Well with Arielle Lorre - 96: Dr. Sondema Tarr - Health & Wellness Can Look Different For Everyone

Episode Date: February 10, 2021

In this episode I’m talking to Dr. Sondema Tarr about how health and wellness is not one size fits all, and how it can look different for everyone. We discuss her experience as a female in a predominantly male specialty; what it’s like doing amputations and how to accommodate for that mentally; anecdotal vs. scientific evidence; food apartheids and how lack of access creates barriers for millions of people; how the wellness world alienates people who don’t have access or large budgets for food; tips for eating healthy on a budget; the many different facets of health and so much more.    www.HelloNed.com/BLONDEFILES for 15% off your first one-time purchase or 20% off your first subscription using code BLONDE www.BluBlox.com/BLONDE for 15% off plus free shipping www.Upstart.com/BLONDE to find out how Upstart can lower your monthly payments today   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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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. I am really excited about today's episode with Dr. Sandimatar because this is a conversation that just really needs to be had about wellness. The wellness world, particularly on Instagram, is pretty riddled with pseudoscience and privilege. And, you know, I'm well aware that I've participated in both over the years and that I'm very privileged, especially when it comes to money and to access.

So I really wanted to talk to Dr. Taher. about how wellness and health can look different and can work differently for people with varying budgets, varying levels of access, and how we can be part of the solution and not alienate people who don't have similar backgrounds. There are 25 million people in this country who don't have enough to eat right now, which is staggering, especially in America. And so we talk about this. We talk about the barriers that people face when it comes to eating healthful diets. We talk about how to shop and eat healthily on a budget, why it's not fair to push real whole foods, which is something that really triggers me. I used to say it all the time. And now it just really kind of gets

gets me going. And we talk about the different facets of health besides just diet and so, so much more. So enjoy. All right, welcome Dr. Tar. Thank you so much for being here. Thanks for having me. So much that I want to get into with you today. But to start out, can you just introduce yourself to the audience and tell them a little bit about your background and your specialty? Sure.

So my name is Sanda Martar. I'm a podiatrist, but an ankle doctor currently based in Phoenix, Arizona. a little bit about me, I guess, professionally. I went to school in Cleveland, Ohio, at Kent State College of Podiatric Medicine. Graduated a couple years ago in 2017 residency I did at university hospitals, also in Cleveland, a three-year surgical residency. Graduated last year in 2020 during the craziness of coronavirus and everything. moved to Phoenix immediately after, and I've been here working since July, August time. Big interest for me in a professional sense is healthy eating, healthy lifestyles,

and using diet lifestyle, kind of like all those factors that influence health to be a preventative measure. A lot of times in podiatry, we see the effects of type 2 diabetes, chronic kidney disease, cardiovascular disease, affecting the feet and legs, and ultimately in some patients that can lead to amputations, severe infections, gangrene, things of that nature, and infections to the point that it can be severe, life-threatening to the point where people can lose their lives, and a lot of times they do, unfortunately. So I'm very passionate about just health as a whole and health as a spectrum, and trying to kind of catch those patients before they start developing chronic wounds, before they need to go to the hospital because they have a life-threatening infection,

before they need to have these amputations to ultimately save their life and help them realize, I guess, health as a whole and really to prevent all of those things from happening. I don't know. Have you ever listened to Armchair Expert, the podcast? No, I have it. Okay. It's like my favorite podcast and he and his co-host are funny. They call themselves unifiles. Like they're fascinated by people that like go to Ivy Leagues and the experience there.

And I and I think a lot of people in my audience too are kind of like metaphiles. Like we are fascinated by medicine. And so I would love to hear about what your experience was like in your specialty, in your residency, especially being a woman in a surgical residency. it's probably like not so common. Yes. So what was that like? And how did,

and I'm also curious how it changed with coronavirus too. Yeah. So I guess I'll say, you know, I like a lot of people that eventually do become doctors or work in healthcare in general. I've always been drawn towards medicine. I remember telling my mom when I was eight years old,

I wanted to be a doctor. And again, me being very type A and very just laser focused once I set my mind to something, I'm going to do it. So I never really wanted to be anything else as a child. There was a little bit of time where people don't believe this, but I wanted to be either an archaeologist or a paleontologist. I'm a big nerd and I feel like a lot of doctors are big nerds in general. Not that that's a bad thing, but I just love learning about different things. So in middle school, I thought about doing that, but went back to medicine.

And college, my college experience, you know, there were a lot of people in my classes, especially a lot of women that were focused on medicine in general. So I didn't really notice, I guess, any type of gender disparities in that regard. When I went to podiatry school, too, I think the good thing with podiatry school, so podiatry school, and I guess you're a traditional medical school model, they're separate. So if I want to become a podiatrist, you would go to a podiatric. Medical College. There's only nine, about to be 10 in the country. And it's four years. You do a lot of the same classes that MDs and DOs will do. So you do general anatomy. You do pharmacology. You do

pathology, neurology, general medicine, everything. But usually around year three, that's when you start to really focus on podiatry. So you're working at different clinics in whatever city that you're in you're going into the OR, usually scrubbing podiatry surgeries, but there's some overlap with that, especially now that people are more in tune with, I think, the role that podiatrists can play in the healthcare system. We do watch surgeries with vascular surgeons that work on arteries, veins, things like that, which is like super, super interesting. And then, yeah, so third and fourth year, you're more specialized for sure. Fourth year you go out and you do different rotations at different hospitals. That could be across the country. That depends on what hospitals you apply to and what

hospitals will accept you. And also I love to travel too. So I kind of use the fourth year as an opportunity. Yes, to look at like different programs because those are potentially places you will apply to for residency, but also as an opportunity to see different parts of the country. So I was in Washington State in Seattle. I was here in Arizona, but down in Tucson. I spent two months in Florida. So I just kind of literally bounced around from coast to coast. So that period, I definitely grew as a person, I think, totally and then also professionally as well. Another thing that I will say about podiatry, because it is very specialized, again, as soon as you enter a podiatric medical school, you are on the path to being a podiatrist. Now, a good thing.

thing about podiatry is that you're automatically trained to become a surgeon. You don't have to practice surgery once you get out. That's up to you, but you will be trained as a surgeon. So third or fourth year, usually third year, you'll take classes about the theory of lower extremity surgery. You'll take classes on trauma. Again, you're scrubbing cases with residents at different hospitals, with attendings. And all podiatry residences are surgical, like 100% now. It didn't always used to be that way, but it is now. And all of them are three years or really 99% of them. I think one is a fourth year.

But yeah, so in residency, in podiatry, just because it's automatically, again, like a surgical residency, you have a lot of women. Well, at least let me not say that 100%. At my program, my program was a big program, if you know the university hospital system in Cleveland. and it's a big hospital system. It's a huge program.

So there were a lot of women around me. I had a lot of female attendings. I had a lot of female cohorts. So, you know, practicing podiatry, learning podiatry, I learned from a lot of women. But one thing I did notice is that, again, as a resident, you're rotating in different specialties in medicine as well. So you'll do internal medicine,

where you're working on the medical floor, you'll do emergency medicine where you're in the ER, you'll do pathology, you'll do psych even, you're learning so many different parts and actually working in those areas and those specialties and working with attending physicians, we call it, physicians that have completed their residency and are full-fledged doctors. You're working under them. And for the most part, they treat you as such. If you're a podiatry resident on the psych floor, they treat you as a psych resident. There's all kind of, which is good, there's no kind of, I guess, line to say, oh, you're a podiatrist or oh, you're this and that. So I'm not going to expect as much from you. It's like, no, you're here to learn. So I'm going to give you the full brunt of responsibilities. So yeah, one thing I did notice is that possibly with, you know, other areas of medicine, there was, I think, more of a discrepancy between men and women. And especially if those, I guess, specialties were a surgical base, you definitely saw more male attendings, more male residents, which was very, very interesting for me,

for sure. And then, you know, you'll get little comments, things like that. Usually not from podiatrist, but sometimes, I guess, depending on where you are and where you're practicing. But, you know, it's something that, I don't know, I guess for me personally, I didn't really take it to heart much, I just, you know, continue to do what I wanted to do because surgery for me is a, it's such an important aspect of practicing and it's something that, you know, I want to continue to get better at. So I didn't let really those comments really influence my, you know, career or professional decisions to practice. If you've listened to more than one episode of this show, then you know my love for blue blocks. I wear their blue light blocking glasses.

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should blow the whistle about it. What inspires them and fuels their passion, this is radical musings. Brought to you by the fine folks at AudioUp. Be sure to subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Stitcher, however you get your podcast. What is the craziest thing you ever saw in residency, if you can say? I'm sure you have some stories. Yeah. craziest thing.

I know a lot of times with podiatry or just like wound care in general because we do do a lot of wound care just the nature of our specialty. You'll see maggots and wounds. Yeah. So I have seen that a handful of times. I think it's just the wound things more so that are like very, it kind of makes you take a step back. I feel like at this point I'm kind of desensitized.

So anything that I see, I'm just kind of like, yeah. Well, when you're doing amputations, I would imagine that it just becomes kind of like run of the mill. It becomes run of the mill, which is really sad because in that moment, I think I shouldn't be possibly as desensitized as I am. But I feel like in a way that's kind of like your mind and your psyche kind of protecting you from, you know, being super, super reactive, you know, and feeling. you know, very emotional or very, you know, unstable about everything. It's pretty much, you know, when you get in the OR, your point is just to make sure that the patient stays alive and to get off really what is causing them. So, you know, pain and infection, things like that.

And really to save their life, that's your ultimate goal. So there's not, I guess, much time to really, I guess, feel a ton until after the fact and then usually, you know, it kind of takes your breath away. I was listening to a podcast recently with a psychology professor at Stanford, and they were talking about empathy. And they were saying, like, I don't want my surgeon to feel empathy when they're operating on me. I want them to go into, like, robot mode where they're doing what they're trained to do. But, yeah, I would imagine that it would be hard kind of afterwards.

Exactly. You have to. And again, I feel like, again, it's a way kind of like to protect your, mind because if you allow yourself to be so, you know, easily swayed by everything that you see, you wouldn't make it. Like psychologically, you wouldn't make it. So, yeah, I've seen a lot of crazy things for sure. But again, you just see it and you maybe take a moment and you're like, okay, so what are we going to do to fix this? What are you going to do to try and, you know, save this person's life? Yeah. So you're the director of diversity and health equity, right? at the Institute of Plant-Based Medicine,

and you work with Dr. Bellardo, who has been on the show, and she's very outspoken against functional medicine. So I'd love to hear how your approach there differs. Oh, okay. So I guess what is practice at IOPBM versus, I guess, what is taught by functional medicine? IOPBM is big on being or focusing on, on evidence-based practices.

So everything that is done there is rooted in science, is rooted in the highest evidence of any type of scientific paradigm, which is one thing I love. I never wanted to really associate myself with, or really any type of organization that they would not follow the data and wouldn't follow science. That, to me, as a physician, is super important. And I feel like especially now, unfortunately,

in the era of social media, there's so much noise just everywhere, but I feel like especially in the wellness space and it can get very scary, you know, and not to say that anecdotes aren't valid to a certain extent they are. You know, people's experiences are valid. I'm not here to, you know,

and validate anybody's experience. but to hold an anecdote to the same weight as you would hold a double-blind study or a randomized control trial. Again, like the highest level of evidence that you have in science, it's just not the same. So that's one thing that I do love about IOPBM is that that's what they stand for. Whereas in the functional medicine space, it can be led a lot of times by anecdotes. A lot of times it's not rooted in the highest scientific evidence. And a lot of times that's when you run into issues. So, yeah, I would say, yeah, that's the biggest difference for sure.

It is pretty insidious. Like, I didn't really understand this until I started following Dr. Bellardo. And she's so amazing. She educates without alienating anyone, I think. And it really opened my eyes, especially, you know, there were functional medicine practitioners that I was following that I thought like everything they said was true, you know. It was kind of eye opening for me. And yeah, the wellness space is just so saturated with misinformation. And, you know, for someone like me who doesn't have a medical or scientific background, it's really, really hard to navigate what is evidence based and what's anecdotal. Yes. So can you talk a little bit about IOPBM and what they're doing there?

Sure. So IOPBM was started essentially by Dr. Angie Sadeg. She's a gastroenterologist in Newport Beach. And her dream was to put together different practitioners from different specialties and let their primary focus be on the return of health. So her with also Dr. Bellardo as well and a couple other physicians have this entity that really is doing amazing, amazing things. I was brought on board as a diversity course director and reaching out, especially to the black community, especially again, like we said, you know, in the wellness space, there can be a lot of noise. And I think also at the same time, there are certain issues, cultural things. that have to be discussed when talking about diet as well, different barriers to eating a healthful diet, whether it's issues of sourcing fruits and vegetables, which is very real. A lot of times people like to think, you know, in America, that's not the case for a lot of

people. And yeah, most people, you know, have access to any grocery store they want to go to. But depending on where you live in this country, even in. in big cities, certain zip codes or certain locations in that city have very little to know access to fresh, whole fruits and vegetables. So that makes it difficult, you know, certain dietary guidelines, which are helpful, not to say that they're not, how do you have a potential segment of the population that's going to adhere to that for health? It just, there's certain things in line that makes it very, very difficult. So they brought me on to kind of address those things and to kind of start to bring light or shed light to those issues.

And also, I think just kind of expressing these ideas of health and healthy eating and healthy living in a way that's culturally aware and culturally competent as well and just culturally sensitive. So I'm very excited about that. we have a lot of good things in the works in the future. And I think this is something that hasn't really been done in the wellness space. I feel like unfortunately, a lot of times, you know, we as a community have been not really considered when it comes to kind of these ideas of health and wellness and things like that, at least, you know, in the last, or actually I would say in the social media

spheres for sure. So, yeah, that's pretty much what. what's going on there at IOP? Yeah, I mean, I feel like something that's so overlooked in the wellness space is the fact that a lot of people, A, either don't have access to a lot of the foods that are touted as like, you know, superfoods and this is what you need to incorporate in your diet to be healthy or to be well. People don't have access. Obviously, a huge part of the population can't afford them.

I mean, there's such an emphasis on like, not. GMO and organic and, you know, so many influencers, including myself a couple years ago, I was like real whole food only. And it's like, well, if I can't do that, am I not like, I guess I'm not healthy. You know, it's just like such a, such a privilege thing. So can you talk about like those populations and how health and wellness can look different for different people and can be different for different people? Yeah. So especially, you know, one of my big focuses are the term now used as food apartheid, but a lot of people aren't familiar with it. Recently, it was referred to as food deserts. So again, certain locations in a country or in a location that don't have access to fresh fruits or vegetables. For example, I live for seven years in Cleveland. And the areas I lived in, again, were either suburban or urban. but, you know, safe areas because, again, I'm, you know, a podiatry student. I'm a resident. I can live in certain areas. I remember, especially one day in particular, I was driving from my neighborhood in Cleveland, Tremont.

I don't know if anybody is familiar with Cleveland, but Tremont is kind of like, it's a kind of hipster neighborhood. There's a lot of working millennials and, you know, things like that. Poke Bowles, you know. It's a cute area, though. I love it. So I was driving from Tremont going to work, I think, and I was driving through a part of Cleveland that they call East Cleveland. And East Cleveland, you can see the interesting thing about Cleveland, because unfortunately it is a city that's still recovering from, you know, they call it the Rust Belt. So a lot of those cities along the Great

Lakes, they were more prosperous in the earlier part of the 20th century just due to, you know, General Motors and things like that, different factories, once those industries went belly up, those cities essentially dried up, Detroit, Buffalo, all of them, unfortunately. So I was driving through Cleveland, and you can see the change, like, so drastically from kind of affluence or even middle class living to straight up poverty like that. I mean, it was shocking because I don't know where I grew up in Georgia. I grew up a little bit outside of Atlanta. Again, it's a suburban area.

You don't see that stark night and day, you know. And in Cleveland, it's not really like that. And I remember driving through that portion of Cleveland, and there was no grocery stores, not even a Walmart, just a lot of corner stores, you know, chicken wings and fries and whatever else that is. And I remember thinking to myself, well, how do people expect these people to be healthy

when there's nothing within, I mean, for miles. Like I was literally just driving, driving, driving. There's nothing, like, nothing at all. There were grocery stores that were there before that, you know, closed down. I'm sure different reasons, but nothing, you know. And then once I think people, especially like in the health space, started talking about it, I'm like, ah, that makes sense.

Right. Again, me being my, you know, I acknowledge a privilege that I have now, again, growing up in the suburbs, I had no idea that was a thing. I had no idea. know, I was old, you know, in America, my family's from Liberia originally. I was born here, but my parents came to this country in the 80s. And they would always say, you know, in America, everybody has food. Everybody has, you know, fruits and vegetables.

Everybody can eat healthily. And that's what I believe, because that's what I was exposed to. I didn't know until I grew up and went away from home. And I saw these stark differences. And I literally couldn't believe that this was the America that I was, this was the America that I was told about or this wasn't my version of America. And it was very shocking, very heartbreaking too, because you think in a country was so much abundance

that there's people, you know, to no fault of their own, just really struggling with basic things like health access, access to healthy food, things like that. Let's talk about credit for a moment. So when I got sober, I had horrendous credit, and I opened multiple cards to build it back up. But honestly, it was a lot keeping track of multiple balances, multiple payment dates, multiple website logins, which are the worst.

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worked with because there are neighborhoods like that in L.A. too, where, you know, there's only one grocery store. They don't have a whole lot. And there's this huge community around it. And they all live there, they go to school there, they work there. So that's their place. And what this organization has done is, you know, they bring food that's going to be thrown away and have basically farmers markets where people can come and get their fresh produce. And it's astonishing how much food was going to go to waste. So what do you think is a solution or a step in the right direction for this problem? They've started to be, I guess, formed, which is really good. So I know in the neighborhood that I lived in, again, not that I lived in the food desert,

but it was an area that was formally impoverished. And now it's, you know, gentrified, really to, yeah, I'll say the word. So there were community gardens where I lived. There were also or are also certain community gardens being started in those sections of Cleveland. There's not many, though, to be honest. I remember seeing maybe one or two. And I think that's what cities are starting to do. Cities with are really all cities, unfortunately, at least, you know, in the states

definitely have that issue of food deserts to a certain extent or food apart. To a certain extent. So I know even here in Phoenix and South Phoenix, there's a couple of community gardens as well. And they will do produce boxes. So that's how they generate income. They'll do produce boxes and sell them affordably to the people in the community. They also take government assistance, which is nice for people that are on government assistance. So they're priced low enough.

They do take government assistance. So I think those are two big ways to help. I think just being able to source land, which again is difficult to do in the inner city for sure. But I know in Cleveland there were a lot of unfortunately vacant lots just do. due to buildings being demolished because they were vacant. And people in the community got together and said, okay, we're going to create this community garden here and we're going to turn the community around.

So I feel like that is one way to do it. Also, I feel like, you know, especially with everything that happened this last year, the conversation around food, around racial disparities when it comes to health has really been pushed to the forefront, which is great. So I think continuing to have those kinds of, conversations because a lot of times people, you know, they weren't aware. They had no idea. I had no idea

until maybe six or seven years ago that this was even possible. You know, so I feel- And it's like 25 million people in the United States, right? Exactly, exactly, you know? So I feel like having these conversations will in time evoke change because then people start to think themselves, oh, well, that doesn't really seem right. That doesn't really seem fair. You know, how is that even possible? In one city, you can have two completely like different food experiences in general. So I feel like, again, having conversations like this is also very helpful. Other ideas that I've seen of places or different cities doing is they'll do mobile grocery stores. Since there's no grocery store in the area, again, they'll go to like a community-owned farm, get a lot of produce, like in a huge van,

and just drive around different neighborhoods so that people that don't have access to reliable transportation, they don't have to worry about finding something or some way to get to the grocery store and then you get there, how do you get back home? That's a whole other thing as well.

So that idea I like as well. So people definitely are starting to think aloud. People are definitely starting to come up with different ideas that are very helpful and kind of starting to change the food landscape. in their communities, which is really beautiful. So you talk a lot about a plant predominant diet, reducing the risk of chronic disease. How can a plant predominant diet?

I mean, can it look different for people that have different budgets and have different access? It can for sure. Like, I like what you said before that the wellness space is definitely full of these, quote-unquote, like superfoods that, you know, are very expensive usually. and there's only a segment of the population that can afford to eat that way. And I, again, like you, and I feel like a lot of people that are, you know, health conscious in the beginning, when I kind of went on just journey, I thought I had to have all of that. I thought I had to eat all of that.

I thought I had to shop at certain grocery stores because if I didn't, then I wasn't being healthy and what was I doing. I thought I had to be all organic. Like I just thought all these things because that's what people were talking about at that time. And I realized, one, that my budget didn't agree with it because I was a podiatry student. So spending, you know, $130 on one shopping trip for food, maybe for a week or two, wasn't going to cut it. I did that once and I said, I'm not doing this again. Like, I have to find another way. And also coming across different people in this space as well as, you know, you mentioned Dr. Bellardo.

She really has changed my life when it comes to my attitudes towards food. and health just in so many different ways. So I'm so grateful to her because she has definitely made this whole space definitely more accessible. So different ways that health can look for different people. Again, you know, health isn't achieved through only eating quinoa or organic kale. You know, beans are a healthy, healthy, healthy food. And people forget that.

Some doctors say that that is a quote unquote superfood because it's so healthy for you. But again, it's super accessible. You can go to Walmart and find beans. And they don't have to be organic. Just something that you'll like that, you know, you'll cook and you'll eat. This has, you know, soluble fiber. It has protein, iron.

A lot of different healthy things for you as well. So I think that's one way. But I think, you know, for sure, just getting out of this idea that health has to look one way and health has to be super rigid. another thing is frozen fruits or vegetables. Again, in the wellness space, I feel like a lot of times people look down on frozen fruit, oh, it's not as healthy, it's not as this, it's not as that.

Maybe for aesthetic reasons on social media, I don't know. They think it's not as Instagramable, so people don't talk about it. But a lot of times frozen fruits and vegetables can be healthier than fresh. And here's the reason why, you know, especially in the United States, unless you're living in Florida or even California to a certain extent, maybe Washington State too. You're not really close to a lot of orchards, a lot of farms,

things like that. So your food has to travel far. And by the time it reaches you, it started to lose some of its nutritional value. It started to degrade a little bit. Food that's frozen, as soon as you freeze it, it will retain more of its nutritional. profile intact. So by the time it reaches you in middle America, it's possibly, you know, more nutritionally dense than that, you know, apple that has been sitting on the shelf for Lord knows how long you have no idea. So I feel like people turning to frozen fruits and vegetables. It's super important. Also, it's just cheaper all around. It's definitely cheaper. I know I eat a lot of frozen fruits and vegetables. My smoothie is all frozen fruit.

when I get home at night, if I'm making dinner, frozen broccoli, things like that. I don't really buy too much things fresh now. If I'm eating, you know, fruit as a snack, like that will be fresh maybe. And things like, you know, kale, I'll buy fresh sometimes, but sometimes that's frozen too. But yeah, I think leaning like those two things, I think for me have been like life changing. And I feel like they can be definitely helpful for people trying to navigate, you know, what is best to do for their health. as well. Just realizing that you don't have to be super rigid, that you can do what works for you,

definitely do what's affordable for you and your family, because at the end of the day, if it's easier for you to adhere to, this will be a lifelong change for you. You know, you can't, which no one really should unless you want to, you know, a lot of people don't just have $150 to drop on one shopping trip, you know. So, and that's okay. You shouldn't have to spend that much money, you know, to feed yourself and to feed yourself healthily. I feel like it's probably discouraging when it can seem like it's all or nothing. Like, oh, well, if you want to be healthy, you have to eat organic fresh fruits and vegetables. And that's what's going to reduce your risk for chronic disease.

And if you can't do that, I would imagine you would just be like, well, I can't do that. So. Go to McDonald's then. Yeah. The other thing, this is, I was just thinking of this when you were talking about frozen fruits and vegetables, but it probably results in like a lot less food waste, I would imagine. Yes, because I know for me personally, and that's why I really stopped buying a lot of things fresh when I was in school. You know, I was so busy and I'm even busy now. Things go to waste a lot faster if they're fresh for me because I'm doing things. I'm, you know, this and the rest of it. So food will spoil a lot faster. Well, as if I just buy a lot of things fresh or dried, you don't really have to worry. You know, last, you know, a lot longer in your freezer or if they're just, you know, last, you know, a lot longer in your freezer or if they're, They're dried, you know, in their pantry as opposed to having all this fresh produce in your house.

And it goes bad in a couple days a week. Yeah, so I stopped doing it. Like one thing I used to do was, and actually me and my best friend were talking about this, strawberries. I used to buy fresh strawberries all the time. And I noticed I would never really eat through all of them. I would eat maybe half. And then by the time I realized the whole thing is bad, you know? Right.

You have to throw it away. And after enough times of doing that, I just told myself, I'm not going to do it anymore. Like if I want strawberries, I'll buy frozen ones. You know, so food that I buy fresh, I pretty much have to have it in my mind like, you're going to eat this within the next day, two days. If I can't really tell myself that, then I don't buy it because I know that he'll probably go bad, which is horrible. So, you know, realize that and I buy a lot of my things frozen or dried now for sure.

Yeah, as we're talking about this, I'm like thinking about how embarrassed I am. am at my my bananas like I buy bananas and then they sit there until they're brown and I've eaten maybe one although I have started freezing them because like then I'll use them in recipes or put them in smoothies but yeah they the strawberry thing too I was like yep that's me so so is this a conversation that you have with patients that you see if they already have chronic disease or if they are wherever they are on their road, like if they, if they're potentially going to need an amputation or if they are just starting to go down that road, is there an intersection with, like, your specialty and what we're talking about? There is for sure. I think especially for

my patients that do struggle with diabetes, especially, I think that's number one diabetes and then also something that we call a peripheral arterial disease, which is basically just disease. of the arteries anywhere outside of your heart is the periphery. And again, disease and the arteries that go to your legs that can lead to chronic wounds, wounds that will refuse to heal. They could be around for weeks, months, even years sometimes. That's how humans or fear it gets. And then once you have an opening like that, you're just an open door to infection. And it's just a horrible thing. So for me, there definitely is an intersection, because once someone kind of gets to that point where they're that ill to the point where they're having,

you know, muscle cramping or they have different signs of not having good blood flow to their legs. They also have lab values that are saying that they're not getting good blood flow to their legs where they have a chronic wound. Then, yeah, you kind of start to talk about. And diet is only one factor of health. And I, you know, I hope that everybody realizes that as well. that health is definitely multifactorial. There's a lot of different components to being healthy. Food is one of them. But it is a conversation that I have with them as well.

So you mentioned that health is multifactorial and we're kind of talking about just the diet aspect of it. But what to you are like the pillars of health? What should people be focusing on balancing, I guess? In addition to diet, I think movement is, super, super important. And not to say you have to, you know, go in the gym and lift like 500 pounds.

That is not for everybody. That's something that you definitely have to work up to, you know. But I think movement within your body's capability is that's what I'm big on. So let's say you have someone with chronic disease that, you know, is having weight struggles. maybe it's a 15-minute walk, you know, around the park or around your neighborhood. Or if not even that, you know, there's different exercises you can do in your home. It's standing, you know, when you're doing work at your desk, which is something I need to get better at, to be honest.

But movement within your capability is important for me. And obviously, as your body becomes more conditioned, we'll be able to do more. You know, maybe for some of my patients, it's just, you know, lifting weights while they're sitting. And then eventually once their body gets more conditioned, they can start to do that maybe five, 10, 15 minute walk around their neighborhood. So I think that's important. And again, you know, I'm not big on like any one key exercise to say that, oh, this is the healthiest way to work out. And if you don't do this and you can't be healthy, I think everybody is different. Again, everybody's capabilities are different.

their body will and will not allow for is different in that moment of time. So again, I think it's just getting, you know, movement into your daily practice for me is so important for your mind, for your body, for really everything. Also, I think, too, a good support system, which unfortunately are, I think just like good social networks or good social outlets. Unfortunately, that's not a reality for some people, sadly. But I think having, you know, a good support system around you, whatever that looks like, people that you can talk to, people that you can bounce ideas off of, people that support kind of your journey into being a healthier person, I feel like are so, so, so important. Feeling fulfilled in your life, different, you know,

goals that you have, different outlets for stress that you have as well, different hobbies, whatever that might look like. I think feeling fulfilled is also a key thing as well. So I'm I'm sure that there are others, but I feel for me, those are really my top four big things. I think outside of diet, movement, some form of movement community, a sense of community around you or, you know, support system and just different outlets, hobbies, things like that to just feel, you know, fulfillment in your life. And I feel like if, you know, you have kind of all of those in balance, you'll find health. you'll you you will find it. I love that. Well, where can everybody find you and find more information on everything that you're doing?

So I am on Instagram primarily. That's my social media network of choice at Dr. Tar. I also have a Twitter account. I don't use that a lot. That's Dr. Tar. TikTok. It's hard for me because I'm a millennial, so I'm not like super, super into TikTok, but I'm trying.

Me too. Exactly. I like generation C. Z sisters. But you know, it's fun. I'm on there. I don't really post a lot, but that's under Dr. Tartre too.

And then I'm working on a website, the same name, Dr. Tarnapar.com. Amazing. Thank you so much. 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 Blond Files podcast on Instagram. I'm always posting about each episode there or over on my personal page at Ariel Laurie.