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LIZ WOLFE: Hey everyone, welcome to Balanced Bites podcast number 169. If you’ve been with us from the beginning, you’ve heard me say this intro 169 times, well, probably more like a hundred and sixty times.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah.
LIZ WOLFE: Sometimes I don’t show up.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Sometimes it’s me, and I’m like, hey everyone. [laughs]
LIZ WOLFE: Do you do that when I’m gone?
DIANE SANFILIPPO: I totally do. I do it at book signings too, and I’m like, like how many of you heard about the event from the podcast? And inevitably, a huge number of people did, and so then I feel like I have to do that for them, even if it’s not you. [laughs]
LIZ WOLFE: I just start…
DIANE SANFILIPPO: They like it.
LIZ WOLFE: talking from like, you know, like remote… Liz is on the remote.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: [laughs]
LIZ WOLFE: You know, whatever technology and I can just like, hey everyone.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah, just your head. I feel like, shouldn’t we be able to do that? Shouldn’t we be able to conference you in to anywhere we want? Isn’t that what technology can do now? We have no idea. We can barely get the podcast together.
LIZ WOLFE: I know. This is like we’re just really…I mean, this is Star Wars stuff right now.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: [laughs]
LIZ WOLFE: It’s just way ahead of us. Way ahead of its time.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: I know. There’s all kinds of buttons on my screen and like sound waves moving, and I don’t know what’s happening.
LIZ WOLFE: Oh, that’s Garage Band. That’s actually a good thing.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: That means it’s working? Okay, good.
LIZ WOLFE: Okay, good. Well, anyway, I’m Liz, and that’s Diane. If this is your first podcast with us, welcome, welcome.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: [laughs]
LIZ WOLFE: We’re so glad you’re here. So we have some sponsors. People that make this podcast possible and we actually handpick them, so these are people and businesses that we really want you to know about. First up Vital Choice, offering wild and sustainably harvested seafood and other nutrient dense healing foods. Consider them not only for yourself but for others because they make a perfect holiday gift. Choose from wild salmon and halibut samplers, smoked salmon samplers, organic food gift packs and gift certificates. Save yourself the stress of last minute shopping and select your gift items now. Vital Choice will send to anyone on your list on the date of your choosing and orders of 99 dollars or more ship free. This year, give the gift of health from Vital Choice. They’re offering our listeners 15% off any order using the code BALANCEDBITES. I was just going through their site yesterday, and I’ve been proudly ordering from them for like 4 years now. They’ve added a ton of really awesome stuff, and you know, sometimes we get those folks that are really concerned about one of my…or one of our main recommendations, that people eat some frickin’ sardines.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yes.
LIZ WOLFE: They’re worried about like nuclear fallout and all that stuff with the Pacific sardines. Their sardines are actually Portuguese sardines, so when we get people that are a little frenzied over that, I always say, just grab some Portuguese sardines. They’re probably good.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah, we actually…in the interview I did with Randy, which I think our listeners are hearing little clips of it, kind of for the last few weeks and maybe for another couple, we talked about that, too. So he’s super smart and is like very, very well versed on all of the ramifications of that, so I think people are getting little clips of that.
LIZ WOLFE: Nice.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah.
LIZ WOLFE: Yeah. And next sponsor. Pete’s Paleo. The 21 Day Sugar Detox is great for your body in so many ways, but consistently feeding yourself right can be a challenge. Pete’s Paleo makes delicious, seasonal, ready to eat meals that strictly follow the 21DSD program. I’m pretty sure Diane is chopping up one of the meals right now. [laughs]
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Why? Could you hear me doing something? What?
LIZ WOLFE: It sounded like you were chopping.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Really?
LIZ WOLFE: But I don’t really know what chopping sounds like because I don’t do it. [laughs] So I could be wrong.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: I wasn’t doing anything.
LIZ WOLFE: Okay.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: I didn’t do it.
LIZ WOLFE: Hold still. Hold still.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: I don’t know where that’s coming from.
LIZ WOLFE: It’s probably Scott. Scott?
DIANE SANFILIPPO: [laughs]
LIZ WOLFE: Anyway, okay, Pete’s Paleo meals are shipped directly to your door, ready to go. Let Pete’s Paleo help you with your 21 Day Sugar Detox success and don’t forget that their bacon is also 21DSD approved and sugar free. Use coupon code 5OFF21DSD for $5 off 21DSD meals, and 5OFFPETESPALEO for $5 off regular Pete’s Paleo meals. Pete’s Paleo, by the way, is the sole reason we had to get pop filters for this podcast. [laughs] Yeah.
And finally, a sponsor that I am so excited to tell everybody about, Dragonfly Traditions. Natural, nourishing skin care with actually no unnecessary chemicals. It is natural nutrition for the skin. I have been a fan of Dragonfly Traditions for a very long time now. I even did an interview with the owner, Phoebe, in Paleo Magazine because I loved her story and her stuff so much. So I absolutely love their serum and their night cream. All I can say is, the stuff just goes on beautifully, just velvety. It makes my skin really soft and happy. I can’t recommend Dragonfly Traditions or the owner, Phoebe, enough. If you head over to DragonflyTraditions.com and add BALANCEDBITES to your shopping cart for one penny, Phoebe will not only send you two free lip balms with your order, and it’s winter, so you need some chapstick. Your lips are looking ashy. She’ll also send you the penny back. So you’ll get your penny back, you’ll get two free lip balms, and you’ll get a bunch of goodies. Yay!
DIANE SANFILIPPO: That’s cute. She doesn’t probably have to do that, but that’s very sweet of her. I’m looking at a bunch of the products here right now, and this is…she sent me the face serum, so I’m definitely going to try that.
LIZ WOLFE: Yeah.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: And I think this might be a lip balm. I’m not sure what it is. But it’s the teeny tiniest little like rollup thing.
LIZ WOLFE: [laughs]
DIANE SANFILIPPO: I don’t know who else is obsessed with like little tiny things, but I kind of am. Oh, it smells really good. I think it’s minty. I’m putting it on right now.
LIZ WOLFE: Okay. We’ll wait.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Okay. I’m wearing it. Can you see?
LIZ WOLFE: I can.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Do I sound less chapped?
LIZ WOLFE: You sound a lot less ashy. Ashy might just be a leg thing. I don’t know.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: My legs are also ashy.
LIZ WOLFE: Yeah. I like teeny tiny things, too. One time I found a teeny tiny cast iron set.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: [laughs] I saw that.
LIZ WOLFE: And it was so cute. [extreme Valley Girl voice] Oh, it’s so cute.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: You can’t even fry an egg in that, the teeny tiniest cast iron skillet, I think.
LIZ WOLFE: You could fry a quail egg.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Totally. And just melt some butter and that’s pretty much it.
LIZ WOLFE: How cute would that be? All right, well, what’s new in world de Diane?
DIANE SANFILIPPO: [laughs] Well, when this episode airs, I believe it’s actually airing the day that we’ll be in Houston, and I kind of have this weird freak-out moment that I may or may not have mentioned the Houston event on the last handful of podcasts because it wasn’t it previous notes that I had. So I’m like, uh oh, did I even mention it? Well, we’ll be in Houston tonight. It’s December 11th, and it’s at a Costco, so just check out the sidebar at BalancedBites.com to see which Costco it is. And then December 13th in Rochester and all these events will also feature Brittany Angel, so come join us. And what else? I wanted to let you guys know that if you missed out on my Holiday e-book that was only available to my email subscribers or if you’re just not an email person, didn’t want to jump in on the list and that’s not your bag, it is actually now available in the Kindle store. It’s just $2.99. I think the whole thing when it was printed was over a hundred pages, so I made it as cheap as they would let me for the file size. They wouldn’t let me drop the price any lower. I wanted it to be less, but I could not. So if you missed that, or if you wanted to get it but just are not big into the email, but Liz and I will definitely tell you that email is kind of the place to be for everything that we’re working on and all the cool stuff that we have that we give to folks for free, we pretty much only share with our email subscribers. Because we want to be able to keep in touch with you. So there’s that.
LIZ WOLFE: It’s the only way people see stuff.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: It really is.
LIZ WOLFE: It is. Facebook is really hiding stuff. And that’s fine. They can do that. I’m grateful to have the fanpage because it’s free and I love reaching people that way, but…
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah.
LIZ WOLFE: Email rocks my world.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah, so you know, and I want to mention, like my inbox literally? It’s…I got it down under 600 unread in my inbox, but what I do with my email, at least to make sure that I’m seeing the stuff that I want to see is I use a lot of filters. And you know, check them daily but then at least you can check them when you are ready to, and you know, every now and then we do send stuff that’s very, very time sensitive. Sometimes it’s not as time sensitive. I know, often we have some kind of like promotion or we have a friend who’s offering something we want to let you know about it, we just don’t want you to miss out on it. But you know, a lot of times if you read it the next day, it’s no big deal, so if that’s becoming stressful or if you’re just getting too many emails, just create some filters and have stuff skip your inbox and go to a filter that’s like, you know, cool stuff I want to read inbox, you know. and just kind of separate it that way, which is what I do. I have a newsletters one and you know, I’ve got anywhere from 10 to 30, I don’t even know, different blogs or people that I follow and I really do want to see their emails, but sometimes It is, you know, overwhelming at that moment. So I think that…I don’t know. That’s for me one solution, so if you guys are feeling inundated, definitely do that, and I highly encourage people not to unsubscribe unless they, you know, really don’t ever want to get the free stuff that we send because it doesn’t land on our websites or anywhere else. So I just kind of feel sad for people when they’re like, well, I still follow you on Facebook and they unsubscribe. I’m like, that’s cool. But then the cool stuff that I give out won’t go to you. So there’s that.
The only other thing I want to tell people about and I think I’ve mentioned it a few times before but just in case you didn’t hear, I have a new podcast. It’s called Build a Badass Business, and it’s been getting a ton of traffic and lots of folks are leaving reviews and I’d love for you to come listen. I think at the time this airs there will be at least 7 episodes available. They’re usually about 30 minutes or less, so I know that anyone who’s kind of an entrepreneur or wants to be an entrepreneur. We all are limited on our time, so I’m trying to keep those pretty short and I’m breaking some of the topics up into parts for that reason. So definitely come join me over there. I think you’ll really love it and especially if you’ve been following Liz and I for the past few years. You know, you’ve probably seen a big sort of transition and evolution in the work that we’re doing and I’m sure at some point I’ll invite my good buddy over there onto to the show once I start doing some interviews. But yeah, come join me over there.
LIZ WOLFE: Your good buddy over there?
DIANE SANFILIPPO: You’re…you’re my good buddy over there on the other side of the computer.
LIZ WOLFE: That’s so sweet.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: And you’ve built a badass business, so we’re going to chat about it one day. [laughs]
LIZ WOLFE: That’ll be fun.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yup.
LIZ WOLFE: I’ll be sure to have something to say. [laughs]
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Be sure to prepare some notes, Elizabeth.
LIZ WOLFE: Yes. That I will.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: All right, so what[s new with you over on the Flyover Farmstead?
LIZ WOLFE: Oh, you know, just hanging out. NBD. No big deal. We got a new flock of chickens that are outside now, very cute. We’ve combined them with our other chickens and it’s going well. And oh, we got our butchered pigs awhile back there and my husband has successfully cured some bacon.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Oh!
LIZ WOLFE: Did not give me any kind of food poisoning, so he did a good job there. Second only to Pete’s Paleo bacon.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: [laughs]
LIZ WOLFE: And yeah, I mean, a whole none of that really is any big deal.
[00:12:03] Shout Out
LIZ WOLFE: All right, so let’s do a little shoutout here. And this was mine. Sometimes I don’t know where to fit these types of discussions in, but this…this is a shoutout to an article actually from Business Insider that I just saw.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Can you shout out to an article? I thought you were supposed to shout out to a person.
LIZ WOLFE: I don’t know. I feel like you’re supposed to…
DIANE SANFILIPPO: You’re fired.
LIZ WOLFE: shout out to a person. But in a way, I’m shouting out to myself because I talked a little bit about this in Eat the Yolks, and I know people have written about it before. I think it was either a book or an article called What Plants Know or something like that about this, but the article is Plants Know That They’re Being Eaten.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Mmm. I saw the video.
LIZ WOLFE: It was really interesting. The final line kind of sums it up. “We found that feeding vibrations” so like a caterpillar basically feeding on a plant leaf “signaled changes in the plant cell’s metabolism, creating more defensive chemicals that can repel attacks from caterpillars. That can repel attacks from caterpillars.” So it’s not like we’re saying that plants are screaming in pain when they’re being eaten, but who knows? Maybe that kind of shift in vibration is the plants telling us that they’re afraid. And if anybody, you know, the shout out here should be to the movie Troll 2, and you should probably Google that. It’s about…I think it’s about plants, like vegan plants that become carnivores and start eating people or something like that.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Like Venus flytraps or something?
LIZ WOLFE: No, it’s…it’s really like the worst, one of the worst movies of all time. All time. And if you dig around for it on the Internet, you’ll find a video of this guy that’s like, “They’re eating me. Noooo!” Or something ridiculous like that. You got to look it up. So anyway, shout out to Business Insider, Eat the Yolks, and Troll 2.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: So the whole thing with plants being able to sense things like that? I mean, this kind of takes me back to…I think you were done actually talking about it, but I’m still talking about it. This takes me back to really early years of science class where you used to put a plant right by the window, right? And then watch it kind of lean into the sun. And I feel like, saying that plants don’t sense their surroundings in that way, I mean, it’s pretty obvious that they do, so for them to sense something like a predator makes total sense to me. So there’s that.
[00:14:25] This Week in the Paleosphere
DIANE SANFILIPPO: All right, this week in the Paleosphere/Real Food Sphere/etc. The bone broth craze is kind of blowing up.
LIZ WOLFE: It’s totally blowing up. I never thought that would be the thing to blow up first.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: [laughs] Did you think it was going to be the liver shot smoothie?
LIZ WOLFE: [laughs]
DIANE SANFILIPPO: I’m just wondering.
LIZ WOLFE: You never know. What would you have thought have gone first?
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Uh…
LIZ WOLFE: Like butter? I guess butter blew up a little bit.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Butter blew up in, you know, probably [sighs] I don’t really know. I mean, for as much as we can call it blowing up, you know, even the broth thing with articles circulating and there’s now this broth restaurant or window or something where you can kind of go get bone broth to go in a cup in New York City, which I live only about 25 miles from there. But don’t ask me to go there for broth because…
LIZ WOLFE: Nn-mm.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: I’ll be home making mine. But yeah, I mean, I don’t know how huge it’s really getting, but maybe? You know, maybe the butter thing kind of blew up first.
LIZ WOLFE: I think there is definitely like a sample size that I’m seeing in my social media. It’s like, wow, everybody’s sharing these articles about bone broth, and blah blah blah. But really probably most normal people are not seeing these articles in their newsfeeds.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: I think if I start to see people who are not in my little Paleosphere sharing certain things, maybe. Okay, I’ll tell you what blew up before that. Cauliflower pizza crust. That…you’re like, that’s not important to me.
LIZ WOLFE: I hate cauliflower.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: I really like cauliflower! But I have a bunch of friends who don’t eat Paleo but, you know, they’re just interested in like healthy things in general and has made cauliflower pizza crust. But it requires a lot of cheese, which I can’t really deal with. So anyway. Liz is just really angry that anything cauliflower related…
LIZ WOLFE: Why did you have to bring up cauliflower? The way it was going was fine.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Why do you hate it so much? Can we talk about your feelings about cauliflower?
LIZ WOLFE: All right. [sighs]
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Back in the day, I thought it was so useless. I was like, what good is a white vegetable? Is it the value in vegetables in their color? This was my thought process, you know, a million years ago.
LIZ WOLFE: No, I’m with you. Remember when they used to say, don’t eat anything white. White bread, white flour, white potatoes.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Right, but cauliflower’s the exception to that rule.
LIZ WOLFE: Yeah.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Very, very rich in vitamin C, sulfur compounds, really good for your liver.
LIZ WOLFE: All right, shut up.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: It’s an excellent food. I think it might be the one that if I asked Terry Wahls to give me her exemption from the only eating richly colored foods rule, cauliflower would probably be one of them. She probably would allow for it.
LIZ WOLFE: Look, I eat cauliflower.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: But you don’t like it.
LIZ WOLFE: But I don’t like it. And I also eat, you know, like frozen spinach and frozen kale, and those are always terrible. The only people that can actually make cauliflower, spinach, and kale from like frozen taste good is Pete’s Paleo.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: [laughs]
LIZ WOLFE: That is it. But like I’ll do the cauliflower rice and I mean, the cauliflower mashed potatoes. Let’s just stop lying to ourselves.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: It’s not cauliflower mashed potatoes. It’s just mashed cauliflower. So you just have to get over that.
LIZ WOLFE: But we both know that it is put out there as a substitute.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: It’s different, but I actually really like it.
LIZ WOLFE: No, you don’t.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: It has a very silky texture. I like it.
LIZ WOLFE: No. No. No, you don’t.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: It’s not potatoes. Nobody’s saying it’s potatoes. That’s like…
LIZ WOLFE: Everyone IS saying it’s potatoes. They’re like, mmm, my family couldn’t tell the difference. Well, about an hour later, when everybody is [laughs]…I’m just saying.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: You’re like, you’ll tell the difference. Give it time.
LIZ WOLFE: Yeah, exactly.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: It’s like turkey bacon vs. pork bacon. It’s a totally different animal. And turkey bacon is not bacon and shouldn’t exist. But cauliflower “mashed potatoes” is not a thing. It’s cauliflower mash or puree.
LIZ WOLFE: Yes.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: If you will. Which you won’t. I know you won’t.
LIZ WOLFE: No. No, I won’t.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Okay, so bone broth craze. What’s our final verdict on that whole situation in terms of like what’s blowing up out there?
LIZ WOLFE: I think it’s pretty dang cool because what I’m excited about is if this does blow up beyond our community is that it is an unexpected way to kind of get people talking about using the whole animal. And kind of a different food ethics. You never know what’s going to plant the seed with folks, and that could be really cool.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: That’s true. I think grass-fed beef kind of started to do that.
LIZ WOLFE: Yeah.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Like, that became a bit more popular. And I think Pacific, the company that makes a whole bunch of boxed broths, which I don’t really generally recommend. I don’t know what the deal is on their boxed broth. I think some folks have told me that it doesn’t gel even if you put it in the fridge, but I feel like that’s also a cue that it’s hitting a critical mass because they’re trying to package it, which at the end of the day, you know, if you want to use something like that in a recipe because you’re just like short on time, fine, but if you’re using it thinking it’s a healing food, I don’t really think that’s the same thing.
LIZ WOLFE: Yeah.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: I just don’t know.
[00:19:35] Q&A
LIZ WOLFE: All right, let’s move on to questions. And what we’re doing is kind of aggregating all these different questions we get about tactics for surviving the holidays, and we’re just going to talk about our own experiences and give some ideas for making it through New Year’s without losing your mind.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: [laughs]
LIZ WOLFE: And not surprisingly this will be a mix of practical advice but also our imploring people to just chill out a little bit because it’s going to be okay. It’s only like a month and it’s a wonderful opportunity to enjoy yourself with your family and you know, hopefully people will go easy on themselves. But we’ll talk about that specifically as we go. So the first topic that we’re going to tackle is the topic of family meals and how you two deal with family members that aren’t on board with your eating choices, family members that bring dishes that you can’t eat to holiday dinners, and the types of things that you bring to share with your families to try and get them in the Paleo/Real Food spirit.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: So our Paleo Thanksgiving was pretty much almost entirely made by me. My mom hosted us this year and my aunt and uncle were there and my grandma and a bunch of other people. But I actually made most of the food, which is kind of one tactic, I suppose, for keeping it pretty Paleo friendly. And you know, we ate the whole meal and really nobody even realized until the very end. I was like, well, I don’t even know how it came up about Paleo over the meal. At some point it came up, and I was kind of rolling my eyes because I don’t even really like to talk about it with my family. My parents know what I do, they’re supportive. They eat really well, but not everyone else who was at the dinner-there were maybe four or five other people, six other people at the dinner. It’s just not their thing, they’re not into it. But I just don’t talk about it. And the word came up, and I just said, well, this entire meal was Paleo. It’s really not a big deal. It’s just eating real food. You know, we just didn’t happen to have any bread and so that was kind of the situation there. And I make a stuffing that…I know a lot of people. They just feel like their stuffing, they’ll use a gluten free bread or grain free bread. I’m not really into buying gluten free bread. I don’t think it has any value. I don’t really care for it. I like things that I eat to all have like really rich flavors, and I think the bread is adding a texture component, sure, but it’s like neither here nor there to me. But I also can’t do the nut based breads because I really can’t do a lot of almond butter and cashew flour as I’m learning, although I don’t have an allergy to it. We’ll talk about this a little more later. It breaks me out. So I just kind of opt away from all of that. But what I can eat are chestnuts, which are an amazing seasonal ingredient. They’re very carby, so they’re really not that nutty and apples. So my stuffing has a lot of green apples that are peeled and then kind of a large dice, and when they get soft, they’re almost like a bread component. They just kind of soften and kind of become that…I don’t know. They almost look like bread when they’re combined with also the chestnuts. So I don’t know if everyone listening has ever had a chestnut, but chestnut is…it is kind of soft. I mean, have you eaten chestnuts, Liz? They’re like, not a water chestnut, but just a regular one. They’re…it’s like a medium kind of density texture. You know, it’s not crunchy like a nut, but it’s not totally carby like something that’s a pure starch might. And so they just give it a really good texture and everyone was eating the stuffing’s like this is delicious stuffing. Nobody had any idea. So that was kind of our dinner.
And then for dessert, one of my mom’s friends, she was very, very gracious. She was actually, for many years worked in microwave technology development, which, you know, although we don’t all use the microwave all the time in our own homes now, that’s pretty cool. And she worked on a lot of recipe development over a long period of time, and she brought flourless cake that she found on a Paleo website, and she just…that was really, really sweet of her. It was very, very gracious. She put raspberries on top of it. She’s a very long term friend of my mom’s, probably from before I was even born. And so it was super sweet of her, and she’s a really amazing woman, very kind and all of that. So that was really cool. And then my aunt brought a traditional apple pie. And so…and Scott and I made an apple tart, which I think if people were following on Instagram, it was a cashew crust and apple. And basically they were cutting the regular apple pie and then trying to share the knife, and like my little thing was, I was like, can you just…like they didn’t get that I really wanted them to keep the knife to themselves. I was like, just keep your knife over there. Like they were getting all confused thinking it was an issue of the chocolate and the apple mixing. I was like, no no, I just…I was trying to not say it, but I wanted to be like, I don’t want Scott to get glutened. He actually has a worse reaction than I do if he eats gluten. So I was like trying to get them to keep the knife separate, and then I just kind of threw my hands up. I was like, whatever. If we cut another piece, we’ll wipe off the knife. It’ll be okay. But it really wasn’t too tough for me and yeah, I do have some family members for whom, you know, they don’t get it or they just think it’s crazy or they think if you’re not celiac, why would you eat that way? And I’m like, well, you just ate that way. This whole meal was that way. You know? And was it really so bad? So I don’t know. That was kind of our Thanksgiving, and that’s pretty standard for me. It’s pretty standard in terms of what I do these days because I only live a few minutes from my parents, so I tend to cook the bulk of the meals even if I don’t host the meal. And that for me is the way to kind of get around all of it.
LIZ WOLFE: Agreed. That’s kind of how we did it, too. There’s really no…I mean, people get so hung up on the bread and the pie crusts and all that, but truly, if you just want to make sure it’s gluten free and free of like refined packaged crap like, you’re not going to go to the store and buy a box of this and a jar of that and dump them all together, like what would be the worst offender? Probably green bean casserole and stuffing, maybe? Maybe pie crusts?
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah, to use like the packaged…well, pie crusts…if somebody uses Crisco to make pie crusts…
LIZ WOLFE: Ugh.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Like that’s going to be…because pie crusts won’t generally be made with a liquid vegetable oil, so it’s not like they’re going to use corn oil, but they’re going to use a hydrogenated form of it because you want to use solid…I know this even though I hate baking.
LIZ WOLFE: Crisco is…I mean, Crisco is white margarine.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah.
LIZ WOLFE: That’s…actually, it’s probably worse than white margarine because they’re, right now, with margarine, they’re kind of using emulsifiers and stuff instead of trans fats, but Crisco, to my knowledge is still made from partially hydrogenated oil. I had a friend that sent me a text, was like, they’re making me make the pie crusts with Crisco because it’s made with pressed vegetables.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Oh my God.
LIZ WOLFE: Pressed vegetables?
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Is that what they’re calling it now?
LIZ WOLFE: I don’t know. That’s what these people called it. But sadly, she had to miss out on the pie because…
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Wait, that’s how people think that the vegetable oil’s made.
LIZ WOLFE: Isn’t it? Don’t they just take, you know, some
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Like celery?
LIZ WOLFE: like adorable elves and sit on the vegetables? And elves just kind of press it out? Don’t angel kisses have something to do with it? I don’t know.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Wow. So if anybody listening is totally new to this podcast and was like, what are they talking about? Go watch the video on YouTube, Canola Oil-How It’s Made. Vegetable oil is a seed oil. It’s made from the seeds of usually corn, canola, soybean; I don’t know why they’ll just call it vegetable oil. It may be a blend.
LIZ WOLFE: It’s a gimmick, man.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Well, yeah, but I mean, you know, I guess it just sounds healthier than calling it corn oil for people who are avoiding corn or soybean or what have you. So I think…and I think maybe you know, in parallel with the whole vegetarian movement coming up, I don’t know when it started. I want to say…I don’t know, 40 years ago? 50? 30? Not that long.
LIZ WOLFE: The last two things that you’ve talked about.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: What?
LIZ WOLFE: Vegetable oil and when vegetarianism kind of hit the scene.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Were in your book.
LIZ WOLFE: Were in Eat the Yolks.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: I forget.
LIZ WOLFE: They’re totally in there, and they’re funny.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Just tell me when.
LIZ WOLFE: With probably like the 1920s it started to emerge, but it only became a health trend probably over the last 50 years, 40 years maybe.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Wasn’t there one guy, John something?
LIZ WOLFE: Yes! John Harvey Kellogg.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yes! No! I thought there was a different guy who was really big in promoting vegetarianism, but I thought it was somebody else.
LIZ WOLFE: No, it was definitely John Harvey Kellogg.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Not Kellogg.
LIZ WOLFE: Have you read my book? [laughs]
DIANE SANFILIPPO: I think I like skimmed the galleys when you sent it to me the first time. I-listen. I admittedly, a. not a reader, and b. not a reader of content that I mostly know, so even if there were a few details that I should have read again…
LIZ WOLFE: Diane. Diane.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Have you read my book?
LIZ WOLFE: No.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Okay.
LIZ WOLFE: [laughs]
DIANE SANFILIPPO: See?
LIZ WOLFE: But I’ll get it when it comes out on audio.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: It will never be on audio. Is yours available on audio?
LIZ WOLFE: Yeah, that should have been like big news. I mean, you asked me what was going on with me.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: I forgot.
LIZ WOLFE: That’s what’s going on with me. Not any of that other garbage. So yeah, so the audio book of Eat the Yolks has been approved. Approved! And it is going to be probably hopefully on Audible before Christmas/New Year’s time.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: I’ll get it on Audible…
LIZ WOLFE: Yes.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yes, because I have listened to Bossypants too many times. So I need to listen to something else.
LIZ WOLFE: Yeah. You’ll want to listen to me probably because we don’t talk enough.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: [laughs] That’s cool, though. Yay.
LIZ WOLFE: Yay.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Congrats.
LIZ WOLFE: So anyway, family meals. I think contributing the dishes that you’re most excited about eating, like hey, I’ll make blah blah blah, is a great way to go. We did pumpkin pie with Primal Palate’s new crust that they just put up recently. Our friends Bill and Hayley at Primal Palate, and it’s actually made up of arrowroot, a bit of unrefined sugar, and a couple of other things, but I believe it is nut free. So that’s good news. It tastes amazing. It’s just like regular pie crusts, so maybe bring the pumpkin pie and the stuffing. We did…the menu I sent out, which I’ll send out again before Christmas had a sausage stuffing. There’s no bread in it.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Oh yeah, mine has sausage in it, too. I’m like.
LIZ WOLFE: That does it. But that’s the flavor.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: I like sausage stuffing.
LIZ WOLFE: It’s the flavors of sausage that actually make stuffing
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah.
LIZ WOLFE: They just started putting bread in it because it was bulk. It’s like putting corn flakes in meatloaf.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Mm-hmm.
LIZ WOLFE: You don’t need it.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah, it’s the sage and a little bit of that fennel flavor, but sage is really what makes stuffing…
LIZ WOLFE: Yeah.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: taste so good.
LIZ WOLFE: So just do that. Turkey is pretty safe. Mashed potatoes pretty safe. Make sure there’s butter on the table and just don’t stress about it. That’s my opinion. And if you’ve got really bad food allergies or food reactions and people don’t get that, that is their problem, not yours.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah, this is something that I talked about on, I know, a previous holiday episode we’ve done that, you know, was just slightly poo pooing the whole vegetarian movement just a moment ago. But a bunch of my family members were vegetarian for quite some time. My uncle, for a very long time, and then my sister. My cousin kind of dabbled a little bit, and you know, the upside of that, you know, for those of you again who are new to the show and haven’t heard me say this, is that it really kind of started planting the seed in people’s minds that not everybody might eat exactly what’s served all the time and of course, you know, when children are served food, it’s one thing that they are exposed to a lot of different things and don’t become overly picky because you’re afraid to serve them things, but I think as adults, I just think it’s the right thing to be respectful of people’s choices. And I actually think, you know, if we’ve got friends who we’re dining with and we want them to be respectful of our choices, then we can respectful of theirs, too. And just you know, not bring it up or not make a big deal if somebody doesn’t want to eat the turkey or doesn’t want to eat the sausage stuffing because they, you know, don’t eat pork but they eat turkey, etc. So you know, I think in a lot of ways in my family it’s something that we’re used to. There’s been a lot of sort of, you know, catering to each other’s dietary needs and also allergies. You know, when people know that I can’t eat nuts because it’s an allergy, they take it more seriously, and so…a little bit of the upside of that, I guess.
What about parties? What kind of advice do you have for parties? I think we had a couple of questions come in on this topic.
LIZ WOLFE: Yes. In particular, snacking at parties but also most of all drinking. So let’s talk about that. So with parties and snacking, I think the best thing that you can do…I mean, it is kind of that temptation where you’re mindlessly eating stuff because you’re standing there by some stuff. So my biggest thing is I…
DIANE SANFILIPPO: That’s how I always eat. Just there’s like food there and I just eat it.
LIZ WOLFE: Like you’re in the kitchen, there’s food in there, totally.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah.
LIZ WOLFE: But if it’s not the type of food that you would normally choose, and you don’t want to feel any worse on top of your drinking in the morning, I just say come to most parties already fed. You may have to wear an extra pair of Spanx if that’s the case, depending on what you’re planning on wearing, but I would say have a meal before you go and keep your hands full of maybe one water and one alcoholic beverage. It’s just one of those things. Don’t stand near the snack table if you’re really worried about it.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah, or stand next to the crudités so at least you can constantly chew on some veggies if there’s nothing else around. I mean, 9 times out of 10 there’s at least one thing at a party that you can snack on, so that’s something that I would definitely recommend, too. And you know, this kind of goes back to what we said about the full meal is to bring something if you can, and if not, just drink a little more? [laughs] I don’t know.
LIZ WOLFE: It’s just one of those things like that people worry a lot of times, I think maybe 75% because we’re told to worry and we’re really marketed this whole like “ugh, survive the holidays. Eat this diet that.” All these strategies that you need to make it, and really like you’re not making it. It’s just a time of year that’s really just great for enjoying yourself and your friends. So if you don’t come stressed, maybe you won’t be stressed. Maybe you won’t have such a hard time. I don’t know. That’s just kind of my hunch about things.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah. And I think, too, if you have allergies to certain foods, then sure, avoid them. But if there are some things, like I know for me over the years, you know, of course there’s always a cheese plate or little cheese cubes, etc., I’ll almost always indulge in a couple of bites of cheese because I love cheese. Everybody loves cheese. I know, I like on the edge. But that’s the kind of thing where you know, I just kind of weigh the consequences for myself, you know, if it’s going to be a couple of pimples, then so be it. And then, no big deal. But for me, you know, I can’t indulge in something that’s got walnuts on it. Like I just can’t eat that so you know, I think you can kind of make your choices that way, too, and just know how that’s going to feel thereafter. And if this is kind of your first holiday season, you’ve just gone Paleo within the last, you know, 3 to 6 months or something like, and this is totally new for you so you’re just kind of afraid of it, it could also be a good time to test eating something that you maybe would have eaten in the past and see how it feels for you. And I think one of the good things to keep in mind is that if you don’t feel like you get a reaction from it, it doesn’t mean that it’s like, oh free for all, I should eat brownies everyday now. It’s just…it’s like, great, like now I know that if I have a brownie, it’s not going to derail me. Or for some people, just eating you know a few bites of something that they don’t normally and that they react to, the next day they really, really feel it. And so you can just use it also as sort of a reintroduction time or a test time to see how those foods feel for you.
LIZ WOLFE: What about drinking? You’re not a big drinker.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: I’m not.
LIZ WOLFE: The more sugar in your beverage, the worse it’s going to be for you the following day.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Which those are the only ones I like, so this is why…We have…I’m looking over at our, I’m saying bar with like air finger quotes. It’s just this little sideboard table thing that I got at some point in time, and it’s now become a bar that we almost never…like if you came here for a party, and then came back six months later, it’s the same alcohol because we just don’t drink it. But we drink cider now and then, just kind of normally. Scott maybe a little bit more than I do. I just don’t do that great with alcohol. One drink or even less and I start to get stuffy, and so not like personality wise. Like my sinuses. So I don’t…I’m just not a huge drinker. But if folks are, I mean, yeah definitely the lower sugar drinks. Or just, you know, we also kind of have the either keep it gluten free or don’t. You know, it’s kind of your choice. But you can definitely…hard cider is more and more available kind of everywhere, so if you want a bottle of something, you know, you can kind of go for it. It’s not beer. You can definitely try that.
LIZ WOLFE: There’s some decent gluten free beers, too.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: What are your favorites?
LIZ WOLFE: Oh jeez, now I can’t remember the name. I can’t remember the name of this gluten free beer, but it’s becoming more of a thing, you know. So most pubs and breweries and stuff will have some kind of gluten free beer or cider at this point.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Oh yeah, cider is almost…I think the cider is almost easier to find than the gluten free beer.
LIZ WOLFE: Yeah, I would definitely say so. For me, I think like tequila or some kind of like potato vodka with soda and like a ton of lemon or a…
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Soda water you mean.
LIZ WOLFE: Yeah, soda water, not pop. Just depends on where you’re from. [laughs] Soda water, just fizzy water, is a good way to go because of course, the more sugars in your beverage, the worse it’s going to feel the next day if you overdo it. But if you’re overdoing hard liquor, that’s going to hurt, too. So I think diluting things is a good idea. However, I will say my husband loves like old fashioneds, which to me, if I had to drink something that was like all hard liquor and not shooting it, like college style, I would probably stand there all night nursing one.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Oh yeah.
LIZ WOLFE: Because it’s so disgusting.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah. I can’t drink like that. I guess the only other thing that I’m okay with now and then is like a glass of champagne. I do pretty well with champagne.
LIZ WOLFE: Oh, that kills me. It gives me such a headache. I can do certain kinds of wine, but I think one key is just to drink a ton of water as you go, whatever it is that you’re drinking.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah.
LIZ WOLFE: That really, really helps me, and something that I used to do [laughs] I would, like in college, I would drink just as much water as I possibly could down before I went to bed, and I might wake up a bunch of times during the night to go potty, but I always woke up feeling a little bit better.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah. I think, well, one of the big reasons why people feel super hungover is just they’re very, very dehydrated. And it’s definitely a myth that kind of eating bread to “absorb the alcohol” in your stomach. It’s like totally a non-existent physiological thing. Probably eating something fattier would slow the absorption of the alcohol more than bread because bread will be pretty quickly and easily digested vs. something with some fat. So that, if you’re trying to, you know, blunt the absorption, you might just want to eat kind of a regular meal. You don’t need to eat a baguette first [laughs]. Just, you know, just a thought.
LIZ WOLFE: It’s a good idea. We have to find the clip of Ron Swanson bringing hamburgers into everybody after they all got extremely drunk off snake juice in Parks & Recreation.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: I have…I really haven’t watched Parks & Rec and I have to because I also purchased Amy Poehler’s book on Audible, and I’m like, I’ve heard the beginning is a little slow, and I started listening to it, it’s a little slow, but I think if I watch the show and then listen to it, I’ll enjoy it more.
LIZ WOLFE: You’ll just love her. It’s a great show and that was a great episode.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: All right. Do you do…
LIZ WOLFE: [sings] First you take the cow to the killing floor!
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Oh my gosh. There was singing in it? Is this a musical show?
LIZ WOLFE: He…he goes…he goes, I brought burgers. Everybody eat up. The protein soaks up the alcohol.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: [laughs]
LIZ WOLFE: I don’t know. Ron Swanson. He’s the best.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: He’s an amazing character even though I haven’t watched the show.
LIZ WOLFE: Absolutely. He is an amazing…Him and Schmidt are modern, just going down in history.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Schmidt is genius. A genius character. I really…I am guessing that the actor, what is his name?
LIZ WOLFE: I don’t know.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Shoot. That, a lot of that is based on his personality…
LIZ WOLFE: Yeah.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: But obviously it’s very, very heightened. But you know, he really brings it. Anyway, it’s been good this season. What do you think?
LIZ WOLFE: I’ve been really excited about it, and I’m surprised we haven’t talked about it yet on the podcast.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: I’m surprised they haven’t kicked Winston out though. He still sucks.
LIZ WOLFE: I know. He still sucks.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Coach is definitely awesome. I love Coach.
LIZ WOLFE: I mean, the guy that plays Winston, like he does a solid job with what they’re giving him, but…
DIANE SANFILIPPO: It’s so bad though.
LIZ WOLFE: Come on. It’s not good.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: So bad.
LIZ WOLFE: It’s so bad. But I thought the whole like girl fight episode was a little weird, and also we’re supposed to think that that might be Schmidt’s baby, right? Nadia’s baby?
DIANE SANFILIPPO: I-I don’t know. That crossed my mind very briefly, but I think it’s been too long.
LIZ WOLFE: HAs it? Has it been that long since Schmidt broke his manhood? Probably. That was several seasons ago.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Probably. I don’t think they’re going to make that be a thing.
LIZ WOLFE: I hope not. I really hope not. I can’t go a day without CeCe! [laughs]
DIANE SANFILIPPO: I love that so much. I just…it just…it makes him so much more lovable, as if he wasn’t already, but you’re just like, look at him pining for her, and it’s like the cutest thing ever. I just love it.
LIZ WOLFE: Adorable.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: But they can’t let them get together again because it ruined everything for Jess and Nick. It was just terrible.
LIZ WOLFE: They just…everybody just needs to be friends with like peripheral people.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: And the tension needs to stay.
LIZ WOLFE: Yes.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: You know? until the last season when you decide it’s over, like on Friends, and like everyone’s together and…
LIZ WOLFE: Yeah.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: like fine. All right.
LIZ WOLFE: Jim and Pam getting together was a big mistake.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah, I needed to…
LIZ WOLFE: I checked out of The Office at about that point.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah, that needed to last a lot longer.
LIZ WOLFE: Yeah. All right, so what about a hangover cure? So I’ve heard people talk about taking some activated charcoal. You can get them in capsules after a night of drinking. I would tread carefully with that and definitely do a little Googling before you decide to do it, but I mean, that is basically what they use for alcohol overdoses in hospitals, is it not?
DIANE SANFILIPPO: I don’t know. I’m assuming that that might feel pretty harsh as a detox.
LIZ WOLFE: I would think so.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: So that might have to be saved for if you’re like really, really rough the next day. [laughs]
LIZ WOLFE: Perpetually and like repeatedly really just doing a number. And you know what? That’s another thing I wanted to point out. We had a question about basically kind of like perpetual overindulgence, like not just once or twice, but just like some people from Thanksgiving til New Year’s, they are just…
DIANE SANFILIPPO: If they’re invited to a lot of parties, they’re really popular.
LIZ WOLFE: Yeah. I can’t say I have that problem.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Oh [laughs]
LIZ WOLFE: But I mean, perpetual overindulgence…I actually kind of like the idea of a New Year’s Resolution to just like go back and fix things for the month of January, not in an obsessive, you know self-hating way.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah, draw a line. You know, like, I’m done with that.
LIZ WOLFE: Yeah. Done. I’m going to take some milk thistle. I’m going to make January like a really good reset month. Eat well, do well. Not with all the crazy self-judgment and like setting yourself up for failure, like most New Year’s Resolutions.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Yeah.
LIZ WOLFE: But once you’re done, you’re done.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: I mean, that inevitably that’s going to be the biggest 21 Day Sugar Detox that we have. And I like that you know, it’s kind of a group support and it’s not meant to be like a punishment, you know. Oh, you ate that, now you have to do this. It’s really just exactly what you said. It’s more like, all right, I just want to get myself back on track and you know, we do it all year, right? Like we run a group every month so that it’s not just this big deal thing just for January, but it is a clean slate for people. And I think you know, everything kind of shifts after the holidays for people in general, so you know, the celebrations kind of die down and things are calmer. People go back to kind of a normal work schedule, and it is a time of change just in our lives anyway. And so why not make your nutrition or, you know, I know gyms start really filling up in January. It’s…it’s okay. I feel like making…so let’s talk about resolutions then. We have just a few more minutes left and what, you know, what do you think about resolutions in general? Do you make any? Do you think you’ll make some this year? What’s your take on that?
LIZ WOLFE: We get this question every year, and I feel like every year I have a different feeling on it. It kind of depends on where I’m coming from.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: That’s good.
LIZ WOLFE: That’s the deal though. It depends on where you’re coming from. So if you spend a month going crazy or if you thought like the year prior was really bad, and you just feel that sense of motivation when you think about having a New Year’s Resolution? Go for it. However, I think putting a lot of pressure, a lot of just toxic self-judgment on yourself should you fail, which of course, the big New Year’s like sales pitch is like “Make a resolution and then you’re gonna fail, so you need this product as a safeguard against..” You know, like you’re going to be marketed a lot of stuff over the New Year, so pick something that sounds solid and sustainable. You know, join the 21 Day Sugar Detox group, and move forward without a whole lot of like hand wringing craziness if that’s what you’re going to do.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Mmm. Yeah, I think the other thing is if you’re thinking about something now that you’d like to make a resolution on, I have been talking about trying to improve my sleep for a long time. Because, you know, I’m going to say a couple things here. The first one is I’ve been talking about trying to improve my sleep because I really…I feel like I don’t sleep that well. I sleep okay. I don’t wake up that unrested compared to…you know, there was a night a couple months ago where for some reason I woke up at like 3:30 or 4, and I just stayed awake. And that next day I was like, oh this is what sleep deprivation feels like. Like it’s not my waking up at 6 or 7 and just feeling not that rested. It’s like that was totally different, so that was a different story. But one of the things that I did already about a week ago…because a couple weeks ago I had a sinus infection, it’s like my annual sinus infection, but it was not nearly as bad as last year’s when I felt like I was dying. Liz was here for part of that. [laughs] Oh, so bad. But maybe we’ll talk more about natural cold care and things like that in a future episode because I know that’s another hot topic. But I digress. So anyway, I think almost everyone when this happens when you get a cold or flu, whatever, you don’t really drink coffee because it’s just, I don’t know. You’re laying in bed and who needs a jolt when you just want to sleep. So I wasn’t drinking it, and then I had a week of being on tour and I think I was drinking it pretty much almost every day on tour, and then I came home, and I was just like, I think I just want to give up, you know, caffeinated coffee, and switched to decaf. And that for me was in an effort to have my sleep be better, even though I normally only drink one cup of coffee a day and it’s in the morning, and that one cup is usually like about 12 ounces, so that’s about a cup and a half, actually. Sometimes, once a week or so I might have one in the afternoon, if I know I’m going to the gym later. But for me, that’s…it’s not necessarily a resolution, but it’s something I know I want to effect change, you know, around very soon, and I think setting myself up now for success is kind of the point.
Like if you know you’re going to do a 21 Day Sugar Detox or you know, like a Paleo challenge or whatever, it’s not about like stocking your house right now with all the junky stuff or going overboard on everything. I actually think getting your head wrapped around the kinds of choices you’ll be making when you make that change, thinking about it now will prepare you because you’ll feel like it’s not so scary. You know, you’ve already considered well, if I can’t eat this, I’ll eat this instead. You know, you’ve just kind of mentally prepared yourself. Now I’m going to say this totally random about the whole sleep thing. I was watching a video with Tony Robbins, who’s definitely…it was Marie Forleo interviewing Tony Robbins, so if you didn’t watch it yet, Liz, I’m sure you’ll see it at some point. But he was talking about how he doesn’t really sleep that much, and he was like, I’ll sleep when I’m dead. He’s like, I’m one of those types. And he’s like I think we can gain energy from a lot of different things. He’s like, I know this because there are days when I just haven’t slept as much, and you know, this happens and you know, I’m fine and I’m energized, etc. But he was talking about like watching cartoons or something really mindless to help his brain kind of shut off and fall asleep. And I was like, that’s me! That’s exactly, so I felt totally validated and less like mad at myself for not being able to just close my eyes and go to sleep, like I assume the majority of people do.
LIZ WOLFE: That’s like saying sometimes LaBron James practices basketball.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: What?
LIZ WOLFE: No, like Tony Robbins is a just a freak of nature. [laughs]
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Maybe I’m a little bit of a freak of nature.
LIZ WOLFE: You might be, too. That’s true.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: He’s way more energized than I am, though. But that was a cool interview, so I was like trying to get some of his little tips in there for improving my energy. Anyway. Total tangent. But I think we have to wrap up this episode.
LIZ WOLFE: Yeah, we do.
[00:49:45] Interview with Randy Hartnell
DIANE SANFILIPPO: I recently sat down with Randy Hartnell, the president of Vital Choice, to have him answer some of the most frequently asked questions we get about seafood. Here’s a portion of my interview with Randy.
DIANE SANFILIPPO: Okay, Randy, so our listeners know that getting healthy seafood in their diet, getting their omega-3s is critical, but how can we help them do so if they’re looking to save a little bit of money or doing it on a budget? What are some recommendations that you have?
RANDY HARTNELL: Well, I really appreciate that question. That’s a subject that’s near and dear to my heart because I grew up in one of those families. And you know, probably one of the healthiest foods that you can find that is very, you know, reasonably priced. I always tell people it’s one of the healthiest foods in the grocery store, and that is canned sardines or canned wild salmon. And basically any canned salmon from Alaska is going to be wild. Sardines, you know, they’re inexpensive, they’re incredibly nutrient dense. You know, they’re little fish at the bottom of the food chain, so they’re some of the purest fish you can eat. And they’re just, they’re just packed with all kinds of good things. So and the one thing I’d like to say about sardines, you know, in our experience, is how they’re processed, how they’re packaged, the oils that are used in packaging can make a dramatic difference in the quality. For example, most people, many people if you try to offer them sardines, they’ll turn their nose up to them. But if you get a good quality sardine. For instance, we go to Portugal, we pack sardines fresh with organic extra virgin olive oil, and they’re just fantastic. And people are constantly surprised at just how good sardines can be. You know, if you find the ones that are taken, they come from good qual