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Topics:
1. Seminar events, #PaleoTour updates, Cookbook updates [4:15]
2. Liz’s blog update [9:35]
3. Egg-cerpt from Eat the Yolks [19:26]
4. Unblind My Mind; Free glutamate in foods [21:33]
5. Maca during pregnancy, after the Sugar Detox balanced my hormones [31:43]
6. Boom! Chicharrones. [39:48]
7. Peeling lips and nighttime cough [44:02]
8. Becoming an NC in a small town [49:47]
Links
Upcoming events
Eat the Yolks by Liz Wolfe
Unblind my Mind by Dr. Katherine Reid
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Liz Wolfe: Hey everyone! Welcome to episode 1-2-3 of the Balanced Bites podcast! I’m Liz, and I’m here with Diane. And, I’m going to go off script already here, Diane.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing}
Liz Wolfe: Have you ever seen The Jerk, where …
Diane Sanfilippo: No.
Liz Wolfe: {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: Marie is taking unnecessary lessons, and she takes a knife throwing lesson? No?
Diane Sanfilippo: No.
Liz Wolfe: So whenever somebody says 1-2-3, I always think of when she’s taking the knife throwing lesson, and she goes “One, two, three! Ffffour five six!”
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing}
Liz Wolfe: Ok. Anyway. So, sponsors for today’s episode.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing}
Liz Wolfe: Paleo Treats. Get 15% off when you enter the code BALANCEDBITES at checkout. Paleo Treats will be supplying goodies to our Balanced Bites Seminar in Philadelphia at Crossfit Center City this upcoming weekend, what is that, Saturday the twenty…
Diane Sanfilippo: Fifth.
Liz Wolfe: Fifth. So, Diane I believe will talk a little bit more about that in a mo. Ment. Next sponsor, Pete’s Paleo, bringing fine dining to your cave. Pete’s Paleo is offering our listeners a free pound of bacon with the purchase of any meal plan. And the code is still BALANCEDBITESROCKS. And finally, Chameleon Cold-Brew, which is pretty much the only coffee I do these days. It’s amazing. Our discount code for them, I believe it’s free shipping…
Diane Sanfilippo: Uh, I don’t even know what the code gets {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: Just try it. See what happens.
Diane Sanfilippo: Or 25% off? BALANCEDBITES is the code. Yeah.
Liz Wolfe: So give it a try, see what happens.
Diane Sanfilippo: Straight up, yeah. And Paleo Treats, I think at some point we’re going to have probably Nick from Paleo Treats come onto the show and talk a little bit more about the company and their goodies, but for those of you who aren’t familiar with their company, it’s all paleo friendly ingredients, thing like nuts and almond flour and cacao…
Liz Wolfe: Is your pacemaker going off?
Diane Sanfilippo: Pacemaker?
Liz Wolfe: Yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: No. Honking outside, because it’s snowing like madness in the polar vortex.
Liz Wolfe: That must have been it.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, that was it.
Liz Wolfe: Anyway.
Diane Sanfilippo: It’s like a minivan skidding into the side of the street.
Liz Wolfe: Oh, good.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.
Liz Wolfe: Glad I’m coming to visit soon.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} It’s, well, yeah it will be fine. It’s warm in here. Uh, what else. Also, you know, with honey and just made from really, really good ingredients, so if you like to have paleo goodies kind of, around, but you’re not up for making them all of the time or if you just want something that’s individually made so that you don’t have to make an entire batch of something, they are a fantastic treat, and my personal favorite are the Mac Attack bars. Just like a coconut macaroon and really, really yummy. I think they have cacao nibs in them. I really love those.
Liz Wolfe: I like the Mustang bar. Out of the freezer.
Diane Sanfilippo: Well, some of us aren’t fortunate enough to be able to eat walnuts over here, so. {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: We have a black walnut tree at our house.
Diane Sanfilippo: {gasp} Wow.
Liz Wolfe: Which is, well, you know what though, it makes me understand now why nuts are so expensive.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yep.
Liz Wolfe: Because they are damn hard to get to.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yep.
Liz Wolfe: But, we’re getting… you know we’re getting pigs in a couple of weeks.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah! Perfect feed for the pigs.
Liz Wolfe: And they eat black walnuts. Yeah.
1. Seminar events, #PaleoTour updates, Cookbook updates [4:15]
Diane Sanfilippo: Yep. They had black walnuts on the farm where we did get our pig recently, our pig share. So, yeah, so you were mentioning Paleo Treats will be at the seminar, well we’ll have their goodies for folks who are coming to Philly. So if you’re listening, and you have not yet registered and you live anywhere near Philadelphia, please come join us. We do have some seats left still, and this will be our last live event together of this sort.
Liz Wolfe: Yes, our last…
Diane Sanfilippo: We may appear somewhere together, but our last full day seminar together.
Liz Wolfe: Yes.
Diane Sanfilippo: And it’s probably the last full day seminar ever, because I think I’m going to be switching to just some shorter events and doing book signings and things like that, because it’s just been, um, it’s been a long run and I think I’m ready to turn it over to, you know, some new up and coming folks who may be out there. So.
Liz Wolfe: And I will be lecturing exclusively to large black hogs and alpine dairy goats.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing}
Liz Wolfe: That’s the plan.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yes. I mean, I think Scott and I will probably be teaching some short seminars, and things like that, but we’ll see what happens.
{clatter}
Diane Sanfilippo: Whoa. Did your entire kitchen just break?
Liz Wolfe: Basically, I watched this cat we’re cat sitting knock over an entire pile of my office belongings. It was like watching in slow motion, and I’m like, I’m attached to earphones, there’s nothing I can do.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing} Let it fall!
Liz Wolfe: Woooh!
Diane Sanfilippo: Um, let’s see. What else. So, just wanted to give people updates on the paleo tour. #PaleoTour. {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: Oh my gosh.
Diane Sanfilippo: I was with Bill and Hayley from Primal Palate; also with Michelle for one event last week in, all over California, we were in the Pacific Northwest in Portland and Seattle. It was really, really fun. We had a gigantic crowd in Portland. I mean, I have to just thank anyone who’s listening from any of the cities, but Portland, man, you guys know how to represent. I mean, there were 320-25 people there. We walked up, it was like, what’s going on here? Is this for us? It was just bonkers. So, it was really cool. It was just a great feeling that, like, we’re blogging about health and nutrition and food, and that’s how much people want to come, you know, talk to us and meet us and just, like, show up for this thing. It was really cool. So that was fun. I’m really excited because we’re also planning a short tour around Texas at the end of February, so if you live in Texas, I think we’ll be doing Dallas, Austin, and Houston. It’s possible that we’ll be in San Antonio, but I’m not sure, so if we’re not, please come see us in Austin. And, I think that’s pretty much the update on those events. I’m trying to think if there’s another event that I need to tell people about, but I’ll let you guys know if something comes up. What else? Just a couple of other notes. The 21-Day Sugar Detox I think I probably announced this, but I can’t remember. I wanted to just say thank you to everyone who has supported the books and the program so far, because the book did make the New York Times’ best seller list for, I think it was the month of December, which that was just, I mean, I just felt very excited about it because I worked really hard to kind of get out there and be meeting lots of you and really help everyone understand kind of what the content of the book was about, and all of that, so I was just really grateful for that and just wanted to say thanks everyone. I wanted to let you guys know that the cookbook, just a reminder, it has 100 totally different recipes from the book itself, because I get this question literally every single day, and you know, I don’t know, I guess maybe there are books out there that just flat out keep repeating recipes, but no. I put out two books with totally separate recipes. You know, maybe there’s confusion because the Sugar Detox book has maybe like 5 recipes that were also in Practical Paleo, that was really just because they were the best of the best, the Bolognese recipe, a stuffed pepper recipe, just the ones that people told me that they absolutely loved them, so I wanted people who maybe didn’t have Practical Paleo to get those recipes too, but by and large they are all new, and then the Cookbook is 100 totally new different recipes. There are a few that repeat, but they are not counted towards that 100, and it’s just stuff like mayonnaise and ketchup and spices that repeat, and broth, so that you have those recipes handy when you’re using the cookbook. It’s not repetitive otherwise, and there’s also other guides in that book that are not in the first book. And the meal plans in the Cookbook only relate to the recipes in the Cookbook, so tons of additional resources for you guys. The other thing I wanted to point out is that I did change the cover on the Cookbook. People, again, were getting kind of confused. The cover of both books have this big bright blue rectangle in the center that say 21-Day Sugar Detox, and although the Cookbook original cover said Cookbook very large across it, I think it was just visually confusing, so what I did was make an update to the second print run of the book. The inside of the book is entirely identical, but the cover will now have a purple rectangle on the cover, so if you’re looking at them side by side, you can much more quickly tell which is which. And, you know, if you’re confused when you see them on Amazon, just remembering that there are two totally different books. So, that’s kind of it. I just wanted to give you guys that update. That’s it for me, for now, I think.
2. Liz’s blog update [9:35]
Liz Wolfe: Good job! You want my updates?
Diane Sanfilippo: Not really, but {laughs} just kidding.
Liz Wolfe: No, good job, let’s talk about me. Well, so I have some kind of big news that I put on Facebook, my personal Facebook, the other day.
Diane Sanfilippo: What? What what? What is it?
Liz Wolfe: {laughing}
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you what it is. Are you ready? I’m going to tell you. Ok. I am transitioning from Cave Girl Eats. Everything is the same, but I’m transitioning to Real Food Liz. Now, I’m not entirely sure how this is going to go down, how we’re going to make it work. I’m working with a really awesome person, group of people, that are helping me on this. But I’m moving to Real Food Liz because I want to expand my real food family. When I started Cave Girl Eats, it was a paleo blog about me transitioning to a new way of eating, this was like 5 years ago. And, now I’m working with you, I’ve been doing the nutritional therapy thing for several years now, and you know, as my body of knowledge has expanded, things have changed, and of course, as people know, we moved to a flipping homestead with pigs, goats, chickens, and you know, working towards sustainability, got into the natural skin care thing, so I’m going to try and kind of expand my circle so folks who end up here for whatever reason they will meet me immediately and not a cartoon cave girl whose name they do not know, and hopefully reach people a little bit more with real food, homesteading stuff, and natural skin care stuff. So, just be on the lookout for that. It’s not an imposter using my picture, it’s actually me.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing}
Liz Wolfe: There you go. If anybody has any ideas or advice or counsel on that going forward I’d sure be grateful to hear it. It’s really scary to think about doing this right before, you know, I have a book coming out, but I think it needs to happen and sooner rather than later. So, that’s happening. And, next update. Even though I was really terrified when I revealed my little raw liver thing a couple of episodes ago. Was that a couple of episodes ago?
Diane Sanfilippo: Um, I think so. I think it was like 2 weeks ago.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah, 121. I thought there was just going to be a mass exodus and everyone would just wash their hands of me because I’m just that weird, but people have been really curious and people have been trying it, little raw smoothies with a little bit of raw liver, that type of thing, and if you don’t know what I’m talking about go back and listen to that episode. I think it’s 121. And, people are trying it, and they are reporting exactly what I expected they would report. So I will try to put my little routine up on the blog here pretty soon, as soon as I can fit it in, so people know what I’m doing.
Diane Sanfilippo: I want to see it with, like, really pretty pictures like you’ve had for the last couple of months.
Liz Wolfe: I’m working so hard. I’m trying to be better, Diane {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: I’m consistently impressed by your pictures and your posts, and I kind of am like, wow, I’m really slacking now {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: Well, if you consider the fact that making one decent meal generally takes me about two weeks of trying, crying, failing, and then finally succeeding, it really is. It’s a coup every time I’m actually successful. So.
Diane Sanfilippo: Ok, alright. Well, I’m going to attempt a curry dish today and we’ll see how that goes.
Liz Wolfe: I better see that. I better see that up on the blog.
Diane Sanfilippo: You will at least see it on Instagram. And for anyone who doesn’t follow me on Instagram, come over to Instagram. Fun stuff over there.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah, that’s where it’s at.
Diane Sanfilippo: I mean, I definitely post pictures of my cat, sometimes.
Liz Wolfe: {laughing}
Diane Sanfilippo: Alright? Just, you know, flip past it, carry on if you don’t want to see it, but I definitely post a lot of pictures of food that never go on Facebook because the stuff that’s happening on Facebook lately with how many of our fans are actually seeing posts, it’s just shockingly low. The way that they are kind of divvying up the news feed, and this isn’t a complaint, I just want to air it for those of you who are following us on Facebook and feel like, I don’t know, if you feel like you see our posts a lot, great. If you feel like you never see anything from us, then I think the secret there is to come and engage on the page. Like our posts, comment on things. One of the most heartbreaking things ever is to come home from an event in a city and say, “hey, thanks to everyone who came out” and then, your first comment is, “I didn’t even know it was happening.” Like, it’s literally heartbreaking for me that somehow I can’t reach you to tell you that the event is happening. We always announce stuff here, we announce it on Facebook, we Instagram graphics, all this stuff. But we really want to make sure that you guys are seeing the information if you want to, so, you know please come engage on the pages, and I think that’s the best way possible. I mean, I think there’s some kind of little thing you can click that says “show in newsfeed” or who knows what. Subscribe? I don’t know. Liz, do you know more about that? I don’t…
Liz Wolfe: No.
Diane Sanfilippo: I don’t know. But anyway.
Liz Wolfe: Well sign up for the E-mail list, too. Diane, you’ve been sending out, what, like weekly newsletters, and I send out a newsletter every Monday with like; I mean, I do not take your signing up for my newsletter for granted, I make special posts only for my subscribers every Monday. It’s called E-mail Monday. I give as a thank you for being signed up for the list, so if you’re signed up for the E-mail list, we can actually go straight to your inbox and tell you what’s going on.
Diane Sanfilippo: Right.
Liz Wolfe: Without having to worry about whether Facebook is letting you see what we’re doing, so.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, it’s almost like backwards to how things sort of used to be, right?
Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: People used to always kind of use an E-mailing list, and that was great, and then I think people sort of stopped wanting to get a lot of E-mails.
Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: Because they were seeing it on Facebook, but you guys are not seeing everything we are posting on Facebook anymore, I can guarantee you of that. So, yeah. Same with my list I usually send; I think I’m usually sending them on Fridays these days.
Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: It’s kind of like, here’s the recent blog post, here’s a couple of other things that are newsworthy. I always put events that are coming up in there, so yeah. It’s definitely a good way to connect.
Liz Wolfe: Not spammy.
Diane Sanfilippo: No.
Liz Wolfe: That’s basically what I do on my Fridays, now, is read your newsletter, Diane.
Diane Sanfilippo: Oh, great.
Liz Wolfe: I’ll watch the opening skit of Saturday Night Live, and have a kombucha cocktail and curl up with your newsletter and this ridiculous cat.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} Oh good.
Liz Wolfe: This snaggle-toothed {laughing}
Diane Sanfilippo: Awww.
Liz Wolfe: Cat.
Diane Sanfilippo: Should the cat get Invisalign?
Liz Wolfe: I think so. I think probably.
Diane Sanfilippo: I’m almost done with mine, by the way.
Liz Wolfe: No way!
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, almost done.
Liz Wolfe: That’s exciting.
Diane Sanfilippo: Ok.
Liz Wolfe: Ok, so one more thing
Diane Sanfilippo: Yes.
Liz Wolfe: Before I read my little egg-cerpt from Eat the Yolks.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} Egg-cerpt!
Liz Wolfe: ha ha ha ha. Um, so my book, Eat the Yolks. Now, this is a passion project for me, and it always has been, and we have a month before it actually comes out. And, I just want to ask people, I need as much wisdom I can get. I need as much help as I can get to get this book to reach people. You know, I don’t even know if I’m supposed to say stuff like this, if this is like, PR appropriate, who knows? But if anyone has ideas or advice, please let me know. I’ve sucked all the wisdom I can out of Diane. But, you know, understand that Diane’s books are incredible, they’ve had incredible reach, but just because she’s made “the list” doesn’t mean I necessarily will unless, you know, I’m able to garner as much goodwill and support as Diane has been able to do. I’m going to work my little tush off, well, my big squat tush off.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing}
Liz Wolfe: Doing that and hopefully, you know, scraping as much New York Times’ list glitter from Diane as I can, but I need people and I’ve had amazing support so far that I’m so, so grateful for. I wish; we were talking about this off the air, Diane, I wish I could give this book for free to everyone. I want everything I ever do to be free for everybody because it is hard to ask folks to spend their money on a book, you know, especially in this economy, like, I get it. But I’ll say it here because I feel like we’re all friends. If you can support this book by making a purchase, or just telling somebody else about it, I would be utterly grateful forever and ever, and I just, I appreciate people’s excitement so much and I want to hear from other people. Like, if you have suggestions for what I should do, you just let me know, because I’m going to do it!
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} Well, you know, what’s funny, actually it was a fan that asked me to come to Connecticut to R. J. Julia, and that ended up being a really fantastic recommendation. The store was amazing, really cool crowd, lots of people who were fans and followers already. Lots of people who made a really nice drive, which I always appreciate, not that I don’t appreciate if you show up when it’s in your city, because I absolutely do, but you know, for the folks that make a drive to come to an event, I mean I truly appreciate that, because it’s sort of that, you know, extra thank you of, you know, I know that you’ve just come all this way so I’m going to make a little drive, you know, knowing that we can’t get everywhere.
Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: You know, we literally can’t get to that many cities at a time, so if we’re within a couple of hours of you, please come see us we want to meet you. We want to know, you know, who’s out there really engaging with the material that we put all of our blood, sweat, and tears into. And yeah, I’m excited. I think it’s going to be fun for you to be out there meeting folks on the book tour when that eventually happens.
Liz Wolfe: Yes. I’ve got a small window that I can make it happen before all of the
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing}
Liz Wolfe: Crazy stuff starts happening out here.
Diane Sanfilippo: All the goats start playing dead, and then Spence freaks out, and
Liz Wolfe: Oh my gosh. I don’t know what he’s going to do here, alone, without me for weeks at a time. We’ll see. We’ll see, we’re getting all the fence built in the winter so I can leave in the spring when we actually need the fences to be operational.
Diane Sanfilippo: Oh perfect.
Liz Wolfe: Alright, so.
Diane Sanfilippo: Alrightly, let’s get into some questions.
Liz Wolfe: Well, I’ve got to read my little egg-cerpt, remember?
Diane Sanfilippo: Oh, sorry! Egg-cerpt.
3. Egg-cerpt from Eat the Yolks [19:26]
Liz Wolfe: Egg-cerpt time. Ok, so this is from the Fat chapter. And this is a little bit more serious than some of the other stuff that’ I’ve read, but just so people kind of know where I’m coming from on this, on this deal. Alright, here we go. “The less processing a fat requires to make it to our tables, the better. The intensive refinement process that crop oils require is downright horrifying, from the frightening mechanics of it to the way the whole process destroys what few nutrients are there in the first place. We could never in a million years make these crop oils at home, because producing them requires a highly specialized, technology driven, factory based refining process. Seeds of these crops are often subject to processing before they are even planted in the form of genetic modification, which is just another facet of the processed food industry. This technology has been applied to 93% of soybeans, 88% of corn, 94% of cottonseed, and 90% of canola crops in the United States. The genetic modification process was developed, not so that we could feed the world as propaganda suggests, but for the sheer profitability of manipulating plant DNA to create higher-yield, herbicide resistant plants that have never existed and could never exist naturally in a balanced ecosystem. Once these crops, whether genetically modified or not, are harvested, they go through another round of industrial beat downs. Oils from corn, soy, cotton, and canola crops are extracted through a chemical-filled, high-heat process followed by a process of deodorization and further refinement to remove odor and impurities. The process of getting soy oil from soy, for example, requires salt on extraction, degumming, bleaching, and deodorization followed by more processing to keep the rancidity-prone oil from spoiling before it leaves the factory. It’s no surprise that, until the 1940s, this oil was thought to be unsuitable for human consumption, but, appropriate for use as a paint additive.” Scene.
Diane Sanfilippo: Aww. It’s so good.
Liz Wolfe: You get into it, right?
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. I like it.
Liz Wolfe: Alright, that’s that. So, let’s move on. So I think we’re going to talk. We have a little topic, before we get into questions.
4. Unblind My Mind; Free glutamine in foods [21:33]
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, I just wanted to mention this video that I watched. I think Mark Sisson had tweeted, I think he commented on a video on YouTube and then I saw it come up in the Twitter feed. It’s a TEDxYouth video, it’s called Unblind My Mind, we can link to it in the show notes, given by Dr. Katherine Reid, is her name. It’s all about her child, who was diagnosed with autism at just over 3 years old, and she was talking about what she did with nutrition and, you know, working on kind of that therapeutic intervention. She’s a biochemist and a mom. So, she really was trying to combine those two, you know, aspects of her life to find out what was the best she could do for her child. So, I just thought it was really interesting. She talked about going through getting rid of, like, all the junk, all the processed food, all the food with additives, and dyes and colors, which have been shown and are known to just basically excite and cause problems in children’s brains and activity and we just know that, like, artificial colorings and flavorings just kind of have no place in our diet, and I think, you know, for example… I don’t know for sure, but I think stores like Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods, I think they try to keep a lot of those artificial forms out of their foods. That doesn’t mean everything they sell is healthy, but some of these kind of more extreme additives, perhaps. So that’s, you know, that’s one reason why people are trying to buy things that are at least organic, and you know, “better” snack foods, but that doesn’t really go the whole way. Then she started talking about the next step of what she did being a gluten and casein-free diet, so as we know, eliminating wheat, barley, and rye primarily in terms of grains, and then avoiding or excluding all milk products. And you know she saw really big improvements, but it didn’t go the whole way, and it was something that she looked into very extensively to figure out what was it that these foods kind of had in common, and I think, it was really interesting because we actually have gotten this question a lot on the show about bone broth being high in free glutamic acid, or free glutamate. And glutamate is just an amino acid. It’s present in foods that we eat. It’s present in kind of high amounts in foods that do include gluten and also dairy foods, so milk products. It’s pretty high in those foods, and she was basically talking about how a diet lower in free glutamate was what eventually really helped her child. Now, don’t mistake me saying this for saying that this way of eating will sure autism or that it will definitely work for your child. They were intensive with it for months and months. This isn’t something you do for a few days and expect to see drastic change. But, what she was talking about, which I just found it really, really interesting was how the processing, so even if foods that contain gluten and dairy have a pretty high level of glutamic acid to start out, but the processing of those foods is what actually creates the free glutamic acid. It’s what makes it so that the glutamate is no longer bound to a lot of other amino acids within the protein structure, and it makes it so that that free glutamic acid percentage of the proteins that are in that food are actually much higher. She actually mentioned things like processed dairy, pasteurizing the dairy increases the free glutamic acid. Creating the low-fat and non-fat products, which, you know I’ve been a huge advocate of, if you are eating dairy, it should always be full fat. I know you’re the same way, Liz, and people ask us for reasons, and one of the things we say is, it’s a processed food, but how cool that this biochemist has discovered this other sort of, here’s a tick mark in the column against these processed forms of a real, whole food, is that it’s creating this potential in the way the proteins work in the food, which as we know when we’re reacting to foods, it’s always the protein that we’re reacting to. There are some cases where we are responding to things like the sugars, the lactose, the milk sugar and things like that, but primarily we’re responding to proteins, and that’s because our bodies are launching these immune attacks on proteins that enter our system that our body really doesn’t recognize very well or it’s just irritating. And so, I just found it really fascinating. You know, I talked to Julie Matthews recently, who is a nutrition consultant, graduated from the same program that I went to at Bauman College, and she focuses on autism and also other childhood behavioral disorders and also developmental issues and things like that, and you know, I’m sure this is something that she’s talked about before. I haven’t looked at every video of hers and all that, but you know, I’ve just been thinking about this stuff more, and I thought it was interesting because we’ve gotten the question a few times about broth, for example, and it is a food that just naturally broth, and also gelatin, are higher in free glutamic acid or free glutamine, which, for people who are not sensitive to it, it really shouldn’t be a problem, but if you have a sensitivity, this sort of, alright, wrap it up in a ball statement about this is, if you think you have a sensitivity to it, if you’re just not figuring out what’s going on, it’s something that you might want to avoid. Now, most of the foods that you’re finding free glutamic acid in, you know, that people are getting in high doses are those processed refined foods, things that include MSG, which can hide in probably tens if not hundreds of different names, natural flavoring being one of them. I think doorway.com or truthinlabeling.org might be the one that’s about MSG. I’ll find the link and make sure we add it to our show notes. But, there’s an entire website that’s dedicated to information about MSG and MSG toxicity, and one of the big issues is that it is a free glutamic acid issue. Foods that have that umami, so a lot of times it is other things like even soy sauce, I don’t remember off the top of my head the full list, but I did do some Googling around to find out which other foods, let me just look really quickly. Different proteins, even whey protein might be high in it. Soy protein, as I said, other soy sauces, soy protein concentrate, soy protein isolate, so proteins that have been processed. So I know, Liz you and I are constantly talking about getting our proteins from real, whole sources. You know, I definitely recommended things like whey protein, and I think for some people that are not having an issue with it, that’s totally fine. I think it’s important to just recognize that if you’re having some sensitivity issues, which, it can manifest in any type of symptom. It can be anything from congestion to some sort of pain or something more serious. Like, when we say, symptoms or reaction, we don’t know what that means for you. It could be any type of immune response, so any weird thing that you have going on, where your body is just kind of off, that could be what it’s affecting for you. But I just thought it was really interesting some of the ways that it can be…also found in food, or some other food, sorry, that it could also be found in that are the free glutamic acid would be produced in the processing and these foods may contain it, may not, things like pectin or other seasonings, carrageenan is on the list, so that’s another really good reason to be avoiding carrageenan. We know it can promote leaky gut, but I think this could even be one of the reasons why. Maltodextrin, citric acid, which I’m always telling people to avoid. Any types of flavors or natural flavoring. Again, malt extract. So, anything ultra-pasteurized. Bullion and broth, so remember I mentioned even just natural broth can be high in this stuff, but one of the reasons, again, to possibly avoid the stock that’s in a box, also has some of these isolates added to it, so even if it may not have been reactive for you, the fact that they are adding like, autolyzed yeast extract and things like that. And I’ll add this; it is truthinlabeling.org that has a lot of these resources. And then if you’re highly sensitive to free glutamic acid, things like corn starch, corn syrup, modified food starch, rice syrup, some vinegars you can be really sensitive to, as well. Again, it’s not everyone, but. Milk powder, and reduced fat milks and things like that. I just found it really interesting. I know we’ve gotten the questions pretty often, so I just kind of wanted to address that, and just bring it to people’s attention whether or not it applies to you, kind of more remains to be seen, but I think it’s an interesting topic.
Liz Wolfe: Veddy good. That was fascinating, actually.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. This video was really, I mean, it just got me digging, which I love that, you know. When something gets me hungry for more information because it can connect to so many other things, not just autism. This, let’s see, she’s a doctor so probably a PhD, I’m going to guess, in biochemistry, but she was talking about how even folks who have diabetes are showing, I think it was like high levels of free glutamic acid in their system, and you know, I think she, you know how we all get, like when you get focused on researching one thing you almost end up feeling like it’s the cause of everything.
Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: Like, is gluten sensitivity the cause of everything? Well, maybe, but is it the mechanism of gluten acting on zonulin in the gut, or could it be some of this, too? Could it be that the gluten protein actually has a high level of free glutamic acid. And so it was just really interesting, so we’ll post the video for folks to watch. And thanks to Mark Sisson for sharing that one.
Liz Wolfe: Cool. Alright, here’s a question.
Diane Sanfilippo: Uh…
Liz Wolfe: No?
Diane Sanfilippo: Which one, the first one that I was looking at has no name on it?
Liz Wolfe: Yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: Do you have notes on that one?
Liz Wolfe: I have very light notes.
Diane Sanfilippo: Ok, I don’t have notes on that one so if you want to go for it, you can go for it.
5. Maca during pregnancy, after the Sugar Detox balanced my hormones [31:43]
Liz Wolfe: Yeah. Ok. This one is about maca and pregnancy, and actually, I more liked this one because of what she says…well, we’ll get to it. “Why the heck isn’t maca safe when pregnant or lactating? I’m 28 years old and 29 weeks pregnant with my third child. Unexpectedly pregnant 3 months after completing my first 21-Day Sugar Detox level 1. I’ve had 2 surgeries for PCOS, rupturing ovarian cysts, endometriosis, and adenomyosis. I had 3 OB/GYNs, and an endocrinologist suggest a hysterectomy when I was only 23 years old. Apparently cutting out sugar and the processed crap, along with eating nutrient dense foods, balanced out my hormones enough to support creating a whole new person.” How cool is that?
Diane Sanfilippo: So cool.
Liz Wolfe: That is so cool! And the reason I wanted to put this question up there, because the original question, why the heck isn’t maca safe when pregnant or lactating. Like, maca is cool. It’s, I don’t know, I think it’s a Peruvian root or herb.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, actually, when I looked it up, what I saw was completely opposite, that it was supposed to be encouraged, so I don’t, that’s why I’m like, I’m wondering what your notes are on that.
Liz Wolfe: Well, my only note is basically I think a lot of folks who are struggling with hormonal imbalance will turn to maca as like a safe way to naturally kind of, not manipulate, but just kind of nudge that hormonal balance around to where they can, you know, recover more easily from acne, pregnancy, all that type of stuff. But, the thing is, you know, and maca is fine. I think generally when anything that can or is used for the express purpose of manipulating hormones is probably something that you should probably let go once you’re actually pregnant. And like you said, I don’t know much about maca as far as pregnancy and lactation. I don’t really… I’ll do the preconception nutrition counseling and the fertility, you know, counseling and stuff like that, but once there’s actually a baby in there, I kind of leave it. {laughs} Because that’s kind of when I think women need to, you know, do what’s best for them, work with their doctors and all that stuff. So, anyway, when we’re taking stuff to push our hormones around a little bit, I think generally the advice is to leave it while you’re pregnant. Anyway, my point is, “apparently cutting out sugar and the processed crap along with eating nutrient dense foods balanced out my hormones enough to support creating a whole new person.”
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} Shocking.
Liz Wolfe: Shocking! I mean, we turn to so many things.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.
Liz Wolfe: And actually, a while back, I worked with somebody who was asking me about maca, and long before she was ever even ready to drop the processed sugar, the processed foods, the crop oils along with starting to eat nutrient dense foods. So, what we can do just with dietary shifts is freaking phenomenal. And it’s enough to actually create an entirely new life. And I see this again and again. The call out for me is, along with eating nutrient dense foods. Because we talk about this a lot, Diane, where people kind of go the chicken, broccoli, coconut oil route, and for a lot of people that’s great. But the amount of nutrition in, you know, safe beginner paleo favorites, like chicken, broccoli, and coconut oil, it’s not, you know, it’s not a banner list of nutrients.
Diane Sanfilippo: It’s getting rid of what we want to get rid of.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah.
Diane Sanfilippo: But it’s then not giving you that boost that your body has been asking for for so long, you know.
Liz Wolfe: Right. Which is, it’s so key. That’s why we talk about sardines, liver, bone broth, cod liver oil, egg yolks. Eat the Yolks! That type of stuff.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: So anyway, I think that’s the cool part of that question. That’s all I had, though.
Diane Sanfilippo: I think too, a lot of what happens with pregnancy nutrition and advice is just a lot of, it’s a lot of fear mongering and, you know, we’re not trying to say that just changing your diet is going to change everything for every woman who is struggling.
Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: But I think women do need to take it more seriously than sometimes they might, and recognizing just how important it really is. Like, it’s so important to create a landscape in your body that is healthy enough, as this woman pointed out, she didn’t want to give us her name, and that’s totally understandable, but you know, to get your body healthy to the point where it can create a new person and I think, you know, it’s a sensitive subject.
Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: I’m not somebody who’s always had that burning desire or urge to have children, so I definitely know that I have a different view of it because I’m sort of missing that edge there, that where I feel like I really want to do this so badly, but I think that understanding this before you get to that point is so critical, understanding that if your body is not healthy to create that new baby, just take that message and do as much as you can to get it healthy without, you know, piling the stress on yourself about it. But reading up and learning, you know, what does it take to get your body healthy so that you can get those hormones balanced, and the number one thing I will tell any woman is to get rid of sugar and refined foods. Like, that’s it, number one. Like, you’ve got to get that stuff out, and then number two, it does become making sure that you’re putting in a lot of those nutrient dense foods, and that is actually one of the things I forgot to mention about the video that I was talking about just previously. She was talking about getting lots of these super nutrient dense foods into their diets, things rich in omega-3 foods primarily, after trying it with supplements, omega-3 fatty fish, and liver, and all these different nutrients that our bodies are just craving because we haven’t eaten them for so long.
Liz Wolfe: I thought there was more to what you were saying but no.
Diane Sanfilippo: No, that’s really it.
Liz Wolfe: You know what I say a lot at the beginning, well not a lot because we haven’t done our workshop, or our seminar in a while.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: But, one of the things …
Diane Sanfilippo: Almost a year.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah, almost a year. I would say at the beginning is, and we talk about goals. We talk about that a lot. And what I’ll say at the beginning is my goal, I don’t know if or when my husband and I are going to have kids, but if we do make that choice, I want to be as read and I want to feel comfortable with how read I am to do that physically and emotionally, so for the most part we see people with goals, and the top 3: Performance, like athletic performance, fertility, and leanness. And what people don’t always realize is that each one of those things will often require you to move different parts around. And you can’t always have all of them at once. So, you know, a lot of times, you know say a bikini figure competitor who needs to be really, really, really lean in order to do what that person professionally wants to do, it’s very possible that while you can still get in all these fertility enhancing nutrient-dense foods, that the message you’re sending to your body is not one of fertility, it’s one of potentially sparing that or basically losing fertility, losing your period sometimes, and those two goals are not always compatible. Performance is not always compatible with leanness, and sometimes performance is not compatible with fertility, so. I don’t know, that just kind of popped into my head for a second there.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. I think it’s huge.
Liz Wolfe: Kind of off topic, I guess, but the fertility.
Diane Sanfilippo: I mean, and we get so many questions about like losing weight and fat loss and becoming lean and…
Liz Wolfe: And having a baby and doing a double body weight back squat.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.
Liz Wolfe: 30 times in a minute.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. They don’t work together.
Liz Wolfe: Nope.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
6. Boom! Chicharrones. [39:48]
Liz Wolfe: Alright. Next question. “This little piggy shoulder has hair.” This is probably the weirdest thing I’ve ever read aloud.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing}
Liz Wolfe: Alright. This is from Steph. “Hi! Love your podcast. As I’m typing this, I have the cinnamon and fennel pork roast from The 21-Day Sugar Detox Cookbook in my slow cooker, cooking up real nice. I eat from the 21-Day book and cookbook pretty much all the time, I love it. I have a culinary question regarding the pork shoulder roast. I got a pasture raised, 3.5-pound pork shoulder roast from a local farmer here in South Carolina. When I took it out of the wrapping, I noticed that about a half pound
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing}
Liz Wolfe: Of that pork roast was skin, not fat, but skin, with little piggy hairs
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: poking out staring at me, as well as some larger hairs.” Ugh. “I love meat, all kinds, love liver, etc, I ain’t skeerd, but these piggy hairs?”
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing}
Liz Wolfe: {laughing} Any who, back to the question, “am I supposed to eat this skin? I’ve had pork rinds before, which I’m aware are made from pig skin, but when I’m roasting or slow cooking a piece of pork is it best to leave this on or remove it? I removed it this time because I’m a baby, but what about the next time piggy hairs and a thick skin are left on my pork? If it’s best to remove the skin is there something else I can do with it so I’m not wasting animal, and if it’s ok to leave the skin on, what is the best cook method to enjoy that hairy ol’ skin? Thanks a lot.”
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughing}
Liz Wolfe: I love the way she asks this question. Like,
Diane Sanfilippo: It’s hilarious.
Liz Wolfe: “It’s cool, it’s just some skin.” Well, you know, I do know that pork skin is like a traditional beauty food, like a beauty food for women, you know. You boil it and basically make a broth with it. Some ginger and some pig skin. I don’t know what will happen to the hairs if you do that, but I certainly am pro making broth out of stuff.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.
Liz Wolfe: Out of weird stuff.
Diane Sanfilippo: I can’t tell if she thinks that she would be able to {laughs} I don’t know how many of these hairs there were, if she could like pluck them out of it.
Liz Wolfe: {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: Or if she could like shave them down {laughs}. I don’t, I’m not trying to be a total goofball about it, I don’t know. I haven’t actually encountered that. I would love some pigskin. I was watching, you know, some show on the Food Network where I was watching how they made chicharrones.
Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: So, fried up pig skin. I think they sliced it up thinly, dehydrated it, and then fried it. And once it fried it like popped up. It almost was like the opposite of a shrinky dink. It was like, all of a sudden it became this totally other thing that you have no idea how it got there, but it was just from dehydrated pig skin, they fried it, boom! Chicharrones. So.
Liz Wolfe: {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: I would probably try to remove it, and then somehow eat the skin. That would be my approach. {laughs} If that means shaving a pig shoulder, uh, maybe. Or just like trimming it off or something like that. But, yeah I would try and use that skin. So whether it’s a broth or trying to make some pigskin snacks. I’m all about the chicharrones.
Liz Wolfe: The new phrase of the year is Boom! Chicharrones.
Diane Sanfilippo: It is?
Liz Wolfe: Yeah. Or at least of the day.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} I can’t. I can’t.
Liz Wolfe: Boom goes the dynamite.
Diane Sanfilippo: Boom goes the chicharrones.
Liz Wolfe: {laughing} Alright. Let us know what you do with that hairy pig skin, Steph.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. I wonder. I want to ask for skin next time I get a half a hog.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah, for sure. That’s why I always ask for the feet, because you’ve got all the skin and the everything else you can make. I’m not a huge fan flavor profile-wise of, I can’t believe I just said flavor profile, I’ve been hanging out with you too much.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: But, of pig, you know, pork broth, whatever, but it is definitely good for you.
Diane Sanfilippo: Well it would be fine if you made broth to then braise the pork in, like if you were braising pork and you wanted broth it’s always, you know, always ideal to use the same animal broth. So, anyway.
7. Peeling lips and nighttime cough [44:02]
Liz Wolfe: Alright, next question. Peeling lips. Patty asks. “I have an old problem and a new problem. My old problem, I’ve always had peeling lips. I’ve read about exfoliative cheilitis, and Candida being the culprit, but despite being on paleo for a while, this problem has never gone away. How do I test for these, what do you suggest? I’ve tried increasing vitamin B12, tea tree oil, vinegar, and eliminating sugar, now for 2 weeks anyway. My new problem is that I wake up with a ton of mucus in my throat, sometimes this manifests as a postnasal drip while I sleep, which causes me coughing fits. This has been happening for about 3 months. Is this allergy related, stress related, hormone related? If I don’t get cough attacks when I lay down, I get between 7 and 8.5 hours. When coughing I only get about 6. Boyfriend also says I snore now, a lot.” I think Chris Kresser wrote something about snoring recently, but I can’t remember. You might go to chriskresser.com and type that in the search box. But the part of this question I wanted to throw something out about was the peeling lips. I talk about this a little bit in the Skintervention Guide and you know, she’s talking about being on paleo for a while and the problem hasn’t gone away. One of the things I talk about in the Skintervention Guide is digestive support. So, a lot of times you switch to paleo, and you’re just not digesting these new foods appropriately and that’s something that can persist for a long time, and this can lead to a lot of different issues. So, if we’re talking about Candida, or whatever. Do you hear my freaking home phone ringing right now?
Diane Sanfilippo: No.
Liz Wolfe: Because it’s ringing, and I honestly don’t know where it is.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: My husband got us a home phone. I cannot find it, and it rings, and I’m telling you, it makes me so angry that people are calling my home phone. It’s silliness.
Diane Sanfilippo: I can’t hear it.
Liz Wolfe: Ok, good. Sorry about that. A little aside. Sorry Patty. Alright, so anyway what I wanted to throw out there for the old problem is something that I discussed with an old client a little while back who I had worked with on some acne issues. She had a ton of improvement, but there were still just some little like niggling things that weren’t improving, and what she did was she had herself tested for, I’m just going to say, you’re going to want to look this up. MTHFR. It’s the Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductas, basically the genetic defect in the synthesis of an enzyme that has to do with the methylation of folate. Now, this is associated at this point with a lot of different really random issues, including repeat miscarriages, skin issues, acne, different viral infections, things like that. I don’t want to say “Oh my god, you have a genetic defect!’ No, no no no. Not at all. Not trying to freak you out, but what was really interesting was this client of mine went, got tested, and then started on methylated folate, started working with a practitioner, which is absolutely vital if you do discover you have this, I think it’s a polymorphism. You will want to work with someone to start addressing different issues longstanding issues that could be occurring as a result of that. But when she did, those last issues with her skin just totally cleared up. So, you know, it sounds extreme, but I just wanted to throw it out there because you never know. I mean, we’re already down like the Candida wormhole and all that, so might as well think about MTHFR. And a good website is MTHFR.net. You can go in, look at some information about that. And I know Michelle from Nom-Nom Paleo did some genetic testing through 23andme.com. Unfortunately, they are no longer, thanks to the FDA, they are no longer able to offer interpretation on genetic testing, but there are other places you can get your results interpreted there. So, that is what I have to say about that. And as far as the mucus issues, I mean, this is, she says it’s been happening for 3 months, been paleo for a while, so generally that’s something I think is allergy related. It could surely also be stress and hormone related, because all of those things can kind of work together and feed forward through each other. But, I don’t know, do you have any insight on the coughing fits, Diane?
Diane Sanfilippo: Um, I don’t really.
Liz Wolfe: I mean, I think probably at this point it’s time to maybe look at primaldocs.com or the paleo physicians network to see.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. I mean, I was surprised, like again, once you get on a loop about one thing, you find how many things it can be related to.
Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: I was surprised to learn from that free glutamate information that mucus production could increase from that type of intake. So, I mean it’s just another one of those… it could be a number of things basically. So, I think it’s just, you know, if you’re waking up with mucus, it’s just a sign that there’s something going on, something is upregulating your immune system.
Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: We don’t know what it could be specifically.
Liz Wolfe: This would definitely be an argument for really tracking maybe what’s a new addition to the diet, or tracking stress, or even thinking about the vitamin D winter, depending on where she is.
Diane Sanfilippo: Mm-hmm.
Liz Wolfe: And all that. Ok.
Diane Sanfilippo: Ok.
8. Becoming an NC in a small town [49:47]
Liz Wolfe: Cool. So, let’s see. Next question. This is from Desiree. “Hi ladies! Love your show. I’ve always known I wanted to work with food as a career. My dream was culinary school, but these last few years, I’ve been more interested in nutrition and wanted to do the distance learning program at Bauman. My problem is, my husband is in the military, and when he retires in 6 years, we will be moving back to his hometown, which is a pretty small ranching community in northeastern Oregon. He doesn’t think I’ll be able to work as an NC in that county. I’d hate to give up a dream because he doesn’t believe there will be a need for one there. Do you have any advice? Do you think finding work will be that difficult in that type of community? Thank you so much.”
Diane Sanfilippo: Well, of course we’ve got something to say about this one.
Liz Wolfe: Of course we do.
Diane Sanfilippo: Um, I think that the big like sort of misconception here or misperception is that you will be working with people who are local to you.
Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: And that’s not really going to be the case. I think, even originating my nutrition counseling services in San Francisco, I did have plenty of local clients, and I would say at least half of my local clients, if I even met them, I met them once and then we continued counseling via phone or Skype. I had some fairly local clients who I never even met because it was just easier for them and for me to work remotely. So I think, you know, the big issue here is that you’re probably, even if you were to start a practice somewhere that had a much more dense population, you’d probably still have a very large influx of clients who are not local to you. Now, of course, there are certain things that are just perhaps easier to tell when you meet somebody in person. I think Skype can really translate a lot of that. There are certain, like, energetic qualities that you can’t tell. Perhaps you can tell them via Skype. Even just talking to somebody you learn so much versus perhaps E-mail. You know, just really kind of getting to know the person in a more qualitative way that, you know, things that really happen more in person. I think, for the post part, the vast majority of practitioners who are doing this type of work, and I think, Liz, you probably saw this too, because you had an office location for a while, and I think your practice ended up shifting to a lot more remote practice.
Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: And I just think that it’s pretty much the sky is the limit in terms of how far reaching your practice will be just in terms of who you are interacting with and what kind of network you are building, what kind of information you want to share, how you want to specialize your coaching, because I think that will really determine a lot more about what you’re doing and how many people are kind of coming through your doors or “doors”, virtual doors than necessarily where you live. I think having good internet access is probably the more important factor, but otherwise.
Liz Wolfe: Ha! Ha!
Diane Sanfilippo: I don’t think it will be an issue at all, honestly. I think you might just want to look at what some of the regulations are in Oregon, but I think they’re probably pretty good, in terms of being able to do nutrition coaching. I know that I have one of the women on my staff is an NTP, she finished the program, the NTA program, and she’s practicing in Oregon, so I don’t think you’ll have an issue.
Liz Wolfe: I also think, so, I’m a military spouse as well. And, we just moved to a very