Beverly Meyer Want Us to Eat Like Humans

A new FTP is cause for celebration — especially when it proves that getting fitter after sixty isn't just possible, it's happening. Tom Butler shares his latest benchmark and what it means for anyone who thinks their best fitness days are behind them.

Then, Tom sits down with Beverly Meyer, host of the Primal Diet - Modern Health podcast and a seasoned Clinical Nutritionist and Functional Health Expert. Beverly offers a refreshing lens on what it truly means to be healthy, explaining the functional health approach and why it looks beyond symptoms to uncover root causes. At the heart of the conversation is a deceptively simple idea: Eat Like a Human Being. Beverly unpacks what that means in practice and why it may be one of the most powerful things you can do for your long-term health and vitality.

Whether you're chasing watts or just trying to feel better in your daily life, this episode delivers both inspiration and practical wisdom.

LINKS

Tour de Cure Routes: ridewithgps.com/events/455983-2026-pnw-tour-de-cure

Beverly's Podcast: ondietandhealth.com/resources/

Beverly's Website: ondietandhealth.com

Here is your invitation to join a great launch party for the summer cycling season.  Join the Cycling Over Sixty Tour de Cure PNW team.  Whether you are local or come out to experience cycling in the great Northwest, I would love to have you help make this a ride with a purpose.  And to send a message that the joy of cycling is here for everyone, regardless of age. Go to tour.diabetes.org/teams/CO60

I know it is early but we are looking to get the Cycling Over Sixty Tour de Cure team together as soon as possible. You can find all the info at tour.diabetes.org/teams/CO60

Thank you Konvergent Wealth for sponsoring CO60 Jerseys for the Tour de Cure!

Become a member of the Cycling Over Sixty Strava Club!  www.strava.com/clubs/CyclingOverSixty

Cycling Over Sixty is also on Zwift.  Look for our Zwift club!

NOTE: I share information about my journey. From time to time that means sharing what I do to stay healthy.  None of what I share is meant to be medical advice. Always consult with your physician or other health professionals before making changes. 

Please send comments, questions and especially content suggestions to me at info@cyclingoversixty.com

Follow and comment on Cycling Over Sixty on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cyclingoversixty/

Show music is "Come On Out" by Dan Lebowitz.  Find him here : lebomusic.com

Transcript

Weekly Update

Introducing Guest Beverly Meyer

Tom Butler 0:04

This is the Cycling Over 60 Podcast, season 4, episode 10. Debbie the Meyer wants us to steal a cubic. And I'm your host, Tom Butler. I kind of surprised myself the other day. Next weekend, I'm going to ride the Cascade Bicycle Club's Chili Hilly. It's 32 miles and 2170 feet of elevation. There's a number of 9% grade climbs that I find to be challenging. So I need to get my legs into shape for it. To prepare, I've been riding a local hill, but it seems like if I push my legs too far, they're going to cramp up. Most of my riding has been a flat ground since I've been recovering from a bad cold a couple weeks ago. It seems like my lungs are taking forever to heal. Recently I decided to take on a hill in Zwift to push my legs. It was a route that was a constant steep climb, so I knew I'd have the opportunity to stay at an intense level for around 30 minutes. I've mentioned before that climbing in Zwift is nothing like climbing in the real life for me, but I knew this route was going to provide a good challenge to my legs. When I got done, I was surprised to find that based on my power output during the ride, Zwift increased my functional threshold power from 195 to 199. I'm excited about that. The ride was a tough effort, but I didn't push myself past a reasonable intensity based on heart rate. I like FTP as a measurement of my progress, and I've looked trying to get an FTP of 200 as a good goal for now. And I like being so close. But here again is this great news. I'm still getting stronger at 63. Even after riding the bike for three years now, I can still increase my FTP. And even better is that apparently being off the bike for two weeks, including being sick for a week, didn't set me back as far as I thought. Even though I set this new FTP, I am not in the best shape. In addition to that, I'm still having Achilles problems. But it is healing slowly. I keep KT tape on it when I'm going to be walking a lot. Writing hasn't seemed to impact it at all. I'm not sure that doing the chili hilly will continue to be the case. But I don't expect it to set me back very much. In my family, we've always used KT tape, but I'm interested in trying rock tape. It sounds like it has better adhesion. I've had issues with KT tape from time to time, coming unstuck. So if rock tape has better adhesion, then that could be great for me. I'm still doing a lousy job with my flexibility exercises. I know that's not helping with my Achilles problem. And I really got thrown off my program when I was sick, and I'm having a heck of a time getting back to it. I guess it's time to ramp up some accountability mechanisms again. I've been talking about the Tour de Cure a lot. We're getting close to the end of February, and I'm going to need to order jerseys soon so I can get them in time. So the end of February is the end of time to register to make sure you have the correct jersey size. I continue to be extremely excited about the Tour de Cure. I look forward to the great partnership that is forming between Cycling Over 60 and the American Diabetes Association. In fact, I accepted an invitation to be the community event chair for the Tour de Cure here. I don't think that means a lot, but I do think it's a signal that they see Cycling Over 60 as a great partner. Of course, I would love all of you to come out here and join us in the Tour de Cure on May 2nd. I'll put a link to the routes in the show notes, just in case I can tempt you with a nice ride around Lake Washington. If you can't come do the ride, please consider giving a donation to the team. You can find the team link in the show notes as well. My diet continues to be a work in progress, trying to absorb a lot of information about eating in the best way for me. I got an opportunity to speak with Beverly Meyer, who you can find at on dietandhealth.com, or through her podcast, Primal Diet Modern Health. I'll put both those links in the show notes. Beverly has been practicing clinical nutrition since 1985. I'm thrilled to have somebody with that kind of experience on the podcast. And I'm very happy for you to listen in on our conversation here. I am thrilled to welcome Beverly Meyer to the podcast. Thank you for being here.

Beverly Meyer 4:40

Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure.

Why Functional Health Drew Her In

Tom Butler 4:42

Yeah, you are the force behind on dietandhealth.com. And also you have a podcast called Primal Diet Modern Health. And I'm glad to have somebody here who has your perspective as a certified clinical nutritionist and also someone that likes is spending their time educating people, helping people find solutions and things like that. You have been in practice since 1975. I'm sorry, you've been in practice since 1985. And you know, I think that that experience is fantastic to have. Before I go into much, I I'm curious, was there something when you were younger that created an interest in being a health professional?

Beverly Meyer 5:33

Yes, I I think this is true of most of the functional health, natural health, alternative health, complementary medicine, whatever you want to call it. I think this is true for most of us, is that we had an experience of our own health that did not change, improve, whatever be understood through a traditional medical system or doctor or series of doctors, but that we did find understanding and change when we stepped outside the narrow box of a five-minute consult and began to reach out to alternative practitioners, whether they were even chiropractors or acupuncture or myofascial release or whatever type of coaching work or medical work they do, that it's it's not the sit down, how are you? Okay, fine, have a nice year. So, yes, in my own case, yes, I had a I was in Duke University in the 70s and had a chronic virus that I couldn't shake, I didn't understand, and got no help at all from the Duke Medical Center. And yet a friend said, you know, why don't you go try these guys? He's not a doctor, but he's helped me and he knows a lot. And that was of a big wake-up call for me that this person without credentials was able to recommend some things that that did help me. And and I was uh you know, a college student. So I've been at this a long time turning over rocks and learning, oh, what does this person have to offer? And oh, no, that's a field I've never heard of. Let me make an appointment and go check it out.

Biochemical Individuality Explained

Tom Butler 7:18

You know, it's interesting that you say that because I think it's a comment about the complexity of the human body. You know, it's such an amazing machine, amazing, we're such amazing organisms. And there's just a lot out there to you can look at.

Beverly Meyer 7:37

Well, one of the fundamental premises of, as again, as I say, natural health, functional health, alternative medicine, complimentary health, holistic health, is is the principle of biochemical individuality. And and that's a phrase that's been around at least 40 years, but biochemical individuality. So that of course we have things in common as as humans. That's why my diet, which we may talk about, I call it the diet for human beings. But but you and your twin brother may have very, not that you have a twin brother, I'm just saying, may have very different needs and issues. And it's not just genetics, it's it's the whole thing, how you were raised and what you eat and how you live, and whether you got hit on the head or whatever, that we we are very biochemically individual and and in functional health, that's why we spend so much time with people and why the insurance company doesn't pay for us, is because we we are trying to understand this person now, what is going on and where how did they get to this point? And I I had a client once a long time ago, and we were in our second appointment. I knew a lot about them. And at some point she stopped and she said, Did I ever tell you I only have one kidney? I said, No, you you didn't tell me. She was there for an adrenal problem. Her doctor had sent her to me for an adrenal problem. And I said, Well, if you only have one renal gland, that's the kidney. What else do you think you you might only have one of? And she didn't get the prompt. I said, an adrenal. I said, it's very possible your adrenal issues or the fact that you only have one adrenal. And that that was a perfect example right there.

Tom Butler 9:41

Yeah, and I I think that we, you know, there's a need to do more training for everybody. There's just so much to learn. I think that's an example of someone that maybe wasn't used to really understanding their body at a at a really deep level.

Beverly Meyer 9:59

But that's so true that that, you know, we're I'm guilty of that too. I recently was diagnosed with sleep apnea, and I had absolutely no clue that that I'd had it, and had been searching for answers about my symptom that I was having for 10 years. And none of the medical specialties I'd spoken with, I mean, I really worked at this for 10 years, and no one ever suggested, you know, that's one of the top six signs of sleep apnea. And so, you know, it even with my passion for research, you you can still miss the things that are right under your right under your feet.

Defining Functional Nutrition

Tom Butler 10:37

That's so interesting. Now, I want to take a minute here just to say that this conversation isn't about giving medical advice or getting medical advice. Everybody should be working with health professionals. Uh like you said, everybody is an individual, everybody has unique things going on, and should be getting advice that is tailored to your specific situation. Yeah, I mentioned that you've been practicing functional nutrition. I don't think I use the term functional nutrition, but that's a term that that you use and since the 1980s. I I wonder if you could uh talk a bit about why you use the term functional nutrition, and then also talk a bit about kind of if you can encapsulate what you've seen over the time that you've been in practice. It's there's been a lot of changes, a lot of transitions along those years.

Beverly Meyer 11:41

Okay, so a couple of big changes there, or big uh questions there. So, first of all, kind of what is functional nutrition? Well, I am a clinical nutritionist, and we are a more elite field. We're not dieticians or nutritionists, we're clinical nutritionists. So we have a lot of training in lab work and the what what makes why does a hormone, how does a hormone get signaled for this? And why why is this enzyme being blocked? Or what is causing this biliary problem? Or what what what does the tingling in your feet might mean? So we're we are the chemists of the body and we're all over the body. We don't have a specialist like a specialty like cardiology or whatever. It's it's really tough because we have to try to think. Now, wait a minute, do you didn't you say you also have headaches or whatever a question might be that might help me put something together in my mind to to paint a picture of somebody? And that's what functional health care is is is is about, is that we we what we often say on many of our websites is treat the cause, not just the symptoms. And and that's the key right there between complimentary medicine and allopathic or regular medicine, is that they've got a very limited time to be with you and they they want to try to get you symptom relief as fast as they can, which is which is great, and they do a good job, but they may not have time to figure out why did you why have you broken your arm for the third time? Or you know, why are you waking up every night at 3 a.m.? And and that's where to me true healthcare comes in is what what is causing this? Oh, you're on three different blood pressure medicines and and so you're falling a lot, and oh, and that's why you keep breaking your arm, you know, and so that's what functional health, functional nutrition is supposed to be about is is no snap decisions. You've got to try to understand more about where this person, how they eat, how they sleep, what their history is, what meds and supplements they're taking, what's their emotional thing, are they in an abusive situation or what whatever the case may be. And then you asked about chain what changes have I seen in in 36 years of practice. Wow, that's a great question. I I don't know that I have seen changes really. It's still the same conditions that I was just speaking to. That that our medical system does a good job at, okay, this you've got you have high blood pressure, take this pill, I'll see you in six months. And that may or may not be the right medication, and then then they change it or whatever, but they don't understand, they don't it's often the case where doctors don't have time or training to think through well, what are the causes of high blood pressure? And that is not that one thing is not a simple question. And and I don't see that this situation has has changed. You know, we are treated as a collection of body parts, basically. And you know, if I've if I've shattered my leg or something, I want I want a leg specialist. Thank you very much. But if I'm there for chronic uh tingling and irritation in my legs or something, I I I want to be able to look a little deeper.

Are We Getting Smarter About Food

Tom Butler 15:38

Yeah, one of the things uh I I eat pretty carefully. I don't eat a lot of things that other people eat. And when I go into the grocery store, there's just I don't know, I think you could eliminate 80% of the grocery store from what I could eat. And I am wondering, you know, looking at a grocery store, it doesn't seem like people are uh understanding much more uh like uh what uh should be put in your body or what is good to put in your body. And I'm wondering what you've seen throughout the years. Do you think people are becoming more informed, more sophisticated about the decisions of what they put in their body?

Beverly Meyer 16:25

That that's another really good good question. Uh I think in part it comes down to not just your education and willingness to learn or hear or read articles, but that there's also a financial aspect to this. And you know, we we a large majority of our population lives on cheap carbohydrates. And that that's of course the basis for uh diabetes and overweight and insulin resistance and and and many other problems, like uh women that get fibroid cysts or whatever. A lot of this is related to the diet of the sugars and the carbs and the potatoes and the breads and the chips and the pie and the juice and you know, all of this stuff that we we did not during our times as hunter and gatherer, you know, during the Paleolithic time in history, which was hundreds of thousands of years, we we were hunters and gatherers, and we didn't have carbohydrates. And and I mean, yes, if you found a tuber, that's got some carbs. But we we never found a lot of fruit. Uh fruit, the that old phrase, the early bird gets the worm. Well, you know, the early bird and the ant and the fox and the snake and all that get the fruit. And you know, by the time a human gets out on the trail, what little fruit was ripe that day has already been eaten. So humans didn't evolve with a lot of fruit or other carbohydrates. We're we're we're our we're our biology is set up for animal protein, this the saturated fats from healthy animals and coconuts, and then all the different kinds of of other weeds or mushrooms or edibles that we can find that are not made from the seed of grass. And and that's what most carbs are corn, wheat, rice, they're they're grass seed. That's that is what they are. They're grass seed. And you know, if if you have a horse, you will see, oh, that horse eats off the ground, it eats grass seed. But if you have a human, that human does not bend down and nibble on grass seed. And just like that, the horse cannot eat your hamburger. So I'm I suppose they could, but they don't, you know, they have more sense than we do. So that that is it's and the the carbs are cheap food, the the white bread, the pasta, the corn chips, the the big gulp, you know, 40 ounce soft drink or whatever these things are, the the adulterated juice, quote unquote, juice beverages that are corn syrup. So when when people are financially pressed, they will they're very much limited to carbs, and there are plenty of other people that are educated and have the funds to buy proper meat and vegetables, but but don't do it. And I don't know what to tell you about about that.

Tom Butler 20:56

Now, this is a hard question to answer. I'll admit that right out of the gate. But I'm wondering, you know, when you look at understanding how to maintain health, I as you already talked about, everybody's an individual. But are there some things that you see as foundational kind of overarching concepts that you would point people to?

Beverly Meyer 21:21

Yes, absolutely. And and one of the subtitles on my my DVD, The Diet for Human Beings, was no matter who we are, no matter who you are, it's how we're meant to eat. So whether you're a 10-year-old girl or a triathlete or whatever, we're the same species. And we do have the same basic structure and chemistry and biology, or the the same uh stomach acids and this and that. And and, you know, so food is so extremely fundamental to any species, whether it's a macaw or a koala bear, you know, their food is extremely specific. And we are the same. It's just that we are, you know, we're spoiled rotten, and we have big mouths and and very facile hands, and we can stuff almost anything in there and try to swallow it. And whether we can digest it or utilize it properly or not is another question. So what we eat is absolutely fundamental to every aspect of our health, and the other is sleep. So you can't get more basic than food and sleep. And when I'm working with clients, uh, you know, I let them know look, I'm not your normal person. We're gonna be working for a couple of weeks, and I'm gonna ask you to do a lot of homework and upgrade your diet and upgrade your sleep. And, you know, you got to work for this if you want to get rid of your migraines and your frozen shoulder and your poor breathing and your acne and your whatever, all this great list of stuff that people come to me with. I say, I can't wait. My magic wand, but you know, I can I can tell you you're not eating the way your body wants you to eat, and your sleep is disturbed, or whatever it's we need to discuss to get people to help them fall asleep and help them stay asleep. And that's where I, of course, I bring in the herbs and the supplements there. But but eating properly will also help sleep. We are often struggling with hunger and blood sugar and food deprivation. This is very true of women, especially, that you know, women have been trained to be thin and starve themselves, basically. And, you know, so many of the female clients I get, I look at their week food diary, their weekly food diary, and it's like, you know, they're they're they're basically in malnutrition. They may be eating perfect foods, you know, and really good foods. They're not eating hamburgers and junk food, they're eating quote unquote good food, but it's you know, it's some salad and uh two ounces of fish and and you know, a fifth of a sweet potato, and and that's their whole meal. I'm like, wait a minute, that was three bites of food. So that's also part of it. It's not just what we eat, but when we eat, and are we getting enough food from our food, digesting it and using it? And for people in any kind of athletic adventure, whether it's pickleball or cycling or whatever, obviously your your need for fuel is going to go up too. So you know, it's like, yes, eat get the basics now, eat more of it. Just eat more of it.

Tom Butler 24:56

I I think it's so interesting, you know, the way that you're putting this. And and you have a saying that I saw that's eat like a human being, which I thought was a very interesting thing to say. And I wonder if you can unpack that more.

Beverly Meyer 25:13

Well, one of my favorite books was the author is Mark Sisson, S-I-S-S-O-N, who wrote The Primal Diet or the Primal Blueprint. And it's in its fifth edition now, but in his first edition, he listed the the paleo primal food pyramid, and he put fruits and vegetables at the bottom, and he very quickly pulled that edition and put a second edition properly, showing the the animals are the base of our our of a human food pyramid. The the the the meats and so on, the the cartilage and the bone marrow and all that, that that's that's where we're focused. So eat like a human being. Yes, we're we're not carb burners. We we're meant to be fat burners, but we've become sugar burners. And that was a subtitle in his book. That if people can get a second edition, which is, I don't know, 10 years old or something, you know, we're born to be fat burners, but we have become sugar burners. And by that I mean whether it's millet or whatever it is, it's the carb foods. And this transition happened at the end of the Paleolithic era and the beginning of the more modern era when we began keeping animals and starting the first attempts at agriculture, mostly to feed the animals that we were keeping instead of having to go and hunt them all the time. That was the big change in history when we stopped one of the second one from going out into the going out and hunting was the first one, but but once we we began to stay in a place, raise animals, feed animals, rather than have to roam and hunt them and fight other community groups for the rights to to bring down or certain animals. That all happened after the last ice age, and that's only 13,000, 14,000 years ago. It's a blink of an eye. So our our our true human self was from the Paleolithic era, which obviously that's where the word the paleo diet comes from. That's our our true nature for what we can digest and our stomach acids, our enzymes, and so on. It's it's it's our history. And that's one of my quotes is follow the biology. And if you buy, you know, a German, if you get a German shepherd or you get a tarantula, whatever it is, you know, follow the biology. What does a tarantula eat? I have no idea, but tarantulas know what tarantulas eat. And you don't have to train them, you just need to find out what they eat.

Tom Butler 28:11

Well, you're you're saying some things that are just really interesting to me. You know, there's a couple things here. Uh what a big thing is that you have to look back a long time, you know, not 50 years, not a hundred years, but a ways back to really think about how do humans eat and what were the situations that led to how humans eat. You brought up the fact that we have hands and fingers. You know, I I'm guessing there's even you know aspect that we're upright in the way that we move. I mean, there's there's a lot of things to think about when it comes to really conceptualizing the food choices that that humans made that got us here today.

Beverly Meyer 29:00

Here's a here's another example. If uh an herbivore, like a yak or a zebra or a a cow or a horse, their eyes look, their spine is parallel to the ground, their eyes and nose are pointed to towards the ground, and what they're hunting for is the next tasty leaf or flower or moss or shrub, whatever. But a human, we obviously are upright, and our eyes track motion. So a hunter tracks prey with the motion of its eyes, and so you know, a bird flies by, a deer runs by, a snake slithers by. Those are proteins, and as hunters, we hunt using motion, not necessarily smell or hearing, of course, is part of it. You hear a hear something growl or whatever, but but we we track and hunt with our eyes, and and the the zebras track and hunt with their their eyes down and with their nose and their sense of smell.

Tom Butler 30:19

I have had people say to me before, you know, well, you know, carbohydrates are the main fuel that we need. Glucose is the fuel of our body, and carbohydrates have glucose. I'm I'm thinking you've heard something similar to that.

Beverly Meyer 30:38

Yes, and again, that as I was saying, Mark Sisson's book, The Primal Blueprint, you know, it's just really well done. And and yes, he he he's I mean, it's not just him, but I mean, I'm a co-founder of the paleo diet. So, you know, we all know that looking back, we that yes, we hunt, we hunt animals, we eat every part of the animal that we possibly can, and then we gather the the nuts or the egg or some honey or some weeds and if oh a tuber, which you know, we'd we'd find some tubers, set our traps for squirrels or whatever, and we'd we'd harvest and keep the fat from the animals that we harvested. And the the fat and the nuts and things of that nature would be often what would keep us through a winter. The the dried smoked meat, the fats. So again, as Sisson says, we were born to be fat burners, but we have become sugar burners.

Tom Butler 31:44

You and I'm so glad you did this. You you talked about clinical nutrition and kind of what that means. You talked about the you know, the focus on the human chemistry, really. And uh you uh have a a focus on hormones. Now I know that's a massive topic in and of itself. And I'm wondering if you can boil that down into some principles that you'd like people to know about hormones.

Beverly Meyer 32:15

That's a big question there. Okay, so again, I start with how we eat and live and sleep, because hormones there's a base just like neurotransmitters, neurotransmitters and hormones are are the baseline managers for micromanaging. This should happen, now this should happen, now this should happen. The neurotransmitters and the hormones are are right in there driving that that chariot, steering, steering those horses, what to do next. Stop, run, turn left, go back. So the the the hormones, well golly, the the the male and female hormones, cortisol, the big adrenal hormone, DHEA, testosterone, these hormones are steroidal hormones, and they're all made from cholesterol. All of them are made from cholesterol. Now, what does that tell you? Well, we evolved consuming cholesterol. We didn't go out and harvest leaves and twigs. We harvested cholesterol. So, so uh, you know, testosterone, estrogen, progesterone, pregnetolone, DHEA, cortisol, they're they're all made from from cholesterol as their basis. So that's the first thing is that yes, following the follow the biology, you we we eat, we live, we have to sleep, and the the hormones and neurotransmitters will happily do their thing if if we give them a chance and stay out of the way. And but and here's something that I notice uh a lot with my female clients that are 40 and older, is almost universally, I'd say 80 percent, are deficient in progesterone. And what what most good functional practitioners use for testing is not blood work, it's salivary, salivary hormone testing, or there's a specific urine test, dried urine, which is different than collecting urine in a jug. So we use a different testing format for the cortisol and progesterone and testosterone and all of this, and it's can be much different than blood. But but seeing so much women, so many women, the so much of a greater percentage of women being low in progesterone, and that's the complicated thing, but it in a bottom line because of our life stress, and that's everything you can think of in name, it the hormones pull us away from the the guidance of the body pulls us away from making certain hormones so that it can keep loading cortisol. So in our high stress, high activity, dangerous, you know, anxiety-inducing lifestyles where you know there's too much noise, too much threat, too much danger, too. There's just so much going on physically and emotionally. We are we are drawing on our cortisol reserves 24 hours a day. And when we do that, the the other male, female hormones can can suffer. And and then there's insulin resistance from eating over carbs, overeating carbs, that's what blocks also the testosterone and the estrogen and the progesterone. It's insulin resistance, and that's a whole that's another big topic. And it's it's quite fascinating what's what's happening when we're overweight from eating carbs, that we become insulin resistant or metabolic syndrome or syndrome X. And when we are insulin resistant, the the whole cascade of make hormone A, now make hormone B, now send it over here. All of that is broken. And and people who are overweight are universally insulin resistant. I'm not talking five pounds, you know, but you know, 15, 100, 150, 200 pounds, people 20, 20 pounds, let's say 20 pounds or more chronically, that they become insulin resistant. And their hormones are going to be off kilter. So we're right back to the beginning, which is let's start with what you eat, how you live. Are you sleeping? Do you have you been checked for sleep apnea? What's going on with your nighttime process that you're waking up or not falling asleep, and so on? We have to get back there if we want to support hormones. It's not just about giving people a hormone. Sometimes it is, but most of the time it's only part of the picture. Whoa, that was a long answer. Sorry.

Tom Butler 37:36

Well, it's a complicated subject, and it's also, you know, hearing you talk about it, you know, there there's a really fundamental importance of it. And I I think I know that what answer you would give to this, but uh it sounds like you would say that you can't really understand your health status if you're not understanding what's going on hormonally.

Supplements As Support, Not Fixes

Beverly Meyer 38:05

Yes, although I know it's but hormones are are a strong governing group of actors like neurotransmitters, but it you most people have absolutely no idea what they are. They they need to be tested. And the way that the medical community tests hormones, frankly, it's it's not correct. It doesn't mean that it's incorrect, but it's not optimally correct, which I think personally the salivary hormone or what they call Dutch dried urine testing can provide much more accurate insight into hormones. And even then, it depends on if it's a menstruating female, it depends on what day of your cycle you test on. This is so huge. And I can't tell you how many people come to me with blood work for female hormones. And my first question is what day of your cycle did you take this test? Which, you know, their eyes glaze over immediately. They have no idea. So already I know that it's a completely invalid test.

Tom Butler 39:18

Again, I it's just uh it's such a fascinating thing, and and it goes back to the complicated uh machine that the human body is. You know, it's a wonderful machine and a complicated machine, and hormones are in there as part of that. The one thing I wanted to ask you about was supplements. Do you have a philosophy about supplements, about supplementation?

Beverly Meyer 39:49

Yes, and the first clue is the word itself, supplement. So a supplement by definition is a supplement, which means it's something that you're adding to something else. So when I'm one of my many mottos is tell people, you know, I am not a pill pimp, I am not here to to have you use my online store or come in the clinic or whatever and just sell you a bunch of pills. It you won't take them more than a month or two and whatever. And and besides, your needs change all the time. And it's just if if they're gonna eat and live and sleep and do whatever they're doing the same old way, the supplements don't it uh, you know, five pills does not have a chance of overcoming a person living on, you know, fast food and and four hours of sleep a night with an abusive partner. I mean, you know, there's a lot you've got to unpack there. And the supplements are are when they're done properly. I I don't, I personally don't add supplements to people except for a certain type of vitamin D that I use, which is very unique. But for and that only when I'm have them test their vitamin D, which I do 100% of my clients, but I don't add supplements necessarily, except maybe some of the sleep ones, until the maybe the third appointment. And we've we've gotten a lot of food diaries and food homework, and there's just homework, and you know, there's a lot going on, and you're kind of clearing the bases, as it were. I I just had an image of a baseball field, and and you know, somebody's out there brushing the the bases to get the dirt and the grass off of them because they can't see them. And that's kind of how it is with supplements. We in and the and trying to help you. I need to be able to get some clarity and clear off some of the the dirt and the grass, you know. This person that's that's only eating twice a day and and it's only six bites of food and and and they don't sleep and whatever. I the I can't supplement through that, but I do often use very specific sleep support to help people get some sleep. But the other supplements come. I I mean I have I have a thousand products in my clinic, so you know I only have 135 or 50 online, but but you know, yes, I have supplements, but but they they don't come last. I mean they don't come first, they come as supplements to the other to the work that people are are doing. It may be dental work, they may need to go and have their their root canals or their mercury fillings examined, or you know, there's fundamental things that may have to happen, and a handful of pills are just not gonna do it.

Tom Butler 42:50

I think it's a great clarification, you know, like you said, the word is supplement, so that's not primary. Are there some big nutritional mistakes that you see people make? And I'm you know, our audience is you know looking to stay healthy later on in life. And I'm wondering, even like as we age, are there things, mistakes that you think that are common that people make?

The Incredible Organ

Beverly Meyer 43:19

A lot of them, but but uh for example, the vitamin D I just mentioned, vitamin D is something that more doctors are finally aware of that they need to test this in their patients. But what everybody should know their vitamin D status, it's such a potent vitamin, it has so many jobs in the body, and I I don't ever want anybody to ignore their vitamin D status. And and here's a little tip that when you look at a a lab report, and for example, it says this thing on the lab should be between 20 and 100, and your score was 29. So your doctor puts a happy face by that. Well, now wait a second. When when you're looking at lab work, you want to always aim for the middle. If if it's 20 to 100, let's see, that's 120, half of that is 60. Oh, well, I'm at 29. I maybe I'm half of ideal. This is not good. So we'll see that classically with vitamin D, it has a huge range, which doctors have the I don't know about doctors, whoever does this, that's a question, creates those lab ranges, has been tightening those lab ranges to get them more towards an optimal, aiming people for 60 to 80 as their vitamin D score, and not just leaving it. Well, you've got 22, you're fine. No, you're not fine. So that's a key thing is the very, very basic fundamentals of looking at your own lab work, checking the ranges, and and And you know, bucking up and asking your practitioner, say, well, Doctor, I know you just passed over this item right here, but it's at the very, very bottom of the range. Is that ideal? You know, so, or go home and research that and call it low, you know, whatever the the item is and look research it yourself and look it up. And wow, that's surprising. It it seems to hit four of my symptoms. Maybe I should pay attention to this. So the opposite of that is this obsession we have with biohacking and uh the miracle cure. And I work a lot with with a lot with herpes virus patients. And it's probably the biggest area, surprisingly, in the last six, eight years of my career and website and working virtually with people that I'm just flooded with with herpes people that nobody's helping. And that's a long story, but that that they're anxious and eager enough to try anything, and they haven't yet found my nine articles and podcasts on the topic. So they'll go and buy random kind of miracle cure biohacking stuff, and you know, and it's just wrong. It's it it's not necessarily hurting people, but it's it you have to approach the care and change of anything in some order of priority. For example, you you maybe you like antiques and you go antique hunting and you you find this beautiful table. Well, you can't start with a new stain color. There's a lot of things that has to go first before you you can restain and bring that thing piece to life. And we're the same way when you try to just brush something across the top, it it's you're not getting getting to the bottom.

Tom Butler 47:21

Well, I I want to ask one more question here because as you were talking, I wanted to get your perspective on this. Uh it the we do things to our bodies, you know, we uh do damage to our bodies, we take in stuff that we're that aren't good things to take in, and we can do that for you know years or a decade or more. What have you seen as far as our bodies built-in ability to restore itself?

Beverly Meyer 47:56

Well, the liver is an incredible organ. It's it's I I heard it once described as a factory that it's a block long and a block wide. You know, it's it's an incredible organ. And but in the last X number of years, we've been inhaling or putting on our skin or swallowing or dyeing our hair or whatever it is that we we do, we're introducing things that of course it's never seen before. And part of the fact that, well, okay, it's really a brilliant organ, it can it knows how to identify stuff and where to send it to be transmuted or whatever, but sometimes it's it's just not able. That's why we call them forever chemicals, because they can be, you can assist the liver in detoxifying forever chemicals. But if you like most of us, if we have swallowed microplastics, that's something the liver can't handle. So, you know, love your liver. But yes, it's I do encourage people to be much, much more responsible for having the most organic possible fruits and vegetables and the fully pasture-raised animals. And here's a little trick on that. When you when you look at a package of meat or something and it says grass fed, that means nothing. If if you are a cow, you eat grass, but you may only get to eat grass for the first six weeks of your life before you're taken to live in a feedmot for six months and fed pesticided, you know, corn and soy, which is not a cow's diet, right? So it can say grass-fed, but the the more accurate term is fully pastured or grass-fed, grass finished. So there's a lot of there's a lot of little tricks out there, but the liver would appreciate if if you go to some excellent online, fully pastured, paleo-approved type of of ranchers and vendors that that can ship you fabulous boxes of you know heritage meat. And it doesn't have to be overpriced. It's, you know, you're buying, you're cutting out a lot of the middle chain. And, you know, that so that's something I do encourage people is to stick with fully pastured meats and poultries and and try to stick with the organic fruits and vegetables as much as possible. And water. I I personally have only imbibed, have drunk reverse osmosis filtered water for probably 15, 20 years. I I don't I don't have any interest in anything else. I mean, a celebration, I might have a sip of wine, but I I just I don't drink anything, and I have really good skin for someone my age in my 70s. And so that that right there is a definite longevity. Again, because what did we consume to drink as hunters and gatherers? Eventually we learned how by accident how to ferment a potato or a pile of mangoes or something, but until fermented came along, we we we drank spring water.

Wrap Up

Tom Butler 51:40

You know, uh we we are really touching on the service of things, and so I want to encourage people if this conversation is interesting, you know, go to on dietandhealth.com and also go to the Primal Diet Modern Health podcast because I know that uh there's a lot more opportunity for you to get into these things deeper there. And I want to thank you, Beverly, so much for coming on and having this conversation and bringing your knowledge and your experience. I just think it's fantastic that you've been involved in this field as long as you have and have been able to study as long as you have and think about these issues as long as you have, and bring that perspective to us.

Beverly Meyer 52:32

Well, thank you. And I'd like to pay you a compliment. You're you're you're a good host. I've been podcasting for 14 years, but you know, you're a good host. You you pay attention, you're vibrant, you're in touch with what you're asking and the replies. And you know, that's not always easy. So just a little thumbs up to you that your listeners appreciate you, that that you're an excellent host, and you're you're doing people a great service.

Tom Butler 53:02

Well, that means a lot for you to say that. Thank you so much. So well, I hope everything continues to go well in your pursuit of knowledge. And again, thank you for being here.

Beverly Meyer 53:16

Thank you so much for the opportunity to to speak. I I my head is always just bursting with knowledge and I want to share it.

Tom Butler 53:25

Fantastic. All right, take care now. Goodbye. That one conversation isn't enough to get the information needed to fully evaluate what Beverly talked about, but it sure made me interested to know more. That includes me planning to watch the video series that can be found on Beverly's webpage on dietandhealth.com. The series is titled The Diet for Human Beings. No matter what, there is one thing that Beverly talked about that I think is very important. I believe we have to take into account the environment that humans were in when our biological systems formed. We certainly weren't in an environment that included grocery stores full of highly processed foods. I believe that the more we return to a diet that better matches our biology, the better our health will be. And I'm convinced you will find that concept to be at the heart of Beverly's Primal Diet Modern Health Podcast. Now I hope your cycling adventures are fueled with a lot of good eating. And may that fuel you to explore new cycling experiences. And remember, age is just a gear change.