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You’re listening to the Balanced Bites podcast episode 267.
Diane Sanfilippo: Welcome to the Balanced Bites podcast. I’m Diane; a certified nutrition consultant, and the New York Times bestselling author of Practical Paleo and The 21-Day Sugar Detox. I live in San Francisco with my husband and fur kids. I love fall in San Francisco; and I’m all about Stranger Things right now; but wondering, why is anyone touching the goo-blob when they see it?
Liz Wolfe: I have no idea what you’re talking about! Hi, I’m Liz; a nutritional therapy practitioner, and author of the Wall Street Journal best-seller Eat the Yolks; The Purely Primal Skincare Guide; and the online program Baby Making and Beyond. I live on a farm in the mystical land of the Midwest, outside of Kansas City, and I love to dig in my garden and eat. Name that reference!
We are the co-creators of the Balanced Bites Master Class, and we’ve been bringing you this award winning podcast for 5 years and counting. We’re here to share our take on modern paleo living, answer your questions, and chat with leading health and wellness experts. Enjoy this week’s episode, and submit your questions at http://blog.balancedbites.com. 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.
Before we get started, 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.
Liz Wolfe: Hey everyone. It’s me, Liz, here with Diane.
Diane Sanfilippo: Oh hey.
Liz Wolfe: Hey. It’s getting harder.
Diane Sanfilippo: How are you? {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: It’s getting harder for me to read all that stuff at the beginning. I don’t know why.
Diane Sanfilippo: I was thinking that we should probably rotate it; because I was thinking; should I be saying the “we’re the co-creators” part? Just so we alternate more? Maybe we’ll do that next time.
Liz Wolfe: No, I’m better at reading it than you are. {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: No, you like, oh. You’re mean!
Liz Wolfe: No I’m not! You’re excellent at off the cuff speaking. I’m better at reading.
Diane Sanfilippo: You’re better at reading and sounding like you’re not reading.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: I think that’s it.
Liz Wolfe: I’m actually a robot, in case anyone was wondering.
Diane Sanfilippo: Maybe you're mean because I dreamt last night that you secretly had been eating vegan for like a year. And in my dream, somehow, I was at your house, and you confessed it to me, and I was like; I don’t really know what to say about this. I feel like our friendship has been a lie! {laughs} This is; I have weird dreams that oddly seem mostly real, you know? Like, they’re not so farfetched that they seem like a dream.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: So when I wake up, I’m like, what the heck just happened? Anyway. There you go.
Liz Wolfe: I’m a vegan plus meat and cheese.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: Is that fair? Meat, cheese, and broth.
Diane Sanfilippo: I’m a carni-lacto-vegan {laughs}.
Liz Wolfe: Lacto-carnivegatarian? {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: There you go.
Liz Wolfe: Oh my. Well, I’m sorry about that, friend. I don’t; I would be interested in what someone who interprets dreams would say about that. I would think probably what they would say is that you feel like a betrayal on my part is imminent. {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: No. I think I’ve just been watching Stranger Things, and everything; well, I don’t want to give anything away.
Liz Wolfe: I don’t know what Stranger Things is. Apparently it’s a show.
Diane Sanfilippo: I think it’s a Netflix series. I think it’s on Netflix. I don’t know; Scott pushes the buttons and makes the TV play things. {laughs} I don’t know how to work the television here.
Liz Wolfe: {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: Too many remotes. Too many, like, it’s not TV with a channel. It’s like; how is it coming into the television; I really don’t know {laughs}. I just try not to involve myself with learning skills that I just don’t want taking up capacity in my brain.
Liz Wolfe: I understand.
Diane Sanfilippo: I don’t really want to learn how to use the television, because then that just enables more televisioning.
Liz Wolfe: Televisioning.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} So I’m just going to know how to watch Bravo on demand on my computer, and then Scott can put all the buttons on the TV.
Liz Wolfe: I’ve been kind of bummed lately about; so we didn’t do any TV for my kid for probably more than the first year. But then at some point after she turned one, I was like; I’m just going to turn on Sesame Street sometimes; I just need a minute, and you know she sometimes isn’t going to play independently. Sorry, RIE people, it just doesn’t happen all the time, that you can just have your kid play independently. So I turned on Sesame Street once or twice, which is on HBO, commercial free, an hour long. I can’t stand the commercials on PBS. And she has no interest. No interest in television. And I’m so bummed, because I just felt like; I need that tool sometimes, and she just won’t. She has no interest in it.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing}
Liz Wolfe: None. So I’ve created a monster.
Diane Sanfilippo: You ruined it. Interesting.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah. I guess maybe I could see if she’s interested in Real Housewives, but I feel like {laughs} that’s just not a sound parenting choice.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} Probably not, but it would be hilarious to see how that affects her as an adult if you did.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah, it would be hilarious, let me just carry out that experiment since…
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} Yeah.
1. News and updates from Diane & Liz [6:16]
Liz Wolfe: Self correcting. Anyway. So, Diane, what are your updates? {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: So, besides watching Stranger Things. Look, half the time I watch these things only to try and be somewhat culturally and socially relevant, because otherwise I show up at events or parties and people are talking about things, and I’m like, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Most of the time, you talk about things on this show that; well, you haven’t in the last, since you’ve had a baby, mostly, which is good {laughs}. Luckily, you’re new TV watching has been diminished so I’m not left in the dark about what you’re talking about with all the vampire things. But anyway; it’s only 8 episodes and it’s on Netflix and you can watch it whenever, so I’ve been watching it and mostly freaking out while I watch it with Scott. Last night I think we watched episode 5, and at one point he did the gasp and sink down on the couch action; and I was like, oh, did that scare you honey? {laughing} Because he keeps making fun of how reactive I am to the show. I’m like, this is very emotional for me! Anyway, so there’s that.
What else; Facebook live, for those of you who want to kind of sit in on what I’m calling office hours or come have a chat with me. I’m talking about a specific topic each week for anywhere from 10 to 15 or 20 minutes, I’ll just kind of talk about the topic, then I’ll take relevant questions, anything related to that topic. It’s not completely free-for-all on any question, but sometimes I’ll answer things that are not quite as relevant.
And then what we’re also doing after the fact; so if you can’t tune in live, I’ll always have a graphic posted either earlier that day or the day before so you can post your questions there that I will do my best to get to while I do the live video, and you’re also welcome to ask follow-up questions. Watch the video on the page and then ask them later, and I’ll always check that feed and see if there’s something there. But we’re also editing them down after the fact to be saved to the blog. So for example, if you missed the last one that I did on nutrition challenges, which kind of each week they’re getting kicked off by something you and I talk about here on the podcast, Liz, so we had talked about nutrition challenges and who are they right for or not right for. We’ve talked about that in the past, as well. But that was the topic that I kind of jumped on Facebook to talk about more, and it was a really great conversation because obviously there were folks watching and we had a little bit of back and forth. But we got that video edited down, and I believe it’s probably about 6, or 7, or 8 minutes, and that will be on the blog now if you were to go look for it.
So I think what will be the next live video, by the time this episode airs, will be something related to what we’re talking about today. So something about blood sugar, carbs, cravings, you know, all of that good stuff. So if you want to hear more and have a little bit of an interaction and back and forth with me, that’s where it will be. Facebook live on Thursdays at 5 p.m. Pacific, 8 p.m. Eastern until further notice. That seems to be a time that works for me, despite the fact that our neighbor’s Roomba goes on every day at 5 p.m.
Liz Wolfe: {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: It doesn’t seem to be interrupting the show too much. Did I mention this to you on the show before, how for a while, Scott and I were like; “What is that noise? Does he have a 3D printer over there? What is he making?” And then our bubble was burst one day when we found out it was just a Roomba. But anyway.
The only other thing I wanted to throw out there is something that I had a revelation about. It’s not exactly an update, it’s just more of a; hey, I know that as you’re listening, we’re friends. We all just hang out here. {laughs} So while you’re walking, or doing your laundry, or doing dishes, I figured I would just share something random with you all.
You guys know how obsessed I am with Gretchen Rubin’s Better Than Before, habit strategies and all of that stuff, and her podcast is one I do listen to pretty much every episode. I don’t always listen to all of them; she has little ones that she does that are just a couple of minutes, and sometimes I just go to the main episodes. But something that they reminded us all about is this strategy of pairing two different activities together, or two little habits sort of together. And I realized this morning that the supplements I had been taking from my naturopath, and I think this is totally relevant to everyone because I feel like we all go through taking things and not taking things and being on a protocol or not, and also we might be directed to be on a protocol and we may or may not adhere to that for different reasons.
So for me, one of the strategies that I didn’t realize I was using until this morning was the strategy of pairing; which means you just pair two activities together. So for example, for me, when I would sit down to eat at my dining table, my little stacked up supplement thing is right there on the table, and I had been pairing eating my meal with taking my supplements. And it seems obvious enough; I mean, it’s a way that most people will take supplements; you eat your meal, you take your morning; you eat your lunch, etc. and dinner. But what I didn’t realize was when I was on tour, because my schedule was so different, because I wasn’t sitting down at the dining room table in my normal apartment, that whole strategy of pairing was broken for me, so I wasn’t taking my supplements.
You know, I felt fine, so for me, I’m also, my body is pretty sensitive and it’s hard for me to take things when I feel like I don’t know if they’re doing anything. Unfortunately that’s just how I am. But, I want to be taking them because I know there’s some stuff going on under the hood that will be supported by these supplements. So, all that to say, I realized that when and if I travel again, what I need to do in order to make sure I’m taking my supplements is re-pair that habit with something else that I do while I’m traveling that’s a regular thing I do while I travel. Because I do have regular habits while I travel, they’re just different habits.
So that was just a nice little revelation for me this morning. I’m like; well, when I travel I tend to do these few things that are very normal and regular while I’m away, so I need to just re-pair those habits so I’ll remember to take the supplements. So hopefully that helps some people listening. I know there are lots of different ways that we can do this with our habits, but that was a good little revelation for me. So there’s that.
Liz, you were just away on a trip.
Liz Wolfe: I was away!
Diane Sanfilippo: Can you give us some updates? I want to hear about it! I’ve got to hear all about it. I heard you learned how to Snapchat.
Liz Wolfe: I did, and I’ve done it at least 5 times since then. I feel like I realized…
Diane Sanfilippo: What’s your Snapchat name. Is it Real Food Liz or Liz Wolfe?
Liz Wolfe: Yeah, isn’t that what you’re supposed to do?
Diane Sanfilippo: I’m just curious. I’m not really asking for my own personal benefit, I’m already following you there, but for our listeners so they can find you.
Liz Wolfe: Wait, should I have done something different? It’s Real Food Liz.
Diane Sanfilippo: No!
Liz Wolfe: I’m just kind of keeping it the same across all of my channels.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} I mean.
Liz Wolfe: All of my many festering, stagnating channels.
Diane Sanfilippo: It seems like the best idea.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. Alright, so you guys can find Liz on Snapchat at Real Food Liz. Ok. So tell me about your trip.
Liz Wolfe: So I know you Snapchat all the time, and Juli Snapchats and Cassy Snapchats all the time; but I don’t Snapchat so I don’t go to Snapchat {laughs} I don’t go to see what other people do. But I was with Cassy, because Cassy is also a fellow Beautycounter consultant. I went on this trip; ok, let me back up.
So, I went on this Beautycounter trip; it was I guess a corporate type trip for some of their, I don’t know, producers. It was to Santa Barbara to a place called Bacara, which I had been calling “Bacara” like Burt Bacarat for this whole time, and I sounded like an idiot, but that’s alright. So it’s this beautiful resort in Santa Barbara, and 140 of us were there. We did a ton of talking about Beautycounter’s larger mission, which is to get safer products into the hands of everyone, which is one of the reasons I’m so keen on this company; one of the reasons I’ve started to build with them, is because they’re doing such an amazing job on the legislative side. They’re really pushing change in the marketplace, and they’re doing it in a way that is financially productive for women who also care about the mission but cannot spend all their time doing that crap for free. So that’s my little rant in there.
But we also got to enjoy ourselves. So we got to hang out at the pool, we got to have amazing food and drinks, and every night spend time together dancing, and eating, and drinking, and doing all kinds of amazing things and just enjoying our time there. I got to have my own room with an ocean view, which was much needed. I read a book that had nothing to do with food or science or work, which was incredible. It was fiction. I read the first book in the Neapolitan series called My Brilliant Friend. It was incredible.
So all of those things. And I was Cassy the whole time. And Cassy Snapchats a lot.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: And she’s so good at it!
Diane Sanfilippo: She Snapchats a lot.
Liz Wolfe: A lot!
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.
Liz Wolfe: But it was so seamless. She would just; we’d be walking and I’d just hear her talking and I’d think she was talking to me, but she’d actually be talking to Snapchat.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: She’d be like; “This is our; we’re in Bacara!”{laughs} And we’re doing this. It was just quick, it was seamless. And I realized, I do have my phone in my hands enough, and if all this Snapchat thing is is saying the things that are in your head when you have a free moment, then why not? Maybe I should try. So I kind of saw how she did it, and I’m just trying to mimic a little bit, and every once in a while, I try not to have my phone out around my kid, but when I have the chance, I’ll just kind of try and jump on there. I’ll try and say a thing or two and dump my internal monologue into the external world. Which that’s all it is, basically, right?
Diane Sanfilippo: Totally.
Liz Wolfe: I’m wasting all these internal thoughts on myself!
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing} Um, yeah I mean I think sometimes it ends up being a nice, I don’t know. A nice way to share things. So what I was telling you, sometimes it’s sharing something totally random and pointless, and sometimes it turns into a mini-tutorial. Which isn’t really so formal, but it’s kind of like, I don’t know, I like sharing the monotony of making breakfast every day because the bigger picture of that is let’s not over-complicate it. I have eaten the same thing for breakfast for probably the last 2 weeks now. And I think so many people somehow assume that when you are a recipe developer, you’re eating these grand, different, interesting, amazing breakfasts every day. I think it creates; I think what Snapchat does, for the people who are interested, it breaks down the wall of this image that people think of us, and it shows more of the reality. And that doesn’t mean that what we show elsewhere isn’t real, it’s just so much more of a curated snapshot; like on Instagram.
Which one of the things I used to like about Instagram was that it was instant, in the moment, you had to take the picture into the app. And now that you can upload pictures to it, it’s lost some of that feeling, and that’s what I like about Snapchat, is that it pulls it back to this instant moment. It’s raw; well, it’s filtered. It’s unfiltered in terms of what you’re talking about, you know what I mean. It’s usually unscripted and unfiltered in that sense.
I think it’s just; I don’t know. It makes everybody a little more real, and it shows the stuff that is only 10 or 15 seconds at a time. Yeah, I just like it for that reason. Because you know me; I like to be unscripted. So, it’s just the purest form of that for me. And I get to be silly, and I also get to be educational at the same time, which is, I don’t know, I think that’s just truth.
Liz Wolfe: It’s just the loss of everything after 24 hours, that I’m like, why would I endeavor to put something out there that’s just going to go away? So last night I uploaded my Snapchats to Facebook. We’ll see if anybody cares about that.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.
Liz Wolfe: I don’t think it got to anybody.
Diane Sanfilippo: I definitely understand that feeling, but the way I feel about Snapchat is also; I try, like you were saying, I try to not let it, the actual creation of the snap interrupt the flow of my daily life. It might take a couple of extra seconds, but I’m not doing something especially for Snapchat, I’m just living and posting bits of it, you know. So I don’t feel as much loss about it as I would something that I might have spent time preparing for. Like, let’s say I’m going to do a Facebook live cooking video. I’m not going to prepare and do a cooking video on Snapchat and then let it be lost 24 hours later. If I were going to do that, I would download the snap and then use it for something later. But if I just kind of am living and snap it along the way, I don’t need to save that. I don’t need to save the breakfast I make every morning. You know what I mean? Stuff like that.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: But it is also a much smaller audience, and I like that it‘s a much smaller audience of people who have said, “I want to see what you’re doing back there.” Because I like watching; I like seeing what our friends are up to on Snapchat, too. So I loved watching your snaps yesterday! I’m like, oh hey, there she is. Like, there’s my silly friend. To me, that’s really fun. So, there you go.
Liz Wolfe: Well, we’ll see if I can keep it up.
Diane Sanfilippo: Just snap for me and Cassy, and then whatever. Just pretend like you’re talking to us.
Liz Wolfe: I’ll think about it that way.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} Ok.
2. Beautycounter [20:15]
Liz Wolfe: So, one cool thing was. Now, I’m going to say something else about Beautycounter quickly. I want to acknowledge that a lot of people are jumping on board with the company right now; particularly in the real food community. And I want people to understand that I’ve been in contact with almost all of these people for like 6 months now. So everyone that you’re seeing in your newsfeed, and all of these people that you’ve noticed that are talking about Beautycounter now took a long time to test the products, and to look into the mission and the overall company, and they’re jumping on board not having given this no thought. So it really is one of those situations where we’re all kind of coming together to push a movement forward just like we did with paleo; just like we did with supporting sustainable food production. Those types of things. And I want people to feel really safe asking questions of all of us that are talking about Beautycounter; but I also want people to feel safe jumping in if they feel like; hey, this is interesting to me, I like what you say, particularly about not being afraid of money.
Diane, this is something that you said a long, long time ago in a podcast forever ago, and all I remember is you saying; it was a business oriented Balanced Bites podcast. You said something like, something about why are so many people afraid of money? Or, why are so many women afraid of money? And I was just talking to my friend Jordan about this, from A Thriving Mom; we were talking about how a lot of times as women we are so keen to help people, just out of the goodness of our hearts, we want people to find the information that they need; friends, family, social media audience, whatever it may be. And we expend all of this effort giving everyone individualized information and counsel and support, and are afraid to say; “Hey, do any of these recommendations that I give have programs where I can actually earn for all this time that I spent helping others to get on board.” Because we all have to eat, we all have to live, and I think it’s really important to understand that this isn’t about money; it really is about advocacy and safer products and the fact that people are responding to them so well, that it’s like, “Give the people what they want.”
But I want people to feel really safe and comfortable generating income, and with how I generate income, which is through affiliate programs and book sales, and many other things so that I can eat and take care of my kid and take care of my family. And that’s something that I want everybody to get comfortable with as much as using safer products and all of that good stuff. So I want people to understand why I got involved with this, why they’re seeing a lot of other people getting involved with this, and if they’re interested, feel free to reach out. [email protected].
I don’t have a whole lot of time to support others in jumping on board and making money and all of that, but if you’re really passionate about it and you feel like you have a good social circle or a good audience, and you are already supplying them with information; like, you’re that go-to person, and people are asking you a million questions, maybe it’s time for you to earn a little bit of money doing that, and I’m totally open to talking to people about that. I’ll do my best to answer questions people have here or on social media or via email.
Diane Sanfilippo: You know, one other thing I want to throw in just in general about any kind of product and affiliate sales or any of that stuff that any of us might recommend; I think there’s a really big difference between suddenly recommending something that people have to add to their lives that’s going to solve a new problem rather than recommending something that we are all already doing and using and have been wanting a better solution for and now we’ve found something. It isn’t like the hippie-dippie makeup that doesn’t perform.
You know, it makes me think of the Portlandia skit about deodorant where they’re talking about the natural deodorant, and they’re like, “It doesn’t work at all!” {laughs} They’re talking about this natural deodorant and people just use it because it’s natural, and I think there are a lot of cosmetics out there that people might want to use just because they’re natural, but they don’t perform. They don’t really do well and they don’t look great on your face. I think we just have; we all want and are wearing makeup already, so if there’s a better answer, better solution.
And not only that, Liz, but for years you’ve been teaching people about this stuff, and people have literally been asking you what cosmetics to buy. So when this came along {laughs} it’s such an obvious answer when it completely aligns with what you’re trying to do. So I think that’s kind of; it’s a big difference between; you know, I don’t care what kind of supplements people want to take. But when someone comes out of wherever and they’re like; this magic supplement will help you lose weight, or whatever it is. It’s like; well, {laughs} I don’t know. It’s just, it’s promising something that’s totally different than just saying; here’s something you’re already using all the time, and it’s a safer version.
Liz Wolfe: Yes!
Diane Sanfilippo: And the company has a great mission and we can get behind it. So I think that’s just kind of; you know that’s why I even looked into it. And it’s not even, I don’t use everything from Beautycounter 100%, which I will write about in my post when I talk about what I do use for skincare and makeup. I use a bunch of different things, which I think we all do.
Liz Wolfe: Yes.
Diane Sanfilippo: And I think that’s kind of important to be transparent about that, as well. Which was part of the whole thing. But anyway I think that’s awesome to share that and yeah, we know we have a ton of practitioners and a ton of bloggers who listen to the show. So it is really important for everyone to hear all of that.
Liz Wolfe: It’s a matter of finding a way to make money doing what you care about and what people are asking you for. It’s pretty simple.
Diane Sanfilippo: And with integrity.
Liz Wolfe: Yes.
Diane Sanfilippo: 100% with integrity, which I think is the bottom line, you know?
Liz Wolfe: Absolutely. And I won’t harp on this any further, but all of us are into; everybody that listens to this podcast is in some way interested in the advocacy piece; maybe not when it comes to the beauty industry, but maybe when it comes to the food you eat.
Diane Sanfilippo: Mm-hmm.
Liz Wolfe: And trying to move that market forward, so more grass-fed products are available.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.
Liz Wolfe: So, it’s all about, you know, it’s all about moving the market at large so that better things can be available to more people even if they can’t afford or use the exact same things you can.
Diane Sanfilippo: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Liz Wolfe: That’s pretty much the long and short of it.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yep.
3. The Balanced Bites Master Class [26:59]
Liz Wolfe: So, love it! Anyway. And I also came home, after my trip, to a pretty amazing ready; like, we’re ready. The Master Class is happening.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: I got to talk to you on the phone; on the phone. {laughs} I got to talk to you on Skype; I got to see a ton of how everything has come together. Because, you know, obviously this project is super important to me, but your team has been doing so much of the leg work. And I’ll check in and read or edit something and give my opinion on stuff, but yesterday was the first time that I really saw everything together in context, and got to kind of live it through looking; I don’t know.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, the work books and videos and everything together.
Liz Wolfe: The workbooks. It is phenomenal.
Diane Sanfilippo: We’d seen it all in pieces.
Liz Wolfe: Go ahead.
Diane Sanfilippo: No, I was saying, we’ve had it all in pieces and it’s really come together.
Liz Wolfe: Yes.
Diane Sanfilippo: Because this beta launch, which I believe when this episode is airing, it’s closing today, or it is closed, or it’s closing tomorrow. So if you’re listening, and you’re like; shoot! I wanted to see if I could do that; check the website pretty much right now. But yeah, I’m really excited about it.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: I think what my team has done with our content has also further brought it to life, so I think that’s kind of what you’re talking about, too.
Liz Wolfe: Yes.
Diane Sanfilippo: With the way the workbooks are. So if you guys are listening, and you’re like; well I couldn’t do the beta thing so when is this relevant to me? What we’re talking about today for our topic is totally relevant to what we’re teaching in the class, as well, so when we get into some blood sugar stuff in a minute here. But, we have really taken what Liz and I used to teach for a full day, transition that into; what do we have, 9 modules, 8 or 9 modules. I have to look back at it because we’ve ended up breaking some things up further. We have 9 modules, some of them have 2 parts or 3 parts because some of them are pretty long. And just walking you through how to apply this stuff to your life. And I think the workbooks that go along with each module; that’s kind of what you had dug into more last night.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: Because we had seen drafts of them, but now they’re really all together, and it’s like wow; this is making this stuff so practical. Everything we’ve taught in our books, in Practical Paleo and Eat the Yolks, and yeah. I can’t wait for people to go through this and be like; oh, this is why I’ve been feeling so bad. Or this is why I’ve been struggling; because I have overlooked these elements going on. And being able to journal about it with each module, I think it’s going to be so, so powerful. Because we were talking about this last night, too. We all go through this process of; we learn about the basics, and we do that, and then we get so caught up in the minutia and the details, than then we realize a year or two later that we actually kind of forgot about the basics, and we need to come back to a lot of that but with better understanding. And I think that’s really where this course pulls people kind of full circle. So yeah, I’m excited. It’s going to be awesome.
Liz Wolfe: It’s going to be amazing.
Diane Sanfilippo: Ahh! Alright, so we’re going to link to the page where you guys can read about it; whether you're able to be a beta tester for us, which you have to be a practitioner if you’re going to qualify to do that. And if you’re not, we’ll have a link from today’s show notes; this is episode 267, we’ll have a link so that you can read all about the program. It won’t be open to regular enrollment yet, but you’ll at least get to kind of read about it, so there’s that. And we should probably talk about blood sugar. {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: Yes we should. So today’s topic is blood sugar.
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.
4. Blood sugar basics [31:15]
Liz Wolfe: So we’ll talk about blood sugar. Ok, so.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: This is just one of those; this is one where it’s an onion, so you’ll peeling back layer after layer. We understand the roller coaster ride; the blood sugar roller coaster ride. But I think it’s important that we talk about some of the underlying features of blood sugar issues, because what I’ve observed when I was actively practicing, and in a lot of the questions we get, this is one of those things that people are kind of bouncing back and forth. They feel like they fixed it, and then they go back on the roller coaster; and then they feel like they fixed it, and then they’re back on the roller coaster. So I think what’s really lacking in a lot of talk about fixing this type of thing today is a long term approach versus a short term acute intervention. I think you, Diane, have done a really good job of leveraging the 21-Day Sugar Detox into a long-term approach for people, and I want to get a little bit of insight from you on that as we talk about this today, as well, using that as a starting point but also giving people the tools to manage these things intelligently going forward. Because I think sometimes we swing the pendulum in the opposite direction a little bit too much. Like, sugar is the culprit, so we’re going to get rid of all sugar, and we’re going to have no sugar in our blood ever, and that ends up being a stressed state, as well. So it’s all about balance.
We’re going to talk about overall blood sugar being too high too frequently leading to a lot of problems like insulin resistance, obesity, and type 2 diabetes, and also the predisposing issues; the nutritional issues, the mitochondrial issues, all of those complicated things that really aren’t that complicated, but that actually predispose you to blood sugar issues in the first place. So it’s very important, and it affects a lot of us and we don’t even realize it.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. And I think part of what we can do here is lay a bit of a foundation; and of course, the module we have on this in the Master Class also lays the foundation, gets into more detail, and then really where the value from that comes in; because, as you guys are listening, when we worked on all the curriculum for the class, we thought of you guys. Our listeners. How can we help you, because we’ve seen your questions for the last 5 years, and we know that you’re hearing us talk about this stuff but applying it and really saying; ok, well so then how does this apply to me? How does it apply to me right now, and how can I come back to this information and education as a touch point for how it might apply to me later when things in my life change.
Because as you guys have heard us for the last 5 years, I’ve gone personally from, you know, originally before all of this stuff, having major issues with cravings, blood sugar disregulation. That was probably my biggest; I mean, I had digestive problems, too, but the blood sugar issues were huge, and changing the food I was eating helped that a ton. But then I’ve also come to a place where I changed my food in a different direction, but my blood sugar has still been fine. How do I do that while not; how do I eat more carbs without creating the cravings, because at some point in time we all thought that just getting rid of carbs was the answer, right?
Liz Wolfe: Yeah.
5. Insulin [34:22]
Diane Sanfilippo: So, let’s take it back to some basics. What is insulin? I think a lot of times people assume that raising insulin levels is a problem; people assuming that raising and dropping blood sugar is always the problem. Insulin is really known as a storage hormone. It’s something that’s going to send a signal to our cells to open up and store nutrients. So it’s not a bad thing. Having our insulin levels rise as a result of the food we eat, having our blood sugar rise as a result of the food we eat; those are natural physiological responses. We need that to happen. In a situation where obviously our body is not producing insulin properly, our beta cells of the pancreas are worn out or ineffective, perhaps we have a type 1 diabetes situation or we have insulin resistance where we’ve had so much demand for insulin for an extended period of time that our body becomes resistant to the message. Because insulin is a hormone, and hormones are chemical messengers. So, our body; insulin becomes the boy who cried wolf. So someone with type 2 diabetes is in that situation where it’s just been an insult of high carbohydrate foods that are low nutrition.
So, we’re not talking about mango and pineapple and strawberries and sweet potato and white potatoes; those are high nutrition foods that have carbs, obviously. But we’re talking about the foods that we all know we ate for so long; refined foods that we’re getting calories without nutrition. I mean, I can’t say that enough times. When we’re getting calories without nutrition, we are spiking our blood sugar response, spiking that insulin response. We’re putting nutrients into cells, we’re putting macronutrients into cells; we’re not putting vitamins and minerals in when we’re not eating them.
So it’s insulin’s job to tell our cells to let these nutrients in; we need insulin, it’s critical to life functions, it’s not a bad thing. But anything that we’ve got going on out of balance in our body becomes a bad thing. So then it’s time to talk about the counter-regulatory hormone to insulin which is glucagon; which is going to tell our cells to release stored energy to help us operate. And ways that our body can get this balance of glucagon; so it’s never going to be like we have no insulin running through a blood stream and no glucagon. It’s always a balance. So we’re always looking for which of these is more dominant at the time so that we can get our bodies to be working in the balance that we want.
So I had to create more of a glucagon dominance to insulin where we’re actually pulling from stores that we have. Because this is when; when we’re sitting around trying to burn fat for fuel, if we have high blood sugar, or if we’ve got a lot of sugar sitting in our blood sugar at the time, our body will take that first because it’s the most easily accessible, and also while insulin is high; while the blood sugar is high, insulin is high, which means our body is trying to put that stuff away. It’s trying to store it. I’ve written about this in Practical Paleo as well. Your cells are trying to put things away.
So you can think of this; a lot of times you’ll drink some kind of sugar or eat some kind of carb/sugar snack before a workout; your body then is not going to be in a glucagon dominant state where it’s pulling from stores to fuel you because what’s in your blood stream at the moment is more easily accessible to burn for fuel. So we’re not trying to get anything out of storage at that point. There are so many different analogies I can make here, but I think you guys can kind of picture the situation; what will create this more dominance of glucagon versus insulin; a dense source of protein. So eating a dense source of protein.
We do get an insulin response eating protein; it’s not that we don’t get an insulin response from it, but we do get more of a glucagon response from it. Exercise does this; so one of the reasons exercise is so important when we talk about strength training, is that we increase our muscle mass, which increases our body’s metabolism, because we increase our need for energy. That’s what building muscle does, that’s how you build and increase your metabolism. But exercise creates this glucagon dominance. Exercise tells your body, “Pull nutrition from our stores.” And honestly, hunger does it as well.
The thing about hunger that’s really interesting is; when I say hunger helps you create a glucagon dominance where your body is going to access store energy for fuel, I think we might then draw the next conclusion of; “well then we should be really hungry all the time if we’re trying to burn fat.” And that’s not exactly what I’m saying. What I’m saying is; if your blood stream is filled with nutrition all the time; if you never get to the place where you’re hungry and allow your body to have that moment where your body is self reliant to not have your blood sugar crash out and have you feel horrible, those are the moments when your body is tapping into store nutrients; tapping into fat, tapping into glycogen, depending on what type of activity you’re doing, where it can sustain you.
So you know you get hungry, and what happens when you get hungry in response to a high carb, poor nutrition meal, is that you get hungry, and then shortly thereafter you start to crash into the hangry zone, right? And this is something we all experienced before we changed the food we were eating. We all knew hangry way too well. But what happens when we shift what we’re eating; and we do get hungry, but then for the next hour we just continue to be hungry. We don’t crash; we don’t get into that hangry state; we don’t get into where our head is a little crazy, it’s our stomach kind of rumbling. That’s the time period when glucagon is doing its work and saying; “let’s pull what we’ve got stored,” because we have fuel here. We all know we’re sitting around with stored fuel; we all know we’ve got body fat sitting here, and we wonder why can’t our body tap into this? It’s because we need to get this place where that hormone is working in dominance.
So, that’s the situation. I think it’s hard to always imagine how that’s working until you put it into practice. Until you write down; what did I eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner? Was there a snack in there? Was I hungry at some point? Did I feel like I was crashing? And how is this working to contribute to my overall satiety, blood sugar regulation, and potentially fat loss, if that’s something you’re looking for. Because I think the majority of people are in a situation where; at least through my experience with this show and through clinical practice, I’d say 80-90% of folks are more on the side of looking for fat loss than weight gain. So if that’s what you’re looking for then we need to really examine; are we regulating our blood sugar enough so that when we become hungry, we just become hungry; we don’t become hangry. And we can allow our body to be hungry for a little while until the time comes that it’s time to eat again.
And that’s not saying; you know, I don’t like how it feels to be hungry. For sure; I don’t like it. But, I’m a little hungry right now. I think I could sit here and identify, I’m a little hungry. I didn’t have a huge breakfast, it was a couple of hours ago, and in another hour or two I’ll eat again. But I will be fine. I’m basically satiated, and I just feel this little bit of hunger, because I know my body can tap into what’s stored to kind of fuel me for that next hour or so. So that’s really the difference. I think we’ve all been there. We’ve had the middle of Target, I need a granola bar, I’m going to pass out if I don’t eat something experience. And that’s what we’re trying to avoid.
6. Sugar and carb confusion [42:24]
Liz Wolfe: So when people hear that, there’s nothing we can do about this. People will hear that and they will go, “OK so sugar is bad. Ok so I don’t want sugar floating around my blood stream because I want my body to be able to access its reserves.” But what people need to also remember and here’s swinging the pendulum maybe in the opposite direction a little bit just to make sure we take that, what you just said, and maintain a balanced perspective is, in order to mitigate any kind of lasting stress response, you have to have some level of reserves.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yup.
Liz Wolfe: So this whole point is, you know we start to think; “Oh, sugar is bad.” We avoid it like the plague; we stop eating sugar, we don’t eat starch, because that’s the paleo diet, right? And instead what we do is we end up completely tapping out our reserves entirely, and then our body gets incredibly stressed, and that is actually probably involved in the physiology behind diabetes and inflammation and all of that stuff. So we want to make sure that we’re not just completely demonizing one macronutrient, deciding we need absolutely none of it, and we can’t have any floating around in our blood. It’s achieving that balance. And sometimes, for some people, it involves a short term intervention, basically a systems clean up, and then you can start adding back some sugar, making sure your reserves stay topped off so you can access them when you need them but you don’t have so many that you’re just piling on over and over and over a macronutrient that your body doesn’t need any more of in the moment.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yes. 100%. It’s also to that point when we shifted from eating refined foods, carbs without nutrition. We switched over from eating Cheerios, Poptarts, and Ho-Ho's; we switched over from eating bread and pasta and cereal, to nutrient dense forms of carbohydrates and we’re eating the sweet potato and the potato and the fruit and the squash; and even when we do add back something like white rice that is not a ton of micronutrients, and mostly just carbohydrate, but we’ve added it to a plate that’s filled with other nutrient rich foods.
So in the past, perhaps we would have eaten, let’s just say you’re at the mall eating Chinese food, and it’s white rice and General Tso’s Chicken, and there’s probably not a lot of vegetables there, and there’s probably not a lot of nutrient density going on. It’s a totally different context that we’ve created now, and I think because we are speaking to so many people who have changed their food, and who have put so much more nutrition on their plate, but still carried, like you just said, that idea that, “well, if carbohydrates induce an insulin response and that tells my body to store things, and I don’t want to do that.” We can’t adequately fill our own nutrient reserves; we can’t have our cells producing ATP and producing energy and feeling good, feeling energetic for workouts, feeling like we can get through the day. We can’t do that without the insulin response that helps our cells pull all that stuff in. so we have to have it, but I think the difference is there’s a time and a place and I think the difference is what we were doing before with our food was calling on insulin all the time, and this isn’t just the insulin game; it’s, what is the insulin putting into the cells? Is it putting in vitamins and minerals, or not?
I think we were calling on it to stash away basically Ho-Ho’s and Poptarts and cereal and pasta and stuff that was just ton of carbohydrate without a lot of nutrition.
Liz Wolfe: So then; this is where we get into one of the things; well, we talk about in the Master Class. I talked about it in my book; what are we looking at when we’re looking at Ding-Dong’s and Ho-Ho’s; not just sugar, and not just no nutrients, but also polyunsaturated fats, damaged fats that cause systemic inflammation that then end up impacting your body as much, if not more. So we’re not just looking at sugar.
Diane Sanfilippo: Mm-hmm. Yeah, that’s having a longer term effect well beyond what happened with that meal and following the meal. That’s the stuff that longer term, we’re like; “Why are we so inflamed?”
Liz Wolfe: Yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: Part of it is lack of vitamins and minerals, and part of it is way too much polyunsaturated fat and damage; damaged polyunsaturated fat to that end. So I think what’s happened, and I’m glad that we’ve been able to have these conversations, is we realize it’s not just about the carbs, and it’s not just about going low carb to get your blood sugar in check, but that can be an extremely therapeutic intervention when you’re new, because it does a lot to create a different environment in your body. It does a lot to get your body used to eating more fat, get your body digesting the fat. Change your habits around what you fill your plate with, getting tons of veggies, getting a good hunk of protein on their, getting healthy fats, and not relying on carbs, carbs, carbs all the time. Because when we do go paleo, it is harder to get carbohydrates when people get scared of eating things like fruit. But I think we’ve come to a place where we’re like; actually, a lot of us do thrive on more carbohydrate, but we just got so scared away from it because the way that we all ate it before wasn’t how we’re talking about eating it now. Eating it in the form of cereal is not the same to your body as eating a bowl of fruit. It’s just not.
Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: One is going to be supportive of what we’re trying to do here, and it’s not going to cause a spike and a crash, and one probably is. I know fruit is your; Liz is on the fruit platform these days. So what do you want to say about fruit?
Liz Wolfe: Yeah. I get so annoyed when I see, “Get most of your carbs from starches!” Which used to be me. It totally used to be me. I get annoyed when I see, “The paleo diet is meat, vegetables, nuts, and seeds; limited fruit.” When I see the words limited fruit…
Diane Sanfilippo: “Some fruit, little starch, no sugar.” Yeah.
Liz Wolfe: I can’t. I can’t, with the limited fruit. Because really, as far as its impact on how your body uses and stores sugar, as far as its ability to, I don’t know, promote the body’s ability to manage its reserves of energy appropriately and keep the body in balance; the balance of sugars in fruit is much better than the balances of sugars in starches. I love starches; I eat them all the time. But fructose is actually a useful tool as it occurs in real food. I know we get all scared about fructose because …
Diane Sanfilippo: Right. This happened from high fructose corn syrup.
Liz Wolfe: Yes.
Diane Sanfilippo: So we assume because high fructose corn syrup is bad, that fruit sugar is bad. Exactly, yeah. That’s just a bad conclusion.
Liz Wolfe: Or even that because fructose; yes, and I think I’ve also heard people extrapolate a little too that because fructose is processed by the liver that means that it’s hard on the liver. Which is silly. Because, I mean, you know, the pancreas is involved; all of our body’s organs and tissues have a role that they’re supposed to perform. When other things interfere with that role, like damaged polyunsaturated fats, or nutrient poor foods, or chronic lack of nutrition, that will interfere with those tissues and organs abilities to carry out their jobs. But just because it’s what the liver is supposed to do doesn’t mean that sugar from fruit is hard on the liver; that’s just silly.
Diane Sanfilippo: Right.
Liz Wolfe: So that’s a big issue that I have. But I think fruit is a great tool.
Diane Sanfilippo: I think it also is extrapolated from if we’re trying to put carbs in post workout, and we want to be replenishing muscle stores of glycogen, then fruit isn’t the ideal first choice. It doesn’t mean that it’s not helpful at all, but it does mean we’re looking more for glucose post workout than we are for fructose, and again people extrapolate that to, fruit is bad. Which is not what we’re saying at all.
Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: We’re just saying; you ask all the time, you want specific details of exactly what to eat post workout, so now I told you and now you’ve translated that to mean if I shouldn’t have it post workout then it’s not healthy and it’s not good and if the liver needs to process it first before it can get to the muscles. I mean, our liver is processing everything first, but if the fructose is going to replenish liver glycogen before it replenishes muscle glycogen, then it just became more than it is. Do you know what I mean?
Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Well that’s the tendency overall, isn’t it?
Diane Sanfilippo: And, I think a lot of people; it is. And you know, I think a lot of people also assume that fruit is a lot higher in carbs than it really is. Like, every piece of fruit is not even that much carbohydrate, and you are getting a ton of nutrition with it. And it’s not the fruit; it’s not eating tons of fruit that makes people diabetic. It’s not eating tons of fruit that is making people have dysregulated blood sugar. That wasn’t what caused the problem. So, I think this is the other big lesson that keeps happening; we realize that sometimes the intervention that helps reverse the problem then becomes in people’s minds the thing that caused it, and that’s not true. It may be true in some cases, but in this case…
So, if we go paleo and we do so in a low-carb way because sugar and carbs were the problem before, so then we eliminate whatever it is that’s considered “sugar or carbs” under the guise of paleo or under the umbrella of paleo, we eliminate that because what we were eating of sugar and carbs before perhaps contributed to this problem, we then, in our minds, translate that to, “When we’re eating paleo we should also eliminate sugar and carbs.” Well that might help heal our bodies; it might help and heal us if we go low-carb for a while, but we just have to remember that the fruit and sweet potatoes are not what are making people sick. {laughs} We just have to remember that.
So reintroducing them is also not going to make us sick; it’s not going to break down our body, it’s not going to make us break our metabolism. That’s not what caused the problem, even if that intervention does help to reverse it. We’re seeing that all the time; right, that’s totally something that folks are drawing that conclusion and I think we need to just step away from that and drop the fear around; even, like you said, a teaspoon of sugar in your coffee. That is not the thing that causes diabetes. Those small little things like that; that’s not what’s causing problems.
I’ll put maple syrup, I’ll put maybe one or two teaspoons in my coffee in the morning; it’s not giving me cravings, it’s not making me spike and crash my blood sugar, it’s not making me diabetic. Because now the whole landscape of what’s happening in my metabolism and my body is entirely different than it was before, and I think that is what we need to remember. None of this stuff is happening in a vacuum or in isolation; everything is interdependent, and I think we create a dangerous situation when we try and hold onto that misguided belief about sugar and carbs.
7. Blood sugar and cortisol [54:11]
Liz Wolfe: Alright, so did you talk about blood sugar and cortisol?
Diane Sanfilippo: I did not.
Liz Wolfe: Ok, I see that’s next up. Do you want to speak to that?
Diane Sanfilippo: Do you want me to?
Liz Wolfe: Yeah. Because we talked a little bit about stress, and I think the bottom line is avoiding systemic stress that is almost always toxic to the body, and blood sugar and cortisol are intimately tied.
Diane Sanfilippo: So, high blood sugar or low blood sugar can cause a stress response in the body. That’s kind of it. When we are consistently pushing our blood sugar too high, that’s stressful. When we’re constantly letting our blood sugar drop too low, that’s stressful. That creates a situation where it’s hard for our body to regulate a lot of other hormones, when cortisol is constantly being aggravated.
So when we look at what folks are eating, and we look at ways to rebalance that or redirect that, blood sugar is always the first place that we look, and digestion the second. The reason blood sugar is first is because often when we change your food to help regulate your blood sugar, we’re pushing you towards real food, we’re rebalancing your plate, and your digestion does improve somewhat just from that; and then we can address what else is going on with digestion after.
But when we get blood sugar regulated, so many other things in the body start to basically chill the heck out because our body is not constantly going into this fight or flight state with that high or that low blood sugar. So that’s kind of the meat of what’s important about it. I think a lot of our folks listening are probably off of the really bad roller coaster, because you’re probably not eating a lot of the very nutrient poor food. But if you are listening and we’re new to you guys, and you’re like; “this is the first episode I’m listening to.” You’re probably not going to be spiking and crashing your blood sugar by eating real food carbs. When you start eating the refined stuff, that’s when you’re going to get those spikes and those crashes. Your body can’t respond naturally to unnaturally sources of nutrition.
So I think that’s really it. Because when we’re dealing with high cortisol as a result of high or low blood sugar, nothing else that we want to do is going to work when our body is basically just feeling stressed all the time. That’s really it. There’s nothing; I don’t know what else; you know, this is going to affect our metabolism because it affects our thyroid levels. It’s going to affect our sleep because we’re obviously going to be revved up a bit more because our body is stressed. Yeah. That’s basically it. It becomes fight or flight for the body.
8. Vitamin and mineral deficiency [57:00]
Liz Wolfe: Ok, so let’s talk about; wow, we’ve really. We used up an hour quick. Why don’t we talk quickly about something we alluded to earlier, and maybe this is worth a second show for people who want to delve really deep into this. But earlier we talked about the relationship between nutrient; lack of nutrients or nutrient deficiency, which is a strong word; that’s more of a clinical concept, but nutrient deficiency, and sugar; blood sugar issues.
So, part of what we used to talk about in our workshops, and something we also, of course, address in the Master Class in more depth is the nutrients your body requires in order to process; well, anything. Really, we should say in order to generate energy efficiently, which is alluding to the overall metabolic rate. It’s not just what we need to process sugar; it’s what we need to power our metabolism. So let’s talk about that. And this is kind of why we don’t like; some people can tolerate pure sugar just fine, but this is why we think it’s smart to get your sugar along with plenty of nutrients. I mean, duh, that’s kind of obvious, but when sugar comes with the nutrients that are required to utilize it, that just kind of takes some of the work out of our hands.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. So, some of the basics here; we’re talking about B vitamins and minerals that are depleted by the metabolism of sugar, and also kind of in relation to that, when we talk about why do high sugar/low nutrient foods make us feel tired, it’s because we’re depleting B vitamins and minerals. I think an easy way to picture or imagine this is; we know that energy drinks are usually loaded with B vitamins; like Monster energy drinks and all those kinds of things. Loaded with B vitamins. People get a B12 shot when they have low energy.
When we are eating foods; especially when; ok, so dietary landscape that’s pretty low in B vitamins anyway because we’re not eating tons of foods rich in it; and in case anyone wants the natural B vitamin supplement {laughs} it’s liver. I mean, that is what liver is best for. Iron and B vitamins, we’re getting a ton of that from liver; choline, lots of other nutrients too, but B vitamins. I mean, the first time I ate liver after not eating for a long time, I felt like my cat after he poops, where he runs around the apartment. Like, “bing! Bing!”
Liz Wolfe: {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: That was me. I was like; “oh my gosh! What’s happening? Like, did I just drink coffee? What just happened?” Because you get such an energy boost from it. And really the opposite is happening when we’re eating these nutrient poor foods. We’re eating tons of sugar and we’re depleting our B vitamins stores. And our cells need B vitamins and minerals in order to generate energy. We need that stuff.
So it’s a double edged sword; we’re not getting it and we’re depleting it when we’re eating poor nutrient foods. So that’s really what’s happening. I think I left it in the new edition of Practical Paleo; there’s a whole little chart with like a spoonful of sugar and kind of what it does to deplete our energy. I can’t remember pages things are on in the new book yet. I know in the Master Class what we do is we point you guys to specific pages to read; I mean, it’s basically our books become the text books for the class.
It’s on page 113 in Practical Paleo, when sugar takes its toll, talking about depleted minerals and vitamins; B vitamins become inactive, gives us low and inefficient energy. Our cells have a hard time repairing and maintaining themselves. This is one of the mechanisms really behind any disease, any inflammation. We’ve obviously talked about some other sources of inflammation; oxidized polyunsaturated fatty acids in the system, but this is one way that sugar contributes to stress in the system which contributes to any kind of disease state that could be going on. It just puts our bodies out of balance.
9. Chromium [1:01:20]
Liz Wolfe: Ok, so one more, and this is one that I kind of almost hesitate to address it, because I’ve talked about this and I’m having such a hard time finding a good source of it to recommend to people, and I have been having issues with that for years. So, chromium. Something that’s really interesting about diabetes in particular is that Brewer’s Yeast, which is dense in B vitamins, minerals, nucleic acid, and chromium; or it at least used to be rich in chromium, has been used actually as a; I don’t know if it would be called treatment, but a protocol for diabetes. Or it has been studies in diabetes.
Unfortunately, our soils are depleted and it has been years since the last operation that I know of that was producing Brewer’s Yeast, from non-GMO sugar beets, not wheat, not anything gluten containing, that was producing them that was testing particularly high in chromium, it shut down operations. They were using some; they were producing in Russia or I don’t know something crazy like that and they’re just not able to produce there anymore. And it’s such a bummer, because we just, Brewer’s Yeast is great. It can be really helpful, particularly in lactation support, but I just don’t have a good recommendation for Brewer’s Yeast that was as high in chromium as the Lewis Labs used to be before they shuttered production in that particular part of the world.
They were at like 140% daily value of chromium from a whole foods source, and I’ve never been able to get behind recommending isolated chromium supplements to people. I just don’t know that that’s a great idea; but some people can do that with the help of a practitioner.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. So, food sources of chromium, if we look, one of the sources I really like if you guys want to ever look up how to find certain nutrients in food; well, obviously you can flip in Practical Paleo into the meal plans.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: In the blood sugar regulation meal plan, you’ll be able to find some of this information as well. I think; I’m trying to see if I talked about, sometimes I don’t remember which things I do end up recommending. For some reason, which is strange to me, but at some point I just probably call it; I do have nutritional supplements; I do have chromium listed there. I probably listed it there because it is sort of hard to get from foods, and there weren’t a lot of foods to list.
But, broccoli is a decent source. So for a serving of broccoli, it seems like it’s probably going to be a pretty big serving of broccoli, because this WHFoods.com; it’s short for world’s healthiest foods, is the source on this. You’ve got to eat 55 calories worth of broccoli, which is going to be probably 2 cups of broccoli; I think that’s a lot of broccoli, 53% of your daily recommended intake for chromium. So broccoli is a good source of it; I know lots of folks are eating broccoli. What they’ve listed next is barley, which most of us aren’t eating, but it’s a pretty hefty serving. I want to say it looks like about a cups’ worth of barley that would give you 23%, and oats for about 150 calories worth, which is probably about a half of cup of oats is going to be 15%. And then from there it just gets dismal in terms of where you’re going to get your chromium.
Liz Wolfe: {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: We are getting small amounts of it from different veggies and fruits; tomatoes, romaine lettuce. Small, small amounts. Trace amounts. But broccoli looks like probably one of the best places to get it. But you know, there’s always up and down sides of that.
Liz Wolfe: Well, look; here’s there other thing. In your recommendations and in the recommendations that we make, we’re talking about a backdrop of whole foods where other balancing nutrients are present. So I’m much less worried about someone following a protocol that we would recommend and supplementing with a little bit of chromium carefully and in proper amounts than somebody that just says; “I've got blood sugar issues, I’m going to go take 50 tabs of chromium picolinate.” It’s a totally different thing.
Diane Sanfilippo: Right. Right. And, you know, those things can be done in conjunction with the dietary changes to see a benefit; but taking the supplements and not changing the food doesn’t do anything. You know what I mean; you can’t just pile the supplements on top and expect to see a positive result.
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Liz Wolfe: Alright. So I think that we’ll have to end it there, and we’ll address this further for people that want to dig a little bit deeper. Anything else that you want to talk about before we close out?
Diane Sanfilippo: No. I think just like we were saying; well, I say no and then I have something to say so that doesn’t make any sense.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah. {laughs} Yeah, no, yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: Nothing more on that. But, if you’re feeling like you want to figure out what should you be eating to get off the roller coaster, based on what you’re eating now, if you’re still on that blood sugar roller coaster, you still feel like you do get hangry and you don’t want to and you need to pay attention to either the timing of your food or the balance of what’s going on your plate. And you know, I would love for everyone to not have to pay attention to that, for it to just be second nature, for us to pick foods naturally that are going to work for us, but at some point we probably need to be thinking about it, be more conscious of it, for a period of time until it becomes second nature. Right?
That’s a lot of what we’re doing in the Master Class. It’s really taking what we’re talking about in this whole episode and saying, “How do you make it work for you, because your situation is unique. What you might need to eat, how you might need to balance your plate is unique.” We can’t do that for every situation through a podcast, right? We can’t even do it through; I’ve got 14 meal plans in the book; they’re not customized to each person in your specific situation, and that’s what we’re doing in the class. Between being able to journal and come talk to us in the Facebook group and have that feedback, and I’m just so excited to be able to do this with you guys. Because it’s like for 5 years we’ve been thinking, “How can we help everyone?” so finally we have a way to do that with the Master Class where you guys can come ask those really specific questions, and we can do our best.
And not only that; it’s not just myself and Liz to be able to offer the support, because it’s the entire community who can say, “Actually, that’s my same situation; here’s what I did.” And you guys can be helping each other in certain ways. Obviously not everything; not everyone is going to be an expert on every different thing, but you guys can share your experiences, and that is what becomes the most valuable over time, as well.
Liz Wolfe: Awesome. Alright, well 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 websites or on the podcast. While you’re on the internet, leave us an iTunes review please. Thank you! See you next week.