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Lewis Howes"These HEALTHY Foods Will COMPLETELY HEAL YOUR BODY!" | Mark Hyman & Lewis Howes
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Chapter summaries
How Food Drives Mood and Brain Inflammation
Lewis Howes asks how much food affects mental health. Dr. Mark Hyman describes a mental health and food crisis, explains how the standard American diet inflames the brain and depletes nutrients, and describes how sugar and starch trigger stress hormones.
- •Hyman calls food probably the biggest driver of brain dysfunction in mood, behavior, attention and memory
- •Nutritional psychiatry departments exist at Harvard and Stanford
- •Mental illness is often an inflamed brain, and the brain can only say 'ouch' through depression, anxiety or irritability
- •Many Americans are deficient in omega-3s and other nutrients like magnesium, folate and vitamin D
- •Eating a bagel or cookie raises cortisol and adrenaline like running from a saber-toothed tiger
Belly Fat Signaling and the Frontal Lobe–Amygdala Disconnect
Hyman walks through the cascade after eating starch and sugar: insulin spikes, fuel locks into belly fat cells, and inflammatory messengers reach the brain. He then describes how junk food disconnects the frontal lobe from the amygdala and cites prison and juvenile detention diet studies.
- •Sugar and starch spike blood sugar and insulin, driving fuel into belly fat cells that release inflammatory messengers
- •The average American eats almost a pound of flour and sugar a day, according to Hyman
- •The frontal lobe is the 'adult in the room' while the amygdala is the reptile brain
- •Prisons that improved food saw a 56% drop in violent crime, 80% with a multivitamin
- •Juvenile detention trials showed a 91% reduction in violent behavior
Three Foods to Avoid and the Pegan Diet Principles
Asked for three foods to avoid, Hyman names high-fructose corn syrup, trans/hydrogenated fats, and ingredients you wouldn't have in your cupboard. He then explains the Pegan Diet as an inclusive framework built on food as medicine.
- •High-fructose corn syrup signals a highly processed food
- •Hydrogenated fats were banned by the FDA but can still be found
- •Eat foods with ingredients you can recognize and pronounce, avoiding things like BHT and azodicarbonamide
- •Pegan is a joke blend of paleo and vegan, with the two diets sharing most principles
- •Food is information that speaks to genes, hormones, microbiome and immune system
Personalized Nutrition: Listening to Your Own Body
Hyman argues against dogmatic diets, saying different people thrive on different approaches, and illustrates this with a vegan patient who was metabolically unwell. Lewis shares his own experience with veganism, and they agree the universal factor is food quality.
- •Keto, vegan, paleo and carnivore may suit different people differently
- •A 26-year-old vegan patient had low protein, B12, vitamin D, iodine and zinc
- •Your own body is 'the smartest doctor in the room'
- •Personalization can use genetic, metabolic and food sensitivity testing
Regenerative Agriculture, Meat Quality and Soil
Hyman distinguishes feedlot meat from grass-finished and wild animals, and describes regenerative farming as good for both human and planetary health. He cites topsoil loss, the food system's climate impact, farmer Gabe Brown, and the idea that 'it's not the cow, it's the how.'
- •Feedlot meat is bad for health, the planet and animals, in Hyman's view
- •Properly raised animals can carry plant phytochemicals like catechins
- •The food system end to end is the largest contributor to climate change, per Hyman
- •Gabe Brown rebuilt his farm with cover crops, rotations and animals
- •Hyman cites the UN saying converting degraded land to regenerative agriculture could stop climate change for 20 years
Tasting Wild Meats and the Native American Diet
The conversation turns lighter as Lewis asks about kangaroo and the best-tasting meat. Hyman describes eating guanaco and elk, praises a grass-finished buffalo company, and explains pemmican and the longevity of Plains Indians.
- •A study in Australia found kangaroo meat lowered inflammatory markers versus feedlot meat
- •Hyman has eaten guanaco, ostrich, buffalo, elk and venison and likes elk best
- •Plains Indians were long-lived around 1900 and ate mostly buffalo and some berries
- •Pemmican is dried meat and fat with berries, very nutrient-dense
Hormesis, Wild Plants and Himalayan Tartary Buckwheat
Hyman explains that plants stressed by tough conditions are more nutritious, introduces hormesis, and notes the loss of crop diversity. He then tells the story of Himalayan tartary buckwheat pancakes and how its phytochemicals may target zombie cells.
- •Monocrop produce is low in nutrients, and broccoli is 50% less nutritious than 50 years ago, per Hyman
- •Hormesis means stress that makes you stronger, and wild plants are the most nutritious
- •About 60% of our diet is three crops and 90% of edible plant species have been lost
- •Tartary buckwheat grew in harsh Himalayan conditions and has over 130 phytochemicals
- •Mutated stem cell progeny become zombie cells that the buckwheat's phytochemicals may kill
Phytochemicals, Soil Rebuilding and the Impossible Burger Comparison
Hyman describes the effort to catalog 25,000 plant phytochemicals and returns to the role of animals in rebuilding soil. He compares a regeneratively raised beef burger with an Impossible Burger on carbon and soil impact.
- •The Rockefeller Foundation funded cataloging a periodic table of phytonutrients
- •Hyman says topsoil could be lost within 60 to 80 harvests
- •Adaptive grazing with manure, hooves and saliva builds soil and pulls carbon
- •He says an Impossible Burger adds about 3.5 kg of carbon while regenerative beef removes 3.5 kg
Longevity: Lifestyle, Hacks and Social Connection
Lewis asks what Hyman does for anti-aging. Hyman says diet is the foundation, along with exercise, sleep and meditation, with hacks like ozone and peptides as the smaller portion. He highlights community, love, meaning and purpose as strong predictors of longevity.
- •Hyman says you cannot exercise your way out of a bad diet
- •He uses ozone, peptides and exosomes and mentions the Longevity Roadmap docuseries
- •He frames it as 80% fundamentals and 20% fancy hacks
- •Social connection is among the most potent predictors of longevity, he says
- •He cites a close-knit Italian community and a JAMA article on meaning and purpose
Insulin Resistance, Chronic Disease and COVID
Responding to Lewis's question on insulin resistance, Hyman explains how starch and sugar drive high insulin and poor metabolic health, linking it to cancer, heart disease, dementia and aging. He connects this inflammatory state to severe COVID outcomes and vitamin D.
- •Hyman says 88% of Americans are in poor metabolic health
- •Insulin can be high even when blood sugar and A1C look normal
- •Keeping insulin low is described as the game of aging
- •He says America was 'pre-inflamed' when COVID arrived
- •Hyman cites low vitamin D as raising risk of hospitalization and death
Fats, Insulin Control and Cooking Oils
Asked how to treat high insulin, Hyman says to eat real food and that fat is key to insulin control since fat produces no insulin response. He lists good fats and the refined oils to avoid, and describes the oils in his own kitchen.
- •Protein can raise insulin through gluconeogenesis and sugar or starch raise it, but fat produces no insulin response
- •Good fats include avocados, olive oil, nuts and seeds
- •Refined plant-based oils are extracted with solvents and oxidize easily
- •Soybean oil is about 10% of our diet, per Hyman
- •His kitchen oils include olive, avocado, coconut, ghee and a little grass-fed butter
Functional Medicine, the Microbiome and Akkermansia
Hyman explains functional medicine as treating root causes through seven interconnected body systems. He focuses on the microbiome, the gut bacterium Akkermansia, a story about cancer immunotherapy, and how foods boost detoxification and phytochemical intake.
- •Functional medicine treats causes rather than suppressing symptoms ('take out the tack')
- •Seven systems include microbiome, immune, energy, detoxification, communication and structural
- •Akkermansia builds the gut's protective mucus layer and is fed by polyphenols from pomegranate, cranberry and green tea
- •Hyman says a colleague's mother responded to immunotherapy after her Akkermansia was raised
- •Cruciferous vegetables help boost glutathione for detoxification
Book Bonuses and Hyman's Personal Reassessment
Lewis points listeners to The Pegan Diet and its bonuses at pegandiet.com. He then asks Hyman about his biggest current challenge, and Hyman describes stepping back to reassess the next 30 years of his life after personal changes, then they close with thanks.
- •Bonuses and a video are available at pegandiet.com
- •Hyman describes personal challenges including a separation and back surgery
- •He describes his first 30 years as becoming who he was and the next 30 as doing it
- •He wants to design a life with impact while savoring it, moving from warrior to more of a Merlin role
- •Lewis thanks him and the episode closes
