#304 - Did Low-Fat Diets Drive the Obesity Epidemic? | Dr. Arne Astrup & Mike Haney

For decades, we've been told that eating less fat is one of the healthiest things we can do. That advice reshaped the foods we buy, the way we think about weight loss, and even how parents feed their children.But what if we misunderstood fat in the first place?In this episode, nutrition researcher Dr. Arne Astrup traces how the war on fat began, why many of its core assumptions haven't held up under decades of research, and what we've learned instead. Rather than asking whether fat is "good" or "bad," he argues that the more useful questions are: What foods actually keep us healthy? Why do some people gain weight more easily than others? And what happens when we reduce nutrition to single nutrients instead of whole foods?Free course: Improve your metabolic healthGet our free email course on how glucose, nutrition, exercise, sleep, and measurement can help you build habits that support better energy and long-term health: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://levels.link/wnl⁠🎙️ About the Guest: Dr. Arne Astrup is a physician, nutrition researcher, and Professor Emeritus at the University of Copenhagen whose research focuses on obesity, appetite regulation, dietary fats, and cardiometabolic health. He previously chaired the Danish Nutrition Council and helped lead Denmark's landmark ban on industrial trans fats.📍What Dr. Arne Astrup & Mike Haney discussed:00:00 Introduction01:03 How fear of fat became public health policy07:40 Did low-fat advice help create today's processed foods?10:20 Denmark's trans fat ban and one lesson nutrition got right14:00 "I was wrong." Why dietary fat isn't the main driver of obesity18:45 Why your body fat isn't simply the fat you eat27:00 Why fat can help you eat fewer calories32:00 Are nuts actually easy to overeat?36:00 Cheese, yogurt, and why whole foods don't behave like nutrients41:00 Why insulin resistance changes carbohydrate tolerance55:00 The LDL debate: what saturated fat actually changes1:01:00 Why it's time to stop talking about "saturated fat" as a single thing🔗 Helpful Links:Diets with High or Low Protein Content and Glycemic Index for Weight-Loss Maintenance (DIOGENES Trial): Landmark randomized trial led by Dr. Astrup examining protein, glycemic index, and long-term weight maintenance. New England Journal of MedicineWeight Loss Maintenance in Overweight Subjects on Ad Libitum Diets with High or Low Protein Content and Glycemic Index: The DIOGENES Trial (12-Month Results). One-year follow-up of the DIOGENES study. International Journal of ObesityDietary Saturated Fats and Health: Are the U.S. Guidelines Evidence-Based? (Astrup et al., 2021): Consensus review arguing that current saturated fat recommendations should place greater emphasis on whole foods and dietary patterns than saturated fat alone. Nutrients (2021)Walter Willett's research on industrial trans fats and cardiovascular disease: Early epidemiologic work that helped establish the harms of industrial trans fats and ultimately informed policy changes worldwide. PubMed search for Walter Willett trans fat publicationsWorld Health Organization: REPLACE Trans Fat Initiative: Background on the global effort to eliminate industrially produced trans fats from the food supply. World Health Organization REPLACE InitiativeWatch the conversation: https://youtu.be/ajqg7LdM0PMFind us on YouTube: ⁠⁠https://youtube.com/levelshealth?sub_confirmation=1⁠👋 Who we are:Levels helps you understand your metabolic health with personalized data, expert guidance, and tools that connect your daily choices to measurable changes in your body. Our goal is to help you make better decisions about food, exercise, sleep, and long-term health.Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health.

Almost everything your doctor knows about you comes from a snapshot: a blood pressure reading, an annual lab, a handful of numbers meant to represent a constantly changing human body.That's beginning to change. New sensors promise far more continuous health data, and AI may finally give us the ability to interpret it. But medicine has been through a data revolution before, and almost none of what people initially promised actually happened.In the first episode of NextLevel, Mike Haney sits down with Dr. Robert Wachter, Chair of the Department of Medicine at UCSF and one of medicine's leading thinkers on technological change, to ask what healthcare's messy transition from paper to electronic records can teach us about the AI era.Wachter explains why digitizing medicine didn't transform care on its own, why your doctor is already overwhelmed by data, and why simply sending them continuous feeds from your watch, ring, or future sensors would make the problem worse.The missing piece is an intelligence layer: a system capable of deciding what matters, helping patients act when they can, and pulling clinicians in when they're actually needed.They also explore how AI is changing the balance of knowledge between doctors and patients, the danger of trusting systems that are usually right, what healthcare can learn from airplane cockpits, and why collecting more health data may be much easier than figuring out what any of it means.Free course: Improve your metabolic healthGet our free email course on how glucose, nutrition, exercise, sleep, and measurement can help you build habits that support better energy and long-term health: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://levels.link/wnl⁠🎙️ About the Guest: Dr. Robert M. Wachter is Professor and Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. He’s also the author of six books, including the 2015 bestseller The Digital Doctor, which examined medicine's transition from paper to electronic health records, and 2026’s A Giant Leap: How AI Is Transforming Healthcare and What That Means for Our Future, his examination of generative AI's arrival in medicine. 📍What Dr.Robert Watcher & Mike Haney discussed:0:00 — Dr. Wachter and medicine's technological revolutions7:00 — How healthcare finally went digital12:40 — Why digitizing healthcare didn't fix it19:00 — AI is fixing problems computers created29:40 — Does AI know more medicine than your doctor?33:00 — The hidden danger of trusting computers42:30 — What healthcare can learn from airplane cockpits56:15 — Why medicine has to move beyond the office visit58:20 — Healthcare's missing intelligence layer1:04:20 — Why more health data isn't enough🔗 Helpful Links:Dr. Robert Wachter, UCSF Department of Medicine: https://medicine.ucsf.edu/people/robert-wachterA Giant Leap: How AI Is Transforming Healthcare and What That Means for Our Future: https://bookshop.org/p/books/a-giant-leap-how-ai-is-transforming-healthcare-and-what-that-means-for-our-future-robert-wachter/e6a7ecb6556f9f02The Digital Doctor: Hope, Hype, and Harm at the Dawn of Medicine's Computer Age: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-digital-doctor-hope-hype-and-harm-at-the-dawn-of-medicine-s-computer-age-robert-wachter/9187727Pattern Recognition, Dr. Wachter's newsletter on AI and healthcare: https://robertwachter.substack.com/Dr. Robert Wachter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-wachter-3102b963/Watch the conversation: https://youtu.be/762DTOa7uTYFind us on YouTube: ⁠https://youtube.com/levelshealth?sub_confirmation=1👋 Who we are:Levels helps you understand your metabolic health with personalized data, expert guidance, and tools that connect your daily choices to measurable changes in your body. Our goal is to help you make better decisions about food, exercise, sleep, and long-term health.Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health.

Healthcare is entering a new era.AI is improving faster than our ability to measure the human body, while a new generation of sensors promises to change that. Together, they’ll reshape how we understand health, disease, and medicine itself.NextLevel is our new series inside the podcast where we try to make sense of that future through conversations with the people building it.Our first episode, featuring Dr. Bob Wachter, arrives this week.Free course: Improve your metabolic healthGet our free email course on how glucose, nutrition, exercise, sleep, and measurement can help you build habits that support better energy and long-term health: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://levels.link/wnl⁠👋 Who we are:Levels helps you understand your metabolic health with personalized data, expert guidance, and tools that connect your daily choices to measurable changes in your body. Our goal is to help you make better decisions about food, exercise, sleep, and long-term health.

You probably spend more time thinking about protein than friendships.According to today's guest, you’ve got it backward.In this episode of A Whole New Level, Mike Haney sits down with Dr. Julianne Holt-Lunstad, one of the world's leading researchers on social connection and health. She explains how data now unequivocally show that social isolation drives early mortality. And why simply not feeling lonely doesn't necessarily mean you're getting enough social connection, as well as why even weak connections matter a lot to a healthy social life.Free course: Improve your metabolic healthGet our free email course on how glucose, nutrition, exercise, sleep, and measurement can help you build habits that support better energy and long-term health: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://levels.link/wnl⁠🎙️ About the Guest: Dr. Julianne Holt-Lunstad is a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brigham Young University and one of the world's leading researchers on social connection and health. Her landmark meta-analyses involving millions of participants established social isolation and loneliness as independent risk factors for chronic disease and early mortality.📍What Dr. Julianne Holt-Lunstad & Mike Haney discussed:0:00 — Introduction1:18 — How Dr. Holt-Lunstad began studying social connection and health3:00 — Why relationships belong alongside diet, exercise, and sleep4:10 — Social isolation vs. loneliness vs. living alone11:45 — How researchers measure social connection and health outcomes16:20 — The biological pathways linking isolation to disease27:30 — How scientists study social connection without randomized trials33:00 — Family, friends, weak ties, and what kinds of relationships matter|37:00 — AI companions, loneliness, and whether technology can replace human connection46:15 — Is there a minimum effective dose of friendship?58:10 — Why Americans are participating in fewer clubs and community groups1:03:20 — Why objective isolation predicts health better than loneliness1:10:40 — Making friends as adults and overcoming the friction of connection🔗 Helpful Links:Dr. Julianne Holt-LunstadBYU Faculty Profile: https://psychology.byu.edu/directory/julianne-holt-lunstadSocial Connection in America Survey: https://www.socialconnectionguidelines.org/U.S. Surgeon General Advisory on Social Connection: https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-social-connection-advisory.pdfKey ResearchSocial Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-analytic Review (Holt-Lunstad et al., 2010): https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1000316Loneliness and Social Isolation as Risk Factors for Mortality (Holt-Lunstad et al., 2015): https://perspectives.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ps.201500160Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation (U.S. Surgeon General, 2023): https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-social-connection-advisory.pdfBowling Alone (Robert Putnam): https://bowlingalone.com/Watch the conversation: https://youtu.be/g6D2CIpB2n4Find us on YouTube: https://youtube.com/levelshealth?sub_confirmation=1👋 Who we are:Levels helps you understand your metabolic health with personalized data, expert guidance, and tools that connect your daily choices to measurable changes in your body. Our goal is to help you make better decisions about food, exercise, sleep, and long-term health.Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health.

High cholesterol. Elevated ApoB. A positive CAC score. Now what?Most people quickly find themselves trapped between two extremes: simplistic advice to “cut saturated fat” and online influencers insisting cholesterol doesn’t matter at all.In this episode of A Whole New Level, Mike Haney sits down with clinical research scientist Dr. Kevin Maki to cut through the confusion.Drawing on more than 35 years of cardiovascular research, Maki explains why heart disease risk is about much more than LDL cholesterol alone. He breaks down the roles of inflammation, blood sugar, family history, kidney function, and lipoproteins, while also making a clear case for something many people resist: LDL and ApoB still matter. A lot.The evidence increasingly suggests that when it comes to atherosclerosis, lower for longer is better. That has important implications for diet, statins, and how early we should intervene.Mike and Dr. Maki also tackle saturated fat, seed oils, red meat, industry-funded research, and how to separate evidence from online nutrition debates.Free course: Improve your metabolic healthGet our free email course on how glucose, nutrition, exercise, sleep, and measurement can help you build habits that support better energy and long-term health: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://levels.link/wnl⁠🎙️ About the Guest: Dr. Kevin Maki is founder and Chief Science Officer of Midwest Biomedical Research and an Adjunct Professor in the School of Public Health at Indiana University. A former president of the National Lipid Association, he has spent more than three decades designing and leading clinical trials focused on cardiovascular disease, diabetes, nutrition, and lipid management.His research has included studies on cholesterol-lowering therapies, dietary patterns, red meat, seed oils, inflammation, and cardiometabolic risk reduction.📍What Dr. Kevin Maki & Mike Haney discussed:0:00 — Dr. Maki’s background in clinical research4:30 — How industry-funded nutrition research actually works15:00 — The Framingham Heart Study and the “Big Four” risk factors20:00 — FLASH-GLICK: the ten factors that drive cardiovascular risk26:00 — Why inflammation may be the next frontier in prevention33:00 — LDL, ApoB, and the “lower for longer” principle42:00 — Particle size, ApoB, and what advanced lipid testing adds47:00 — Why everyone should know their Lp(a)51:00 — Saturated fat, seed oils, and the “compared to what?” problem62:00 — What the red meat evidence actually shows72:00 — Statins, lifestyle, and LDL treatment goals82:00 — Why earlier LDL lowering may provide the biggest benefit🔗 Helpful Links:Watch the conversation: https://youtu.be/l8QzuuTYxLIBeef Consumption and Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11621491/Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Lowering and Risk of Major Adverse Cardiovascular Events in Primary Prevention Trials: A Meta-Analysis: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1933287426000395PREDIMED Trial (Mediterranean Diet & Primary Prevention): https://www.nejm.org/doi/abs/10.1056/NEJMoa1200303CORDIOPREV Trial: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35525255/The Framingham Heart Study: A Historical Perspective: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(13)61752-3/abstractMidwest Biomedical Research: https://midwestbiomedicalresearch.com/National Lipid Association: https://www.lipid.org/✅ Subscribe here on YouTube: https://youtube.com/levelshealth?sub_confirmation=1👋 Who we are:Levels helps you understand your metabolic health with personalized data, expert guidance, and tools that connect your daily choices to measurable changes in your body. Our goal is to help you make better decisions about food, exercise, sleep, and long-term health.Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health.

What are GLP-1 drugs actually doing in the body, who are they for, and why might some people want to think twice before treating them like a six-month shortcut?For years, obesity treatment focused largely on behavior: eat less, move more, stay motivated. Yet many people lost weight only to regain it. According to obesity medicine pioneer Dr. Robert Kushner, that wasn’t a failure of willpower. It was a failure to fully understand the biology driving weight regulation.In this episode of A Whole New Level, Mike Haney sits down with Kushner, one of the leading figures in obesity medicine and a lead investigator on the landmark STEP trials, to discuss how GLP-1 medications are changing the field. He explains why these drugs may be the first treatments capable of helping patients “fight biology with biology,” why appetite regulation appears to work differently in different people, and why many patients describe a dramatic reduction in food noise after starting treatment.But this conversation goes beyond how the drugs work. Kushner also addresses one of the biggest questions facing obesity medicine today: who should actually take these medications? He explains why obesity specialists evaluate far more than a number on the scale, why someone hoping to lose a modest amount of weight may want to think carefully before pursuing treatment, and why successful long-term health still requires changes that no medication can provide.They also discuss obesity as a disease, the promise and limitations of telehealth prescribing, and why maintaining weight loss often requires something deeper than motivation: a shift in identity.Free course: Improve your metabolic healthGet our free email course on how glucose, nutrition, exercise, sleep, and measurement can help you build habits that support better energy and long-term health: ⁠⁠⁠https://levels.link/wnl⁠🎙️ About the Guest: Dr. Robert Kushner is Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Medical Education at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and one of the pioneers of modern obesity medicine. He is a past president of The Obesity Society, founder and former chair of the American Board of Obesity Medicine, and a lead investigator on the landmark STEP clinical trials that helped establish semaglutide as a treatment for obesity.📍What Dr. Robert Kushner & Mike Haney discussed:2:06 — Why obesity is more than willpower4:34 — The benefits and drawbacks of calling obesity a disease6:27 — Clinical vs. preclinical obesity17:36 — What obesity medicine misunderstood about weight regain18:44 — “Fight biology with biology”25:07 — Why weight maintenance is a different challenge than weight loss26:49 — The identity shift that helps people keep weight off27:52 — How GLP-1 drugs actually work31:09 — Why some people experience constant food noise34:09 — Why GLP-1s treat obesity but don’t cure it42:17 — The STEP and SELECT trials44:15 — Who should consider GLP-1 medications?45:44 — Why obesity treatment is more than an online prescription50:44 — What happens after you stop taking GLP-1s?🔗 Helpful Links:Watch the conversation: ⁠https://youtu.be/qdssFUAWVckDr. Robert Kushner: https://drrobertkushner.com/about/Northwestern Faculty Profile: https://www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/faculty-profiles/az/profile.html?xid=11686STEP Trial: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2032183SELECT Trial: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2307563👋 Who we are:Levels helps you understand your metabolic health with personalized data, expert guidance, and tools that connect your daily choices to measurable changes in your body. Our goal is to help you make better decisions about food, exercise, sleep, and long-term health.Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health.

Most athletes are told the same basic rule: the harder you train, the more carbs you need. But Dr. Andrew Koutnik argues the science is more complicated.In this episode, Mike Haney talks with Dr. Koutnik about how the body fuels exercise, why muscle glycogen may not explain “hitting the wall” as neatly as many people think, and why blood glucose, brain energy, insulin, and metabolic flexibility may matter more than conventional sports nutrition advice suggests.They discuss whether athletes really need 60, 90, or even 120 grams of carbs per hour, why some athletes may perform well on far less, and how to think about fueling as an individual experiment rather than a universal rule. Because apparently even “eat sugar while running” was too simple for human physiology to leave alone.Free course: Improve your metabolic healthGet our free email course on how glucose, nutrition, exercise, sleep, and measurement can help you build habits that support better energy and long-term health: ⁠⁠https://levels.link/wnl⁠🎙️ About the Guest: Dr. Andrew Koutnik is a Visiting Research Scientist at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, studying nutrition, metabolism, Type 1 diabetes, and human performance. He earned his PhD in medical sciences from the University of South Florida and has worked with groups including NASA and the Department of Defense.📍What Dr. Andrew Koutnik & Mike Haney discussed:00:42 Why carbs became central to sports nutrition05:30 How the body uses carbs, fat, ketones, and lactate for fuel13:45 Exercise, insulin sensitivity, and blood glucose21:20 Why muscle glycogen may not explain performance limits31:00 What “hitting the wall” may really mean39:15 The case for lower-carb fueling strategies48:30 Why more carbs don’t always mean better performance58:00 The problem with 90–120 grams of carbs per hour1:08:30 How athletes can test fueling for themselves1:17:00 What this means for everyday exercisers and marathoners🔗 Helpful Links:Watch the conversation: ⁠https://youtu.be/FfomxfyCchwStudy discussed: Carbohydrate Ingestion on Exercise Metabolism and Physical Performancehttps://academic.oup.com/edrv/article/47/2/191/8432248Related paper: Substrate Oxidation Does Not Influence Middle Distance Running Performancehttps://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/17/17/2771Find us on YouTube: https://youtube.com/levelshealth?sub_confirmation=1📲 Connect:Connect with Dr. Andrew Koutnik: https://andrewkoutnik.com/X: https://x.com/AKoutnikInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrewkoutnikphd/Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=2BzUjqkAAAAJ👋 Who we are:Levels helps you understand your metabolic health with personalized data, expert guidance, and tools that connect your daily choices to measurable changes in your body. Our goal is to help you make better decisions about food, exercise, sleep, and long-term health.

We can measure more about our health than ever before. Wearables track everything from heart rhythms to glucose trends, and AI can now identify patterns clinicians might miss. But more data does not automatically mean better health outcomes.In this episode, cardiologist and digital health expert Dr. Ami Bhatt joins Mike Haney to explore why medicine still struggles with prevention, how continuous health data can help patients take more agency, and where AI may actually improve care—not by replacing doctors, but by helping clinicians navigate the right information at the right time.They discuss the promise and pitfalls of wearables, the challenge of turning constant streams of health information into useful action, and why the future of medicine may depend on what Dr. Bhatt calls “collaborative intelligence”: humans and AI working together to make better decisions earlier.Free course: Improve your metabolic healthGet our free email course on how glucose, nutrition, exercise, sleep, and measurement can help you build habits that support better energy and long-term health: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://levels.link/wnl⁠About the guest: Dr. Ami Bhatt is the chief innovation officer (CIO) at the American College of Cardiology and the Chair of the FDA Digital Health Advisory Committee. She received her undergraduate degree at Harvard University and her Doctor of Medicine at Yale University School of Medicine, and was the Director of Outpatient Cardiology, TeleCardiology, and Adult Congenital Heart Disease at the Massachusetts General Hospital.Sign Up to Get Your Free Ultimate Guide to Glucose: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://levels.link/wnl⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠🎙 What Dr. Ami Bhatt & Mike Haney discuss:1:19 Why heart disease remains the leading killer despite medical advances10:17 The opportunity and risk of detecting disease earlier17:38 What wearables are actually useful for today30:16 When health tracking creates more anxiety than insight37:12 Why AI should guide doctors, not replace them44:27 Dr. Bhatt on “collaborative intelligence” in medicine1:18:30 Why the future is human judgment plus AI, not AI aloneLevels helps you see how food affects your health, empowering you with the tools needed to achieve health goals and improve healthspan. Levels Members gain access to the Levels app and continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), providing real-time feedback on how diet and lifestyle choices impact your metabolic health.Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health.🔗 Helpful linksWatch the conversation: https://youtu.be/d0LJvL1uB4kFind us on YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://youtube.com/levelshealth?sub_confirmation=1⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠📲 ConnectConnect with Dr. Ami Bhatt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dramibhatt/

Metabolic health is often simplified to a matter of blood sugar, but at its root, it is a complex system of energy substrate signaling. While many view chronic disease as an inevitable part of aging, a systems-thinking approach reveals that maintaining high "flux"—the capacity to efficiently move and clear energy through the body—is the primary lever for longevity. Without the stimulus of regular movement, even the most optimized diet can fail to prevent the accumulation of metabolic waste that leads to insulin resistance and heart disease.In this episode, we sit down with Greg Mushen, a technologist who turned his engineering mind toward his own biology after conventional medicine failed to address his chronic health issues. Mushen breaks down his "Theory of Flux" and why he believes the key to disease resistance lies in meeting our body's "clearance burden". From studying the activity levels of hunter-gatherer populations to debunking myths about walking and V2 max, Mushen provides a data-driven framework for optimizing health through the lens of evolutionary biology and systems engineering.Sign Up to Get Your Free Ultimate Guide to Glucose: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://levels.link/wnl⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠In this episode, we cover:The Theory of Flux: Understanding health as the dynamic capacity to move nutrients and fuel through the system rather than a static set of markers.Insulin Resistance Reimagined: Why blood sugar is a symptom, not the root cause, and how fat accumulation in the liver and muscle disrupts signaling.The Power of PAL: Why a Physical Activity Level (PAL) of 2.0 is the "golden ratio" observed in disease-free subsistence populations.Walking vs. HIT: De-bunking the idea that you need high intensity to improve V2 max and why the "area under the curve" for oxygen consumption is what matters.The Saturated Fat Paradox: Comparing the Messiah and Chimané populations to understand how high activity levels can mitigate the risks of high-fat diets.Fiber as a Sensor: Why fiber is more than just "throughput" and acts as a critical environmental sensor for metabolic signaling.The "Walking Grifter" Philosophy: Why walking is the most under-leveraged tool for increasing metabolic flux with the lowest recovery cost.🎙 What Greg Mushen & Josh Clemente discuss:[00:53] — Greg’s transition from tech engineering to "debugging" his own biology.[06:55] — The mold exposure and chronic fatigue that sparked a deep dive into primary literature.[11:36] — How correcting a copper deficiency became a "point of light" for understanding micronutrients.[20:53] — Lessons from the Messiah: High saturated fat intake paired with extreme physical activity.[25:26] — Defining Flux: The capacity to clear substrate and prevent metabolic accumulation.[30:26] — The PAL 2.0 threshold: Why doubling your basal metabolic rate is the key to warding off chronic disease.[51:10] — Lipid Kinetics: Using the "sink and drain" analogy to understand LDL residence time.[01:00:19] — The Integral of Oxygen: Why walking 15,000 steps can be as effective for V2 max as short bursts of HIT.[01:17:16] — Why Greg changed his mind on plant-based vs. animal protein.[01:28:24] — Greg's personal stack: From 15k steps and resistance training to PD5 inhibitors and custom fiber blends.Levels helps you see how food affects your health, empowering you with the tools needed to achieve health goals and improve healthspan. Levels Members gain access to the Levels app and continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), providing real-time feedback on how diet and lifestyle choices impact your metabolic health.Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health.🔗 Helpful linksWatch the conversation: https://youtu.be/A1KSG2qyVww⁠Find us on YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://youtube.com/levelshealth?sub_confirmation=1⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠📲 ConnectConnect with Greg Mushen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregmushen

Protein is often hailed as the ultimate nutrient for health and longevity, but the science suggests it is only half of the equation. While social media influencers debate the minutiae of protein grams, researchers have found that the vast majority of protein's benefits are "baked in" only when combined with physical activity. Without the stimulus of exercise, even the most optimized protein intake fails to move the needle on muscle growth or chronic disease prevention.In this episode of A Whole New Level, Mike Haney sits down with Dr. Stuart Phillips, a researcher who has spent over 25 years at McMaster University studying the intersection of protein, exercise, and human health. Dr. Phillips breaks down why the current RDA for protein is likely too low for optimal health and why the methodology used to set those standards is decades out of date.Dr. Phillips explains the "brick wall" analogy of muscle turnover—where synthesis and breakdown are in a constant tug-of-war—and how lifting weights acts as the primary driver for "the bricklayers". From the impact of anabolic resistance in aging to the truth about protein timing and kidney health, he provides a grounded, data-driven perspective on how to maintain a functional reserve of muscle as we age.Sign Up to Get Your Free Ultimate Guide to Glucose: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://levels.link/wnl⁠⁠⁠⁠In this episode, we coverThe RDA Debate: Why the standard 0.8 g/kg recommendation is a "preventing deficiency" baseline rather than an "optimized health" target.The Power of Exercise: Why 80% to 90% of protein's benefits are dependent on physical activity.Muscle as a Storage Depot: Understanding muscle as a functional reserve that dictates disease resistance and survival.Anabolic Resistance: How inactivity and aging make our cells less efficient at using amino acids.The Myth of Timing: Why the "anabolic window" is more like a "garage door" that stays open much longer than once thought.Protein Quality & Source: Comparing animal vs. plant proteins and why the "food matrix" matters more than isolated powders.Kidney Health: De-bunking the 60-year-old hypothesis that high protein intake causes kidney damage in healthy individuals.🎙 What Dr. Stuart Phillips & Mike Haney discuss:[00:00] — Why exercise is the "big driver" of protein's health benefits.[09:00] — Transitioning from the RDA (0.8 g/kg) to an optimized range of 1.2 to 1.6 g/kg.[30:31] — The limitations of "nitrogen balance" as a methodology for protein needs.[44:45] — Muscle as a structural substrate vs. carbs and fats as fuel.[01:10:05] — Anabolic resistance: Why we lose building efficiency as we age.[01:18:15] — The "Compound Interest" of muscle: Why starting early prevents a late-life mobility spiral.[01:28:10] — Hormones and muscle: The differing impacts of testosterone and estrogen during aging.[01:39:15] — Addressing the concerns regarding high protein intake and kidney function.[01:52:10] — Whole foods vs. supplements: Why the "bricklayers" care about amino acids, but the body cares about nutrients.[01:60:12] — Debunking the immediate post-workout protein shake myth.Levels helps you see how food affects your health, empowering you with the tools needed to achieve health goals and improve healthspan. Levels Members gain access to the Levels app and continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), providing real-time feedback on how diet and lifestyle choices impact your metabolic health.Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health.🔗 Helpful linksWatch the conversation: https://youtu.be/twVUPk-B-vg⁠Find us on YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://youtube.com/levelshealth?sub_confirmation=1⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠📲 ConnectConnect with Dr. Stuart Phillips on LinkedIn & X: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuartmphillips/https://x.com/mackinprof