into the deeper layers of the gut in other words if you ingest the wrong things pretty soon the neurons in the gut remodel neuro the bad kind of neuroplasticity and you lose your gut brain sensing system wow and so it's not just a matter of giving it the right things it's really about, for many people, it's going to be about repairing this system and allowing this portion of our nervous system to grow back. Now, the nice thing about peripheral neurons is that they grow back.

Basically, you're talking about uncoupling the natural ability of our body to sense its environment and to self-regulate in the right way to create health. and all of a sudden the brain in the gut, or whatever you want to call it, the neurons in the gut, start to change as a result of the crappy food we're eating and make us less able to seek out and want the foods that are good for us and tend to make us seek out and want the foods that are bad for us. Exactly. That is a massive brain state shift for me because I never really understood know the mechanics of how that happens but it's clearly true when people are eating bad foods they want more bad foods and they keep eating more and more of them and there are many reasons for that but the gut story is just fascinating first

and foremost we have to recognize that sleep you know you and I trained in an era where sleep deprivation or how little sleep you could get by on was a badge of honor. Yeah. So we need to shift that internal dialogue that we all have that, oh, if I'm sleeping, I'm wasting my time and I'm not getting my stuff done. So first, honor the importance of sleep for your overall health and well-being, and even your ability to stick to your intentions around choosing healthy foods and sticking to your exercise plan. Then create a sanctuary that's really conducive for rest and relaxation. Dark, quiet, cool, ideally electronics out of the bedroom or turned off if you can. Getting rid of all of the light exposures, even your chargers, you know, that had that

little light.