Transcription
If you're not treating your body and your skin and and all of that well, it doesn't matter if you get a facelift or a brow lift or a necklift, whatever you do. Like, you're still going to have that, um, show up. Yeah. And the way I describe it, it's like you're building a house, and a facelift, you know, actual surgery is like the spire on the top of your house. And what really makes up the foundation of the house is what you eat. And that's where, for me, when you look at true anti-aging, when you look at looking and and feeling you, it starts with the food that you put in your mouth, and then it goes from there.
Mhm. Yeah. So let's talk about food. Um, in your book, you talk about the importance of protein, which I was like, yes, this is my new thing. I invented protein, if you didn't know. Discovered the macronutrients. Yes. Um, but then you also talk about fasting, so limiting protein certain times and carbohydrates, things like that. Um, and then also incorporating them into to your diet. So tell us about kind of the ideal, um, nutrition and the timing and all of that.
So, yeah, when I look at skin and we look at skin aging, um, parva is looking at what are the causes of skin aging. And so really, when you look at the causes of skin aging, I would argue that there are really four main causes that I look at. Um, there's a fifth one that I won't mention necessarily go into too much, but in general, four things I would look at. The first thing is collagen depletion. So we lose about 1% of the collagen of our, uh, thickness of our skin every year. And the collagen is a part of the skin that makes it nice and tight and thick. Uh, you lose 1% a year. At women after menopause, lose about 2% of the thickness of. Going to say, I feel like I'm losing 10% a year in the last two years. You go, that's when it really changes. So, you know, part of pushing protein is that collagen is a protein. It's a large protein. And so we do, I do encourage people to increase their protein intake, especially as they get older, because you want to help to support that healthy collagen.
Second thing that causes aging of our skin is inflammation, specifically chronic inflammation. And what causes chronic inflammation? Really, the big culprit is sugar. So sugar causes chronic inflammation by deforming the collagen of our skin. It can actually bond to the collagen, causing it to become deformed. And sugar causes chronic inflammation by insulin spikes, and that's a whole other topic with, uh, insulin resistance and stuff like that. So the main culprit of inflammation, I would look at in general, is sugar.
Mh. Third cause of, of the skin is oxidation or free radicals. And a lot of people may not have heard the term free radicals, but they've heard the term antioxidants. And antioxidants basically neutralize free radicals. Free radicals essentially are chock full in ultra-processed foods. And so eating less processed foods, real foods, is a way to reduce your free radical intake. And then also pushing, um, uh, antioxidant-rich foods, like basically the rainbow of fruits and vegetables, that fights that oxidation.
And then the fourth thing that causes aging of the skin is a buildup of cellular waste. And this is a little bit of a different topic, but essentially, it's our body's own regenerative and recycling abilities that essentially are turned off when we're constantly eating. And so that's one reason why if you talk to longevity scientists, they'll tell you, hey, you know, take breaks from eating, intermittent fast, do things like that because, um, that can help with the aging process by allowing your body to kind of recycle the waste products that it can't do that while you're constantly eating.
Mhm. Yeah. And it seems like there's kind of two camps of people. There are the people who say eat three meals and two snacks a day, eat every four to six hours. And then there are the people who promote, you know, fasting or kind of food windows. Um, and I guess you could do both. You could have days where you fast, or you could intermittent fast and then eat every few hours. But what is kind of the ideal breakdown, or does it just depend on the person?
I think in some ways, it does depend on the person. Um, you know, one thing is, if you end up, let's say, inter. So I'm not necessarily one who intermittent fasts every day. I know there are some of my friends who do. I think that's tough because it is, you do miss a lot of meals. And somebody say, oh, you want to lose weight, intermittent fast, you only have two meals a day. Um, the way I look at intermittent fasting from a holistic plastic surgeon standpoint is, we want to, we want to promote the process of autophagy. Autophagy is intracellular renewal. So like I mentioned earlier, essentially our cells will build up with waste products. And you basically use in intracellular kind of waste and organelles and proteins. And those proteins can kind of clog up cells mechanisms. So that as we get older, if they're not cleaned out, our cells don't function as efficiently, and we age, we age prematurely. So our body's way to clean that out is autophagy. And that basically is using those components and literally recycling them for energy. So when our body runs out of energy, it can then utilize those proteins inside the cells. And you get two things out of it. You get energy out of it, and you clean out the cells, and they function more youthfully. But to do that, once again, you have to stop eating for a period of time. And you don't have to do it all the time. But what I recommend in my book, we've got a three-week jump start. And literally, the first week is just cleaning up your diet, getting on the right skincare, getting on a few supplements. And then weeks two and three, I recommend just two days a week, that's it, where you stop eating at 8:00 PM and you don't eat the next day till noon. So you have a 16-hour window where you fast, and then you restart eating after that. 2 days a week, that's that can be very doable for people.
M. You know, the problem with, let's say, and and the argument people have against fasting is that if you're fasting every day, you're only having two meals a day, how are you going to get enough protein to support your muscles, as well as from my, my, my standpoint, is collagen. And I think that's a very valid point. Um, and so once again, you know, I don't think you need to go on a five-day water fast. I think literally just doing these short fast, even 12-hour fast, may be enough for some people.
M. Yeah. I do about 12 hours a night. Night, because I'll eat dinner around like five or six. Get like the older person's meal. You show up at 4:30. I am like an elderly person. I go to bed at nine. Go to Sizzler at 4:30. And, um, and then I eat. I did change my kind of the structure of how I, I eat. And that I used to wait until like 10, 10:30. Um, and now I eat within 30 minutes to an hour of waking up. Um, which I do have to say made such a big difference for me. Um, just in terms of like my energy. And I feel like I was on a blood sugar roller coaster before. And I did some testing, which I talked about in my episode last week, um, with my nutritionist, where I was like, high fasting glucose, but then I was kind of like hypoglycemic throughout the day. And so I was kind of going like this. And just having that protein first thing in the morning, I feel like kind of alleviated like all of the negative things that I was feeling as a result of that. Um, I think too, exercising in the morning. So people do much better with protein. And there are other people, you know, who they do a little bit of carbs with working out, and that helps them. I think really, in the end, it is listening to your body and knowing what your body can do. I think that we see so many people who are so gung-ho about their specific diet. You're like, oh, you know, you've got to do Paleo. Oh, you got to be keto. You got. And really, in the end, I mean, people cycle in and out of these types of things. And, and, you know, what I eat now, being a 51-year-old guy, I eat differently than than I was, than I did 10 years ago. And especially women, as their hormones change and things like that, you know, how what works well for you today may not work well for you 10, 10 years from now. And so really, it is knowing your body. I think the problem that we have in our society is that there's so many people who are, um, you know, kind of eating the standard American diet. They're filling themselves with processed foods, and they just have, have this chronic feeling of not good, but they don't know that there's better. That's the thing. You know, it's like they really don't feel good, but because they've never really felt what it's like to eat a true, you know, whole foods, healthy diet to, you know, feel energetic and and great because their body is so healthy, they don't know what they're missing out on. And, and so for my book, what I'm trying to do is, hey, you know what, let's take a week just to kind of clean things up and see how you feel. There may be times where you don't feel great that first week, but stick with it. By the end of those three weeks, you're going to feel fantastic.
Mhm. And probably look different too. You know, it was imagine fascinating because it's very simple. We put people where we changed their diet, where essentially we got rid of all the processed foods, he added sugars, we took out gluten and dairy as well. Um, and then we kept them on that diet, except when they were intermittent fasting, we actually put them on a keto diet after they do the fast. So the idea is that there are certain foods that can promote autophagy even while you are eating them. Um, and so those are healthy fats and polyphenol-rich foods. And so the idea then is people would break their fast, they do a 16-hour fast, they would break their fast, but when they break it, they would break it and keep on this kind of healthy keto type diet. And that would actually, the idea is it would promote autophagy, that intracellular renewal, but at the same time, they're eating. So that sounds amazing. I'm sign me up for that one.
Yeah. And so, and then what we found after three weeks, and then putting them on a very simple skincare, uh, routine, after three weeks, people would come up to them, and it's not like they had a facelift. Okay, they, the before and afters are not like, oh my gosh, it looks like they had a brow. No, but people would come up to them, they say, even strangers would come up to them and say, what are you doing with your skin? You've got great skin. Or their friends would tell them that, not knowing that they're going through this program.
Mh. I want to talk to you about your skincare routine in a minute because 51. Yeah, that's not, that doesn't track. It's not tracking for me. Your skin's amazing. I tell people online, they ask me how old are you? I'm like, 85. They go, wow, you look great for 85. Well, I'll put like 24. And they like, oh, you look like crap. What are your secrets? SPF, I'm sure.
Yeah. So, I mean, I practice in general what I preach. So it's good skincare products. So, you know, for me, the, you know, in the book, we give what I call the two minutes, five-year skincare regimen. And it's a very simple skincare routine, takes two minutes a day. Um, and we actually test it on people. And after two months of doing just the skincare routine, they start out with quote-unquote, average skin, not somebody like yourself, you've got beautiful skin. It's well, you know, my routine about 29 stuff. Um, but people who haven't really taken great care of their skin could look upwards of five years younger after literally just two months. And so for me, it's, it's cleansing in the morning. I use an antioxidant serum. Most days, I do sunscreen, but not all days. A lot of days I don't. If I'm going to be in the operating room all day and stuff like that, don't tell my dermatology friends. But yeah. And then in the evening, it's using either a retinol or I've actually gone more towards bakuchiol now.
Uh-huh. Yeah. I was reading about that in your book. Yeah. Just because I have had issues with retinol. I have had a history of rosacea. Um, interestingly. So for me, you know, I told you I went through normal practice, um, and and my residency training and stuff like that. And I started my cosmetic practice back in 2004. And at the time, I did what most plastic surgeons do. I sold medical grade skincare products, and we did really well with it. But the entire time, I had the secret that I didn't tell my patients is that I could not use those products. If I, you know, so my patients loved it, they made their skin look nice, but if I put that on my skin, my skin would break out in hives, I get rashes, I get itchy, and I'd have to like wipe it off and be scratching my face. And so for years, I kept this secret to myself where I would usually use water bar soap and like the lightest moisturizer, and that was it. And then I started getting, you know, after that kind of tragedy happened, I started really looking into alternative medicine, stuff like that. And I started using natural skincare products that were made without the fragrances and all that stuff. And I was shocked. I could use these products on my skin, and it really got me into going into that direction of, okay, what happens if you remove all, all the unnecessary fragrances, the additives, and the preservatives? Uh, and, and now I'm able to do a full skincare routine, and my skin does fine with it, and it's effective, obviously, and it's worked well for me.
Yeah. But also at the same time, I, you know, I grew up in Michigan where my parents, you know, I eat a lot of Korean food. So what is it? It's all real food. It's rice, it's fish, it's kimchi, you know, it's garlic, stuff like that. Um, but at the same time, I grew up in a small town where everybody is eating meat and potatoes. So it's this weird kind of dichotomy of these, of like the best of, of diets and the worst. And as I've gotten older, I keep trending more towards trying to make it as good as I can.
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