LEVELS – A Whole New Level Levels

Our environment and culture directly affect the food choices we make. Ultra-processed foods are convenient and cheap, and they’re the main source of foods in food deserts, typically located in underserved communities. Yet ultra-processed foods lead to worsening metabolic health. How do you afford and access nutritious food? Shawn Stevenson and Dr. Casey means discuss how Stevenson, author of “Eat Smarter Family Cookbook” grew up without easy access to whole foods, how he transformed how he eats despite his environment, and how those changes led to a reversal of poor health and chronic pain to an improved quality of life and even earning potential.



Sign Up to Get Your Free Ultimate Guide to Glucose: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://levels.link/wnl⁠



Levels helps you see how food affects your health, empowering you with the tools needed to achieve health goals and improve healthspan. Levels Members gain access to the Levels app and continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), providing real-time feedback on how diet and lifestyle choices impact your metabolic health.

Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health.

🎙 What Shawn Stevenson & Casey Means, MD, discuss:

(10:00) — Ultra-processed foods are convenient and cheap

(20:03) — Stevenson describes the moment when he changed his mindset

(27:20) — The foods we put into our bodies affect us at the cellular level

(32:17) — Focus on controlling the “controllables.”

(35:30) — The family that eats together boosts their health together

(41:23) — Schedule social meals

(44:19) — The most common factor across Blue Zones is strong social bonds

(49:19) — Cooking is an essential skill for health

(1:03:16) — Investing in better health generates improved energy capacity

(1:08:58) — Stevenson shares his tips for affording nutritious foods

Transcripts & Show notes

🔗 Helpful links:

Watch the conversation on YouTube: https://youtu.be/rKptwQrvzuk?si=P9gfeK952dWjMrYA

Find us on YouTube: https://youtube.com/levelshealth?sub_confirmation=1

Obesity and chronic disease are fallouts from the lack of real human connection. Underneath biomarkers like glucose and physical aspects like mitochondrial dysfunctions are the root causes of disease: hijacked reward pathways, chronic stress due to constant threat mode, and the global human disconnect.



Sign Up to Get Your Free Ultimate Guide to Glucose: ⁠⁠⁠https://levels.link/wnl⁠



In this discussion between Levels’ advisor Dr. Molly Maloof and our co-founder and Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Casey Means, they talk about:


The most important measurable biomarker


How we’re designed to live in groups


The cycle of constant stress through threat signaling vs. high-reward pathways


The big problem of global human disconnection


How love and oxytocin helps to make us stronger, share resources, and create bonds


Addiction and the power of the pause


How to increase physical and emotional adaptation

Levels helps you see how food affects your health, empowering you with the tools needed to achieve health goals and improve healthspan. Levels Members gain access to the Levels app and continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), providing real-time feedback on how diet and lifestyle choices impact your metabolic health.

Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health.

🎙 What Levels’ advisor Dr. Molly Maloof and our co-founder and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Casey Means, discuss:

(12:13) - Adapting and self-managing in the face of adversity

(16:03) - The most important biomarker

(23:05) - Moving your body to create energy

(24:18) - Adapting beyond genetics

(26:29) - Hijacking reward pathways

(36:40) - Getting off the grid

(43:22) - Take care of your mitochondria

(45:57) - The holy grail of chronic disease

(51:35) - Felt connection

(59:11) - How deprivation is a pathway to happiness

(1:06:03) - The power of the pause

(1:23:11) - Letting go of control

(01:41:37) - Cooking your skin

Transcripts & Show Notes

🔗 Helpful links:

Watch the conversation on YouTube: https://youtube.com/watch?v=XVSYGx9Fkns

Find us on YouTube: https://youtube.com/levelshealth?sub_confirmation=1

The ketogenic diet is often used as a tool for weight loss and to improve metabolic health. However, it is increasingly being considered, studied, and used as a medical therapy for chronic physical and mental health conditions, and it can be tailored to patients’ specific needs. Beth Zupec-Kania, Denise Potter, and Dr. Dominic D’Agostino discuss the benefits of the ketogenic diet, how they customize keto for patients with dietary preferences like veganism, how to ease into the change with a pre-keto diet, and how the keto diet may be able to help people reduce or eliminate medications under the supervision of medical professionals.



Sign Up to Get Your Free Ultimate Guide to Glucose: ⁠⁠https://levels.link/wnl⁠



Levels helps you see how food affects your health, empowering you with the tools needed to achieve health goals and improve healthspan. Levels Members gain access to the Levels app and continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), providing real-time feedback on how diet and lifestyle choices impact your metabolic health.

Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health.



🎙 What Beth Zupec-Kania, RDN, CD; Denise Potter, RDN, CDCES; and Dominic D’Agostino, PhD, discuss:

(14:50) — Using the ketogenic diet as therapy for various conditions

(27:49) — Eating a ketogenic diet often helps people improve their nutrient intake

(29:39) — The ketogenic diet can be customized to fit a person’s needs

(33:42) — Medium-chain triglycerides can help increase fat intake

(35:32) — Gluten is inflammatory

(38:18) — Beth encourages patients to do a pre-keto program

(46:12) — Looking at macros on keto

(48:24) — A ketogenic diet can drive metabolic health changes

(57:49) — The benefits of the ketogenic diet that go beyond weight loss

(1:22:00) — Can keto help people reduce their medications?

Transcripts & Show notes⁠

🔗 Helpful links:

Watch the conversation:

Find us on YouTube: ⁠⁠https://youtube.com/levelshealth?sub_confirmation=1

Dr. Casey Means, Chief Medical Officer of Levels speaks with Dr. Richard Johnson about his book, "Nature Wants Us to Be Fat," as well as his insights on the "survival switch" that drives our body to store fat in response to certain conditions like high fructose, dehydration, umami flavors, and more, and how this all relates to our current metabolic disease epidemic.



Sign Up to Get Your Free Ultimate Guide to Glucose: ⁠⁠https://levels.link/wnl⁠⁠



Levels helps you see how food affects your health, empowering you with the tools needed to achieve health goals and improve healthspan. Levels Members gain access to the Levels app and continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), providing real-time feedback on how diet and lifestyle choices impact your metabolic health.



Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health.



🎙 What Dr. Casey Means & Dr. Richard Johnson discuss:

(04:25) - The fat switch

(11:39) - Metabolic syndrome is linked to survival

(13:36) - The switch is good for short term survival, bad for long term

(17:40) - Sugar triggers the switch

(19:39) - Sugar leads to metabolic syndrome, not extra calories

(23:40) - Fructose depletes energy

(31:28) - Vitamin C is protective against obesity

(35:12) - High glycemic foods help our bodies make fructose

(44:29) - Whole fruit is healthy because of the fiber

(53:48) - Salt can trigger fructose production



Transcripts & Show Notes



🔗 Helpful links:

Find us on YouTube: ⁠https://youtube.com/levelshealth?sub_confirmation=1

The ketogenic diet is a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet that has proven benefits for brain health. Research shows that the keto diet helps ease symptoms of some mental health conditions, including depression and bipolar disorder. But no diet, even keto, is one-size-fits all. Dr. Georgia Ede and Dr. Dominic D’Agostino discuss how diet and brain health are connected, how diet and gut health affect brain health, and how a ketogenic or other low-carbohydrate diets can be tailored to people’s specific needs.



Sign Up to Get Your Free Ultimate Guide to Glucose: ⁠https://levels.link/wnl⁠



Levels helps you see how food affects your health, empowering you with the tools needed to achieve health goals and improve healthspan. Levels Members gain access to the Levels app and continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), providing real-time feedback on how diet and lifestyle choices impact your metabolic health.

Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health.



🎙 What Georgia Ede, MD & Dominic D’Agostino, PhD, discuss:

(06:51) — Dr. Georgia Ede describes her interest in nutritional science for mental health

(16:45) — Metabolic health is tied to brain health

(23:16) — A ketogenic diet vs medications for mental health

(27:19) — A ketogenic diet can be tailored to prevent side effects

(32:51) — Gut health and mental health are connected

(39:00) — Diet is highly individual

(42:02) —CGM can teach people how foods and diet strategies affect their health

(44:57) — Following a low-carbohydrate diet will generally reduce insulin levels and triglycerides

(47:40) — Some psychiatric symptoms have links to higher C-reactive protein levels

(48:42) — Dr. D’Agostino summarizes one of Dr. Ede’s studies on the ketogenic diet and mental health

(56:59) — A ketogenic diet may also help ease some menopause symptoms

Transcripts & Show notes

🔗 Helpful links:

Watch the conversation: ⁠https://youtu.be/kBjBEjV0vqU

Find us on YouTube: ⁠https://youtube.com/levelshealth?sub_confirmation=1

From gallbladder issues to tinnitus to fatty liver disease and more, many chronic conditions have links to high blood sugar and insulin resistance. Dr. Ben Bikman and Dr. Casey Means discuss the connections between insulin resistance and ear-nose-and-throat conditions, how insulin resistance increases the risk for gallbladder stones, what non-alcoholic fatty liver disease does to the body, and how you can mitigate these chronic health conditions for improved quality of life.



Sign Up to Get Your Free Ultimate Guide to Glucose: https://levels.link/wnl



Levels helps you see how food affects your health, empowering you with the tools needed to achieve health goals and improve healthspan. Levels Members gain access to the Levels app and continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), providing real-time feedback on how diet and lifestyle choices impact your metabolic health.

Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health.



🎙 What Dr. Ben Bikman & Dr. Casey Means discuss:

(08:49) - Declining health is not inevitable

(10:15) - The link between insulin resistance and tinnitus

(13:39) - We look at health through the lens of disease

(22:53) - Insulin resistance and the gallbladder

(28:32) - The appearance of fatty liver disease

(31:34) - Ways to clear the liver of fat

(35:00) - How fat tissue develops

(36:51) - How fat cells become insulin resistant

(46:21) - The power of a CGM

(48:36) - What is a healthy glucose level?

Transcripts & Show notes

🔗 Helpful links:

Watch the conversation: https://youtu.be/szGl8F1zl6I

Find us on YouTube: https://youtube.com/levelshealth?sub_confirmation=1

How hearing loss relates to metabolic health | Blog post: https://www.levelshealth.com/blog/how-hearing-loss-relates-to-metabolic-health

Why too many focus on glucose, but not insulin | Blog post: https://www.levelshealth.com/blog/why-too-many-focus-on-glucose-but-not-insulin