Episode 303: Ashley Koff: Personalized Nutrition Expert on Diet, Nutrition, and Supplements

Hi, guys, it's Tony Robbins.

You're listening to Habits and Hustle, Gresham.

This will be a very information-loaded, informative podcast because we have a friend of mine who is probably one of the most knowledgeable dieticians in the country.

And I'm not just saying this because I think she is, it's because she's been recognized and renowned to be.

The girl is brilliant.

And whenever I have questions about anything, diet, nutrition, technically overall health, I come to her.

Her name is Ashley Koff.

Thank you, Ashley, for being here.

Thanks so much for having me.

This is so fun.

I love the IRL.

No, this is amazing.

Ashley and I first met on a TV show that we did called Shedding for the Wedding.

I was the fitness trainer.

She was the diet person.

And we met.

How many years ago is that?

So before kids for you, I feel like 20 plus, like 20?

No, 15?

No, no, no.

My kids aren't 20.

No, no, I was thinking how long ago.

No, no, no.

I think I, I think I,

a year or two before I had kids, probably 15 years ago.

15 years ago, we did a show on the CW called Shedding for the Wedding, and it was hilarious.

And we became fast friends then.

And I mean, like I said, the vast amount of information that this girl knows and can spew out at a, like, at any note at a given time, it's amazing.

She actually recently, you put me on to Green Fat, I did, which I love.

It's amazing.

And ever since then, we were kind of now.

I'm like, I'm a huge, of course, wellness supplement person.

And Ashley is always like, no, that's not good for you because of this.

This is really good for you because of that.

And it's made a huge difference.

So thank you so much.

Yeah, no, I love it.

And I do want to say two things.

One is information, as we're going to talk about, may not be actually better.

So the quality of information is really important.

Yes.

And the second one is, I loved turning you on to green fat because it was such a great solution for you.

And as we'll also talk about, you know, just taking more supplements isn't the answer.

Totally.

That was my problem.

Yeah.

So like that was a thing.

Like, I don't understand.

Like, I like every time I, I kept on like over supplementing myself.

And I think a lot, let's talk about this because I think a lot of people just take supplements because they think they know it's, they know it's a good supplement.

So then they start taking it.

And it may not be the right thing for them, right?

It's not an individual.

It's like people just, you need to be much more individualized and personalized.

And we'll talk about that.

But like I was taking like everything, omega-3s, vitamin D.

I was taking NAC.

Do you know what NAC is?

Absolutely.

I barely know what that is.

I mean, I don't even know.

I was taking like glutamine.

I was, I'm, and like every morning, I'm taking like 40 supplements.

And I'm like, do I even need all these supplements?

So can you tell, okay, because we just mentioned green fat, just talk about why did you think it was good for me?

Because it has been really good for my, for, for me.

So just you're the so I think one of the key things is that, so the omega-3 was a great, like directionally, you were going in the right place.

You're like, you know, I've heard of omega-3s.

I want to make sure I'm turning off inflammation or trying not to, you know, not have inflammation start.

And I'm saying to myself, all right, this is a good fat for me.

But there's actually no food in nature that is an omega-3.

So nature gives us the information, especially when it comes to plants, which is what animals eat to produce the fats in our body, et cetera.

When we look at that, there's a variety of different fats.

So there's omega-3, there's omega-6, there's omega-7, there's omega-9.

And when I I looked at your diet and when we compared that to your goals, especially from an aging standpoint and all the exercise that you get in and what you care about, cognitive function, family history, everything, I was like, Jen, we got to make sure you're getting in all these fats.

And so this concept of a multi-fat, something that like our multivitamin or our multi-mineral could give us all those essential fatty acids, essential.

We have to get them in daily at one time.

It was like a no-brainer for you.

I wasn't going to give you 30 new things to take.

No, of course.

So then what is the difference between taking an omega-3

and like a multi-fat vitamin, like a multi-fat vitamin?

Yeah, exactly.

And it's not a vitamin, so it's a fat, right?

Yeah.

So there's a couple of things to consider.

The first thing is, is that in this instance, when we look at an omega-3, green fat actually has omega-3s.

It has omega-3s from plants and it has a variety of omega-3s because without making people infobee, which we'll talk about in a moment, too much information,

there are many different omega-3s.

So we actually want to get in all of those.

So when we get in those, what we wanted to do is make sure that you're also getting in omega-6, omega-7, omega-9.

So think of things like hemp seeds, wild salmon.

Think about sea buckthorn oil, which is great for your skin.

You're probably not consuming that from food.

Chia seeds, olives, avocado.

We need to get in all of those.

With my patients, I often do an essential fatty acid profile and I can see where there are deficits and that helps me to go ahead and optimize.

But in your case, we'd gone through your food, we'd looked at your genetics, and we also turned around and said, hey, what's your goals?

And you were doing great on the omega-3 part, but you weren't getting in the other part.

Yeah, I was sufficient in

other places.

Or maybe insufficient.

You might not have been deficient because you do try to target things from a food standpoint, but we needed to make sure that you were getting optimal levels.

So this becomes foundational on a daily basis for you.

Okay, so why is fat so important for your overall functioning?

Great.

So all of these different fats play roles in the body in terms of communication.

So they're helping to make sure that the body does things like turn off inflammation or resolve inflammation that's occurring, right?

Helping for hormonal balance.

One of the fats I was talking about, omega-6s, are really a type of omega-6 called GLA.

I call it the glamour fatty acid.

Our hair, our skin, our nails, dryness in certain parts of our bodies, especially as we age, all of these things, that's what that fatty acid is helping with, right?

When we look at GLA.

GLA, so I call it the glamour fatty acid, right?

So that's an omega-6.

That's also why it blows my mind when people just say seed oils will kill you.

No, seed oils aren't going to kill you.

In fact, some of the seed oils are really important for your hair, skin, nails, and hormones.

Bad seed oils?

Yeah, they're really bad on that part.

So we really have to learn to be able to differentiate.

Look, for me, I want things to be easier and more efficient for individuals.

And that's why when I saw green fat, I was like, absolutely, I'm totally on board.

And I helped them sort of refine the formulation so that we could actually have something that's great for men, great for women, based on slight nuances in what they need.

Well, it's amazing because also if you work out a lot, I feel like I always have so much inflammation and joint issues.

So that's interesting.

So where else can you get like an omega-6?

Because everyone knows about omega-3s.

Right.

Omega-6, omega-7.

Is there food places you can get?

All of them.

So I was just listening.

I mean, pretty much any food that has fat has a variety of these.

And so what ends up happening is we're like, oh, walnuts, they're great for your omega-3s.

Yes, but they also have other fatty acids.

Avocado, Avocado, it has other fatty acids.

Olive oil, it has other fatty acids.

So the foods are not just the omega-9 and olive oil.

It's also got omega-3.

It's also got omega-6s.

It just has smaller amounts.

So when we see diverse diets, whether it's in blue zones or whether, you know, the Mediterranean diet, they're actually having people take in a variety of different fats.

And the idea is we want to do that on a daily basis.

And just look, when it comes to life, I've been a part of your life, traveling, feeding your kids, running from one thing to the next, like exercising, not wanting to overload your system.

If you're on, you know, gonna be, we never want to overload our system, but especially if you're gonna be on camera, et cetera.

It was going to be difficult to turn around and say, okay, Jen, here's what I want you to do.

I'd like you to have three tablespoons of hemp seeds here.

I'd like you to have a four-ounce portion of salmon here.

I'd like you to, yes, I'd love all of those things for you.

But if I can also give the option on a daily basis of giving you a foundational multi-fat, I can check that box and then everything else you do with your nutrition is going to be optimization.

I mean, also the truth of the matter is fat doesn't really make you fat.

Sugar makes you fat right?

Yeah.

Well excess makes you fat.

Excess makes you fat.

And poor digestion makes you fat.

So one of the other things we can take this direction because I know you've talked with Colleen before.

So one of the other things that can overwhelm the system, your body actually has hormones like your incretin hormones.

They're called GLP-1 or GIP.

And these hormones are responsible for turning on the insulin response when exposed to carbohydrate or fats, turning on and off your appetite.

So that's leptin and ghrelin.

And those are made in your digestive system.

So when your digestive system isn't better, when your digestive system has been irritated based on antibiotics or medications or stress or eating things that you're allergic or intolerant to, all of these different things, when that's happened, then those hormones aren't working efficiently.

And so one of the things that we know is actually that a multifatting coming in, getting in omega-3s, but coming in and getting these fats in addition to getting in things like your acromancia probiotic and clostridiums and bifido and prebiotics and all these other things that are great for your digestion, they all work together to optimize those hormonal responses.

So when you talk about what makes us fat, especially I feel like it's important to mention just in this era of

the popularity of the GLP-1 agonist medications, you know, Ozemps.

This is Ozempic, yeah.

Right, you know, majuro, et cetera.

So with those.

Which one's more effective, the Ozempic?

It depends on the person, right?

So Ozempic was really designed for diabetes.

But what we also are identifying is that the the receptor sites for these GLP-1, so this is your natural hormone, we're not talking about the medication, your body naturally produces GLP-1.

There are receptor sites all throughout your body, in your liver, in your brain, in your heart, in your pancreas.

So we've looked at, we knew about the pancreas part, that's how we knew about it, would that it would be effective for diabetes, but we're starting to see this be effective for cholesterol, for cognitive function.

And so I'm on a mission to make sure we optimize that naturally.

If you take a medication, great.

And if that's what you and your practitioner are doing, but all of us should be focusing on optimizing those hormones naturally.

So what happens now that we're talking about Ozempic

and the GLP one?

I'm very, I'm super curious about it because everybody I feel like is on it except except me.

And I'm like, well, maybe I'm missing out.

Like maybe, but is there a problem if you take something like that, does it stop your body from naturally producing it?

Great question.

So if we're naturally producing it on our own, because I know that happens with like sometimes they say testosterone if you right.

so there's a yes and a no but let's let's try to simplify this so if we want to compare the natural hormone GLP1 to ozempic I like to say it's like decaf coffee versus a red eye so a red eye is I think four shots of a so okay so what happens is our body naturally should be producing GLP1 we'll call it the decaf coffee for right now and a lot of people are like I don't want the decaf like I need a little caffeine you know etc and then on the other side you have something that is coming in and it's giving you're getting in a lot more of it and it's sticking around for a longer time.

I'm gonna be much more caffeinated when I have four shots of espresso on that part.

So that's how those medications are working.

They're coming in and they're giving you a bunch of it and it's sticking around for a longer time because in our body, it tends to go away after a couple of minutes.

When you take the medication, it sticks around for like 30 minutes.

So there are advantages to that.

If it sticks around longer, it's going to last for longer.

That's why.

people don't their appetite is not you know they don't have appetite for a while or they are noticing better blood sugar responses.

I don't, so in when you ask the question, does it stop your body from producing it?

Probably not.

I'm gonna say probably because I don't think we understand everything.

However, if you are taking a medication, and if you feel you need that medication, you have just told me that very likely you've only got the decaf version of

the natural production.

Why not turn it into one cup of coffee or one cup of espresso?

So when we naturally optimize our GLP-1 hormone production, which requires optimal digestive function, when we do that, it's like having one shot of espresso or one cup of coffee.

And for most people, we need that.

And we're trying to operate right now with the decaf version.

So it's not about is our body not producing it or not producing enough, you know, or do we stop the production?

It's really about saying, hey, we could be optimizing like you personally, and we did this.

I was like, hey, I want you to take the acromancia and let's do this.

We can personally be optimizing your production.

Acromancia, by the way, just so people know, is another supplement that Ashley recommended by Pendulum, and it was for my gut health.

Yeah, for gut health and for this.

For your gut health to optimize your blood sugar response.

Because looking at you, when you say somebody says, like, oh, should you be on Ozempic?

You're like, absolutely not.

But if we looked at your fasting, insulin, if we looked at, you know, your goals for the future of not developing Alzheimer's or cognitive decline, we want to make sure that those things are optimal and that's where that intervention is.

So it's not just about weight, it's definitely about metabolic health.

Wow, so metabolically, okay, so then are you pro people taking it for weight loss then?

The medication?

Yeah, Ozempic.

Are you pro people taking Ozempic for weight loss?

Not for diabetes, because people are mass using it.

There's not enough even on the shelves because people are using it for weight loss.

They're not using it necessarily for diabetes.

So when years ago, when I was working with individuals had weight loss surgery, we identified that the way that weight loss surgery works, it stimulates the production of GLP-1.

So we have known this.

So now that there's a medication version, you don't have to get the surgery, right, in most instances.

So this could be an effective tool.

But the problem is, and it's the same spiel I've been giving since day one, is there are a lot of ways that you can lose weight.

If you don't gain health, you don't really get what you want.

And I am seeing people who are losing weight, but they're actually even losing health while they're on that medication, or they're not optimizing health.

So, for me, and what I focus on are programs and optimization.

If you're on the medication, I want to optimize, and if you're choosing to not go on the medication, or if you're not a good candidate.

But when we're looking at losing weight, we need to make sure, and I'll turn to you, you're the expert here on this part.

We have got to make sure that you're optimizing your body composition.

I don't want you to just try to lose fat mass.

Most people, excuse me, I want you to lose fat mass.

Most people are losing lean body mass.

Yes, that's what, what so that's the that's what i've been under under the i've seen is that when people are taking ozempic they're losing lean muscle mass and they are just ending up with more fat on their body which then slows down their metabolism and you get that like ozempic phase because it's taken out even the fat in your face you get you get really gaunt but the other thing i've heard is that the second you're off of it you become so hungry and you end up like eating all those calories that maybe you didn't eat because your appetite was suppressed.

So let me take what is on social media and let's talk about the reality.

It doesn't happen the second after, but over the course of the next year, you will likely regain a good percentage, if not all of your weight.

And one of the absolute worst things for a physical body is to have significant swings in weight loss and weight gain.

Right, because that's how you also gain more weight over time.

And for a lot of people I know in the fitness business who were on it or tried it or whatever, they lost a lot of their strength.

Like they were much like weaker technically, not

because they did lose muscle mass, but also because it made them actually tired.

They weren't able to work out.

They weren't even able to actually lift the amount of weight or do the strength training.

Why is that?

Like, why are we not in the...

So a couple of things.

If we suppress appetite, like we do with anything, if we just turn off your appetite.

So you're saying just because we're eating less.

So number one, you're eating less.

Number two, if you had nutrient insufficiencies or deficiencies and now you're eating less, those are more likely.

So one of the things is I do a test for everyone who's going on it to see where your levels are of things because I want to know what we're dealing with when we're starting.

And then I regularly test while you're on the medication because I want to see what your behaviors and your choices are doing on that part.

Look, data, information about who you are.

Forget about knowledge about nutrition.

If I just have information on who you are and what your body needs today, I can design a plan to start to, and I can give you choices.

Hey, Jen, do you you want to eat all of this or do you want to try this in a supplement form or do we want to do some combo of it?

Right.

So we need to do that.

So it's more personalized.

It has to be.

And today I actually have to call it truly personalized because of the billion-dollar industry that, or billion-plus that is personalized nutrition and medicine.

I was just going to ask you that.

Everything is, I feel like everybody and their dog now is doing personalized everything, medicine, personalized nutrition.

People are all now, it's now a trend to be supplementing for you by taking these blood tests, taking these poop tests, taking whatever test you want.

And they'll say, okay, you're deficient in this, this, this, and this, and then I'll supplement you for it.

So isn't that technically what personalized nutrition is?

So yes and no, but here's a really big problem.

So that's partially personalized.

Oh.

And that is what's being sold out there.

And you're so, I'm so glad that you brought it up because it's my biggest, like, I literally, I can't believe, when we talk about info obesity, I'll chat about this, but I can't believe that I have to put an adjective or an adverb, whatever it is, in front of the word personalized.

You know, I've been doing personalized nutrition for 25 years.

It is a lot of work.

It is a ton of questions that I have to ask.

I don't just need to ask, what are you eating?

I need to ask why.

Because if I don't know the why behind what you're having or your choices, I may give you a recommendation that's not going to suit you.

So if I go online and first of all, I'll answer a quiz.

Am I a vegetarian?

Am I a woman?

Am I 30 plus?

Then they're going to spew out a recommendation for a supplement.

They have no idea what I'm consuming in the day, and they also have not seen my blood work and don't know if my levels are too high of something or too low of something.

If we go one step further and they look at my blood levels, and then they only give me a supplement, or they look at my genes and they only give me a supplement, they have no idea what my choices are.

So, the supplement may like you, you don't know the why.

A great example to be very practical is: if I look on your lab test and you are low in iron, there are 12 different reasons that I can come to that come into my mind of why you might be low in iron.

And if I just have you take an iron supplement in about 10 of those, I have missed that you actually have a health issue that I need to address, right?

And so all I'm doing is giving you that iron based off of one lab test that tells me this is a low level.

I need to know why.

So true personalization looks at what you're consuming, what you're not consuming, what those levels are.

And maybe if we have the option, which, you know, there's an added cost to, also looks at your genetics just because that can help us understand how your body processes certain things.

But don't a lot of these tests do take blood tests?

A lot of them are doing them.

Yeah, and then they're selling you something.

Yes, then they're selling you something.

So that's my point.

So if they're taking a look at your blood, so one of the ones

that is at least better on that part is something called function health.

And that's new.

And it's looking at, I mean, it takes vials and vials of your blood, and it looks at a lot of different lab tests.

But when you look at a CBC, when you look at a basic blood panel that you go to the doctor and insurance will cover, you have your iron there.

You have a marker and it'll say, oh, is your iron high or low, right?

But when I look at your iron, I look at five things because it's going to tell me what's going on on that part.

It's about like the depth of what they're looking for.

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So anyone could take a blood test and find out like the surface level.

That's right.

Let me give you another another analogy.

If you wear, have you worn a CGM, a continuous glucose monitor?

I was going to ask you about that.

Yeah.

Have you worn one?

Yeah.

It lasted on me for like not even a half an hour.

Because I went to work out and my sweat like fell off.

Yes.

Okay.

And they're so, it's uncomfortable.

That's right.

So what I will say is anytime you're going to give somebody a tool, one of the reasons that we use coaches is that when you're giving somebody a tool, give them the support.

to help them personalize it.

So for you, I probably wouldn't have put it on your arm.

Some people have hairy arms.

You can put it on your belly, like on your belly,

or you can put, no, no, I was changing that conversation, but like the back of their leg.

Like, there are different places we can do.

Anyway, so a continuous glucose monitor is going to give me very good information.

It gives me trend information.

I want to be clear: it does not tell me what your blood sugar is in the moment because it's measuring in the interstitial fluid.

It's actually not pricking your blood and seeing what the sugar is there, but it's giving us good information.

Okay.

So, when I can see, do I have peaks and valleys?

Do I have rolling hills?

That's going to be really helpful for me.

There There are 40 plus factors that impact your blood sugar.

10 of them are nutrition.

Just 10.

So if you wear a continuous glucose monitor and we see that your blood sugar is elevated and somebody says to you, hey, that meal that you just ate is problematic for your blood sugar.

You should stop having that.

This happens all the time.

And it's usually stop having oatmeal or don't have the banana.

You should have cauliflower instead and you should probably only have hemp seeds, you know, or something.

It's like get rid of all the carbs and let's try to get lower and lower.

Jen, you do something every single day, especially on Mondays, that blows your blood sugar through the roof.

Do you know what that is?

Working out?

Yeah, intensely.

I've seen you in there, right?

Like intense workout is intense on the body.

Stress on the body bumps our blood sugar up.

I want your blood sugar to go up.

But if you think it's related to your meal, do you know what I'm seeing people do?

They're not eating before their workouts because they think that that's what's driving their blood sugar up.

I'm like, no, your blood sugar should be up.

Now, when you finish your workout, you would see if you were wearing a continuous glucose monitor, if I do a cool down instead of just stopping and eat something right away, that cool down is going to lower my blood sugar.

So maybe I need to do that.

If I do some breathing, you know, that might help me.

On a day that I'm really stressed out, that could help me.

For women, as we go through our cycle over the course of 28 days, our insulin sensitivity changes.

So I may have like five days where my blood sugar with a continuous glucose monitor is just going to be higher.

It's ridiculous information to tell me to eat totally differently at that time period.

I want to exercise.

I want to sleep.

I may want to make some adjustments to what I'm eating, but we just don't want to only use a CGM, a continuous glucose monitor to dictate what it is we're eating.

Let me ask you something about that because it's like right now that is like the craze.

Anything with like how to kind of, how do you manage your glucose and wearing the glucose monitor?

There's all these trends and fads, and it's that's eat your protein first, have apple cider vinegar, like all these things.

All these things, right?

What does work?

Like, what are some easy, basic things you can do to manage our glucose levels or

kind of keep us from not spiking?

Well, in just not

yeah, the most easy one,

easy.

I'm going to tell you the best one.

All right, so I'm going to start with the best one, and that is optimize your digestion.

If your digestion is not working better, first of all, you can't have any positive health results.

Like, I'm sorry if you're bloated, you're constipated, things are going the wrong way, like any of this stuff, stuff's not going to work out.

Because that hormone that I was talking about is in the lining of the mucosal layer of your digestive tract.

So, we've got to optimize that and we have to have good functioning digestion so nutrients get where they're supposed to go.

So, that's not necessarily easy, but it is one we can assess and work on.

And that's the most important one, and that's the often overlooked.

The second thing that we can do is we can balance our nutrients.

So, we can turn around and we can say, hey, at this meal, you and I have talked about this, you love fruit.

If I'm having, like, amazing, like great to have fruit, but maybe have some coconut with it, right?

Or maybe have your green fat or, you know, whatever, like some have balance, get some fats, get a little bit of protein in there.

And then the third thing is really interesting.

The third thing is you've got to be optimally hydrated.

And I'm going to tell you that too many people today are trying to drink half their body weight in water and they're running in and out of the bathroom all the time, peeing it all out.

And they're thinking like, I'm totally hydrated.

And when I have them do my hydration experiment, they fail it time and time again.

Okay, so I want to know.

Yeah, I want to know.

This is one of my first questions was I wanted to ask you: is how do you know if you're hydrated or not?

Right.

Is it not by just the amount of water?

Because I thought if you're just drinking a lot of water, you'd be hydrated.

Yeah.

Boy, have we screwed up the American population.

Like, remember, it used to be eight, eight ounces of glasses, like you needed to get that in.

And then it was half your body weight.

So I have people who, like athletes who are 300 pounds, trying to drink 150 ounces of water in a day.

Just think about that.

Like Like your poor bladder.

And then also people are chugging it all at one time.

So this great physician, Dr.

Anoop Kanodia, came up with this easy protocol.

So it's not mine, but it is so effective.

And he asked the question, are you a sponge or are you a hose?

I'm the daughter of a urologist.

I thought being a hose was a fantastic thing.

Like you want things to come in you, you want them to go out, et cetera.

No, we need to be a sponge.

We need to absorb because the water that we're taking in is actually an escort service for a lot of important nutrients from plants, like all those plant compounds, antioxidants we hear about it, vitamin C, all these B vitamins for energy.

The way they get into the cell is by way of water.

And in order for water to get into the cell, you have to have a better balance of minerals.

So, what we've found is that over time, historically, we used to have more minerals in our water.

And pretty smartly these days, we're filtering everything out of our water because we're worried about what's in our water, like the dirty stuff.

But in losing a lot of the micronutrients, those trace minerals and minerals in water, we're actually not absorbing our water.

So, if you drink eight ounces of water, if you take eight ounces, now you can't have had caffeine for about an hour, but if you drink eight ounces of water, not more than that, I want to know how long you can go before you have to go to the bathroom, before you have to urinate.

And when you do that test, I was just talking to Noah about this.

When you do that test, that is going to tell me: are you absorbing your water?

And are you also absorbing the supplements that you're or the food that you're working so hard to get in those nutrients?

Okay, so I pee every 10 minutes.

Yeah, I told you.

And we're running to the bathroom all the time.

Yeah.

So does that mean I'm dehydrated?

So it means you're not absorbing well.

So yeah, so your hydration status there means that like you're just throwing more water in and it's going, it's doing a great thing.

It's just clearing out of you.

So it's great.

And we've heard all these things, the color of your urine or like, you know, all of these other stuff.

Like maybe it's going to give us some indication, but it's not going to actually tell us if we are absorbing.

So this was fascinating.

We did a research study over 90 days to optimize people's blood sugar.

And we looked at starting off and we saw changes in A1C of a couple of points in people, especially when they were elevated.

We saw weight loss, especially belly fat and perimenopausal and menopausal women who haven't been able to lose weight, et cetera.

And we did this by optimizing digestion using a continuous glucose monitor to personalize nutrition.

But you know what?

So many of them, almost all of them, I'm trying to think if any of them didn't, we optimized their hydration.

And the benefit of optimizing hydration, it's like tuning up your digestive system.

You're now absorbing the nutrients that you're taking in, and you're getting rid of what your body doesn't have to use.

It's just efficiency.

It's fabulous.

It's fascinating on that part.

Wow.

So then it doesn't matter.

Like, I thought, like, your pea is white or very, very pale yellow.

You're hydrated.

I mean, there are things that we can look at.

So if your pea is really dark, I'm going to, like, there are things I want to

investigate.

If your pea is really bright, you probably have just taken a bunch of vitamins and maybe you're excreting, you know, that some that turn the color on that part.

But you're not safe to say my pee is white or is clear.

I think we should say I'm hydrated on that part.

Clear.

Yeah, exactly.

No.

And this is another one.

So people always debate me.

One of our good friends debates me on this part.

He's like, well, coffee and tea, they have water in them.

They can count towards your water intake.

And I'm not going to out them here, but on that part, exactly.

And we were just giving presentations together.

And he's like, oh, you know, if you, yes, they can count.

No, they can't because they are, when you have caffeine, caffeine is going to stimulate urination.

you are going to pee it out so if i've just had coffee i'm going to pee it out right so in that part you don't want to use that to write to as a marker of your absorption on that part boy is this a lot of information

i'm telling you sorry it's very hard i i try to get like four sentences out four sentences out from you like just so it's like soundbitable

god knows you need to you need literally like a pen and paper when i talk to you all right i'm going to give you the sound bites okay no i got it okay all right actually no say it now tips to know if we are hydrated or not.

Give me four.

Easy.

I'm not even going to give you four.

I'm going to give you one.

Drink eight ounces of water and see how long it takes you before you have to urinate.

Can't have had caffeine within an hour.

Okay.

And if we urinate within that hour, we're dehydrated.

If it's under two hours.

Under two hours.

Under two hours.

Now, you can't have coffee and other things after you have it.

You got to wait those two hours.

You don't have any other water or anything else during that time period.

And see until, you know, you don't have anything until you urinate.

Okay.

Is it a myth that we should all be taking vitamin D?

Because I feel like vitamin D is like the new kale.

Like everybody and their dog is cauliflower.

Yeah, totally.

Yeah.

Cauliflower.

Or yeah, either one.

So I think it is important.

It's one of the nutrients that I don't know how we could get even close to the amount that we need because it functions as a hormone in our body and because it's related to almost everything metabolic and from an immune standpoint.

So the question mark to me, you're going to love this, is you need to know what your vitamin D levels are.

Insurance usually only reimburses one.

That's why we use, we have a $12 lab that we can just test your labs because we need to go out of pocket on that.

And we have to keep increasing your amount.

So what I don't want you to do is just take vitamin D and think you're okay.

Yeah.

If you come to me and your vitamin D is a 35 and I want it to be, let's say, a 50, I'm just, you know, on that part for you.

And I put you on 5,000 IU of vitamin D, hopefully with K2, because that helps in the absorption.

If I put you on that and you just walk out the door and a year later, you come back in and your vitamin D is 36, I haven't done anything beneficial on that part.

So one of the other things is never take a supplement.

This is a good one.

Never take a supplement without a plan in place to evaluate its effectiveness.

Usually I like to evaluate its effectiveness over 90 days.

Sometimes I'll evaluate it in a shorter term.

Sometimes I'll evaluate it in a longer term.

But anyone that is selling you or prescribing a supplement to you, or if you're just choosing to take it, you better be able to tell me what has that supplement done for you because you're paying paying money for it and it's not food.

No, and so you start taking them for, I mean, I take my supplements for years on end and I don't know how much.

Not okay.

And people always say, well, do you like it?

Does it work?

And then I'm always saying, I don't know.

How do you know?

Right.

I don't know.

How do you know?

And this is the tie-in that I want to tell you.

Look, we are diseased with too much information.

We are out there.

You're learning, you're learning, you're gathering information.

I call this info-obesity.

We have too much information and it is actually challenging our health.

All that great health information, listening to me right now, these conversations, you're thinking like, oh, I'm getting, like, I'm getting a PhD in nutrition.

Totally.

But a PhD actually doesn't help you get healthier.

It doesn't.

It helps you maybe pass a test.

It helps you maybe get a job.

It helps you any of that stuff, but it doesn't help you personally get healthier.

And what I've seen day in and day out is that people's info load, the amount of information that they are taking in is literally making them unhealthy because they know all of this stuff, but they're not actually doing what's better for their body today.

So, what I do and what I recommend anybody does is reduce the amount of information that we're taking in and have it be real targeted.

I like to hit my bullseye information, and that bullseye information is information that can prove that you know about me and what my body needs.

And that's where I make my decisions from.

So, if anyone, if like it's great to know about vitamin D, but don't go start taking vitamin D.

Like, I love true niogen.

I love, you know, being able to take green fat.

Like, I've got all these benefits from pendulum, et cetera.

But don't just start taking something without something in place that is going to tell you that it's working for you.

Otherwise, you're just putting information and stuff into the body, and you have no idea if your body is totally overwhelmed.

And more often than not, I find that people are literally, I was telling somebody the other day, and there's actually research studies about this: too much information is keeping people from actually being able to distinguish between good information, helpful information, and the irrelevant information.

I had, this was years ago, but I had hundreds of women reaching out to me about stopping their omega-3 supplement.

Do you know why?

Why?

A study was in the news, and I was in the news with it, about fish oil being bad for your prostate.

Even though they were women.

Thank you for picking up on that.

So they're all like, I mean, my, I was like blowing up.

It was my emails.

It was even before my text was out there.

I remember

that.

Yes.

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Okay, I have a question.

How are you different?

This is more of a personal question because you're so knowledgeable.

And this is not an ad, you guys.

This is literally because it's like, how are you different than like you're not a functional medicine doctor, but you give a lot of information.

Like I've spoken to a ton of functional medicine medicine doctors, a ton of doctors.

I talked to gut specialists, whatever.

How do you have, like, how do you, what's the difference between you and them?

Are you basically similar?

Better branding.

No, I'm just kidding.

Okay, so I actually was just having this conversation because I was at a conference and we, you know, develop programs for functional medicine doctors and like all, and I was like, well, I actually grew up in the integrative medicine world.

So that was like Andy Weil and Sarona Lodos and Victoria Mazes.

And so that's integrative medicine.

But then there's also lifestyle medicine.

And there are all of these proponents of life.

Look, across the board, we are just confusing everyone.

We should obesity.

Yeah, we should call this root cause medicine.

So essentially, think of a tree and get into the roots.

At the end of the day, we need to dive into the roots and not try to solve a problem with the fruit.

Ooh, did that almost rhyme?

But you know, on that part.

So we don't want to band-aid up here.

We got to go down deeper.

And that's the type of practice that I do.

But here's the primary difference.

You said something really interesting.

Functional medicine doctor.

Forget about the functional part for a second.

The difference between me and a doctor is doctors diagnose.

A lot of doctors today are going beyond diagnosing and they're presenting you with protocols or ways for you to actually implement what they want you, but most of them are just telling you what to do.

My focus is on the how.

And when you get into the how, it has to be personalized.

My choices have to be deliciously doable.

One of the things I challenge people to do is take two bites of whatever you're drinking or you're sipping and answer the question on a scale of one to 10, is it a seven or greater?

If it's not, stop, put it down if you can, because we overeat on the four, fives, and sixes.

We tend to consume more of that and then, or if you're like me, maybe eat something real healthy that's maybe like a five or a six, but I'm going to look for an eight later.

So I'm going to go find the chocolate.

I'm going to go find, you know, or I'm going to have the fourth glass of wine or whatever it is because it's not delicious to me.

So I don't want an eat this, not that checklist for you.

I want to turn around and say, hey, we have a goal.

We want to reduce inflammation in your body, or we want to prevent the production of excess or chronic inflammation in the body.

So I want to turn around.

I know these are things are going to be better for you, and these things aren't going to be as good.

How could we figure out a deliciously doable plan?

And if you turn to me and say, well, I'm just not going to eat salmon, I'm like, all right, then what about getting in green fat?

And how do you feel about walnuts?

Or how do you feel about, you know, whatever?

So wait, hold on.

It's personalized.

Are you trying to say

that you should only eat like eights and nines and not like fives and sixes.

So I'd like it to be a seven, eight, nine, or ten.

And ten is like, I could write a sonnet.

Like I love this food so much.

Why?

Because then we're filling up on things we don't like.

Think about what you had to eat.

And then I'm looking, then because I'm not

satisfied, right?

I will go look for other things and eat more.

Totally.

So you end up eating less.

It's eating seven, and you're satisfied.

It's one of my favorite holiday tips.

But I use it for people all the time.

And the interesting, look, life happens and we may be stuck with a four or five, but recognize that you're with a four or five.

Hopefully you're not a one, two or three.

We're talking about dating and eating on that part.

Hopefully you're not eating one, twos, or threes, but you will notice.

Are we talking about dating?

Yes, and, and, yes, especially on the eating part.

But, you know, we turn around on that piece and we say to ourselves, and remember, delicious happens with our eyes.

It happens with our nose.

So if I improve the smell of something, I may actually take it from a five or six up to a seven or eight.

So this is like another one that like I can't stand is this whole like mindfulness mindfulness eating.

If somebody tells me to be mindful while I'm eating, first of all, have you met my life or like just or whatever?

And it's also like, it's kind of like a doctor saying to you, you need to work on your stress.

Like that will produce a middle finger from me.

But if you actually, if you give me a skill, if you turn around and say, the way that I'm mindful is I, I actually want to stop and see, was that actually delicious to me?

You know me, I will walk 10 miles or drive three hours for a better coffee.

Yeah.

Like

I will go for something that tastes delicious.

You also, though, are about quality.

Yes.

So, like, the thing with you is it may not be a problem.

I call it being a qualitarian.

You can be one, too.

Yeah, you're okay.

So, Ashley, by the way, just side note here, Ashley had this thing a long time ago called Cough Approved, right?

Ashley Proved.

That's my name.

It had to be called that so I could trademark it.

Right.

And she called herself an equalitarian because the food had to hit a certain quality for her to put her stamp of approval on.

Nonprofit.

It still exists.

It's on my website.

It is.

Totally.

It's still there.

I haven't updated it, so there may be some things that are like no longer on the market or whatever.

But everything was like, she looks at every, where it's sourced, the ingredients.

I have a friend like that.

And the marketing messages.

And the marketing messages.

My friend Darren Olean, I talk about him all the time.

He's one of my best friends.

He's very much like that too.

He's a total qualitarian.

Yeah, yes.

And so like, you will walk nine miles.

So then it's not about the taste necessarily because four, five, six, seven, eight.

That's right.

It's also about the caliber of the

because it's not going to make me happy.

Like if it doesn't, if it doesn't and by the way it has to be delicious to me today so that's why I call it the better be delicious test or better be delicious to me test I don't care what's delicious to you right like I mean that might be a problem if we're eating together but like we can even customize things like think about your kids like oh I thought you meant like okay if I ate okay if I ate French fries that's a 10 10 10 all around no no I'm gonna call your bluff on that how many times have you eaten french fries that are maybe a four five or six like you've had amazing french fries I'm sure but when you eat them, are they really, if you ask yourself.

Well, any French fries, a good French fry.

Well, I mean, you know,

my point is, you could be eating shitty food.

You could totally be eating shitty.

But it's still a 10 to me because I love French fries.

But my point is, am I allowed to eat?

You absolutely are.

Okay, because then I'll be satisfied.

That's right.

And I won't be eating the fruit.

And what I would probably say to you is, like, if we're doing it and you're having a turkey burger, then skip the bun on the burger.

You know, go ahead and have the turkey burger and then have some of the fries.

And you're not going to be looking for the milkshake or the dessert you know, on that person.

Well, you know, so

that's what I do.

So, remember, I tell you, okay, so I like I'm obsessed with fruit because I feel like I

trick my brain, right?

Because I eat very specifically.

And then because I'm not satisfied, so I'm not getting that feeling of satiation.

I'll go and eat 11 pounds of cherries and grapes, which is like so much sugar.

I mean, and it's terrible for my digestion.

But my point is, it's because I'm craving that sugar.

That's right.

That's right.

So it's even worse.

Is it better just to have like, what would be, what would be something like what you, and you and I had talked about this, which is nutrient balance.

So if you, if you had it, but you also had some fat and some protein with it, you're probably like, so, and especially you tend to do that in the afternoon, your, you know, blood sugar is going down, maybe you had coffee in the morning, like, you know, whatever it is on that part.

But I think for you, that's probably a key, you know, where it's, um, I want to allow myself to have it.

Look, you can eat unlimited quantities.

It's not like the better be delicious test is the only thing that I do, but when I'm working with people to make better choices, you know, we can do that.

I also have the nine sips rule.

I mean, look, you got to gamify this dog.

Hold on, what's the nine sips rule?

The nine sips rule happened.

I'm often a guinea pig because I was going to a bunch of parties and I wanted to be able, and I like, I go to great parties and somebody had really amazing wine and I wanted a taste of right.

And so they're pouring glasses.

And I was like, I can't have four glasses, nine glasses, you know, whatever.

It wasn't a wine tasting.

It was literally like people are, you know, drinking all of this.

And so I was in there and I'm like, okay, well, let's go ahead.

And I realized realized i drank one glass and i realized it's about nine sips well i had nine different sips i sipped on you know all of them and i got to taste everything some were delicious some weren't the ones that weren't i was like definitely not going to have more of um but i felt really satisfied from that part and especially during the holiday season you know when maybe and by the way they don't have to be alcohol sips these mocktails these days or coffee drinks or you know just different things like that nine sips is a good amount to say I get to enjoy something.

I might have nine sips of one thing or I might turn turn around and say, I'm going to have a couple over here and a couple over here.

Because I was also finding that people would tell me they had one glass.

I mean, I work with, I worked in Hollywood for a long time and with a lot of comedians and they're like, don't worry, Ashley, I only have one glass of wine at night.

And, you know, one of them was like, it was literally, he's like, the glass, he's like, it's so weird that one, that five bottles had one glass of wine in it.

You know, and he was like, I just kept pouring it in the same glass.

You know, I'm like, come on at that point.

You know, so I was like, hey, I've got to give us like ground rules that actually work, you know?

And it's just nine sips.

Nine sips.

So when, like, if you, if you're thinking about, you go out and you're like, I want to have a fabulous drink, like have nine sips on that part.

Yeah.

I love that.

These are great tips.

Okay, Ashley.

I love your info.

Okay.

We got to wrap this up.

So you tell me, tell me, I know where you are.

Yeah.

How do people get more information from you?

Sure.

Well, my company is the Better Nutrition Program.

So everything is there.

We do have free evaluations.

We've got our digestive evaluations you can check in.

Please just do that on regular.

And we have this info obesity guide.

I'm only offering this to you and your people for free, but it has actually the experiment that you can go in and see if you have info obesity.

96% is the percentage of people that have info obesity from what I have tested since 2015.

96%, including myself.

Yeah.

I love that.

Yeah.

I love speaking with you.

Thanks.

So fun.

I love the podcast.

Yeah.

You're a fountain of information.

Is that true?

Is that like a.

Well, hopefully, hopefully, I'm not just information because we don't want to just be too much information.

Hopefully, I'm directing you to places where I can be your bullseye source of information.

That's what we're looking for.

That's a very valuable bullseye information.

Yeah, a vetting process.

A vetting process.

Oh, my gosh, exactly.

Well, you're my go-to.

So thank you.

Thank you for podcasting.

Yeah, thanks for having me.

Totally.

Bye.