Harvesting the Truth

It's been a great season of harvesting the truth. My summation entails One sentence: Eat real food, mostly organic, that we cook at home. Send me a message at hello@foodstoic.com and leave a review on where you're listening!

Today I am honored to feature Marion Nestle on the show. Marion is one of the most highly regarded voices in food nutrition and marketing. She has a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and MPH in Public Health Nutrition. Her experience in this space is unmatched. She has taught at the university level since the 1960's, recently retiring from teaching in 2017. However, "retiring" means she now has more time to write--over 15 books and a daily blog called Food Politics. Here's the highlights of our conversation: Food companies market their products similar to how cigarette companies do. Food companies are businesses for profit. Thus, they need to continually grow their profit margins. That's hard to do in a competitive food environment where there's too much food--way more than the population needs. Thus, food companies focus on ultra processed foods. These are industrialized "foods" made from ingredients not real food. They are made cheap and sold for a high profit. They can stay on the shelf for a long time since they aren't real food. In the 1980's the shareholder value movement started. Deregulation started too. So food companies started to produce more food and found ways to get people to eat more. Bigger portions and an increased calorie count helped. Their junk food is so cheap to make because of corn and soybean subsidies. Know what's not subsidized? Healthy food. Organic Food. Know why? Because our federal entities are captured by the companies they are supposed to regulate. BUT then again, deregulation started in the 80's. So now 70% of Americans are overweight. 40% are obese. There is a direct correlation between bad food and poor health. What does this mean? Ultra-processed food is bad. Avoiding it is the one thing you can do that will have a big and positive impact on your health. There are not enough studies to show pesticides won't harm us. Additives too. So eat organic when possible. If you want to read Marion's blog: www.foodpolitics.com @marionnestle To send me a message: hello@foodstoic.com Follow along on social at @thefoodstoic

In today's episode I talk with Mary Ruddick. Dubbed the "Sherlock Holmes of Health" for her unique ability to expeditiously asses and remediate rare neuromuscular conditions that others have deemed impossible, Mary Ruddick is an ancestral nutritionist and experiential anthropologist who specializes in neuromuscular disorders, infertility, and disabling chronic disease.  She can regularly be found endangering herself in the untouched corners of the world to learn from and distill the wisdom from the last remaining traditional cultures.  She shares her findings and knowledge via her sought after keynote speeches, 100+ podcast appearances, her published articles, and her work both in front and behind the camera. Mary and I talk about her findings from visiting ancestral communities. Why are the members so healthy and happy? (compared to Americans where chronic illness is more common than good health and unhappiness is on the rise). Why do they live so long? (100 plus years is common, where here in America our life expectancy is declining). Is it the food, or something else? What do they eat? How do they eat? We delve into all of this in this episode. You can get in touch with Mary at www.maryruddick.com. If you have dysautonomia or another chronic illness and want to discuss your health with her, her website is enableyourhealing.com. Also follow her adventures on Instagram at @maryqueenofheart Sign up for The Food Stoic newsletter on Substack at https://msmichelleadams.substack.com/ Every week I send out the Food Stoic newsletter. On Mondays I send out my Five For Food with five things about food to help you live a more intentional eating lifestyle. Send me an email at hello@msmichelleadams.com or follow me on social @thefoodstoic

In this episode learn all about the toxic weedkiller Glyphosate with the person who literally wrote the book on it. Dr. Stephanie Seneff is a senior research scientist with MIT and has been involved with studying Glyphosate for many years. In fact, a long line of people commended her work, including Robert F. Kennedy who relied on her research to prosecute Monsanto Company, the maker of Glyphosate. Dr. Seneff's book is "Toxic Legacy, How the Weedkiller Glyphosate is Destroying Our Health and the Environment." In this episode Dr. Seneff provides the link between Glyphosate usage since 1974 and the rise in chronic illness. Glyphosate is linked to cancer, autoimmune diseases like Autism, and Alzheimer's, mental disease, reproductive disorders, gluten intolerance, IBS, fatty liver disease, and more. Yet, how? All of these diseases are so different? They all begin with gut dysbiosis, but today learn from Dr. Seneff how Glyphosate gets into our cell's mitochondria and the role deuterium plays. So what can we do? Dr. Seneff has some ideas: 1. Buy from local organic farmers to support and advocate for organic farming subsidies. 2. Eat organic to limit your exposure to glyphosate. 3. Eat foods rich in sulphur and taurine. Eat cruciferous vegetables, grass-fed meat, fermented foods and organic eggs. 4. Get plenty of sunlight. Glyphosate accumulates in our bodies, but there's hope in ridding it by taking action. To stay in touch with Dr. Seneff you can find her at: https://stephanieseneff.net/. Also support her work by finding her book on Amazon. To send me a message: hello@foodstoic.com FB: @foodstoic; IG: @thefoodstoic www.foodstoic.com

School lunches are not immune from ultra-processed foods, chemical additives, pesticides and the general horrors of the Standard American Diet. But in this episode I share some refreshing news via Chef Rebecca Polson. Rebecca Polson CC, SNS, is a chef consultant and culinary trainer for K-12 schools. With her farm to chef inspired meals, she is reshaping school nutrition, one recipe at a time. Let's rid the schools of the unhealthy reheat and serve model so prevalent when big corporations are involved. Instead, take inspiration from this episode that a better and more successful model is not only possible, but in existence. Chef Rebecca has worked with these school districts that are putting the children front and center. In these districts, the community is coming together to not just source locally, but to specifically grow food and institute menus that encourage inclusivity for local cultures. This includes fresh seafood in Maine; pasture raised turkeys in Minnesota and fresh greens in Salad Bowl country. If these schools can do it, so can yours. Listen to this episode and let it inspire you to fight for your children's health by encouraging your district to implement better nutrition for the kids. It's up to us. To follow Chef Rebecca: @chefrebeccak12 chefrebeccak12@gmail.com www.schoolnutritionchef.com To send me a message: hello@foodstoic.com @thefoodstoic on IG @foodstoic on FB www.foodstoic.com