Balanced Bites Podcast: Episode #28 – Birth Control, Bikram Training & Coconut Milk Debate

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Topics:
1: Birth control advice?
2: Nine weeks of Bikram training, what to eat/bring without cooking?
3: Tropical oils leading to burning hands and feet.
4: Coconut milk debate: guar gum or BPA?

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LIZ WOLFE: Hey everyone, I'm Liz Wolfe, here with Diane Sanfilippo of Balanced Bites, and welcome to episode 28 of the Balanced Bites podcast. Time to get my productivity on. So I'll begin with our reminder that the materials and content contained in this podcast are for general information only, and are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. But this is a much better use of your time than watching the Kardashians, I know that from experience. So you can feel good…

DIANE SANFILIPPO: For sure.

LIZ WOLFE: Yup.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Can you believe now? This means that we've been friends for over 6 months because basically in case anyone doesn't know, I sort of roped Liz into being my friend, so that she could be my podcast co-host, and then…

LIZ WOLFE: We became friends shortly thereafter.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: You were much [xxx 00:53] after. I what?

LIZ WOLFE: I have a lot of people…I have a LOT of people in line to be my friend, but you had a much better dowry. I don't know…it's not a dowry, but you were offering a podcast. Other people were just offering, you know, handshakes and high fives, which is just not good enough for me at the time.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Mm. I see. Yeah, we were chatting this weekend and I had Bill and Hayley over here from Primal Palate, and who coincidentally, they just launched a new beta of a new website, the Food Lovers' Kitchen…

LIZ WOLFE: So good.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: And Tony Kasandrinos, from Kasandrinos.com olive oil, they were all here like, wait a minute, you guys are recording again, like how many episodes is that? And I said, 28, and they're like, wow, that's…you've passed the whole half year deal, so I can't even believe it's been that long. How do we still have anything to talk about?

LIZ WOLFE: [laughs] We don't. We don't at all.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: I know. Yeah.

LIZ WOLFE: Crickets. [laughs]

DIANE SANFILIPPO: So…crickets. So stuff to talk about, I know. And I'm like…I have to say, excuse me, because this week I'm just like kind of getting on the brink of a lot of stress writing stuff, getting stuff tied up for my book, and I'm really excited because it's now available for pre-order on both Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com, so I put up a blog post today about that. I had posted on Facebook about it…I think last week was probably the first time I'd seen it up there, maybe last week. I don't know. It's been close to a week now, I think. And I was super excited because in, I think that on the day that I told everyone it was released, a lot of people were signed up for my pre-order notification email that I put up from the Paleo Summit because I was hoping that it would be available for pre-order at that point, and it wasn't, so I had to just get people to come on and sign up for the email, and I think the day that I did that, people were really excited, which I'm like completely floored about, and the book hit number 411 on Amazon. The thing doesn't even have a cover on Amazon yet. Like the cover graphic isn't there, and just the outpouring of support from people to push this book to number 411 out of literally like over 8 million books, I was just…I'm floored.

LIZ WOLFE: That's awesome.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah, it was amazing, and I was also a little like scared, like holy, holy cow, I hope people are psyched about this thing when it gets in their hands because whoa, that was just really overwhelming. I mean, I have no idea what that really means for how many people grabbed a copy or pre-ordered it, but just to see it ranking that highly, I was just floored, and I felt really…just overwhelmed with gratitude for the people who are following what I'm doing, so thank you, if you're one of those people. Not you, Liz. I know you're like, I'm not buying that book. No, I'm just kidding.

LIZ WOLFE: [laughs]

DIANE SANFILIPPO: All of my friends will be forced to purchase a copy, just so you know.

LIZ WOLFE: Oh, totally.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: One more requirement of being my friend. Co-host the podcast with me, and purchase a copy of my book.

LIZ WOLFE: That's okay. I need to request the tequila next time we're in person.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: So, okay.

LIZ WOLFE: I think it's valid tradeoff. I think it's cool.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Okay. Not a problem. I can handle that. What's it like, 4 bucks for a shot or something?

LIZ WOLFE: No, I go for the good stuff, so it'll be Patron, so you're looking at 8, 9 bucks.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Shoot. Going to break the bank.

LIZ WOLFE: Yeah.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Okay, I can handle it.

LIZ WOLFE: Sweet. And the next time we're going to see each other will be in Austin for PaleoFX.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yup, we have like a week and a half, not even a week and a half. It's like about a week. Yeah, crazy.

LIZ WOLFE: Yeah.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Ooh, whee!

LIZ WOLFE: You, me, yee ha! You, me, and Diana from Radiance Nutrition are all doing a little panel, a talk, so anybody that's going to be at PaleoFX, come check it out. I think it's going to be really good. But that's just me.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah. The most important…

LIZ WOLFE: And uh, Yeah.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: part of the whole trip…most important part of the trip to Austin and the before can prep for me is that I found my cowboy boots that have been missing for the last couple of months. [laughs] I've already been to Texas once without them this year. I was like, I must find these boots, especially because these are the boots that like in all of Denise Minger's review of the Ancestral Health Symposium, she and I actually didn't get to speak to each other at AHS last year, but somehow she caught, like she caught my feet the entire seminar, and made a comment about my boots in her blog post, and I was like, okay.

LIZ WOLFE: Nice.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Like everything is redeemed now because Denise Minger liked my boots. [laughs] So I was really excited about that.

LIZ WOLFE: What a beautiful moment.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: It was, I was like wow.

LIZ WOLFE: So did you wear boots in Texas? Like that's not…it's not considered like, I'm not going to get people's eyes roll-people to eye roll me, right? What does eye roll mean? People won't roll their eyes at me.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: I don't think it's like…no, I don't think it's like wearing a band t-shirt to the concert. I don't think it's like that kind of deal.

LIZ WOLFE: Okay. Good.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: You know, like don't be that guy. I mean, people at AHS were all wearing like Vibram Five Fingers, and it's like, no, that's kind of, you know, expected and people just went out to buy a new pair.

LIZ WOLFE: Yeah, I think I'm going to wear heels to PaleoFX…

DIANE SANFILIPPO: You should.

LIZ WOLFE: And save my boots for like the afterhours.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: You should wear stilettos.

LIZ WOLFE: It's like [xxx 6:32]. I'm going to totally wear stilettos. For the first time in like 8 years…the last time I wore…I think I talked about this on the podcast. I walked from my car like ten feet into my office in heels. The first time I wore heels in probably, I don't know, like years. I wore flip-flops under my wedding dress, so I literally injured myself from the car to my desk.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: [laughs]

LIZ WOLFE: And I really thought, and I worked in like concert with a chiropractor. I had to have, like I was going to have him look at my ankle because I really thought I did something bad to it. So I might have to start practicing. But we'll see what the footwear shakes out.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: If you show up in stilettos, I give you less than about 20 minutes before you're in the bathroom changing into flip-flops or those little..

LIZ WOLFE: Why do I have to go in the bathroom to change into flip-flops? [laughs]

DIANE SANFILIPPO: I don't know. I don't know. That just came out. I just…maybe you just don't want…It's just like a Clark Kent thing, you just don't want people to see that it's happening. I have no idea.

LIZ WOLFE: I have the same..

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Go in the bathroom [laughs].

LIZ WOLFE: laughs]

DIANE SANFILIPPO: I'm loopy. I'm really loopy.

LIZ WOLFE: Oh, man. So I guess you kind of went through your very exciting news. Do you have any other updates?

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Well, other updates…just some upcoming event information. I've got Practical Paleo seminar in…we already talked about PaleoFX-that's March 14th through 17th in Austin. And April 14th, Frisco, Texas, which is the Dallas area, so hopefully people will catch wind of it on here. I've had a lot of people who like didn't even know it was happening. All the events are always listed on the sidebar of my website, also under the Live Seminars tab. And just want to put the call out there that we…I don't know. I'm going to open up, I think on Sunday, April 15th to another Dallas area gym, so if there's somebody out there listening who's a gym owner or a coach in the Dallas, Texas area gym or Ft. Worth area, just shoot me an email if you want to check out information on hosting an event on that Sunday, I have that open. And then the following weekend, April 21st back here in New Jersey, at Cherry Hill CrossFit Aspire, and that event's actually…that event's booking up pretty quickly, so if people are looking to get in on that, they should definitely grab a ticket. And then we can talk about May…I'll talk about that next time. So Yeah, that's what's coming up.

LIZ WOLFE: CrossFit Aspire is legit.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah, that's pretty close to you, right?

LIZ WOLFE: Yeah, very close. Good, good people. Some good buddies over there, super legit. I'm excited for that.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Cool. And should we have a little bit of a teaser? Not really going to get into it much, but…?

LIZ WOLFE: Yeah. Let's do it.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Well…

LIZ WOLFE: We have some pretty kick ass stuff in the pike. I don't know really what to say about it. [laughs]

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah, I don't really want…I mean, don't be fooled by the fact that I'm so stressed out that I haven't gotten the sleep that I encourage everyone to get. I like wake up at 4 AM just because I'm like stressed and need to work. But Yeah, I'm super excited. Like pretty much bursting to announce things, but I guess we're going to wait 'til next week. Maybe next week? Is that when we're going to do it?

LIZ WOLFE: Yeah, I think we'll make the big announcement next week. But everybody rest assured, it involves not only some extraordinary new programming for you know, various things, but also integrating me. [laughs]

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Creating some more Cave Girl into some more Balanced Bites stuff.

LIZ WOLFE: Yeah.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Somehow. That you'll all hear about next week. [laughs]

LIZ WOLFE: Yeah, that was super lame just now. We probably should have scripted that out, hunh? laughs]

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah, we don't script things, in case anyone doesn't know. We have some notes, but Yeah, we're…we, Yeah. We don't script. Anyway.

LIZ WOLFE: We don't, no. But I'm excited and, you know, come back next week and hear more about it. I think it's going to be awesome. It's kind of like..we've been birthing this baby for like [laughs] 3 months, so like, I'm over it.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah.

LIZ WOLFE: I'm ready to tell everybody.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: I know. Me too.

LIZ WOLFE: So anyway, so other than that, I don't really have any other exciting news.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Well, we need to keep them listening, though. You know? We got to keep a reason for people to tune in every week, right?

LIZ WOLFE: Yeah, pretty much. Please come back, we're going to tell you a secret.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: [whispers] It's a big secret. [laughs] So punchy. I am so punchy. All right, maybe we should just answer some questions since that's why people really tune in.

LIZ WOLFE: Yeah. Yeah, let's jump right in. Wow, we really sucked up some time there. Okay, so first is a question from Kat, and I'm going to just say, first like, Mom, Dad, Grandma, maybe fast forward through this one, cause I'm going to like TMI everybody's faces off.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: [laughs]

LIZ WOLFE: Fair warning.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: You're my favorite.

LIZ WOLFE: Oh, man. I'm really just laying it out there. Okay, so Kat says: I need some advice about birth control. I don’t want to add any weird, unnatural, extra hormones to my body. I am 36 and have never had kids and I don’t plan on ever having any. Is a copper IUD a healthy option? Birth Control pills seem to do more harm than good and I’m afraid to use anything that will alter my hormones. I’ve been considering a tubal ligation for some time, but I’m not sure if I’m ready to do something so permanent. The reason I’m asking you ladies this question is because you’re ladies.” Yes, we are. “and you know a lot about how different things affect the body.”
So I'll just jump in on this one. I was 100% in the same place, wanting to both kind of detox from like 10 years of those quote weird, unnatural hormones. I think I went on some version of the Pill when I was like, 16 for my skin. Maybe I was 18. I don't know. And just kind of was afraid to go off for years and years and years. And all of a sudden, I turn around, and I'm like getting ready to go to my ten year birth control pill reunion, and it's just kind of scary to think about taking these little hormone pills for that long. And Yeah, the Pill, it does deplete a lot of really important minerals and vitamins. It can be a little bit of a road to recovery back from that, I think, for a lot of people. So I do think if possible, it's a good thing to try and avoid the Pill.
And interestingly enough, and this is something that I actually read over at Kate Clancy's blog. She's one of my favorite writers out there. She writes about what she calls the “lady business.” Her old blog, I believe, it's Context and Variation, and now she writes for Scientific American, so we can link to some of her stuff, if you're interested in the “lady business.” But she went over some studies that actually indicated that the copper IUD, when compared to birth control, birth control actually carries more risk of increased inflammation, higher c-reactive protein, insulin resistance. And from what I've read, it really does officially deplete the vitamins and minerals. So I personally went with the Paraguard, which is the copper IUD. I personally have found it to be slightly, here's the TMI, slightly uncomfortable physically and because of that, I'm not 100% mentally comfortable with it, either. But I think that's really kind of my own personal issue. It doesn't really necessarily translate to other people.
It's really interesting to me because the IUD is really the most widely used form of birth control on the planet, but it's really hardly used in the U.S., and I don't know that that's something we can really account for. The current version, the current incarnation of the copper IUD appears to be very safe and very effective once backed up against other options. And quite honestly, I think it's a reflection of some sort of kind of slow on the uptake issues with the American medical system that cause some practitioners, especially like older ones. [laughs] Oh man. TMI again. I can actually say that because I have firsthand experience with a very old and very near-sighted gynecologist named Dr. Bush. [laughs]

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Stop it.

LIZ WOLFE: And I'm so not kidding, though. It's just too good not to share, and again, like I'm sorry, Mom. I warned you. [laughs] for…

DIANE SANFILIPPO: So funny.

LIZ WOLFE: Yeah, but really like it seems like older generation are a little bit apathetic towards, if not downright, averse to the IUD, and I don't think there's any good reason for that with its current incarnation. I definitely think the way the Pill is kind of prescribed almost like candy is incredibly problematic, but that's kind of getting more political than I want to get. I think that the alternative, with regards to lifestyle consequences that the Pill wasn't prescribed, where an alternative method wasn't used, probably isn't worth the trade-off. But anyway. Rambling.
So pretty much what the IUD does, pretty much it creates an inhospitable environment for fertilization and implantation. You have a foreign entity living in your lady biz, and your body pretty much responds with the reaction to that. It uses lymphocytes and stuff like that to kind of try and destroy that, or at least react to that foreign entity, which basically creates kind of, I think, low-level oxidative stress. And that may sound worse than it is. I don't find a whole lot of suggestive evidence against the Paraguard, besides just individual preference and whether you can get comfortable with. I think for a lot of people that are not on a hormone balancing diet like Paleo or Primal or Weston A. Price can actually have a lot of trouble coming off birth control, but I think that's more of a food management issue. I ate really really clean when I transitioned, and it was totally manageable. But I do have to say, again, TMI. Mom, Grandma, fast forward. It is VERY painful to have the IUD put in, if you've never given birth vaginally, simply because the state of the cervix. It hurts, but you know, that's temporary. The benefits probably outweigh the risks in this context, and I do think it's likely a less kind of fraught choice than a tubal ligation. But as we say at the beginning of the show, we're not giving medical advice or even personal advice here, although, you know, definitely giving my opinion. Yeah, actually we're just reading all this crap off the back of the cereal box. I'm just sitting here reading the back of my fruity Cocoa Puffs.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: That's some interesting cereal. [laughs]

LIZ WOLFE: Yeah, it's real interesting. So anyway, all that said, I think that looking at the sermon evolutionary perspective. No birth control is going to be completely without some issue or another, whether that be physical problems or barriers, literally, like barriers to spontaneity. It's just a modern issue that's disparate from our physiology, and that really stinks, but it's just…it is what it is. The last thing, and then I'll shut up. If you do use the IUD, make sure that you check that it's still in proper position at your annual exams. I think that's definitely worth doing. So now that we lost our entire audience, we can move on to another question, unless you have something to say, Diane. Diane, please save me and say something.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: We at least lost our male audience. They're like, Oh dear God. [laughs] I'm actually curious how long does it stay, and does it stay in, just until you're ready to take it out, so that's why you only check it annually?

LIZ WOLFE: It's supposed to be good for 10 years. The copper IUD for 10 years. Up to 10 years.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Hmm. Gotcha. I don't really have much additional take on this on the IUD specifically. I don't have any personal or clinical experience with that. I haven't had clients who've had them or at least not that we've spoken about. except that I'm definitely one that thinks that, you know, it's a very personal choice, and I strongly encourage clients of mine, especially with weight loss resistance issues, which is a majority of clients that I've had, to come off of the Pill. I think the way exogenous hormones are affecting our bodies is pretty far reaching beyond what we can sense within, you know, a time frame that we're taking the Pill. So I'll often tell my female clients, you know, we just can't know what your body would be doing in the absence of these additional hormones, like you just don't…we just don't know how much is affecting you in the short term or not. So I always recommend, you know, that they really think about whether or not that's the route they want to be taking.
I was on the Pill, too, for maybe ten years. I've said that I'm horrible at taking supplements. I was also horrible at taking that. It was fine. Like it worked out fine for me. Everything was fine. I don't know that, you know. I don't know that it was the healthiest thing for me. I certainly found some negative, you know, side effects while I was on it. Not the least of which was a decreased libido, which seemed pretty counter-intuitive, don't you think? [laughs]

LIZ WOLFE: [laughs]

DIANE SANFILIPPO: So talk about TMI, but I just remember, I mean, I went on it, like you said, you know. I think I was pretty young when I went on it for different issues, like some really bad cramping and…

LIZ WOLFE: Mm-hmm.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: you know, one day of being like doubled over in pain, or laying in bed, and just really not being able to handle life, and so, went on it, thinking well, that's going to help, and you know, kind of just stayed on it, just because. And I know that even to this day, you know, going for a check-up, like one of the only doctors I even see these days is pretty much annually, but kind of the lady doctor, you know, but like they tried to push the Pill on me recently, and I was like, no thank you. I'm okay, you know? And it's very difficult to be in that situation and try to explain yourself, so I mean, I've said this to people before about other prescriptions, but you know, if the doctor wants to write you a prescription, you don't have to fill it if you don't want to. But, you know, just be aware of the choices, and I agree, there really are no great options. I think, you know, if your hormones are in a good place, and your cycle is pretty regular, then you might be able to do a little bit of clocking with that, and you know, everybody's got a different life to lead, so I can't…I can't kind of get into some more details on that, but that's…I think it is a really tough call.

LIZ WOLFE: There are some people that swear by that.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Hmm?

LIZ WOLFE: There are some people that really do swear by like the fertility awareness and all that stuff. It's not a risk that I'm willing to take…

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah.

LIZ WOLFE: but that's cool for people. I just wanted to put that out there.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah, I mean, there are some..there are some interesting ways of clocking it. I've seen some even like iPhone apps that are made for fertility awareness, and then, you know, somebody wants to use it for the opposite information, like here's when NOT to be dancing with danger, I guess.

LIZ WOLFE: [laughs]

DIANE SANFILIPPO: You know, you can use it in those ways, but I don't know. I mean, I wouldn't want to recommend that somebody take all those factors away, and then end up with a kid that they're not, you know, prepared for, so…anyway. Yeah, Yeah, it's a very personal choice, but I think we have another question that I have a little more things to say as to follow up to that one. Did you want to read that question?

LIZ WOLFE: This question as follow up is from Monika: “What are your recommendations for women who have been on birth control for several years in terms of addressing micronutrient deficiencies caused by the Pill, intestinal dysbiosis and regaining hormonal balance?”

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah, I mean I just…I just kind of was pulling back in through some of my notes from…like I had notes on this stuff for awhile, and then just kind of doing a quick little Google through to just to see if there was anything else to corroborate what I had. I think, like one of the most important is really making sure that your sugar intake is in check because any time we're talking about hormonal regulation, regulating our insulin response, which will then cascade into regulating the rest of our hormones is really critical. We've talked about that a bunch on the podcast before, so Yeah, that's just one thing to keep in mind. And I know that that can kind of flow in and out, no pun intended. Just depending on cravings throughout the month, those kinds of things. But I would just really do my best to keep sugar intake at a minimum.
And then, to that end as well, there's a bunch of other nutrients, like b vitamins, vitamin C, and some minerals, which I think you had mentioned before, Liz. But like magnesium and zinc tend to get depleted when we're on the Pill, so I mean I think that those are vitamins and minerals that people are generally getting depleted in, so it's possibly something to be aware of as like, okay, you know, eating a little bit of liver every week can really help with B vitamin status and with folate-folic acid. Vitamin C, we can get vitamin C from pretty much all fresh veggies and some fruit, and magnesium and zinc, you know, getting in more minerals is definitely a tough one. Most people are magnesium deficient. Zinc we can get from like oysters, lamb, different food sources, I think like pumpkin seeds have some zinc in them. And magnesium, leafy green vegetables are rich in magnesium, but you may also want to do like Epsom salt baths, and even potentially taking a supplement, a magnesium glycinate or magnesium malate would be a good form to try. More on that?

LIZ WOLFE: Yeah, and just throw it in there. You know, some people go off the Pill just because they're ready to try something different. Some people go off because they're ready to get pregnant. And part of the reason I actually got into the nutritional therapy stuff is because I did want to help women with fertility, so that's kind of where my niche was at the very beginning. And I would just say, if you can hang out. If you can just wait a little bit. Maybe don't try to get pregnant right away. Maybe focus a good 3 to 6 months on really kind of pushing a fertility type diet, like you're saying, get some liver. Get some good organ meat. Get plenty of fat soluble vitamins. Get some cod liver oil and butter oil. Good for so many things. Just really do your best to get as nutrient replete as possible. And I think even if you're not trying to get pregnant, I think it's…that's a good way to kind of strategize those months after you've gone off the Pill. I just think that's a good idea for everybody is the really concerted effort to become replete in those vitamins and minerals and such, so Yeah…

DIANE SANFILIPPO: I like that. I vote for that, too.

LIZ WOLFE: [laughs]

DIANE SANFILIPPO: What she said. [laughs]

LIZ WOLFE: Okay, so…

DIANE SANFILIPPO: All right.

LIZ WOLFE: Next question. This one is a little bit…this is a little bit longer and I actually censored…well, not censored, but I took out a little bit of it that was not necessarily relevant to our answer, so…Amy, I really appreciate the detail that you included. If you have further questions, you know, follow up with us in the comments of the blog post once it's up and I think we'll pretty much answer it.
Okay, question number 2 from Amy: “Hi Diane and Liz. I love your podcasts. I usually download them to listen to on the plane.”Another traveler, Diane. Good idea. Listen to us on the plane. It may not keep you from getting air sick, but it will definitely…

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Put you right to sleep.[laughs]

LIZ WOLFE: Yes, exactly! It may nauseate you, but it will definitely put you to sleep. Okay.
“You've provided some very helpful information to me over the past several months and during my transition to eating Paleo. I have been a vegetarian for the past 6 years, and ironically, picked up the book The Vegetarian Myth, in order to get more information on being a vegetarian (strengthen my argument so to speak). Boy did I learn. I don’t think I am exaggerating by saying that I owe my first born to Leirre Keith.” Well, that's neat. That's a nice thing to say, I guess.
“It has been an uphill battle to learn to cook differently, plan differently, prepare, and live differently- and I love every minute of it. In the process, the very serious digestive issues I had, have mostly subsided, which leads me to believe that I have an issue with gluten and grains.” I have to say, like this is so…I've heard this more frequently than I…that makes me happy, dealing with kind of recovering vegetarians. People that…you know, it used to…I used to say, oh, you know, 10, 15 years of vegetarianism, you can run into some pretty serious problems. But I'm hearing this from people who were vegetarians for 3 to 5 years.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Mm-hmm.

LIZ WOLFE: Even the ones that weren't like, you know, eating crazy processed food that wasn't free of animal products. Like even vegetarians that supposedly strategize effectively, and I've honestly recently lost some clients who were not wanting to kind of admit that that was the problem. People with some very, very serious problems that simply were not interested in kind of looking at the idea that a meat free or animal product free diet was causing their problems and I mean, that was just really nice to hear a vegetarian that's kind of strategizing this way and really enjoying it. I think that's really, really amazing, so anyway, a little tangent. I will continue now.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Indeed.

LIZ WOLFE: “Since November.” Yeah, what's that? Please continue?

DIANE SANFILIPPO: No, I just said, indeed. I agree, you know. Yeah. Go ahead.

LIZ WOLFE: All right. “Since November, I have made changes in the oils I use (I now use lard, duck fat, coconut oil, or tallow), the carbohydrates I eat (I still include some vegetable sources of carbs in my diet, but lower than they have been with my previous diet), I eat very little dairy (maybe a splash of cream in my coffee a couple times a month, and maybe a bowl of homemade ice cream with grass fed cow milk once a month). I even render my own tallow!
I discovered that I may have an egg allergy also, since I went pretty heavy on the eggs after going Paleo, and found that I broke out with an itchy, eczema -like rash around my nose, side of mouth and chin. I also became very lethargic. I am still in the trial process with this. I finally decided to write, because I will be attending Bikram Yoga Teacher Training in April, and pretty worried about how I will be able to manage my diet. Trainees attend 2 Bikram classes a day for 9 weeks. During this time, we will be staying in the hotel where the training is being held. Accommodations are pretty scarce. They will provide a mini-fridge (to be shared with a roommate), and 1 meal a day (not even sure what that means yet). If we are allowed to have a microwave, I will buy one for the 9 weeks. I will also bring a blender.
There is a Whole Foods close to the hotel, but I am concerned that without a way to cook, I will have a hard time with very low energy and malnutrition. I have thought of buying sandwich meats (although I still don’t think this is a good way to go since there is often potato starch and water added, and my not be a good source of meat), and since it seems I do better without eggs, those are out. I am actually thinking of going back on grains so that I can make it for the 9 weeks, but I really don’t want to do this. If I have to suck it up and buy a bunch of Luna bars, then I will.” I think maybe she means Larabars. “but I hope that is not the only solution.
If you guys have any suggestions for how to get enough energy (maybe microwave sweet potatoes?).” Did you put that in, maybe microwave sweet potatoes or did she?

DIANE SANFILIPPO: No, she must have.

LIZ WOLFE: So smart. “or how to best plan my next steps for these 9 weeks, I would be very grateful!” Okay, what do you think, Diane?

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Well, wow. 9 weeks and not knowing what you're going to be fed? I mean, I remember one week of MovNat, and feeling like…they had listed out the lunches would be vegan, and the whole thing was Paleo, and I remember thinking, okay, fine. So a vegan lunch. Does that mean that's just going to be really high fat, you know, veggies and coconut stuff and you know, avocado and we'll just deal. And then it turned out that like that was kind of an old approach that they had. And we got there and there was fish at lunch pretty much every day. I think we did have some food every day, so I just remember how daunting it seemed to me that one meal out of 3 a day might not be something I was used to, and to have 9 weeks with one questionable meal and then, you know, a very limited access otherwise. You know, definitely a little bit daunting, but I do think that you know, 9 weeks is not that long, and I think it's totally doable to get through this without adding back in things like a LunaBar. That's for sure not an option. I mean, I would never recommend that somebody eat that, you know, except after days of potentially starvation. But a LaraBar, perhaps could be a good idea, at least made from whole foods. I like them. They're pretty high in sugar, but if you're pretty active, it may be an okay choice.
I, you know, I travel a lot. I quasi-live out of hotel rooms a lot, and I like stuff, and you know, she said she's got a Whole Foods close by. I like things like the canned wild salmon. You can get some at Whole Foods. Olives. You know, if you empty a glass jar of olives…empty the brine out and then pour in extra virgin olive oil, that should be shelf stable. I mean, you can obviously keep stuff in the mini-fridge, too, but if you're just covering them with oil, that's stable to keep out for awhile. Obviously olive oil, you know, you can grab some lemons. That'll keep, you know, means of like salad dressing or just seasoning, and they don't really need to be refrigerated. You know, they can be, but you can probably get through them pretty quickly. That's all stuff that you don't need to heat up. I would bring, you know, some spices or grab some spices at Whole Foods and, you know, you can put together some decent meals with just a handful of things that you don't ever have to cook. I think, you know, Whole Foods does tend to have rotisserie chickens that don't have strange ingredients, so one of the caveats there is that I usually don't cook with olive oil, but their chickens tend to use olive oil. I do tend to see that they don't use as much of the canola stuff on just the whole chicken, which is kind of nice. But…and that's one of the cases where I say, you know what? Olive oil, you know, to be cooked on a Whole Foods chicken, I'm cool with that. You know, I think that's pretty clean.
I also think this is where things like smoked or cured meats, like lox or prosciutto can be really helpful. You know, they definitely aren't something I would rely on for the bulk of your protein source, but, you know, again it's 9 weeks, and if you're, you know, concerned about that, the salt content might not be a bad thing if you're losing a lot of water from Bikram yoga, so that might not be the worst thing in the world. And I would also carry some unrefined salt. I like Redman's Real Salt, and if at your meal it kind of is a lower salt meal, you can add some of that, and not worry as much about the dehydration. You know, do some coconut water. That kind of thing. I'm not really that concerned about the fact that there's not, you know, a way to cook things. I think that you can do, you know, with a Whole Foods right there, I think that you can find protein sources that are already cooked. You might get a little bored of them, but you know what? After your 9 weeks, you'll get home and be a little bit more adventurous with some cookbooks and check out some different protein sources that you haven't been eating the last 9 weeks. But, you know, I think if you're taking on that challenge of a teacher training, you know, that might go hand in hand as the challenge of what to journey eat.
That's what I'm thinking.

LIZ WOLFE: Yeah. It's just such an odd situation. I'm not sure I totally understand why the Bikram training goes this way. I mean, one day or a weekend is one thing, but 9 weeks without…I don't know. I just wish that I could understand, but you know, I didn't understand the 90 snatch WOD that dropped 12-2, so maybe I'm just not hip to how this stuff should be done. So…I don't know. I think if she shells out a little money, she can make it work, you know. But it could be a little bit of extra work. But Yeah. I mean, I do the…when we went to Northeast Regionals last year, we would go to Whole Foods almost every morning 'cause they get that hot bar started, even with the lunch food at like 8 AM, so I would almost say, you know, take a walk down there and have a nice, even like a nice big diner that could carry you to the following morning. I probably wouldn't stuff myself with any of it in the morning before I'm about to do a bunch of bikram yoga, but like you said, roast chicken. I personally would probably stock up on PaleoKits, but that's just because I'm fairly lazy. The actual kits themselves have a pretty good balance of fat, protein, and carbs, Coconut flakes…I love…I have a ton of tins of sardines packed in water from Vital Choice. I link to that on my blog. They have a ton of great sustainably fished seafood. They're like a Weston A. Price sort of company. I've gotten to talk to them at a couple of the Weston A. Price conferences. Really cool people, sourcing their seafood really well. See if you can get like smoked, canned crab, mussels, all that type of good stuff. And I imagine if you happen to be in kind of more vegan-centric crowd, those seafood choices could potentially be more acceptable. I don't know. I don't know if that's a concern or not, but they're portable. They don't require refrigeration and they kind of stink, but you can always go outside.
And if you can't have a microwave, there's cans of sweet potato, pumpkin puree, which is like a total post workout CrossFit move. Avocados are portable. I have like small knife that has like a sheaf. Just don't bring that on the airplane with you, but you can cut into the avocado and stuff like that if necessary. But I don't think going back on grains is a good idea, either. I think that can be, for sure, be avoided. So basically I just said everything you already said, Diane, just to fill up time.
All right, so question number 3, from Katherine. [laughs] Diane may have hung up. I don't know if that's going to cut everybody off, but I will go ahead and read the next question anyway. Okay, number 3 from Katherine: I’m trying to get on the paleo diet and I would love to be able to cook with coconut oil, but I’ve got a weird problem… any time I eat something coconut the soles of my feet burn unbearably. It wasn’t always this way; it started somewhere in the sixteen months after I quit eating SAD (Standard American Diet) and started using green smoothies and a largely meat-free, sugar-free, grain-free, salt-free, dairy-free, mostly-raw-produce including nuts, cooked-food” Oh, I'm sorry. “the burning feet were the only downside I experienced.” Uh, let's see. Oh whoops, wait a minute. Hey Diane, are you back?

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah, sorry about that. The tricky little iPhone cheek push.

LIZ WOLFE: Okay, no problem. Yeah. Your cheek is like finger-esque apparently. I can't even get my fingers to push iPhone buttons, they're so stubby. All right, so okay, let me back up a little bit. So I'm reading the question number 3 from Katherine about the burning feet.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Okay.

LIZ WOLFE: Okay. “I started using green smoothies and a largely meat-free, sugar-free, grain-free, salt-free, dairy-free, mostly-raw-produce including nuts, cooked-food-free diet to improve my health (incidentally losing almost a hundred pounds). Vicious leg cramps and the burning feet were the only downside I experienced.
That I vaguely recall, the burning started while I was in the lowest calorie phase of my diet. I was drinking lots and lots of filtered water and herbal teas. At first I was using coconut oil in my smoothies (until I read that the fat slows the metabolism of nutrients from the greens). I don’t remember when the burning started, though. Leg cramps began almost immediately and I thought the two were connected, but no. Since returning to a more conventional diet (more cooked foods minus most of the sugar and grains) the leg cramps have stopped (but come back quick if I don’t eat enough salt — I’ve gone Himalayan).
I can tell in nothing flat if something I’ve eaten has anything coconut OR EVEN PALM OIL in the ingredients! The soles of my feet burn, and it can be so intense that I can’t sleep. I just received an order of palm sugar yesterday, haven’t tried it yet. It doesn’t seem to matter what supplements I take. Do you know the reason for this? I’ve been asking around but nobody’s run into it before! One person made an educated guess that it has something to do with sulfur-mediated detox.”
So I'm just going to jump right in and say, we can't give medical advice here and this is a very interesting question, but it does seem to me that this is really one where individual care, whether that be with a doctor, another licensed professional, a nutritionist is probably warranted. I can see that Katherine's really committed to learning and thinking, and I think maybe just from what I'm taking from her question, there are few kind of misconceptions, maybe some misunderstandings kind of embedded in there, and I think some of those pieces maybe need to be rearranged a little bit to really make the most of this lifestyle change before I can really say that maybe A is leading to B. And honestly, I have no clue. I know these kinds of symptoms can be signs of subclinical hypothyroid, maybe folate deficiency. I think paretheses; this is actually the word “paresthesia,” but I know that's definitely associated with a B5 deficiency. But I mean, by all means, run out. Stop it with the tropical oils. That's not going to be the end of the world. There are plenty of other excellent options while you try and figure this out. I'm curious if this would happen with just plain, high quality MCT oil. But other than that, I'm just not really sure. The sulfur thing is interesting. But what do you have to say on this, Diane?

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Hopefully my cheek won't hang up again. [laughs] Yeah, I definitely…I mean, sometimes we take on these questions, just so we can at least address it a little bit. Sometimes people are a little bit freaked out and nervous even though we don't always have, you know, amazing, revolutionary answers for them, but that said. You know? I don't know. I obviously agree this is happening. Stop eating it. Not rocket science there, but if it does have anything to do with liver detox, I haven't really heard much of it being related to sulfation. If it is a detox issue, just again kind of thumbing through some notes that I have and kind of looking at what could be maybe a little bit more relevant for her. There is something that happens in phase 2 liver detox called amino acid conjugation, so basically, you know, we're trying to make sure that we're processing proteins properly. We could see if, you know, maybe she could just get a little more protein into her meals. I don't know what she's currently doing. You know, if this was, you know, something different for her, and 16 months after she quit SAD eating, so who even knows how long she's been transitioning, but maybe a little bit of extra protein could be helpful. Also, a little bit of extra glycine, which if she's been listening to the podcast, you can get a good amount of glycine from bone broth, so that would be a really good thing to kind of supplement with. Again, just from the food perspective of things that could be helping.
It could also be again, if she has issues with detox at all, you know, I'm just going on that because that's what she's got a hunch about, and it's totally possible. We don't really know enough about her, but if she's got some issues with that, it could be an environmental illness factor, so just over-toxicity, you know. She should think about what her life has been like, how toxic her environment has been, you know. Different people have different experiences. Some people remember pesticide trucks driving through town spraying pesticides or grew up on a farm where pesticides are being sprayed, or you know, we're in a house where new carpets were put in, and the house was painted very frequently. Those kinds of things can just really overburden your system, so if it is an issue of toxicity in that way, and just as a note, know the process of amino acid conjugation, which is part of phase 2 liver detox does detox plant fatty acids, which would include lauric acid. So, you know, that whole process that, you know, this process…this pathway would be inhibited if you're not eating enough protein, and again, I don't think generally that that's an issue, you know, with Paleo diet, but just keep that in mind.
And then other foods that are helpful for liver detox are alliums, so that's garlic, onions, and shallots. And then cruciferous vegetables, so Brussels sprouts, broccoli, kale, collard greens, cauliflower, that kind of stuff. So Yeah, stop using it. You know? Start eating some more of these other foods, see if that helps. Think about your health history. Maybe get some other, you know, some other maybe blood work done or some kind of urine testing or an organic acids panel, just to look at some nutrient deficiencies. I would kind of check things out, I mean, that sounds like a pretty serious reaction, and it's really an atypical reaction to an allergen. So I would really be curious about what that is.

LIZ WOLFE: Well, and if it's compounded…it seems like the diet previously was pretty extreme. I mean, meat free, sugar free, grain free, salt free, dairy free, raw produce, cooked food free diet. And I think there's kind of a misconception about a raw diet as being this kind of panacea of health. And it's really not. I mean, I know, I used to love this idea that raw foods have all the enzymes needed to digest it, and blah blah blah. But really that's almost kind of a fallacy. It doesn't really work that way in your body.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah.

LIZ WOLFE: So you know, almost even lightly steaming, blanching, that type of thing is actually a really great way to make nutrients more bio-available. So it's really not…I mean, I'm not surprised she's running into some problems. This is obviously a weird problem, and you definitely given me as well a lot of insight into what could be going on as far as the detox. But it just sounds like maybe Katherine needs a little bit of…maybe consultation just to kind of shorten this learning curve here.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Mm-hmm.

LIZ WOLFE: Because there are some, I don't know. It just…

DIANE SANFILIPPO: I think, Yeah, there's a lot of foundational information that we don't have, like health history, and I think, you know, that's something that every practitioner, especially in, you know, our realm. You know, we take pretty detailed health histories on people, and it can often be more important to look at that than it is to look at your current diet. Like, you know, maybe you notice it as a response to, you know, coconut, palm oil, that kind of stuff. Some items with lauric acid, maybe you noticed it with that, but that's not the cause. You know, it's not like just eating that is making this problem stir up necessarily. There's some other build up to create that problem. Yeah. That's all.

LIZ WOLFE: All right, question number 4 from Missy. This is guar gum or BPA. “Hello Lovely Ladies of the Lifestyle!!!” I love the alliteration. “I love to use coconut milk in curries and in desserts. On average I use 1-2 cans a week. I can’t find a can that is both BPA free and also does not contain guar gum. Do you know of a brand of canned coconut milk that is BPA free and does not have guar gum in it? And if not, which canned coconut milk should I go for – the one with guar gum or the one that comes in a can made with BPA?
Background: In my city, I can find BPA free coconut milk but it always has guar gum in the ingredient list (Native Forest brand, etc.). I can also find coconut milk that has no guar gum (just coconut and water) but the can is old school. Have not been able to find both in one can! A quick search on Amazon was not helpful either! Help and thanks so much.”
I totally know her pain. Native Forest, like she said, has the BPA free can, but they have the guar gum, which I personally seem to be fine with, although others maintain it's a problem for them. As much as I like Native Forest, I just love Thai Kitchen, just consistency-wise.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Mm-hmm.

LIZ WOLFE: I believe Thai Kitchen is just coconut and water, but, you know, that said, neither of them are perfect.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: No.

LIZ WOLFE: You could make your own, but you don't get that super creamy texture. The coconut cream from Wilderness Family Naturals has a teensy bit of xantham gum in there. You could check that out. I've never used it. It comes in tetra-packs, so I don't know. Xantham gum is fermented I think from corn, and guar gum is from a legume, so it's hard to say what's better tolerated or whether there are GMO concerns lurking in there. Coconut cream concentrate from Tropical Traditions may be worth a go. I don't know. Do you have any thoughts on this, Diane?

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Thai Kitchen definitely has guar gum in it because that's the one I tend to use.

LIZ WOLFE: Oh, it does?

DIANE SANFILIPPO: I tend to get either the Thai Kitchen Organic or the Whole Foods Organic. I'm with you on the texture of the Native Forest, and also Natural Value, that's another we were finding out in California. I think the texture is really weird on those, and actually it's weird, but it's kind of like..kind of the way you'd make it at home. It comes out a little bit watery. I think, you know, I think those emulsifiers are what give it that nice creamy texture. Unfortunately, I haven't seen a perfect coconut milk like at all. There's even some that come in a carton that people have talked about online, and I think you can get that. I don't know if they're organic, but they come in a carton that I'm pretty sure is not recyclable. It's like, I just have not seen the perfect BPA free can, organic, additive free, full fat coconut milk. Haven't seen that.

LIZ WOLFE: Yeah.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: The one that I've seen is Trader Joe's has a light version, so you're paying for water, but it is half the price anyway. And it does not have any additives or emulsifiers in, so it's just coconut milk and water. I've heard that their cans, when it's you know, single ingredient item like that where it's you know, the canned salmon, the coconut milk, just not like a, you know, soup or something that's been made, you know, like other…a whole bunch of ingredients. I've heard that those cans don't contain BPA, the ones with the single ingredient like that. I don't know if we can confirm that. But it's not organic.
So then I've also heard that…this is something my friend Caitlin from Grass Fed Girl, she will call up…she's like the person when you don't want to make a phone call, you're like, can you make this phone call? She's like, fine. Give me the phone, I'll do it.

LIZ WOLFE: [laughs]

DIANE SANFILIPPO: So I think she called up the Thai Kitchen people, potentially…I think that's who it was. Or maybe it was just Whole Foods. I think she might have called the Whole Foods people, their customer service, and she's not too confident in the person who was responding, but supposedly, their take was for it to be organic, it couldn't have BPA in the can lining. Like then it would nullify the organic nature of the product. I don't know how true that is.

LIZ WOLFE: That's interesting.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: It is. I don't know. I was like, oh, I thought it was interesting, too, so that was kind of the last thing I heard on that. But I do tend to use Thai Kitchen or Whole Foods brand full-fat, you know, organic. I don't know that the guar gum affects me. I'm not positive on that, either way. But I do know that it affects some people, and it can definitely affect some people if they're having issues with FODMAPs or if they have like lower stomach acid, which is then giving them issues with the FODMAPs, which are, you know, tougher to digest carbohydrate forms and legumes are definitely in that category. And I think just that little bit of the legume-derived emulsifier can really be problematic for them, even though coconut itself is considered a FODMAP, it tends to be more problematic when combined with that guar gum, so…long story short, I don't know if there's something perfect out there, but just try a couple of the different ones. Maybe try that Trader Joe's one. See how you do with it if you like it. I don't personally like the taste of it.

LIZ WOLFE: I don't either.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: I think it tastes a little less than dense. You know, I like really dense tasting food.

LIZ WOLFE: I just think [xxx] charging full price for something that's half watered down. It just bugs the hell out of me.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: It's not really full price…

LIZ WOLFE: It's not?

DIANE SANFILIPPO: It's like half the price of the others, so…

LIZ WOLFE: Yeah, that's not full price. Half price is not full price.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: You know what I mean?

LIZ WOLFE: Yeah.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Like, it's 99 cents, I think, and…

LIZ WOLFE: Dang! Maybe you want to use that.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah, Yeah, so…and you could find some coconut oil and spin it in there. [laughs]

LIZ WOLFE: That's true…I…this is like the Weston A. Price in me coming out. Just from what I've read about dairy, and I get all the common objections, blah blah blah. And especially in Stefan Lindeberg…

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Wow, mm-hmm.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: who has been in [xxx 54:02], I seemed to pull out of there is what we're looking at in terms of dairy being problematic for people is not the raw, full fat, fermented dairy that I get from like my regional farm. So the farm that I get dairy from now and then, whether it be raw butter or you know, kefir, whatever that may be, they follow all those, you know, those guidelines for pasturing and not milking during certain cycles in the cow's life and all of these things. I think that's perfectly fine, and I actually have started doing, and we'll talk about this next before we close out here, the Bulletproof coffee. I used to do a lot of coconut milk in my coffee, coconut milk in curries and stuff like that. But now I do raw cream. I mean, it's traditional. I think for the most part that's what is in Indian foods, for example. So I've opted for that over coconut oil, simply because it's local, it's really dense in A and D, and I'm just into that. I don't do it all the time, but I think it's a good stuff. I still use a ton of coconut oil, whether that be as a moisturizer or in my food. Plenty of coconut flakes. Coconut cream. All that type of good stuff. So I get the coconut in, but I really think that's been totally good, well tolerated for me, and I'm just not seeing this research that everybody talks about with regards to actual raw, full fat dairy. So, does that make sense? I just think there's a big difference between pastured and standard, homogenized dairy.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah, I mean I just go through that in my seminar, you know, pretty in detail about, you know, it's not in the original Paleo diet book came out, and they're talking about dairy. I even recently heard Cordain on Robb Wolf's podcast several weeks ago or a couple of months ago even at this point talking about his new book. I just don't think they're talking about raw, grass-fed dairy. Yeah. I think they're talking about pasteurized, processed milk, and rightfully so. For the masses, that's what mostly they are eating, so I'm definitely with you. I like the grass-fed butter in coffee when you whip it in there. Grass-fed butter is really just cream that's been whipped, so it's actually really easy to keep on hand, you know, not worrying as much about it spoiling as quickly. and I didn't do so well with raw milk, me personally. I always felt like I was on the verge of a sinus infection when I was drinking raw milk a couple of years ago. But the butter doesn't seem to do the same thing to me at all. And I'm like thrilled to be able to get the grass-fed butter into my diet regularly, whether it's Kerrygold or I found another one recently, it's like an Icelandic brand, and you know, I get some from Tropical Traditions, or just all over the place, but I think it is more widely available to get the grass-fed butter than sometimes getting the cream. What do you think about pasteurized but grass-fed milk or cream?

LIZ WOLFE: Ooh, see that's hard. I think the jury's kind of out. I was buying a lot of the, oh gosh, what's it called, I can't even remember. It's a grass-fed cream, Natural by Nature, I think from Whole Foods. I think obviously it's got to be grass-fed. I think part of the reason that I'm more in favor of the Bulletproof style coffee where you use the butter instead of the cream is because I don't believe butter is homogenized. And I think there is some evidence out there that homogenization, which is what allows cream to like disperse properly in say, coffee. I think that can do some real damage to the structure of this fat that we are considering nutrient-dense.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Mm-hmm.

LIZ WOLFE: So I think my preference would be raw, unhomogenized, not sure how I feel about pasteurized.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah.

LIZ WOLFE: I think pasteurization's probably okay as long as it's not like ultra-pasteurized.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah, I mean, that's kind of been my take where I'm like, look, you know, ideally you're getting the raw, but if you're not getting the raw, at least getting the grass-fed. I don't know if it's 100% grass-fed; I don't know how they're doing that. You know, I haven't checked the source because I don't buy it, so I'm a little less, you know, doing a little less detective work on it. If I were buying it every week, I might start to dig a little bit more.

LIZ WOLFE: Yeah.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: But Yeah, I mean, it's a tough call and usually I think most folks are just using it for, you know, a splash here and there for coffee and not relying on it as much for, you know, a bowl of cereal at this point. I don't think it becomes as much of an issue. So Yeah, I don't know. Was there more to say on that? I've been doing the Bulletproof coffee thing with upgraded coffee beans, and it's like, he's totally, totally gimmicky, but I'll tell you, I ran out of those beans, and I think my Dad was using some because I don't know what the deal is, they were like..I swear I had at least half of this jar that I filled up. I transferred them to a glass jar and kept them in the fridge. I swear I had at least half left, and when I came back from my last trip, God knows where I was..I'm like all over the place, but the beans were like, totally gone, and I'm like, I know I didn't finish that.

LIZ WOLFE: Ugh.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: So I thought it was totally gimmicky, too, but it's really not. I mean, the coffee is super mellow, does not have the same…I mean, this is to me, and I don't consider myself too much of a connoisseur, but it didn't have the same edge or like, you know, I hate to use the word “chemical” but it didn't have that same biting sort of chemically artificial, I don't know…just aftertaste.

LIZ WOLFE: Not chemical. What word are we using now? Artificial. Crappy. That's what we're using. [laughs]

DIANE SANFILIPPO: I told the people at my seminar, and they were like, Yeah, just say chemicals. That's what people know. I'm like, I know. You see? But Yeah, it just didn't have that same aftertaste and it's definitely like a more mellow brew, and I think a couple of people had commented on my Facebook page that they were surprised at how light it was, like the flavor was, but I think it's just smoother and goes down easier, and I'm going to be ordering some more today. I like put a link up to it on my website today because I actually was like, Yeah, I like this stuff, I could put my stamp of approval on it at least for now, and I think that people are not…I don't want people mainlining this stuff. It'll be dangerous for your wallet if you do anyway, but I think, you know, a cup in the morning, it should leave you feeling pretty good and not, you know, wired and jacked up.

LIZ WOLFE: Yeah.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: And I think the argument is mostly that it's like fungus and other toxins that are building up on the beans when they're stored before they're roasted or even potentially after they're roasted, before they're packed and get to us, so I think that's one of the main reasons for the, you know, higher price tag and just better quality. I don't know.

LIZ WOLFE: They've got Starbucks at like rest stops on the drive from, you know, out of West Virginia, so I really think that…I'm guessing there's some compromise on quality there. [laughs] That maybe worth thinking about. I've been using my AeroPress, which I love, but it uses like twice as much coffee for the same amount of brew. So it makes me a little bit sad to use my Bulletproof coffee with that, but I just don't know if I want to go back to the stuff I was using before. It was a good point made by my buddy, the Paleo Drummer and his wife, Jamie. They're super cool people, really hip to all this stuff and Yeah, the AeroPress is fantastic, love it. It's super portable, really easy to use, BPA free, etc. But definitely may not be worth expending your really good quality coffee beans, but so…I'm in the middle of kind of an existential crisis on this. So if you have any advice, please let me know. [laughs] Anyway, so we're above an hour now, which I didn't think we'd make it today, but we definitely rambled sufficiently, so I guess we can wrap it up. If anybody wants to check out my goodies, head on over to CaveGirlEats.com. I just put up a new kind of section on my favorite stuff that kind of grew out of my nutritional therapy practice, and people kind of wanting to know, all right, what do I buy. Just let's make this work, so I just put a new page on that. Some of my favorite foods. I definitely want people to stop by and tell me what I should be looking at and trying. I'm looking for dark chocolate recommendations. Obviously coffee recommendations, that type of stuff, so hop on over there and help me out if you can.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah, cool. I think Yeah, I started taking. I should have mentioned this earlier. Maybe I'll say it in the beginning of the next podcast, too, but I started taking the cod liver oil/butter oil blend, which I think I talked about this a couple weeks ago. But I had tried to take just the emulsified form in licorice flavor, and I just couldn't handle that. But the cinnamon that you recommended in the gel form…it's good. Like I mean, it's weird, the texture's weird, but you really only get a cinnamon aftertaste, and I do this like, you know, sip of water after, just kind of swish it down, and it's really no big deal. And I'll tell you, the texture of my skin has been really good. I think I might have said it last week, too, but I've been…you know, it's been over a week now, and even within the first couple of days, my skin just felt a lot softer. The skin on my face and everywhere really, like definitely don't have any of the keratosis pilaris stuff going on on my arms, which I kind of will get intermittently, if I'm not watching you know, getting some sort of good vitamin A in, but Yeah, I really like it. I'm a fan, so I'm definitely…I've been promoting it for awhile just because I'm not super geeked out on like lots of other forms of fish oil. I like the sort of food…I don't know. More food-oriented supplements, but that other like vitamins in it. But Yeah, I'm liking that.
And you know, just another mention, you were talking about your website. I put through some minor like design tweaks on my website, so if anyone wants to hop on and check that out. And you know, give me any feedback. Really just small stuff. The structure of the site is pretty much the same, but I'm going to be changing up what I'm doing in terms of like, what's happening in the top, in what's featured in that little scrolling thing. It's probably not going to be just like new blog posts. I'll probably put newsworthy things up there that I want people to kind of remember, just so that kind of stays top of mind, and just changing some things up and Yeah, that's pretty much it.

LIZ WOLFE: Sweet. I'll head over and judge you.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: Okay, thank you.

LIZ WOLFE: Judge your website. All right, so we'll see everyone.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: All right.

LIZ WOLFE: Everyone have a great day. Thanks for sticking around.

DIANE SANFILIPPO: All right, later.

LIZ WOLFE: Bye.

Cheers!
Diane & Liz