Realfoodology - 14: Take Back Your Health

Episode Date: December 2, 2020

This is a bonus episode where Courtney is actually being interviewed by Mary Vallarta for her wellness summit: Take Your Life Back.We loved the interview so much we wanted to share it with this community. Courtney covers her real food approach and what that means, how can one begin to understand what types of foods they should be eating, food as medicine (especially for going into winter), how to boost your immune system, decrease inflammation and reset the gut. https://takeyourlifebacksummit.com/https://rebrand.ly/courtney-tylb E-mail the podcast: [e-mail]

on today's episode of the Real Foodology Podcast. I think a lot of people think that you have to wait hours or even days to know how you feel after you eat when it takes an hour, like you mentioned. Oh yeah. Hi guys, welcome back to another episode of the Real Foodology podcast. Today's episode is kind of a bonus episode. It's not a traditional podcast episode of mine. I'm actually being interviewed by a woman named Mary Viarta. She had asked me a couple months ago if I would speak on this virtual summit that she was having. It's called

Heal Your Chronic Illness and Take Your Life Back. And she had a lot of really amazing nutrition experts on speaking about various things. And I loved this interview so much that I asked her for permission to release it as a podcast episode because I really wanted you guys to hear it. We go a little bit into my background, how I kind of got started. We address things like how to figure out what's going on in your body, what maybe different things are going on and how you can proceed forward and figuring that out and getting your life back. We also talk about since we, you know, obviously we're in winter now. And so we talk about cold and flu season and how to protect yourself, what to take,

what nutrients, foods, supplements, et cetera, that you want to take, how to decrease inflammation and reset the gut. Imagine having a metabolic coach in your pocket that you could access at any point, any time in the day, whenever you want. That's what Lumen is. Lumen is the world's first handheld metabolic coach. It's a device that measures your metabolism through your breath. And on the app, it lets you know if you're burning fat or carbs and gives you tailored guidance to improve your nutrition, workout, sleep, and even stress management. I have so many podcast episodes about metabolic flexibility and why it is so incredibly important for your overall health and longevity. And now thanks to Lumen, you can actually see in real time your body's ability to

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to keep you on top of your health game. Why is this so important? Your metabolism is your body's engine. It's how your body turns the food you eat into the fuel that keeps you going because your metabolism is at the center of everything your body does. Optimal metabolic health translates to a bunch of benefits, including easier weight management, improved energy levels, better fitness results, better sleep, and more. Now this is a really cool feature too. It can actually track your cycle as well as the onset of menopause and adjust your recommendations to keep your metabolism healthy through hormonal shifts. So if you want to take the next step in improving your health, go to lumen.me and use real foodology to get $100 off your lumen. That is l-u-m-e-n dot m-e and use real foodology at checkout for $100 off.

Thank you so much to lumen for sponsoring this episode. This is really exciting. Organifi now has kid stuff. They just released two kid products. One is called Easy Greens and it's a refreshing green apple juice where kids will never know that it's packed with veggies. And the other one is called Protect. It's a delicious wild berry punch like the Kool-Aid that we used to have as a kid, but without any sugar. This is really exciting. And if you've listened to the podcast for a while, you know that I'm a huge fan of Organifi and most specifically because every single product that they make is glyphosate residue free. So you know that you're going to be able to give these powders to your kids and know that they will be able to consume them safely

without any glyphosate in it. So let's break down each one. The Easy Greens is a nourishing and delicious blend of superfoods and veggies that provides essential nutrients, probiotics, and digestive enzymes to bring balance to kids' growing bodies without fillers, additives, or junk. It helps to fill in nutritional gaps, aids in growth and development, supports digestive health, has a rich micronutrient profile, and includes digestive enzymes. This would be a great way to sneak in greens for your little one without them actually knowing that it's healthy for them. And the second one, which is the wild berry punch similar to Kool-Aid, is called Protect. And it is to support your child's daily immune health with food-derived nutrients that work to strengthen their body's first line of defense. I know just through

girlfriends of mine that have children that when your kids are going to school, going to daycare, they're coming home sick a lot more often just because they're getting exposed to different kids and different viruses when they're out in the world playing with kids. So this would be a great way to help to support your little one's immune health. It's organic and it's also made with real whole food ingredients. It has a delicious berry taste and it's low sugar and it's gentle enough for kids to take every single day. And I really love the ingredients in this one. It's orange and acerol cherry, which is a powerful source of vitamin C and antioxidants, astragalus, elderberry, and propolis. These are all really great for overall immune health. If you want to try the products that I talked about today or any of the Organifi products, go to

Organifi.com slash RealFoodology and use code RealFoodology for 20% off. Again, that's Organifi. It's O-R-G-A-N-I-F-I.com slash realfoodology. So the quality on this one is not going to be as good as all the other podcast episodes. So just know that it's because we recorded this on Zoom and not with my normal microphone setup. I really loved this conversation and I'm super excited for you guys to hear that. But before we get into that episode, we have a question that I'm going to answer. Again, as always, if you have an answer, or I'm sorry, if you have a question that you want me to answer on the podcast, please email realfoodologypodcast at gmail.com. And I would

love to get to your question. Before I get to the question, I just have a little disclaimer. As always, these answers and this podcast are just for educational and informational purposes only. I am an integrative nutritionist, but I'm not a doctor. And I don't know you personally. I don't know what's going on in your body. So just know that this information on this podcast is not a sub for individual medical or mental health advice, and it doesn't constitute a provider patient relationship.

As always, talk to your doctor first. Today's question comes from Sheila, and she said, I've heard so much about the health benefits of eating organ meats, and I really want to try, but I'm super scared to try them. Do you have any tips? So this is a really interesting timing for this question, because if you've listened to my earlier podcast episodes, you are hopefully aware by now of Anya Fernald of Belcampo Meat. She lives in Northern California and she happened to be in LA a couple of weeks ago. And she wrote me and asked if she could come over and teach me how to cook organ meats. I reluctantly agreed because I feel very similarly to Sheila with this question.

Organ meats really freak me out. And I say this as someone who has studied nutrition for a long time. I took a class about the nutrient benefits of the nutritional benefits of eating organ meats. We actually, we also, one of our homework assignments was to cook liver and then eat it and then write and talk about it in class. So I, I was like, yes, Anya, come over, let's do it it I'm going to get over my fear because I'm also that person that um for the most part unless if it literally puts my life in danger anything that makes me like scared and uncomfortable I'm like let's do it let's dive in because I know it's going to be good for me so Anya came over and she taught me a few tips and tricks about

cooking up organ meats. But before I get into that, for those of you listening that are unaware of the nutritional benefits of them, so liver specifically is very high in all of the vitamins that we need, specifically B vitamins. It's very notoriously known for being high in vitamin B. So it gives you a really insane boost of energy. And when I ate the, we had beef and chicken liver after Anya left, I had this like really wild boost of energy that I have. I don't know that I've ever experienced an energy quite

like that because it was, it was kind of like I had drank like five cups of coffee, but I wasn't jittery. I felt super, um, it was like a clean energy where I just felt like I could go like run a marathon and I'm not a marathon runner. Um, so it was cool, but I will admit that the taste was really good, but I had a really hard time getting over the mental aspect of it. Oh, also to go back to the nutritional benefits. Sorry, I'm bouncing around a little bit. I should have had my liver this morning. So yeah, so it's really good for you. If you can't get over eating it, you can also take it in supplement form.

I know Vital Proteins makes a liver supplement, but it's really high in all vitamins. Um, it's like a across the board. It's just really good for you. And you would think, cause I thought this for a really long time, you would think that because the liver is detoxing out all of our toxins in our body, it's what flushes all the toxins out of our body. You, I always thought, okay, why would I be eating the liver? Isn't that the most toxic organ in our body? But it's actually the opposite. It's one of the cleanest because it doesn't hold onto these toxins. It filters all of it through. So if you can get over the mental aspect of it, liver is really good and healthy for you. So anyway, so I went off on a bit of a tangent, but I felt it was important that you hear that information. So Anya came over, she brought beef tallow with her,

which is rendered beef fat, also really good, healthy fat to cook with. And it has a really high smoke point, meaning that you can cook it to really high temperatures without it turning carcinogenic. Where for example, alternatively, olive oil, if you go past, I believe it's like 350 degrees, it starts to turn carcinogenic because that is a lower smoke point. It can't handle the heat quite like tallow or, um, avocado oil is another great one that has a really high smoke point. So she brought over the beef tallow and she was like, this is the way you want to cook it. Let's pan fry it in beef tallow. So she brought over beef liver, chicken liver, beef heart, and chicken hearts.

And I tried all of them. Um, we pan fried them with a little bit of salt and pepper and the beef tallow. And I will say taste wise, like had she not told me that they were organ meats, I would have eaten it and been like, wow, this is amazing. Across the board, I liked the beef liver and the beef heart better. I can't even believe that I'm talking about this right now only because I'm like, I still can't get over the mental aspect of it. It is probably going to take me a long time. But on that note, we have been conditioned to think that these organs are gross, not to be eaten. Whereas back in the day, um, you know, when, when humans were foraging every day for their food, whoever brought home the organ meats or whoever brought home, you know, the animal to be eaten,

they got to eat the organ meats as a prize. Like it's, it's considered, um, the most delectable part of the animal, the organ meats are, and it's supposed to be the most delicious, the healthiest for you. And somewhere along the way, we were conditioned to think that they're gross. It's excrements that you want to get rid of. But I really like to, um, I think that if we're going to eat an animal that we should use every part so that that animal's life was not wasted. So that being said, knowing that organ meat is really good for us, um, we do need to kind of come back to that thinking that it's not gross, it's healthy for us. It's where all, most of the nutrients are, you know, and we just eat the, like the chicken breast, for example, doesn't really have many vitamins and minerals in it.

It's in the organ meat. So that being said, I tried all of them. I had little tiny bites of everything because I could not get over the mental aspect of it. And if I'm being honest, I felt sick and had a hard time swallowing all of it, but I did it. And I'm now working on trying to get over that mental aspect of it because the taste wise, it was really good. So anyways, that being said, um, I think the first step is to dive into, um, just look into the nutritional benefits of it. Maybe that will help

you get over that. And then just remind yourself that we have just been conditioned to think that they are gross, but they're actually really good for us. I'm still at that point. I'm trying to come to that place where I can get over the mental aspect of it. Um, if you really just can't get over it, but you want to try the nutritional benefits of it, then I highly recommend getting a liver supplement. You can put it in your smoothie.

They make pills, like I said earlier, vital proteins. You can just take the pill every day. Helps with energy. It's kind of like nature's multivitamin. So those are my tips. Long-winded, but here we are. I had to give you a little bit of a backstory and I hope this helps. If you listen to this episode and you decide to try organ meat, send me a message. Realfoodology on Instagram or realfoodologypodcast at gmail.com. I'm very

curious to hear what your experience was. And with that, let's get to the episode. Did you know that most cookware and appliances are made with forever chemicals? Yes, that means your nonstick pans, your air fryers, your waffle makers, your blender could possibly have PFAS. And yes, even our beloved crockpots and pressure cookers. I have actually been talking about this for so long. Back in 2006, my mom came to my dorm room and made me get rid of all my nonstick pans because she was concerned about me being exposed to something called Teflon. Teflon is a coating that is used

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episode. Okay, everyone, welcome back to the summit. Super excited because we are going to be talking to Courtney Swan. And Courtney is here with us today. And before I go ahead and start asking her a bunch of questions, let me just tell you a little bit about Courtney. She is an integrative nutritionist and real foodist on a mission to change the way America eats. She received her master's of science and nutrition and integrative health from Maryland University of Integrative Health. She aims to educate on the dirty practices of the food industry and how to eat healthy with real food. She doesn't believe in diets and promotes a real fruit approach to eating. Amazing. Welcome, Courtney. Yeah. Thank you so much for inviting me to be on this.

So happy to be here. It's my pleasure. I'm so happy that you're here and I'm super excited just to get into it with all the questions. So first off, tell us how you came to have the mission of changing the way America eats. Okay. So it starts back with childhood kind of in a way. So my mom has always been really healthy. Um, I was that kid. I'm sure everyone had this friend, or maybe you were that kid also where I never, we didn't have any of the junk food in my house. My mom was buying all the like off-brand natural cereals and we had all this like healthy organic food. I mean, I don't even know if we call it organic back then, because I don't think there was a differentiation between it yet. But basically what I was saying is like, my mom was always very healthy cooking every meal from

scratch. We were buying, you know, we were shopping at the little, um, there was a place called sun harvest when I was a kid that was later bought out by whole foods. So I was lucky enough that my mom really, um, had that like set up that foundation for me when I was a kid, but I didn't realize I was like, most kids don't how good I had it growing up. And I was always envious of my friends whose parents would take them to burger King and McDonald's every night. I was one of the toys and the chicken nuggets. And I was the same way, Courtney. Yeah. I love it. So at the time I was like in hell, I was like, I want the Dunkaroos and the Coca-Cola and everything. And now, you know, knowing everything that I know, I'm so grateful for it, but that's also not to be said that that. So basically I had that foundation. And then I went to college just being like, yes, I get to eat all the junk food I want in the world. Um, you know, eating in the cafeteria and the cafeteria and on

university campuses is never like super healthy. I was eating Taco Bell. I was getting to eat all the fast food I'd never eaten growing up. And I got pretty sick. I gained like 20 pounds and this is not about the weight. I was like energetically not feeling well. Like I just didn't have any sort of energy. And I started having a lot of digestive problems and I just didn't feel good in my body. And around that same time, my mom started sending me in the mail, like books and little like newspaper clippings. Cause this was kind of before we had email and we had the internet, but it was not like it is now where you just like email someone an article. My mom would physically cut out a newspaper thing. She's awesome. And it was, yeah. I mean, looking back, I'm like, God, my mom was really on it. Cause this would have been back in like 2001 or no, no, I'm not that old. It would have been like

2005. And she was cutting on articles about like hydrogenated oils, which we know now are so bad for us trans fats. So it was kind of little by little, it took me kind of going off the deep end and experiencing what it felt like to feel really sick in my body to really understand the importance. And that's when I started making the connection of what I was putting on my body and how I felt in my body and how it affected my energy and how it affected my, you know, my brain, my mood. Um, and I was able to get rid of like brain fog. And it helped me a lot with anxiety as I started to change in my diet and get back to eating more like whole real foods and less processed foods. So that was kind of my like initial, when I started kind of experiencing

it for myself. And then years later, I started to, my mom had sent me this one book and I was like really enthralled with it. It had everything to do with, it's called You Are What You Eat. And essentially it's, it tells you as, you know, the title states that what you're putting in your body is ultimately like what fuels your cells. And that's when I really started to make the connection. And around the same time, I started reading every book I could get my hands on, like Michael Pollan. And I found Dr. Mark Hyman and all these really amazing functional integrative medical doctors that were really starting to speak out about our food. And I read this book called In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. And it goes back through like the very beginning of

industrialization of our food and how we started shifting the way that we produced our food and made it. And we were just, we were so worried about being, you know, in large quantities and fast and cheap that we were no longer concerned about the quality of it. And that's when I really started to make the connection of what's going on with our food industry now. And that's why now fast forward to what I'm doing now is I'm trying to dismantle that and educate people on the fact that like the way that we are going down, like the path that we're on, it started with good intention, but it is, we're paying for it in our health now. Right. And that's where I really started to, um, yeah, I just, like I said, I want to change the way that we eat because the way that we're going is not great and it's affecting climate change or health. You're still right when you brought up climate change because of how we've industrialized

raising our, our cattle, our chickens, everything like the greenhouse gases. A lot of people don't know a lot of that is contributed to the cattle raising that we have going on around the world. So yeah, you're right. And it's less about, there's this whole movement for veganism and vegetarianism now in order to help with climate change. And I'm not saying I'm fully against it, but we're, we're leaving out a really important component of that conversation is that it's not the animals necessarily. It's the way that we have confined them. And it's the way that we are raising them in these factory farms. That's

actually contributing to the climate change. It's not the animals themselves that are the issue. Yeah. It's the world in which we've created this industrialization of our animals, you know, and, and it's also the plowing and the tilling of the soil and there's a lot of factors, but. Yeah, no, those are really good points. And I think it's a great segue to the dirty practices of the food industry that you talk about too, because those are some really big ones that you just touched on. Are there any other ones that you could think of that are affecting us very heavily today? Yeah. I mean, there's one in particular that I like to talk about a lot because I don't

think that this information is readily available. So let's take Kraft macaroni and cheese, for example, because we are so lax about the ingredients that we allow in our food in this country. Companies can essentially put almost anything they want in our food and sell it and market it and we eat it. But in countries like Europe, um, and in most countries in Europe, they ban certain ingredients in their food. Uh, for example, in the UK, so in London, Kraft macaroni and cheese makes a different formulation for their Kraft macaroni and cheese that they sell in London than they sell here. The one in London is colored with turmeric, paprika, and just like herbs. It's colored with food, but here color it with, I don't know the exact ones, but it's like yellow number five and you know, red number five

or whatever it is. And that one, when I found that out, I was mad. Cause I was like, you guys know that this isn't a problem and you are literally, you have another recipe, you have another formula that's healthier, but you're just choosing to not sell it in the U S right. And I think that's what makes your work so important is because you are bringing the power back to people, meaning you're educating them on what is actually good for them to eat. And if they are going to be opting for something a bit more convenient, you know, than making their own food, then that they can go ahead and look at the ingredients and actually

make a better purchasing decision then. Yeah, absolutely. Well, cause it's all about education and empowering. And I look, I realize I always want to mention this as well. I know a lot of this has to do with accessibility and this is a huge problem in our country. There's food desert. A lot of people don't have the money to afford it. Unfortunately, we've, we've come to a position where we've made eating healthier, more expensive, but that has a lot to do with policies that are in place. You know, it's no one's individual fault. It's we've set up our system this way. And that's, that's why I, I speak out about it so much because I'm like, we need to change this. Right. Everyone needs to have access to this healthy food.

Yeah. It goes beyond, it really goes beyond knowing what types of food to buy. And it's also about having the accessibility to buy that food. Is it even within the vicinity of the neighborhood that you live in, you know, and can you even afford to buy this organic produce versus non-organic or things that aren't necessarily whole foods? Um, yeah, those shouldn't have to make that choice. They shouldn't have to make the choice between like, am I even going to be able to put any food on my table? Or like I buy this non-organic produce that's been sprayed to hell with pesticides. Like that's unfair. We should not be given that, you know, that shouldn't be an issue or a decision. Yeah. All foods should just be good for you. I think. Exactly. Yeah. And that goes back to what you were talking about, about your real food approach. You know,

that's something that you discovered and got introduced to when you were in college. A lot of people make fun of the freshman 15. But I think your story really opened our eyes to what the freshman 15 actually does to your body. It does more than make you gain weight. It actually affects how you feel and how you function, you know, your memory. And can you talk a little bit about how food actually does affect, you know, how we feel, how you function, you know, your memory. And can you talk a little bit about how food actually does affect, you know, how we feel, how we think and how we look? Yeah. I mean, it all goes hand in hand. I don't like the discussion always comes back to how we look and how you look in your clothes and how you fit and whatever, you know, how your genes fit. Right. Of course that's a factor, but for me, that's not,

I'm coming at it from a place of health. Right. So like when I was in that place where I was, I look back and I'm like, I was pretty sick. Was I like bedridden sick? No, I was functioning. I was going to class every day, but like, I didn't have the energy. I didn't have the brain power. And look, I was in college studying. Like I should have been, and I was also like 18, 19. Like I should have been on top of everything. And like my memory was affected. I said, I had brain fog every day. And you know, when you start to make these changes and you start to fuel your body with foods that actually are, you know, provide nutrients for your body and feed your cells, it affects every area of your life. And it's going to affect your body because if you're eating foods that, um, you know, like perfect

example, I was addicted to sugar when I was in college, I could not go a day without buying either a pack of Reese's peanut butter cups, or I was drinking vitamin waters, which if you look at the label of a vitamin water, it has more grams of sugar than a can of Coke does. And I was, you know, gummy worms, gummy bears, you name it. Every day I had to have something. And I look back on that now and I'm just like, oh my God, like I would get this sugar rush and then I would crash and then I would crave more sugar. And it's just, it affects so many different areas of your life. And when you're not even aware that it's happening, you don't even know that there's a difference that you could be feeling better in

your body, you know? And, and there's also this concept too, of like, we're, so we now have like all this like highly processed food and fast foods and they're highly palatable, highly caloric and extremely addictive. I mean, a lot of these companies hire food scientists to concoct that perfect ratio of fat, sugar, salt, whatever it is, when it literally hits your tongue, it like pings certain signals off in your brain. I mean, it is in a way, it's a certain addiction and they know that. And they're not concerned about providing a healthy food for you and your family. They want you addicted. So you buy more, you eat more, the more you eat, the more of it you buy. And we're now in this place where

we're like overfed, but we're undernourished because I'm not getting nutrients from those foods. So of course we're going to keep eating and eating more of it. And this is not a judgment. And this is no one's fault. This is like, again, like this is set up this way. And so we need to break those addictions and become aware of that and not put those kinds of foods in our body anymore. In terms of eating, right? Obviously everyone has a different type of body composition. So there's really no one size fits all kind of diet. No. And you know, some people require more protein, some require more fat. So how can one begin to understand what

types of food they should be eating? Yeah. Okay. This is a really good question. I love this because I speak about this all the time. We are all so bio-individual that what works for me may not work for you. You know, it might, and you should definitely try. And that's why I always tell people, you know, listen to those experts, listen to the doctors, try not to listen to people on Instagram if it's unless if they're literally like a credential doctor or credentialed, you know, registered dietitian or nutritionist. But even then I say, take all of that with a grain of salt because they're talking in generalities about things that for the most part, for most of the human population, they're going to work, but you never know what's going on in your body specifically. There's so many different factors involved. You

could have an underlying food sensitivity that you don't know about, or there could be like a genetic defect or mutation, which sounds super scary, but it's not. I mean, there's a very common one called the MTHFR, and it just means the poor metabolism of folate and people that have that defect or that, sorry, that mutation, they just have to take a methylated folate, which is like another form of the vitamin B. It's just methylated because their body can't do it themselves. So my point in all this is that it's going to be fully dependent on what's going on in your body individually. And the way that I say approach it is start taking notes, whether that be mental notes or actually start writing them down. You could even just write it

in your phone as you go throughout the day and you eat certain foods, start just checking in with yourself. And you know, if you have like a scramble in the morning, eggs are a great example. Eggs are a pretty common allergen and people don't know this. And let's say that, you know, you have a big breakfast, like eggs and avocado and bacon or whatever. And then, you know, you go, go without your, throughout your day. And then maybe like an hour later, you're like, I don't feel that great. Okay. Maybe tomorrow I'll just do the avocado and bacon on toast. And I'll see if I feel any difference. And that's when you start kind of making these connections of like what works for you and what doesn't. And that's a really good point you bring up Courtney, because I think a lot of people think that you have to wait hours or even days to

know how you feel after you eat when it takes an hour, like you mentioned. Yeah. Sometimes it can take longer. I, I have a gluten allergy, a wheat, an allergy to wheat. And it took me a long time to figure that out because sometimes I wouldn't see the effects until like a day afterwards. And I also didn't really know what to look for. But once you start kind of asking these questions and start kind of like connecting the dots, you'll start to see a pattern and you can't just listen to someone say like, well, we know that, uh, avocados are amazing for you. Well, if you don't feel good when you eat avocados and you maybe have an underlying allergy to it, they're not good for you.

You know? So it's really about, I make a joke all the time and I say, it's like a science experiment with yourself. You kind of have to just like see what works. Try a little thing here, try a little thing there. Also a great place to start is looking up something called the elimination diet. Anyone can Google it. And essentially what that means is that in it, it's not, I don't really like to put people on

diets. I prefer to do something like this where it's very short term. So essentially you cut out all of the common allergens and you can look it up, you know, it's soy, wheat, eggs. There's a whole list of them. And what you do is you give yourself a couple weeks break without eating any of those foods and then you slowly bring just incorporate one back in at a time and see how your body responds and then that's how you figure out like oh I brought back eggs in and I feel great okay cross eggs off the list eggs are good to go and then you kind of go down that path so that's one way for anyone listening who just wants to start doing it themselves. That's an easy way to start. You could also do, go to a, go see your doctor. I prefer to send people to integrative or functional medicine doctors.

It just means that they've gone through all of the standard medical training and education as like a regular medical doctor has, but they bring in an integrative approach, which means that their approach is to usually they treat your lifestyle and your diet first. And then they bring in the drugs when we've eliminated every other possible scenario. And so I like to do those. I like, I prefer to send people to doctors like that because they'll really listen to you and they know the right tests to do. You could get a full blood panel to see where your hormones are at, to see if you have one of those genetic mutations, like I mentioned earlier, and it will really give you an understanding of what's going on in your body. I'm a huge proponent

for lab work because it tells you exactly what you need to know. Vitamin deficiencies, if you have any metal toxicities, it just tells you everything that's going on in your body, and then you can make moves accordingly. That's a really good point. I actually was speaking to a functional medicine doctor the other day. And he brought up the fact that within his work, when he works with his patients, he treats them as individuals, as opposed to doctors, not to brag on doctors who aren't functional medicine or integrative doctors, but sometimes what ends up happening is people are sort of kind of compared

to the whole population of others who've taken that same test. So that's why things are missed and your results come back, quote unquote, normal. And you never really find out what the root causes are in terms of what's making you feel that way. Absolutely. And you know, I'm, I'm not at all trying to like exactly what you just said. I fully agree. And I'm, I'm not at all trying to, um, discount doctors. Of course we need doctors for emergencies, all of that. Um, but oftentimes they don't even know to check for these sorts of things because their training has been like, Oh, you have this symptom. Well, here's this pill that I know that treats that symptom instead of actually like diving

into the root cause first and then doing the pill. If we can't figure out what else is going on. Right. Yeah. Like they're overworked. Like doctors admit this themselves. Like they just, they don't have a lot of time to spend with their patients. I've, I've heard my doctor complain about this in the past. Like when I was

seeing one that wasn't an integrative doctor and she was like, I have 15 minutes with each patient of mine. I barely even get to like hear anything about what's going on. Whereas like alternatively, when you go see a functional or an integrative doctor, they give you an hour. My first session with my integrative doctor here in LA was an hour and a half. And we sat down and she's like, I want to know what's going on in your life. What's your stress? What's your social life? Like, are you like, you know, taking care of yourself? Are you exercising every day? What kind of food are you eating? Do you meditate? It's all encompassing. Yeah. That's the same way. When I go to my Ayurveda doctor, she asks me everything. It kind of, it took the same amount of time, an hour and a half in terms of when I first saw her. And she just asks everything, what I ate, my, how I manage stress, what I do for work. She wanted to get a full picture of how I was living my life, which is so important. So important. And then from there, once you do that first initial hour and a half, then you, you know, next time now my appointments with her are only 15 to 30 minutes to play.

You know, so it's not like, it's like everything's got a doctor. It's like, yeah. Yeah. Um, well you said something really important, which is food is medicine, right? Food is medicine. Um, so can you give us any foods that are actually good for, you know, let's just say the colder flu season, since we're in that time of year now, or maybe foods that are good with decreasing inflammation foods that might be good for resetting the gut. Yeah. reducing inflammation foods that might be good for resetting the gut. Yeah. It's interesting because with all three of those there, some of these are kind of overlapping, which is really cool. Right. So for cold and flu season, my number one that I always tell everyone is garlic and you want it to be raw because once it's cooked, it loses some of the properties

that make it antiviral and antibacterial. garlic is really powerful. Um, if I really feel like I, I have something happening, like a little tickle in the throat, I feel like I'm getting congested. I will swallow raw garlic, like a pill. And I know that sounds crazy, but it really is powerful. Or you can do, um, I buy this garlic dip all the time. It's raw garlic. And I dip like chips and veggies and stuff in it. That's really good. So it's really potent and really powerful. Um, there's ginger, which I feel like a lot of people, you know, you know, that's really good for cold and flu foods, obviously they're high in vitamin C. So there's like citrus fruits, tomatoes. Um, there's some more that are out there like elderberry and camu camu really high in vitamin C

probiotic rich foods are really good for Uh the immune system as well because 70 of our immune system resides in our gut and a lot of our immune system is comprised of our microbiome, which is a Combination of good and bad bacteria. So when you're eating those probiotic rich foods, you're feeding that good bacteria and you're helping balance that like Um the balance between the good and the bad bacteria. Right. Um, zinc is really amazing. And zinc, uh, is really high in wild salmon. So that's good. Also soups like a really good, just like chicken noodle soup, but made with real bone broth, you know, like, you know, the tradition of like, when we were kids, like our mom or grandma would get us, they'd always get us the chicken noodle soup. And I, for the longest time was like,

I don't understand, where is this coming from? And I looked it up like in the last couple of years. And when it's made from real bone broth, like from real bones, you get all the minerals and the nutrients from those bones. And then it has the gelatin in there as well. And it's really good for your immune system, for your gut. And so you talked about like things that are really good for decreasing inflammation and healing the gut. All of those properties in that bone broth are really good for decreasing inflammation. Um, and also like resetting the gut, there's something in bone broth. If it's made correctly, you want like really good organic pasture raised or like bone broth that comes from pasture raised animals, because that way, you know, it's coming from a healthy animal. Um, but there's something called

gelatin in there. And there's also something else called glucosamine, which helps reduce inflammation. And the gelatin has this kind of like sticky feeling to it. And it actually will help seal your gut. If there's ever like irritation, inflammation, holes in the gut, it kind of helps to like seal it back together. Wow. I had no idea. Yeah. So it sounds, or so it seemed like grandma was onto something with the bone broth, you know, with the chicken noodle soup when you were sick. Yeah. Cause you get all those vitamins and minerals that were once in the bone that seep into the soup and then help with your immune system. So I always thought that was like such a cool, fun fact. That is a fun fact. I've never heard of that fact. And plus grandmas usually add vegetables into your chicken soup, you know, adds to it. There's some garlic in there,

you know? Yeah. And for everyone listening, I'm not talking about Campbell's from the can. I'm talking about like, go to like, trying to think of a brand right now. Um, what is a brand of bone broth you can find everywhere? I'm only thinking of bell Campo right now, but I don't know that they're everywhere. There's another one that you can find. If you go to whole foods, there's like a couple of different like organic pastries, bone broths that you can get. And that's what I'm talking about. You want the real, like the stuff that was made with bones. Got it. So that's for cold and flu. As far as like decreasing inflammation, this one, I'm more so like to talk about it from another angle and not so much about,

like, it's about reducing foods that you bring in that bring on inflammation and less about the foods that like help with inflammation, because you'll naturally do that as you reduce these foods that bring on inflammation. So things like vegetable oils, so like soybean oil, canola oil, those are highly inflammatory sugar. Sugar is very inflammatory processed package packaged foods. Um, dairy is inflammatory for a lot of people. So sheep and goat milk are easier in the gut than cow's milk. Um, but a lot of people just decide to cut out dairy altogether. I'm not saying you have to just be aware of it and maybe don't eat as much, um, artificial trans fats, which are, I brought those up earlier, hydrogenated fats, but those have been

slowly pulled out of our food in the last couple of years. And I think we're at the point now where they're not allowed in anymore. Um, fried foods, refined carbohydrates. So like white bread, white pastas, fast food, of course, excessive alcohol. And then for some people, gluten can cause an inflammatory reaction. And again, it comes down to the individual. You have to figure out if it's affecting you or not. So, and then as far as like bringing in foods that reduce inflammation, kind of what I was saying before, so like the bone broths and prioritizing more like whole real foods and their natural state, and that will all help kind of reduce the inflammation. And then last one, at least about resetting the gut, anything with like gut healing bone broth, like I said before, is really good for the gut and will help with the reducing of the inflammation and sealing the gut also probiotic rich foods.

So like unsweetened yogurt, if you're trying to not do dairy, I love coconut yogurt, or you can just take a probiotic. Um, kimchi is amazing. Sauerkraut, anything that's like raw and has those, that good bacteria in it will help to repopulate your gut. And that is a lot of, a lot of what happens in the gut when, when it's out of balance is that there's usually an overgrowth of bad bacteria and we need to rebalance that out and bring in more of the good stuff to balance it. So you don't want to completely get rid of the bad. It's, you know, they, they work together. Right. So fermented foods, does kombucha count? Like, can you drink? Kombucha is great. I always just tell people, this kombucha count, like, can you drink?

Kombucha is great. I always just tell people, look at the label and see how much sugar there is. Cause there are some, I mean, I found some that have like 20 grams of sugar and also look at the serving size because oftentimes it'll say, you know, 15 grams of sugar. And then you look at two servings and I'm like, this thing has 30 grams of sugar in it. Yeah. It's unbelievable. You think you're drinking something healthy and then you look at the labels and you're like, Whoa, I just drink sugar water. Exactly. And with kombucha that has always driven me, it makes me so nuts because with kombucha, it actually, they ferment out the sugar. So if it, if it's really that high in sugar, it means that after they're done with the fermentation process, they're adding more sugar. And afterwards, kombucha naturally is not that sweet, especially depending on how long you let it ferment for. You can let it ferment

long enough where basically all the sugar is eaten up. Right. Right. I got to look for good brands that don't have as much sugar in kombucha. I love rowdy mermaid. Rowdy mermaid is the best I've ever had. Okay. I'm going to look that up. Oh, good. And it doesn't taste like you're compromising the, you know, the sugar and the taste, but not too sugary. Right. There's an R1 by my place. So maybe they have it. I'm going to, I'm going to check it out. Um, I know I go there. I'm like, okay, I just want to see what I'm coming on with this for people listening that don't know what air one is. It's a really expensive organic grocery store in LA. And I joke that it's kind of like Disneyland for foodies because we're just like, Oh, you can literally get like every it's like whole foods on crack. Yeah. Don't go there. If you're hungry guys, you will spend $80 on three

things. Yes. And you're like, what did I just buy? Yeah. It's wildly expensive. And it's for me, I keep it for treats, but it's, it's amazing. Yes. I must agree. Um, in terms of dairy, cause you brought up dairy and tell me if you've heard this before, what I've learned through my studies in Ayurveda is that for dairy to not irritate your stomach too much, it's actually beneficial to consume it when it's warm instead of cold. Yeah. That's really interesting. No, I've never heard that. So I can't really speak on it, but it makes sense because Ayurveda is very, um, in tune with like the warming foods and foods. And so they're definitely onto something, but I don't, um, I'm not familiar with that. I've never heard it. It's interesting. I'll look into that. Well,

I wonder if it has something to do with the enzymes. Maybe when you heat it up, it breaks down some of those enzymes that are, that are causing an inflammatory response. I don't really know. Yeah. I think with Ayurveda is because, um, you know, the, the, they talk about the gut, they talk about the digestive fire and anything cold that you put into your, your stomach actually decreases the amount of fire that your digestive system has. So that makes it harder for your body to digest food. So that's why in Ayurveda, they recommend, especially first thing in the morning, that you consume warm drinks or warm food. So that way you're helping your body actually increase that fire so you can metabolize food a lot better. What are some of the most unrated and overrated foods?

Oh, as far as like health wise goes. Yeah. Yeah. Overrated and underrated. Oh God. I feel like I'm going to have to think about this and get back to you. Um, okay. I can think of something. So like kale, remember? Well, I have a hard time. Anytime there's like a specific food, that's just like, everyone has them on like a pedestal, you know? And it seems like there's always like that new food that everyone's like, Oh God, kale. Yes. Yes. Like rolling my eyes at that right now. Cause that it's fine. Like kale is fine. I actually would argue that kale, especially raw, um, for a lot of people, it's really hard on your thyroid. And so I would say like, yeah, kale is super overrated, not saying it's terrible for you, not saying don't ever eat it,

but definitely cook it or make sure you really massage it down to where it's softened and it's easier on the digestive tract because it's really rough. It is rough. Yeah. And that's, and that's another thing is like, you know, people constantly striving to eat so much raw food. And that's, and that's another thing is like, um, you know, people constantly striving to eat so much raw food. And again, this goes back to your individual experience and what's going on in your body. Cause there's a lot of people that can't really break down and process, um, a lot of this, like super raw, just vegetables. And so sometimes it's better to cook your vegetables because it actually releases different enzymes and different phytonutrients when you heat it up. And so it's, you know, some of it, like I said, really just comes back to what your individual needs are and what works for you. So yeah, I would definitely say kale is overrated. Okay. So in the same breath,

I would say romaine is incredibly underrated. So, and I was really excited to find this out like years ago, apparently when you look at like the nutrient breakdown, romaine is just as healthy as kale is for you. And it has like this similar like phytonutrients and profiles. It's people get romaine confused with iceberg lettuce iceberg. It has like, you know, it's like eating air. So like, sure. Like have at it, but like, it doesn't really provide anything, but romaine is actually like really good for you. They say that like, sure, like have at it, but like, it doesn't really provide anything, but romaine is actually like really good for you. They say that like, you can pretty much compare them almost like side by side kale or even like a little bit better for you. And I love romaine, which is like

such a funny thing to say. I had no idea. I mean, I've always liked romaine lettuce iceberg. Like you said, man, not really, but romaine, it just has more of a bite and it has more, I don't know, flavor, but it's not as rough and as hard as kale. Yeah. And it's like crunchy and it has this specific flavor. And, you know, think about when you put like Caesar dressing on it. Oh my God. It's so good. It's so good. Oh, so good. So I was so happy to find that out. So yeah. Yay. Those are good ones, Courtney. I didn't know that. Okay. So what is one important thing you want to make sure you leave us with

today? Cause I know we have to wrap it up with you. Yeah. So I would say that when you're at the grocery store, so this is what I find people having the hardest time with. And it's incredibly confusing. Well, actually there's two things I want to say. One, try not to get super overwhelmed and just take it day by day. No one is ever going to make all these choices or all these changes overnight. And I think we hear so much like, um, you know, drop all the processed food, just go back to eating whole real food. And I know a lot of people are, are intimidated by cooking and it seems so daunting, but my

rule of thumb is that when you go to the grocery store and you pick up a packaged food and you look at that label, if it, if you could make that at home, technically, like, let's say that you're looking at like one of my favorite things, like Siete Cassava chips, you look at those ingredients and those are all ingredients that if you walked around the grocery store, you could buy all of those in the grocery store, cassava flour, salt, um, coconut oil. If you could technically make it at home, then buy it. It's the stuff that I'm worried about in packages is like the things that I was saying earlier that, you know, have the yellow number five and yellow, you know, all of those, or yeah, the red number five, all those dyes and stuff like

that, it should not be in our food. So you don't have to just completely like be going to the farmer's market, buying everything raw with raw materials and starting from scratch. You can, and if you have the time to do it, it will change your life, but don't feel like you have to just, you know, completely cut out everything. Like there's now there's companies making easier and healthier ways to get around this. So remember that just prioritizing more real foods. And I was going to say something else. And I forgot what I was going to say, but basically I just want people to know that like, it's, it seems really daunting at first, but once you start going down this path and you make these

little changes, you're only going to be inspired to make more changes because you're going to start feeling better in your body and you're going to just, yeah, you're just going to love it. I mean, that's really what happened to me is like, I, as I started making these changes and look, I, I've been doing this for like 12 years. I didn't do this overnight either, you know, and you're going to make mistakes and you're going to probably fall back and start eating some of the things that you wish that you weren't eating. And you just take it day by day and just try to focus on your why and feeling better in your body. Cause it's not about your image.

It's not what you look like in your jeans. It's about feeling good in your body and getting rid of that brain fog and improving your cognitive health and having that energy to show up in your job every day. And once you start seeing those changes, that's when you, when you're able to connect with your why and stay true and on that path of eating healthier and cleaner foods. And you're going to want to, you're going to start craving those healthier foods. You're going to start craving more vegetables because it's what our bodies were designed to live off of. And you're just, it's, I mean, I can't speak enough about it. It changed my life.

Yeah. Yeah. And like you said, you know, that it's something that you start really integrating in your life and it becomes a part of it. And when you do that, you're going to love the way you look because you feel great. That's the beauty of it is like when you stop focusing so much on the weight and you're focused more on like the quality of your food and your, the way you feel in your body, your body will naturally just come to the place that it feels best. You know, it will just come to this natural equilibrium. And then you're not going to be so worried about the number on the scale or how your genes fit. Like you're just going to feel good in your body. Yeah. And that's ultimately the goal, you know,

it is, that's the goal of being healthy, right? That's what we all want from healing is to feel good. So thank you so much, Courtney. I enjoyed our talk. It was really fun. I learned so many new things. I love it. It makes me so happy. Thank you so much for having me on. This was really fun. This was a great conversation. This is a resonant media production produced by Drake Peterson and mixed by Chris McCone. The song is by Georgie. As always, please don't forget to rate and review the podcast. It really helps me in this show a lot. See you next week. Even try Can someone be Talk to my ego And make me tell him That I tried

So if he doesn't like me At least I know I am for him My time won't be wasted anymore He won't think twice about me Or even I like to be Every day I like to be I know that is for me.