How To Eat For Health

After months on a modified ketogenic diet, we share our personal journeys with giving up sugar and carbohydrates, exploring both the challenges and life-changing health benefits we've experienced.

• Sugar is the most addictive substance humans consume, and breaking its grip requires complete elimination for at least 2-3 months
• Ketosis is a state where your body burns fat instead of sugar for fuel, providing benefits like reduced inflammation and improved mental clarity
• The hardest parts of keto are finding enough variety in meals and overcoming the convenience factor of carb-heavy foods
• Inflammation reduction has been significant, especially in swelling, pain, and mobility
• Sugar feeds cancer cells and burdens the immune system, making diet a powerful tool for prevention
• Animal fats are healthy while seed oils and low-fat products disrupt hormonal balance
• Seasonal eating aligns with our body's natural needs - more fats and proteins in winter, fresh fruits during growing seasons
• Connect directly with farmers at markets rather than obsessing over specific labels like "grass-fed"
• You cannot supplement your way out of an unhealthy lifestyle - diet must come first

We love hearing from you! Contact us with questions or topic suggestions at farmersgreatestasset@gmail.com or find us on social media at Farmers Greatest Asset.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:16

The Farmer's Greatest Asset podcast. We believe the farm's greatest asset is the farmer their knowledge, experience, mind and health. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm Jesse.

Speaker 2 0:41

And I'm Dr Leah.

Speaker 1 0:42

So I guess a little diet talk today, huh.

Speaker 2 0:47

We're just delving right into that, aren't we?

Speaker 1 0:50

Why not jump right in?

Speaker 2 0:53

We have been doing the modified keto diet for the last two to three months. Henry's really been doing it probably four or five months.

Speaker 1 1:07

He's following it pretty strictly.

Speaker 2 1:09

He's been doing very well. He started when you guys were out in the field late March, early April. He's had really good success and I think he is feeling pretty good.

Speaker 1 1:22

You can tell he feels good. He looks good. That's just why he's staying on it. Looks good, he's just why he's staying on it.

Speaker 2 1:27

Right, he's having positive results.

Speaker 1 1:30

Me. On the other hand, I struggle to stay on it.

Speaker 2 1:33

Why.

Speaker 1 1:33

Sugar, sugar, sugar sugar.

Speaker 2 1:36

It is a struggle. It's hard because once you get a little bit of it back into you you're like oh, I want some more. It truly is the greatest drug. It truly is the most addictive drug that there is to a human sugar. You know animals won't eat it like we do because they know it's not good for them.

Speaker 1 2:01

Right. Animals are actually very smart and they will go to what they need.

Speaker 2 2:06

We are not in tune with our bodies and have the mental capacity to change what we truly need.

Speaker 1 2:12

To realize all of the pop and all of the sugar and everything is not necessarily giving us the nutrition.

Speaker 2 2:19

There are so many diets out there. Why the keto diet, you might ask? I went to a conference in March where Dr Nasha Winters was speaking and I read her book. And there's lots of books out there and lots of different advices that people will give and you all need to kind of discern what is important to you and there are different seasons within your life that it makes it easier or harder to do this. So Dr Nasha Winters, she is a naturopathic physician. She treats cancer patients.

Speaker 2 3:00

I have a personal acquaintance who is struggling with cancer and so I was really kind of delving into how I could best help them by what I could learn. And this conference talked about regenerative agriculture as well, like bringing physicians and farmers together, which is right in league with what I like doing and where I feel like my purpose is going. So, looking more at the ketogenic diet cutting back on sugar, even natural sugar with fruit just it really made a lot of sense to me. For me, it's not an easy diet to follow, Not because I don't like meat, but I get kind of bored with it and I really like potatoes and rice.

Speaker 1 3:58

So in the keto diet we're really trying to basically cut out sugars and carbs. Carbs are sugars, so potatoes, rice bread.

Speaker 2 4:08

Processed sugars, especially All of those things that are really yummy.

Understanding Ketosis and Sugar Addiction

Speaker 1 4:13

So we're trying to cut out the carbs and the sugars and the stuff, because explain it a little bit better about trying to get your body into ketosis. You explain it a lot better than I do.

Speaker 2 4:24

So ketosis is a state of starvation for your body.

Speaker 2 4:27

When your system is overwhelmed with all of the toxins and you need to get all of the toxins out of your body.

Speaker 2 4:35

It really needs to not have to work through all of the sugar. Sugar is going to change how your body functions, so even your mental clarity is affected by sugar. To get in a state of ketosis you have to cut sugar out almost completely, like really completely, and you can get in a ketotic state just by intermittent fasting, which is what a lot of people will do, and some people suggest like doing a three-day fast or, at minimum, like a 24-hour fast, which, as you cut sugar out of your diet, that becomes actually a lot easier to do. It is the sugar cravings that really keep you locked into that cycle of needing to eat all of the time and snacking all the time. Once you cut the sugar out, you become more in tune with what your body needs and you will start even wanting healthier foods. But it takes time to get to that place. You really need to like clear your house of it, because it is as addictive as a, as the most addictive drug, because it is the most addictive drug.

Speaker 1 5:57

So go back to what's happening in your body. If you continue to have the sugar once a day, once every other day, whatever like your body never goes to burning the sugar once a day, once every other day, whatever like your body never goes to burning the stores in your body. It just waits for that sugar to hit.

Speaker 2 6:13

Right. So you hold on to all of the fat basically in your body you don't burn the fat like we're really meant to burn the fat. The difficulty, I think, lies in overcoming that sugar state. But if you introduce the sugar every couple of days, your body will push you to get more and more sugar because it's that addictive. So the first thing that you have to really do is cut out sugar. That process can take two to four weeks. I would say it's a good two to three months before you aren't like if you have a little bit you're going to crave more before you can kind of get those things under control.

Speaker 1 6:57

So we've really noticed the cravings for the sugar since we've been on keto, like you kind of get it of, get it out of your body and get it out of the house, whatever, and all of a sudden you get a sniff of it somewhere and eat a little bit and it's like I need more. I need more and it's very apparent it's a struggle.

Speaker 2 7:20

But I think it gets easier, don't you think it gets easier the longer you're on it?

Speaker 1 7:24

Sure, absolutely the sugar cravings.

Speaker 2 7:26

Yeah.

Speaker 1 7:27

They get easier.

Speaker 2 7:29

I guess I don't see this as being a temporary diet Like this is going to be how we continue long term.

Speaker 1 7:42

The diet itself isn't so hard. Cutting out the potatoes and the bread is the hardest part for farming family. Well, because you want the delivery source. The bread is the delivery source and the when you're out in the tractor or the combine, I'm okay not having bread, I really am, it's just. It seriously is the delivery source. It makes it easy to eat.

Speaker 2 8:08

Right, well, and it gives you a little variety. To me, that has been the hardest thing.

Speaker 1 8:14

Not the bread. No the variety.

Speaker 2 8:17

The longer that you're on the ketogenic diet and you get away from sugar things just they taste different. Real food tastes better. It's kind of the same thing over and over. It gets a little boring. I think that that's the hardest part. Where we struggle at our house is like Henry and Lucy do a lot of the cooking and it feels like we are eating the same thing over and over and over again and we aren't really used to that. We like a lot of variety and we like a lot of flavor. You know we have a lot of herbs. It's a good time of year. Like Henry, lucy and I like a wide variety of vegetables and fruits that are keto friendly, but we struggle because Lizzie and Jesse don't like as much of those things. Trying to find something that everyone will eat becomes harder because really you need more than just meat, like you need the vegetables for nutrition and you really need like a pound of vegetables a day. That's a lot.

Speaker 1 9:22

One everybody's kind of tired of of cooking, so then everybody's tired of not everybody being satisfied with a meal. So that's part of the struggle. And you and henry continue to say how you're just you're bored with, basically, meat. For me, I'm okay with a carnivore diet. This is a modified carnivore because you want the vegetables and stuff, because you get good vitamins and minerals through your vegetables, because those grow in the dirt, so those are important. So you guys continue to say how you're bored and you're over meat and you just don't feel like eating and that's part of being in ketosis.

Speaker 2 10:03

Right, it's like a natural GLP-1. Like you're just like nah, I could take it or leave it. Maybe I won't eat dinner tonight and I was never that person, but it gets easier the longer that you're on it For me. I have a hard time right now trying to get my protein that I need, the amount of protein that I need.

Speaker 1 10:32

It requires a lot of protein, yeah.

Speaker 2 10:35

But the benefits have been so great for me. I'll speak of myself. I am still swollen but was very swollen and I can tell the inflammation in my legs is so much better, like I had, especially in my, in my calves. I had so much tenderness in my feet, my ankles, my calves. I had a lot of swelling and it just they ached and hurt all of the time. A lot of swelling and it just they ached and hurt all of the time and it would restrict me from activity. So by the end of the afternoon I couldn't be on my feet anymore because they hurt.

Speaker 2 11:17

I would just find that my life was getting more and more sedentary. Like this has been something that had been progressing in my body over the last 20 years, like I'm 15 now. So the last 20 years my activity level you know I became a mother and I was working in the hospital my activity level changed significantly and then all of the inflammation from the unhealthy diet and lifestyle, the lack of sleep and the lack of nutrition really increased all the inflammation in my body. It just kind of became stagnant. I know there are a lot of 40 plus year old women who have just kind of gotten to the point where they're like I think this is just how my life is going to be. But I want to tell them that this isn't how your life has to be. It is really mostly your lifestyle. It is mostly your diet, but it is all the lifestyle that is creating the problem, and the first thing you can do is to cut sugar out of your diet and start drinking water.

Speaker 1 12:30

We continue to say sugar and sugar, sugar on keto, because carbs, which is bread, rice, potatoes, that that is sugar.

Speaker 2 12:40

Correct yes, fruits are sugar as well as well as fruits.

Speaker 1 12:45

So there are certain fruits that are on the keto diet.

Speaker 2 12:48

That you can have in moderation. Yes, Berries, watermelon, cantaloupe, kiwi everything that's really great and out there right now, the things that have a lot of sugar, especially like bananas, apples, peaches they have a lot of sugar, especially like bananas, apples, peaches they have a lot of sugar. Those are going to be things that you want to have as your splurges. Like you can have a splurge after you kind of get your sugar cravings under control, but you have to be careful Cause, like, we just got back from the fair and you know we kind of ate a little healthier than we usually do, but we did have still ate some junk food.

Speaker 2 13:26

We ate junk food and could definitely tell yeah, I think it's been a.

Speaker 1 13:31

I've been on a hangover for a week after the fair we all had that hangover. Really tell that we ingested a lot of the sugar so a big thing that you have learned from Naysha Winters is the sugar feeds basically everything in your body.

Speaker 2 13:47

The biggest thing is that it feeds cancer cells, and when I say that the C word cancer it's it's frightening because everybody's been touched by people who, by someone who has had cancer or has passed from cancer.

Speaker 2 14:04

The thing that I want people to know, that every doctor knows, is we constantly have cancer cells in our body. The immune system is in charge of fighting against those cancer cells when we are constantly putting insults or toxins into our body, whether it be with our food or what we're putting on our skin or all of the variety of what we are living in, even like scented candles in your house the more toxins that your body has to combat, the less the immune system can focus on those abnormal cells that are being created in your body all of the time. By decreasing the toxic load, you can improve your immune system. Now, the majority of the American public has weakened immune systems for so many different reasons because there are constant insults. So the one thing that you have control over today is what you are ingesting through your gut, so what you are eating.

Speaker 1 15:13

So the sugar is literally just fuel for all of the cells in your body, good and bad. So it's just fueling cancer cells.

Sugar, Cancer and Immune System

Speaker 2 15:23

I would say, with the amount of sugar that most Americans are eating, sugar is the toxin. We don't want to necessarily believe it, like I really didn't want to believe that sugar was the bad guy. You know, it's kind of like the comfort that our moms gave us, you know. Look at the comfort foods. Or when we have holidays, oh, you have, you know, these special desserts. And it's not that you can't ever eat those again. But you have to realize like those are toxic insults to your immune system. The more we treat ourself with a Frappuccino or the more we treat ourself with ice cream, the more toxic burden you're putting into your body, the more likely it is that those abnormal cells will be fed. So, from a health standpoint, how can we take back that control of our immune system? And the first place to start is to decrease the sugar intake.

Speaker 1 16:28

So a benefit for me has been I have lost some weight, not a ton, but I'm 46. So it's not like I'm 17, like Henry, and he can just see results immediately. But I have lost some weight and the swelling has gotten better.

Speaker 2 16:46

Well, it's going to take time. So what I like? I wanted immediate results. Like I wanted to start on the diet and then in two weeks I wanted all my swelling to be gone and then, you know, another two weeks. I really I wanted to see the weight coming off. And you want immediate results. But then I have to step back and tell myself you're 50. Like you have had 20 to 30 years of toxic load in your body that's stored in your body and if all of that was released at one time, like it's too much for your liver. Your liver is already on overload trying to and kidneys are already on overload trying to screen out all the toxins that you've been putting in it for so long. So it needs to be a slow progression.

Speaker 1 17:35

Well, you get on the diet and the progression will be slow and the results will come. It's just it takes time, Right, I guess? Why did we get on keto? I had food sensitivity testing done and I'm, it pains me to say, as a farmer. I am basically sensitive to all of the greens.

Speaker 2 17:57

Thank God you weren't sensitive to any of the meat.

Speaker 1 18:00

Yeah Right, lots of beef for Jesse. So that was part of it, and, whether we want to believe it or not, we're all probably sensitive to gluten, because gluten is in everything. So the food industry has probably created some of that problem.

Speaker 2 18:16

And unfortunately, dairy as well, and we're all sensitive to dairy.

Speaker 1 18:21

And that doesn't mean don't support your dairy farmers but, like you need to get that inflammation out of your body. Realizing what we were sensitive to helped direct us to the keto diet, and it's also we know what we need, because it is all about protein and vegetables essentially, and that's how we used to eat and that's the way we need to get back to. Fruits would probably occur naturally in the wild and those were a treat back in the day, but people probably cultivated vegetables for how many thousands of years? So those are needed. And then the protein source is your meat.

Seasonal Eating and Healthy Fats

Speaker 2 19:02

Well, I think that if you eat seasonally throughout the year, like, your body will get the vitamins in excess when it needs them, right. So the difference between modern day eating and how it was a hundred years ago. Although a lot of people would, can or put things into the cellar, you know. So you would store it, but over time it would rot and you wouldn't have it anymore. Like I'll use apples as an example over time, you know they will store at 50 degrees for quite some time, but they will eventually rot. Your body can get the nutrients that it needs to continue to run on that.

Speaker 2 19:46

But we can go out and buy apples from the grocery store all year long and the nutritional value of them decreases and the sugar content increases. What we are eating, the apple we're eating in January is not of the same nutritional value as the apple that you're eating in season. You know, september through October Although you can eat a lot of apples September through October, you're only going to be able to eat so much. But if you then continue to buy them throughout the winter, your body is not meant to eat that type of food in winter. We need more fat. In winter we need more protein. In winter we need less carbs.

Speaker 1 20:36

So our food pyramid has told us animal fats are bad. Don't fry in lard. All that. That stuff is actually good for us, right?

Speaker 2 20:50

Yes, please get the margarine out of your house. Please cut seed oils out of your diet as much as you possibly can.

Speaker 1 20:59

Yeah, do we all remember the trans fat thing? We had to quit frying in trans fats. We all had to fry everything in seed oils. Turns out seed oils aren't actually good, as much as it pains me to say as a farmer, because we raise corn and that goes to a lot of sweeteners in places not necessarily ours, but it's bad for us. And frying in canola oil and soybean oil and vegetable oils it's not good, it's not natural, basically right.

Speaker 2 21:32

So try and use olive oil, avocado oil, lard, beef, tallow, all of those things you know. Another that just struck up something in my head. People are like, well, what about grass fed beef? Like, does everything need to be grass fed? If you want to go completely back to how things were before, farming Like you would hunt an animal that was out in the wild and eat it, grass-fed would be the closest thing to that. That is not what we eat.

Speaker 1 22:08

It really kind of comes down to preference, in that Corn-fed beef is not unhealthy versus grass-fed beef. To me it's a preference in taste.

Buying from Farmers and Closing Thoughts

Speaker 2 22:18

That is of the opinion that we have now. Yes, I would agree. That's where we are. A lot of the healthy doctors that are pushing health and regenerative agriculture will be like everybody needs to go to grass-fed beef. Well, there is not enough grass-fed beef out there to feed the world. That's not even possible. Instead of confusing all of the issue of grass-fed only or grass-fed and grain-fed, what I would say is start buying your food from a farmer. You know, you know. If you don't know farmers, start doing some research on how they are feeding their beef and or pork or poultry, whatever you want. Start buying from farmers. Farmers will take care of their animals because it is what's feeding their families. Instead of muddying the waters with, oh, it has to be completely grass-fed and it can't receive grain, what I would say is I don't care what your label says in the your farmers Like. There are farmers markets everywhere. Let's make those things important. And we got to take a little bit of the convenience out of the diet and we got to start cooking from scratch.

Speaker 1 23:50

We have learned that keto is not convenient.

Speaker 2 23:56

It is all about cooking at home from scratch and cleaning your kitchen so many times every day. I mean, there are times that we're like we have to order something out.

Speaker 1 24:12

I can't clean the kitchen one more time today the gist of it is is we chose to go keto and we have seen good results, but everybody's diet is a preference thing, right?

Speaker 2 24:25

Yeah.

Speaker 1 24:26

So carnivores? Fine Um for us. We believe that you got to have the vitamins and then the fat as well, from a beef or pork or whatever beef or pork or whatever and the protein source.

Speaker 2 24:45

I know low fat is not the way to go right. Low fat diets are not the way to go. It is creating havoc in your body with your hormones. You need the fat to make hormones and to make your body healthy. Fat Fat does not make you fat. Sugar makes you fat.

Speaker 1 25:00

That is the delusion that they have created with the food pyramid in our food industry and that animal fats are bad. So it comes down to basically the sugar. We got to cut it out and we have seen good positive results in ourselves in that because we have been there. We are there, you know, with the sugar and everything else.

Speaker 2 25:19

So you know, we just got done with the County fair not long ago and we have had a couple of excursions where we've had sugar.

Speaker 1 25:28

Wow, yeah it really makes you so cloudy.

Speaker 2 25:34

I had some candies and then I was driving and I was having such a hard time focusing on driving because I had I know I just had a root beer, which I love root beer and I had some candy and like you're like, are you okay? I was like no, I do not feel okay. I felt crummy from that sugar because I hadn't had much sugar for months and it took a few hours for me to start feeling normal again. Once you are in, once you know what good feels like, you really can start noticing.

Speaker 1 26:14

You notice what makes you feel bad.

Speaker 2 26:17

You feel out of it, like the sugar made me feel completely out of it. So there is one other key point that I would like to make today, and that is you cannot supplement your way out of an unhealthy lifestyle. So there isn't going to be some magic supplement that's going to be making you feel better and you continue to eat an unhealthy diet.

Speaker 1 26:43

So the point today is find a good diet, create a good diet for yourself and cut the sugar out.

Speaker 2 26:50

And next week we'll talk more about supplementation and vitamins and minerals.

Speaker 1 26:56

Because we are all deficient, whether we like it or believe it or not. So with that, thank you for listening.

Speaker 2 27:03

So go out and like and share us on all the social platforms at Farmers Greatest Asset, and our email, if you have any questions, is farmersgreatestasset at gmailcom. We love hearing from you, so write to us with any questions that you have or anything that you'd like to learn more about. Sometimes it's hard for me to know how deep to go into things, so if you want more depth, we can definitely go there. That would be a way to contact us with what you'd like to hear and subscribe to the podcast.

Speaker 1 27:37

It's a good day.

Speaker 2 27:39

To have a great day.

Speaker 1 27:40

To have a great day.

Speaker 2 27:41

To have a great day. Bye.