Carb Cycling vs. Keto Diet vs. Paleo Diet

Hey guys, Dr. Josh Axe here along with my wife, Dr. Chelsea Axe.

Hey guys.

So today we're going to be talking about carb cycling versus keto versus paleo and really what the best diet is for supporting your metabolism, balancing your hormones, and really just supporting your body in healing completely. And Chelsea's going to share some of her personal experiences today. But we'd like to start off the show by giving you guys a shout out. Let us know the city you're from, the state you're from, the country you're from, and we'll give you a shout out right now on Facebook Live. Also, hey, help us share this message today. There are millions of people struggling with hormone imbalance, issues with their metabolism. The number of people today— and I know I personal trained in college and just taking care of patients now. And you've experienced this where people will sometimes spend hours in the gym. They'll try a lot of different diets. And they just cannot lose the last 10 pounds or the weight.

Yeah.

And so we're going to be sharing that today. So hey, be on mission with us. Take a minute right now. Punch that Share button. Click that Love button. Help us spread the word how to use food as medicine. We'll get into diets, essential oils, herbs, supplements today, and a whole lot more on today's broadcast. And this is something we're going to be doing on a regular basis, is myself and Chelsea getting on here and sharing with you some of the things that we know that really work in terms of taking care of the body. All right, guys, we're going to dive in. And one of the things that we want to be sharing as well is what we personally do. I mean, we get questions on a regular basis. I know we just got back from a trip to— I was in Dallas and then you and I met up in Florida. And I get a lot of questions about, hey, Dr. Axe, what do you personally take for your supplements and what is your diet like? And then, you know, you got a lot of questions about your skincare routine and what you're doing, you know, with diet and skincare. So we're going to share that today. So Chelsea, one of the things that I know that, you know, you had tried over the years since we've been married and before we were married is lots of different diets.

Lots of different diets.

So I remember when we first met, you were just generally eating healthier. And then when you and I lived in West Palm for a bit, when we first got married, you were doing more, you know, you were doing more, I'd consider like a bodybuilder diet, like just really clean, like chicken breast and rice and that type of thing.

Broccoli, lots of broccoli.

Broccoli on a regular basis. And then, you know, we did more paleo for a while. We've done ketogenic. We did a lot of fasting. Remember we did intermittent fasting?

Intermittent fasting.

When we lived in West Palm for a while. And then most recently though, you've said that this diet that you're on now, You feel like you've seen the best results you've ever seen in.

Absolutely.

So talk to us about that diet specifically, and then we'll also jump into ketogenic and paleo and some others. But what's your diet like now, and what would you call your diet?

Sure, right now I would call what I do carb cycling, and I actually don't even like to call it a diet because diet, I know diet, you know, it is what you eat, that's your diet. But when people say diet, they think of this short-term thing that they're doing to lose the weight, cut the last 10 pounds, And that's not what I'm doing. I'm eating a specific way that's sustainable, that's long-term, that I can eat this way, you know, as a lifestyle, not just to, you know, kick these last 10 pounds and then go back and jump back into old bad habits. So I'm carb cycling. That is how I'm eating consistently. It's how I've been eating probably for the last, what, 5 months now?

Yeah.

And I've seen amazing results with it. Carb cycling, so what I do personally is I do 2 days where I do low carbs, so higher fats, eating lots of vegetables, protein, higher fat on the 2 days, and then every 3rd day I add in carbohydrates and I cut out some of the fat. And that's what my diet looks like. It's one of the best things I've ever done. I've seen insane results physically, but also mentally. I've noticed my hormones have balanced out.

Yeah.

And I will tell you, I didn't think I had hormonal issues. I was eating healthy. I never really had any of those signs and symptoms. I was like, You know, I don't need to eat a specific way to help and support my hormones.

Yeah.

And then come to find out, oh my goodness, my hormones weren't exactly what they should be because they balanced out and I'm seeing ridiculous results from that as well. So it's just been, there's been so many different benefits from eating this way that's really caused me to not only say, oh my goodness, I look and feel amazing, but this is actually something I can commit to long-term and implement into my everyday life.

Yeah, so one of the things that Chelsea did, which she's, you know, and by the way, we're gonna talk about Keto or carb cycling for you? You know, Chelsea, I know you started off and you did, you know, you know, 30 days of keto. So doing keto for a short time, and that was something that you saw results with, but—

Absolutely.

You didn't feel like you could stick with forever, especially with as hard as you work out. I mean, you're so busy, you know, you were filming fitness videos the past 2 days here, had all this going on. And so again, we actually think a great way to kind of start what you're doing is is, hey, start doing a ketogenic diet or a cleanse or something for 30 days, even up to 90 days is great.

Great jumpstart.

But doing what we call maybe keto cycling, and this is really how our ancestors lived. You know, our ancestors didn't live in a ketogenic diet all the time. They went in and out of ketosis on a regular basis. So sometimes their body was feeding more on glucose and carbs, sometimes it was more on fat. And so again, it's a really good combination. And so again, just to reiterate, what Chelsea will do is she'll do 2 days of what's considered lower carb, stay away from grains, really not do much, really no fruit either, and just do, really focus on healthy fats, healthy protein, loads of vegetables.

Lots of vegetables.

And then, you know, and then every 3rd day, do more carbs. So you definitely do, like you had an acai bowl.

I did for breakfast.

For breakfast, so a lot more fruit on those days, maybe even some whole grains like sprouted oats or sprouted rice.

Quinoa.

Quinoa, and doing that, but that really works well with your diet, and you've noticed too, you know, I mean, you've always been in great shape, but, you know, and for me, I'm like, you know, and I'm not just saying this, okay? I'm not just saying this, but, you know, you've always felt like you wanted to lose an extra like 5 pounds, like, you know.

I wanted to lean out and get more cut.

Yeah, lower abdomen. And I'm— and of course, the problem area.

Ladies, you know what I'm talking about, the hard tummy.

But my thought is always, you know, Yeah, I mean, you know, you're the most beautiful girl in the world to me, uh, and I'm not just— I mean, you know, I truly, you know, I really know that and think that. But, you know, for— but, you know, for you, not for me. Again, you always look great.

We get that. But the, uh, yes, for me, I was frustrated. I wanted to get more cut and lean. I wasn't as lean as I wanted to be, and it was so frustrating because, you know, I look around, I eat better and more healthy Then everyone besides him, everyone that I know, activity level, I'm lifting weights. I checked, you know, nutrient deficiencies. There were numerous things that we went through to check the boxes to make sure everything lined up, and I still was frustrated that I wasn't at this specific point. And, you know, I tried other diets, and I'm not saying that these other diets don't work because they do. They just didn't work for me in the fact that I couldn't sustain them. They didn't fit into my lifestyle. A lot of times, a lot— when you eat a specific way, people actually have to alter their lifestyle to fit the diet. And, you know, sometimes that's a good thing if you have a, you know, an unhealthy lifestyle where it's okay to make shifts and changes and bad habits.

Yeah.

But I didn't. I had a very healthy lifestyle. And just with, you know, how we work and travel and a lot of these diets, I couldn't, you know, you go out on a work meeting or you're traveling and it's like, well, I can't get this specific meal to fit into this rigid diet, so I'm off. And then, you know, things shift and you don't get the results you want and you get frustrated.

Exactly.

And that's another reason why I found that carb cycling for me works so well, is it— I can go and I can travel, I can do anything. If I don't have time to food prep during the week, I don't have to. I can eat, make it work, and It's easy.

It's awesome. Yeah. So we've got a few questions here. And one of the things I want to say too is, again, everybody's body is different. I believe that everybody does well with certain diets. I mean, there are certain people, there are people who live to be over 100 that are vegans. But on the other end, there are people who live to be over 100 years old on whale blubber, Eskimos. I mean, it's just, that's the big thing is eat real food, but also listen to your body. And I want to talk about insulin here and then talk about, we had a question, what is the ketogenic diet exactly and how does it work? And I'll talk about that right now. But hey, right now I'm here with my wife, Dr. Chelsea Axe. And we're talking about carb cycling or keto cycling in the ketogenic diet. And we'll talk paleo too. But hey, if you're enjoying this live broadcast, do me a favor. Take a minute right now. Punch that share button. Click that love button. Help us spread the word that food is medicine and that everybody should be on a personalized diet. We're all different.

Absolutely.

And there are so many people today struggling with diabetes, hormone imbalance, just chronic low energy levels.

Yeah.

And if they knew some of this, what we're talking about, it could radically transform Their health and their life. So thanks everybody. I see a lot of people sharing. Thanks for everybody that's on mission with us right now. So the big thing here that I see with a lot of female hormones, especially with women that are struggling with PCOS, that's polycystic ovary syndrome, and infertility, and really painful menstrual cycles, really painful periods. If you're having any of that hormone imbalance in the month, one of the key hormones there is insulin.

Yep.

And so insulin is a hormone that we typically hear with diabetes, but it helps regulate those blood sugar levels. It gives you that steady state. Most women that tend to have some of these hormonal issues, it is insulin-related. Now insulin can then throw off estrogen and progesterone levels, wreak havoc on the entire body. But with you, I really noticed this as you started following this diet, insulin became more balanced. I mean, that's one of the big things. So again, you want to balance out insulin and you do that, you know, we call it low carb today, It's not even low carb. It's just eating the way we were designed. We're not designed— most of the fast foods, processed foods, or just general things we eat today are much too more— they're too carb heavy, OK? And this is why people, almost everybody across the board, whether they're following a paleo diet or ketogenic diet, they'll see results because they're lowering all this excess carbohydrate intake. And that's a big part of why they'll see similar results. And to answer the question, what is What is the ketogenic diet? Well, the ketogenic diet is a diet that's typically made up of about 70 to 80% fat in your diet, 15 to 20% protein, and about 5% carbs. And what this does is your body, rather than burning sugar for energy, your body starts burning fat for energy.

Yeah.

So what can happen is even while somebody's asleep the next night, their body will keep on burning fat because your body's burning fat as fuel, and that's why it's been used for weight loss, it's been used for diabetes because of how it benefits insulin, it's good for— there's actual clinical studies on epilepsy, seizures, autism, a great study on autism on the ketogenic diet. So there are lots and lots of benefits there, but what Chelsea's doing now, it's carb cycling. And so again, you're doing protein, moderate fat, and vegetables 2 days in a row, and then every 3rd day you're upping it and doing whole grains like sprouted rice, you're doing more fruit like blueberries and some fruit and that type of thing.

Yeah.

And so talk about some of the results you've seen with doing this, we'll call it keto, you know, and a great thing to do is do keto for 30 days or even up to 90 days, but then go into something you can really do for the rest of your life, which is keto some days, but then doing some carb days, you know, especially on Fridays and Saturdays, you know, you're going out with friends and a Saturday is really the big day, you want to do a carb day. So talk about what you've seen in your body since you started doing that.

Like I said, I've obviously, you know, my goal going into it was I didn't think my hormones were off. I didn't think anything was necessarily wrong. I wanted to lean out, and I've definitely seen that. I actually wish I would have taken more of a before picture because of how much I feel like I have leaned out. I wasn't expecting it at all, which is why I didn't actually do it.

Because I was shocked. How many pounds did you lose?

Oh, like 12, 15.

Yeah, and I didn't think you needed to lose any, you know.

It was, it was definitely a surprise. I wasn't necessarily looking to lose the last 5 or even 10 pounds. I was just like, I just wanna lean out in these specific areas. And not only did I see that, the more I'm consistent with this diet and eating this way, I still continue to see my body make these small changes. And again, this isn't one of those things where it's like you jump in and like a week later your body's gonna be completely different. This is something that I've done Consistently, which is a huge key in a lot of these diets, and one of the reasons why I think this one works is you can be consistent.

Yeah.

A lot of diets, consistency is actually hard to do, which is why you don't necessarily see the results with a lot of these diets out there. The great thing about carb cycling, I found that, you know, we know we're gonna go out with friends on a Friday night, and like, to an Italian restaurant, I'm gonna want some sort of gluten-free pasta or something, and that's totally okay. So I'll look at the way my carb or keto cycling is set up, and I'll make sure that I position it so that that night or that day is a carb heavier day, so that I can fit that day in. It's not like I'm going off of my plan. I'm sticking to it. You know, I can eat that way, get up the next morning. You don't have to feel guilty because, again, I don't feel, you know, food is meant to be enjoyed. And so many times we get into these diets where we actually take the joy away from eating specific things in specific ways, and it becomes this chore, and this guilt and shame becomes associated with it, and that's not healthy either. And I actually dealt with that for a long time too, just becoming very, you know, I'd eat something and then I'd think about it and be like, oh, well, I have to do this. And—

Yeah. You know, food is meant to be enjoyed and be celebrated with friends and Yeah, Chelsea and I both, I remember we talked about this years ago in biblical diets, but it's sort of this combination of even, and everybody, we know everybody has a different religious background and we respect that. But biblically they talked about doing like feasting and fasting. There were feast days. We know that Jewish people still observe, but there was also days of fasting. It was really this doing these things for your body. It's good to fast sometimes.

Absolutely.

And it's good to feast sometimes. Really, we were meant to enjoy food. And so there really is a healthy balance you want to maintain there, and that's the thing that's so good about the way this diet— somebody says, is this all in a program? We actually have a program.

Coming out.

Yeah, it's going to be out soon. It's called Keto 360, where Chelsea kind of lays out her entire diet plan. So I think we do have that coming out in the future. A few other questions. Can you follow this and be a vegan? Yeah, if you're a vegan, you definitely can do this. And so let me give you an example. So if you're a vegan, on your keto days, you're going to be doing lots of avocados. You're gonna be doing lots of coconut. You're gonna be doing things like olives. You're gonna be eating nuts and seeds. And then, of course, loads and loads of vegetables. But you're not gonna do grains those days. And then on your carb day, you'll do lots of whole grains and you'll do more fruit and that type of thing. But yes, you can actually do this on a vegan, vegetarian diet as well.

You probably wanna avoid beans on the lower carb.

Yeah, you wanna avoid beans on the low carb days and just do beans on the carb days. But typically, in general, would we say, Your carb count, you want to keep about, on the non-carb days, under 30. Under 30 grams on those days in general. And listen, there's other ways to do this. Now Chelsea does 2 days on, 1 day, you know, carb day. But we know people have seen great results that have done 1 day on, 1 day off.

Yeah, absolutely.

So whatever really fits into your life that you're going to see results with. Remember, there is no one diet for everybody. If somebody says everybody should be paleo or everybody should be vegan, I'll give you an example. I typically don't have anybody do a vegetarian diet, but if somebody had major cirrhosis of the liver and gallbladder disease, for them to follow a vegan diet for a period of time, I think could be really beneficial because you're really de-stressing the liver, allowing it to cleanse and detox. That's great. But again, if somebody is really malnourished, they're going to want meat, and especially if somebody needs more B vitamins and that type of thing. So it really depends on the person. So let's talk. Ketogenic in general, you know, the ketogenic diet, I believe, is a great diet to follow periodically and for up to 90 days, but then doing this keto cycling where you're going in and out is a great long-term diet there as well. And paleo is good too, you know, paleo.

Yeah, absolutely.

There can be, but here's the thing, babe, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Does it just, you know, I don't want to say the word irritate, but people that follow the paleo diet, but like every meal is like bacon and butter.

Yeah.

You know, come on.

Yeah, I mean, that's kind of even like, if it fits your macros. I know, I mean, you may have heard that or not. It's like, if you can make bacon and like, you know, McDonald's cheeseburger fit into this macro plan, then you can eat it and you'll look this certain way. And that's one of those things that just goes to show you too, you know, how you look on the outside doesn't always mimic what goes on the inside, and both are very important. They both They both go together whether or not you see it or not. So yes, paleo, great. If you want to do lots of butter, again, butter can be amazing, but again, moderation. And if you're not eating as much veggies as you are butter, there's probably an issue.

Yeah, so again, keto can be really healthy, but listen, you can do any diet like this. I'll say this, the ketogenic diet, if you're not doing it right, can be very unhealthy. This is the ammunition I'll see people use that are really strongly vegetarian, and then they'll come against something like a ketogenic diet, and vice versa. I've seen people go against a vegan diet, but if I wanted to, I could probably follow a vegan diet pretty close to healthy. It'd actually still be hard. I think there's still some deficiencies there, but a pescatarian diet, absolutely, I could follow and be completely, completely healthy. But back to this is that people will say, well, on a ketogenic diet, you're doing so much meat, it's put you into acidosis. It doesn't have to if you're eating 50% of your diet is vegetables.

Yeah.

You know? And you can still juice vegetables on a ketogenic diet. You know, you can do things like romaine lettuce and cucumber and celery and parsley and cilantro and ginger and turmeric and lemon peel. And really, you can alkalize your body doing greens like spirulina and chlorella. So yeah, ketogenic just needs to be done. It needs to be very vegetable-heavy. Lots of greens with organic meat and healthy fat. If it's done that way, the benefits can be great. But really, it's all diets. Again, all diets, you got to follow it.

Yeah.

And let's see, if you guys have questions, we'd love to answer a few questions here right now as well. Let's see, questions here from Sadie. She says, do beans, legumes, and peanuts cause leaky gut? Why are they not allowed on a paleo diet? Well, beans and legumes kind of fall in that grain category to where they contain things like lectins. And lectins are, a lot of people don't realize this, but our ancient ancestors always sprouted their grains. This is why Ezekiel bread is healthier, why ancient grain sourdoughs can be healthier. But they would soak the beans or nuts and seeds, and then they would let them sit out in the sun and they would let them sprout, okay? Lectins and phytic acid, these are enzyme inhibitors. They're essentially what protects the plant or a seed. So a seed could typically be broken down or consumed by a bug and destroyed. And if that would happen, if they didn't have these protectors, then we would have a lot less trees and plants growing all over the place. But typically a bird will eat a seed and then they'll defecate it out somewhere and then, you know, you'll have a plant grow in that area. But, you know, the same thing happens with us. If we consume a nut or seed or bean and it hasn't been soaked or sprouted, those minerals like magnesium and iron and selenium, they're actually locked up and you aren't absorbing them. We've heard that principle, you are what you eat. Not true. You are what you digest. And so that's what the issue with a lot of beans today is, they're really difficult to digest. And paleo, the idea is a hunter-gatherer. You typically need to grow and till and really take care of beans and grains. It's something where you're working the land, whereas berries and apples, these things grow in nature. You just hunt and gather is really what the paleo diet is based off of and why it's not included there. On the Paleo diet. Okay, great question here from Linda. I feel like nothing is in the gas tank when I'm eating like you're talking about. So what are your thoughts on that? Because another question I saw here, Chelsea, somebody was asking, they said, because you follow this diet and you work out.

Yeah, I do.

6 days a week, right? 5, 6 days a week.

Yeah, okay, so you can do this and work out 6 days a week. And I don't just, you know, I do hard workouts. But what I do is every— so I look at my carb days and I say, okay, these are gonna be days where I'm gonna get that extra glucose, where muscles are really gonna have extra fuel to burn. So I make sure that those days I'm doing a hard, intense workout. So I schedule my workouts according to how I'm gonna be eating that week and make sure it all fits. Or if you, you know, you have a certain day, you move your workouts around to fit. But that's what I do. So making sure that you have that extra glucose or the carb source on the days that you're doing those harder workouts. So the days in between, the day right after you're eating carbs, so the first low-carb day, you should still have plenty of energy if you've eaten enough carbs on the carb day. That's, that's one of the reasons that you could be having less energy is you're not actually getting enough carbs on your carb-loading day. You wanna get enough to sufficiently fill those glycogen stores. So then the next day, it's only within 24 hours, you should still have plenty of energy for workouts. The second day, depending on what you do, you might want to go a little bit lighter on your workout then because you may be feeling, you know, at that point you could be close to using up all of your glucose stores. Your body may be switching over into using some of your fat stores as energy, and so you may feel a little low in energy.

First couple weeks especially.

Especially the first couple weeks because your body's not used to it yet and it's still regulating hormones and everything like that. So then, you know, add in a lighter workout. Maybe it's a light stretching, or you just go for a good walk in the morning with some light weights, or just something quick Like maybe a quick 10 to 20 minute like burst workout and just be done then for the rest of the day. And then just know that the next day is carb day like it would, and you plan your intense workout after you've gotten a good source of carbs already for that morning.

Baby, you know what else I was thinking is, you know who else follows a ketogenic and paleo diet?

Who?

Flash.

Flash does.

Hey, buddy.

He does.

He's resting here with us right now, so—

He just got a haircut.

Oh yeah, he You're looking pretty handsome there, buddy. You're looking pretty handsome. Him and Oakley, so their diet consists of wild salmon and bone broth and veggies. And you use Orijen?

Orijen is the brand of dog food we use.

The dog food. So they do that, which is again wild fish and vegetables. And then when we feed them other stuff, we put bone broth and turmeric in their dog food.

In their dog food.

And sometimes some probiotics and fish oil. And yeah, pretty healthy. But yeah, they are the ultimate keto and paleo ambassadors. Exactly. Hey, so we're gonna answer a few more questions. Hey, do us a favor, help be on mission with us. There are so many people who are struggling with diet. They don't know that there are ways that they can really fit this into their life. So hey, take a minute right now, punch that share button, click that love button, help us spread the word. Food is medicine. If you wanna continue to see Chelsea and I, we were planning on doing a lot of videos together like this once a week, answering your most common health questions and also getting a female perspective, a female who's a, who's a A doctor as well, also a CSCS trainer here, and my wife Chelsea. So, all right, let's see here. Tanya asks, can the ketogenic diet help regulate hormones? Well, the answer is yes. And I want to say this with Chelsea specifically, you saw results with ketogenic. Now, I see this with some women, long-term ketogenic diet does not agree with the body. And I'm not saying it's— you want to follow a ketogenic diet for a short time, but then just go in and out of ketosis. You don't want to live there all the time. It's only maybe a couple, a little bit during the week or being in a lower level ketosis.

Yeah.

And so again, yes, doing a mild ketosis can absolutely help with hormones and insulin especially. In fact, I took care of a lot of patients over the years who struggled with infertility. And when we backed down their carb intake and loaded up on more healthy fats, I mean, it was a game changer. I had so many women come in who were then able to be fertile, other women who were struggling with major ovarian cysts, menopausal women.

Really?

I mean, a number of hormone issues. Yes, you can definitely see results. And it's not, again, keto is one diet, but in addition, backing off the grains, getting more healthy fat and other superfoods like bone broth. I think it's an important thing to consider. I want to mention this too with thyroid conditions. Ketogenic for a short time can be beneficial, but long-term the thyroid does want some carbohydrates. And so doing a small amount of like a sprouted grain rice. I got a friend, Dr. Alan Christianson, who's a thyroid and adrenal expert who's written books on this. And I mean, rice is one of those perfect gluten-free grains, especially if it's a sprouted rice. We got a brand we love. It's California Blonde.

Yeah.

I think you can find it on amazon.com. California Blonde rice is a great— and it's sprouted. You want to do a sprouted rice. Probably the best and easiest, if you are going to do a grain, sprouted rice is the best. It's the principal rice used throughout Chinese medicine and used in Asia today. So it's more along the line of what you want to do. Question here, somebody asked about a vegetarian diet. Again, you can follow this on a vegetarian diet.

Mm-hmm.

You just want to focus on getting more of those healthy fats there as well. And let me see here, my computer's not updating as fast as I want so we can answer some of these questions here as well. And by the way, we see a lot of people sharing this. Thanks to everybody who's on mission with us sharing this video. By the way, check out, I want to mention this, Chelsea has an Instagram page, we both do. If you're not following us on Instagram, make sure you do that. Chelsea, you do a lot of posts. You know, when we were eating out in Florida every day at Raw and Juicy and at our favorite health food store for the health of it, doing our smoothies, you know, we were posting our ginger shots together and all those things. So you can, what's your Instagram handle?

It's @drchelsealove.

So, Dr. Chelsea Axe, you can find her on Instagram, and we're both doing a lot of posts on there. So, if you want to kind of follow what we're doing personally every day on a daily basis, you can follow that, follow there as well. I think, I mean, I really love Instagram because you get a really, really good insight into what people are doing like in their life.

Yeah.

And so, and mine is, I don't even know my handle. What is it? Dr. Josh Axe?

Dr. Josh Axe.

Okay. So, Dr. Chelsea Axe, Dr. Josh Axe at Or @DrJoshAxon on Instagram, so you can check that out. Somebody says, what do you do? I can't do eggs, dairy, coconut seeds. Okay, if somebody has a lot of food intolerances, if you have a lot of food sensitivities, you just really need to be strategic. I would create a Word document or write it out. What are all the foods you can do? What are all the vegetables? What are all the meats? What are all the healthy fats? And be strategic because there are so many new superfoods out that we never thought we could have before. You know, it started off where there was just regular milk, and then they added almond milk, and now it's like macadamia nut milk, hemp seed milk, flaxseed milk, oat milk, you know.

Cashew.

Cashew, cassava, like, you know, cockroach. I think I saw like a cockroach milk or something. There's lots of different types of milk out there. So you just got to really plan and be strategic. You really got to plan ahead. Sarah asks, how does keto affect the kidneys? You know, your body will do fine on it if you're doing lots of vegetables and lots of water. When you're on a ketogenic diet, you want to do a lot of water. In fact, babe, how many— how much water do you consume a day right now? Probably like almost a gallon or—

Around a gallon.

Around a gallon.

I'm a little OCD when it comes to my water intake. I have my water bottle with me throughout the day. I know how many ounces my water bottle is, and I know how many water bottles that I need to drink to hit a specific ounce level. So I make sure, like, at different points during the day I've already had 2 water bottles full and different things like that. So I'm consistently checking myself, monitoring, making sure I'm well hydrated. So that's a huge importance there.

Yeah.

And that actually helps you be full too. A lot of times when people are hungry, that's a huge source of snacking is they're actually dehydrated. So, you know, if you're looking to cut some weight, staying hydrated throughout the day and being consistent with it is a huge part of that.

Yeah, question here from Jenny. She says, I need to lose 85 pounds and have not worked out in a long time. Is the keto diet a good place to start? We absolutely believe it is. I mean, I would do keto for about 30, 60, maybe 90 days, but then move into this keto cycling afterwards where you are getting carbs on days. And especially, you know, you mentioned this, like you really plan your workouts around when you are having your carb day, that's when you're doing like a hard leg day.

Yeah.

Especially if you're doing you know, like a combination of legs and burst training or heavier weights. You're doing those more intense training those 2 or 3 days a week. Those are on your carb days. And then the other days, you do a lot of hot yoga and barre class?

Yeah.

So she'll do more barre and yoga and Pilates and those things more on her non-carb days as well. And you will do lightweight. You'll still do weights, but the hardest days definitely on those carb days. All right, question here. What if you don't have a gallbladder but you're also concerned with fertility? You know, if you're concerned with that, you want to do a lot of vegetables and a lot of organic wild meat. Again, vegetables should be the primary part of your diet, and then do whole grains that are lower glycemic. Again, sprouted brown rice, sprouted quinoa, and oats, those 3 grains in small amounts. And when you consume fat, if you've had your gallbladder removed, you want to do a supplement like lipase enzymes. Lipo Gold's a good brand. Ox bile is good.

Okay.

And then do regular supplements like milk thistle, turmeric, bupleurum, those herbs that really support that liver and that gallbladder. Just cleansing on a regular basis is something you want to consider there as well. Rosemary Crane says, shalom from Texas. Shalom back, Rosemary. Thanks for the blessing and hello. Question here, Elaine says, you guys are amazing. I'm currently taking your multi and your organic B complex and, I think she said, and your probiotic. Hey, thanks so much. We take a lot of pride in our supplements. We, along with our partners Jordan Rubin and Nikki Rubin, we're really so committed to putting out the best quality products out there today. And when we do these videos, they're never really about products, but I know when we formulate products, they're for us.

They are.

This new keto line we have on draxe.com right now, you're taking it.

Oh, the Keto Fire, it's awesome.

Awesome. Yeah, you say even after a few days you started noticing some changes in your body. I mean, I do the probiotic. We do bone broth every day. I mean, I did chocolate bone broth this morning. What did you do?

I did chocolate and the multi-collagen.

Yeah, we do a lot of it. So hey, thanks for that encouragement there as well. Question here from Rebecca. She says, I know foods for hypo and hyperthyroid differ. I'm hyperthyroid and epileptic. Would keto work for both? Again, I think keto is good to do for you probably for about 30 days, then move into keto cycling. The big thing for you is you've got to keep those insulin levels balanced, and you've got to get rid of the foods that are going to cause those insulin spikes and inflammation. The processed sugar, the gluten, the hydrogenated oils, you know, even consuming like too many sweets, just like even if it's coconut sugar or maple syrup, like you just got to be conscious of, because this is easy, like even before this show we talked about this, you were super healthy in what you ate.

Super healthy.

But you were probably consuming too many carbs just with fruit and whole grains. and other things. Even when we had healthy desserts like coconut sugar, we would do that in it. But now, but you've seen great results since you were following, you're conscious about the type of foods, but also you are conscious of the total carbohydrate intake.

The sugars.

The sugars.

And actually, even on my carb days now, because of that, I'm extremely aware of even the type of carbs I'm eating on those carb days. It's really transitioned my mindset to be aware of, okay, this may be, you know, a carb that, you know, but it has this many sugars. Do I really wanna up my sugar, you know, with that amount of carbs? And at times, you know, it's okay. Like, I'll have a good acai bowl in the morning, which is again full of good sugars and carbs, but then throughout the day I eat more things like you said before, like the sprouted rice, quinoa, and some of those other types of grains that don't have necessarily the added sugar.

Yeah, great advice. Question here about fibromyalgia. You know, if somebody has fibromyalgia, you've got to up the magnesium and potassium intake. That is big. You've got to up the magnesium and the omega-3s. Go online and just search my name, search Dr. Axe magnesium foods. and Dr. Axe potassium foods. Focus especially on getting more magnesium foods in your diet. Supplement with magnesium, supplement with an omega-3, and supplement with a bone broth powder. Those are the 3 top supplements you want to be consuming on a regular basis if you have that struggle going on. And then doing things to increase your parasympathetic nerve system.

Yeah.

Deep breathing, seeing a chiropractor, especially the one that focuses on the upper neck and the sacrum or craniosacral work. Acupuncture, all of those things can help fibromyalgia.

Okay.

Another question here, what do you do for loose stools? If somebody's having loose stools, I would see an acupuncturist. It's oftentimes called a spleen deficiency, and you might Google search Dr. Axe Chinese medicine. I have an article on this, or just Chinese medicine spleen deficiency or spleen diet, and the loose stool is too much dampness and coldness in your body. That's what it is. So you want to consume foods that are warming in nature. Ginger and cinnamon are very warming. Warm bone broth soup, it's very warming. And foods that dry up dampness, that are bitter foods, dry up dampness. Artichokes, dandelion greens, arugula, you know, and you want to do more cooked vegetables. Most of your— you should do not raw and not juices, no cold foods, no ice water, lots of warming and nourishing foods. Think about a good Crock-Pot meal. Perfect for people with loose stools, sort of the ideal diet there as well. All right. Well, guys, hey, I want to say, hey, thanks for everybody who's watching this. And hey, do us a favor. Help us spread this message. There are millions of people that are wondering, what's the best diet? What should I do? These type of diets we're talking about that are real food-based really work. Take a minute right now. Hey, punch that share button. If you love this video, love Chelsea and I doing these videos together, click the love button as well. I've had a lot of fun today, and especially having to tiptoe around the weight issue.

First time you guys have seen him sweat, right?

Yeah, exactly. So anyways, but again, we just appreciate everybody that's on mission with us. Make sure to check us out on Instagram. We're doing a lot of, you know, just showing what we're doing in our daily life. And we'd like to thank our official keto and paleo spokesperson, our buddy Flash here. Hey, you're the star, buddy. You know, we were talking earlier about Doug the Pug. We love Doug the Pug. If you don't follow him on Instagram— and we're talking about Flash the Dash or Flash the—

Flashman.

Flash— we'll come up with something.

He has a theme song. We'll sing it for you sometime.

Yeah, I don't know what we're singing on here, but maybe, maybe we'll do that in a future episode. And hey, if you're not subscribed here, make sure to subscribe here to our Facebook Live feed. We've got a lot more videos coming out. We're gonna start doing once a week together, different pop-ins from when we travel to Florida. We're going to Napa Valley here.

A couple of weeks, yeah.

Yeah, in November. Yeah, that'll be soon, Napa Valley, and we'll show you us doing some cool things there. So anyways, I want to say, hey, thanks everybody for watching and have a blessed day. We'll be back with another Facebook Live soon. Thanks. Hi, Dr. Axe here. I want to say thanks so much for checking out this YouTube video and also don't forget to subscribe if you want to get more great content on things like herbs, essential oils, natural remedies, and how to use food as medicine. Also, check out more of our content on my YouTube channel. Thanks for watching.