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Understanding Metabolic Health – a conversation with chef Matthew Gray
13 Plays9 days ago
Matthew Gray is a Hawaii based chef who focuses on creating menus that help diners improve their metabolic health.
In this episode of Fit For My Age Matthew and host Michael Millward discuss the role of food in following a holistic approach to well-being.
Matthew explains how he developed his interesting approach to food whilst cooking for mega rock acts like The Eagles, and Fleetwood Mac.
After settling in Hawaii, Matthew established a company providing tours of the diverse culinary culture of the islands.
Matthew explains his research into the contribution diet plays in ensuring good metabolic health and the impact his approach has had on his own health.
Proactive Positive Ageing.
It is always a good idea to know the risks early so that you can take appropriate actions to maintain good health, that is why we recommend The Annual Health Test from York Test.
York Test provides an Annual Health Test. An experienced phlebotomist will complete a full blood draw at your home or workplace. Hospital standard tests covering 39 different health markers are carried out in a UKAS-accredited and CQC-compliant laboratory.
A Personal Wellness Hub gives access your easy-to-understand results and guidance to help you make effective lifestyle changes anytime via your secure, personal Wellness Hub account.
Access York Test https://www.yorktest.com/and use this discount code ABECEDER2.
Fit For My Age is made on Zencastr.
Zencastr is the all-in-one podcasting platform, on which you can create your podcast in one place and then distribute it to the major platforms. Zencastr really does make creating content so easy.
If you would like to try podcasting using Zencastr visit zencastr.com/pricing and use our offer code ABECEDER.
Travel
Matthew is based in Hawaii. Travel to Hawaii and everywhere in the world is cheaper for members of the Ultimate Travel Club, because club members benefit from trade prices on flights, hotels, trains, and package hotels, and so many other travel related purchases.
Use our offer code ABEC79 to receive a discount on your membership fee.
Find out more about both Michael Millward and Matthew Gray at Abeceder.co.uk.
Matchmaker.fm
Thank you to the team at Matchmaker.fmthe introduction to Matthew.
If you are a podcaster looking for interesting guests or if like Matthew, you have something interesting to say Matchmaker.fm is where matches of great hosts and great guests are made. Use our offer code MILW10for a discount on membership.
Being a Guest
If you would like to be a guest on Fit For My Age, please contact using the link at Abeceder.co.uk.
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Fit for My Age'
00:00:04
Speaker
Made on Zencastr. Hello and welcome to Fit for My Age, the health and well-being podcast from Abysida. I am your host, Michael Millward, the managing director of Abysida.
00:00:18
Speaker
As the jingle at the start of this podcast says, Fit for My Age is made on Zencastr.
Podcasting Journey and Zencastr's Role
00:00:24
Speaker
When Abbasida started podcasting during lockdown, the team thought it would be a bit of fun.
00:00:29
Speaker
It turned out to be a huge learning curve. If we had waited, it would have been a lot easier because now you can use Zencastr. So if you've thought about podcasting before and want to avoid the costs and the learning curve, use Zencastr like me.
00:00:45
Speaker
With Zencastr's all-in-one podcasting platform, you can create your podcast in one place and distribute distribute it to Spotify, Apple and other major destinations.
00:00:57
Speaker
If you'd like to try podcasting using Zencastr, please visit zencastr.com forward slash pricing and use my offer code, Abbasida.
00:01:08
Speaker
All the details are in the description. Now that I've told you how wonderful Zencast is for creating podcasts, we should make a podcast.
Meet Matthew Gray: From New York to Hawaii
00:01:18
Speaker
In this episode of Fit for My Age, my guest is Matthew Gray, a Hawaii-based metabolic health specialist.
00:01:26
Speaker
Hello, Matthew. Hello, Michael. Thank you for having me today. Nice to meet you. It's great to meet you as well. I'm in the United Kingdom. You're in Hawaii. We're separated by umpteen time zones, and I'm in a very cold, wintry United Kingdom at the moment, and I suspect that it's rather warmer where you are.
00:01:45
Speaker
Yeah, we only have one season here, and it's always beautiful and warm. ah That's great. I know from the time that I've spent in Hawaii that you are telling the truth. You wouldn't want to doubt me from the beginning, would you?
00:01:58
Speaker
Oh, no, no, not at all, not at all. But I did enjoy a very nice time in Hawaii. It's a fantastic place. Please, could we start by you explaining a little bit about the story of Matthew Gray and how you ended up living in Hawaii?
00:02:11
Speaker
Well, that's a really long story. So I'll try to make it brief. I was born in New York. My family moved to Los Angeles when I was 10 years old.
00:02:23
Speaker
Now, they didn't tell me right away, but I caught up with them eventually. and then back yeah and Then in the 90s, I moved here to Honolulu.
00:02:33
Speaker
ah It was a love thing. It was a love relationship. I decided to move to Hawaii. And I became a chef. I traveled with the Eagles on their Hotel California tour, Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, people in the rock and roll industry.
00:02:49
Speaker
Food has always been my life. It's always been about feeding others, taking care of others by way of flavor, tastes, and entertainment. And I became a chef and a newspaper journalist and a food tour creator and an entrepreneurial advisor.
Food's Role in Connection and Career
00:03:09
Speaker
I've done a lot of different things all related to helping people feel better on a day to day basis.
00:03:16
Speaker
And I hope that you and I can become great friends. Sounds great. So your relationship with food and when you're describing that like making people feel better about food.
00:03:27
Speaker
there is something about food in the 21st century which is like two different extremes there is the fast food buy it eat it eat it on the go or that sort of thing where it's food is fuel although with with some of the food in in that type of sector you do sometimes wonder about how much fuel are you actually taking on board and then there is the more traditional aspect of food where you don't walk down the street with a cup of coffee you you sit down to have your cup of coffee you have it out of a proper cup and you you relax with the food you share with food and i think
00:04:13
Speaker
I'm trying to have less of the fast and more of the share in my own food consumption. Yeah, I would agree with that 100%. I think for myself, it was never about anything fast. i always chose to cook and to look into the eyes of the person across the table from me and enjoy breaking bread with them.
00:04:35
Speaker
There's no finer way to get to know someone and to connect with someone than to enjoy some food together. So for me, fast food has never been an issue. yeah Yeah, I can see what you mean. It's almost like you sit at the table with someone, you're doing the same activity.
00:04:53
Speaker
You may have cooked together, you're going to eat together, and you're in a space where you're equal, aren't you? one When we sit at a table with someone, regardless of race, creed, socioeconomic background, regardless of anything that might be used to divide us,
00:05:13
Speaker
We are equal when we sit at the table. Right. there's no There's no right side of the aisle or left side of the aisle. It's nothing political. You know, Michael, you probably experienced much of what I did. I grew up in a family that ate when times were good.
00:05:31
Speaker
We ate when times were bad. And no matter what the issue was, food was always the answer. So food brought us together and allowed us to sit down and communicate with each other.
00:05:42
Speaker
And that's where food was for me my entire life. It was always the first step in connection. Yes. Yeah. It is the yeah first connection that you have with someone.
00:05:57
Speaker
eat with them and you you break down all of those barriers. Right. And yeah I had the great good fortune of running the Hawaii Food Tours Company from 2004 to 2020 when COVID began.
00:06:12
Speaker
wow And when COVID began, that's when my food tour company ended. But I had this beautiful opportunity to meet, feed, educate, and entertain people from all over the world.
00:06:23
Speaker
And it was all based on food. And whether or not people had ever tried Hawaiian food or the foods of Hawaii, they enjoyed their experience. And that really allowed me to show people how we do it here.
00:06:39
Speaker
And so that was one of the most fruitful experiences I've ever had. yeah Now, we could digress slightly and start talking about my visit to Hawaii and all the different experiences that I had whilst I was there.
00:06:53
Speaker
But I will just say Hawaii is famous for its p pineapple farms. you know Hawaii is famous for its pineapple farms. It is one of the homes of pineapple.
00:07:07
Speaker
And I was there, i did the tour of the pineapple farm, the pineapple factory, and I can honestly say that the pineapples that we get in the UK or or any country where pineapples are not grown do not taste as pineapple-y, as sweet as the pineapple that was picked from the field minutes previously to before you eat it.
00:07:37
Speaker
Chances are, Michael, I'm thinking that most of the pineapple that you consume here in Hawaii is grown here, whereas the pineapple that you're getting around the world is definitely not Hawaii-based pineapple.
00:07:50
Speaker
Yes. It's yeah come from also, so but they're very difficult to grow here in the UK. It is possible, right but it is very difficult.
Transition to Metabolic Health
00:07:58
Speaker
But I remember that from my time in Hawaii,
00:08:02
Speaker
So we talk about the relationship that people have with food and how we use food as a way of building relationships with other people. Your first date with your partner will probably be something that involves food.
00:08:18
Speaker
you know Our celebrations involve food. And I know over your career, yeah that has been one of your main focuses is developing, helping people to develop the relationships with people that are working with, people that they're traveling with, using food as a conduit to positive relationships.
00:08:38
Speaker
but Exactly. Yeah. But now you've changed tack slightly because you've recognized that people don't always have a positive relationship with the food itself.
00:08:50
Speaker
And that if we don't have a positive relationship, the food can become something quite negative in ah our lives as well.
00:09:01
Speaker
Well, absolutely. you know Personally, leading a life of excess for so much of my life related to food and taking care of others.
00:09:13
Speaker
And then also, like you as you said, we all age over time. You start to recognize various different things. And so living life to excess and eating all the time is goes against the nature of what a human being was. We were not, uh, you know, a hundred thousand years ago when we were out there hunting woolly mammoths, we would and perhaps not eat for days at a time until we were able to score that woolly mammoth in the wild and then eat and then maybe take some more time after that was done being eaten. Um,
00:09:50
Speaker
Whereas nowadays in the human society, people are snacking constantly. They're eating sugar and carbohydrates and things that are going towards ruining their health. And so people just are not understanding that half of our audience right now are people who are suffering from pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes or who are fighting obesity. It's an epidemic right now.
00:10:18
Speaker
And so I realized that after living a life of excess, that so many people are unhealthy and you could trace their health concerns and problems to the fact that they're eating all wrong and that most of the health problems that people have relate to inflammation which relates to the food so i look at food as medicine nowadays after i you know a lifetime ah looking at food as fun and pleasure and a source of getting crazy wild so now i'm looking at helping people with their metabolic health helping them lose weight helping them reverse their type two diabetes and things like that i'm not a doctor or scientist but i know a lot more about metabolic health and nutrition than any medical expert out there
00:11:14
Speaker
So that's what I've been doing these past few years after I finally transitioned away from running food tours. Now I help people live a healthier life. that It's interesting when you said see food as medicine, because when you said that, I thought actually food is can actually be used as a reward.
00:11:33
Speaker
And the reward in food is very often the sweet carbohydrates, the ice creams, the donuts, the food that isn't necessarily good for us. But we because of the way in which we're treated as children, we start to associate sweet, sugary things with a reward for having done something good.
00:11:54
Speaker
It even goes further back than that. Mother's milk is sweet. And so there's something
Understanding Sweetness and Metabolic Health
00:11:58
Speaker
back in our monkey brain in in in that part of our DNA that wants sweetness.
00:12:05
Speaker
And so that it's difficult to to fight that because it's built in. So a lot of the behavior... that people need to assume is a learned behavior. So that's the way that we can reverse what, you know, God gave us through DNA and learn to live a healthier life. Because after all, we want to be around tomorrow and next year and five years from now, because, you know, it feels good to be alive and we want to be here for our family and our loved ones. That's true.
00:12:37
Speaker
but we want to be around and healthy. No point in being around and unhealthy, but we want to be around and healthy. and Perfect point. If you're going to live to 90 years old, you might as well live the last 10 years of your life in good health instead of suffering.
00:12:55
Speaker
And that's part of the issue here. It's not necessarily increasing your lifespan, it's increasing your healthy lifespan. Yes, and there is the issue that as the Western world ages,
00:13:08
Speaker
care for people who are in their 70s 80s s eighty s and ninety s is going to be more expensive and more difficult to obtain good quality care as well so it's really in everyone's best interests think ah regardless of what age they are about what they do now and how that may impact their health in years to come So what does the phrase metabolic health mean?
00:13:40
Speaker
Metabolic health is making sure that your body is not responding negatively to the wrong food choices that you make. So, so much is based on whether or not that you you're stimulating insulin production and glucose, which builds fat on your body, which leads to diabetes, which leads to kidney damage or failure or worse.
00:14:08
Speaker
And I've adopted... a personal approach to reducing my intake of food to a certain time window called intermittent fasting.
00:14:21
Speaker
And then also keeping myself as low on carbohydrates as possible of the three macronutrients, which are protein, fat, and carbohydrates, only protein and fat are necessary for healthy life.
00:14:37
Speaker
There's no positive aspect whatsoever to carbs. And so that includes anything that's wheat or starch or sugar or even starchy vegetables and fruit. There's no place in a healthy lifelong experience to be able to consume those things.
00:14:58
Speaker
When you're young, maybe it's fine, but it it eventually catches up with everyone. Everyone needs to lose a little bit of weight or reverse a little bit of disease or, you know, just think about Michael. The last time you visited your doctor, has your doctor ever asked you, so Michael, what have you eaten today? No.
00:15:18
Speaker
Probably not. And that's part of the problem where we're surrounded by people in the big food industry who creates food to be more like an addictive substance.
00:15:30
Speaker
And then we go to our doctors who are taught to write prescriptions for medicine instead of finding the root cause of our illness. And then, you know, you have big food and then you have big medicine and then you have big pharma.
00:15:46
Speaker
And so you know it's almost like a really bad conspiracy that's out there to hurt our health and so some of us are starting to branch off and understand what the new science is and what it's saying about you know how can i be healthier how can i feel better how can i lose the weight how can i reverse the disease So metabolic health has all to do with the things that happen to your body when you feed it the wrong food too often.
00:16:17
Speaker
would I be right to think that my metabolic health would be different to your metabolic health and everyone in the audience would have their own unique metabolic health?
00:16:30
Speaker
I don't know if that's exactly correct. I feel pretty strongly that there's no room in our diets for ongoing carbohydrate consumption.
00:16:41
Speaker
There's no room in our lifestyle to be eating 10 times a day because food. Like i said, 100,000 years ago, humans only ate when they had a fresh kill.
00:16:53
Speaker
They did not stuff their face and sit on the sofa and eat donuts and candy and so and soda and drinks and you know all all this other stuff that's really contributing to to a lack of ah good metabolic health. So we weren't designed as human animals to be eating.
00:17:13
Speaker
10 times a day or 15, 16, 17 hours per day. So we've kind of gotten away from from our core as the animal in which we are.
00:17:26
Speaker
Yeah. And it has that understanding of what our bodies are supposed to do that Food may have evolved and and the way in which people work and the way in which people live may have changed.
00:17:42
Speaker
But fundamentally, the way in which our bodies work is not that different to how it was hundreds of years and maybe thousands of years ago.
00:17:53
Speaker
um We're not designed as human beings to sit at a desk all day. That's one of things, but our diet isn't designed around the activities that we undertake either.
00:18:05
Speaker
So we need to understand what amount of energy we need to get our bodies to use to spend?
00:18:16
Speaker
And then what do we need to put into our bodies in order to be able to do the things that we want to do at any particular point in time? And to think about it, to sit in front of the television, um you don't need an awful lot of energy in order to do that.
00:18:35
Speaker
So sitting there with a bag of chips, in America they'd be called chips, in the UK they'd be crisps, or bar of chocolate, box of chocolates, ah soda drinks, beer.
00:18:47
Speaker
We're consuming things which we don't actually need in order to complete that activity. Right. And over time, people will put on weight and they will start to feel aches and pains. And you need to make the right food choices. i look at it as food is medicine.
Education vs. Medication in Health
00:19:05
Speaker
I'd much prefer to adjust my dietary intake than to visit a doctor and have he or she give me pill. which has its own many side effects that are very dangerous for our health and never really gets us to the place where we need to be.
00:19:24
Speaker
Now here in America and probably UK, they have medications that they give to people who are obese or diabetic or whatever to help them lose weight.
00:19:36
Speaker
So what they're doing is they're trying to help people through medicine instead of through knowledge. And there's going to be a terrible downside. and And I think that that's the entirely wrong thing. We need to educate the population, not medicate.
00:19:52
Speaker
Educate, not medicate. It's a very good way of describing it. And I suppose also one of the things that people need to do is take responsibility for themselves and not think that yeah, I can get a pill that's going to solve this problem.
00:20:08
Speaker
um Yeah, but educate, not medicate. i quite like that.
00:20:14
Speaker
If people listening to this are thinking like, yeah, I do eat too much carbohydrate. Yeah, I don't know really what it is that I'm eating.
Personal Health Transformation and Coaching
00:20:22
Speaker
I'm eating too many ready meals and pre-order takeaways and or takeout food, as as those sorts of things. What are the the the simple, straightforward things that somebody could do that would get them on the route to having ah healthier diet and improving diet?
00:20:42
Speaker
excuse me, improving their metabolic health? You know, that is a great question. And I'll go so far as to say, if people need help with their obesity or their diabetes or anything like that, I'm open to a free consultation. I guarantee my work.
00:21:01
Speaker
I will help you out because I used to be there. At one point in time in my life, I was 100 pounds heavier than I am today. and i felt terrible and it was all related to my excessive eating of the wrong foods so i've learned over time and now i'm helping people overcome those diseases and lose the weight and so there's nothing more gratifying to me personally than to help you
00:21:34
Speaker
So if you're here listening to Michael and myself and you need some help, I'm going to make myself available to you. Let's have a consultation. I'll get you right because I can't just tell you what to do. I have to coach you through it.
00:21:48
Speaker
And if I was able to do it and I lived life to excess for a long time and now I'm very, very healthy, Um, I reversed my type two diabetes and I'm a 65 year old gentleman and I do not take any medication.
00:22:05
Speaker
At one time I took 10 different meds. Now I have no meds and I'm at a great health and a great weight. It sounds great. Thank you very much. There'll be some information.
00:22:16
Speaker
If anybody wants to take you up on your offer, we'll put some information in the description. But to thank you very much, Matthew. I've really enjoyed finding out a little bit more about metabolic health. It's made me feel a little bit guilty about what I've been eating today.
00:22:31
Speaker
So thank you very much for that. But I did enjoy it. and I won't be eating it tomorrow. So it's ah it's all right every once in a while to have something that we perhaps we shouldn't really have. But for the moment, thank you very much for joining me from Hawaii and i really appreciate your time. Thank you very much.
00:22:48
Speaker
Oh, it's been absolutely marvelous to meet you. Thank you, Michael. Take care.
Proactive Health Testing
00:22:51
Speaker
Aloha. Thank you very much. At Fit for My Age, our aim is proactive positive aging. Knowing the risks early is an important part of maintaining good health.
00:23:02
Speaker
That is why we recommend the annual health test from York Test. York Test provide an assessment of 39 different health markers, including cholesterol, diabetes, vitamin D, vitamin B12, liver function, iron deficiency, inflammation, and a full blood count.
00:23:22
Speaker
The annual health test is conducted by an experienced phlebotomist who will complete a full blood draw at your home or workplace. Hospital standard tests are carried out in a UKAS accredited and CQC compliant laboratory.
00:23:39
Speaker
You can access your easy to understand results and guidance to help you make effective lifestyle changes anytime by your secure personal Wellness Hub account.
00:23:50
Speaker
There is a link and discount code in the description. Thank you for listening to this episode of Fit for My Age.
Closing and Acknowledgments
00:23:58
Speaker
I am Michael Millward, the Managing Director of Abucida, and I have been having a Fit for My Age conversation with Matthew Gray, a metabolic health specialist.
00:24:09
Speaker
You can find out more about both of us and at abucida.co.uk. There are links in the description. I must remember to thank the team at matchmaker.fm for introducing me to Matthew.
00:24:22
Speaker
If you are a podcaster looking for interesting guests, or if like Matthew, you have something very interesting to say, matchmaker.fm is where matches of great hosts like me and fabulous guests like Matthew are made.
00:24:37
Speaker
There is a link to matchmaker.fm and an offer code in the description.
00:24:44
Speaker
If you fancy visiting Hawaii where Matthew is based, the best way to plan your travel is with the Ultimate Travel Club. You will find a link and a membership discount code in the description.
00:24:56
Speaker
In all reality, that description is well worth reading. If you have liked this episode of Fit For My Age, please give it a like and download it so that you can listen anytime, anywhere.
00:25:08
Speaker
To make sure you don't miss out on future episodes, please subscribe. And remember, as with all of the podcasts produced by Abbasida, the aim is not to tell you what to think, but we do hope to make you think.
00:25:23
Speaker
Thank you for listening and goodbye. Aloha.