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. 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 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. 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.