Change Your Body at Any Age: The Diet & Exercise Plan For a Longer Life

20:28Mel Robbins:Why do I think I need a half an hour? Why do I think it needs to take that long? And I wonder if it's because, especially as women, we've been socialized to go to an aerobics class that lasts an hour or to a certain class that, and there are certain exercises that it's nice to have a long yoga class, but when you're really thinking about, I've got a little bit of time and I want the maximum positive impact in terms of my health, this breathless exercise is a complete shift.

20:58Dr. Rhonda Patrick:It's a game changer for people that don't have a lot of time, that want to get health benefits, that feel overwhelmed when they have to think about getting a gym membership, getting in their car, driving to the gym, working out for an hour. It seems like a lot, and they just say, I can't do it. And so then they miss out. And yes, there's of course benefits doing that. I mean, So in these studies that I'm talking about where people are wearing accelerometers, there are also many other studies that are very tangential where they're measuring people doing these types of what are called exercise snacks.

21:30Dr. Rhonda Patrick:So when I'm talking about one breathless minute, perhaps two breathless minutes, maybe three, this is something called an exercise snack. I've talked about it before. But it's essentially like you can either have it structured where you're getting up and you're doing a minute of bodyweight squats or you're doing some jumping jacks or high knees or burpees or whatever fill in the blank you want to do to get your heart rate up and to be able to be in that zone where you can't really talk but a few words, right? Or it could be taking advantage of everyday life. I work on the fourth floor of an office building.

22:07Dr. Rhonda Patrick:I am not going to take the elevator. I'm going to walk up the stairs. I'm not only going to walk up the stairs, I'm going to walk fast up the stairs. Or I work a few blocks from my house. I'm not going to drive there. I'm going to briskly walk or perhaps even jog or bike. You know, so you're basically taking advantage of everyday life. I have a grandkid or I have a child. I'm going to play tag with them for a couple of minutes. I have a new puppy. I'm going to run around with my puppy. These moments count. They add up. They're cumulative. And we have the research to show that. This is called vigorous intermittent lifestyle activity, VILPA for short.

22:49Dr. Rhonda Patrick:It's these people that are taking advantage of everyday life to really get that vigorous minute or two or three in. Multiple studies have shown that if you do this, you actually get the same type of benefits as people that exercise. They've directly compared them. When I say people that exercise, I mean people that are identifying as going to the gym, taking some block of time out to go and get their heart rate up. So very different types of ways to get your heart rate up, right? One is just taking advantage of every new life and just going for it. I'm playing tag with my grandkids. Or one is taking time to go to the gym.

23:23Dr. Rhonda Patrick:What do we see? We see that people that do three minutes of it, the three minutes of this breathless, so it could be walking uphill for three minutes. It could be playing tag with your grandkids for three minutes, right? Three minutes, three times a day. So we're at nine minutes a day. This is where I get the 10 from. We're at nine minutes a day. Those individuals have a 40 % reduction in cancer-related mortality, 40 % reduction in all-cause mortality, and a 50 % reduction in cardiovascular-related mortality. This is even in people that are not identifying as going to the gym and exercising. If you were to ask them, do you exercise?

23:58Dr. Rhonda Patrick:They would say no, because they don't count those moments. They don't count when they're playing tag with their kids or grandkids. They don't count when they're, you know, going fast up the stairs to get to work, but it does count. Exercise and the way our body adapts to this exercise, it doesn't matter if you go to the gym or not, right? It just matters that you're doing it. And so I think, again, this is so, it's like take a breath of relief because, and when I talk to people about it, it's like, oh, thank God. Some people don't like going to the gym. I love it. I love it. But not everyone does.

24:28Dr. Rhonda Patrick:Some people literally don't have time. They don't have time. But do you have time to do three minutes after breakfast, three minutes after lunch, three minutes after dinner? Yes, you have that time. You just have to take it and do it. And it's fast. It goes by very fast. I also have for the exercise snacks, I have a free guide out there, how to train guide according to the experts. And essentially it talks about the different ways to do exercise snacks, what exercise snacks you can do, how to do them, and also a variety of other training modalities out there. that can help improve your brain health, your mood, and also the way you age.

25:03Dr. Rhonda Patrick:It's howtotrainguide.com if people are interested in picking that up.

25:07Mel Robbins:Awesome. And we will link to that in all the show notes with all the resources related to this conversation. You know, Dr. Patrick, a couple things. First of all, I really like the name exercise snack versus the vigorous intermittent lifestyle, whatever the last word was. Exercise snack sounds like I could do it. And I want to make sure as you're listening or you're watching right now that you really got the very simple instructions from Dr. Patrick based on the research, that it's just three minutes, three times a day of this vigorous kind of breathless activity. And in fact, you know what I'm realizing?

25:48My husband, Chris, will often, like first thing in the morning, he drops and does like 11 or 20

25:57Mel Robbins:push-ups or whatever it is he's doing it. And I'll see him do it in the kitchen midday. And I never really kind of understood why. I was like, oh, that's kind of interesting and sexy, but I don't feel like doing that right now. But I didn't feel like it counted. I live in the old world where in my mind, it doesn't count as exercise unless I'm in the exercise clothes and I am doing something for at least a half an hour and that it is a form of exercise that I tend to not like. And what you're saying is, no, no, no, no. Three minutes, three times a day, whether you're doing squats or kind of jogging up a flight of stairs or you are going up a hill or you're playing tag with your grandkids, anything that gets you in that state, this counts and has massive impacts on all kinds of health outcomes.

26:51Dr. Rhonda Patrick:Yeah, absolutely.

26:51Mel Robbins:For how long do I have to do this? like for the rest of my life is what you're going to say.

26:54Dr. Rhonda Patrick:But, you know, when do I feel better? 10 minutes a day. So look, you will feel better after you're going to feel better because you're going to get increased blood flow to your brain.

27:05Mel Robbins:So how does forcing yourself to do something that's hard physically, challenging your muscles, doing breathless exercise vigorously, even for short burst of time. How exactly in the brain and body does making yourself do something hard help you manage the challenges of life? You know what I mean? Like I've heard people talk about the, is it the anterior single, I can't even say that.

27:33Dr. Rhonda Patrick:Yeah, the anterior singular cortex.

27:35Mel Robbins:Yes. I don't know if that's kind of what you're referring to in terms of the researcher, but if you could, Dr. Patrick, just explain. When you challenge your muscles, it boosts your ability to handle the challenges of life. And the more you force yourself to do hard physical things, the easier your life starts to feel.

27:52Dr. Rhonda Patrick:There's a lot of things that happen. One of them is activating that part of the brain as well, which seems to also play a role in protecting against neurodegenerative disease. So we have an endogenous, that just means in our body, opioid system, okay? Opioids, we're usually thinking of, you know, maybe exogenous ones that people take to help with pain relief, right? Like morphine, for example. We make our own opioids, endorphins, right? Endorphins are something that we make. Those are the feel-good opioids that we make in our brain. They make us feel good. You do make that with exercise, but you also make a type of opioid that makes you feel uncomfortable.

28:32Dr. Rhonda Patrick:It's called dynorphin. It's responsible for that uncomfortable feeling, that feeling that's like, oh, I wanna stop. I can't do this. It's hard, right? Dynorphin is that uncomfortable neurochemical that's being produced. And what that does is when your brain is making that and you don't give up, you keep pushing past it, it has this feedback loop in your brain where then your brain goes, oh, this is that bad. I don't want to call it bad. It's the dysphoric feeling. I better figure out a way to deal with that and adapt and make something good so that later when I have that uncomfortable dysphoric feeling, I don't feel so uncomfortable.

29:11Dr. Rhonda Patrick:And so what happens is your brain starts to make more of these receptors. Receptors are things that neurochemicals and neurotransmitters and things like that bind to to have an effect. So they make more of the receptors that bind endorphins. They're called mu-opioid receptors, and they become more sensitive to endorphins. This happens only when you're getting that uncomfortable dynorphin flooding your brain. And so what happens is then later on when anything happens that's a little bit pleasant, you're going to feel it better and for a longer period of time. And so that just makes everything easier when you have that sensitization to these endorphins, which we are making all throughout the day, little things like, yeah, seeing your friends, smile, like all these little things.

30:00Dr. Rhonda Patrick:You make endorphins. And it's just a matter of how powerful are you going to feel that endorphin. And so the uncomfortableness of the dynorphin is what is doing that. But you have to engage in the hard, uncomfortable thing that makes you feel that dysphoric feeling to get there.

30:16Mel Robbins:So much sense. So if you force yourself to do, and we're just talking about moving your body, to do some form of exercise, even just for a minute, even for three minutes, even for 10 minutes, that what's happening because you're experiencing all of that discomfort is it paves the way for you to now really magnify all of the beautiful and wonderful and comfortable things that follow it because you got the discomfort out of the way. Isn't it amazing? It's actually amazing because I think we've all had an experience. And as you're listening or you're watching right now, think about something that you push yourself to do physically, whether it was a 5k or it was some trail that you hiked that was harder than you thought, but you got to the top, or maybe you climbed a ridiculous amount of stairs and you get to the top and you surprise yourself and you're out of breath, it is true that when you look up, the view is spectacular.

31:18Mel Robbins:The rest of the day is downhill, so to speak, because you got the hard thing out of the way. You got the hard thing out

31:24Dr. Rhonda Patrick:of the way, and your body adapted to that hard thing and said, hey, I'm going to make the good things feel even better because I got to negate some of that hard stuff that I know I'm going to face again.

31:34Mel Robbins:In the old world, Mel Robbins would have gone straight to the refrigerator and grabbed a snack to make me feel comfortable. Based on hearing all of this research, I suspect that if I were to do an exercise snack instead and I were to do a minute to three minutes of air squats or go just walk up the hill by my house or climb some stairs or high knees or whatever and I'm breathless in the kitchen, that would have a massive benefit on how I feel right after and my ability to handle the stress of whatever I'm in in that moment. Is that right?

32:08Dr. Rhonda Patrick:Absolutely right. Massive, massive benefit. Exercise snack is exactly what you should do in those types of moments. Until you do it, you don't realize how powerful it is because you hear one minute, three minutes, no way. But when you do it, you actually then realize it's so powerful.

32:27Mel Robbins:She's right, the exercise snack. You know, Dr. Patrick, I'm just sitting here reflecting on everything you've shared so far. I'm so grateful that you're here. Thank you for flying across country. Thank you for sharing this with us. I have so many more questions, but I want to take a quick pause because I'm sure you have people in your life that you're thinking about. And go ahead and share this link with them while you take a moment and listen to a few words from our amazing sponsors. And don't go anywhere. Dr. Patrick has so much more to teach you and to share with you and unpack for you. And we are just getting started.

32:59Mel Robbins:So stay with us.

33:09Mel Robbins:welcome back it's your friend mel robbins today you and i are here with dr ronda patrick and she's teaching you about the five supplements that she believes every person should be taking we're digging into the research we are going through them one-to-one so let's keep going Dr. Patrick, my next question is this.

33:30Dr. Rhonda Patrick:You know, one topic that I hear a lot of people talking about is visceral fat.

33:35Mel Robbins:And I'm not even sure I understand exactly what it is. And is that like when you see a guy that's relatively skinny and then they look like they're kind of pregnant? I don't mean to be offensive to anybody, but I don't really understand what visceral fat is.

33:51Dr. Rhonda Patrick:Visceral fat is the kind of fat that you cannot pinch. So the fat that you can pinch is subcutaneous fat. That's the fat that's stored as energy. It's energy storage. Visceral fat is, yes, it is usually around the midsection, this belly fat, but it's the deep, deep belly fat. It's actually surrounding organs like the liver, the kidneys. It's surrounding the organs. And unlike the subcutaneous fat, this fat is not just stored energy. It's like an endocrine organ. Endocrine organs like make hormones. It's making hormones. It's making inflammatory molecules causing inflammation that are wreaking havoc on your body.

34:44Dr. Rhonda Patrick:It is something that not necessarily someone that looks maybe lean. They might actually have visceral fat. So waist circumference is a indirect way of measuring it. So for a woman, if you have a waist circumference of 35 inches or higher, that's a pretty good indicator that you have a high amount of visceral fat. For men, it would be about 40 inches or higher. But it doesn't necessarily have to be the waist circumference because some people are lean and they don't eat good diets. We can talk about the main drivers of it. They can increase their visceral fat. Why is it something to care about is also a really important question, I think, because, you know, most people, when they think about fat, they're thinking about, well, I don't, you know, my looks, I don't look good.

35:32Dr. Rhonda Patrick:But they're thinking about their long-term health. You know, obesity and being overweight is obviously a major driver of, you know, increasing many different diseases, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, for example, right? But visceral fat is, it doubles mortality. So people with a high amount of visceral fat die, you know, sooner. So you're talking about double risk mortality. It also increases cancer incidence. So people that are making these inflammatory cytokines, inflammation drives cancer. And so people that have visceral fat have like a 44 % higher risk of having cancer. It's insulin resistance.

36:09Dr. Rhonda Patrick:It's causing insulin resistance, you know, metabolic dysfunction. But I think what people relate to more is the effects that are happening on a day-to-day basis. So because visceral fat is causing inflammation, it's activating your immune system each day, right? You don't want your immune system to be activated each day. You want it to be activated when you're exposed to a pathogen. That's what the immune system is there for, right? It's there to fight off foreign invaders, whether that's a virus or a bacterial invader or whether it's a cancer cell, right? This is what your immune system is meant to do and be activated for.

36:44Dr. Rhonda Patrick:When you have this chronic inflammatory signal that's being produced by your own body, inside your own body, it's activating your immune system, which is extremely energetically demanding. It is taking energy. I mean, when you're sick, you're sleepy, you're tired, you're fatigued, you have no energy. Well, that's happening to some degree when someone has this chronic inflammatory signal from visceral fat. it is going to make you feel fatigued because the energy is literally being sucked away to your immune system because that's what it needs to activate the immune system is a lot of energy. So you're going to feel chronic fatigue.

37:20Dr. Rhonda Patrick:The other thing it's going to make people feel is they're going to have these energy crashes followed by cravings. And the reason for that is because visceral fat is metabolically active. It is breaking down fatty acids. And these fatty acids, because of the location of it right around your liver, it's going straight to the liver. And essentially, the liver is prioritizing that fuel. Rather than the fuel you eat, perhaps you eat a meal, you're going to have your blood sugar, your blood glucose is going to go up. Usually, you'll make insulin in a response to that, and the glucose will then go into your muscle or go into adipose tissue.

37:58Dr. Rhonda Patrick:What happens when you have visceral fat is that whole process is completely dysregulated because you're constantly making fatty acids. Those fatty acids stop the body from making insulin. So after you eat a meal, the glucose stays around. Your body freaks out and goes, I better make more insulin. So it overcompensates, makes a lot of insulin. Then all the glucose goes out of your bloodstream, goes into adipose tissue or muscle, whatever. And all of a sudden, your blood glucose drops and you are crashing. Your energy goes down. Then your brain is sensing that and going, oh, my gosh, I need energy.

38:33Dr. Rhonda Patrick:What's the quickest way I can have energy? And you start to get these cravings for the quickest type of fuel, typically processed junk food. So this is kind of the vicious cycle of visceral fat causing fatigue, causing energy crashes, causing cravings, and then insulin resistance sort of in the making and eventually type 2 diabetes. Okay.

38:53Mel Robbins:The thing I want to unpack is how you described it. So I personally found it extremely helpful to understand that there are two different types. One is the kind we can pinch, and the other is this visceral fat, which as you were describing it is something that is surrounding your organs. It sounded like an invasive species that is coating certain organs and then starting to expand out and in doing so creates almost like its own little toxic ecosystem around your organs. And I personally, maybe somebody's explained to me like that, I've never visually imagined it like that. And the second that you described it that way, and that it, you know, is the kind of thing that's like a, it's like dense, like it, you're not going to fix this with a crunch at the gym.

39:50I immediately thought, my God, if I have that sort of invasive species encasing my organs,

39:59Mel Robbins:how the hell do I get rid of this? Because I don't want that happening underneath the surface and robbing me of years of my life, robbing me of energy, disrupting my metabolic systems. What is the research, say, Dr. Patrick, about the specific thing you should do if this is you or somebody that you love?

40:22Dr. Rhonda Patrick:Well, the good news is that it is easy to get rid of it. It is? It is. It is actually the first kind of fat you lose if you're on any type of weight loss program. The way that you lose visceral fat is kind of entangled in with how you can gain it easily as well. And I think they're both important to understand because you can gain it very easily quite quickly if you're eating a lot of calories. So there are studies showing that men, healthy young college men, you know, they're eating 1 ,200 more calories a day for five days. They will gain excess visceral fat without even gaining weight. So you get on a scale, really not much weight gain at all, but you are gaining visceral fat.

41:00And that's important to point out because I think sometimes people think, oh, if I'm not gaining weight, if I'm weighing myself every morning, then I'm fine.

41:08Dr. Rhonda Patrick:Not necessarily the case. So if you're eating excess calories, particularly in the form of processed foods, things that don't have a lot of fiber, you're eating refined sugars, really easy to gain visceral fat. Good news is also easy to lose. The ways that you can lose visceral fat, for one, would be caloric deficit, any sort of weight loss program. In fact, it's one of the first types of fat that you lose. High-intensity interval training, vigorous types of exercise. That is one of the most robust ways to help lose visceral fat. Again, you will lose it without even seeing that reflected on a scale.

41:43Dr. Rhonda Patrick:So just know that if you are doing your 10 breathless minutes, perhaps you're doing 30 minutes a day. You're adding in some moderate intensity. You're adding in some walking, brisk walking in addition to the 10 breathless minutes, the 10 vigorous minutes that you're doing. That really has been shown to help lose visceral fat, even if you don't see that reflected on the scale. Very important to keep in mind. Sleep is extremely important. And that is because being in a chronically stressed state can cause your body to react and start to accumulate visceral fat. There are studies showing that two weeks of sleep deprivation, so for an individual going from nine hours of sleep per night to four hours for two weeks, they will gain about 11 % of visceral fat just in two weeks.

42:31Dr. Rhonda Patrick:So big time making sure you're prioritizing your sleep and not being chronically sleep deprived. Very important. Also stress, you know, a lot of that psychological stress, being able to deal with that stress better. And again, that comes down to the exercise. It's gonna help your reaction, your cortisol response to the psychological stress is gonna be buffered by that exercise that you're doing. So that's the key. Those are the main things that are really helping you lose fat and the drivers of it. So making sure you're not sleep deprived, making sure you're dealing with your stress are important.

43:04Dr. Rhonda Patrick:But any sort of weight loss and then doing the vigorous exercise is the most important type of exercise. Resistance training is important. You don't lose as much visceral fat, but it does overall help your metabolic health, which will help you prevent you from gaining as much visceral fat, if that makes sense. So engaging in resistance training is a very important part of your exercise program. You want to make sure you're maintaining muscle mass. Those body weight squats are a way to do that, but you can also do them vigorously and get the best of both worlds, I would say. Dr.

43:33Mel Robbins:Patrick, hold that thought. I have a follow-up question, but I need to hit the pause button because we have amazing sponsors that I want to give a chance to share a few words with you. Don't go anywhere. Dr. Patrick has so much more to teach you when we return, so stay with us.

43:59Mel Robbins:Welcome back. It's your friend Mel Robbins. Today, you and I are getting to learn from the extraordinary Dr. Rhonda Patrick. Dr. Patrick, let's just jump right back in where we were. I have a quick question, though. If somebody's listening to you and they're saying, oh my God, I've been doing everything. I've been going to the gym.

44:16Dr. Rhonda Patrick:I've been watching what I eat.

44:17Mel Robbins:I've been drinking my water, I've been trying to sleep, and nothing is changing. Dr. Patrick, what is the first thing you would have them audit about their lifestyle?

44:28Dr. Rhonda Patrick:I think for someone that really thinks they're doing all the right things, first of all, I would ask, are you getting seven and a half to nine hours of sleep? Not being in bed for seven and a half to nine hours. I mean, sleep, right? I would ask, are you getting bright light exposure within 30 minutes of waking up? for at least 15 to 30 minutes, because that is what is resetting your biological clock, your circadian clock. So every organ in our body has a clock, and everything is running on a clock, our metabolism, our neurotransmitter synthesis, like making neurochemicals, our immune function, everything, hormone production, right?

45:07And so you want to reset

45:10Dr. Rhonda Patrick:that clock every morning, and the bright light exposure is the reset. It's the master regulator in your brain. It's called the suprachiasmatic nucleus region. Light is what is resetting it so that your brain and your body know start. This is the reset, start of the clock. It's going to start making the hormones at the right time. So that bright light is going to make something called cortisol. We've all heard of it. We're all scared of it. We shouldn't be. It's very important. It's a hormone that you want to be making first thing in the morning, And you want to make a lot of it because it's regulating 20 % of your human genome.

45:46Dr. Rhonda Patrick:A lot of important things that it's regulating. What you don't want is that slow drip cortisol where it's not getting the big amplitude peak. It's just a little drip, drip, drip throughout the day. It's making that stress response and it's dysregulating all those 20 % of genes, right? So that happens first thing in the morning because cortisol actually wakes you up, gives you energy. You want that. So the bright light is really important because it'll also help you. Your body will know when to go to sleep. It'll start to make melatonin, that sleepy hormone, at the right time. Your core body temperature will dip at the right time during sleep so that you can stay asleep.

46:23Dr. Rhonda Patrick:All these little things you don't think, but your heart rate will be going down right. All those little things, that's all controlled by your circadian clock. And if you don't reset it, it's not going to be working properly, right? So bright light exposure, are you waking up at the same time every morning? Very much like bright light exposure, that's also a reset for your clock. Your body anticipates when it's supposed to wake up. When you start to get these erratic wake-up times, let's say you're socializing, you're out late, and you're doing it constantly, your brain can't figure out when it's supposed to wake up.

46:52Dr. Rhonda Patrick:And so all these hormones and all these things that are important and on a clock don't happen. So it really affects your sleep. Then I would ask, are you eating within three hours of going to bed? Because that also really affects your sleep. you don't want to be digesting food when you're sleeping. So if you're eating an hour before you go to bed, it takes about five hours to digest your food. When you're digesting food, you're activating what's called the sympathetic nervous system. That's the fight or flight response. It's when your heart rate's going up. It's signaling to your body, time to be awake, time to be awake.

47:27Dr. Rhonda Patrick:So you might be sleeping, but you're fighting, your body's going, no, no, I'm digesting. I'm supposed to be awake. And so your sleep isn't gonna be good. You're gonna have more awakenings. It's also been shown in studies, you're not going to have that robust cardiovascular reset. Your blood pressure won't dip as low. It'll dip a little bit, but it won't have that big amplitude dip. And that's very important, again, for preventing. In fact, there's studies showing that if you don't have that cardiovascular dip as robustly, you're 20 % more likely to get cardiovascular disease earlier in life. So very important.

47:59Dr. Rhonda Patrick:And then alcohol consumption would be the thing I would also ask. Are you drinking alcohol too close to bed because a lot of people have this misconception because alcohol can help you fall asleep faster. That's why people like to drink alcohol at night. It disrupts your REM sleep. So you're going to have, and it also causes more awakenings in the night. So that would be the first thing I would ask. I know that was a lot, but it's important because I don't think that many people are realizing perhaps their sleep isn't optimized. And there are a few core behaviors that you can sort of tweak that will really affect your sleep.

48:32Dr. Rhonda Patrick:And that would be a place to start, because if you're not getting, if you're chronically sleep deprived, like I mentioned, you're going to be getting visceral fat. You're gaining visceral fat. And you're going, why am I still gaining it when I'm, you know, doing some exercise and, you know, you're battling. It's like the battle, like it's tug of war, essentially.

48:47Mel Robbins:Well, first, Dr. Patrick, I want to thank you, because when I asked you that question of what would be the lifestyle audit that you would focus on if somebody feels like they're doing all the right things, but nothing is changing about their health or their body composition. I thought you were going to say, look at what you're eating. And so the fact that you said you need to do an audit of your sleep was both surprising to me, and it was also very helpful to have you walk through those five questions that you need to ask yourself because those questions around how much sleep are you getting, and are you getting bright light in the morning?

49:26Mel Robbins:Are you waking up at the same time every morning? When are you eating in terms of how close are you eating to your bedtime? And then finally, are you drinking at night? Those five questions give you, almost like a treasure hunt, the answers to the things you need to change in order to get a better night's sleep. So now, Dr. Patrick, I wanna shift gears and go into the category of nutrition. And you have a daily smoothie recipe that makes it simple and easy for us to get a lot of the things that we need every single day in one smoothie. Let's do it. All right, let's step out of the studio and head into the kitchen here in Boston.

50:08Mel Robbins:So Dr. Patrick, you are about to teach us how you make the smoothie that you have every day. And for those of you that are listening, I'm just going to tell you, I see kale, I see blueberry, I see avocado, I see protein, and I see something I can't pronounce. Okay.

50:22Dr. Rhonda Patrick:It's a beta glucan powder made from barley. Before we get into the smoothie I make every day, I kind of want to give a little bit of reason why I like to do a smoothie every day. And it really comes down to realizing that what we do in our lifestyle and our diet really is impactful on the way we age and our life expectancy. A lot of people think genetics are the most important thing. And when it comes down to it, really 80 % of how long we live and how well we live has to do with our lifestyle.

50:51Mel Robbins:Hold on. 80 %?

50:53Dr. Rhonda Patrick:80%. About 80%. Yeah. I would say about 20 % to 25 % is genetics. But what I'm going to tell you is this study that actually came out of Harvard here in Boston. And it was really, I mean, it was a few years ago, but it was really a compelling study because what it did was looked at people's diet and lifestyle and their life expectancy and found that if people followed just like five different lifestyle factors, it could increase their life expectancy between 12 and 14 years. So women on average that were not doing all five of these lifestyle factors, which is a big part of it is what we're going to be looking at here.

51:31Dr. Rhonda Patrick:They lived on average about 79 years. If they did include all five of the lifestyle factors, they lived to the age of about, They added 14 years, so they lived to about 93. What?

51:41Mel Robbins:14 years?

51:43Dr. Rhonda Patrick:14 years. If they started at age 50, five different healthy lifestyle factors included all five, they lived to age 93. So it was a 14-year increase in life expectancy. For men that started at age 50, it was a 12-year increase in life expectancy. Oh, my gosh. So they were living on average 75.5 years, and they went up to about 86 years.

52:04Mel Robbins:And just what are quickly those five lifestyles?

52:07Dr. Rhonda Patrick:Five are adopting a healthy lifestyle pattern, which we're going to talk about.

52:11Mel Robbins:Okay.

52:12Dr. Rhonda Patrick:Not smoking. Doing three and a half hours of moderate or vigorous intensity per week. We talked a lot about the vigorous intensity exercise, 10 minutes a day. That would be 70 minutes a week. And so you're basically going to add on to that by doing some of the more moderate intensity exercise. Got it.

52:27Mel Robbins:Okay.

52:27Dr. Rhonda Patrick:So that was number three. Number four is not consuming excess alcohol. So women were consuming fewer than one drink per day, and men consumed about one drink per day or fewer. And then the last one is maintaining a healthy BMI. Those were the five lifestyle factors that could add between 12 to 14 years to your life expectancy. And on top of that, those individuals were free from diseases like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, cancer, right? So you're living healthy years, which is what you want. The nutrition part is a big component of this. So those individuals were eating, they were in the top 40 % of the, what's called the alternative healthy eating pattern.

53:09Dr. Rhonda Patrick:And what that includes is first and foremost, you have to have four to five servings of fruits and vegetables per day. So those vegetables, what's a serving is the question. A serving was either a cup of leafy greens. So you have to have four to five of that. And so you can see here, this is a measuring cup. This is a cup for those people, that person that's listening. And she's packing just regular old kale,

53:33Mel Robbins:nothing fancy about it, right into the one cup metal measuring cup.

53:37Dr. Rhonda Patrick:Kale, and remember, you got to get five of these per day. And this is why this is efficient. We've been talking about efficient. We've been talking about what can we do that's easy, that's going to give us the biggest bang for our buck. I find it's easiest for me to get five servings of vegetables if I can at least, you know, get a smoothie in. So here's the kale. That's one cup. I'm going to add another cup here.

53:59Mel Robbins:So you're getting two servings in.

54:00Dr. Rhonda Patrick:I'm getting two servings. I'm probably going to get around three servings of kale into that smoothie.

54:06Mel Robbins:Three cups of kale? Three cups of kale.

54:08Dr. Rhonda Patrick:There we go. And that is, then I can substitute the rest with my salad. Kale is really high in lutein. Lutein is that thing that's going to prevent your eyes from macular degeneration. It also seems to protect The brain improves cognitive processing, cognitive speed, fluid intelligence. That's the kind of intelligence that you've accumulated throughout a lifetime and then can still incorporate when you're older. That's what we want, right? So kale has a lot of that. It also has magnesium. It has calcium. It has vitamin K. It's got a lot of these micronutrients that we need to get from our diet.

54:42Dr. Rhonda Patrick:The next thing I like to add is blueberries. And blueberries are part of that serving size of fruit and vegetables. and again, it's about a half a cup as a serving. So if you want five servings of that, you're gonna get about two and a half cups of the blueberries. I also like blueberries because they're high in polyphenols, a specific type of polyphenol called anthocyanins. And those have been shown in randomized placebo-controlled studies. That's very important because placebo effect is real, as we've talked about. But the blueberries have been shown one cup a day to improve cognition. That's important, right?

55:17Dr. Rhonda Patrick:We all wanna improve cognition. It's been shown in young adults. It's been shown in older adults. It's been shown in adults with mild cognitive decline. So everyone has every reason to try to take at least one cup of blueberries a day. So I'm going to put one cup. Yep.

55:32Mel Robbins:And we used frozen, which I also like because they're cheaper than buying them fresh.

55:35Dr. Rhonda Patrick:And I do have, I do like to usually use organic because I don't want a lot of pesticides. But I do like frozen also because it keeps the smoothie cold and it just gives it a better,

55:46Mel Robbins:like, you don't want your smoothie really warm. So I got two cups. Two cups of blueberries, three cups of kale.

55:51Dr. Rhonda Patrick:I'm going to do two and a half cups.

55:52Mel Robbins:Wow. Okay. Two and a half cups of blueberries.

55:56Dr. Rhonda Patrick:And then one thing I do not add to my smoothie is a banana.

56:01Mel Robbins:Now, why don't you like bananas? I mean, I love bananas.

56:04Dr. Rhonda Patrick:I love bananas. They're high in potassium. They're good to refuel. I love to do them before a run. It gives me enough fuel without cramping, right? But I used to put them in my smoothies. Dr.

56:16Mel Robbins:Patrick, what happens when you put a banana in a smoothie?

56:19Dr. Rhonda Patrick:What happens is there's something in the banana called polyphenol oxidase.

56:26Mel Robbins:That doesn't sound good.

56:26Dr. Rhonda Patrick:Doesn't sound good. Polyphenols are what I just said are beneficial. Yes. Oxidase, polyphenol oxidase, is essentially an enzyme that's breaking down the polyphenols. And there have now been studies that have come out showing if you add bananas to blueberries, you're not getting as many polyphenols. In fact, it's quite a bit lower.

56:45Mel Robbins:So the banana is killing the benefit of the... See, this is why I need you, because I am sitting here making smoothies thinking I like the texture of the banana in it. It gives a little heft, creams it out a little bit. But then I'm putting in my blueberries, and I just blew it because the banana canceled the blueberries.

57:01Dr. Rhonda Patrick:It's true. I also used to add it to my blueberries for the exact reason, plus the taste. If you go to any smoothie place, you'll see they always add bananas to any blueberry smoothie. Yes, of course. But that's where the avocado comes in. Oh. Because now you're going to get the creamy texture that you want, which is what I also want. Yes. And on top of that, there have been studies showing that the fat, so this monounsaturated fat in this avocado, it actually increases the bioavailability of the lutein and another carotenoid called zeaxanthin in the kale by fourfold.

57:34Mel Robbins:Okay, well, hold on. Let me just make sure I'm tracking with this. So if I sub the avocado for the banana, right, then the fact that the avocado, which is a good, healthy fat source, is going to dance around and mix it up with the kale, that fat source superpowers the benefit of the kale?

57:54Dr. Rhonda Patrick:It does. That's cool. It makes it where you're, so getting rid of the banana makes it where you're getting all the polyphenols from the blueberries. And then adding the avocado gives you the creaminess and it helps you superpower and get those carotenoids that are in the kale that are so beneficial for our eyes and brains and making it fourfold more likely to be absorbed. So you're getting a lot more. And there are studies showing this. Adding an avocado, carrots have carotenoids in them. So you can get the beta carotene is probably the most well-known carotenoid. You get fourfold more beta carotene.

58:25Dr. Rhonda Patrick:So you could even add a carrot in here if you want. In fact, I often like to add carrots as well. So I'm going to just use my fingers and put that half. That was a good one. I usually do about half of an avocado. Okay, half an avocado. And you can save the other half for the next day.

58:38Mel Robbins:And then you know what I do? I put this little top that's empty on top of the other one, and then it doesn't, like, turn brown.

58:43Dr. Rhonda Patrick:You can add a little lemon juice as well. That'll prevent it from oxidizing.

58:48Mel Robbins:A little tent.

58:48Dr. Rhonda Patrick:All right, so this is really the core of the smoothie here. Now, these are the optionals here. I like to add some protein powder, particularly on days when I'm really busy. I'm not getting, I know I'm skipping a meal because I'm not getting all the protein that I need for the day, which is about 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilogram body weight per day. And so I'll add sometimes a little bit of whey protein powder as well. You don't have to do that if you're getting your protein. This is, again, an optional add.

59:15Mel Robbins:I think it's very hard to get the amount of protein we're supposed to get. So I'm always adding it in. Especially if you work out a lot like I do.

59:20Dr. Rhonda Patrick:So I'm going to go ahead and add the protein powder. I do like, I'm not, I have no affiliation with Momentus currently right now. And, but I do like their protein powder because it doesn't have any fillers that affect my gut. And so I'm just scooping down to get their scooper because their scooper is the actual serving size. There it is. It's so funny. They're always hidden down there. Okay. So I'm going to take one scoop of protein powder, which for this one has 23 grams. So here, in it goes. If you're sharing it, you can do two scoops. So I think I'll do like a scoop and a half.

1:00:00Mel Robbins:Does that mean you're sharing it with me? I hope it does. Oops.

1:00:05Dr. Rhonda Patrick:Show that.

1:00:06Mel Robbins:Okay. And then an optional ad.

1:00:09Dr. Rhonda Patrick:This is actually a type of prebiotic fiber. You've probably heard of that. It's like prebiotic fiber.

1:00:14Mel Robbins:I've heard of fibers and I've heard of probiotics. Okay.

1:00:17Dr. Rhonda Patrick:Probiotics are the beneficial bacteria. If you take those, it helps. Prebiotics are the type of fiber, soluble fiber, fermentable fiber, that feed the bacteria in your gut. So that's why it's called a prebiotic. So it's a type of prebiotic. It's beta-glucan, and it's isolated from barley in this case. The reason why I have now added this to my, I would say, regimen, soon-to-be smoothie regimen, is because this has been shown in studies, one, to lower LDL cholesterol, which is a type of cholesterol that can build up in your arteries and play a role in cardiovascular disease. But what really piqued my attention was the fact that there's studies showing that beta-glucans can decrease the amount of forever chemicals, the PFAS, forever chemicals that usually last in your body anywhere between two to five years.

1:01:11Dr. Rhonda Patrick:They're associated with cancer. It's really terrible. And we're being exposed to them all the time, even on our fruits and vegetables. They're in the soil. You know, it's something that even kids are being exposed to. So now I'm something that I've been giving to my whole family.

1:01:24Mel Robbins:Okay. How much do I need?

1:01:25Dr. Rhonda Patrick:So usually I do one gram and one gram, it says here's three tablespoons. So I'm going to grab that tablespoon out. Okay. One, two, three.

1:01:37Mel Robbins:Plus it counts toward fiber, which is great.

1:01:39Dr. Rhonda Patrick:Yes. Okay. Now the study that showed it reduced forever chemicals, It was three grams a day. So you have to do the three tablespoons three times a day to get that.

1:01:51Mel Robbins:It's a lot.

1:01:53Dr. Rhonda Patrick:Or you can add, perhaps you can add more and get it in one serving, but we're going to start with the three grams. Then add a little bit of water just to mix it up a little bit. And as I'm standing here over the blender, Mel, I just want to point out one thing in that this blender is made of plastic.

1:02:11Mel Robbins:Okay.

1:02:11Dr. Rhonda Patrick:And there is a little bit of a concern that plastic blenders can shed microplastics more readily because of the friction with everything that's in there.

1:02:21Mel Robbins:So you should have a glass one.

1:02:22Dr. Rhonda Patrick:If you can have glass, there's also some metal ones that you can buy as well.

1:02:27Mel Robbins:Do you hear that, everybody? We've got to get a glass blender around here. Okay. Thank you for giving us the pass. Dr. Patrick, here she is, about to hit the blend. Everybody, cover your ears. Here we go.

1:02:42Mel Robbins:Oh, that's really purple.

1:02:45Dr. Rhonda Patrick:Yeah, I like the polyphenols.

1:02:53I just want to see what the consistency looks like.

1:02:57Dr. Rhonda Patrick:Yeah, I think we're good.

1:02:59Mel Robbins:Excellent. Well, I got two wine glasses. Since we're not drinking alcohol, we might as well.

1:03:02Dr. Rhonda Patrick:It's polyphenol hour. Yes, there we go. Yeah, and the polyphenols, I feel them immediately. It's been shown to increase blood flow to the brain in older adults.

1:03:10Mel Robbins:What exactly do you feel?

1:03:13Dr. Rhonda Patrick:It improves my mood and gives me energy. So I do take this midday. Just do a little glass.

1:03:25Mel Robbins:I'm actually kind of excited to try this. Well, everything always tastes better when somebody else makes it. I mean, that's true.

1:03:31Dr. Rhonda Patrick:So polyphenol hour. Cheers.

1:03:34Mel Robbins:Cheers to your health, Dr. Patrick. Let's try her new smoothie recipe. Here we go.

1:03:42Mel Robbins:that tastes like health. It's not sweet enough for me. It's not bad. It's not supposed to be sweet though, right? It's not.

1:03:49Dr. Rhonda Patrick:You can add the extra cup of blueberries to make it sweeter. And of course you can never get enough blueberries.

1:03:56Mel Robbins:You definitely taste the kale and it has the same consistency as if we had put a banana in. It does.

1:04:02Dr. Rhonda Patrick:It's creamy.

1:04:03Mel Robbins:Yeah. And I I love the purple.

1:04:04Dr. Rhonda Patrick:And actually, the prebiotic fiber didn't really mess with the consistency, to be honest.

1:04:11Mel Robbins:Well, I don't know, because you're the one that makes this all the time. So I wouldn't be able to tell the difference. It really didn't. No. Okay. Now, if I'm putting that much fiber in my smoothie, do I need to drink more water? Is that going to back me up?

1:04:21Dr. Rhonda Patrick:No, this is not the kind of fiber that you have. Okay. I can't worry about that. This is prebiotic fiber that's a little bit different.

1:04:27Mel Robbins:Mm-hmm. Because I know if you were doing like psyllium husk or some of the other stuff, you got to really make sure you're hydrating. Right.

1:04:33Dr. Rhonda Patrick:It's bringing, you got to make sure you get more water in you. Right.

1:04:37Mel Robbins:Amazing. We're going to go back in the studio and talk about what else we could be eating in the bucket of nutrition. And here's to your health. One of the other things that I noticed, Dr. Patrick, about the smoothie is that it had five ingredients. And you're talking about those five healthy lifestyle index factors that really have a massive impact on the quality of your life and your health. The smoothie was terrific. And again, you promised easy ways to apply the advice every single day. What are other foods we should focus on eating?

1:05:11Dr. Rhonda Patrick:Yeah. So some of the other foods that are important, first and foremost, getting omega-3 fatty acids. Some people don't like fish, which is why the supplementation of omega-3 is great. But if you want to take the healthy, alternative healthy eating index has two servings per week of four ounces of fatty fish like salmon or mackerel, right? Okay. So that would be two servings per week, four ounces each. And then you want to make sure you're getting enough whole grains. And these whole grains in this healthy eating index come from oats, barley, quinoa, brown rice, farro, those types of whole grains.

1:05:50Dr. Rhonda Patrick:Women need to take in about 70 grams per day, and men need to take in about 90 grams per day. And just to give you a little background here, 98 % of the population's not getting enough fiber every day. And that plays a very important role in our colon health and our overall health, LDL cholesterol as well. And then red meat, processed meat, these are also foods that are on the list. How much should you be eating? It seems like the sweet spot for red meat is about 12 to 18 ounces per week. Not going over that. And then almost no processed meats. like less than one serving per week. So really cutting out the lunch meats and the processed meats, the hot dogs, the bacon, that stuff is processed meats.

1:06:34Dr. Rhonda Patrick:And that also has been associated with colon cancer. The other thing on this healthy eating index is sodium intake. So you want to make sure that you're not really going above. Usually it was like 2 ,300 milligrams per day, ideally 1 ,500 milligrams a day. And I do think sodium intake is really also just a proxy for our ultra processed foods. You want to really be minimizing that. A lot of those have a lot of high sodium. If you're getting foods that are, if you're eating at a restaurant, you might have a lot of sodium in that as well. So that's also important. And then also making sure that we're not eating and drinking sugar sweetened beverages.

1:07:13Dr. Rhonda Patrick:So that's zero of those. This is all part of that study where we're trying to really like be at the top 40 % of that healthy, you know, eating index. And so you want to make sure you're at zero sugar-sweetened beverages per day, including juice. So if you're going to eat fruit, it has to be with the whole fruit and the fiber. That changes the way your body is processing and absorbing glucose. Very important. And then the ultra-processed foods are pretty much, I'd say, less than one to two servings a week. So really, really low on eating the junk food.

1:07:42Mel Robbins:Dr. Patrick, you mentioned omega-3s. And I know that there are five supplements that, based on the research, you recommend that everyone takes. What are those five supplements that should be on our list, and how much should you be taking?

1:07:59Dr. Rhonda Patrick:So omega-3s are really at the top of the list, mostly because most people don't want to eat two servings of fish per week either. And it seems as though to get from a low omega-3 index to a high omega-3 index, it takes about two grams a day. So that's a pretty good starting point for omega-3 supplementation. The second would be a multivitamin. And depending on what the serving size is, I take one a day because that's my serving size. Some multivitamins are three capsules. So you want to take one of those, and that's filling a lot of nutritional gaps. And then you want to take a vitamin D. Vitamin D is very important because it is converted into a hormone.

1:08:34Dr. Rhonda Patrick:70 % of us are not getting enough of it. Usually a good spot for vitamin D is 4 ,000 IUs a day. So the fourth supplement would be magnesium. We did get some magnesium from those kale leaves that we had in this smoothie. Magnesium is a very, very important cofactor for 300 different processes in the body. I personally like to take 250 milligrams a day. That's two capsules of my 125. And that seems to help me when I take it at night with sleep as well. Plus, I'm getting to that goal of about 300. For me, it's more like 350 milligrams a day because I do sweat and you lose magnesium through sweat.

1:09:08Dr. Rhonda Patrick:So that would be the fourth supplement. And then lastly, creatine is something I think a lot of people can benefit because, one, it does if you're working out and exercising, which you should be after this episode. You know that exercise snacks are achievable, attainable, and that you should be doing them every day like you brush your teeth. That'll help you with those exercise snacks. It'll make them easier. You'll be able to do them more. You'll recover quicker. Yes.

1:09:31Mel Robbins:Yes, they will. Like if I take creatine powder in the morning, how much am I taking? You're taking 10 grams.

1:09:38Dr. Rhonda Patrick:I do five and five. So I do five before my workout and then I do five after my workout. The reason the creatine is going to help you with that workout, by the way, it's going to take about four weeks before your muscles saturate. So four weeks of getting at least five grams a day, your muscles will be saturated. So if you're starting off fresh, give yourself about a month. Okay. So it's not like magic juice. It's not like magic juice.

1:10:00Mel Robbins:And all of a sudden those air squats are a breeze.

1:10:02Dr. Rhonda Patrick:It'll take four weeks before it builds up in your muscle. And once you get to that buildup point, that saturation point, then the five days is just keeping it there, keeping it there, right? So what you'll notice is that your air squats will be easier because you can replenish ATP, which you're using as you're doing them, quicker. Huh. And what's the other benefit, though? So the five grams after is to benefit the brain because we now know from research that it takes about 10 grams per day for it to get into the brain. Five grams is greedily taken up by muscle. Once you get past that to 10 grams, it gets into the brain.

1:10:36Dr. Rhonda Patrick:And there's research showing that there's benefits in the brain, particularly if your brain is stressed, like sleep deprivation, you know, any sort of neurodegenerative disease. Or I like to extrapolate and say just the chronic stresses of daily life. So you're taking 10 grams of creatine every morning? Yes, I take 10 grams every morning. I split it up in two 5-gram doses. Sometimes I do 10 if I don't have time, but I do 10 grams every day. That's my baseline. When I'm traveling sleep-deprived, I go up to 20 to 25 grams depending on how sleep-deprived I am because studies show that helps with sleep deprivation.

1:11:09Mel Robbins:If you had to boil everything down, I would love to have you speak directly to the person who's here listening or watching right now. And out of everything that you talked about, all the research that you shared, the simplified recommendations based on this exquisite research, If the person listening or watching takes just one action out of all of this, what do you think the most important thing to do today is? 10 minutes of breathless exercise.

1:11:38Dr. Rhonda Patrick:The 10 minutes of vigorous exercise, exercise snacks. That would be the most important thing. And Dr. Patrick, what are your parting words? My parting words are you can do this. You can do this and you should do it. And then once you do it, you're going to realize how much you can do it and you're going to want to do it because you're going to feel amazing.

1:12:00Mel Robbins:I love you. I need that on repeat as the alarm every morning. You should do this. You can do this. And you're going to feel better when you do this. Thank you for giving us the simple things to do and for also explaining why it matters and how it is going to make us feel better. You're amazing, Dr. Patrick.

1:12:22Dr. Rhonda Patrick:Thanks so much, Mel. I really had a great time.

1:12:25Mel Robbins:Looking forward to the next one. Me too. We're going to be talking supplements. And I also want to thank you. Thank you for making the time to listen to something that's not only going to improve your health and make you feel better. It'll add years to your life and life to those years. Thank you for being generous with this episode and sharing it with everybody in your life that you care about because everybody deserves the gift that is Dr. Patrick. And in case nobody else tells you, I wanted to be sure to tell you as your friend that I love you and I believe in you. And I believe in your ability to create a better life.

1:12:59Mel Robbins:And I know you can, because if you follow everything, the simple recommendations that Dr. Patrick just laid out to us, your life will get better. So go do it. I'll see you in the very next episode. I'm gonna welcome you in the moment you hit play.

1:13:16Dr. Rhonda Patrick:So, so excited to be here today. I am thrilled that you're here. In our new studio. Oh, it's beautiful.

1:13:26Mel Robbins:Come on in. Soft lighting, I love. Greatest with you here. Studying nutrition, aging, and disease prevention. With research experience spanning... With research experience spanning mitochondrial metab... And her graduate research was conducted at St. Jude's Kilt... St. Jude's Children's... St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. Let me say it right. Dr. Patrick's work has Dr. Patrick's work has been published. Oh, and one more thing.

1:14:01Dr. Rhonda Patrick:And no, this is not a blooper.

1:14:03Mel Robbins:This is the legal language. You know what the lawyers write and what I need to read to you. This podcast is presented solely for educational and entertainment purposes. I'm just your friend, I am not a licensed therapist, and this podcast is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, professional coach, psychotherapist, or other qualified professional. Got it? Good. I'll see you in the next episode.

1:14:34Dr. Rhonda Patrick:Sirius XM Podcasts.