Food is complicated. It's a key controller of our state of health or disease. It's a social centerpiece for the most important moments of our lives. It's the building blocks that creates our brain, enabling us to have thoughts, feelings, and emotions. It's the very stuff that makes up our bodies and what we see looking back at us in the mirror. Food isn't just food—it's the thing that makes us who we are. So why does figuring out what to eat feel so overwhelming?

On today’s Broken Brain Podcast, our host Dhru talks to Shawn Stevenson, the author of the international bestselling book Sleep Smarter and creator of The Model Health Show, one of the top health podcasts in the world. 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.

In this episode, Dhru and Shawn dive deep into the topic of fat and why body fat is not really the culprit it’s been made out to be, how our bodies actually “burn” body-fat, and the key hormones, enzymes, and nutrients involved in this process. They talk about the surprising way that our gut bacteria controls our body weight, and the research on how food affects our relationships. They also discuss how we have an epidemic of food insecurity and health disparities in our world today, the startling data around food inequality, and what we can actually do to help fix it.

In this episode, we dive into:

-What fat really is and why it’s so important to our survival (6:14)

-How your microbiome determines your body composition (18:10)

-How the misconstrued science of calories has contributed to growing diet struggles (27:13)

-How our psychology impacts what food does to us (37:36)

-How stress impacts our metabolic health (51:16)

-Fat loss and the importance of diversity of our gut microbiome (52:53)

-How nutrition affects our relationships, conflict resolution, and even aggressive behavior (1:14:47)

-How Shawn overcame degenerative disc disease (1:22:41)

-How our social structures determine our food choices (1:33:38)

-The most powerful agent of change (1:47:37)

For more on Shawn Stevenson you can follow him on Instagram @ShawnModel, on Facebook @TheModelHealthShow, on Twitter @ShawnModel, on YouTube @TheShawnModel, and through his website https://themodelhealthshow.com//. Get his book, Eat Smarter: Use the Power of Food to Reboot Your Metabolism, Upgrade Your Brain, and Transform Your Life at https://eatsmarterbook.com/.

Also mentioned in this episode:

-NASA’s experiment on gravity - https://youtu.be/9-YNaN-5mnc

For more on Dhru Purohit, be sure to follow him on Instagram @dhrupurohit, on Facebook @dhruxpurohit, on Twitter @dhrupurohit, and on YouTube @dhrupurohit. You can also text Dhru at (302) 200-5643 or click here https://my.community.com/dhrupurohit.

Interested in joining Dhru’s Broken Brain Podcast Facebook Community? Submit your request to join here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2819627591487473/.

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