The Root of the Matter

Navigating Nutrition: Facts, Myths, and Personalized Guidance

• Dr. Rachaele Carver, D.M.D. Board-Certified, Biologic, Naturopathic Dentist • Season 3 • Episode 11

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Dr. Carver and functional medicine certified health coach Irene Chang demystify the confusing world of nutrition by exploring evidence-based approaches to eating and lifestyle changes. They discuss how conventional nutrition advice has misled us while revealing practical strategies for making sustainable health improvements without feeling deprived.

• Health coaching bridges the gap between medical advice and patient implementation through accountability, motivation, and personalized support

• The food pyramid promoted harmful practices like eating six times daily, causing blood sugar spikes and insulin resistance

• Protein-rich breakfasts (aim for 30g) provide longer satiety and help maintain muscle mass as we age

• Seed oils (soybean, corn, canola) are highly inflammatory while traditional fats like coconut oil may actually support health

• Elimination diets can identify personal food sensitivities and heal gut lining damage

• Fasting insulin levels predict health problems years before they manifest and should be regularly tested

• Simple meal prep strategies like batch cooking, freezing portions, and keeping frozen vegetables on hand make healthy eating practical

• Food combinations matter: eating protein and fat before carbohydrates can significantly reduce blood sugar spikes

If you're interested in working with Irene, visit her website at https://www.3hcoaching.net/ or email irene@3hcoaching.net for a complimentary initial consultation to explore your health goals.

To contact Dr. Carver directly, email her at drcarver@carverfamilydentistry.com

Want to talk with someone at Dr. Carver's office?  

Call her practice: 413-663-7372

Reverse Gum Disease In 6 Weeks! With Dr. Rachaele Carver Online Course!

Learn more about here: https://reversegumdiseaseinsixweeks.info/optinpage



Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only. Information discussed is not intended for diagnosis, curing, or prevention of any disease and is not intended to replace advice given by a licensed healthcare practitioner. Before using any products mentioned or attempting methods discussed, please speak with a licensed healthcare provider. This podcast disclaims responsibility from any possible adverse reactions associated with products or methods discussed. Opinions from guests are their own, and this podcast does not condone or endorse opinions made by guests. We do not provide guarantees about the guests' qualifications or credibility. This podcast and its guests may have direct or indirect financial interests associated with products mentioned.

Dr. Carver:

Welcome back to another episode of the Root of the Matter. I am your host, dr Rachel Carver, and today I'm welcoming Irene Chang. She is a patient of mine who has just recently finished her studies for functional nutrition. Is that correct?

Irene Chang:

Irene, Actually it's a functional medicine certified health coaching program.

Dr. Carver:

Okay, fantastic, thank you. So I've asked Irene to come in a little bit talk about nutrition, because it's very confusing. People think, okay, yes, I should eat fruits and vegetables, but should I eat meat, should I not eat meat? And then you've got the whole carnivore crab that says no, vegetables are terrible for you, and so there's just a lot of confusion and I would love for you to maybe dive in, tell us a little bit. You've been learning the most up-to-date information about nutrition, so why don't you tell us a little bit about why you wanted to get this degree and then go from there?

Irene Chang:

Yes. So my journey started when the lockdown started over four years ago, march 2020. And I was, like most people, concerned about my immune function against coronavirus and, especially as an older population, we were more threatened right Immune function and virus. So then I was always a fan of Dr Mark Hyman, read a lot of his books, so I started to listen to his podcast and read more books and really studied about functional medicine, which is more of root finding, root cause for your symptoms, rather than suppressing symptoms and managing it with medications and procedures for all the chronic disease that most people suffer from nowadays. That just led me to learn a lot more about what is the current information, which a lot of times, the medical schools don't teach those things and since they're not on the licensing exam for medical doctors, who has time to read all about newest studies and newest information from various literature? Doctors don't have time. So the thing there's a big gap. I think what's been happening the last, I would say like 20 years, even like a microbiome human genome project, all these things that happen and what the medical field is still working with right for the patients and dealing with the chronic diseases especially. So that led me so once I learned so much about it and all the misinformation. I would say that we have been told by the government, like the food pyramid or the doctors, or media, especially the media promoting all the big food companies promoting this and that and this and that Remember the ad Got Milk? They had to take it down because there was no basis for science, things like that. So then I was like I'm learning all this stuff and I'm like floored by this, like wow, we have been so misinformed. How is this possible? So then that led me to like what can I do as an individual? I am practicing it. I make sure my husband practices it.

Irene Chang:

But then I felt like this is something that I would like to share with other people, because so many of these diseases the top disease like cardiovascular, the top diseases like cardiovascular cancer, diabetes, autoimmune Alzheimer all these can be prevented if you can work on having better lifestyle choices right Every day, day and out.

Irene Chang:

What do you do? What are the choices one makes? So that's why I wanted to be a health coach, because health coach is a new thing Nobody really knows. They know the trainer, physical trainer, they might know business coaching, but the health coaching is still fairly new. It was only started to getting national board license or not license, certification by national board only, like 2014. It's fairly new. This insurance doesn't cover it, but there are now a lot of functional medicine doctors who understand that in order for their patients to get better, they really need to change their behaviors. It's not about what they're telling them what to eat, how to do supplements. It's about really what are they going to change to eat and move and how to sleep better, how to deal with their daily, daily chronic stress and or their relationships all these things that we are dealing with day to day.

Dr. Carver:

Yeah, I got my certification in 2015,. Right, when it was brand new, and I I my dream for future medicine is that there are health coaches on every single staff of every internist, just at a minimum. Right, because doctors don't, especially with the way that medicine becomes so corporate. Right, they have eight to 10 minutes with a patient. You can't make any lasting change with somebody if you just want to give them a medication, okay, but people are pushing back against that kind of medicine. They're tired of taking so many medications and still not really feeling better.

Dr. Carver:

So it is the role of coaches. And the other thing, too, is that health is so individual, right, and so the blanket statement of eat this or don't eat this or do this and don't, doesn't help, because we all know that we should eat an apple versus a bag of Doritos, like people know what, which one is healthier, but why do we reach for the Doritos versus the apple? Right, and the health coach has that time to figure out. Why are you, do you know? Why are you sabotaging your health when you, on a logical level, you know better? Right, there's always something underlying. You know the stress, the stress, the emotional trauma. You know, you name it, and that's the value of having a coach and it's unfortunate that insurance doesn't cover. They lag behind anything that's valuable for a long time.

Dr. Carver:

But if you really, if you think about the value of having somebody, if you're really willing to try to make those changes like maybe 2025 is that year that you are really going to put what you want into practice then think about the cost. How much do you spend on Starbucks every every day, right? Think about those kinds of how much that adds up. Would it be more valuable putting that five to ten dollars a day into a monthly coaching session? Maybe then the coach will teach you how to make your own delicious latte, right?

Irene Chang:

with a much better health outcome. Yeah, it's kind of like appealing audience people. The health coaches basically help clients to find out what their health goal is. Realistic right, it's the SMART goal. It's a specific and measurable, achievable, realistic and time-sensitive goals, like three to six months, let's say. But there's a motivational interview that goes in to really peel the onion layers of why do you really want to do this? Because when it comes from the client not from doctors or nutritionists, but when it comes to client they have the agency to change because that's their own, it's a client driven.

Irene Chang:

So health coaches are like just like a GPA GPS. I mean like you want to go someplace, you haven't been to or you have not been successful, because, after all, people try to have better diet and most people 80%, something like that fails. Right and they end up gaining more weight. Having somebody who is like a guide or a cheerleader or support, like a little cane or actually a guide going on a hike. You don't want to road, you want to go to top, the client decides where they want to go and coach is basically a very empathetic partner who helped them to navigate better. And then when there's a success, they celebrate. When there's a failure, then they refigure it out, so I think it's a really good way to make small changes that's sustainable, absolutely.

Dr. Carver:

What you keep saying is so important, because this is patient driven. It's not the coach, is not somebody to tell you what to eat, but just exactly what you say the patient is telling you, or the client, whatever, is saying. This is a goal that I would like, but I need a little bit help in achieving that goal and that is what the coach is there for. But you have to meet a person. You know where they're at right. It's the same thing you come in for a down point, maybe you have. You go to a new dentist and you're like, okay, what do I need? And maybe that dentist says you need five crowns and you need all this deep cleaning and all these kinds of stuff. And, and a lot of times patient will just walk out the door because that's not you're telling them instead of saying what are you hoping to do?

Dr. Carver:

Here's what I see. Obviously, as a dentist, I have to tell if you have the disease. But if the patient doesn't want to believe you, they don't trust you. If it's not one of their goals or values to have a very healthy mouth, they're not going to do it. And so there's that art to working with people You're trying to understand their values and meet them where they're at.

Irene Chang:

And also there's the accountability part, so that we check in At least it doesn't have to be long term, I say three, four months on the regular check-ins. And then there's accountability and client decide how they want to track their progress and when that doesn't go well, because there's always also environmental factor and like, oh, I wanted to do this by my children, my husband, my wife, I can't. So then how do you re-evaluate and come up with different ways to deal with, to get to that goal? There's a lot of working, collaborative also.

Dr. Carver:

And that's a great point too, and that's why I know a lot of things, but I need that accountability. I myself work with health, even though I am the health coach, but I need somebody to help hold me accountable Absolutely. I think that's a huge, huge value with having somebody there, because we can all say certain things and then whatever life happens right and we fall out and we forget why we're doing things. Yes, that's hugely valuable because so many people make the I don't remember the statistic right, but how many of us make resolutions and then by the end of January it's already kaput. So let's talk a little bit about, maybe, nutrition, and maybe you mentioned the food pyramid. Why is the current? Now it's MyPlate, right. Yes, taking the pyramid, tell us about how, what the MyPlate talks about, and maybe your agreement or disagreement with how it's laid out.

Irene Chang:

I think the MyPlate is much better than food pyramid, which also reminds you how they wanted us, want us to eat like six times a day remember it was like every two hours you have to eat, otherwise your metabolism is going to go, which is actually the exact opposite, because it keeps spiking your blood sugar every time you eat, and people are supposed to eat a lot of carbohydrate, grains especially, so it was just to keep spiking and spiking and a lot of times you would start that glucose spike roller coaster up and down, up and down, so of course people would be tired and want to eat something after eating, whatever the muffin and the orange juice and coffee. Two hours later you're hungry already and like becomes hypoglycemic. I think it's better because there's a lot more emphasis on vegetables and fruits and vegetables rather than grain. However, I think, depending on where people are, I think there's still to me there's too much again emphasis on starch, mainly grain, because unless your insulin fasting insulin is like perfect under three or something. People really should be watching out their carb, especially the starch, besides sugar, of course sugar, but starch consumption, because as we get older, we just become more insulin resistant ourselves and it's a lot harder to metabolize those starch, going in and spiking the blood sugar, because the more you do it, more insulin resistance happens and that's basically the beginning of all chronic disease the insulin resistance and inflammation that follows. So to me, I think there should be even more emphasis on vegetables and a little bit of a fruit the less sweet fruits and a little bit of a fruit the less sweet fruits.

Irene Chang:

And then, of course, the protein thing is always so controversial and I think it depends on the people what they want to eat. Some people don't like the taste of meat or some people don't want to eat because of the religious reasons. But to me I eat all the food I've always done that and ate a lot more fish because I'm from South Korea and Korea, just like Japan, is a peninsula, japan's island. So I just grew up eating a lot of seafood because it's abundant. We didn't eat a lot of meat because it wasn't abundant. And if you think of Asian food generally East Asian, chinese, japanese, koreans we just eat a lot more vegetables. So if there's a meat meat not the main thing I was always shocked like, oh my God, there's a huge meat with a little bit of vegetable. No, no, it's the other way around Lots of vegetables, a little bit of meat mixed in.

Irene Chang:

So to me the protein part is individual. But I think if you eat more protein on regular basis in other words, breakfast, lunch and dinner it makes you full. You don't get as hungry because it lasts in your system longer as well. As we need protein to synthesize our muscle and keep minimize our muscle loss as we get older. So I think it's really important to have enough protein and I tell all my clients the most important thing is to start the breakfast with at least like 30 grams of protein. Protein heavy meal should be breakfast, so when you're eating the first meal after fasting overnight, that has to be protein rich food so that you're not hungry at least like four or five hours, because if you're hungry after eating first meal in two, three hours, that wasn't adequate and that's not a good idea, because it should make you feel full and not have a craving for sugar.

Irene Chang:

I just think that eating a lot more vegetable is very important because that also gives you fiber, which is so important to feed your gut bacteria. Without it, your microbiome is being starving and if they don't eat, if you don't feed them, they might eat your own mucin layer and make it leaky gut, make holes and then all the stuff that you don't want to put into your blood is not going in. This is what you don't want to do. Mixing your blood with the food or food, whatever the leftover things, unclean stuff right, that should be kept away. But when you have a leaky gut, which part of the reason is not feeding microbiome and they don't produce what's keeping the gut lining healthy, like the butyrate, which is so important to make sure your gut lining is tight. So if you don't do that, then you're going to compromise your gut lining and that creates leaky gut, which is probably the number one way to create inflammation.

Dr. Carver:

I totally agree and this is what fascinates me about the carnivore diet. I've spoken on the podcast before. My brother-in-law lost over 100 pounds last year doing carnivore. He started last January. It's amazing. His cardiologist was so floored that now he and his wife, who are in their 70s, started carnivore. They were like, just they couldn't because he and my brother-in-law had a heart attack at 25 years old Wow. So he's been followed by this cardiologist. He's almost 50 now and so the cardiologist has seen over 25 years his numbers and everything and was just floored.

Dr. Carver:

But I'm always curious, like I really want to do a stool test on him because I'm like what if you have no fiber? Like what does your microbiome look like in there? But some people, he's thriving, like every ailment he ever had gone. He looks amazing, he feels amazing. So this is where I think, when we talk about food, individuality is really important, right? Somebody like me who's still cycling that going carnivore. I don't have any weight to lose and I need carbohydrates to make hormones right and again, to feed the microbiome. So it's very interesting to me and this is where I think, when all these new companies are coming out with all these specific genetic things, where you can say what is the best diet for me. So there's some interest, some kind of companies out there who are trying to do that, and my husband just bought me this little breathing device.

Dr. Carver:

It's called lumen and the goal is to try to. This is by breathing different times of the day, depending what you eat and what you exercise. I'm not exactly sure the physiology behind it I haven't studied much about it but helps you try to maximize your metabolism Because, as you were saying, when our metabolism is working well and that doesn't mean eating every two hours, right, but when your metabolism is working well and your insulin levels are controlled, that's where you get health and that's where you get longevity, right. And so it's really interesting. You breathe into this thing and somehow by your breath it can tell how much carbs or fat you are burning. You're burning and that determines when you first wake up in the morning. Ideally you should be in fat burn right before you go to bed, according to the lumen again, I don't know all of the science on that, but that's how they're gauging and over 30 days it tracks you for like 30 days and then kind of gives you an idea of what's happening so it can try to help you again individualize, and again, I'm not.

Dr. Carver:

I've been doing it for a couple of days and I'm not sure it's perfect there, but it's interesting and it's cool. There's more wearables that can help us track things right, like heart rate, your sleep, all these things. But I agree with you. I think what you said about protein is really, really important, that the older we get especially, the more protein we need. And sometimes that's tough, because the older we get also our digestive capability goes down right. We don't have much stomach acid our digestive, and so it's harder.

Irene Chang:

Yeah, don't absorb as much.

Dr. Carver:

Yeah, don't absorb it. So that's where I talk to so many of my patients about apple cider vinegar, like even betaine hydrochloride, right, Like a little extra stomach acid to little thing. The lemon water, right, these little kind of things to try to get your stomach at.

Irene Chang:

So many people are on you know the PPI's for reflux and it's the worst thing.

Dr. Carver:

Maybe you can talk to us a little bit about that, because I think that is such a common medication. So tell us a little bit. So is acid reflux a sign of having too much acid in your stomach? The thing?

Irene Chang:

is. I think that all that GERD and PPI problem it should be dealt with. Eating properly again and not eating too late again and not eating too late and sometimes it's a sleep apnea too. But taking this ppi for for long term, I think they said, and the pharmaceuticals when they came out with it and initially in 1980s they said, oh, you know, you shouldn't be taking for six, six weeks. But then people are taking them for years and years and there there's a lot of yeah, problem with side effects from that. So I think that one needs to be tapering it off. That's what the doctors recommend not relying on this, but changing their diet so that maybe you don't want to eat tomatoes and things that would you know, spicy food, things that would upset your stomach and have acid reflux. But I think there's a way to not do that. In other words, gradually fix it with diet and lifestyle rather than relying on PPI, which has a lot of side effects.

Dr. Carver:

And this is where a health coach is so so, like this is one of the things I think health coaches can help with the most is how do I get my digestion more ideal? And again, like you said, I have patients every day that say yep, I've been on this for a decade and a thing, oh my Lord. And then, and there's all this science showing that it causes allergies food so that you like all sorts, because I tell patients.

Dr. Carver:

why do you think your stomach is supposed to be of an acid of two, and now you're going to stop producing acid. How are you going to digest anything? And yet a stomach acid is what produces the bicarb, it's what produces your digestive enzymes, which produce the bile, no bile and food. No, you can't break down anything, so it's really problematic.

Irene Chang:

People can be malnutritious. They eat so much, but they're not getting nutrition nutrient in and they're not breaking down and all these things relate to each other.

Dr. Carver:

So they're not making enzymes, they're not making hormones and you could eat all you want, but if they're not being absorbed and metabolized, then what good does that do? Exactly and I think that's something that I suffered for a long time was I could eat everything, I could never gain anything, and with my eczema I wasn't breaking things down properly. My digestion was really just shot.

Irene Chang:

One of the important tools that we have as a health coach is elimination diet, because that is 21-day elimination diet and I've done that with several of my clients and it's not like that. You can't eat them forever, like the gluten, dairy corn, sometimes eggs and shellfish, but you figure it out by eliminating for 21 days and introducing it slowly, one by one. Caffeine is another one, but then that does not mean you can't have them for the rest of your life, but it just heals the gut and dosage matter. Some people could have some of the cheese, but then they can't have a lot of them, and so you're figuring it out so you could live with the food without constantly affecting your gut lining and having leaky gut, which then of course inflammation and all the problems, metabolic problems, just all the problems. So fixing that gut lining by having elimination diet works well.

Dr. Carver:

That was the first thing I did 14 years ago.

Dr. Carver:

I took wheat out of my you know, on all these steroid creams, took wheat out of my diet for four weeks and my hands cleared 90%, and that's all I did. And I was like, oh geez, and the cool thing about the gut, it turns over in a few days, right, so it can heal relatively quickly. But when we're constantly eating it, so it's amazing. And the benefit of this, like you said, is like some people don't like to diet. They don't want to do this because they don't want to feel restricted, like I can never go out to eat and I can, but again, if you just take three weeks to remove one thing and and for me to have my hands clear 90, I mean, it was so excruciating itchy, like to me. I was like I'm sold when you have that kind of a win without having to take medications, just doing one simple thing. As much as I love bread, but I was like I can't take it anymore. Right, you can now have.

Irene Chang:

There's so much gluten-free stuff and that's one of the things I help. Same thing with my husband too. He found that gluten sensitivity is not a celiac but it affects not only your gut, your skin, but your brain. You don't want to get dementia when you get older because of gluten. There's so much you can do now by substituting, replacing. You don't have to feel deprived at all. He makes his own cookies now with almond flour and all the. So I think those are the things that also health coaches can help. With a pantry, eliminating certain things, but replacing it. There's People don't have. I don't feel people have to feel deprived. I think it's just the making smart choices and making changes and adapting to it because, like you said, the benefit is huge.

Dr. Carver:

Yeah, yeah, we talked a little about protein. Let's talk about fat a little bit. What? What is like the, the newest science and bag about fat. I've talked about a lot on this podcast we've had somebody on talking about this, which is a big problem the seed oil problem.

Irene Chang:

I think it's such a really real because, first of all, and most people get seed oil from ultra-processed food and they put soybean oil, corn oil, canola oil, all these seed oils, because they make the products last long and it's cheap. So when people consume ultra-processed food meaning all the stuff that's manufactured food, not the real food we're not talking about like tomato with the water and salt in a jar. We're talking about the stuff that's packaged all the chips, the snacks, all the packaged food, which is a lot of it. When I go grocery shopping I look at other people's car I'm like, oh, my God, it's really sad, but all that food has seed oil and the omega-6 seed oil from them. One it has all the pesticide anyway, all the GMO with the pesticide.

Irene Chang:

But those seed oil, as I understand it from like the Dr Ben Bickman who talks about this extensively it really is those are the omega-6 oil from seed oil. Right, mainly that's the one that creates oxidized fat in our lipid and it's not that cholesterol, it's not the LDL, it's actually the oxidized LDL that causes cardiovascular disease and stroke and they are mainly coming from seed oil. So it's not the saturated fat, like coconut oil is very healthy food. And when I think of one third of the global population, they live on coconut oil and they have a lot less dementia and neurodegenerative disease than we do because of coconut oil consumption. Saturated fat is not the devil, in other words, it depends.

Irene Chang:

I think there's seven, eight different saturated fat anyway, but it seems from the latest science the seed oil is really a problem. It's a inflammatory, it's a pro-inflammatory fat versus like omega-3 fat from fish and seafood. That's anti-inflammatory, so they're like the opposite. So we need to, and American people don't really eat as much seafood as other countries, so we need to consume a lot more seafood, especially the small fish that has a lot of fatty, small, fatty fish that has omega-3. And if we can't do it, for whatever the reason, then we need to take supplements so that it's anti-inflammatory, it's good for your brain. It's really essential, right for health and metabolism and also the brain. That's so important. And of course, there's one thing people can do is basically reduce, stop eating those manufactured food. That's really if you could just eat what nature made.

Dr. Carver:

It's funny when you talk about the supermarket. I have the hardest time going because I had the same way. When you know stuff, you just feel like none of that food. But 90% of stuff in grocery stores isn't real food. At least in America. It's not real food because it's cheap and it's fast and the lifestyle we all live is we're all tired, we don't want to cook, we're all moms and dads are working and it's a shame, but it's very hard and it's it can be stressful going.

Dr. Carver:

I was just in the supermarket yesterday and I was thinking I just you go into the healthy aisles, right, there isn't a single like granola bar that doesn't have seed. I love there. Like there's this new brand called Junkless and like one of the first ingredients is canola oil. I'm like my Lord, like what do you think is junk if you put canola oil and you're junkless? But I have yet to find a granola bar that doesn't have a seed oil in it and this one, one of my things is like I've got to make one because, yes, ideally it'd be great. We all eat health food, but let's be realistic.

Irene Chang:

Sometimes we need something on the go right, they're not in supermarkets. You can find them online, like whether it's Bulletproof or Parallel Valley and all these companies direct consumer. They're not in grocery stores. Yeah, no, you really have to seek out, because the companies are out there making them without any seed oils, but they're not in supermarkets.

Dr. Carver:

No, my other favorite one is the Raw Bars R-A-W-R. They're really good. They have a lot of good flavors too, so that's a go, and you have to keep them refrigerated.

Irene Chang:

Well, that makes sense.

Dr. Carver:

Yes, the same thing. I order them online, but it's yeah, it's hard, it's hard to, and then those things obviously are more expensive. So it's a challenge. Eating healthy doesn't have to be expensive, and I think that's a big misconception a lot of people have. So we know that there are certain foods. Okay, if we can't afford all organic, what at least are the things? Right If you have a banana that has a thick skin, so eat a regular banana, a potato onions, all these things.

Irene Chang:

You're not eating skin. So, yeah, no, that's fine, but like a strawberry, right.

Dr. Carver:

The pesticides are able to go in easier. So that's what you want to think of. If someone has a thicker skin, it may be okay to not eat organs, but berries they absorb a lot more.

Irene Chang:

Actually, to me, the best way to shop is buy frozen, organic frozen fruits. I always do, because it's so much cheaper and better actually to buy organic frozen blueberries or strawberries any of these fruits because they were frozen at the time of harvest, which was actually better than staying in the supermarket shelf.

Dr. Carver:

They have the most nutrition, because that's the other thing. When you're buying organic, it may have been picked weeks ago and then it had to travel so far. By the time it gets you, maybe it doesn't have a pesticide but it must have the nutrients. I don't even trust salmon.

Irene Chang:

I'd rather buy frozen, wild-caught frozen salmon because they did it right then when they caught it and processed it. Who knows if they were frozen and defrosted and then looks fresh, so I don't trust them. We do have a nice some of these local farms, like regenerative farms that I work.

Dr. Carver:

We're lucky where we live, we're lucky. They're coming more and more. Yes, there's a new one right where I live that they just bought this great farm in the whole, like it's all regenerative.

Irene Chang:

That's awesome.

Dr. Carver:

And it's so exciting. You can see, they must have, I don't know, a hundred sheep grazing now in people orchards that had gone to rotten.

Irene Chang:

I cannot wait.

Dr. Carver:

Because I do. I have to order all my meat and seafood and have it shipped to the house because I just don't like. You said anything and the growth was being super fresh.

Irene Chang:

I got them from Square Root Farm in Lanesboro. That's a good one too, and to me also, vegetables. People always say like, oh, I don't have time to cook vegetables. But you know what, if you buy organic frozen vegetables like whether it's just spinach or kale or even mushrooms they're already cut up and all you need to do is take it out of your freezer and dump it. Either you want to do is take it out of your freezer and dump it, either you want to do make a stew or a stir fry. It's so much easier and you're cutting out all that time that you have to wash and cut.

Irene Chang:

And I think to me when you do that the cooking becomes a really simple and doesn't take a lot of time. And if you have mixed like, I mix my own herbs already, so I put all the Italian herbs and some all spice herbs and I make my own. So I might have like herbs that 12 of them already mixed in. So I put a lot of herbs and spices when I cook, whether it's just stir frying or marinating meat or making a lot of stews, especially when it's colder soup too. But I make a lot of stews Because then you can make a one-meal dish with more substance than stew.

Irene Chang:

So when you have all that done already, and then I also make sauces and then I also make sauces, so you have like two, three different flavors of sauce by mixing different ingredients and you can keep it in the refrigerator. You could put some ginger and garlic. It puts an Asian sauce. You mix oyster sauce with the black bean sauce and hoisin sauce and some sesame oil and it's already with the garlic and it's already made. All you need to do is pour them and you stir fry it. You could put some tofu or chicken or salmon, whatever.

Dr. Carver:

But it really doesn't take more than 15, 20 minutes. And that's amazing, because I think that's one big complaint to say I don't have time. But right, you said instead of, and that's why people buy the foods, because it's easier to just take the jar off the shelf. But again, so those have the seed oils in them, they have all sorts of GMO products and pests that you name it. That's one thing that I, when I was trying to coach people too, is like you can do it, but you have to plan for it, right? So maybe you pick one day whether it's a weekend or one night a week, where I'm going to make the Asian sauce, or my favorite sauce is chimichurri, which with the cilantro and the parsley.

Dr. Carver:

I love that, with meat or chicken, with anything. I love having that, and it's not that easy to make. Right? A couple of ingredients, you blend them in the blender, make a batch yeah, make a batch. Yeah, exactly. And then you have that in the fridge. So on other busy weeknights, you throw some chicken in, you put your sauce on, you pour out, like you said, the frozen vegetables. Again, those are going to have the most nutrient density.

Dr. Carver:

I'm like you. I always have frozen peas, always, always, always, and then the mixture of the other vegetables too, but there's one vegetable without a doubt I can get my kids to eat the peas. It has a good combination of the carbs and the protein and it's green. So that's and it is. It just takes a little bit of time?

Irene Chang:

Yeah, and I make. Let's say, I make like four portions. So if I'm making, let's say, black rice with vegetables, which is one of my signature dishes people love it and I make it I would eat a quarter of it and I divide them up into portions and freeze them in a glass or stainless steel and then label them. You have the side dish already. You've got the vegetables, lots of vegetables and some rice. So you've got it. So all you need is protein and you take it out the night before. Okay, what am I going to eat tomorrow night? Okay, I'll take it out, put it in the refrigerator so it's going to defrost by itself and then, by the time dinner comes along, all you need to do is reheat it and have some sort of a protein which is pretty easy to make while you're reheating that stuff. Right, or you already have some.

Irene Chang:

Or open up the can of a couple cans of sardine. This is so great and I cook a lot of, like the salmon in the can, wild-caught salmon, which is like a tuna, but use that. The other day I made a sardine cake like a crab cake, but with the sardine you don't even have to do anything, right, you just take it out of the can, mush it up with some other stuff. Oh, I use a lot of capers. Capers are great, so nutritious, and then automatically adds saltiness and unami flavor. So mix some of them and then you pan fry it. It's done in 15 minutes. It's no big deal.

Irene Chang:

Health coaches can help, because I can figure out like okay, what are the vegetables, what are the protein, what are the grains or things? What do you like to eat Like? Do you like eating cauliflower? Okay, let's make a big batch of mashed cauliflower using frozen cauliflower, and it's easy. Again, you can divide them up and make four different servings and then you've got it vegetable and carb together and you've got it vegetable and carved together. Cauliflower is an amazing food.

Dr. Carver:

God it has my favorite. We actually my kids love to make quesadillas, but again, like with all the grains and all this stuff. So I had one time my best friend in Texas sent me some cauliflower tortillas and they were the most. Usually, if you try to buy them in the store, they're anything gluten-free. It just breaks easily, right? It doesn't stay nice and folded like a burrito. And she's sending these and they're like even my kids were totally fooled. They had no idea, because cauliflower can have a strong taste. They and and I called them and I said, okay, but what are what? How can you make them so good? And they taste exactly like flour tortillas. And there it's cauliflower and butter and baking there you go.

Dr. Carver:

I don't know the exact recipe, oh my god. And so I ordered them from texas. I get a huge, a huge box nice sent to me and I freeze them because they they will thaw very easily and they are the most so. That's like in the morning, if I'm in a hurry I'll make some scrambled eggs, throw it in my little tortilla and it's amazing, it's.

Dr. Carver:

It's. That's like in the morning, if I'm in a hurry I'll make some scrambled eggs, throw it in my little tortilla. And it's amazing, it's. It's. That's a nice easy thing I do that too I would.

Irene Chang:

I do the cauliflower thins, the round one instead of the bread. That's so great for breakfast, with some little bit of avocado egg and some smoked salmon Perfect breakfast. And you, I, I wear the cgm. It gets 10, the perfect score. Yeah, I think it's just, and you don't have to know so much. People usually eat same food. There's a repertoire of same food, so once you figure it out how to do it and how to shop and cook quickly, you're fine. You don't have to like think about, like, what am I gonna eat? You you've got them, you have. You've got some in the refrigerator, already in the freezer, because you may, what do you?

Dr. Carver:

think so. Maybe tell us a little bit more about some staples. You think that you already mentioned frozen vegetables, frozen fruit. What are some other, like pantry staples? Well, to be able to make a, healthy.

Irene Chang:

Yeah, in terms of snack, definitely nuts and seeds. Those are great and I also just got some unsweetened coconut flakes so you can mix nuts and whatever all kinds of nuts, walnuts, pistachio, whatever almond, all the nuts. Hazelnut is great too and you mix them with a little bit of coconut flakes and because it has, again, great source of fiber and you could have some dark chocolate. If you don't want to have any sugar, you can have the littlest chocolate that has astidia in it and so that's a great snack. Right In terms of pantry, for the dry food, I have like a dried shiitake mushroom. Again, you can just put it in the water so you don't have to have in the refrigerator, you can put them in the water for an hour before and it's a beautiful and healthy and flavorful mushroom that you can put it into stir fry or stew or soup.

Irene Chang:

I also use seaweed as a snack too, even like a sardine. People think, oh, I don't like sardine. But if you actually take, let's say, seaweed, which is always cutting, you buy cut up seaweed which has some sesame oil or olive oil on it. You can wrap, let's say, sardine right in a seaweed. And I put kimchi, because I have kimchi and I'm Koreans, I always have kimchi. So a piece of kimchi and sardine and I wrap it with the seaweed and that's great and it's very nutritious.

Irene Chang:

The the seaweed I have jars of, like like tomato in water always buy the italian ones because they are skinless and like artichokes, you know in in jar olives. When I'm really hungry I always just eat, eat olives first, like, oh, I'm starving, I can't wait. Okay, I'm going to pop in a half dozen olives right away so that I don't feel like I'm hungry. You always want to have some guacamole thing so you can eat with a celery or a cucumber easily. Celery or cucumber easily Again, great snack or appetizer. What else do I have? And I use a lot of black rice instead of white or brown rice because it has all those, you get more nutrition.

Irene Chang:

You freeze them, you cook in a big batch, again you freeze them, so then they come out and then, as long as they're defrosted, you can even microwave to heat them up again. Very versatile right to mix with things. So, yeah, that works well. What else? I have a lot of frozen food. I really use a lot of frozen veggies so that, in case I didn't go to supermarket or farmer's market, I still have a plenty of vegetables that I can just quickly cook, because, again, I think vegetables are better cooked.

Dr. Carver:

Yeah, and then if you, if you listen to some of these people who are in the carnivore right and they're saying, oh there's, there's so many anti-nutrients and vegetables thing, right, some people are like Dave Asprey, right, he hates raspberries and he's sensitive, right, Not everybody has an absolute sensitive, so you know.

Dr. Carver:

But when you cook these things you properly cook them it takes away the antigen. Same thing with even with nuts and seeds. If you sprout them, which you can buy sprouted nuts and seeds it takes away some of those anti-metriens that some people will say. And then, if you think about bread but think about sourdough bread, the way that that's fermented right. Also, it eats a lot of the sugar in the bread. So the way foods are prepared. Also, why is kimchi so great? Same thing it's fermented right and that is huge for our-.

Irene Chang:

I think that's the same thing with the quinoa too the way Americans cook. That's not how it's cooked. They're supposed to be fermented, and I think every culture, traditional culture, has fermented food because that's how we preserve it. It's better for you, right, with all the microbiome and raising down.

Dr. Carver:

Yes, versus the seed oils to preserve. Yeah, we've switched fermentation because it takes such a long time. And still the same thing about bread. It is not hard to bake a loaf of bread, but a homemade bread. If you make your kids sandwiches, say for lunch, maybe it lasts two or three days, but it lasts two or three days and you don't have to put any of the other stuff in it.

Irene Chang:

The other one that I recently started to use is mung beans. Do you know mung beans? It has so much protein I had no idea compared to other beans. So mung beans are very easy to cook and it can become part of like a batter too, making up pancakes and stuff. So I've been using that too, which is great, and I use in the Korean cuisine. I use the noodles made out of sweet potato. That's a staple of Korean cuisine and that's the noodle dish you can order from any Korean restaurant, and so you have vegetables, sometimes meat and not meat whatever but the main carb is sweet potato, because it's 100% sweet potato noodles.

Dr. Carver:

That's my favorite food, I think. Sweet potatoes I absolutely do. That's why I loved it. Back in the years I tried the paleo and that was my go-to, always with the meat and the sweet potatoes, which is interesting because they're very high, like in progesterone, which I think was something my body was really and that's those things like cravings right, that can tell you something your body is needing. And I think about, like my kids, and they've gone through these phases where they'll be like really into a certain food and then all of a sudden one day they're like no, I don't like it anymore. And you think, what do you mean? You liked it yesterday but then the more I got into the science of nutrition, I was like, huh, maybe their body now is sufficient in that specific nutrient that now they don't care for, especially if it's a natural food.

Irene Chang:

I think the problem with the children now. I think they're so used to eating ultra-processed food they've lost the ability. It's basically hijacked. We all have that innate ability to crave something when we're lacking nutrition. But if they don't eat natural food growing up and they have no idea and they just keep eating all these manufactured food-like stuff, then they lost that ability, which is really they do, and it messes up all the hormones and the satiety signals.

Dr. Carver:

And all of that because of the way that those foods stimulate the nervous system in a not so good way.

Irene Chang:

And you never really feel full and they're supposed to be so tasty. Anyway, because of that, they have that the combination of the sugar, the fat, the salt, the crunchiness, all this snacks and sweetness, because that's what they go for, that's their manufacturing, for that bliss point, so that people get addicted, and that's really.

Dr. Carver:

Yeah, I don't know, it worries me about that yeah, I, I don't know it's, it's it worries me about that. And to trying to raise two teenagers who you know, trying to tell them hey, you know, what you're eating now is going to affect your future health. Right, I started with the leaky gut. Everything started for me as a teenager. I had acne, and so it was on years of antibiotics, right, like destroyed my gut and it was on birth control for a long time. That also destroys your gut. Then I went on acting oh please, you know so. And and then now you know the x-men. Everything, I think, is a result of my predisposition. And then then I had two babies and a stressful job and all you know, and there's justballs. But we're trying to teach them because they don't feel necessarily bad now. So it's hard for them to understand that they need to do better.

Dr. Carver:

But my 16 year old she's already coming around and I was talking to her in my last podcast. She gave me a list. She's like I need to eat these foods to have clear skin and I was like fantastic. She said, mom, I need oysters. And I was like, yes, they're very good sports, it's zinc, right? So we went to down to Guido's and there was only one person there. So he said I don't have time to shuck them for you, so we'll have to try them in a restaurant.

Dr. Carver:

So when we were in Florida for Thanksgiving and we went to a seafood restaurant, so she was able to try oysters, which I don't. They're too slimy for me, I don't love them. But we've got a great video of both my 13 and 15-year-old trying the oysters. So they're like okay, they're opening them. And this was my child, who is the pickiest eater on the planet, and so it's very exciting to see her yes, yes, to see her eating. And because she wants to have clearer skin and she knows she needs zinc, because she wants to have clearer skin and she knows she needs zinc, so it's like now that she's motivated to do it right. And so I think that's the hard thing as a parent is, I was always trying to push, push, push instead of just saying give them the choices, like just exposing them to a lot of things without being too pushy because they're coming back around. That's great. Well, we're coming up to almost the end of our time. Is there any other little tidbits or nuggets or anything important that you think we should know?

Irene Chang:

I think if people really want to change their projector health outcome, they really should work on lowering their insulin resistance. And the way that works really comes from food. And if you don't put sugar and starch and especially like fructose, all the juices, orange juice, all that if you don't put them into your body, then there's no reason. There's a less reason for pancreas to release insulin constantly and it creates that insulin resistance. And it's really a scary thing because we don't, most doctors don't order and people have no idea what their fasting insulin level is. They only know the fasting glucose, which is just a snapshot of that morning, and insulin the insulin fasting insulin goes at least a decade before. So I think I wish people can get their fasting insulin level from their doctor and lab blood work so they know where they are so they can project. Okay, if I keep going this way, 10 years later I may end up having Alzheimer's. You know what I mean. This needs to be installed in people and I think that's what I'm trying to share.

Dr. Carver:

So important and I'm glad you brought that up because, and especially what you just said, I want to reiterate that it's not just about the diabetes but Alzheimer's, and they're calling Alzheimer's now diabetes, and it is true, like with we. And then you mentioned a CGM, which is a continuous blood glucose monitor which is available to all of us. I recently my HBA1C, which is a kind of a measure of the insulin. Over time was creeping up a little bit, so I was like huh and so I ordered one. It was like a hundred dollars for two months. It's called L-O-S-T-E-L-O. You don't need a doctor's prescription or anything. It's not. There are other programs that are better that give you more data. It's a good stepping stone. It's so easy to use, it's not uncomfortable, and so then you can kind of track when I eat an apple, what happens, or when I, because it's really interesting, because maybe an apple spikes my blood sugar, but it doesn't to yours, it's individual.

Irene Chang:

Yeah, it might spike people eating oatmeal for heart health, but it might spike really high for some people, so they need to know that's so important.

Dr. Carver:

And I think the other thing about that, what you can learn about, is food combination, because what I discovered with mine was that if I eat fat and protein first and then have my carb after, my insulin doesn't go high. But if I eat the carb first, so I would most mornings have top of one macadamia nut, you know, and then have a scrambled egg and then maybe eat my, my fruit, or if I was going to have oatmeal or something, and that's really I know I had. One of my favorite places to go is Mario's and they have their homemade popovers, which I love and who knows if it's got the glyphs there or whatever.

Irene Chang:

But I'm like I can't not have my popover but because I eat like the beans first and I have my protein and the fiber first, then my blood, the fat, then my blood sugar spiked by the other thing that it's proven to be very effective that after you eat, if you could just walk 15 minutes or dance a couple songs away, that's going to blunt the spike, so that's going to have less inflammation and less insulin resistance effect building up, and it's tough where we live because in wintertime it's harder to get.

Dr. Carver:

Like you said, just get up and dance a couple of songs, vacuum the house right, or just you know some kind of activity, and you'll see that I noticed that tremendously on my CGM too. Yep, Yep, Almost immediately. Well, Irene, thank you. You've given us so much great information for those of us maybe who are looking for a health coach or want to find out more about it. How can they reach out?

Irene Chang:

I have my website I think it's going to be listed by to irene at 3hcoachingnet and I'd be happy to give complimentary initial consultation and find out what their health goals are. And we can reach their goals. Small steps, tiny steps.

Dr. Carver:

That's right, and if changing your diet and lifestyle is on the top of that list, please reach out to Irene. We will put all of that information in the show notes for you. Irene, we will put all of that information in the show notes for you, and again, thank you so much for taking your time this afternoon to tell us a little bit about nutrition and health coaching. It's such a valuable tool. So I hope everyone enjoyed this episode and we will catch you on the next one.

Irene Chang:

Thank you so much for having me.

Dr. Carver:

Thank you for having me. Thank you, hello. I'm Dr Rachel Carver, a board-certified naturopathic biologic dentist and a certified health coach. Did you know that over 80% of the US population has some form of gum disease? Many of us don't even know that we have this source of chronic infection and inflammation in our mouth that's been linked to serious consequences like heart disease, diabetes, stroke, dementia, colon cancer, kidney disease, even pregnancy complications. Would you like to learn how to reverse and prevent these chronic, debilitating conditions without spending a lot of time and money at the dentist? Join me for my six-week course, where I will teach you the root cause of disease. You'll learn how to be your own best doctor. Are you ready to get started? Let's go.