Dr. Axe is a true pioneer in the natural health space. He’s the co-founder of Ancient Nutrition, and his website is visited by 17 million people every single month (making it #1 in natural health)! Known for his holistic background and eastern philosophies, he stays on top of all the latest crazes and concerns. His stance on keto aligns well with the 131 Method, and he and Chalene discuss the right and wrong ways to make it a lifestyle. They also discuss probiotics, collagen, bone broth, weight gain, carbs, animal proteins, plants, spices & herbs, personalized medicine, and so much more! Be sure to listen to the episode here. In the meantime, here’s a taste…
Dr. Axe on Probiotics
We need probiotics to survive. A person living with zero probiotics in their system wouldn’t live very long or function properly. Probiotics actually act as an organ for you. Probiotics are critical for nutrient absorption, and they create certain enzymes and other nutrients for you. They produce fat soluble vitamins and things that break down the food we eat. They fight infection. So yes, they’re a big deal.
We mostly think of just getting probiotics from our food, or supplements. There’s actually two types of probiotic categories: food-based that you might get in sauerkraut, like lactobacillus plantarum, or acidophilus, like in yogurt. But the soil provides the types our ancestors got when they ate food from the ground. So if you shop at a Farmer’s Market and see tiny specks of dirt left on carrots after you wash them, go ahead and eat it! Those specks of dirt help you better break down and digest the food you’re eating right then.
Another example is raw honey, which is good for allergies and immunity. Raw honey contains these types of microorganisms in the family of probiotics, over 200 in fact! So when you consume those, it builds up your natural immunity over time.
Ancient Immunization (From Nature)
People talk about immunizations (shots), but historically people were immunized by eating local soil, eating local honey, being outdoors, being exposed to these things which naturally build their immune system. In his book, Eat Dirt, Dr. Axe discusses getting probiotics, both from food and soil to overcome conditions like leaky gut. Only eat that little bit of dirt if your produce is organic. Definitely wash it well if it’s conventionally grown. Your immune system will thank you!
Choosing a Probiotic
When buying a probiotic supplement, or a “probiotic food,” you want to make sure you’re getting both soil-based and food-based probiotics. Soil-based probiotics are heat resistant and shelf-stable. They won’t become damaged with heat. Think of those like miso (as in, miso soup). Side note: the documentary Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat on Netflix shows how miso is made in Japan. Check out the Salt episode! It’s fascinating.
Looking at CFU count really isn’t the most important thing. It might say 20 billion or 50 billion CFU on the bottle. However, what’s most important are the species and their resiliency. Look for “bacillus.” There’s a lot of them: bacillus subtilis, bacillus coagulans, bacillus clausii; those are the family of soil-based probiotics. In addition to that, get in you prebiotics. Companies throw in potato fiber or inulin to foods, but they’re really not that effective. Garlic, Jerusalem artichokes, leeks, chicory root, apples and jicama are great prebiotics.
Chinese medicine recommends herbal supplementation or herbal teas. These support probiotic growth and health in your gut, to support their gut.
Meat
When we’re consuming animal meat, you need to know what they ate. You are what you eat, but also what they ate. If animals eat grains and GMOs, you’re eating that genetically modified residue, steroids, antibiotics, and medications. All of those reside in the fat cells of conventional steak or chicken.
Their fat cells are also higher in omega 6 fats, and lower in omega 3. That’s highly inflammatory for us. That’s a huge issue. But also affecting us is their stress levels based on inhumane living conditions. If they’re out in the sun, free-roaming, that actually keeps cortisol low. When cortisol is low, they’re going to have also less inflammation. We know here as humans, if we have high levels of cortisol, our inflammation is higher. Heart disease, cancer, diabetes…animals experience the same issues! They have unhealthy tissues and imbalanced amino acids and fatty acids if they live in an enclosed environment.
Then you have slaughter methods. This is why world religions have kosher foods. Kosher is all about allowing an animal to die immediately and not have to go through pain or fear or any of those emotions when they’re slaughtered. Today they’re using shotgun methods, and the other ones are even more gruesome. That’s why we only use Butcher Box meats, ya’ll! Think you can’t afford organic meat? Simply cut back! Choose quality over quantity.
Collagen
30% of all of the protein in our body is made up of collagen protein. Our ancestors probably consumed a diet at a 4:1 or a 3:1 ratio of collagen to muscle building proteins. Today, we just eat the chicken breast and the tenderloin, and get rid of the organ meats, which actually contain some collagen. Because we don’t eat organ meats and we don’t drink as much bone broth, we get little to no collagen. Just like if our diet was all omega 6 fats and we weren’t getting any omega 3s, it causes major inflammation. It’s causing inflammation and liver issues because you’re not getting glycine, which helps the liver run properly. It’s causing joint degradation. Your body doesn’t have the right building blocks to regenerate and create this new and healthy collagen because it doesn’t have the proline it needs.
Dr. Axe says everyone should be doing at least one serving a day of collagen. Athletes having to regenerate their tissues should do two or three servings a day. Now if you’re drinking bone broth, that’s got it. Make your own bone broth at home, but if not, do a powder.
Different types of collagen make up different areas of your body. Type 1 and 3 collagen makes up your skin, hair, nails, bones, part of your gut. Part 2 makes up all of your ligaments, tendons, fascia, connective tissue. Type 5 and 10 is important during birth, makes up the placenta, makes up your arterial and cardiovascular walls. All that being said, chicken collagen is the most important. When you drink chicken broth specifically, it not only contains collagen, but also glucosamine, chondroitin, and hyaluronic acid, which are known as collagen boosters.
Mighty Herbs
If you look at other ancient cultures, we’re missing herbs and spices. We consume 1/8th to 1/10th of the herbs and spices that they do over in the East. Dr. Axe says, if “food is medicine,” (which it is) it’s the most true with herbs and spices. In Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine, healing means herbs and spices. So yes, people should be eating broccoli and kale, but if we’re comparing the nutrient density and phytonutrients that have medicinal benefits, tumeric, rosemary, ginger and milk thistle blow broccoli out of the water.
Keto
Keto is meant to be done like a long-term fast that we do periodically. (Ya hear that? You should PHASE ketosis! That’s what we do in the 131 Method). People think normal carbohydrate consumption is 70% of their calories. It should probably be an equal amount to fat. Maybe it’s 30% to 40% of your diet, but it shouldn’t be 60% or 70%. Most people are consuming almost double the amount of carbs than they should be!
Dr. Axe says, “I cover that in my book Keto Diet. I really get into really weaving in Chinese medicine approaches with the keto diet because my view on keto is that people don’t need to be in full-on hardcore ketosis. It was really designed to mimic fasting. Keto is meant to be done like a long-term fast that we do periodically.” Weave in and out of ketosis.
But, it should also be personalized. “Personalized medicine for me is my biggest passion based on these factors. The people that really practice this today are people with their oriental medical doctor degrees, OMDs and some acupuncturists, if they specialize in herbalism as well.”
Check out his consciously produced supplements (and get 10%) here. We love his collagen, herb supplements and more! The bone broth protein is super tasty!
Be sure to listen to the full episode, linked above. There’s still so much more he covers! Follow him on Instagram @drjoshaxe for all things health!
