A Real Dietitian

Episode #86 is now live — Metabolic Wellbeing Without the BS 🎙️
The award-nominated Scottish Podcast in Lifestyle, Health & Wellbeing

This episode is a conversation that challenges the noise, confusion, and overwhelm surrounding modern health.

I’m delighted to welcome Shannon Davis — A Real Dietitian — a Registered Dietitian with over 20 years of experience and a leading voice in metabolic health.

Shannon’s journey is anything but conventional. After years working across organ transplant, bariatrics, nephrology, dialysis, and pharmaceutical sales, she saw a growing pattern — too many people were being supported to manage symptoms, without addressing the deeper drivers behind chronic illness.

Known as a “rogue dietitian,” Shannon stepped outside the traditional medical model to help people better understand metabolic health, insulin resistance, nutrition, and the lifestyle factors that influence long-term wellbeing.

In this powerful discussion, we explore:

🔹 How we’ve become overwhelmed and, in many cases, “brainwashed” by conflicting nutrition messages — from government guidelines to social media influencers
 🔹 The confusion around cholesterol, statins, GLP-1 medications, and the growing world of weight loss drugs
 🔹 The judgement people face around their health and wellbeing journeys
 🔹 Why taking responsibility for your health starts with understanding, not fear
 🔹 How small, informed steps can create meaningful change

Shannon shares her experience, insights, and practical wisdom from building her own virtual metabolic health practice — combining evidence-based nutrition, lifestyle strategies, and a deeper understanding of what it means to truly reclaim your health.

This is another conversation designed to challenge assumptions, ask better questions, and put the focus back where it belongs — empowering people with knowledge.

🎧 Listen to Episode #86 of Metabolic Wellbeing Without the BS now — available on all major podcast platforms.

If this conversation resonates, please consider subscribing, sharing, leaving a review, or sending your feedback. Your support helps this independent venture continue to grow and reach more people around the world.

Thank you to everyone who continues to listen, share, and be part of this journey. 🙏

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hi, I'm Martin Gillespie, the host of Metabolic Wellbeing Without the BS. Gone stateside today to Shannon Davis. Shannon, welcome to the show. I always like to ask, how are you?

SPEAKER_01 0:16

Well, thank you for having me. I was wondering when you were gonna get around to me. Um, but um, I'm doing fantastic. It is um nice and cool here in Atlanta, quite muggy, but things are great.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

Okay. Who is Shannon?

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Oh, wow. Shannon is Shannon's a lot. Um, Shannon, I am a dietitian of 20 years. Um, but I I call myself a rogue dietitian because I feel like I have transformed. I feel like I have seen the light, I have gone down the rabbit hole. I started my career in um organ transplant, liver kidney, pancreas, did a stint in bariatric surgery, then went on to spend the the most of my career in dialysis and nephrology, about five years in pharmaceutical cells, selling phosphate binders to these dialysis patients. And then currently I run my own preventative metabolic health business where I've I feel like my purpose and and God's, I feel like it's a gift, Martin, um, a blessing that I am able to empower people and encourage people and educate people on how to heal themselves through food, through movement, through lifestyle, and some targeted nutraceuticals. And so that is that is who I am. I am a daughter of God, of Jesus Christ. I am an exercise fanatic. I am an animal lover. I do not have children, but I would own an animal sanctuary, and that is in my uh my future. I am going to open an animal sanctuary. Horses are uh they would live in a house with me if if I could make that happen. So um love my mom and dad. I am a a uh daddy's girl, first girl in my family in 80 years, and so I still talk to my mother and father every single day in the morning and before bed. So I am a family faith first, um, and then fitness nutrition second.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

I want to hone into something, a word that is confusing to a lot of people. Prevention, particularly health prevention. People don't give a monkeys about their health. Why?

SPEAKER_01 3:05

I think that I think it's multifaceted. I think there's there's a lot of reasons why. I think number one, people are brainwashed to believe that you are born with it, it's genetic, you just accept it and you you move on. So that's part of it. I think society has um created an environment where people don't have time to think about prevention. They are trying to catch up, they're trying to feed their families, they they are working just to exist, not thrive, just to exist. Um fun doesn't exist anymore. Um the the environment is created that the that that hard work and beating yourself into ground is a superpower. That if you can't do that and handle it, then you know, poop or get off the toilet. Um and you know, it's easy, Martin. It's easy to accept that it's genetic. So I'm just gonna eat crap food, um, and I can just inject or take a pill, and it and it is what it is, and and and we have been so I think that's part of it. Um, and being healthy in an in an environment, in a world that's created, I mean, you can call me a conspiracy theorist, but it is created to set us all up to be sick. So, in order to not go down that path, it is hard work. You have to put in work to cook real food, to be intentional about movement, to go to bed early and get good sleep, to choose whether or not you get vaccinated, to spend time in nature, to talk to God. All of these require work and effort. And sometimes it's easier just to not.

SPEAKER_00 5:17

I want to draw you into something that is really a phenomenon over the last three years, I would say. You mentioned the words inject and pill taking. Let's draw down on the infamous GLP one weight loss drug. The most the craziest idea ranged on by the wonderful big farmer. Why, in your opinion, is it 20-year plus dietitian are weight loss drugs one harmful and to longer term impact on one's health?

SPEAKER_01 6:11

Wow. Um, again, I am not a doctor. This is my personal opinion. I think that number one, they're created for a purpose, right? They're created to start young and become lifelong users. That's that's money. I mean, Eli Lily's, I think the first pharma company in existence to make over one trillion dollars. We thought statins were a big deal. We didn't see this coming. And um we have been told for years and years and years that um obesity is a disease, and that, you know, and we've seen people work their butts off to try not to be obese, to eat less and move more. And so when they fail, because most people, let's just face it, Martin, no one wants to be overweight, no one wants to be sick, no one, no one, right? So if we say no one wants to be that way, people have tried. I give uh obese people a high five. They have most of them have put in a lot of effort, and not just once, not just twice, multiple times. But when you're following the wrong recipe, your cake isn't going to turn out right, it's gonna taste like crap, it's gonna fail. So, all of these people for all of these years have been given the wrong advice. Eat less and move more. And when they don't succeed, they quote unquote are a failure. And so now society has said, you know, okay, we have a solution to your problem. No one's looking at it's the food that you're eating, it's the environment that you're living in. It's just you have failed, you need a you need a solution. So the solution is to inject this medication that controls your hunger. Why does it work? It controls hunger. That's why it works. It's basically paying for starvation. Because if you're not hungry, you're not going to eat. But that's not the solution. You can control hunger with the right recipe, which is learning how to eat properly that controls your hormones naturally, like our our body was created to function um at its best at but I'm gonna I'm going to hold you something there.

SPEAKER_00 9:03

You've been you've mentioned twice now around the way society has sort of tailored our brain, if you want to call it that.

SPEAKER_01 9:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:16

Two key things breakfast, lunch, dinner, and then snacks have just appeared in the last 30 years. And that wonderful marketing phrase breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

Yep. Yep. So it is, Martin, but that doesn't mean that you have to eat it the second your eyes open up. I eat my breakfast around lunchtime. That's when I quote, break my fast. That is my breakfast. So it is my most important meal of the day. But it doesn't matter when you have it. The problem is, is marketing food companies set us up to believe that, oh, we must eat first thing in the morning when we get up. Oh, yes. Um, all these snacks, if we don't eat, and look, as a dietitian, I was part of the problem. And I am humbly apologizing to everyone. I'm sorry. I fed it, I encouraged it, but it was what I was taught. I did not know what I did not know. And I, if we look back, you know, my grandmother would cook everything from scratch, Martin. Everything. Everything. We had no boxes. I mean, chicken and dumplings, she made the dumplings from scratch, gravy from scratch, macaroni and cheese from scratch. We ate all of those things. Everything we ate was from scratch, biscuits from scratch, bread from scratch. It took time. So if we really needed to eat every few hours, that means just even looking back not as far as our as our great-great great, you know, thousands of years ago, but our our caveman ancestors, but our like close ancestors, our grandparents, our great-grandparents, they were in the fields, they were in, they were working, they couldn't just tear up in a package to to eat a snack. It would mean spending hours to prepare a snack food. It didn't happen. And it's just, we have been again led to believe that in order to be healthy, we need to eat certain foods, we need to follow a certain program, we need to, you know, um, and it's set up that these foods are cheaper, they're hyper palatable, they they make us want to eat them, which starts a vicious cycle of feeling hungry all the time because the food's doing that to us. It's off-balancing our hormones. And then, you know, big pharma comes in and has a solution. Well, let's just squash that hunger. You know, this is gonna be what's interesting to me, Martin, is let's see these big food and big pharma have to hash each other out over the next few years because people aren't going to be buying all that food because their appetites are decreased. I mean, I'm even seeing it here in the U.S., I don't know about over there, but these fast food restaurants and these um, you know, food manufacturers are creating GLP1 specific foods or specific menus because they are trying to market to this new group of people that don't want to eat, but still you're eating, unless you're eating the right foods, you're still eating the wrong foods. And now it's hanging out for a long time in your body. So you're just eating less junk. Now, I'm not saying that there's not a time and place for them. I certainly am not. I think if they're used properly and used by the people that truly need them, I think what's happened is the abuse is giving it all a bad name, just like everything else. I mean, you got those people that come in and ruin it for everybody, but it has to be used as a tool, just like everything else, as a tool to help people get started on a journey of health and use properly in conjunction with a protein-heavy diet, it with resistance work, rewiring their brain that needs to happen, that they've wanted to happen but couldn't happen. And so now we use it as a tool to help people make the choices that they've struggled so hard to make. And so, but there has to be an end point, just like everything, right? But like you have to get to a point where like, okay, what next? And it what next can't be another drug, it can't be another gimmick. What next should be uh real food, health. That should be what's next because it's gonna just be passed down through generations and generations and generations.

SPEAKER_00 14:21

One thing I want to drive down, you mentioned at the start of this conversation 20 years as a dietitian. I want to take you back 20 to to to the 20-year-old Shannon. And you've mentioned a few times around hormones, society, pressure, almost quick wins. What's your experience and also what would be your guidance a little bit here? Especially around uh that fixed a young people, and I don't want to be gender specific here, young people have about having that perfect body and that quick win, and quick win of oh, I want to, I can't eat that because it's X amount of calories, I'm going to get fat, believe it or not. What would be your guidance on that younger generation?

SPEAKER_01 15:17

I mean, and gosh, if I thought it was challenging when I was in my 20s, the you know, explosion of social media has made it worse because what is the perfect body, Martin? Like, what is the perfect figure that that mo that many people are striving? And I think if we can take the focus off of looks and put the focus on health, movement, longevity, um, you know, brain health, heart health, metabolic health, joint health. And so, what would be my recommendation is to, and this goes so far with with more than just this, is we gotta stop comparing ourselves to other people. You know, that, and I say that for myself. Like, there's always somebody better, there's always somebody prettier, thinner, more fit, more muscled, smarter, that makes more money, that has the things. We gotta water our own grass. It will become green if we just stop and look at what do we have? Oh my gosh, God has blessed me to be healthy. I don't have um a disease, or I don't have um, you know, I've I've got both legs, I've got both eyes. What can I do with like I want to keep as healthy as possible because what's the point of living long if you are in a bed, in a diaper? You know, it's lifespan versus health span. And so I think if we it's just society is the quick fix, the now, now, now, now, now, now, now, and not thinking about what are the consequences? That's the thing is what are the consequences of having a six-pack? Who, I mean, come on, who doesn't want to have that? Like it, it's it's nice. Like I have I have spent uh an my life, you know, working to put on muscle and be shredded and and walk the walk because if I I feel like I get more credibility if I look what I am trying to promote, health, right? But it doesn't have to look that way. Just because you don't have six pack doesn't mean you're not healthy. You know, are you it because what we do, what we tell ourselves is what we believe, what we speak is what we are, and people see, people watch. And if you have a family, your children see, they watch. I don't care if you try to like tell them to do something that you do differently, they know, and so I just I'm just gonna try to be the best example that I can be for what I truly believe. And if I can be the best example and be empathetic and understanding, because I think we're so quick to judge people, so so quick. Um, oh my gosh, she looks that way because she just has so much money, or oh my gosh, yeah, if I this or if I this, but we have no idea where people came from. We have no idea where they started, and we have no idea what's really going on because social media makes things appear.

SPEAKER_00 18:52

It's funny, it's funny you say that, Jenny, because I recently went to a cosmetic surgery. Not for any particular reason, but I was visiting there. And you we've mentioned earlier around GLP1 medication, um statins, and if we want to throw in there the cholesterol con as well. But uh a consistent over the last 20 years has been that, and you've just described it very well, around how to look at the impact of Botox everything.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:31

Botox is without a shadow of a doubt, if you want to call it one of the lowest levels, if that makes sense. It's easily available. It's is it expensive? It can be, but it keeps them sucking sucking people in. I need to get botox for my forehead, for my lips, for other parts of your your body, not realizing the impact that it has from a longer term.

SPEAKER_01 19:57

It's it's unfortunate that society emphasizes appearance over health. And to me, it it's heartbreaking that I I mean, I'm gonna say most people feel, including myself, the need to keep up in some form or fashion, right? Like, you know, who's gonna listen to somebody talk about health when they look like trash? Right? Like, I mean, we judge, we judge, we really do. Um, I mean, I would, if I went to a cardiologist and he weighed 600 pounds, I'm not gonna probably really take what he says with a grain of salt, versus when I walk in and there's a fit, healthy cardiologist that doesn't smell like cigarette smoke. And so I feel like especially in the the age of influencers and affiliates, and I mean, every like that is what look at it, Martin. Look at look at the way things have changed from just through our life, you know, it now we have AI that like you don't even talk to people anymore. You get a response from an AI.

SPEAKER_00 21:24

I want to I want to hold you there. One thing that I love capitalizing on is this um movement around AI. Let's rip this back a little bit to make it into a health perspective. What is your actual insides doing as opposed to artificial uh uh intelligence? If you get your actual insides working, you are going to be healthy. You are going to get that longer longevity.

SPEAKER_01 21:55

And I I think that sometimes we just way overcomplicate things. Like I I mean I I tell my you know I always tell myself, I'm like, I look up and I'm like, Grandma, you are so right. You know, you're so right. You just make things simple. You know, it just simple. And she used to set that bacon grease jar on the counter to cook food in, and I would I would cringe, Martin, when I would see her take a big old spoonful out to cook to cook my eggs in. And I'm like, oh, please no. And she would do it in that cast iron pan. But gosh, was she right? You know, um, go go into bed. We didn't, we didn't get turn the TV off. You didn't you didn't have a snack before dinner because you wouldn't eat your dinner. Oh no, you you didn't like that food for for dinner. We're not gonna go in there and eat anything else. It's your loss. So all of these things that we kind of laugh at or like poo-pooed, it's just it's simple. It's real food. And the problem is is you know, real food doesn't make a lot of money. Real food gets people healthy and they don't need medication. Real food, you know, all of these things take away from big food and big pharma. Truly. I mean, think about it. If our brains aren't overstimulated, we're not gonna stay up as late. So then we may not need sleep meds, we may not need anxiety meds, you know, our gut is healthier if we stay away from all the chemical. I mean, it just it's all, and I know I sound like such a conspiracy theorist, but it's all it's not a conspiracy. It is true, it's factual.

SPEAKER_00 23:41

Real food. Let me ask you a question, actually. Where would you suggest people take the first few steps if they're looking in the mirror and they have that wake-up call going, uh, oh my god, regardless of age, oh my god, I want to take autonomy over my health. What would be the few steps that you would suggest uh would be I'm not saying easy, but maybe the first few steps that they can start taking to have that self-efficacy.

SPEAKER_01 24:16

Sure, sure. I think the number one thing that I would tell anybody, I don't care if you're keto, carnivore, vegan, vegetarian, paleo, is to eliminate ultra-processed food. I think if everyone did that, you would see humongous improvements in people's health just by eliminating ultra-processed food. That's the first place I would start. Number one, ultra-processed food. Number two, so that includes that encompasses seed oils, that encompasses all those, you know, brightly boxed cereals and yummy things. That includes all the sugar sweetened beverages, right? So I think if you could eliminate ultra-processed food and sh sh which is high fructose corn syrup beverages, first. The second thing is, is focus on like protein, fiber, and fat. The three macronutrients that people say just if it fits your macros, which real food. Real food, right? Meat, high fiber vegetables, good quality carbs, butter, real, like real food. Okay, and then I think some type of movement, right? Like some type of movement, whether it is an air squat, 10 air squats after you eat, whether that's a walk for 10 minutes after you eat, it does not have to be a gym, it does not have to be weights. Now, I do think resistance exercise is you know top, top notch. But even if you can do some type of movement, and I think um one thing that's that we all can do is I think if you could shut off social media and just be a human-to-human connection, like like that's we all can do that. And if people, I'll be the first to tell you, I take my phone to the bathroom with me, Martin. Like it, I it we're addicted, we're so addicted. But like trying to like shut it off an hour. I mean, think about it, even when you go to dinner or something with somebody, it's probably right there on the table, and you can't wait. You feel your watch vibrate, or you, you know, it's like you you gotta go to the bathroom so you can check it, right? So really trying to like wean yourself off of that is as much as eliminating ultra-processed food is.

SPEAKER_00 27:07

You know, it's funny. One of the things, and we haven't discussed it, but you know, one key thing is intermittent fasting, right? Which has got great.

SPEAKER_01 27:16

Oh, I was absolutely going on that. I was gonna get there.

SPEAKER_00 27:18

But intermittent fasting from technology has such a big impact on your well-being. If you can fast for 12 to 15 hours, you can fast from your mobile device for 12 to 15 hours.

SPEAKER_01 27:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:34

Yep. You have to keep your your you know, that aspect that your body keeps the score, it keeps the score when you're tensed up and you're looking at your device, or you look and the light, it's having a massive impact on your hormones.

SPEAKER_01 27:50

Oh, our circadian rhythm is by far, I mean, you know, that's that's one thing that no one talks about, the quantum energy that is fascinating to me, that I I you know admit that I'm very ignorant of, but I am fascinated by it about how important that is for every function in our body. And no one talks about it. But the fluorescent lights sure screw it up. The social media, the technology sure does screw it up. People are afraid. You know, I have blue eyes, they're very, very sensitive to the sun about three or four years ago. And every time I couldn't even walk outside without squinting or covering them up or putting on sunglasses, and so I worked on it, started not wearing sunglasses. Now I don't look at the sun. Come on, let's just be we got to use some common sense, but I don't wear sunglasses, Martin, and my eyes are completely fine. Why? Because we need our pupils need to see, they need to be exposed to that light. You know, our skin will be okay out in the sun. You're not we have just been brainwashed to think that so many things that God created are trying to harm us. No, what about the things people created? I think we need to we need to rephrase that. It's not the things that God created, it's the things that humans created.

SPEAKER_00 29:26

So, Sharon, we could talk for hours, but how do people contact you? Because we have mentioned social media and it has its purpose, and you're very active on that. So, congratulations. But how do people contact you for more information? Should they want to get into uh uh your brain, if that makes sense?

SPEAKER_01 29:46

Sure, sure. So my biggest platform is on Facebook. Um, I will I will give you my um all my uh profiles, I guess, is or my login, whatever you call it, handles, yes. Um, you can see if to be so big on social media, I don't even know what it's called. Um, Facebook is my biggest account. I'm trying to make my my mark in in launch into Instagram. So I'm on Instagram and I'm on um LinkedIn. TikTok is you know, I'm done with that one.

SPEAKER_00 30:21

So okay. Shannon, it's been a pleasure to get you on camera. You are a wealth of information, and I I you know, I I think a hell of a lot of what you're doing needs to be amplified. So if anybody's listening to this podcast, please take one thing and value your health.

SPEAKER_01 30:47

You couldn't I couldn't say it better.

SPEAKER_00 30:49

Have faith that if you do take those steps, you are taking those steps for a better quality of living without the medication.

SPEAKER_01 31:00

1000%. It's been a pleasure. I really appreciate you having me on. All I can say is about time, Martin. You know, better late than never.

SPEAKER_00 31:08

I'm going to I'm going to end before we get cut off. Stay online and we'll do a debrief. Hold on a second. Take care.

SPEAKER_01 31:15

Bye bye.