Episode 72: Eating with Purpose with Chef Healthy Henry

In this episode of the Pound of Cure Weight Loss Podcast, Chef Healthy Henry shares his journey from a culinary background to becoming a nutrition advocate after undergoing bariatric surgery. He discusses his philosophy of healthy eating, the importance of meal prep, and introduces his innovative 'Protein Flip' method, which emphasizes a balanced approach to protein and fiber. The conversation also touches on the role of plant proteins, the use of AI in cooking, and the significance of eating with purpose.

Follow Chef Henry on Instagram and check out his website here. 

Coupon code for The Protein Flip Cookbook: PROTEIN20

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Transcript

Zoë (00:04)
Welcome back to the Pound of Cure Weight Loss Podcast. We are here today with a very special guest. We are excited to welcome Chef Healthy Henry. How are you today?

Henry Baker (00:13)
Hi, good to see you guys.

Matthew Weiner, MD (00:14)
Yes, chef.

Henry Baker (00:16)
Yes, I'm doing very good. I'm super busy, but I'm really good. Happy to be here.

Matthew Weiner, MD (00:16)
Welcome.

Zoë (00:20)
Amazing. Tell us a little bit about Dr. Weiner, you met Chef Henry at a conference, is that right?

Matthew Weiner, MD (00:27)
Yeah, it was the obesity help conference, right?

Henry Baker (00:31)
Yeah, it is.

Matthew Weiner, MD (00:32)
which I think is probably

coming out right around when this podcast is going to air. It's really a great organization. bring bariatric patients from all over the country together and offer them education and support. ⁓ And, know, I think like it's so cool that people are so passionate about what this surgery has offered them that they like fly across the country to meet other people who had the same experience because it is such an

thing for them. So I love that. I love that conference. We weren't able to make it this year. I'm hoping to maybe make it next year but yeah Henry and I met there.

Zoë (01:13)
Are you going this year, Henry?

Henry Baker (01:14)
Yeah, I'll be there. It's just up the coast for me. So it's just an easy drive. ⁓ love the reason why I like that one is because it's a lot of support. People are there to share their stories, to support each other and to learn. And it's not about like, you know, all the crazy like, you know, social media stuff. It's just like, we're here to learn and to really share and get to know each other. And I mean, this is probably my fourth year going and every year the same people go and they like get caught up and they're friends and they make lifelong friends.

That's really nice, yeah.

Zoë (01:47)
So speaking of stories, we would love for you to share your story. What turned you into Chef Healthy Henry and just tell us a little bit about your background so our listeners can learn more about you.

Henry Baker (02:00)
Yeah, so I actually went to culinary school like 20 years ago and just, you know, I was just working for myself, doing like, you know, dinner parties, cooking classes and stuff like that. And then, but I had like some health issues and you know, whatever. And I was, I basically gained a bunch of weight. So I was almost 400 pounds and almost five years ago I had bariatric surgery, I had to sleep and I lost 140 pounds. And I started from there, started saying I need to change my lifestyle because

I don't want to get back there and so I started creating these healthy life healthy recipes and then I go to conferences like the OBC help one and People are saying I want to do it, but I don't know how I don't know how to cook I don't have recipes and I'm like, well, that's what I'm doing in my house right now So that's where the foundation of Chef healthy Henry started where it's just like I've been doing this for myself So now I can like put bring it out to everybody else and then this is like, you know except Probably started doing this about three years ago

Matthew Weiner, MD (02:57)
Cool. What kind of recipes are you cooking now? What are you focusing on now? Do you go through that where you're like, I'm really into this type of food or that type of food?

Zoë (02:58)
Very cool. Yeah, I thought...

Henry Baker (03:08)
Right now, mean, everything I do is always seasonal. So right now I'm transferring to like the fall menus. So like I've been doing a lot of spring, like salads and like fresh ingredients and things like that. I go to farmer's market all the time and now we're going to the fall market. So it's going to be more soups and stews and more comfort foods and stuff like that. But it's always going to be within that whole like protein, high protein, high fiber concept. And that's the concept that I've been growing with my, with my protein flip. Yeah.

Zoë (03:38)
Protein flip. Why don't you tell us a bit more about that? That's a new phrase. So tell us a bit about the protein flip.

Henry Baker (03:44)
Yeah,

it's pretty new, but it's one of those things where, so let's say that we take it, you take a plate and instead of having your meat or your fish being the star of your plate, what we're going to do is we're going to take, you know, instead of six ounces of chicken, we're going to reduce that to three ounces of chicken. And then we're going to disperse the protein of fiber all over the rest of the plate. So you have three ounces of fiber. I mean, three ounces of chicken. You'll have some like, let's say quinoa in there. You'll have some high fiber vegetables and then everybody in the

on the plate basically plays their part. And then we have, you know, what we call our secondary proteins. Our secondary proteins are going to be the garnishes like, you know, they're going to be like chia seeds are going to be like, you know, at the yogurt dressing or just like a sweet, not too well, that's going to add more protein on there. But they're because they're not the star of the show, because they're not part of the main thing, they're just garnishes at for, you flavor. We call those a secondary product, you know, one. So that's the main part of it is just like, we're going to flip the

It's not going to be like, you know, a big piece of meat and then just a little bit of everything else.

Matthew Weiner, MD (04:50)
Yeah, I mean that, that sinks right up with our pound of vegetables, which is the whole essence of the pound to get your program. We've been, we've been kind of promoting this concept for a long time now. And honestly, I mean, I love that protein flip because you're right. We're used to like, it's all protein, the steak, the chicken, that's what are you eating? I'm having chicken.

Henry Baker (04:55)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Matthew Weiner, MD (05:12)
But

it really should be, I'm having a ton of vegetables and I'm using the protein to enhance the flavor of the vegetables. And I think a lot of other cultures do this, don't they? Like, think about Chinese food. It's like vegetables with a little bit of meat in it. mean, where else do you see this? Can you walk us through some of the history of food and how Americans got to be so protein-centric?

Henry Baker (05:26)
Yeah, they do.

Well, think that, I mean, obviously there's, mean, you go to other countries. Yeah. I mean, I, I, you know, they have, they go through this, like this is what the base of the Mediterranean diet as it is. mean, and you know, everything, I mean, a lot of those other countries are like Mediterranean diet rich kind of thing where we are more like meat and potatoes kind of people. And it's hard because it's hard for your digestion. It's hard on the planet. It's hard on everything. And, and, but that's what our focus is. And I feel like, and that's where our, you know, part of our epidemic of, you know, obesity started.

Matthew Weiner, MD (05:49)
Right.

Henry Baker (06:09)
is like you can't digest anything so everything just sits and sits and sits and sits and then you know it's just hard and so for me I feel like we need to find ways to have you know proteins and fiber work together as a unit and then

And then once you start working on your proteins and your fibers, then you start adding a little bit of your carbs, your complex carbs, whatever kind of thing, just as an enhancement to your plate. It's not a big star of your plate kind of thing. so everything works together. Everything's basically 50-50. And this is one of those things where when I talk to people about this whole thing, and especially when I talk to people from other countries, they're like, my country does this already.

So I'm like, yeah, I understand that. And that's what we need to start doing. And that's what I'm going to start pushing ⁓ with my new Deluxe Cookbook I just put together. It has 26 ingredients, I mean, recipes. And then it's got the whole program, the math and everything else, all lined up for everybody. So we'll get to that later though.

Matthew Weiner, MD (07:10)
Yeah,

I you know, we've been pushing and promoting this idea of Cala ratio in our

in our program and I think that really what you're talking about, you're gonna score through the charts on your calorie ratio score because the more vegetables you eat, and this is something that's kind of really frustrated me about traditional food logging and tracking, is food logging and tracking is based on the data we have available and the data we have available is carbohydrates, it's protein, it's fat, it's calories. But I think we all know that that alone isn't enough

determine whether something is healthy. A hot dog and an almond has the exact same macro breakdown. The only difference is there's a lot more fiber in the almond. ⁓

Henry Baker (07:55)
Yeah. ⁓

Matthew Weiner, MD (07:58)
But nonetheless, really is a, know, just looking at macros isn't enough. And so we created the Caloratio system that is based on the quality of the food. So you eat vegetables and your score goes way up, even though when you're tracking carbohydrates or calories, eating vegetables is insignificant because there's no calories in them. So who cares? so, but when you're using our Caloratio system, the score goes up. So this protein flip approach is going to sink

really nicely with that model.

Henry Baker (08:31)
Yeah, I think so. And I think that there is a lot, there's a lot to be fleshed out in this whole protein foot. The whole idea, the whole method is there's a lot to be fleshed out. I'm just getting started myself as far as like getting it, like I've got everything put together. I have the idea is what I want to do the whole thing, but there's so many good things to this that I can only push so many out at so much out at the same at one time, you know? So like in the next couple months I'll, I'll, you know, it's a surface and then it's going to be more and more and more.

Matthew Weiner, MD (08:54)
Yeah.

Henry Baker (09:01)
And what you're talking about is exactly that. It's all your food, especially for people who are GLP-1s and or bariatric surgery or whatever, that can't eat a lot, they have to eat with purpose. And they have to know exactly what they're eating, why they're eating it, how they're eating it, because they don't have a lot of space in there and they don't have a big plate to put everything in. So they have to eat with purpose.

Zoë (09:24)
I love that. Can you tell us a little bit about your post-op nutrition journey? Like how did that transform as you worked through making those recipes for yourself? Because you know maybe at first when you initially got a surgery like so many post-bariatric surgery patients are it's protein protein protein protein shakes you know protein powder protein bars

Matthew Weiner, MD (09:30)
Thank you.

Zoë (09:51)
and it's all very processed, how would you say that your post-op journey with your nutrition and how that aligns with the recipes that you create and your philosophy, did that change at all from right after surgery to throughout your process?

Henry Baker (10:07)
Well, feel like it, mean, yeah, mean, everything, everything obviously evolves as you get going further on. It's going to have to because like once you hit like three to five years, you're going to your body reset, you know.

sets to where it's going to be. And then that's when the regain starts to happen. And that's where that's the part that you have to like be ready for. That's the part that when when you first have your surgery and everything, you're losing weight and you're in that honeymoon phase and everything's great and wonderful and they're talking about your emotions and they're talking about your mind, but no one's talking about like, you know, actually learning how to cook because they'll say like you're supposed to eat this much protein and you're supposed to eat this much fiber, but they don't tell you how and they don't tell you what to do or why or like

Why are you eating this and what is it for and how to eat it kind of thing? They're just saying here's what you have to do now go home and do it. And that's where I come in. I'm going to say here's how you do it and here's how you get comfortable in your kitchen, that whole thing. But I mean, in the beginning it was just like, it was like all you can eat is protein, protein, protein. And it was just a lot of cottage cheese, a lot of string cheese, a lot of yogurts. But then as you're getting further on and you're able to eat more like, know, soft foods and solid foods and stuff like that, then you can start, that's when you start

really

bringing in the fibers and more nutrient-dense vegetables. You can't eat a lot, so like I said, everything's with a purpose. You have to say, well, my protein intake for this meal may have to go down so I can bring in some fiber because fiber is so good for you and it's so underrated that people tend to forget that, but you have to bring in the fiber. Like I said, it all basically starts with your protein. As you're getting further on, you have to start working in the

nutrients and the fibers and everything else. ⁓ And then you can start cooking, you know, regular food. But like I said, the hard part is that you have to, once as you're losing weight and everything is great, that's a time to learn the skill of cooking healthy food for you, for your family, for your lifestyle, because that's what's going to sustain you forever. ⁓ And so that's the point I've always tried to express to people, especially cooking with your children, cooking with your family, so important.

Zoë (12:15)
Mmm.

Matthew Weiner, MD (12:15)
You know, let me ask you a question, Chef Henry, that I get or, you know, a comment I hear from my patients many times per week. And that's, listen, I'm a busy parent. I'm busy. running around like crazy. I don't have time. I'm getting home at eight or nine. Money's tight. Like, I just, I kind of eat what's around me and what's around me is garbage.

Henry Baker (12:39)
Yeah.

Matthew Weiner, MD (12:40)
What do you do for someone who's just strapped for time and to some degree money too to kind of sort through this and get started? ⁓ What advice would you give that person?

Henry Baker (12:51)
Yeah, I get a lot of that too. get a lot of, you know, I can't afford to eat healthy or I don't have time. Those are the two pushbacks I always get. And the thing is, that it's, you know, the hard part, especially if you have jobs and you have kids, I understand that. I have a daughter, she's grown and out the door, but I, when she was little, brought her in the kitchen, like just my, like my family did. Bring me in the kitchen, you start learning how to cook when you're young. They are part of, they are part of the cooking process. They learn how to do it so they can help if, you know, so it's not just one

Matthew Weiner, MD (12:57)
Yeah.

Henry Baker (13:21)
person just like there's not just the one person doing all the cooking it's everybody's doing stuff like when I grew up I had to get those pillows potatoes before my mom got home you know all that stuff all that prep stuff we had to do and that's part of that's part of the process that's part of learning how to cook and that's part of how learning what to cook and how to do all that but at the same time the biggest thing we always talk about is meal prep obviously meal prep is a big thing you take you know you go out you take one day you turn on some music you you bring your

your candles, whatever, and just start cooking, just meal prepping, meal prepping, meal prepping for the rest of week. That's the easiest thing because you are on the go. I'm on the go all the time too. I'm in my car all the time too and I'm like, I have to bring in little containers of my food or some yogurt and stuff like that too. You have to be mindful that I'm not gonna be able to do this on Wednesday night so I need to prepare Sunday night for Wednesday night and be ahead of the game, yeah.

Matthew Weiner, MD (14:18)
Is there any equipment you should get? Like what would be the top three or four pieces of equipment? Let's say I got a hundred bucks. I want to commit to meal prepping. What should I buy in terms of like utensil storage, all that kind of stuff in order to make that happen?

Zoë (14:19)
Mm-hmm.

Henry Baker (14:25)
Yeah.

Zoë (14:27)
you

Henry Baker (14:34)
I think that the biggest thing is that you have to get obviously resealable freezer bags, things like that. Those are big because you can, and the little containers, like little individual containers, you can get those from Costco or whatever kind of thing. Those are big because you can meal prep those, can get seven in a row, put all your food in there, put your top on, throw them in a fridge, and they stack really well. Those are the kind of things that are really gonna help you.

kind of stuff, a lot of just like anything that's going to that you can help with a container that those kind of things. But ⁓ and then the bigger thing is like, you know, an air fryer is is a big thing because I mean, it does help. It does help cut down on time. kids love air fryer. They love to use them. So, you know, like I said, getting kids back in the kitchen kind of thing, you know, have them use the air fryer kind of stuff. You know, those are the kind of things that I that I usually tell people to do. Now, I use my air fryer like as a tool, not all the time, because I'm always like doing

kinds of other cooking and you know trying to figure out baking because you know it's hard to do baking and eating healthy at the same time but I try to make it happen yeah so I and yeah in the cookbook I do have some dessert items too yeah

Matthew Weiner, MD (15:46)
So how do we get this cookbook? Tell us more about it.

Zoë (15:46)
Great.

Henry Baker (15:49)
Okay,

so the cookbook is basically called the Protein Flip Method by Chef Healthy Henry. ⁓ It's available on my website. I'll send you guys the link. It's Chef Healthy Henry, but it should be available. My web guys are putting it up right now because it's brand new, basically. You guys are getting exclusive. But like I said.

Zoë (16:09)
Woo!

Matthew Weiner, MD (16:09)
I love it. You heard it first on

the Pound of Cure podcast.

Henry Baker (16:14)
Yes, exactly.

And then I told them to give me a promo code so I can get you guys a promo code for that too. So it's like I said, it's 83 pages, it's 26 recipes, and everything else is like everything spelled out about insulin, like how to control your insulin with protein flip, about your...

like staples and you know how to enhance flavors and spice and rub ideas and things like that. ⁓ And just a lot of about you know who I am, what I'm doing, and why you should trust me because I've been doing this for a long time and this is my passion. This is what I want to do to help people because we need to, we, people need to step forward and take, take charge and start making things happen because I mean you know we can all sit around and say like this country is not in a good situation right now.

But it takes those special people to say, like, I'm going to do my part, because you have to do your part. And at the same time, it's not just about us and helping other people, but this is going to help the planet too, because we're reducing all the animal protein that we're consuming.

Matthew Weiner, MD (17:18)
People need to

be shown another option because as far as they're concerned, the world has shown them that heavily processed food is your option. And so people need another way of doing this, another strategy. So this is fantastic. ⁓ I really love this idea of this protein.

Henry Baker (17:22)
Yes.

vendors.

Yeah, and here's the

other thing. Like we have to start thinking outside the box. Everybody has to because the thing is, like I said, like there's a primary protein and a secondary protein. I break those up because for reasons. the thing is that once you start thinking about like, OK, how can I how can I use these things to to my advantage? This food like use this advantage is good food to my advantage. Then it's it's it's you can think outside the box and just be more creative. And that's what that's what it's really about, because we can eat chicken all day. We can eat string cheese all day. But it's

how you're make it taste good every day. You have to be more adventurous about the whole thing. So we break up, there's animal protein, there's plant protein, but then also what I do is I break up dairy into its own category because dairy technically by scientific whatever, it's, dairy is a animal protein.

But in a chef's world, I don't use that as animal protein. I use that as a garnish. I use that as something that's going to fill my plate, that's going to give it like a little bit more flavor. It's going to be a yogurt kind of thing. So it's not going to be part of a plant protein. It's not going to be a primary protein. It's going to be a secondary protein in its own category. And I feel like that's where we need to start talking about, let's think outside the box. How can we take this dairy that, you know, and I'm not talking about straight dairy. It could be like almond milk or whatever kind of thing.

let's take this stuff and rethink it, reshape it, re-figure out how we're going to put this into our diet and then not have it count as our animal protein.

Zoë (19:11)
And I like that you have that side note about dairy and thinking about dairy in a different way because I think, you know, as Americans, but especially bariatric patients, know, dairy protein from dairy can actually be a huge portion of protein, especially at first, like you were mentioning the cottage cheese and the yogurt and the string cheese. And with the pound of cure and the metabolic reset diet, you know, dairy is so limited and it is, like you said, something that might

Henry Baker (19:21)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Zoë (19:40)
more so wanna be a garnish or just that little every once in a while to enhance the flavor or what have you.

So I like how we have that in common as well

Matthew Weiner, MD (19:47)
Yeah.

Henry Baker (19:49)
Yeah, for sure. yogurt dressings are so good for you. And you just use a couple of tablespoons or two, whatever. And it enhances your flavor for everything you do. Yeah.

Matthew Weiner, MD (19:59)
Yeah, I I wrote a Pound of Cure in 2013, 12 years ago. Pound of Cure is almost 12 years old. That's pretty old actually for a nutrition program. And so, you know, I wrote it and I remember when I wrote it, I'm like, wow, I put a lot of effort into this. I hope I still believe in it like in a year or two later, you know, because it's, and especially Zoe knows me, like I'll go all over the place from time to time, right? So, I mean, first of all, thankfully I really do, but there's still

Henry Baker (20:03)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Matthew Weiner, MD (20:29)
If I was rewriting it, there's a few things I would change. think we've made nuts unlimited, but the book limits nuts, I think, to one or two ounces. And I think I'm really against dairy in the book, where I've certainly kind of eased that restriction, especially yogurt, think. And if I had all the plant-based salad dressings as like recipes, and I talked a lot about that, and I think if I was writing it today, I would expand it and add yogurt into those salad dressings.

Because I do think especially the fermented dairy like yogurt or kefir is really a great option ⁓ and something I think you should be looking at. the bariatric diet cookbook we do, we actually make our own kefir. So you can see that evolution where I did embrace it a little bit later on. But yeah, Zoe's right, it's not like yeah, eat a hunk of cheese and pat yourself on the back. That's not how the reset diet is set up.

Henry Baker (21:03)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Yeah, for sure.

Zoë (21:27)
And that's actually

something that I think is a common misconception or just thought, you know, among a lot of bariatric maybe recipes and it's just like, yeah, cheese as a protein source. it's like, actually, when you're looking at it, there's actually not that much protein. You could be so much more optimized with your protein. But the other thing I wanted to mention about the...

fermented yogurts and the kefir. You we hear a lot about probiotics and a lot of people ask me, you know, what probiotics should I take?

Henry Baker (21:54)
Yeah. Well, yeah.

Zoë (22:01)
in this world that we live in that's focused on the process and the convenience, it's always, ⁓ let me just pick out a supplement to take. But in fact, having it from food sources like the Greek yogurt with the good bacteria with the kefir, other fermented foods, that's how we can take that whole foods approach and bring those naturally occurring probiotics into our diet as well.

Henry Baker (22:10)
Yeah.

Yeah, I agree. And I feel like there's something to the naturalness of whole foods and the grains and nutrients, the nutrients that are in the whole foods that you're going to get naturally from that food. There's something way more, I guess, or whatever than popping a pill or taking whatever. Yeah, for sure.

Matthew Weiner, MD (22:48)
You really only get like a few strains of bacteria when you take a probiotic that you purchase over the counter. But when you eat a probiotic food, you can get, you know, hundreds of different bacterial strains. so, and it's gonna be more in line with I think a natural microbiome that should exist in our intestinal tract. So yeah, we're very much in favor of probiotic foods, not probiotic supplements.

Henry Baker (22:54)
Yeah.

Yeah, for sure.

Zoë (23:15)
you were telling us about the cookbook being in it, you just basically just finished it, it's getting uploaded onto your website, you sent it to me, I was thinking, look, it looks amazing. Is there anything else you kind of wanted to share with us about the protein flip or, you know, the cookbook in general?

Henry Baker (23:34)
Well, I think that this is going to be something that I'm hoping that really takes off and really is something that people start to trend towards because this is going to be something that this is going to be really big. It's not just about you and me and whatever. It's about the planet. about nutrition. It's about lifestyle. And so I'm going to be promoting that. Obviously, the cookbook will be out there. And it's like 83 pages. I'm like, well, if I could add another 75 pages, I can do.

a bigger like fuller like actual hardcover addition. I think that's probably gonna next thing I have to do. all my videos, so I mean, obviously I've been doing my cooking and doing my videos and everything else. Everything, all of my recipes I've been creating are have been now flipped towards the protein flip ⁓ idea. So going forward, everything is going to be protein flip friendly for sure. ⁓ And it's one of those things where it's time for people to really take charge of what they're

Matthew Weiner, MD (24:07)
All right.

Henry Baker (24:34)
eating and how they're eating. And because it is about our digestion, it is about what we're eating and how we're eating and how we're going to digest it. And it's, know, we have to eat with purpose. What is our purpose? Is our purpose that we have to fuel? Is it we have to like basically nurture ourselves? We have comfort food too. So it's not just about eating healthy or whatever kind of thing. It's just about eating everything that you can and fit in there with a purpose. But it's going, but it's all going to work together. And I think that's the biggest thing for sure. And that's

what I put out there in the cookbook is that we have to eat with purpose, but we also have to say, this plate, everything works together, so it's gonna be a fulfilling thing, it's gonna be a satiating thing, but it's also going to be very nutritious.

Matthew Weiner, MD (25:20)
Let me ask you a question about plant proteins. Beans and nuts. know everybody when we talk about protein in the US it's chicken, fish, beef, but plant protein and that's something you know in our program plant proteins unlimited have as much as you like. Talk to us a little bit about plant proteins how they're different from animal proteins and strategies to eat more of them.

Henry Baker (25:39)
Yeah.

⁓

Plant protein, the thing I like about plant proteins is obviously there's so many different variations. mean, even with like rice, you got the white rice, black rice, brown rice, there's like just different types of grains, whatever, but you're not just getting protein from those. You're getting fiber, you're getting nutrients and everything else. It's all into, like you said, it's all in there in that one helping of let's say black rice, for example. You have fiber, you have nutrients, you have protein in there and it's so good for you. But then also it's versatile where if you

if instead of boiling up with water you throw some like some stock in there some like vegetable stock then it adds it enhances the flavors to it so there's a lot you can do with it and you know I feel like that you know plant protein is always again one of those underrated things where people are like I have to get my protein from these things you know kind of thing but I mean plant protein is going to it's going to help you it's going to help you with your digestion it's going to help you with you know just basically like making sure that everything is is all rounded up.

But I love I mean I really like plant protein before I lost weight, know I would be I was that guy that was like I don't eat plant protein I eat chicken I eat meat I whatever kind of thing but as you like start saying I have to take control of my own lifestyle I have to start including everything else so you know you do add the quinoa's and the black rice's and the seeds and I mean the seeds are so underrated too because people like oh it's so much fat and so this and whatever I don't like this seed I don't like that seed but you put a little bit on here and it changes your whole plate

you know so you don't yeah

Matthew Weiner, MD (27:19)
pumpkin seeds, pepitas are just

they will transform a dish.

Henry Baker (27:24)
Yes, exactly. Especially if you toast them. And the other thing is I always tell people about is like spices. you know, if you're cooking from, you know, some, let's say you're cooking like a Mexican dish versus an Italian dish, first in a Greek dish, they all have their own, their own separate oregano oreganos. So, you know, you, if you're making a Mexican dish, get their Mexican oregano. If you're making an Italian dish, get the Italian oregano, because those are what's to, what's going to make that dish authentic. And so, and then toasting all that stuff with the papitas, you toast all that stuff and it just gives that rustic feel to it for sure. Yeah.

Matthew Weiner, MD (27:27)
Yeah.

Henry Baker (27:54)
It's not just like throw it in and eat it. I mean that's who wants to do that? Like let's make it exciting

Zoë (28:00)
And that's like something that I think is so powerful is getting excited about the food that you're making and making it such an enjoyable, you mentioned bringing in the candles, bringing in the flowers, putting on the music, making it an experience, romanticizing the experience and being mindful while you're eating it. That just goes so far in terms of that long-term lifestyle change where you truly enjoy the food that you're eating.

Henry Baker (28:13)
Yeah.

Zoë (28:29)
Get excited about the dish you're making in the same way that you might get excited about trying a new restaurant.

Henry Baker (28:33)
Yeah, exactly. the thing is that like what I usually do is if I'm making an Italian dish, I'm putting on Italian music, you know, because it's going to put me in that mood. It's going to put, I feel like I'm in Italy. If I'm making a Mexican dish, I'm putting on Spanish music because I feel like I'm in Mexico or whatever, you know.

Matthew Weiner, MD (28:40)
I love it!

Zoë (28:48)
Thanks

I'm gonna take that. I'm

gonna start doing that.

Henry Baker (28:52)
Yeah, for sure,

because

Matthew Weiner, MD (28:53)
That's a great one.

Henry Baker (28:53)
that's what's gonna get you in the mood. That's what's gonna start the mood. You all those little things, bring them in. That's what's gonna get you comfortable in the kitchen. It's gonna start the mood. And as you're going, you're really gonna feel what you're eating, what you're baking, and then what you're eating. And it's gonna be so much more of an experience, for sure.

Zoë (29:11)
Hmm.

Matthew Weiner, MD (29:13)
All right, Zoe is probably shocked that I haven't asked this question already, but have you experimented at all with AI and cooking and using it for new recipes or anything like that?

Henry Baker (29:25)
⁓ I've used AI a little bit and it's more of a... ⁓

It's because the thing is like for me, I'm always like, okay, I'll go to a farmer's market and find like, you know, a tri-color carrot, whatever, and I'll build something around that. And so I'll just do something like that. Or people send me recipes and say, can you like redo this and make it healthier? And I always, you know, it's always my pleasure to do all that kind of stuff. But at the same time, AI is a good tool for a certain thing. like if someone needs an idea, because the thing is like, you only know what you know.

You don't know. And so the thing is, if you're saying, I want to make a dish that has, you know, pepitas in it, like you don't know what they are, how to make them, what to do with them. That's exactly what AI is for, in my opinion, because it's like someone can go on there and say, what are pepitas and how do I prepare them? And then it's easy. It's, tells you how to do it. And you know, it's, it's one those things where like cactus, like, you know, ⁓ Nepalese, it's the same thing. Like it's so good for you, but nobody knows about it. Like, Hey, go on AI search, research it, see what it's about. It's so good for you.

Matthew Weiner, MD (30:03)
Right.

Yeah.

Henry Baker (30:32)
it tastes good and you gotta prepare it right but you still yeah for sure.

Zoë (30:36)
I got tri-cote colored carrots and pepitas at the farmers market. Help me come up with a new creative dish to make.

Henry Baker (30:41)
Yeah.

Matthew Weiner, MD (30:43)
Totally.

Henry Baker (30:43)
If

Matthew Weiner, MD (30:44)
Totally, and I think

that's a great jumping off spot. It's a great place to start. ⁓ And if you're exploring a new dish or a new flavor, just like Zoe said, AI is fantastic for that. It's not the end all, be all, and I think there's always gonna be a role for expertise and for people like Chef Henry to really customize it and cater it and really take it to that next level. But as a great starting point or branching off point,

Henry Baker (30:49)
Yeah.

Yeah, it is.

Matthew Weiner, MD (31:14)
fantastic for that.

Henry Baker (31:16)
Yeah, you can always get your data too. Like if you're saying, if you say, here's my dish, like what is the nutritional value of this dish? Like generally, basically. It'll give you a general ballpark of where you're at in the whole thing too. And then the other thing is that I feel like...

You know, as people ask me the same thing, like, what about AI? I can go, let's go to get this recipe from AI. I'm like, yeah, you can, but do you know what you're looking for? Like, for example, you have to know, especially with AI these days, you have to ask the right question at the right time in the right way to get the right thing kind of thing. you just have to be open and to, like, just have open-minded when you're asking these questions, because you'll get completely different answers, better answers if you're open-minded and not just like, just want chicken. Like say, I want chicken.

because of this or that because here's why I want chicken that's and then you'll get a completely better answer for sure.

Matthew Weiner, MD (32:11)
of the key things about AI too is context. Who are you? Right? Are you a post bariatric surgery patient? Are you young? Are you old? Are you cooking for your family? Do you hate chicken? Do you love chicken? All of those things are important and AI alone, you can get it to that point, but I think you still need that human interaction, that expertise from there.

Henry Baker (32:25)
Yeah, for sure, yeah.

Yeah, for sure.

Zoë (32:39)
You keep mentioning videos of your recipes. So if somebody wanted to go and look at some of these videos of you making healthy recipes, where can they find you?

Henry Baker (32:46)
⁓

Okay, I'm ⁓ Everything is chef healthy Henry YouTube my website and tik-tok, but Instagram is chef healthy Henry dot eats. Well ⁓ It's it's different because my chef healthy already got hacked and that's a whole different story We're not going on that are just dot eats. Well is where I'm at. So but ⁓

Matthew Weiner, MD (33:03)
Hahaha

Zoë (33:08)
You've done a great job

of building that Instagram backup. I just want to say very well done. Yeah.

Henry Baker (33:12)
No, I appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah. just,

I just keep pushing and, and, know, I, I keep going back to people that I've, that I know that follow me and say, can you follow me here and let, you know, put, you know, put the word out kind of thing. So, ⁓ but, ⁓ and I mean, honestly, I, because I've been working on this protein flip thing in last few weeks, I haven't really, I have videos that I haven't released because they're like, I've done them, but they haven't been edited yet. So because I do everything by myself and I'm a one man show, I have, everything has to have its time. but now that

Matthew Weiner, MD (33:14)
Good for you.

Right.

Henry Baker (33:42)
this is ready and the cookbook's ready and once I get that done, I'm working on getting the trademark for a protein flip method. ⁓ Then ⁓ I can get back to my three videos a week kind of thing, yeah.

Zoë (33:56)
It's great, very good.

Matthew Weiner, MD (33:58)
I think this protein flip...

idea is really something that needs to get out there because there's just especially on social media it's just every time I turn around protein, carbs, carnivore like load up like all you should eat is protein everything else is terrible for you and it should be one of the macros and that's it you just count it keep it over like 150, 200, 400 protein if you're you know going to the gym a lot that's what I'm seeing and I'm like this is craziness and so I love

Henry Baker (34:11)
Yeah.

Zoë (34:24)
you

Henry Baker (34:25)
Yeah.

No.

Matthew Weiner, MD (34:31)
The flip.

Henry Baker (34:32)
Yeah, and the thing about that whole thing, to add to that is basically like, you don't have to not eat meat, and you don't have to not eat vegetables. You eat everything, but everything plays its part, and you just reduce a little bit of here and a little bit of there kind of thing. And then you don't have to feel you're restricted, because I want to eat chicken, but I can't eat chicken, or I want to eat a piece of beef, but I can't eat a piece of beef, whatever, just reduce it.

Matthew Weiner, MD (34:41)
Right.

Zoë (34:57)
I like that.

Henry Baker (34:57)
bring more protein

in other ways, and then you can still enjoy the things that you enjoy. And life is really about enjoying stuff, especially food. When you're talking about food, food is supposed to be nourishing and enjoying and comforting and everything else, along with nutritious. And if you can say, eat everything I want, but in smaller portions, then you got the best of everything.

Zoë (35:21)
I like that it's so flexible. It doesn't like necessarily put people into a box of, I'm vegetarian so I can't eat these things. Because, you know, this gives you the opportunity to kind of be flexible with what it is that maybe makes you feel more satisfied versus what somebody else who's also following the protein flip might feel more satisfied with.

Henry Baker (35:44)
Exactly. Yes.

Matthew Weiner, MD (35:45)
As soon as you make nutrition a binary decision, either you eat it or you don't, it just becomes overwhelming and very difficult and kind of almost punitive and restrictive. And I think that's one thing that I'm hearing from you. It's certainly something Zoe does a great job when she meets with patients is kind of taking people from where they are and making them better. ⁓ And that's not gonna be binary. It's not, can never eat this again.

Henry Baker (36:07)
Yeah.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Matthew Weiner, MD (36:13)
So I think that's

an important thing for anybody out there who's trying to improve their nutrition is to avoid this idea that this is my last ever cheeseburger for the rest of my life. Here it is. It gets hard.

Henry Baker (36:24)
Thank

Yeah, I mean, yeah, once you start saying this is my last whatever, then it's like, then that's when the craving starts to creep in. Your mind starts craving it and that's when it gets hard. You're like, I can't do this ever again. Well, then you're already shooting yourself in the foot. Just basically just.

Zoë (36:28)
Absolutely.

Henry Baker (36:43)
reduce it a little bit and then just basically add other things to it. And it's more adventurous. Who wants to eat a burger every day? Be adventurous. Eat Asian food and Mexican food and Italian food and whatever kind of thing. I have all those kind of recipes on my website. I have 200 recipes on my website. They're all very adventurous and there's all kinds of different things there. But in this cookbook is also I make sure that everything is included. There's fish, there's vegetarian, there's meat.

There's everything so yeah

Zoë (37:15)
Amazing and we'll have all of those links in the description as well to your website to your instagram So excited to have people check you out

Henry Baker (37:24)
Nice, yeah.

Zoë (37:24)
Any other thoughts?

Yeah, go ahead.

Henry Baker (37:27)
No, I'm just excited to get this going because I feel like this is something that's going to, especially people like you in your position of saying like, this is what we wanted. This is what you do. This is what your life is all about, like helping these people better their lifestyles, whatever kind of thing. And you do it your way and you do it your way. And I do it my way. We all come together and we were like, you you come together as a team and like we're basically like attacking this issue in different ways. so together we can do

do it all together.

Zoë (37:58)
Absolutely, I love that. And I think a good kind of closing thought, a callback I want to do, so something you've said a lot throughout this episode, which is eating with purpose. And I just love that. think that encompasses so many components, whether it's the mindful eating, eating with the purpose to fuel your body, eating with the purpose of, you know, connection and maybe bringing your kids in on those memories.

Matthew Weiner, MD (38:04)
Thank

Zoë (38:28)
Eating with purpose, just think is such a beautiful statement and a really good mantra to live by.

Henry Baker (38:34)
No, it is. And the thing is, what is your purpose? Are you trying to fuel your body? Are you trying to balance everything out? Or are you working out you need recovery? Things like that. There's different types of purposes. And then there's nourishing. Nourishing your brain, nourishing your soul. And those are your comfort foods. So you still have room for those too. So yeah, for sure. There's all kinds of different purposes.

Zoë (38:54)
Amazing. Well, it has been so wonderful having you on Chef Healthy Henry. We are so happy to have had this conversation. Really excited to see the protein flip method cookbook out and to try out those recipes. Amazing. Thanks so much for being here.

Henry Baker (39:07)
Yes.

Well, thanks for having me. Like I said, you guys are always great. It was great to meet you guys like, you know, last year or whatever. ⁓ But I know we've always kept in contact and it's always nice to be able to build relationships with you guys and, you know, see what we can create together.

Matthew Weiner, MD (39:28)
Absolutely. Enjoy the conference this year, Obesity Health. All right, we'll see everybody next time. Bye-bye.

Henry Baker (39:31)
I will. Thank you. Good to see you guys. Okay. Bye.

Zoë (39:33)
Alright, bye.