134: The 7 Health Rules I No Longer Follow

134: The 7 Health Rules I No Longer Follow

Michael Kummer: If you've been following for any amount of time, you know that I've had some very strong opinions on a lot of topics about diet, about training, about what belongs on your plate and what doesn't, and some of those opinions, I've walked back, not because I was. Wrong about everything, but because I've learned more, lived more and stopped cling to ideas just because they were mine or I found them sexy.

And today I'm going to walk you through the biggest things I've changed my mind on, and more importantly why I did welcome to the Primer podcast because I think how you handle being wrong says a lot more about. You then how confident you were. Right? So here is the thing, changing your mind sounds simple, but it's one of the hardest things to do publicly.

Or in your circle of friends or family, whatever. That's what I mean by publicly. In my case, it's literally publicly because a lot of people see what I say and hear what I say and form an opinion. Now, when you build an audience or even just a social circle around certain positions, those positions become part of your identity.

You know, you become the keto guy, the carnivore guy, or the guy who doesn't eat plants, or the guy who doesn't eat breakfast, and then what? You know, you eat a sweet potato or you have breakfast and people lose their minds. In fact, I always thought about that, you know, for a very long time, we've had this once a month pizza night, and there used to be a pizzeria close by.

Where they make, you know, this really, really good pizza, using ingredients imported from Italy. And every time I walked into this place once a month, I'm like, if people would see me walking out with a stack of pizzas, they would think I'm a fraud because I'm the, you know, I eat animal based. Uh, a lot of people even thought I'm, I'm carnivore, even though I was only for a couple of months at best.

And so, you know, the, the thing is, every time you, you do this. And this is not an influencer problem by any stretch of the imagination. You know, just think about your own life. You know, you tell your family, you're doing carnivore, your coworkers, your friends, and now you've staked social capital on it. And walking something back feels like losing credibility.

But here's the thing, doubling down on something you no longer believe is what actually destroys credibility. The people worth keeping in your audience or your life, you know, if you're not an influencer, you know, respect, honesty over consistency. At least that's my firm belief, and I've noticed this very much when we moved four months ago.

From a relatively popular area into the sticks. You know, now we are, we are redneck farmers. Quite literally, you know, there are, there. Doesn't that go a day by where my fingernails are not dirty. And I've noticed that my identity, or at least how people perceive me, has changed because up here, nobody.

Gives a crap how much I deadlift or what my body fat percentages or what I eat. None of that is important anymore. And so it also becomes less important to me to kind of, you know, make sure I'm consistent with portraying those things that. That ultimately define how people see me right up here. It's more about, you know, oh, you know, look at the crazy guy who moves his cows every single day, instead of just letting them be out on pasture, you know, so that the stuff changes, but it's ultimately, you know.

Still the same, but I noticed that cut very much when we moved that cer suddenly certain things are no longer important and others become maybe more important. And so it's not up to me to make sure that doesn't become part of my identity, or if it makes sense it does. You know? So with that said, you know here the seven biggest areas where my thinking has shifted, and some of these are full reversals and some are just.

Softening, but they all matter. And number one is alright before you fast forward.

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You know, I started, or my wife and I really, we started our Healthy Living journey. With the paleo diet that led into keto, that led into carnivore. So I've done a lot of different diets. Even, you know, meatless Mondays, I hate to admit it, I've never done vegan or strictly plant-based.

And knock on wood, I will take this strategy to my grave. But I've done a lot of different diets, tried a lot of them, you know, and, and I believed in all of them at various points. I promoted all of them. I, I truly thought at one point at Paleo. It's the way to go. Before I thought keto was the way to go before I thought carnivore is the ultimate diet that we need to follow until the rest of our lives, and I still think that each one gets something fundamentally right.

You know, cut processed foods, prioritize animal protein, respect fat as fuel. But where I've shifted is I no longer think any single dietary framework captures reality. Humans are meat leaning, but opportunistic omnivores, you know, that's the evolutionary evidence. We thrived on animal foods as the foundation and used everything else situationally.

And the problem with strict frameworks is they turn food into ideology. Once it's ideology, you stop asking, is this good for me? And start asking, is this allowed? I don't know how often I've asked, or people have asked me, is this allowed on keto? Is this allowed on paleo? You know, I mean, with carnivore it's right.

If we simple, if it's not meat, chances are the answer is no. But with keto in particular, you know, you ask yourself, can I have this on keto versus. Does this make sense for me? Do I feel good by eating this or not Eating that? And you know, just taking Keto as an example. Keto for me was a powerful tool to improve my metabolic flexibility.

But I've also realized I don't need to live in ketosis around carnivore, stripped things down beautifully, but it doesn't reflect how humans actually ate across every environment and season. I would say that Paleo was probably closest to a practical template, but even that got hijacked by, you know, paleo cookie culture where everything could be turned into a paleo friendly dish.

You know, you could be eating sweet potatoes, drizzled with honey every day, and it was Paleo, not necessarily reflecting the id. The idea behind the Paleolithic framework, so where I've landed is, you know. Fairly simple animal-based foods as the foundation and everything else earns its spot based on preparation, sourcing, and your in my individual tolerance.

And by everything else, I don't mean processed foods and garbage and fast food, of course, but everything that nature has to offer. Number two is that black and white thinking, and that's really a framework that spans all of those things that I'm gonna discuss throughout this. But this one is kind of a, a meta lesson, I wanna say underneath everything else that I cover on this list.

You know, I used to think clarity meant certainty. You know, if something was bad, it was always bad. If something was good. All in, you know, zero carbs, no plants, fasting every day, cold plunge every morning, maximum intensity, always. And I wanna be clear, this is not me endorsing everything in moderation. You know, that phrase is a, is a cop out.

It's what people say to justify eating garbage without thinking critically about any of it. What I'm talking about is nuance, you know, context dependent decision making that. Incredibly important in life because life isn't black or white. You know, carbs are probably one of the best examples. You know, are you insulin resistant and sedentary?

Low carb probably makes sense for you. Are you sprinting three times a week and strength straining heart? You might need more glucose than you think, you know? So it's, it, it depends. It's not. Either or. It's really context and situation dependent. Intermittent fasting is another great example. You know, it's a powerful tool.

I firmly believe in not eating all the time and taking breaks and giving your body a break and giving your digestive system a break on allow, allowing your body to switch into ketosis, to switch into using fat for fuel. In, you know, allowing your body to turn on autophagy and you know, clean up some of the damaged cell material.

All of that is good, but it's not the universal, universal prescription. You know, some people, especially, you know, women with hormonal imbalances or people under chronic stress, you know, can do worse with a compressed eating window. So it again depends. Plants is probably the biggest example. I mean, if you've been listening to some of my past episodes and.

Read some of my past content, you've probably realized I've become less anti plant. I'm not ProPlan in the sense that I think that everyone should be eating plants all the time, or that you, you should be eating a rainbow. But the point is, you know, biology doesn't operate in binaries. You know, your body doesn't care about your dietary label.

It cares about what you are actually giving it and what it needs in this season of your life that you are in. And we'll talk about plants, you know, in a, in a little bit in more detail and how growing plants has really changed my. My worldview in, in the nutrition context, you know, so the shift that I've experienced with this, you know, black or going away from this black and white, was really to go away from rigid rules to flexible principles with a strong foundation.

You know, it's not everything goes and everything in moderation. There's gotta be a framework, but within that framework there's a lot of nuance and, and flexibility that's required. Let's talk about plans, because this has really been, this is probably one of the biggest changes from a dietary perspective.

You know, I just to set the stage, I still firmly believe. That all plants are toxic to varying degrees. They all have defense chemicals, you know, lectins, oxalates, phytates, TROs. This is not, you know, this is real. Plants don't want to be eaten, and they evolved chemistry to discourage it. That's a fact. And I haven't changed my mind on its science.

What I've changed my mind on is whether that makes gardening and including certain plants pointless. And I've come to the realization the other day. You know, we are right now in spring and we are investing a lot of resources. That means time and money into setting up a garden, including in-ground beds, including raised beds, including grow bags, irrigation.

We've spent so much sweat. And dollars in making, setting up a garden. And I've come to realize while I shovel dirt and, you know, farmers carried buckets of, of dirt and compost around and all of those things that there is an an innate benefit to growing plants. That doesn't necessarily mean you have to eat them, but just growing plants.

With the idea, with the goal to potentially making them part of your diet exposes you to dirt. I've mentioned already my fingernails. I'm dirt. I'm, I'm in contact with dirt, with soil every single day because of how we raise food, both from a plant as well as from an animal based perspective. So I get my grounding.

I touch soil, I get exposed to all of the microbes. I get exposed to natural sunlight. I get exercise. I've, I've. Done so many workouts, just gardening. It's unbelievable by not using heavy machinery, but by shoveling stuff from hand. I dunno how many tons of dirt and compost and, and all of that. I have moved over the course of the last few weeks and we do it together as a family.

So there are so many benefits of growing plants, and then with the prospect of potentially using them to enhance the flavor of the animal-based food that you're eating, you know? And figuring out what plants you can get away with eating, what can you tolerate versus which ones maybe, you know, we're gonna feed to the pigs or to the rabbits, you know, et cetera.

So that's just a, a foundational benefit to doing that and understanding. You know, how plants work, what they do to deter pests and humans, and just being part of that process. You know, it's, it's just something that I, it, it's changed my appreciation for plants and vegetables. Now again, doesn't mean you need to eat everything.

It doesn't. I'm not gonna, you know, probably not gonna. Ever grow kale or spinach, you know, the, some of the most toxic plants, but others I very much appreciate growing and then potentially also making them part of my diet during that season and in amounts that my body can handle. Number four on the list is something maybe a little bit abstract, but I call it intensity and longevity.

And that's been one of the hardest to accept personally because I've always been someone who goes all in, you know, working out CrossFit, high intensity, high intensity workouts. Any project I tackle, I go all in and I've, you know, because I used to believe that maximizing everything. Putting in the most amount of the maximum amount of effort leads to the most benefits.

You know, the heaviest lifts, the hardest sprints, the most productive work hours. You know, I've never really been, you know, too much part of that grind culture, you know, like working 80 hours a week and thinking I'm doing something good. But within those sprints that I put in, I've always been more a sprinter than the, you know, the long distance runner, kind of.

But within those short sprints, you know, at work outside. During a workout, I've always gone on in all in. Look, you know, training heart matters. You know, strength matters. I'm not becoming a, you know, just walk into yoga kind of guy. But I've started paying attention to the longevity data. And more importantly, how do I actually feel the older I get?

And the thing is that organisms that burn hot tend to burn out faster. You know that's true across species, and it's at least directionally true in humans as well. You know, chronic high intensity output, whether it's physical or mental elevates. Cortisol accelerates cellular turnover and taxes. Recovery systems that have finite capacity.

You know, so there is, there's gotta be a sweet spot, you know, enough intensity to maintain strength, muscle mass and metabolic health, but also enough recovery to let your body actually repair and adapt. And the latter part of that, the recovery, I feel like I've neglected more so. Than the intensity part.

I've always been super motivated in putting in all the intensity, but when it comes to recovery, I'm like, eh, I don't have time for that. You know, I, I'd rather do something that's more productive, maybe. And I've certainly pulled back on training volume already a year or two ago. You know, I've gone to CrossFit only two or three times a week instead on five times a week.

You know, I've always been prioritizing sleep and nervous system regulation, but now I do. I'm even more deliberate about it, and especially when I do physically work in the garden. When I walk more, when I, you know, carry stuff more, I don't sweat anymore if I don't make it to the gym, you know, that doesn't mean to be soft.

I certainly like my physique. I like that I'm strong. I like that I can deadlift heavy feet barrels, you know, without breaking a leg or pulling a muscle. But the goal shifted from. How much I can handle to what's the minimum effective dose that keeps me strong and healthy for decades, you know? So that's kind of a, a, a hard shift for me because I don't.

Some there. There is something in the back of my head where I'm like, I don't wanna be a slacker. I don't want a sandbag, I don't want to appear weak. I dunno where this is coming from. Maybe, you know, childhood traumas, what have you. I don't know, but that's been driving me for a long time and I've realized that I need to dial that back.

Make sure that what I do is actually beneficial and not just, you know, feeding my ego, if that makes sense. Number five, biohacking gadgets and technology. I've talked about this in the past already, but I've, I've gotten even more ingrained in that belief that. I don't wanna, you know, use a gadget or a tool for every single thing.

You know, I own a lot of biohacking tools. There are a lot of them that I use on a daily basis. I'm not anti-technology. I. But I've gone through a real shift in how much weight I give gadgets versus just being outside, moving and living like a human. You know, there was a phase where I was, you know, stacking devices, you know, red, uh, I had a strict protocol from, you know, core plunging red lights.

High intensity workouts, uh, tracking every metric. And I'm not saying those things are useless, you know, some of them have very solid mechanisms behind them, and I use them strategically, like red light when I'm injured, when I, you know, need to recover certain parts. No question about that. But you know, if you see guys like Brian Johnson, you know, spending millions of dollars a year measuring everything, optimizing every variable down to the minute, and you have to ask, is that a life worth extending?

Do I wanna keep living like that? You know, looking like a robot, looking like a a, a sick vampire. Uh, you know, if your longevity protocol requires you to live in a clinical bubble, you've already lost the plot, in my opinion. You know, and here is what I've come to believe, you know, most of what these gadgets are trying to replicate, nature already provides.

You know, again, I'm not gonna necessarily heal or speed up the recovery of my, of a meniscus injury by, by exposing my knee to sunlight. That's where red light comes in. And I've used it, you know, a lot. I mean, huge fan of Kenyan and I, I, I use it frequently. But exposing my entire body to red light first thing in the morning instead of just waiting for the sun to rise and take off my shirt and go outside.

That's ridiculous. You know? Or you know, grounding, you know, the easiest. I mean, yes, I'm, here's the thing, you know, we have actually dedicated copper wires in each of our bedrooms that go out of the house into a dedicated grounding rod, so we can ground our bed sheets. There is a benefit to that. It does not replace just taking off your shoes and walking barefoot outside, you know?

So there's gotta be this, yes, you can mitigate certain things we live, unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you see it in a home. And we are not exposed to dirt every single, all the time. We are not sleeping on the ground. Would that be healthier? Absolutely. Would it be practical? Maybe a little bit less so, so we, you know, we use grounding where, where it makes sense.

But don't tell me you cannot get exposed to, you know, your dirt on the outside by just touching some grass. You know? That doesn't make any sense. You know, so my thing here is that gadgets can supplement a life well lived. But they cannot replace one, you know, and too often they become a substitute for the basics.

An excuse to stay indoors and optimized instead of just going outside. You know, I'd rather spend an hour in the garden with my kids than 45 minutes hooked up to devices in the dark room. And I think the health outcomes from the first optional are probably better anyway. You know, tools are fine, dependence on tools at the expense of a natural connected life.

A trap. Number six is trusting others with health advice. And that's funny coming from me. Doling out health advice all the time on my channels. You know, the thing is, when I first got into this space, I was looking for the person who had it all figured out. You know, the one expert, the one protocol, the one framework.

But I've come to realize that person doesn't exist. And I don't mean this to say. Or I don't say this to me to to be cynical. You know, I say it because the people who present themselves as having all the answers are usually the ones with the most tunnel vision. You know, one person says it's all about avoiding carbs.

You know, you gotta be, it's all about fasting. It's all about avoiding environmental toxins. It's all about, you know, doing this or that. You know, the truth is all of those are pieces of a larger puzzle. You know, they're all partially right, but I've yet to meet someone who covers health and wellness in a really holistic perspective.

You know, they're the carnivore guys. They are the, the endocrine disrupting guys. They are the microplastic guys. They're the grounding guys eyes, but very often. The carnivore guy doesn't talk about plastic clothing and the concerns of, you know, PFAS and, and microplastics or plastic food storage containers.

You know, that's not part of their thing. And so I think what you need to do is whenever you hear someone telling you convincing story about why something is very bad or very good. You know, you can take this information and apply it, but just don't think that this is all there is to it. You know, you really need to, I think, listen to a lot of different opinions and then use what you have between your ears to figure out how all of this is connected, how it makes sense, and come up with your own holistic vision on how you live, on how to live a healthier life, you know?

That's one thing that I try my best to be as holistic as possible, but I have blind spots. You know, every so often I come across something and I'm like, wow, I, how did I not know this? You know? And so if someone just follows everything to the letter of what I'm doing, they have the same blind spot. And more importantly, you know, just because something is working for me doesn't necessarily means it's working for you as well.

You know, there are individual differences, there is nuance, and so you need to really. Come up with your own conclusion, think about all of those things, and then decide what works for you or what do you wanna try to find out whether or not it works. Number seven. And with that, we are gonna wrap it up then, is my understanding that finding healthy products in stores

is possible. You know, this is. I don't know how often. I'm like, okay, now finally we found grass fed, grass finished meat until we figured out that they plastic shrink rapid in plastic and it's exposed to microplastics. You know, there, there is always something, there is not a single product in the store that is produced on a larger scale that doesn't have a downside.

You know, and that's not, I'm not saying this to. To make you feel hopeless because it does feel hopeless at times where you figure out, you know, now you know that olive oil that I thought was good is actually not so good. Or, you know, the, the, the organic chicken at at Sprouts is actually from Tyson. You know, there's always something that you don't know, and once you know, you realize.

I don't wanna buy this again. And that applies to food, that applies to clothing, that applies to skincare products, it applies to pretty much everything. There's always a downside. And the only way to avoid those blind spots and those gaps and those downside is to make something yourself. Now. You can't do that with everything.

You know, I cannot, you know, I'm not gonna make my own clothing and my own skincare products in addition to raising my own food and can't do it all. You know, making my, build them building material so I can bind, uh, build my mud hut. You know, I can't do it all. So I have to rely, I have to outsource, I have to rely on others.

But just realize there is likely gonna be a gap. And even if you don't see it, it is likely there and you need to accept it and figure out what you can do. By asking a lot of questions, by trying to figure out how, how bad is the downside and are you willing to accept it or if it's worthwhile maybe looking for something else or avoiding that product category altogether.

You know, it's very, it's much easier for me to just avoid all plants in a restaurant, then making sure they're organic and fried in, you know, in animal based fats and, you know, all of those things. Not eating them is just easier, you know, unless I grow them myself and I know exactly how they were grown and.

Sourced and prepared. If there is one thing running through everything I just said, it's this. The willingness to update your thinking is the single most important health skill you can develop. Not because you've, you are always wrong or you'll always be wrong, but because biology is complex, you know, your life changes.

The only constant in life is change, and you need to change with it. You know, the information landscape is changing. You learn more things. Everything is constantly shifting, and the people who stay stuck are the ones who made their diet or their training or their worldview into an identity they cannot afford to question.

You know, stay curious, stay critical, and don't confuse confidence. With certainty. And with that, we're gonna wrap it up. If this episode resonated, you know, leave a rating or review, it's a single best way to help the show. Reach more people subscribe if you're watching this on YouTube, you know, or on a podcast app.

And, uh, if you have any questions, concerns, you know, any watching this on a comment or listening to this on a comment, supporting comments, and you're listening to this on a platform, supporting comments, leave a comment or send me an email. Love to hear from you. Until next time.