Episode 78
Robert Floyd MD:
The Standard American Diet is Making You Sick
In this episode we are discussing the Standard American Diet as the main underlying cause for illness. Dr. Robert Floyd joins us to share how the Paleo Lifestyle can help you create the wellness you are looking for.
First Aired on: Mar 13, 2023
Episode 78
Robert Floyd MD:
The Standard American Diet is Making You Sick
In this episode we are discussing the Standard American Diet as the main underlying cause for illness. Dr. Robert Floyd joins us to share how the Paleo Lifestyle can help you create the wellness you are looking for.
First Aired on: Mar 13, 2023
Table of Contents:
In this episode:
Robert Floyd, MD is known as the PaleoMD. He is a Board-Certified Functional Medicine Physician, writer, athlete, and entrepreneur. He has helped thousands of clients trim down, obtain abundant energy, reduce the burden of chronic disease, reduce medications, and achieve optimal health.
When Rob was a young man living in Boulder, Colorado, he was active and fit. He was an avid rock climber and skier, and weighed 155lbs when he started medical school.
During medical school, Rob gained 30lbs due to the stress, schedule, and crappy food he was eating.
"You can't outrun your fork!"
He was a vegetarian for 6 plus years, and was finally introduced to the Paleo Lifestyle through Robb Wolf's Paleo Solution.
Finding a lifestyle that worked to lose weight and gain energy sent Rob down a research rabbit hole, that has led to becoming the PaleoMD.
Paleo as a lifestyle, not diet.
Diets fail, lifestyles don't.
The American College of Cardiologists published an article stating that 93.2% of adults in the US are sick.
Our food system is to blame.
Mitochondria are the powerhouses of our cells. We have a quadrillion mitochondria in our body.
The "Frankenfoods" we are eating make it impossible for our. mitochondria to thrive. They increase reactive oxygen species, and decrease antioxidants.
Think of your mitochondria as the engine in your car.
We need the proper fuel!
The Standard American Diet (SAD) is nutrient deficient and calorie dense.
We need nutrient density and lower calorie.
The Paleo Lifestyle supports the microbiome and gut healing.
Food as Information!
We were much healthier until WWII when processed foods became popular.
"Convenience is the killer"
Dr. Rob created the Ancestral Reset Program: A Lifestyle Transformation Course
It includes 144 Paleo meals
List of snacks
Supplements
Use code First10 for 10% off your first order.
Time optimized eating - similar to intermittent fasting.
Don't worry about perfection
90/10 or even 85/15 for the win!
We can create change!
1Thing
Get rid of gluten! Stop eating wheat!
When Rob was a young man living in Boulder, Colorado, he was active and fit. He was an avid rock climber and skier, and weighed 155lbs when he started medical school.
During medical school, Rob gained 30lbs due to the stress, schedule, and crappy food he was eating.
"You can't outrun your fork!"
He was a vegetarian for 6 plus years, and was finally introduced to the Paleo Lifestyle through Robb Wolf's Paleo Solution.
Finding a lifestyle that worked to lose weight and gain energy sent Rob down a research rabbit hole, that has led to becoming the PaleoMD.
Paleo as a lifestyle, not diet.
Diets fail, lifestyles don't.
The American College of Cardiologists published an article stating that 93.2% of adults in the US are sick.
Our food system is to blame.
Mitochondria are the powerhouses of our cells. We have a quadrillion mitochondria in our body.
The "Frankenfoods" we are eating make it impossible for our. mitochondria to thrive. They increase reactive oxygen species, and decrease antioxidants.
Think of your mitochondria as the engine in your car.
We need the proper fuel!
The Standard American Diet (SAD) is nutrient deficient and calorie dense.
We need nutrient density and lower calorie.
The Paleo Lifestyle supports the microbiome and gut healing.
- No Gluten
- No Dairy
- No Sugar
- No Seed oils
- No Toxins
- Avoiding most grains and legumes.
- Whole foods!
Food as Information!
We were much healthier until WWII when processed foods became popular.
"Convenience is the killer"
Dr. Rob created the Ancestral Reset Program: A Lifestyle Transformation Course
It includes 144 Paleo meals
List of snacks
Supplements
Use code First10 for 10% off your first order.
Time optimized eating - similar to intermittent fasting.
Don't worry about perfection
90/10 or even 85/15 for the win!
We can create change!
1Thing
Get rid of gluten! Stop eating wheat!
Other Resources:
Connect with Robert Floyd MD
Episode Transcript
Julie Michelson: [Page//00:00:00] Welcome back to The Inspired Living with Autoimmunity podcast. I'm your host, Julie Michaelson, and today we're joined by Dr. Robert Floyd, the Paleo md, and we're talking about how the standard American diet is driving illness and how the Paleo lifestyle supports wellness. We go deep in this episode about the importance of mitochondrial health and how what we eat truly powers ourselves.[Page//00:01:00]
Rob, welcome to the podcast.
Robert Floyd: Hi. Thank you. Thanks for having me. It's so much fun. So already we've had a great time talking,
Julie Michelson: We have, if we had hit record, we probably had a full episode there in that conversation.
Robert Floyd: Totally.
Julie Michelson: So I am thrilled to have you here. This is such a passionate topic of mine, and I just can't wait to dive into it. I love to start with story because I am guessing when you went to medical school, you didn't have the intention of becoming the Paleo md.
Robert Floyd: No, I did. I did not. Absolutely not. Um, I, you know, actually I went to med school to become an orthopedic surgeon, but, you know, wasn't cool enough to get in that club. So then I ended up doing, I have a very, uh, varied background of, uh, through medicine. I've done trauma surgery, ICU U medicine, uh, family medicine, emergency medicine.
I was a medical director in a rural ER clinic or hospital. Um, and, uh, Then I discovered [Page//00:02:00] functional medicine. And you know, I used to live not too far from you. I used to live in Boulder, Colorado, and that's where I kind of discovered, uh, you know, holistic, integrative, complimentary medicine back then, you know, as an athlete.
Um, you know, I, I got shiatsu, I got acupuncture, I ate, you know, took herbs and so on and so forth. And so functional medicine was really just a, a wonderful extension of how I've already been for many, many years.
Julie Michelson: which is amazing. and, but you're not just practicing functional medicine. You, you we're, we're gonna talk about, and I'm gonna try not to get angry in our conversation today. Certainly it won't be at you. Um, but we are gonna really dig into the standard American diet, um, which is sad. Doesn't even begin to
It is so sad. . Uh, but how, you know, how did you specifically, you know, embrace the, the paleo [Page//00:03:00] lifestyle and realize that that was a key for people.
Robert Floyd: Um, like, like we had spoken about, uh, before we recorded, um, I basically went from fit to fat and fit and back again. Um, you know, when, when I was living in Boulder, I was, like I said, a climbing guide and a ski guide and a ski patroller and, you know, I was really into health and wellness. And then I went to medical school and, uh, when I left for medical school, actually I was living in Jackson Hall, Wyoming, you know, skiing, mountain biking, building trails every day.
Um, , I was 155 pounds, uh, you know, probably like a eight, 9% body fat. And then I went to medical school and, uh, a couple things happened. I, my metabolism came to a screeching halt and, uh, I was full of stress and, um, because of that, I put on almost 30 pounds. Uh, I came back from med school 187 pounds or something like that.
And I mean, I vividly remember sitting in biochemistry class. This is my [Page//00:04:00] second semester there, and I looked down and I'm like, oh my God. I had a gut. and I've never had that before cuz I've always been active and fit. And so, you know, I wasn't eating the best and I was, like I said, stressed. And so, um, you know, long story, try to shorten a little bit.
I came back and I did what I thought I needed to do. I did caloric restriction, uh, exercise and yada yada, yada. And, and, and, you know, I lost a few pounds here and there. It didn't really get me back to my pre-med school weight. And then I went to residency for five years and then I came back from that. Um, you know, and, uh, again, I was back up to about 190 pounds of, even though I was like exercising more, but I was still eating what I thought was healthy.
Julie Michelson: exercise your way out of a bad diet. What
Robert Floyd: you can't outrun your fork. No, absolutely not. And that's, uh, that's another great book. You can't
Julie Michelson: is a good
Robert Floyd: Um, But, uh, and then I started, actually, [Page//00:05:00] I, I kinda, uh, I'll, I'll, I'll give a shout out to Rob Wolf. Um, I read, you know, the Paleo solution and um, you know, like I said, I thought I was eating well.
I thought I was eating what was healthy. Um, you know, in Colorado, I, I was vegan for a week. That's all. I could handle that. But, and then I was a vegetarian
Julie Michelson: probably good
Robert Floyd: Yeah, to totally. Then I was a vegetarian for like six or seven years. And, uh, but I realized too is like, this is, This is not a healthy diet, you know, vegan and vegetarian diets, unless you're really, really, really, really good at eating and picking whole healthy foods.
The majority of the people who undertake these diets are eating a bunch of processed garbage. And, um, you know, unfortunately the standard American diet has, we should just rename it as poison. It's what it is. It's poison. It's literally poison. No, yeah.
Julie Michelson: agree. I agree. I love that. So, so the finding paleo for [Page//00:06:00] you was, was a big answer and
Robert Floyd: absolutely, it was an it, it was an eye-opener and, uh, I didn't even like understand it. Um, you know. And then, so I'll, real quick, I was sitting there at my kitchen table reading this and talking to my wife. I'm like, Hey, Kim, you know? And, and I like what he says in his book. He's like, give it one month. Try it for one month.
What do you have to lose? Absolutely nothing. What do you have to gain everything, right? And so I'm sitting there reading, I'm like, Kimmy, we need to do this. We should try this. We should try this. You know? She's like, no, no, no. I'm like, we should try this. Really? You know, next week we should try this. She's like, no.
She had some tr, you know, hesitation and trepidation and so finally she's like, all right, fine. All right. Leave me alone. Okay,
Julie Michelson: If you'll be quiet, I'll try it.
Robert Floyd: exactly. So we, we kind of instituted it. We went pretty much all into the whole, um, paleo lifestyle. Again, it's not just a diet, it's a lifestyle. You have to have a lifestyle.
And I will say over and over and over and in my program, which [Page//00:07:00] I'll discuss a little bit later, uh, I say this, if I say it once, I say it a hundred times, diets fail. Lifestyles don't. Okay? You cannot, like we just said, you can't diet your way out of a bad you. Lifestyle. You can't exercise your way out of a bad diet, and so on and so forth.
But so a couple weeks into trying this pale, Solution, you know, lifestyle that we did. Uh, my wife was blown away. Um, I mean, she's like, oh my God, I can't believe how much better I feel, um, and, uh, so, you know, she was like, it. It's weird because like, it's what I see and I, you never hear guys say, oh, I'm so bloated.
I'm so bloated. Right? When's the last time you heard a guy say that? Right. But the, a lot of it seems like a lot of women will say that, and she's like, her, her bloating and her gut pains went away and she was blown away. So, and that's when I kind of started going down a really big rabbit hole [Page//00:08:00] of research and researching and researching and researching and changed my life.
And, and this is why doing what I'm doing, because I live what I teach and I went through it. And so I've been there so,
Julie Michelson: I love it. It's, it's amazing and, and you. I, I can tell from our conversation before we even hit record, you're as passionate about it as I am. And that that's what happens when, you know we are living it and we know, you know, we just realize, um, I love that. , you didn't have to be as sick as I was to get the, and we could have a whole different interview about why is medical school designed to make you sick, , that's a whole nother thing.
And it's not just in this country. It's like I had the same conversation. I, I did a presentation for a bunch of physicians in Pakistan and you know, same thing. It's the between the stress and the lack of sleep and the, you know, bad food and all of it.
Robert Floyd: Mm-hmm. . Yeah.
Julie Michelson: that's, Maybe [Page//00:09:00] downstream change . That will happen.
Robert Floyd: Yeah. I'd love to, I, I'd love to come and talk more about lots of different stuff, cuz it's like, again, you and I we're, we're so in alignment about what. We see needs to be done with in, in the world. And so, you know, you had asked earlier about like why, and, and you know, what does the standard American diet lead to?
I mean, there was, you know, a journal article from the American College of Cardiology, uh, last summer that said 93.2% of all adult Americans are.
Julie Michelson: That's insane.
Robert Floyd: 0.2%. Okay. So basically statistically you can say the entire American adult population is sick. And when they say sick, they're talking about, you know, they have two or three or four.
Um, uh, Symptoms, uh, um, of metabolic syndrome, you know, high cholesterol, uh, enlarged, uh, hip to waist ratio, uh, high blood pressure, insulin resistance, uh, [Page//00:10:00] dyslipidemia. And, you know, if, uh, one thing that a lot of people don't know, um, I di I just described the five, um, tens of the five symptoms of metabolic syndrome.
And if you have any three of those, You are diagnosed with metabolic syndrome. And so basically the entire adult population in America has metabolic syndrome. And if you are diagnosed with metabolic syndrome, you instantly have a 50% greater mortality risk. So to me, you know, it, it, it, it just, it, it infuriates me.
It makes me so mad that we sh that we have gotten this way. And like I, I asked you earlier, before he started recording, I said, , how do we get here? And I mean, I think you and I both know the answer, but
Julie Michelson: We do, we do . We'll, we'll, we'll wait until your book comes out, for that to really dig into that conversation. Or this will be a three hour episode.
Robert Floyd: for sure.
Julie Michelson: but, [Page//00:11:00] but really underscoring that if you were eating. Processed food. Um, highly processed food, lots of processed food, eating on the go. Um, even generally eating out a lot, even at nice places, you're still getting hit with a lot of crap. Um, you're not eating food. And so why do we need ? Why does that make us sick when we're eating things, our body's not recognizing his food. What happens?
Robert Floyd: Well, um, really, truly, I think it all boils down mostly to. The mitochondria. Um, and a lot of people maybe have heard about it and they've maybe heard about the kreb cycle and the electron transport chain and so on and so forth. But, uh, I really truly believe that all of this chronic disease is rooted in mitochondrial disease.
Um, the mitochondria, just for those of you who don't know or don't remember, I'm sure you've heard of
Julie Michelson: don't care, , [Page//00:12:00] but you will now
Robert Floyd: Yeah. That's a lot. That's a thing. It's one of the sad things about, um, what I see is like they're. People are purposely being dumbed down so that they are easier to manipulate and so on and so forth.
And then because of that, they don't have any agency over their health and wellness. I mean, I, I can get very circular. So anyway, go back to the mitochondria. So the mitochondria are, and we have 70 trillion cells in our human body, and the mitochondria are the little powerhouses of the cell. Okay. Um, and depending on how metabolically active a tissue is, you have more mitochondria.
So in one cell, I remember, and I, I used to think this, you had a cell, you had a nucleus, and he had one MIT Kon. No, absolutely not. Not even close. It's like anywhere from, you know, 5,000 to a hundred thousand mitochondria in each cell. In fact, we have a quadrillion mitochondria in our body, and that is a [Page//00:13:00] thousand trillions or some.
Enormous number like that. I mean, it's something, a number that we can't even comprehend, right? I mean, think of about 70, 70 trillion cells. We can't even comprehend how many cells we have in our body. So the mitochondria, they take substrates and, um, they take, uh, you know, sugar, pyruvic, acid fatty acids.
They, it's, it's it. Let me explain real quick how, because I love the mitochondria. I think they're absolutely spectacular and amazing and they're way underrated. They are, we. Millions of years ago, as humans, we kind of hijacked them. They're from bacteria, they have, they don't have the dna n a, they don't have your human DNA n a in it.
Okay? So somehow nature, God, whatever, however you wanna go about it, the, an evolution, cuz it can both coexist, right? And so we hijacked mitochondria because we saw how efficient they were at making energy, right? And so it's, it's kind of like your, your motor, your engine in your car, you put gasoline in it.[Page//00:14:00]
It runs, it takes you somewhere. The same thing with the mitochondria. You put a substrate into it. It does its magic and outcomes. Attp attp is adenosine triphosphate. It is the energy currency of our cells, of our human bodies. Without attp, you die like in a second. Okay? You're dead. And we make, here's something crazy.
ATTP is a molecule. It's, it's microscopic. You can't really see it. It's tiny. It's invisible, basically. Un you know, unless it's, you know, super, super high, um, micro. We make our own body weight in at t p every day. Ugh. Yeah. Think about that. I, I make 155 pounds of a t p every single day from my quadrillion mitochondria. Well, I know I do
Julie Michelson: You do. But, but the royal, we
Robert Floyd: yes, yes.
Julie Michelson: we want to optimally, we, we are producing our body weight in a t p daily. That's, that's incredible.
Robert Floyd: And so [Page//00:15:00] again, when that I, that's a great, that's a great point you make because when you don't make that, then that's when disease starts occurring. Um, and when you have mitochondrial diseases, actually there's actually. Primary mitochondrial diseases and people with those who don't live very long, they don't live beyond 7, 8, 9, 10 years old because they're so bad.
The, uh, when you have, what's what we're discussing here, this is a secondary mitochondrial disease because you're not putting, you know, top unleaded fuel in your motor to have it run smoothly. You're putting, um, the standard American. , which is junk food and poison and processed foods. And because of that, then the mitochondria can't do what they do and give us the energy that we need.
And it's clean energy. I mean, granted, you know, it, it, it's just like your car engine. You put gasoline in it. it does. Its, you know, internal combustion and out the back end comes exhaust while you're driving. The same thing happens with the [Page//00:16:00] mitochondria. Um, it, it does, it's basically internal combustion through the electron transport chain, making attp, giving you energy, but it also makes reactive oxygen species, which are kind of like the exhaust.
But our bodies are so, so genius. We have millions of, millions of different processes to get rid of. Internal combustion exhaust from the mitochondria. But when you are eating these terrible processed foods, high fructose corn syrup, foods, Franken foods, things that your body doesn't know how to break down through your mitochondria, you get increased amount of reactive oxygen species and a decreased amount of, uh, basically antioxidants, which get rid of those and they neutralize those and then you get.
and you know, I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's not rocket science. I do love it is science though. It's awesome. Science . So,
Julie Michelson: It is and, and. To have this conversation be of value. You don't [Page//00:17:00] need to be able to fully understand all of the processes, but you do need to understand pretty much, you know, the symptoms, especially in a audience, is as an autoimmune audience, right? So when you're thinking, you know, I'm fatigued, well guess what?
At the cellular level, You're fatigued. Your mitochondria are not optimized and working optimally, so you're not going to have the E, the energy, but it's not just our energy to get through the day. We're talking about the literally cellular energy for your all of your body processes to work the way they're supposed to.
And then, yeah, add on top of it. When you've got the, the high oxidative stress and all the other things leading, leading to disease as well. Um, so it is important to understand, you know, how essential mitochondrial health is, even if you don't feel like [Page//00:18:00] understanding how or why . But you know, it, it, it really is.
And just the fact that they are, you know, the powerhouse of the cell. Like that's all who. need that you want, you wanna be optimizing your power. Um, we're focusing today on food. Um, and, and we're gonna talk about, you know, we've been talking about how the American food system is not food. And, and I think of it, I want to talk about a couple things that do affect mitochondrial function and health.
Um, the nasty standard American diet, being one of 'em. and toxins. And I actually, I consider the standard American diet to be toxins. I mean, it's, it's this, that's what they are. I mean, that's what it is. What you're eating. Your body isn't recognizing as food cuz it's not food. And so it is the same as a chemical exposure.
Well, and plus it's [Page//00:19:00] loaded with chemicals anyway, um,
Robert Floyd: Absolutely. And, and like I said earlier, like the standard American diet, the, it should be just cons called poison. They, I got, I, I wanna figure out an anagram for poison to describe our diet because it, it, it's so, it's so bad. It's, you know, um, I know I kind of see where you're going with like, What you were just talking about, like the why is the standard American diet so bad for us and because it, it affects our mitochondria health.
Um, like I said, um, when you're not putting in high quality, um, um, substrates into your body, It doesn't run well. It it, I I really like, earlier you had mentioned like even you don't need to know the science to understand how this help makes, helps you and I equate it and I think it's really, really good to think of the mitochondria as the engine in your car.
Like I've said
Julie Michelson: Absolutely.
Robert Floyd: if you put, uh, You know, [Page//00:20:00] top high-end fuel and change the oil and change the spark plugs in your engine, it's gonna run well forever. It's gonna get you everywhere you wanna go, sitting down your, it's gonna last forever. If you put low quality gas, you don't change the oil and you don't change the spark plugs and you don't do the maintenance, then your car's gonna break down and it's gonna cost you a lot of money.
And that's get, you're gonna be taking a bus somewhere else. And it's the same thing here with us, with our health. If you don't maintain mitochondrial health, And, and, and in doing so, you maintain overall health because what you do for your mitochondria also improves the rest of your
Julie Michelson: It's your whole body. Yeah. I love, like to, to me, it reminded me of a conversation I had once of, you wouldn't put unleaded fuel in your diesel engine. Right? What's gonna happen to your car?
Robert Floyd: Yeah.
Julie Michelson: You're not gonna get very far.
Robert Floyd: it's gonna break down real quick.
Julie Michelson: It is not fun for anybody to use the wrong pump. And that's essentially what it is. I mean, we [Page//00:21:00] need nutrient density.
I mean, that's, we're we're designed to actually eat real food. Um, and so it, it it's, it's a double edged sword, right? We've got this like toxic unrecognizable thing and then also we're missing the nutrient density that we need to run.
Robert Floyd: Absolut. . Yeah. And that's a great term, nutrient density. People don't even think about that. Like you go to Taco Bell, there's no nutrients in that food. You go to McDonald's, there's new, there's no nutrients in that food. Um, like 75% of all the foods in the grocery store are processed foods. Um, and you need the standard American diet.
Nutrient deficient and caloric dense. Right. And it's, that's just the opposite of what we need. We need nutrient, um, density and low calories. I, I'm not saying low calorie diet,
Julie Michelson: And we don't have to count calories. We're not talking about counting calories.
Robert Floyd: [Page//00:22:00] Absolutely not. No. I, I actually, and I, you know, I don't even, there's a lot of people out there that like to account their macros and this and that.
I'm like, I don't even bother doing.
Julie Michelson: you, I can't be bothered. That's I,
Robert Floyd: Exactly. But if that's what you like doing, go for it. And if, if, here's the deal, if it helps you be more focused on what you're eating and how you're treating your body, all the power to you, you know, like a lot of times these, uh, these quote diets, it just makes people more cognizant of what they're eating sometimes, and which is a good thing in.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. And I know, you know, we, so many, we talk about, you know, eat whole food, eat real food, eat. And a lot of people it's like, sounds like noise. Um, but it's not. It, it, it's real. And this is, if you look at the health history in our country, look at when we moved away from real food, And, and then watch, look at the numbers.[Page//00:23:00]
Literally of chronic illness. I mean, it's exponential, you know, sadly, it's, uh, I've got job security, unfortunately. Right.
Robert Floyd: Yep.
Julie Michelson: you know, but the, but here's the beautiful thing too, and I know, oh, this is what you preach. It's never too late and the body heals. So, course correct, right. Change. So who, is there anybody that you would say.
Paleo is not an optimal eating lifestyle like, or the Paleo lifestyle
Robert Floyd: No. God no. No. I think it's, I think it's the most optimal lifestyle for everybody. Again, it's not a diet, and diet is part of a lifestyle, you know, for Paleo. I, I don't think there's anybody you know who, you know, could not benefit from, from the paleo. Slash diet slash lifestyle because you know it's Whole Foods.
It's, [Page//00:24:00] you know, you're avoiding gluten, dairy, sugar, and, you know, seed oils and, um, other toxins in your diet. And you're eating whole foods. You're eating, you know, vegetables, um, steamed vegetables. Um, you're eating, you, you're avoiding most grains, you're avoiding most legumes. And one of the reasons why I did the whole paleo and why I.
Why I've become what I've become and I believe it's, I mean, gut health, obviously, you know all about gut health. You know, every, anybody in our field knows how important gut health is
Julie Michelson: Well, and if you have autoimmunity and you have not done the work to heal your gut, you have leaky gut like I
Robert Floyd: hundred percent, yeah.
Julie Michelson: Period.
Robert Floyd: if, if you eat the standard American diet, you have leaky gut, which is intestinal permeability, which is, it's the root cause of all diseases right now that, and, and it co, it causes harm to the mitochondria. Um, and so, you know, back to the whole paleo, I [Page//00:25:00] don't think anybody could, would have any negative effects if they went to paleo.
And, and my, and my ethos is gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar free. Um, PS oil free and artificial sweetener. right? Artificial sweeteners are toxins. Okay. Most people don't know that as Peram was invented when they were trying to make another, um, um, pesticide, right? And I don't know what guy in the lab was inventing a pesticide and, and tasted it.
Hey, this is sweet
Julie Michelson: Right, right.
Robert Floyd: someone did. And so it's a pesticide and it, because of that, it. your microbiome. And that's a whole nother conversation we have. How important the microbiome is. And so what I like about Paleo is it supports your microbiome. It supports healing your gut. And again, it's a lifestyle.
I, you know, I was talking to you and I have a small ranch. You have a small ranch. I raise sheep, I raise meat, chickens, I. Egg chickens. Um, we sell our [Page//00:26:00] sheep from farm to table for friends and family. Uh, it's all organic. Um, you know, we, they're grass fed. Um, and, uh, the paylor lifestyle is about that. It's also about, you know, where did your animals come from, where the humanely raised and slaughtered.
Uh, did they come from a cao, which is a concentrated animal feed operation, which is absolutely the devil. It's terrible for everybody. Um, does. Where are your foods coming from? Are these people being treated fairly? Are they being paid well? Is it fair trade? Is it organic? I mean, it's a lifestyle that you have to embrace because again, you and I've spoken about this, like we've been so
Julie Michelson: Misled
Robert Floyd: misled.
We're like
Julie Michelson: a very polite way.
Robert Floyd: Yes, we, we have, we've been bamboozled to think that convenience is what it's all about and yada, yada, yada. It's actually killing us. I mean, it's, it's, it's despicable and it, and frankly it pisses me off and it, you know, there's times I literally come to [Page//00:27:00] tears.
Julie Michelson: it's, well, it's horrifying and because you see, and I see all the time, I mean there, there is so much chronic illness and it's unnecessary like this, that this is not it. It's not rocket science.
Robert Floyd: And it's not the way it's supposed to
Julie Michelson: No, and, and you brought up a point I wanna highlight. About this, the, the difference of, we, we talk about it sometimes as as quality, um, but you know, talk about animals that are pastured, humanely raised, humanely slaughtered, um, that is completely different.
I, and again, I grew up low fat. I eat, I will, I have no interest in another. You know, boneless, skinless chicken breasts my whole life, . Um, I actually don't eat a lot of chicken. I, I
Robert Floyd: Good. You're better off.
Julie Michelson: yeah, I can only handle little, but I do eat a lot of grass-fed red beef. Um, and, you know, I, and again, some people listening are gonna say, you know, I [Page//00:28:00] don't live in Colorado, and that's fine.
There are other ways to access high quality. You know, protein sources. I, yes, I'm blessed. I, I know, you know, the rancher who grew my cow that's in my freezer, you know, and I know how it was raised. I got to see the, the ranch, you know, I know the people. Um, and so not everybody is going to have that level, but just like you were talking about how McDonald's isn't real food, you know, that's a whole nother.
Story about, you know, beef is bad, red meat is bad. They're talking about feedlot meat, commercial factory farmed meat. Totally different, literally different
Robert Floyd: Well, they also feed them, you know,
Julie Michelson: grains,
Robert Floyd: Paper stock. They feed 'em expired candy. They feed them garbage. I saw a video of, um, a pork [Page//00:29:00] factory, uh, farm. They were literally feeding these pigs garbage from the dump with plastic containers in it. And there's, there is literally a government document that says the pork feed can have this much plastic in it.
Julie Michelson: Right. It's disgusting.
Robert Floyd: it's disgusting and.
Julie Michelson: I actually have to drive. Passed a feed lot from my house to the clinic. I'm in the clinic once or twice a week, and otherwise I'm working from home. And I, you know, again, I live in this beautiful area and we've got access to these amazing things and. I mean, there's a, you know, cuz you li so I, I know you understand when somebody says, smells like Greeley, even though you lived in Boulder, right?
Like , it is not natural. Yes. Yeah. When the wind would shift, it would go all the way down to Boulder. Um, that is not healthy. Nobody should be eating that kind of meat. And yeah,
Robert Floyd: you know, the thing is about the CAOs. Okay. Uh, I mean, this is, [Page//00:30:00] could be a whole nother podcast. I mean, there's so much to unpack and all this stuff, and that, I mean, I love why we're doing this.
Again, we'd spoken about why we're doing this, and it's to get the word out. It's, you know, the, the World Economic Forum and all these world leaders are talking about a great reset. Okay? And it's. What you and I want, but I think there's a great reset coming and it's from people like us and the grassroots reset of, of, of, you know, COVID pulled back the curtain of the man pulling the levers like in the Wizard of Oz.
Right.
Julie Michelson: right.
Robert Floyd: And a lot of us are like, have woken up. I, I think you and I are already kind of awake just because of the realms that we're in. But I think a lot of Americans all of a sudden went like, . Oh my God, what's going on here? And, but this, this applies to what we're talking about, food, meat, CAO rays, concentrated animal feed operations.
They are the devil. They're bad for the environment, they're bad for the animals. They're bad for the people that work there. They're bad for the people that eat the food. They're, they're just [Page//00:31:00] bad, bad, bad. You know what they're good for? They're good for the corporate profits
Julie Michelson: Yeah, that's
Robert Floyd: Okay. And so what we're you were talking about earlier is, you know, grass fed, um, the whole
Julie Michelson: pastured, you know, it's, it is different and there's nothing to be afraid of if you're eating protein that was raised this way, which is the perfect, you know, you've talked about paleo as a lifestyle, so if you're eating. You know, commercial beef, feedlot beef, you're not eating paleo because they're eating corn and grains and trash, and you are eating whatever the animal ate.
And so that's how that works.
Robert Floyd: Including the antibiotics.
Julie Michelson: Yes. Yeah.
Robert Floyd: 80% of all antibiotics in the United States. Actually, I think it's gone down a little bit because there's, like, in the hospitals, we had what was called antibiotic stewardship programs, right? We don't want to give antibiotics nearly willy to just everybody. You know, people come in with an [Page//00:32:00] upper respiratory infection or sore throat.
They're like, who can I have a Z-Pak? Can I have antibiotics? We had to say, no, this is likely a viral issue. Go home and you know, help build your immune system, whatever, blah,
Julie Michelson: but even that's a course correct cuz it used to be antibiotics for everybody all the time.
Robert Floyd: Yeah, absolutely. And so in these, uh, CAOs, because the conditions are so bad for the animals and, and I'm talking beef, chicken, pork, you name it, it's bad. They're so concentrated that they feed them antibiotics to keep them from, you know, getting sick and then having some disease spread throughout the entire, uh, operation.
They found out a long, long time ago that when you feed cows antibiotics, they get fatter faster. And the, you know, the same thing happens to humans when you take antibiotic put on weight. And there there's actually studies that I include. I do, I, I love doing the research cuz I'm so passionate about this.
And they, they've, [Page//00:33:00] they've shown, studies have shown that if you are, um, exposed to antibiotics, Nine times by the time you're four, you have like a 90% chance of being overweight and obese. Um, if you are exposed to antibiotics once, um, as a child, you are at an increased risk of being overweight. And so these.
Big corporations who are there to make money off of you, they understand, Hey, if I feed these cows antibiotics, they're gonna get fat. And guess what I could sell? They, they, they cost more to buy, and then we butcher, and then blah, blah, blah. And so, you know, it's, it again, it, it's all about, you know, the lifestyle.
And a again, I could, I could go on and on about the whole, oh, cows are causing climate change. That's the biggest crock of horse pucky
Julie Michelson: Feed lots. Feed lots are, are causing climate change, not cows. . We need the cows.
Robert Floyd: there is. And I
Julie Michelson: Try farming without animals. It doesn't work.
Robert Floyd: no. And [Page//00:34:00] uh, you know, I love the whole regenerative farming and regenerative agriculture that's going along, you know, with Polyface Farms and, you know, Joel Salad did.
Julie Michelson: amazing. We were talking bef and that's, it gives me hope, right? We were talking about this is why we're doing this, and yes, we're angry , and yes, you know, we, we've been, we've all been bamboozled and, and you and I now know better and we're trying to spread the word. Um, but there is hope, the regenerative farming movement.
Functional medicine, paleo, lifestyle, all of it. Um, and, and my audience is very familiar with, um, AIP p Autoimmune, paleo, uh, it, it's. I, I think whatever form, but when, when you're, I joke, when I tell my story, um, I thought I was paid. I say I, I was doing it wrong. I, I thought I was , so I was, you know, it's not, you talk about lifestyle, it's, it's back to, it's not just what you're avoiding, it's what you're including.
Right. So I, [Page//00:35:00] I was. Or what you might not be including. In my case, when I first thought I was paleo, I was again fat phobic. . And I remember getting like paleo cookbooks and I, you know, I was gonna dive in and they had coconut oil, butter, and all these fats that I was like, you know, so I would cook it, but without the fat.
So I, I was like low fat, still avoiding grains, um, uh, at low fat, high carb paleo. I, I managed to do. So Even like if you're eating a lot of processed paleo, You're probably getting a lot of sugar and, and a lot of crap that, and there's a lot of those, you know, artificial sweeteners being used in the quote unquote paleo products.
Robert Floyd: Yeah, for sure. And again, um, I mean, I, I kind of see where we can go with this too, is like we should, you know, here, here's how you, if you wanna change your life and your health and wellness, stop eating processed [Page//00:36:00] foods, period. Stop going out to dinner. Um, Eat whole foods at home, um, you know, eat vegetables, uh, small berries, um, you know, don't, you don't wanna be eating, you know, two apples and four bananas every day.
It's a lot of sugar. It's too much sugar. Again, sugar gums up the mitochondria and again, it makes 'em run poorly. You get more reactive oxygen species, more inflammation, and so on and so forth. But, you know, you, you have to look. Food as information and food. Food is really important. You know, it's, it's one of the, the one of the joys we have as human beings is eating.
And, you know, I I, I'm also work in a hospice clinic and, um, and I've seen a lot of that. Um, you know, food is, it's, food is information for yourselves. Food is community, food is love. Food is memories like, I mean, we have so many deep ties back to food. I mean, I, I, there's a couple of my favorite [Page//00:37:00] foods. I think they're my favorite foods because it reminds me of, you know, the big family parties that we used to have when I was growing up.
And so, you know,
Julie Michelson: I've yet to encounter a client whose, you know, emotional. Happy food is salad that their, their childhood memory feel good. Food is, is never vegetable based.
Robert Floyd: Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, you know, it, it could be, and I mean, it, it also depends. Here's actually, now that's a good point that you bring up because, you know, when we start, I don't know. I mean, I was. The, the processed food and the sugars. I'm 54 years of age and so,
Julie Michelson: Give me two months. I'll catch up.
Robert Floyd: okay, good. Um, you look great. I never would've guessed
Julie Michelson: Oh, you're very kind
Robert Floyd: um, it all kind of started about when I was born.
I mean, the processed food industry came about after World War ii. Because during World War ii, they had to figure out how to get [Page//00:38:00] food across the sea to our European troops and other troops around the world. And they did that. They, they made processed, you know, uh, long shelf sustaining life, food, whatever.
So then all of a sudden they realized, oh my God, this is, this is, wow. This is a cash cow for us. Yeah. How convenient. You know, and, uh, I once had a nurse at, at the hospital I work with, and she said something very profound. She said, convenience is the killer. and it really is, you know, um, going back to food and why you should eat food and like, I'm really blessed, uh, my wife and I love to cook together.
If you don't know how to
Julie Michelson: have that too. Yeah.
Robert Floyd: learn how to cook. Yeah, absolutely. If you want to eat good food, you shouldn't learn how to cook
Julie Michelson: and it doesn't have to be fancy.
Robert Floyd: not at all.
Julie Michelson: high quality ingredients, you don't need, you know, a a three hour recipe.
Robert Floyd: Oh, no. Absolutely
Julie Michelson: food tastes delicious and your taste buds change [Page//00:39:00] really quickly. Um, which is the perfect segue into, I want you to share with listeners about your Ancestral Reset program because it, to me, it's brilliant because you break down, you handle all the resistances when you know the, it's too hard.
I don't cook all the, all the things, all the reasons why people say they can't start. With a Paleo lifestyle. So share with us about your program
Robert Floyd: Um, thank you. Um, I've made my program failure proof basically, and it's, it's a, it's a lifestyle transformation course. It's not a diet. Again, diets fail, lifestyles don't, and so what I try to do is I, I get people to. Seamlessly changed their lifestyle. So basically what I've done is I've devised a program, it's a 12 week program, and then there's um, you know, an continued optimization program that I'm working on afterwards.
Um, and, but basically you get. Delivered to your house, you get [Page//00:40:00] 144 meals. They're, I think they're great. Uh, it's paleo meals, um, you know, it's high quality protein. It's all grass fed. Um, and, and it's cage-free, grass-fed, chicken, beef, all that stuff. Uh, and then, uh, I've devised the program, so it's, you know, high protein, um, high veggies and kind of a lower carb, but a, again, I'm not anti carb at all.
We need
Julie Michelson: We need carbs,
Robert Floyd: we hundred percent need carbs. And I am
Julie Michelson: Good carbs. Clean
Robert Floyd: Yes. Yeah. I'm not talking about Ben and Jerry's . That's not what you need.
Julie Michelson: or donuts?
Robert Floyd: but then again, you know, here I'm also about self-compassion. You know what? If you need to have some Ben and Jerry's once in a while, eat it. It's not gonna kill you.
It's when you eat it every day.
Julie Michelson: Unless it makes you feel sick, that's different. . Listen to your body.
Robert Floyd: Yes. So my program is like, I've included 144 meals I've in, I include, um, supplements for gut health, sleep, energy, and cognition because those are all pillars [Page//00:41:00] of functional health, right. Um, I include, uh, a list of, you know, Palolo MD approved snacks, um, and, you know, some, some links that I can, I can give my clients a, uh, a, a discount on, cuz I have a a, a Paleo MD store that I sell supplements in snacks.
And if, if anybody wants to see it's the Paleo md.store, um, use a code first 10 for 10% off. If, I don't know if you have a store like that or anything, Julie.
Julie Michelson: I do, but go to your, I mean, it's not pale you. You probably have more focused for this conversation.
Robert Floyd: yeah. Well, I'm, I'm not, uh, again, I, I, I wanna share like, all ships rise with the rising tide and like, I'm not trying to, you know, take clients, but just, just check it out people. Um,
Julie Michelson: Absolutely. Well, and again, if you're like, Ooh, wait, there's an easier way to do paleo or to get started, um, I say ch you know, check out the store for.
Robert Floyd: Ah, thanks. And one of the things I, I, I tell these people is like, [Page//00:42:00] um, I also institute, um, time optimized eating. Okay. And we had talked about this earlier. I, I'm changing the word fasting. I'm changing the word, time restricted feeding because nobody wants to fast, nobody wants to restrict and nobody wants to feed.
When you say feeding, you think of cows at a trough,
Julie Michelson: Yep.
Robert Floyd: So, um, Institute, time optimized eating, and, um, that is one of the most amazing ways to improve your health. Um, it's, it's, I love it. I fast or , I, Tom time optimize, eat almost every day, like 99% of the time. I am not eating for 16 hours a day, sometimes more.
Julie Michelson: And for me personally, what I always try to, to encourage my clients to do is to listen again, listen to your body. Um, I once in a while, wake up hungry and. , I'm gonna have a really good nutrient intense breakfast. It doesn't [Page//00:43:00] happen often, uh, but I'm not like, oh no, I'm not in my eating window. My time isn't optimized yet.
Like, no, listen to your body. Yes, it takes maybe some time to get used to when you're making changes, um, but also, especially those of us who went through chronic illness. Found wellness, our first tendency is usually to hold what's working a little too tightly. Um, and so I, I just wanna remind listeners, you know that, that listening to their body, and I love that you said even for you, you know, it's 99% like this is, this is my lifestyle.
It's not about perfection and, and always hitting a hundred percent.
Robert Floyd: Yeah. Funny cuz you live in Loveland and, uh, Lauren Cordain, he is the guru of the Paleo and he's from, from Fort Collins. He's
Julie Michelson: Yeah. C S U. Yep.
Robert Floyd: And, uh, He is on his website. Uh, it's uh, and the paleo lifestyle is like, like 99% of the time I fast. [Page//00:44:00] But on the food, and it's a 90 10 rule, it's an 85 15 rule.
If you do something 90% of the time, you are gonna wreak the benefits of it dramatically. And so in America, we have it backwards. It's really, really sad. Um, people eat garbage. They,
Julie Michelson: Yeah, your side salad is not compensating for the other 90% of your diet. That's for sure.
Robert Floyd: And, and again, I want, I wanna tell people that it's not your fault. Like you said, we've been bamboozled, we're being like sheep led to the slaughterhouse in the name of corporate greed. Okay? That's, this all goes down to corporate greed, period. And they don't care about me. They don't care about you, they care about what's in your wallet.
So the, the lifestyle is, Do it most of the time. I, and I, one time in, one of my, in, I also, in my program, they, they have 12 weeks of learning modules and um, you know, group coaching calls that I run. And one time I just randomly [Page//00:45:00] came up with, oh, make it a habit not to have it. Right. What a great way to live a life.
And uh, yeah, you know what? Lace potato chips, they're awesome. Yes. But you don't eat 'em every day. You make it a habit not
Julie Michelson: don't eat them ever
Robert Floyd: Yeah. I mean, yeah,
Julie Michelson: There are better potato to. Somebody asked me that the other day. Because I was, it was a, a family member, a loved one, and I was kind of dissing on their, I read the ingredients on their chips and they were like, why would you read the ingredients? They're potato chips. All of them are bad.
And I'm like, no, if I'm gonna eat a potato chip, it's gonna be cook, you know, and cooked in avocado oil and salt. And that's it. It's not gonna have a, a big list and it, and I'm not gonna eat them every day either. Um, I love, you know, we're so aligned. My weekly email that went out yesterday was imperfect Action for the Win because. It's not about perfection and perfection will get you to stop doing the good things if you're trying to [Page//00:46:00] be perfect. And so, you know, I love that you brought up the 90 10 or 85, 15 if you're, if you're quote unquote on plan, right? Honoring your lifestyle 90% of the time. You don't need to do more than that, and that's 90% more than people eating the standard American diet are doing now.
So even before you hit 90, you're going to notice improvements in your health and,
Robert Floyd: Even if you change one thing in your life, um, you know, um, you can improve your health dramatically. And you, you talked about perfection and, um, I, I, I have to say that. The human body is genius and we have thousands of redundancies in our body to stay healthy, and there's not much that's perfect in the world.
I think the human body's pretty perfect. I mean, we are amazing and you sh people should honor what we have. We're lucky that we have this body. Uh, we're [Page//00:47:00] blessed. I mean, to think. This , what we're actually experiencing here is crazy. I mean the, this experience called life is amazing and people, you know, one of the things that, like, one of the reasons I created my program is because I saw in the hospitals, in the clinics and like people, when you're sick, life sucks.
You don't have the
Julie Michelson: Well, it
Robert Floyd: optimal life.
Julie Michelson: smaller and smaller and smaller and, and that's, you know, this conversation today is to give you the inf you know, knowledge is power and so we're sharing the knowledge that you have, the power. to create wellness for yourself because nobody else is going to do it for
Robert Floyd: and, and only you. You know, I like to, we talked about book titles. One of my other titles, potential titles in my upcoming book was No One's Got You Back.
Julie Michelson: right?
Robert Floyd: It's only you. I mean, in, in reality, you know you're born alone and you die alone. And in between you have support from family, but you are the only person [Page//00:48:00] that can control your health.
Right. And it's very important. And
Julie Michelson: and no matter what you've been told, you can control your health.
Robert Floyd: Yeah. And, and here's, here's something that really bothers me, is like people get a diagnosis of diabetes or autoimmune disease. So on and so forth, these chronic illnesses, and the majority of doctors have never said, Hey, you know what? That's reversible.
Julie Michelson: right?
Robert Floyd: You can get rid of type two diabetes a million percent
Julie Michelson: easily.
Robert Floyd: In fact, you know, um, I'm a member of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine and they just came out with a position paper that says the treatment goals for type two diabetes is complete resolution. It's not maintenance, it's re.
Julie Michelson: Why not? I joke. So, you know, in Julie Michaelson coaching, I focus on autoimmunity and at the clinic I work with all kinds of people and I'm like, please send me the diabetics. Like, it's so easy, , it's such a quick [Page//00:49:00] hit and it doesn't take a long time. Once people understand, I, I once had a cl a client, she has type one diabetes.
Um, and she was, when she was first diagnosed, you know, they sent her to a diabetes coach, which I didn't realize. There was something called a diabetes coach, and now I know why I didn't know about it because her diabetes coach didn't tell her that she shouldn't be eating oatmeal every day for breakfast.
Robert Floyd: No, just use more insulin. You'll be fine.
Julie Michelson: Yeah, I was like, I, you know, she couldn't believe like her neuropathy got better. She wasn't having to add bolus to her pump, her insulin, you know, she didn't used to be able to sleep through the night because, you know, she just, she was just burning through insulin and it was like some of those kind of things like they're, again, that's when I get angry, like, how can somebody be a diabetes coach and not tell you to go low carp
Like, that doesn't make sense to me, but, That's a different, yeah.
Robert Floyd: a whole different podcast
Julie Michelson: yeah. And, and I look [Page//00:50:00] forward to when an autoimmune diagnosis, treatment should equal resolution. Right.
Robert Floyd: well, I mean, I, I personally have helped people. Resolve their autoimmune disease. I mean, I'm sure so have you. And it
Julie Michelson: of course, this is, yes.
Robert Floyd: the, the whole point, the whole plan of autoimmune disease should be resolution. Here's my question for you. You're, you're way more into autoimmune. You're up to your eyeballs more than me, right.
So, okay. as homo sapiens, we've been evolving 500 to 750,000 years. Okay? Every generation getting fitter, faster, smarter, stronger, living a li little bit longer than the one previous now until the last 50 years. Right? So, and, and the, the amount of autoimmune disease has absolutely skyrocketed. It's astronomical.
My question to you, being a, an expert in that field, was there autoimmune. [Page//00:51:00] 15, 20,000 years ago. I'm gonna, I'm gonna guess no. I would say no.
Julie Michelson: even when I was diagnosed, which was in the early two thousands. It was still rare. Like, I mean, that's how much it's changed was, you know, I remember them saying, and I was in my thirties, you know, oh, you're so young. Well now somebody in their thirties is diagnosed with autoimmunity.
A, it's not rare. B, they're not young like . It's not. Same thing though, before that, about a decade before that, I was working at Nova Southeastern University with AU well autistic children. Autism was rare in the nineties. . It's not rare anymore. So if we don. Like, tap the brakes and look up and say, okay, what is going on here?
Um, you know,
Robert Floyd: and look up
Julie Michelson: seriously like it, you know, this is the wake up call. And again, this is why you and I are [Page//00:52:00] optimistic that things are are changing because we are having the conversations and, and people are listening and, and it's a process and one of the most satisfying. Things in my work is, you know, yes, a helping people reverse their symptoms and, and life get bigger and better again.
But really it's the ripple effect, right? Then their children are growing up eating real food and the, the, you know, healthy paleo lifestyle and, and um, that's how we create change.
Robert Floyd: 100%. Absolutely. And you know, I tell people, I tell people that I'm talking to you about my program and like, you know, do you have children? Do you have kids? Do you have grandkids? Do you wanna see them grow up? And here's here two things. A scary statistic I heard. I don't know what to believe anymore, but by 2030, they're expecting if, if it continues, the away it's going.
That every male child born in the United States [Page//00:53:00] of America will have some form of autism will be on the spectrum.
Julie Michelson: Well, if you look at what I was just saying, how rare it was back when I was teaching and how common it is now. If that, if that makes sense, if the trajectory continues the way it's going, that, that, that will be, uh, a fact. And I would add, and I, I'm just making this up, but logically, , almost every female will have autoimmunity as well.
right? Like, it, it's a, so, you know, it's, it's time for us to, to create that change. So you covered so many amazing tips, um, and really I, for where can people check out your program?
Robert Floyd: Uh, it's on, uh, www.thepaleomd.com. That's, uh, my website there. And then, um, you know, like I said, uh, the Paleo md.store, they can follow me on Facebook at, uh, the Paleo MD and [Page//00:54:00] on Instagram at the Paleo MD as well.
Julie Michelson: Perfect. I love consistency. cross platforms. It makes it so easy.
Robert Floyd: I'm trying, I'm trying to
Julie Michelson: And all of this is, is gonna be in the notes too, but I know I tend to listen to podcasts when I'm moving . And so, um, sometimes it's just nice to hear and they're like, oh, okay. That I can remember. I'm gonna go check it out. I know you covered lots and lots and lots already, but we always love to, to throw you under the bus and ask you to give listeners one action step.
What's one thing they can start today to start to improve?
Robert Floyd: Oh, that's way too narrow.
Julie Michelson: I know it's so hard. It's the hardest question.
Robert Floyd: Um, well, I mean, we talked about. Gluten, dairy, sugar. We talked about, uh, fasting. I, I do wanna, I, I do wanna add that about fast time-restricted. Time optimized eating. It's not for [Page//00:55:00] everybody. If you have. anorexia. If you have bulimia history of if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, it's not for everybody. Or if you have cachexia, uh, which it means, uh, decreased muscle mass from something from a chronic disease like cancer or something, or just, you know, very, very thin and frail.
I would, I would venture to say, um, the number one recommendation. God, it's so hard to just pick one cuz they're all so.
Julie Michelson: The starting point.
Robert Floyd: health is multifactorial the starting point. Get rid of gluten,
Julie Michelson: thank you. Ah, . It's my favorite.
Robert Floyd: stop eating wheat, period. That's it. That's the number one thing. Okay. And then, you know, try to get rid of dairy sugar, but, but stop eating wheat.
Okay. And, you know, um, and, and read, I mean, I could say, and, and, and, and, but , I mean, I have so much
Julie Michelson: Nope, I'm cutting you off.
Robert Floyd: Okay. That's okay. Well, next time,
Julie Michelson: [Page//00:56:00] But you are gonna come back, um, because we have a, we have so much more to talk about, but I'm going to be excited to have you back on in the fall when you are launching your new book, and we
Robert Floyd: Thank you.
Julie Michelson: We can take that in any of the million directions of the things we like to talk about.
Um, so I, Rob, thank you so, so much. This was so much fun for me and, and so much gold for listeners. Um, and again, it, it's just been such pleasure to have you.
Robert Floyd: Well, thank you. It's, it was really, really nice to meet you and talk to you and get to know you a little bit more as well. And, and again, I wanna commend you and celebrate you for what you're doing and helping. How you are helping because, You're reaching so many people through what you're doing, and again, this is the grassroots, the great reset that we need is us.
It's not, you know, the medical big pharma, big food, industrial complex. We need this. And so thank you. I wanted to say celebrate you for that.[Page//00:57:00]
Julie Michelson: My, my pleasure and my mission, so thank you for that. And for everyone listening, remember, you can get the show notes and transcripts by visiting Inspired Living Show. I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I did. I will see you next week.
Rob, welcome to the podcast.
Robert Floyd: Hi. Thank you. Thanks for having me. It's so much fun. So already we've had a great time talking,
Julie Michelson: We have, if we had hit record, we probably had a full episode there in that conversation.
Robert Floyd: Totally.
Julie Michelson: So I am thrilled to have you here. This is such a passionate topic of mine, and I just can't wait to dive into it. I love to start with story because I am guessing when you went to medical school, you didn't have the intention of becoming the Paleo md.
Robert Floyd: No, I did. I did not. Absolutely not. Um, I, you know, actually I went to med school to become an orthopedic surgeon, but, you know, wasn't cool enough to get in that club. So then I ended up doing, I have a very, uh, varied background of, uh, through medicine. I've done trauma surgery, ICU U medicine, uh, family medicine, emergency medicine.
I was a medical director in a rural ER clinic or hospital. Um, and, uh, Then I discovered [Page//00:02:00] functional medicine. And you know, I used to live not too far from you. I used to live in Boulder, Colorado, and that's where I kind of discovered, uh, you know, holistic, integrative, complimentary medicine back then, you know, as an athlete.
Um, you know, I, I got shiatsu, I got acupuncture, I ate, you know, took herbs and so on and so forth. And so functional medicine was really just a, a wonderful extension of how I've already been for many, many years.
Julie Michelson: which is amazing. and, but you're not just practicing functional medicine. You, you we're, we're gonna talk about, and I'm gonna try not to get angry in our conversation today. Certainly it won't be at you. Um, but we are gonna really dig into the standard American diet, um, which is sad. Doesn't even begin to
It is so sad. . Uh, but how, you know, how did you specifically, you know, embrace the, the paleo [Page//00:03:00] lifestyle and realize that that was a key for people.
Robert Floyd: Um, like, like we had spoken about, uh, before we recorded, um, I basically went from fit to fat and fit and back again. Um, you know, when, when I was living in Boulder, I was, like I said, a climbing guide and a ski guide and a ski patroller and, you know, I was really into health and wellness. And then I went to medical school and, uh, when I left for medical school, actually I was living in Jackson Hall, Wyoming, you know, skiing, mountain biking, building trails every day.
Um, , I was 155 pounds, uh, you know, probably like a eight, 9% body fat. And then I went to medical school and, uh, a couple things happened. I, my metabolism came to a screeching halt and, uh, I was full of stress and, um, because of that, I put on almost 30 pounds. Uh, I came back from med school 187 pounds or something like that.
And I mean, I vividly remember sitting in biochemistry class. This is my [Page//00:04:00] second semester there, and I looked down and I'm like, oh my God. I had a gut. and I've never had that before cuz I've always been active and fit. And so, you know, I wasn't eating the best and I was, like I said, stressed. And so, um, you know, long story, try to shorten a little bit.
I came back and I did what I thought I needed to do. I did caloric restriction, uh, exercise and yada yada, yada. And, and, and, you know, I lost a few pounds here and there. It didn't really get me back to my pre-med school weight. And then I went to residency for five years and then I came back from that. Um, you know, and, uh, again, I was back up to about 190 pounds of, even though I was like exercising more, but I was still eating what I thought was healthy.
Julie Michelson: exercise your way out of a bad diet. What
Robert Floyd: you can't outrun your fork. No, absolutely not. And that's, uh, that's another great book. You can't
Julie Michelson: is a good
Robert Floyd: Um, But, uh, and then I started, actually, [Page//00:05:00] I, I kinda, uh, I'll, I'll, I'll give a shout out to Rob Wolf. Um, I read, you know, the Paleo solution and um, you know, like I said, I thought I was eating well.
I thought I was eating what was healthy. Um, you know, in Colorado, I, I was vegan for a week. That's all. I could handle that. But, and then I was a vegetarian
Julie Michelson: probably good
Robert Floyd: Yeah, to totally. Then I was a vegetarian for like six or seven years. And, uh, but I realized too is like, this is, This is not a healthy diet, you know, vegan and vegetarian diets, unless you're really, really, really, really good at eating and picking whole healthy foods.
The majority of the people who undertake these diets are eating a bunch of processed garbage. And, um, you know, unfortunately the standard American diet has, we should just rename it as poison. It's what it is. It's poison. It's literally poison. No, yeah.
Julie Michelson: agree. I agree. I love that. So, so the finding paleo for [Page//00:06:00] you was, was a big answer and
Robert Floyd: absolutely, it was an it, it was an eye-opener and, uh, I didn't even like understand it. Um, you know. And then, so I'll, real quick, I was sitting there at my kitchen table reading this and talking to my wife. I'm like, Hey, Kim, you know? And, and I like what he says in his book. He's like, give it one month. Try it for one month.
What do you have to lose? Absolutely nothing. What do you have to gain everything, right? And so I'm sitting there reading, I'm like, Kimmy, we need to do this. We should try this. We should try this. You know? She's like, no, no, no. I'm like, we should try this. Really? You know, next week we should try this. She's like, no.
She had some tr, you know, hesitation and trepidation and so finally she's like, all right, fine. All right. Leave me alone. Okay,
Julie Michelson: If you'll be quiet, I'll try it.
Robert Floyd: exactly. So we, we kind of instituted it. We went pretty much all into the whole, um, paleo lifestyle. Again, it's not just a diet, it's a lifestyle. You have to have a lifestyle.
And I will say over and over and over and in my program, which [Page//00:07:00] I'll discuss a little bit later, uh, I say this, if I say it once, I say it a hundred times, diets fail. Lifestyles don't. Okay? You cannot, like we just said, you can't diet your way out of a bad you. Lifestyle. You can't exercise your way out of a bad diet, and so on and so forth.
But so a couple weeks into trying this pale, Solution, you know, lifestyle that we did. Uh, my wife was blown away. Um, I mean, she's like, oh my God, I can't believe how much better I feel, um, and, uh, so, you know, she was like, it. It's weird because like, it's what I see and I, you never hear guys say, oh, I'm so bloated.
I'm so bloated. Right? When's the last time you heard a guy say that? Right. But the, a lot of it seems like a lot of women will say that, and she's like, her, her bloating and her gut pains went away and she was blown away. So, and that's when I kind of started going down a really big rabbit hole [Page//00:08:00] of research and researching and researching and researching and changed my life.
And, and this is why doing what I'm doing, because I live what I teach and I went through it. And so I've been there so,
Julie Michelson: I love it. It's, it's amazing and, and you. I, I can tell from our conversation before we even hit record, you're as passionate about it as I am. And that that's what happens when, you know we are living it and we know, you know, we just realize, um, I love that. , you didn't have to be as sick as I was to get the, and we could have a whole different interview about why is medical school designed to make you sick, , that's a whole nother thing.
And it's not just in this country. It's like I had the same conversation. I, I did a presentation for a bunch of physicians in Pakistan and you know, same thing. It's the between the stress and the lack of sleep and the, you know, bad food and all of it.
Robert Floyd: Mm-hmm. . Yeah.
Julie Michelson: that's, Maybe [Page//00:09:00] downstream change . That will happen.
Robert Floyd: Yeah. I'd love to, I, I'd love to come and talk more about lots of different stuff, cuz it's like, again, you and I we're, we're so in alignment about what. We see needs to be done with in, in the world. And so, you know, you had asked earlier about like why, and, and you know, what does the standard American diet lead to?
I mean, there was, you know, a journal article from the American College of Cardiology, uh, last summer that said 93.2% of all adult Americans are.
Julie Michelson: That's insane.
Robert Floyd: 0.2%. Okay. So basically statistically you can say the entire American adult population is sick. And when they say sick, they're talking about, you know, they have two or three or four.
Um, uh, Symptoms, uh, um, of metabolic syndrome, you know, high cholesterol, uh, enlarged, uh, hip to waist ratio, uh, high blood pressure, insulin resistance, uh, [Page//00:10:00] dyslipidemia. And, you know, if, uh, one thing that a lot of people don't know, um, I di I just described the five, um, tens of the five symptoms of metabolic syndrome.
And if you have any three of those, You are diagnosed with metabolic syndrome. And so basically the entire adult population in America has metabolic syndrome. And if you are diagnosed with metabolic syndrome, you instantly have a 50% greater mortality risk. So to me, you know, it, it, it, it just, it, it infuriates me.
It makes me so mad that we sh that we have gotten this way. And like I, I asked you earlier, before he started recording, I said, , how do we get here? And I mean, I think you and I both know the answer, but
Julie Michelson: We do, we do . We'll, we'll, we'll wait until your book comes out, for that to really dig into that conversation. Or this will be a three hour episode.
Robert Floyd: for sure.
Julie Michelson: but, [Page//00:11:00] but really underscoring that if you were eating. Processed food. Um, highly processed food, lots of processed food, eating on the go. Um, even generally eating out a lot, even at nice places, you're still getting hit with a lot of crap. Um, you're not eating food. And so why do we need ? Why does that make us sick when we're eating things, our body's not recognizing his food. What happens?
Robert Floyd: Well, um, really, truly, I think it all boils down mostly to. The mitochondria. Um, and a lot of people maybe have heard about it and they've maybe heard about the kreb cycle and the electron transport chain and so on and so forth. But, uh, I really truly believe that all of this chronic disease is rooted in mitochondrial disease.
Um, the mitochondria, just for those of you who don't know or don't remember, I'm sure you've heard of
Julie Michelson: don't care, , [Page//00:12:00] but you will now
Robert Floyd: Yeah. That's a lot. That's a thing. It's one of the sad things about, um, what I see is like they're. People are purposely being dumbed down so that they are easier to manipulate and so on and so forth.
And then because of that, they don't have any agency over their health and wellness. I mean, I, I can get very circular. So anyway, go back to the mitochondria. So the mitochondria are, and we have 70 trillion cells in our human body, and the mitochondria are the little powerhouses of the cell. Okay. Um, and depending on how metabolically active a tissue is, you have more mitochondria.
So in one cell, I remember, and I, I used to think this, you had a cell, you had a nucleus, and he had one MIT Kon. No, absolutely not. Not even close. It's like anywhere from, you know, 5,000 to a hundred thousand mitochondria in each cell. In fact, we have a quadrillion mitochondria in our body, and that is a [Page//00:13:00] thousand trillions or some.
Enormous number like that. I mean, it's something, a number that we can't even comprehend, right? I mean, think of about 70, 70 trillion cells. We can't even comprehend how many cells we have in our body. So the mitochondria, they take substrates and, um, they take, uh, you know, sugar, pyruvic, acid fatty acids.
They, it's, it's it. Let me explain real quick how, because I love the mitochondria. I think they're absolutely spectacular and amazing and they're way underrated. They are, we. Millions of years ago, as humans, we kind of hijacked them. They're from bacteria, they have, they don't have the dna n a, they don't have your human DNA n a in it.
Okay? So somehow nature, God, whatever, however you wanna go about it, the, an evolution, cuz it can both coexist, right? And so we hijacked mitochondria because we saw how efficient they were at making energy, right? And so it's, it's kind of like your, your motor, your engine in your car, you put gasoline in it.[Page//00:14:00]
It runs, it takes you somewhere. The same thing with the mitochondria. You put a substrate into it. It does its magic and outcomes. Attp attp is adenosine triphosphate. It is the energy currency of our cells, of our human bodies. Without attp, you die like in a second. Okay? You're dead. And we make, here's something crazy.
ATTP is a molecule. It's, it's microscopic. You can't really see it. It's tiny. It's invisible, basically. Un you know, unless it's, you know, super, super high, um, micro. We make our own body weight in at t p every day. Ugh. Yeah. Think about that. I, I make 155 pounds of a t p every single day from my quadrillion mitochondria. Well, I know I do
Julie Michelson: You do. But, but the royal, we
Robert Floyd: yes, yes.
Julie Michelson: we want to optimally, we, we are producing our body weight in a t p daily. That's, that's incredible.
Robert Floyd: And so [Page//00:15:00] again, when that I, that's a great, that's a great point you make because when you don't make that, then that's when disease starts occurring. Um, and when you have mitochondrial diseases, actually there's actually. Primary mitochondrial diseases and people with those who don't live very long, they don't live beyond 7, 8, 9, 10 years old because they're so bad.
The, uh, when you have, what's what we're discussing here, this is a secondary mitochondrial disease because you're not putting, you know, top unleaded fuel in your motor to have it run smoothly. You're putting, um, the standard American. , which is junk food and poison and processed foods. And because of that, then the mitochondria can't do what they do and give us the energy that we need.
And it's clean energy. I mean, granted, you know, it, it, it's just like your car engine. You put gasoline in it. it does. Its, you know, internal combustion and out the back end comes exhaust while you're driving. The same thing happens with the [Page//00:16:00] mitochondria. Um, it, it does, it's basically internal combustion through the electron transport chain, making attp, giving you energy, but it also makes reactive oxygen species, which are kind of like the exhaust.
But our bodies are so, so genius. We have millions of, millions of different processes to get rid of. Internal combustion exhaust from the mitochondria. But when you are eating these terrible processed foods, high fructose corn syrup, foods, Franken foods, things that your body doesn't know how to break down through your mitochondria, you get increased amount of reactive oxygen species and a decreased amount of, uh, basically antioxidants, which get rid of those and they neutralize those and then you get.
and you know, I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's not rocket science. I do love it is science though. It's awesome. Science . So,
Julie Michelson: It is and, and. To have this conversation be of value. You don't [Page//00:17:00] need to be able to fully understand all of the processes, but you do need to understand pretty much, you know, the symptoms, especially in a audience, is as an autoimmune audience, right? So when you're thinking, you know, I'm fatigued, well guess what?
At the cellular level, You're fatigued. Your mitochondria are not optimized and working optimally, so you're not going to have the E, the energy, but it's not just our energy to get through the day. We're talking about the literally cellular energy for your all of your body processes to work the way they're supposed to.
And then, yeah, add on top of it. When you've got the, the high oxidative stress and all the other things leading, leading to disease as well. Um, so it is important to understand, you know, how essential mitochondrial health is, even if you don't feel like [Page//00:18:00] understanding how or why . But you know, it, it, it really is.
And just the fact that they are, you know, the powerhouse of the cell. Like that's all who. need that you want, you wanna be optimizing your power. Um, we're focusing today on food. Um, and, and we're gonna talk about, you know, we've been talking about how the American food system is not food. And, and I think of it, I want to talk about a couple things that do affect mitochondrial function and health.
Um, the nasty standard American diet, being one of 'em. and toxins. And I actually, I consider the standard American diet to be toxins. I mean, it's, it's this, that's what they are. I mean, that's what it is. What you're eating. Your body isn't recognizing as food cuz it's not food. And so it is the same as a chemical exposure.
Well, and plus it's [Page//00:19:00] loaded with chemicals anyway, um,
Robert Floyd: Absolutely. And, and like I said earlier, like the standard American diet, the, it should be just cons called poison. They, I got, I, I wanna figure out an anagram for poison to describe our diet because it, it, it's so, it's so bad. It's, you know, um, I know I kind of see where you're going with like, What you were just talking about, like the why is the standard American diet so bad for us and because it, it affects our mitochondria health.
Um, like I said, um, when you're not putting in high quality, um, um, substrates into your body, It doesn't run well. It it, I I really like, earlier you had mentioned like even you don't need to know the science to understand how this help makes, helps you and I equate it and I think it's really, really good to think of the mitochondria as the engine in your car.
Like I've said
Julie Michelson: Absolutely.
Robert Floyd: if you put, uh, You know, [Page//00:20:00] top high-end fuel and change the oil and change the spark plugs in your engine, it's gonna run well forever. It's gonna get you everywhere you wanna go, sitting down your, it's gonna last forever. If you put low quality gas, you don't change the oil and you don't change the spark plugs and you don't do the maintenance, then your car's gonna break down and it's gonna cost you a lot of money.
And that's get, you're gonna be taking a bus somewhere else. And it's the same thing here with us, with our health. If you don't maintain mitochondrial health, And, and, and in doing so, you maintain overall health because what you do for your mitochondria also improves the rest of your
Julie Michelson: It's your whole body. Yeah. I love, like to, to me, it reminded me of a conversation I had once of, you wouldn't put unleaded fuel in your diesel engine. Right? What's gonna happen to your car?
Robert Floyd: Yeah.
Julie Michelson: You're not gonna get very far.
Robert Floyd: it's gonna break down real quick.
Julie Michelson: It is not fun for anybody to use the wrong pump. And that's essentially what it is. I mean, we [Page//00:21:00] need nutrient density.
I mean, that's, we're we're designed to actually eat real food. Um, and so it, it it's, it's a double edged sword, right? We've got this like toxic unrecognizable thing and then also we're missing the nutrient density that we need to run.
Robert Floyd: Absolut. . Yeah. And that's a great term, nutrient density. People don't even think about that. Like you go to Taco Bell, there's no nutrients in that food. You go to McDonald's, there's new, there's no nutrients in that food. Um, like 75% of all the foods in the grocery store are processed foods. Um, and you need the standard American diet.
Nutrient deficient and caloric dense. Right. And it's, that's just the opposite of what we need. We need nutrient, um, density and low calories. I, I'm not saying low calorie diet,
Julie Michelson: And we don't have to count calories. We're not talking about counting calories.
Robert Floyd: [Page//00:22:00] Absolutely not. No. I, I actually, and I, you know, I don't even, there's a lot of people out there that like to account their macros and this and that.
I'm like, I don't even bother doing.
Julie Michelson: you, I can't be bothered. That's I,
Robert Floyd: Exactly. But if that's what you like doing, go for it. And if, if, here's the deal, if it helps you be more focused on what you're eating and how you're treating your body, all the power to you, you know, like a lot of times these, uh, these quote diets, it just makes people more cognizant of what they're eating sometimes, and which is a good thing in.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. And I know, you know, we, so many, we talk about, you know, eat whole food, eat real food, eat. And a lot of people it's like, sounds like noise. Um, but it's not. It, it, it's real. And this is, if you look at the health history in our country, look at when we moved away from real food, And, and then watch, look at the numbers.[Page//00:23:00]
Literally of chronic illness. I mean, it's exponential, you know, sadly, it's, uh, I've got job security, unfortunately. Right.
Robert Floyd: Yep.
Julie Michelson: you know, but the, but here's the beautiful thing too, and I know, oh, this is what you preach. It's never too late and the body heals. So, course correct, right. Change. So who, is there anybody that you would say.
Paleo is not an optimal eating lifestyle like, or the Paleo lifestyle
Robert Floyd: No. God no. No. I think it's, I think it's the most optimal lifestyle for everybody. Again, it's not a diet, and diet is part of a lifestyle, you know, for Paleo. I, I don't think there's anybody you know who, you know, could not benefit from, from the paleo. Slash diet slash lifestyle because you know it's Whole Foods.
It's, [Page//00:24:00] you know, you're avoiding gluten, dairy, sugar, and, you know, seed oils and, um, other toxins in your diet. And you're eating whole foods. You're eating, you know, vegetables, um, steamed vegetables. Um, you're eating, you, you're avoiding most grains, you're avoiding most legumes. And one of the reasons why I did the whole paleo and why I.
Why I've become what I've become and I believe it's, I mean, gut health, obviously, you know all about gut health. You know, every, anybody in our field knows how important gut health is
Julie Michelson: Well, and if you have autoimmunity and you have not done the work to heal your gut, you have leaky gut like I
Robert Floyd: hundred percent, yeah.
Julie Michelson: Period.
Robert Floyd: if, if you eat the standard American diet, you have leaky gut, which is intestinal permeability, which is, it's the root cause of all diseases right now that, and, and it co, it causes harm to the mitochondria. Um, and so, you know, back to the whole paleo, I [Page//00:25:00] don't think anybody could, would have any negative effects if they went to paleo.
And, and my, and my ethos is gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar free. Um, PS oil free and artificial sweetener. right? Artificial sweeteners are toxins. Okay. Most people don't know that as Peram was invented when they were trying to make another, um, um, pesticide, right? And I don't know what guy in the lab was inventing a pesticide and, and tasted it.
Hey, this is sweet
Julie Michelson: Right, right.
Robert Floyd: someone did. And so it's a pesticide and it, because of that, it. your microbiome. And that's a whole nother conversation we have. How important the microbiome is. And so what I like about Paleo is it supports your microbiome. It supports healing your gut. And again, it's a lifestyle.
I, you know, I was talking to you and I have a small ranch. You have a small ranch. I raise sheep, I raise meat, chickens, I. Egg chickens. Um, we sell our [Page//00:26:00] sheep from farm to table for friends and family. Uh, it's all organic. Um, you know, we, they're grass fed. Um, and, uh, the paylor lifestyle is about that. It's also about, you know, where did your animals come from, where the humanely raised and slaughtered.
Uh, did they come from a cao, which is a concentrated animal feed operation, which is absolutely the devil. It's terrible for everybody. Um, does. Where are your foods coming from? Are these people being treated fairly? Are they being paid well? Is it fair trade? Is it organic? I mean, it's a lifestyle that you have to embrace because again, you and I've spoken about this, like we've been so
Julie Michelson: Misled
Robert Floyd: misled.
We're like
Julie Michelson: a very polite way.
Robert Floyd: Yes, we, we have, we've been bamboozled to think that convenience is what it's all about and yada, yada, yada. It's actually killing us. I mean, it's, it's, it's despicable and it, and frankly it pisses me off and it, you know, there's times I literally come to [Page//00:27:00] tears.
Julie Michelson: it's, well, it's horrifying and because you see, and I see all the time, I mean there, there is so much chronic illness and it's unnecessary like this, that this is not it. It's not rocket science.
Robert Floyd: And it's not the way it's supposed to
Julie Michelson: No, and, and you brought up a point I wanna highlight. About this, the, the difference of, we, we talk about it sometimes as as quality, um, but you know, talk about animals that are pastured, humanely raised, humanely slaughtered, um, that is completely different.
I, and again, I grew up low fat. I eat, I will, I have no interest in another. You know, boneless, skinless chicken breasts my whole life, . Um, I actually don't eat a lot of chicken. I, I
Robert Floyd: Good. You're better off.
Julie Michelson: yeah, I can only handle little, but I do eat a lot of grass-fed red beef. Um, and, you know, I, and again, some people listening are gonna say, you know, I [Page//00:28:00] don't live in Colorado, and that's fine.
There are other ways to access high quality. You know, protein sources. I, yes, I'm blessed. I, I know, you know, the rancher who grew my cow that's in my freezer, you know, and I know how it was raised. I got to see the, the ranch, you know, I know the people. Um, and so not everybody is going to have that level, but just like you were talking about how McDonald's isn't real food, you know, that's a whole nother.
Story about, you know, beef is bad, red meat is bad. They're talking about feedlot meat, commercial factory farmed meat. Totally different, literally different
Robert Floyd: Well, they also feed them, you know,
Julie Michelson: grains,
Robert Floyd: Paper stock. They feed 'em expired candy. They feed them garbage. I saw a video of, um, a pork [Page//00:29:00] factory, uh, farm. They were literally feeding these pigs garbage from the dump with plastic containers in it. And there's, there is literally a government document that says the pork feed can have this much plastic in it.
Julie Michelson: Right. It's disgusting.
Robert Floyd: it's disgusting and.
Julie Michelson: I actually have to drive. Passed a feed lot from my house to the clinic. I'm in the clinic once or twice a week, and otherwise I'm working from home. And I, you know, again, I live in this beautiful area and we've got access to these amazing things and. I mean, there's a, you know, cuz you li so I, I know you understand when somebody says, smells like Greeley, even though you lived in Boulder, right?
Like , it is not natural. Yes. Yeah. When the wind would shift, it would go all the way down to Boulder. Um, that is not healthy. Nobody should be eating that kind of meat. And yeah,
Robert Floyd: you know, the thing is about the CAOs. Okay. Uh, I mean, this is, [Page//00:30:00] could be a whole nother podcast. I mean, there's so much to unpack and all this stuff, and that, I mean, I love why we're doing this.
Again, we'd spoken about why we're doing this, and it's to get the word out. It's, you know, the, the World Economic Forum and all these world leaders are talking about a great reset. Okay? And it's. What you and I want, but I think there's a great reset coming and it's from people like us and the grassroots reset of, of, of, you know, COVID pulled back the curtain of the man pulling the levers like in the Wizard of Oz.
Right.
Julie Michelson: right.
Robert Floyd: And a lot of us are like, have woken up. I, I think you and I are already kind of awake just because of the realms that we're in. But I think a lot of Americans all of a sudden went like, . Oh my God, what's going on here? And, but this, this applies to what we're talking about, food, meat, CAO rays, concentrated animal feed operations.
They are the devil. They're bad for the environment, they're bad for the animals. They're bad for the people that work there. They're bad for the people that eat the food. They're, they're just [Page//00:31:00] bad, bad, bad. You know what they're good for? They're good for the corporate profits
Julie Michelson: Yeah, that's
Robert Floyd: Okay. And so what we're you were talking about earlier is, you know, grass fed, um, the whole
Julie Michelson: pastured, you know, it's, it is different and there's nothing to be afraid of if you're eating protein that was raised this way, which is the perfect, you know, you've talked about paleo as a lifestyle, so if you're eating. You know, commercial beef, feedlot beef, you're not eating paleo because they're eating corn and grains and trash, and you are eating whatever the animal ate.
And so that's how that works.
Robert Floyd: Including the antibiotics.
Julie Michelson: Yes. Yeah.
Robert Floyd: 80% of all antibiotics in the United States. Actually, I think it's gone down a little bit because there's, like, in the hospitals, we had what was called antibiotic stewardship programs, right? We don't want to give antibiotics nearly willy to just everybody. You know, people come in with an [Page//00:32:00] upper respiratory infection or sore throat.
They're like, who can I have a Z-Pak? Can I have antibiotics? We had to say, no, this is likely a viral issue. Go home and you know, help build your immune system, whatever, blah,
Julie Michelson: but even that's a course correct cuz it used to be antibiotics for everybody all the time.
Robert Floyd: Yeah, absolutely. And so in these, uh, CAOs, because the conditions are so bad for the animals and, and I'm talking beef, chicken, pork, you name it, it's bad. They're so concentrated that they feed them antibiotics to keep them from, you know, getting sick and then having some disease spread throughout the entire, uh, operation.
They found out a long, long time ago that when you feed cows antibiotics, they get fatter faster. And the, you know, the same thing happens to humans when you take antibiotic put on weight. And there there's actually studies that I include. I do, I, I love doing the research cuz I'm so passionate about this.
And they, they've, [Page//00:33:00] they've shown, studies have shown that if you are, um, exposed to antibiotics, Nine times by the time you're four, you have like a 90% chance of being overweight and obese. Um, if you are exposed to antibiotics once, um, as a child, you are at an increased risk of being overweight. And so these.
Big corporations who are there to make money off of you, they understand, Hey, if I feed these cows antibiotics, they're gonna get fat. And guess what I could sell? They, they, they cost more to buy, and then we butcher, and then blah, blah, blah. And so, you know, it's, it again, it, it's all about, you know, the lifestyle.
And a again, I could, I could go on and on about the whole, oh, cows are causing climate change. That's the biggest crock of horse pucky
Julie Michelson: Feed lots. Feed lots are, are causing climate change, not cows. . We need the cows.
Robert Floyd: there is. And I
Julie Michelson: Try farming without animals. It doesn't work.
Robert Floyd: no. And [Page//00:34:00] uh, you know, I love the whole regenerative farming and regenerative agriculture that's going along, you know, with Polyface Farms and, you know, Joel Salad did.
Julie Michelson: amazing. We were talking bef and that's, it gives me hope, right? We were talking about this is why we're doing this, and yes, we're angry , and yes, you know, we, we've been, we've all been bamboozled and, and you and I now know better and we're trying to spread the word. Um, but there is hope, the regenerative farming movement.
Functional medicine, paleo, lifestyle, all of it. Um, and, and my audience is very familiar with, um, AIP p Autoimmune, paleo, uh, it, it's. I, I think whatever form, but when, when you're, I joke, when I tell my story, um, I thought I was paid. I say I, I was doing it wrong. I, I thought I was , so I was, you know, it's not, you talk about lifestyle, it's, it's back to, it's not just what you're avoiding, it's what you're including.
Right. So I, [Page//00:35:00] I was. Or what you might not be including. In my case, when I first thought I was paleo, I was again fat phobic. . And I remember getting like paleo cookbooks and I, you know, I was gonna dive in and they had coconut oil, butter, and all these fats that I was like, you know, so I would cook it, but without the fat.
So I, I was like low fat, still avoiding grains, um, uh, at low fat, high carb paleo. I, I managed to do. So Even like if you're eating a lot of processed paleo, You're probably getting a lot of sugar and, and a lot of crap that, and there's a lot of those, you know, artificial sweeteners being used in the quote unquote paleo products.
Robert Floyd: Yeah, for sure. And again, um, I mean, I, I kind of see where we can go with this too, is like we should, you know, here, here's how you, if you wanna change your life and your health and wellness, stop eating processed [Page//00:36:00] foods, period. Stop going out to dinner. Um, Eat whole foods at home, um, you know, eat vegetables, uh, small berries, um, you know, don't, you don't wanna be eating, you know, two apples and four bananas every day.
It's a lot of sugar. It's too much sugar. Again, sugar gums up the mitochondria and again, it makes 'em run poorly. You get more reactive oxygen species, more inflammation, and so on and so forth. But, you know, you, you have to look. Food as information and food. Food is really important. You know, it's, it's one of the, the one of the joys we have as human beings is eating.
And, you know, I I, I'm also work in a hospice clinic and, um, and I've seen a lot of that. Um, you know, food is, it's, food is information for yourselves. Food is community, food is love. Food is memories like, I mean, we have so many deep ties back to food. I mean, I, I, there's a couple of my favorite [Page//00:37:00] foods. I think they're my favorite foods because it reminds me of, you know, the big family parties that we used to have when I was growing up.
And so, you know,
Julie Michelson: I've yet to encounter a client whose, you know, emotional. Happy food is salad that their, their childhood memory feel good. Food is, is never vegetable based.
Robert Floyd: Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, you know, it, it could be, and I mean, it, it also depends. Here's actually, now that's a good point that you bring up because, you know, when we start, I don't know. I mean, I was. The, the processed food and the sugars. I'm 54 years of age and so,
Julie Michelson: Give me two months. I'll catch up.
Robert Floyd: okay, good. Um, you look great. I never would've guessed
Julie Michelson: Oh, you're very kind
Robert Floyd: um, it all kind of started about when I was born.
I mean, the processed food industry came about after World War ii. Because during World War ii, they had to figure out how to get [Page//00:38:00] food across the sea to our European troops and other troops around the world. And they did that. They, they made processed, you know, uh, long shelf sustaining life, food, whatever.
So then all of a sudden they realized, oh my God, this is, this is, wow. This is a cash cow for us. Yeah. How convenient. You know, and, uh, I once had a nurse at, at the hospital I work with, and she said something very profound. She said, convenience is the killer. and it really is, you know, um, going back to food and why you should eat food and like, I'm really blessed, uh, my wife and I love to cook together.
If you don't know how to
Julie Michelson: have that too. Yeah.
Robert Floyd: learn how to cook. Yeah, absolutely. If you want to eat good food, you shouldn't learn how to cook
Julie Michelson: and it doesn't have to be fancy.
Robert Floyd: not at all.
Julie Michelson: high quality ingredients, you don't need, you know, a a three hour recipe.
Robert Floyd: Oh, no. Absolutely
Julie Michelson: food tastes delicious and your taste buds change [Page//00:39:00] really quickly. Um, which is the perfect segue into, I want you to share with listeners about your Ancestral Reset program because it, to me, it's brilliant because you break down, you handle all the resistances when you know the, it's too hard.
I don't cook all the, all the things, all the reasons why people say they can't start. With a Paleo lifestyle. So share with us about your program
Robert Floyd: Um, thank you. Um, I've made my program failure proof basically, and it's, it's a, it's a lifestyle transformation course. It's not a diet. Again, diets fail, lifestyles don't, and so what I try to do is I, I get people to. Seamlessly changed their lifestyle. So basically what I've done is I've devised a program, it's a 12 week program, and then there's um, you know, an continued optimization program that I'm working on afterwards.
Um, and, but basically you get. Delivered to your house, you get [Page//00:40:00] 144 meals. They're, I think they're great. Uh, it's paleo meals, um, you know, it's high quality protein. It's all grass fed. Um, and, and it's cage-free, grass-fed, chicken, beef, all that stuff. Uh, and then, uh, I've devised the program, so it's, you know, high protein, um, high veggies and kind of a lower carb, but a, again, I'm not anti carb at all.
We need
Julie Michelson: We need carbs,
Robert Floyd: we hundred percent need carbs. And I am
Julie Michelson: Good carbs. Clean
Robert Floyd: Yes. Yeah. I'm not talking about Ben and Jerry's . That's not what you need.
Julie Michelson: or donuts?
Robert Floyd: but then again, you know, here I'm also about self-compassion. You know what? If you need to have some Ben and Jerry's once in a while, eat it. It's not gonna kill you.
It's when you eat it every day.
Julie Michelson: Unless it makes you feel sick, that's different. . Listen to your body.
Robert Floyd: Yes. So my program is like, I've included 144 meals I've in, I include, um, supplements for gut health, sleep, energy, and cognition because those are all pillars [Page//00:41:00] of functional health, right. Um, I include, uh, a list of, you know, Palolo MD approved snacks, um, and, you know, some, some links that I can, I can give my clients a, uh, a, a discount on, cuz I have a a, a Paleo MD store that I sell supplements in snacks.
And if, if anybody wants to see it's the Paleo md.store, um, use a code first 10 for 10% off. If, I don't know if you have a store like that or anything, Julie.
Julie Michelson: I do, but go to your, I mean, it's not pale you. You probably have more focused for this conversation.
Robert Floyd: yeah. Well, I'm, I'm not, uh, again, I, I, I wanna share like, all ships rise with the rising tide and like, I'm not trying to, you know, take clients, but just, just check it out people. Um,
Julie Michelson: Absolutely. Well, and again, if you're like, Ooh, wait, there's an easier way to do paleo or to get started, um, I say ch you know, check out the store for.
Robert Floyd: Ah, thanks. And one of the things I, I, I tell these people is like, [Page//00:42:00] um, I also institute, um, time optimized eating. Okay. And we had talked about this earlier. I, I'm changing the word fasting. I'm changing the word, time restricted feeding because nobody wants to fast, nobody wants to restrict and nobody wants to feed.
When you say feeding, you think of cows at a trough,
Julie Michelson: Yep.
Robert Floyd: So, um, Institute, time optimized eating, and, um, that is one of the most amazing ways to improve your health. Um, it's, it's, I love it. I fast or , I, Tom time optimize, eat almost every day, like 99% of the time. I am not eating for 16 hours a day, sometimes more.
Julie Michelson: And for me personally, what I always try to, to encourage my clients to do is to listen again, listen to your body. Um, I once in a while, wake up hungry and. , I'm gonna have a really good nutrient intense breakfast. It doesn't [Page//00:43:00] happen often, uh, but I'm not like, oh no, I'm not in my eating window. My time isn't optimized yet.
Like, no, listen to your body. Yes, it takes maybe some time to get used to when you're making changes, um, but also, especially those of us who went through chronic illness. Found wellness, our first tendency is usually to hold what's working a little too tightly. Um, and so I, I just wanna remind listeners, you know that, that listening to their body, and I love that you said even for you, you know, it's 99% like this is, this is my lifestyle.
It's not about perfection and, and always hitting a hundred percent.
Robert Floyd: Yeah. Funny cuz you live in Loveland and, uh, Lauren Cordain, he is the guru of the Paleo and he's from, from Fort Collins. He's
Julie Michelson: Yeah. C S U. Yep.
Robert Floyd: And, uh, He is on his website. Uh, it's uh, and the paleo lifestyle is like, like 99% of the time I fast. [Page//00:44:00] But on the food, and it's a 90 10 rule, it's an 85 15 rule.
If you do something 90% of the time, you are gonna wreak the benefits of it dramatically. And so in America, we have it backwards. It's really, really sad. Um, people eat garbage. They,
Julie Michelson: Yeah, your side salad is not compensating for the other 90% of your diet. That's for sure.
Robert Floyd: And, and again, I want, I wanna tell people that it's not your fault. Like you said, we've been bamboozled, we're being like sheep led to the slaughterhouse in the name of corporate greed. Okay? That's, this all goes down to corporate greed, period. And they don't care about me. They don't care about you, they care about what's in your wallet.
So the, the lifestyle is, Do it most of the time. I, and I, one time in, one of my, in, I also, in my program, they, they have 12 weeks of learning modules and um, you know, group coaching calls that I run. And one time I just randomly [Page//00:45:00] came up with, oh, make it a habit not to have it. Right. What a great way to live a life.
And uh, yeah, you know what? Lace potato chips, they're awesome. Yes. But you don't eat 'em every day. You make it a habit not
Julie Michelson: don't eat them ever
Robert Floyd: Yeah. I mean, yeah,
Julie Michelson: There are better potato to. Somebody asked me that the other day. Because I was, it was a, a family member, a loved one, and I was kind of dissing on their, I read the ingredients on their chips and they were like, why would you read the ingredients? They're potato chips. All of them are bad.
And I'm like, no, if I'm gonna eat a potato chip, it's gonna be cook, you know, and cooked in avocado oil and salt. And that's it. It's not gonna have a, a big list and it, and I'm not gonna eat them every day either. Um, I love, you know, we're so aligned. My weekly email that went out yesterday was imperfect Action for the Win because. It's not about perfection and perfection will get you to stop doing the good things if you're trying to [Page//00:46:00] be perfect. And so, you know, I love that you brought up the 90 10 or 85, 15 if you're, if you're quote unquote on plan, right? Honoring your lifestyle 90% of the time. You don't need to do more than that, and that's 90% more than people eating the standard American diet are doing now.
So even before you hit 90, you're going to notice improvements in your health and,
Robert Floyd: Even if you change one thing in your life, um, you know, um, you can improve your health dramatically. And you, you talked about perfection and, um, I, I, I have to say that. The human body is genius and we have thousands of redundancies in our body to stay healthy, and there's not much that's perfect in the world.
I think the human body's pretty perfect. I mean, we are amazing and you sh people should honor what we have. We're lucky that we have this body. Uh, we're [Page//00:47:00] blessed. I mean, to think. This , what we're actually experiencing here is crazy. I mean the, this experience called life is amazing and people, you know, one of the things that, like, one of the reasons I created my program is because I saw in the hospitals, in the clinics and like people, when you're sick, life sucks.
You don't have the
Julie Michelson: Well, it
Robert Floyd: optimal life.
Julie Michelson: smaller and smaller and smaller and, and that's, you know, this conversation today is to give you the inf you know, knowledge is power and so we're sharing the knowledge that you have, the power. to create wellness for yourself because nobody else is going to do it for
Robert Floyd: and, and only you. You know, I like to, we talked about book titles. One of my other titles, potential titles in my upcoming book was No One's Got You Back.
Julie Michelson: right?
Robert Floyd: It's only you. I mean, in, in reality, you know you're born alone and you die alone. And in between you have support from family, but you are the only person [Page//00:48:00] that can control your health.
Right. And it's very important. And
Julie Michelson: and no matter what you've been told, you can control your health.
Robert Floyd: Yeah. And, and here's, here's something that really bothers me, is like people get a diagnosis of diabetes or autoimmune disease. So on and so forth, these chronic illnesses, and the majority of doctors have never said, Hey, you know what? That's reversible.
Julie Michelson: right?
Robert Floyd: You can get rid of type two diabetes a million percent
Julie Michelson: easily.
Robert Floyd: In fact, you know, um, I'm a member of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine and they just came out with a position paper that says the treatment goals for type two diabetes is complete resolution. It's not maintenance, it's re.
Julie Michelson: Why not? I joke. So, you know, in Julie Michaelson coaching, I focus on autoimmunity and at the clinic I work with all kinds of people and I'm like, please send me the diabetics. Like, it's so easy, , it's such a quick [Page//00:49:00] hit and it doesn't take a long time. Once people understand, I, I once had a cl a client, she has type one diabetes.
Um, and she was, when she was first diagnosed, you know, they sent her to a diabetes coach, which I didn't realize. There was something called a diabetes coach, and now I know why I didn't know about it because her diabetes coach didn't tell her that she shouldn't be eating oatmeal every day for breakfast.
Robert Floyd: No, just use more insulin. You'll be fine.
Julie Michelson: Yeah, I was like, I, you know, she couldn't believe like her neuropathy got better. She wasn't having to add bolus to her pump, her insulin, you know, she didn't used to be able to sleep through the night because, you know, she just, she was just burning through insulin and it was like some of those kind of things like they're, again, that's when I get angry, like, how can somebody be a diabetes coach and not tell you to go low carp
Like, that doesn't make sense to me, but, That's a different, yeah.
Robert Floyd: a whole different podcast
Julie Michelson: yeah. And, and I look [Page//00:50:00] forward to when an autoimmune diagnosis, treatment should equal resolution. Right.
Robert Floyd: well, I mean, I, I personally have helped people. Resolve their autoimmune disease. I mean, I'm sure so have you. And it
Julie Michelson: of course, this is, yes.
Robert Floyd: the, the whole point, the whole plan of autoimmune disease should be resolution. Here's my question for you. You're, you're way more into autoimmune. You're up to your eyeballs more than me, right.
So, okay. as homo sapiens, we've been evolving 500 to 750,000 years. Okay? Every generation getting fitter, faster, smarter, stronger, living a li little bit longer than the one previous now until the last 50 years. Right? So, and, and the, the amount of autoimmune disease has absolutely skyrocketed. It's astronomical.
My question to you, being a, an expert in that field, was there autoimmune. [Page//00:51:00] 15, 20,000 years ago. I'm gonna, I'm gonna guess no. I would say no.
Julie Michelson: even when I was diagnosed, which was in the early two thousands. It was still rare. Like, I mean, that's how much it's changed was, you know, I remember them saying, and I was in my thirties, you know, oh, you're so young. Well now somebody in their thirties is diagnosed with autoimmunity.
A, it's not rare. B, they're not young like . It's not. Same thing though, before that, about a decade before that, I was working at Nova Southeastern University with AU well autistic children. Autism was rare in the nineties. . It's not rare anymore. So if we don. Like, tap the brakes and look up and say, okay, what is going on here?
Um, you know,
Robert Floyd: and look up
Julie Michelson: seriously like it, you know, this is the wake up call. And again, this is why you and I are [Page//00:52:00] optimistic that things are are changing because we are having the conversations and, and people are listening and, and it's a process and one of the most satisfying. Things in my work is, you know, yes, a helping people reverse their symptoms and, and life get bigger and better again.
But really it's the ripple effect, right? Then their children are growing up eating real food and the, the, you know, healthy paleo lifestyle and, and um, that's how we create change.
Robert Floyd: 100%. Absolutely. And you know, I tell people, I tell people that I'm talking to you about my program and like, you know, do you have children? Do you have kids? Do you have grandkids? Do you wanna see them grow up? And here's here two things. A scary statistic I heard. I don't know what to believe anymore, but by 2030, they're expecting if, if it continues, the away it's going.
That every male child born in the United States [Page//00:53:00] of America will have some form of autism will be on the spectrum.
Julie Michelson: Well, if you look at what I was just saying, how rare it was back when I was teaching and how common it is now. If that, if that makes sense, if the trajectory continues the way it's going, that, that, that will be, uh, a fact. And I would add, and I, I'm just making this up, but logically, , almost every female will have autoimmunity as well.
right? Like, it, it's a, so, you know, it's, it's time for us to, to create that change. So you covered so many amazing tips, um, and really I, for where can people check out your program?
Robert Floyd: Uh, it's on, uh, www.thepaleomd.com. That's, uh, my website there. And then, um, you know, like I said, uh, the Paleo md.store, they can follow me on Facebook at, uh, the Paleo MD and [Page//00:54:00] on Instagram at the Paleo MD as well.
Julie Michelson: Perfect. I love consistency. cross platforms. It makes it so easy.
Robert Floyd: I'm trying, I'm trying to
Julie Michelson: And all of this is, is gonna be in the notes too, but I know I tend to listen to podcasts when I'm moving . And so, um, sometimes it's just nice to hear and they're like, oh, okay. That I can remember. I'm gonna go check it out. I know you covered lots and lots and lots already, but we always love to, to throw you under the bus and ask you to give listeners one action step.
What's one thing they can start today to start to improve?
Robert Floyd: Oh, that's way too narrow.
Julie Michelson: I know it's so hard. It's the hardest question.
Robert Floyd: Um, well, I mean, we talked about. Gluten, dairy, sugar. We talked about, uh, fasting. I, I do wanna, I, I do wanna add that about fast time-restricted. Time optimized eating. It's not for [Page//00:55:00] everybody. If you have. anorexia. If you have bulimia history of if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, it's not for everybody. Or if you have cachexia, uh, which it means, uh, decreased muscle mass from something from a chronic disease like cancer or something, or just, you know, very, very thin and frail.
I would, I would venture to say, um, the number one recommendation. God, it's so hard to just pick one cuz they're all so.
Julie Michelson: The starting point.
Robert Floyd: health is multifactorial the starting point. Get rid of gluten,
Julie Michelson: thank you. Ah, . It's my favorite.
Robert Floyd: stop eating wheat, period. That's it. That's the number one thing. Okay. And then, you know, try to get rid of dairy sugar, but, but stop eating wheat.
Okay. And, you know, um, and, and read, I mean, I could say, and, and, and, and, but , I mean, I have so much
Julie Michelson: Nope, I'm cutting you off.
Robert Floyd: Okay. That's okay. Well, next time,
Julie Michelson: [Page//00:56:00] But you are gonna come back, um, because we have a, we have so much more to talk about, but I'm going to be excited to have you back on in the fall when you are launching your new book, and we
Robert Floyd: Thank you.
Julie Michelson: We can take that in any of the million directions of the things we like to talk about.
Um, so I, Rob, thank you so, so much. This was so much fun for me and, and so much gold for listeners. Um, and again, it, it's just been such pleasure to have you.
Robert Floyd: Well, thank you. It's, it was really, really nice to meet you and talk to you and get to know you a little bit more as well. And, and again, I wanna commend you and celebrate you for what you're doing and helping. How you are helping because, You're reaching so many people through what you're doing, and again, this is the grassroots, the great reset that we need is us.
It's not, you know, the medical big pharma, big food, industrial complex. We need this. And so thank you. I wanted to say celebrate you for that.[Page//00:57:00]
Julie Michelson: My, my pleasure and my mission, so thank you for that. And for everyone listening, remember, you can get the show notes and transcripts by visiting Inspired Living Show. I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I did. I will see you next week.
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Robert Floyd MD
Hi, I'm Dr. Robert Floyd, known as the PaleoMd online. I'm a board-certified MD, a sought-after speaker, an Institute For Functional Medicine Certified Physician, a writer, an athlete, and an entrepreneur.
For years I've specialized in gut health, men’s health, and weight loss. In doing so, I've helped thousands of clients trim down, obtain abundant energy, reduce the burden of chronic disease, reduce medications, and achieve optimal health.
Now I'm sharing my crucial, life-changing protocols with clients so they can feel revitalized, energetic, and vibrant once again (with the added bonus of shedding unwanted weight and feeling great).
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