Podcast Episode #177: Digestion Basics, Nutrition Career, Bumpy Skin, and more

Topics:
1.  What’s new for you from Diane & Liz [5:09] 2.  Shout Out: Dr. Amy Myers and her new book, The Autoimmune Solution [10:46] 3.  Shout Out 2: Balanced Bites podcast wins Best Paleo Podcast from Paleo Magazine Readers [13:02]

Links:

Liz's post on education and career help
Liz's video review on the NTP program

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Liz Wolfe: Hey friends! Welcome to the Balanced Bites podcast. Let’s get a quick word in from our episode sponsors.

Liz Wolfe: We’d like to thank Vital Choice for supporting our podcast today, and we encourage you to visit their online store at vitalchoice.com. You’ll find an amazing array of some of the world’s best seafood, including wild Alaskan salmon, halibut, tuna and cod, as well as sustainably harvested shellfish. These foods are not only delicious, but vital choices for your health. You’ll also find grass-fed organic Wagyu beef, live fermented foods to promote gut health, wild organic blueberries, and dark organic chocolates. Eat better, think better, and feel better with deeply nourishing foods from Vital Choice. They’re offering our listeners 15% off any order using code BALANCEDBITES. Remember that orders of $99 or more ship free.

Liz Wolfe: Alright. Liz here with Diane, as usual. Hi buddy.

Diane Sanfilippo: Hey!

Liz Wolfe: And we’re recording my last few episodes of the Balanced Bites podcast before I go on leave.

Diane Sanfilippo: {Sighs}

Liz Wolfe: So, enjoy my voice. Savor, while you can.

Diane Sanfilippo: Your darn alien is messing everything up. {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: What’s messing it up?

Diane Sanfilippo: The alien.

Liz Wolfe: Oh, the alien. The alien. {laughs} They did a pretty good job. So if you’re going to miss me while I’m gone, get Eat the Yolks on audio.

Diane Sanfilippo: I listen to audio books to fall asleep pretty much every night.

Liz Wolfe: {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: I should listen to yours because otherwise I’m listening to Mindy Kaling every night.

Liz Wolfe: You can fall asleep to Mindy Kaling’s voice?

Diane Sanfilippo: You know what helps me fall asleep? If I’m listening to something that I’ve heard before because then I’m not anticipating and staying awake to try and hear it.

Liz Wolfe: Mmm.

Diane Sanfilippo: I have a very strange brain that takes very specific ways to wind it down and get it to stop thinking. I could easily fall asleep listening to a movie or a TV show that I’ve already seen. So it’s not like I’m, what’s going to happen next? You know what I mean? I just re-listen to it.

Liz Wolfe: You need something to literally yank you out of your own thoughts.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yes. It just never ends.

Liz Wolfe: I don’t have that problem.

Diane Sanfilippo: I’m so annoyed about it! I wish I didn’t.

Liz Wolfe: Just put on some womb sounds, which is a thing, by the way. One of my little crunchy pregnancy groups that I’m a part of, people literally go on YouTube and get womb tracks.

Diane Sanfilippo: Wait, for themselves? Because the baby already hears it.

Liz Wolfe: No for their babies.

Diane Sanfilippo: Don’t they already hear them?

Liz Wolfe: But babies are just tiny people, right?

Diane Sanfilippo: Oh, you mean after they come out?

Liz Wolfe: Yes, Diane.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} I saw this video on Facebook that was babies going through tunnels, and it was babies in the backseat of a car, and somebody would film their faces when it was outside in the car, and then the car would start to go through a tunnel, where’ it’s just dark with weird flashes.

Liz Wolfe: {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing} And they all have these really strange surprise faces.

Liz Wolfe: I cannot believe there are enough videos of babies going through tunnels.

Diane Sanfilippo: There are, yes.

Liz Wolfe: To make a mashup.

Diane Sanfilippo: It was pretty funny. I can’t believe I watched a video with babies in it {laughing}

Liz Wolfe: I can’t either.

Diane Sanfilippo: What?

Liz Wolfe: It’s very odd.

Diane Sanfilippo: The power of Facebook.

Liz Wolfe: The next thing you know, you’re going to be asking to hold people’s babies.

Diane Sanfilippo: No.

Liz Wolfe: That’s ok though, I’m going to have a baby and I’m not even planning on holding other people’s babies.

Diane Sanfilippo: We were just talking about this. I was like; Liz, I love you, I don’t want to hold your baby. I just have no affinity. I know, everyone listening is like, I’m never listening to that woman again.

Liz Wolfe: No, a lot of people feel that way. I think a lot of people with babies feel that way.

Diane Sanfilippo: Alright, so, to our listeners, do you have a baby, and did you feel this way before you had a baby, and maybe even still now, except perhaps about your own baby?

Liz Wolfe: Yeah, I want to know.

Diane Sanfilippo: Never had that instinct of, let me hold the baby! I’m like, nope, I’m good! {laughs} I’m good over here.

Liz Wolfe: Tag us in your pictures of you not holding babies {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing} #notholdingababy.

Liz Wolfe: Oh, I love that. That’s perfect.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. #notholdingababy.

Liz Wolfe: We kind of fell off on the hashtags because it was just really hard to come up with them.

Diane Sanfilippo: It was. And it was a lot. But it was fun. I loved watching them.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: We’ll just be organic about it. When we have an idea that has obviously nothing to do with nutrition, #notholdingababy.

Liz Wolfe: {laughing}

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

1. What’s new for you from Diane & Liz [5:09]

Liz Wolfe: That’s so good. Alright, so, what’s going on with you besides the fact that you’re refusing to hold my baby?

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} Currently I’m in Nashville. I was rerouted because of some giant storm, Juno, that apparently didn’t actually hit New Jersey that hard so my flight got canceled. By the time this airs, obviously it will be a little behind. But my flight got canceled two days ahead of time. I was like, that’s a bit much for the whole meteorologist, how much I rely on them to actually report the weather accurately. I feel like whenever they think there’s going to be some crazy huge storm, it really doesn’t come true.

So this time, I just decided to reroute and hang out for a couple of days here with my friend Caitlin in Nashville. So we’re just kicking and recording a podcast and having a good time here, until I head back to New Jersey. I was in Salt Lake City, I did the event there. It was great to meet everyone there. And then I was in Park City for the Sundance Film Festival, which that’s just always a really fun time. I went many years ago, maybe 2005, 2006 for the first couple of years that I was checking it out, and then I hadn’t gone in a while, and my one friend, Caroline, she has gone for 12 straight years. She’s like an institution with the whole place.

Liz Wolfe: {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} But it’s a really fun time, and just kind of a random thing to do. I know there were a few people who, I don’t know if they were podcast listeners, or whatever, but I had seen them on Instagram saying that they were there too. One of them was like, oh were you in this movie, and I was like, you should come say hi! If you see someone, come say hi. Anyway, that was fun.

And I think basically what’s coming up in terms of events, it looks like, I want to say mid-March, yeah mid-March, around the 12th to the 16th-ish. So it’s that second full weekend in March. I’ll be joining my friends Bill and Hayley for part of their tour for the release of Make it Paleo 2. So the three cities I will be in with them will be Alexandria, Virginia, so the D.C. area, and then Charlotte, North Carolina, and Orlando, Florida. So check out Instagram and email lists and all that. That’s where I share all the updates exactly on those events and where you can RSVP, but then obviously as soon as I have confirmed dates I’ll share those on the podcast, as well.

I think we’re actually tweaking the dates that were originally announced, so if you did already RSVP and you didn’t see the update, it may be updated because I think they had originally booked these 3 days in a row. I was like, you guys, I don’t think we can fly to those cities, and have time to get there and {laughs} do an event with this schedule. So we rearranged it a little bit. I think that’s pretty much what’s coming up.

The 21-Day Sugar Detox coaching program is still in progress. I know there were a lot of folks who didn’t get in on the beta program, which is kind of our test group. We have 130-ish people who are signed up and are doing it as testers where we’re kind of working them through a bunch of stuff where, when we release it more officially, more kinks are worked out and we’ve kind of planned for a few more things. Obviously, we’ll always evolve it over time and improve it, but the early enrollment will probably come in around April. That’s my guess. Perhaps late March, but I think the early enrollment is probably not going to come till about April. So just stay tuned for that. And that is it.

Liz Wolfe: Cool.

Diane Sanfilippo: How about you, my friend. What’s going on with you?

Liz Wolfe: Not a lot right now. Just making my way through these last couple of weeks. Trying to get everything set to run officially without me. I have a lot of content and stuff like that coming out while I’m gone, and while I’m nesting.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: But yeah, for the most part I’m trying to kind of tear myself away. Because really, this pregnancy went really fast. I feel like I just told you I was pregnant. I feel like I just apologized to you and told you I was pregnant.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing}

Liz Wolfe: Let’s reenact it for people. So, I have to tell you something.

Diane Sanfilippo: Ok what. Are you pregnant?

Liz Wolfe: Yeah. I’m sorry.

Diane Sanfilippo: Ugghh!! {laughing}

Liz Wolfe: {laughing}

Diane Sanfilippo: That’s probably what really happened.

Liz Wolfe: I think that’s exactly what happened. Not a lot going on here. Meg the midwife and I are still working on the content for Baby Making and Beyond. It’s a ways off, but like I’ve said to people. People are asking me now, how do they get updates. Just go to BabyMakingandBeyond.com and punch in your email address, and you will get news when we have news. And you can still, on Instagram folks have been putting questions out there asking Meg the midwife and tagging us, stuff like that. So you can do that. We want to know what you want to know. But the actual program itself is just a little ways off.

Diane Sanfilippo: You’re busy making a baby right now.

Liz Wolfe: I’m busy. And I will not be at PaleoFx.

Diane Sanfilippo: Nope.

Liz Wolfe: I am sorry.

Diane Sanfilippo: Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that. I’ll be there. That’s at the end of April, right before my birthday.

Liz Wolfe: It’s your birthday?

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} Yet again.

Liz Wolfe: So exciting.

Diane Sanfilippo: No it is not. {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: {laughs} The other day I was, who was I talking to, my mom. I was like, well now that I’m 30 mmmm. 30, and then I said the other number like real quiet after the 30.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: So you can still say that you’re 30.

Diane Sanfilippo: 30-something.

Liz Wolfe: You just have to say the other number under your breath.

Diane Sanfilippo: I will be entering my late 30s.

Liz Wolfe: Terrible.

Diane Sanfilippo: Craziness.

2. Shout Out: Dr. Amy Myers and her new book, The Autoimmune Solution [10:46]

Liz Wolfe: Alright, so who is the subject of our shout out today?

Diane Sanfilippo: Oh, so we’ve got a shout out for Amy Myers. Dr. Myers has a brand new book that, let’s see, I guess will have come out last week. I think it just released on January 27th, and we wanted to give her a shout out. Her book is called the Autoimmune Solution and it lays out a revolutionary functional medicine plan for treating and reversing full spectrum autoimmune diseases, giving hope to people who have suffered for too long under conventional medicine.

Which, we know, we get questions all the time about autoimmunity. I’ve had Dr. Terry Wahls on the show, who I absolutely love Dr. Wahls. I just think she’s such an awesome human. So, I’m looking forward to speaking with Dr. Myers. Let’s see, I think I’m going to be talking with her what will be next weeks’ episode. So if you’re interested in that. Or, if you don’t know if you’re interested, you should definitely check out the interview.

Anytime we talk about specific health conditions or really specific topics, the conversations always kind of stray and go to other things, so I think even if the episode is coming up and you’re like, well I don’t know if I’m interested in hearing more about the autoimmune stuff, inevitably there will be something pretty revolutionary to learn about from that episode. I’m just really looking forward to it. You can check out her website at http://www.amymyersmd.com/autoimmunesolutionbook/ for details on the book, and then stay tuned for details on our show with her.

Liz Wolfe: Pete’s Paleo is a friend of the Balanced Bites podcast, and they also are fans of the 21-Day Sugar Detox. The 21-Day Sugar Detox is great for your body in so many ways, but consistently feeding yourself right can be a challenge. Pete’s Paleo makes delicious, seasonal, ready to eat meals that strictly follow the 21DSD program. They’re shipped directly to your door, ready to go. Let Pete’s Paleo help you with your 21DSD success. And don’t forget that their bacon is also sugar free. 5OFF21DSD is your coupon code for $5 off 21DSD meals, and 5OFFPETESPALEO is your coupon code for $5 off regular Pete’s Paleo meals.

3. Shout Out 2: Balanced Bites podcast [13:02]

Liz Wolfe: Alright, so, how’s about a little bit of shout outs.

Diane Sanfilippo: Alright.

Liz Wolfe: What’s our shout outs? Ok, I’ve got to scroll down. {gasp} Did you know; we’re going to shout ourselves out. The Balanced Bites podcast won the Paleo Magazine’s best of 2014 podcast.

Diane Sanfilippo: I had no idea! How did we find this out?

Liz Wolfe: Because I got my plaque in the mail.

Diane Sanfilippo: I did not know this, and I have not been home.

Liz Wolfe: It’s a big deal. There are a lot of, I mean, there’s more paleo podcasts these days than there used to be.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, and I remember when we started it, someone was like, aren’t there enough paleo podcasts?

Liz Wolfe: {laughing}

Diane Sanfilippo: I was like, listen. Listen, you.

Liz Wolfe: I remember that too.

Diane Sanfilippo: It was a question on our very first episode! It was something about how we hit a paleo podcast critical mass when there were like 4 {laughs} paleo podcasts.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: I think now there’s probably a minimum of 12, if not closer to 20. So what were the other podcasts nominated? Do you have a list somewhere?

Liz Wolfe: Oh golly. Not right in front of me I don’t. But I think, you know, it was close. There are some other great paleo podcasts out there. I’ve got the magazine in front of me.

Diane Sanfilippo: Interesting. I didn’t know that we won. But that’s great news.

Liz Wolfe: I know!

Diane Sanfilippo: Thank you to our listeners

Liz Wolfe: Yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: For voting and for listening, and for kind of bearing with us through all kinds of crazy stuff that we’ve done in the last 3+ years. This is episode 170-something.

Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.

Diane Sanfilippo: It’s been well over 3 years. Which is pretty much, as long as we’ve been doing this podcast is pretty much as long as we’ve been friends!

Liz Wolfe: yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: I mean, we didn’t even really know each other when we started the podcast .

Liz Wolfe: No.

Diane Sanfilippo: Just barely.

Liz Wolfe: I actually remember I was texting Hayley in the bathroom.

Diane Sanfilippo: “Is this a good idea? Should I get involved with this Diane chick?”

Liz Wolfe: Yeah. She’s like, I think Diane might reach out to you. And I was like, what?

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: Flush.

Diane Sanfilippo: What?

Liz Wolfe: Yeah, ok here we go. Paleo podcast, Balanced Bites. Here’s what they said. “With a sparkling new format and a new wider range of topics…”

Diane Sanfilippo: Ooh.

Liz Wolfe: “The Balanced Bites podcast is well into its 3rd year of broadcast. Host Diane Sanfilippo and Liz Wolfe interview quests and answer listener submitted questions with frequent Mean Girls references.”

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing}

Liz Wolfe: “Thrown in for good measure. Is a wealth of information and a whole lot of fun.” It’s cool that we got a little shout out for the new format.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yay, cool. Well we’ll shout out Dr. Scott. He’s like ridiculously talented. He’s like, how about I help you with the podcast. I was like, ok. And the next day, maybe I’ll make some videos. I have this idea, what do you think. I’m like, yeah, sounds great. And then, boom, he has 20 videos made. I’m like, who are you? {laughs} How are you doing this.

Liz Wolfe: I don’t understand how people can be so productive.

Diane Sanfilippo: He’s really productive.

Liz Wolfe: It took me all day today to even figure out some processing thing I’m getting a video onto YouTube. All day. Worked on one video. And it was already on YouTube, I just couldn’t figure out how to do something else with it.

Diane Sanfilippo: I’m that way with certain things, for sure. There are certain things I’m crazy fast at, but trying to do anything with videos, I’m like, I want to just not be doing it. It takes way too long. My attention span is not that long. {laughs}

Anywho. That’s very cool. Thank you to all of our listeners. We appreciate you guys a ton. We absolutely love being able to kind of, I don’t know, snuggle up with you while you’re falling asleep {laughs} or drive with you to work. And I listen to a ton of podcasts; Liz, I don’t know if you listen to a lot of other podcasts, but I definitely feel a connection with a person who’s hosting the show. I listen to a lot of business and marketing podcasts, I listen to a lot of food podcasts.

I really love, for me, the way we do our podcast, is a reflection of what I enjoy in other podcasts, and a lot of that is practical advice and tips, but also sort of the behind the scenes and the personal aspect. Because I can definitely listen to something like America’s Test Kitchen; and there’s a little bit of what’s personal obviously coming in when they talk about food, and the way the hosts themselves might do things at home.

But there’s definitely not a lot of personal stuff going on there. Which is fine for that type of show, but I really like listening to some other people’s shows where I do get kind of a feeling for who they are and getting to feel like they’re just a regular person, along with this other thing that they’re maybe an expert in that they’re going to teach us something about. I like that this is the format that we’ve been able to maintain this whole time, and I’m also glad that we’ve been able to structure a little bit differently and just bring you folks all kinds of information.

Liz Wolfe: So I’ve been upgraded to a potentially regular person status.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} on this podcast?

Liz Wolfe: Not just creepy weirdo status?

Diane Sanfilippo: Were you just a guest host for the last 3.5 years? {laughing}

Liz Wolfe: {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: What happened?

Liz Wolfe: Apparently. Apparently I was. Well I’m glad to know that I’m a normal human. I need to listen to more podcasts. I think they’re such a great way to learn. And obviously I like walking. But I love silence so much. I really just love hearing my brains rattle around in my head.

Diane Sanfilippo: Oh, see that’s what it is. Without distracting my brain with something else, it will just keep spinning with all this stuff I have to do, or want to do, or whatever.

Liz Wolfe: Mm.

Diane Sanfilippo: So distracting my brain, unfortunately it does lead me to creating more lists of things to do {laughs} sometimes; but not always. The business podcasts do, but not the food nerd ones. So there’s that.

Listener Questions
4. Not eating paleo yet; doctor says I have signs of IBS. Do you think he’s right? [18:48]

Liz Wolfe: Alright, questions?

Diane Sanfilippo: Questions, concerns, comments, anyone? Oh, yes I guess some people have had questions. {laughs}

Liz Wolfe: Apparently. Alright, this one is from Sarah. Not eating paleo yet; doctor says I have signs of IBS. Do you think he’s right? Sarah says, “Hello! I’ve only just started listening to your podcast, and I like listening to you both and I like the advice you give people. I’m not currently following the paleo diet, but finding myself wanting to start following this sort of lifestyle.”

Side note; I really hope people are listening to our podcast like, from going backwards versus like, I just started listening. I’m on episode 3, so once I get to 177, I’ll get the answer to my question.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.

Liz Wolfe: “I’ve been to doctors who tell me I have signs of IBS, but that’s all they have said to me. I definitely don’t understand how I can only have signs of this. I find that I get heartburn a lot, and sometimes get this sick feeling. Do you have any advice on what you think may be causing this? Could it be a reaction to wheat? I’m 25, I eat small and very often, and I’m only of a small build. Any information you can give me would be great. Thank you, Sarah.”

“I eat particularly healthy, having a lot of oats, salad, meat and fruit, but do occasionally have bread. I go to Pilates twice a week, walk an hour a day to and from work, sleep pretty well, and take cod liver oil every day.”

Diane Sanfilippo: I love that walks an hour a day to and from work.

Liz Wolfe: I know!

Diane Sanfilippo: That’s cool.

Liz Wolfe: It’s very good.

Diane Sanfilippo: I love that.

Liz Wolfe: I hope it’s in shoes that are tolerable.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, don’t walk to work in any kind of heels. Do the sneaker commuter thing, or some kind of flat shoe commuter thing. Which for many years I thought was crazy, and then I realized it wasn’t.

Liz Wolfe: {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: So, I have a couple of thoughts for Sarah here. A couple of things; heartburn. Heartburn is not typically a sign of IBS, IBS being irritable bowel syndrome. Which, all IBS means as a diagnosis is, your digestion is irritated.

Liz Wolfe: {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: Typically meant to be your large intestine, which would be more lower GI symptoms, so gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, that kind of thing versus heartburn. I don’t generally consider heartburn, in isolation, as more of a sign of IBS. I don’t know what she means by “this sick feeling.” I might interpret that as, the feeling some people get who don’t digest fats that well, where it’s a little bit of nausea because they’re not releasing enough bile to emulsify the fats.

So, there’s a couple of things here. She says that they’re saying ‘signs of IBS’, she’s like what does that mean, it’s not really a diagnosis. When we look at the way digestion should work as sort of a top down system, which this is stuff that I’ve covered in Practical Paleo in a lot of detail, so if you're like, I don’t know what she’s talking about, you can listen back to old episodes. But grab the book and, it’s like a textbook so you can follow through it very easily. But if you’re having issues of heartburn and that sick feeling, it could be a matter of really having low stomach acid, and you’re just not really digesting your food that well and that completely.

So the first three things to really consider, number one, when you go to sit down to eat, are you in a rest and digest mode? Are you in that nervous system state that will allow your body to chill out, digest the food, and not be in fight or flight mode, where your body actually sort of funnels energy and efforts away from your digestive system. Which you can picture this or kind of feel this when you’re working out, or doing any type of exercise, if you were a little bit hungry going into it, you sort of lose your appetite while you’re doing exercise because you have this mild stress response to exercise that causes your appetite to be suppressed, because that’s not where the focus of your energy is. So the number one thing would be to make sure you’re in a rest and digest state when you go to eat.

Number two, that you’re really, really chewing your food well. Not only does chewing your food well help to mechanically break it down before it gets down your esophagus into your stomach, so it can take a little bit of pressure off of your stomach acid and the digestive juices that have to start to break that down, but chewing will also signal to your brain, hey I’m eating, hey release some hydrochloric acid, stomach acid, and release some digestive enzymes, because food is coming. Which is one of the reasons, I know Liz we’ve mentioned this on previous episodes, gum chewing. I used to chew gum a ton, but people try and do it to stave off their appetite, and I think it’s pretty counterintuitive. Because chewing gum actually tells our brain food is coming, but then we never swallow food and have nutrition come with that gum. Obviously, hopefully we’re not swallowing the gum.

Liz Wolfe: Unless it’s Big League Chew.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} Big League Chew? Oh my gosh.

Liz Wolfe: Then you just want to ‘swaller’ it.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} That stuff was amazing. Used to definitely chew a lot of that.

Liz Wolfe: Oh my gosh.

Diane Sanfilippo: So it’s getting in rest and digest, make sure that you’re chewing really, really well. It also helps to initially break down the protein structures; also carbohydrates start to break down when you’re physically chewing it. And also your saliva begins to act upon the carbohydrates to chemically break them down, as well. So by the time some of this food is hitting your stomach, it’s not just kind of chunks of food that you’ve just chewed a couple of times and swallowed.

The next thing that I would consider, and again this is all covered in the book, so if you’re losing track of the notes I’m throwing out here, or if you’re driving, please don’t take notes while you're driving.

Liz Wolfe: {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: I would look into a stomach acid supplement for a little while. It’s HCL or hydrochloric acid. But that’s something I would only consider after you do the first two steps, and make sure that you’re being conscious about them, not kind of getting crazy about it, but just making sure you’re like, wait am I on the run eating all the time, or am I sitting down and chilling out? Am I chewing my food, or am I not chewing my food. Am I constantly washing it down with tons of water?

And that’s kind of the last thought there too, to make sure you’re not drinking tons of water with your meal, because that will also contribute to reducing stomach acid or suppressing it, which can be another reason for heartburn or indigestion, acid reflux. They’re all the same thing. Those are kind of my thoughts there. I don’t know if there’s some other reason why the doctor is saying signs of IBS. If you had again, gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, those are typically much more common signs of IBS.

Liz Wolfe: There’s no such thing as a gluten deficiency. If you think something might help, and it involves removing certain foods, might as well.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, for sure. And I think that is kind of the basics of paleo. You say that you’re not following a paleo diet; it’s always worth it to try it for at least a month and just see if a lot of this stuff kind of subsides where it’s gluten specifically, but also all grains, and dairy, refined sugars, and legumes to kind of pull those out for at least a month and see how you do. So that would get rid of your oats; you’d need to find an alternate nutrition source. Might I recommend some eggs.

Liz Wolfe: Yes you may.

Diane Sanfilippo: So that’s all I’ve got for Sarah.

5. Career change into nutrition; NTA or Bauman? [26:10]

Liz Wolfe: Alright. This is one we kind of get a lot, but we recycle it because, if we get it a lot, we must need to answer it a lot. Career change into nutrition; NTA or Bauman? “Hi ladies! I’m considering an eventual career change into nutrition therapy. I’ve struggled with my health, and want to learn more to help myself as well as assisting others with their health issues. I know you went to different schools, and was wondering if you minded comparing and contrasting any positives and negatives about each place. NTA seems more affordable, but is the curriculum as comprehensive as Bauman? I want to find the best education for me. I’m not sure if want to have a client based practice; I’m kind of intimidated at having to pimp myself out to get clients, but don’t know what other opportunities are out there for someone with a nutritional therapy education, so if you have other career ideas for someone on this path, please share. Thanks so much!”

I have a really long page on my blog all about this, so we’ll just link that in the podcast post. And I say in the post; I really can’t speak for Bauman, I don’t know enough about it. I chose NTA because it worked with my life goals at the time. And I also talk a ton in that post how I actually use those credentials, because it is not licensure. It is a certification. It’s difficult in some states to be able to legally work one on one with people. I did it in New Jersey, it was fine in New Jersey. I worked under a licensed practitioner, I worked with a licensed practitioner. But here in Missouri, I no longer have a one on one practice. So it’s kind of…

Diane Sanfilippo: Could you, if you wanted to? Or you just don’t because …

Liz Wolfe: No.

Diane Sanfilippo: You can’t?

Liz Wolfe: Nu-huh. I mean, I’m sure I could do it and be ok, but instead I do it online. Like I do podcasts, I do books, I do blogs and stuff like that. And that’s the thing; one of the things I know there are a lot of people really successful just working in their own communities, and I say this in my post, that if you’ve got a gym community, if you’ve got a church community, whatever, you should be able to draw clients from there. But if you are not so sure about your personal contacts, you kind of have to be able to pimp yourself out one way or another. Whether that’s through keeping a blog, making some handouts for people to share. Whatever could get passed around easily, and people could find you.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, that whole element there, what’s funny is when I very first was; I don’t know if I was finished with my program at Bauman yet, or I had finished the first, at the time it was two separate years. I had some nutrition clients, but I actually was doing business coaching with other nutritionists and other nutrition educators and folks who went through the IIN program. I don’t think I had NTPs at the time, but I was doing a lot of business coaching really early on.

Because a lot of people have that same reservation where they’re definitely interested in learning about nutrition, but then having a business around it is often pretty intimidating. For me, that’s the easy part. Working with people one on one became something that wasn’t really right for me and my personality, but learning the information was definitely the foundation of all of that.

In talking about the difference in the programs, we’ve never done this before where we maybe talk a little bit; I actually have a little link open here that goes over what your curriculum was, or at least what it is now. So maybe we can kind of briefly discuss how the curriculum looks for each one? You’ve got different modules in the NTA program. Or NTP program, I don’t know how they refer to it.

Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.

Diane Sanfilippo: And then same thing with the Bauman program. We can probably link to these two, its http://nutritionaltherapy.com/ has a course catalog PDF, and the Bauman website also has a whole catalog of the courses there. But how long did it take you to go through that program?

Liz Wolfe: I believe it took me 11 months from the start to the finish. If I had done the reading and some of the work before hand, it probably would have taken over a year.

Diane Sanfilippo: So when you finish, do you presume that you will be working with a lot of one on one clients? Is that what they assume?

Liz Wolfe: Not necessarily. And actually, a lot of people that go through the program are doing it for the same reason that, what was her name, missed it? Andrea.

Diane Sanfilippo: Oh.

Liz Wolfe: Was thinking about wanting to help themselves before they start to help other people. So it’s really kind of a foundational, how the body works and how holistic nutrition plays into that type of program.

Diane Sanfilippo: Mm-hmm. When I was doing the Bauman program, it was two separate programs. It was a nutrition educator, and then a nutrition consultant. So it was an NE and then an NC, and it almost sounds like the NTA program is mostly what the NE program was for us, with a smattering of the NC program. When I look at the curriculum; we learned a lot of what it looks like you guys were learning. But I’m looking at the very end where it says bonus topics; intro to botanical medicine as a bonus topic.

Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.

Diane Sanfilippo: And every section that we went over with any sort of relation to therapeutic interventions, so whether it was about stress and endocrine information, or men’s and women’s health, liver detox, GI health, I’m looking through the curriculum now, it’s not all off the top of my head. Blood sugar, weight management, all of that, cardiovascular, mental health, musculoskeletal, immune, cancer, everything, botanical medicine and Chinese medicine was always addressed in every section.

And that’s what informed a lot of what I did, obviously in my practice, and then the recommendations that I put in Practical Paleo, where it’s not a one size fits all for every person who might be dealing with cardiovascular issues, perhaps. But it’s recommendations with notes about what do these supplements do, what can these herbs help do, and then each person it’s really up to you, or yourself and a practitioner, to kind of figure it out.

That’s what it sounds like to me, but I do think there are a ton of people who are taking what they have from the NTA program, or NTP, to that next level, doing a lot of testing. I know Holly, who is on my team, who is an NTP as well, she does a lot of testing with people.

Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.

Diane Sanfilippo: Some of the lab work, the saliva tests and all of that. I think that really depends on the person. What I was also going to say about the Bauman program, which I think this would be pretty similar; you don’t have to work one on one. You can kind of do community education. You can just decide you want to teach people about how to eat gluten free, or something like that. You might not have to work one on one with people if that’s not really your strength, or if you feel sort of pimping yourself out is too stressful, you can easily. Well, maybe not so easily, but you can definitely move into a position where you're sort of a wellness advisor or nutrition advisor practitioner within some kind of other practice. Whether it’s a chiropractic office or a wellness clinic or something like that where you can teach classes or work in that capacity. What you’re going to do with it, it’s really up to each person.

I think just read the curriculum, and kind of try and get a grasp on it from there about what you’re going to learn. I look at the topics, some of it does look similar, but when I go and look at the topics in the Bauman program, they definitely get much more clinical and so if you want to work with people who are having specific issues, and you want to know, what can I tell this person nutritionally beyond sort of eat paleo. Because obviously a lot of people listening to our podcast, they already know about eating nutrient dense food, Weston A. Price, paleo type of diet. I think both programs obviously support most of that on both ends.

I just think it really depends on what you want to learn, and how quickly, and also, if the cost is a huge factor and it’s like, there’s no way I’ll be able to do the one that’s pretty much twice as expensive, then don’t do it. But if you read the curriculum for the Bauman program, and you’re like, I really think this is what I need, then I would wait a little more time and save up the money and do it. I definitely think it’s a worthwhile program.

I think for anybody who is considering it, I personally think the classroom setting cannot be replaced. They have a distance program, there are plenty of people who are highly, highly successful after having completed the distance program. I have two good friends now who one finished it already, and she works in a chain gym but what she teaches is totally about real food. She doesn’t teach about low-fat nonsense, and another one who is in it right now. I have every confidence that they’ll do just great with it.

So if you can’t do a classroom setting, it’s fine. But if you have the option to, I would make it happen however you can because I just think there’s something you can’t replace, having that interaction and kind of colleagues and all of that. I’m still in touch with, it was mostly women, one guy. I’m still in touch with a lot of the people who were in my classes. It’s great to have those connections.

Liz Wolfe: Were the classes weekly? Weekly classes?

Diane Sanfilippo: I think we went once a week for 3 hours. I feel like it was 6-9 p.m. Wednesday, and then I think we had a few weeks where we had two classes just so that the year didn’t go too long, and there were just a handful where we had to come in twice that week. Because I would go right from work. I would leave work at 5 and be at class by 6. I was still working full time when I was going through most of that program.

Liz Wolfe: So for the NTC, I believe there is no in person, but for the NTP, which is what I am, they do have 3 basically conference weekends. So if you’re not local to Bauman; which, am I right, that’s the only way you could actually have that in person, if you were somewhere close enough to go to class?

Diane Sanfilippo: Correct. I do think the majority of their students are not in person.

Liz Wolfe: But if you were going to take a class online, the majority of it had to be online, and you wanted to have at least a little bit of, not hand to hand, but hands on type of learning, the NTP program does do the 3 conference weekends. You’d have to travel and stay in a hotel and what not, but you can kind of maybe get the best of both worlds if you really want some in person learning but you’re not able to go to Bauman.

Diane Sanfilippo: The other thing that they introduced to the Bauman program after I was finished with it already was field work. So it’s almost like an internship type of thing. And I really don’t know what that looks like for people at this stage. I was still in my second year of the Bauman program when I started teaching classes around the country. I just basically was like, ok, I’m going to start teaching. I only taught the things that I really confident that I knew about, but I kind of created my own on-site field work {laughs}. Because that’s kind of what I do. But I just got out and started teaching already, and there was demand, and that was after Robb Wolf wasn’t teaching Crossfit nutrition certs anymore, and there really wasn’t a ton out there, and lots of gyms wanted someone to come teach about nutrition.

That’s part of what’s involved. I think that the Bauman program, it’s a really well rounded, it feels like, I don’t know. It feels like a regular type of classroom, or a regular type of curriculum. I think with the internship, field work, whatever they’re calling it, I think they’re very much trying to design it so that you’re ready to do the work in that field. So you don’t finish and say, now what? I think that was the point of it. Because most people are not like me. Most people are not like, finished and already have work lined up. Most people kind of sit, like, ok what do I do now? I think that’s probably a big benefit for folks that they have that.

Maybe I’ll try and see if there are a couple of students who have finished the program more recently that I can find and interview on the show, maybe in an upcoming show, and just see what they’re doing and how the program was. I know I’ve referred a ton of people. I know you’ve referred a ton of people to NTA.

Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.

Diane Sanfilippo: So maybe we’ll figure that out.

Liz Wolfe: Just to be real honest, I’m pregnant and super tired, so everybody just go read my post {laughs} on education and career help. Because I do have a lot to say about NTA; it was a wonderful program. I loved it. So compare and contrast. Just do more research.

Diane Sanfilippo: The one other thing I’ll say about programs in general, is that a lot of folks ask us about the IIN program, which is School of Space in New York, they have a distance program as well. I don’t know if they have an onsite program still; I feel like somebody said that they stopped doing it. I’m not positive. But, I have a lot of friends who did that program and absolutely loved it. They loved the camaraderie, they loved what they learned. They are using it out there. I think the two closest friends I have who have done it don’t have full time careers in that field currently. I know one other person who does have a full time, self employed, career doing that.

And if you’re into paleo, and you kind of belief this is the way to eat, and this is what you’re into, I don’t recommend that program because one of the biggest things about their curriculum is teaching you about all the different dietary theories, and I think that if this is where you’ve kind of already landed, and you feel really confident about it, of course it’s always worth it to explore what’s out there, but at the end of the day you’re probably not going to recommend a raw vegan diet to somebody, because you probably don’t whole heartedly believe in that.

I don’t think it’s ideal to sit through a curriculum that you’re just in it just because it was less expensive and easier to do. That’s not going to make it worth it. Where I think NTA versus Bauman, I think the curriculum is pretty similar, but I think she’s right. It’s maybe a little more in-depth from Bauman.

Liz Wolfe: I chose NTA for sure because I loved the curriculum.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. It looks great!

Liz Wolfe: It’s a spectacular curriculum. I definitely looked at IIN; it just wasn’t for me because I did feel like I didn’t need to know how to perfect the implementation of diets that I already did not consider to be optimal.

Diane Sanfilippo: Right.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah, for sure. But some people want that kind of background, so they can really understand where people are coming from when they’re talking about implementing that type of diet, so you just never know.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.

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6. Vitamins A and D and keratosis pilaris [42:16]

Liz Wolfe: Alright, next question. Vitamins A and D and keratosis pilaris. Katie says, “I’m a new listener to your podcast, and I decided to start at the beginning to get some background on your thoughts and feelings about food. In your second episode, something about the balance of vitamin D and A having something to do with keratosis pilaris. Could you elaborate a little on the relationship with the problem, and possible ways of determining if it may be something going on with my diet.

I have not started eating paleo, but I began listening to your podcast because of my interest in knowing a little more about it. I typically eat oatmeal with 1-2% milk and about a teaspoon of honey each morning, have some sort of salad with rice, beans, meat, egg, greens, carrots, and broccoli for lunch, and a similar salad for dinner; occasionally subbing in fish for the rice and beans. I have a large mug of coffee each morning, and I have yogurt with fruit, apples with peanut butter, nuts and oranges for snacks throughout the day.

I realize there’s probably quite a bit you would change about my diet, but what would you recommend specific to KP. Thanks so much!”

I liked the rest of her question, which was why I wanted to pop it in here. “I’m a community nutritionist with an undergrad in nutritional sciences from Texas A&M. I have long since whole heartedly believed in the MyPlate diagrams and everything in moderation, but I’m beginning to think this may not be the best approach. I teach cooking and nutrition classes in New Orleans that focus on basic principals according to the USDA guidelines. I’ve scoffed at my friends doing paleo things in the past, immediately dismissing it as another Atkins. Just listened to a post where you mentioned that most people have misinformation about what Atkins was really all about, and I may owe him an apology. But, it may be time to actually see what it’s all about.”

So {laughs}.

Diane Sanfilippo: Aww, I love that.

Liz Wolfe: I know, I really liked this question because, part of it, I will admit that for many people, the USDA MyPlate would probably be a huge improvement. Not a total Betty, but a vast improvement.

Diane Sanfilippo:{laughing} We’re bringing back Clueless now, it’s not just Mean Girls. It’s like the original.

Liz Wolfe: Oh please, we have to.

Diane Sanfilippo: Well, not the original.

Liz Wolfe: No. So, I have to acknowledge that. There are people out there that are bringing people off McDonald’s and introducing them to real, whole foods, and I think that MyPlate, while general attempts by the government to make us healthier have been spectacular failures for one reason or another, and although the nutrient density of the recommendations of the government with the MyPlate stuff are pretty far below what you would get from just kind of an out of the box paleo diet, like what we talk about, which is really for I think a lot of professionals, where the rubber meets the road.

And it was this for me. Before I even jumped into the NTA stuff, or became an NTP, I actually did a side by side comparison of what the government recommends, and I really kind of went on the really good side of what the government recommends. So, kind of the most nutrient dense foods I could find on that type of plan, and then an out of the box paleo plan, not even with the cod liver oil and the liver and all that stuff. But in comparing the two, in almost every single category, paleo was superior just from a nutrient density point of view.

And that, I was like, oh wow. So how can we still argue that I need this much rice or this many whole grains and whatnot when you’re getting the same nutrients from a plate that you shuffle around. Add some new things, take away a couple of other things. I think it’s cool that she’s kind of interested in this approach, especially as a teacher, and as a professional. And I think where we start getting questions like, well, ok, I’m into the Standard American Diet stuff. I do the beans and rice, I don’t eat any processed food, I don’t eat any processed fats, refined sugar, stuff like that. But I’m wondering about this KP on my arms. Or, I’m wondering why my stomach gets so bloated after I eat. That type of thing.

This is the type of stuff that really starts to change the way we think about food. Because we start to realize what actual nutrients can do for our bodies, versus, oh the government says this, uses this epidemiology to prove it, and this is what we should just all do.

So the big thing for me, a lot of folks know, it was my skin. Healing my skin, and getting over acne, and balancing my hormones, was kind of my buy in. Because I liked the paleo thing, I felt great, but until you really find that thing, that in. Where you’re like, I wonder, I wonder if this could make a difference. That’s where you start to maybe think about food a little bit differently. And not, we were right, you were wrong. By any means. It’s just interesting, different people’s points of entry.

So, with that having been said, elaborating on the keratosis pilaris stuff.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} Back to your question.

Liz Wolfe: Back to the actual question. I just loved it, I thought it was so great.

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah. So, we, and I want to differentiate also, I think this person would really like my book. Eat the Yolks is my book; Katie, read my book. So the differentiation between fat soluble and water soluble vitamins, of course I’m sure she knows what that is already, but when I talk about vitamin A, I’m talking about fat soluble vitamin A. I’m talking about preformed vitamin A. So I’m not talking about beta carotene or anything that you would get from fruits and vegetables. I’m talking about the vitamin A that we get from animal products. So that’s kind of step 1.

If you feel like you’re getting a lot of vitamin A, but perhaps you’re actually getting beta carotene, maybe your body is not doing a great job of converting beta carotene into fat soluble vitamin A. That conversion is a little bit of a risky thing to rely on. It requires a lot of other nutrients in the body, and I talk about this in my book, Eat the Yolks. So, as long as you’re getting the right type of vitamin A, you can kind of move on from there.

If you are getting enough preformed vitamin A, and you’ve still got this keratosis pilaris issue on your arms, which sorry I didn’t explain it. It’s kind of like those chicken skin bumps on the backs of your arms, on your legs. They kind of look like little zits, but you can’t really pop them. If you’re not getting any vitamin D, you need to think about getting some sun during the summer, getting some vitamin D rich foods like salmon, sardines, maybe some pasture raised lard and that type of thing.

Sorry, the baby is moving around a lot, and I’m having trouble focusing {laughing}. Oh so weird, the alien.

Diane Sanfilippo: That’s very freaky.

Liz Wolfe: I know, I’m pretty sure those are little fingers. It’s so weird. Alright, so what was the question? {laughs} could you elaborate a little on their relationship with this problem. So I extrapolated a little bit just from my own bank of knowledge about how vitamins D and A work together in the body to activate different proteins and stuff like that, and just make the connection that if we’re talking about KP generally being a deficiency in vitamin A, we also always have to think about how those important nutrients interact with other nutrients. Because no nutrient exists or acts in isolation. So vitamins A and D work together to do almost everything, as well as vitamin K2.

That was just one of those things that I extrapolated this idea that if you are getting too much of a good thing, you’re probably not actually accomplishing what you want to accomplish in the most direct way. So, I guess that’s kind of what I wanted to say. Like I said, I’m having major issues with pregnancy brain right now, but have I said anything that makes sense, Diane?

Diane Sanfilippo: Oh, yeah, a few things.

Liz Wolfe: Minimally? {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: I think the other, with what she’s asking about vitamins A and D and what they have to do with it, basically that vitamin A deficiency is what we know to be at the root of the keratosis pilaris. However, like what you were saying, it’s not necessarily just a flat, you’re not taking in enough vitamin A.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah.

Diane Sanfilippo: Although, that tends to be pretty common. Because where we get vitamin A from primarily, liver is a huge source of that, or anything that has beta carotene, which as you said is a precursor to the end form retinol vitamin A. We just don’t eat it in a lot of other foods, but I think we get some from egg yolks.

Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.

Diane Sanfilippo: And I definitely, I would recommend that she swap out some eggs for the oatmeal. Eat two or three hardboiled eggs instead of oatmeal in the morning, and see what you experience. Depending on where she lives where the vitamin D comes in, and I definitely see this for myself. Because I know that vitamin A has such a strong tie to the health of my skin, I absolutely see that when I’m getting more vitamin D, my skin improves, but it’s not because of the vitamin D itself, it’s because of what vitamin D does to support vitamin A in the body.

You can see this when, if you get some sun exposure and your skin clears up more. Or if you take vitamin D and your skin tends to get better, which that happened with me a lot when I used to take vitamin D supplements. I used to take 10,000 iu of vitamin D a day now and then. I would do it because the next day I could feel that my skin felt so much better, but I haven’t had to do it lately because my skin is way clearer than it used to be. This was maybe 5 years ago, 4 years ago. But I thought it was just the vitamin D at the time, but then I realized that it’s the way the vitamin D helps to activate the vitamin A and balance it out and just work synergistically.

I think that all those things are important, and vitamins A and D are some of the toughest to really get either nutritionally or obviously lifestyle wise in the winter for those of us where it’s not sunny all the time. So that’s kind of what I would say.

I think when she’s looking at what she’s eating, even if you don’t want to think about eating paleo, just think about what can you eat that would get these nutrients into your diet better, and that’s where I kind of thought of, ok why don’t you try a few eggs in the morning instead of the oatmeal. That’s going to give you a lot more nutrition, it’s going to give you those nutrients that might help with your skin and balance that out again, and also kind of adding in some liver if you can. A little bit a couple of times a week if you’re having that issue will probably clear it up pretty quickly. I think this is what happens for most people once they start getting their nutrition turned around.

I used to have some of that on the backs of my arms, and I think eating a lot of grass fed ghee has helped me a lot, too. Because I can’t really do butter without ill effects; if I eat too much of it, or for too long. But I’ve been using kind of a ton of grass fed ghee just for cooking or for whatever else I’m doing, and I think I’m getting my vitamins A and D pretty nicely that way. A little bit of D.

Liz Wolfe: Thank you for picking up that and running with it. I was having some issues over here.

Diane Sanfilippo: Just blame the alien.

Liz Wolfe: There’s a lot going on.

7. Diane’s Kitchen tip: beef jerky recipe tips and storage [53:39]

Liz Wolfe: Ok, Diane. Do you have a kitchen tip for us this week.

Diane Sanfilippo: Well, we had a question so I figured this would be a good kitchen tip because it seems to be a kitcheny type of thing. So the question was about beef jerky. How long will, I think she’s referring to my simple beef jerky recipe in the 21-Day Sugar Detox, how long will that last? Should I keep it in the refrigerator? What is the serving size? Hmm. {laughs} I’m surprised I didn’t give more details on the recipe. But perhaps I did not.

Liz Wolfe: You never know. Sometimes people stop reading when they come to the question, instead of reading on to see if it’s answered. {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, I don’t know. I probably did not give this information.

Liz Wolfe: I’m just trying to make you feel better. {laughs}

Diane Sanfilippo: I know. I didn’t write little head notes in the Sugar Detox book. Like the little blurb about the recipe, because when I was doing them for Practical Paleo, but the end I was like, I don’t know what else to tell you about this food. It’s yummy. Make it and eat it. {laughs} Anyway. Simple beef jerky. You’ll notice when you buy beef jerky, whether it’s Steve’s Paleo Goods or Sophia’s Survival Food, or sometimes I like this brand called Krave jerky, they have a pork jerky that’s yummy and soy free. All kinds of jerky’s that are out there.

Generally when you buy one that’s prepackaged, obviously it’s in an airtight bag, and it also has one of those little silica packets in it to help absorb any moisture. So that’s what helps those jerky’s keep pretty well for a while in your cupboard. You don’t have to refrigerate those. But I do think that jerky that you make at home, I think you should refrigerate it. I think keeping it in an airtight container will help it stay a little bit softer, a little bit more moist. But generally, as you take it out and kind of carry it with you throughout the day, it will soften up a little bit and be a little bit easier to eat.

I don’t really know how long you can keep it out of the refrigerator. It’s hard to know without knowing exactly how dry it has become for you. Because the more moisture you have left in the jerky, the more prone it is to spoiling. So if you get it really, really dry, the chances of it spoiling on you today to the next day to two days later just kind of in your bag probably pretty slim if it’s much more dry. But if it’s got a lot more moisture left in it, it’s just going to give the opportunity for mold and stuff like that.

I generally do keep it in the fridge, and I generally also will throw it in my purse and have it in there for a couple of days and not think much of it. You can very easily look at it and smell it, and if it looks like anything is growing, or it smells kind of off, those are some good signs that it has gone off. I think it will keep for quite a while in the fridge before you finish it, but it just depends. I don’t think we ever have jerky we make that lasts more than {laughs} a few days in the fridge if we’re not taking it somewhere, because we just like it and we eat it. I think it will last, I don’t know, several weeks in the fridge once it’s dried out as jerky.

And then, what’s a serving size? It depends on what you’re eating it for. {laughs} I mean, if you just need a little snack, I don’t know, 1 ounce, 2 ounces, 3 ounces. I’m not that calculating about that stuff. I kind of eat when I’m hungry until I’m not any more. That’s really as calculated as it gets. I tend to use jerky for snacks pretty exclusively, unless I’m traveling and I need to use that as my protein source for the meal because I really like to eat more water rich foods as my meal as much as possible, so I will travel with jerky a lot. I think anywhere from 2-4 ounces is kind of a good snack size portion of jerky.

Liz Wolfe: You never knew how much there is to know about jerky.

Diane Sanfilippo: I just was yapping on and on about jerky.

Liz Wolfe: Yeah.

8. Liz’s fertility tip of the week: probiotics in pregnancy [57:34]

Diane Sanfilippo: So Liz, do you have a fertility tip for us this week?

Liz Wolfe: Well golly Diane, I do.

Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} Golly!

Liz Wolfe: Golly. So, I’m asked pretty frequently lately whether it’s necessary to take a probiotic during pregnancy. And what I have to say about my personal experience is that I have. I was pretty particular about strains and type, both before pregnancy and during pregnancy. I actually asked Meg the midwife recently what the evidence is saying about this, and here’s what she said. She said, research seems to be pointing to the conclusion that probiotic supplementation, and by whatever mechanism, I don’t have a mechanism for this, but what we see it does seem to cross the placenta. It does seem to reach the baby, and is potentially associated with reduced risk of eczema, allergies, sensitivities, and asthma.

Now, we’ve got to be careful, of course, when we interpret studies one way or the other, but Meg does say it’s very new science, it probably depends on the strain, the potency, the maternal GI system. But this is yet another thing we’ll be exploring in our fertility tips and in Baby Making and Beyond because there are some strains that are standing out as promising, and it’s all just really interesting stuff. This is very new science, but it’s pretty cool for us to be able to have a view of exactly what maternal probiotic state, I guess, can do for the little baby in there.

Liz Wolfe: Alright, so that’s it for this week. You can find Diane at http://dianesanfilippo.com, and join me, Liz, at http://realfoodliz.com/. Join our email lists for free goodies you don’t find anywhere else on our website. And, while you’re on the internet, please leave us an iTunes review. We’ll see you next week.