Eating for optimal health doesn’t have to mean major and painful changes to our diets (give up ice cream… forever? Never eat white potatoes again?). In fact, some of the most beneficial changes are the seemingly small ones we make as a habit in our daily lives.
Here are 31 (yes, I like to go big!) easy and fun ideas for how to eat more fruits and vegetables every day.
How to Eat More Fruits and Vegetables
Break the Fast
1. Top your toast with nut butter and bananas or berries. I also love a carrot cake-inspired version with grated raw carrot, raisins, cinnamon, chopped pecans or coconut.
2. When making omelets or quiches, add as many veggies as you can get your hands on: leafy greens, green onions, mushrooms, sweet peppers…the list is endless. Whatever you have in your fridge, toss it in there.
6. Cook up a batch of crunchy kale, sweet potato or even plantain chips in the oven. Cravings busted!
7. Your kids might go crazy for apple and pear slices when they’re dipped in a sugar-free coconut yogurt.
8. Always on the go? Double up on dried fruit like dates or dried apricots, toasted nuts or coconut for a portable trail mix that will curb your cravings until lunchtime.
Snack Attack!
Pack a Lunch
9. Stuff your lunch wraps, rolls and sandwiches with shredded cabbage (green or purple cabbage are both A-OK), fresh herbs and lettuce.
10. Banish the bread and use lettuce as your “sandwich”. Romaine lettuce, Belgian endives and buttercrunch lettuce are some of my favourites. Discover more bread substitutes worth trying!.
11. Use avocado in place of butter or peanut butter for a healthy and creamy dairy-free sandwich spread.
12. Never brown bag a lunch again without a generous handful of raw vegetables. Chopped cauliflower, cherry tomatoes and carrots are all perfectly portable.
13. Skip the juice boxes and pack kids’ lunches with fresh fruit like whole organic strawberries or chopped pineapple instead.
More Nutritious Lunch Ideas
If packing a lunch or prepping food in advance sounds overwhelming, one of the first skills we teach our Culinary Nutrition Expert Program students is how to meal plan and meal prep. They marvel at how it makes mealtimes easier, faster and more enjoyable for the whole family.
Gain kitchen confidence, and transform the way you cook, eat and live.
Sip on a Smoothie
14. You can hide 1-2 cups of leafy greens (spinach and romaine are the mildest) in an average smoothie. Add plant-based milk plus 1-2 cups of fruit to sweeten. Indulge your creativity and try different combinations!
15. Add avocados, mangoes, bananas, cooked carrots or sweet potatoes to smoothies for ultra creaminess.
16. Did you buy too many greens at the farmer’s market? Purée them with a bit of water in a food processor and spoon into ice cube trays. Easy to add these to smoothies later!
Start Blending!
Boost Main Meals with More Fruits and Vegetables
17. Keep raw veggies on the table during all main meals.
18. Stuff your stir-fries with as many veggies as you like. Chop them all roughly the same size so they cook evenly.
19. Cozy up to spaghetti squash and serve the same way as pasta: with a flavourful sauce, choice of protein and extra diced veggies.
20. Add zucchini, kale, bok choy and broccoli to soups, stews or pasta. Purée them first if you need to keep their existence a secret from picky palates!
21. Making a casserole? Blend up some cooked squash or sweet potato with a bit of water, spices and sea salt for an instant creamy, non-dairy sauce.
23. Supersize your salad: you can throw just about anything on a salad and it will work! Add grated veggies, fresh herbs, hard-boiled eggs or your favourite protein with a drizzle of dressing. The key is variety so you don’t get bored and your body doesn’t become intolerant of any particular food.
24. Skip the gluten-fest of most commercial pizza dough and try a cauliflower crust pizza. You’ll be amazed! Top as your normally would.
What’s For Dinner?
Roast for Extra Flavour
25. Many vegetables get a bad rap when they’re raw, but they can be tamed into delectable submission with a little oven time. I adore cauliflower! Toss veggies with a little coconut oil or ghee, sprinkle with spices, salt and/or pepper and roast at 400° F 30 minutes or until tender.
Enjoy Fruits (and Even Vegetables) with Dessert
26. Make sorbet! Blend frozen fruit with coconut water or fresh fruit/vegetable juice to make an easy sorbet.
27. Grill fruit like peaches or pineapple and top with sugar-free coconut yogurt, nuts and cinnamon for a fast and healthy dessert.
28. In baked goods like cakes and muffins, you can sub some of the oil for applesauce or puréed pumpkin. Muffins are especially tender this way.
29. Leftover smoothies from your midday or afternoon snack attack can be frozen into popsicles for a cool and creamy treat.
30. Blend ripe avocados with raw cacao or cocoa, vanilla, honey or maple syrup, and a touch of salt (to cut any bitterness). What you’ll get is a luxuriously creamy pudding that kids and adults alike will go wild for.
31. Freeze a banana, coat it in melted chocolate, and top with shredded coconut or crushed nuts. ‘Nuff said.
If you slow down and listen, your body really does talk to you. I had a client ask me last week if there are diet changes that might impact his dry skin. The short answer: Yes, diet impacts skin for sure!
Sometimes pesky symptoms people deal with are not covered in session, because we are talking about other wellness issues and goals. Skin issues sometimes fall into that category. Dry skin manifests in lots of ways: dry eyes, bumpy skin around your elbow, arms, legs, face, rashes or redness, dry scalp or dandruff, itchy skin, thirst and even joint pain.
And, yes, diet changes do help mitigate those symptoms.
A little bit fancy as part of an appetizer mezze plate, and yet perfect pizazz for a weeknight dinner.
1½ pounds ripe tomatoes (Roma are best), cored and coarsely chopped ¼ cup maple syrup 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice 1 tablespoon fresh grated or minced ginger 1 teaspoon ground cumin ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves 1 teaspoon salt 1 jalapeño or other peppers, stemmed, seeded and minced, or red pepper flakes or cayenne to taste
Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan, bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring often. Reduce heat to a slight simmer, stirring occasionally, until mixture has consistency of thick jam, about 1 hour. Taste and adjust seasoning, then cool slightly.
Puttanesca Chickpea-Tomato Salad Modified from Ali Slagle
A bright easy weeknight side dish or veggie main. LOVE these flavors together, every time.
1½ pounds ripe tomatoes of any size, cut into 1- or 2-bite pieces 3 cups chickpeas OR white beans (about two 15-ounce cans) ½ cup coarsely chopped parsley ½ cup chopped basil 2 scallions, chopped ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil ¼ cup kalamata olives, torn in half and pitted 3 tbsp drained capers ½ cup chopped artichokes 1 tbsp lemon juice, plus more to taste 1 small garlic clove, finely grated Salt and pepper to taste
In a large bowl, stir together all ingredients. Add salt and pepper to taste. Rest for 20 minutes. Before serving, check if more salt or lemon are needed for balanced flavor. Serve cold or at room temperature.
Tomato, Squash and Eggplant Gratin Modified from Martha Rose Shulman, NY Times
All of the flavors meld into one, creating a beautiful bounty of intense layered flavor that’s even better the next day.
2 pounds ripe, firm Roma tomatoes, thinly sliced 1 red onion, thinly sliced ½ to ¾ pound zucchini, preferably mixed green and yellow, thinly sliced 1 long thin eggplant, (use the big round eggplant, cut in quarters, if necessary), thinly sliced Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil 2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary, plus a few sprigs (or 1 tsp dried) 2 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, plus a few sprigs (or 1 tsp dried)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Oil a 2-quart rectangular or oval baking dish. Combine vegetables in a large bowl and season with salt and pepper. Add olive oil, chopped rosemary and thyme leaves and toss gently. Place the veggies in this order: tomato, eggplant, tomato, squash, onion, tomato, eggplant, tomato slice, etc.
Each slice of eggplant should have a tomato slice on either side. The vegetables should not be lying flat; they should be arranged in the dish as if you had stacked them, then lay the whole stack in the dish, all the rounds slanting slightly to one side.
Insert the herb sprigs into the dish. Pour any juice left in the bowl on top. Cover tightly with foil. Place in the oven and bake 1 hour. Remove the foil and continue to bake for another 30 minutes, until the vegetables are thoroughly tender and lightly colored on the edges.
With the start of a new season we have an opportunity to reflect on summer and be happy for all of the fun and memories. Now, let’s focus on food and be present. What’s going well? Are you eating to meet your health and wellness goals?
Here’s an exercise to help you ID what’s going well and what you can do differently.
A Take Stock Exercise Your food life is your OWN personal puzzle. Answer the following questions:
How often are you eating? Evenly throughout the day? OR erratically?
Do you have a food plan for today? For tomorrow?
What are your fuel days?
When is your celebration this week?
What’s on deck for snacks this week? AM? PM?
What’s for breakfast? Are you fasting? When’s breakfast?
Lunch?
Dinner?
Water? Planning to flavor your water? With what?
Planning sessions? Make some notes. Create a grocery list. What do you feel like eating? Ask your family that same question.
Grocery shopping or click + deliver?
Who’s cooking?
Are you roasting any veggies this week? It’s time.
So many questions to answer. Odds are you’re doing some things right. YAY for that. And you’re probably NOT doing some things to help yourself. Take a minute and ID what you can change starting today and give it a go. Try a different approach. Try to make one aspect of your food life easier and better for you.
My personal answers change all the time. I practice this exercise a lot. Sometimes it’s planning that needs work. Sometimes it’s water. Today it was groceries. So, I’ll stop at the store this evening and be ready for tomorrow and the next day.
What’s strong in your puzzle? What needs work?
Use the turn of season to be present and mindful of what’s going well and what you can improve upon. It’s very impactful to keep healthy eating habits going.
We have LOTS more to say on this topic, but this is a good start. Reach out to us if you need more. We’re happy to talk with you about solidifying strong, healthful food habits.
Use cheat sheets to figure out exactly when and how to treat jet lag using light exposure and light avoidance at specific times of the day, based on which direction you’re going and how many time zones you cross.
“Jet lag is a blessing to circadian biologists because the disruption of mental and physical well-being immediately highlights the importance of our internal ‘body clock,’” the focus of their work. Much of the general malaise we may experience on long journeys may just be “so-called ‘travel fatigue,’” which can occur “regardless of the mode of transport and the number of time zones crossed,” leaving people feeling disorientated, generally weary, and headachy.
Dehydration has been blamed. The air circulated in the cabins of commercial airlines is pretty dry, but even though it can make your throat, skin, and eyes feel dry, the maximum loss of fluid through breath and sweat, for instance, wouldn’t be more than about an extra half cup if you actually did the math. So, it isn’t as though you’re in Death Valley or the Sahara when on a flight. “Further, the calculation assumes that the passenger would be nude,” and I’m sure the airline would charge you extra for that!
Of course, “airplane food—if any is served—tends to be starchy and sugary,” and giving passengers salty snacks like pretzels during a flight doesn’t help. “The vegetarian…special meals are sometimes an improvement, but you must order them in advance. BYOF—bring your own fruit—is a good rule to fly by. A small bag of unsalted almonds or walnuts is a healthy alternative to those skimpy bags of salted peanuts.”
The cabin air isn’t just dry, though; it’s also low in oxygen pressure, about what you’d get at 10,000 feet above sea level, which is about twice as high as Denver. That alone can make you feel lousy. Then, when you land, if you’ve crossed enough time zones, you can suffer from jet lag.
Jet lag is the temporary disconnect between the new time at your destination and that of your own internal body clock, which is still on home time. “This desynchrony is abnormal,” since our internal clock is normally synced to the outside world. Symptoms of jet lag do go away, though, as your body becomes hip to the new time. The “duration of jet lag in days can be calculated to be two-thirds the number of time zones crossed eastwards, compared with half the number of zones crossed westwards.”
Let’s look at an example. As you can see below and at 2:04 in my in my video How to Treat Jet Lag with Light, London is six time zones eastward from Chicago.
So, after flying there, it may take four days before you get back to normal—six eastward time zones multiplied by two-thirds. On the other hand, Londoners flying westward to Chicago should get over their jet lag in only three days—six westward time zones divided by two. The reason it’s easier to go westward, where the day is longer, than it is to go eastward, is because our internal clock is naturally set for longer than 24 hours—“closer to 25 h,” in fact—and has to be reset every day. “It is for this reason that the observed rhythms are called circadian (from the Latin: about a day.”
Interestingly, you can see this in Major League Baseball performance. Researchers churned through 40,000 games, mining 20 seasons, and found “surprisingly specific effects of circadian misalignment [jet lag] on athletic performance under natural conditions.” Indeed, the “jet-lag effects were largely evidence after eastward travel with very limited effects after westward travel, consistent with the >24-h period length of the human circadian clock.” Okay, so how do you treat it?
As you can see below and at 3:05 in my video, you first need to decide whether it needs to be treated at all. If you’re just traveling over one or two time zones, you don’t have to worry about it. If you’re crossing three or more time zones, for instance traveling coast to coast, jet lag “will be experienced,” so it then depends on how long you plan on staying. If only for a few days, it’s probably not worth treating, because you’ll then have to switch back as soon as you return home. “In these cases,” if you have control over your schedule, though, it’s better to “time appointments in the new time zone to coincide with daytime in the home zone that has been left, and to avoid times that coincide with night on ‘body time.’” So, it’s pretty much common sense: If you travel east, your body will still think it should be sleeping in the morning, so you should push your activities to later in the day, and vice versa. But, if you are going to be gone for a while, for a week or more, for example, you can adjust your body clock using behavioral methods and/or drugs, supplements, or foods.
“There is only one sure fire way to avoid jet lag altogether and that is to adapt to the new time zone before flight,” meaning before you leave on your trip. Changing your home sleep schedule more than two hours, however, can be “counter-productive,” because it will interfere with your pre-trip sleep and you don’t want to go into a long trip already sleep-deprived. In fact, before your trip, you want to maximize your sleep. In flight, as you can see below and at 4:12 in my video, the recommendation is for “immediate adjustment to destination meal and light schedule,” although this is easier said than done. Then, once you land, you want to “attempt to maintain destination sleep schedule.” Try not to nap for more than 15 to 30 minutes, and don’t drive around when your body thinks it’s the middle of the night.
The real key to treating jet lag, however, is light therapy. Traveling eastward, you expose yourself to the bright light in the morning and avoid bright light in the evening. The opposite is the case when traveling westward—“evening exposure to bright light; morning avoidance of bright light…” Seems simple, right? It’s actually a bit more complicated than that. “The advice changes…if you’ve traveling through more than six time zones—say from Boston to Athens. Your biological clock may adjust in the wrong direction, reacting to light in the morning as if it were afternoon.” Okay, but what if I tell you it’s even more complicated than that! “The effects of light acting upon the body clock” are actually only during a specific window around the time your body temperature bottoms out, which is usually around 4 AM. As part of our circadian rhythm, our body temperature typically drops from 98.6 degrees down to more like 97.6 degrees, even when we aren’t sleeping, as you can see below and at 5:02 in my video.
What’s the bottom line? I feature two cheat sheets at 5:12 in my video, which you can see below. Snap a picture or screengrab them for future reference. If you fly eastward across eight time zones from Los Angeles to London, for example, on day one, you should avoid light between 6 AM and noon local time and then expose yourself to light between noon and 6 PM. local time. The rest of that first day, your light exposure won’t matter and won’t affect you either way. “On subsequent days, the local times of light avoidance and exposure need to be advanced earlier by 1 – 2 h each day until light avoidance coincides with nocturnal sleep,” that is, when you’re sleeping at night.
But, on those first few days after traveling eastward, note that you’ll want to avoid morning light, which “can be difficult to achieve, particularly on the day of arrival, since many flights are overnight and land in the morning…” One thing you can do is wear really dark glasses until you get indoors. Of course, if they’re too dark, you can’t really drive, which is when those not-so-attractive orange lenses that block blue wavelengths can come in handy, as they prevent the dip in melatonin you can get with regular sunglasses, as you can see below and at 6:09 in my video. Regardless, the next day, you might have the urge to get “out and about,” but that could actually make your jet lag worse by taking you in the opposite direction.
What about if you’re flying eastward more than eight time zones? In that case, you subtract the number from 24 and treat it as travel westward. For instance, an eastward trip across ten time zones—New York to Delhi, say—should be treated as a westward flight, requiring a delay of the body clock across 14 time zones. In that case, it would be easy to get outside and get some sun, but what would you do if you just went four zones westward and needed to get light in the middle of the night?
One gadget company came up with light-emitting headphones, which you can see below and at 6:57 in my video. The theory is that you could bathe your brain in light directly through the ear canals. Researchers stuck them on the heads of cadavers and did seem to get some light penetration, but you don’t know…until you put it to the test. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial demonstrated that “transcranial bright light exposure via the ear canals alleviates jet lag symptoms.” Or…you could just turn on a lamp.
[00:00:00] Detective Ev: Well, hello, my friends. Welcome back to another episode of the Health Detective Podcast by Functional Diagnostic Nutrition. My name is Evan Transue, AKA Detective Ev. I will be your host for today’s show on the HTMA test.
We’re switching it up a little bit today. This is the first time we are doing what we’re about to do, and we’re going over live lab results. There’s two ways to consume this episode. You can listen on the audio, and I don’t think it would be a problem at all. I think you would be able to get the bulk of the information that you need. But in addition, if you’re listening to this right now, it also means that the YouTube version of this is out, and we are doing a live video screen share where we’re actually seeing the lab results as well.
I am doing this full disclosure to bring more attention to our YouTube because we’ve done audio for about two years now. We’ve had a lot of success here, we’re very blessed. But we just started posting on YouTube somewhat recently. When you do that, you’re basically starting from square one, it’s basically square one for us.
I don’t even think I’ve mentioned on here that we’re doing it on YouTube. So, you guys do have the ability to watch some of these episodes on YouTube. We’re stacking them up as we go. There are three releases a week on there. Just to be clear, that’s not any additional episodes, it’s just to make up for lost time because we release two here every week and we need to catch up to where we’re at on the YouTube page. So, we’re doing three releases a week there, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Becoming an Expert in the HTMA Test
Again, if you’re listening to this one right now, then that means we have the video up and you can check the lab results when that part of the podcast comes up. It’s only about 17 minutes into the recording itself, probably about 20, 21 minutes on this particular audio. No need to go do it right now, but if you want to do it, you have that ability. I will have the YouTube link in the show notes for you guys.
We’re talking to Barbara Madimenos. She is someone who’s been on before if you’re a long-time listener. She was on back, January 4th, 2022. She was the first episode of the year, actually, where we talked about the things that she struggled with health wise: missing periods, anorexia, and osteoporosis. If you want to hear her story, again, check the show notes, the link will be there.
Today we’re bringing her on because she is pretty much becoming an expert in HTMA, which is hair, tissue, mineral analysis. I need to put one disclaimer on before we do this episode today cause I want to be able to do more episodes like this. But I know that we have a lot of people who are considering the FDN course listening to this. I know we have a lot of people who are current and active trainees listening to this.
Train Up Before Using the HTMA Test
If me posting a podcast like this ends up leading to other problems, we’re not going to be able to do it in the future. It is really simple and really easy to avoid the problems, so let me explain what I mean. The FDN system teaches six tests in and of itself. We go over stool testing, hormone testing, mucosal barrier assessments (basically a leaky gut test, more or less), a metabolic wellness panel, the metabolic typing diet in and of itself, and food sensitivities, of course. We test for those six things.
You have access to over 60 labs, in counting, once you graduate. If you want to utilize some of those additional labs, whether it’s because you think you are just interested in it, or maybe one of those tests ends up being something that really helps you and it has a special place in your heart. All of that’s fine.
What we are asking is that before you start going out and trying to use those tests, focus on what you were trained in first. This system has been proven for the last upwards of 30 something years, because Reed was doing this for a long time before it ever became a course. Reed ran 10,000 labs, almost 11,000 labs, I believe actually, on clients before he was teaching this to anyone else. The guy knows what he’s doing.
Follow Your FDN Training Before Adding on the HTMA Test
The system was created in a certain way, from actual, real lived experience. With all due respect, it comes across as a little arrogant almost when we come into the course and think that we’ll go do it a different way and do it better.
It’s like, where do you have the justification to do that? Have you run 10,000 labs? I mean, perhaps you’re the one in a million who has. Most likely if you’re coming into this course, you have not done that yet though. Maybe, just maybe, we should try it the FDN way before we start adding on other things.
My point in saying that is we can’t be going into the FDN training group saying, I want to get access to this test and that test, anything that I talk about on here. I’m trying to do this for you guys to keep it interesting, to keep it fresh, and to just bring on something that you might want to learn about.
You might want to use this later down the road. Maybe you do want to take the advanced courses. Well, FDN doesn’t offer an advanced HTMA test at this time. But we have a wonderful FDN graduate, Kendra Perry, who has one of the better trainings in the industry. Some consider it the best. It’s pretty amazing that that’s an FDN, who’s done that. Congrats to her. If you want to go do that, that’s fine. But I need you to be able to listen to this today if you’re a trainee or someone considering the course. Think about it as being interesting, as being cool, but not something that you are going to use day one after graduating, when you have zero training on it.
Don’t Run Any Test Before Getting the Training on It
What I want to leave you with is this before we get to the episode. The best test in the world, the most advanced technology, the best out there is not actually the best test to the person who does not know how to analyze it. The best test with the best technology in the world is not actually the best to the person who doesn’t know how to analyze it. Does that make sense?
How are you helping the person if you run a really fancy, great test that you don’t know how to use? If you want to use these other tests one day, that’s fine. Get the training on it. But for now, once you’re starting your FDN practice or maybe working for someone else, stick to what you know. Stick to the main stuff, utilize that, and then add on as you go.
I apologize for that long introduction. But seriously, this is such an important topic here that I had to preface it because otherwise I’m not going to be able to do this in the future. If you guys are able to separate this stuff and it’s not coming back to me that I’m introducing these tests to people who haven’t gone through the FDN course fully yet, well then guess what? We’re going to be able to do this all the time, and I’m going to be able to talk about 30 different things and have a really great time on this over the next year.
So, let’s learn to just balance it. Let’s all be cool about it. Stick with what we know and then add on stuff that you might find interesting here as time goes on. Without further ado, let’s get to today’s episode.
Focusing on Hormones and the HTMA Test
All right. Hello, Barbara. Welcome back to the Health Detective Podcast. How are you?
Barbara Madimenos: Good. How are you?
Detective Ev: I’m doing very well, thank you.
Barbara is one of those people that’s actually been on before. If you’re a long-time listener, you might remember her. I actually pulled up the episode, Episode 106. It was January 4th of this year, 2022 that you were released.
If you guys want to hear Barbara’s full story, definitely go there. We talked about anorexia, missing periods, osteoporosis. It was some stuff that actually hadn’t been brought up before on this show. Definitely you and I relate to the mental health side of things a lot. I know that we went pretty deep that day into that. If you’re interested in those topics, I’d highly recommend checking that out. I will have the link to that in the show notes on anywhere that you’re listening to this podcast.
But for today, we’re taking a completely separate route. I wanted to bring Barbara on because one of the things that she has really started to stand out with, this kind of happens to all FDN practitioners. Right? I feel like if I asked you what is the topic that I stand out with, people would say like the light stuff. You know that’s really my thing. I love talking about it.
Barbara’s really moved into the hormonal side and HTMA and we’re going to focus on the latter today. I’m sure they’re actually quite interconnected with how you use the HTMA. So, let’s just start with the basics and bring someone right through it. What does HTMA stand for and what are we looking at when we run this test with someone?
The HTMA Test Analyzes Minerals and Heavy Metals
[00:07:37] Barbara Madimenos: HTMA stands for hair, tissue, mineral analysis. So essentially what we do is we take a piece of your hair that is close to the root.
It’s an average, or an accumulation, or like a reflection, I guess I should say, of the past three to four months of your health. We analyze our minerals, and we also analyze heavy metals.
[00:07:56] Detective Ev: Very cool. I actually ran this for the first time. It’s something that we have access to as FDN practitioners.
I think I’ll put this in the intro as well, but one thing I should preface, just so people hear it again, this is not something that we teach in the main FDN course. So sometimes I’m like hesitant. I’m like, do I bring people on to talk about these things? But I feel like people just have to learn to think critically.
We have the main FDN course, it works very well. And 80% of the time that’s going to be all you need for most clients, if you’re actually doing it. However, there’s a reason that we have access to over 60 labs and counting as FDNs. It’s because some people want to maybe switch things up or they want to specialize in a certain way. Not like a doctor would necessarily but specialize in a certain topic like this.
Or maybe they have a personal story where that test really helped them and that’s something now, they want to use. So, I ran this test myself just a few months back and I’ll explain why I did that later. But I was pretty fascinated by some of the things that I found.
The HTMA Test Helps Pinpoint Imbalances
How did you get into this? Like what was the appeal to you since it’s not something that’s actually taught in the main FDN course?
[00:08:55] Barbara Madimenos: It was interesting because I initially, I mentioned this in the last episode, I initially started looking for ways to kind of help myself feel better as recovering from my eating disorder. I was like, what kind of foods can I eat? What nutrients do they have that I might be missing? Like, those are the symptoms that I’m having, right?
So, if I wasn’t sleeping well, if I had a lot of anxiety, I’d reach for foods that were higher in magnesium, things like that. I just got very fascinated by the mineral aspect because vitamins, it’s not that they interact that differently, but minerals essentially are a little more complicated, I guess you could say.
As I was also working with other clients, I realized that hormonal issues were not the root cause to a lot of people’s problems. Usually there is a reason why you have a hormonal issue, right? So, I tried to work backwards. I was like, okay, well what synthesizes a hormone? And like what creates an enzymatic reaction. And like, what does this?
You go down the rabbit hole and you work backwards. Cause I think instead of working forward, you have to work backwards to find the root cause to something. I ended up with minerals. I just found it really fascinating. It’s not so much that you might be missing minerals, but it’s that you might have an imbalance of minerals. And how your body is either burning through them or using them, or how maybe your body’s just not absorbing them adequately and so forth.
Trace Elements HTMA Test
[00:10:20] Detective Ev: It’s an important topic to bring up because you really can’t get into our world as FDNs without hearing about this eventually. We’re really fortunate, by coincidence, a well-known FDN, her name’s Kendra Perry, she actually has one of the best courses out there on HTMA. I mean, people love this thing.
It was cool because she had a very important role in FDN at one point, too. If I’m not mistaken, I think she’s even on our advisory board still. She knew how to integrate this perfectly with our system and what we’re doing here.
I want to backtrack for a second, cause I forgot. I should have asked something obvious. I’m not expecting you to recite every little marker on HTMA, but when we are speaking about the HTMA test, I feel like you probably just use one or two tests, maybe tops. So what test are you primarily using, like which lab? And what markers are you looking at?
Again, we can just go over the main ones if you want. I’m not expecting us to go over every single one.
[00:11:08] Barbara Madimenos: I use TEI, Trace Elements, which is the one that I use just because I find that they have a broader variety. I like the way that they break up the systems and how to look at it. I think it’s easier on the eyes as well. If I’m not mistaken, I think it’s just a bit cheaper for clients. So, I just work with them that way.
But in terms of like what I look at, I mean, you do have to technically look at the whole thing because everything means something.
HTMA Test – The Main Macro Minerals
When you’re doing a first analysis, I usually just tell clients, let’s work first on the basics, like the foundations, right? Because you can’t have the foundations and then expect everything to work. That’s with like any test, that’s with like any protocol.
I typically look at your four main electrolytes. Some people like to also look at the five. So, your calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, and your phosphorus.
[00:11:59] Detective Ev: What I want to do actually is we will bring up my test results soon and kind of go over those four or five main things as well as some other stuff. But I’ve heard this before. I’m not an expert on it despite having ran it, I ran it on myself. So that’s perfectly okay. As an FDN, you can run anything on yourself if you’re not an expert and learn that way.
I wouldn’t necessarily use this with an abundant of clients, like personally, because I don’t know enough about it. But I’ve heard over and over and over again, this idea that these four main markers or five main markers, in this case, are some of the most important despite everything having to be looked at.
So, what are some of the main reasons that those are considered to be kind of the big guns? Like they’re really the important things.
[00:12:38] Barbara Madimenos: I think they’re the main macro minerals, I guess you could say, the main minerals essentially, that can influence other minerals. They also can represent main body systems cause we also look at your minerals in a ratio sequence.
HTMA Test – Mineral Ratios & What They Point To
Your calcium, yes, represents many things such as your oxidation rate and the calcium that could potentially be coming out of your bones, if you have like a very high marker.
But if you were to look at your calcium to magnesium ratio, we would also recognize it as the blood sugar ratio. Or if you were to look at your calcium to potassium ratio, we would recognize that as your thyroid ratio. Or your sodium to magnesium ratio, that’s your adrenal ratio. There’s systems that we could also kind of peek through in with these main minerals.
[00:13:29] Detective Ev: If I may ask, I feel like you’ve shared similar things before, so I hope this is okay. What were you finding on your test when you ran this after having dealt with what you dealt with? Cause I feel like, just knowing the conditions, if we’re not eating enough, if we have osteoporosis, that in and of itself is already implying certain things that would show up on the test.
Were you surprised by what you found? What were some of the main things that were on there once you ran the test?
[00:13:52] Barbara Madimenos: Interestingly enough, I didn’t run a hair test while I was recovering. I ran my first hair test when I would have considered myself a little more stable from my eating disorder. But I think my body was still under so much stress that I was experiencing more of a burnout than anything else. When I ran my first hair test, I was a mess.
HTMA Test as A Standalone Test
My calcium was through the roof. It was connected obviously to my osteoporosis. I wasn’t retaining calcium adequately. My sodium was ridiculously low, and my potassium was also leaving my tissues, which we would also consider more of a trauma ratio when you’re looking at your sodium to potassium ratio.
I wasn’t surprised, but I was like, wow, I have a lot of work to do.
[00:14:39] Detective Ev: I think that’s how it can be sometimes in our work especially the better that we get. It’s not that we’re able to predict it perfectly. That’s why we test, we’re not able to do that. But we can get a little more educated and you’re like, I’m pretty sure it’s going to be this way.
Then once you see it, there’s always a different experience from the guess versus, okay, these are the objective results that I just received back from this test. This is actually what’s happening in the body. This is what I need to go do. Maybe I’m getting a little ahead of myself now, because I know that I would like people to stick within the main FDN system first, before trying to do stuff like this.
However, I know a lot of people use this test as a standalone or an entryway into the actual bigger tests. Like Kendra, if I’m not mistaken, almost teaches this as something you can use as a standalone because it’s a cheap test and it’s very effective.
Are you using that at all sometimes? Like, are you using this as a standalone test with clients or have you at least in the past?
The HTMA Test Can Reveal Clients’ Energetics
[00:15:30] Barbara Madimenos: Yeah, it’s the one test that I run on every single client that comes to me no matter what they’re dealing with. I find that I could get a really good idea as to how their body’s reacting.
This is going to sound a bit woo-woo, but also like the energetics of the individual. I find that when you peek into their oxidation rate, like whether they’re a slow or a fast oxidizer, you can tell a bit like which state of stress they’re in and also how they’re living their life in terms of their personality.
I mean, minerals do influence our personality to a certain degree as well. So yeah, I use the HTMA as a standalone. If I feel like we need to do further investigation, then I’ll run a GI MAP test. Maybe I’ll run a saliva test for hormones. I find that the more I work with clients, the more I can pick up on their symptoms and pick things up a bit easier, if that makes sense.
[00:16:20] Detective Ev: It’s fair to say. I think people that are listening and maybe they’re trainees, are brand new, right. That might contradict stuff that they’re learning. Let’s also consider the fact that certain people have been doing this for many, many years. Right? If you are working with a certain type of client attracting a certain type of person, and you’re feeling that you are getting good results, I mean, the results don’t lie. So, if people are getting objectively good results with you and you’re doing it a slightly different way, I don’t think anyone’s arguing that.
HTMA Test – Peering into Certain Body Systems
But if you are a trainee listening, just keep in mind, don’t fix what isn’t broken. Do the system first, learn that and then refine it in some way that might work for your specific practice since you can run this in any way that you want better for you.
But don’t shoot yourself in the foot. If you haven’t even started yet, don’t be trying to do different things. We have practitioners, the one Brendan guy, right? I mean he runs like the organic acids test on everyone. There’s plenty of FDN practitioners that will never do that, and it works out just fine. It’s cool to find something that works for you as well. I just want to put that disclaimer on cause I know a lot of trainees listen, so you’ll get why I’m saying that.
What I’m curious about especially since you are using this so often as a standalone, Kendra had always talked about this as like, you can really get people feeling a lot better, fairly quickly compared to some other things by doing this test. I know that it’d be maybe hard to quantify the exact percentage, but in general, are you finding that to be accurate?
Are you saying most people can run the HTMA, they could get the according supplements for it, and they actually are feeling at least somewhat better pretty quickly just from that test alone?
[00:17:42] Barbara Madimenos: Yeah, I would say yes. It’s so universally applied. You know, minerals run everything essentially. It doesn’t just correlate to your energy levels or heavy metal toxicity. Like I said, there’s certain body systems that you could kind of peer into.
The HTMA Test is Fairly Cheap
If you feel like you need this further investigation, you could, whether it’s the adrenals, the thyroid, you could even look at stomach acidity and liver function through a hair test. So, by really paying attention to those patterns, you could most likely help someone pretty well as long as you don’t need to do further investigation.
[00:18:19] Detective Ev: I think that’s one of the biggest things about it is functional healthcare is not particularly cheap. That’s always one of the biggest barriers and we continue to fight for that. But as of the moment of recording this, it’s not cheap. So, people need to know that it works.
You might have an incredible story, or you might know them and maybe they already trust you. But if someone’s just meeting you online or at the coffee shop or at a presentation that you did, this can sometimes be a great entryway tool to show them, wow, this person knows what they’re talking about. Because the test itself is only like a hundred something dollars and that’s with our medical director stuff. So, it’s actually even cheaper than that.
The supplements are actually the most expensive part. Do you use the Vykon Customs?
[00:18:56] Barbara Madimenos: I don’t. I just find that it’s expensive. I try my best to really work with the client, especially now after what’s happened in the past two years. It’s just been a bit difficult for people to pay that. Not to say that I don’t recommend them, I’ve heard great things using those products. I just try to find different things.
Supplementing According to HTMA Test Results
That being said, I work many jobs, but I have also started working for another company and they sell mineral supplements. They’re actually really not that expensive. From my understanding, the absorbability of these supplements are a little over 90% compared to other supplements.
So, it’s interesting, you know. I might be recommending these things soon since I just started. But no, I try to work with the client’s budget, and we work it out.
[00:19:42] Detective Ev: Fair enough. When I ran it, I kind of knew what I was getting into with the Vykon thing. I asked Ryan Monahan. I asked him like, dude, what am I looking at? What’s it probably going to cost? He said, it’s going to most likely be this. So, when I bought the test, I already had all the money together. I’m just like, all right, cool. Let’s do the full thing.
I will say Vykon Customs, it was amazing for those that don’t know. They’re like, what are you guys talking about? Vykon Customs is a company actually founded by an FDN. What they’re trying to do is basically create a way that people don’t have to take a million supplements based on their HTMA results.
Now, to your point, if someone’s on a budget, you might be able to do this a lot cheaper by having them take the individual things. Again, depending on where they’re at in their health journey, they’re like, I can take 15 supplements for half the price or one supplement for double. Of course, I’m going to take the 15, no big deal. Other people don’t like swallowing pills, some people forget. It really is individualized and you gotta know your clients.
HTMA Test – Vykon Supplements
I think there’s something to what you just said. I got the Vykon Customs just for the sake of, I already take a bunch of stuff cause I’m a health freak. I have like a natural pharmacy in my house, basically, that I have to throw out half the stuff every year just to recycle things.
But I did the Vykon Customs, and I was amazed by how much they would fit in to just that little scoop of powder that tastes absolutely awful because it is minerals and vitamins. But you just mix it into something, it’s down in two seconds, and then it’s good to go. I’ve liked it. I found it worked as well, and I’m already a very healthy guy. So, for me to have felt immediate, almost benefit from taking this supplement, I was pretty impressed by it.
Functional Diagnostic Nutrition YouTube
As I’m talking about myself here, I would like to bring up lab test results from myself. Barbara and I talked about this before, she agreed to do this with me. Now she has not ever analyzed these test results in depth to be clear.
Disclaimer, you have seen it in our professionals’ group. I know you left a nice comment for me there, so I appreciated that at the time. But it’s not like you’re sitting here remembering this five, six months later, I don’t think. I’m guessing you don’t go to bed every night, thinking about Ev’s HTMA results. So, this is pretty much being seen for the first time with fresh eyes.
If you want to see this and you’re like, how are they doing this, I’m listening to the audio. This is my way of getting you to our YouTube cause we just started uploading our wonderful FDNs’ and other guests’ faces on there. Now you will be able to check it out.
If you’re listening to this, it’s already on our YouTube. Search for Functional Diagnostic Nutrition. Obviously, we’re going to let this audio continue to run. It’s not like you have to be looking at the test. But if you want to see it, that’s how we’ll do it.
I will share the screen here and hopefully this will work easily enough for you on your phone. Let’s see how it comes up for you, Barbara.
Commerical Break – Try the FDN Course for Free & The Biohacking Congress (Miami)
Hey there friends. It is Detective Ev popping in here really quick. Maybe you’re listening to this and thinking, wow, these guys are cool. Look at them, getting to analyze these labs and order them for clients. If you would like to do the same thing, then maybe you need to go through the FDN training program, huh?
Then also my second little advertisement here for you guys, if you will. If you want to see Reed Davis and I, we will be at a conference together in October of 2022. It is, October 22nd and 23rd. Saturday the 22nd and Sunday, the 23rd. It’s in the Miami area and it is known as the Biohacking Congress. It’s something that happens a few times a year, so it’s a smaller event.
But what’s cool about it being a smaller event is you really get to talk to everyone. I’ve gotten to know these people so well, it’s pretty fun. Reed will be speaking there. He is actually the first speaker of the weekend if I’m not mistaken. I’ll be working the booth a lot. My girlfriend, Maddy, who just started the FDN course, will also be there. My parents are even coming. They’re not going to be there the whole weekend, but they’ll be hanging out.
You can meet a lot of people. I will leave some links to that in the show notes, if you’re interested in getting tickets for the Biohacking Congress. If you guys can make it, we’d love to see you there.
All right. Now, back to today’s episode.
Find Client’s Reason Behind Running the HTMA Test
So, we pulled the results up and we got this sorted out. You could see the first page easily enough. We’re looking at that exact thing that you were talking about before those four or five main markers. On this one, it’s actually more of the four, I guess, cause we have the calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium. I do have the phosphorus at the end, so I don’t know if you want to utilize that.
Should I give more background on how this went or what do you need from me?
[00:23:41] Barbara Madimenos: Usually I ask people, what is the main reason of wanting to run a hair test? What is your current main health concern? And if you are currently taking any supplements, cause supplements could directly influence your minerals.
[00:23:55] Detective Ev: I’ll give you my short rundown. For me, the reason I ran it, one was just the general fascination that comes as an FDN. I couldn’t resist. I keep hearing everyone talk about this, I gotta run it myself. But number two, you’ll notice the date was in February, February 25th of this year.
At that time of the year, I’m working in the schools. I’m full time in there. I do other things outside of this, of course, like the podcast, business, whatever. And it’s winter. I know you’re up in Canada, I’m in Pennsylvania. I know Canada’s worse, but Pennsylvania is not particularly fun in winter either.
I’m working more than I ever do at any other time during the year. It’s also miserable out. I’m getting less light. I’m not in my normal habits as much as I’d like to be. I’m traveling a lot. So, I felt the fatigue coming on.
HTMA Test – Some Fatigue & Some Low Minerals
I kind of knew that I was doing most other things correctly. I was like, all right, I might as well run this now. I heard that it can help with fatigue and stuff. Maybe I’m just not giving my body what it needs because when I am on the road, I gotta be careful. I don’t really want to get exposed to gluten and stuff, so I do end up eating a lot less. And I realize I was kind of like under fed during that time period of my life.
That’s one thing that could lead to a clue for why these results came up the way that they did. Even if I’m enjoying what I’m doing, it’s high stress. Right? You’re speaking. Even if I love it, my heart rate is super high. I mean, it is a stressful thing. Your adrenaline’s going. So that was the context.
I was feeling some fatigue. I was feeling a little run down. I had reasons that it was kind of obvious, but I figured I’d still run the test to see what came up and some things did come up.
[00:25:16] Barbara Madimenos: Exactly. It’s interesting that you were saying that you had a bit of fatigue because you have a couple of minerals that are on the lower side, so it makes sense. You were probably just using them up quicker than you were maybe used to.
HTMA Test – Oxidation Rate
To start off, usually the first thing that we look at is your calcium to phosphorus ratio, which represents your oxidation rate. Here we’re seeing that you were a slow oxidizer cause your calcium is higher to your phosphorus ratio.
Typically, that just means that your body is a bit slower in using the energy that you have. Even though you might have energy stored, it’s just a bit more sluggish in using it. That’s why you might be feeling a little more tired. Honestly, your calcium is not extremely high. I’ve seen like 400 before. But we would typically call it like a calcium shell.
I think your calcium is just trending a bit high maybe because your sodium is a bit high. They kind of play like a role, where they antagonize each other. Same thing with magnesium, they antagonize each other.
Sorry, they don’t antagonize each other. I mean, calcium could just be trending high because your potassium might be a bit low because they antagonize each other. If one goes up, one goes down. It’s kinda like a seesaw. But typically, if someone has a higher calcium level than what they’re supposed to, I just tell people, get on a K2 supplement so you could be able to direct the calcium properly to the bones rather than to tissues, because you could over calcify.
HTMA Test – Calcium Ratios
Then I look to the ratios of how calcium is related to other minerals. You have your calcium to magnesium ratio; you have your calcium to potassium ratio.
You see at the bottom there, your calcium to magnesium ratio is low. So that could signal low blood sugar. Maybe you were feeling fatigued a little more quicker throughout the day. Maybe you were burning through the energy in which your food was providing you a bit too fast to sustain you.
Then your calcium to potassium ratio was really high. This could signal that your cells are not sensitized to thyroid hormone because the calcium is essentially blocking potassium to help the thyroid hormone to actually enter the cell and utilize it appropriately.
[00:27:22] Detective Ev: For those watching the video, I scrolled to the bottom, cause that’s where it’s actually showing you the ratios. I think this is where you could see a really interesting picture. Because on the people that I’ve seen share HTMA test results, Barbara, like in our group, honestly, my top page looks better than like 99% of them. So that’s great.
But then when you go to the bottom, I mean, everything in our world is still relative, that’s like one of the things we’re trained in and that’s where it becomes kind of obvious. You could see, even though a lot of this stuff is either ideal or not particularly far from ideal, again, compared to most people that run these tests, when you look at my ratios, you can see this right here. I don’t need to be an expert on this to know, this is clearly high. This is high, that’s low. That’s maybe in the middle and that’s definitely ideal, obviously.
HTMA Test – Toxic Metals
Then you could see why someone might be presenting with the symptoms because even though the levels might be okay, in and of themselves, the ratios matter a lot in this test, don’t they?
Barbara Madimenos: That’s right.
Detective Ev: All right. I’ll jump around and then we might go back to the top, but I wanted to move to the toxic metals thing. I feel like anyone that sees this would be like, wait a second. You had toxic metals? How common is it when you’re utilizing these tests to see some level of metals in the person’s hair?
I mean, is there ever a time that you’re not seeing metals?
[00:28:34] Barbara Madimenos: It’s pretty rare. I mean, I think everyone has a bit of toxic metals. It’s just the world that we live in as well. Depending, you know, like what kind of water you’re drinking, what kind of food you’re eating. It’s not to say that even if you eat organic that you’re not going to find metals in your food.
There’s levels of metals in chocolate, there’s level of metals in rice. I think cadmium is found in cocoa and arsenic is found in rice, if I’m not mistaken. You could find all kinds of things in water, especially if you drink tap water or well water. You could even find things in pharmaceuticals. You could find things in hair dye, if you’re somebody who is dyeing hair, or tattoos.
There’s so many things. What I typically tell people is as long as we see that your toxic metals don’t eventually become worse or they’re hindering you, I don’t think there’s anything necessarily to freak out about and think, oh my God, I’m going to die.
HTMA Test – Retest to Assess Progression
First of all, are they stuck in your tissues? Let’s do a couple of retests, like retest two, three or four. Cause you have to run a hair test a couple of times to see how you’re progressing. Is it coming out of the tissues? Are you dealing with any symptoms, and so forth?
If it’s just a matter of it being environmental, I usually tell people, you could maybe take a supplement that’s going to help remove them out of the system, because you’re constantly exposed. You know, such as like maybe chlorophyl or like a fulvic or humic acid supplement or something like that.
[00:29:56] Detective Ev: What’s really interesting about this toxic metals part to me is cadmium. Yes, you’re absolutely right. It’s super common in chocolate. In fact, if you buy certain chocolates, there’ll be a warning on the back that like the state in the US, at least the state of California recognizes, that there is cancerous products in this, and it’s referring to cadmium.
Now I am a chocaholic. I am the reason they invented the word. That really got a lot worse over the last two years. Totally not correlated with the pandemic and life stress. What’s interesting, Barbara, is that you would think then my cadmium would be super high. This chocoholic thing really came to fruition in the last two years, that’s when it got really bad. Yet here it is very low.
HTMA Test – How Often to Retest
Now over the last two years, I had been more involved in ketosis, longer fasts, prolonged fasts, and yet it’s really low. So, I’m almost thinking I really wish I had an HTMA test from the beginning of my FDN journey. Cause I’m kind of sitting here wondering if this is that low and I’m obviously getting constant exposure to it, it almost seems like that was getting kicked out.
So, if these are still present, I would find it really hard to believe I’m getting exposed to these things more than the cadmium, knowing my diet. It’s making me wonder, well, were those just extraordinarily high at one point, and now I have been clearing that out progressively.
It’ll be fascinating to see what a retest of this will show. I’m almost done with my Vykon supplements and then I’ll retest. Do you retest, as soon as you’re done with the supplements or is there a period of time that you wait after supplementing?
[00:31:22] Barbara Madimenos: I retest usually every three to four months.
Detective Ev: Regardless of where they’re at?
Barbara Madimenos: Yeah, exactly. To kind of see the progression. Not everyone’s hair grows as quickly. I’ve noticed that my hair does not grow within three months. My hair will grow maybe every five months. My protocols are typically four months. I will typically retest every four to five months with people.
HTMA Test – Additional Minerals
[00:31:47] Detective Ev: I’m due one then. I feel like this is a great excuse to go spend more money on lab tests. Thank you so much. That’s all the justification I need.
All right. Moving on to additional minerals then. I’m relatively ignorant on most of it, additional minerals is by far my worst section. What’s going on over here? What does this mean? And what are the implications to someone’s health or even just my case with what I presented to you with kind of the fatigue and burnout?
[00:32:09] Barbara Madimenos: The fact that your cobalt is really low could sometimes signal low stomach acidity or a poor methylization or absorption of methylized B vitamins, like B12 or B9, or even like B6 or things like that.
If you have low stomach acidity, that makes sense. If your stressed, your body does produce less stomach acid because it just wants to put more energy into more important things. I don’t know if at the time when you did this test, you were having trouble of a bit of digestion or maybe you were bloated or anything like that.
Low cobalt could even potentially be a sign of H. Pylori, because it’s so connected to stomach acidity. I don’t jump to it that quickly. I just ask people, hey, do you have any symptoms? Do you want to maybe run a test, like potentially a GI MAP to see where you’re at, depending on why they came to me.
HTMA Test – Boron and Lithium
Do you have to ask them to check for boron or is that N/A, does that mean they didn’t pick it up?
[00:33:04] Detective Ev: That’s a good question. I’m actually not sure. I ran the test as a standalone. I just sent it in, and this is what they gave me. That would imply to me that they are running it and maybe it’s just still undetectable. Even if that’s the case, I’m not sure.
I will say, I want to let you finish your analysis. But you will be shocked how spot on your cobalt thing was in a moment. Cause I did not tell you any of that stuff. So, we’ll go back to that.
[00:33:24] Barbara Madimenos: Typically, I always test for boron with my clients just because it’s so connected to magnesium, and you need boron to retain magnesium within the cell. If we see high levels of magnesium, which you do have, I would’ve probably recommended a boron supplement. It’s also really handy for like arthritis and bone problems as well, or any type of inflammatory type of arthritic or bone conditions.
Then there’s also the lithium, which it’s usually good for your mental health. I tell people, if you’re somebody who’s like a little more depressed, more on the lower fatigued side, it might be a good idea to consider raising them. Some people don’t like to play with lithium because they have this misunderstanding on the benefits of it. But yours is low and you were saying that you might feel a bit fatigued. You were working a lot. So, it makes sense that you were a bit low on it.
HTMA Test – Molybdenum and Nickel
Then the molybdenum, more related to your metabolism and things. We typically don’t want that high at all. But again, you probably could have raised that maybe a bit with a supplement to help with that.
Nickel, you know, it’s interesting. I don’t see it as an additional mineral, I see it more as a metal. It’s interesting that it’s in the additional mineral section.
[00:34:32] Detective Ev: I’ll go to the cobalt thing then. And thank you for this, this analysis is awesome.
The cobalt thing is fascinating because I don’t even know if I shared this on this show yet because it wasn’t diagnostic, so I don’t want to be misleading. I don’t want to sound like a crazy person. I may have pushed the body a little too far because I really don’t get that many health symptoms nowadays.
Not only did the fatigue come, Barbara, but I very much suspect and have absolutely some good evidence to support the idea that I was dealing with a minor stomach ulcer at the time of testing this. Now, thankfully, I got that healed up. That’s why it’s even more indicative that it was a stomach ulcer, cause I kind of did my own thing with it.
This is a personal choice, I’m not recommending that to anyone. Always go to a doctor if you suspect that you have something. But I was thinking I could maybe figure this out. There were certain foods that were triggering it. Ginger would trigger it. Chocolate was getting bad. Caffeine was getting bad and I’m not even a big caffeine drinker to begin with. But all of these things would trigger it.
HTMA Test – Low Cobalt Can Be Indicative of Low Stomach Acid
I figured out what foods didn’t, I ate those for a while. I did some supplements, some protocols. Sure enough, I just started introducing those foods again and I’m having zero problem with these things. My point is for those that don’t know, I had a history of H pylori. I’m sure I still either have some remnants of it or whatever.
Like you said, H pylori is highly indicated in the low stomach acidity. I mean, I had a stomach ulcer for God’s sake, which is not actually correlated with too high of stomach acid. It’s because people get too low of stomach acid. When it hits the stomach, there’s no protection. Then all of a sudden, bam, you’re getting these ulcers and other damages. That is a gross oversimplification of how an ulcer comes to be, just to be clear.
So, don’t go to your doctor and say, oh, Detective Ev told me this is how an ulcer starts. But that’s a basic way of explaining part of it. That was fascinating to me that you were able to assume that without me giving any hint that that is something that I deal with. Everything you said was a hundred percent spot on.
[00:36:20] Barbara Madimenos: You’re a hundred percent, right. It’s interesting because I think people don’t see just how valuable a mineral could play a role in something like that or how it could actually influence it.
HTMA Test – Minerals are Essential and Influential
I’m glad you’re feeling better. That’s why it’s so important to also know your medical history. You can’t just run a test and expect it to give you the answer. You have to know what you were going through or what you are currently going through to be able to make the right connections.
Minerals could point you to so many different directions, right? For example, the low lithium. Some people could consider that potential toxicity. But it could also be a loss of zinc, which your zinc is a tad low on your hair test. Or it could be over calcification. Well, your calcium is trending a bit high. These little things like that, you can make the right association.
[00:37:04] Detective Ev: Very cool. One thing to finish up my test results here, I think people would be interested in. I kind of already have the answer to this cause Ryan answered it, but it’d still be cool to hear it from you.
Is my iron looking low on this actually an indication that it is low, or is that something that might not be best to be judged by this specific test?
[00:37:22] Barbara Madimenos: No. Iron, in my opinion, should be tested through a blood draw. You can still use it as a reference on your hair test. But I think it’s always best to get a full Monty iron panel or something, through a blood draw, for it to be a little more accurate.
HTMA Test – Minerals Run the Entire Body
[00:37:35] Detective Ev: I’m going to stop sharing then. Thank you very much for that overall analysis. Kind of to wrap this up cause we’re not going to fill out the whole 50 minutes, I don’t think today. This was great. It’s a great overview. I think it’s cool for people that either got to listen to this analysis or got to see it themselves. So again, thank you for that.
Just in review, who should maybe consider using this test? This is something that you’re using on everyone. I am not suggesting for a second, that brand new FDNs that don’t know anything about this go and use this. But let’s assume that they have the training. Do you believe that this is something that should be used on just about everyone, it should be considered an essential test?
[00:38:07] Barbara Madimenos: Yeah, I think it should be considered an essential test. Like I said, minerals run the entire body. Whether you’re looking to help someone with anxiety, depression, hormonal issues, thyroid issues, adrenal issues, even like digestive issues, because your enzymes and your digestive secretions are produced from minerals, there’s so much value to get from, to use this test on your client.
[00:38:31] Detective Ev: The one thing I’ll finish up with, it’s kind of a challenge to this, and it’s a respectful challenge, and a curious one too. I have heard that the reason that this shouldn’t be used maybe as an essential test is because it’s not necessarily causal. Like these results that I’m getting are from other things going on in my life. I mean, we were able to even clearly correlate it with the burnout and the work schedule at that time.
The HTMA Test – Helpful with Root Causes?
Are you making an argument that this test is a causal type of thing for symptoms or that it’s just so useful? I can’t deny in my situation, it was useful. I mean, I knew I was doing the wrong thing. There wasn’t really a way to change that. I love what I’m doing, I wasn’t going to stop. This helped me get through that.
So, I can’t really argue that it was bad. But for me to argue that it was causal, I think in my case would be incorrect as well. How do you view it in that sense? Is this like a root cause type of thing? Or is it just something that is so handy and useful that that’s why you believe it should be essential?
[00:39:24] Barbara Madimenos: I think both. Not everybody’s issues are causal due to mineral imbalances, but some people’s causal issues are due to mineral imbalances if that makes sense.
Like if you come to me and you have, let’s just talk about H pylori. Well, how did the overgrowth even come in the first place? You were stressed, your stomach acidity was lowered. You probably contracted it, or it proliferated, and you got an overgrowth. Well, that’s because you didn’t have adequate, usually we say like, stomach acidities related to the zinc and sodium ratio. You were probably low in zinc.
You were probably not eating enough sodium. You were probably restricting it, or you were over hydrating and losing a lot of minerals. It could be 10,000 things, you were stressed, whatever. H. Pylori was never the root cause, it was the stress. But the minerals are helping you in figuring out the root cause, if that makes sense.
Is Finding Root Causes the Point?
There could be 10,000 reasons why there could be a lot of root causes to someone’s ailments. There’s never really one issue. You know, we live a life of so many stressors every single day, and I think sometimes it could be an accumulation.
I think adopting more of a mindset where sometimes you might not ever figure out the true root cause as to why you developed something, because it just might not be there anymore. Maybe it just catapulted you into a series of other different types of stressors making you more susceptible.
So, I would say it could be both.
[00:40:48] Detective Ev: I would agree with that completely. I was just curious as to what your philosophy was. What you just described, you are using this perfectly in alignment with the FDN philosophy, because that’s exactly what Reed would say.
This is a test, it’s a screening. Maybe we’re finding the cause, maybe we’re not. It’s not actually the point always. I mean, FDNs would love to find the root cause of everything. But Reed’s the first to tell you, it might be so complicated by the time we get a client that you’re never going to figure it out. There might not even be tests that exist to see what the legitimate root cause is.
Where to Find Barbara Madimenos
What we’ve done with all these testings that we have, and all this training is we’ve been able to figure out you don’t always need to know the root cause. If you test all this stuff and then you make the according lifestyle changes and supplement protocols, you can get the person a lot better most of the time without ever needing to know it was this specific thing that happened at five years old and that’s why you’re chronically ill to this day. So, I think that was a great explanation. I thank you for it and for coming on today.
Where can people find you if they wanted to work with you or maybe have this test ran? They’re like, all right, I need Barbara to analyze this thing like she just did for Ev. Where can they find you?
[00:41:45] Barbara Madimenos: You can find me on Instagram at barbaramadimenos, spelled B a R B a R a M a D I M E N O S. I know sometimes when people hear my last names, they’re just like, okay, whoa, whoa. Like how you spell it? But yeah, that’s where you could find me the most. I’m the most active there.
[00:42:00] Detective Ev: Cool. I will have that in the show notes for everyone. So, you do one-on-one clients right now. Are you doing more group stuff in the future? What can they expect if they reach out to you?
[00:42:08] Barbara Madimenos: I’m currently doing one-on-ones with people. That’s what I’m working on now. We might be creating a course in the future, but we’ll see.
Conclusion
[00:42:17] Detective Ev: All right, Barbara, thank you so much for coming on today, again, especially on the fly like you did. Barbara saved the day here to come on and share her expertise with HTMA.
[00:42:25] Barbara Madimenos: Thanks. Have a great day.
[00:42:26] Detective Ev: All right guys, that’ll do it for today’s episode with Barbara Madimenos, where we’re talking about HTMA.
If you want to hear her original story (Episode 106), if you wanted to watch the YouTube version, or if you wanted to get tickets to the Biohacking Congress, in Miami with Reed and myself, then all you gotta do is head to the show notes. I will have all of the links for you there.
I am looking forward to talking to you guys again soon though. But until then, please take care.
We’ve got an interesting trial to review this week. It was written by a New Zealand/Australian research collaboration, with Pham as the lead author. The title almost put me off. “Plasma Amino Acid Appearance and Status of Appetite Following a Single Meal of Red Meat or a Plant-Based Meat Analog: A Randomized Crossover Clinical Trial” was more than a mouthful (Ref 1). However, the article itself was well laid out and easier to read than the heading.
The rationale for the study was explained in the introduction to the paper. Plant-Based meat analogs (PBMAs) (i.e., fake meats) are becoming increasingly common and are being promoted to all consumers, not just vegans and vegetarians. They are claimed to be better for us and the environment, but “evidence of digestive efficacy, nutritional quality, and health benefits is still scarce.” The researchers noted that “nutritional differences in protein content and quality between red meat and PBMAs have not been thoroughly assessed.” The researchers thus set out to compare meat vs a plant product (Beyond Burger) to try to fill a gap in our knowledge about the relative nutritional merits of each.
We have done a couple of Monday notes to date in this area. The most recent one, July 2021, reviewed the nutritional profiles of meat vs plant burgers (Ref 2). A year earlier, a July 2020 note explored the amino acids in plant (chickpeas) vs animal foods (eggs) (Ref 3). Both of those notes examined the nutrients contained in different foods. It’s one thing to examine what food contains. It’s another to examine the effect it has once digested. That’s what this study aimed to do.
The study was primarily focused on protein. Proteins are made up of chemical ‘building blocks’ called amino acids. Four groups of amino acids were analysed: essential; non-essential; branched chain; and non-proteogenic amino acids. Essential amino acids are ones that we must consume – our body doesn’t make them. Non-essential amino acids can be made by the body. The branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) are a group of three essential amino acids: leucine, isoleucine and valine. The word “proteinogenic” means “protein creating“. Non-proteogenic amino acids are amino acids that are not naturally encoded in the genetic code of any organism. That’s just for background – don’t worry about the definitions – the study will give us a general review of protein quality in the body after each meal.
It is important to remember that it is not only females that are encouraged to make the necessary diet and lifestyle changes, as statistics show in 50% of cases of infertility are due to men.
1. Antioxidants
Antioxidants are anti-inflammatory nutrients that reduce oxidative stress in the body. High levels of oxidative stress can result in damage to the sperm and ovaries and is a common aetiology in infertility and miscarriage. Increasing your intake of plant based foods in particular fresh fruit and vegetables, nuts and seeds and legumes can protect your body from the formation of harmful molecules that promote oxidative stress.
2. Omega 3
The body uses fats in the production of hormones which includes your sex hormones. The research suggests following a Mediterranean diet with foods rich in omega 3 fatty acids improve sperm count, egg count and hormonal function. You can speak to a Dietitian to develop an individualised plan that incorporates an adequate amounts of marine based and plant based Omega 3 to optimise your fertility.
3. Vitamin D
Studies have shown that vitamin D is an important nutrient in particularly for females, as low vitamin D is linked to low Anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH). AMH is a hormone made by the small follicles in the ovary which have not yet developed into mature eggs. Low AMH indicates a reduced ovarian reserve and is associated with reduced fertility. As Dietitians, we recommend having a blood test to look into your Vitamin D status and seek a Dietitian’s support to increase levels if required through food and supplementation.
4. Zinc
There is emerging evidence that zinc deficiency effects fertility as zinc helps build DNA to make new cells which are needed in the production of healthy eggs, sperm and a growing baby. Women that have been on the contraceptive pill, should look at their zinc status as the pill has been shown to reduce zinc status overtime.
Reach out to a Dietitian today to work out a plan that covers these nutrients while also working on reducing foods that decrease fertility chances 🙂
My next webinar is on vitamin K. It’s been touted for bone, brain, and heart health, but have vitamin K supplements been shown to help? To complicate matters, there are multiple types of vitamin K: Vitamin K1 is concentrated in greens, and a type of vitamin K2 is found in animal products. Do we need both? Do we have to rely on a healthy microbiome for conversion from one to the other? Do we have to eat a slimy, fermented food called natto?
Join me for a 60-minute live webinar on October 7 at 2pm ET to learn everything you ever wanted to know about vitamin K.
Key Takeaways: Saturated Fat
Saturated fat—the kind of fat that is solid at room temperature—is found mostly in animal products like fatty meats and dairy. We’ve known for a long time that saturated fat raises cholesterol, contributing to our number one killer, heart disease. It also impacts insulin resistance and can lead to other diseases. Hold on. I said it’s mostly found in animal products, but what about that jar of coconut oil in your cabinet that’s also solid at room temperature? Saturated fat. See what I have to say on the matter of both animal- and plant-derived saturated fats on the topic page.
Recipe: Veggie Mac & Cheese
Dairy is the number one source of saturated fat in the United States, but, fortunately, there are many ways to make plant-based versions of traditionally dairy-laden dishes. A cruciferous spin on macaroni and cheese, this recipe takes comfort food to a whole new level and is a tasty way to check off a few servings on the Daily Dozen checklist. This recipe comes from Kristina, our director of Nutrition & Social Media Strategy. Get the free recipe here, and watch a video on how it’s made on our Instagram.
Evidence-Based Eating Guide Now in Spanish
I’m thrilled to announce that our popular Evidence-Based Eating Guide is now available in two new languages. This resource includes information on my Traffic Light eating system, the Daily Dozen, sample menus, and more. Read about it and download a digital copy here. You can also order hard copies in English and Spanish for only the cost of printing and shipping. Help us continue creating these fun and useful resources by making a donation today!
NutritionFacts.org Around the World
Did you know that every NutritionFacts video has subtitles in English and a variety of other languages, prepared by our volunteers?Learn how to access them and other playback settings. Also,see important information about our translated resources.
Consider helping make our free Daily Dozen app more accessible to people around the world by volunteering to contribute translations in your language.
[00:00:00] Detective Ev: Well, hello, my friends. Welcome back to another episode of the Health Detective Podcast by Functional Diagnostic Nutrition. My name is Evan Transue, AKA Detective Ev. I will be your host for today’s show with tips for your FDN Business.
I’m back yet again with another solo episode. I know I’ve been dumping a bunch of content at you guys, but hopefully you have been enjoying these. I will be back next time for sure with an interview, but I wanted to get these out.
It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while so it’s kind of nice to just get them all out at once. Then I can refer people to these in the future or other people at FDN, staff members, trainees, graduates, whatever it might be, can also refer people to these podcasts.
What we’re going to talk about today is definitely more for the person who is already an FDN trainee or about to sign up for FDN. If you’re someone who’s never really considering this, or just listens for the stories, I fully admit this might not be the podcast for you today. I’m not here to waste your time at all so this really is probably not one you want to listen to.
[00:01:00] Detective Ev: However, for those that are going through the course or those that are about to go through the course, this is definitely the podcast for you.
Number 1 – Get Your LLC Formed for Your FDN Business
We’re going over nine different things today for helping you really have a successful career or business when it comes to FDN, mostly towards the business side. But these tips can kind of overlap into a few different ways. People say, how did you come up with nine tips? Why not 10? Well, because I’m not someone who’s just going to round up the number just to be cheesy and try to force something in.
I wanted to know, how many genuine things do I have. I had nine so you’re getting nine today. We’re going to go right through them, there’s quite a bit here. I want to keep it in a condensed timeframe. I don’t want to be going on forever, so we’re going to break it down. Let’s do it.
Number one business tip. This is kind of 101, right? It’s business 101. You want to get the LLC formed or maybe there’s another thing that you might be doing, but chances are you’re going to be doing an LLC. You want to do that now, because sometimes it can take a little bit. You might be shopping around; you might be trying to figure out what you need and don’t need. Maybe you gotta make the appointment with your accountant if they also do those types of services.
You are going to want to probably get that now. In addition, depending on where you live, it could be something that, I mean, it’s certainly not expensive, but it’s not a $50 purchase either. It could be several hundred dollars or even a little bit more depending on where one lives and what you’re getting.
Get Your FDN Business Bank Account Started
Maybe you have to prepare for that. Maybe you can’t spend that money right now, and you’re trying to save up for it accordingly. Maybe you have six months left in the course, so you could save a hundred dollars extra per month. Now you’re still way on time with your LLC. You have it way before you would need it. You did it comfortably so that it just didn’t hit you all of a sudden once you graduate.
I’m going to review all these at the end, so you don’t have to take notes right now. You could take notes at the end if you’d like. Number one is to get that LLC formed. This allows you to do a couple of things.
One, you can use the identification number that could come with an LLC, you’ll want to pay for that, to be able to start your own bank account for your business. It is a very good idea. This is something I did not do in the beginning of my life of entrepreneurship. Get the bank account.
The IRS just brought on or is bringing on actively another 87,000 agents if you live in the United States of America. This is not the time to be making mistakes, even genuine ones, right? I’m not talking about any of you guys going out and doing things maliciously. No one’s suggesting that. But I’m saying there are genuine mistakes that happen all the time that can have consequences just for not knowing things. So, get the LLC formed and this will allow you to be safe in quite a few ways.
These Give Your FDN Business a Level of Safety
One. Just having that separate bank account is going to be great. That’s awesome. Two, if God forbid, I’ve never heard of an FDN getting sued for any reason, but if you did, now your stuff is protected. Maybe you’re taking a different route than most FDNs and you’re doing something else in the health space that could, I guess, get you in trouble somehow, someday. You don’t want your personal assets being at risk with that.
If you own a house and you’re doing this as a sole proprietorship, someone could come after that. You could have your house taken from you if someone comes after you. Now, I’m talking about one out of a million cases here. But why would you even want that thought in your head?
Get the LLC formed, get the bank account, track the expenses properly. I’m kind of mixing all of those in together, even though they could be separate steps. But that’s just good business ownership. You want this stuff separate from your normal life, especially if you’re planning on doing this full time.
If you’re planning on taking a few clients here and there, and maybe they’re mostly friends or family friends, okay, I could see what you’re doing there. That was the mindset I had in the beginning, and I’ve been totally fine. Everyone’s satisfied. No one’s suing me. I’m good to go.
But I wish I kind of just had that in the beginning, spent the money, and took the very short amount of time to set it up. It would’ve been nice to have that extra level of safety. Quite frankly, I don’t think I understood the implications of not having it. So, number one, get that LLC.
Number 2 – Picturing the Ideal Client for Your FDN Business
Number two. Now we’re talking about more, I don’t want to say not business stuff cause obviously, it’s all business. But that’s like a technical thing, right? This isn’t always as technical.
Number two is going to be picturing your ideal client. This is okay to adjust over time. In fact, it probably will. But you want to get something written down to get started. Here are some questions that could help you get the juices flowing in your brain.
What does the client look like? What are their worries and troubles? How old are they, roughly, like a range here? How many jobs do they have? Do they have a job at all? Are they a stay-at-home mom or do they own a business? Maybe she’s some big-time entrepreneur or he’s some big-time entrepreneur. These are different types of people. Different types of people need to be spoken to in different types of ways.
What I’m preparing you for with this number two is the following steps where we need to learn to talk to a specific type of person. If you’re going to go online and you’re going to start talking about FDN, your health journey, and you’re going to try to get clients that way, that’s amazing. But there’s a little phrase that goes, if you speak to everyone, you speak to no one.
That is so true. It’s never been more true with the world of the internet. On Instagram, there’s like a billion accounts on there. I think on Facebook, there’s multiple billion people have Facebook accounts now.
Learn to Talk to That Ideal Client for Your FDN Business
If I just go online and try to please everyone all the time, I’m going to end up maybe playing it very safe and that’s great, but then I’m not going to actually attract someone. Because I played it so safe and so restricted that I didn’t actually relate to anyone, I just didn’t tick anyone off.
If you put yourself out there, online and do it long enough, you are going to tick someone off or get a comment that is maybe not so favorable. You gotta get some thicker skin. It’s just part of the game. Now you know that so when you go and do that, do not be surprised when it happens. Just say, okay, cool. That happened, I’ll move on from this.
You have to think, if someone’s willing to say something negative to you when you had positive intention online, the only thing you should be feeling is not anger. You should be feeling sorry for that other person that they’re in such a bad place that they feel the need to go do that.
That’s a ridiculous thing to do, to be online commenting on someone that you know, or someone that you don’t know, their post, and trying to make them feel bad. That’s kind of ridiculous if you think about that. You feel pity for those people. You can feel sorry for them. You don’t have to feel anger. You’re the one doing the right thing. Don’t worry about that kind of stuff.
So, picture the ideal client in anticipation for posting online, or sharing your story, or giving a talk somewhere, because then you learn to talk to that person.
Don’t Try to Please Everyone when Posting Online for Your FDN Business
If you don’t believe this works, let’s assume that you live in the United States or any country that has a leader that you vote for, whether it’s a president, prime minister, whoever. You only need 51% of the people to like you to win. Isn’t that the truth? Think about that. You only need 51% of the people to like you to win. 49% could hate your guts and 51% like you, you’re going to win.
I’m definitely not making a statement one way or another, I’m much smarter than that. But if you’re in the United States of America or have heard about what’s going on in this country for the last eight years (eight is pretty generous maybe it’s more like six), we’ve had two very polarized elections.
We had a lot of people adamant that they were right with their side and two completely different sides won in the last two respective elections. I’m not saying that you want to generate that much hate, but at least 51% liked the two respective individuals, who, you know that I’m talking about. And they won because of it. That was it.
So yes, you might not want to generate as much hate as a campaign for presidency might generate you, I’m not suggesting that. We’re FDNs, we’re not in politics. However, you have to think about that when you’re posting. Stop worrying so much about pleasing everyone all the time. You’ll end up speaking to no one. You gotta relate to the individual you’re talking to.
Niching Cystic Acne Clients as an Example
I’m a 26, almost 27-year-old male. I typically do not relate to the unique struggles that a 50-year-old woman might deal with. Let’s take a 50-year-old divorced woman. Let’s take a 50-year-old divorced entrepreneurial woman. Do you see how this can get more and more specific? And then it relates less and less to me. But as it’s relating less and less, to me, it’s relating more and more to someone else.
I’m someone, if you’ve listened before you know this, who has suffered with cystic acne, very bad cystic acne. There are unique struggles that come with that, especially if I dealt with it at a young age, like in my teenage years, that do not apply to other people. If I opened up a business today and I was specifically targeting late teens or early 20-somethings who dealt with cystic acne, I know things like this.
I know that they’re checking the mirror incessantly. It’s almost obsessively. They cannot stop, even though it’s the same thing that they saw two hours ago, they keep checking the mirror constantly. They feel inadequate to date. They’re shy, even though that they have these desires to go out and be with other people and date them. They can’t do it because they think that they’re not worthy of this. They stay at home when they don’t want to stay home, they let their face and their skin control their entire lifestyle.
I know how desperate they feel because they’ve tried a bunch of different diets and all these weird little things that you hear online.
Number 3 – Document Your Story for Your FDN Business
There are literal forums that tell people with acne, this is serious, to use their own urine in a mixture for their skin, like make a cleanser out of this. I know all these little weird things that they’ve tried and all the unique things that they experience.
What I could do is back off and say, well, no one wants to hear about acne. Some people think it’s gross, right? They don’t want to hear about that. Well, that’s great. Then I’ll never relate to the people like me who have dealt with that. But if I start getting specific like that and I picture, okay, that late teen, early 20-something, they want to date so bad, they want to just be normal.
They want to go out to the parties, and they feel so ashamed every time they try to do those things because of the skin that they’re in. The fact that maybe they’re in pain, maybe they’re trying all these weird little diets and they’re starting to feel depressed and hopeless because they feel like nothing is working, even though they’ve seen it work for other people online.
That’s unique, man. If I start making my content specific to that type of individual, their ears and eyes are going to perk up and open, respectively, when they see or hear that type of content. Get it? So, number two, again, was picturing that ideal client.
Number three is documenting your story. While you’re documenting it, if you’re a really smart person, what you’re going to do is document it in such a way that it is talking to the person that you pictured in number two. If you’re a real smart person you’re going to do that.
Document Your Story to Speak to the Ideal Client for Your FDN Business
Let’s say, I’m going through my FDN journey again and I’m getting my labs back. Now, just to be clear, your ideal client, a lot of the times is going to be someone very similar to you. That just makes intuitive sense. Right?
My ideal client, I ended up working with a lot of women that were my age or a little bit older, just because it’s a bigger space than usually young men. But I could have gotten even more specific with that. For today’s sake, let’s say I was going to work with, specifically, young men who are dealing with cystic acne and stuff like that.
As I’m documenting my story, I might say something like this. I got my hormone test back from FDN. This is a true story. At FDN we use a salivary hormone test, primarily. There’s other things that you can use, but this is what we teach in the main course. You get four samples throughout the day from the person or for yourself, testing for a variety of things. One of those things is cortisol.
My cortisol in the morning was super high. Sorry, it was in range. It was super high relative to the rest of the day, but it was within range. The rest of the day was tanked. That is a sign that my hormones are out of whack. We all know about hormonal acne and that’s a trigger term. Because I know, even if I don’t understand the complexities of acne, the person who is my ideal client, they think of things like hormonal acne. I know that because I’ve been there. You might not understand that if you’ve never dealt with this stuff.
Correlate Your Findings with the Ideal Client for Your FDN Business
Everything gets labeled like hormonal or fungi or all this kind of stuff. They have no idea what they’re talking about.
Obviously, anyone who has acne is going to have hormonal trouble. But some people think that there is a certain type of acne that’s only called hormonal acne and that hormones are not involved in the rest of the types of acne. That is ridiculous. We know that as health professionals, they do not know that. I would be wording this in such a way, not to lie or mislead, but to relate to them, that this is hormonal.
In addition, on that test, my DHEA was like four or five times higher than the upper end of the reference range. It was really high. That is an androgen hormone. Androgens are correlated with acne. It’s also correlated with a deeper voice. Naturally, I have higher androgens, that’s why I have this. I don’t want the acne. Right? But I can keep the voice.
What’s really funny is, believe it or not, as I got less sick, my voice was deeper before. It was even more so than right now. Now it kind of goes all over the place and I can get much higher and stuff, but it was actually deeper because my androgens were so high.
I also had this cystic acne on top of it. Because the cortisol was tanked and in addition to a few other markers that would indicate this, I was in the exhaustive phase of HPA Axis dysfunction. I was tanked. I was exhausted, literally and figuratively. These are all things that correlate with acne.
Start a Blog for Your FDN Business
I would be documenting my story and talking about, wow, it feels so amazing now to realize that my hormones are in fact tanked and that could be leading to my acne.
If you’re a person suffering with acne and you don’t have any answers, you see that come up on your social media, you are reading it every single time. I don’t care how many cat videos there are. I don’t care how much else you have going on. I don’t care if you are about to go talk to someone else or get a phone call, you’re going to click save. You are going to read that post because it’s talking to you directly. Facts tell, stories sell. Great. Put the facts in for the labs, but it’s the story, really, of how you dealt with acne and all those things that are going to get this person to pay attention.
Other things that you can do, or just like bonus tips within number three, start a blog. I believe it was Kristen Thomas, and there’s someone else who came on this podcast and did a similar thing. They were starting a blog, documenting their journey and story when they started FDN, from the day they started. This was building credibility; it was building a community who they were able to then market their services to.
I know this is something people are uncomfortable with but sharing on social media will be one of the fastest ways that you can get clients as an FDN. Our work works anywhere in the world. Social media allows you to connect with people all over the world. It also allows you to talk about things that might not be appropriate at the family party.
Document Your Story, Post on Social Media for Your FDN Business
When I go to Christmas or I go to Thanksgiving or whatever it might be, sometimes people want to talk about health stuff, I do admit that. But generally speaking, you’re catching up on other things. You’re not ready to talk about your health journey or the things that you’re studying. That’s not always going to be the case at Thanksgiving. Even if it is, people are drinking or doing whatever.
If I just share it on social media, then I’m not bothering anyone. I’m not being inappropriate cause I’m not talking about something that I shouldn’t be talking about at the party. I can talk about whatever I want on my social media and the people who like it are going to read it. The people who don’t, can ignore it and keep scrolling.
I already kind of alluded to this when I was talking about the hormone tests, but I would’ve been posting my lab test results online on my social media. I wish I did that in the beginning. I did it later. I mean, thankfully the labs never go away. You’re going to have the results somewhere, but I wish I did that from day one to guide people through that journey with me.
Even if you are not ready to post these things and not willing to do it, document everything now. You can use the content later, that’s fine. But if you’re not ready to post whatever, maybe you want to be healthier first. My point is if you don’t feel comfortable posting, document it now. Just document it for yourself and then you can use it later.
Video Yourself Running Labs to Simplify it for Your Clients
Three A, cause this isn’t quite four, but it’s also not the normal part of three, in addition to documenting the journey itself, if you haven’t already run labs for your certification, like FDN certification, record yourself doing so as if you’re talking to a client.
You’ll be able to use this later when you have a client or two or three or four or five, or you’re full time. You’ll be able to send them videos of you having used these tests on yourself and you can guide them through it so it’s simpler for them. No one wants to read instructions. Everyone wants to watch videos and be told what to do in that way.
So, three A would be, make sure at the very least, if you do nothing else I said in three (I mean, you really should do other things in three), but document yourself running the labs. You can use it with clients in the future.
Number 4 – Practice Conversing with Your FDN Business Clients
Number four, practice having conversations with clients. We train you on this in FDN, multiple times. You’re going to have to talk to your mentor and practice with them as if they were a client.
I said this in a previous episode recently, this is not measuring your ability to speak fluently. We’re not judging you on how gifted you are with gab or not gifted you are with gab. We are grading you on your ability to know the information. You can do that, even if you’re a very shy, lacking confidence, person. Okay, that’s fine.
When I say practice having conversations with clients, it’s a little different. You just want to go into your head and just start going through the conversation. Pretend I’m your client. Pretend you’re talking to Ev and you just got some lab results back for me. Then you’re walking me through it on a consult, or you’re walking me through it on a zoom call.
You could practice with your husband, or your wife, or your kids, or your parents, or whoever, a best friend. You could practice with no one and just do this in your head. There is sign showing that when we practice certain things in our imagination, it actually does translate to real world results. Look that up. I’m not going to get into that today but look that up. It’s very interesting.
Guys, I speak professionally, you know this. I also do this podcast professionally. I cannot tell you how many times I go over things. I actually stopped this podcast already, like three or four times, just because I didn’t like the way that something came out and I have the ability to record over it right now. It’s okay.
Practice to Build Better Speaking Skills
People think that things are just coming out naturally for me or other professional speakers or podcasters. But generally, that couldn’t be further from the truth.
I’m constantly rehearsing conversations, presentations, and other things. It’s okay to do that. It’s actually a very good thing to practice. I was even doing it for this podcast without realizing it. As I was writing my notes, it comes so naturally to me now, I’m already going over how it would sound to speak these words, like the emphasis I would have, the excitement I would have.
I do that in my head or out loud with no one else in the room. It translates over to better conversational skills or better speaking skills. This is something we should do, forget FDN, you should be doing this in general. It just makes you a better communicator. It helps you say things that you actually mean, and not things that you don’t.
Number four, practice having conversations with clients.
Number 5 – Set up Speaking Gigs for Your FDN Business
Five. Once you’re getting towards maybe the halfway mark in FDN, you want to start setting up local speaking gigs. Great places to get started are libraries or health focused cafes. Maybe it’s like an organic coffee store, health food stores, of course, that’s a no brainer, especially small, locally owned – Mom & Pop’s shops that maybe have like a little seating area inside of it. They can be great.
Rotary clubs are also fantastic. I would join one, by the way, if you’re trying to be a business professional, they’re really cheap and very useful. But you can also speak at these clubs. You could speak by being a member, which is going to be totally worth the price. You get an opportunity to share your story. Or sometimes you can go to different Rotary clubs without ever having joined and become a member. You could still speak at their club. Look up those types of things, libraries, health focused cafes, health food stores, and Rotary clubs.
Kim Boehm. She was on the podcast. Episode 157. You guys might remember her. She actually disclosed her income so I’m not sharing something that’s private. She disclosed it. This woman graduated FDN. She started giving local speaking gigs. I think a lot of it was just at libraries. Within a couple of months of starting FDN, she was at 10K a month. There is no shortage of people who need this work.
They just don’t even know that you exist. You’ve gotta get yourself out there and a great way to do that can be local speaking gigs.
Plan Ahead to Get Speaking Engagements on the Calendar
We actually have lecture series that are available post graduating, you can purchase them. I think it’s like $100, $200 bucks. It’s nothing. You can buy these lecture packages that already come with the slides.
They all come with a call. You get to call Reed himself, the founder of FDN and talk to him. He’ll work you through some of these presentations and tips that he might have. It’s only one call, but you’re going to get to talk to the founder of FDN. I think that’s worth a lot in and of itself.
Kim did that. She got the packages. She didn’t reinvent the wheel. She customized things to her story, but she didn’t reinvent the wheel. She got to talk to Reed, and she went out and sold, I think it was seven clients, on her first talk ever. Now your results may vary, but man, I think that’s more possible than people realize if they just were willing to put themselves out there.
So, set up these local speaking gigs halfway through graduating.
I know this from actually doing this as a job, speaking gigs don’t happen overnight. I work for an organization that does actually get some a little quicker than not because we’re in schools, but I also have gigs on my calendar right now. It is September of 2022 while recording this, I have gigs on my calendar for May of 2023. That’s how far out some of these places do this stuff.
Now, a library, Rotary club, probably not going to be that far out. Rotary club, more so than the library. Make sure though, that you’re getting in now so that you have plenty of time and you could be doing these talks the day after you graduate.
Number 6 – Team Up Your FDN Business with Other Local Health Professionals
Number six. Team up with other health professionals in your area. Unless you live in the middle of absolute nowhere, you have other health professionals in your area. It could be a chiropractor or an acupuncturist or a massage therapist. Probably you want to go to things that are inherently more holistic.
I’m not saying massage therapy isn’t holistic, but I know plenty of massage therapists that are not into what we’re into at all. It’d be pretty hard to find an acupuncturist or a chiropractor that would not be fascinated by what you’re doing here. How do you team up with them? Well, the best way is to give, before you take. Go buy their services.
Don’t go in their office or call them up or email them asking for something, that’s ridiculous. Go in and use their services. Make sure you actually like them too, if you’re going to team up with them. When you’re doing that, one, you get a service, that’s kind of great. But this can result in referrals, you could create a good little business there.
You want to know how you get referrals from other people? It’s kind of a secret tip to get referrals. You send them other people first. This is that whole give before you take thing. Everyone wants to know how they get referrals. They do not want to refer though, or they don’t even think about referring.
If you want referrals from someone, send them five people. I guarantee you’re going to get a call or something afterwards. Someone’s going to acknowledge you if you send them five clients. So, give before you take, that’s just a great principle in business in general, in my opinion. Again, that can result in the referrals.
Speak Together, Package Something Together, Get Referrals
You could do speaking gigs as well because chiropractors and acupuncturists are different than us. They have in-person businesses. Now, there are some FDNs within in-person businesses. Ironically, I kind of have one that’s related to what we’re doing here. But a lot of people don’t. The vast majority of FDNs do not have in-person businesses. I would guess that it’s less than 3% or 2% even.
But those people have to have an in-person business because they’re doing physical work. That space that they have, that they rent out, lease, or own is a great place to host a speaking event. If you’re buying their services, you’re sending them a referral or two, and then you offer, hey, could maybe we like do a speaking gig together or something? I’m going to bring in some of my people, you bring in some of yours. We get to talk together and then we can team up and kind of package something together.
Yeah, I’m probably saying yes to that if I’m that type of professional and you’ve already showed me that you care enough to give me a referral and you are a paying client. I don’t even care if you’re doing it for these exact reasons. You still brought me value. That’s great.
This Could Be a Great Job Opportunity
If you are trying to get into this work to just work a job as an FDN, instead of just having the business, then this would also be a great opportunity for that.
I find that chiropractors, acupuncturists, and the like, are fascinated by what we’re doing, and typically are pretty busy with their practices. We’ve had plenty of these professionals go through the FDN course, so maybe they wanted to take a different route.
But like the acupuncturist I go to in Doylestown, I said Doylestown as if you guys know where I live. I live in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. If they even tried to add labs on, they’d be nuts. They are working all the time cause they’re so busy with that. So, they want another person maybe to come in, help them with that, do that and bring more value to their clients. So, number six is team up with other health professionals.
Number 7 – Ask People You Are Closest to for Referrals for Your FDN Business
Seven is ask people you know, the people that are closest to you, if they know anyone who you may be able to help with your new certification. Maybe you start having these conversations two to four weeks before you graduate. You want to be pretty close to graduating, two to four weeks is good.
Now, why do you do this in this way? Well, let’s say I go to my best friend, and I ask him if he knows anyone who I might be able to help. I’m doing this functional lab thing; I’m learning to identify hidden healing opportunities in people’s bodies. It’s really helping me. It helps a lot of people that I know. I’d love to be able to offer this to other people and I was wondering if you knew anyone.
This does one of two things. Either one, they’re your best friend so they’re going to know someone like this, cause we all know sick people. They’re going to get you on the phone with someone. Or number two, maybe they are interested in what you are offering and now you didn’t seem like that weird friend who’s trying to sell another friend something, right? That’s a beautiful thing.
You either got to help them in a very nonaggressive way, or they don’t need your help and they send you to someone else. Done. Have the courage to believe in what you actually started here. All right. Ask people who you are closest to if they know anyone who you may be able to help. There’s going to be a lot of people that you can help.
Number 8 – Work with That Person for a Discounted Price
Once you find that person, whether it is someone they know, or the friend themselves, work with that person for a discount if you’re doing this in the beginning. Do not ever do it for free, that’s a terrible idea.
It is subconscious, probably, but people do not value things that are free. I guarantee you’ll have more compliance and better results as a result if you charge the person something, rather than give it to them for free.
The only time I would work with someone for free, maybe, to put a little disclaimer here, is if I was having a real hard time getting any clients at all. Maybe I can’t do it as easily as I thought I’d be able to. I would work with the person for free.
They’re going to have to pay for their labs, do not pay for their labs. That’s not what I’m suggesting. They pay for their labs. You give them the free consults. Then part of the deal is, hey, I’ll block out your name, but do you mind if I post you on social media to show what some of the results are?
Better yet, if they’re more extroverted and willing to share themselves with the world, you could even say, hey, would you be willing to get on a quick video with me? Maybe we record for two minutes, talk about the results and how it’s correlated with some of your health issues. That might be pushing it for some people and that’s okay. I would at least get that out of the deal if you’re working for free.
You gotta get permission to post their labs online. So, number eight is work with people that you find for a discount in the beginning.
Number 9 – Set Realistic Goals for Your FDN Business
Number nine, my final thing. I left this for last, because if you made it this far, you deserve to hear this one. Number nine is visualization and setting realistic goals. Now I know if you’re listening to this you probably experienced enough in your life that you’ve heard the whole visualization thing. I don’t mean in a woo-woo way. You could take it however you’d like to take it.
I will tell you the reasons that I’m mentioning this today. I also said realistic goals. So really, the first part of this is having the goal, cause there’s nothing to visualize if you don’t know what you’re actually shooting for.
A goal is defined as the object of a person’s ambition or effort and aim or desired result. So, a goal is not a to-do list. It is not a goal to say, oh, I’m going to clean my room today. Yes, obviously you could say that’s a desired result, but it is not the object of the person’s ambition or effort. That is not the thing.
I kind of like to think of goals as things that I can’t just do simply from working harder. I know that’s going to confuse some people. They say, well, if I want a certain amount of income, I could just work harder. I get that.
A Good Goal Should Require a Shift in Your Consciousness
But what I’m trying to say is, let’s say I make $50 an hour at a job. And I work at a job that I can go pick up extra hours at all the time. They have a shortage of staff. What is that on a 40-hour week? That’s like $2,000, right? 50 times 40.
Let’s say I want to make $2,100 this week. That’s my quote/unquote “goal”. I just put in two more hours to make the $50 extra dollars each hour and then I’m at $2100 for the week. That’s great. You did literally make more money. That’s fantastic and all.
But to me, it’s just not a good goal at the very least. Maybe it does meet the definition, but it’s not a good goal if all I have to do is just, oh, well I can put it in a little more effort and automatically it’s guaranteed to happen.
There should be something that requires a shift in your consciousness or a shift in your personality, something kind of intangible, when you’re shooting for a goal. You don’t want to go too high with this in the beginning. Some people get almost intimidated and then it becomes counterproductive.
I actually am a huge believer in setting like smaller seemingly meaningless goals in the beginning, because I think then when it works, it proves to you, oh, I can go higher and higher and higher next time.
Start Conservatively and Grow in Confidence
I remember being 18 or 19 and I’m setting these goals for like a million dollars a year. It’s so unbelievable and incomprehensible for me at that time. Because I didn’t have anyone in my life who did anything like that, it wasn’t worth it. It actually took a while to make even a half decent amount of money doing what I loved because I’m setting the goal too high.
Then you could start with $5,000 a month. Let’s even start more conservative than that. Let’s say it’s $2,000 a month, $1,000 dollars a month. I want to make a thousand dollars a month, part-time with FDN. What do I need to do to get that? That’s the goal. Then once you get that, great. Now I want to do $2,500. Wow. You know, this is getting pretty close to actually, maybe being a full-time job.
I would need like, $5,000 a month for that, but I’m already doing $2,500 a month and I’m still working this full-time job. So, if I had an extra 40, 50 hours a week, couldn’t I do that extra $2,500 a month probably? You start to see how this works, because then it becomes more realistic for you or believable for you that you can get up to that $5,000 mark.
Then you go to the five grand, then you go to 10, whatever it might be. Set a goal that doesn’t just require you to put in a few more hours, don’t be cheap with it. But also, something that doesn’t intimidate you so bad that it becomes completely counterproductive.
Visualize Your Goal as Accomplished
A thousand dollars a month extra, $2,000 a month extra would be very good for most people to start out with if they’ve never owned their own business, they’re working another job and they’re starting out as an FDN professional. Start with that. Set the goal, and then the other part of this was the visualization.
You do not have to do this; it is up to you. I am not the one to come up with what I’m about to tell you. I have read it in other books. It has served me so well that if I told you how it served me, some of you probably would not believe me. That’s okay, I’m not here to convince you. I’m here to say, you got nothing to lose with what I’m about to say, so maybe give it a try.
Once you have this goal set out, write it down somewhere. I don’t care if it’s in the notes on your phone, in a little journal, on a note card, a sticky note, write the goal down. When you are about to go to bed, review the goal.
And as you are drifting off to sleep, there is a little time period between when our head hits the pillow and when we fall asleep that our thoughts are still going. You’re already doing that anyway. While those thoughts are still going, use that time to imagine the goal that you have as already being achieved.
Let’s say my goal was trying to replace my full-time income with my FDN business. Let’s say I make $5,000 a month. I’m doing 60K a year and I want to do that with FDN. That’s the goal. What does the visualization look like then?
What Does the Visualization Look Like?
Well, it might be different for you than it is for me, that’s for sure. Even if it’s the same goal, it might look different.
But let’s say you’re able to replace that job. Well, maybe you’re single and maybe this means that you can go live in an Airbnb every single month and travel around doing that.
Maybe it means you can finally move because you’re not tied down to one place anymore. Maybe it means that you’ll have more joy in your life, cause your boss is a total jerk and you hate your job right now. It would feel so freeing to be able to be out of that. Maybe this would mean that you could spend more time with your significant other or your kids or your parents.
Maybe this means that you can go to more conferences cause you can use them as tax tradeoffs. Whatever it might be, you want to start picturing the positive emotions that will be associated with you achieving your goal. This is why you gotta almost be, I don’t want to say realistic, even though I probably already did. You want to be careful with how far away you go from the goals.
I couldn’t even picture a million dollars a year. I couldn’t picture it. My consciousness would not allow me to. I don’t think it still allows me to, so I move up much slower than that. But if I do $5,000 in a month, I can probably picture $6,000. Then if I do that, it’s like, well, what’s 7,500? Well, crap. I just did that, maybe I can do $10,000. At a certain point it becomes easier and easier because you start realizing, wow, whatever I’m visualizing, actually, I end up achieving.
Think About it, Focus on It
But if you do not have the goal to begin with, you are like a ship that went out to sea without a destination. That is not a good idea.
If you aim at nothing, you’re going to hit it a hundred percent of the time. Right? If you aim at nothing, you’re going to hit it a hundred percent of the time.
Jim Rohn, a motivational speaker, he talked about goals. He said if someone was out and laying the materials and bricks for a house, and there was no blueprint, we’d lock them up. We’d say, that’s crazy. You’re building a house, but you don’t know what you’re building? You don’t have a blueprint, you’re just going? That’s insane. We know that.
So why do we do this with our lives? Why do we do this with our careers? You have to have the goal, then visualize what would your life be like when that goal is complete?
You do that at the end of every night. If you’re an overachiever, then you put it on some sticky notes and you put it in places that you’re going to have to see it. You put it in the visor on the car. You put it on the mirror in your bathroom. You put it on the corner of your computer.
The more you think about it, from a totally practical sense. The more you think about it, the more focused you are going to be on the things and opportunities that could allow you to achieve said goal.
Is There a Limiting Belief for the Success of Your FDN Business?
Now, might there be a woo-woo aspect in this, because that’s promoted all the time in the personal development space? If I’m being honest, I think so.
But I’m here to talk about FDN and your business. I’m not here to talk about my philosophies with that. There’s a practical side to it and you might just find, once you achieve the goal, that there was a little more to it than you once originally thought. I will leave it at that.
Let’s review the things that we talked about today, and then I want you to be thinking about what can you do to today to get ready? I admittedly don’t even expect everyone listening to do everything on the list. I know that. But if you even did one or two of these things, you’d be putting yourself in a much better position, specifically number nine.
If you did number nine, you’d be putting yourself in a fantastic position. If you did all of them, you’re on track to really having an amazing business launch and a successful career. Since all of these things are actually very simple and every single person listening could do them, if you don’t do them, then you gotta ask why on earth would you not?
What kind of limiting belief or something is holding you back that would stop you from doing such practical things that were told to you by someone who’s been doing this for five years and gets to interview other individuals who have very successful practices? Why wouldn’t you do that stuff? Interesting to think about.
Isn’t it funny how we don’t do the things that we know would help us sometimes? I’m guilty. We gotta ask ourselves what’s going on when that happens.
Let’s Review the First 5 Tips for a Successful FDN Business
In review, number one, get an LLC formed now, or whatever type of business you and your professional, whoever you get recommendations from, deem to be the best option for you. Go to someone, not me. Go to someone and figure out what you need. It’s probably going to be an LLC.
Number two, picture your ideal client. What are they like? How old are they? Do they have a job? Do they not work at all? Are they an entrepreneur? Think about those things, write it down.
Number three, document your story while you are going through FDN. If you’re not going to share it right now, you’re nervous to do that, still document it, and you can share it later. Start a blog, post your lab test results, correlate it with how they deal with your health issues and show people the connections that you’re making. Three A, take videos of you running the labs so that you can use it with clients in the future.
Number four, practice having conversations with clients. Do this in your head, do this out loud. It works, I promise.
Number five, set up local speaking gigs maybe halfway through your time at FDN, in terms of the certification course. Get those ready because it could sometimes take a little bit before speaking gigs are available or before a space is available for you to actually go talk. It’s not an overnight thing for speaking. You gotta set it up properly and get the invites out. There’s a lot that goes into it.
Let’s Review the Last 4 Tips for a Successful FDN Business
Number six, team up with other health professionals. What’s the best way to do this? Go buy their services. Send them referrals. It can result in referrals for yourself, possible speaking gigs since they probably have an in-person business, and it could even result in a job if that’s what you’re desiring to do.
Number seven, ask the people who you are closest to if they know anyone who you may be able to help given your newfound functional knowledge.
Number eight, work with people for a discount, but not for free.
Number nine, set a realistic goal, visualize that goal constantly, as if it’s already achieved. If you’re really smart, you’re going to set other little reminders, like a little note card that you can carry around and something on the mirror and something in the car and something on the door, so you have to think about it every time you see one of those reminders. It just might work for you. Give it a shot.
Those are my nine things. I’m sorry that it’s not a nice rounded 10. You know, nine is a pretty good number too.
Conclusion
If you guys have any questions about any of the things that I talked about today, go to our Podbean and you can leave me a comment there. I answer all of them. I will also answer them on the show live so you kind of get the best of both worlds there. I’ll comment to you directly, and then we’ll talk on the show itself.
If it’s a really fantastic question, I actually bring on a professional, someone other than myself, to help us go through that question and any other things that might go with it. So that could be really fun. It helps to contribute to content on the show. We appreciate those questions. So just for search for the Health Detective Podcast on Podbean to leave that comment.
And if you guys like the information that we’re sharing, please consider leaving us a five-star review on Apple and or Spotify. If you’d be so kind as to do that, then guess what? We would love ya even more than we already do.
I will talk to you guys again soon with another interview. I promise, I’m done with my solo stuff if you hate hearing me do solo stuff. But until then, please take care.
Whether you have an overflowing home garden, bought too much produce at the grocery store or are wondering what to do with the surplus of herbs on your windowsill, simple food preservation methods can help you save ingredients, as well as retain their nutritional value, for months to come. Learning how to preserve food at home is easy with these simple techniques!
Culinary Nutrition Benefits of Preserving Food at Home
There are multiple reasons to consider learning to preserve food at home. This process:
retains nutrients of certain foods when they are most potent
saves you money
allows you to stash seasonal foods to enjoy later when they’re out of season
reduces food waste, as you are storing or preserving food to use later rather than composting or tossing it
helps you explore different ways to use foods
Tools Needed to Preserve Food at Home
What you need to preserve food depends on which method you are using, but a basic food preserving setup can include:
Sheet pans
Knife and cutting board
Blender or food processor
Storage containers
Parchment paper
Masking tape and a marker for labeling
Easy Ways to Preserve Food at Home
These are some of our favourite methods we use on a regular basis.
Freezing
Image: Bozhin Karaivanov on UnSplash
Freezing is the most basic and accessible way to preserve your own food with a minimal amount of specialty equipment.
You can freeze ingredients whole or chopped, freeze partially made or fully made recipes to use later, or freeze kitchen scraps or stray ingredients for homemade broth.
Some of the things we like to freeze are:
General Freezing Tips to Preserve Food at Home
Whatever you are freezing, be sure to label the name of the item and the date you are putting it into the freezer. You don’t want to forget what’s in your container or how long it’s been there, or defrost the wrong thing because of misidentification.
To store fruits and veggies
Wash and dry well, then cut into bite-sized pieces (or larger, if you have a specific recipe in mind for what you’re freezing). If you’d like, you can quickly blanch veggies first.
Lay on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Freeze for an hour, then transfer to a sealed container. This helps to prevent the produce from sticking together in huge, frozen clumps.
To freeze food scraps for broth
Keep a large bag or container in the freezer and add your peels and vegetable trimmings to it, as well as extra herbs. When the container is full, use it to make broth!
To freeze liquid items like soups, stews, nut milk or smoothies
For hot items: allow them to cool completely, then transfer them to a freezer-safe jar or container. Leave an inch or two of space at the top to allow for expansion.
For cold items: Pour liquid into a freezer-safe jar or container. Leave an inch or two of space at the top to allow for expansion.
To freeze gluten-free baked goods
For portioned items like muffins, cookies, bars and squares, freeze in large containers layered between sheets of parchment paper, if needed, to prevent them from sticking. This method is also great for burgers and other patties.
For larger items like crusts, bread or cake, you can freeze in slices or single servings using the method above, or freeze in larger chunks (for example, half a loaf of bread) to defrost and slice later.
To freeze casserole-style dishes (lasagna, etc.)
Freeze right in the pan (many cookware options now have fridge or freezer lids so you can stash them easily. Alternatively, you can wrap squares or chunks of casseroles in waxed paper, beeswax wraps, or in parchment and then stack them.
To freeze fresh herbs
Try blending them with oil or water, then freeze in ice cube trays. This is great for seasoning food! Otherwise, you can chop them finely, put them in the bottom of ice cube trays, then pour olive oil or ghee on top.
The only downside to freezing food is if you don’t have enough freezer space. It helps to take inventory of your freezer items and consume them regularly (don’t make the freezer a place where foods you don’t want to eat go to collect freezer burn!). That way, you have an ongoing rotation of items coming and going, as opposed to only being stacked and forgotten. Meal prep and menu planning are key!
More Freezing and Prep Resources
Fermenting
Photo: Brooke Lark on Unsplash
We adore fermented foods because of their benefits to digestive health and the immune system. We prefer fermenting produce over pickling, as fermentation yields probiotic advantages. Pickled foods, on the other hand, are brined in vinegar so you aren’t gleaning those benefits.
We are firm believers that you can lacto-ferment almost any seasonal produce into pickles. Veggies tend to be easier to ferment than fruits and require less diligent monitoring (as the sugars in fruits yield very, very quick fermentation). However, there are some specialized fruit fermentation recipes such as kombucha and switchel that are delicious!
Dehydrating is one of the oldest forms of preserving food. Dehydrating is simply drying a food out until you’ve removed most of the moisture. Historically, cultures used the sun to dehydrate food. We can still do this, though there are some handy tools available now that quicken the process such as food dehydrators and oven drying.
What Can You Dehydrate?
Temperatures for Dehydrating
If you’re following a raw food diet, the general consensus is that food shouldn’t be dehydrated higher than 118 degrees. The lower the temperature, the longer it will take for the food to dry.
Note that animal products for items like jerky should be dehydrated at a higher temperature, such as 155 degrees or above, to prevent any pathogens from developing.
Depending on the recipe, you’ll want to be mindful of the temperature you use and how long you dehydrate (as some recipes will yield a crunchy result, while others need to be more pliable and chewy).
Food Dehydrator Versus The Oven
A food dehydrator’s maximum temperature is usually about 155–165 degrees and allows for all-around air circulation. Your oven’s lowest temperature is much higher, typically about 200 degrees and unless you have a convection oven (or a convection oven setting), you may not get as much airflow.
You can use your oven for dehydration by setting the oven at its lowest temperature and cracking the door at the top to help the heat escape.
Some dehydrator recipes we love are:
Tinctures
We are on a mission to help people tincture at home! Tinctures are a solution of alcohol or alcohol and water, along with the plant that you’re using for medicinal benefits. The alcohol helps to extract constituents from ingredients that may not be readily soluble in water.
Tinctures usually take longer to make, anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months to fully saturate the liquid with the plant medicine (think of vanilla extract, for example). But they are very low maintenance!
Tincture Resources
If you like the idea of herbal medicine but aren’t sure where to start, Everyday Herbal takes the overwhelm out of making remedies!
Canning
Canning is a newer, high-heat preserving method in which foods are sealed in airtight containers to prevent them from spoiling. Foods can be canned using water or pressure, and canned foods last for a long time, anywhere from months to years.
Canning to preserve food at home is something we have the least experience with at the Academy of Culinary Nutrition, as the high heats and the perils of spoilage are a deterrent for us to do this in our home kitchen!
If you grow your own food, don’t forget to save your seeds! With seed saving, you’re hanging on to the most important part of the plant to use in the next growing season. How to save your seeds will depend on what you’re growing, and each plant may have different requirements. Plants with seeds that are fairly easy to save are beans, peas, tomatoes, squash and peppers.
These are some quick tips to get you started:
Peas and beans: Put them in a container or on a large baking sheet and let them dry until they are papery/leathery (you’ll likely hear the seeds rattling around inside).
Peppers: Pull the seeds from the membrane and lay them out to dry on a plate or small baking sheet.
Tomatoes: Squish the seeds, juice and pulp into a small container along with some water. Leave for 3–5 days, stirring daily. The seeds will then fall to the bottom. Strain and rinse the seeds and lay them out to dry on a baking sheet or plate.
Squash: Separate the seeds from the pulp and lay out to dry on a baking sheet.
With these easy methods of preserving food at home, you can get the most out of the delicious ingredients you buy!
New data suggest even paper-filtered coffee may raise “bad” LDL cholesterol.
In my video from more than a decade ago called Is Coffee Bad for You?, I explained that the “cholesterol-raising factor from…coffee does not pass [through] a paper filter.” As I discuss in my recent video Does Coffee Affect Cholesterol?, if you give people French press coffee, which is filtered but without paper, their cholesterol starts swelling up within just two weeks, as you can see below and at 0:22 in the video. But, if you switch them to paper-filtered coffee, their cholesterol comes right back down. It’s the same amount of coffee, just prepared differently.
The cholesterol-raising factor from coffee beans has since been identified as the fatty substances in the oil within coffee beans. One reason it took us so long to figure that out is that they didn’t raise cholesterol in rats, hamsters, or even in monkeys, but did in human beings, as you can see below and at 0:45 in my video.
But, the fatty substances apparently get stuck in the paper filter. “This explains why filtered coffee does not affect cholesterol, whereas Scandinavian ‘boiled,’ cafetiere [French press coffee], and Turkish coffees do.” As you can see below and at 1:07 in my video, espresso, which has 20 times more cafestol, the cholesterol-raising substance, than paper-filtered drip coffee, also raises cholesterol, though French press, Turkish, and boiled coffees are progressively worse. Instant and percolated coffee are pretty low, even though neither is prepared with paper filters, but still not as low as paper-filtered drip coffee. Note, however, that if you make drip coffee with a metal mesh filter common in many machines and do not add a paper filter in the cradle, it would presumably be just as bad as French press coffee.
The studies in general “appeared to consistently find” that this fatty component was filtered out by paper, but “a small number of studies suggested that filtered coffee may also increase cholesterol levels, and began to cast some doubt into what appeared to be a fairly clear picture.” So, yes, “although the cholesterol-raising effects brought about by the consumption of filtered coffee may not be as strong as those of the boiled coffee, it is important not to discard the possibility that filtered coffee may also play a small but important role in explaining the cholesterol-raising effects of coffee.”
I had known about a study that found that three cups a day of filtered coffee raised total cholesterol, but the increase in “bad” LDL cholesterol was not statistically significant, as you can see below and at 2:10 in my video. Researchers got the same results in another study, finding that subjects who stopped consumption of filtered coffee reduced their total cholesterol, which suggests that perhaps paper coffee filters only achieve partial cafestol removal. Had anyone ever just measured the levels of the cholesterol-raising compounds found in the paper filters?
Indeed, researchers investigated just that and found most of the cholesterol-raising cafestol was retained by the coffee grounds, rather than actually getting stuck in the paper filter itself. In other words, “the principal function” of the paper filter is not necessarily blocking the compound itself, but blocking any fine particles that are carrying the compound. This is similar to when you make French press coffee. When you depress that plunger with its fine mesh screen, you’ll still get a little sludge at the bottom of the cup. That sludge is made up of the tiny particles that pass through the screen and can carry some of the risk. So, a little cafestol does get through the filter. As you can see below and at 3:07 in my video, you can cut out more than 90 percent of cafestol by switching from a French press or coffee maker with a metal mesh filter to one with a paper filter. If you use coffee that starts out with a high level of the cafestol compound, you’re still clearing out about 95 percent with the paper filter, but could there still be enough left to bump up your LDL? You don’t know until you…put it to the test.
As you can see below and at 3:38 in my video, study subjects started out drinking a high-cafestol coffee, and after a month of drinking two cups a day, their LDL cholesterol increased significantly, even though the coffee was paper-filtered. So, if you have high cholesterol despite eating a healthy diet, you may want to try cutting out coffee and then getting retested. Or, you can try switching to a lower cafestol coffee. There are all sorts of variables that may affect cafestol levels, including roasting degree or grind size, and one can imagine a smaller particle size would allow for greater extraction. Since roasting appears to destroy some cafestol, a really dark roast should have less, but no significant difference was seen between the rise in cholesterol after a medium light roast versus a medium roast; both raised bad cholesterol.
In the chapters on liver disease, depression, and Parkinson’s in my book How Not to Die, I discussed the benefits of coffee for the liver, mind, and brain. Coffee drinkers do seem to live longer and have lower cancer rates overall, but coffee may worsen acid reflux disease, bone loss, glaucoma, and urinary incontinence. The bottom line is that I don’t recommend drinking coffee, but mainly because every cup of coffee is a lost opportunity to drink something even more healthful, such as a cup of green tea, which wouldn’t have the adverse cholesterol consequences.
[00:00:00] Detective Ev: Well, hello, my friends. Welcome back to another episode of the Health Detective Podcast by Functional Diagnostic Nutrition. My name is Evan Transue, AKA Detective Ev. I will be your host for today’s show on the FDN Advanced Courses.
Similarly to the episode that we had just released before this, I will be flying solo. But it’s still going to be a good episode. I know some of you guys like my solo episodes anyway, I appreciate that. But this one’s going to be interesting.
It’s going to be on a topic that we have not ever really touched on at all, I don’t think, in the FDN podcast. At the very least it’s been maybe a second or something that we’ve touched on it. It just got brought up briefly. It’s the topic of FDN Advanced Training Courses.
This episode is actually somewhat similar conceptually to the episode I just released. What I mean by that is that episode was meant to address some common questions that come up that aren’t always answered in a super public fashion. There are questions that come up in our direct messages on Instagram and they get answered there, but it’s answered in a direct message. Obviously only one other person can see that.
Or it’s a question that comes up a lot in our FDN training group, which is something that people who are going through the course can join, it’s free. Basically, you just get to be with other trainees, the founder of FDN, mentors. You can ask questions in there. It’s something that’s actually included to you in the cost of tuition. It’s pretty cool. Those questions get asked there and they do get answered.
Why Do the FDN Advanced Courses Exist?
But then think about it, it’s a Facebook group. So, the post goes farther and farther down over time and people won’t see it. They don’t really think to search in the search bar for their questions before they ask something in the future. The trainees that got the answer eventually move on out of that group and graduate from the course. We see these things over and over and over again.
Now one topic that I really wanted to touch on was this FDN advanced thing, because I don’t think this gets enough light at all. I think once people find it, there’s a lot of confusion. They’re wondering, well, wait, can I take these courses if I’m not an FDN? Do I need to take the advanced modules? Will the FDN Certification Program alone be enough for me to start my own business and help people? Why would they have these advanced courses if I didn’t need them? I’m here to answer all of that today.
Then as a bonus, we are actually going to go through the descriptions of every single one of the advanced courses that we currently list. It’s quite numerous. I’m looking at it right here, it’s 12 advanced courses that we have at the time of recording this. There’s some other ones coming out soon. I cannot release those yet. So, we’re just going to do these 12 for now.
First and foremost, let’s address the common questions that come up with this. Why does FDN have these advanced courses if the certification itself is supposed to be enough for people to go start a business or work for someone else and make a living doing it? That’s a fair and great question.
Take the FDN Advanced Courses to Become a High-level Expert
The reason that we have the advanced modules is because there’s a certain type of person that comes into FDN. Generally speaking, they are a lifelong learner. They don’t ever want to stop learning new things. They’re obsessed with health. So, because of that, you gotta keep feeding them information.
Now it is absolutely true that the FDN course in and of itself, the main course that is, is designed and works to actually help you start your own business, have a successful business, and be able to help people very much so, to the point that they’re happy to pay you for it by just doing the principles learned in the FDN course.
But if I can help someone 80% of the way, 90% of the way, pretty much all of the time, there’s going to be certain cases where I want to take them to that a hundred percent. I want to be the guide for that. Maybe I’m working with a specific type of person. Maybe I know my niche really well. Maybe I have a personal story that applies to a certain type of testing or a certain topic. I really want to become a high-level expert in that.
That is where the FDN Advanced Courses can be utilized. Do you need to be an FDN to take them? No. If you are listening to our podcast and you’ve never done the FDN certification program itself, you are able to take the FDN advanced courses as standalone courses.
Only Taking the FDN Advanced Courses May Encourage Tunnel Vision
I wouldn’t recommend this because I do believe that as standalones, it leads us to kind of the same issues as we always see in the functional space. You get people that are very tunnel visioned on one or two tests and they run those on everyone.
It might be very helpful for some people, and it doesn’t really help other people at all. Because the body is a large system, we need to be looking at many different things if we actually want to help sick people get not sick. I know that’s not perfect grammar, work with me here. It’s not just going to be one or two tests normally. They’re going to need to be looked at through a variety of different tests and that’s how the FDN system came to be.
Definitely check those out if you need to understand why the FDN certification program in and of itself is so valuable. But for the advanced stuff, yes, you can take these as standalones.
There’s a few that it might be a little more relevant for someone that is not ever planning to do FDN to take. We’ll explain what each of those are as we go along here. I want to break down each of these. I’ll give the names of all of them first, and then we will go through the descriptions for you guys.
These are all the advanced courses that we have available to us as FDNs right now, or as non FDNs at the time of recording this. Let’s break them down. I’m going to start with one that I believe is probably the main one on here, although there is one or two others. But it’s the main one on here that I think could be taken totally as a standalone, never need to take FDN, and everyone would still benefit from it completely because it’s something that everyone should know. And it’s also one of the cheapest ones on here, it is a steal.
It is the Scientific Literacy Advanced Course. This one is designed to teach people how to understand scientific studies, how to actually analyze things, and know what the heck you’re talking about. Guys, if you’re going to come into FDN like I did, I’m not a doctor. I didn’t even go to college for anything relevant to health or functional medicine or anything of the sort. You are taking a pretty powerful course.
You’re going to be working with really sick people. You’re going to know how to talk the talk. Because of that, sometimes you’re going to be dealing with high intellect, very knowledgeable people. They might challenge what you’re saying. Now you are not obligated to put up with any one person or anything yelling at you or saying, what are you doing here? How do you know this kind of stuff? Where did you get your education? That doesn’t actually really happen that often.
But if it does, some people take that seriously and they want to be able to make sure they can talk about the things that they know in a very scientifically backed way and be able to make a case for that. I think that is one of the biggest and strongest aspects of the Scientific Literacy Course is the fact that you are learning how to actually decipher what is good science and what isn’t good science.
I think everyone should have to do this, especially with the world of social media. Because Facebook people that aren’t in the world of health or science at all post scientific studies all the time. You click on the link and read the reference, if there even is one. You realize this is total crap, this didn’t even make sense, but they don’t know that. We need to know how to do this stuff.
I already have a pretty good idea. I taught myself through different lectures I watched throughout the past, but this is the course I’m about to buy. It’s relatively new, that’s why I’m just buying it. But I’m about to buy this cause I want to sharpen my skills.
FDN Advanced Courses: Scientific Literacy Lessons and Description
And this thing, at the time of recording this, again, I’m not just trying to be repetitive. I know I keep saying that, but these prices can change. This still has an introductory price, it’s only $97. To me, that’s a no brainer. I’m like, okay, I’m going to go do this. And I’m going to actually walk you through the lesson descriptions really quick.
Lesson one is Parts of an Experiment. Lesson two is having A Critical Eye. Lesson three is the Correlation Cannot Equal Causation (because we’ve all heard this, right? Any good scientists knows that correlation is not necessarily causation. So, they talk about that.) Lesson four is Statistics Must Be Significant (That is a huge part of studies. That’s one of the things that people miss most of the time, I think.) Lesson five is Putting It All Together. Lesson six is Demonstration and Practice. And lesson seven is Examples of Research Activity.
Then there’s also the description for what the course will cover. It’s, how to understand scientific studies; how to distinguish between good and bad science; how to tell if reported conclusions are validated by a study; how to find your own research; how to identify flaws in scientific studies; how to know if your recommendations are supported by science.
That sounds like something pretty important to know if we are going to be unlicensed practitioners. People could come at you all day and say, well, you’re not a doctor, you’re not this. But they cannot deny good science. You do not need to be a PhD. You don’t need to be an MD.
You don’t need to have any doctorate of any sort to learn how to decipher between good and bad science and use that effectively for yourself and your clients’ health. So, number one is the Scientific Literacy Course. Really cool thing there. I can’t wait to take this.
The next one I’m going to go to, a relatively new one as well, is our Blood Sugar Management Course. This one is at $397. That’s the range of the price for most of these advanced courses.
By the way, if you just recently listened to our episode on AFDNP and Business School that only came out like two episodes ago, AFDNP members actually get 20% discounts on all of the advanced courses. Maybe it doesn’t make that big of a difference for your wallet with the blood sugar one. But when we’re talking about courses that are $400 or $500, that’s when it can make a huge difference.
So, with the blood sugar management one, the course will cover blood sugar, anatomy, physiology, and biochemistry; common signs and symptoms of blood sugar dysfunction; underlying causal factors of blood sugar dysfunction; blood sugar support 101; herbal support for blood sugar; how to test for blood sugar (This is something, if you don’t know, you could do this easily. You don’t have to be a doctor. You can buy a glucometer from your local CVS or Rite Aid or whatever drugstore you have near you and a client can do this for really cheap. It’s something we actually teach in the FDN course. I think it’s something that people skip over.)
People want to know about these super fancy labs and sometimes they get a little caught up in that and forget that just measuring blood sugar is huge. There are a lot of studies showing how blood sugar levels for certain amounts of times, like if your blood sugar is at a certain level for X amount of time, how that can correlate with your health, longevity, risk of dying. Really, really crazy stuff there.
You’re going to learn how to interpret the tests and identify basic patterns of dysfunction; strategies for intervention; and case studies and further investigation.
All of these advanced courses have case studies, by the way. That’s what’s really, really cool and special about the advanced courses that we have. Just like the FDN course itself, we are always giving you practical, real-world examples so you can see how this actually works on a real human being. Then here’s how the lessons are broken down. I think that’s how I’m going to do this for the rest of these, by the way, I’m going to talk about what the course will cover and then go to the lessons themselves.
So, lesson one is Basic Carbohydrate Physiology – A Quick Background. Lesson two is Deeper into Blood Sugar Controversy. Lesson three, When Things Go Wrong. Lesson four, Supporting Blood Sugar. Lesson five, Blood Sugar Chemistry Panels and Patterns of Dysfunction. Lesson six, Case Study Review.
By the way, the first advanced course was two and a half hours of video lecture. This one is four hours of on-demand video, downloadable lesson videos, downloadable course slides, quiz at the end of each lesson, links to the studies, podcast interviews, and articles for further learning. Sounds like a good deal.
FDN Advanced Courses: Coaching Skills for Goal Setting and Sticking with a Plan
We’ll move on to our next one here. This is certainly the most different one from all of these other things. It’s the Coaching Skills and Teaching Emotional Wellness. This was added in as an on-demand type of course. You do not need to take this. You will be totally fine without this if you’ve taken other coaching programs and stuff.
But what we started to see happening, thankfully, is that the people who wanted to do FDN were going through FDN first, a common theme that we had noticed throughout the years. I am actually one of the people who did this myself.
People were wanting to become health coaches or health practitioners. They would go out and choose the one with the best marketing first at the time. I’m not going to name any schools, we actually like a lot of these schools. Certain schools teach just coaching, that’s what it is. They give you a lot of knowledge that’s not really applicable. Then they teach you how to guide someone through goal setting and sticking with a plan, which is very valuable.
It has to be done because if you can’t have someone stick through a plan, well, the plan that you give them is not going to really work so well. You could have the best plan in the world and if someone doesn’t have the ability or habit set to get through it, that’s not going to work.
Now, many of our FDNs either have one of two things. They’re natural healers, their empaths so they kind of get how to work with people very intuitively. Maybe they don’t feel that they need this, that’s fine.
Or number two, again, they come from these other courses where they learned a lot about coaching, and they just need to know the practical science side now. They’re done with all the coaching stuff, so the FDN course is perfect for those types of people.
However, as we get bigger and we get better with our marketing, really learning how to target the right people first so that they don’t have to go waste $5,000 to $10,000 elsewhere when they didn’t even really want to learn the stuff they learned there. We are finding that some of them come through and they would like to learn the coaching side as well.
This one is our most expensive advanced courses; it is very in depth. It is $997. Remember, that’ll have a 20% off discount if you are a member of AFDNP.
This one is 14 hours of on-demand video, of course, the downloadable lesson videos and course slides, 28 downloadable resources, there’s quizzes, all of that’s pretty standard for all of these courses.
Now, in terms of what it will cover, you’re going to learn coaching skills; coaching theory; motivational interviewing; active listening; self-efficacy; self-determination theory; social cognitive theory; coaching through resistance; habit changing; teaching emotional wellness; facing fears; embracing authenticity; shame resilience; positive mindset; mindfulness; boundary setting; and last, but not least, gratitude.
This is a much more in-depth course than some of these other ones. I would say this content’s probably easier to digest than some. So maybe saying that it’s less in depth is kind of subjective. But I mean, in terms of this sheer time and the amount of hours that you’re given, 14 hours is a lot of content.
Now in terms of how the lessons are broken down themselves: lesson one is What is Coaching? An Introduction. Lesson two is Belief, Defining Health, and What Ifs. Lesson three is Belonging, Values, and Fear of Failures. Lesson four is Creating a Vision and Fear of What People Think. Lesson five, Strengths-based Coaching and Fear of Success. Lesson six is Open-ended Questions and Positive Mindset: Surroundings, Gratitude, and Affirmations. Lesson seven is SMART Goals (I love those), Kindness, Compassion, and Boundaries. Lesson eight is Stages of Change, Assuming Forgiveness, and Blame. Lesson nine is Habit Changing, Awe, and Meditation. Lesson 10 is Personalities, Spirituality, Presence, Stillness, Certainty, Shoulds, and Intuition.
As you can tell, again, a lot there. That’s our Coaching Skills and Teaching Emotional Wellness Course.
Next one here is our Organic Acids Testing Course, lot of content in this one as well.
This was created by a guy who is an FDN. His name is Brendan Vermeire, perhaps you guys know of him. He’s known as The Holistic Savage on Instagram and Facebook. The guy is an expert in all things organic acids, very well versed in mold as well.
He lectures to doctors. The guy doesn’t even have a degree. I’m young, he’s only a few years older than me, I think a couple years older actually and he is lecturing to doctors because of what he has done in this space. A very impressive individual here.
This one is only $597 despite having 16 hours of content.
I promise you, knowing this guy’s stuff and how it works, 16 hours of content is a lot more than 16 hours because one, he shoves a bunch in there, and two, you’re going to have to review this. It’s not just going to be a one and done.
In this course you will cover organic acid testing basics and the background of it; section-by-section analysis of the OAT (which is the organic acid test, if you’re not clear on that); how to correlate with other screenings; how to effectively clinically correlate (Which is what we teach in FDN. How to look at the paperwork and clinically correlate it with the person’s symptoms without being someone who just diagnoses or treats the symptoms. That is not what we do as FDN. We don’t want to do that. It doesn’t work usually for a lot of chronic issues and that’s why you’re doing something like FDN or got into the space. We don’t want to do that. Clinical correlation is a lot different, at least in terms of the results that it gets); how to properly interpret the OAT to your client (because it’s a pretty advanced test and gets very complicated, it’s very medical. It can be hard to give them the answers sometimes. So, we want to make sure we know how to explain it to them.); how to construct an effective protocol (like I said); retesting and additional testing considerations; then of course, case studies.
The lessons on this one are very intriguing. It’s stuff that you probably are already interested in so it’s going to be kind of cool to hear.
Lesson one is the Introduction to the Organic Acid Testing. Lesson two is Fungi and Yeast (When I mention this, this is the fungi and yeast markers on the test to be clear.) Lesson three is Bacteria. Lesson four is Clostridia. Lesson five is Oxalates. Lesson six is Glycolysis. Lesson seven is Mitochondria Function and the Citric Acid Cycle Metabolites. Lesson eight is Neurotransmitter Metabolites and Mental Health. (He’s really passionate about that.) Lesson nine is Pyrimidine Metabolites. Lesson 10 is Ketone and Fatty Acid Metabolites. Lesson 11 is Nutritional Markers. Lesson 12 is Detoxification Indicators. And lesson 13 is Amino Acid Metabolites and Phosphoric Acid.
Lot of cool stuff there. That’s our Organic Acid Advanced Course.
Next, we’re going to be talking about our Foundations of Herbalism Course. This is a cool one because it’s not one of those things that you would ever need to become the perfect FDN. But because we are so well trained in supplements, we use a lot of herbal supplements.
I have never been through this advanced course myself, so I don’t want to just hype it up for the sake of hyping it up. I haven’t done it. That would be inauthentic.
But I would imagine, because I know a few FDNs who have been traditionally trained in herbalism, they know their crap. They know these different ways and have these abilities to utilize supplements in such a unique way that you would never think about otherwise because of this training. So, if you’ve ever felt called to something like that, I think this could be for you.
FDN Advanced Courses: Foundations of Herbalism Course Description and Lessons
This one is $497 and will cover the following.
How to use taste to learn about herbs (which is already intriguing in and of itself); how to learn about herbs; herbal dosage and safety; how to assess the energetics of herbs, people and health issues; herbal medicine making techniques that are the best for your formula; how to create energetically-matched herbal formulas for your clients; advanced herbal biochemistry for the taste of herbs; then, creating herbal formulas for four mock clients.
You’re also going to get eight hours of on demand video in this one, and the lessons are broken down as such.
Lesson one is Taste of Herbs, Medicine Making, and Studying Herbs. Lesson two is Formulas and Dosing. Lesson three is Hot Energetics, Sweet Herbs, Powders, and Honeys. Lesson four, Cold Energetics, Aromatic Oils, Teas and Oils. Lesson five is Tense Energetics, Bitter/Acrid Herbs, Tinctures. Lesson six is Lax Energetics, Sour/Astringent Herbs, Vinegars. Lesson seven is Damp Energetics, Salty Herbs, Infusions, and Plasters. Lesson eight is Dry Energetics, Demulcent Plants, Salves, and Poultices.
I will be fully honest, I had to look up some of these words. Now I’m really feeling I need to take this course more than probably anyone even listening. I’m going to become an herbalist. Lesson nine is Putting it all Together: Formulas and Cases. So that is our Advanced Herbalism Course.
FDN Advanced Courses: Mitochondria Description and Lessons
Now moving to the mitochondria one.
This one is of particular interest to Detective Ev. If you’ve heard my stuff about light and cold therapy and the other things that I do, I’m very big and up to date with the research showing that mitochondria function is very much linked to disease states or the lack thereof. So, this one is one that I will be taking in the future myself.
It is $497. It has five hours of on-demand video.
The course overview is the following: mitochondria anatomy, physiology, and biochemistry; common signs and symptoms of mitochondrial dysfunction; underlying causal factors of mitochondrial dysfunction; mitochondria support 101; mitochondria herbal support; mitochondrial testing (that is very interesting); test interpretation and identification of basic patterns of dysfunction; strategies for intervention; and of course, case studies.
The lessons are broken down as follows. Lesson one is Basic Mitochondria Physiology. Lesson two is Deeper into Mitochondria Biochemistry. Lesson three is When Things Go Wrong. Lesson four is Supporting the Mitochondria. Lesson five is Mitochondria Blood Chemistry Panels and Patterns of Dysfunction. And lesson six will be your Case Study Reviews.
I’m not going to spend too much more time on that one. If you are in this space and you know the significance of mitochondrial health in terms of it’s relation to chronic disease, then you already are probably having your ears perked up ready to take that advanced course. I would assume that one can be done very easily as a standalone training, by the way.
The other one that kind of stands out along with the coaching one is the Qigong training. Though it’s kind of a simple course, it’s cute, it’s our actual cheapest one. I misspoke when I said the scientific literacy one before this one. It is $47.
What you’ll basically learn is some fundamentals of Qigong. It’s kind of a fun thing. What it helps with, Qigong that is, is reducing anxiety, discovering kind of yourself, managing stress, mood swings, helping with self-esteem. So, you’ll kind of learn some of the benefits of this in certain practices that you can do.
It’s not anything wildly in depth. You’re not going to become like a Qigong practitioner afterwards. But this could be something really great for someone just looking for a Qigong intensive.
Again, super cheap advanced course if you want some continuing education credits as well. I think I forgot to mention that in the beginning. All of these advanced courses will contribute to you getting your continuing ed courses, which are probably too loose right now. They’re probably going to make them a little more strict, cause we don’t require that much. If we’re going to maintain our status as well-respected individuals in this space, I think it’s going to be essential. So that’ll probably happen. At least you have these advanced courses to get it done.
The next one is definitely a super popular one.
It is the SIBO course, otherwise known as small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. It is only $297 without the discount that you get if you are an AFDNP member.
What you will learn in this, this one isn’t broken down with the lessons as a description. It’s kind of just all in one. So, what you’ll learn is what is SIBO (what does that actually mean?); the different types of gases produced by the bacteria overgrown in SIBO (Because if you don’t know this already, one of the ways that we’re able to test this, actually Western medicine, if you can convince them that you have it, will test for it. They’ll use a breath test. What they’re looking for amongst other things is methane gas. Kind of interesting.)
You’ll learn how SIBO affects the small intestine; why SIBO occurs and what the risk factors are in underlying mechanisms; symptoms of SIBO; SIBO testing options; which SIBO test is the best; other tests that may suggest SIBO; how to do the SIBO test; possible scenarios that show up on SIBO tests and how to interpret them; the three types of SIBO treatments; which treatment to choose; treatment protocols and tips; possible scenarios that show up on SIBO re-tests and how to interpret them; what to do post-treatment to prevent recurrence of SIBO (That’s such a big thing. It usually gets addressed for people, and then it comes right back. We’re going to show you how to keep it down and not have it constantly recurring in the individual.); and then other possible contributing factors that may need to be addressed.
You already know that there are going to be case studies including in this one. So that is our SIBO course.
This one is something that’s been around for a while, and it’s been updated and modified it.
It is really a big asset to the people that are going to be working with women clients. Now there’s obviously times that it’d be relevant for men as well. But I find that a lot of the women who are super serious about FDN, assuming that they’re working with women clients, they take this one. It’s our advanced course for stress and hormones.
Now, if you have been through FDN or you’re going through even a little bit right now, you already know how much we cover with hormones. You’re probably thinking why on earth do I need an advanced course? Again, you really don’t in a sense. This is for those people who want to just take this to kind of a ridiculous level in my opinion.
This is a great course. There is, If I’m not mistaken, I believe 20 hours of content with this one. It is actually centered around the DUTCH test. If you don’t know what that is, it’s a dried urine test for hormones.
In the course we teach something called the FDN SHP, which is our stress and hormones panel. We use four salivary markers that are taken by the client throughout the day. They’ll do one in the morning relatively close to waking, mid-morning, mid-afternoon, and nighttime before bed.
I’m not going to explain in this episode exactly why we do it that way, but it works very effectively. It’s actually served the purposes I’ve needed it for throughout my time as an FDN. I’ve never gone through this advanced stress and hormones course. But I know a ton of people who have, and they rave about this thing.
FDN Advanced Courses: Stress and Hormones Centers Around the DUTCH Test
If you’re going to run something like the DUTCH, I’m not saying that maybe it doesn’t work a little better or you can’t get a little more insight, but you gotta know what you’re doing.
There is something that’s very alluring about many of these fancy tests, especially as they come out on the market. What we want to do is, we want to go use that new test and run it with this client. Then we’re going to show them all the results and stuff.
The best test on the market is not literally the test with the best technology, it is the best test that you have the ability to interpret. That’s what the best test is.
There’s hundreds if not thousands of tests out there that you could use in the world of functional medicine. One might be completely useless to you, even if it has the best technology, because you don’t know how to interpret it. So, the DUTCH is great and that’s fine. But people have to know where they stand with this stuff.
I know I’m not in that wheelhouse yet. I don’t understand the DUTCH. I’m not running it then. I’m not actually helping my client just by running a fancier test that I don’t know how to interpret. I hope that makes sense.
FDN Advanced Courses: Stress and Hormones Description
So in this one, what you will learn is how the endocrine system responds to stress; the importance of the HPA Axis; possible causes of HPA Axis dysfunction (You’re noticing some similarities between the beginning of FDN, the course itself, and then this advanced course, but we differentiate pretty soon.); why the term adrenal fatigue is an oversimplified way to describe HPA Axis dysfunction; how to test for HPA Axis dysfunction using the DUTCH; why it’s critical for salivary testing to include CAR (which is cortisol awakening response, which we do include on our salivary test, by the way); general diet and lifestyle recommendations for HPA Axis dysfunction; assessing HPA Axis function with the DUTCH test and other tests with cortisol markers; how to read the DUTCH test in terms of like the HPA Axis function reports; the four cortisol patterns – test interpretation and protocols; disrupted diurnal rhythm; cortisone rhythm and what it means in relation to cortisol rhythm (so cortisone versus cortisol).
We’re going to look at DHEA test interpretation and protocols for low and high DHEA; melatonin; why it’s helpful to evaluate hormone metabolites in the urine; estrogen; estrogen metabolism; progesterone; testosterone; and I did not even mention everything else that’s on here.
There is a ton of stuff in this advanced course. It’s jam packed and, in my opinion, underpriced. So, you might as well grab it while you can once you graduate the FDN course.
If you don’t know what Oxalates are, I’ve heard them described (and I think this is probably the best description), they’re kind of like these tiny little glass-like shards. Now they’re microscopic, you can’t go see this laying on your desk or your table. But they’re typically coming from plant matter like avocados are high oxalate foods, sweet potatoes are high oxalate foods. That does not mean that they are bad, but it does mean that eating in excess, they can be wrong for certain people.
It’s usually highly implicated in fibromyalgia, by the way. If you want a neat little trick, have a friend or family member that has fibromyalgia read up on high oxalates. You’ll probably indirectly convince them then to try a low oxalate diet. Even though that’s not the cause of their fibromyalgia per se, it’s going to help their symptoms a lot. It’s really interesting how that kind of works. Their pain from their body is just this buildup of the oxalates beating the heck out of them.
They’re also considered antinutrients right, because they interfere with the absorption of minerals. It’s not great. It loads up in tissues and organs, you don’t want them. We want to keep them as low as possible.
FDN Advanced Courses: Oxalates Description
In this course you’ll learn exactly what they are (You’ll get the more technical explanation, rather than just the glass-like shards thing.); sources of oxalates; normal oxalate metabolism; reasons why oxalate levels become excessively elevated in the body (that’s more of the issue as opposed to the oxalates themselves, by the way.); how excess oxalates harm the body; where oxalate crystals can accumulate in the body; the connection between oxalates, mineral deficiencies, yeast overgrowth, and heavy metal toxicity (We’re just combining all these things here.); symptoms of excess oxalates; how oxalates become a problem; why gut dysfunction causes oxalate issues; which foods are exceptionally high in oxalates; which vitamin deficiency cause the body to produce more oxalates; when to suspect an excess oxalate problem; when to test for excess oxalates; how to test their levels and quite a few more things.
I think that’s more than enough to give you guys the overview of this particular advanced course. So that is our Advanced Oxalates Training. It’s only $297, not counting the 20% discount that you would get if you’re a member of AFDNP.
This is one that’s not talked about nearly enough, even though it is very effective and useful in practice with your clients.
Second to last one we’ll talk about today is Functional Blood Chemistry.
I have went through this myself. It is one of my favorites, just because of the high level of instant applicability it has. You’re only getting about; I think it’s like six hours of actual like video content in this one. But the woman that does this, Lisa Pomeroy, six hours with her is probably like 18 hours with most people. It’s not because she talks fast, it’s because everything she says, you feel like you have to take notes with.
She’s a naturopathic doctor by trade. She does all of these educational things for people that are practitioners like us in terms of getting them the ability to interpret labs and just what to do in the trickiest of cases. She is an absolute genius.
This course is $397. In addition to the video itself, what you’re getting with this is you’re going to learn how to analyze a lot of the stuff that Western medicine would provide your clients with in terms of a functional perspective.
So, you’ll get a CMP, which is comprehensive metabolic panel. This includes things like glucose, uric acid, BUN (otherwise known as bun), creatinine, sodium, potassium, chloride, are things that typically come up on many Western medicine things, because they’ll run a CMP.
They will run a comprehensive metabolic panel. They will just interpret it differently than us. So, we’re teaching you how to interpret it from a functional perspective.
Lipid panels are also in there very common in terms of being run by Western medicine, cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL versus LDL. You’ll get a CBC as well, which is a complete blood count.
You’ll see white blood count, red blood count, neutrophils, lymphocytes, monocytes.
There’s interesting patterns, by the way, between some of those markers and autoimmune patients. Many people that come to FDN practitioners have either been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease or they’re on the autoimmune spectrum. So that can be interesting.
Iron panels. Then of course, thyroid panels, because no one talks about thyroid markers properly. So, you’ll get a little taste of that here. This isn’t to be confused with our advanced thyroid course, but this is something that can at least get your feet wet in addition to all these other things that are there.
You also get vitamin D, blood sugar regulation markers, and methylation markers.
This has been a huge asset to me. Many clients have had routine blood work done before they get to you as an FDN. When I tell them that I utilize functional lab testing in my practice, their question is, oh, can you analyze my blood work?
I would say this is one of the most directly useful courses in terms of clients, because they are going to have this. They’re going to ask about it usually. Then when you can say yes, one, that increases your credibility because you can actually say yes, I can do this. Then, it’s very cheap. It’s one of the cheapest tests out there. It’s one of the most scientifically backed lab tests that we have out there. Blood testing has been studied for decades. We might as well learn how to use it.
You also get this really cool plug and play Excel sheet. What I mean by that is, I can take the markers from someone’s blood work that was ran by Western medicine and it will automatically tell me from a functional perspective as to whether or not it’s low or high. It’ll adjust for the reference range.
Let’s say, TSH, a classic example in Western medicine, cause they constantly screw this up, thyroid stimulating hormone. We generally believe in the world of functional medicine that this should probably be between maybe like, 1.5 to a 2 or 2.5. So not a really large range there. Whereas Western medicine will go all the way up to a 4.5.
If you know the history of this, they’ve had it as high as 10 and even higher, which nowadays would get you like an instant diagnosis of hypothyroidism, and you’d probably go on medication. But we had people running around forever and we thought that was completely normal. So TSH is a really common thing.
You’re going to learn how to analyze that from that functional perspective. That Excel sheet will automatically tell you that, hey, from a functional perspective, this is high or low, depending on the client. That is our Advanced Blood Chemistry Training Course.
And last, but certainly not least, is our thyroid course.
We talk a lot about the thyroid in FDN itself. I don’t know that you need this one per se. This could be a good one for those that aren’t going to go through FDN and want to learn about the thyroid. Or it could be really great for people who want to kind of niche down in their business to thyroid problems.
My mom, for example, she had Graves’ disease. She’s been on this podcast way back when, like last August of 2021 or something. That’s a three-part episode if you’re interested in that. A few people actually really loved it, even though we don’t get too nerdy on that. It’s very story based, but people seem to really appreciate that.
So, she had Grave’s disease. That is the autoimmune condition that is, the simple way to explain it is this, if hypothyroidism is correlated with Hashimoto’s, right? Because you need hypothyroid symptoms to really have Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. Hyperthyroidism is the one that correlates with Graves’ disease.
So, instead of people having the common symptoms of hypothyroidism, which would be, they eat barely anything, and they still gain a bunch of weight. They are very fatigued. They have very slow processes in all areas of the body.
FDN Advanced Courses: Thyroid Function, Evan’s Mom’s Story
My mom was literally the opposite. We had no idea what was wrong with her.
She was coming home and eating an entire box of CHIPS AHOY cookies, she had this craving, all of a sudden for this. She wasn’t gaining a pound. She was staying super lean. Her heart rate was sitting at like 120 or 130 beats per minute while she’s on the couch trying to relax. She would only need three or four hours of sleep.
This is taking its toll on the body, by the way. Cause some people think, wow, this sounds great. Right? I can eat a box of CHIPS AHOY, I only need three hours of sleep. No, no, no, no, no. It’s not that that actually works. It’s that you feel that you can do it for some period of time and then bam, you get hit like a brick wall. That’s what happened to my mom, unfortunately. And it happens to millions of other people out there.
If you are going to niche down into the world of Hashimoto’s or Graves’ disease, I would highly recommend this course. If not, this might not be something that you need. The FDN course itself might just be enough in terms of having the basic information of the thyroid.
FDN Advanced Courses: Thyroid Function Description
Lesson one in here is going to be Basic Thyroid Physiology. Lesson two is going to be When Things Go Wrong. Lesson three is going to be Thyroid Blood Chemistry Panels and Patterns of Dysfunction (That is more in depth, by the way, than just the Functional Blood Chemistry Advanced Course). Lesson four is going to be Foundational Principles for Healing Thyroid Dysfunction and Restoring Health. And lesson five will be your Case Studies and your Clinical Toolkit in terms of getting this stuff resolved.
Whew. That is almost 40 minutes of a podcast where I have been reading off the screen pretty much the entire time and then just giving my little ad lib here. I hope you guys enjoyed this one. I’m probably going to take a little break from talking about the advanced courses for a while. Although I will give you reviews as I go through some of these. I’m about to go through the Scientific Literacy Course.
I’m going through FDN Business School right now, which is not an advanced course per se, but I want to make sure I give you guys the reviews on all these too and what I thought about them.
Conclusion
If you have any specific questions about any of these advanced courses, you know where to find me. Go to our Podbean, search for the Health Detective Podcast on Podbean, it’s a podcast platform. Sign in via Google and then you can leave a comment there. I read all of them and we sometimes make episodes even based on those comments. At the very least, we always respond to them.
Next time I will be back with another episode. We’re talking to a woman who was diagnosed with MS at a very young age, and she is completely symptom free of this thing 10 years later. She’s kicking butt helping the world because MS is a really scary one. Not that any autoimmune disease would be classified as fun, but MS can kill people. It’s one of the few autoimmune diseases that can actually lead to death eventually.
So, the fact that there’s a woman that’s getting on our podcast that is showing people, hey, I had this. I had it for years and I do not have the symptoms of this anymore. I think that’s pretty important and worth sharing with many people who actually deal with this.
I’m looking forward to talking to you guys again at that time. But until then, please take care. I gotta go take a little break from reading things and walk the street.
This is an important note, which may interest a number of readers. One reader asked me to review this week’s paper saying that he found it “remarkable, in that serotonin is known to alter mood.” Having been diagnosed with acute clinical depression and having been on SSRIs and SSNRIs for decades he was concerned. He asked if I could examine the research, therefore.
The research in question is an academic paper, which was published in Nature in July 2022 (Ref 1). The paper was written by Moncrieff et al. It seemed to blow apart the serotonin-antidepressant narrative. It was widely reported in the media. The UK Times newspaper headline was “Antidepressants study casts doubt on drugs taken by 8m people” (Ref 2). The university where the lead author works summarised the study as “Analysis: Depression is probably not caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain – new study” (Ref 3).
It is commonly held that depression is the result of low serotonin. Surveys suggest that 80% or more of the general public believe that it is established that depression is caused by a chemical imbalance (Ref 4). A link between lower serotonin and depression was first suggested in the 1960s (Ref 5), and widely publicised from the 1990s with the advent of the Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants (Ref 6). The view has been challenged (Ref 7), but it remains the prevailing view, and it has done so for decades.
Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors limit reuptake of serotonin, thus making more available to pass messages between nerve cells, which is believed to improve mood. It is often assumed that the apparent efficacy of SSRIs confirms that serotonin must have been the issue. However, there could be other mechanisms at play. A placebo effect, for example. (I expect to feel better and therefore I do). Anti-depressants blunt emotions generally, which can remove lows (but they can also remove highs). People report feeling more ‘even’ when taking antidepressants, but for some people this translates into a feeling of being numb. Interestingly the Patient Information Leaflet makes no claim for the mechanism of working (Ref 8).
Learn the basic formula you need to build a balanced plate with ease in a sustainable, consistent way to optimize your health and wellness.
We start hearing at a very young age that a balanced diet is key for maintaining a healthy lifestyle. We even hear this from doctors and other health practitioners alike. But oftentimes, the details and logistics of exactly how to do this are left out.
Knowing how to build a balanced plate can make food and nutrition so much less stressful. It allows you to feel confident in your food choices and gives you the freedom to be flexible and malleable with your eating habits. It doesn’t involve restrictions, food rules, or regulations.
Why is a Balanced Plate Important?
Eating in this balanced way significantly impacts not only your physical health but also your mental health and relationship with food.
But before we’re able to reap all of these phenomenal benefits, we need to know how to do it. So let’s dive into it!
How to Build a Balanced Plate
We’re bringing it right back to basics. A balanced plate incorporates all of the vital components we need in order to not only survive but also thrive. It allows us to feel energized, satiated, and satisfied after every meal, without having to follow a diet plan, detox, or protocol.
In order to do this, we need to reference the macronutrients. A macronutrient is simply the scientific term that is used to define and categorize all food that humans eat. Regardless of where you are in the world, your food is comprised of macronutrients!
By using the macronutrients to build our meals, we can ensure that we’re consuming balanced, nourishing meals on a regular basis. This is where the Foundational Five comes in.
The Foundational Five
Here at Nutrition Stripped, we’ve “stripped” eating well down to a simple template — which we call the Foundational Five — that you can follow at each meal.
The Foundational Five elements include the three major macronutrients. These include protein, fat, and carbohydrates broken down into two subcategories based on their function, as well as the flavor factor.
If you reference this formula when making your meals, you’ll be building balanced plates every time! Now let’s walk through the details of each of these components so you feel confident enough to get started.
Protein
Protein is an important macronutrient to have in each of our meals for quite a few reasons. It helps to ensure that you feel full after your meals, and it plays a role in digestion, muscle and tissue synthesis as well as immune health. It’s safe to say protein is vital!
Protein also makes up every cell in our bodies. This includes the cells that make up your skin, hair, nails, muscle, digestive tract, and so much more. Depending upon your particular preferences, your protein choices may include plant-based protein, animal-based protein, or both!
Some examples include beans, legumes, tempeh, tofu, seitan, quinoa, nuts, seeds, nut butter, grass-fed lean beef, eggs, seafood, poultry, and more.
Starchy and Sugary Carbohydrates
Starchy and sugary carbohydrates are exactly what you picture when you think of carbohydrates. This is the category of carbohydrates that provide you with energy, which is why they’re so important to include in each and every meal.
Starchy carbohydrates are the body’s primary source of energy. Our brains, muscle tissue, and cells all utilize carbohydrates for energy. Just in different amounts and ratios! They’re also a great source of fiber to help promote optimal gut, heart, and hormonal health.
Things like potatoes, quinoa, rice, bread, peas, pasta, beans, corn, and fruit are all great sources of starchy or sugary carbohydrates.
Non-starchy Carbohydrates
Non-starchy carbohydrates, on the other hand, don’t necessarily provide a substantial amount of energy. These carbohydrates are better known for their fiber, prebiotics, vitamins, and minerals.
When you hear non-starchy carbohydrates, think of greens and vegetables! These are your leafy greens like arugula, kale, and romaine as well as your veggies like Brussels sprouts, bok choy, tomatoes, cucumbers and so many more.
These plants should make up the bulk of your plate. The more, the better! Their fiber and water content help to keep you full and provide your body with the nutrients you need to support healthy digestion.
Fat
Next up we have fat. For the most part, we’re referring to unsaturated fat here. Of course, there are some exceptions to this overarching statement.
Unsaturated fats primarily consist of plant-based and seafood-based fat sources. Think of extra virgin olive oil, olives, avocado oil, avocados, nuts, seeds, nut butter, salmon, tuna, mackerel, and sardines. We also recommend coconut and coconut oil, which is technically an unsaturated fat but an exception to the overarching guideline, and you can read more about why here.
In a meal, fat is essential for satiety (or fullness). Yes, protein plays a part in this as well, but fat certainly plays the lead role. Plus, omega-3 fats, found in fatty fish and some plant-based sources, have been shown to improve cardiovascular health and support brain health.
It’s also key for proper nutrient absorption. Certain vitamins (A, D, E, and K) are all fat-soluble. That just means they need a fat source in order to be properly absorbed. These are the vitamins that keep our brains, cells, hormones, tissues, hair, skin, and nails healthy.
Flavor Factor
This is the fun part! Your flavor factor may be a sauce or mustard, herbs, spices, or seasonings. Really, whatever you enjoy cooking or preparing food with to boost the flavor and sometimes even the nutrients.
Yes, herbs and spices make food taste great, but they’re also packed with antioxidants that help you to glow from the inside out. If you’re a new cook and just starting to familiarize yourself with seasonings and spices, head here to learn about some of the basics!
The Takeaway
If you’re just getting started with eating in a balanced way, be sure to take this slowly and be compassionate with yourself! Start to familiarize yourself with each of these categories we’ve gone through, then slowly start building meals.
Have some fun with it! You’ll soon start to realize just how easy it is to build a balanced plate, as well as how beneficial it can be over time.
Do You Want to Experience More Balance with your Food Choices?
Then find your balanced eating type!
Take this 45-second free quiz to find out which balanced eating archetype you are, and what your unique type needs to maintain balance with the way you nourish yourself. That way, you can finally be free from food and diet obsession, maintain a balanced weight, and cultivate a positive relationship with food and your body.
Poultry is the most common cause of serious food-poisoning outbreaks, followed by fish, then beef. But aren’t people more likely to order their burgers rarer than their chicken sandwiches? The primary location where outbreaks occur is the home, not restaurants.
In 2017, a study of more than a thousand food-poisoning outbreaks determined that poultry, specifically chicken, was the most common culprit, “highlight[ing] the role of poultry as a major source of foodborne outbreaks in the United States.” Fish was the second “most frequently reported food category,” and beef was third. But aren’t people more likely to order rare burgers than rare chicken sandwiches? Yes. The biggest problem with poultry isn’t “inadequate cooking,” but “food-handling errors,” both at home and in the grocery store.
As I discuss in my video How to Shop for, Handle, and Store Chicken, a “shop-along observational study was conducted to determine actual shopping, transportation, and storage behavior of consumers who purchase raw poultry products.” What did the researchers find? “Neither hand sanitizer nor wipes were observed in 71% of grocery store meat sections of stores visited.” Even when sanitizing products were available, only one participant out of the 96 they followed used them. Food-poisoning bacteria can get on the outside of packages, “therefore, it also is important to educate shoppers on the importance of using hand sanitizer in the meat section after touching poultry packages.” Plastic bags were available in most meat sections, “but only 25% of shoppers used the bag for their raw poultry purchases…The shoppers placed the poultry [directly] in the main basket of the grocery cart 84% of the time,” where it could come in direct contact with fresh produce that might then be eaten raw in a salad, for example.
After the shoppers put the poultry in the basket, where did their hands go? Without using any kind of sanitizer, most shoppers then grabbed the handle of the cart. “Because shoppers are not practicing good hand hygiene when handling poultry in the grocery store meat section, they could contaminate a variety of items as a result of contact with their hands. Contact with other products occurred frequently in the cart, which could result in cross-contamination. Touching the cart after directly handling the poultry packages could potentially mean that the cart is a risk factor for Salmonella or Campylobacter. The bacteria potentially left on the cart could affect other shoppers, not just the participant being observed.” So, some kale shopper following all the safety precautions can come along and still be exposed to poultry contamination via the grocery cart.
In addition to touching the cart, poultry shoppers may also touch a personal item after touching a raw poultry package. A personal item could even include their children. In fact, as you can see below and at 2:29 in my video, after touching poultry packages, 31 percent of shoppers touched a personal item, like their purse or their child.
Most shoppers left the store with poultry separated in its own bag, “however, most consumers then took it out of this protective layer” when they got home. One in three placed the poultry package directly on the counter before it went into the fridge, and most shoppers “stored raw poultry in the original package without an additional container or overwrap,” where it could potentially come into contact with other items. Fewer than one in five “consumers correctly stored raw poultry…on the bottom shelf of their refrigerators in a sealed container or plastic bag.” Why the bottom shelf? Because if the “raw juices” leak, they could contaminate other foods.
The next mistake most people make is washing or rinsing raw poultry before cooking it. Up to 90 percent of people say they wash their chicken before cooking it, because that’s what they’re used to and “because they want to ‘rinse the slime off of just-opened chicken….’” The problem is that “when poultry is washed or rinsed, ‘splashing’ of contaminated water can travel” throughout a roughly two-foot halo, splattering slime on either side and in front of the sink. And, even though a lot of folks read or heard you weren’t supposed to wash raw poultry, they continued to do it anyway.
Fewer than about one in ten people thaw frozen poultry properly—that is, “put the raw poultry in a sealed container or plastic bag, submerge it in cold water, and change the water every 30 mins per the USDA’s recommendation.” And if you’re wondering whether it’s better to put raw poultry on a wood or plastic cutting board, neither is safe, because both get rapidly contaminated.
“Failure to use a food thermometer is [another] potentially unsafe practice, given that 70% of chicken pieces that were judged by consumers as ‘done’ had not reached safe internal cooking temperatures according to a summary of food safety literature.” In focus groups, “many participants thought food thermometers were unnecessary to determine whether meat and poultry was ‘cooked thoroughly” because they had been ‘cooking for years without once getting food poisoning,’” but had they ever come down with what they thought was a 24-hour flu? There’s no such thing as a 24-hour flu! That was likely food poisoning. Actually, any stomach bug or stomach flu is most likely food poisoning. Ever have a urinary tract infection? There are “multiple lines of evidence indicating poultry as a major food animal reservoir for urinary tract infection” bacteria that lie in wait in the rectum and then crawl up.
More than a million foodborne Salmonella and Campylobacter infections are reported each year in the United States. “Although half of Americans think it is ‘not very common’ for people in the United States to get foodborne illness because of the way food is prepared in their home, food safety experts estimate that the home is the primary location where foodborne disease outbreaks occur.”
[00:00:00] Detective Ev: Hello, and welcome to the Health Detective Podcast by Functional Diagnostic Nutrition. My name is Evan Transue, AKA Detective Ev. I will be your host for today’s show on why FDN is tough but worth it.
I am here solo, bringing you an FDN PSA (an FDN public service announcement.) It’s to address some concerns that I’m seeing with both people that are considering the course itself, but mostly, actually, people who are trainees.
Now I want to be clear. This is not an abundance of people that have these worries or concerns, but I think they’re justified enough. I really have some practical things to share with you about why they’re not a big deal. They’re nothing to worry about, it’s not something to be concerned with.
If you’re not involved with FDN in the way that I am, or you haven’t already gone through the course and graduated, you wouldn’t get this, so I totally understand where the concerns come from. I say, why don’t we just address them in a short podcast, ease people’s minds, and help them flip the perspective on certain things.
Because I’m someone who, I like motivation. I listen to motivational speakers. I technically am a motivational speaker for mental health stuff. I don’t like to label myself necessarily as a motivational speaker, but that is, by definition, I guess, what I’m doing. I like something that I refer to as practical motivation.
I don’t like just, hey, you’re being lazy, so you need to go do this. That’s fine and all, and maybe there’s sometimes that you’ve actually been lazy and that’s justified. But I’d much rather get something real because I do think there’s a way to motivate us as humans that comes from something authentic.
Some Real Motivation
I hope this doesn’t come across as dark for people, what I’m about to say. I don’t mean it that way at all. I actually look at it as a very inspiring thing. When people sometimes ask me, why are you so energized all the time, or why do you push through things, or what’s the point, that type of stuff, I say to them, I don’t know about you, but I am painfully aware of the idea that I am not going to be on this earth one day. I’m going to pass away. In fact, I’m not moving farther away from that day, I’m moving closer to that day.
Worse yet, when you get to a certain age, not that I’m particularly old. I’m in my oh, geez, about to be late twenties. This is getting scary. Then for some of you listening, you’re like, dude, I’m like 50, 60 years old, like shut up. All right, forgive me with that one. But you know what I mean?
You get older and you lose people. I’ve lost some friends in accidents. I lost one of my best childhood friends in a drug overdose. You start to really understand when that happens close to you, and I’m sure it’s happened to all of you guys in one way or another at this point in your lives, it hits you differently. It makes you start understanding, oh, whoa, this isn’t guaranteed. Maybe I’ll live to the life expectancy if I’m lucky. And we’re FDNs so hopefully we’re going to live a lot longer than that, but that’s not guaranteed.
Practical Reasons FDN is Worth It
A car accident can happen. Any type of accident can happen. We don’t have control over that, not complete control, at least. I mean, I guess you could never drive again, but that doesn’t sound like a practical way to live for most of us. So, my point is, the last thing I’m trying to do is say something dark or make you think negatively.
I don’t use that as a way to think negatively, I use it for the exact opposite. When I’m tired or when I’m feeling lazy or when I’m feeling uninspired or when I’m feeling hateful or just excessively angry towards another person, I remind myself, dude, I’m going to die one day. Is this how I want to be spending my time here?
What if, God forbid, knock on something. What if it was tomorrow? This is how I want it to end? By being pissed off at everyone and saying bad things and stupid crap like that. Instantly, it shuts that off for me. So, this is not about that today, per se. What I’m saying is I like practical motivation.
So, I’m going to bring you guys some things today that might not be as powerful as what I just said, but it’s useful. It’s practical. It’s not just saying, do FDN for the sake of doing FDN and just finish up. You started so finish what you start. There’s actual practical reasons that should motivate you and we’re going to share those today.
Concerns From the Trainee Group
Now, the first things I want to address are some concerns, then we’re going to get into five tips that make FDN worth it. Maybe not five tips, but five things that make FDN worth it in my opinion, despite it being a very tough course. The first things I’m going to address are stuff that I see in the trainee group.
I said I would explain what the trainee group is. If you do not know, you’re not a part of FDN yet. If you join FDN, you will get access to an exclusive trainee-only group. This is only available to people who have not graduated the course yet but have officially started the course. It’s not just a bunch of trainees running around, causing trouble with each other.
We have our FDN mentors in there. The founder of the FDN is in there, Reed Davis. Myself, I’m in there, other various staff members for a variety of reasons. I mean, Reed actually goes live in there, and then another mentor, her name’s Elizabeth, she goes live in there. They answer your questions. These are weekly things; they both happen weekly.
It’s a very active group, very fun group, but, of course, a trainee can just post for the sake of posting. Sometimes I’ll see these people, and I totally understand this by the way. I would hope this is obvious, this is not a condemnation of these comments. I actually very much understand their concerns so I’m trying to help out by sharing this.
Worried About a Timely Finish
Some of the things that I will see revolve around this stuff. They’re worried about finishing the course in time. They know that they have a year to finish the course, that’s what we say. So, they’re worried that they won’t finish in time.
Maybe something came up, maybe they got pregnant. Maybe they started a new job. Maybe they are in a wonderful new relationship and that’s taking up some time now. Could be a variety of things. So that’s one thing.
They also maybe have limiting beliefs that the content is too hard, or they can’t do this. Wow. I thought, it’s an online course, I thought it was going to be easier. This is really tough. It’s one of the toughest things I’ve studied. Maybe I can’t do this. So that’s another thing. I want to address both of those.
One, there’s time extensions, guys. That does not mean that you want to keep pushing off FDN. It’s not even something that we really promote because we don’t want it in people’s heads that you should take more than a year. You really shouldn’t. Not being mean, but there’s really only so many reasons that the FDN course should take more than a year. There’s not really many good excuses for that, but there are things that come up.
Life happens and, quite frankly, let’s call it what it is, this might not be your top priority. Maybe your kids are first and your husband’s second or your wife’s second. Then the job’s third that you currently have, and you are doing a side hustle business and that’s four. This is just something that you have at number five.
Optimize Time and Balance Priorities
I get that, I’m realistic. But we don’t want to make it take longer than a year cause someone could literally be doing an hour a day and figure this out in less than a year. We gotta prioritize our time for sure. But gosh forbid, one of those legitimate excuses comes up, or I don’t want to call that an excuse, I’ll call it a legitimate reason, I apologize.
You’re good, you can pay a very small fee. It’s not even the cost of a monthly payment if you’re on the longest payment plan and they’ll extend the course view for a little bit. Then you can do that if need be. Don’t keep pushing this, don’t keep abusing it. There’s problems that can occur for you if you keep doing that because we update the course constantly. But there are time extensions so do not worry about the timeframe. Do what you can.
You should be more worried about this, looking yourself in the mirror and saying, did I do everything that I actually could do today for the priorities in my life while not burning myself out? That’s the only question you should be asking. Because that’s a huge difference between doing, oh, did I do everything I possibly could do? I don’t like that mindset because, to me, that forces people to work 20 hours a day. I could go work 20 hours. I could live off four hours of sleep for probably some time, but that’s not sustainable. So that’s not literally doing my best, in my opinion.
Be Honest About Work-Load Ability
My best as a human being is doing everything that I can, given certain contexts like my health status, other things in my life. What is the best that I can do without killing myself? Maybe for you that’s a 10-hour day. Maybe for you that’s a five-hour day. As long as you’re being honest with yourself about what you are capable of without worsening your health or shortening your time here, that’s good with me. So that’s the question you should be asking.
If we’re honest with ourselves, what we will probably find is that you could do a little more than you think you could, without burning yourself out. You could get more efficient; you could be more effective.
There is an FDN practitioner out there, brilliant woman. She’s been on twice, her name’s Jenn Malecha. She refuses to work more than 40 hours a week. It’s something that she does for her health. Yet Jenn is one of the best paid FDNs out there. How is that possible? How does she have such a successful business? She’s not killing herself.
How’s that work? It’s because she learned to be more efficient with her time. She took personal responsibility and said, you know what? There’s probably no way I’m doing the best I could in these 40 hours a week right now. So instead of just adding hours on, why don’t I learn to make these more useful? I can outsource, optimize, become smarter, whatever it might be. She’s kicking butt because of that mindset.
Retesting is Possible if Needed
I challenge you to do that, especially even with going through the FDN course, but also in life. Don’t ask, oh, I need more time. How can we be more efficient with the time? Because all of us, myself wildly included in this, can be more efficient with our time. So don’t worry about that.
The second thing here was there are abilities to retake tests, and I think this directly relates to the concern people have about the content being too hard. Take your time. There are very few things that someone who is going through FDN cannot learn.
I am not ignorant to the idea that there are different IQ levels, and that could, I guess in theory, prevent someone from learning certain topics. Like let’s go to something really complicated, like quantum physics. Yes, maybe at some end of the IQ scale, it is simply just not realistic or possible for someone to grasp even basic or fundamental concepts in something like quantum physics. I don’t know. I’m not a psychologist, but maybe that’s true.
FDN is tough. It is challenging. If you have the capacity to listen to me right now and understand what I’ve said so far, I promise you, you are not low enough on the IQ scale to not be able to get through FDN. It just might take you longer than other people.
And maybe you’re sick. Maybe that’s a reason that you’re having trouble with the content. That’s okay. Take your time, do what you gotta do. Remember, the only thing that’s really a problem if you can’t quote/unquote, “understand the content” or you think it’s too hard, is the test.
Study Hard & Give Yourself Grace
No one else is rushing you. There’s not really any huge push, so you can take your time with this. But you know, oh, wow, I’m going to take those tests. Here’s the thing, we allow you to retake them. There is a small, small fee for it. It’s similar to, I forget what the exact number is, but it’s, what am I looking for? The Proctor tests, you know what I mean?
Like, if you went to college and you’re going into a room and then you, maybe fail that one, you could like pay for it. Or if it’s a certification, like a personal training, one, you have a window that you can’t retake it for, I think ours is like two weeks or a month. Don’t quote me on this, this isn’t my part of the business, so I apologize. But it’s like two weeks to a month, something like that. Then you can retake it for a fee. So, there’s nothing to worry about here.
Our mentors aren’t mean people that are trying to fail you, but they want to make sure you know the information. So, if you fail it, they will tell you what you did wrong. They’ll tell you where you need to work on. You wait that time, you study hard, and you do a little better next time, just like any other type of testing in life.
So, do not tell me that the content is too hard. You might just have to study a little harder. You might have to give it more time or give yourself some grace. It’s supposed to be complicated.
FDN is Not Grading Oratory Skills
I was always someone who was pretty good at school. I feel like I did really well in school and kind of flew through it easily. FDN was one of the first things that I had to rewatch things on, or I really had to take good notes. I remember, I did the verbal final and that was the only thing in my life, up to that point, that I had gotten not an A on, that I actually tried for. I think I got like a B minus or a B plus, I forget what it was, but I tried.
I loved FDN, I was excited about it, more excited than any other topic I’ve ever studied up until that point. And I didn’t get the A, so it’s okay. You could still pass without getting the A. It’s supposed to be hard. Again, we’re going to talk about why that’s actually a really good thing in my five things that I have for you. My first part was addressing the trainees’ concerns.
And I kind of already segued into this, but the last concern I wanted to address is that FDN, on these tests, is not grading you. I hear this all the time too. It’s not grading you on your ability to speak fluently. You do not have to be a professional podcaster, it’s nothing like that. The FDN mentors are concerned with your ability to understand the information we provided you within the course, as well as making sure you are practicing FDN in an ethical manner.
#1 FDN is Worth It – It’s Supposed to Be Hard
You could stutter, you could say “uh,” “like,” “so,” all the time, it doesn’t matter. They want to know that you know the information that we were teaching. That’s all there is to it, okay?
So, content tough, not too hard. You’re going to be fine. In terms of time restraints and commitments, finishing the course, do not worry about that at all.
Now we’re going to move into the five things I wanted to list off, which are why FDN is worth it despite it being very tough. Number one is this, FDN is an online certification. It is an online certification without any formal prerequisites. Do you want it to be easy? That’s my question to you.
If it is an online certification without any prerequisites, do you want it to be easy? And here’s what I mean by that. There are certain certifications out there, there’s plenty of them. No one takes them that seriously. That doesn’t mean they’re bad. There’s great information in them and you can learn a thing or two. But there wasn’t any tough aspect to it. There wasn’t anything that separated the person going through that from the average Joe, really, in terms of helping another person. So, this certification is not respected.
You’ll notice something when you go online and search for FDN reviews. It’s near impossible to find a bad review. It’s not like we’re a small company, there’s 4,000 graduates. We’re a big enough company to have 4,000 graduates, but it’s not big enough to be buying Google reviews. Right? So, we can’t do that either. There’s no negative reviews because the people that are going through this are actually training themselves to become credible individuals.
#2a FDN is Worth It – Seriously Great Job Opportunities
The first practical thing is, is that it’s an online certification. Do you want it to be easy? Is anyone going to take you seriously if you don’t actually learn something? No, of course not. We take people with master’s degrees seriously, bachelor’s degrees, generally. I mean, I guess that’s becoming worth less and less, but depending on the bachelor’s degree, could be very useful. Doctorates, certainly.
All right. Number one is that. Number two is, because of how in depth the course is, and these will all tie in with each other to some degree, I guess. There are certain doctors who only hire FDNs because of how in depth this course is.
You might have heard her before. Episode 143 was Dr. Kyrin Dunston. She is an OB-GYN. She’s not an ND, she’s not a chiropractor. And by the way, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with those doctors, but I know some people will say, well, that’s not as hard as an MD. I don’t know. I haven’t been to those schools, but maybe that’s what you’re thinking.
Dr. Kirin Dunston is a normal doctor in every sense. In fact, probably studied way more than the average MD. She will only hire FDNs. There is a reason for that. It is because of what we learn in the course. In addition, this is kind of the same part here, so I will consider this part of the second reason. Because of how in depth the course is, not only do certain people only hire FDNs, but FDNs hire other FDNs, and they pay them pretty well.
#2b FDN is Worth It – FDNs Get Paid Well
I was just in the AFDNP group the other day, and that episode, Episode 173, came out recently if you haven’t seen it. It’s when we’re talking about business school, AFDNP, which is our professionals’ group. I’m not going to talk about that at all right now, but basically, I was in that. I saw someone hiring an FDN. This was literally maybe a week or two ago.
They’re hiring an FDN for $50 to $75 an hour based on experience, completely remote work, starting at 10 hours a week and you can move up from there, opportunities for advancement. Where are you getting that? This whole certification only takes people eight months on average, and you can come out of this, and you could’ve started, because you would’ve had no experience, on the lower end, $50 an hour. Guys, $50 an hour times a 40-hour work week is a six-figure job, completely remote, online, doing work that you actually love. That’s pretty good.
That’s another reason we want the course to be tough because it’s actually worth something to people. And when something is worth something to people, they pay you well for it.
#3 FDN is Worth It – Access to Labs
Number three is, you get access to labs. How are you going to be doing that without some advanced degree? I mean, it’s one thing to even get access to the labs, maybe you could swing that. But you’re also going to know how to interpret the labs. We have access to over 60 labs and counting as FDNs. We teach about five or six in the main course.
We have additional training that’s available to us exclusively, sometimes, by these lab providers for FDNs. You can go on their website and watch trainings that they have for us right there and learn how to do these other labs too, in due time. That’s pretty amazing.
We also have advanced courses where you can learn about different labs, like functional blood chemistry, for example. We’ll teach you how to take Western medicine’s blood chem results, like they could go to their doctor and get a normal standard routine blood work, and you could get taught how to interpret that from a functional perspective. That is pretty cool that we do that. That would be another reason that it’s tough.
If people have to get advanced degrees or even go to medical school sometimes to get access to labs, yes, you’re going to have to study a little bit during eight months for a fraction of the price if you want that same privilege as those people who spent maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars and went to school for 12 plus years. I think that’s a fair trade off.
#4a FDN is Worth It – Ability to Help Others
Number four, you will never, ever not be able to help your client in some way, even with the trickiest of people due to our history and community. Again, if you didn’t listen to the episode that we just released regarding AFDNP and stuff, go check that out. AFDNP is basically our trainee group on steroids. It is for people who have graduated, it’s a paid group that you can choose to join. You don’t have to join it by any means. You can still be an FDN and not be in it.
We have mentors in there. We have advanced business training. We have advanced health trainings. My executive director over there, she said that you could listen to one webinar every single day and it would probably take you two years to get through the content that’s currently there. That’s not including all the stuff that we’re releasing on a weekly basis. There’s a ton of amazing things over there.
One of the perks of it is, not only can you go through the archives and figure out stuff or search for questions that might have been asked in the past, you could ask mentors right there, Monday through Friday, and people still answer Saturday and Sunday, just to be clear. But staffed mentors are waiting for your questions in there.
#4b FDN is Worth It – Availability to Tons of Knowledge
It could be the weirdest health issue, you never even heard of the diagnosis and yet, somehow, some way, there is an FDN who knows about it and has dealt with that condition before and might be able to offer some unique tricks. Now, obviously we do not deal in the world of diagnoses and treating things specifically. That’s not what we are trained to do.
However, it is useful to know the implications of someone’s specific disease. If you haven’t heard of it, there might be a tip or trick that you might not even ever thought of that might be relevant to that person. That’s good to know. You will never not be able to help someone when you have access to the FDN group.
#5a FDN is Worth It – No Shortage of Clients
Number five, the last thing I want to share today, is the work we do is so powerful that once you get yourself out there, you will literally have no shortage of clients. I do not say that as some cute statement that sounds good. This is actually, again, like I promised in the beginning, very practical.
I have an example for my life right now that just occurred. I have said on here before I typically don’t take clients, it’s not really my main thing. I do a lot of stuff outside of this. Obviously, I do the podcast, that’s a job in and of itself. I do some traveling for FDN, so that adds up. I speak in schools during the school year. My girlfriend, my business partner, and I have a functional medicine/light therapy studio, local to me. So that all gets pretty tricky.
However, there are some people that for various reasons, just because of something I posted, ended up reaching out about client stuff. I was not even searching for clients. Within the last, I’ll overestimate here, within the last four weeks, I was able to take payment from four different people as someone who does not do this full time, does not advertise, does not even have at the moment of recording this, any website that talks about the coaching directly. It’s not like I have evantransue.com dedicated to that. I don’t do that. Yet four clients that all were willing to pay a good amount, a healthy amount, a month’s worth of income, that is for sure, to be able to do this work.
#5b FDN is Worth It – FDN Works
That’s not because I’m special. I’m not some crazy FDN that knows more than everyone else. I’m probably actually one of the more basic FDNs in a sense. I like other topics and I get complicated with that; I can contribute a lot there. But in terms of FDN and the advanced courses we have, I’m not the most advanced FDN by any means. Yet people are still seeking this out and asking me to do that, even when I don’t advertise. That’s pretty cool.
Imagine what would be happening if, for the last five years, I was constantly advertising, getting myself out there, and doing talks. Pretty sure, it’s fair to say, if I can get four clients randomly right now after posting something that wasn’t directly related to that, like it wasn’t supposed to be trying to attract clients that, yes, there is probably a good chance I would be at a full-time practice for a long time by now and maybe even on a wait list practice. I would assume that’s fair to say.
This is what’s cool about FDN, it works. You’re going to go through a tough course. You’re going to study hard. It’s going to take the 8, 9, 10, maybe even more months, depending on how much time you can commit to it. But when you are done, you have something that accelerated your career, accelerated your income, and most importantly, accelerated your ability to help very sick people feel a lot better in their bodies, maybe even have some more time on this earth, depending on where they’re at in their journey. That’s pretty cool. That’s a wonderful thing to be able to give people.
Summary – 5 Things that Tell You FDN is Worth It
In summary, those five things that I believe make FDN totally worth it despite being tough, are one, it’s an online certification, use common sense. Do you want it to be easy? If it has no prereqs, do you really want this to be something that’s easy? Or do you want it to be something that’s respectable?
Number two, because of how tough this course is, there are certain doctors who only hire FDNs, and they have said that publicly on our podcast. That’s pretty cool as well. Then there’s the job aspect that also goes into that hiring thing if you will, where people are paying a starting price of $50 to $75 an hour for remote work, with opportunities to advance. Also, pretty darn nice.
Number three, you get access to labs. Please look up how hard that is with any other route. We have a lot of things that we had to work out to make that possible for people without degrees and do it ethically and correctly. We did it.
Number four, you will never, ever not be able to help someone in some way, even when it is the trickiest client ever, due to our history, the stuff we have archived, and our community. Maybe this wasn’t always true, but at this point in joining FDN, there is no way you do not have someone that can’t help you with something. In most cases, it’s going to be many people that can help you with whatever you’re dealing with in terms of a client or maybe yourself.
And five, the work that we do is so powerful that once you get yourself out there, you will literally have no shortage of clients.
Conclusion
It’s a guy like me, five and a half years later, that posts one thing about health and four people not only asked, but signed up in the last month, even though I don’t do that as a full-time thing anymore. That’s the power of FDN.
So, I hope that this episode acts as what I intended it to be acting as in the beginning, practical motivation, right? Not just rah, not just hype, but wow, these points actually make sense. I am motivated because it makes sense. That is what my goal was today. And I hope that you guys got that.
If you have any other questions, you can always reach out to me somewhat directly by going to our Podbean. Podbean is a podcast platform. Maybe you use it, maybe you don’t. But that’s the way that you can comment to us directly. You can ask questions. I will answer them live on the podcast and I will answer you there as well.
But I’m looking forward to talking to you guys again soon. I will likely be back next time with another episode, but I’m feeling some solo episodes. So, who knows if we’re going to buff one of those out first. You guys take care until then and have a great week.
A crisp, fresh apple is one of life’s sweetest pleasures. We adore biting into a gleaming apple, or crunching on apple slices for a quick and easy snack. With apple season now in full swing, you might be looking for inventive ways to use apples and novel apple recipes. We’ve got all the apple inspiration for you here, guaranteed to keep this produce staple exciting!
Health Benefits of Apples
Apples are a powerful food with a multitude of culinary nutrition benefits. They are rich in:
Apples are widely available, budget-friendly and can last for a long time when stored properly. All in all they are an incredible fruit for any kitchen!
How to Choose Apples
You can find apples at the grocery store year-round, and they will typically taste fresh all year long with good storage. That being said, peak apple season here in North America is August through November – during this time, you’ll find the freshest apples at local markets (or you can go apple picking yourself!).
Choose apples that are:
bright
firm and smooth
unblemished and unbruised
smell fresh and fruity
If your market or grocery store has imperfect produce, you may be able to find gently bruised, scarred or misshapen apples at a great price. We recommend using these apples right away, rather than trying to store and save them long-term. Check out the recipes below for inspiration!
How to Store Apples
In the fridge: Store loosely in the fridge or in a paper bag (ditch the plastic bag). If washing first, dry completely before they are stored.
On the counter: Store in a large bowl for up to a week.
In a pantry/cold storage: If you have a cellar, cold pantry, attached garage or basement, you can store your apples for months. Be sure to choose apples without cuts and bruises, as one bad apple can literally spoil the bunch. Wrap each apple individually, so they’re not touching each other, for long-lasting storage.
Note: Apples release ethylene gas, which can quicken the ripening of other fruits and veggies (and potentially spoil them). Keep apples away from grapes, onions, avocados, bananas, carrots, potatoes and citrus fruits. Unless, of course you are trying to ripen items faster!
All, but we especially love to pair them with almonds, walnuts, pecans and hemp seeds
Grains
All, but we adore pairing apples with oats, wild rice, rice, millet and quinoa
Miscellaneous
37 Ways To Use Apples
Don’t get us wrong – we love a good gluten-free apple pie as much as the next person, but we also love exploring many other incredible ways to use apples. (Don’t worry, we’ve included apple pie and variations on apple pie below too.)
Try one – or more – of these ideas and apple recipes!
Apple Chips
Thinly slice your apples and bake or dehydrate for a crunchy, satisfying snack.
Cooking and blending apples into applesauce makes their fibres much easier to digest. If you have a strong blender or food processor, you can keep the peel on too for extra nutrition.
Apple cider vinegar (or ACV for short) is an incredible fermented food that you can make yourself if you like fermentation experimentation. And there are tons of different ways to use it.
It doesn’t get much better than a sweet and simple apple stuffed with a tasty filling. This is one of those ways to use apples that will really impress your guests!
This luxurious spread, made from apples simmered down until they are a thick, jammy texture, will become your new favourite substitute for jelly or nut butter.
Ever the versatile culinary ingredient, chia is a great partner for apples. Chia pudding is a make-ahead breakfast or snack that also happens to be great for digestion!
Why should humans be the only one to enjoy apple recipes? Don’t forget about your four-legged friends by whipping up a homemade batch of apple-y treats.
Apples (and pears) may seem like an unconventional pizza topping, but we highly recommend them. The key is slicing them very thinly for the perfect sweet-salty bites.
We normally like to reserve our apples for eating (and to reduce food waste). Yet if you’ve got some extras you simply can’t eat, use or freeze for later, try some fun apple-inspired crafts!
There have been at least 46 studies involving more than a thousand people to see if those suffering from electrosensitivity are deluding themselves.
“During the past decade a wide range of symptoms has been reported to be triggered by exposure to RF-EMF,” the radiofrequency electromagnetic fields that emanate from cell phones during use, including headaches, nausea, dizziness, and fatigue. The news media has been promoting this as “a new medical condition, called electrosensitivity, or electromagnetic hypersensitivity.” These stories have been driven, in part, by “people who claim to have detected a clear link between their own poor health and exposure to a specific electrical device,” which “can have major implications for a person’s quality of life and is associated with decrements in general health status, increased levels of health service use, and impairments in occupational and social functioning.”
As you can see below and at 0:50 in my video Is Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity Real?, to see how common this was, researchers sat college students on two big electromagnetic coils and then went through a symptom checklist, asking how the students felt under both strong and weak electromagnetic field conditions.
You can see the graph below and at 0:57 in my video. Students did report neurological symptoms, including headaches, drowsiness, dizziness, fatigue, and irritability, as well as visceral symptoms, such as palpitations, muscle tension, and nausea, though more nausea was experienced under the “weak” EMF condition. They also reported abdominal pain, shortness of breath, and a little heartburn, and said they could feel it in their skin as “crawly feelings,” “cold skin,” “sweating,” and “itching.” And, their sensory organs registered blurred vision, ringing in their ears, dry mouth, and a little stuffiness, along with some other symptoms. In all, “40 college students were asked to rate their symptoms during ‘sham’, ‘weak’ and ‘strong’ exposure. In reality there was no exposure at all, i.e. all sessions were a ‘sham.’” The students weren’t blasted with any fields at all. The “coils seemed to be connected to an impressive electric power supply with coloured lights and an operating panel, but actually they were no real electric connections between them (i.e. no EMF was generated at all).”
The study was titled “Polluted places or polluted minds?,” suggesting that those who claim to be experiencing these symptoms may be just deluding themselves. Before jumping to conclusions, though, you want to study people who actually suffer from the disorder. So, researchers tested 20 men and women who claimed they were sensitive to cell phones. As you can see at 2:18 in my video, the subjects reported a variety of symptoms upon exposure to cell phone radiation—all sorts of pains, sensations, dizziness, breathing difficulties, and more. So, researchers sat them down in a chair with various active cell phones strapped near their head, and, boy, could they feel it! As you can see below and at 2:27 in my video, they experienced a variety of symptoms—but, ironically, they felt a bit worse with a sham, like a dummy bean-bag phone next to their head! “Contrary to definite expectations,” none of the so-called electrosensitive “could distinguish whether the cellular phones were turned on or off.”
Nearly all such studies have found there is no evidence that the symptoms are anything but psychological in nature. Researchers have noted that those who claim such hypersensitivity tend to exhibit more obsessive-compulsive, hostile, phobic, and paranoid traits. So, they changed the name. What used to be called “electromagnetic hypersensitivity” in the medical literature is now called “idiopathic environmental intolerance attributed to electromagnetic fields,” an acronym (IEIEMF) that sounds like something straight out of Old MacDonald’s Farm. “Despite the conviction of IEI-EMF sufferers that their symptoms are triggered by exposure to electromagnetic fields, repeated experiments have been unable to replicate this phenomenon under controlled conditions.” How many are we talking about? “To date, 46 studies involving 1175 volunteers with IEI-EMF have tested whether exposure to electromagnetic fields can trigger the symptoms reported by this group.” But, when put to the test, when all the studies are put together, as you can see below and at 3:49 in my video, not only were no significant impacts found on any of the symptoms, there was no evidence that subjects were even able to detect the radiofrequency electromagnetic fields.
Not a single person, ever? Well, there was one study in which two participants “showed extraordinary performance,” guessing when the cell phone was on 97 times out of 100. Had that just been chance, that would be like the odds of being struck by lightning four times in a single year. They failed to replicate the result a month later, though, and in science, if you can’t replicate something, it basically doesn’t exist.
So, why does this notion of hypersensitivity persist? Well, there is now an entire industry profiting from various gizmos claiming to protect people against electromagnetic fields, and the media seems to love the hypersensitivity story. Yet “[w]hy don’t journalists mention the data?” The media has tended to claim that “research into this area has been neglected. But the research has been done. In fact, dozens of double blind studies have been performed, but they have been systematically ignored by almost every single journalist covering the issue.” Indeed, we have blind provocation studies published in the peer-reviewed academic literature that are almost all negative. You could argue that the evidence is nearly unanimous. “So why doesn’t the media ever mention this data? Perhaps they deliberately and mischievously leave it out. Perhaps they never came across it, and are incompetent.” Or, maybe they’re just suckered in by the snake oil salesmen, the “aggressive and well coordinated lobbyists” selling all manner of “insulating paint…and insulating beekeeper hats for trips outdoors…” Not only do these hucksters conveniently fail to mention the dozens of studies proving them wrong, “they also viciously attack anyone who even dares to mention the data, accusing them of insensitivity, of attacking sufferers, and of denying the reality of their symptoms.”
No one is saying people are making up symptoms, though. The science just suggests that whatever the symptoms are, the cell phones don’t appear to be causing them. And, if you want to go there, one could just as fairly argue that those who are trying to sell these patients a bill of goods “are themselves hindering better understanding” of their customers’ suffering.
What does this have to do with nutrition? Nothing. It’s just me responding to your requests for our research team to dig into other controversial areas, like mammograms, where multibillion-dollar industries pressing on the scales, making it hard to disentangle the truth. You canclick herefor a full list of my videos covering mammograms.
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