It’s All About Food

Jade Koyle is President at Grand Teton Ancient Grains, /www.ancientgrains.com, a family-owned and operated farm, and mill committed to restoring ancient grains to the family dinner table. Koyle’s mission is to restore the finest organically grown ancient foods from around the world into our modern lifestyles. One of those ancient foods is Einkorn, the most primitive wheat available on earth. Einkorn contains a different type of gluten than modern wheat. As sixth-generation farmers, Koyle and his family cultivate their farmland using proven organic and biological methods that build up the soil and pack nutrition into the foods they grow. 

Marion Nestle is Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, Emerita, at New York University, which she chaired from 1988-2003 and from which she officially retired in September 2017. She is also Visiting Professor of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell. She earned a Ph.D. in molecular biology and an M.P.H. in public health nutrition from the University of California, Berkeley, and has been awarded honorary degrees from Transylvania University in Kentucky (2012) and from the City University of New York’s Macaulay Honors College (2016). In 2023, she was awarded The Edinburgh Medal for contributions to science and society.

Born in India, trained at the Institute of Culinary Education, Palak built her name winning Chopped and Beat Bobby Flay on Food Network. Her debut cookbook Food Is Love weaves plant-based, Indian-inspired recipes with the emotional language of food. Now, integrating principles informed by the Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN) and clinical collaboration with healthcare professionals, she brings that same joy into a wellness practice that helps people actually stick to the way of eating their body needs.

Urvi A. Shah, MD, MS, DipABLM is a lifestyle medicine certified hematologist, oncologist and physician scientist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Her research interests in studying the role of modifiable risk factors (diet, metabolism, and microbiome) in cancer prevention, treatment, and survivorship with a focus on myeloma. She leads the NUTRIVENTION dietary intervention trials which is a series of 6 trials in patients with cancer and precancer states. Results from the first NUTRIVENTION trial have been published in Cancer Discovery. This is the first trial that showed that a high fiber diet improves key cancer risk markers and may delay progression to the cancer myeloma in patients with precursor plasma cell disorders. Dr. Shah has published first author papers in prominent journals such as Cancer Discovery, Blood, and Clinical Cancer Research amongst others and has been an invited speaker and session chair nationally and internationally.

Dr. Shah has been supported by career development awards (National Cancer Institute [NCI] K12, International Myeloma Society and American Society of Hematology [ASH] Scholar) and research awards (ECOG ACRIN Young Investigator Translational Research, Henry Moses, Celgene Future Leaders in Hematology, NCI Early Investigator Advancement Program, Clinical Cancer Research Early Career, ASH David M. Goldenberg CRTI, 40 under 40 in cancer). Her research has been funded by multiple foundations (Blood Cancer United, Gabrielle’s Angel, Allen, Riney, HealthTree, Society of MSK, Comedy vs Cancer and Willow Foundations).

Links mentioned in the podcast:

Fran Costigan, Your Oven is Lying to You! Are Veggies Safe to Eat? Long-time friends catching up on the news.

Kirk Charles is on a mission to get America in tip-top shape. A NASM Certified Personal Trainer since 2010 with over 13,000 sessions under his belt, Kirk credits 30+ years of plant-based eating for his success. In 2021 he founded Fit Beyond 40, coaching the mature generation through exercise and plant-based nutrition. He's the author of two books, a former Men's Health columnist, and creator of Bike America, a 1,000-mile annual ride promoting cardio health. Kirk is a Rutgers graduate based in Montclair, New Jersey. More at https://www.kirkcharles.com/.

This episode looks at four food stories through one lens — who decides what counts as "good" food. It covers how hot dogs are made and their real cancer risk, plus vegan and carrot-based alternatives; the Coney Island eating contest and what it says about our relationship with unhealthy food; a critique of the National Food Museum's diet scorecard, which penalizes skipping dairy/fish and eating more produce; and Europe's falling meat consumption alongside its fight over labeling plant-based "burgers" and "sausages."