Topics
Links:
Subscribe to DianeSanfilippo.com
The episodes are also available in iTunes, Spotify & Stitcher.
Show sponsors:
 |
 |
 |
You’re listening to the Balanced Bites podcast episode 254.
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, it’s me Liz with Diane. Hi buddy!
Diane Sanfilippo: Oh hey.
Liz Wolfe: How you doing?
Diane Sanfilippo: I’m doing. I’m doing. {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: {laughs} Good for you. Did you know there’s a presidential election coming up?
Diane Sanfilippo: What?! Get out.
Liz Wolfe: {trumpeting}
Diane Sanfilippo: Is that what it is? Is that what all this crazy hoopla is?
Liz Wolfe: I guess so. Everybody just needs to take some passionflower extract and calm down!
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: Boost some GABA; everybody chill out. How about we 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 and apply for one of their new scholarships, 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. The scholarship application window closes August 15th, so don't wait!
1. News and updates from Diane & Liz [2:33]
Liz Wolfe: Alright; Diane, what are your updates for this week?
Diane Sanfilippo: Why can’t we start this section with; “what has everybody been up to?”
Liz Wolfe: {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: “What’s the 411?” {laughs} I think we need to start it; I think we need to get that edited in, and that needs to be like the “treat yoself clip”, it needs to just be the, you know, the quote from Mean Girls.
Anyway, so what’s up? The book officially went to print earlier this week; I can’t remember what day it was. Whatever day we’re recording, whatever day y’all are listening to this, and I’ve been following some people on Snapchat who say “y’all”, so I just said it. {laughs}
So, super excited; huge weight off my shoulders, but also now having post “book off to print” anxiety dreams about hoping there are not random little typos or errors that somehow slipped by 6, 7 different people’s eyeballs looking at it. So it will be like a fun Easter egg hunt when everybody gets the book; if you find something, just shoot us an email {laughs}. But you know, I worked really hard on writing and editing and all that. I just cannot wait to get this book in my hands. I’m super excited to have a hardcover version of it. And yeah, I don’t know. That’s it.
So, if you're just tuning in for the first time, and haven’t heard much about the new book, go back a couple of episodes. I yammered on for an entire hour, basically {laughs} about the new book. And I know I’m still getting a bunch of questions from folks about it, so just check back to that episode. All your questions are answered there. And we should have a blog post going up this week about the book and some FAQs and all that; we just didn’t get it finished up last week. So there you go.
Also, catch me over on Facebook live on Thursdays; probably also some other days. I would love to hear feedback from you guys on days and times that are good for you. Because if Thursdays at, what I’ve been doing is 4 p.m. Pacific, 7 p.m. Eastern; If that’s not a good time for you; if I hear from enough people that there’s another day and time that works pretty well, then I’ll definitely think about doing a live video at that time. But I’ll probably start popping on there a little more often for some short little Q&A or cooking videos; things like that. I just love interacting live; I think it’s really fun. So make sure that you are clued in over there if you’re on Facebook.
Book tour stuff; head over to http://blog.balancedbites.com/events. We’ll be in lots of cities around the country. If you don’t want to miss us in your city, then make sure that you check that out. I’m going to just quickly rattle off the cities that we’re going to be in, not all of the locations and dates because that will just take way too long; San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Tacoma, Sacramento, Phoenix, Kansas City; and Liz will be there! Denver, Boulder, Chicago, Paramus, New Jersey, and Austin, Texas. And I’ll be touring with Cassy Joy; she’ll be at every event with her new book Fed and Fit; except for New Jersey. She’s not able to make it there, she had a previous commitment around that day, I think like a golf thing or something. Who knows? {laughs} But yeah, I’m really excited to meet all of you guys, or see lots of your faces again. I know lots of you guys have been to previous events, but it’s going to be really fun. Lots of new stuff to talk about.
I’ll be talking about the Master Class on tour, which is coming out. Enrollment is going to be opening for the Balanced Bites Master Class, which is the next little point there of updates. Enrollment is going to be opening this fall, so I’ll be talking about that on the tour a bunch, and I believe we’re going to have a beta, a really small beta group that’s going to be able to do it, and I know a lot of you guys as listeners are on the edge of your seats, want to be a beta tester. It’s going to be a very small group of people who can do that, but the enrollment will open up in the fall, and will also; the course will actually kick off in January.
So just so anybody who’s been curious about it, so you have the heads up there. It’s going to be just like you would for any other kind of school session, where you enroll a bit ahead of time. We’re going to have a Facebook group, people can jump in, we’ll start talking about some things, and then we’ll actually kick off the class in the New Year, because we know that focusing on yourself when it’s kind of winter and everyone’s kind of dealing with holiday stuff and shopping and cooking and parties and all of that. It’s just a hard time to get yourself focused, but we will do some things to get you all prepped and ready, and we’re excited about that.
And just the last thing I wanted to throw out there is, if you guys are not already getting my emails, we share cool videos almost every week, different little clips from some of the Facebook live, so if you don’t get a chance to kind of sit and watch the whole thing, we’re pulling different clips. Some of the best content, like the frequently asked questions, or a little Q&A or a cooking demo, things like that. So I’m going to be sharing the sushi pizza that Jenny Castaneda and I made here last week. We were crazy; we just, I don’t know. We get together and we just go to grocery stores and buy food and cook things, and then go eat, and that’s what bloggers being bloggers. So I think we’re going to be sending that out next week, so if you guys wanted to see the recipe and all that fun stuff, make sure you’re on my emailing list. So there’s that. What’s up with you, my friend? I know my list is always so long {laughs} of what’s up.
Liz Wolfe: You always have so much going on. And I just am thinking; trying to itemize how many days it’s been, and I don’t even remember what I did this morning. I’m busy, but it’s a different kind of busy. It’s the kind of busy where I can’t really remember what’s happening.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} It’s the mom busy.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: I mean, I still think you’re a new mom even though; she’s what, over a year now.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: But it’s still new. If it’s your first; I think you're a new mom until you have another child or at least the child is 5.
Liz Wolfe: I think you’re right about that.
Diane Sanfilippo: Like if you only have one child; like I’m going to say 5 years.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah; at least 5. I used to; at the very beginning, I was like; at 6 months I’ll feel like I got this. And then I was like; ok, maybe at a year. And now I’m like; ok maybe when she’s 2 I’ll feel like I’ve got this. Like, I keep giving myself; I’m wondering if there’s a limit to how much grace one should give themselves.
Diane Sanfilippo: I’m pretty sure my mom is still trying to figure out if she has this, so. I’m not sure that there’s a limit.
Liz Wolfe: Ok. Well, good. I mean, it’s just; I mean. If I have to have a second kid to not be a new mom anymore…
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: I’m just not sure that’s a fair trade {laughing}. But, we’ll see. It gets to me because I just feel like; I feel like I’m not real good at this. My mom; god love her. She was like; you’re such a wonderful mom, Lizzie. And I was like, oh thanks mom, that’s so sweet of you to say that. And she goes, I mean you don’t hit her.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing}
Liz Wolfe: You don’t yell at her. And I was like; what?! {laughing}
Diane Sanfilippo: These are the requirements.
Liz Wolfe: So what you mean is, I’m not a terrible mom. I don’t know; I just love her to death and I do my best and I try to be nice to her. So if that makes me a great mom, then yay. But really, I just feel; most days I just feel like I’m just not good at this. Some people; I’m not saying other people have their stuff together, but definitely other people have their stuff more together than mine. And I think people in my life are sick of hearing how on my heels I am, and how just all over the place I am.
Diane Sanfilippo: I think you’re just really hard on yourself. I think you just have expectations of yourself that are crazy pants.
Liz Wolfe: I know, but at a certain point, though, I have to be realistic about the fact that I need to get it together. I don’t know.
Diane Sanfilippo: I got nothing, because
Liz Wolfe: {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: I don’t know anything about kids, don’t understand the desire to have them, not my thing. Don’t know.
Liz Wolfe: I don’t understand it either! I think a lot of parents don’t understand it any better than you do. {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} You’re a terrible sales person.
Liz Wolfe: Anyway, that’s me.
Diane Sanfilippo: For parenthood. I’m just kidding {laughs}.
Liz Wolfe: Oh, you know what? I actually do have an update. Last time I talked about making muffins with Otto’s Cassava flour.
Diane Sanfilippo: Oh, I saw your picture.
Liz Wolfe: Trying to incorporate; yeah, so I did that, and they actually came out great.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} I saw the picture. I’m just kidding.
Liz Wolfe: You saw what?
Diane Sanfilippo: I saw the picture. Don’t send them to me.
Liz Wolfe: And you could tell it was taken under really horrible lighting, but that’s ok. Because I had my phone, and I remembered to take a picture of something that we eat.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: Which I think is like supposed to be 75% of my job, I don’t know. Inquiring minds want to know. But it worked out really well. I found a recipe for, I think chocolate chip muffins or something like that, on Cook It Up Paleo’s website and it turned out really, really well. I mean, as good as putting gag-worthy Moringa in muffins can be. But yeah, they turned out pretty good and she was into it. She was more into the fact that she was eating this really big, interesting thing. Because she hasn’t had anything baked yet, so she was like; she thought it was a ball, and she was really excited about this ball that she could eat, and it was cute. So it worked out.
Diane Sanfilippo: Ok.
Liz Wolfe: Ok. That’s it.
Diane Sanfilippo: They don’t look as green now that I’m looking at them as they did when I first saw the picture, because when you said they turned out well; I was like, well I’m not sure judging by looks. {laughs} But, they don’t look quite as green. I think it was just the tint on my phone screen this morning or last night.
Liz Wolfe: It could have been at nighttime. And I failed; the first batch I made was this disgusting zucchini muffin crap that should never have made it to the internet.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: It was just this horrendous fail; I mean, it was awful. So this was a good redemption.
Diane Sanfilippo: That’s awesome. I’m a terrible baker, so I’m proud of you. High fives.
Liz Wolfe: Thank you.
Diane Sanfilippo: Good job.
2. Shout out: Jenny Castaneda at Paleo Foodie Kitchen [12:33]
Liz Wolfe: So on that note, do you have a shout out?
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, I guess; you know, we’ll shout out to Jenny Castaneda as I was just mentioning her at Paleo Foodie Kitchen. She was here visiting, and we had a really fun time, and just wanted to give her a little shout out. You guys probably know her on Instagram; she’s @paleofoodiekitchen, and her book is One Pot Paleo, so I know a lot of times people are asking about recipes that can be made in one pot, for example. So that would be a really good resource for anybody who is just, you know, looking for a book to check out with easy recipes or stuff you don’t have to make a whole big mess to create. We had a fun time. Just kind of relaxed, and farmer’s markets, and food, and all that good stuff. So looking forward to spending some more time in the future if she wants to come back so we can hit all the places we did not hit {laughs} on this trip.
And so you guys; I know people often ask me for places to eat in San Francisco; a lot of times I get pinged on a comment somewhere and people are asking; it’s on the blog. So just head over to http://blog.balancedbites.com. Under blog, you can just click on the paleo/gluten free travel tab, and you’ll see some posts that are done by city. I have one for Portland, I have one for LA, and one for San Francisco. So on that San Francisco post, you can see lots of different restaurants. You can see them by neighborhood, and you can see a picture of something I ate there and just kind of get inspired, see what it is that interests you on that list and kind of go from there. So, yeah that’s it. Shout out to Jenny.
Liz Wolfe: Very good.
Diane Sanfilippo: Pete’s Paleo has opened a new location on the East Coast. Since they’re still operating out of San Diego, as well; this means local produce and meat coming from both coasts. And drastically reduced shipping prices. Check out their new and improved website, www.PetesPaleo.com to take advantage of low shipping rates; and be sure to use coupon code 1FREEBACON. That’s the number 1; free bacon, and receive a free half pound of bacon with the purchase of a meal plan. Go to www.PetesPaleo.com.
3. Garlic and onions; sensitivity and health benefits [14:54]
Liz Wolfe: Alright, so today we’re going to be doing listener questions. They’re going to be both from blog posts and from the podcast question submission form on http://blog.balancedbites.com. Keep the questions coming; we really like seeing the comments, and the follow-up comments on both of our blog posts. So we like it; we like hearing from you.
Alright, this first one is from Laura. “Hi ladies; thank you for your podcast. I love it. About 18 months ago, my conventional doctor had me do an elimination diet to figure out what was causing all kinds of digestive problems for one or more years. Problems were severe bloating and distention almost every day, to the point I couldn’t wear pants without elastic waistbands; frequent diarrhea that I had no control over and smelled like the worst thing I’ve ever smelled. I discovered that garlic and onion were giving me bloating and distention and terrible diarrhea. This includes anything in the garlic/onion family; cooked, raw, powders, minor cross-contamination, everything.
I’ve been eating a very clean diet, described below, for almost 18 months, and still cannot tolerate these foods. I can tolerate other vegetables and fruit FODMAPs. Garlic and onion are so hard to avoid when eating anything I didn’t personally prepare, plus they’re so good for me. I haven’t had any testing done, and I want to figure out what’s going on. Can you offer some suggestions about what can be causing this and what might help? My conventional doctor has no advice except ‘avoid them.’ She hasn’t done any testing. Thank you.
I eat a primarily paleo diet, and I absolutely love it. I start my day by taking Synthroid for my Hashimoto’s. One hour later I have coffee. Breakfast is scrambled eggs three times a week, and other days’ it’s a handful of cashews or a chia pod or an epic bison bar; not my strongest meal. Lunch and dinner usually consist of meat and a vegetable such as chicken and salad greens, avocado, tomato, olive oil, or grass-fed beef and cooked zucchini, mushrooms, cooked cruciferous veggies, or salmon and salad greens, avocado, tomatoes, olive oil. Snacks are usually apples with almond butter, Epic bison bars, cantaloupe and honeydew, almonds or cashews, kale salad, berries, shrimp, and sometimes dark chocolate. I drink water, sometimes mint tea or coconut water. Exercise is yoga one to two times a week; strength training two times a week, one long walk or hike a week. Sleep is a struggle for me, but I usually average 6-7 hours per night. Supplements 4 or 5 nights a week I remember to take vitamin D; I’ve tested low, even when supplementing, K2, and magnesium.
I never eat any grains except white rice. I do not cheat with gluten because if I do I get sad and depressed and tired. I eat no crappy processed foods. I do not eat dairy except grass-fed butter. I eat almost not sugar except fruit, 85% dark chocolate. About once a month I have a gluten free treat of some sort. As I mentioned, I take Synthroid for Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. I’m 31, I’ve been taking it since I was diagnosed at age 14. I’m still on birth control and have been for almost 10 years. Since listening to your show and learning about paleo, I’m freaking out that I’m doing this to my body. I’m planning to go off birth control in January 2017, but I’m getting married in the meantime, and don’t want to change this up as it very effectively helps control my acne.”
There’s a lot there.
Diane Sanfilippo: There is a lot. And there’s not a ton to say about it, although it’s a really long question. I wanted to take this one because I think it’s very, very, very common, and it is kind of a confusing issue. A lot of people don’t know what to do about it, and most people do tend to just avoid them. I know some other practitioners in our field, some other people who have authored books on this stuff who are just some of our peers and colleagues who have the same issue, who just tend to avoid onions and garlic for that reason.
But in looking around at some of the reasons for it, there could be something going on with just the way that your body processes some of the compounds that are common in garlic and onion, primarily sulfur. So in doing some digging to see what’s going on with sulfur, specifically, and with the compounds that are in onions and garlic, cysteine, I never really know exactly how to pronounce that. It’s just an amino acid, but sometimes different people will have issues breaking down different amino acids. This is common; we’ve heard of this in other cases with something like glutamine. We know some people have issues breaking it down; issues with glutamic acid, so those people who don’t tolerate bone broth well because there could be some free glutamic acid there. It’s just another kind of lateral issue, where it’s a different amino acid that some people don’t break down well. Why it happens, I don’t know. And exactly what to do about it, I’m not sure.
But there are definitely motivations for kind of avoiding these things. There are also more topics you could probably dig into and do some searching and see if there’s an expert on this topic. I’m not an expert on this topic, I’m just trying to give you some clues as to what you might want to dig into, this idea of impaired sulfur oxidation or some issues with breaking down the amino acids that are very, very prevalent in onions and garlic.
Now, the one other thing; there was something else I was going to mention here. You know she talked about eating primarily paleo and eating pretty clean. The one other thing I would mention is looking at fully completing a 4R protocol, which is; we talk about this a lot with paleo. What we do when we go paleo is we complete the first step of a 4R protocol, which is the remove step. And a lot of times we also jump directly to the reintroduction; and I’m guilty of this too. Sometimes I remove something for a while, and then I just reintroduce it and I use that alone, but I don’t always go through those second and third steps to see if I could then tolerate the food if I worked to repair and reinoculate my gut.
So, I’m throwing it out there as a, “hey, see if this is going to work for you.” Because if this were happening to me with onion and garlic, I would probably take it a lot more seriously to do that. If it’s happening to me with dairy, I’m sometimes like; well, I’ll just avoid it for a while. Because it’s a lot easier to avoid that. Because like Laura is saying, obviously avoiding garlic and onions, especially when you go out to eat, is really hard. It’s in most spice blends, it’s in most seasonings that are put on anything that you’re eating a restaurant.
So you could go back and make sure that you follow those steps; you remove the offending foods, you then work to repair the gut lining, then reinoculate, then reintroduce the foods. And it’s all outlined in Practical Paleo. If you have the first edition, it’s in there. Look at the guide to your digestion. You’ll see what the 4R protocol is in there. It’s also; I think I detailed some of it also in the chapter on digestion, so you can check that out. I list out some supplements that can be helpful for that. Some of them are also noted in the digestive health meal plan, as well. And that’s going to be things like licorice root, and broth, and probably some magnesium, not in the form of natural calm or something that’s going to make you kind of go to the bathroom more, but some more healing forms of the mineral. I’m trying to think just off the top of my head what else I have there; like aloe vera juice. Things that are really soothing to the gut lining. Deglycyrrhizinated licorice is another one.
And then reinoculating with probiotics, of course, just tons of different options out there and there’s not one that works for everyone. Some people do ok with most strains that are out there, or supplements that are dairy based; some people do fine with them, some people need a soil based because they really don’t tolerate the dairy. You have to just try something, see if you feel like it’s working for you, and if it’s not, try something else. There’s not a perfect formula for that, unfortunately. So just to throw that out there for you guys.
But that’s what I would say about that, and those are the things you can dig in on a little bit more to see if there’s a way to get to the root of it. And if there is healing to be had, it could be something that, you know, unfortunately, there might not be a solution even once you find the why. And I think that that’s something that a lot of us need to come to terms with with a lot of different issues that we might have with our health and with different food intolerances. Sometimes, it just is. Sometimes, there isn’t a “what's the reason and how can I fix it.” Sometimes you're just going to have to live with it. And I don’t like that as an answer either, but I do think that there’s also a period of time that you can spend trying to chip away at the issue and working to maybe fix it or heal it, and then there’s a certain amount of time that you have to kind of just kind of soften to it and say, it is what it is, and I’m going to do the best I can and avoid it as I need to.
Now when it comes to a lot of the health benefits, I wouldn’t stress about that. Because if you're eating a lot of other cruciferous vegetables, where they do have some of the sulfur compound as well, you’re getting a bunch of the same nutrients from these other vegetables so I wouldn’t worry so much about that. That’s all I’ve got.
Liz Wolfe: Ok. This one is from Natalie. Did you cover everything you wanted to cover there?
Diane Sanfilippo: I did.
Liz Wolfe: Ok. Alright, I’m not going to add much to that. I do want to say; don’t freak out about the birth control thing, deal with it later. Don’t feel guilty, don’t feel like, “oh, god what am I doing?” Just enjoy your wedding and worry about that once you’re done. Congratulations!
Diane Sanfilippo: Oh, yeah, I wasn’t even touching that. {laughs} I was just focusing on the other issue.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: Whoops.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah, and you know what, it’s probably the right choice, honestly. If you’re about to get married and you're worried about your skin and all that stuff. I mean, it might not be the best thing to spend 10 years on birth control. I did it; pretty much I feel like everybody in my peer group did it, has done it, is doing it.
Diane Sanfilippo: Uh-huh.
Liz Wolfe: 10 years plus, but definitely once you go off, you can have some pretty big swings. So just let your body cruise for a while and once you get back from the honeymoon, or whatever, then you can start thinking about it. Hopefully by that point, Baby Making and Beyond will be done, and you can sign up for that program and do some birth control recovery.
Diane Sanfilippo: Ooh.
Liz Wolfe: Ok. See, I’m trying to do way too much with this program. But it’s all connected!
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, you’re crazy.
Liz Wolfe: I know.
Diane Sanfilippo: You’re crazier than I am.
Liz Wolfe: That is patently false.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
4. Varicose veins [25:32]
Liz Wolfe: Alright, this next one is from Natalie. “Dear Diane and Liz, but maybe mostly Liz. I think I’m getting varicose veins on one of my calves; help! I’m too young for this. Thanks for everything you both do.” And here are some details on diet and such. “My food is on point, AIP with a few reintroductions. Regular liver and all kinds of seafood consumption. Plus, I’m a 3-season daily broth drinker. I feel very strongly about food production so the quality of my food is the best of the best. My exercise consists of walking with my dogs 3-6 miles a day, mostly in woods and fields. My job also usually requires more mobility than most. Lots of real work squats. I struggle with sleep and have since birth; sorry parents. My sleep hygiene is great, with the exception of being woken up regularly by a geriatric cat. I do the best I can which almost always means at least 7 hours, sometimes closer to 8. The only time I sacrifice this is when I have to be on call, though I still feel very tired with this. I have a few autoimmune diseases and a stressful taxing career. A paleo lifestyle plus an FMT made me feel a bit better at times, and other times slowed and shallowed what might have been a steep downward spiral. That’s enough for me, though; the Kool-Aid tastes so good.”
Ok, with varicose veins, this is really an issue of pressures, and there can be a couple of different things at work there, both biochemical and biomechanical. So first up, if it were me, I would absolutely do some hormone testing. Because it’s definitely true that an excess of estrogen in relation to other hormones is capable of causing some changes in your vasculature. So it can alter the pressures, it can alter the; I don’t know what the word would be, but it basically enables your vasculature to basically just get bulgy. Estrogen is just so gnarly; it’s the culprit in so many things. It’s very pro stress on the body, especially when it’s not countered appropriately by the right amount of progesterone. And unfortunately, we don’t have a ton of environmental progesterones floating around in our environment. We have a ton of environmental estrogens; and this is what we hear about all the time, and this is part of the reason I’m so passionate about cleaning up the body care and the makeup and all of that stuff. So that’s one thing. That’s one tangent we could go on.
But finding out where you're at estrogen wise through testing is good. It can let us know some of the more egregious out of balance type of things, but it’s also a little bit difficult to get a read on actual tissue levels of certain hormones with testing. So one thing you can do just to see how you're doing is just track your waking temperature every morning at the same time and see kind of where you are there. You can get an idea of how profoundly progesterone is exerting it’s influence in your body during your luteal phase, and if your body temperature is still a little bit low during your luteal phase, that’s kind of a clue that you might be having some issues there.
And, if you’re having issues related to estrogen, this is also an argument for liver support. Because once the first phase of your cycle is over, your body needs to flush out all that estrogen, and if it is having issues with that you can sometimes see more pronounced issues during your luteal phase. And that can be any issue; it’s not just, you know, “women’s issues”, that type of thing. It could be the most random stuff you can imagine, people often find that happening only after their body is supposed to flush out all this excess estrogen. So for maybe two weeks or a week or so after ovulation, it’s very interesting. So observe how that; you know, the flux of that during your cycle.
The other thing I want to talk about, and this is something that I love to refer people to Alignment Monkey, Barbara Loomis, and also of course the great Katie Bowman, to look at what’s going on mechanically. What’s going on with your alignment, what’s going on with your pelvis. Are you dealing with some pelvic congestion that’s contributing to this type of thing. As somebody who is on her feet a ton, of course that contributes, I think in a modern context, because you do see this with people that have high stress jobs that maybe are using incorrect footwear and not the greatest of clothing. Clothing that kind of cuts you off in different places, that type of thing. But really our ancestors walked and were mobile constantly, so it’s really only against this backdrop of a modern context; what we’re doing, how we are aligned while we’re doing it, what we’re wearing, those types of things that can really impact the pressures in our bodies.
I do a terrible job of explaining this, and it’s something that I’m still learning about, but I would absolutely, positively go check out Katie Bowman’s courses that you can buy on her website. They’re incredible affordable, and they’re well worth it. I think varicose veins is really; it doesn’t end there. If that’s something that you are in fact dealing with, there’s probably quite a few things leading up to it, including but not limited to issues of alignment. And one of the things that Katie says quite frequently is that alignment is very different from posture. It’s not about; “are you sucking in, are you standing up straight, are your shoulders’ back” that type of thing. It’s about how your moving and whether it’s biomechanically sound. So that’s something that I would definitely look into.
Let’s see; Katie Says was the name of her blog, but now I think it takes you directly to NutritiousMovement.com. Check out what she has to say. And that’s really where I would start.
Diane Sanfilippo: I got nothing for that one.
Liz Wolfe: Ok, cool. Let us know how you do with that. I mean, maybe you could take some magnesium if you were getting some blood tests; red blood cell magnesium, see how you’re doing with that. And the previous episode, our last podcast episode I think is the one we talked about liver support. Is that correct?
Diane Sanfilippo: Mm-hmm. Uh, no. Two ago; two ago.
Liz Wolfe: Two ago; and we might have a question about that coming up here too, we’ll see.
Diane Sanfilippo: I think so.
5. Tongue issues; possible allergy [32:18]
Liz Wolfe: Alright, next up is from Maya. “First off; I’ve been an avid BB podcast listener for the last 2 years, and just want to say thank you both so much for all that you do. You’ve been an integral part of my paleo journey, and I seriously couldn’t have done it without you gals. Eat the Yolks is honestly my food bible that I recommend anyone and everyone read and get started, and reference my Practical Paleo cookbook on a weekly basis when my husband and I cook dinner at home. Thanks again.”
Thank you! That’s really awesome to hear. “Ok, so on to my question. This is a condition that’s been seriously concerning me, and also one that seems to be difficult to determine its root cause. In the last 3 months, I’ve started having some very strange reactions to my tongue. From an ongoing metal taste to swelling causing a scalloped look, to a white coating, to most recently pain in just the tip of my tongue. While digestion coincided with this at the beginning, let’s just say it very much related to Miss Toxic from Diane’s poop pageant page in Practical Paleo, issues with my tongue are consistently happening, even as everything else is going back to normal.
A bit of back-story; I just moved to San Francisco 3 months ago, and while I went off the paleo train when we first moved out here due to the excitement of trying all the new things, I’ve been back to normal for 2 months, yet still getting tongue flare-ups fairly regularly. I’m not allergic to any foods that I know of, but have tried experimenting with cutting out nuts and sometimes dairy, but still get flare ups on days when I don’t have either. Have you ever heard of this before? I’ve researched Candida and vitamin deficiencies; yet still don’t seem to have a clear answer. I added a few more details about my daily diet below, which may be helpful. I’ve been seriously concerned about this, as it’s something I can’t seem to avoid. Any advice, theories, or words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated.
Diet is paleo-ish with the exception of dairy, organic half and half in my coffee and will splurge on fancy cheese if we’re out to eat or picnicking with friends.” I love that you people in San Francisco, you go picnicking.
Diane Sanfilippo: People here are big into picnics, although it’s usually chilly and really windy, but that does not stop people.
Liz Wolfe: Well.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.
Liz Wolfe: Good for you. Alright, let’s see.
Diane Sanfilippo: Them. Them. {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: {laughs} Good for them.
Diane Sanfilippo: I’m not picnicking.
Liz Wolfe: “I also wanted to add that my company caters lunch every day, but I almost always have a DIY salad and sometimes add some of the protein from the hot food section. They’re great about showing common allergies with hot foods; gluten, nuts, soy, dairy, and I avoid those.”
Ok, so I just got a text from Spence that says, “The cow is locked in the place they usually sleep in the winter.” {laughs} That’s funny.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: I was telling him earlier I think the black cow got lost, and it definitely did. Ok, sorry about that. Apparently that couldn’t wait until the podcast was done recording; I apologize.
Diane Sanfilippo: Important to know.
Liz Wolfe: Important stuff. Alright. “Important to…” oh {laughs}.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, I was saying that’s where we left off.
Liz Wolfe: “Important to note; this has been the biggest change since moving here, as I eat our catered lunch every single day. The only thing I’m unsure about is what kind of oils they’re using when they cook meats. Do you think that could be the cause? I’ve tried just making a DIY salad which also includes grilled chicken, but seems to use little to no oil at all, but I still get flare ups.
Vitamins: I regularly take the following vitamins; B-complex, K2, vitamin D and magnesium. Exercise: I work out about 5 times a week at the gym, though I should add that not every day is that strenuous. I alternate with lifting, cardio, strength training, and some days just go to the gym to foam roll. Sleep: I get adequate sleep, 7-8 hours a night.”
Diane, what you got for this one?
Diane Sanfilippo: Alright. So I like her one note here about the biggest change since moving being the catered lunch every single day, and I have all sorts of ideas and information about what could really be causing this issue with the tongue, but it’s so hard to know if it’s really some big issue, or if it’s honestly just some kind of weird ingredient that’s either being put in the food, or maybe something they use in the kitchen somehow, I have no idea. Maybe the people who prepare the food wear latex gloves, and maybe she’s having a reaction to the latex? {laughs} I have no idea. There are so many things that could cause it.
I would take your own lunch to work for 2 weeks and see what happens. I think that would probably be a good reset. It does take about 2 weeks for your gut lining to really start to heal. In that time, I would try and make sure what you’re including in your lunches does have some soup from homemade bone broth and some kind of healing foods; not just salads with chicken and things like that. That you’re getting in some bone broth and foods that are going to be a little bit more nourishing; which, to the picnickers in San Francisco, it’s still always chilly, so {laughs} soup is always a good idea here.
That’s where I would really start before I would dig into what’s wrong with me, I would just see; is there an input that’s happening from these lunches, because if that is the biggest change, other than the change of actually moving here, you could be having an environmental allergy that’s just manifesting in this reaction with your tongue. Allergies can manifest in a lot of different ways, because if they’re hitting our body and our immune system, sometimes they’re not localized. So sometimes, we assume that an allergy like to poison ivy, for example, you touch it and it happens on your skin. But something that’s going to be inhaled through the air could actually affect your body in a number of different ways. It doesn’t just affect your lungs or your sinuses, etc.
So, it’s hard to know if there’s something else going on with an allergy environmentally. I’m curious if she’s taken any extended vacations away from San Francisco in that time and if it’s changed, and that would have also changed both her food and her environment. So, curious on that.
But some other reasons for just issues with the tongue in general; the metallic taste, sometimes people get a metallic taste when they go low carb. So; it doesn’t sound like that’s what’s happening here, but it’s definitely something that can happen. If she’s doing mostly salads with protein, she might be eating really low carb, and you can definitely get a metallic taste in your mouth from being on a ketogenic or low carb diet. But that doesn’t tend to do what she’s talking about with the swelling, and the white coating, and the pain and all of that.
Those types of things point more to a variety of either bacterial or fungal infections in the body, and she says she’s done some digging and looking around on Candida. She definitely has some symptoms that could be Candida related. A white coating on the tongue, a scalloped edge; definitely could be some things related to that.
She could be taking; you know, I’m just looking at her supplements here. If she’s taking a B-complex, you know, this just kind of occurred to me. It’s possible if she has an MTHFR mutation, which I’m not a very nuanced expert on the topic, but I’m just going to throw it out there, that if she’s a reaction somehow to a synthetic form of folic acid that is in the B-complex, that could be an issue. So I might try not taking the B-complex for a while and just see what happens there. But I don’t know if she started taking that since she moved.
Sometimes it doesn’t matter. Sometimes you pinpoint the move date as when things change, but that change could be happening just because of dose and duration. You could have been taking this for a period of time, and it just happened to start affecting you as the same time as something else. So you know, it could be correlation and not causation with the move; just another note on that.
But some other things that can affect your tongue, and issues around your tongue, honestly just stress can do things where you’re getting that scalloped edge if you're clamping or clenching your jaw down. That can force your tongue out into your teeth and cause that edging to happen. But again, I don’t know if that really seems like that’s happening here.
Iron deficiency or iron deficiency anemia can cause some of these issues as well, but this is totally not meant to be diagnostic, just some things to maybe dig into. But I would honestly start with some of the basics. I would see if bringing your own food for two weeks, and focusing on healing foods might help. I would also; if you don’t want to do that first, I might drop the B-complex first for a week and see if something changes with that, and then move on from there to bringing your food. And report back to us; let us know what’s going on. And if you ever see me around San Francisco; say hi! {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: Say hi and come stick out your tongue.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. I’ve had a bunch of grocery store hugs lately, which is pretty funny. You might not recognize me at the grocery store, unless you follow me on Snapchat and you know what I look like all the time versus random pictures where I’m looking cute. I don’t look that cute most of the time. So yeah, keep us posted. Let us know, comment on the blog, and come back and let us know what’s going on, and what you tried, and how it’s going.
Liz Wolfe: I wanted to; did you notice here that she moved to San Francisco 3 months ago and it started 3 months ago?
Diane Sanfilippo: Yes.
Liz Wolfe: I don’t know much about how toxins and whatnot are related to the tongue, but I’m kind of curious about her living situation, if there’s some kind of mold or something going on worth looking into.
Diane Sanfilippo: Mmm. Yeah, yeah maybe less specific to San Francisco and more like her specific apartment or something like that.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: I mean, I think that’s definitely worthwhile to check out. Yeah, whether it’s just some kind of mold issue, or metals, or who knows what. I hate to sound scary about things like that, but definitely. A lot of old buildings around here that don’t ventilate that well.
Liz Wolfe: I imagine.
Diane Sanfilippo: Very possible.
Liz Wolfe: You might even have to get pretty hippy dippy about it; bring somebody in who does an energy reading or something; that might be fun.
Diane Sanfilippo: I mean, it’s definitely a possibility; the mold issue. It’s not unheard of here.
6. Liver support [42:46]
Liz Wolfe: Yeah. Alright. This next one, we’re going to this one from Olivia, correct?
Diane Sanfilippo: Yes.
Liz Wolfe: Alright. “Hi ladies! I’m a brand new listener, and already I’m finding your show interesting, entertaining, and informative, so thank you very much for that. On last weeks’ episode, you discussed liver support for skin breakouts, and yeast allergies. I’m currently dealing with breakouts myself, as well as a large number of food intolerances including sugars, gluten, dairy, and eggs, as well as vinegars, yeasts, alcohols, and fermented foods due to Candida overgrowth. I’ve eaten mostly paleo for the last year and a half, but I’m currently much more strict in my diet as I eliminate these foods to heal my gut. I’m working with my naturopath to treat the overgrowth, and my symptoms are improving.
However, I was really interested to hear you talk about the importance of liver support, as lately I’ve been thinking a lot about how to better support my liver for detoxification. I’m wondering if you can share some suggestions for how I can do this. I’ve seen all about the liver flushes with Epsom salts and olive oil, but they seem so extreme. Is this really necessary, or is there a better, more gentle approach to helping the liver get rid of toxins and hormones? Thank you so much for your amazing show, and you're help.
More details: currently I’ve eliminated all of my trouble foods, and a typical day looks like hot lemon and ginger water first thing after waking up, breakfast smoothie with avocado, celery, romaine, spinach, blueberries, and lemon, chia bowl with coconut milk, shredded coconut, hemp hearts, and blueberries. Lunch is leftover meat, fish, and veggies. Snacks steamed broccoli, carrots, cashews, and strawberries. Dinner meat and fish, and greens wilted in coconut oil or sweet potato fries and mixed green salad with apple. Very occasionally white rice. All organic produce, oils, and dry goods. Organic chicken and pork; grass-fed beef and wild fish. I try to drink at least 2 liters of water a day. I walk 40-60 minutes per day typically, usually do 20-30 minutes of yoga first thing in the morning, although I’ve fallen off the wagon with this in the last couple of months due to a hectic work schedule. I make it my goal to get at least 8 hours of sleep a night. I turn off all electronics an hour before bed; I’m in bed by 10 p.m., wake around 6 or 6:30, and sleep in a room that is as cool and dark as possible.
I take high quality supplements prescribed by my naturopath; B-complex, B2, magnesium, zinc, copper, theanine for cortisol control; TestoQuench to help clear excess androgens; monolaurin to treat Candida overgrowth; high quality, high count probiotic. I should probably mention that I have a high stress job, but I try very hard to balance with lots of down time on weekends, healthy food, chat and vent sessions with my family and friends, yoga (gotta get back on that bandwagon), and lots of sleep.
I work hard to limit my exposure to toxins by buying natural or making my own household products, avoiding plastic and nonstick whenever humanly possible, and use organic, nontoxic personal care products. Also likely relevant is my birth control history. I was on the pill for about 8 years starting from when I was 16, then transitioned onto the Mirena hormonal IUD before finally coming off hormonal birth control completely in September 2015. I felt truly awful on the Mirena, and since coming off, I’m making incremental progress at feeling better, but the healing journey is real. My cycles were close to perfect right after coming off but have become longer and more erratic.”
Well, an interesting thing about switching; and this is something that a lot of people do. They’ll be on the pill for a while, and then they switch to either an IUD or a localized hormone IUD, like the Mirena and they feel terrible. And this is actually kind of telling, and what it’s telling us is that the hormonal birth control was, in some way, propping up your body or doing something that your body isn’t going to do on its own. So the second you get rid of all of those systemic hormones and switch to something either hormone free or localized hormones and you feel like crap, it’s because of this massive hormonal swing. It’s not that the Mirena was making you feel like crap, it’s the change in systemic hormones that you’re putting into your body, and all of a sudden you're not doing that anymore, and you’re body is like; “what am I supposed to be doing?”They’re either flushing out a ton of hormones, or it’s revealing some kind of underlying hormonal imbalance. So that’s pretty normal.
Alright, so, in that case. When we talk about supporting the liver for the benefit of the skin, a lot of times we are talking about hormones; but not necessarily. So some people just need to support their liver as part of supporting the entire periphery of the digestive system so we don’t get all clogged up with endotoxins and other things that affect the gut and the circulation and then our skin. Some people it’s really just hormones that need to be dealt with.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.
Liz Wolfe: And you need to look at something like DIM or calcium D-glucarate or something like that. So it kind of depends, and I don’t really want to say anything too specific, especially anything like DIM, which is diindolylmethane, or calcium D-glucarate, because we don’t know that this is necessarily an estrogen issue, although we do have a pretty good clue with what happened when switching to the Mirena.
But I think she’s doing a lot of really good stuff at this point to support the liver. So what do you have to say on this?
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, it sounds like she’s just kind of curious about it in general. So the liver detox support meal plan in Practical Paleo, it is more generalized because the hormonal support plan is diving deeper onto that topic. Although they work hand in hand. These things; obviously our whole body is interconnected systems. So one thing isn’t independent of the other. But just some basics that she can do in terms of diet and lifestyle, and this is all detailed in longer; this is more heavily detailed, I should say, in the book. So I’m actually going to pull from what I’ve already written.
Adding to the diet things like sulfur-rich foods; I’m sure she’s already eating a lot of this stuff, and looking back at her daily intake, but once you have an eye to this stuff you can definitely pay attention to it a little bit more. But obviously egg yolks, cruciferous vegetables, things like that. Filtered water; so if she’s not doing filtered water, that could help. Green juice; I know we always talk about green juice kind of getting a bad rap because of the way a lot of people like to use it, so she was asking about things like liver cleanses. I have some friends who are really into it, who are really into detoxification and want to keep their systems working optimally, and they do things like a gallbladder flush, and find that it feels really good for them. I don’t think that those things are completely crazy, it’s just what’s the context, how long are you doing it for, do you really need it, and do you want to do it? I mean, I think at the end of the day, some people really want to do that stuff. So go ahead and do it, but don’t force yourself to take multiple weeks doing some kind of flush or cleanse if you don’t really want to do and you're not even sure if you need to. I’m not criticizing it, but I do think that there’s a time and a place for certain things.
So green juice, we can get a lot of nutrient value from green juice especially if it’s fresh and we’re making it at home. I don’t think we should use it to substitute for fresh, whole vegetables. I don’t think that we should think it’s the great panacea, just like most other things, and also; I’m just personally not a fan of multiple-day kind of juice cleanse; but if you’re doing it in a way that’s guided, and you’re not thinking that “I’m doing this to lose 15 pounds” or something crazy like that. Look; to each his own. There are different purposes for different things like that. But green juice, it can be helpful. We can get some good nutrients from that that can be supportive of the liver, and just aiding the detoxification process.
More time outside; so maybe this time she’s taking with friends to destress, maybe that can be time; I used to love just walking with a friend for an hour, or however long, around a park. It’s a really great way to talk about; especially things that are stressful to you, because you’re not looking face to face, you’re kind of walking side by side. But outside time definitely.
Rest and digest; making sure that when you do eat, especially if you're in a stressful job, if you’re eating at work that you're getting into rest and digest mode, that you are not eating in a high stress state because you’re not supporting your liver and being able to support digestion if you’re stressed out while you're eating.
Dry skin brushing; Liz you’ve talked to me about that a bunch before, but dry brushing. I know my friends who are super into detoxification are really big into dry brushing for that purpose as well. And then continuing t avoid things that are basically pro-inflammatory that we talk about all the time, that she’s already talked about a bit here in terms of natural skin care, natural household products. But alcohol; I would avoid that. Look, if you’re trying to support your liver, what your liver wants to do as soon as you take in alcohol is detoxify alcohol. I’m not a party pooper, I’m not a hater. {Laughs} It’s just; if this is your primary support, especially for women who are dealing with issues of estrogen dominance, perhaps, and this is something I’ve been looking into for myself a lot lately, and luckily I’m not a big drinker. But if I were, I definitely would be curbing that in an effort to support my liver and just give it the best shot that I can to clear that excess estrogen.
You know; cooking at home more often, avoiding some of the stuff that’s out to eat. Not to say never go out, but just if you have the choice, just opt in. {laughs} Opt to stay in. And let’s see; another thing to look into, and this is kind of at the edge or fringe of the diet and lifestyle recommendations, but if you have a lot of dental amalgams, and you’re concerned about liver toxicity and heavy metals, which is something that a lot of us don’t talk about very often, but if you have a lot of fillings, which I did for many years. I did not have the best; I don’t even know what to say. The best dental situation; I don’t know if it was just that I was eating junky food, or I also wasn’t eating very nutrient dense food, but every time I would go in for a checkup or at least once a year I would have new cavities. This was until probably, what, 8 or 10 years ago when I started changing my diet very significantly.
But if you can find a biological or holistic dentist who has experience with removing and replacing mercury amalgams, that is something you might want to look into to support your liver. Because if you do have any off-gassing going on from mercury amalgams in your mouth, then that could be taxing the liver excessively. So just something to look into; I don’t want to raise any red flags or try and alarm anybody about that, because there are people listening thinking my mouth is full of it, and are freaking out. But don’t freak out. Just do some research, see if there is someone near you, and find out what the options are there. I don’t think any dentist are using them anymore, so it’s obvious that it’s something that needs to be addressed for a lot of people, I just don’t think we talk about it that much.
So those are some tips; there are a lot more in Practical Paleo; different nutrients, nutrients that are supportive that are in foods that you could be getting, which is; if it’s something you’re concerned with and it’s not something you're working on specifically, that’s a great place to look in the book, to just; what can I be eating that has nutrients that are supportive for my liver. And that’s a great place to turn. So there’s that.
Liz Wolfe: Alrighty.
Diane Sanfilippo: Probably lots more on liver detox in the future.
Liz Wolfe: Our podcast sponsorship today comes from Vital Choice, an online purveyor of the world’s best wild seafood delivered right to your door; because juggling a busy life shouldn’t mean you have to forgo healthy meals. At www.vitalchoice.com, you’ll find wild Alaskan salmon, halibut, tuna, sable fish, and cod, as well as prawns, crab, and scallops. You’ll also find grass-fed organic Wagyu beef, free range heritage chicken, fresh frozen organic berries, and dark organic chocolates. Make a vital choice by eating the highest quality food you can. Vital Choice; come home to real food. Use code BALANCEDBITES to save on your first order at www.vitalchoice.com.
7. #Treatyoself: Charcoal mask [55:46]
Liz Wolfe: Alright, so Diane, I think you have a treat yoself for today.
Diane Sanfilippo: I do. So, I think everyone should treat yoself to a charcoal mask of some sort, because I’m loving them.
Clip: Three words for you; Treat. Yo. Self.
Liz Wolfe: Yay!
Diane Sanfilippo: I’m just loving it. Yeah.
Liz Wolfe: I know you’ve used a couple of different kinds; tell us which ones that you like.
Diane Sanfilippo: Ok, so I don’t know how to pronounce one of the names. Let me see if I can open it up. So I know a lot of people keep asking about things I like, and what I buy, and brands and all that good stuff. We finally got; on http://blog.balancedbites.com/myshop, or if you just go to Balanced Bites and click on the shop button, I don’t know, there was something weird going on with the URL, so it should have just been /shop, but that’s been broken, so just click on shop at the top of the page if you want to get to it. We’ve put my recommendations under health and beauty; you can find both of these that I’m going to mention.
The first one that I found was the Derma-E, I think is how you pronounce it. Purifying daily detox scrub. So it’s a scrub; actually I don’t think that’s the right one; that’s a different one. It’s a two in one mask; is it called a scrub? Oh it is called a scrub. So it’s a mask and a scrub, but I was just using it really as a mask. But it has those little, something, it has something abrasive in it, which I know you’re not really a big fan of stuff that’s abrasive, but it does have marine algae and activated charcoal. And I liked that; but then the Beautycounter one came out while I was on vacation, and I finally got it this week. So I’ve used both of these; and that one is good if you just want to go today and get something and you want to have something that’s not as expensive. But I like the Beautycounter one a lot better. It felt way more luxurious and way; I don’t know, it just had a little bit of a minty, slightly cooling feel to it, and it goes on really smooth, so it doesn’t have that abrasion. Which, you know, I definitely don’t want to be scrubbing the heck out of my face.
I took somebody’s tip and applied it with a flat brush recently, and that seemed to help me use a lot less of it; because I know people are concerned, if it’s a small bottle, and if it’s not that affordable for everyone, because it is kind of pricy. But it seems like it’s going to last a long time going that route; I can probably use a nickel-size amount and just squirt it into a little tiny bowl that I have, because I have a million tiny bowls in my kitchen. {laughs} which is true, not sarcasm.
But yeah, I loved it. I’ve been snapping about it, and you know, still trying to figure out the best food to not cause the reactions that I’ve been having. So after that breakout from the cashews a couple of weeks ago, which was crazy town, I find that charcoal masks do a lot to calm the inflammation. So for anybody who has had a cystic acne breakout where it’s just painful, and red; I find that a charcoal mask, I feel like it’s extracting so much, that the inflammation is just less. And you take that mask off, and your skin feels a lot calmer. So that’s how I feel with it.
But I did notice the difference; like with the Beautycounter one, my skin actually looks a little bit, like lightened somehow? It was kind of weird. I wasn’t expecting that. I don’t know if it maybe just kind of helped slough off an extra layer.
Liz Wolfe: Like brighter?
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. It looked brighter.
Liz Wolfe: Uh-huh.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. It looked brighter right after.
Liz Wolfe: Like in a good way.
Diane Sanfilippo: In a good way, but I was like; do I look whiter? {laughs} Like I thought I looked whiter.
Liz Wolfe: {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: I don’t know what it was. I mean, I’m pretty white. But I really liked it. It just felt amazing. Like, I want to go put it on again, because it seems {laughs} like it might be slightly addictive. But anyway. I know you’ve been using it. Have you used other ones too?
Liz Wolfe: I have not used other charcoal masks, no. Because I’d never found one that I liked the other ingredients. And I’ve tried making my own, but you wind up using way too much charcoal.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, I can’t. Oh actually, you know what; this is not the right link on here. I probably did it wrong, or it changed. We’ll fix the link, but it’s a purifying; it’s called 2-in-1 charcoal mask. I don’t know what the other ingredients are in this one, if they’re good or not. I feel like you looked at it and you thought it was just ok, but I just don’t know if it passed the test completely.
Liz Wolfe: You probably sent me a picture and I pretended to look at it. I was like “looks great!”
Diane Sanfilippo: Ugh! You're mean.
Liz Wolfe: Sorry! {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: Alright, well we’ll link to both of them from the shop.
Liz Wolfe: Sounds good.
Diane Sanfilippo: So there you go; treat yoself to a charcoal mask. With your friends. While you walk outside. Just kidding; don’t do that.
Liz Wolfe: Yes, actually; no don’t do that, actually. Yeah don’t do that. Ok. Well that’s it for this week then. 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. Please leave us an iTunes review if you don’t mind; we’d greatly appreciate it. See you next week.