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  • Hey, it’s Marie Forleo and you are watching MarieTV, the place to be to create a business

  • and life you love.

  • And one of the most important components to be able to do that is your health.

  • My guest today is a world renowned expert and fierce advocate in the fight to transform

  • our healthcare and he’s here to show us how to take back control of our energy, our

  • focus, and our lives.

  • Dr. Mark Hyman believes that we all deserve a life of vitality and that we have the potential

  • to create it for ourselves.

  • That’s why he’s dedicated to tackling the root causes of chronic disease by harnessing

  • the power of functional medicine to transform healthcare.

  • He’s a practicing family physician, a ten time number one New York Times bestselling

  • author, and an internationally recognized leader, educator, and advocate in his field.

  • He’s the director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine and also the

  • founder and medical director of the Ultra Wellness Center.

  • Mark is the Chairman of the Board of the Institute for Functional Medicine, a medical editor

  • of the Huffington Post, and has been a regular medical contributor on many television shows

  • including CBS This Morning, The Today Show, and CNN.

  • Mark also plays a substantial role in the phenomenal documentary released in 2014 called

  • Fed Up, which addresses childhood obesity.

  • Mark Hyman, thank you so much.

  • Were finally doing this.

  • We are.

  • Weve wanted to do it forever.

  • Great to be here.

  • So let’s start off with your story because I know 20 years ago you got quite sick and

  • it had a profound impact on who you are and your work.

  • Can you tell us about that?

  • Well, I think, you know, anybody who sort of had a life changing experience, like, there’s

  • always something that, like, shifts them that changes their life.

  • And I had that.

  • I was vigorous, healthy, riding my bike 100 miles a day, could see 30 patients, remember

  • everybody without any notes, and dictate everything at the end of the day and get it all right.

  • To the next day not being able to walk up the stairs, not knowing where I was at the

  • end of a sentence from where I started, and having

  • I felt like I had depression, dementia, ADD all at once.

  • I couldn’t focus, I couldn't remember anything, I felt horrible, I couldn’t sleep, my muscles

  • ached, my digestion completely went kaflooey, my whole system broke down.

  • I developed autoimmune issues, I developed rashes, I had sores on my tongue.

  • I literally went from being like a running 5 miles a day, yoga teacher before I was a

  • doctor, to basically having this total body breakdown.

  • And it was through the process of sort of uncovering that that I sort of found that

  • there was a whole new way to think about health and disease that was really about the root

  • causes, about thinking of the body as a whole system, not just a bunch of different organs.

  • And I went to doctor after doctor after doctor, there’s a doctor for every different part

  • of your body.

  • And instead of having a doctor for the whole organism we have doctors for organs.

  • So I needed to really look at that.

  • And I found that I was able to actually understand how the body worked as a whole system, not

  • just the symptoms.

  • And that’s when I discovered functional medicine.

  • And I realized it was a whole way of thinking that was completely different than what I

  • learned in medical school.

  • They put all the pieces together, they connected the dots that helped me figure out, you know,

  • why I was sick and what was going on.

  • And it turned out I had mercury poisoning from living in China and I had picked up some

  • bug in some lake in Maine and my gut kinda went crazy.

  • And those two things completely shifted my whole biology and it got stuck and I couldn't

  • get unstuck.

  • And it was through understanding how to create health rather than treat disease that I was

  • able to actually fix myself.

  • So functional medicine is essentially the science of creating health and it’s very

  • powerful and it’s the future of healthcare.

  • That’s why I’m at Cleveland Clinic now, because the CEO of Cleveland Clinic, which

  • is one of the number one health care centers in the world, has said, “Oh, this is the

  • future.

  • We should be doing this and were gonna invest in this,” and theyre investing

  • big.

  • I mean, we justwere building a 6 million dollar brand new 18 thousand square foot center.

  • Weve got 2 thousand people on the waiting list.

  • Were growing and growing.

  • And I think we can’t grow fast enough because people get it.

  • People get that the way we are treating disease doesn't work.

  • We can’t just be covering over symptoms with medications.

  • We have to understand the body is a biological system and ecosystem.

  • Yes.

  • And that was really the sort of shift that happened for me and it led to me having to

  • literally unwind my own health, get healthy, and then it’s really compelled me to do

  • everything I’m doing.

  • Because I realize, wait a minute, there’s so many people who are suffering that don't

  • need to suffer.

  • Like a friend of mine sent me an email of this woman who’s been suffering, it was

  • her neighbor, and she gave me a list of symptoms and her whole story and I looked at it in

  • 3 seconds and I knew what was going on.

  • And it’s not because I’m a genius, it’s because I know the right lens to look at the

  • problem with.

  • Yes.

  • You know, it’s like once you understand how to solve a problem, it’s not that hard.

  • Right?

  • Right.

  • So, yeah.

  • For Einstein to figure out E=MC squared, that was a lot of figuring.

  • But once you have it figured out, it’s easy.

  • Right?

  • So I think that’s… that’s the whole beauty of functional medicine.

  • It’s sort of like the, you know, what are the laws of biology.

  • Right?

  • How is the human organism constructed?

  • It’s like, how are we this amazing, magical system and how does it actually work?

  • Like, what are the laws of nature?

  • And in medicine, we don't really have any theories.

  • We just have a bunch of concepts of disease based on organs and symptoms, not based on

  • causes and mechanisms.

  • Sort of like by geography, where is it, and by symptom, what’s the symptom?

  • Instead of like by the cause and underlying mechanism.

  • So functional medicine is that.

  • It’s like medicine by cause, not by symptom.

  • And it’s so powerful and I see, you know, so many people who actually don't get the

  • solutions that they actually can get whenwhen they don't understand this model.

  • It’s so frustrating and inspiring at the same time.

  • I mean, your work has impacted me personally, I’ve gone through so many of your books,

  • I’ve changed how I eat thanks to you and thanks to some other friends, our mutual friend

  • Kris Carr.

  • Yeah.

  • And it’s so exciting because I feel like we have an opportunity to just transform not

  • only healthcare but how people live on a day to day basis and our longevity and how we

  • feel and how we perform.

  • I know there was another big pivotal shift in your life that came from a trip to Haiti.

  • Yeah.

  • Tell us about that.

  • So, you know, I spent almost 20 years studying biological networks, like genetics, biochemistry,

  • physiology, like how our molecules work.

  • Right?

  • Andand it was amazing.

  • It’s like an amazing magical mystery tour.

  • And I was treating people one on one and focused on doing that and then Haiti happened.

  • The earthquake in January 2010.

  • And just before the earthquake happened I was given a book by a friend of mine

  • I’m sorry, I was given a book by a patient who was referred by a friend of mine who was

  • a shaman.

  • And he’s like you have to read this, and I’m like ok.

  • So I took a vacation, I was actually in Machu Picchu and I read this book, it profoundly

  • impacted me.

  • It’s called Mountains Beyond Mountains about Paul Farmer who went to Haiti after medical

  • school and showed that you could cure TB and AIDS in the poorest country in the world.

  • I mean, in the western hemisphere.

  • One of the poorest countries in the world.

  • Not by better drugs or surgery, but by using the power of each other.

  • He called it accompaniment.

  • The people accompany each other to health.

  • So he got community health workers trained who are their neighbors basically to help

  • their friends, their family members, their neighbors to get healthy by taking their medication

  • on time, by getting clean water.

  • Just basic stuff.

  • And he talked about this idea of structural violence.

  • You know, what are the social, economic, and political conditions that drive disease?

  • That these are social problems, theyre not medical problems so much.

  • Right?

  • And I began to sort of reflect and I… and I began toso then I began to reflect on

  • this and I was like, well, I really want to meet Paul Farmer.

  • And then, of course, the earthquake happened and a set of circumstances happened where

  • I was like, well, I’m a doctor and I was married to a doctor at the time who was a

  • surgeon, orthopedic surgeon.

  • And I’m like, well, we need to go.

  • But we have no way to get there.

  • So one of my patients who owns a jet texted me and says, “Do you want to go to Haiti?”

  • And I’m like yeah, actually, we were just talking about that.

  • So we got a whole team together and I got ahold of Paul Farmer and I said, “Do you

  • want to come with us?” because nobody could get down there.

  • So he jumped on the plane with us and I got to know him and it all kind of unfolded.

  • And we got there, it was the worst thing you can imagine, Marie.

  • I mean, it was the worst disaster I think that you can… 300 thousand people dead.

  • 300 thousand people injured.

  • And they were just everywhere.

  • And we got to the hospital and it’s justit was a disaster zone.

  • And we got to work, rolled up our sleeves.

  • And then I got to know Paul during that process and I got to see what was going on and I asked

  • the head of the hospital after the first week, we were sitting down to eat some chicken.

  • It was like this really skinny chickens in Haiti, they don't have these big hormone pumped

  • chickens.

  • And I said, “So before the earthquake, like, what was the most common admitting diagnosis

  • here?”

  • And he was like

  • I thought he was gonna say TB or AIDS, malaria.

  • He’s like it was heart disease, diabetes, hypertension.

  • I’m like wow.

  • And I realized that, you know, chronic disease is everywhere.

  • And then it was that moment I had the insight that chronic disease is also a social disease.

  • They call it non-communicable disease, but it’s actually communicable.

  • And it then began to kind of occur to me that the social drivers are not just affecting

  • things like TB and AIDS, but obesity and heart disease  and diabetes and cancer because

  • of our food system, because of the environmental toxins we have, because of the social disintegration

  • and all the issues that drive bad behavior.

  • I mean, you can’t find a grocery store in your town that sells vegetables and there’s

  • only bodegas on every corner that sell processed food, well, how are you gonna eat healthy?

  • So there’s really structural issues in our food policies and our environmental systems,

  • in our agricultural systems that are driving so much disease.

  • And I was like we have to deal with this.

  • And then I began to look at research when I got back, you know, about like Christakis

  • from Harvard talked about how youre more likely to be overweight if your friends are

  • overweight than if your family is overweight.

  • Like youre I think 170% more likely to be overweight if your best friend is overweight,

  • but only like 40% more if your parents are overweight.

  • Wow.

  • Soand if your friend’s friend friend who you don't even know is overweight, youre

  • more likely to be overweight because of these social connections that are mapped out.

  • I mean, it makes sense because I know this just anecdotally.

  • Right?

  • You go out with your friends, you go to a party, one person orders something naughty,

  • quote-unquote, and then all of a sudden it is a chain reaction.

  • Like the drinking takes over, this takes over, and then it’s a couple of days and youre

  • in.

  • Exactly.

  • It happens to me all the time.

  • I go out to dinner with people theyre like, oh, were having dinner with Mark Hyman

  • likeand then they like, dessert menu comes, like nobody orders dessert.

  • And I don't care if people have dessert.

  • They can have dessert.

  • I don't care.

  • I’m not, like, the food police.

  • But people have this internal process of like the peer pressure.

  • Yeah.

  • So the peer pressure can work for bad or it can work for good.

  • So all this was happening and I began to think, like, how do I do this?

  • Ok, so youve got functional medicine.

  • Right?

  • Youre aware of that.

  • Youre aware of all of these issues.

  • And so what happens next that allows you to then start to take these insights and deploy

  • them?

  • Yeah, so I was sort of chewing on all this and stewing in it and realizing that, you

  • know, we need to use our social threads and connections, our social networks, to heal

  • us by changing our behavior.

  • And I was like this is the future of healthcare.

  • And I’m like how am I gonna do this?

  • I’m just a single doctor doing this.

  • So I…

  • I’m just Mark Hyman.

  • Welland I was sitting in my office one day and Rick Warren walked into my office,

  • who’s a pastor at Saddleback Church in southern California and he wrote this book called The

  • Purpose Driven Life, which

  • Mega.

  • More books than anything except the Bible nonfiction.

  • Amazing.

  • And he’s like I wanna get healthy.

  • I’m like ok.

  • So we did his checkup and I’m working with him and I said why don’t we have dinner

  • after?

  • So he’s like ok.

  • So we had dinner at this little restaurant in town and I said tell me about your church

  • because I don't know much about what you do.

  • So he said, “Well, I have 30 thousand people in the church.”

  • I’m like, wow, that’s a big church.

  • He’s like, “Yeah, we have 5 thousand small groups that meet every week.”

  • And I’m like, wow, this is not a mega church, it’s thousands of mini churches.

  • And he said, “Yeah, we meet to help each other live better lives.”

  • I’m like ah.

  • It was like a lightbulb moment.

  • I was like why don't we, Rick, take a healthy living program and put it through the small

  • groups in your church.

  • He’s like, “Great idea.

  • Because I was baptizing my church last week and I realized, were a fat church.

  • And I’m fat and weve gotta do something about it.”

  • Yeah.

  • So we launched this thing, we thought a few hundred people would show up.

  • And we created a 6 week program called the Daniel Plan after Daniel from the Bible who

  • resisted the King’s temptation of rich food and 15 thousand people signed up the first

  • week.

  • We had 15 thousand people show up.

  • We had to turn 2 thousand people turn away.

  • It was the biggest thing they’d ever had at the church, more than the 9/11 service,

  • Obama/McCain debates, it was like huge.

  • And people were just hungry.

  • And these people were eating Big Gulps and having ice cream socials and pancake breakfasts.

  • The men would have rib breakfasts to have the men to the church.

  • I mean, it was bad.

  • And you know, it’s like I said, you guys are trying to get your people to heaven early

  • here with all this food.

  • So I… we launch this program, we thought, you know, we didn't know what was gonna happen

  • and people were into it.

  • And they helped each other, they supported each other, they held each other accountable,

  • they shopped together, they exercised together, they cooked together, they learned together.

  • And it was a secret sauce.

  • Like friend power not willpower, right?

  • That is awesome.

  • Friend power is so much more powerful than willpower.

  • And

  • Amen to that.

  • Rick says everybody needs a buddy.

  • Right?

  • You know, and then I kind of in the process of it I realized that getting healthy is a

  • team sport.

  • We can’t just do it on our own.

  • And you tryyou can if youre super strong willed and you want to do it, but it’s very

  • hard.

  • So in the first 10 months the congregation lost 250 thousand pounds.

  • People reversed all sorts of diseases.

  • It was written up in Time magazine and, you know, we ended up writing a book called The

  • Daniel Plan.

  • I wanted to call it The Jewish Doctor’s Guide for Christian Wellness, but that didn't

  • work out.

  • I love it.

  • He’s like, “No, no, no, no.

  • It’s the Daniel plan.”

  • And then we ended up winning the Christian book of the year award.

  • That is awesome.

  • Which is amazing.

  • I’m the only Jew, I think, to ever win the Christian book of the year award.

  • There was that one other guy, I don't know.

  • You know.

  • Well done.

  • Well done.

  • That’s incredible.

  • So did that bolster you?

  • Were you like this works.

  • Yeah, so this is likethis is like, oh, this is it.

  • So I realized that to get healthy bodies we need to use the power of functional medicine

  • to optimize biological networks.

  • And we use the power of social networks to change behavior and the environment because

  • so much of our health is environmentally determined.

  • Yes.

  • And the social networks, I mean, I read a study where if you take people from a very

  • low income neighborhood to a slightly better neighborhood, just change the zip code, they

  • lose weight.

  • Their diabetes gets better.

  • Without doing anything else.

  • So that social context is the biggest driver.

  • Now, in Cleveland were launching this in about a dozen churches.

  • Were doing this in hundreds of churches around the world and it’s become a model

  • for how we do this.

  • We need to do it in a secular basis, and that’s some of the things were doing at Cleveland

  • Clinic, which is so exciting.

  • Were working on changing healthcare because the incentives are changing now.

  • So instead of getting paid for peace work, like in other words, the more colonoscopies

  • or surgeries you do the more money you make, now healthcare systems are getting paid for

  • results, which is how healthy are your people and if you can design a system to create health

  • you will actually make more money, which is not how it is now.

  • Absolutely not how it is now.

  • So wereso it’s like the perfect storm of functional medicine, this insight around

  • social networks, with Cleveland Clinic in the changing healthcare face where everything

  • is coming together and were innovating in ways that no one’s ever imagined.

  • So it’s pretty exciting.

  • It’s super exciting stuff.

  • And, you know, I get frustrated so often, you know, even trying to deal with my own

  • insurance and trying to get tests and cholesterol and weve talked about that.

  • And I am just so thankful for the work that youre doing.

  • You know, one thing that youve shared is you said that we need to reimagine food as

  • information.

  • What exactly does that mean?

  • So, you know, we talked about functional medicine and this concept of systems and biological

  • networks and the biggest single input that you have every day into your health, by far,

  • is what you eat.

  • And it’s not because food is just calories.

  • Food is far more than calories, it’s information.

  • It’s literally instructions that with every bite changes your biology.

  • So it alters your gene expression.

  • 20 thousand, 30 thousand genes are all transformed good or bad depending on what you eat.

  • Can turn on the fat genes or skinny genes.

  • Youre gonna turn on the healthy genes or the disease genes.

  • Right?

  • It controls your immune system.

  • Turns on inflammation, turns off inflammation depending on what you eat.

  • We eat trans fat it turns on inflammation, if you eat omega 3 fats it turns off inflammation.

  • Calorie for calorie is actually acting very differently in your body.

  • If you eat calories that are high in sugar and starch youre going to slow your metabolism.

  • If you eat calories that are high in fat youre going to speed up your metabolism, independent

  • of the calories.

  • So I think it’s really important to understand that food is not just calories, it’s information.

  • And it affects your hormones like your insulin, your thyroid, your blood sugar, your sex hormones,

  • your adrenal hormones.

  • All those things are regulated by what youre eating.

  • And even your gut, were talking about the microbiome as a whole sea of bacteria that

  • live in your gut.

  • There’s like 10 times as many bacterial cells as your own cells, there’s 100 times

  • as much bacterial DNA as your own DNA.

  • We have about 20 thousand genes, about 2 million bacterial genes and theyre all doing stuff.

  • And youre controlling that population with literally every bite of food you take.

  • It doesn't change over time, it changes literally minute by minute.

  • So by transforming food, you can upgrade your biological software literally within days.

  • This is what I wanted to get into because I feel like for so many people who are struggling

  • right now with their health or they feel overweight or they just don't even feel healthy, theyre

  • lethargic, theyre tired, theyre having skin issues, theyre having an inability

  • to focus and concentrate.

  • You know what I call that?

  • What.

  • I call it FLC Syndrome.

  • What does that mean?

  • When you Feel Like Crap.

  • Yes.

  • And, I mean, I have been, you know, over the past couple of years I’ve been paying more

  • and more attention to being aware of how I feel afterimmediately after I eat certain

  • things.

  • And I’m Italian, so this kind of kills me, but I realized that having a lot of dairy,

  • like, it’s not good for Mama at all.

  • And it’s just so exciting.

  • But one of the things I love that you say is that most people don't realize how close

  • they are to good health.

  • I feel liketell us about that.

  • I know, I always say people don't realize how close they are to health and happiness.

  • They don't.

  • And, I mean, so many of my patients said, “God, doctor, I didn't realize I was feeling

  • so bad until I started feeling so good.

  • And it didn’t take that long.”

  • So, I mean, I’ve written a lot of books, but one of the ones I wrote, theyre all

  • based on functional medicine principles.

  • Theyre not, like, something I just invented out of the air that I concocted to try to

  • sell a book.

  • Theyre really to tell the story of how to empower yourself with the tools you need

  • to take back your health.

  • Because a lot of the stuff I’m saying can be done without a doctor.

  • When we were at Saddleback Church there was me and Dr. Ayman and, like, Dr. Oz helped

  • a little bit, but basically it was a couple of doctors to 15 thousand people.

  • Yes.

  • Right?

  • And we didn't treat each one individually, but their migraines went away, their asthma

  • went away, their irritable bowel went away, they had improvement in their autoimmune conditions,

  • their diabetes went away, they got off insulin.

  • I mean, just all these things happen as a result of having the right inputs, taking

  • out the bad stuff, putting in the good stuff.

  • And so, you know, when you understand how the body works and you take out the bad stuff

  • and you put in the good stuff, and most of that stuff we have control over.

  • It’s not something you need a doctor for.

  • You can transform your health so fast and that’s why I wrote the 10 day detox diet

  • because it’s… in 10 days people can get a hit of actually their baseline, of what

  • their new baseline is.

  • Yes.

  • Now, if they have something serious like Lyme disease or mercury poisoning or, I mean, I

  • eat turkey and brown rice and, like, broccoli for months and I never got better because

  • I had mercury poisoning.

  • Right?

  • So there are things you need a doctor for, but most of the people walking around suffering

  • from things are related to leaky gut to inflammation to food sensitivities to all sorts of sugar

  • in the diet and processed foods and chemicals.

  • And when you take all that out, the body just wants to be healthy.

  • Yeah.

  • It’s powerful.

  • Well talk more about 10 day detox because I did that one at the end.

  • But I want to go now to I loved you and everyone in Fed Up.

  • That documentary was so powerful.

  • And I know that one of the biggest resistant points that people have to changing how they

  • eat is they feel like one of the things it’s so expensive.

  • So can you talk to us about that family that you were able to work with in South Carolina?

  • Well, Fed Up was an amazing movie on so many levels because it really addressed the issue

  • of sugar and sugar addiction.

  • So I was an adviser in the movie and that’s actually why I wrote the 10 day detox was

  • to address this issue of the addictive power of sugar and starch.

  • And it’s not just like like an addictive substance.

  • It actually is biologically addictive, well proven by science.

  • It lights up the areas of the brain that cocaine or heroin does and it’s serious.

  • So in this movie we tried to highlight that and we saw so many people struggling with

  • losing weight because they were biologically addicted to food.

  • So it was like trying to sort of swim upstream without actually knowing why you weren’t

  • getting anywhere.

  • Right?

  • And one of the families was Brady and his mom Tina and I went down and worked with them

  • in South Carolina, in Easley, South Carolina.

  • And, you know, I think I had a judgment that I didn't realize I had about why people didn't

  • change.

  • I thought, well, they knew.

  • Like, they just know what to do, theyre just not doing it.

  • Right?

  • There may be social pressures, there may bebut it’s not a knowledge problem.

  • Like, people know that soda is not good for you.

  • Like, people know that, you know, Cool Whip isn’t good for you.

  • Right.

  • People know that.

  • And I realized that, you know, when I went down there and talked to them I said, well

  • because, you know, the father was on dialysis at 42, the son was, like, 16 and practically

  • diabetic, the mother was well over 100 plus pounds overweight and had all sorts of medical

  • issues.

  • They lived in a trailer, there was 5 of them, they had disability and food stamps and, you

  • know, they were struggling with their health.

  • And I said, “Why do you want to change?” and they all started crying.

  • Because the father had to lose 40 pounds in order to get a kidney transplant and he couldn’t

  • do it and he didn’t know what to do.

  • And they were desperate to do the right thing and that’s why they were part of the movie

  • and they were trying to figure it out.

  • And Brady wanted to go to medical school and, you know, they just wanted to figure it out.

  • And so rather than, like, just tell them what to do, I said why don't we cook a meal together?

  • So we went and got groceries, I went and got groceries, and I got this little guide called

  • Good Food on a Tight Budget, which is how to eat food that’s good for you, good for

  • the planet, and good for your wallet, which is from the Environmental Working Group where

  • I’m on the board.

  • And I… and I said why don't we just cook together.

  • Like, let’s just make it fun.

  • And when we got in there I realized let’s look in your kitchen first and see what’s

  • there.

  • They had no food.

  • Like, they had food-like substances.

  • You know, there were pop tarts and there was Cool Whip and there was, you know, low fat

  • salad dressing and there was

  • I mean, you know, if you covered the front of the box and you looked at the ingredient

  • list, you couldn’t tell what it was.

  • Like there were 47 different ingredients and everything had the same ingredients: flour,

  • sugar, high fructose corn syrup, all kinds of weird corn byproducts like maltodextrin,

  • trans fats, I mean, msg.

  • These are, like, the staples of processed foods and they all cause addiction, they cause

  • brain dysfunction, they cause fatigue, they cause cravings.

  • I mean, they are designed to do that.

  • The food industry designs these foods on purpose to do that.

  • Michael Moss wrote about it in his book Salt, Sugar, and Fat, it’s very powerful.

  • And so I said you know that Cool Whip is mostly trans fat.

  • And theyre like no, because it says zero trans fat on the nutrition facts label.

  • And I’m like, yeah, that’s right.

  • Because the FDA is in cahoots with the food industry and the food industry got them to

  • say it as less than half a gram per serving, they can say zero on the label.

  • So it’s allit’s basically all trans fat and high fructose corn syrup and water.

  • And we went over everything and they were just sort of shocked.

  • And I said, well, let’s cook a meal.

  • And they didn't have a cutting board, they didn't have knives.

  • Were trying to, like, cut sweet potatoes to roast them and we had to use, like, a butter

  • knife on a plate.

  • I mean, they had never stir fried a vegetable.

  • They’d never eaten vegetables except for canned string beans and, you know, they had

  • iceberg lettuce with store bought salad dressing that was mostly sugar and soy bean oil, which

  • is very inflammatory.

  • And I said it’s so simple.

  • Here’s how you cut up vegetables.

  • Here’s how you stir fry.

  • Here’s how you make turkey chili, we made a salad, we made olive oil and vinegar dressing,

  • salt, pepper, nothing fancy, cheap.

  • Really from this guide.

  • And they were like this is so good.

  • And they, like, loved it.

  • And then Brady, the son, was like, “Can you

  • do you eat like this with your family every night?”

  • And I’m like yeah, every night.

  • And it’s fun, you do it together, it’s delicious, it’s enjoyable.

  • And, you know, they lived on a thousand dollars a month for food for all of them with food

  • stamps and that was it, and disability.

  • And they would go out to eat at Denny’s and all these places a lot of times and eat

  • this horrible food.

  • And they were able to do this on food stamps and disability because they wererealized

  • that what the food industry was telling us was wrong.

  • It’s not inconvenient, it’s actually probably more easy and convenient to cook stuff yourself.

  • It doesn't take that long.

  • It’s not more expensive, you can do it for less.

  • Yeah, you don't have to have like 70 dollar grass fed prime rib, you know, but you can

  • get, you know, cheaper cuts of meats, cheaper vegetables, cheaper fruits.

  • You can do it.

  • It’s possible, eating real food.

  • And, you know, this whole idea that it’s just inconvenient, expensive, and difficult

  • is the food industry’s way of sort of hijacking the kitchen.

  • So the food industry has essentially hijacked the American kitchen and there’s all these

  • subtle messages.

  • You deserve a break today, you know, leave the cooking to us.

  • Right?

  • It’s like this whole

  • Dark side of marketing and advertising.

  • You know, the amount of money spent on eating out is far exceeding that from grocery stores.

  • So it was a powerful insight for me to realize that, you know, people can do it and people

  • didn't have the information, it’s not difficult, that they were able to once they knew some

  • basic instructions.

  • I mean, Americans spend more time cookingwatching cooking on television than actually

  • cooking.

  • Right?

  • I mean, wewe don't… we sort of made cooking a bad thing.

  • Right?

  • But it actually is what we need to do to retake back our kitchens.

  • I think for anyone watching, if you have not seen Fed Up the movie you have got, got, got,

  • got to see it.

  • It’s incredible.

  • Mark, before I let you go, youre a 10 times New York Times bestselling author.

  • So for anyone who’s like, “Oh my goodness, I’m excited,” they want to get started,

  • which of your books would you suggest if theyre interested to get started with?

  • Depends on what’s going on with you.

  • There’s two that I think are powerful that sort of lay out the framework of functional

  • medicine and there’s one that’s sort of like a quick start.

  • So the 10 day detox if you just don't want to get all the sciencey stuff.

  • That’s what I did.

  • And you just want to, like, have a plan, if you follow it youll see what happens.

  • I mean, it’s 10 days.

  • Right?

  • People can do anything for 10 days.

  • If it doesn't work, you know, you spent your time doing something that didn't work.

  • If it did work, itll change your life.

  • Yes.

  • So that’s a good place to start.

  • If people really want to get into the science of functional medicine, the two books I recommend

  • are the Ultramind Solution, which is about how our body affects our brain.

  • So you can meditate all you want, but if youre mercury poisoned, your brain is not going

  • to be working properly.

  • Right?

  • If your thyroid is not working or your gut flora is off.

  • So it talks about how the body is connected to the brain.

  • It’s really a download around functional medicine.

  • And things like depression, ADD, dementia, all those mood, focus, and cognitive disorders

  • are profoundly affected by what’s going on in our body.

  • Because our brain’s just not a stick there on top of our head.

  • And then The Blood Sugar Solution is really about this phenomenon of insulin resistance,

  • pre diabetes, which affects one out of every two people.

  • Like, why are we overweight in this country?

  • There’s a reason for it and it has to do with this phenomenon we call insulin resistance,

  • which is like pre diabetes where when you eat sugar or starch it raises insulin, that’s

  • a fat fertilizer.

  • Stores belly fat, makes you hungry, slows your metabolism.

  • So it’s how do we deal with that and how do we deal with all the drivers of that?

  • So those two books I think are good.

  • Awesome.

  • Mark, thank you so much.

  • Congratulations on everything that you're doing.

  • You're honestly one of my heroes and I’m so honored to have you on the show.

  • Thank you, Marie.

  • Thank you for having me.

  • Now Mark and I would love to hear from you.

  • What’s the single biggest insight that youre taking away from this conversation today?

  • Let us know in the comments below.

  • Now, as always, the best conversations happen after the episode over at MarieForleo.com,

  • so go there and leave a comment now.

  • Once youre there, be sure to sign up for our email list and youll become an MF insider,

  • which means that youll get instant access to a very powerful audio training that I created.

  • It’s called How to Get Anything You Want.

  • Youll also get some exclusive giveaways and some insights from me that I don't share

  • anywhere else.

  • Stay on your game and keep going for your dreams because the world needs that special

  • gift that only you have.

  • Thank you so much for watching and I’ll catch you next time on MarieTV.

  • B-School is coming up.

  • Want in?

  • For more info and free training, go to JoinBSchool.com.

  • People don't realize how close they are to health and happiness.

  • They don't.

  • And, I mean, so many of my patients said, “God, doctor, I didn't realize I was feeling

  • so bad until I started feeling so good.

  • And it didn’t take that long.”

Hey, it’s Marie Forleo and you are watching MarieTV, the place to be to create a business

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