The Best of 2023: Part 1

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the Plant-Centered and Thriving
Podcast.
I'm your host, ashley Kitchens.
I'm a plant-based registereddietitian and virtual nutrition
mentor.
I was raised on an Angus CattleFarm, grew up with a lot of GI
issues and used the power ofplant-based eating to promote
healing.
Here you'll find inspiration,ideas and encouragement for your

(00:23):
own plant-based journey.
I'm so thrilled you're heretoday.
Let's get started.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Welcome to the Plant-Centered and Thriving
Podcast.
My name is Katie and today wehave a very special episode for
you.
Welcome to our Best of episode.
The 2023 season is ending andwe wanted to present to you a
Best of 2023 series from all ofour favorite guests throughout
the year.

(00:50):
We will break these down intotwo episodes.
This first episode will befeaturing some of our
plant-based experts that havebestowed their wisdom upon us,
which we are so grateful for,and if you are new to
Plant-Centered and Thriving,this episode will be an amazing
place to start to get a sense ofall the best nuggets of

(01:12):
information that we've coveredover the past year from all of
our experts.
Stay tuned next week when wepresent part two.
This will feature some of ourfavorite inspirational stories
from guests that have used thepower of plants to change their
lives.
We are so grateful to all ofyou who have followed us

(01:32):
throughout this year.
We do this for you and we areincredibly grateful for your
continued support.
Please enjoy part one of ourBest of 2023 series.
Tony Acomodo is the founder ofPlant-Based on a Budget, the
popular website and meal planthat shows you how to save dough

(01:54):
by eating veggies.
You have to check out thisepisode where she gives so many
easy, practical, real-worldexamples of how to save money
while going plant-based.

Speaker 3 (02:07):
I was thriving on a plant-based diet.
I felt good and I was livingunder the poverty line, and so I
wanted to show that you didn'thave to go to fancy your grocery
store or like a natural foodspecific store, but you could
continue shopping at Dollar Treeor Walmart and I started

(02:28):
creating recipes.
First, that's where I started,but after getting to know my
audience, asking what theyneeded from me, I found that
what they needed was mealplanning so that they could
learn how to use all of theingredients in a week and how to
schedule out their meals andtime in the kitchen.

(02:49):
Not everybody loves that style,but if you are on a tight
budget, I created my first mealplans, which have changed with
inflation, but originally it was$100 worth of food for the
month, so I said $25 per week,per person, and if you're doing

(03:10):
two you can keep that even lowerbecause you're splitting the
food and sometimes it doesn'teven out and it makes it much
cheaper.
Now I say it's about $35 a week, so you're adding an additional
$10 per week, but still it ischeaper than what a lot of
people are currently spending onfood, and I have done this at

(03:33):
different grocery stores atdifferent places in the country
and I also have my businesspartner, michelle Kane.
She did it eating only organicand all from Whole Foods and
only spent $10 more than me.
So you would be looking at $45instead of the $35.

(03:53):
Wow, you are sticking to WholeFoods and you're going to have
to put in some work to cookbrown rice, to cook your beans.
But if you do have a biggerbudget, you can take shortcuts
with things like no sodium,canned canned beans, or you can
buy frozen rice if you wanted to, or you can make a big batch

(04:16):
and freeze it for months to come.
So there are lots of differentoptions and in my new cookbook I
show the different ways you canmeal plan, whether that's
freezer friendly meals, one potmeals, sheet pan meals or my
personal favorite, which are themix and match bowls, where
really you only have to cook onegrain and maybe a protein, or,

(04:38):
if you wanted to do a big grainand use your canned beans or
some tofu, baked tofu.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
Those are also options as well, so many great
tips and I think you're spot on,really, in saying that, if you
do have a limited budget, thatthe meal planning piece can make
a significant difference indriving down that grocery bill
Because, like you said too, italso a lot of food ends up not
going to waste.
Especially if you're kind ofbeing, if you're being diligent
with your meal planning andfollowing through during the

(05:09):
week, that can be a big moneysaver.

Speaker 3 (05:12):
Yes, and it also cuts down on impulsive purchases.
I know that when I'm hungry, Ijust make decisions that are not
in line with what I want formyself and I also get really
cranky and people are just likeyou need to just go get a
sandwich, go buy a sandwich, gobuy a burrito, and so I have to

(05:34):
remind myself that it's good tocarry snacks, it's good to have
some, some ideas.
So, even if you're not mealplanning, just think ahead about
what you can make with what youhave at home.
Maybe you didn't do anyprepping, but you know that you
have some noodles, you know thatyou have some frozen veggies
and you know that you have somemarinara sauce and you know you

(05:56):
have a can of cannellini beans.
That's something that'll takeyou 15 minutes to throw together
at home and you don't have tomake that detour to a restaurant
.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yep, yep, I've been there, I know exactly what
you're talking about, and thathangry place is never a good
place to be.
So no, yep, are there any otherthings that maybe you utilize
or that you teach your audienceto utilize, especially if we're
working with a limited budgetand maybe we are meal planning?
But is there anything else thatyou kind of recommend to save

(06:30):
some money, especially?

Speaker 3 (06:32):
I'll start with the mindset.
The mindset of being okay,saving money, putting something
back if it's not within yourbudget, asking the cashier to
double check the sale price thatdidn't get rung up the way you
expected it, and I know it canfeel embarrassing and maybe the
line of people behind you isthey're all tapping their feet.

(06:55):
But my dad always said theydon't pay your bills.
So if you are on a tight budget, just channel your Giorgio
Komodo and have him in your earsaying they don't pay your bills
and you're never going to seethem again.
So it's not that big of a dealand it can have long-term
benefits for you and your familyto save those extra dollars

(07:18):
every single time you go to thegrocery store.
And so, getting in that mindset, being okay with using your
coupons I use an app for coupons.
I also use rebate apps.
That's a place to start.
Then, once you're in that place, go and take inventory of what
you have.
Make sure you're using what youhave first when you're

(07:40):
developing your meal plan.
You don't want to go buyadditional ingredients that you
don't need and that you'reprobably not going to use, and
then create meals that are goingto complement each other and
use the same ingredients.
You don't have to use all thesame, but it'll prevent you from
using half of the onion in thisrecipe and half of the onion

(08:02):
going to waste.
Use the same onion if you havehalf left in another thing.
So a pasta and a soup orsomething like that.
And once you create your mealplan and you go to the store,
that is a whole other experienceand you are going to want to
stay the course.
There's going to be a lot ofdistractions when you get there

(08:23):
and beautiful, bright colors andthe marketing is designed to
get you to spend more than youneed to.
Once you get there, stay thecourse.
Pay attention to your list.
Try not to be distracted.
Understand that a lot of whatis marketed as a sale is paid
placement and they're wantingyou to buy that.

(08:46):
Go to the aisle of the thingthat you need and check for the
cheapest price.
Look for price per ounce andPay attention.
You'll see that what you thinkis the cheapest might not be the
cheapest.
So a jar that's really smallcould be the cheapest thing, but
if you look at the price perounce, it might not come out to

(09:10):
the cheapest price.
Yeah, so at the grocery store,pay attention, and even when
you're being rung up, I knowthat I've put down the wrong
number for my bulk items andI'll be rung up for something
that's more expensive.
So things like that you cancatch them before you leave the
store.

Speaker 2 (09:31):
We were thrilled to welcome Dr Melanie Joy, a
Harvard educated psychologist,celebrated speaker and the
author of seven books, includingthe best-selling why we Love
Dogs, eat Pigs and Wear Cows.
This amazing episode is full ofso much information.
We discuss carnism, theinvisible belief system that

(09:55):
conditions people to eat animalsand creates this certain
psychology called carnisticmentality.
We discuss this and so muchmore Enjoy.

Speaker 4 (10:08):
The emotions of grief and anger and sadness and
whatever else are these emotionsthat many vegans carry around.
These are actually healthy,legitimate, normal emotional
responses to the global atrocitythat is carnism.
Much more concerning is theapathy and the numbing of the

(10:29):
dominant culture.
So we can reclaim oursensitivity and also appreciate
that this projection orstereotype of being overly
sensitive that's been used tosilence the voices of people who
challenge a project.
And, throughout history, peoplewho were working against
African slavery, theabolitionists, were called
sentimentalists and women sufferjets were called hysterical.

(10:50):
Somebody, by definition, who'soverly emotional isn't rational,
and people who are not rationalare not worth listening to.
So this stereotype is a form ofshoot the messenger.
If you shoot the messenger, youdon't have to take seriously
the implications of theirmessage.
Now, this was sort of along-winded example, but I
really want listeners to takethis point in, which is like

(11:12):
knowledge is power, and when yourecognize these cognitive
distortions, these psychologicaldistortions, for what they are,
when you understand thesestories and stereotypes that
have been created by carnisticculture, you are much less
likely to apologize forsomething like your sensitivity,
which is a beautiful thing anda gift that the world needs much
more of, not less of you knowand much less likely to feel bad
about yourself and pathologizeyourself and apologize for who

(11:38):
and how you are, so reallygetting informed about carnism.
And I would say the other thingthat can go a very long way for
new vegans and all vegans, allpeople is one build what I call
relational literacy, which isthe understanding of an ability
to practice healthy ways ofrelating, and we can talk about
this and unpack it a little bitmore later if you want to.
But when you build relationalliteracy, you know a big part of

(12:00):
that is learning effectivecommunication.
Communication is the primary waywe relate.
You kind of develop thissuperpower where everything in
your life gets a lot easier, alot easier, and most of us, you
know, have to learn complicatedgeometry that we'll probably
never need to use, and yet wedon't get a single formal lesson

(12:20):
in how to relate to that andhow to communicate effectively.
And like, when you look at themost pressing problems in our
world and in our lives, theseare not problems that exist
because we don't know how to dogeometry.
So you know most of us neverget a formal lesson in how to
relate in a way that's healthyand just building your
relational literacy, even if youjust build it by, you know 10%
of what it is now can becompletely game changing for you

(12:41):
and help you navigaterelationships and communications
with everybody, not just peoplewho don't share your philosophy
or ideology.
On the heels of writing anddirecting the 2015 documentary
film Plant Peer Nation, wewelcome Nelson Campbell, who
founded Plant Peer Communitiesin early 2016.

Speaker 2 (13:07):
Released in theaters in over 100 cities, the Plant
Peer Nation film highlights thedramatic healing power of a
plant-based diet and alsoexamines the political and
economic factors that havesuppressed information about
these healing benefits.
Check out this next clip, whereNelson explains what inspired

(13:34):
this grassroots movement that isnow involving over 200,000
people, called Plant Peer Pods.

Speaker 1 (13:43):
There's actually a quote on your website.
I wrote it down because Ithought it was really remarkable
and I wanted to touch on it atthe close.
I feel like it's related towhat we're talking about here
and it says, if you don't mindme reading it it says there are
two impulses present in many ofus.
One is the impulse to be rightand to judge others who are
wrong.
The other is the humble,nonjudgmental impulse to love,

(14:06):
and I know you all relate veryheavily to the second part.
But I was curious what makesyou favor the humble,
nonjudgmental love aspect ofthings?
Because that's truly whatyou're doing, especially when
you're hosting these immersionsand with the films that you're
creating and these pods thatyou're creating, which I do want
to touch on.
But what makes you lean moreheavily into that versus, maybe,

(14:29):
more judgment or being harsh orcritical of people?

Speaker 5 (14:34):
This goes to a very deep level, I think, Ashley.
It goes back to this issue ofego again and wanting to be
right.
People will say things andthey'll represent themselves in
a certain way and then feel theimpulse to defend that.
They define themselves maybe bywhat they say, and sometimes by

(15:02):
their reputations, and sometimesby their money and their things
.
But that's not who we reallyare.
We are not those things, but wehave all these attachments
around us and so we're alwaysdriven to want to preserve and
defend those things.
And many Eastern philosopherstalk about this that if we can

(15:27):
live without those attachmentsand we can make ourselves
vulnerable and open to otherpeople, what that really means
is that first of all, it allowsus to open our eyes, to see
bigger truths, because today, Idon't care what side of the
political aisle you're on,there's splinters of truth

(15:49):
everywhere that no one side hasthe truth.
There are splinters of truthand if we can open our eyes, we
can see those truths and weavetogether something bigger so we
can see more deeply and we canunderstand and we can see the
bigger connections and cometogether to make change.

(16:10):
And when we open our eyes thatway and we see those truths, we
also can learn then to open ourhearts and we can expand our
compassion.
People have always loved theirneighbors, you know, even just
to take the extreme example,even during the Holocaust, the
people working with those Ican't even imagine those gas

(16:31):
chambers would go home to theircommunities and they love their
families and they love theneighbors, you know, in the
house next door.
But that was a very limitedkind of almost perverse type of
love, you know, when it's verytribal, yeah, and I think what a
lot of our spiritual leadershave tried to get us to do is to

(16:53):
open our eyes so we can seethese bigger connections and
make our love more expansive.
And here's the key At the endof the day, if we do that, we
feel greater freedom andsatisfaction and fulfillment in
our lives.
When we live that way, it'sactually better for us.

(17:13):
And that's this for each of usindividually.
And that's the secret that mostpeople don't understand when
they, when they hang on to thoseattachments, that dogma, you
know those superficial ways theydefine themselves, they limit
their, their lives, they limitthemselves and they don't get as
much out of life.

Speaker 1 (17:34):
Yeah, yeah, Was this part of the driving factor for
starting the pods in a way wherepeople can actually come
together, even if it's like atiny bit of a driving factor,
where people are coming togethernot just online, but actually
together face to face in acommunity that they can be
vulnerable and share and connectwith people on a deeper level?

Speaker 5 (17:56):
Exactly, actually, because when we are living in
community, we do tend to becomemore vulnerable and open to one
another.
That's the power, that's thepower of connection.

Speaker 2 (18:11):
Caitlin is the director of strategic
partnerships and public affairsat Clever Carnivore, chicago's
first cultivated meat company.
A 30 year vegetarian and 10year vegan, caitlin is a
proponent of alternativeproteins as a scalable solution
to many of the negativeexternalities of conventional
meat.
Check out this next clip whereshe and Ashley discuss what

(18:35):
cultivated meat is and how it'smade.

Speaker 7 (18:38):
Yeah, cultivated meat certainly, I think, is the most
accurate.
Some people say things likecell based meat or cell cultured
meat.
I think that that actuallydoesn't provide any additional
clarification, becauseconventional meat is made of
cells, were made of cells.
Plant based meat is made ofcells Good point.
Cell based is kind of justsaying like it doesn't really
provide clarification about whatit is.
Some people are saying culturedmeat, which I think there could

(19:01):
be some confusion there,because aquaculture is a type of
fish farming.
I think there was a consumerstudy that showed that with
education, that cultivated meatis the most palatable and also
the most accurate description ofwhat we're actually doing.
So, yeah, we say cultivatedmeat.
So cultivated meat is actualmeat that is grown outside the

(19:22):
animal.
So basically it's made byproducing initially a very small
, non invasive skin sample froman animal and then that sample
is grown in bioreactors and fedsomething that's called a cell
culture media, which isbasically just a nutrient rich
liquid, contains things like allthe things your cells need to

(19:44):
grow, so vitamins, minerals,amino acids, water, salt.
In my opinion, I always call itlike the cells Gatorade,
because and I think technicallywe actually, I think some of the
scientists here have actuallytried the media.
So it's it's totally all stuffthat that's needed in your body
to grow, and so we take thatsample and put it in the media.
So we're basically feeding themedia to the cells and that

(20:05):
produces real animal muscle.
This is a very simplifiedversion, by the way, but
basically it's it's it's doingsomething that you know we've
actually been doing in humantherapeutics for a long time.
So, and just applying it togrowing growing meat, we and
actually it's really interestingbecause you're able to grow
muscle, but you can also changethe media and you're able to
grow fat.
So of course, you know meat ismade up of actual animal meat

(20:27):
and also fat, so so we're ableto do all of this.
So what I like to say is thatwe're recreating the conditions
inside of an animal, outside theanimal.
So it's just, it's justproducing meat in a in a
different way and, yeah, so likethe cell media is the same
temperature as the animals body.
It's it really is saying likewhat happens inside an animal,

(20:48):
in our case a pig and let's doit outside the animal.

Speaker 1 (20:51):
Wow, I mean it's just so wild that we are able to do
this.
I mean, what brilliant peopleare behind this kind of stuff.
I mean it's just so innovative.
And the fact that you mentionedit's non invasive.
So there's, it sounds like noharm is done to the animals.
Like what does that even look?
Like they're taking, liketweezers and like picking out
something.
How does that work?

Speaker 7 (21:08):
Yeah, that's right, and this is really important to
me as a person who is vegan fora lot of reasons, but primarily
for the animals.
Basically, there's just like asmall incision that's made and a
little bit of the skin is taken, but that can be numbed and
then it's kind of sewed back up.
So it's, in my opinion, theleast harm possible to an animal
and like, hopefully it's nothurting them.
And also, compared to you knowthe way that we factory farm 9

(21:31):
billion animals a year, I thinkthat taking a really small
incision is, and especiallybecause in the case of most
cultivated meat companies, thatsmall sample can provide an
infinite amount of meat becauseof the nature of how cells
replicate.
So for us, for example, we havecells from a pig and we will
never have to go back to thatanimal to get additional samples

(21:51):
and we will be able to makemeat basically add infinite, so
forever.
Wow.
So which I mean that's?
I think that that also kind ofspeaks to how efficient
cultivated meat is.
Rather than you're having togrow crops to feed animals to,
you know, feed them water, tohave them on transportation
trucks and go to slaughter, weare making meat right here in

(22:12):
this very innocuous lookingoffice building.
So the supply chains a lotshorter and it's far fewer
resources, much, much better forthe environment.
And I know that some cultivatedmeat companies actually have
like.
I saw that one of them who'smaking cultivated lamb.
I was looking at the employeesthere and they have Lucy the
lamb as one of their.
They were like Lucy providedour initial cells and now she's

(22:33):
living freely and, you know,roaming the prairie.
Yeah, it's really cool and Ithink for me, like knowing that
that we are able to make meatwithout real animal meat,
without harming animals, isreally just such an innovative
and amazing thing.

Speaker 1 (22:47):
Yeah, yeah, and I definitely want to go back to
that environmental impacts.
I think it's really importantto talk about just all the areas
that this had that this canpotentially impact for the
greater good.
But you had mentioned somethingabout kind of adjusting.
You mentioned like kind of thefat, like you can grow fat and
muscle.
Does that mean that we can kindof adjust the fat content of
some of the meat that we aregrowing so that maybe, like

(23:08):
quote, healthier it's lesssaturated fat laden like what
does that look?

Speaker 7 (23:12):
like.
That's exactly right, ashley?
A great question.
So, basically, what we'remaking is identical to
conventional meat.
However, we do have the room tokind of tailor.
So, for example, we, in termsof, like the health benefits of
this product it is meat, but wedon't have to include
cholesterol so it could be acholesterol free animal meat
product, as you mentioned.

(23:33):
Yes, we are able to adjust themeat to fat ratio.
So if you wanted to make a lowfat product or even a higher fat
product for people, for example, I know keto I do not endorse
keto, by the way, peopleinterested in you know like a
higher protein keto diet orsomething that we could, you
know, make a higher fat content.
And also worth noting in termsof health, that our product is

(23:55):
100% free of antibiotics,whereas conventional meat I
learned this stat recently.
It's absolutely staggering tome that over 70% of antibiotics
globally are fed to farmedanimals to keep them even well.
To keep them well, because ofthe nature of you know they're,
they're crammed into these smallit's 20,000 chickens in a shed.

(24:15):
Of course, that's going tobreed disease, so they're just
preemptively fed antibiotics,which, of course, has massive
human health implications interms of antibiotic resistance.
Not a very fun topic, but but Ithink important to note that
our product doesn't haveantibiotics and it's it's, you
know, produced in a very cleanenvironment.

Speaker 1 (24:31):
Wow.
So there really is no need for,because, I mean, I grew up on
an Angus Caltifarm, soantibiotics, obviously, yes,
were necessary, and then so werelike steroids and different
things to like make the animalsgrow faster.
So there probably isn't a needfor that either.
Yep.

Speaker 7 (24:44):
No steroids, Yep and our product also, we are able to
say that it's not geneticallymodified, so non GMO.
And I will say that I thinkthat there is like I personally
I'm pro GMO like as in I thinkthere's a lot of anti science,
fear mongering around GMOs.
But for people who areconcerned about that, it is a
non GMO product.
So it's non GMO, antibioticfree, steroid free.

Speaker 2 (25:06):
Hannah Van Ark is a registered dietitian dedicated
to helping people thrive byeating more plants.
Her work in longevity and hearthealth nutrition research
started in 2012.
And it inspired her to adopt aplant forward lifestyle, which
transformed her own health andgrew into a passion for helping
others do the same.
Check out the following clip,where she and Ashley discuss the

(25:31):
importance of fiber.

Speaker 1 (25:33):
Okay, so I definitely want to touch on fiber, hannah.
Oh, yes, because we know thatfiber is associated because of
predominantly plant based dietis obviously rich in fiber.
That obviously plays a role inhealth and longevity.
So I'm curious if we can justkind of touch on what fiber is
and where we get it, which wekind of just hinted at, but kind

(25:53):
of what fiber is in a plantbased diet For sure, and I feel
like you and I have connectedonline a lot about, like our
love of fiber and our beliefthat fiber is underrated as
opposed to like 15 point, pushto 10 and like all this stuff.

Speaker 9 (26:05):
Yeah, so fiber is so important and what fiber is is
it's essentially it is acarbohydrate, but it's a
carbohydrate that we don'tdigest for energy.
We don't have the enzyme in ourbodies to break down fiber for
energy.
So what happens is when we eatfiber, it passes through us and
it goes right to our healthy gutbugs in the colon and so that's
called our microbiome, and acollection of a diverse, you

(26:28):
know microbes in our microbiomeis a really good hallmark of
health.
So fiber passes to them andthey tend to eat those and, you
know, thrive on those sorts ofthings.
And in terms of where it'sfound, it's only found in plant
foods.
So this is one of the reasonswhy we think it is so key to eat
mostly plants is because fiberis so critical to every aspect

(26:50):
of health and it's only found inplant foods.
So the way that I like to frameit to like my clients and my
following, is that fiber ispretty much like the bones of
the plant.
So, as animals, we haveconnective tissue and bones and
everything that we need to holdus up.
Plants don't have that.
They have fiber instead.
So animals don't need fiber.
We've got bones and connectivetissue plants to give them

(27:11):
structure.
They need that fiber.
So, if you remember nothing else, fiber is the bones of the
plant and that's basically thereason why you can only find it
in plants.
You're going to find zero gramsof fiber in animal products, so
it's important.
And then it's found in mostplant foods and I would say it's
found mostly in whole plantfoods.
So if you have super, ultrarefined plant foods, oftentimes
those won't have as much fiberor any fiber, depending on the

(27:34):
type of food.
But if you have whole plantfoods, which are fruits,
vegetables, whole grains, beans,nuts and seeds those five
categories primarily then you'regoing to get some fiber from
those and in particular, I thinkthat we don't know about this
enough, but really it's it'swhole grains, beans and fruits

(27:54):
that have the most fiber, andvegetables have some fiber and
they're important for a lot ofreasons, but not nearly as much
fiber as the starchy or types ofplant foods, and so it's really
important to you know, when Isee people on a keto diet or
like a low carb diet who aresaying that they get a ton of

(28:15):
fiber on their diet, theyprobably don't get as much fiber
because they're eating onlynon-starchy vegetables, which do
have fiber, in particular,scratchy fiber called insoluble
fiber but they're missing out onthe kind of squishy fiber, the
soluble fiber, that's found onthe interior of beans and grains
and fruits, and that's the gutbugs favorite food.
That's what they truly thrive on, and so I would say that most

(28:37):
low carb diets are fiberdeficient, even though they may
be eating a lot of non-starchyvegetables, if that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (28:43):
Yeah, yeah, it definitely does, and I think
that just reiterates how theimportance of fiber and how we
do we emphasize protein so much.

Speaker 9 (28:50):
When we think of protein, we think of meat or
animal products, and so then ouremphasis is on that, or our
focus is there, and it kind ofputs this like shadow over fiber
, which is very, very important,like you said, at the very
least for those little littlelittle guys in our colon that
want to feed off of them, yeah,yeah, and I would say that, like
the importance of fiber interms of longevity in particular

(29:13):
, is its interaction withchronic disease, because what we
know is that our gut health andour gut microbiome it's this
wild world that influencesabsolutely everything and more
and more is coming out about itevery single year.
And back when I was in research,we had a laboratory next door
to mine that was focused inmicrobiome research and we did

(29:33):
like some collaborations andstuff like that and just the
stuff that there is.
There is no chronic diseasethat is not tied to dysbiosis,
which means poor gut health.
So all chronic diseases that wehave identified are tied in
some way to poor gut health.
So it's really, reallyimportant to try to keep the gut

(29:54):
as healthy as possible from alongevity perspective, because
it can help to improve, orrather decrease, the risk of
chronic disease.
It can help to decrease therisk, in particular, of certain
cancers.
I mean, when we talk aboutcolon cancers, colorectal
cancers, diverticulitis, sort ofpolyps that can become
cancerous within the colon, whenwe have fiber sweeping through

(30:16):
like a broom, it becomes reallya lot better and easier to
manage those sorts of conditions.
So all of that is super, superimportant and so from a
longevity perspective, fiber iscritical, carina.

Speaker 2 (30:30):
Belize is a natural products industry executive,
omega three expert and pioneerwho led the early growth of
Nordic naturals from less than 1million to over 100 million in
annual sales.
Given her concern for thefuture health and wellness of
people and planet, she hasshifted her focus from fish
sourced omegas to algae, leadingthe development and launch of

(30:53):
Orlo nutrition, a brand thatfeatures the world's first
carbon negative omega threes.
Check out this next clip whereshe and Ashley discuss the
importance of supplementationfor your essential fatty acid.

Speaker 1 (31:06):
I mean I have clients come to me that tell me, well,
their doctor recommended fishoil.
And when they ask, well, whyfish oil?
Well, it's like you need it forthe EPA and DHA.
Okay, well, can I not get thatfrom algae?
It's like, oh well, yeah, Iguess you can.
You know you can take an algaebased supplement.

Speaker 10 (31:22):
Well, this is the penance for the success right,
like for a long time, whenpeople said omega three, they
meant flax oil.
Now, when they say omega three,they generally mean fish oil.
But what they really mean isEPA and DHA.
These two's particular fattyacids are really what the
research is behind.
Epa and DHA work in all thetissues in your body.

(31:44):
They're involved in the 37trillion cells that you have,
and so if you don't consume themon a daily basis, you're making
your cells from the other junkin your system, and I say junk
because usually, when we're notconsuming enough of these, we
are replacing it with garbage,and I mean we could have a deep

(32:04):
conversation about that.

Speaker 1 (32:05):
Yes, we could.
We could talk about that for along time, and I think, just so
the listener is aware too ourbodies cannot make some of these
fatty acids.
Is that correct?

Speaker 10 (32:15):
And that's why we make omega threes or omega sixes
, but the problem isn't omegasixes.
This is why these twoparticular fats are called
essential fatty acids, becausethey're like vitamins.
We need vitamins because wecan't produce them in their body
.
We need to consume vitamin C,or we can end up with scurvy.

(32:35):
We need to consume vitamin D,or we end up with rickets.
We need to consume omega three,epa and DHA because if we don't
, the synapses in our brainwon't fire as well, and that
also impacts our nervous systemand our digestive system.
Our cardiovascular health willdecline, will be more likely to
adhere plaque to our arteries.

(32:55):
I mean, this is there's scienceto this.
It's almost like EPA casts aslippery net over our entire
cardiovascular system, so thingsdon't clog up as easily.
Think of it like a lubricant,if you want to.
It almost is.
It's like a non-stickylubricant.
If you, however, are consumingplenty of omega six, which most

(33:17):
people are omega sixes arecoming from the seed oils in our
diet.
That could be, and these again,essential fatty acids, but we
consume so much of them that wefall out of balance and we need
to have a closer balance to oneto one of omega threes to omega
sixes, the only way to achievethat.
In a modern diet, the only wayto achieve that is to stop

(33:39):
consuming fried foods, stopconsuming processed foods and
start consuming more omega threeplant source foods as well as
supplement.
Because the cars are stackedagainst us.
We've literally removed thepresent omega threes from our
seed oils because it improvestheir shelf stability.
Canola oil would even have someomega three in it, but we don't

(34:03):
want to have it in therebecause it makes the product
have a quicker expiry, so itwon't last at the shelf.
We're going to go ahead andrefine it out.
Let's do the same thing withour corn oil.
We'll do the same thing withall of these different plant
sources.
That would have a closerbalance of one to one.
These are what get used inproducing foods that we consume,
that are offered on shelf in abox, in a bag or whatever.

(34:25):
There's a reason that all thesenutritionists, all dietitians,
say whole foods, plant-based.
Walk away from the box, makeyour own food from scratch,
consume fish.
They'll say consume fish, evento vegetarians and say well, you
should consider being a peagun.
This is Dr Mark Hyman's newword in his new book right.

(34:48):
Be a peagun.
Eat fish and vegetables,because it's hard to get that
balance without supplementation.
Then it's hard to convincepeople that they need a
supplement every single day oftheir lives in order to get at
that balance.
The reality is that's where weare.
That's where we are because ourfood systems are when you might

(35:10):
need to consume a vitamin Devery day and not talking a lot
maybe 1,000 IU.
And you might need to consumean omega-3 every day not talking
a lot maybe 250 to 350milligrams of EPA and DHA every
day.
Just do it.
You get that with Orlo.
That's in the polar lipid formand it's going to be absorbed
into your tissues.
You won't have a burp.
All of these good things.

(35:31):
Then you might want to alsoconsider where else you have
insufficiencies in your diet.
Be real, be honest withyourself.

Speaker 2 (35:41):
Sun Saks is the co-founder of Rewire Fitness, a
20-year veteran in softwaredevelopment and a lifelong
endurance athlete for the past35-plus years in competitive
cycling, triathlon and adventureraces.
Enjoy this fascinating episodewhere Sun discusses the
importance of mindset as anathlete.

Speaker 8 (36:04):
So what the science has shown is like when you're
under a greater amount ofcognitive fatigue, your
perception of effort feels muchharder, and then that limits
your physical performance.
So a little experiment, like alittle thought experiment, if we
all think about this, if you'veever had a day where you work
really hard or you have a lot ofstress and you're supposed to
work out in the evening, one,it's going to be very hard to

(36:28):
motivate to get out there, go tothe gym, go for the run,
whatever it is.
But two, it'll actually feelmore difficult, and that's
because your brain is undercognitive strain and it's
actually misperceiving oramplifying the physical effort,
because of course, the two areinterrelated.
It does take cognitive focus togo through a workout and if

(36:50):
your brain is fatigued, it'sgoing to basically send signals
that your body is having aharder time and thus you're not
going to achieve your goal orit's just going to feel very
difficult.

Speaker 1 (37:02):
I feel like the traditional sense of being like
well, go to the gym anyway, pushhard, push through it.
Why is that maybe not sohelpful in building mental
resilience?
Or why is that maybe thetraditional way that we
approached it a bit flawed, inyour opinion or from what you've
seen based on your expertise?

Speaker 8 (37:19):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I mean, obviously I've hadfirst-hand experience with it
and then also from working withmany different athletes and
scientists.
Basically, this idea that youbuild mental resilience as a
side effect of physical trainingis very flawed, because one
what we call the minimumeffective dose varies over time.

(37:41):
So let's just say you'retraining four days a week and
you're going for runs and you'regoing to the gym.
You're going to have to keeppushing yourself harder and
harder to get to that very acutestate where you're going to get
some kind of resilience out ofit, and in the meantime you're
going to keep adding morecognitive load which is going to

(38:01):
keep reducing your ability toperform, and so it becomes a
vicious cycle where you'reliterally just digging a hole
and not allowing your brain torecover.
Like most people these daysdon't say well, I'm just going
to run every single day,regardless of how I feel, and
I'll just get stronger.
Like that's been demystifiedthese days.

(38:23):
And the same thing is with yourbrain.
Like if you just keep pushingyourself over and over and over
again, pretty soon you'reactually going to break down.
You can have low energy, it'sgoing to be hard to motivate and
your physical performance isgoing to go down.
So there's a better way,there's a more targeted way to
really just focus on that mentalresilience the same way you

(38:43):
would with physical training.

Speaker 1 (38:46):
Okay, what are some of those ways, if you don't mind
sharing some better ways tomaybe shift that focus to this
old style of thinking where youjust kind of push through, keep
going, do it every day, nomatter how you feel, to just be
more mindful of where you arementally.

Speaker 8 (39:02):
Yeah, that's right.
So there's two differentinterventions in our system at a
high level.
One is around the cognitiverecovery and then sort of the
sport psychology, and the otherpart is around the pure kind of
resilience training.
So on the recovery side, let'ssay you wake up in the morning
and you have a poor night'ssleep and, as a result, you're a

(39:25):
little more emotional, you're alittle more frustrated and your
brain is just simply tired.
So what do you do?
Well, in our system we'llbasically create what we call a
recipe, which will be acombination of different
evidence-based approaches.
So in one experience, the lasttwo to four minutes, you'll go

(39:47):
through a specific breathingmodality, like you might do box
breathing or 478 breathing,which is going to get your body
into a homeostasis, get it intoa recovery state.
We then pipe in what we callbinaural beats, which are
basically a device for gettingyour brain into a calm or
recovery state.
Just by listening to the musicWe'll bring in things like

(40:10):
self-talk and visualization.
So you have mantras that yourepeat, that are cues or
triggers to being in the rightmindset, and while you're
looking at the screen, we'realso priming you subliminally
with positive imagery.
So you come out of theexperience, feeling refreshed
mind and body, and that's a muchbetter place to start, even if
you have a goal that day likeyou're coming into the gym or

(40:32):
out for the run or even for someimportant meetings or whatever
your responsibilities are with acalm, ready mindset, which is
really the best place to be forperformance, as opposed to
stress, distracted, full ofanxiety, like that's not going
to help you, yeah, so that's areally important part of what we

(40:53):
do, and we find people willcome to the app multiple times
to help them with pre-workout,get into a prime state for a
workout, help with stress, helpwith a good night's sleep.
There's a lot of differenttools within the system for that
kind of stuff, so that's thefirst piece.

Speaker 1 (41:14):
I mean, you mentioned different things that you can
utilize to really tap intorefining that mental fitness,
and one of them you includedbreath work, which I feel like
we're learning more and moreabout, of how powerful our
breath can be in our mental andemotional mindset, I guess to be
the right word, and I thinkthat's really helpful.
And not just that, but, likeyou said, the music, even the

(41:35):
images.
I think so many times whenwe're like, oh, I need a mental
break from something, maybe wejust pick up our phone and
scroll through social media, butI feel like very few people
walk away from that, being like,oh, I feel so much better, I'm
more relaxed.

Speaker 3 (41:47):
I'm in a calm state.

Speaker 1 (41:49):
It's usually the opposite, so.
I just find that veryrefreshing to hear that it's
very targeted, targeted tools toreally help improve your mental
fitness.

Speaker 8 (41:59):
Yeah, yeah, thank you .
Yeah, it's really important.
Just spending, like I said, twoto four minutes can make a big
difference.
Like we see the average personcoming out of one of those
sessions having a 70% reductionin stress.
You know, wow, just a massivechange.
Just giving yourself that, like, even if you don't use the app,

(42:21):
try it.
Look up box breathing, look up478 breathing, look up Pranayama
breathing.
You do that for five minutes.
You're going to feel material,materially better.

Speaker 6 (42:31):
Wow.

Speaker 8 (42:32):
Now, of course, when we layer on more protocols, it
amplifies the effects.
But just doing that, justgiving yourself a little bit of
time each day, you hit the resetbutton.

Speaker 2 (42:44):
As a fourth generation physician, bill Rawls
, md, has dedicated his life tomedicine, but when faced with a
personal health crisis in hislate 40s with Lyme disease,
everything changed.
In his quest to regain hishealth, dr Rawls was confronted
with the limitations ofconventional medicine and knew
he had to find his own path torestore wellness.

(43:06):
For the past 15 years, he hasextensively studied the science
behind herbal therapies and newsustainable approaches for
protecting health.
Check out this clip of Ashleyand Dr Rawls discussing the
importance of looking at healthfrom a cellular level.

Speaker 1 (43:24):
You know, a lot of times we go to the doctor and we
have these symptoms and we'regiven a prescription or
something like that.
But it sounds like you'rereally trying to dig and find
the root cause at a cellularlevel, not just at the surface.

Speaker 12 (43:36):
Yeah, it's a big deal.
When you start taking health,wellness, understanding the
human body, down to the cellularlevel, you change the
conversation.
That's one of the things thatis missing in our conventional
medical system.
We basically treat our bodylike it's a car and we

(43:57):
compartmentalize.
So we've got cardiologists andpulmonologists and
gastroenterologists, you know,and so we treat these individual
parts and you know, whensomeone has a symptom, we
address those symptoms or thosemanifestations of illness with
drugs or surgical procedures,which has value, you know, it

(44:18):
can stabilize a bad situation orsuppress illness, but what it
doesn't do is address cellularstress, which is the root cause
of all illness.
Right, so we are artificiallyblocking symptoms, we are
artificially blockingmanifestations or processes of

(44:39):
illness, but we're notaddressing the underlying cause
of the illness.
So that's something I startedlooking at to say, okay, you
know, and it gets complicated,you know, because we have a lot
of different cells in the bodyand so many different processes.
You know there are thousands ofdifferent illnesses and just as

(45:00):
many drugs and all thesecomplicated pathways.
When you take it down to thecellular level, it's pretty easy
, because if you're taking careof one cell in the body, you're
taking care of all the cells inthe body.
And cells need good nutrition.
They need a clean, contaminantfree environment.
They need downtime for sleep torecover from stress.

(45:21):
They need good blood flow fromexercise and they need some
protection against all kinds ofinvasive microbes.
You know so if you're doingthat for any cells in the body,
you're doing it for everything,so you can take care of your
heart and your brain and yourmuscles and your joints all at
one time, which is kind of cool.
So that's the advantage thatthis kind of thinking does and

(45:46):
that's the difference in drugsand herbs.
So when you look at this thing,drugs are designed to
artificially block processes.
You know they're, in essence,low dose, therapeutically dosed
poisons that we are poisoningpathways.
So you know we in a way in someway block some of those

(46:09):
manifestations of illness, butwe're not addressing the stress
factors, bad food, toxins, allof these things that stress our
cells and cause us to becomechronically ill.
So when you start doing that,you know, eating a better diet,
cleaning up your environment,getting the rest that you need,

(46:30):
getting the exercise you needyou know you start creating an
environment and sell your healthin your body and your cells
start coordinating functions andyour hormones normalize and
everything starts working again.
So what the herbs are doing isthey're compounding that.
And when I say herbs, you knowwhat we're talking about is the
complex chemistry that we callphytochemistry of the herb.

(46:54):
So all living organisms aremade of cells, so plants are
made of cells too.
Plants have to protect theircells from free radicals and
radiation and toxic substancesand every form of microbe.
So plants have a chemicalsystem of cellular protection

(47:16):
and they use a lot of the samechemical messengers that we do
to coordinate cellular functions.
So when we take an herb, we'rebasically taking the plants
defense and regulatory systemthat enhances anything that
we're doing.
Now, herbs there's a prettybroad spectrum of herbs, you

(47:38):
know, and there's some herbsthat have chemicals that are
very drug-like and some plantsthat have chemicals that don't
mesh with us like nobody wouldwant to eat poison ivy.
But these other herbs so manyherbs that have this protective
function that what they're doingis protecting cells.
So the herbs that I was takingthey were suppressing microbes

(48:01):
but they were protecting mycells from free radicals and
toxic substances and you knowthings that we do with a bad
diet and not getting sleep.
So I was getting all thisrobust extra protection in my
life and that was enhancing myrecovery.
You know it was giving me whatI needed.

(48:23):
So it basically promotes healingand that's what's missing with
our drugs, you know.
I mean, when I was a physicianI knew that no matter how good
my drug choices were, or howgood my surgical skills were, or
if the patient had lost theability to heal, then things

(48:45):
weren't going to go well.
So drugs really have nocapacity to promote healing.
So what healing is is theability of cells in the body to
recover from stress, toregenerate and repair internal
damage.
So when we're protecting cellsfrom stress with all this
complex herbal phytochemistry,we are promoting healing.

(49:10):
So drugs don't promote healing,herbs promote healing.

Speaker 2 (49:20):
Adrienne has more than 20 years of experience
working in the dietetic field,with a focus on eating disorders
, neurochemistry, nutrition andbusiness development.
Check out this clip where sheand Ashley discuss the
importance of nutrition and itseffect on our mental health.

Speaker 1 (49:38):
We're so focused on, maybe like our outward
appearance or a number on thescale or a pant size, that we
kind of lose sight of all theseother things that really we need
to nourish, like our mental andemotional health, like our
physical health.

Speaker 6 (49:51):
Yes, oh, it's so interesting, like this could be
a whole other podcast is likeyour mental health actually
starts with nutrition.
So all of our brain chemistryare serotonin or dopamine things
that make us happy, excited,fallen, love, oxytocin start
with nutrition and nobody evertalks about that is like how are

(50:13):
we really taking care ofourselves from a mental homicide
?
And like allowing us to eat anabundance of food and also food
is awesome and enjoyable andshouldn't be good, bad, right,
wrong.
And if you love marshmallows,rockstar, enjoy marshmallow.
It's like they're funny,they're cute, yeah.

Speaker 1 (50:32):
Yep, they are, and right now, when it's like cold
outside, they're great.
With a little hot chocolate,it's like perfect.
Oh, yes, exactly, yeah.
So how can people maybe workthrough and this is again.
This could be a whole anotherpodcast, but, like you know,
we've all grown up in dietculture and some have.
Some of us have definitelygrown up in more extreme

(50:53):
versions of diet culture thanothers.
But how would there be sometips that you give people to
kind of start working through,maybe relinquishing some of
those beliefs that they'velearned over the years from diet
culture?

Speaker 6 (51:04):
Oh, it's like breaking up with bad boyfriend.
Oh, my goodness, it's hard.
And I think that's the firstthing is like know that this is
hard and know that it's going tofeel like you're going against
everything you see in socialmedia and media and it's going
to feel like you're doingsomething wrong.
And so I think just noticingthat it's going to feel really

(51:26):
weird and people and possibly inyour circle, like when you were
going, if somebody was startingto go plant based, having that
community is really important toyou.
So I think kind of that wholejourney of you start going plant
based and if you're trying tobreak up with diet culture, it
has that same kind of path oflike it's going to be lonely in
the beginning until you find,until you find your people, and

(51:50):
so I think that's reallyimportant.
I think my biggest thing islike the more that you can make
peace with food, which sounds soeasy, so easy to make peace
with food.
That is a process and Istrongly encourage you to reach
out for help and support.
Finding a weight inclusivedietitian, finding a mental

(52:10):
health provider, cleaning upyour social media, all of those
things.

Speaker 2 (52:18):
Dr Joel Kahn of Detroit, michigan, is a
practicing cardiologist, aclinical professor of medicine
at Wayne State University Schoolof Medicine, and is known as
America's Healthy Heart Doc.
Check out this next clip asAshley and Dr Kahn discuss the
importance of heart health andhow a plant-based diet can help

(52:38):
with that.

Speaker 1 (52:40):
What is one of the most common pieces of advice
that you give your patients?

Speaker 13 (52:44):
Well, I want them to become students and there's
nothing better thanunderstanding.
I mean there's such a lack ofinformation about whole food,
plant-based diets and how hugethe science is Compared to the
other popular diets theketogenic diet, the low-carb
diets, the carnivore diets, thepaleo diets.
Certainly, in my specialty ofheart disease it's 99 to one for

(53:08):
scientific data suggesting.
Every time you make a bowl of aslow-cooked oatmeal with some
ground flaxseed and walnuts andblueberries on it, instead of
Speedway egg wraps or eggs andbacon.
Every time you have a giganticsalad for lunch with some white
wine, vinegar and maybe a littleextra virgin olive oil, with
every vegetable nut and seed onit, instead of driving through

(53:32):
Chick-fil-A and getting a burger.
It's a little more work.
And every time you experimentwith a dinner nice lentil stew
or a nice bean soup with a wholegrain bread and maybe a big
salad again, or broccoli orcalvary every time you make
these changes you're feedingyour body insanely healthy

(53:53):
macronutrients, carbohydrates,fast protein, micronutrients,
all the vitamins, minerals,plant-based minerals,
antioxidants in plant-basedfoods are 60 times higher than
in animal-based foods.
So protect our cells, protectour bodies.
So once they get it, it's prettyeasy, and I mean there are
people that are sick type two,diabetic, obese, hypertension,

(54:16):
heart disease that probablyshould jump in.
Just look at, I'll go twomonths and try and do Dr
Ferman's program, dr Essison'sprogram, dr Ornish's program, dr
Bernard's program, drMcDougal's program these are
some of the famous programs outthere that are based on books or
websites.
And there's other people.
Look at, I tell them justconquer breakfast, just get

(54:36):
those egg-bacon wraps out ofyour life.
Take the time to make overnightoats so in the morning you can
just grab something and be onyour way, or a quick smoothie.
I mean, once you've gotbreakfast down, let's start
bringing lunch to work insteadof letting some restaurant of
poor quality food dominate yourhealth.
And then dinner's a littletougher because there could be a

(54:57):
spouse involved in children.
A lot of my patients do maketwo or three different meals a
day for dinner because they aretrying to eat one way for their
health and their spouse won't goalong with it, or children or
the teenagers are revolting.
But so dinner's a littletougher.
There's even a book out there,very popular about 10 years ago,
called Vegan Before Six by MarkBitman, a New York Times writer

(55:19):
.
It's a good book.
But how he lost a ton of weightand reversed his type two
diabetes by just eating everybreakfast and lunch vegan and
dealing with life at dinner timeas healthy as he could, and I
don't do that.
Every meal is plant-based, butsome people can start that way
and still see health benefits.

Speaker 1 (55:38):
Yeah, and it's not like once you become a student,
it's almost hard to not followthrough with some of those
recommendations that you'retalking about.

Speaker 13 (55:44):
And then you get it under your skin about the
environmental issues and animalrights and you're eating a dead
animal and you're just going toa butcher shop or if you can
sneak your way into aslaughterhouse.
I mean that old Paul McCartneyphrase of slaughterhouses had
glass walls, we all would bevegan and I agree with that.
It's the worst industry on theplanet and there are ethical

(56:07):
farmers and there are some nicepeople out there, but we're
talking Tyson and the other bigCargill and the massive
international conglomerates thatmake most of our food.
It's horrendous how it's bothdestroying the planet and just
your desire to have cow milkinstead of soy milk is costing
thousands of gallons of waterand unbelievable cruelty to

(56:32):
living animals that are prettynice beasts overall.

Speaker 1 (56:36):
Yeah, yeah, they really are.
I agree, Dr Kahn.
As a last question, I'm curiousis there one thing, a habit,
lifestyle, eating habit that youwould absolutely never do as a
cardiologist?

Speaker 13 (56:47):
Well, if you had to pick one thing in the food world
, you'd stay away from processedred beet.
The thing that people lovebacon, pepperoni, sausage, hot
dogs, ground hamburger, poorquality.
I mean, the studies are justoverwhelming.
They're for heart disease, it'sbasically the number one most
toxic food for risk ofcolorectal cancer.
Probably prostate cancer,breast cancer, maybe pain credit

(57:08):
cancer.
Probably the number one mosttoxic food is processed red beet
.
And these are huge studies allover the world and multiple
studies.
I mean.
The World Health Organizationshocked the world in October of
2015 when they came out and saidprocessed red beet causes
colorectal cancer, notassociated.
But in every study theycombined with a panel of experts

(57:30):
, a couple dozen panel ofexperts and seemingly without
too much funding bias.
They announced that and itcreated a huge pushback.
But the data has beenreproduced and reproduced.
So sorry bacon lovers, you'rekilling yourself one crispy bite
at a time.
Plus, it induces type twodiabetes.
It's high in saturated fat.
So and yeah, you can live to100 eating bacon.

(57:53):
But if you're smart and youwanna play the odds and you
really would like to be healthyas your kids and grandkids get
older and you retire and you'renot a medical mess when you're
in your 60s and 70s.
I would cut that out first.

Speaker 2 (58:09):
Diana is a nationally recognized registered dietician
and certified diabetes care andeducation specialist, and holds
her masters in nutritionscience and policy.
Jose is an exercisephysiologist with a degree in
exercise science and a two-timeIronman triathlete.
Together, they created adigital health platform that

(58:31):
helps people prevent, manage andreverse type two diabetes
through diet and exercise.
Get inspired by these successstories that they share about
their clients.

Speaker 1 (58:43):
So I would love to talk success stories if you have
anyone kind of off the top ofyour head or someone that you
want to share.

Speaker 11 (58:51):
There was this guy that joins our program, think
last year, and he was a dairyfarmer, Okay, so naturally, his
dietary patterns were very highon animal products, right, Meats
and dairy.
So this person finds ourInstagram channel or our TikTok

(59:11):
and, well, he sees that we'rehelping people reverse insulin
resistance.
So he reaches out, he joins theprogram, but he tells me, Jose,
I don't know about thisplan-based approach, I don't
know if I want to follow it.
Is there something else that Icould do?
Like, hey, look, we have aproblem in our hands, right,
your A1C is above 12.
You were just put on acholesterol medication, on a

(59:33):
blood glucose medication, on ablood pressure medication and
another one to protect yourkidneys.
There's a problem at hand.
We have the solution.
Please go through this programand let's see what happens.
Right, Like, just promise methat you're going to do this for
the next three months.
He was like, okay, I can dothis, and his wife was there and
she's the one that promised methat he was going to do it.
So that's basically how itworked.

(59:54):
Now fast forward a month and hewas very, very compliant.
He will send us pictures everysingle day.
A month.
Down the line.
He starts feeling better.
So he goes to a differentphysician to get his blood work
redone.
The doctor was like well, Icannot really do an A1C right
now because you just got it donea month ago and it was 12.0,
but your fasting blood glucoseis much better, your cholesterol
problems are gone, Bloodpressure is back to normal.

(01:00:16):
I have to take you off allmedications.
So within a month he got up allmedications.
Of course, he stayed compliantfor the next two months.
His A1C came down to 5.6, from12 to 5.6 within three months,
and that was the best thing thatI have seen in my life.

Speaker 1 (01:00:34):
And just three months .
I mean he was seeing resultsafter one month, four weeks.

Speaker 11 (01:00:40):
There's people that see results within a couple of
days, so it's pretty wild.

Speaker 1 (01:00:43):
Wow, wow, and I imagine he is just, I would
imagine beyond grateful that hejoined the program, like
actually took the leap, becauseI'm sure it was a scary step.

Speaker 11 (01:00:53):
He definitely was grateful, left out two paragraph
testimonial in our communityforum, so he was very excited.

Speaker 1 (01:01:00):
That's awesome.
We love stories, so that'sgreat.

Speaker 14 (01:01:02):
This woman came to us because she, her doctor,
would not approve herimmigration visa and because of
her health, because her A1C wastoo high so we wouldn't approve
it and she had to.
He basically gave her threemonths to change her lifestyle,
change her diet, and then hewould reevaluate.
So she found our program andshe came into our program with

(01:01:26):
an A1C of about 7%, which istype two diabetes, and she did
our 10 week program.
So our program is spends 10weeks and throughout that time
she lost a total of 26 poundsand then when she went to get
her A1C level checked again, shehad gone from a 7% to a 5.9%,

(01:01:47):
which is a huge drop in A1C, andher fasting blood sugar went
from in the 200 to 100.
So she went back to her doctorand he approved her visa and she
was then allowed to leave thecountry in travel.
So that was just that was reallytouching and she felt like it
wasn't just about the visa.

(01:02:07):
Obviously she said that she wasso sluggish, always sleepy,
like she would never have theenergy to exercise.
She would always be craving,like not the healthiest foods,
and then after our program shesaid that all of her cravings
for Micaily processed foods kindof stopped.
She said like following more ofa plant-based diet was like the
easiest plan she had everfollowed and easiest thing to

(01:02:30):
ever stick with.
She had tried keto before.
She had tried just being in acalorie deficit before low carb
and nothing had worked.
And it wasn't until she joinedour program and did our method
that she felt healthier, herblood sugars dropped
significantly and just felt likeshe had developed a healthy
relationship with food again.

Speaker 1 (01:02:50):
Oh that's so incredible, I mean, and so it's
such an impact with just I'llsay just because I don't want to
undermine it, but like with herchanging her diet.
I mean incredible and I thinkkind of similar to what you were
saying.
When you go plant-based, it canbe, there can be so much
abundance and it can beincredibly liberating versus
restricting, which I thinksometimes it may look a little
restrictive, but it sounds likeeven with just the two stories

(01:03:12):
that you mentioned, I mean thiswas a life-changing decision for
them.
I mean this was a life-changingdecision for them.
I mean this was a life-changingdecision for them.
Thank you so much for listeningto the Plant Centered and
Thriving podcast today.
If you found this episodeinspiring, please share it with
a friend or post it on socialmedia and tag me so I can
personally say thank you.
Until next time, keep thriving.

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