Nutrition Made Simple with Brownies for Breakfast

In this episode we are diving into simple nutrition tips needed to stay healthy and to reverse type-2 diabetes.

Our guest, Lynne Bowman discussed common issues many face, such as the complexity of nutritional advice and the overwhelming amount of health information available. Moreover, she highlighted the challenge of integrating nutritious eating into a busy lifestyle.

Actionable Advice

1. Simplify Your Breakfast Choices:
   • Start your day with nutritious ingredients. Transform deeply loved foods like brownies by using alternatives such as pure cocoa, canned pumpkin, and nut butter instead of refined ingredients.
   • Selective Sweeteners: Opt for natural sweeteners like monk fruit or allulose to maintain flavor without the health drawbacks of processed sugar.
2. Read Food Labels Meticulously:
   • Be vigilant about reading labels and striving for whole foods with minimal ingredients. Familiarize yourself with those you cannot pronounce and strive for real, whole foods that contribute to your nutrition rather than detract from it.
3. Incorporate More Plant-Based Foods:
   • Add nutrient-rich foods like parsley and watercress to your meals. These greens can enhance flavor, provide essential nutrients, and easily grow at home.
   • Emphasize a diet of mostly plants, reducing reliance on processed foods, which are often laden with hidden sugars and preservatives.
4. Make Meal Prep a Family Affair:
   • Include your children in meal preparation to foster healthy eating habits from a young age. Cooking together not only leads to healthier dining but enhances valuable family connections.
5. Manage your Dietary Habits:
   • Consider lifestyle variations, such as not eating beyond the afternoon, to support healthier eating habits and allow your body’s natural cleansing process.

00:00 Brownies Breakfast Idea

00:28 Meet Lynne Bowman

02:39 Diabetes Diagnosis Story

04:47 Health Shaped by Loss

13:07 Busy Mom Survival Choices

16:00 Kids Cooking and Family Table

18:06 Read the Label Rule

20:19 Hidden Sugar Everywhere

21:18 Two Ingredient Dressing

22:25 Tahini Seed Power

22:42 Parsley As Real Food

24:22 Watercress And Creative Greens

25:06 Breakfast And Eating Windows

27:06 Pumpkin Cocoa Brownies

30:03 Smart Sweeteners Only

32:00 Quitting Sugar Resets Taste

33:24 Meat Choices And Sourcing

35:55 Goat Leg Dinner Story

38:07 Rapid Fire And Farewell

🌟 🌟 🌟 If you liked this episode and would like to learn more about wellness training and workshops offered by 9 to 5 Wellness, email us at info@aeshathair.com. You can learn more about our programs at:  https://toneandstrengthen.com/workshops-trainings/. 🌟 🌟 🌟

My passion is helping organizations create a culture of wellness, and I do this by setting up health programs that prioritize the most important asset they've got – their employees. Cheers to a healthier and happier journey ahead!

🌟 🌟 🌟 You can learn more about ME- the host at https://www.aeshatahir.com 

 Follow me on IG and LI to learn more

https://www.instagram.com/tone_and_strengthen/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/aeshatahir/

Transcript

 today, we are going to talk about brownies for breakfast. That's right. I know. I know you're saying, "Yes, please." I believe that nutrition should be easy, sustainable, and yes, enjoyable. So today, we are breaking down how to turn a decadent treat into a powerhouse morning meal using simple, clean ingredients with a very special guest. And our guest is the author of Brownies for Breakfast, hence the name, and she'll be sharing her favorite recipes and her favorite tips on how to live a healthy life while you're on the go and while you're busy. And my special guest is Lynne Bowman. Lynne is living proof that you can cook, eat, sleep, laugh, and walk your way out of type 2 diabetes, along with other chronic ailments. Her latest bestselling book, Brownies for Breakfast: A Cookbook for Diabetics and People Who Love Them, is a cool, fun, beautiful guidebook for anybody who wants to prevent, reverse chronic disease, and eat healthy Welcome to the podcast, Lynne 

Thank you so much for inviting me. This is my favorite subject. Love talking about it, and I love that the simplicity of it can be so helpful for people, especially now. We're all getting this information all the time about nutrition and health and fitness and what to do, and the latest fad is, of course, protein in everything. You know, protein, protein. You need supplements, and you need them at this time of day, and you need this much, and so on. And, , of course, the really tough part about any kind of self-improvement thing that you do is actually doing it. It's one thing to hear about it on your podcast. It's another thing to read about it or see it on, TV. Whatever it is, it needs to be something that you will do routinely, you'll stick with. So the whole idea of my book was that no one had written the book for me., When I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and was looking around for information and desperately needed information, , there... it was confusing and too complicated or it didn't really,

 i'm so glad that you put this book out , into the world, and I love how you shared what started you on this quest. So tell us a little bit about your diagnosis, what was going on prior to that, what were the major steps that you took that really helped you improve your blood sugar levels? It kind of came to a head in my life with the birth of my first child, my son. W- he was, just about 10 pounds.

 I had gained 60 pounds with the pregnancy, and those of you in the audience who have had babies are going, "Oh my God." "What? How much?" And so at that point, the, OBs, who were all men in those days, this, we're talking 1975, uh, said, "Well, oh, you probably had gestational diabetes." What? "Oh yeah, you don't have to worry about it now.

 You may... It, it'll go away after your, uh, child is delivered, and then maybe when you're 40 or so, you should look into whether or not you have type 2 diabetes because you probably will. You will probably develop it." So- Oh, wow ... oh, thanks. , And nowadays it's very routine for anyone who is pregnant to be tested for gestational diabetes because it can be disastrous.

 It can be deadly. It's, a fairly serious condition if it's not managed and controlled. So I knew then, , early in my life that this was gonna be part of my life most likely, and sure enough, when I got to be 40 or so, I started asking, my doctors, whoever they were at the time, and again, as women, you're always getting checked for this or that or, in and out of the doctor's office for various things.

 "Well, you know, you're not overweight, and yeah, I wouldn't worry about it." Yeah ... okay. And then when I finally talked someone into doing the test, sure enough, my numbers were not good. Yeah. So that was the serious beginning of my search for, okay, what do I do? I don't wanna know the why, and I don't wanna, you know, I don't wanna have all the y- I wanna know what I do.

 What do I do now to fix this? Sure. Sure. And I should go back to much earlier in my life, because m- I think my motivation came from the fact that my mother died when I was 18. She was in her 40s, and she died of a chronic disease. So I went into adulthood with this very keen appreciation for what that does to a family.

 When the mom dies, and especially if the mom's been ill for a long time, it, it's heartbreaking. Literally in a matter of weeks, I, my, the dog had been given away, my best friend Aw ... the house had been sold. My dad was off on another life with another woman. Yeah. My older siblings were gone. They were off at school.

 I was a freshman at UCLA at the time. Yeah. And so as if it, you know, it happened in a, in a earthquake or something, my family was gone. My home was gone. It was all gone. Yeah. And so I trudged on with my little life, not really knowing anything different. You know, this for me was normal. Yeah. And, and it didn't even occur to me that this didn't happen to other people or whatever.

 I just went on with trying to grow up and- , yeah ... be a human being. But I never for a moment forgot that health is everything. Absolutely. If you're not healthy, in my life- Yeah ... everything can be taken away. Everything can be destroyed. So as I grew up, as... And then I, , I was delighted to be having children.

 I wanted children. But again, like a lot of other people, first choice of groom was not maybe the best in, in my case because I, uh, and I'm being snide and in fact it, it was very sad in those days. He was a Marine who came back from Vietnam like many of those guys did. Yeah. And changed his clothes on the plane and be- became someone else when he got off the plane.

 And when I met him he was a three-piece suit, you know, banker and fast talking guy and good-looking guy. But by the time I had three babies, I knew that he was probably going to kill himself. He certainly threatened to kill us, and I knew I had to run for my life. So I did. I... The kids were two, three, and four, and we got on a train and went to California, uh, with what we could carry.

 So that's the why about why I am so passionate about people knowing what to do. Having the information- Yeah To change their health trajectory. And of course, it, it isn't just diabetes. No. If you ... And, and, and I, I'm happy to tell people I'm 80. I just turned 80. And I- Yay. That's awesome ... well, I, I never, I never imagined, right, that I'd be saying this, and here I am, and I'm hoping for another 20 or 30 years, you know.

 I don't know about- Yes. Yes, absolutely. Centurain- what is it called? The people who live 100 and beyond. Centenarian, yeah. Centenarian, yes. I'm like, hang on. Yeah. Why am I blanking out? Yeah, centenarians. Yes, yes. Yes, Lynne, of course. So we made it. And, , a lot of bumps and it's a whole other story along the way, , but we made it, and all of my adult life, I've been focused on staying alive and staying healthy.

 Oh, Lynne, this is so good. I love that you shared your life story and the fact that your mom had a chronic disease and how it impacted your family, And then your childhood, of course. Most probably you have to grow up too soon, right? Uh, a lot of responsibility on your shoulders there, and then in your, , married life with your kids.

 I have a question you mentioned that you had, uh, gestational diabetes with your, your oldest when you were pregnant. When did you get the Type 2 diabetes diagnosis? I was in my early 40s. Gotcha. Okay. Okay. So tell us a little bit more about that part of your, uh, health journey over there.

 I take it like, , you were put on medication, yes, no? How were you managing it? What lifestyle changes did you make to, improve your blood glucose levels? I wasn't immediately put on medication. Eventually, and I couldn't tell you the year, Aesha, but I... it was not too long before I was put on metformin, which by the way, wonderful drug.

 It's an old drug, very well proven, and very few side effects, and I never had a problem taking it. And now it's being considered a longevity drug. People are taking it- Yes ... yes, because it extends your life supposedly. , So I, I took it, per instructions, and I was happy to have something to take. My...

 Because of how I thought about it, my diabetes was never wildly out of control. I ate well. I did what I... I mean, I researched as best I could. What do you eat? What don't you eat? What difference does it make? So on and so forth, and I put together the best knowledge I could come up with. But I'll quote one of the doctors when I said, "What do I do?"

 And he said, "Well, just make sure you weigh about what you weighed in high school. That's the best thing you can do." Wow, that's a smart doctor. Like, seriously. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Wow, , that's one of the best advices I think a doctor can give a patient. That was all he had,

 What did you decide to do? It's, it's al- well, I didn't weigh much more than that at the time, you see. Oh, cool. So I'm going, "Okay, well, if that's not the issue- Yeah ... what is the issue?" Yeah. And, , the... If I make only one point today, I wanna make this point. Sugar. Yeah. And I wanna go- what kind of sugar?

 Processed sugar particularly. I'm not talking about whole fruit, I'm not talking about higher glycemic. And , glycemic index is a whole other thing we should, um... I don't know if we have time here, but it, it, it's what tells you how reactive the sugar in any particular food is in your body. Yeah, glycemic index.

 But- Let's go into it. So glycemic index is an index or a rank, a rating method in which we rate the foods based on how high your blood glucose levels go when you eat them. Exactly. Right after, or 30 minutes of it. Yeah. After 30 minutes- of eating them. So like berries have a very low glycemic index, around 50.

 100 is gold standard, and , that is bread and white rice. , Actually bread. Bread is 100, and then white rice I believe it's, , 85 or 90, but it's very high. Right. But now we, we have you down to... I, I eat bread. I love bread, but I get my bread from a bakery here that is, that makes bread from locally grown einkorn wheat.

 It's sourdough bread. It's full of walnuts. It's whole grain. It's delicious. , It's fabulous. But that's a wholly different thing than Wonder Bread, , and, and- Yeah. It's so- Like the commercial brands. Yeah. , And and as time went on, I spent a lot of time trying to sort out the fine print.

 It's like- Food isn't just food. It's very varied. But what you can be sure is that if you are eating it out of a bag in the back of a car, it's not real food. It's not gonna be helpful at all to you or your kid. You're talking about the convenient food, Linda? Yes. Absolutely talking about, fast food. Yes. Yeah. Processed, ultra- Processed ... processed food. Yeah. Okay. So here is the question for you then. Okay. I know you s- as you mentioned, you had a really busy life, and I know a lot of my clients, and patients, and listeners of this podcast are on the go. , They're sitting- Of course ... on the sidelines of their kids' games, sports games.

 Yeah. They're working, 10, 12 hours, and then they're driving their kids to their sports. They don't have time. So what do they do? , Time. We were, we started to talk a little bit about that. You as a parent, you always have to be choosing your time very carefully because it's all you have, and you only have a certain amount of time with your kids before they're gone, you know? True ... 18 years or 20 years or whatever it is. But in, in my case, again, I knew that I wasn't gonna be able to... And I sat the kids down one night and I said, "How much do you love soccer?" And they said, , we really don't love soccer." "Okay, good. We're not doing soccer anymore." Because it was three different teams and three different uniforms and three different snack moms- Yeah

 and so on. And I, I knew I couldn't do it. I just couldn't do it. , Or I maybe could've, but I would've been homicidal if I had. , Yeah. , But I said, "Okay, choose one activity. Choose one activity and come back to me and we'll talk and we'll see if we can do that one activity." And so my son, who was the oldest , and led the brigade in that regard, , was the one who came back to the table with the girls and said, "Okay, I've got it. I've got the activity." "What?" "Fencing." "What?" Fencing? "Fencing? What?" He said, "Yeah." And he had done a little research, and it happened that there was a fencing salle in San Jose where I was living, and , the woman who ran it was fabulous. Connie Yu, still a friend. , A historian and a fencer, and her kids are fencers.

 And I never would've known this or never would've been exposed to it, but my son, you know, because I said, "No soccer. We're done with soccer," , for years they fenced. Loved it. The families were great, a lot of home school families. And my youngest ended up starting a team at her college that she went to, Simons Rock. She was 15th in the country or something as a fencer at that point. , And that was a sport because it was all in one place at the same time, boys and girls together. We could do it. Yeah. I could manage. And it was close enough to home. So I, it, this is how I see it, is you have to figure out what works for you, what truly works for you. Because no child comes into the universe going, "Okay, I wanna play baseball, I wanna dance ballet, I wanna, , ride a horse, I wanna do..." . You have to make some selections, and then at some point the kid can do on their own what they wanna do on their own. But they can't do it all- But when parents ask me, "How can I get my kids to eat vegetables?" It's really easy. Kids will eat what kids grow or, and/or what kids cook. And I see too few parents now not including their kids in the teamwork that it takes in a kitchen to prepare food, cook the food, put the food on, clean up afterwards, and sitting at a table is even, it's- People aren't doing it, right? They're in their cars eating, or they're on a bench at a ball game eating- Yeah ... out of a bag. And if you ask that kid when they're 35 what mattered, or when they're 50... My kids now are 48, 49, and 50. Ah. But you ask them now what really mattered, what do you wanna thank me for, what do you hate me for, all of my kids have said voluntarily at different times, "Sitting at the table with you, Ma, was like a graduate degree in marketing." We talked every night. Yeah. And your friends were at the table, and they talked. And my kids learned because that was the only time I could entertain, and my kids learned how to sit at the table with my clients and not totally embarrass me. And that's the best stuff your kids learn is from their parents. Who are their parents? What do their parents really do, and why? Yeah. Yeah. And when do you do that? No, it's so true. It's so true. If it's not at the table, when do you do that? Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, no, that's- , that's great. That's awesome that you could actually incorporate family time, and then you said you had your clients on, at the table too. Absolutely, yeah. And you were also teaching them how to cook and/or eat healthy meals. That's really- And we shopped together, Ayesha. We ... Because, , I couldn't take the time away from them to go to the grocery store. Yeah. So we all went, and they had assignments. They had the ... And they knew that I would not buy it if they had not read the label and did not know- Wow what was in the label. And so one of the key points in my book, still after all this time, i- read, period, the, period, label, period. , Yes, and yes to that. Yes, because I think a lot of people still don't do it. Yeah. What are we looking at, on the label? What is the ... W- what are the one or two things that people should really be paying attention to? Number one, if it has an ingredient label, it's suspect. That's not, shouldn't be your first choice in food. If someone needs to explain to you what it is, you have to really think hard about whether that belongs on your plate or not. What I want you eating is whole food, real food, mostly plants- Not too much, but it won't even be a problem because you can stuff yourself with those things, it, , and you won't be eating too much. Yeah. So when you read a label, it, does it have three ingredients? Okay. Five ingredients? Six, eight ingredients? 10 ingredients? Can you spell those ingredients? If you take the label away, now spell those. Can you pronounce them? You know. And I'm joking, but I'm not. If it has stuff in it and you don't know what that stuff is, don't put it in your poor, adorable belly. Just don't. Don't eat it. You don't need it. Yes. And your belly doesn't want it , you'd be surprised at how many times even I have done it, like when I'm in a hurry, I would just pick up some item and then... But I do read the label before eating, and then I'm like, "Ugh." Uh-oh. "Darn," right? Too late. Like, I, I don't wanna eat it. Now I have to trash it or toss it out. You know after having that experience that almost everything that you buy at the store that has a wrapping around it or a box has sugar in some form in it, because that's how big food gets people addicted to their product, whatever it is. And sometimes it can be hummus, or something that d- appears to be very healthy for you. Salad dressing. Salad dressing- Oh, that's the worst ... I think has the highest amount of sugar, added sugar to it. It's the worst. It's terrible. Yeah. , And or any kind of bottled flavoring thing. , barbecue sauce is another one. It's all sugar. Yes. All sugar. Yes. , So- So condiments. Yeah, condiments you should be careful of, but you're right. , It's in our yogurts. It's in hummus. Even savory foods that you wouldn't connect with added sugar, but if it's boxed and/or in a bag, chances are there is added sugar because it makes it highly palatable. All right, I'm gonna give you a recipe right now- Yeah, tell me ... for you listeners. Yes. And it's... I hope you'll try it out. Now understand, I don't love to cook. I like to eat. That's what I like. And I'm a very- Now that's a shocker. For real? Okay. I'm a lazy, messy cook, I'll... let's just put that right out there. My favorite salad dressing is two items. Item number one is a really good balsamic vinegar. I get mine from Sigona's, a local market here. They actually produce it. They make it. And there are two flavors that I love. One is Grabenstein apple balsamic. One is Blenheim apricot balsamic. They're divine, so just a really good, lovely balsamic vinegar. Few drops of that in the bottom of the bowl, and then tahini. In the bowl with it, as much as you want, mix it up and throw your salad on top of it. You've saved making it in another thing that needed to be washed. All right? Always talking about being efficient. And you have two beautiful flavors. And of course tahini. What is tahini? It's ground sesame seeds. Yes. Sesame seeds are really good for you. I know. And seeds are something a lot of people don't get enough of. They're so nutritious. And then, okay, so that's item number one, tips and tricks. Item number two Two of the most nutritious... Actually, I've read studies that the most nutritious green vegetable you can eat is, guess what? Parsley. Parsley. That thing, parsley, that thing that, that I know when my mother used to shop in the grocery store, she'd buy a steak, and it would be wrapped in plastic, and there'd be parsley in there, and that would get thrown away, and then you'd eat the steak. Now I'm gonna ask you to kind of consider throwing the steak away or giving it to the dog. Yeah, cheesy. But the parsley is incredibly nutritious. It's a dark, leafy, green vegetable that you can grow on your kitchen sink in a little thing. Your kids can grow it. It costs you next to nothing. Um, we have a bunch of it growing in the front yard, and I just take it by the handful, and you can make so many wonderful things out of it. But if you just have your scissor... You have kitchen shears, right? Handy all the time. Yes. Yes. And you just snip off parsley on top of everything, your sandwich, your salad, your soup, your casserole. Cover it with parsley, and it'll be more beautiful. Yeah. It'll have this beautiful fragrance. It'll taste wonderful, and it's super healthy. So that's a one- So use it. Yeah, use it as a garnish on everything, right? Eat it. You know, don't put it on the side like we're used to. Put it on top and then eat it. And yes, it's a garnish, but it's also food. Yeah. Wonderful. Oh my gosh, I didn't know that, so that's a great tip. The other one is watercress. Watercress. Raise hands. Anybody eats watercress? No. It's delicious. It's beautiful. It's like little sculptures. They're just gorgeous. They smell good. When you buy them, they typically have the roots still on them, and they're wrapped so that they're just super fresh. Wonderful food, great food. You don't have to eat salad all the time, to eat greens. Just think of more creative ways that appeal to your palate and are easy for you, and your kids will love, "Can I cut it?" You know? Or, "Can I, can I raise some? Can I make some?" Yes, of course. Yes. Yeah. That's great. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I also wanna talk about actually the label of your book, Breakfast, because I think breakfast is the most, hectic time of the day. At the same time, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Studies have shown that people who eat breakfast regularly are- consuming less calories throughout the day. But people who skip their breakfast, they're consuming at least 500 to 600 extra calories during the day because they're eating, like, later, like lunch and dinner, and bigger lunch and dinners, because they're not giving their body the nutrition it needs at the right time. So let's talk about breakfast. And at the same time, I have to say, and this is one that'll have people going, "Are you kidding me? I don't eat after 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon. I'm done at, in the early afternoon with food." And that's a whole other subject we'll have to do another time. Autophagy, which is... Intermittent fasting is kind of an icky name for it, but it's the time that your cellular system needs to cleanse itself, which it cannot do if you are stuffing your face in front of Jimmy Kimmel in, in front of the TV. Yes. TV actually makes you eat more. And then all the ads, like the food ads you're watching, they make you hungry too. And then I can't even understand what you're watching T- on TV, and that's another subject because most of it doesn't appeal to me. But, , try hard not to eat after, let's say, 4:00 or 5:00 in the afternoon. If, like you, you're a mom and the only time that you have with your kids is maybe everybody's home at 6:00, whatever, get 'er done, and then be done and absolutely nothing after dinner. Absolutely. So that's a thing. And then, okay, we're... Breakfast. All right. What is my brownie, , recipe? And I can tell you, I can't tell you how much of this stuff, but it doesn't matter. I'm just gonna tell you really quickly what's in it. First of all, cocoa, plain cocoa with nothing but cocoa. One ingredient, k- like in a can that you use to cook with. , No sugar, no nothing except chocolate. It's health food. Chocolate is extremely healthful. It's good for you. Don't worry about it. Yes. Yes. Eat chocolate, as long as it doesn't have anything else with it. So that's one. The next ingredient- Okay, let's talk a little bit... Let's talk a little bit about chocolate. Okay. So you're saying, dark chocolate would be good? If, okay, what did we just talk about? Read the label. So how many ingredients are scary on chocolate? If it's more than one, then that's scary. , And I'm gonna talk in a minute for another ingredient that I want you to look for, , having to do with chocolate. Sometimes you'll get chocolate with nuts in it. That's fine. Yeah. Sometimes there'll be a little bit of salt. That's fine. But I don't want you to have any sugar or sugar-like thing with it, except... Let's go back to the brownies. Okay, so we've talked about the chocolate. Second ingredient- Okay, are you ready? Pumpkin. A whole can of pumpkin goes in one recipe of my brownies. Pureed pumpkin, good old pumpkin, nothing in it but pumpkin, and you're going in- I love pumpkin, by the way. I love- Okay ... the flavor and the texture but it's health food. It's full of vitamin A. It's full of fiber. It's just brilliant, wonderful food. And this magic thing happens when you combine pumpkin puree with the next ingredient, nut butter, particularly almond butter, um, m- my favorite, but you could use cashew butter. You could use peanut butter, but peanuts aren't nuts. And I want you to eat nuts every day if you can. Such excellent food. Oh, I eat- And so- I eat a bunch of nuts after every meal- Good ... or before, actually in my breakfast, it's before. Yeah. Good. That's great. Okay, so far we've got cocoa, we have pumpkin, and we have nut butter, and those are the main ones. And then, I use eggs. You can use an egg substitute. , Little bit of salt, cinnamon. Great food. Cinnamon is health food. It's wonderful. Yeah. Uh, and so put that on anything that, that you think cinnamon might enhance. It's always good. Yeah. And then vanilla and I don't know, what else? It's- So no flour? No flour? No flour. No- No way ... there's, there's- I have to try this recipe ... here's the im- Oh ... yes, you do. And here's the important point, sweetener, and there are only two sweeteners that I will allow you to have- Okay ... that are- What are those? ... in your kitchen. One of them you've never heard of, and it has a terrible name, awful name, but it's a brilliant product. , The other one you may have heard of, monk fruit. Have you used monk fruit- Yes ... or ever heard of it? Monk fruit, yes, I've heard of it. Monk fruit. But make sure, label again, there's nothing in it but monk fruit because very often it'll be cut with erythritol or some other ingredient that I don't recommend. Erythritol is a sweetener that can give belly aches right and left, , and other problems. No on the erythritol. Yes on monk fruit. It's just made out of guess what? Monk fruit. That's it, one ingredient, off of trees or wherever they get monk fruit. Okay, the other one that you've never heard of that I want you to look for, you can get it online, you can get it at Whole Foods or, better, um, health foods- Allulose. A-L-L-U-L-O-S-E. Talk about a terrible name, right? You just look it up Allulose. Okay. So tell me more about it. The ingredient is allulose, , and it is something that is squished out of a food product, typically, corn, I think is what they use Okay ... but it's, the way that it's squished out and all you get is the sweetness. That's it, and it's crystallized. Yeah. And, , so you're eating basically nothing. You're eating flavor, but nothing more. It has z- zip calories, just negligible calories. F- for all intents and purposes, none. You can caramelize it just like you caramelize cane sugar Sugar, yeah ... for the cooks in the audience. It cooks very well. , It is not as sweet as sugar, but here's another reason why that's good. Once you quit sugar, as I'm sure you will because now you know you must- Yes ... because sugar is poisonous and inflammatory, and we'll... We can talk more about that if you want to. Once you've quit sugar, I, and I don't mean cut back. I it's kind of like heroin. You gotta quit. You really have to quit because you're addicted, and it takes about- And then you don't crave it. I, I don't. I eat very, very less. It's, like, only when I'm going for a long run because that's something I need for that, but- But in three weeks, Ayesha, approximately, you, your saliva changes. Yes. The chemistry of your saliva changes. Yes. And things begin to taste too sweet, and the sugar- They do ... doesn't taste how it used to, yeah. They do. Yeah. , I can't eat, , regular chocolate, uh, like the commercialized chocolate anymore because it's too sweet- Yeah ... for my palate now. And you're not getting the real chocolate taste. Yeah. You know? Chocolate should have an edge to it. It's a little bit, slightly bitter- A little bit ... which is a good, good bitter. It tastes really good. You need it. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, one more question because I think this is one of the questions I get a lot from my audience, and I do wanna address it. These are great recipes, by the way, and great tips. So we talked about breakfast. We talked about, condiments and salad dressings. Let's talk about meat. Do you eat meat? Did you give it up- Mm ... when you were on your health journey? Do you still eat- Yeah ... but in moderation? What's going on there? Yes, yes, and yes. I, I, um, I did six months as a vegan, , to just see what that felt like, and then I did quite a while after that as a vegetarian to see what that felt like. My numbers were great. If you are diabetic, not eating meat can be a good thing. Yeah And we are in this protein craze right now, and you- of course there are the carnivore diets and everyone talks about, , and of course if I eat meat, you bet it is emotionally well-adjusted, college-educated m- meat from my neighborhood where the cows are, we know the first names and they're happy and so on and so forth, and the only bad day is their last one. And that's an old joke, but seriously, if you eat animal foods, please know where it's coming from. Yeah. Because it not only can damage your body, it's of course polluting and, , has all kinds of other problems. So I do, and I, the eggs that I eat are from down the street, , little sweet, adorable chickens, and I know them. It's- yeah the main thing is know what the heck you're eating. Where is it coming from? Who made it and why? It's vitally important that you pay attention, especially if you're, if you have children. But yes, I do eat meat, , and it's good meat. It's really good. I try not to... I don't eat a lot of red meat, but I might eat some every week. Yeah. Some kind of- Like fish. Fish or chicken, like poultry. And chicken is scary. I'm sorry. Yeah, no, it's okay. The way chicken is raised is just terrible , and so if you do research on this, you will see that chicken is notorious for being a carrier of disease. Yeah. And not a healthy- Yeah, so it's a bird, so yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I do eat some meat. , My weakness is pork. Oh. , And so I have been known to eat some locally made sausage sometimes. Okay. But I just try and keep that really limited. It's a treat. , One of the best meats I ever ate though was a, kind of a surprise to me. , Friend and neighbors had come over and they had a good dinner at the... and so on, and they were so sweet, and they said, "We wanna thank you. We're gonna put a gift for you in our mailbox. Just pick it up out of it when you drive by our house, our farm. Just pick it up out of the mailbox. It'll have your name on it." So I did, and it was a frozen goat leg. Wow. Yes. So in our culture,, my family, my mom is from Pakistan, and we eat goat. So yeah. I don't eat it anymore, but yeah. It's delicious, right? And my, ancestry is French, so the first recipes that I went to were French, and then I also looked up some Mexican stuff because of course we have lots of neighbors with Mexican backgrounds who cook that way, which we have adopted a lot of that, and it's wonderful. But I decided on the French recipe, which was an entire bottle of pinot noir in a, , yeah, in a clay pot, which I had with a lid, and some vegetables, and slow cooked for a long period of time. That was some of the best meat I have ever had in my entire life. And, , to a very great degree I'm sure that pinot noir was helpful, but- Yeah I didn't- No, that's how my mom cooks it too, yes. Very lean and, uh, and healthy and, you know, raised right here and, and that goat had eaten wonderful grass from right here, and so on, . But I think it's always wise to keep your meat consumption... And my tr- and we haven't talked about, strength training yet, which is a big part of my life. And I am happy to say that my trainer, who I think is fabulous, we... But we argue a lot about food because he is a 35-year-old soccer player. Yes, yes. And so his idea, about the healthiest foods, and mine mostly are compatible, but not entirely. No, completely understand. He's an athlete. Although I do think that , the things that you're supposed to eat as an athlete are very similar, the quantity might be different though for him because his nutritional needs are higher. That being said, I have a couple of outro questions for you, and yeah. Okay. So the first one is what would surprise me if I saw it in your home? Probably the bear skin What? Tell me. Tell me the story And in fact, I have a lot of fur in my house because my father-in-law was a- do you hunt? Do you hunt? My father-in-law was a hunter. Oh, wow. Okay And w- when he died, we un- did all of these big barrels th- and they turned out to be deer skin and bear skin and coyote skin. And so being someone who really loves interior design, I thought to myself, " I don't want them just in barrels, you know. I want to appreciate this beautiful creature who once walked the earth." And, so I have a, a beautiful old French settee that, that has deer skin on it that- Nice ... I really like. And we have a bear skin rug with the head still on it and some others, but, come on by and you can see them. And, I don't think you'll mind. I know I've... I grew accustomed to the idea of it and, and they're of precious to me now. I think they're sweet. Yeah. So second question. I love music, okay? So it's... I think it's an easy question to answer, which is, what do you think, which song is the greatest of all time? What's your favorite song? Well, one of the first songs that comes to my mind that, l- I absolutely love Dimming of the Day, which is Richard Thompson. And I love it but the other song that just came up, , in conversation yesterday or the day before is the duet from Pearl Fishers, which is, , I just... Every time I hear it, I just, oh, my heart swells so that's great, Lynne. Great. Lynne, any parting words for our audience? And then where can they find you? They can find me lynnboman.com. My website, um, is kind of the central ar- , I've done a lot of podcasts, and so if you search me in whatever podcast d- , service you use, you, you can usually find me. And what else? But mainly if you just go to my website... And I love hearing from, i- if you send me a note and I gi- there's contact information on the website, I respond to everything that I receive that way, and I love it when people send me pictures of what they've made from my recipes. That's great, yeah and the book is available, by the way, as an Audible book, as an e-book, as a, a paperback, as a hardback. But the, who does Audible cookbooks, right? And yet people have told me that they loved listening- While they're cooking, yeah ... because there's sto- And there's stories all through it about the food. It isn't just recipes, you know? It's a, it's a, a, a bit of a autobiography, too. But, , I love it when people y- you know, kind of incorporate that in their life. It, it's more than just a recipe. Uh, it's a way of thinking about how you eat and a way of thinking about how you sit down with your family. Food isn't just food, you know? Food is love, truly. Food is love. Food is love. It is. Food is connection. Food is culture. Food is friendship. All that. Food is so much more than just nutrition. All that. Yeah. And so I don't want us to give away that joy and that depth, while we eat in the back of a car out of a paper bag. I mean- Yes. Yes. And I have to tell you, like many times I'm guilty of that. But you gave me so many great tips, too. Thank you so much. If you enjoyed this episode of the podcast, please subscribe on Apple and Spotify and wherever you listen to the podcast. It goes out on 25 different channels, including iHeartRadio. So if you're a radio fan, it is there as well. I'll be back with another awesome interview later in the week, so stay tuned. Thank you again for joining us. Bye for now