I. Brief Summary
Dr. Casey Means argues that modern lifestyle factors like processed foods and poor sleep create “bad energy” at the cellular level. The main idea in the book is that metabolic dysfunction is the root cause of most chronic diseases, and she offers a roadmap to fix it.
II. Big Ideas
- Essential biomarkers can show us “check engine” alerts:
- Fasting Glucose: Optimal: 70–85 mg/dL
- Fasting Insulin: Optimal: 2–6 uIU/mL
- Hemoglobin A1c: Optimal: < 5.4%
- Triglycerides: Optimal: < 70 mg/dL
- HDL Cholesterol: Optimal: > 50 mg/dL
- Liver Enzymes (ALT/AST): Optimal: < 17 U/L (indicates liver health)
- Avoid the “Unholy Trinity” to restore metabolic health, strictly limit or eliminate:
- Refined Added Sugars
- Refined Grains (white flour, processed wheat)
- Industrial Seed Oils (vegetable, canola, soybean oils)
- Every meal should aim to include these 5 essential elements to support cellular function:
- Fiber (feeds the gut microbiome)
- Quality Protein (essential for structure and function)
- Omega-3 Fatty Acids (reduces inflammation)
- Probiotics (fermented foods)
- Antioxidants (protects cells from damage)
- Glucose stability: avoid "naked carbs" (eating carbs alone). Always pair carbohydrates with protein, fat, or fiber to prevent blood sugar spikes.
- Essential lifestyle pillars:
- Movement is Medicine: Sedentary life signals safety to the body, leading to dormancy. Aim for “movement snacks” throughout the day rather than just one gym session. Walk after meals to lower glucose spikes.
- Circadian Rhythm: Align your life with the sun. Get morning sunlight in your eyes, eat during daylight hours, and avoid bright artificial light at night to support mitochondrial repair.
- Environmental Toxins: Reduce exposure to “metabolic disruptors” found in plastics, pesticides, and personal care products.
- Temperature Stress: Use heat (sauna) and cold (cold plunge/showers) to “shock” your mitochondria into becoming more efficient (hormesis).
III. Quotes
- Good Energy is also known as metabolic health. Metabolism refers to the set of cellular mechanisms that transform food into energy that can power every single cell in the body.
- Focus on cell biology over diet dogma. Put all your energy into finding and eating unprocessed foods grown in healthy soil. Your health will vastly improve. It actually is that simple.
- When our cells sense sustained danger, they divert resources to defense and alarm pathways instead of normal functions that generate sustainable health. Given this, no matter how pristine your dietary intake is, how much you’re moving, how much sunlight you’re getting, or how many hours of quality sleep you’re getting, if the cells are bathed in a stew of stress created by the way psychology translates to biochemistry (via hormones, neurotransmitters, inflammatory cytokines, and neurologic signals), all the other healthy choices will fall.
- Every institution that impacts your health makes more money when you are sick and less when you are healthy—from hospitals to pharma to medical schools, and even insurance companies.
- Consider this: when a kid drinks one bottle of Coke, they ingest as much added sugar as they might have had in an entire year if they were living 150 years ago.
- We should consider listening to the medical system if we have an acute issue like a life-threatening infection or broken bone. But when it comes to the chronic conditions that plague our lives, we should question almost every institution regarding nutrition or chronic disease advice. All you need to do is follow the money and incentives.
- The incentives of our medical and food systems pressure patients to not ask questions. These incentives also lead to the biggest lie in healthcare. That the reasons we are getting sicker, fatter, more depressed, and more infertile are complicated. The reasons are not complicated. They all tie to good energy habits.
- Disease isn’t some random occurrence that might happen in the future. It is a result of the choices you make and how you feel today.
- Our bodies are built entirely of food. Eating is the process of transforming and assimilating matter from the external world into our own form. Every day, food breaks down into different types of “bricks” in our gut, and then those bricks get absorbed into our bloodstream to be used to continually rebuild the next iteration of our body. When we provide the body with the right “bricks,” we build the right structures, and we get health.
- Medical leaders are absolutely silent on the things that are actually making us sick: food and lifestyle.
- One of the most cited doctors in medical school classes is Dr. William Stewart Halsted, a Johns Hopkins founding physician in the early 1900s who created the concept of residency. To Halsted, medical education was “a superhuman initiation into a superhuman profession that emphasized heroism, self-denial, diligence, and tirelessness.
- John D. Rockefeller—realizing he could use by-products from his oil production to create pharmaceuticals—heavily funded medical schools throughout the United States to teach a curriculum based on the intervention-first Halsted model. An employee of Rockefeller’s was tasked to create the Flexner Report, which outlined a vision for medical education that prioritized interventions and stigmatized nutritional, traditional, and holistic remedies.
- Separation defines modern medicine.
- TRUST THE SYSTEM ON ACUTE ISSUES, IGNORE IT ON CHRONIC Most health care books give recommendations and end with a disclaimer to “consult your doctor.” I have a different conclusion: when it comes to preventing and managing chronic disease, you should not trust the medical system. This might sound pessimistic or even frightening, but understanding the incentives of our medical system and why it does not deserve our benefit of the doubt is the first step to becoming an empowered patient.
- Focus on cell biology over diet dogma. Put all your energy into finding and eating unprocessed foods grown in healthy soil. Your health will vastly improve. It actually is that 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.
- More than 90 percent of serotonin, the hormone that regulates mood and contentment, is made in the gut—not in the brain.
- Authors and poets who address the human condition, mortality, eternity, and continuity with nature that I recommend are Mary Oliver, Pema Chödrön, Paramahansa Yogananda, Michael Pollan, Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Rumi, Lao-tzu, Khalil Gibran, Hafiz, Walt Whitman, W. S. Merwin, Thích Nhất Hạnh, Diane Ackerman, Alan Watts, Lewis Thomas, Ram Das, Rainer Maria Rilke, Deepak Chopra, and Wang Wei.