Wellness In Every Season

Plant-based Nutrition for Longevity

• Autumn Carter/ Melanie Richter • Season 1 • Episode 215

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0:00 | 45:26

Can plant-based nutrition actually help you live longer, feel better, and reduce inflammation — without becoming fully vegan or vegetarian?

In this episode of Wellness in Every Season, Autumn Carter sits down with Melanie Murphy Richter, Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and recipient of the 2023 Recognized Young Dietitian of the Year award from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, to talk about the real science behind plant-based nutrition, gut health, inflammation, and longevity.

Melanie shares her own personal healing journey from years of severe IBS and chronic inflammation to rebuilding her health through nutrition, mindful eating, and lifestyle changes. Together, Autumn and Melanie unpack the difference between processed carbohydrates and nourishing complex carbohydrates, why fiber and plant diversity matter for gut health, how stress and trauma impact digestion, and why food truly can become medicine when we learn to work with our bodies instead of against them.

This conversation also explores emotional eating, mindful eating, postpartum nutrition, protein myths, longevity science, sleep, inflammation, and practical ways to begin making healthier food choices without overwhelm. Whether you are curious about plant-based eating, trying to heal your gut, improve your energy, reduce inflammation, or simply build a more sustainable relationship with food, this episode offers realistic and encouraging guidance grounded in both science and lived experience.

Listeners can connect with Melanie at:

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SPEAKER_01

We're gonna be talking about plant-based nutrition. And as soon as you hear this and you're starting to hit, get up, don't stop. Because we all need it in our diet, even if you're not going all the way. So listen. And we are going to be talking about some things that are more geared towards women. But if you are male, listen too because you're a human being. There will be similarities here. Welcome to Wellness in Every Season. We talk all things wellness to help you align yourself, align with your goals, get find balance in your life, and just recalibrate yourself. If you are listening for the first time, welcome, welcome. I'm so glad you're here. And let's get started in the rest of the podcast. I'm so excited to have Melody with me. She is somebody who has a background as a dietitian, and it's something I'm passionate about because I don't know how many of you have heard this really old quote of let food be thy medicine. It absolutely is. Think about it for a minute. What have you eaten for today? Has it been nutritious? And has it been something where as soon as you started eating it, your body said, Yes, this is exactly what I need? Or is it more of yes, this is what I need at the emotional level? Like really think about that. Without judgment is the biggest thing. Because once you start judging yourself, you're gonna go down the emotional eating rabbit hole. But has it been what you needed? Because Melanie here is going to be talking about how what we eat can prevent diseases, age-related diseases, it can extend our life, and it can help with cellular growth and reduce inflammation and so much more. And this is something that we absolutely take for granted in this fast-paced lifestyle that we live. We are in such a go-go-go society that we think eating well needs to take forever and have a lot of sex. So I'm very excited that you're here. Can you tell us a little bit about what led you into this career path and then let's go from there?

SPEAKER_00

Sure. I also love that you almost went into dietetics for a hot second. We have so much to talk about. Um, thank you so much for having me, Odd. I'm really happy to be here. To give you my little life story. I, if I if I think back on it honestly, I had nutrition and food has been a cornerstone of my interests since I was a kid. I always was looking up the dictionary, like what certain nutrients did, what they were, why they were called certain things. I was always very, very fascinated about the biological response of certain nutrients, but it actually wasn't until I was in my early 20s and I was in college and eating. But when I went to college, I went off the deep end with food and drinking, and I don't think I saw a vegetable for four years, if I'm honest. And I had really bad IBS and IBD. I suffered for the better part of my 20s with significant gut issues and super inflamed body everywhere. I was holding on to probably 20 to 25 pounds of extra weight because of my gut, my leaky gut issues. I'm sure I probably had SIBO at the time that, you know, had since all of this is since resolved. So we're on the other side of it. But when I was in my late 20s, I was simultaneously in a career that I went to college for. I was in journalism and PR, public relations, and was doing great. I was making the best money of my life, had my own agency at the time, and I was waking up miserable. I was making up really uninspired, sad about the things that I was doing. And simultaneously, IBS, not to be crass, but I didn't have a normal bowel movement for probably eight years. It was always kind of a hit or miss as to whether or not I'd be able to get to the bathroom on time, right? So there were those experiences that I was having that were like significant to my like confidence and well-being. Anyway, it all kind of converged. I remember having this moment. I woke up one day, had a really terrible health day the day before. I was like, I'm I hate everything. I hate what I'm doing in my career. My body is revolting. So I started going on this path. I started by going and seeing every single Western doctor known to man, you know, primary care people, allergists, gastrointestinal people, and all of them basically said the same thing. They just said, This is your new normal. You have IBS. Kind of get used to it is basically what they told me. And I was like, so I took matters in my own hands. I ended up finding an incredible naturopathic doctor, went down a very long-winded journey that basically brought me back to nutrition again. And everything came back to finding the foods, and it took me a while, it was a long road, but finding the foods that worked with my physiology at the time to reduce inflammation, to help heal my gut, provide me the nourishments to then be able to create these metabolites that help to heal me over time. And it stemmed and started with food. Yes, there were some ancillary things that happened too. Like I started doing acupuncture and I had lots of other non-traditional or I'll say non-Western modalities that help support me, but it all came at the same time. I was like, oh my gosh, I love this. Why am I not doing that? Like, I why am I not doing this for my career? So I went back to school at that same time as I was healing on this healing journey. I went back to get my master's in nutrition health span and longevity from the only longevity institute in the states. And it's been history ever since. It took me honestly, probably easily two or three years to get my body back with a concerted effort to get my healing in place. Simultaneously, got my master's, and now I'm doing this. I'm helping to give this to other people. So many people, you nailed it at the beginning, by the way, when you said, well, food is thy medicine, but it's the one thing that the type of medicine we take every single day, multiple times a day. So, what information are you saying with the meals that you're choosing, with the foods that you're choosing? Everything is information, right? The food that we are feeding our bodies is the information that then says feel better or feel worse, more or less, to put it simply. Yeah, it's been a huge passion of mine. And I feel lucky to work with people who have hit rock bottom in many ways because it's like, oh, you're looking, there is so much possible for people that they don't to get back to the basics, truly to get back to the basics, it can make your life change. That's my little sonka for you. When I first started my practice, I was trying on a lot of different dietetic cats, and I remember seeing some people with not to say not to belittle people who have like superficial goals, like wait, want to lose 10 pounds. Or I was working with people like that, and it just wasn't inspiring to me. What was inspiring was when I had the people like, I have tried everything. I'm almost at the brink of giving up, but you're my last hope. And then we can come in and kind of sift through and find the path that works best for them. And then suddenly it's like the light bulbs turn on. It's like, wow, I feel even feeling incrementally better can feel like your world has shifted, right? And then eventually, if you do wake up one day, you're like, Oh, I feel 100%. I haven't felt maybe ever 100% in my entire life. This is incredible. And I truly believe that when people feel great in their physical bodies, it opens up every single other door in your life. It helps align you in your relationships, it helps align you in your career, it helps to align you in your emotional body. I mean, starting with the physical body is really truly the pathway, in my opinion, to access everything else.

SPEAKER_01

Let's go back just a little bit. What is IBS? I was diagnosed with that for a hot second, and it's absolutely a catch all, but what is it is a cat.

SPEAKER_00

There's two different terms, IBS, which stands for irritable bowel syndrome, which can encapsulate many things. It can be persistent constipation, persistent diarrhea. It can be the combination of the two, diarrhea and constipation switching between each other, it can be persistent bloating. More or less, irritable bowel syndrome is related to your gut microbiome being imbalanced and the symptoms that come as a result of that. If you escalate IBS into its actual diagnosable disease form, it becomes irritable bowel disease, IBD. And there are a couple categories of IBD, including Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, stomach ulcers also can be part of the IBD category, but they're and those can be on their way to autoimmune conditions, too, where the body is super inflamed, it's you know has adverse functionality from the immune perspective. But so it is kind of a catch-all because, and I think it is a catch-all now because the way that our Western diets are, and not just diet, you said it earlier too. Like it's we're in a busy, constantly on the go. Our Western diet and lifestyle parameters have made it very common for people to have some form of IBS. I think most of us, I would say the bulk of us are walking around with some element at the spectrum, right? You mean I mentioned to you that I was on the real bad part of the spectrum where I was, I literally had a moment, a bridesmaid moment. If you guys have seen the movie Bridesmaid, went to out to lunch one day, walking across the street, completely just diarrhea everywhere. How is that allowed? How is that allowed in the world? But that was my experience. And I like working with people down on that side of the spectrum because it's like you're ready, you're ready to try. But there's tons of other people that are walking around that think that, you know, a little bit of diarrhea after dairy or some bloating after their meals is normal. And that's also not normal, it's just a little less severe, right? And eventually I do find that people with the less severe problems tend to have the more problematic outcomes because they're not making the changes right away that they need to. And then it does become, you know, something that's harder to fix over time. But yeah, it's hopefully that helps give you a little context.

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely does. For me, it makes sense somatically. I have a lot of trauma in my childhood. Let's just like not go any further than it. I stored a lot of it in my gallbladder, and I became lactose intolerant, but it was actually the protein and dairy that bothered me. And as soon as I have my gallbladder removed it, it's like interesting.

SPEAKER_00

Which is so funny because gallbladder technically is a fat, it it holds and stores bile, which helps to break down fat specifically, but that's super interesting. I'm sorry to hear that. People do not yet talk enough about, at least in Western societies. I know they do in other cultures, but there are certain organs and tissues and glands that do hold energetic properties that we don't give enough credit to that aspect of the physical expression of our emotions or our mental state or our experience or trauma. We do hold a lot of that in our bodies. And for females, I found the gallbladders tend to be pretty weak for that reason. There's certain elements of the liver that can be problematic for when it comes to like housing processing trauma. Yeah, it's not and the gut in general. I mean, if you think about our small intestine and our large intestine is one cell layer wall thick. But if you think about your skin, you have like at least 20 plus layers of cells to like keep you from getting injured by a scrape, right? Like we have defense mechanisms, but our gut isn't that way because we need nutrients to to pass into our bloodstream easily once they're digested. So if you think about the intestines being so thin and permeable, stress alone. If you had the most perfect, pristine diet and lifestyle and exercise routine, but you add a case of stress for you know a couple weeks, that's enough to tear open the gut lining to then, you know, make it permeable, which is that concept. If anyone's heard of the term leaky gut, that's what that means, is that the junctures of your gut lining are now loose and weak and things can pass easily, including the pathogenic, more dangerous types of microbes can pass in and out into our bloodstream. That alone, so stress alone, trauma alone. Like, but God bless if we're stressed and we're dealing with trauma, we're probably also not consuming the right types of food because we, you know, emotional eating is it's a feedback loop. When we're stressed and we're anxious and we're holding a lot, usually we do crave sugar. We do crave things that are fast-acting glucose, because our body doesn't know the difference between running away from a bear or dealing with a traumatic relationship or an in there, we don't know the difference. So with the fight or flight response is the same either way, and we usually crave those quick-acting sugars when we're stressed, anyway.

SPEAKER_01

The opposite of, and we've all been this in our own lives where we either binge eat or go for the sweeter thing, a car, which is still asleep, if you think about it, the way your body breaks it down, or we go to not eat. We're both awful in different weight. And there's also sleep, which is a huge part of it, which helps with healing, not just healing your brain, but healing everything else in your body.

SPEAKER_00

Sleep is our one and only baked in. Hopefully, for most people, we are getting some sleep, but it's our one and only time on a 24-hour period basis where we're baking in healing. Our body will not prioritize repair if we are constantly digesting food. We will, biologically speaking, digestion is prioritized because that is what we need to like get the energy to move our bodies, right? Sleep, though, when we don't have food available, now, oh good, rest and digest. Let's go ahead and clean up. Let's use this time to repair and rejuvenate our neuropathways and our gut. Let's heal all those things. We can talk a little bit about this, but periodic prolonged fasts or caloric restricted moments throughout the year outside of just sleep can do wonders for expediting healing. Also, you know, obviously there's nuances to that. But anyway, yeah, sleep is our one baked in time where we can heal in really concentrated amounts of time. So healing or sleep is huge.

SPEAKER_01

Which is why I felt like I could not really heal postpartum until my kids that I uh I'm postpartum autumn. How old are your babies? My youngest is turning five like a week.

SPEAKER_00

So as a newly postpartum mom, because I only have one, my first baby, 15 months. I have a lot to say about man, we women, postpartum moms, holy cow.

SPEAKER_01

We nutrition needs are so different during this.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, they are, especially if you opt to breastfeed or you can or you're choosing to do that. It's I I hosted a fasting group this morning, actually, and I mentioned I was like, you know, you shouldn't. The one interesting part about nutrition and the cool part about nutrition, amongst, I mean, there's a million cool things, but you should never get so fixated on one type of diet or lifestyle because you are going to absolutely change your needs, will change sometimes on a weekly basis, right? You know, if you're postpartum pregnant, your protein needs specifically are dramatically increased, which is, man, a hard number to hit sometimes. You know, if you're healing from something, when I had my IBS IBD situation and you're healing a gut, you need more protein in situations like that. If you're stressed, you need more protein. But also we need more carbohydrates. We need carbohydrate carriers to produce neurotransmitters. So if you're going through, like if you had a death in the family, let's say, and you're grieving and you need more serotonin dopamine, you're gonna need more carbohydrates. So there's different times in your life. So people get really fixated on like this is the type of diet, and this is exactly the number I need to hit all the time. Like, no, probably not. It's gonna change. And sometimes weekly. And I think the better equipped you are to understanding what nutrients are needed when and listening in at the beginning of the call. I thought you did such a wonderful job, kind of alluding to the idea of body literacy, understanding what your body needs and listening to what your body needs, these are all critical components to living a life that is aligned with what is required for you in any given moment.

SPEAKER_01

Well, if you're super stuck on this is what it is, you will be missing big grants.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. And also missing some things that could be critical. Like I also just as another example, work with a lot of women who are still menstruating who are trying to get pregnant but have been on birth control. If you've been on birth control, you inadvertently have needed a lot more minerals because birth control tends to like leach minerals from your body. So if you're prepping for pregnancy right after birth control and you haven't given your body time and space to replenish some of these nutrients that you've missed, you might not get pregnant quickly, or you might have extra stress on your body. So it's all very unique. You have to think about where am I in my life? What's happening in my life around me, not just the weight that I want to lose or the body I'm trying to capture. It's like, you know, what are my stress levels? What is my sleep hygiene? What foods do I want right now? How is my digestion? It all matters. And the puzzle changes, and that's the fun part to me, because it's like, man, where am I now? You change all the time. Your needs change all the time, and that's exciting, I think, to be able to adapt and to figure out what to play around, like of how interesting that this is what my body needs right now. It's like you're getting to know yourself every day.

SPEAKER_01

It's fun. That is good, and that's the reminder that it is okay. Absolutely loud and encouraged slow down if you have that minute. And it goes with the whole mindful eating idea of really there's some videos that I watched for my degree path was a pie doll. I took a lot of extra nutrition classes because I thought I was going that way. Either way, it's been amazing. Four children, I need to know, right? Yeah, but the idea of mindfully eating is that you're you're cooking it, you're being mindful along with that. They don't really talk about that in the videos, the articles, scientific journals that I read about it. But being in tune with the food that you're about to eat and really slowing down, not doing like what I did for lunch just a few minutes ago where I was reading a book while eating and talking to a child, but really having as minimal distractions as possible. Good luck if you have kids. But you're being aware of what you're eating, aware of your stomach saying, I need more or I need less, or this isn't sitting quite right, especially if you have any type of IBS going on. Or if you're female and it's anywhere near that time of month, have you noticed that your bowel movements change during the month? So being in tune with your body means that you are also being in tune with the food that's about to go in your body, taking stock of what color is it, what's the texture, that type of thing of what is on your plate or in your bowl, so that you're having that moment of okay, I'm really present and I'm really here for it. Because how many times are we just inhaling our food? We don't even really chew it all the way, which leads to problems, as you well know.

SPEAKER_00

You bring up a very good point, and I I think that from the mindful eating perspective, it takes a long time, I've found, to get to know your body, especially if you're not in a well body, because the symptoms might not be like you might not like I don't love I don't love when people say, Oh, well, listen to your body eat what you're craving or whatever, because sometimes your body's craving things because it's imbalanced. So, like, what are you eating the things and giving your body the things that's there's nuance that too? Like we, you know, if you do have issues, you need to work with somebody. But the thing that I really love about backtracking a little bit about the mindful eating piece is that we all need to slow down. Like all of us, we need to be going one-fourth the pace that we're all going. Like it's truly detrimental that we're going so fast. Again, parenthood is like a whole different yeast. But I think the thing that so I run a couple sensory classes and courses with people because I think that the thing missing a lot too is that food is one of the main areas in our life that we is a sensory, joyful, should be a joyful sensory shared experience. And people forget that. Like, you know, slow down and like what does it feel like in your mouth? Do you get that little in the back of your jaw when you eat this grapefruit? Like, what are those feeling tones? How does it taste? How does it feel, smell? We one of the main modalities for us to share is at mealtimes, like across cultures, we're sharing food. Like, what a beautiful place of like love and nourishment and slow down to be present with that. That's so cool that all of us are sitting with this umami flavors and melt in your mouth. It's just what a shame to miss that, you know? Like that's the what an opportunity to practice presence, like when you're really enjoying the food that you're eating. So outside of listening to how it is affecting your body, that's something that I do all the time in my practice. But I also feel like, you know, man, what a perfect opportunity to practice like pure presence.

SPEAKER_01

How many times have you put something in your mouth and like that was a waste of calories?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that was the bummer.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. How many times have you, my husband and I do, where if we get something really good and we're eating it, we're both like we do that little dance and there's that little hum, like that's so good.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, it's like a hug. And it's that's why it's so much better to share with others too. Like, I love eating in company is such a sacred experience to share that with people. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And I'm totally like that's not in my family tree at all. But the Italian grandmother, like, have you eaten? Would you like any food? Let's whip up some with not enough food. We have tons of food in our house, always.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

People come in, the first thing they see is our banana thing, and they're like, Do you have monkeys? We do a lot of green smoothies.

SPEAKER_00

A lot of potassium. This is mandatory.

SPEAKER_01

We haven't really talked about plant-based yet. So is this separate from eating meat or is this along with? What is your idea of plant-based? People who are like, no, you're gonna be talking about veganism and vegetarianism, and that's not for me.

SPEAKER_00

I love how emotional people get sometimes. I don't mean that in a bad way. I am a longevity and gut health dietitian. And I preface that because I think it's important when you're talking about finding the right path forward for you. You have to first identify what your goals are and what is most meaningful to you. For me and what I deal with in my practice and in my own life, my goal is to live in a healthy body for as long as humanly possible. That is, that I want to be a hundred and being able to hike. Like that's a goal of mine. I don't want to be a hundred and in a walking chair and on 75 medications, right? So when you think about longevity, that's my like where I'm coming from. When we study the people who live in the longest, healthiest bodies for the longest period of time, and we study this in the lab with both animal models and human models. The pathway forward to living healthfully for the longest period of time is being more plant forward. That does not mean that animal sources of food don't have a role to play. They do have a role to play. You can avoid them altogether too, but I eat meat in my life, but it is not the centerpiece of my plate. And it's something that I use as a supplement in my diet rather than always the main staple. So in my house, we probably purchase meat by way of turkey or chicken or fish maximum two times a week. And the rest of it, we're doing lots of legumes and lentils and beans and veggies and bowls because, and I'll tell you the scientific reason for this. When you consume protein specifically, actually, since we're talking about animal meats, is tends to be in the protein category, although there's other macronutrients that play a role here too. But when you think about proteins, you either have plant-based proteins or animal-based proteins. They both have amino acids, they both help to build your body back up, heal your body. They're the building blocks of pretty much everything that we utilize in our body. Neurotransmitters, digestive juices, DNA, RNA, amino acids are critical for life. That being said, when you overconsume protein and you're not utilizing it. So let's say you're eating like one gram of protein per pound of body weight. Holy cow, that's a lot of protein, you guys. If you are utilizing that and you're not a bodybuilder or an athlete that's actually utilizing that nutrient, it either, well, first of all, it's going to get stored on your body as fat. So overconsumption of animal proteins has been associated with as the type three diabetes, because there is a cascade effect of too much protein that actually does turn on the same pathways that carbohydrate intake does. So people who are following severe or very strict carnivore forward diets are more likely to get diabetes as well, even if they don't touch a single carbohydrate, which is, I think people need to know that is possible for you. And if you're confused why you get diabetes and you've never touched carbohydrate, and that could be why. So there's that element that there it will get stored on your body as fat. It plays a similar role on your insulin eventually too. But we, there are three primary nutrient sensing pathways. And I apologize for getting a little science-y, but I hope I can make this easy for you all to understand. There's three nutrient sensing pathways in our body that basically sense when food is present, right? So when we eat carbohydrates, certain pathways get turned on to say, oh, great, we have food. Let's digest it, let's move, let's use it, right? Carbohydrates have a sensor, proteins have a sensor, and then there's a couple that do both, right? The sensors that turn on protein are more easily triggered with animal proteins than they are with plant-based sources of proteins. And we need them to be turned on in certain stages of our life when you're pregnant, breastfeeding, growing a body, growing brains, building muscle. You need these sensors to be turned on. But if they're excessively turned on and there's nowhere to go with the growth that would otherwise be happening, your body doesn't just turn it off and say, oh, well, I guess there's nothing to do. But it doesn't just turn it off. It has to go somewhere. So what happens is it proliferates the rate of cell division, which means that our cells are getting older and older faster than our chronological age. So at a cellular level, your biological age is going to be higher than your chronological age, which basically means that you're going to get disease faster and faster and faster in your life. So when you're between the ages of 18 and 65, when we're trying to slow down aging, we're trying to slow down the rate at which our body is proliferating and aging and this concept of cellular replication, you want to moderate the amount of protein that you're consuming, or at least get the exact amount that you need to sustain your life, your body and your lifestyle, no more than that. Eating more than that does not make you gain muscle unless you're actually going to the gym. It's not doing any of that. It's just aging your cells faster. We talk about, from a longevity perspective, centralizing plants first, using animal proteins if that's even part of your interest as a supplement and occasionally and not all the time. So being plant forward is something that we talk about a lot. There's lots of other reasons too. We need more fiber to support gut health, which comes from plants. We need more complex carbohydrates that help support vitamin B, the vitamin B family and neurotransmitter production, all these things are coming from really rich, complex carbohydrates. So there's lots of different reasons. There's phytonutrients found in fruits and vegetables that are not found anywhere else. Those are cancer-fighting and anti-inflammatory supporting nutrients that we need to really support our immune system, et cetera. So animals have a place and they have a role, but they shouldn't be the centerpiece of your meal. It should be something that you consume as a supplement to your diet.

SPEAKER_01

I've noticed that I needed higher amounts of protein and red meat with better right before my period.

SPEAKER_00

What a great example of catering to what you need. Yeah, of course. If you need red meat every day, probably not, right? I mean, listen, you figured it out. That's the important part. I find it frustrating when people are like, hey, what do you have for dinner? Oh, we're gonna have chicken. Dang. I wish we would change the dynamic to be like, oh, we're gonna have this amazing cauliflower, and we're also gonna have a little side of fish or whatever. But like in we're constantly just naming the protein as the center, right? Like we do it when we explain it to people, like, oh, we're having turkey or we're having meat or whatever. It's like, what else though? I mean, we have like 14 sides, like let's talk about anyway. We're just decentralizing protein because it shouldn't be the main staple of your plate, but it should be a supportive element to, but there's lots of other ways to get protein, by the way, that aren't animal sources. Like there's tons, lentils, legumes, nuts, seeds, tofu, even certain whole grains. They're peas. Oh my gosh, peas are such a great form of protein from plant-based forces. Anyway, don't carry with you that you can't get the amount of protein that you want to get from plant-based forces because you absolutely can't if you plant it properly.

SPEAKER_01

And the nice thing is that you're getting a lot of the good with it. With meat, it's expensive, especially if you get high-quality meat. So you're not getting any of the toxins that whatever animal had in it. And you get a lot more of the benefits that you think from sources on our family or uh RT protein in their smoothies that they're putting part of their smoothie. They're getting everything all in one drink. I do too. My husband doesn't, and I've noticed a difference in our health. Already had these huge building blocks, and then everything else is just kind of a bonus. And I love when our kids are like, I don't like that. And my husband and I snicker, we're like, that's anything. But okay. Like, I don't like tomatoes. Well, you're not eating enough of them, so we're gonna put that and it's a really great opportunity to like clean out our grids or create some vegetables that are going bad.

SPEAKER_00

That's what the kitchen sink comment comes from. Just everything that's about to go bad, blender up. Let's go.

SPEAKER_01

So many people. It depends on which generation you're from. There was the anti-sugar movement, the anti-carb movement. Let's talk about carbs for a second. Are they really a bad thing? And what are carbs exactly? And then can you also put in what are plant-based carbs?

SPEAKER_00

Well, almost all carbohydrates are from plants somehow. Back in like the 1950s, maybe 1940s, we had in our society, we finally were no longer a nomadic species. We were very much settled in places. We had communities, we even had farms, people were eating a lot more like pork and beef and things that they were growing in their farm, eggs and stuff. But in the 1940s, we started seeing a lot of people, specifically government employees, who were dropping dead of heart attacks, just rampant. All of a sudden, heart attacks were like a thing that we were experiencing suddenly. And researchers found that what was happening is there, the fat found in animal-based products were causing, because they're high in saturated fat, high in trans fats, were causing heart attacks. So instead of differentiating between the types of fat that were found in the animal source of proteins versus fats, just as a general rule of thumb, is they were just like, well, fats are going to cause heart attacks. That's the phrase that this researcher said. So instead of differentiating every single food manufacturer that existed at the time, and and this lasted several decades, they were like, oh shoot, we no one's gonna want fat. So we have to remove all the fat from our food. But what people didn't realize or don't realize is that fat is what makes food taste good. It's that umami flavor that gives it its flavor, and you know, that's what literally what makes food flavorful. And if you're removing fat from food and you try to make a product, it's gonna taste like crap, like literally crap. So, what do you do to replace fat to make your food palatable? You add sugar. So in came like four or five decades of the added sugar crisis where everyone's removing fat from food and replacing it with added sugar. Because technically, when you add sugar, it's not really doesn't really change the first of all, it doesn't change the fat immediately on the caloric composition, although it does when you digest it eventually. But now sugar is in everything. That's why we've seen this issue with the chronic obesity epidemic. Now we have diabetes, all of these things. And we're seeing added sugar in sauces, cereals, breads, yogurts, non-dairy, like they literally go into your pantry and check the added sugar on whole food. It's in everything. So to answer your question, are carbohydrates bad? Hell no. Carbohydrates are not bad. Added sugar, which is a component of the carbohydrate category, is bad. Most people have, you know, when they are going on this like low-carb path in their life, they often are removing things like processed foods and breads and things like that. And they do see results on that because you're innately removing a lot of these sources that have added sugar. But the carbohydrate category includes all sorts of other things, including complex carbohydrates like legumes and lentils and beans and whole grains like quinoa and amarind and couscous and even starchy vegetables like potatoes and sweet potatoes and yams. Like the spectrum is large when it comes to carbohydrates. We don't want cane sugar and agave and all of these like chi fructose corn syrups and all of these added sugars that are usually added after a food is being processed, but we do want the natural forms of carbohydrates that come from plant-based sources that are also very high in fiber. So, like, yeah, sweet potatoes are incredible, but that's going to be very different than cane sugar in a chocolate chip cookie. So the carbohydrate, a lot of people with low carb that are following low carb think that it's the carbs themselves. And when in fact, it's usually because when you're following a low-carb diet, you naturally reduce the amount of foods from these sources, these processed and ultra-processed sources that are very convenient and easy to grab. Usually those don't fit anymore. So when you remove those foods, you see a lot of really great health outcomes. But from a longevity perspective, if you look at the people who live in Sardinia, Italy and in Costa Rica and all these places that have long-living people and healthy bodies, they have diets that are sometimes 50, 60% carbohydrates. But the carbohydrates that they're consuming are from vegetables and legumes and plant-based, whole plant-based sources. They're not from Cheerios and sweetened yogurts and Starbucks lattes, right? They're different than that. So, and they work differently in the body. So low carb, I think low added sugar is, it needs to be re-rebranded. Like added sugar needs to get the hell out of our diets. Carbohydrates have a plenty and important role. In fact, it's our body's preferred energy source. When we consume carbohydrates, it's called glucose. Glucose is our body's preferred energy source. It's how we get the energy to move and groove. Getting it from the right sources that are also high in fiber and antioxidants and all of these other minerals that are really supportive to the body is a very different experience than added sugar. The glucose, our sweet kids sometimes, we're giving them these Cheerios and milk, and they get this glucose spike right away, and then they get to their first class an hour later, and they're like, I don't, because they're dropped right back down. But if you give them, let's say, an avocado toast with some really great healthy bats and some hemp hearts on top, that's gonna keep them sustained for a while because it's complex. It's you know, you've got a lot of other nutrients in there to help support their energy levels.

SPEAKER_01

So for another sugar, we try to have less sweets in our house. We do a good job, but then we realize, like at church and at school and everywhere else, period, we should be the ones in charge of that. We should be gatekeepers. Stop doing it. There's other ways to share love.

SPEAKER_00

There's different ways. I even had a play date recently where our kids are 15 months little, and one of the moms brought no hate at all, but one of the moms brought donuts. And I was like, there's gotta be like, can we bring oranges and apples and like different can we bring different kinds of sugar that are not gonna, yeah, it's super hard. And but I I do think that leading by example and getting really good at playing with foods at home too. Like, I had to get really good when I went on my health journey at cooking and baking at home because I love dessert, I love chocolate, I love pies and cookies, but I had to significantly change the ingredients that I was using. So I too am allergic to casein and I can't have cane sugar for a variety of reasons. So I've had to learn to cook with other things. Now I have the most amazing plant-based chocolate chip cookie that rules in comparison to any other like dairy sugar-filled cookie I've ever had. It is so good and it's a slow glucose spike, and it just is delicious. Every Thanksgiving, I make dairy-free pies that have really healthy ingredients that are super nourishing. So there's ways to do it. And I think we need to normalize getting back in the kitchen and trying different things. There's many, many ways to literally have your cake and eat it too, in a way that's healthy for you or better for you.

SPEAKER_01

Somebody I was cooking yesterday and I was sharing about my journey with the dairy stuff. Is instead of it being like, I can't have, I get having that mindset shift was huge for me because it went from the little kid like I can't have this, so I want it, and I would have it and I'd be so sick. And then to the I don't want this because look at how different it's for my body, and look at what I can have instead. And that led me on a journey of figuring out how to cook better.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it does not have to be hard. In fact, I find the types of meals that I consume at home, like Buddha bowl type of cooking in my house, with like a grain and beans and avocados and veggies and some sort of delicious basil pesto sauce, whatever. These are super easy things to do. Doing one sheet pan veggies with a delicious wild rice side, like this is easy cooking, y'all. This is not fancy stuff. Like, I think salt and pepper and some garlic can and oil is literally all you need to make a make a food pretty delicious, and it can be really easy. And you can pre-make a lot of this stuff too. You can pre-make your grains on Sundays, have a vat of quinoa or rice or something, and you can pre-drain and get ready your beans and lentil. Like, it's super easy to just grab and go. It's just a matter of being curious as to how you can change some habits. I think people get really used to you, don't like learning new things, but it doesn't take that long to learn a new thing that can be just as easy, I guess is my point. Like it can be just as easy as just a matter of realizing that it's possible to do it doesn't need to be a dramatic change all at once, unless your body's like this, I'm done. Unless you're a patient that I work with, in which case come work with me. I'm be happy to work with you. But yeah, I think that the smaller and more incremental the changes, the better. Like I even mentioned earlier on my conversation with my students, I said one of the easiest changes you can do is go into your pantry, check your nutrition fax label for the like if you're looking for added sugar, and just swap brands. It's kind of like taking stock of your finances. It's like, do you have a bunch of recurring subscriptions that you don't use or just this burn, this money that's just burning and you don't need swap your brands. Not every brand's created the same. Like you could go and make a huge difference by going and finding a different yogurt that's a non-sweetened, non-yog, like suddenly you're gonna be cutting without even trying 250, 300 calories a day, and suddenly that's one pound a week. This is easy stuff. It does not have to take a ton of work, just go and take stock and inventory, be more conscious about is this the right brand? Does it make sense for me? Yeah, I think the smaller the change, the better, actually, because it's more sustainably kept, you know.

SPEAKER_01

I've noticed that for myself. I'm not penduluming between doing nothing and then all of a sudden doing everything. Yeah. In the area right here that I can say a huge difference for me. I took back over grocery shopping again. Now that my youngest isn't in preschool longer, and our diets are automatically cleaned up just for the good for you, Autumn. My husband does the meal planning, but it's me choosing better ingredients.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, we need a jar of this. And I took the timely grocery store because I have kids with me. It makes a huge difference right there. Of reading the ingredient labels and going, okay, this one has the things that I want in there, things that I don't want, like manny, for example. That's not something I want to make my hand. I don't want to because I like being preservatives and manny because I don't eat it very often.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you want it to last. Exactly. But that's it right there. You don't want to necessarily change your patterns yet. You're not there yet. Are you just fine that brand because you're used to it? Like the stocks of the grocery store have like 18 different types of rice and beans and yogurts and dairy-free milks that just change your brands, truly. Like that right there. You want to lose five pounds in the next three months, change your brands. Easy.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And then after that, be curious about what's possible on the other side of not just plant-based eating, but again, like being mindful and curious about your own body. Learn what it is that your body needs. And if you need support in doing that, like people like me exist in the world to help you navigate, especially as you are on a healing journey. Like, you know, work with somebody to help navigate and help you decipher and understand what's going on in your body. I think that you're right on when you say the mindset shift. It's like on the other side of feeling crappy is like a body that is waiting to be just you can feel great at any age. It is possible for you. It is, and it's possible to start with the everyday thing that you consume, which is food. So if you can start small by making incremental changes, you'll start to see your energy come back. You'll start to see a glow in your skin, you'll start to see your brain fog lifting little by little. And it's possible to feel great at every age, and it's optional to feel like crap. I think it's optional. So if you can get curious about it and consider what's on the other side of that and make some, just try something a little bit different. I'm sure you're gonna find a way to enjoy it. You can find them many different places on social media, is health and melness with two L's, H E A L T H N M E L L N E S S. So Melanie, Health and Melness. But you can also find me on my website, it's Melanie Melness. Murphy R D as in registered dietitian.com or find my name on Google.

SPEAKER_01

And it's also in the show notes. But if you're like me and sometimes you're driving and you can't get to it, you can at least try and humber in your head, and then the second you're pulled over, you can look it up. Whatever. Thank you so much for this. I know that there's so much out there that really is marketing at the end of the day. That's trying to steal your attention and saying you need this new latest and greatest thing to achieve your health. But it's that reminder that we can go back to the basic because plant-based nutrition is the basic that has been around forever. And look how well it did for our ancestors. Happy eating it. What a great way to end. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. I hope that you found the answers that you needed and you had some amazing aha moments. Please share this episode with others because it helps us align ourselves and then better align the world so that we can seek the healing that we really are looking for. As part of the legal language, I am a certified life coach with a bachelor's in applied health. That is what I am leaning on for this. This is general advice taken as such. See you in the next episode.