The Sabbatical Doctor Part 3: Pink versions of male products

Dr. Linda Alvarez joins Coach Britt for the third of four sessions covering a holistic perspective on health care. In this episode Dr. Linda shares about how she founded her current supplement company after learning that most supplements were tested on and designed for men. 
Check out her story and her valuable insight into a medical doctor's education and how she sought to work outside of the box.

You can find Dr. Linda at levellenutrition.com 

Thinking about getting certified as a Holistic Gut Practitioner, looking for a personal Gut Restoration Program, coach certification or maybe you want to try our FREE course "How to integrate gut and nervous system health into your wellness practice" HERE

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Speaker 1 0:03

What if every experience, every hardship, every obstacle was given to you not to break you, but to mold you and strengthen you. What if the center of your suffering was actually the key to ultimate health? And what if your own pain was meant to be the catalyst for your purpose ? Welcome to bud belly life, empowering purpose, mind to microbiome.

Speaker 2 0:28

So anyways, I am excited to hear all about as everyone is , uh , we wanna hear all about level. So level is your, this is the, the piece that you started , um , at the end of a pandemic. So it's amazing the things that have come outta the pandemic, you know, really rad people after the pandemic, it kind of , it kind of , um, sifts people out and there's, you know, the ones that, you know, bless their hearts. They, you know, they, they're doing whatever they're doing. And then they're the ones that have used that time. Yes. To create they're, you know what, I'll be darn. If the world's ending, I'm gonna go out with a bang and I'm gonna do this dream. So tell us all about level.

Speaker 3 1:16

Yeah. So level is a sports, nutrition products company dedicated to fee male athletes. Um, we actually, the idea for level came out about even, it was about a year ago, too. So to your point, we were able to hunker down and get a lot of work done within this year. But the idea for level came about , um, while my co-founder and I, we were getting our MBAs through Cornell and we had a course where we had to speak with a bunch of people in a certain group, and we got to pick the group and I was, I wanted to work with endurance athletes. I wanted to speak with them. And we spoke with both men and women. And, you know, so funny when we were speaking to men, we would, we would ask them like, oh, well , what do you think about in terms of nutrition? Does it cause you any stress? You know, what are you packing with you? And so many of them were like, oh, I just do what I did in college. And it's fine. And it's worked and nothing's been wrong. And I'm like, like lucky you. I was like, okay . Um , yeah ,

Speaker 2 2:27

Our , our , our stuff changes like with the, the, the , the cycle moon, like on what stage of your cycle you're in, right. The cycle

Speaker 3 2:35

Goes down and it's like, oh, great, here we are . Um , but you know, as we were talking to women, it was so interesting. It was, you know, we , they even understood what nutrition they needed to take as they were , um , you know, training for a marathon or a cycling event. But the products that were available on like just would make them sick. And, you know, we're talking about like mild case was headache too severe was pooping your pants while you're running a marathon. Like not gonna sugar coat it ,

Speaker 2 3:09

It , which is, which is how to , like, that's just something that I, like, I was always taught. I don't do marathons. That sounds excruciating to me. But for those who do, I've just, I've always heard that . That's just what can happen. Like , that's just what happens. It's , it's

Speaker 3 3:21

Just what can happen. Yeah . Like, no, no big deal. You know, women were told too, a lot of the women that we interviewed, you know, would tell us like, oh yeah, well, people just, I would get recommendations from friends. And the recommendations from my coaches or trainers is get a, a bunch of products and figure out what doesn't make you sick, which was infuriating. I, I couldn't, I couldn't believe it. So my co-founder and I, we were both very angry by this. And we were like, okay, let's, let's look up this some more. Let's try to find out what's going on. And so I apologize. There are going to be some stats that make me angry. They may make other people angry, but stats are important. So yeah ,

Speaker 2 4:04

I love stats give , ah ,

Speaker 3 4:07

So what we found was currently only 2.5% of sports, nutrition products, target women emphasis on target. So it's not even clear of if this 2, 5, 2 0.5% is actually made for women, or if they're just smaller Pinker versions of male products. Yeah. And then too , like , I don't know if you've ever like, looked at any of these websites. I'm not mentioning any, but it is like a very, like beautiful, thin, sexy Pty woman, like a kudos to her, but like is like doing, you know, chest presses with her butt out. And like, that's not how that works. And also like not the goal. Um , and we just like, it , it just wasn't who I saw. Like, I mean, I love going to the gym. I love working out. It , it wasn't, I didn't see myself in the us products. Um, so we were like, okay, well, let's try to find out why this happened. Let's like, look at more into the research. There has to be research on women in terms of nutrition, shocker, not really. Yeah . Not at all. Um, so what we found was currently around 3% of sports performance studies include female participants 3%. And then if they do, there were quite a few as well that even if they included women, they didn't include them in the results because they were so different. They were considered confounding evidence. And so my gosh, right, like , uh , it , my co-founder and I were just infuriated. She's also a woman. She actually, I apologize. She also did her , um, her , uh , degree in , um, women's history. And so we were just very, very, very empowered to, to try to find out, you know, why was this going on? And then how could we make a solution to it? Um, so all of those pivots that I did before actually proved to be super helpful. So, you know, I had the background in nutrition. I also had the background in terms of , um, sports and nutrition and sports medicine, because that's what I thought I , I was going to, to go towards. I had a , a deep understanding of glycemic index and , um, sugar, basically glucose control within the serum. And so understanding how different foods affect your blood sugar. Um, and I have a serious hobby in baking and cooking. So I was able to kind of mesh all of these together to, to start to create products that are whole food based , natural, you know, ingredients you can pronounce and recognize products for women that aren't going to make them physically sick. And then also keep in mind a lot of the physiology for women and female athletes and how our bodies change. Um, so that's, I mean, I , we are just so excited about level because level is driven by the athletes we speak with , um, sore are completely women owned , um, whim run . And then all of the feedback that we get kind of how, what we use to really craft our, our products as well as how we look at ourselves as a company is based on the feedback that we get from female athletes. Um, and so it's just, it's so much fun to, to get, to learn more about, you know, marathon racing, all of the different sports nutrition, what women are looking for in these products from so many different women. I mean, we, we, we've spoken to women, you know, that are in their early twenties all the way to their late sixties, you know, and making it this inclusive field. I mean, we're called level because we believe in leveling the , the playing field, we believe in leveling the sports nutrition field. And, you know, frankly, the sports nutrition market has just failed women like that 2.5% like that to failure. Like if we could grade that that's more than enough . Um , and so we just, we want to, to be there for those women, we want women to feel like their voices have been heard. So many of the women that we spoke to, you know, wanted to be able to pronounce products, wanted to have a focus on the things that they were looking for. You know, have an understanding too, of is this going to impact my body if I'm trying to get pregnant or if I'm perimenopausal. Um, and so it's just, it's so exciting to be putting that to the forefront of a company when those things have just been tossed to the side before, because people thought that they were too difficult to handle.

Speaker 1 9:07

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Speaker 2 9:29

We had chatted about this a little bit, but I think there's politics yes . Involved with creating and supplemental products. And people don't understand that. That's why I'm always educating. And I am not well versed in the ingredients of supplements, but I'm very cautious with them and careful because I know how, you know, convoluted it can all become. Um, but the process of it , there's not a lot of regulations around supplement production. So they have every reason too , to throw out the studies that don't advocate, you know, for their products. So if you're, if you've got mainly men that you're testing and that you're doing this with, and they're showing good results, but the women aren't like that , we don't have time for that. Right. So, so what did you notice a little bit, if you don't mind sharing, like with the politics and kind of those technical frustrations in the process of developing your own supplements?

Speaker 3 10:24

Oh yeah. So, I mean, there, there's so many layers of politics, so, you know, one layer of the politics that I just kind of threw out was that women, for example, up until title IX , weren't even able to necessarily compete in sports. So we'll throw that one out there. And that was in 1972. So it's which within itself, I mean, there was like opposition to that too, because I don't know what women, like, they thought that women were gonna like fall down and break into like a million pieces if they ran or like our uterus was going to fall out , like who

Speaker 2 10:57

They just afraid of getting beat by a girl.

Speaker 3 11:01

Um , and so, you know, that, I think one really drove why sports nutrition is very focused on men. And even too , even when I was , you know, as we were creating level and we would speak to kind of like older, you know, type of like VC men, they were like, there are women in sports and I'm like, yes, almost half. Like , it's , it's a thing. Um , so that's kind of one area in terms of the politics, the other as well is that, you know, you have both nutraceuticals and then you have food. Um , so something becomes more of a supplement or a nutraceutical if you're making any sort of claims to it. Um, so like if you're making a claim , uh, that it's going to burn fat faster or, or something like that, that would be considered more so of a , a supplement over a food product. Um, when you, you get into that as well, there isn't necessarily for supplements a regulating body. So this is kind of to make PSA for anybody who does buy supplements to always, always, always look through the label and make sure that they are checked by a third party source, that they have multiple certifications that are recognizable and noticeable. Um, because there isn't a regulating body , um, really outside of the F FDA. But again, they're not, it's not as I think comprehensive as like, for example, a pharmaceutical. Um, so you can kind of be getting something out there that if it's not certified or checked, it can say, for example, it's EIA, but when you take it, it's actually a proprietary blend of EIA that has 0.0 , zero five micrograms of EIA in it because it's not tested or verified. Um, and so

Speaker 2 13:06

It can be loaded with heavy metals because it was sourced poorly and

Speaker 3 13:09

Right. Or you don't know too , you don't know how the processing was done. Not sure what different fillers are being used. If it's, you know, heat, safe packaging, there's so many layers of it. Um , and it's also why too , with our company, we look at ourselves as a food company. We, you know, we are not, you know, putting crazy engineered components in our products. They are ible fruits and vegetables that you'll recognize. And it's it . We then kind of have the security of knowing it it's safe. You know, I , there are so many, as you pointed out, there are so many different engineered products out there that get, you know, testing that's done, but these are snapshot tests , you know, and we're not able then to actually look at how far, you know, 5, 10, 15 years down the line, are there any sort of long term effects, you know, was there anything else that, that we should have been aware of? Um, and so that is, that's why we were dedicated with level that we are doing real food and it's fruits and vegetables. And, you know, we know that it's safe for you for it to go in your body. We understand the macro and micronutrients are involved because these are well studied fruits and vegetables. Um, it , it's a very different approach , um, than I think a lot of what's out there. And it's also what so many women told us. They wanted to see, like they , you know, it , it was great because it was in part of what we wanted to do, but it was so amazing hearing that because it was like, ah , this is perfect. This I can do this makes sense. This we can , we can work towards and use this as a solution.

Speaker 2 15:04

I , I like that you said the macro micro thing, because I talk about that all the time, because I work with so many trainers and fitness professionals and previous athletes and people with jacked up guts , um, and or adrenal , uh, thyroid kind of autoimmune conditions because they prioritized , um , macros, macros, macros, macros, and not macros. And , um, and , and if you guys don't understand what that is, like your macros are, you know, your main nutrition component to your protein, your fat, your carbohydrate. And so for people that are competing, or like you say , probably like endurance athletes and stuff are mindful of the right ratios, because if you eat , you know, kind of funky, it could price slow you down, it could make you not feel great. So they've kind of looked at that, but when we only look at that, you should see, and you'll see in a lot of meal prep, the average macro meal prep, right? It's like, oh my gosh , some white rice, some absolutely boiled to death broccoli, maybe. And as much protein, lean protein, as you can possibly get like no emphasis on quality, no emphasis on grass fed no emphasis on any of that stuff, but just as much as you can get. And then, so it's like really how much nutrition, which is where your micros are , um, is, is present in this. And I see, and the gut issues that Enue after this from excessive training and poor nutrient, they are they're over exert their bodies without nourishing it accurately. So it's cool that you touched on that.

Speaker 3 16:37

Oh, thank you. No, I mean, it , it's such an integral part of it. It , it's not only too that they are overexerting without proper nutrition, but it's also that a lot of what they're using as well, really feeds to the like harmful gut bacteria. Right . And so you're going to get an overgrowth of things that are going to make you feel crappy, like things that are gonna make you feel bloated, you know, have inconsistent bowel movements, just, you know, make like the, oh man, I can go into like the microbiome. But when you kind of, when you over feed the, the bad type of bacteria, it's like, that's what like triggers all of that inflammatory response. And it's it's throughout the body. I mean, you know, yes. Like the brain is the main control center, but the brain takes a lot of cues from your gut.

Speaker 2 17:36

Amen .

Speaker 3 17:37

Amen.

Speaker 2 17:39

No , and that inflammation is terrible if you're trying to, like, I always know if I spent so many years when I try and run, I say, try and run because I'm not a runner, but I, I , you know, I do what I do. And , uh, but where my, my ankles or my knees would just be hurting or aching. And it took a lot of years to figure out that inflammation yeah . Was a big reason. What I had been eating or drinking or doing was inflaming my body. And it was showing up when I was trying to work out cuz then I would go, how come I can run today? And I don't feel anything. And I'd, I'd be, you know, doing a removal protocol or gut friendly, you know, program. And, and my body would be feeling fine and I hadn't run forever, or I just ran the other day and it was fine. And I realized inflammation was so pronounced in some of those circums Sanchez .

Speaker 1 18:32

Thank you for joining us for another empowering episode of Budha belly life. For more information on gut health and mindset, resources, visit Budha belly , life.com and remember heal yourself and then empower others to do the same.