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Lewis Howes"Eating These SUPER FOODS Will HEAL YOUR BODY"| Dr.Mark Hyman & Lewis Howes
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Chapter summaries
Why Food Is Confusing and How It Drives Society's Problems
Dr. Mark Hyman explains that he wrote his new book because people are confused by competing diets. He argues that money in the food system drives chronic disease, healthcare costs, climate damage and soil loss.
- •People are confused by paleo, vegan, keto, low-fat and other competing diets
- •Chronic disease accounts for 84% of $3.2 trillion in healthcare costs
- •Food waste, industrial agriculture and factory-farmed animals contribute to climate change
- •Soil loss, ocean acidification and dead zones are tied to agricultural practices
Food's Effect on Behavior, Kids, and ADD
Hyman links diet to behavior, citing prison studies that showed reduced violence with better diets and supplements. He says processed food and refined oils affect mood and learning, and he describes ADD as a body problem caused by diet and toxins.
- •Prison studies showed violent crime dropping with a healthy diet and with added vitamins
- •Refined omega-6 oils are linked to violence and suicide in his account
- •Processed food targets poor communities disproportionately
- •He says ADD is a body problem and that many patients have transformed their lives
Industry Money, Sponsored Science, and Food Marketing
Hyman and Lewis discuss how industry funding shapes media, research and professional organizations. Hyman gives examples including the Martha Stewart dairy segment, artificial sweetener studies, heart-healthy cereal labels and Nestle's Milo campaign.
- •A Martha Stewart Show segment promoted dairy as a sports drink because of a Dairy Council sponsor
- •Industry-funded studies are far more likely to find benefits for their products
- •Health organizations accept food industry funding
- •Cereals like Trix carry heart-healthy checks in exchange for fees
- •Nestle's Milo marketing invented an 'energy gap' and attacked a critic in Malaysia
Root Causes of Disease and Food as Medicine
Hyman, a functional medicine doctor, lists the root causes of disease: toxins, infections, allergens, poor diet and stress. He says food is the biggest cause and can work faster, better and cheaper than drugs, citing a keto study in type 2 diabetics.
- •Five causes: toxins, infections, allergens or sensitivities, poor diet, and stress
- •Food is by far the biggest cause, and people often don't connect symptoms to what they eat
- •People can come off insulin within a week of changing their diet
- •A ketogenic intervention study got most type 2 diabetics off medication and insulin
Vegan vs. Animal Foods, Muscle, and the Meat Research
Asked why he has the answers after 40 years, Hyman says he has no ideological bone to pick and learns from patients. He discusses muscle building, leucine, large studies on animal and plant protein, and why quality of meat and observational study flaws matter.
- •He relies on watching patients' results rather than loyalty to one diet
- •He says vegan diets make muscle building harder, partly because plant proteins are low in leucine
- •Large studies he cites found no worse outcomes with animal protein
- •Grass-fed and wild meats differ from factory-farmed meat
- •Observational studies on meat are skewed by self-reporting and unhealthy habits of meat eaters
Three Food Principles and the Pegan Diet
Hyman gives his three basic principles: eat food made by nature, eat mostly plants, and eat plenty of good fats. He explains the pegan label, the common ground among diets, and how his book covers each food group and its controversies.
- •Ask whether God made it or man made it
- •Aim for a plant-rich diet, roughly 70 to 80% of the plate
- •Eat lots of good fats, such as avocados and olive oil, while limiting starch and sugar
- •Pegan idea: paleo and vegan share more common principles than differences
- •The book covers grains, gluten, meat, fish, eggs and other foods
Voting With Your Fork and Changing the Food System
Hyman explains that the book looks at the footprint of what we eat, from health to climate and social justice. He describes a conversation with Pepsi's vice chairman as evidence that consumer demand is moving companies, and imagines a mass eat-in.
- •Food choices affect health, economic, carbon and social footprints
- •Individuals can't end climate change alone but can change what they eat
- •Pepsi's vice chairman talked about compostable packaging and regenerative agriculture
- •Companies respond to people voting with their forks
Emotional Eating and the Power of Community
Lewis asks what people feed themselves besides food. Hyman says many people feed their feelings, using food to alter mood, and argues that community support beats willpower for behavior change.
- •Food strongly affects mood, and people use caffeine, alcohol and sugar to feel better briefly
- •Behavior change is hardest to do alone
- •Hyman works with communities, churches and schools
- •Friend power is far more powerful than willpower
Personal Challenges and the Next Phase of His Work
Hyman talks about his recent marriage, his effort to be present, and his plan to give his wife a sealed box for his phone. He then describes his professional struggles: scaling functional medicine and empowering people to change the food system and policy.
- •He recently married and is working on being fully present
- •He plans a phone box for the weekend as an anniversary gift
- •Functional medicine is slow to reach scale
- •Food affects everyone, so food system change could be a broad movement
- •The farm bill involves 600 lobbyists, and he lobbied for science in Washington
Diseases as Systems Problems: What Medical School Got Wrong
Hyman recounts his path from yoga teacher and systems thinker to MD in 1987. He says the belief he outgrew was that chronic diseases are discrete things you get, rather than symptoms of a body out of balance.
- •He studied alternative healing systems and was a vegetarian and yoga teacher before medical school
- •He graduated medical school 31 years ago, having started studying nutrition in college
- •Chronic disease categories group people by symptoms, not causes
- •A former NIMH head said the DSM-5 has 100% accuracy but 0% validity, per Hyman
- •Disease is a systems problem you can change by taking out the bad and putting in the good
Genes vs. the Exposome and Social Networks
Asked what might be debunked in the future, Hyman predicts genes will prove less important than we think. He says the exposome and social connections shape chronic disease more than the genome, which he calls an empowering message.
- •Except for single-gene conditions, he says genes matter less for chronic disease
- •ZIP code and friends can matter more than genetic code, and obesity spreads through friends
- •The exposome includes diet, stress, sleep, toxins and the microbiome
- •He says 90% of chronic disease is determined by the exposome
- •You can't change your genes but can change gene expression
Three Truths, Acknowledgment, and Definition of Greatness
Lewis poses the three truths exercise, and Hyman offers his first: don't take yourself seriously, show up with love, and have fun. Lewis acknowledges Hyman's work, Hyman shares where to find him online, and he defines greatness as showing up, being present and bringing love.
- •Hyman's first truth: don't take yourself seriously, show up with love, and have fun
- •Lewis thanks him for making complicated health topics understandable
- •Resources: foodthebook.com and drhyman.com
- •Greatness is showing up, being present, and love in everything you do
