Transcript #468 Funny Bones: Laughter is The Best Medicine with Dr. David Friedman
Listen
Listen to this podcast or watch the video. CLICK HERE
Transcript
Download PDF
Click to jump to a section!
- Find out what’s in store for this Myers Detox Podcast with Dr. David Friedman, doctor, author, speaker, and comedian, who joins the show to talk about how laughter is one of the best medicines, how to add it to your health regimen, and the best practices for eating and dieting. Dr. Friedman go over all of the science-backed research behind laughter’s medicinal properties, the problem with fad diets, and the real cause of the obesity epidemic. He provides us with some hilarious anecdotes from the patients and celebrities he works with, and covers all of the incredible info you can find in his two most popular books. Such an info-packed and funny episode so make sure to tune in!
- Find out why Dr. Friedman wrote the number one comedy book on Amazon right now called Funny Bones.
- Learn about all of the science that says laughter is the best medicine.
- Find out what you’ll learn in Dr. Friedman’s amazing book Funny Bones.
- Hear some of the funny anecdotes Dr. Friedman has from working with his many patients.
- Hear some of the hilarious stories Dr. Friedman has from working with celebrities.
- Hear stories from married couples that were patients of Dr. Friedman’s.
- Hear some of the practical jokes Dr. Friedman has played on his patients.
- Find out why doctor’s often have trouble connecting to their patients.
- Read some of the best advice Dr. Friedman has for people looking to bring comedy and laughter into the treatment plans.
- Learn about Dr. Friedman’s take on all of the most popular diets, and what you need to be doing instead.
- Find out what you will learn in Dr. Friedman’s best selling book Food Sanity.
- Learn about the importance of balance in diet, and the true reason people are having trouble losing weight.
- Find out where you can learn more about Dr. Friedman and his books.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Hey, everyone. How are you doing? I’m Dr. Wendy Myers. Welcome to the Myers Detox Podcast. On this show, we talk about everything related to heavy metal and chemical detoxification, and also any kind of topic that’s going to help you to upgrade your health. My goal is to give you those little pieces of the puzzle and give you those aha moments to help you achieve the health that you want and deserve.
Today we have Dr. David Friedman on the show, and he’s amazing. He’s so funny. He is a doctor, he’s a comedian, he’s an author, he’s a speaker. He has over 2,000 podcast shows for his own podcast. And he’s going to talk about his new book, Funny Bones Today, and how laughter is the best medicine. And I totally agree with him. I’ve definitely had periods in my life where I’ve been depressed and I would just turn on the Comedy Central or go to a comedy show and it just really helped me get through those tough times. But there’s also a lot of research that shows that laughter helps us to overcome pain. And just Dr. Friedman talks about a lot of this research.
It’s super, super interesting. This is a really funny show, so stay tuned. You don’t want to miss it. And I know you guys listening to this show are looking for solutions to your health issues. And I’ve been researching the last few years about emotional trauma and how emotional trauma contributes to physical health issues. And not only, but mental health issues as well.
And in my own personal journey, I’ve been looking to be my best mentally. I want to wake up feeling peace and love and joy and create more love in my life. And for me, that last missing piece to get to that pinnacle, to get to Mount Everest of my mental and physical health was addressing emotional trauma. And in all this research, I developed a program called The Emotional Detox Program. It’s a 30-hour course and it’s really the work that I feel like I’m most proud of.
And I want to introduce you to this work. I did a little webinar. You can register at that webinar at emo-detox.com, E-M-O-D-E-T-O-X.com. And I created this emotional detox masterclass so you can learn about all this research and just get an overview of what to expect to learn on this program. Go check it out. You’re going to be glad you did. It is worth your time and investment.
And so on the show today, Dr. David Friedman, he is an International Award-winning number one best-selling author of Food Sanity. It’s a fantastic book. And he’s a doctor of naturopathy, clinical nutritionist, chiropractic neurologist, and part-time comedian. He’s also a board certified alternative medical practitioner and board certified in integrative medicine. He received a post-doctorate certification from Harvard Medical School and is a former teacher of neurology and author of the college neuroanatomy textbook, Understanding the Nervous System.
Dr. Friedman is a contributing writer for many leading magazines, including US News and World Report, Newsweek, Reader’s Digest, Healthy Living and Women’s Day. He’s been a guest on over 100 syndicated radio and television shows, including CBS Inside Edition, ABC’s The List, Fox News, NBC News, Discovery Health, and TLC, The Learning Channel.
Friedman’s list of clients has included many top celebrities like John Travolta, Jenny McCarthy, Jamie Lee Curtis, Val Kilmer and Paul Newman. He’s also the health expert for Lifetime Television syndicated morning show and host of To Your Good Health Radio. And Dr. Friedman helps millions with solutions to everyday health and wellness issues.
And each show features interviews with world renowned doctors, celebrities, sports figures, and New York Times bestselling authors who all share one common goal, finding a healthy lifestyle in the unhealthiest developed country in the world, the good old USA. You can learn more about Dr. Friedman and his amazing book, his new book, funnybonesbook.com. Dr. Friedman, thank you so much for coming on the show.
Dr. David Friedman: Great to be here. Appreciate the invite.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Yeah. Why don’t you talk to us about why you wrote three serious health books and now you have the number one comedy book on Amazon right now called Funny Bones. What made you want to write that?
Dr. David Friedman: Well, Hippocrates, the father of medicine said, “Food is medicine.” I said, “I’m going to write a book on food.” I wrote a bestseller, Food Sanity, which dove into all the diets. And then I read about this renowned surgeon from the 13th century, his name was Dr. Mondeville. He said, “Laughter’s the best medicine.” I said, “I’m going to write the ultimate LOL prescription for laughter.” And that’s how Funny Bones came out. And I’m now known as the only holistic doctor that still leaves his patients in stitches.
Dr. Wendy Myers: That’s so funny. Yeah. And you have an amazing Facebook group. It’s like Food Sanity.
Dr. David Friedman: Yes.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Isn’t it, your Facebook group, correct? And I’ve been in your group for quite some time and you always have the funniest post and I get so entertained by it. And I’m not an easy audience either. But I’m serious, but I am very entertained by all the thousands of food jokes that you come up with. It’s just really fun.
Dr. David Friedman: And they just pull out of the air. What’s so neat about humor is, people remember things better with humor. I throw a little humor in there. And in the 1980s I wrote a neuroanatomy book. I actually taught neurology. And 35 years later, I still have doctors come to me and say, “I passed the boards because of your funny humor about the sides of the brain and the mnemonics and the silly banter.” And it really does show science shows you remember better when it’s funny.
And let’s just be honest, we all gravitate toward humor. Sirius Radio has 13 comedy channels. There’s only five for classic rock and there’s only four for jazz. If you look at that, it’s like no matter what race you are, religion, sex, gender, we love to laugh. And we do so when we’re little babies. Before we even speak, we giggle when we’re two weeks old. It’s ingrained within us.
Dr. Wendy Myers: And so you say laughter is the best medicine. What’s the science to back that up?
Dr. David Friedman: Yeah, it was interesting. I saw there’s so many different sciences out there that show the different ones. One of them that I love was the Immune System. Everybody’s doing the echinacea and the vitamin C, but forgo that. You want to get the book Funny Bones or watch the Comedy Channel because science shows, I think it was the Journal of Dermatology that says that it increases antibodies, decreases inflammation.
Then there was the International Journal of Molecular Medicine that showed it increases the killer cells which combat cancer. It actually destroys cancer cells. What do they say? The number one disease is heart disease. They say We got to diet better, eat better, and exercise. No, we need more knock-knock jokes. Because the International Journal of Cardiology said it actually helps decrease your risk of heart attacks if you laugh. It increases the integrity of the arterial walls.
And I mean study after… I love the Brain Health one. They have actually done it, it was the Journal of Behavioral Neurology that did studies. It was CAT scans and MRIs before and after, showing that it increases brain health after somebody watches an hour and a half comedy. They actually see proof in the brain, and as we mentioned, we learn better through it.
When somebody says… And there’s one I love. Vanderbilt University found that laughter makes you lose weight. You lose up to 40 calories from laughing at a joke. Forget counting calories, forget counting steps you walk every day, count how many times you laugh. It was really that I was astounded by so much studies out there and I didn’t know these studies. I’ve been doing this for 30 years, but now I’m seeing hundreds and hundreds of science that laughter really is the best medicine.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Yeah, I mean I used to watch hours and hours of Comedy Central. I actually used to spend a lot of time doing that and going to comedy shows. And I live in Los Angeles and I just gravitate towards that and toward laughing.
Dr. David Friedman: Yeah. And get this. A 20 second belly laugh is the equivalent of doing 100 sit-ups.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Huh. Wow.
Dr. David Friedman: And it’s the core muscle. It’s deeper. You actually get that deep core workout, not just the external. Forget the gym. Get funny bombs, go watch the Comedy Channel and laugh. You’re actually burning more in the gut than you do by doing sit-ups.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Yeah. It’s also what’s in your book, Funny Bones? What is the stuff that we’re going to learn in your book?
Dr. David Friedman: Oh, it’s basically true tales from my office in 30 years. You’re going to hear patient stories, anecdotes, wisecracks, puns. As you know, I’m a punny guy. And I think I’m such a punny guy, when my mom found out she was pregnant, the doctor said, “Ma’am, you’ve got a pun in the oven.”
Everything’s fair game. We went from married couple to children, to the hearing of parents, to the Southern talk, to celebrity patients that I’ve treated over the years. It’s just a lot of fun. And it’s just 30 easy reads, quick. It was fun. My Food Sanity took me six years of thousands of science. And this is just fun, those science, it just gets right to the aha haha moments.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Now what are some of the funniest things that you’ve heard from patients regarding their diet or weight loss or exercise?
Dr. David Friedman: So many of them. One my favorites in the book I talk about is a lady that had carpal tunnel syndrome. And I recommended she take vitamin B6, which is really good. It’s excellent. Take it at night and it really helps in the morning, you get less numb. She comes back in two weeks. I said, “How are you doing with the carpal tunnel? You take the B6.” She says, “I’m mad at you, Dr. Friedman.” I said, “Why?” She says, “I took the B6, I was up all night, I couldn’t sleep and my wrist, no difference.” I said, “That’s impossible. B6 helps you sleep. What brand did you take?”
And she said, “Oh, I didn’t have to buy a brand. I already had B12 at home. I just cut it in half.” I said, “That’s not a B6, that’s the B12. It’ll keep you up all night.” She said, “You didn’t understand me. I didn’t take a B12, I took a B6. I cut it in half.” Well, she’s good at math. But that was one of my favorites.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Wow.
Dr. David Friedman: The math works, but that’s not bad. No, good. And one lady, every time I have to weigh somebody, I hear the most common four words, “Do I have to?” But not one lady, she just hopped right up on the scale and I’m weighing her. And to my shock, she weighed only 80 pounds. I looked down, and I said, “Both legs please.”
And she was funny. She says, “Doc, you got to help me.” She said, “I gained so much weight since I got married 20 years ago. My husband weighs the same and we walk down the street together, we look like the number 10.” There’s a few of them, but yeah, it’s funny.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Oh, what about some of the celebrity stories? Because you worked with Jenny McCarthy. And was it like Paul Newman? And tell us what’s one of your favorite ones?
Dr. David Friedman: Oh God, there’s so many. One of my favorite ones was the actor and singer, Meatloaf. He was filming a movie in town called Black Dog with Patrick Swayze. He was co-starring. And one day I got a message that he wanted to come in after hours for treatment. I said to my manager, “I’ll be staying late for Meatloaf today.” And she scratched her head, she said, “Here at the clinic?” I said, “Yeah.” I said, “It’ll be about seven o’clock after we close.”
She says, “You being such a health nut, I didn’t think you were a fan.” And I said, “Yeah, I grew up in the ’80s. Meatloaf was a big part of that decade.” And she said, “What’s so great about plain old meatloaf?” I said, “Let me sleep on it. I’ll give you the answer in the morning.” And she said, “You can’t tell me now?”
I said, “Oh, wait. Also two out of three ain’t bad.” And with a total frustrated look, she puts her hair into the air and she says, “Just forget I asked. I hope you enjoy your dinner.” And she walked off. Obviously she didn’t know who Meatloaf was. It was a cute little story. That’s good.
And then, oh, I love the one with Andie MacDowell. She was filming with Harvey Keitel in Orton Plantation, which was in the heat of the summer mosquitoes. I’m carrying my table, set it up in Andie McDowell’s trailer. She comes walking in, eloquent and shy. And she goes to lay on the table for treatment and she had toilet paper dangling out of her shoe.
Now, am I going to tell her? She’s the main actress. I’m like, “No, I’m not telling her.” I packed up and I’m going to leave. And Harvey Keitel walks past, he too has toilet paper dangling from his shoe. I went up to the set medic, I said, “Why is nobody telling the two main actors that they got toilet paper hanging from their shoe?” And she laughed so hard. She says, “That’s not toilet paper. Those are Bounce dryer sheets. They repel mosquitoes.”
Who knew? Not me who had to go home and put calamine lotion on my hands because I didn’t know this little factoid. But I’m thinking that the toilet paper was dangling and it was Bounce sheet. I did learn. Hey, out there, if you ever go outside, you need mosquito repellent. Put the Bounce sheet in your pockets for mosquito repellent.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Oh, wow. They repel your hormones too.
Dr. David Friedman: Yeah. Maybe that’s what keeps the mosquitoes away. They’re like, “Oh, she’s cranky. I’m not going near her. You got to swap me.”
Dr. Wendy Myers: What are some stories of say married couples that have come that you’ve treated?
Dr. David Friedman: Oh, some married… I love the one guy comes in and he’s tense. He says, “I’m having a tough time at home. Work’s just tense.” And he’s laying there and I said, “Look, buddy, you got to relax. Your neck is too tight. I can’t work on you. Visualize, think of the beach.” And he got tighter, tighter. I says, “Why’d your neck just tighten up even more?” He said, “You told me to think of my wife.” I said, “No. I said beach, beach.”
Now let’s see, there’s so many with married banter. And oh, one guy says, he says, “I’m just checking him for blood pressure.” And I said, “Your blood pressure is high. Is it run in the family?” He goes, “Yes.” I go, “Is it your mother’s side or your father’s side?” He said, “Neither. It’s my wife’s side.” I said, “You can’t get blood pressure from your wife’s family.” He said, “You haven’t met them. Yes, I can.”
Dr. Wendy Myers: And so you’re a practical joker. You like to play jokes on people. What are some of the practical jokes that you played on your patients?
Dr. David Friedman: One of them, it wasn’t planned. This guy named Bill comes in and he brings his friend who’s never been to a chiropractor, wanting to see an adjustment. And he says, “I’ve been looking forward to this. Bill brags about you.” Bill lays on the table and I get my finger and I flick him one time on the ear and I said, “We’re done. Nice to meet you,” I said to his friend and I walked out. And he goes, “He just flicked you in the ear.” And Bill gets up. He goes, “Oh my god. But look, I could turn my head. He didn’t just flick me in the ear. He went to 12 years of college to learn the exact angle. This guy’s a lifesaver.”
They walk up front, he pays them. He goes, “You’re paying him to flick you in the ear?” He goes, “Oh, worth it, man. He saved me from surgery.” He gets out to the car and then he tells the guy it’s a joke and they come back in. And then his friend comes in and he calls me his flickapractor. That’s a new nickname for it. But that was one.
And then the best one that was played on me was Robin Williams, the actor. He wasn’t his old talkative self. I was working with Patch Adams, the name of the movie. And he points to his neck, he lays on his back and I adjust him. And I feel this crunch of his neck, the loudest I’ve ever heard.
He falls to the ground and he’s convulsing. He goes, “I think you broke my neck. You broke my neck. I can’t feel this side of my body.” And I’m like, “Oh my God, what did I just do?” I’m panicking. And he laughed. He put his tongue out. He had bitten a peppermint at the exact time I turned his neck and got me. He goes, “Gotcha.” And I’m like. After the fear wore off, there was some laughter, tears rolling down my pants.
Dr. Wendy Myers: I love Robin. Robin Williams is my favorite. He’s my absolute favorite comedian of all time.
Dr. David Friedman: He’s such a great guy. And actually, the show Patch Adams is what inspired me. I’ve been using laughter for 30 years. But it wasn’t until 25 years ago when I learned about the Golden Globe nominated picture, Patch Adams, which Robin Williams starred in.
And it showed me that you don’t have to compromise your skills as a doctor by bringing friendliness, laughter, and bonding with patients. That’s when it really took a turn. I started doing magic tricks to patients. It was called Magic Monday and all patients would come in and bring their kids. But I got to thank Patch Adams. He was on my show about six months ago and I got to thank him personally for inspiring me to show that life is just too stoic. These doctors are like robots. They don’t care. They don’t bond.
You want a doctor that’s your friend. And I think that’s what laughter does. It brings down that wall and it’s like, “Wow, he made me laugh. We’re friends now.” And that’s the key to getting better. It’s not just the skills. It’s also your bedside manner, your ability to bond with patients. I think that’s what we’re missing.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Yeah, I always felt like when doctors go to school for so long, it’s almost like they purged their personality. Or maybe they spent so many of their formative years not socializing because they’re at medical school.
I always wondered what’s going on there. Why do some of the doctors have trouble connecting with their patients on an emotional level? Maybe that’s not their job or whatever. But it’s nice. It’s a breath of fresh air to have someone that you feel like really cares. It’s like a surprise or a bonus when I have met doctors that really can connect with you on some level. Is a good friend or mostly.
Dr. David Friedman: Yeah. You bring up something. I remember there’s a psychiatrist in California that had practiced for 25 years. And they found out he was never licensed. He was practicing without a license. He was thrown out and they were going to do a class action lawsuit against him. And they called all his patients to sue him. And they said, “Absolutely not. He saved me through a marriage, he saved me through a suicide. He saved me through this, the best guy.”
They couldn’t find one person because as you said, maybe it’s because he didn’t go to medical school. Maybe he had that ability to bond to be friendly. Where you’re right, where everyone else that goes is so stoic. But I thought it was interesting that none of his patients wanted to go after him because he did such a great job. He binded with them better than if he had a medical doctor degree. That’s cool.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Yes, yes. And so what advice would you give listeners who are, they’re stressed out or they’ve forgotten how to laugh or it’s just not really a part of their lives at this point?
Dr. David Friedman: Such a good question. And that’s really why I’m on a mission. I had a patient come in late in the day, I always see him in the mornings. I said, “What are you doing here so late?” He said, “Doc, I just had to know once and for all, are you this happy and cheerful and energized at the end of the day as you are in the beginning of the day?” And to his shock I was more energized because I’m awake at the end of the day and happy and goofing off.
And he said, “I don’t get it.” He said, “Do you ever have a bad day, Dr. Friedman?” And I let him know I get bad news and I deal with struggles and hardships just like everybody else. And here’s the difference. I don’t let them define me. The same boiling water that softens a potato also hardens an egg. It’s all about what you’re made of, not the circumstances that determine whether or not you have a good day or not.
And here’s the great news. People say, “But I’m in a bad mood. I just lost my job. I got this.” Doesn’t matter. You can fake it till you partake in it. That’s my coin frame. Faking it till you partake in it because your brain doesn’t know the difference. If you pretend to be happy, if you giggle and you laugh, your brain produces the same neuropeptides that reduce stress. Then you get the cascade of the neurotransmitters. The dopamine, you get the endorphins and you become happy.
You just fake it till you partake it. People say, “I’m in a bad mood.” And I’ve done it. I walk in and ask any of my patients in 30 years, ask any, have they ever, ever seen me in a bad mood or not smiling and happy? Any. And ask them if one day in one hour in one minute. I will tell you right now, they’ve never.
And I can’t tell you, I’ve had great days for 30 years. I’ve had losses, I’ve had deaths, I’ve had stress, I’ve had legal issues. I’ve had and I walk in because in 20 minutes I’m faking it and then I’m happy. I’m happy. I fooled my brain and now I’m happy. And all those stresses go away. The key is, that’s the key is. Times are tough, don’t focus on those. Laugh. Tell us a funny story, turn on the Comedy Channel and your mood will shift, your health will shift. And you’ll be so thankful for today instead of waking up, not looking forward to today.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Yeah. And you have a choice. You have a choice about how to show up in the world, how to be present, how to interact with people. And I think people lose sight of that. That they do have a choice and that they aren’t a victim to their biology or the chemicals that are going on in their body. And they just, they do have a choice.
Dr. David Friedman: True. And your attitude has a lot to do with sickness. I get patients, I’ll be honest. I’ll get a patient coming in and he’s saying, “Oh, I’m never going to get better. And this and that. And it’s this and that. I’ve tried this and that.” And his negative attitude, I know right there I’ve been long enough to where he’s not going to get better.
He’s not. And I’m almost wasting my time. I’ll try to break that barrier. But if we can’t shift his mindset, he’s not going to get better no matter what skills I give him. Because he’s so negative, so into the why’s me and I’m going to die.
And when I see people that are struggling and hurting and they have that positive attitude. And they glow when I tell them I can help them, they get better. They get better because they want to, they accept it. They don’t live in that torment and stress and some people love it. They have to be around drama, they have to. They don’t function. And I hate that because I can’t conceive of that because it’s so unlike me.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Yeah, I mean we are very powerful manifestors. I mean if you believe something that you’re correct. If you don’t believe you’re going to get better, you’re correct. If you think there’s a glimmer of hope and that you can participate in a recovery, you’re also correct. But yeah, people can be their biggest roadblocks to improve health.
Dr. David Friedman: Yeah, I remember reading about this guy that was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He was told six months to live. And by golly, I don’t know how they do it, but they were right on pretty close to about six months. And he got his affairs in order like they said. And he died and they did an autopsy and found out he was a healthy person. He did not have cancer, he was misdiagnosed. But he was so prepared here mentally, physically, emotionally to die that he convinced his body that he was going to die in six months and he did. The opposite can happen.
I interviewed John Tesh, I just interviewed John Hamilton. All these famous people that come forward that were told they’re going to die… Scott Hamilton. All these people that said they were going to die and they use humor. Scott Hamilton did a whole thing. He says they had a joke night. Here he is diagnosed with terminal cancer and he’s joking and laughing.
And John Tesh said the same thing and they survived. And I mean terminal cancer, they were given, John Tesh was told, “You got 16 months, you’re not going to make it.” And he made it. And I asked him, I said, “What’s the secret?” He said, “Humor, focus on faith. Focus in on laughter and friendship. The good part, not the negative. Oh, it’s me. I’m going to die.”
I think there really is something and I think that’s why. And it’s so neat to become this submission statement of laughter and happiness. Especially now, you get so many people, they’re afraid to laugh now. It’s awful. I had 21 pages of Funny Bones cut out because, “Well, you can’t say that anymore.” I’m like, “Really? It’s funny, it’s cute.” Can’t say it.
And so I’m going to have, for the few that I know that are cool, I’m going to give them the unedited version because they’re cute little stories. I don’t. But hey, it is what it is. But we need to unwind a little bit and we need to just learn how to laugh again.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Yeah. And people do get really scared when they get a diagnosis or they’re dealing with a health issue. People get very, very frightened. Or they have a lot of anxiety around it. I mean I do heavy metals testing, which you think is really, they’ve got some metals and they can detox them. But people get really frightened about their results or what that means for them or what they’re going to do about it. And people have a lot of power. They have control over their health.
Dr. David Friedman: Well, that’s because you scared them because you’re telling them they got Metallica and Ozzy Osborne in their head. They don’t want this heavy metal. Some of these, they’re older. They don’t like the thinking of a heavy metal in their head. Black Sabbath. I mean that’s too much for them.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Metallica. You wrote an awesome book called Food Sanity. And this is a bestselling book and has been for a while. And so, you really, you share about how to eat healthily. And you talk about fad diets like vegan, keto, paleo or keto intermittent fasting. You talk about how humorous they are. Can you go into a little about that?
Dr. David Friedman: Yeah. It’s funny. There’s Food Sanity was a serious book where I really explored it but then I’m in the Funny Bones era and I get to laugh because they are funny. I mean look at the intermittent fasting diet. They teach you how to extend the window you don’t eat to 16 hours. That’s nothing new. My parents had a name for that. They called it skipping breakfast. It’s not rocket science.
Dr. Wendy Myers: There was a Twiggy diet in the ’70s.
Dr. David Friedman: It’s like, “Oh, we got to teach you in those books and we get all these authors, you got to extend your time you don’t eat.” It’s skipped breakfast. Okay. They’re there. And then the paleo diet. The Paleo diet is interesting because they say, “Eat like a caveman. We got to eat our cavemen ancestors.” When I heard about that diet, I’m looking for this paleo diet book that’s going to show me how to saute a saber-toothed tiger. I couldn’t find it. Instead I found that steak and hamburgers are the big food that they recommend.
And I’m like, “Well wait a minute. That’s from a cow. Did our paleolithic hunters get the spear and go out and hunt lazy, grazing cows?” Can you imagine that one? “Honey, I’m home. I went hunting and caught a cow.” “But you’ve only been gone 10 minutes.” “It would’ve been quicker. But I stubbed my toe.” And then, here’s what’s funny. Paleo, you can’t drink the milk of a cow, that’s a no-no. But you can eat the meat from a cow. And I’ve never understood that. Maybe they found out back in the cavemen days that milk caused you to blow air out of your derriere. And that’s why it’s off limits.
And then the keto diet, you talked about this on your show. It’s funny how the keto diet.. got to get into ketosis which creates autophagy. That’s the goal. Let’s break down the word autophagy. Phagy means eat, auto means self. It means to eat thyself. Let’s just call it what it really is. It’s the self-cannibalizing diet. You’re starving yourself so you have nothing else to do but eat yourself. Now, will you lose weight on that diet? Yes, but it’s going to literally cost you an arm and a leg.
Dr. Wendy Myers: And your hormones.
Dr. David Friedman: Hormones.
Dr. Wendy Myers: I think a lot of things, those hormones are so sensitive. A lot of things knock those out.
Dr. David Friedman: Well, it’s illegal to eat somebody else, that’s you go to jail. But we can eat ourselves? Where’s the law for that? It’s like, wait a minute, I guess attempted murder’s illegal, but self suicide’s okay. I don’t know what’s. I guess we eat ourself, it’s okay, but somebody else. I always thought it’s funny.
And my view is this and the serious side of it is we don’t need to eat our own fat. Would you cut a steak and get rid of the meat and just eat the fat of a steak? If that was your meal, I’m not a steak eater. But if you are a steak eater, would you cut the fat off and eat the fat and throw away the meat? No. Why would we eat the fat of our body for fuel?
It’s just, if you look at it that way, it’s I like to eat healthy food for fuel. I’m not overweight, I don’t have to go into that. Now, I do agree there’s some good effects of it. Yes, it helps this and that I’ve done it. But to stay in ketosis is very difficult and it makes you become a mathematician. It makes you have to analyze your chemistry to eat.
We didn’t do that years ago. It makes food too complicated. It doesn’t have to be counting calories and going to ketosis. And I don’t know expidosis, ketosis, it’s get me halitosis because my breath smells.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Yeah, I mean it’s very simple. When I’m hungry, I eat. It’s like. But you just have to have balance. I think there’s… And when you have any extreme diets you can get into trouble with that. I’ve always kind of had that view.
Dr. David Friedman: Oh yeah, I agree. Oh yeah.
Dr. Wendy Myers: The alarm bells go off when I see any kind of extreme diets. When I was vegan for a minute I tried it. And I was like, I can’t eat honey. Really? This is a joyless diet. That’s just what.
Dr. David Friedman: Oh yeah.
Dr. Wendy Myers: And I tried it for a little while just to try it on for size and a lot of us experimented with different diets. And I’m like this is just no joy in this diet at all. And then my brain stopped working. I couldn’t think, I couldn’t remember anything. It was amazing.
Dr. David Friedman: I dabbled in it too. I did it. My prediction, because I’ve studied diets, I’ve studied the serious sides. And here’s my prediction of the next fad diet. It’s going to be a combination between vegan and keto. It’s going to be called the veto diet. You follow this by just rejecting any food that’s good. Just rejecting. It’s the veto diet. But you can have water, that’s approved though. That’s my prediction.
And now that I’m on the comedian side, I’m looking and I’m noticing there’s no such thing as a vegan comedian. Did you know that? Do you know why? Because instead of going on this stage making fun of people, they go on stage and they roast the vegetables.
Yeah, that’s the gist. And you got the weight loss. And you’ve talked about that, I talk. But the funny side of it is the weight loss, it’s mind over platter. Just load up the first time. Don’t go back for seconds. There’s my diet advice. Follow me for more diet advice. Mind over platter.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Yes. And so what are the things that we’ll learn in your Food Sanity book? What kind of things can we expect in that book?
Dr. David Friedman: Yeah. Food Sanity, what I did is I wrote it because I’m a confusion. Like you, you’ve interviewed so many experts and scientists and authors. And you know, this author and this expert’s opinions are different from the last person. Complete contradiction from North to South Pole. And it’s like I would hear one guy go, “Well, that’s not what the last guy said, but you’re making sense. But he makes sense,” which is the truth.
Oatmeal was supposed to help lower blood sugar. That’s what we learned for decades. And then they said, “No, wait, wait. Greens are bad. It spikes the blood sugar.” Butter was bad. Oh no. Now it’s good. Put it in your coffee, you’ll lose weight. Put it in my coffee? Who’s bad? Milk makes a body strong, strong bones. No, it weakens.
I wrote Food Sanity to break through the culinary conundrum and answer the question, what are we supposed to eat? And that’s what I do from the chapter using a common sense meat science approach, common science, common sense. I’m in the middle. And any study that I put in there was not paid for. That’s the difference.
And when I was reading the milk chapter, 95% of all the studies showing it does positive are paid for by the American Dairy Association. I cross those out. We can’t study those, we can’t trust those. And then you tap into your instinct, what does your body tell you you’re supposed to eat?
And the third thing I do in there, it’s a three prong. One was the studies, one was your instinct and the other one is biology. What were we designed to eat, our saliva, our teeth, our gut chemically, what foods are better for us? Which ones should we stay away from? When you combine those three, you have a blueprint on what to eat. And that’s what I did.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Yeah, that’s great. Because nutrition is so confusing to so many people. And it’s great to try different diets and experiment and see what works for your body. And it takes a minute to figure all that out. But yeah, I think people tend to follow different gurus or people promoting the keto diet or the paleo diet or this or that. But they’re promoting the diet that works for their body, which may not necessarily be what works for you. You have to be careful with that as well.
Dr. David Friedman: And you’re also, you get somebody who writes this book and it’s like this big aha. Oh, beans are bad. Oh I’m getting off beans. Tomatoes are bad. Well, wait a minute. What about the hundreds of years of study showing their good? What about the people that live around the world that live to be a 100, 110, 120 that are healthy? Guess what they have in common? They eat beans. How can beans cause us to get sick and die when the healthiest people have one thing in common, beans.
You see stuff like that. That’s where the instincts come in, common sense. Yeah, he’s good, throwing out a few of the studies. But let’s face it, studies change, weekly sometimes. You can’t always study, you can’t always trust the science. But when you look at a big picture, are beans bad? Are all greens bad? Yeah, we got the gluten craze. That’s another thing that I talk about in my book. But I personally don’t think gluten’s this devil that everybody thinks because we’ve been eating it for decades. It’s only recently that we have a hard time with it. It’s only recently.
And people say, “Whoa, 10,000 years ago paleo people did. That’s when it changed.” Bull. Science has proven we’ve been eating gluten for three and a half million years. The University of Utah did a study and found 40% of the diet of our caveman ancestors were barley, grains, and gluten. Gluten, they found it in the teeth. We’ve been digesting gluten for millions of years. Don’t blame gluten. It’s not the issue. It’s our ability to digest it. It’s our microbiome. And as you talk about, it’s the chemicals that we’re being subjected to that make the microbiome now have a hard time with gluten.
Now, is gluten bad for some people? Yes. Can you be allergic to it? Yes. But if your gut is healthy and you don’t have celiac disease, you can enjoy grains. You can. I got sick and that’s another topic. I think you know about my story. I was sick from water contamination. And for two years I couldn’t have gluten. I do see it, but my gut was sick. I healed my gut, detoxed my gut, cleansed my gut. Now I can eat gluten and not have to worry about it. But there was two years it tore me up. Not the gluten’s fault, it was my gut’s fault. My gut was sick.
And that’s the thing I think. And I think when you get these fad diet books. And you get lectins and then he comes out with an anti-lectin, it’s nutrition, pay me. I scared you to death about lectins, but I’ve got something that’ll protect you, buy it, pay for it. I’m like whoa. There’s a conflict of interest. In my book, I have no conflict, I have no products, I have no bias. It’s all 100% just opinion from these instincts, science and our biology. I had no ulterior motives like a lot of people do when they write a book.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Yeah. It’s a fantastic book, everyone. Highly, highly recommend it.
Dr. David Friedman: Thank you.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Because I know a lot of you guys out there are confused about diet and what to eat and you’ve been told I was scared about different food groups and things like that. But balance is key. Just alarm bells go off if anything is too extreme.
Dr. David Friedman: So true, so true. And dieting, it doesn’t have to be, like you said, painful and a mathematician. And now I’ve got to add this up. It’s like here’s something that people… And my next book is strictly on weight loss. I’ve got a whole, oh my god, you think Food Sanity was in depth? I explore the origin of obesity. I explore what caused it, when it caused, I had the exact decade, I have the exact year this spike went up.
And we cannot blame our genetics or we can’t blame our genes for why we can’t fit into our jeans. It has nothing to do with it. I always say, if you can show me a picture of your great-grandma, or great-grandpa, and she was overweight, blame it. But if you look at these old pictures in the 1900s and 1800s, they’re all thin because 3% were overweight. Look at those old black and white pictures. Nobody’s smiling. I don’t know why because they were thin. You think they’d be happy but they’re like this. And you see four generations.
And I challenge you to find somebody that’s overweight or obese. Look at a family portrait today and I challenge you to find someone who’s not overweight. That’s not easy. In the book I do show how it is stuff we’re being in contact with that we’re eating. It’s not necessarily our food. See people, oh, it’s our food. Too much sugar, sugar. Bull. In the 1920s we ate so much sugar, that’s when candy bars came out. We’ve been eating sugar for 100 years like crazy. It’s not the sugar. Sugar bad for you? Absolutely. I think it’s the worst thing you could do.
In the Funny Bones, I talk about this lady that came up with her blood work and she said, “Is there anything wrong with my blood work?” And I said, “Your sugar’s way too high.” And she said, “Oh, so if I put it on the first shelf in the pantry, I’ll be okay?” But the point is we ate hamburgers, we ate pizza, we ate lard, we ate junk, we weren’t overweight then.
It’s not what it is, it’s not food. It’s what we’re doing to our food. It’s what we’re wrapping our food in. It’s what we’re cooking our food in. It’s what being done we’ve sprayed on our food. It’s the things around food. It’s not food that’s to blame. It can’t be because we were thin then and we’re not now. Something else is happening.
Yeah, I think that’s big. I think we’re missing the picture about dieting. Every diet works. People say, “Which one works?” I said, “They all do. I don’t care if you eat for your blood type, if you eat all beef, if you go vegan, if you go Jenny Craig, you’re going to lose weight. They all work.” But come back a year, year and a half later, you’ve gained it back. What’s causing that? It’s called obesogens. It’s these chemicals that are making us fat. Science has proved it. It’s touched upon very little. You know about this. It’s the endocrine disrupting chemicals. It wreaks havoc on our hormones. And that makes-
Dr. Wendy Myers: That’s what we talk about here, on Myers Detox.
Dr. David Friedman: Yes.
Dr. Wendy Myers: That is what we talk about.
Dr. David Friedman: 100%, 100%. That’s the reason for the obesity epidemic. And if you can address that, then you can have your food. And it’s so funny how people, they like to play the blame game, but it’s how we process. It’s not about calorie counting. Yeah. I think it’s interesting.
And even there was David Kershaw was the creator of Weight Watchers. And he was quoted in Time Magazine saying, “Counting calories doesn’t work.” He said this, I got it. Copy. He said to have 100 calorie apples and to say it’s an equivalent to 100 calorie cookies makes no sense. And that’s why they changed it. They stopped doing just calorie counting and they changed it.
Last thing about diet. Do you know why they all work initially? All diets work. All of it. Because they do the same thing. They change your routine. They have you eating different foods, at different times, in different ways. And that changes your metabolism, changes your blood sugar. It creates a variety and you lose weight.
The problem is that it has become the norm. And body builders will tell you if they’re not growing, it’s because they’re doing legs every single Friday and they’re doing arms every single Monday. They have to shift it and then they start to grow. Because the body gets stuck in routines. And when you alter it, you see great changes. Problem is these diets become routine and you gain the weight back. Why do you gain it back? Obesogens.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Wow.
Dr. David Friedman: It’s the chemicals that now say, “Aha, now we’re back to her normal self. Let’s go in and screw with the thyroid. Let’s just screw with the hormones. Let’s get this person back fat again like we want it.” That’s what these hormones want to do as you well know.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Yeah. And that’s why you got to go in there, infrared sauna. And you can have that pasta, you can have that cookie, you don’t have to worry about it so much. And for me, I don’t. I just eat whatever I want.
Dr. David Friedman: Awesome.
Dr. Wendy Myers: And I turned 50 years old this year.
Dr. David Friedman: Awesome.
Dr. Wendy Myers: And I’ve been detoxing for over 10 years and I’m just, it’s really nice to be able to not worry about what I’m eating. Every single morsel I’m putting in my mouth like I did 10 years ago. Like so many people, they’re going to bed hungry, they’re skipping breakfast, they’re lowering their calories, they’re skipping whole food groups, getting rid of the carbohydrates. And yes, like you said, they can work for a minute and change things up. But it’s a sucky way to live.
Dr. David Friedman: So true.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Oh yes.
Dr. David Friedman: It’s so true. It’s like I don’t remember seeing any great grandparents carrying around a calculator before they ate. It’s becoming this little science. Oh, got to go pee and see where my chemistry is. Oh I gotta take some blood. No, as you said, if you just eat healthy, avoid these other chemicals.
And there’s other things. I think the food’s important. I always say my quick diet is called the white loss diet. White, stay away from white. If it’s white, keep it out of sight. Simple. There you go. Just that rule. You’re going to get rid of white processed sugar, white processed flour, white processed salt. Stay away from the corn, stay away from the white milk.
Those and whatever they’re made from, guess what? You lose weight, you get more energy and it balances your hormones because all these are processed junk. They make your body hungry. Now people say, “Doc, you just covered everything I eat. I can’t have salt, sugar.” Yeah you can. There’s just healthier ways. You can go with salt. We need salt. 70% of our body is salt water. When we cry, our tears are salty. To say salt’s bad is ridiculous.
Dr. Wendy Myers: I mean that is just insanity. It is just so crazy that doctors are recommending this to their patients.
Dr. David Friedman: Yeah. But there’s a good, healthy kind of salt. I like Hawaiian black lava salt because it’s got 85 minerals. Guess what it does? It satisfies yourselves. Makes you eat less, you lose weight, you crave less food because it’s got minerals. Get rid of these minerals in white table salt. It makes you hungry. Guess who knows it makes you hungry? Movie theaters. That’s why they salt the popcorn. They want you to come back for Jujubes and a Coke because it makes you crave not broccoli, it makes you crave carbs and sugar when you have too much salt, you always have that craving. And they know this.
Flour, same thing. You can do buckwheat flour, you can do cashew. There’s so many different healthy alternatives where you don’t have to avoid sugar. Just go with something sweet that’s healthy. I don’t think our creator made a mistake with a sweet tooth here. I think we like sweets. It’s not a mistake. Don’t say, “Oh, the sweet is the devil.” No, it’s sugar, white processed sugar is bad for you. There’s other alternatives. You’ve got the stevia, the monk fruit, the list goes on. But it’s funny how. You can still eat everything you love, just do it the unprocessed white, clear way.
Olivia Newton-John was on my show and she said something that really stuck with me. She said, “I have a makeup line and you’ll never see any of my makeup, you’ll never see any of my lotions that are pure white because in nature that’s not normal. You’re going to see little offsets in gray.” I said, “Wow, I never thought of that.” She said, “If you see pure white lotion that you’re putting on there, that was bleached.”
And I’ll never forget that. And it’s so true when you look at the sugar and the salt that’s never pure, pure white in nature. Only when they bleach it. Table salt is pure. White sugar is pure white. You see what I’m saying? Flour’s pure white. But it’s not from nature. It’s only when man screws with it.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Or they add titanium dioxide.
Dr. David Friedman: Bingo. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. And all the other stuff. Yes.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Yum. Yes. Well, Dr. Friedman, thank you so much for coming on the show.
Dr. David Friedman: Oh, it’s been great.
Dr. Wendy Myers: You’re always such a breath of fresh air and I really encourage people to get his books, join his Facebook group and just laugh your butt off. Where can we find your books and your work, your website?
Dr. David Friedman: Yeah. For the website you can go to doctordavidfriedman.com and for the new book, Funny Bones, it’s funnybonesbook.com. And you can see my theatrical trailers and some of the wonderful testimonials, endorsements we’ve gotten that really are helping my mission.
All proceeds go to the Laughter Saves Life Foundation. While you’re getting that healthy giggles and laugh, you’re helping people that don’t have a lot of reason to laugh. I’m really excited about partnering with them. They really help. A great organization. They started after 911, they were helping the firemen that were injured and they continued on with first responders.
It’s really exciting to be able to have laughter and healing in the same. It’s funnybonesbook.com. Get your copy and it’s easy to read, fun. It’s not analytical. You can put it down, read the last page or the first page. It’s just grab it when you want to get a few laughs.
Dr. Wendy Myers: Okay, fantastic. Well, Dr. Friedman, thanks for coming on the show. Everyone, I’m Dr. Wendy Myers and you can go on my site, myersdetox.com to learn all about detoxification. There’s hundreds of free articles and podcasts on there for you to peruse through. Thanks for tuning into the show and I’ll talk to you guys next week.
