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You’re listening to the Balanced Bites podcast episode 249.
Welcome to the Balanced Bites podcast with Diane Sanfilippo and Liz Wolfe. Diane is a certified nutrition consultant, and the New York Times bestselling author of Practical Paleo, The 21-Day Sugar Detox, and co-author of Mediterranean Paleo Cooking. Liz is a nutritional therapy practitioner, and the best-selling author of Eat the Yolks and The Purely Primal Skincare Guide. Together, Diane and Liz answer your questions, interview leading health and wellness experts, and share their take on modern paleo living with their friendly and balanced approach. Remember our disclaimer: The materials and content within this podcast are intended as general information only, and are not to be considered a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
Liz Wolfe: Hey everyone. {singing} Hey everybody, look who’s back again!
Diane Sanfilippo: Is that a song? Is that a real song?
Liz Wolfe: {laughs} Yes. It’s going to hit you where it’s from. They just did the sequel; I didn’t see it.
Diane Sanfilippo: I have no idea.
Liz Wolfe: It’s from My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
Diane Sanfilippo: Oh. I don’t know that line.
Liz Wolfe: It’s not really a line so much as a filler. It’s kind of like, there’s other activity going on.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: But those are the lines I remember, the ones that are like {laughs} irrelevant.
Diane Sanfilippo: I typically remember those, but I’ve probably only see that movie once, maybe twice. And the only other lines I know are the ones that other people repeat.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: Which are like; “what, he don’t eat meat? I give him lamb.” Something to that effect. {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: Spanakopita.
Diane Sanfilippo: You don’t eat meat? What?
Liz Wolfe: Nothing. Let’s hear from one of our sponsors.
Liz Wolfe: The Balanced Bites podcast is sponsored in part by the Nutritional Therapy Association. The NTA trains and certifies nutritional therapy practitioners and consultants, including me, I’m an NTP, emphasizing bio-individuality and the range of dietary strategies that support wellness. The NTA emphasizes local, whole, properly prepared nutrient dense foods as the key to restoring balance and enhancing the body’s ability to heal. Nutritional therapy practitioners and consultants learn a wide range of tools and techniques to assess and correct nutritional imbalances. To learn lots more about the nutritional therapy program, go to http://www.NutritionalTherapy.com. There are workshop venues in the US, Canada, and Australia, so chances are you’ll be able to find a venue that works for you.
1. News and updates from Diane & Liz [2:37]
Liz Wolfe: Alright. So, Diane, since I haven’t talked to you in forever.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: What are your updates?
Diane Sanfilippo: What has everybody been up to? What’s the 411. So the 411 on Mean Girls on an airplane; here’s what happened on the flight back from Rome, a 10.5 hour flight; I don’t even want to discuss how physically painful that was. But, I was going through all the movies trying to pick something out. This is not a real update, this is just something I thought I needed to share right now. I’m trying to find different movies to queue up for the 10.5 hours. That half makes a difference; it’s like 26.2 miles in a marathon; that 0.2 really matters. So anyhoo; I’m waiting in line for the bathroom at one point, and I notice this younger girl is watching Mean Girls on her little screen. And I’m like; where did she find that? I looked all through anything comedy, anything family when I got back to my seat. I was like; I don’t know where that could be otherwise; definitely not a new release. Looked everywhere.
And then I’m like; fine I’m just going to look through all the categories, because obviously it’s been miscategorized. It was under drama; since when is Mean Girls a drama? Weird right?
Liz Wolfe: What?
Diane Sanfilippo: Anyway. I did get to watch the movie for the millionth time on the flight back, so that made me kind of happy despite how painful the flight was. So anyway, I am back from my European adventures, as we discussed on the last episode. Still trying to catch up on the 9-hour time difference, jet lag. I’ve decided it takes me about a day for every 2 hours of time difference; so on the way there about 5 days in, Scott and I were both pretty regulated in terms of going to sleep around 10 and waking up around 6. So I’ve got a few more days until this is feeling A-Ok.
But I’m also kind of a zombie and I’m working on some project deadlines over here that hopefully pretty soon {laughs} I’ll be able to tell people what it is. And I am not a secret keeper; as evidenced by the Balanced Bites Master Class that you and I have been talking about for more time than we wish we had been talking about it.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: Because now it is actually coming out this fall; that’s a real thing. That’s not the big project I’m working on {laughs} but it is being worked on currently as well. But anyway. I’m kind of a zombie; I can’t be held responsible for anything I may say today. {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: That’s kind of my first update. Second update; Practical Paleo testimonials. We want to hear from you guys. We get a lot of emails and I see a lot of reviews on Amazon about the 21-Day Sugar Detox, but I want to share some stories with people who are interested in learning more about how paleo can help them. Obviously, you guys as listeners, I know tons of you have transformation stories, whether it’s your health condition, an autoimmune condition; whether it is weight loss, fat loss, just changes in your energy, changes in what's going on with your family. Anything that’s been happening, I would love to hear about it from you.
So if you head over to http://blog.balancedbites.com and I believe we have a link for contacting me just at the bottom of the website; but in the show notes for this episode we’ll make sure we have a very prominent link that if you’ve got a story and Practical Paleo is the book that really pushed you, gave you the information; somebody gave it to you, you found it somewhere. Whatever the case may be, if my book was the one that did that for you, I want to hear about it. And that will probably feed into some fun projects coming up in the future, wink, wink. But just want to throw that out there; we would love to hear from you guys. Pretty soon, too, so as you’re hearing this episode, maybe this weekend hop over to the website and just tell me your story. I would love to hear it.
And then I think I mentioned this on a previous episode; Tuesday July 5th will be the next 21-Day Sugar Detox start. We typically start on a Monday, but that will be July 4th, and enjoy your strawberries and your cherries {laughs} on July 4th, and whatever other adult beverages and things of that nature. And we’ll start on Tuesday, July 5th. I think that’s pretty much.
Oh; you know, the one other thing I wanted to tell people is, I was checking out the iTunes listing for our podcast, and I saw a few new reviews, and I just wanted to tell you guys; I know it’s in our closing to the show every week, but we absolutely appreciate those reviews. We read them, we would love to encourage you guys; I know tons of you have been listening for a really long time. I know how many people are listening every week because we see stats on that stuff, and we have definitely not quite as many reviews and rankings as we do listeners. And I would love to encourage you guys to just take a moment, hop over onto iTunes and go ahead and leave us a review and rate the show with a star ranking. We just totally appreciate that, but I know a lot of you guys have been listening so long that you probably feel like; you know, it’s not as fresh in your mind. So there’s that. What’s up with you?
Liz Wolfe: Nothing.
Diane Sanfilippo: Lizzie-poo. {laughs} I’m totally punchy.
Liz Wolfe: I mean, we literally talked two days ago.
Diane Sanfilippo: We did. Not even.
Liz Wolfe: Wait, yesterday. Wow. {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. {laughs} It was actually yesterday.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah. We got a bunch of really cute baby chicks today. We had a lot of sad death on the farm while we were away.
Diane Sanfilippo: You were gone for quite a while, so.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah, yeah we were. And I mean, we were taking care of the place and checking on things.
Diane Sanfilippo: Right.
Liz Wolfe: It’s just, at a certain point you're gone 8, 10, 12 hours at a time and overnight and all of that. Things can kind of fall apart. But we got some Easter egg layers, and some more buff Orpington, and one wild card.
Diane Sanfilippo: I don’t know what any of that means.
Liz Wolfe: I know, yeah. I mean, the Easter egg layers are the ones that lay the pretty blue-green eggs, which I wanted.
Diane Sanfilippo: Oh. Ok, cool.
Liz Wolfe: You have to order those way in advance. And the buff Orpington are just kind of good; they’re just sweet. It’s a sweet breed. They’ll hatch their eggs and everything. We had silver laced Wyandottes as our first chickens that we ever had, and they’re all gone now, may they rest. But they are less broody, which means they are less inclined to sit on their eggs and hatch more chicks. So.
Diane Sanfilippo: Oh.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: Interesting. Interesting.
Liz Wolfe: The end. We also have guineas in the barn, again, which will be fun. Fun for the baby to see how loud and ugly they are.
Diane Sanfilippo: Ha-ha-ha.
2. Shout out: NBA star Ray Allen opens healthy fast food restaurant [9:22]
Liz Wolfe: Alright, Diane you had a pretty cool shout out.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, so this week I saw; I don’t remember who I originally saw sharing it, but over on Facebook I saw a post about NBA star Ray Allen and his wife opened a healthy drive through restaurant in Florida. It’s called Grown, and the goal is to make healthy food more accessible. I heard a couple of people comment that the pricing wasn’t super amazing at this point, but I think their goal is to make it more accessible, and the way I see it, the more accessible it becomes the more people can kind of jump on board. Eventually the prices do tend to come down on that stuff, but we have to have more people consuming things so that then the prices can drop so these companies can make more of what they’re going to make, and order more, and spend less on each thing. So anyway, just some basic economics there.
But options like a hydration center with fruit flavored water; I saw a photo where there was watermelon and lemon in the water, and gluten free pancakes with organic blueberries, fresh juices, paleo friendly omelettes, organic soups, gluten free wraps, wild salmon; etc., etc. So it’s pretty cool. I would definitely stop there if I was down in Florida, and not going to a sit down dinner and wanted to check it out. I think probably the next time I'm in Florida, if there’s one nearby, we’ll probably check it out just to see what the scoop is. Yeah, right now as it stands, Chipotle seems to be one of the only options that has any sort of; I don’t know, like a social conscious, I guess around the food that’s being served, and who knows. Maybe this will be another one that kind of starts to take hold. But we’ll see what happens. It’s called Grown down in Florida.
Liz Wolfe: That is super cool.
Diane Sanfilippo: Pete’s Paleo is a friend of the Balanced Bites podcast. They’re bacon is insanely delicious, and sugar free, and their premade paleo meals make your life so much easier when everything is getting busy and getting real food on the table is still a top priority, as it should be. Pete’s Paleo is now offering a 30-day gut healing kit containing bone broth, gelatin gummies, instant organic soup packs, and an E-cookbook. It’s the perfect complement to any anti-inflammatory diet. Get yours today at www.guthealingkit.com. Use code GRABACUPPABROTH to get $25 off; that’s an amazing deal. It’s GRABACUPPABROTH, C-U-P-P-A. And you can grab that code any time at www.BalancedBites.com to just read it and make sure you’re typing it in right. You can also use code BALANCEDBITES to get $5 off any of their regular meal plans. Check out www.PetesPaleo.com today. Pete’s Paleo; bringing fine dining to your cave.
3. Gummy worm addiction and eating liver advice [12:17]
Liz Wolfe: Alright, well let’s move on to today’s topic, or range of topics, shall we?
Diane Sanfilippo: Yes, yes, I think we have a bunch of questions that have come in.
Liz Wolfe: What?! Questions?
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, blog posts. What’s that?
Liz Wolfe: Questions?
Diane Sanfilippo: What’s that now?
Liz Wolfe: {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: Rumpelstiltskin. Oh, sorry everyone.
Diane Sanfilippo: I want to know; so we currently get questions. This is kind of the dilemma of social media, is that everyone wants to post comments and questions everywhere, which is cool. I mean, I like that we have engagement on posts all over the place; that’s great. But my team definitely tries to bring things together from what we see on the @BalancedBitespodcast Instagram account with questions and comments there, as well as questions and comments that are coming through the blog and through the contact form that is a podcast question. It’s the “official” podcast question submission form. But I don’t know.
If you guys want to chime in; wherever you want to chime in with it {laughs}, if it would be easier for you all to just send a question to [email protected] for example, that’s another option we have. If anybody thinks they want to be able to call in with a question and leave a message somewhere, let us know. I mean, it’s kind of tough. I just don’t know if there’s a better way, and I’m one of those people who is always like; if there’s a better way, we’ll try it out. So there you go. Anyway, keep the questions coming whichever way you’re doing it. {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: So, there you go.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.
Liz Wolfe: Alright. This one is about gummy worm addiction, and liver suggestions. These are real things.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: Ok. “I recently attempted to make big changes to my eating, and in turn, lifestyle. I’ve been struggling with infertility since a miscarriage in 2014, which had also lead to a 15-pound weight gain on my already overweight body, and I believe a paleo diet will be the best for my health and waistline. I started the change by completing a Whole30 after Easter this year. About midway through, I was hooked on whole foods. Since my 30 days, I’ve tried to maintain more of a paleo diet, but have found myself being much more tempted by non-paleo food; mainly, gummy worms. Along with the Whole30 I also gave up a nearly half a pack a day smoking habit. I think much of the reason I go for the gummies is that part of me says I deserve it in times of stress because I no longer smoke. Other parts of me wonder why I now go to the trouble of making my own barbecue sauce and mayo if I’m going to cheat with something as terrible as gummy worms. It’s odd; it’s not chocolate, it’s not pasta, it’s gummies; like a 5-year-old. How do I quit the terrible habit; or any insight as to why I crave them?
Secondly, I hear a lot about liver from your podcasts, but I’m curious if you could give me some suggestions on how to eat it. I don’t particularly like it, and it makes me a bit nervous. I went to the locker last week and picked me up some fresh liver. I pulsed it in the food processor, and then mixed one cup of liver with two cups of burger, then put it in the freezer. I can’t bring myself to eat it; I want the nutrients, but it scares me. Any ideas for liver newbies? Thanks so much for all you do. I look forward to hearing new episodes every week, and I’m slowly making my way through all the oldies. My drive to work, mowing the yard, weeding the garden, and even laundry have never been as enjoyable as they are when I’m doing them listening to you two.”
Thank you!
Diane Sanfilippo: Aww, that’s so sweet.
Liz Wolfe: That’s really sweet.
Diane Sanfilippo: I do chores while I listen to podcasts too.
Liz Wolfe: That’s adorable.
Diane Sanfilippo: I love that.
Liz Wolfe: Can I say real quick, because I know you're going to jump into this. It’s funny; so she says, “it’s not chocolate, it’s not pasta, it’s gummies.” Just from a purely ingredients/industrial processing standpoint, you can get some really good chocolate, you can get some einkorn grain pasta, and in my opinion, that could almost fit into a healthy lifestyle, really.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.
Liz Wolfe: You know? So it’s just interesting how we think about food. We’ve demonized a lot of foods. Maybe fairly, maybe not, but then we end up going for just the worst thing we can possibly think of because it’s like; blech! You know. It’s the way we’ve been trained. So it’s interesting. I’m looking forward to your take on this.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} So, I just, I was laughing not because I’m laughing at her. Her name, her first name is Jan; I’m laughing with her because gummies were my thing. Before I created the 21-Day Sugar Detox, back in I guess it was probably 2010, so gosh that was over 6 years ago. I remember after I first cut sugar out, there was a moment where I went to the candy store in my neighborhood; which is just one neighborhood away from where I live now. And bought a whole bunch of candy; and most of that was gummies. So I can totally relate, and I get it, and I think part of it is that chocolate is sort of; I don’t know, I think chocolate is sort of allowed, in a way. Right? We have “paleo friendly chocolate” and different things, and it’s kind of not as taboo. But it also doesn’t have the same mouth feel and the same; it doesn’t have the same eating enjoyment effect as gummy candy might. It’s also probably not as quite as hyperpalatable as those gummy worms; so you're getting so much sugar, you're getting a texture thing, I don’t know if you’re doing the sour gummy worms, because those are the ones that I was doing {laughs}. Which this totally sounds like talking about a drug, you know, talking about this variation on this gummy worm.
Liz Wolfe: {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: But, so she’s got a bunch of questions in here. “How do I quit the terrible habit or any insight as to why I crave them?” There are so many different angles to this; and why you crave them, it’s so hard to know why any one person craves one thing. It could totally be an oral fixation, you know; we’re used to having this thing, if it’s smoking. Look; I have never been a smoker so I can’t speak from experience, and I haven’t worked with a lot of smokers on quitting. So that as a caveat here. When we are used to, and this happens with people drinking diet soda, for example; we’re just used to having that drink; we’re used to having that straw in our mouth. Whatever it’s going to be; depending on how long; did she say how long she had smoked for?
Liz Wolfe: Mmmmm… I don’t think so.
Diane Sanfilippo: She didn’t say for how many years she was smoking for; but if you were smoking for 5, 10, more years, this is something that you have physical habits that you might not even mentally or emotionally be aware of. You know what I mean? So there’s a sensation happening, and a signal that goes from your mouth to your brain when this whole thing happens, and there’s a pleasure response from that oral stimulation, which {laughs} sounds a bit sexual, but it’s not. That stimulation.
So, I’m not an expert on that. That’s just something that I can deduce from what I know happens to us with different types of things that we do. We do one thing, and we have a pleasure experience from it. So if you’re getting that pleasure experience from some of the chemicals in the cigarette, sometimes the physical action can either partially stimulate that or trick you into thinking you're going to get that pleasure response, if that makes sense. So that could be one thing that’s going on as to why you’re craving it.
And I think if that explanation sounds kind of right to you, and you’re like; “Oh. Ok, well this isn’t; you know it’s not really just me.” This is sort of the lizard brain thing, right. This is what our bodies just are wired to do as responses. But we can get in the way of that; we can undo that, but we have to be extremely conscious about it to do it. We have to catch it when it happens; we have to notice when there’s a trigger to it happening, and if there are certain scenarios, if there are certain times of day, if it’s always after a meal, whatever it’s going to be and you have to basically interrupt yourself before you get to the point where you’re reaching for the gummies.
So, some people; and again, with smoking, I don’t know if this is the right way to approach it. But some people might say to make a lateral shift; and instead of reaching for gummies, reach for something like dried mango. Which that’s one thing that I did when I was trying to get over enjoying gummy candy. And I think for a while I was; I don’t want to say I was addicted to, but I really was strongly {laughs} strongly interested in {laughs} sugar-free gum. I used to chew a ton of sugar-free gum, and eventually stopped that. But then when I would indulge in some non-healthy/unhealthy foods, it would be something like the gummy candy.
So then moving to something like the dried mango; which eventually now I hardly ever buy dried mango because I know it’s easy to eat it really quickly. But that could be something that if you just want to replace the gummy candy with something that you can eat and chew on and have that replacement, then there’s one for you to try. Or other types of dried fruit, possibly.
Now, that’s not probably going to help break the physical habit, even though it is replacing it with something healthier; does that make sense? So if it’s something that you want to break, whatever this response is to whatever that trigger is that you’re experiencing, then you might have to go through reframing the conversation that you have with yourself, and the story that you tell yourself about; well, it’s not smoking and I deserve this in a time of stress because I no longer smoke. I think at some point; it’s great to pat yourself on the back for quitting smoking. It’s a huge thing. Again, I don’t know how hard it is, but I know it’s hard because {laughs} if it weren’t so hard, right, people would do it more often.
But I think there’s also a time to kind of get over yourself. Right? Like, great congratulate yourself, and then you’ve got to move on and then stop identifying as a smoker or a former smoker. Maybe you can hold onto the former smoker thing, so you’re not putting yourself in scenarios that will be tempting, and you’ll slip back into it somehow. But I think that you need to tell a new story. Tell yourself a new story, and it’s not even; “now I’m stressed, and well it’s better than smoking, and I don’t smoke anymore so at least it’s better than that.” That’s something I see people doing a lot; where instead of comparing to something that’s optimal for themselves or the best version of themselves that they could see, they’re comparing to this previous really not ideal version of themselves, so you're just putting yourself kind of in the middle there.
I’m not saying this to beat you up; you’re asking the question. I would never put someone down and say, “well, eating gummies instead of smoking isn’t good enough so you need to do better,” but you’re asking the question. You know? So at this point I would say; instead of comparing yourself to your previous self who was a smoker and trying to consistently give yourself credit for that, hold yourself to a higher standard and move forward and find ways to kind of interrupt that pattern, interrupt that behavior, and do something different. I think you’re going to have to identify what it is.
One of the things that I’ve heard recently; you guys know that I’m a fan of the Happier podcast, and they were talking recently about, if you’re using a reward; so in this case she’s going through stress and she’s almost rewarding herself for not smoking with the gummies. And one of the things that can happen if we reward ourselves with something that sort of negates the benefit of the thing that we were doing, or it’s also creating some sort of negative response. So, obviously having a gummy worm doesn’t {laughs} this would be like; ok I didn’t smoke all week, so I’ll smoke one day. That would completely negate it because you're trying to break this bad habit, but then you’re rewarding yourself with indulging in that same habit.
So this is a little bit different, but is that truly a reward? Is that what you want to do to congratulate yourself for getting through a stressful time without a cigarette? Maybe there’s something better that you can do for yourself. And I don’t know what that is, but that may be something that you can think about and hopefully I’m framing things a little bit differently for you in your mind to just come up with some new ideas and look at what’s happening in your life day to day that’s kind of promoting or triggering you to have that response to your stress and to not handle it a certain way.
And we’ve talked about stress and managing stress a lot on this show over the last several years, and I also think that there’s a lot of different ways that people handle stress; but there’s also different ways that we all perceive things that would or would not be stressful, and I think it’s important to always consistently break down the things that we consider stressful and try and almost diffuse the bomb. So when something comes at you and you’re like; that’s really stressful, really I know it’s crazy, but being logical about it and trying to dissect it; like what is it? What does it really mean? What are the consequences of this thing that I’m getting super stressed about? And instead of being extremely stressed about it, taking the action that you need to take to dismantle and diffuse it, and the things that you can’t control you have to let go and the things that you can control you do something about it. And that’s just a whole other conversation. But that’s what I have to say about that {laughs} when it comes to the gummy worms. Do you have anything else on that one before we talk about liver?
Liz Wolfe: No dude.
Diane Sanfilippo: These are two kind of funny things back to back.
Liz Wolfe: That was deep.
Diane Sanfilippo: That was a lot. {laughs} Ok, I read between the lines a lot. Ok, so we can just talk about liver. I mean, I can rattle off a bunch of ideas of things to do with liver. I know, Liz, you’ve had your liver smoothie; which I’m not sure she’s going to want to go for that.
Liz Wolfe: Nah. I worked way up to that. But I still kind of don’t like; I don’t know, I made some chicken liver pate the other day, and I tried. I ate like a third of it and; blah. I just wasn’t into it.
Diane Sanfilippo: A third is a lot.
Liz Wolfe: A lot.
Diane Sanfilippo: A third is a lot.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah, it’s ok. I mean, even a tiny bit is great. So you; I mean, a cup to two cups. That is an aggressive ration. {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, I think that was probably a bit aggressive. So I do have a meatloaf recipe that will be coming out; I don’t know exactly when, within the next couple of months maybe, that you guys will love. It has liver in it, and you cannot taste the liver. Only if you’re just a super, super taster of liver; really, really sensitive to that iron you might taste it, but Scott ate the meatloaf, and he was like; if you didn’t tell me there was liver in here, I wouldn’t have guessed it. And it was delicious, and I was addicted to it. I was eating that meatloaf every meal until it was gone {laughs}.
So I’ve got a recipe for that. I know Bill and Hayley over at primalpalate.com have lots of recipes, probably meatballs. I definitely recommend doing that, but I would recommend the following approach: I would take one pound of regular meat. So I don’t know what these cup measurements would equal in ounces and pounds, but she’s got a 2 to 1 ratio right there; 2 cups of burger to 1 cup of liver. Yeah, I think that’s too aggressive.
If she’s already got that mixed up, I would defrost it, add some more; I would add a pound of fresh other meat to it. Ground beef, or even I would add some ground pork to it to add some really good flavor into it, and then prepare it right then. You don’t want to refreeze it once you’ve frozen and defrosted the meat. But I would make sure that you aggressively season it; look at some recipes online and see what you can find, and maybe even divide that meat up and season half of it and see how that comes out after you maybe bake the meatballs or fry them in a pan or something like that. And if you like it, go ahead and do the rest, and if you need to adjust it; adjust it.
But I think those are really good ways to go. I do like pate, but I think you could also try something like the liver bites from Epic bar. They also have a bar; I know some people do ok with that. I know; when you and I talked a long time ago about frozen liver bits or something that people would just swallow down; they would get liver chunked up in their freezer and then just swallow it like pills; I think you and I both talked about this. Pureeing it first and then somehow sectioning it off. I don’t know if they make any kind of silicone molds for {laughs} little pill sized things; I’ve only seen little Legos and whatnot, so I don’t know how small you could freeze it.
But I don’t like the idea of chunking the liver and then swallowing it. I think we do need to break it down somehow, so you could pulse it in a food processor first. But that’s definitely a lot of energy and commitment, and I think trying to cook it would be a better approach.
And then, kind of as a last resort, people can do the capsules. I think it’s Vital Proteins that’s making those capsules now. But of course, we’re always going to vote for trying it literally 17 different ways. I want people to try liver in recipes 17 different ways and maybe at a nice restaurant too, like have a pate or some kind of chicken liver mousse tureen somewhere that is a nicer restaurant so you can really taste. If somebody gets it right with this recipe or this approach; do I like it? You know what I mean? Because sometimes we do it at home, and we’re like; I don’t really like how that came out. But maybe we didn’t add enough butter, you know? Or maybe we didn’t add the right seasonings. And I think sometimes we have to figure out which way is going to be the way, and then we can redo it.
I mean, when Caitlin and Nabil were working on Mediterranean Paleo Cooking at our house last year; or two years ago? Gosh I think that was 2 years ago. We had beef heart chili, and it was amazing. And I don’t think I would have ever thought to pulse beef heart in the food processor, and then cook it with ground beef in a chili. I wouldn’t have thought to do that. But I liked it. The texture was good, everything was really yummy when it was made that way. So, work up to your 17 different ways. {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: Not 16; not 18. 17.
Diane Sanfilippo: No. I mean, you could try more, but I need a minimum of 17.
Liz Wolfe: Alrighty.
Diane Sanfilippo: It’s science. That is science right there.
Liz Wolfe: #Science. Science.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.
4. Skincare during pregnancy [31:03]
Liz Wolfe: Ok. This one is for me; pregnancy skin care from Kristen. “Love the podcast and have been listening from the beginning to catch up on all the episodes. Love the combo of entertainment and useful information. It makes getting in the car to drive somewhere and doing chores enjoyable. It also helps me get out to walk when I’m feeling lazy. So my questions are about safe skincare during pregnancy. I have the Skintervention Guide;” which, FYI everyone, has had a name change. Maybe that was last year, I can’t remember; so Kristen definitely has been around for a while if she got the guide when it was called Skintervention Guide. It’s now the Purely Primal Skincare Guide. Anyway.
“I’ve been using the oil cleansing method for a while. I recently purchased the charcoal bar from Beautycounter and love it. Questions; I’d like to order more products from Beautycounter; specifically the sunscreen and maybe a lip color. Would you consider these safe to use during pregnancy?”
Should I just answer these as we go? Let’s see. Yeah, I’ll go ahead and answer these questions.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, I think if they’re kind of; especially if they’re a little more rapid fire.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah. Alright; so, we’re talking Beautycounter during pregnancy, specifically sunscreen, maybe a lip color. Yeah, I would consider those safe during pregnancy. I do have to say, though; I went super, super minimalistic during pregnancy, super minimalist. Just as basic as possible, and in particular with regards to things that I was going to leave on my skin. So I really didn’t do any; well, I don’t do lotions anyway, but I didn’t do any lip stuff, I didn’t do a whole love of makeup if I didn’t have to. Even safe chemicals are chemicals that end up in your bloodstream. So with that in mind, I just decided to keep them off my body.
I think that if you were going to wear makeup during pregnancy, it should absolutely be something safer; so Beautycounter, 100% Pure, or the Primal Life Organic stuff are the three that I was and have recommended to people for that.
Second question; “I’ve been using coconut oil as a body moisturizer ever since I found out I was pregnant, and plan to continue using it, but I want another option for days when I’m in a hurry and just want to lather on some lotion. This is what I used before I got pregnant and would love to keep using it; thoughts? And the lotions are from EO products, which I think that’s a great line. I believe I use their deodorant spray, which I think is totally safe. It’s basically just some essential oils in alcohol, so I think that’s good to go. I also really like 100% Pure’s options, and Beautycounter actually; their baby oil is really, really nice. Coconut oil can take a little bit of time to absorb, but the Beautycounter baby oil, which you could use once the baby comes on the baby, as well, is really, really light and it’s just lovely, even during the summer. So that would be something that maybe could do double duty if you got the baby kit from Beautycounter and got the soap and the oil and the baby balm, which is what I use to take off my mascara.
Let’s see; “are there other affordable options you can recommend?” I think jojoba oil is one of the best moisturizers out there, and it’s pretty darn affordable. For me, I like tallow balm. I know a lot of people aren’t going to use that because of the smell and because it can be a little bit heavy, but I think that’s good as well.
You can also go to the website Skinactives.com. They have a few things that are good to go that are generally pretty affordable; I would definitely check the ingredients, though, because some of those things are just kind of a little too full of industrial stuff. So that would be my recommendation there.
“Lip balm/sunscreen; good options?” I actually never thought much about a lip protective, like sunscreen lip balm until I got the one from Beautycounter. So if you’re going to order some of that stuff, you might as well order their sun protective lip balm, as well. Diane, do you have any suggestions for that? I know there are a ton out there, I just never really thought about it before.
Diane Sanfilippo: I’ve been; the lip balm sunscreen.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah, the lip sunscreen.
Diane Sanfilippo: I have just been using the one from Beautycounter since I got it, and on our vacation that’s what I used. So I don’t know.
Liz Wolfe: It’s so weird that I’ve never thought of it before. It’s so strange.
Diane Sanfilippo: No I don’t; and I don’t know; I think I would put that one and then I would put a little bit of color over it if I wanted color, but that’s the only one that I’ve got right now.
Liz Wolfe: It’s a general recommendation for any; I should probably go back and say this. Any sunscreen, when we’re recommending sunscreen to people, we’re recommending zinc based sunscreen. I used to call this sun block; and I believe in my book Eat the Yolks I also called it sun block, because I was differentiating between chemical sunscreens; which obviously everything is a chemical, I know this. But sunscreens that use industrial chemicals to absorb UV rays, versus sunscreens that use a physical blocker like zinc, which is basically like you’re rubbing on clothing. You’re rubbing on physical barrier that just scatters the rays.
So come to find out later after a lot of in depth research on this, because I’m a nerd. You really can’t call anything sun block, because nothing can be said to actually block the sun. It’s basically just a technical detail. But anyway, for those folks who are like, “well, Liz you used to say use sun block and now you’re saying use sun screen.” I’m talking about anything zinc based; zinc oxide. I avoid the sunscreen products that contain both zinc oxide and titanium dioxide; titanium, what did I just say? Titanium dioxide, because the latter is a little bit suspect as far as how it actually controls sun exposure. So just go for something with zinc; that’s what we’re talking about.
Ok. Last question; “Lastly, and this is silly, but I want to paint my toenails when it gets closer to my due date. I think seeing pretty toes when I’m in labor,”
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: It’s funny, this is actually…
Diane Sanfilippo: I don’t think any of that’s silly, by the way.
Liz Wolfe: No, it’s not. I actually did the same thing. “Will remind me that everything will be ok, and give me a sense of calm and hopefully make me laugh.”
Diane Sanfilippo: Aww! That’s so sweet.
Liz Wolfe: You just have to find that thing that you hang your hat on, I think, when you’re getting ready for labor. I think it’s great. “I have the mineral fusion nail color; pretty safe?” I actually only used Acquarella during my pregnancy and even while I was breastfeeding. So, except I think there was one rogue pedicure in there that didn’t last too long; but that’s probably what I would go with. Acquarella, I believe it’s water based. Ok.
Diane Sanfilippo: I don’t know anything about healthier nail polishes.
Liz Wolfe: Are you still doing the gel.
Diane Sanfilippo: Are we; is this, are you trying to have an intervention?
Liz Wolfe: {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: Is that what’s going to happen?
Liz Wolfe: No, I’m just, I just wanted to let you know that when your nails fall off, I’m just going to say I told you so. Just kidding.
Diane Sanfilippo: Ok.
Liz Wolfe: It doesn’t matter. Your fine.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, I do currently, but we’ll see what happens. I’m not high and mighty about it; like, oh this will never go wrong. Who knows; I don’t know. I’m taking my chances.
Liz Wolfe: Dude, we just got an entirely new question and I did not ask one question about how toxic the construction materials were. So we just do what we can.
Diane Sanfilippo: Pick your battles.
Liz Wolfe: Pray fervently about the rest.
Diane Sanfilippo: I’m not; maybe to a fault that I’m not a worrier, but I really don’t worry about things like that. And also, if I had issues with toxicity and you know, it seemed like my liver wasn’t working properly to detoxify me or what have you, then maybe I would reconsider. I think there’s a time and a place to be a little more diligent. Obviously, pregnancy as you were talking about, being one of them, to be more diligent about some of the choices that we make. But you know, knock on wood, I’m pretty sturdy. So we’ll see what happens. I don’t think I’m invincible, so, we’ll see.
Liz Wolfe: This is a good point you make; I by no means want people to feel judged or nervous about their choices during pregnancy. This is just what I chose to do; and I feel like that’s kind of what the question was. Like, hey, what did you do, what would you have recommended. And that’s what it was.
Diane Sanfilippo: Right.
Liz Wolfe: But I’m telling you; do your thing. There’s no; I do think it’s important that we’re aware of our overall lifestyle, because we are just an incredibly; we live in a toxic world. I mean, there are industrial chemicals everywhere; we know that cord blood is basically prepolluted. It’s kind of crazy what we’ve done to ourselves, but that’s not because of the lotion you use every day. There’s a lot more at work. So you filter your water, you eat as best you can, get some sun, do your best to enjoy your life and get outside; keep your detox capabilities shored up. But don’t freak out because you didn’t use jojoba oil when you were pregnant. It’s; you're fine. No judgment. Stress is worse than crappy lotion. #Quotelizonthat.
Diane Sanfilippo: Um, yeah I’m going to talk about that in our next question.
5. Chronic IBS and stress [41:05]
Liz Wolfe: Cool. Alright, chronic IBS. This is from Loriann. “I’m struggling with chronic IBS symptoms.” Sad emoticon. “It is significantly affecting things like outings; camping. We own an RV, but four of us share one bathroom.” Another sad emoticon. “And intimacy with my wonderful hubby. I’ve been strict paleo for 10 months, which has helped, so I’ve restricted further with an AIP diet since January. I had a major injury, blew my hip training for ‘routine’ marathon 3 years ago, so my physical activity has greatly reduced, and as a physical therapist I’ve been unable to return to work. I definitely noted a huge increase in my IBS after my second hip surgery one year ago, and can’t seem to find the key to symptom management now. Any advice would be so greatly appreciate. My doctor simply wants to restart all the typical IBS pharmaceuticals; but I was able to stop these completely a few years ago and really hate the idea of traveling that road again. Help please.” Interrobang.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, so {laughs}. So many things going on here, and so interesting the way that she words her experience and her questions that are kind of looped into this whole scenario. So a couple of things here. One thing; I mean she called it out right off the bat that she noticed that it got worse, the IBS got worse after her second hip surgery. You know, the way that she’s wording this; “can’t seem to find the key to symptom management.” So, that mindset is a little bit problematic for me. Because it’s not really about symptom management, it’s really about root cause and finding out what is the root cause; but here’s the catch there. It’s not going to be just one thing. None of this stuff ever happens in isolation or in a bubble. So when you're dealing with chronic IBS, you could have multiple factors feeding into; so it’s irritable bowel syndrome for people who are like; what are they saying, IBS over and over again.
Multiple factors, and one of those factors obviously is quite often a food intolerance or just foods that don’t digest well for you, so that’s why she’s saying paleo really helped her for 10 months, but then she went to restrict it further because that was helping. That’s kind of the first step that I would say, if it’s working, “paleoing harder” and in this case doing so by going AIP, which means restricting foods further, isn’t always the best way to go, and often probably isn’t a good way to go at all depending on the rest of your life and the rest of your stressors. Because if those foods aren’t actually upsetting your body, then all you’re doing is stressing your entire life more by eliminating more foods. And that’s not an approach that we want you to take unless you find that those foods actually are problematic for you.
So it’s worthwhile to eliminate eggs for a bit; nuts and seeds, nightshades, etc., see how that goes. But then reintroduce them. Don’t take them out for forever and become fearful of those foods because your body is not in a “perfect place” to whatever you think it should be doing.
But here’s the thing; cortisol and stress promote leaky gut. You have to keep that as a foundational concept in your brain, that a high stress level is going to keep your gut in a situation where you’re not properly digesting your food, your setting the stage for IBS by having any kind of high stress situation. And in this case, when she talked about the second hip surgery; a surgery is a high stress situation. It’s a trauma to the body. So it’s not an accident, right? It’s an elected thing, you go in and you have a surgery, but you’ve had an elected trauma to your body. I’m not saying that to make you feel any sort of guilt around it; obviously if you need to have the surgery, you need to have one.
But we have to realize what that is. And unlike an experience that we just might emotionally be stressed about and we realized we’re emotionally stressed about it; a physical trauma like this is something that has implications and a stress response within our body that we sometimes are completely unaware of how deep those go and how much of an impact they can have. It’s kind of like the aftershock of an earthquake; you just, you don’t know what’s going to happen.
So putting these pieces back together is a multipronged approach between getting your food to a place where you’re not stressed about making food choices. You figure out; instead of figuring out what is the smallest number of foods I should be eating to keep my body healthy; the mindset that I really want people to have, and I know Liz you’re of this wavelength too, and you probably have been for even longer than I have; but it’s how many foods can I eat and my body will be ok, and in the direction of optimal health without overdoing it on the eliminations. And I think that’s really important. And as much as we know that paleo foods are great healthy foods, just continuing to keep eliminating different foods is extremely stressful for most people. I don’t know anybody who is following a strict autoimmune protocol who doesn’t find just following it to be somewhat stressful. And it’s unfortunate, and there are plenty of people who do need to follow that, and they feel better doing it, but I think the vast majority of people should be using it as a tool for a short period of time, and then figuring out what that tool is telling them and reintroducing certain foods.
So, with that said, cortisol and stress are promoting leaky gut, which is going to promote the IBS. Hands down, having a high stress situation in the body, whatever is causing it and being stressed about what’s going on is obviously going to promote that as well. “Blew my hip training for a ‘routine’ marathon.” So, marathon running is extremely stressful on the body. She has a foundation of a lot of really stressful events. Perhaps at this point figuring out a better way to deal with stress, a better way to become mildly physically active; if there’s something she can do. I don’t know where she is right now in terms of her healing, but if she can swim, if she can do anything that’s going to be at least somewhat active. Because for somebody who was training for a marathon to not be as physically capable; that’s emotionally extremely stressful.
I’ve been there; not to the same degree of having a surgery like this, not while I was, it wasn’t’ a marathon training, that wasn’t something I was doing. But as an athlete, I’ve had injuries that have put me down for three to six months or longer with pain, and that’s definitely something that cause a lot of stress, an emotional stress. So that’s kind of where I’m at with the stress stuff in terms of my thoughts and feelings on that.
When it comes to the food, I do think journaling your food to identify a trigger food is a great idea. Start at the baseline with a few simple foods that you want to be eating regularly, you know; have your breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Don’t add lots of complicated sauces and things with lots of different ingredients; keep it simple like olive oil, lemon, salt to season things. Maybe some capers or olives for flavor if you’re avoiding; I don’t know if she’s also avoiding things like garlic and onions for FODMAPs. But keep track of what you’re eating, and don’t look at it as, I need to freak out and keep pulling things out of my diet. Look at it more as; how did I feel when I ate that. Did I feel good? Great. Let’s add that to the “I felt good eating this” column, and keep moving on, and start to reintroduce some foods that maybe you weren’t eating; especially eggs. That’s one that I think some people eliminate and really don’t need to, and that’s a really tough one to eliminate so I would test that coming back as soon as possible.
And, also on the practical side here; not to kind of make light of this whole thing, but I believe there is some sort of spray that you can use; and I do not know how toxic or not this spray is. But that can form a layer on the top of the toilet bowl, and so if you need to go to the bathroom; I don’t know what it’s called. Do you know what this stuff is called? It’s like some kind of poo spray. If you spray it, and then you have to go poo, supposedly it kind of traps the smell under the surface of the water and that might create a more pleasant environment for those with whom you're sharing a bathroom. Or, bring matches and light a match or something. {laughs} I’m just trying to give you some other advice on; you know, while it’s still happening. Thoughts on that? Should I look up the poo spray?
Liz Wolfe: Poo-pourri?
Diane Sanfilippo: Poo-pourri! That’s it.
Liz Wolfe: I was racking my brain.
Diane Sanfilippo: This is not a paid endorsement. {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: {laughs} I wish that I came up with that stuff though. Wish.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. For sure.
Liz Wolfe: Alright.
Diane Sanfilippo: But that’s it; that’s my tips.
Liz Wolfe: Cool.
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6. #Treatyoself: Paleo Treats [51:39]
Liz Wolfe: Ok, I think that we should go ahead and close it out for this week. But first;
Diane Sanfilippo: Sounds good.
Liz Wolfe: I think we have a treat yoself. And I think it’s mine.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} Liz.
Liz Wolfe: And it is. {laughs} Treat yoself with Paleo Treats! They’re old friends of ours. They’re just majorly fun, awesome, fascinating, well-traveled, and just all around cool people and they make some really darn good paleo friendly desserts. Mustang bar and Bandito bar are my favorites, and I definitely enjoyed a Mustang bar this morning.
Diane Sanfilippo: I think they have a new product, too.
Liz Wolfe: Is it out?
Diane Sanfilippo: I’m not sure. But most of it I can’t have because of the nuts, but I feel like they’ve got a new product. So people should definitely check it out if you haven’t in a while.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah. Alright then. So that’s it for this week. You can find me, Liz, at http://realfoodliz.com/ and you can find Diane at http://dianesanfilippo.com. Join our email lists for free goodies and updates that you don’t find anywhere else on our website or on the podcast. While you’re on the internet, please leave us an iTunes review, we’d greatly appreciate it. See you next week.