Dr. Johnny Hadac is a family medicine resident, nutritionist, culinary medicine specialist, bestselling cookbook author, and founder of Total Weight Loss. Through his medical training and massive online community, Dr. Hadac has made it his mission to simplify nutrition and help people improve their metabolic health through practical, sustainable lifestyle changes.
In this episode, Dr. Hadac explains how the gut microbiome influences digestion, metabolism, inflammation, cravings, immunity, and overall health. We discuss probiotics and prebiotics, the foods that support beneficial gut bacteria, the habits that may damage the microbiome, and the practical steps you can begin taking to improve your gut health and build a healthier life.
Timestamps 👇 0:00 Introduction 0:51 Who is Johnny Hadac? 9:47 How Johnny met Jesus Christ 15:00 Why start with the cookbook? 20:00 A deep dive on gut health 32:02 Responsibility in educating throughout the internet 41:30 Johnny's future steps 43:59 Thoughts on U.S. Healthcare (CRAZY STORY) 50:40 Nutrition in medical school: good or double-edged sword? 55:10 Fasting: why is it important? 59:30 GLP-1: bad or not? (NUANCE) 1:06:00 Nutrition in medical school part II 1:10:33 Psychology side of medicine 1:14:42 Reflection questions
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Who is Hugo?
Hugo is a pre-medical student-athlete at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida, who is highly determined to make metabolic mainstream by sharing actual and fruitful medical and nutrition knowledge through podcasts, based on what I have studied and experienced.
What is Thrive Talk Podcast?
Let’s get healthy together.
So, someone had dropped out and they said, "You're either going to move up here tomorrow and start class or we're going to give this up to someone else." There's more bacteria in your gut than there are cells in your body. And you can talk about calories in, calories out. You can talk about macronutrients. But here's the thing. If your gut is inflamed and you can't even absorb these nutrients that you're eating, nothing's going to be working. There's this bacteria called acromancia. What's interesting about it, and it was just found in 2016, so it's a very new probiotic, is that it naturally supports GOP production. 17% of the US population lacks. And what you'll see on on research is that the higher your BMI is, the lower amount of acrimancy that you have. One of the most simplest things to do to help fix your gut microbiome is [music]
Hey, Johnny. How are you doing, man? I'm well. How are you doing? Pretty good. I saw you just came back from a Murf. How was that? It was great. It was my first Murf. First ever Murf that I've done. I've been training a lot of highintensity resistance training recently. And uh that MURF one mile, 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 air squats, and another mile. 5157. That was the the time today. Was that your goal? I I wanted under an hour. I didn't I've never run one before, so I I Everyone at the gym said it was pretty good, but it was it was fun. It's pretty good. I did once um I believe in my third semester of college, so in sophomore year, and I've done about I think I did 55, something along those lines. I also had to go to do less than an hour. So, it's pretty good, man. That's pretty good. I love it. Love it. What are you training for? I saw you training for Hy Rocks. Is that Is that what it is? Hi Rocks in October. It's going to be in Tampa. And uh yeah, it's my first time training for a race like that. I mean, I played collegiate football, but I haven't really trained for anything outside of collegiate sports, so I'm excited for that, too. Yeah, I saw you played football. So, how how was that? It built everything that I am today, straight up. And I talked a lot about it when I was interviewing for medical school. Uh cuz it had such an impact on my life, on my character development, my communication. You know, everything in medicine is practically communication and working under pressure. And college sports are such a good way for you to connect with both of those things. So I talked a lot about football. And again, it just, you know, going from freshman to senior, team captain, you know, filling leadership roles, it just allowed me to be able to communicate with team teammates, coaches, different staff from any different rank. And then just being able to kind of structure them and, you know, motivate them, too. So, it really plays into being a doctor. So, what sparked your idea of becoming a doctor? So, when I was in high school, I told my mom, I either want to be a doctor or a lawyer. And there was no specific reason because no one in my family was a doctor or a lawyer. Uh the closest thing was my great-grandfather. He was a vet. And she was like, "Well, you should go do this program your senior year. It's called New Vision." And high school. High school. So my senior year of high school, I spent half the day every day in the hospital. I'd drive like 20 minutes to this very rural hospital out in the middle of nowhere, super understaffed. And I would go learn from these physicians. I'd do family medicine, emergency medicine, surgery. So I had a lot of experience when I was super young and then I went on to college and for the first two years I really didn't know kind of what I wanted to do. I was kind of on a health sciences track. Uh and then unfortunately during my sophomore year my little cousin Gage who was 14 at the time he died from diabetes complications. No one knew what was going on. He just fell really ill over Christmas time and he, you know, he passed away from that and it shifted a lot of my family and it shifted kind of my mindset and the fact that, you know, I wanted to really work with people in their health and really preventing things of early death and and for him like such a sad thing at such a young age, but it's something that I I carry with me now. And ever since that day after he died, I was like, you know, I'm going to pursue this medicine career. I want to become a doctor. And then again just continuing with the football more leadership it made so much sense because as a doctor you are a leader and I think that was really where that brought that kind of spirit out of me to want to become a physician. Were you aware of nutrition for now uh at that time? Yeah I mean playing collegiate sports I mean you're you know training hard there's people who do teach you nutrition. It may have not been the most advanced nutrition. And then doing my premed courses, I also took a nutrition class, but I went to a very liberal arts school in Iska College and my teacher was a she was a vegan. So everything was all vegan pushed. Uh kind of very similar to what it is in residency right now. And uh absolutely drives me. I have my thoughts on that. We can discuss that later. But uh yeah, so I did have some exposure to it and then obviously just training, putting on weight, losing weight, building muscle. So, I had an idea of macros in general, but it wasn't really until I got into medical school where I really started diving into more specific things. Yeah. You've been very open uh especially for whoever is going um to medical school about going to the uh going through the MCAT and not being a high stat applicant because right now competitiveness in medical school has been uh rising a lot. And you know, you go on Reddit and there's someone with a 520 MCAT 4.0 0 GPA and come like, "Hey guys, I think I'm cooked. I think uh I have a really bad score. I don't know if I'm going to get the school I want to um help me." And how how was that process, man? How was that process going through the application? And what do you think has helped you to get accepted? Yeah, I mean, it's a really stressful it's a stressful time, you know, applying to medical school. And a little background with me. So, when I was in college, again, head collegiate football captain, leader, 3.8 GPA. I love school, love chemistry, love learning, just never been a super great test taker. So during my senior year, as I was playing my senior year of football, not really focused on studying, more about being an athlete and enjoying my time. I took two MCATs and I think the first MCAT that I took was like a 470. It was like the lowest you can get and I'm like, "All right, I really needed to start studying here." So I studied again. I took another one. I think it was like a 490. I ended up applying to 30 different schools. I kind of maxed out the area that I wanted to be in and I applied uh and then soon after that I was denied from every single one and during that time too co hit. So I was denied from all these schools. Everything shut down. I had no job. I had no security and I ended up moving back home and I was honestly super depressed. I was like where is life going to take me? And I decided that you know if I wanted to pursue this medical career I need more experience. So if it's not going to be my test scores it's going to be an experience based. And we'll talk a little bit more about, you know, scores and things of that nature, too. But during that gap year, I went and got my EMS certification. I started doing EMS for a year. So, I got tons of exposure, seeing all sorts of things, psychiatric issues, emergencies, even acute things. And it taught me so much about how to be able to communicate with other healthcare providers and being able to communicate with patients and other team members. And it played so much of a strength. And during the time it was like it was not something that I wanted to do. But looking back on it was probably one of the most impactful experiences that I've ever had because it allowed me to really kind of grow that depth of knowledge of medical knowledge as well as that communication. So I ended up applying again. I took two more MCATs. I think the highest that I got was like a 498. I applied to 30 other schools. I was denied from 28 except for two. Lecom and a Caribbean school. The Caribbean school told me I'd never get into a US school. so that I had to go and I was like, I'm not moving to the Caribbean. I'm from New York. Like, there's no way possible. So, I got a um weight list at Leecom and it was sometime in August. They were supposed to call me on a Monday to say, you know, whether or not I got in. Monday rolled around, no phone call. So, I'm like, "All right, I must have not got in." So, I just signed up for more work. Tuesday, Thursday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday rolls around. Thursday night, they call me, they say, "Someone just dropped out." Cuz in the first week of medical school, that's like the most difficult time. You're literally thrown into such a deep fire cuz you're working from 7:30 to 5 in class and then you're studying all night. You have anatomy, embryology, a little bit of like physiology, some um different sorts of they just throw everything at you and it's one of the most stressful times that first week. So, someone had dropped out and they said, "You're either going to move up here tomorrow and start class or we're going to give this up to someone else." I'm like, "All right, I'll do it." And uh I packed up all my stuff. I went to uh Leecom that next day and then I I started and that following Monday we had a test and for anatomy and everyone failed it. I studied so hard cuz I missed a full week of class. I got an 80 on it and and everyone failed it so bad that the professor was like this is the only time I'm going to ever not count a score and I was so bummed. But it it all worked out. But going back to your your thought on you know people scoring high MCATs and great GPA. Listen, there's a lot of smart people in medicine and they have such a role in, you know, new developments and research, but I'd say the majority, I'd say 95% of medicine is all communication. So, if you go to an interview and you have great scores, you have a great MCAT, great resume, but you can't sit there and talk to the interviewee and actually give them a story about yourself or be able to be communicable. That's what they're looking for. Because at the end of the day, it's how well you are at communicating with patients and other providers. You can be as smart as you want, but if you have zero medical knowledge and zero medical experience and no patient experience, it's going to be super hard to get in school. I I totally agree with you and I've seen that firsthand with other volunteers. I myself I noticed that I myself was not the best communicator with patients uh when I started volunteering in freshman year, sophomore year. And you can always improve obviously. Do you think not think I know for sure but how has God helped you throughout this process of thinking you would not get accepted again take another gap year and not go to medical school? So I found Christ actually my second year of medical school when yeah so I found him my second year and it was during my board exam. During my board exam you have to take all these like pre-exams and again like I told you I'm not a good test taker. I suck at taking big tests and I thankfully just took my last com three a couple weeks ago which I'm super excited for. But during that time I was failing all these pretests and all the administrators were like you know you're not going to take this board exam is the first board exam. It's like the hardest one cuz it's all of the information that you learn over the last two years failing failing failing. I took like five different of these pretests and finally one of them clipped on the sixth one. I finally passed it barely. Um and during that time my brother was someone who had already found Christ and he was just continuing to lead me and kind of encourage me in the word and he gave me this little pocket Bible and I remember just reading that every single night just trying to get an understanding. Sometimes when you pick up a Bible you don't know what the story is really telling but the more reps you get at it the more you understand it. So, I remember reading through the New Testament and I was reading through Matthew and it talked about Christ being crucified for me and where I've fallen short and it brought me to tears that night. And soon after I told my brother, I'm like, I want to be baptized. Got baptized, professed my love and my, you know, just my faith into Christ. And from there, it's just been an amazing journey. But I can tell you that looking back on the gap year, you know, having to move home, having to take, you know, time away from medicine, it all works out with such purpose. And I always tell people that God has four things for you. It's no, and if it's a no from God, you know, it's a it's a very it's a very harsh no. Grow, where he wants you to kind of grow in your character a little bit before he gets you onto the next step. Slow, where you have to slow things down. I think us as humans, we're constantly aiming to kind of get to the next step, next step, next step. When in reality, we just need to be content with what's going on. And the last one is go. And typically, when he tells you to go, it's going to be a multitude of blessings on your life. And I can tell you as I look back on that journey, it was all in due time. And it was all in his purpose. And it totally worked out. And I'm so grateful. And I definitely encourage you listeners at home, put your faith in Christ. And if you haven't, just pick up a Bible and just start reading the New Testament. That's a good place to start. And I'm telling you, just allow him to kind of work in your life and cast your anxieties to him so that all things will work out. When you finally receive the the email or whatever phone call from Lecom, how was that moment? Who you called first? How was that? Oh, I called my mom and I'm like, you know, we're we're going to have to move here really quick. I mean, I was excited, but I was nervous, too. I mean, I Your mom, huh? Your mom, too, would would move to Florida. No, no, no. So, I I was still in New York at the time. So the the school thankfully was only like 2 hours away. I'm like we got to pack up our stuff and get up there and we got to find a place for rent. I mean it was a little bit more like overwhelming than anything cuz I honestly didn't think it was going to happen. But what's funny is that when that Monday rolled around and I didn't hit that phone call and I signed up for more like EMS work, that's when I decided that I was going to do social media full-time. I'm like, "Oh, if I'm not going to go to medical school, I'm going to do social media full-time. I'm going to be a fitness influencer. I'm going to do all this fitness stuff." And so that's how it actually worked out that I ended up doing social media and medical school at the same time because uh right within that first couple weeks I had a video that went super viral and I had 2,000 followers on TikTok and I'm like I'm going to do this. Like I have 2,000 people. I'm going to keep making these videos. So I just continue to make these videos throughout medical school. Um but yeah, it was a it was definitely a a roller coaster of emotions during that time. What do you think? for example, the premed who let's say got rejected for medical school and they they had to do a gap year or something along those lines. What would you tell them for this process as you went through yourself? Yeah, I would tell them that you have to make the best of it. And to be honest, most premed students are not going to be ready for medical school right in going into it. I'm going to be straight up with you because again that medical experience is what most medical schools are looking for. they want to see that you're having experience and it's hard in college to kind of balance the two. Um, but I'm telling you, for me, I was super anxious during the time, but again, looking back, you know, looking back, it's always 2020 vision. I'm telling you, if you can do something where you're doing EMS or you're doing some maybe a little bit emergency department volunteer work, any sort of volunteer work where you're actually getting out there, it's just going to make you a better doctor in the long run. And again, I think the average start for a medical school student is 26. 24 to 26. Yeah. After co Yes. So it's like you know you I graduated college at 21. I was young when I graduated. So you know you're even if you're graduating 21 22 23 I mean I had met I had students that were in their 40s starting with me. So it's like you're you're not late. It's just your timing just needs to be right. So just have faith in that. What made you start um in internet but especially focusing about your cookbook? How was that process? So again, I did start that social media initially with fitness. It was all gym based. Yeah. And as I was going through school, I was during my first year, I was doing a lot of gym stuff, just workouts, things like conventional workouts, let's say, like bodybuilding in a way. Yeah. I mean, more or less just trying to get people for like beginners to just finally take a step and get into the gym. And as I was going through school, I was always questioning different sorts of diseases. As I was learning the pathophysiology of diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, all these different things, I always question like what's really happening here? And we learn about pathophysiology, but in medical school, you're really taught how to treat. And during my my gap year of medical school, when I moved home, so when I graduated college, I really wanted to pursue professional football. I was 265 pounds. I was a big boy. Yeah. And when I when COVID hit, the gym shut down, my combine training got shut down. Yeah. I was like, I need to lose this weight. I need to lose 50 pounds. So, when I moved home with my mom, I go, I'm going to do this weight loss journey. And I'm like, I want you to do it, too. And she was 45 at the time. She was she had metabolic syndrome. She was overweight, insulin resistant, inflamed, all these different things. And for 45 years, she constantly yo-yoed. She always dealt with problems with her weight. And during that gap year, that's when I really started meal prepping, learning a little bit more about nutrition and getting kind of a basis of nutrition education. But when I got to medical school, I'm like, where's the nutrition? Like, why are we not learning about this stuff? And it goes so handinhand with the majority of what we see, especially in family medicine. And during my first year, after going through a full year of really not getting much education, I'm like, there's something missing here. And truth is, doctors receive less than a day's worth of nutrition education. There was a Harvard study showing 24 hours or less of nutrition education for most physicians when the majority of conditions that we're treating can be prevented by nutrition. So, I saw that gap and I'm like, you know what? I'm going to start teaching people how to cook. I've always loved cooking. I always love cooking for my family and I meal prep for my mom for her 100 lb weight loss journey in 12 months. So, I'm like, I'm just going to start meal prepping and teaching these people how to utilize foods. And from when I started probably my going into the second year of medical school to now the progression of my nutrition knowledge is so expanded like even when I started I thought I knew a lot but now looking back I'm like there's so many levels to it. There are many levels to it. Uh I myself very similar experience on my case for example I I had Hashimoto's uh so for for y'all who don't know it is an autoimmune disease for for the thyroid and from that you can become hypothyroid which was my case and as you know most autoimmune diseases can be uh treated prevented by having a good quality um diet lifestyle and avoiding the foods that can trigger the this autoimmunity. And the hard part about treating Hashimoto's is that it's not like eczema, which is very acute. You can readily know whichever foods are triggering your autoimmune reaction. And that led me to, for example, watch u people in nutrition, not specifically for autoimmunity, but at least to get my my hopes up on something. At the time, I didn't work out. At the time, I didn't do a good diet. I my my breakfast was like cereal and milk, you know, that the classic cereal and milk since since young in Brazil in here was the same thing. And I decided to change that my sophomore year when co hit and I had a couple friends that were very dedicated and thankfully they pushed me towards that that path to work out. One of them uh did swimming, the other one uh played soccer competitively and I also did but not as as him. And from that I decided to change my life and to do that. And throughout that time I learned a lot from nutrition, from um many different things just about lifestyle and improving your health in general. And I figured out most of the foods that were triggering me, especially cheese, especially uh gluten from from from the breads uh that I was eating, especially the the ultrarocessed breads. So that's one of the things that like uh sometimes it needs to hit you you know uh to to make you let's say see that into your life and have that own purpose to become a doctor or whatever profession you want to do 100% and I can go down such a rabbit hole with autoimmune conditions because just recently like last week I saw a very advanced scleroderma patient and I also saw a very advanced lupus patient I mean these people with these autoimmune conditions for 30 plus years seeing rheatologists all these different sort or some medications. And I always ask these people and I asked them too. I go, "Has any doctor ever sat down and talked to you about what you should be eating for your autoimmune condition?" And they're like, "No." And autoimmune conditions, especially Hashimoto's, you know, he touched on the gluten and lactose, but gut microbiome is so important for that. I agree. And that's something that you do not learn that in medical school. You don't learn anything about the gut microbiome in medical school. Um, the only reason I learned about it during school is because I flew out to Oklahoma to work with a functional endocrinologist who taught me everything that I need to know about gut health. And she's she has an awesome book out. Her name's Cassie Smith. Um, I'm just reading her book right now that I would definitely recommend for you, too. But any autoimmune any inflamed person watching this, you have to realize how important the gut microbiome is. And that's something that I talk a lot about in this cookbook because it's something that's so overlooked. I mean, you can talk about calories in, calories out. You can talk about macronutrients, but here's the thing. If your gut is inflamed and you can't even absorb these nutrients that you're eating, nothing's going to be working, right? Yeah. The majority of your immune system stems in your gut. That's why autoimmune conditions is so important is to work on gut health and foods that are going to be helping your gut. Your serotonin, your dopamine all come from your gut as well. There's so many mental conditions out there. I always tell people who are depressed, you know, some people think that they eat poorly because they're depressed when in reality they're depressed because they eat poorly. There's a big correlation with gut health and overall just human optimization of how your body works and people really overlook that. So, I'm happy that you brought that up. Yeah. So, if you want to explain to the audience um what is leaky gut, why that is harmful and what are the first steps to improve that? Sure. So I think explaining leaky gut you need to start off with the anatomy of the gut. So you have all this small and large intestine typically where all the nutrients and water is being absorbed through this very thin cell membrane and outside of this membrane you have to think of the gut as like a water slide. It's kind of like a it's like a big tube and around the tube is this mucus and then there's all these bacteria. There's more bacteria in your gut than there are cells in your body. And this is where the majority of our human genomes come from is actually the bacteria. I think the human genomes is about 30 million, but the gut bacteria is about 90 million. So we actually get a lot of our genes stemming from these bacteria. So there are good guys in the gut and bad guys in the gut. And typically the analogy that I use is everyone has a garden. Some people have a lot of good flowers, a lot of colorful flowers in the garden. Other people grow a lot of weeds. But what's interesting about this garden is that the gardener is not what's feeding the garden. The garden actually tells the gardener what it wants to eat. So if you have a bunch of weeds in your gut, those guys are going to be craving a lot of the processed foods, ultrarocessed sugars, carbohydrates. And what's interesting is these bacteria can actually tell your brain, I'm craving these. Because in order for them to live, they need that environment to live in. Versus good flowers, diverse colorful flowers. They like lots of fruits and vegetables. They like good sources of protein, whole foods, and they thrive off that. So depending on what you're eating and depending on what your gut is craving, it's really going to depend on what you're going to be eating throughout the day. So leaky gut is what happens is over time there's a thing called dispiosis where you have an imbalance of these good to bad bacteria. And over time, if these bad bacteria continue to grow due to eating ultrarocessed foods, lots of sugar, food dyes, glyphosates, all these different additives that they're putting in our ingredients, over time, these bad bacteria continue to rise. And when these bacteria die off, all the gram negatives, they release an endotoxin called lipopolysaccharide. Lipopolyaccharide is the same thing you'd find on an E.coli bacteria. And what it does actually starts breaking apart these tight junctions that hold our cells together. So when you have these broken tight junctions, you have a pretty much an open filter between what you're eating and your direct bloodstream. That's why you have so much immune system in your gut because it's a big filter, right? It's one of the biggest filters in our body, our gut. So that's why there's all these immune cells that sit there. So if you start eating all these processed foods, you're going to continuously break down this gut lining, driving a lot of inflammation into your direct bloodstream. That's where autoimmune comes from. Autoimmune conditions are systemic inflammation on your body. And they never taught me this in medical school, but in order to be fixing leaky gut, and honestly, it just starts with small steps. But the very first step you have to make is you have to make the change from processed foods to whole foods. And you have to start looking at ingredient labels. And that's something that in my app that I made is so important because I want people looking at ingredients because if you're looking at uh some sort of ingredient from the grocery store and it has a paragraph of different ingredients and you can't even read half of them, that's not going to be a good food for you. You need to be sticking with whole foods, lean meats, right? Your chicken, your beef, your steak, fish, shrimp, eggs, yogurt, uh kefir, all these things. You need to be sticking to good carbohydrates, rice, quinoa, sweet potatoes, potatoes, and also good fiber. And I always tell people, three meals per day. And I always say follow the 40 40 20. So 40% of your plate protein, 40% fiber, and 20% carbs. If you start focusing on implementing a little bit more fiber, hydrating super well, focusing on whole foods, all these things can help grow better bacteria. But one of the most simplest things to do to help fix your gut microbiome is simply eating a fermented food to break your fast every single day. Cafir, sauerkraut, kombucha, Greek yogurt, those foods are an powerhouse for our gut. And if you can start implementing that daily habit into your life, you will see so much impact on your overall gut microbiome that people do not even realize. I tell my patients, "Do you like sauerkraut?" And they're always like, "No." And I'm like, "Well, start eating it in the morning. Too bad." I'm telling you cuz it's one of the best things that you can do. Yeah. So important. I love Sar. I love implementing that in my lifestyle. One question that I have for you. Have you read 10% human? Who's it by? Alana Colon. I don't think so. It's very similar to what you said. We have more microbes in our gut than we have cells in our body. and essentially goes down through the same the same thing that you just explained right now that we essentially have a very important microbiome in our body that are just as important as ourselves and we need to take care of them with the foods that we're eating in general. And from that um one of the cases that he me that she mentioned was a a case with chickens for example that the chickens that had a specific bacteria that were more present in their gut their metabolism was faster than the the other chickens that had another type of that back same bacteria. I believe it was AD43 and AD39. So one of them was uh like a healthier bacteria that they had more pres uh that they had more present and the other one they had more of the other bacteria which made them have a slower metabolism. I'm not saying that just one bacteria will make a whole difference in your whole body but if you're deficient it'll have that balance within your gut. Definitely you should be checking that out 100%. And also, but there's also one in our human that we've done studies with with humans that there's this bacteria called acromancia and it's one of the most powerful probiotics in our gut that 17% of the US population lacks. And what you'll see on on research is that the higher your BMI is, the lower amount of acromancy that you have. What's interesting about it, and it was just found in 2016, so it's a very new probiotic. What's interesting about it is that it naturally supports GLOP production. So, and this makes sense. You know, if you have a higher BMI, if you're more overweight, you're going to have less of this bacteria that makes you feel full. We can talk about GLPS, too, but acromancia actually helps you feel fuller for longer. And that's why I put it in my probiotic that I made because it's such an important one. Also, and again, all these bacteria have such different complex utilizations in our body, but what acrimansia does it also increases the amount of mucus in your gut lining, which is so helpful for leaky gut as well. You need that mucus to protect everything, too. So, I I love this. I love this conversation. Yeah. Um, so, um, what is the name of the doctor again that you that you spend time with? Dr. Cassie Smith. Dr. Cassie Smith. Uh, she's an endocrinologist that is specialized in gut gut health in general, right? Did she go over uh specifics um with you? For example, I've I've seen a lot of people talk and obviously I'm not an expert on this topic. I'm just going to medical school so I don't have anything to say about that. But have you seen for example that a lot of people are diagnosed with SIBO or they're at least told that they have a um a gut micro imbalance in a way and we don't go through specifics like which specific bacteria we're lacking of 100%. So I believe it's one out of every three adults in the US have some sort of GI issue whether it's bloating, constipation, irregular bowel movements. And none of this is normal and people need to realize that like having one bowel movement a day is what should be standard for everyone. Everyone gets weird about talking about it. But it's not normal to be constipated, to be bloated, to have heartburn, to just constantly feel not well. And yes, going back to your point, there are times that people have SIBO that it goes undiagnosed. There are times that people have IBS that it goes undiagnosed. The problem is the traditional medicine route of you know getting a diagnosis of IBS or SIBO. You typically the patient has belly pain, they have bloating, they have irregular bowel movements. The first thing that they're going to do is they're going to get you a colonoscopy. All right? So, and this is the same thing that happened to me before medical school. And this is why I am so interested in gut microbiome cuz I had the worst IBS. I was constantly having stomach pain. never could figure out what was going on. I even tried carnivore for a little while. Didn't help. And I went to the doctors, went to the GI, they diagnosed me with IBS and they're like, "We got to get you a colonoscopy." And I was 20 at the time. And I'm like, "I'm not getting a colonoscopy right now. Like, there's no way possible I'm going to figure this thing out." And the problem with getting a colonoscopy is you're not going to see your 20 ft of your small intestine or your 30 ft of small intestine. So, you're not going to be able to look at that anyways. And that's typically where the SIBO happens. Now, we can also get things called uh hydrogen breath tests where we have a patient pretty much blow into this device to see if there's more hydrogen where you can see if there's an elevation of, you know, things like uh H. pylori or things like that. But in regards to SIBO in general, no. I mean, the traditional medicine is not going to be looking at that. But yeah, if you work on the functional medicine side, there are there are gut health tests that you can take. You can take a stool test that can kind of measure all the bacteria in your gut. The thing is once you start getting into functional medicine is when you start talking about concier medicine. So this gut health test is going to be like two three grand depending on where you get it. But depending on what you get from that those results and if you can fix your gut I mean for me I'm at the point in my life and I think other people are getting there too. I'm willing to spend money on my health. I would rather have the best health possible and not spend extra money on you know going out going to um you know just spending my life in uh social hour like going out getting drinks doing all these things. I'd rather spend on health. I'd rather go work out see what my health my labs are. So I'm willing to spend money on that for things of that nature. But yes there are gut health tests that you can buy. they are a little bit more expensive, but you also need a functional medicine doctor to be reading that stuff because it doesn't matter like if you're getting the the results and you you don't know what to do about it. So, that's that's really important and that's what I wanted to get uh from this. For example, there's a few there's a few doctors that I've seen that they practice with uh GI maps, also a urine test called organic acid test. I believe you're also familiar with it, which they give you so much information that conventional blood exams do not give you. And it comes um you can see a myriad of problems and those tests give you the answers. For example, if you don't have your kid sto species on the right balance, for example, because you're uh eating too many foods that are not organic and you're being contaminated by glyphosate, which has been shown to be harmful for those species. So it it's so many things on on this level and I'm I'm happy that we that we went through this topic because it's so important that I love talking about health too given my own experience and your experience. So it's amazing. I would like also to mention about how was uh because I'm also going uh through uh the application to medical school and as you know um it is hard you you study a lot and how how do you balance that from doing your cookbook managing your app and also now uh also with your supplement company? Yeah. So I started all that during my first semester of medical school. So, it was like, you know, it was a big change for me, but again, it's because of what I did in college, like just being a being a collegiate athlete, being a student and an athlete at the same time. It just gave me that time management. But I've also been someone that I get bored super easy. And once you go through medical school and you get into residency, I think everyone gets a little bit their brain just starts working a little bit more funny cuz your brain just doesn't really stop. But for me specifically, I just wanted to work on something that I know would have an impact before I was even a doctor. And there was so much backfire, more backlash from the administration, the teachers, they didn't want me doing any of this social media stuff. But at the end of the day, if I think about it, I honestly had more of an impact during my medical school career than some physicians have in their entire career just based on the amount of millions of people that I was able to show my videos. Like if I were to post a video that had 10 million views of how to create a good healthy breakfast, I mean that's something that is so impactful and not not diminishing any doctor's careers, but as a doctor, you you're only able to see one patient every x amount of time. You know what I mean? So with these videos and social media, I just wanted to make more of an impact. In regards to the supplements, I've always wanted a supplement company. I've been working out since I was 14 years old. um always taking different proteins, different supplements, and now I'm in this space where I'm able to create my own stuff. So, it's kind of like uh it's kind of like a big toy store for me, especially in in regards to like probiotics and different electrolytes and different things that we're making and customizing just because I'm into it and I know there's a lot of products out there that are also garbage, too. So, I agree. Do you see medical education for the lay person also a method of prevention? And what responsibility comes from doing this? 100%. I think that everyone should have at least a base medical knowledge of certain things. Yeah. Prime example is CPR. And this is something that has nothing to do with what we're talking about, but it's such a it's such an important thing. The number one killer in the United States is heart disease, right? So if everyone knows CPR, you can help prevent people from dying of heart attacks. Yeah. So that's a just a a standard prevention that people can learn that can help maybe a friend, a family member, or someone in society. But in regards to nutrition specifically, this is why I have spent so much my time on social media and going on live every hour, 5 days a week trying to make sure that I'm posting at least 4 days a week because I want people to know this stuff. It's not just the fact that, you know, you buy my cookbook and you make these recipes and you live better. I want you to make these recipes, but I also need you to understand the basics of nutrition cuz this can really be the biggest lifesaver. If we want to talk about that CPR thing, how do you prevent people from having heart attacks? You figure it out with their nutrition early on in life, during their 20s, even in during their teens, even as a kid. So, the nutrition education 100%. I think that more people need it. And I think people lack it. And also, you know, if you come on one of my lives and you learn from me for 2 hours straight, it's almost like I will teach you more during that 2-hour lecture than you'll receive in medical school. So, you'll go to your doctor and you'll ask about all these different things and the majority of physicians don't even know about this stuff. I mean, if a physician can't break down a simple 30-second speech about what macronutrients are and why they're important for us and the different calories per gram and the different physiological effects in our body. I just don't I think it's almost malpractice in a way because you're just leading that patient up to honestly having complications. And with social media, it is kind of difficult to kind of navigate who is legitimate and who is not. I mean, there's a lot of people who call themselves doctors out there. You can be a doctor, you know, shout out to chiropractors, but you can't be a doctor, chiropractor, and just talking about all this like longevity, functional medicine, all this stuff. No offense to any chiropractors. I see a chiropractor in Sarasota that's amazing. But um it's a lot to get through and you just got to find someone who is legit in the space who actually cares and that's for me like that's the biggest thing. I just want people to know this stuff cuz I want to prevent things from happening to people at the end of the day. Did you already have family medicine when you started medical school? Did you already have the idea of going to family medicine residency when you went to medical school? Prior to medical school, I wanted to be like a dermatologist or like a surgeon because I was like, I I could make money and and do all this stuff. And literally, it it came down to impact. I'm like, yeah, I could go be a dermatologist and cut out things and look at people's skin and, you know, help people with cancer and I've I've dealt with issues myself, but at the end of the day, I felt like I would have more of an impact in family medicine. And also for the premeds out there too, you know, trying to determine what you want to do. I think the first decision of of where you want to go is number one, surgery or no surgery. So I personally I like surgery. I'm on a surgery rotation right now. I enjoy it, but I don't want to do it for the rest of my life. So I'm like, okay, no surgery. Then the next question you have have to ask yourself is, do you like talking to people or do you not like talking to people? You like talking to people, you're more into the family medicine. If you don't really like talking to people, radiology, pathology, you can be quiet there. But with family medicine, you know what I learned is throughout my experience getting the experience working with family medicine physicians is it's such a expanded area of medicine where you have to know so much about so many different things, but you can also do procedures. So I personally love doing procedures. So I get a little bit I mean I'm not putting people under anesthesia but I can do a little surgery on people in the office and I can talk to people and you can actually just sit down and just have conversations. So for me that's what I wanted. I just wanted the ability to kind of talk to people and I think that's one of the best ways to do it in family medicine. Well what do you like the most about family medicine that brings to your life? It's the people. It's the conversations and I mean you have to like people to be in family medicine. I mean you see 20 patients a day. I mean, that's a lot of social battery, but it's really getting to know these people. And for me specifically, like I love doing this in residency, but my plans for after residency is to really work with a few families or a a few patients, not a super large patient panel, but for the patients who really want to optimize and work one-on-one with me so that they're really talking about the longevity of their life. um in residency right now there's definitely some people who are really interested in that but there's other patients who really don't care so much about it um but for me personally it's just being able to talk with the patients seeing how their day is what I can be doing for them and really just optimization at the end of the day what is something on family medicine that you didn't expect to be whatever it can be whatever I mean for example during residency I didn't expect to be doing like ICU right I expect to be doing a lot of ICU. What do you learn from ICU to that you think it is important for family medicine? ICU, I've never had any experience in it prior to doing it a few months ago and I had a month of it and I work with some awesome attendings and it was just coolest experience. But during a family medicine residency, you have a lot of inpatient and that's just hospital medicine. So you're typically on for 12ish hours and you're working in the hospital. Um so you're taking care of all this acute stuff. people come in with pneumonia, heart failure, uh infections, anything going on. In the ICU specifically, that's where you're seeing the most acute medicine. So, you're seeing the people who just had a heart attack, who just got kathlabed and have a stent in. You're seeing people who are super septic. You're seeing people who have diabetes complications, right? DKA, uh different sorts of uh hypoglycemia, HHS, all these different things. So, ICU is a very like hyperfocused acuity. So you don't really see a lot of that in the outpatient setting, but what I see from that is what you can be doing to prevent all of that from happening, especially the heart attacks, the diabetes mismanagement, um the infections, and a lot of the infections too really relays back into the diabetes, elevated blood sugar, bacteria, love, increased risk of infections, increased risk of inflammation, and all these different things. But the ICU, I just loved it. Didn't ever expect it, but I really did enjoy it. This is a very hypothetical question that I'm going to ask you right now. If you had to choose another specialty, what do you think you would pick if you were in medical school back again? Emergency for sure. 100%. Yeah. I just the acuity. It's just like a it's like a good mix of, you know, you're seeing a lot of acute stuff, but you're also seeing a lot of chronic things, too. It's very fastpaced. The schedules are a little bit better. You're working 12 on, 12 off. The work life balance is pretty good, as well. It's just a little bit more exciting. Um but yeah, probably emergency. Now that you mentioned that, um you mentioned a little bit of your plans after residency. So what is your idea? Do you want to build your own clinic? Do you want to work in a hospital for a few years and then build a clinic? What are your plans for that? My plan is I've been building my app. So the total weight loss app is now available in Apple, Google, and it has all my recipes, it has workouts, it has macro tracking. It's similar to like a My Fitness Pal plus a Cal AI plus my cookbook plus workouts. So, my plan is to really throughout my time in residency build that out as much as possible. Um, and I'd really like to be opening up a tele medicine clinic kind of within the app. So, it's like your personal doctor within app. So, hopefully someday I'll be able to have either license in all states or work with other providers within those states where we're providing a service via your phone where you can set up appointments. You have all of your your meals in there, your workouts. It's all detailed and specific for you so that you can, you know, just utilize your phone as your kind of personal doctor. You can track your labs in there. You can just track other metrics in there as well. Um, but I do plan on opening up more of a concierge style practice cuz I do want to be centralized somewhere where I can see patients in house. Um, in in that practice, I mean, God willing, I'd really like to have a practice that also has a facility for gym workouts, nutrition, and really just teaching people the lifestyle and preventative side of things. And again, like I said earlier, I want to work with people want to optimize. Like, I love working with sick people cuz I love making people healthy. But I also really enjoy there's something about working with people who have already gotten 90% of it correct, who need that extra 10%. They really want to optimize their energy, their focus, their longevity, all the things that we don't really talk about a whole lot in traditional medicine. Yeah. But I want to work with people's hormones, gut health, and again just the optimization because there's a new field of medicine that's growing that I think the the traditional medicine does not like. I think there's a lot of people and I I've dealt with it myself. I've had other physicians call me out for it. Um, but there's a new field of medicine coming out and the advancements that we're making in our technologies are not you you can't keep up with the amount of research cuz everything's getting so advanced with this AI stuff that the research is falling behind. So there's these central dogmas in medicine that can't catch up. So I want to be in the optimization longevity space at the end of the day. But in the meantime, I love taking care of sick people at the same time. Definitely. Definitely. Do you think healthcare rewards prevention enough? Healthcare rewards how much you can bill on a patient if you're working in insurance style practice. And we learn a lot of insurance billing in our residency because our attendees want to train our residents so that if we do go work somewhere, if we work in a hospital system or if we work in an outpatient setting that and we're working with insurance that we can bill well. So billing is pretty much how many conditions can I take from your labs and your condition. Like if I do a physical exam, I look at your labs, I look at you as a patient as a whole, how many different diagnoses with weight can I take from that? Do you have a hypertensive heart? Do you have um a chronic kidney disease? Do you have a chronic kidney disease with a hypertensive heart or renal failure, diabetes? We're trying to grab all these different codes so that we can bill your insurance company. That is where medicine is is making money. And it's really unfortunate at the end of the day. But with us specifically at our residency, what's nice is that when we work outpatient, the same patients that we work with outpatient or in our facility outside the hospital are the same people that we see inatient. So when people get really sick and end up in the hospital, they're the same people that we're seeing out in the clinic. Yeah. So, our residency specifically does this program where we want to save as much money with them being in the hospital. We we do we want to prevent people from going to the hospital in the first place as any health care should, but we're very very specific on that because it helps our clinic out if people don't get sick. So, I think that we're a little bit we're a little bit different and individualized in that aspect. But healthcare as a whole, absolutely not. And I've worked with providers that say, you know, if a percentage of my patient panel isn't optimized in their A1C and their blood pressure, the insurance companies or whomever will hold a certain percent of their pay. So yeah, it's it's not meant for providers to be giving a lot of preventive medicine. It's about providers optimizing what the standards are of labs and of just general health, but not specifically the optimization. I see that a lot. Is there any any story that you're allowed to say that um something that you like you that was the the the turning point that you saw like I I see the healthc care sometimes is missing on on preventative medicine. Yeah. I mean when I was in medical school I worked with this endocrinologist and there would be a diabetic coming in with 9.4 9.5 A1C on a ton of insulin and this provider would just walk in and they'd be like all right let's increase the insulin. I'll see you in 6 months and walk out like literally like 5 seconds and I'd be sitting there like these people don't even know what a carbohydrate is. Like these diabetics do not know the basics of what they're eating. And it's like it just goes to show you that some people really just don't care. Some people really are short of time. And again, it's not to blame the doctors. Yes, there are some bad doctors out there, but there's a bad individual in every group that you're going to look at. But at the end of the day, it really depends on how much that doctor wants that patient to be well, you know, and especially for me like that crushed me. Again, with my cousin passing from a diabetes complication, the amount of diabetics that I work with, you've got to be able to teach these people the basics and just you can't overlook that stuff. You really can't. I I totally agree with you. There there was one experience with um that I shadowed an endocrinologist. She is amazing. She's amazing. She really cares about her patients. But I see that the healthc care itself sometimes strain her cords on how uh in a way that uh limits her on educating her patients for example because he talks to them. I mean she talks to them lower your carbohydrate intake improve the amount of protein that you're eating exercise and things like that which is also really important despite me thinking that still patients need to have a little bit more of education than just saying a general statement you got to put into numbers that makes it simpler for them to understand which I agree I see that the system um due to the fact that they have about 10 minutes just to talk with their patients go through all the medications that they have go through the insurance policies and all of that in 20 minutes but only 10 minutes talking to the patient. It it is really complicated and [snorts] it's really sad. Uh I myself created a brochure for one of the patient uh for not one for the patients that she had because I saw this lack but it's still it's still not enough like you you got to have that person conversation you know you know one-to-one conversation with the patient go through one-on ones because I I still think that's not enough and I really wish the medical system can improve that in a way. Yeah, and I think that, you know, not to add in politics, but you know, RFK really wants to focus on getting more education in medical schools. And I know a lot of people have had their thoughts with all of that, but at the end of the day, physicians need more education, the preventative stuff. And what's funny is, you know, you go through all this school and you learn all this fancy jargon, all these this medical terminology, but when you talk to patients, your ability to utilize your medical knowledge and communicate that on a third grade level, I mean, if you think about the amount of uh people who don't even have reading literacy in our country, you literally have to simplify everything that you know that you've learned for your entire life to make it as simple as possible and as condensed as possible without over pretty much stimulating that patient. So again, for you and medical students in general, premed students, like finding a simple 30 second elevator speech, and this is what I do every single day, just a a quick brief rundown. You're not getting in too much depth, but you're giving them enough bread that they can walk away with and be like, "Okay, I kind of understand what's going on here." And then with family medicine, what's nice is you're going to see that patient over and over and over again. So, it's a it's like a copout for me, but I'll always say I have 5 years worth of videos for you to be watching. Here's a link to a podcast. Here's a link to something or some sort of other education cuz at the end of the day, yes, you're only going to have that 10 20 minutes. So, if you can provide that patient with either a brochure, which is an awesome idea, or a video of something, but it's also it comes down to that patient actually wanting to do them do that for themselves. But that's why that provider patient trust is so important. Going back to that communication, if you don't have that communication and trust, you're not going to do it. I see that. I see that a lot. Now, going back a little bit to what you mentioned about RFK, again, not getting political and just bringing another a deeper level of conversation on that topic. Do you think we should also be concerned about the nutrition courses? Because I think I think nutritional education is great, but don't you think that maybe if proposed the wrong way like promoting a veganism or any other political aspect can be actually more harmful than good. So I'll tell you this from my experience. Yeah. So again throughout medical school doing all that nutrition research on my own, learning from all the best providers. I flew across the country everywhere. Every rotation I'd get, I'd go find someone new to learn from. And I wanted to join this residency program also because they have a lifestyle medicine accreditation. It's a board exam that you can take. So I'll be dual board certified in family and lifestyle medicine if I continue with lifestyle medicine. But in the first week, you know, I'm going through these modules and it goes through everything, exercise, um, mindset, different like lifestyle habits. But I got to the nutrition modules and I'm starting to learn about some of these studies that they're pulling up and it's all plant-based. It's all plant-based. And not I'm not here to, you know, discriminate against vegans, vegetarians, but at the end of the day, you need protein in your body, right? Yeah. And the problem with a lot of these plant-based vegans in general is there's a lot of vegan vegetarian options that are still ultrarocessed foods and they're still so so high in carbohydrates. And to be honest with you, I was just at a convent I was just out in um Las Vegas and I flew into this this airport in the hotel. They were having a big vegan convention. Yeah. And the majority of people that I saw in there were had a metabolic dysfunction. A lot of these people were overweight. A lot of these people are obese. And you you ask yourself, if you're just eating plants, if you're just eating vegan, vegetarian, why is there why is there an overweight issue going on there? But you know, the reason why is because it's the processed foods that they're selling as healthy plant-based, and it's the amount of carbohydrates. And at the end of the day, most Americans are carboholics, and that's the reason why we have so many issues in our country. That's why uh 11% of Americans have type 2 diabetes, 36% of Americans have pre-diabetes. And if you go from the functional medicine side of things, if we're looking at fasting insulin, an insulin over six is going to put you in insulin resistance. And that's 93% of Americans. Now, going back to this lifestyle accreditation. So, I started going through these modules, all plant-based, all plant-based, giving up all these studies with plant-based stuff. And I just made a video. I just made a breakfast sandwich. And in the breakfast sandwich, it was like egg, sausage, bacon, avocado on a good like gluten-free English muffin. Yeah. And I got this DM from this doctor and he was like, hey man, I love your stuff. Would love to connect. I work with so and so up in Michigan. I'm like, "Okay, sure." And he's like, "I'd really love to have a phone call with you." Said, "Okay, sure. No problem." I get on the phone with this guy and he goes, "Hey, so I I didn't really want to break this to you this way, but I'm the chair of the lifestyle medicine accreditation and I saw one of your videos and I just want to tell you that a lot of people in the chair and in the department are looking at your videos and we really want you to pursue more plant-based." And I said, "Absolutely not." What? I said, "If you're going to sit there and try to bully me into producing different videos that align with your plant-based doctrine, I'm going to do one of two things. Number one, I'm just going to quit and tell everyone about it. Or number two, I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing cuz I'm not going to be punished or pushed into promoting plant-based if I don't believe it." At the end of the day, humans are omnivores. We need fiber. And again, this is not to disrespect vegans, vegetarians, but also plants are important. We need fiber, right? And 90% of Americans aren't getting enough of it. So it's not the fact that I want to push carnivore, push high fats, anything like that. It's all about balance. 40 40 20 40% of your plate protein, 40% fiber, 20% carbs. Fiber is important. And we need about 25 to 35 grams per day, right? So it's not the fact that plants are bad. It's the fact that you also need protein in your diet, too. And I think that's the big reason why, you know, plant-based isn't the way to go is because it's so carb heavy. And that's what drives insulin resistance. That's what drives inflammation and it drives a bunch of other multitude of conditions that we see primarily in family medicine. And that's why I just don't I don't believe in it. Yeah. Also, one of the things that you mentioned is fasting. I don't see you talk too much about prolonged fasting. I see more um about 12 14 hours f of fasting. Uh and I see that is really important because many people are eating so frequently today too much snacking very long windows of eating not fasting and that really harms the overall health. Can you explain the benefits of fasting and how eating too often can be harmful for us? Fasting is super important and I always recommend 14-our fast. I always say 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 a.m. And the reason why it's 14 hours, and we can talk more about prolonged, but 14-hour fasts are incredible because you're aligning your eating times with your circadian rhythm. So, you want to eat typically at least 3 hours before bed, right? Because research shows that if you're eating up until bed, the quality of sleep that you're going to get that night is going to be poorer, which is going to raise your cortisol. And the more cortisol you have, the more insulin resistant you are. So that 700 p.m. is great because the sun's typically going down around that time. So you want to stop eating before then. Okay. If you deal with something like nighttime cravings, you can do, you know, a simple dessert like yogurt, whey protein, little graham cracker, some dark chocolate chips, very easy. But 7:00 p.m., stop eating. 9:00 a.m. You want to make sure that you're not eating right upon waking. There's always two nuances with fasting that I talk to people about. Number one, if you wake up at four or five o'clock in the morning to go work out, break your fast as soon as you're done working out because you want to stop that inflammation from that workout by eating. Second, if you're menrating, if you're a woman who is menrating, only fast during your follicular phase. And that's something that's very important for women to understand. Fasting during your follicular phase, F and F, you won't ever forget it. But tracking your cycle is very important because if you're fasting during your ludial or menstrual, it can worsen PMS symptoms and you need more energy during that time anyways. But 14-hour fasts are amazing because it's going to reduce your blood sugar and your insulin levels. And again, a big thing with me and a big thing that I talk about in that cookbook is reducing and combating insulin resistance. Again, insulin rises every time your blood sugar goes up. If the majority of Americans are eating 250 to 300 g of carbohydrates per day, your insulin is going to be higher. And over time of consistently eating that many carbohydrates, your insulin just grows and grows and grows. your cells become more resistant to that number of insulin, the level of insulin in your bloodstream. And what happens is insulin is a growth storing hormone. So the more insulin you have in your body, the more fat you're going to be storing. But it also drives a ton of inflammation. So much so, and I was curious about this the other day, one out of every three Americans who have a heart attack have high cholesterol, but one out of every two Americans who have a heart attack have insulin resistance. I believe insulin resistance is one of the main causes of inflammation in the majority of cardiovascular issues that we have. And we see that and it's known in diabetics that they have an increased risk. But fasting is one of the easiest ways to reduce insulin resistance. So that 14 hours from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 a.m., one of the easiest things that people can do to combat insulin resistance. Now, if you want to go into more prolonged fasting, which is typically what my wife and I will do every quarter, we'll do anywhere from 24, 48, 72-hour fast. Once you prolong after 16, 18, 20 hours, you're getting into more autophagy where your body is going to be breaking down those scinsesscent cells. And scinsesscent cells for people at home are just cells that aren't really doing any function in the body. They're kind of just sitting there. But these are the cells that have an increased risk of turning over into something that could be cancerous or something that could be more malignant. So fasting is very very important for reducing insulin reducing inflammation but also if you're doing prolonged can also reduce those scesscent cells and again it tells us in the Bible to fast and if you look at every major world religion every single major world religion fast and God tells us to fast because we don't need food for that long and typically what I do if I run a 30-day challenge with my participants and clients one of the first days I'll have them fast for 24 hours just so they realize that they don't need food for that period of Exactly. Exactly. That's that's a really smart way of making people understand that they don't they don't need to have food all the time. And I see that's a that's that's something very negative. I want to talk about now since you mentioned about dieting and fasting a little bit more about JLP1s. So, you've been very vocal about the concerns of JLP1 medications and and its nuance and how we can use it in a better way or at least avoid it at all because we can also manifest that through through diet and lifestyle. So, what are your biggest concerns and where do you think they may still have a role? My biggest concerns with GLPS is not the medication itself because it's a great metabolic tool for people who need a kickstart. My biggest concern is the providers who are giving these medications. Most providers in the United States lack nutrition education. So the majority of doctors who are having 10 or 15 minutes to prescribe these medications are giving them to the patient. That patient's walking out the door without any changes to their lifestyle or their diet and especially their protein. And research shows that a lot of these GLPs like ompicide not as much red tuchide even better. But in regards to the loss of lean muscle mass. So for me as a physician, my biggest thing is like I'm [snorts] more focused on the next 5 years of people losing all this muscle mass and having to build back. Muscle mass is like liquid gold, right? The more muscle you have in your body, the more calories you burn at rest. So it makes weight loss so much easier. But muscle is metabolically active. It burns calories, but it also stores sugar. So it helps with your blood sugar and your insulin levels as well. But with GLPS, if a patient walks out of the office on a GLP that's getting raised its dose every 2 to 4 weeks to a max dose and then that patient suddenly in 2 months has plateaued their weight, change nothing about their diet, the minute that they come off that GLP, they're gaining all of that weight back and their metabolic syndrome that they just combed is going to come back probably worse than before. They're not only going to gain the weight back, they may gain even more. So, it's really the education around GLPS. And again, GLOPS are a great tool. And they definitely help with people with weight loss. And the way that it acts mechanistically is it slows down your digestion. It tells your hypothalammus to slow down cravings that you're not hungry. And it also helps with that insulin sensitivity as well. But people don't realize that it's a naturally occurring peptide in our stomach. So again, talking about lifestyle and gut health specifically, the better you are at taking care of your gut health, fermented foods, good probiotics, good whole foods, you'll optimize that GLP naturally in your body to make sure that you're not feeling hungry all the time. And I would say the majority of people who need GLPs outside of the diabetics, but it still kind of plays into that role. The majority of people who need GLPs are the people who are overeating carbohydrates anyways. Yeah. Because in the majority of people who are on GLOPS that don't change their diet are still going to be overeating carbohydrates because it doesn't make them feel full. So one of the things that I always teach a patient who is on a GLP is the difference between carbs and protein, right? They have the same amount of calories per gram, four calories per gram. But if I put a bowl of chips in front of you in a bowl of chicken and they were the same amount of calories, which how many bowls of the chips do you think you can eat before you feel full versus the chicken? Exactly. you would eat way more chips because the difference between carbs and protein is that protein naturally enhances GLP. And if you pair protein with fiber, that's how you really naturally enhance GLP. And that's exactly what that cookbook is teaching people high protein, high fiber, reducing their carbohydrates, that's what naturally optimizes your GLP beyond the thermic effect that the protein has compared to the carbohydrates. 100%. Yeah. And people don't realize that too. Protein actually takes calories to digest and it also helps you build and maintain that muscle mass. The more muscle mass you have, the more calories you're burning. You're burning calories from digesting the protein. So, that's why teaching people about protein is so important, but you also need to make sure that they're getting enough fiber in there as well. Yeah. I would like to bring up one quote that is uh talking about GLPS as we've been trying to treat a physical issue. I mean, we're trying to fix a mental issue with a physical solution as GLPS are. And there's a quote really good from uh St. John the prism in the homalies of the gospel of John and he said when the soul is diseased we have no pain but if the body received through I mean though but a little hurt we use every exertion to free it from its infirmity. So it shows that we don't get concerned about the food addiction we had since the beginning let's say when we were very young but rather being out of shape. So, we're focusing too much about the physical aspect of our body, but not too much on our addiction to the food, which is the actual cure, quote unquote, for your problem. And it's hard, you know, a lot of these ingredients that they're using in foods, they're being made by scientists to be super addicting and super highly palatable. And if you look at the majority of these foods, these are going to be the cheapest. So, there's a lot of socioeconomics that goes in this as well. And growing up in upstate New York, we had a Dollar General. That's like where we had to shop. And if you've ever been to Dollar General, there's not a lot of options there. So, it's hard because all these foods that people are addicted to, they're meant to be addicting and they're meant to be eaten a ton of. But again, that's why it's so important that we're focusing on macros first. A lot of physicians will tell you to eat less and move more, but they disregard macros. They disregard that thermogenic effect of protein. They disregard the things that actually change your physiology. Now again, eating less is great and moving more is great, but in reality, we need to be eating more protein, eating more fiber, eating less carbs, less sugar, and focusing on movement for sure. But I also want people to know this, too. 90% of weight loss is all from the kitchen. And I think that people really don't engage with that as much. They believe that weight loss comes right from the gym. And John says it well though there too though like if your soul is not well your body is not going to be well. And it goes the same way too. If your body is not well, your soul is not going to be well. Exactly. And this is a big thing for Christians whether you're a Christian or not. But there's a lot of Christians out there who need to repent of some of these addictions that they're having. And again, none of us are going to be perfect here. But it's very very apparent that there's a lot of people who do deal with these addictions and they can be broken free. But it's really around building these sustainable lifestyle habits with food and and building a new relationship with it, too. But people don't realize, you know, if you just stop eating so many carbohydrates and you really start focusing on whole foods, you're not going to be craving these foods at the end of the day. Totally agree with you. If you could design um the nutrition course if that was included now with the RFK administration whatever what do you think it would include first as the first uh let's say introduction course for all medical students it'd be macros 100%. Teaching the physiology of macronutrients that would be the number one most important thing because again there's only four macronutrients and most people say there's three but I count four. You have your carbs, your proteins, your fats, and I also count fiber. And people don't talk about fiber as a macro, but I I definitely do. But teaching macronutrients because if you can teach other people macronutrients, diet becomes very easy. And again, it the the common knowledge and the common kind of course of medical school is eat less, move more, right? So I would even kind of skip the gym until module 10, 11, 12. The first 10 modules have to be about macros, have to be about meal timing, meal frequency, a little bit about fasting, insulin resistance, gut microbiome. I'd talk a little bit more about like micronutrients, vitamins and minerals, supplements, and hydration. Um, yeah, I would talk about all these things first before I'd even get into exercise and things like that. Then obviously mindset plays a big thing in there, too. But it's all about daily habits at the end of the day. Yeah. and all of that connecting to disease and what we can do given us certain let's say context and how we can treat about it 100% and it's it's just so overlooked and I do hope that there's people like you and I who have these conversations that really push a little bit more of this into schools and I think I'm going to continue to fight for it here in Florida at least as while I'm here if I can get into into some communication with some government officials. So, if you are a government official, I'd love to work with you guys and get uh some education not only in medical schools, but even in our regular school systems, high schools. Yeah, definitely. Especially on the food quality that um we're not giving to students, unfortunately. I see that very often. The rates of childhood obesity are also increasing too. You know, sky. And if you look at the lunches that these some of these kids are eating, it's the same stuff that I grew up eating, but it just the quality of these ingredients get worse and worse over time. Yeah. Don't you think there's also a way that we can treat parents to be also taking care of the nutrition of the kids? Because it's also a big issue if your kid kid is obese. I would say it's more a problem with the parent that is not educating them as as they could rather than the kid itself. The parents think the parents control what groceries are coming in the house. Yeah, 100%. And you'll see that the majority of parents who are obese, their children are also going to be obese as well. And again, it's just it's lifestyle habits. And people sometimes they'll you be like, "Well, you don't understand the socioeconomics of things." I totally understand the socioeconomics of things. Speaking of this cookbook, you can get every recipe ingredient from Walmart from this book. I mean, you can shop at Walmart, you can shop at Aldi, you can shop at Costco. Yeah. People spend more money in the grocery store on things that they're either throwing out or is absolutely garbage to their body than they are the foods that they can be meal prepping and stocking their freezer up with. And again it it and people always say socioeconomics at the end of the day it's not socioeconomics it's education and with a cell phone there's really no excuse if you have Tik Tok Facebook Instagram you can be learning this stuff. Yeah I totally agree with you and it takes only a single morning and it takes only a little bit of money for you to be doing that. It really doesn't take too much on Costco. You can buy a lot of good food and you can pack them easily to your stuff. And beyond that, if you have a partner, that makes it even better because your relationship of both of you eating together, going to buy food together, and prepping the food together makes it even it's it's it's just another experience that any uh everybody is uh forgetting about it. Uh the the the astounding benefits it has. Yeah. I mean, doing it with someone else is important, too. But also, you know, sometimes I work with couples that, you know, the wife or the husband, it's typically the wife who's in better shape than the husband, but getting that partner to actually kind of, you know, go along with what you're doing. But I have so many people who meal prep with my stuff and they always message me and they're like, "Well, my husband loves his food. He didn't even notice the cottage cheese in there or he didn't even know that it was high protein." It's like everything that I'm making is it's very good. I wouldn't post it if it wasn't good. But it's obviously definitely helpful doing it with a partner. But again, it just takes the you just have to take the first step. Yeah. Just have to take the first step. That's a good thing that you mentioned now is how to get people to want to improve their health or at least be subjected to just like uh the the example that you just mentioned. What do you think is a way that you can address with your patients to help them really want to not just care about the numbers or just you know just doing their routine visit to the doctor? I think the best story that I have for you is sometimes patients need to hit rock bottom before they ever take the first step. And I can tell you that from experience. Um during my second year of medical school, there was a man named Jose who reached out to me. He DM'd me and he said that he was struggling. He was about 700 lb and he was at rock bottom. He couldn't leave his apartment, couldn't go down the stairs, couldn't drive his kids to school. He was a he was a father and a husband and he was just at a rough spot in his life and he just wanted to change and again no quality of life, zero quality of life. And he's like, "I've been seeing your videos. I think this is doable. Can you just help me?" And I was studying for that first board exam during that time. So God placed us together, too. But uh I'm like, "Sure." And in 10 minutes, I called him. I'm like, "Hey, what's going on? I want to learn a little bit more about you." And I told him, I'm like, "Listen, if I'm going to pour into you, like, I want to pour into you." I'm like, "You have to do this because if you die early, I'm not going to be responsible for your death because you're going to die." I'm like, "If you don't change what you're doing right now, you are going to die." And I'm not afraid to tell that to patients, too. I just told a patient that the other day last week. I said, "Listen, I'm on surgery rotations. It's got nothing to do with heart failure or cardiovascular stuff, but I said, "Listen, you're 360 lbs. You are inflamed. You can't walk." I'm like, "You are primed to have a heart attack. You are 59 years old. You have a wife and you have children. You're going to have a heart attack." And he looked at me kind of like astounded that I'd say that, but I'm like, I'm just saying this out of pure love for you because sometimes people need to wake up. And it was the same thing with Jose. I'm like, "Listen, dude. Like I know you're at the point where you want to make this decision, but I'm like, you need to realize the damage you have done. If you don't fix it now, it's never going to be reversed. And I'm like, you need to be a good father. You need to be a good husband. And he decided to go all in. And I sent him everything I had, all my recipes. I'd call him like few times a week, just teaching him simple nutrition, simple macros, and I just educate him as much as possible. And after a year, he was down, I think, like 100 lb, 200 lb. 2 years, 3 years. We just had our 3-year anniversary of us working together last month. That dude lost 400 lb in 3 years. That's crazy. He's now down to 200 I think he's probably 265 lb right now. Never touched a GLP. Never touched a GOP. And that's why when people are like, I've tried everything in the past. I'm like, listen, if I can help this dude at 700 lb, I can help you, too. and our goal is to get them down to 200 by the end of the year. But sometimes it just takes patience to hit rock bottom. And it's hard as a provider, and you'll know this too when you're in practice, that you know, sometimes having the difficult conversations and waking someone up being like, "Hey, you know, I'm not trying to scare you. I don't want to I don't want you to feel any sort of way, but like if you do have a heart attack and you wake up and you're in the ICU with your ribs broken and a tube in your throat, like that's not going to be we want to prevent that. And you also have to think about the amount of cost that goes into being super sick like that. And there's people that pay medical debt for the rest of their life because they live so unhealthy. They're constantly in and out of the hospital. People don't realize this now, but the health and the steps that you're doing today are going to be what the results are in 10, 20 years from now. So the food that you're eating today is going to determine your health in 20 years. The exercise that you're doing today is going to determine your health in 20 years. And again, it's not to scare people, but it's like you can live a life that's so much more optimized with better energy, better confidence, less inflammation if you just start doing these things today. And all it takes is for you just to take the first step. I agree with you. What do you define success? What is success for your life? Success is impact. I think at the end of the day, at the end of the day, every single one of us are going to pass, that's 100% true. The impact that you have on other people around you in regards to whether you just make them smile, you hold a door for them, you help them learn something new. That's what success is to me. And when I first started social media, I always told my brother who also does social media, I said, "If I can have an impact on one person a day, that's a good thing." And I think more people need to come out of their shell and to really start to to start being more selfless and helping other people get to that that point, whatever their goal is. But for me, that's what drives success for me and it's what makes me go every day. If I can have an impact on one person a day, I've done good. Has your idea of success changed when you're premed and now in residency? I think God changed my heart. I think initially prior to really knowing him and being in the word, I think success maybe been measured by worldly things. So, you know, captain of the football team, you know, all-American med school, this trophy, this this event, you know, but at the end of the day, there's always going to be events and there's always going to be things going on in your life. But if you put so much faith into those worldly things, you're always going to be led astray. It's never going to be enough. So, instead of success being something that is internalized or something that you're doing, make it about other people. And that's how you will continue to grow and you also won't be so attached to that emotionally. And I think that's very biblical too. It's to pour into other people. I think Jesus says that the greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as you love yourself. And the reason that we love ourselves as Christians is because we know that God made us in his perfect image. But Jesus is saying to go out and love your neighbor. And your neighbor can be a stranger, a family member, a friend. But love can be so many different things. And again, I think impact is one of the best things that we can do for people. I truly agree with you. And to finish us off, last question. If you and I were no longer here tomorrow, what is the final message you would like for everyone to know? Put your faith into Christ. Again, like for me, and I don't think people at home may get this as often, but I see death often. I'm around people dying often. I've seen people pass. Um, and it's a and it's an experience that not many people talk about, but everyone has to deal with it. If you can put your faith into a God that loves you and wants to kinder your spirit for eternity, put your faith into him. And I'm telling you, there's times in people's lives that you're going to be anxious. You're going to be stressed. You're going to have a lot of different things going on. But the more trust you put into him with your life, the better your life will be. So, put your faith into Christ and he'll lead you. He'll lead you home. That's good, Johnny. It was great talking with you. Where can we find your book? You can find my cookbook at any social media, dratic or shop totalweightloss.com. You guys can also check out the total weight loss app on the Apple or Android store, total weight loss. Uh, new supplements with dummy subs coming very soon as well. We're launching an ashroandha magnesium digestive enzyme. My new probiotics coming out soon. And we're moving all of our proteins into grass-fed organic whey protein with uh monk fruit. So, no artificial anything in there. Looking to get some really clean supplements out for you guys here very soon. But you can find all that stuff on my socials at Dr. Johnny Hadock. That's amazing, Johnny. It was great talking with you. Appreciate it, brother.
