Carnivore Diet Experiment with Caitlin Weeks | Podcast #208
Carnivore diet is a type of diet which involves eating almost nothing but meat for about every meal. If you are looking about changing your diet, take it on someone that’s been doing it full-bore!
Watch the video as Dr. J and her lovely guest, Caitlin Weeks discuss about the effects of a carnivore diet to one’s overall health. Learn in detail how an all-protein diet affect the kidney, antibodies and health issues like diabetes and kidney stones. Continue watching and don’t forget to share. Sharing is caring!
Caitlin Weeks
In this episode, we cover:
07:30 Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner of a Carnivore Diet
12:07 Kidney Stress, Thyroid Test
17:38 Taking Enough Fats from Meat
19:33 Missing out Fermented Foods
24:48 Bowel Motility
26:43 Antioxidant Compounds
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Hey there it’s Dr. Justin Marchegiani, welcome back to the podcast I have a awesome guest: Caitlin Weeks who is grassfedgirl– grassfedgirl.com. Caitlin’s all over Facebook, and Instagram and Twitter, has also awesome content and recipes, really good info. Caitlin, welcome to today’s podcast, how you doin’?
Caitlin Weeks: Hi Justin, nice to see you, thanks for having me.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Good to see you too! And you are part of the uh– the thyroid summit which will be airing in the next few months so make sure anyone who’s– wants to get more Caitlin’s story around thyroid health– thyroidresetsummit.com, make sure you subscribe. So you messaged me a few months ago, you are like, “Hey I’m starting this carnivore diet thing and– I’m getting some pretty good results and like to share with your listeners”. So I was like, “This is awesome” because I’ve been seeing lots of stuff online about the carnivore diet, I’ve heard some really good things about it. And I really wanna get someone on who’s actually doing it full-bore. I think you’re month 3 right now. Uhm– so– what– what first kind of wanted you to m– made you wanna jump on to this experiment? Just– j– are you j– just curious? How did that go?
Caitlin Weeks: Well uhm– back whe– whe– when I got hashimoto’s uhm– my thyroid and everything was messed up and [laughs]– and my digestion was always a– a mess and uhm– my uh– energy was a problem and uh– so I just– you know, kind of been doing paleo, and keto and– it’s all been helping and I’ve been getting better and– uhm– all my labs are good and everything is uh– going better and better but uhm– so my digestion was pretty uh– slow, and not so very common symptom of hashimoto’s and– so I was working with the health coach and I– if you don’t know ___[01:44], I mean, I know you know her but [laughs] a lot of people might don’t know–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-huh.
Caitlin Weeks: Uhh– that it’s ___[01:51] and she’s a really– an expert on basically everything having to do with– uh– how the [laughs]– you know, thyroid and– uhm– you know and thyroids im– important hormones so she knows a lot about all that kind of stuff and she just kept telling me to do it and I was like, “Ughh!”, I don’t– I don’t wanna hear that you know uhm– because it’s like, ketos for being extreme in of itself and then– I mean, compared to the certain American diet, and then when you uhm– you say– or you can’t have any chocolate or any uh– you know peanut butter or any– anything, you know. And so, I just goes like, “I don’t wanna hear that! I don’t wanna hear that!”. And then it was funny by the same time my sister was starting to do carnivore and I was like, “what?”, and like she had two babies in a row and the second one sh– she basically just never lost the weight of her first one and then she just got pregnant again with the second one. So, she never could re– really lose the baby weight, and then– the second time she lost 20 pounds, I mean, almost overnight. And I was like, “What is happening?”, like, you didn’t–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-huh.
Caitlin Weeks: And I know she didn’t work out or anything like that. So, I was like, uhm– I mean not that I even believe in that, really, because, I know that exercise doesn’t really cause weight lose especially in hormonally challenged women.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-huh, uh-huh.
Caitlin Weeks: [Laughs] So– uhm– anyway, so she had the– the 20 pounds off and I’m– you know, we’re kind of the same, it’s hard for us to lose weight. And uhm– again, I uhm– so– so I told her, well– what– I didn’t wanna hear from her either. I was like, “Great! I’m glad it’s working from you– for you, but I don’t really wanna hear about it really, like [laughs]”. I mean, maybe I asked her a little bit but I was just like, “I’m not doing that, that’s crazy.” I love my vegetables, I love my– my brash in my soups and– you know, I’m– big gru– ___[03:54] fan and I love my– sauerkraut, and I love my Brussel sprouts–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: With your all kind of very good like low-sugar type of vegetables anyway, they’re very non-starchy anyway.
Caitlin Weeks: Mm-hmm–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Caitlin Weeks: –and I love chocolate– I make huge like chocoholic. So, I mean, of course lo– no sugar or a very low sugar. Uhm– but I was just like, I don’t wanna hear any of that, like I love my stuff, and I don’t wanna change you know? [laughs]
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right, right.
Caitlin Weeks: She says– slowly with these two like in my ear, I was like, alright, well I’m gonna be home for like 3 months so I’ll try it. And– well– well first s– there’s no way I was gonna give her 3 months, I was just gonna do for 30 days, ___[04:34] said, dear for 30 days, I was like, “Aaah? Okay, I guess”. So I started and– the– the one thing that kind of got me was like, “You can eat all you want”.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Caitlin Weeks: And I was like, alright. I mean, because I hate being hungry.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Mm-hmm–
Caitlin Weeks: And I don’t like m– I don’t like counting, I don’t like macros, I don’t like any of that crap. So– uhm– I was like, if I don’t have to count anything, and I could eat until I’m really– until I’m full, you know, or– really full [laughs]. And there was like, “Okay, I’ll try it”.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Now you’re already coming from like kind of a keto paleo template, right? So you are already doing like most of your carbs were primarily veggies, anyway, you ate good fats like, I think you did grass with butter, and coconut, and all that. You are pretty good with all those good fats, right?
Caitlin Weeks: Yeah, I mean, I’ve done– done that for– since 2009. I’ve been kind of paleo-ish, you know, I w– and keto too because I was always eating kind of low carb because I knew uhm– I didn’t really tolerate a lot of sugars and all that maple syrup and coconut sugar and all stuff fu– I’d never really agreed with meat so I try to keep my fruits down to like berries and stuff like that. So, uhm– I was always kind of low carb anyway, uhm–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Your carbs are primarily around what, like 30 or 50 or so, net carbs like free-carnivore, right?
Caitlin Weeks: Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, I thought– ’cause I have done keto so many times and, in like, done it really strict and try to–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-huh.
Caitlin Weeks: 20 carbs and– and– so I thought well I’m not– am I getting yet the keto flu sign? Because I never got it before. Because I would think I w– I was already– kind of low carb anyway, so–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Right, right.
Caitlin Weeks: This time, whoa! I got it [laughs]. It was bad like, ugh– I had never really had to worry about electrolytes and stuff before but this time it was like– I was feeling like I was gonna pass out if I didn’t have that salt, and I would keep like a little little thing of like Redmond salt with me–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Caitlin Weeks: –all the time.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Caitlin Weeks: And I have to dump it like on my tongue, I mean it was really-really bad like– and I still get that way sometimes like I still have to– like I’ll get this like, elbow pain and then oh no, like, okay, I need my salt and–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Wow.
Caitlin Weeks: I’ll just stick– like, I’ll just wet my finger and stick it in the salt–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Caitlin Weeks: –and just like lick it because, I don’t like drinking. Some people make those like electrolyte drinks and stuff, but– ugh! I cannot drink. If it’s in a big salt in a big water, I can’t drink that like it’s so gross. So–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I wake up every morning with this, I do like an 8 ounce or like 4 ounces of water and I just put the whole bottom a bunch of Redmond’s free sea salt and I just shoot it down real fast. I love Redmonds. It’s just one of the best salts there is.
Caitlin Weeks: I mean, I just preferred all my time, if I know I had to drink this big thing, I’m like, ugh!
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah, I can’t do a bit that, you gotta do like an ah– a shot but yeah, you the– that way it works good. And then I’m just curious, can you kinda like walk the listeners so like right now, kind of a day in the life. What is breakfast, lunch and dinner look like for you? And then, did you have to cut a lot of the other fats out like coconut oil or grassfed butter, how did you navigate the extra fats that you may have added into?
Caitlin Weeks: Uhm– well– [sighs] too many questions at once. So the no– normal day of food is this–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani:Yes.
Caitlin Weeks: –like– I mean, no really’s not that different because most people really likes their breakfast so you can eat eggs–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Caitlin Weeks: And–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Caitlin Weeks: Uhm– I mean, bacon. I don’t really do bacon but, the ba– you could do that. I would make sure there was no sugar for your bacon probably.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani:Yeah.
Caitlin Weeks: Uhm–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: like the pig or ___[08:12] or something?
Caitlin Weeks: Yeah, and then– uh– I eat Kerrygold butter and–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Mm-hmm.
Caitlin Weeks: You can do ge– I mean you can do completely dairy-free. Uh– I haven’t noticed a big difference either way but– uhm– you could do that, and you could use beef tallow, something– you want an animal-based fat. So you wanna not– you don’t want– you wanna limit your plans as much as possible. So you kinda have to think about that like, you can’t throw that thing– you have– can’t use the coconut oil all the time. I mean, like if– if you have a little bit of olive oil, a little bit of coconut oil, like if it’s in the pan or something like– uhm– sometimes I reuse pans [laughs], it’s almost like– like it’s already ___[08:52] or whatever [laughs], you know. But like– or if you go to the restaurant, you’re– I mean, I’m not gonna be like–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Mm-hmm.
Caitlin Weeks: –“Oh, you have to cook my food and beef tallow”. You know, that– it’s the same kind of thing is. You know, when you’re eating out you can’t be as picky but– uhm– anyway, so, normal day and food– so if you drink– I drink coffee, some people say no coffee at all. But to me, I just couldn’t do that so– uhm– they just drink water and beef and salt like, that’s like the highest uh– uhm– tier–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Of carnivore.
Caitlin Weeks: Of carn–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Water, beef and salt.
Caitlin Weeks: Right. And– and– and just, you know, meat fats.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So– so if it’s like a beef broth or a chicken broth, that’s okay?
Caitlin Weeks: I mean, yeah, some people ___[09:36] at all. That mean there’s– I think there’s kind of like levels. And I’d say I’m probably in the middle of–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Mm-hmm.
Caitlin Weeks: –or uhm maybe on the most lenient level, even though it’s super strict, uhm– it– so then for lunch it’s just, like, I bought a huge thing of the butcher box ribeyes and so I’ll just heat up one of those and, you know, cook ’em on the stove and, uhm– but you can also, like I’m finding it easier to skip meals here and there, or like– if you don’t eat your– your– your lu– your breakfast ’till 11:00, then, you know, and then you eat– and now it’s getting dark so early, you’re eating at 5:00.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Mm-hmm.
Caitlin Weeks: Sounds like you need 11:00 and 5:00, I mean you’re gonna be– that’s it, you know. So– or– uhm– 10:00 and 6:00 or– you know, something like that, it’s just– it’s a lot easier to skip meals because if you’re eating a lot, then you don’t have to– eat every 4 hours, you know. Uhm– so–, yes stake, and then, maybe, like a ham or– maybe like a half a pound or even a pound of brown beef, add another meal, I mean that’s a really cheap way to– uhm– you know, you can get a grass-fed beef with all the– 4-4.50, you know, per pounds so– uhm– we couldn’t– sometimes I’ll eat the whole package, you know and– and you just– a– make anything ___[11:00], I mean, just– like that. I mean it’s super simple. And uhm– and– it’s like right away I love the simplicity, you don’t have to clean up as much, you don’t have as much– all these different, you know pans, and different things to clean up, and you don’t have to buy as much as– seems like it’d be more expensive but, when you– vegetables are actually really expensive. So– [laughs] uhm–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I know, right? And this is a big shift from you because your first cookbook was on the paleo mediterranean diet. So, everyone listening, we’ll put the links for that book below but, paleo mediterranean has a lot of other types of vegetables, other types of recipes so, it must have been an interesting transition for you like having to make more elaborate meals to now having very simple things like, hey, grow up a ribeye, like–
Caitlin Weeks: Yup.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Hey here’s some eggs like just very simple. Uh what was that transition like for you, kinda make– make it everything easier?
Caitlin Weeks: It’s just– I mean it’s just so simple, I don’t know, and you seem just kind of doub– you– but you eat more. So, whatever you would eat with vegetables, you would like eat– you would eat double the meat than you’d normally eat.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Mm-hmm.
Caitlin Weeks: You know what I mean? Because everyone–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And I’ve been worried about kidney stress or any of these things. People say, “Oh, too much animal protein”, are you worried about that?
Caitlin Weeks: Ugh– I really wasn’t uhm– I did take a thyroid test uh– right after the first 30 days, uhm– and my antibodies dropped 30 points. And I– I really don’t have that many anyway so it’s like– now they’re like a– 60 I think, and they were at a hundred– some so. Something like that. I was just surprised to see that drop because– and then that was kind of like a motivator like after 30 days, I was like, oh well, if my body is liking this, then– great, you know. I– if it went up or so, I would be scared, you know.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So how did your thyroid numbers look? Did you– what did that post look like? Like T-4, TSH, T-3?
Caitlin Weeks: [Sighs] Uhm–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Did it go up, or at least stay the same?
Caitlin Weeks: Yeah it was about the same and–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Drop or anything?
Caitlin Weeks: No, I mean, I don’t think it was– I mean I showed ’em to my– I have a holistic doctor here.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Mm-hmm.
Caitlin Weeks: And– I didn’t even tell them, you know, that I was doing carnivore but, they were like, “Oh it’s fine”, you know, you’re– [laughs], you’re fine [laughs]– looks fine and– it was no significant change, you know. And uhm–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: You’re probably taking Armor, right?
Caitlin Weeks: Huh?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: You’re taking Armor?
Caitlin Weeks: I take–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: NP?
Caitlin Weeks: Yeah, I– I think it’s NP thyroid.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: NP and there’s Nature Throid they kind of easily get confused.
Caitlin Weeks: Uh– it’s not– it’s not Nature Throid ’cause I take Nature Throid before, and I take NP, uhm–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That’s the big one that everyone’s going through right now it’s kind of a shortage with some of the others.
Caitlin Weeks: It’s a– ___[13:51]
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah– ___[13:53]. Yup, that’s correct. Alright, good. So, you’re on that and then you really noticed any major drops. That’s kind of a thing with a lot of people, you know, going keto, which, uhm– you know, imagine you’re– you’re still in ketosis, so I mean even though you’re carnivore, technically you’re still keto, right?
Caitlin Weeks: I mean I’ve taken my ketones I’m not a– I mean, I’ve taken my ketos a lot with the– the keto module,
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Mm-hmm.
Caitlin Weeks: And uh– when I do regular keto, I’m not a big– you know, shower of ketones [laughs], uhm– but I can always tell ’cause breath is terrible and– you know, it’s [crosstalk], everything. Uhm– but– thi– with this, it’s the same way, I can tell because sometimes my breath is terrible and, you know my body smells funny, and–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani:Yeah.
Caitlin Weeks: Everything smells funny you know, but uhm– but I don’t register high ketones at all like, I mean, it’s like .2, .4–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Mm-hmm.
Caitlin Weeks: It doesn’t really matter the types– I’m taking them all different times a day and– but– I’m just like, I’m not gonna worry about it because–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Caitlin Weeks: I think it’s– I am– I can feel it, you know.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah, you’re probably just burning a lot of it up too, maybe freezing it for fuel.
Caitlin Weeks: And uh– uh– and you ask about the kidney stones, no I’m not worried about that, I mean, I think that– I think I would feel– ’cause I’m very sensitive and my energy’s very– if I was feeling bad then I would know. Yeah, right away.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And I asked you that question ’cause a lot of people– it’s kind of a common myth out there in the natural health world, “Oh, too much meat will cause kidney issues”, well here’s the deal, if you have s– strain kidneys or kidney disease already, then higher amounts of protein may be an issue ’cause the filtrations are already impaired. But if your kidneys aren’t impaired, no, protein won’t be a– won’t be a problem. There’s no research actually to prove that.
Caitlin Weeks: My kidney don’t already have the disease.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. And then here’s the thing, most people that have kidney disease, it’s typically from high blood sugar–
Caitlin Weeks: That’s from diabetes.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Diabetes, yeah– 8– 80% of people that need kidney transplant, it’s from actual diabetes, so– it’s the– they are kind of confusing the macronutrients there. It’s really the– the refined sugar and the excess carbs. So, good I wanted to highlight that. And uhm– it’s interesting though, you said the elbow, you get elbow joint pain? And then the minerals really help that. Can you elaborate on that?
Caitlin Weeks: [Sighs] I mean, I just want signal, I get from my–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Any other face twitching or spasms at all?
Caitlin Weeks: I feel kind of like up here kind of– yeah– just kind of soreness uhm–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Mm-hmm.
Caitlin Weeks: In my back and stuff. Uhm but– I mean, when I was first starting with more like, lightheadedness like I– I need to–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Caitlin Weeks: –have something right now and– and one thing that I didn’t say but– I drink– I made a bone broth especially when I started– every day I would drink like 2 or 3 big cups of it, because I make it in my instant pot, you know, I just uhm– strain it off, and then just drink it and I put a– and that’s a way to put a lot of salts. You have to really put a lot of salts in that, because– I mean, that’s a savory food anyway so it’s just like really easy to put a lot of salts in it—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Mm-hmm.
Caitlin Weeks: And– that was an easy way for me to get a lot of salt. And then of course I have a little salt in my– in my meats and stuff but that’s usually not enough, and I think people can quit before– because they may not feel well and they’re not using enough salt, that’s a big mistake. And, they’re gonna blame, you know, they’re gonna blame carnivore when it’s really not– that’s not what’s wrong, you know, it’s a– they’re not having enough salt [laughs].
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And then when you’re picking the cuts of meat uh– can you talk about the cuts? It sounds like you’re tryin’ to choose like fattier cuts. I could– I could picture people really getting in the trouble in a carnivore diet, really just choosing leaner cuts of meat. What’s your thoughts on that?
Caitlin Weeks: Well– I mean that even happens to me now like, yesterday I ate like some dark meat chicken which you’d think would be okay, and it was like a whole– like a pieces of a whole chicken. Uhm– I ate like a wing– something, but, a– after dinner I was like, that’s not– I– I didn’t get enough fat like I could feel it.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Mm-hmm.
Caitlin Weeks: And then I went back and I made some like scrambled eggs with a bunch of butter in it, and then I was– then I felt fine, you know. So, uhm yeah, people really have to get the fattier cuts and– uhm– cook them in fat and– I mean like chicken wings are one of my favorite foods because they have so meat– much fat on them, and uhm– and ground beef is– you really wanna get like an 80, 20. I know char– uh– US Wellness are 75, 25? Uhm– and so if you wanna order from US Wellness you can put your– your link for that, uhm–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah 55, 45 [crosstalk].
Caitlin Weeks: They won’t ___[18:51], they have a 75, 25 which is not found in grocery stores so– uhm– when I found even from grassfed farmers like if they said it’s– uh lot of them sell 90, 10, it’s like gross, you know? I don’t want that–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Me too–
Caitlin Weeks: And–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Caitlin Weeks: –you want at least like an 85, 15 with the ground beef. Uhm– and you can add some butter in it or add some extra fat to it when you’re cooking it. Uhm– if you just– if you don’t do that, you’re not gonna feel good at all. I got [laughs] it’s just– ___[19:27] you’re not gonna– I mean you can do roast and– uhm– but you know, you do all the fat on it.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah what’s your experience with, like ’cause now you’re missing some other fermented food. I’m just curious, are you concerned about, “Oh, I’m not getting the sauerkraut or the fermented cod liver o– oh I guess you could do a fermented cod liver oil. But like, hey I’m not doing all the sauerkraut or maybe the kombucha. Are you concerned about the fermented side of the feint there?
Caitlin Weeks: Well I did uh– I just did a– a Genova stool test.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Mm-hmm.
Caitlin Weeks: Uhm– it’s like GI effects I guess it’s from. And they– the– right up– it was funny ’cause– and I’ve been doing carnivore maybe 2 months then. And she was– one of her comment was like, “This is one of the best, like microbiomes I’ve ever seen”. I was like, “What?” [laughs] like– in at– I mean– this was like my holistic doctor. I didn’t tell them that I was doing carnivore because I thought they would tell me not to so I was like didn’t tell them, but [laughs].
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: [laughs]
Caitlin Weeks: I was surprised because you’d think you did nothing but meat, you would have like, you’d be deficient in some strains or something like that, so– I mean, I don’t mess the actual food– it’s funny you don’t mess– you’d think–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Mm-hmm.
Caitlin Weeks: –you’d crave this–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Mm-hmm.
Caitlin Weeks: –or crave that but you’re so full all the time, you’re just, like you don’t even think about it.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Are you tryin’ to do at least two meals a day or so? Two to three, is that kind of where you fall?
Caitlin Weeks: I’ve given– I’m gonna have 2 big like a lunch, a big– uhm– ’cause I can’t really so show a person so wha– and especially over holidays you have these big things coming up, and always have lunch with people and so it’s like if I know I’m going out to lunch, then I’ll have a small breakfast, or if I– like if I’m going to lunch at early, then I’ll– I won’t eat breakfast, you know, I’ll just have coffee or something. But then if I go– but if– it just depends on the day, so–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Mm-hmm.
Caitlin Weeks: –it has become a lot easier to skip a meal if I didn’t feel hungry. And sometimes you’re just not hungry at all and you’re just like, “Whatever” ___[21:32].
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Have you ever get a low blood sugar symptoms at all, kind of feeling shaky or kinda that– that– that jitteriness at all?
Caitlin Weeks: Uhm– sometimes you– I mean, if you wait– really wait too long you’ll get–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Mm-hmm.
Caitlin Weeks: –you know, too hungry but–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: 8 hours, 7 hours, is that kind of where that cut 6? What’s that cut off for you?
Caitlin Weeks: Uhm– it doesn’t really happen during the day. But like let’s say I woke up, and– like, I was gonna ugh– uh– like there was a lunch with s– st– like I didn’t eat breakfast and then lunch came on too late, you know, like you’re waiting around for lunch and it’s like– you know, 1, 2, like if you skip breakfast– and so it’s been overnight and then all morning, then maybe you could be like, “Aaah, you need to eat something”, you know. But that probably—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes.
Caitlin Weeks: –be the only time–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Mm-hmm.
Caitlin Weeks: –because during the day, it’s just not– because if you ate lunch, you’re not gonna be passing out before dinner. No way, you know? [giggles]
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Exactly. So that’s really cool that you had the stool test on this so you might go by and still look good, so– the whole idea that you had to get all these extra carbs or resistance starch in there, didn’t seem to– to make too much of a difference though with you.
Caitlin Weeks: No, I mean, she– sh– I was surpri– I wish I had like recorded exactly what she said. She was just like, “This ___[22:51] best one’s I’ve ever seen”, and I was like, “Oh my gosh”, uhm– and then– I get– I’m going to do next Monday, I’m doing this food allergy test so I’m happy she doesn’t say it’s a– red meat or ground beef sensitivity [laughs].
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I know, right? That’s the only concerning part it’s like, you’re eating a lot of that. Now, could you rotate between like, you know, fish fowl, pork, lamb, beef, like could you use be more like to have more of that variety in there as long as there’s animal it’s okay, right?
Caitlin Weeks: You can. I mean, some people like, if you follow like Jordan Peterson and Mikhaila Peterson they’re like–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Mm-hmm.
Caitlin Weeks: –kind of well-known in the carnivore, I mean, uhm– they eat like just beef, water and salts, you know. Or sometimes–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Did she had severe autoimmunity that affected her– her joints. I know, we uhm– someone in the chat is asking about that ’cause I see people that have severe ulcerative colitis, it’s autoimmune stuff. They’re really benefit by just cutting out all vegetable matter. It’s like something to do– maybe could be a lactin thing, or an anti-nutrient thing, but I find that people really benefit, especially severe autoimmune people like– like Mikhaila for instance.
Caitlin Weeks: Yeah, I mean I think that– if I hadn’t have done all the things I’ve already done, you know, I wouldn’t be as healthy as I am now, uhm– like if I had continued to eat a certain American diet when I got hashimotos, but for me that was a wakeup call and I changed to try to dramatically uhm– yeah, and that helped so much. So, you know, I guess everybody is different in how they’re disease progresses and presents itself, I mean, she was 6 and she was a little kid and– you know, maybe I was too in a way but it wasn’t, you know, so– wasn’t crippling or anything like that was just like– those little signals like, oh you have a– you know, ear infections and urinary tract infections and, that kind of stuff that kids get, you know.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Exactly and– uh– how did it affect like kind of bowel motility– you noticed any shifts or changes there or did everything kind of stay status quo on the motility side?
Caitlin Weeks: Uhm– I mean. that’s kind of what I’m doing on the ___[25:00], still kind of the same, haven’t seen a lot of– uhm– well, as far this– the– the slow motility is still the kind of the same, but, one thing that is really different and is– would speak to the– the vegetables, uhm is the– the bloating is so much less. It’s just like–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Mm-hmm.
Caitlin Weeks: –you don’t have this big up and down on the– the bloating uhm– most women, maybe men aren’t as– as aware of it but women are always complaining about this big bloating up and down depending on what they ate or how much they ate or uhm– so it’s like, you just don’t have that at all, and that’s really nice. And I think that speaks to– the how hard it is to digest vegetables and– I mean, I– I– I always think of things in ancestral perspective. It’s like, if we were hunter gatherers, would we even had access to these vegetables that we– what we see now, you know?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Maybe harder. It definitely maybe harder to get access to all of them for sure–
Caitlin Weeks: I mean maybe we were– had some foraged greens or something like that.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Mm-hmm.
Caitlin Weeks: But when do we have had a cauliflower like this big and, you know, ate the whole thing and– in cauliflower mass, you know–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Caitlin Weeks: –a bunch of water on it, you know what I mean, I just wonder, that– those kind of vegetables, I mean they kind of seem like agricultural products as well, you know. Because–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Mm-hmm.
Caitlin Weeks: –its huge vegetables are– I mean if we didn’t grow things, we wouldn’t have– and you know, the hybridization of more things, like–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Caitlin Weeks: You know, a b–blue berry would be like this big, and now they’re like [laughs]–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. Exactly. And maybe more– little more tar for sure.
Caitlin Weeks: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Wouldn’t we take on like a lot of the antioxidants, the polyphenols that we find in like a lot of our vegetables and plant matter. You know, we’re not quite getting those. Do you worry that, “Hey, maybe we’re not gonna get enough of that”, or are you saying, well hey, you know, maybe, we’re getting some of them f– because the animals that we’re– we’re– p– the meat approach thing is more grass-fed, more pasture-raised, or some of that’s, maybe a path thing through the meat. And then also–
Caitlin Weeks: I tried that– that wasn’t– nutrition-full, I tried to say that in one of my answers [laughs], and she did not like that. [laughs]
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So what’s your opinion on that? ‘Cause I mean, there is lot of ox– the antioxidants and compounds that we don’t necessarily know about, you know, in plants that are beneficial but, I mean, if you’re– it– it’s also, there’s meat, but there’s also organ meat too, so– do you– are you tryna get any extra organ meats in there, what’s your thoughts on– on this and some of those antioxidant compounds?
Caitlin Weeks: Well, I feel like, uh– a lot of– one thing that’s– uh– when we talk about antioxidants it’s like– we have to have all these antioxidants because what we’re eating is– is oxidized, you know, so we have to– so it’s like, if you’re not eating a bunch of stuff that you need all these antioxidants for, then maybe you don’t need– of course it comes from your environmental as well but, uhm– I mean one of the big things– and I’m not totally sure about all the antioxidants but, one of the things is– is Vitamin-C, you know, that– the standard American diet because it uses up so much Vitamin-C. And we actually don’t need as much if we’re not eating a standard American diet.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: The oxidative stress on the food requires us to need more antioxidants. So the whole idea is ’cause we’re– we’re decreasing some of that oxidative stress from the anti-nutrients in the plants. We– we don’t necessarily need as much on the animal side that’s one theory, right?
Caitlin Weeks: Yeah, and I mean it seems to be working for me so far, so– I mean it– and– like you said, if I start to feel bad, I mean I’m the first one to break out the broccoli, I mean, so–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Do you think we get any of those antioxidants though like, you know for cows eating grass all day long to make that meat, do you think we’re getting some of those antioxidants from the grass? Right, the cows kind of uhm– eating, and ruminating, do you think some of that passes down into the meat?
Caitlin Weeks: [Sniffs] Uhm– maybe not in the same form but I think we’re getting you know, the Omega-3’s that–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Uh-huh.
Caitlin Weeks: –that we’re missing out on from grain-fed beef, and also uh– [crosstalk] is a huge antioxidant, and people don’t give enough credit as well–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah, cholesterols and antioxidant, that is true. And then what about organ meats, how do you kinda plug in organ meats in this kind of a template?
Caitlin Weeks: Uhm– well I mean, an easy way for people they if don’t like uh– the uhm– it’s– it’d be liver pills, like uhm I know vital protein cells and uhm– uhm– they’re pure–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Mm-hmm.
Caitlin Weeks:–and it’s got the– there’s– there’s several companies that sell grassfed uhm– beef– or liver pills uhm– I like liver so it’s not really been a problem for me to– like a lot of times I’ll buy whole chickens, and then we’ll get inside, I’ll just bake that, get inside ’till the chicken next to the chicken, you know, and so you’ll have the liver in there and you have– uhm– the heart, so I’ll just– I’ll just uh– eat those while I’m like cooking you know, ’cause uh– they cook faster than the– the other stuff.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Caitlin Weeks: So, I’ll just eat those real quick. And you might had some ___[30:27] liver too so– uhm– ___[30:30] some marinade– if you marinade uhm beef liver for example in uhm– vinegar, and in like s– paprika, and– uhm– ___[30:40] uh– then– it takes off that livery taste away and just marinade for like 30 minutes and then grill it up and that’s really– it really tastes good if you grill it. Uhm so– that’s one of my favorite ways to eat it.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That’s good, excellent. And then what about salt and pepper and all of those types of spices, I mean, can you only do the Redmond’s real salts, or can you do any of other spices like that, or garlic powder onions? What about those?
Caitlin Weeks: I think that it just depends, I think you– your– I think the more you m– keep it simple the more dramatic results you’re gonna have. But, you know I think there’s an emotional component too, I mean, if you feel like really sad, you’re depressed that you’re not getting any of that stuff. Uhm– I know– and also the autoimmune components, so– I mean this is the– the other autoimmune diet, so if you– uhm– haven’t done that before– ’cause I have done it before and I didn’t see any big changes with– with the taking appropriate or taking the– uhm the peppers and [coughs] that kind of thing, so– if you haven’t ever done that then this is your great opportunity to– to take those night shade uhm spices out and see if that helps you. But if you’ve done it and you just want your– your paprikan stuff, I mean I’ve– I tried keep it to a minimum. Just don’t eat, you know, every day with something but– you know primarily use like salt and pepper and then, you know every once in a while, if you wanna have some chicken wings or something like that but, really I’ve been more worried about all the sauces ’cause they have sugars and things.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yup.
Caitlin Weeks: Uhm so– like I don’t do a lot of sausage and uhm that kind of thing ’cause that’s gonna be adding carbs I didn’t– especially if you don’t use really clean sauces like Primal Kitchen or something like that, it’s gonna be adding a lot of weird ingredients to your meats, so– uhm– definitely be careful with that.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally makes sense. Alright before we wrap up here Caitlin, is there anything else you kind of want to add to the listeners here or share to the listeners that was impactful on your carnivore journey. Things that you did, things that were huge, things that were impactful, things that we shouldn’t do. Anything else you wanna highlight?
Caitlin Weeks: Uhm– I mean, I’ll just say if you’re interested or you feel like you’ve tried everything else and that– then– this might be the missing piece ___[33:16] I mean, it’s really helped me have some great foods because I have done everything else and I felt like I was, hit my head against the walls so this was a really uhm– big breakthrough for me because it helped with my uhm– weight loss and my– uhm– it’s– it’s still starting to help with my digestion and bloating and that kind of thing, so I feel like if you– if you feel like you’ve done everything else, this is really a great stuff to kind of uhm– just go to that next level and feel your best so– I mean just try it and make sure you have lot of salts and uhm– you know make sure you’re not trying ot be on diet. You wanna really eat more than you think that you should because I think for women especially, they’re always like, “Oh, I’m just gonna have this little like 4 ounce piece of meat and it’s like– that’s not gonna cut it on carnivore, you gotta really eat, and you gotta eat more fat and more meat than you think you should–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Mm-hmm.
Caitlin Weeks: –so—
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Mm-hmm– mm-hmm totally makes sense. Well thank you so much Caitlin. Again, Caitlin’s website is grassfedgirl.com, lots of great options there, like for information guide and recipes as well. Caitlin, thank you so much for being a part of the podcast and look forward to chat with you soon. You take care.
Caitlin Weeks: Thanks for having me. Have a great day, bye!
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: You too! Bye.
References:
https://thyroidresetsummit.com/
https://www.grassfedgirl.com/
https://justinhealth.com/water-pitcher
How Fermented Foods Can Heal Your Gut
By Dr. Justin Marchegiani
What Are Fermented Foods?
You may be familiar with fermented foods and beverages such as bread, wine, and beer. Ethanol fermentation gives us alcohols and bread, but there is another type of fermentation, lactic acid fermentation, which turns ordinary foods into probiotic powerhouses! Lactic acid fermentation uses lactobacillus to ferment dairy and vegetables. Fermentation has been used for centuries to preserve foods, create unique flavors, and for its distinctive health benefits.
Some of the best fermented foods are sauerkraut (fermented cabbage), kimchi (fermented cabbage and radishes), pickles (fermented cucumber), kombucha (fermented tea), kefir (traditionally milk, although water and coconut kefirs exist too!), yogurt (milk), and natto (fermented soybeans).
How Fermented Foods Can Heal Your Gut
Nutrient Availability: Fermented foods provide you with a wide range of nutrients, and also help you get more out of the other foods that you consume. Fermentation improves the availability, digestibility, and quantity of nutrients such as B vitamins.
Eat More Foods: Many people have a hard time digesting dairy. But when milk is fermented, like in the cases of kefir and yogurt, the lactose and casein actually become more easily digestible! The same holds true for soybeans; they are indigestible without the process of fermentation, which gives us tempeh, soy sauce, and miso.
Click here to talk to a functional medicine doctor and become a healthier you!
Gut Infections: The microflora you get when you consume fermented foods create an unwelcoming environment for candida. These beneficial bacteria protect your gut and boost your immune system, effectively shutting the door on candida! Studies have also shown a lower risk of developing a H. pylori infection in individuals who consume fermented foods even just once a week! The probiotics found in fermented foods are able to help manage the inflammation that causes bloating, gas, and other symptoms of IBS, IBD, Crohn’s, and similar bowel diseases.
More Benefits of Fermented Foods
Mental Health: We are learning more and more about the gut-brain connection every day. Researchers are beginning to observe the positive effects of fermented foods on mental health, including the link between the microbiome and anxiety and depression. According to the findings, the effect of fermented foods on the gut may help you overcome mental health struggles!
Cognitive Function: Research is suggesting that the link between the gut and the brain also contributes to how cognitive function increases or declines. Fermented foods are being studied for their neuroprotective properties, including protecting against neurotoxicity and oxidative damage.
Weight Management: The composition of the microbiome is unique to every individual, however, similarities in gut composition have been observed among people who are lean and likewise among those who are obese. Fermented foods promote good bacteria, associated with being lean.
Choosing Fermented Foods
Be sure to look for organic, non-GMO products. You also want raw/unpasteurized fermented products, as pasteurization and heat will kill all of the good bacteria and probiotics. In the cases of kefir and yogurt, which are dairy, look for raw milk from grass-fed cows. Or, try goat’s milk products!
There’s no doubt fermented foods are beneficial for our health; they’ve been consumed for centuries all over the world! Be sure to get your daily dose of probiotics, but like all good things, consume fermented foods in moderation.
Click here to schedule a introductory functional medicine consult to start feeling better today!
References:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3601187/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3904694/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5216880/
Skin Care with Kevin Gianni – Podcast #23
In this episode Dr. Baris interviewed the founder of Renegade Health, Kevin Gianni author and blogger on diet, fitness and natural health. He has done extensive research and interviews with health experts and has studied different diets and protocols like vegan, raw food, fasting and more.
In this podcast learn more about what type of diet is good for you and why we need to run blood tests to see if our diet is working for us. Know the different sources of fermented foods and how it provides natural healthy bacteria for good health. This episode also talked about a good skin care line that is all-natural, all-organic that really works best for our skin without the toxic chemicals.
In this episode we cover:
09:39 Blood Testings
14:02 Supplements for vegans
28:21 Fermented Foods and Probiotics
32:22 Detoxification and Skin Care
36:25 “Kale and Coffee”
Podcast: Play in New Window|Download
Baris Harvey: Thank you guys for tuning in to another episode of Beyond Wellness Radio. And today’s podcast I have an awesome interview with Kevin Gianni. For today’s episode we do not have Dr. Justin. He is actually at the Bulletproof Conference giving a presentation down in L.A. So he will be a little mixed up by the time he got to his hotel or over his Skype connection. But we are surely going to have an awesome interview for you. Make sure that you guys go to beyondwellnessradio.com and make sure that you subscribe and get the latest because we do offer up a lot of bonuses and specials and you get the access to all of the interviews a lot earlier than just being tuned in to ITunes. So make sure that you go ahead and do that. Also go to justinhealth.com. You can also find that clickable at beyondwellnessradio.com and that is where you can find all of Dr. Justin’s links. He does functional medicine and it will be awesome if you guys have any questions for him as well. You guys can go ahead and leave him questions and also get a free 15-minute consultation. Again you guys can also work with me. You guys can go to reallyhealthynow.com and leave me a contact if you have any nutritional concerns and wanted to discuss that. So on with today’s radio show, Kevin Gianni how is it going today?
Kevin Gianni: Great, Baris. How are you doing?
Baris Harvey: I am doing very well. The first thing that I always want to ask our guest is, “What is your story?” Kind of give the background of what got you into wanting to become healthier and then kind of try to change the world, right? And send a healthy message. What brought you into the health space?
Kevin Gianni: Well for me, when I was younger I played sports in high school and then I played football, basketball and tennis. And I was always really into fitness. So I was always working out. I was running. You know just really focusing on that side of it. But my idea of a healthy energy-boosting snack before a tennis match was a pack of Twinkies and a Mountain Dew.
Baris Harvey: Uh-hum.
Kevin Gianni: So you know the nutrition side, you can probably say was a little bit lacking. And add to that, I used to drive my mom’s Caravan with my tennis partner, my doubles partner right after school. After our snack and we would smoke a cigarette and then we play tennis. (Laughs)
Baris Harvey: (Laughs) Yes.
Kevin Gianni: Somehow we made it to the stage but you know I do not know. I am sure I could have been a lot better if I actually did focus on both parts of fitness and in nutrition. And so that kind of spurred my interest. I met my wife after I had run a marathon and I have hurt my leg. And I was working a job but I did not really like it. And I said, “You know, we can be personal trainers.” Because I am the one in the gym that everyone’s always asking questions about. She is an athletic trainer. The two of us together we thought could make a pretty good team and we did. We were in Southern Connecticut and we were personal trainers for a bunch of years and then we just got a little bit tired working one to one with people about health. So we started to go online and started blogging about all our experiences. Whatever we were doing. Whatever diets we were into, whether it is raw foods or vegan or exercise, body weight exercises. Everything that we are learning about we are blogging about. That is kind of how all this came into be.
Baris Harvey: Yes. Awesome. It is funny how you have a similar story with me. I was all about athletics when I was younger. I still kind of am but that is what kind of drove me to be like, “Hmmm maybe the big box of pizza is not the best workout food.” So you guys were trying to get your message out to the masses versus just doing a one-on-one thing. When did you start to notice that the nutrition side was needed to be changed for you? Because for me, I know I did not really changed my nutrition until I started gaining a lot of weight. When I was younger I was like super lean and was able to do whatever I want because of my sports. But after a while, my metabolism unfortunately did not hold up. When did you notice that, “Hmm, maybe I should change my nutrition as well?”
Kevin Gianni: Well, it happened twice. First it happened when a friend of mine gave me a collection of MP3s and I popped them on to my IPod. I was running still after college. I was a personal trainer and I started running. And I just went running again and he gave me these MP3s. And every once in a while I will bring the IPod with me to run and so one day instead of listening to some music that I have I said, “Oh, maybe I should listen to some of these MP3s”. And the information that was on some of these audio were just so mind blowing to me. It was so simple but so mind blowing in the same kind of space that I just totally, my mind just totally switched about nutrition. I just was not thinking about nutrition in that way. And the audios were by David Wolfe. They may be part of David Wolfe’s, known some of his work. And so that kind of put me into a really interesting space because I was already healthy. I mean had very little body fat. I have a friend, you know, like doing the calipers on me. And he was just like, “Wait a minute.” He was a personal trainer, too. “Wait a minute.” I have never seen anyone at this reading. I think it was like one percent or some five percent. Almost maybe too low depending on what your opinion is. And so I just said, “Well, maybe I will just try this broccoli thing that he is talking about.” Because if I am healthy now and it feels good I want to be even more healthy.
Baris Harvey: Yes.
Kevin Gianni: And so I went on this long experiment of vegan and raw food and that was not fully raw for 6 years but I was definitely vegan for that long. And it was an interesting experience. My wife and I, we traveled around the country interviewing different health experts trying to kind of get to the heart of what the best diet for any human being is. And along the way my health actually started to decline. So I started to get some adrenal fatigue which I did not recognize what it was at that time. I just knew that I was tired. I was not able to get out of bed. I was grumpy. I was just feeling strange. Just you know, kind of, I would fly off the handle quickly and I get angry at things very fast. I just did not know what was happening. And eventually it got so bad that I needed to go to a doctor. And luckily, we have traveled around and we have seen so many fantastic health practitioners. I had a Rolodex. Well, not a Rolodex, that is an old term. (Laughs)
Baris Harvey: (Laughs)
Kevin Gianni: I did not really have a Rolodex. I had a hypothetical or imaginary Rolodex of all these people that I could call.
Baris Harvey: Yes.
Kevin Gianni: And so I called Dr. James Williams, J. E. Williams who is a not only a colleague but a friend. And he ran some of my blood. He did some blood testings for me. And this was kind of my first foray into functional medicine. I have known about Dr. Mark Hyman for a long time and Ultra Wellness was the book. But what really influenced me as well was the one before that with Dr. Mark Liponis. I knew about it but I have never really fully bought into it. And so Dr. Williams did ran a whole bunch of blood test on me. When I got them back, you know, the proof was kind of right there on the paper. All the blood markers he pulled maybe, I do not know, 30 or 40. The evidence was right there that what my diet was not healthy for me. And my Pregnenolone was in a 6 which is like the equivalent of an 85 year old man. And I am at that time was 31. (Laughs) Like even serious things happening and I do not really know what would happen if I continued any longer. So, that kind of spurred me on what do I do next. It is really tough to be in a situation where you were eating a diet for so long and just get indoctrinated by the philosophy behind it and then you look at the numbers on the paper and just say, “Wow! I do not know I am doing it wrong? Or it is just not working for me.”
Baris Harvey: Yes, definitely. Yes, so I kind of have two questions on that but one I kind of go into a question that I wanted to prepare for and I noticed that even on your side at the renegadehealth.com that you supply testing as well. And this is probably one of those reasons why you found it important because it is important to you for your transformation in your journey going along. But just to explain to the listeners, why is testing so important?
Kevin Gianni: It is important for two reasons. One is more like a scientific kind of reason. The other is just almost like a mind, just a chilling out kind of like mind relaxing reason. I tell you it is a mind relaxing reason to begin with. So anyone who is listening to this or anyone who listens to health podcasts or watches videos or reads blogs, health blogs online, health books or whatever, there is always this argument about diet. You know, what diet is right? And there are so many camps. I mean there is low carb. There is high carb. There is vegan. There is Mediterranean. There is Atkins. Paleo. There are all these diets that people are trying. And for me, the blood test I kind of describe as the ultimate proof that your diet is working and it gives you permission to try any diet that you want and if it works for you, you can run with it.
Baris Harvey: Yes.
Kevin Gianni: There is just one thing. You know one thing that I cannot stand is like sitting at the dinner table around the holidays and listening to Uncle Tom, you know, who has read like half of a health book in his life talking about the benefits of protein, you know. (Laughs)
Baris Harvey: Yes.
Kevin Gianni: It is like, you know, suddenly you are a vegan and you are in front of your family members and they are suddenly telling you what you should be doing in your diet. And you have been around the country for two and a half years and interviewed hundreds of health experts. And their reference is like CNN or Fox News for health.
Baris Harvey: Yes, definitely.
Kevin Gianni: And within that, when someone is challenging you about your diet there is always this thing where you just like, “Uh-hmm. Are they right?”
Baris Harvey: Yes.
Kevin Gianni: You know there is always this kind of like, “Wait a minute.”
Baris Harvey: Yes, where you are second guessing. Yes.
Kevin Gianni: Exactly. And so the blood test really gives you a piece of mind. I think it allows you to continue doing what you are doing or it gives you a pre-warning sign. You know, so not when it is too late. But if you know how to read them correctly as a good functional medicine doctor would or even a health practitioner. These days everyone’s getting in this which is just great. You can adjust your course before it gets too bad. And that is where it gets into the, you know, the second reason, the more scientific reasons that our audience are trying to maintain a homeostasis. And if they are not maintaining that you will see it on the blood test, and then you can make minor or large adjustments in the diet and tweak just enough so you can stay healthy. Because I mean the ultimate goal is to live long, happy and healthy, right? So by doing a protocol blood testing on a yearly or twice a year, or for some people who are sick maybe they need to do it even more frequently. What that does is it kind of narrows your course. So you just do not shoot off too far in one direction and then shoot back across the other way. You kind of can stay within these parameters of optimal wellness or beyond wellness, I guess that is right?
Baris Harvey: Yes. Definitely. And for listeners out there the previous episode if you did not listen, we talked about Functional Lab Testing 101. Yes. Definitely. That is a really good one. I did not even think about the peace of mind thing where we can think, “Oh, do I have or are my markers right?” I can kind of assume I feel good but I do not know. But if you get the blood work done, and you get the salivary test and all the different metabolic markers tested then you can actually see like, “Okay, I am on track or okay there is something messed up that I did not know about. And I can feel even better than I do now.”
Kevin Gianni: Well, you can save money, too. I mean that is another big thing. If your vitamin D levels are fine you can pause your vitamin D supplements. Or if your B12 is good, folate, I mean like if your B vitamins are fine you do not need to take your multivitamin or super green grass herb, you know, that kind of whatever. And then you can look at that as a decision that you make to like so and I am not knocking super green herbs supplements. I take them. Believe me. Then you can make that decision based on not like a fear-based kind of thing like, “Oh my gosh, do I have enough?” It is like, “Oh, I just want to add this in.” And that is coming from a much better a place.
Baris Harvey: Yes, definitely. And speaking of supplements and you talked about being vegan and raw vegan in the past. What are some supplements that you noticed might be important for someone who is out there who is a vegan listening to the show or maybe a raw food vegan? What might be important for them to take? Because there are going to be some vitamins that we know like vitamin B12 they might be low in iron. Some of these nutrients that are hard to get from plant-based foods. What are some supplements that you think might be beneficial for vegans?
Kevin Gianni: The first thing, of course, before the supplements is when anyone is doing an extreme diet like vegan or raw food, and look, I think just any healthy diet can be considered extreme just because not too many other people are doing it, right? A Paleo can be extreme as well. You know, so I am not just calling out like eating raw food is extreme. Because I think you know in the outskirts of diet there are actually some really good places that are extremes.
Baris Harvey: Uh-hmmm.
Kevin Gianni: But first off, get your blood tested. Do not mess around. So you are doing something that needs to be monitored. You need some because it is like you are moved from just like surviving to now you need to be and then you put yourself in a scientific experiment. So you need to monitor yourself. So that is like the first thing to do. With supplement, yes I mean a lot of people talk about B12. People who eat meat as well can be deficient in B12. I have seen studies. I mean, you never know some of these studies but I have seen everything from like 15% to like 80% deficient. (Laughs) So I do not know the numbers there but I mean the blood test will be able to tell you. You know, if you yourself are deficient and forget about whether half of the population is or not. You know, vitamin D could be one that a lot of people need to. You know for some people a plant-based protein is really good because you metabolize fast. You are a fast metabolizer if you are hot. If you are more like in the Ayurvedic space like a Pitta type body type, warmer, sweatier, more fiery. Those types of people definitely need some extra protein. We can get it from plant-based foods, too. I mean it is not like you just need to go straight to supplements, or to a protein supplement but those type of people definitely function better with higher protein in their diet. Omega 3 is always a big one. You can get some plant-based omega 3 as well. Or if you are just not vegan enough to be able to accept like krill oil or something like that then that can be something that you can take as well. But there are also some plant-based essential fatty acids that are good as well from algae. So those are like the main ones. But that is not always the main ones for everyone, right?
Baris Harvey: Yes.
Kevin Gianni: Those are things, like the first that you would tick off the dial if you need to get healthy, right?
Baris Harvey: Yes, definitely. And like you said that usually does not mean something everybody takes. Like I take, you know the fish oil capsule and my buddy who is a vegan he is going to take an algae thing to get some extra omega 3. So, definitely, definitely important things to take. I am going to go back real quick. You were talking about your traveling across the country interviewing different experts, interviewing different ideas. So two things. One, you are recording all of these interviews on your camera, right?
Kevin Gianni: Yes.
Baris Harvey: So you have this massive, massive content on YouTube that people can find. They just search Kevin Gianni or Renegade Health or they can find your YouTube page. The second thing, how were you selecting your experts and was it like just recommendations off the same thing or are you getting a lot of varied ideas? And how would that change like on a week to week or day to day basis on how you ate? Like if you just went to one doctor and said, “Oh, now like kale is the most awesome food in the world.” And the next guy says, “Well, it has all these things that mess with your thyroid.”
Kevin Gianni: (Laughs)
Baris Harvey: Like how do you go? Would you just buy a bunch of kale one week and the next say like, “Oh, I made a mistake!” And then the next week say, “Oh I need more.” How was this kind of journey going on?
Kevin Gianni: (Laughs) I have this kind of a duality kind of principle about all these. It is like you trust very deeply but disbelieve at the same time. It is kind of like this thing where I kind of define the edges. I think it helps because believing, you know, we could go into one doctor’s office and set up the camera and listen to something and I would be just totally into it. I would be totally convinced this is exactly what I need for my health. And I would go out and I make it a point to do my best. And let us say I do about 80% of the time. When I do an interview with someone I do one of the things that they mention. It is just ingrained in me now like that is what I could do. I do it every time I read a book, too. When you read a book that could be like a thousand things you can do. I just pick one and I do it.
Baris Harvey: Yes.
Kevin Gianni: And if a want to revisit it I can. If not it is fine, too. But that is really kind of what I focus on. It is just like one thing. So you go to one doctor and they say just like you said, “Eat a lot of kale. Raw kale. Eat it with your smoothies. Drink it with your green juice.” And then you go to the next doctor two days later in Cleveland or if you are driving up through Ohio or something from Columbus to Cleveland and then the next doctor said, “Well, you should not be eating it raw because now it is going to damage your thyroid and you are going to be sluggish.” And you are just like, “Whoa! Wait a minute!” And so for me, I always take the baseline of kind of longevity studies. And that is where this new book that will be out in July 2015. I wanted to separate myself from like the minutiae, like the little details and then take a larger look at kind of everything. That is all our diets and what it kind of comes down with. But the thing that we want, again, what most of us really want is longevity. So it is that long, healthy, happy life. And so for me, what is the best way to figure out what that is? Well, it is just fine cultures of actually live long, healthy, happy, right? (Laughs) And then see when they do it almost try to be constructive a little bit. Unfortunately, when you go to the studies of some of these cultures what you realize is they do not give a crap about nutrition. (Laughs) They are going to eat what is there.
Baris Harvey: Exactly it is just like, “Oh, this is what is food on the mountain.”
Kevin Gianni: Right. Which is why I think it kind of gets us into trouble because I have seen it in Peru when I have spent some time with the Caral. The Carals was long lived as some of the people from the blue zones, you know like Dan Buettner’s book with the people like the Okinawans, the Nicoyans, Sardinians or Loma Linda, the Seventh Day Adventist in Loma Linda, California. But the Caral, they were longer lived before they started coming down from the mountains up in the Andes into the cities. And I have been around some of my Caral friends who, they will be up in the mountains and they will be eating just like Apopka and potatoes and like 80 to 90% of their diet is of potatoes. And then they will come down into the city and they will just walk into like a little corner shop and just buy junk foods. You know what I mean? I do not think it is just a thing like it is just food. (Laughs)
Baris Harvey: Uh-hmm.
Kevin Gianni: And they just eat it. Whatever it is that is just available they will eat. And obviously there is this sensory kind of explosion that comes with high salt or high sugar or high fat kind of foods. So I always go back to these very basic kind of friends like, “Well, alright what would the Okinawan do? Or what would someone from Sardinia doing?” And they just would eat like real food. You know, what I mean. Like you know my friend Sean Croxton said you just need real food. So with that baseline it is real easy to kind of explore but also just always know that is the bottom line. Lots of plants, you can eat some meat it is great. Do not eat too much oil; you do not need too much. And salt is okay. But you do not need like totally blowout, you know. Just neutral with salt. And just enjoy your life. (Laughs)
Baris Harvey: Right.
Kevin Gianni: Really comes as a simple equation.
Baris Harvey: Yes. So that really kind of guides you to just eat raw food from like becoming orthorexic and getting crazy into these things. I could guess if we go to different experts and then like, “Yes, I am going to take this tactic and implement it now.” And then you have a lot of people switching what you are thinking. There might have been a period in time where there might have been a little orthorexia in there, right? Maybe, I do not know.
Kevin Gianni: For me, yes. I mean I remember I would be sitting in the RV, at this time I was a full raw food vegan. So I have this big bowl of salad. And I mean this thing was, I probably could have fed a horse, right?
Baris Harvey: (Laughs)
Kevin Gianni: And I would sit there and I would chew this salad for an hour. Take an hour, an hour and a half. But I would literally look at the clock and then I would just eat and I am going to be thinking about things and then I would just maybe read something and still eating and still eating. And I just get up and, “My gosh, I just spent an hour of this day eating, one twenty fourth of this day eating this nacho salad.” And what was crazy about it is that about 30 minutes since eating that salad I was wondering what the heck I was going to eat for dinner.
Baris Harvey: (Laughs)
Kevin Gianni: Because I was just so consumed about my food, right?
Baris Harvey: Yes.
Kevin Gianni: And that is orthorexia. You know what I mean. So, I was so concerned about it. So what happened was after all these stuff kind of happened and I have adrenal fatigue and then I started to go off with vegan diet kind of just was a little bit disheartened by everything. And I am like, “Well, this extreme diet did not work the way it would everyone.” Well, not everyone but the people that I was talking to would tell me to do this super powerful longevity diet. I might as well eat literally like I want as long as it is organic. That is just like eat real foods maybe like squared or something like that so make it double. And that does not work either. You know, there is definitely a sort of conscious moderation that needs to be put into play when you are consuming real food, too. Because again you know based on some of our genetic response, a little bit, our bodies respond to factors like taking the genetics too far. Let us say, well, you know we are all just so super individuals. I do not know how super individuals we are. There definitely is a collection of types. You know, whether five or ten, or twenty or forty even a hundred. You know, there are definitely collection types of people. So you cannot just follow a whatever-goes-diet if it is organic. I will not. And there are some rules that you cannot pass by for your health.
Baris Harvey: Yes. It is funny. Something that I would like to say when I would compare myself to Harvey’s it is like, “Oh, well, like a polar bear is going to eat a bunch of meat and a panda bear is going to eat a bunch of bamboo.” So that one is like vegan and one is carnivorous. But neither of them is eating McDonald’s. You know what I mean?
Kevin Gianni: True.
Baris Harvey: So there is kind of like the individuality part. But then we know out of baseline kind of thing where it is okay but we know generally most people should eat this type of way. But there is still your kind of genetic individual kind of spectrum as well.
Kevin Gianni: I think the most solid piece of dietary evidence that I found through all of the research I have done, all of the interviews that I have done is that the diet is not what is getting you to be healthy per se. It is what you need out of your diet, right?
Baris Harvey: Yes.
Kevin Gianni: So, if you look at all the different peoples who are eating and living long. So, the Okinawans, you know, at one point they were eating 85% of their diet of sweet potato. Then you look at the Nicoyans who tend to eat rice, beans just typical life in Central and South American kind of cuisine. And then when you look at the Greek and Sardinian people who are eating, you know, just again a lot of fresh vegetables and some meat. I mean the medium is different, the food is different.
Baris Harvey: Yes.
Kevin Gianni: So it is not like you can just pin all your health on one food. It is not just like goji berries are the most important berry in the world. It is no, they are not. I mean there are blueberries which are amazing and they grow in New Jersey and they grow in all these places that are local to Americans but we go to goji berry from China.
Baris Harvey: Yes. It is funny that you said that because my girlfriend, she is a Nicaraguan and you mentioned that a lot that is in the American cultures. You may be eating like rice and beans and it is totally different than if I was just preaching like, “Hey, well, you are supposed to be Paleo.” And we eat meat and we do not eat beans or legumes or rice and it is like, “Whoa, maybe that is what her family’s generation after generation after generation has eaten.” And so sometimes it might be hard to change something like that and maybe it is okay for her to eat a little bit more of that than I would be able to handle.
Kevin Gianni: Yes.
Baris Harvey: Definitely. So I want to talk about probiotics real quick. I know that this is something that continually grows in the market. I never really watch so much TV but when I do I will see even a commercial on probiotics or even like your plain yoghurt would probably say something about like they have probiotics in their yoghurt or what not. Can we talk about probiotics real quick and then talk about where can we find rich probiotic sources in our food? And whether it is more important to make sure that we are getting that in our food first.
Kevin Gianni: Yes. I definitely subscribe to that sort of belief system and there are probiotics out there that can be kind of like therapeutic probiotic. But for me, getting my healthy bacteria from fermented foods is absolutely the first place to go. And I have heard so many stories. I have known Donna Gates for a long time. And I have interviewed Sandor Katz a few times and I have just heard so many stories about people healing from eating just a regular dose of healthy bacteria every day. But for me, again it is one of those things that if you were to put the top 10 list of things that are good for your health. I mean again, I have talked about what you need out of your diet is more important but probiotics is probably up in there. Maybe in the mid, between 7 and 5.
Baris Harvey: Yes, definitely. Can you name some…
Kevin Gianni: You want me to name some foods?
Baris Harvey: Yes.
Kevin Gianni: For me just cultured vegetables. I mean just eating some sauerkraut; homemade sauerkraut, raw sauerkraut and not the sauerkraut that you will find in a plastic a bag at the grocery store. It is probably by far the best. And you can put this on anything. You can put it on a salad. You can put it on whatever you are eating. It literally just goes with absolutely everything. And that is the first one. Sometimes I have some kefirs. I do not drink a lot of dairy or eat a lot of dairy anymore. To me it just does not settle that well. I am not saying that people should or should not eat it. So kefirs can be really good. And it is always best if you made them. Here in the Bay Area there are always someone who does it better than you, right? (Laughs)
Baris Harvey: Right.
Kevin Gianni: You can find it somewhere. But that is not the same for everywhere. So, if you are not in the area where you can access this then you are going to have to make it yourself because it is better. Because you know that the bacteria are thriving. But that is really important. And that is why I get skeptical about some of the probiotic supplements just because you know a lot of the ones that you are just going to find at maybe in your local health food store. But definitely you know some of the other places if someone is walking into Trader Joe’s or something like that I would be really concerned buying your supplements there. But you know, I question the effectiveness of these bacteria in the actual strength of the strain if you are buying them off the shelf at a grocery store. And that is not to say that you should not do that, I am just saying it is really good to add in. It is almost like an insurance policy to add in the fermented foods as well. So you can actually be pretty darn sure that you are getting what you need.
Baris Harvey: Yes. And like in diverse kind of foods and also I know a lot of people sometimes if they are on a more strict kind of diet sometimes they feel like they are limited. Well, try some probiotic foods out and it really enhances the flavor of your food as well. So it is really a good idea. I wanted to go into skin care and detoxification real quick. I know that nowadays there are so many new toxic ingredients put into just everything that are introduced to earth because of man-made toxic chemicals that we created. And sometimes we start to fix all of the things wrong with our diet but then we are still smearing like horrible stuff on our skin. You with your wife actually came out with an all‑organic and all-natural skin care line. Can you tell me a little bit about it and why you guys came up with it as well?
Kevin Gianni: Well, we are eating a healthy diet. Well, at least a healthy diet we thought was healthy. But we are definitely purists at that time and to some degree I still am. And we were getting a lot of questions. That is right; we are getting a lot of questions as we are doing our videos people would ask me and Marie, “What are you putting on your skin?” And I never would have thought of skin care. As a guy it just never really came out across my radar. I was focused on food now and I was focused on some fitness before so like skin care I just did not get it. I mean, like we just use soap in the shower, right? And you wash your hair with shampoo, you know. (Laughs) So that is my extent of body care. And so we started to look around for a product that we can just recommend. And once we started doing that we realized that there was a lot of shady stuff going on in the skin care industry including when we decided finally not to actually just represent a line. We decided that we wanted to create our own. We went to formulators and we would get a list of ingredients that we would look at them like, “This is not what we want.” And they said, “Well, you do not have to put a couple of these on the labels. It is fine.” And we said, “Whoa! Wait a minute.” (Laughs) What on earth is happening? This is like a bizarre world. This is not how I do business or this is not even how I am as a person. You know what I mean?
Baris Harvey: Yes.
Kevin Gianni: This is crazy, totally for me. It is like under reporting your taxes or something, you know. It is just stuff that you do not do. So we ended up finally running into an organic spa in Arizona and Annmarie found a line which was used, “Oh, my gosh! They just absolutely made them. And so we contacted the owner of the company and we said, “Can we sell it? Can we have it on our online stores?” And she said, “No, we only sell to spas.” So we were really disappointed and hung up the phone and the next day I was like, “Wait a minute! Why don’t we ask her if she can help us formulate a line?” And so we called her back and she said, “Sure!” So it was kind of like, “What did we ask her the first time? Why did not she recommend she could do that for us? Maybe she did not think we would. So we did that with her and since then it has been five years now. We have been providing this super natural organic but beyond organic kind of products. But a lot of people are really enjoying it which makes us very happy. Nontoxic, none of that garbage in there and everything is on the label, you know.
Baris Harvey: Yes, definitely. The way it is supposed to be, right?
Kevin Gianni: Uh-hmm.
Baris Harvey: Yes, definitely. That makes a big difference. And you guys can find that at Annmarie Gianni or just annmariegianni.com kind of like Marchegiani, has the same Italian last name. So, yes definitely.
Kevin Gianni: Uh-hmm.
Baris Harvey: So you also have a book coming out in the future like you mentioned called “Kale and Coffee”. Can you tell us just a little bit about that and what would we be looking out for?
Kevin Gianni: Yes. This book is kind of the synthesis of my extreme diet, getting it healthy and then turning around and saying it is good. I am just going to eat whatever I want as long as it is organic and then gaining 30-35 pounds and even more depending on where you started. Like when I was eating raw food I was like 160 pounds and then I got up to 223. So I mean, I am not going to count like good 20 pounds from like 160 to 180 because that was like underweight, right? But I have totally flipped the switch and went off on the other side just because I was tired of it. I really was just done. And then of course when you are 30 to 100 pounds over your ideal body weight you do not feel comfortable or do not feel good either. And it was very strange to me because I have never felt that way. And I have worked with people who, you know, were even 120, 130, 140 pounds overweight and I just did not really feel, at that time I did not feel the way I think I can feel a little bit more for them. I almost wanted to go back and call my personal training clients and apologize a little bit and just say I did not even understand, you know. And so when I kind of put that sort of hat on, I wanted to see how I could get back to being healthy in where I could have the healthy things that I really like for my healthy lifestyle or my extreme diet lifestyle. But also kind of have a little bit of, “Hey, you know what? I can do this.” So just to give up some of the real strict kind of diet and have some of the things that I really just did not want to live without. And for someone, for anyone listening that could mean anything. For someone that could be a little bit of carbohydrates, to be able to have sugar, to be able to have coffee, can be a little wine, beer or whatever. You know, whatever your thing is. And so I went back and I re-analyzed everything. I looked back at almost all my interviews and I did new research and I came up with this book that essentially just picks out the most important things that you can do to live that long, healthy and happy life. And that kind of puts aside all the other stuff. There were a lot of research about different foods and particularly categories of foods like sugar and carbs, gluten, coffee, alcohol. And I just analyzed them and really kind of come down to the conclusion about whether these are healthy or not.
Baris Harvey: Yes. Definitely. So you mentioned that thing in your book because I know that it is unique and different for everybody. And you had adrenal fatigue in the past. You mentioned coffee. For you, how does that kind of plan, how does that work for you? Or if it does not work for you what are some alternatives?
Kevin Gianni: I want coffee to work for me so badly. (Laughs)
Baris Harvey: (Laughs)
Kevin Gianni: I want it to work. And I have tried so many ways for it to work. But for me because I do tend to have adrenal type, whether I just am an adrenal type, I tend to get adrenal fatigue very fast. Caffeine, it is just not good for me. And even green tea. When I was writing the book like I was not even drinking coffee anymore because I knew that would just make me a total monster. But I was drinking green tea and I got to the point where I was starting to feel how I feel if I drink coffee on an extended period of time. And so I just kind of stepped back from that. You know, when I drink caffeine I get heart palpitations. It could be a genetic thing actually. So for me, it is just you know that side of my life is almost over. I still would have green tea every once in a while but for me I just know I cannot do coffee. But with that said, for the book I did interview Dave Asprey and we did talk about mycotoxins in coffees.
Baris Harvey: Uh-hmm.
Kevin Gianni: And I told him the grains and beans that we eat they do tend to sit in place for a while sometimes before we even get them into our pots and pans at home. And so you do know your better options. I think Dave’s coffee is a better option. David Wolfe has a longevity coffee which I think is a better option. So there are better options. But for me it is just one of those things, it is just not on that list of things that I can still have. (Laughs) You know what I mean?
Baris Harvey: Yes. Definitely.
Kevin Gianni: It is disappointing. Every once in a while I will have a cup of coffee but I have come to a point now where I just know that I need to stay away or else it is just going to make me feel miserable.
Baris Harvey: Yes. Definitely. So, for you out there, you guys can get genetic testings. I know there is 23andMe and there are some other companies. But sometimes you can just tell. Like I have not done that test yet but I can tell I am probably a fast metabolizer of caffeine just because I can drink coffee and go to sleep.
Kevin Gianni: Yes.
Baris Harvey: I have like the exact opposite results. I know there are some people that are like, “Yes, I can drink green tea and sometimes get jittery.” And it is like, “Okay, yes.” So if you are in tuned with your body sometimes you just know.
Kevin Gianni: You just know. And I am a slow metabolizer of caffeine. So I have that mutation in my, oh, actually I do not know if that one is a mutation or it is just normal. I do not know which one is but I have it. (Laughs) I have this slow metabolism with coffee.
Baris Harvey: Yes, definitely. So for the listeners out there, you guys can find Kevin at the Renegade. Is it Renegade Health show on your YouTube, right?
Kevin Gianni: It is Renegade Health show on YouTube and it is renegadehealth.com on the web.
Baris Harvey: Definitely. Go there and then also Annmarie Gianni for the skin care line. Do you have any other sites that we can point you at or are those all?
Kevin Gianni: No, man. That is it.
Baris Harvey: Yes, you got a lot of stuff online and a lot of content. And like I said you have a thousand videos on YouTube. It is great.
Kevin Gianni: It is 937 I think.
Baris Harvey: Oh, there you go, yes. It will be where your podcasts so get there soon. Yes. Definitely. And then also, yes you have a podcast. Is that also called the Renegade Health Show?
Kevin Gianni: It is Renegade Health Radio that is on ITunes.
Baris Harvey: Definitely. You guys subscribe there as well. Kevin, thank you so much for coming on the show today. And for the listeners out there make sure you go to Beyond Wellness Radio, subscribe and go to ITunes and give us a rating. It really helps to get the show out and boost our visibility to other people so we can get this message out. So thank you guys so much.