The Superfood Mindset: Enhance Your Brain, Body & Life w/Darin Olien EP 1088

“If you are willing to be vulnerable it is a superpower without needing any approval. That is a superpower untouchable and the ultimate freedom.”Today's guest is Darin Olien, who is a highly recognized exotic superfoods hunter, supplement formulator, co-host of Down to Earth with Zac Efron and author of the New York Times bestselling book, “SuperLife: The five fixes that will keep you healthy, fit and eternally awesome. In this episode Lewis and Darin discuss why water is incredibly important to our health and how to make sure you’re drinking the healthiest water, the correct way to separate your foods before eating, what foods you should and shouldn’t be eating, and so many other fascinating insights that’ll change the way you view nutrition and health! For more go to: www.lewishowes.com/1088Read Darin's Book: SuperLife: The 5 Simple Fixes That Will Make You Healthy, Fit, and Eternally Awesome Check out his website: www.darinolien.comThe Wim Hof Experience: Mindset Training, Power Breathing, and Brotherhood: https://link.chtbl.com/910-podA Scientific Guide to Living Longer, Feeling Happier & Eating Healthier with Dr. Rhonda Patrick: https://link.chtbl.com/967-podThe Science of Sleep for Ultimate Success with Shawn Stevenson: https://link.chtbl.com/896-pod Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  This is episode number 1,088 with New York Times bestselling author Darren O'Leary. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin.

• 0:28Lewis Howes?

  Ann Wigmore said, "The food you eat can be either the safest and most powerful form of medicine, or the slowest form of poison." And actor Robert Erich said, "A healthy outside starts from the inside." Welcome to the School of Greatness. My guest today is Darren O'Leary, who is a highly recognized exotic superfoods hunter, supplement formulator, co-host of the hit Netflix show Down to Earth with Zac Efron, and author of the New York Times bestselling book, Super Life, The Five Fixes That Will Keep You Healthy, Fit, and Eternally Awesome. And in this episode, we discuss why water is incredibly important to our health, and how to make sure you're drinking the healthiest types of water.

• 1:13Lewis Howes?

  The starter kit for optimizing our health, the correct way to separate your foods before eating, what foods you should and shouldn't be eating in general, and so many other fascinating insights that'll change the way you view nutrition and your health. If you're enjoying this at any moment, make sure to share this with someone you think would be inspired by this as well. Just copy and paste the link wherever you're listening to this podcast. And as well, click the subscribe button over on Apple Podcasts and leave us a review, letting us know what you enjoyed the most out of this episode. Okay, in just a moment, the one and only Darren O'Leary.

• 1:51Lewis Howes?

  Welcome everyone back to the School of Greatness podcast. We've got Darren O'Leary in the house. Hey, man. Good to see you. Good to chat with you off camera. Congrats on everything. Down to Earth, massive success. I watched it in like one day. And I was actually, the first episode, I was like, is it gonna pick up? Like, the first episode for me was actually not the best episode. But then, once I got through that, I was like, the rest of them were bangers for me. So it was amazing. And the end is incredibly inspiring of the journey that you go through and everything. So if people haven't watched that yet, they should watch it because they're gonna learn a lot about some of the things we talk about here. I wanna, I wanna start you with a question that I ask a lot of nutritional experts.

• 2:34Lewis Howes?

  It's a hypothetical question, so bear with me. And I know you've studied pretty much every superfood there is. But if you were stranded at an island and you could only eat five foods.

• 2:47Speaker 01

  Five foods, okay.

• 2:48Lewis Howes?

  For the rest of your life. Hypothetical question.

• 2:50Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 2:51Lewis Howes?

  But it needed to keep you strong and healthy and happy and whole. You know, what would those five key foods or ingredients be?

• 3:01Lewis Howes?

  That you would eat?

• 3:02Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 3:02Lewis Howes?

  Kind of these, these core foods. And every, every doctor nutritionist has a different take, so I'm curious your philosophy.

• 3:10Speaker 01

  Okay, I love that you didn't ask me this before we turned the camera. I actually love because it's great that it's spontaneous, but I would say spirulina.

• 3:20Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 3:22Speaker 01

  Moringa, aloe vera. You've got moringa, which is the vitamin tree. That is another term for that as a, so that gives you the idea of the antioxidants, the micronutrients that in, that are actually within the whole leaf of that tree. You've got spirulina, quite possibly one of the most nutrient-dense foods. In its raw form, different than the powder.

• 3:47Lewis Howes?

  How do you get it raw?

• 3:48Speaker 01

  There's a great company, they're gonna love me right now, I get nothing from it. Raw Living Spirulina, it comes to you fresh, frozen. It is the only company that I know of that is doing it.

• 4:02Lewis Howes?

  Okay. Moringa, what is moringa?

• 4:05Speaker 01

  Oh dude.

• 4:06Lewis Howes?

  Well, first off, what does spirulina do for the body when you're taking the raw form?

• 4:10Speaker 01

  Well, in the raw form, you've got all B vitamins, including B12. B6, B9, B12, all of that, so.

• 4:19Lewis Howes?

  Is this a liquid? Is this a?

• 4:20Speaker 01

  No, it's like a.

• 4:22Lewis Howes?

  Plant? Is this a root?

• 4:24Speaker 01

  So it's grown in fresh water. It's a type of algae, type of blue-green algae. So you've got a mimicking of hemoglobin, red blood cells. You've got chelation ability of heavy metals.

• 4:43Speaker 01

  You've got, obviously, the B vitamins, vitamin E, high amount of antioxidants, complete protein in its right form, not a huge amount, because you can also make that argument, too much protein is also has its detriment.

• 5:02Speaker 01

  And then you shifting over to meringa, which is literally, I've, I've studied and researched meringa in probably six to seven countries. And it is an extremely strong and powerful leaf. You just grind it up and literally call it the vitamin tree, or in Africa, they also call it nevadai. So you take it and you never die.

• 5:29Speaker 01

  Never die? Never die. Meringa, it's a tree or it's a leaf? It's a, well, you eat the leaf. It's a tree, but you can actually- It's a meringa tree. It's a meringa, yeah. So it's technically a bush, but you can let it grow, but you wanna, if you're growing it, you cut it off and then it proliferates the leaves and you actually get more harvest out of it. I've done some work with the, with the indigenous people throughout Arizona and we, I experimented and grew meringa in Arizona and it turns out, and I worked with some processors in, in Palm Desert, friends of mine who have facilities, and I did the top selling meringa that I had

• 6:14Speaker 01

  in the market with mine, and I blew the nutrition away just because of the understanding I have learned. So the nutrients, calcium, magnesium, potassium, vitamin E, thirty-six different types of antioxidants. Wow. Again, complete protein, right? Now, if you're gonna say I get the meringa shrub or tree with me in this journey on an island, now I actually get the oil, the beneficial oil from the seeds, which are, look like drumsticks, right? And I can filter water with those seeds and create clean water. Whoa. So now you're kind of like, like- Layering it, okay. Layering it, and then, so then I would go- Where can you get the meringa from?

• 7:00Speaker 01

  So my

• 7:00Lewis Howes?

  Where's the best source?

• 7:02Speaker 01

  I I'm telling you, I've been wanting to put meringue out in the in the marketplace for a long time because I haven't seen great meringue yet. So I don't have a clear, clean source of it.

• 7:15Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 7:16Speaker 01

  Because when you cut it and you don't process it, dry it and pulverize it and wash it right away, and you transport it over time, the antioxidants, um, it starts degrading pretty quickly.

• 7:31Lewis Howes?

  Hmm. So it's not as quality, it's not even worth taking unless it's

• 7:34Speaker 01

  Nah, it's not that it's not worth taking, you're just not quite getting all of the nutrients. I studied the nutrients in those forms, you're just not getting as quite as much of the vitamin

• 7:45Lewis Howes?

  Uh huh.

• 7:45Speaker 01

  and and antioxidant capacity. And then I think I would pick the king of all fruits with me. So notice I'm stacking up pretty heavily.

• 7:54Lewis Howes?

  So this is number three then?

• 7:56Speaker 01

  Yeah. So the the three is probably the king of all fruits, which is durian.

• 8:02Lewis Howes?

  D U R?

• 8:03Speaker 01

  I A N.

• 8:05Lewis Howes?

  The fruit.

• 8:06Speaker 01

  Darin fruit is a spiky, gnarly Southeast Asia is typically where it's from. It actually can kill people when it falls off a tree and it actually does. It's got spikes on it. When you crack it open, it looks like

• 8:21Lewis Howes?

  It's like a coconut with spikes.

• 8:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:23Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 8:24Speaker 01

  And it breaks it breaks open and it looks like brains and it smells like a sewer.

• 8:30Lewis Howes?

  Oh, man.

• 8:31Speaker 01

  And it's illegal in Southeast Asia to actually bring it in public, uh, buildings.

• 8:37Lewis Howes?

  To eat it because it smells so bad.

• 8:39Speaker 01

  You can't bring it in on buses, you can't bring it on planes, you can't bring it in hotels because it smells so bad.

• 8:45Lewis Howes?

  So is the nutritional value is so high though?

• 8:48Speaker 01

  So high.

• 8:48Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 8:49Speaker 01

  Yeah. It's antioxidants, again, a huge array of of vitamins and they all they call it the king of all fruits because of its, uh, interesting composition.

• 8:59Lewis Howes?

  Can people get that here?

• 9:01Speaker 01

  There used to be a group that was, um, sending it frozen here. I'm not sure that they still are in existence and I used to eat it dried. So there was a group

• 9:14Lewis Howes?

  So it didn't smell as bad probably?

• 9:15Speaker 01

  Didn't smell as bad and my God, it was my, it is my favorite fruit.

• 9:19Lewis Howes?

  It tastes good.

• 9:20Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:20Lewis Howes?

  Smelly brains taste good.

• 9:22Speaker 01

  Some people don't like it, but if you like it, it's it's one of the favorites.

• 9:30Speaker 01

  So, so, so that one for sure.

• 9:34Lewis Howes?

  Number four.

• 9:35Speaker 01

  And I think I would pull in the king of all mushrooms. This is a, this is a royalty we're talking about. You talk, you just ask the super food. You just ask the super food hunter.

• 9:46Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 9:47Speaker 01

  What you're gonna bring in. So I would bring in the king of all mushrooms and that is Chaga mushrooms. And, and I named my dog Chaga. So there you go. The reverence that I have for Chaga mushrooms. The, probably the most highest antioxidant.

• 10:06Speaker 01

  Whole compound mushroom in the world. So it's gonna keep, I'm on this desert island. I'm definitely gonna keep my immune system cranking. I'm gonna creep, keep the cortisol levels low. I'm gonna keep my endocrine system balanced. So I'm gonna sip on Chaga tea all day, every day.

• 10:28Lewis Howes?

  Wow. Okay, and number five, and where can we get that?

• 10:32Speaker 01

  Chaga mushrooms everywhere. I mean, Tarot at Four Sigmatic has a dual extracted Chaga. You can also get Chaga. There's a great company, Rose Mountain Herbs that, that does a lot of harvesting well. And you can get the full chunks of Chaga and you can simmer that for hours and hours and hours and keep that just simmer.

• 10:52Lewis Howes?

  Drink it as a tea?

• 10:53Speaker 01

  Yep, drink it as a tea. You can add cacao with it, a little sweetener. It's decadent and delicious.

• 10:59Lewis Howes?

  Wow, okay. King of mushrooms, Chaga mushrooms and number five?

• 11:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, number five, let me see. I would probably pick, I'm gonna go back to the adaptogens. It is a berry, sweet sour, bitter, pungent and salty. Have all five flavors.

• 11:20Lewis Howes?

  In one berry?

• 11:21Speaker 01

  In one berry.

• 11:23Lewis Howes?

  What's it called?

• 11:23Speaker 01

  Called Shizandra.

• 11:25Lewis Howes?

  Shizandra?

• 11:26Speaker 01

  If you wanna name your first child.

• 11:29Lewis Howes?

  Shizandra?

• 11:30Speaker 01

  Call it Shizandra.

• 11:31Lewis Howes?

  How do you spell that?

• 11:32Speaker 01

  Oh, man. Uh, there's a few different spellings, but it's S-C-H-I-Z-A-N-D-R-A, something like that.

• 11:40Lewis Howes?

  Shizandra berry.

• 11:42Speaker 01

  Berry. So it's this beautiful berry that grows in some sovereign areas in near Tibet and the eastern area of China. I've been there.

• 11:54Lewis Howes?

  You've picked the berries and eaten them raw?

• 11:55Speaker 01

  Absolutely picked the berries and eaten them raw. You can ferment and make even the decadent little wine out of it. I've celebrated with the, the, the remote China people in that area with Shizandra celebrations when they've harvested it. So it, it is, and it, traditional Chinese medicine, it has been used probably the, is one of the oldest in record, um, adaptogenic herbs that, that traditional Chinese medicine use. And they use it as kind of a base because it's so well-balanced and it balances out your body over time, both in stress response, cortisol, endocrine, overall

• 12:40Speaker 01

  strength, um, and then of course, stress. But if you're on an island, you don't have to worry about it. Unless some animals are gonna come and.

• 12:47Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 12:47Speaker 01

  Chomp on you. So I think that's it, man. I think that's, I'm beautiful with eating that and sipping on that and eating those berries.

• 12:57Lewis Howes?

  Okay. Those are the five main things you would eat. Okay. So for, how many of these do you actually have on a regular basis?

• 13:05Speaker 01

  I have all of those on a regular basis, almost for sure weekly, except durian.

• 13:13Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 13:14Speaker 01

  I, I have a hard time getting durian myself unless I'm in, you know, in Southeast Asia at some point, Bali or.

• 13:21Lewis Howes?

  Then you're getting it a lot.

• 13:22Speaker 01

  Then I'm getting, then, then I'm.

• 13:24Lewis Howes?

  Overloading it.

• 13:25Speaker 01

  I'm paying someone to.

• 13:27Lewis Howes?

  To go get it.

• 13:27Speaker 01

  To go get it, for sure.

• 13:29Lewis Howes?

  It's that good?

• 13:30Speaker 01

  And then that, and that's my breakfast every day.

• 13:32Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 13:33Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 13:34Lewis Howes?

  So for the rest of the humans, what would be a starter kit to start optimizing your health? Where should we think about in terms of our health if we're a little bit overweight or not feeling the way we want to? How would we start to assess our health to get on a better path for a journey moving forward? In terms of, I mean, everything you covered in this book, Superlife, but also in Down to Earth, you cover a lot of things in there. What would be the kind of starter kit you think from that journey?

• 14:06Speaker 01

  Well, you can say the normal things of like, there's a lot. I mean, that's a big question because, you know, making sure you're sleeping well.

• 14:14Lewis Howes?

  Sleep, yeah.

• 14:14Speaker 01

  Making sure you're turning off your electronics, making sure you're doing those things, which is also like, it would take me 30 minutes to even unpack all of what that is, but then I would go to water. Of course, water is a big thing. And so water...

• 14:32Lewis Howes?

  Which was the most fascinating episode I think you guys had.

• 14:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was pretty great. And that was, that was one half of 1% of what water is.

• 14:40Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 14:41Speaker 01

  And I've studied water. Like, I've studied and I've been shoulder to shoulder with some of, like, I've four days in Bulgaria at a water conference with some of the greatest researchers of living today, doing research that will blow your mind on water. So...

• 14:57Lewis Howes?

  So not all water is created equal?

• 14:59Speaker 01

  Not at all. And water, but water is influenced by everything. So everything it's around. Our field, our energetic field, our frequencies, the electronics, the pipes it's going through, or in nature. Victor Schauberger, incredible researcher and observer of nature, and watched, watched and was one of the first people to understand the vortative nature of water, that it doesn't move in a straight line.

• 15:29Lewis Howes?

  It's flowing.

• 15:30Speaker 01

  It's flowing and vortating.

• 15:32Lewis Howes?

  Like a snake or...

• 15:32Speaker 01

  So it's vortexing, and that is structuring it. Plus, the electromagnetic field naturally of this big battery that we sit on, which is the earth. And then the, the influence of the fields of the sun, right, is, is...

• 15:51Speaker 01

  Creating electrolysis, so it's helping as well as chelating the minerals. So all of that being said, it's structuring the water. And so that is alive water with high oxygen, high amount of hydrogen and essential minerals. So now what you're really talking about is you're talking about a conductive live force that you're taking in because we are 70 trillion batteries. We are an electrical being. Same with like, and then so, so water, deconstruct the water and then build the water back up. Because unless you can find your own spring, that's number one.

• 16:34Speaker 01

  And it's clean and doesn't have pesticides or herbicides or runoff or whatever weird chemicals we've put into our world, right? We have 90,000 new chemicals being emitted in our world every year. Of that, 9% is tested. So that is on our planet, in our waterways. So that being said, want to make sure that people understand, if you have fresh, clean, alive, spring water, that's the best. But it's very hard.

• 17:09Lewis Howes?

  How many springs are there in America?

• 17:11Speaker 01

  Exactly, and are, and you know, so for most of us, very hard to have access.

• 17:17Lewis Howes?

  Is there such a thing as clean water that can make you sick?

• 17:24Speaker 01

  Well, that's a very interesting question, of course, on one, on the one hand. But there is no water that is the same. And there's no, water isn't 100% clean unless your reverse osmosis and distillation is probably your best bet to make sure that nothing's traveling in it. But they absolutely have energetic fields that are influencing the water. So Dr. Emoto's work, when he, you know, took. X-ray, or he took photographs of the geometry of water when they put love on a bottle and all of that stuff.

• 18:08Speaker 01

  That work has been proliferated by scientists all over the world. And Dr. Luc Montier did a DNA test of, of physical DNA in water and then a glass next to it. And it just being in proximity, the physical DNA transmitted the frequency No, it did not. Information in the water next to it. And two different glass jars, just by being in proximity. Yeah. So it picked up the energetic fingerprint of the DNA that was in the one glass. The point to that is Wow. Yeah.

• 18:51Speaker 01

  That's how, think of water as an empty hard drive. If we put an empty hard drive right here and we plugged in our computers, would it decipher or would it reject input that you would have or I would have? We could put completely different things. It would just accept whatever information is being put in. Exactly. Water is the same thing. No. Absolutely. So physically, chemically, biologically, and quantumly, they're showing that, that water is being influenced by all of those things. And they believe, and they're already working on this, that a droplet of water is equal

• 19:36Speaker 01

  to a lot, to a, to enabling to be able to have and store the amount of hard drives it would take to fill up this room in one droplet of water. The ability to The amount of what? The energy? The amount of water that you could infuse and, and store information. Just one droplet? One droplet as much as the room we're sitting in. How is that possible? I don't know how it's possible, but this is what they're discovering. Here's the thing of all of those Who's they, just so I'm aware? So, so I attended, so Dr. Jerry Pollock, you should have him on. Dr. Gerald Pollock or Jerry Pollock. He wrote a book called The Fourth Phase of Water.

• 20:19Speaker 01

  Now, we're getting into it heavy right here, right? So I'm having to pull back because our whole episode would be about water.

• 20:25Lewis Howes?

  This is great though, yeah.

• 20:26Speaker 01

  But Joe Pollock discovered that there's what's called, and now he's influenced the way all researchers are looking at water because he discovered a fourth phase of water.

• 20:40Lewis Howes?

  What's the first three phases?

• 20:41Speaker 01

  Well, the first phases is water, liquid, steam, right? And then, uh, and then ice, of course, right?

• 20:53Lewis Howes?

  Fourth phase.

• 20:54Speaker 01

  The fourth phase, and I'm gonna try to make this very simple. What he discovered was when water came up against a hydrophilic surface, meaning that it was not accepting water, just it wasn't.

• 21:11Lewis Howes?

  Bouncing off.

• 21:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, bouncing off. So it's coming up a cell. Yeah, so if it came up against this and it just didn't infuse itself right in. Or a cell. So he was looking at a cell membrane, which is essentially fatty acids. He discovered that, that through microscope, there was a zone that the water pushed the electrons and protons away from each other.

• 21:38Lewis Howes?

  What does that mean?

• 21:39Speaker 01

  Means that it demonstrated battery-like activity. It created polarity when it came up against this. It created, this is gonna blow your mind. It created energy by just coming up to that, by pushing those electrons away from each other. And this, this was called, what he termed, an exclusion zone. It, within that tiny band, the protons and electrons, battery-like activity, there was distillation water. Essentially, it created clean water.

• 22:20Lewis Howes?

  So water that goes up against this mug.

• 22:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 22:23Lewis Howes?

  Inside.

• 22:24Speaker 01

  Potentially.

• 22:25Lewis Howes?

  Could go against it and create this.

• 22:28Speaker 01

  So that was monumental because what that shows us is when you are hydrated and it's interacting with cells that literally creates Energy. Energy of every cell of the 70 trillion plus cells we have. So literally, and you look through the research, what is the number one consequence of dehydration? Overall fatigue. Hmm. Look it up. Being tired. Bingo. And you now add on top of it, Louis, nearly about 7%. So let's call it 10%.

• 23:13Speaker 01

  About 30 million people in the United States do not drink an ounce of water a day. Really? Swear. Wait, how many people? Nearly 30 million people. Don't drink water. Don't drink an ounce of water a day. They're just drinking. So you wake up, you reach out, you're like, oh, I'm fatigued. I reach out for the stimulant. I reach out for the coffee. I reach out for whatever. So they're drinking water in different forms, but not a, they're drinking Coke or coffee. Exactly. Or juice or something else. And they're probably not eating any fresh fruits or vegetables, which actually has this exclusion zone water in it already. So when you're eating fruit, nature has already sorted it.

• 23:56Speaker 01

  So you actually can get quite hydrated by the watermelon, by the fresh oranges, by the apples, by the things, by the grapes, by the, so, so, so that's, that's a, so Gerald Pollak created a water conference, I think it's 15 years going. And I was at the 2018 in Bulgaria.

• 24:20Speaker 01

  So in between us filming, we were all over the place for three and a half months. And I said, screw it, I'm going to this water conference. You were filming and you left? Well, we were, we had a, we had a two weeks where we, we had a break before we were going to our next location. So I took off to Bulgaria. You're already in your upcy mode. Might as well. So, so I said, I'm hanging out with the smartest people in the world. I couldn't even follow 10% of the heavy, heavy science that they were getting into. But I met a lot of incredible researchers to the point where I'm creating vortexing machines and jugs and stuff to be able to create exclusion water and to create live water again. So I have some of that stuff from researchers from that conference that I'm

• 25:05Speaker 01

  bringing out in the world to, so water deadens as it's going through our pipes. It, it loses that energy, that exclusion zone, that type of live energy. So essentially we're drinking, even though it's clean, we need to clean it. RO, reverse osmosis with distillation, add a pinch of Himalayan crystal salt. Make sure that you're creating it and you're looking through the lens of voltage. Our bodies are alive. It's electrical. It's voltage. Cells work through voltage. When we get injured, our body increases cellular voltage to increase healing potential. So, and that could be looked at as pH. That in the body is looked at as pH.

• 25:50Speaker 01

  And a lot of people don't realize that is just the measurement in that form of voltage. Right? So when you look at water, you need to make it alive again so that it's conductive. And so that your body doesn't have to steal things from inside and zap your energy. So if I take live water, boom, it's gonna go into my cells and it's gonna allow for hydration to increase. So anyway, that's a tiny bit, but I spent a lot of time with those guys and that's a, it's a deep rabbit, even in the show, we chose to go into lures and just talk about something's going on with water.

• 26:34Lewis Howes?

  So for, for 99% of people who get bottled water, they drink out of a tap, maybe they have a, a glass jug that comes to them once a week, whatever, like myself, 99% of America and probably the world, 99.9%, what can they do to make their own water more alive, more efficient, more optimized? Is there a way, when you have just bottled water or water to tap, to do this yourself at home?

• 27:01Speaker 01

  The first thing is clean it on a, on a deep level. So you wanna reverse osmosis or distillation.

• 27:09Lewis Howes?

  Some type of filter.

• 27:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, but these are, RO is a type of membrane that doesn't allow for anything to get through.

• 27:17Lewis Howes?

  Got it.

• 27:18Speaker 01

  And distillation is liquid vaporization reconstitute again. So nothing gets to carry with it. So you're cleaning it now. Very important not to just drink that water. Okay? Cause now you need the electrolytes. You have to have the electrolytes. So there's some electrolyte companies out there. Most are kind of not okay. So easiest thing for people to do, unrefined salt, crystal salt, Himalayan salt, a pinch per glass, a half a teaspoon per gallon will now create a conductive thing. Now, make sure, just buy this filter. You can get these things for a few hundred bucks, eliminate plastic.

• 27:56Lewis Howes?

  Which filter? What's the filter called?

• 27:58Speaker 01

  So, so I even have a discount for people. So Aqua True is a great reverse osmosis. So if you go to DarrenLee.com and my affiliates, they give all people who wanna order that like 150 bucks off. That isn't, it's not even meant to plug. It's just great that people get a hell of a discount for a few hundred bucks. You've eliminated your need to go outside your home. Aqua True. Water through that or it's in like a. Yeah, you you've poured in the back and then it goes through an R O system. Wow. Boom, comes out right there. And then you put the salt in it afterwards? Boom, put the salt in it. And that's good drinking water. Now that's good. So now I would also take it up a notch by like, they're gonna love me.

• 28:42Speaker 01

  Uh, I I get nothing from this blue bottle love. So now they've took Emoto's work and they've written gratitude, love, etched it in the crystal glass. Ooh. Right? And they've created cobalt blue, which some of the science has shown that that blue, that deep blue is the frequency of healthy cells. So now you've got the the etched words that is infusing that and you can take those bottles and put that in the sun and now you're supercharging. Should water be in the sun? If it's in glass, it can be. If it's in plastic? If it's in plastic, you are you are leaching.

• 29:24Speaker 01

  The many chemicals. Keep in mind, plastic is petroleum. It's oil. And then to make it malleable, they use a a mimicking compound that mimics estrogen. So the softer a plastic run away from, right? The harder. Better. Better. Or B P A free, right? That's okay? That's better, right? Glass, glass, glass, as much as you can. Hard plastic, pretty much okay. Yeah. Right? So that's an easy way. And and then when I get some of these Vortators out, these things are incredible. How do we get one of those?

• 30:07Speaker 01

  It's coming soon. Probably when this is out, I'll have them available. Okay. Yeah.

• 30:12Lewis Howes?

  So you put it through the vorator?

• 30:14Speaker 01

  So yeah, so you literally, it's all mathematics. This little vorator and it's literally spinning. It's creating a tornado in your water and increasing oxygen, which we need. Helps the immune system, helps the body, helps the absorption, activates mitochondria, all that stuff. And then you're increasing the hydrogen as well.

• 30:36Lewis Howes?

  Let's just say you're

• 30:38Speaker 01

  Making the

• 30:39Lewis Howes?

  Let's just say you don't have all this and you got a plastic bottle right now, a soft plastic bottle, normal bottle that you see everywhere. Can you swirl it and oxygenate it yourself?

• 30:49Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 30:50Lewis Howes?

  And get some benefits?

• 30:51Speaker 01

  Something. I would shake it up, make it alive.

• 30:53Lewis Howes?

  Shake it?

• 30:54Speaker 01

  Yeah, and buy it, get a marker and put love on it.

• 30:58Lewis Howes?

  Right. You think that's gonna

• 30:59Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 31:00Lewis Howes?

  Within 10 seconds, putting love on a bottle is gonna make it that much more magnetic?

• 31:04Speaker 01

  Listen, it's an intention too.

• 31:07Lewis Howes?

  Of course.

• 31:07Speaker 01

  Absolutely, right? So, so think about this. If I've intended it, now I've also intended it for my own body. And what are we? We're mostly water. So if that is my intention, that is a prayer and that is activated. That is not passive, just doing whatever. That is activating for sure.

• 31:28Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 31:28Speaker 01

  So listen, everything, health is not magic bullets. It's not the perfect superfood. It's everything. It is the small things added up over time. It is setting your mark, the one degree, the next degree, the next degree, and setting your trajectory, right? Towards what you want. So you don't have to get overwhelmed with this. Just adopt what you can, what you, what resonates now, adopt that. And then as you become healthier, more activated, more energy, more all,

• 32:10Speaker 01

  then you'll be like, you'll naturally go, okay, cool, now what? Okay, cool, now what? Okay, cool, let me eat more, more plants. You know, that's another thing. I would just say, eat more plants.

• 32:21Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 32:21Speaker 01

  Just start. Increasing the amount of diversification of colors in your life because that is information for your body. Information. Reductionism, I can go into, it's got compounds. Each color is a phenolic compound. It's an antioxidant. Each other color operates a different antioxidant or tannin or everything else. All you have to remember is it's beautiful diversification that's giving you different minerals, different vitamins, different antioxidants and different information, right? For your body and also when it's fresh, fruits, vegetables, you're getting that structured water.

• 33:06Speaker 01

  That's information. That's nature communicating directly to you through that water.

• 33:12Lewis Howes?

  What do you, what do you say to the, I'm hearing you say eat more plants. There's a, it seems to be a, a thesis or in a trend that is becoming more of the only eat meat. It's the purest protein. People getting super shredded and lean, saying they have cleared up skin conditions, saying they're more focused, clearer. What's the, what's your take on that for the people that are swear by the, the meat only? No vegetables, no fruits, just meat.

• 33:41Speaker 01

  I'm scared for them. I really am. To me, that's insane. And unfortunately, all this stuff is political. I never take those political stance. There's a lot of great people that take those, those, because the reason I say political because scientifically, T. Colin Campbell, China study, came out with another one, the future of nutrition, goes through the hundred years of compromised research and dogmatic around. Uh, animal protein is the perfect protein. It's a bunch of bullshit. You can get all of the nutrients from plants. Every, every single one of them. So I would say if anyone's curious,

• 34:26Speaker 01

  check out T. Colin Campbell's new book, The Future of Nutrition. You'll blow your mind. Also, look at, uh, uh, uh, what is it? Mastering Diabetes? That's nothing, doesn't have to have anything to do with diabetes.

• 34:42Speaker 01

  But Robbie, uh, and Cyrus, uh, masters in a PhD in biochemistry. They break down what is actually the culprit. The culprit is animal protein. The science is absolutely clear. Once you're over 10% protein, you are turning on cancer genes. Wow. Right? And it's clogging up those receptors for insulin. So you can argue all you want. And these guys will put all the science, but these guys, T. Colin Campbell, do you realize the, the 60 years of research on every major panel, peer reviewed everything, and this guy has dedicated his life to, he is,

• 35:28Speaker 01

  of anyone on the planet, he's done more research around animal-based protein than anyone ever. Wow. And then you have Dr. Walter Longo, who was in our Sardinia episode. Sit down with him between episodes and I'm like, he's like, the science is clear. He's saying the same thing. Over 10, 15%, boom. What does that mean, over 10, 15%? Of your overall calories of animal-based protein. If you're eating more than 15% of animal protein daily. Of your overall calories. Of your calories. Yep. It's turning on cancer genes. Wow. So listen, these guys, you're, if you change anything up, your bodies,

• 36:13Speaker 01

  we, we have proven, this is what we've proven. The body is adaptive.

• 36:20Speaker 01

  It doesn't mean it's the right thing to do. I can get myself, you know how many ways I can get myself shredded to 5% body fat?

• 36:29Lewis Howes?

  Not eat, yeah, meat.

• 36:31Speaker 01

  I could do a million different.

• 36:33Lewis Howes?

  No sugar, yeah.

• 36:33Speaker 01

  I, back when I was out of college, I trained bodybuilders just to get them that little extra. So I can manipulate all kinds of things to get people shredded. What the hell does that have to do with health? Nothing, especially when you're running down, you're sprinting towards cancer.

• 36:55Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 36:56Speaker 01

  Like, obviously, there's people that are heavy into this, their friends, their colleagues, and I read their material. So for me, there is no amount, let's, you can keep whatever it is that you want. You don't need to change. I'm not here to change anyone, anyone listening to this, do what you want. I'm not here to change you. It doesn't, nothing shows, I have proven as a career, 20 years of running around this planet, every nutrient I can find in a plant and thrive and have pleomorphic effect, having infinite effect on my body, way more than a very hard thing to digest.

• 37:42Speaker 01

  Flesh of another being is extremely difficult to break down. And that is if you're dialed in, if your body is perfect and it's got the certain amount of hydrochloric acids, it's got a certain amount of protease enzymes to break all that down. All of these things and a whole lot more has to be ideal because it's not going to do it perfectly. So it is a huge strain on the body. Not to mention it floods the body with the immune response when you're taking in because you've just taken in something that's dead in your body. The body has to respond, pathogens, bacteria, might, you know,

• 38:25Speaker 01

  that microbial and immune response has to show up. So your first response is your body's like, holy shit, there's a lot of.

• 38:36Speaker 01

  Opportunity to die here. Wow. Right, so not to mention this other point and then, you know, it's a big rabbit hole. This other point that I realized when I first started, I've always loved animals. That wasn't the primary reason, although it lines up with me because I don't want to kill anything. Um, my primary thing was realizing that amino acids in, in our human DNA is extremely valuable. Cause we're recycling cells all the time. Yeah. The whole body is recycling all the time. Certain, the liver is going through, I think every, you know, people have to fact check this, but I think it's every week, um, or every couple of weeks.

• 39:19Speaker 01

  Uh, so there's, the body's replacing itself. And so when you're, when autophagy is happening, your body is sloughing off cellular debris that it no longer needs. Your body's breaking down those cells to have amino acids and it's recycling the amino acids. Cause it doesn't want to get rid of all the amino acids because it's so hard to come by. Right. So their body is recycling and replacing and all of this stuff all the time. So that the, the need for protein is so gotten so crazy without this understanding of recycling that the body also has. And then when you add on top of it, turning on through very clear science.

• 40:02Speaker 01

  Esselstein, Ornish, Dr. Ornish, Dr. Michael Greger, uh, and then of course, T. Colin Campbell, on and on and on. These guys are just sitting in the science. Wow. Um, non dogmatically. Um, you add all of that up. I don't need, and then add up my career. I've found all the great plants. I've found all the, not all, because humbly, we haven't found anything, which is why we need to preserve our environment. Cause there's so much medicine as food out there that we're just utterly destroying. Um, so all of that being said, I just say, do whatever you want, but. Be aware. Yeah. Eat more plants. Yeah.

• 40:47Speaker 01

  And carnival guys, I.

• 40:50Speaker 01

  It's like, I'm not even gonna waste energy. You've already decided. There's no conversation. You've decided. I don't wanna argue about it. I, I just wanna live and thrive and.

• 41:01Lewis Howes?

  When did you stop eating meat?

• 41:03Speaker 01

  It was probably sixteen, fifteen, sixteen years ago.

• 41:08Lewis Howes?

  And did you see a big shift in your energy and everything else?

• 41:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, my, my, you know, football players.

• 41:14Lewis Howes?

  Eat a lot of meat, a lot of.

• 41:16Speaker 01

  A lot of all that stuff. Trained like crazy, meat. That was getting digestive, you know, acid reflux. And I started like, whoa. And then I started food combining. That was the first time I kind of separated like, I'm gonna eat fruit alone, cuz it shows digestively much better. I'm gonna, I'm gonna eat if I'm now, so that's gonna be alone. So I'm not gonna combine that with my meals. Now I'm gonna eat my meals. I'm gonna eat my protein first. So that has the first chance of the hydrochloric acid breakdown. So then I, that was the first time I really separated stuff. And then I was like, I feel better. Definitely helping.

• 41:56Speaker 01

  And then I was slowly, then I got rid of, you know, the beef, the chicken. I too was like, shut off the idea that this was a living creature.

• 42:09Lewis Howes?

  It's hard, yeah.

• 42:09Speaker 01

  It's, you have to go someplace to do, cuz if you were there cutting and slitting the throat, I guarantee you're gonna be.

• 42:16Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 42:17Speaker 01

  So then I started, and then fish, then I slowly, and then I was like, I'm, see, all the while, I'm feeling better. So finally, then I dive back into seeing that recycling side of the protein, of the amino acids in the body. I'm like, I don't think we need as much. So I stopped the fish as the last thing, and then I increased. So I was doing triathlons and biathlons as well as strength training still. And this was, you know, only fifteen, sixteen years ago. And so then I was like, I'm recovering like a, like a eighteen year old.

• 42:49Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 42:50Speaker 01

  Yeah. And to this day, like, you, you know the kind of people I work out with. So I'm, like, I still pick up dumbbells I was training with when I was twenty. And I'm just like, the strength, and I'm not trying to be strong anymore, but I'm throwing around, the strength is still, it's incredible. It's really incredible, yeah.

• 43:15Lewis Howes?

  For those that are going to, this is interesting, food separation. For those that are like everything you're saying and understand,

• 43:25Lewis Howes?

  but they're gonna keep eating meat. It's just, they're gonna keep eating meat.

• 43:29Speaker 01

  It's too bad.

• 43:31Lewis Howes?

  I eat meat and I keep telling myself, being out here for 10 years, the vegans and the plant-based have been influencing me to eat more and more vegetables. And maybe one day, and I'm more mindful and conscious of it, but maybe one day, we'll see.

• 43:46Speaker 01

  Hey, I got a challenge for you. Join this other, so hashtag eight meals. Okay, so it's, we've done the, this carbon sequestering, and if you substitute eight meals a week, that's literally one plus two on a day, one a day.

• 44:04Lewis Howes?

  Vegetarian.

• 44:05Speaker 01

  Yeah, vegan.

• 44:06Lewis Howes?

  Vegan.

• 44:07Speaker 01

  No dairy either.

• 44:08Lewis Howes?

  No eggs or cheese?

• 44:09Speaker 01

  Nope, nope. I know, but, but you're also not depriving, so that's why, that's why I jumped on to help these people, because it's only looking at it as these meals. And then now you're being a responsible person. Not only is it benefiting your health, getting diversification of more plants, for sure you're gonna be, that's gonna, that's a win, right? And it's going right to the environment. Because if everyone did that, we would sequester all of the CO2 in the United States. Think about that. Think about that.

• 44:40Lewis Howes?

  Replacing eight meals.

• 44:41Speaker 01

  Replacing eight meals.

• 44:42Lewis Howes?

  A week.

• 44:43Speaker 01

  You do it, I do it, and everyone else do it. You know how much, and we're gonna create a calculator of how much CO2 we can sequester.

• 44:51Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 44:52Speaker 01

  Cause that's just an insane thing, the amount of methane.

• 44:55Lewis Howes?

  So that makes more, I mean, saying eight meals a week vegetarian, that's more doable for people.

• 44:59Speaker 01

  Plant-based.

• 45:00Lewis Howes?

  Plant-based, sorry.

• 45:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 45:01Lewis Howes?

  So not vegetarian?

• 45:02Speaker 01

  No.

• 45:03Lewis Howes?

  Plant-based, no cheese or egg?

• 45:04Speaker 01

  Full food, plant-based, so no dairy and egg.

• 45:07Lewis Howes?

  Vegetables and fruits only, and seeds and nuts?

• 45:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 45:09Lewis Howes?

  That's it, okay.

• 45:10Speaker 01

  And it's so easy, dude, you can do it.

• 45:12Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, you can do it, yeah, for sure. So eight meals a week is something to get started to try, see how you feel.

• 45:16Speaker 01

  I'm gonna throw that on you, I'm gonna see if you're gonna take that challenge.

• 45:19Lewis Howes?

  I'll be doing that, yeah, I can do anything for a week.

• 45:22Speaker 01

  No, I'm saying like, keep that up.

• 45:24Lewis Howes?

  Oh, forever.

• 45:24Speaker 01

  See how it goes.

• 45:26Lewis Howes?

  We talk for thirty days.

• 45:28Speaker 01

  You wanna do that?

• 45:28Lewis Howes?

  I can do it for thirty days.

• 45:29Speaker 01

  Are you putting that on there?

• 45:30Lewis Howes?

  I'm in. I'll do it for thirty days, yeah.

• 45:31Speaker 01

  Awesome.

• 45:32Lewis Howes?

  Eight meals a week for thirty days.

• 45:34Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 45:34Lewis Howes?

  Uh, plant-based only. I can do that.

• 45:37Speaker 01

  Nice.

• 45:37Lewis Howes?

  Um, so my question about separating food, I'm curious.

• 45:44Lewis Howes?

  In Ohio and Minnesota, you grow up, you just mash it all together, you eat it all down. Mashed potatoes, the veggies, the steak, the pizza, you just throw it all in. Is there more power in eating certain foods first or last, or separating them as opposed to combining?

• 46:00Speaker 01

  Hundred percent.

• 46:01Lewis Howes?

  How should we eat then? What should be first and last?

• 46:05Speaker 01

  Well.

• 46:06Lewis Howes?

  Should it be the protein first? I was hearing you say something.

• 46:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, so, so I, this is a simple version, cuz this can get heavy. The simple version is fruit alone.

• 46:16Lewis Howes?

  So don't eat fruit with a meal.

• 46:18Speaker 01

  Do not eat.

• 46:19Lewis Howes?

  Why?

• 46:20Speaker 01

  Because it takes other digestive enzymes, when you start, and hydrochloric acids, when you, especially if you have digestive issues, um, it can mess up different rates. So, for example, when you're eating fruit, the digestion process, aside from chewing.

• 46:38Lewis Howes?

  So don't put peanut butter or almond butter on your fruit.

• 46:41Speaker 01

  Listen, listen, I do that too. I put buruka, not.

• 46:45Lewis Howes?

  Oh, I want some of that butter too.

• 46:46Speaker 01

  I'm gonna send you some. I wish I had sad some with me, cuz of course I would have brought it too. It is so good, but I do, so, so this is, this is something, if people, I would say this, if people are having any digestive issues at all, then I would do this for a period of time, fruit alone. Now, listen, I love a buruka butter on a piece of apple, like, oh my god, it's the best, right? So, that's fine, but if you're having any digestive issues, fruit alone.

• 47:20Speaker 01

  And then if you are choosing, let's call it a protein.

• 47:23Lewis Howes?

  Cause if you eat fruit alone, your body should just be able to digest and get that out quickly.

• 47:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, so, so if you're eating fruit, the digestive process, aside from chewing, cause that's the digestive process, you have digestive enzymes called amylase that's breaking down the carbohydrates. So that's why we need to chew more, not chew, chew, chew, swallow.

• 47:42Lewis Howes?

  That seems to be my life.

• 47:43Speaker 01

  Right? Yeah.

• 47:44Lewis Howes?

  So we swallow, get more in there.

• 47:47Speaker 01

  Very difficult for the body to.

• 47:49Lewis Howes?

  I used to have digestive problems for a long time, probably like 20 years. It wasn't until actually I started to get Invisalign about a year and a half ago. Cause my back teeth have actually never touched. I got eight teeth removed when I was 17 and then my jaw kinda grew in a certain way where my, only my front two teeth touched. And I've never felt my back teeth until about four months ago touching.

• 48:11Speaker 01

  Really?

• 48:12Lewis Howes?

  And it's been mind blowing how I've been able to digest and actually not feel constipated.

• 48:18Speaker 01

  For sure.

• 48:19Lewis Howes?

  Most of the time.

• 48:20Speaker 01

  You haven't been able to chew?

• 48:21Lewis Howes?

  I'm actually able to chew my food.

• 48:24Speaker 01

  That's amazing.

• 48:25Lewis Howes?

  And I'm feeling like it's able to go to the bathroom way easier. Like it's crazy when adjusting teeth have done for my ability to digest as well.

• 48:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, think about that. I mean, it's the most primal thing we need to do for our, for our breaking down of food. But if we're pre, you know, if we're not chewing 20, 30 times.

• 48:45Lewis Howes?

  Per bite.

• 48:47Speaker 01

  You're swallowing whole food and expecting this very delicate digestive process to pull, have enough time to pull all of that stuff to break it down, cause it has to break down. Like think of, think of like the protein, the animal based protein. You gotta break it down into the amino acids.

• 49:06Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 49:07Speaker 01

  Yeah. And that's a lot of energy to do that. And so it's all food. So we really have to take responsibility, more responsibility to, to, that's the first line of digestive defense, is chewing more appropriately and, and not allowing that process to be just chew, chew, chew through stress. And not to mention what you're doing while you're eating is also.

• 49:31Lewis Howes?

  The intention behind while you're eating.

• 49:32Speaker 01

  The vagus nerve is connected directly to the brain and the digestive process and the like. So if you're stressed, you're gonna throw off the microbial system and.

• 49:44Lewis Howes?

  That's why people pray before they eat, or they say, let's give thanks, gratitude, yeah.

• 49:48Speaker 01

  Do some nose breathing, right? Drop you right down into parasympathetic. Even Dr. Huberman, the neuroscientist, talks about this, take a two breath in. So I would say breathe out.

• 50:00Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, we had him on talking about that. It's really good.

• 50:05Speaker 01

  Little gratitude.

• 50:07Lewis Howes?

  And then eat.

• 50:08Speaker 01

  Then eat.

• 50:09Lewis Howes?

  So the separation, let's get back to the separation. What should the process, what should it be? You've got a mixture of foods on your plate.

• 50:17Speaker 01

  Okay, so let's call it a protein. So let's say, let's say.

• 50:22Lewis Howes?

  So burritos are the worst thing.

• 50:23Speaker 01

  It can be challenging if you're, if you're already compromised, that's a challenge. Our body's adaptive, so burritos is one of my favorite foods.

• 50:31Lewis Howes?

  So good, man. But you got the rice, you got the beans, you got the protein, you got the cheese, you got the tortilla wrap, it's like.

• 50:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, so listen, unfortunately, for, for anyone eating meat, it's a really bad combination. Right? Any plant-based protein's a lot easier for the body to break down. Even nuts, seeds, legumes, whatever, it's a lot easier to break down. Plus, everything, let's just say this, every plant, every fruit, every vegetable has protein in it. Everything, your banana, your acai, your grapes. It is a full, it is a whole food, right? So we have to stop this compartmentalizing and reductionism.

• 51:17Lewis Howes?

  Protein and then vegetables.

• 51:18Speaker 01

  Right. So, so if you are eating meat and all of that stuff, meat first. Like if it's on a, let's say you have a salmon on a salad, eat all your salmon first.

• 51:30Lewis Howes?

  Don't eat the carbs first.

• 51:32Speaker 01

  Don't eat the, no, don't eat the salads and don't eat the, certainly don't eat the damn bread. Right?

• 51:40Speaker 01

  But but as you

• 51:41Lewis Howes?

  Meat first, what does that do?

• 51:42Speaker 01

  Yeah, so that gets you back into that dominance of hydrochloric acid and energy that the body takes and the longevity that it will take for your body to break down the meat, right? It's gonna take six to eight hours for that other being that you just consumed to break down into amino acids, right?

• 52:02Lewis Howes?

  So put the thing that's the hardest to digest in first.

• 52:05Speaker 01

  Yes, and then you can follow it up with with the veggies and all of that stuff.

• 52:12Lewis Howes?

  Potatoes, whatever you're putting in there.

• 52:13Speaker 01

  Right, so that's the easy version of just

• 52:17Lewis Howes?

  Meat first.

• 52:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 52:18Lewis Howes?

  If you're

• 52:19Speaker 01

  Fruit alone.

• 52:19Lewis Howes?

  If you're plant-based, what would you eat first?

• 52:22Speaker 01

  Again, fruit alone.

• 52:24Lewis Howes?

  Uh huh.

• 52:24Speaker 01

  And then I don't worry much about it.

• 52:26Lewis Howes?

  You can mix it all in, it's all plants.

• 52:28Speaker 01

  Right, or for me, if I'm eating like tempeh, which is fermented tofu, I'll eat that first.

• 52:35Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 52:36Speaker 01

  You know, but but I like, listen, I'm coming from that where I had a lot of issues because of all the heavy meat. When I did, when I started breaking that down, cleared it up immediately. Now, since plant-based, I've never had that ever again, the digestive disruption and

• 52:53Lewis Howes?

  And so what do you speak to when the meat eaters of the world who swear by meat say, well, this is what our ancestors have been doing for thousands of years?

• 53:03Speaker 01

  That's an easy point of view to, if you talk to the Paleolithic researchers, that's that's that's such a convenient conclusion. That's not true. That you can, you know, run up to the Inuits because that is that is where they've been living and then use that as some stupid example. Well, just because you've adapted to it doesn't mean that it's ideal. We have to keep going back to that. Just because the body is an amazing adaptive machine, which has allowed us to, you know, populate anywhere and everywhere and eat almost anything.

• 53:44Speaker 01

  Doesn't mean that's that it's adaptive. Now, if you look at the longevity research, if you look at the centurions, and if you look at that, I would lean on that more than I would lean on a convenient way to say, because you can easily make the argument, the diversification of the big brain also was the foraging ability. You're finding without less effort, foraging plants and tubers and nuts and seeds way more than it takes to you getting a little clan together and running down a, you know, a caribou or something. You know, so.

• 54:29Speaker 01

  Setting a trap or something. It's just too convenient to say things like that. Don't, I mean. Do the centurions eat meat? Some of them eat meat. Very little, yeah. It's mostly fish or eggs here and there or something. Yeah, so it could be, you know, I've talked to some of the centurions. And so the work of Dr. Longo and Dr. Pez and Dan Buettner's work, you'll find that again. The blue zones. Yeah, you'll find very, very clearly that it's naturally 10 to 15%, they don't go over. And it's so interesting. 10 to 15% meat. Of, of, of. Calorie intake. Calorie intake for protein and once, once. Is meat or no? It's just protein. Oh, wow.

• 55:14Speaker 01

  And, and every so often, they may have meat, but. It's not a daily thing. No, maybe once a month, kind of a thing. So, so it's, it's that again. It's like, I look at that longevity and what the longevity shows up as, that to, to say that you knew what the Paleolithic people were doing is, we have ran around this globe and we've all thrived and we have all different ethnicities. And to say this overarching statement is kind of ridiculous.

• 55:50Speaker 01

  Cheers.

• 55:51Lewis Howes?

  Oh, man. You're passionate about this, huh?

• 55:56Speaker 01

  Of course.

• 55:57Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, and you actually say this in your simple to do this. Get no more than about 50% of daily total calories from protein. That's the first line you have here from your simple to do this.

• 56:06Speaker 01

  You just opened that up.

• 56:07Lewis Howes?

  The first thing, you went right to that line. Get no more, maybe that's on every page as a reminder. Make sure you only do this. What happens if we get 80% of our total calories from protein? Is it just creating more cancerous cells? Is that what I'm hearing you say?

• 56:21Speaker 01

  Well, that, yeah, so, I mean, that's the work of T. Colin Campbell and Longo and a bunch of other people. And that's where you turn on, so this is the epidemiology side of it. This is the DNA. What we're doing, the environment we're creating is turning on potentials of DNA or turning them off. And so what happens is it turns on these cancer promoting genes very clearly. Like, people can argue with me all you want. I'm not going to argue with you. I'm going to point you to these guys that have dedicated their life to this research, unbiased. They're researchers. And what they're doing is they're pushing back against industry that wants to keep

• 57:06Speaker 01

  this narrative alive. And they're not looking at the research. It's the same thing of us saying, right now, the censorship that's happening. Like, why do we need to censor anything? Just let it out and let people, as intelligent people. It's like coming to you and saying, you know what? Cars kill. Don't go into your car today. Well, you can make that choice. You know that you could get in a car accident and you could get hurt or injured or die. But you're making that choice. So let's get all of the information that T. Colin Campbell, that's what he's saying,

• 57:46Speaker 01

  that Dr. Ornish, Dr. Estle, and all of these guys are saying, look at the research. Don't shut this off. Look at what this research is. And that's the dogma that keeps alive. If you're not open minded to look at the research, then let's not argue about it. I don't want to waste my energy. I don't want to talk to, like, if you want to fight, like, fight with yourself against that wall. Like, I don't want to do it.

• 58:14Lewis Howes?

  What's your thoughts about, in your mind, what's worse? Meat or sugar?

• 58:24Speaker 01

  Meat.

• 58:26Speaker 01

  Hands down.

• 58:30Speaker 01

  Well, I mean, what do you mean by sugar? Because if I'm assuming you mean...

• 58:37Speaker 01

  Yeah. I would, I would, I would allow... If I am not clogging my... Cholesterol is still a debate. Cholesterol, let's be clear. Cholesterol and meat is not correlated to high cholesterol in you and killing you. It is the protein. Okay? So, I would gamble, and, and the protein is gobbling up and, and challenging the insulin receptors and, and running us towards diabetes. And, and Robbie and Cyrus in Mastering Diabetes lay this out scientifically. The third of their book is science, right? Peer reviewed.

• 59:17Speaker 01

  I would gamble on not eating meat and taking in sugar more than I would...

• 59:23Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 59:24Speaker 01

  I do not want to play that Russian roulette game. No way.

• 59:29Lewis Howes?

  But sugar, it seems like also is causing a lot of...

• 59:32Speaker 01

  Or you gave me two horrible... I mean, two challenges to, to... But, but if you're... For sure, I'll take, I'll take sugar, for sure.

• 59:40Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 59:41Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 59:41Lewis Howes?

  Is sugar easier to, to burn off? Or it's not as damaging to the body in your mind as eating?

• 59:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, it's, it's like if I have a healthy... If I'm not being compromised for meat in my insulin reception, reception, then, then I'm gonna, I'm gonna gamble on all the other things that I can do in the sugar realm. And I can stay active, I can burn that off.

• 1:00:06Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:06Speaker 01

  I can keep plants active, I can keep the stress down from that plants. I can keep, you know, bring in my Shisandra, bring in my Chaga, bring in my Ashwagandha, bring in my Reishi, bring in my Lion's Mane to help the brain deal with the amount of sugar. You know what I mean? So, there's a lot of other artillery I could use to combat the sugar side of it.

• 1:00:27Lewis Howes?

  And what about fasting? What's your views on that?

• 1:00:31Speaker 01

  I love fasting.

• 1:00:32Lewis Howes?

  Are you an intermittent fasting guy? Are you a 24, 48 hour, one week fast? What's your strategy?

• 1:00:37Speaker 01

  I, I, I'm a big fan of fasting, for sure. And... Dr. Braggs, way back, I will give kudos to him. His first books on fasting, I was fasting, when I started fasting, it was twenty, twenty-two years ago or so, and I was doing one day thirty-six hour fast. So I would pick a Friday, and I would, you know, stop eating the Thursday, all day Friday, and start eating on Saturday. Because I wanted energy on the weekends. And, and I love now that, I just call it fast, water fast, right?

• 1:01:19Speaker 01

  I do love big windows of, so now I'm a two meal a day person.

• 1:01:26Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 1:01:26Speaker 01

  So I'm a huge amount of fruit, fruit bowl in the morning, around ten, I'm done, and then I'll eat around four PM. That's my second meal, and that's tons of plants, big salads, baroca nuts. Hell, maybe I'll even make a burrito, right? And combine it all.

• 1:01:49Lewis Howes?

  And then you're done.

• 1:01:50Speaker 01

  Then I'm done, yeah.

• 1:01:51Lewis Howes?

  Five o'clock, you're done, you stop eating until ten AM, fruit. My friend Jesse Itzler is all about that, he says fruit until noon.

• 1:01:59Speaker 01

  I win on that, so I used to, and this was back when I was fasting, in that thirty-six hours every week. So I was doing thirty-six hour every week. And in that, when I was, during the day, I would do all fruit until noon. But now I do that anyway, I just don't eat until ten, and then I do a huge, like a massive fruit bowl.

• 1:02:22Lewis Howes?

  I get different people on who dive into the science, who are doing the tests. Dr. Rhonda Patrick talked about the spike of sugar when she had a grape, because I think she's wearing a glucose monitor somewhere and testing this. And other doctors talking about how to really make sure you have moderation in fruit because of how it could spike certain things. Again, I don't know all the science, and I'm not the expert here. Can you speak into that from your perspective on why having a lot of fruits, or a bowl of fruit is, is good for you and not spiking energy levels, and not doing that based on what their scientific research is saying?

• 1:03:04Speaker 01

  You know, again, there's a lot of experts around this category too that I would lean on. But when you, it, it, it depends on what you've been doing. If you are a keto person, for example, you are eating all this meat, which are stopping up your ability for insulin reception. When you stop that, you, you look at a grape and your insulin's gonna spike. You, you've changed and damaged your metabolism, right?

• 1:03:39Lewis Howes?

  So. But if you're doing that on a consistent basis, your body's regulating more.

• 1:03:44Speaker 01

  Potentially, but if you're eating meat, if you're eating a ton of meat, you're, you're challenging, you're, you are gonna spike more than I would. I've used glucose monitors. I ate a bowl of fruit and I'm like.

• 1:03:57Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 1:03:57Speaker 01

  Yeah. I can eat four, five banana, you know, look at mastering diabetes. It will blow your mind. These guys are type one diabetic. Robbie just posted the other day, he ate, I think it was bread fruit, four bananas, mangoes, and these guys are type one glucose monitoring to the max and getting thousands of people down and off, type one off medication. It is what you're doing, not just at that time. Again, we're myopic in our views. What is the chemistry of going on in the body? If you're eating a bunch of meat, you're gonna spike more when you're eating a bunch of.

• 1:04:41Lewis Howes?

  When you have fruit, it's gonna spike.

• 1:04:43Speaker 01

  My body is dialed. It's dialed to the fruit.

• 1:04:47Lewis Howes?

  How long, how long would it take for someone to get more dialed?

• 1:04:52Speaker 01

  I mean, they, they can, they can, Robbie.

• 1:04:57Speaker 01

  So it's, it's, it's, it's, we gotta look at a wider view of all of this stuff. Cause you could, of course, I can go run out and find, see, they spiked, they spiked. Yeah, but what have they been doing for the last month? Do we have that information? Is it accurate? Is it, there's so much going on. Plus, you know, there's all this, uh, new research. Viome's a great company that's doing all this microbiological research into like, what's your system like? Because you're taking a snapshot of what you've been doing and what your microbes are set up as. If it's set up for flesh of another being and meat and all of this stuff, I think it's every time. It's true though, let's, let's call it out. I get it, man. Right? It's, it, that's what it is.

• 1:05:42Speaker 01

  And so, or if it's plant-based stuff, then your microbes are changing. It's an environment that you are creating by what you're putting in your mouth. And this is very important for this day and age right now. You are creating a terrain that is gonna invite pathogens or invite it out. Because if you are strengthening yourself, vitamin D, vitamin K, vitamin A, vitamin C, whole plants, diversifications of tannins and phenolic compounds and antioxidants, clearly that's creating a terrain that is stronger for your immune system to thwart out disease, bacteria, cancer, all of that other stuff.

• 1:06:26Speaker 01

  But if you're shoveling anything and you believe that, you know, a needle is gonna save your life, it, it can't. It's never worked that way. Dr. Zach Bush gets into tons of this. You need to have him on if you have. Zach Bush? Dr. Zach Bush. So he'll, he's starting, uh, uh, and we've talked and changing the narrative of how the body, it's like soil systems, like monocropping. Like if you create a soil system that has no more nutrients, you have to. Glow chemicals on it because it's gonna get annihilated. The same thing with your own microbiological system. If you're creating a strong diversified microbiological system

• 1:07:10Speaker 01

  that you are in co-host with, like it's, you're hosting it. You need those microbes to break down food. It is creating, uh, it is creating enzymes. It is creating vitamins for you. Our microbes are with you. But if you're creating it so that the bad bacteria is dominating, now you've created a train, you can barely take care of yourself. You're getting cold, you're fatigued, you're all that stuff. So any other bacteria or virus that comes your way, you're compromised. You can't upgrade your system. You can't take in that information and then go. We all know that the start of life is the inoculation

• 1:07:55Speaker 01

  of your mother's vaginal canal. That is the start of your diet, of your immune system. We can't sanitize our way through health. We cannot. We will kill ourselves. We have to have this incredible diversification of microbes and virome and viruses. We have to, we always have. So, and that is, obviously that's a big topic, but, and Dr. Bush gets into that quite a bit. But that is the, the lens that we have to start looking through um, to create more of this balanced health. Cause that's where we came from and that's where we need to go.

• 1:08:38Lewis Howes?

  A few final questions for you. I feel like we can go down many rabbit holes here. Um, and you've got a lot of this information in your book, Super Life, The Five Simple Fixes That Will Make You Healthy, Fit And Eternally Awesome. So make sure you guys check this out. Uh, very powerful.

• 1:08:55Lewis Howes?

  Supplements. Are you a fan of supplements? If you could only have five supplements a day, what would those be? And do we need supplements if you're getting these other great plant diversity on a daily basis?

• 1:09:12Speaker 01

  Food first.

• 1:09:13Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:13Speaker 01

  Right? The ground, which is why I created this book.

• 1:09:20Speaker 01

  These basic tenants of taking care of yourself, sleeping, exercising, diversification of food, exercise, moving your body, having a good attitude, right? The outlook in your life. Side note.

• 1:09:40Speaker 01

  Growing Young, I just interviewed Marta Zarstik. Growing Young, she threw over 600 research articles. The thing that influenced our health and our longevity more than anything was optimism, kindness, community. Through science. This is not a, this is not a woo woo thing through science. And she's got a great book called Growing Young.

• 1:10:08Lewis Howes?

  I think I'm supposed to be interviewing her soon, is that right, Kai? I can't remember if we have it already scheduled or if I should.

• 1:10:15Speaker 01

  If you should, I can connect. She is fantastic.

• 1:10:18Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, okay, we'll have her on.

• 1:10:20Speaker 01

  She's a badass.

• 1:10:20Lewis Howes?

  Growing Young, yeah.

• 1:10:21Speaker 01

  Growing Young, so that's just as a, as a side. So, so food first, all of these principles. So supplements, whole food supplements first. Just like I said, the spirulinas, the whole foods, the careful growing. You know, there is ways of like, okay, we're low in magnesium, we're low in calcium at times, we're low in iron, those times when you know that your body needs it, when you've tested, when you've tested your microbiological system, when you've tested your blood, then that starts to make sense. But I just go whole food supplements? That makes sense to me.

• 1:10:57Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:58Speaker 01

  Strengthening because you can go big into understanding that in the early 1900s, we knew our soils were depleted. We knew that the food then is depleted. We knew this in the 1930s. The agricultural community.

• 1:11:15Speaker 01

  delineated to Congress saying that this happened in the 30s. So through monocropping, through the crazy way that we're instead of regenerating, we're not. We've depleted. So therefore I created a career out of finding nutrient dense whole foods, plants, herbs, botanicals. So I do believe that bringing it down to individual vitamins. It makes sense if you're biologically, biochemically in need of those and you've navigated through those things.

• 1:11:47Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. Well, in the book, you talk about these five fixes. You talk about the five fixes. We got quality nutrition, hydration, detoxification, oxygenation, alkalization. So I want you guys to get the book so you can learn more about those five things you can do to really optimize your life. There's a question I ask everyone towards the end. It's called the three truths. So I thank you for imagining for moments your last day on earth hypothetical question. Many years from now, you live past 100 or as old as you want to live, and you've accomplished all your dreams from now until then. But for whatever reason, every piece of content you've created, this book and everything else

• 1:12:32Lewis Howes?

  has to go with you to the next place, wherever that is. But you get a piece of paper and you get to write down three things you know to be true from your life and experiences that you would leave behind for the rest of us. These three lessons, principles, distinctions, whatever you want them to be. What would you say are your three truths?

• 1:12:50Speaker 01

  Wow, dude. Big, big question. To thine own self be true. Without a doubt, I listen. I will listen. It's an inside game. Listen to yourself. Find the essence of who you are outside of the monkey mind, outside of what people say. Listen to yourself. Because that is the ultimate truth. Because that is connected. There is no person between you and the creator of whatever the creator is, the universe, the creator, God.

• 1:13:38Speaker 01

  Kindness, connection, love.

• 1:13:47Speaker 01

  Or, you know, I know those are a bunch, but that, that community of

• 1:13:55Speaker 01

  representations of our heart.

• 1:14:03Speaker 01

  And the connection.

• 1:14:07Speaker 01

  Well, it goes down to relationships. That radical honesty.

• 1:14:18Speaker 01

  Not allowing resentment, fear, or shame get in the way of authenticity, of truth. I think that to live by, but done through a kind lens, right? Done through, in a kind way, through compassion and empathy, but radical honesty of within yourself. What is, again, to thine own self be true. So you have to cultivate what that radical honesty is for you.

• 1:14:53Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:14:54Speaker 01

  Because some of that is taking away or seeing where another influence, oh, that was my dad, that was my mom, that was my, that was that pain of that relationship. All of that can be distraction. So what is that truth for you? As well as, you know, for others in relationship, be authentic and truthful. So radical honesty.

• 1:15:25Speaker 01

  Third.

• 1:15:31Speaker 01

  Vulnerability.

• 1:15:34Speaker 01

  The willingness to share yourself with the world. If you are willing to be vulnerable, it is a superpower without needing to have any approval.

• 1:15:52Speaker 01

  That is a superpower and untouchable and the ultimate freedom.

• 1:15:57Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. Love that, man. Those are good truths. It's a powerful truth. You've got an amazing podcast people can listen to. Get this book, Super Life. They should watch your series on Netflix with Zac Efron. Powerful series, entertaining and educational, which I think is really inspiring. It's called Down to Earth. And where can we go for your... You also have Baruchanuts, which I've got here, which are amazing. That's like superfood almonds, you know, type of thing. So they can get products from your site. Where's the best place for your site to learn about everything that you're up to?

• 1:16:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, so...

• 1:16:35Lewis Howes?

  Where Texas and all these other things?

• 1:16:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. So Darrenaline.com basically has everything up there. Baruchas.com, get the nuts and see that story. It's a wild food. Incredible. To be able to get a wild food out to the masses is incredible feat for us. Planting trees and the environment and all of that. Fantastic. So, but Darrenaline.com, Darrenaline on social, Darrenaline on Twitter, all of that stuff. But yeah, there's a bunch of projects I'm super stoked to get out in the world. Environmental, health, inspirational, new technologies, all of that stuff. So yeah, you can find what I'm up to on there.

• 1:17:17Lewis Howes?

  It's great, man. It's great. I'm inspired, man. You've been leading the way for a long time. Helping us by educating, traveling the world, trying to find this information for yourself, obviously, but then sharing it with the rest of us so we can make sense of this world. So I acknowledge you for showing up, man, consistently, decade after decade, speaking your truth, based on the findings that you've found. So I appreciate it. And hopefully we can do more stuff in the future together. And I gotta come to Malibu and just have you cook for a day and just let me see how you live your life. And like, how are you drinking the water, everything? So I'm gonna come experience it sometime.

• 1:17:53Lewis Howes?

  My final question for you is what's your definition of greatness?

• 1:17:58Speaker 01

  Of course, that's a question.

• 1:18:05Speaker 01

  I go back to the truth. I go back to my definition is listening to my truth and taking action unrelenting on that. And that absolutely is greatness. Not stopping, like before the cameras are on, your example of reaching out to guests for five years until you got them. That's unrelenting. That's greatness. You're demonstrating it just in this conversation before the thing on that. I'm, I'm very much, you know, the competitive nature for me has turned into, I'm clear with helping people, helping the

• 1:18:48Speaker 01

  planet, and I will not stop. So unrelenting pursuit has less to do with the things showing up. But if you continue, serendipity, magnetism, strength and power show up when it knows and the universe knows without a doubt that this dude is not stopping. So let's support him.

• 1:19:16Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, man. My man, Darren. Thanks, brother. Appreciate you, man.

• 1:19:19Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 1:19:20Lewis Howes?

  Thanks, man. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. I hope you enjoyed it and got a lot of value out of it to improve the quality of your health. I want you to be healthy. I want you to be vibrant. I want you to be mobile. I want you to be active. I want you to be around for a long time on this earth to experience life to the fullest. You deserve it, but it starts with taking care of your health and making the right choices. If you enjoyed this, please subscribe to the School of Greatness over on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Leave us a rating and review. Let us know what you enjoyed the most out of this, what you enjoyed from Darren the most. And as always, we'd love for you to share this with someone you think would be inspired. Just copy and paste the link, lewishouse.com/1088, or take the link wherever you're listening to this on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

• 1:20:03Lewis Howes?

  Or anywhere else and share it with a couple of friends. Text a friend that you might be thinking about right now. Post it on your social media. Make sure to tag me, Lewis Howes and Darren as well over on social media. And if you haven't yet subscribed to our texting list, we've got a massive community over there where we're sending out little surprises, motivating texts, behind the scenes stuff from me over on our texting community. So text me the word podcast right now to 614-350-3960 to get integrated in our texting community list. And I want to leave you with this quote from the Buddha who said, "To keep the body in good health is a duty. Otherwise, we shall not be able to keep our minds strong and clear." Ooh, it all works together. The mind, the body, your life.

• 1:20:45Lewis Howes?

  Make sure you're thinking and feeding yourself good thoughts and quality thoughts to help improve the quality of your mind and the overall quality of your health. And make sure you're putting in healthy foods into your body so they can work together. I want to remind you, if no one's told you lately, that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And as always, you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.