The Health Benefits of Family Meals and Togetherness

How To Eat Smarter | This episode is brought to you by Thrive Market, Athletic Greens, and Simple Mills

Our bodies are built and maintained by our food choices; we literally are what we eat. Unfortunately, that means the majority of our country is made of ultra-processed food-like substances that create disease. The good news, though, is that small dietary changes can have huge payoffs in a short amount of time. 

My guest on today’s episode of The Doctor’s Farmacy has experienced the dramatic impacts of using food as medicine firsthand. At just 15, he broke his hip simply from running because his bones were so brittle from a diet void of nutrients. At 20, he was diagnosed with degenerative bone and disk disease. After just 9 months of revamping his diet to focus on whole foods, that diagnosis was completely reversed. Shawn Stevenson is here today to tell us how food affects our bodies on the deepest level and how we can eat smarter.

Shawn Stevenson is the author of the international bestselling book Sleep Smarter and creator of The Model Health Show, featured as the number #1 health podcast in the U.S. with millions of listener downloads each year. A graduate of the University of Missouri–St. Louis, Shawn studied business, biology, and nutritional science, and went on to found Advanced Integrative Health Alliance, a company that provides wellness services for individuals and organizations worldwide. Shawn has been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, The New York Times, Muscle & Fitness, ESPN, and many other major media outlets. He is also an in-demand keynote speaker for numerous organizations, universities, and conferences.

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Here are more of the details from our interview: 

• Shawn’s personal health journey and the physical injury that led him to understand the healing power of food (7:28)

• The link between our societal issues, our diet, and the obesity epidemic (13:46)

• How blood sugar swings impact our ability to resolve conflict (14:55)

• The relationship between nutritional deficiency and violent behavior in prison inmates (16:40)

• Why calories in, calories out is not the key to weight loss (18:41)

• How the gut microbiome is impacted by obesity and visa versa (27:33)

• Inflammation, non-alcoholic fatty liver, and body composition (31:10)

• Why being slightly overweight or obese makes you more at risk for negative effects from COVID-19 and how you can make quick changes to improve your health (35:05)

• Hormone dysfunction, metabolism, and weight loss (37:20)

• Why it’s no just what we eat but how we’re eating, and who we’re eating with (43:08)

Learn more about Shawn Stevenson and his podcast at https://themodelhealthshow.com/. Follow Shawn on Facebook @TheModelHealthShow, on Instagram @shawnmodel, and on Twitter @ShawnModel.

Get Shawn’s new book, Eat Smarter, at https://eatsmarterbook.com/.