Welcome to the Dr. Gundry Podcast. The weekly podcast where Dr. G gives you the tools you need to boost your health and live your healthiest life.

Welcome to the Dr. Gundry Podcast. Well, it's been decades since the dawn of the heavily padded and expensive running shoe.

And if you're an athlete or just an ordinary person that goes for walks, you may have experienced foot eggs and even the unwanted stench that comes with these shoes.

That's because research has shown that your feet alone without all the bells and whistles are actually better for you than any shoe out there.

Now, you may be saying, but Dr. G, there's no way I'm walking around barefoot. Well, you don't have to.

My guest today says you can get all the benefits of going barefoot while still staying safe and stylish with his revolutionary shoes.

I welcome Stephen Sachen, CEO of Zero Shoes, the original barefoot wear. He says that these kinds of shoes can help you tap into mankind's original footwear that we are all meant to wear.

In fact, I'm wearing a pair right now. We'll discuss the shocking and dangerous truth behind modern footwear, how walking barefoot can change your life like it did mine.

And we'll also debunk everything you thought you knew about your feet. Stay tuned. You don't want to miss this one.

So you are a master's all American sprinter. Tell us how you became aware of the dangers of traditional footwear.

Well, so being a master's all American sprinter means for men over 60, which I am now. I'm one of the fastest guys in the country.

And that happened in part because of this transition we're going to talk about. So 15 years ago is when I got back into sprinting after a 30 year break.

And I spent the next two years getting injured pretty much constantly. And I was living in Boulder, Colorado, and one day a friend of mine who's a world champion runner, which in Boulder means your neighbor because they're everywhere said to me, why don't you try running barefoot and see what you learn now.

Not going to suggest people running barefoot even though it changed my life will get there. So don't panic. But what I learned is simply this.

I had a form problem that I couldn't feel in a regular shoe because of all the padding, all the cushioning and just mother issues as well.

And when you're running barefoot running with bad form hurts and running with good form feels good and good form is better for your body.

So there was a natural transition from my bad form to the good form because again doing wrong felt bad. And that made my injuries go away. I became faster. I became a master's all American sprinter.

And I just wanted that natural movement experience as much as I could have it. And that led me to make some sandals based on a 10,000 year old design idea. And then that led to zero shoes and we'll get into that.

But more what I discovered once I had the experience of getting out of the shoe that everyone recommended a big thick padded motion roll shoe weight. I'm going to grab one something that you know looks like this thing.

Heal, pointy toe box, a whole bunch of cushioning. As I started diving into this more, I found that every feature of the modern athletic shoe and this is true of casual shoes as well, but especially athletic shoes.

Every feature that they pitched to you as being beneficial is demonstrably proven to be bad for you in ways. I know people are going to argue. I know people are going to have an issue with this because they heard it from their doctor or the guy at the shoe store.

Everything I'm going to point out at some point during our little chat. People are going to go, oh, yeah, that makes sense because prior to we forget prior to 1974, there was no such thing as a big padded motion roll shoe.

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