Hello, ladies and gents Robert Sykes keto Savage.com.
And today I've got special guest, Leah Williamson on.
She is a nutritional therapy practitioner.
So we dive into all things nutrition.
We talked about paleo for quite a bit.
We talked about key Dome. We even talked about the vegan
diet because she's in Australia. So the game changers,
documentary made some waves over there, we talked about that we
do with deep into nutrition for kids like young kids, the youth
had a kind of prepare them to eat properly in life.
And so really enjoyed that conversation.
Learned a ton. Hope you enjoyed as well.
Sit back, relax. Enjoy the podcast with Leah
Williamson. And we're Lively.
How are you? I'm doing good.
Thanks, very much for having me. Absolutely, absolutely.
You picked up the we connected on the Conn.
I could tell instantly that you were not from America.
That the Australian accents coming through just a little
bit. You can tell straight away with
the Australian accent against the American one, can't you?
Yes, yes. I think, I think I've Likes it
to everybody tells me we got an accent.
Anyways, you have quite a black deep American accent compared to
a lot of people I feel so but it's good.
I like the sound of it. Good ol southern accent.
Yeah. So your nutritional therapist
practitioner I want to dive into all things nutrition as it
relates to Quito and I've had a few in teepees on the podcast
perform and that seems like they mostly focus on the digestive
aspect so we can definitely Touch on that, but I love to
kind of get some back story from you and learn about what made
you want to go down that path in the first place.
Yeah. So I've had quite the journey I
wasn't ever interested in nutrition.
In fact, like I used food more as a, you know, emotional kind
of reaction to whatever was going on.
So if I was feeling happy, I'd eat.
If I was feeling sad, I'd eat and it didn't matter what kind
of food it was because I just didn't even know what how food
could make you feel? And I had a lot of digestive
Choose as a child, I was tired all the time.
So I would basically eat food and then sleep and I wasn't a
very active child. So I would just kind of read
books and watch television and not get out and move much and
so, was quite chubby as a child, I was picked on like bullied a
lot by other children and still never and made any of that
connection and as I got older things got worse.
And in my early 20s, I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's.
Odo's, which is an autoimmune condition and I thought.
Wow, that's amazing. Like this is going to be the
answer to all my problems. I'm going to take this
medication and everything's going to be fine but it didn't
and while it might have regulated some of the crazy
moods I was having I was still feeling really fatigued and
really tired like really tired like you like almost like a
couldn't get out of bed. My my husband said to me,
where's my partner at the time he was like You know, if you
don't want to go to work, you don't have to go to work.
You know. Like if you could change your
job and I'm like, no, it's not that I physically just can't get
up moving and out of bed. Like you don't understand, it's
not a mental, kind of thing. It's like a physical thing.
Those are like really chronically fatigued digestive
system getting worse. And luckily like, fortunately, I
was able to give birth to my first child and then I reached
like, the peak, like I was looked at myself in the mirror.
I was tired. I couldn't run around with This
new baby I was barely functioning through like my
digestive system was almost like at a standstill, my blood sugar
regulation was all over the place.
I was snacking all the time and then your team that with a
newborn and you're not sleeping and all those kind of things
that are happening and I was like, I've got to do something
about this and this was, you know, like six or seven years
ago and Crossfit was just coming through to Australia and I
thought I'm going to go join CrossFit and just, you know,
this is going to be the answer again, you know, and over the
years I'd always kind of like Yo-yo dieted.
So, you know, I always joke because, like, I've tried every
diet. There's out there except for,
like, the lemon detox diet because it had to have some kind
of food involved in it. And so, I joined CrossFit
thinking that I doubt exercise whatever was happening there.
And when I got there, I was introduced to this really
awesome community. And they were telling stories
about these people, like Rob wolf and, you know, Lauren
kidane, and all these people. And I was Of like, wow, these
are, this is fascinating and got me interested and I tried like
a, you know, 30 day challenge with them, which was just
transitioning to real food and within two weeks, I felt
amazing. Like, I couldn't believe the
difference that had made to my energy levels.
And I went home to my husband and I was like, we've got to try
this new diet that's coming through.
It's called the paleo diet and he's like, oh great, another
diet, but he was very supportive and he said, okay.
We'll give it a try and he's like very tall.
Thin never had any weight issues and within a few weeks, he was
feeling fantastic as well. And that's when we made the
transition to switch over to real food for the entire family
and I went on to lose 30 kilos, which I'm not sure what that is
in pounds. But a significant amount of
weight and clear up my digestive issues have endless amounts of
energy and that's what really sparked my interest in
nutrition. And, you know, around that time
people were starting to come out to Australia and I saw a
low-carb down under event which is similar to the low carb
Denver and those kind of events that you guys have and I saw
Jimmy more talking and he said if you're having like really
good success with low carb or paleo or whatever it is, we've
got to get out there and tell as many people as possible and
that's when I kind of was like, Yeah, I wanted I wanted to get
out. And tell as many people as
possible. So we started a Meetup group and
just from there, things grew. And I was looking around to
study. And in Australia, there's not
many choices, you can basically be a dietitian, which I did not
want to do because I don't believe in the food pyramid
Paradigm or the Australian standard diet which is very
similar to the American Standard diet.
And that's when I decided to study with the nutritional
Therapy Association and that's what I do.
Now I'm a nutritional therapy practitioner that believes in
real. Food as we all do.
But I specialize in applying nutritional therapy to low carb
ketogenic, paleo style diets, gacha gacha, that paints a good
picture. So when you were really
struggling with the Hashimoto's and everything just looking
Bleak, did you for a moment think that it was a result of
all the the diet mistakes you've made it to that point?
Or did you kind of like not put the two together?
I never put the two together until I actually tried real food
myself and went, hey, This actually makes a difference when
you just simply take out all this bread that I was living on,
just to give me energy through the day.
Like, I was constantly even like, toasted sandwiches, and
things like that, and just making me feel like, I'd have
that, you know, a little bit of energy.
And then I'd fall asleep, straight away kind of thing.
And so, I never connected that dots until I took all that out,
took all that noise, all that process food.
I call it noise, took it all out, and then I could actually
see that, that was what was making the difference, not the
medication. And what what was the transition
from paleo to more? The the key to approach that
you're on now with have that look like yes.
So I guess like I really love the philosophy of paleo it
really. The real food is where it's at
for me. I don't like especially when I'm
doing ketogenic style diet. I don't actually put any dairy
and because I know it causes me issues and I don't use any
sweeteners or anything like that so that might some people might
D mosquito friendly. I was just hearing how people
having even better success with Kido and I just thought, I'll
give that a try. I'd like to see if you can apply
the Paleo principles with the ketogenic diet.
And once I started doing that, I started feeling even more
energetic, even more better than what I was before, and I was
like, wow, there's something really in this see if you like
Palio's definitely on the right track.
But when I came into the keto space, a kind of bypass the
whole paleo phaser, just went straight.
I mean, the whole bunch of crap pretty much to Quito, so, like
in your words, how would you describe paleo?
And how have you seen that? Like that just transition over
the past few years because bail has been popular for quite a
while but I feel like it's changed as of lately.
Yeah I think the thing with paleo is that with the rise of
popularity that brought forward a lot of paleo style products
and because with paleo you don't really need to.
You can still have some honey. If you want to you can still
have paleo treats I guess people would call it so you know might
be okay to have a paleo brownie every now and then that I see
still just regulates a lot of people's Sugar.
So they kind of transition over they feel initially great
because they've cleaned out that noise.
I was talking about so that's all that processed foods.
They're starting to eat more, you know, lovely, fresh meats,
and vegetables, and good fats. And their started to get that
into the body and the body is responding really well because
it hasn't had a lot of that and then they kind of go back and
start looking that, you know, or maybe I could have this brownie
if it's a paleo brownie and start, you know, adding more
honey back into things or maybe Apple syrup, all that kind of
stuff. And it's and then they kind of
relying on those. I guess they're like, you know,
copy Foods. I suppose, you know, like, you
know, we could call it paleo fried foods.
And so then what was happening, people's blood sugar was
starting to get quite a bit dysregulated.
So they'd have to eat more and all they'll seek out more sugar.
And I can see that's kind of like key do.
Sometimes is going a little bit that way, but I think with the
tightening of the macronutrients, there's not as
much room to move. As the philosophy with paleo
where you can just kind of eat until you feel full and I think
people sometimes get a little bit stuck around that kind of
way. Yeah, it's interesting because
like I mean, I own a keto food product, but it's interesting to
see how like people have gotten a lot more relaxed with what
they consider keto macros as the Advent of all these products is
kind of come to the market. I feel like with paleo, you have
a lot more of a window there where you can just fluctuate the
Has even more. And before, you know, it, you
get all these laboratory foods that are technically, yeah,
paleo or technically keto. But in reality, it's the
farthest thing from like a good quality and wholesome food.
Yeah, that's right. I mean, and you guys in America,
wow. When I come over there, I like
good. Make my first stop at Whole
Foods. It's like, it's like a Paleo
candy store, right? Like them, I go crazy when I go
in there because you just can't get some of these Foods in
Australia and you just think, wow.
Look at all these options that you have.
But it's very easy to be mistaken and go there and fill
up your trolley full of these pistol, kind of processed foods.
I mean, I recognize we live in a modern world.
I have two young children, so we live in a world where, you know,
convenience can it makes life easier because we are becoming
more and more busier. But it's those Foods, I would
say a still, you know, even though they're called paleo, I
would still say they're only sometimes Foods or, you know,
not all the time, kind of foods, it's good to have.
Those options and good to have choices.
But if you're relying on those options and choices and not
eating that fresh food, then you're going to find that.
When you first start out pal, you're feeling fantastic.
But as you get more relaxed, you're not going to get that
feeling that you felt before. Maybe might even get some weight
gain creeping on. Maybe the blood sugar gets
dysregulated and like you were saying us nutritional therapy
practitioners love digestion. Maybe digestion is going to
start slowing down. So if those things are starting
to happen to you, then I would actually start looking Knit,
those Foods first that you're buying from the supermarket that
are that are more processed or packaged and clearing those out
first and getting more fresh food and more vegetables, and
fresh meats and fats into. Yeah, I've always said that, you
know, the more wholesome that I had the better, it's kind of one
of those 80/20 analysis. You know, you have if you just
have a hundred percent Whole Foods, you're going to kind of
capitalize on all that has to offer and then to kind of really
fun. Tune things, little bit further,
you can kind of tweak the macronutrient ratios etc, etc,
to really get things that old in, what do you feel?
Like, because I'm curious with you being in Australia, have you
noticed that like the the momentum and the upward flux and
interest in the keto diet has kind of peeked over there, is it
just now starting or what's your, what's your general pulse
on the matter? I'd say it was still kind of in.
Okay. I think we're going down the
peak because we've I think We're pretty much paleo has been
always been pretty the big one in Australia because we have
peed Evans here and he's a really huge advocate for Paleo
and then we saw kind of low carb coming through and then keto
just really like hit it and people became quite interested
in it. But at the moment it's a funny
time of year because it's like we're coming into Christmas and
I see the forums are actually starting to get more and more
like that, you know, the Australian kiddo.
Forms, there's more questions coming through this more people
being interested, I guess because it's holidays here, we
have our summer vacation. Now people are starting.
They've got the time, they're starting to think about it.
So just seeing in the last few weeks, The Forum start becoming
more active again. And I guess they will until
January because that's that time of year where people are
interested in and have more time for their health.
But yeah it's a it's a funny one because like you can see
Carnival starting to come through a bit here now Outside
to get a bit more popular. But then, you know, recently
from what I've seen with game changes coming out, I've got so
many friends, I see on my Facebook feed, just turning
vegan at the moment. We could talk about that a
little bit. You want a diamond event?
Yeah. Okay we can talk about that.
I've had this motherfucker. There's all these podcasts all
this information is it's just it's daunting like I don't even
know where to start but it is. See how much of a height that
that documentary built up? I know and just how it amazes
me. How someone can watch one movie
and change their whole dietary philosophy without even having
any research. So, friends of mine that might
not have had any interest in nutrition all of a sudden, watch
one movie and can change their whole philosophy and or they'll
come to me and say, ah, You think about that movie?
And I'm like, it's a hard debate, especially with friends.
You don't want to, you know, like say to them.
I think I think you're being stupid and I want to slap you
across the face. You gonna have her educated
response to them. But I think I just started with
you know I think people are having good success by going
vegan because they're clearing out that noise I was talking
about, they're transitioning off their processed foods, clearing
that some of those things. So initially they're going to
feel great And then all of a sudden, I don't think they're
going to feel great because we are omnivores.
We're designed to eat both meat and plants.
And I think that People don't see that bigger picture.
Like what is our human body designed to eat?
What are we how we designed to burn our energy?
Like I think there needs to be more awareness about that rather
than focusing on am I going to be strict vegan?
Am I going to be strict carnivore?
Am I going to be strict paleo? Even though I double LP, do I
dabble in that world? I think we need to look at more
bio individually. What is best for us and our
bodies? Yeah, totally green.
I mean, if I had the assets on The Joe Rogan podcast to be
where like, if you Faced with the decision to eat all animal
for the rest of your life are all plant, based the rest of
your life. I would probably leave you on
the side of all animal based, but I'm curious to see what you
as a nutritional therapist would say.
Yeah, that's hard because I would probably say, you know,
knowing my body and how it works best.
I would need the protein from the animal Meats, I wouldn't be
able to survive on just vegetables and and in fact you
know, I went on a retreat once and it was like a rock.
Raw vegan diet, kind of retreat, even though I'm not sure why I
was there because I was definitely not, you know, I'm
not a, I'm not against people having these dietary ways, but
maybe I was there for the meditation or something like
that. And within two days, I couldn't
even go to the bathroom. My digestive system was just
terrible and we were only eating vegetables, wasn't any grains or
anything like that in it. So, I just know, I couldn't
survive, just on raw vegetables alone.
Yeah, that's a tricky one. I can't imagine.
I mean, If you cook the vegetables, able to kind of
break down that cell wall and then harness some of the
nutrients. But if you're just eating 100%,
pure raw vegetables, I can't imagine that would be very good
for your digestive tract. That's right.
And I'm a, you know, busy mom, and I'm in my 40s and I need
protein, like, I can't survive. Like, I know during the day if
my protein or fat is lower than what it should be, I'm hungry.
And if you know, I've kind of like learned intuitively that I
need that protein to and fats to get through the day, totally.
So I I don't consider myself a carnivore by any stretch of the
imagination. Okay, I see that.
I'm kind of a risk because most of what I'm eating is
animal-based. But I'm curious to see like I
cannot I was talking about this this morning actually.
I can't pick any moment in time where I've had vegetables.
I mean E-Type and noticed a tangible benefit from them.
So could you kind of dive into How vegetables can be leveraged,
you know, coming from someone that is keto, paleo Whole Foods.
Like how can you use? Vegetables and what's, like some
tangible things? You should be looking for to
notice an improvement. Yeah, so with our veggies,
especially for eating nutrient dense, veggies, we're going to
get all our vitamins and minerals from those, and I think
where some of the good benefits of people eating them are going
to come in, is maybe not in. Something that you can kind of
see, like, you know, when we eat a great steak, you've like, I've
got heaps energy and I feel fantastic if we eat veggies with
my not, like feel that. But that's going into the cells
of our body and giving us our vitamins and minerals, which we
need to thrive, you know, might build up our immune systems to
stop us from getting sick often, all those kind of things and I
feel like, you know, carnivore is a great therapeutic diet,
when you're doing it properly. Like, as in, you're eating the
nutrient-dense awful and you're in a variety Meats.
You're not just eating steak every day.
Just the one type of meat like eating a variety so that you can
get all the different nutrients. Like, you know, a liver, all the
vitamins and minerals that are in that, if you're in good
quality awful, but if you're just eating the steak every day,
not going to get those. So that's where veggies can come
in and be really important for you there.
I mean, they also do lots of other things, so, so we've
known, I think humans have always had this inherent
relationship with plants right throughout history, and we know
that certain plants can give certain benefits for us.
So, one thing, when I see my clients that are doing a
ketogenic diet is, they'll tend to stay away from foods, like
beetroot, right? Because be true can be higher in
sugars and, you know, might be perceived kick someone out of
ketosis. So the beetroot is really,
really good for Question and fourth inning bile.
And so, when we're eating our good fats, we want to have thin
bile going through the body to to be able to digest those fats
better. So they actually work very
synergistically together and you know there's other ways like if
you do want to sit down and eat a whole Beach and we're
basically I'd like to say we're not sitting down and eating a
whole be true, right? Because we're just going to eat
a little bit and a variety of that of that.
So yeah, I can definitely there's definitely Benefits to
having vegetables in that way because they're, you know, doing
like bitter greens. They're going to be great for
your digestion as well. And yeah.
So getting a little of a bit of variety of those in but we're
not talking about sitting down and you know, eating like plates
and plates of it. Basically, right, right.
Like I definitely you kind of steered towards the in the nose
to tail when it comes to eating meat like I trying to get all my
organ Meats in, I try and, you know, Take like a desiccated
liver pills stuff like that. I do a lot of hunting as well,
so a lot of the meat that I'm getting.
I mean, it literally, every single day, I eat a piece of
meat that's Wildgame Meats. That's pretty high.
Nutrient density. If you're on top of that and
you're eating all the nutrient dense, organ Meats, nose and
tail style. Are you mean because those those
have all been shown to have higher nutrient qualities than,
than most vegetables out there? Like I don't, I can't think of
any vegetables that are hiring nutrients there.
So it's like from a nutrient vitamin mineral standpoint if
you're following more of that nose to approach our you
necessarily missing out on anything.
If your digestion is going good. No I think that most people in
the world that we circulated in that kind of bubble of nutrition
are probably doing it the right way.
I think where people come unstuck is they're seeing they
look up to someone like yourself or listen to your podcast and
they then say I'm kind of interested in this The give it a
go and like I said, then just eat the one type of meat.
They're not eating that variety of different Meats, but if
you're metabolically flexible and you're eating awful
regularly, I can't see where there's any more benefit to
include some vegetables and less your body's telling you, like
you should be tapped in and intuitive there if your body if
you're going past, some leafy greens, one day and your body is
like, I'd really love to have a plate of those.
Then I say, that's your body giving you a nudge to to have.
Include some of those in your diet for that day and eating
more intuitively about what your body needs is the best way to go
about it because then you get that bio individualized kind of
diet that suits you best. Yeah.
I mean there's definitely these
will have a hankering for a big ol salad or something and I'll
have it and I won't think twice about and like I don't beat
myself up about it by any means. What's your take on the like the
greens like super foods and like power foods that have like,
basically just Ultra concentrated amounts?
These micronutrients greens but like in a powder formula or they
can just add it to water. Is that a pretty good way to
kind of hedge your bets so to speak?
I mean, if you feel like your body is lacking in some of those
nutrients, it could possibly benefit be beneficial for some
people but like, why can't you just eat the green?
Like, I'm more go for a whole food wherever possible.
So like, especially like when you think of adding lemon oils
to drinks or something like that, to get the It's of lemon.
Why not just squeeze a lemon into your water?
Like there's nothing wrong with our, our Whole Foods, I mean
you're getting with the greens are getting a high dose of
Greens in there, straight away, but does your body need all that
greens, all at once? I'm I think it's very bio
individualized to the person that's.
Yeah, that makes sense. Let's them to digest and
infrastructure because like you said, lying deep, he's are all
about the digestion. So what do you see?
Like with all the interviews of helmet on the podcast, perform
one of the things that comes up. Is people being deficient in
hydrochloric acid? Basically and they're not really
fully absorbing the nutrients of taking in.
Do you? I just speak on that from I'll
be Keen to get your take on then.
Yeah. So I guess that's a big one.
We love to focus on because like a lot of people are stressed
these days. And when we're stressed
digestion is off because it stops that process of the
digestive Cascade working. And And so when we're stressed,
then I'll like, you know, like I'm saying the digestive
Cascades, not working. And then I'll hydrochloric acid
production stops. And when our hydrochloric acid
production, lowers then we're not able to break down that food
in our in our gut properly and it's a big one.
Because like, do you know, many people these days at aren't
stressed? Know.
I'm certainly not one of them. Yeah, I like talked to many
people these days. I just I can't.
I don't know anyone. That doesn't have some form of
stress and so if we don't, you know, if our hydrochloric acid
Productions like stopping, then we're not breaking down that
food and then that's when that food can sit in the stomach
undigested and that's when we can go like lead to further
signs and symptoms like leaky gut, which is, you know, the
foods not being absorbed like broken down properly and it's
crossing over and then we could get food, allergies and food
sensitivities and all those kind of things happening.
So like highwomen Clark acid is a, is a big one because a lot of
people don't realize that they're lacking in it.
They actually think they have to too much of it because I get
that acid feeling up in the, in the digestive tract.
And so, when they have that, then they go and reach for some,
I guess you have the same kind of one's over there, but like,
Tums or rennie's or yeah, Mylanta, those kind of
neutralizing. So they try to neutralize their
stomach acid, which is even worse.
Worse because then that's you know there's no acid being
formed there so then we've got nothing that's able to come up
and kill any pathogens or break down any food.
And so we're kind of just in this Cascade of digestive
issues, just starting from there and like it's we can supplement
with hydrochloric acid and that can get the stomach acid working
again. And we can try things like apple
cider vinegar and water to get our digestive tract working.
We can try bitter foods which is Where veggies are good at coming
in because bitter, greens can stimulate that digestive process
or the big one though is like you can you can do all these
things, but if you're not addressing stress in your life
or how you perceive the stress, then you're going to continue to
cut that digestive process off, right at the very beginning and
have that flow on effect through the whole body.
That makes a lot of sense with regard to the apple cider
vinegar. Do you find like is there any
downside something with that? Like somebody's really deficient
in acid? Isn't isn't the the base of the
vinegar going to cancel it out even more?
Well I think that maybe they might if they're really
deficient the apple cider vinegar might cause more burning
I guess that kind of feeling and so they might just need to take
a step back and just Try something really even slower,
but what happens is that the vinegar all the acid in that, in
there stimulates the stomach acid.
So just causes that bit of acid in their causes that asset
account of I guess. I don't know the technical term
but I kind of like can see it in my head as you know, comes up
and starts creating more acid so that starts that kind of
chemical process in the body. Gotcha.
Gotcha, let's talk about nutrition for children.
Aaron because you'd mentioned that before we started recording
and I'm really Keen to learn more about that.
I have any kids yet, but crystals wanting something.
So I want to be proactive in learned a thing or two about it.
So what's your take on on nutrition?
For kids, especially as it relates to the lower carb
approach and fueling them during the early years?
And they're really growing as rapidly?
Definitely. So I have a nine year old and a
six year old. And when I was first going,
We'll shoot approach. I looked at what I was feeding,
my son. I was only a little baby then
and he was having like, apple juice and you know, cookies in
his lunchbox and squeezy yogurts with lots of sugar in it.
And my mom had said to me once like he's got behavioral issues
or something like that and he's only like a little toddler and I
was like no that's you know it's too early for any of this stuff
to be happening. Well she's like you know when he
you know after lunch she seems to be going crazy.
Z and running around. And once I started becoming more
and powered and understanding what was happening to me, I
looked at his food and then was like, yeah, maybe she's got a
point there, he's just eating pure sugar all day.
So I really need to do something about that and I found, you
know, what worked best for us was to actually transition him.
If we had a went straight in there and just took the apple
juice away from him, which he was having a glass or two a day,
he would probably have just completely, you know, I'm really
upset and would have been traumatic for all of us.
So what we did was we started replacing just a little bit of
that. Apple juice, like watering it
down, just a little bit more and more until we kind of got rid of
it. We give him a little bit of
homemade kombucha just and watered that down just so that
it was still that similar kind of color.
Like apple juice, we got rid of his squeezy yogurts and started
giving full fat Greek yogurt and realize that was making a really
good difference with him as well.
And Then by the time, my daughter came along, I was
already eating real food paleo for quite a while then and she
basically just came out of the, you know, the womb just, you
know, running. Like, she was super, could keep
that anything like she was the type of child that if you, like,
if she was sitting on my lap, she would just reach out and
eat. Whatever was on your plate,
would never question any foods. We were having and would grab
like a sauerkraut. Jar and drink the juice out of
it and I thought this is amazing, like, this is the
difference between, you know, a a chart.
Like my son still kind of has fussy eating issues because he
he I guess he's had the taste of the other food before where she
never did. And then, we throw School into
the mix. And one school started,
everything started changing, and you don't seem to have as much
control over. What you're feeding them when
they're away from you and that Cause a lot of issues as well
because now they're like, well, someone has this in their lunch
box and can we get it when you're going through the
supermarket? All that kind of stuff.
So, when I was looking at the big picture, I just thought that
the kids eat what we eat. I don't make any different meals
at dinner time. They might have actually a
little bit more carbohydrates and what we do because they're
able to run and Burn It Off. But they're still not having any
processed carbohydrates and when we do their lunchbox, they're
not having sandwiches and things like that in it.
Like the other kids are they might just, in fact, my son
loves taking some prosciutto and some olives and a boiled egg in,
those kind of things in his lunch box.
So he's basically having what his friends are having on
sandwiches, but without the bread and I don't give them a
dietary philosophy as such other than their eating nutrient dense
Whole Foods, we don't call it Kito paleo, low carb, or
anything like that. They're just eating foods that
are going to feel their body to give them the best energy.
Do you ever like have them go to like a birthday party or
something with friends and be like birthday cake there and
they just feel terrible afterwards.
Oh yes, so I love telling this story.
I remember being at a Christmas party and all of the food was
just piled out on tables and I always bring a plate wherever I
go. So I know that there's going to
be food there that the family can.
H but my son, he he was just like, this is like a, you know,
a smorgasbord of all these foods and I looked over and I saw this
child sitting under a table shoving, cupcakes into his
mouth, one after the other, and I was like, oh my gosh, like,
what's happening here? And I didn't say anything at the
time, even though, like, you know, personally I was kind of
like, oh my gosh, if I ruined this child and can he not
control himself around food? It, is it that my dietary issues
imposed on him or is it just because he's being given free
range? He's, you know, learning to make
his own choices. You know, parents kind of go
through all this kind of conflict all the time and he
came up to me and he said, oh, mum, I feel really sick and I
said, what do you think caused that, what's giving you the pain
in the stomach? And he said, I think it's
because I ate all this food and I said well what do you think
you'll do next time? And he said I probably State the
food you bring because it doesn't make me feel this way
and and I'm like, good, that's I think that in itself was the
best less than you could ever give.
Rather than I could have went up to him.
I could have pulled him out from under the table and taking all
that food off him and you know, told him, you know, get rid of
that out of your mouth or whatever, but I don't think that
would have worked. I think, you know, that might
have made even more rebellious or, you know, made of made him
want to, you know, not understand.
But he actually felt it and And we talked about it and I think
that was the best lesson. Yeah, I totally agree.
I feel like that's one of the things that the kids are going
to have to kind of learn on their own otherwise I mean you
can definitely lead by example, but at some point, they're going
to get experiments on. They're going to have to know,
you know, by their own doing how it's going to make them feel.
But within meeting like the, the lower car cuz I'm sure they're
eating lower carbs relative to their peers.
Yeah. Has there been any issue
whatsoever with their like growth and development?
I can't imagine there would be No, I'd like I actually am very
rarely get sick. You know, kids come home around
cold and flu season and they're like, you know, like all their
friends are constantly sick with runny noses and things like
that, and my children, very rarely get sick at all.
They've got really great energy levels.
Yeah, I can't see that there's been any problem with, you know,
and it's always the thing that I say because we're just feeding
them real food, right? We're just feeding them
unprocessed meats and vegetables and healthy.
Fats. Like how can you say that?
That is the, that is wrong nutrition to feed a child.
Like I can't I find it crazy that people would even think
that. Yeah, it's honestly
mind-boggling like, I've heard stories of people, you know,
having the police called on it because they've publicly
admitted that they're not feeding their kids, a bunch of
processed carbs and people think that they're malnourished and
the children and I'm like how backwards are we when we think
the norm is to just give them Oreos and gogurts and with other
stuff that you see in the The the supermarket said of the
farthest thing from actual food. I know, it's ridiculous to think
that and I guess I'm really lucky where I live.
We have a lot of families around us that are able to afford good
foods. And so when we go to school and
we bring plates quite often, the mums will come up to me because
they know I, you know, I'm a nutritional therapy practitioner
and I'm all about real food. And they've seen me do events
and stuff around. The local area, they'll ask me,
you know, what did you bring? How do you make that?
Can I have the recipe? And the other thing I do is I go
into my children's classroom once every term or so and when
we can and just do some cooking with the children.
So I'll go in there and I'll like it's summer here and we're
talking about ice cream and how, you know, and these are like,
we've talking to like grade one here.
Like how does ice cream make you feel when you eat one?
Never. Like good and then I'm like, and
then afterwards they're like, oh, I got a little bit crazy and
I'm like, what is he Mom? And Dad saying they're like sit
down settle down and I'm like, do you know what's in ice cream
and there? And kids are like really smart,
they're like sugar and I'm like yeah.
And you know why we don't eat too much sugar and then they
tell me and I was like well today I brought in a healthier
version of how to make ice cream and this one has just coconut
milk in it and frozen berries who wants to try it and they
will try it now. Like I've never Anything like
this before. This is so good and someone's
like, I like this better than ice cream.
And, you know, it's like a really good learning environment
and I think that just getting out into the community and doing
that is going to change people's perceptions over like a, my mail
nourishing my children because I didn't feed them and ice cream.
No. Yeah.
That's so huge. I mean, there's, there's so much
be said for the The Taste and how your taste changes based off
of what you're putting in. And like if you're giving the
kids quality Wholesome foods from the front end, then they'll
know going into it. What tastes good?
It would taste bad. I mean my palate has changed
like 180 degrees since I got off all the processed foods and I
mean kids like said they're smart.
They can recognize that as well and they recognize that they
feel good if they're out playing and you know they can't keep up
with the other kids because their stomach hurts like nobody
wants then. Yeah that's right.
And I so agree with you like I think my children definitely
have a different palette and so when they might see Those Foods
because we're conditioned, you know, like Prime you know from
our primitive days to seek out these sweet foods.
I can see my children zeroing in on these Foods because it's
their Primal Instinct, but then they might eat one or two bites
and they're like, nah, I'm done. I can't have any more of that.
So I think that's kind of the best way for them to learn is,
you know, like you were saying like lead by example at home
because that's a really good place to do that and give them
their meals. Feels like we always have dinner
together. It's always we sit down.
We eat a nutrient dense food or together.
That's the one meal that I know is going to set them upright and
then same again with breakfast. And then what they do through
the day, really depends on their their choices.
I give them, you know, a set amount of food because we're
lucky we can take our lunches to school here and then but it's
out of my control. I can only hope that they have
learned. Listened to the example that I'm
sitting here at home for them. I love it.
I've got a tricky one for you.
What about when they go to, like, spend time with
grandparents or relatives? That don't really see eye-to-eye
with her with you regarding nutrition.
They just like let them eat whatever.
And then like, how do you how do you moderate that?
Like me personally, I feel like if I let my kids my future kids,
stay with my parents, for instance, and my dad's all about
these cinnamon rolls, he makes it feel like I would just go
ballistic. If I know, He's like forcing
these kids, how to eat a bunch of carbs and sugars and stuff.
Like how do you handle that? Yeah, so I know my parents like
taking my children to McDonald's because I seem to deprive my
children of that childhood experience.
But I like to kind of point out that you know that childhood
experience didn't really helped me a lot because I was like very
tired and sick as a job as I said earlier.
But I think that what I do is like so my children It's summer
vacation. Here we just started it
yesterday. I rang my mom that the children
are going down there for five days with them.
And I said to my mom, I'm doing a fruit and veg order at the
moment, can I order you some things?
And so I went through on the phone with her and we went
through and picked. I want some letters.
You want. Some Tomatoes you want some
cucumbers. Okay great.
I've got to do a meat order next soon.
Do you want me to grab some meat for you while I'm doing it?
It. So basically, I'm taking all the
food down to my mom's house and my mum luckily, you know, most
of our diet was just a dinner. Food was always just like steak
and veg, probably just missing the healthy fats of it.
So I just take the food down to my mum and Dad's, and then
she'll just cook with the food that's there because she doesn't
like any food wastage. And then they might have the
occasional treat with the kids, where they might do pizza one
night. They might do McDonald's, but
they're not. Bring it every day.
And I know that that's the best that we can do in that
situation. And sometimes you've just for
the sake of family, I guess you've got to let go just a
little bit, like, you don't have to let go of your philosophy,
and your whole way of living, but in the big scheme of things,
I personally feel if it's better, if it's okay for them to
have it every now and then when they go down there, but not all
the time. Time every day.
Yeah, it's really good. Really good protocol and ever
heard the hurting explain, like that.
That makes total sense because I'm, I'm folks are saying why
they don't like to see if we go to waste.
So if I'm providing food I mean they're going to be incentivized
to make sure it gets eaten. Yeah that's right and I mean if
they're filling your children up with the fruit and veg that
you've brought their because I don't want it to go to waste and
your Dad gives them one little cinnamon.
Roll the end there but they probably going to find that.
They're pretty full anyway and they're not going to sit there
and eat the whole lot the whole time.
And I think it's also So important to recognize that
there are family traditions and food is a great way of
connecting people and Community together and if your dad's way
of connecting with his future, grandchildren is to offer them a
cinnamon roll and only have it. The only occasional one or two
times, they go down there, there's more to that than just
the food. Like I know a lot of people
listening that are very dogmatic about their diet.
Philosophy is good, be like, oh my God, she's just saying eat
the cinnamon roll but I feel like Like we can that can cause
stress in itself that can cause issues in the body when that
stress process starts up. So if it means that it's a good
way that your your dad in their future grandchild are going to
connect together and it's only on the occasion, I think, like
let it go, it's a good bonding experience for them.
That's true and definitely do agree.
It's just crazy that that food could have such a, you know,
sentimental effect like that. That to me is Yeah, I think but
it's always being that way. I thing like it and it's not so
much about the food either. Really it is that kind of coming
together and being together and spending time together, I think
just food is that Common Thread that binds people together and
maybe you can start New Traditions that don't involve
food. Maybe, you know, like with
Christmas coming up, start a tradition where instead of, you
know, eating all the food and water.
You know, people still eat all the food but then maybe part of
that tradition is to then go around the block for a walk
afterwards to kind of get the body moving rather than going
and having an app. Like a lot of people do after
Christmas lunch and I guess, you know, in America it's it's
winter time. So maybe in not might not be
able to get out for a walk. But I know in Australia like
it's very common to go out and have a game of Cricket in the
backyard straight after Christmas lunch.
So, we're quite active because it's summer.
Yeah, but maybe there's another tradition, maybe instead of
sitting around and eating all the chocolates and foods you can
read, there's a special story that you always read together or
there's a no, my husband's family.
There's a, there's a really funny movie that's an old kind
of black-and-white movie that they always put on after
Christmas lunch. That is more about everyone
sitting around together and having that laughs, and that
tradition rather than the food tradition.
That's true. It's a good point.
We don't want from like, but we do go split firewood.
So that's a good. Vehicle activity.
So speaking of the kid nutrition what like Marine Burleson that
has kids and they kind of want them to wean them off or at
least replace something that is like a typical kid favorite.
What's one thing that you been preparing over the years for
your kids and that is just like a hundred percent better than
what's, what's the alternative? And that your kids have really
enjoyed eating? Oh yeah.
So there's so many foods like that when I think about the
lunch, Says I know and I she might be the same in America.
Like I was talking before, a lot of people have those squeeze
kind of yogurts. It's like a it's very easy for
kids just to suck one of those down but they're not actually
even starting their digestive process by doing that.
They're basically Mo's will be having a drink and then it's
highly. It's full of like, you can get
those free ones. I can get yogurt ones and
they're just full of sugar basically.
So you can buy pouches now that are empty.
You can fill them up with whatever you want inside of
those, but even better. I find is just to buy the whole
straight like, Greek yogurt, full fat, Greek yogurt, or
coconut yogurt. If you're not doing Dairy and
buy some frozen berries, some fresh like some sorry, frozen
organic, berries or some fresh berries, and just sprinkle a
little bit of those on top, and put some cacao nibs on top of
that. And my kids, Like they like the
crunch of the cacao nibs and then they like the cooling of
the yogurt and the, and the berries and it gives them that
little sweet taste with the berries.
And that's just a really simple like that, could be an afternoon
tea that could be in the lunch box.
That could be a dessert. And I just think that that's
just something that my kids really like, is that one?
I love it. I love it.
Might be taking notes Here for when, when I do veneer the kids,
Kids would be well fed and well educated.
Oh, yeah. Oh yeah.
Well, we'll definitely have meet at the dinner table for sure,
won't be any em. It won't be a vegan based home.
I don't think by any means. That's right.
I and my babies love to chew on like lamb chops, you know?
And they just have the the lamb bone or whenever we were having
a roast dinner. They would get the bone out of
the roast and just chew on that. That's like the best teething
ring. You can have you don't need
those breadsticks. Those really hard disk.
Inbred things I chew on, we call them rusks.
I don't know what you call them, but they would just love the
bone off the meat and just chew on that.
And that was really great for teething yam you think about,
you getting, like all the collagen and all the, you know,
all of that whistle that's going to be good for, you know, joints
Health, everything. I feel like I feel very blessed
and fortunate because I grew up in an environment where we had
land to hunt, and I was just raised knowing where my food
came from that, we've always, Had we used to have cattle, we
had chickens, we have lamb. So like I would see my dad, you
know, as a young kid, I would see my dad, you know, go put
your a deer or a lamb. And then a few hours later, I
had that lamb or deer on my on my plate and I feel like a lot
of kids are just removed from that to equation these days.
And there's this massive disconnect but that's what I
think we should all go back to. Well I so agree with you and
wherever we can we always talk to our children about where the
You're just coming from. I think that's really important.
I think when you're looking at transitioning, your children
over number one have dinner together, like just start with
one meal, turn off all the devices, all of your, any noise,
anything like that, sit down and have that proper family meal.
Like, we used to probably do as children and a lot of people
these days are eating on the Run.
Just make that one meal that time when the whole family is
there that you can all come together and then talk about
where that Food is coming from. So we have a local farmer not
far from us. We've been out to his property
and we've been camping out there and we stayed on the property,
we showed the kids where the food was coming from when we eat
this beautiful meat. This is where it comes from.
And unfortunately, at the moment, most of Australia is in
severe, drought. And even though our farmer is a
regenerative farmer, he's done, they've done quite well until
now the drought has just gotten them.
And I was showing the children, how the water In the dam where
we used to go swimming or camping is totally dry.
Now just looks like rocks and how they're having to look at
other measures to kind of drought-proof their property and
it's costing a lot of money and it's putting a lot of farmers
out of business and I showed the children this and one thing they
asked, which to me is just absolutely amazing was whether
they could donate part of their Christmas present money to the
farmer to help him out during this time.
And I just thought that's so Amazing that these kids
understand where their food is coming from and how important it
is for us that they would donate some money from their Christmas
presents to the farmer to help their food out basically where
their food comes from. So that's huge.
Thank you, judge. Yeah, I'm I'm still Blown Away
by how amazing the children were about that.
And I just think that if we have just talked to our children more
about where the food was coming from a lot more children and
families would be more empowered and and want to help our Farmers
out because that's Where our food is coming from?
Well, it's interesting because I feel like we're in this weird
generational Gap right now. Like I'm I'm 28 and I'm, I grew
up doing that kind of stuff. I do that kind of stuff.
Today, we have a family farm that's been in my family for
five generations now. But most of my peers have never
really been exposed to that. So all of my friends that are
now having kids, you know, they're raising these kids
having. No, inkling of an idea, what
that style of living was like and, you know, it's not The kids
fault. Obviously, it's not even the
parents fault because they just weren't exposed to it.
But you have all these cartoon shows and movies that portray
animals, as you know, basically human characters with
personalities, they can talk and and there's nothing against
that. But it basically paints this
picture to the children that these animals are, you know,
totally fine. They're just like a friend and
they don't, that's just totally dissociates where the food comes
from. If like that is a generational
Little issue but I think it's more prominent now than it's
ever been before, all right. Yeah, I so agree and because we
have so much supermarkets and people, you know, like people in
our Circle know that we go to the farmers markets and we
support our Farmers, but the average person, they just see
the large Supermarket. It's convenient, they go there,
their children, think that's where food comes from?
Like, they don't associate that back to a farm.
There's not a lot of Education out there saying actually, this
food in here was brought. On a truck and that truck came
from a warehouse and then another truck to that far, you
know, came from the farm, and then just even thinking about
that, like, how many times that food is being handled just to
get to that Supermarket? Let's cut all of that out.
Go and visit our farmer, and just get the food straight from
there. We don't need all this in
between stuff. Totally, you'll get a lot of
meats from kangaroo there, right?
Yeah, we'll kangaroos quite overpopulated here.
So a lot of people being turning to the kangaroo meat.
It's actually it's quite nutrient dense but it doesn't
have a lot of fat on it. So it's quite because, you know,
if you think of a kangaroo, they're like very active and
bouncing around the quite lean. So there's not a lot of actual
fatty meat on a kangaroo. Is that little taste like a
season for Kangaroo? Is it just all done through
ranching like farming and ranching practices?
I mean, how is that? Regular it?
Just it's wild caught. I'd I don't know of any actual
people farming, the kangaroos, I think they're just wild and they
go out and they shoot them and then they process that the meat
down for that. I don't believe there's any
farming because if they're just like they're just kind of
everywhere. So a not not in the cities
obviously but out in the country they kind of just all around.
So they're very easy to come by. So it's kind of like deer or
like wild boar here. First, you would love it.
You'd go hunting. You can go out.
They call it reshooting reasoning.
You can go out reshooting, but some farmers.
And yeah, and then they use the Skins, obviously, to the third
to make things out of like dear. It's the same kind of process.
Yeah, well that's good. I would imagine that.
That's a pretty nutrient-dense meat, that's kind of in Surplus
there. So that'd be a good good Outlet
to get some quality protein in very high in protein.
Definitely, and I guess, you know, Australians a bit spoiled
though because we do have Variety of lightweight lamb is
easy to come by and we do have a lot of cattle farming and and
poultry and stuff like that. So I have I feel like a lot of
people actually in Australia feed their pets kangaroo meat,
rather than eating it as well. It's not like it's not like
something you just sit down and say I'm having kangaroo tonight.
I mean, is it coming? Yeah, it's becoming more popular
but it's definitely something that I.
Yeah, I feed my dog that so gotcha.
Gotcha, yo a bunch of like Quality grass fed beef that
especially in New Zealand, right?
Yeah, well over New Zealand. That's practically all grass
over there or grass-fed, which is, which is great.
They get a lot more rainfall than us, and it's more green
over there. So there'll am from New Zealand
is always grass-fed. But I feel like, you know, in
Australia, we do have feedlots and stuff, but not as much as
you guys do and we do have a lot more land for cattle just to be
kind of grazing ground. So a lot of I'm cattle, we get
is already and cheap are already a grass-fed basically because
they're just living on the land like that.
Gotcha, gotcha. Very interesting about the make
a trip out there for sure when is the low-carb and under, it's
usually in October each year. So you should definitely come
out at that time of year because it's nice here in Australia.
It's not like super hot today or yesterday.
It was in. I think it was like in the high
100 Fahrenheit. So So that's pretty much it gets
pretty hot here. And where I live in Brisbane,
it's like semi-tropical. So we don't get any snow at all.
Like, the first time I saw a real snow was when I came over
for low-carb Denver this year and went to the Rocky Mountains,
I was like oh my gosh, this is no.
Wow, shoot. I was at low-carb dinner, I
didn't see you. I guess we had measured the
point though. There's a lot of people there
who were there was depend on being to are you going to be
going to any of the ones here coming up?
I'm the only plans. I have next year is to go to the
Nutritional Therapy Association conference in March or fit and
Fab March in Portland. So I'll be over there for that.
And then I think low carb Denver is the weekend after but this
and this is what I did last this year.
I did both but I think this year, I just the Australian
Dollar to the American dollar is so bad.
Like I basically Give you guys my fifty dollar note and I get,
like, $20 back. So again, I'll shoot, I'll just
have to come see y'all. Then I'll come down to the low
carb or the yeah low carb down under.
Yeah, definitely have to let us know.
We should get you speaking on there or something.
If we can Absolutely. I'll come eat some kangaroo,
take out, roof shooting. Yes, yes, yes.
Yes. Well awesome.
I don't want to take up too much of your time but what can people
go to find out more about you? Learn more about the nutritional
therapy and and stay in touch. Yes.
You can find me at nourishing conversations, that's on
Instagram and Facebook. I also have a podcast called
low-carb conversation, so you can find me at
www.solutions-recovery.com and, and my other website is
nourishing conversations.com. So pretty much if you're in
Australia, you can find me just about everywhere.
In the low-carb done under group in the Brisbane.
Paleo group, all around the social.
Idea. And yeah, it's just it's, I love
it. Like, I'm just got my hands in
so many fingers. Yeah, yeah.
I just can't get enough of it. I'm just so passionate about
spreading the word of real food and lower carbohydrate diets.
Well, that really matter what you're doing, you know, like in
the the local setting like, teaching teaching, younger kids,
how to cook and cooking for them at school and that speaks
volumes. That's pretty cool.
Thank you community is so important.
And that's, you know, if there's anything I can urge listeners to
Which is what Jimmy more urged me to do.
Right back in the beginning was like connect with that Community
go and form your local groups get together, cook together,
learn and teach off each other because that's that's the best
way to to spread the word and to get involved in learning more
about low-carb. Absolutely.
Well, it's been an absolute
pleasure. Let's definitely keep in touch
and if there's ever anything I can do for you just let me know.
Thank you and same here. I love to meet you in Australia
one day. Absolutely I'll plan on it.
Thanks, take care.