Levels_Casey_Means1_photo_credit_Stacie_Finner
EPISODE #876

The Best and Worst Foods for Your Metabolic System

Dr. Casey Means

Get the latest info on measuring metabolism, personalized nutrition advice, and how simple food changes can reset your metabolic system, make you stronger and give you more energy.
Levels_Casey_Means1_photo_credit_Stacie_Finner

In this Episode of The Human Upgrade™...

… you’re going to learn how to upgrade your metabolism and optimize your diet for your unique biology.

Dr. Casey Means started her career as a surgeon, where she saw firsthand, day after day, the devastating long-term consequences of poor metabolism, from cardiovascular issues to cancer. She decided to refocus her career on helping people prevent metabolic disease in the first place, instead of treating the results.

So, she began researching the causes of metabolic disorders. She quickly discovered a bigger and more subtle problem existed than she’d even realized.

“A recent UNC study estimated that 88% of American adults have at least one biomarker of poor metabolism,” she says. “And this is likely part of the reason why nine out of 10 of the leading causes of death in the U.S. are related to, or worsened by, dysregulated blood sugar levels.”

What does this lead to? “Healthcare costs are going up each year…and we’re getting sicker, fatter, and more depressed,” Dr. Casey says.

That’s why she co-founded Levels Health. Levels created a wearable device that continuously monitors your blood sugar levels, then gives you a personalized nutrition dashboard based on the results.

“One of the key fundamental triggers of chronic inflammation in the body is dysregulated blood sugar and metabolic dysfunction.”

Dr. Casey Means

Blood sugar imbalances are a strong predictor of inflammation and long-term metabolic disease. Keeping your blood sugar on an even keel is a powerful way to gain stable energy all day, keep your metabolism running strong, and even lose weight.

Everyone’s metabolism is different, which is why Levels uses your personal data to make food recommendations. It can tell you which foods to eat, which ones to avoid, the best times to eat, and even whether you’re eating too much or not enough.

I’m a big believer in quantifying your health. When you have objective numbers about your biology, you can start to tweak things and make them better.

Levels gives you the power to measure your blood sugar throughout the day—and Dr. Casey hopes that this kind of insight will help you eat better, lower your inflammation, supercharge your metabolism, and become a stronger, more capable version of yourself.

In this episode, you’ll also learn about:

  • The worst foods for your blood sugar (quick preview: Chick-Fil-A and Coca Cola are at the top of the list)
  • How your metabolism affects everything from Alzheimer’s to acne to erectile dysfunction
  • Why the calories-in-calories-out model of nutrition is flawed
  • Simple changes you can make to build a stronger metabolism
  • And much more!

A SPECIAL OFFER FOR THE HUMAN UPGRADE™ LISTENERS
The Levels closed beta program includes a waitlist of more than 140,000 people. Skip that line and participate in the early access program with this link: levels.link/dave. Levels is available only in the U.S.

Enjoy the show!

LISTEN: “Follow” or “subscribe” to The Human Upgrade™ with Dave Asprey on your favorite podcast platform.

REVIEW: Go to Apple Podcasts at daveasprey.com/apple and leave a (hopefully) 5-star rating and a creative review.

FEEDBACK: Got a comment, idea or question for the podcast? Submit via this form!

SOCIAL: Follow @thehumanupgradepodcast on Instagram and Facebook.

JOIN: Learn directly from Dave Asprey alongside others in a membership group: ourupgradecollective.com.

  • Our Partners
  • Links & Resources
  • Key Notes

Control Blood Glucose:

https://pendulumlife.com, sign up for membership to get monthly supply delivery, use code DAVE20 to save $20 on your first shipment

Support Immune & Digestive Health:

https://justthrivehealth.com, use code ASPREY to get 15% off

Nervous System Recovery:

https://apolloneuro.com/dave10 to get 10% off an Apollo Neuro device

  • What did it feel like as a graduate of Stanford the first time you got invited to guest lecture on campus?  – 3:03
  • I really refocused my clinical energy into thinking about how to help patients make better choices, healthier decisions that would ultimately lead the foundational metabolic health. – 7:40
  • The fun thing is that when you join the contrarian community, you join a community of really amazing people.  – 12:21
  • Systems and network biology looks at what are the physiologic links between each of these diseases on the cellular level.  – 13:54
  • The metabolic pathways are sort of like a centralizing factor that take in a lot of different multivariate inputs and can become dysfunctional via lots of different things.  – 17:28
  • We have 1.3 million food logs, 51 million glucose data points and 128 million health data points at any time.  – 24:01
  • One really common thing we saw was that breakfast foods often, which sometimes you have cinnamon, like pastries, were a huge amount of the 50 worst scoring foods.  – 27:37
  • Pancakes, French toast, waffle, bagel and cream cheese, bagel, scone, pastry, overnight oats and Cheerios. So that’s a large percentage of top 50 worst foods. – 27:57
  • Plant-based omega-3s are not going to be effective for the anti-inflammatory or the structural properties as the downstream omega-3s like EPA and DHA. – 31:12
  • Calories affect hormones, and hormones are what really dictate the results of what’s going on inside at our bodies. And so, a calorie that stimulates insulin release or causes oxidative stress is very different from a calorie that does neither of those things.  – 36:48
  • I know we can all feel low blood sugar, but what does high blood sugar feel like?  – 41:40
  • How strange is that, that we’d wait until someone has an actual disorder before we let them monitor thing when these conditions are preventable, largely preventable?  – 52:38
  • The Lancet, a premier medical journal, did a paper a few years ago that showed that the average person is exhibiting signs of insulin resistance 13 years before their diagnosis of type 2 diabetes. And we’re missing those people because we don’t actually test for insulin sensitivity in the doctor’s office.  – 55:34
  • Reducing glycemic variability improves our chances of not having chronic disease, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, obesity, and all the associated diseases. – 57:32
  • 50% of Americans go on a diet each year to lose weight. And people actually think they’re making really good decisions, and sometimes they’re not. And that’s not because of lack of effort, it’s because of intentional misinformation.  – 59:59

Listen and Subscribe using your favorite podcast provider

Start hacking your way to better than standard performance and results.

Receive weekly biohacking tips and tech by becoming a Dave Asprey insider.

By sharing your email, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy