Eat Healthy and Eco-Friendly Foods, with Stacie De Lucia

People think that eating out at healthy places is healthy, right? Like, we're hoping that something says Whole Foods on it, it's going to be healthy. And unfortunately, that's not the case because they have to mass produce things.

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We are really excited today to have Stacey Della Chio, and she is our Five Journeys nutritionist. And I know I learned something new every time I speak to her, so I'm really excited to talk and see what new things I can learn.

Let me tell you about Stacy. Stacy's a registered dietitian nutritionist, and she studied at the University of Delaware. She's currently pursuing a master's degree in functional nutrition. Because one degree wasn't enough, she's got to get another one. She's worked on organic farms in Hawaii and Italy, and really her passion lies in learning and teaching people about sustainable agriculture and holistic healing through whole foods and lifestyle. We're so excited to have you here today, Stacey.

Thank you. Oh, thank you, guys. It's so good to be here.

So we really want to know, why does the quality of food matter?

Big loaded question, right? So I'm sure everyone has heard the saying food is medicine. So really, to me, food is our first line of defense to keep our bodies healthy, whole, balanced, you know, as our medicine source. And then later on, we use it as a defense against, for our immune system, keeping all our systems balanced, our microbiome. We'll go more into detail on that. But what's inside of our food is really important specifically for the chemical composition of our body. So really interacts with everything, our gut, our brain, to keep us and make us a whole person that's functioning properly.

Yeah. And the quality for me is huge because there's such a big difference right now in this world between the commercial petroleum based foods that are loaded with chemicals and herbicides and pesticides, and then the organic stuff that has to fend for itself and has all the micronutrients and phytonutrients that it needs to really grow. So I think it's a huge, huge topic.

I'm not sure people in general know that about organic foods. Actually, I think that's something really huge that the organic foods have to fight for their right to grow. And the foods that are treated with pesticides, herbicides and insecticides, they get their work done for them. So they grow, but they don't develop the same level of nutrients and antioxidants. I think that's a really critical thing to underscore for people.

Yeah, there's a big debate about organic, conventional. And what does that even mean? You know, that term natural is thrown around a lot, which absolutely means nothing anyone can put natural on their label. But organic has to go through all these different stipulations, so it's more regulated, and it's a way that we can have more control over our food. Because most of the time, we're not the ones that are growing it, picking it, seeing it, getting processed. So things that are organic, we can have some kind of trust there that there's no antibiotics added, no hormones, pesticides and herbicides are from naturally derived sources. The animals are being raised in a more humane way. There's no artificial colors, flavors, and things like that. So it is a good rule of thumb when you're looking for produce and meat and dairy products and all of that to try to go for organic with that USDA symbol on it to make sure that it's trusted and to.

Some extent, so why do we care? All right, so it's organic. Great. What's in it for me is really what I think. A lot of people are asking it. Okay, it's nice to have no herbicides, pesticides, but how does it help me?

Why pay the cost?

Exactly. Yep. So it really goes back to making sure your body is functioning properly. And sometimes we don't see that until we start to break down. So I know in our functional medicine practice, sometimes we're a last resort for people. They haven't really cared about what they've been eating their whole life. They've lived a sedentary lifestyle. They've had high stress, trauma, things like that. And then all of a sudden, it's like a light switch turns on or off, and the body starts to break down and all of these symptoms start happening, and they're wondering what went wrong. But it's a matter of living a certain lifestyle with this high value of food so that we can prevent that from happening, where it all comes crashing down. So it's really about kind of living this lifestyle to make sure that all the systems are running properly. We don't see it. It's like, if you want to See how a car is running, you can look under the hood. But for us, we get testing and things like that. But most people don't really look at their bodies and how they're feeling. They're not so intuitive about it until things start to. Systems start to shut down. So it's really important to know where your food is coming from because you're putting it directly into your body and it's affecting all of those mechanisms going on. So sometimes we don't think about that until the worst happens. So this is kind of a good awareness for people to think about, okay, maybe I should not eat out every single day of the week. Maybe I should start looking at what's in my food and start reading labels so I don't have to spend so much money on medical bills later on. I mean, obesity is like the billions of dollars per year in our country on trying to treat it. Rather than if we focused on prevention, we'd be saving all that money and be able to put it in something else. So it's a big issue that people don't realize, but that's why we're here talking about this.

The other thing that I would jump off of, on top of what it does in your body is the absence of the herbicides, insecticides and pesticides all on the earth is profound because what happens to the soil and the animals that are exposed to the downstream effects of these. I'll just say pesticides as a big grouping of herbicides, insecticides and pesticides altogether because it causes frogs to convert from male to female and it changes the reproductive systems of other animals and it damages the soil long term. So not only I would say sometimes I might not do it for myself, but I might do it for the earth because it's so harmful to the earth to put these things on it. So that's the second argument for why do it?

And then I'll jump off that. And if your microbiome. So the bacteria in our gut, which we know have profound health implications long term. And we know that that's something that's coming up every day where the scientists are discovering new ways. That's actually our microbiome is a reflection of the microbiome of the soil. So if we put pesticides and herbicides in our bodies, we mess up our microbiome and they're messing up our health.

Yeah, I love talking about gut health. It's like I pretty much talk about it in every single session that I have with somebody because I think awareness is happening more with it. Because everyone knows what that means now, but they don't necessarily know how important it is. So I remember first hearing about the human microbiome project and while researching the soil microbiome, it came up that there's now an Earth microbiome project because they're realizing that the microbiome of the soil is really affecting the whole environment and the ecosystem. And we're getting that as well. So it's really affecting human health. So I love that you brought that up with the sustainability piece. Because we might not only be doing it for ourselves, but it's about the land that we're living in, the resources that we're using up, and our children. And our children, children, you know, kind of looking out for them to make sure that it's place that they'll have the same experiences that we did growing up that we loved, you know, going out and going to farms and getting to pick fresh produce and not having to worry about, you know, necessarily washing it so much or like, you know, all the other things that we might have to worry about now and kind of helping preserve that so we can feed our families and our communities too. Something that I like to think about is when we were younger, we would be outside playing in the dirt, right? Like we weren't necessarily eating it, we were playing in it. And so that was really actually contributing to our microbiome. Even us adults, we've been confined for a year and we're not exposed to people. When you shake somebody's hand, when you talk to them, you're kind of exchanging bacteria in a good way, right? Like you're keeping your microbiome healthy. So when we don't do that, we're wearing masks. We have to, right? But we're kind of missing out on a lot of things that would help keep our microbiome healthy. So it's really important to be connected to going outside, getting your hands dirty, touching trees, leaves, things like that. It's also grounding. So for spiritual health as well, it's important, especially again, since we've been so confined to our spaces, our inside boxes. It's important now more than ever and for mental health too, to be able to have that relaxation. Because a lot of us are just stressed all the time and our bodies don't know the difference between being chased by a tiger in the jungle or being stressed at our desk because something's going on at work. So we're always in that fight or flight response. And when we're able to pull ourselves out of it and be Outside for a little bit. That's why I love going on a walk on lunch break. It totally changes our mentality to be refreshed and renewed so we can live a lower stress life. So a little bit of background on the microbiome. It's 75% of our immunity, our immune system. So it's important now more than ever, because we need that to keep us healthy, keep us safe. So when it's compromised, we're immunocompromised. That's where a lot of people are getting autoimmune conditions now. So that's number one. Secondly, I'm sure a lot of our listeners have heard of the gut brain axis, or the gut being the second brain. That's because it's its own separate nervous system and it produces 95% of our serotonin. 95. That's almost 100%. So that's our happiness hormone. That helps us sleep, it helps us digest, it helps our hunger cues. And so a lot of things that we're seeing in mental health now could be directly linked with the gut. So it's really important to make sure that our gut is healthy and the soil is a huge piece of that. So I know this is a recent topic for me that I have been looking into, because I don't really think about it too much. I've heard about rotating crops to keep the soil nutrient dense and nitrogen and oxygen and carbon and things like that that it needs, but it has its own little microbiota in there. So it has fungus and bacteria that work together to be its own ecosystem to help the plants thrive. So it's like if the plants had a gut, like a stomach or a microbiome, that's what the soil is for them. So they're taking that up. So when we eat something, like when we go pick those berries out there, or even root vegetables like carrots and radishes and just kind of rinse it off, we're getting a lot of the bacteria that we need to keep our gut diverse. Because if we have too high levels of certain types, not enough of others, that's when this dysbiosis starts happening, where we get thrown off and we start getting irritable bowel syndrome or bloating gas, things like that. So keeping it healthy with having nutrient dense soil is important. So all these pesticides and herbicides, the word is right in there, pesticides, bugs, right? Like they're killing the good bugs in the soil. Just like when you use, like the antibacterial soap and things it's killing all the bacteria, not just the bad ones. So the same thing goes for all these sprays. So it's using, you know, using all these things is killing all that. So it's depleting the soil of these nutrients.

Talk to us about meat.

Meat, yeah, we need to care about meat because it's a hormonal food, right? Like we're eating an animal that has hormones. So that's going to affect our hormones in our body. And I know in our practice we see a lot of patients with hormonal issues and that might not be the only source that it's coming from, but it's a big contributing factor to kind of throwing them off balance. So if you think about an animal that's out being pasture raised, grass fed, grass finished or organic practices where they're out, they're able to graze or able to be not confined. Eating healthy things that their bodies are used to and know how to process. It's way less inflammatory to the body than something like an animal that's packed in together. They're constantly stressed because they don't know what's happening. They're eating grains like corn and even wheat and soy where their stomachs can't process it. It's causing a ton of inflammation in their bodies. People get kind of. They want to eat steak all the time because it tastes good and all of that and it feels good to have a nice steak. But we have to really figure out, like, where is this coming from and what is it going to be doing to my body? So we always, I know we talk about looking for those keywords, grass fed, grass finished, pasture raised, um, and then the USDA organic symbol. And then, you know, local's great too, because you can talk to the farmer. So you can like go there, you can see the animals if you want to. I know that might be triggering for some people, but you can go and, and see the practices. You can see them getting fed, you can see them getting taken care of, and you can ask the farmer. So that's why I love farmers markets, because the people that work there are there. So you can say, hey, like I care about my food, so tell me how the animals are raised. I know in our area we have one that some of our patients use called Walden Local. And so they usually have pretty good practices as well. And they do a lot of transparency, like Q&As for people. So something like that in our listeners other areas is good to look into. Even meat shares, it's a really cost Effective way to have meat, especially if you have kids, you know, or a big family you have to feed. You know, buying a lot at one time will definitely pay off in the long run. And making sure it's good quality helps with that as well. Yeah.

I'd also love to put a plug in for the local farmers who are not quite as big as Walden. We actually bought a whole cow, whom we named Bessie. I don't know why. Bessie just seemed all right. We bought a whole cow from a local farmer who's about an hour away from us. And I always felt like we were doing sort of this drug deal. We'd meet in the parking lot of a bank or a closed store, and we can we transfer all this meat from his trunk to my trunk? I mean, we couldn't even get it all at once because it was so much meat. I think it was three separate trips. But he's not USDA organic certified, but it is organic. And so I also put a plug in for the local guys who might not have the size of the organization to be able to get the certification, but who are also right next door doing organic work.

And.

And I mean, I've never tasted something so. So flavorful from Bessie.

Thank you, Bessie. So, yeah, the other point that we want to make sure to get is what you were talking about, the stress. So when animals eat a lot of omega sixes, which is grains, that's a very inflammatory process. Naturally, animals graze or cows graze. Different animals, different things. But cows graze and they're getting a lot of greens and antioxidants and omega 3s, and that's against inflammation, that's anti inflammatory. So there's a huge difference between eating an 8 ounce steak that's conventionally grown and an 8 ounce steak that's organic. And people really don't get the difference because it looks the same, but one is really inflammatory, one does not. It's pretty profound.

Yeah. And the same thing goes for dairy, because it's the same animal.

I want to go back to something you referenced, Stacy, which where you said, maybe I won't eat out every night. Can you talk to us about the difference between home cooking and eating out every night? What difference does that make? Because I think for a lot of people, they are not necessarily cooking. And it feels like, well, I went to the Whole Foods bar and I ate the processed food, but it's whole food, so it's good food.

Sounds really good, right?

Right. Yep, yep. So something that I've noticed in our practice is that People think that eating out at healthy places is healthy, right? Like, we're hoping that something says whole foods on it, it's going to be healthy. And unfortunately, that's not the case because they have to mass produce things. So as a part of being a dietitian, you have to work in food service. So I've worked in school, school food service before. I've worked in, you know, you see the dining halls. I just remember being in college and we had to have a meal plan and I would feel so sick, but it was like salad and, you know, tofu. And it was like stuff that I wouldn't normally get sick off of. Like, maybe if I had dairy, I knew I'd feel kind of off. But if I had just a salad, you know what was wrong? Why was I feeling so sick after I ate? And a lot of it is the heavy processed oils and all of the additives that we don't see. Like, you see the big trucks come in with all of the big boxes that they buy in bulk to feed all these people, and it's a lot of heavy oils. Corn, canola, soy. Just products that are really heavy in preservatives that you wouldn't think are in the foods. And so I think growing up, I was very privileged to have a dietitian as a mom. Even though sometimes I resented it. I wanted to go to my friend's house and raid their cabinet with all of the. The gushers and fruit roll ups and things like that. I learned that I was very privileged. And so I think my body was used to eating so clean that when I went away to school, on top of the stress of being in school, the food, my body just wanted to reject it. It was like, what is this? This doesn't make me feel good. And so the same thing goes for eating out. Even if you can physically see what's in it and you think it's good, there might be a lot of other oils and preservatives and things in there that your body doesn't really want. It's not going to help it. It wants to fight. So I always talk to patients about taking enzymes when they go out to help break down the foods that they're not used to, and they notice a world of difference. So that's a really good question to talk about. Yeah.

Yeah, that's profound. And I found that no matter how organic a restaurant is, it's still not as good as home. There's just something about cooking at home.

That he's got to say that because he's married to his co podcaster. He knows where his bread is. I have a question for you, Stacy, because I get this a lot from my patients. How do you prioritize it? So for example, is organic from California when we live in Boston area more important than non organic local? Like how do you prioritize what's more important?

And then what is the effect of driving a truck or flying or something on the environment?

So when you package it up, obviously the best would be organic from a local farmer down the street, doesn't have to travel and it's year round.

Actually, I'm going to say the best is grown in your own garden.

That's true.

That is true. We have a plethora of cucumbers right now. But assuming most people aren't going to do their own garden and can their own foods, how do you prioritize this?

Right, So I love talking about local for multiple reasons. One, like you just said, if the food is traveling from California, we live thousands of miles away from that. So the impact on the environment's not good at all because it's emitting all the fossil fuels. But it's also not great for our bodies either. Because if you think about it, and you guys know this because you garden a lot, once you pick something, it already starts losing nutrients because it's not attached to that source anymore. So think about something that was picked three weeks ago in California and, and it finally just made it to my plate. What's left besides maybe a little bit of water and some minerals? And then, you know, on top of cooking it, I'm probably cooking it, maybe I'm sauteing it or boiling it. Then there really isn't a lot left. Like it doesn't have much defense left. So I'd say local is number one. And also for the same reason of you can talk to the people who grow it. So even if it isn't USDA certified, because it is a hard certification to get and it costs money, you can talk to them about their spraying practices and their sustainable practices. So a lot of them are. They use terms like biodynamic. I know like Drumlin Farm near us also has like biodynamic practices. They don't use. They're not USDA certified, I don't think, but they use biodynamic practices. So they're regenerating the soil, they're using rain as their source of water rather than using a bunch of water and wasting it, because that's a big issue too. And they don't really, they don't use any. Like, all of their spray is like white clay, so it's naturally derived. It's not any harmful pesticides or herbicides. It's a really cool place. And there's a lot of small farmers that are trying to do more of this. And so supporting them, on top of all the other benefits we just mentioned, helps to keep the demand up so we can have these kinds of food because if the demand isn't there, then they might be forced into do conventional growing because like I said, it is kind of expensive to be all USDA certified and the regulations are really hard and things like that. So I think local for me would be number one for most of our patients for all of those reasons. Okay.

So, Stacy, thank you so much. This has been amazing.

Yeah, it's so great to talk with you guys about all this stuff I learn just by speaking it and then having you guys, you know, give me some insight, too. It's great. Yeah.

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