If you care about your health, your weight, and the future of the human race, you absolutely must get acquainted with the work of Herman Pontzer, PhD. He's just written a book, Burn, that will challenge everything you think you know about what it means to be a living organism.
Pontzer argues – and provides ample evidence for his claims – that the archaic engineering model of “body as machine” fails to account for how we behave in the real world. We are not products of engineering, but evolution.
And our evolutionary heritage is doing a shitty job of helping us cope with our modern environments.
We've evolved, for example, to burn about 3000 kcalories per day, regardless of how physically active we are.
Which means that amping up our exercise will not lead to weight loss. And that eating a lot less than 3000 kcalories per day puts us into starvation mode, in which our metabolism slows and our brains become fixated on finding calories.
We've evolved to share our food with our tribe, an innovation that allowed us to mitigate risk and spend huge amounts of energy on cognition and childrearing.
Which means we also have a strong “be suspicious of anyone not in our tribe” mentality.
In our rollicking conversation, we talk about his work with the hunter/gatherer Hadza tribe of northern Tanzania, his lab work, and the effort of dispelling all the myths and misinformation that abound in the world of diet and nutrition.
We also talk about energy more broadly – as he reminds us in Burn, calories and kilowatt hours and miles per gallon all refer to the same thing.
Our overuse and misuse of energy external to our bodies (from fire to fossil fuels) is leading us to fry our planet and causing a catastrophic obesity and metabolic disorder epidemic. And the two phenomena are related, as we spend 8 calories in energy for every calorie we harvest to consume. Essentially, our entire civilization is a Ponzi scheme, and the bill is now coming due.
We discuss the lessons of the Hadza, why gorillas don't get fat in zoos (except where they're given cake and donuts), and why both plant-based and high-protein diets are useful for weight loss.
To me, the conversation is a lesson in true scientific integrity and humility. Several times, Pontzer answered, “I don't know,” and pointed to the need to experiment and test and measure to discover the truth.
Links
Burn, by Herman Pontzer, PhD
Pontzer Lab at Duke University
Pontzer on Rangan Chatterjee, MD's podcast (great, wide-ranging conversation)
Pontzer interviewed by Alan Alda (what a sweetie!)
Dr Howie Jacobson
This podcast is a labor of love and a way to give back to the world that has given me so much. That's why there aren't any sponsors (except me :).
My day job is helping leaders and their teams master their mindsets to remove all obstacles to heart-centered high performance.
Here are three gigs that I do:
1. Executive and Senior Leadership Mentoring and Facilitation
I work with high performing executive teams in organizations — and executive teams that need to become high performing. My focus is mindset mastery, because it’s our mindsets that either support high performance or get in the way.
At this level, everyone’s got the skills and experience to excel and contribute at the highest level. What holds people back is mindset stuff: specifically the triggers that get them out of creative engagement and into fight-or-flight defensiveness.
My practice is all about teaching people to respond differently to those triggers by updating old maps — essentially removing the glitches that the triggers grab onto.
2. Executive Coaching: Quick Wins for High Performance
I work with individual executives and leaders, one on one. The program is called Quick Wins for High Performance, and what we do is, we work strategically on one or two areas that are holding you back and keeping you from performing at your best.
We reverse engineer the presenting problems — too much work and not enough time, underperforming employees and teams, maddening organizational inefficiencies, etc — and identify and rewire the suboptimal mindsets that are behind those problems.
The work is all about updating your mental maps so your actions and responses are always appropriate, proportionate, and strategic.
3. High Stakes Conversations for Fast Growing Small Business Teams
I help small business teams have high stakes conversations with skill, humor, and grace. When people feel safe, they can do their best, most creative, most collaborative work.
So that's what I do. If you'd like any of those results, drop me a line and tell me about yourself.
You CAN Change Other People!
Well, that's what Peter Bregman and I claim in our provocative book of that title.
What we really mean is, you can bring out the best in the people around you. If you think you're powerless to help people change, it's because you've been going about it the wrong way.
Discover our straightforward, replicable process here: You Can Change Other People.
Music
The Plant Yourself Podcast theme music, “Dance of Peace (Sabali Don),” is generously provided by Will Ridenour, a kora player from North Carolina who has trained with top Senegalese musicians.
It can be found on his first CD, titled Will Ridenour.
You can learn about Will, listen to more tracks, and buy music on his website, WillRidenour.com.
Gratitudes
Thanks to Plant Yourself podcast patrons – Kim Harrison – Lynn McLellan – Brittany Porter – Dominic Marro – Barbara Whitney – Tammy Black – Amy Good – Amanda Hatherly – Mary Jane Wheeler – Ellen Kennelly – Melissa Cobb – Rachel Behrens – Tina Scharf – Tina Ahern – Jen Vilkinofsky – David Byczek – Michele X – Elspeth Feldman – Leah Stolar – Allan Kristensen – Colleen Peck – Michele Landry – Jozina – Sara Durkacs – Kelly Cameron – Janet Selby – Claire Adams – Tom Fronczak – Jeannette Benham – Gila Lacerte – David Donohue – Blair Seibert – Doron Avizov – Gio and Carolyn Argentati – Jodi Friesner – Mischa Rosen – Michael Worobiec – AvIvA Lael – Alicia Lemus – Val Linnemann – Nick Harper – Bandana Chawla – Molly Levine – The Inscrutable Harry R – Susan Laverty the Panda Vegan – Craig Covic – Adam Scharf – Karen Bury – Heather Morgan – Nigel Davies – Marian Blum – Teresa Kopel – Julian Watkins – Brid O'Connell – Shannon Herschman – Linda Ayotte – Holm Hedegaard – Isa Tousignant – Connie Haneline – Erin Greer – Alicia Davis – Heather O'Connor – Carollynne Jensen – Sheri Orlekoski of Plant Powered for Health – Karen Smith – Scott Mirani – Karen and Joe Crabtree – Kirby Burton – Theresa Carrell – Kevin Macaulay – Elizabeth Rothschild – Ann Jesse – Sheryl Dwyer – Jenny Hazelton – Peter W Evans – Dennis Bird – Darby Kelly – Lori Fanney – Linnea Lundquist – Emily Iaconelli – Levi Wallach – Rosamonde McAtee – Dan Pokorney – Stephen Leinin – Patty DeMartino – Mike and Donna Kartz – Deanne Bishop – Bilberry Elf – Marjorie Lewis – Tricia Adams – Nancy Sheldon – Lindsey Bashore – Gunn Marit Hagen – Tracey Gulledge – Lara Hedin – Meg from Mamasezz – Stacey Stokes – Ben Savage – Michael K – David Hughes -Coni Rodgers – Claire England – Sally Robertson – Parham Ganchi – Amy Dailey – Brian Tourville – Mark Jeffrey Johnson – Josie Dempsey – Caryn Schmitt – Pamela Hayden – Emily Perryman – Allison Corbett – Richard Stone – Lauren Vaught of Edible Musings – Erin Hastey – Sean Owens – Sagar Naik – Erika Piedra – Danielle Roberts – Michael Leuchten – Sarah Johnson – Katharine Floyd – Meryl Fury – for your generous support of the podcast.
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