Brigid Titgemeier, MS - The Diet Myth: Why “Healthy Eating” Is Making Women Sicker

Eating out is very expensive, and a lot of people who are not cooking at home are spending a lot of money eating out, and no one is shaming them for that. But then you try to prioritize eating organic, and then it's like, this is so inaccessible.

Brigitte Tegamire, rdn, is a functional medicine dietitian. Through her work with thousands of clients, Bridget specializes in optimizing nutrition, reduce inflammation, balance hormones to maintain energy, metabolic health, and longevity. What is your opinion on GLP1s?

I think that it's very individualized for people who have a lot of weight to lose, that it may be a good solution. Would I recommend it for someone who's trying to lose ten pounds? I'm not sure if benefits outweigh the risks because all of the research that is coming out on GLP1s is focusing on all the positives for fiber.

What are you aiming for per day?

Minimum of 30 grams of fiber per day in order to support your overall cardiovascular health, improve your blood sugar levels, decrease inflammation, and support mental health.

What is your thoughts on protein? Let's talk about fat now. Let's dig into carbohydrates.

This is going to be very individualized to a person.

So how much time, time do you think it should take? You know, dietary changes that they feel good about, but they're not seeing results.

People will report seeing improvements in a week. When it comes to, like, their fatigue, their cravings, mood swings, those are the top three improvements that people report, and we've had 25,000 women go through it. And when it comes to weight.

Okay, well, I'm so excited for an incredible podcast with my friend of, like, 10 years today, which is super exciting. And she's an amazing registered dietitian. So we have. Bridget Tegamyer, rdn, is a functional medicine dietitian and the founder of Being Bridgid Nutrition. She is a recognized leader in personalized nutrition and women's health with a focus on addressing root cause rather than symptoms. Through her work with thousands of clients, Bridget specializes in optimizing nutrition to correct nutritional deficiencies, reduce inflammation, balance hormones, stabilize blood sugar, and heal the gut. She is passionate about helping women to understand how their bodies change with age and how to use nutrition as a powerful tool to maintain energy, metabolic health and longevity. Welcome to the podcast, Bridget.

Bridget. Thank you. I'm so excited to be here.

Same. Yeah. I mean, it's. It's so fun. I was on your podcast not too long ago, but it's so fun to just, like, have known each other for so long and be able to be in the same space and podcasting together. I just saw you at an event in la. I love it.

It's like we grew up together.

I know. Yeah, you really did. Yeah, I love it. And, yeah, it was so fun. Good memories. We were chatting about when you did the video that's on your feed with Mark Hyman, and just been so great. I mean, I've learned a ton from you about nutrition over the years, and I'm excited to share that with my audience.

I feel like, too, that since we've been friends for the last 10 years, there's not a lot of friends that I had 10 years ago who wanted to nerd out on functional nutrition and stool tests and all the things that we've been interested in for so incredibly long.

I know, I know. It's such a blessing. Truly it is. Well, today we're going to be obviously focusing on nutrition, which is such an important and confusing topic. Like, I have to say, even for me, you know, I've tried nearly every diet. I mean, I was vegan at one point. Raw vegan. Remember Raw trainer? Yes, yes. In. In Ohio, that was, like, raw vegan. So did that for a while. I tried carnivore. I've tried ket. I've now settled on, like, a Mediterranean diet. But I'll be honest, I still have a little bit of fear of carbs. So excited to just dive in. All things. Like, what are three things that you think are the most are the biggest nutrition myths right now? And then we'll kind of, like, get into the nuance.

Yeah. So it's funny because I. I knew you through so many of those nutrition phases that you went through, and I feel like the place that you've landed now is focused more on, like, nutrient density and abundance and variety and really the core pillars of NUTRI shown, which I think once you dive into, that can make it a little less confusing.

Yeah.

And the second piece that makes it less confusing is knowing that what works for one person isn't necessarily going to work for another person. I just find that when you truly understand that each individual is biochemically unique and that our own needs vary based on the hundreds of trillions of microbes that we have living inside of us, our epigenetics and our actual genetics and so many different factors, it makes it like, oh, okay. What works for that person, of course, is not gonna work for me. Um, as far as three myths, I would say so. I would say the first myth is that you Know, just eating a variety of whole foods is enough for improving overall health. Because what I'm seeing in so many women right now is this frustration of saying, I eat clean and I've, you know, I'm looking for the seed oils, I'm reading my labels, but I still don't feel great. And I feel like I've tried everything. So that is one myth where I feel like just because you're reading your labels, of course that's a great step, but it doesn't necessarily mean that you're doing everything when it comes to your health. I was just with a woman who said, I've tried everything, nothing has worked. And so I started taking a GLP one. And the first thing that I think of is, have you really tried everything? You know, I think that it's important for us to define what everything actually means in order to make the best decisions for ourselves. Um, so that would be number one. Number two, I would say a common thing that I see a lot of women believe is that a low carb lifestyle works well for every single person. And that this idea of removing all carbohydrates, that also means that you're removing a lot of fiber. That's so important for increasing the diversity of microbial strains that are living inside of you, which helps to increase your short chain fatty acids, which helps to lower inflammation. I would say that that would be another one and then the third one. You know, protein is so incredibly important for improving our muscle building capacity, especially as women. But I have seen a lot on social media and with a lot of trends of just this protein obsession where it's like protein chips and protein this and protein this. And we don't want to one start to lower the quality of our diet because you're just trying to get the most amount of protein for the fewest amount of calories. I think, you know, like David's protein bars are a good example of that where have so much protein, so few calories, but at the end of the day, they have artificial sweeteners in it, so you want to be careful of that. And also, protein isn't everything. So if you've increased your protein and you still feel like you haven't improved all of your symptoms or you haven't seen or achieved the goals that you're looking to achieve, then it's because you need to think deeper than just the amount of protein that you're consuming.

Yeah, well, I love all three of those. We'd love to like, dive deeper. So first myth that you said is that you're doing everything but not getting the results, or that you think that you or feel like they are doing everything but not getting the results. So talk us through that. Because I feel like I also see women saying a lot of the same thing, right? Like, I'm eating well, I'm doing exercise, but I'm not achieving the goal that I want. So what can that kind of look like? Like, what do you see in your practice? And then what's the remedy for that?

So I think it's two factors. One is, are you doing everything but you just need more time and patience and being consistent enough? Because right now we live in a Ozempic era. And I don't say that in a way to like, shame GLP1s, but there is, I think, this mindset when people are seeing other people lose weight very quickly, where it's like, oh, doing it consistently and achieving just slow, gradual improvements feels like it's not working because it's not fast enough for what I'm looking to achieve. So I think that one, it's an assessment of are you being really consistent for a long enough period of time in order to see results instead of then jumping to the next plan when it feels like that's not working? Because I will say jumping from plan to plan can also make that difficult for. For you to actually see results. The second piece is diving deeper into so many other factors that can impact nutrition. Do you have specific nutrient deficiencies? Do you have food triggers, food sensitivities or intolerances that are increasing your levels of inflammation? Do you have bacterial overgrowth that could be impacting your tolerance of certain carbohydrates and fiber? That's creating more symptoms for you that you need to kind of like peel the onion back in order to better identify? Do you have, you know, more muscle deficiency because you've been breastfeeding and pregnant, where you need to focus more on. On that component versus just fat loss itself. And so it's like you can go so deep, really, even on a level of like, from a hormone standpoint, you know, everyone's talking about hormones, which is an amazing thing. It's like finally, this is, you know, mainstream, where more people are focused on female hormones and the shifts that we're going through as women age, especially above the age of 35, which you and I are both at or around, and thinking about the impact of your hormones, thinking about the impact of your cortisol levels and your stress response, and are you under fueling too much where that's actually creating. It's exacerbating your stress response. Because what I think most people, especially women, don't realize, you know, you talk about how women have a lower stress resilience, a level of lower stress resilience. And what most people don't realize is that cortisol is a catabolic hormone. So if you have higher levels of cortisol, which we're more predisposed to as females, then it's going to increase the breakdown of your muscle, because it's a catabolic hormone, makes it harder to actually build muscle. And the second thing is that it increases the breakdown of the lining of your gut, which then increases intestinal permeability, increases leaky gut, which can lead to a whole host of symptoms that people are experiencing because of the dysregulation with their gut and immune system that stems from under fueling, you know, not eating enough carbohydrates to support their training, not sleeping enough. All these things that can then be out of whack from a cortisol and central nervous system standpoint. So there's so many factors. And that's why I say, like, when people tell me, oh, I've tried everything, my first question is, have you really tried everything?

Yeah, yeah. Well, a lot of it would you say is something that is not necessarily due to habits. So, like the gut, right? Like if your gut is dysbiotic or you have leaky gut, no matter what you kind of do, it's going to be difficult or take even more time. Right. To heal that. So sometimes it's like pulling back the hood a little bit if you are doing everything when. One quick question, though. So you say gradually, and it has to take time. How much time do you think it should take so that people have an accurate expectation?

So I. This also will depend on the person, how much, and it depends on your goals, too. So when we say time, this could mean improving symptoms. If you're experiencing a lot of fatigue and brain fog and bloating and GI issues and insomnia and other things. It could also mean from a weight standpoint. And I feel like most, you know, women, especially, even if they are trying to improve various symptoms, typically, at least in the women that we work with, we see a desire to improve their body composition alongside wanting to improve certain symptoms from a body composition standpoint. I'll use myself as an example. So I am 15 months postpartum. I had two pregnancies back to back. I got pregnant three months postpartum, and I actually felt pretty good. Three months postpartum with my daughter before I got pregnant with my son. Now I'm 15 months postpartum with my son. And the back to back pregnancies wrecked my body. Even though I was doing, I was doing everything that I would consider to be everything from managing my blood sugar levels, lowering inflammation. I ate very little sugar. I was walking more than 10,000 steps every day. The one area that I could have focused on more with my son was strength training more. Which for women that are pregnant is so incredibly important. But I would say for me, like, we don't often talk enough about how pregnancy is, accelerates muscle loss. If you're not doing the strength training, and even if you are, most women will report that it impacts that. And then breastfeeding also accelerates muscle loss. So for me, like, I've lost £40 in the last 15 months, but I'm still not at my baseline that I was pre pregnancy. And so I, it's, it's a matter of having to give yourself grace. And then some days, like, there's been days to me where I'm like, it's, it's not happening fast enough. Like, this is so frustrating. I teach other people and have taught other women how to this for the last 10 years, but I do think that there's an element of like, you have to stick it out and, and I can't say necessarily like how long it should take for each person because for me it was a matter of like coming back from breastfeeding and then two pregnancies in one year. That was just like so much on my individual body. If a woman is not coming from pregnancy and breastfeeding and is 35 years old and hasn't experienced as much muscle and bone loss, then it might actually take a shorter amount of time compared to a woman who's gone through menopause and is experiencing dip in, has already experienced the dip in estrogen, where your body composition changes because your distribution of fat changes as you lose estrogen. And that can increase the amount of time sometimes that it takes in order to see results.

Yeah, yeah, I think that's so important. I mean, is there like, is there a minimum that we could say like minimum of like three months or six months? Obviously there's a vast array of what people's goals are, where they're starting from. But like, what's the minimum? If someone's listening to this, they made, you know, dietary changes that they feel good about, but they're not results. Would you say like minimum of 3 months? Minimum of 6 months.

From an energy standpoint, I have run a nutrition program for the last four years. That is a blood sugar reset. That's a week long. And people will report seeing improvements in a week. When it comes to, like, their fatigue, their cravings, mood swings, those are the top three improvements that people report, and we've had 25,000 women go through it. And when it comes to weight, I would say that sometimes that can vary because also if you're gaining muscle and you're losing fat, muscle truly does weigh more than fat. So if you're not seeing changes on the actual scale in six weeks, does that mean that you're not losing any weight? If you're gaining muscle?

Yeah.

No. So that's why I think that measuring waist circumference can be probably the best indicator. So for optimizing metabolic health, women should aim for less than 35 inches around their waist circumference. And getting a tape measure and actually looking at your waist circumference. Also measuring your hips to look at your waist to hip ratio can be a great measurement where if you're trying to say, what's the minimum amount of time that I should look to in order to see improvements, I would say around your waist, within four weeks of changing your diet, you should start to see an improvement. Because what we find is that most women will see improvements in their waist circumference much earlier than they do in their. The number on the scale.

Yeah, that's great. I use, I mean, I use it on bioimpedance scale. So it, it's also very encouraging because it costs, like, slightly more than a regular scale. But, like, it will show me my fat mass if it's increasing or decreasing every single time I step onto it, it will show me my muscle mass. It helps, you know, measure bone. I usually calibrate it against a DEXA like, once a year, but.

Did you use withings? Withings, Yeah, I have withings too. So when you compare it to your dexa, how accurate do you think that it is?

It's actually fairly accurate. I mean, the. I have the newest scale and it's like the top one, so it's fairly accurate. I can't speak to all the SC scales, but it has, like the little handles. Do you know what I'm talking about? So it's, it's fairly accurate. And it also, for me, yeah, I love seeing, you know, when you're increasing muscle. Like, for example, if I'll, you know, when we moved here, we're just getting our like full gym set up. So I only had small weights. Like I had like 10 pound weights, one 50 pound dumbbell. I was doing a lot of like body work stuff and I was excited to see that for the most part I was maintaining my muscle mass. But it was exciting. As soon as we got heavier weights, I started to see the muscle mass increase and the fat mass decrease. So I, that those are really encouraging because you can see faster than just one number on the scale that it's moving in the right direction.

Yeah, that's a really good point.

Yeah. So I love doing that. But yeah, I think the tape measure is a great way to do it as well. Um, so wonderful. Well, thank you for giving us some numbers of what we can expect. I think that's really helpful because I'm sure it's easy to, you know, get down about a program because it's not happening right away. And you're right, there are so many ways to lose weight so fast these days. You brought up GLP1s, so what is your opinion on GLP1s?

So I haven't reviewed the research enough comprehensively to say, to say a formal opinion. But this is also going to be very individualized to a person. So we know that carrying excess body fat does increase risk of chronic disease. Cancer. It's one of the leading causes of cancer risk and a number of other factors. And so I do think that for people who have a lot of weight to lose, that have struggled, that it may be a good, good solution for a person if you are at, you know, you're a breast cancer survivor or other things where you're more concerned about your risk of recurrence and, and things like that. So I think that it's very individualized. Would I recommend it for someone who's trying to lose ten pounds? I'm not sure if the benefits outweigh the risks because there's no free lunch at the end of the day. And I feel as though all of the research that is coming out on GLP1s is focusing on all of the positives, that there is a potential for decreasing risk of cancer and so many other factors because of the reduction in body fat and then other, you know, benefits of GLP1 on its own. We, we secrete our own GLP1 when you have a healthy, optimal gut. So I would say that when we look at the cons and the side effects, I'm not a hundred percent sure if it's worth it for everyone, especially when it comes to like losing 10 pounds. I personally, if you're a woman going through perimenopause or menopaus. Pause. What I would recommend, not that I'm a physician prescribing medications, but in a lot of the work that I do with women who are working alongside concierge medicine physicians and functional medicine doctors, is starting on hormone replacement therapy before going down the avenue of a GLP1. Because if it's appropriate for you to do hormone replacement therapy, because we do see that with the estrogen support that women experience changes in their body composition without, without needing a GLP1.

Oh, wow, that's great. Yeah, I mean, it's, it's quite a confusing landscape because so much of the longevity community is excited about GLP ones. Not just for, of course, let's just parse out the, the weight loss, right? If, if you need to lose weight. I mean, I have gifted GLP1s to family members of mine that I am encouraging them to lose a little bit of weight. I don't know how well received that was, but of course that's the gift that I give.

Of course, I would expect nothing different.

I'm like, yeah, you should love this. It's like, you know, this, it's like a good value that I just gave you. But, you know, I tried one very briefly because I had a podcast guest on that just loved it for, you know, longevity, like, metabolic health benefits. So I did a tiny dose, I did like five units, but I stopped it after two weeks because it was suppressing my appetite too much. And I already, you know, am not over consuming food and I want to continue to add muscle. So for me, it wasn't the best fit. But I am curious where this is all going to lead because it's still so new. Right? Like, there have been so many different weight loss phenomenons, right. Like from, what is it? Fen, phen and all these different drugs in the past that have yielded poor results long term. So I'm interested to see, you know, like you, what happens longer term.

So, and I think too, it's all about how you approach it. If you're taking a GLP1 and then you're not also strength training and you're not, you're, you know, in a large caloric deficit and you're not getting the micronutrients that you need and it's creating more deficiencies in your omega 3 fatty acids and so many of your vitamins and minerals, then it's not going to be supportive of your overall health.

Yeah, yeah, I agree. If I did want, I would totally be looking at, you know, nutritional panels, definitely strength training, like more than I even do now. Because that's just concerning how much muscle loss can be had if you're not, if you're just being sedentary and losing weight. From a GLP1, 100% agree. So, okay, so I want to talk about like optimal diet potentially given that, you know, everyone's going to be slightly different. But now that I'm doing, you know, more of this Mediterranean diet. So my diet's essentially, yes, I'm favoring protein. So I actually dialed down my protein a bit. I was doing about 1 gram per pound of body weight, but now I'm doing about 0.7 to 0.8 grams per pound of body weight. I don't seem to be losing muscle, which is great. And then it's just whole foods, right? Like I don't eat processed, processed foods. It's like for breakfast I have some avocado, some fermented foods, some sprouts, some eggs, some greens, maybe a little bit of lentils. I mean, what do you think is a good baseline for diet? Because it is so confusing out there.

A good baseline for diet, if we're talking about ways that your diet is supporting underlying mechanisms, would be one that supports your blood sugar, that helps lower inflammation, that supports your hormone health and supports your overall gut microbiome diversity. Everything that you described really does that you're, you know, getting, especially if you're doing something like eggs and then you have the additional protein that's coming from the lentils. Cuz lentils will have about 8 grams of protein per 1/2 cup and they also have that additional fiber that you're also getting alongside that avocado. So I think sometimes when we are looking at just the protein equation, then we're missing the importance of fiber and phytonutrients, slash polyphenols in order to support our overall gut microbiome because our gut is the epicenter of our health. And I think that what a lot of people miss is that when you want to improve your hormones, improve your blood sugar, that our gut regulates so much of that. And so in order for us to have overall health from a nutrition standpoint, we have to be fueling it with at least 30 plants per day in order to get that diversity. Enough of those prebiotic sources of fiber, the soluble fibers that help with supporting your short chain fatty acid production coming from your gut microbes. Everyone is, has been so focused on probiotics for so long, which I do think are Amazing. And there's actually even research that's been showing that when you look at people that have osteoarthritis, that just giving them a probiotic helps to decrease that underlying inflammation and decrease their overall pain. So the fact that, you know, you could take a probiotic and that impacts a person's pain levels for osteoarthritis, and that's been shown. There was just a research study that came out, a very well done research study, that it's like, wow, there is such a close connection between our gut ecosystem and then the combination of inflammation. But what I think people miss is the layer of the prebiotic fibers that not only help to support what the probiotics do, but helps to support the release of those compounds, the butyrate and short chain fatty acids that then impact our mood, our metabolism, our satiety, our inflammation, our hormones, and so many other things.

Can you give us a couple of examples of what people would want to be eating to get these prebiotic fibers?

Yeah. Them would be. Psyllium is a great form of soluble fiber that also has prebiotic potential. Soluble fiber is, you know, you have soluble and you have insoluble fiber. And you can get these fibers from fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, lentils and legumes and whole grains. Those are the six categories that you'll get fiber from. Then each of those have a different combination of soluble and insoluble fiber. And the soluble fibers, then you have the types of soluble fibers that help to bind to cholesterol or toxins and excrete them from the body. And then you have soluble fibers that help to actually fuel that serve as those prebiotics. It's not like one food has only one type of specific fiber, because within an apple you have the soluble and the insoluble fiber. But you great sources would be things like avocado, chia seeds, psyllium, flax seeds, as probably like some of the most important.

Yeah. You know what I really like? Have you tried Zen basil seeds?

Zen basil seeds are another great one.

Yeah. Because it's like double the amount of fiber. Right. So it's like half your fiber, I think, in. In like one dose or one scoop.

Yeah, it's very high in soluble fiber.

Good, I love that. Okay, so for fiber, where. What are you aiming for per day?

Minimum of 30 grams of fiber per day in order to support your overall cardiovascular health, improve your blood sugar levels, decrease inflammation, and support mental health. So they found that just 5 grams additional fiber per day compared to where someone's at at baseline helps to lower risk of anxiety and depression. Do you.

How do you feel about like supplementation of fiber if needed?

I think it's great. If it's. If needed, ideally it's a minimum of 30 grams. If you can get up to 50 grams of fiber per day, even better.

And what supplement do you like? There's so many out there for fiber.

Yeah. So it depends on the person and where they're at from. Because certain fibers, if you have GI issues, will make it worse. So there's a sun fiber that's a little bit easier to tolerate. Psyllium is a great one. Just like psyllium husk on its own that you could add. It's not the. It kind of like the consistency of it isn't necessarily the greatest, but those would be the two top that I use most commonly.

Okay, Love that. And just a reminder for anyone, like always. I know that you're always. You probably do like full script.

Right.

And like want to get like high quality supplements, not just something at cvs.

High quality supplements. Very different.

Yes. Yeah.

And then I would say too, for someone that has a lot of GI issues as they're increasing their fiber, that that can be a sign that you have underlying gut dysbiosis or GI issues that you really want to work with a functional practitioner in order to address. So that you can do a stool test and look underneath the surface at exactly what's happening. Because sometimes people will try to eat healthier and then they say that it creates more symptoms. And that can be the case for people that have a whole host of different issues, whether it's immune or gi. The second thing that's very important is that you gradually increase your fiber and make sure that you're drinking enough water in order to offset any of those issues. Because the water helps to move the fiber through you so that it's not like stuck in your intestines and bulking you up and creating more of that bloat.

Yeah, that makes sense. Okay, so that's what we wanna aim for. For fiber is 30 grams minimum. Up to like 50 is even better. What is your thoughts on protein?

So for protein, I. It's so hard. Cause it's so individual.

Well, you can give us a range like a sedentary female in their 30s or 40s versus like an active maybe.

Yeah.

Okay.

For females, I would say that it generally ranges from 1.2 grams per kilogram to 1.8 grams per kilogram. When you're pregnant and breastfeeding, you're gonna be closer to the 1.5 to 1.8 grams per kilogram.

Yeah. And what is that for? I would usually think about it per pound.

I know you do. That's what was throwing me off when you were saying one gram per pound. Usually I have to do the math.

Um, okay. Great for protein. Um, okay, now let's dig into carbohydrates, because I am very intentionally trying to increase my carbohydrate load. Actually, Harper is a great influence on that because she, you know, it's great. Like, we strength train together and then we lift about the same weights, which is amazing, but we just have this, like, difference in carbohydrate intake. And we're both, like, pretty much from a physique standpoint where we want to be or really close to it. So what are you. What are what. How much carb. How many carbs should we be getting per day?

I would say that. So in the nutrition plans that I create, I aim for a hundred to one hundred thirty grams per day at baseline, with sometimes the needs increasing, like during pregnancy and those sorts of things. I would say that for both of us, we had, you know, a period of time where we were eating very low carbohydrate and experiencing negative impacts on our overall health. And I was at the Cleveland Clinic center for Functional Medicine leading their shared medical appointments, the shared nutrition appointments we had created. And I was leading a group of people that had type 2 diabetes and had created a protocol that was very low carbohydrate. And the results were astonishing. I got a phone call from someone that was high up at the hospital saying, like, the results that you just got for this 10 week group of people are astonishing. Like, how have you done that? And of course, the start is just like helping people believe in themselves and fostering that community in order to hold space for them. But I would say the second factor was, you know, of course, whole foods and the fiber and the protein, but they were eating very carb. And so my. In my mind, I was like, wow, if they have such great results, I'm gonna try this as well. Mainly because I'm always trying to improve my neurological health and function. Cause I'm. I have a neurological autoimmune disease. So once I started going too low carb, I actually saw great changes in my body composition, but accelerated anxiety in the afternoon, more difficulty sleeping. Just a lot of symptoms that started to creep up. And that was really when I realized that the protocols that work for men do not work for females. And that we have to be factoring in the hormonal fluctuations that we're experiencing on a month to month basis and in different life cycles where our needs will change as we're going through preparing for pregnancy, pregnancy, breastfeeding, perimenopause, menopause. Like we have to be agile so that we can continue to make changes according to what our body's experiencing. I will say that the realization that I had after having my miscarriage was that I had my hormones tested despite my ob GYN saying there's no need to test your hormones, just try again once you get your cycle back. So when I tested my hormones, my progesterone levels were in the postmenopausal range. And in researching, I did a deep dive into PubMed in researching, you know, the potential causes of that. It was very clear. Chronic stress under fueling, not eating enough carbohydrates. So if you're a woman that's predisposed to low progesterone levels, which some women are, are then eating super low carb is going to increase the stress on your body which is going to create more of that negative response from a progesterone standpoint. And progesterone is so important. You know, when women are at a higher risk, they put them on progesterone the second that they get pregnant in order to help to support the health of the baby and not miscarrying the, the, the fetus. So I think that it's like we have to kind of like stay in the range where we're not creating metabolic harm so that we're having a, you know, not too many carbohydrates where, you know, there's a lot of breads and pastas and all of those types of things that we know are going to increase our risk of metabolic dysfunction since as women we are more predisposed to it given the hormonal changes that we experience through perimenopause and menopause, which it's not even age related, it's hormonally related. Increase our risk of every single chronic disease from cardiovascular disease to type 2 diabetes to Alzheimer's disease to osteoporosis to cancer, but then also not eating too low in carbohydrates that we're under fueling ourselves and exacerbating this HPA axis dysfunction that I really believe a lot of women struggle with and they don't realize that that's a potential, you know, underlying contributor to the symptoms that they're experiencing. And I'll, I Will say that when I was working with levels that were, you know, both. We love continuous glucose monitors. Kayla's been wearing a continuous glucose monitor for a very long time. Before levels is a thing. I also was. But not until after. You were. Yeah, but I remember when you first started using one. When I've worked with levels clients, they'll say. Cause I worked with hundreds of their clients. Like, when someone would have a blood sugar spike and the levels at my face would come up, and they'd say, like, maybe you should talk to a dietitian. So I would see a lot of women say, I'm eating so well. I'm eating whole foods. I'm eating low carb. And it's not that I'm having large blood sugar increases after my meal. It's that my baseline blood sugar is always elevated, like elevated morning glucose, which can be. You know, that's part of the. The dawn effect that happens for some people. But what I was seeing is that actually increasing carbohydrates in some of those women actually help to bring their overall blood sugar down. And it's because we don't factor in the impact that the cortisol response has on actually increasing our blood sugar levels. So even if you're not eating anything that has high carbohydrates, you know, you can see this when you're, like, under high periods of stress or things. If you're wearing a continuous glucose monitor, it will increase your blood sugar response because of gluconeogenesis. So it increases that circulating glucose that you have from your stored glycogen. That is a process that happens without even eating carbohydrates. So if you're always in a stress response, it's going to elevate your baseline blood sugar level.

Yeah, yeah, that's a great point. And when you say waking glucose, what are you aiming for? Less than 90? Less than 80?

70 to 90.

Okay. Yeah. Same. Curious if it's. It's, you know, because I just got done with a stint on the glucose, the CGM. But it was fun because now that ChatGPT exists, I would, like, actually put the data in and my. I. It wasn't syncing with level, so I was just going off dexcom data, which, you know, is not nearly as fun or informative as levels. So I was putting it in every day into the cgm. But I do notice. So my waking blood sugar would be great, like 75. It was great as soon as I woke up. But then, you know, when I did start getting going and having Like a little bit of coffee, it would increase a bit. Is it natural to have some increase in glucose along with your natural cortisol rise? And then where do we get concerned.

In that it's natural to have an increase in glucose along with your natural cortisol rise. And I do think, because that's the other thing is that sometimes having too much information can create health anxiety. Where I've worked with people who will say like I'm removing bell peppers from my diet because they created an eight point glucose spike and I'm aiming for a flat line. The goal is not a flat line. It's completely natural and normal to have fluctuations in your blood sugar. Even like, I mean any recipes that we're creating for my meal plans because we test them on continuous glucose monitors, in my programs we aim for a 30 point rise or less because even sometimes up to like 40 point rise if it's not your consistent. But I just think that it's important not to create too much anxiety around like even a gradual increase. It's very normal. Especially because our cortisol will rise the most in the first part of the day. Between that first hour or you have your cortisol awakening response which increases and then it comes down, comes down a bit. And around 7 to 9am is when you'll have like your, your peak level of cortisol and throughout the day then it should start to gradually go down to the lowest point right before you go to bed. So sometimes if people have, you know, we, I've tested thousands of cortisol tests in order to see what an overall pattern is because a lot of people will go into their doctor's office, they just get a one point cortisol test. Now if they're advocating to their doctor like I want to get my cortisol tested, if you're testing it just one time in the day, it doesn't really tell you a lot around your overall pattern because it might miss the fact that your cortisol is elevated at night. But to answer your question, if you are having an increase in the morning, that's very normal because your blood sugar does increase as your, your cortisol releases and the cortisol increase helps with increasing stimulation and focus and alertness. So it's not to say that cortisol, even though it is a catabolic hormone, not to say that that's a negative thing, but we just don't want too high of levels.

Yeah, yeah. I mean I think it's, it's a very nuanced Conversation. It feels like cortisol is like being demonized so hard and on social media these days. But I mean we need it to get up and go. It's just, it's supposed to be in the, the proper rhythm. Right. Getting lower throughout the day, not staying elevated or flipping and being, you know, more elevated in the evening. Obviously that's like, that's not helpful at all for productivity, so, or health.

So everything is nuanced when it comes to our health. And I feel like the more that you understand the body and I have the, the perspective of running thousands upon thousands of labs on people in the last 10 years, looking at their nutrient deficiencies and cortisol and cardiovascular markers and hormones and all of it. And I feel like that perspective helps so much to be able to see through things that are more like fear mongering or designed to, to perform well on the Instagram algorithm where it's like, it's just there's so much nuance with nutrition and health and what works for you is not going to work for someone else.

Yeah, yeah. I mean it's, it's great and so important, but it's also complicated because labs are expensive and you know, it's not easy to even find someone to interpret them, you know, in the right way.

Today it's harder than ever to find someone that interprets them well because I feel like what we're experiencing is as businesses are seeing an increase in interest in things like functional medicine, that what I'm seeing in people that are coming to us from different functional medicine doctors is like this practicing of watered down functional medicine that I didn't see 10 years ago when I was starting. And so I do think that people need to be careful because there's a lot of people that are claiming to be functional medicine experts without, you know, a lot of actual like experience and training.

Yeah.

When it comes to functional medicine doctors and other practitioners.

Yeah. It also feels like, what's the term? Like greenwashing. So it's kind of like in conventional medicine you come in with X problems and you leave with Y drug. It's like this new wave of less experienced functional medicine providers. You come in with X problem and you receive X supplement and it's targeting like each individual lab variation versus like looking at the person as a whole. And what's the root cause for all of these different problems? Because of course if there's nuance in how to treat some of these things, but a lot of it when you say is systemically, it's like finding the real root cause of what, why these different values are out of the whack.

And factoring in the variation that comes even within other aspects like your health history and symptoms. Because I could have two people sitting in front of me with two different lab results or, sorry, two different people sitting in front of me with the same lab results. And based on their symptoms, their goals, what's worked for them in the past, their family history, other factors, I may recommend two very different things. Yeah, you know, it's not always just like, so linear and. And it's hard in this, like, AI world that we live in. And like the greenwash things happening in functional medicine. It is hard because I feel like then people are going down the route of spending a lot of money and not getting the answers and feeling, like, disappointed because they still aren't seeing the improvements in their overall health.

Yeah. Well, I love that you put together your program. So, you know, it's a group setting. Do you see people one on one? One still?

I see people one on one, and I have a team of dietitians that sees people one on one as well.

Okay, nice. But you offer, I think, a lot of different price points for people to enter. Like, you meet them where. Where they're at.

Yeah, that was our goal, is to create not only different price points, but also, like, putting together the frameworks that exist even in our one on one clients that are like, okay, this is what we would use. And a lot of people that we're seeing. And so how can we then create, you know, share these products, protocols, and meal plans with people that are at a lower price point? And the community support, I really think is huge. I have been an advocate of community support since I started in functional medicine 10 years ago because people heal in community. And we just experienced this over the weekends when we were with a group of incredibly powerful women that were genuinely there to support one another, where we did like a meditation in a group circle. And. And it's like women supporting women and leaning into our power is so important. And having those communities that allow for us to do that is so important. And so I've always tried to prioritize creating that because of working at the Cleveland Clinic when I was there, we would do. First we started shared nutrition appointments because Dr. Hyman said, like, 50% of people will get better just through the shared nutrition appointments in the community that are led by the dietitians, and they won't need to see a doctor because they'll improve their symptoms in that experience. And so through that in addition to the work that I did in the inner city, where we would go to different churches on a volunteer basis and we would initiate the Daniel plan that Dr. Hyman wrote with Dr. Daniel. Amen. And we would initiate the protocol into these inner city churches and I would go and spend time with these people that were participating in the programs. The premise of it was Whole Foods. We created shopping lists that were affordable and things that they could find at Aldi and other places in their neighborhoods. And the, the insane transformation that people experienced because we had nurses that did the pre and post anthropometrics, the insane experience. Improvements in blood sugar, blood pressure, waist circumference, weight. Just by doing a nutrition program in the inner city with no doctor, no, like, medical appointments, but through the power of community and nutrition was so eye opening that I was like, this has to be an experience that everyone has.

I love that. And yeah, I want to go back to costs because it's something that, you know, I. I received comments about sometimes, you know, yes, I'm not talking about, like, hyperbaric oxygen cost. Yes, I know that costs a lot of money. But I posted a reel just two or three days ago, and it was just outlining my breakfast, Right. And actually a doctor commented, he's like, great for you that you can afford this and whatnot. But my breakfast, I told you what it is. It's not. Not like really that wild. Right. I think it is important for people to know that you created these programs and that they are able to be accessible. Maybe not every single step of the way. Maybe not everything is organic, of course, or whatnot. But if. Could you just speak a little bit more to this? Because I think people believe that being healthy and eating at home is cost prohibitive. But I did a quick. And I need to dig into this because I want to make a reel about it, actually. Maybe you can help with some of the details. But I did a quick search on, like, how much does it cost for a McDonald's breakfast? You know, at this point, and it was somewhere between like eight and nine and a half dollars. So then I also put in everything that I eat for my breakfast, including like, you know, a little bit of blueberries at the end, and that was actually cheaper than the McDonald's breakfast. So what is your opinion on this? Like, how can we be eating really healthy at home?

I have a lot of opinions on this because of, of working with so many different people of different financial levels. Eating out is very expensive and a lot of people who are not Cooking at home are spending a lot of money eating out, and no one is shaming them for that. But then you try to prioritize eating organic and you're spending extra money on those sorts of things. And then it's like, this is so unaccept. Inaccessible.

Yeah.

I think that everyone needs to do what works best for them and do the best that you can. So if you can't afford organic produce, then at least get the produce, because the phytochemicals and the polyphenols and the antioxidants, that is what's the most important part of fruits and vegetables. Is there additional benefit for buying organic? The research is actually mixed, so some conventional doctors will say it's not worth buying organic. Now, you can never convince me that that is not the case. In some of the research studies that they've done, they show that it has higher levels of. Of nutrients and also not having the pesticide exposure. Since we know that we're living in an environment that is inundated with environmental toxins and our overall toxic bur is much higher than any other generation before.

Yeah.

When it comes to changing your diet, sometimes it will be more expensive. And we outline that with the people that go through our programs is that especially like the initial one or two grocery. Grocery store trips, if you don't have the staples like organic chia seeds and extra virgin olive oil and some of the spices and herbs, then your grocery bill will be more expensive. But what we hear from people over and over is that by following the meal plans, because in the bean collective, my dietitians and I are creating the meal plans every single week. And we add a variety of the meals, but they cycle through so that you're not making a new meal every single. Every single meal, A new recipe every single meal. So you can, you know, use the leftovers. And what people will report is, one, I'm saving so much money because I'm not eating out as much as I used to. Now that I'm planning ahead, now that I'm doing the meal prep and I'm thinking ahead with my week, I'm saving money. And so I think actually the resource that is the most limited for people is time. Because, like, people try to say that it's so expensive to eat healthy, but if you do it in a way that's actually really well thought out, you can save a lot of money that you would have spent otherwise on so many other things. Your. Your five or six or seven dollars Starbucks drink in the morning. Like, it also comes down to priorities, Right? Like where are you spending your money that's leading to the greatest results, I think of the money that I'm spending on our family's food as an investment where I'm like, I would way rather spend this money here than buying anything designer or buying any of these like material things that so many US consumers especially are guilty of in our society. Really caring about so much. Where I'm like, I will spend my money on an organic egg over so many other things that people prioritize any day of the week. Because I know that that's the foundation of our health and our long term future.

Yeah.

And I would also say the second one that people say that they save money on is food waste because of going to the grocery store. And then you don't meal prep and you don't have the meals in place, so then you end up throwing out a lot of the groceries that you ended up buying.

Yeah, yeah, that's a great point. And also just to go back to your point of like prioritization, you know, also, I mean, people drinking alcohol, like it's expensive. Like my budget for alcohol is $0.

Right.

Because I don't drink it. I think that there are a lot of ways that we are not prioritizing, you know, food. I'm in the same exact boat as you. Like, I would rather spend, spend, you know, my money on food because we get one body, right. Like all these other things are great and they're nights and they're, they're additional and like every TikTok shop purchase that, you know, individuals are making these days, it's like just maybe reallocating, you know, your budget. And I get that. I'm not like, I'm not trying to say that people are doing it wrong. I get that, you know, I have access to things, but I mean, it's just something to think about.

I grew up in a household where we didn't have like unended amounts of money. But my parents, parents were couponing, they were making sacrifices on a daily basis in order to be able to fuel us with high quality foods. And my mom took, she worked full time, she took that extra trip to the grocery store to go to the health food store because we didn't have like Whole Foods and Amazon at the time. And there wasn't a lot of health foods and gluten free foods, especially at traditional grocery stores. And so I saw like the sacrifice that's involved when you don't have unlimited dollars to spend and still making that the choice that you. That you have for your family.

Yeah, I love that. I mean, and I'll just add a little personal addition here because a lot of people on social media now, they kind of see the life I have. But I mean, I grew up and we had. We were on food stamps. Like, I didn't have access to any healthy foods. I was eating like, you know, pop tarts and cereals and all the things. And then, I mean, you witnessed it. Like, I worked incredibly hard for like 15 years straight. So just anyone listening to this, if you think I just like, you know, grew up really wealthy or something and got like placed into this position, I just worked really hard for it and now I choose to spend, like my money on. On things that will improve my health, you know. So anyways, yeah, I can totally attest to it.

I mean, we both were working. We've like, dedicated the last 10 years to working as hard as we can to create like, what we've created to be able to help more people.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And both like, really leaning into trying to provide a lot of things just for free. And content. Content and all. All the nine yards.

So you'll never win, you know, it's. You'll never win whatever you put out.

Yeah, there's always on the Internet. There's always something. You know, my husband has been really helpful since he used to manage so many creators with way more followers, you know, than I do. But I just. You gotta just try to limit your exposure, I think, to negativity because sometimes it's a little bit like, disheartening because it's like, okay, I'm doing so much that I feel like I can to put out free information and, you know, never really ask for anything in return. It's just like, let's be like, have a good mood, you know. But I also have so much sympathy for people because I feel like that is coming out of a place of hurt, you know, and so maybe if everyone just starts upgrading their diet and listening to all your great wisdom online, your mood is just better, I feel.

Yeah, I agree. I also feel like it's easy to judge a person based on what the snapshot that you see on social media and what people don't see underneath the surface is all the sacrifice that went into to the sacrifice that goes in every day. Like, I was just thinking about this being in LA with my food styling team and like the amount of time that we spend not only like my dietitians and I creating the recipes to make sure that they're blood Sugar balanced and anti inflammatory and things. But then also I care so much about bringing a food experience to life of like making it beautiful and colorful and like my food stylist, they inspire me every day because they make everything so presentable. And I was thinking about like I take up basically like their whole house in LA with all of the props that we've purchased like thousands of dollars of like bowls and glasses and then all of the food and groceries that we buy for every single round. And it's like, then it just pops up in one picture of a recipe. You know, you just, you never know the level of sacrifice that's going into something. And I feel like on social media it's just like a little snapshot.

Yeah, yeah, that's such a good point. I want to go back to really quick about the time commitment. You know, I make every single one of our meals. We only I eat two meals a day, but I make that for my husband and I. And it really doesn't have to take much time like just keeping things simple. I mean my breakfast probably takes, I don't know, like I'll prep lentils on like a Sunday so that I have them throughout the week. But I mean it probably takes like 10 minutes in total to make some eggs, throw on some greens. If I didn't do the lentils, I mean it, you know, it would be so simple. A little bit of fermented foods. So it doesn't take much time because if it did take daytime, I wouldn't be able to do, you know, two meals every single day for in perpetuity essentially. Like we've probably eaten out together. We've been together for married for two years, dated, you know, so two and two and a half years. We've probably been out to dinner like three or four times.

So you definitely do not eat out a lot.

Yes. So I mean it's totally possible to in dinner probably takes like 20 minutes or so. So you know, prepping some quick vegetables and you can get, you know, I mean I sometimes get Brussels sprouts already pre cut organic wash. You know, just do what you can to make it work for your lifestyle.

Oh yeah. The shortcuts that you can take make a big difference. So if you, if time is the issue and that's really your barrier. I think it's also important for people to really like sit down and maybe even journal with like if you feel like you have opportunity to improve your habits. And I never recommend changing your lifestyle overnight. Right. Like focusing on those small gradual improvements, improvements is really what moves the needle for people's overall health and maintaining that consistency so that it doesn't feel like another six week quick fix diet where you're like, oh, I no longer can sustain this. So building those habits over time. But I would say that when it comes to making those really getting honest with what are my actual barriers? Is it time? Because maybe I do have extra time. Like maybe I'm spending too much time on social media and I can is again about prioritization.

Yeah.

And then if it is time, finding the ways that you can still make it happen so that you're like buying the pre chopped onions or you're maybe like doing an exchange with someone where you're like, I'll watch your kids for a few hours if you like do meal prep for me or something along those lines. Or you hire someone for $20 an hour that's helping you like prep a lot of your vegetables and things like that for the the week. Just since becoming a mom, I feel like my time for cooking truly is more limited than it used to be. But it doesn't mean that it's still not possible. Right. There's always a solution. And so I think that it's important to identify your barrier so that then you can become more aware of the solution. But when it comes to the prep, I think that there's a lot of ways that you can do that and we try to be a little creative with it. So in some of our meal plans we do smoothies for lunch because then if you're eating three meals a day and you have breakfast and you pre make your breakfast breakfast at the beginning of the week. So you're doing like chia seed pudding or you're doing some egg muffins. Like we have a lot of egg muffin recipes or you're doing like even overnight oats recipes. I have several overnight oat recipes in the bean collective that have a fourth of a cup of oats alongside enough protein and fiber to help offset that blood sugar rise so that you still get the benefits of the beta glucans for people who can tolerate grains. But doing something like that over the weekend will take 30 minutes to prep something like that. The egg muffins may be a little more than 30 minutes, but you can quadruple the batch so that then you can freeze it and have it later on as well.

Yeah.

And then you have smoothies for lunch which take five minutes to make and then you're left with dinner where you can rotate every other night so that One night you're making a new meal, and then the next night you're eating leftovers, and then the next night you're making a new meal, and then the next night you're making leftovers. And so I think that it just comes down to, like, having a good system in place. Right?

Yeah.

So many of us are busy. We're all very busy. And also, I think that for so many people who are, like, maybe listening to podcasts like this, thinking about how they want to improve their health, but not actually, like, taking action on it, that it's like, there will never be a perfect time. But it's important to try to just take those small steps instead of thinking, like, I'm just going to wait until everything is perfect. Like, removing that perfectionist mindset so that you prioritize progress over perfection. Perfection.

Yeah. I love that. Okay, going back. So we're also hitting, like, we're navigating between. But so we talked about the protein, the carbs. You mentioned having 30 plants per day. So how does one. I'm not getting 30 plants per day. How does one get 30 plants per day?

Okay, I actually meant 30 plants per week in order to have enough variety. Thank you for that, guys. But 30 plants can count as chia seeds, flax seeds. It doesn't just have to be fruits and vegetables. Okay, so you would. Spices and herbs. Like, it all adds up. And so when you at least have the awareness and you're making something like. So the breakfast that I make for my kids a lot is a banana mashed up. I add two tablespoons of oats, and then I add two eggs, a tablespoon to two tablespoons of peanut butter, and a little bit of salt. And so for in an instance like that, I can add something like pumpkin pie spice to that recipe to be like, how could I just add one more source of plants to that meal? And then just in that you have the oats, you have the banana, you have the pumpkin pie spice, and you have the nuts. So that's four in just one meal.

Yeah. Okay, so that makes it.

Or if you have a smoothie, let's say you're doing a smoothie and you do. I love frozen cauliflower rice as the base of smoothies. Like, the majority of our recipes have frozen cauliflower rice at the base because it adds level of creaminess that you could get from a banana, but without the glycemic impact. And then it also adds in a daily serving of cruciferous vegetables, since we know that Cruciferous vegetables are so important for supporting gut and liver detoxification for overall hormone balance. So called frozen cauliflower rice. You could do a nut butter. You could do a chia seed or flax seeds. You would have. Then if you're doing like frozen berries, let's say, and then you have some kind of additional like cinnamon or, or, or maca powder or something that you're throwing in where you can get like five to eight plants just in that meal alone.

Yeah, that's a great point. Casey actually turned me onto this nut butter. It's called the nutso butter. So it has like all sorts of different, like nuts in there and chia, I think so that's a nice way that I am to smoothies.

And they sell that at Costco. Yeah, like they have a big jar of it at Costco that we, that we buy.

Yeah, I think I'm ordering it from Whole Foods, but yeah, I think they have it at Costco too. I need to get on the Costco train. But there's only two of us. So, you know, I think there's still.

Benefit in just with two, really. Because you can load up on so many things that I no longer can even just like comprehend the idea of spending like $5 on canned salmon at Whole Foods now that I can buy like an entire case of eight cans of salmon at Costco for like eight, eight dollars.

Okay. Yeah.

Well, the point with some of those staples that we'll even keep in our basement to just have on hand, things like they have organic nut butters and the organic chia seeds, a lot of those staples are definitely much more affordable than where you'll find it elsewhere.

Yeah, that's a great point. I gotta find a Costco around here.

You've gotta find a Costco.

So I'm getting. I mean, hey, we're doing. You know, my husband is elated by moving from Erewhon to Whole Foods now, so.

Oh, I'm sure you're saving so much money as it is.

Yes, I was just that I was in LA and I went to Erwan, like every day for each meal and it was, it's special. Um, I don't know, like, I feel like I wish I had a grocery store. Cause it's just when you see food as being so beautiful, it's just so exciting to like, get really, like high quality, clean, you know, food. So I love that I found this Cool. That's called. So when I was in la too, I would also get this CSA from a company called Flamingo estates. So if you can. Obviously you would probably agree eating like local and seasonal is ideal. This again is like the opposite. The pendulum has now swung to the opposite side of investment in food. But I did that so they would local California farms, whatever's in season, you'd get a huge box. It's like a csa, like a community supported agriculture. And I found one here too that's quite nice. So it also is great for me because they deliver fruits and vegetables that I would never buy. And so I'm making, you know, things that I don't even know how to make, so I have to look it up. But also incorporating more diversity, which I enjoy.

I was going to say that it gets you out of your comfort zone of foods, which I think is one of the biggest benefits in addition to buying local.

Yeah.

And when you buy local, it also isn't going to travel as far. So the nutrient density will be higher. Because now that our food, you know, when you shop at Costco, I mean I, I do shop at Costco a decent amount with feeding a family of four. But the, the amount of travel that our fruits and vegetables go through, that did not happen with our grandparents that do, you know, decrease the nutritional value of our food is a real thing.

Yeah.

But I think that the more that you can support local. The issue that we have in Cleveland is just not having a lot of like access year round to those types of things and the difficulty with finding organic.

Yeah.

So my dad was just saying, oh, it's, it's better to just buy lower local anything and for it to not be organic because there's this one place that I don't go as often as my parents do because they love the local aspects. And I'm like, well, it's still the hard to find organic.

Yeah.

And so I go back and forth on it because there are a lot of local farmers that are using organic practices but they just can't afford the seal. And so it is nice to get to know your farmers, to be able to understand the farming practices, even to maybe visit the farm. You just bought a half of a cow this past year. Year where we were able to they like let you go and see the cow on the farm and then we split the cow with our friends. I mean it's a few thousand dollars to actually go in on it. But then I think that it comes down to like $6 a pound or something very affordable for grass fed meat that we now have, you know, year round. So it'll take us like probably a Year to go through.

Yeah. And. Yeah, and exactly like you did, you could do it with friends. You could do it with more than one friend. Yeah, I think that's. That's valuable. Yeah. I would go to the farmer's market a lot, you know, in LA and just ask the farm, is it organic? Because like you said, some of them can't afford that seal, so.

But the LA farmers markets are like my love language.

I know, they're so good. Way better than Austin so far. Like, I went to a farmer's market here in Austin and it was like a lot of packaged foods and I was like, is this normal? I was talking to one of the farmers that did actually have fresh produce and he's like, yeah, unfortunately, it's just like moving in that direction. Like people want these packaged foods and so I don't know, meaning, like the.

Fresh produce is coming in plastic or.

Actually like not like highly processed, but moderately processed. Like it was, I don't know, like packaged things. Like, I didn't even study it that much because I was literally just like eyesight. I'm like, where are the fresh? Like, where's lettuces, where's fresh? And a lot of the stands were more of like a slightly processed, like jams or crackers. I don't remember how you sound like that. So I was like, that's not really what I'm looking for. So I'm going to try a couple more in this area and just see. But I have this gather and deliver thing, so that's really great.

Yeah, that is great.

Okay, let's talk about fat content, like healthy fats. Where do you land on that? What percentage or number are you kind of looking for from a healthy fat standpoint?

So it's difficult to say.

I know where it gets going to be bio individual.

It's very. I mean, I think that people. People's processing of fats and on a deeper level, saturated fats is so personalized. So I'll use myself as an example. Like, I have an APOE4 gene mutation that decreases my ability to process saturated fats. So I. In instances like yesterday when I was at a smoothie place and I had. Our friend Ronit had gotten it with light nut butter and the regular amount of coconut cream. And I asked for light coconut cream, but normal amounts of nut butter. And so I think that just having better understanding of your fat processing can be helpful because it does differ on an individual basis and it also then depends on how many carbohydrates you're consuming. But I would say a minimum of 30% of your diet should be fat at a minimum because healthy fats are so incredibly important for supporting our hormones, for supporting our brain health, for supporting our blood sugar balance and support so much more. Now it is interesting because there are, you know, I have worked with a variety of functional medicine doctors and even lifestyle medicine doctors that have very differing nutrition opinions, which I think also helps me see how much it like really depends on the individual. So I started my career in the department at the Cleveland Clinic where Dr. Caldwell Ostelson ran his programs, which he's like vegan, no fat. He wrote prevent and reverse heart disease book in the 80s. He was like one of the first Doctors, him and Dr. Dean Ornish to show that you could actually reverse heart disease through diet and lifestyle. And he takes a very vegan approach. And I was then working for Dr. Roizen, who, you know, the chief wellness officer at the Cleveland Clinic, who's very plant based but not necessarily vegan. And then I worked for Dr. Hyman who's more like incorporating animal proteins. And then it. So it just, it like can vary so much and I think that it depends on your genes, your health goals, your conditions and what it seems like respond what your body responds well to.

Yeah, yeah, that's a, that's a great way to say it. I mean it's interesting because there seems to be more literature coming out. Obviously it feels like a lot of the studies that were done on meat originally were on highly processed meats or people eating like highly processed meats like hot dogs and things like that. Seems like there's newer literature coming, coming out that, you know, these grass fed, grass finished, high quality meats are not like nearly in that bucket. What's your opinion?

So the research that's been done on animal proteins, there's a few issues. One is that if you compare a person that's eating an animal based diet to a person that's eating a vegetarian diet, the vegetarian is actively changing their lifestyle in order to reduce meat. So they are more likely to be eating more fruits and vegetables, less likely to smoke, more active, other co confounding variables that can impact overall health outcomes. The second thing is that I have not seen many studies at all that do differentiate between organic high quality meats and ultra processed meats. So I think that it does a lot of times come down to the quality. I was vegetarian for seven years and I find it to be very difficult to meet your nutrient needs without having some forms of animal protein in your diet. I also think that it's hard to get enough protein to support your muscle muscle building potential, which we know is so important for decreasing insulin resistance, for improving hormone health, for decreasing chronic inflammation. And so I think that again, this differs for every person. And the research does skew more towards a vegetarian type of approach, or at least, you know, just incorporating poultry and fish. But I personally have found with a lot of clients, you know, if we're looking at lab work, I'm able to help people achieve really optimal lab work while still including animal proteins in their diet. And when I say optimal lab work, I'm not just looking at total cholesterol and like your fasting glucose levels. Like, you know, it's kind of the surface level approach that a lot of doctors look at. When I say lab work, I mean looking at your nutrient deficiencies, making sure that you're optimal in your omega threes, your vitamin D, your vitamin B12, your iron levels, like so many women struggle with anemia, looking at the full picture of your labs in order to make sure that you're out optimized.

Okay. Seed oil. So controversial.

Hmm. Okay. So seed oils, I, I do not eat personally very many of, I really go out of my way to try not to have them in my diet, but there is not a lot of research to, to support the benefits of removing them from your diet. So I have done a great deal of research trying to advocate for like not having oils in your, in your diet. And I have to be completely honest that there is not a lot of research that shows, and there is truly research that shows that eating canola oil is beneficial from a heart disease outcome and other things that just don't really make sense. When you think of, I don't want an oil in my body that's like an ultra processed oil that adds hexane into the mix and all of these chemicals that also doesn't have the shelf stability, that has the higher risk of oxidation. And you think about what that's actually doing to your cell membrane on the inside. Like, it does not seem like to me that there's any benefits, but I have gotten in many arguments with physician friends of mine who tried to say, like, present me with the research of why we should tell people like not to eat any seed oils. And it is difficult to have like really high quality studies to be able to present what I would say the biggest argument for not having seed oils in your diet is that it's very clear in the research that there's a imbalance of omega 6s to omega threes in the American diet, where I think it's like a 16 to 1 ratio of omega 6s to omega threeS. And when people lower their seed oil consumption, it helps to rebalance that so that you're looking at more of like a 4 to 1 ratio. And I can say this for, from the last 10 years of running Omega 3 fatty acid testing, that's looking at your entire omega index, your omega 3s, your omega 6s, your transcript fatty acids. It also looks at your monounsaturated fats. And so it's crazy to me that you can change your diet and then see just within a few weeks changes in your blood composition when it comes to your omega 3s. And so that could be really motivating for people where it's like, even if they're not necessarily seeing like all of the symptom changes and things, where it's like, wow, the diet that I'm putting into my mouth impacts these ratios of these fatty acids so quickly. That diet has to play a role in supporting microbiome overall health. But I think that in my experience of working with so many people and seeing these omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acid testing is that the biggest benefit of removing seed oils is being able to have an easier time with that, that ratio of having a lower Omega 6 to Omega 3 profile, which automatically lowers your cytokine production and lowers chronic inflammation.

Yeah, I, I agree. Yeah. I mean, I'm very well aware that there's not a ton of, like, literature to lean on, but I mean, I have not consumed seed oils in many years. Like, I just, I mean, you just watch a video of how it's made and I'm like, yeah, I don't want that in my body. I think there's better options.

The videos of how it's made definitely are concerning. And I would say that there are times that I travel or in doing something where I'll have something that has sunflower oil in it or some kind of oil that isn't necessarily my favorite. But because I know what my omega 6 to 3 ratio is, I'm like, confident that I'm getting enough omega 3s in my diet to offer offset, you know, this small amount of, of sunflower oil that I'm consuming on a very occasional basis that, you know, I'm not, like, overly concerned.

Yeah. Yeah, I think that makes sense. Well, we've talked about so many incredible things today. If you had three points to start improving gut health. So we talked about gut health, like, really peppered in all throughout the conversation. Right. And like, let's say I would assume that your first point would be to get a gut test, maybe, if you can. But let's say you can't get a gut test. What gut test do you like best, by the way?

We use GI effects.

Okay. Yeah, I did GI effects a lot. And then I recently just moved to all vibrant testing, so I'm doing the Gut Zoomer.

Oh, yeah, I've done Gut Zumer. We've ran it before.

So obviously for the most detailed and specific and bio individual plan, you'd want to get gut testing and work with a great functional provider. But let's say you can't do that. What are a few things you would recommend?

Yeah, one thing that I would highlight from the gut test standpoint is the reason that it can be beneficial. And I don't think that it's a requirement. Like, we actually will sometimes. I mean, not even sometimes, but often in my nutrition programs, we'll start out with even like a more comprehensive organic acids test because you can get some, like, very initial markers of gut health through urine. Not necessarily comprehensive like a stool test, but you can get like urinary candida markers that do tend to be fairly accurate. So and then you can kind of like piece together improving and optimizing from there. So we don't always start with a gut test. But what I would say for people that don't understand, like, how much if you're having bloating and diarrhea and constipation and just like acid reflux, you know, indigestion, a lot of issues with your, your gut health. Although of course fatigue and brain fog and symptoms can also be signs of poor gut health. Then what can make someone's gut health better may make other people's gut health worse. And it's because, like, you know this in looking at a stool test, some people may have issues because their short chain fatty acid levels are low. So then it's a matter of being like, okay, well, how can we increase the natural production of short chain fatty acids From a dietary standpoint, Some people will have elevated levels of inflammation secretory IgA compared to like calprotectin. And so then it's a matter of like, figuring out what's driving that inflammation that's creating more of the gut irritation. Other people will have gut dysbiosis where they have too much overgrowth of harmful bacteria in their gut or sometimes even potentially pathogenic bacteria in their large intestine. That's creating a lot of the symptoms. Other people have small intestinal bacterial overgrowth where it's like they have the higher levels of bacteria in their small intestine, which is the place that it shouldn't be. But all of these things require different approaches, which is the value of the stool test and being able to comprehend. See this. And like you said, like, when we work with people in interpreting the stool test, like, that is also very important. And in this AI world, I do think the nuance of having a practitioner that really understands it is important for people that can't do a stool test. I mean, we have, like you said, a number of different tiers of programs. And so we have. We constantly hear people talk about how, like, doing the protocols helps to improve their overall gut symptoms. And I would say that the primary things that we really focus on in order to do that is more diversity. Like, we talked about, more antioxidants and phytonutrients and then more fiber and prebiotics.

Got it. Well, I love that. And, Bridget, it's been so fun having you on. This is so fun.

It's been a pleasure. So fun being at your house and getting a tour of all the biohacking tools.

I know.

Beautiful home.

I wish you were staying longer and you could do biohacking stuff.

I know. Me too.

Love to make that happen. Well, where can people find you? Of course, we'll also include it in the show notes.

So you can find me@beingbridget.com. that's my website. My name is spelled B R I G I D. And you can take, like, we have a free quiz to help you understand kind of like what's going on if you're having symptoms. And I also started a podcast, the Being Bridget show, that is on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, that you. You can find. It's the Being bridget show. Being bridget.com on Instagram, being Brigid. Everything is being Bridget.

I love that. And when does my podcast come out?

September 16th, I believe.

Okay. Amazing. So I'll be on Bridget's podcast on the 16th. So it was a great episode. Yeah, I love that. Well, definitely go check that out and follow Bridget. I mean, you give so much great free health nutrition advice, and, you know, there's so many, you know, people giving nutrition advice. But you, you are like, you've been in this, you've worked at the best institutions, and you are just, like, truly all over it. So thank you for being here.

Thank you for having me.

Of course.