Ep. 745 - Harmonizing Health: Ancestral Wisdom & Modern Nutrition | Lisa Mase

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Episode Transcript

(00:14):
Thank you for joining us, andwelcome to another edition of Answers Network.
I'm your host, Alan Cardoza,and each week this show will address many
ways of creating greater health, joyand love for you and those who care
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(00:36):
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(00:59):
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for you. Now. I wastold that I haven't mentioned this enough,
so here goes. If you haven'tgotten a free copy of the Attitude of
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(01:23):
a copy, give it twenty onedays, and comment on whatever platform you
listen to what focusing on gratitude hasmeant for you and your loved ones,
And if you'd like to send themto us via our website, we'll read
some of them on the air.Now, we have quite a show set

(01:45):
up for you today, and I'mgoing to start with a question that came
in to us. This one reads. My name is Mary. I live
in Chicago, and I love theinformative guests you bring on. Unfortunately,
I struggle with bowel issues and havetried nearly everything. My regular doctor put
me on meds that seem to havemade it worse. I tried a naturopathic

(02:07):
doctor that did muscle testing, whichhe referred to it as art. He
said I have parasites, adding thatmedical doctors don't know how to test for
parasites, and he put me ontinctures that were supposed to kill off the
parasites. When I told his officeI felt worse, they called it die

(02:28):
off and said it's natural. Well, it's been a couple of months and
I feel nauseous almost every day.I'm very careful with what I eat,
and yet I can't seem to getany better. Have you had a guest
that has addressed this issue? Ifso, which one well? I think
I found the right expert to answerMary's question and more. Our guest today,

(02:53):
Lisa Mase is a Board certified nutritionist, registered health cut herbalist, and
intuitive eating guide. She is trainedin the wisdom of traditions of European herbalism,
Are Your Ata, There we Go, microbiotics, and the Chinese five

(03:16):
element theory, which allows her tooffer a comprehensive and universal view of health.
Lisa is a member of the NationalAssociation of Nutritional Professionals. She has
certified in Sustainable Food Systems through theUniversity of Vermont and is engaged in continuing
education on mindful eating, mind bodyhealing, and culinary medicine. Lisa's work

(03:42):
with people who need support in healingfrom chronic conditions such as parasites, Chrohn's
disease, celiac disease, colitis,IBS, diparticulitis, hypothyroidism, and autoimmune
conditions. Here to discuss her groundbreakingbook, Culinary Medicine that weaves all of

(04:04):
her training together with nutrition science toshow how we can create our ideal eating
plan. Lisa, Welcome to AnswersNetwork. Thank you so much for having
me happy to be here. Well, it is my pleasure, and I've
been learning more and more about howimportant our diet is. But before we

(04:29):
go into that or go into thebook, if you heard the question,
what would you advise Mary to do? I love your question. Mary.
It's unfortunate that this is the medicalsystem that we're working with these days.
It seems like there are a lotof questions and not a lot of answers,

(04:51):
and this has to do with somany different factors. Ultimately, what's
going on with our bodies is prettymuch up to what our bodies are exposed
to and what they're given. Right, So, yes, it's possible that

(05:12):
you have parasites, we're not goingto know that. We must tending.
We are going to know that withsomething like a stool test. I always
recommend a complete parasitology profile. We'regoing to know how you're actually assimilating your
nutrients with something like a GIMP,which is also a school clust and people

(05:35):
don't love talking about this, butactually looking at our school is really good
information about what we're digesting and assimilatingand what might be out of balance in
our guts. Right, because ultimatelywe are more bacteria than we are,

(05:56):
you know, Lisa, or Alanor Mary. And it's really important to
understand not only the uniqueness of ourbacteria, but also the delicate balance that
can be you know, offset andput into imbalance through all kinds of factors,
not only what we might encounter inthe world food wise, but also

(06:21):
what we might encounter in the realmof stress. So I think there's so
many different factors to consider. Iwould definitely think about starting with those two
tests and also considering how you mightsupport your nervous system in shifting into a
more down regulated rest and relaxation mode. Okay, So, and it's interesting

(06:47):
that you would go into that becauseI talk a lot about how our anxiety
or our stress works against our immunesystem. So I love the fact that
you went there talk a little bitabout that and the way that you view
that as being so important, becauseagain I have my view, but I

(07:12):
would love to know how you seethis. Absolutely and ultimately, we are
not comprised so much of our anatomyor our parts, but we're comprised of
our somatics, our interconnected organ systems. Right, and thinking about the gut
and what Mary shared, it becomesreally obvious that the gut is the source

(07:39):
of so many other functionalities in ourbody. You know, not just the
nutrition that we absorb to produce energy, but also the neurotransmitters that secrete all
kinds of hormones, including our restand relaxation hormones, including our stress hormones,

(07:59):
or the majority thereof, and includinginnate immunity. Right, the immunity
with which we're born, with whichwe come into the world, is completely
governed by our gut bacteria. Soif gut bacteria are really running the show
in terms of stress as well asrelaxation, in terms of immunity as well

(08:22):
as digestion, I would think we'dwant to focus a little bit more on
what we're eating and how we're assimilatingit for overall health, and you mentioned
immunity. I have this thought thatliterally almost all health is building our immune

(08:45):
system, or stop doing things thatare taxing our immune system. Is that
kind of what I hear you're saying. Absolutely. I think that's one component
of kind of helping the body constantlyreturn to homeostasis, constantly return to balance.

(09:07):
And it's a big one, right, because our immune system is constantly
interpreting information that it gets from theenvironment, right, whether it's environmental toxins
that we may be breathing in,whether it's viruses or bacteria that our mucous

(09:28):
membranes may be encountering, and whetherit's the food that we eat. And
that kind of translation and interpretation affectsso many of our systems. Right.
Going back to Mary's question, Iheard her say, you know that there's
this experience of nausea happening, right, So if there were to be pathogenic

(09:52):
bacteria in her system, the immunesystem is working over time to try to
eliminate that, and it's also tryingto promote optimal function of the stomach to
break down food. Now, thestomach requires bile from the liver to really
break food down well so it canbe absorbed in the small intestine. And

(10:16):
if that whole cycle of immunity anddigestion isn't working well, the liver doesn't
recycle bile and prepare it for thestomach well enough, and that is a
classic root cause of nausea. Soyou start to see how all the organ

(10:37):
systems interplay, and certainly the immunesystem and the nervous system are very much
at the root of how so manyother organ systems function well. I love
one of the things that you talkabout in your book is the concept of
food as medicine. Is that somethingthat is more important now than ever?

(11:03):
Or if we were to compare itto fifty years ago. Are there things
that are happening that that it's evena greater problem if we are not recognizing
this. Absolutely, And I thinkwe live in an extremely modernized and mechanized

(11:24):
world that allows corporations to produce nonfood, right processed food. And because
of that, because our bodies aretaking in all of this food that's highly
refined, highly separated from all ofits integral parts, and the body doesn't

(11:46):
really know what to do with thatwhole Medicinal foods truly are more important now
than ever because the body knows whatto do with them, it understands how
to interpret them. Right. There'sa big difference between chomping on some sugar
cane and eating some highly refined whitesugar. Right. The sugar cane has

(12:09):
a lot of fiber, It hasa lot of minerals and vitamins that the
large and the small intestine needs tobe able to absorb the nutrition from that
sugar. Cane white sugar is totallystripped and devoid of that fiber and those
vitamins and minerals. So what doyou get An insulin spike and a food

(12:30):
that the body doesn't recognize because it'sa devoid of vitamins and minerals. And
so it says, well, letme just go leach some of those vitamins
and minerals from your muscles and bonesso that I can actually digest this food,
right, and then we get allkinds of different conditions related to what
the body has to do to handleprocessed food. So food is medicine now

(12:54):
more than ever. When you werementioning the difference in the whole foods,
one of the thoughts that came tomind for me was our soil is that
becoming a greater problem? Also thatif our soil is deficient of these minerals,
if we're getting something that we're actuallygrowing, but if our soil is

(13:16):
contaminated, is that contributing to ourproblem? Absolutely not only contamination, but
also lack of crop rotation and sortof remineralization of the soil. Right,
So, even if I'm eating somewonderful organic carrots, if they were grown

(13:37):
in a field that's devoid of nutrientsbecause the carrots have been sucking it up
from that soil for years and years. I might as well be chewing on
some cardboard, right, I'm notreally getting much from those carrots, unfortunately.
And people often say, wow,you know, I got these carrots
from the farmer's market and they tastedincredible. They had so much flavor.

(14:00):
Yeah, that's because that farmer wasprobably doing some crop rotation and allowing his
soil with some cover crops to regenerateits nutrients for a season before planting it
again. Yeah, it's interesting.You mentioned about how much better it tastes,
and we shop at a farmer's market, But I have a friend that

(14:22):
grows her tomatoes in the backyard,and she's out there and she's constantly doing
things with the soil, and it'salmost like tasting something different. It's as
opposed to buying a tomato at thestore and getting one of hers. It
is so much better. It's amazing. It's amazing. I agree. And

(14:46):
you know, not to mention pesticides, right, and fertilizers. Those have
a huge impact on not only theflavor of our food, but also what
we're taking in when we're eating thatfood that unfortunately contains a lot of pesticides
that were either sprayed on it oryou know, put into the soil.

(15:13):
Not not anything we should be puttinginto our bodies unfortunately. Well, one
of the things that I do fromtime to time on the show, and
it's usually closer to the end,but I think I want to give you
more power earlier. So I wantto give you a magic wand. Okay,
and with this magic wand share withmaybe the three top things that you

(15:37):
would do. Be it with thesoil, be it with the food.
You know you have the magic wand, what are the three things you think
are the most important things that needto be done for the greater health and
happiness for all of us? Hmm, thank you. I love that question,

(15:58):
and I will try to know.I arrow it down to three,
and I think decentralization and cultural revivalismare huge on that list. Right,
If I could wave my magic wandand say all the transport trucks are gone,
and all the big monocrop agrifarms,all of the contained operations raising factory

(16:22):
meat, it's all gone, right, and we have to become self reliant
in different bioregions in terms of ournourishment. I think that would be an
incredibly powerful reframe for folks, right, and yeah, I think it would

(16:44):
be hard at first for many,and ultimately without all of those larger systems,
you know, be it the pesticidecompanies, be it the large scale
food production companies, we would beable to reconnect to our sources of nourishment

(17:06):
and ultimately regain our food sovereignty right, and regain control over our food and
food sovereignty doesn't mean gardening or farmingfor everyone. However, I think that
most humans gain some level of pleasureand contentment from being in a space where
food and herbs and flowers are growing. It doesn't mean you're growing them or

(17:30):
harvesting them, but perhaps you're inexchange or conversation with your neighbor or the
farmer who's doing it. Perhaps youlove taking the carrots and cabbage and spicy
peppers that that person gives you andchopping them up and turning them into a
lacto fermented you know, microbially richbeneficial food like kimchi or sauerkraut, or

(17:57):
you know, growing up in Italy, we made jendine a similar concept.
It means from the garden literally.So I think that decentralizing then allows for
that cultural revivalism, that remembering ofall of those traditions that we all have
around preparing whole seasonal foods and preservingthe harvest. And then the community aspect

(18:23):
that I think, you know,is something I grew up with in Italy,
and that would be a natural outcomeof this decentralizing and cultural revivalism where
people are coming together, they're morereliant on each other, there isn't this
feeling of isolation that seems so prevalentthese days, and there's this connection around

(18:47):
the things that truly matter most,which are you know, clean food,
clean water, shelter and community.I'd say that would be my magic wand
action. Okay, well let melet me work with that a little bit.
So what I felt when you wavedyour magic wand was you made me

(19:11):
the president and so, and indoing so, it motivated me to take
away all of the subsidies from thelarge agricultural businesses and utilize that money by
giving it to the smaller farmers ina regional area that allows them to better

(19:37):
compete to where now the more inexpensivefood is the food that is locally harvested,
and the large agricultural conglomerates without thosesubsidies have to figure out how to
now provide the same thing without thosesubsidies, which means that it would either

(20:03):
become more expensive and people wouldn't buyit, or they would have to adjust
to to what you've described. That'sright, did I help with your with
your magic wand now absolutely what agift that would be. But now as
i'm as I'm saying that, so, but for everybody that's listening, that

(20:27):
means that it's achievable. It isachievable, and so that people are aware
of this. There are absolutely foodsovereignty bills being passed in different states,
main is an example. Many ofthem are led actually by indigenous tribes in

(20:48):
different areas who've always held on totheir food sovereignty right through farming, hunting,
fishing, all of these practices,and there is a turning of the
tides. I see it here whereI live in the Northeast. We have
a network called Food Solutions New Englandthat includes all different kinds of folks in

(21:14):
the food system trying to bring aboutthis kind of change and The way that
each one of us can do thisas consumers is by spending less money,
perhaps on some creature comforts that weenjoy, and spending more money on something
like supporting a farm and learning aboutthe vegetables they're growing and cooking those vegetables,

(21:40):
and really putting our financial resources towardthis change, because it truly is
the source of preventative health. Right, we all eat food every day,
and wouldn't it be nice to nothave doctor bills and not have pharmacy bills
and have all kinds of medications withside effects and all kinds of mysterious health

(22:04):
conditions that don't seem treatable like whatMary describes. I think that would be
wonderful. It sounds great now forsome of the people that maybe haven't tied
it together. Tied together, now, how those changes? What do science

(22:25):
tell us about what that does toour gut so that we don't have these
problems and we don't have these doctorbills and so on and so forth.
Absolutely so I kind of hinted atthis with preparing your own cultured foods,
right, and the thing that weactually all have in common, every sentient

(22:48):
being on the planet, including plants, all animals, humans, we have
what's called a last universal common ancestor. Who is that last universal common ancestor?
It's bacteria. So the thing thattruly connects us all as living creatures

(23:08):
in all of the different kingdoms isbacteria. And what that means is that
we're in constant exchange. Right.We realize we're taking an oxygen from the
trees giving them carbon dioxide, andmany of us are are aware of that
exchange. However, there's a bacterialexchange and conversation going on with all of

(23:30):
the different foods that we eat aswell. And our gut bacteria is dependent
on whole foods because, as Iwas saying earlier, they contain the fibers,
the proteins, the vitamins and mineralsthat we actually need to produce a
dentistine triphosphate atp aka energy, butalso the fibers and you know post biotics,

(23:57):
right, the leftovers from a cmalating our nutrients are the food for
our gut bacteria. And if ourgut bacteria is running our innate immune system,
it's running our nervous system as wellas you know, just general healthy
digestion. It seems like this isincredibly important to focus on and eating more

(24:21):
whole food and less processed food hasa tremendous impact with how resilient we're able
to be in a very changing world. Wow, I want to let that
sit in. I mean again,if if we could just get some of

(24:44):
the changes made, I think thatthere is so much benefit to this.
And I'm looking at the time aswell. We're going to take a break,
but when we come back, Iwould like to you started to mention
more about the our nervous system andhow that is also being controlled by our

(25:06):
gut bacteria. So I want togo into that a little bit further.
But so for everybody, stay withus. We're going to be right back.
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Local Knowledge, and we're back.We are talking about our gut and

(26:25):
a whole lot more. But thebook is The Culinary Pharmacy by Lisa Masey.
Now, when we were just goingto break, we were talking a
little bit about more about the wholesystem and how our gut is so involved
with everything that we're doing. Itactually made me think of the vagus nerve

(26:48):
and if the vagus nerve controls alot of the specific body functions such as
digestion, heart rate, and immunesystem. But if these functions are involuntary,
what can we do to help maintainour optimal health? If it's involuntary,
absolutely that's such an amazing question becauseit's a reminder of how incredibly intricate

(27:15):
and complex and refined the body systemsare, right, And I think there's
a sense of being able to reallytrust the body and know that that is
the body's goal to achieve balance,to always return to homeostasis. Right.
The body's working so hard to dothat constantly. And the more we listen

(27:41):
to our bodies and pay attention tohow we're responding in our day to day
life, the more we can startto understand what our bodies might need in
order to restore homeostasis. Because partof what's happening in the world is that
the body can't keep up with thepace of modernization, right, with the

(28:06):
pace of change that's happening in thecapitalist world, and that has a huge
impact primarily on the nervous system,right. And we see this with social
media. We see how incredibly troublingand isolating it is for teens and adults.
And this is all because of nervoussystem dysregulation, right, because of

(28:33):
essentially wanting more of that dopamine,one of those kind of like pleasure hormones
that we get from interacting with screensand so we sort of start to forget,
Okay, how else can I feelthose sensations in the real world?

(28:53):
Right? And part of getting backinto being able to be in our senses
and be in the enjoyment of themoment truly is regulating our nervous system.
And the vagus nerve, which youjust mentioned, is our first cranial nerve
that's developed in utero, and it'san important one. People like to talk

(29:17):
about it, and there's a reason. It kind of has this pathway that
allows it to touch every single organas it's traveling up to the brain and
giving information about how things are goingright, because the brain's kind of operating
in a vacuum. You know,if it didn't have the optic nerve,

(29:37):
the vagus nerve, and the autonomicnervous system, the central nervous system,
it wouldn't really know what was goingon. It wouldn't really know what to
do in the world. And itsjob really is survival. The brain's job
is to keep us alive. Thenervous system's job is to help us adapt
to the circumstances of being alive.And so what we can do to support

(30:04):
our nervous system in shifting between thekind of activated. I'm on, something's
happening, I'm awake, I'm payingattention to I'm relaxing, I'm resting,
I'm processing. Is to create opportunitiesfor transition. Right. The nervous system

(30:27):
is kind of good at getting stuckin one mode or the other, right,
kind of the more activated or themore relaxed, and the vagus nerve
picks up on that, it says, okay, we're real activated, and
so then it tells all of theother organs to be activated. Right.
It tells the heart to be activatedand increase the heart rate, tells the

(30:49):
liver to be activated secrete more bile, which could also cause nausea, tells
the digestive system to be activated,which could be you know, gas and
bloating, could be diarrhea. Right, All kinds of different symptoms can come
from an overactive nervous system. However, simply by being aware of our breath,

(31:11):
which sounds so basic but is sopowerful, we can easily down shift
from that more activated that. Yeah, it starts to be. I think

(31:45):
I hear about in the work thatthey're doing to secrete those hormones. Ah,
well, let's I'm gonna kind ofgo back to, you know,
somebody that's maybe in Mary's situation.One of the things you mentioned was a

(32:07):
reset, and you started with rest. What are some of the things that
some of the other things that theycan do to reset without kind of killing
off everything in there, because thatseems to be what the what the the
medical approach is with either side,with either the medical doctor, either the

(32:30):
m D or the ND, youknow, is put something in there that
kills off things, and that doesn'tseem like a reset to me. So
yeah, what you know, whatare some of the things that they can
do with food that can be donemore naturally to to clear out and get

(32:53):
that nice, uh, well functioningmicrobiome working in their good again. Yes,
wonderful question, and absolutely rest.I think that giving the gut a
rest can be really important. Ourdigestive system is working so hard for us

(33:15):
every day. I often recommend doinga day of if you are a meat
eater, doing a day of drinkingbroth. You know, chicken broth is
great. If you are a vegetarian, you can do a really mineral rich
broth made with lots of veggies,made with seaweed, made with healing spices,

(33:37):
like turmeric, human and coriander orrosemary, and time and really spend
a day drinking that broth. Youknow, you might drink up to a
gallon of it throughout the day tohelp make sure you're not feeling hungry,
because that can also send those stressmessages right to the brain via the vagus

(33:59):
nerve. And give the gut aday of rest, and then start eating
foods one at a time. Andyou know, food allergy tests are certainly
out there, they're extremely inaccurate,unfortunately, and they're actually food sensitivity tests,

(34:20):
because true food allergies send you tothe emergency room with anaphylaxis, right
and many of those food sensitivities aredue to the pesticides in our foods.
So start trying foods one at atime and kind of let your body say,
hey, I'm digesting this well oractually no, that doesn't feel great.

(34:44):
And maybe you're starting with something verysimple, easy to digest, something
like winter squash. Then maybe you'removing on to something like brown rice or
millet, a grain that you mightchoose. Maybe you're moving on to something
like chicken or beans. Giving yourbody twenty four hours with each one of

(35:09):
these foods seeing how you're handling thefibers, the proteins, the vitamins and
minerals. That can give a lotof information about what's going on in the
gut and what the body might needin any given moment to again restore balance.

(35:30):
So what's your thoughts on fasting?I know that a friend that I
was with a couple of months ago, he read something or somebody he followed
or whatever, said that that fastingwas the answer for his gut issues.

(35:51):
And in his case, I thinkI don't remember if it was four or
seven days. It seemed like alot to me, but he said that
it failed miserably. And I've doneintermittent fasting. We'll all do twenty four
hours, thirty six hours, evenup to forty eight hours, and that

(36:13):
seems to be a good thing.Where do you Where do you fall on
this subject as it relates to ourhealth and especially our gut. It's a
wonderful question. And I think thechallenge with not eating food for long periods
of time is that the gut says, oh, okay, I guess you

(36:36):
don't want me to digest food.I guess we're not going to do that
anymore, right, And then theendocrine system also starts talking all of our
glands, right, So the pancreasthat secretes our digestive enzymes starts saying,
oh, I guess you don't needme anymore. I'm just going to kind
of take a back seat, right. And then sex hormones, which are

(36:57):
part of our endocrine system, alsostart to say, oh, I guess
we're not getting the cholesterol and thenutrients we need to secrete produce and secrete
our hormones, so I guess we'regoing to take a back seat as well.
So not giving our system food forprolonged periods of time kind of causes
a lot of our different systems internallyto go offline. Not ideal. So

(37:24):
when I speak of a fast,I like something like a broth fast.
It's something I grew up with.And also I like it because the body's
still getting nutrition, right, andit's actually getting food that's very high in
collagen, which is extremely healing inthe case of drinking chicken broth. So

(37:46):
not only are you giving the bodynutrition so that stress hormones and sex hormones
and other glands don't get disregulated andcause more stress in the body, but
you're also provided kind of a healingbalm to the gut in particular. Now,
intermittent fasting is extremely trendy, andthere's a reason for that, right

(38:10):
because traditionally people didn't eat between dinnerand breakfast, and people ate seasonally not
only according to what was available,but also according to when the sun went
down and when the sun came backup. So at this time of year,
for example, where I live,you know, if I was eating

(38:30):
in accordance with the light, I'dprobably be eating dinner at four thirty and
then not eat breakfast until seven thirtythe next morning. Right, So there
you have a really nice long fast, And I think that's ultimately the place
to lean into so that we're notcausing greater disruption to our endocrine system and

(38:53):
all of our hormones, including ourstress and relaxation hormones. Right. If
that's something that sounds appealing, leanmore into the early dinner kind of fasting
as opposed to the skipped or latebreakfast kind of fasting. There's way too

(39:15):
much research out there about the deleitariouseffects of skipping breakfast. Just don't do
it. Just eat something within anhour of waking up. It's just it's
going to be optimal, and thebody doesn't really need a ton of food
after four or five in the evening, you know, unless you're going to
go out for a sunset hike freeor more miles, you probably don't need

(39:37):
a ton of food anyway. Youknow. It's I'm smiling because I like
to think of things and how theymotivate people, and so the thought came
to mind that you know, foranybody out there, if you're thinking about
like a really long fast, whatmight motivate you not to do that is

(39:59):
the two things that you just said, increase in stress and a decrease in
sects. So if those two,if those things are going to happen,
I think a lot of people aregoing to change their mind right now,
absolutely absolutely. And I see alot of people going through perimenopause and menopause

(40:21):
and experiencing weight gain and saying I'lljust fast, And that makes everything worse,
right because it causes further hormone fluctuationsin a system that's already changing and
fluctuating. So again, we're allindividual. There's no one prescriptive way of
eating for all people. That's justnot real. All the fad diets out

(40:45):
there. I'm sorry, but they'rein response to the processed food industry.
Truly, ultimately, it is somuch about listening to our bodies, paying
attention, eating foods as close tothe source as poss the ball, you
know. And when you mentioned aboutthe fact that we are all individuals,

(41:05):
and I love that, and itreminds me of a story that Navn Jane
tells about himself where he came froma part of India where he was a
vegetarian, and he said that oncehe had moved the United States, he
was starting to put on some weightand he didn't like it, and he
was feeling a little bit more sluggish. So he kept cleaning up his diet.

(41:30):
He was like, okay, that'sit, no processed food. And
then it was like, okay,somebody told him, well there's more sugar,
you know, in your fruits andstuff. So he started cutting that
out. Well, he got tothe point in which he was almost only
eating spinach. Oh no, yeah. And then well, because you know,

(41:50):
we're all told spinach just what's goodfor you, and so he said
he was almost that was almost theonly thing that he was doing. And
then he had a test that wasdone and it turns out that he doesn't
do well on spinach or or nightshades, which is that's another thing I'd
actually like you to maybe share alittle bit, is you know, with

(42:15):
oxalates and night shades, why isit that some vegetables work well for one
person and don't work at all foranother. If you could share a little
bit of that, absolutely, andthat's I love that story. It's such
a wonderful reminder of listening to ourbodies right and making sure there's a variety

(42:37):
in what we're taking in every day, and knowing that what we need now
is going to change and it's goingto be different even six months from now.
So all different kinds of foods areso fascinating and amazing to me,

(43:00):
especially plant foods right because there issome level of hormesis that's going on with
plant foods and bitter foods in particular, like spinach, Swiss shard, beat
greens all members of the kinnepodium family, along with quenwa and beats that do
contain a lot of oxalates and hormesisis kind of this concept. It's a

(43:24):
Greek etymological root that means, youknow, what doesn't kill you makes you
stronger. Right, It's why peoplelike to expose themselves to very quick,
stressful situations like plunging into very coldwater. You know, the body responds
and then ideally it down regulates intothe rest mode and everything in the body

(43:49):
starts to heal. Because that's theother thing about nervous system regulation. When
we're regulated, healing is possible.So that's also going on with food,
right, and bitter foods in particularprovide a little bit of a challenge to
the system, which is great becausethey are stimulating. They stimulate bioflow and
the stomach from the liver, theysupport digestion. However, they're best in

(44:15):
moderation because oxalates in particular are hardwork for the kidneys to filter through,
right, And kidneys can get alittle cranky with a lot of oxalates and
they can start to bind calcium andmake these nasty little things that we know
of as kidney stones highly unpleasant.So what doesn't kill you makes you stronger

(44:38):
in small doses. And I'd saythe same for the night shade family,
right, Tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, eggplant, and a few different herbs
like the iervetic herb ashwaganda is agood example of that. And night shades
are full of tons of incredible vitaminand minerals that are extremely supportive and healthy.

(45:02):
Right, Like, if I've beenfarming all day and my body's really
sore, give me a potato.It's got a ton of potassium to help
relax my muscles. Right. Orif I have a heart condition and my
heart isn't regulating properly or blood pressureis increasing, give me a tomato.
It's really going to help my heart. Right. However, the night shade

(45:23):
family also has these components that arequite acidic and can be very irritating to
the digestive system. So with thesekinds of foods, it's all about quantity,
and it's all about pairing as well. Right. And people say to
me, you know you grew upin Italy eating all these night shade vegetables.

(45:45):
Yeah, I did, But andthose were paired with whole grains,
right, which are incredibly balancing tothat acidic pH of the night shade veg
vegetables. They're really rich in Bvitamins which are soothing and relaxing to the

(46:06):
whole body. And there's that balancethat's created through food combining. Right.
In fact, along those lines offood combining, and you're mentioning italy,
I think you wouldn't you also saythat it's with good oils. If you're
adding good oils or good fats,that's also helping, is that correct?

(46:29):
Absolutely? And we don't actually digestwithout fat. Fat is essential for helping
us to break down and absorb allof our other nutrients. So knowing where
your fats come from is incredibly important, you know, certainly also of course

(46:52):
meat and vegetables and fruit and grain. But understanding the source of your fats
and knowing that I'm truly getting ahundred percent olive oil here, which is
not always the case, very important. Yes, I just glanced over.
We've only got about two minutes.But what I'd like to do, First
of all, I want to remindeverybody the book is called the Culinary Pharmacy,

(47:14):
and Lisa, if you could sharewith us an example of it,
be yourself, or it could besomeone else who's implemented the habits or practices
that you suggest in the book,and what changes have they reported to you?
Absolutely? Thank you, Yeah,I see you know, certainly in

(47:35):
myself I'm always learning through my body. I've had a myriad of chronic health
conditions that I've healed with food,and I see a lot of stories from
my clients saying, you know,you're a miracle worker. I've had this
condition for ten years. I neverthought I'd get rid of my ezema,

(47:55):
or my irritable bowel system, ormy lupus or my Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Right,
And it's through being really thoughtful aboutour food and also understanding why certain
foods might be beneficial for certain conditions, that we really start to reconnect with

(48:17):
our bodies. Right. So manyof us are kind of disconnected from our
bodies, especially if we're not feelingwell. It's not comfortable to be in
our bodies. So by going throughthat discomfort of reconnecting with our bodies,
take in a breath, slowing thingsdown, and starting to give ourselves the

(48:39):
foods that our bodies can actually useto heal, as opposed to the process
non foods that they're not able touse. We can see a tremendous difference,
and this is our birthright. Weall have the capacity to do this.
It's within all of our ancestral traditions. If you look back far enough,

(49:00):
so I highly encourage it. Simplebut profound food is medicine. Well,
Lisa, thank you so much,not just for coming on the show,
but for writing the book. Foranybody if you would like to reach
Lisa, and I think I've gotthe website here. It's harmonized dashlibing dot

(49:27):
com. If you're driving, I'llmake sure that we put that on our
site, the Answers dot Network site, so that you can pick that up.
And Lisa, if you can walkinto any politician's office and tell them
that you now have a magic wandand they need to make changes, Okay,
they need to start sending the subsidiesto the right people so that we

(49:49):
can get the right food to thepeople. That's right, all of us
can start doing that. Call yourrepresentatives absolutely, and again, thank you
so much much for everything that you'redoing to make a positive difference in the
world. Thank you allan, Iappreciate it all right, And for everybody
out there, be with us nextweek when we're going to be joined by

(50:10):
Judy Wilkins Smith as she discusses hernew book, Decoding Your Emotional Blueprint.
And again, everybody, please visitarchives of past interviews at Answers dot Network.
I'm willing to bet that you willfind something that will benefit you or
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(50:30):
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It's another way that we can getbetter. So for everybody out there,
be good human beings and be withus again next week on Answers That then,

(51:00):
don't do that