Realfoodology - How to Avoid the Blood Sugar Roller Coaster with Danielle Hamilton

Episode Date: August 10, 2022

106: Danielle Hamilton, Holistic Nutritionist who specializes in Blood Sugar Regulation and host of the Unlock Your Sugar Shackles Podcast joins me to talk about her journey with PCOS and how she healed her body of the diagnosis, the importance of blood sugar regulation, why only 12% of our population is metabolically healthy, the rise of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, what foods to eat for blood sugar stabilization and so much more! Check Out Danielle: Instagram Reactive Hypoglycemia Masterclass www.daniellehamiltonhealth.com Podcast Sponsored By: Cured Nutrition www.curednutrition.com/realfoodology REALFOODOLOGY gets you 20% off Organifi www.organifi.com/realfoodology Code REALFOODOLOGY gets you 20% OFF Magic Mind http://www.magicmind.co Code REALFOODOLOGY gets you 20% OFF Check Out Courtney: Courtney's Instagram: @realfoodology www.realfoodology.com Air Dr Air Purifier AquaTru Water Filter Further Listening: Intuitively Eating With Jessi Jean

on today's episode of The Real Foodology Podcast. Metabolic syndrome is also known as or used to be called insulin resistance syndrome. And I feel like why aren't we calling it insulin resistance syndrome? Why isn't anyone talking about insulin resistance when 88% of people or more have it? Hi friends, welcome back to another episode of The Real Foodology podcast. I want to ask you guys a favor. I know I say this every week, but I could really, really use your help right now. This show would not be anything without its listeners. And part of that is the ratings and reviews. The more ratings and reviews I have in this podcast, the more ears that it can ultimately land on. So that's where you come in. If you're enjoying the podcast and you could take two seconds just to leave a rating and a review, it could even just be one

sentence just about how much you're enjoying it, any sort of tidbits that you've learned, or even just how the podcast is bringing value to your life. I would really, really appreciate that. All right, let's get into today's episode. So I interview Danielle Hamilton. She's known as Danielle Hamilton health on Instagram. She's a blood sugar specialist. And I really enjoy this conversation. If you guys have been following me for a while, you know that I'm really big on sugar. And by big on sugar, I mean avoiding it and really making sure or just being very aware of the amount of sugar that you're consuming on a day-to-day basis.

So we talk about her health journey and how she got diagnosed with PCOS, how she ultimately healed her body of PCOS. And we really dive into this about insulin resistance, why we're seeing more and more people dealing with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Only about 12% of Americans are considered to be metabolically healthy. This is a huge problem. A lot of this is being driven by our unhealthy food choices, by our affinity for processed foods more specifically, and just a lot of people

eating too much sugar, and they may not even be aware of how much sugar that they're eating. And also, overall, as a society and a population, we have not been educated on what it means to really truly be healthy and how to maintain healthy blood sugar levels throughout the day. So we talk about what foods stabilize blood sugar and insulin. We talk a little bit about the ketogenic diet, a little bit about paleolithic diet, and just all about real food. So I really enjoyed this episode. I hope that you guys love it too. And let's just get straight into it. Something that I've really been working on in my own health lately is my sleep. This is something that I struggled with for a really long time. I was not consistent with my bedtimes. One night I would go to bed at 11 PM. Another night I would

go to bed at 2 AM. And I just got to a point where it really wasn't serving me. And obviously I was exhausted during the day. It was affecting my work and my productivity. So the ways that I've been helping to support my sleep and get better sleep are plugging in my phone an hour before I even start getting ready for bed. That way I'm not on the screen. I can allow my body to start relaxing. And then I also take Zen from Cured, which is an amazing supplement that helps support my body and helps me get relaxed and ready for bed. It contains a blend of reishi mushroom, ashwagandha, chamomile, passionflower, and broad spectrum CBD. There's no melatonin in here. I know a lot of reishi mushroom, ashwagandha, chamomile, passionflower, and broad-spectrum CBD.

There's no melatonin in here. I know a lot of people want to avoid melatonin because it makes them groggy in the morning. It has things like, I said, reishi and magnesium and CBD and ashwagandha, passionflower. These all kind of help calm the mind and reduce anxiety to get ready for sleep. The thing that really drew me to Cured is that they take their CBD very seriously. You can go online and look at all the lab reports. They test all their products. They show exactly how much CBD is in there. So you know you're getting a really good high quality product. And they also use organic ingredients, which if you know me at all, and even listening

to the podcast, you know that organic is really important to me and it should be important to us all. Also, if you really want to up the ante, get their raw CBN. This is their nighttime hemp oil. And I take that in combination with the Zen and woo, it has really been helping me sleep. If you'd like to try any of Cured Nutrition's products, go to curednutrition.com slash realfoodology and use code realfoodology and you're going to save 20%. Again, that's cured, C-U-R-E-D, nutrition.com slash real foodology. I think it's pretty safe to assume that most of us can agree that we need to be consuming more vegetables on a day-to-day basis, but it's hard. We live busy lives.

It's also hard to cram that many greens in your body in one day, or at least I've struggled with it. And one of the ways that I have been able to overcome this is by drinking green juice. But one of the biggest complaints that I hear all the time about green drinks is that they taste really bad. This is why I love Organifi green juice. Alone, it tastes great. I also love to add it to their red juice and I mix them together because then I get the antioxidants and the phytonutrients from the red juice as well as the green juice. It also adds just a so much better taste in my opinion. But if you can only do one and you want to do the green juice, it doesn't taste like grass clippings and dirt in a glass of water,

unlike some of the green juices that I've tried also perks is that it is organic and it's also glyphosate residue free so you're not going to get the carcinogenic herbicide in there as well if you want to get 20 off of any of these organifi products go to organifi.com slash real foodology and you're going to save 20 also make sure that you use code real foodology and that is o-r-G-A-N-I-F-I.com. I'm so glad we got connected. I'm loving your Instagram. Oh, thank you. Yeah, right back at you. I feel like I have, you know, before I got into the whole blood sugar world, I was really into, I found paleo first. So I learned all about ingredients and wanted to be like, oh my goodness, I can't believe that they're,

they're getting away with this. I mean, when I was little, I used to just sit and read the cereal box and be like, oh, I guess they have to put this stuff in. I guess this is what makes cereal. Not thinking like, why that, what is this? You know, that thought never, it never got connected in my head. So I really love your mission of just getting out the message that you're getting out and helping people sift through the BS that's on these labels. And, you know, obviously do a lot more than that. But that's like a big tenant of what you teach people. And I really admire that. Oh, thank you. I really appreciate that. Yeah. I, I share the same sentiment as you looking at these labels. I mean, it's,

it's what has sparked my passion and why I'm so, why I'm doing what I'm doing because it's crazy and it's gotten so much worse from like when we were kids and kudos to you that you were even reading the label. Cause back in the day when I was younger, I wasn't thinking about it literally at all. It took me, um, it wasn't until I was in college and my mom was super into nutrition and she started sending me books and, and this was before like we had email, but it was really not like a, as big of a deal as now. And so my mom used to cut out newspaper articles and physically mail them to me. And it was crazy. It was all about like hydrogenated oils. And this was back, I'm going to age myself in like 2005, 2006. And my mom's sending me articles about hydrogenated oils and corn syrup and all this stuff that it feels like only now people are really starting to understand. And I felt the same way as you were as I was

learning this. I was like, why don't more people know this and understand this? Why are we not talking about this on like a larger scale? Yeah, I totally agree. And I also was in college in 05 and 06. I think we're probably around the same age, but yeah. I remember my mom was into stuff too, but was into more of anything to lose weight. So it was, and so I grew up in the eighties and nineties. I was born in 86. Um, and I was, it was all the low fat stuff. It was always low fat. And if it was

snack wells, yeah. Like those chewy granola bars, the s'mores ones. I used to love those things. I lived off of those, um, Trix yogurt, Dannon yogurt, low fat, everything was low fat. And so I grew up in that paradigm and it was low fat and then therefore high sugar. And it was no big deal that it was processed because it was like, oh, thank goodness we don't have the fat. I remember Olestra, remember that gross stuff? And it was like, that was like weirdness of the nineties. And that Olestra is a funny one because that ended up being so terrible for you that they actually pulled it off the market. And for them to pull something off the market means it's really bad because think about all the terrible things that we have on the market today that

you're finding in cereals and whatever that's linked to cancer and all this stuff. And they're not even pulling those, but Olestra created so much damage that they actually pulled it. Yeah. And actually, now that you say that, I was thinking, okay, why is it that, you know, Olestra was pulled, but these other really toxic things are not being pulled. And I think that the fact that if you don't know what Olestra is, it was this weird hydrogenated type of fat that didn't absorb. And so it gave people, it made people have to like run to the bathroom or they would be having accidents in their pants. And I, it's so wild. I mean, it was a crazy time. Heaven forbid we get a drop of fat in our body, right? But like that's going to solve all the problems. That's

what they thought. So I think the fact that it was causing such an acute issue, like a noticeable acute issue, I think that's why it got pulled as opposed to these other things that are more insidious. They're these small little assaults and they just keep adding up over time. And then all of a sudden you're super inflamed. You have a chronic inflammatory disease. You're getting sick, but it's not fast. It's really slow. And they're like, oh, it's safe in these tiny amounts.

But it's like, well, you're not just eating that one amount in a week or in a month or in a year. You're eating tons of these things and they're compounding. And so I think it's that slow buildup that they can just get away with it amongst other things. Oh yeah. Oh, absolutely. I mean, there's funding involved as well. And yeah, there's a lot of things, but I think you made a really great point, the slow burn. And I think this is what makes it really hard for people to fully understand this is that it's not like, it's one thing if I'm having something that has, I don't know, natural flavors or something in it like every couple of weeks versus if I'm having something

every single day, especially like multiple times a day. That's what people don't understand is that if you're not vigilantly reading these labels, you could be exposing yourself to so many different foreign ingredients just with each meal, let alone like every like every single day. And it's, and it's compounding. And also, I mean, even the FDA has, has said this, that we don't really know the long-term effects of all of these different chemicals and additives mixed together in our body for long periods of time. And that's becoming a huge issue. That's so freaky. It's so kind of creepy. And what what really gets me is that you see just, you know, when you go to the supermarket, and you see people putting these things in their cart. And you're like, you don't know any better. You don't know. And I remember being there. I mean,

I got into nutrition, because I learned in my mid 20ss that there were nutrients in an onion. I know this is like the strangest thing to ever say, but it really just tells you how disconnected we are as a society from our food. I was like, I didn't know there were nutrients in an onion because it doesn't have a nutrition label. So I didn't know that there were vitamins and minerals. Like what? So I really, really grew up with all that packaged food and it just leaves us so disconnected. And I remember Maria Emmerich, maybe some of you know her, maybe you don't, but she posted, she goes bow hunting and she hunted a deer. And that's a really humane way of killing an animal and really sustainable because it's helpful, you know, in different times of the year to control the population. So she said that someone commented on the photo,

why don't you get your, this is terrible, get your meat from the grocery store like everyone else. And again, there's that disconnection from where our food has to come from and like what is inside of it. And I remember, and just another thing, going back to all these ingredients, I remember in health class in like 10th grade or something, we had to look at a bunch of different labels and it was different food substances and we didn't know what they were. And we looked at the ingredient labels of three different things. And I remember we all thought that the healthiest one was the one that ended up being dog food. And the other ones were just like things like a Twinkie or, you know, like gummy bears or something. And, you know, those kinds of things, they stay with you and they start

to add up. And luckily I found my way, but it wasn't until I got really, really sick. So. So that's a lot of people's stories that I found that end up working in health is that the majority of us go through some horrible health scare, whatever it may be. So why don't we start there? What is your story? I know you have PCOS and yeah, I just kind of want to hear how you got into all of this. Yeah, yeah just kind of want to hear how you got into all of this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So like I said, I grew up in the 80s and 90s, low fat, high sugar, processed foods. I had eczema as a baby, got tons of ear infections, lots of colds, lots of rounds of antibiotics.

I used to ask for the pink stuff by name, you know, amoxicillin, the pink stuff. It tasted so good. So good. It was like bubble gum. Yeah, it was delicious. So just trying my microbiome one sip at a time, right? So I had that going on. And then as I got older, I started to get more issues. I had strep throat six times my senior year of high school. I had to get my tonsils out. The next year I went to college, the eating, drinking stress, staying up late was worse. And I developed really bad seasonal allergies and also asthma. And then I moved to Miami to go to grad school and the season for allergies was all year round. So I was super sick. I had to get allergy testing. I was on multiple

medications for allergies, multiple inhalers. And I was like, I need to get allergy testing. I was on multiple medications for allergies, multiple inhalers. And I was like, I need to do something about this. So I heard about those allergy shots. You can get tests. Turns out I was even allergic to palm trees. I was just so sensitive to everything. I'm like, how do I live in Miami? And I'm sensitive to palm trees. It feels like a cruel joke. And I was having chronic sinus sinus infections chronic like gynecological problems i mean i i just had doctors on speed dial and at the same time i was working as a speech pathologist in a nursing facility and all of my my patients had so many diagnoses and so many medications and i know this because i had to always write them down. We had to do chart reviews and put it on our paperwork. And it was just like, oh my gosh,

everyone's like really sick. And it started to freak me out. And I was in my early twenties at the time. And I was like, oh my goodness, I'm on five medications. I get five allergy shots because I'm so allergic to everything. I'm in my early 20s. I'm headed for this. And it just struck me. And by some miracle, one of my coworkers started talking about like the paleo diet and how it had something to do with how our ancestors used to eat. And it just intrigued me. So I got the book, The Paleo Diet Solution by Rob Wolf. And it basically flipped everything I knew on its head. And it was like where I started to learn about all these things about labels and food and

like the bad science that told us to demonize fat and sugar is okay and just eat processed foods and you're going to be fine as long as it's, you know, healthy whole grains or low fat and cholesterol free foods. And it's like, oh my goodness, this is such garbage. And I said, this is what's making me sick. And so I got all the processed foods out of my life. I adopted a paleo diet, which is basically just whole foods. And I took out grains, legumes, dairy, and it was like magic. My allergies went away. My asthma went away. Never had to give myself another inhaler or allergy shot. And I was just like on cloud nine. I couldn't get enough.

I wanted to shout this from the rooftops. Of course, I had a lot of conversations with people who were like, I just, I don't care. I just want to eat my, you know, Big Mac in peace. And I was just like, oh my gosh, you don't even know what's in there. So I had to learn to tone that down as we do. And then about a year later, I started to develop, I started to gain weight. My acne that I had always kind of had got really bad, like really, really bad. It wasn't cyclical anymore. I started to have missing periods. I was really tired. So I was welcomed to the wonderful world of female hormones in my mid twenties. And I was like, but I'm eating paleo. This diet just healed me. I don't, I don't understand what's happening. I don't know how this could make me worse because

it's real food. It just healed me. And I believe that real food is so, so important. I like, it can't be that going back to what I was doing is the answer. So I kept trying to look for stuff to, so I looked on Google and I found out that I had polycystic ovarian syndrome or PCOS. And that's what was sort of causing all those symptoms, the missing periods, the weight gain, the acne. I didn't have any symptoms of hair growth on my face or hair loss from my head as other women might have with PCOS. Those are the other symptoms. But I was still really struggling and I couldn't figure it out. And so I went to my doctor and I said, listen, I have PCOS. I'm eating really

healthy. I don't have gluten or dairy or refined sugar. I'm exercising and I just, I can't lose weight. And he said, yes, you have PCOS. You have to lose weight. There's no cure and you have to take the pill. I was like, did I just pay you to tell me that? Because that feels really terrible. So I walked out, needless to say, I was extra motivated to do this on my own. I just knew in my heart that this wasn't permanent. I'm like, I got rid of allergies when people told me that this was like, oh, this is just bad luck. It's just your genes.

And I'm like, this isn't permanent. I just knew it wasn't, but I couldn't find an answer until finally years later, I heard a podcast where someone said PCOS is the diabetes of the ovaries. And I almost drove my car off the road because I was just in shock because I knew nothing about diabetes, except if I had to write it down, it would have been diabetes has something to do with blood sugar, something to do with amputations, because that was what a lot of my patients had. That's all I knew. So I knew a lot about nutrition at the time from having studied and reversed all this stuff on my own. And I knew nothing,

nothing about blood sugar. So I had to go back and I kind of took this mental inventory like, okay, what symptoms do I have of blood sugar issues? Because I don't think I have diabetes, but I must have something going on. So my blood sugar when I was getting all this blood work when I had PCOS was 60, which is very low. And I felt so dizzy, shaky, lightheaded. I almost passed out at one of the appointments. No doctor said anything to me, not once. So they're like, oh, it's under 100, so it's great. Well, no. It's like in nutrition, in health, there's always that Goldilocks position.

It's not usually like lower is better. I mean, for some things, but a lot of things, there's that Goldilocks zone and that's the same with blood sugar. So that was happening. I was a person who, I thought a lot of these issues were just kind of my personality traits. So I had a sweet tooth. I was eating for my tooth, obviously. I was a person who just liked to snack and graze, but that was me kind of preventing myself from having blood sugar crashes. I used to carry food with me wherever I went. I was always thinking about food. I used to get hangry. I was a person who, for some reason, I needed to eat before I

went out to eat. I was like, why are you doing this? I would catch myself in the act. I'm like, why are you eating? You know that you're going to go and eat. But it was just this compulsion to do it because I was so afraid of feeling hungry, which for me, hunger was equivalent to a blood sugar crash. It wasn't healthy hunger. So healthy hunger is asymptomatic. You just feel hungry. You're like, I'm fine.

Everything's working great. I can think. I can solve problems. You just feel hungry. You're like, I'm fine. Everything's working great. I can think, I can solve problems. My brain is clear. I'm just like, I could eat. I could, you know, have, I'm a little hungry. But hunger, when you have blood sugar dysregulation, always is accompanied by symptoms. And this is what I didn't know. So I would always prevent my hunger by snacking. But if I did have to feel hunger for some reason, it would be accompanied by things like the lightheadedness, dizziness, shakiness, anxiety, heart palpitations, sweating, brain fog, difficulty concentrating, headaches, feeling weak, feeling tired. And then of course it comes with cravings because that's when your body,

the blood sugar is going down and this is an energy crash. Your brain is like, oh my goodness, we are, we're running out of energy. It's kind of like it turns on the gas light in the car. It's like the energy is almost out. Hurry up and get something quick. So it's not going to send you to go cook up a grass fed steak and make some organic broccoli with grass-fed butter. No, it's like go to Starbucks right now or go to 7-Eleven and grab something, like get a bar, go get a handful of something. And it's usually, it's driving us out to seek out these processed refined carbohydrates and or caffeine to get our blood sugar back up.

And this only puts us on that blood sugar rollercoaster. So that's my long way of saying, I figured out that the blood sugar back up. And this only puts us on that blood sugar rollercoaster. So that's my long way of saying, I figured out that the blood sugar issues and insulin resistance were at the root of the PCOS. And once I addressed that, and we can go into that too, but once I addressed that, I reversed my PCOS. I have absolutely zero symptoms of PCOS anymore. My hormones don't, I took Dutch tests and I've

asked people like who are hormone experts. I'm like, does this look like a person who has PCOS? They're like, no, no, no, not at all. I was like, okay. So no more PCOS, undetectable. Would you like to do more, but stress less? One of the biggest keys to productivity is to make sure that you reduce your stress because when we're stressed out, I can speak from personal experience that if you're too stressed and too overwhelmed, you can sometimes almost become like paralyzed and then you don't get anything done. Magic Mind is a little matcha shot that also contains adaptogens and nootropics that all target and help with productivity and focus. There's of course matcha in there. So you get a little bit of caffeine, but matcha also contains L-theanine, which helps to calm you down. So you get kind of

a cleaner energy without all the jitters. There's also things like lion's mane mushroom, rhodiola, there's cordyceps, and there's also choline. All of these things are going to help with cognitive function and are just going to help keep you focused and balanced so that you can get through whatever tasks you have at hand. They gave me a code for you guys to use. You're going to save 20% off if you use code realfoodology at magicmind.co. That's M-A-G-i-c-m-i-n-d.co. I have a similar story as you but I never got diagnosed with PCOS but just hearing your your journey with all that it makes me wonder if I was experiencing PCOS back then as well because in my 20s what sparked it for me was I went vegetarian and vegetarian, um, like plant-based

diet is extremely carbohydrate heavy. And basically like maybe the first like six months, I was like, Oh my God, I feel so good. I'm thriving. And then I went on to do this for five years and I had the most crazy cystic acne that I could not get rid of. My hormones were all over the place. I was starving 24-7. It was the same kind of thing. Like I had to bring snacks with me everywhere. I was snacking before dinner. I gained like 20 pounds.

Like my, I mean, it was just like, I was on a blood sugar rollercoaster ride. And at the time I didn't have the wherewithal to know what was actually happening. And it wasn't until later that I looked back on it all. And I was like, oh didn't have the wherewithal to know what was actually happening. And it wasn't until later that I looked back on it all and I was like, oh, my God, no wonder. I was just eating all carbohydrates basically and not allowing my blood sugar to like ever really be even. And this is such an important part of the conversation, especially because we now know that only about 12% of the American population, it might even be less than that now, is metabolically healthy, which means that everyone

is dealing with some level of insulin resistance. And it's also really important for women to know, and you basically already said this, but PCOS and insulin resistance basically go hand in hand. And we're not really sure like what causes what or like what comes first. Like we don't know if it's the insulin resistance that then goes into the PCOS or if it's the PCOS that's causing the insulin or the insulin resistance. But we do know that they work together. And it's a massive blood sugar issue. And women are seeing it, but so are men. Like we're dealing with this across the board with people like diabetes.

Alzheimer's is now being called diabetes three. We are having blood sugar issues across the board. And it's really frightening. So what did you do in order to heal yourself of your PCOS? Yeah, so many good things about what you just said. I just wanted to pull one out because I have a post getting ready to go on Instagram for this. But I didn't realize, so when you were talking about that statistic that 12% of people are metabolically healthy and the other 88% are not metabolically healthy, that was a study looking at people falling into the category of metabolic syndrome. So a lot of us have heard of this term metabolic syndrome. I didn't know. Maybe it was just me.

Maybe I'm in the dark about this, but maybe not. So I feel like it's worth saying metabolic syndrome is also known as or used to be called insulin resistance syndrome. And I feel like why aren't we calling it insulin resistance syndrome? Why isn't anyone talking about insulin resistance when 88% of people or more have it? And enough that it's caused them to have secondary characteristics. So either high blood pressure, high waist circumference, high triglycerides, low HDL, and high blood sugar. So it's already insulin resistance can be brewing

for decades before it even bumps up your blood sugar. So imagine, like that's why you said there's probably more people in that 12%. I bet you it's like 2% of people don't have insulin resistance. And these are like people like us and the biohackers who actually know about this stuff, who had to find out because the way that we live equals you're going to get insulin resistance basically. Oh, 100%. Well, and to add on to all of that, the rise of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is, I mean, it's happening at staggering numbers. And I know when we were kids, there was not really any, I mean, we didn't really know of children getting pre-diabetic or getting diabetes at young ages. And there was really like... Yeah, it was called adult onset diabetes.

And they had to change the name. They had to change the name because so many people were getting it. And when we were kids, like, I don't even think that there were really cases of people getting fatty liver disease without being alcoholics. And then that's why we had to coin this new term, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, which people who are listening that don't understand what that means. Um, instead, so before you could only get fatty liver disease from drinking too much alcohol, but now we're putting such a strain on our bodies with all the sugar and the blood sugar regulation or dysregulation in our bodies that it's putting a strain on the liver in a different way.

So you can get fatty liver disease now from not even drinking alcohol. It's just from eating too much sugar and having this blood sugar dysregulation. Yeah. And especially too much fructose. And think about all the high fructose corn syrup that the population is consuming in sodas and, you know, juices and who knows what else, because it's in everything. It's just, we're being assaulted by it. And then even in healthy communities, like agave, for example, is like more fructose. I hate agave. It's more fructose than high fructose corn syrup. So they're like, oh, it's lower glycemic. It's like, yeah,ose. I hate agave. It's more fructose than high fructose corn syrup.

So they're like, oh, it's lower glycemic. It's like, yeah, but it goes straight to your liver. So there's no winning. Like you cannot escape the downsides of wanting to sweeten anything. But anyway, I digress. So PCOS, how I got rid of it was I went to nutritional therapy school. I changed. Well, I had to study more and I eventually ended up being able to work my way out of speech therapy in October, 2020. Thank you to the pandemic. Um,

but I, I was able to go full time with nutrition then, but, um, yeah, so I went to nutritional therapy school and learned about, um, a lot of different things that I that kind of filled in the gaps of what I didn't know. And I worked on a lot of stuff with my digestion, but I basically took my paleo diet and changed the macros to be ketogenic macros. So I did a keto diet for a while keto fasting. And that just I mean, it was like effortless. I mean, the symptoms went away really quickly. And then the period symptoms, I used to have PMS and PMDD and like really uncomfortable periods. And that didn't change for about five months. And so finally, some clients that I work with, they're like, we just started and I've already

had the best period of my life. I can't believe it. For me, it took five months. So it kind of was like that settling of all the hormones. So the insulin had to kind of settle down. And then all those other hormones on top, the estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, and et cetera, could start to sort of regulate over time. And after that, like five month mark, basically the only reason I know my period's coming is because an app on my phone is like, your next cycle is about to begin. I'm like, oh really? I don't have that classic like

bloating. My boobs don't grow to cup sizes. I don't have the cystic acne. I don't bloat anymore. My breasts aren't tender. That breast tenderness was so, so painful. Like, um, and you know, all those other mood symptoms I used to break up with whoever I was dating at the time. It was rough. It was not fun. Yeah. So, so yeah, that all got better. And, and then I was able to eventually dial back on the keto and the fasting and reincorporated carbohydrates. I kind of cycle those now based on what I feel like I need. So I was able to stabilize my blood sugar and reduce my cravings so that I wasn't driven to eat these things because of cravings. It was like, oh, I feel like my body needs carbohydrates today.

And that's a really different and great feeling as opposed to like, I just need, I just want to go get a cupcake or something like whatever that is. It's like, I think I need more carbohydrate today. And so now I can listen to my body and it's not driven by this craving, but because certain hormones benefit from that at certain times of the month. And so, um, I've been able to strike this really good balance and that's what I teach my people to do too. That's awesome. And I think you made, not even a think, you made a very good point. And this was something that I had to figure out with myself.

And I talk about this a lot on the podcast is that we all have this innate intuition and what our bodies need, but it's getting hijacked with all of these highly palatable food-like products that we're all craving because they are designed to be craveable. They're highly palatable. And then not to mention, if our hormones are out of whack, we're going to be craving like all this. Yeah, like sugar, especially

blood sugar imbalances. Like that's that was the biggest thing for me that I really had to work on was that I had such a sugar addiction that I basically felt like I had to have sugar after every single meal. And it felt as though the cravings were not even my own. Like it felt like I was being driven by something else that had like control over my body. I call it my sugar dragon. I call it, no, I, I for sure know that feeling. I call it my sugar dragon. And I used to say that my sugar dragon would dictate what I was doing. So I'd be in the grocery store and the sugar dragon. And I used to say that my sugar dragon would dictate what I was doing. So I'd be in the grocery store and the sugar dragon was alive and well, and he was in my ear and he was like, okay, I want you to get something with sugar in it, but it's not going to be too much. Cause

you know, you're going to eat the whole thing. And like, it would be at parties. It's like, go by the candy bowl one more time. No one saw you. It's like, what? Like what kind of thoughts are these? And so I worked really hard. And especially when I first went keto, that sugar dragon was not going to sleep. I was like, Oh my gosh, I thought this was going to help. And so I had to take out a lot of things that are quote keto friendly. So I was making a lot of fat bombs at the beginning. Cause I was like, cool, I can do this. You know, anything to make, you know, candy out of, out of food. So I was making fat bombs and then I realized, okay, I can't put these sweeteners in it because this isn't working. I'm

just craving them and driving home from work thinking, okay, how many fat bombs do you have? How many can you have before dinner? Okay. You don't want to have too many. It's just like, come on. You feel controlled by them. And I think a lot of women, or I think a lot of people in general listening will, will very much relate to this. Yeah. Yeah. So I had to take out the sweeteners. Then I had to take out the fat bombs completely. I had to take out fruit at the beginning because anything was triggering that, that sugar dragon to wake up. And then it was like, come on, I don't want these things, but it's like, it won't stop chattering in my ear. And so now I always say that I can put my sugar dragon to sleep, but he still will always live

as long as I'm living. So it's like, I have to work in a way that's going to keep my sugar dragon asleep and at bay. And so it's just something that I personally have to be in tune with, or else he could just wake up and start running the show again. And so that's just something that I personally have to be in tune with or else he could just wake up and start running the show again. And so that's sort of how I live my life. So there's these certain, I don't know how you feel about sweeteners. Maybe we can go into this, but like different sweeteners. So there's allulose and stevia and monk fruit and all these things. And they're great because they're low glycemic. They're not as processed or toxic. Erythritol is very processed, usually comes from GMO corn. So I don't like that one. But these other sweeteners are, you know,

really big in the keto community. And they're, they seem like a godsend and they're in a lot of new products and especially things like electrolytes. And so I'll drink some electrolytes, whether it's LMT or Redmond Relight. And it hits my lips and I turn into Frank the Tank. I'm like, oh my gosh, I just chug the whole thing. And I'm like, that wasn't me. That was my sugar dragon just chugging it. And it's crazy that I was having like five or six of these electrolytes a day. It was causing me GI distress because there's too much magnesium and too many sweeteners. I was like, I think my digestion just broke. I'm like, no, you're addicted to, I was addicted to these sweeteners. So I have to not have them.

And then a lot of my clients, not only do they drive cravings because they are, your body thinks it's getting sugar. And so sometimes you do get an insulin release, not as badly as with like aspartame and some of those more artificial ones. But I see it on CGMs all the time on these glucose meters. You see the blood sugar going down a little bit. You eat a piece of Lily's chocolate. The blood sugar goes down.

What's causing that? That you're getting an insulin release with no blood sugar release. So when your blood sugar goes down, you have insulin in your system, your body's like, hey, you should probably get something sweet because your blood sugar is going down. So you just try to not spike your blood sugar, but you did the opposite effect. And so that is the sort of way that it drives cravings. And then in a lot of my clients, it also can sometimes give this like insatiable hunger type feeling like where your stomach feels empty almost, and it's just driving cravings. So I've had a few people, I'm like, are you drinking those electrolytes with sweetener? I'm like, go on a different one. The one that I

recommend does not have sweeteners in it because it's just, it causes so many bad things and it keeps your palate just so trained to wanting a sweet taste. And I think that there's so much freedom in not craving something really sweet. So if anything, I'll do like a piece of 90% dark chocolate and I'd rather have that really bitter chocolate taste than something sweet because the chocolate taste will sort of extinguish that feeling as opposed to like driving it. Well, and I think too, especially if you get like a really good, high quality, higher cacao count chocolate, it usually satisfies that craving because it has a good amount of cocoa butter

in there, which helps to satiate you. And fat, fat has been my best friend on this journey of regulating my blood sugar, because when you eat fat, it creates satiety and this fullness. And that's part of what you need in order to regulate your blood sugar levels. Because generally when you are craving sugar, it means that your blood sugar levels have gone down too low and your body's looking for a quick fix of energy. But when you have fat and you're satisfied, your body's like, oh, I'm good. We got energy from the fat. So I'm not craving sugar. And it's so interesting what you said about those sweeteners, because for me, that was another thing that really helped me. It was a massive tool for me to get over my like sugar cravings, because for some reason I can do monk fruit, stevia and allulose and be totally

fine. Like I'll have like an, I had one yesterday. I was really craving just some sort of like sweet treat. And I had this keto brownie that I got. There's this grocery store called Erewhon here and they sell these keto brownies and it was great. I was so satisfied. I didn't want any more sugar after that. And I, it doesn't for me awake my, my sugar dragon, if you will, but everyone's different. Yeah. And I think that's where that bio-individuality comes in. And like you were saying earlier, this intuition that we have can get clouded by these things. So when you, when you clean everything out and you have balanced your blood sugar, you've gotten out these highly, you know, processed foods that are really addictive. All of a sudden your intuition

starts speaking to you instead of these chemical, chemically driven cravings and things like that. And so when I'm sort of super at baseline, I'm feeling really good. And then I have something like that. And all of a sudden I'm like, why am I just thinking about sugar out of nowhere? This is just sabotaging me. It's like, it doesn't work for me, but I'm so glad that to know that, you know, it works for different people. So it's, that's where that bio-individuality and the, um, the self-experimenting comes in. But I also loved what you were saying about the fats. And I have a post on my Instagram that says like fats are your blood sugar's best friend. And fats are really, they are your blood sugar's best friend because they are the alternative energy source to sugar. And

so I think that we forget this, that we are, our bodies are like a hybrid car and we can burn sugar and we can burn fat. But a lot of people lose the ability to burn fat and burn body fat because our insulin levels go so high. So when we're spiking our blood sugar all the time and the insulin is rising, insulin takes a lot longer to come down than blood sugar does. So the insulin will be rising over time over the years. And then we have high insulin in our blood. And that is a hormone that's telling the body store fat, build fat, and it locks it back so it can't be burned. So it actually stops your body from burning its own body fat. And when you can't burn body fat for fuel, that's when you're really going to see like the SHIT hit the fan.

So that's where I don't want to curse on your show. So that's where these problems are going to start to arise. And the brain is actually the first organ to really be affected by the body's inability to burn body fat. So you're going to start to get some of those symptoms that I was talking about earlier, a lot of mood symptoms, so a lot of anxiety. I see a lot of clients who said, my doctor has had me on every anxiety medication

that has ever been invented. And it wasn't until I stabilized my blood sugar and it stopped dropping all the time that I actually have no anxiety anymore. And this, I mean, that's huge. Like how many people are struggling with anxiety? And I mean, my blood sugar is stable and I still have anxiety because I mean, look at the state of the world. So there's going to be things that we can't, you know, eat our way out of, but I mean, to have just that, that solid foundation, it really, really helps. Um, we also can get, like you were talking

about the type three, Alzheimer's being type three diabetes. So we can get memory issues, concentration issues, brain fog is huge. And so we think about, okay, if it's causing brain fog, when I'm, you know, a little bit hungry, that's where that issue comes in long term, like brain fog being perpetuated over years and decades, it starts to turn into the brain is not getting the energy it needs because of the insulin resistance. So it's kind of like hypertrophying and it's, yeah, really bad situation. So being able to digest and eating sufficient fat is such a great way to stabilize your blood sugar and give yourself that long, slow burning energy. So sometimes I make the analogy that the carbs are like the kindling on the fire. So they burn hot and fast, but the fat is like a log on the fire.

So always putting fats at your meals and usually fats and proteins come together in nature. So that's normally how they are. And so we don't really want to separate the fat from the protein. We want to eat those together because that's how nature intended it. We can actually digest and absorb and utilize our proteins better when it comes with fat because we can get the bile to help out and that further helps us assimilate it. So that's really important. But when we eat those together, the fats and proteins, that's really what carries us through to the next meal. So we don't need to be thinking about snacking. So for so many people to get rid of snacking and to get rid of that grazing habit and keep them feeling good, it's not a matter of just

willpower. It's not like, oh, just don't snack. We need to design our plates better where we're adding fats, those healthy fats that come from well-raised animals. I know you're big into animal foods as well now after the vegetarian fiasco. Yeah, no longer vegetarian. Yeah. Yeah. And then eating the fruit fats, so avocados, olives, and coconut, and then their products and things and getting these fats, ideally, mostly from the foods that they're in, not so much the refined fats. But at the beginning, you know, when you're starting, you might need to add some of those

things like olive oil and butter. We can cook in those things. And if you're really struggling, you might need to add a lot of those to your food. But in general, we want to get those fats coming from the nutrient dense pieces of food so that we get all those nutrients in there. Because I like to say that we're not calorie avoiders, we're nutrient seekers. So we need to be seeking all these nutrients to nourish and power our body. So I love that. And that, I mean, that was going to be my next question, which you pretty much answered. But I was going to say, what are some things and foods that people can do in order to regulate their blood sugar? I will say,

my favorite saying is to never eat naked carbs. And this is a really big one. And that means like, don't ever just have rice or bread alone, like add butter to the rice or butter to the bread or avocado or olive oil or all these really good healthy fats that are going to help keep your blood sugar more stable and regulated. But what are some other things people can do? Yeah, that's a great one. I even made a shirt that says just say no to naked carbs. So yeah, it's really cute. It's like a little banana stripping. It's so cute. And there's like a little black bar. So for his privacy. So yeah, no naked carbs. That's a really, really great advice. And having fats at your meals and making sure you're prioritizing protein and getting the fat with the protein. This is really, really important, especially if you

have the tendencies towards your blood sugar crashing, especially right after a meal. Like if you have reactive hypoglycemia, I see a ton of people that have that and they're just getting the worst advice out there. They're being told eat lean protein with a complex carb every two to three hours. And that is further dysregulating their blood sugar. It's further causing insulin resistance because lean protein and a complex carb like brown rice and white rice spike your blood sugar almost exactly the same. Like I hate to break it to the people

who are giving that advice, but it's almost exactly the same. And so you're just spiking your blood sugar like crazy and you're not giving yourself that long burning fuel. So you need to add the fats. And so if you have this reactive hypoglycemic tendency, definitely having meat that has fat already in it, it's game changing for people.

And then adding those fats to your meal, always saving your carbs for last. This is a really easy one to do. So we wanna just save them for last because it actually affects our blood sugar the least. So if you get to a restaurant and there's tortilla chips on the table, or there's bread, don't have those things. Well, I would say don't have them at all, but you can always just save them for later and they'll impact your blood sugar less. That's why

we eat dessert at the end of the meal, right? That's so it's better to have a dessert than it is to have a snack, actually, because a snack is in the middle of meals. And that's where you have that tendency to have that blood sugar spike or that naked carb. So even a banana, you know, people are like, oh, I just had a banana as a snack. That's a healthy snack. It's like, nope, that's a naked carb. Yeah. Put almond butter or peanut butter on that banana because you want, you want that fat. And you know, another thing, this was a huge learning lesson for me. So I remember when I was in school, this is when I was getting my master's in nutrition. I would go, I would be on campus for like eight hours a day and I would pack my meals, but then I would pack all these

snacks. Cause at the time I was chasing my hunger all day where I was literally eating every like two hours. Like if I wasn't having a meal, I was eating dark chocolate or almonds or whatever. Exactly. And all these things were really healthy, but like now, to be honest, I very rarely snack. And I don't wanna say that I never do because that's unrealistic, that's not human. Like I'm, you know, I'll go to parties sometimes

and I want chips and guac or whatever. But normally on like a day-to-day basis, I don't really snack very often. And it's because what you said this earlier, I learned how to build my plate in a way that keeps me really full and satisfied for a long time. And when I say don't snack, it's not that I'm like, starving and like telling myself like, don't eat a snack, don't eat a snack, I genuinely don't snack because I don't really find myself that hungry in between meals anymore. But it's because I'm prioritizing the good high quality fat, the good high quality protein.

I'm eating carbohydrates, but I'm eating a little bit less of them than I did before. And I'm prioritizing the fat and the protein. Yep, exactly. And so if you build a plate, so many of us have that old mentality of six small meals throughout the day and you want to keep eating so you're to keep your metabolism going. That is such garbage advice. I think that advice came directly from the snack companies because they're like, they want to sell more food. Exactly. So what I mean, if you look back to like even the 1950s, no one snacked. There were no snacks. You would, I mean, my mom grew up in the fifties and fifties and sixties. And it was like, you have a breakfast,

you have lunch, you have a meal for dinner, and then you have dessert after a meal. And that was it. Like that you ate three times a day. And now I used to work as a speech therapist in these preschools and you see, I walked into a school and it was 10 a.m. and everyone's eating a snack. They're having like pirate's booty. They're having veggie straws. They're having crackers and pretzels. And I asked the teachers, I'm like, why are they eating? And they're like, oh, you know, because some of the kids would get hungry and just in case or something. So they need to have a 10 a.m. snack. I'm like, oh my goodness, you are giving all these kids like insulin resistance as we speak. I mean, this is so

not how our bodies were designed. But anyway, I got it. I love it. It's important for people to hear because it's the truth. Yeah. Yeah. And so we want to, we want to get away from that snacking mentality. Like it's not better to have snacks. Some people can't reduce all of those. Again, like I work with a lot of people with reactive hypoglycemia and they just can't make it more than a few hours. But if you can start taking your snacks that you would have, even if it's like a healthy snack, let's say apple and peanut butter, start having it directly after your meal. So eat the same amount of food, but have it right after. And that's going to be better for your blood sugar. And it's going to be better for your digestion. And it's going to train your body to have, just be eating at those single times,

right? And we also have circadian rhythms in our stomach and all our organs. And so if we're used to eating at these times throughout the day, then our body might be sending us signals like, oh, you should probably eat something, but really we're not hungry. So when we can build a plate, when we have all these protein, fat and fiber from veggies and, or some veggies and some carbs to take us through to the next meal you want to eat until you're satiated at that meal so that you can think okay the next time i'm going to eat is in like five hours can i make it so when you build a plate think about that don't be like oh i'm a female so i need to like have these meek amounts like i'll have like one piece of chicken

one egg two eggs in the morning two eggs is only 12 grams of protein. Like you need more protein than that. Like aiming for like 20 to 30 grams of protein at a meal is a really good start for something like the average person. So making sure we're getting that protein, we're getting lots of healthy fats and then fill up with veggies and get that fiber and all different types of vegetables. If you, if you don't have too many blood sugar problems, you can do some starchy vegetables. And then if you do have blood sugar issues, try to reduce some of those starchy veggies. And that's a perfect recipe for balanced blood sugar. Yeah, that's great. I love this. I'm

just so glad we're talking about all this because there has been such a push in just the mainstream for the last couple of years for everyone to go plant-based and it's driving me crazy because it's so carbohydrate heavy and people don't understand what they're doing to their bodies. And I want to be respectful because everyone's different. And if someone is truly thriving on a vegetarian plant-based diet, then I truly have a mad respect for you. I love this for you. I, at the end of the day, I just want everyone to be healthy and thriving. And if they're being honest with themselves that they really are, they have energy throughout the day. They're not starving 24 seven, their blood sugar is regulated, then great. It's really hard to do that though. And you're just eating all carbohydrates. You need animal-based proteins and I was thinking about actually it was a post that you did

and it was what are foods that stabilize blood sugar and insulin and I actually I wrote them down so I can remember all of it but it was basically it was literally all animal-based foods except for like two foods it was grass grass-fed beef, salmon, olives, eggs, shellfish, coconut, avocado, full fat dairy, nuts and seeds. The majority of that is animal-based products. And I found with myself in my own journey that I needed those animal-based proteins and foods in order to really heal my hormones and find like a better, yeah, just to be thriving and healthier. Yeah, absolutely. I couldn't agree more. And, you know, a lot of people will say, I'm vegetarian or vegan.

Can I take your blood sugar mastery course? And I'm like, I'm sorry, I just, I can't help you if you don't eat these foods because they are the center. They are the backbone of a blood sugar stabilizing diet that is also extremely nutrient dense and healthy for you because we don't just want to improve blood sugar in a vacuum, we want to improve our whole health. So that's where all these bioavailable nutrients are found. They're found in the meat. Like I was using chronometer this morning to just put in some of my

food because I wanted to look at the micronutrients. And so when we look at micronutrients, which are the vitamins and minerals, I looked at a piece of meat versus even beets. And like, it's so much more in the meats than the beet. And, and it's, we have it. If you think, if you ask anyone on the street, like I feel like Jimmy Fallon, go up to anyone on the street, be like, Hey, what has more vitamins and minerals, meat or vegetables? And you ask them, they will say vegetables. People will say vegetables. We are so trained to think that you get your vitamins from fruits and vegetables. And of course they always lump fruits and vegetables together. And fruits are just, I mean, they're fabulous. I love fruit. My wife calls me a fruititarian because of how much I love fruit. Like,

don't put me in a room with a pint of raspberries because they will be gone. They're so good. Yeah, they're so good. So, you know, I can tend to, that's my preferred carbohydrate. I digest them really well. I just love fruit, but I have to keep it really minimal because fruit has been bred over the centuries to be such a sugar bomb. I mean, look at what we're doing to grapes. They're huge and they're called cotton candy grapes because why? They taste more like cotton candy, like yeah, honey crisp apples.

Those apples didn't used to exist, right? So all this fruit, I mean, look at the size of blueberries now. Look at the size of apples. Everything's getting bigger and everything is also getting sweeter. And they're breeding the fruits and vegetables like this. There's even a company that is one of the sponsors of the American Dietetics Association or whatever it is that sponsors the dietetics programs in the United States, that there is this company that is trying

to make fruits and vegetables taste more like processed food. And this company is sponsoring dietetics. I mean, Google this. This is free public information, not a conspiracy. Well, and the dietetics program is also sponsored by Coca-Cola, Quaker. And Bayer, who owns Monsanto. Who owns Monsanto. So GMO Foods.

So their message, the dietitians, and many of them are friends of mine. Many of them are really well-meaning. And it's not the individual people. So I'm not, you know, shitting on dieticians. It's just the messaging they're getting from school. The messaging they're getting from school is all foods fit. Yeah. All foods fit because when all foods fit, that means we can have a little bit of processed food and we can keep that you can fit six ounces in a balanced diet. And if you notice, they're all anti-diet. So they're like, just eat any foods. And I think that this message, I feel like there's really good intention behind it for

a lot of people, because I know that a lot of people have struggled and have, you know, messed themselves up and gone through these ups and downs with trying on every single diet and cutting calories and, and this, this dieting cycle. But we cannot compare the word diet. If we look at like a paleolithic diet, like a paleo template, which is a therapeutic protocol compared to like, just lower your calories, you know, eat 800 calories a day and do two hours of cardio dieting. That's really different. But like, I think that their message, their intentions are really good, but they end up just being puppets for these processed

food companies who just want to keep selling their products. And it makes me so sad because they are designed to be addictive and they completely just disconnect you from that intuition inside. And so a lot of people, also dieticians, talking about intuitive eating. You cannot intuitively eat if your blood sugar is a mess because you're going to be driven towards carbs 100% of the time. And if you're eating processed foods, you can't intuitively eat a Snickers. That's a craving. Like you intuitively eat real food. So it's like, I get where you're at, but we need to modify it a little bit. So that's my two cents. Probably have a lot of dieticians hating on me, but. No, I mean, I fully agree with you that everything you said, I was like, yes, yes, yes. I agree. I've had this conversation before with people. Um, and I feel the same way.

What what's happening is that we're doing people a disservice. And I know that a lot of these dietitians have, they have this, um, approach because they are concerned about people that are dealing with eating disorders. And I fully agree that is a really big problem. But the issue here is that we are not even helping the people that are dealing with the eating disorders because by telling them that they can eat literally anything they want, we are now going to throw them down a different path of disordered eating, whether it's like binge eating because they literally can't stop eating. Like think about, I'm sure literally everyone listening knows what it's

like to pop open a can of Pringles or open a bag of Doritos and you literally can't stop eating them. And this is not, this is not willpower. This is not like, and this is part of the problem is that we have now conflated food choices with morals, saying that like someone now thinks that if you say, for example, that Doritos are bad for you, that if you eat them, that you're a bad person. No one is saying that. Thank you for saying that. Thank you for saying that.

And when you say like good foods, bad foods, you're not a bad person because you ate a food that is actually bad for you. Yeah. Foods can be bad things. Substances can be bad for you. I mean, even I was sensitive to eggs for a long time. That food was bad for me. It's a healthy food.

You put it on paper. It's got tons of nutrients, really good fats and proteins, really healthy food. It was bad for me. It's a healthy food. You put it on paper. It's got tons of nutrients, really good fats and proteins, really healthy food. It was bad for me. Doesn't make me a bad person. So food doesn't make you good or bad. Your choices don't make you good or bad. And that's, I think that they're trying to insert that message or like, or, or maybe prey upon people, how they feel. They're like, oh, I ate the Pringles. I feel bad about myself. And they're trying to say you're not a bad person. So they're saying there's no bad foods.

No, no, no. There are bad foods. You're not a bad person for choosing them because they're created to have a bliss point. I mean, they're psychologists and all sorts of professionals in there trying to make these foods as addictive as possible. And so like then we tell people to moderate them. We tell people with eating disorders, you can only be healthy if you can eat in moderation. No one can eat in moderation because moderation doesn't even exist. It's like a made up term.

And then people think they're failures. I think that's doing so much more disservice to people than whatever else they think. No, it is. It's it's creating way more damage. And we need to understand that. Yeah, we can't assign feelings and morality to foods based on their like new nutrient values. And this is the problem. And, you know, maybe 50, a hundred years ago, we probably could have said there was no such thing as bad food, but we live in a time where things are literally engineered. Like you said, with this bliss point, they are engineered to be that perfect Goldilocks point bliss. They call it the bliss point where it's the perfect amount of fat, sugar, and salt to make it so highly addictive that you can't stop eating it. And that turns

off your intuition that creates cravings for foods that you probably normally would never eat. And that feeling of you never feel satisfied. You can eat an entire bag of Doritos and then be hungry like 30 minutes later. And we are, we're filling ourselves with all this junk that doesn't have any nutrients. So we're not actually providing nutrients for ourselves. And look, I say all of this sitting here as someone that literally went to a Mexican food restaurant and had chips and guac over the weekend. So like, I'm not claiming to be perfect, but I also, yeah. So like, I still eat this stuff too. I really don't eat it a lot though, because I have really gotten to a place where I don't eat it a lot though, because I have

really gotten to a place where I don't even want to put that stuff in my body because I just feel so sick afterwards. I can't even handle it. Like it just doesn't feel good. So for me, like I would rather eat the good, healthy foods. And this is what I love about your message. And this is also my message is so many people are suffering in so many different ways, whether it be they're dealing with PCOS or they're dealing with excess weight gain that, um, that they're struggling with fatigue or they're struggling with an autoimmune disorder or like you name it, like I can go down the gamut and there's so many of these things that we can heal and take our health into our own hands. If we learn how to really, to really feed and nourish ourselves

and we don't have to suffer in these ways anymore. And so it's really tough when we have these mixed messaging of there's no bad foods, you can just eat whatever you want. It's like we're lying to people and we're doing them actually a disservice in the long run because if we can teach people how to eat really nutritious foods

and learn how to build a plate that creates satiety to where you can go a couple hours without eating and your blood sugar is regulating and you're craving more whole real foods and you're eating the red meat that has all the nutrients in it. Oh, and I'm going off on a tangent, but you said this earlier that I wanted to also touch on how a lot of people don't understand that they think that vegetables and fruit have more vitamins and minerals than red meat does. So a lot of people have genetic mutations and this is very common. This isn't like, it doesn't mean like something's wrong with you. It's very, very common. There's a very common genetic mutation called the MTFHR, which I actually have, which means that my body can't assimilate B vitamins without being

methylated B12 specifically. So I've taken methylated form of it. And the same thing goes for a lot of the nutrients that are in vegetables and fruits. This is what people don't understand. They may be like high to a certain extent. They're still lower than meat, which is funny. If you compare the vitamins and minerals, they're still lower. But a lot of times we're not even getting half of the vitamins and minerals from the lower. But a lot of times we're not even getting half of the vitamins and minerals from the vegetables because a lot of us have these different genetic mutations that make those vitamins and minerals not even bioavailable to the body so that you can't even absorb them. A hundred percent. Like for example, beta carotene and carrots,

it's the precursor to vitamin A. And I think this is where certain people might do better than others on like a plant-based diet. I think they're just naturally better converters. And then other people, they just don't feel well. So you just become so nutritionally deprived on a plant-based diet because you get all these vitamin precursors, even ALA, which is one of the omega-3s. That's the least powerful omega-3. It needs to convert to DHA or EPA, one of the two. I'm sorry, I don't have that exact knowledge, but it has to convert. And if you're not a good converter, we convert a small, small percentage of what we take in. So you see on packages that flax seeds and chia seeds are great sources of omega-3s. They're not. They pale in comparison to like one sardine. Yeah.

Like one sardine, one bite of salmon roe. Like that's the nutritional powerhouses. So yeah, totally aligned. I really agree. Yeah. And look, I say all this not to say like I'm not on some mission to get people to not eat vegetables. That's not at all what I'm saying. But I'm saying is that we need to stop demonizing meat as something that's not good for us and not nutritious because it actually, these animal based foods are some of the most nutritious foods that we can consume, period. I'm sorry. It's just the truth. But again, again, I also want to hammer this in because I think it's really important and you said this, but I want to hammer it in again. Everyone's bio-individual. There are certain people that can assimilate and convert better

than others. And those are the people that do really well, but it is a lower percentage of the population. So this is why I don't like this push of just saying everyone needs to go on a plant-based diet because this is not true to the bio-individualism of people. Everyone needs to figure out what works best for them and how they feel good and on whatever diet. Yeah, I, I totally agree. And I like how you said that, you know, we're not perfect and that's not the message that I ever try to push. Um, I am a one on the Enneagram and I do struggle with perfectionism and, but I don't want people to think that, you know, just because I'm posting about blood sugar all the time that I don't ever have like a treat or something. I had coconut milk ice cream over the over the weekend.

So, you know, we're talking about things. But the thing with that is that my goal in life is to feel good. I want to feel good so I can do the things that I love. And a lot of people, their goal in life is to like, you know, they live to eat, you know, that kind of thing. So, um, and so they just want to eat good food and that's, what's most important to them. That's fine. That's their prerogative, right? But I want to feel good. So I can do the things that I want to do. I want to show up the best way in my relationships. I want to be able to travel and go see, go places and have my body feel strong and be able to work out because that

brings me joy. And so I feel that for me, the most important thing I could do is eat really well on a regular basis so that my body has more resilience to deal with some of those indiscretions where I also, you know, YOLO, like I'm going to go on a vacation and I'm going to get ice cream because it's my favorite food in the world. And then I'm going to go back home and I'm going to just be back on my regular diet and I'm not going to guilt myself. I'm going to say, so glad I did that. It was so good. I also didn't feel great afterwards. So I'm so glad to be back on track today. And I feel like that's that balance that a lot of us have struck. And it sounds like that's where you're at too. Like these foods don't make

us feel that great, but sometimes it's fun in the moment, you know, you live a little or like taste a little something new and then you go back to doing what you're doing and you keep your body feeling really good. You have more leeway once you've healed a lot. You know, I wasn't able to do this at the beginning of some of my journeys. So we all, you know, you kind of work your way there, but, um, you know, we're not pushing, like everyone should be moderating. Everyone should be, you know, um, but it's like, you're finding what works for you and keeping in mind that our bodies really need change and that we live on a cyclical planet. Uh, if you're a woman, you have cycles every single

month and that our body's needs are constantly changing. So we might have a really stressful month. So we might need more of something in our diets. We might have a month where we're just like really super active or it's really hot out and we're going to have different needs. So just keeping in mind that there's no one thing that's going to work. If you're looking for one thing, you're not going to find it because something's going to work and then it's going to stop working. And there's value in that changing because it causes our mitochondria and our gut bacteria to adapt. And then we get changes, we get benefits from those changes. So yeah, maybe you feel great on doing a month of vegetarian and then you go back to something else, and you feel really good doing that. So just know that, you know, I did the paleo diet, and it stopped working for me.

And I was like, what's happening? This was just this just helped me heal. And because I believed in it so much, I just tried to like paleo harder. And because nothing changed, nothing changed. It wasn't until I did keto on top of that. And then I stopped doing keto because I was like, I feel like my body needs carbs. So I cycled in carbs. I stopped fasting so much. Sometimes I dial it back up. So it's being able to keep cycling, keep changing and not being married and identifying with

one dietary philosophy, which is I feel like a lot of what you teach. So I think that's a really important message to maybe leave people with. It's like, don't look for the one thing. Just know that even though this works for one period of time, it might change. It doesn't mean that diets don't work. It means that your body needs change. So that's all. I love that. And I feel like this is such a great note to end on. And I think if anyone listening is wondering, okay, how do we get to that place? I would just want to end on this note. So what would be some advice that you would give to someone that's really struggling with their cravings or, you know, really anything we talked about? Like what, what can we give them? What can we leave them with to help them on this journey of figuring it out for themselves? Yeah. I do have my podcast and my blood sugar mastery program is all about this, but, you know, working on your diet is really important. Like we talked about having the fats, proteins, veggies to start with, you know, having some carbs to start with, and then maybe slowly tapering those off, looking at the ingredients and all the foods you eat, optimizing that food quality to the best

of your ability or your price point that you can afford, dabbling with a little bit of intermittent fasting, if that sort of calls to you, if your adrenals are a wreck, don't do it. Getting some movement and really getting outside. I know it sounds like, oh, okay, you know, getting outside, meditating, like all that free stuff, like, ah, it doesn't, that's not going to do anything. Give me a supplement, you know? But I'm telling you, we spend way too much time indoors with these artificial lights in front of screens, all these EMFs. It will, it absolutely affects you so much. You have have to go outside you have to put your feet on the earth you have to get the that morning sunlight in your eye and and get into nature

like don't you feel so much better after you just you know go to the beach for a day go walking in the woods like having that as part of your daily practices if you're able to i mean if you live in a big city like finding a park that's nearby, going for a walk, taking off your shoes, touching a tree, I swear that lowers your inflammation. And this stuff, it sounds woo woo, but there's actual science backing all of this stuff up. And just because it's free, it doesn't mean it's any less important. It actually, it feels more important because if you think about it, we evolved, like we talk about eating the food that we evolved with. What about the environment in which we

evolved, right? We evolved outside. We lived outside and we had shelters and now we stay inside and that is not, not good for us. So we need that sunlight on our skin. Stop putting sunscreen on. It's filled with toxins. Get smart sun exposure. Go in the shade if you need to or something non, you know, zinc based if you need to. But only after you've absorbed that vitamin D. You can't out supplement that kind of stuff. And they're seeing that there's so many studies coming out. And that is a really great place to start.

And then we have lots of, we both have lots of resources for you for sure. Yeah, I love that. And I want to add one more thing, which we stressed a lot in this episode, but I just want to kind of really name it, is just doing your best to get back to real food. This is the most important thing. I think people, I think there's a lot of stuff happening. I think a lot of people are scared to cook, but if you can, I mean, we have so many resources at our fingertips now, go on YouTube, go find some people on Instagram that are posting recipes. It really doesn't have to be anything crazy. And once you kind of get in that rhythm and you start feeding your body with more whole real foods in their natural state, you're going to feel so much better and you're going to crave more of those foods and you can make them fun. You don't have to just be eating. In fact, I would, I say don't do this, but I would say don't just feel like eating healthy is just having

like chicken breast and broccoli. That's no, no, I would, I wouldn't make it if that was it. Like I would not make it. So real food is so delicious and give yourself that time for your taste buds to change over. Because if you are really into highly palatable foods, you're going to eat this food and be like, this is, this feels bland. Learn how to season your foods. I am a self-taught chef and I just made everything up. I use the book Practical Paleo back there that helped me learn how to cook. Like use, we have so many resources, like you said, learn how to season your foods and just give it a second. And use salt. Please. Oh my gosh. Do not be afraid to use salt. Oh my God. I bring my Redmond's real salt, the little tiny one everywhere I go. No one salts their food. Restaurants, no one salts their food.

I know. I do. My wife's like, do you have the salt I'm like of course I do I got you babe like yeah like because no one salts their food you go to restaurants you're like this is under salted and when you switch to real food this is something that I learn you're gonna feel like why am I putting so much salt in this food like you feel uncomfortable with the amount of salt you're using and And that's because processed foods already have a ton of salt. So you don't really need to salt very much. So then when you have real food, you have to be adding all the salt that you're going to be using. And it feels like a ton of it, but that is normal. And it's yeah, and it's not and get a good quality salt and it'll change your life. I love that. Okay, so before we go, I want to ask you what I ask all my guests.

What are your health non-negotiables? So the things that you prioritize, no matter how crazy your day is, these are things that you do in order to keep your health in order. Oh, that's a good question. So always gluten-free. That's just one because gluten inflames you

and opens up your gut. So on a really good day, I would say, is it like every single day? It can also be weekly. Like I'll tell you. So for me, um, my biggest non-negotiable is that I, I go for a hike almost every single day. And that is just, no matter how crazy my day is, like if I have to get up at 6am to go for my hike, I do it. Like I will always prioritize that because for me it's, I'm getting sunlight, I'm getting movement, I'm getting bonding time with my dog. Also, you know, it's good exercise. And so that, that's one of my health non-negotiables. But then another one can be like, I do a couple

of meditations a week. And so it can, it can kind of really just be things. Yeah. That you prioritize. Okay. So, definitely prioritize those blood sugar hacks. So those are non-negotiables for me. So carbs last, no naked carbs. And I'm really, really particular about my sleep. So once in a while on a weekend day or if I'm going out on vacation, I might go to sleep later. But I really try to get to bed early because sleep is,

and that one I didn't mention is the complete foundation of our health. And without sleep, if we're not sleeping well, our whole day is going to go poorly. And my mom knew this about me from when I was little. She's like, Oh, she needs to get to sleep. Like I always needed my sleep. I would fall asleep early at like parties at family parties. I'd be asleep at like 8 PM on the couch. Like I was just always falling asleep early and I'd wake up like a rooster. I just, I sleep with the sun. Like I really cycle with the sun. I always have, but that's so important for me because I am not my best self if I don't sleep well. And so I have my aura ring, I have my earplugs, my sleep mask, I have

my mouth tape, like I have to put on all this gear before I sleep, but it's so castor oil packs. I mean, I do all those things, but yeah, that's, I would say sleep. And, um, honestly the ingredients in my food is probably the two biggest non-negotiables that I have. Yes. I love it. Same. You are a lot, you and I are aligned in that way. So for everyone listening, where can they find you? Yeah. So I hang out a lot on Instagram. My handle is Danielle Hamilton Health. That's also my website. And I have a podcast called Unlock the Sugar Shackles. And my coaching program is called Blood Sugar Mastery. And the next round of that is beginning in September, 2022. So if you're interested,

you can get over on the wait list. Awesome. Thank you so much for coming on. I really loved this. 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.