Shawn Stevenson: Creating Kitchen and Table Culture to Reap the Vast Benefits of Gathering for Family Meals

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Shawn Stevenson
Creating Kitchen and Table Culture to Reap the Vast Benefits of Gathering for Family Meals

Shawn Stevenson is the author of the USA Today National bestseller Eat Smarter and the international bestselling book Sleep Smarter. He’s also creator of The Model Health Show, featured as the number #1 health podcast in the U.S. with millions of listener downloads each month. A graduate of the University of Missouri–St. Louis, Shawn studied business, biology, and nutritional science and became the cofounder of Advanced Integrative Health Alliance. Shawn has been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, The New York Times, Muscle & Fitness, ABC News, ESPN, and many other major media outlets.

Shawn’s latest book, the Eat Smarter Family Cookbook is out October 10, 2023. What’s radical about this book is that it transforms the health of the family by focusing on nutrition and the benefits of gathering, cooking, and eating together.

For more info about Shawn, visit his follow him on instagram and definitely check out his podcast!

Points of interest in the episode: 

05:48  The Starretts were recently on the Model Health Show Podcast with Shawn while promoting Built to Move
06:40  Shawn has a brand new book out October 2023, Eat Smarter Family Cookbook
07:00  Why this book, why now?
07:10  Research shows the power of the family meal
08:55  Study on the frequency of the family meal
10:45  Meta analysis of data showing that healthy social connections reduced all-cause mortality by 50%
11:28  Human beings do two things together – they eat together and they move together
12:45  Ultra-processed foods are everywhere, even as fuel youth sporting event
13:28  The influence of the culture around us
17:00  One of the love languages is food
19:27  The average American adult’s diet is 60% ultra-processed foods, for children it’s almost 70%; BMJ
20:30  Ultra-processed foods defined
21:50  Kids surveyed to see the last time they ate a fruit or vegetable, results were not good
23:30  Non-nutritive foods are still pervasive in youth sports
26:15  Government subsidies largely determine which are affordable foods
28:10  Study showing that adults that consumed the most government subsidized foods had 30% higher obesity and a host of other terrible health outcomes
29:00  60% of American adults have at least 1 chronic disease, 40% have 2 or more
29:40  Having chronic disease is normal, being healthy is NOT normal
34:04  Shawn transformed his health after being diagnosed with a so-called incurable spinal condition at 20 years old
35:10  People that eat alone tend to have a much poorer diet quality
35:50  The impact of stress
36:30  60% of physician’s visits may have a stress related component
36:53  IBM worker study showed that if workers made it home for dinner, morale stayed high and stress was minimized
41:14  Implementation strategies
44:50 Creating the kitchen culture; Yellowstone
47:50  Creating the table culture
51:05  The bigger the engine, the bigger the brakes
51:50  Our genes expect us to connect
52:20  The #1 determinant of our lifespan is our relationships
55:00  The San Francisco 49ers brought a chef and players started sticking around and eating together (and winning)
56:50  Stacking behaviors; The act of chewing your food is actually a stress reliever
60:00  In our culture we see eating real food as deprivation and restriction
61:00  Cravings are cultural
69:40  Where to buy the book

Full Transcript

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