March 12, 2025 • 21 mins
How Nutrition Can Protect Your Skin from the Sun
Dr. Jen Haley talks with Julie Gibson Clark about how a veggie-rich diet can help protect your skin from sun damage. Julie, a former competitive swimmer who rarely used sunscreen, shares how her diet may have helped her skin stay resilient.
Key Takeaways:
- Plants as sunscreen – Phytonutrients that protect plants from UV rays might do the same for your skin.
- Eat the rainbow – Different colored veggies provide unique protective compounds.
- Fern extract boost – Polypodium leucotomos can naturally increase your skin's SPF to around 7.
- Start small – A “greens latte” is an easy way to add more veggies to your day.
- Balance over perfection – Healthy eating matters, but it’s important not to stress about being perfect.
• ABOUT THE GUEST •
Julie Gibson Clark, a Phoenix-based former structural engineer turned recruiter and wellness advocate. As a single mom, she’s mastered effective, affordable biohacking spending less than $150 a month to optimize her health.
Her simple routine of mindset work, regular exercise, sauna sessions, nutrient-dense eating, and budget-friendly supplements delivers powerful results, with DNA testing showing she ages only 65 days for every 100 days lived.
Previously ranked #2 on the Rejuvenation Olympics leaderboard, Julie is passionate about sharing practical, science-backed strategies to help anyone achieve vibrant health, no luxury budget required.
Connect with her to learn how accessible wellness can be.
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@juliegibsonclark
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Listen to your Skin by Moon and Skin, the
podcast where science meetsnature to celebrate the story of
your skin.
Your skin is a living canvas,ever evolving, deeply personal
and uniquely yours.
Each week, we'll dive into thescience of healthy skin, share
empowering stories and uncovertransformative self-care rituals
.
We're here to help you embraceevery phase of your journey with
(00:22):
confidence and care.
Hi everyone, welcome back tothis week's episode of Listen to
your Skin by Moon and Skin, andI'm your host, dr Jen Haley.
And today I have on ourfavorite budget biohacker and
kitchen queen, julieGibson-Clark.
You may have heard her on thelast episode, which we just
could go on for hours.
(00:42):
We have so much to talk about,episode which we just could go
on for hours.
We have so much to talk about.
But today I want to dive intomore of the nutrition and your
longevity kitchen and all of thethings that you're up to.
And, particularly after thelast episode, I've been so
perplexed because I don't knowhow your skin looks as amazing
as it does because you don't usesunscreen.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
So give me a little bit of information on that.
All the dermatologists outthere.
No, don't use sunscreen.
So give me a little bit ofinformation on that.
All the dermatologists outthere.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
No, don't say that.
Well, you know, I've worked for20 years as a board certified
dermatologist and I'm used tolooking at patterns and when
people take their clothes offwhich, even though we're good
friends, I haven't seen you withyour clothes off yet, but you
can see the well-demarcatedareas of the skin that's been
exposed to the elements ofweather, sun, uv radiation.
(01:29):
It's radiation and what kind ofan impact it has on the skin.
And I know you well.
I see you without the lighting,I see you without the makeup
and I know your skin actuallylooks really good, considering
you were a swimmer in SouthernCalifornia.
Good, considering you were aswimmer in Southern California.
And I have a theory about dietand that our nutrition
(01:50):
determines how our skin respondsto UV radiation.
So I think that you arerepresenting this.
So tell me more about yourhistory of the sun exposure.
I know right, let's go over mysun exposure.
I need to solve this clue.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
So I was a swimmer in Texas, houston, texas and you
know well, both in Californiaand Texas, and in swimming, we
Texas and you know well, both inCalifornia and Texas, and in
swimming, we're in the pool fivehours a day, three to five
hours a day, and, again, neveruse sunscreen, because I don't.
I mean, I think there was thedays of people putting zinc
oxide on their nose or thingslike that, but it was always
like, well, my sister has thefair skin and I have the olive
(02:21):
skin and I don't need it.
I mean, I, I can count on twohands the number of times I've
had sunburns.
I just don't really burn too.
Um, so I just never really gotinto using it.
And when I, when I did find,like you know, they came out
with all these chemicalsunscreens and I started using
them and they, um, I wasn'tanti-chemicals or anything, but
they would give me these littlepainful white milia all over my
(02:43):
skin.
So I just got into the habit oflike, no, I can't, like that's
more painful than maybe likejust getting out of the sun
before the sun, the sunburn.
But um, and I think you know youmust get used to the sun when
you're in it every day, like,like I said, swimming, I mean I
would get Jen, like I would havethese, um, striped bathing
suits.
You know that you would havelike a stripe down the side,
(03:03):
cause it was like your team suitand like where there were seams
and where there was stripes.
Like I had a, I would tanthrough my suit, like I, I just
like soak up the sun and canturn quite um dark, very, very
dark and um, so I don't know.
I just never thought of usingsunscreen and I know I hear you
guys all the time about using itand I just, um, I lived in
(03:25):
Dubai.
I mean I'm a beach, that's myfavorite place to be is the
beach.
So I mean obviously I wouldwear like hats and things like
that, but, um, yeah, I justnever was very careful about it.
So I don't know.
I mean, we talk about this alittle bit.
I'm sure it has to do with diet.
I mean, like I didn't juststart eating vegetables, like I
love vegetables, since I was ababy, like my mom, you know, put
(03:46):
veggies in the blender for meand that was like my baby food.
And then, like in college, if Iwas super poor, I would eat a
can of spinach and you know likeI'd get a quart of milk, like
that was my like weekly orwhatever.
You know, whatever I mean, Iwas yeah, that was my poor man's
meal.
That would be the first thing Iwould go for.
So I don't, I don't know if thegreens are really healthy for
(04:13):
you.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
I really I just don't know.
But yeah, I think you know Ialways go back to nature, right?
Because you know how I think.
I think nature has all thesolutions for everything.
And the more we are in syncwith nature and the more we
harmonize with nature, naturethe better we're going to be as
humans.
And I think about the conceptof hormesis, right?
So we understand hormesis, likewhat doesn't kill you, make you
(04:33):
stronger.
So, basically, like, if you tryto move a car, you're going to
break your back or pop aherniated disc or something.
But if you go to the gym andlift weight, you'll get stronger
.
And plants do this when they'regrown in challenging
environments, where they're notgiven a bunch of pesticides and
other things to support them.
They get stronger by producingphytonutrients.
(04:55):
And from our last episode which, if you haven't listened, you
need to listen to this episodethat I spoke with Julie about,
because she talked about eatinga pound of vegetables every day,
which I'm still working on.
I'm still working on it, butI'm getting.
I'm moving in the rightdirection and that's all we
could do is move in the rightdirection.
And the plants produce thesephytonutrients to actually
(05:16):
protect themselves from UVradiation so they don't burn on
the edges of like the leaves.
So the leaves don't burn on theedges of like the leaves.
So the leaves don't burn.
So those colors that getimparted in the vegetables or in
the krill that the salmon eatin the wild alaskan salmon, it
protects them from the elementsand I think when we eat it it
must.
It protects us and then and itmakes building blocks in our
(05:39):
cells and it incorporates intoour cell membranes and protects
us.
And I've seen this for yearswhere somebody will get a small
amount of sun and get a lot ofskin cancers and someone else
will have a significant amountof sun where they look like I
mean, rotisserie chicken skincompared to like raw skin and
they're not getting skin cancers.
(06:00):
And I think a lot of it has todo with our diet and what we're
incorporating into our body.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
It has to be, it absolutely has to.
I mean, I would even go to likethe fats that we're eating too.
I mean because that's soimportant for your skin.
And if you're eating all thoseum and not to doubt, you know,
pull anyone out.
But like seed oils, and whenyou look at like how they're
made and the hexane and all ofthe chemicals that go into that,
I just can't imagine that wouldbe good.
You know, if your skin is goingto suck that up, it's sucking
(06:26):
up something that's probably notvery healthy for you, versus
like grass fed ghee or, you know, the olive oil or something
that doesn't have all the junkin it.
Seems like that would help yourskin function a little bit more
properly.
I don't know.
I mean I can tell you from myown experience, like I would
throughout time, you know,experiment with like cleanses,
(06:47):
like those used to be all therage, like in my 30s, you know,
do a cleanse, and again, Ididn't want to go buy all the
supplements.
I was like I'll just go on likea veggie cleanse, you know, and
I would just like eatvegetables for like three days
and sure enough, within likeprobably by day three, like,
your skin is just like whoa,like it's just glowing, you know
, and it's just, it's like I'msure that you're.
(07:08):
I just always made up that ithad something to do with all the
fiber that I was eating, but Inever really thought about all
the plant compounds that were inthere too, cause I, if I just
took a fiber tablet every day, Iwould never get that kind of
skin.
So there's something to do withthe like how those plants are
working synergistically, forsure.
I mean, I think there's just somuch science we don't know,
right, there's so much we don'tknow so.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
I agree.
I think there's so much wedon't know and we, you know, we
pull these things out of our ofnature that we think are vital
in a supplement and that canbenefit us as a supplement.
But we also have to have areally good diet, because
there's other things in thesefoods that we are not even aware
that they're there well, whatisn't it you were telling me
(07:51):
about?
Speaker 2 (07:51):
like, was it polypodium poly?
Speaker 1 (07:53):
I can't remember the both of them, polypodium
leucotomus it's from a fernextract.
Okay, so ferns have been aroundsince the dinosaurs, so they're
like one of the longest plantsthat have been around probably
in a different form than theyare today, right, but ferns have
been around forever.
So polypodium leucotomusthere's a lot of scientific
literature on this.
Now that it can increase theSPF of your skin to like a seven
(08:16):
and seven actually is a prettygood SPF and I mean I think back
to my 20s and 30s.
I was using like theAvobenzones back then.
I just remember the smell offmy skin and I still got tan,
even though I didn't get burntand there was something very
aversive to it, like there wasfor you that I don't like it on
my body.
It didn't feel innately.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
It was literally painful.
I mean there would just bewhite bumps everywhere.
It was awful, literally painful.
I mean they would just be whitebumps everywhere it was.
It was awful.
I was like, well, this doesn't,it's not worth it, I'll just
wear a t-shirt or I'll just, youknow, I mean, like I'm going to
Hawaii next week, I'm going towear, you know, like a coverup,
you know, but I, yeah, and I'llwear sunscreen.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Well, and I used to live in Hawaii, like when.
I mean, I'm not averse to sun,I think the sun is our vital
energy force, but the more wecan work in harmony with it so
we can get the benefits withoutthe damage.
There's always like theGoldilocks rule, and living in
the gray zone and and doing justthe right amount and not too
much and not too little, iswhere we're going to have
optimal health.
And I feel like you've,unknowingly, have done this for
(09:28):
a long part of your life byincorporating so many natural,
healthy foods with highphytonutrients and rich foods.
So can you dive in a little bitdeeper onto, like how somebody
can incorporate some of thesefoods in their life?
Who wants to naturally protectthemselves from this?
Speaker 2 (09:46):
and whether it's omega-3 fatty acids or yeah,
well, I can talk from like apolyphenol, you know, plant
perspective.
I just started with like onedish a day and I found this
great recipe for a greens latte.
You guys can find it on mywebsite, you know, and I it's
not my recipe, it's's, but youknow, like that was just a great
way there.
Boom, four ounces of greensevery morning, done, done and
(10:08):
dusted, you know.
And then, and then it becamelike okay, during the day, can I
get in another half a pound ofveggies?
And I just started, very, I hadthis little bowl and it was
like, you know, the first fewdays is like oh, I love celery,
okay, I'll have three pieces ofcelery.
And I just did that every dayfor like I don't know a month,
you know.
And then it was like oh, whatelse looks pretty at the store?
Oh, I like, I like radishes.
(10:30):
Okay, I'm gonna put someradishes in there.
You know, it was just like.
And then now it's like, oh,what know?
Cause that's what I can get atthe store and that's what's
growing.
But I do try to use um,especially vegetables, um,
especially when, like when I wasliving in Dubai, you know, we
were getting like fruits andvegetables from all over the
world and I used it as anopportunity, not only for myself
(10:52):
but for my son, to like hey,let's explore the world.
So, when you see somethingweird at the grocery store,
especially if you have kids,like, hey, let's go home and
look up, where is this from?
What can we make from it?
You know, like, use it as likea a way to take a vacation
almost without having to take avacation, cause that's some of
the fun things about going onvacation, right Is the different
foods.
So, like you know, when you seethese, like can't say it cherry
(11:15):
, moy, I don't know, whateveryou know like some weird, yeah
thank you, yeah, yeah yeah, allthese weird things.
And when we were in Dubai I waslike they had these mangosteens
that I mean I wish I could getthem here.
It's like those things justexplode in your mouth.
You probably got those inHawaii, I mean, oh my god, that
was flavor, amazing, it was justamazing, you know.
(11:36):
So I was so glad that we didthis exploration and, I'm sure,
eating all those differentplants they all have different
things, like you said, you know,to fight off UV radiation, but
they're also fighting off bugsor fighting off so there's
probably all kinds of compoundsin there that I would hope my
body is getting.
But so, anyway, the whole pointwas so come up with something
(11:57):
you can do first thing in themorning, and for me this was
this greens latte.
You know, if maybe you don'tlike something sweet, or you
know, maybe it's just likegreens with your eggs in the
morning, or some some way to getlike four ounces of greens
first thing in the morning andmaybe start with two ounces, but
you know, and then build, andthen after that, um you want to
like, have a, um, you know, likea bowl of veggies that you're
(12:18):
going to just slowly add toevery single day, and if you
don't want raw vegetables, thenyou know, or maybe you're
totally new to eating vegetablesthen cook up a veggie soup on a
Sunday and then you're justgoing to start, you know, by
having a little bit every singleday and a little bit more every
like week or two weeks.
You know, you'll know, and thenand then at night, you're just
going to add another four ouncesof veggies and like, boom, done
(12:38):
and dusted, it will fit insidethe palm of my hand.
It is nothing, it's like threeor four bites, you're done.
Four ounces of greens.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Yeah, this is something I'm learning from you,
because I have such an aversionto sitting there and chewing
all day.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Yeah, no.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Just cook them.
Just cook them, Right.
You know what's interesting,though?
Like with my kids, I got themto eat vegetables by calling it
crudités.
If I go, oh, yeah, crudité.
But if I say, come eat somevegetables, they're like I'm not
eating any vegetables.
It's all the words we use,right?
It's words.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
And so what I used to do is I would like chop all the
veggies which I still do.
I chop them all on a Sunday andI'd make this rainbow of
veggies, like all over thekitchen and I would give my son
these little containers and I'dsay, here, fill.
And he would walk in and go,you know, and like, and then he
had filled the containers.
So, like it was, it was a wayto have, like that autonomy over
(13:38):
his life.
You know it was like, and so heand he just got in the habit of
eating veggies every single dayyeah, that's so great.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Um, the other thing you mentioned having the green
latte in the morning.
So, for anyone who wants toincrease the SPF of your skin
naturally and there's somescience beginning to get formed
around this, I've known it foryears because I observe people
and do pattern recognition for aliving you want to have these
items in the morning before yougo outside.
So, like the polypodium,leucotomus, which is a
(14:07):
dermatology friend of mine,created a supplement called
inner glow vitamins and it hasthe polypodium in it along with
a couple other things, and youtake it about an hour, half hour
to an hour before you go in thesun and then every two hours
that you're in the sun, let megive you some before you go to
hawaii.
Okay, yeah, but um, so you inthe morning, for sure, and then,
obviously, for all the otherreasons, it builds during the
(14:29):
day.
But you did mention fasting onthe last episode.
So can you dive into why youlike fasting when people should
consider, consider fasting andlike, what are some of the
benefits of fasting?
Because you know I can't seemto get past the 24 hour mark.
Yeah, and I get.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
I totally get that, and I think we do have to listen
to our bodies.
Maybe it's not for everybody, Idon't, you know, I really don't
know, but you do have to, like,listen to your body and know,
like, when do you need to pushpast and when are you kind of
for lack of a better way ofsaying this being mean to
yourself.
You know, like, when is ityou're pushing past, but you
shouldn't be pushing past.
And I have to kind of go pastthat and then look back and go,
(15:06):
yeah, maybe I shouldn't havegone that far, you know, Um, but
I, like I've tried.
I learned about fasting througha book called I think it's just
called Fasting.
It's by Jason Fung.
He's like the you know big dudeon fasting.
He's got all kinds of greatinformation and I again, I was
just looking at it from aperspective of detoxification
(15:28):
and I before that, had done allthis very expensive chelation
therapy you know was reallyinvolved and it was all about
detoxing heavy metals, because Ihave a like genetic disposition
to sort of hold on to toxins alittle bit more and I have to
always keep those detox channelsopen properly because the MTHFR
gene I don't methylize, the Bvitamins and then therefore, I
don't detoxify anyway.
(15:48):
So I was always looking fordifferent ways to detoxify.
When I heard about fasting, Iwas like, well, wait a minute,
you mean it's free, it's free,all I have to do is like just
drink water, like wait what, andmy body will do all the work.
That was fascinating to me.
That was really fascinating,and at the time I was probably
about 20 pounds heavier than Iam now.
So I wanted to lose a littleweight.
You know, I was like, okay,I'll give it a try.
(16:10):
And the first time I did it Imade it probably about 24 hours,
you know, and then, like Ithink I waited a couple of weeks
and then I tried to go a littlebit more.
It took me like a few monthsbefore I could get up.
I think it was probably likesix months before I could get up
to about four days.
And by day four it was like,okay, I'm done.
You know, say no, get past dayfour, go five days.
(16:34):
I just was like I knew by dayfour I was done.
I knew I had gotten over theinitial like shock of all of
that.
But there was something moregoing on.
That it was.
I knew I would be pushing ittoo far.
So again, that's where you haveto just you really have to
learn how to listen to your bodyand know when you need to push
yourself and when you need to.
You know, it's kind of like I'mall about listening to your
body and what it's craving, butif it's craving ice cream and
cake and cookies, I'm not doingit.
(16:55):
You know I'm not going to do it.
But if it's craving likeraspberries and spinach, I'm
having it.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Right, yeah, it's not so it's.
We listen to our skin and welisten to our bodies, so if
they're giving us clues as towhat's going on and using I like
the word that you used whereyou said being mean to yourself,
because I think sometimes,especially as women, we tend to
because we don't havenecessarily physical power, and
(17:38):
I think what we're going forhere is wanting people to
maneuver into a healthylifestyle and to make smart
choices without becomingobsessed with food in the form
of orthorexia.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Orthorexia, I've been there.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
Yeah, can you.
I think a lot of us have,because it's easy to jump over
the goalpost and go a little toofar.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
So it's not even too far, like here's how orthorexia
felt to me, so you learn aboutlike oh.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
What is?
Speaker 2 (18:08):
it Explain what orthorexia is.
Oh gosh, I don't know if I cansay a scientific explanation,
but I feel like it's just toorigidly sticking to different
diet guidelines to the detrimentof your own health.
So I mean, I suppose anorexiais like, I guess is one form of,
(18:29):
I suppose, orthorexia Maybe not, but it's like.
So the way I experienced it was, um, like a first.
It was, you know, get off allgluten and dairy, which was
helpful for me at the time.
But I thought, oh, I had tojust do that the rest of my life
.
You know, I didn't realize like, oh, that was just that poor,
you know, it was just healingfor my gut for, you know, maybe
(18:50):
a year or whatever.
I needed it.
But I kept continuing down thatpath.
And then it was like, oh, nowyou know, oh, meat is so bad and
look at what it's doing for theenvironment.
And there's all this, like youknow you can just go on and on
about, you know, the CAFOs,confined animal feeding
operations, you know which islike.
So it's like, oh, I'll cut,I'll cut meat out Now I'm eating
(19:17):
.
You know veganism.
And then it's like, oh, wait aminute, but there's like heavy
metals in all those veganprotein powders.
And then it's like, and beforeyou know it, and then it was
like I was trying to do theautoimmune protocol.
I mean it, just all of a suddenyou find you're down to like
eating, you know rice.
Then you're like, oh're notwilling to make any trade-offs.
That's almost what orthorexiais.
It's like cause everything youeat is a trade-off.
Right, it's like I could eatsomething that's a healthy fat,
(19:37):
but it is a fat and it is fullof calories.
Well, you know like there's atrade-off.
Like, I can eat, you know,healthy beef, protein comes from
healthy animals, but I have tokill the animal.
You know there's a trade-off.
I could eat these veggies, butthose veggies naturally like
suck up heavy metals from thesoil.
So there's a trade-off.
(19:58):
I mean, every single thing youeat is a trade-off.
And I almost think oforthorexia as somebody who's
like completely unwilling tomake any trade-offs.
And they're trying.
It's like a form of.
For me it's a form ofperfectionism, not so much
control, but just like a form ofperfectionism.
And that's when I realized,like when I saw my son kind of
going through something similarand he was down to very low body
(20:23):
fat and it was like, okay, youknow, I gotta, I gotta stop this
, we gotta, we gotta starteating food.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Yeah, yeah, I think it's easy to go down that road
once you start in the healthynutrition space of orthorexia.
So I mean, where do we find thebalance?
It seems to me from what you'rediscussing is the more
diversity the better.
Yes, so you're not opposed toeating meat.
Where do you stand on meat?
I love sorry, but I love it.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
And I.
But I just feel like let'shonor the animal and eat tip to
tail as much as we can.
I mean and this is fromsomebody who just refuses to eat
liver, but like I will eatother things, you know, I will
eat brains, I love the marrow, Ilove all those things.
So let's give the animal ahappy life, let's let them be
out on pastures.
You know that's's give.
Let them be healthy and thenwe'll eat those.
But I mean, I just, like yousaid, it's like if you just eat
(21:15):
a little bit of everything, thenyou're not, you don't succumb
to having the major problems.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Yeah, that one thing would I used to joke that I
would move every couple years soI would outdo the toxins in one
environment and go to anotherplace.
And the same, I mean, holdstrue with what you're saying
about food.
So if we have a diverse arrayof foods and don't hyper obsess
over one thing, that's wherewe're going to be our healthiest
.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Yeah, I mean that said like it's not an excuse to
be like oh, I can go eat atMcDonald's.
Do you know what I mean?
Like we're talking real food.
Welcome to Listen to your Skin by Moon and Skin, the
podcast where science meetsnature to celebrate the story of
your skin.
Your skin is a living canvas,ever evolving, deeply personal
and uniquely yours.
Each week, we'll dive into thescience of healthy skin, share
empowering stories and uncovertransformative self-care rituals
.
We're here to help you embraceevery phase of your journey with
(00:22):
confidence and care.
Hi everyone, welcome back tothis week's episode of Listen to
your Skin by Moon and Skin, andI'm your host, dr Jen Haley.
And today I have on ourfavorite budget biohacker and
kitchen queen, julieGibson-Clark.
You may have heard her on thelast episode, which we just
could go on for hours.
(00:42):
We have so much to talk about,episode which we just could go
on for hours.
We have so much to talk about.
But today I want to dive intomore of the nutrition and your
longevity kitchen and all of thethings that you're up to.
And, particularly after thelast episode, I've been so
perplexed because I don't knowhow your skin looks as amazing
as it does because you don't usesunscreen.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
So give me a little bit of information on that.
All the dermatologists outthere.
No, don't use sunscreen.
So give me a little bit ofinformation on that.
All the dermatologists outthere.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
No, don't say that.
Well, you know, I've worked for20 years as a board certified
dermatologist and I'm used tolooking at patterns and when
people take their clothes offwhich, even though we're good
friends, I haven't seen you withyour clothes off yet, but you
can see the well-demarcatedareas of the skin that's been
exposed to the elements ofweather, sun, uv radiation.
(01:29):
It's radiation and what kind ofan impact it has on the skin.
And I know you well.
I see you without the lighting,I see you without the makeup
and I know your skin actuallylooks really good, considering
you were a swimmer in SouthernCalifornia.
Good, considering you were aswimmer in Southern California.
And I have a theory about dietand that our nutrition
(01:50):
determines how our skin respondsto UV radiation.
So I think that you arerepresenting this.
So tell me more about yourhistory of the sun exposure.
I know right, let's go over mysun exposure.
I need to solve this clue.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
So I was a swimmer in Texas, houston, texas and you
know well, both in Californiaand Texas, and in swimming, we
Texas and you know well, both inCalifornia and Texas, and in
swimming, we're in the pool fivehours a day, three to five
hours a day, and, again, neveruse sunscreen, because I don't.
I mean, I think there was thedays of people putting zinc
oxide on their nose or thingslike that, but it was always
like, well, my sister has thefair skin and I have the olive
(02:21):
skin and I don't need it.
I mean, I, I can count on twohands the number of times I've
had sunburns.
I just don't really burn too.
Um, so I just never really gotinto using it.
And when I, when I did find,like you know, they came out
with all these chemicalsunscreens and I started using
them and they, um, I wasn'tanti-chemicals or anything, but
they would give me these littlepainful white milia all over my
(02:43):
skin.
So I just got into the habit oflike, no, I can't, like that's
more painful than maybe likejust getting out of the sun
before the sun, the sunburn.
But um, and I think you know youmust get used to the sun when
you're in it every day, like,like I said, swimming, I mean I
would get Jen, like I would havethese, um, striped bathing
suits.
You know that you would havelike a stripe down the side,
(03:03):
cause it was like your team suitand like where there were seams
and where there was stripes.
Like I had a, I would tanthrough my suit, like I, I just
like soak up the sun and canturn quite um dark, very, very
dark and um, so I don't know.
I just never thought of usingsunscreen and I know I hear you
guys all the time about using itand I just, um, I lived in
(03:25):
Dubai.
I mean I'm a beach, that's myfavorite place to be is the
beach.
So I mean obviously I wouldwear like hats and things like
that, but, um, yeah, I justnever was very careful about it.
So I don't know.
I mean, we talk about this alittle bit.
I'm sure it has to do with diet.
I mean, like I didn't juststart eating vegetables, like I
love vegetables, since I was ababy, like my mom, you know, put
(03:46):
veggies in the blender for meand that was like my baby food.
And then, like in college, if Iwas super poor, I would eat a
can of spinach and you know likeI'd get a quart of milk, like
that was my like weekly orwhatever.
You know, whatever I mean, Iwas yeah, that was my poor man's
meal.
That would be the first thing Iwould go for.
So I don't, I don't know if thegreens are really healthy for
(04:13):
you.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
I really I just don't know.
But yeah, I think you know Ialways go back to nature, right?
Because you know how I think.
I think nature has all thesolutions for everything.
And the more we are in syncwith nature and the more we
harmonize with nature, naturethe better we're going to be as
humans.
And I think about the conceptof hormesis, right?
So we understand hormesis, likewhat doesn't kill you, make you
(04:33):
stronger.
So, basically, like, if you tryto move a car, you're going to
break your back or pop aherniated disc or something.
But if you go to the gym andlift weight, you'll get stronger
.
And plants do this when they'regrown in challenging
environments, where they're notgiven a bunch of pesticides and
other things to support them.
They get stronger by producingphytonutrients.
(04:55):
And from our last episode which, if you haven't listened, you
need to listen to this episodethat I spoke with Julie about,
because she talked about eatinga pound of vegetables every day,
which I'm still working on.
I'm still working on it, butI'm getting.
I'm moving in the rightdirection and that's all we
could do is move in the rightdirection.
And the plants produce thesephytonutrients to actually
(05:16):
protect themselves from UVradiation so they don't burn on
the edges of like the leaves.
So the leaves don't burn on theedges of like the leaves.
So the leaves don't burn.
So those colors that getimparted in the vegetables or in
the krill that the salmon eatin the wild alaskan salmon, it
protects them from the elementsand I think when we eat it it
must.
It protects us and then and itmakes building blocks in our
(05:39):
cells and it incorporates intoour cell membranes and protects
us.
And I've seen this for yearswhere somebody will get a small
amount of sun and get a lot ofskin cancers and someone else
will have a significant amountof sun where they look like I
mean, rotisserie chicken skincompared to like raw skin and
they're not getting skin cancers.
(06:00):
And I think a lot of it has todo with our diet and what we're
incorporating into our body.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
It has to be, it absolutely has to.
I mean, I would even go to likethe fats that we're eating too.
I mean because that's soimportant for your skin.
And if you're eating all thoseum and not to doubt, you know,
pull anyone out.
But like seed oils, and whenyou look at like how they're
made and the hexane and all ofthe chemicals that go into that,
I just can't imagine that wouldbe good.
You know, if your skin is goingto suck that up, it's sucking
(06:26):
up something that's probably notvery healthy for you, versus
like grass fed ghee or, you know, the olive oil or something
that doesn't have all the junkin it.
Seems like that would help yourskin function a little bit more
properly.
I don't know.
I mean I can tell you from myown experience, like I would
throughout time, you know,experiment with like cleanses,
(06:47):
like those used to be all therage, like in my 30s, you know,
do a cleanse, and again, Ididn't want to go buy all the
supplements.
I was like I'll just go on likea veggie cleanse, you know, and
I would just like eatvegetables for like three days
and sure enough, within likeprobably by day three, like,
your skin is just like whoa,like it's just glowing, you know
, and it's just, it's like I'msure that you're.
(07:08):
I just always made up that ithad something to do with all the
fiber that I was eating, but Inever really thought about all
the plant compounds that were inthere too, cause I, if I just
took a fiber tablet every day, Iwould never get that kind of
skin.
So there's something to do withthe like how those plants are
working synergistically, forsure.
I mean, I think there's just somuch science we don't know,
right, there's so much we don'tknow so.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
I agree.
I think there's so much wedon't know and we, you know, we
pull these things out of our ofnature that we think are vital
in a supplement and that canbenefit us as a supplement.
But we also have to have areally good diet, because
there's other things in thesefoods that we are not even aware
that they're there well, whatisn't it you were telling me
(07:51):
about?
Speaker 2 (07:51):
like, was it polypodium poly?
Speaker 1 (07:53):
I can't remember the both of them, polypodium
leucotomus it's from a fernextract.
Okay, so ferns have been aroundsince the dinosaurs, so they're
like one of the longest plantsthat have been around probably
in a different form than theyare today, right, but ferns have
been around forever.
So polypodium leucotomusthere's a lot of scientific
literature on this.
Now that it can increase theSPF of your skin to like a seven
(08:16):
and seven actually is a prettygood SPF and I mean I think back
to my 20s and 30s.
I was using like theAvobenzones back then.
I just remember the smell offmy skin and I still got tan,
even though I didn't get burntand there was something very
aversive to it, like there wasfor you that I don't like it on
my body.
It didn't feel innately.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
It was literally painful.
I mean there would just bewhite bumps everywhere.
It was awful, literally painful.
I mean they would just be whitebumps everywhere it was.
It was awful.
I was like, well, this doesn't,it's not worth it, I'll just
wear a t-shirt or I'll just, youknow, I mean, like I'm going to
Hawaii next week, I'm going towear, you know, like a coverup,
you know, but I, yeah, and I'llwear sunscreen.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Well, and I used to live in Hawaii, like when.
I mean, I'm not averse to sun,I think the sun is our vital
energy force, but the more wecan work in harmony with it so
we can get the benefits withoutthe damage.
There's always like theGoldilocks rule, and living in
the gray zone and and doing justthe right amount and not too
much and not too little, iswhere we're going to have
optimal health.
And I feel like you've,unknowingly, have done this for
(09:28):
a long part of your life byincorporating so many natural,
healthy foods with highphytonutrients and rich foods.
So can you dive in a little bitdeeper onto, like how somebody
can incorporate some of thesefoods in their life?
Who wants to naturally protectthemselves from this?
Speaker 2 (09:46):
and whether it's omega-3 fatty acids or yeah,
well, I can talk from like apolyphenol, you know, plant
perspective.
I just started with like onedish a day and I found this
great recipe for a greens latte.
You guys can find it on mywebsite, you know, and I it's
not my recipe, it's's, but youknow, like that was just a great
way there.
Boom, four ounces of greensevery morning, done, done and
(10:08):
dusted, you know.
And then, and then it becamelike okay, during the day, can I
get in another half a pound ofveggies?
And I just started, very, I hadthis little bowl and it was
like, you know, the first fewdays is like oh, I love celery,
okay, I'll have three pieces ofcelery.
And I just did that every dayfor like I don't know a month,
you know.
And then it was like oh, whatelse looks pretty at the store?
Oh, I like, I like radishes.
(10:30):
Okay, I'm gonna put someradishes in there.
You know, it was just like.
And then now it's like, oh,what know?
Cause that's what I can get atthe store and that's what's
growing.
But I do try to use um,especially vegetables, um,
especially when, like when I wasliving in Dubai, you know, we
were getting like fruits andvegetables from all over the
world and I used it as anopportunity, not only for myself
(10:52):
but for my son, to like hey,let's explore the world.
So, when you see somethingweird at the grocery store,
especially if you have kids,like, hey, let's go home and
look up, where is this from?
What can we make from it?
You know, like, use it as likea a way to take a vacation
almost without having to take avacation, cause that's some of
the fun things about going onvacation, right Is the different
foods.
So, like you know, when you seethese, like can't say it cherry
(11:15):
, moy, I don't know, whateveryou know like some weird, yeah
thank you, yeah, yeah yeah, allthese weird things.
And when we were in Dubai I waslike they had these mangosteens
that I mean I wish I could getthem here.
It's like those things justexplode in your mouth.
You probably got those inHawaii, I mean, oh my god, that
was flavor, amazing, it was justamazing, you know.
(11:36):
So I was so glad that we didthis exploration and, I'm sure,
eating all those differentplants they all have different
things, like you said, you know,to fight off UV radiation, but
they're also fighting off bugsor fighting off so there's
probably all kinds of compoundsin there that I would hope my
body is getting.
But so, anyway, the whole pointwas so come up with something
(11:57):
you can do first thing in themorning, and for me this was
this greens latte.
You know, if maybe you don'tlike something sweet, or you
know, maybe it's just likegreens with your eggs in the
morning, or some some way to getlike four ounces of greens
first thing in the morning andmaybe start with two ounces, but
you know, and then build, andthen after that, um you want to
like, have a, um, you know, likea bowl of veggies that you're
(12:18):
going to just slowly add toevery single day, and if you
don't want raw vegetables, thenyou know, or maybe you're
totally new to eating vegetablesthen cook up a veggie soup on a
Sunday and then you're justgoing to start, you know, by
having a little bit every singleday and a little bit more every
like week or two weeks.
You know, you'll know, and thenand then at night, you're just
going to add another four ouncesof veggies and like, boom, done
(12:38):
and dusted, it will fit insidethe palm of my hand.
It is nothing, it's like threeor four bites, you're done.
Four ounces of greens.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Yeah, this is something I'm learning from you,
because I have such an aversionto sitting there and chewing
all day.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Yeah, no.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Just cook them.
Just cook them, Right.
You know what's interesting,though?
Like with my kids, I got themto eat vegetables by calling it
crudités.
If I go, oh, yeah, crudité.
But if I say, come eat somevegetables, they're like I'm not
eating any vegetables.
It's all the words we use,right?
It's words.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
And so what I used to do is I would like chop all the
veggies which I still do.
I chop them all on a Sunday andI'd make this rainbow of
veggies, like all over thekitchen and I would give my son
these little containers and I'dsay, here, fill.
And he would walk in and go,you know, and like, and then he
had filled the containers.
So, like it was, it was a wayto have, like that autonomy over
(13:38):
his life.
You know it was like, and so heand he just got in the habit of
eating veggies every single dayyeah, that's so great.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Um, the other thing you mentioned having the green
latte in the morning.
So, for anyone who wants toincrease the SPF of your skin
naturally and there's somescience beginning to get formed
around this, I've known it foryears because I observe people
and do pattern recognition for aliving you want to have these
items in the morning before yougo outside.
So, like the polypodium,leucotomus, which is a
(14:07):
dermatology friend of mine,created a supplement called
inner glow vitamins and it hasthe polypodium in it along with
a couple other things, and youtake it about an hour, half hour
to an hour before you go in thesun and then every two hours
that you're in the sun, let megive you some before you go to
hawaii.
Okay, yeah, but um, so you inthe morning, for sure, and then,
obviously, for all the otherreasons, it builds during the
(14:29):
day.
But you did mention fasting onthe last episode.
So can you dive into why youlike fasting when people should
consider, consider fasting andlike, what are some of the
benefits of fasting?
Because you know I can't seemto get past the 24 hour mark.
Yeah, and I get.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
I totally get that, and I think we do have to listen
to our bodies.
Maybe it's not for everybody, Idon't, you know, I really don't
know, but you do have to, like,listen to your body and know,
like, when do you need to pushpast and when are you kind of
for lack of a better way ofsaying this being mean to
yourself.
You know, like, when is ityou're pushing past, but you
shouldn't be pushing past.
And I have to kind of go pastthat and then look back and go,
(15:06):
yeah, maybe I shouldn't havegone that far, you know, Um, but
I, like I've tried.
I learned about fasting througha book called I think it's just
called Fasting.
It's by Jason Fung.
He's like the you know big dudeon fasting.
He's got all kinds of greatinformation and I again, I was
just looking at it from aperspective of detoxification
(15:28):
and I before that, had done allthis very expensive chelation
therapy you know was reallyinvolved and it was all about
detoxing heavy metals, because Ihave a like genetic disposition
to sort of hold on to toxins alittle bit more and I have to
always keep those detox channelsopen properly because the MTHFR
gene I don't methylize, the Bvitamins and then therefore, I
don't detoxify anyway.
(15:48):
So I was always looking fordifferent ways to detoxify.
When I heard about fasting, Iwas like, well, wait a minute,
you mean it's free, it's free,all I have to do is like just
drink water, like wait what, andmy body will do all the work.
That was fascinating to me.
That was really fascinating,and at the time I was probably
about 20 pounds heavier than Iam now.
So I wanted to lose a littleweight.
You know, I was like, okay,I'll give it a try.
(16:10):
And the first time I did it Imade it probably about 24 hours,
you know, and then, like Ithink I waited a couple of weeks
and then I tried to go a littlebit more.
It took me like a few monthsbefore I could get up.
I think it was probably likesix months before I could get up
to about four days.
And by day four it was like,okay, I'm done.
You know, say no, get past dayfour, go five days.
(16:34):
I just was like I knew by dayfour I was done.
I knew I had gotten over theinitial like shock of all of
that.
But there was something moregoing on.
That it was.
I knew I would be pushing ittoo far.
So again, that's where you haveto just you really have to
learn how to listen to your bodyand know when you need to push
yourself and when you need to.
You know, it's kind of like I'mall about listening to your
body and what it's craving, butif it's craving ice cream and
cake and cookies, I'm not doingit.
(16:55):
You know I'm not going to do it.
But if it's craving likeraspberries and spinach, I'm
having it.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Right, yeah, it's not so it's.
We listen to our skin and welisten to our bodies, so if
they're giving us clues as towhat's going on and using I like
the word that you used whereyou said being mean to yourself,
because I think sometimes,especially as women, we tend to
because we don't havenecessarily physical power, and
(17:38):
I think what we're going forhere is wanting people to
maneuver into a healthylifestyle and to make smart
choices without becomingobsessed with food in the form
of orthorexia.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Orthorexia, I've been there.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
Yeah, can you.
I think a lot of us have,because it's easy to jump over
the goalpost and go a little toofar.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
So it's not even too far, like here's how orthorexia
felt to me, so you learn aboutlike oh.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
What is?
Speaker 2 (18:08):
it Explain what orthorexia is.
Oh gosh, I don't know if I cansay a scientific explanation,
but I feel like it's just toorigidly sticking to different
diet guidelines to the detrimentof your own health.
So I mean, I suppose anorexiais like, I guess is one form of,
(18:29):
I suppose, orthorexia Maybe not, but it's like.
So the way I experienced it was, um, like a first.
It was, you know, get off allgluten and dairy, which was
helpful for me at the time.
But I thought, oh, I had tojust do that the rest of my life
.
You know, I didn't realize like, oh, that was just that poor,
you know, it was just healingfor my gut for, you know, maybe
(18:50):
a year or whatever.
I needed it.
But I kept continuing down thatpath.
And then it was like, oh, nowyou know, oh, meat is so bad and
look at what it's doing for theenvironment.
And there's all this, like youknow you can just go on and on
about, you know, the CAFOs,confined animal feeding
operations, you know which islike.
So it's like, oh, I'll cut,I'll cut meat out Now I'm eating
(19:17):
.
You know veganism.
And then it's like, oh, wait aminute, but there's like heavy
metals in all those veganprotein powders.
And then it's like, and beforeyou know it, and then it was
like I was trying to do theautoimmune protocol.
I mean it, just all of a suddenyou find you're down to like
eating, you know rice.
Then you're like, oh're notwilling to make any trade-offs.
That's almost what orthorexiais.
It's like cause everything youeat is a trade-off.
Right, it's like I could eatsomething that's a healthy fat,
(19:37):
but it is a fat and it is fullof calories.
Well, you know like there's atrade-off.
Like, I can eat, you know,healthy beef, protein comes from
healthy animals, but I have tokill the animal.
You know there's a trade-off.
I could eat these veggies, butthose veggies naturally like
suck up heavy metals from thesoil.
So there's a trade-off.
(19:58):
I mean, every single thing youeat is a trade-off.
And I almost think oforthorexia as somebody who's
like completely unwilling tomake any trade-offs.
And they're trying.
It's like a form of.
For me it's a form ofperfectionism, not so much
control, but just like a form ofperfectionism.
And that's when I realized,like when I saw my son kind of
going through something similarand he was down to very low body
(20:23):
fat and it was like, okay, youknow, I gotta, I gotta stop this
, we gotta, we gotta starteating food.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Yeah, yeah, I think it's easy to go down that road
once you start in the healthynutrition space of orthorexia.
So I mean, where do we find thebalance?
It seems to me from what you'rediscussing is the more
diversity the better.
Yes, so you're not opposed toeating meat.
Where do you stand on meat?
I love sorry, but I love it.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
And I.
But I just feel like let'shonor the animal and eat tip to
tail as much as we can.
I mean and this is fromsomebody who just refuses to eat
liver, but like I will eatother things, you know, I will
eat brains, I love the marrow, Ilove all those things.
So let's give the animal ahappy life, let's let them be
out on pastures.
You know that's's give.
Let them be healthy and thenwe'll eat those.
But I mean, I just, like yousaid, it's like if you just eat
(21:15):
a little bit of everything, thenyou're not, you don't succumb
to having the major problems.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Yeah, that one thing would I used to joke that I
would move every couple years soI would outdo the toxins in one
environment and go to anotherplace.
And the same, I mean, holdstrue with what you're saying
about food.
So if we have a diverse arrayof foods and don't hyper obsess
over one thing, that's wherewe're going to be our healthiest
.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Yeah, I mean that said like it's not an excuse to
be like oh, I can go eat atMcDonald's.
Do you know what I mean?
Like we're talking real food.
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