July 31, 2024 • 52 mins
Julieanna Hever, known as the Health Span Dietitian, discusses the importance of diet and nutrition for overall health and well-being. She shares her journey of becoming passionate about empowering others to choose themselves first and live their best life. Juliana emphasizes the power of a plant-based diet in transforming health and reversing chronic conditions. She explains the concept of health span, which refers to how well you live, and highlights the benefits of phytonutrients found in plants. Juliana provides practical tips for incorporating more plant-based foods into everyday life. In this part of the conversation, they discuss the importance of amino acids and protein in a plant-based diet. She explains that all amino acids are found in plants, and that legumes, nuts, seeds, and vegetables are all good sources of protein. She also shares a fun fact that a baked white potato has a better amino acid profile than lean beef. Julieanna emphasizes that our bodies are capable of synthesizing the amino acids it needs from the food we eat, and that we don't need to consume animal products for protein. She also discusses the benefits of dietary restriction and time-restricted eating for health span and longevity.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to the Importance of Diet and Nutrition
02:18 Juliana's Journey and Passion for Empowering Others
04:10 The Transformative Power of a Plant-Based Diet
07:29 Understanding Health Span and its Significance
15:26 The Benefits of Phytonutrients in Plants
19:30 Practical Tips for Incorporating More Plant-Based Foods
26:44 Protein in a Plant-Based Diet
30:04 Dietary Restriction and Time-Restricted Eating
37:03 The Power of Diet in Preventing Chronic Disease
43:27 Shifting Palates and Enjoying Whole Foods
48:29 Putting Yourself Out There and Leaving a Legacy
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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S1 (00:03):
And now the Red Hot Read show with your host,
Red Taylor.
S2 (00:09):
Hey everybody, it's Red Taylor back with a new episode
of the Red Hot Read. And I am absolutely overjoyed
and excited today to bring you our guest. It's going
to be our first deep dive into a topic that
I think is extremely important to everybody on the planet,
and that is your diet and your nutrition and really
(00:31):
your overall health and well-being. She is known as the
Healthspan dietitian, and she's a best selling nine time author,
a personal trainer, a recipe creator, an expert in nutrition, food,
fitness and health and wellness. She's a mom of two
teenagers who is on a life journey to find more joy.
(00:56):
Don't we all need more joy, grace and mercy and ease,
and someone who is passionate about empowering others to choose
themselves first and to live their best life. And ladies
and gentlemen, we are just so fortunate, blessed and excited
to welcome our guest today, Julianna Haver. Julianna, welcome to
(01:19):
the Red Hot Read.
S3 (01:20):
Thank you so much. What a beautiful intro I appreciate that.
S2 (01:23):
Yeah, yeah, thanks so much. It was an easy intro.
It's just a little synopsis of your credentials and accomplishments
in life. So. So let's talk about this because so
many people look, let's face it, we live in a
world that the majority of us are obese, right? And
not just the normal day to day struggles of being
overweight and obese that really attack us, but the decrease
(01:47):
in our life span and the decrease in our quality
of life. Okay, so I want to go back because
where you began with this journey is, is really, really
impressive to me. And just start from the beginning and
tell everybody kind of how this awakened you, where you started,
and a little bit about where you are today.
S3 (02:06):
Oh, it's a long story. So I'll try to summarize
the highlights. But I grew up in Los Angeles, and
my mom says that I danced before I could walk.
So I was in dance class all the time. I
loved to dance. So I grew up, you know, in
a leotard and tights in front of the little mirror,
you know, every day. And one day I was going
through those changes that little girls go through, and my teacher,
(02:28):
Miss Debbie, called out from across the room, Julianna, cut
out your snacks. And I was like, didn't know what
that meant. I was humiliated and I didn't understand it,
but I knew I wanted to understand it. I think
I was about 11 years old, and I also didn't
know that that would be like the seed. That was
the trajectory of my entire career, and my life's mission
(02:48):
is to understand it. So that was it. I started
reading everything I could get my hands on and this
is of course books back then. So just reading and
reading and reading and trying to study and figure out
diet and weight loss and body image and nutrition and gosh,
I learned so much. And it's been, I don't know, many,
many decades since then. And I ended up long story short,
(03:08):
I ended up, you know, going to graduate school to
become a dietitian as I was a personal trainer. It
was a long story, but I just found that diet
is so powerful. And it's not just anecdotal because, you know,
as a dietitian, as a health care provider, we are
trained that our role is to mitigate the progression of disease,
(03:29):
is to make sure people don't get worse or don't
have to increase their medications. Well, as soon as I
started practicing and teaching really like a plant heavy, plant
based diet to my clients, first of all, my eye
when I did it myself, my entire health transformed. And
then I started implementing it with my clients and things
that I was never supposed to be able to see.
I see every day, and this is 20 something years later,
(03:52):
you know, people getting off their medications, people reversing chronic
conditions that they thought they were going to have for
the rest of their lives, decreasing inflammation and pain. And
I mean, it's unbelievable. And so I just wanted to
shout it from the rooftops, which is what I've been
trying to do for the last 18 plus 20 years,
something like that.
S2 (04:10):
I absolutely yeah, you have literally because you've been featured
in such publications as Forbes, you've had a TEDx that's
gone absolutely viral, a TEDx talk, uh, Yahoo, TMZ, The
Doctor Oz Show, US news, and The Steve Harvey Show.
So shouting it to the world is exactly what you've done.
(04:33):
As a father of four girls and who have been
in dance, I can relate to the dance instructor saying, hey,
cut your snacks out! And my daughter would come home
and say, dad, dad, she's so mean. She told me this,
this and this and this. How were you able to
take that? Because really, that that's what the transformative portion
(04:54):
of this was, is because the instruction and coaching that
you receive from that person, you internalized it in such
a manner in that it wasn't a negative to you.
You took it as a journey that that enabled you
to transform your passion in life into helping others. How
did that happen?
S3 (05:14):
I don't know, it was awful. It was awful. And
it's so funny because my son is in football, so
I like relate the opposite to you, but. Right, right. Honestly.
And I've and I've had this throughout my life now
because when I was an actress and the manager told
me to lose weight and it was like it's been
a journey of like being at peace in my body.
And but because of that, you know, diet is one thing.
(05:35):
I love nutrition. I love all the science. I'm a
geek like you can't imagine about the science. And I like,
go crazy with all the biochemistry and all that. But
what's really my passion is connecting with people that have
been through this and understanding that like we are normal,
we are living in a modern day trifecta of overabundance.
There's junk food and temptation everywhere. There's judgment everywhere. There's
(05:58):
this normalization of eating bad food, unhealthy food, and it's
so hard to navigate that world. It's so hard as
a human to say no when you want the bread
in the basket at the restaurant or the ice cream,
or everyone's saying, why aren't you going to have a
piece of cake? It's so hard, but it's also hard
to feel good in your body. And I know, like
now with social media and I have a teenage daughter
(06:20):
and it's like, you just see, like how much, you know,
someone will say, there's always people having opinions and comments
and it is brutal. So I'm not going to pretend
that I like oh yeah, this is easy for me.
It's it is what drives me because I want other
people to know that they're not broken either. This is
the world we live in. This is our body. How
do we nourish us not only physically and with food?
(06:41):
Because that's the most important thing, but also staying strong
and standing in our truth and being confident in our skin.
It's a.
S4 (06:48):
Really.
S3 (06:49):
Profound journey that a lot of us go on. And
when I witnessed this with my clients, because every day
I get tears in my eyes watching these transformations unfold
because it's not about the food. So I like to
say that the food is the language that I use
because in all the stuff percolates underneath. When you when
you have a healthy diet and everything's on plan and
(07:09):
then you have to deal with life, all these incredibly deep,
profound things come up and then you can deal with them.
And it's like a it's a way to heal is
just letting go of those food triggers and stuff like that.
So it's it's very deep and very profound. And I
find that mindfulness and that personal, deep journey is way
more exciting and life changing than the food itself.
S2 (07:31):
That is so good. That's like some of the best
of the Red Hot Read podcast right there, because you're
so passionate and when you talk about it, your physiology changes.
You become you. You come alive. You're like feeling the
emotion of seeing these lives transformed. And that that kind
of reminds me of, of a conversation I had recently
(07:53):
with a colleague in 2024. Our lives are so much
easier than they ever have been in history. Think about it.
We live like kings today Compared to just go 100
years back, 150 years back, there was no. You didn't
even get to take a hot shower, okay? You had
to boil the water to take a hot bath. So,
(08:15):
you know, certainly not a drive through restaurant. So we
certainly had absolutely zero idea about health and nutrition, the
underlying development thereof, and the long term effects of the
personal longevity and health that those things have. And so
you've dialed it in and gone strictly plant based diet
(08:35):
and nutrition. And I eat meat. I'm a red meat eater,
I like chicken, I like fish, I like steak and
some ground beef. But, you know, really focus on lean,
you know, lean meat and single source proteins and then,
you know, love a salad. Vegetables. Not big on baked potatoes.
I know you like baked potatoes. I'm more of a sweet. Haha.
(08:56):
I did my research. I'm more of a sweet potato guy, but.
So let's go plant based. So is it vegan or vegetarian?
Which or both?
S3 (09:04):
I love that you're asking me this. Okay, so first
of all, yes, diet is the number one cause of
early death and disability. It is the most important thing
you can do which is so empowering, right? Say it.
S2 (09:14):
Again. Say it again. I want everybody, people in the back.
Listen up. She's shouting. Say it again.
S3 (09:18):
Diet is the number one cause of early death and
disability in the world ahead of smoking. It's that powerful. Crazy, crazy.
But it's beautiful. It's not a bad thing because you
get to put what's on the end of your fork.
You get to choose it. Yes, I love that. Yes. Okay.
That said, I just rebranded. I was known as the
(09:40):
Plant based dietitian 18 years. Okay. And it wasn't a
thing back then. Doctor T, Colin Campbell coined that term.
Whole food plant based. Brilliant man. He's a mentor of mine,
and I was calling myself a plant based dietitian. Everyone's like,
what is that? What are you talking about? What's plant based? Well,
everyone now knows what plant based means. That's why I
shifted gears, because now it's great. But it's also been
(10:03):
kind of bastardized, if you will, the term and the
use of it. And it's on packaging, like, you know,
like the paleo diet has been where you can buy
paleo candy bars, like just it just it's gotten to
a point where it doesn't mean anything. I already abandoned
the words vegan and vegetarian because that's just like a
that's the definition that's exclusive, like vegan diet means I
don't use animal products. It doesn't say what you eat. Okay,
(10:24):
I'm a dietician. I'm not a moralist. I don't want
to tell anyone what they should or shouldn't eat. In fact,
I won't tell anyone what they should or shouldn't eat. Good.
My messaging, and the reason I'm going by Healthspan dietitian
now is because I care about healthspan and aging healthy.
And you don't have to be exclusively vegan to eat healthy.
And I don't want anyone. Everyone always comes to me.
I don't want to tell you that I eat meat.
(10:44):
It's like, it's okay. Like I'm not going to tell
you to give up all whatever my message is. Eat
more plants, eat more of a rainbow every day. Incorporate vegetables, fruits,
whole grains, legumes, mushrooms, nuts, seeds, herbs and spices, and
infinite tasty combinations. Health span increases with an increase intake
of plants and whole plants. That's the message.
S2 (11:06):
Okay, so two things I'm I'm fascinated I literally fascinated.
So two things on this because you use the term healthspan.
And that is an uncommon term Okay. Right. I noticed
that and I've got it actually written in my notes.
Explain Healthspan to our audience today. And then I want
to come back, and I want to dive a little
(11:26):
deeper into another thing that you mentioned there as well.
So Healthspan.
S3 (11:29):
Yes. So here we go. We're doing this again, right?
Plant based wasn't a thing. Healthspan is becoming a thing again.
And this is Mark my words. It's going to be
what everyone's focusing on. Lifespan is how long you live.
And I wrote a book a few years ago called
Healthspan solution Healthspan is how well you live. It's we
you know, like you said, 72% of Americans are overweight
(11:51):
or obese now. 72%. That's like crazy. Almost three quarters.
That's yes, mind blowing. And the world is not doing
much better. We're like, I think it's 1 in 3
in the world now, but we're still always we're trailblazing
in the obesity department. Go America. You know it's we
are we're westernizing the world.
S2 (12:08):
Another list of the things that we do not want
to be leading in.
S3 (12:12):
Right. We're leading in all sorts of wonderful things to
I don't want to be I'm very, very proud of
my country. But anyway, so we are definitely in a
bad situation. It is a world of hurt in terms
of our health span. So we may be living longer,
but we're not living longer. We're living longer in years
of disability, cognitive dysfunction, you know, debilitation. And it's like,
(12:35):
who wants to live like that? You want to live
a really broad life full of energy and passion, and
be able to be on the floor with your grandchildren,
playing and playing football with your kids, all of those
things that you want to do, and then all of
a sudden go to sleep and that's it. Like that's right.
Who doesn't want that's like a long, healthy life. And
then boom, right, right. Right. So health spend is how
long you live healthy.
S2 (12:56):
Okay, okay. I love it because I relate to that.
I'm so passionate about that. My wife threw me an
amazing surprise birthday party for my 50th. And you know,
I was so taken by gratitude and just thankfulness. And
it was time for me to to make a toast.
You know, my toast that night was in my statement,
(13:16):
I guess that the hit me is that we all
need to live healthy to 100. Okay, that I'm making
this statement, I'm going to live healthy to 100. Now,
you know, I think that I focus probably more on
my exercise, my working out and my exercise. I mean,
I'm pretty much a workaholic and I, you know, I
love to work out. I work out, you know, five,
(13:37):
six days a week. I'll go in and lift heavy things.
My diet, on the other hand, I probably need to
step it up with my diet because we all know
that's more important. That is most important. Okay, it's it's 85%
diet and then 15%, you know, exercise maybe 9010. So
you know, depending on who you talk to, you know,
Doctor David Sinclair who is I think are you familiar
(13:58):
with Doctor David Sinclair? I've heard him on Ed Mylett.
I've heard a lot of his stuff. Tony Robbins dives
deep into him. He mentions the plants that that he
eats are strained plants and vegetables. Okay, do you know
what that means as far as the strain? Because there's
what's the term that he uses that when Mrs.. Yes.
(14:19):
Thank you. Say it again.
S3 (14:21):
Xeno hormesis.
S2 (14:22):
Xeno hormesis. Basically the way that he explains that in my,
you know, third grade understanding level is that if the
plants are strained already in their existence, in their growth, okay, like, hey,
they're planted in the, you know, in the dirt, they
have to come out and they have to go through
some rigorous activity to be matured. Then they're that much
(14:44):
more plentiful and Bountiful and beneficial in our own nutrition.
S3 (14:48):
Here's the magic that is plants. And yes, I've had
David on my when I had a podcast too. He's wow.
And but it's not necessarily like you have to look
for strange plants. So let's just talk about the magic
of plants and the phyto power. It is incredible. So
plants are living outside, right? They have to deal with pests.
(15:09):
They have to deal with weather. They have to deal
with all sorts of stress. And it's stress that causes
them to grow these different phytonutrients. So there's things that
protect them against the pests and the weather and all
these things. That's the colors, that's these nutrition, the two
most health promoting nutrients on the planet. Forget protein. We
could talk about protein, but what's way more important? Fiber
(15:31):
and phytonutrients, phytochemicals. Those phytochemicals these are all only found
in plants. The phytochemicals are the things that make the
color like why is this plant green? Why is my
berry blue? Why is the strawberry red? Whatever those colors,
the smells, all of these different things that are protecting themselves,
those are called phytochemicals. There are we have about I
(15:54):
think last I checked like 500 different categories of them. Wow.
Beautiful thing. The symbiotic thing about it is when we
consume those plants, we confer the same benefits. So we
get anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidative, cardioprotective, bone protective. You can't. Every system
(16:15):
is influenced by these categories in different ways. There's carotenoids,
which are the reds, oranges and yellows that help with
like reducing prostate cancer, reducing, you know, good for eye health,
good for immune function. There's just like literally there's hundreds
and hundreds of these beautiful compounds found synergistically in plants.
And we consume them and confer these beautiful advantages.
S2 (16:36):
Love it, love it. You're so passionate about it, too.
And it makes sense, you know, because the sun, it
takes sun and water to grow anything, right? I mean,
you know, outside and with plants, the more that we
put that into our body, it goes down to our
mitochondrial level, our cellular level. And it seems to me
like just, you know, like I said, on a third
(16:57):
grade level, that those would help to generate healthier cells
and the more healthier cells that we have in our body,
the better our health span would be.
S3 (17:08):
Is that correct way to say it? Here's the thing.
Every day we are confronted with cancer cells. Our body's
producing or developing cancer cells. We're developing, you know, we're
fighting off viruses. We're fighting off bacteria. We're fighting off everything, right?
We're constantly bombarded by things that are our enemies. So
these phytonutrients and these plant foods actually provide protection against them,
(17:30):
reducing the risk for these things developing into disease. And
you want, you know, you want to strengthen your immune system.
The other amazing thing we're we're just learning so much
and we really don't know as much as we think
we know where there's like the cusp of learning the
tip of the iceberg like 50.
S2 (17:44):
Years in on this deal, right? I mean, we're like
50 years in to beginning to study this stuff basically.
S3 (17:49):
Way more than that. Oh, hundreds. But like the document,
we've documented stuff like this for 100, 150 years. There's
there's some great science on a lot of this, and
it keeps going back to the same truths. So every
time you hear these silly things like, you know, only
eat meat and don't eat plants or beans are bad
for you. It's like, um, there's decades and decades of
science that you can't just ignore. It's like these are
(18:11):
fads and trends that come up. But let me just
point out that one of the mechanisms of action by
which plants have all these benefits is via the microbiome.
So we have like I think we're like ten times
more bacteria than we are human cells, especially in our gut.
We have a lot of bacteria all over our body,
but especially in our gut. And that tends to impact
(18:32):
our immunity big time. It impacts our brain function, our cardio. Basically,
every system in our body is influenced by these bugs
that live in our body. However, the bugs, what kind
of bugs and what kind of microbiome do you have
is influenced by what you eat, where you are, but
mostly what you eat. It loves fiber. Prebiotics is fiber.
(18:52):
Where do you get fiber? Plants. So having a diversity
of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, mushrooms, nuts, seeds, herbs
and spices is going to influence your microbiome, your profile.
So it's going to bring in all the good ones.
And that's going to get rid of the pathogenic ones.
So just even within your body just to like regulate
your immunity and all of the wonderful things that we
need to protect ourselves against this crazy world, including just
(19:14):
stress from within. It's situated right there. And fiber and
phytonutrients are incredible.
S2 (19:20):
Okay so fascinating. So let's go into practicality okay. Let's
talk to the 72% of Americans who are you know
that's that's one of the whole things. It's it's just difficult.
It's in everybody's average everyday life. We're so caught up
in the hustle and bustle. We're getting the kids to school.
(19:42):
We got to get to work. We got to get
to practice in the afternoons. We moms, we gotta cook dinner.
We gotta do the laundry, we gotta get the dishes done.
And then by 830 at night, we're just hoping to
be able to sit down on the couch and just
decompress a little bit. And so for the average American,
(20:03):
how do we transform and make the change to begin
to move in towards a much better health span? Dietary life?
S3 (20:14):
That is the question read. That is all that matters
because in theory, great. But how do we do it?
And that's what I do with my clients. This is
what I do day to day, like how to do it.
And this is in my books and in my I
try to do on social media. I'm doing meals and
minute segments where it's like these little quickie meals that
you throw things together. But I like to start with
this stay simple. It doesn't have to be all in.
(20:37):
You don't have to dive in completely cold tofu and
everything is perfect. There's no such thing as perfect. So
let go of perfection. Eat more plant based. So add
a salad. Use the convenience products there's. Nowadays you can
go at any market. I've been all over the world
in countries especially throughout the country. Even in the South,
there's amazing options to make it easy, like bags of
(20:59):
salad and cabbages. You could throw that in a bowl,
open up a can of beans, you know, open up
a jar of salsa, frozen brown rice, frozen quinoa, frozen
white rice, whatever. Potatoes. Like my Hawaiian sweet potatoes. Like
there's so many easy things. And then that's one is
start simple and with things that you know and just
(21:20):
trying to incorporate more plants. Now go back to what's familiar.
We all grew up eating plant based. We just didn't
call it that. Like all of us know what oatmeal is.
All of us know what you know, what a salad
is or what a minestrone soup is. Or, you know,
a veggie. I grew up in LA, so like a
rice and bean burrito, we have a lot of delicious.
My favorite Mexican food here. Simple, simple Go back to
(21:42):
what you know. Pasta primavera. A lot of us know
very simple things. Go back to those. Start with those.
The other amazing thing these days is now, because I
remember when I was doing this, I was like rice
and beans and broccoli or whatever, because I didn't know.
Now there's thousands and hundreds of thousands of websites and
recipes out there that you could just search for. So
let's say you're like, craving lasagna. Just write whole food
(22:04):
plant based lasagna. You'll have so many options. Try it.
Whatever you're craving.
S2 (22:09):
Okay, I love it I love it so. So just
keep it simple, okay? You don't have to go over
the top. You don't have to decide, hey, I'm going
to change my whole world today and do like every
other diet in the world by Wednesday. Thursday we're off.
We can't fit it in. And so we just quit, right?
Because that's what what really happens. Everybody, right, is we
(22:29):
we make these, you know, commitments to ourselves to, to
go into this new life. We get expired, we get
excited and we know that we need to do it.
I mean, it's it's it deep down inside we know
it's what's best for us going through chick fil A,
going through McDonald's, you know, taking the kids to to whatever,
Burger King, Taco Bell. It's not what's right. It's not
(22:50):
what's good for us. Okay. And so just like so
many other things in our lives, that finding success, finding joy,
finding health, you know, the goals that we want, the
dreams that we want is just on the other side
of those hard things and that we continue to put
off and the continued to delay. And so keeping it
(23:13):
simple is what we really need to do on this is, hey,
just throw a salad in with your meal, okay? Eat
the salad first, eat the salad first, and whatever dressing
you put on that, make sure it ain't white, right?
I mean, just as long as it's not.
S3 (23:26):
White, I think white dressing cashew. I always do another
seed based dressing. I love those, but yeah I mean
the other the other thing that makes it easier, like
you're describing those really tough long days where you're trying
to get everything done and fed and everyone fed. You know,
if you have like a Sunday where you have a
couple hours, make a chili on the pot, you know,
like make a big huge pot of chili. It'll last
days and then also make a batch of sweet potatoes
(23:48):
and then all week or for at least four days
or whatever, you could whip out one of your sweet
potatoes and the chili, microwave it. Boom. You've got a
really healthy, like, really nourishing, comforting meal. Yeah, stuff like that.
S2 (24:02):
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(24:24):
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(24:45):
the show. Guy like me I love to work out proteins.
Really important. In fact, I've got signs in my office
that say Chase greatness and eat protein. Okay, it's just
kind of like a joke, I swear. It's kind of
like a joke. My, my, my kids got me a
shirt for Christmas one year. And because I, you know,
I'm motivational. So I tell people all the time, chase greatness. Like,
(25:07):
I'll see somebody doing something. I'm like, that's the opposite
of chasing greatness. Get that out of here. You know?
And these guys mess with them all the time. So
it's it's chase greatness. And then in the middle there's
like a rooster with big muscles and it says eat protein.
So literally so it's like a it's a thing. So
as far as like for me, I'm a I want
to I want protein, okay. I got to get at
(25:28):
least 150g of protein a day. Okay. How do we
do that on a plant based diet. Where does the
protein come from?
S3 (25:36):
Well, first of all, why you need 150g of protein
a day?
S2 (25:40):
I don't know, that's just my mind. That's just the number.
For whatever reason, I think protein is is the building
block of muscles. And I think that lean muscle mass
is going to enable me to eliminate fat and live
a longer, healthier life. In my mind, the more lean
muscle I have, the less fat I'll have, and so
the healthier I'll be.
S3 (25:59):
There's so much to deconstruct there. It's so interesting. We
all chase protein. It's like I always say, it's the
persistent pursuit of protein. And it's not the be all
end all because it's if you think about the packaging
of protein, you know, what else are you getting with it.
So and if you're talking about fat loss, that's a
whole other. So we could have a whole other talk
about all of that. I think it's so interesting. But
let's just answer that question that you asked.
S2 (26:21):
Set me straight. Please set me straight.
S3 (26:23):
I don't know. We have a lot to we could
deconstruct a lot of that. And I find that most
of my career now is answering the protein question, and
it has been. But it's gotten worse, and it's overwhelming
how people are focused on it, and it's very myopic.
You can get protein from plants. Absolutely. You know, all protein.
(26:44):
It's all amino acids. It's based on amino acids, right.
That builds up the protein. Well, all amino acids are
found in plants. All plants have all the amino acids.
So you can get plenty of protein from all the vegetables, fruits,
whole grains, legumes, mushrooms, nuts and spices. Legumes are really
higher in the amino acids, so legumes are lentils, all
the beans, peas, tofu and tempeh. And then hummus should
(27:07):
be a food group. Great nuts and seeds. Great source
of amino acids. But so is broccoli. So is quinoa.
So is brown rice. So there's oatmeal potatoes. How do
you know that? Potatoes. This is crazy fun fact. You
could Google it. I swear this is the craziest thing.
Gram for gram, a baked white potato has a better
(27:29):
amino acid profile than 90% lean beef. What? Shut the
front door. Check. All right, come on.
S2 (27:38):
Okay, so, gram for gram, a baked white potato. You
said it differently in my mind. I'm. I'm hearing more protein.
S3 (27:48):
No better profile.
S2 (27:50):
A better profile. Okay, okay. So let's break that down
and explain that to us. What is what exactly does
that mean.
S3 (27:57):
So the whole thing is people think, oh, if you
eat you want to get the most the, the most
amino acids that are that we need all of the
amino acids. Well then the best thing you should eat
would be human flesh, because that has exactly the amino
acids that you need. Not that we ever want to
encourage that. Ever, ever, not ever. But the point is,
we don't need to do that. Our bodies are way
more brilliant than needing to have a piece of meat
(28:17):
going right to the muscle. It doesn't work like that.
We take in whatever food we take in. We break
it down into its components. So amino acids for the protein,
the fats turn into fatty acids and triglycerides, and then
the carbohydrates are broken down into its components. Right. And
then the body assimilates it. Our bodies are amazing. So
you need protein. Absolutely. I'm not saying you don't need it.
(28:39):
And you only need nine of the essential amino acids
out of 20, which you can get from plants. So
you need to be mindful of it. But you can
absolutely get as much protein as you wanted to on
a plant based diet. But okay, let's talk about healthspan
really quickly. So I know you're saying you want to
and And I agree frailty is a big issue in aging.
We need to avoid frailty and muscle mass is important.
(29:00):
You get that in the gym. You get that with
what you're doing on the on the workout mode. Your
body is going to make all the amino acids to
build those muscles that it needs to build. But with Healthspan,
the only way we've ever increased healthspan and longevity in
all model organisms tested from the yeast, the the mice
(29:20):
to our primate cousins is with dietary restriction. Without malnutrition,
less protein is the only way we've extended healthspan and longevity,
and the early trials in humans seem to show the same.
S2 (29:35):
Wow. Okay, so you just opened up another can there
as well because with dietary restriction in my mind, what
that sounds like to me are three simple words eat
less often. Okay. And so, you know, that is what
I've read and studied is the only way that we
(29:57):
expand the life of cells, right? Is is to deprive
them of food to, to, to eat less often or
eat in windows. The whole intermittent fasting thing. Right. I
think David Sinclair, Doctor Sinclair's big on the intermittent fasting
or just shorten windows of eating. So dive into that
(30:18):
a little bit for the audience, because it sounds like
you have some really expert knowledge on that topic and
the practice thereof as well.
S3 (30:24):
Yes, what I teach in my practice and in my books,
especially the last book, are three elements. The three ways
to get healthy plant. Whole food. Plant based the majority
of your diet, whole food, plant based, time restricted eating,
and then all the mindfulness things, all dealing with the
crazy world. That's the other part time restricted eating. Okay,
our bodies work really hard when you eat, and it's
(30:47):
after the last swallow of the last bite. It's 4
to 6 hours of digestion and absorption, which is very
labor intensive. So our body shunts. That's why you're not
supposed to go swimming, you know, after you eat. Because
you need to like let your body digest all the
blood goes to the GI tract, which it should when
we're in the fasted state, which again, doesn't have to
be for days or weeks or months, where? Well, let
(31:09):
me back up. When you go in the fastest state
for the longer extended fast and stuff like that, there's
incredible benefits. I just interviewed, um, Doctor Alan Goldhammer. He
just wrote this new book, Can Fasting Save Your Life?
He's done so much research on fasting. Long term water
only medically supervised fast. Don't try this at home audience people.
But yes, but those fasts have shown, and we have
evidence since Hippocrates and then Mark Twain. There was all
(31:32):
these books and all this original data. It's biblical.
S2 (31:35):
I mean, it's in the Scripture. I mean, I mean,
you know, let's I mean, we don't have to go
religious in a day, but Jesus went and fasted for
40 days to, to be able to get clarity on
what to do, you know. And so yeah go ahead. Sorry.
But I'm like, yeah, it's thousands upon thousands of years old.
S3 (31:51):
Yeah. How many religions have fasting incorporated as part of
its ritual? There's a lot, but there's evidence that like
Doctor Goldhammer, they have reversed so many crazy things that
we didn't think were possible. I think there's a couple
of lymphoma cases that they're documenting 10 or 15 years later.
Like incredible things happen when your body gets to heal itself.
That's that quote. I think it's Hippocrates. Let thy whatever
(32:13):
happens is when you remove food and you just remove
all of these things and let your body heal because
it knows how to heal. We innately know how to
recover and heal our bodies. Have you ever seen a
wound on your body? Of course. Watch it heal. It's
incredible how our bodies. Yeah, I know what to do here.
So food kind of disrupts that process. We need to eat.
I'm not saying you need to fast. The beautiful thing
(32:34):
that we've discovered with time restricted eating and all this
new data that's coming up, is you can get the
same benefits of these or similar benefits of these long term, fast,
less painful because I don't want to not eat for
a week or 2 or 3 like I got work
to do. And like, you know, it's really healthy to
do it. I've done one three day fast, but but
you get the similar benefits by doing it every day.
(32:55):
It's just having time in the fasted state. Let your
body recover, rejuvenate, refresh, take time off of eating and
it's so easy to do like we just eat all
the time. Most people wake up, they have their coffee
with the creamer, then a donut and then snack, and
then lunch and a snack and dinner and then a snack.
And it's time to go to bed. And you're still
digesting and absorbing for 4 to 6 more hours after
(33:16):
you have that last bite. So ideally you stop eating
after dinner, go to bed on an empty stomach. That's
really good for your circadian rhythm, really, really healthy for
all the hormonal systems in your body. Let your brain
and your body recover during sleep and have maximal benefit
of sleep. Because sleep is so important, then you wake up.
Most of us aren't hungry in the morning, but we
eat because breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
(33:37):
But break fast means whenever that is. So like I'm
as soon as we hang up. That's going to be
my first meal of the day. I love to eat
around 11 or 12:00. For me, that's like I and
then I, you know, so I give myself like a
probably an 18 hour window every day. And I usually
I like to eat two meals instead of eating in
a window, like I like to eat, recover and then
eat a smaller meal at night. And that's I love it.
(33:59):
It's changed everything for my GI tract and my sleep.
It's just it's so helpful. But the evidence is very,
very compelling. on on eating less. And I won't even
say less often. I would just say eating less.
S2 (34:12):
Yeah, I'll I'll agree on that. My normal routine is
and I've probably adopted this over the last two and
a half to three years. Is I generally eating about
a six hour window every day? So it's probably closer
to 2:00 here right now in Atlanta. And I haven't
eaten today. And I you know, I just drink black
coffee in the mornings usually every now and then I'll put,
(34:34):
you know, a little honey in my third, which technically
that breaks a fast. Okay. But if you're going to
break it that's a decent way to break it. I would,
I would surmise okay. And then usually at about 3:00
or 4:00 I'll go and I'll eat, you know, my
first meal and then I'll probably eat a light dinner
around six and be done about, you know, 730 or 8.
So I've got about 16 to 18 hours of non
(34:57):
eating windows in most every day. And what that's done
for me, I don't get sick. I mean, I can't
tell you the last time I was actually sick, you know,
or or feel bad. You know, I don't really feel
tired during the day. I don't, you know, most everybody
has that three, 4 or 5:00 in the afternoon crash. Right?
It's so prevalent. We're we're programmed in our mind that
(35:17):
we need that pick me up in the afternoon because
we're going to have that crash. Why do we have
that crash? Because you have. You've been forcing food down
your mouth since you woke up at 8 a.m., and
your insulin levels are going boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
And your body can never do any of the work
that it needs to do. Right? It's it's like the
programming that we have been inundated with since we were
(35:39):
born is to eat from the moment that we wake up,
pretty much until the time we go to bed. And
what's that doing to us? What is that doing to
our bodies and our health?
S3 (35:49):
It's doing the 72% of the US is overweight or obese.
It's doing chronic disease up the crazy like crazy levels
of cardiovascular disease. Still the number one cause of death
in the world. And it's mostly preventable. Most of those
cardiovascular diseases, most of the, you know, the vessel, the
vascular diseases, the high blood pressure, the the high cholesterol
is absolutely modifiable with diet. I say that with I've
(36:13):
read the research, of course, but I again, the anecdote
is not as half as powerful, not even a 10th
as powerful as the data, but witnessing it over and
over and over again, over and over. Every day I
see someone get off their medication or someone just with
diet alone. It's wow, incredible. So that's what it's doing
is giving yourself eating less frequently. And eating whole foods
(36:35):
is so powerful.
S2 (36:36):
That is absolutely powerful. So I've read doing some research
on you where you had mentioned that I think you
said it in your TEDx talk and some of your material,
the of the the Magic elixir, and maybe you've already
discussed that with us, but really kind of dive into
what you refer to as the magic elixir.
S3 (36:57):
Yeah. Well, so I did my Ted talk. It's been
a long time now, 12, 13 years ago, something like that.
But I think I was still like, what, 6 or
7 years in on, like being blown away by what
I was witnessing because again, in, in my clinical rotations,
I spent a lot of time in hospitals and my
ex-husband's a doctor. So I was like, I was in
medical school with my ex-husband and all of our friends,
(37:19):
And so I and I spent so much time in
the hospital setting and researching and watching and witnessing, and
I just I was not ever expecting to see how
powerful diet was. It's not what we're taught. Doctors are
definitely not taught that. Because I saw the medical school
nutrition class, the five minutes of nutrition of like, vitamin
D deficiency is rickets. You know, iron deficiency. I mean,
(37:41):
just like the crazy. That's the extent of the nutrition,
which is really funny because me and my ex-husband, no
matter where we would go, they'd ask him the nutrition
questions and he'd be like, um, ask her. She's the dietitian.
It's like, so crazy. Everyone asks their doctor for nutrition advice,
but they don't have that education.
S2 (37:56):
They have none of it. Zero. It's all medicine, medicine
and drugs. No nutrition.
S3 (38:00):
Yeah. So I think the magic elixir for me, I
called it that because I never expected to see it
and I was witnessing things that I was. It was
my every day. And still here we are 20 years later.
I'm still like every day going, oh my gosh, I
just got a text from my aunt who was like,
asked me for advice because I helped her husband many
years ago and he got healthy, recovered from a serious illness.
(38:22):
And so but you know, my family doesn't eat like me.
They don't. And they think I'm crazy because, you know,
because they're like, you know, normal and I'm not normal,
but I've never been normal. It's okay.
S2 (38:31):
But really, it should be the other way around, right?
S3 (38:33):
I mean, I know.
S2 (38:34):
Eating a plant based, you know, majority plant based diet
focused on healthspan, which I love the term okay. And
your health and longevity and the quality of your life
should be the focus. It's listen, this is not a
a trial run, right? We're not in a practice game here, right?
I mean, it's this is the only body that we get.
(38:57):
It's it. That's it. You know, we're not going to
get another one anytime soon. And we can't go to Amazon.
They're not sending one to us. Um, I mean, and so,
so many of us just absolutely have eliminated it as
any level of a priority in our life. Thus we
see the damage and And as you said, all of
(39:20):
the cardiovascular disease that's going on, all the obesity and
just overall lower quality of life. I've been in health
insurance for like 25 years now. Right. And every single
person that we sell health insurance to, you know, we
have to ask all these health questions, okay. And it's
almost a given that my entire staff knows that if
you've got someone, a man or woman that are over
(39:42):
the age of about 37 in their 40s, they're going
to be on some kind of blood pressure medication. They're
going to be on statin, they're going to be on
a cholesterol medication. Mom's going to be on a thyroid medication,
and then about 45% of them are going to be
on type two diabetes medication. So it's just debilitating. And
what it and it really financially it's debilitating as well
(40:05):
because you know in real life somebody has to pay
for that. And so the insurance companies, they raise everybody's
rates because they know that cardiovascular disease is right around
the corner. And so if we were to make the
alternative of that, which is eating a healthy diet, simply
what we put into our mouths a priority, then so
(40:29):
many of these problems could go away.
S3 (40:30):
Yeah. Here's the other thing. The big the big thing
is that a lot of people know this or hear
this or consider this, but there's a thing that's really
overwhelming is that our palate is so shifted to these
hyper palatable foods, these very, you know, fatty, salty, sugary, processed,
(40:51):
ultra processed foods. I think it's like over half of
the US diet is ultra processed foods. And it takes
it requires time to adjust the palate. So the first
time you have one of my soup recipes or whatever,
it's going to be not as like it's not going
to light up your dopamine receptors. But I've seen this
now with thousands of people. I've worked with thousands of
people one on one deeply, and I've watched their food journals,
(41:13):
I've watched their labs, I've watched their weight. And every time,
if you stick to it every day, the soup tastes better.
All of a sudden you're like, wow, that sweet potato
is really sweet. My client yesterday, she's like my all
of a sudden, that green pepper, which just stood out
as like a a unique flavor. It's like your palate
comes alive again. So you have to know that there's
going to be a shift and you have to get
rid of there's a dopamine hit that takes place, a
(41:35):
big dopamine hit when you keep those hyper palatable foods.
And you just have to, like, know that if you
if you stick with it, it's usually about 21 days.
Your palate will shift and you will love Whole Foods
and you won't even want that other stuff. It's almost
like abrasive. Like when I have something that's off plan,
that's like like an ice cream or something. It's like, well,
like my, my taste buds. It's a big shock. Not
(41:57):
that I don't love it and I can love it
again if I just did it more frequently. But I
love Whole Foods, like, I love the way the food tastes,
and it just takes time to get there. And it
just takes people. So you just have to want it
badly enough. Anyone could do it, but you have to
want it badly enough. And the benefits. And also when
you feel good and the food tastes good and it's
like a beautiful, vicious, positive cycle after that.
S2 (42:17):
Yeah, yeah. Like you said, you just have to want
it bad enough. You got to be able to stay
consistent with it and, you know, realize that it's you're
not driving up to it. You're not pulling up to
a drive through restaurant to change your life. Okay? You're
not going up to the ATM to change your life.
There is actually a little bit of work that has
to be done. You know, you mentioned that that highly
(42:37):
palatable food that we all ingest. And what most folks
don't realize is that, you know, if you're eating a
potato chip or, you know, a candy bar or a,
you know, a bag of crackers or something like that,
you know, the vast majority of the flavor that is
in those is the same type of chemical compound that's
in the perfumes that we put on our bodies that
(42:58):
we smell. So it's the same chemical makeup, it's the
same biological makeup that we're putting in, and we're adjusting
into our body through our mouth and our in our
digestive system that the perfume is that we spray onto
our clothes. There's very little difference. And so, as you said,
dopamine receptors, you eat a Dorito, you put a Dorito
in your mouth, okay. And your dopamine receptors are like, yes,
(43:21):
let's go. I'm all I'm in on this. Let's roll. Okay,
go get a, you know, a three bean soup or
something like that. It's probably going to take you a
little bit. You know, you probably had to get, you know,
put some good onions and peppers and some spices in
there to make it come alive for you. And as
you said, it may take a little consistency and a
little willpower to get yourself to the point where you're like, yeah,
(43:45):
I like this. I love the way it makes me
feel okay. And it might be the difference in representing
to ourselves. Tony Robbins said that paradigms are the eye
glasses through which we see our world, our life. Okay,
so if we are able to change our paradigms and say,
I live to eat, man, I love a big plate
(44:08):
of pasta and butter and, you know, processed foods and
processed carbohydrates instead of that being that your paradigm, change,
that paradigm, say I eat to live.
S3 (44:20):
I love that, but I also want to emphasize for
your audience that you don't have to suffer because the food.
I love food. I've. I did not learn how to cook.
I was not trained how to cook. But my first book,
they're like, oh, and you have six weeks to write
a whole book. Oh, and 50 recipes. I'm like, recipes, like,
what are you talking about? Like, I'm, I know physiology
and statistics, but like, recipes. Well, I taught myself how
to cook and now I love it. But I'll tell
(44:41):
you this now I published hundreds of recipes from all
around the world, and I love food and so it
tastes good. So you have to find your new favorite foods.
It doesn't have to be bland and boring. That's I
don't want to make I want to make sure I
didn't say that because it doesn't have to be. And
you should love your food. Otherwise there's no point. You
won't be able to.
S2 (44:57):
Yeah, yeah. No, no, no. And I was just speaking
to the perception that so many of us have is,
is that in order for us to be able to
live healthy, we have to suffer the loss of great food.
Come on. No, no no, no, you're, uh, obviously, uh,
living a fulfilled life. You love food, okay? Your food
is your life. Okay? Your beautiful, successful human being. So
(45:18):
you're not suffering the loss of great food? It's obvious.
And so if we can see that and we can
see what it's doing in your life and in your world, man,
can't we just have a change of perspective and just say,
I want that, okay? I don't necessarily have to have
$1 million. I don't have to have a yacht. I
don't need to fly private everywhere I go. Okay. The
Ferrari out there, which everybody really loves. No, I want
(45:41):
health and longevity. I want health Health span. Because Julieanna
Hever is a model of that that we can follow
and that we could copy and emulate to have that
level of success. And at the end of the. At
the end of the day, what's more important, the stuff
that we have or that life in the health span
that we have.
S3 (46:01):
Ah, I couldn't have said it more beautiful. That's perfect
I love that. Cheers to that.
S2 (46:05):
Yeah, yeah. So talk to us a little bit about
so you're you've got nine books. You've got a massive
following on social media. You've got a website that you've
dedicated your life to, helping others in service of others. Uh,
if folks want to find you and tap into a
little bit more about what you do a little bit more.
(46:27):
I mean, you're a personal trainer. You're a fitness trainer
as well. I mean, not only can you help folks
in the kitchen, you can help them in the gym.
So tell us a little bit more about how to
our audience tap into you and your services and how
do they utilize what you've done, your life's work in
order to help them?
S3 (46:44):
Oh, read. Thank you for that question. I love that question. Yeah. Well,
you can go to healthspan dietitian.com. And you know, I do.
I work one on one with people. I do coaching
one on one. And it's like this, like really intimate.
And we get really deep and we talk about life.
And the diet is like one part. We get that
done in the first session and then we usually just
(47:04):
kind of touch on it. But so I do that.
I do groups once in a while, not that frequently. Um,
and then my books have a ton of information, a
ton of recipes and working on another couple of books
in the future. I'm speaking in LA. I don't know
when this is going to be out there, but I,
you know, I speak live sometimes, I speak on zoom,
sometimes I so healthspan dietician.com and then I'm on the
(47:26):
social media channels trying to do videos with food and
recipes and exercises and mindfulness stuff. And so that's all
you can find. All that from Healthspan dietician.com two.
S2 (47:36):
Good stuff, good stuff. How do you feel about, uh,
doing all of your online videos and all that stuff?
Because that's something that I'm diving into as well. And,
you know, being like, we kind of discussed off camera
a little bit that's this is this is new to me.
Being in front of a camera is really new. It's
and I'll be honest with you, it's uncomfortable to me
a lot of times, you know, I'm really judgmental on me.
(48:00):
And as far as putting stuff out there, I'm like,
oh my God, people are going to say I'm some
kind of freak, man. I've got this crazy red hair
and I'm too old to be doing all this stuff,
and I'm not the most fit guy in the world
and all that stuff. So how do you handle that?
Kind of. And this is a totally different subject. But, uh,
you've been doing it for so long and you're obviously really,
really gifted and good at it. How does how does
(48:21):
somebody like you that wants to emulate what you've done
in life, get out of their shell and get out there?
S3 (48:28):
Well, first of all, I think you're fabulous and I'm
so glad you're doing this. And I encourage you to
do more of it. Get out there. You're so wonderful
and inspiring, and I love your energy. So that's one thing.
Thank you. It's never easy. And I'll tell you, like
every I'm still like I've been I've been acting and dancing.
I've been on a stage and I have degrees in
theater and I you know, I've done that. So that
helped a lot. In fact, I was like, why did
(48:49):
I bother getting an undergrad degree in theater? What a waste.
But it totally helped me. I had my own TV show,
all that stuff. So it's it's doing it consistently. You get.
I mean, I'm always going to be hard on myself too.
But the worst thing is these comments that people make
like it's it's so hard to like, I can get
1000 really nice, positive comments that are helping people and
messages of how I've helped someone. But then that one stupid, obnoxious,
(49:10):
mean comment I'm like, why did you just leave my
you don't have to write a note, just leave. If
you don't like my content, go away. It's so hard to.
I mean, even now, after doing this for almost, what,
almost five decades? I guess it's it's still bothers me.
So I don't know the answer to that. I just
know that I'm so want to help people, that it's like,
it's worth it to me. Just like with diet, it's
like I want it to be healthy so bad that
(49:31):
this is what I'm doing and I just want to
be out there. And if I could help one person,
then I feel like it's worth putting myself out there
and being abused a little bit because everyone does and
you're never going to please everyone. I keep trying to
remind myself you'll never please everyone. You'll never please everyone.
It's not possible.
S2 (49:47):
Yeah, that that is so good. And I feel the
exact same way. You know, I see the negative comments
as well. They don't really bother me. I kind of
laugh at them. Somebody said that I look like a
carrot top. And Axl Rose had a kid. Um, and no,
I thought that was. I actually thought that was pretty good. Um, but,
you know, to me, I think it's a it's a
realization that, you know, we're leaving a legacy one way
(50:10):
or the other. And I think I heard Alex Hormozi
say this. I don't know if you know who he is,
but he said that getting out here like this and leaving,
putting ourself on camera and putting ourselves out in front
of other folks enables us to leave a legacy to
generations behind us that never would have known us. I mean,
think about it. Does anybody know anything? A whole lot
(50:31):
about their great great grandparents. Okay. And so we are
literally two generations away from pretty much being forgotten. Not
just talked about, not talked about, but being forgotten completely. Right.
And so at least now I know just as you,
that somebody's out there somewhere is going to listen to
(50:52):
this content. They're going to see you over here and
they're going to to be helped and impacted in a
profoundly positive manner by your message today and your courage
and getting out there in front of the world. And that,
to me is a reason enough. Okay. And to expound
upon that, the fact that maybe two generations from now,
(51:13):
three generations from now, somebody may say, well, I wonder
who my great, great, great granddad was, and they're able
to type it in. It's there's going to be this
little video out there and they're going to see who
I was and and be able to hear my voice
and the way that I communicated to other people, and
that I did have a heart to help and give
and to make a hopefully transformative impact in our little
(51:34):
corner of this world. You're in Los Angeles, you're what
is it, 2000 miles away from me. Okay. And we're
sitting here having a great conversation. I just met you
this morning, and I know that I know that you're
a wonderful human being, and it's so profoundly just transformative
to me personally to be able to do this. And
I'm just so grateful for it.
S3 (51:53):
Yes, I'm grateful too, and I'm so glad you're doing it.
And keep up the amazing work and I love it.
You've got a great attitude. Great energy. Yeah.
S2 (52:02):
Thanks so much. I want everybody to go and check out, uh,
Julianna Haver, I want you to go. Are your books
on Amazon? Yeah. Go buy our books on Amazon. You can.
Last name h e v e r. Julianne. Have her
go to her website and follow all of her social
media pages, or Facebook or her Instagram, Twitter, her YouTube account,
(52:22):
and just dive in, if nothing else, to get a
little bit better, a little bit healthier every day. And, uh,
thank you from the bottom of my heart for being
with us today. And thank you from, uh, the Red
Hot Read audience.
S3 (52:37):
Thank you so much. I really enjoyed our conversation.
S1 (52:40):
This has been the Red hot read show with Red Taylor.
And now the Red Hot Read show with your host,
Red Taylor.
S2 (00:09):
Hey everybody, it's Red Taylor back with a new episode
of the Red Hot Read. And I am absolutely overjoyed
and excited today to bring you our guest. It's going
to be our first deep dive into a topic that
I think is extremely important to everybody on the planet,
and that is your diet and your nutrition and really
(00:31):
your overall health and well-being. She is known as the
Healthspan dietitian, and she's a best selling nine time author,
a personal trainer, a recipe creator, an expert in nutrition, food,
fitness and health and wellness. She's a mom of two
teenagers who is on a life journey to find more joy.
(00:56):
Don't we all need more joy, grace and mercy and ease,
and someone who is passionate about empowering others to choose
themselves first and to live their best life. And ladies
and gentlemen, we are just so fortunate, blessed and excited
to welcome our guest today, Julianna Haver. Julianna, welcome to
(01:19):
the Red Hot Read.
S3 (01:20):
Thank you so much. What a beautiful intro I appreciate that.
S2 (01:23):
Yeah, yeah, thanks so much. It was an easy intro.
It's just a little synopsis of your credentials and accomplishments
in life. So. So let's talk about this because so
many people look, let's face it, we live in a
world that the majority of us are obese, right? And
not just the normal day to day struggles of being
overweight and obese that really attack us, but the decrease
(01:47):
in our life span and the decrease in our quality
of life. Okay, so I want to go back because
where you began with this journey is, is really, really
impressive to me. And just start from the beginning and
tell everybody kind of how this awakened you, where you started,
and a little bit about where you are today.
S3 (02:06):
Oh, it's a long story. So I'll try to summarize
the highlights. But I grew up in Los Angeles, and
my mom says that I danced before I could walk.
So I was in dance class all the time. I
loved to dance. So I grew up, you know, in
a leotard and tights in front of the little mirror,
you know, every day. And one day I was going
through those changes that little girls go through, and my teacher,
(02:28):
Miss Debbie, called out from across the room, Julianna, cut
out your snacks. And I was like, didn't know what
that meant. I was humiliated and I didn't understand it,
but I knew I wanted to understand it. I think
I was about 11 years old, and I also didn't
know that that would be like the seed. That was
the trajectory of my entire career, and my life's mission
(02:48):
is to understand it. So that was it. I started
reading everything I could get my hands on and this
is of course books back then. So just reading and
reading and reading and trying to study and figure out
diet and weight loss and body image and nutrition and gosh,
I learned so much. And it's been, I don't know, many,
many decades since then. And I ended up long story short,
(03:08):
I ended up, you know, going to graduate school to
become a dietitian as I was a personal trainer. It
was a long story, but I just found that diet
is so powerful. And it's not just anecdotal because, you know,
as a dietitian, as a health care provider, we are
trained that our role is to mitigate the progression of disease,
(03:29):
is to make sure people don't get worse or don't
have to increase their medications. Well, as soon as I
started practicing and teaching really like a plant heavy, plant
based diet to my clients, first of all, my eye
when I did it myself, my entire health transformed. And
then I started implementing it with my clients and things
that I was never supposed to be able to see.
I see every day, and this is 20 something years later,
(03:52):
you know, people getting off their medications, people reversing chronic
conditions that they thought they were going to have for
the rest of their lives, decreasing inflammation and pain. And
I mean, it's unbelievable. And so I just wanted to
shout it from the rooftops, which is what I've been
trying to do for the last 18 plus 20 years,
something like that.
S2 (04:10):
I absolutely yeah, you have literally because you've been featured
in such publications as Forbes, you've had a TEDx that's
gone absolutely viral, a TEDx talk, uh, Yahoo, TMZ, The
Doctor Oz Show, US news, and The Steve Harvey Show.
So shouting it to the world is exactly what you've done.
(04:33):
As a father of four girls and who have been
in dance, I can relate to the dance instructor saying, hey,
cut your snacks out! And my daughter would come home
and say, dad, dad, she's so mean. She told me this,
this and this and this. How were you able to
take that? Because really, that that's what the transformative portion
(04:54):
of this was, is because the instruction and coaching that
you receive from that person, you internalized it in such
a manner in that it wasn't a negative to you.
You took it as a journey that that enabled you
to transform your passion in life into helping others. How
did that happen?
S3 (05:14):
I don't know, it was awful. It was awful. And
it's so funny because my son is in football, so
I like relate the opposite to you, but. Right, right. Honestly.
And I've and I've had this throughout my life now
because when I was an actress and the manager told
me to lose weight and it was like it's been
a journey of like being at peace in my body.
And but because of that, you know, diet is one thing.
(05:35):
I love nutrition. I love all the science. I'm a
geek like you can't imagine about the science. And I like,
go crazy with all the biochemistry and all that. But
what's really my passion is connecting with people that have
been through this and understanding that like we are normal,
we are living in a modern day trifecta of overabundance.
There's junk food and temptation everywhere. There's judgment everywhere. There's
(05:58):
this normalization of eating bad food, unhealthy food, and it's
so hard to navigate that world. It's so hard as
a human to say no when you want the bread
in the basket at the restaurant or the ice cream,
or everyone's saying, why aren't you going to have a
piece of cake? It's so hard, but it's also hard
to feel good in your body. And I know, like
now with social media and I have a teenage daughter
(06:20):
and it's like, you just see, like how much, you know,
someone will say, there's always people having opinions and comments
and it is brutal. So I'm not going to pretend
that I like oh yeah, this is easy for me.
It's it is what drives me because I want other
people to know that they're not broken either. This is
the world we live in. This is our body. How
do we nourish us not only physically and with food?
(06:41):
Because that's the most important thing, but also staying strong
and standing in our truth and being confident in our skin.
It's a.
S4 (06:48):
Really.
S3 (06:49):
Profound journey that a lot of us go on. And
when I witnessed this with my clients, because every day
I get tears in my eyes watching these transformations unfold
because it's not about the food. So I like to
say that the food is the language that I use
because in all the stuff percolates underneath. When you when
you have a healthy diet and everything's on plan and
(07:09):
then you have to deal with life, all these incredibly deep,
profound things come up and then you can deal with them.
And it's like a it's a way to heal is
just letting go of those food triggers and stuff like that.
So it's it's very deep and very profound. And I
find that mindfulness and that personal, deep journey is way
more exciting and life changing than the food itself.
S2 (07:31):
That is so good. That's like some of the best
of the Red Hot Read podcast right there, because you're
so passionate and when you talk about it, your physiology changes.
You become you. You come alive. You're like feeling the
emotion of seeing these lives transformed. And that that kind
of reminds me of, of a conversation I had recently
(07:53):
with a colleague in 2024. Our lives are so much
easier than they ever have been in history. Think about it.
We live like kings today Compared to just go 100
years back, 150 years back, there was no. You didn't
even get to take a hot shower, okay? You had
to boil the water to take a hot bath. So,
(08:15):
you know, certainly not a drive through restaurant. So we
certainly had absolutely zero idea about health and nutrition, the
underlying development thereof, and the long term effects of the
personal longevity and health that those things have. And so
you've dialed it in and gone strictly plant based diet
(08:35):
and nutrition. And I eat meat. I'm a red meat eater,
I like chicken, I like fish, I like steak and
some ground beef. But, you know, really focus on lean,
you know, lean meat and single source proteins and then,
you know, love a salad. Vegetables. Not big on baked potatoes.
I know you like baked potatoes. I'm more of a sweet. Haha.
(08:56):
I did my research. I'm more of a sweet potato guy, but.
So let's go plant based. So is it vegan or vegetarian?
Which or both?
S3 (09:04):
I love that you're asking me this. Okay, so first
of all, yes, diet is the number one cause of
early death and disability. It is the most important thing
you can do which is so empowering, right? Say it.
S2 (09:14):
Again. Say it again. I want everybody, people in the back.
Listen up. She's shouting. Say it again.
S3 (09:18):
Diet is the number one cause of early death and
disability in the world ahead of smoking. It's that powerful. Crazy, crazy.
But it's beautiful. It's not a bad thing because you
get to put what's on the end of your fork.
You get to choose it. Yes, I love that. Yes. Okay.
That said, I just rebranded. I was known as the
(09:40):
Plant based dietitian 18 years. Okay. And it wasn't a
thing back then. Doctor T, Colin Campbell coined that term.
Whole food plant based. Brilliant man. He's a mentor of mine,
and I was calling myself a plant based dietitian. Everyone's like,
what is that? What are you talking about? What's plant based? Well,
everyone now knows what plant based means. That's why I
shifted gears, because now it's great. But it's also been
(10:03):
kind of bastardized, if you will, the term and the
use of it. And it's on packaging, like, you know,
like the paleo diet has been where you can buy
paleo candy bars, like just it just it's gotten to
a point where it doesn't mean anything. I already abandoned
the words vegan and vegetarian because that's just like a
that's the definition that's exclusive, like vegan diet means I
don't use animal products. It doesn't say what you eat. Okay,
(10:24):
I'm a dietician. I'm not a moralist. I don't want
to tell anyone what they should or shouldn't eat. In fact,
I won't tell anyone what they should or shouldn't eat. Good.
My messaging, and the reason I'm going by Healthspan dietitian
now is because I care about healthspan and aging healthy.
And you don't have to be exclusively vegan to eat healthy.
And I don't want anyone. Everyone always comes to me.
I don't want to tell you that I eat meat.
(10:44):
It's like, it's okay. Like I'm not going to tell
you to give up all whatever my message is. Eat
more plants, eat more of a rainbow every day. Incorporate vegetables, fruits,
whole grains, legumes, mushrooms, nuts, seeds, herbs and spices, and
infinite tasty combinations. Health span increases with an increase intake
of plants and whole plants. That's the message.
S2 (11:06):
Okay, so two things I'm I'm fascinated I literally fascinated.
So two things on this because you use the term healthspan.
And that is an uncommon term Okay. Right. I noticed
that and I've got it actually written in my notes.
Explain Healthspan to our audience today. And then I want
to come back, and I want to dive a little
(11:26):
deeper into another thing that you mentioned there as well.
So Healthspan.
S3 (11:29):
Yes. So here we go. We're doing this again, right?
Plant based wasn't a thing. Healthspan is becoming a thing again.
And this is Mark my words. It's going to be
what everyone's focusing on. Lifespan is how long you live.
And I wrote a book a few years ago called
Healthspan solution Healthspan is how well you live. It's we
you know, like you said, 72% of Americans are overweight
(11:51):
or obese now. 72%. That's like crazy. Almost three quarters.
That's yes, mind blowing. And the world is not doing
much better. We're like, I think it's 1 in 3
in the world now, but we're still always we're trailblazing
in the obesity department. Go America. You know it's we
are we're westernizing the world.
S2 (12:08):
Another list of the things that we do not want
to be leading in.
S3 (12:12):
Right. We're leading in all sorts of wonderful things to
I don't want to be I'm very, very proud of
my country. But anyway, so we are definitely in a
bad situation. It is a world of hurt in terms
of our health span. So we may be living longer,
but we're not living longer. We're living longer in years
of disability, cognitive dysfunction, you know, debilitation. And it's like,
(12:35):
who wants to live like that? You want to live
a really broad life full of energy and passion, and
be able to be on the floor with your grandchildren,
playing and playing football with your kids, all of those
things that you want to do, and then all of
a sudden go to sleep and that's it. Like that's right.
Who doesn't want that's like a long, healthy life. And
then boom, right, right. Right. So health spend is how
long you live healthy.
S2 (12:56):
Okay, okay. I love it because I relate to that.
I'm so passionate about that. My wife threw me an
amazing surprise birthday party for my 50th. And you know,
I was so taken by gratitude and just thankfulness. And
it was time for me to to make a toast.
You know, my toast that night was in my statement,
(13:16):
I guess that the hit me is that we all
need to live healthy to 100. Okay, that I'm making
this statement, I'm going to live healthy to 100. Now,
you know, I think that I focus probably more on
my exercise, my working out and my exercise. I mean,
I'm pretty much a workaholic and I, you know, I
love to work out. I work out, you know, five,
(13:37):
six days a week. I'll go in and lift heavy things.
My diet, on the other hand, I probably need to
step it up with my diet because we all know
that's more important. That is most important. Okay, it's it's 85%
diet and then 15%, you know, exercise maybe 9010. So
you know, depending on who you talk to, you know,
Doctor David Sinclair who is I think are you familiar
(13:58):
with Doctor David Sinclair? I've heard him on Ed Mylett.
I've heard a lot of his stuff. Tony Robbins dives
deep into him. He mentions the plants that that he
eats are strained plants and vegetables. Okay, do you know
what that means as far as the strain? Because there's
what's the term that he uses that when Mrs.. Yes.
(14:19):
Thank you. Say it again.
S3 (14:21):
Xeno hormesis.
S2 (14:22):
Xeno hormesis. Basically the way that he explains that in my,
you know, third grade understanding level is that if the
plants are strained already in their existence, in their growth, okay, like, hey,
they're planted in the, you know, in the dirt, they
have to come out and they have to go through
some rigorous activity to be matured. Then they're that much
(14:44):
more plentiful and Bountiful and beneficial in our own nutrition.
S3 (14:48):
Here's the magic that is plants. And yes, I've had
David on my when I had a podcast too. He's wow.
And but it's not necessarily like you have to look
for strange plants. So let's just talk about the magic
of plants and the phyto power. It is incredible. So
plants are living outside, right? They have to deal with pests.
(15:09):
They have to deal with weather. They have to deal
with all sorts of stress. And it's stress that causes
them to grow these different phytonutrients. So there's things that
protect them against the pests and the weather and all
these things. That's the colors, that's these nutrition, the two
most health promoting nutrients on the planet. Forget protein. We
could talk about protein, but what's way more important? Fiber
(15:31):
and phytonutrients, phytochemicals. Those phytochemicals these are all only found
in plants. The phytochemicals are the things that make the
color like why is this plant green? Why is my
berry blue? Why is the strawberry red? Whatever those colors,
the smells, all of these different things that are protecting themselves,
those are called phytochemicals. There are we have about I
(15:54):
think last I checked like 500 different categories of them. Wow.
Beautiful thing. The symbiotic thing about it is when we
consume those plants, we confer the same benefits. So we
get anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidative, cardioprotective, bone protective. You can't. Every system
(16:15):
is influenced by these categories in different ways. There's carotenoids,
which are the reds, oranges and yellows that help with
like reducing prostate cancer, reducing, you know, good for eye health,
good for immune function. There's just like literally there's hundreds
and hundreds of these beautiful compounds found synergistically in plants.
And we consume them and confer these beautiful advantages.
S2 (16:36):
Love it, love it. You're so passionate about it, too.
And it makes sense, you know, because the sun, it
takes sun and water to grow anything, right? I mean,
you know, outside and with plants, the more that we
put that into our body, it goes down to our
mitochondrial level, our cellular level. And it seems to me
like just, you know, like I said, on a third
(16:57):
grade level, that those would help to generate healthier cells
and the more healthier cells that we have in our body,
the better our health span would be.
S3 (17:08):
Is that correct way to say it? Here's the thing.
Every day we are confronted with cancer cells. Our body's
producing or developing cancer cells. We're developing, you know, we're
fighting off viruses. We're fighting off bacteria. We're fighting off everything, right?
We're constantly bombarded by things that are our enemies. So
these phytonutrients and these plant foods actually provide protection against them,
(17:30):
reducing the risk for these things developing into disease. And
you want, you know, you want to strengthen your immune system.
The other amazing thing we're we're just learning so much
and we really don't know as much as we think
we know where there's like the cusp of learning the
tip of the iceberg like 50.
S2 (17:44):
Years in on this deal, right? I mean, we're like
50 years in to beginning to study this stuff basically.
S3 (17:49):
Way more than that. Oh, hundreds. But like the document,
we've documented stuff like this for 100, 150 years. There's
there's some great science on a lot of this, and
it keeps going back to the same truths. So every
time you hear these silly things like, you know, only
eat meat and don't eat plants or beans are bad
for you. It's like, um, there's decades and decades of
science that you can't just ignore. It's like these are
(18:11):
fads and trends that come up. But let me just
point out that one of the mechanisms of action by
which plants have all these benefits is via the microbiome.
So we have like I think we're like ten times
more bacteria than we are human cells, especially in our gut.
We have a lot of bacteria all over our body,
but especially in our gut. And that tends to impact
(18:32):
our immunity big time. It impacts our brain function, our cardio. Basically,
every system in our body is influenced by these bugs
that live in our body. However, the bugs, what kind
of bugs and what kind of microbiome do you have
is influenced by what you eat, where you are, but
mostly what you eat. It loves fiber. Prebiotics is fiber.
(18:52):
Where do you get fiber? Plants. So having a diversity
of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, mushrooms, nuts, seeds, herbs
and spices is going to influence your microbiome, your profile.
So it's going to bring in all the good ones.
And that's going to get rid of the pathogenic ones.
So just even within your body just to like regulate
your immunity and all of the wonderful things that we
need to protect ourselves against this crazy world, including just
(19:14):
stress from within. It's situated right there. And fiber and
phytonutrients are incredible.
S2 (19:20):
Okay so fascinating. So let's go into practicality okay. Let's
talk to the 72% of Americans who are you know
that's that's one of the whole things. It's it's just difficult.
It's in everybody's average everyday life. We're so caught up
in the hustle and bustle. We're getting the kids to school.
(19:42):
We got to get to work. We got to get
to practice in the afternoons. We moms, we gotta cook dinner.
We gotta do the laundry, we gotta get the dishes done.
And then by 830 at night, we're just hoping to
be able to sit down on the couch and just
decompress a little bit. And so for the average American,
(20:03):
how do we transform and make the change to begin
to move in towards a much better health span? Dietary life?
S3 (20:14):
That is the question read. That is all that matters
because in theory, great. But how do we do it?
And that's what I do with my clients. This is
what I do day to day, like how to do it.
And this is in my books and in my I
try to do on social media. I'm doing meals and
minute segments where it's like these little quickie meals that
you throw things together. But I like to start with
this stay simple. It doesn't have to be all in.
(20:37):
You don't have to dive in completely cold tofu and
everything is perfect. There's no such thing as perfect. So
let go of perfection. Eat more plant based. So add
a salad. Use the convenience products there's. Nowadays you can
go at any market. I've been all over the world
in countries especially throughout the country. Even in the South,
there's amazing options to make it easy, like bags of
(20:59):
salad and cabbages. You could throw that in a bowl,
open up a can of beans, you know, open up
a jar of salsa, frozen brown rice, frozen quinoa, frozen
white rice, whatever. Potatoes. Like my Hawaiian sweet potatoes. Like
there's so many easy things. And then that's one is
start simple and with things that you know and just
(21:20):
trying to incorporate more plants. Now go back to what's familiar.
We all grew up eating plant based. We just didn't
call it that. Like all of us know what oatmeal is.
All of us know what you know, what a salad
is or what a minestrone soup is. Or, you know,
a veggie. I grew up in LA, so like a
rice and bean burrito, we have a lot of delicious.
My favorite Mexican food here. Simple, simple Go back to
(21:42):
what you know. Pasta primavera. A lot of us know
very simple things. Go back to those. Start with those.
The other amazing thing these days is now, because I
remember when I was doing this, I was like rice
and beans and broccoli or whatever, because I didn't know.
Now there's thousands and hundreds of thousands of websites and
recipes out there that you could just search for. So
let's say you're like, craving lasagna. Just write whole food
(22:04):
plant based lasagna. You'll have so many options. Try it.
Whatever you're craving.
S2 (22:09):
Okay, I love it I love it so. So just
keep it simple, okay? You don't have to go over
the top. You don't have to decide, hey, I'm going
to change my whole world today and do like every
other diet in the world by Wednesday. Thursday we're off.
We can't fit it in. And so we just quit, right?
Because that's what what really happens. Everybody, right, is we
(22:29):
we make these, you know, commitments to ourselves to, to
go into this new life. We get expired, we get
excited and we know that we need to do it.
I mean, it's it's it deep down inside we know
it's what's best for us going through chick fil A,
going through McDonald's, you know, taking the kids to to whatever,
Burger King, Taco Bell. It's not what's right. It's not
(22:50):
what's good for us. Okay. And so just like so
many other things in our lives, that finding success, finding joy,
finding health, you know, the goals that we want, the
dreams that we want is just on the other side
of those hard things and that we continue to put
off and the continued to delay. And so keeping it
(23:13):
simple is what we really need to do on this is, hey,
just throw a salad in with your meal, okay? Eat
the salad first, eat the salad first, and whatever dressing
you put on that, make sure it ain't white, right?
I mean, just as long as it's not.
S3 (23:26):
White, I think white dressing cashew. I always do another
seed based dressing. I love those, but yeah I mean
the other the other thing that makes it easier, like
you're describing those really tough long days where you're trying
to get everything done and fed and everyone fed. You know,
if you have like a Sunday where you have a
couple hours, make a chili on the pot, you know,
like make a big huge pot of chili. It'll last
days and then also make a batch of sweet potatoes
(23:48):
and then all week or for at least four days
or whatever, you could whip out one of your sweet
potatoes and the chili, microwave it. Boom. You've got a
really healthy, like, really nourishing, comforting meal. Yeah, stuff like that.
S2 (24:02):
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(24:24):
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(24:45):
the show. Guy like me I love to work out proteins.
Really important. In fact, I've got signs in my office
that say Chase greatness and eat protein. Okay, it's just
kind of like a joke, I swear. It's kind of
like a joke. My, my, my kids got me a
shirt for Christmas one year. And because I, you know,
I'm motivational. So I tell people all the time, chase greatness. Like,
(25:07):
I'll see somebody doing something. I'm like, that's the opposite
of chasing greatness. Get that out of here. You know?
And these guys mess with them all the time. So
it's it's chase greatness. And then in the middle there's
like a rooster with big muscles and it says eat protein.
So literally so it's like a it's a thing. So
as far as like for me, I'm a I want
to I want protein, okay. I got to get at
(25:28):
least 150g of protein a day. Okay. How do we
do that on a plant based diet. Where does the
protein come from?
S3 (25:36):
Well, first of all, why you need 150g of protein
a day?
S2 (25:40):
I don't know, that's just my mind. That's just the number.
For whatever reason, I think protein is is the building
block of muscles. And I think that lean muscle mass
is going to enable me to eliminate fat and live
a longer, healthier life. In my mind, the more lean
muscle I have, the less fat I'll have, and so
the healthier I'll be.
S3 (25:59):
There's so much to deconstruct there. It's so interesting. We
all chase protein. It's like I always say, it's the
persistent pursuit of protein. And it's not the be all
end all because it's if you think about the packaging
of protein, you know, what else are you getting with it.
So and if you're talking about fat loss, that's a
whole other. So we could have a whole other talk
about all of that. I think it's so interesting. But
let's just answer that question that you asked.
S2 (26:21):
Set me straight. Please set me straight.
S3 (26:23):
I don't know. We have a lot to we could
deconstruct a lot of that. And I find that most
of my career now is answering the protein question, and
it has been. But it's gotten worse, and it's overwhelming
how people are focused on it, and it's very myopic.
You can get protein from plants. Absolutely. You know, all protein.
(26:44):
It's all amino acids. It's based on amino acids, right.
That builds up the protein. Well, all amino acids are
found in plants. All plants have all the amino acids.
So you can get plenty of protein from all the vegetables, fruits,
whole grains, legumes, mushrooms, nuts and spices. Legumes are really
higher in the amino acids, so legumes are lentils, all
the beans, peas, tofu and tempeh. And then hummus should
(27:07):
be a food group. Great nuts and seeds. Great source
of amino acids. But so is broccoli. So is quinoa.
So is brown rice. So there's oatmeal potatoes. How do
you know that? Potatoes. This is crazy fun fact. You
could Google it. I swear this is the craziest thing.
Gram for gram, a baked white potato has a better
(27:29):
amino acid profile than 90% lean beef. What? Shut the
front door. Check. All right, come on.
S2 (27:38):
Okay, so, gram for gram, a baked white potato. You
said it differently in my mind. I'm. I'm hearing more protein.
S3 (27:48):
No better profile.
S2 (27:50):
A better profile. Okay, okay. So let's break that down
and explain that to us. What is what exactly does
that mean.
S3 (27:57):
So the whole thing is people think, oh, if you
eat you want to get the most the, the most
amino acids that are that we need all of the
amino acids. Well then the best thing you should eat
would be human flesh, because that has exactly the amino
acids that you need. Not that we ever want to
encourage that. Ever, ever, not ever. But the point is,
we don't need to do that. Our bodies are way
more brilliant than needing to have a piece of meat
(28:17):
going right to the muscle. It doesn't work like that.
We take in whatever food we take in. We break
it down into its components. So amino acids for the protein,
the fats turn into fatty acids and triglycerides, and then
the carbohydrates are broken down into its components. Right. And
then the body assimilates it. Our bodies are amazing. So
you need protein. Absolutely. I'm not saying you don't need it.
(28:39):
And you only need nine of the essential amino acids
out of 20, which you can get from plants. So
you need to be mindful of it. But you can
absolutely get as much protein as you wanted to on
a plant based diet. But okay, let's talk about healthspan
really quickly. So I know you're saying you want to
and And I agree frailty is a big issue in aging.
We need to avoid frailty and muscle mass is important.
(29:00):
You get that in the gym. You get that with
what you're doing on the on the workout mode. Your
body is going to make all the amino acids to
build those muscles that it needs to build. But with Healthspan,
the only way we've ever increased healthspan and longevity in
all model organisms tested from the yeast, the the mice
(29:20):
to our primate cousins is with dietary restriction. Without malnutrition,
less protein is the only way we've extended healthspan and longevity,
and the early trials in humans seem to show the same.
S2 (29:35):
Wow. Okay, so you just opened up another can there
as well because with dietary restriction in my mind, what
that sounds like to me are three simple words eat
less often. Okay. And so, you know, that is what
I've read and studied is the only way that we
(29:57):
expand the life of cells, right? Is is to deprive
them of food to, to, to eat less often or
eat in windows. The whole intermittent fasting thing. Right. I
think David Sinclair, Doctor Sinclair's big on the intermittent fasting
or just shorten windows of eating. So dive into that
(30:18):
a little bit for the audience, because it sounds like
you have some really expert knowledge on that topic and
the practice thereof as well.
S3 (30:24):
Yes, what I teach in my practice and in my books,
especially the last book, are three elements. The three ways
to get healthy plant. Whole food. Plant based the majority
of your diet, whole food, plant based, time restricted eating,
and then all the mindfulness things, all dealing with the
crazy world. That's the other part time restricted eating. Okay,
our bodies work really hard when you eat, and it's
(30:47):
after the last swallow of the last bite. It's 4
to 6 hours of digestion and absorption, which is very
labor intensive. So our body shunts. That's why you're not
supposed to go swimming, you know, after you eat. Because
you need to like let your body digest all the
blood goes to the GI tract, which it should when
we're in the fasted state, which again, doesn't have to
be for days or weeks or months, where? Well, let
(31:09):
me back up. When you go in the fastest state
for the longer extended fast and stuff like that, there's
incredible benefits. I just interviewed, um, Doctor Alan Goldhammer. He
just wrote this new book, Can Fasting Save Your Life?
He's done so much research on fasting. Long term water
only medically supervised fast. Don't try this at home audience people.
But yes, but those fasts have shown, and we have
evidence since Hippocrates and then Mark Twain. There was all
(31:32):
these books and all this original data. It's biblical.
S2 (31:35):
I mean, it's in the Scripture. I mean, I mean,
you know, let's I mean, we don't have to go
religious in a day, but Jesus went and fasted for
40 days to, to be able to get clarity on
what to do, you know. And so yeah go ahead. Sorry.
But I'm like, yeah, it's thousands upon thousands of years old.
S3 (31:51):
Yeah. How many religions have fasting incorporated as part of
its ritual? There's a lot, but there's evidence that like
Doctor Goldhammer, they have reversed so many crazy things that
we didn't think were possible. I think there's a couple
of lymphoma cases that they're documenting 10 or 15 years later.
Like incredible things happen when your body gets to heal itself.
That's that quote. I think it's Hippocrates. Let thy whatever
(32:13):
happens is when you remove food and you just remove
all of these things and let your body heal because
it knows how to heal. We innately know how to
recover and heal our bodies. Have you ever seen a
wound on your body? Of course. Watch it heal. It's
incredible how our bodies. Yeah, I know what to do here.
So food kind of disrupts that process. We need to eat.
I'm not saying you need to fast. The beautiful thing
(32:34):
that we've discovered with time restricted eating and all this
new data that's coming up, is you can get the
same benefits of these or similar benefits of these long term, fast,
less painful because I don't want to not eat for
a week or 2 or 3 like I got work
to do. And like, you know, it's really healthy to
do it. I've done one three day fast, but but
you get the similar benefits by doing it every day.
(32:55):
It's just having time in the fasted state. Let your
body recover, rejuvenate, refresh, take time off of eating and
it's so easy to do like we just eat all
the time. Most people wake up, they have their coffee
with the creamer, then a donut and then snack, and
then lunch and a snack and dinner and then a snack.
And it's time to go to bed. And you're still
digesting and absorbing for 4 to 6 more hours after
(33:16):
you have that last bite. So ideally you stop eating
after dinner, go to bed on an empty stomach. That's
really good for your circadian rhythm, really, really healthy for
all the hormonal systems in your body. Let your brain
and your body recover during sleep and have maximal benefit
of sleep. Because sleep is so important, then you wake up.
Most of us aren't hungry in the morning, but we
eat because breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
(33:37):
But break fast means whenever that is. So like I'm
as soon as we hang up. That's going to be
my first meal of the day. I love to eat
around 11 or 12:00. For me, that's like I and
then I, you know, so I give myself like a
probably an 18 hour window every day. And I usually
I like to eat two meals instead of eating in
a window, like I like to eat, recover and then
eat a smaller meal at night. And that's I love it.
(33:59):
It's changed everything for my GI tract and my sleep.
It's just it's so helpful. But the evidence is very,
very compelling. on on eating less. And I won't even
say less often. I would just say eating less.
S2 (34:12):
Yeah, I'll I'll agree on that. My normal routine is
and I've probably adopted this over the last two and
a half to three years. Is I generally eating about
a six hour window every day? So it's probably closer
to 2:00 here right now in Atlanta. And I haven't
eaten today. And I you know, I just drink black
coffee in the mornings usually every now and then I'll put,
(34:34):
you know, a little honey in my third, which technically
that breaks a fast. Okay. But if you're going to
break it that's a decent way to break it. I would,
I would surmise okay. And then usually at about 3:00
or 4:00 I'll go and I'll eat, you know, my
first meal and then I'll probably eat a light dinner
around six and be done about, you know, 730 or 8.
So I've got about 16 to 18 hours of non
(34:57):
eating windows in most every day. And what that's done
for me, I don't get sick. I mean, I can't
tell you the last time I was actually sick, you know,
or or feel bad. You know, I don't really feel
tired during the day. I don't, you know, most everybody
has that three, 4 or 5:00 in the afternoon crash. Right?
It's so prevalent. We're we're programmed in our mind that
(35:17):
we need that pick me up in the afternoon because
we're going to have that crash. Why do we have
that crash? Because you have. You've been forcing food down
your mouth since you woke up at 8 a.m., and
your insulin levels are going boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
And your body can never do any of the work
that it needs to do. Right? It's it's like the
programming that we have been inundated with since we were
(35:39):
born is to eat from the moment that we wake up,
pretty much until the time we go to bed. And
what's that doing to us? What is that doing to
our bodies and our health?
S3 (35:49):
It's doing the 72% of the US is overweight or obese.
It's doing chronic disease up the crazy like crazy levels
of cardiovascular disease. Still the number one cause of death
in the world. And it's mostly preventable. Most of those
cardiovascular diseases, most of the, you know, the vessel, the
vascular diseases, the high blood pressure, the the high cholesterol
is absolutely modifiable with diet. I say that with I've
(36:13):
read the research, of course, but I again, the anecdote
is not as half as powerful, not even a 10th
as powerful as the data, but witnessing it over and
over and over again, over and over. Every day I
see someone get off their medication or someone just with
diet alone. It's wow, incredible. So that's what it's doing
is giving yourself eating less frequently. And eating whole foods
(36:35):
is so powerful.
S2 (36:36):
That is absolutely powerful. So I've read doing some research
on you where you had mentioned that I think you
said it in your TEDx talk and some of your material,
the of the the Magic elixir, and maybe you've already
discussed that with us, but really kind of dive into
what you refer to as the magic elixir.
S3 (36:57):
Yeah. Well, so I did my Ted talk. It's been
a long time now, 12, 13 years ago, something like that.
But I think I was still like, what, 6 or
7 years in on, like being blown away by what
I was witnessing because again, in, in my clinical rotations,
I spent a lot of time in hospitals and my
ex-husband's a doctor. So I was like, I was in
medical school with my ex-husband and all of our friends,
(37:19):
And so I and I spent so much time in
the hospital setting and researching and watching and witnessing, and
I just I was not ever expecting to see how
powerful diet was. It's not what we're taught. Doctors are
definitely not taught that. Because I saw the medical school
nutrition class, the five minutes of nutrition of like, vitamin
D deficiency is rickets. You know, iron deficiency. I mean,
(37:41):
just like the crazy. That's the extent of the nutrition,
which is really funny because me and my ex-husband, no
matter where we would go, they'd ask him the nutrition
questions and he'd be like, um, ask her. She's the dietitian.
It's like, so crazy. Everyone asks their doctor for nutrition advice,
but they don't have that education.
S2 (37:56):
They have none of it. Zero. It's all medicine, medicine
and drugs. No nutrition.
S3 (38:00):
Yeah. So I think the magic elixir for me, I
called it that because I never expected to see it
and I was witnessing things that I was. It was
my every day. And still here we are 20 years later.
I'm still like every day going, oh my gosh, I
just got a text from my aunt who was like,
asked me for advice because I helped her husband many
years ago and he got healthy, recovered from a serious illness.
(38:22):
And so but you know, my family doesn't eat like me.
They don't. And they think I'm crazy because, you know,
because they're like, you know, normal and I'm not normal,
but I've never been normal. It's okay.
S2 (38:31):
But really, it should be the other way around, right?
S3 (38:33):
I mean, I know.
S2 (38:34):
Eating a plant based, you know, majority plant based diet
focused on healthspan, which I love the term okay. And
your health and longevity and the quality of your life
should be the focus. It's listen, this is not a
a trial run, right? We're not in a practice game here, right?
I mean, it's this is the only body that we get.
(38:57):
It's it. That's it. You know, we're not going to
get another one anytime soon. And we can't go to Amazon.
They're not sending one to us. Um, I mean, and so,
so many of us just absolutely have eliminated it as
any level of a priority in our life. Thus we
see the damage and And as you said, all of
(39:20):
the cardiovascular disease that's going on, all the obesity and
just overall lower quality of life. I've been in health
insurance for like 25 years now. Right. And every single
person that we sell health insurance to, you know, we
have to ask all these health questions, okay. And it's
almost a given that my entire staff knows that if
you've got someone, a man or woman that are over
(39:42):
the age of about 37 in their 40s, they're going
to be on some kind of blood pressure medication. They're
going to be on statin, they're going to be on
a cholesterol medication. Mom's going to be on a thyroid medication,
and then about 45% of them are going to be
on type two diabetes medication. So it's just debilitating. And
what it and it really financially it's debilitating as well
(40:05):
because you know in real life somebody has to pay
for that. And so the insurance companies, they raise everybody's
rates because they know that cardiovascular disease is right around
the corner. And so if we were to make the
alternative of that, which is eating a healthy diet, simply
what we put into our mouths a priority, then so
(40:29):
many of these problems could go away.
S3 (40:30):
Yeah. Here's the other thing. The big the big thing
is that a lot of people know this or hear
this or consider this, but there's a thing that's really
overwhelming is that our palate is so shifted to these
hyper palatable foods, these very, you know, fatty, salty, sugary, processed,
(40:51):
ultra processed foods. I think it's like over half of
the US diet is ultra processed foods. And it takes
it requires time to adjust the palate. So the first
time you have one of my soup recipes or whatever,
it's going to be not as like it's not going
to light up your dopamine receptors. But I've seen this
now with thousands of people. I've worked with thousands of
people one on one deeply, and I've watched their food journals,
(41:13):
I've watched their labs, I've watched their weight. And every time,
if you stick to it every day, the soup tastes better.
All of a sudden you're like, wow, that sweet potato
is really sweet. My client yesterday, she's like my all
of a sudden, that green pepper, which just stood out
as like a a unique flavor. It's like your palate
comes alive again. So you have to know that there's
going to be a shift and you have to get
rid of there's a dopamine hit that takes place, a
(41:35):
big dopamine hit when you keep those hyper palatable foods.
And you just have to, like, know that if you
if you stick with it, it's usually about 21 days.
Your palate will shift and you will love Whole Foods
and you won't even want that other stuff. It's almost
like abrasive. Like when I have something that's off plan,
that's like like an ice cream or something. It's like, well,
like my, my taste buds. It's a big shock. Not
(41:57):
that I don't love it and I can love it
again if I just did it more frequently. But I
love Whole Foods, like, I love the way the food tastes,
and it just takes time to get there. And it
just takes people. So you just have to want it
badly enough. Anyone could do it, but you have to
want it badly enough. And the benefits. And also when
you feel good and the food tastes good and it's
like a beautiful, vicious, positive cycle after that.
S2 (42:17):
Yeah, yeah. Like you said, you just have to want
it bad enough. You got to be able to stay
consistent with it and, you know, realize that it's you're
not driving up to it. You're not pulling up to
a drive through restaurant to change your life. Okay? You're
not going up to the ATM to change your life.
There is actually a little bit of work that has
to be done. You know, you mentioned that that highly
(42:37):
palatable food that we all ingest. And what most folks
don't realize is that, you know, if you're eating a
potato chip or, you know, a candy bar or a,
you know, a bag of crackers or something like that,
you know, the vast majority of the flavor that is
in those is the same type of chemical compound that's
in the perfumes that we put on our bodies that
(42:58):
we smell. So it's the same chemical makeup, it's the
same biological makeup that we're putting in, and we're adjusting
into our body through our mouth and our in our
digestive system that the perfume is that we spray onto
our clothes. There's very little difference. And so, as you said,
dopamine receptors, you eat a Dorito, you put a Dorito
in your mouth, okay. And your dopamine receptors are like, yes,
(43:21):
let's go. I'm all I'm in on this. Let's roll. Okay,
go get a, you know, a three bean soup or
something like that. It's probably going to take you a
little bit. You know, you probably had to get, you know,
put some good onions and peppers and some spices in
there to make it come alive for you. And as
you said, it may take a little consistency and a
little willpower to get yourself to the point where you're like, yeah,
(43:45):
I like this. I love the way it makes me
feel okay. And it might be the difference in representing
to ourselves. Tony Robbins said that paradigms are the eye
glasses through which we see our world, our life. Okay,
so if we are able to change our paradigms and say,
I live to eat, man, I love a big plate
(44:08):
of pasta and butter and, you know, processed foods and
processed carbohydrates instead of that being that your paradigm, change,
that paradigm, say I eat to live.
S3 (44:20):
I love that, but I also want to emphasize for
your audience that you don't have to suffer because the food.
I love food. I've. I did not learn how to cook.
I was not trained how to cook. But my first book,
they're like, oh, and you have six weeks to write
a whole book. Oh, and 50 recipes. I'm like, recipes, like,
what are you talking about? Like, I'm, I know physiology
and statistics, but like, recipes. Well, I taught myself how
to cook and now I love it. But I'll tell
(44:41):
you this now I published hundreds of recipes from all
around the world, and I love food and so it
tastes good. So you have to find your new favorite foods.
It doesn't have to be bland and boring. That's I
don't want to make I want to make sure I
didn't say that because it doesn't have to be. And
you should love your food. Otherwise there's no point. You
won't be able to.
S2 (44:57):
Yeah, yeah. No, no, no. And I was just speaking
to the perception that so many of us have is,
is that in order for us to be able to
live healthy, we have to suffer the loss of great food.
Come on. No, no no, no, you're, uh, obviously, uh,
living a fulfilled life. You love food, okay? Your food
is your life. Okay? Your beautiful, successful human being. So
(45:18):
you're not suffering the loss of great food? It's obvious.
And so if we can see that and we can
see what it's doing in your life and in your world, man,
can't we just have a change of perspective and just say,
I want that, okay? I don't necessarily have to have
$1 million. I don't have to have a yacht. I
don't need to fly private everywhere I go. Okay. The
Ferrari out there, which everybody really loves. No, I want
(45:41):
health and longevity. I want health Health span. Because Julieanna
Hever is a model of that that we can follow
and that we could copy and emulate to have that
level of success. And at the end of the. At
the end of the day, what's more important, the stuff
that we have or that life in the health span
that we have.
S3 (46:01):
Ah, I couldn't have said it more beautiful. That's perfect
I love that. Cheers to that.
S2 (46:05):
Yeah, yeah. So talk to us a little bit about
so you're you've got nine books. You've got a massive
following on social media. You've got a website that you've
dedicated your life to, helping others in service of others. Uh,
if folks want to find you and tap into a
little bit more about what you do a little bit more.
(46:27):
I mean, you're a personal trainer. You're a fitness trainer
as well. I mean, not only can you help folks
in the kitchen, you can help them in the gym.
So tell us a little bit more about how to
our audience tap into you and your services and how
do they utilize what you've done, your life's work in
order to help them?
S3 (46:44):
Oh, read. Thank you for that question. I love that question. Yeah. Well,
you can go to healthspan dietitian.com. And you know, I do.
I work one on one with people. I do coaching
one on one. And it's like this, like really intimate.
And we get really deep and we talk about life.
And the diet is like one part. We get that
done in the first session and then we usually just
(47:04):
kind of touch on it. But so I do that.
I do groups once in a while, not that frequently. Um,
and then my books have a ton of information, a
ton of recipes and working on another couple of books
in the future. I'm speaking in LA. I don't know
when this is going to be out there, but I,
you know, I speak live sometimes, I speak on zoom,
sometimes I so healthspan dietician.com and then I'm on the
(47:26):
social media channels trying to do videos with food and
recipes and exercises and mindfulness stuff. And so that's all
you can find. All that from Healthspan dietician.com two.
S2 (47:36):
Good stuff, good stuff. How do you feel about, uh,
doing all of your online videos and all that stuff?
Because that's something that I'm diving into as well. And,
you know, being like, we kind of discussed off camera
a little bit that's this is this is new to me.
Being in front of a camera is really new. It's
and I'll be honest with you, it's uncomfortable to me
a lot of times, you know, I'm really judgmental on me.
(48:00):
And as far as putting stuff out there, I'm like,
oh my God, people are going to say I'm some
kind of freak, man. I've got this crazy red hair
and I'm too old to be doing all this stuff,
and I'm not the most fit guy in the world
and all that stuff. So how do you handle that?
Kind of. And this is a totally different subject. But, uh,
you've been doing it for so long and you're obviously really,
really gifted and good at it. How does how does
(48:21):
somebody like you that wants to emulate what you've done
in life, get out of their shell and get out there?
S3 (48:28):
Well, first of all, I think you're fabulous and I'm
so glad you're doing this. And I encourage you to
do more of it. Get out there. You're so wonderful
and inspiring, and I love your energy. So that's one thing.
Thank you. It's never easy. And I'll tell you, like
every I'm still like I've been I've been acting and dancing.
I've been on a stage and I have degrees in
theater and I you know, I've done that. So that
helped a lot. In fact, I was like, why did
(48:49):
I bother getting an undergrad degree in theater? What a waste.
But it totally helped me. I had my own TV show,
all that stuff. So it's it's doing it consistently. You get.
I mean, I'm always going to be hard on myself too.
But the worst thing is these comments that people make
like it's it's so hard to like, I can get
1000 really nice, positive comments that are helping people and
messages of how I've helped someone. But then that one stupid, obnoxious,
(49:10):
mean comment I'm like, why did you just leave my
you don't have to write a note, just leave. If
you don't like my content, go away. It's so hard to.
I mean, even now, after doing this for almost, what,
almost five decades? I guess it's it's still bothers me.
So I don't know the answer to that. I just
know that I'm so want to help people, that it's like,
it's worth it to me. Just like with diet, it's
like I want it to be healthy so bad that
(49:31):
this is what I'm doing and I just want to
be out there. And if I could help one person,
then I feel like it's worth putting myself out there
and being abused a little bit because everyone does and
you're never going to please everyone. I keep trying to
remind myself you'll never please everyone. You'll never please everyone.
It's not possible.
S2 (49:47):
Yeah, that that is so good. And I feel the
exact same way. You know, I see the negative comments
as well. They don't really bother me. I kind of
laugh at them. Somebody said that I look like a
carrot top. And Axl Rose had a kid. Um, and no,
I thought that was. I actually thought that was pretty good. Um, but,
you know, to me, I think it's a it's a
realization that, you know, we're leaving a legacy one way
(50:10):
or the other. And I think I heard Alex Hormozi
say this. I don't know if you know who he is,
but he said that getting out here like this and leaving,
putting ourself on camera and putting ourselves out in front
of other folks enables us to leave a legacy to
generations behind us that never would have known us. I mean,
think about it. Does anybody know anything? A whole lot
(50:31):
about their great great grandparents. Okay. And so we are
literally two generations away from pretty much being forgotten. Not
just talked about, not talked about, but being forgotten completely. Right.
And so at least now I know just as you,
that somebody's out there somewhere is going to listen to
(50:52):
this content. They're going to see you over here and
they're going to to be helped and impacted in a
profoundly positive manner by your message today and your courage
and getting out there in front of the world. And that,
to me is a reason enough. Okay. And to expound
upon that, the fact that maybe two generations from now,
(51:13):
three generations from now, somebody may say, well, I wonder
who my great, great, great granddad was, and they're able
to type it in. It's there's going to be this
little video out there and they're going to see who
I was and and be able to hear my voice
and the way that I communicated to other people, and
that I did have a heart to help and give
and to make a hopefully transformative impact in our little
(51:34):
corner of this world. You're in Los Angeles, you're what
is it, 2000 miles away from me. Okay. And we're
sitting here having a great conversation. I just met you
this morning, and I know that I know that you're
a wonderful human being, and it's so profoundly just transformative
to me personally to be able to do this. And
I'm just so grateful for it.
S3 (51:53):
Yes, I'm grateful too, and I'm so glad you're doing it.
And keep up the amazing work and I love it.
You've got a great attitude. Great energy. Yeah.
S2 (52:02):
Thanks so much. I want everybody to go and check out, uh,
Julianna Haver, I want you to go. Are your books
on Amazon? Yeah. Go buy our books on Amazon. You can.
Last name h e v e r. Julianne. Have her
go to her website and follow all of her social
media pages, or Facebook or her Instagram, Twitter, her YouTube account,
(52:22):
and just dive in, if nothing else, to get a
little bit better, a little bit healthier every day. And, uh,
thank you from the bottom of my heart for being
with us today. And thank you from, uh, the Red
Hot Read audience.
S3 (52:37):
Thank you so much. I really enjoyed our conversation.
S1 (52:40):
This has been the Red hot read show with Red Taylor.
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