Q&A - Dr. Anthony Gustin: The Importance of Quality Foods

Hey Anthony, can you tell us a bit about yourself?

I am a sports medicine and functional medicine practitioner. I own Perfect Keto and Equip Foods. I don't eat a lot of carbs. I eat real food. I enjoy fitness. I like long walks on the beach, you know, same stuff as everybody else.

 

When and why did you start following a ketogenic diet?

I started following a ketogenic diet, I didn't know it was called that at the time, in 2008, 2007 ish. A friend of mine and I looked at a chemistry textbook and a biology textbook and basically just figured out how we can lose as much fat as possible.

And it turned out if you restricted carbohydrates, you would increase lipolysis. So we did this and it worked. Before anybody was calling it a keto diet. So we were on a really high protein, moderate fat, low carb diet back in 2007, 2008. I did not invent it, but this is how it came to be.

 

What has changed for you since you started it?

I think for me the biggest thing is the mental clarity. I can use it as a lever to make sure that I'm looking great, feeling great, etcetera. But the mental clarity I get sustained all day long and the reduction in inflammation is the biggest thing. This is why I keep doing it.

 

 

What is your approach to Keto?

My approach to Keto is eating real food that I'm craving when I'm hungry and not when I'm not. So this is one of those things where I don't think a lot of people think about when they're eating food. They just eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I eat when I'm hungry and I don't when I'm not. I eat real food. I eat animal products and local seasonal vegetables, and that's about it.

And when I feel like I want to eat carbs, I eat carbs. There's no rhyme or reason to it. So I just go with sort of intuitively how I feel. I'd say 95% of the time I'm eating a ketogenic diet.

 

What is the biggest challenge you faced in this lifestyle?

The biggest challenge I faced in this lifestyle is probably not getting enough electrolytes in the beginning. That's something that I think everybody deals with. They'd dump sodium, don't realize they need to increase it and when they need to increase it, it's pretty significant. So, that, and potassium. So once I got that dialled in, I don't know, in 2012 ish, I was totally fine.

 

What do you usually eat in a day?

I hunt, so I eat a lot of animal products that I hunt. Some egg yolks, oysters, usually every day. And then whatever sort of vegetable I put on the side. So I'd say primarily animal products, and then, you know, some micro greens, some avocado, macadamia nuts, etcetera.

 

 

What does a typical day in your life look like?

I wake up, I have a morning routine where I journal, I meditate. Then I do some movement work, and then I usually get straight into doing some deep work, so time where I can have by myself. I don't do a lot of meetings, calls, email, et cetera at this time. Then I usually go work out after that, I eat, and then have any sort of calls, meetings, whatever, and finish up work for the day, hang out with my fiance, hang in.

Yeah. Just enjoy my life. It's a pretty, pretty basic life.

 

How did you get the idea to create Perfect Keto?

I was in my clinic and using the ketogenic diet with a lot of my patients and people were getting phenomenal results, but were complaining about two things primarily. One of them was not having information on how to do the diet, how to avoid certain pitfalls, how to be successful.

And another one is that people, you know, they're eating a lot of stuff and had a really challenging time. I mean, this is, I think in 2016, having any products that would help them transition to a ketogenic diet. And so those are the two things that we focused on. We focused on education primarily and still do, and also focused on providing a lot of people with products that help them be successful in a ketogenic diet. 

We started with Exogenous Ketones, then moved to MCT oil and Collagen and just kept asking people what problem that they had, sticking to a keto diet, and have been trying to help them along ever since.

 

What’s your ultimate goal with Perfect Keto and how do you see it growing in the future?

I just want to keep solving problems. And so, you know, this is one of the things where I have no goal with it. I'm using it as a vehicle to keep getting in touch with people and asking them what they're struggling with. And I let that dictate, you know, what products we launched, what education services we offer, what content we put out, et cetera.

So there's no end goal. I mean, I want to get more distribution. I want to make sure that people have the option for low carb, healthy foods, clean ingredient stuff. And that's this. That's sort of the plan moving forward.

 

 

You recently launched the book Keto Answers. In your opinion, what are the misconceptions people still have about the keto diet? 

One is that quality doesn't matter. It all matters about your macros. I think this is complete bullshit. I think that people should not be eating vegetable oils. Yes,  protein, carbs and fat are totally fine. But you need to look at food quality. If you don't have food quality, you're gonna fall apart. And this is the biggest thing that I think I still deal with.

Number two sort of goes in line with that, is that saturated fat is bad for you. Still, this myth is being propagated, and it really annoys me and I don't know how we can fight against that, but I'm doing work I can do. 

Another one is that you have to eat a lot of fat. I just don't think this is the case, especially if you're trying to lose fat. Yes. Fat or carbs are energy source, but in general, I think that people have way over eaten fat when they switch to a ketogenic diet and they start guzzling oils and all this fake food and ended up becoming more fat, increasing their diabetes, increasing inflammation, et cetera, because they have an energy surplus.

So especially when you're switching to a ketogenic diet, I would say, yeah, have the energy little bit higher, but then when you're adapting, your body can tap into your fat stores. Then just use that.

 

What’s your advice for people who would like to give the ketogenic diet a try?

I would say pick up my book and listen to all my podcast episodes. Everything is in there. Go to Perfect Keto.com  and look at all of our content. We have a keto kickstart there. I mean, the amount of resources we put out in the last three years is, is pretty intense.

 

 

You talk a lot about the consumption of animal meat. What’s your take on the keto carnivore diet? 

I don't think that carnivore is necessary for a lot of people. A lot of people get benefits from it. Um, I think that it can be a tool. Just like Keto can be a tool in nutrition. I do not think that it's a necessity. I think that because people eat a lot of fake food and have done some really terrible things to their metabolism over the course of their life, a carnivore diet can be helpful in some instances.

I do not think that plants will kill you, as some other carnivore people do. I think that there's, you know, every single human tribe that has ever existed, that we've noticed that hasn't been in a Western, normalized modern society has eaten both animal products and plant products and they're all healthy.

So there was no instance of a vegan tribe. There's no instance of a carnivore tribe. Everybody eats plants and animals, so I don't think that it's inherently bad. If you want to try it out, if you're getting good results, for sure, stick with it. But eat nose to tail. If you're gonna do it, eat the whole animal, get a lot of organ meats.

You know, muscle meats are good, they are totally fine, but they are certainly lacking in some essential nutrients. So do not skip out on organ meats.

 

You already mentioned your podcast, The Natural State. Can you recommend any episodes that we should all definitely not miss out?

The vegetable oil one is a huge one. I think that, again, quality is something that people aren't paying attention to on a ketogenic diet. Other than that, I think they're all good in their own ways.

 

You've already tried our chocolate bars. Do you have an all-time favourite flavour?

I think they're incredible. I think that they are the best chocolate bar that people in a low carb ketogenic lifestyle can enjoy. They're all incredible. I really like the hazelnut, coconut and white chocolate. I mean, they have high-quality cocoa in them. I can tell as well the sweetener isn't overpowering. It doesn't have a lot of cooling and erythritol taste. I think it's just a perfect balance. So kudos. Great job.

 

 

Thanks, Anthony! It was a pleasure!

 

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