Rory & AJ Vaden (00:00) what are we not asking? What do we not know? Or what are we being misinformed of that you think is the most universal, most general that people need to be aware of? Ben Azadi (00:10) is a great question because we’re dealing, all of us are dealing with this. The first thing to consider is that doctors are not trained on this philosophy of the body’s built to heal itself. So I don’t blame doctors. I blame the system. And I used to say for so many years, AJ, the system is broken. The system is broken. I no longer feel that way. It’s running and designed the exact way that it was set up. It’s a cash cow. It’s a brilliant subscription model. What we should be asking is why do I have these symptoms? Not how do I mask these symptoms or medicate the symptoms or reduce these symptoms, but why? the symptom is not the problem. The symptom is the gift. The symptom is the body’s check engine light. It’s the way the body communicates to you. If you got in your vehicle. and you’re on a road trip and your check engine light turned on, thank God there’s a system in place to show you something underneath the hood is going on. Don’t just mask, cover up that light, no, pull it over, take it to a mechanic, find out what’s happening. So the question we should be asking the doctor is why? Why do I have the Rory & AJ Vaden (01:12) Welcome to the wealthy and well-known podcast. Y’all today’s guest is someone who is helping millions of people reclaim their health, their energy and mental clarity, starting from the inside out. Ben Azadi is a leading voice in metabolic health, a bestselling author, four time bestselling author and a New York Times bestselling author, by the way. He’s also the founder of Keto Camp. His work bridges science, mindset, faith and practical action in a way that empowers people to take ownership of their bodies. and their lives. So if you are listening to this today and you care about longevity, discipline, and becoming the best version of yourself specifically in this new year, then this is a conversation for you. Don’t miss it. This is a time to spend on getting yourself to the healthiest state humanly possible. So let’s dive in. Rory & AJ Vaden (02:04) Hey y’all, we are so excited for this conversation. And I say we, I mean me. This is like one of those awesome episodes where I’m like, I’ve been eagerly anticipating this conversation because I love it when I am personally invested in a topic and I’m like, I cannot wait to see what he says about this and this and this. And you guys heard this awesome introduction of my newer friend, Vinazati. But we’re gonna be talking today about health breakthroughs. And I think Ben is one of those people who not only has the true researched and academic approach, but also the real life personal experience of misinformation, which I think is all too common for all of us. And I think the reason I’m so excited for this conversation, Ben, is because that was me too, right? And I think that’s a lot of us. So here’s how I would love to start is just one. Ben Azadi (02:50) Mm. Rory & AJ Vaden (02:56) Can you give our audience just a little bit of background on who you are and just for everyone who’s listening, if you didn’t catch it, he’s a world renowned health expert, a four times bestselling author and host of the Keto Camp podcast, right? So there’s a lot of stuff going on, but outside of that, like what should our audience know about you as we kick off this conversation today? Ben Azadi (03:15) Yeah, I’m excited to be here AJ. Thank you for the invitation. you know, like you said, I’m somebody who also struggled with my health, my energy, my metabolism for a very long time, 20 plus years. And I want it to feel better. I wanted to have more energy. I didn’t want to have to rely on medication or a broken medical system. And I felt like, you know, when I, when I was in my early twenties, I felt like I was being gas lit by my doctor because I had all these issues going on 23 years old. I was very young, but I had brain fog. had, I was I depressed, was suicidal, was obese, I was dealing with a ton of inflammation, digestive issues. I mean, I could go on and on about the symptoms I was dealing with. I would make my appointment with my doctor like so many of us do, and I’d list the symptoms, and not once did my doctor ask me the question, what are you eating? Let’s discuss your lifestyle, how’s your sleep? It was more about, what can I prescribe for this young man? And there were some prescriptions that were recommended by my doctor, but I felt like I was too young to get on that. and I had to figure things out on my own. And I really took a deep dive into health and metabolism. I got really excited because I started replying what I was learning and I completely transformed my health. This was 18 years ago. I lost 80 pounds of extra inflammatory fat that was hanging around my body. I went from being physically obese and mentally obese to being physically fit and what I call a mental six pack. And I was able to transform my health. And the cool thing about the way that I did it is that number one, I’m not special. Anybody could do it too. I don’t care how you want your ages. Number two, that was 18 years ago. I kept the weight off. I feel like I’m getting healthier year after year. I’m 41 now and I honestly feel the healthiest I’ve ever felt before. And one thing that I know to be true is that God built the body to be self-healing. There’s not a doctor, a supplement, a pill, a medication, a shot that could replace the inner physician that’s already within our 70 trojan cells. As long as we remove the interference. So I had a lot of things that were interfering with this amazing body and we’re going to discuss that today. What are the things that are interfering with your body? You remove that interference, the body will heal itself. So now, know, fast forward, I’m a New York Times bestselling author, just like you. I speak on stages, I do keynote lectures, I speak to doctors and medical groups. I’m not a doctor myself and I’m not saying all this to impress anybody but I’m saying it to impress upon them. I’ve a lot of research, I’ve worked with a lot of people and I’ve kind of extracted what works for most people and what doesn’t work and today we’re going to decipher exactly what that is. Rory & AJ Vaden (05:54) You know, I love what you said is like, there’s an inner physician in all of us. And one of my, as many of you who are listening know, I live here in Nashville, Tennessee. And one of my favorite food markets has this sign. It’s called urban market. If you’ve lived here in Nashville, they have this amazing sign behind the register that says, let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food. And I think that, Ben Azadi (06:07) I love that place. Rory & AJ Vaden (06:18) Unfortunately, at least here in America, we live in a society, at least for now, where it has been prescriptions, not inner healing. It has not been, let’s figure out what the interference is, remove it so that we can have healthy, happy lifestyles. It’s like, how many more chemicals can we find and prescribe? Which I’m curious to hear is like, how much of that is the interference? So I don’t know, we’ll have to find out. But okay, so here’s our first question. This has been going on for 18 years, right? And I would also just second, like I turned 42 this year and this is the healthiest, fittest, happiest I’ve been my whole adult life. So for all of you who are not in your forties yet, good things are coming. The forties have proven to be a good decade thus far. But I think, I think this is the interesting thing. It’s like you were going to your doctor. I was going to a doctor for years and wasn’t getting the right information. and there was no information in my case. It wasn’t even misinformation. There was none. wasn’t even let’s have the conversation. So I would be curious for everyone who’s listening to hear like, what are we not asking? What do we not know? Or what are we being misinformed of that you think is the most universal, most general that people need to be aware of? Ben Azadi (07:34) The first thing is a great question because we’re dealing, all of us are dealing with this. The first thing to consider is that doctors are not trained on this philosophy of the body’s built to heal itself. So I don’t blame doctors. I blame the system. And I used to say for so many years, AJ, the system is broken. The system is broken. I no longer feel that way. It’s running and designed the exact way that it was set up. It’s a cash cow. It’s a brilliant subscription model. What we should be asking is why do I have these symptoms? Not how do I mask these symptoms or medicate the symptoms or reduce these symptoms, but why? What’s the cause of these symptoms? Because here’s an example. Most Americans, they buy their junk food at their convenience store. It’s a convenience store because it’s very cheap and easy and convenient, but these foods, they’re like food-like substances, they are loaded with artificial ingredients, preservatives, chemicals, rancid fats, and we eat these foods because they’re cheap and convenient, and then we get a symptom. That could be, Maybe you have brain fog or maybe you’re starting to gain some belly fat or maybe your thyroid is slowing down. So your energy production is lower. So you just you feel off. And we’ve been trained to believe that those symptoms are the problem. I want a medication to lower my blood pressure. I need a medication to lower my blood sugar. I want to go on a Zephyg to loosen what the symptom is not the problem. The symptom is the gift. The symptom is the body’s check engine light. It’s the way the body communicates to you. If you got in your vehicle. and you’re on a road trip and your check engine light turned on, thank God there’s a system in place to show you something underneath the hood is going on. Don’t just mask, cover up that light, no, pull it over, take it to a mechanic, find out what’s happening. So the question we should be asking the doctor is why? Why do I have the symptom? That gets you down the path of, okay, you’re eating these inflammatory foods, remove that interference, you start to produce more energy and burn fat and feel good. The next thing to consider is that here in the United States, we spend about four trillion dollars on health care every single year. And if that was a GDP of a country, that would be the fourth largest GDP in the entire world. And what’s really interesting about that amount of spend is that one out of every four dollars spent on health care is spent on diabetes, primarily type 2, which is 100 % preventable and 100 % reversible. It’s a lifestyle disease, but unfortunately, it’s been treated with medication. And it’s not just the diabetes, it’s the obesity, it’s the heart disease, it’s the thyroid condition. So it’s not about the symptom. The symptom is a blessing. It’s a gift. It’s about the cause. We want to figure out what’s going on. at a cellular level inside the body. Rory & AJ Vaden (10:11) a ha moment of, know, symptoms aren’t the problem, they’re the signal, right? It’s like, hey, this is your alert system. Are you paying attention? And are you asking what’s causing the symptom versus just give me a medication to solve the symptom? It’s like, now we kind of have to go underneath the symptom to figure out what’s the cause of it. What do you think for you, at least in your experience, what did you learn from the beginning? Or actually, let ask you an even earlier question, because I think a lot of people who are listening are like, I can relate to this. Where do I start? So take it back 18 years. Where did you start? Ben Azadi (10:48) It starts with the foundations of getting healthy, right? It doesn’t have to require a ton of money, although I’m a big fan of different biohacks and devices and all that, but it doesn’t, you don’t start there. The supplements I’m a big fan of too, but they supplement the lifestyle. So the foundations need to be laid first. need a strong foundation, right? So that’s going to be your movement, right? Moving your body. That’s where I started to answer your question. I started by moving my body, walking outside, riding my bicycle, playing basketball, doing things that I enjoy doing that it required me to move my body. Then I started to just focus on eating whole foods. And I know we hear that all the time, eat whole foods, eat real food. But I think a lot of people, and Jay, don’t really understand what that means. I will explain that because a whole food is simply a single ingredient food. When we go to the supermarket, urban market is, I love that place, but any supermarket, is it urban or urban? Rory & AJ Vaden (11:40) Urban. Ben Azadi (11:41) When we go to any supermarket and let’s say we are on the perimeters where they have like the produce and the beef, when we look at the ingredients list of an avocado, for example, there’s not a list of ingredients. It’s what you see. You get the avocado, a potato, it’s just the potato, eggs, just the egg, the beef, the beef. But when you go in the middle aisles and you now get a potato chip instead of the potato, it’s now a processed version of the whole food. Rory & AJ Vaden (11:59) Mm-hmm. Ben Azadi (12:04) there’s 20, 30 ingredients. So a simple start is eat only single ingredient foods, move your body. That’s where I started. And then when you go from there, you start to make some progress, you get momentum. Then you start stacking things and stacking different behaviors and habits, and then you gain some serious momentum. Rory & AJ Vaden (12:22) Okay, I love these are two simple steps. Move, like move, right? It’s going to walk, go biking, play pickleball, but move. ⁓ Can we just pause on that one just for a second? What do you find in your 18 years of research and working with people? Like, why don’t they do that? Like it’s a simple step, that didn’t mean it was easy. Why don’t they? Ben Azadi (12:25) Thank you. Right, yes. because we want the sexy thing. We want the, you know, the ozendic, the fad diet. We want the whatever’s trending in the health world these days, apple cider vinegar, whatever it is. We want the sexy thing, but you know, sleep and movement and eating real food. It’s like, we’ve heard that before and it sounds so simple. So we don’t necessarily do it because it just sounds too easy, but sometimes, a lot of the times, little by little, little becomes a lot. Right. It’s about getting momentum and a lot of people, especially this, you know, this time of year, we start to do make different changes and we start to throw everything into the mix all at once. Gym membership, keto diet, intermittent fasting, these supplements, and we just throw too much and we can’t, we make some progress and then all of sudden it’s just too much for the body to handle. a lot of people like the sexy stuff. They want to hear about, you know, the infrared sauna and the cold plunge. And again, I’m not against any of that. I have an infrared sauna and a cold plunge. but those are things you add later on. The foundations are set in stone. Like this is the way we’ve been healthy for a very long time. This is way our ancestors were healthy. Once we look back at our ancestors and see what they did for the most part, we could follow suit and then get healthy and then stack those other sexy items that everybody’s looking for. Rory & AJ Vaden (14:04) I love that. What would you recommend? Is there a goal of for how long when you think about movement? Is it 10 minutes, 30 minutes? Is it low impact, high impact? Does it matter? Ben Azadi (14:16) I would start with getting daily steps each day. would aim wherever you’re at with your current level of activity. If you’re getting 5,000 steps a day, let’s bring it to 7,000. If you’re at 7,000, let’s bring it to 9,000. But once you get to around 10,000 steps a day, that’s going to be optimal. And you’re not going to get those 10,000 steps in one walk. I wouldn’t recommend that. It’s sprinkled throughout the day. These are actually called exercise snacks. And one of the best things you can do for your energy levels, digestion, for fat loss, is to go for a 15 minute walk after your largest meal of the day, which is typically dinner for most people. When you do that, it improves digestion. There’s less of this blood sugar spike from that meal. it blunts that blood sugar spike so you don’t get a crash in energy after and you get back into a fat burning state much faster. So I recommend having something that tracks your steps. I use an aura ring, but there’s so many different things out there and aim to get 10,000 steps a day. When you do that, you strengthen your heart. you strengthen your arteries, you are able to burn fats. Walking is so underrated and if you could time it with that 15 minute walk after your biggest meal of day and do that consistently, just that alone without any other changes, you will start to see some progress. Rory & AJ Vaden (15:31) and I’ll tell y’all for who are listening, know if you follow me on social, you see me, but it’s like, I have an actual old school step counter, like one that clips onto your shoe. And it’s like, one of the things I learned for those of you who listening, if you relate to this, I had to see it. I was like, I actually have to see, because if I saw that I was like 8,200 steps, I’m like, oh, I’m almost there. But if I didn’t see it, I would get in bed at night and I’m like, dang it, I missed it. Versus having it on my shoe, like a weirdo, people are always like, Is that a, you’re not, you’re not out of prison, are you? No, not a tracking device. It’s not. But it’s like, you know, I think about like, know yourself of like, are you a visual person? Like, is that going to help you? And I just, it did for me when I was trying to make some of these changes. But also I love that simple tip of just go for 15 minute walk after your biggest meal or make it a habit of like, go on a walk after every meal. Ben Azadi (16:05) Thank Rory & AJ Vaden (16:28) You know, one of things I was thinking of like, just like park the farthest way away from the restaurant, right? It’s like, don’t try to get the VIP space up front. It’s like park as far away as you can, where it’s like, it forces you to get in some of those steps if you’re gonna go out to eat. And it’s like, how can you challenge yourselves in those little ways that will compound, as you said, into the big things. Ben Azadi (16:51) That’s exactly it. Yeah. I love that because number one, with looking at your steps, you’re gamifying it in a way, right? You’re able to see and hit those goals and see it right in front of you and see how many steps you have, how many steps you need, and you can finish those steps because you see it right there in front of you. And that tip about parking far away and walking is a great tip. We tend to drive around as close as possible to see that open spot as close as possible to the door. No need to do that. Just park wherever you see the first spot, walk. When you see the choice between elevator or stairs, take the stairs. These are different things that add up over time. They really do. Rory & AJ Vaden (17:26) Totally. And it’s like, just, again, do all the little things. It’s like, you’re working out and you don’t even realize it for the person who’s like, I can’t make it to the gym. That doesn’t allow in my lifestyle or my, it’s like, well, these are all things that help us get there. And I love that. And I love the two of just like the simple definition of eat whole foods, right? These are just the single ingredient foods. So I have a personal question for you, right? So. I agree with this. Are there any non-single ingredient foods or any brands that you would say, have found that if you’re going to have to have, you know, a middle of the grocery store, I’ll snack that if you’re going to buy something, this is what you should do, right? These are the brands or these are the foods. Are there any that are on your like approved checklist? Ben Azadi (18:10) Yeah, there is. is absolutely. So there’s healthier versions of these processed foods and now they’re not single ingredient whole foods. So they’re not as good as that, but they’re, you know, if you want those as an option, especially if you have kids, it’s a good option for them as well. Lesser Evil is a good brand that’s in most grocery stores. have Siete, you have Epic. These are companies that are typically found in most commercial grocery stores. There’s a good company called Thrive Market that it’s kind of like, yeah, it’s kind of like Costco meets Whole Foods. online membership, you pay an annual fee, and then you shop online. And they have a ton of these products that are healthier versions of processed foods. You just shop online, deliver it to your door. So yeah, there’s definitely options out there. There’s healthier ways to go about it. And know, things like bone broth, like kettle and fire bone broth, you could find that at grocery stores. So absolutely any of those brands, even though they’re multiple ingredients, they’re typically cleaner on the ingredient side. Rory & AJ Vaden (19:04) Yeah, I love that. I love, we have most of these brands and I love that. One of the things that, I don’t even know why I put this in place. It was literally just on a whim, but we have a policy in our house and part of my kids go grocery shopping with me when I go. And so part of like this education process is they have to be able to do two things. They have to pick foods that have no more than four ingredients. So we have a four ingredient policy. And then they have to be able to pronounce all the ingredients. And if you cannot pronounce it, we cannot buy it. It’s like those, well, I didn’t kind of like gamify shopping and I’m like, they bring it over and I’m like, how many does it have? And they’re like five. And I’m like, oh, sorry, it’s more than four. Didn’t like to cut. Right. And it’s like, but it’s like, for those of you who have kids, it’s like, these are just small, simple ways of introducing this to them too. And then I love that. It’s like, you gotta have like what brands are trustworthy. Ben Azadi (19:36) Awesome. That’s fantastic. Rory & AJ Vaden (20:01) And there’s so many, it’s like, if you were to look at all of them, oh my gosh, you’ve been in the grocery store for 12 hours. is, perimeter shopping is the best, I agree. Yeah, these are good of like, hey, if you’re gonna buy, these are some of the brands, check the ingredients, limit the ingredients, make sure you can pronounce them. Ben Azadi (20:05) It’s true. Yeah. It is. Yeah. I love that you do that with your kids. Another brand that came to mind is Masa, Masa chips. Masa chips, fantastic. It’s cooked in beef tallow, it’s organic tortilla, so it’s a great option for healthier chips. They also have potato chips as well, corn and potato, so Masa is a good brand as well. Rory & AJ Vaden (20:24) Let’s Yeah, I have, I bought those before at like airports and stuff. And I didn’t even, it didn’t even register me to just said that I was like, yeah, I could probably buy those from a house. Yeah. Yeah. I love having like a list of good brands. okay. So that kind of leads to my next question, which is it’s so hard to discern and determine who to listen to. What’s trustworthy. Ben Azadi (20:45) Yeah. Rory & AJ Vaden (20:58) what’s a good brand, even if it’s promoted as, you know, healthy or, you know, people think, well, if it’s at Whole Foods, it must be good. And it’s like, no, not necessarily. So I guess how can people cut through some of these health trends or some of the fear-based messaging or conflicting advice? Cause it’s like, you could listen to four different people and you’re going to get four entirely different messages. How did you do that? And how do you tell people to do that today? Ben Azadi (21:27) It’s a big problem. We’re drowning in all this information. We used to have not enough information. Now it is too much information. We’re we’re drowning in information. We’re starving for that true wisdom and truth. Your rule was great. You shared with your kids, when you’re shopping, anybody could follow that rule. Four ingredients, you gotta be able to pronounce it. That’s great. People need to, we just need to read the labels and understand how to read the labels. The front of the package or the box is gonna have brilliant It’s going to say like gluten-free organic, it’s going to be in Whole Foods. Doesn’t necessarily mean it’s healthy. It’s important to read the ingredients label. Follow that rule. If you can’t pronounce it, probably not a good idea. If it has a ton of ingredients, probably not a good idea. But you know, part of the other part to the answer here is a lot of people are now going on chat GPT, YouTube, they’re doing Google searches, they’re listening to the podcast and there’s so many different health experts out there, TikTok experts out there. Rory & AJ Vaden (22:21) Mm-hmm. Ben Azadi (22:24) A lot of it’s conflicting. And I think about this a lot because I feel for people because it’s like, but my nutritionist or this TikTok person said, just focus on calories, just about calories in versus calories out. And then they come across me and I’m like, don’t worry about calories. It’s about hormones and inflammation. Like, who do I believe? I always say that this is my answer. I always say, find somebody that you resonate with, their personality, their story. They make sense to you. And go all in with that. Give it 30 days at the very minimum, maybe 60 days. Go all in with what they’re teaching. And if you see progress, you see results, stick with that person. If you see no results, maybe you regress. OK, that person’s philosophy or approach doesn’t work for you. That’s what I would recommend. You might have to go through a few people to get there, but there’s a lot of quality people teaching the right information. So I would recommend you find that person, that authority that you resonate with, and then go all in. in with them, don’t listen to anybody else, just that one person and see what it does for you. Maybe do some lab work as well. See what it does to your lab work and then you can kind of go from there. If it works, then continue with that person. If it doesn’t, move on to the next person. Rory & AJ Vaden (23:33) Yeah, I love that. And you said something that caught my attention and I wrote this down. So I want to come back to it. You said some people talk about calories in calories out and come to me and it’s about hormones and you know metabolism and it’s like so much talk about hormones right now. It’s like I think I’ve like every time I look at the bestseller list there’s a new book on hormones. Okay, I don’t know if it was just me or maybe I’m in a new season of life where it’s like my reticular activator has kicked in but I don’t feel like there was this talk about hormones 20 years ago, 15, 10, maybe even five years ago, but in the last three years or so, there’s been this explosion of conversation around hormones at a very public, universal, everyone’s talking about it. Why and what do you have to say about it? Ben Azadi (24:24) Yeah, I know you’re right. wasn’t as popular five, 15, 20 years ago. It’s really common now. There’s a few reasons why. Well, number one, there’s now a mainstream message on metabolic health, which is great with, you know. Rfk jr. Make America healthy again I know when I say that it triggers some people but there’s a conversation now being had about metabolic health Which I personally love because we know what was happening before was not working So thank God we have something that’s going to change right now and with this focus on metabolic health Hormones are one of the biggest things to focus on here our hormones Dictate everything for us. They help us produce energy. They help us burn fat They help us extend our lifespan and add years to our life our hormones need to be able to do their job Hormones are simply these these little chemical messengers and they connect to your cells your cells hear the message if there’s not too much inflammation and then it tells your cells to perform that job. The issue is that too many people are inflamed. They have high levels of inflammation. When you have high levels of inflammation it’s like if I muted my mic here I would be screaming at you. This is the hormones being produced or even taking hormones. But if the mic is muted, I could be screaming. You won’t hear the message. You would be frustrated. I would be frustrated. Same thing with the cells. If you’re taking hormones or you’re producing hormones, but there’s inflammation, the message is not getting through. You’re not going to get well. You’re not going to feel better. You’re not going to get. the benefit of those hormones. So we want to reduce inflammation, right? When you do that, then those hormones get in. And that’s where all these authors and books, talk about that. There’s synergy between inflammation and hormones. And I love that this is now being talked about because it’s not about calories. Being overweight, is not your problem. When I was obese, I never had a weight problem. It is a weight symptom. When we focus on calories, we’re focusing on the symptom. We would discuss why that’s the issue. It’s not the symptom. The symptom is the gift. Being overweight is the gift. It’s showing you there’s too much inflammation. So we don’t lose weight to get healthy. We get healthy to lose weight. When you get healthy by focusing on inflammation and hormones, the weight comes off as a side effect. That’s where the focus should be. So I love that we’re seeing these books. I love that we’re seeing hormones trending and these different authorities or authors are talking about hormones because that’s really where it’s at when you combine the focus of hormones with the focus on lowering inflammation that’s where the magic happens. Rory & AJ Vaden (26:50) you said so many things that just like blew my mind a little bit. So I wanna go back. okay, okay. You said obesity is not a weight problem. It’s a weight symptom. It’s a symptom, right? And so when your body gets healthy, when your hormones are back in check and you reduce inflammation, the weight comes off as a by-product. Did I hear you right? Ben Azadi (27:02) Yes. That’s right, the weight loss is a side effect of getting healthy, yes. Rory & AJ Vaden (27:15) Okay, so let’s talk about two things then that I think are that I just hear these two topics come up all the time in my personal life with friends and family, my business life across the board. Can you explain to everyone what is inflammation, what causes it and what can you do to reduce it? Ben Azadi (27:31) Yes, I love that. There’s two types of inflammation, two primary types. There’s acute inflammation and then there’s chronic inflammation. Acute inflammation is not necessarily bad. If you worked out and you have soreness from the workout, that’s acute inflammation. That’s actually a good thing. Your body is sending all the healing properties. You’ll be sore for a couple of days and you’re stronger. If you sprain your ankle, if you hurt your shoulder, this is acute inflammation. Your body is sending those signals. It’s going to be just short term. It’s not necessarily the issue. Chronic inflammation is the issue. Chronic inflammation is when your cells, you have about 30 to 70 trillion cells in your body, when your cells are inflamed, then… those messengers, the hormones cannot get in, not just that. Oxygen cannot get into the cells, nutrients cannot get into the cells, and then you’re going to have some symptoms. So we want to find out what’s causing the inflammation. There’s many different things that cause the inflammation. I’ll give you a few of what I believe are the top things that cause inflammation. This might surprise a lot of people, but I believe the number one of the leading causes towards inflammation is actually eating too frequently, snacking and grazing throughout the day. We’ve been trained to believe we need to eat every two to three hours to keep the metabolism revved up, fired up. That’s actually one of the worst things you can do for your health. If you want to age faster than anybody you know, eat every two to three hours. That is because without getting too scientific, I just want to explain why I say that, there’s something that I wrote about metabolic freedom in my book called the Hayflick Limit. The Hayflick limit states that your cells could duplicate a certain amount of times until it can no longer duplicate. Once it reaches that limit, this is called the Hayflick limit, now that cell has reached its capacity and it goes into what’s called a zombie cell. A zombie cell now produces. more inflammation, hormones cannot use the zombie cell, it weakens your immune system, it increases your chances of cancer and different autoimmune conditions. So we want to avoid the Hayflick limit. you will reach that hayflick limit the fastest, the quickest way to reach it is when you’re eating every two to three hours. Every time you spike glucose from the meal, then insulin is produced, the cells duplicate. And you are achieving that hayflick limit much faster than if you just had three meals a day or practiced intermittent fasting. So that I believe eating too frequently and eating too close to bed on top of that. is one of the fastest ways to raise inflammation and reach that hay flick limit. Rory & AJ Vaden (30:07) Okay, well talk about some of the worst misinformation of our generation. Keep your metabolism up. Eat every two to three hours, lots of small meals. And that is one of those things that is simply about the aesthetics. It’s like, can you keep your metabolism to look a certain way, not actually be internally healthy? Ben Azadi (30:13) Right. That’s exactly it. And you know, I taught that for so many years as a personal trainer. I used to own a gym here in Miami. used to believe in that. And so I knew better. And once you know better, you do better. And here’s the thing. You don’t even want to speed up your metabolism or boost your metabolism. As a matter of fact, the metabolism doesn’t even operate by speed. It’s not fast or slow. There’s no such thing. It’s either efficient or inefficient. When you’re eating every two to three hours and most people are eating a lot of processed carbs, you are teaching your metabolism to be inefficient by only using sugar as the only fuel source. And when I say sugar, I’m not necessarily saying eating sugar, I’m saying carbohydrates turn into sugar. Now you have a metabolism that is a sugar burner. That is an inefficient metabolism. When you start to practice fasting, maybe a low-carb keto diet. avoid eating every two to three hours, you now switch over to fat burning. That is now a metabolism that is efficient. So we don’t want a fast metabolism. No such thing. No such thing as a slow metabolism. We want a metabolism that is flexible and efficient, which is the premise behind my book, Metabolic Freedom. Rory & AJ Vaden (31:41) Hmm. Well, I love that. I mean, there’s another misnomer, speed up your metabolism. And how many people have said the words, I just have a slow metabolism. Ben Azadi (31:49) all the time, all the time. know what’s really interesting, AJ? When I was digging into the research on metabolism, was writing the book, I came across a study that is the most comprehensive, best study ever done on the metabolism. it totally just… Rory & AJ Vaden (31:51) Yeah! Ben Azadi (32:05) excuse that your metabolism is slow, it just made it just like it voided the entire thing because the study showed this is a 2021 study Duke University 6,000 plus people in the study and it was a worldwide study that involved multiple countries and here’s what the study did it looked at different age groups from the age to yeah a two-year-old to age 95 years old and everybody in between 6,000 people and at the end of the study it said that our metabolism between the ages of 20 years old and 60 years old, there are no significant changes in the metabolism at all. Okay, so if you’re 45 or 51 or 57 saying it’s because my age is slowing my metabolism, this study, which is the gold standard of measuring metabolism, showed that doesn’t happen. But it did say this. It said they noticed after age 60, there’s a 0.7 % decline in that metabolism every year after age 60. But the reason why that happens is because of loss of muscle mass, which means if you build your lean muscle mass in your 40s, 50s, or even if you’re over 60, you could be 95 years old with the same metabolism as when you were 25 years old by preserving that lean muscle mass. So to me, that’s super exciting and very cool. it also, you know, that excuse that you have a slow metabolism because of age studies Rory & AJ Vaden (33:12) huh. Ben Azadi (33:34) Please don’t back that up. Rory & AJ Vaden (33:35) Yeah. And then back to it’s like, it’s not about being skinny. It’s about being healthy. It’s about being healthy and having lean muscle mass that matters. Okay. Uh, I’m going go back to inflammation just for a second. said eating too frequently, right? Every two to three hours eating too late, too close to bed. Are there any other general, like, this is going to cause inflammation? Ben Azadi (33:39) Mm-hmm. Yeah, the environmental toxins have to be a part of that conversation. Chapter four, no, chapter five, excuse me, of metabolic freedom gets into this. So environmental toxins, reason why I wrote a whole chapter and why I’m bringing it up now is because we live in the most toxic world than ever before. And the argument that I get on social media when I talk about detox and toxins is, but then we have these detoxification organs in place, the liver, the kidneys, the lymphatic system. Can’t we just detox these toxins that come in? Yes, we do have them in place. God put them there and they do help, but they cannot keep up. These detox pathways cannot keep up with the amount of toxins that we’re dealing with this day, these days. So when we think about it, we are the water that comes through our tap water. is loaded with toxins. It’s loaded with chlorine and chemicals and different traces of medications and birth control pills. So one simple thing you can do is do not drink tap water at all, ever. Rory & AJ Vaden (34:53) Yeah. Good. Ben Azadi (34:54) And when you go to a restaurant and they offer you water, it’s typically tap water. I could smell it and know that it’s tap water. I never drink it. I get bottled water and I recommend you do the same. When you’re taking a shower, use a shower filter. $30 on Amazon, you replace every three months. It blocks those toxins in the chlorine, et cetera. Do an audit on your cosmetics. Do an audit on your cleaning supplies, your detergents. Switch over to non-toxic things. As you do these simple changes, it doesn’t require a lot of money or time, but just simple changes. is you start to reduce that toxicity load. As you reduce the toxicity load, your inflammation also drops. You have more energy, your hormones function better, you burn fat, and you feel better overall. Rory & AJ Vaden (35:37) Yeah, I mean, those are so good because those are things you don’t think about, right? It’s like all the household cleaners, tap water, know, shower head filters, all the medications, the birth control. And it’s like, yeah, like we did a huge, what would you say? Yeah, I guess. Yeah. Purge of like our household cleaners of like, we only use, I don’t know if you heard of green llama. Ben Azadi (35:54) codes. No, I haven’t. Rory & AJ Vaden (36:03) They’re like, you know, glass water bottles and they come with these little tablets that you just add water to, right? And then they dissolve and it’s like, it’s like I’ve gotten away from all of that stuff. Like my husband Rory’s like, you’re this close to straight blown hippie. Ben Azadi (36:17) The values you feel better doesn’t matter. Rory & AJ Vaden (36:19) Keep it on, I’m ready. But those make a difference. Because if you don’t, then they all just add up. And it’s not one thing, it’s all the things. Ben Azadi (36:26) Yeah. That’s correct. Yeah, it’s not one thing. all things. Exactly. Just your bucket just fills up. Like you just said, like I have this bottle here. I’m using, I always use glass water bottles as much as possible. When I can control it. Sometimes not the airport, can’t find it, but when you can control it, use glass instead of plastic. A couple of things. A lot of people who cook at home instead of a plastic cutting board, which you get a ton of microplastics in your food that way, switch over to a wooden cutting board instead of a plastic Tupperware, switch over to last couple where so it’s just these simple swaps that when you’re aware of you can make the changes that go a long way over time. Rory & AJ Vaden (37:02) Amen. So I think, again, it’s not like one huge change that you have to make. It’s like, are all the micro changes that compound? Okay. So we talked about some inflammation, so that was great and super helpful. What are ways we can reduce it? Like, you know, it’s removing all of this stuff. So we talked about that, right? So don’t do some of the, is there anything else that you have seen that really helps with inflammation reduction outside of like, Hey, Use glass when you can and get a filter on your shower heads and don’t drink from plastic and don’t drink tap water. But are there any other like, hey guys, if you know you’re suffering from inflammation, do one, two, three. Ben Azadi (37:38) Yeah. Yeah, I would say the first thing would be find some schedule of intermittent fasting and start to do some intermittent fasting. know, fasting is the probably the best way to harness this innate intelligence within your body. There’s not a biohack that’s out there that replaces the healing capabilities of fasting. You know, when you’re in a fasted state, your body goes through deep, deep healing. That is because when you’re not fast, And eating every two to three hours never skipping meals when you’re eating and constantly digesting food it takes a lot of energy Bandwidth blood flow to digest food. That’s why when you ate a huge meal Christmas Thanksgiving whenever it was Your first thought wasn’t okay. I’m ready to record a podcast or get some work done I’m ready to speak on stage. Now your first thought was like, where’s the couch put on the game? Let’s try you turn to a cash potato because all the energy required to digest food Okay, there’s something that happens during a fast around the Rory & AJ Vaden (38:30) Yeah. Ben Azadi (38:37) 14-hour mark of a fast. That’s not a long time. 14 hours into a fast. At the 14 hour mark, there’s actually two amazing things that happen. Number one, a process called energy diversion is turned on. Okay, what does that mean? I just shared that it takes a lot of energy to digest food. At the 14 hour mark, meaning 14 hours after your last bite of food, you’ve now completed digestion. So you now divert the energy that was being used for digestion and that energy is now being diverted to the brain, to your kidneys, to your liver for healing. Okay, this is energy diversion. The second thing that happens at that 14-hour mark is that you start to lower the hormone insulin. What’s really interesting AJ is that we have over 600 hormones inside of the body. So a lot, but only one hormone signals fat storage and that hormone is called insulin. And anybody who’s overweight right now, it’s because they have high levels of insulin. So what I see a lot of people do when they try to lose weight, they go on chat GPT or YouTube or Google university and they type the words, how do I lose weight? What’s the best diet for weight loss? Wrong question. The question should be, what’s the best way to lower insulin? Fasting is the best way to lower insulin. Every hour after that 14 hour mark, you start to lower insulin more more and more. once you get into more different types of fasting, like 16 hours and 18 hours, you get other benefits that occur. But I think a 14 hour fast, most people can do, let me lay this out for you real quick. That means if you’re done eating your dinner at, 6 p.m. Last bite of food, 6 p.m. You go to bed that night, right? So you use your sleeping window as a fasting window. Then you wait until 8 a.m. the next morning to break that fast. That’s a 14-hour fast, right? It’s totally doable for a lot of people, right? And just by doing that one thing, you will lower inflammation. You’ll have more energy. you’ll have less brain fog, more mental bandwidth, and you’ll start to burn fat. Now, if you could take that 14 hours and increase that to 18 hours per day with a six hour eating window and do that consistently, you’re gonna even increase those benefits and lower inflammation even more. Rory & AJ Vaden (41:02) Y’all like, I have to admit because you know, in my earlier years, it’s like, like we would still make fun of people who would eat early. And now that we are more educated, we’re like five PMers. And it’s like, we’re, it’s us and all the 95 year old people in the restaurant. But it’s like, it’s because of that right there. It’s like, what we have noticed, maybe it’s an age thing, maybe it’s a knowledge thing. Maybe it’s God’s wisdom showing up in our lives as we open our eyes to it, but it’s like, Ben Azadi (41:15) Thank Rory & AJ Vaden (41:30) I used to laugh so hard about early bird special, but it’s like, I’m like, there’s something to this. It’s like the longer you wait between eating and going to bed and resting, your body has more time to regenerate and renew itself. And when you’re eating at 9 PM or 8 PM even, and then you’re eating again at 6 AM and 7 AM, like your body gets an arrest. Ben Azadi (41:52) Right. Yeah, you know. Rory & AJ Vaden (41:54) Where were these messages like 20 years ago? And I’m so glad we have them now, but it’s like, yeah, it’s like, here’s the best part. No one wants reservations at 5.30. You can all take what want. Ben Azadi (41:56) Yeah. That’s The more popular restaurants, you’ll get a table because it’s only you and those 80, 90 year olds like you said, right? I’m, I’m, I’m. Rory & AJ Vaden (42:14) Yeah, I’m here. I’m all about it. I can’t. I’ll get into all the hot restaurants at five p.m. But yeah, like those those are little things that really do matter. And I love that. And I love just like the fact the facts here around intermittent fasting. We practice that in our household. And I love that. I didn’t realize that it was like that 14th hour. Right. And that’s really fascinating of like it’s not just intermittent fasting. It’s like, no, like, can you make it 14 hours and then stop? Ben Azadi (42:33) Yeah. Rory & AJ Vaden (42:41) So even having that demarcation for all of us who practice that or who are thinking about it, it’s like there’s an hour. Now, one of the things, because you’ve mentioned it a couple of times casually, what do you think are also the healing elements about the spiritual components with fasting? Ben Azadi (42:58) Well, know fasting is in every religion. Religions don’t agree to do a lot of different religions, but they all agree on fasting. Every religion practices some form of fasting. Once you start going to deeper levels of fasting, and what I mean by that long fast, like I’ve done five day water fast, three day water fast, I do 24 hour fast almost every week. Once you go three days and beyond, there’s a connection to God that It’s hard to put into words. have to just do it to kind of experience it. part of there’s a science behind this where your brain produces something called brain derived neurotropic factor. It’s like miracle growth of the brain. So you’re more creative. You’re more alert. This is great for like book writing, deep, deep work. You’re just so focused because you just remove all that interference. And this kind of happens around that 72 hour mark of a fast three days. But the reason why I believe every religion practices it in the Bible, of course, mentioned many times is because they didn’t know about BDNF back then but they knew you remove all the interference and then you you connect to your source you connect to your creator you connect to God. And I experienced that when I do these long fasts. when you, if anybody who watches this or listens to this does a long fast like that, you will notice that same thing. It’s such an incredible experience. And that’s the reason why I believe every religion teaches it because you just, it’s one of the best ways to remove that interference completely and just tap into this incredible source, God, to help you just be present and alert. And I’m telling you, like for book writing, it’s, it’s phenomenal thing for, any author out there. Rory & AJ Vaden (44:34) I love that. And I think that’s, I think it’s a good reminder to all of us who practice fasting or who share the Christian faith. It’s like, we’re called to it. Like we’re called to fast. And I think it’s a really important part of like, there’s this physical healing, but then there’s spiritual healing and connection. And those are interconnected, right? So I love that and I think that’s really great. Okay, I know that we’re coming up on time and I promised we would be short on this, but okay, at last, two couple of quick, like hot topic questions and then we’ll kind of cut this. I could probably talk for three more hours on this because I’m so personally interested. And if you guys who are listening are thinking, yeah, me too, there’s a couple of different things that I just wanna encourage one of them. is that Ben has mentioned several times his book, Metabolic Freedom, but that’s not his only book. So I would just encourage everyone, go to his website, benazati.com. We’ll put it in the show notes so that you don’t misspell it. But I would just encourage you to go there, check out his book, Metabolic Freedom, check out all of his other books. Also go to his podcast, Keto Camp. Ben, is there a favorite place for people to go if they want to follow you on social media? Ben Azadi (45:44) Yeah, thank you for that. My website’s great, great resource, but in terms of my favorite place on social media, we put out a new podcast on YouTube every day, every single day. Weekends included, holidays included, every day. So I would say if you want a brand new episode on our YouTube channel, that’s where you go. Just type in my name, Ben Azzotti on YouTube, you’ll it pop right up. Rory & AJ Vaden (46:06) And then we’ll put all of these in the show notes. also has this amazing course that you guys can purchase, which is Metabolic Freedom. We’ll put that in there as well. There’s a lot of things going on. you’re going, yeah, but I need more. Then he’s got the resources. He’s got the book. He’s got the podcast. He’s got the course. So we’ll put all of that in there, but the central place is just go to his website. Last couple of quick questions. To you, what does metabolic freedom mean beyond just physical health? Ben Azadi (46:31) Well, it’s the way God built the body. it’s the metabolic freedom is functioning the way God built the human body. And it’s beyond physical health beyond beyond way beyond that. It’s actually so it’s more important to have a mental six pack than a physical six pack. When you are mentally and metabolically healthy, you are living on purpose with your purpose. You are thriving. You are your truest personality. You are functioning and operating the way God designed you. That is just such an incredible feeling and a lot of people don’t function that way. A lot of people are just surviving. They’re like Earl Nightingale used to say, most people tiptoe their way through life hoping to make it safely to death. I don’t want that life. I know you don’t want it AJ and I don’t want it for anybody watching or listening. So when you get healthy inside out, and I really believe it starts with your thoughts and your mental health before even the physical changes. When you get healthy, you’re just operating the way God designed. unique to you, unique to your goals and your purpose, which is such a beautiful thing. I have found that for myself and I want that for every single person on the planet because that’s the way we were designed to thrive. And that’s what metabolic freedom and mental freedom means to me. Rory & AJ Vaden (47:40) I love that. It’s so good. And it’s so true. Okay, two last questions. You wrote this book, but you didn’t have to. You had all this knowledge, but you didn’t have to put it in a book. Why did you decide to not only write this book, you have four books, but why books? Like what was it that made you go, I feel called to do that? Ben Azadi (48:01) Yeah, as you know, as an author, and you teach a lot of people to be successful authors. There’s something to having a book. There’s such a huge authority piece to having a book. You can hand people a business card or tell them your website or your socials and that’s great. But when you have a book that you could hand them or reference, there’s authority there. And I wanted to create a book like Metabolic Freedom. The reason why I wrote this book specifically, this book is not a niche book. It’s not a book that goes deep into the science. It definitely has signs, but it was written for the masses. It was written for you to understand how your body works, simple swaps you could make. Here’s a 30-day plan. I wanted to write something that appealed to the masses, that made a dent in what we see the disease out there. I want to make a dent in the disease. So whatever problem we see out there that you see out there for those watching and listening, I think it’s so great to have a book as a solution, a book that somebody could read or listen to or reference as a solution. And that’s the reason why I wrote this book, it’s the reason why I’m already writing my next book. I think it’s such an incredible thing to have and gets you on, I mean we could talk more about it, it gets you on stages, it gets you more interviews, it’s like there’s so many things to it that AJ could just teach you for hours. But you know, for me, I wanted to have a resource for the masses and I believe that I accomplished that with MetaBolt Freedom. Rory & AJ Vaden (49:21) Yeah, I would second that. I really do believe it’s a calling to write a book. A lot of people have information to share, but it’s a calling and it’s a discipline to write a book. But to that point, it creates a document that you can give to people, right? And people who find value in it gives. there’s something tangible about a book that… The ever greenness of it just seems to way outlast a podcast or social media post or a blog. and I think that’s really meaningful and impactful and it’s a lot of work, right? And that’s a great reminder to all of you who listening, who are getting all of your health tips from Tik TOK or Instagram or YouTube. It’s like the amount of time that we prep. I can just say for me, it’s like, do 15 minutes prep for a podcast, five years of prep for a book. So if you think about the depth and the knowledge and the time that you put into a book versus a social post or a podcast, it’s extraordinarily different. And so put some weight into like what actual books are you reading? Real expertise, real wisdom, especially when it comes to your health and making sure you’re not just listening to the latest TikTok influencer, but you’re actually getting real expertise and experience. All right, then last question. ⁓ Ben Azadi (50:32) Yes. Rory & AJ Vaden (50:34) This is a totally personal question for everyone who’s listening, who really resonates with what you said today. And they’ve been on the struggle bus and they are struggling with obesity or overweight. but they know like I’m doing all these things and I’m trying and you know, all the things that you probably felt and that I have felt in the past too. What would you say is their very first next step after listening to this conversation? Ben Azadi (50:58) I would say, you know, what needs to change is the, your self image, the way you view yourself at a subconscious level. you can make all the conscious decisions to change, do keto fasting, all the things you heard today, but you’ll find a way to sabotage yourself. If you don’t change it at a subconscious level, it’s the way you view yourself, your self image, chapter 10 of metabolic freedom gets into this, but I will say this. One of the things I recommend in chapter 10 that I’ll recommend now is my answer is to on a, a card, a index card, a piece of paper, write down that new version of yourself, the new image of yourself. Write it down in present tense. Thank God for it, that this is the way that I would recommend it. I would say, I’m so happy and grateful now that, and then you write this beautiful new self image of yourself. So if you’re overweight, the self image would be, I’m so happy and grateful now that I’m at my perfect weight. I’m healthy. I have optimal energy levels. The perfect health I seek is now seeking me. I remove blockages between us. Glory to God for helping me achieve optimal health. You write that down and you read it every single day, every single morning, right before bed. You do that for 30 days. And what happens is now you start to put this new idea into the subconscious mind. It replaces the old idea. And then you become unstoppable. You no longer sabotage yourself. You start to get some serious momentum. So that would be my tip. Write down that new image, read it every day, at least for 30 days and watch what it does to change your life. Rory & AJ Vaden (52:20) So good. So, so good. This has been amazing. Thank you guys so much. Please everyone check out the show notes. We will put all the places where you can get the book, listen to the podcast, follow Ben on social and let’s start 2026 out on the right foot, which is getting healthy inside out. Thanks everyone for listening. We’ll see you next time on the wealthy and well-known podcast.