Part 2: The Importance of Proper Nutrition and Product Certifications with Amber Lynn Vitale, BA, CN
The world of dietary supplements, organic and non-GMO foods, and nutrition can be complex and confusing. People are often left with more questions than they began with when beginning to research “how to get healthy.” Are we able to trust every claim on the label? Is it really that important to find whole food sourced supplements and organic food? Where should I look to find TRUSTWORTHY information?
Meet Amber:
On this week’s episode we have the second half of our conversation with Amber. Ed and Amber discuss the importance of consuming quality organic and non-GMO foods and why it’s important to prioritize consuming whole foods and whole food supplements.
Some Points We Discuss:
How important are certifications like organic and non-GMO? (1:24)
How do you not get overwhelmed when it comes to starting a healthy lifestyle? (11:30)
What do nutrients do? (16:46)
Some Key Takeaways From This Episode:
If you’re taking something like a greens powder which is concentrated, you’re going to concentrate the toxins in there too. (3:07)
If you've been eating glyphosate every day since 1980, you have been taking an antibiotic your whole life. (4:34)
If you start your day wrong, you’ll crave things that aren’t good for you all day long. (14:57)
What are the best labels to look for on a product? (19:34)
Products + Resources:
Thank you to this episode’s sponsor: Garden of Life
Get Social with Amber:
CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL SHOW TRANSCRIPT
Brian Strickland 00:43 Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Holistic Navigator Podcast, where we believe in the body's ability to heal itself. Today we're picking up where we left off last week with our guests Amber Vitale. For those of you who missed last week's episode, Amber is a certified nutritionist, and is currently a regional educator with Garden of Life. On this episode, we're talking about the importance of food sourcing and certifications, and how our culture's attitude towards food can have a substantial effect on our health. We're not going to waste any time getting right back into it. So here's part two of our conversation with Amber Vitale.
Amber Vitale 01:20 I mean, let's talk a little bit then about you know, I think things that consumers are really confused about, like how important is it that something's organic and non GMO? Right, let's just start there. You know, if it's your food, I mean, I just always encourage people, and I'm sure you do too, you know, look up this year's list of the Dirty Dozen, find out which visit vegetables and fruits are heavily sprayed with pesticides, meaning herbicides, insecticides and fungicides and avoid those or buy them organic. You know, if you if you're on a budget, and look at the ones that aren't as heavily sprayed, and wash them well and focus on those non organic again, you know, everybody's on a budget. Budget is your own perception of what money you have to spend on things. You know, we spend in our household a lot on food, it's very important, and people are blown away by that, you know, when people say they budget $300 a month for their food, I'm just like, wow, you know, that's I wish I could do that. But we are very much focused on good food. It's the first thing that's really important. And so if you're really focusing on your food, you know, what about your supplements? Well, if your supplement is made from food, let's take a greens powder, you know, a greens powder supplement with grass juice powders, and fruit and vegetable juice powders in it. Well, that is concentrated food. So now you're taking a bag of alfalfa, you're taking a bunch of vegetables and fruits, and you're juicing them and drying that and concentrating them. And so, you know, that's you takes 33 pounds of fresh alfalfa to make a pound of alfalfa grass juice powder.
Ed Jones 03:06 Wow.
Amber Vitale 03:07 So if there's toxins in that they're getting concentrated too. You're creating a very rudimentary, very minimally processed product. If it's not turning out as a white powder, then those those pesticides are going to be in there too. Things that people don't know, alfalfa genetically is a genetically modified crop now since 2012. So not only do you have to make sure that anything that has alfalfa grass, or alfalfa grass juice powder in it, or any animal product that you consume, that might even say grass fed, could be eating genetically modified alfalfa, not only in their hand forage, but in the form of pellets that you would not even think about. It's still qualifies as grass fed, but it could be genetically modified first. And second, if it is it's getting sprayed with glyphosate, which hopefully everybody recognizes as the main ingredient in Roundup, which the first patent on it besides being a chelating agent, which means it pulls nutrients out of plants, and they die of disease. It's also an antibiotic. Look at what is in I don't know if I can mention brands, let's just say potato chips, corn chips, cereals, there is evidence out there, they're being tested. Now, not only can they test them for the presence of genetically modified DNA, you know, if they're made of corn, if they're made of soy, if they're made of canola, they're made of beets, but they also can test them for the presence of glyphosate. And if you're eating glyphosate every day since 1980, you have been taking an antibiotic in your whole life. That's me. I was the nine in 1980, you know, and and so since then, and eating all those Cheerios and Grape Nuts I've been taking in glyphosate because glyphosate is also used on crops, grains and legumesto dry them, to desiccate them. If the Northwest portion of your field isn't ripe yet, and the Southwest portion of Southeast portions ready to harvest, you spray the whole thing with glyphosate, it's allowable agricultural practice. It desiccate your crop so that you can get it dried and into making flour and into making breads and pastas and cereals and things like that cereal bars, and so on, and so forth. So we've all got it in us. And if that is the worst offense, because nobody knew what was in there, nobody knows in the food.
Ed Jones 05:34 Well, I have done a podcast just on glyphosate. And I think I mentioned on there that I did a test on myself about a year ago. And I eat better than 95% of the humans. I do eat out too much, because I'm single guy, and I don't cook, but I choose this good quality food as you can choose. And I certainly, of course, do all the supplements that are that are the correct ones that are non GMO. I never, ever reach for anything but the very best that I can. And on a scale of one to 100 if 100. Well, let me say this on a scale of one to 100 on this glyphosate test in Europe, Europe's standards, most people were tested ranged between 25 and 33. I was 72. And you know, I wasn't happy about that. So you know, I'm doing more things to hopefully help detoxify that. I'm being more cautious about I'm doing more protective measures about how to maybe block it. I mean, there's some evidence coming out that we might have more options, if we do the right thing. Again, that goes back to my supplement protocol. I'm not looking for supplements to super enhance and protect me from all my bad habits, I want to optimize the the ability to prevent damage from everything from the diesel fuel that was in front of in front of my car this morning and in the bus to, to the food aid to the this or that because they again, if they're the right kind and I am so strongly leaning toward the food based food grown nutrients, that I really do believe that they will enhance my ability to have quality life. And I've said this so many times I forget, but I don't know if they're really going to make me live a lot of extra years, but they're going to make me live, in my opinion for two years. And, you know, health span the health span, and, you know, again, I don't expect to go to bed one night and wake up dead the next morning like you would want to, but I hope that that end is, you know, not long lasting, because my number one fear is, is actually not death is the medical system and being trapped. Right. And you know, when you really get involved in that, and you and it's really a problem of mine to be terrified of the system the way I am because there's good stuff in it too. But I just do everything I can to help to not be part of that.
Amber Vitale 07:53 An even greater fear is our children. Because as adults we can choose, we can decide not to participate in it, we can say, you know, my doctor prescribed this statin but I'm gonna go and try to do this on my own first and see if I can improve my numbers and improve my health. But when you've seen a doctor in the system with your child, and they say you need to do this with your child, and they prescribe something. Now you're in a real difficult situation, if you go back in three months, and the child is still having that problem and you didn't give what they prescribed, you can get in trouble, you know. And so it's very hard with your kids to make choices that are healthier, and to try to keep them out of that system. You just don't let them get there in the first place. You just do not you want to do everything you can to keep your kids healthy. This is where it starts teaching our kids what's healthy. I mean, you would think my kids are like the best eaters in the world. Right? I just had a discussion with them yesterday, why when we go out and get Shake Shack burgers, do we have to have a shake too? Like, can we not like be a little bit moderate here? Just like why? You know, because they they've got the whole life ahead of them. They don't realize they don't know what we know. You know, I look back at things I did as a kid. I know what the insults were now. But back then I didn't had dark circles under my eyes, you know, was I just looked back at pictures. And I'm just like, gosh, my mom didn't know. She just didn't know, she just didn't know. And at that time, we didn't know that if babies had reflux and dark circles and all this stuff that we should pull out dairy for a while and look at where it was coming from and we should pull out grains. We didn't know. Nobody knew nobody even knew that it was bad to smoke. I mean, you think you could figure that out just you know, common sense. But doctors were smoking doctors were recommending cigarettes.
Ed Jones 09:37 And that in some ways is just so dramatically changed for those of us who are in tune with learning and in other ways. It's just as bad because you know, the drugs themselves have now become almost what the cigarettes were in the 60s that Oh, it's okay and it's actually going to be good for you. So I recommend it. Now the drugs are these are good, these are what you need and you know, these are going to help you heal which is about as big of a forest in many cases, not all, as the cigarette campaigns were in the 60s.
Amber Vitale 10:09 Right. So that putting something in to try to I mean, we, you know, I know you've joked about this, I've joked about it, every functional medicine practitioner has joked about the fact that, you know, being depressed is not a deficiency of Zoloft. You don't have a Zoloft deficiency, you know, you don't have a statin deficiency. And that's why you have high cholesterol, you don't have you know, it's not that you're missing that medication, it's going in there and using a pathway to change the numbers. But there are always side effects. The difference when you take food or supplements that have all these other components that are still with them naturally, is you don't have those same side effects, you're approaching it holistically, you're sort of buffering the effect on the body, you're not forcing a new pathway, you're helping the body help itself, this is what I really wanted to get to is even when you supplement your supplements should be supplements that help the body help itself. The body, as you said, it has this amazing ability to self heal, if it has the rest that it needs the separation from things that are harming it and are toxic to it, and the nutrients it needs to conduct repair.
Ed Jones 11:30 Well, and I know Brian will echo the fact that How many times have I said almost those exact words, probably every podcast. But here's my take on it. Anyone who's listening and I think you might say, okay, that you would agree to this. I don't want this conversation to sound to people who are frustrated or you know, don't have or have a lot of struggles that they just say, Well, I'm just throwing my hands up, because this is so overwhelming. I can't do everything so if I can't do everything around, I'm not gonna do anything, right, that is not the best answer. What I've seen in 40 years is meeting people where they are and if we can just get someone to take a quality vitamin D and start eating some colored vegetables every day. I mean, that's two things. And here's what I really tell a lot of people and I certainly so believe it in myself. If I go out to eat anywhere, and I don't care where it is, I don't care It was a health food store. Or even maybe at home, I could but almost anywhere else, I'm going to have to compromise on the quality of food, if I'm going out to eat. Somehow some way is not going to be made to the level of what I would consider the most pure. So how can I make at least one meal of my day, the absolute finest? Well, I came to this conclusion four years ago, the only way is to drink it for breakfast, I have given up eating breakfast. Because here's the deal, you can as you know better than I you can purchase the kind of products that have the labels that are guaranteeing me that is non GMO, guarantee me it doesn't have wheat, guaranteeing me all of the certifications of organic and blank and blank and blank so that there's no way I could find those foods unless I just didn't work and I was a multimillionaire. But I can find the products, I can go to a good store and I can get the right products which is the right protein, I use Garden of Life's butter powder, I use MCT oil, I use the greens and I used Garden of Life's chia and flax seeds. I do that every morning. And so that way when I leave breakfast in the morning, which is literally takes me seven minutes from start to finish I have fueled my body with this good of quality of vibrant foods from the earth that I possibly can. And to me, if you start the day wrong, you kind of you can't really right size, the shift completely the rest of the day. But if you started right, it's nothing give people excuses. But if you start it right, you have some cushion against imperfections the rest of the day.
Brian Strickland 14:13 All right, everyone, let's break for just a quick second for a word from our sponsor. This episode is brought to you by Garden of Life. Garden of Life is the number one brand in the natural products industry and for good reason. They believe in three principles that guide all of their product formulation, using real whole food as the basis of every product of belief that health begins with obtaining the cleanest ingredients possible and complete traceability of every ingredient. They hold 12 certifications and are dedicated to providing their customers with some of the cleanest, sustainable and safe products on the market. Garden of Life: empower extraordinary health
Amber Vitale 14:57 And less cravings and let's see set the bar for your body. If you start your day with pancakes, as tasty as they are with real maple syrup, you're going to keep craving carbs all day long, you're going to crash and you're going to eat something else in that crash. Whereas when you really feel with proteins, fats, fibers and antioxidants and nutrients, you know, your body has what it needs to really move forward and function. And I think, if we can really help, who are your listeners today, who are frustrated who are throwing their hands in the air? I mean, where do we really start with most people? What is really the core and I mentioned it earlier is the gut, you know, you've got hormonal issues, the gut, you've got skin issues, the gut, you have heart disease and diabetes, the gut, you know, we really start there with so many people. Because if we look at their diet, and that, well, you know, here's the list of vegetables. What do you like? Well, the vegetables I like are on here. I like peas and corns and potatoes. Okay, well, I'm not going to tell you to remove those. But how about you start steaming some broccoli, some kale, some chard, some bok choy, some tatsoi, some, try some new vegetables, handing people a list of things, telling them to try something new every day. And I stopped removing things from my clients diets, because that's what they thought I was going to do. I'm gonna take out all their favorite foods, they were already on a diet, so I'm going to die without the food that you, you know that you're gonna pull out. Instead, I would say don't change anything. Just make sure at night, when you're making dinner for your family that you take a new vegetable, you steam it up, you put some olive oil dressing on it, and you eat that. And then gradually, their tastes change gradually. There's no room for anything else. And the same can be true about whole foods, supplementation, it's giving you nutrients you're not trying to get through the day on sugar, and stimulants, because you're getting nutrients. What do nutrients do? They help our cells function better, whether it's a greens powder, whether it's a multivitamin mineral formulation, whether it's an electrolyte blend, you know, all of these things, antioxidant blends, they help ourselves function better, and then we get more energy, we can make better choices with more energy. You know, when you're tired, this is always me, you know, with kids you used to go shopping at Trader Joe's and because I'm hungry, I buy those dark chocolate covered almonds, and then you know, they're halfway gone. By the time I get home, you know, just to fuel me to make dinner this was, you know, my early years with with young kids. And you know, you can see that you're doing that, but you don't feel like you have the power to get out of that sort of vicious cycle. And so if before you went shopping, you could drink a protein powder with some greens in it, it will change your life. It totally changes the choices you make, then you have power over your choices, you make little steps, you make little differences, powerful differences, powerful changes. And then you really are in a position to change your health.
Ed Jones 17:56 I love that. The fact that that will change your life because you have disconnected from the addiction of the foods that you thought you loved. But in fact, you've now seen that they are kind of your enemy, and you're not a slave to them anymore. And the fact that you said about you know, when you eat pancakes, you're gonna have cravings. It was interesting this week, my daughter, seven months pregnant, she goes in and she's has to do her tests for gestational diabetes. And so she had to eat that stuff, a lot, a lot of carbs. And in fact, what she did was was interesting. She's spirited, like I am about being independent. So she actually got permission from one of our healthcare people that instead of drinking that terrible drank with high fructose corn syrup, which is the worst ingredient on Earth, they let her eat foods that had 50 grams of sugar in it, which was maple syrup and pancakes. That's what she got to eat. So she goes in the office to give blood. And the people behind the counter said, where's your drink. And she said, I didn't drink it because I got permission to eat 50 grams of carbs. And these were medical professionals, couple of nurse practitioners and nurses. They said, how would you know what 50 grams of sugar is? I've never heard of anything so silly. And Cady said, well, I have a master's degree in nutrition. And there's also apps on your phone that can tell you. Well, all of a sudden they back down because because they she knew they knew that she knew what you're talking about when she came out of the office. They were like, tell us about that app. Well, it again shows me how disconnected the medical community is of all this stuff we talk about and it's so freakin frustrating. But let me change the point real quick here. If a person was going to do a drink, or any kind of nutritional product, what labels what certifying labels would be the gold star that you would always want to look for that would guarantee almost guarantee that the purity of the product is really in place.
Amber Vitale 19:51 Well, you're typically only going to find certified organic and non GMO on the same label if it's coming from food and not synthesised. You might find non GMO if it's synthesize, but you won't find certified organic. So that's one thing that's really something to look for. Look for a governing body over that company. So b Corporation benefit corporation, that means that that company is looking at more than just money as their bottom line, they're looking at social responsibility, sustainability, really promoting your health. So there's lots of companies that Garden of Life shares that certification with, you know, I think Country Life has that, New Chapter, Megafood. You know, there's a lot of good companies that have that benefit corporation certification. Looking at even things like Paleo Foundation. Paleo Foundation not only certifies things that are just meeting the Paleo lifestyle, but they're very stuck on sourcing. So for keto through the Paleo Foundation, and for paleo, has to be paleo foundation.org seal, so you have to look it up and see what it looks like don't get fooled by fake circles. But they require that their animals be truly out to pasture. They don't allow any GMOs, they don't allow any synthetics, they even have to look at the flavors that you're using in a products and approve them. So they are looking at the supply chain of custody. And that is a much bigger certification than I ever expected it was until I researched it. Come on, listeners, go online, look up paleo foundation.org You can find PDS on their criteria. So if you see a supplement that has that, you know, they looked at it. Kosher often looks at cleanliness, to some extent, it's an additional did just that alone doesn't tell you everything you need to know but it gives you an additional layer of certainty with a product on top of organic, non GMO, you know. NSF, if you're really worried like is this company making is what is what this company says is in this product, actually in it. NSF is one seal that you can look for my kind organics was the first multivitamin line that had the NSF seal for GMPs, meaning Good Manufacturing Practices. They went in, as if they were the FDA, I say like inspector clues, those cadeaux you know, they go in and they, they surprise you and they they audit everything. And so that's an extra layer as well. Some have an actual certified GMP seal, meaning that they're a certified facility that they're there, they're following the right manufacturing practices, what's on the label is what's in it. The label concentrations are accurate, you know, so those are definitely things to really look for. When it comes to animal products. It's hard, it's really hard. It's hard to find out what country things are coming from the animals were in. But if you can find that out, that tells you a lot. And this is where things like non GMO or IGEN, where paleo foundation are really helpful. Because a lot of animal products might not get that organic certification. If it's something coming from huge beef and chicken systems, they might not get the non GMO project. But there's other ways around it such as paleo and Igen that can work in those situations by looking at the supply chain of custody for you. Flavors, you know, natural flavors can be all kinds of things. I always tell my kids that you know what, I don't want them to eat something but it has beaver butt flavor in it, you know, the beaver castoreum. You know, that's a natural flavor, but so are a lot of things that I wouldn't want in my body. So having flavors that are organic, or non GMO, even if you don't know exactly what's in it, at least, you know, they've looked at the ingredients under a nondisclosure agreement and verify that they meet certain criteria.
Ed Jones 23:42 Well, that's extremely valuable information for those who you know, are on the journey of excellence in health, because we're just fortunate that, you know, 15 years ago, we didn't have all of the ability to have products that were that were being labeled, there was even some of these or institutions had not even been formed yet that would monitor and, and give us the truth. And I'm just very happy that we have at least as good as stuff as we do in the market is allowing these products to be labeled in the correct way. I mean, it's really the only only assurance we have that you're reaching the excellence and the purity of the product. Again, I will repeat, you know, nutritional products, even the ones that are not really on top of their game are probably not going to hurt anyone but they're not going to help you as much and they are that's where it will hurt you because you're not getting the benefit. So I'm just thrilled with everything we've talked about today. I know people will be more informed consumer and they also appreciate the fact that you know your history of ayruvedic medicine and the fact and, and all the other things you've been involved with that you you resonate an echo beautifully about the respect for the self healing mechanism that was put in US We really have our world is tended to destroy a lot of that. But even beyond that is when things do go a little bit off center, the treatments sometimes are far worse than the issue at hand. And, and us talking about the fact there is other options in most cases. And occasionally you just have to do what you have to do, but you can still help the body even when you are on medications if you try to make it as optimal as you can in the other areas like detoxing and, and all the stuff that goes on with the mitochondrial function and the cells and the breathing and the water and I mean, you know, rising ship raises all rising tide raises all ships, so anytime you just raise your health, everything has a tendency to improve. So is there any last thing you'd like to leave listeners with as far as their their ability to choose or think more about this journey of health?
Amber Vitale 25:53 While I'm just glad that you know, you're out there fighting the fight with me or me with you since you've been doing it even longer than I have, you know, and and listen to podcasts. It's this is free information. And there's a lot of untrue free information out there. But, you know, look for consistency. There's great thought leaders out there. You've got Dr. Mark Hyman, you've got Dr. Dale Perlmutter, you've got Dominic D'Agostino you've got in the keto realm, Thomas de Lauer, you've got, I don't know, I can't think of anything else, right. But there's a zillion people to listen to that are really on the right track. If you look at functional medicine, and the functional medical model, they're really all on the right track, we're really all saying the same thing. And if you really do have a condition, you have to take medication for Don't, don't give up Don't despair, there's ways to support your body through that. And that's really what it's about. That's what functional medicine is about. That's what our ancient wisdom medicines are about, is helping the body heal. Even in the presence of maybe necessary medications, necessary situations, if you'd have to work a night shift or a swing shift, and you don't have another choice. There's ways to support you. It's not ideal, but we can we can make it work, as you said, meet the person, where they're at, use your resources, you know, the stores that you have available, your local, independent natural food stores, your local natural practitioners, and and listen to a few people and see what is resonating and what makes sense. And really think about hey, does this make sense for my human body?
Ed Jones 27:27 Yeah, well, that's a wonderful way to leave it. And I love the fact that you, you know, put out there this podcasting platform, because, you know, I remember, and it's been far I'm far older than you, of course, but I remember going to college. And many of the times I would try to pick the classes based on the teacher, I mean, most of us did that. I do believe if we were, you know, on our game, and we would want a teacher, I mean, unless we were lazy, we'd want one that wasn't, you know, going to put too much work on us. But generally, if we were into what we were into, we wanted the really good teachers. Well, guess what, you can do the same exact thing with podcast because podcasters are teachers in a way, and a great way. And the thing is, so you have to align yourself with the right ones, as you spoke about, because there's plenty out there who won't meet your needs. But when you find your team, and everyone you listed is on my team. I love Dr. Perlmutter. I've seen him in many, many shows. We've talked at length about different things. I send people to his information constantly and all the way down the list of Mark Hyman all those. So yes. You know, being the fact we can listen to these things in a car, and they're convenient. And we've done all that. Thank you so much, Amber, for being here for the hour. I cannot believe that much time has passed. But that shows how much I resonated with you so well. Hopefully we'll we'll cross paths again. I know we will. And you take care. And thank you so much for the opportunity. Yes, thank you for joining us and everybody. Remember, like Hippocrates said, if a doctor cannot do you good, he must be kept from doing harm. Thank you. Thank you and thank you.
Brian Strickland 29:05 The information on this podcast and the topics discussed have not been evaluated by the FDA or anyone of the medical profession and is not aimed to replace any advice you may receive from your medical practitioner. The holistic navigator assumes no responsibility or liability whatsoever on the behalf of any purchaser or reader of these materials. The holistic navigator is not a doctor nor does he claim to be please consult your physician before beginning any health regimen.