#206: Good Energy by Dr. Casey Means | Metabolic Health Made Simple

What if fatigue, brain fog, cravings, and mood swings weren’t random—but signals from your cells asking for help?

In this episode, we break down Good Energy by Dr. Casey Means and translate metabolic health into real life. We explain the five key markers that act like a dashboard for how well your body makes and uses energy—and why so many “normal” symptoms are early warning signs, not destiny.

We connect modern life to mitochondrial stress: ultra-processed food, poor sleep, blue light at night, sedentary days, constant temperature comfort, and chronic stress. We explore insulin resistance, inflammation, why the brain often suffers first, and why kids and teens are especially vulnerable. 

Most importantly, you’ll leave with a simple playbook you can start today: better sleep, morning light, real food, shorter eating windows, daily movement, and tracking what actually matters. Small changes compound—and your cells respond faster than you think.

www.daraboxer.com

Transcript

Welcome And Book Club Setup

Dara Boxer 0:00

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Raw on the Cooked, a weekly podcast that provides simple routines around the home plus raw and honest book reviews. My name is Dara. I'm a Midwestern stay-at-home mom to four young kids, and I thrive on simplicity. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another episode. Today is finally the Dr. Casey Means Good Energy Book Club episode. I have been teasing you on and off a little bit about this episode. I've been mentioning it several times in the last handful of episodes, but today we are going to get into it and talk about why this book really stuck with me. So we're just gonna dive straight in. The overall premise of good energy is that nearly every chronic disease we see today, from depression and infertility to heart disease and dementia, ties back to how well our cells make and use energy. And when our cells are underpowered or overwhelmed, chronic inflammation follows. So inflammation isn't always the bad guy, it's our immune system trying to help. But when it becomes chronic, the help then becomes constant overreaction and collateral damage. And that's why metabolic dysfunction and inflammation almost always show up together. And so some of the most common symptoms linked with chronic inflammation include things like fatigue and headaches, brain fog, digestive issues, joint and body aches, mood symptoms like anxiety and depression. And the heartbreaking part is that these symptoms have become so normalized that we just treat them like a rite of passage instead of a warning sign. And so another big picture thing to think about is that our modern world is overwhelming ourselves. And Dr. Means talks a lot about how our lifestyle today is basically just the perfect storm for damaging mitochondria, which is the part of our cells that create energy. She lists everything from chronic overnutrition to sleep deprivation, stress, pesticides, pollution, medications, ultra-processed foods, circadian rhythm disruption, and even living in temperature-controlled comfort 24-7. Like, how many of us get really upset when our AC unit is like one or two degrees above our preferred state, right? Like we shouldn't live like that. And another line that really stuck with me was that we eat about 20% more calories than people did 100 years ago. But not only that, 700 to 3,000% more fructose intake today than we did 100 years ago. And our bodies simply are not built for this. So when we hear startling statistics, like 74% of US adults are overweight or obese, and that 94% of US adults have signs of metabolic dysfunction, it stops sounding like a personal failure and sort of starts sounding like something is wrong. Like there's something is wrong. Okay, so another huge part about her book was breaking down metabolic health. It sort of, she gave like a lot of information, but she wrote it in such a way that even the lay person who doesn't understand more than like basic chemistry terms like mitochondria and the nucleus, like she laid it out in a very good way. And so I wanted to kind of share what I learned with you and the five markers that we can look for today that will sort of translate and give an idea of like where we stand on our metabolic health today. Um, so again, these are five really simple lab markers that can act like a window into how well our cells are making and using energy. And again, they're not things that you have to like go out of your way for, like all these should be included in your standard physician annual appointment. Okay, so the first is triglycerides, which sort of is like your overflow tank. So triglycerides are basically stored fat floating in your bloodstream. Your body makes them from extra calories, especially sugar, refined carbs, and alcohol. And in a healthy system, triglycerides get burned for energy between meals, but when the levels are high, it's often a sign that your body is in energy chaos mode, that there's more fuel coming in than your cells can actually use. And when your organs are stuffed with extra fat, the whole metabolic system becomes sluggish and inflamed. So your optimal level for triglycerides should be under 80. So, like your fuel in should equal your fuel used. A second the second marker is your HDL cholesterol. And so think of HDL cholesterol like the cleanup crew. HDL cholesterol is often called, quote, the good cholesterol, end quote, because it's like what's happening is pretty cool. Like your HDL goes around the bloodstream acting like a little tiny cleaning person, collecting extra cholesterol and carrying it back to the liver so it doesn't get stuck in your blood vessels. So higher HDL usually means less inflammation, better metabolic health, and more efficient energy transport. And so the sweet spot for that um should be roughly 50 to 90. Um I think it's like milligrams per deciliter. Number three, and for the record, I should say that her numbers of like where you should be on these blood tests are significantly lower than your physician will recommend. And we'll get into that a little bit later. But okay, moving on. The third marker is your fasting glucose. Like, do your cells let sugar in? And so your fasting glucose tells you how much sugar is left floating in your bloodstream after not eating for several hours. So ideally, most of that sugar should be inside of our cells, being used for energy. But when fasting glucose creeps up, even just a little bit, it can mean that our cells are becoming resistant to insulin. And insulin is the key that unlocks the cell so glucose can get inside. And when the cells stop listening, the sugar stays in the blood. So higher fasting glucose equals cells running on empty, even though there's fuel everywhere. So where people start to, this is like sort of where people start to feel tired, foggy, inflamed, and moody. And the suggested levels for your fasting glucose should be anywhere from 70 to 85 percent milligrams per deciliter. That's like a healthy range because it reflects sensitivity that your cells are responding beautifully to insulin and energy is flowing where it needs to go. The fourth, obviously, is not going to be a blood test, but it is your blood pressure. Um, that is your pipes under pressure. And so blood pressure isn't just about the heart, it sort of reflects the health of your blood vessels, which are basically the highways to delivering oxygen and nutrients to every cell in your body. And when blood pressure rises, it's often tied to metabolic dysfunction and insulin resistance. So insulin affects sodium balance, fluid retention, and the way blood vessels constrict. So when elevated blood pressure can signify that your vessels are inflamed, your body is under chronic stress, and that your metabolic system is strained. And that's why we should shoot for under 120 over 80. That'll tell us that our vascular system is calm, open, and supportive of energy delivery. And the fifth marker is your waist circumference because where we store energy matters. And it's simple, but it's really powerful because fat stored around the waist, especially deep inside the abdomen, is a metabolically, it's metabolically active, meaning that it's not just sitting there, it's releasing inflammatory chemicals and hormones that interfere with insulin signaling. So a larger waistline isn't, or sorry, like a smaller waistline isn't just about vanity, right? Like a larger waistline is it that it's a clue that our body is storing extra energy in a way that disrupts healthy metabolism. So for women, we should aim for under 31.5 inches around our waist. That is associated with better metabolic flexibility and lower inflammation. And so tying all these together, these five markers, your triglycerides, your HDL, your fasting glucose, your blood pressure, and your waist circumference, when you step back, all five of these markers are really asking the same question. Do your cells have steady access to fuel and are they able to use it smoothly and efficiently? So Dr. Means points out that only about six to seven percent of Americans can meet all five of these targets without medication, which means that the mass vast majority of us are living in a state of mild to significant metabolic dysfunction, often without knowing it. And this matters because metabolic dysfunction doesn't just show up as diabetes, it whispers through things like fatigue and mood swings and cravings, brain fog, hormonal chaos, skin issues. The body is so beautiful and perfectly designed that it always gives us clues. Dr. Casey Means had made a point in her book that our cells are like trillions of little tiny infants inside of us. And when they need help or attention, the only thing that they know how to do, like an infant, is to cry, right? Like that's how we know something's wrong. The infant needs something from us, but it can't communicate. And so she says to think of our each one of our trillions of cells as tiny little infants. And when they start acting up like skin issues and brain fog and depression and aches and pains and feeling like crap, like these are our cells' ways of trying to get our attention. And I really loved that because it's really it's not fear-based, it's more just like empowering. And that these five markers that I just listed, they're not just a grade, it's feedback. And the body is incredibly forgiving because with better sleep, real food, movement, sunlight, connection, and calmer stress levels, our numbers often improve and our cells finally feel safe again. So she um had another large section in there about teens, children, and then again later in life as adults. And so I kind of just wanted to like share some stuff with you from this book that again, like I just found so sobering and just so like I don't know, just it was such a powerful book. So, okay, let's just start with children, kids, and teens, right? She talks about the heartbreaking rise in childhood metabolic disease, that childhood obesity has tripled since the 1970s. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease was something that was once almost exclusively seen in alcoholics, is now common in children. And why? Processed foods, sugary drinks, sedentary life, late bedtimes, stress, and screens. It's just all around us. And she argues that we've accepted illness in children as quote, normal, rather than asking what environment have we created for our children. And then she stresses that later in life, as we age, the consequences shift: stroke, dementia, Alzheimer's. And sometimes we even call Alzheimer's type 3 diabetes because of its relationship with insulin resistance. Because the blink the brain uses more glucose than any other organ. And so when energy processing goes wrong, the brain will feel it first. Alzheimer's has exploded in the last 50 years. I don't want to get into Alzheimer's, that's a whole other conversation, but it's very sobering to look at the relationship between insulin and Alzheimer's. So I'm just gonna put that there. And so Dr. Casey means she sort of framed small conditions such as like acne, fatigue, infertility, pre-diabetes, like not just as annoyances, but invitations to get curious instead of waiting for a major diagnosis to force us to change. And so another section she had, I really enjoyed. It was all about the healthcare system, just giving it a good hard look. She spends a lot of time critiquing the medical system, not the doctors. She's very careful about that. Our doctors are amazing and brilliant and talented and so hardworking, but they are trying to survive in a system that is like absolutely broken. We have built a six trillion dollar food industry focused on cheap and addictive food and a$4 trillion hair health care industry that profits when people stay sick. And somewhere in between all of that, patients get crushed because no one ever talks about lifestyle and diet and anything else other than medication and masking symptoms instead of getting to the real root cause of what is going on. She even notes that pharmaceutical companies spend triple what the oil industry does on lobbying. I mean, just they're not subtle incentives. She talks a lot more about the healthcare system that I wholeheartedly agree. And it's not that I like don't believe in medical care or doctors. I mean, our modern science and medicine is incredible. And for life-saving measures, like 1000%. Like I'm so glad it's there for those types of situations. But for everyday and like curing, just like basic run-of-the-mill, whatever, like you're kind of on your own there because no one is looking after you. The incentive is all about the bottom dollar and the bottom line. And I feel like we all know that, especially living in 2026. I mean, it doesn't, you don't have to be that smart to look at what's happening out there. Again, let's move on because that could be an entire episode in of itself. Okay, so there is hope, right? There is hope. Her core belief is that most chronic disease is preventable and often reversible through lifestyle and metabolic healing. And that is incredibly empowering, and it's also taking huge responsibility. And so she ties metabolic health to sleep, aiming for seven to eight hours. Actionable evidence-based steps are minimizing alcohol and reducing blue light before bedtime. Another one is your circadian rhythm and really honoring that, trying your hardest to go to sleep at the same time and wake up the same time. Um, and really just like, I mean, there's more to it, obviously, than that. Um, another indication of positive metabolic health is your stress levels. Another one is movement, like your bare minimum. You should shoot for 7,000 steps a day, aiming for 10,000, but like 7,000 should be your floor. Another one is real nutrient-dense food, another one is light exposure, and another one is temperature variation, and there's so much more, but it's a reminder that health isn't one pill or one diet. It's a it's a rhythm and a lifestyle, and all these factors go hand in hand. And so, some recommendations in real time to track, you could do a food journal, your sleep, active steps, um, right? Like how many active minutes per day and week are you with an elevated heart rate? What is your resting heart rate and your heart rate variability? She also pitches for continuous glucose monitoring, which brings me to a gentle critique. And I'll just say this one thing. She does plug the company she co-founded called Levels. She she plugs it pretty heavily. Um, it's a continuous glucose monitor company, and at times it felt a little bit salesy, um, but the information is still fascinating and it's worth noting, but it is worth noting her financial interest. Um, okay, so another section was all about the circadian rhythm. And so our modern Western technology-driven culture really distorts our natural schedules. And in the past hundred years, the average sleep duration has decreased 25%. And we accept irregular and inconsistent sleep as a hallmark of just modern life, right? Like our energy regulations have three interconnected factors sunlight, sleep, and when we eat. And the lack of sleep is a profound danger signal to the body, which throws off proper metabolism and promoting fat storage. Sleep quality can also be assessed by the amount of time spent in deep and REM sleep, which are metabolically restorative for the body and are impacted by lifestyle factors like late meals, alcohol, late caffeine intake, and light at night. And so keeping a consistent bedtime matters profoundly to our metabolic health. And erratic daily food patterns like ultra-processed um food intake can also predispose us to metabolic dysfunction. Our bodies need to fast to get the benefits of utilizing fat for fuel. And so we should really try to reduce our daily eating window to avoid food late in the night. So to like try eating our last food um as early as possible or like like pick a last call time for your meal and like be that like okay, so for example, if your first food in the morning is around 7 a.m., like you should really aim for like a 12-hour eating window. So the last thing you'll eat is at 7 p.m. And to try to shorten your eating window just a little bit. And so she also has a paragraph in her book, um, which I think about constantly. So I'm gonna read it to you. Okay. Uh quote, the 2008 Pixar movie Wally portrays a dystopian future with obese humans zooming about in robotic hover chairs, seeking entertainment via holographic screens, consuming packaged food delivered by robots and never needing to lift a finger. This sadly is close to our current reality. End quote. And so, like, yeah, I think about that all the time. Like all these people who are just like enormous and just like chugging soda as they're like wheeling around, they're like little robotic wheelies, and oh guys, I don't know. It's like it's really scary, and no one really seems to care, right? Like, I feel like you have a select few who actually care about their health and take it seriously, and most people are just like, I'm gonna eat Cheesecake Factory and like drink soda and sugary beverages, and like it doesn't matter. I don't know. Like, I just feel like everyone's like just okay to just constantly feel like crap and and and not like do anything about it. Whereas, like, for the most we we should feel good most of the time, most of the day. And the fact that we don't, and like no one really makes the connection between like all these interconnecting factors is like kind of wild to me, especially since um, and she made this point as well. Our nation has the most gyms of any country in the world, yet we are among the fattest. Our metabolic process is function best when movement is regarded as a consistent part of our days and not a task to be formed in an hour or two. So, meaning, um, right, like she gives an example of chugging water, where if like you're okay, sorry, let me back up. All right, so studies have shown that people who took short walks every 30 minutes had the lowest post-meal glucose peaks and insulin levels. And so, for example, if your body needs about 90 ounces of water per day for optimal function, it wouldn't make sense to chug it all in 30 minutes and then not drink for the rest of the day. Sipping the 90 ounces of water throughout the day would obviously be much better for our body, and so same with movement. The constant like stand-up notifications on your Apple Watches or our Fitbits, like while they are annoying, these recommendations are backed by solid science and might be the most important prompt on a wearable device. So her theory is that at a bare minimum you need those 7,000 steps per day. And so instead of running like three miles in, you know, like I don't I don't know how long it would take you to run more than three miles, like 40 minutes. Um, instead of doing that and then like not moving for the rest of the day, her thought is like to get up and like, you know, hit your hourly step count, you know, so your your body is like constantly moving. And so I take that. Pretty seriously. And yes, like the prompt on my wearable, I wear a Fitbit band around my wrist to kind of catch my heart rate and my step count and a couple of and my sleep and a couple of other factors. Um it was just, it's, it's yes, that is like it's just it's important. Um and so just like in closing reflection, I finished good energy feeling both sobered and also really hopeful. Like sobered because the system is not protecting us in the way we would hope it would. Um, and we're, you know, we're we're kind of on our own. Like I feel like if you don't take health into your own hands, like no one's gonna do it for you. Um, but also hopeful because small daily choices really matter. Your meals, your sleep, your stress, your movement, your light, your presence, just all of it. And I think her overall message was that we're not doomed. Our cells are extremely adaptable, resilient, and always willing to heal when we remove what harms them and restores them and nourishes them. And I think that's really a message worth spreading. She also has a lot of resources on her website. Um, and at the end of the book, she has recipes. Um, there are tons of free downloads and worksheets and resources on her website to sort of help you. And she does beg you just to take one small thing that you heard from her book or learned uh on my podcast, on her podcast, on whatever, and just see what small changes that you could make. Like even if it's something so small, like if maybe you're like a late-night snacker and you have a snack at 10 p.m. every night, maybe bump that down a little bit so your body has more time to fast overnight, right? Or even just like giving yourself a bedtime, or even getting blue light glasses if you need to work late on your computer. I mean, there's so many things that you could do to positively impact your health. And again, no one's coming for you. Um, one of the big things I decided to do after I read this book, I ended up getting a Fitbit wearable, just again to track all of my whatever. And I'm pretty happy with where I'm at. I mean, winter's a little hard. It's really hard to get out there and go for a walk when it's like 18 degrees and I have two small kids to take with me, but we're doing it, we're making it work. Um, I've been a Fitbit person, oh my gosh, since before Fitbit became like cool. I've been a Fitbit person since 2012, and so I'm really excited to like be back, and that's like a longer story, and I promise I will have a follow-up episode on like how to make this Casey Means-esque lifestyle work for moms of small children because I'm right there in the thick of it, but I am making it work, and I am proud to say that I am actually in the six percent of Americans who hit five out of five for her five markers of um overall metabolic health. My triglycerides look good, my HDL cholesterol looks good, my fasting glucose, blood pressure, and waistline. Um, I'm thrilled. And she does implore you if you are not in that 6%, you should make it your life's mission to do what it takes to lower your triglycerides, raise your HDL cholesterol, lower your fasting glucose, get your blood pressure under control, and make sure your waistline is where it needs to be. So thank you guys so much for tuning in. I hope you enjoyed this episode. And even if you thought all of this was gobbledygook, you're like, who is Casey Means anyway? Right? Like, I certainly had never heard of her before. I had seen her on a couple of um Tucker Carlson podcasts with her brother. She is a Stanford certified trained surgeon uh who was completely disenfranchised by the medical system, was just horrified to learn that as a surgeon, um, it was all about the billing, the coding. Uh, the bottom dollar, um, she had many comments made to her by her colleagues about not they she did not train for X amount of years to become a surgeon to give uh diet and lifestyle advice to her patients. Um, surgery, bill up when you can. And more importantly, and I think this was really the tipping point for her, she watched her mother die of metabolic dysfunction um through various things that were like absolutely preventable and should have been cured. And I think that left a really sour taste in her mouth, just watching her own mother's decline. Um, I can't remember exactly how long it took, but um, yeah, so anyway, uh, then she went into a functional health medical route um because she like wanted to help people and then ended up writing this book. I think like this book is like a great act of kindness and service. I love it so much. But even if again, you think it's just like gobbledygook because like she's not like, oh, like a real doctor anymore or whatever, uh, I I still think that some of the things that she says in this book make like a lot of sense. And like who wouldn't want to advocate for like better sleep, lower stress, more movement, right? Like less, less uh blue light at night, right? Like, I mean, these are all like really good things. So even if there's like no science or no data behind it, which of course there's that's not true, it like like it doesn't harm you, right? So I don't know, like take it with a pinch of salt. There are also like a handful of things in her book that I didn't totally agree with. Um, but again, like I with just like with everything else in life, like take what you like and leave the rest. So, you guys, thank you so much for tuning in today. I hope you love this book as much as I do. I have read it now twice, um, the first time just to like read through it, the second time with a highlighter and taking down notes, getting like running over to my physician, getting blood work, asking for a couple of other things. There were more than just these five markers for the record, there was a bunch of other stuff. Um, but anyway, so you guys, thank you for tuning in as always, and I'll catch you back here next week.