Speaker 1: We've spoken to a lot of people on the wood
Speaker 1: Life about motivation, cleaner eating, getting your exercise regime, or
Speaker 1: your goals sorted. We've never spoken to someone about how
Speaker 1: they can clean up their home and how a clean
Speaker 1: home can really impact your health. So today we're going
Speaker 1: to change all that because we're going to speak to
Speaker 1: an incredible lady who has coined the term low tox
Speaker 1: and she's going to give us some really practical, simple
Speaker 1: tips on how we can low tox our lives. Then
Speaker 1: after that, we're going to talk diets with incredible Sharna.
Speaker 1: We're going to take the gloves off and talk about
Speaker 1: vegan and vegetarianism.
Speaker 2: I've been thinking about going vegetarian myself, but I want
Speaker 2: to know is it okay to take meat out of
Speaker 2: my diet?
Speaker 3: What should I be wary of if I do change
Speaker 3: my diet.
Speaker 1: That's all coming up in the wood Life. I'm Sam Wood,
Speaker 1: and we're kicking things off by making your home healthier.
Speaker 1: Our next guest started her own mission by challenging what
Speaker 1: is in our food? What is in our cleaning products,
Speaker 1: what is in our beauty products? What are these things
Speaker 1: that are continually in our homes around us? That potentially
Speaker 1: are not doing our health any good. She's created a
Speaker 1: platform to educate people on the chemicals that we are ingesting.
Speaker 1: And I can't wait to speak with you. Alex Stewart,
Speaker 1: Welcome to the WOODLFE.
Speaker 4: Hey, Sam, how are you doing?
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. I'm going to jump straight into
Speaker 1: it and you're right between the eyes. What does low
Speaker 1: tox mean? Because it's one of those terms that gets
Speaker 1: floated around, but I don't know if all of our listeners,
Speaker 1: me included, would really spee exactly what it's talking about.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Nice, And I think when I came up with it
Speaker 5: when my little guy was having a nap when he
Speaker 5: was about two months old, and I had been researching
Speaker 5: things for a few years from personal health reasons by
Speaker 5: that point, so I'd become pretty savvy and really knew
Speaker 5: what had helped me feel better.
Speaker 4: And I was.
Speaker 5: Sitting there thinking what do I want to call this thing?
Speaker 5: And I've always been a teacher, trainer, motivator across two
Speaker 5: different industries. That's always been my jam to help people
Speaker 5: move from where they are to where they want to be.
Speaker 5: And once I learned what I learned about the food system,
Speaker 5: chemical industry, etc. I wanted to provide really good, solid,
Speaker 5: but soft education in this space. And what I mean
Speaker 5: by soft is I grew up in the nineties, you know,
Speaker 5: where Oprah had every second guest with a new diet,
Speaker 5: and we all had to do it this way. And
Speaker 5: if you didn't do it that way and you fell
Speaker 5: off the wagon and you didn't do it perfect, then
Speaker 5: you'd be ashamed. Then you failed. I hated that. I mean,
Speaker 5: it just didn't work right. And you know that more
Speaker 5: than anything with the way that you support your community. Sam.
Speaker 1: So absolutely progress not perfection.
Speaker 4: That's what it's all about, exactly.
Speaker 5: And so I really wanted something, some sort of lifestyle
Speaker 5: phrase that would help people feel like they didn't have
Speaker 5: to quit everything, they didn't have to be know this
Speaker 5: zero that free from that, not that guru kind of vibe.
Speaker 5: And then I thought, well, we're trying to reduce toxins,
Speaker 5: we can't completely eliminate them. Because I don't know about you,
Speaker 5: but I walked past a car getting my morning coffee
Speaker 5: this morning, and there's exhaust and you know, like, there's
Speaker 5: so many things, and if we freaked out about everything,
Speaker 5: we would literally go mad trying to be perfect. So
Speaker 5: lowtox life was born, and it's really about the food, body, home, mind,
Speaker 5: and planet elements that make for a life where we're
Speaker 5: just a bit more conscious. You know, we're thinking about
Speaker 5: what that purchase is. I think, do I need this?
Speaker 5: Thinking how is this made? Where does it come from?
Speaker 5: Am I okay with the answers to those questions? And
Speaker 5: is there a better alternative? And really the last twelve
Speaker 5: years of my life have been around helping people discover
Speaker 5: those things and just move along in their own pace,
Speaker 5: their way. Some people get really passionate about the food
Speaker 5: side of things. Some people really passionate about like making
Speaker 5: all their own cleaning products. Some people get passionate about
Speaker 5: supporting brands and buying great products from brands that are
Speaker 5: doing better for people and planets. So it really is
Speaker 5: a lifestyle where everyone has a spot.
Speaker 1: I love that. I've got to admit I was driving
Speaker 1: in today knowing that we were chatting this morning, thinking
Speaker 1: about our chat.
Speaker 4: You thought I was going to make you feel bad
Speaker 4: about everything, didn't you?
Speaker 1: I did. Yeah, I was really a bit worried. I
Speaker 1: felt I was going to potentially leave our chat going.
Speaker 1: I now know more. I almost am frustrated that I
Speaker 1: know more, you know, like ignorance just kind of bliss
Speaker 1: in a way. And now I'm leaving this conversation going
Speaker 1: now I know more. Now I feel like I have
Speaker 1: to do more, but now I'm more stressed about it,
Speaker 1: or just guilty.
Speaker 5: If you read my first book, Lotox Life, I paint
Speaker 5: a picture of this girl who's twenty seven and she's
Speaker 5: smoking a pack of day and she has a couple
Speaker 5: of tequilas after work and all this kind of stuff,
Speaker 5: and then at the end, I say, and by the way,
Speaker 5: that's me when I was twenty seven, And I just
Speaker 5: think people need to stop engaging with stuff that makes
Speaker 5: us feel awful about ourselves, because then it puts us
Speaker 5: in this paralysis mode or the shutout mode, like the
Speaker 5: total like I'm just not going to go there because
Speaker 5: I feel bad. But I always say, you can't feel
Speaker 5: guilty for what you didn't know. You can only get
Speaker 5: excited about what you do know now and how that's
Speaker 5: going to make a really positive impact in your life.
Speaker 4: And by the way, I'm not a non drinker.
Speaker 5: I don't say that to say you have to start,
Speaker 5: you know, thinking about giving up drinking. Some people do.
Speaker 5: Some people don't big fan of a gin and soda
Speaker 5: on a Friday night. Sometimes it's not a purest lifestyle.
Speaker 5: Everyone has a spot, and it's really just about thinking
Speaker 5: what's lighting me up about doing better for myself and
Speaker 5: the planet. And I'm going to start there, and then
Speaker 5: we give people ideas about what that could look like.
Speaker 1: The first thing that pops into my head as we've
Speaker 1: chatted for five minutes is you've got my attention. This
Speaker 1: is something that really interests me. It's something that I
Speaker 1: think would interest most of our listeners. And the first
Speaker 1: question that pops into my head is where do I start?
Speaker 5: Okay, so it sounds like a big question, but actually
Speaker 5: it has a pretty simple first answer for me, which
Speaker 5: is simply asking yourself every time you're going to buy
Speaker 5: something or you feel propelled to buy something. You know,
Speaker 5: we're all in this dopamine hit consumerist culture like it's
Speaker 5: you know, I feel it as much as the next guy,
Speaker 5: especially if you're in a shopping center and you think
Speaker 5: you've just gone for one thing and then boom you
Speaker 5: leave with three shopping bags and a whole bunch of
Speaker 5: stuff you didn't even realize you needed or wanted.
Speaker 4: Just ask yourself, if you really love.
Speaker 5: That thing that you're considering, or if you even need
Speaker 5: it at all, Because the amount of stuff we're buying
Speaker 5: is hugely impactful on the planet. So that for me
Speaker 5: is like literally just raising your awareness on how useful, valuable,
Speaker 5: or joyful that thing's going to be for you is
Speaker 5: a fantastic place to start. Second place I would start
Speaker 5: is becoming conscious of synthetic fragrances. So I was the
Speaker 5: head of the perfume counter at downtown Judy Free Strand Arcade.
Speaker 5: It was like my big gig in my early twenties.
Speaker 5: I was so excited, loved perfume, and ended up working
Speaker 5: for one of the most prestigious companies in the world
Speaker 5: after that, and I had every imaginable young woman issue
Speaker 5: from period stuff, cycle stuff, headaches, migraines, resistant, weight loss,
Speaker 5: you name it. And years later, when it was actually
Speaker 5: my baby Sharon, I had learned about the food system
Speaker 5: because I'd had to go gluten free and so I
Speaker 5: was really good at reading labels. Started reading the labels
Speaker 5: of all the stuff I got from my baby Sharon,
Speaker 5: was like, Oh my god, what are these things? And
Speaker 5: it occurred to me that all the time while I
Speaker 5: was training sales teams all across Australia and the Pacific
Speaker 5: in fragrances and cosmetics throughout my entire early twenties, never
Speaker 5: once did we talk about two thirds of the chemicals
Speaker 5: on the labels. We only talked about the really jazzy
Speaker 5: stuff at the top, So the rare agan algae that
Speaker 5: was gonna, you know, wipe women's wrinkles away, and all
Speaker 5: that stuff, the stuff you see in the ads basically,
Speaker 5: and so I thought, oh my gosh, half of this stuff, actually,
Speaker 5: it turns out impacts the way our natural hormone signaling
Speaker 5: is done and the way our natural hormones are produced.
Speaker 5: So this is what we call endocrine disruptive chemicals or
Speaker 5: hormone disruptive chemicals that can affect sex, hormones, thyroid or
Speaker 5: dream norls, you name it, anything that's part of the
Speaker 5: hormone systems in the body. And I realized that for
Speaker 5: years I had been peddling stuff that was fiddling with
Speaker 5: people's hormones. And any chick listening today to our show
Speaker 5: right now is thinking God is hard enough to balance
Speaker 5: my hormones on like the most perfect, relaxing, easy day
Speaker 5: of the month, let alone any other day, and yet
Speaker 5: we have all this stuff around our homes and on
Speaker 5: our skin that is actually impacting that as well. And
Speaker 5: I was just listening to this incredible panel with four
Speaker 5: of the top fertility experts in Australia and they were
Speaker 5: talking about the most recent research and synthetic fragrances. I
Speaker 5: don't know about you, Sam, but when you give someone
Speaker 5: a hard after workout the gym, you've had a great
Speaker 5: time and then you can smell their after shave or
Speaker 5: perfume like five hours later. Still, so that stickiness of
Speaker 5: the fragrance, the thing that makes it last long is
Speaker 5: a group of chemicals called thalates. And for the nerds
Speaker 5: who like to look stuff up, that's ala tes.
Speaker 4: Don't worry.
Speaker 5: I'm not going to stay technical for too long here,
Speaker 5: but it's to say that the stickiness of the thollates
Speaker 5: is what makes fragrances last a really long time. And
Speaker 5: those thalates are one of the biggest hormone disruptive chemicals
Speaker 5: that are in our world today, largely unregulated, and some
Speaker 5: pretty shocking research around fertility and around men's fertility specifically.
Speaker 5: So I think a lot of guys think, oh, yeah,
Speaker 5: my chicks into all this environmental lotox stuff, you know whatever,
Speaker 5: and we don't realize that it's actually harming our men
Speaker 5: just as badly, if not more, to wear these really stinky,
Speaker 5: heavily perfumed fragrances and deodorant sprays, and I remember prying
Speaker 5: one from my husband's house. Are like, we literally can't
Speaker 5: breathe when you put that stuff on in the morning.
Speaker 5: So if you could think about synthetic fragrances, the scentered reads,
Speaker 5: the freshness, the plug in sprays, the thing that you
Speaker 5: put in the car dash board, the little Christmas tree,
Speaker 5: things that are hanging in the cabby's cars, all of
Speaker 5: those things. The fabric SOFTNA and don't quit it yet.
Speaker 5: If you're thinking, oh my gosh, like that is huge.
Speaker 5: I have all this sort of stuff everywhere. Another one
Speaker 5: is scented candles. Just put it in a box, chuck
Speaker 5: it in the garage and live without it for a month.
Speaker 5: So fabric softna all your things that are air freshener
Speaker 5: oriented and even your personal fragrance, and then after two
Speaker 5: weeks to a month, bring it all back in, plug
Speaker 5: it in, light it up, chuck the fabric softener on everything.
Speaker 5: You will be shocked at your body's response to the
Speaker 5: toxins in these products. I'm just going to let you
Speaker 5: do that yourself, but it is honestly one of the
Speaker 5: most powerful experiments you can do.
Speaker 1: Well, there you go. There's a great little bit of
Speaker 1: homework for our WOODLFE listeners to try. I mean, my
Speaker 1: wife says she loves scented candles.
Speaker 4: I mean heaps of us do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just the thing. I'm not really a massive
Speaker 1: fan of them. So this is great because I can
Speaker 1: go home and now I've got a reason that we
Speaker 1: get rid of them.
Speaker 5: So this is a thing that comes up though, Sam,
Speaker 5: So one partner in the outfit like goes right, We're
Speaker 5: got to get rid of this stuff. It's toxic, and
Speaker 5: they're the other ones, Like I didn't get that memo.
Speaker 5: But one of the things you can do is create
Speaker 5: change through a gift. So you turn up with a
Speaker 5: beautiful bees wax hand rolled scented candle, just with the
Speaker 5: natural bees wax scent, and you just say, oh, I
Speaker 5: just saw this candle online and I just thought of you.
Speaker 5: I wanted to get it for you because I'd done
Speaker 5: this interview. And turns out there's some pretty dodgy stuff
Speaker 5: in the other ones. Then that is like a really
Speaker 5: nice way to approach change.
Speaker 1: So the synthetic fragrances does that then transition into body
Speaker 1: wash and shampoo.
Speaker 5: And yeah, it's pretty pervasive. Like you know, you think
Speaker 5: of all the products you use that have synthetic smells
Speaker 5: and just like start asking yourself. I remember once I
Speaker 5: realized how bad they were, and that was like a
Speaker 5: good fire in the belly to start not wanting them because,
Speaker 5: as I said, like I was from that industry and
Speaker 5: loved all of that stuff. But once you see something
Speaker 5: for what it truly is, it's not as pretty or
Speaker 5: as appealing. And so you now have really great supermarket
Speaker 5: brands even and then some fantastic pioneering brands, great small
Speaker 5: businesses that are doing products using natural essential oils or
Speaker 5: fragrance free.
Speaker 4: And they're gorgeous.
Speaker 5: Like when I went low tox fifteen years ago, trust me,
Speaker 5: it was not easy and like products just didn't perform
Speaker 5: the way they do now. But green chemistry has come
Speaker 5: a really long way, so we've got tons of options.
Speaker 1: It's great to hear that it has come a long way,
Speaker 1: and it feels like it's only going to ramp right
Speaker 1: up in you know, with awareness that you're providing. And
Speaker 1: it's one of those things I am starting to hear
Speaker 1: more and more that probably even five years ago, it
Speaker 1: wasn't something that people were speaking about, you know, not
Speaker 1: too different to being gluten free and going and getting
Speaker 1: breakfast at a cafe.
Speaker 5: It's oh, I know, right, I had to go gluten
Speaker 5: free seventeen years ago.
Speaker 1: That would have made a challenge.
Speaker 5: But you know, one of the things that it did
Speaker 5: for me, Sam, and this is my next tip, is
Speaker 5: it got me reading labels on food. It got me
Speaker 5: realizing that packaged food is like mostly a disaster sometimes. Okay,
Speaker 5: there are some really great brands that have cleaned things up.
Speaker 5: But to move from products to produce is my next tip.
Speaker 5: And you would teach this in your the lifestyle components
Speaker 5: of the work you do. So it's really about just
Speaker 5: those fresh ingredients and as much as you can it
Speaker 5: doesn't have to be all now, all you know, perfect today,
Speaker 5: but just start looking in your shopping trolley and go, oh, yeah,
Speaker 5: there's actually quite a bit of processed food in here.
Speaker 5: Could I swap that with some carrots and hummus? You know,
Speaker 5: could I swap that one with like teaching myself how
Speaker 5: to make a nice lunchbox bar with like seeds, oats, nuts,
Speaker 5: and cocoa powder.
Speaker 1: I'm aware all about eating real food and I absolutely
Speaker 1: love that. But you're saying, so look out for particular
Speaker 1: products and particul ingredients, and I then go, well, so
Speaker 1: what are they? Because they're so clever at confusing you.
Speaker 1: You know, the longest word you've ever seen with you know,
Speaker 1: x y Z one triples, you know seven like and
Speaker 1: you kind I have no people just read them, I'm
Speaker 1: sure like I do, and go, You've achieved your purpose
Speaker 1: by just throwing me off the scent, by confusing me.
Speaker 5: Yeah, So on the labels, as far as that goes,
Speaker 5: you want to look for the words fragrance or perfun Okay,
Speaker 5: if you m because that. If it doesn't then have
Speaker 5: an asterixk to say natural essential oils or made with
Speaker 5: essential oils or something like that, then you're pretty sure
Speaker 5: that it's synthetic. And we still have a situation where
Speaker 5: about ninety nine percent of mainstream products that do use
Speaker 5: synthetic fragrance do have these thalates in them which alter
Speaker 5: our estrogen signaling and production, so that for me, is
Speaker 5: the easiest thing to look out for and then just
Speaker 5: common sense. So you buy a fabric softener, let's say,
Speaker 5: and it says apple blossom like as it's fragrance, had
Speaker 5: they get like a apple blossom is the gentlest, like
Speaker 5: you can barely smell it. You have to go like
Speaker 5: right close to it, and it kind of smells like
Speaker 5: something like a normal natural smell. But apple blossom fabric
Speaker 5: softener smells like it hits you like a ton of bricks.
Speaker 5: And so if you have to ask yourself, what does
Speaker 5: the natural equivalent of that fragrance smell like, and are
Speaker 5: they similar and they're not, then you know that it's synthetic.
Speaker 5: And the stronger the fragrance is, the more likely there'd
Speaker 5: be thalatees in there to make it strong and make
Speaker 5: it last long.
Speaker 1: I'm so glad you said at the start of our
Speaker 1: chat go at your own pace in your own way,
Speaker 1: because my brain and I'm just being really honest with you,
Speaker 1: I'd love to sit here and tell you that I'm
Speaker 1: thinking absolutely, as of tomorrow, I'm going to make all
Speaker 1: these changes. But there's a part of me that's saying
Speaker 1: I got up this morning, I went for a run,
Speaker 1: I had a shower, I put on my deodrent, I
Speaker 1: put on microlone, and I'm thinking that actually freaks me
Speaker 1: out a little bit.
Speaker 4: Changes in morning, hasn't it.
Speaker 1: We'll also often kind of use the same decrence and
Speaker 1: you know, one or two different cologns probably for twenty years.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's not something that I've questioned or challenged.
Speaker 1: You said at the start, you know, you've got to
Speaker 1: just have a bit more, have an open mind, and
Speaker 1: you had to challenge and question these things.
Speaker 5: I mean, there is so much science now to back
Speaker 5: it up. When you speak to the people at the
Speaker 5: forefront of the research, it's mind blowing to me that
Speaker 5: it's not making front page news and we're not legislating
Speaker 5: for it, to be honest, because I mean, you know,
Speaker 5: like it's very expensive to look after yourself. It is
Speaker 5: with all the painkillers. And then think about the job
Speaker 5: ROI for companies of people off with migraines and painful
Speaker 5: periods like stop great. So we have a lot to
Speaker 5: gain by taking a long, hard look at synthetic fragrances.
Speaker 5: I mean, the annoying thing about it being the main
Speaker 5: thing that I wanted to share with you is that
Speaker 5: it is so pervasive, like you said, across so many
Speaker 5: different categories. But if you just today think I might
Speaker 5: just do the deodorant, but I might not put the
Speaker 5: fragrance on on top. Let's start there. Or I might
Speaker 5: use half a cup of bicob soda in my laundry
Speaker 5: to make everything soft and add a teaspoon of my
Speaker 5: favorite essential like peppermint or lemon, one of the inexpensive ones, and.
Speaker 4: Just start there. Really just want to go bit by bit.
Speaker 5: And one of the things that one of my first
Speaker 5: students in my E course said was phase out, don't
Speaker 5: freak out, and I just thought it was the most
Speaker 5: fantastic little phrase.
Speaker 4: I love that, And it.
Speaker 5: Just means as you run out of stuff, you're like, Okay,
Speaker 5: what could I replace it with that's better, and you
Speaker 5: do a bit of research. There's so many beautiful brands
Speaker 5: that we can buy now. So it's actually not that hard.
Speaker 1: GLaDOS that you brought up cost too, because another thing
Speaker 1: that popped into my head was this perception that to
Speaker 1: go for the better option is going to be far
Speaker 1: more expensive.
Speaker 5: It's a reorganization of funds basically. You so you just
Speaker 5: have to think big picture It's kind of like when
Speaker 5: you're trying to switch to whole foods. If you swapped
Speaker 5: out all the snacks, the vacuous snacks that you didn't
Speaker 5: have to eat, and invested that into really good whole
Speaker 5: food meals that you had three a day of instead,
Speaker 5: and then forgot the snacks, then you can end up
Speaker 5: cost neutral switching from products to produce. It's a mindset
Speaker 5: of oh, I've been taught that this is good value
Speaker 5: my whole life, and so I think it is. And
Speaker 5: part of it is actually peeling back those layers. And
Speaker 5: you know, switching from a body gel that costs like
Speaker 5: ten to fifteen bucks to a bar of soap there's
Speaker 5: no plastic, still just as effective. That's a huge saving.
Speaker 1: I mean, the thing that pops into my head is
Speaker 1: just because it's how you've always done it doesn't mean
Speaker 1: it's how it should be done. I can't thank you
Speaker 1: and Alex for coming on the Woodlife today.
Speaker 4: Well thanks so much. Sam, great to chat with you too.
Speaker 1: So there you go. Like me, twenty minutes ago, you
Speaker 1: might not have even been familiar with the term low
Speaker 1: tox but now you are, and it's definitely been a
Speaker 1: good eye opener. Got me thinking, which I'm sure it
Speaker 1: has few too. I'm going to put a link in
Speaker 1: the show notes through to some more material from Alex
Speaker 1: that if you're really interested in this subject, will definitely
Speaker 1: be able to provide a bit more context and a
Speaker 1: bit more information for you, so make sure you check
Speaker 1: those out. Next, it is diet time and we're talking
Speaker 1: vegan and vegetarianism with the one and only Shanna shaby.
Speaker 6: So.
Speaker 1: I always love it when we get food and diet
Speaker 1: related questions sent in because that means that we get
Speaker 1: to bring in our favorite nutritionists, Shanna who joins us
Speaker 1: in the studio. Shanna, Welcome back to the wood Life.
Speaker 3: Thanks Sam. Great to be here.
Speaker 1: We've actually got a question from one of our WOODLFE listeners, Maddie,
Speaker 1: which I'd love your take on.
Speaker 2: Hey, Sam, it's really common these days for people to
Speaker 2: be on a vegetarian or vegan diet. I've been thinking
Speaker 2: about going vegetarian myself, but I want to know is
Speaker 2: it okay to take meat out of my diet? What
Speaker 2: should I be wary of if I do change my diet.
Speaker 6: Yeah, So that's a really good question, and it's so
Speaker 6: true that lots and lots of people are going more
Speaker 6: towards the vegetarian and vegan diets these days. For some
Speaker 6: it's great transition because they're starting to eat more vegetables.
Speaker 6: Doesn't necessarily mean we need to get rid of the
Speaker 6: meat altogether. It's very much an individualized approach. It's the
Speaker 6: kind of thing with anything when it comes to food
Speaker 6: and nutrition, trying what works for us, seeing how we feel.
Speaker 6: But some of the main considerations when we do choose
Speaker 6: to go on a more vegan or vegetarian diet would
Speaker 6: be making sure we are still getting a quality source
Speaker 6: of protein with every meal, because meat is generally the
Speaker 6: main protein source of meals. So you could just simply
Speaker 6: swap the meat for something like a lagume, which would
Speaker 6: be any sort of bean or lental. You could swap
Speaker 6: it for some sort of dairy product. If you're not
Speaker 6: going fully plant based or vegan, you could swap it
Speaker 6: for eggs as well. Would be another option. You've got
Speaker 6: tofu and tempey, which are soy products, so they're meat
Speaker 6: from a lagom where you're getting that protein. I would
Speaker 6: recommend going for organic soy products if you do choose
Speaker 6: to go for tofu or tempei just to ensure it's
Speaker 6: not genetically modified. Soybean and tempey is actually the healthier
Speaker 6: of the two technically because it is a fermented product,
Speaker 6: so it's less process than the tofu itself. But they're
Speaker 6: both still fine options to add in if you are
Speaker 6: choosing to go down the vegetarian or vegan rout or
Speaker 6: even for those of us that do eat meat as well,
Speaker 6: incorporating some tofu tempey into our diet and all the lagomes,
Speaker 6: all the dairy if we choose to eat it and eggs,
Speaker 6: it's still great to get that variety regardless or not
Speaker 6: of whether we're eating meat.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a great answer. I think it's definitely still
Speaker 1: possible to get the protein into.
Speaker 3: Our diet, definitely, and vegetables have some as well.
Speaker 1: It's definitely harder when you take out the meat you
Speaker 1: perhaps even realizing you're consuming as frequently as you do.
Speaker 1: There is a huge potential protein reduction that I think
Speaker 1: the key message is it needs to be replaced with something.
Speaker 1: You can't just not replace that protein when we know
Speaker 1: the protein is so critical in our diet. So I
Speaker 1: think that meat, fish, chicken, whatever it might be, yeah,
Speaker 1: really is kind of the hero of most dinners, in particular.
Speaker 6: Some other things we can also chat about ah things
Speaker 6: like iron. So we obviously get a different type of
Speaker 6: iron through plant foods. It's non hem ion as opposed
Speaker 6: to through meat like red meat, which is one of
Speaker 6: the highest sources we get hem ion, so it's more
Speaker 6: easily absorbed by our body. Doesn't mean we can't get
Speaker 6: it through a vegetarian diet. It's still in many of
Speaker 6: those things I've already mentioned. Some of those protein sources
Speaker 6: will be bringing in, like many of the legomes, those
Speaker 6: beans and lentils are a great iron sauce, so you
Speaker 6: can still get it. And there's other little ways to
Speaker 6: improve our iron absorption as well, like having iron rich
Speaker 6: sauces with vitamin C rich foods, so we get vitamin
Speaker 6: C in a number of things. It's in most raw
Speaker 6: fruits and veggies. But one of the things I often
Speaker 6: recommend will be something like putting some raw red capsicum
Speaker 6: in a salad alongside whatever iron sauce you're having, because
Speaker 6: it kind of works well in a meal. Like many
Speaker 6: of the vitamin C sauces are actually fruits, so you're
Speaker 6: not necessarily going to have them with your main meal,
Speaker 6: but something like capsicum can be really easy to add
Speaker 6: into any maine.
Speaker 1: You know, first week is a vegan, first week is
Speaker 1: a vegetarian. What are your top tips? Right? These three
Speaker 1: things on your fridge that you don't forget because they'll
Speaker 1: hold you in good stead.
Speaker 6: So one of them would be still following a balance
Speaker 6: plate formula. So the balanced plate formula, just to summarize,
Speaker 6: is fifty percent vegetables, then one quarter protein, one quarter
Speaker 6: complex carbohydrate, and then a serve of healthy fats. So
Speaker 6: making sure you're still getting lots of veggies in the
Speaker 6: protein would just switch to a vegetarian sauce, or it
Speaker 6: might be those beans, lentils tofu tempe eggs or dairy
Speaker 6: if you're eating them. Steal nuts and seeds can also
Speaker 6: contribute a little to that. You wouldn't want that as
Speaker 6: the sole source of protein though, and then the complex
Speaker 6: cover hydrates are things like your whole grains or your
Speaker 6: starchy vegetables like potato and pumpkin, So that's still really important,
Speaker 6: and you still can get some protein from whole grains
Speaker 6: as well, and you can get some important nutrients from
Speaker 6: them as well, which is why it's all part of
Speaker 6: that balance plate, particularly as a vegetarian, you want to
Speaker 6: make sure you're still getting all those boxes ticked. And
Speaker 6: then the healthy fat would be something like a bit
Speaker 6: of avocado, olive oil, whatever you're using.
Speaker 3: There's more of like a condiment.
Speaker 1: Huge tick love that. What else would you put on
Speaker 1: that person's fridge?
Speaker 6: One. I think that is actually really important, which is
Speaker 6: actually saying what to avoid would be the fake meat.
Speaker 6: So there's a lot of fake meat coming to the market,
Speaker 6: so a lot of processed stuff in the vegetarian and
Speaker 6: vegan space. Stick to the real food because the ingredients
Speaker 6: list often just looks like dog food. And I'm not exaggerating.
Speaker 1: That's interesting, is that that's a huge statement. Yeah, because
Speaker 1: this is a billion, if not trillion dollar industry that's
Speaker 1: just exploding. Actually love to get you and someone from
Speaker 1: one of the fake meat companies, Yeah, in a heated debate.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's a fascinating conversation, definitely, and one that
Speaker 1: I would love to hear both sides of the arguments.
Speaker 1: So we've got balance plate, yeah, no fake meat yea.
Speaker 1: And number three.
Speaker 6: Variety as well, so it kind of feeds into the
Speaker 6: balance plate and everything. But it's just really important to
Speaker 6: get that variety. So we're making sure we get a
Speaker 6: range of nutrients and vitamins for everyone, really, but particularly
Speaker 6: when you are going down the vegetarian and plant based root.
Speaker 6: But I think these labels can often confine us in boxes,
Speaker 6: and we might think, oh, I'm vegetarian now, even if
Speaker 6: my body is craving meat or craving fish, I can't
Speaker 6: eat that. That goes against what I've just identified as.
Speaker 3: But I think being a little bit flexible for that.
Speaker 6: If your body is calling you to eat something, then
Speaker 6: listen to that. If it's against your morals or something,
Speaker 6: then don't obviously, like continue to listen to yourself and
Speaker 6: make the right decision for you. But don't feel like
Speaker 6: just because you've labeled yourself a vegetarian or a vegan
Speaker 6: or a pesquetarian, that can't change. I was a vegetarian
Speaker 6: for eight years. I'm now back to eating everything. And
Speaker 6: I found one of the hardest things about that was
Speaker 6: the identity that people placed upon me and the identity
Speaker 6: I placed upon myself, and like kind of that shame
Speaker 6: about changing and being like, oh no, I'm.
Speaker 3: Back to eating meat. What are people going to think
Speaker 3: of me? I went back on my morals.
Speaker 6: But it's actually like no, things just change and evolve,
Speaker 6: and that's okay too.
Speaker 1: I love that. I think, actually that's that's the best
Speaker 1: piece of advice. Sharna. As always, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for coming on the wood Life. You've answered that question
Speaker 1: of matter's beautifully. You've also hapened up a huge new cannabority,
Speaker 1: so we're going to explore it a later date.
Speaker 3: See you so thanks Sam.
Speaker 1: As always, Shanna is such a wealth of knowledge. I
Speaker 1: do feel like we really have scratched the surface there
Speaker 1: and we're going to have to dig a little bit deeper.
Speaker 1: Love those conversations, love where it might end up taking us.
Speaker 1: As always, thanks for sending your questions through. There's a
Speaker 1: link in the show notes for anyone that wants to
Speaker 1: send any question in about any subject matter regarding your
Speaker 1: health at any time. Thanks for listening. I'll be back
Speaker 1: again in a month day for your next motivational moment.
Speaker 1: M h m
Speaker 3: Hm.