New York Times best-selling author, clinician, Functional Medicine educator, and pioneer in the natural health space, Chris Kresser, discusses how his health views have evolved over 15 years and what he’s currently focused on.

When you tune into this episode, you’ll hear about how Chris discovered that many of his healthy patients who did everything right health-wise still ended up with nutrient deficiencies, what that looks like, and what the most nutrient dense foods are, both plant and meat-based.

Chris also discusses whether we should be eating plant foods, the pleiotropic interventions he recommends, eating locally versus seasonally, and how soil health has drastically changed over the years and what that means for us today.

Chris and Dr. Anthony Gustin also discuss his own personal experience dealing with health issues, how to tell if you’ve reached the point that health interventions can longer help, and why he chooses to see patients in-person when it can be done virtually.

If you’re not familiar with Chris Kresser, he’s a world-renowned expert, clinician, and educator of Functional Medicine and ancestral health. He’s also a New York Times best-selling author of the books, The Paleo Cure, and Unconventional Medicine.

Chris also founded The Kresser Institute to help educate the next generation of Functional Medicine practitioners and he co-founded and co-directed the California Center for Functional Medicine, one of the largest clinics on the west coast.

Chris was also named one of the 100 most influential people in health and fitness and he’s appeared as a guest on NPR, Fox & Friends, Dr. Oz, Time, The Atlantic, and other well-respected media outlets.

Lastly, Chris has recently launched his own supplement line, Adapt Naturals, to address the most common nutrient deficiencies he’s seen in healthy patients in his practice.

When you tune into this episode, you’ll discover:

• What’s changed for Chris as far as how he looks at health, what he focuses on now, and how he’s evolved in his thinking
• How to tell if you’ve reached your health healing capacity or you need to push past your limitations
• Pleiotropic interventions, including what those are, the role they play, and when to use them
• A peek inside Chris’ third book that he’s currently writing
• Mistaking fleeting and transitory states with permanent experiences and how to change that
• Why Chris chose to stick to in-person care when everyone else around him switched to providing virtual services
• Why Chris is actively creating in-person connections through his retreats, what that looks like, and why it’s so beneficial
• How so many people are experiencing nutritional deficiencies, even when eating a healthy diet and doing all the right things, and what can be done to address this
• How the soil health affects whether or not we reap all of the nutrients from the foods we eat
• What are our options for actually eating a nutrient dense diet?
• The main nutritional deficiencies Chris saw in his healthy patients who did everything right health-wise
• How nutrient levels have declined over the years
• The top four nutrient dense foods
• How whole grains compare in their nutrient density
• The most nutrient dense plant foods
• Do we need to eat plant foods?
• Should we eat plant foods?
• The bioavailability of the foods we eat
• Should we eat seasonally?
• Should we only eat locally sourced foods?
• Hormesis and hormetic adaptations
• How to source foods to maximize nutrition

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Chris Kresser’s website
• Chris’ supplement line
• Chris Kresser’s Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube channel
• Scott Barry and eudaimonic well-being
• The Science of Soil podcast episode with David Montgomery and Anne Biklé
• What Your Food Ate: How to Heal Our Land and Reclaim Our Health by David Montgomery
• The Natural State Podcast Episode 148: Chris Masterjohn - Covid Research, Important Micronutrients, Soil Quality, Eating Locally and Seasonally, and More
• The Natural State Podcast Episode 152: Jake Muise of Maui Nui - How This Nutrient-Dense Meat is Responsibly Sourced
• Micronutrient Density and Bioavailability with Ty Beal
• The Natural State Podcast Episode 134: Dr. Paul Saladino - What We Learned from One of the Last Hunter-Gatherer Tribes