Let's Be Honest with Kristin Cavallari - A Holistic Approach to Wellness with Dr. Ryan Monahan

Episode Date: January 16, 2024

Join my doctor, Dr. Ryan Monahan of Peaceful Mountain Medicine, and me as we discuss his non-pharmecutical approach to all aspects of health; diet and lifestyle, supplements, why probiotics might not be the best thing for you, how your phone can be affecting your health, limiting your exposure to toxins, why oat milk is bad news, the heartbreaking conversation about alcohol, and what blew my mind about what I shouldn't be doing.A word from our sponsors:Go to www.branchbasics.com to save 15% on your Starter Kit or their new Hand Soap with code LETSBEHONEST.Get 50% off your first box of fresh, healthy food at TheFarmersDog.com/honest. PLUS, you get free shipping!Head to PrimalKitchen.com and use code HONEST to receive 20% off your entire order. You can find Primal Kitchen at Target, Walmart, and your local or your local grocery stores.Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at Shopify.com/cavallari. Grow your business - no matter what stage you're in.SKIMS Bras are now available at SKIMS.com, Plus get free shipping on orders over $75! After you place your order, select "podcast" in the survey, and be sure to select Let's Be Honest in the dropdown menu.Go to DrinkLMNT.com/HONEST to receive a free LMNT Sample Pack with any order when you purchase through our URL.Produced by Dear Media.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The following podcast is a Dear Media production. This is Let's Be Honest with Kristen Cavallari, a podcast all about getting real and open on everything from sex, relationships, reality TV, wellness, family, and so much more. And just a fair warning, there will probably be some oversharing. Welcome into Let's Be Honest, you guys. I'm your host, Kristen Cavallari, and today's episode is going to be extremely informative when it comes to all things health. We are talking to Dr. Ryan Monaghan, who happens to be my doctor. Hi. Hi. So it's so funny because we've been working together for almost two years, but this is the first time that we're meeting in person.

All of our appointments have been on Zoom, which I think is great for everybody at home. You guys can all make appointments with Dr. Monahan, which we will say the website and everything at the end. But I'm so excited to chat with you about health stuff because I'm very passionate about health, as I know you are as well. So you practice both functional and Eastern medicine. Explain what that means. Yeah, so they're both root-based, holistic approaches to medicine. So Eastern medicine comes out of traditional Chinese medicine, herbs, lifestyle, diet, acupuncture, things like that. And then functional medicine follows that, but with a more Western approach.

So it's all heavy labs, right? Lots of advanced lab work. You know, you go to your conventional doctor, you get some basic, you know, complete blood count metabolic panel, and they tell you everything looks good, but everything's not good, right? So functional medicine goes far deeper.

The lab testing we do is far more elaborate and in-depth. And then we treat in a different way as well. We use different metrics to analyze health. At least I take a different approach, non-pharmaceutical approach. So everything I do is natural, you know, supplemental base, herbs, botanicals, minerals, vitamins, nutrients, things like that. Yeah. Yeah. You're getting to the root of the cause instead of just covering it up and then having five other things go wrong as well. Yeah, exactly.

Which I love. So I would imagine that a lot of people go to you initially because they have something serious going on in their lives. But for other people like me, it was more about optimal health. So do you have the same protocol for both types of people when they come to you? Or if someone is having something specific going on, do you just try to focus on that? Yeah, I get a range of people. Those who've seen every doctor under the sun and gotten nowhere and they're still sick and they've been chronically ill for years. And then people like you who are

more like, what can we do to tweak things and just improve things a little bit more? I have a group of core tests I run on pretty much everybody. And then I'll modify that based on what they're coming to me for. So I might add things in if you're coming for a specific autoimmune disease or something. I might add certain markers to explore that further. But yeah, I've got a group of maybe four to six tests I start everybody out with. And then we treat for like three to six months and usually make good progress there. Yeah. And sometimes we have to dig deeper. It just depends on the patient. Okay. That is one thing that I love so much about your practice is all the tests that you do. I've seen a million doctors in the past, and I feel like they only do hormones and food sensitivity, which I think is just one piece of the puzzle.

You really focus on the gut, which I think makes a lot of sense. But the one thing about these tests is that they can be really expensive. So if someone could only do one test, let's say, which one would you recommend? You just answered it. The gut, right? Yeah, that's always where we start in functional medicine. Gut's the foundation of health. Hippocrates, all disease begins in the gut. They knew that a long time ago and it's more true today more than ever. So probably a stool test, actually. And most people aren't running stool tests, conventional doctors. And if you do go to like a gastroenterologist for, you know, any gut related thing, they'll run a stool test often,

but it's pretty basic. They're looking for kind of extreme disease. The GI testing I do, the stool test I run, it's very comprehensive, more in depth, more functional. Look into the physiology of your gut, how it's functioning, not just for like parasites, but so much more. So much more. Well, like one thing that I didn't even know what it was is SIBO. That was a test that you had me do, which stands for small intestinal bacteria overgrowth. And I mean, in a nutshell, and you could answer this better than I can, but it, because I had it, it was messing up all these other things in my body. Like I wasn't absorbing my nutrients and like, who knows how long that had been going on for. So really I was wasting all this time, energy and money on supplements

that I was taking, right? Like, is that fair to say? Yeah. So it's not always what you eat, but what you absorb. And that extends to supplements too. So if you have SIBO and it blocks absorption, you could have the perfect diet and take all the supplements on earth, but you're not absorbing them. Right. Right. I feel like I got it when I was pregnant with my second son, which he's nine now. So this is a long time ago because I started getting little bumps on my thighs, which I've talked to you about. And because I was pregnant, I chalked it up to hormones, but then they just never went away. And I can say now, which I've told you, they're completely gone because we've

gotten my gut in check. So it just goes to show you, I do feel like everything is gut related. It is, especially skin issues. Anytime somebody comes with a skin issue, we got to look at the gut. We got to look at your detox and your nutrients, right? So if you fix the gut, you get the nutrients coming in. You start to clear out the bad stuff, bring in more of the good stuff. Yep, yep. So you're big on diet, which I am too. I think we both agree that you can basically use food as medicine.

What type of lifestyle do you recommend when it comes to the way someone eats? In a word, paleo. That's like the most accessible starting point for most people. So that's going to be meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, nuts, and seeds. And then taking out all the more challenging things to digest that are often inflammatory. So things like gluten, grains, dairy, alcohol, caffeine, sugar, processed packaged food, vegetable oils, all the good stuff, everything that the processed packaged foods are made out of. What about even like goat cheese or sheep milk cheeses and stuff like that? Those are good because they tend to have almost no lactose. And for some people,

lactose is an issue. Plus, the sourcing for sheep and goat is probably usually better than cow's milk. And some people do tolerate dairy, but I'd say it's maybe one third of people. By and large, you know, I do some food immunology testing and most people do come back with inflammatory markers to dairy. So it depends on the person. Some people thrive with raw dairy if you're sourcing that. Is that what you do? So I can get it at my farmer's market. It still kind of messes up my stomach, but my kids love it and I feel like they can tolerate it. Yeah. You have more of the lactase when you're younger that breaks down lactose and kids tend to deal with milk a bit better. As we get older, often those enzymes go away. Oh, interesting. Okay. Interesting. All right. I want to talk about supplements. Obviously, if someone can do all of your tests,

it's great because then you know exactly what someone needs to be taking. But like we said before, they can be expensive. Or if someone just doesn't have the resources to do these tests, without having that full body picture, what are supplements that you would recommend for somebody? Yeah, it's a good question. And the central thing about what I do is it's targeted, right? So we are running that test, organic acids test, to look at all your nutritional values. And then we're giving you lots of the things you need and none of the things you don't. So it's really specific, but you know, everybody's deficient in something and most people are deficient in multiple things. So some generally good things, B complex would be good for pretty much everybody. Even if you don't need it, you're, you're peeing it out. If you have any

excess vitamin D, pretty much everybody's deficient. Magnesium, most people are deficient. And then there's different types of magnesium, right? Yeah, lots. Lots. So what type should everyone be taking? I generally start with glycinate. That one is well-absorbed and well-tolerated by most people.

It's bound to glycine, which is an amino acid that most people benefit from as well. So I'll start there. Magnesium citrate can be good. Threonate can be good if you have cognitive issues. It's the only magnesium that crosses the blood-brain barrier. So it just depends on what you're trying to solve. But generally speaking, magnesium glycinate would be good. Okay. And then like antioxidants like vitamin C or some of those. Yeah. I mean, like all of the stuff, honestly. Like glutathione, oh my gosh, speaking of antioxidants. Yeah, and glutathione, explain that for people who don't know what glutathione is. Well, the first thing you think of with glutathione is the master

antioxidant. So like that's the big guy, right? Protects all cells from oxidative stress and inflammation. So everybody has a lot of oxidative stress and inflammation. That's the root of a lot of people's chronic disease in this day and age. So glutathione every day for most people would really be protective. Okay. And then what about supplements for kids? Because I would love to do all these tests on my kids, but there's just no way. But is it the same for them or because they haven't had as many years of, let's say, damage to their bodies? Is it slightly different? I do work with some kids, not as many as adults. But sadly, a lot of the kids I've run these tests on are in worse shape than adults. Oh, God, that freaks me out. I always think I'm going to get these tests back and I'm like, oh, they're fine. They're like six years old. Right. But they're

really bad. And that's sad. But then I know that we're going to make a lot of improvement in their life by making some simple changes. So you can do these tests on kids. But, you know, generally there are some like kid friendly supplement lines like Gaia has one. You can look at that line and there's other ones out there. But, you know, all that stuff. Omega threes for kids are really great. Vitamin D, B vitamins, magnesium, all the antioxidants. What about like just a regular probiotic? Is that good for kids? Depends, right? So probiotics are generally good, but in my experience, most people have overgrowths in the gut and you treat those with antimicrobials, which is the opposite of a probiotic. So it's more about clearing out the bad stuff and then

bringing in the good stuff after the bad stuff's gone. So like a lot of those kids tests I'm running have tons of like yeast and fungal overgrowth. Really? Really high amounts, like extraordinary high amounts. And where are they getting that from? The food that they're eating? Yeah, it's a good question. Anything sugary is going to feed yeast and fungus like crazy. Thinking about my kids right now. And people like kids won't have anything that doesn't, if it doesn't have sugar, they won't eat it. Right. So that's a part of it. Oh, no. Now I'm like, I feel like I need to do this on my kids. Well, it would be easy because a lot of these you can just do with a urine sample. So if the kid can't do a blood, I do blood draws for some kids,

but if they can't do that, you can do a fingerprint or you can just do urine. So you're not doing like the breath test for the kids where you have to like blow into the tube because my kids would be like, I'm not doing this for three hours. Totally. I've tried. And all the parents are like, yeah, that should be fine. It's just blowing. Like 75% of the time I get an email three weeks later, we can't do the breath test. Yeah, there's no way. Even adults, it's hard. I know. I think I had to redo it like three times one time. Oh, you did, I think. I'm sorry.

Yeah, it's because it has to be like so perfect. No, but I mean, it's worth it. It's worth it. Okay, if you could only tell someone to eliminate five things from their life, whether that be food, in their home, whatever, what would those five things be and why? That's a good question. And I know it's hard to limit it to five. It's so hard. I could just do five foods. So I don't know if these counts as two, but gluten and alcohol, I think are the worst things for most people. Stress. Get rid of stress as much as you can. It's obviously hard to do that. Go through everything in your home and get rid of the toxic stuff. There can it's obviously hard to do that go through everything in your home and get rid of the toxic stuff there's a lot of chemically things that are in our home we're

breathing in all the time cleaning supplies cleaning supplies personal care products women are putting on like 112 chemicals a day or something cosmetics right yeah so you know think dirty app or environmental working group to evaluate that stuff. Okay. Branch Basics, I know that you use. I just did an ad for them. Yeah, I saw it. That's why I mentioned it. I use them. I use them for my laundry. They're great. And dishwasher. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. And then set boundaries as much as you can. Okay. Right. To help with stress. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. A brand that I always love talking to you guys about is Branch Basics. They are non-toxic, free of fragrance, hormone disruptors, and harmful preservatives. They're baby kid and pet safe, clean, and cost-effective cleaning supplies. I have completely switched over

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you can then fill up each bottle on its own and then you mix it with water. So it just makes it really easy and you're not constantly dealing with a million bottles. I love having peace of mind, having three dogs and three kids that everything in my home is clean and non-toxic. Save 15% on your starter kit or their new hand soap when you use code, let's be honest at www.branchbasics.com. Again, that's code, let's be honest for 15% off when you purchase a starter kit. Again, that's let's be honest at www.branchbasics.com. Okay. Dog owners. Let's talk about the farmer's dog, which is my favorite dog food. This new year, the easiest healthy habit to start is one for your dog. The farmer's dog makes feeding real healthy dog food, easy and convenient, and your dog will absolutely love it. You guys, my dogs are obsessed with the farmer's dog. They gobble it up in literally two seconds.

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only promote brands that I absolutely love and I use Primal Kitchen all the time. I'm also obsessed with their mayonnaise. That is the only mayonnaise I will use because of the better ingredients in it. You can find Primal Kitchen at Target, Walmart, and your local grocery stores. I personally stock up on mine at Whole Foods. And if you want to save 20% off your entire online order, head to primalkitchen.com and use my code honest at checkout. Okay. I wanted to discuss the sun and sunscreen, which I know is controversial. I don't wear sunscreen. And anytime I do an interview, I get a lot of shit when I admit that I don't. So talk to me about the health benefits of the sun and why we maybe don't need sunscreen.

Totally. It's a very controversial topic, which is so funny because it's the sun. Like we've literally spent our whole existence as humans under the sun all day until the last like 100 years or so. And now we're like shut-ins, spend 93 our lives indoors that's really bad for a lot of reasons the sun is life-giving and nourishing however we are living quite an inflammatory lifestyle and that makes it really hard remember it's talking about everybody has high levels of oxidative stress and inflammation so when you're internally inflamed the sun can kind of aggravate that and you don't have the antioxidants you don't have the reservoir of antioxidants to combat that potential for oxidative stress right so if you live an

anti-inflammatory lifestyle you take a lot of antioxidant supplementation and you work up your base coat in the sun you can start to tolerate the sun instead of burning right so it's not saying just go from zero to 100 and spend five hours in the sun. Like every spring I start with like five minutes in the sun, work up to 10 minutes, 15. And then I build that. And by the end of summer, I'm in the sun for like the whole day without any sunscreen or anything like that. Amazing. Yeah. Astaxanthin is the antioxidant that is specific to the skin and that can help. It's like an internal sunscreen. Cool. And coconut oil too, right? Can you use that as sunscreen? Oh, I don't know, actually.

I suppose you can. I don't do that personally. You could definitely consume coconut oil because it's very anti-inflammatory in that way. Okay, yeah. And then I actually saw recently, you said that for sunspots on your face, you can use glutathione directly on it,

which I thought was such a great tip. Yeah. I love that. So just any kind of glutathione that you take, you can also put on your face. Yeah, I prescribe liposomal glutathione directly on it, which I thought was such a great tip. Yeah. I love that. So just any kind of glutathione that you take, you can also put on your face. Yeah. I prescribe liposomal glutathione, which is a liquid in liposomal form. It's better absorbed. So taking it internally and then applying it topically as well. Okay, cool. I'm going to try that. Yeah. Okay. Let's talk about EMFs. And unfortunately, I feel like a lot of people still don't even know what they are, what that stands for. So what are they?

Where are they coming from? And what's the damage that they're doing to us? Well, now they're everywhere. Electromagnetic, right? So cell towers, cell phones, computers, microphones, lights, electricity. Yeah, it's all around us. And that's another controversial topic, right? It is, yeah.

Some people, that's like, if you think think that you probably like wear tinfoil hats. I was literally looking at hats last night that block EMF on online. And I was like, oh, this is like the modern day tinfoil hat. But but it's a it's a very real thing. And it can exacerbate a lot of people who have weakened immunity. I work with a lot of molten mycotoxin patients and they're very sensitive to EMFs like they can't even hold a cell phone in their hand. You know what? It's crazy. If I'm on my phone more than usual, my whole arm kind of gets like a little tingly. Me too. It freaks me out. Yeah. Like I can feel it. If you're a sensitive person, you can feel that effect. And I'll like put it down and be like, OK, yeah, I need to take a break. I have I've got two stickers on my computer. I'll show you what I carry with me at

all times, too. I you know, it's easy to get wrapped up in this stuff. And then all of a sudden you're like living your whole life by it. But I have this blue shield, like portable EMF blocker, but, and I've had to learn to let go a little bit because otherwise you're like, I find that like, I'm just driving myself crazy, like becoming obsessed with it. But I do think it's important. I've got EMF blockers all over my house. I got my kids the watches. Like I put them in their backpacks. I'm a huge believer that we should be doing everything that we can to combat this stuff. Another place I learned that has really high EMFs is the Bluetooth headphones.

Oh, yeah. Why are those so high? And why is that so dangerous? Well, it's just emitting a stronger frequency to do what it's trying to do. So I do all of my appointments online and I use these headphones and I have them hardwired so that decreases it. At home, you can hardwire your Wi-Fi or at least turn it off at night. Like you don't need it on when you're sleeping. Yeah. And then there's like so much more you can do for your home. You can get these canopies that like drape over your bed and block all the EMF. You can paint your walls with this EMF

blocking paint. I've seen that. Trust me, I've thought about it. Yeah. So there's a lot you can do there. Some people are more sensitive than others. And if you're somebody who is sensitive, they're worth doing. Okay. Okay. And it's damaging you at a cellular level, right? So even if you don't see it or like have symptoms, it still is probably affecting you. Yeah. The thing is in this day and age, it's not really one thing. It's the accumulation of hundreds or thousands of things. So if you talk to somebody who's a skeptic, they'll be like, what's the big deal about a little EMF? What's the big deal about a little chlorine, a little fluoride, a little this, a little that? It's not the one thing in small amounts. It's many, many, many things that add up. Right. You have to do

everything you can in your power and control to mitigate what you can. Right. OK, exactly. I love really tangible small tips. And one that you gave me, which I love, is when you're pumping your gas to sit inside of your car. Yeah. Why did you tell me to do that? There's a compound we test for MTBE that is an additive to gasoline. And it came up a little high, I think, in your test. And it comes up high in many people's tests, especially those who've lived in cities. It accumulates in your tissues. So it's one small thing, like you said, but like it's all these small things adding up that make a difference. So rather than putting the nozzle in your car and standing there smelling the fumes, and I know a lot of people like the smell of gasoline. I kind of do too. It makes me think

of like being on the lake or something. But then you're breathing that in, right? And so why not sit in your car? And it's a little less exposure there. Okay. What are some other just easy small tips like that that we can be doing to eliminate toxins? Oh, yeah. So starting in your home, like we talked about,

the EPA estimates that indoor air pollution is two to five times higher than outdoor air pollution. And we spend 93 percent of our lives indoors. So that's a big place for improvement, like air filtration in your home. Air doctor. Air doctor is a good one. And then Intellipure is a good one. And Molecule, those are a few good ones. I have like six air filters in my home running at all times.

So that's a good thing to do. And then everything you buy and put in your home should be organic and non-toxic if you can. Bedding sheets, towels, your clothing, 100% natural fibers, all your cleaning supplies, all your personal care products. All this adds up. I know. It's a lot of information. I mean, it can be overwhelming for sure. I do this for my career. It's all I do all the time. So like I am always in that world and I sometimes forget other people have like their whole entire life and they have to fit this all in. It is a lot. It is a lot, but I agree. I think it's worth it. Well, in the health world, it seems like every day there's a new trend. So what is something that's just completely overrated and not worth the hype? Juice cleanses. Okay. God, and I used to do them all the time in my early 20s.

I did too. Same in my early 20s. Yeah. So I got on board for all the health trends in my early 20s when I tried to get healthy. So I went raw vegan and I was like juicing all the time, like doing all these things that I've come to learn actually quite depleting. So juicing is tasty and fun and colorful. And people will do like a five-day juice cleanse and all that stuff. And they might feel better because they're taking out all the junk that they're eating, right? But juice removes all the fibrous material from the cellulose, from the vegetables and fruit that feed your healthy bacteria.

And then it just isolates the sugars. And the sugars are feeding the fungus, the yeast, and the bad bacteria. Should I not be doing juices in the morning? I wouldn't. Holy shit. Are you serious? I do. I try to do one every morning. What are you putting in there? I change it up. I mean, I do like a typical one for me is OK, celery, cucumber, cilantro, ginger, lemon, apple. I like that because it's less fruit heavy. It's more vegetables. It's more vegetables. So if you're going to do it, that's the better approach. But I'm big on protein and healthy fats for breakfast. So any animal protein, any healthy fat. I have like a ground turkey thing with like avocado and like almond butter and cacao usually for breakfast. That's

just what I do right now. But having a bunch of sugars in the morning, even if it's from vegetables and fruits isolated in a juice, that's going morning, even if it's from vegetables and fruits isolated in a juice, that's going to kind of mess with your blood sugar and cortisol levels in the morning. I mean, I'm so sad. You can still do it. Like I'll do that first thing and then I'll usually do coffee and then I'll do eggs and maybe maybe bacon, maybe avocado, or I'll do like an egg bowl with like sauteed spinach and maybe some goat feta cheese, some sauteed onions and stuff like that. I love all that.

I would do that first. And then if you want to do the coffee and juice after. It would just stabilize your blood sugar and cortisol levels. Why do they say to do juice on an empty stomach? I don't know. I don't agree with those people. Oh my gosh, we've been asking you all this time. Yeah, it's 50% of your cortisol is released in the first 30 to 60 minutes of you waking up.

So you need to stabilize that with healthy protein and healthy fat. Sugar, it spikes that and it causes chaos through the rest of the day. Oh my God. Here I thought I was doing a really good thing. If you're going to have like carby fruit things and juices, you should have those later in the day. And okay, so to return to why do you do it on empty stomach? I do agree if you have fruit, for example, have that as a snack on an empty stomach between meals.

The sugars and fruit can disrupt the digestion of proteins and fats if you're having that with a meal. OK, that I do do. And then coffee not on an empty stomach, right? I wouldn't do that, right? That's pretty that's taxing to the adrenals. And yeah, I would do coffee at least after you've had some proteins and fats to stabilize your cortisol. Okay. And then what are your thoughts on intermittent fasting? Okay. Very, I should have said that instead of juicing. That's a good one too. Okay. I know I'm really going against the grain with this. A lot of, you know, it's very trendy right now to talk about fasting and there's a lot of research coming out that's pointing to a lot of data that says it's supportive. So I can't,

I can't disagree with that. What I agree with is time-restricted eating. So like maybe eating your meals between 8 and 6, 8 a.m. and 6 p.m., and then having that time between 6 p.m. and the next morning to let the digestion just kind of finish its work and shut down for a while. And going to bed without a lot of digestive metabolic activity taking place because sleep is really more of a detoxification time. And if you're, if you have a belly full of food because you ate at like 9 p.m. and went to bed at 10 p.m., you're not getting that detox in. So I don't want to say fast necessarily because I think in this day and age, most people are actually nutrient depleted and fasting is like, you know, controlled starvation and depleting to that and weakening overall. I think people need to nourish. But time-restricted eating would be a

great idea. Like that eight to six idea. Okay. I sort of naturally do that. I find that if I do eat past six or seven, I don't sleep well. Exactly. Yeah. It totally messes everything up. A few years ago, I actually did keto coupled with intermittent fasting. I was tiny. I was the skinniest I've ever been. But then once I got off of those, I gained more weight and it literally took me like a year to stabilize. Yeah. Your body might have been thinking you're in this food scarcity climate. And then when food came back, it was like, oh my God, we got to double up on this. Yeah, we definitely doubled up. When it comes to what we're eating, there's so many chemicals now in our food. And I think for people, especially that are just starting out, it's extremely overwhelming. Like everything else

we've been talking about. If you had to only pick five chemicals or ingredients, I should say, what should you stay away from? Oh my gosh. I mean, BPA, BPS, any of the plastics. Yeah. Phthalates. Like corn syrup. Oh yeah. I see where you're going. Okay. Like any, like, I only read ingredient labels on stuff. I don't look at calories. I don Phthalates. Like corn syrup. Oh, yeah. I see where you're going. Okay. I only read ingredient labels on stuff. I don't look at calories. I don't look fat. I literally just read ingredient labels.

Well, one thing I want to mention is a lot of people get duped into like, this product is made with coconut sugar. And somehow people think that's not sugar. Like, it's still sugar. I know. And I use it sometimes. And so like, it might be a little better than refined white sugar, but it's still sugar. So anything sugary like the sugar and everything. We've talked a

little bit about how influential that is in your gut overgrowth. So, yeah. Hidden sugars, sugar, alcohols, coconut sugar. Like there's a lot of products like the fake sugar, the fake sugars. Yeah. Aspartame. Yeah, exactly. Right. Yeah. The sweeteners, anything you can't pronounce, anything you don't recognize. Just like everything. It's like everything. The simple thing is like don't buy processed packaged foods that have boxes, bags, and labels. Yeah. If you buy whole real foods, produce, meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, nuts, and seeds, you don't have to read any labels. Right. That like simplifies it really fast. Yeah, that's a really good tip. Okay. Okay. I'm going to give you a few different categories one at a time. And I just want to

know like your first thoughts on them. Like the first thing that come to mind. Okay. Okay. Salt. Oh, it's actually really good for you if you're eating the right salt. So table salt has dextrose in it, which is sugar again. Right. Oh, I didn't realize that was sugar. Yeah. So that's the thing. So there's like a hundred different names for sugar and they put them all on the label so you don't recognize it. So like table salt with sugar is bad, obviously. Yeah. Like Himalayan pink salt, sea salt. Those are really good for you and important because they have minerals. Exactly. Yeah. OK. Coffee, which we've kind of touched on a little bit. But I think if you get well sourced coffee, organic like purity is a good brand and then the Bulletproof

brand. So, you know, testing for mold is a big deal. A lot of people have mold issues and don't know it. Coffee is a big source of that. So if you don't have adrenal issues, if you don't have thyroid issues, if you don't have fatigue issues, like a cup of black coffee before noon is fine if it's well-sourced. What if I'm mixing it with a little bit of maple syrup and canned coconut milk? I think that's probably okay. That's okay. Yeah. I remember one time you did say, because I was like, I do maple syrup in my coffee every morning. And you were like, if that's it, it's okay.

Yeah, if that's the worst thing you're doing. So there's a spectrum, right? Like, if that's the worst thing you're doing, you're doing great. Okay, okay. Yeah. Well, and if you are going to do sweeteners, what are the best ones to reach for? Monk fruit.

Yeah, but real monk fruit. I was going to say, a lot of it's processed and full of shit. E? Monk fruit. Yeah. But real monk fruit. I was going to say a lot of it's processed and full of shit. Erythritol. Yes. Okay. So most of them, like Lakanto, is all erythritol with a sprinkle of monk fruit. And then they say it's monk fruit. But if you look in the ingredients, it's mainly erythritol, which is a sugar alcohol, highly processed junk. Yes. So where do you get real monk fruit? On my dispensary, there's a brand called Now, I think. I think it's called Now. And it's like 100% organic monk fruit, nothing else. It doesn't matter if you get that brand, but look at the ingredient list. It should say monk fruit

and nothing else. Okay. Organic too. Organic, yes. I also, I've got beehives, so I have raw honey. So that's okay, right? Yeah, raw honey has a lot of benefits. It's even antifungal. Right. So I even tell my kids, like I give them like a spoonful because it's supposed to be good for allergies. Right. Absolutely. Okay. Yeah. In moderation, honey is, has a lot of benefit. Okay. Raw local honey. Okay. Not just like in the bear, in the plastic that's been there for nine years. Yeah. Okay. This is for all of my business owners or potential business owners. I want to talk to you guys about Shopify, which is my actual store platform that I use at Uncommon James. A question that I often get is what e-commerce platform do you use? And I have used Shopify from day one. What I love about them is that they've been able to scale and grow with the

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your day. Go to drinkelement.com slash honest to receive a free element sample pack with any order when you purchase through my URL. They have no questions asked refunds, so you can try element totally risk-free. If you don't like it, give it away to a salty friend and they'll give you your money back. No questions asked. Again, that's drinkelement.com. Okay, we already talked about this a little bit, but fruit, because fruit can be a little controversial. Some people are like, you can't stay away from it. It's so bad for you. But you're saying on an empty stomach, it's okay. Yeah, it's so funny what's controversial now. Even vegetables are controversial

like kale we can't eat kale right yeah like oxalates and all this stuff so i never thought like there's a big movement right now that is like super pro-sugar anti-vegetables and i never it's like we're living in an upside down world i never thought i'd have to defend vegetables and fight back on sugar right so fruit i think is i think people eat too much fruit generally speaking i i have very little fruit in my diet, like literally a few pieces a month. Oh, wow. Yeah. So it does have sugars.

And again, it's on a spectrum. If you're replacing your Mountain Dew and Snickers with an apple, like good job. Win. Do that. Yeah. But if you're doing this thing that a lot of people do is like fruit is good for you. And then they make a smoothie with like this much fruit in it in the morning. And then they eat like mangoes all day. Like that's a lot of people do is like fruit is good for you. And then they make a smoothie with like this much fruit in the morning and then they eat like mangoes all day. Like that's a lot of sugar,

glycemic load, messing with your blood sugar. So, you know, maybe a piece a day local in season. That's important. Like if you're in the Midwest in January and eating pineapple, that's not like within nature's balance. So like a piece a day on an empty stomach so it doesn't disrupt the protein and fat digestion. So fresh squeezed orange juice in the morning. I mean, again, on the spectrum of things. Yeah, that's I would maybe rather than like every single morning, maybe on Sundays when you're having like bacon and whatever. Okay. Okay. God, my whole morning routine is going to change now. You're doing great. So that's the other thing. If you are healthy and happy and like like and that's true, not you're living delusionally, right? Keep doing what you're doing. I work mainly with people who are chronically ill. So these are tips I give to people that

are trying to dramatically change their life. OK, OK, right. That makes sense. OK, what about sleep? So important. Maybe the most important thing behind stress. And those are related in a lot of ways. Like how many hours should we be getting? Seven to eight would be good. If you're asleep before 11 p.m., that's really great. That's when the detox starts. From an Eastern perspective, there's a circadian clock. And 11 to 1 and 1 to 3 are when the gallbladder and liver are doing all their work. And that's a major detox organ in your body. So if you're awake after 11 p.m., the detox isn't really happening as well as it should. Okay. Okay. All right.

That's great. I mean, can you get too much sleep? Like sometimes if I get nine to 10 hours, I'm more tired. Yeah. It's interesting how that works. I would say in general, as a culture, we need more rest. So I never try to talk people out of resting and sleeping. And your body should guide you.

If you need to sleep nine or 10 hours that night, you probably have a good reason for it. Yeah. You may have just caught yourself in a different part of the sleep cycle if you wake up a little after that where you're a little groggy still. But by and large, yeah, like cool temperatures in bedroom, keeping any light exposure to a minimum, getting electronics out of the bedroom, right? Like all electronics, turn your Wi-Fi off, you know, a sleep mask or earplugs if you're sensitive to light and sound. Yeah. Okay. Okay. And then water. I know. What kind of water are you drinking? I love it. This is a live water. They service Southern California, Northern California, Austin, and Miami right now. It comes from Opal Springs in Modris, Oregon, and it's totally untouched, right? So they

just like bottle it and bring it to you. There's no chemicals. They test it every few weeks for, you know, bacteria and contaminants. But other than that, it's just straight from the source. So you have a good one to Mountain Valley spring water. You're going to do bottled, right? This is one of the better ones. Just as good, right? So I also love Castlerock out of Shasta County. That's really good. So as long as it says spring water, like it says right at the top, spring water, and if it's in glass to avoid the BPA, BPS. Okay. Okay. Good to know. Oat milk and nut milks. Oat milk is bad news for a lot of reasons. First of all, most of the oat milk brands are mixed with vegetable oils, which are really

gnarly and usually some kind of sweeteners, which aren't great either. So secondly, oats in general, although they don't have gluten, 80% of independently tested oats in the marketplace had gluten cross-contamination. I'm hugely against gluten for most people. So you have to assume if you're having any oat products, you're having gluten as well. I did not know that. And glyphosate. Glyphosate, yeah. I don't even know how to say it. Yeah. They're all basically contaminated with that, right? I think oats are maybe soy's number one and oats are number two for the most glyphosate exposure. Wheat as well. These are top three for glyphosate exposure, which is a carcinogenic herbicide. Yes. And then what about nut milks?

Well, if you're at home making your own nut milk, that's pretty good. Good for you. I've done that and it tastes amazing. I make Brazil nut milk every single week yeah so like do that and it's actually really easy I don't think people realize how easy it is yeah once you get the swing of things it's not so bad yeah like Malk is a good brand too if you don't want to do it because it's if you look at the ingredients it's like organic almonds water water. That should be the list. Filtered water. Filtered water, right? Not like carrageenan and all these nasty thickeners and additives. Exactly, exactly. Or I mean, like we were just talking about, I use the simple canned coconut milk too. And that's it.

There's no crap in it. The simple one. Yes. No guar gum. Yeah, that's exactly right. My favorite one. Yeah, it's so good. Okay.

And then this might be a heartbreaking conversation, but alcohol. It is a heartbreaking conversation. So in my work with patients, there's always the one thing that they don't want to do the most. And that's usually let go of caffeine, alcohol, sugar, or grains or dairy. Those are the top things. And it's usually one or two of those things. And alcohol is a big deal. It's so ingrained in our culture. It's hard to talk about because we don't bat an eye at it. If it didn't exist and we just dropped it into society right now out of nowhere, it'd probably be a big uproar. Like, what is this? Like, look at the research. This is horrible for

everybody, right? Like, there's no amount of alcohol that's safe. There's a study that came out a few years ago in The Lancet that shows that. So, you know, I know The New York Times is always putting out there, you know, red wine in moderation has resveratrol and antioxidants. Like you can get the resveratrol and antioxidants without the alcohol. Alcohol causes leaky gut pretty much every time you drink it, which then can cause systemic inflammation. That's just one example. There are hundreds of reasons not to drink alcohol. And it's like if you're getting on to this healing path and you want to be really serious about it, the first thing you should do is quit alcohol. Your life will completely change on so many levels physically.

But then socially, and this is the part where people get hung up, you'll be forced to do new things. Like instead of going to the bar, you might go on a hike or you might do something healthier, right? And like I quit alcohol in my mid-20s and my whole life changed because of it. Like all these relationships I had that were based on going out to drink, they went away and I was like sad for a while. But then I had to replace them with new people and these were like healthy people. And it has a snowballing effect that you can't really see when you start. But over the years, if you stick with it, it just leads your life in a totally different direction. Yeah. I, okay. So we've actually had a conversation because you have said like,

I don't actually drink very much, but I will from time to time. I drink tequila soda with lime juice and jalapenos. And I think you've said to me, like, if you're going to do it, that's one of the better routes to go. But my question is, what is worse for you? Drinking, I don't know, let's say having one to two drinks three to four times a week or not drinking for like two weeks straight, but then going a little buck wild and having like seven to eight drinks one night. I think that is worse. It's the latter.

So yeah, you're right. People will, I mean, all the time I'll meet with patients. I'll be like, you shouldn't drink alcohol. And they're like, okay, but I'm going to. So how should I do that? Right. And you're right. People will, I mean, all the time I'll meet with patients. I'll be like, you shouldn't drink alcohol. And they're like, okay, but I'm going to. So what should I, how should I do that? Right. And you're right. So the two things I'd recommend if you're going to drink organic sulfite free red wine, not from America, because America doesn't have the best laws about that whole process. Italy has the DOCG label on their wines that are low in sugar and all the things. That's the only kind of wine I can drink where I don't feel like shit the next day. Then that's a good thing to listen to your body, right? If you don't feel like shit the next day, that's probably a good sign. Yeah. So do that. And then the really

high quality tequila, like you're mentioning with no like mixers that have syrups and a bunch of junk in them. Yeah. Okay. Okay. All right. But definitely don't go buck wild from time to time. It's a lot for your body to process all at once, right? Like the solution to pollution is dilution. And you could apply that to alcohol as well. Like binging alcohol is quite overwhelming for your body. If it's spread out in small doses, you can process it a lot easier. Okay. That makes sense. You would not approve of my Friday night then. What were you doing? Well, my girlfriend just had her first baby. So we got our group of friends.

We've been friends for 20 years. And we all went out because it was our first night out from the baby. And it just, it was, we got after it. Well, you know, that's the thing, right? So you generally follow a pretty healthy lifestyle, I know. And if that's the exception from time to time, you'll probably survive. Okay. Okay, my last question.

And it's another semi-controversial topic. I want to know what your thoughts on colonics and enemas. Are they beneficial? Do they in fact strip away all the good bacteria? Yeah. I think if you require colonics to function, right, to have your bowel movements and to feel not bloated and all that stuff, there's a deeper imbalance that should be addressed. And that's where we'd run like the stool test and the SIBO test to evaluate gut function. You shouldn't have to rely on colonics. If you have a very well-performing GI system, like we've tested you and everything looks good and you want to do the colonics from time to time for whatever reason, I don't think it's that disruptive. But I do have a lot of patients who come to me literally reliant on these things to function. And then enemas, not as big of a deal because

that's not going as far up into the colon where, like you said, what are they using? What kind of water? How clean is that water? And can it disrupt the microbiome if it gets up there? Maybe. The enemas are going much shallower, right? So it's not going to be as disruptive. And then coffee enemas have a lot of benefit. It actually stimulates a lot of glutathione production. Oh, really? Yeah. And any way you can stimulate glutathione production, I'm a fan of.

I will do them myself at my house, coffee enemas. There you go. Great. Your glutathione should be in good place. I should recheck it. Yeah. Amazing. Well, thank you so much.

My pleasure. This is going to be so great for so many people. And then tell everyone where they can find you because I know everyone's going to want to book an appointment. Thank you. Yeah. So my website is peacefulmountainmedicine.com and I'm on Instagram at Dr. Ryan Monahan. So D-R-R-Y-A-N-M-O-N-A-H-A-N. Amazing. Thank you so much. Thank you.