Digital Social Hour - Courtney Swan On Forever Plastics, Birth Control, Oat Milk & Household Cleaning Products | DSH #209

Episode Date: January 3, 2024

On today's episode of Digital Social Hour, Courtney Swan aka realfoodology reveals the dangers of forever plastics, birth control, oat milk, household cleaning products, kitchen appliances, breast implants and "natural" flavors. APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://forms.gle/qXvENTeurx7Xn8Ci9 BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] SPONSORS: Gusto: https://www.gusto.com/social LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We don't have to be on birth control, even if you don't want to have kids. Women were told that we can get pregnant any day of the month. This actually is not true. We can only really get pregnant between about six to eight days in a month. Whoa.

And so why are we suppressing our ovulation for 30 days when we only have about a six to eight day window? Yeah, I thought it could just happen any day. Yeah, no, it's not true. I know. Wow, they don't teach this stuff. I know. Welcome back to the show, guys. Digital Social Hour. I'm your host, Sean Kelly,

here with an awesome guest for you guys today, Courtney Swan. How's it going? Good. How are you? Thanks so much for having me. I'm good. I can't wait to learn about health today. Yeah, I'm very excited to be here. Yeah, I take health very serious. So it's something that like growing up, you're not really realizing how much stuff you're doing wrong. And then you it later and you're like wow yeah well unfortunately it's not really taught in schools right like for some reason we don't really teach we teach the very basics of nutrition but outside of that a lot of what i talk about is really not mainstream known and we're not

teaching it to kids and so you have to go through um for the most part what's happening is a lot of people are getting really sick and then they're realizing, oh my God, I'm being exposed to all these different chemicals and there's pesticides in my food and I'm eating a lot of really inflammatory foods. And then they get sick before they realize like, wow, I really need to pay attention to this and start changing my diet. Right. So what foods have a lot of pesticides in them? So they're, well, okay. So it depends if you're not eating organic, it's pretty much guaranteed that there's pesticides on there. Unless of course, if you're going to the farmer's market, if you're going to the farmer's market and you can actually talk to the farmers that are growing

the food and ask them, are you using pesticides and herbicides, fungicides, stuff like that? Many times they just don't have the resources and the money to pay for the organic stamp because it's very expensive. But if you're just going into a conventional grocery store, it's pretty much guaranteed that if you're buying conventional and you're not buying organic, they're being sprayed with pesticides. And well, let me clarify this because a lot of people, I get heat about this a lot on Instagram because people will say, well, organic is sprayed with pesticides too. That is true. But the ones that we have studied the most and that we know to be very harmful for human health are the ones that are being banned in organic produce. Like for example, glyphosate, which is being sprayed very heavily

on our produce here in America. And that's one that's being sprayed very heavily on conventional, but it is banned in organic. Interesting. And what exactly, so glyphosate, what does that do to the body? Ooh, a lot of different things. So it acts like an antibiotic. And we know now that this is really detrimental to our gut health. Because what happens is that it kills off not only the bad bacteria in our body, but also the good bacteria. And we need the good bacteria in our body for our guts, or sorry, in our guts for our immune system.

That's what it plays like a 98% role in our overall immune system. And we know that there's a direct connection between our gut and our brain with the vagus nerve. And so it's not only affecting our guts, but as a result, it's affecting our brains as well. And then not to mention pesticides in general, especially with glyphosate, there's a lot of research coming out right now that there's a massive connection with cancer. And if you look up Monsanto and their litigations that they've been through, it's now Bayer. So Bayer bought out Monsanto and they are in major litigations right now with farmers that are getting these crazy, really aggressive forms of cancer from using glyphosate.

Wait, farmers are getting cancer? Yeah, in really, really big, high numbers right now. Whoa, that's scary. It's really scary. And so again, I tell people this too. Not only should we be concerned about our health, but also the health of the workers that are on the farms every day. And if you want to make sure that we're taking care of their health

as well, you want to buy organic because they're not being exposed to these really harmful toxic compounds. Man, that's scary. One of the things you talk about a lot also is these forever chemicals. So what, what foods have those in it? Uh, what foods have what in the forever chemicals? Okay. So this is a tricky one because it's not actually in our food. So forever chemicals are compounds. There's many different ones. The most famous ones that we know about right now are PFASs or sometimes people call them PFAs. Forever chemicals mean that they don't break down easily in the environment, so they don't break down for decades. The reason why they're showing up in our food is because we've been using them in for

example like non-stick cookware so anything that says non-stick there was a a compound used called teflon that was being used a lot in non-stick pans they've since i think for the most part phased out teflon but now there's other compounds that are forever chemicals that are being put in these nonstick compounds, basically. And you find them in everything. Waffle makers, air fryers, the toaster ovens, anything that has that nonstick coating. Wow. And then we're also now seeing it. I was just reading about this this morning.

Actually, there was a study done pretty recently that they're finding these PFA forever chemicals in the wrappings of. Shout out to today's sponsor, Gusto. Something always comes up when you're running a small business. Well, Gusto's payroll and HR services can make that a little easier for you guys. Gusto was designed for you, a small business owner. They take the pain out of running a business, automatically calculating paychecks, filing payroll taxes, setting up open enrollment, all that stuff you don't like to do, Gusto does it all. If you want even more, they do time tracking, they do health insurance, they do 401k, onboarding, commuter benefits, other letters.

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I know. I used to like Chick-fil-A. My boyfriend loves Chick-fil-A and I was dropping all this on him this morning. I was like, I'm sorry. You broke his heart. I know. Yeah, I had to stop eating fast food because other than that it's just not the healthiest yeah yeah i mean outside of of that you're already being exposed to these toxic chemicals but then it's not real food yeah yeah man it feels like we're just constantly dodging landmines these days we really are like what type

of diet are you on right now so i my biggest thing is i always try to eat organic whenever possible and i always tell people look it's not about striving for perfection it's about striving for consistency for example on this trip i mean you know i was eating out i was eating at restaurants that aren't aren't serving organic food and you do the best you can but we have the most control in our own homes so when you're buying your groceries at home make sure if you you can buy all organic. And so I eat mostly organic. I have to be gluten-free because I've had a wheat allergy that was diagnosed like 13 years ago. And then I really just try to focus on real food.

I don't really subscribe to any particular diet per se. I just try to eat whole real foods in their natural state as much as possible. Nice. Yeah, you can't go wrong with that. Yeah, exactly. One of the things I've seen you talk about that's kind of controversial is birth control. You're not a fan of it. No, this is one of my favorite topics to talk about. Actually, I think women were sold a lie with birth control. And I know that's very controversial statement to make, but we were sold that it's this very empowering compound

that will give us our life back in our careers. And I don't want to discount that, of course. And I think at the time that it had amazing potential. But the problem is that what we now know about birth control is that it shuts off our ovulation. And this is so much more important than just fertility. Even if women don't want to have kids, ovulation serves so much more of a role in your life than just fertility. It's our overall vitality. And I tell women that your monthly period is your report card for your health. And so depending on how well your body and how well your menstrual cycle is and your ovulation is going to tell a lot about your overall health of your body. And what happens with birth control

is they shut ovulation, these hormones, these synthetic hormones shut ovulation off. So you're not even ovulating at all, which is a very natural process that women's bodies need to go through. And then it replaces our hormones with synthetic hormones. And we've been told that birth control balances hormones. This is not the case. It completely just negates all of our hormones, replaces our hormones with synthetic ones. And then it puts us at a higher risk for cancer, blood clots, which have killed many women, unfortunately, all sorts of autoimmune disorders. And then not to mention, there's a direct connection

with birth control and depression. And there was a study done in Sweden in 2018 where they studied 800,000 women from the ages of eight to 30, or I'm sorry, 12 to 30. And what they found was that they had a much higher incident of women going on antidepressants after going on birth control because of the effect on the mood. That's so crazy. Cause like so many people are on it.

I know it's really sad. Well, and now that we know all this, I try to tell people like, look, there's no shame. Um, it's pushed so hard on women. I know so many of my friends that were put on birth control when they were like 13 and they've been on it. Yeah. For like 10 years. And so if you've been on it for a long time, there's no shame in that. We do the best we can until we, you know, we know better. And then we do better with the knowledge that we have. And so knowing this and knowing that there's so many other options now that we have and that we don't have to be on birth control, even if you don't want to have kids, there's other ways like taking your basal temperature every morning and there's apps that track it. I use something called natural cycles.

And what it does is it takes an average of my temperature because I link it to my aura ring. It takes an average of my temperature throughout the entire night. And then in the morning, I sync my aura ring with my natural cycles app. And then it tells me whether or not I'm fertile that day. Really? So you can know that day? Yeah. And that's another thing is that women were told that we can get pregnant any day of the month. This actually is not true.

We can only really get pregnant between about six to eight months, or sorry, six to eight days in a month. And so why are we suppressing our ovulation for 30 days when we only have about a six to eight day window? Yeah, I thought it could just happen any day. Yeah, no, it's not true. I know. Wow. They don't teach this stuff. I know. Six to eight days. That's only like a week out of the month. Exactly. Yeah. And then during that time, like with my app, I mean, you just either abstain or you do other things, you know, for protection and then you're fine.

That's good to know for a lot of girls watching because yeah, it used to be like almost cool if you were on birth control in high school. Oh, I remember. It's so funny that you say that. So when I was in high school, the majority of my girlfriends got put on birth control when we were young. Like none of my friends were even having sex and everyone was just getting on it to like balance their hormones or for their acne or whatever. And I remember begging my mom. I was like, oh, my friends are on it.

It's so cool to be on birth control. And she was like, no, absolutely not. Yeah. Oh, so she helped you. Wow. She did. Yeah. My mom did the same with, they tried to put me on ADD medication in like fourth grade or something. And I was like, no, I want this. Like, it'll make me cool. That shit's terrible for you. It's terrible. Yeah. You mentioned acne earlier. So have there been any linkages with diet and acne or supplements? Yeah. So the thing with acne is that anything that's happening on your skin is a symptom that something is off balance in your body. It's your body trying to tell you that something is off.

And I tell people that's the same thing with, say, eczema or psoriasis. It's a symptom that your body is trying to tell you, like a warning sign, like, hey, we need to pay attention to this. Acne is inflammatory, and it's often linked to certain foods. So a lot of people have dairy sensitivities. So I tell people, if you're struggling with acne, I would first cut out any, well, first of all, cut out dairy. There's also a link with really high levels of B12. And I actually learned this from my friend, Celeste Thomas. She's an amazing follow on Instagram, by the way. She specifically healed her acne with her diet. And she did a

video once that blew my mind. So you know those Celsius drinks? They're really high in B vitamins. And apparently, they're so high in B vitamins, they can actually be leading to your acne. And then all these women were writing comments saying like, oh my god, wait, I drink like two a day and I've been really struggling with acne. So there's a big link with B vitamins. Also, if you're not eating organic meat that's being injected with antibiotics and hormones, the hormones are also going to probably disrupt your gut and lead to inflammation with acne. And then I would also say seed oils. They're incredibly inflammatory and any sort of nuts. If you're eating a ton

of nuts, there's also a link to acne. I noticed that cause I used to eat those and I'd break out instantly. Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting. I didn't know about the B vitamins. I just ordered B6 last night. So now I'm a little skeptical. Well, you just want to make sure that your B levels are in range and you're not taking super high levels. Usually what happens, cause I don't want to scare people because B vitamins are incredibly important. And to be honest, most people are deficient. Where we get into a problem is if you're taking a B vitamin every day and then you're drinking, let's say, an energy drink that's really high in B vitamins, and then you have something else. Because I feel like they're putting vitamins in so many different drinks and foods and stuff now that you just want to be

careful that you're not going over the limit. Yeah, that's good to know. One of the things I like that you do on your social media is you go to the grocery store, you go aisle by aisle, you film like, oh, this is good, this is bad for you. What are some things you've seen companies do to hide bad ingredients on their packaging? You know, so one thing that's really funny, they'll put different names for different foods.

Like, for example, rapeseed, which is such a horrible name for an oil. Rapeseed oil is found in like a lot of oat milks. And rapeseed is just another word for canola oil because canola comes from the rapeseed. And so they're trying, which is so funny because rapeseed is such an aggressive word. But they know that people are now starting to pay attention

to like, let's say canola oil. So they'll put a different word on there for the compound. Another one is instead of having to, so when you look at an ingredient label, the ingredients are in order with how much each ingredient is in there. So let's say for example, you're looking at a package and the first ingredient is cane sugar. That means that there's more cane sugar than anything else in this product. So often what companies will do in order to make it look like there's not as much sugar in there is that they'll break up the sugar

into a bunch of different words and different forms of it. So then it'll be a lot lower down the list and maybe they're hoping that people won't notice it. So for example, they'll put like coconut sugar and then down the line, it'll be like malitol or dextrose or like all these different words.

And I encourage people listening to just Google this. There's something like 30 different words or like forms of sugar now. Like I said, dextrose, it's a corn sweetener. There's malitol. Obviously there's like high fructose corn syrup. There's cane sugar, there's coconut sugar. There's so many different forms of it. And they'll break it up into a couple different ones and then try

to kind of hide it in there that's scary yeah there there's a really big thing happening right now called green washing and i always tell people make sure that you're not just buying your packages based off of the advertising on the front because that's really all it is it's like a billboard for the product on the front you always want to turn it around and look at the back and look at the ingredients because the front is going to of course sell you like this is natural and they're going to try to depict a photo of you know hens roaming like grass pastures or whatever you know and then you look at the back and you see that it's full of sugar and inflammatory oils and you know processed ingredients so you always want to make sure that you're reading the

ingredient labels man i can't believe there's canola and oat milk they were marketing that like it was healthy like a milk alternative i know it's really unfortunate yeah yeah i'm not a fan of oat milk and i can tell you why what because of the seed oil or yeah so there's a couple different reasons even if you're making it at home the problem with oat milk is that i call it starch juice it's really really starchyarchy milk. And so what happens is people are often having it first thing in the morning on an empty stomach in a latte, and it's going to raise your blood sugar levels. And then what happens is that afterwards, then you crash and then you crave more sugar. And if you have a really starchy, sugary foods

or drinks first thing in the morning, you're going to be chasing that sugar all day because your body is going to be looking for that quick fix, that quick energy. And so you're going to be raising your blood sugar, crashing, going up and down. And we really want to focus on really satiety, like filling foods first thing in the morning. And that's like protein, good, healthy fats. Like this morning I had smoked salmon with a little bit of guacamole and an egg. And I had gluten-free toast, but you really want to focus on more like high protein, high fat. And the thing with oat milk is that it's going to cause your blood sugar to crash. Not to mention, I mentioned glyphosate earlier.

Glyphosate is an herbicide that is very heavily sprayed on non-organic food in this country right now. Oats is one of the most sprayed crops in this country right now with glyphosate. And they're spraying it really heavily on oats. So if you're not getting organic oat milk, which the majority of them are not, you're basically getting starchy glyphosate juice. That's gross to think about.

I know, it's really gross. Oh man. One of the things they also say is natural flavors on the packaging, but that's actually not good for you, right? Yeah, it's interesting. So there's artificial flavors, which is, you know, artificial flavors is pretty self-explanatory. And then there's natural, which is really confusing. The problem with natural flavors, and I want to reiterate this, not every single one of them is bad. But the problem with natural flavors and why so many people are sounding the alarms is that it's an umbrella term and there's hundreds of different chemicals and or ingredients compounds that can be classified

under natural flavors and so if the company themselves is not transparent about what goes into their natural flavors you really have no idea what goes in there i mean there's um like years ago i found out about this and i was so grossed out. There's a, I forgot what the actual compound is called, but it's for vanilla flavoring. They use a, something that comes out of a beaver's ass. I saw this. Yeah. And this is true. You can look this up. But they consider it natural because it's coming from an animal. And so that's the biggest problem with natural flavors. And so, you know, sometimes like on my Instagram, I'll post something that with natural flavors and so you know sometimes like on my instagram i'll post something that has natural flavors and people will be like oh i thought you said to avoid them i only consume them from companies that i know that are very transparent about their ingredients

right what about sugar-free oh yeah this is i always joke am i allowed to cuss on this show okay so i always joke that sugar-free is basically a chemical storm it's like another word for chemical storm because you can almost guarantee that if it says sugar-free on the front of the package, that it's gonna have artificial sweeteners. Now there's a big difference between something like a natural sweetener. Like if you get 100% pure stevia

or 100% pure monk fruit, those are both naturally occurring in nature. Stevia is a plant and monk fruit is called monk fruit because the monks were the ones that first started consuming it and it comes from a fruit um but the problem is is that the majority of these companies saying that they're sugar-free are using things like aspartame um ace k or uh i always forget how to say i say call it ace k but it's ace a sulfame potassium i always forget how to say that um aspartame and sucralose.

And the problem with these artificial sweeteners is they've actually both been under heat the last month or so in the news because aspartame, the World Health Organization, is about to deem a possible human carcinogen. Whoa. Yeah. And it's a really long time coming because actually back in, I believe it was the 80s,

when they were first trying to introduce it into the food supply, there was a top scientist that was trying to block that from it being allowed in our food because he was seeing a possible link to tumors. And this was back in the 80s. Yeah, and now the World Health Organization is like, okay, we're about to name this as a possible human carcinogen, meaning that there's a big connection to cancer.

And then with sucralose, it's also known as splenda and it's found in a lot of energy drinks and a lot of the sugar-free products that we see and there was a study that just came out linking it to leaky gut syndrome which i'll explain in a second and then they also named it a genotoxin which means that it damages our dna geez yeah it pretty wild. They used to have that at every restaurant, like in the container. I know it's really, it's really concerning. And every time I post about this, people write me and say, Oh, but it says in the study, you have to consume X amount of it for it to be a problem. But the problem in the study that they found is that it bioaccumulates, meaning that over time it accumulates more in your body. It's not like your body just flushes it out and gets

rid of it. It accumulates in the body. So's not like your body just flushes it out and gets rid of it. It accumulates in the body. So even if you're having a little bit here and there, what happens if you're drinking it every single day for three years? That's scary. So it just stays in your body? Yeah, that's probably not good for you then. No, it's really bad.

You also talk about beauty products and the effects that they have on your body. What are some of the effects they can have? Yeah, so this is a newer concept for a lot of people, but we forget that our skin is our largest organ. So whatever you're putting on your body is going to end up in your bloodstream because it seeps through our pores. And beauty products are a big concern because they're not as regulated as people think. There was a documentary, and the name of the documentary is, I've lost it, so I'll give it to you later

if you want to put it in the show notes, but it was pretty incredible. It was just a couple years ago, and they were basically revealing all of the dirty things about our beauty products, and one of the most concerning ones was that many of the pressed powders, so like eyeshadow,

any sort of powder, like blush, anything that women put on their face, has something called talc in it, and while talc is a naturally occurring element, it also has another naturally occurring element called asbestos. And they were finding this talc was really, really high in asbestos. And you know, what happens when you spread a powder on your face? Well, you're also inhaling it in your lungs. So there's a really big connection apparently with that. And many different cancers in women, which is really concerning. Also, a lot of these beauty products contain

fragrance and fragrance similar to natural flavors is an umbrella term. So companies can put basically any chemical compound they want in there and just call it fragrance. And we have no idea what's actually in there. Wow. Yeah. And it's incredibly concerning because fragrance is now, um, being linked to various cancers. It's also being called an endocrine disruptor,. And it's incredibly concerning because fragrance is now being linked to various cancers. It's also being called an endocrine disruptor, meaning that it's disrupting our endocrine systems and our endocrine systems are what run our hormones. And if you are disrupting your endocrine system, it can lead to cancers or thyroid issues or autoimmune disorders. And when you look at the amount of beauty products that women put on their body every single day between, let's think about like, let's just go through like a woman's day right so shampoo conditioner

body wash then you get out of the shower and you put on lotion fragrance any sort of skincare products and then makeup and they they believe that on average most women are putting 168 different chemicals on their body every single day and we have no idea what the effects are of that when they're all mixed in the body, right? It's pretty concerning. Yeah. And then there's one more with beauty products that's concerning. They put a lot of preservatives in there and it makes sense because obviously they want it to last for a long time. But the problem is, is that there's one called parabens. There's like a bunch of different parabens that are used that are preservatives.

And there's been a link to a lot of different disorders, a possible link to cancer. So it's just we're putting too many chemicals on our body in and around our body that, you know, it's concerning over time because our bodies are very resilient. And I like to remind people of this. When I tell this, I know it's a lot of information and it can be really scary. But one really cool empowering thing is that our bodies are incredibly resilient and we're meant to take a certain amount of stress on. The problem is, is that because we're getting exposed

in so many different areas right now, it's like our tap water, it's pesticides in our food, it's in our beauty products, it's in our cleaning products that we need to be mindful and try to, it's all about lessening your burden, right? It's not like about being completely perfect. No one's perfect, we're gonna get exposed, it's all about lessening your burden, right? It's not like about being completely perfect. No one's perfect. We're going to get exposed.

It's okay. You have to just like let it go and try not to stress about it. Do the best you can. Limit your toxin burden load as much as possible. Buy non-toxic beauty products. Buy non-toxic cleaning products. Filter your water. Don't drink tap water.

And then another great way is to just focus on detoxing your body. You want to support the detoxification pathways of the body. Sweat, if you have access to a sauna, that's an amazing, incredible way to sweat. You can also just literally go for a run outside. Another really accessible way if you don't have a sauna, draw a really hot bath and put a ton of Epsom salts in there. Hot enough to where it's not burning you, but hot enough to where it will cause you to sweat. And then also like if you have access to it, if you can get lymphatic massages, that's another great way. If you have a partner, have

your partner give you a massage. Cause if you stimulate the lymph system, lymph system is basically like our sewage of our body and it's what helps, helps get rid of all the toxins. How do you stimulate that? So you can look it up online. There's different like movements that you can do a lot of women are starting to use something called a gosh gua sha tool that they use on their face but i would encourage people to just google it because i don't know how to explain the whole process okay and then you can look up online there's like different like movements and stuff there's a lot of lymphatic uh therapists out there that post youtube videos yeah and they'll show you like different movements that you can do on your arms and on your body. And then I would say, lastly, take some supplements,

um, that help to support those detoxification pathways of the liver because everything we get exposed to goes through our liver, everything we eat, everything we drink, everything that's on our skin, everything we inhale, everything gets pushed out through the liver. So we, I tell everyone that you probably want to be taking some sort of liver support. I like a brand called, or I don't remember the brand, but it's a supplement called Liver Rescue that's amazing. It has like milk thistle in there, which is really good for the liver.

And then there's also glutathione, which is the body's master antioxidant. We produce it, but if you want to supplement it as well, it's also going to help support those detoxification pathways. Man, this is so good to know. Yeah, I just switched to like natural shampoo natural deodorant conditioner body wash that's amazing my whole life i wasn't even aware that i know i know and it's concerning and most people aren't and so that's why you know i said this very early on in the show but if you are using

those products right now there's no shame in it you know like this isn't common knowledge you know we're not being taught this conventionally and so once you learn this just do better you know yeah even cleaning products now right like laundry pods dish detergent pods yeah all of that stuff yeah so the laundry one is really concerning because i think a lot of people don't make this connection so what you're washing your clothes with um obviously your clothes you're wearing all day especially if you like go to the gym and you work out it opens your pores and then whatever chemicals are in that laundry detergent are going to seep through the pores. And a lot of these conventional laundry detergents have really toxic, harmful ingredients in it. Any of the cleaning products, if you look at the back of

the label, there's like caution warnings on there about the toxicity of it, you know, and then we're putting it on our skin. And then you think about, so you're wearing your clothes all day and then you get in bed and then you sleep for eight hours and your sheets that you washed your laundry or that you washed with that laundry detergent. So that's a really big one that you want to be aware of, um, is the laundry detergent. And then obviously, you know, the dishwasher pods, I will say I'm not as worried about those, but there is a bit of a concern still, because when you're washing your dishes with that, there is going to be that film on the dishes and then you're eating from it you know and so um for anyone listening that this is like all new information and it's really

overwhelming know that there's a lot of really amazing companies that are making really effective cleaning products that don't have all these harmful chemicals in them yeah isn't tide pods like banned in europe or something oh I actually haven't heard that. We should look that up. They're banned somewhere. I mean, I'm not surprised. They're incredibly toxic. I know they're pushing for it in New York.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Okay, I did see that. Yeah, because of the, I believe it was because the level of PFAS is in it. Wow. Yeah, that's scary, man. I know. Yeah, you wear clothes every day.

I mean, you're basically wearing a detergent. Exactly. And then you're being exposed to it in your pores. Yeah. It's, it's wild. Yeah. There, it's a lot, there's a lot of, it's a lot to take into. It is. Um, one of the interesting takes I saw on your Instagram was about high intensity classes. A lot of people go to those, those spinning classes and stuff, but you weren't a fan of it, right? Yeah. You know, it, I think some of this is individual, but I will say, so when I got, I got very into soul cycle a couple of years ago and I still, I love the workout. So this is not like anything on them. It's more just like, at least for me, I was doing workouts like six to seven days a week,

sometimes doing two classes a day. And I completely wore my body out and it was actually the, I got the exact opposite results that I wanted. I was very bloated. I couldn't lose the last like five pounds that I was really hoping to get rid of. And what, what I looking back, what I realized is that my body was in such a constant state of stress that it was actually messing with my hormones. And I was raising my cortisol cortisol to such high levels that I was dealing with a lot of anxiety. was having panic attacks I couldn't understand I was like why am I so anxious all the time and why am I so bloated and then I actually had a girlfriend who pointed out and she said you know I think these really high intensity exercises that are putting a lot of stress on your body and

raising your cortisol to really unhealthy levels every single day might not actually be that good for you and then around so around that time maybe it was about six months before I was like, okay, I was really scared because I thought, you know, I'm going to gain all this weight and my body is going to change and I'm going to be unhealthy. But I was like, I'm just going to stop all the high intensity workouts and I'm just going to walk every day. And then actually, um, a couple of months later we went into the pandemic and then all the classes shut down. All I had access to was outdoors and hiking. And it ended up being like a beautiful blessing in disguise in that realm. And then for the last couple of years, all I've done is hiked.

I've more recently started bringing back in strength exercises. But for me, I needed to really heal my relationship with exercise because I was going so hard that I was overexercising. And I think this is not really talked about a lot, especially for women. Our hormones are so much more delicate compared to men. Because men, you guys are just on a 24-hour cycle of your testosterone. You're very consistent. Women have four different cycles in the month. And depending on where we are in our cycle is going to be dependent on where our hormones are at, where our energy is. And that was a big thing too, is that half the time I was forcing

myself in these workouts where I was like, I am so exhausted, I can barely get through this. And then you have an instructor being like, just push yourself. Like, you know, don't listen to your mind, listen to your body. And looking back, I'm like those kind of harmful advice because I needed to write before starting my period, I actually needed to listen to my body and slow down and do more lower impact workouts. Wow. So there's certain weeks that you have more energy basically.

Exactly. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. I got to say hiking is pretty hard. I went last week and I was sore for four days after. That's amazing. And I, uh, yeah. Shout out to hikers, man. That it's definitely pretty hard. It is. And if you get a pretty big incline, it's a really great workout. I mean, I think I, I got too ambitious because we were climbing a mountain in Sedona. Oh, in Sedona. Yeah, it was really hard. There's amazing hikes out there. Oh my gosh, beautiful.

Definitely want to go back. Yeah. Well, this episode has been so insightful. Thanks so much for all the knowledge. Is there anything you want to close off with? You know, I already said this, but I want to reiterate it just because I feel like this is really important

for people to hear. I know that this is a lot of information and it can be really daunting. And sometimes people just want to reiterate it just because i feel like this is really important for people to hear i know that this is a lot of information it can be really daunting and sometimes people just want to throw their hands up in the air and say you know what i just can't even deal with this i would say like take it one step at a time i've been doing this for like 15 years you're not going to change all your habits overnight you're not going to change all your cleaning products overnight you're not going to change your eating habits just try to tackle like one thing a week be like okay this week i'm going to, you know, clean out all my beauty products and I'm going to start looking for more non-toxic stuff. And also, like I said to, you

know, try not to go into this place of fear because at the end of the day, there's only so much we can control, right? You know? And so control what you can. And then I just say, send the rest, just send it, you know, like there's only so much you can do, do the best you can, and then I just say, send the rest, just send it, you know, like there's only so much you can do, do the best you can try to lower your toxic burden, you know, workouts, sweat, like just, just do the best you can. And there's a lot of amazing resources. Um, there's a website called EWG skin deep. It's the environmental working group. And you can go on there and you can check all your different beauty products, cleaning products, et cetera. And they race, they rate them based on toxicity levels. And that's a great resource if you're looking to swap out for cleaner products, because they have a lot of amazing swaps. Yeah. And, um, and then for grocery store,

there's an app called trash Panda and you can scan stuff in the grocery store and it'll tell you based on, um, the ingredients in there, whether it's, you know, harmful product or it's a healthy product. So there's a lot of amazing resources that can help you with the swaps and just try not to stress about it. And I want to say one more thing. I talk about all this in my podcast, Real Foodology podcast. And I do a lot of videos on my Instagram, which is also Real Foodology. Nice.

Thanks so much for coming on. Thank you so much for having me. Thanks for watching, guys. And I'll see you next time.