Ancestral Health Today

Stephan Guyenet on How the Brain Controls Eating and ObesityThis episode with Stephan Guyenet examines the brain processes that drive appetite and eating behavior. Stephan is a neuroscientist who has studied what drives many of us to overeat and become overweight, and why it is so hard to lose weight.  He did his Ph.D. in Neurobiology at the University of Washington, and wrote the popular heath blog, Whole Health Source. In 2017 he published a highly acclaimed book about this - The Hungry Brain.  It continues to garner praise and attention, and was featured last February on the New York Times' Ezra Klein podcast. Stephan has spoken at the Ancestral Health Symposium several times on topics relating to the metabolic and neurological processes that underlie eating behavior and obesity.Our conversation with Stephan touches on how evolution shaped our brain circuits to function in a way that is mismatched to the modern food environment.  Weight control is not a simple matter of willpower, but of better awareness to how our neurobiology and reward circuits respond to different foods.Here is a guide to topics discussed in this podcast episode:1:57       How Stephan got interested in the brain's role in obesity3:12       Obesity as a modern phenomenon and it's rarity in pre-industrial societies like the Hazda6:45       Theories on the cause of the obesity epidemic - macronutrients, processed foods, food abundance11:31     Why It's not just about carbohydrates or refined carbs14:10     And it's also not just about omega-6 seed oils17:10     Food cravings and calorie dense highly palatable food18:52     The evidence from rat studies24:29     Food combinations and dopamine release in the brain25:48     Sensory specific satiety28:03     Is palatability inherent in food, hardwired in the brain, or learned through conditioning?33:08     The mismatch between our brain reward circuits and modern processed foods36:09     What is dopamine and how does it work in the brain to induce cravings?45:07     How to extinguish food cravings by changing what we eat46:47     How low carb and low fat diets can both work48:11     The role of food flavor in appetite control49:52     Recruiting non-conscious brain circuits to support your weight loss goals50:33     Which diets Stephan thinks are best supported by the evidence56:17     Satiety and calorie density58:06     What Stefan is working on now This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ancestralhealth.substack.com

Dr. Alessio Fasano, MD is Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, Professor of Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Director of the Mucosal Immunology and Biology Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Fasano’s translational science is focused on the role of impaired intestinal barrier function in the pathogenesis of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, including celiac disease, autism and type 1 diabetes. Director of the Center for Celiac Research and Treatment at (MGHfC), Dr. Fasano is widely sought after as an expert in celiac disease, intestinal permeability and autoimmune disorders. 00:00 Introduction03:02 Ancient microbiome evidence04:38 Evolutionary mismatches in modern human microbiome08:37 Differences in hunter gatherer vs civilized health11:38 Factors in disease15:48 Zonulin17:55 Microbes affecting intestinal permeability19:01 Antibiotics24:18 How to maintain healthy microbiome27:07 Treating disease with nutrition33:36 How do we build health starting as children36:19 Changing the culture towards health38:56 Microbiome connection to child behavioral disorders41:33 We’re still learning about microbiome This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ancestralhealth.substack.com

This episode with Michael Rose will look at longevity from an evolutionary perspective.  Michael is an experimental evolutionary biologist who has spent the last several decades running experiments to understand the role that natural selection plays in aging.  He's a distinguished professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UC Irvine, and a great talk at the Ancestral Health Symposium 2018 on Diet, Aging and Evolutionary Mismatch.  You can check it out on the AHS YouTube site.In today's episode, our discussion touches on fundamental questions, including:  the nature of aging, how evolutionary forces control lifespan, whether aging can stop, the optimal diet and lifestyle for living longer, and how that should be adjusted as you get older.  Michael bases his conclusions on decades of experimental research and hard mathematical analysis.  It's a wide ranging discussion with some surprising solutions. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ancestralhealth.substack.com

On this episode of the Ancestral Health Today we have Bestselling author, speaker, and a leader in the Movement movement, biomechanist Katy Bowman. Katy teaches movement globally and speaks about sedentarism and movement ecology to academic and scientific audiences. Her work has been featured in diverse media including The Today Show, CBC Radio One, The Seattle Times, and Good Housekeeping.One of Maria Shriver’s “Architects of Change” and an America Walks “Woman of the Walking Movement,” Bowman has worked with companies like Patagonia, Nike and Google as well as a wide range of non-profits and other communities, sharing her “move more, move more body parts, move more for what you need” message. Her movement education company, Nutritious Movement, is based in Washington State, where she lives with her family.Her book, the bestselling Move Your DNA, highlighted the importance of distinguishing between movement and exercise and has revolutionized the way movement is now being discussed. To learn more about Katy, her books, retreats and movement programs, head over to her website Nutritious Movement This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ancestralhealth.substack.com

In this episode of Ancestral Health Today, we bring you a conversation with James Nestor. James Nestor is a science journalist and author of the bestselling book Breath, which was on the New York Times bestseller list for 18 weeks, and won the a 2020 prize for Best General Nonfiction.  James also wrote a book on free divers who test their limits by diving to the ocean floor without oxygen tanks, and he's published articles in Scientific American, The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Surfer's Journal.  He suffered from some respiratory conditions and spoke to medical researchers, athletic trainers, and practitioners of different religious and meditative traditions, trying to understand the connection between breathing and health. James spoke at the Ancestral Health Symposium conferences in 2021 and 2022.In today's episode, we start by covering the physiology of breathing and how it influences oxygen, carbon dioxide and the autonomic nervous system.  We'll get into some physiological experiments that James and a colleague took part in with leading doctors at Stanford, and how changing breathing lowered blood pressure, reversed apnea and other health issues.  We'll then look the how the changes in diet and lifestyle in modern society has actually changed the shape of the human skull and our airways, impairing our ability to breath correctly.  Finally, we'll look at some advanced breathing practices that can improve health and combat anxiety.For more information on the science and practice of breathing for better health, please visit his website, mrjamesnestor.com 00:00 Introduction02:00 Slow breathing is healthy, increases carbon dioxide07:14 What is a good rate of breathing?10:14 Nose breathing12:19 Nitric oxide, cardiovascular health14:41 Self-experiments with mouth breathing vs nose-breathing, sleep apnea, mouth tape23:34 Steps on exhale as measuring lung capacity30:07 Did we evolve to breathe optimally?32:41 Modern industrial lifestyle alters skull shape39:44 Chewing stress affects skull shape43:28 Can we fix airways later in life?46:18 Innovative pediatric dentists48:39 Tumo/Wim Hof method53:19 Justin Feinstein, deliberate boosting CO2 for health56:15 Carbon dioxide in environments, indoors58:12 Conclusion This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ancestralhealth.substack.com

Welcome to Ancestral Health today. In this episode we bring you part 2 of our discussion with Darryl Edwards. We released part 1 last week on September 5th, which also happened to be Ancestral Health Today’s very first episode. Today we dive into the rest of the pillars of health, including diet, avoiding toxicity, breathing, play and living with purpose. You can find more about Darryl by visiting his website Primal PlayThank you for being part of this episode. Please make sure to subscribe on Substack. You can also follow us on Instagram. If you enjoyed this podcast, please share and help us spread the message. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ancestralhealth.substack.com

Welcome to the first episode of Ancestral Health Today. We are excited to bring you part one of a two part episode with the Amazing Darryl Edwards. Darryl is the founder of Primal Play, a super creative and always evolving movement program, a social and community experience with play at the center. Darryl is the best selling author of the book Animal Moves, he is a keynote and motivational speaker, and has millions of views on his Ted Talk titled Why working out isn't working out. Darryl has been featured in prestigious international publications, and his work has also been highlighted in the NY Times best-selling book "Grit and Grace" by one of the most successful music artists of all time Tim McGraw and in one of the UK's best-selling books of 2018 "The 4 Pillar Plan" by the UK's leading TV Doctor Rangan Chatterjee. We are very fortunate to have Darryl as a board member of the Ancestral Health Society and he has been instrumental in making this podcast a reality.Darryl resides in London, England and publishes about living a healthy, playful lifestyle at PrimalPlay.com.On this first episode we start to discuss his 12 pillars of health, the interconnectedness between them and how to practically incorporate them into modern life. We are delighted to have Darryl as our inaugural guest. Our audience will be amazed by his wisdom, practical tips and humility. To learn more or to work with Darryl, visit his website Primalplay.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ancestralhealth.substack.com

Thank you for listening to our mini episode and get to know our hosts, Isabel and Todd. Together they will bring amazing interviews and insights. Please consider becoming a supporter to grow this work and continue to communicate the latest research to a growing audience. Our supporters will enjoy exclusive content, early and discounted registration to the ancestral Health Symposium, live interviews with our guests and more. If you are not in a position to support us financially, please share with your network and you can also help us grow. Isabel and Todd are looking forward to your feedback and making the podcast a pillar of the ancestral health movement. In great health,The ancestral Health Society This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ancestralhealth.substack.com