Dr. Dana Cohen - Can You Cheat Your Way to Better Health? - The AutoImmune Hour

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
There's a lot of nutrients in that. The white of
the watermelon has a ton of nutrients in it. That's
I think there's more potassium in the white of the watermelon.
My favorite is strawberries. Why do we cut off the
tops of strawberries? There's no reason, and in fact there's
no reason. There's no reason. No cue music.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Places and everybody places. We're starting in three two.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
Welcome to the Autoimmune Hour, where we look at the
rise of autoimmune disorders. I've brought together top experts that
range from doctors, specialist, nutritionist, researchers, and even those recovering
from autoimmune to bring you the latest, most up to
date information about autoimmunity and how to live your life uninterrupted.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Thank you for joining us here on the Autoimmune Hour
with Sharon Sale. Always seek sound, legal, medical, and or
professional advice regarding any problems, conditions, and any of the
recommendations you see here or read here on the auto
Immune Hour, Understanding Autoimmune and Life Interrupted Radio. Join the
auto Immune Hours Courage Club. Sign up now at Understanding
autoimmune dot com. Now back to your host, Sharon Saylor.

Speaker 3 (01:23):
Welcome everyone to the Autoimmune Hour. I'm Sharon Sailor from
Sharonsailor dot com and of course from Understanding Autoimmune dot com.
And we're closing in on five hundred shows, so I'm
really excited about that. You know what, I'm still trying
to decide to do for the five hundredth. So if
you have any thoughts or her comments, put them down,
put them down in the comments section here and let
me know because I want to celebrate it, but I

(01:45):
still haven't figured out how, so who knows. Come we'll
get going, but we're gonna celebrate tonight too because we
have a return guest. I just love her and what
she does. And her name is doctor Dana Cohen. And
I'm going to zoom in really close. Sorry, guys, I
have to read bio because it's pretty amazing and I
don't want to lose any part of it. Because doctor
Cohn has been a practicing integrative medicine for over twenty

(02:07):
five years and she's currently in private practice in Manhattan.
Nationally renowned internal and integrative medicine specialist. That's hard to say.
Doctor Dana. His multidisnarative approach has helped successfully treat thousands
of patients, and doctor Cohn trained under the late doctor
Robert Atkins, author of the iconic Doctor Atkins' New Diet Revolution,

(02:30):
as well as doctor Ronald al Hoffmann, a pioneer in
integrative medicine and founder of the Hoffmann Center in New York.
She has an amazing bio here. She's also the author
of a book that we talked to her clear back
in twenty eighteen, Quinch, and that was just really wonderful.

Speaker 4 (02:48):
It was all about hydration.

Speaker 3 (02:49):
If you haven't had a chance to read it yet,
I really found it groundbreaking for me and understanding hydration
was more than drinking.

Speaker 4 (02:55):
Glass of water.

Speaker 3 (02:56):
And now she's back with a brand new book that
we're going to talk about. Welcome back to the show,
doctor Dana. It's so good to see you.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
It's great to see you. Thank you so much for
having me.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
Yeah, it's been too long, dear. I know I follow
you on social media and everything, so I can see
all the things you're up to, and it's very exciting.
I know you have this brand new book out that's exciting.
I'm going to get the title right to it here,
so let me bring that up to It's called Fuel Up,
Harness the Power of your Blender and Cheat your Way
to good health and Doctor Danny you had me at

(03:28):
the word cheat.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
Well, I love it. I'll take it. This show accomplished exactly.

Speaker 3 (03:37):
I think everybody knows that, especially with my diet, I
have been known to do really good for a long
time and then I don't know, something inside me just
has to cheat.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
Okay, So let's just let's unpack that, because, first of all,
diets don't work. And what I've learned in my twenty
eight years of practicing medicine is that diets don't work.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
And that makes me feel better because I wondered why
I kept failing at them.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
Not only do they not work, they mess with our
heads because having I'm somebody who worked for doctor Atkins
and you're putting people on a n Atkins diet or
a Keto diet or whatever you want to call it. Now, yeah,
it works for the short term, but then when you
go off of it, you're yo yoing and you're the diet.
The weight is coming and going, and if you're not
doing it exactly right, then you're actually on a really

(04:26):
unhealthy diet. So I know firsthand that diets don't work,
and I want to just clarify the way that we
use cheat in the cheat is not a bad word.
Cheat is a really good word. Typically, we think of
cheating as ooh, I'm cheating. I shouldn't be doing this.
This is all good, it's all additive. So we want
to teach people how to eat. That's what we can

(04:47):
teach people how to eat normally and real food and good, clean,
whole food, then I will have done my job.

Speaker 3 (04:55):
And I love the book and I agree my cheating
is different than your cheating because you're cheating soothed my
psyche in a way, and so oh I can have
good tasty stuff, you know.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
Yeah, I'm going to use my husband as an example.
He's allowed me to do this. So he knows one
diet and one diet only, and that's an Akins diet.
That's all he knows. That's the only thing that ever
works for him. But the truth is, I've known him
now for many years, and he does not know how
to eat normally when he goes off the diet because
he thinks that when he eats sugar, he's cheating and

(05:28):
his brain is all messed up, and fruit's not good
for him because it's carbs. So he has to unlearn
what the one diet that works for him, and know
how to modulate when he's not on, because nobody can
follow an Atkins diet lifelong, or any diet or any
restriction life log except for if it's a real medical

(05:49):
thing like Celiac disease or something like that. The bottom line,
and this is the whole premise of the book, The
bottom line, is that we need to get ultra processed
foods out of our diets. And every step the way,
we give you little cheats or hacks, so whatever you
want to call them, how to up level your nutrition
wherever and whenever you can. Because we're all going to

(06:09):
have birthday cake at somebody's birthday. We're all going to
have diet soda one cent of blue Moon, whatever it
may be, it's going to happen. So if that happens,
then how do we get back on track? How do
we get right? Now we're more than fifty percent ultra
processed foods in all of our diets. How do we
raise that percentage a little bit and have less ultra

(06:30):
processed foods. We're going to all have some processed foods
in our diets, but how do we shift that so
that our bodies are getting better nutrition and nutrients and
real food as nature intended us to eat.

Speaker 3 (06:45):
I think that's the critical thing. And I appreciate that
you allow a little bit of ultraprocessed food because I
know I travel like you a lot, and there are
times that ultraprocessed food in the carry on luggage is
the best option out there at that moment.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
I will say, I've been doing this a long time.
There's not a single I don't want to I'm not
going to put anybody on the spot, but most of
the health professionals that I know don't necessarily eat one
hundred percent of the time perfectly. None of us do.
So we have to live in this world. We have
to enjoy ourselves. We need to pick our poisons, so

(07:24):
to speak. So I'm not giving people free range to
do that. And honestly, my dream is to get this
book in the hands of people who have never picked
up a health book before, people who don't understand or
can't diet. Let's just be normal and let's just eat
real food. Let's start there. Hydration. Start with hydration first. Always.

(07:45):
We talked about it with quench, So now that's this
is taking a step further, so, how do we eat
real food? How do we clean up our diets as
best we can. It's not just a smoothie book. So
although there's plenty of smoothies in the book, we give
recipes for condiments, for cocktails and mocktails, and desserts and breads.

(08:09):
Even so, there's a lot of things that we can do.
So harness your blender. It is a blender book because
the blender is First of all, almost every household in
the United States has a blender in their house. I
think it's something like ninety six or ninety percent of
households on a blender. It's fun, it's fun, it's easy.

(08:29):
And think about it, like it's almost impossible to put
junk food in a blender. Like nobody you're only putting
real food in a blender. You're not going to put
cake in a blender and blend it up with fruit
unless there's something wrong.

Speaker 3 (08:42):
I want to take a step back, because it's been
since twenty eighteen since we've found you on the show.
Talk a little bit about the basics of hydration, and
then we'll get into why smoothies are good for you
as well. So let's just backtrack a little bit to
those who missed that opportunity in twenty eighteen.

Speaker 4 (08:57):
To hear you talk about hydration.

Speaker 1 (09:00):
Learning how to optimally hydrate is the single most important
thing you can do to treat and prevent chronic disease
period hands down, Mic Drop. That's a really important statement, right.
Hydration is not necessarily drinking water, although that's part of it.
We need to be eating real food, whole foods, fruits, vegetables.
Take what we're eating plays a role in hydration, as

(09:23):
does Movement plays a role in hydration. Sleeping plays a
role in hydration. Our environments play a role in hydration.
So meaning if you're sitting in an air conditioned office
with all these what do you call those lights althol
recid lights on us, and we're sitting at our desk
all day eating takeout and drinking alcohol, you're the worst

(09:46):
possible thing you could be doing for yourself. We want
to learn how to hydrate optimally. It's different for every person.
The eight glasses a day doesn't necessarily jive with everybody.
It's very individual. We need to learn what our set
point is it is for hydration, and I will tell
you exactly what that is. We are meant to urinate
every two or three hours during our waking hours, so

(10:09):
meaning we need to be getting up during our day
every two or three hours and peeing, and if we're
not doing that, we're not hydrating enough. That is it
keeps gore. The single most important thing to do to
know that you're not dehydrating. It's not looking at your urine.
Although we did talk about that in the book. We've
changed our minds on that because it's okay, but it's

(10:30):
not a great test and we don't have a great
way of measuring hydration. So we want to eat real food.
We want to eat more fruits and vegetables, we want
to exercise, we need to move, and we want to
drink some water. So look at your urine output. Start
your day with a big glass of water, eight to
sixteen ounces, and then you may need some more during

(10:50):
the day. I like to throw some things in. I
usually tell people have a glass of water before every meal,
ten minutes before our meal. Just suck it down. That's
an easy sort of rule to get those. Get a
few more glasses in and then you may need more,
or if you're eating well, you may not need more.

Speaker 3 (11:08):
A couple quick questions about water before we jump into
the blender part of the story. I was told to
drink a glass of warm lemon water in the morning,
like real lemon juice and water in the morning. Does
the temperature of the water have any effect on the absorption?

Speaker 1 (11:25):
Yes, So if I were a Chinese medicine practitioner, I
would absolutely say yes. So I don't know. From as
a medical doctor, I don't think there's any research that
shows that. Although I'm I honor and cherish and see
Chinese medicine practitioners, it's a very different kind of medicine
than I practice. What I say is do whatever it

(11:47):
takes to get you to drink that water, okay. So
if you only like ice in your water, so be it.

Speaker 4 (11:54):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (11:54):
But there may be something to the hot and the
cold according to Chinese medicine. I don't know.

Speaker 4 (12:00):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (12:00):
Then the other part of that is the lemon does
the I guess it changes the pH of the water.
I'm not sure what it does. But does that help
absorb it or is that just like only if you
like it?

Speaker 5 (12:11):
No?

Speaker 1 (12:12):
I think so. The pH it turns out, may not
have any effects these alkaline waters. We don't know, there's
still no great research to say the pach is going
to change immediately when it hits your stomach anyway. But
I think the lemon does add some extra minerals and
vite them in to that water, and it makes it

(12:32):
taste good. So I do think that there's something to
the lemon more for the electrolytes that it can be
giving you a little bit of electrolytes. I even tell
people to put a little pinch of real salt in
that morning water just to give you even more electrolytes
sodium and chloride and other minerals. But you want the
full spectrum good salt, like pink salt or something like that.

Speaker 3 (12:53):
So what is the difference between the salt and off
the shelf electrolytes. I've seen powdered electric lights in multiple ways.

Speaker 1 (13:02):
Yeah, salt is cheap, is super super cheap. So if
you don't have the privilege of buying these over the
counter electrolyte mixes, salt should be able to do. It's
definitely going to be a much much lesser concentration and
the electrolyte replacers, many of them. I'm on the board
of one called Cure electrolytes. They follow the World Health

(13:26):
Organization of Electrolyte Replacements, so there are very specific numbers
that follow. You want to be careful and make sure
there's no other added ingredients and sugars and artificial colors
and those kind of things. So some of those are
better than others, but sometimes all you need is a
little pinch of salt.

Speaker 3 (13:45):
That sounds simple enough and easier for me to understand
then figuring out all those labels for the high priced things.

Speaker 1 (13:52):
I will say though, if you're an athlete, especially even
a regular person, if you really struggle from dehydration, or
you're an athlete, or you sweat a lot, you're like
a big sweater, then you may or perspire, then you
may want to use the one of them. They're not
that expensive, but for somebody maybe needs it more, an

(14:13):
electrolyte replacement is a better way to go.

Speaker 4 (14:16):
Oh okay, good to know.

Speaker 1 (14:18):
Good to know.

Speaker 3 (14:19):
Okay, thank you for clearing up and bringing us up
to date on the latest on hydration. So let's jump
into smoothies. Define a smoothie for everybody so they know
if that's possible, because in your book there was I
don't know one hundred recipes or more.

Speaker 1 (14:33):
So I define as SMOOTHI as this. It's a blended
green greens with whatever else you want to put in there,
so blended with water or whatever liquid you want to
put in there, and then whatever else is icing on
the cake, so to speak. Right, so fruits, you can
put some seeds or ginger, lemon, whatever, yogurt. Then that

(14:54):
starts to make more of a meal. But a smoothie
is a blended versus a juiced drink. Right, So when
you're juicing something, you're removing all the fiber, you're removing
all the stuff, and you're just getting the juice. You're
squeezing out the juice versus a smoothie is something that's
just blended. So that's the difference. The other thing I
will say is the book, Yes, it has over one

(15:17):
hundred and something recipes, and it's not just smoothies, Like
we have recipes for condiments. A great recipe for a
gorgeous steak, sauce in there that has horse radish. There's
unexpected ways to use your blender. There's ice creams, there's desserts,
there's mocktails. There's lots of different things that you can
do with your blender. So it's not just smoothies.

Speaker 3 (15:39):
Okay, fantastic. Now the's a couple of really basic, simple
questions that this might be too basic, but things like
parrots and stuff, if they're washed and clean. Do you
have to peel all your fruits and veggies to put
them in if you've washed them and made sure they're
nice and clean and pestive aside free.

Speaker 1 (15:59):
Now, in fact, it's better that you don't. It turns
out that the carrot tops, the greens on your carrot
tops have a ton of nutrition and there I think
we have some recipes to use those to make some pestos.
And the peel So the peels on your ginger, even
those little ginger it's so hard to peel anyway, don't bother.

(16:21):
Throw it all in. It's not going to change the
flavor of it, and you're getting more nutrients. It turns
out that nature, that's where the nutrients lie in the
peels and the pits. So put some of the whites
of your if you're eating citrus fruit, eat some of
that white stuff. That's there's a lot of nutrients in that.
The white of the watermelon has a ton of nutrients.

(16:43):
In it. That's I think there's more potassium in the
white of the watermelon. My favorite is strawberries. Why do
we cut off the tops of strawberries. There's no reason,
and in fact, there's no reason. There's no reason.

Speaker 3 (16:57):
No, I guess because I'm always did I you're right,
I have no idea. I've never tasted one. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (17:04):
Next time you get a strawberry, clean it really well,
eat the whole thing. You do not taste the greens
of the strawberry, and there's a ton of nutrients in there,
and especially throw them in your blender because you definitely
won't taste it then. But yeah, there's no reason. And
we have another whole section on that things. That's a
cheat right there. That's one way to up level your nutrition.
And it's a cheat in so many ways because it's

(17:27):
not only cheating for nutrition. You're getting more nutrients, but
less food waste, right, less stuff that's going in our
hopefully compost, but if not, it's going in our landfill.
So a couple ways that's cheating. Beat Greens are the
tops of many of those things are usable and we
should be using them. And we give you some nice

(17:47):
ways to use them in the book.

Speaker 4 (17:50):
I'm glad to do.

Speaker 3 (17:51):
I've tasted the watermelon white. I'm not sure what that is.
I don't like the taste of it, but I imagine
if you had it in there with a lot of
other things, you'd get the nutrients without just it tastes
like the rine.

Speaker 1 (18:03):
Yeah, So if you're blending, if you're eating watermelon, sure
you want to just eat the nice, delicious sweet part.
You should try to get a little white on there.
But if you can't, so be it. But if you're
making a watermelon blend, then throw that white in there.
You won't taste It's all going to be sweetened from
the other part of the watermelon. You won't taste it.
But yeah, I like that.

Speaker 3 (18:22):
I like that idea, like you, because I've always known,
like the part right under an apple you shouldn't peel
because that's where all the good stuff is, And yet
so many times you've to put in a pie or
something you end up peeling it. So I love that
idea that you get all the good parts without that
sort of to me, I don't know, like a watermelon
and an orange, that white part is always tastes a

(18:44):
little more sour than the rest.

Speaker 1 (18:46):
Yeah, it's not as sweet as the watermelon for sure.

Speaker 3 (18:49):
So as you were going through this, what was one
of your favorites?

Speaker 1 (18:54):
One of the whole impetus is for me writing the
book was so I have a co author, Colinsapire. He
invented the Nutra bullet and he now has a new
blender out called the Beast Right. So for years we
were trying to figure out how to work together. And
he's got all these colonisms that I call them colonisms,
and he's so beautiful the way he speaks and eloquence,

(19:16):
and so we were trying to figure out how to
work together, and one day I said, Colin, do you
want to write this book? And the reason I said
that is because there's a steak sauce. There's a very
famous steak sauce that I buy, and I love this
steak sauce. And I love it because there's horse radish
in it. It's the only reason I love it. I
love the taste of any vehicle for horse radish I love.
And for some reason which I always look at labels,

(19:38):
I never looked at the label on this one, and
I've decided to look at the label and I look
at it and the first four ingredients are four different
types of sugars, and a thousand other and a bunch
of other ingredients, some I couldn't even pronounce the names,
and high fruits corn syrup being one of them. And
I was like, the only reason I like this is
the horse radish. Why can't I just make this? And
I started with ketchup and horse radish, and that I

(20:00):
helped with a friend who's a cook to help me
really create a better recipes. So I love that recipe.
That's a cheat. Then you're making this on your own,
and it's got a bunch of other nutrients in it,
onions and tomatoes, and so that's up leveling your nutrition
in just a condiment. And imagine if the more you
keep doing that, eating real food, making real blends, that

(20:22):
soon your health is just You're going to really notice
a difference in your health the more that you keep
doing this.

Speaker 3 (20:28):
I think you bring up a really good point, though,
is what I want to call these mindless things that
we add pre made salad dressing sauces. Yeah, you're right,
I'm not sure I've ever read the labels. So you
got this nice organic salad and then what are you
putting on it?

Speaker 1 (20:43):
We talk a lot about salad dressings in there too. Yeah.
The whole idea is just to get people thinking, looking
at labels, thinking where can I And it's all additive.
We do not talk about diet in the book. There
is no diet. There's no deprivation because we meet people
where they are and if you can just at every
step of the way up level your nutrition a little bit,

(21:05):
soon the ball is rolling in the other direction. Right now,
most of our diets are fifty percent ultra process foods.
If we can start to really change that ratio, I
think we're going to make a huge difference in our
overall health.

Speaker 4 (21:19):
Absolutely. Now a quick question.

Speaker 3 (21:22):
I've been reading a lot about the different kinds of
powders and maybe they're not as healthy as we think,
whether it's the green powders or the protein powders or
whatever that idea. What's your thought on these additive powders
and can we make them ourselves?

Speaker 1 (21:39):
I don't know how you would make a powder yourself.
I don't know what you mean by that.

Speaker 3 (21:43):
I was just wondering, like food dehydrator and then blending it.
There was something I don't know. I'm just wondering if
there's a way to get some of the or do
we just use it the fresh greens and call it good?

Speaker 1 (21:52):
Okay, all right, great question, Thank you. Number one, best
to always eat real food. However, protein powders. I have
a whole line of powders that's coming out. I don't
even know if you knew this before we have this,
but I didn't. Congratulation, Thank you, thank you. It's my
Quench line of products. So it's all powdered to make
our lives easier. And we do have a whole section

(22:14):
of the book that discusses specifically protein powders. And the
truth is, we do want to get our protein best
from food. So it's hard to put protein in a
smoothie though, like how are you gonna? It's very hard,
But we figured out some ways and we give all
those ways. Hemp seeds, cottage, cheese. We even have a
recipe for chicken salad and a blender. There are ways

(22:35):
to get protein. Didn't see that one. It's a little,
it's a little we're going to put it in, but
it's fun. But protein powders, I think a good thing,
especially in this crazy world, grab and go world that
we live in. Once again, meet people where they are.
So I have a powdered green blend that's coming out.
It's just powdered greens. Everything's organic in there. So first

(22:57):
of all, you can't even like but it's got a
thousand things. There's the things you want to look for.
No grasses, no fillers in these powdered greens, and the
truth is there. I think like it would be especially
great for kids who hate eating greens. Right, I'm not
a mom, but I've had many parents I can't get
my kids eat greens. This is great. It tastes really good.
Like what a great way to sneak greens into your

(23:20):
kids' drinks. Or there's many people that don't eat enough
greens and they know it. So there are reasons and
places for these powders. And I am a fan, so
that's my thing. But always first eat it from Mother Nature.

Speaker 3 (23:36):
And then always check the label to mater you're getting
the real stuff. Now, when you say no grasses, is
that even things like wheat grass and stuff.

Speaker 1 (23:44):
Yeah, wheat grass is a fillery thing. It's not a
lot of nutrients in there.

Speaker 3 (23:49):
I remember years ago it was a real craze to
take like a shot of wheat grass. And I don't
know every time I did that, which was like two
or three times, because I said no, I flashback to
my childhood mowing lawns. I don't know.

Speaker 4 (24:05):
Yeah, more than I could tolerate.

Speaker 1 (24:09):
Yes, And there's a lot of new powder greens out
there on the market, so definitely look at ingredients. Make
sure there's no other additives, no sugars. I have a
greens and a fruit blend and there's no sugar in there,
so you want to also make sure they're not adding
sugar or fake sugar. The fruits are sweet enough and
it really does taste I think delicious. But the problem

(24:30):
with mine, I will be honest, is that the color
is because it's greens and fruits, it's a little almost
mud like. So if you give it to kids, they
make it a little turned off by the color, or
they may love it. It tastes great, is an important thing.

Speaker 3 (24:44):
You could always put it in one of those glasses
or those mugs that's gotta opaque color exactly cover it up.

Speaker 4 (24:53):
And a straw so they don't know what it is.

Speaker 3 (24:56):
Yeah, so as we go about our day, we're not
talking about replacing all our meals with this, right, this
is absolutely going liquid diet.

Speaker 1 (25:05):
Now, thank you for asking that too. Absolutely not. We
need to chew. We need to sit and savor our meals,
eat with people, and so much so. We actually give
a couple of recipes in the book on how to
roast a chicken, how to poach a fish, because we've
lost the art of cooking. So yes, it's mostly a

(25:26):
blender book most of the recipes, but we have a
handful of recipes on just some basic cooking tips because
we've lost that art of cooking. So yes, we do
need to eat real food, and it's not and we
don't want to. We definitely don't want to blend each
and every meal because we need to chew as well.

Speaker 3 (25:45):
So like a fine wine, we have a specific blender
drink that goes with the poached trout or something like that.
Should we come and tonight, it's says spinach and kale.

Speaker 1 (25:54):
And I love that. I'm going to have to now
go back and do some pairing since I love that.
But that's a great idea.

Speaker 3 (26:04):
Because that's what was the first thing that came to
my mind. So when I got my poached trout, I
would know exactly that if I added, you know, whatever
these ingredients, it would be a savory opportunity.

Speaker 1 (26:16):
There are no I'm sorry, there are blended sauces for
the chicken and the salmon that we say, we do
say pairs well with this Jimmy cherry sauce or whatever
it may be. Yes, we do have those.

Speaker 4 (26:28):
But now I was thinking of the smoothie.

Speaker 3 (26:30):
This is what you drink with this, like you know,
it might even be.

Speaker 1 (26:34):
Too much though, like a smoothie. Then with a big meal,
it's gonna I want you to have a salad with
that meal. You don't need a smoothie on top of
your meal. It's not all like that. I will say.
One of my other favorite things in the book, this
is my apps, and this was this was solely my idea,
not collins. Are these things we call salad shooters, and
when there's leftover salad, it never stays well the next day.

(26:57):
It's pretty gross and slimy. Think about that in a
blender and doing a shooter that you could do as
a snack or before something like It's just a great
way to consider and it may or may not be good.
It depends on what's in the salad, but it's definitely
worth trying, so less food waste. What a great way
to get extra vegetables in as a little snack. So

(27:18):
I love that whole little section on salad shooters.

Speaker 3 (27:22):
Now I was thinking about the leftovers. How long will
a smoothie stay good? Can we blend it in the
morning and pack it off to lunch, or how long.

Speaker 1 (27:33):
You can Ideally a smoothing you want to drink right away,
especially because things start to oxidize and not be so good,
But you can for a few hours if you need to,
and we give it. Like for the sauces and the
condiments which have other things in them like olive oil
or something like that, they stay a little bit longer,
and we give We looked at the expiration dates, but

(27:54):
we air it on the side of cautions. So if
you make a sauce or a condiment, it can stay
maybe five days in youror in an air type thing.
Smoothies are best eaten fairly soon after you make them,
but they could stay for a little while as well.
I don't have an exact time. I don't think it's
a great idea to blend the night before for the morning.

(28:15):
I would prep cut everything, have everything, and we talk
about prepping in the book to anything to save time,
that kind of thing, but then takes two minutes to
throw it in the blender.

Speaker 3 (28:25):
Okay, fantastic, we're talking about two minutes. We need to
take a quick two minute break and when we come
back with doctor Danacone, we're going to talk some more
about the health benefits of real food wow, as well
as smoothies, which is really exciting because I think it's
a great way to get kids to introduced into it
fruits and vegetables.

Speaker 4 (28:44):
So we'll be right back.

Speaker 2 (28:46):
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Speaker 4 (30:04):
If I could be.

Speaker 7 (30:06):
You could be me just one hour, if we could
find a way to get inside each other is mine.

Speaker 4 (30:19):
Welcome Mile and my shoes.

Speaker 5 (30:22):
Welcome Mill and my shoes. Well before you abused, criticize,
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Speaker 3 (30:36):
Welcome back, everyone to the Autoimmune Hour. I'm Sharon Saylor,
and I'm here with doctor Dina Cohen, and she is
the author of the wonderful book Quinch as well as.

Speaker 4 (30:44):
The book Fuel Up.

Speaker 3 (30:45):
I'm going to read the subtitle here, Harness the power
of your blender and cheat your way to good health.
And she's been talking all about smoothies and sauces and
other great foods that we can create from scratch that
have really good nutrition and not all of the the
dunk food that are in ultra processed foods. And so
one of the things I wanted to talk to you

(31:06):
about was, I guess making it a habit part of it.
The reason I'm always attracted, as I said, to ultraprocessed
is the speed of use. But how do we convince
ourselves to make it a habit? Have all the foods
that we need on hand and as you said, prep
them the night before, and what tips do you have
for us to build better habits in our health.

Speaker 1 (31:27):
I think that habits take what's the word where you're
doing it over and over again. Repetition, Yeah, repetition, Thank
you gosh, I know it's late. We try to make
it as easy as possible for you. So we even
give you ways to clean your blender, like how to
make these things easier for you so that you don't
have to worry about the timing in the morning. There's

(31:49):
just so many things. And then food prep and doing
I think habits come from liking what you're doing, feeling
better and so having it being sustainable and do a
right and really understanding Then why also why ultra process
foods aren't good for us. I'm going to just give
you a real example. We wrote this in the book

(32:09):
of My Life of using something of how I quit
smoking cigarettes because I was a smoker. I was a
smoker since I was a teenager, and I spoke for
a very long time, and I quit smoking when I
was probably in my late thirties, So I spoke for
close to twenty years. And I saw a psychologist who
specialized in something called harm reduction. Are you familiar with
that term?

Speaker 3 (32:29):
I think I know what it means, but what's your definition.

Speaker 1 (32:31):
The harm reduction psychotherapy? It's actually a wave of how
therapists are working towards with drug addiction and alcohol addiction
and substance abuse, and so basically it meets people where
they are right so there's no judgment. There's no judgment.
It's just complete compassion, understanding where people are and then

(32:52):
making little steps in the right direction. So for me,
when I went to the therapist, I told him that
I was a smoker. I was holistic doctor, and I
felt my self esteem was this big with every cigarette
that I smoked. And he said to me, he said,
he's imagined if you lived in France. This would be
a non issue. Everybody smokes in France. This wouldn't even

(33:16):
be an issue. Like for the self esteem part, and
he said, what's your favorite cigarette of the day. I
was like, oh, it's the one after dinner. I wanted
to go home my way to enjoy that cigarette. And
so basically he took the self esteem off my shoulders,
and within two weeks I quit smoking. And it's very
interesting how our minds work. And that is just a
very simple kind of thing. We don't even go into

(33:38):
that in depth, but we talk about harm reduction and
meeting people where they are. And we have to stop
judging ourselves. Yes, we have to stop judging others, but
stop beating ourselves up. I think I said this earlier
too the book. There's no diet, there's no deprivation, right,
We're all going to eat some ultra processed foods.

Speaker 6 (33:56):
Right.

Speaker 1 (33:57):
So the idea is, once we start just planting that seed,
how can I up level this meal? What can I
do better? It starts to always become thought like, even me,
even in writing this book, I now look at labels
even more closely, and this is something I've been doing
my whole career and saying I don't really need that.
I don't need that. There was a yogurt that I

(34:19):
really liked. I started getting a better yogurt that has
less ingredients. These are the It takes education, it takes compassion,
and it takes repetition.

Speaker 3 (34:29):
I liked your idea of harm reduction mine my guilty
pleasure of sugar, and.

Speaker 1 (34:35):
Does the idea thank you for like most people, yes.

Speaker 3 (34:38):
And the idea I like that idea of what is
my favorite time to have a bite of something that's
sweet for me?

Speaker 4 (34:45):
It's after dinner too.

Speaker 3 (34:46):
I can go the entire day of work, but something
about a little treat after dinner.

Speaker 4 (34:52):
And before bed.

Speaker 3 (34:54):
I don't know, it's like a comfort thing. And I
love that idea of Okay.

Speaker 1 (35:00):
If that's your thing, start playing around with some better
choices of what that treat is going to be. Rather
it be some I don't know, twizzlers or something. Now,
maybe consider making something better or healthier and seeing if
that does it and working at what can be a
better choice how to up level that.

Speaker 3 (35:20):
Well, what I think I'll do is make many shooters
of some of your sweeter like the citrus smoothies in there,
you have an ice creams, you have ice cream recipes,
then you.

Speaker 1 (35:29):
Have desserts in there too. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, there's a
lot you can do. That's the thing. You have to
make an effort. That is, it does take a little
bit of effort too, So it's putting some thought. I'm
sure if you google healthy sweet treats, you're going to
find a thousand recipes of something like, oh, you know what,
that sounds great, let me try that. It doesn't have

(35:50):
to be a blender thing. But it's just thinking about
it and putting a little bit of action towards it.

Speaker 3 (35:54):
I'm going to go tangental on you really quick, though.
What about alternative sugars? I've read so much about they're
all bad, and then some people say, oh, but this
one's okay. So what about alternative sugars?

Speaker 1 (36:06):
When you say alternative sugars, so I'm going to just
name brands sweet and low equal, saccharin splendor, those need
to go. They're not good for us and they mess
up our microbiomes. I think that there's enough research that
I can say that as far as other sugar substitutes,
Stevia is good, Lohan or monk food is good. And

(36:27):
then there's a newer one called alulose, which is really
proving to be almost even healthier, like it may improve
blood sugar. And that was a small study that was done,
so there's some interesting research. But alulos, as far as
I'm concerned, tastes incredible. It tastes just like sugar, and
it's widely available in it. I don't know if it's
in the grocery stores, but it's easily gotten. And then

(36:50):
there's also maple syrup and honey. Those are better choices
than table sugar.

Speaker 4 (36:56):
I'm a honey fan. I'm glad you bring that up.

Speaker 3 (36:59):
What amazed me when I go to Europe how multiple
varieties of honey there are, like from the BlackBerry plant
to the raspberry plant to whatever.

Speaker 4 (37:09):
It's amazing.

Speaker 3 (37:10):
I love honey's and only recently now my farmer's market
did I meet a beekeeper who has probably a dozen
varieties of honey.

Speaker 4 (37:18):
And what surprises me.

Speaker 3 (37:19):
About honey is that the depth of multiple flavors. I
love to cook now with honey because it's sometimes it
tastes savory and other times it's very sweet, depending on
how the bees produced it.

Speaker 1 (37:33):
But so interesting.

Speaker 4 (37:35):
Yeah, I've a big fan of honey.

Speaker 1 (37:37):
That would be a really nice thing. You know, I
have like olive oil tastings now, like you could do
like instead of a wine tastings, you could do an
olive oil tasting. I bet there's like honey tastings now
you could do that, which would be nice.

Speaker 3 (37:48):
You go to my local farmer's market. He actually has
little sticks and he'll tell you. He'll say, what kind
of foods do you like? And he'll like, like the wine,
He'll go, this will fair.

Speaker 1 (37:58):
Oh, I love it. I think that's fantaantastic. I love
that idea.

Speaker 3 (38:02):
I think talking about olive oil, we have just about
an hour from my home, we have an olive farmer
I guess they're called, and he has an old stone
grinding oil thing, and so every October November you can
go down to his farm and they'll be making the
olive oil from their summer stock. And I had never

(38:26):
tasted fresh olive oil, like right after wow, talk about polyphenoals.

Speaker 1 (38:32):
Yes, yes, so great, so great. I did an olive
oil tasting when I was in Italy and it was
an incredible experience. Like you, it's when and for anybody's
never had really good fresh olive oil it is. It's
so different. It's so fresh and vibrant and bright and
almost bitter too. Sometimes you feel those polyphenales doing their work.

Speaker 3 (38:54):
He was great, like, I forget the particular kind of olive,
but he said, did you get this little paper cup
like a little dab And she said, now throw it
all the way back. And I was glad I did
because it was so strong. But what amazed me about
it was it really taught me what olive oil is,
because now I read about all the adulterated olive oils,

(39:17):
and now I'm reading about adulterated avocado oils too, which
is so disappointing that it's so hard to know. But
it was fun to actually taste honeys and have such
a wide variety. Yes, mew, honey was always honey in
the little Plastic Bear, and I have discovered a whole
new world of honey as well. It's now a holy

(39:38):
world of olive oil.

Speaker 1 (39:39):
Yeah, I love it. I love it. Yeah, So honey
honey is great. We don't talk about this in the
book because once again, no diet of deprivation. But if
you have blood sugar issues that may pose a risk
for you speak to your doctor. Obviously it's hard, we're
speaking to everybody, but by all means, honey is a
far better choice than a table sugar.

Speaker 3 (39:57):
The thing that surprised me about sugar is you may
mentioned in that sauce that you liked it had all
these sugars in it. And that's the thing that understanding
the labels is the different ways that sugar is labeled.
It doesn't always just say sugar or table sugar. It
can be labeled in many different ways. To understand really

(40:19):
what it's telling you is how much of that is
really sugar.

Speaker 1 (40:23):
Yeah, there's a few things, and it's interesting as I
experience an age and learn, I do better, I learn
better and I can say things better. Once again, that
whole diet and deprivation, we have to be very careful
about how we speak, right. There's a few things that
I am very much the hard rules. Right. So one

(40:44):
is trans fats. We really want to get trans fats
out of our diet. We all know that I would
hope at this point high fruit toast corn syrup. So
that's a sugar that I really we don't need. If
it's on the label, try to get rid of it.
Once again, if you're going to have it once in
a while, so be it. But those are two things.
The other thing is, oh alcohol, This is the thing

(41:04):
about alcohol we all have once again, we have to
pick our poisons in this world. If you like to
have a cocktail every so now and then sure, fine,
so be it. However, the research is showing that we
should all be striving for zero alcohol. So those are
like the three big things that I'm a little bit
of a stickler on. And make sure that you're hydrating, well,
that's something that you have to stay on top of

(41:25):
day in and day out, almost hour by hour. Like
you need to make sure you're hydrating enough, not too much,
not too little, And whether that's either drinking your water
or eating your water, that's something that you need to
stay on top of. Your diet can be a little fluid,
so to speak. Like I said, we're not going to
all eat perfectly every single day, but if you strive

(41:47):
to push the nutrients, push real food, you are going
to be so much better off in the long run.

Speaker 4 (41:55):
Fantastic.

Speaker 3 (41:56):
I'm going to go tangentle on you again because this
came to my mind, especially with smoothies, what about adding dairy.
I know you mentioned jogrit and things, but we'll just
say milk versus alternative milks.

Speaker 4 (42:08):
I've read all sorts of research.

Speaker 3 (42:10):
About different types of alternative milks and which ones are
better than the others, and then also read the label
for mulcifiers. Part of me just wants to say, oh, shoot,
just have milk.

Speaker 1 (42:22):
I get it. I totally get it. I will say,
in my experience as a functional medicine holistic doctor, many
people are sensitive to dairy, and I do think that
as we get older, too, we lack the enzymes that
it takes to break down dairy as well. I think
that we lose those enzymes. A little bit of dairy
is probably okay in many people, but just for those

(42:44):
reasons alone, I don't think that pure milk and you're
smoothie is a great idea. I think for the nut
milks and for those things more for the protein content
is going to be better. And yeah, you should look
at labels. There's lots of good ones out there that
are just a few ingredient nut milks, they do exist,
Coconut water, coconut milks, those are good. They definitely have flavors.
So you got to find what you like. But the

(43:05):
truth is, you can make your smoothies with water. It
doesn't have to be milk. It doesn't even in that milk.

Speaker 3 (43:10):
That didn't never dawn on me because I've always been
the one that adds yogurt.

Speaker 4 (43:15):
I like the beginning agent.

Speaker 1 (43:17):
That it comes. It's becoming a meal, it's not becoming
a drink. So as a breakfast, then yeah, you can
definitely add a little yogurt or cottage cheese for protein,
like a little bit better protein, those kind of things.
If you're not sensitive to dairy, which is a problem
in many.

Speaker 3 (43:33):
Exactly, I have family members that are extremely sensitive to dairy,
so that's important to know. So we're down to just
about the last five minutes. You're just such a wealth
of knowledge. I love talking to you.

Speaker 4 (43:45):
I love the book. It's fantastic, everybody. I'm going to
tell you the name again.

Speaker 3 (43:49):
Fuel up, harness the power of your blender, and cheat
your way to good health. Any final thoughts and tips,
and then tell us more about where we can get
the book, and even tell us where we can find
Quinch too, because that's a book that changes the way
I viewed hydration.

Speaker 1 (44:04):
So make your breakfast a smoothie. That's a great habit
to really try to start to strive for and think
about what you're eating for breakfast now, and how can
you up level that and think about how what you
can put into is smoothie to get more fruits and
vegetables and fiber.

Speaker 3 (44:20):
We got a couple of minutes, so give us your
best shot on fiber.

Speaker 1 (44:23):
None of us get enough fiber, So what's a great
way to do it. Blend up some vegetables and fruits, right,
that's a real good way if you know you're not
getting enough and if you having GI issues and you
definitely want to start slow, but you can put fiber
powdered fibers in into your blends is what we call them.
And there's so much information about fiber feeding our good bacteria,

(44:46):
helping prevent colon cancer, keeping our bowels going smoother. You
do want to be a little careful if you're not
used to it. Those start off slow and make sure
that you're hydrating enough if you're adding any kind of fiber,
so you want to make sure you're drinking enough water
to help that fiber goes through you easier. But yeah,
fiber is super important and none of us are getting enough.

Speaker 3 (45:07):
Is there specific fruits and vegetables that are higher in
fiber or are they about the same.

Speaker 1 (45:13):
No, I think there's definitely some. The first thing, for
some reason that flew into my mind, our pears are
very high in fiber. There's a good fiber fruit.

Speaker 3 (45:22):
It's funny you mentioned that years ago. He's a sense
left our earthly plane. But I had a chiropractor friend
who would always say when pear season was here, he
was handing out pears like Halloween candy.

Speaker 1 (45:35):
Love pears, and they might they just love the taste
of pears. Yeah, they're really delicious fruit. And yeah, I
think we're coming into the season. Yes we are.

Speaker 3 (45:45):
And if you're lucky enough, I think this little side note,
if you're lucky enough to live where they grow, one
of my favorite things to do now with my grandchildren
is go up to the orchards and actually pick the fruit.
I'm telling you they're much more likely to eat it
if they just took it off the tree.

Speaker 1 (46:02):
So fun I'm getting shared. I'm going to tell you
I have people in my life who have these incredible,
amazing gardens, and they really are amazing, And these are
like some extraordinarily wealthy people, and honestly, there's nothing that
brings them more joy than going to their garden in
the morning and picking a fruit and eating it. And

(46:24):
anybody who's ever picked your own fruit, like it is
the most joyful thing that you can do. I don't,
and I can't explain it until you've done it. So yes,
go pick the fruit if you can grow one fruit thing.
I lived in the city, I lived in a story.
I had a blueberry bush on my terrace and it
was the greatest thing in the world to pull off

(46:44):
a few blueberries in the morning and eat it. So
if you can't do that, you can and on over
the counter herb garden is so satisfying and fun. But yes,
you're exactly right.

Speaker 3 (46:55):
I have a dear friend who lives what i'll call
in a food desert and came up here and went
apple picking with this one fall. And now he says
I've ruined him because he's become an apple snob.

Speaker 1 (47:08):
So I love it.

Speaker 3 (47:11):
So when he goes and finds apples in his location,
he said, they're never the same, and I'm like, what,
You'll just have to come back up here during apple season. Yes, yes, yeah, Well, Dana,
it's always a pleasure to see you. I'm so excited
for your new book. It's called Fuel Up Everyone. It's
a great book, and it's not just about smoothies, as
doctor Dana mentioned, It's got lots of great health ideas

(47:34):
and we can all do with fueling up our bodies better.

Speaker 4 (47:38):
I think that's the one thing that.

Speaker 3 (47:40):
I have learned in this decade of doing the show
is that food really is the quickest way to heal.
Having the right foods and understanding diet nutrition that's really important.
And you are always a wealth of information, my dear
friend and everyone. I'd gotten a little pre release copy
and I know the book is coming out October.

Speaker 4 (48:00):
Sixth, is that right?

Speaker 1 (48:01):
Sorry?

Speaker 3 (48:02):
October eighth, October eighth, Okay, I was speeding it up
everyone because it's a great book. Please pre order her
book if you would, because it really helps drive those
algorithms to get this book up there to maybe let's
cross our fingers number one, absolutely to help everyone fuel
up and really up level your nutrition so you'll have

(48:23):
your best life. Where's the best place to pre order?
Is that on your website?

Speaker 1 (48:28):
Amazon? Just Amazon dot com. A Bronze and Noble, okay anywhere. Yes,
if you go to my website though, you'll get some
free little gifts if you send your book number, your
order number, that you'll have some recipes before you even
get the book. So Dr Dana Cohen and follow me
on Instagram at the same at Dr Dana Cohen.

Speaker 3 (48:47):
Oh, that's fantastic, and it's d R d A N
A c h e N dot com. Yes, perfect, Doctor
Dana Cohen. So everyone pre order the book. Let's drive
sales for her and get that book out there to
the masses who needed so that everybody can really enjoy
long life and health and actually good food. We're in

(49:10):
the process enjoying what we're actually eating. So everyone have
a great week, whatever your adventures. Joined me next week
for another brand new episode.

Speaker 2 (49:20):
Enjoy the information provided on The auto Immune Hour, Understanding
Autoimmune and Life Interrupted Radio, including the websites Understanding Autoimmune
dot com and Life Interrupted Radio dot com plus social
media is for educational purposes only. Which you read, hear,
and see on The auto Immune Hour, Understanding Autoimmune and
Life Interrupted Radio and its websites and other media outlets
is based on experience only. The information should never be

(49:40):
used for any legal diagnostic or treatment purposes.

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Dr. Dana Cohen - Can You Cheat Your Way to Better Health?

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Dr. Dana Cohen - Can You Cheat Your Way to Better Health?