Realfoodology - 63: Achieving True Health and Vitality with Dr. Tyler Jean

Episode Date: November 3, 2021

Dr. Tyler Jean is a Naturopathic Dr with his B.S. in Cell and Molecular Biology. You may know him as @functional.foods on Instagram.We talk about what it means to be a Naturopathic Doctor, how what works for one person may not work for you (and even what worked for you in the past may no longer work for you), bio-individualized diets and how to find what works best for you, how to build your plate when you sit down for a meal, the pillars of health, what true health and vitality means and so much more!  Show Links: https://www.instagram.com/functional.foods/ https://tylerjean.com/

On today's episode of the Real Foodology Podcast. I really believe one of the biggest pillars that I resonate with in this profession is the Latin word dulcere, which means doctor as teacher. And I really believe that doctors can be that guide and that source of inspiration for patients to really take accountability for their health. Because the thing I've seen day in and day out is that true healing does not happen in a doctor's office. It's really happening in between those appointments. And it's if you, when you can give your patient, um, that empowerment, those resources, and they really feel inspired to take, you know, radical self-responsibility for their health. That's when true healing really occurs. Hey, welcome back to another episode of the real foodology podcast. I am Courtney Swan, your host.

I'm having one of those days where I'm just feeling particularly grateful for you guys, the listeners, and for the opportunity that you have given me to have this podcast and have this platform to have these really amazing conversations that really light me up and remind me of why I'm so passionate about what I do. So first of all, I want to say thank you to the listener. Thank you for listening. It really means a lot. Without you, I couldn't do this. And also thank you to my guest, Dr. Tyler Jean. He is such a wealth of information. And I just left this conversation feeling so just fired up and more passionate than ever. You probably know Dr. Tyler Jean as functional.foods on Instagram.

If you don't follow him though, definitely go follow him right now. What are you waiting for? He is one of my favorite follows on Instagram. He provides so much amazing knowledge and the science to back it up. And I find his Instagram really helpful. If you're looking to better your health or you don't know where to his, I find his Instagram really helpful. If you're looking to better your health or you don't know where to start, he is a great starting point. So Dr. Tyler Jean is a naturopathic doctor, and we actually go into a conversation about what that

means versus functional medicine and allopathic medicine, as well as integrative MDs. So if you're wondering, and you don't fully understand what a naturopathic doctor does or what it means, we definitely answer that question in the conversation. He also has his BS in cell and molecular biology. He specializes in gastroenterology. So he really focuses a lot on gut health and what that means for our overall foundational health. But, you know, we actually didn't even really dive into gut health. As I mentioned previously, we talk about what it means to be a naturopathic doctor.

We talk about the conventional allopathic medical system, uh, healthcare, or as we refer to it as sick care and really what it has gotten wrong and why, when we are treating chronic diseases, we need to be more focused on a preventative healthcare system. We also talk about this concept of the perfect diet and why what works for one person may not work for you. And even what worked for you in the past may no longer work for you. So we dive into bio-individualized diets and how you can find really what works best for you. And he also shares when he sits down for a meal, how he builds his perfect plate. We dive a little bit into vegetarian diets. He talks about his pillars of health and so much

more. I loved this conversation. Again, I know I say that all the time, but Dr. Tyler Jean was such a wonderful guest to have on. And I'm really excited for you guys to hear this episode. So with that, let's just get to the episode. 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

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It is a pleasure to be here today, Courtney. Thank you for having me and excited to speak with you and your community today. Yeah, this has been a long time coming. I'm so excited that we could finally make this work. So for everyone listening, can you tell everyone a little bit about what you do and how you got to where you are today? Like what really started your passion for health and wanted you or made you want to start down this career path? Yeah. So for those that don't know me, my name is Dr. Tyler. I'm a naturopathic doctor. I just graduated this summer a couple months ago and just moved to Los Angeles. So we are neighbors now. And it is so great to be down here around other creatives and other people

doing big things in the health and wellness space. But I got onto this career path because I started my own health issues growing up. I had asthma and eczema and ADHD and anxiety. And it was something where I was kind of punted from doctor to doctor, specialist to specialist, just being told that the only thing I could really do was to medicate with symptom suppression. A lot of times, like the options that were presented to me were pharmaceuticals and really was told this is something I'm going to deal with the rest of my life and there's nothing I could do. So I really took matters into my own hands when I was in high school and really started to kind of go down that path of like, okay, I think I want to be a doctor

and going down the pre-med route. But at the same time too, I was a competitive swimmer. I was an elite athlete at the division one level. So I've always had this kind of fascination for the human body, human physiology and biochemistry and how I could optimize my athletic performance through the quality of food I was eating and how I could, you know, focus on a lot of these lifestyle pillars that we think about when it comes to good health to enhance my performance, my ability to recover day in and day out as an athlete. And it was through the, this, you know, experience, both of my health issues, being an athlete and being very interested and fascinated in the human body that really catalyzed my decision to get into more of a clinical care-based setting

and pursue a career in naturopathic medicine. And I was kind of dabbling with the idea of, do I want to get into research? Do I want to go down the allopathic route and become a medical doctor? And ultimately, I really resonated with a couple core pillars to naturopathic medicine, which is really treat the root cause, treat the whole person, prevention, and a huge emphasis on preventative-based medicine. And thinking about how our healthcare model today, or should I say sick care model, is a very acute reactive state where we wait until disease manifests and then we try to intervene by either suppressing or eliminating that pathology. And I think there's so much we can do in terms of, you know, really empowering individuals with the knowledge necessary

to living a healthy and vibrant lifestyle. And I really believe one of the biggest pillars that I resonate with in this profession is the Latin word dulcere, which means doctor as teacher. And I really believe that doctors can be that guide and that source of inspiration for patients to really take accountability for their health. Because the thing I've seen day in and day out is that true healing does not happen in a doctor's office. It's really happening in between those appointments. And it's when you can give your patient that empowerment, those resources, and they really feel inspired to take radical self radical self responsibility for their health, that's when true healing really occurs. Yeah, I love that. I'm so glad that you brought that up, because it really, the relationship between patient and doctor really should be the symbiotic,

it should be a relationship, you know, and I tell people this all the time. I'm like, your doctor is not really listening to you. You need a new doctor. Because we, you know, it's like you said, the healing is not found in the doctor's office, you know. And while a doctor is going to be an expert on the human body, you are going to be the expert on your own body. And you're the only person that lives in your body. And you, it's part of your obligation to explain that to your doctor. And then your doctor needs to listen to you and then help you kind of guide you on that path. 100%. I 100% resonate with what you just said too. And it's really finding that care team that best suits you, is going to advocate for you, is going to champion

for you and really listen to what you have to say, hold space for you, which I have learned too, can be the most healing sometimes. I think we've come in with this expectation. You go to the doctor, you're going to get something, some type of prescription, some type of medication, maybe an herb or a homeopathic in kind of naturopathic medicine. But honestly, sometimes, you know, what I've heard and feedback is sometimes just holding space for people to where people actually feel heard for the first time in their life. That can be therapeutic. That can be healing to the individual. Yeah.

And actually, this brings me to a question I wanted to ask you. And I think this is part of it. What do you think that allopathic and conventional medicine gets wrong? And this is not to vilify it, but I think you and I are on the same page that I really always, I seek out naturopathic doctors, functional medicine doctors, and I really try to avoid allopathic conventional medicine. And I want to hear kind of what you think they get wrong and why so many people follow this new path of naturopathic and functional medicine. And I want to hear kind of what you think they get wrong and why so many people follow this new path of naturopathic and functional medicine. Yeah, that's a really great question. And just to echo what you said too, you know, there's a time and place for conventional medicine. Absolutely. If I'm breaking,

if I break an arm or leg or I'm in some type of traumatic events, you know, I'm having a heart attack, I'm going to go to the emergency room. And I think that's where conventional medicine really does shine. However, we are really facing a pandemic of chronic illness in this world, not just in the United States, but worldwide. And so with a lot of these chronic illnesses, I feel conventional medicine really falls short to really give us long-term solutions because a lot of the solutions are, again, there's kind of two options. You can either suppress or manage symptoms through pharmaceutical medications, or you can cut out that pathology through surgical intervention. And again, it's more of a reactive approach. It's a watch and wait.

And really, it's not built for true health, in my opinion. And I think where they get wrong and really looking at and being, having so many colleagues in conventional medicine and either even, those are in medical school right now and going down the MD or DO path is that so much of the conventional medical model and the medical school model is built on and focused on pathophysiology and disease. So it's really focusing on what is sickness as opposed to what is health. How do you actually cultivate robust health? Because health is dynamic and we have to cultivate health on a daily basis, in my opinion.

Yes, there's genetic predispositions to that, but you have to think about all those different decisions we're making day in and day out over a lifetime. A lot of those lifestyle factors that really are sending all these inputs in that change our epigenetic expression and can make us more susceptible to a diagnosis and a disease. So I think that's really the shift and the difference is that in naturopathic and functional medicine, we're looking at how do you cultivate health? How do you stay healthy? Which I think is very different than how we study conventional medicine, studying the disease pathogenesis and how what is sickness and then how do we suppress or eliminate that sickness once it's manifest as opposed to looking at what are all those taking a step back that trajectory that timeline that led to that

diagnosis and kind of peeling back those layers of the onion and a lot of times i think conventional medicine really fails to ask the question as to why these things happen it's like oh we come to our diagnosis typically that's the hardest part. You have your differentials. You have your working diagnosis. You do a necessary workup with lab work or imaging. You get to the diagnosis, and then it's just algorithmic. You just follow the algorithm, and it's like, based on this result, then you're going to

prescribe this drug. And if that fails, you're going to prescribe this drug. And if you refractor to either of those, then we're going to try something else. So with that, it really takes away the critical thinking in medicine and really putting on the detective hat and looking at all of these imbalances that are going on in the body, both from physical health, which I think is the main focus in medicine, but also the emotional body, our mental health, but also spiritual health. So looking at the whole person

and then their entirety and how those other factors influence our physical health. And I think sometimes I think there's getting more recognition in allopathic medicine about, you know, the emotional body and how that impacts our health as well as spirituality, but really just looking at the body as a whole and that everything is interconnected and, you know, it's not separated from its parts in terms of its different organ systems, which is how we, you know, specialize in medicine and focus like, you know, you go see your rheumatologist, your neurologist, your gastroenterologist, your cardiologist, but realizing that there's so many different, that the body's constantly communicating with each other and it's all connected. Did you know that most cookware

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for 20% off. Again, that's Organifi. It's O-R-G-A-N-I-F-I.com slash realfoodology. Yeah. And I think that's what allopathic medicine often fails to recognize. Like you said, we have all these different buckets. You have different doctors for different ailments. And also too, I want to piggyback on that and say that most doctors don't get, they sometimes get one class of nutrition. They really don't focus on food at all. And the majority of the chronic diseases that we are now seeing in our modern age, go back to our food. And, and that's, you know, a big problem is that if we're not focusing on the food and we don't have our doctors asking us, okay, but what are

you eating? You know? And then on top of that, like you said, like, what's your lifestyle? Like, are you getting sunlight every day? Are you getting exercise? How is your social life? There's so many other factors involved. And this is why I really believe that allopathic and, you know, conventional like sick care really needs to be more for like acute care, you know, like emergencies. And then we need to focus more on like naturopathic functional MDs and stuff like that, you know, for people to really get this kind of care, which brings me to my next question. So I know you're a naturopathic doctor. What I've talked a lot about functional medicine and integrative medicine on here, but I haven't, I think you might actually be my first naturopathic doctor. Okay. So I think

there is a bit of a misconception. I, I personally, I almost went down the route of an indie. So I very much am on board. But I'm thinking about, for example, like my dad who listens to this podcast, and I hate to admit this, but my dad is of the mind sometimes that, you know, naturopathic doctors and natural or wait, how do you say it? Naturopathy? Naturopathy. Yes. And more like holistic care is my dad refers to as like witch doctors. I hate it. It really bothers me. So for someone like that, like, how would you explain because I really believe that there's this misconception with naturopathic medicine that you don't have like a science background or you don't dive into, you know, anatomy and biology. So can you explain that a little bit? Yeah, absolutely. And I think it's a really great point that you make and to clear up a lot of these

misconceptions that are out there and kind of stigmatized out there when it comes to what is a naturopathic doctor? Does it differ from a naturopath versus a functional medicine MD or holistic health coach or integrative health coach or an integrative doctor too, which is actually you can go if you're a medical doctor, they actually have a board certification in integrative medicine, right? So a naturopathic doctor, if you go to a four-year accredited school through the Council on Naturopathic Medicine, this is overseen by the U.S. Department of Education, and really makes sure that you have all of the core clinical knowledge necessary and the basic sciences to be a competent licensed doctor.

So currently naturopathic doctors that go to a four-year accredited school, it's 400, 4,100 hours of coursework rooted in, you know, your basic sciences, biology, you know, biochemistry, salt and molecular biology genetics immunology microbiology and anatomy physiology but then from there too you get all into your didactics you know pathology and then in naturopathic medicine too we have such a large toolkit of modalities that we learn so the big six that we have are pharmaceuticals so think about pharmacology herbal botanical medicine clinical nutrition, homeopathy, physical medicine and manipulation, kind of like osteopathy and kind of chiropractic work. So manipulations. And then the last one being hydrotherapy, which is like contrast hot,

cold water therapy and how that can be very medicinal. So, you know, we get those basic core trainings, but then we get a much larger toolkit in terms of how we can practice and i love that because it really does give us so much to do when it comes to working with our patients and treating the patients and meeting where they're at but i think the the big misconception right now and i think where a lot of the question marks are raised is that right now there are only 26 states that are licensed in the united states and for naturopathic doctors, meaning like you can only apply for a license to practice medicine in basically half of the U.S. Why do you think that

is? Sorry to interrupt you, but... Yeah, I think we're moving and we're getting more and more licensure. Even over the last four years, there was, I think, five new states that got licensure. So with anything, you got to pass a bill. And I think the biggest thing too is something that you talked about too is, you know, if naturopathic medicine and functional medicine is going to be this new age where we're really getting to the root cause, we're really focusing on preventative medicine, how can we make that more accessible? Because right now, based on our, you know, healthcare model, it's all based on insurance. And a lot of naturopathic doctors don't bill through insurance. Some insurance providers won't recognize naturopathic doctors as credentialed or licensed providers that they will accept insurance from. But a lot of nat for the wealthy or the elite, right? So I think

things are changing, but with anything, it's slow to change. It's trying to advocate how naturopathic medicine can be a large part of the chronic disease pandemic that we're talking about, and specifically here in the US, and how we are really equipped to handle that and that we can provide another set of hands for a medical system that is completely overwhelmed, right? How many doctors, thinking about how people have limited access to doctors in the first place, and then thinking about how the quality of care isn't always up to par too. So I think that is something that is worthwhile and advantageous when kind of advocating for that, that we can get more doctors out in the field and really focus on a preventative approach that I think will

really save a lot of money when you're thinking about the trillions of dollars we're in debt when it comes to how much we spend on healthcare in the United States and how much of that can be preventable. But I think it's a snowball effect. So the more and more we can get this message out there, people can learn about naturopathic medicine. People share their story about how when they saw a naturopathic doctor or functional medicine doctor, it changed their life, that they got answers that no one else could give them. And that there are solutions outside of Western medicine. And it's not like you have to pick, you know, naturopathic or functional medicine or Western medicine. It's like, you can have a care team, you can have the best of both. And I think that's the beautiful thing

is it's an integrative model. And I really see the future of medicine being integrative and being able to utilize the best of naturopathic doctors, having your, you know, acupuncturist or energy medicine healer. And then you also have your Western medicine doctor, and maybe your chiropractor, but it's building that team around you. And I think it starts with awareness. And, you know, in the next five to 10 years, I think we may see more recognition around naturopathic doctors. And, you know, I'd be remiss to say that I think another reason why there's a lot of stigma around naturopathic doctors is because there are also countries like Australia and the UK that have naturopaths. And these are more like glorified health coaches.

They do learn about herbal botanical medicine and clinical nutrition, maybe homeopathy and a lot of these lifestyle modalities, hydrotherapy. But they don't have any type of regulatory body. And so they're not credentialed or licensed to practice medicine like they are here in the United States. So there's a difference. And there's people that may be masquerading as a naturopathic doctor, but in reality, they don't have, they did not go to a four-year accredited school that, and hold a license to practice medicine. And in reality are more like of a glorified holistic health coach and, you know, have probably completed anywhere from 200 to 1,000 hours of coursework and can call themselves a naturopath. So N.D.,

naturopathic doctor, or N.M.D., naturopathic medical doctor, are both regulated credentialings that you can see from anybody that completed a four-year curriculum. If someone did not go to a four-year accredited school, they cannot use those credentials. And oftentimes, you'll see them labeled as a naturopath or a board-certified naturopath. But those are not regulated terms because you're not board-certified in naturopathic medicine. There are a couple distinctions where you can get board certified in naturopathic endocrinology, board certified in naturopathic oncology and get a FABNO. And there's also one in pediatrics, but these are kind of the exceptions. So what I'm trying to say is it's kind of put a

bad taste in terms of the public's perception and trust in naturopathic doctors, because you may be seeing, think you're seeing a naturopathic doctor that has gone through that rigorous four-year training. But there's other doctors out there or calling themselves doctors, practitioners that are kind of masquerading and don't have that background. And so, you know, there's people that definitely are knowledgeable, but, you know, I think, you know, you have to kind of do your due diligence to see where did this clinician do their training. And, you know, I think that's more for the safety of the individual, making sure that you're spending your money wisely. And then the last thing I did want to highlight, because I

think this is also, I think, why a lot of naturopathic doctors get criticism, even if they did go to a four-year accredited school, is that right now, since we are only licensed in 26 states and not all 50 states, residency is optional. I, for one, decided to defer residency because there was a lot of other opportunities I wanted to explore. And a career in clinical care is probably going to make up about 10 to 15% of what I do in my career. So it's not something I'm focusing on right out the gate.

There's other people that will do a one, two, or three-year-long residency. But residencies are highly competitive because it's all privately funded. They're not federally funded because we don't, federal recognition, I think that will change and that there will be a residency that's required. And I think that's only going to strengthen the profession and create more homogeneity in the profession and make sure that those clinicians really have the clinical background to be able to appropriately treat individuals and, you know, really establish more trust within our community and other medical providers, right? And because that's the thing is at the end of the day, we're all trying to help patients. We're all trying to serve others. And this shaming and putting down other healthcare providers because they don't see eye to eye, I think is it's, it's moving us backwards. We're taking a step back when, and the goal is, is we are really sick country and we're really sick worldwide. And we need more healthcare providers that can think outside the box, advocate and listen for their patients and give them other

solutions to their long-term health issues outside our Western model. So that's my soapbox. That's my rant. And that's where I think things are going. Yes. I love it. I love that rant. I was just over here being like, yes, yes, yes. And it's so true. And I really, I'm on the same page as you, where I really believe that we're going to start moving more towards this preventative care model, or at least I hope so, because I, I see in my own life and just kind of this like growing movement overall in society, where there's a lot of people where the conventional, like we called it earlier, sick care allopathic model has failed a lot of people. And again, it's not to vilify it, we need it if you're in a car accident, God forbid, and

you know, you know, you break your leg, whatever it is. But there's so many people that are coming into their doctor with these chronic diseases, and then their doctors are unable to help them. And that's not any fault on the doctor. It's because they weren't trained for this. You know, how many doctors are asking about sleep, community stress diet, as you alluded to earlier, exercise, right? I think, you know, there's this model of like, eat less exercise more in terms of weight loss, and how, you know, so much of the population has metabolic syndrome, but there's more to health than that. Yeah, exactly. I said this earlier, I feel like in the US, well, overall, really just

as a population overall, we really were confused on what it truly means to be healthy. What determines true health and vitality? Oh, that is a really, really good question. And, you know, something that I have to say, and I kind of say this a lot to my audience is that health, honestly, it's subjective. Each person may have a different baseline definition of what health is to them, right? Because for some person, health may be meaning that your chronic disease, maybe you have Hashimoto's thyroiditis, or maybe you have diabetes, meaning that it is well-controlled and or maybe it's in remission, that can be a sign of good health.

For other people, it may be the complete absence of a diagnosable disease. And I think that's a lot of times what conventional model in terms of the medical system would label health is not having a diagnosable disease or, again, it being well-controlled. But also, you mentioned vitality. Vitality is something that is really important to you because I see health as a vibrant state of vitality and energy. Like, I can see it in you, Courtney, too. Like, you have a certain glow to you, right? We're energy. And it's palpable when you're around somebody that is healthy. It's like it bleeds through them. And so, you know,

we are more than just the physical being, as we kind of alluded to earlier, like there's so much more to our health that I think we're even learning more and more about, right? How our microbes influence our overall health, this whole like quantum field and thinking about like our energetic and magnetic fields and how that affects, you know, our aura and our emotional and mental health. And, you know, all of that, we can go down that kind of, you know, path. And maybe that's sometimes where naturopathic doctors get the woo-woo, which doctors that you talked about earlier is because, you know, we look outside the box, we realize that health is complex, right? It's not a silver bullet solution. And big pharma would love to tell you that, you know that health is complex, right? It's not a silver bullet solution.

And big pharma would love to tell you that, you know, health is found in a bottle or a pill or a supplement. And that's just not the case, right? We have to proactively cultivate health on a daily basis, as we talked about earlier. And again, everyone has a different definition of health. But my definition of health, I think is really having a vibrant state of vitality and being able to adapt to everyday stressors, being resilient to everything that's thrown at us. Like that shows true health of an organism where you're able to tolerate a wide diversity of foods. You're able to tolerate various levels of stress without breaking down. And you're able to adapt to these stressors and be,

and through those, that adaptive process, you become stronger as an organism. Like I see that as true health. And when you really get back into a state of equilibrium and like the body has this capacity to self heal. And I think that's the beautiful thing is it's removing those offending factors,

giving it those foundational pillars to good health and the body knows what to do. The body is intelligent. The body is wise. So oftentimes, you know, I always, I will always say that the best way to approach long-term health is to work with the body, not against it by trying to suppress and eliminate symptoms, which are really messengers of underlying imbalances, and not eliminating either in terms of like, okay, you have biliary dyskinesia and you have gallstones, so let's just remove your gallbladder. And it's like, is that really the solution? Why is that person having issues with sludge or stones in the first place? So, um, you know, those are some questions that we need to think about, but again, I think it's subjective. What, what is your definition of,

of health? I guess I want to ask you that. Oh, I love that. You know, I've, I guess I've never really thought about like my actual definition. I think for me really, it's more just about, um, feeling really good in my body, having the energy and the mental capacity, the cognitive function to move through my day and really, yeah, and just feel like energized and feel good. Like that really ultimately is my goal more than anything, you know, is I just, I want to feel good. And of course, like looking good, which is a great side effect of it, but it's really more about like, just how you feel in your body. And I think, yeah, it's, it's not so much as like the absence of disease. It's more just like being in this kind of state of vitality, like you talked

about, you know, and it's, I feel like it's hard sometimes to explain it to someone who has never felt that, that type of health. And I'm one of them. This is not even to like shame anyone. Like when I was in college, I'm just I'm able to see such a stark difference from when I was in college, I was binge drinking, I was eating, you know, the fourth meal at Taco Bell, I'm not proud of it at like 2am. And I look back on that time. I mean, I was inflamed, I was having digestive issues, I had chronic heartburn that I could not get rid of to save my life. I also had an itchy scalp, which turns out was some sort of I think psoriasis. I mean, I can go on. And I look back on that time in my life versus now. And I'm like, I mean, it's night and day. But at the time, I didn't realize I was living in such a state of sickness, because I was still going to class and

I was functioning like a normal human. But man, I was sick and inflamed, you know, right. And that's something that I don't think if we never try something different, try to change lifestyles, try to enter, you know, do a different intervention, whatever that is, it could be diet related. Maybe it's starting that exercise, exercise program. Maybe it's a daily habit of starting a meditation practice or breath work or being surrounded more by community and, you know, nature bathing or sunlight and grounding, whatever that is, right? That we don't know until we kind of get out of the day to day and break some of those habits that kind of can keep us stuck because it's that perspective.

And this journey we've been on, when I really think about health, it's a journey, not a destination. I know very cliche to say, but it is a journey and it gives you perspective. And it's that perspective that I think is the most gratifying, but also the most motivating to continue to want to make change. So you have mentioned this a few times. I want to know, what do you consider to be kind of the pillars of health? So like light movement, I want to talk about those. Like, I feel like food is obviously a big one and I want to talk about food, but maybe we'll do that last. So we can kind of go into like bio-individual big one and I want to talk about food, but maybe we'll do that last so we can kind of go into like bio-individualized diets and you know what the best quote unquote diet is for everyone. But let's kind of go down these pillars of health. Cause I feel like, um,

maybe a lot of people aren't aware of like all these different modalities that we can do that really can make a huge improvement in our lives. A hundred percent. So as you mentioned, yes, diet is, is definitely a foundational pillar. We all have to percent. So as you mentioned, yes, diet is, is definitely a foundational pillar. We all have to eat. And so leveraging nutrition, uh, to, uh, improve our health wellness and vitality and to, um, fight disease is definitely something that, you know, is in our wheelhouse that we can, that we can leverage in terms of what we eat on a daily basis, exercise and movement. We know all the health benefits that comes to movement. And I like to say movement over exercise because there can also be this negative connotation. Like you need to

over-exercise, you need to over-train, you need to do more and more in order to be healthy, but more isn't always better. And something that I learned during COVID when a lot of the gyms were walking or locked down was simply doing body weight exercises and doing 10,000 steps a day, like getting out and walking and being in fresh air was so not only therapeutic for my mental health, but also I noticed like I stayed in like very good metabolic health. Like I had metabolic fitness. I didn't see myself like gaining the COVID-15 and, and some of these other things. And so, you know, walking I think is so underrated and just, we are meant to move as a species. So movement and exercise is definitely another pillar. One that I think is not discussed enough about is the purpose or having a sense of purpose and

community and being surrounded by other people that support you and your endeavors and your visions. I think, you know, we grew up as tribal beings and like before we had, you know, the industrial revolution, we lived in these, you know, the Industrial Revolution, we lived in these, you know, big metropolitan areas, and we had social media, like, you living on your own was basically a death, like you're knocking on your deathbed, basically, like you did not survive on your own. And so we are meant, like primarily to be surrounded by other individuals. And, you know, I think isolation and loneliness and not knowing what our purposes in society can be a real detriment to our overall health. And I think also social media has amplified this too, where, you know, the comparison game is

really real. Like people are maybe in their early twenties, they're in their late twenties, they're in their early thirties and their late thirties and their forties. And it's like, you know, comparing yourself to what other people are doing and I should be here or that, or envious of people that have certain things like that. And just the reality is, is we're all on our own journey and we're all on our different, on our own timetable too. And, and all of us mature and maturate at different, different rates. And we're all again on this journey and kind of trying to understand what is the meaning of health? What is the meaning of life? What is my purpose? Who are the people that I really gravitate to that really build me up and

make me feel like I belong? Again, I think this is an important part of health and an important pillar that I think is most prominently noted in the blue zones. I really believe that that's probably one of the foundational pillars that really unites all blue zones is that sense of purpose and community and sense of belonging and living in these curated social circles that really support them. And how often is your doctor asking about, you know, support and community and friends, like, especially if you're going through a crisis that you can talk to someone like that. So that's definitely one. Stress, I mean, it's unavoidable this day and age. There's just so much that we put on our plates, myself included. And how can we find time to

unwind, relax, get back to community and loved ones and find it and strike a nice balance? Because the reality is, is that stress is unavoidable and it's how we can become more adaptive and or resilient to stress that is going to, again, be a sign of robust health. Again, the ability to adapt to that and thinking about what are different ways that we can do that. We could talk about that later if you want to. And then sleep, I think, is very under recognized one as well. We all know like sleep is important for us. But I when I was a collegiate swimmer, even and you'd think that I would have really prioritized my my sleep, like I was eating all the best things, but I was, you know, pulling all nighters on the regular, I would be binge drinking, which definitely

disrupts your quality of sleep. And, you know, I would probably get by on like six hours of sleep per night. And I too was chronically inflamed and had all these health issues and ADHD and just like cognitive deficits. And when I really like started to change my diet up and prioritize sleep, it was just like that veil lifted. And I was like, I've been living in this perpetual brain fog my entire life. And now once I'm on the other side, like I could see that contrast. I was like, whoa, I never want to go back to that. And realizing like, wait, there's tools in my toolkit outside of Adderall and Vyvanse that I can use to help with my cognition and focus and productivity. Like no one ever told me that. No one ever asked about my diet or how I was sleeping. Because here's the thing is I think we just, we normalize it as a society that we're all busy.

And who are we as a, as a doctor or physician or a professional, health professional, to tell someone else what they should do with their body in terms of what to eat, when to sleep, to not drink alcohol or to not smoke tobacco. You know, those are definitely something else too that you want to minimize. To talk about reducing stress. Like it's, again, we don't allow individuals to take self-responsibility. We put this power dynamic where the doctor knows best and the doctor, the doctor is going to fix me, which I really don't, I don't like that. I see the doctor as a

guide, a source of empowerment and information and not a gatekeeper to withholding knowledge, but to share that, to help others on their health journey and wherever they're at. And so again, take self-responsibility for their health. Cause I see that's where the, the most deep healing occurs is when people really do take their health into account and really take responsibility for that and use their doctor to their advantage, to advocate for them, to help them fill in the missing pieces. And then it's a beautiful domino effect from there. Yeah. Well, and I was going to say also, when we have that mentality that, oh, the doctor knows best, they're just going to, you know, they're going to save us essentially. It cuts us off from

our own innate, from our own intuition. And we really, I think we really, really discount that in our society. We've become so disconnected from ourselves, from nature, that a lot of people have a really hard time listening inwards. And I think we forget that our bodies are pretty incredible and super resilient. And also we usually know, we usually know deep down what we need. And, you know, and that's not to say that, like, you, we don't need a doctor, But I do think that we need more emphasis on the importance of being able to tune into our intuition, because we're, I mean, we're very primal, you know, and it's 100% we have that hardwired, something that it made me think about, too. And this is just like a food for thought. I'm curious if you have a thought on it, too,

is just like, you think about the conventional medical model, and the the kind of the focus on pathology and the need to treat or cure through, you know, surgery or pharmaceuticals. In a way, I feel like there's this narrative that's been perpetuated over the last 40 to 50 years that inherently like our body is broken, that our body isn't wise, and that we have learned to not trust our body, but to trust the experts that know better than what we, than, than that intuition. Cause we're living in our body. Like you think like you would know, like, does this sit with me? But we outsource that power because there's this power dynamic that the doctor knows best and you don't, how dare you question, you know, a physician, like you didn't go to school.

So there's this power dynamic. And again, this vitriol of like, you know, outsourcing our power and not listening and tuning into what our true gut intuition is. And I think that has created a society too, where there's a lot of fear and we've learned not to trust ourself. And I think that with that too,, it, it leaves people controllable, for lack of better words, like, it's, I don't know, it's a great way to put it manipulative. It is, it's incredibly manipulative. And you know, I will tell you, if your doctor is telling

you that it's a major, major red flag, if they're just like, Oh, leave it up to the experts, you know, it's like, okay, well, but I'm telling you that I either like have this intuition about something or I'm telling you I have these symptoms. It's not all in my head, but we have, we've given away a lot of our power. And what you said about surgeries, I've always found this so funny because, you know, over the years, like more and more people are starting to really get into eating healthier and taking care of their bodies and stuff. But I remember like when I really started getting into this was like the tail end of college and majority of my friends were like, oh, she's so extreme. Like this is too much for me kind of thing.

But I think I think surgery is extreme. I think opening up your chest and having to have heart surgery because you didn't eat well for 40 years is really extreme compared to focusing on a healthy diet. And look again, thank God we have surgery. Thank God, you know, it's life-saving, but I think we need to change our, we need to change our thinking around it into more of what you were saying. Like our bodies are very wise. They're very resilient. They want to be in a state of health. They want to heal. And if we give our bodies the right tools, the right nutrition, um, we take care of ourselves and, you know, with all those pillars of health that you were saying, our bodies will find that place of balance where it wants to be. Oh my gosh. So when are you selling tickets to your Ted talk?

I love that. You know, what's so funny? That's been on my list. Thank you. It is extreme. And that's the hard thing too. It's the disconnect is how can you encourage or incentivize individuals? I mean, incentivize isn't a great word either because, again, you want to encourage for individuals to take self-responsibility for their health at a younger age and take a preventative, proactive approach in their health, like playing an active role in their health as opposed to the weight, because it's a bunch of what ifs. Like you can try to shame people for their choices and say, if you continue this, then this is going to happen. You're going to have diabetes. You may have to get your foot amputated or you're going to have cardiovascular disease and a heart attack and a stroke and

or Alzheimer's because it runs in your family if you continue on this trajectory. So it's where can we intervene early knowing our genetic predisposition, feeling empowered and having those resources around us, having a care team. But yeah, that's the disconnect is how you can get people at a younger age to really buy in and want to take an active role in their health as opposed to a watch and wait approach where it's like, that won't happen to me. And then 20, 30 years down the line being like, oh, reflecting back and like, maybe a lot of those choices I made did add up to this culmination of ill health. But again, we need to remove the shame as from that too. And everybody, again, they're in a different place. And something that I haven't mentioned yet too, is like, even talking about like, having options to, you know, have a healthier diet or using herbs

over pharmaceuticals or having supplements or homeopathy or like even having these other modalities. Great. But what does the patient want? Because there's some patients, they are just, you know, adamant about a pharmaceutical. They also don't have the financial needs to afford something that's not covered by insurance. There's also people that don't have insurance. And so you're working with like a very limited toolkit. So again, it comes back to meeting that individual where they're at and what is it that they're looking for. And it's not what I want.

It's, you know, I'm there to listen to the individual. What are their needs? What are their concerns? What are the different options? And then ultimately giving them the information so that they can make an informed decision on what's best for them. And I know for some people that can be overwhelming, but again, I think there's a fine line too, of that empowerment and information,

getting a gauge of how much somebody knows about something and how much information they may want to know. Cause you probably, you know, I know there's people that want to know everything and it's like, okay, I can go on for a long period of time, but there's other people too. It's just like, you know, I know a little bit about this, but I honestly don't want to know, like, let's say multiple sclerosis. I know a little bit about multiple sclerosis, but, you know, I've heard that I can't heal from this

and that I will probably eventually have long-term complications from this. And this is hard for me to sit with and I can't take on any more information, at least at this time. And I think honoring that too, honoring that space and how everybody processes things at a different speed. Yeah. Well, that's a really, really good point. And, you know, it brings up accessibility and

all that. I mean, this is my, I was actually going to say this earlier, but then we kind of went a different direction. This is my biggest issue with naturopathic integrative functional medicine is that majority of them are not accepting insurance. And I don't blame, I don't, I don't blame them. I think it's because of our current, as we called it, sick care model, um, the way that it functions, we don't, we don't see preventative care as something that should be, um, covered by insurance and is something that's important. And I really, I'm with you. I really believe and I see a shift already happening. And I'm really, really hopeful that within the next five to 10 years,

insurance will start more like looking at preventative care and accepting that as part of their, you know, under the insurance. Because the reality of it is we're going to save trillions of dollars in health care if we can start focusing health from a preventative measure. But until then, it's really hard to make this super accessible. Yeah. Well, you think about what is our preventative care measures right now. You think about like the USPF task force, like what are, you know, we think about like colonoscopies, that is considered a preventative screening, right? But in a way, it's still reactive because

let's say you start screening for colorectal cancer or maybe earlier too, because you know, maybe there's a family history. You're starting to screen at age 45. Um, and then you do find a pull-up or a growth or an ulcer or something like that. Like it's, it's still reactive in a way it's like, Oh, we found it. Now we're going to either suppress that pathology. We're going to cut it out. We're going to start chemotherapy. We're going to start it out. We're going to start chemotherapy. We're going to start you on biologics, whatever that is, right? As opposed to, again, in that 20 years leading up to maybe that finding, like where's the

education? Where are the resources? Where's the labs that potentially could have caught that earlier on? And again, it's imperfect. We don't have labs for everything. And labs are also come with their, you know, you know, flaws as well, false positives and false negatives. And, you know, we don't have the best way to test a lot of things that maybe we want more data on. But where's the education around diet and not being influenced by, you know, big food? Like, I think

there's a lot of, you know, bias to when you think about how political food has gotten in big food. Like, I think there's a lot of, you know, bias too, when you think about how political food has gotten and big food. Thinking about, you know, exercise and a lot of our, you know, alcohol consumption, alcohol is like the most abused drug and it's legal. I know. And then, and then we demonize, you know, psilocybin and LSD and MDMA. And it's like, it's still a class one drug. I just posted something on this yesterday too. And it's like, I'm so excited to see what MAPS has been spearheading to in the future of psychedelic research and psychedelic assisted therapy. Um, and especially in the context of like, coupled with cognitive behavioral therapy and really treating the mental health crisis we have all around the world, because it's showing real good promise for people with PTSD,

complex personality disorders, major depressive disorders, anxiety, addiction, like, like these can be powerful tools. And we have to put our bias aside and really look at like, what, like, what is it that we've legalized for so long, it actually is really creating ill health. And what are things that we have demonized for so long, and, you know, can really have great therapeutic potential. But with anything, it always comes back to a cost or risk benefit analysis and looking like what are the potential cons and what are the potential benefits when implementing whatever intervention is that's drug or supplement or herb, like it doesn't matter.

It all kind of comes back to a cost benefit analysis. Oh, absolutely. I mean, it's, you know, we can apply this to many different avenues, like follow it's, you know, we can apply this to many different avenues, like follow the money, you know, and I think about this a lot with alcohol. I think it's so funny. It is the most widely abused drug and probably cause no, not probably causes the most harm on the body, yet it's legal. And no one even blinks an eye when people are, you know, binge drinking or whatever. But then the second someone whips out like mushrooms, I mean, this is definitely changing, at least in my social circles, like people are very accepting of it. But, you know, I think about like our parents' generation.

It's like, oh, God, mushrooms, like they're illegal and so bad for you. And it's like, actually, they're some of the most healing drugs on this planet. But we have normalized alcohol and it is, I mean, the effects on the body are yikes. Yeah. I mean, that's one of those things, foundational health, it's minimizing alcohol and tobacco consumption. I mean, um, so yeah. Okay. So I alluded to this earlier. I want to dive into food. Uh, I know you and I share a similar thought on this, but I want you to explain this for my audience. What, so do you believe that there is like one perfect diet for everyone or, um, is it more bio bio individualized and also how does someone find kind of what works best for them? Yeah, those are all great questions. I'll start with kind of the first two is I, you know,

I definitely believe it's individualized and that that's the thing is, I think we're moving more towards an approach of individualized nutrition, because I realize, and I hope a lot of people realize that we're all biochemically unique. We're all unique individuals. This is why some people may have, you know, anaphylaxis and or hives. And, you know, if they consume eggs and other people, like they do totally fine with foods, like, you know, allergies is one way that somebody may respond to a food. Some person may have an intolerance to a certain food or there's food sensitivities. Right. And also to thinking about there's so many factors that go into figuring out what is the best diet for that individual? Like what is their metabolic health? Like, like, do they have good glycemic control thinking about blood sugar? It's something that I'm, I'm currently

wearing a continuous glucose monitor. And, um, yeah, I saw that on your Instagram and I'm currently wearing a continuous glucose monitor. Yeah, I saw that on your Instagram. And I'm doing that for the next month. And I used to be in clinical research in the formulation of an artificial pancreas system for type 1 diabetics. So I was very involved in the intersection of kind of like real-time human physiology and working with type 1 diabetics to help bring better glycemic control by creating an automated insulin delivery system. And when people get more insight into how food impacts their hormones and specifically their metabolic health and looking at how so many people are metabolically inflexible in this country, meaning that they have elevated lipids, so triglycerides, or they have elevated cholesterol levels, they're diabetic or they're pre-diabetic, they are overweight or they're obese, they have, you know, elevated fasting insulin,

they have elevated CRP or HCRP or ESR, thinking about like baseline inflammation, or these people too may have high blood pressure. Hypertension can also be a sign of metabolic dysfunction. So, you know, how prevalent that is in our society today and how much of that it could be related to food. And so blood sugar is one of those pieces that is going to influence, like, is someone going to be consuming a lot more carbohydrates or not? Like, how are they going to do with refined carbohydrates or not? Because again, not all carbohydrates are created equal.

Thinking if, you know, the gut microbiome, because the bugs in our gut, those commensal bacteria influence to our, how we respond to various foods. And that can also influence how we respond from like, you think about our blood sugar, that is very individualized and thinking about all the different factors that feed into and influence our gut microbiome. And then something too, I know that we had talked about in the past too, and I think is important to acknowledge is like, is someone in a heal state or a health optimization state? Because that's also going to change how maybe restrictive we are at first with tailoring a diet to somebody, because typically people that are very sick, they have chronic illness.

These individuals are very reactive to a wide diversity of highly antigenic foods. These are most commonly your common allergenic foods, which we'll say are pro-inflammatory foods. And for those individuals, they need to cut those foods out for a period of time to help to reduce the inflammatory load on the body. Give it just a break, a chance to heal a little bit before reintroducing these foods systematically one by one to really figure out what are these foods that I am reacting to and which foods I do tolerate. This is the basis of an elimination diet, which is gold standard if I'm trying to figure out what is the best diet for an individual, but also taking a context like do they have certain comorbidities? Like am I working with somebody that has Hashimoto's thyroiditis,

but they also have IBS and they also have fibromyalgia and they also happen to have what? Like eczema, right? So like all these things, I would think of a different approach and how I would want to use food as like a medicinal tool and leveraging and reducing the inflammatory load to improve their quality of life and to help manage those symptoms. And sometimes maybe even reverse, you know, it's, but it's multifactorial. It's, you know, nutrition, as much as I have found healing and nutrition myself and believe food can be medicine, it's not the end all be all for everyone. I don't know about you, Courtney, but like, you know, for me, nutrition was a huge pillar for my healing, but it's not for everyone.

It's just a piece of the puzzle. And so, you know, everybody's going to be different. And again, you got to consider all those different factors. And then, you know, everybody's going to be different. And again, you got to consider all those different factors. And then based on that, you can figure out, you know, often with the help of a healthcare practitioner, a integrative medical doctor, a naturopathic doctor, functional medicine doctor, or even some health coaches that I think are very well worse than holistic nutrition, like they can help you make and cater the perfect, you know, program for you. But the last thing I want to say on this too, is that we are constantly evolving and changing. And just because maybe you found the secret sauce and something that was really compatible with

your body and you've been doing it for a number of years, but then let's say three or four years later, you notice that, you know, my body's not really vibing with this anymore. Like every time I eat broccoli and cauliflower and apples, which I used to do really well with, like now I'm getting like excessively bloated and like my abdomen like feels like it swells and is like tender. Like maybe I should like look into this a little bit more and why is it that I'm no longer tolerating this? So something that I'm getting at is that just because it worked well for you in the past, it may no longer serve you in realizing that we are dynamic beings. And so our needs change all the time. And that could be week to week, month to month, every season, you know, every year. So just being open and leaning in with

curiosity to how the foods that we're eating is impacting our overall health. God, that is so important. And I'm so glad that you brought that point up because, I mean, I can, I can personally speak to this in my own life. I was vegetarian for five years and I don't have, I don't have an issue with the vegetarian diet in the sense that if it really does work for someone and they feel really good in their body, great. I love this. But what I don't like about it is that it tends to become really dogmatic and people will try so hard to make it work at the detriment of their own health. And I'm speaking from experience like I was incredibly sick by the end of the five year mark of me being vegetarian. I remember I was sitting in a naturopathics office, actually, and I left that office sobbing because she looked at me and she goes, you have to start eating meat. And I was like, I can't, I can't do it. I can't do it. And she was

like, you're gonna, you're gonna do it at some point because your health is so poor and your body is literally screaming for it. I mean, by the end of it, I was, I was having dreams. I remember there was a time, this is so funny. I woke up in the middle of the night feeding myself chicken nuggets, which also chicken nuggets, like so random, um, like air feeding myself. And I remember my mom being like, Courtney, your body is telling you that you need meat. And so that, I mean, and I think this is a perfect example of that because, you know, in the very beginning, I would say maybe the first two years, like, Oh my God, I had energy. I felt so good. I had lost some weight that I had gained that I was like hoping would come off, you know? And so all these things were happening and I was like, God,

I feel so good. But then towards the end of it, I, I had, it had worked for me to a certain point, but I didn't want to admit that it was no longer working for me. Yeah. We get in that denial phase. And I found myself there when I was whole food plant-based, basically kind of a rather a vegan lifestyle for about 18 months. It worked very well for me for the first 13 months and then the last five months I really struggled. And I really – there was a lot of shame around like admitting I was wrong in a way because I also had a platform at the time and wanting and telling everybody that it's like, you know, whole food plant-based and an all plant-based diet is the best diet for everyone. And really cutting me back to like outsourcing our energy, it was talked about earlier, outsourcing my energy and letting all these experts and, and vegan cardiologists and big,

you know, like the Essels of, and the, and the Campbell's and the, uh and the McGregors of the world and the vegan nutrition space, tell me what was best for my body. And I kind of outsourced that trust to them. And, you know, there was a lot of internal conflict of like, you know, transitioning back and the shame around eating meat again and thinking about what other people would think of me because of my dietary choices. And I think that's also a sticky position that we've gotten ourself in because diets have become so dogmatic is individuals start to identify like their identity gets in, in, in, in mesh with their, their dietary choices. And it's like, we are more than what we eat. And we're also more than our profession and like who we love and what we do.

Like there was a great exercise that somebody challenged me with the other month. And it just was like, you know, who are you beyond the label? I don't know if you ever thought about that too. Like some of us, it's like, I'm a doctor, I'm an author, I'm an Olympian, I'm a mother, I'm a father, I'm a brother, I'm a sister. Like we identify with these certain labels, but we are more to, there's more to us than those labels, right? Or even our dietary approach, vegan, carnivore, paleo, vegetarian, fruitivore, right? Fruititarian, I guess. So, you know, and I think it can make it so hard to break out of those dietary approaches to when we identify it. And it's the same thing with the chronic illness. When we identify with our sickness, it makes it so much

harder for us to heal because we don't know who we are outside of that, that label. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's such a great point. I love that. And I don't know if you feel this way, but this is, um, I'm, I'm concerned about this really massive plant-based, um, especially more the like fake meat kind of movement that

we're seeing right now, because I think so many people are hopping on that train just because they're, they're being told that it's the healthiest diet. And this is perfect for everyone. And it's gonna help with climate change, which is also not true if you look into regenerative farming, but that's a whole other podcast. Yeah. And my only concern, again, is not to vilify this vegetarian diet. But again, like, I think it takes away this message of we all need to figure out what works best for our bodies. And some people's bodies work and function better with me, I would argue most a lot of them do. But again, like if you if you find a really good practitioner that can help you with your supplement game, and you know, and you really, really have your diet dialed

in, I think that some vegetarian diets can work. but I really believe that we need meat, but it's hard that we're, we have this movement right now. There's nuances. And I think something to you kind of asked this question earlier, and I don't think I ever answered it is like, is there some type of foundational principle when it comes that kind of unites all of these dietary camps and finding what is the best diet if it is individualized. But as you're figuring it out, like I tell people all the time, the first place to start for anyone is eat more whole, unadulterated real foods, eat more whole foods. And as you were saying, like you can be vegan and subside on hippie chips and, um, Lay's potato chips and diet Coke Oreos. And, you know, the mock chicken, you know, soy imitation meat, chicken tenders.

That's not nourishing. And the body is also adaptive. So if you have that every once in a while, no big deal. But you're the sum of what you're consuming day in and day out, what you do most of the time. So you have those people that maybe are the junk food vegans. And then those that really are cooking from scratch, they're being very meticulous with soaking and sprouting and fermenting, which is great because it's going to increase nutrient bioavailability.

Maybe they're, you know, meticulously supplementing with certain key nutrients that they may be missing on. But why do we have to subscribe to the labels and to these, you know, these identities, as opposed to like, yeah, like maybe I like to, I, you know, you could basically whole food plant based, but like I eat some eggs or I eat some fish every once in a while. Like where, you know, you could basically whole food plant-based, but like I eat some eggs or I eat some fish every once in a while, like where, you know, realizing like, oh yeah, my body responds well that way and not doing something just because it's trendy or because someone else is doing it or someone else told you to do it. Right. Because you kind of know inherently, um, what is best for you, but you don't know. Here's the kicker. You don't know until you try. So I

actually advocate and encourage people, try going whole food plant-based diet for one month or two months or a year. Try going vegetarian, try paleo, try keto, try carnivore. I'm doing it starting next week for a month. Because here's the thing is that we learn through all of these, you know, processes, processes and right. And as we talked about, like, we don't know unless we try. And, and through that, you're going to figure out what are the things that really worked that I want to start implementing moving forward. And what are the things that didn't work? And you're going to be able to kind of create this tailored approach to you and take bits and pieces away from each of those experiences to kind of curate the perfect diet as it relates to

you in that current time. And so, yeah, I encourage people to do that because if you're just sitting on the sidelines and just, you know, judging with never even, you know, implementing these things or trying it, like it's kind of like that paralysis by analysis, but like you're going to learn, you're going to learn by throwing yourself in the fire and trying it for yourself. You're going to figure out if it works for you, if it didn't. And you may be surprised. Maybe you try going whole food plant-based or you try keto and you notice that your cognition is better. Your skin is better and it's glowing. Like you get better sleep. You have better energy throughout the day. Your digestion is better. You never, no longer get, you know, like afternoon crashes,

and you don't have to reach for that cup of coffee in the afternoon, like you just have more steady energy, like, it can just change people's life. And they would never even know because they never took the leap, they never even tried. And so it's only you can only go so far to like, try to assimilate and take in all the knowledge. And then there's a point where you have to jump in, you have to go, you have to try and kind of see what sticks. Yeah. Yeah. And this is why it's so important to you listen to the experts. So like you listen to us having this conversation right now on the podcast, but then you ultimately are the only person that's going to be able to really figure out what works best for you. You know, you can take these little tidbits of information and

that's really how I figured out what diet works best for me. I mean, God, it has been like a 10-year journey for me. Like I said, I went vegetarian. I was vegan. I was pescatarian. I was keto for a while. And now I don't even have a label. I'm just like, I don't know. I eat real food and I eat very intuitively.

But it's a process. Our bodies, I joke about this a lot. I'm like, it's kind of like a science experiment with yourself. You just got to dabble. You got to try the different things and see. And you know, you brought up a great point. You do check-ins and say like, okay, well, how is my sleep? How is my digestion? Am I going to the bathroom every day? How's my energy? Am I crashing in the afternoon? Little things like that will tell you if you're on the right path. So this kind of brings me to

when you sit down for a meal, how do you build your plate? And. So this kind of brings me to when you sit down for a meal, how do you build your plate? And do you have kind of like guidelines that you suggest to people or that you follow for you personally? Yeah. Um, I really focus on three key pillars when it comes to building a balanced plate. I think about protein, quality protein, healthy fats, and fiber. These are going to be the three core ingredients to help to stabilize blood sugar, increase satiation. So feeling full after a meal so you're not hungry like one or two hours after and like, you know, constantly feeding and snacking. And it is something that I think is it's a recipe that is going to do really well for

people to better achieve glycemic control. And also a lot of these factors to thinking about like the fiber, it's going to help to make sure that we are regular in terms of our bowel movements, also going to feed and support the beneficial growth of the commensal bacteria in our colon. Fat is going to be important for hormones and for energy and a lot of the neural fatty tissue in our body. And then protein too, you need that for maintaining lean muscle mass and, and building, um, uh, new muscle in terms of when we tear our muscles down, we need those amino acids from protein to build it back up. So just making sure that we have adequate protein in the diet for the day-to-day wear and tear. Um, because also we're 20% by protein. If you think about our body mass

and we're another 70% by water. So it's like we're water with some protein and then we have, you know, some fats and nucleic acid and bacteria. Right. So, um, so the way I kind of do it is I do about 20% healthy fats, 30% quality protein, and about half your plate with non-starchy, uh, vegetables thinking about fibers and or greens. Um, if I am, so what would that look like? So like healthy fats, maybe that is some avocado, it's some olives. If you're doing like a smoothie bowl, maybe you're incorporating some like full fat coconut milk or shredded coconut. I do love seeds like, you know, hemp seeds and flax seeds and chia seeds and, you know, sprouted nuts like walnuts and pecans and almonds, of course, which are kind of the poster child of nuts. And then quality protein

is going to vary for the individual. For some people, it may be animal-based. For some people, it may be more of a vegetarian template, whether that's eggs or full-fat dairy. And for other people, it may be plant-based. So I'm a big fan of tempeh, more of a fermented soy, if you tolerate soy well. I think it's important to rotate, but big fan of tempeh, more of a fermented soy. If you tolerate soy well, I think it's important to rotate, but I like that tempeh is fermentable. So more nutrients, bioavailability, and also you're getting some of the benefits of those live probiotics or microorganisms. But also you can get into lentils and, you know, certain legumes are going to also have higher amounts of protein and, you know, peas. I mean going to also have a higher amounts of protein and,

you know, peas. I mean, these are kind of starchy things. Like you kind of can cater it to you to make sure you're getting in some protein. Um, if you don't eat any animal based products, but it could also look like a steak. It can look like, um, some sardines, which I'm a big fan of, or it can be, um, you know, some, some chicken or some ground turkey or some shellfish. I'm a big fan of shellfish. A lot of people do have – they're a common allergenic food.

But bearing any allergies, I think they're a very nutrient-dense food source. So that's kind of what I'm thinking about for protein options. And then the non-starchy, it's like dark leafy greens. If you're going to do a salad, it can be bok choy. It could be cabbage, it could be broccoli or cauliflower or kohlrabi. Mushrooms are one of my favorites too, or cucumbers or all those types of things you could do. And then, you know, if people are looking to put in more carbohydrates, they have good metabolic flexibility. They're maybe trying to put on some weight. Maybe you're adding in some starch, whether that's some grain or some tubers or root vegetables. And then some of the extra add-ons that I always encourage people are

stuff like, you know, sprouts or microgreens, fermentable foods. So you think about like sauerkrauts and kimchi's and then load up on herbs and spices. Not only is it going to give more flavor, but there's a lot of polyphenols and antioxidants, these phytonutrients that are found in there that are going to help to mitigate these reactive oxygen species that can create inflammation in the body. But they can also modulate various enzymatic pathways in the body that can favor robust health. So that's kind of the way that I approach it is that 20% fat, 30% quality protein, and 50% non-starchy vegetables with the option to add starch to it. And a goal I always recommend to people in terms of how much protein, like what is 30%, I'm saying at least 30 grams of protein per meal to really help with satiation and blood sugar control. Yeah, that's great. I think that'll be super helpful for people too because they want

like actual numbers. I wonder, I think I get around 30 grams of protein per meal. I really try to focus on protein and fat and then vegetables, obviously, you know, like leaf greens. And so you and I, we build our plates very similarly. There we go. And there's, there's sometimes too, it's not always 50% roughage because I'm like, you know what? My digestive system just isn't feeling that. And maybe it's means I'm going to cook it instead of it raw. And you can also have like half of it raw, half of it cooked. And that again, it's going to depend on the individual and how strong their digestive system is because you need strong digestion to break down a lot of that raw

cellulose structure that is found in fiber. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. So I want to ask you a question that I ask everyone on the podcast. What are your health non-negotiables? These are things that you do every single day, no matter what, or maybe every week or whatever it is, you know, to really, um, to be resilient and healthy. Yeah. I love that. Um, first and foremost, it's going to be kind of boring, but after learning the importance of this and prioritizing my sleep, it is prioritizing sleep.

I have to get, I have to get eight or seven and a half hours is my sweet spot for sleep. I don't need eight, but like seven isn't enough either. Usually at least that's what my aura ring says. Uh, but like I can get by total, like, well, I can get by on seven hours of sleep, but like ideally my perfect sleep is seven hours and 30 minutes. Um, so prioritizing sleep, um, light getting full spectrum light first thing in the morning, whether that's using a red light therapy device, um, with near infrared, which I absolutely love. It's one of my favorite biohacking tools, um, that I think is, is worthy investment. Uh, but the thing you can do that is simple and it's, it's accessible

to everyone. It's just get outside within the first hour of waking and expose yourself to the natural light. Regardless if you have sun or if it's in the middle of the winter and it's overcast and cloudy and rainy, you still get a higher amount of lux when you're outside during the day as opposed to being inside and being bathed in artificial light. So get outside, see the natural light. Every week, I for sure prioritize doing some type of forest bathing, getting out and hiking, getting out to the beach. I try to make it something that I can do three to four times a week, but it doesn't always happen. But every week, I'm at least doing that. If it's too busy in the week, then the weekends, I'm definitely prioritizing

that. Walking, like if I don't like, yes, I love to exercise and do yoga, weightlifting and swimming, but walking is something that if I have a really busy day and I have back-to-back meetings or I just have a lot I'm working on, it's like trying to remind myself every hour and a half, two hours, get up, go walk for 10 minutes, just 10 minutes. It's going to change your productivity, your mental clarity and cognition. It's going to help support your blood sugar. And again, we were meant to move. So, um, thinking about how you can walk, move your body on a daily basis. Um, those are some of my big non-negotiables and then nourishment, like really just, I have to have at least two meals where it's like very, you know, nutrient dense whole foods. Um, because if I, if I try to subside off a lot of refined

processed foods or even fun foods like pizza, even if it's like, you know, organic dairy or gluten-free, like it's still not a whole food in my opinion. Right. So I know I've gotten to that point and level of awareness of how I know food affects me. So it's like making sure that I'm eating, you know, nutrient dense whole foods like every day. Like it's, it's always a priority for me. Yeah. I love that. Well, we're going to have to go on some hikes now that you live in LA. Yes. One of my health and non-negotiables I go, I go almost every day. Yeah. What are yours? So number one for me is, is walking or my hikes, because for me, that is, I check off a lot of boxes in that I get sunlight. So I get vitamin D. Um, I also get movement. It's bonding time with me and my dogs.

My dog also really loves it. And it also, you know, allows me to be in nature. And I've really found like as simple as it sounds, it is, it's been pretty life-changing for me just spending, you know, even if it's just like 45 minutes, my hikes aren't always, you know, like two, three hours, actually, most of the time, they're not, you know, they're usually like 45 minutes to an hour. And it's just exposing myself to the elements like being outside in nature, getting sunlight, it really has impacted my health in beautiful, really amazing ways. So yeah, I would say that prioritizing my sleep. And then yeah, nourishment. Those are those are my main ones, too. We're on the same page. Yeah, I love it. Very good. Well then yeah, nourishment. Those are my main ones too. We're on the same page.

Yeah, I love it. Very good. Well, yeah, I look forward to a hike and an air one meal soon. Yes, me too. So for everyone listening, where can they find you? I am most active on Instagram at functional.food. You'll find a lot of healthy recipes, lifestyle tips and health hacks over on my page. You can also find me and more information, blogs, and resources, and some of my favorite products that I use on my website at tylerjean.com. And yeah, I'd love to have you. And hopefully we can all be a part of this movement towards more of a preventative approach

to health and really taking this more proactive approach to both our mental and physical health moving into the coming years. Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you so much for coming on. You're one of my favorite follows on Instagram. So I hope everyone listening will follow you. You're just a wealth of information and the world really needs you and your voice. Thank you so much, Courtney. I appreciate it. And I'm so glad that we've

been able to connect. Yeah, me too. Thank you. Thanks for listening to today's episode of the Real Foodology podcast. If you liked this episode, please leave a review in your podcast app to let me know. This is a resident media production produced by Drake Peterson and edited by Chris McCone. The theme song is called Heaven by the amazing singer Georgie spelled with a J. Love you guys so much. See you next week. The content of this show is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for individual medical and mental health advice and doesn't constitute a provider patient relationship. I am a nutritionist, but I am not your nutritionist. As always, talk to your doctor or your health team first. you