Shownotes
Thinking about going plant-based but not sure where to start? Or maybe you’ve been at it for a while but could use a little extra guidance and motivation to stay the course?
Rip welcomes back plant-based physician Dr. Laurie Marbas and chef Brittany Jaroudi, the authors of Plant-Based 101: The Ultimate Guide for Mastering the Plant-Based Diet. Their new book is packed with practical tips on everything from getting started and cooking delicious meals to handling social situations with confidence.
They cover:
- Finding Your "Why" – Dr. Marbas highlights the importance of identifying your personal motivation for going plant-based.
- Practical Tips – They discuss meal planning, grocery shopping strategies to save time and money, favorite food swaps, and handling family dynamics and cravings.
- Nutritional Concerns – What about protein, vitamin B12, and other nutrients?
- The Science and the Stories Behind Their Journey – They blend research, humor, and personal stories to make plant-based eating enjoyable.
Plant-Based 101 is packed with recipes, motivation, and tools to support a sustainable plant-based lifestyle so whether you’re a total beginner or a longtime plant-based eater, this conversation is all about making your journey easier, more enjoyable, and totally doable.
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Transcripts
I'm Rheb Esselstyn and you're listening to the Plan Strong podcast.
Speaker B:Picture this, you're at a family event and somebody approaches you and says, hey, I think that I'm ready to make some big changes.
Speaker B:It looks like this whole food plant based thing really seems to be working for you.
Speaker B:You've piqued my interest.
Speaker B:Where in the world do you recommend that I begin?
Speaker B:And how should I get started?
Speaker B:You're in the right place today because I welcome back two former guests to the podcast, Dr.
Speaker B:Laurie Marvis and Brittany Giroudi.
Speaker B:They have recently written the definitive manual on the subject.
Speaker B:The name of their book is Plant Based 101 the Ultimate Guide for Mastering the Plant Based Diet.
Speaker B:So whether you're a veteran or you're just dipping your toes, there's a lot to learn from today's conversation.
Speaker B:And we'll be right back with Brittany and Dr.
Speaker B:Marbus right after this word from PlantStrong.
Speaker B:A few years ago, plant based physician Dr.
Speaker B:Lori Marbus and plant based influencer Brittany Giroudi teamed up to create the Healing Kitchen, which is a space where food heals, medicine empowers, and community connects.
Speaker B:Brittany herself adopted a whole food plant based lifestyle, lost 70 pounds, reversed her own chronic diseases, and recently gave birth to a healthy baby boy.
Speaker B:Together, they recently released their first book, plant based 101 the ultimate guide for Mastering the Plant Based Diet, which tackles all of the questions and obstacles that people face when they want to make these kind of lasting changes.
Speaker B:They address how to get started, time saving tips for cooking, dealing with family dynamics, cost effective eating, dealing with tempting situations, and a lot, lot more.
Speaker B:It's an approachable and inclusive resource from the unique perspective of a chef and a physician.
Speaker B:I know you're going to enjoy.
Speaker A:Lori Marvis.
Speaker A:Brittany Giroudi.
Speaker A:Welcome to the Plantstrong podcast.
Speaker A:Brittany, I see you've got a little one that is hugging you dearly.
Speaker A:What is his name and how old is he?
Speaker C:This is Paul.
Speaker C:He's eight months.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:Well, he is adorable.
Speaker A:Congratulations on that little precious gem.
Speaker C:Thank you.
Speaker A:So, Lori and Brittany, I've had you both on the podcast in the past.
Speaker A:Lori, for those that are interested, we had a fantastic conversation.
Speaker A:It was episode 129.
Speaker A:Gosh, that's probably almost two years ago now.
Speaker A:Hard to believe.
Speaker D:Wow.
Speaker A:And then, and then, and then, Brittany, you and I had a more recent conversation.
Speaker A:We were episode 236 about your kind of your remarkable journey.
Speaker A:But you guys, I have you on the podcast today because you have just written a wonderful book.
Speaker A:And it's called Plant Based 101, the ultimate guide for mastering a plant based diet.
Speaker A:And you do such a thorough job in discussing so many wonderful topics, we're not going to be able to talk about all them today.
Speaker A:I want everybody to buy the book.
Speaker A:But just to give you an idea, there's topics on how in the world do you get started on a plant based diet?
Speaker A:You unravel all the myths that are swirling around out there.
Speaker A:Is this a cost effective way of eating?
Speaker A:I think it is time saving tips, plant based cooking and recipes, family dynamics which we all are dealing with and struggling with.
Speaker A:Are there nutritional deficiencies that I should be concerned with?
Speaker A:What about eating out and traveling and then long term success and adaptation?
Speaker A:These are all topics you tackle very, very thoroughly and well in the book.
Speaker A:So what I want to do today gang is I want to give the audience kind of a taste, a little flavor of this magnificent book before we do.
Speaker A:Because our audience has grown tremendously since we've had you Laurie, and since we had you, Brittany.
Speaker A:So Lori, and then Brittany, if you could just give our audience a quick little kind of summary of who you are and your background and why you're so passionate about plant based.
Speaker D:Sure.
Speaker D:So my name is Lori Marbus.
Speaker D:I'm a board certified family and lifestyle medicine physician.
Speaker D:I've been on a plant based journey myself for 13 years.
Speaker D:And it was because of a patient interaction where I actually saw the power of a plant based diet with a young woman who stopped two of her attention to deficit death deficit disorder medications because she felt so good at the age of 16.
Speaker D:And that led me down the journey, the rabbit hole to find the China study.
Speaker D:And then it was no turning back.
Speaker D:And so I'm actually licensed in off of these states to see patients and I utilize that to help people who are starting a plant based diet.
Speaker D:Plant based.
Speaker D:Curious.
Speaker D:The worried.
Speaker D:Well, all those.
Speaker D:Yeah, that's really a very quick nutshell.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And I have, I have never heard of anyone that's licensed in all 50 states.
Speaker A:Do you know anybody else that has done something so absolutely painful?
Speaker D:Is a great definition.
Speaker D:Nobody personally, but I know there are, there's very few for sure because it's not one an administrative nightmare.
Speaker D:But also it's quite expensive to, to get.
Speaker D:But then to maintain there, there is, there is a nice little price tag that goes with that.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A: immersion back in the fall of: Speaker D:Yes.
Speaker D:That was a blast.
Speaker D:So anybody who wants to go, you really should go.
Speaker D:Is absolutely one of the best times I've ever had.
Speaker D:I mean it was remarkable.
Speaker D:Your team, phenomenal job.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And then something that I think it was one of the last evenings we all had to pair up and Lori, I had.
Speaker A:Lori and I had to pair up and stare into each other's eyes without blinking and without talking for what felt like five minutes.
Speaker A:It was one of the most curious and also borderline hard things I've done in a long time.
Speaker A:And you did phenomenally well, Lori.
Speaker D:I do feel like.
Speaker D:Yes, that was quite the connection.
Speaker D:So that was really fun.
Speaker D:It was intense, but it was fun.
Speaker D:It was a lot of fun.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So Brittany, Brittany, let's bring you on.
Speaker A:So how give me, give everybody a little taste of your background.
Speaker C:So I'm just an average person, stumbled upon the whole food plant based lifestyle and lost 70 pounds and reversed hypertension, high cholesterol, my C reactive protein levels and have just been loving cooking and living this and just thought of it really as such a gift that I wanted to share with others.
Speaker C:It allowed me to, like I said, lose all my weight, get healthy and then have a really easy pregnancy and have this little whole food plant based babe right here.
Speaker C:And just again, it's like the biggest blessing in my life because I have a awful family history of genetic stuff that if I didn't do something, I would definitely be not having too good outcomes, I'm sure in the future.
Speaker A:Was this your first pregnancy and birth?
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker C:Yep.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And you say it was relatively easy.
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah, it went really well.
Speaker C:I had a wild birth story which I was sustained on well being bars.
Speaker C:I can tell about that some other time.
Speaker C:But yeah, really healthy pregnancy, no complications and yeah, just really lucky to have this little fella.
Speaker A:Wait, wait, what, what is a well being bar?
Speaker A:I've never heard of that.
Speaker C:Yeah, so they're a whole food plant based bar that's just beans and dried fruit and they're similar to a lar bar but with beans in them.
Speaker C:And I love the company.
Speaker C:We went to the hospital after my water broke and it was like 5, 5 to 6am and once you get to a hospital, you know, they're like you can't eat anything.
Speaker C:Yeah, I ate two wellbeing bars in my bag and then didn't have him until like close to midnight.
Speaker C:Oh, I mean it sustained, sustained me though.
Speaker C:Through it all.
Speaker A:But yeah, I, I just, I'm curious what like what kind of beans are in a bar?
Speaker A:I've never heard of beans in a bar.
Speaker C:All different kinds of beans.
Speaker C:They have black beans, all sorts of stuff.
Speaker C:I'll have to send you the link for them.
Speaker C:They're a great whole food plant based company.
Speaker A:Have to check them out.
Speaker A:Cool.
Speaker A:So we're going to go into your, your new book and, and talk about some of the topics.
Speaker A:But why now?
Speaker A:Why did you guys decide to come out with a book?
Speaker A:And this just launched everybody in early January, so very exciting.
Speaker D:Yeah, I think it's important to just kind of back up a little bit in our history together.
Speaker D:So I had started plant based telehealth.
Speaker D:We sold it.
Speaker D:It's now Love Life, which is amazing.
Speaker D:Great doctors there too.
Speaker D:And then started another company called Mora, trying to use insurance.
Speaker D:We shut that down and that was that time.
Speaker D:Just perfect timing as I was shutting down, looking to do my own thing that Brittany had reached out I think just a month or so before.
Speaker D:And I was like, hey Britt, let's would you be open to doing something together?
Speaker D:And you know, we always hear about people always asking, where's the recipes and can I talk to a medical doctor?
Speaker D:I'm like, why don't we put them together?
Speaker D:And we came up with the concept of the healing kitchen.
Speaker D:So it's a live group that we do every single week.
Speaker D:We do live coaching.
Speaker D:Brittany does her amazing cooking demo for half hour.
Speaker D:I answer medical questions for half an hour.
Speaker D:We have a private community.
Speaker D:Along with the book, we launched a course to really help people walk through how to start a plant based diet.
Speaker D:Starting with the mindset and then just understanding the habits that sustain a healthy, well balanced plant based lifestyle.
Speaker D:And that's where the book kind of came from because we also do monthly workshops and you've been a part of once before, like a year or so ago.
Speaker D:And so that healing kitchen piece has really been kind of the nidus to address some of the questions.
Speaker D:And that's where it was like, you know, we have all the same thing.
Speaker D:We hear the same questions, we see the same answers, we see the same problems, like why don't we just put this all together?
Speaker D:And people love that idea.
Speaker D:We did a little workshop to kind of test the waters and it was like, yes, this is exactly.
Speaker D:And then we expanded upon that and that's how it was kind of came to be because we really wanted to put together a manual, so to speak.
Speaker D:Nothing like Dr.
Speaker D:Greger's 600 cited, which is amazing.
Speaker D:But that's a little over overwhelming for a lot of people who are especially who are just getting started and even for people who've been on a plant based diet for a while.
Speaker D:I want to highlight my own experience as a physician just, you know, saying these are the things that I see recurring that you can avoid by doing certain things.
Speaker D:So that's kind of where it started.
Speaker D:Like one or two pages per topic.
Speaker D:Get deep enough to like, oh, I need to be asking some different questions here, right?
Speaker D:Not just like, oh, this isn't working for me, I have to give up the plant based diet.
Speaker D:It's like, no, no, this is just, let's step back and let's look at the broader picture.
Speaker D:What can we do to tweak?
Speaker D:It's like, you know, you, you look at the radio station, right?
Speaker D:You're like, I know that plant based radio stations here, but it's a little fuzzy.
Speaker D:So how do I dial it in so it comes in clear and that's kind of what we are, we're kind of the dialing in and getting everything a little clearer for you so you can really appreciate your journey and continue to evolve and thrive.
Speaker A:Yeah, wonderful.
Speaker A:Well, let's, let's dive in.
Speaker A:Okay, so I'm just going to kind of pick and choose different topics from the, the book that I think would really resonate with our audience.
Speaker A:And let's start.
Speaker A:You know, you suggest that you have a step by step guide to transitioning and you want to do it kind of thoughtfully and methodically.
Speaker A:So where do you begin?
Speaker A:Let's just say you're a newbie, you want to transition to plant based.
Speaker A:Where do I start?
Speaker D:Yeah, I think that's really important to highlight.
Speaker D:Number one, when I, when I first started, for example, my own podcast was like, how do people transition to going from £400 to losing £200 and keeping it off?
Speaker D:And I was always searching for like, is it what, what's that one thing to do?
Speaker D:Was it the right recipe?
Speaker D:Was it the right knowledge?
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:But it's really easy to get all the recipes and knowledge of food.
Speaker D:But if you don't have the mindset figured out, like the why that that is really the most important.
Speaker D:So I kind of just highlight that for people because there will be bumps in the road, like any new journey.
Speaker D:And because you're stepping outside of mainstream food eating and you're searching and going another way, you're going to hit all sorts of unexpected bumps.
Speaker D:And so that's kind of where you need to be prepared to understand your why.
Speaker D:So it'll help you kind of navigate those and pull you over to.
Speaker D:To, you know, looking at that obstacle as a lesson of learning and, and reframing it and being able to navigate it.
Speaker D:So that was number one is the why.
Speaker D:And the next is, okay, I get why.
Speaker D:I want to live a longer, healthier life.
Speaker D:I want to be here for my kids.
Speaker D:I want to have energy.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:You know, I want to avoid chronic disease.
Speaker D:I'm going to reverse my chronic disease, whatever that why is for you.
Speaker D:And it'll be very different depending on the person.
Speaker D:And that will be also, well, how can we now put in the things to help us not feel overwhelmed?
Speaker D:Right?
Speaker D:Because when we get overwhelmed, we see resistance and we stop.
Speaker D:So we break it down into really some simple ways to do that.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:Is how can you do this?
Speaker D:Let's say you do just breakfast for a week at a time.
Speaker D:Then you go breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Speaker D:Help you highlight how.
Speaker D:What should be on your plate.
Speaker D:You know, some people get very, very restricted because again, maybe they throw in a ton of fiber and now they're feeling bloated, and now they're like, I can't handle this.
Speaker D:It's too much.
Speaker D:Well, let's step back and go, what caused that?
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:So how can we ease into it?
Speaker D:Let's make this smaller so that your body has time to adjust so you're not feeling the emotional resistance and the physical, you know, symptoms.
Speaker D:Let's, let's really try to navigate this in a very thoughtful and methodical way.
Speaker D:It's not very difficult, but once you have the knowledge and know what to expect, when you start seeing it and you tune in, it's a very mindful approach.
Speaker D:So people can tune in and go, ah, that makes sense.
Speaker D:And so they back up and not feel scared.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:It's just.
Speaker D:There's nothing to fear here.
Speaker D:There's nothing to get frustrated.
Speaker D:But that resistance is telling you something, and we just turn to it and say, huh, okay, what does that mean?
Speaker D:That's really the approach we like to take.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Wonderful.
Speaker A:You know, I think, I think something that is very, very real, especially when people go, you know, cold kale from the standard American diet to, you know, whole food plant based is cravings and withdrawals.
Speaker A:And you have a section in the book on that.
Speaker A:And I'm just wondering, like, what.
Speaker A:What would you tell people?
Speaker A:What's the best way to deal with these cravings and withdrawals?
Speaker D:Brittany, do you have any, like, Brittany's really good at helping People navigate that, I think at least from their favorite food type standpoint.
Speaker C:I think like it's finding those alternative swaps and I mean you've said it in your books a ton.
Speaker C:And it's just finding things that are familiar and I find that seasoning and flavoring them with sauces or cravings of cheese, making a cheese substitute or a meat substitute really goes a long way.
Speaker C:And it's just finding that what your family enjoys.
Speaker C:But I find that when people get off this stuff and really start implementing the whole food plant based lifestyle in these recipes, they feel so good, their digestion's better, they're sleeping better, the energy is better, that it's not as tempting to go back to it after you've done it for a little bit.
Speaker A:Yeah, I always tell people that, you know what, what do you think would happen if you're a coffee, a caffeine drinker, you do coffee every day and then you go off the caffeine, what happens?
Speaker A:You get irritable, you get headaches, you feel awful, you get grumpy.
Speaker A:And so I just let people know, listen, you're going to have to go through a period where you're going to feel worse before you bet before you feel better.
Speaker A:And that's actually a good thing.
Speaker A:So just hang in there.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker D:And I think it's important too to highlight is there an emotional craving associated with the food as well?
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:So maybe they ate something after dinner with their husband while they watched TV and it was not, you know, very healthy for them.
Speaker D:Like there's that piece too is really examine the habitat surrounding it.
Speaker D:So if you're eating a whole food plant based diet yet you're still craving something that's not.
Speaker D:Let's examine that one layer deeper.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:So there's some emotional component to it.
Speaker D:It's like a smell of anything could bring you back to a memory that's kind of the same thing.
Speaker D:People may be feeling a bit nostalgic about that particular food in their life.
Speaker D:And then once you understand that like, well, okay, now let's build something, a new habit around something healthier or some other activity even to really, you know, satisfy that craving.
Speaker D:Because cravings are just the body's physical needs or emotional needs.
Speaker D:There's something that's driving that craving.
Speaker D:There was some reward circuitry that's not being met by you going to a whole food plant based diet.
Speaker D:So that's just one piece to think about as well.
Speaker A:So what is it that's going on with me after I like last Night I had a one meal crock pot of white potatoes, purple potatoes, kale, garbanzo beans, onions, and some, you know, curry and some spices.
Speaker A:I had that phenomenal.
Speaker A:It tasted so good.
Speaker A:And then about 45 minutes later, I'm like, oh, my God, I need my bowl of cereal with fruit on it.
Speaker A:I mean, I.
Speaker A:It was like all the little, I don't know, everything in my body was like, you want it?
Speaker A:So that just mean my little sweet tooth.
Speaker D:It very well could be right.
Speaker D:Or maybe you just needed your nutrient.
Speaker D:There was some nutrient or sweetness.
Speaker D:I mean, who knows?
Speaker D:It sounds like a wonderful meal, both of them.
Speaker D:So I wouldn't feel bad about it, but you also expend a lot of calories, so.
Speaker D:True, true.
Speaker D:I don't know if you have anyone ever seen him on the pickleball court, but it's pretty intense.
Speaker C:I was like, I am not being on that.
Speaker D:I'm inner court.
Speaker D:It's really entertaining.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:All right, so let's.
Speaker A:Let's move from cravings and withdrawals to.
Speaker A:So you have a whole section on meal planning and prep for beginners.
Speaker A:I would imagine that maybe this section was probably done by Brittany.
Speaker A:I could be wrong.
Speaker A:But like, where, where do you suggest to make this simple?
Speaker A:When you start out, what's the best way?
Speaker C:Yeah, I think keeping things as, you know, you don't have to reinvent the wheel.
Speaker C:When you go whole food plant based, it's like there's familiarity and cooking and planning.
Speaker C:It's just making even easy swaps.
Speaker C:And some things are like, what are you gonna replace the meat with?
Speaker C:And it would be beans.
Speaker C:And so it's just doing things like that when you go through a meal planning.
Speaker C:So it doesn't even mean that you have to redo everything you have.
Speaker C:It can be switching out eggs for oatmeal and things like that.
Speaker C:So I think we kept it pretty simple in the meal planner and in the recipes for you.
Speaker D:I think the recipe piece is helpful because, for example, if there's a bean chili that's super easy to make, that's one thing that we have almost on a weekly, if not every 10 day rotation.
Speaker D:We tend to fall into camps of regular recipes, right.
Speaker D:Seven to nine recipes that most of us will make over and over again.
Speaker D:Kind of like your bowl, right?
Speaker D:You're known for your bowl.
Speaker D:And that's kind of the.
Speaker D:Except like my smoothie every morning is.
Speaker D:It's been doing it for like eight or nine years.
Speaker D:And so it works really well.
Speaker D:And it just makes me feel really good so that was, you know, the one recipe.
Speaker D:So, yeah, just figuring out what that is for you.
Speaker D:Culturally driven, too.
Speaker D:Maybe it's because you're from Italian and you want to do high end or maybe come from a Mexican home.
Speaker D:You know, I grew up in New Mexico, so Mexican flavorings are my default by.
Speaker D:Maybe not by genetics, but absolutely by nurturing.
Speaker D:So that is one thing.
Speaker D:Is it more of a salads or, you know, whatever that might be for you?
Speaker D:So it really just depends.
Speaker A:Yeah, here's somebody that really misses that umami kind of enhancement.
Speaker A:Do you, Lori, have any good kind of umami tricks to kind of enhance meals?
Speaker D:It's fun because, you know, I.
Speaker D:I'm pretty boring, right?
Speaker D:So when I.
Speaker D:I don't.
Speaker D:I have like, I like the chili flavors and those things.
Speaker D:But I've been really enjoying watching Brittany do her magic in the kitchen because she'll bring out miso and she.
Speaker D:I've learned so many things that I wouldn't have even dreamt of trying because one, I'm like, I don't even know what this is.
Speaker D:Two, I was like, I don't know the taste profile, how to make this.
Speaker D:Like, it's just not.
Speaker D:That's not my thing.
Speaker D:Hey, you're a diabetic.
Speaker D:You want to get off your meds.
Speaker D:I'm your person.
Speaker D:But if you want to make something taste beautiful and fancy.
Speaker D:But the umami piece, my husband loves that type of flavoring.
Speaker D:So we have soy sauces, we have miso, and we're traveling now full time, so we have a small, smaller collection of really kind of your.
Speaker D:Like, I would say these are my standard.
Speaker D:Must have.
Speaker D:So is chili powder, paprika.
Speaker D:We have.
Speaker D:I think we have some nutritional yeast.
Speaker D:We have, you know, the.
Speaker D:The standard things that most people would have in their kitchen.
Speaker D:But Britney's back, so he's asking about the umami flavorings that people miss.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:What are some great umami enhancers?
Speaker C:Yeah, I mean, I love, like mushroom powders are great.
Speaker C:So you can grind down dried mushrooms to give kind of a new mommy flavor.
Speaker C:I love some black molasses with even some like ginger and a little bit of miso.
Speaker C:I know.
Speaker C:I met.
Speaker C:You mentioned it earlier.
Speaker C:And some vegetable broth.
Speaker C:So you can make a really easy sauce, like, pretty quickly by just throwing some of those things together.
Speaker A:Mm, yeah.
Speaker A:Love it.
Speaker A:What about.
Speaker A:What's your opinion, both of you, of robbers cooked?
Speaker A:Are you a fan of a combination of both?
Speaker A:More raw, more cooked, doesn't matter.
Speaker C:Yeah, I know.
Speaker C:I personally love both.
Speaker C:I live in Pittsburgh, which is similar to Cleveland.
Speaker C:So although you're not, I know you're not there now, but it's very cold in the winters and so I love some cooked things for sure.
Speaker C:And then I also loved raw.
Speaker C:So I try to get both in my day throughout.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker D:I think it's important to balance both.
Speaker D:One, because certain foods you're going to have to cook in order to consume, like certain beans and things.
Speaker D:So I try to incorporate as much raw as possible, but the cooked has its place as well.
Speaker D:So I don't think there's a particular balance.
Speaker D:I think some summer I tend to be more raw because the fruits and more vegetables that are in season and in the winter I tend to fall back more to more cooked meals just because they're warmer in the climate.
Speaker D:So again, what's seasonal and what's available and where you're currently living?
Speaker D:We try to, we try to buy seasonally and what's being produced where I am, wherever that might be.
Speaker D:And I think that's a great approach too.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Okay, so I, I think I heard A stat from Dr.
Speaker A:Will Bolshowitz that 97% of Americans are deficient in fiber.
Speaker D:Yes.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Incredibly sad statistic because we know how important fiber is.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:So you have a whole section on fiber and its sources.
Speaker A:I'd love for you to just touch upon fiber, especially since, you know, we're now just starting to realize the importance for our immune health and microbiome and all that.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker D:So I mean, it's important to think about where is the, in your body.
Speaker D:That's the first thing that the food touches is your digestive system.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:So it would make sense that there's some very important things there.
Speaker D:And part of that is your immune system.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:It's, you know, the brain, gut axis.
Speaker D:There's a lot of different things that we're learning and to understand that that microbiome that's sitting in there needs to be fed appropriately if you want it to function its best.
Speaker D:So we have a Ferrari, so to speak, of our microbiome.
Speaker D: , whatever, the: Speaker C:Right.
Speaker D:So we're trying to crank it with this carriage.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:So we're feeding and stuff that's like, wait a minute.
Speaker D:The gut's like, man, I could rev up and do so much better for you and present more wonderful things in your life, health wise, if you would feed me appropriately these amazing fiber rich foods.
Speaker D:And that's where we really get to speaking to eating a diversity of foods, you know, not being afraid to consume a small amount of nuts and seeds, fruits, veggies, beans, whole grains and a variety of colors.
Speaker D:So we've recently came up with it, you know, because we listened to the healing kitchen community and they were like, I would love a checkoff list of everything.
Speaker D:I was like, oh man, how am I going to put this on one page?
Speaker D:Makes me think.
Speaker D:And so I go back to the drawing board and produce something and they're like, ah.
Speaker D:So really was, did I get all of my, my different categories of plant foods?
Speaker D:Did I get the different colors of plant foods?
Speaker D:And so that's the beautiful thing is like you don't have to do necessarily do it every day, but try to get within the seven day period.
Speaker D:Try to reach the majority of your days are hitting all those categories.
Speaker D:And I did recently come up with an idea for people is like to do a plant based audit, like using chronometer.
Speaker D:And this is a great one.
Speaker D:It's a great tool just to see where you're at to make sure that you are including all those different foods.
Speaker D:But two would be to see what your grams of fiber are.
Speaker D:And feedback for people who keep asking you if you're getting enough protein is saying, yes, I am getting enough protein.
Speaker D:I actually did an audit of my diet for a week.
Speaker D:I am getting this much protein, which is more than the rda and by the way, I'm getting this much, you know, 50 grams or protein fiber a day.
Speaker D:How much are you getting?
Speaker D:Are you fiber deficient?
Speaker D:And just flipping it backwards on them and people are just cracking up.
Speaker D:This came out of a conversation with the patient.
Speaker D:And so that, that was really how all of this started, was conversations and experiences that we've had, you know, over the years.
Speaker D:Because between Brittany and I, which still doesn't match your plant based journey, but we have 22 years of plant based.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker D:You know, experience.
Speaker D:But for us it's a very, you know, very different, you know, I'm with patience and looking at that piece and she's cooking and understanding people's desires and flavors and all that.
Speaker D:So it's a really fun combination.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:What's interesting is I bet you 99 of the people that were to ask any of us, you know, well, how do you get your protein?
Speaker A:If we were to ask them, well, let me ask you, how, how do you get your protein and how much protein do you get a day?
Speaker A:They have no idea.
Speaker D:Nope, nope.
Speaker A:No idea.
Speaker A:And so that's interesting about the chronometer, what are you finding?
Speaker A:You know, Brittany and Lori, roughly how many grams of fiber are they getting when they transition to a whole food plant based diet a day?
Speaker D:Yeah, it's easily over 50, typically.
Speaker D:Like if once they're all in and they're not consuming other foods that, you know, fill the void of when you do consume food.
Speaker D:I would say on average, most of my patients are saying they're hitting 65 grams or more and which is quite incredible.
Speaker D:Now, depending on, again, if people are having some digestive issues, they might pull back a little bit, but for the most part, definitely over 50 grams per day, which is.
Speaker D:What is it?
Speaker D:I think the RDA is like 25 for women, 35 for men, which is anemic recommendations, but we're not even meeting half of that.
Speaker D:I think average is like 12 grams of fiber per day per American.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And it's, and it's not even from whole plant based foods.
Speaker A:It's probably, it's probably Metamucil and Gummy Bear fiber juice.
Speaker D:Right, exactly.
Speaker D:Like, oh, I'm getting my fiber through Metamucil.
Speaker D:So like, go eat an apple.
Speaker A:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker A:Good stuff.
Speaker A:So you mentioned, you mentioned protein and you have a whole section on, you know, common concerns and, and myths, pervasive myths.
Speaker A:The first one, of course, is protein deficiency.
Speaker A:What would you say about that myth?
Speaker A:And is it one that should go away?
Speaker D:Yeah, it's interesting.
Speaker D:So, you know, when you actually look at individuals who are eating again, this gets to diversity and making sure you're not excluding, excluding very large important categories like legumes and beans and whole grains.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:I will have people come to me, it's like, I don't eat beans because I had, you know, a couple of days when I first started and I was so bloated, uncomfortable.
Speaker D:I just don't eat any beans.
Speaker D:I'm like, I'm dying.
Speaker D:So I was like, okay, let's back up and have this conversation about the importance of beans.
Speaker D:You know, soy products.
Speaker D:People are very afraid of soy products, but they're wonderful sources of protein, they're wonderful sources of, of nutrients that can decrease risk of cancer, provide, you know, decreasing cholesterol, all these different things.
Speaker D:Great for your bone health.
Speaker D:And so these are, you know, again, they, they hear things and they've.
Speaker D:Maybe they didn't even opt in consciously to the belief that something was unhealthy.
Speaker D:Because someone even maybe a physician who's uneducated on the value of certain foods and their nutritional quality just blatantly says to me, oh, you shouldn't eat soy because it'll cause, you know, whatever.
Speaker D:I was like, what, what are the grounds for those type of statements?
Speaker D:And people don't even understand where protein actually originates.
Speaker D:All protein, I don't care if it comes from an animal or anywhere originally comes from plants.
Speaker A:Come on.
Speaker D:Plants are the only thing that can take the sunlight in the soil and make this magic thing happen and create an thing called an amino acid.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:And so that's literally where it starts, is from the plant.
Speaker D:So the animals eat the plant, plant, then you eat the animal.
Speaker D:Okay.
Speaker D:Your body breaks down that protein into its little melo of amino acids, builds up the proteins that it needs and does its thing.
Speaker D:So again, people are just like, you don't, you're missing the whole point here.
Speaker D:We're just removing the middle animal and all the things that come with that and go straight to the main protein source.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:And so what have you found?
Speaker A:I mean, with your patients and they're following their, their chronometer, what are they, what are they hitting?
Speaker D:They're typically hitting.
Speaker D:So they'll again, if we talk about different categories of patients, but on general, people are absolutely meeting the minimum RDA, which is 0.8, you know, grams per kilogram of body, which is 2.2 pounds.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:As they get a little older, I do find if people navigate towards maybe they eat only a pound of vegetables for breakfast and if they're my little 70 year old lady and she's like, I'm just so full, I can't eat anymore, you know, I'm like, okay, let's talk about making a diversity breakfast bowl for in the morning.
Speaker D:So, you know, there's, there's some categories again when we, when we start restricting, we start, there's a potential that we might, you know, miss out on a lot of different micronutrients, not even the macronutrients of necessarily protein.
Speaker D:But when you're eating a wide variety of foods, they're absolutely probably easily meeting, I know I easily eat it on a whole food plate.
Speaker D:Plant based diet, one gram per kilogram, very easily.
Speaker D:And so now if you're an athlete, if you're, let's say you're raising a teenager and they're expending in a large and large amount of different calories.
Speaker D:There's a section in the book that describes and speaks to athletes or older people's nutrition or kids that's a little bit more nuanced conversation and I think it should be individualized to the individual needs.
Speaker D:And so, but for the general, if you're eating a wide variety of foods, you're eating enough calories to stay at a healthy weight, you're absolutely doing well.
Speaker D:Now, if someone is tremendously overweight, you know they have 50, 100, 200, 300 pounds to lose, we're not going to eat to that weight.
Speaker D:We can eat to the ideal body weight.
Speaker A:Same.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker D:So that would be around a BMI under 22, in my opinion, because there when I have patients, and I've been saying this for a long time, I think the categories of BMI above that, and again, I understand body composition and muscle mass and fat and all that different stuff.
Speaker D:But when you start really hitting under 22, that's when I see blood pressure improve, blood sugars really start to trend off.
Speaker D:You'll see it earlier.
Speaker D:But like really getting off all medications, if I can get someone really paying attention to what they're eating, moving their bodies, dealing with the stress, that is the dial in approach.
Speaker D:And when we get under that, so we usually typically say, look at what your BMI would be around 22 or a little less.
Speaker D:That would be the protein needs that you need to think about not to keep 180 pounds.
Speaker D:And again, unless you're a football player who's trying to maintain.
Speaker D:That's a different conversation.
Speaker D:My little lady who's sitting on the couch doesn't need that much protein.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:Well, let me ask you this because I know you do talk about some specific requirements for those that are aging for obviously children, for athletes.
Speaker A:But since the majority of I think the plan strong listeners are probably, let's say 45 to 75.
Speaker A:Any particular nuances that you'd like them to potentially start thinking about as they're aging with any of the macro or micronutrients?
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker D:So I think it's really important to make sure that you're getting those two servings of legumes daily.
Speaker D:Number one, that's going to be a great source of your protein.
Speaker D:And if you can do one or two servings of a soy product, as long as you're not allergic to that, because again, that is a wonderful way to get your calcium, your protein.
Speaker D:And if you can do the whole soybean product, that's even better.
Speaker D:So know the whole soybean, the edamame, the soy curls, those type of things.
Speaker D:Because there's so many nutrients that come in the soy product.
Speaker D:It's just again, you can get the organic.
Speaker D:If you can't, again, just try to isolate.
Speaker D:I really like to highlight beans and legumes and Brittany does such a wonderful job bringing in all sorts of different types of beans into the recipes, which is really cool.
Speaker D:But again that also those whole grains.
Speaker D:So whole grains and beans, such an important piece as we get older, if you can build around that and, and that will really carry them.
Speaker D:Because I.
Speaker D:Some of the problems and questions we get are people like, you know, I'm fatigued on a plant based diet, I don't have enough energy.
Speaker D:I was like, well what's going on here?
Speaker D:One, they're not eating enough calories.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:It's a volume food thing.
Speaker D:So let's do more, maybe those more calorie dense things.
Speaker D:So like sometimes I'll help.
Speaker D:Not uncommon.
Speaker D:People like, I can't sustain a healthy weight, I'm losing too much weight.
Speaker D:Their BMI is hitting under 18.5.
Speaker D:And then they're like, how do I sustain a healthy weight?
Speaker D:I'm like, well you're one of the lucky ones.
Speaker D:I get to go say go munch on these things, your avocados, your nuts and seeds, your nut butters, but also make sure you're getting all those other things.
Speaker D:Again, not an uncommon problem that I see.
Speaker D:And so that, that's where I'd highlight is let's really make sure we're eating that diversity of foods.
Speaker D:But the, the legume category in particular is so valuable as we get older.
Speaker A:Are you seeing anything with any kind of nutritional deficiencies with people that are aging, whether it's D omega 3s, B12 and any nutrients of concern there?
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker D:Then that's a big thing.
Speaker D:We talk about labs in the book about which labs you might want to get checked.
Speaker D:As I've always stated, the one supplement, that's a non negotiable, you really should be your B12.
Speaker D:I had one patient in particular who wasn't even necessarily older but mid-30s.
Speaker D:She'd been vegetarian and then went fully vegan for many, many years, well over a decade and was having severe symptoms and it was all pointed to B12 deficiency.
Speaker D:I was like, do you supplement?
Speaker D:She goes, no.
Speaker D:And when we checked her labs and even while we were checking your lips, like I need you to start this high dose immediately.
Speaker D:It was severely under normal, like even like under the one like 250.
Speaker D:It was like 100 something.
Speaker D:It was really, really low.
Speaker D:So we started injections and all of those went away.
Speaker D:Luckily she didn't have any permanent damage.
Speaker D:So this is one thing that we don't want to mess around.
Speaker D:If someone tells you you can just eat fortified foods, no you need to supplement and.
Speaker D:But they're like, oh, but a plant based thought.
Speaker D:It's supposed to meet all my needs.
Speaker D:Well, I like then go eat some dirt, don't wash your vegetables, drink some unfiltered water, get your B12.
Speaker D:That way if you really want to be natural, then don't walk in a grocery store, go grow your food and then that's how you can get your B12.
Speaker D:That's where those organisms live.
Speaker D:But people like, okay, so we can't, we live in a very different society.
Speaker D:We live in a different world.
Speaker D:So yes, you might need to supplement a few little things.
Speaker D:Vitamin D is a really important one.
Speaker D:So if I have women who come in, let's say they have osteoporosis, they transition to a plant based diet, Maybe in their 50s, 60s, 70s, it doesn't matter.
Speaker D:I don't know when the osteoporosis even began.
Speaker D:I don't know what their bone bank was when they were 30.
Speaker D:I don't know what they're, you know, I don't know.
Speaker D:But there may be.
Speaker D:They were very ill on a, let's say autoimmune disease and they were on high doses of prednisone and that was the problem.
Speaker D:It's not the plant based diet that causes it.
Speaker D:When you highlight osteoporosis in your 50, 60, 70, this happened decades ago, this didn't happen overnight.
Speaker D:And so that's really, really important thing to say.
Speaker D:But we can help address it.
Speaker D:You know, resistance training, making sure your vitamin D is where it needs to be, making sure you're consuming enough of those foods again, the soy products to get that calcium and the protein which is important for your bone health.
Speaker D:It all points to the same lifestyle measures that you need to be doing.
Speaker D:And so other nutrients, I would think an algae omegas could be a good supplement for many people.
Speaker D:I take these just because I like.
Speaker D:It's like a, like an insurance policy, right?
Speaker D:So you can absolutely eat ground flaxseed, walnuts, all those things.
Speaker D:We convert a little bit, 5 to 15% of those, our gut does to the long chain omega 3s, however, they're very hard to know for sure how much.
Speaker D:So I consider it, you know, if my brain health and my heart health and they can just take a little bit of an algae omega and be okay.
Speaker D:This is a plant derived omega 3, the long chain.
Speaker D:I'm gonna, I'm okay with that.
Speaker D:I personally am not.
Speaker D:I know I don't have to live to some perfect, perfect dogma or like I'M feeling like I break the rules.
Speaker D:It's.
Speaker D:I might as well get.
Speaker D:I, I don't live like that.
Speaker D:I'm like, what does the data say if I can supplement?
Speaker D:Because I know a plant based diet is absolutely the best way to be eating for ourselves, the planet and the animals.
Speaker D:Makes zero sense to me to go backwards.
Speaker D:Just because I have to supplement B12, that makes zero sense.
Speaker D:And so, yeah, that's where I sit on those.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker D:But that I would say omegas, the B, the D12 or excuse me, the B12, the D.
Speaker D:Those are the big ones that I.
Speaker D:Most of the time.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker D:Again, depending on if you're a menstruating woman and you have a lot of heavy periods, maybe you need a little bit of an iron supplement that's even outside of your diet.
Speaker D:But also, you know, iodine.
Speaker D:If someone doesn't consume enough iodine rich foods, you might be iodine deficient and your thyroid will start.
Speaker D:But again, if you cut out the salt, which is fine.
Speaker D:I'm not saying you should consume salt.
Speaker D:Iodized salt is where we typically get our iodine.
Speaker D:And so those are just some things to highlight which we do here because again, these are just things people don't think about.
Speaker D:So.
Speaker D:But now you will be an expert in a plant based diet because you will have the knowledge in a really simple manual.
Speaker D:And that's why we did that.
Speaker A:Okay, wonderful.
Speaker A:Brittany, question for you.
Speaker A:Do you have many friends that are whole food plant based?
Speaker C:So I'm lucky that my husband does this with me.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:Raising our son this way.
Speaker C:But my like personal friends before finding out about being plant based that I grew up with.
Speaker C:No, but I'm really lucky that there's a group here about like 10 minutes from my house that had a plant based community that I was able to join.
Speaker C:And I've become really good friends with a lot of those ladies now.
Speaker C:So.
Speaker C:Yes and no.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I'm just, I'm wondering how you, how do you, what's your strategy for kind of navigating those friendships and, you know, what would you recommend for somebody that's potentially in a relationship, maybe their partner is not in alignment with their whole food plant based philosophy?
Speaker C:Well, I think it's really important to reflect on why you're doing it and it's for yourself.
Speaker C:For me, whenever I decided to go, my husband didn't have really any health issues.
Speaker C:So he, I just told him this is what I was doing for myself and he could do what he wanted and I was going to go forward with this.
Speaker C:So I think being really strong in your convictions is very important to stay sticking with it.
Speaker C:And so when we go places now with family or friends, I just like to bring a dish that's whole food plant based that I think, you know, everyone will enjoy.
Speaker C:And a lot of people are really curious about it.
Speaker C:So I always tell people to make sure there's enough for you and for people I've.
Speaker C:When I started off it was not having anything to eat because, you know, everyone ate, ate the food I brought for myself.
Speaker C:So I think that can be really a good stepping point.
Speaker C:And also, you know, just being really open minded that people are going to be curious and have questions.
Speaker C:And I feel like when you first find out about this, you kind of want to get on your soapbox and like help everyone.
Speaker C:And so I've learned over the years to have a little bit more of a gentle, softer approach into it.
Speaker C:And I feel like that's paid off a lot of, well, really well with like people that know me personally, with family and friends.
Speaker A:Boy, I'd like to see your, your hard nosed approach.
Speaker D:Do you have a hard nose approach?
Speaker C:Yeah, I think at the beginning you could just get a little bit more like you just want to help people.
Speaker C:So it's like you don't want your friends and family to suffer.
Speaker C:So it's just, you know, you just want to share everything you've learned.
Speaker C:So I think that some people can take that in a good way and some people might not like that.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Well, Brittany, how often would you say that you go shopping a week?
Speaker D:Oh my gosh.
Speaker C:I'm.
Speaker C:I'm not the person that should be answering that.
Speaker C:I go like every couple of days, always recipe testing.
Speaker C:But on the average if I'm not doing something like I could go every 10 days.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So where I'm going with that question is, and how long have you been whole food plant based?
Speaker C:Coming up on, it'll be like nine years this spring.
Speaker A:Okay, nine years.
Speaker A:Do you find that eating this way is more expensive or more economical than how you used to eat so much cheaper?
Speaker C:I would say because you're spending money, you're not.
Speaker C:Not spending money on meat and cheeses or processed foods are really expensive.
Speaker C:I really love to buy like bulk foods or dry foods and make them for myself from scratch.
Speaker C:So like we buy all our whole grains in bulk or our beans in bulk and that way it's really affordable.
Speaker C:I do buy like some no salt added canned beans for convenience.
Speaker C:But even going to whole Foods or something like that, you can get that ridiculously cheap.
Speaker C:Even making sure that they're like that specific organic, no salt added convenience can that I like to use.
Speaker C:So I feel like I save a lot of money and even with grocery, even with recipe testing, I'm not spending nearly what I was.
Speaker C:And like I said, I go to the grocery store pretty often now.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, no, it is.
Speaker A:This definitely can be easy on the pocketbook.
Speaker A:So here's a question and I'll let whoever wants to tackle it, maybe both of you want to tackle it.
Speaker A:What have you found with yourselves and with your clients with flatulence, which is, you know, something that people say you know, happens especially when you transition to this, this lifestyle and you're getting in all that fiber and your kind of gut is trying to figure it out.
Speaker A:What, what?
Speaker A:Well, maybe we can talk about that any way you want.
Speaker A:But then also what are some ways to help modify and ease that flatulence?
Speaker C:Personally, it's something I feel like a lot of us go through, especially when you're eating more fiber and I think it's just a thing that you like ride out a little bit and you know, it gets better.
Speaker C:I could say it did not take me all of the almost nine years I've been plant based to get rid of that.
Speaker C:It just goes away pretty quickly.
Speaker C:But there's some things you can do like rinsing your beans and grains really well before you cook them or using canned can be a little bit easier on your digestion and like cooking your greens and things like that as well, I find.
Speaker C:So you know, if that is a problem for you.
Speaker C:No, it does not last, you know, forever or very long.
Speaker C:I find that it clears up pretty quickly.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Lori, have you, have you found that many of your clientele have food allergies or sensitivities and maybe there's that that lead to increased flatulence or is that even a thing?
Speaker D:No, I think there's.
Speaker D:Majority of people are fine.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:I think it's a fiber load.
Speaker D:So the fiber load in the beginning.
Speaker D:And so if you're coming from a very fiber deficient state and you're like I'm all in.
Speaker D:And suddenly you're like the perfect picture plant based eater.
Speaker D:There might be a bit of some consequences to those actions.
Speaker D:All even though you have wonderful intentions, the body's like, well this is the reality, this is what I gotta do.
Speaker D:So there's that piece.
Speaker D:But for the majority when it comes to food allergies and sensitivities, it's a really nuanced conversation regarding what real allergies are.
Speaker D:If someone actually is celiac or has a ser, you know, pretty sensitive gut, that's a separate issue.
Speaker D:When I see it's a big issue is someone who has pretty severe autoimmune disease.
Speaker D:And so which get harkens back to the need to really have a really healthy gut microbiome.
Speaker D:And that's what I love about, you know, Brittany having little guy, he's such a beautiful example.
Speaker D:Never someone's, he's probably going to have less sick days.
Speaker D:Baby people I know because I've, I've helped so many people.
Speaker D:Like my pediatrician's great.
Speaker D:But can you help us with this, navigate this?
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:That's really, really important is that you're decreasing the chronic disease risk because you're making sure that gut is so healthy.
Speaker D:But when we start really thinking about someone who has severe autoimmune disease like my friend Chris Miller, Dr.
Speaker D:Chris Miller, which I know you, I think you've had this as well.
Speaker D:With her lupus, her journey was really long.
Speaker D:She's like boy, I went plant based.
Speaker D:And she talks about how some of those actually worsened her symptoms in the beginning.
Speaker D:But now she can eat pretty much everything.
Speaker D:You know, granted we started around the same time almost 13 years ago.
Speaker D:We've been friends for a really long time.
Speaker D:We met each other in person and that's how we started working together.
Speaker D:But that was really an important piece to highlight was that if you have really severe autoimmune disease, your navigation of this might be a tad bit more tricky.
Speaker D:And that's where I see that most people have.
Speaker D:If you have pretty severe autoimmune disease, that's where the food sensitivity can really be an issue and that, that definitely needs to be taken into account.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:It seems like there's a whole segment of influencers and people that are out there right now that are trying to bash plants and it's for, for myself and I'm sure for you guys, it's kind of disturbing that people are trying to make whole plant foods out to be, you know, not healthy.
Speaker A:They're loaded with anti nutrients.
Speaker A:You have a little section in your book where you talk about phytates, oxalates and lectins.
Speaker D:Yes.
Speaker A:I think it'd be helpful if you could just address those, those three things.
Speaker D:There's, there's going to be individuals who want to create a way of scarcity or worry or concern.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:That if you eat certain foods like let's say lectins or phytates, you know, all, all a lot of plants have these in them, right.
Speaker D:But when you cook the foods, like let's say beans and lectins, for example, when you cook them to where you can actually eat them, the lectins pretty much dissipate.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:So that worry and that concern is so, and I won't highlight any names, but there are people who have made a living saying you shouldn't eat these plant foods unless you take my supplement.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:You know, my lectin absorber.
Speaker D:Wait a minute, let's back up and look at the data from just.
Speaker D:There's communities where people live the longest for, you know, hundreds of years, like you going back, people live to be a hundred centurions, like the blue zones.
Speaker D:They didn't have to worry about lectins, they didn't have the heart disease, the cancers.
Speaker D:All these things that we're dealing with in our current state of health in the United States especially, that's really, really important.
Speaker D:So you shouldn't be afraid of the foods that helped us get like, kept us healthy and sustained.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:So let's actually look at real life examples.
Speaker D:People get so reductionist and that's where they find fear versus looking back and saying, no, the whole plant food is absolutely nutrient rich.
Speaker D:It's going to be everything that you need.
Speaker D:You're going to get your protein, you're going to get all of the macronutrients you need, the carbohydrates, the healthy fats.
Speaker D:I mean, if a, if a hippo, an ape, an elephant can eat these plants and sustain amazing muscle mass and live long healthy lives, why do you think that humans are any different?
Speaker D:We're were anatomically created to eat plants.
Speaker D:I mean, that's the way our teeth work.
Speaker D:So I tend to not worry so much.
Speaker D:What, you know, some influencers trying to say, what I understand is that I speak the truth.
Speaker D:I speak from my own experience and I speak from the science.
Speaker D:So if there's some new science that comes out and says something else, there's such a vast for, you know, well over a century of data showing that how plants are very helpful.
Speaker D:I mean like you can go back eons and look at the science, it all says the same thing.
Speaker D:The more plants you eat, the healthier tend to be and in that society as well.
Speaker D:And so when I think about that and I hear people, you know, trying to shoot out, spat out, you know, being fearful, be afraid of that and be afraid of this.
Speaker D:I do have people, we have kind of just like, oh, I just heard about this.
Speaker D:I shouldn't be eating beans because of the lectins.
Speaker D:Like let's go back and follow the money.
Speaker D:So where does that lead?
Speaker D:This is someone, even though they may have the credentials of, let's say even a doctor, um, what is he selling or she's selling?
Speaker D:Right?
Speaker D:So why are they saying that now?
Speaker D:It doesn't mean that all people who sell supplements are evil or anything.
Speaker D:Absolutely not.
Speaker D:There absolutely is a place for it, like I mentioned before.
Speaker D:But don't let that get you off to understand that a whole food plant based diet absolutely can see it.
Speaker D:You see in people's testimonies, right?
Speaker D:When you lose £300, you reverse type 2 diabetes, you reverse heart disease.
Speaker D:There's so much evidence to point the opposite direction.
Speaker D:If you have a couple of people who just stand up and say, oh no, this isn't working.
Speaker D:What is, what is your credentials and experience to be able to say that?
Speaker D:And then what are you promoting?
Speaker D:So let me, let me see, what's your ecosystem that you're operating out of, right?
Speaker D:What is the context of these statements?
Speaker D:And then learn to think critically.
Speaker D:Don't just respond and go, oh, I can't do that.
Speaker D:Now we, let's use our, this mind that we have to think critically, critically of where is this person coming from?
Speaker D:And walk away from that.
Speaker D:That's ridiculous.
Speaker D:Go to places, people that you can trust and if you're not, you know, you're curious, ask more questions, go do some research.
Speaker D:It's, there's so much availability and understanding, you know, research on hand, there's just so much availability.
Speaker D:There's so much you can do to understand that you shouldn't be fearful, right?
Speaker D:So ask more questions.
Speaker D:Use your critical thinking skills.
Speaker D:If you don't have critical thinking skills, it's time to develop them.
Speaker D:Don't let the fear push you around.
Speaker D:But that's what I would say to that because I just like, I don't even waste my time and energy on those anymore because I've got so much work.
Speaker D:We have so many people who want to get well and understand the message of a plant based diet that you know, sometimes people like, oh, can you do a rebuttal video?
Speaker D:I'm like, actually no, because that's not my personality.
Speaker D:I am not going to go after and seek the negativity.
Speaker D:All I'm going to do is put out positive because when I do that, that's what I will draw.
Speaker D:And so that's where I typically sit on that is like, just use your mind.
Speaker D:Let's talk this over.
Speaker D:Let's talk it through.
Speaker D:And you will find, if you walk through it, it's like, ah, that makes sense.
Speaker D:These foods are very, very healthy for us.
Speaker D:All the evidence points to it.
Speaker D:This person's making money because they're having lectin inhibitors or whatever it is.
Speaker D:That's what I would suggest.
Speaker A:Yeah, I like all that a lot.
Speaker A:Did you.
Speaker A:A friend sent me an article.
Speaker A:This came out in JAMA Cardiology just recently.
Speaker A:Brittany, looks like you're shaking your head about a floor 40 plus year old Florida man who went on the carnivore diet eight months ago when his blood.
Speaker A:Total blood cholesterol was about 210.
Speaker A:Eight months later, it's over a thousand.
Speaker D:Oh, my God.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:And he was eating, literally, he was eating cheese sticks of butter and hamburgers almost exclusively.
Speaker A:And he started developing basically these fatty pustules on his palms of his hands and his feet and his elbows, I guess where the fat in his.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:And, you know, so it's.
Speaker A:Man, it's.
Speaker A:It's incredible how people can somehow get swayed into thinking, wow, plants aren't healthy.
Speaker A:But man, butter and cheese and eggs and, you know, meat, bring it on.
Speaker A:Anyway, I don't want to go down that path right now, but speaking of some of these influencers and naysayers, you guys have a fantastic whole section on using humor to disarm the naysayers.
Speaker D:Yes.
Speaker A:You got like, I don't know, 30 brilliant one liners.
Speaker A:I mean, can you throw any at me right now in the audience?
Speaker D:Yeah, let me pull them out.
Speaker D:Yeah, I.
Speaker D:I got.
Speaker D:There's like literally multiple one liners.
Speaker D:So let's see here.
Speaker D:Oh, this one, I'd.
Speaker D:I'd invite you to dinner, but I'm afraid you'd find the lack of complaining unusual.
Speaker D:Yeah, but I thought.
Speaker D:I thought about that argument, but my kale chips were too crunchy to hear it clearly.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker D:And if you want to get in more snarky, you could say.
Speaker D:Last time I checked, my food didn't come with a side of moral dilemma.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker D:So, yeah.
Speaker D:So this is a good one that you can appreciate.
Speaker D:Being an Esselstyn was sure I'll miss bacon, but not as much as I miss my arteries being clear.
Speaker D:So, you know, again, people make snarky responses.
Speaker D:You can have these in your back pocket.
Speaker D:You're like, wait a minute, I got that perfect response for you.
Speaker D:Hold on one second.
Speaker D:You know, I'm just like.
Speaker D:I found that humor tends to disarm situations, and people step back and go, well, I wasn't Prepared for that.
Speaker D:But again, people where they're at, but I sometimes you just like, you know, I'm just going to put an end to this right now.
Speaker A:Certainly not the Doug, the Doug Lyle approach.
Speaker A:But this has got a little bit of edge and sassiness to it that, that, that I like.
Speaker A:Brittany, you know, you're, you're there with your eight month old Paul.
Speaker A:I know you guys have a whole big section on kind of how to indoctrinate kids into this, into this lifestyle and also how to have a conversation with younger kids, maybe between the ages of 5 and 12, about, you know, mom and dad are going to be going down this route and how do you have that conversation?
Speaker A:So would you like to speak to any of that?
Speaker C:Yeah, I mean, I'm just starting off, so we'll see when Paul starts like back to me or like giving me a little bit so far.
Speaker C:I mean, like, he loves sweet potatoes are his favorite thing and avocados and everything we've tried has gone over really well.
Speaker C:But I think Dr.
Speaker C:Marvis, she raised, you know, like three teenagers and young adults on it.
Speaker C:So it's nice that we both have both perspectives.
Speaker C:Like, you know, I feel very blessed that I was able to be whole food plant based before he was conceived, throughout my pregnancy and now we're able to like give him, I feel like a big blessing, boost that this is like his normal growing up with us cooking for him this way.
Speaker C:But, you know, coming to it when you are not whole food plant based and you have kids and you're finding it later can be a little bit of a different scenario to go through.
Speaker C:So, Dr.
Speaker C:Marvis, it's nice that we have both aspects of it here.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:All along the time continuum.
Speaker D:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker D:Mine were 13, 15 and 18, 13 years ago.
Speaker D:And so really, I think there's one rule of thumb is that in the home we eat plants.
Speaker D:That's plants ruled.
Speaker D:This is the way it is outside the home.
Speaker D:Y'all do what you want.
Speaker D:Your body's going to tell you, it's going to, you'll have a foundation of plants.
Speaker D:And when your bodies and those experiences show that you're not feeling well, you'll navigate back to what I'm teaching you here.
Speaker D:And then along that way, I educated them, but they were already spending a lot of time in the kitchen already because that's how we raised them.
Speaker D:And like, just because I'm the mom doesn't mean I'm the only person standing in this kitchen.
Speaker D:That means that every single person that walks through that door.
Speaker D:That is a Marvis is going to be in the kitchen at some point.
Speaker D:And so that's a really important thing, is teaching them those skills, how to cook.
Speaker D:Because when you release them into the world, they're going to be in this world that we're dealing with.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:The ultra processed foods, the convenience, their friends.
Speaker D:Do you really want them not to be.
Speaker D:You're trying to protect them because you don't want them to be upset.
Speaker D:What are you doing here?
Speaker D:You're actually doing more harm in the long run.
Speaker D:You're setting them up for, you know, long term, chronic health issues and not the skill set to actually navigate this world and, and lean back on.
Speaker D:I can cook.
Speaker D:I know how to make healthy meals that taste good regardless of where we are.
Speaker D:That's a really, really important thing to teach your kids.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Brittany, how many recipes are in this book?
Speaker C:There's about 30.
Speaker C:So we, we don't say this is necessarily a cookbook, but a guide recipes.
Speaker C:But there's so many.
Speaker C:I mean, I was just looking at the buffalo wings with the whole food plant based recipe.
Speaker C:Ranch and buffalo sauce is like one of my favorites.
Speaker C:There are so many good ones in here.
Speaker C:There's a southwestern salad, a breakfast scramble.
Speaker C:So it's really a good push to get you started.
Speaker C:And then we have hundreds of recipes on our website and between the healing kitchen.
Speaker C:Oh my gosh.
Speaker C:I think there's.
Speaker D:There's a lot.
Speaker C:Like I said, there's a lot.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker D:And then Brittany's website and what she does, I mean, there's probably thousands at this point, so.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Well, I am right now looking at the PDF that you guys sent me of.
Speaker A:So Lori, if you could hold yours up too.
Speaker A:The ultimate guide for mastering a plant based diet.
Speaker A:You know, if any of you just want everything from A to Z, I highly recommend you, you check it out.
Speaker A:What is, is there an easy way to get a copy of this?
Speaker A:Where would I go?
Speaker D:Amazon?
Speaker D:Just type in plant based 101, you type in Marbus, Brittany, Dirudi, any of those names and it'll pop right up.
Speaker D:Yeah, we've been really lucky.
Speaker D:We've been like the number one release in fiber and nutrition.
Speaker D:So some really cool things to see and we're getting great feedback from it.
Speaker D:But keep it like, man, this is just a simple, straightforward, getting to the point manual.
Speaker D:That, that's not been out there.
Speaker D:Because I was like, man, I'm just gonna, we're gonna condense everything that we get asked in one place.
Speaker D:Place.
Speaker D:And if you have deeper questions.
Speaker D:We give you those resources too.
Speaker D:So.
Speaker A:Yeah, no, you're right.
Speaker A:It's very accessible and it's what is.
Speaker D:About 120 pages, five pages, I think it's not overwhelming.
Speaker D:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:Yep, yep.
Speaker A:No, I, I loved, love looking through it and yeah, you guys did a wonderful job with that.
Speaker A:Way to be any, any departing words from either of you to the, the Plantstrong audience.
Speaker D:No, just thank you for being here and just understand, it's just you don't have to get overwhelmed with the journey.
Speaker D:It's.
Speaker D:It's a, it's the best journey you can be on.
Speaker D:Again, I find it to be the most powerful thing that I can prescribe my patients.
Speaker D:It's.
Speaker D:It's not going to be a prescription of another pill, but you know, what's, it's another salad, it's another bean dish.
Speaker D:It's.
Speaker D:It's one of those things and you can share this with others and help them.
Speaker D:It's such, it's so accessible that.
Speaker D:But you can't be fearful.
Speaker D:You can't allow the resistance of people or your own thoughts and worries push you from not doing this.
Speaker D:You know, if you're feeling a pulling, there's a reason.
Speaker D:And so I would say lean into that and don't be afraid.
Speaker D:You can do it.
Speaker A:Nice.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:And I would just say the more plants you can eat, the better.
Speaker C:So however you find ways to sneak in all of your plant based foods, the healthier you'll be.
Speaker A:Hmm.
Speaker A:Well, Brittany, I hope that Paul.
Speaker A:Right, Paul.
Speaker A:Paul is napping and he's.
Speaker A:He's going to be in a great mood when he wakes up.
Speaker D:I hope so.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Well, Brittany and Laurie, it was wonderful to have you back on the podcast.
Speaker A:Let me know when you write another book and we'd love to have you back again.
Speaker D:Yeah, we're playing around some, with some cool ideas around healing habits from the healing kitchen.
Speaker D:So, yeah, nice.
Speaker D:Some fun stuff coming.
Speaker A:So, yeah, you guys are plant strong animals.
Speaker D:Yes, we're working on it.
Speaker A:So on the way out, I'd love for you to do the standard goodbye.
Speaker A:And everybody at home, if you're watching this on YouTube, join us right now.
Speaker A:Let's do a big virtual plan.
Speaker A:Strong fist bump.
Speaker A:All right, on the count of three.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker A:One, two, three.
Speaker A:Plan strong.
Speaker A:All right, you guys.
Speaker A:Plant based 101.
Speaker A:Go get them.
Speaker B:I loved so much of the common sense material that was in this book, as well as so many of the humorous takes on how to handle all of those uncomfortable situations that we all find ourselves in from time to time.
Speaker B:As many of you know, I've been at this for almost 40 years and still encounter the same questions that many of you do.
Speaker B:Plant based 101 is a confidence book.
Speaker B:It's a manual to get started and then a guidebook to stay committed.
Speaker B:I want to thank Brittany and Laurie for getting this work out there.
Speaker B:And of course I'll be sure to put links in the show notes on how you can follow these two and also purchase the book.
Speaker B:I want to thank you so much for listening and always, always have confidence in Plantstrong.
Speaker A:The Plantstrong podcast team includes Carrie Barrett, Lori Kordowich, and Amy Mackey.
Speaker A:If you like what you hear, do us a favor and share the show with your friends and loved ones.
Speaker A:You can always leave a five star rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Speaker A:And while you're there, make sure to hit that follow button so that you never miss an episode.
Speaker A:As always, this and every episode is dedicated to my parents, Dr.
Speaker A:Caldwell B.
Speaker A:Esselstyn Jr.
Speaker A:And Ann Krile Esselstyn.
Speaker A:Thanks so much for listening.