In this episode of the MGC podcast, I talk to Shawn Stevenson, creator and host of The Model Health Show, featured as the number #1 health podcast in the U.S. with millions of listener downloads each year. Shawn recently published the The Eat Smarter Family Cookbook, a companion cookbook to his acclaimed Eat Smarter book.

Here are just some of the topics we address:

1. Can you describe the most important steps in your transformation from growing up with your grandparents in Ferguson, Mo to becoming a nutrition expert, #1 podcast host and bestselling author of two very important books?

2. Some of your early experiences make you some kind of “wounded healer”, in particular your health issues. It seems your own experiences stimulated your interest in science about food. Can you expand on this?

3. You call yourself a “nutritionist who no longer believes in food in the conventional sense”. And you make a key point that you no longer make the mistake that many people make, considering food primarily as fuel.

4. You write about how eating with others can have profound benefits on overall health. On the other hand, eating with others during celebrations and holidays is a major cause of weight gain for many people.

5. Can you expand on the relationship between stress and unhealthy eating patterns. You write that 1/3 of people make unhealthy food choices because of stress.