Humarian Health

Today, our guest is Geoff Bond, author of Paleo in a Nutshell: Living and Eating the Way Nature Intended. Dr. Benzinger sits down with Geoff to discuss…

- Geoff’s upbringing, and how that informed his interest in eating well.

- How in the mid-2000’s, Paleo became the buzzword for the kind of thing he’d been talking about for 15 years.

- Paleo diet includes 75% plant food, 25% animal food, so what exactly constitutes plant and animal food?  What doesn’t?

- How much do people typically spend on food?  How much did they used to spend?

- How does a Paleo diet compare to a Mediterranean diet?  What about the Atkins diet?

Welcome back to part 2 of our talk with Humarian’s newest team member, veterinarian Dr. Julie Towle. In today's discussion, Amy and Dr. Benzinger talk to Dr. Towle about probiotics and pets. Here are just a few of the topics discussed:

- Why are there so many new pet products out now talking about prebiotics and probiotics?

- Probiotics can have a huge impact on the immune system for dogs and cats.

- Research for probiotics in animals is ramping up in veterinary medicine.

- What percentages of our pets are dying to cancer?

- People in the United States are conditioned to say, “give me a pill” to fix whatever health issue they’re having, and most typically do the same for their pets.

- Besides pets on antibiotics, when would Dr. Towle recommend probiotics for dogs and cats?

- How should a pet owner start a conversation about probiotics with their veterinarian?  What if their vet is skeptical?

Today, we are joined by the newest member of the Humarian team, Dr. Julie Towle, DVM, CVA, CVC, CVCH, CVTP. As you can see, Dr. Towle is a veterinarian with more titles and certifications than she can fit after her name!

Amy and Dr. Benzinger chat with Dr. Towle about her journey to become a veterinarian and her continued education thereafter. Talking points include…

- Why did Dr. Towle decide to pursue veterinary medicine after 15 years in the corporate IT world?

- How she was able to pay for most of her schooling by running the wildlife ward at the University of Illinois.

- How a napropath helped Dr. Towle through a serious injury when traditional medicine did not, and how she recovered from another near-fatal semi-truck accident.

- Her extensive education in traditional and alternative veterinary medicines, including studying veterinary spinal manipulation therapy (AKA animal chiropractic), ortho-bionomy massage classes, and moving to China for a time to study acupuncture, Chinese herbal therapy, and tui-na.

Today, our guest is Dr. Renee Default, the author of Unsafe at Any Meal: What the FDA Does Not Want You to know About the Foods You Eat.  Amy and Dr. Benzinger sit down with Renee to discuss…

- Her time as a former investigator at the FDA, why the FDA told her that she couldn’t post her findings on inorganic mercury or high fructose corn syrup, and why she made the decision to retire at the end of 2006.

- The responsibilities of the FDA and the implications they have on public food safety.

- The difference between US Pharmacopeia and the FDA.

- How other nations can elect to take the standards established by the FDA and make them more stringent, and why the United States chooses not to.

- Why some countries are starting to reject our food exports.

- Pesticides in our food, and how they linked to Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and a range of other issues.

- Which heavy metals are allowed in food ingredients at dangerous levels and what you can do to minimize your exposure to them.

- What you can do to deal with some of these issues at home.

- Mercury and high fructose corn syrup.

- The link between highly processed foods and type 2 diabetes.

We're excited to follow up with Jodi Smith, medical nutritionist with some listener Q&A! Check out this quick "podcast-let" and hearJodi Smith's responses to your questions. She touches on everything from Popeye (who eats canned spinach?!), sneaky veggie uses and how much water we should be drinking each day.

Here are the questions that started it all:

1. What are some easy ways for a busy family to prepare ahead for the week? Any tips?

2. When starting from the ground up with healthy eating, what are the top 3 things I could start with?

3. What are some good recipes for picky eaters?

Check out plateology.com for the recipes mentioned in this podcast and SO MUCH MORE!

Today, our guest is Jodi Smith, medical nutritionist and founder of plateology.com.  Amy and Dr. Benzinger sit down with Jodi to discuss…

- What exactly is a medical nutritionist?

- How nutrition relates to cancer

- Some of the largest risk factors for cancer

- Why doctors talk about healthy lifestyles, but often don’t know how to define it.

- Probiotics. This is one area where nearly all doctors are in agreement about the potential benefits. Jodi explains why.

- Why the best avenue of treatment is often to take the load off the body and give it what it needs to heal itself.

- Plateology.com, a website developed by Jodi Smith that provides access to individualized nutrition plan with specific, realistic goals aimed at transitioning to an improved lifestyle that will be able to be maintained.

- Why being unable to eat healthily due to financial reasons is a myth, and why plateology.com is tailor-made to provide the education necessary to do so.

Today, our guest is Debra Lynn Dadd, leading researcher, writer, and consumer advocate for products that are free from toxic chemicals. Debra has spent her life learning about common toxins in the household, the dangers everyday toxins can pose, and the best ways to create a toxin-free home. Amy and Dr. Benzinger sit down with Debra to discuss…

- The life events that set her on her crusade against toxic chemicals in consumer products.

- How she stopped her constant headaches by removing things like cleaning supplies and perfumes from her home.

- The first steps to take in removing toxic exposure from the home.

- Toxins in the household weren’t an issue a hundred years ago.  Why have these issues only arisen in the past several decades? 

- Shopping for household supplies is like walking through a minefield these days.  How can you arm yourself with the knowledge to make smart choices when shopping for products free from toxins?

We're excited to follow up with Dr. Rajiv Sharma, board-certified gastroenterologist with some listener Q&A! Check out this quick "podcast-let" and hear Dr. Sharma's responses to these questions:

1. Are their foods other than Kiefer and yogurt that are probiotic rich?

2. Is there such a thing as a bad probiotic?

3. I know there are a variety of supplements that people prioritize. Should a probiotic supplement be a priority for everyone young and old? 

4. We know that the delicious foods highlighted in your book are great maintaining a healthy gut. What are some of the most important foods to stay away from and why?

5. Are there any foods that are commonly perceived as being healthy that really aren't that great?

Today, our guest is board-certified gastroenterologist Dr. Rajiv K. Sharma, MD. Amy and Dr. Benzinger sit down with Dr. Sharma to discuss his book, Pursuit of Gut Happiness, a guide for using probiotics to achieve optimal health including why Dr. Sharma decided to use half of his book for recipes.

Some of the topics they discuss include:

• A broad overview of how gut flora benefits the gastrointestinal system

• The biggest factors that contribute to gut dysbiosis (an imbalance of bacteria in the gut flora)

• Why Dr. Sharma drinks a cup of kefir most mornings.

• How Dr. Sharma came to the conclusion that Leaky Gut Syndrome is a real condition, and how it can affect the body

• And finally, what does Dr. Sharma mean when he says, “you are what you eat, and you eat what you are”?

To close out our Frankenfoods journey, Amy and Dr. Benzinger take a trip to the grocery store. Ok, they don’t actually go to the the grocery store, but they do talk about why it’s best to shop around the edges of a grocery store, how to grocery shop for healthy food on a budget, and how to include your kids in the shopping process and teach them to make healthy choices.

Then they bring in Dr. Bentley to “gut check” their thoughts and pick his brain about how to make the best choices when grocery shopping, if there’s truth to the mentality that it's too expensive to eat healthily all the time, some of the most prevalent medical issues that people suffer from, and how someone could change how they look at grocery shopping to help address those issues.