Dr. Casey Means

And the processed foods aren't giving us those things.

The things that are going to stimulate those cells

Well, the things that will, I mean, this is kind of fascinating if you don't mind going down a little road.

With the GLP-1 conversation, I feel like so missing from the conversation is the idea that like from a first principles perspective, there's three ways our body could make more GLP-1.

We make more cells that make it, L cells of the gut,

Each of those cells makes more GLP-1.

And importantly, we can also inhibit the inactivator of GLP-1, which is an enzyme called DPP-4.

So GLP-1 actually gets rapidly degraded by DPP-4 in the body.

So if we can figure out how to inhibit DPP-4, we can raise our GLP-1 levels.

It's an enzyme that breaks down GLP-1 rapidly.

It's so fascinating.

And so how often have you seen in the headlines, oh, here's some strategies to inhibit your DPP-4?

Never, because Ozempic is on track to be the highest grossing med in human history.

And just like we talked about in the beginning of the episode,

the whole industry, this $4 trillion healthcare industry, is desperate for us to not understand how to do the things that drugs could do for us.

So when we look at those three first principles approaches of how do we make more L-cells, get them to produce more GLP-1 from each L-cell, and then inhibit the breakdown to the inhibition of DPP-4,

For the first one, we know that short-chain fatty acids, which of course are the byproduct of microbial fermentation of fiber in the diet, stimulates the differentiation of more L-cells in the gut.

So more short-chain fatty acids, more L-cells.

Eat more fiber.

Yeah, because that's going to be like the highest sugar of the fermented foods, which people often go to, but now that's become soda.