Steven Bartlett - Dr Philip Ovadia

1) Dr. Philip Ovadia, a heart surgeon, explains that chronic diseases like obesity, diabetes, and heart disease are not truly genetic, despite the common medical belief. He also shares that his turning point towards a healthy lifestyle came unexpectedly at a medical conference when a journalist introduced him to the idea that the types of food we eat are more important than the amount of food we eat. Dr. Ovadia learned that his short-term and unsustainable success in the past came from following traditional medical advice, which he now recognizes as often lousy. He believes that medicine should be necessary less frequently than it is currently used to manage health issues.

2) Dr. Philip discusses the assumption that poor health is solely due to a lack of medicine or proper treatment. He believes that there is an underlying assumption that the human body is prone to illness and requires medication or surgical procedures as the only means to address these issues. The speaker, a heart surgeon himself, defines health as the proper working of one's body and metabolism, and highlights that our modern diet has led to an increase in chronic illnesses like heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and Alzheimer's. The speaker is on a mission to keep people from needing surgery by helping people stay healthy.

3) Philip shares the story of a 38-year-old woman who died due to metabolic disease caused by her unhealthy eating habits, which could have been prevented if her physicians had given her better advice on the impact of her diet on her life. He emphasizes that the rise of metabolic disease in children and teenagers could lead to increasing numbers of young patients needing heart surgery. The heart surgeon also discusses the emotionally difficult task of informing young family members, children as young as three years old, that their loved one did not survive the surgery. He concludes that it is important to prevent the need for heart surgery by maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

4) Philip discusses his realization that most heart disease cases and surgeries are preventable, which is why he wrote his book and advocates for a healthier lifestyle. He talks about how difficult it is to apologize to families when their loved ones die due to heart disease, and how it weighs on him knowing that most of the time, their deaths could have been prevented. Dr. Ovadia also shares that heart disease is the number one killer in both the US and worldwide, and he believes it is largely due to the food people are eating. He encourages people to start asking why heart disease is so common and take steps to prevent it.

5) Philip discusses the correlation between the history of heart disease in the United States and the introduction of processed foods to society. They explain that heart disease, specifically atherosclerosis, is caused by a blockage of blood vessels on the heart that results in reduced oxygen flow to the heart's muscle. The build-up of plaque made of cholesterol, fatty substances, calcium, and blood cells in the blood vessels causes this blockage. While cholesterol was thought to be the primary cause, the widespread adoption of diets low in cholesterol and medications to lower cholesterol have not led to a significant decrease in heart disease.

6) Philip discusses the hypothesis that sugar, rather than cholesterol, may be the main cause of heart disease, and how it damages the blood vessels. He argues that many leading scientists in the 1950s and earlier suggested that sugar was causing the problem, but this idea was buried in favor of the cholesterol theory, which has subsequently been proven to be ineffective. Dr. Ovadia believes that sugar plays a large part in the metabolic health process, which is the root of the problem. To determine if one is metabolically healthy, he recommends five indicators, including waist circumference, blood pressure, blood glucose, and cholesterol levels.

7) Philip explains the concept of being "skinny fat," which refers to individuals who appear thin on the outside but have internal fat around their organs. This type of fat can lead to health problems such as diabetes and heart disease. Eating whole, real food and eliminating processed foods is key to maintaining metabolic health. Dr. Ovadia emphasizes that a diet rich in animal products is beneficial, as humans evolved to eat animals.

8) Philip argues that human bodies are designed to process meat and animal proteins and that they are essential to human health. However, he recognizes that a vegan diet, which should be better called a Whole Food plant-based diet, is an improvement over the Western diet, specifically one full of processed food. Nonetheless, a vegan diet's long-term maintenance could be challenging, as certain essential nutrients cannot be provided by plants, requiring people to take supplements, which our ancestors did not evolve to take.

9) Philip argues that cardio is a poor tactic for weight loss, contrary to conventional wisdom. He explains that chronic cardio exercise, such as jogging or running at the gym, is not effective for reducing weight or fat. Ovadia advises people to focus instead on building and maintaining muscle, which is more metabolically active throughout the day and therefore better for metabolic health. Muscle burns more calories, even while at rest, and people do not feel more hungry from building muscle.

10) Philip emphasizes the importance of maintaining muscle as we age, as it leads to a better quality of life and longer lifespan. He notes that it's a downward spiral as we age, where we become less active, lose muscle, and become even less active. However, we can maintain muscle by maintaining metabolic health, eating enough protein, real food, and continuing resistance exercise throughout our lifespan. Dr. Ovadia also highlights the two-way relationship between sleep and metabolic health, where poor sleep is a key indicator of poor metabolic health. He mentions sleep apnea as a common symptom of metabolic disease and shows that improving metabolic health can alleviate sleep apnea even without weight loss.

11) Philip explains that the harm of eating toofrequently is that our bodies never get the chance to burn stored energy, which can lead to metabolic processes breaking down. He recommends payingattention to metabolic health measures, such as using a continuous glucose monitor, in order to determine how to improve our health. Ovadia also notesthat the more metabolically healthy we become, the more we will want to maintain that health, and encourages people to make changes to improve their health rather than ignoring advice.

12) Philip discusses his mission to give people hope and make them understand that they can be healthy without relying on pharmaceuticals or ending up on his operating table. He acknowledges that one of the biggest problems is the low bar set by the majority of people, who are metabolically unhealthy, making it seem like the norm. Furthermore, he talks about how the food industry intentionally makes processed and sugary foods addictive, and that the addiction fades over time if you stop consuming them.

13) Philip expresses the importance of having a good quality of life over just extending it, and how health is the foundation for everything we do, from being entrepreneurs to artists. Steven then asks Philip for advice he wished he hadn't followed in his career to which he responded that he wishes he hadn't followed the advice to stay in his lane as a heart surgeon, but instead address the root cause of his patient's problems and help treat the whole person. He also mentions that he doesn't want his patients coming back after surgery, so he tries to implement a whole-person approach to address the problem at its root cause.