May 14, 2025 • 36 mins
One in two women over 50 will suffer a fracture due to osteoporosis.
Yet most won’t even know their bones are at risk—until it’s too late.
In this powerful episode, I sit down with Dr. Jennifer Han and Dr. Adrienne Bitar, the powerhouse women behind Seen Nutrition, to talk about the silent crisis affecting women’s longevity—bone loss.
From postpartum pain to a shocking osteoporosis diagnosis at 29, Jen and Adrienne turned their personal health scares into a purpose-driven mission: to rewrite what women think they know about calcium, bone strength, and aging. What they discovered? Most supplements don’t work. The wellness industry isn’t telling the whole truth. And bone health is about so much more than brittle bones—it’s about living strong, mobile, and free.
You’ll walk away with myth-busting facts, a brand-new lens on “food as medicine,” and a serious nudge to stop putting your own health last.
Highlights:
04:25 – From Postpartum Pain to Purpose
How a sudden injury sparked a deeper awareness of bone health and led to unexpected breakthroughs in personal care.
08:10 – The Milk Myth and Modern Nutrition
Why plant milks and fortified foods may not be enough—and how to spot the calcium your bones actually need.
13:00 – Creating a Better Solution with Food as Medicine
The birth of Scene Nutrition and a calcium chew made with only four real ingredients for maximum absorption and impact.
17:30 – Rewriting the Diet Narrative
How historical diet fads have shaped our choices—and how to finally break the cycle of misinformation and restriction.
21:05 – Bone Health Isn’t Just a Women’s Issue
Why men should pay attention too—and how we can reframe bone density as a lifelong priority, not a late-stage fix.
25:00 – The Future of Functional Wellness
How education, simplicity, and real food are leading the next wave of proactive, sustainable health.
30:12 – Small Changes, Big Results
Start now, start small. Even a single daily habit can reshape your bone health and quality of life for years to come.
Hilary’s 3HQ™ Takeaway
This episode is your reminder that health doesn’t start in your calendar—it starts in your beliefs.
When you take care of your Head (the knowledge you hold), your Heart (the commitment to prioritize yourself), and your Highest Self (the vision of your long, strong future), you create a powerful ripple effect—for your body and your life.
About Our Guests:
Dr. Jennifer Han PharmD is a dual residency trained and board-certified ambulatory care pharmacist clinician. With eight years of clinical pharmacy experience, Dr. Han has treated patients with full scope of practice to prescribe medications for chronic conditions such as diabetes, obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia, pain, and heart disease. Dr. Han combines her passion for nutrition with her training in functional medicine, focused on the gut, to provide whole-person care. In 2023, Dr. Han co-founded Seen Nutrition, a foodtech startup focused on bone health.
Adrienne Bitar, PhD, is a cultural historian of food and nutrition. After completing her PhD at Stanford, Adrienne published her first book, Diet and the Disease of Civilization, the first cultural analysis of diet in the United States. Since then, she has published broadly on food and nutrition as a Food Studies scholar at Cornell University, where she completed her postdoctoral fellowship in 2021 and currently works as a lecturer in the Program in American Studies.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dr. Jennifer Han (00:00):
So in America, some 40 million American women have low bone density, so that includes osteopenia and osteoporosis. That's 40 million. But again, it's probably more. It's just the fact that in the US, DEXA scans are only covered by insurance if you're 65 years and older. So
Hilary DeCesare (00:20):
we started that. Why is that? That seems absurd. I mean, if you're telling me, what's the average age that that women start to see the deterioration. On average, I know that you were 29 but on average, what is that? What's that age?
Dr. Jennifer Han (00:35):
Well, really, menopause is the biggest period of a woman's life where they lose bone density the fast here we
Hilary DeCesare (00:43):
go with the M word, Damn, that thing is just like ravaging us. It's like, come on.
Welcome to the Relaunch to a Rich Life podcast. I'm your host, Hillary DeCesare, and today we're diving into a story where science meets soul and innovation is born. I gotta tell you, you are going to be mesmerized by what I'm going to share. You know, I love bringing new ways of health, new ways to relaunch yourself in a way that you never expected. And today I think I've like, I've double whammy it, because today I have Dr Jennifer Han, she is a Board Certified Clinical Pharmacist, pharmacist, I can hardly say it. I'm so excited with deep expertise in treating chronic conditions. Wait till you hear her relaunch story. She's also all about gut centered care, and she has co founded, seen nutrition. And I am guaranteeing you right now we are going to be talking about a product that you are going to want to get out there and get right away. I am actually going to sample it today, because I love it. And I thought, why not? And here's the thing, it is a bo new player in the food as medicine revolution. And so Joining her is Doctor Adrienne Bitar.. She is Stanford PhD, cultural historian of food. You're like, what I said, the same thing. I didn't know what that was. Either she is the author which I have right here, diet and the disease of civilization. You guys, when I first heard what she talks about in this book. I'm like, oh my god, this is revolutionary. This is game changing. This is what we all need to know so that we can get off the roller coaster of diets and understand what really works. And so when these two brilliant women cross paths and wait to hear their relaunch stories, I know I've said it, but they realized that their personal and professional journeys were actually pieces of a bigger puzzle. They were going to impact the world in a much bigger way. So today's conversation is all about where knowledge, passion and purpose collide, but more importantly, you're gonna walk away with some, like, nuggets upon nuggets that you need to start implementing in your life right now, because I am and I know that you will benefit. Jennifer, Adrienne, wow. I am so excited to, like, have people know who you are, how you created some of these incredible things that we're talking about. So let's dive in. Let's dive in. Who wants to go first? Who's going to be like, the first person to make to like, roll out their relaunch story?
(03:50):
Adrian, could go first. Okay, Adrienne,
you have such an incredible journey story around this first off cultural historian, diets, I mean, like, Wait, say, what? Like, what is this? So help us understand how you came into this whole like, I need to know everything there is about diet, about food, what happened? What was the relaunch journey? Well,
Dr. Adrienne Bitar (04:19):
thank you, Hilary, so much for having us huge admirers of the work that you've done. Reinvention, relaunching is just, you know, something we could all look forward to in our lives. We all wear so many hats. We are so many people to so many different people, that it's been a pleasure to look back at my own life and just see how the puzzle pieces fit together. You know, I started doing food studies because I was fascinated by food and nutrition, and I just couldn't get enough of it. I did my undergraduate in Food Studies, and then I went on to get a PhD in a related department, and I was just doing Food Studies, Food Studies, food studies the whole way through, because. Food is this amazing cultural resource of both nutrition information and also sheds light on a deeper understanding of who we are and what we value as a people. When I came to Cornell to do my post doc and then start my lectureship, I understood that it wasn't just understanding food that brought value to my life and the impact I could make in the world, but understanding how we could shape the food system to actually make a difference in people's lives. So I pinpoint my relaunch journey to when I met Jenny and we came together and we realized, hey, you and I were different people, but our fields of expertise complements each other in such a way that our shared passion just ignited our passion for bone health, for women's health, and for using food as medicine.
Hilary DeCesare (05:48):
This is so fascinating, because one looking at you to young women, now I don't know how old you are, and I love that Brene Brown says mid lifers are 35 plus, but I'm not even sure you're like, there yet. But interesting part of this is what you're doing for perimenopause and menopausal women, and yet you are very youthful. And I'm like, Okay, we gotta tie this together. We got to keep going here. So Jennifer, can we, like, kind of dive into your story, and then we're going to weave it all together, because it is a fascinating journey. Yes,
Dr. Jennifer Han (06:29):
that's a perfect segue, because women's health, and if we're talking specifically about bone health, it's a lifelong commitment, and we don't know that when we're young. So I was diagnosed with pre menopausal osteoporosis, or it's also called pregnancy, lactation osteoporosis, when I was 29 years old. I was 29 29 I wasn't even 30 yet, but I was two months postpartum. I rolled off a yoga ball. Had really bad back pain, and come to find out, I sustained multiple vertebral fractures and was diagnosed with this condition, right? I was 29 I've been practicing clinical pharmacy for many years. I should have been aware of everything that's going on with my body, but I just wasn't right, and so I wish that I had known from a young age that I should take care of my bones and my health, starting when I was 1015, 16, because those are the critical years for bone mass, right? So we reach peak bone mass density by the time we're 30 years old. And okay,
Hilary DeCesare (07:38):
this is already you're telling me stuff. I had no idea. I've got, I've got two daughters as well. No clue all. When you were saying that I'm thinking about, like, my own youth, where I was, like, eating American cheese and thinking that I'm getting my, like, calcium, that's awesome. And I'm, I'm, I'm hearing this, but you said, you know, should have been aware. And I think there's a lot of people out there that are listening, that are like, how are how do we become aware, if nobody's talking about it, and you now are talking about it, but what before you got pregnant? Did you have any aches and pains and because it didn't just come up during pregnancy, right? I mean, did it start before it kind
Dr. Jennifer Han (08:21):
of did, like I never thought about my bones prior to me fracturing my back. I never I was otherwise general, generally healthy person. So I got rare screenings of my ultrasounds during my pregnancy and whatever it was only after I broke my back from they call it a fragility. Fall very low impact, fall where I was diagnosed with osteoporosis. So there were, there were no signs, but that just highlights the point that we should be more aware of this when we're younger, when we are healthy, so that we can be at a better place. Come 40s, come 50s, when we when we go through menopause.
Hilary DeCesare (09:01):
So let's talk about osteoporosis. What is it exactly? Because you know what, I am raising my hand right now. I am I have never had a bone density test until in the last week, I literally have had two doctors say, hey, you know, I don't see that in your charts. Have you done it? And I'm like, no, like, what is it? What are we concerned with here? Osteoporosis
Dr. Jennifer Han (09:26):
is low bone density. So there's osteoporosis, and then there's osteopenia. Whether you fall in each category depends on, for example, this t score that you get from your DEXA scan, and it tells you how dense your phone is compared to the average woman of your age, and so it everyone's
Hilary DeCesare (09:46):
like woman of my age. Are there bands of women like 50 to 55 let's say 5657 to 65 are there? Or is it just massively we're kind. Of thrown in it together. It's
Dr. Jennifer Han (10:02):
just the general population, yeah, okay, that's why you have to take DEXA scans with a grain of salt. But it's a great place to start. It's a great place to see where your bone density is kind of landing, and then you can work from there. Like if I had gone a DEXA scan when I was pregnant, or thinking about becoming pregnant, then I would have really beefed up my calcium and my vitamin D and my magnesium as I was going through pregnancy, and maybe that would have impacted my postpartum.
Hilary DeCesare (10:32):
So what's really fascinating is, you know, you talk about, as you said, you should have known, and kids that are 1015, and you're literally your bones are developed by 30. Kids aren't aware of this, just like they're not aware to wear sunscreen. I mean, this isn't like something that they are. So we've got to educate the parents. We've got to get them in, but I got to bring I mean, Adrienne, you've been so patiently waiting, and I'm fascinating here. Somehow you two got together, and I need to hear the story, and figured out that there was something that you can do. Diet. Wise. Adrienne, what was it that all of a sudden you two are talking? And how did this, how did this company, scene come up? Scene nutrition,
Dr. Adrienne Bitar (11:19):
we felt like it was this magical moment of, I don't know if you call it fate or karma, or this moment we realized we're friends. We're good friends. We met in Ithaca through our shared connection to Cornell, and we both share this commitment to bone health, like Jenny had her diagnosis at 29 I've seen my own mom. She was diagnosed in her 40s, and she's been, she's been breaking a bone every five years since, it's just, it's just, it's changed my entire adulthood and my understanding of what it means to grow older as a woman in the United States. So looking at my field of expertise in diet, we understood that the there's this rapid decline in fluid milk consumption, there's changes in American diet which predisposes us to osteoporosis as well as the lengthening of the lifespan, but not necessarily the well span or the health span. And women are enjoying living to older ages. But are they really enjoying it if they're if they're nursing a broken ankle, a broken wrist, or, God forbid, a broken hip. So have you
Hilary DeCesare (12:22):
seen an increase? Because this is really fascinating from the time with, you know, my grandma and then my mom. And my mom passed away about five years ago, and I remember she had pre or onset osteoporosis, and she would go and get these bone density tests and you know, kind of checking it every year you said, you mentioned, this is fascinating. The fluid milk consumption is decreasing, and yes, people are using almond milk and oat milk and and coconut milk. Do those have as much calcium as regular milk for one and then share with us, like, what other diet myths are there out there?
Dr. Adrienne Bitar (13:05):
Well, for the first question, that's excellent. So plant milks, plant based milks are usually fortified, so that means there's a synthetic calcium, typically calcium carbonate, but it can be calcium lactate that's fortified into a food. So it's basically like you're taking a capsule and grinding it up and suspending it in some gum, and it could be a fairly homogenous mixture. However fortified foods are, are they have their place, but the rate of absorption is lower than dietary calcium, like the calcium we include in
Hilary DeCesare (13:36):
our chew. You just dropped the nugget. Everybody did you hear that in our chew? We are going to be talking about this chew, but let's keep going. Let's keep going with the the myths around there. Because when everyone's everyone, maybe you haven't seen it, but if you've ever had a calcium pill, they are big and like, cool. You feel like it literally is a horse pill. Why is it so gigantic, and is that synthetic?
Dr. Adrienne Bitar (14:04):
Yes, they're big because they Calcium is a bulky mineral, so we include 500 milligrams of calcium and archu. And if you look at it, you can, you can visualize 500 milligrams. I mean, it's a sizable amount. And if you're going to take that in a capsule, I mean, it makes a lot of people gag, so putting it in a tube literally does palatable. And, yes, that is synthetic. And so,
Hilary DeCesare (14:27):
yeah, keep
Dr. Jennifer Han (14:28):
going. Yeah, that's just a key point there is that that's another reason why a lot of multivitamins actually have less than the calcium that you should be consuming in a day, because because of the fact that it's bulky, not because you don't need it. It's just bulky.
Hilary DeCesare (14:46):
So I want to go into this scene for those that are watching this. You know how much I love a great product I am a huge fan of seeing. They're called calcium chew complete. Eat made from only four real foods for better bone health. Tell us why only four. And as you're doing this, I am taking a bite. This is what it looks like, everyone. It's about, what do you think like? What like not? It's smaller than an inch by an inch. It's very small. And I have to tell you, like dessert. It It is so good. And you're saying, take one a day. But what are the four ingredients so good? You guys like, I'm like, yummy, yummy, right now
Dr. Jennifer Han (15:30):
I do, yeah, the four ingredients are organic, dates, milk, minerals and milk protein, vitamin D, mushrooms and almonds. Those are four ingredients. We want our product to be transparent. We're not hiding anything. There's no proprietary blends, there's no artificial ingredients, no preservatives, no fillers, because we want our consumer to know what they're eating. And so that's all that's included. It's just a food,
Hilary DeCesare (15:59):
okay? But you said milk, and so if you have any type of allergy towards milk, you can't take it. Yes, that's right. Okay. So why these four ingredients? How did you and this, I think, goes back to the cultural historian diet and the food and understanding so much about food. But why? Why these ingredients, because, like I said, It literally tastes like dessert, which I'm a huge fan of. So super, super yummy. But how'd you come up with the concoction? Were you guys like working in your kitchens? Or how did you do this?
Dr. Adrienne Bitar (16:33):
We spent a long time. So I work at Cornell, teaching Food Studies, and Cornell's a land grant institution upstate New York, and we're so fortunate to have a robust and current food science department that helped us formulate. We spent a lot of time wearing hair nets and full on lab coats in the lab, very much in the technical manufacturing part. And then also, as a coincidence of our political history, milk has been very, very well studied. I mean, we have a body of literature going back hundreds of years in nutrition science on the many properties of milk. So we know 100% that it's a superior form of calcium in milk than it is even, even in plant based versions, like the calcium you'd get from spinach or the calcium that you get from a capsule like calcium carbonate. So
Hilary DeCesare (17:25):
what when I eat this the scene, calcium chew complete and again, the ingredients are for real foods, for better bone health. Pharmacist made and recommended. I like that. What is this doing for me,
Dr. Jennifer Han (17:41):
yeah, it's providing you not only the calcium that you need for bone health, but all of the other minerals that you need for your bones. So bones are made of majority of calcium, but they're also made of magnesium, phosphorus, copper, iron, zinc, protein, collagen, and so our that's why we call it the calcium two complete because you're getting calcium plus all the minerals that you need for bone health and a lot of the supplements that you'll find in CVS target wherever you go, provide calcium and synthetic calcium in silo without those minerals.
Hilary DeCesare (18:17):
And I gotta tell everyone, a lot of times when you hear podcasts and the host is like, recommending something. They're getting a kickback. I'm not getting any kickback. Everybody like this is legit, just really yummy. Is there a time of the day that I should be taking this? Yeah,
Dr. Jennifer Han (18:32):
we get that question asked a lot, but no, you can eat it whenever. We say whenever it fits into your routine is when you should be consuming it. It it doesn't have to be with food without food, because it is food and and
Hilary DeCesare (18:45):
what if I ate the whole pack? Is that really bad for me
Dr. Jennifer Han (18:51):
that I would not recommend we say one, two a day, because it provides 500 milligrams of dietary calcium, and that's the most effective dose in terms of absorption. So say you accidentally took two, or you ate two, you might not absorb the most. And so that's why we recommend 500 I
Hilary DeCesare (19:11):
love that accidentally, if you start to binge on the chews, it could go bad for you. Okay, so let's keep going with I want to get back to diet and disease of civilization, and I want to talk about some of these diets. And you know, every day you hear about a new diet fad, I'd love to understand through history, what are you seeing, and where do you think we're going with the next, the next wave of the right diet, and which diet is the best? Yeah, well, I
Dr. Adrienne Bitar (19:41):
mean, that's a wonderful question Hillary, and that's something I spent my entire time in graduate school and my postdoc thinking about diets. Tend to come in cycles, and they do more than just provide nutrition advice. Oftentimes, they articulate philosophies about, what does it mean to be a human? How does it feel to. Have a body and feed it properly. And we see different cycles. You know, we'll have the no carb, the all carb, the low fat, the all fat. Now we're looking at protein, and it's you'll see, I
Hilary DeCesare (20:12):
have to say that is really true. If you think about eggs, don't eat the eggs. Eat the egg whites, don't eat the yolks. I mean, it's like, how do you know what to do? Eat meat. Don't eat meat. So what do Yeah, tell us, like, what? What do you do there? Well,
Dr. Adrienne Bitar (20:27):
so there have been some very robust studies that have come out that shown that if, if weight loss is your goal, and you're trying to go on a diet to lose weight, the best diet is the diet you adhere to. So it's a little bit counterintuitive, but they put, they've put large cohorts of dieters on vastly different nutritional programs. You know, high fat, low fat, high carb, low carb, high protein, no protein, and they found that pretty much all are equally effective if you adhere to those diets. So that's what makes the philosophy part of a diet so compelling because it's the storytelling, the narrative, that persuades you that if it increases adherence, the nutritional composition is actually less significant than the adherence rate.
Hilary DeCesare (21:13):
Now that's interesting. So if you're bouncing around, right, you're bouncing Is it true that you should because this is okay? How do I really want to ask this question? The question is this, if you adhere to one type of diet, it's very much like it's already pre defined. Yet, I've also heard other philosophies that, like, bring in more more fruit and different color foods. And how does it like if you're only eating, like meat, right? Like these, like high fat, does it really get you all the other nutrients? And then I have to keep having you go into supplements. What I know you got my CHEWIES here, which is awesome, but what about all the other things that I'm not I'm not getting in my diet?
Dr. Adrienne Bitar (22:07):
Well, some diets we know are restrictive, and they actually can, you know, we are so absolutely privileged to be living here in 2025 in the, you know, the United States, or, you know, parts of the world that have the food system that we so often take for granted. But there are, for example, micronutrients that we know that we're deficient in, so we should be grateful to fortified foods for bringing us the folic acid that prevents neural tube defects that are still really common in the world, or vitamin D for preventing rickets or but we also know there's still shortfalls. So the average American woman gets about 850 milligrams of calcium from diet alone, and that includes fortified foods, yet the recommendation is 1200 milligrams for women, 51 plus. So supplements, I do believe, still have a role to play, even in a balanced diet, because we just know from the data that we're deficient in vitamin D. We're deficient in calcium. Some populations are deficient in folic acid, for another example, so we have to be, you know, mindful of it, if we're if we follow a restrictive diet.
Hilary DeCesare (23:11):
So Jennifer, how many women out of you know, our population? I mean, how many are actually getting osteoporosis? How common is this problem?
Dr. Jennifer Han (23:23):
It is very common, and we probably, the statistics that we have are probably short of what it actually is. So in America, some 40 million American women have low bone density, so that includes osteopenia and osteoporosis. That's 40 million. But again, it's probably more it's just the fact that in the US, DEXA scans are only covered by insurance if you're 65 years and older. So we started
Hilary DeCesare (23:52):
that. Why is that? That seems absurd. I mean, if you're telling me what's the average age that that women start to see the deterioration on average, I know that you were 29 but on average, what is that? What's that age?
Dr. Jennifer Han (24:06):
Well, really, menopause is the biggest period of a woman's life where they lose bone density, the fast here
Hilary DeCesare (24:14):
we go with the M word. Damn, that thing is just like ravaging us. It's like, come on,
Dr. Jennifer Han (24:20):
yeah, yeah, I know it actually, in the first five years after menopause, you lose up to 20% of your bone density. That's guaranteed. That's just physiology, because you will lose estrogen as you go through menopause, and estrogen is bone protective, so when that goes away, your bone density will decrease. So now we know that fact, and it's about, how can we prevent that from getting worse?
Hilary DeCesare (24:45):
And that's where your chewy is. But you also have other tips for kind of this idea of keeping bone health moving in the right direction. What else do you recommend? Yeah,
Dr. Jennifer Han (24:56):
well, we want to focus on the fundamentals, right. Like. Adrienne was saying, diets come and go, but what are the fundamentals? And when we're talking about fundamentals of bone health, calcium is absolutely the fundamental, but so is vitamin D, so is magnesium, so is obtaining enough protein so that your body is making its own collagen, which are also a major part of the structure of bones. And so if we focus on the foundational nutrients, then that's a good place for then maybe to explore with the other ones, right? Because we hear on social media all the time, Oh, what about boron or silica or other things? Well, let's just focus on the foundation first, and then we can expand from there
Hilary DeCesare (25:40):
something that really is interesting to me just recently, and my audience knows this, that I have been still going through perimenopause. Menopause is like, I think officially, maybe here right now, but it's like, I'm on the border still, so I've been tested out a lot. And it's interesting, because what you have to be really careful with is you don't realize that some of the supplements have, like, vitamin D already included, and then you're taking another vitamin D, and so you end up, I ended up testing out where I'm on a high side of vitamin D, not by much, but by one. And, you know, I've got this, this cancer on my head. That was just, I don't have it anymore. I shouldn't say that it's gone. They got everything. But for me, I'm like, a sunblock craze person, morning, noon, night. Yes, even at night, they say you should do that, because the lights are now, you know, absorbing all this. But how do you if you're, if you're providing these 500 milligrams, is that, what you said, 500 milligrams of calcium? Should we make sure that other products we're taking, supplements we're taking, don't have any calcium?
Dr. Jennifer Han (26:56):
Yeah, absolutely. I would take, maybe not the fact that they don't have any, but at least be aware of it. And so a big thing that we've been doing, and Adrienne's also been focusing on, is, how do we read a nutrition fact label? How do we read a supplement fact label? Because it can be confusing, and totally if we know how to read it, then we can calculate that up and be like, Okay, we're not taking too much.
Hilary DeCesare (27:19):
Okay? I always like, you know, from a third grade level Adrienne. How do we read that label? Like, what should we just we're only looking at one thing. What should we be looking for?
Dr. Adrienne Bitar (27:29):
I would look at the ingredient list, and it's really confusing. You'll hear physicians say all the time, calcium from food, calcium from food. So say, Okay, I'm looking at the percentages. I'm getting 30% of my calcium from this almond milk, or this Cheerios or these Lucky Charms, and it's sure it's in food, but it's not from food, so it's in food because someone
Hilary DeCesare (27:50):
great point. But it's not
Dr. Adrienne Bitar (27:53):
from food. It's not dietary calcium. So one issue that many women have is they're like, well, I'll drink a lot of almond milk, and I'll get my 600 700 800 milligrams. But as we know, the absorption rate is much lower at those higher doses. And then it's also synthetic calcium that's sort of masquerading as dietary calcium. So look at that ingredient list list to see if you see any calcium carbonate, calcium citrate, calcium lactate, and you'll know with certainty that it's a fortified food.
Hilary DeCesare (28:24):
Okay, you realize I'm that woman. I keep drinking more almond milk because I'm like, Oh, look at what I'm doing for my my bones. And this is so good, but now I've got my my CHEWIES, my scene, my scene, product here I want to ask you, where do you see let's go with menopause and bone health. Where do you see that that's going to be going here?
Dr. Jennifer Han (28:47):
Well, we just got back from the bone health and Osteoporosis Foundation conference that happens annually in DC. We literally just got back this weekend, and we connected with all the experts in bone health. We're also corporate advisors to the BHO F, and so we got to see what are their priorities in 2025 and a big priority for the BHO F, and for us at scene, is focusing on bone health and menopause. And so that that i i wish, in 10 years and 20 years, that we're going to be having these conversations about bone health and menopause, when, when we're 20 years old, when we're when we're 15 years old. I mean, our four year olds are just talking about menopause because they hear us talking about it. But you know
Hilary DeCesare (29:30):
what you're doing? This is so fascinating. What you're doing is what you wish had been done in your day for you when you were 1015, understanding this, and now what you're doing is you're bringing this and I love you guys. Are, you know, far away from menopause with your with your little kiddos and everything but, but you're already preparing for it. And with a 24 year old daughter, with a 27 year old daughter, I gotta tell you, they should be on. On this scene, calcium, two, complete, two, right there. Is there? What age are you recommending that people start to eat these
Dr. Jennifer Han (30:09):
Well, really, we've been focusing on women that are going through menopause, because that's again, when you lose the most bone density in the shortest amount of time. But because the calcium is from milk, you could eat our chews from a young age. Our four year olds eat it. They asked for it like, when are we going to get our calcium Chews?
Hilary DeCesare (30:29):
So, right, but boys can. But boys can benefit from this too. In fact, I gotta ask this. I gotta ask this. I just had my flash of my three boys that I have and my husband, can they also be taking? I'm not seeing on here. No, I'm not seeing any up. It does say for women up in the right? But maybe there's something here, ladies, where you're like for men, like, you know how they have dude wipes for men, right? Maybe this, maybe you just package this a little different and say for men, but do men get osteoporosis? So
Dr. Adrienne Bitar (31:08):
we have a line we say men have skeletons too, even though men aren't really paying attention to their bone health, but they should, because a man is actually more likely to break a bone due to osteoporosis than he is to get prostate cancer? No, yes, it's true. It's not as common in men as it is, and it tends to affect men in older ages. But when it does happen, it's it's serious for men.
Hilary DeCesare (31:33):
Okay, so the only way I'm going to get my husband to eat these is if I take them out of this package that says for women, and I'm going to put him in like a little jar dish him to start eating these, and he will love them. They are so good everyone. I'm telling you, okay, as we wrap, as we wrap, I would love one final word from both of you that my audience loves the takeaways, loves the like, Hey, if you're going to do one thing, and I'm going to do my takeaway right now, get the product. Get it. But what would your what would your like? One like, Hey, everyone, if you only hear this one thing, do this. What would that be?
Dr. Jennifer Han (32:16):
Yeah, that's a good question.
Dr. Adrienne Bitar (32:18):
You have one way to go. I would say advocate for a DEXA scan, advocate for that bone density scan. I was just able to get one covered by insurance, and it was hugely revelatory, and a real wake up call for me to start taking care of my bone health now, to prevent those falls and fractures later, and then aging, that frailty and fractures are not a natural consequence of aging. This is something we can prevent. This is something we can treat, and it's something we can do about.
Hilary DeCesare (32:50):
So powerful. Jennifer,
Dr. Jennifer Han (32:51):
yeah, I think I go back to what I tell my patients when we're thinking about lifestyle changes, we have to start now and start slow. So those two things are really important, look and take an inventory of what your routine is like, what you eat, how you move, what you exercise with, or how you do that, and then make one small change. Start to make small changes. Then every day it's going to build up. And the key thing is that bones are dynamic. They're constantly remodeling, building up and breaking down. So if you change something today, like drinking one less soda or stop smoking, it's going to make an impact on your bones tomorrow or 10 years.
Hilary DeCesare (33:36):
So great. Where can we where can we find this incredible product to buy.
Dr. Jennifer Han (33:41):
Yes, you can buy online at www. Dot seen nutrition. So there's two ends there.com.
Hilary DeCesare (33:50):
Alright? So I do want to mention we have a big event coming up in September. It's our relaunch to a rich life live. It's kind of a tongue twister there, and tons of women are coming in, I would love to be able to have a snack break and give everybody these shoes. So we need to make this happen, because I believe that curating the best of the best and helping us relaunch our health constantly and right there's, there's new things that we're learning. You taught me so much today, so I'm excited to have you participate in that event, and thank you for coming. This has been really like I love when two incredible relaunch stories come out with such impact, and you are teaching people and everybody out there you now know a heck of a lot more. So make it happen for you relaunch right now into this incredible health around your bones. Thank you, ladies for being here. Thank you until next time, everyone. One relaunch to a rich life.
So in America, some 40 million American women have low bone density, so that includes osteopenia and osteoporosis. That's 40 million. But again, it's probably more. It's just the fact that in the US, DEXA scans are only covered by insurance if you're 65 years and older. So
Hilary DeCesare (00:20):
we started that. Why is that? That seems absurd. I mean, if you're telling me, what's the average age that that women start to see the deterioration. On average, I know that you were 29 but on average, what is that? What's that age?
Dr. Jennifer Han (00:35):
Well, really, menopause is the biggest period of a woman's life where they lose bone density the fast here we
Hilary DeCesare (00:43):
go with the M word, Damn, that thing is just like ravaging us. It's like, come on.
Welcome to the Relaunch to a Rich Life podcast. I'm your host, Hillary DeCesare, and today we're diving into a story where science meets soul and innovation is born. I gotta tell you, you are going to be mesmerized by what I'm going to share. You know, I love bringing new ways of health, new ways to relaunch yourself in a way that you never expected. And today I think I've like, I've double whammy it, because today I have Dr Jennifer Han, she is a Board Certified Clinical Pharmacist, pharmacist, I can hardly say it. I'm so excited with deep expertise in treating chronic conditions. Wait till you hear her relaunch story. She's also all about gut centered care, and she has co founded, seen nutrition. And I am guaranteeing you right now we are going to be talking about a product that you are going to want to get out there and get right away. I am actually going to sample it today, because I love it. And I thought, why not? And here's the thing, it is a bo new player in the food as medicine revolution. And so Joining her is Doctor Adrienne Bitar.. She is Stanford PhD, cultural historian of food. You're like, what I said, the same thing. I didn't know what that was. Either she is the author which I have right here, diet and the disease of civilization. You guys, when I first heard what she talks about in this book. I'm like, oh my god, this is revolutionary. This is game changing. This is what we all need to know so that we can get off the roller coaster of diets and understand what really works. And so when these two brilliant women cross paths and wait to hear their relaunch stories, I know I've said it, but they realized that their personal and professional journeys were actually pieces of a bigger puzzle. They were going to impact the world in a much bigger way. So today's conversation is all about where knowledge, passion and purpose collide, but more importantly, you're gonna walk away with some, like, nuggets upon nuggets that you need to start implementing in your life right now, because I am and I know that you will benefit. Jennifer, Adrienne, wow. I am so excited to, like, have people know who you are, how you created some of these incredible things that we're talking about. So let's dive in. Let's dive in. Who wants to go first? Who's going to be like, the first person to make to like, roll out their relaunch story?
(03:50):
Adrian, could go first. Okay, Adrienne,
you have such an incredible journey story around this first off cultural historian, diets, I mean, like, Wait, say, what? Like, what is this? So help us understand how you came into this whole like, I need to know everything there is about diet, about food, what happened? What was the relaunch journey? Well,
Dr. Adrienne Bitar (04:19):
thank you, Hilary, so much for having us huge admirers of the work that you've done. Reinvention, relaunching is just, you know, something we could all look forward to in our lives. We all wear so many hats. We are so many people to so many different people, that it's been a pleasure to look back at my own life and just see how the puzzle pieces fit together. You know, I started doing food studies because I was fascinated by food and nutrition, and I just couldn't get enough of it. I did my undergraduate in Food Studies, and then I went on to get a PhD in a related department, and I was just doing Food Studies, Food Studies, food studies the whole way through, because. Food is this amazing cultural resource of both nutrition information and also sheds light on a deeper understanding of who we are and what we value as a people. When I came to Cornell to do my post doc and then start my lectureship, I understood that it wasn't just understanding food that brought value to my life and the impact I could make in the world, but understanding how we could shape the food system to actually make a difference in people's lives. So I pinpoint my relaunch journey to when I met Jenny and we came together and we realized, hey, you and I were different people, but our fields of expertise complements each other in such a way that our shared passion just ignited our passion for bone health, for women's health, and for using food as medicine.
Hilary DeCesare (05:48):
This is so fascinating, because one looking at you to young women, now I don't know how old you are, and I love that Brene Brown says mid lifers are 35 plus, but I'm not even sure you're like, there yet. But interesting part of this is what you're doing for perimenopause and menopausal women, and yet you are very youthful. And I'm like, Okay, we gotta tie this together. We got to keep going here. So Jennifer, can we, like, kind of dive into your story, and then we're going to weave it all together, because it is a fascinating journey. Yes,
Dr. Jennifer Han (06:29):
that's a perfect segue, because women's health, and if we're talking specifically about bone health, it's a lifelong commitment, and we don't know that when we're young. So I was diagnosed with pre menopausal osteoporosis, or it's also called pregnancy, lactation osteoporosis, when I was 29 years old. I was 29 29 I wasn't even 30 yet, but I was two months postpartum. I rolled off a yoga ball. Had really bad back pain, and come to find out, I sustained multiple vertebral fractures and was diagnosed with this condition, right? I was 29 I've been practicing clinical pharmacy for many years. I should have been aware of everything that's going on with my body, but I just wasn't right, and so I wish that I had known from a young age that I should take care of my bones and my health, starting when I was 1015, 16, because those are the critical years for bone mass, right? So we reach peak bone mass density by the time we're 30 years old. And okay,
Hilary DeCesare (07:38):
this is already you're telling me stuff. I had no idea. I've got, I've got two daughters as well. No clue all. When you were saying that I'm thinking about, like, my own youth, where I was, like, eating American cheese and thinking that I'm getting my, like, calcium, that's awesome. And I'm, I'm, I'm hearing this, but you said, you know, should have been aware. And I think there's a lot of people out there that are listening, that are like, how are how do we become aware, if nobody's talking about it, and you now are talking about it, but what before you got pregnant? Did you have any aches and pains and because it didn't just come up during pregnancy, right? I mean, did it start before it kind
Dr. Jennifer Han (08:21):
of did, like I never thought about my bones prior to me fracturing my back. I never I was otherwise general, generally healthy person. So I got rare screenings of my ultrasounds during my pregnancy and whatever it was only after I broke my back from they call it a fragility. Fall very low impact, fall where I was diagnosed with osteoporosis. So there were, there were no signs, but that just highlights the point that we should be more aware of this when we're younger, when we are healthy, so that we can be at a better place. Come 40s, come 50s, when we when we go through menopause.
Hilary DeCesare (09:01):
So let's talk about osteoporosis. What is it exactly? Because you know what, I am raising my hand right now. I am I have never had a bone density test until in the last week, I literally have had two doctors say, hey, you know, I don't see that in your charts. Have you done it? And I'm like, no, like, what is it? What are we concerned with here? Osteoporosis
Dr. Jennifer Han (09:26):
is low bone density. So there's osteoporosis, and then there's osteopenia. Whether you fall in each category depends on, for example, this t score that you get from your DEXA scan, and it tells you how dense your phone is compared to the average woman of your age, and so it everyone's
Hilary DeCesare (09:46):
like woman of my age. Are there bands of women like 50 to 55 let's say 5657 to 65 are there? Or is it just massively we're kind. Of thrown in it together. It's
Dr. Jennifer Han (10:02):
just the general population, yeah, okay, that's why you have to take DEXA scans with a grain of salt. But it's a great place to start. It's a great place to see where your bone density is kind of landing, and then you can work from there. Like if I had gone a DEXA scan when I was pregnant, or thinking about becoming pregnant, then I would have really beefed up my calcium and my vitamin D and my magnesium as I was going through pregnancy, and maybe that would have impacted my postpartum.
Hilary DeCesare (10:32):
So what's really fascinating is, you know, you talk about, as you said, you should have known, and kids that are 1015, and you're literally your bones are developed by 30. Kids aren't aware of this, just like they're not aware to wear sunscreen. I mean, this isn't like something that they are. So we've got to educate the parents. We've got to get them in, but I got to bring I mean, Adrienne, you've been so patiently waiting, and I'm fascinating here. Somehow you two got together, and I need to hear the story, and figured out that there was something that you can do. Diet. Wise. Adrienne, what was it that all of a sudden you two are talking? And how did this, how did this company, scene come up? Scene nutrition,
Dr. Adrienne Bitar (11:19):
we felt like it was this magical moment of, I don't know if you call it fate or karma, or this moment we realized we're friends. We're good friends. We met in Ithaca through our shared connection to Cornell, and we both share this commitment to bone health, like Jenny had her diagnosis at 29 I've seen my own mom. She was diagnosed in her 40s, and she's been, she's been breaking a bone every five years since, it's just, it's just, it's changed my entire adulthood and my understanding of what it means to grow older as a woman in the United States. So looking at my field of expertise in diet, we understood that the there's this rapid decline in fluid milk consumption, there's changes in American diet which predisposes us to osteoporosis as well as the lengthening of the lifespan, but not necessarily the well span or the health span. And women are enjoying living to older ages. But are they really enjoying it if they're if they're nursing a broken ankle, a broken wrist, or, God forbid, a broken hip. So have you
Hilary DeCesare (12:22):
seen an increase? Because this is really fascinating from the time with, you know, my grandma and then my mom. And my mom passed away about five years ago, and I remember she had pre or onset osteoporosis, and she would go and get these bone density tests and you know, kind of checking it every year you said, you mentioned, this is fascinating. The fluid milk consumption is decreasing, and yes, people are using almond milk and oat milk and and coconut milk. Do those have as much calcium as regular milk for one and then share with us, like, what other diet myths are there out there?
Dr. Adrienne Bitar (13:05):
Well, for the first question, that's excellent. So plant milks, plant based milks are usually fortified, so that means there's a synthetic calcium, typically calcium carbonate, but it can be calcium lactate that's fortified into a food. So it's basically like you're taking a capsule and grinding it up and suspending it in some gum, and it could be a fairly homogenous mixture. However fortified foods are, are they have their place, but the rate of absorption is lower than dietary calcium, like the calcium we include in
Hilary DeCesare (13:36):
our chew. You just dropped the nugget. Everybody did you hear that in our chew? We are going to be talking about this chew, but let's keep going. Let's keep going with the the myths around there. Because when everyone's everyone, maybe you haven't seen it, but if you've ever had a calcium pill, they are big and like, cool. You feel like it literally is a horse pill. Why is it so gigantic, and is that synthetic?
Dr. Adrienne Bitar (14:04):
Yes, they're big because they Calcium is a bulky mineral, so we include 500 milligrams of calcium and archu. And if you look at it, you can, you can visualize 500 milligrams. I mean, it's a sizable amount. And if you're going to take that in a capsule, I mean, it makes a lot of people gag, so putting it in a tube literally does palatable. And, yes, that is synthetic. And so,
Hilary DeCesare (14:27):
yeah, keep
Dr. Jennifer Han (14:28):
going. Yeah, that's just a key point there is that that's another reason why a lot of multivitamins actually have less than the calcium that you should be consuming in a day, because because of the fact that it's bulky, not because you don't need it. It's just bulky.
Hilary DeCesare (14:46):
So I want to go into this scene for those that are watching this. You know how much I love a great product I am a huge fan of seeing. They're called calcium chew complete. Eat made from only four real foods for better bone health. Tell us why only four. And as you're doing this, I am taking a bite. This is what it looks like, everyone. It's about, what do you think like? What like not? It's smaller than an inch by an inch. It's very small. And I have to tell you, like dessert. It It is so good. And you're saying, take one a day. But what are the four ingredients so good? You guys like, I'm like, yummy, yummy, right now
Dr. Jennifer Han (15:30):
I do, yeah, the four ingredients are organic, dates, milk, minerals and milk protein, vitamin D, mushrooms and almonds. Those are four ingredients. We want our product to be transparent. We're not hiding anything. There's no proprietary blends, there's no artificial ingredients, no preservatives, no fillers, because we want our consumer to know what they're eating. And so that's all that's included. It's just a food,
Hilary DeCesare (15:59):
okay? But you said milk, and so if you have any type of allergy towards milk, you can't take it. Yes, that's right. Okay. So why these four ingredients? How did you and this, I think, goes back to the cultural historian diet and the food and understanding so much about food. But why? Why these ingredients, because, like I said, It literally tastes like dessert, which I'm a huge fan of. So super, super yummy. But how'd you come up with the concoction? Were you guys like working in your kitchens? Or how did you do this?
Dr. Adrienne Bitar (16:33):
We spent a long time. So I work at Cornell, teaching Food Studies, and Cornell's a land grant institution upstate New York, and we're so fortunate to have a robust and current food science department that helped us formulate. We spent a lot of time wearing hair nets and full on lab coats in the lab, very much in the technical manufacturing part. And then also, as a coincidence of our political history, milk has been very, very well studied. I mean, we have a body of literature going back hundreds of years in nutrition science on the many properties of milk. So we know 100% that it's a superior form of calcium in milk than it is even, even in plant based versions, like the calcium you'd get from spinach or the calcium that you get from a capsule like calcium carbonate. So
Hilary DeCesare (17:25):
what when I eat this the scene, calcium chew complete and again, the ingredients are for real foods, for better bone health. Pharmacist made and recommended. I like that. What is this doing for me,
Dr. Jennifer Han (17:41):
yeah, it's providing you not only the calcium that you need for bone health, but all of the other minerals that you need for your bones. So bones are made of majority of calcium, but they're also made of magnesium, phosphorus, copper, iron, zinc, protein, collagen, and so our that's why we call it the calcium two complete because you're getting calcium plus all the minerals that you need for bone health and a lot of the supplements that you'll find in CVS target wherever you go, provide calcium and synthetic calcium in silo without those minerals.
Hilary DeCesare (18:17):
And I gotta tell everyone, a lot of times when you hear podcasts and the host is like, recommending something. They're getting a kickback. I'm not getting any kickback. Everybody like this is legit, just really yummy. Is there a time of the day that I should be taking this? Yeah,
Dr. Jennifer Han (18:32):
we get that question asked a lot, but no, you can eat it whenever. We say whenever it fits into your routine is when you should be consuming it. It it doesn't have to be with food without food, because it is food and and
Hilary DeCesare (18:45):
what if I ate the whole pack? Is that really bad for me
Dr. Jennifer Han (18:51):
that I would not recommend we say one, two a day, because it provides 500 milligrams of dietary calcium, and that's the most effective dose in terms of absorption. So say you accidentally took two, or you ate two, you might not absorb the most. And so that's why we recommend 500 I
Hilary DeCesare (19:11):
love that accidentally, if you start to binge on the chews, it could go bad for you. Okay, so let's keep going with I want to get back to diet and disease of civilization, and I want to talk about some of these diets. And you know, every day you hear about a new diet fad, I'd love to understand through history, what are you seeing, and where do you think we're going with the next, the next wave of the right diet, and which diet is the best? Yeah, well, I
Dr. Adrienne Bitar (19:41):
mean, that's a wonderful question Hillary, and that's something I spent my entire time in graduate school and my postdoc thinking about diets. Tend to come in cycles, and they do more than just provide nutrition advice. Oftentimes, they articulate philosophies about, what does it mean to be a human? How does it feel to. Have a body and feed it properly. And we see different cycles. You know, we'll have the no carb, the all carb, the low fat, the all fat. Now we're looking at protein, and it's you'll see, I
Hilary DeCesare (20:12):
have to say that is really true. If you think about eggs, don't eat the eggs. Eat the egg whites, don't eat the yolks. I mean, it's like, how do you know what to do? Eat meat. Don't eat meat. So what do Yeah, tell us, like, what? What do you do there? Well,
Dr. Adrienne Bitar (20:27):
so there have been some very robust studies that have come out that shown that if, if weight loss is your goal, and you're trying to go on a diet to lose weight, the best diet is the diet you adhere to. So it's a little bit counterintuitive, but they put, they've put large cohorts of dieters on vastly different nutritional programs. You know, high fat, low fat, high carb, low carb, high protein, no protein, and they found that pretty much all are equally effective if you adhere to those diets. So that's what makes the philosophy part of a diet so compelling because it's the storytelling, the narrative, that persuades you that if it increases adherence, the nutritional composition is actually less significant than the adherence rate.
Hilary DeCesare (21:13):
Now that's interesting. So if you're bouncing around, right, you're bouncing Is it true that you should because this is okay? How do I really want to ask this question? The question is this, if you adhere to one type of diet, it's very much like it's already pre defined. Yet, I've also heard other philosophies that, like, bring in more more fruit and different color foods. And how does it like if you're only eating, like meat, right? Like these, like high fat, does it really get you all the other nutrients? And then I have to keep having you go into supplements. What I know you got my CHEWIES here, which is awesome, but what about all the other things that I'm not I'm not getting in my diet?
Dr. Adrienne Bitar (22:07):
Well, some diets we know are restrictive, and they actually can, you know, we are so absolutely privileged to be living here in 2025 in the, you know, the United States, or, you know, parts of the world that have the food system that we so often take for granted. But there are, for example, micronutrients that we know that we're deficient in, so we should be grateful to fortified foods for bringing us the folic acid that prevents neural tube defects that are still really common in the world, or vitamin D for preventing rickets or but we also know there's still shortfalls. So the average American woman gets about 850 milligrams of calcium from diet alone, and that includes fortified foods, yet the recommendation is 1200 milligrams for women, 51 plus. So supplements, I do believe, still have a role to play, even in a balanced diet, because we just know from the data that we're deficient in vitamin D. We're deficient in calcium. Some populations are deficient in folic acid, for another example, so we have to be, you know, mindful of it, if we're if we follow a restrictive diet.
Hilary DeCesare (23:11):
So Jennifer, how many women out of you know, our population? I mean, how many are actually getting osteoporosis? How common is this problem?
Dr. Jennifer Han (23:23):
It is very common, and we probably, the statistics that we have are probably short of what it actually is. So in America, some 40 million American women have low bone density, so that includes osteopenia and osteoporosis. That's 40 million. But again, it's probably more it's just the fact that in the US, DEXA scans are only covered by insurance if you're 65 years and older. So we started
Hilary DeCesare (23:52):
that. Why is that? That seems absurd. I mean, if you're telling me what's the average age that that women start to see the deterioration on average, I know that you were 29 but on average, what is that? What's that age?
Dr. Jennifer Han (24:06):
Well, really, menopause is the biggest period of a woman's life where they lose bone density, the fast here
Hilary DeCesare (24:14):
we go with the M word. Damn, that thing is just like ravaging us. It's like, come on,
Dr. Jennifer Han (24:20):
yeah, yeah, I know it actually, in the first five years after menopause, you lose up to 20% of your bone density. That's guaranteed. That's just physiology, because you will lose estrogen as you go through menopause, and estrogen is bone protective, so when that goes away, your bone density will decrease. So now we know that fact, and it's about, how can we prevent that from getting worse?
Hilary DeCesare (24:45):
And that's where your chewy is. But you also have other tips for kind of this idea of keeping bone health moving in the right direction. What else do you recommend? Yeah,
Dr. Jennifer Han (24:56):
well, we want to focus on the fundamentals, right. Like. Adrienne was saying, diets come and go, but what are the fundamentals? And when we're talking about fundamentals of bone health, calcium is absolutely the fundamental, but so is vitamin D, so is magnesium, so is obtaining enough protein so that your body is making its own collagen, which are also a major part of the structure of bones. And so if we focus on the foundational nutrients, then that's a good place for then maybe to explore with the other ones, right? Because we hear on social media all the time, Oh, what about boron or silica or other things? Well, let's just focus on the foundation first, and then we can expand from there
Hilary DeCesare (25:40):
something that really is interesting to me just recently, and my audience knows this, that I have been still going through perimenopause. Menopause is like, I think officially, maybe here right now, but it's like, I'm on the border still, so I've been tested out a lot. And it's interesting, because what you have to be really careful with is you don't realize that some of the supplements have, like, vitamin D already included, and then you're taking another vitamin D, and so you end up, I ended up testing out where I'm on a high side of vitamin D, not by much, but by one. And, you know, I've got this, this cancer on my head. That was just, I don't have it anymore. I shouldn't say that it's gone. They got everything. But for me, I'm like, a sunblock craze person, morning, noon, night. Yes, even at night, they say you should do that, because the lights are now, you know, absorbing all this. But how do you if you're, if you're providing these 500 milligrams, is that, what you said, 500 milligrams of calcium? Should we make sure that other products we're taking, supplements we're taking, don't have any calcium?
Dr. Jennifer Han (26:56):
Yeah, absolutely. I would take, maybe not the fact that they don't have any, but at least be aware of it. And so a big thing that we've been doing, and Adrienne's also been focusing on, is, how do we read a nutrition fact label? How do we read a supplement fact label? Because it can be confusing, and totally if we know how to read it, then we can calculate that up and be like, Okay, we're not taking too much.
Hilary DeCesare (27:19):
Okay? I always like, you know, from a third grade level Adrienne. How do we read that label? Like, what should we just we're only looking at one thing. What should we be looking for?
Dr. Adrienne Bitar (27:29):
I would look at the ingredient list, and it's really confusing. You'll hear physicians say all the time, calcium from food, calcium from food. So say, Okay, I'm looking at the percentages. I'm getting 30% of my calcium from this almond milk, or this Cheerios or these Lucky Charms, and it's sure it's in food, but it's not from food, so it's in food because someone
Hilary DeCesare (27:50):
great point. But it's not
Dr. Adrienne Bitar (27:53):
from food. It's not dietary calcium. So one issue that many women have is they're like, well, I'll drink a lot of almond milk, and I'll get my 600 700 800 milligrams. But as we know, the absorption rate is much lower at those higher doses. And then it's also synthetic calcium that's sort of masquerading as dietary calcium. So look at that ingredient list list to see if you see any calcium carbonate, calcium citrate, calcium lactate, and you'll know with certainty that it's a fortified food.
Hilary DeCesare (28:24):
Okay, you realize I'm that woman. I keep drinking more almond milk because I'm like, Oh, look at what I'm doing for my my bones. And this is so good, but now I've got my my CHEWIES, my scene, my scene, product here I want to ask you, where do you see let's go with menopause and bone health. Where do you see that that's going to be going here?
Dr. Jennifer Han (28:47):
Well, we just got back from the bone health and Osteoporosis Foundation conference that happens annually in DC. We literally just got back this weekend, and we connected with all the experts in bone health. We're also corporate advisors to the BHO F, and so we got to see what are their priorities in 2025 and a big priority for the BHO F, and for us at scene, is focusing on bone health and menopause. And so that that i i wish, in 10 years and 20 years, that we're going to be having these conversations about bone health and menopause, when, when we're 20 years old, when we're when we're 15 years old. I mean, our four year olds are just talking about menopause because they hear us talking about it. But you know
Hilary DeCesare (29:30):
what you're doing? This is so fascinating. What you're doing is what you wish had been done in your day for you when you were 1015, understanding this, and now what you're doing is you're bringing this and I love you guys. Are, you know, far away from menopause with your with your little kiddos and everything but, but you're already preparing for it. And with a 24 year old daughter, with a 27 year old daughter, I gotta tell you, they should be on. On this scene, calcium, two, complete, two, right there. Is there? What age are you recommending that people start to eat these
Dr. Jennifer Han (30:09):
Well, really, we've been focusing on women that are going through menopause, because that's again, when you lose the most bone density in the shortest amount of time. But because the calcium is from milk, you could eat our chews from a young age. Our four year olds eat it. They asked for it like, when are we going to get our calcium Chews?
Hilary DeCesare (30:29):
So, right, but boys can. But boys can benefit from this too. In fact, I gotta ask this. I gotta ask this. I just had my flash of my three boys that I have and my husband, can they also be taking? I'm not seeing on here. No, I'm not seeing any up. It does say for women up in the right? But maybe there's something here, ladies, where you're like for men, like, you know how they have dude wipes for men, right? Maybe this, maybe you just package this a little different and say for men, but do men get osteoporosis? So
Dr. Adrienne Bitar (31:08):
we have a line we say men have skeletons too, even though men aren't really paying attention to their bone health, but they should, because a man is actually more likely to break a bone due to osteoporosis than he is to get prostate cancer? No, yes, it's true. It's not as common in men as it is, and it tends to affect men in older ages. But when it does happen, it's it's serious for men.
Hilary DeCesare (31:33):
Okay, so the only way I'm going to get my husband to eat these is if I take them out of this package that says for women, and I'm going to put him in like a little jar dish him to start eating these, and he will love them. They are so good everyone. I'm telling you, okay, as we wrap, as we wrap, I would love one final word from both of you that my audience loves the takeaways, loves the like, Hey, if you're going to do one thing, and I'm going to do my takeaway right now, get the product. Get it. But what would your what would your like? One like, Hey, everyone, if you only hear this one thing, do this. What would that be?
Dr. Jennifer Han (32:16):
Yeah, that's a good question.
Dr. Adrienne Bitar (32:18):
You have one way to go. I would say advocate for a DEXA scan, advocate for that bone density scan. I was just able to get one covered by insurance, and it was hugely revelatory, and a real wake up call for me to start taking care of my bone health now, to prevent those falls and fractures later, and then aging, that frailty and fractures are not a natural consequence of aging. This is something we can prevent. This is something we can treat, and it's something we can do about.
Hilary DeCesare (32:50):
So powerful. Jennifer,
Dr. Jennifer Han (32:51):
yeah, I think I go back to what I tell my patients when we're thinking about lifestyle changes, we have to start now and start slow. So those two things are really important, look and take an inventory of what your routine is like, what you eat, how you move, what you exercise with, or how you do that, and then make one small change. Start to make small changes. Then every day it's going to build up. And the key thing is that bones are dynamic. They're constantly remodeling, building up and breaking down. So if you change something today, like drinking one less soda or stop smoking, it's going to make an impact on your bones tomorrow or 10 years.
Hilary DeCesare (33:36):
So great. Where can we where can we find this incredible product to buy.
Dr. Jennifer Han (33:41):
Yes, you can buy online at www. Dot seen nutrition. So there's two ends there.com.
Hilary DeCesare (33:50):
Alright? So I do want to mention we have a big event coming up in September. It's our relaunch to a rich life live. It's kind of a tongue twister there, and tons of women are coming in, I would love to be able to have a snack break and give everybody these shoes. So we need to make this happen, because I believe that curating the best of the best and helping us relaunch our health constantly and right there's, there's new things that we're learning. You taught me so much today, so I'm excited to have you participate in that event, and thank you for coming. This has been really like I love when two incredible relaunch stories come out with such impact, and you are teaching people and everybody out there you now know a heck of a lot more. So make it happen for you relaunch right now into this incredible health around your bones. Thank you, ladies for being here. Thank you until next time, everyone. One relaunch to a rich life.
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