Dr. Justin and Dr. Baris interviewed Caitlin Weeks of Grass Fed Girl, a holistic lifestyle coach, certified nutrition consultant, a fulltime blogger, and author of cookbooks including the latest Mediterranean Paleo Cooking.
In this podcast, discover the common Mediterranean cooking spices such as cinnamon, cumin, cilantro and many other herbs that add freshness and unique flavor to dishes. Learn why eating organ meats and offal can be beneficial to one's health. Caitlin also talked about the difference between Mediterranean Paleo and Mediterranean Diet as well as how to make super easy Paleo gelatin treats.
In this episode we cover:
08:27 Mediterranean spices and flavorings
14:07 Organ meat health benefits
17:34 Mediterranean Paleo
21:49 FODMAPs and AIP
27:00 Resistant Starch
32:31 Low Carb
40:02 Easy Paleo treats
Baris Harvey: Welcome to another episode of Beyond Wellness Radio. Today we have an awesome interview with Caitlin Weeks of grassfedgirl.com. But first, how is it going today, Dr. Justin?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Baris, it is going great today.
Baris Harvey: You know what I realized, we interviewed Steve Wright last week and when we started asking this question to each other like, “Oh, what was your breakfast?” We should have asked him because that is where we got the idea from.
Caitlin Weeks: (Laughs)
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I know.
Baris Harvey: So I just want to give credit to him real quick.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Absolutely.
Baris Harvey: So real quick what did you have for breakfast?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Today I just had some grass fed whey protein and some collagen and some Bulletproof Coffee. It is kind of a low-key day. I am going to a Brazilian Steak. I was here in Austin for lunch. So I get to have some really good steak. And they have yucca rolls which are grain-free.
Caitlin Weeks: (Laughs)
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: But I still feel like I am having the roll. So I am super excited for that today. How about you, Baris?
Baris Harvey: Awesome. I made a bunch of burgers yesterday that were delicious. I got full pretty quick so I had a bunch of leftovers. And I was like, you know, I am going to save that for lunch. So I ended up kind of doing something similar to you.” I had some like Chameleon Cold Brew coffee and my protein shake and some Maca powder and some raw eggs and all kinds of like an awesome elixir kind of protein shake in my shaker cup.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Nice.
Baris Harvey: So let us bring on our guest.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh, I just want to interject one more thing, Baris.
Baris Harvey: Yes.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I just put a new feature on the Beyond Wellness Radio site. If anyone wants to literally ask a question, there is a button where you can speak your question and then we will record it and then we will play the question on the radio show and be able to answer it. That is another little new feature that I just added up recently. So I want all the listeners to know about that.
Baris Harvey: Oh, yes. Definitely. Go over there and ask a question. You can go to beyondwellnessradio.com to ask a question and we will be there for you. So our guest today is Caitlin Weeks. She is from Grass Fed Girl. She is a nutritional consultant who graduated in 2010 from Bauman College in Berkeley and specializes in thyroid health, weight loss and blood sugar regulation. She can tell her story a little bit better. So Caitlin, how is it doing today?
Caitlin Weeks: Hi Baris, it is nice see you at the AHS.
Baris Harvey: Yes, definitely. And we talked a little bit and we are going to go over a lot more in today's podcast about the book that you guys are working on, you and your husband. Are you guys into the final edits?
Caitlin Weeks: We have been in the final edits for since like six weeks. (Laughs)
Baris Harvey: Laughs
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Laughs
Caitlin Weeks: Every week is like this is the last chance.I think really this is at the end of August that it is going to print. So I am excited about that.
Baris Harvey: You are going to take a much needed vacation?
Caitlin Weeks: Yes, we are going to Algeria and Morocco for five weeks to see my husband's brother who is getting married. So we are going to see all that, go down and experience the real Mediterranean culture.
Baris Harvey: Exactly.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Very cool.
Baris Harvey: Sounds great. Well first of all, kind of like the obligatory question that we must know, what is your story? How did you kind of got into the health field? And what were like some of the challenges that you faced in the past that kind of brought you along in this way?
Caitlin Weeks: Well, thanks for asking. I grew up in Nashville in the south and kind of typical, you know, we had pretty good food but, you know it is pretty standard American diet. And my parents got divorced when I was really little and I think I just kind of turned to food for comfort. I was a chunky kid all the way until college. And in high school, I was yo-yo dieting and doing diet coke and lean cuisines and you know massive bad things when you are in the developmental phase.
Baris Harvey: Uh-hmm.
Caitlin Weeks: Then I went to college and then I decided I just wanted to enjoy myself. So I let go of all the dieting. And by the end of college I got up to 240 pounds. So then when I got out I decided I was going to lose weight and I lost weight at Weight Watchers. And yes, I think I learned some good things there. But there was a lot of negative things like eating packaged foods. But it will teach to you how to like plan out your meals and kind of plan ahead and put yourself kind of first and make time for exercise. So I did learn a few good things there. So I lost a lot of weight so I was feeling good and I wanted to move to California. So I moved to California and met my husband. And I had a real passion for exercise so I went to a personal training institute here in San Francisco. And that was really a good experience. Then I became a trainer and I worked for seven years as a trainer. But always during that time, I was really, really interested with nutrition. With my clients, that is all I really wanted to talk about it with them. So I finally said, “Well, I think I should follow this up.” And I went to Bauman and I learned a lot more about holistic nutrition. And then I started Grass Fed Girl because I wanted to share the knowledge that I was getting. And around that same time when I was in school I got diagnosed with Hashimoto's and you know I think that that was kind of brought on by eating kind of a pescetarian, vegetarian diet and a lot of over exercise with you know, kind of marathon running kind of stuff. So I really wanted to show people that if you follow the mainstream advice it can really hurt you.
Baris Harvey: Uh-hmm.
Caitlin Weeks: So that is kind of what I wanted to share in my grassfedgirl.com page.
Baris Harvey: Yes, definitely.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Very cool. Very cool. So Caitlin, I am on your site right now, grassfedgirl.com/cookbook and I am taking a look at the New Mediterranean Paleo Cookbook cover, it is really cool. And I am just curious, you know outside of like the obvious things, what makes the Mediterranean Cookbook, like what spices, what flavorings and what things are brought to it that makes it really that Mediterranean vibe?
Baris Harvey: Yes. And real quick just to add in on top of that question, also your husband, Nabil who is on this cookbook, also offering like what are some of the things that he is adding into it?
Caitlin Weeks: Well, my husband while I was doing nutrition school he was in chef school. And he went to a chef school here in the city and he learned a lot of things. So he was always home sick and I always wanted to help him being a homesick because he came to this country in 2004. And so I was trying to make his meals that he could make of course, but I did not want him always eating at his friend's houses and stuff to make himself feel better. So I was trying to re-create his meals. So he just started teaching me. The spices that we use are really, it is amazing that you use cinnamon for everything.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Interesting.
Baris Harvey: Laughs.
Caitlin Weeks: So I think in this country we always think of cinnamon as a sweet thing.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Baris Harvey: Uh-hmm.
Caitlin Weeks: But they use cinnamon with meat.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-hmm.
Caitlin Weeks: A whole lot. And it is just amazing. It adds so much to flavor. So that is a big one. Cumin is one that they use a lot. I never use cumin, a lit bit maybe like in chili or something but not to the extent that they do. Also cilantro is one that they really use a lot of. We can kind of think of it more as a Latin spice here or as an herb. So that really adds so much freshness, especially fresh herbs are full of antioxidants and you can add them. Usually we top almost everything with fresh cilantro and some parsley. The country where he is from is a former French colony. Algeria was occupied by France for 130 years up until 1962. So it has a big French influence. So there is some of that you will see in our book. My husband speaks fluent French, too. So you will see that influence in some. We have like a Bearnaise sauce, a Hollandaise, there's French Onion Soup. There are certain things that crossover like that. There are a lot of figs and dates are common. We have a lot of olives, a lot of olive oil and sea salt. There are a lot of blends. We teach you how to make your own spice blends in the back. There are five or six different spice blends. We teach you how to make your own Harissa, so there are a lot of peppers and hot peppers. Harissa is a kind of a hot sauce. It is very hot. But you can just use a tiny little bit and it goes one way or you can blend the similar spices and use that as a slow cooked method.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That is cool. One of the biggest things I see especially with my patients is people get tired of the typical blend paleo or grass fed meat or vegetables And they are just choosing their vegetables and their fat, maybe a little bit of spice on top of it. It seems like you are getting a lot more variety with this type of, you know, type of style of cooking. And I am just curious, how much of these recipes came from Nabil's training in cooking versus how much were passed down to him by his family?
Caitlin Weeks: Well, I think most of it was coming from his mother. I mean, we actually went last year and we stayed for a couple of weeks and everything his mother cooks was bone-based. So everything she had was meat on the bones starting as stock and it is simmered slowly. And that is just normal. So it is basically like a broth-based soup every single thing. It adds so much flavor. It makes it so comforting.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Caitlin Weeks: And you know there are so many more minerals and vitamins that come out when you are using bones.
Baris Harvey: Uh-hmmm. A lot of traditional wisdom right there.
Caitlin Weeks: Yes. And it helps to digest also the protein. It stimulates stomach acid to help digest the protein.
Baris Harvey: Yes, definitely. And like Dr. Justin mentioned some people get bored of the bland just generic, “All right, I am just going to throw a couple of spices on here.” And there is a lot more flavor in the book. I love this quote that people talk about herbs and spices like it is the friend of the physician and the praise of cooks because now you are adding in different micronutrients and things that I have seen people go to the store and buy cayenne capsules or all these different things for the thermogenic effects. Or buy these herbs for the detox. But I mean, you can put it in your food and eat it and enjoy it and have the health benefits. But also it makes your food taste a lot better and you will love and actually enjoy and have a better relationship with your food as well.
Caitlin Weeks: Absolutely. We use a lot of saffron in the book and that is known to be an appetite suppressant. (Laughs)
Baris Harvey: Laughs
Caitlin Weeks: The other thing about our book is that we use so many different spices that maybe you have not seen before in the stores such as, we also use a lot of turmeric because our book has a lot of AIP modifications. So a good substitute for cumin which is a sea bass spice is turmeric. So you will see a lot of turmeric. And you know, we all know that is such a powerful anti-inflammatory.
Baris Harvey: Uh-hmm. Exactly. With turmeric you get that natural curcumin in the body.
Caitlin Weeks: Right.
Baris Harvey: And you also talked about having everything almost like based around stocks and broths. And you mentioned a little bit about the healing property, how it helps digest proteins as a protein sparing effect. There are some other traditional foods that you have in there as well like organ meats and offal and we usually in this country like steer far away from that. Sometimes even hard to find that at stores even natural food stores, like it is hard to find organ meats. Could you mention maybe some of the ways to incorporate it into our diets? And also talk about the benefits and why we should eat organ meat?
Caitlin Weeks: Sure. So we have about ten offal recipes in our book. (Laughs)
Justin Marchegiani: Laughs
Baris Harvey: Awesome offal.
Caitlin Weeks: Yes. We have some meatloaf. We have several different ways to cook grilled liver and heart and tongue, so we call it the Odd Bits section.
Baris Harvey: Uh-hmm.
Caitlin Weeks: We have oxtail. So these are parts with a lot of gelatin. And also liver is the most beneficial food in the whole world. It is full of B vitamins.
Baris Harvey: Uh-hmm.
Caitlin Weeks: And you know it has a lot of iron. When I was in Algeria, every meal I was almost offered liver. (Laughs)
Baris Harvey: Uh-hmm.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Wow!
Caitlin Weeks: I like liver. I like beef liver, I like chicken liver. So I was just surprised that, you know, when you walk on the street, there are constantly places selling grilled liver on skewers. So it is kind of a street food that you just kind of pick up the skewer and just eat it. So I was really excited that, it is such a normal thing. And most people there they do not say, “Oh, I hate liver.” I mean the little kids in my husband's family, has nephews and nieces, they were just eating it like it was nothing and they did not have like, “Oh, my God!' It's liver, gross!”
Baris Harvey: (Laughs) I wish that was me. And we had this kind of thing like it is gross. I just think we have a disconnect of like where our food comes from. And it is funny because people see or actually see the animal when they go to one of these smaller, like I see it often in little grocery stores where it actually have like a cow and you will see the cow head and the tongue will be sticking out and people would be like, That's so gross!” It is like, “Where did you think your meat come from in the first place?”
Caitlin Weeks: I know. It is like just, “Oh, it is all wrapped in plastic so it is okay.” We do not want to get our hands dirty or anything.
Baris Harvey: Exactly.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: It's definitely a disconnect. And when you mentioned liver there, Caitlin, I know like a lot of the research that looks at nutrient density they penalize liver because it is high in saturated fat. But when you look at like the nutrient density scores, liver like crushes everything. But then once it is readjusted because it has the so-called bad saturated fats other things come above it. So it is kind of leading me into my next question which is typically your Mediterranean Diet which is focusing on monounsaturated fats like olive oil and avocado and it tends to focus on like whole grains and such. Can you tell us how your Mediterranean Paleo version is different than your typical so-called Mediterranean diet?
Caitlin Weeks: Sure. We have olive oil in our book but it is not the main thing. We recommend cooking with coconut oil or butter or ghee. We have a ghee recipe for you. So, those are the ones that are more heat stable to cook with. We do have olive oil a few times as a marinade on things but we try not to use it as a main cooking fat. I mean because that is not how we cook. I was noticing when I was there, if you go to the restaurants, they have a lot of outdoor grilling areas and they just have this giant piece of fat that looks like beef fat. And they just kind of beat it against the grill plate so it is melting, you know.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Caitlin Weeks: So that is like their traditional cooking fat is.
Baris Harvey: And do they just have something that is just like catching it?
Caitlin Weeks: I mean it is just kind of you know, it does not melt all the way, it is just, you know, I just noticed there is a big piece of meat fat.
Baris Harvey: Oh, yes, yes.
Caitlin Weeks: And they just kind of rub it around on there. I just thought that it was so different from here where people are using Canola Oil spray, something like that. I think when you start with the meat on the bones, you know, you get so much fat in your food from that. You know, my husband, I would ask his mother what did she used to do. She said, “Oh, we always use fat from the animals to cook with.” They did not have vegetable oil when she was a kid.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Caitlin Weeks: And she grew up in the mountains in what we would think of as like a homestead. So she did not have access to a vegetable oil at all. And you know, we all know that vegetable oil was not even widely produced until like the 20's or 30's in America. Before that, people had to use the fats that they have around them. She said they did not use olive oil to cook with. They use it more as a dressing or as a marinade, something as a finishing.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So, definitely it sounds like you are kind of re-evolving the whole Mediterranean diet and you are adding definitely some nuance to it. And definitely adding in some of the saturated fats which I feel are really important for blood sugar stabilization as well and really keeping those sweet craving down, too.
Caitlin Weeks: Absolutely. I mean I was reading about Ancel Keys, he was really the one who kind of started this idea of the Mediterranean diet and the things that he was finding, I think it had been perverted over the years.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-hmm.
Caitlin Weeks: I mean people did not eat Canola oil in Sicily, you know, a long time ago. So I think and people long time ago, let us talk about post-World War II or World War I. I mean there were famines, people would not have been skimming the fat off their milk and throwing it away, you know.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Absolutely. That makes sense. And then looking at the options that you have, because I have a lot of patients that have gut infections, that have SIBO or small intestinal bacterial overgrowth and need like an autoimmune type of template. You know what that really is for our listeners, that is cutting out the eggs, its cutting out the nuts, the seeds, the night shades the tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, peppers. And the FODMAPs are specific fermentable sugars in some of the carbs even healthy carbs like broccoli or Brussels sprouts or asparagus that can cause GI upset. So I know you have added a couple of layers to the book where you can start pulling those things out. Can you talk to me about your experience with FODMAPs and AIP and kind of how you have integrated that into the book?
Caitlin Weeks: Yes, well we did a lot of AIP modifications in the book. I was trying to label all the recipes for AIP and I just kept learning about it and so I thought, “Well, I am going to do it.” So I did it for all of June and July and so far all of August and..
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: How is it going so far?
Caitlin Weeks: Yes, I noticed some feeling of a lot less bloating and a lot less kind of tension in my shoulders and a lot less joint pain. So I think that there is really something to it. And you know, it is just kind of a level of, I do not know, you feel like clean or something. (Laughs) And I really enjoyed doing it so far and I am going to be travelling so I think I am going to have to stop. Â But I really enjoyed learning about it and I think the best way for me to learn is to really dive in and do it. So, that was a good way for me to go into each recipe that I could and change the eggs, take out the eggs or take out the peppers or the tomatoes. You know because those are a lot of things that are really common in that area. You know the Middle East and Southern Europe and North Africa. So you kind of have to dissect the recipes and make them a little bit different. So I have like a no-mato sauce that I made for people that are over there. I have an AIP pizza that I made out of gelatin and arrowroot and tapioca. And I was able to make crab cakes and falafel all out of AIP friendly ingredients. So there is going to be quite a lot of things that people could have that they are not eating. And then there are various things I could introduce like we have an egg-free granola. Youknow there are stages of the reintroduction. So there are some things that you can add back in.
Baris Harvey: Uh-hmm. That sounds really good. So a lot of people out there usually thinking, “Oh, I have to go on a special diet and it is going to be bad.” But pick up this book and you might not have that issue. You might not want to ever get out of there, right?
Caitlin Weeks: Yes.
Baris Harvey: You can eat pizza. And you showed us a way to do that.
Caitlin Weeks: Yes. And with FODMAPs we went by charts made by, I cannot say her name, but Aglaee, the dietician.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Caitlin Weeks: So we used her chart to label all of our FODMAPs and that was really helpful. And you know basically, the biggest thing on FODMAPs are onions and garlic.
Baris Harvey: Oh, yes.
Caitlin Weeks: So it is very difficult. But one thing you can do is use garlic infused olive oil to start with rather than this is just for FODMAPs that you can use garlic infused oil if you cannot have garlic. So that is one way to get that garlic flavor in the recipe. And then another thing you can do is add chives or the green onion tips like scallions. So that is a way to get that onion and garlic flavor. I think FODMAPs, it is based on the portion and it is also based on each person having to figure out what foods really messes them up. Because some of them they can have a little bit and you will be all right. But then if you go over a certain amount then you would really have maybe some distress. And like what Dr. Justin said, you know FODMAPs I mean you tell me, Justin but I feel like it is not designed to be a life-long thing. It is a sign of a bigger problem.
Baris Harvey: Uh-hmm.
Caitlin Weeks: It is just a kind of a short thing you would follow while you are trying to figure out your bigger issue, right?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes, absolutely. But regarding the FODMAPs, I totally agree. When you are dealing with FODMAPs they can feed a lot of that SIBO or that small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. And at the same time, you want to come in there and kill it. And once we kind of kill a lot of that bacteria, we can start to re-introduce some of those FODMAPs food because some of them are really nutrient dense and very good for you, too.
Caitlin Weeks: Yes. You know I think sometimes coconut can be a FODMAP for some people. But it is like a really good food and it would be a shame not to eat them.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes. And on top of that, I know that you have mentioned to me that you are experimenting with resistance starch. And for everyone out there who does not know what resistant starch is, these are certain fibers or carbohydrates that are essentially indigestible but they are more broken down by the bacteria in our gut, like we have the E. rectale and the Roseburia bacteria. These feed on a lot of these starches and they produce butyrate or butyric acid which is really good for our colon and our tummies. So like some of these starches would be like our type 2 resistant starch which are like our unripen bananas or plantains. And then type 3 is our potato starch. So kind of on top of that, what have you been doing and what is your experience been like with that?
Caitlin Weeks: Well, I started messing around with resistant starch like in May maybe. And I was using that Bob's Red Mill, the potato starch. Which I was not really crazy about because you know, it is non-organic. (Laughs)
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I know.
Caitlin Weeks: And also is it a night shade? I do not know. But then, I mean of course, potatoes are night shades.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Caitlin Weeks: But I was just like, “Okay, I'l try it.” And I actually did like it. And I noticed improvements in my digestion when I was taking it. So the thing about resistant starch that you have to be careful is you have to keep it cold. So you cannot bake a cake with resistant potato starch, you know?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Hmm.
Caitlin Weeks: Because that will change the structure, right?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Exactly.
Caitlin Weeks: So you have to add it into smoothies or you could drink it just in water but it is kind of gross. But you could also put it in, I kind of have this concoction that I make of pumpkin and I put it at the end. So it is sort of like an oatmeal, like pumpkin oatmeal kind of a thing.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Baris Harvey: Uh-hmm.
Caitlin Weeks: So I heat it up then I remove it from the heat, you know and put coconut oil and cinnamon and stevia and stuff like that. And then at the end, when it is in the bowl I just put the resistant starch in there. So I figured it is not getting too hot and so that is the way I like to eat it. And then when I was in Nashville, you know it was really hot. I was in Nashville a lot this summer. So I was putting it in like the berries and making like a smoothie. So that would work, too.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Nice.
Caitlin Weeks: But here in San Francisco, you know, it is freezing so you do not want any.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Laughs. And just a little disclaimer to all the listeners, if you have gut issues be careful about adding resistant starch in off the bat. Start small because it can kind of create a feeding frenzy if you will with the gut bacteria and you can get like a lot of gassy pains. So start small. And if you do have gas, I consider the resistant starch a good diagnostic tool for SIBO. If you are having a lot of digestion stuff off the bat when you first start using it, you probably have to look a little bit deeper into the gut.
Caitlin Weeks: That is what I am going to ask you, if it was a diagnostic tool.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: It is. It is great.
Caitlin Weeks: So it is cheap you don't have to pay those labs, right? (Laughs)
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Exactly.
Caitlin Weeks: Then when I get on AIP I thought well move on and I got the banana, the green banana starch, the green plantain also. So you can get those on Amazon, I looked up on Richard Nikoley's. He has all the links on freetheanimal.com. He has all the links for which kinds to buy.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Nice.
Caitlin Weeks: So you can get those and if you are on AIP and you do not worry about the potato thing.
Baris Harvey: Uh-hmm, definitely. Because I know, Dr. Justin you recommended the same thing. For our listeners, what is the company?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: The company for the unripen banana starch is Wedo.
Baris Harvey: Wedo.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Wedo. And you can find them at Amazon and then also Bob's.
Caitlin Weeks: There's Barry's. Barry's. Barry's that makes the plantain flour.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Okay. I have not heard of Barry's. That is a new one. So we have got Barry's and Wedo for the plantain banana. That is good.
Caitlin Weeks: Yes, plantains are fun to mess around with.
Baris Harvey: Yes.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Oh, they are awesome. Like fry it with some coconut oil and some cinnamon. It is like the best, like breakfast carb. Love it.
Baris Harvey: Yes. And then maybe let them sit and cool and then bam! There's your resistant starch! (Laughs)
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: There you go Absolutely.
Caitlin Weeks: Yes. I have a friend who would cook potatoes like at night and then put them in the fridge overnight and then in the morning, well, it is Carol. You know Carol?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Caitlin Weeks: From Ditch the Wheat. She would put them in the fridge overnight and in the morning she would eat them. She would warm it up again apparently that is okay, I do not know. But I was so scared. I am always scared of like getting it too hot.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes then I heard Dave Asprey of the Bulletproof Exec talking about doing rectal suppositories of resistant starch. I am just like, “Whoa! Okay!”
Caitlin Weeks: Laughs
Baris Harvey: Laughs
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That is taking it to another level.
Caitlin Weeks: Oh, my goodness! Well, I mean how do you get it in to a capsule?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I know, you have to use your imagination, I guess then.
Baris Harvey: Laughs.
Caitlin Weeks: I think I will probably just eat it.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I know. Me too.
Baris Harvey: Yes, I am a fan of plantain but I will just eat them.
Caitlin Weeks: That sounds good. I was wondering Justin what do you think about this trend of thing that women should not be doing low carb?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes, I mean I think carbohydrate needs to be dosed according to what people's need are. For instance, I just did an interview with Jimmy Moore a couple of weeks ago. Anyone that knows Jimmy's history, Jimmy was up to over 400 pounds. Now the only way he can get back to the way he was at was doing super low carb and being ketogenic because he had damaged his metabolism. And there are a lot of research out there where you know, high amounts of carbohydrates over time is going to create insulin resistance. And a lot of the toxins in our environment can create insulin-resistant issues. So I think, you know, doing your own glucose tolerance test. I think, looking at your blood levels and just trying it out and seeing how you do and how you perform and see what is best for you. But I always default to a low carbohydrate diet, get to where you want to be and then kind of tinker it afterwards.
Caitlin Weeks: Yes, and I wonder too like what was the health of the person going in? I mean, they might blame it on low carb but was that person in awesomehape going in? I mean somebody like me who has dieted their whole life and done crazy stuff, you know. Are they coming into it all healthy and everything?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes, and a lot of people in the beginning, they get really irritated and pissed off about low carb because in that first couple of weeks, your body is trying to adapt the ketones. So it is like everything inside of them is like, Oh, no! They are like, they want to burn sugar for fuel and their machinery is like you are pulling the engine out of the car, right? And you are putting in like a diesel engine so you can start burning fat for fuel. And it takes a little bit of time. And you know, a lot of people, it is important that you have the fat in there too when you do the ketogenic. Because I remember when I first did it I messed up and went lower fat. And that can really screw you up.
Baris Harvey: Uh-hmm. And a lot of people that are starting this have been eating like a higher carb diet for the most of their lives and then going into it and changing so much. Usually, it is the same when people and they never exercised and they first join the gym and they are super sore and then they are like, “Ah, forget it, I am going to quit.” Like there are so many people that sign up after New Year for a gym and do not stay on. And it is not like exercise is bad for them, you know what I mean?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Baris Harvey: It is just, their body is just adapting and you know there are some growing pains. And then so often times it is just a comfort thing, you know the palatability of like a certain food, their craving of the sugars or even like that dopamine-like response. So there are a lot of underlying issues that comes when a lot of it is just habit change and having to overcome these issues. So, yes.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes. And a lot of people too if they go low carb and also start doing CrossFit and such, that is going to be really hard because they are not going to have, you know, the carbohydrate they need for glycogen in their muscles. And a lot of times, when you start going into gluconeogenesis, which is basically taking protein and converting it to sugar for fuel. It is cortisol dependent. So if you got a really fried adrenal glands, it may not be the best thing for you to do just go like sub 20 grams of carbs a day. Maybe like 75 to 80 maybe a good start, right? And then kind of dial it in and tweak it from there. So everyone is a little bit individualized. But I have seen some people who really have a hard time going lower carb. But when they add in just a little bit of starch, a little bit of sweet potato or squash, it just really makes a big difference in some people.
Caitlin Weeks: Yes, I think it is individual because, I mean when I try to add a little bit mor carbs in, there is really this tipping point to where..
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Caitlin Weeks: Like maybe I can have a little bit of starch and a little bit of pumpkin and stuff like that but then it is like if I go low too much it is like a free-for-all, you know?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes, yes exactly.
Baris Harvey: Uh-hmm.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And I am a big fan of cycling carbs, having like a cyclical ketogenic diet where I keep my carbs like below 50 and then I will come out and do like a 150 carb a day.
Caitlin Weeks: On a weekends.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes. Like on a weekend or every four days. That can really be a good interim for some people that maybe they do not have the metabolic damage but still want the benefit of doing the low carb.
Baris Harvey: Uh-hmm. Yes.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes, carb diet.
Caitlin Weeks: Laughs
Baris Harvey: Exactly.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So, Baris, being an athlete, being a college football athlete, what is your experience with low carb and playing football?
Baris Harvey: I feel like I actually have a lot of energy in comparison to what is probably typically thought of. Â But at the same time, I am not super low carb like of course I am eating a lot of veggies that do not give you such a high net carbohydrate.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Baris Harvey: Kind of shot but usually we are hitting our practices and I am getting home around 8 o'clock ready for dinner and that is usually when I have the bulk of my carbs.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Smart.
Baris Harvey: When I am having sweet potatoes, white rice, even sometimes like if I just had a super hard workout and I go for a cheat. Like I do not really mind it that much because I know that there is no glycogen in my muscles at all.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Baris Harvey: So if I go out and get a gluten-free pizza from my favorite pizzeria I know that it is not going to be that damaging to me at that time and I usually feel better. Now there are some things that I have treated on before and we have to just understand that it is not just about metabolism. There are other areas in our health that also kind of get, for an example, there was one time I forgot what I ate but it was not like a super good cheat. It was pretty horrible kind of food and I was like, “Yeah, whatever.” I just like killed it today at practice and we worked out after like I am going to burn all this up instantly. But the next day I had like digestive issues and gas. And I was like, “Hmm, I do not want that.” You know what I mean?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Baris Harvey: So it is still being smart about like the source and the quality of it.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Baris Harvey: But in the day, you know, I am pretty low carb throughout the entire day and it is usually, I get the bulk of my carbohydrates at night.
Justin Marchegiani:Â That is smart.
Baris Harvey: And I have been seeing some pretty good results and been able to now that it is close to the season time when we are not training. When we are training more on the field and less in the weight room I have been able to kind of maintain my weight this way and not lose as much muscle as someone who might be doing super low carb and all of a sudden now we are just running a bunch and now you are losing all the mass that you just worked super hard for.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right. And all these carbs talks are making me hungry.
Caitlin Weeks: Laughs
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I just thought, Caitlin, I did not know you had a book on easy Paleo treats.
Caitlin Weeks: Gelatin, gelatin treats.
Baris Harvey: Uh-hmm.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Caitlin Weeks: I have an e-book on gelatin treats that I wrote a while back. Yes I have been working on a lot of e-books. I have several more in the pipeline. One about breakfast and one about kids' lunches. Because breakfast people always say they really do not know what to eat for breakfast. (Laughs)
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Caitlin Weeks: So I figured that would be a good help for people. And then the same thing, I do not know what to pack for my kid's lunch.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right. And I love your recipe for the Paleo mac and cheese.
Caitlin Weeks: Laughs
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That is awesome. And I get lots of questions from patients like what would be the easiest three like Paleo dessert subs, that you could you know, a substitute for someone that is trying to be on a Paleo eating plan but wants a little bit of dessert and fun. What would they do or recipes you would recommend?
Caitlin Weeks: I think the easiest thing to just pick up would be a dark chocolate bar.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Hmm.
Caitlin Weeks: And then..
Baris Harvey: With bacon. (Laughs)
Caitlin Weeks: Laughs.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: When you say dark chocolate, how dark? Are we talking 70% cacao or about 80?
Caitlin Weeks: I think about 85 is good.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes, me too.
Caitlin Weeks: You know, anymore if you can stand anymore then great. But 85 is still really low in sugar. You know you want to try to get a fair trade, try to get organic.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Caitlin Weeks: You do not want little kids nitpicking on your chocolate.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Caitlin Weeks: And organic, you want to avoid the soy lecithin. Then you want to avoid the GMO sugar, the sugar beets. Those are going to be the things to watch out for. I think that my favorite thing probably is the chocolate pudding that I have on my blog. It is in my treats book also.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Nice.
Caitlin Weeks: It is just cocoa and coconut milk and stevia. And you just dissolve. The thing about gelatin is you just have to dissolve it in a little bit boiling water. So maybe a quarter cup of boiling water with a tablespoon or two of gelatin, then you mix it with your coconut milk and the cocoa and then spoon the thing with some stevia and it hardens right up and it is just a great, really decadent, really fat-filled. And you can do the same thing like a vanilla one. If you want it like me, I kind of like a flan.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Hmm.
Caitlin Weeks: Another really easy thing to do is take coconut milk and put in the flax or chia and we could fix it with berries or mix it with also cocoa. I know on AIP I have been doing, you can have gelatin and you can have coconut milk. You can also have a little bit of carob.
Justin Marchegiani: Â Hmm.
Caitlin Weeks:  You can have chocolate. (Laughs) So I made some things with carob over this time. It is interesting. It looks like chocolate so it kind of fools your brain but does not quite taste like chocolate.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Can you do a full fat cream on AIP?
Caitlin Weeks: No, no dairy at all but you could do the coconut milk.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Caitlin Weeks: No almond, no almond milk.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right.
Caitlin Weeks: It is pretty hard core.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: It is.
Caitlin Weeks: It is very hard to make. You can have brew but sometimes I wonder like how much as I try to eat. You are allowed to have honey but you are supposed to limit fructose. But it is kind of a mixed message. It is like, well how much is okay? I would experiment with myself and one time I ate some honey and I got like hot flashes.
Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Caitlin Weeks: And it is like, “Okay this is not right for me.” You are not supposed to have stevia either. So I take out stevia for a month. And then I talked to some other experts and they said, “Well, if you have real blood sugar problems you could add it back in. So I did go out of stevia for a month but then I put that back in. What do you think about people saying that stevia is a hormone disruptor?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Well, you know if you look at PubMed there are some early studies in the late 60's on stevia and infertility. So I always think back I am like, “Hmm, was there a contamination?” But if you look at a lot of stevia too it is mixed maltodextrin. So if you do stevia, it should be liquid. I like SweetLeaf and make sure it is organic. And again it should be used sparingly. It should not be a mainstay in your coffee everyday or a mainstay in everything. It should be used like a dessert, like you know 5-10% at a time as a treat.
Caitlin Weeks: Yes. Absolutely. You do not want it in like all of your iced tea and everything all day long.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes, absolutely.
Caitlin Weeks: And I think it is something too, you know, it does make you kind of addicted to that sweetness and then everything else is not quite as good. And you are like, “Oh, well it is not as sweet as I am used to.”
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes, absolutely.
Baris Harvey: Yes, definitely. And like you said sometimes it is important for who you are or where you are, if you have somebody who has a broken metabolism who is really overweight, who has poor insulin maybe that stevia is going to have like that brain response and start producing insulin just off the taste of sweetness and tricking the brain.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Baris Harvey: Whereas it might not do that with someone who, like myself who is an athlete, who is always moving. So it is probably dependent on of course, the source. Like I use the same brand SweetLeaf and then also where you are at. But yes, if you are getting a really good source like that up the street, there is a place I hear in Sta. Cruz called the Herb Shop. And they have all these herbs and they have stevia. Like the raw, and it is green.
Caitlin Weeks: Yes.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Baris Harvey: It is known for its sweetness but also like the herb is also known for helping regulate blood sugar and it has trace minerals. And it is because it is from the actual herb versus this kind of synthesized version with all these other ingredients that are probably starting to make it to the mainstream. Like, oh, your stevia with all kinds of other garbage and this is white powder.
Caitlin Weeks: Yes it is like 1% stevia and 99% corn.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes. And it is GMO corn. So it is like you are really just having some GMO sugar basically.
Caitlin Weeks: Yes.
Baris Harvey: Uh-hmm. Definitely.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Not good.
Caitlin Weeks: It is just like a cheap way of making more money.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So again, her name is Caitlin Weeks. You can find her at www.grassfedgirl.com. Caitlin has an awesome Facebook page. facebook.com/grassfedgirl. Almost 100,000 likes. Caitlin is one of the biggest Paleo blogger in the world. Again as a physician, I recommend her recipes to my patients. So if you are a doctor out there listening to this, great resource for your patients. Have them pickup her books over at grassfedgirl.com/ is it cookbook?
Caitlin Weeks: Yes.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Cookbook.
Caitlin Weeks: And also mediterraneanpaleocooking.com.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And mediterraneanpaleocooking.com. And Caitlin when is your book coming to market?
Caitlin Weeks: October 28, it is coming out and me and Diane Sanfilippo. She is a contributor on my book. She took all of her photos and we stayed in her house for a month and cooked all the food and took all the photos. So that was a really big help. She is such a great, has a good eye for design and she just helps put it all together really beautifully. So we are doing our book tour together so you can see me and Diane out on the road and we will be posting all of our stops online and on Instagram. So follow us on Instagram, too.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That is great. And can people get your book pre-order on Amazon?
Caitlin Weeks: Yes, absolutely. There is on that page it is linked to Amazon so they can just go to Amazon directly and search for Mediterranean Paleo Cooking.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That is great. And is there any other way that our listeners can get in touch with you?
Caitlin Weeks: There's a contact form on my site. It is under the contact page and I try to answer my emails.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And I know you have a great newsletter that comes out a couple of times a week. I subscribe to it. So I recommend everyone get signed up on Caitlin's list. Caitlin, we really appreciate you coming on the show. You shared some great information.
Caitlin Weeks: Thanks Justin. Thanks Baris.
Baris Harvey: Okay, thank you.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Thanks. Have a great day.
Caitlin Weeks: You too, bye, bye.
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