A Stanford-Trained MD Shares Her Top 3 Metabolism-Boosting Tips 

According to Stanford-trained physician Casey Means, M.D., author of Good Energy, "optimization culture" and biohacking have lost their way. We've never had more nutrition and fitness information available to us, yet Americans are getting sicker every year. What are we getting so wrong here? 

She says the solution isn't more specialists or spending more money on health care but focusing on cultivating "good energy" in your cells, which you do by prioritizing metabolic health. 

"Metabolic dysfunction, or 'bad energy,' [is] the root cause of all diseases," she shares on this episode of the mindbodygreen podcast. "When we can fundamentally create metabolic health in our lives, our risk of all of these diseases is just drastically reduced." 

You may have heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. According to Means, there's research to back up that claim. 

"A study from 1Nature1, one of the premier medical journals, showed that it's actually the extent of the glucose crash that determines how hungry we're going to be later in the day and how much we're going to crave carbohydrates," she notes. 

Meaning, if you have a blood-sugar-spiking breakfast followed by a giant glucose crash, that sets you up to crave carbohydrates and be hungrier for the entire day. "The extent of that crash is predictive of how much you're going to consume," she adds. 

The solution? Eat a blood-sugar-balancing, high-protein morning meal. "This is why a high-protein breakfast with a very little glucose spike is going to be the best thing you can do to set yourself up for a day of healthy eating patterns," she notes. 

According to Means, post-meal exercise is the best "golden ticket" to lowering blood sugar that we have. "Take a three-, five-, 10-, or 15-minute walk, do some air squats, or have a dance party after a meal," she encourages. "Every time you take a step, you're contracting billions of myocytes (muscle cells). What that's going to do is physically push the glucose channels to the cell membrane, to help take that glucose out of the blood stream and put it through the mitochondria for energy." 

Again, research backs up the claim: One study2 found that acute, casual exercise, not before but after eating (like, say, a post-dinner stroll), can help steady the blood sugar response.

Make no mistake: The stress-metabolism connection is well documented. Raised cortisol levels spike cause a surge release of insulin, which is why you may crave more sugars, carbs, and sweets3 when feeling stressed. 

Chronic stress even has the ability to damage your mitochondria, and as Means notes, "bad energy" is the root of all disease, including metabolic dysfunction. "There's literally a process called the cell danger response4 initiated by the mitochondria," she explains. "[It] can be activated through psychological fear [and] totally changes our mitochondrial dynamics."

It's way easier said than done, but do try to reduce your stress levels however you can. (Some helpful remedies here.) According to Means, prioritizing quality relationships is one way you can reduce stress and help your mitochondria thrive. 

Nutrition, movement, and mindset—there's much we can discuss in all three categories when it comes to metabolism, but Means covers some basics with her tips above. There is no silver bullet for stellar metabolic health, but smaller, everyday habits do play a powerful role. Try them today, plus more of Means' tips in the full episode below.