#180: Seed Oils, Protein Obsession & Nutrition Misinformation: Cutting Through the Noise with Colleen Christensen, RD

Ever feel overwhelmed by conflicting nutrition advice? One influencer swears by seed oils while another demonizes them. Your feed is flooded with "80 grams of protein" meal challenges, and you're left wondering: what should I actually believe?

In this episode, I sit down with Colleen Christensen, registered dietitian, recovering perfectionist, and the compassionate voice behind the wildly popular @No.Food.Rules Instagram account. Colleen shares her personal journey from competitive dietetics student to her struggle with eating disorders, and ultimately to becoming one of the leading voices helping people unlearn decades of diet culture programming.

This conversation is a masterclass in cutting through nutrition misinformation. Colleen breaks down why seed oils have become the internet's latest villain, what's really happening with the protein obsession, and why authority bias keeps us trusting the wrong "experts." But more importantly, she shares the one thing that changed everything for her recovery: learning to experiment with food instead of following rigid rules.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why reading the headline isn't enough, and how to actually evaluate nutrition studies
• The two biggest nutrition myths getting in the way of normal eating right now
• How to become your own best experiment (and why that's more powerful than any meal plan)
• Why the education piece matters just as much as the inspiration
• What it really means to find joy in midlife eating, beyond just saying "all foods fit"

Connect with Colleen:

• Instagram: @NoFoodRules

Related Episodes You'll Love:

• EP #137: 5 Tips for Spotting Nutrition Misinformation with Dr. Emma Beckett
• EP #138: 5 Things I Wish I Had Known About Intuitive Eating 10 Years Ago
• EP #123: You Are More Than What You Eat with Dr. Emma Beckett

📚 I wrote a book! Eat To Thrive During Menopause is out now!  Order your copy today and start thriving in midlife.

Looking for more about midlife,  menopause nutrition, and intuitive eating? Click here to grab one of my free guides and learn what I've got "on the menu" including my 1:1 and group programs. https://www.easy.link/menopause.nutritionist

Transcript

Welcome And Why Myths Stick

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I think a perfect example of that is seed oils. There's probably gonna be people who are gonna turn it off this podcast right now, but uh but maybe that means we should all be listening to it more so we can understand. And also with that, like if you are at the point where you're like turning this off, this is where I want people to be like, instead of just shutting down someone with a different point of view, let's kind of hear them out. And that's really what I try to do with my content is it's me versus me.

Meet Guest Colleen Christensen

Show Intro And Host Mission

Jenn Salib Huber 0:28

Welcome to the Midlife Feast, the podcast that helps you make sense of your body, your health, and menopause in the messy middle of midlife. I'm Dr. Jen Saleh Puber, intuitive eating dietitian, a naturopathic doctor, and author of Eat to Thrive During Menopause. Around here, we don't see midlife and menopause as problems to solve, but as invitations to live with more freedom, trust, and joy. Each week you'll hear real conversations and practical strategies to help you feel like yourself again. Eat without guilt, and turn midlife from a season of survival into a season of thriving. I'm so glad you're here. Let's dig in. Welcome to this week's episode of the Midlife Feast. And my guest today is Colleen Christensen. And if you're on social media, you may know Colleen as No Food Rules. She was one of the first accounts that I found several years ago when I was first learning about intuitive eating and really first on Instagram when I was just sharing pictures of my kids. And what I've always loved about her is she's very, she's very factual, she's very evidence-based, but she also makes it fun to kind of unlearn but also expose some of that diet culture programming that really never made sense, but definitely doesn't make sense in 2026. So I hope you enjoy this conversation with Colleen. She's really fun, uh, she's full of information, and I hope that you will learn as much as I did in our conversation. Hi, Colleen. Welcome to the Midlife Feast.

SPEAKER_01 2:03

Hello, I'm so excited to be here.

Colleen’s Eating Disorder Journey

Jenn Salib Huber 2:06

It is such an honor to have you on the podcast. Um, I had the honor of being on your podcast earlier, but you are one of the OGs in the non-diet space, which I'm pretty sure I just dated myself. If my kids are listening, they're probably cringing in the corner. But um, you were one of the people that I first found when I started my intuitive eating kind of non-diet journey more than a decade ago. And I really, really just love how you have really stayed as I think like one of the queens, let's say, of this space. And so many people, so so many people have benefited from you. I know so many people who have found me was through your content, either online or your programs. But if you don't mind sharing, I would love to hear a little bit about your story because you have so much experience professionally that I'm guessing that there's a personal story there too.

Perfectionism And Dietetics Pressure

SPEAKER_01 3:02

Oh my gosh, it's vastly a personal story. So I grew up, I mean, in the 90s, early 2000s, like most people, and who a lot of us struggle with, you know, a lot of the diet culture stuff at that time. So I really honestly never struggled with my relationship with food and body until about college. And I don't think that was necessarily because, you know, I will I was exposed to all that stuff a hundred percent. I don't know if it was just that it was so normalized and I didn't realize that it was disordered until that time. It's kind of like a chicken or the egg thing, like what necessarily landed first. But regardless, college was when kind of I kind of say like crap hit the fan. Not sure if we're able to swear on this, but I'll keep it clean. Please do. So that's kind of where everything kind of started to unravel for me. And I went to college to become a dietitian. So my struggles with food and body didn't happen until after I went to college. And I feel like that's different from a lot of people to be. I will be so honest with you. I have no re no idea why I became a dietitian besides the fact that I didn't want to like be an accountant. I didn't want to do anything that felt like super like I was gonna sit at a desk all day. I was like, cool, I like to bake, I like to eat, you know, I'm active. Uh, this is something I'm gonna be doing my whole life. Why not make it my career? So I decided to do that. And then I became such a perfectionist. I became, I've always been a very competitive person. And I think that my competition in college, everything felt so out of control. Everything was new. As you know, like being a dietetics major is very, very hard. It's very, very competitive from an academic side of things. And me being that kind of competition person and feeling like stuff was out of control, I turned to myself and food for that control. And it felt good. It felt good to be able to control something. And it just spiraled from there. I developed anorexia. And then once I realized, okay, this is like truly ruining my life, I then tried to recover and I swung to bulimia and I struggled with that for a long time. And I also think that's something a lot of people don't talk about is kind of that swing of things. And it both of those things felt like my dirty little secret for the longest time. On the outside, I was doing what everyone wanted to do. Everyone wanted to have more control. Everyone wanted to be thin, but it was truly, honestly, like getting to a point where I couldn't live my life. I was like, I that's what got me to the point where I was like, I need to change. Something's truly got to change because I cannot look forward 10, 15, 20, 30 years and have this be my life. Like, I don't want it. It got very, very dark. And so that's when the kind of like long road started of trying to how do I get back to this middle ground? Like I said, I was swinging from restricting to then binge eating. I'm like, how do I get this pendulum just to stop in the middle? Like, let's just hold it there. And it took a lot of trial and error. This was before a lot of stuff was kind of be talked about with disordered eating and how our mindset and our upbringing and kind of those diet culture things that were seeded throughout the 90s and early 2000s were really impacting us. And I became a dietitian, you know, was took the long road of kind of working through it myself. And I was like, No in no way, when I was, you know, job searching, I was like, no, no way do I want this to be my career. There was job opportunities open at recovery centers and stuff. And I was like, that's just, I didn't know if it was too close to home or I was sick of talking about that topic, but I was like, just absolutely not. I then worked as a dietitian in a pediatric hospital where I actually saw kids and adults as a uh dietitian for inborn errors of metabolism. So very funny. I didn't want to do any science or or math, and that's all I did. It is a very, very rare kind of like subset of genetics that you work with. So fascinating. But I got about four years into the career and I was like, this is just not, it doesn't, it didn't feel like it was filling my cup. Again, fascinating, which I love the science. But then I was kind of further along in my journey, and I realized I felt like I had to step up and be the person that I didn't have because had I done that, it wouldn't have taken me nearly as long to figure all of this out. And then I felt figured out, well, I can also use creativity. I've always been a very, very creative person. I've always done things a little bit differently, as my mother likes to say, in a good way. But it was like, wow, I can do something creative and make an impact and be able to still, you know, go back to my roots. I love baking. I love cooking. I love being athletic and moving my body and doing those sorts of things. And I was like, oh, this actually feels like the perfect career path. So kind of started off as a little bit of a hobby, and from there it just kind of grew. And here we are today. That's my long-winded response. I love that. I love that.

Jenn Salib Huber 8:34

What years were you studying nutrition? Just yes.

SPEAKER_01 8:39

I graduated in 2010 from high school. So then I graduated from 2014 from my undergrad. Then I do for everyone listening, you have to do like a year of pretty intense, what they call internship. It is not an internship, it is like a residency for like what people go to medical school for. It's one year, you rotate through it all. It's pretty, pretty uh strenuous. So I became a registered dietitian. I think it was in 2015.

Calling Out 90s And 2000s Diet Rules

Jenn Salib Huber 9:06

Okay. So I'm really it's really interesting to hear you talk about first. Thank you for sharing all that. Yes, absolutely. I know that I can relate to many, many parts of it. And I find it so interesting to hear the parallels of my own experience. So I graduated my nutrition program in 1999. So a few years before you, but everything that you were saying about how competitive it was and about how it really just indoctrinates you into this idea that there is a perfect way to eat. And so, for people listening, if you're an individual and you're learning these things, that's one thing. But then it's another layer entirely when you're a competitive type A perfectionist. That's me. I'm not saying that's you, but that was me. And I will say it's Graham that is teaching me all of the little itty bitty things about food and nutrition, and people are looking to me to be that expert and feeling like my body was my business card. It created this pressure cooker situation that we know we have data that, you know, a large percentage of people who are studying nutrition meet the criteria for disordered eating. I was the opposite of you, and that I went into nutrition already with an eating disorder and was trying to fix myself, which of course didn't work. Um, but you know, I think that a lot of people don't appreciate how much pressure there is when you are studying nutrition to to look the part, right? So yeah, it's a it's a lot. It's a lot. And I I'd love to hear from any new students. So anybody who's listening who might be studying dietetics in 2026, is the program still taught that way? I would love to hear. I don't know. I'm not in touch with with that demographic, let's say. I'm not cool enough for that. And I don't really get students um either. So so one of the the things that drew me to your account, which I think is one of the reasons why hundreds of thousands of people are also resonating with your content, is that you seem to have laser vision or x-ray vision almost for the 90s, 2000s, and even Gen X diet rules that when called out are so obviously ridiculous, right? And you do it in a way, though, that isn't making fun of anyone. Maybe it's making fun of the rules, but not anybody who believed them, but you also offer kind of a way out. So it's like instead of this ridiculous rule that makes no sense, just try this. But it's not a like simple solution as in, you know, X just bait and switch it. But it really is a compassionate driven education. And I feel like the education piece is something that's important to you. Am I right about that?

Education Over Fear-Mongering

SPEAKER_01 12:01

Yes, it's funny. So we're actually recording this on a Friday. I batch all of my, I'm a very like we like you said, type A, perfectionist, competitive. My schedule for the week is like set in stone. I do certain things on certain days. So today is actually we're talking about this on a very great day because Fridays are the days that I plan everything. So when I'm thinking, I mean, I have a million ideas going in my mind right now. It's the day that I write all of my scripts. So for me, that education piece is huge because I could sit here and actually one of the scripts I was brainstorming. This is what happens, guys. You don't, when you do what we do, you don't get to decide when these ideas come to you. They just happen. I was eating toast this morning. I was like, I gotta talk about beef tallow. Like it's just this random thing. So I was drafting a script, and it would be so easy for me to just be like, oh my gosh, like all these people are saying, you know, beef towel is so much better. It's not. But I was like, that's not gonna help anyone. Like someone's gonna come away being more confused on that than okay, let me explain to you how this is how much saturated fat is in it, yet we're being told to keep our saturated fat to this, you know, percent. So how does that make sense? Okay, we're being kind of like explaining, okay, this is the essential amino acid profile or essential fatty acid profile of it and kind of taking it a step further. And that's I what I feel like I'll be completely honest with you. Sometimes that type of content is not what people want. And it's it feels like a gut punch because it's like, oh, I spent so much time like trying to figure out how do I give you this information. And sometimes the algorithm, to be honest, is just like we don't want all that. We just want the the, you know, fear-mongering or the simple answer. And I'm like, in my gut as a human being, I cannot give you the simple answer because there is no simple answer. And it's not gonna do you any good if you don't understand why. And I think that's how a lot of us got to this place where we were so overwhelmed and confused because we're just told these rules of what to do and we're not understanding the why behind it. So, really thinking through that educational piece, I always have kind of like this, these kind of like three pieces that I'm trying to get in with all my videos is how do I like make it make you want to learn about this or get that kind of like hook, right? Some of that like, whoo, that little bit of kind of like not clickbaity, but you know what I mean. Like that, oh, I gotta stop myself. You want it to stick, yeah. Yes. And then we get into more of the kind of like compassionate education. And then it's the okay, how do we, how do we just wrap this up? I want to leave you feeling good. And I I think that to be honest too, is something that I feel like it would be so easy for me to not do. But I want you to come away from this, whether it's you laughed, whether it's you feel like you got a piece of information. I want you to feel happy when you're done watching one of my videos. And it's almost kind of ironic because you've mentioned you're like, oh, you do this in like such a compassionate way. A lot of people say it's like humorous and you're such a like a kind, bubbly person. I would also like to say I was not always that way. I always say I'm a recovering bitch. Um, and I credit the bitchiness to my disordered eating. So it's almost like the the way that I'm able to do this and to have this personality. And I'm not saying like you stop dieting, you're gonna become like a bubbly ray of sunshine. I'm not saying that at all because I'm not always a bubbly ray of sunshine. But I think that being able to have a brighter outlook, being able to be more compassionate, it honestly kind of just naturally comes from doing the work on yourself, your body, your relationship with food, all of those things. And it comes with also being properly fueled. Shocker.

Jenn Salib Huber 16:02

I know, right? What a difference that makes. Yes. So if we can dig into the misinformation piece of it, because again, it's 2026. We're not gonna get into the details of why miserable misinformation is at the top of everyone's mind. But I often joke with people that as a nutrition professional who also creates content, I feel like at least 50% of my conversations, um, online and offline, have to do with debunking, myth busting, that kind of thing. What do you think are the two or three top myths around nutrition that get in the way of people having a normal relationship with food or being a normal eater? I'm sorry, I should have asked you this before.

Why Headlines Mislead

Seed Oils And Protein Extremes

SPEAKER_01 16:50

No, that's fine. There's something that comes to mind. Can I answer the question a little bit differently? I'm not thinking of a specific new specific nutrition thing. I'm thinking of something people do that then turns it into that. So I think that one of the biggest issues is that there's two. People don't read the study. People will read a headline and they will say, okay, this headline says if you eat carrots, you're going to grow six inches. I don't know. I'm just making something up. But they don't then look into the study that says, We looked at the diet of pro basketball players and they ate carrots. Okay, well okay, like let's think about that. Does that mean does correlation mean causation? I think that's one of the big things. And then with that is you can really, I think that's a perfect example too, make a case for anything you want. You can again kind of correlate, like, okay, those people are all wearing red shirts. They also all have had a heart attack. Wearing a red shirt is gonna give you a heart attack. And so it's you can spin things. So I think that with misinformation, that's one of the big things. And then when you pair that with social media, people have this platform to give this in misinformation and it's shocking, and it's gonna get clicks, and it's just kind of this like rat race of who can make the wildest claims, like that's truly what social media feels like. And I think if I if so, kind of actually answering your question, thank you for letting me explain that. But I think a perfect example of that is seed oils. There's probably gonna be people who are gonna turn off this podcast right now, but uh but maybe that means we should all be listening to it more so we can understand. And also with that, like if you are at the point where you're like turning this off, this is where I want people to be like, instead of just shutting down someone with a different point of view, let's kind of hear them out. And that's really what I try to do with my content is it's me versus me. And let's kind of let's talk this out because then we can come to a decision. I'm not saying that someone who, you know, wants to use beef tallow over seed oils is right or wrong. I'm just saying it's a different choice. So let me explain to you why these different choices are kind of being made. Um, but I think seed oils is a bit is probably one of the biggest ones. Um, and then I mean like protein right now. I feel like I love protein. I would consider myself a protein girly. Like I love lifting heavy weights and I love getting stronger. But we've taken it like so far to the point where it's not helpful for us. Like Chipotle, I think it was Chipotle, just came out with like a menu that had like 80 some grams of protein in their bowl. And I'm like, you do realize that there's not necessarily, this is again where people get misinformation. It's not that we have a threshold of the amount of protein that our bodies can use. Our bodies are gonna use it in some way. It's just that, like, after a certain point, it's just gonna use it for something else. That's not like what it's kind of meant for. So it's like, let's just scale it back a little bit. Let's just scale it back a little bit.

Jenn Salib Huber 20:25

Yeah. No, and I think that those are two really good examples. And um, you know, what you said earlier about how when you're making your videos, it's you versus you. Um, for anybody who hasn't seen them, you have a character that you're having a conversation with. So it really does look like a conversation. And I think that is where the magic happens because the dialogue is happening in a two-sided way. It's like you're, you know, you share the opinion, which is usually the popular opinion, but then you're even answering yourself in a compassionate way and kind of put being you're able to tease out why it was so easy to believe that. And, you know, social media is, oh gosh, that's a whole other episode. I have a love-hate relationship with it. I think most people do, whether you have a business on here or not. Um, but short form content is not built for nuance. And almost every nutrition topic is nuanced. You there are very few instances where you can say in 10 seconds or less, yes or no, X or Y. And but people don't want that. They, of course, we all want the 10 second answer. That like that would be amazing. But understanding that you have to, you have to hold some space for learning and understanding and having people that you can trust. If I could add one thing to the list, I would add authority bias as a big problem.

SPEAKER_01 21:51

Yes, explain that to everyone.

Nuance Beats Short-Form Soundbites

Jenn Salib Huber 21:52

Yeah. So, you know, you have people, let's say, like shoe salesmen um, who are really good at selling shoes, who then Become supplement experts. And because they're really good at selling shoes and they sold you a lot of shoes and you loved those shoes, you believe that they have the authority and the experience and the expertise to sell you supplements. We see this a lot in healthcare. So people who are licensed health professionals in one discipline not staying in their lane, to put it simply. But because they have authority in one area, it's very easy for people to believe that they can speak on this subject. And let's be honest, everybody thinks that they're entitled to talk about nutrition, right? Every healthcare practitioner, in some way, no, that's not true. I know a lot of people who are very good at staying in their lane, but there are a lot of healthcare practitioners who really feel like nutrition is everyone's domain. But, you know, it's more than a meal plan. Like really understanding what people need, how to help them implement it, how to make it relatively easy, even if it's not simple, but relatively easy and doable. That is not a meal plan that you buy for$9.99. Um, and so authority bias is what I would add to that list.

SPEAKER_01 23:13

Yes, I love that. And I am a big analogy person. I feel like explain everything with analogy. I do. I someone once told me, I can't remember who it was, that like j okay, so like I brush my teeth every day. I'm pretty good at brushing my teeth every day. You know, that doesn't make me a dentist. Like, just because you eat food does not make you a registered dietitian. Like, I you don't want me to be your dentist. Like, even though I can sit here and take care of my own teeth, you don't want me to do that. I can sit here and, you know, I trained my dog, and I'm not gonna be a dog trainer. Like, I don't have expertise in that. Just because you do something or you're capable of doing something, doesn't mean you are capable of teaching someone else to do that themselves. Exactly.

Jenn Salib Huber 24:03

So one of one of the things that that you do, and that I think a lot of people who are trying to do nutrition professionally, I guess, online especially, is trying to be a filter for people so that the information that they're being given, whether they want it or not, sometimes from healthcare practitioners, friends, families, neighbors, dogs and cats at this point, who knows? But that there is like this filter of okay, this is truth and this is not truth. When people have when people are able to filter that information, what I see, and I'd love to hear kind of your take, is it makes it so much easier to apply kind of this healthy eating that people that everybody is striving for. The fewer rules you have, right? No food rules is your original brand, you know, the fewer rules that you have, the easier it is to make decisions.

unknown 24:58

Yes.

Authority Bias And Expertise

Jenn Salib Huber 24:58

And but it really has to, but it still has to be factual information. And and that's a really that's a difficult thing, I think, for people to get in just short form content. What are some of the ways? I'm getting to a question. What are some of the ways that you have found effective for helping people to kind of apply this information, like beyond just the myth busting, when people are looking to become normal eaters, to just eat more peacefully, more normally, still be a protein girly, but not try and get 80 grams of it from, you know, a bowl. What are what are some of the ways that you found helpful in guiding people towards that?

Becoming A Better Filter For Info

SPEAKER_01 25:37

I think one of the best things that you can do is to experiment. I always say, like, try it, see how it feels. Nothing is necessarily bad or wrong, but it's how does it feel to me and what makes me feel better. One person is saying, okay, use, you know, these natural sweeteners, non-nutritive sweeteners. Someone else is saying using honey. Okay, what's what's better? Let me try both and see, right? Let me see what makes me feel better. What do I enjoy more when it comes to people are saying, okay, like, okay, protein is important. Let me see for myself. Let me have a, I always call like, do and literally pretend you're a scientist and ask yourself, what feels better? What do I also enjoy? When I say feel better, it's not necessarily just the physical side of things, it's also the mental side of things. You know, if someone says, you know, don't have sugar in your yogurt, pick like the, you know, plain kind with no sweeteners in it. Okay, that's your take. You're telling me, okay, if less, you know, added sugar, it might not give me as much of a blood sugar spike. It might give me some more stable energy. Okay, I'll try it. Oh, I hate the taste of plain yogurt. Okay, but let me see, you know, how how is how much sweetness in adding things will make me feel satisfied. It's really just taking that experimenting, and I don't know if that's where it feels overwhelming for people because they're like, well, now I gotta do work. Okay, now I gotta figure out what works for me rather than just someone telling me what to do. And that's always kind of my goals. I'm literally, I can't tell you what to do. I can't tell you what to eat. I can give you bits of information for you to then go and experiment with. And that's something I also try to put in my videos too is okay, let's say one person is, you know, having just a regular old bowl of cereal. Another person, one of my favorite things to do for a bowl of cereal for a protein boost is to use a protein shake as milk. Someone's doing that. Neither of those choices are right or wrong, but maybe experiment and just see what one works for you. Some days you might be like, I just want the captain crunch that I know is gonna tear up the roof of my mouth, but it tastes so delicious. And other days you might be like, okay, I want some brand flakes with some a protein shake in it as my cereal. And it's being able to understand that it's a process of learning versus someone telling you what to do. And I think this is the last thing I'll say. I think that the best way to learn is to do. So you have to be okay with doing something that might not feel satisfying to get to the point of you understand what is satisfying to you. It's okay, like there is nothing, nothing's bad, nothing's wrong, nothing's a mistake. It's just a learning experience. So the more that we can view it in that way, the more that you'll find the things that work for you and the things that don't.

Experimentation To Find What Works

Jenn Salib Huber 28:42

Yeah, and everybody just wants, I mean, everybody just wants to be told what to do. Like I do too. I get it, I get it. But for sure. You know, but you know, what you like and what I like and what the people listening like, it's gonna be different. And there isn't one that is best. Even when it comes to, you know, what we would consider health foods or you know, gentle nutrition, or adding in, it's like, which vegetable is better, which fruit is better, what's the best source of protein? We just want to move away from that, you know, hierarchy because I know some people hate this, but all foods really do fit. And it is finding the right mix of what you want and what you need in a way that doesn't drive you absolutely bonkers having to think about food all day long. Absolutely. Um, but yeah, there's no formula for that. There really isn't. But I love the experimentation. I say that too, and I I said I use the language of trying it on. We're just gonna try this on. I love that. You don't have to commit to this for the rest of your life. You're literally, it's like a shirt in a store. You're trying it on. If you like it, you can keep it. If you don't, you put it back. I love it. And um, yeah, I think it takes the pressure off, right? Because most people who have had some experience in diet culture are used to getting the plan that outlines this big long grocery list of things they have to buy and a big long list of things they have to get out of their house, and this like carefully curated list of this, this, this, this, and this. And of course that feels safe initially, but what happens when like you're sick and you can't follow it or you know, you go to a potluck and there's no nutrition information there. Or like life gets lifey, right? Yep. So one of um just as we start to kind of wrap up here, you know, you've really taken this misinformation as uh like dismantling the misinformation as a job. And you know, that it seems like you're leaning into that a little bit more in 2026. Um, tell us about that.

All Foods Fit Without Hierarchies

SPEAKER_01 30:42

Yes. So I have really been, I always will have a, you know, very strong desire to help people recover from disordered eating. And but I also feel like that was so brought to light during the pandemic. And a lot of people have done a lot of work on it. And they I found that they were stuck in this area of like, okay, but like, how do I get back into nutrition without going back to that place? Yeah. So I am the chief content officer for a health and wellness brand called Luli. And this is really meant to kind of be that safe haven for us to talk about that kind of stuff, to be able to, yes, talk about the science kind of side of things, but allow it to be flexible and not to be this preaching thing. So, to kind of give you a little bit of the backstory, Lully actually comes from the word alula, which is a part of a bird's wing. It's a certain group of feathers that guides its flight. And that's what we're here for. We are here to help guide your flight. You get to decide where you go, you get to decide what feels good. But we are this kind of like safe landing pad for you to be able to come, okay, I want to learn about creatine. Where can I go to do that? And one of the things that I'm the chief content officer, so I oversee every single piece of information that goes out. But one thing that I am in charge of that I love doing so much is what we call the Luli News. So I do three headlines every day. Sometimes it's new research articles, sometimes it's it's usually a mix of all three, but also things that are trending on social media. Um, I did one, one of the stories this week was on how everyone is like Costco pizza has more protein per calorie than protein bars. They're actually not wrong there, but then we talk about it. So I that's like I just love kind of getting that nitty-gritty, that science-y. And we put those on the blog. We also do a daily podcast so you can just listen to it. It's like under it's usually like five minutes where I just kind of give you the rundown of them and there's written if you want to look into it more. But we have that in the Luli app. And like I said, I just love doing it so much because also, like, there's so many times where I'm like, there's so many more things I want to help clarify for people. But I mean, you know as well as I do, like if for one of those 60-second videos, it takes me hours to do. And there's just no way. So this is kind of a way where if you're like, okay, I'm at the place, I I want to learn more about this. I, you know, this headline says there was actually a headline this week that I did on uh how the midlife brain handles weight loss differently. They were essentially saying, talking about how um the midlife brain has inflammation when they lose weight. But there was so much that they didn't discuss in that study. Like they didn't discuss, okay, how what was the rate of weight loss? A, it was in mice. Um, but it came off as just kind of like very confusing to people because a lot of people are saying, like, okay, for midlife, like lose weight, that's gonna make you feel better. Okay, not necessarily, but like, how do we find this, you know, how do we get through all of this information? This headline's telling me something different than what social media is telling me. So that's what I just love, kind of like digging into that stuff. Okay, let's actually look at that. Is this correlation? Is it causation? What can we take from this? Yeah, it makes the brain does, the brain does, you know, it's different. It's not a 20-year-old brain. Of course, it's gonna react differently to different things. Um, and so being able to kind of like explain the more sciencey side of things for people who want it. And like I said, sometimes I struggle with, you know, how do I help, how do I help everyone? I feel like every business owner is like that too. And you know, a lot of people say, well, you just gotta pick a niche, you gotta pick a lane. Um anyone, when I just said you gotta pick a lane, if there's any friends lovers, you'll know exactly the do you do you watch or have you watched Friends or Joe? You gotta pick a lane. Who's a lane? I can't say that without without referencing that.

Jenn Salib Huber 35:05

I will never now say or hear that without thinking of this conversation.

SPEAKER_01 35:09

Oh, it's hilarious. I literally have to like stop and laugh my laugh myself. Anyway, um, but like, how do we kind of like balance those things and it just being able to have the no food rules brand that continues to tell you it's okay to eat the cookie, but then being able to be part of something bigger, which is Luli and be able to give more of information for people who want it more just feels it felt really good. And we just launched at the end of 2025. So very excited for 2026 to get my nerd on and continue, continue diving into the research and explaining it in a funny way. The podcast that we do every morning, you're I guarantee you're gonna get a giggle from it. Like it's still the fun, loving, very relatable, enjoyable things to listen to. So it doesn't feel like the you're listening to like the evening news version where it's like super dry and all this stuff because life's just too short, even for valuable information for it to not not give you a little bit of a feel good vibe.

Jenn Salib Huber 36:06

I'm gonna put it on my podcast playlist. What is the podcast called?

SPEAKER_01 36:09

So we it's it's in the Luli app. So we put everything out as blog posts, and then if you want the podcast version, it's in the app. But there is a you can we give everyone a week free. So if you want to see, let me see if this is, you know, feels good, then you can give it a try for a week. And if you don't like it, no harm, no foul. It's okay. I'm not for everyone, and that's okay.

Jenn Salib Huber 36:31

Amazing. We're gonna put all those links in the show notes before I let you go and thank you. Thank you for this wonderful conversation. Yes. Um, now the question that I ask everyone: what do you think is the missing ingredient in midlife?

Luli: A Safe Haven For Science

SPEAKER_01 36:45

Uh I would have to say, I mean, there's a million different things. I would just say joy. Like you just have to find what brings you joy in terms of the what what's the way that you living your life is gonna feel best for you? Whether it's, you know, that mental, physical, it's combining all of those things that I think that that's where we get this fulfillment from is looking inwards to us and being like, what fills my cup? What brings me joy? What do I enjoy doing? And that is gonna help you be able to make those more intuitive decisions where it's I know that this is, you know, what I want to do and this is what feels good to me when we can look inward. I think that is where a lot of our confusion can get a lot more clarity is when we kind of scale it back and I just kind of ask ourselves, okay, what is the thing that brings me joy on a daily basis, you know, and that's gonna joy I know I'm making this way more complicated than it needs to be typical Kalian fashion. Um, but I just think that understanding joy itself is also not necessarily just like these smiles and stuff. It's this like feeling of being at peace with what you how you're living your life. And I think that being able to kind of have that like grounded joy in what you're doing and how you're living your life and your habits and your behaviors and knowing it brings you what you're needing and wanting, I think that's and I think also that gets easier with age. So I think that midlife is a really great time to be able to kind of get into that more and really lean into that. So there's my complicated answer to a probably simple question.

Jenn Salib Huber 38:38

No, I love it. And you're right. I think that in midlife it does become it's easier to say no to the things that we don't want to do, which makes it easier to say yes to joy. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Amazing. Thank you so much. And um, we will continue to stay in touch. I will continue to follow you because I love all of your videos and uh appreciate what you do so much. Thanks for joining me, Colleen.

SPEAKER_01 39:04

Yes, thank you so much for having me.

Jenn Salib Huber 39:06

Thanks for joining me for this episode of the Midlife Feast. If you're ready to take the next step towards thriving in midlife, head to menopausenutritionist.ca to learn more about my one-to-one and group coaching programs, free resources, and where to get your copy of Eat to Thrive during menopause. And if you've loved today's conversation and found it helpful, please share it with a friend who needs to hear this and leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts. It helps so many more people just like you find their way to food freedom and midlife confidence. Until next time, remember midlife is not the end of the story, it's the feast. Let's savor it together.