Today we’re talking to Stephan Guyenet who has a degree in biochemistry and a PhD in neuroscience. He’s spent over 12 years in the neuroscience research world studying neurodegenerative disease and the neuroscience of body fatness. He wrote a great book called The Hungry Brain, speaks at conferences, is a Senior Fellow at GiveWell and scientific reviewer for the Examine.com Research Digest. He is definitely not a low carb person which is why I had him on. He has a lot of great ideas and is a great mind in the space of nutrition. It was very interesting to hear him talk about all the great benefits he did see when he ate a low carb diet 11 years ago. Make sure to listen until the end when he talks about this. He has some problems with certain people and aspects of the low carb community and is going on Joe Rogan’s podcast soon to debate Gary Taubes on his views of the Carbohydrate Insulin theory of obesity and sugar being uniquely toxic We had some disagreement on the recommended daily allowance of nutrients - he thinks what’s recommended is all you need and getting more than that is pointless. I think this is wrong. I think he’s basing it on studies of worthless, non-bioavailable vitamin C pills that in excess do nothing. So in that - I agree. I don’t think there’s any benefit to popping a bunch of these and think we’re going to cure a cold. I do know that our ancestors got estimates of 10-20 times the amount of nutrients we get today, so there’s a lot more to this discussion that we didn’t have time to get into. We also disagreed on fiber which led to some carnivore talk. He got some things wrong about the member of the Grateful Dead who was a carnivore. He said he died at a young age of a heart attack. I looked into it and it turns out he was carnivore for 48 years and was in excellent health and died in a car accident at 72.  He also says we don’t have longterm studies on the safety of low carb diets at the end. This isn’t exactly true and furthermore, we have hundreds of thousands of years of human populations living on low carb diets to prove its safety and efficacy. He additionally mentions the low carb community makes crazy claims that aren’t based on science. I’m not sure what he’s referring to. Not everything can be measured anyway. If tens of thousands of people report to their doctor they aren’t hungry anymore, their energy is stable, their brain is working better, they aren’t addicted to sugar, they finally have control of their food intake, etc. then this is some great clinical observations and patient anecdotes that add up to a lot. I think everyone has their own ideas about things and collects info to support their opinion. It’s only natural, and I’m sure I’m doing it to, even though I’m trying not to. Everyone has to be in their camp and collect data and narratives to support their theories. He seemed to do this as you’ll see throughout the episode.  I agreed with a lot of his points though, especially that humans didn’t evolve to eat based on tracking macros and calories and using an excel spreadsheet to figure out what to eat. He’s doing great work and looking at this from a different angle which is important. A lot of interesting stuff here so let’s get to it. But first I gotta mention the Food Lies film which is in the last stretch of crowdfunding on Indiegogo. We really need your help to finish it. We have a bunch of cool perks like the Eat Meat T-shirt, the movie poster, bonus features, and more. Find it through FoodLies.org or by clicking through this link in the show notes. I really appreciate it - and now here’s Stephan Guyenet. http://indiegogo.com/projects/food-lies-post   Show Notes  I’m obsessed with why we get fat and what to do about it and you’ve been researching this for a long time Why the brain is the most important place to focus on The brain regulates how much we eat, our food choices, and our exercise There’s also non conscious processes the brain regulates that influence caloric expendit