Podbit · The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
The GKI zone chart maps mitochondrial health into colour-coded zones. The green/yellow prevention zone — where Paleolithic man lived — is where cancer and chronic disease are rare. The red zone, defined by high blood sugar and near-zero ketones, is where modern man increasingly lives. A GKI of 12.5 (Steven Bartlett's live reading) already sits in the prevention zone.
Where this was said
At 51:00 · chapter starts 50:04
The abstract becomes concrete as Bartlett pricks his finger live. Blood glucose at 90 mg/dL, ketones at 0.4 mmol/L. [1] — Thomas Seyfried "Steven Bartlett's live GKI measured at 12.5: During the episode, Steven Bartlett measured his blood glucose at 90 mg/dL and ketones at 0.4 …" 50:17 Seyfried does the arithmetic in real time: convert 90 to millimolar (divide by 18 = 5), divide by 0.4, and you get 12.5. That sits comfortably in the yellow-green prevention zone — the metabolic territory where Paleolithic man lived and where cancer and chronic disease are statistically rare. Seyfried notes he got himself down to a GKI of 10 after a week of ribeyes, bacon, eggs, and lamb, though he admits he loved the ribeye a little too much to go lower. The segment demystifies the measurement entirely: a $30 Keto Mojo from Amazon, a finger prick, and a simple division. The new generation of devices does the calculation automatically.
During the episode, Steven Bartlett measured his blood glucose at 90 mg/dL and ketones at 0.4 mmol/L, giving a GKI of 12.5 — placing him in what Seyfried calls the 'prevention zone.'
Seyfried clarified that ketoacidosis — the dangerous pathological condition — occurs at ketone levels of 15–20 millimolar, far above the 0.4 mmol/L representing normal nutritional ketosis.
Self-help fails because people are sold one universal cure by the hyper-responders who had a transformative result from it. The real problem is context: every method works for the right person at the right time, which is almost never you just because the author says so.
Spencer Greenberg was once so socially anxious his heart pounded just approaching a stranger. His therapist gave him homework: go to a bar alone, talk to 5 strangers. Starting with asking for the time, he worked up to asking men for hugs — and his anxiety fell dramatically in 6 months.
A person who flies regularly but obsessively checks weather forecasts before every flight is not doing exposure therapy — they're teaching their brain that flying is only safe with the ritual. Safety behaviors prevent the brain from ever learning that the feared thing is actually fine.
The worry-time technique assigns all worries to one scheduled slot (e.g. 5 PM). Every time a worry surfaces, you write it down and ban yourself from engaging with it until that time. When 5 PM arrives, most worries feel trivial and the act of batch-worrying exposes how little it actually accomplishes.
In a randomized study of 20 habit techniques, 'habit reflection' stood out: recall a past habit you successfully built, write down what helped you succeed, then apply those same strategies to your new habit. It works because it's self-adapting — it uses whatever worked for YOU.
The tiny habits technique — always having a minimal version of your habit you can do when life gets in the way — keeps the mental machinery of habit formation from breaking. Paradoxically, people given a tiny-habit fallback option were MORE successful at the full habit, not less.
Fears and worries act like playground bullies — they want to ambush you. But when you deliberately seek them out and choose the time of engagement, they lose their power. The volitional act of starting the fight on your own terms is one of CBT's most underappreciated insights.
Most downtime defaults are things you regret immediately after — phone scrolling, binge TV. 'Glad you did it' activities meet the same need for rest but leave you feeling like you spent your time well. The switch from a bad screen to a documentary, a book, or a walk costs almost no extra effort but compounds into identity over time.
You rarely control your first reactive thought. But you can train your second thought — the response to the trigger — by asking whether your initial reaction is the most helpful one and replacing it with something equally true but more constructive. Over time, that second thought becomes automatic.
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