Welcome to the Uberman Lab podcast where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life.

I'm Andrew Uberman and I'm a professor of neurobiology and

Ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. Today my guest is Dr. Lane Norton.

Dr. Norton is one of the foremost experts in protein metabolism, fat loss, and nutrition.

He did his degrees in biochemistry and nutritional sciences and is considered one of the world experts in understanding

how we extract energy from our food and how exercise and what we eat combine to

impact things like body composition and overall health. Today we discuss an enormous number of topics under the umbrella of nutrition and fitness, including for instance

what is energy balance? That is how do we actually extract energy from our food?

We also discuss the somewhat controversial topic of artificial sweeteners whether or not they are safe or not and whether or not they are an effective tool for weight loss in particular for people suffering from obesity and different types of diabetes.

We also talk about gut health that is the gut microbiome and how it's impacted by food and how it can actually impact the metabolism of the foods that we eat.

We also discuss fasting or so-called intermittent fasting or time restricted feeding, what it does and what it does not do in terms of how effective it is for weight loss and perhaps even for health and longevity.

We also talk about protein and define very clearly how much protein each and all of us need depending on our daily activities and life demands.

We discuss the various types of diets that you probably heard about including ketogenic diets,

vegan diets, vegetarian diets and pure carnivore diets as well as more typical omnivore diets and how to make sure that you get all of the essential amino acids that are critical for healthy weight maintenance, weight loss or directed muscle gain.

We also talk about supplements in particular, the supplements for which there is an immense amount of science pointing to their safety and efficacy for fitness and for overall body composition.

What I'm sure will become clear to you as you hear Lane talk about each and every one of these topics is that he has an incredible ability to both understand the mechanistic science but also the real world applications of the various discoveries that are made in particular papers and in particular in the randomized controlled trials.

That is when a given scientific hypothesis has been raised, he's extremely good at understanding why it was raised but also at evaluating whether or not it works in the real world.

Which is what I believe most everybody out there is concerned with. I think this is one of the things that really distinguishes him from the other voices in the nutritional landscape.

I assure you that by the end of today's discussion you will have a much clearer understanding about what the science says about nutrition, about fitness and about how different diets and fitness programs combine to achieve the results that you want.

Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize that this podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford. It is however part of my desire and effort to bring zero cost to consumer information about science and science related tools to the general public.

In keeping with that theme, I'd like to thank the sponsors of today's podcast. Our first sponsor is Inside Tracker. Inside Tracker is a personalized nutrition platform that analyzes data from your blood and DNA to help you better understand your body and help you meet your health goals.

Now, I've long been a believer in getting regular blood work done for the simple reason that many of the factors that impact your immediate and long term health can only be analyzed from a quality blood test.

...