When our cells sense sustained danger, they divert resources to defense and alarm pathways instead of normal functions that generate sustainable heal… - Casey Means

Simple markers can show us “check engine” alerts. A most basic and accessible way to see if you have a reasonable level of metabolic health is by checking five markers that are almost always tested and tracked at your annual checkup: blood sugar, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, blood pressure, and waist circumference. When these markers fall into an optimal range, in the absence of medication — see Chapter 4 for exact specifications — you can deduce that your cellular energy production is doing OK. Typically, you will feel vibrant, healthy, and pain-free. These feelings, too, should tell you that your body has Good Energy, the foundation of general good health.

key reason why we are chronically consuming far too much food energy is because of the wide accessibility of ultra-processed, industrially manufactured foods, which impair our body’s self-regulatory satiety mechanisms and directly trigger hunger and cravings. These ultra-processed industrial foods are chemically engineered to be addictive and make up nearly 70 percent of calories that people in the United States consume today.

Keep It Simple With food, we covered three simple rules that get you quite far: don’t eat added sugar, don’t eat industrially processed vegetable and seed oils, and don’t eat highly processed grains. With fitness, I also suggest three simple rules. Walk at least 7,000 steps per day and space these steps out throughout the day. Work up to 10,000 per day. Get your heart rate above 60 percent of your maximum for at least 150 minutes a week. (That’s 30 minutes, five days a week.) Lift heavy things multiple times per week in a way that hits every major muscle group.