More Power of Plant-Based Eating, with Dr. Jay Sutliffe

Guest: Jay Sutliffe, PhD, RD Director of the Prandial Lab and Professor of Nutrition and Foods at NAU. Description: Join Dr. DeRose as he interviews another expert who sheds additional light on the largely plant-based diets upon which many First Nation peoples thrived prior to European contact. For further information visit: www.NAU.edu

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to American, Indian and Alaskan Native Living, a program
designed to educate and inspire listeners throughout Indian Country. American
Indian and Alaskan Native Living is hosted by doctor David Deroz,
a board certified specialist in both internal medicine and preventive medicine.
Doctor Deroz has a wide range of experience with native

(00:25):
health issues, and he is here today to help you
learn more about your health. Here is doctor Deroz.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Welcome to American, Indian and Alaska Native Living on Doctor
David de Rose Today. We've got a fascinating show lined
up for you, and perhaps by way of introduction, it
involves a professor at a major American university who's in
the heart of Indian Country and who has been known
to step outside of his office door and shout out

(00:54):
a solution to many health problems. You're wondering what those
life changing words might be. Well, you're in the right place.
My guest today is doctor j Suttliff. Jay, it's great
to have you with us on today's show.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
Yeah, it's good to be here. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Jay. I introduce things with a rumor I've heard that
you've been known to stick your head out your door
and shout down the hall some words that are the
keys to disease reversal. Is this really true or is
it just some fabrication.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
No, it's absolutely true.

Speaker 4 (01:24):
It's a regular occurrence on my end of the campus here.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
So first of all, what campus are you on? And
then we want to hear what that rallying cry is.

Speaker 4 (01:32):
I am on the campus of Northern Arizona University and Flagstaff, Arizona,
a different part of Arizona than a lot of people experience.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
We're at seven thousand feet here.

Speaker 4 (01:42):
We have the majestic San Francisco Peaks just right outside
my office window here.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
So I'm in northern Arizona.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
It's a beautiful place. I've been up in your neck
of the woods. I know a lot of First Nation
peoples have roots in that part of Arizona, and hopefully
some of them are actually two tuning in today. You
are a full professor there at the university in what discipline?

Speaker 4 (02:07):
Okay, I've been at NEU for about fourteen years, my
fourteenth year at ANU, and I'm specifically in the Department
of Health Sciences, and my discipline is Nutrition and Foods
and Public health.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
So with that background, some folks might be starting to guess, well,
what does this guy shout out his door? What kind
of if he's got that kind of background, what is
what are the words that people who especially are in
proximity to you have heard multiple times?

Speaker 4 (02:35):
Well, the gaping hole in a lot of our research
and a lot of our are things that are going on.

Speaker 3 (02:41):
Here is the food.

Speaker 4 (02:43):
It's about the food as a healing modality in all
of our lifestyle aspects of health, wellness, mental health.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
A whole bit. So it's about the I call her,
it's the food. It's the food.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
Okay, fair enough. And what I love about that cry
coming from Arizona is years ago I was there in
your state and had the privilege of rubbing shoulders with
a lot of First Nation folks and was learning more
about the Hocome people who have roots there, you know,
predecessors of tahnah Atam and HeLa River peoples there, and

(03:20):
just hearing so much about the emphasis on food, how
they valued the Three Sisters. Kind of this almost I
don't want to say universal, because there's a number of
tribes that didn't really seem to have that ethic, but
so many from the northeast to the southwest that talked
about the three sisters, the corn, the beans, the squash,
and just that native wisdom that seemed to be grounded

(03:43):
in plant based nutrition. Tell us, I mean, I know
you work with all kinds of folks. I know you
work with First Nation peoples up there, But from your
perspective as you talk with people about nutrition, do you
find indigenous peoples resonating with that message of whole plant foods?

Speaker 3 (04:02):
Definitely segments of the population.

Speaker 4 (04:04):
I have a lot of Native First Nation students in
my classes, and it seems like maybe their parents are
grandparents are more in the traditional mindset and as far
as diet in lifestyle, and it seems like when the
students come to the campus, a large majority of them
are still on their cell phones like the rest of

(04:24):
the Western kids, and they're stopping at Taco Bell and
some of the fast food restaurants. They go home for
the traditions and the lifestyle and the food, but it
seems like when they step back off the reservation or
come back to campus, they blend right in with the
rest of them, with a lot of processed foods, a
lot of sugary drinks, and the lifestyle. As we'll get

(04:47):
into probably a little bit of about the blue zones,
how the distinctive behaviors and traditions that were so protective health,
protective of First Nations and Native people years ago. Really
the transition has been very cumbersome and challenging.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
No, it's a sad narrative, and of course it's not
the choice of First Nation peoples that they're in these environments.
But let's just step back a couple of steps and
try to make sure that my listeners know who you are.
Folks that are in nutrition circles, research circles, read publish literature.
They know the name of doctor J. Sutliffe. They know

(05:22):
about your lab, the prandial lab there at Northern Arizona University.
But let's go back long before that. And even though
you're known in nutrition circles for your emphasis on some
of these traditional lifestyle practices, the plant based eating, this
is not necessarily a normal trajectory for nutritionists. So how
did you get interested in studying the benefit of these

(05:45):
plant based diets?

Speaker 4 (05:46):
Okay, so I grew up in a typical Midwestern home
up in North Dakota, just Wow, Winnipeg, Manitoba, just south
of the Canadian border north Dakota, Minnesota borders. I grew
up in a typical Midwestern home where we had gardens
and my grandparents farmed and we lived in town, but
it was just a couple of miles outside of town

(06:06):
was the farm, and we'd go out there and hunt
and fish, and so I grew up like the typical
Midwestern kid did.

Speaker 3 (06:12):
Really, we didn't.

Speaker 4 (06:13):
Make much out about the food. We just ate basic
playing foods. Mom made food basically every day made at home.
Is a treat to go out those types of things occasionally.
And growing up, I was a pretty active kid and
outdoors and playing sports and things like that. And so
my grandpa drilled into my head that I needed to
get a formal college education. Did say what it would be,

(06:35):
and I thought, well, I'll do wildlife management or I'll
do landscape engineering.

Speaker 3 (06:41):
But I was I was a hockey player, and I
went to play first.

Speaker 4 (06:44):
I have to be honest. I went to play college hockey.
And when I got there, you got to, you know,
go back forty years and nutrition. You know, we didn't
have much labeling on packages and cereals and things like that.

Speaker 3 (06:57):
So we didn't know a lot.

Speaker 4 (06:58):
It wasn't a buzzword, but I thought there's got to
be something with food and maybe my sports performance.

Speaker 3 (07:03):
So I started Yeah.

Speaker 4 (07:05):
So I started pursuing that. I started looking at, well,
can I improve my athletic performance by what I'm eating?
And at the time, you know, I was eating basic
foods and different things.

Speaker 3 (07:15):
And so I.

Speaker 4 (07:16):
Took a couple of classes and nutrition and I knew
that that was the ticket for me.

Speaker 3 (07:20):
And soon after that, I figured.

Speaker 4 (07:22):
Well, I'm not going to make any money playing hockey,
and so I got a job in a health club
and started working with clients, got my professor a job
as they had nutrition consultant at the health club, and
all of us students would intern under our professor at
the health club. And I studied dietetics, so that was
my food nutrition dietetics technically the officer to doctor Deroz,

(07:45):
I have a degree.

Speaker 3 (07:45):
At home economics. Interesting, that's where nutrition was part at
the time.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
Oh yeah, exactly. No, I remember those days. So so
a lot of people would have just thought you were
just there to meet all the girls.

Speaker 4 (08:00):
Know, I tell people I was at a cohort of
twenty females and me the only graduated single, and I
didn't know if that was telling on me or what
that was. But I had to do a medical internship,
a nine month internship to become eligible to become a
registered dietitian to write the boards. And so I went
off to graduate school at the University of Nebraska, another

(08:22):
Midwest you know, agricultural college and around a lot of
dairy and a lot of cattle and different things. So
I was even applying for jobs with the Nebraska Beef Council,
those types of jobs, and I was getting done with
my master's degree in my dietetic internship were combined, and

(08:43):
I was just about ready to graduate, and I thought, well,
what am I going to tell my clients?

Speaker 3 (08:48):
You know, it was always about the carbs.

Speaker 4 (08:51):
It was what about carbohydrates, and it was about protein
and fat, all about the macronutrients, and you just had
to just get the right formula that twenty and thirty
percent that and higher this and lower that. And at
the time I was really going through also a kind
of a personal exploration in my faith life. Well, you know,

(09:12):
you're coming out of college and think about, you know,
am I getting ever get married?

Speaker 3 (09:16):
Am I going to have a family.

Speaker 4 (09:18):
So I was just kind of evaluating all aspects of
my life. And so people had shared some different books
with me, and I was studying different things, and I
started learning about the concept.

Speaker 3 (09:27):
Of clean and unclean foods, what that meant.

Speaker 4 (09:31):
And so I started looking at how animals, what their
food supply was, what's an animal eat that we're eating?
And when you look at some of what we're quote
and called unclean foods like the bottom feeders of the
of the rivers and stuff and catfish and I'd fished
catfish before and at those types of things, and you
start looking at barnyard animals and I started looking at

(09:51):
what were the unclean foods there? Who are the scavengers there?
And so I started cleaning my diet up, so to speak.

Speaker 2 (09:57):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (09:58):
Yeah, So that was kind of the introduction to that.

Speaker 4 (10:02):
And then about that time, Dean Ornish, doctor Dean Ornane
Sure had dropped out of med school for a year
to do the Comprehensive Cardiovascular.

Speaker 2 (10:12):
Trial, yeah, lifestyle heart trial.

Speaker 4 (10:13):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, the landmark back in the seventies eighties.

Speaker 3 (10:17):
And so uh huh.

Speaker 4 (10:18):
I started reading some of his material and as you know,
his was a you know unprocessed plant based diet for
reversing heart disease.

Speaker 3 (10:27):
And there was the fair amount of that in my
family tree. Wow, well is there some proof to this?

Speaker 4 (10:32):
And I was looking at what I was doing, and
I thought, you know what, I'm going to try that
for thirty days.

Speaker 3 (10:37):
I was going to do.

Speaker 4 (10:39):
I was going to do a thirty day trial with
one research participant myself.

Speaker 2 (10:44):
Now, just let's stop. As a researcher, we always like
to know what the baseline characteristics are before we hear
about the intervention. So what were you eating before this,
and how did you change your diet?

Speaker 4 (10:55):
Okay, So I had started out with, you know, fair
amount of produce from the garden. But I was still
into the all that was. You know, when you're an athlete,
you're in college. I got a meal card, even though
I lived off campus. I went about a meal pass.
I could go to the all you can eat salad bar,
food bar three times a day. Okay, okay, typical university food,

(11:16):
lots of animal products and lots of dairy.

Speaker 3 (11:19):
I was really into dairy.

Speaker 2 (11:21):
Okay, well times a day.

Speaker 4 (11:23):
And so you know, it was a contest. We would
go in there as athletes and when they call it
an all you can eat. That tells a guy like
me that it's a contest.

Speaker 2 (11:32):
Okay, okay, fair enough.

Speaker 5 (11:34):
But that's my baseline, and that was creeping along and
I had cut out quote unquote unclean foods, which you know,
different types of fish and seafood and different types of
scavenger animal foods.

Speaker 3 (11:48):
And that's basically where I's at.

Speaker 2 (11:49):
Maybe we should just pause here because some folks have
heard this concept. Of course, the clean and unclean foods.
This goes all the way back to the ancient Middle
Eastern scriptures right where they're talking about HIGs being on
clean and fish without fins and scales, and you know
you didn't need any camel or mice or anything like that.
Those are all on clean. We get the picture, right,

(12:10):
that's correct. Okay, okay, So you're eating animal products, plenty
of dairy, yeah, lots of produce too, and you get
this vision from Dean Orangish. You're gonna try this basically Orangish,
I know at the time. I think he may have
allowed a little skim milk or something, I think in
that first study, but you're gonna go pretty much totally

(12:30):
plant based.

Speaker 3 (12:31):
Is that what you did you know, and this is
nineteen ninety one, ninety two somewhere in there.

Speaker 2 (12:36):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (12:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (12:37):
It wasn't like you could pull into your local grocery
store and get some plant based milk and I'm going
I'm going for a gallon pretty much a day of milk.

Speaker 3 (12:46):
But I you know, I had transferred from growing up
with whole milk.

Speaker 4 (12:50):
I was now on skim milk, okay, skinless boneless chicken.
So I was following the guidelines that I was studying
in my dietetic education. I was I was probably on
a healthy end of that. So I didn't have any
I didn't have any health complications. They didn't have any
metabolic disorders those types of things.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
Right, You're healthy, but just want to try this out?
See was going to make any difference?

Speaker 3 (13:14):
Yeah, I thought, well.

Speaker 4 (13:14):
What difference am I going to feel with this Orangge
program in thirty days. I'll give it a shot, and
if this is something that I should teach my clients.

Speaker 3 (13:22):
I was only looking professionally first, to be honest with you,
I wanted to see its like on me so.

Speaker 4 (13:27):
I could teach my clients about whatever I felt was
the best ideal diet.

Speaker 2 (13:31):
So you got our interests. We're wanting to hear. First
of all, I think I'm interested in hearing just how
the diet was. I mean, for the first few days,
for the first week, did you start saying, boy, do
I got to keep doing this? Was it a struggle?

Speaker 3 (13:44):
Well, that's a great question, because you know, I really
didn't know what I was doing. I went to a
health seminar.

Speaker 4 (13:49):
And I think that's what a lot of times people
don't do, is that they make this wholesale change overnight
m hm, and they don't really plan and prepare for it.
So if you're if you're gonna take something out, if
I was taking I need all these foods out of
my diet, what am I going to put in there?

Speaker 3 (14:02):
So united would do here? I am it's kind of embarrassing.

Speaker 4 (14:05):
I was going to be a registered dietitian and I
tell you, I'll tell you about the challenges there.

Speaker 2 (14:10):
Okay, you have definitely got my interest. I'm sure you
got many of our listener's interest. And we want to
hear about the first research study that doctor J. Suttlifted.
It's on himself. Now, maybe I'm overstating it. Maybe you
did some other research projects before that, but he is
going to stick by because I don't know the conclusion
of this story. I know he's still alive because he's

(14:31):
my guest today. And if you think that's pushing an envelope,
you definitely got to hear the story because it's coming up.
I'm doctor David Durose. The show is American Indian and
the Laska Native Living. We've got a lot more coming
up in today's episode. Don't go away more right after this.

Speaker 1 (14:52):
Today's broadcast has been pre recorded. However, if you have
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(15:14):
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We'll be right back after this.

Speaker 6 (15:25):
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(15:46):
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Speaker 7 (15:56):
When Jim died, I wondered if I would be able
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Once I was approved, the USDA's Farm Service Agency helped
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have to sell, and I can pass the farm down
to my kids the way Jim's dad passed it down

(16:17):
to him. I know he'd liked that.

Speaker 8 (16:19):
Contact your local USDA Service Center or visit www dot
FSA dot USDA dot gov.

Speaker 9 (16:26):
Social Security is with you through life's journey from birth
to retirement. As your life changes year to year.

Speaker 3 (16:33):
So do your needs.

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Speaker 1 (17:29):
You're listening to doctor David Deurose on American, Indian and
Alaska Native Living. Your comments and questions are welcome. Call
now at one eight hundred seven seventy five. Hope, that's
one eight hundred seven seven five four six seventy three.
Here again is doctor Deuroz.

Speaker 2 (17:47):
Welcome back to American, Indian and Alaska Native Living. I'm
doctor David Deurose. My guest today is Jay Sutleff, PhD
and registered dietitian. He's the director of the Prandial Lab
and Professor of Nutrition and Foods at Northern Arizona University,
and I've been interested to learn some of the backstory
on his research career and Jay, just for the record

(18:10):
and perhaps even for the benefit of our listeners, as
you've been telling about your background, I can relate me
and my wife. Our roots are also Midwest Dakota, so
my wife born in the Black Hills and I was
born in Chicago. I actually ended up doing some of
my early educational work in Minnesota, Carlton College there outside

(18:30):
of the Twin Cities in Minnesota, so we kind of
know the lay of the land up there, and like
a lot of folks who have some roots up there,
I had my day on the ice rinks as well
playing hockey. I can tell already that you are a
much more serious hockey player than me When I was
playing intramural hockey in Minnesota. You were with the big
guys there, So I don't know if you don't look

(18:52):
any worse for the wear For those who are listening
in today, we actually record many of our radio shows
on zoom, so I'm actually looking at Jay and it
looks like he's still got all his teeth and like
some of the hockey players that I knew over the years.
So anyway, Jay, I know it looks could be deceiving.
You don't have to give any confessions here, but I'm
definitely interested in this story. So you're getting your nutrition training,

(19:16):
you hear about the benefits of plant based eating. Many
of my listeners, if they are aware of some of
the history of plant based nutrition research, kind of cutting
edge stuff. Doctor Dean Ornish, nineteen ninety I believe it
was the journal Lancet the Lifestyle Hard Trial, showing that
you could reverse blockages and hard arteries with a plant

(19:37):
based diet and a comprehensive lifestyle program that included a
variety of components. But as you mentioned earlier, Jay, it's
about the food. That was a huge part of it.
So you're going to embark on this program, but we
were kind of getting more of the backstory. You said, Hey,
I'm not going to just go into this willy nilly.
Before you went on this thirty day challenge, did you
try to learn what you needed to do differently? First?

Speaker 3 (19:58):
Yeah, I did do that.

Speaker 4 (20:00):
I went to a weekend hell seminar that included the
cooking component, which is even with dieticians, a lot of
us go into this nutrition field and we're excited about
the metabolic components and the nutrient components, and some of
us are allergic to the kitchen.

Speaker 3 (20:17):
A lot of my colleagues they didn't want anything to
do with.

Speaker 4 (20:19):
The food service or the kitchen component, and I thought, well,
I'd better go get a few culinary skills. So I
got a little culinary skills and things like that. And
I'm kind of embarrassed, but when I started the thirty
day experiment, I thought, what am I going to eat?

Speaker 10 (20:32):
If?

Speaker 4 (20:32):
If you're taking something out of your diet, what are
you going to fill that void with?

Speaker 3 (20:36):
I would just go down.

Speaker 4 (20:37):
I would go into the grocery stores in Omaha, Nebraskas,
and I would just spend time in the Proviuce Island,
thinking I should know what this is or how to
prepare to prepare it, but I don't, And I would
just pick it up and take it home and I
would try to kick it again. I was just cooking
for myself and preparing skills for myself. That so it
wasn't a huge deal to adjust and that that's a

(20:58):
big component. Maybe we'll talk about that about your social
circles and people in your home. So for thirty days,
I thought I could do this for thirty days and
then I'll go back to you know, I'll slowly bring
in my skinless, boneless chicken, and I'll bring in some
skim milk, and I'll gravitate. So, as I was saying previously,
I was a big dairy guy. I really liked that

(21:18):
creamy texture, and I thought.

Speaker 3 (21:20):
What am I going to do?

Speaker 4 (21:20):
And you couldn't pull into the local grocery stores and
buy a plant based milk.

Speaker 3 (21:25):
And so there was a lady.

Speaker 4 (21:26):
In Ralston, Nebraska, just outside Omaha. You had to go
down the alley and take her right, knock on the door.
She had little health food store out of the back
of her house and she baked bread there and I
would go buy my milk.

Speaker 3 (21:40):
I almost feel like it was like an illegal.

Speaker 4 (21:42):
Transition, driving down the third house on the left and
all that kind of And so at the end of
the thirty days, I thought, huh, I suddenly realized my
clothes were fitting a lot looser.

Speaker 3 (21:54):
And I did not go after this for a weight loss.

Speaker 4 (21:58):
I was just going after it to how I I feel,
you know, clarity of mind. And again, like I said earlier,
I didn't have any complications. But the end of the
thirty days, I was a lot leaner, and I thought, well,
that was pretty good. And I felt, well, I'm sleeping
a little bit better, and sometimes I thought I didn't
sleep poorly, but I thought, I've got mental clarity, and

(22:19):
so I said, I'll do it for another thirty days, okay,
then another thirty days, and another thirty days, and just
five six days ago I started another thirty days.

Speaker 2 (22:28):
WHOA.

Speaker 3 (22:29):
I just kept going with it.

Speaker 4 (22:31):
Because I thought, this is really dynamite and I feel fantastic.

Speaker 2 (22:35):
That is quite a testimony. And this is from somebody
who's not just your average lay person. You're assessing this
from the standpoint of nutritional adequacy and all that. Was
that a stretch too? Were you a little at that point?
You know, there was you know, questions, weren't there about
whether you'd be missing some things in your diet?

Speaker 3 (22:54):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (22:55):
In fact, I don't even know if we covered it
much in my education about plant based diets or as
they called them back then, vegetarian diets. We didn't spend
much time on I don't remember covering more than a
day on it, because you know, it was supposed to
be so limited. Whenever you leave out food groups, it's
suspect and you really have to be concerned about missing
nutrients and things like that.

Speaker 3 (23:16):
What was I started diving into it, and then I
started reading, you.

Speaker 4 (23:19):
Know, some much to doctor John McDougall's materials, and then
I discovered doctor Joel Furman's materials, and I started looking
at you know, really there's buried research in the research
journals back into the forties and fifties about really how
the adequate components are maybe not in the Western world,
but more you know, even when you really look at

(23:40):
really basic diets from years ago, even with First Nation people,
I mean that's the substance of the diet with very
small amounts of animal products.

Speaker 2 (23:50):
It really is amazing. Uh. I was just looking again,
I was speaking to an audience about this. There's a
book that was published, Wow, it was a long time ago.
It was called Diabetes as a Disease of Civilization, and
one of the chapters was written by a Native I
think actually Navajo researcher, and she was basically sharing the

(24:12):
traditions throughout not just Navajo Nation, but throughout the many
First Nation peoples, like you mentioned Jay, largely plant based diets.
And you go back and you look at some of
these records from early Europeans who met Native Americans and
they're writing about these vast fields of cultivated produce. And
we're not just talking the East Coast we're talking the Midwest,

(24:35):
we're talking the Southwest. Have you ever seen these aerial
older aerial photographs that show the remnants of irrigation canals
throughout the Sonoran Desert. Have you ever seen those pictures.

Speaker 3 (24:47):
Just just a couple of them. Yeah, exactly, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (24:49):
I mean it's amazing to think people say, oh, well,
how could Native Americans have had much plant based eating,
and you know in Arizona, Well, if they were irreg
large tracts of land before Europeans started diverting all the water,
it's just an amazing story. So, yes, you're seeing this
evidence in your own life. You're diving into the literature,

(25:11):
You're seeing how there's this solid basis, you know, pointings
in the direction of more plant based eating, and you
really have become known for that kind of research and
research circle. So how did that all go from a
personal conviction to strong research interest.

Speaker 4 (25:26):
Well, soon after my transformation of realization of really going
back to basic foods. My point was at that time
it was a realization that people need to have access
to food, prepared, whole food, plant based diet inaccessible and
so I felt the impression that I needed to start
a restaurant in a bakery.

Speaker 2 (25:47):
No way, are you serious?

Speaker 4 (25:49):
Yeah, yeah, really I was single at the time, and
suddenly soon after that, I started doing some community seminars
with a friend of mine who was a nursing professor
at the University of North Dkota, and we started doing
blood draws and then we do like a three week intervention,
you know, we used the word intervention loosely seminar. We
did a three seminar where we would collect blood draws.

(26:11):
At the beginning, we would do body fat and she
was a nursing professor, so we'd set up stations and
people would go around to these stations at the beginning
and at the end, and in the middle we would
lecture on and talk about food preparation and the disease process.

Speaker 3 (26:25):
And we'd always have a big banquet.

Speaker 4 (26:27):
At the end of how this foot would taste and
how we give recipes. And the gal that we contacted
that I felt I could quote unquote trust with my recipes.

Speaker 3 (26:40):
Was a local.

Speaker 4 (26:41):
Person as well, and soon after that we got talking
and she became my business partner and then eventually my wife.

Speaker 2 (26:47):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (26:47):
We started a restaurant bakery health food store in Grand Forks,
North Dakota. Right in the middle of the mecca of health.

Speaker 2 (26:56):
Oh my, that's amazing.

Speaker 3 (26:58):
So that was my hometown and I felt like giving back.
We did restaurants.

Speaker 4 (27:02):
We ended up having three different restaurants with bakeries and
things like that. It was through that process where I
saw people coming in and we would do weekend seminars
and weekend and evening cooking classes. I saw the changes
people were taking and making. And we got affiliated with
a health retreat center and the Black Hills called the
Black Hills Health Mexication Center, and we saw people come

(27:23):
in in this little time is three weeks. We'd see
people basically de prescribed their diabetic medication, their cardiovascular medications,
and things like that. When you give a body the
proper setting and nutrients and stress reduction, the wonderful mechanism
of the body will heal itself.

Speaker 2 (27:42):
Love it, love it.

Speaker 3 (27:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (27:44):
And so after working there for a while, I thought,
I need to take this to the world. I want
to go to a college campus and train the next generation,
in the next generation of healthcare providers so they can
see firstthand what impact they can have getting an education.
I figured, if I had four.

Speaker 3 (28:01):
Years with students, uh huh, at least.

Speaker 4 (28:03):
Two years or maybe four years of them coming through
a degree process, and I could have them on my
research team and we would do practical application and they
would see firsthand, they would grab this like I did,
and then they would go on and make their career
doing the.

Speaker 3 (28:19):
Same thing I was doing.

Speaker 2 (28:21):
I love the story. I love the story. So this
is an amazing background Doctor J. Sutliffe. For those of
you just joining us, he's not a stranger in nutrition
research circles, PhD, Registered Dietitian, Professor of Nutrition and Foods
at Northern Arizona University. We're going to be looking at
some very practical aspects of his research that can impact you.

(28:43):
Not just an amazing life story, but something that can
change your life story. That's coming up in the second
half of today's edition of American Indian and Alaska Native Living.
I'm doctor David Duroz. We've got a lot more to come.
Stay by, We'll be right back after this.

Speaker 1 (29:02):
American Indian and Alaska Native Living will continue in a moment.
If you have questions or comments about today's pre recorded broadcast,
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To learn more about how you can.

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Assist law enforcement, visit Nationalpolice dot org. That's Nationalpolice dot Org.

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(30:19):
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(30:42):
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Speaker 1 (31:29):
You're listening to doctor David Deurouse on American, Indian and
Alaska Native Living. Your comments and questions are welcome. Call
now at one eight hundred seven seventy five hope. That's
one eight hundred seven seven five four six seventy three.
Here again is doctor deurose.

Speaker 2 (31:47):
Welcome back to the second half of today's edition of
American Indian and Alaska Native Living. I'm doctor David Durose
I'm your host. My guest today doctor J. Suttliff. He's
a PhD and registered aetitian. He is the director of
the Prandial Lab at Northern Arizona University. He's also a
professor of Nutrition and Foods there. And before we get

(32:10):
any more into the story, Jam, I just love the
life history, the window on how you got into nutrition research.
Obviously you picked up your PhD along the way. Tell
us a little bit though about the prandial lab. Folks
hear that. I mean, if they're medical, they say, oh,
prandial that refers to meal time. But I think there's
more to the name than just that.

Speaker 4 (32:30):
Yeah, whenever you have a quote unquote research lab, people
think it's based with beakers and glog goggles on and
face mask and your type outs and things like that. Well,
my lab, so to speak, is a mobile lab where
we go into the community and on the campus and
into different areas of the community where we do what's
called plant rich and nutrient dance interventions for active lifestyles.

Speaker 3 (32:55):
And that basically an.

Speaker 4 (32:56):
Acronym prandial and a colleague of min is acronym specialist
and he said, that's what.

Speaker 3 (33:01):
You need to call your lab. So just as say
anything to do.

Speaker 4 (33:04):
And I involve my students colleagues. We go out and
we do blood draws and interventions and things like that.
We do pre and post testing, and we just got
done doing one.

Speaker 3 (33:15):
Two weeks ago.

Speaker 2 (33:16):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (33:16):
Where we take a lot of it is employee based,
whether it's from the hospital here or what's from employees
here at the NAU or.

Speaker 3 (33:23):
People from the community.

Speaker 4 (33:25):
We want to go in and try to in a
sense help them and assist them and lifestyle change.

Speaker 2 (33:30):
Excellent, excellent. I know. One of the things that's gotten
a lot of folks interested in looking more at comprehensive
lifestyle has been this research that has come out under
the heading of blue zones. Now, those who are regular
listeners on our show have heard some of my other
guests speak about blue zones. But for those who may

(33:51):
heard the term, maybe they've never heard it. What just
is a blue zone?

Speaker 3 (33:55):
Okay?

Speaker 4 (33:56):
Yeah, So back in two thousand and five, I was
teaching in Shattered Nebraska, Western Nebraska, and a colleague of
mine walked across the hallway and said to me, have
you seen this yet? It was a copy of the
National Geographic Magazine and on the cover it said the
Secrets of Living Longer.

Speaker 3 (34:14):
And Dan Buttner, a world explorer, and his brother went around.

Speaker 4 (34:19):
And they discovered these pockets of people in different regions
in the world where they were living with vitality into
their hundredth year, and they call them centenarians. And they
teamed up with some demographers, people studying demographics and things
like that, epidemiologists, and my understanding I.

Speaker 3 (34:37):
Was thought, well, why do they call them blue zones.

Speaker 4 (34:39):
Well, these demographers would have these big maps on the
wall and they putting a dot there in birth and
death lifespan.

Speaker 3 (34:46):
They were looking and they were finding pockets of people
that were.

Speaker 4 (34:49):
Living to be one hundred years old with vitality, and
they put a dot on the board, and all of
a sudden then they would they would take a big
blue magic marker and.

Speaker 3 (34:58):
They would circle those zones. This is my understanding. They
would circle those zones and it was a blue marker,
and they circled them. They called them blue zones.

Speaker 4 (35:06):
And so they suddenly found there was three clusters in
the world. First one was Sardinia, Italy, the little island
off of the main land of Italy in Europe. There
and then another one was in Okinawa, Japan. And the
third one of all places was in North America, United States,
on the West coast in Lo Lolinda, California. And they

(35:28):
found these pockets of people who were living to be
one hundred years old with vitality. And then they started
looking at, well, what do they have in common? Obviously
they're from very different genetic genes. You get Europeans, you
have Asians, and you have you know, Western Americans, and
they suddenly realized they'd had a lot of lifestyle factors
in common, and nutritionists and dietitian I really found that

(35:53):
fascinating because the dietary component was is huge, the huge
component of why they feel the these populations were living
so long and so well, And obviously it had to
do with social aspects of spiritual aspects. I mean, coming
from very different faith communities, very different social dynamics, but
living with vitality. And it's interesting, you know, I've been

(36:15):
trained to tell people you need to go to the gym.

Speaker 13 (36:17):
This many days a week for this many minutes. You
have to eat this many servings of this and this
many grams of that. A lot of these blue zone
people's they're just living life huh. They're just living life
very simply. And then they discovered since then two more
blue zones. One happens to being Ikaria, Greece, so another
European one, and then another one in Central America and

(36:40):
Costa Rica. So they've discovered these zones, and what they've
really found is that it's the.

Speaker 4 (36:45):
Complete package deal of the lifestyle with a strong nutrition component,
which I grab on to it. It's ironically my wife
grew up, was born at Lomlendus Sanitarium.

Speaker 3 (36:57):
Back in the day.

Speaker 4 (36:58):
So that's why I had another vest injury because I
call my wife Blue Zone Chloe. She grew the Blue
zone and she didn't know she was in a blue zone.

Speaker 2 (37:07):
A good deal.

Speaker 4 (37:08):
She's living life, living life and living a simple life.
And it's ironic that here in Flagstaff I met a
real good friend of mine, now Tony, and he's a
novel ho person, and he said that growing up, there
was a word in the Novajo language and I don't
know how to pronounce it. It says live to be
one hundred and two years old. Huh, And so that's

(37:29):
kind of ironic. And so his goal was when he
discovered the Blue Zone National Geographic and things like that.

Speaker 3 (37:35):
That's how I crossed paths with him.

Speaker 4 (37:37):
And we're still working on the idea of implementing different
types of lifestyles back into the Novajo Nation here just
outside flag Staff and trying to slowly bring back the
old Noveljole ways into the current generation and try to
create again a blue zone.

Speaker 3 (37:55):
And ironically, I'm supposed to have a meeting in a
week or two.

Speaker 4 (37:58):
The former Noveljo Nation president Jonathan Nez is really wanting
to push this as well. He really thinks of getting
back to the lifestyle of the traditional ways is the
way to go as far as longevity, the diabetes and
different things like that.

Speaker 2 (38:15):
I love the history, I mean throughout Indian country. It's
fascinating as I talk with people from multiple tribes, the history,
the oral history is no diabetes prior to European contact.
And you know, you've got a fascinating partnership there and
your general neck of the woods there in the Phoenix area,
where there's data going back over one hundred years to

(38:36):
folks on the Heale River Reservation with virtually no diabetes.
I mean, I think I think the oldest data I've
seen goes back around nineteen hundred and I think there's
one case out of four thousand people with diabetes. So
even in the more recent quote unquote history, seeing this
resilience of Native people when it comes to diabetes. But

(38:58):
then compare that with where we're at today, and I
think a lot of my listeners know that there's been
some incredible strides made in Indian country, especially native researchers,
native health professionals, helping to turn back some of the
clock on diabetes. You're seeing some very good things in
Indian country. But yeah, a lot of folks, like the
Navajo friend you mentioned, saying we need to return to

(39:20):
our native roots. So let's pick up on that theme
because you know, we've been talking a bit about this
plant based eating. Was that really a part of the
Blue zone diets? Were these populations eating lots of plant foods?

Speaker 3 (39:34):
Yes?

Speaker 4 (39:34):
Yeah, and so it's plant predominant, we wouldn't necessarily label
them as vegans.

Speaker 3 (39:39):
You know, totl of.

Speaker 4 (39:40):
Plant based but predominantly unprocessed foods. And the big one
seem to be legends are beans, peas, lentils, those types
of things, you know, at least a half a cup
to a cup of days and you're right away, we
want to measure everything and talk about grams, and we're like,
just eat some beans every day, you know, get some grapes,
get some grapes in your diet and things like that,

(40:01):
and just eat greens right from the land and.

Speaker 3 (40:06):
Reduce your stress, get out and move around.

Speaker 4 (40:09):
Like I was saying, I mean, we used to tell
people you have to exercise this many minutes at this
your heart rate and things like that.

Speaker 3 (40:14):
People weren't joining health clubs in these blue zones per se.

Speaker 4 (40:17):
Right, they're active, and they're lifting stuff, and they're moving
and they're cardivationally fit.

Speaker 3 (40:22):
And I would say too that most of them are
in more temperate climate. They're not extreme climate.

Speaker 4 (40:29):
But their family connections are unreal too. The family connections
and the friendship and the social connection and slowing down
and sharing meals with people and those types of things.

Speaker 2 (40:40):
Well, I know one thing that's getting folks attention. You know,
you mentioned this common factor between your own lifestyle journey
and these blue zones, and that was more plant based diet,
and you observed that you were trimming down some And
I know that's a topic that's getting a lot of
interest today. Why would more plant based eating actually help

(41:03):
someone in that department.

Speaker 3 (41:04):
You know.

Speaker 4 (41:05):
The big thing that I'm finding here too, is that
we tend to eat what we call a calorie dense diet,
typically processed foods.

Speaker 3 (41:13):
You get more calories per bite.

Speaker 4 (41:16):
And you know a lot of people will focus on
does this have carbohydrates, does this have fat? And how
much protein in there? And I've really seen through the
you know, thirty some years that I've been studying nutritiona
in forty years, I guess is that really it comes
back down to nutrient density.

Speaker 3 (41:32):
How many nutrients are you getting per bite?

Speaker 4 (41:34):
You know, the phytochemicals, the antioxidants, the colorful rich foods
is really where you get the greatest bang for your buck.
And so when you start looking at it, and the
research that we've done that if a person can have
a big, green, leafy, green leafy salad every day, you know,
dark greens also adding in the cabbage component in the

(41:56):
cruciferous vegetables, and you know, we talked a lot about
fruits and vegetables and things like that, and people say, yeah, yeah,
And then you start looking at the berry content of
the diet, and you start looking at the seed content
of the diet colleague of mine, my research partner is
doctor Joe Furman, and he coined the phrase g bombs Greens, beans, onions, mushrooms, berries,

(42:19):
and seeds. So you try to get a T bomb
every day and we do cooking classes where you do
G bomb recipes and so really we've pivoted the focus
away from the macronutrients to carbohydrate, the protein and the fat,
and we focus more on the micronutrient density of the diet.

Speaker 3 (42:37):
And so when you start.

Speaker 4 (42:38):
Doing that, the body just naturally gravitates to a body weight,
in a body fat level that you would operate best
for your genetic makeup.

Speaker 2 (42:48):
I love that perspective on weight, you know, rather than
looking at arbitrary numbers, basically saying, hey, start living a
more optimal lifestyle and your weight will equilibrate at what
is ideal based on your X, your early life history,
whatever determinants are there. So I love that picture, and
that's what you're seeing in your research.

Speaker 3 (43:06):
I'm understanding absolutely.

Speaker 4 (43:08):
Yeah, people always want us to weigh every week like
we do an eight week a seminar intervention or a
twelve week or whatever length we're doing.

Speaker 3 (43:16):
People are keep saying, are we going to weigh every
week when we come in, We're.

Speaker 4 (43:18):
Like, no, your body's going to adjust and gravitate to
up or down or where it needs to be. And
really we're looking at really how much visceral fat we store,
you know, right around the belt line. And that's kind
of that that fat you can't really pinch. It's kind
of underneath the surface, you know. We've got the subcutaneous
fat like a submarine, just underneath the surface, and then

(43:39):
we've got the visceral fat that that's around our vital organs.
And literally, just two weeks ago week finished a four
week study. I'm teaching an undergraduate class in nutrition research,
and I thought, rather than talk.

Speaker 3 (43:52):
About the theories of research, let's actually go out and
do it. Oh wow, And students got excited.

Speaker 4 (43:57):
And we have a plant based group that meets once
a month in town here, and so we took people
from there and friends they had, and we looked at
just going nutrient dance foods, and we had a machine
that we could measure the visceral fat content and it's
dramatically coming down, So their risk factors are dramatically coming down,
and eating rich foods are not rich foods, but just

(44:19):
eating very plentiful amounts of foods and just eating and
enjoying and not weighing and counting.

Speaker 3 (44:26):
Carbs and all these grams of fat.

Speaker 4 (44:29):
Just eating whole foods, unprocessed foods and just enjoying them
and changing the taste buds.

Speaker 2 (44:36):
Wonderful stuff. What we're talking about here powerful message that's
talking about disease reversal, helping people trim down. We want
to talk more about some of the practical aspects of
this and talk about some of the challenges that people
might face if they try to embark on that same
journey that you did, Doctor Suttliffe. I'm doctor David Duroz.
Doctor J. Suttliffe is my guest. We're speaking about the

(44:58):
power of plant based nutrition making a difference in your
life and the life of those you care about. Our
final segment will be focused on just that practical considerations,
other things you may want to think in terms of
if you've got other lifestyle challenges, other health challenges, might
a dietary change be something special for you. That's all
coming up in our final segment. Don't go away.

Speaker 1 (45:23):
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We'll be right back after this.

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Speaker 1 (47:44):
You're listening to doctor David Derouse on American, Indian and
Alaska Native Living. Your comments and questions are welcome. Call
now at one eight hundred seven seven five hope, that's
one eight hundred seven seven five four six seventy three.
Here again is doctor Derouse.

Speaker 2 (48:02):
Welcome back for our final segment of American, Indian and
Alaska Native Living. I'm doctor David DeRose, doctor J. Sutliffe.
He is my guest if you're just joining us. He's
a PhD and registered dietitian. He's the director of the
Prandial Lab and Professor of Nutrition and Foods at Northern
Arizona University. Jay has been really great to be dialoguing

(48:24):
with you. We've been en learning about your own life
journey that's impressed you with the power of plant based eating.
Now doing research on those topics, you know, one of
the issues that comes up a lot in my work
as an internal medicine specialist. I still spend a little
bit of time in the clinic each week, and I

(48:45):
have a lot of folks who are struggling with substances,
and this is a big issue in just about every demographic.
It's not, of course, a native issue specifically, although people
throughout Indian country of course are affected. Just like every
other population segment. And one of the questions that I
think a lot of people are asking is does you

(49:06):
know a more plant based diet, you know, hold any
promise if someone's trying to break free of alcohol or
addictive drugs. Do we have any insight into that?

Speaker 3 (49:18):
Well, it's interesting.

Speaker 4 (49:19):
We did do a study with a treatment center down
in Austin, Texas a few years ago with a graduate
student I have, and what we found there is we
offered a complete whole food plant based diet to different
segments of the treatment audience there. And what we found there,
even though the numbers were kind of small because COVID

(49:40):
hit during that time and so forth, was a little
bit complicated. But from our own personal research, we found
that putting people on a nutrient dance plant rich diet,
a real nutrient dance, we find that a lot of
people that are involved in the substance use tend to
be nutrient deficient. And so we started providing the proper
nutrients for the brain function and for the whole metabolic

(50:03):
system in the body, that seems like inflammatory markers came
down and it became what we call neuroprotective huh where
we felt like the brain processes with the omega three
fatty acids coming from the greens and the walnuts and
the flax seeds and different things like that, it seems
like we built up that internal mechanism with the body.
It also brought down the inflammatory markers. And the thing

(50:25):
you'll find out too, as you know, doctor DeRose, is
that it's a low stimulant diet, and so these reward
systems in the braining, and specifically the dopamine reward system
is brought down to a more manageable level. And when
you're not using heavily processed foods and sweeteners and things
like that, it helps balance out blood sugar levels neuroprotective

(50:48):
factors and then.

Speaker 3 (50:49):
Also has to do with that reward system.

Speaker 4 (50:52):
And so we found that really it could be helpful
as a major component in addition to counseling.

Speaker 3 (50:58):
And therapy and things like that.

Speaker 4 (50:59):
Is the dietary component inflammatory in nutrient dense foods.

Speaker 2 (51:04):
So in that preliminary study, you were really looking at
markers that indicated that this theoretically would be of benefit
long term. But it wasn't like you followed these people
for five years and found they were less likely to
go back to substance use or anything like that.

Speaker 4 (51:18):
No, and the major the funding agency for the project,
had gone through that process himself and is now taking
that further himself, Adam said, And we just did a
pilot and it kind of it didn't turn out the
way we wanted to as far as length of time
because of the COVID there were patients weren't coming in
as much. And then I've looked at other people's work

(51:39):
too as well, and it just seems like when you
get people proper nutrients and you bring the inflammatory markers down,
specifically the high sensitivity sactive protein marker in the blood
and different things like that, and you basically balance out
and you're not doing the blood sugar control seems to
be a huge component too, So I see people who

(52:00):
are not in good blood sugar management and maybe pre
diabetic or insulin resistant that that gets them into that
cycle too. And there's it seems like a cluster of
people with substance abuse and poor metabolic control. The processed
food seems to really get them on that roller coaster ride.

(52:22):
So when you stabilize that with the whole foods, it
seems to be positioning people for a better outcome as
far as substance use tremendous.

Speaker 2 (52:31):
Well, let's just talk about some of the most practical
stuff at the end here. So folks have been listening,
if they haven't heard the message already, eating more of
these whole plant foods doesn't mean they have to just
eat the broccoli out of the garden raw. They can
use it in recipes and things, right, that's right.

Speaker 4 (52:48):
Yeah, So we think personally, what we've seen in our
studies is that the hardest meal of the day a
lot of times is the midday meal. And so we're
looking at if someone could pack a green leafy salad
and then throw it in there. Some I like to
throw in chickpeas. I like to throw other types of
legumes or beans, whatever, or maybe a salad wrap in
a wrap like a burrito, so to speak, putting your

(53:10):
britles in there and stabilizing the blood shugers. Obviously breakfast
is important too, but typically breakfast in the end of
the day. If people are eating a three meal pattern
like that, those are a little bit more well easily
prepared by the middle of the day.

Speaker 3 (53:24):
Being able to pack a lunch.

Speaker 4 (53:25):
Where you're taking a green leafy vegetable salad with you
something like that, with some legumes, something with some substance,
and there may be some whole grains in there, some
ezekiel bread or something of that nature, and then throwing
in some I always like to throw in at least
one serving of cruciferous vegetables a day, and it doesn't
have to be a big serving.

Speaker 3 (53:44):
I mean Brussels sprouts and things like that.

Speaker 2 (53:46):
So help us get that down. I mean, you and I,
you know, we work in this world. So crucifer's vegetables.
You know, I could give you a list too, but
you probably have a longer list than me. So so
let our listeners though, what are some of the crucifer's vegetables?

Speaker 4 (53:58):
Any of your cabbages, like maybe maybe making a coal
slaw or a salad with some type of that in there.
Maybe it kales of prysiferus vegetable Brussels sprouts, maybe steamed
Brussels sprouts, so throwing those in it doesn't take a
lot of them, and then maybe even throw it in
some mushrooms or things like that.

Speaker 2 (54:16):
Sochryciferus vegetables also include you mentioned Brussels sprouts, but also
broccoli cauliflower.

Speaker 16 (54:21):
Is that right, correct?

Speaker 3 (54:22):
Exactly?

Speaker 2 (54:23):
Yeah, And if there are more Asian diets of bacchoi
that will work.

Speaker 16 (54:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (54:29):
So hey, stirfry okay with the backchoi and the broccoli
and the cauliflower.

Speaker 2 (54:35):
Absolutely okay, So why are you emphasizing this particular group
of plant foods?

Speaker 4 (54:41):
Okay, these specific foods are the most cancer protective foods
on the planet. So we have different active ingredients in
those prciferous vegetables that really protect against cancer. And I
see you know, you start looking at the dramatic increase
of cancer. Just take care of it. Do a serving
a day of reciperus vegetables. Get some bronco, get some cauliflower,

(55:03):
get some backchoy, get some kale, and change your taste buds.
Put a little put it, make a little salad dressing.

Speaker 3 (55:08):
And put it on there.

Speaker 2 (55:09):
Okay, Okay, we got it. So any other pitfalls, Folks,
they're leaving this show, they say, Hey, I'm going to
try this thirty day challenge. Are you worried that you
haven't shared some information that's gonna, you know, undermine their success.

Speaker 4 (55:22):
Yeah, Typically men, male the male species undermining a lot
of health programs and things like that. A lot of
people that will respond to us are basically women who
are caring for families or loved ones, your social circles,
who's around you, planning ahead and not having people sabotage
your plan.

Speaker 3 (55:42):
That being a will to tick with it. There are
some major aspects as well.

Speaker 2 (55:46):
Let me ask you another question, because this is coming
close to home. I've got a daughter who's pregnant, and
I know a lot of times women they have such
legitimately concerns about you having a healthy baby. Someone might
be at that stage right now listening and they're saying, well,
I don't want to go on a plant based diet,
this could hurt the pregnancy. Is there any reason they

(56:07):
should be concerned in that arena?

Speaker 3 (56:09):
That's funny I ask that.

Speaker 4 (56:10):
Interestingly enough, we took a segment of women that we
were studying over a three year period of time that
actually had a pregnancy and delivered a baby during our
research study, and we found that the women we interviewed them.
I had a graduate student call up those pregnant women
and interviewed them, called their pregnancy went, and overwhelmingly they
had a much easier pregnancy those who had had a

(56:32):
pregnancy before claiming that they had a better pregnancy when
they were on a.

Speaker 3 (56:36):
Nutrient dance, whole food plant based diet.

Speaker 4 (56:39):
And a lot of them come in and this was
a surprise to me that when they were not relying
on as many animal products that they actually produced a
more adequate.

Speaker 3 (56:48):
Amount of milk. Rests interesting they were over gorged. Is
that the term is that the tip.

Speaker 2 (56:54):
Well, I'm an internal medicine specialist. When you start talking
about pregnancy, we're treading on thin ice.

Speaker 4 (57:00):
Actually actually found that they were producing a more adequate
supply of breast milk when they were nutrient dance.

Speaker 3 (57:05):
Whole food plant based.

Speaker 2 (57:07):
That is very interesting.

Speaker 4 (57:09):
Yeah, and the complications in the morning sickness and things
like that was much much reduced.

Speaker 3 (57:15):
Wow, when they were more nutrient danced diet as well.

Speaker 2 (57:18):
Well. So is there anyone that should be very cautious
before they embrace a more plant based eating style?

Speaker 4 (57:26):
I think if you're intelligent about it and you're not
just cutting out food groups and not replacing them with something.
A lot of times people too will do a plant
based diet and then they'll eat.

Speaker 3 (57:34):
A lot of processed foods.

Speaker 4 (57:35):
Okay, just because it doesn't have animal products, doesn't mean
it's necessarily healthy.

Speaker 2 (57:40):
I get it. I get it.

Speaker 3 (57:41):
Yeah, and so and I mean there's some nutrients.

Speaker 4 (57:43):
I mean we want to make sure that they're getting
a wide variety of colorful, rich fruits and vegetables and
leave greens and legings every day.

Speaker 2 (57:52):
So, Jay, you've done a lot of great work research.
I know you've got a lab there at Northern Arizona.
If if someone wanted to learn more about you, just
do a literature search or is there some place to go?
Where do you point Folks? If they say, hey, I
want to see some of your research, they can google
me and I also look.

Speaker 4 (58:11):
At the NAU dot edu website and I'm on there
on the Jay Sutlift and then list all my work
and how they can get ahold of me email.

Speaker 16 (58:19):
And so forth.

Speaker 3 (58:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (58:19):
Okay, So as long as we can remember Northern Arizona University,
NAU dot edu and J. Sutliffe, we should be in business. Huh.

Speaker 3 (58:27):
I'm not head to find out. Ja.

Speaker 2 (58:28):
Hey, thank you so much for pulling away from all
that research and those students. We really appreciate you sharing
your life story and your research interest.

Speaker 3 (58:35):
Dave, my pleasure Thank you.

Speaker 2 (58:37):
And thank you to you each of my listeners for
joining us on today's edition of American, Indian and Alaska
Native Living. As always, I'm doctor David Durouz, wishing you
the very best of health.

Speaker 6 (58:51):
Native Voice one the Native American Radio network