The Liz Moody Podcast - Rachael DeVaux—Every Healthy Eating Question, Answered: Losing Weight, Balancing Hormones, Healing Gut Issues & More LIVE FROM SEATTLE

Episode Date: August 21, 2019

This is a special event, live from Seattle book tour stop where there was an amazing crowd—we had the best night, and I hope you feel like you were there in spirit. I was joined on stage by friend Rachael DeVaux (@rachaelsgoodeats), a registered dietitian, the co-owner of Toast Society Cafe, and the founder of her own workout program, Good Sweat. This episode is all about healthy eating—literally answering every single question you’ve ever had about healthy eating, from the broad to the really, really nuanced. We get into whether to eat organic or not, what we actually eat in a day, how to save money on healthy food, thoughts on being paleo, vegan, keto, and more, intermittent fasting, if calories matter, and the best diets for weight loss. We talk about the best healthy desserts, the best healthy pastas, the one food everyone should eliminate from their diet to be healthier and the one they should add in, the two foods everyone should eat for hormone balance, and tons more. I’ve listened to a ton of healthy eating podcasts, and I often come away feeling like I’ve learned a lot, but I have no idea what to do TODAY in order to be healthier or to solve a specific issue, and I really wanted this episode to answer those questions. You’ll come away EXCITED about healthy eating, but also really knowing what to buy at the grocery store, what to make for breakfast, how to solve your specific gut issues, and more. Rachael is a wealth of knowledge and because this is a live event you’ll hear a bit more from me as well—but you have any lingering questions about healthy eating, please ask on Instagram (@lizmoody and @rachaelsgoodeats)—maybe we’ll do a follow up episode! Enjoy! PS: Healthier Together is officially a number one best-seller! You can get your copy right here or at lizmoody.com/cookbook. Please keep sending me your creations on Instagram—they make me so happy! This episode is sponsored by Simple Mills, one of my favorite grain free food brands. I’ve been using Simple Mills products for years, starting with their amazing cake mixes. They’ve since expanded the line, which now includes the original cake mixes, pizza dough mix, brownie mix, bread mix, pancake & waffle mix, ready made crackers and cookies, and more. Everything has only a few simple, largely organic ingredients, and there are no weird gums or emulsifiers. You can use the code “healthiertogether20” for 20% off any order on simplemills.com, and if you need product recommendations, don’t hesitate to ask me for them on Instagram (@lizmoody). This episode is also brought to you by one of my all time favorite brands, Garden of Life. I’ve been taking Garden of Life probiotics for more than four years. Their Mood Plus probiotic is formulated specifically to help with stress and anxiety, and it’s made a huge difference in my mental health. Zack also takes their Once Daily Men’s probiotic, and their RAW Vaginal Care line is an amazing secret weapon against any UTIs or yeast infections. I also love their prebiotic, which has five clean, organic ingredients and provides food for the probiotics in your gut. I never travel without the Oil of Oregano and the Turmeric Gummies are truly addictive and so good for helping with chronic or acute pain. You can check out all of my Garden of Life picks at lizmoody.com/shop. If you need recommendations for specific products, please DM me and I’ll help you figure it out! I can’t wait to hear how they change the health of your whole body and mind! Healthier Together cover art by Zack. Healthier Together music by Alex Ruimy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, friends, and welcome back to the Healthier Together podcast. I'm so excited about today's episode, which is one of my favorites that I have ever recorded. We taped it live at my Seattle Book Tour Stop, and there was such a good crowd. Everyone was so nice and so excited about the podcast and the book, and I just left that night feeling like it was walking on cloud nine. I was joined on stage by my friend Rachel DeVoe, who's a registered dietitian, which I absolutely love because there are so many people out there sharing health advice that have Absolutely zero qualifications. I've literally asked influencers and interviews where they get the

health information they share and they're like, um, the internet, which drives me nuts because they're called influencers because they have influence. And I think it's so important to take that responsibility seriously. Anyway, Rachel knows how to read studies and how to tell bullshit from good information and then how to distill that information into super delicious, easy recipes that anyone can make it home, which she shares on our site and her Instagram, Rachel's Good Eats. She's also the co-founder of Toast Society, Cafe in Las Vegas, and she has a wonderful downloadable fitness program called Good Sweat. She also shares a ton of little fitness routines on our Instagram, which I will literally seek out when I'm sitting on my couch, like, I should work out,

I should work out, I should work out. But really, I'm laying there with my cat on my chest, scrolling on Instagram. So I'll go watch one of her many workouts, and I'll be like, yeah, dude, I can do this, and then I'll do something quick, which always feels better than nothing. Anyway, the point is she's a super smart and inspiring woman, and I felt really, really lucky to have her as a guest on this panel and on the podcast. This episode is all about healthy eating, literally answering every single question you've ever had about healthy eating, from the broad to the really, really nuanced. Because this is a live event, you get to hear a lot more of my opinions than on a typical

episode. So I hope you like that. And if you don't, I apologize. We get into whether you eat organic or not, what we actually eat in a day, how to save money on healthy food, thoughts on like different diets, like paleo and vegan and keto and intermittent fasting. We talk about if calories matter and the best diets for weight loss. We talk about healthy desserts and healthy pastas and the foods we should, like one food we each pick to eliminate from your diet to be healthier. And one food we both said you should add in definitely to your diet to be healthier, two foods you should eat for hormone balance, and a ton, ton, ton more. Basically, I've listened to a ton of healthy eating podcast and I often come away feeling like I've learned a lot, but I have no idea what to do like today

in order to be healthier or to solve a specific issue. And I really wanted this episode to answer those questions. You'll come away excited about healthy eating, but also really knowing what to actually buy at the grocery store, what to make for breakfast, how to solve your specific gut issues, and all of those types of things. You can find Rachel on Instagram at Rachel's GoodEats. She's R-A-C-H-A-E-L-S good eats, and I'm at Liz Moody, as always. We'd both love, love, love to hear what's resonating with you, those moments that get you like nodding and excited and like, yeah, woo, I agree, all of those types of things. And then also we would love to hear if there are any questions that you have that we didn't answer on this episode.

so that we can answer those for you so you can have actually all of your healthy eating questions answered. Finally, if you have been loving this podcast, I would love to ask you for two super quick favors. The first is to leave a quick review and rating on iTunes. I know, I know, I know, but it truly takes two minutes and it makes such a big difference in helping people find the podcast and I would be eternally grateful. Along those same lines, if you have a friend that you think would love this episode or who would benefit from it, please share it with them. This podcast is called Healthy Together and we really are healthier together. And I'd love to grow this family to help as many people as possible.

Oh, and a few super quick corrections on the episode, the woman who introduced me called me the star of the Healthy Together podcast, which will explain my comment at the beginning. I also say that fat soluble vitamins are easily lost in transit and I definitely meant water soluble like vitamin C. Finally, I know that I'm saying Clafudi wrong because it's a fancy French word, but I also spelled it wrong in this episode. It's C-L-A-F-O-U-T-I-S, and it is truly the most delicious thing on the planet. Anyway, enjoy this episode. I can't wait to hear what you think. Hi, everybody. Do we have another mic? Yes. Yes. Well, oh my gosh, thank you guys all so much for coming.

This is such a turnout. I feel like Seattle's my people. So I hope everybody got to avail themselves to our delicious food, our wine. I know I'm going to be drinking. the wine later, but I have not started yet. We are recording this tonight for my podcast, which as I'm the star of apparently, I thought I was just the host, but I will take being the star for sure. That's also called Healthier Together. It's all about building community. I also, I think of my podcast people. I think of my book readers as my community. And I also think that loneliness, I'll say it so many times, but loneliness is such an epidemic in our world today and the more that we can come together with people that we share similar views with. And also

that we share completely different views with, I think, the better we will all be. So I hope everybody made a new friend tonight and maybe talk to somebody that they hadn't talked to before. I talked to a few people who I was like, oh, did you come together? And they're like, nope, we met in line. So love that. Definitely talk to a stranger tonight when we're all mingling afterwards. And speaking of people who were strangers to me, Rachel and I have, we've had this email relationship for years, but I finally got to meet her in real life here in Seattle, which was so exciting for me. So thank you so much for joining me here. Yeah. I'm a huge fan of Rachel, as I'm sure you guys are all as well. She is a registered dietitian, which is amazing in a day

and age where a lot of people like to share information and you don't always know where it comes from. So I think to have a little bit of that validity. And tonight we're just going to have a casual conversation about healthy eating, what we eat, our thoughts on eating. We're going to talk a lot about food because we like food. Love food. And definitely let us know what your questions are at the end. We're going to do a little Q&A. So think of some stumpers for us and we will try not to be stumped.

So let's start off, Rachel. What do you actually eat in your life? Very broad question. Like a type of eating style? Yeah. Like what's your type of eating style? what would like a breakfast, lunch, dinner vibe be to you? Do you put any constraints on yourself?

I feel like over the past five or so years, I've really become more familiar with what my body thrives off of and what kind of foods I tend to avoid just because I do have a sensitive stomach and I get digestive issues. So I eat paleo-ish. So breakfast tends to be a post-workout smoothie. And then for lunch, I have... good nourishing macronutrient bowl with lots of greens, veggies, protein, sweet potato,

avocado, the basics. And dinner is, you know, something similar to lunch or if I'm testing a recipe that day, it'll tend to be that. And do you snack? Yeah. Yeah? Like a lot? Not a lot because I've learned that if I snack too much, I'm just so sensitive. So I tend to get bloated. I guess. So snacking less is key for me. Okay. Yeah. Would you, do you, are you okay with snacking in general? Like, do you recommend all people don't snack like you? Or what would you say? I would say breakfast, lunch, and dinner are the main key meals that you should be having and maybe throw in an afternoon snack, like a bridge snack. Oh, I love that. And like, that reminds me of childhood. You know, when you'd come home from elementary school and your mom would be like, here's your apple and peanut butter. Yeah, I love that.

Um, so I eat a little bit differently. I think I probably eat worse than Rachel. Um, She's like goals, I would say, and food. I eat a green smoothie every single morning. I'm a firm believer that if you're going to do one thing to completely transform your health, it's switching your breakfast to a green smoothie because by 10 a.m. You have had more vegetables than most people having a week, which you can totally lord over your friends. You can be like, how many vegetables have you had today? Because I've had a lot.

So what do you put in your smoothie? Oh, my gosh. Okay. So I have my formula. I think it's, I call it like an ode to the best weekday breakfast. in my book, but it is greens, and I do like a lot of grains. Like I fill my blunder up probably three quarters of the way. Just like spinach. You switch it up. So you want to rotate your greens, as you probably know, but because they contain antitoxins and toxins. So essentially

when animals are grazing on the plants in the wild, they want to encourage the animals to move along so they don't completely ruin a crop essentially. So they put in these parts of the greens that are really good for you. And then a few things that are like are not. not great in excess. So this is where, like, you know, people might get kidney stones if they eat way too many oxalates, which are in spinach. Um, so all greens contain that. So you just want to rotate your greens as much as possible, which I just like reach for a different one every time I buy it. I don't overthink it. So spinach, arugula, the mixed greens at the grocery store romaine, which always is like, you really got to work with romaine on the flavor. I love the power greens

from Trader Joe's. I buy like two bags and I just stuff it in the freezer. And then that's like my I love this too. We talk. talked about this and I was talking to you the other day, Rachel just like shoves full bags of greens in the freezer, which I think people don't think to do. Like there's no trick to it. No. Take it from the store straight to your fridge. Because they're pre-washed. And then they're ready for you when you, you know, don't have time to go grocery shopping. You always have them on hand. So you have no excuse. So I do greens. I do a healthy fat, which is going to help you stay really satiated. Most people who don't like smoothies, they don't like it because they feel like they're going to be hungry a few hours later. So I work really hard to make sure. the smoothie keeps your blood sugar curve really elongated. So fat and then protein. So that'll be like hemp hearts or collagen. My fat will be like avocado or nut butter or just whole nuts.

Honestly, if you have a powerful blender, like a vitamin mix, you can just stick the whole nuts in there. And you're saving a ton of money off of buying the nut butter. Anything that's been pre-processed in any form, you're just paying more. And then even to make your own nut milk, like if you run out of almond milk for your smoothie, just put water in like a small handful of cashews and blend it. You're good to go. Or hem.

I love hemp. It's so quick. And I'll also do that instead of, I only use water in my smoothies because, again, I don't want to waste my money on a milk. And so I'll just add hemp hearts, the smoothie.

And then when it blends up, it turns into like a milky texture like a milk. And it's wonderful. And then I go crazy with seasoning. I'm always like presenting Zach with smoothies. And I'm like, it's chocolate covered strawberry day. And he's like, is it?

And I do like a blueberry. pistachio basil one that I love. I have an orange creamsicle one on the book that is. I don't think I branch out enough on smoothies. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I'm going to like send you home with a few flavor profiles that I think we should explore because you're so good with flavors and you do like your fun desserts and with Frankie and Joe. So just think about like, I love thinking about smoothies is like what would taste good in a pie. And if it would be a good flavor combo for a pie, it's probably a good flavor combo for a smoothie. Yeah. And then you, because you want to get excited for food. So like one of my core tenets of food is I'm, if I'm not excited, I came to food before I came to

wellness and I was just so excited about eating every day. I'd wake up and I'd be like, oh my gosh, it's breakfast. So I'd be like, wow, it's lunch. And if I'm going to a new city, you know, I've mapped out all the, my husband makes fun of me because my tour of New York when I'm taking people around is just like 12 different restaurants. And you walk between them. So you're like, oh, I'm on the high line. And now I'm at a different. restaurant or like, oh, I'm in Chinatown and now I'm going to, so you see the city. I mean, that's how all my traveling goes. I all plan the trip and it's always around food.

So Bridger's just like, okay. Yeah. He knows it's happening. So is Bridger healthier? He's here. Should we call him out? Yeah. Do you think you're healthy, Bridger?

Yeah. Well, in the past couple years, he's become really healthy. Yeah. Are you a good influence? I think so. I think it's because I've always offered the healthy foods and he's always, you know, I mean, he's not a picky eater. So when I make dinner, he eats it. And, you know, I get the feedback if it's good or bad. And so I try to recreate his favorite classic foods. What's his favorite? I want you to say it.

And then I want him to tell us if you were right. Well, in college, it was probably Buffalo Wild Wings. And so I've, well, I mean, right? So I've, I remade his, like, his favorite lemon pepper wings. And you like those. Yeah. But just a variety of different things. Is that, now he's on like my bowl that I have every night. Like it's become the same meal that we share. Like he craves it. Yeah.

Like, would he make it if you went out of town? Yes. Wow. Yeah. Sometimes Zach cooks from my cookbook when I'm out of town and I'm like, that's a compliment. Yeah. Yeah, it feels good for sure.

There's a chicken pot pie in the book that we like spent ages on because he like really wanted to nail that chicken pot pie flavor. But I do. I think that's such an important part. of healthy eating in general is to not make it boring. Like I think if you can recreate the foods and the craving, the flavors that you really, really crave, you're going to enjoy the food more, you know? And I think if you try to limit yourself, like Rachel loves her lunch, but if I didn't love her lunch, that wouldn't be healthy for me because I wouldn't be excited about it. And I think

being excited about what you eat is like 95% of the battle. Yeah. And then for lunch, I eat, I don't know, probably something from my recipe testing. And then dinner. I'm I'm all about tacos. Tacos are like my key to life. If you have vegetables that you do not know what to do with, saute them up with some onion and maybe some like onion powder and garlic powder. Put some like hot sauce on there and you've got and put it in like a sioux shell. I love their grain-free tortillas and their hard shells too or just like a good organic corn tortilla. And it's suddenly a meal with some black beans or maybe some chickpeas too. And I'm just like, it works where there's no vegetables that go awry and a taco.

Yeah, yeah, that's a fun fact. That's a science fact. Science fact. Yes. It works for frozen vegetables too, so I love it. Okay, so let's get a little more nuance. How do we feel, as a registered dietitian, about different types of diets like paleo or vegan or keto, where do we fall in all of those types of things? I mean, I guess my philosophy is more of a balanced style of eating, more of like an anti-diet. I'm not against like do what. makes your body feel good and do what makes you happy. But obviously one diet doesn't fit all. So it's kind of a hit or miss with experimenting and, you know, finding what foods make you thrive. So if somebody said to you, I'm going to go paleo, Rachel. What would you say? I mean, a lot of diets are not sustainable. People are not going to last maybe just a few weeks and then I'll get tired of a lot of them don't teach you, you know, sustainable lifestyle habits. So I think that's my thought

process with the, you know, being more negative when it comes to diets. Yeah, I agree with that completely. Also, I interviewed Mark Sisson once and he's the founder of primal, like the primal diet. It's sort of like a different type of paleo. He also founded like Primal Kitchen, which makes amazing food as well. And he said, and this really stuck with me, that we all agree, agree essentially in the health world on about 80% of what you should be eating. 80% of your plate should be vegetables. And then we spend so much time arguing about what the last 20% should be. We're like, oh my God, it should be Keenwa. And we're like, oh, my God, the Keenwa's going to kill you. It should be me. And I think that if you have the 80% down, you're pretty good and you're

going to probably reach your health goals. And I think obviously that changes if you are struggling with a particular issue. If you have an autoimmune disease, you're going to want to eat something more anti-inflammatory. So maybe like a Mediterranean diet or something like that. If you have gut issues, you're going to really want to eat for your microbiome and lots of bone broth and those types of things and work with somebody like Rachel, like an RD, to figure out what that is for you. But I think in general, make the choices that you're going to be excited about. Do 80% vegetables. And then, you know, if you have ethical beliefs in one direction, or if you really love cheeseburgers, fill the other 20% with what's kind of tailor it to yours. Yeah, but I really think we worry so

much about that extra 20%. And I think a lot of that's media driven by people like me who are like, we need to get you to click on our articles. Let's fight about the keto diet one more time. And I think a lot of that's driven by capitalism where we just want to sell you books and products and stuff like that. But it's not that complicated, I don't think. Would you agree with that? Yeah. I totally agree that. If you base all your meal. around plant-based foods, vegetables, and really just tailor it to, you know, the other foods that make your body happy.

Yeah, I agree with that. Okay, how do we fall on organic? I personally follow the dirty dozen. So if you guys aren't familiar, the environmental working group comes out with a list of 12 produce items with the most pesticide residue. And these 12 produce items, you should be buying organic. So 2019 list came out and the top three are strawberries, spinach, and kale.

For the dirtiest. The dirtiest. So these are the ones that you should definitely be buying organic because they have the most pesticides on them. Do you remember some of the clean ones? I feel like citrus is always on there because you peel it. Yeah, a lot of the things with a peel bananas. Avocado, I feel like.

Avocado, yeah. So these are, so the Clean 15 is a list of 15 items that it doesn't matter so much if you buy organic or non-organic. So I try to follow that. I mean, organic is better for the earth for farming practices. They contain more nutrients, more antioxidants. And I am pro-organic. Yeah, I'm pro it as well, if possible. I think one of the important things about buying organic is that it's essentially a vote with your dollar for that being important and maybe something that people should pay attention to more. So I think that's really important when we can do it. But I also think it's really important to recognize that organic certification is really expensive.

And a lot of companies have great organic practices, but they can't necessarily afford this. I think it starts at $10 or $15,000, which is a lot of money if you're a small farm, which is already a very unsustainable business because our government subsidizes soy and sugar and corn and these large farming practices. And it doesn't subsidize small farmers. So I think that's inherently problematic. It's why I always tell people when possible to consider local. I think we talk a lot about organic, but local means that you can talk to your farmer and you can find out what their practices are. And then just as kind of we're like, oh, we don't need a label in our diet. I'm like, I don't need a label in my food growing practices.

I just need to know how it was done so that I feel like it's done in a positive way. Also, you lose so many nutrients. There's a small difference in nutrients between organic and non-organic food, but there's a significant difference in nutrients in a food that has been transported for days. time an apple gets to your shelf, it's often been picked over a year ago, which is crazy. And particularly fat, soluble vitamins, they are really easily lost in food. So broccoli at a farmer once tell me that, like, he wouldn't even bother with old broccoli, which he, I was like, well, I like, I like broccoli. And he's like, well, it's just like eating fiber. I was like, okay. So I have in my book, I have a frozen broccoli soup. I think doing frozen alternatives, when you

can't do locals really great because it's flash frozen. So you get to preserve all of those nutrients and it's also way cheaper. Much cheaper. Yeah. So I love that. So you guys have so many great farmers markets. You were telling me about the one in your neighborhood, which is- West Seattle one.

Have you guys been? Yeah. It's so good. Yeah, I feel like we went berry picking yesterday on Bainbridge Island and it was magical and we just ate like our weight in raspberries. And I was like, this is local because I'm picking it and then putting it in my mouth, which was wonderful. Okay, how about intermittent fasting? Where do you fall on that?

I mean, overnight, we're all fasting. We're giving our system time to fully digest, which has shown tons of benefits. But when it comes to intermittent fasting, there's different levels. You can do, you know, 8 to 10 hour window, 14 to 16 hour window. And I mean, people have seen noticeable benefits from that as well. And research has come out to show that it can, you know, delay aging. prevent and treat certain diseases. I personally cannot do intermittent fasting. I wake up really hungry in the morning, especially if I'm working out. I need fuel right afterwards. And you work out first thing. Yeah. Wake up, workout. But, you know, some people, like Bridger thrives off intermittent fasting. He doesn't get hungry until like noon or one. So that's the thing. I think it's,

I think it's probably good for everybody to do about a 12 to 14 hour fast, which again, if you eat at 8 p.m. and then you wake up at 8 a.m. You've done a 12-hour fast and you can, like, feel really good about yourself. You can be like, oh, my mitochondria, you're welcome. And there's a doctor named Walter Longo who does a ton of work with fasting. He's sort of the god of intermittent fasting. And he even recommends that most people don't go over 14 hours. But I think, like Rachel said, it's about really listening to your body.

I think forcing yourself to fast when you're hungry is going to have a negative effect. And I think that forcing yourself to eat when you're not hungry is also going to have a negative effect. So I think the more you can sort of get in touch with your body's cues, I tend to wake up quite hungry. But Zach also needs to eat almost sometimes he'll come home from work and I'll be like, did you eat anything today? And he'll be like, nope. And I'm like, I cannot even fathom, like getting, just forgetting to eat. It's so confusing to me. But I think I wouldn't recommend that.

But I would recommend listening to your body's cues because I think that we're so out of touch. We want to be told like this time, this time, this time and this, this, and this. And I think that goes for the dieting too. You know, if we can just get in touch with how we feel when we eat things and what we eat and all of that, none of the outside advice really matters. Like if you get farty when you eat chickpeas, it doesn't matter if somebody tells you that chickpeas are great for you. You're not going to have friends if you eat them all the time.

And I think it's important to consider, you know, that's your body telling you something. And so I think listening to our bodies as much as possible, which is hard. Do you have any tips on listening to your body better, actually? I feel like that's tricky. It's such a tricky thing for people these days. In college, I went through a few period span where I was always bloated and I just thought that was the norm. Like, I didn't really think anything of it.

I was like all, I don't know, I always had a stomach ache. And so I think becoming just more aware of when you're eating certain foods and how they make you feel afterwards, even if that means just maybe keeping a little food journal in your phone in your note section. Did you figure out what it was? Was there like a specific culprit? Yeah. So it was a mixture of cruciferous vegetables, which for a lot of people, they're harder to digest

because they're more fibrous. So these are things like cauliflower, broccoli, Russell sprouts, and then chickpeas like we talked about. So unless if they're pressure cooked, like you mentioned. Yes. Eat in organic. That's like my hot chickpea tip. Yeah.

If you pressure cook chickpeas or any legumes, it removes their lactones, which is the irritating protein that, like, makes you bloated, makes you farty. And eat an organic does, they pressure cook them before they put them in BPA-free cans. And I'm not sponsored by them, but I just like talk about them all the time because I love chickpeas and I want to be able to eat them without feeling bad. Yeah. Yeah. But you don't even, you couldn't even probably, you can do pressure cooked. If I, if they're sprouted, if it's like sprouted hummus, then I can do them.

That's like, that feels like a luxury. Yeah. Like, here's my sprat in. hummus. I keep it on the deal. Yeah, welcome to my house and my sprouted hummus. I tried, I went through like a period in my life where I tried to do the sprouting and fermenting and all

of that, you know, the, yeah, it is a lot. I, like, I would put stuff in to sprout and then I'd forget about it and it'd get moldy like a week later. And I'd be like, oh yeah, I had those almonds that were sprouting on my counter. Or, like, plans change. I think it's hard.

I do like, there's so many companies these days that are doing pre-soak, pre-sprouting, And I love that. I think that's lazy and good. Anything that lets you be lazy. I'm all about it. You guys will notice that a lot of the recipes in this book are like, oh, you don't need to be a good cook or have a lot of time to do this.

And that's because I'm truly the laziest person. I'm like, I want to eat. Now the cookies take, I think, 12 minutes from like the second you start making them to when you're done. And honestly, they would be better if you put them in the refrigerator for a little bit and let the proteins rest. but like, no. I'm not going to do that. No.

Okay, so let's talk about calories. I say it like that because I feel like my mom, I've been trying to talk to my mom about calories for probably 20 years now, and she still will like, I'll take her out somewhere. I'll, like, I just recently tried to get her to incorporate healthy fat in her diet because I realized she was literally eating zero fat, like zero fat. I mean, that was instilled in the 80s, the 90s. I feel like I grew up in, like I grew up in,

the low-fat, high-sugar time. But she, like, could not handle the idea that a spoonful of nut butter was, like, 80 or 90 calories. And she'll still tell me about it. She'll call me and she'll be like, I ate some key. And I'll be like, great. And she'd be like, I don't think I should eat again today. And like, I'm like, okay, it's going to be good for you, mom. But I do think the calorie thing is hard, it's hard to get rid of because it's so ingrained in our brain. So do you think they matter? Do you think they don't matter at all? Do you think it's something in between? I mean, I think in terms of counting calories and counting macros, I personally don't do it. I think if, you know, you are living a healthy lifestyle and you're looking for that next, you know, step in, you know, your fitness routine or maybe you're just starting to get into living a healthy lifestyle and you want to know exactly the types of nutrients that you're eating, I think counting macros could be beneficial.

And you say what macros are really quick. So macros are fat, protein, and carbohydrates. And the one macro counter program, I guess I would approve is chronometer. Have you heard of it? No, I haven't heard of it. So it actually tells you. It sounds very serious, though. Yeah.

It tells you the nutrients, the vitamins and minerals you're actually consuming. So does your salmon have potassium? Does your spinach have zinc? Oh, that's nice. So instead of just focusing on numbers, it like literally tells you the nutrients that you're consuming. So, I mean, you also have to have more self, be more self-aware. And if you have an obsessive personality or if you know that you're going to be glued to

the numbers the entire time, then it's not worth worrying about. Yeah. I mean, the stress of paying attention to all the foods that you're eating in terms of numbers, it really weighs you down. And, you know, to me, it's not worth it. You're listening to the Healthier Together podcast. People are always asking me what supplements I recommend, so I wanted to walk you guys through a few that have made a real difference in my life.

All of these are from Garden of Life, one of today's sponsors, and a brand that I've been using for years, long before we started working together. Their oil of oregano is one of my go-toes for travel. It's a tincture, and you only need a few drops of it, but it's incredibly antiviral and anti-bacterial. Whenever I start feeling a bit off or sick, I put about eight drops in a glass of water and chug it down. It tastes super spicy, but it makes me feel better by the next day, whether I felt like I was getting a flu or a cold or a stomach bug or food poisoning. I use it at home, of course, but it saved me so many times on the road that I never go on a trip without it. The prebiotic fiber is also huge for me.

A lot of gut issues are caused by not passing waste through your intestines quickly or thoroughly enough. And beyond that, while we focus so much on probiotics, those good bugs need food in the form of prebiotics to thrive and populate your stomach so they can have all of their positive effects. The doctor formulated organic fiber is a super fine powder. They have an unflavored and an orange. I like both of them. And it's made from acacia, orange peel, baobab fruit, apple peel, and organic cranberry fruit. It dissolves really well in water and it also blends well in smoothies and it can make such a difference in your bathroom habits.

It's been so hugely helpful when I travel and I can't eat as well as I do at home. And also travel makes me like really constipated. I don't know if that's just me. But I will also have it three times a week when I'm at home just to provide enough food for the probiotics to keep my gut healthy and happy. Finally, I love, love, love, the maximum strength turmeric from their my kind organics line. I take this if I'm having any sort of pain issue. I have like a chronic knee pain on my left knee. So when that's acting up, I'll add this to my daily routine.

It contains turmeric and ginger that have both been fermented to be super bioavailable. And as you likely know, turmeric is hugely helpful for inflammation-based issues, whether it's chronic pain or something autoimmune. I have a friend who takes these for her migraines, and they've helped her a ton. And I have another friend who has endometriosis who's found a lot of relief from her painful periods. Also I have a turmeric gummy that has no added sugar, and it basically tastes like heaven. And I'll keep these around, but honestly, I love them so much. They taste so good that it's like a little date.

for me to have them in my cabinet. I have direct links to all of these items and my other Garden of Life picks in my shop at Liz Moody.com slash shop. And it really helps the podcast if you buy them through there. It'll take you directly to the lowest price item on Amazon. Again, that's lizmoody.com slash shop. And if you want any recommendations or have any questions, definitely hit me up on Instagram at Liz Moody. I would love to help you find the perfect probiotic or herbal blend for you. Now, let's get back to the episode. I also think when people are talking about, about calorie counting, they're really talking about wanting to lose weight. And I don't think that counting calories is the most effective way to lose weight. I think that there's a few,

like, I think in the short term, the keto diet is far more effective to lose weight. I also don't think you should do the keto diet for more than a short term thing. People talk about like, oh, I've been keto dieting for like a year. It's like, it was really designed to like get into ketosis as a therapeutic thing and then you get out. I also think that what you eat and what sort your gut microbiome communicates with your brain, which communicates with your whole. hormones and has a sort of cascading effect over signaling your body. It raises your cortisol levels, which is highly responsible for your belly fat. So I think that eating to keep your gut microbiome happy, eating to keep your hormones balance is going to have a far more significant effect on weight loss

than counting calories. And I think that the version of weight loss that has to do with counting calories has sort of been found to be false. And it also like pisses you off. Like, and that's not, I tried this cleanse once for a story I was working on. And it only changed maybe like 30% of my diet. But I was angry all the time. I was just so unhappy. I was eating probably 800 calories a day, which is not ideal, doing a lot of like the shakes and stuff.

And it's a doctor designed approved cleanse. And it wasn't for weight loss. It was just for like general health. But I, I don't think it's, you know, we're not alive forever to spend like a month being angry. I mean, that is. right. Having your whole day revolve around food and, you know, thinking about food the entire day while you're at work or doing schoolwork, that's not healthy. Yeah. For your mental health,

that's not, you know, you should be living your life and enjoying the moment, especially with foods, you know, getting to treat yourself with your favorite things. Yeah. I did an Instagram post yesterday, I think, that was just like, I don't feel like I have the perfect body. I've said on podcast before, like, I'm not going to wear the little outdoor voices, crop tops because I'm, like, a food person, and I don't feel comfortable in that. And then I was wearing one on Instagram, and my friend called me out. She's like, I thought you said you weren't going to wear this. And I was like, well, I decided to screw it. I decided that it's not like, so wet if my belly isn't totally fat, I'm going to wear the crop top and go for run. It's hot out. It's pink.

It makes me feel cute. Like, I do think my Instagram post is about like, at the end of the day, we have so much more to offer the world than like thinking about and talking about what our bodies look like, we spend so much time being like, do I look fat? Do I feel fat? How do I get skinnier? And it's like, if you are a little fatter than maybe you would ideally want to be, it doesn't, it's just, it's not the most interesting thing about you. The most interesting thing about you is, you know, how funny you are and how you connect with your friends and what a good partner you are and how you, like, remember to put the kettle on for your partner who's going to want tea every morning. And the interesting articles that you read.

And I just think that we would get so much of our time back if we were just like, this is my body. And I don't need to think about it anymore. I don't need to apologize for it. Yeah. That's for that. So I'm working on it. It's a work in progress, as always. Everyone is.

Yeah. For sure. Okay. So let's get a little nuance. I want to get into, like, some specific individual foods because I feel like when people, sometimes I listen to those healthy eating conversations. And I'm like, I feel like I took in a lot of information, but I still don't know what I should like go home and eat tonight. So let's do like, let's say like pastas, breads, like that sort of like carby category, delicious carbs.

How do we feel about delicious carbs? I mean, I think nowadays you can find tons of healthier options, which I'm always a fan of. Take your favorite food food pasta. They make lentil pasta now. They make, no. Well, I'm, I eat gluten-free dairy. agreed because those are my intolerances. So I can enjoy the foods that I love by choosing kind of the better alternative. But also carbs just get a bad wrap sometimes. You know, I think you can agree.

But my, I guess, tip would be to choose complex carbohydrates most of the time. So those are things like sweet potato, brown rice, the things that elongate your hunger hormone. Are there lentil or chickpea pasta the brands that you like don't find Pauline when you cook them and they turn to mush on your plate? I just made spaghetti using gluten-free brown rice pasta. Do you remember the brand? Started with an L. I got it from Whole Foods, but it was like.

It was good. Yeah. Okay. It was good. All right. I just hope. I know. They're getting better.

I'm like disappointed when I try the. And they also, again, because they're not, for me, it's this soaking and the lectins that, like, irritate me. So when I eat a lentil pasta, I am just like, you do not want to sleep in bed next to me that night. I choose more brown rice pastas. And then for bread, what do you do? Do you have like a gluten-free bread? You did?

I just found one at the West Seattle Farmer's Market. Really? Oh, my gosh. It's a gluten-free sourdough. And it's delicious. Do you know the brand? We'll find out. Amorello.

Amorello. Okay. I think. All right. Yeah. So I'm a big fan for bread. I love bread and I love pasta. I'm a big fan for bread of doing a fermented bread, which is sourdough.

Anytime you buy sourdough, that's fermented bread. So the digestive work has been done by the bacteria. So it's less hard on your gut. The digestion's already happened. And the nutrients are more bioavailable because the little bacteria have started to eat them for you. And also tastes great. I love it. Oh, sourdough is the best.

A good sourdough bread is heaven. So a big fan of that. And also people who can't digest gluten, maybe not with a very severe intolerance, but a lower level intolerance will have a good. time with a good sourdough. You can also go to a bakery and be like, what's your longest fermented sourdough, which I like to do? And then I'll, you know, serve it to people and be like, this is a 72 hour. And they'll be like, we don't care. And then for pasta, similar to Rachel, I think it's really important to think about why is, you know, simple, why are simple carbohydrates

is not good for you. And it's because of the blood sugar issue. So I like to add stuff into my pasta to make the blood sugar effect less, you know, of a spike in a crash. So I love to add protein to my pasta. If I'm doing a pesto, I put in a ton of hemp hearts, which adds a ton of complete protein to it. I also love to add healthy fats to my pasta. Again, those healthy fats in the protein and some fiber, if you throw in some like sauteed broccoli or cauliflower or something like that, all those things are going to keep your blood sugar way more stable.

And then you can eat your pasta. You can like have your cake and eat it too. Also, I'm a huge fan. Do you guys know about resistant starch? Can we get like a raise of hands if you've heard of resistant starch? Okay. Rachel's, yeah, I would hope. Rachel's like, I've heard of it.

Explain it. Resistance starch is amazing. So essentially when you cook and then you cool simple carbohydrates, it changes their carbohydrate structure and it makes it so that they essentially become prebiotics. And so they're either passed through your gut undigested or they act as food for your microbiome for the probiotics in your belly. So you can take pasta. If you take pasta and you cook it and then you cool it and eat it as leftovers is much, much easier on your gut and it actually

acts as food for your microbiome. Same with potatoes, just any of those sort of like simple carbohydrates. It's a great trick. I wouldn't like say to do it, you know, like to cook a bowl of pasta and then stick in the fridge and sit there and like wait for it to cool. But you can feel really good about eating vegetables, I think. All right, similarly to that, let's talk about dessert. I know you love dessert. I went over to Rachel's house the other day, and she sent me home with one of her healthy nutter butters, which tasted like heaven.

And I got like 50 messages. Like, I need the recipe for that. And I was like, she's posted the recipe, guys. And it's so easy. It's only five ingredients. Is it really? What's in them? Peanut butter, maple syrup, almond flour, baking powder, and vanilla extract.

What's the filling? Peanut butter and maple syrup. Oh my God. Those are genius. Yeah. Yeah. Those are great. So I know you're a fan of dessert. I'm clearly, I have a dessert problem. So tell me what your thoughts are in dessert, particularly what makes dessert healthy. Is there such a thing as a healthy dessert? I think there is. I think it's more so choosing desserts without all the additives and the fillers and the added unhealthy sugars. So whenever I make desserts, I love using, you know, more than natural form. So maple syrup on honey are usually my go-toes. And I'm all about a good dessert. Like if you guys have tried, I think my OG cookie skillet, the Twix bars, nutter butters, I love recreating people's favorite childhood classics, but using healthier ingredients and showing them that, you know, you can have healthy food and it can be a treat and it can taste freaking delicious. Yeah, for sure. I'm very much along the same lines. I think dessert, I think I

approach dessert with very much the same philosophy as I would pasta or bread. So instead of taking the things out of dessert, because I want dessert to taste, I mean, I try to do, you know, dairy-free. I try to use the natural sugars as much possible. But I also think if you add in the protein, you add in the fiber and things like that in sort of sneaky ways, then you won't have that same sort of blood sugar spike in crash. And honestly, even if you're eating like a crappy dessert out at a pastry shop, if you can accompany that with some nut butter, a handful of nuts, something like that to give yourself a little bit of protein and a little bit of healthy fat, then you're avoiding the, like the bad part of dessert is that too much sugar obviously can be inflammatory

and make you feel like crap, but also just the blood sugar spike and fall, which has the cascading effect on your hormone. So I think the more you can not have that, but still eat the things that you really enjoy, the better. I would think, what's your favorite dessert? Like, your personal favorite. Anything with chocolate and peanut butter, I feel like takes. the cake. So, Reese's cup, like a healthy Reese's cup type type situation. Yeah. I think those are my favorite. Like Halloween, I would like always make the big pile, you know. Yeah. And just save it and then ration it out for the next month. Do you eat the ones that you like the most first or last?

Because I feel like that says a lot about it. When you make your piles, are you like, the rest are my favorite. They go first. I think they last the longest. So I just, you're a saver. I'm a saver. You're a delayed gratification person. his eggs. The chocolate and Reese's eggs were my favorite. Have you made a healthy version of this? Yes. Okay, good. I have the recipe on my website. Okay, good. I will definitely check this. I'm a huge, I love chocolate

and peanut butter. I also love like eggy custard type things. I feel like this is not like a popular opinion because it's not easy to explain, but like a good Clafu tea or honestly I'm obsessed with Clafu Tea right now. My husband's, I've made my husband make it.

So it sounds so fancy, but it's not. It's just like egg, with flour and sugar and then you put it with some um is there any anything else in it egg flour sugar and fruit vanilla extracts and then you just put it in a pan and it bake it and it's like a cake if a cake had way more egg in it like if a cake and a crumburlet had a baby it's been really good cla food tea it's c l-a-f-o-u-t i and also when you say it people will be like oh she fancy yeah listen to her french And a French person would be like, wow, you didn't pronounce that right at all.

Okay. So we have two final questions for us up here. And then we're going to open it up to you guys. So don't listen to us answer these. So you can think of a few good questions yourself. First, is there any food that you think is like universally bad? Nobody should have it in their diet. I don't love to give labels to food good or bad.

But I do think vegetable oils, canola oil in particular, is a bad food. that we can definitely try to avoid because it's so inflammatory to the body and it's in so many packaged foods that you would have no idea that it would be in just because it's such a cheap oil that food manufacturers just go nuts with it and put it in everything. Yeah, I think it's shocking, honestly, how much it's in packaged food and it becomes even more inflammatory when you cook with it and it's cooked with so much. I think that's a really good one. And it's also so easy to change out.

like put avocado oil in your kitchen, some olive oil, some geese, some coconut oil, and you've already made this like huge step in your diet. Yeah. And you haven't really, I'm so about anything you can do to be healthier that doesn't feel harder. Right. Like I think this is why I'm a bad person at working out, which we talked about, because I'm like, oh, I have to do that every day.

Yeah. But if I can like swap out my beauty products and then that's done, you don't have to think about it ever again. You swap out your oils. Simple swaps. Simple swaps. Simple swaps. I would live my life by simple swaps if I was given the opportunity.

for me, I would say artificial colors and flavors. I think, yeah, there's a number of them that are banned. I lived in London for a while and I was shocked to find out how many of the colorings and flavorings that we use here have been banned in Europe for years and years and years. And I think in general, if whole countries are banned, they don't want to ban things. Like, they're also capitalist countries. They would like to sell products. And if they're banning them, I'm like, that's not ideal.

So I do my best to avoid artificial colors and flavors as much as possible. All right. What is one food that everybody should definitely add to their diet? They're just going to go home tomorrow, keep eating McDonald's, but add one food in. Don't say McDonald's because they're already eating that. Oh, I won't. I would say omega-3s. So right now, the typical American is eating more omega-6s than omega-3s, like a 15-25-25.

to one ratio, which is insane. I mean, ideally, we'd be more of a one-to-one ratio. So omega-6s by themselves are healthy for the body because they help, you know, fight off disease and inflammation. But in excess, which we're eating now, it is extremely bad for the body. So I think eating more omega-3s can help counteract the amount of omega-6s that we're eating. So foods like wild-caught salmon, hemp seeds, chia seeds, flax seeds. walnuts, if we start eating more of those foods, because our bodies don't make omega-3s. So that's mine. Can you tell us a few ways that you like to personally, like, incorporate those foods into your diet?

In my morning smoothie, I always throw a tablespoon. Salmon. Some wild-cut salmon just right in the blender. Probably not that one. I do flaxseed. You can try salmon. Yeah. We do flax seeds.

And then at night, I've been doing like a sport of flaxseed oil. You can just buy organic flaxseed oil like at Whole Foods. And since we live in Seattle, like the seafood mecca, I love a good wildcaught salmon. Is fresh or frozen make a difference at all or no? Just like wildcaughts good to go. Fresh is best. Okay. Wild caught Alaskan salmon is ideal. Don't you guys have, I haven't been to Pike Place market yet, but I picture people just like throwing fish.

They do. Okay. Is that a good place to buy that stuff or no? Okay. Do people go there? Is that just a tourist thing? Yeah. No, people go there. Do you guys go there? You live here? Yeah. Okay. And do they throw fish? The pig is Rachel. The pig's Rachel. What? The pig's right in front of fish. Do you guys know that? There's a pig? Yeah, it's like a big statue. It's not real. It's a statue pig right in front of place. And his name is Rachel after you, the local hometown hero? Well, she spells it differently. Just E.L. Yeah. That's such a, when you could have a, when you could have a in there. I know. I know. Well, I would say greens for me. I think that greens are, they're so they're, they nourish every cell in your body. They nourish your mitochondria. They add fiber. So they're really helping with your gut. They're helping move things through your gut. I kind of picture them like sweeping

out my intestinal walls when I eat them. Like when I have a green smith, you know when you pour like a draino down your drain and it just pictures it going through that's so satisfying. It's so satisfying. So I picture that when I drink my green smoothie. I'm just like, I'm dranoing my insides and it feels really good. So I love anything you can do to pat greens in your diet. And that includes fresh herbs, which are so, so, so delicious. They add so much immense flavor to everything you eat and also all of these phytonutrients that are just so good for every part of your body. So it can taste good, especially in the form of a green smoothie. I don't know if you guys knew this, but I definitely think green smoothies are a great addition to your day. And they also

take five minutes, guys. Like literally in last time that it takes to cook any other breakfast, you finish your smoothie and you can clean your blender and, like, be done with your day. And they keep for 48 hours. So you can make, I always make enough for two days and then I store my leftovers in the fridge and then I pull out my leftovers in the morning. I only, when I make it, it makes enough for three. So Zach gets one the first day and then he doesn't get one the second. But I'm like, so he's healthy like half the time. Yeah, he's healthy like half the time. And he just, and then those days, he just doesn't eat until five. And then I'm like, ah. And you can also freeze them. If you're super busy, just put him.

in a freezer. Like, you can make like 20 of them put in the freezer and then move them to the fridge the night before you want to drink them. And you can make your own little smoothie packs too. I love that. So you could do like your frozen greens trick. Put that in like a stasher bag or Ziploc baggie with some banana, some strawberry. You can even do the powder or stick the whole thing in the freezer.

And then in the morning, dump it in with some water. Yeah. Lazy. I second the greens. I feel like for lunch and dinner, I always have a base of two handfuls of mixed greens. And that's good. and then put the dinner over the top, even if it's like spaghetti or something,

which might sound weird now. Do you mix it in or will you just kind of like eat it on the top? Okay, well, spaghetti, I'll put like a bunch of handfuls of spinach in the sauce and you can't even taste it. Yeah, and then you be in. Oh, my God. Let's talk about wilting greens.

When you wilt greens, you're like, why do we spend so much? No. There's one picture of like a huge saute skillet full of spinach and then the next picture is like just... It's like... You see any time. Whenever I do, like one,

I think kale is so hard for your gut and thyroid when you eat it raw. And I feel like same as I feel like I'm draining myself with my smoothies. When I eat kale, I feel like I'm like swallowing a pine cone and I can just feel it like prickling inside my belly. I can't eat kale. Even sauteing kale. Maybe I just don't make the effort. So I sauteing kale, I'm just like one. It diminishes to nothing.

It tastes better with garlic and olive oil. Heaven. Yeah. Just saute up some olive oil. Add the garlic at the end. because if you chop garlic and you let it sit for 20 minutes, you activate the Allison, which gives it all of its antiviral, antifungal, and antibacterial properties. Fun fact.

Add that at the end, saute it for like a minute more. And you've literally eaten like my size of kale in a small plate and you feel so great. Yeah. So it's awesome. You're listening to the Healthier Together podcast. I want to take a quick break from this episode to tell you about one of my favorite grain-free food brand, Simple Mills. I first discovered simple meals years ago when I fell in love with their baking mixes. The pizza crust is a must-have pantry item for quick healthy dinners.

But more recently, they've been absolutely killing it with their ready-made items. I'm obsessed with their grain-free crackers, which I've been serving at all of my book tour stops around the country. They have two types. An almond flour one that's a bit smaller and a sprouted seed one that size for like a small cracker sandwich. The almond flour ones are my go-toes for snacking, plain from the box. The smoky barbecue cheddar is basically like the best. best cheesy cracker you've ever had except healthy. And the rosemary sea salt is really elegant feeling and it's like perfect for dipping in some tomato soup. They all have

a simple mill's signature short ingredient list. And because they're nut and seed base, they actually contain a fair bit of protein and dietary fiber to elongate that blood sugar curve and prevent a hanger crash later on. The sprouted seed crackers are also heavenly. I use these to make a grown-up lunchable situation with like some pastured rotissory chicken and pastored cheese. Because the seeds are sprouted, they're way more bio-available, making the crackers a good source of omega-3s, manganese, and other ingredients. Yes, you can get omega-3s from a cracker, and I am here for it. I also love pulsing these to use as a breadcrum alternative to sprinkle on pasta dishes or to use in meatballs. All of the flavors work really, really well, but the garlic and herb is

particularly delightful. Finally, I need to mention the crunchy cookies. The chocolate chip ones tastes just like a healthy, yumier version of famous Amos cookies, which were my absolute favorite when I was a kid. We've also been serving these at my book tour events, and honestly, it's really hard for me to force myself to put them out for attendees because I love them that much. Literally, everything I mentioned is grain-free, gluten-free, non-GMO, and free of gums and emulsifiers. I really trust simple mills to not cut corners or put anything weird in any of their products. They test and test and test until they can release something that's really high quality and also taste really good. You can find Simple Mills retailers nationwide are on their website at www.

www. Simplemills.com where you can get 20% off with the code healthier together 20. Again, that's a whopping 20% off with a code healthier together, like the name of this podcast, and then 20 to zero, just the numbers, don't write them out. And it's all smushed together. It's one word, no cap. So healthier together 20 at Simplemills.com. And if you need product recommendations, don't hesitate to ask me for them on Instagram. I'm at Liz Moody. I cannot wait to hear what you guys think about all these products. I've been obsessed with Simple Mills for years, and I can't wait for you guys to try them.

Now, let's get back to the episode. All right. So that's our portion, but now we're going to get to your portion. So we have a lovely lady with a microphone. So just raise your hand if you have a question. We have two lovely ladies with microphones. Hi. So you guys recently touched on like hormone balancing foods a little bit.

And I was just wondering if you're struggling with like hormone balancing type things, what is something that you would add in daily? Like you said bone bra? I've never even, I've never even heard of that. What is that? How do you cook with that? Yeah. So I am very into hormone stuff recently. I just went off birth control for the first time. I was on birth control since I was 15. And then I went off in December. Yeah. And I'm like, everybody's like, oh, you're trying to get pregnant. And I'm like, no, I'm just very curious to not have my body be hormonally altered for the first time in my entire life, which feels crazy. So that's been a really interesting journey for me. At least, you know, Lisa Vidi.

She's a hormone expert. She wrote the book Woman Code. And I wrote an article where I interviewed her about balancing your body after you've been on the pill. And I said literally that, like, what are a few foods you can add in? And she recommended cilantro and flax. And I've had a bunch of my girlfriends do it. They sort of support your liver in different ways that helps. sort of detoxify the excess estrogen from your body, which is what a lot of people are struggling

with when they're struggling with hormone imbalances. So adding in, like, making a cilantro flak smoothie in the morning, I've had a lot of girlfriends have a lot of luck with that, especially if they're struggling with hormonally belated acne. And then bone broth is amazing. It's just you literally take any sort of bones from a grass fed or pastured animal. You really don't want to do less lesser quality meats. You put them in water, cover them with water, some salt, some apple cider vinegar, or any veggie scraps you have around, boil them until the bone sort of disintegrate with your fingers, which would be 12 to 24 hours. You can also put them in a slow cooker in an instant pot.

Instant pot's like 30 minutes. Strain it out. And it's so good for your gut, so nourishing. And a number of doctors also recommend that for just hormone balance. It's really strong in TCM. They would consider that a very strong hormonally balancing food because it's so grounding and earthy. Yeah. You had a much better answer than I would have.

that was a wealth of knowledge. If you're lazy and don't want to make your own bone broth, I recommend bonified provisions. Oh, I love them. They sell in the frozen section of Whole Foods. And online. Yeah, and online. It's just a bag. And then you can defrost it just by putting it in your fridge for a day or two.

And then it's, you know, it's already done. Yeah, it's great. Also, if you want to really dive into it, Jolene Brighton wrote a book. She is called Ditch the Pill, I believe. And it has some really, really great information from it. And I also recommend perusing her website, Jolene Brighton. She has amazing information about balancing your hormones, especially post-birth control. If you guys think you didn't take kind of like this Instagram influencer, food blogger, cookbook writer, route in your career, what do you think you guys would be doing right now?

Yeah, I'm going to just repeat it in case the mic wasn't working. She basically asked if we didn't take the career path that we took. I am being cookbook writer, Instagram influencer, small business owner, all of that. What would we be doing right now? I'll let you take that first. I grew up playing sports. And high school is when I started really becoming interested in nutrition. So I think if I didn't go to school for that, I would be very interested in personal training.

And I think when I was younger, I wanted to become like a nutritionist, personal trainer, massage therapist, like just a variety. And Bridger's like, why didn't you become a massage therapist? It's nice though that that's evolved. You have your fitness program now. So you've gotten to sort of touch on that element. Oh, yeah. Yeah, for sure. I mean, it's amazing because it's such a big passion of mine.

So I think anything related to sports nutrition would be that. I love that. I've been a writer unprofessionally since I was five when I was, I self-published my first autobiography, which didn't have a lot to it at the time. I think I made up a twin for myself because I was reading a lot of Sweet Valley at time and I was like, Liz lives in this house with her twin and they're very different, but they love each other very much. And then I became a professional writer and I was 16 and I pitched a column to my local newspaper office and then that was eventually nationally syndicated. I was like, you guys don't

represent teenagers in your paper and I should help you do that. And they were like, okay. So I would definitely be a writer. It's only been in maybe the last five or six years that my writing has gone towards, you know, food and wellness and all of that. But I've been a writer professionally in some way, shape, or form. I still hope to someday write a novel. I've actually written five failed novels, five unpublished novels, which I think is important to think about, too. I've had two cookbooks, and I'm so proud of them. But I wrote five books, and I got agents for all of them. And every single time I was like, this is it. Like, this is the moment that's going to completely change my life. And it didn't happen. And I thought,

my life was over. I thought I would never achieve my dreams. And I still remember when I was first walking into the halls of Random House for my first book, Globe Hops. And I, it was bittersweet because I'd always thought I'd be there for something else. You know, I didn't think I would be there for a cookbook. And I'm so happy with the way that my life is gone. But again, I wrote five books before I got here. And I think that every failure has contributed into getting me where I am completely. And I'm also so happy that I'm also so happy that I'm tried. I'm so happy that I, you know, was able to put myself out there in that way and switch directions. And I don't think where I would be now would be anywhere I'd be happy with if I hadn't

just kept on trying. So yeah, I'll let you read them one day. Wow. They're interesting. Well, hello. What does your guys's take on artificial sweeteners? Because I feel like you hear really good things, hear really bad things. And each diet's kind of different. So I would love to what you guys think on that. I think in terms of stevia, I personally don't use stevia. I think it can be a healthier option than what people are using in their coffees every single day. As long as you make sure that it's organic because if it's not that it's very highly processed. And there's also a lot of research coming out with conflicting terms on stevia. So I personally am not. not sold on stevia.

Monk fruit is also another trendy one right now. And it's about 300 times as sweet as regular sugar. It is also a no calorie sweetener. It doesn't have any effect on your blood glucose levels. But same thing with any artificial sweetener or regular calorie sweetener. The more you use it, the more dopamine your brain is releasing and the more sugar cravings that you can get. So I think with anything artificial or not, you should limit your added sugars.

A lot of the doctors that I interview are actually completely like Kelly Levec uses, she's not a doctor, but she's a person who I really trust the nutrition knowledge of. And she uses stevia. She only uses tinctures because they're less processed. It's essentially just the leaf of the stevia plant seeped in alcohol. I would always stay away from like the white powders, which have been heavily heavily processed. Will Cole's big on monk fruit and stevia, Frank Lippman, same thing. I am wary of them, though.

I do think that there has to be something, I don't like the idea of telling my whole body to expect something sweet and to expect everything that comes with that and then essentially not giving it that. So I love coconut sugar because it has fiber, which again is helpful with that blood sugar balance. And then maple syrup and honey, which are a little bit less. I find that they spike blood sugar a little bit more, so I prefer coconut sugar. But I'd rather just have sugar and have less of it than trick my body.

Again, all the doctors that I know are fine with it. But I just, I'm wary of it. I'm 100% with it. Yeah. Yeah. That was a weird answer. I hope that helped. Hi.

So I feel like every time I turn around, there's like a new trending type of milk. And so I wanted to ask, what are your thoughts on oat milk or just like any other. different like milk alternatives and how we decide to choose which one to drink. And yeah, your thoughts on that. Okay. So I think the alternative milks are good if you're wanting milk. You know, I think in something where you don't want milk, like a smoothie water is always a better choice. And I also love milk so you can make at home. I milk's, you're getting such a tiny, tiny, tiny amount of the actual thing in it, whether it's oats or almond or any of that. that I on it you're it's essentially like a flavored water that serves a purpose so I think it's more

about what else has been added to it like always stay away from carogenin which is really hard on your gut um and there's you can kind of see the list of ingredients on the back I think the shorter that that list is the better and beyond that you're getting such a small amount of oats or hazelnut that I hardly think it matters I'm a huge proponent of also making your milk at home so like a very easy hemp milk where you essentially just put like two tablespoons of hemp and some water in a blender and whip it up. It takes two seconds. You can flavor it however you want, like some vanilla extract or vanilla bean and some cinnamon.

And then you're like, you feel fancy. It's like a fancy milk. So I'm the biggest one, what tastes good to you, to what type of texture you're looking for. People like oat milk because it has carbs in it, which makes it really nice in lattes and things like that where you're looking for that creamy experience. But I think it's more about what else is in the milk than the ingredients that are making up the milk itself. And I hate to be the bearer of bad news. but the trendy oat milk, 90% of them sold today have rapeseed oil in it. And that's one of the unhealthy oils.

One of the things you said you would absolutely not recommend to anybody. Right. So, I mean, oatmeal is super easy to make at home. You literally just blend whatever kind of oats you want with water and then, you know, your type of seasoning. So cinnamon, nutmeg, you could do a date to sweeten it, some sea salt. And you're done. Yeah. Yeah.

So easy. You talked about smoothies. How do you feel about juicing? Oh, I am very opposed to juicing. I think that it's terrible for your blood sugar. It's terrible for the environment because you're essentially engaging in high volume food waste. And you're missing out on one of the healthiest parts of any produce, which is the fiber. Like the reason that a banana is different and better for you than eating a pile of sugar is literally because the fiber and, like, like a small amount of potassium and other nutrients, but it's really the fiber. And getting rid of that fiber just feels absurd to me. I'm just like, why? Why? I think if you do choose a juice, make sure there's no fruit in it because that fruit sugar will spike your blood sugar.

And then the other veggies are in that juice, it doesn't have the fiber. So it doesn't have the fiber to help balance out that spike in blood sugar. But literally, anything you're going to put in a juice, just put it in a sauce. just put it in a smoothie and like it'll taste good. If it's not blending, well, I always recommend people blend the toughest stuff first and then literally just like leave your blender on until it's finally smooth. Like if you're doing celery or something like that, and then you can add in your softer ingredients and you'll get a really nice texture even if it has more of those sort of juicy

ingredients. Hey, so my question is more of kind of if you have any recommendations for resources about just a lot of the different kind of like nutrients that you were talking about throughout the night just because I was like, what's that? And just kind of learning more about how your body works. And like, you know, like Rachel, when you were talking about earlier, kind of like everyone having a different lifestyle and different foods and seeing what works better for you and kind of just like resources that really helped you visualize, like, how your body works and ways that you can tell. And like what works better for you and what doesn't.

I have a few books that I can recommend if you guys are wanting to write them down. You can repeat them. Eat Dirt by Dr. Axe. Have you read? It's really easy. It's an easy read. Deep nutrition, which is more scientific.

Body love by Kelly Leveck. And Genius Foods by Max Lugabeer. Those are my good recommendations. Those are great. And I also think. think that you can get a lot of information directly from doctors. So I'm lucky enough in my journalism life to get to interview all these doctors, but most of them these days have their own websites and they write articles on them. And that's a really great way to get the latest cutting edge

information. Books are so wonderful, but they will tend to reflect nutrition information that's about two years old because that's just how long I wrote this book two years ago. And it's just, you know, hitting shelves today. So I love Dr. Will Cole's website. I love Sarah Gottfried. website. I love Aviva Ram's website. Those last two are also really great for hormones to the lovely woman who asked about hormones. And then Frank Lippman also has a really nice website. And I love all of the great sites out there. I obviously write for a lot of them, but sometimes I find the information is less muddled if you go directly to the source of the doctor. And some of them also have podcasts. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of them have podcasts. And there's also really great podcasts called

the Healthier Together podcast, which has great. I have actually, I have a wonderful episode with Kelly. She's a friend of mine. And I, like, asked her all of my nitpicky questions about nutrition. So it's a fun. I, like, made her pick her favorite protein powders and, like, what fats are actually good and bad. And just, like, even all the little niggling questions I had, I asked her to talk about.

So that's an earlier episode that's already out, which you can check out for sure. I'm wondering if you have any examples locally and nationally. of affordable resources are for folks who are on a budget, low-income individuals who can access lifestyles like you describe really inspiring, but wondering what's more accessible. Do you want to do locally? And I can do nationally. Just ways to make healthy eating more affordable and accessible? Yeah, you go first. Okay. So nationally, I'm a huge fan of nuts.com. It's an online site you can order from. And it's like the cheapest that I found for things like nuts and seeds and stuff, not sponsored. But I love them. I also,

order, I tend to order my meats and stuff like that frozen from a place like butcher box, which is really great. Basically, every influence in the world has like a code for them now. So you can definitely, I also Google around for any time I want to buy anything. I'm like, what are the codes? And what are the codes I can layer on top of the codes to like save money on there? And then also for meats, I always go for like the weird cuts of meat, like the stew meats and stuff like that because they tend to be much, much cheaper than like a flank steak or something. and then you just put it in your slow cooker and Simpot, it breaks down. It has all the weird fat in it.

So it'll get really soft and tender. So I'd say opting for things that other people wouldn't necessarily go for. For vegetables on a national level, I would definitely say frozen, frozen, frozen, huge fan of frozen vegetables. They are so much cheaper than fresh. Way better bang for your buck. So I'm a big fan of that. And generally just staying away from the trends.

Like you don't need the powders. you don't need like collagen in your smoothie. You don't need these. You don't need Rishi mushrooms. Like if you want to have superfood stuff, it's super fun. It can get you excited about healthy eating if maybe you weren't before. But you don't need them whatsoever. And I think if you're trying to stick to a budget just like issuing all of that,

it's like white noise and filling up on delicious vegetables is the best thing you can do. I love that. I know Washington has CSA boxes so you can get produce from. local farms at a really affordable price. And then I use imperfect produce every other week. So it's the produce items that people typically don't choose in the stores just because they're more on the ugly side. But they taste the same. Sometimes they taste even better, which is amazing. Also, Thrive Market is great nationally. They sell stuff at like 30 to 40% off of what retail prices would be. It's a membership thing. But also, if you can't afford the membership, they donate memberships

to a certain amount of people every year. So you can tell them that. And also a lot of lot of influencers have codes for that. I think I do. I think I'm like drive market.com slash Liz. I might not. But they're great. Yeah, I'm a big fan of them. They actually provided the wine today. And it's my favorite sort of like, I want to drink wine on a Wednesday and it wanted to taste good and be organic and high quality, but I'm not going to like spend 50 bucks on it, you know, or 20 or 15. All right. I think we have time for a One more question. So, hi.

So I know you touched a little bit on it earlier about how you identified foods that upset your stomach. So someone who's dealing with digestive issues. I was wondering if you have any specific tips. I've tried elimination diets and whatnot, but those are just so difficult. So any advice would be much appreciated. So you've tried elimination diets, but did you just find them hard to stick to you for the amount of time?

Okay. Elimination diet is 100% I think the best way to figure out what is your digestive culprit. And I think sort of just like sucking it up and being like, this is going to be 30 days of my life. and then I'm going to get the rest of my life back. And you won't be guessing anymore. You won't be like, is it eggs? Is it chickpeas? Like, is it dairy? And I'm really not a fan of cutting stuff out because you don't need to.

And I think if you don't do an elimination diet for 30 days and stick to it and actually stick with the reintroduction, you're always going to be guessing and you're going to be cutting out more foods than you need to. And I think that's such a bummer and not a fun way to live. And also you're like losing out on nutrients you could be getting from those foods. So I would personally, I'm curious your advice on this, but I would personally just say like, suck it up. It's going to suck. Fill those 30 days with like a bunch of other really great things you love.

Like if you can like get a massage or like schedule a friend date or like watch 10 things I hate about you. Like everything that just like feels really good that's not food related and be like this is just 30 days of my life and it's going to be over really soon. But I just think it's the hands down best way. If you're having issues, you can't get to the bottom of them to figure them out. I mean, I would agree, but if you were to do a different option first, I think I mentioned earlier, but just keeping like a little food journal with you and writing down how you feel right after the meal, maybe an hour after, and then five hours after. And so really try to get to, you know, the culprit of what kind of ingredients are in the foods that you're eating and how it makes you feel overall. And then you can maybe, oh, maybe it might be the cruciferous veggies because most people, you know, may have. issues with the high fiber foods, you can try to remove those for, you know, three or four days

and see if that makes you feel better and keep kind of keep going from there. But I think elimination diet, if you're willing to stick. I love the food diary post. Yeah. I hope you loved that chat. I hope you felt like you were there drinking wine and eating snacks with us. I hope you poured yourself with lots of wine and had some snacks for the episode. Yeah, and I hope you loved it. If you did love it, definitely go follow Rachel on Instagram at Rachel's Good Eats, follow me, Atlas Moody. Tell us what resonated with you. We would love, love, love to hear it.

And if you want to drop a rating or review on iTunes, you know I always love that. And other than that, I'll see you on the next episode of the Healthy Together podcast. We have a really good one. The next one's a little bit different, but really exciting. So I'm excited to hear what you guys think. All right. Have a good one. Love you guys.

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