Ep. 191 – Benefits of an Animal-Based Diet vs a Plant-Based Diet with Vinnie Tortorich

I am delighted to welcome Vinnie Tortorich back onto the show! Vinnie was with me once before, in episode 133. Today, he is joining me to talk about his impressive new documentary, Beyond Impossible, coming out soon. I was fortunate to be the first person outside of Vinnie’s team to see his new documentary. It homes in on plant versus animal-based protein and takes a deep dive into methodologies, what marginal land represents, and the net impact of methane and cows.

Vinnie Tortorich is a truth-teller and disrupter. He encourages people to think outside of their comfort zones in an informational yet non-confrontational way. He has connections with individuals like Nina Teicholz, who can easily articulate scientific ideas and research. Ten years ago, Vinnie launched his Fitness Confidential Podcast. It amasses more than a million downloads per month. The following year, he published his book, Fitness Confidential, which became an instant bestseller. In 2019, Vinnie wrote, produced, and starred in Fat, a documentary that rose to number one in several categories across iTunes and ranked well on Amazon and Amazon Prime. A sequel, titled Fat: A Documentary 2, was released earlier this year.

Vinnie was one of the first people ever to talk about the benefits of low carb and ketogenic diets on the internet. In this episode, he and I talk about non-meat products, how our health and wellness have changed since the 1980s, and how much metabolic inflexibility we are currently seeing. We also discuss how some plant-based vegan scientists have influenced public policy and how common misnomers regarding health and wellness can affect our advancement, both as individuals and as a country. Stay tuned for more!

Ep. 190 – Uncovering the Ugly Truth about Processed Foods with Autumn Smith

I am delighted to have Autumn Smith joining me on the show today! Autumn is a co-founder of Paleovalley, one of my favorite socially-conscious companies. Paleovalley has a mission to create products that live up to their strict standards, and they always prioritize health over profit.

From the age of ten, Autumn suffered from intermittent, painful digestive issues. When she got to high school, her digestive issues became even more challenging, and she also started to experience mental health problems. At the time, she was unaware of the intimate connection between the brain and the gut, so she began to abuse substances, and her life spiraled out of control.

Years later, when her husband moved in with her, he saw how much she was suffering and researched chronic digestive issues. That led them to change their diet. Within thirty days, Autumn’s digestive issues disappeared, and over the next year, her mental health returned.

Autumn and I are in full alignment about the quality of fats, saturated fats, avoiding seed oils, and getting enough high-quality omega 3’s and omega 6’s. In this episode, Autumn shares her backstory. We look at animal-based protein diets from an ancestral health perspective and discuss the importance of eating for satiety. We talk about regenerative farming practices, agriculture, the value of pasture-raised animals, and discuss the impact of pesticides and toxins like glyphosate on our health. We also dive into greenwashing strategies and bringing high-quality, pasture-raised animal products to the general public at more affordable prices. Stay tuned for more!

Ep. 189 – The Wisdom Behind Womanhood with Dr. Sonya Jensen

I am delighted to have Dr. Sonya Jensen joining me on the show today! Dr. Sonya is a Naturopathic Physician with a mission to change the way women understand their bodies and themselves. She believes that women are the center of their families and communities, and by supporting them, they create a ripple effect that supports the whole.

Dr. Jensen is a mother of two boys, an author, a yoga teacher, a podcaster, and a workshop and retreat leader. She runs her practice with her husband, and they help their community move into a state of thriving from surviving. Her background in cell biology and her lived experience with Ayurvedic Medicine in her home have given her insights into the human body that help her serve the women and families she works with from multiple different lenses. She is the co-founder of Divine Elements Health Center, The Longevity Lab, and The Health Ignited Academy, alongside her husband, Dr. Nicholas Jensen. Dr. Sonya believes it is everyone’s birthright to live a happy, healthy, joyful, and abundant life.

Younger women often tend to pressure themselves to be perfect, both personally and in their professional lives. That sometimes occurs unknowingly. It usually happens because of peer pressure and the expectation, influence, and conditioning they get from their families. In this episode, Dr. Sonya talks about her new book, Woman Unleashed: Release Your Story. She discusses the effects of stress, talks about contraception, and explains how synthetic hormones like oral contraceptives can influence women’s lives. She also shares some tips for coping with the changes that occur as women approach menopause. Stay tuned for more!

Ep. 188 – Troubleshooting Your Fasting Method with Megan Ramos

The amazing Megan Ramos was on the show with me in Episode 116, and I am delighted to have her join me again today! Megan is a Canadian clinical educator and expert on therapeutic fasting and low carbohydrate diets, having guided more than 14,000 people worldwide. She is the co-author of the New York Times Bestseller Life in the Fasting Lane and co-founded The Fasting Method with her colleague, Dr. Jason Fung.

Modern agriculture and the processed food industry have led to the mass production of hyper-palatable, highly salted, and sugared foods designed to be addictive. That has resulted in millions of people becoming obese and developing inflammatory and metabolic disorders. Fasting is an effective method for overcoming those problems. Megan and I both feel that it is vital for women to know that and to understand that fasting is a sustainable lifelong strategy for maintaining optimum health.

In this episode, we debunk the myths and misconceptions around women and intermittent fasting. We talk about the evolution of the agricultural processed food industry and the impact it has had on people’s health. We also discuss leptin resistance, how stress impacts hormones, different types of body fat, fasting in women who are still cycling versus those in menopause, PCOS, the impact of fasting on thyroid health, weight loss plateaus, and troubleshooting while fasting. Stay tuned for more!

Ep. 187 – Strategies for Biohacking Metabolic Health with Dr. Alexandra Sowa

Today, I am thrilled and honored to be talking to Dr. Alexandra Sowa. Dr. Sowa is a dual board-certified physician of internal medicine, specializing in metabolic health, and clinical instructor of medicine at NYU Langone. She has served as a health expert for national media outlets and print publications like SiriusXM, CBS News, NPR, the New York Times, U.S. News, World Report, and more. In addition to her private practice in NYC, she is the founder of SoWell Health, a consumer metabolic health company.

In this episode, we discuss the scope of metabolic health in the U.S., and Dr. Sowa explains how she came up with her Weight Biology Kit.

We talk about the importance of making the right nutritional choices and improving your health by making better lifestyle decisions. We dive into the role of using technology to monitor health, the influence of alcohol, and using Naltrexone to overcome alcohol cravings. We also unpack the notions of cheat days and biohacking in the wellness space.
Remember to check out Dr. Sowa’s Weight Biology Kit, a point-of-care testing kit for insulin resistance. Stay tuned for more!

Ep. 186 – Greenwashing: The Unfortunate Truth about Personal Care Products with Gin Stephens

Today, I am super excited to welcome Gin Stephens back onto the podcast for the third time! She was with me before in episodes 81 and 104, where she spoke about strategies for intermittent fasting.
Gin is an intermittent fasting expert who has been living the intermittent fasting lifestyle since 2014. She’s the New York Times and the USA Today bestselling author of Fast. Feast. Repeat, and author of the Amazon number one bestseller in the weight-loss category, Delay, Don’t Deny: Living an Intermittent Fasting Lifestyle. Gin has just written a new book, Clean(ish): Eat (Mostly) Clean, Live (Mainly) Clean, and Unlock Your Body’s Natural Ability to Self-Clean, that will be coming out in early
2022.

Gin’s lifestyle shift in 2014 led her to lose more than 80 pounds, launch her intermittent fasting website, self-publish four books, and start three top-ranked podcasts. (Intermittent Fasting Stories, The Intermittent Fasting Podcast with her co-host, Melanie Avalon, and the Life Lessons podcast with her co-host, Sheri Bullock.)

In this episode, we talk about Gin’s new book, Clean(ish). We discuss how to navigate the selection of cleaner personal care products, the greenwashing endeavors of the personal-care products industry, subsidies, GMOs, the lack of clarity in labeling, and the dangers of hyper-palatable processed foods. We also touch on the gut microbiome and how to improve your health by cleaning up your nutrition, the environment, and the personal-care products you use. Stay tuned for this informative and enjoyable episode!

Ep. 185 – Heal your Gut and Hormonal Imbalances with Bone Broth with Melissa Bolona

I am excited to have Melissa Boloña joining me today! Melissa used to be an actress and a model. She is now the founder and CEO of a Bone Broth concentrate company called Beauty & the Broth.

As an actress, people were constantly judging Melissa for how she looked. She tried everything, including Botox and laser treatments, to keep looking young and beautiful on camera. When she tried bone broth for some digestive issues, she could not believe how much her looks improved! The bone broth made the lines on her skin disappear, and her hair became
super thick!

Bone broth has amazing properties and is very easy to incorporate into your lifestyle. It is great for improving your immune system, and it can be profoundly healing. In this episode, Melissa explains what bone broth is, and what you need to look out for when buying it as a pre-made product. She talks about how she discovered the benefits of bone broth, how her career as an actress prepared her for marketing her brand of bone broth, and the importance of gut health. She also explains how much our gut health affects our bodies and minds, and talks about some new fun products she and her team are creating, including a pea vegan bone broth option. Stay tuned for more!

Ep. 184 – Hormonal Symptoms Don’t Have to be a Result of Aging with Dr. Mindy Pelz

I am thrilled to have Dr. Mindy Pelz back on the show today! She was with me once before in 2020, on Episode 113. Dr. Mindy is a bestselling author, keynote speaker, nutrition, and functional health expert who has spent over two decades helping thousands of people successfully reclaim their health. She is a recognized leader in the alternative health field and a pioneer in the fasting movement, teaching the principles of a fasting lifestyle, diet variation, detox, hormones, and more. Her popular YouTube channel (which just celebrated 18 million lifetime views) regularly updates followers on the latest science-backed tools and techniques to help them reset their health. She is the host of one of the leading science podcasts, The Resetter Podcast, and the author of three best-selling books: The Menopause Reset, The Reset Factor, and The Reset Kitchen.

Both Dr. Mindy and I have reached a point in our lives where we feel inclined towards women who are energetically on the same page as we are in terms of mindset and methodology. We would both like to help the women who follow us thrive as they approach middle age, and we want to inspire them with a sense of optimism rather than despair as they head into menopause.

Dr. Mindy offers hope for women and helps them navigate middle age authentically while staying true to themselves. In this episode, we discuss an article in the New England Journal of Medicine about how ill-equipped the new generation of primary health care providers is to manage the symptoms of menopause. We dive into the importance of gut health and escaping the mindset of the rushing women syndrome (a term coined by Libby Weaver), and explain what the estrobolome is. We discuss various gadgets, including the V-Fit, the Apollo Neuro, and the Hyperbaric Oxygen Brain Tap, and talk about ways to navigate middle age as proactively as possible. Dr. Mindy also shares her best strategies for navigating middle age. Be sure to stay tuned for more!

Ep. 183 – Uncontrolled Blood Sugar Imbalance Complications with Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo

I am excited to have Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo, an internationally recognized expert in nutritional endocrinology, joining me on the podcast today! Dr. Ritamarie is a doctor of chiropractic with a master’s degree in nutrition and certifications in herbal medicine, acupuncture, and Heart Math. She is deeply committed to transforming our broken disease-management system into a health care system in which practitioners are skilled at finding the root causes of health challenges and using the wisdom of nature combined with modern science to restore balance to the body.

Dr. Ritamarie burned out in her early twenties and experienced many health problems. She wondered if her diet might be causing her problems, so she turned to the sphere of holistic natural medicine for solutions. She learned a lot and was able to heal. So, she became passionate about using nutrition to help others make choices for better health. She founded the Institute of Nutritional Endocrinology to train doctors, nurses, nutritionists, health coaches, and other practitioners in the science of rebalancing hormones and restoring energy with nutrition and lifestyle approaches.

In this episode, she shares her story and we unpack insulin resistance, explain how to manage it, and talk about how intermittent fasting impacts blood sugar and helps overcome pre insulin resistance, insulin resistance, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome. We also dive into successfully navigating perimenopause, menopause, and a plant-based keto diet and discuss the benefits of lifestyle medicine. Be sure to stay tuned for today’s educational and information-packed podcast!

Ep. 182 – Uncovering the Impact of Emotions on Hunger, Cravings, and Weight with Dr. Adrienne Youdim

Today, I am honored and delighted to have Dr. Adrienne Youdim joining me! Dr. Youdim is an internist specializing in medical weight loss and nutrition. She is the author of Hungry for More: Stories and Science to Inspire Weight Loss from the Inside Out.

Before doing her fellowship, Dr. Youdim was a perfectionist who wanted to excel, exceed, operate, and fix people. Then, she became pregnant. This changed everything for her and thus, began her introduction into the space of obesity medicine.

Dr. Youdim points out that exploring our relationship with food is an opportunity to explore our relationship with ourselves. When we answer the call to address our hunger with self-awareness and radical introspection, we can engage in the life-changing work of managing our hunger from within.

In this episode, we take a deep dive into different types of hunger. We discuss the pendulum bias, beliefs about weight gain, and why Dr. Youdim feels that there should be compassion at every size. We unpack the normalization of body dissatisfaction and shame and discuss the importance of understanding the epigenetic changes associated with weight loss and weight gain. We also talk about the role of hormones in weight gain and weight loss, how to differentiate between needing and craving, how traumas and beliefs play into obesity, and the importance of lifestyle medicine. Be sure to stay tuned for more!