“We’re Eating Ourselves to Death!”
/That is the terrifying conclusion of Casey Means, author of Good Energy: the surprising connection between metabolism and limitless health. This book was recommended to me by my optometrist, of all people! I was simply in for my annual eye checkup, and we got to talking about holistic health, and before the end of the day, I was immersed in yet another life-changing book – and this one, I am convinced, you must read. It’s not just about our western diet. It’s about a handful of serious threats Americans face today that are all new in the last 100 to 150 years; our diet is one of them.
Now, in case you’re getting ready to tune out, thinking this book is just another scheme to lose weight or feel good about yourself or decide whether to buy a Fitbit, let me share with you some of the shocking statistics Means offers throughout her book. All I ask is that you read through this list. You don’t have to analyze the data or remember it or even understand it all. Just read through the list one time, and I’ll be waiting at the end; then we’ll continue.
Our Health by the Numbers
How healthy are we these days?
6.8% of Americans are metabolically healthy
6 out of 10 adults are living with chronic illness
31,000,000 Americans suffer from chronic sinusitis
50,000,000 Americans have auto-immune disease, a rate dramatically increased since 1950
70,000,000 Americans have chronic sleep issues; 90% of them consume caffeine daily
$4,000,000,000,000 is spent on healthcare annually
18% of our teens already have nonalcoholic fatty liver disease
20% of our children have nonalcoholic fatty liver disease
20% of US adults suffer from chronic pain
30% – the rate that gestational diabetes has risen since 2016!
26% of women have polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS); 80% of them are obese
40% of American teens are overweight or obese
50% of adults in the US have pre-diabetes
50% – the rise in liver transplants in the past 15 years
50% - the rate of decline in sperm count in US males over the past 40 years
52% of men over age 40 experience sexual dysfunction
73% of physicians are overweight or obese
74% of American adults are currently overweight or obese; 93% of them have metabolic dysfunction
77% of 21-year-olds are not physically fit enough to join the military
81% – the chance of an obese man producing zero sperm
300% – increase in childhood obesity since the 1970s; up to 80% of them have nonalcoholic fatty liver disease
– 25% - the reduction in average human sleep duration compared with 100 years ago
How well are we eating in 2024?
56 different names for sugar are used on food labels
70 metric tons: the amount of food you will eat in a lifetime
1500 miles – the distance most of your food travels before you buy it
10% of SNAP (Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program) funds are spent on sugar-sweetened beverages
20% more daily calories are consumed now compared with 100 years ago
42% of our calories now come from foods that convert directly to sugar
60% of calories consumed by adults come from ultra-processed foods
67% of calories consumed by children come from ultra-processed foods
74% of foods in the US food system contain added sugar
99% of fast-food ads in 2019 highlighted unhealthy options contrary to USDA guidance
3000% more liquid sugar is consumed today than was consumed 100 years ago
– 40% - reduction in minerals and vitamins in today’s food compared with 70 years ago
So, what’s the status of our national food supply?
4 times more government subsidies go to tobacco than to all fruits and vegetables combined
6 times: the greater likelihood of a favorable outcome about food when the study is funded by a food corporation
11 times more money is spent on nutrition research by food companies than by the NIH
40% of funding for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics comes from the food industry
80% of American Farm Bill subsidies go to corn, grains and soy oil
82% of independently funded studies show harm from sugar-sweetened beverages
How healthy is the environment we live in?
80,000 synthetic chemicals are found in our food, water, air, soil, homes & products, all since World War II; 1% of them have been adequately tested for human safety
1500 new synthetic chemicals are released each year
9,000,000,000 tons of plastic have been produced in less than 200 years
How well is our healthcare system working?
42 – the number of medical specialties in the US healthcare system
400 doctors, on average, commit suicide yearly – twice the rate of the general population
80% of medical schools do not require their students to take a nutrition class
85% of medical practitioners have had no training in prescribing exercise
Okay, you made it through the list. These are statistics I found sprinkled throughout Means’ book, Good Energy, and I wanted to pull them all together for you to illustrate the magnitude of the human condition she addresses. I want to provide you an overview of her work, hoping that, ultimately, you’ll read the book yourself. I think it could change our lives – change our country – change the human race. I’ll guarantee one thing though: It will make your hair stand on end!
A Little Background Information
Let me assure you that Casey Means is not some activist or wheeler-dealer. She’s a physician. Following medical school, she devoted five years of her life to her residency, preparing to practice one of those 42 specialties you read about above: head and neck surgery. At the age of 31, she realized the American healthcare system is terribly misguided, and it would not put her on the path to making people healthier or happier, more productive or more resilient. She walked away from it all and turned her attention to the holistic nature of human health that, in her opinion, is completely denied and disregarded by our healthcare system – the most expensive system in the world, but not the most effective by any stretch of the imagination. I’ve read her book twice now, and I believe this might be one of the most important books I’ve ever read. I want to share it with you – and please know that she offers clear, specific, reasonable methods for improving our health, little by little.
First a quick sketch of my own journey toward metabolic health: In the mid-1980s I read Sugar Blues by William Dufty and made a few modest attempts to limit the sugar in my diet. (For example, I identified three processed breakfast cereals containing no sugar and have never again eaten any of the others.) In about 2008 I read Super Foods by Pratt and Matthews, and then had the wonderful opportunity to take a little “class” offered by a bookstore in the Seattle area. It was taught by a nutritionist, using Super Foods as the “text.” I then committed to re-ordering my diet toward the recommendations in that book – and I stuck with it. I still believe there’s a lot of wisdom in that analysis.
Then, in 2013, I heard the pediatric endocrinologist, Robert H. Lustig, M.D., being interviewed about his new book, Fat Chance: beating the odds against sugar, processed food, obesity, and disease. I read his book twice, cleaned out my pantry and fridge, and committed to a sugar-free life. In March of 2025 I’ll mark my twelfth year sugar free. And now I’ve read this new book by Dr. Casey Means (thanks to my optometrist), and I see how diet is just one very important part of the commitment to holistic good health, longevity, independence and wholeness. Prepare yourself for a truly holistic approach.
I would love for you to read the article I’ve published in the Speakeasy about Dr. Lustig’s wonderful book, Fat Chance, Sugar-Free: Fighting the Other Pandemic. You can choose to read Lustig’s book first or second (Casey Means quotes Lustig numerous times in Good Energy), but, for today, I hope you will stick with me as I introduce to you a second book that I do believe can change your life – maybe save your life. Let’s dig into Good Energy.
How well is our healthcare system working?
Dr. Means tell us that “American life expectancy has been declining for the most sustained period since 1860.” She says “the biggest lie in healthcare is that the root cause of why we’re getting sicker, heavier, more depressed, and more infertile is complicated.” No animal species, she says, experiences widespread chronic disease – just humans. What makes you tick, she explains, is “whether your cells have the energy to do their jobs.”
Metabolism, she explains, is the set of cellular mechanisms that turns food into energy, and those metabolic processes evolved over hundreds of thousands of years in synergy with the environment around us. Now those environmental conditions have profoundly changed, including our diet, movement patterns, sleep patterns, stress levels and exposure to chemicals. “Almost every chronic health problem,” the author writes, “is the result of our cells being beleaguered by how we’ve come to live.” Means explains that we have 200 types of cells in our human bodies, and she believes every one of our poor health conditions is linked directly to metabolic issues – how our cells make energy. But we fail to treat the bad energy; instead, we treat its organ-specific results. We are missing the real issue: metabolic dysfunction.
“The more we spend on healthcare, and the more we work as physicians, and the more access to healthcare and medications we provide to patients,” she asserts, “the worse the outcomes get.” And then cellular dysfunction throughout our bodies shows up as the explosion of chronic diseases (as you read in those stats up above). “Disease is a result of the choice you make and how you feel today,” Means says.
Despite constantly performing surgery for inflamed tissues, Means was never taught what causes inflammation. Why, she wondered, despite the monumental size and scope of our healthcare system, are people getting sick? She notes that “every institution that impacts health, from medical schools to hospitals to insurance companies, makes money on ‘managing disease,’ not curing patients... The patients aren’t getting better.”
Means says that “the medical system is the largest and fastest-growing industry in the US.” The result is that “we are locked into a reductionist, fragmented view of the body.” Since 80% of healthcare costs and deaths come from metabolic conditions, “the root of almost every disease relates to energy... less specialization, rather than more is the answer... our ailments are connected rather than siloed.”
The “Good Energy” response
In Part One of her book, the author asserts that metabolism is at the root of disease, but our current system is incentivized to ignore that. In Part Two she discusses the “mindsets and tactics” needed to feel better, leading the reader to “an actionable plan” in Part Three. Finally, in Part Four, Means offers 33 recipes using the eating principles of Good Energy.
To get started, she suggests, ask yourself: How would you feel if your body functioned optimally? If your mind worked clearly and creatively? If you could feel a strong inner power? “At the end of medical school,” she explains, “I had to choose one of 42 specialties: one part of the body to devote my life to. Separation defines modern medicine... become better at treating a smaller and smaller part of the body.” She was advised that the way to success would be to “stay focused on your specialty and climb the ladder. You also protect yourself that way.”
Casey’s specialty was otology: a subspecialty of head and neck surgery. She tells the story of a patient named Sarah who had been suffering debilitating migraines for ten years. In just the past year, Sarah had seen eight medical specialists, including: a neurologist who prescribed a medication for the painful headaches; a psychiatrist who prescribed a different medication for depression; a cardiologist who gave her a medication for hypertension; and a palliative care specialist who prescribed a fourth medication for joint pain. No one ever mentioned a migraine elimination diet. Instead, she was given tests, CT scans, and prescriptions.
The role of inflammation in health
Dr. Means knew that the cause of disease is inflammation – everywhere, all at once. It occurs when cells rush to a site of injury or infection to render aid. She realized that, as an ENT surgeon, what she was treating was “almost all inflammation.” It was all about words that end with “–itis.” Doctors often used anti-inflammatory medications, and, if that failed, they’d take the patient to surgery, “creating holes in a patient’s body to reduce obstruction... and let inflammatory fluid drain.” The results were temporary. “It wasn’t in our job description as medical professionals,” she says, “to look for why inflammation kept returning.”
Could all of Sarah’s symptoms be driven by inflammation? The author says, “Today, the truth seems utterly self-evident... Research has shown that chronic inflammation [instigates]... cancer, cardiovascular disease, autoimmune diseases, respiratory infections, gastrointestinal conditions, skin disorders, neurological disorders.” And so she began “the quest of learning to help patients actually heal rather than be managed... Instead of offering sick care, I focused on generating health... We started treating the problem from ... the foundational cellular level... doing the opposite of what I had always learned, which was to add the next medication and add the next intervention.”
We must look “into the very center of the cells themselves,” she says. Chronic inflammation begins “when our body’s cells are persistently underpowered due to Bad Energy processes. Immune cells rush [in]... producing inflammation. In their efforts to help, the immune cells cause immense collateral damage.” That’s why, she explains, “chronic inflammation goes in lockstep with metabolic dysfunction and widespread symptoms.”
The key is “how well or poorly the mitochondria in the cell are making energy,” the author explains. Mitochondria are “the powerhouse of the cell.” They “convert food energy into cellular energy... [and] synthesize adenosine triphosphate (ATP)... the most important molecule in the human body.” Means refers to ATP as the “currency” that “pays for our lives.”
“Trillions upon trillions of chemical reactions happen in our bodies every second,” she says. Without them, “we’d be decomposing on the ground with no energetic force holding us together.” Means says the average person produces 88 pounds of ATP in a day! Each cell, she says, “is like a little city – continually bustling with action, transactions, and production – and contained by its cell membrane.”
The author next outlines seven main categories of cellular activity, all requiring ATP (via Good Energy). The cells:
Make proteins – 70 thousand types of proteins, the structural, mechanical and signaling workhorses of the body
Repair, regulate and replicate DNA
Send microscopic biochemical messages or signals
Transport, like a tiny trucking company
Maintain homeostatis (an optimal environment)
Clean up cell waste through self-eating
Produce energy: metabolism
The author explains that our immune system rushes to help when called upon, but, when the problem is outside of us, it can’t help. The problem, she says, is our environment, which is, “from our cells’ perspective, virtually unrecognizable from 100 years ago... The immune cell cannot halt the damaging factors and the lack of resources resulting from the unnatural environment of our modern industrial world.” Therefore, more immune cells rush to the rescue, sending out more inflammatory signals, and we have chronic inflammation.
It's our modern lifestyle...
Modern life, therefore, hurts our mitochondria, Means explains, and a cell becomes dysfunctional. The immune system tries to help and can’t, just making the situation worse. She identifies ten ways the environment we’re living in today ravages our mitochondria, a discussion that comprises a significant chunk of her meaningful message. I will summarize here each of the ten ways our environment is ravaging our mitochondria, because they are very important.
Chronic overnutrition: In addition to eating 20% more calories than humans did 100 years ago, we consume anywhere from 700% to 3000% more fructose now than humans did in the past, creating that much more work for our bodies. Unable to process all the incoming material, the cell fills with toxic fats. The overtaxed mitochondria respond, producing free radicals which cause significant damage. When the overwhelmed body can’t produce enough antioxidants to quell those free radicals, we experience oxidative stress, a chain reaction of damage. (Think transition from “cozy campfire” to “forest fire.”) So, why do we consume too much? The easy accessibility of ultra-processed, industrially manufactured food. It triggers hunger and cravings because it is chemically engineered to be addictive, the author says. And 70% of the calories Americans now consume are of that nature.
Nutrient deficiencies: “We have the most micro-nutrient depleted diet we’ve ever had in history,” Means states. Half of us are deficient in at least some critical nutrients. Soil depletion (for example, from pesticides) and lack of diversity in our diets are two of the causes. We focus on wheat, soy and corn rather than fruits and vegetables, and they are all nutrient deficient but full of dense carbohydrates and inflammatory fats.
Microbiome issues: The production of helpful chemicals gets derailed, depriving our mitochondria of signaling support. The common triggers for this are refined sugars, pesticides, medications, chronic stress, alcohol, smoking, infections and more.
A Sedentary lifestyle: Lack of physical exercise decreases mitochondrial function. Exercise stimulates generation of antioxidants – but only if we exercise.
Chronic stress: This releases the hormone cortisol, which damages the mitochondria and leads to less energy production.
Medications and drugs: Several antibiotics, chemotherapy drugs, statins, and beta blockers hurt the function of our mitochondria. Alcohol and drugs have the same effect.
Sleep deprivation: This damages our mitochondria through resulting hormonal imbalances. It also generates increased free radicals, tripping that chain reaction of damage described in #1 above.
Environmental toxins and pollutants: Through our food supply, our water and air, consumer products, smoking and vaping, these chemicals are introduced into our environment.
Artificial light and circadian disruption: Constant exposure to blue light contributes to mitochondrial dysfunction. If we spend little time outdoors, the situation is exacerbated. Early morning sunlight – if we get it – reinforces our natural circadian rhythm.
Thermoneutrality: In the twenty-first century, we live almost exclusively indoors, in a very consistent, unchanging ambient temperature. Exposure to cold and heat – if we get that – would protect our mitochondria.
The roles of blood sugar and insulin
In healthy circumstances, our food intake would roughly match our energy needs. Our mitochondria would not be damaged by those ten environmental factors, and all would be well. Dr. Means now explains how we become “insulin resistant” due to excess fat stored in our cells. Excess glucose in the bloodstream causes problems. The pancreas responds by producing much more insulin. Eventually the cell “just can’t keep stuffing insulin into itself... and therein lies the root of blood sugar problems.” And the problem currently shows up in 50% of US adults and 30% of children as type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes.
As our day-to-day blood sugar levels rise, the body generates those free radicals mentioned above, “for a tornado of dysfunction in the cells and body.” Excess sugar sticks to things, we are told – a process called glycation. And glycated structures “won’t work properly and are considered foreign... [resulting in] more chronic inflammation.” The author gives this simple example: Excess blood sugar sticks to collagen, causing wrinkles! But it can also stick to the lining of blood vessels, leading to heart attack, stroke, retinopathy, erectile dysfunction, and more.
Why all the glycation and insulin resistance?
What in our modern society causes this, you might ask. Means answers, “Too much sugar, too much stress, too much sitting... pollution... too many pills... pesticides... screens, too little sleep... micronutrients... with trillions of dollars behind them.” This is, she says, “the root of the US healthcare epidemic.” (But remember: She’s going to offer solutions.)
Means describes the “trifecta of dysfunction” in our bodies:
Mitochondrial dysfunction: poorly performing energy factories
Chronic inflammation: the body’s “fighting response” to chronic threat
Oxidative stress: “While trying to process all the junk being thrown at them, cells create free radicals – reactive waste.” These free radicals damage cells and cause dysfunction.
Good energy vs. bad energy
Look for simple markers, we are advised: blood sugar, triglycerides, HDL (good) cholesterol, blood pressure, and waist circumference (specifications are given in chapter four). You should feel “vibrant, healthy, and pain-free.” When the markers are bad, we experience metabolic syndrome. The same markers can give different results, Means adds, but every person can prevent or reverse this condition: “Preventing the country’s largest killers is within your control.” (Here she lists the top ten causes of death in the US.)
And what does metabolic syndrome mean for us? The author calls it “a slow and painful journey toward death, a shorter life, innumerable brain and body symptoms, significantly higher costs.” Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and obesity are not totally separate conditions, she argues. “They are all warning signs of Bad Energy and can be improved or reversed the same way.”
Bad Energy is the root of disease, according to this book. Varied conditions occurring in different parts of the body are “likely to be branches of the same tree.” The best plan? See food as medicine. Optimize sleep. Reduce chemical stress. Protect your microbiome. Reduce environmental toxins. Maximize sunlight. Essentially, the rest of Means’ book explains very simply and specifically how to do these things. She starts with “three simple truths”:
Most chronic symptoms and diseases have a shared root cause: cellular dysfunction caused by metabolic dysfunction.
Chronic conditions exist on a spectrum, from non-life-threatening to urgent.
Mild symptoms indicate more serious disease to come.
The common ailments we’ve come to take for granted, the author explains, represent “highly dysfunctional biology.” Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), adult acne, psoriasis, depression, chronic pain, sinus infections, migraines... As an example, she points out that 31 million Americans suffer from chronic sinusitis, and “the higher a person’s blood sugar, the higher the likelihood of their having sinusitis.”
During her surgical residency, Dr. Means wondered: “Is it possible that the same fundamental problem with inflammatory overdrive is just showing up in different body parts as different symptoms?” For example, “insulin resistance has a little-known link to hearing problems... [even] age-related hearing loss.” Bad Energy leads to chronic inflammation and, at times, even autoimmunity, likely due to low-grade inflammation in the body which disrupts insulin signaling.
Here she mentions the 80% of US women with polycystic ovary syndrome who also have obesity, offering that “just 12 weeks of a vegetable-filled, low-glycemic diet can improve all biomarkers of the condition.” Means notes that “people with blood sugar problems have double the miscarriage rate with assisted reproduction [such as IVF].”
But it’s not all about the women. Sperm count in the US has declined by 50% in the past 40 years, she says, and an obese man is 81% likely to produce no sperm at all. “Fat tissue in men,” the author explains, “basically acts like a big ovary, causing low testosterone and higher estrogen.” Noting that half the men over age 40 now experience sexual dysfunction, she says “ED is a neon sign that a man needs a metabolic evaluation... It appears that modern diet and lifestyle are sterilizing the human population, in part through Bad Energy.” Here she notes the sharp rise in gestational diabetes since 2016 and the 10% increase in miscarriages in just the past ten years.
Chronic fatigue, we are told, has become the most common cause of medical appointments. According to the author, 67% of people in the US experience regular fatigue at work, and 70% of Americans report chronic sleep issues. 85% of post-menopausal women report symptoms of physical and mental exhaustion; the rate is 20% in pre-menopausal women.
And what of the children?
Means notes a 300% increase in childhood obesity since the 1970s! And up to 80% of those obese children, she points out, already have NAFLD, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. At this time 18% of children are obese, and the rate is rising. In the past, fatty livers were primarily found in adults abusing alcohol. Now NAFLD has become the most common chronic liver disease in the world: 25% in 1990; 40% in 2019! “NAFLD is full-blown metabolic dysfunction in kids and adults.”
So what contributes to fatty liver disease? Processed foods, refined sugars, refined grains, sweetened beverages, high-fructose corn syrup, fast food, low fiber foods, routinely eating close to bed time, and sedentary behavior. NAFLD has become the most common cause of liver transplant in young adults in the US.
At the same time, the author says, rates of autism and ADHD climb yearly. “A mother with obesity and diabetes has quadruple the risk of having a child with autism and double the risk of having a child with ADHD.”
Kids with metabolic dysfunction are at a significantly higher risk of infection such as strep throat or ear infections. And antibiotics are not harmless, we are told. One study shows “antibiotics in childhood increased the risk of mental health issues by an odds ratio of 1-44.” It’s a vicious cycle, Dr. Means says: Bad Energy leads to poor immune function, which leads to more infectious diseases, leading to more antibiotics, and that leads to more Bad Energy. (But don’t be discouraged. Remember: She will offer practical solutions.)
The important role of blood sugar
This book makes clear that “nutrition science” is funded in this country by food companies! Healthcare research is funded by pharmaceutical companies! And, on this subject of metabolic syndrome, both stand silent. As life-threatening conditions in those over 50 continue to rise, type 2 diabetes doubles the risk of stroke. “The brain uses more energy and glucose than any other organ, so it is particularly vulnerable to the effects of Bad Energy and blood sugar variability.”
Higher blood sugar is also associated with a greater risk of dementia. And the earlier the type 2 diabetes starts, the greater the risk of developing Alzheimer’s.
What of heart disease? The heart causes more deaths than any other part of the body, the author says, and “heart disease is directly rooted in Bad Energy.” Diabetes is a risk factor for heart disease.
And respiratory disease? “An antioxidant diet rich in fruits and vegetables can decrease COPD severity and lower risk, yet nutritional guidelines are not a part of standard treatment.” Sugar-sweetened beverages are strongly linked to COPD, asthma and bronchitis, the author says. She adds that diet is considered by some as strong a force in these matters as smoking.
Even arthritis, the author says, “might be more a metabolic disease than a structural one.” Obesity increases the chance of knee osteoarthritis: For every one pound gained, the load on the knee increases by four pounds. As body mass index (BMI) increases one unit, the risk of knee osteoarthritis increases by 13%. Means says osteoarthritis is a “warning sign of the brewing dysfunction inside our cells.”
The author even links Covid-19 to metabolic disorders, calling it “...one of the most dramatic and intense examples of conventional medicine’s metabolic blind spot that I have ever seen.” She cites “proven connections between the severity of the illness and diet, exercise, and other modifiable factors.” She asserts that 80-100% of those who died from Covid during the pandemic had chronic health problems, mostly metabolic issues.
Our siloed medical system, however, sees every health issue we face as an isolated incident, Dr. Means tells us. This is “fatally misguided.” She urges the reader to start with a foundation of protecting our cells’ energy-making capacity. “Trust yourself, not your doctor,” she advises. She cites a friend who, during their residency, told her, “If you walk through the doors of this surgical oncology department, you are going to get an operation, whether you need it or not.” Means says that doctors, with “the highest burnout and suicide rate of any profession,” feel “trapped inside a broken system.”
Why does it have to be this way?
“Every institution that impacts your health makes more money when you are sick and less when you are healthy,” says the author of Good Energy, “from hospitals to pharma to medical schools, and even insurance companies.” We “wait for people to get sick and then write prescriptions and perform procedures that don’t reverse the underlying reason they’re sick... because it generates recurring revenue for the largest industry in the country. Trust the system on acute issues,” Means advises, but “ignore it on chronic.”
Almost any chronic disease, such as cancer, is largely preventable by implementing Good Energy habits, according to Means. “Life expectancy has increased primarily because of sanitation practices and infectious disease mitigation measures” and emergency surgery techniques for acute conditions as well as antibiotics. Our “health miracles,” she explains, are all about acute, life-threatening issues. Once cured, the patient is no longer a customer. Chronic diseases are much more profitable. Now “we’ve siloed diseases and have a treatment for everything,” she says. We’re spending trillions of dollars to treat chronic diseases, and their rates of occurrence just continue to rise.
“The rates of all these conditions,” she says, “are going up at the exact time we are spending trillions of dollar to ‘treat them.’ They all have metabolic dysfunction as the root.” The author urges us to “question almost every institution regarding nutrition or chronic disease advice. All you need to do is follow the money and incentives.”
The opioid addiction crisis we see today, the book tells us, can be traced back to 2011 when a government study about treating chronic pain was staffed in large part by people with direct ties to opioid manufacturers. Pfizer gave a $3 million donation to the school whose pain specialist was leading the panel. Pfizer, we are told, is one of the largest opioid makers. The result? “The committee recommended lenient opioid guidelines.” According to Means, from 2012 to 2019, “over $188 million in conflicts [of interest] were reported.”
“Quality” and “merit” in doctors’ pay is not related to the patient actually getting better, she says, but “criteria were primarily based on whether doctors prescribed drugs regularly or did more interventions.” She continues: “Pharma spends three times more on lobbying than the oil industry, and... has influenced virtually every piece of healthcare legislation...” Some doctors are paid based on RVUs – relative value units – which is “a measure of their productivity in generating profitable billing codes.” For example, she says surgery is awarded significantly more RVUs than counseling about eating habits. RVUs are also used to assess promotions – “an explicit gauge of the economic value a doctor is driving to the hospital.”
The author says she has been repeatedly advised, “We didn’t become surgeons to give dietary advice.” She explains that “billing is based on completing and coding an interventional action rather than addressing why people get sick. The more you do, the more you get paid, no matter what the outcome for the patient.” Dr. Means continues: “The biggest lie in healthcare... medical leaders are absolutely silent on the things that are actually making us sick: food and lifestyle.”
The American Diabetes Association, the author reports, “has received money from the likes of Coca Cola and Cadbury... Patients are being crushed... between the $6 trillion food industry (which wants to make food cheap and addictive) and the $4 trillion healthcare industry (which profits off interventions on sick patients and stays silent about the reasons they’re getting sick).” Means continues, “Your doctor – the entire system they work within – directly and unequivocally benefits from your continued suffering, symptoms and sickness.”
“The biggest lie in healthcare,” the author repeats, “is that the reasons we are getting sicker fatter, more depressed and more infertile are complicated. The reasons are not complicated; they all tie to Good Energy habits.” Instead of pills and interventions, “an ultra-aggressive stance on diet and behavior would do far more for the patient,” she says. Out healthcare system “has lost its way... it makes money when patients are sick and loses money when they are healthy... Health care is the largest and fastest-growing industry in the US – with the vast majority of healthcare dollars going to chronic disease care.”
And that, my friends, is only Part One of the book! She’s clearly laid out the problem, and now, in Part Two, she lays out the solution.
Creating Good Energy
Asserting that 93% of adults have collective lab results that read “Bad Energy,” Dr. Means introduces the concept of “bio-observability” – the ability to observe your own biology through technologies. These might involve symptoms, blood tests, and real-time biosensors. She tells us only 6.8% of Americans meet normal criteria for five basic metabolic markers, moving to Good Energy. The markers are: triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, fasting glucose, blood pressure, and waist circumference.
Dr. Robert Lustig, author of that other book that changed my life, Fat Chance, agrees with Means. She quotes Lustig here: “You need to know your insulin sensitivity. Anything above a ratio of 3” is trouble. 1.5 is better, but less than 1 is the goal. Lustig adds, “Fasting insulin is the most valuable lab test you can get.” (but it’s rarely ordered)
We’ve all heard of HbA1c. I now understand that this “measures the percentage of hemoglobin that has sugar stuck to it via glycation.” Optimally, this level would be between 5% and 5.4%. Uric acid is another lab marker we might find in our report. High levels of uric acid cause gout, and gout indicates a 71-78% higher chance of kidney disease, a 42% higher chance of depression, and a doubled risk of heart attack.
The liver, Dr. Means says, “could not be more important to our overall metabolism... [it] determines how the body will process and use energy...[it’s] a master balancer of blood sugar levels.” When overburdened, “it will store fat inside its cells, creating fatty liver disease.” She goes on to say, “Modern life is decimating this key metabolic organ.”
Then the author turns back to Dr. Robert Lustig, who weighs in: “When you get a total cholesterol result, throw it in the garbage... LDL-C has a checkered history... the medical profession places way too much significance on this test... because we have a drug for it... But there is something... much more concerning: high triglycerides.” Statins lower LDL-C, but, Dr. Lustig continues, “they’re not doing anything to the type B LDL-C, which is the problematic particle... they are responsive to dietary refined carbohydrates... and especially sugar consumption.” These small, dangerous cholesterol particles are caused by sugar and refined carbohydrates in our diet and, we are told by Means, “taking statins won’t fix the problem.”
What solution is offered?
Dr. Means is co-founder of a company called Levels. Her partner, Josh Clemente, “developed life support systems for SpaceX.” Clemente recommends we treat the human body like rockets: install sensors before the systems break down. He says, “I believe CGM (continuous glucose monitoring) is the most powerful technology for generating the data and awareness to rectify our Bad Energy crisis in the Western world.”
Stress is one of the offenders. We are told that stress causes glucose spikes in this way: When we are stressed, we release cortisol that signals to the liver to break down stored glucose and release it to the muscles to respond to a “threat,” although the threats that stress us today usually don’t require muscle activation (such as running or fighting).
Poor sleep also can be part of the problem, triggering a higher glucose response at breakfast. So, better sleep can help with Good Energy, as can movement. The author explains that “movement is one of the best things you can do to improve mitochondrial health.” She recommends low-grade movement throughout the day. Exercise stimulates our cells to let the glucose in, reducing the likelihood that our food will be shunted to toxic intracellular fat. Apparently we tend to overestimate how much activity we’re doing in a day; the author recommends at least 150 total minutes of moderate aerobic activity each week.
Six principles of Good Energy eating
We are warned that “highly addictive substances are being pushed on every person in the US from birth... causing well over one million deaths per year... [These are] ultra-processed foods.” With 30% of our teenagers already plagued with pre-diabetes, she says, “We are eating ourselves to death. It is vital to start thinking of food as molecular information that dictates our day-to-day and long-term functions.” For doctors, the author explains, “nutritional interventions are seen as fuzzy and wimpy.” We’re taught that “genes are our destiny – but that’s not true.” So, here, briefly, are the six principles of Good Energy Eating:
Food determines the structure and function of our cells and microbiomes. “Our bodies are built entirely of food.” Food gives our bodies structure based on the dietary fats in our cell membranes. Food provides function, minimizing oxidative stress and inhibiting inflammation. And food defines the composition of our microbiome, which might be thought of as the body living inside our body, made up of trillions of bacteria cells – “like our soul,” Dr. Means suggests.
Eating is the process of matching cellular needs with oral inputs. As nutrients float by, our 37 trillion cells get the signals and information needed to give us a good life. “Everything you eat determines what your cells will blindly interact with and what will determine their fate.” For example, we get all new skin cells every six weeks! “Everything is rebuilt from our food.” (And the author states that local food actually is more healthful than that transported from a distance.)
Food is how you communicate with your cells. Give your body omega-3 fatty acids, and the message is: Things are safe. Eat cruciferous veggies and the body thinks “defenses.” Magnesium tells it to relax, fiber tells the body “I love you,” and synthetic herbicides and pesticides send the message: It’s time to die.
Extreme food cravings are feedback that you’re sending mixed messages. You’re tapping into addictive pathways, not actual needs. “The best chance against overnutrition,” the author says, “is eating real, unprocessed food.” She explains that “liquid fructose came onto the scene in the 1970s and completely changed the relationship between humans and sugar, increasing our consumption of added fructose intake from 6 grams per day (from fruits) to 33 grams per day.” She says it’s turned us into “aggressive food-seeking addicts” because “ultra-processed foods make you hungrier, make you eat more, and make you gain weight.”
Ignore diet philosophies and focus on unprocessed food. “Eating unprocessed, lean, natural foods – in a pattern that keeps you energized, symptom-free, and with optimal biomarkers – is the right diet for you... Put all your energy into finding and eating unprocessed foods grown in healthy soil.”
Mindful eating – finding awe in food. “No boundary – physical or psychological – is more important than your gut lining.”
Creating a Good Energy meal
While 80% of medical schools do not require their students to take a nutrition class, according to this book, healthy diet (unlike what most of us have ever eaten) is the crux of the solution to metabolic syndrome. Conflicting studies on the impact of diet on health, we are told here, are actually often funded by food companies! In fact, they apparently spend eleven times more on such studies than does the National Institutes of Health. And 93% of the studies funded by the food industry show no harm from their products. (Surprise, surprise!)
“Policymakers use this highly compromised research,” Means says. “About 95% of the academics on the USDA panel that created the 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans had conflicts of interest with food companies.” Means says this guidance included the recommendation that 10% of a child’s diet come from added refined sugar! In 2022, she says, Lucky Charms was found to be healthier than ground beef, “and 70 brand-name cereals from General Mills, Kellogg, and Post were ranked twice as high as eggs.” Surprised? “The stated goal of the study was to impact ‘marketing to children.’”
The author advises to cut from our diet any processed foods that contain any of the following: refined sugars of any kind; refined grains of any kind; refined industrial vegetable or seed oils of any kind. She explains, “Most grains in the US are covered in toxic pesticides.” Then she proceeds to explain the meaning of “conventional,” “organic,” and “regenerative,” which I will not try to summarize here. Suffice it to say, she points out that, in a 15-year study of 20,000 subjects, “Each additional serving of ultra-processed food increased all-cause mortality by 18%.” She suggests that a “serving” might be a cookie, a handful of pretzels, a slice of store-bought bread.
“In order to be metabolically healthy,” we are told, “unprocessed and minimally processed foods must comprise the vast majority of what you eat.” This means no part is stripped away or concentrated, and no extra salt or sugar has been added. Soybean oil and corn oil, Means points out, are “the most common fat in the American diet,” and they are harmful particularly due to concentrated Omega-6 (not to be confused with healthy Omega-3). They promote inflammation, she says. Olive oil and avocado oil, on the other hand, have positive outcomes. Now, the definition of processed food includes the added salt and sugar mentioned above, but also added oils as just described. Watch for them in ketchup, salad dressing, and peanut butter.
Ultra-processed foods are called “Frankenfoods” in this book. They are made in industrial factories and, we are told, should never be eaten by humans. That said, they “comprise the vast majority of the calories we eat today in America. They should be 0% of our diet.” Such foods, we are advised, increase the risk of obesity by 39% and the risk of metabolic syndrome by 79%. (And yet – my own, personal note of horror: We feed them to our children and grandchildren!)
How are such ultra-processed foods made? According to Good Energy, the actual food parts – oil, sugar, starch, protein and fiber – are combined with synthetic chemicals in a mass-production enterprise. End products include pastries, breads, cakes, cookies, nut milks, chips, chicken nuggets, crackers, granola bars, sweetened juices, flavored coffee creamers, soda, cake mix, candy bars, donuts, frozen waffles, instant oatmeal, sweetened cereals, toaster pastries, flavored yogurt, processed cheese, whipped topping, deli meats, hot dogs, sausages, bacon, cheese puffs, fruit snacks, frozen pizza, frozen fish sticks, Crisco, Wesson Oil, Kraft mac and cheese, Hamburger Helper, Lunchables, popsicles, sherbet, ice cream, Campbell’s soup, instant ramen noodles, Nutella, jam, jelly, marshmallow fluff... (Need I say more?) The author’s advice: “Avoid them as strongly as if they were illicit drugs.” (But, I must repeat: We feed them to our children – on purpose!)
But there’s more: “Ultra-processed foods also have a massive environmental cost.” One liter of grapeseed oil requires one ton of grapes! “You will either pay for healthy food up front,” Means posits, “or you will pay for preventable medical issues and lost productivity in the future.” She goes on to offer tips on stocking your kitchen affordably, which I will let you learn when you read the book.
Means next explains all the important micronutrients, like Vitamin D, CoQ10, Vitamin C and more and points out the sources from which they come. She also lists the best sources of antioxidants, and then she explains the work of Omega-3 fatty acids and their sources. At this point we see the harmful effects of Omega-6 fatty acids, in comparison. In the average American, she writes, the ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3 is now “extremely high,” causing chronic inflammation. She lists good sources of the good Omega-3.
Next up is fiber! “Fiber tells the microbiome, ‘I love you,’” she says, explaining fiber’s value and again listing good sources of it for our diet. The USDA recommends 25-31 grams of fiber per day, but she recommends 50 grams or more. But 90% of American adults don’t get even 25-31 grams of fiber daily.
Plant foods? Fermented foods? Protein? Means writes that “The American Gut Project research shows that people with the healthiest microbiomes eat at least 30 different plant foods per week.” Fermented foods, too, are important, she says, because of their probiotic content. Examples include sauerkraut, yogurt, tempeh, miso, kombucha, kimchi, kefir and more. As for protein, the author explains its value and sources. She recommends Forever Strong by Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, and she urges us to try to eat, on average, 30 grams of protein at each meal.
Bad Energy foods – a reminder
Now Dr. Means reminds us of the Bad Energy foods, and she explains why they’re so bad for us. First, refined sugar, which, she says, causes astronomically more deaths and disability per year than Covid-19 and fentanyl combined. (Yet 74% of foods in our US food system contain it!) She points at high-fructose corn syrup as the very worst, explaining that it “shuts down our satiety cues and drives us to eat insatiably.” One bottle of Coke, she asserts, gives a kid as much sugar as he would have ingested in a year, had he lived 150 years ago. “Almost all liquids,” she continues, “aside from water, black coffee and unsweetened tea, contain empty calories with no benefits.”
Next up is refined industrial vegetable and seed oil. “Today, almost everyone is falling victim to hidden inflammatory oils, and it is wrecking our health.” These oils are extremely high in Omega-6 fats, she says, but “seed oils are cheaper to produce because of Farm Bill subsidies.” They require intense industrial processes and often extraction with chemical solvents. “Watch a video of canola oil production,” she suggests, “and lose your appetite.” She continues: “Soybean oil is now the largest source of calories for people in the US – more so than beef, pork and vegetables.”
The author now turns her attention to refined grains, explaining how the refining process ruins a perfectly good whole grain and how ingesting it “leads to increased blood glucose levels soon after eating.” A 9-year study showed those who consume the highest amount of refined grains had a 27% higher risk of death and a 33% higher risk of heart attack or stroke. She then recommends alternatives. “Many of the additives in American ultra-processed foods are outlawed in other countries,” she adds, offering a horror story about food dyes found in Skittles, Gatorade, Jello and more.
Not just food – strategy counts!
Having pointed out that 42% of our calories come from foods that convert directly to sugar, the author says that means that 42% of what we consume is not useful for building a healthy body. She offers nine strategies “to keep post-meal blood sugar levels under better control.”
First, she says, you must respect your biological clock. Remember that our average sleep duration has decreased by 25% in the past 100 years. “Sadly, in the modern world, a successful life looks like living in a box, staring at lighted boxes, and being buried in a box.” Means recommends that we capitalize on three interconnected factors: sunlight, sleep, and when we eat. We are made of sunlight, she says. Energy from the sun is stored in glucose generated in plants.
Sun is crucial to our body’s functioning in three key ways, we are advised. The sun turns our “machine” on, she says. Even sitting under a shade tree, one is exposed to ten times more light than sitting inside. And the sun directs our energy. She discusses the effects of light on insulin resistance. “People who are exposed to light at inappropriate times are more likely to develop metabolic disorders like diabetes.” Higher levels of light increase serotonin, which “can reduce appetite and improve glucose control.”
Lack of sleep induces pre-diabetes and promotes fat storage, the author says. “Sleep deprived cells are engines of Bad Energy... To protect against the urge for overfeeding and hunger: sleep.” The causes for the increase in obesity, she explains, “are not complicated: the explosion of highly processed food coupled with the systematic erosion of healthy sleep.”
Quantity, quality and consistency of sleep are critical for metabolic health, Means explains. Too little sleep places us at significant risk of developing insulin resistance. It also increases cortisol levels, which elevates blood sugar. She calls out early school start times as “culturally sanctioned sleep deprivation for children.” Her preference would be delaying school start times for teens to match “the natural circadian rhythms of teenagers.”
Difficulty maintaining sleep doubles or triples the risk of type 2 diabetes, she says, and mortality is 13% higher for every 5% reduction in REM sleep. Night shift workers, Means points out, experience significantly higher rates of type 2 diabetes. In addition, “artificial light at night helps to explain about 70% of the excessive body mass prevalence among people worldwide.” She says this sleep problem began in 1806 with the first incandescent lightbulb, worsened in 1938 with the first home televisions, and was vastly exacerbated in 1971 by the advent of computers.
Finally, the author considers eating habits, noting that most Americans have up to 11 eating events per day. Only 25% of us have any intake before noon, and 35% of food intake in our country occurs after 6 p.m. More than half of us, she says, consume food over a 15-hour period in a 24-hour day. She asserts that most normal-weight humans can go for a month without a morsel of food with minimal negative health consequences.
Out of sync with nature
So, if our rhythm is all off, how do we reset it? The author suggests, “Within one hour of waking, get outside, no matter what.” She advocates movement, temperature awareness, and non-toxic living. “Push the body just past the point of comfort, specifically related to movement and temperature, and magic happens... making us more resilient, happier and healthier... This chapter examines the Bad Energy effects of our move to an indoor lifestyle and away from the natural world.”
We humans are the only bipedal primate, we are reminded, but we choose to spend 80% of our time sitting – yet 64 million Americans belong to fitness centers, even though the cost of membership has doubled since 2000. During that time, she points out, the rate of obesity has risen by 10%. She claims that 25% of US adults are not active at all, and the average adult takes fewer steps in an entire day than would constitute walking two miles. She encourages regular, low-level activity for optimal metabolism – spread out in short bursts throughout the day.
And then we’re told to “be hot”! Means introduces the concept of non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT). She says it’s “any spontaneous physical activity that is not the result of voluntary exercise,” maybe cleaning, walking, shopping or playing. “Our body temperatures on average have gone down by close to 2% since preindustrial times,” we are told, and “heat is a marker of life force.”
Noting that “we’ve never been fatter or more sedentary,” Means suggests the problem is “marketing over science.” She advises that “all kinds of physical activity benefit metabolic health,” and no medication or surgery can replace the value of movement. And so she offers three simple rules for movement:
Walk at least 7,000 steps per day, throughout the day.
Increase your heart rate for at least 150 minutes, collectively, in a week.
Lift heavy things that force you to use every major muscle group.
“You don’t have to run your body into the ground for effective metabolic workouts,” she offers. Focus on building more muscle, not just on losing weight. Pointing out that fewer than 7% of Americans are currently metabolically healthy, she reminds us of good energy biomarkers, with movement serving as the key. Movement improves glucose levels, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure, and waistline size.
Then Means focuses specifically on temperature, explaining that exposure to extreme temperatures stresses cells into positive adaptation. Our modern “thermoneutrality,” she says, makes for bored mitochondria. She discusses the difference between white fat (bad) and brown fat (good), asserting that cold acclimation increases insulin sensitivity, increasing brown (good) fat. The author also advocates for extremely hottemperature exposure, saying sauna use also improves metabolic health and lowers cortisol, the main stress hormone.
But, even if we are active and expose ourselves to sunlight, heat and cold, what of the synthetic chemicals and environmental toxins we face? Of the 1500 new chemicals released each year, three are drivers of all three hallmarks of bad energy, according to the author. Some are actually classified as obesogens, which “causatively contribute to obesity and insulin resistance.” Dr. Lustig, author of Fat Chance, heartily agrees. He believes “at least 15% of the obesity epidemic is directly tied to environmental chemicals.” And, we are told, Cheerios, for example, gives you all three!
an ultra-refined food
additives and preservatives
pesticides
And, add to that, plastic in the packaging
“Focus on using products that are as natural as possible in all domains of life,” Dr. Means writes. She lists and describes nine classes of chemicals in the environment known to harm human metabolism, reminding us that 9 billion tons of plastic have been produced since plastic was patented less than 200 years ago. She warns, “Either you have a filter, or you become the filter,” and she goes on to provide the “principles for replenishing what modernity took away.” They are exercise, temperature, and freedom from toxins.
Fearlessness!
That’s the highest level of Good Energy, we are told. Thanks to screens we can now “be exposed to the threats facing any person, anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day... the traumas of eight billion others have become ours to process. This is,” the author says, “potentially the most abnormal thing we face as modern humans.” We now see exponentially more suffering than humans have ever witnessed, and so we turn to dopamine inducers: processed sugar, alcohol, soda, cigarettes, weed, porn, gambling, social media...
Our cells, Means continues, cannot fully thrive in a body experiencing chronic fear. Cells “bathed in a stew of stress” cannot function well. This could be chronic work stress, residual childhood trauma, feeling unsafe, the news, a pandemic, social unease and more. The author refers to the fear machine that keeps us sick and dependent. In our healthcare ecosystem, she says, death is unacceptable, yet we are actually dying constantly, shedding more than a pound of cells each day. At the cellular level, Means explains, we die and are reborn trillions of times in “a lifetime.”
It's important to understand, she points out, how the mind controls metabolism. “75% to 90% of human diseases are related to activation of stress-related biology.” Chronic inflammation, cancer, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, higher blood pressure, and traumas crush Good Energy. Means refers to ACES (Adverse Childhood Experiences) and their long-term effects, citing neglect, abuse, household dysfunction, bullying, insults, natural disasters and more. She says that such ACES elevate the risk of metabolic biomarkers as much as 80-134% – often persisting into adulthood. They “may predispose to excess food intake and food addiction into adulthood,” she says.
The author says we can train our brain to heal, however. We must feel safe in order to heal, and we must “create a biological reality in the body most conducive to mental health... heal the stressors, traumas, and thought patterns that limit us.” Means reminds us that, while the brain constitutes only 2% or our body’s total weight, it uses 20% of our energy, so “dysfunction at the cellular level hits the brain extra hard.”
Here the author provides 15 strategies, which she calls “The Work.” Again, I will let you discover and understand them on your own, when you read the book. But she goes on to say that, “Improving our health requires understanding that we are inextricably interconnected with everything else in the universe... every part of our own bodies is interconnected, not a fragmented set of isolated parts as the 42 specialties of medicine might have us believe.”
Your path to Good Energy
We’re almost finished! Dr. Means concludes with absolutely practical, helpful information, including a four-week “good energy plan.” She specifies 25 important good habits that will minimize our risk for depression, obesity, high cholesterol, hypertension, infertility and more, and she warns: Don’t try to accomplish them all at once. She urges us to just “tip the scales toward cellular function and health.” Each day might look a little different, she says. Ultimately you want to clear out “the ‘Unholy Trinity’ of Bad Energy foods (refined grains, refined sugars, and industrial seed oils).”
Means explains the Hierarchy of Competence and urges her readers to choose three habits for starters. She advises to begin with a clear identity of the healthy person you want to be and the values you want to live by. Consider why you want your cells to function better. And she provides a self-quiz to help you start. She explains how to keep a food journal and recommends wearable devices to track activity, heart rate, and sleep – possibly also glucose levels. Set up your accountability system, she advises, offering several options.
And then, focus on nutrition! As you would expect, she says you need to consider how to eliminate refined added sugars, refined grains, and industrial seed oils from your diet. And, she reminds us, eat 50+ grams of fiber each day. Her long list of good sources of fiber includes beans, seeds, lentils, berries, brussels sprouts, broccoli, avocados, and many more! She reminds us of the probiotic foods such as yogurt, kefir and sauerkraut, and the Omega-3 foods like wild salmon, sardines, trout, anchovies, eggs, seeds and nuts. She urges 30 grams of protein per meal, suggesting meat, fish, seafood, dairy, eggs, legumes, nuts and seeds.
Surprisingly, Means actually identifies some pre-packaged foods that “adhere to Good Energy principles.” It’s a long list, including brand names; I’ll let you discover it for yourself. She offers some tips for good home cooking and some ideas for quick meal prep.
Good habits, of course, are part of the plan. She recommends a focus on movement, resistance (as in some form of resistance exercise), steps, sleep, meditation, proper timing of meals, mindful eating, sunlight exposure, and exposure to heat and cold. She encourages the serious reader to stop smoking or vaping and avoid environmental toxins.
Finally, we come to Part Four: pages and pages of Good Energy recipes, including ingredients and detailed preparation explanations. She offers recipes for breakfasts, lunches, dinners, snacks, and even desserts.
And now I get the last word
If you’ve read this far: congratulations! I suspect you are serious about your health, and you appreciate the holistic approach it requires. I welcome you to the very, very small group of people I’ve met in my lifetime who fall into that category. To illustrate: Many people know that I – a former aggressive consumer of Oreos and homemade chocolate chip cookies, who used to make fudge all year ‘round and reached her “goal” in Weight Watchers three times – have not knowingly consumed any added sugar for nearly twelve years. And yet, never has one single person said to me, “I’d like to get sugar out of my diet; tell me how.” Never have I been asked to tell my story to a group or write about it.
As I said in my introduction, I inched toward metabolic health for nearly 30 years before I encountered Dr. Robert Lustig and made the lifetime commitment. Perhaps it was a serious cancer diagnosis at age 39 that set me on that track. More recently, with my dear children gifting me with a regular delivery of local, organic produce from a nearby farm, my commitment to healthful eating has only deepened. Now, with Good Energy, I see the next step: It’s more than diet. What an epiphany this read has been for me! As for you, I recommend you start with either Fat Chance or Good Energy, but consider them both invaluable if you seriously want to commit to comprehensive, holistic good health. (And then I’d love to hear from you!)