Well with Arielle Lorre - 105: Dr. Rupy Aujla - The Power of Lifestyle and Nutrition as Medicine

Episode Date: April 14, 2021

In this episode I’m talking to Dr. Rupy Aujla, medical doctor and founder of The Doctor’s Kitchen, about the power of nutrition and lifestyle modification in our overall health. We discus...s how he changed his own lifestyle to treat a cardiac condition; specific tips to start implementing today for a healthier future; how to navigate the overwhelming amount of nutrition and diet advice out there; how to adopt an intuitive approach to wellness; all about sugar—what kinds are better than others and what to avoid, including artificial sweetener; what to look to incorporate into each meal and so much more.   www.Beekeepersnaturals.com/BLONDEFILES for your FREE two-week supply of B.Immune Propolis Throat Spray. You just pay $5 for shipping. www.HelloNed.com/BLONDE for 15% off your first one-time order or 20% off your first subscription plus FREE shipping. www.StoryWorth.com/blonde for $10 off your first purchase.   Produced by Dear MediaSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Starting point is 00:00:21 Sondergues Sonders. Go to Your Reisadvice Orsoniccars. The following podcast is A Dear Media Production Hey, welcome to the Blond Files podcast. I'm your host, Ariel Lori, and I'm here to talk all things wellness.
Starting point is 00:00:36 From how to achieve optimal health and well-being to the best beauty tips and everything in between, no topic is off limits. I know there is so much information out there, so I'm here to help you navigate it all and live your best life. Thanks for listening. Let's get into it. Hi, everybody. Welcome to the show.
Starting point is 00:00:59 Today, I am talking to Dr. Rupi. Audula of the doctor's kitchen about all things, lifestyle, and nutrition. Dr. Odula is a medical doctor who specializes in general practice. He also does a bit of emergency medicine, and he's a firm believer in the power of food and lifestyle change as medicine. He has three cookbooks, the doctor's kitchen, eat-to-beat illness, and doctor's kitchen 321. And on his website and newsletter, you'll find recipes, lifestyle tips, and lots of evidence-based information from an open-minded, straight-talking doctor. He also has a great podcast, The Doctor's Kitchen, so make sure to check that out.
Starting point is 00:01:40 And today we cover a lot. We talk about how his own journey led him to be interested in lifestyle and nutritional medicine. We talk about what we should all stop doing today and start doing today, really simple tips. We talk about the pillars of things. help, how to navigate different diet approaches, how to adopt an intuitive approach to wellness. We talk all about sugar, what kinds, and how much are okay, including artificial sweeteners. We also talk about what to look to incorporate in each meal, and he has a great tip for how he started to change his own lifestyle just by changing one thing and so much more.
Starting point is 00:02:20 So I loved chatting with him and love his really kind of straightforward, reasonable, agnostic approach. to your nutrition and how to eat for health. So enjoy. All right, welcome to the show. So excited to talk to you today. Me too. Thanks for having me on. Of course. So first I just want to ask, I found you through your TED talk and I just want to know how stressful is doing a TED talk. Like, really? It is pretty nerve-wracking. Really weird because I do. a lot of talks, right? And I generally don't get nervous now because I've done them so many times. But I think when you're in an intimate audience and there's that famous red dot carpet and the lights are on you and it's being filmed and you've rehearsed it over and over again, there's some
Starting point is 00:03:17 sort of anxiety trigger that just goes off. And so when I haven't actually watched that talk back more than once because I always pick up on the by new share of things that I did slightly incorrect, but ultimately the message hopefully shone through, I mean, it reached you, which is great. And the fact that we're having this conversation means that I can amplify the message.
Starting point is 00:03:43 But yeah, no, it's pretty scary. But definitely something I would highly encourage other people to do. Yeah. Well, yeah, the message was incredible. And I think we're our own worst critics. think that no matter what, like any talk, you come away from it saying, oh, I wish I said that and I shouldn't have said this and just nitpicking and other people. Yeah. So why don't you tell a little bit about yourself and what you're doing and how your kind of journey led you
Starting point is 00:04:11 towards medicine and nutritional medicine? Sure. Yeah. So I'm a practicing doctor. I trained as a general practitioner who in the UK in America. It's deemed family physician. I also do emergency medicine as well. My story really started through personal experience when I got ill myself over 12 years ago when I just qualified as a junior doctor, I started suffering from atrial fibrillation episodes, which are where your heart beats exceptionally fast. In my case, it was about 200 beats per minute and very irregularly as well. and what I found was after, you know, seeing all the different cardiologists and being put on drugs and all the rest of it,
Starting point is 00:04:58 I was offered something called an ablation, which is a surgical procedure to ring fence the misfiring cells that are found around the primary vein. And I was 100% going to go for this procedure. And it was actually my family, my mum in particular, who said, you know, you should really think about optimizing your diet and lifestyle before you engage. in quite an evasive procedure. And as someone who was conventionally trained in medicine, I thought she was just completely bonkers and she had no idea what she was talking about. She's not medically trained.
Starting point is 00:05:31 She's got no formal education in that respect. She was just a well-educated Indian housewife who has had her own sort of, you know, businesses and all the rest of it. But to appease her, I'll be honest, I said to her, okay, fine, I'll do six months of diet and lifestyle. I see what happens.
Starting point is 00:05:52 And my cardiologist were like, fine, continue to taking the drugs. And then we'll see you in six months for this procedure. And I just started from a back-to-basics approach. You know, I'd have cereal in the morning. That went out and I introduced more nuts and seeds and more plant-based ingredients. I always went to work with my Tupperware full of greens and dark green leaf of vegetables and, again, largely plants.
Starting point is 00:06:16 I started meditating. I started changing up my exercise. regime. I wasn't overweight. I didn't have any pre-existing medical issues. I was a normal, quote-unquote, healthy 24-year-old. And it was the strangest experience because I would fastidiously note down when I was having AF episodes, two to three times a week on average. And that went from two to three times a week to zero over the course of around a year and a half. And during that time, when I realized it's been like two months, then three months, then six months, no episode, no episode. I was like, how on earth this is happening? Why is this happening? And also,
Starting point is 00:06:55 why wasn't I taught about this kind of stuff at medical school? And so me starting the doctor's kitchen and me having more open, honest conversations with patients, is really born out of my own personal anecdotal experience of how powerful nutrition lifestyle can be. And also, So the frustration as to why I wasn't taught about this at medical school. And we can talk about it a bit later, but I'm trying to rectify that lack of information being delivered for a new generation of medics who are more appreciative, who will be more appreciative of lifestyle medicine. This show is supported in part by our friends over at Ned CBD.
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Starting point is 00:09:53 slash blonde, B-L-O-N-D-E to get 15% off your first one-time order or 20% off your first subscription order plus free shipping. Hey, I'm Molly Carmel, an eating disorder and addiction therapist and your coaching guide. On my show, what you're craving, we get to the real root of your problems when it comes to food, weight, dieting, and beyond. Through honest conversations with the crew of my favorite experts and friends, we'll expand our minds, we'll learn, we'll laugh, we'll even heal. Get ready to break open and break through.
Starting point is 00:10:27 I've got your back big time. And together we'll figure out what you're really craving. Tune in every Wednesday for a new episode anywhere you listen to podcasts. I've heard you talk about this before. And I think that you did say that, you know, the medical training is a little bit different. in the United States. And I think he said that there is a little bit more of an emphasis on lifestyle and nutrition here.
Starting point is 00:10:55 But even just from doctors that I know here and my dad's a doctor, he did this many decades ago, of course. So it's changed since then. But still, I mean, there does seem like there's still very little emphasis on it. So what was that experience like were you trained? Yeah. So my personal experience of nutrition training at medical school was near non-existent. and it's pretty reflective of the current state of medical training in the UK.
Starting point is 00:11:25 So we actually did some research on this. On average, across 20 different medical schools that were surveyed in this piece of research, the average amount of nutrition training was five hours across the span of a five to six year degree. And of that nutrition training, a lot of it is impractical stuff. So we're looking at severe vitamin deficiencies or how to maintain nutrition stores for someone who's in ITU. So pretty impractical when we're looking at the tidal wave of chronic lifestyle-related illnesses. And then US, as you've mentioned, you know, there are 40, I think, medical schools who have a culinary medicine program. But that is quite different across all those different universities.
Starting point is 00:12:12 So some will have one module. others will have a huge suite of different modules where they can learn about eating for depression, the bichemistry of nutrition, type 2 diabetes, as well as culinary techniques as well, which is what we're trying to do in the UK and really take the baton essentially from across the pond and actually try and run with it over here. But you're right. The training probably hasn't changed that much since your father was a physician in medical. school. And it definitely is changing. You know what? One of the things I think is definitely
Starting point is 00:12:48 happening is that unfortunately a lot of medics are getting sick themselves. So my case is pretty rare like having AF and that heart condition at age 24 with no pre-existing issues or family condition. It's pretty unusual. What is more usual, unfortunately, is obesity, pre-diabetes and a whole bunch of other related issues related to metabolic syndrome. And we know what happens when you're diagnosed with that. You got one drug and then a second drug and you experience side effects. And then all of a sudden you have another condition. And so people are almost rebelling against the fact that we don't want to become patients ourselves.
Starting point is 00:13:31 And it's kind of selfish to think about it that way. But hopefully that's enough to fear and to spur on conversations. with patients that are more open, honest, and actually reflective of the evidence base that suggests diet and lifestyle is a huge, huge factor in preventing illness as well as treating them. Yeah, well, you do see kind of a pattern that a lot of people that become healers or helpers
Starting point is 00:13:58 have their own experience. And I think that's something better than having your own experience like you did to kind of galvanize you to try to make a change. So you mentioned that you started meditating, you started cooking. What do you think the pillars of wellness are? Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it, to see, you know, if there is any one area that has more of an impact. And obviously, my bias is food. And I see food as a gateway drug to the other pillars or foundations of wellness.
Starting point is 00:14:30 And the reason why I think it's so special is because everything that we do from an evolutionary standpoint has been in the pursuit of food, whether it be sharing food, whether it be hunting for food, whether it be the communal aspect. But if you really dig down, and I like to take an evolutionary perspective on most things, what would our lives look like thousands of years ago during hunter-gatherer days? We would have woken up early because we want to give us is the best chance of getting as much sunlight as possible to give us enough time to forage, to give us time to stalk and hunt. We would have walked long periods of time over masses of terrain. That would have been our exercise during that time. We would have been as still and as concentrated
Starting point is 00:15:21 as possible because you want to be very perceptive of danger from predators as well as perceptive of what potential things that you want to look out for, whether it would be foraging or other animals. And then you would have come back and you would have that shared sense of community with people that you shared your village with, you were your tribe with. And so if you unpick all those elements that are all in the pursuit of food, you have your exercise, your sleep hygiene,
Starting point is 00:15:49 your well-being in terms of mental well-being and your sense of purpose, all up to one. And so that's why my sort of bias is to what, those, but of course, in today's modern age, we need to be thinking about periods of space where we allow ourselves to think and actually have a break from social media. I actually find podcasting is quite an interesting way of doing that because I don't have my phone with me. I have a one-on-one conversation with yourself. I have as little to no distractions as possible. Unfortunately, it's through the screen. Pre-pandemic would have been in person.
Starting point is 00:16:25 But, you know, these things definitely have therapeutic value in my opinion. And I think one thing that I'm working on myself is sleep. I think everyone's probably got an issue with sleep, whether it be because of kids or the distractions that you have or ruminations. You know, I think we're all guilty of not getting enough sleep. So those are sort of my foundations or pillars or ideas around wellness. I think everyone should try and optimize. You'd be surprised at what happens when you do that.
Starting point is 00:16:55 So with so many different approaches to eating healthy, so many different diets, so much information, so many influencers, I'm an influencer, but I call it out pushing different approaches and a lot of people are very dogged about it. What is your approach to eating for health? Yeah. So like you're probably alluded to, I'm pretty agnostic when it comes to dietary approaches. And it's kind of reflective of the themes. that I talk about in books and in podcasts and all that kind of stuff, which is why I'll interview someone who's a registered dietitian who does keto for certain patients versus someone who will go low carb versus someone who is vegan. I don't really get too bogged down in the specific requirements of each diet. What I like to do is actually look at similarities between them all. And really, if you break down a lot of the barriers, 80, 85, maybe 90% of all these diets are the same. So they remove the bad stuff, sugar, processed food, poor quality fats, increase plants, colors, variety, have mainly whole foods.
Starting point is 00:18:11 So less sugar, all the refinement process that goes into making flowers you're putting to one side. and then you also eat according to your intuition as well as to how you feel you should be cooking, it should be eating and on all the other parameters. And it's so surprising to see that simple strategy works. So no wonder when you look at studies and someone's been put in a vegan diet versus a standard American diet, of course the vegan diet looks great. someone's put in a low-carb diet versus the standard American diet. Of course the low-carb diet is going to look great.
Starting point is 00:18:51 And when you look at all the diets together and you look at specific parameters and unfortunately in nutritional science, we're sort of wedded to this idea of weight loss being a really good proxy for health and well-being. Unfortunately, as it may, if you look at those studies and you, and they put different diets up against each other, they all have the same outcome. Everyone lost weight.
Starting point is 00:19:16 And really, the biggest determining factor isn't type of diet. It's how willing you are to invest time and actually stick to that diet. So really, my ask to when you're listening is like, choose a diet that you find is conducive to your lifestyle, that you feel is achievable for you, and importantly, one that you really truly enjoy, and stick with that. And you'll be surprised, you know, that's literally all you need to do.
Starting point is 00:19:46 Find something that you really enjoy, you're passionate about, and your health will thrive because you're doing pretty much what all diets do, which is get rid of the bad stuff, increase the good stuff. I think that's such an important key that so many people overlook. It's like you have to enjoy it. Otherwise, it's not going to be sustainable. Yeah. I think that so many things have been vilified.
Starting point is 00:20:11 I get questions from women every day asking, like, can I have a piece of fruit in the morning? I'm like, I am not, this is not my wheelhouse. But I think that, especially in the wellness space, like influencers have really kind of become the go-to for some of these people. And I don't blame them. A lot of influencers and, you know, people who aren't necessarily credentialed have kind of made themselves to experts. but yeah, I think that like people just, they've become so, so afraid of food and of eating the wrong thing. And I love your approach because it's so like manageable. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. And you know, I come up with the same sort of things as well with people messaging
Starting point is 00:20:58 and with people who unfortunately have gone down the wrong rabbit hole and now have become fearful about sugar in all its forms, right? Or have found that this one particular person has said, you know, you need to get rid of all grains because that's going to help with your autoimmune condition or IBS or insert symptom, you know? And unfortunately, social media isn't geared towards discussing nuance in the way that a podcast, for example, is
Starting point is 00:21:30 where we can actually have a conversation about why one size doesn't fit all and why you need to encourage people to be more intuitive about what they should be eating and how that reflects their own needs and their personalities and yada yada yada. So it's why I've kind of fallen out of love with social media on a number of occasions. And also why, if I was to turn the lens on myself, I'm very conscious of me just being like a big microphone without being able to filter what. content is appropriate for what person. And as someone who is a medic, you know, I feel like a heightened sense of responsibility to take control of that and to remind people of their need
Starting point is 00:22:18 to curate the digital landscape. Because if I don't, then something that I say about, let's say my last podcast was about sugar, for example, and about the unfortunate effects that I can have on the developing brain as well as young adult brains as well. And also obviously dementia and type to diabetes, et cetera, et cetera. But if that was listened to by someone who is already anxious about food, that's going to have a net negative effect. And that's not something that I want to do. So I've almost started to consistently put out reminders to people.
Starting point is 00:22:52 You shouldn't be following me if you have an unhealthy relationship with healthy eating. Because that is something that unfortunately is growing in propensity and putting the lens of myself, like I said, which I'm always very happy to. do. I need to be a little bit more mindful of that as well. Yeah, I saw you do that and I just think that's great because sometimes it's not, I mean, I'd say that too. If I'm not bringing you value and if I'm not, if you're not feeling good, you know, digesting my content, that's okay. Yeah. We, you know, we have so much control over what we see. You know, I think a lot of people are feeling really stressed and really impacted by social media. And it can be really difficult,
Starting point is 00:23:39 but ultimately we, we curate what we see for the most part. And I love that. I saw that I think when you were doing a podcast on weight loss and you were like, if you have a difficult relationship with food and if this is triggering, don't follow me. And I think more people should do that. If there's ever been a year to make the mom or the women in your life feel loved and appreciated on Mother's Day, it is this one. This year has been so hard for families and relationships in general, and that's why I'm honoring the important women in my life. And Mom, I know you're listening to this, so please fast forward with a sentimental gift the whole family can cherish together forever, and that is StoryWorth. This is honestly the most thoughtful idea. So StoryWorth is an online
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Starting point is 00:28:51 Start prioritizing your immune health today, and if you don't love it, they will refund your $5, no questions asked. You can also find Beekeepers Naturals nationwide in over 2,000 stores, including Target, Whole Foods, and sprouts. If somebody is listening to this and they want to start implementing some changes, how do you recommend that they navigate that more intuitively? Yeah, I think that's a really good question. I think the first thing is to recognize if there is an issue and there are a number of
Starting point is 00:29:27 questionnaires online where you can try and determine whether you may or may not have an unhealthy relationship with healthy eating. I'm certainly not an expert in this area, but it's certainly something I see a lot in clinic. And actually during the UK last year, around August time, there was this heightened sort of promotion of weight being an issue for a lot of us. And unfortunately it is. It's like the elephant in the room. But the sort of blanket approach to telling the entire nation to go on a diet, I think had some negative collateral. And I was privy to that in clinic and even people coming to A&E who had flare-ups of their eating disorders and anxiety around that.
Starting point is 00:30:12 And so I think the first thing is to determine whether you should be following certain accounts because that can certainly push you in a direction that is not necessarily. And as someone who talks about healthy eating the whole time, puts out content, puts out recipes, you know, I'm not the person that you should be following either. However, if you feel brave enough to go out and line it and try and do simple things that will heighten your defences against getting ill, but also strengthen your body's ability, your mind's ability to be healthier and more vital and vivacious. You know, I always start in the same way. I always recommend people do the same thing that I did when I started out on my journey,
Starting point is 00:31:01 which has changed one thing at a time. For me, it was breakfast, right? It was the simplest meal that I could change up. It was something that I could commit to every single day. And that simple change spurred on a cascade of other changes throughout my lunches, but also my meditation regime and my, my running, my yoga and all the rest of it, you know, that singular change compounded over time. And the one thing I want people to understand is that your diet doesn't have like an incredible
Starting point is 00:31:39 impact after week one or day one. It's not massively changed by the inclusion of a quote unquote superfood. It's more the changes that you can sustain over time. So if you can only change one thing and commit to that, that is honestly one of the best things that you could do. And so I have this mantra of like just one more. At every meal time, can you think of just adding one more fruit, nuts, seed or vegetable? Even if it's one meal a day or one meal a week, it doesn't matter. As long as you can commit to that and you make that change and you make it sustainably. I love that. That's such a great approach. So you mentioned sugar before and I had my listeners send in questions. I don't know if we're going to have time to get to them, but one of the most
Starting point is 00:32:27 common ones was asking about sugar, asking about fruit. And you just said, like, can I add one more fruit? I think fruit is really vilified. So can we just kind of in a general way address sugar and what sugars may be more harmful, maybe what to avoid and what's actually okay? Definitely, yeah. So it's a very common question. You're right. Something I get asked about a lot, In fact, I dedicated a whole podcast episode to just discussing sugar and its various guises. Yeah. And my general advice is sugar in small amounts. And when I say small, we're talking like less than three to four teaspoons a day.
Starting point is 00:33:14 And most people get that in one serving of orange juice. less than three to four teaspoons a day is unlikely to do harm to people of adult ages. For kids, it's half of that. But for adult ages, that's okay. So if you're adding a teaspoon to, I don't know, your delicious Thai-style dressing that you're going to put over a delicious salad or roast vegetables or whatever you're eating, don't worry about it. In fruit, what happens when you eat whole fruit?
Starting point is 00:33:48 whether it be berries, or it would be low sugar, whether it would be banana. Because it's constructed in a manner that is absorbable for us and actually it constructed in a way where the fibers are attached to the natural fructose that you find in fruits, it is absorbed slower in your digestive system such that you don't have those spikes of sugar in your blood. This changes for people who are more sensitive to sugar, and I'm talking about those who have pre-diabetes or full-blown established type 2 diabetes.
Starting point is 00:34:21 However, for people who don't have those comorbidities, sugar in fruit is completely fine for you. Where it has issues is where it's refined. So excess white sugars that you'll find in busy drinks, in refined flowers, cakes, biscuits, chocolates, that kind of thing. Also in sauces where they just jack it up. And unfortunately, because I do like fruit juice,
Starting point is 00:34:47 but in fruit juices, it's the same as essentially having a Coca-Cola or even a Snickers bar or something like that. It is where the fibre has been taken out, and so you lose that blunting of the sugar affecting your blood, that's problematic. So that's what we need to be mindful of, whereas sugar in fruit and all the natural guises that comes in,
Starting point is 00:35:13 we don't need to worry about as much. So, yeah. I know what everybody who's listening is thinking right now. And that's, what about honey, maple sauce? I post this kind of healthified desserts and stuff. And I know that like a sugar, like coconut sugar is sugar. But what is your take on that? So the marginal benefits of a less refined sugar are exactly that. They're marginal. In terms of the importance of the impact on sugar pathways. It's the same. And unfortunately, some of those sugars are kind of worse than your brown or white sugars because they mainline straight into your liver and they hijack a particular pathway that needs to extra production of lipid particles. And that leads to more fat
Starting point is 00:36:04 coursing through the bloodstream. So unfortunately, a lot of the sort of health claims that were popular about 10 years time about agave and maple syrup and all these different things, it's just the same as sugar. They taste slightly better in my opinion. So I might use maple syrup and a dressing, you know, or another dessert. But I'm not kidding myself. It's still sugar. I think I read somewhere recently that in order to get the benefits of like the minerals or something and coconut sugar, you can eat like pounds of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. You'd have to be a lot of that. Yeah. All up to that is what about artificial sweeteners, things like monk fruit, stevia, things like that.
Starting point is 00:36:52 Yeah, yeah. So really interesting. So I used to be of the opinion that they were going to be innocuous or better for you. I've actually kind of changed my opinion on this. So one thing is that the sweet taste unfortunately triggers some biochemical path. ways that will lead to cravings. So when you have the, it's almost that you can't have your cake and eat it with this kind of stuff. We have to be a bit more, I hate to use this word, but we do need to develop a relationship with restriction because unfortunately it will spiral out control. We feel that we can have the sweetness without any of the downsides.
Starting point is 00:37:34 And the other artificial sweeteners that are not derived from, let's say, healthier sources, whether it be a plant sauce or a monk fruits or whatever, those are universally pretty bad from the limited amount of research that we have on them. And pragmatically speaking, I would say that we probably do not want to have our traditional sweetness in our system. And the biggest ask for all of us is to retrain our taste buds to appreciate bitter notes. A good example of this, right, is how I've changed my chocolate. habit over the last, say, I don't know, 20 years. So I'm 35 now. And when I was a teenager,
Starting point is 00:38:17 I'd love a chocolate bar around then. It would be this delicious, milky chocolate bar. And it would be wonderful. And, you know, we call it Galaxy. I don't know if you guys have got it in the US. And over time, since I've learned about the health benefits of cacao and stuff, I've gradually increased the percentage cacao of my chocolate such that now I'm not eating 85% chocolate. And I love it. I love my 85% chocolate. I love the bitter notes. I love the flavor, the complexity to it. I put it in, you know, with like some fruit sometimes, chocolate covered almonds with 85%. I love it. I don't consume a lot of it, but I definitely, definitely appreciate it more. And I think that's what we need to try and retrain our buds. So instead of swapping out the sugar for something
Starting point is 00:39:04 that we feel is healthier, we actually need to retrain our taste buds to appreciate bitter. notes even more. Interesting. Yeah, I've done that in the past. And I found personally that like then when I went back to having something really sweet, it tasted so overwhelmingly that I kind of my affinity for it. But I am like you, I am a chocaholic. But yeah, I go for like the raw cacao or like the bittersweet or semi-sweet.
Starting point is 00:39:34 Yeah. Make me feel like some chocolate now. A little early here. It's like 8.30 in the morning. Oh, right. Okay, so to finish up, what should everybody be looking to incorporate in each meal? Is it fiber? Is it diversity?
Starting point is 00:39:52 Is it color? Is it protein? What is your approach to that? Ideally, as all of those. And I would say, I would personalize it to where you feel that you need a little bit more attention. So for most people, and I'm talking about from a population point of view, you look in the statistics. Fiber is the main thing that we're missing out on.
Starting point is 00:40:14 And I think the wellness industry in particular has promoted protein above everything else without really thinking about, okay, where are we actually lacking? The diversity of our microbes is lacking. We have more antimicrobials in our environment, which is having a detrimental impact on our gut microbiomes. We tend not to have enough plants in our diet. So fiber at a population level is definitely the first thing I'd be thinking. of. The second thing I think is greens. And by greens, I mean brassica vegetables,
Starting point is 00:40:45 bok choy, tennyson broccoli, broccoli, savoy cabbage, insert your greens. I'm not, you know, I don't have a particular affinity to one of those greens as whatever greens you've got in your fridge or on your, on your, on your, um, uh, worktop. And the reason why is because they're fantastic nitrate containing ingredients that are brilliant. opening up blood vessels, preventing dementia, improving muscular performance, cardiovascular health, as well as providing some co-factors for your liver and heightening your liver's innate ability to remove environmental pollutants. We do unfortunately live in a toxified world. And there's nothing we can really do about that, apart from getting more colour, more fibre on our diets and also heighting our consumption of greens.
Starting point is 00:41:37 There have been some really interesting studies looking at supplemental doses of sulfurophane, which is something that we find in green vegetables, that heighten your liver's innate ability to remove environmental pollutants. And the more I learn about, especially living in an urbanized environment like I am in London, I'm more sort of pragmatic about getting more greens into my diet and actually talking a bit more about it. So I don't mean to scare anyone, but there's definitely one thing I would try and get more of. What is one thing that you think everybody should maybe stop doing that a lot of people do?
Starting point is 00:42:12 And what is one thing that people should start doing today? Like one tip that everybody can do? I would say stop using your mobile phones first thing in the morning and the last thing at night. There's one thing I could do that will probably have a knock on effect on improving people's sleep. It would be that. and like my girlfriend definitely for that description you know we need to stop that happening and I get it it's tempting you know when it's right there when you can work on your phone when you can socialize on your phone of course you're going to be attracted to this thing that is geared towards
Starting point is 00:42:50 addicting you you know it's we're literally dependent on these devices but we need to really establish a healthful relationship with our phones and social media for that matter as well so yeah one thing I would say it's probably that. From a food point of view, I'd say up your fiber continent, eat more plants. So funny, because this morning, I woke up at like 630 and I was lying in bed and normally like I'll get up and I'll do my journal gratitude list and I'll meditate but I do always check my phone first. I'm calling myself out there. And this morning, I'm not going to do it. Don't do it. I'm not going to do it. Today I'm not going to do it. I'm going to start today. And the pull is so strong.
Starting point is 00:43:33 And finally, I rationalize, like I justified it in my head. I'm like, you know what? I'm just going to check it now. And then I won't check it. And then I'm like lying there in bed scrolling at six years. It's a rough habit to break. It is, honestly. And I have to break that.
Starting point is 00:43:48 Yes, that's a worry. I had to break that having myself. I was exactly the same, you know. And I think if I give myself the opportunity to like choose to look at one of the funny accounts that I, follow an Instagram. I'll be there, like, laughing away in bed and stuff. So I've got to be really strict to myself and, you know, put the device away and make sure it's hopefully not in my bedroom. But if it is, I'm literally checking my aura ring to make sure that it's connected
Starting point is 00:44:13 and then I'm off to bed. Love it. What can everybody find you, find your podcast, find your books, all of it. Oh, you can find everything at the doctor's kitchen.com, the newsletter, the podcast, the books, so all that kind of stuff, is all on the website. So yeah, thank you so much for this opportunity. It was great chatting. Thank you for coming on. Love talking to you.
Starting point is 00:44:37 I hope you enjoyed that episode. If you liked it, and if you like the show in general, please take a second to rate, review, and subscribe. It goes a long way, and it's actually the best way to support the show. Also, if you want to see more about each episode, you can head over to The Blonde Files podcast on Instagram. I'm always posting about each episode there or over on my personal page at Ariel Lorry.

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