There’s one thing that can help support your liver in clearing toxicants and excess hormones  more than anything on this planet. It’s not a cleanse, it’s not an herb, but the time-tested longevity-boosting food as medicine: BEANS. As the richest natural source of soluble fiber, beans are truly the magical “fruit,” but what’s really happening on a cellular level when we up our fiber? How do beans even bind to those toxins in the first place? How can they also lower the dreaded stress hormone, cortisol, with their binding power?! I’m excited to follow up our Season 2 convo with Unique Hammond with this week’s episode. Get ready to meet Unique’s mentor & the “Bean Queen” herself: biochemist & nutritionist Karen Hurd. We’re talking about exactly *how* soluble fiber removes toxins from the body (including where, why and how your body releases the bile they’re contained within), how many health concerns it can improve (including endometriosis and PCOS), and how easy it is to incorporate this healing tool into your daily life. Psst: This is the convo that inspired me and my producer to give up caffeine—find out why and the strong opinions Karen has to express about stress hormones and our daily cup of joe. Let’s get juicy! Connect with Karen Hurd HERE  Shop my herbal formulas HERE  Revisit my convo with Unique Hammond  HERE 

S3E03. BEANS, HIGH CORTISOL AND CAFFEINE - how beans can bind and lower stress hormones + breaking down the biochemistry with “Bean Queen” Karen Hurd

Welcome to the juiciest conversations in wellness with Olivia Amitrano, founder of Organic Olivia. “What’s The Juice” is a podcast as multifaceted as its listeners — a fierce community on a courageous path of self improvement, learning, and healing. Here we share conversations that bridge traditional wisdom and modern science, offering a balance of tangible advice and perspective-shifting philosophies that will optimize your health and change the way you see the world.

One week we’ll spill the (herbal) tea on functional medicine for hormone imbalance, while the next we’ll dive deep into psychedelic assisted therapy, codependency and learning how to say no.

Olivia is a clinical herbalist, formulator, entrepreneur, and, most notably, an educator. Each episode is an opportunity to synthesize her education in herbalism, psychology, and a lifetime of health issues into actionable tips on how to not only heal but thrive. Interviews with doctors, therapists, holistic practitioners, astrologers, artists, and storytellers are brimming with raw, human moments and empowering information. Candid and ever curious, Olivia is on a mission to understand the human condition and share what she learns along the way. Above all, her goal is to connect you with the paradigms, practitioners and teachers you can rely on to help get you to the next level. Peeling back the layers isn’t always pretty, but the juice is worth the squeeze.

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When was the last time you did a radical 180 about a long held belief? Today I’m sitting down with a brilliant dentist who was once picketing in the streets for water fluoridation — yet was courageous enough to change her mind and speak out once she dug into the data once and for all. Meet Dr. Staci Whitman, a board-certified dentist who takes a whole-body, holistic and functional approach to oral health. In this episode, Staci unpacks the surprising factors that contribute to the decline of our oral health including mouth breathing, hormones, and gut dysbiosis. She explains why these underlying root causes are ignored by conventional dentistry and exactly what we need to be asking about and advocating for at our dentist appointments.   HERE’S THE JUICE:   Functional vs. conventional dentistry and the importance of both   Why dental professionals haven't introduced oral microbiome testing as a baseline for all patients    How hormone imbalance is leading to an increase in cavities in women and the signs to look for in prevention   What LPS is and how it contributes to pathogenic bacteria overgrowth   The fact that we aren’t taught about healthy bacteria and are encouraged to wipe out all our bacteria with products like Listerine    Why dentists are sometimes the first people to diagnose Crohn's disease and how your oral health can inform gut health   What a cavity is and how it forms   When we may be able to repair cavities without requiring fillings   Why mouth breathing is so detrimental to our oral health and how to retrain yourself into healthy breathing habits    Resources and recommendations for the products and services we should be talking to our dentist about to be proactive about our oral health     Watch the full episode on What’s The Juice YouTube Channel   To support our ad-free show, shop Olivia’s line of herbalist-formulated supplements for digestion, anxiety, thyroid support, and more by visiting www.organicolivia.com.    Connect with Staci:  Website   Instagram  Oral Microbiome Reset Course  Her Kid's Dental Practice  Connect with Olivia:  Follow Organic Olivia   Olivia’s personal IG  Organic Olivia on TikTok  Read Olivia’s blog posts

S5E16 Mouth Breathing, What Your Dentist Isn’t Telling You & The Truth About Fluoride | Dr. Staci Whitman

Statistically, there are 15 core people in our lives who will show up when sh$# hits the fan – our mother’s funeral, a cancer diagnosis – they’re on the next plane. What if instead of filling our schedules working towards buying more things, we spent time nurturing the relationships that are truly all we have? In a modern day loneliness epidemic, lack of connection is becoming a disease, but our generation can turn it around. Sah D’Simone is here to say that even though relationships are hard, families are messy, and conflict is scary, this is the only path back to love and longevity. Sah is a spiritual leader, hospital chaplain who supports those at the end of life, and international best-selling author of Spiritually We. In this episode, he breaks down how to increase our capacity so that we can hold space for our people and right our relationships.   HERE’S THE JUICE:   Why human connection is a basic biological need (and how we’ve gotten so far away)   Why pop psychology is doing us a disservice by teaching us to cut off relationships with conflict instead of learning to face it   The difference between how easy it is to be spiritual alone in meditation vs. at the family dinner table when triggers come up   How to nurture true connection over complain culture and trauma-bonding relationships   Why your closest relationships are often the most triggering      How to live with integrity and what a lack of integrity looks like in your closest bonds   Why “conflict is your lovers” how to resolve conflict in a healthy way   Why time away from your parents may be necessary to grow and heal, but the goal is to always bring it back around   Why intellectualizing your feelings and making meaning keeps you from feeling your feelings   How to support someone in grief and the magnitude of holding space for loss      Watch the full episode on What’s The Juice YouTube Channel   To support our ad-free show, shop Olivia’s line of herbalist-formulated supplements for digestion, anxiety, thyroid support, and more by visiting www.organicolivia.com.    Connect with Sah: Website  Instagram Youtube  Connect with Olivia: Follow Organic Olivia  Olivia’s personal IG Organic Olivia on TikTok Read Olivia’s blog posts

S5E15 The Man Who Sits with Death on Why Relationships Make a Life | Sah D'Simone

What does “good nutrition” actually mean – and why have we built a BILLION dollar industry that only makes us more confused about how to feed ourselves? Why is it that one day the internet is telling you to be a raw vegan, and 5 years later carnivore is suddenly a panacea? Shyla Cadogan is a registered dietitian focused on making nutrition simple again. Shyla explores the extensive impact that processed foods have on our bodies, while at the same time not putting perfection, whole foods or ‘superfoods’ on a pedestal. She brings some much needed nuance (and humor) to the question: what the heck should I eat and who should I listen to?   HERE’S THE JUICE:  Shyla’s transition from intense vegan diets to an unattached, simple way of fueling The importance of finding the middle ground with nutrition rather than opting into extremes Why nutrition professionals have a duty to keep things professional rather than trying to be cutting edge or go viral How the concept of intuitive eating has gotten warped and why most of us are practicing it all wrong and feeling bad about it How you can be anti-diet-culture and still not eat a lot of processed foods Why Shyla says “a true relationship with food is having no relationship with it at all” The importance of not shaming people for being imperfect in their health decisions and educating in a considerate manner The history of “superfoods” and why the term is a bit of a scam The distrust that the public currently has in dietitians (ie. thinking they’re paid by big pharma!) How processed foods were originally created for war times and food corporations have used that opportunity to exploit us How cultural foods play a role in healthy eating    Watch the full episode on What’s The Juice YouTube Channel   To support our ad-free show, shop Olivia’s line of herbalist-formulated supplements for digestion, anxiety, thyroid support, and more by visiting www.organicolivia.com.   Connect with Shyla:  Follow her on Instagram  Sign up for her newsletter  Connect with Olivia:  Follow Organic Olivia   Olivia’s personal IG  Organic Olivia on TikTok  Read Olivia’s blog posts

S5E14 A Real Conversation About Wellness Extremes, Cure-All Diets & How to Actually Find Balance | Shyla Cadogan, RD

Are you struggling with chronic, unexplained symptoms that no treatment seems to alleviate (and actually makes worse)? Do you feel like your body reacts abnormally to stress or changes in your environment with ‘flares’ of symptoms that come in cycles? Understanding histamine intolerance, also called MCAS or Mast Cell Activation Syndrome may help guide you in the right direction. Michelle Shapiro is a functional dietitian who has helped over 1000+ clients reverse their anxiety and heal long-standing gut and immune issues. In this episode, Michelle unpacks what it means to live in a highly sensitive body (spoiler, she lives in one!) and shares hopeful solutions for those of us who struggle with largely ignored autonomic disorders such as MCAS, POTS and hypermobility. Join the Highly Sensitive Body (HSB) Hub HERE’S THE JUICE:   Michelle’s own story of being sick with a mysterious cluster of symptoms after COVID and mold exposure (and how she healed)   What MCAS is, the symptoms caused by histamine intolerance and why it’s SO hard to get diagnosed   The connection between long COVID and MCAS that’s not talked about   Why MCAS is really a physical “allergy to stress” and nervous system disorder that pushes the immune system into overdrive   How seemingly healthy treatment plans actually make things worse in people with histamine issues   What it might mean if you get dizzy easily, have trouble concentrating or experience a racing heart   Why hypermobility, POTS and MCAS often go together   How histamine intolerance magnifies anxiety, depression, ADHD and PMDD in women   Michelle’s loving approach to healing histamine issues and supporting your body gently   The exact foods to avoid if you have histamine intolerance and how to reduce flares    Her favorite supplements and herbs that can lower histamine levels   How to strength train in a way that doesn’t cause more harm    Why we can’t completely discount pharmaceutical tools like antihistamines when initially healing   The next steps to take if you think you may have a highly sensitive body     Watch the full episode on What’s The Juice YouTube Channel   To support our ad-free show, shop Olivia’s line of herbalist-formulated supplements for digestion, anxiety, thyroid support, and more by visiting www.organicolivia.com.    Connect with Michelle: Join the Highly Sensitive Body (HSB) Hub Get 1:1 support from Michelle and her team Follow her on Instagram  Listen to the Quiet the Diet podcast  Connect with Olivia: Follow Organic Olivia  Olivia’s personal IG Organic Olivia on TikTok Read Olivia’s blog posts

S5E13 Why Histamine Intolerance May Be at the Root of Your Unexplained Symptoms | Michelle Shapiro, RD

Are you curious why autoimmune conditions are so prevalent these days? Do you have a history of trauma that you believe is connected to your autoimmunity? Sara Gottfried MD is a scientist, researcher and seeker who takes a whole-person approach to medicine. Sara goes way beyond supplements and nutrition to address the root causes of autoimmunity, helping us heal the trauma and other triggers that may have turned our bodies against us.    HERE’S THE JUICE:   Why autoimmunity is on the rise in today’s world    The specific lab markers to run if you suspect you may have an autoimmune condition    How loneliness and loss of community impacts our immune systems   The 3 root causes that she sees in ALL autoimmune conditions    The massive role that trauma plays in autoimmunity and how to start addressing it   How to properly and safely use elimination diets   What the conventional treatment to autoimmune disease looks like vs the functional approach    The importance of finding practitioners who have regulated nervous systems and are deeply present with you   Why psychedelic assisted therapy can help us get into a healing state of consciousness   3 things people can do starting TODAY to improve immunity and nervous system health   How to practice embodiment and feeling safe on your own     Watch the full episode on What’s The Juice YouTube Channel  To support our ad-free show, shop Olivia’s line of herbalist-formulated supplements for digestion, anxiety, thyroid support, and more by visiting www.organicolivia.com.    Connect with Sara: Website InstagramHer New Book: “The Autoimmune Cure”  Connect with Olivia: Follow Organic Olivia Olivia’s personal IGOrganic Olivia on TikTokRead Olivia’s blog posts  

S3E03. BEANS, HIGH CORTISOL AND CAFFEINE - how beans can bind and lower stress hormones + breaking down the biochemistry with “Bean Queen” Karen Hurd

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