Genius Foods with Max Lugavere

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Welcome to the JJ Virgin Lifestyle show with celebrity nutrition expert, fitness hall of famer and four time New York Times best selling author, JJ Virgin. JJ is a warrior mom whose knowledge and expertise have helped change hundreds of thousands of lives with over 3.5 million podcast downloads and appearances on Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz, the Today Show, Rachael Ray, Larry King Love Whoa, whoa, whoa.

This show is about you, not about me. I want to help you find practical, real world ways to dial in your health and mindset so you can finally lose that weight and feel strong and energized. Stop settling for less than your personal best. It's time to find out how to look and feel better than ever. And I'll be right here with you the whole way. Hey, it's JJ here with another awesome interview. I know, I know, I know. I get the best guests. I really do. I really do. And today is no different. This will be super fun. We are going to be talking and you know me. This is one of my most favorite subjects, how to make your brain sharper, happier and younger with Max Lugaver of Genius Food. So here's what's so cool about Max. He did not start out here and you're going to hear his whole journey of how he got into, you know, obsessed with brain health and it's really cool and good for all of us is what I must say. But he didn't start this way. He started as a filmmaker and a health and science journalist and one now is one of the leading experts in nutrition for optimal brain function. He is the director of the upcoming film Breadhead, the first ever documentary about dementia prevention through diet and lifestyle, and author of Genius Foods Become Smarter, happier and more productive while protecting your brain for life. He's contributed to Medscape, Vice, Fast Company, and the Daily Beast and has been featured on NBC Nightly News, Dr. Oz, and in the Wall Street Journal. And he also was a journalist for Al Gore's Current tv. All right, let's see if I can pronounce this right. Max. Max Lugaver, welcome to the show. I got it Right on.

Yeah, Close enough.

No time to practice. Well, how would I say it?

So you say it Lugavir. But I've heard every. Every permutation, so.

Well, I wanted to say lugaverre, so, you know, Lugavir. Lugavere. Got it. All right. I am so excited to talk with you about this today. One of my favorite conversations is to talk brain health. So, you know, when I saw what you were up to with your new book, Genius Food had to have you on. So this seems kind of crazy for you, looking at your past. Like, how did you get to here?

Yeah, well, my background was as a journalist. I used to work for a TV network that was founded by former Vice president Al Gore. It wasn't really the Al Gore network per se, but he was sort of behind it. And the idea was that this network really was about telling stories that were undertold. And at the end of the day, there was a big social impact component to it. And I was one of the main hosts and journalists for the network. And I got to do that for five, six years, learning from the best of the best Peabody Award winning storytellers. And I exited the network when, you know, after I felt like I had gotten my, you know, my mileage out of it and I was trying to figure out where I was going to go with my career. I likened myself in that phase of my career to being a stem cell. I was undifferentiated, and I was trying to figure out really what, you know, what was next for me at this new.

You're such a dork at this point. Like, you just pulled total science geek. So it's awesome.

I love it.

I'm a total dork.

And.

Yeah. And so, like, in that. In that downtime when my career was in this really critical point where I had to really figure out what I was going to do back in my personal life. I started spending more and more time in New York City around my mom. And it became very apparent to me and my two younger brothers that my mom began to display symptoms of memory loss at a very young age. She was about 58 at the time, and it had seemed as though her. Her brain's processing speed had downshifted. And this coincided with a change to her gait. She started to walk with more of a shuffle as opposed to a stride. And it just was extremely unsettling to me and my brothers, especially given the fact that we didn't have any prior family history of any kind of neurodegenerative disease or movement disorder was she aware of it too. She, she began complaining of brain fog. But she, you know, there was no inkling, there was no hint that what she had could have been any kind of neurodegenerative disease, because again, we didn't have it in our family tree. So it was confusing. It was confusing for all of us. And because I had the time and the wherewithal being having a lifelong interest in nutrition and health, I actually was pre med for the first two years of college. I've always had a lifelong passion for health. I decided to go with my mom to her doctor's appointments just to see what I could, you know, just to be on a fly on the wall, to see if I could offer any kind of insight or ask questions that maybe my mom, in her, in her fear and confusion and helplessness, you know, didn't think to ask. And we ended up going from hospital to hospital, some of the best neurology departments in the United States. And in every instance, we experienced what I've come to describe as diagnose and adios. Unfortunately, though, it wasn't until a trip to the Cleveland Clinic that for the first time, my mom had a diagnosis. And there in Ohio, she was for the first time prescribed drugs for both Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. And at that point, it was sort of like my world was coming to an end. And it was the first time in my life I'd ever had a panic attack. And I just began researching and googling and looking into the etiology of Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease to try to figure out how this may have happened to my mom. And in tandem with that, I was really interested to know how I might prevent this from happening to myself. One of the most shocking things that I discovered early, very early on in my research is that most of the time dementia begins in the brain decades before the first symptom of memory loss. 30 to 40 years, and by some accounts even further along than that. So it became really this fixation on learning everything I possibly could about the brain and how nutrition and lifestyle affect its predilection for disease. And then ultimately I became very interested in how these same things affect its moment to moment functioning.

So what's, what's going on with your mom now? Just gotta ask.

Yeah, of course she has a sort of niche form of dementia that, you know, for better or worse, there's a lot less research on it. So we, you know, her, her trajectory seems a bit different. She seems stable. And I've tried to really Kind of like throw all of my dietary learnings onto her. But at a certain point, I realized that I had to teach more gently and then step back because, you know, people live ultimately.

Yeah, yeah. No, my dad had cancer, and I was like, okay, here we go. And he's like, back off.

Yeah, well, you and I are very similar. Like, we were motivated by personal story, you know, by personal tragedy, really. But at the same time, we're dealing with people, with humans, with other, you know, loved ones. And so for me, it became very important to not sacrifice the quality time that I was spending with my mom for my own.

And she also sees you as her kid. So you got your kid, there's no profit in your hometown, and you got to pick your shots. And that's what. I actually had an amazing mentor at the time. My dad was dying of cancer who said, you know, you're his daughter, not his nutritionist here. You just gotta back that one off. I was like, okay, so I got to pick one thing I could do for him. So I totally get what you're coming, you know, where you're coming from with it, but now you get to help a ton of people because of all the work that you did. So.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I, you know, I don't pretend to be a medical doctor. I. I really just, you know, started as a citizen scientist. I mean, I. And a journalist, obviously. I have medical. I mean, I have media credentials that really I was able to use as my calling card to access researchers and scientists that very few people have access to. And at a certain point, I, you know, inevitably have become a walking meta analysis for this. For this topic, because I'm just. I'm so obsessed with it. And I also think that there's a fundamental limitation, actually, that doctors have when it comes to communicating science. I mean, first of all, scientists are not equipped to communicate research. And they also very much are focused on these really small areas, which is how science works, which is, you know, incredible. But my experience with my mom and being not. Not coming from any sort of preconception and bias, I've really been able to see the forest for the trees. I've been able to kind of get a broad view of the landscape which most medical doctors, especially today in the reductionist way in which our healthcare system operates, aren't able to do. So it's given me a very unique perspective, I think.

And you know what? I love what Naveen Jain says about that. He says, you know, it often takes someone outside of an industry to come in with solutions. And I've always felt like I was able to do that in weight loss because I wasn't single. Focus. I was like, what are all the different things? So I love that you look came in here and went, all right, what are all the different things that we can look at here? And I know that you've looked at food and exercise and then different lifestyle things. So let's dive into food, because everyone on this podcast always wants food. Definitely about the food. Like, you know, so what are yours? Like, what are. What are the things? Because I know when I was writing Sugar Impact Diet, it was crazy. The information on elevated blood sugar, just. Just slightly elevated blood sugar, increasing your risk of dementia five fold. So I. I'm betting that one of the first things and biggest things you can do is switch what's at the end of your fork.

Absolutely. Jada. Yeah.

Amen. I can get an amen on that.

You can get an amen.

All right. And I know that we're going to be giving some really cool stuff out around food supplements, all that, but let's dive into, like, the best foods, too, that you should be.

Yeah. So in the book, I call them genius foods. I've co opted the term superfoods, and I've created a new category of food called genius foods, for which these are foods for which there's a strong body of evidence to say these foods can help your brain function at its best and help preserve it in the long term against diseases like Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease. Given everything that we currently know, there are still many unknowns. But based on my assessment of the literature, I pick out these 10 foods which represent categories. But ultimately, you know, I go to town on avocados in the book.

Yay.

We are all avocado fans over here.

Yes. I highlight them as being the ultimate genius food. In fact, avocados are actually shaped. Their shape actually makes me think of them as being like a bomb that you drop on oxidative stress in the body and in the brain. They're packed with multiple forms of vitamin E. So vitamin E just doesn't come in one form. Avocados actually contain multiple forms, alpha and gamma. And this is really important because vitamin E is a fat soluble antioxidant that protects fatty structures. And the brain is the fattiest structure in the body. It's comprised of fat. And so you're getting this abundance of vitamin E, you're getting a boatload of carotenoids, lutein and zeaxanthin in particular in Avocado have been shown to boost brain processing speed. You're getting twice the potassium of a banana to nurture all of those delicate blood vessels that make up the blood brain barrier. And, of course, healthy fats. Avocados are rich in monounsaturated fat, which is the healthiest kind of fat to consume liberally.

And they just make your smoothie awesome.

They make your smoothie awesome.

Smoothie awesome. You know, you can make guacamole, plus you can make pudding from them. Mousse.

Oh, my God.

Okay, we're right down with that. Okay, what's next?

Next, you got dark, leafy greens. So in a recent study out of Rush University, it's been shown that the consumption of dark leafy greens is associated with reduced brain aging by up to 11 years. So what I. A rule that I set in my book for my readers is try to eat a large, fatty salad every single day. And the base of that salad should be dark leafy greens. Not iceberg lettuce, but greens like kale, spinach, and arugula, which provide vital micronutrients that your brain needs to not only create energy, but mop up oxidative stress and repair against DNA damage.

Okay, let's just bash for a moment. I just. I just. As we're sitting down, I just had that salad for lunch, so just wanted to brag, but you. You mentioned a bad word. You mentioned iceberg, which is like the junk food of lettuce. Tell us why.

Yeah, because it's essentially water and fiber. It's not very green, so there's not even a lot of chlorophyll in it. It's mostly just cellulose and water. And, you know, most people. For most people, eating a salad is their healthiest meal of the day. I mean, when people really go there to eat a salad, I feel like that salad, that opportunity should be maximized to include greens that actually have the nutrients that you're eating that salad for the sole purpose of getting. And iceberg lettuce is just very deficient in that sense. I mean, there are very few nutrients in it. It's also, from an environmental standpoint, I mean, think about all the effort that has to go into transporting iceberg lettuce, which, again, is just water in an expensive form of packaging. So.

Yeah, I look at you. It's just like a pesticide receptacle.

Yeah. Yeah.

All right, so we got avocado, deep green, leafy. It's like running commentary on food. I love all the research you have on it. So good.

Oh my God.

So important.

I'm a big fan of grass fed beef. Grass fed beef, I believe, is a health food. Researchers speculate that it's the consumption of both marine and land animals that help catalyze the growth of our brains. In fact, cooking those animals and animal meat really, it's believed, provided the explosion of both caloric and nutrient density that helped grow our brains into the modern supercomputer that they are today. So getting grass fed beef is very important. And actually there was very compelling research performed out of Deakin University's Food and Mood center that found that women who didn't consume three to four servings of red meat per week were twice as likely to suffer from major depression than women who consume that amount.

Oh my gosh, I need that study.

It's funny, I was with a girlfriend last night and I eat grass fed beef a couple times a week, usually like four or more, because that's how I feel best. And she has been off of it for months. And I was like, why do you. Why are you off grass fed beef? And she's like, oh, I just feel like my body needs a break. I'm like, no, it doesn't. You know, and she's prone to depression. I gotta get that. I gotta get that study for her.

Yeah. I mean, if I recall, there's a relationship between people who opt for vegan diets and depression, but it's unclear what, what the direction of causality is.

There could be so many problems there. Besides the Omega 3 issues, you know, they think they're getting everything they need from flaxseed. Come on, come on.

Right?

Come on. Unless you're like digging into some algae, you're not, you're not getting. There's so many things between that and taurine and carnitine. You're like, blah. Anyway.

Exactly.

Okay, so grass fed beef, we are completely down on that. What else we got?

Fatty fish, wild salmon, really important source of DHA fat, which is one of the most critical brain building blocks that you can consume. And wild salmon is also. It's the pigment that gives salmon its characteristic red color is owed to a carotenoid called astaxanthin. So I talked earlier about plant carotenoids, lutein and zeaxanthin. Well, there's a unique marine carotenoid found in salmon that's been shown to activate longevity gene pathways by up to 90%. It's just a boss at reducing oxidative stress and guarding fatty structures and neuronal cel Membranes against inflammation. And so this is one of the reasons why wild salmon seems to be so protective at the population level. And people that consume fish and seafood habitually tend to have sharper memories, even when they're young and healthy. So, I mean, this is definitely something worth paying attention to.

And what are you recommending in terms of how many servings a week for that?

I recommend two to three servings. One is fine. And if you're going to consume less than that, I think, you know, getting a high quality fish oil is important every single day. I think it's important to get at least some preformed fish fat, whether that is from a can of sardines or, you know, wild salmon or just a high quality fish oil. I think this is all really key in terms of keeping that pipeline open to your brain for these really essential building blocks. You know, we now know that the brain continues to mold itself up until death. And so supplying your brain with the building blocks required to do so. Very important. That's. Yeah, that's critical.

Yes, yes. All right. Okay. So fish. And number five.

Number five. Number five. I'm a big fan of eggs. There is very good research on eggs. Even people that are genetically at risk for cardiovascular disease eating an egg a day doesn't seem to influence.

Oh, that is so ridiculous, too. I once proved a point and I gave someone three eggs a day for two, three weeks and, you know, no impact. Actually, it was for three months. Zero impact. It's the only. If you have a food intolerance, that's. That's it, you know.

Yeah, exactly. I mean, the fact that egg yolks influence blood cholesterol has been debunked. And there is. There is still a small minority of people that might have an exaggerated response to it. These are called cholesterol hyper absorbers. But still, for the vast majority of people, do not fear the yolks. In fact, you know, when an embryo is developing, the first structure to develop is the nervous system, which includes the brain. So therefore, an egg yolk is literally designed by nature to contain all of the ingredients required to grow a healthy brain. This is critical stuff. And so I. Eggs are definitely what I consider a genius food.

If you want to protein, more protein, you got to eat the yolk with the white. And it's the white that usually causes all the food intolerance reactions. So, yeah, don't fear those yolks. That's very important.

Good.

Do not.

Do not.

Yeah.

Okay. So what about what we shouldn't be eating?

Great question. So you know, I think a lot of people at this point have heard that sugar, especially added sugar, is not healthy. So I do, I do go into detail on exactly why that is from the perspective of the brain. So one of the things that sugar does is it when we eat it constantly throughout the day, which most Americans are doing, it keeps an ancestral hormone called insulin chronically elevated. And 40% of Alzheimer's cases, JJ might be owed to chronically elevated insulin alone. So one of the top recommendations I make in the book is to keep tight reins on your body's insulin production. And the number one way to do that is to eat less processed, concentrated sources of carbohydrates. I mean, again, your average American is consuming about 300 grams of carbs per day, mostly in the form of what are called ultra processed foods. And so skimming that off the top, critically important. I also talk a lot in the book about the danger of polyunsaturated grain and seed oils like canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, and grapeseed oil.

Is canola oil still, like around is this healthy thing? It makes me nuts. Like, what the heck's going on?

You know what it is? It's marketing. And it's also the fact that, you know canola oil, relative to other grain and seed oils, does have a high amount of omega 3s in it, which people know omega 3s are good. We're under consuming them. And so food manufacturers have exploited that to say, look, canola oil has omega 3s, therefore it's good for you. But actually, omega 3s, when contained in whole foods and very high quality fish oil, those are great for you. But when Omega 3s are contained in these ultra processed oils, they actually become even worse for you than omega sixes, because omega threes are actually more prone to damage and oxidation. It's kind of complicated as to why. Omega threes have more double bonds in their chemical structure, which basically makes them more vulnerable to oxidation.

So it's actually fragile. These are just. These are fragile, fragile fats that are great when they're as nature intended. And then when you unlock them, you open them up to be damaged fats and you make a good thing bad.

Well said. So that makes canola oil very damaging. And actually all of these processed oils, canola oil, grapeseed oil, corn oil, soybean oil, they all undergo a chemical form of processing called deodorization, which is meant to make sure that these oils have no odor and no flavor. This is exactly why processed food manufacturers love them, because they can squeeze Them into every box of cereal, every granola bar. They can use them to coat nuts and, and dried fruit. But this process actually creates trans fats, which are the most damaging forms of fats to consume. And I think a lot of your listeners, because your listeners are very savvy, know that the, the number one source of trans fats in the diet are from hydrogenated oils, which thankfully have been recently banned by the fda. But actually, the mere processing of these grain and seed oils create them inadvertently. And so just by consuming, you know, even if it's organic, non GMO canola oil, it's an entry point in your body for, for these highly damaging trans fats that are associated with accelerated brain shrinkage, with worse memory function even when you're young and healthy, and increased risk of early mortality. So very damaging. Very damaging stuff.

Yeah.

What more do you need to know? Increased risk of death and brain shrinkage. Just walk away, you know, And I think it's important because it's just like there's a highly processed oil we want to go to un. And minimally processed, and whenever something's been processed to have a higher shelf life.

Get away.

Exactly, exactly. Processing foods of any kind usually leads to bad news, whether it's grains and carbs or oils. I mean, you want foods that are minimally processed. And I'm also just generally speaking, you know, now that the pendulum has swing in the other direction, where it's finally become, you know, known by the lay public that fat is back. You know, we've demonized fat for so long, and now it's, you know, thank God people are starting to integrate healthy forms of fat back into their diets in the form of avocado and extra virgin oil and things like that. But I'm actually not a big fan of excessive added fats to the diet either. I mean, you know, we in the fitness community, we've been saying for years that, you know, you shouldn't drink your calories, right? And this is certainly the case with sugar. But now I find that a lot of people are just going to town with all the added fats, just soaking their food oils and butter and things like that, and coconut oil, which, look, these fats might be good for you when, when consumed in. In small amounts, but that doesn't mean that we should literally drown our food in them either.

Right, Very good point. It comes down to. It's interesting how we always seem to pick one food, one macronutrient.

Go.

Okay, this is it. It's like, guys, it's a Balance. It's always been a balance, you know. Right, exactly. All right, so we've got oils. What's another one?

Yeah, so the other, you know, just going back to processing food. One of the other major toxins in the modern food supply is dietary emulsifiers or processed food emulsifiers. These emulsifiers are added to processed foods to give them a creamy mouth feel and to make, you know, textures and foods and ingredients that don't normally go together very well soluble so that they can, you know, create ice creams and nut milks and things like that. But these chemicals have actually been shown in animal models to, to be highly disruptive to the gut bacteria, driving inflammation and metabolic syndrome. So, you know, I mean, a lot of people in the health community tend to point their finger at sugar for creating things like insulin resistance as being the soul smoking gun. Right. But here we have a new axis through which what we eat can drive insulin resistance and it's through driving inflammation in the gut. So these dietary emulsifiers, specifically to your readers that want to really look out for these two chemicals, the two that were studied in particular are called carboxymethylcellulose and polysorbate 80. Those are kind of mouthful chemical names, but those were shown in this, in this animal study to cause a dramatic increase in inflammation in the gut and essentially degrade the, the bacterial ecosystem in which the microbiota. The microbiota in your large intestine reside to the point where it was driving inflammation and insulin resistance. And so all without consuming, you know, any carbohydrates, you can essentially consume these emulsifiers, which basically strip the gut lining, driving inflammation and insulin resistance and putting you at risk for things like Alzheimer's disease, which is very closely tethered to insulin resistance, research shows. Okay, yeah.

So I mean, here's the thing that I think is important too. It's never just one thing, right? You know, we always want to point to the one thing, but it's never the one thing. And in every macronutrient category, there's great stuff and there's crap stuff. Like you mentioned, grass fed beef. Well, there's corn fed beef, totally different thing. Just like there's wild salmon and farm salmon, and then in oils, you know, there's way better choices of cold pressed, minimally processed oils versus like these, you know, completely processed, crappy things exposed to light. So every single, every single food group has its, has its winners and losers in here. And the losers can all contribute to doom. Doom.

Absolutely. You know, the modern food environment has become toxic to the needs of our brains. And even when we're checking all of the boxes in accordance with the dietary guidelines that we are literally spoon fed by our government, those recommendations don't account for the specific needs of the delicate and damage prone human brain. And so that's why ingenious foods. I really take a strong evolutionary stance and I highlight the foods and the nutrients that really have been shown to boost, to not only boost brain function, but that were critical for the evolution of our brains. You know, where each, every single person listening to this podcast is heir to the universe's most advanced supercomputer. But day in and day out, it doesn't often feel like that because so many of us are struggling with brain fog from anxiety, from depression, from memory problems. I mean, that's why today, JJ, 1 in 7 younger people between the ages of 18 and 39 complain of memory problems. And that, that figure, that incidence increases the older a person gets. One in six adults takes a psychiatric drug. So, I mean, clearly our brains are struggling in the modern, in the modern food environment and with the lifestyles and the stresses that we've become saddled with. But, you know, healthy, proper, optimal brain function should be a right for every single person. And too frequently today, it's a privilege afforded to too few.

But you know, what's cool is it doesn't have to be because, and I love that you've put this book out there because this isn't like you're having to go to some, you know, expensive clinic. This is just food. And I know in the book you talk exercise and other lifestyle things, but I want to end with. Because we're, I'm like going, all right, I have so many more questions and we're up against the clock here, but I do want to just end with just your thoughts on, after all the research that you've done, do you think that we can actually prevent dementia?

Yes, I think that we can prevent dementia for a significant number of people. It's unclear whether all cases of dementia are preventable. I mean, certainly, you know, we were at the very tip of the iceberg in terms of understanding all of the many things that are involved in the etiology of, of dementia. You know, I mean, there are multiple types of dementia and 90% of what we know about Alzheimer's disease has only been discovered in the last 15. So this is a rapidly evolving field of science. But I do think that for late onset Alzheimer's disease, which is by far the most common form of Alzheimer's disease burdening society today. I do think that a very significant amount of cases are preventable. The research that I've reviewed from Lancet Neurology estimates that one third of cases at least might be preventable, but depending on what analysis you look at, even more than that, 2/3 to all may be preventable, depending on environmental risk factors, genes, toxic exposures and things like that. So I can't say with certainty yet, but I do think, and based on all of the experts that I talked to over the course of writing the book, that your average person has a tremendous say in their cognitive health and their cognitive destiny. And the reality is the earlier you can begin adhering to these principles, the better off you're going to be.

So that is a big shout out. Get the book. It's available now everywhere and you can get on Amazon. It's called Genius Foods. And you also have a cool giveaway for everybody that I'll include in the show notes@jjvirgin.com Max L. Talk about that.

Yeah. So we have the Genius Guide to Hacking Restaurants and Supermarkets. So essentially I've created a guide to make any restaurant dining experience as healthy as humanly possible. And I've also given you in that same guide, a companion to supermarket shopping. So ingenious foods. You're going to get a full shopping list. But I really go into detail on how to really curate your food environment so as to make the best use of your willpower, which is to say to not have to use it all that often and to essentially be able to stack the odds in your favor so that when you go to the supermarket, you know what to look out for. You'll learn specific tactics to make shopping for healthy food as easy as possible. Healthy swaps, I like to call them. So things that you might really enjoy that might not be the best in terms of promoting health. I offer you some very sort of healthy alternatives to make that switch over to a healthier lifestyle as easy as possible.

Cool. We are big on healthy swaps here. So again, everybody grab that@jjvirgin.com Max L. And Max, let's see if I can say it right.

Lugavir.

Yeah, Perfect.

All right.

Thank you so much for your time today. I super appreciate all of your wisdom bombs that you've just shared with our community.

Thank you so much, jj. It's an honor. And please keep doing what you do. You're a true inspiration.

Thank you.

All right.

Now after the break, I'll be answering a listener's question. So stay with me.

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Welcome back. This is the time where I answer a listener's question. And I grab these. Gosh, I grab them from everywhere. I grab them from our customer experience team and especially from my Facebook page, JJ Virgin Official, and my Instagram feed @JJ Virgin. And when I do lives there and some over on YouTube too. So, like, pop on wherever you see fit or join me in all places, especially when I go live. And I just wanted to bring up this question from Carrie, who says, jj, I live out in the country, and it's not so easy to get fresh fruits and vegetables all the time. Which should I choose? Canned? Dried? Frozen? What works the best? All right, actually, so here's the interesting thing, Carrie, thanks for this one. Is frozen, when you think about it, actually, a lot of times is better than fresh. Yes, you heard me right. Because generally these plants are picked at the height, the peak of the season, the peak of when they should be picked and frozen. So oftentimes I'll pick frozen over fresh just because of that reason. Like, you know, if you've been one of those people who buys berries, puts them in the fridge, and then by the time you get around to using them, they're like, gross and moldy. You know what I'm talking about? So what I keep at home is I keep frozen cauliflower rice. I keep mixed wild mushrooms. I keep these peppers and onions, and I keep frozen spinach, and I keep frozen cherries and berries. So I always have those. Oh, and I also freeze my avocados so that I put them in my smoothies. So that's what I do there. The only canned vegetables I use, and this is where I want you to use jarred tomato sauce, not canned. So wherever possible, use jarred. If you have to get a can, then make sure that it's BPA free because the acidicness, acidity of the tomatoes will leach out the bad stuff from the cans. We use all jarred marinara sauces, but I also use chunky tomatoes in those I have to get in those cans. Other than that, those are the only. I will do. Jarred artichoke hearts and jarred hearts and palms and that's it. Everything else I do fresh or I do frozen, but I think frozen is such a great alternative just for the reason I told you. And also then you can make sure you never run out. So you want to have a well stocked freezer, fridge, and pantry. And I actually have not one freezer a spare because I have my fridge in my house and then I have two. Two freezers out in my garage and an extra fridge and then I have another fridge out my outdoor living room. It's a little excessive, but I like to entertain, so. And they're absolutely stuffed full with stuff from Butcherbox. Vital choice. No foods. So I make good use of them. And of course, all of my dry farm wines. Whole fridge of that. All right, there you go again. Jump on over to my Facebook and Instagram and hang out with me and I'll grab your questions and put them up here. The other thing I like to always do is every week I thank someone for posting an awesome review on itunes. Thank you so much for doing that. It helps so much. And this one was from Healthy Happy Deb. And Healthy Happy Deb gave me a big, excellent podcast, five stars and a thank you, jj. And again, I really appreciate all of these reviews. They help a ton. You know, people are sitting here trying to figure out what they should listen to, and they see your review and go, I'll check that out. So it matters. All right, thank you so much. I will see you next time.

Bye.

That's all for this episode of the JJ Virgin Lifestyle show, which marks another step towards a healthier body and mind. Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe to the show, and we'll talk to you next week.

Foreigners. This is Anne Bogle, author, blogger, and creator of the podcast what Should I Read next? Since 2016, I've been helping readers bring more joy and delight into their reading lives. Every week, I take all things books and reading with a guest and guide them in discovering their next read. They share three books they love, one book they don't, and what they've been reading lately. And I recommend three titles they may enjoy reading next. Guests have said our conversations are like therapy, troubleshooting issues that have plagued their reading lives for years and possibly the rest of their lives as well. And of course, recommending books that meet the moment, whether they are looking for deep introspection to spur or encourage a life change or a frothy page turner to help them escape the stresses of work, school, everything. You'll learn something about yourself as a reader, and you'll definitely walk away confident to choose your next read, with a whole list of new books and authors to try. So join us each Tuesday for what Should I Read Next? Subscribe now wherever you're listening to this podcast and Visit our website, whatshouldireadnextpodcast.com to find out more.