Troubleshoot Your Diet with a Single Blood Test | Chris Kelly

Troubleshoot Your Diet with a Single Blood Test | Chris Kelly

Author: Marty Kendall January 20, 2022 Duration: 1:01:57

Chris Kelly is the founder of Nourish Balance Thrive. Building on his experience as a programmer for hedge funds and large internet companies, he has done amazing things in the health space.

After experiencing his own health transformation, he launched Nourish Balance Thrive to help high-calibre athletes optimise their health and performance.

After regularly running expensive tests on his clients for years, he figured he could do things his way to save time and money. So he eventually developed BloodSmart.ai, a software that uses inexpensive blood tests from doctor visits to highlight potential issues. Rather than performing thousands of dollars worth of extra tests to find an obscure issue, BloodSmart.ai says, ‘you look like someone with X’.

‘X’ can include various conditions, from heavy metal toxicity to hormone imbalances and nutrient deficiencies. The client can then order targeted tests or address their health situation as if they had ‘condition X’. While a condition might not be validated using the blood test, this can give users the hindsight to address their symptoms with early diet and lifestyle changes.  BloodSmart.ai is an extremely impressive and intelligent application of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in health.

Chris was one of the early members of the Optimising Nutrition Facebook Group, a hive mind of learning. I’ve enjoyed following his learning journey on his Nourish Balance Thrive Podcast and being a part of his Keto Summit back when keto was all the rage.

During Chris’s time on the podcast, it was also interesting to discuss the Four Quadrant Model view of health management. We often start with the most complex ‘hacks’ to manage our biology’s ‘source code’. Sometimes this is necessary. However, we often get the most significant benefits from simple things, like optimising nutrition, managing stress and relationships, and prioritising sunlight, movement, and sleep that align with our evolutionary biology.

I’m excited about the potential applications of  BloodSmart.ai. This program allows users to take their standard blood tests and use them to identify nutrient deficiencies. From there, you can manage them with real food rather than resorting to supplements and use Nutrient Optimiser to stay back in Quadrant 1.

I hope you love this chat with Chris, who I believe is one of the smartest and wisest people in this health space.

You can also listen to my chat with Chris on his Nourish Balance Thrive Podcast discussing our latest research on nutrient density.


Marty Kendall hosts the Optimising Nutrition Podcast, cutting through the noise of diet trends and dogma. Here, nutrition isn't about following a rigid belief system or the latest branded plan; it's fundamentally about ensuring your body gets the nutrients it needs to thrive. Marty applies a clear-eyed, engineering mindset to the complex world of food, breaking down the science into actionable strategies. In each episode, you'll hear detailed conversations with researchers, doctors, and other experts diving deep into the mechanics of weight loss, the practicalities of fasting, and the core principles of effective nutrition. These interviews are balanced with candid stories from real people who share their personal journeys, offering relatable insights into what works and what doesn't outside the lab. This podcast serves as a grounded resource for anyone tired of conflicting advice and looking for a substantive, evidence-based path to better health. It’s a space where data meets human experience, all focused on the tangible goal of optimisation. You can expect every discussion to return to that central, uncomplicated idea: strip away the labels, and focus on nourishment.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 36

Optimising Nutrition Podcast
Podcast Episodes
NutriBooster Recipes | Saskia Lesser [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:59
It has been such a pleasure to work with Saskia over the past two and a half years to create the NutriBooster suite of recipes, books (and now meal plans)! We now have 460 NutriBooster recipes catalogued in Nutrient Opti…
Intermittent Fasting 2.0 + Nutrient Density FTW! | Jane Getting [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 37:01
After struggling with her weight for decades, Jane topped the weight loss leaderboard in our January 30-Day Data-Driven Fasting Challenge with 17 lbs weight loss at a phenomenal rate of 2.5% per week! She then followed u…
Chasing nutrient density all over the world | Brian Sanders [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 55:33
Brian Sanders is like my nutrient density brother from another mother. We spoke recently about a range of our favourite topics for his podcast, and he was telling me all about his trip to Tanzania to visit the Masia and…
Solving the puzzle of nutrition | Dan and Kelley Buckley [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 35:25
It was such a blast to chat with Kelli and Dan Buckley about their recent journey with Data-Driven Fasting combined and the Nutritional Optimisation Masterclass. After seeing her dad battle diabetes and eventually die of…
How To Finally Put Your Health First | Bett Lucas [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 41:34
Bett Lucas is a busy mom (of six), wife, and businessperson. She works full time in the energy industry and has won numerous awards for her leadership and charitable projects. Bett believes you can manage a career and ho…
The ProFast Diet Secrets | Dr Brian Mowll [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:10:14
It was so much fun to talk to Dr Brian Mowll (The Diabetes Coach) about the topics in his The ProFast Diet Book, including: What are the biggest misconceptions around protein and diabetes management? Do people need to be…
The Biggest Misconceptions In Nutrition | Mike Julian [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:11:49
Mike Julian has been a great friend and taught me a LOT over the past six years or so! Shortly after I kicked it off the Optimising Nutrition Facebook Group, Mike was making so many insightful contributions I asked him t…
Fitness 101:The Absolute Beginner's Guide to Exercise | Bronson Dant [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 57:39
It was nice chatting with Bronson Dant about where to start on your exercise journey. Lots of people find they have newfound energy to exercise as they start to lose weight after they dial in WHAT they eat and WHEN they…
Rethinking Keto For Type 1 Diabetes | RD Dikeman [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:24:30
RD Dikeman PhD (of Type 1 Grit) is eager to chat through how each of the 12 Keto Lies can negatively impact people with type 1 diabetes. - Keto Lie #1: ‘Optimal ketosis’ is a goal and more ketones are better - Keto Lie #…