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greetings hello good day wherever you are in the world thank you so much for joining true Hope cast the official true

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hope Canada podcast my name is Simon and I have got the pleasure of being your host today true hope Canada is a mind

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and body based supplement company that is dedicated first and foremost to promoting brain and body Health through

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non-invasive nutritional means for more information about true hope you can visit our brand new website true hopan

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docomo our podcast please subscribe so you don't miss out on any further episodes today we welcome holistic

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nutritionist speaker educator and writer Lisa Kilgore Lisa specializes in helping

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people from diverse and complex health issues she loves to focus on improving

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client Health while also healing through methods of improving self-care

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strategies to balance emotions strengthening the gut flora and improving sleep and lowering stress

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in 2015 Lisa recorded a very popular tedex talk on the gut brain connection

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at tedex Colona and in 2010 was voted BC's favorite nutritionist by Natural

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Care Canada Lisa lives in the breathtaking BC Okanagan surrounded by local healthy food and stunning scenery

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she is the founder of Lisa kilgore.com and a faculty member of the Canadian School of natural nutrition Lisa welcome

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to True Hope cast we're very excited to have you here with us how are you oh thanks so much for having me Simon I'm

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doing well today it's a good day today that's good I'm glad to hear that I would love to start off by hearing about

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your journey in this wonderful in this wonderful world of nutrition health and

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wellness my and my journey is similar to many practitioners you you I I think

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when I looked at holistic nutritionists when before I became one I always just assume they were always good at that

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they've always eaten well and I've learned that most of us have a path and mine was a a path that that really

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brought me to what I do today uh when I was in university I was was very unwell

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um I was a music performance student and I played the flute and I had um shooting

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pain down both my arms I had tendonitis in both my thumbs and I had asthma that

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while not deadly was out of control I couldn't know I could go to a rehearsal

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or a concert and be able to breathe and the medications I was given just made everything worse so it was I was in a

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dire dire position and I went from Doctor to doctor and specialist to specialist and nobody could figure out

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exactly how to help me and nobody ever asked me what I ate and when I look back

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at that that was the key question because I ate I ate a lot of junk food

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um my diet was mostly processed white flour and sugar and I had about a a

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vegetable a month or so like somewhere and that was like my that was a good amount if I had some meal with a

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vegetable once a month and it wasn't until I left school and I I needed a job

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and I got hired by a whole food supplement company in Toronto and I don't know why they hired me I my my

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complexion was gray I was exhausted I didn't know a thing about nutrition but I was keen and I think that's why they

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hired me and I dove into the research and the information and it took me about

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a month before before I got the courage to try their their their staple product which was a whole food green supplement

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cuz I don't eat vegetables this was scary and but I tried it because

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everything I read was so amazing and within about two weeks my brain turned back on the fog that I was dealing with

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that was so strong I'd forget what day of the week it was or where I was going it was 25 at the time and would

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literally get lost going somewhere that I'd been a hundred times before and this

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one morning I woke woke up and I could think straight and I could like my I I

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could learn again and it reminded me that I love learning but it been a long

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time since I had a brain that could take in information and actually process it and luckily I was in this job I was

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working for C in their customer service my job was to answer phones and answer questions and learn as much about

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nutrition and supplements as I possibly could and I'm so grateful for that

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moment because it brought me to a New Passion um I love helping people and as

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I moved to different jobs in that company I missed the interaction the one-on-one interaction I had in customer

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service so I went back to school for holistic nutrition nutrition at night I worked all day and was in school all

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night which I never could have done a few years earlier and um after I

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graduated I realized that Toronto wasn't my home anymore and so I packed up my cats in my in my car and drove across

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the country and in 2009 landed in the Okanogan and started practicing as a holistic nutritionist so that's been my

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life uh and I use my stubborn body who doesn't like change and the power of

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these tiny little changes I made in my diet as a guide for my clients because if you don't need to use willpower those

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changes become permanent and I feel that not having a lot of food willpower is my

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superpower when it comes to food changes because I have to make them so easy and

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so doable become non-negotiable and that has brought my diet to what you expect

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of a holistic nutritionist so yeah I eat really well right now but that's not where I came from and so I know no

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matter where somebody is when I work with them I've been there too and I can help guide them out into something

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that's going to feel better for their body yeah isn't it wild I think so many

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of the stories I we've heard on this podcast of people who are Health practitioners in in the in the health

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game all starting in a very very similar position in regards to they never thought that they would end up where

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they are like 10 20 30 years later and it all came upon this kind of like one chance opportunity where you know you're

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at University you're looking for work and it just so happens that this work this job this opportunity this chance

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completely changes your life and turns it into into a trajectory that you know you would never expected and I I firmly

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believe that when the universe the universe when the Universe starts giving us the things that we really want it

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comes in it comes at us in a way that we least expect it and it's kind of like really really working for us so it's

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really yeah it's really interesting that that's your the beginning of your journey and I really love what you mentioned about once you start giving

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your body the nutrition that it needs needed to work especially your brain this fog lifted and you were able to

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actually access parts of your brain and you would know it sounds like you just found a new cognitive PR process where

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you were able to take in information and it wasn't the fact that you didn't want to learn or didn't want to study or didn't want to do all these things

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before it's just your brain didn't have the capability to do it previously absolutely and what I also

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learned is that I I didn't need to shift my entire life to to be able to have a

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brain that was working again it was that first change that my body said yes thank you I needed nutrients and said here you

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go let's let's lift this fog and uh every little change I made I felt better

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um it wasn't long before the asthma that was out of control was in control because it was an inflammatory issue from my terrible diet um but I really I

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I can see the power when I work with my clients how just nourishing the body

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even just a little bit your body says thank you with this huge uh change or

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you feel better or something like we're all just one little step away from feeling significantly better we just

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need to find what that step was I was lucky it was that first one but I've seen this over and over and over again

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where just a little step can make a huge difference absolutely and it can look so different to so many different people

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depending on where they are in their Journey but yeah as you say just that little bit of nutrition that little bit

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of something can really push somebody forward to you know can be really be the

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Catalyst to people making further changes and having the ability to do them with you know a little bit more

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courage um yeah that's wonderful let's um I'd love to jump into mental health

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right away that's kind of what we're all about here at true hope Canada what are the common psychological symptoms that

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you see in your practice and how do you go about um planning the appropriate course of

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action the main one that I see is brain fog that same Cloud that I was dealing with um where where you're kind of

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thinking through so much fog it's hard to even feel like yourself uh I also see a lot of mental health issues depression

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anxiety uh and and just kind of low feeling really this year especially a

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lot of a lot of people are just feeling really low and struggling to process emotions um also that feeling of

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overwhelm like like they can't take on anymore um that's also a really common symptom that I deal with and so I I look

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at both what does their their diet need um are there is there nourishment that's needed and then I also look at the gut

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when somebody is either dealing with a big gut bacteria imbalance therefore

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lots of digestive issues and I specialize in in digestive issues or and or a lot of adrenal fatigue their their

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body and their stress reaction is just exhausted that creates so much brain fog

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that as soon as I hear those symptoms I say to them I don't expect you to remember anything from the session I'm

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going to email this all to you afterwards and the the sigh of relief that they they have they're like oh you

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get it I'm like yeah I've been there and so I don't want you to use your the the mental process that you're struggling

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with already to remember things that I can just send you so so just be here in

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this conversation and over it doesn't take long before their their mind their

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fog starts lifting as well and when we shift the gut bacteria when we get the digestive system working better Andor we

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support the adrenals um the the fog lifts for them too remarkable yeah I mean obviously looking at the adrenals

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and hormone balance is is everything super connected so it's you know as as a holistic nutritionist you know we're

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looking at the whole individual and you know I'm sure your intake form is incredibly in depth and it goes through

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different um very different parts of somebody's life from how they're sleeping to their water intake to

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stresses at home Etc and yeah it's that's such an important part of the process to be able to have that time

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with a practitioner who is there who's present is you know really asking those key questions and it kind of takes me

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back in my mind to when you're talking about when you initially had some had some health issues at

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University and you were never asked about your diet and you were probably never asked about anything other than

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the symptoms that you're experiencing when you know that doesn't that doesn't paint the whole picture

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absolutely nobody asked me what I ate nobody asked me about the stress level in my life when I was a performance

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music student in an incredibly uh competitive uh place that and I was being bullied by cond conductors and

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like when I look back at 5-year-old Lisa I have so much compassion for what I went through and at the time I was just

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I didn't realize any of it was connected uh and a lot of my clients don't realize their digestive issues is desperately

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connected to that brain fog that um they one is creating the other and uh as soon

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as as soon as we connect them they're like oh so I'm not crazy thinking I can't remember anything I'm like no no

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no your gut is making it so you can't remember anything and that's okay we can fix this yeah we've we' certainly

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created this kind of isolated productionist idea of you know I've got a headache therefore the issue has to be

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in my head you know I've got hip pain the pain and the problem has to be in my

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hip and it really takes some self- exloration and you know assertive health

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care when it comes to taking personal responsibility for yourself to really start diving in and and talking with

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different practitioners to really potentially understand what the actual root of my condition might be and of

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course taking all of those things into consideration is is just the big part of the puzzle

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right so I'd love to talk about your your tedex talk that um I'm I've seen it

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I thought it was really cool um but for for those people who' have not seen it at the tedex Colona um can you talk a

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little bit more about it give us maybe a little bit of an overview so what I talk about in the in my tedex talk is how our

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gut bacteria affects um our neurotransmitter possibly our personality there's new

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there's we're kind of on the Cutting Edge of research so we can't say for sure but there's some really cool

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research showing that um the bacteria in our gut May create a lot of aspects of

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our personality how adventurous we are how extroverted or introverted we are and then um I spent half the second half

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of the talk it's about a 15minute talk talking about how to seed and feed your gut bacteria to create balance because

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when we're dealing with things like depression and anxiety uh they take us away from our community and the theme of

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that tedex event was um ignite and how do I want to ignite a new idea and my

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and mine was to look at how you feel as a and taking care of yourself that

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self-care aspect as giving to your community because when you feel better you can help other people feel better

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but we've got to we've got to tune in and and take care of ourselves first yeah that's really cool and we

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absolutely put the link to that tedex talk so people can experience it for themselves in the in the show notes and

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yeah I I think it could be very um hard for some a lot of people to get their mind around the idea that first of all

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we are absolutely viciously colonized by microorganisms and the bacteria that

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take up the majority of our large intestine they have jobs to do and the majority of them make chemicals which

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engage in our gut engage with our brain and if bacteria making certain chemicals

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which lead to us experiencing certain things then it makes perfect sense to me uh that they would have a big hand in um

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our personalities and the the things that we can and can't experience whether that's um I suppose negative or positive

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but yeah it's um unless you study these things I think and have have kind of the transformational experiences that that

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you've had and I certainly had in my in my life when it when it led me towards towards health it's very very hard for

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people to understand that because you know we don't get taught in Biology class in school that you know we are

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significantly more foreign organism than we are human absolutely we are the we

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don't know the exact number right now it's in debate so for a long time we thought we were 10 times more bacteria

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than human so that means for every human cell that we have we have 10 cells of

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bacteria that number has been rejigged in the last few years now now it's believed we 50% bacteria which is still

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a huge number We're Half bacteria so we I think we're going to land somewhere between the two uh and uh the way that I

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got my head around it is understanding that our human body evolved with the bacteria so the

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bacteria came into bodies of animals long before our the an immune system was

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created a nervous system was created and our that bacteria in our gut wanted to

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stick around and so took the reins of certain body systems to make sure that

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they get to stay where they are and so our gut bacteria actually determines

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when our immune system functions and when it when it attacks and when it doesn't attack it modulates our immune

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system and the reason for that is it's a foreign cell and if it didn't tell the immune system went to attack the immune

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system would attack it and so it took over the rein of modulation uh it also

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needs to be fed and so it plays a role in um our nervous system our vegus nerve

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and our taste buds to make sure we're feeding this Colony what it likes to be

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fed because if it if we don't feed it the food Foods it likes it starves so uh

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if a long while back Millennia or millions of years ago the gut bacteria

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created um connections and we believe they actually can change our our taste and what we like and what we don't like

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uh our our body evolved having a large amount of neurons or brain cells around

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our gut because digestion is so complex and our bacteria is there so arut

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bacteria plays a role in a lot of the neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine which actually are more made in

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our gut than they're made in our brain and um there's a plinary research early

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research that shows that our gut bacteria plays a role in asking the cells to make those neurotransmitters so

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the next Frontier U many uh uh health professionals are looking at the next

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Frontier of our mental health research is going being completely in our gut this was like front page of the New York

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Times a few years ago and so there's a lot we still need to know there's a lot we don't understand and our current

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method of research the placebo control double blind study doesn't work with a colony like our bacteria So This

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research is going to be slow it's going to take time for for us to fully understand it but there's a lot of great

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um research uh areas like the American gut project the British gut project

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where they're taking stool samples from the public M uh thousands and thousands of stool samples and and starting to

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understand what makes a good colony and what makes an outof balance colony and so we're starting to get that

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information but it's never going to be a 1 plus 1 equals 2 kind of answer I can't just say do this and then that and your

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gut bacteria is going to be perfect we're creating a rainforest and so we need to understand how do we support

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this ecosystem that's in our gut yeah and it's so wonderful that the that the science is the way science is done is is

18:40

is changing a little bit in regards to the mind and the gut because as we said before we would have you know if you

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have a headache or or something psychological going on you would go and visit you go and visit maybe a

18:52

neurologist after you visit your GP or something but now with the understanding that the gut and the brain are so

18:58

interconnected we're seeing these singular modalities having to cooperate

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and communicate so you've got you know neurologists having to speak with gastroenterologists and endocrinologists

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which is a really unique thing for to happen in the conventional medical system is is for these these these

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different communities to start cooperating and um communicating and sharing research and thinking yeah okay

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well what's happening in my head is is affecting my gut and and vice versa it's a really wonderful thing and you know

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it's it's long overdue that's for sure um could you maybe give us just just for

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those people who aren't super familiar with the idea that we are we have lots of different bacteria viruses fungi

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living synergistically in us we take a little step back in regards to how do we get those

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bacteria from birth you know like how are they in us how do they colonize what are the things that maybe change on the

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way you think you could jump into that for me absolutely so when we are it's

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believed when we are um inside our mom before we're B born that we are sterile

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that there's still there's currently a question of that but but let's assume that's still correct and when we go

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through the birth canal um our skin gets covered in the bacteria from the vaginal Canal of our mom and that's such an

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important uh uh colonization that our that your our mother's body changes

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those uh that e system in the third trimester just to make sure that it's

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the right bacteria colonizing their baby also in the third trimester um the

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mother's immune system comes into the the gut pulls out certain strains of

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bacteria brings them through the bloodstream and deposit deposits them in the breast tissue so uh milk is not only

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a mother's milk has Prebiotic fiber or Fiber that's only there to feed bacteria

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which we didn't didn't understand until verely recently we now now know that there's actual bacteria seeding the

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baby's gut from the mother's milk and so what we found in research is any change

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to that that form of birth can lead to um immune and gut

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issues much later on in that child's life so a baby's born by C-section have a higher risk of allergies and Asthma

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when they're in about 8 to 10 years old uh and but this can all be fixed and

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that's what there there is some research on is is when a baby needs to be born by C-section is there something that we can

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do to colonize that bacteria the bacteria of the baby properly because right now they tend to get covered in

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the skin bacteria of the doctors and nurses that touch them first instead of the vaginal canal and so there's

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research being done in Puerto Rico a few years ago where um during birth during

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the C-section um there was a gauze put placed in the vaginal canal and then as soon as the was born they were just

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coated in the bacteria from that gauze and I I don't know if that paper's been published yet um but there's interesting

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research helping us with that um as we in those first few years um we are

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taking in mother's milk that has some bacteria and that Prebiotic fiber and we're also um being passed from person

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to person different people in our family and their bacteria helps colonize our gut and by the time we're about 3 to 5

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years old we have an adult stock colony and that colony is unique to that person

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but also to the family um you can see you can tell who people live with when

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um through stool samples just from the the types of bacteria in their gut and

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um over time what we eat and what what bacteria we interact with helps to seed

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and feed that that Colony um our life though right now um in in the the first

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world all First World countries don't support our gut bacteria very well and therefore there's connections leading to

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higher rates of Allergy Asthma and autoimmune conditions all due to a weak

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um and underpopulated gut bacteria so that's what I I help fix with my clients is

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that we want to kind of create what would have happened if we still interacted with a ton of bacteria in the

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day while still living in a place with you know clean water and good sanitation because I'm not willing to give up that

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right now and but we so we what we need to do instead is to create daily habits

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weekly habits that help feed and seed that gut bacteria yeah I mean it's such a huge huge incredible topic I mean the

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complexities of different micro organisms living within us within us and you know as you said you know our our

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mother's vaginal Flora deliberately changes in regards to you know helping

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the helping the newborn become covered in and out with with very deliberate

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bacteria to help start teaching the immune system primarily and yeah with interventions like C-sections we see we

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see very different things I um I had a good friend of mine in Sweden when I lived there and the Midwife there she

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she told me that that like the vaginal seeding that they do with the GS that you mentioned is was was a common

24:20

practice in many different places so it's really wonderful to see that you know people are recognizing this and and

24:28

is happening because you mentioned like you know many C-sections are very very necessary um and the you know the the

24:36

way that we're born into the world can can play a huge role into how we experience illness and allergies and

24:43

sensitivities as adults and again people aren't aware of this so it's you know it's as a as a nutritionist you know a

24:50

couple of my questions on my intake form was like do you know how you were born into the world how long were you breastfed for you know these things are

24:56

going to be able to tell me a little a bit about how your immune system functions on like a foundational level

25:02

because obviously as we grow up and we eat certain foods and we drink certain water sources and we take certain

25:08

pharmaceutical drugs um you know our bacteria can can shift and change but as

25:13

you say like when we're at like three or four we know we have this kind of foundation that our body will always kind of look to look to get to Once once

25:21

given the right circumstances and I think that's a really good point to when people start to drink drink better water

25:28

and start to eat a little better and they start taking a lot of the things out that may be contributing to poror

25:33

gut microbes people can start feeling really good really quickly especially psychologically because our gut is

25:41

changing in regards to Flora all of the time and given the right circumstances it will go towards giving you healthy

25:48

populations and having a you know really synergistic role in in your health absolutely the research has found

25:55

that it it takes only three to seven days to make a marked difference in your gut bacteria the funny part of that

26:01

study is that the that the conclusion is that it actually doesn't change your gut bacteria because the group um ate they

26:08

made them eat differently to support gut bacteria saw the change and then put them back on their regular diet and

26:13

because the regular diet didn't keep that change they're like oh you can't permanently change your gut bacteria I'm

26:19

like no no no you can if you just keep eating those Foods it's like if you can't stop Watering your lawn and expect

26:27

the lawn to still keep growing it's only going to grow if you keep watering it and that's that's what our

26:32

diet does just a question on antibiotic use because you know a lot of it is very

26:37

necessary but you know in the last 20 years they been incredibly overprescribed how do you work with

26:43

somebody who is taking an antibiotic you know we're talking about something that

26:48

a drug or something that you can take topically that is going to kill bacteria

26:54

and the idea is to obviously kill the bacteria that's causing your infection that's causing your your illness and causing your symptoms but obviously

27:01

we've got healthy bacteria that that are there and they are supposed to be there and doing all these things for us how do

27:08

you go about helping somebody take take their antibiotics but also make sure that they're not significantly um

27:15

hurting those colonies and helping them to grow back yeah absolutely because antibiotics are necessary and I don't I

27:22

haven't met a single person who has taken antibiotics unnecessarily at least in my career so there always like

27:29

there's a reason for it and they're there they're there specifically research has found it's the second round

27:35

of of antibiotics in a period of time that makes the biggest difference um for like negatively for your gut bacteria so

27:41

I like to calm people down and say one round of bacteria is one round of antibiotics is going to change things

27:48

but not desperately and we and I work with them so um during the antibiotics

27:54

if they're dealing with any digestive symptoms then I bring in a probiotic that is a fungal-based probiotic so it's

27:59

not even a probiotic it's Pro fungus it's a so it doesn't get killed off by the antibiotics um it's called esti and

28:06

esari you can take it in this exactly the same time as the antibiotics and has been research proven to lower digestive

28:13

issues that come from the antibiotics because at least you're creating you're you're um putting something in to take

28:20

up the space when everything gets killed off because otherwise other yeasts and fungus and parasites can take over um

28:27

and then I I I put them on a probiotic regime along with fermented foods and

28:33

good healthy plant-based fibers and then we can we can create that shift the truth is is that it's not from rounds of

28:40

antibiotics unless they're chronic rounds that cause the biggest issues with people in their gut it's the

28:46

antibiotic residue that that is and was in our food that we were that we're eating small amounts in every day that

28:53

play as big of a role in our gut bacteria as a couple rounds of

28:58

antibiotics um until fairly recently we had antibiotic residue in our red meat

29:04

um we have it in our farm salmon um we have it in a lot of fish actually and um

29:11

even just drinking um water with the chlorine still in it can cause um just this mild like everyday kind of hit so

29:18

just even using a carbon filter but even better like a berky filter where we're really taking out some good stuff or

29:24

some bad stuff out of the water and making sure that your animal prot prot isn't coming from these sources where

29:30

they use antibiotics to fatten up the animals it's not surprising that when we

29:36

have antibiotics reg regularly it also fattens us up and research has found that there is a correlation between a

29:43

low diversity and your gut bacteria and a slower metabolism and actually what they found is that when your gut

29:49

bacteria diversity is low you actually extract more energy out of your food for some reason we don't quite know why and

29:56

that leads to the higher rates of um obesity with with the lower strains of bacteria yeah wow I mean and there's

30:03

it's really interesting that there are these kind of like hidden occult um foods that that we're consuming day in

30:10

day out that you know as you say a little hits of antibiotics that you know somebody if somebody's not really aware

30:17

of you know maybe how they're feeling and their symptoms changing your food and changing its source and becoming a

30:23

little bit more um aware and responsible about where your food is coming from and maybe selecting different foods on that

30:30

is you know rather than damaging your gut gut bacteria gut lining Etc you're

30:38

actually allowing these good bacterias to proliferate and do these good things for us absolutely uh because we want to

30:46

we we it's it's not hard to support your gut bacteria we just need to be aware of

30:52

when when are we killing it off unintentionally and how are we feeding it every day and so looking at your

30:58

water and your animal protein sources and if it's in your budget to shift those wonderful and getting chlorine out

31:05

of your water if you don't have the budget for even a a carbon filter leaving it on your counter overnight is

31:10

enough to get rid of that chlorine and then we want to Seed and Feed and

31:15

fertilize our gut bacteria and it's just I like to think of it because it's so abstract I like to think of it as a lawn

31:22

so um if you take antibiotics it's like pulling out all that grass and now it's just a pile of like a handful of weeds

31:29

but just a a a mess so sometimes we need to do a bit of weeding bringing in an antimicrobial like oregano oil or

31:35

colloidal silver can get rid of things that might have overgrown but the most important thing is we need to throw in

31:41

some good seeds like a probiotic supplement when necessary but that's just a seed we you can't only do a

31:47

probiotic and expect things to shift you also need to water and fertilize that grass and so the water I I think of as

31:55

plant-based fibers fruits and vegetables nut seeds and beans the more different fibers a research has

32:00

found more the more different the fiber you take in the um happier your gut

32:06

bacteria the more diverse it becomes and then fermented food that's the that's like Miracle Grow that's like the best

32:12

fertilizer you can put on your gut and one or two servings of a of any fermented food properly fermented food

32:19

per day makes a huge difference and from my gut that had been fed sugar for a long time that didn't start off in a

32:26

good balance it fermented foods that finally got it shifting to a a a healthier State because our gut always

32:33

wants to go back to what it was when we were a kid and mine wasn't balanced as a kid and so I had to create a new colony

32:40

and fermented foods helped me do that that's really cool and yeah just to talk continue on fermented foods because if

32:46

you kind of look at every other culture apart from our Western one there would be you know really really great sources

32:52

of of different fermented foods that you know are considered probably ancient in regards to how that how long they've

32:57

been using used for and how they've been used deliberately to obtain Health can you give us a few examples I think

33:03

people maybe are familiar with cucha and sometimes I see you know somebody

33:09

consuming like a liter of Kombucha in like a in like a lunchtime lunchtime meal and I kind of kind of a bit

33:14

concerned for that person's gut because that's a big hit can you talk a little bit about um some of those fermented

33:20

foods that you like to implement and I think I think talking about the portion a portions of those fermented

33:25

foods is important to touch on as well absolutely and you're right every every single traditional culture has a

33:31

fermented food we don't have one in North America because we don't really have a traditional culture but we've also haven't needed them for a hundred

33:38

years because we don't need to store fruits and vegetables in that way as soon as we started canning we stop

33:44

fermenting properly we pickle but we don't always ferment and um so fermented

33:50

foods like fermented vegetables uh sauerkraut um is a common one but you

33:55

can ferment any vegetable um beets carrots all of that good stuff um you can buy fermented vegetables um you just

34:02

are looking for an unpasteurized uh version and they're always going to be in the fridge but you

34:08

can find these in mainstream grocery stores just in the healthy section today like they're really easy to find um

34:15

properly done yogurts uh where it has it says active bacterial cultures on it and only a handful of ingredients there's a

34:22

lot of yogurts that are just kind of candy with some bacteria thrown in um my general recomend recommendation with

34:28

your yogurt is if it actually is selling you on a probiotic it's not a good one

34:33

that's one that they've um put in usually bifidus animalis um because it

34:38

can survive the high heat processing they're putting the yogurt through um I find the better yogurts are ones that

34:45

don't talk about themselves um they're usually either found in a health food store or found around the edges of the

34:51

um the yogurt aisle like they're they're quiet and unassuming um and they have

34:56

they say uh active bacteria cultures in the ingredients and only four or five ingredients that's a really good yogurt

35:03

um to up your game in a fermented milk it would be kefir or kef I'm not sure exactly how it's pronounced everybody

35:09

does it differently and it's a fermented milk it tastes a lot like yogurt but it has more diff it has a more variety of

35:15

strains and more bacteria and research has found that Kefir is the best at

35:21

changing or got bacteria I use this for anybody who has like Crohn's colitis or

35:26

or just simply can't tolerate probiotics there's a lot of people out there that can't tolerate them and so I'll start

35:32

with cafir if they don't if they're tolerate if they tolerate Dairy um the fermented uh teas like kombucha they're

35:40

great but they don't have any fiber in them and so therefore I don't know I I don't feel they they shift the gut

35:47

bacteria as great and you do want to cut your amount you don't want to be drinking a liter at a time and then

35:53

there's the fermented soy like um Tempe and miso and and natto Nat is

35:59

unbelievable Powerhouse when it comes to um vitamin K K2 and all these other good

36:05

things but it's if you didn't grow up with Nat don't start with it it's not like it's slimy soybeans I've never had

36:11

it and I don't want to have it um and our first um uh like in in Western

36:17

Europe the very first fermented food was beer and it provided the B vitamins that

36:23

were missing in the newly agricultural life and so that's why the traditional cultures have always had a fermented

36:29

food because they provide mostly B vitamins that are just lower or hard to digest in our current diet and so just

36:36

bringing in um a couple forkfuls of sauerkraut um like a quarter to a half a cup of kefir like um a bowl of yogurt

36:46

that's all you need every day just one of those to feed and seed your gut bacteria really really well would you

36:52

consider bring when you consider bringing in ferments do you consider them more of a like a a supplement or

36:59

like a a meal they're they're a an accompaniment to a meal they're like a

37:04

condiment um not a meal so you don't some people will sit and eat an entire jar of sauerkraut or my partner will do

37:11

this with kimchi I'll just find him in the kitchen with a kimchi open just he's like this is so good and and I like to

37:17

follow Cravings I like to like I'm I I like to encourage people when something feels that good to keep keep doing it

37:25

but you don't need that much um and sometimes can cause digestive distress if you'd eat that much but a couple

37:31

forkfuls like um if you look at how sauerkraut is generally used it's used as this like a little addition on top of

37:39

the meal or if we're looking at yogurt in Greece it's it's um like Greek yogurt

37:45

that really thick stuff is used a couple spoonfuls on the plate as like a dip or a condiment um we don't need enormous

37:52

amounts you don't need to be guzzling a liter of Kombucha every day it's just getting that little bit every day is

37:57

really yeah and I think it's that subtle addition that really has a big powerful impact rather than maybe we might think

38:04

about you know going with like the grenade effect and just like really trying to go for it to change something but our body really does a lot better

38:11

when we're kind of subtly working with it to kind of basically let the body do it do what it does absolutely and all of

38:18

the bacteria found in fermented foods they're transient they come and go anyways so it it's better to give a a

38:25

small hit every day than once a week eat the entire container because you're only going for a day have that bacteria in

38:32

your gut instead you want to have that little bit every day and there's there's early research we're still unsure um but

38:38

that bacteria found say in the cabbage in the sauerkraut may help it like they

38:45

kind of come in and give a education to the other bacteria so if you struggle to digest like cruciferous vegetables

38:53

bringing in a sauerkraut can help your gut your gut bacteria digest that that family because they're being taught by

38:59

this bacteria that's that's um trans uh just kind of traveling through the gut for for a few days and so it there's a

39:06

lot of power in bringing in these Foods they can really um help shift how you digest everything yeah really important

39:13

Point especially with the the fact that these bacteria coming in that you know not only are they teaching our own

39:18

endogenous cells but they're also communicating with the other microorganisms that that engage with

39:24

throughout our whole body and it's not just the fun and the kind of matter that they have you know they they come with a

39:30

significant energy and a frequency which is just all information and at a genetic level you know if you if we're going on

39:36

the fact that we are you know 1 to five or 1 to 10 however you want to look at it um human cell to

39:42

microorganism we've got a significant amount of genetic material residing in those foreign organisms as well and that

39:50

is a significantly it's a significant place to look at because that's it's those genetics that really engage with

39:56

each other and you know we've evolved with them kind of forever and you can kind of look back

40:02

throughout our whole human history and animal history of how these organisms

40:07

have engaged with us and then you can also look at the soil as well and how if you take the microorganisms and other

40:13

small elements out of the soil it just does not grow grow as good and it's a big problem that we have within our Agriculture and the fact that our food

40:19

is you know depleted is because everything that it needs to really Thrive just like your gut bacteria and

40:25

your and your whole and and the whole Digest system if you take little pieces out thing things are going to break down

40:31

and you're going to you know issues are going to Arise at some point absolutely

40:36

we we our our body does not function properly no animal's body functions properly without this bacteria our soil

40:43

doesn't function properly and what I like is is that's happening is this shift that we're starting to understand

40:50

that our monocultures where we're just killing everything off isn't working anymore and that we do need even doctors

40:57

are saying okay we need to lower this antibiotics and how do we what do we do to create a good ecosystem and the

41:04

trouble is because we don't have this one prescription of here's how to fix it there isn't a mainstream understanding

41:11

of how to support our gut bacteria I argue all we have to do is look backwards to traditional cultures

41:17

because they did it really well and they ate Whole Foods they ate a fermented food every day and they interacted with

41:22

nature they got a lot of their bacteria from the soil um from their water and while I don't recommend drinking um uh

41:30

un or or like stream water because our gut bacteria do our we do not have the

41:36

gut to handle that all I everybody I know who does it has like major parasite problems um but we can be interacting

41:43

with the soil regularly enough to help seed our gut absolutely and I just

41:48

wanted to ask you about you know obviously when we're kids and we're playing in the dirt and we're getting dirty and we're interacting in nature in

41:54

a very deliberate way and then now we see especially in our in our Western culture we see like these antibacterial

42:01

gels everywhere I mean you can separate the covid thing but like even before even before like last year you know you

42:08

would see gels and wipes and things absolutely everywhere I me there's obviously something called the hygiene

42:14

hypothesis where you know the cleaner that we think that we have become the the sicker the sicker we're getting and

42:20

you know you can't talk about those things without talking about the bacteria that engage and teach and

42:26

modulate our immune system absolutely there's there's some

42:31

uh there's a really great study that looked at a small two small towns um right at the border between Finland and

42:37

Russia and so one small town was in Finland and one was in Russia and a hundred years ago they were in one town

42:44

so they separated only a hundred years ago so genetically they're really similar they're very isolated so there's

42:49

not there hasn't been an influx of new genes but what they found was four times

42:55

more type 1 diabetes and the Finland Town versus the Russian Town type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune condition that

43:01

usually happens in childhood and every we are seeing in the westernized world higher rates with every generation of

43:09

type 1 diabetes and this is such a difficult condition to deal with we want to nip this in the bud and they found

43:15

that um or they felt the researchers felt that it was the cleanliness of the

43:20

life in Finland that was leading to this autoimmune condition uh the in Russia

43:26

they had multiple bacteria in their water they had poor sanitation most kids dealt with some kind of um gut bug at

43:34

some point in their childhood all of this is unfortunate you don't want your kid to be dealing with with these gut

43:40

bugs but that was leading to this more balanced immune system so how do we do

43:45

that in our world while still having flushing toilets and um a clean water

43:50

and that is by paying attention to our gut bacteria uh they they also looked at

43:56

um children whose mothers were around animalss because and people who are around animals have more bacteria uh

44:02

they have lower rates of allergies and Asthma as well so I think what's going to come out is our interaction with

44:08

nature is going to be a big deal uh years ago I did a presentation in Nelson

44:13

um on the gut brain connection and a woman came up to me and she said I'm a forest worker I test soil that's my job

44:19

and all summer I'm testing soil and I found that the best way for me to know what's going on in the soil is to taste

44:25

it so I eat soil all summer long and she's like I didn't realize until this

44:31

talk why I have I feel so fantastic All Summer Long my mood comes up I feel so

44:37

good and I bet it's because I'm eating lits of soil all day and well I also don't recommend the average person just

44:43

to come start eating soil but gardening and growing your own vegetables and eating them out of your your like I when

44:50

I when I grow carrots I pull them out and I take the dirt off but I don't like

44:56

overly wash it and then I enjoy that carrot so I get a little bit of dirt every time and that those little things

45:02

can really really help yeah that's really that's such an important Point especially with the you know not rinsing

45:08

your food too much especially come out of the garden um stuff that's bought from the grocery store that you know that's a different topic but um yeah I

45:16

think that um I think the fact that we over the last couple of hundred years have done some really amazing things in

45:22

regards to health because we've got clean we've got San know Sanitation better cleaning water and you know and

45:29

better facilities for a lot of people but we've kind of gone over we've gone a little bit too crazy with that in

45:35

regards to trying to keep everything clean like the idea that we are the idea that we were sterile in

45:42

regards to bacteria isn't isn't a really old Theory and obviously the microbiome is completely smashing it out of the

45:48

water now but the fact that we think thought that like any bacteria that would come into us and you know we can

45:53

talk about the germ Theory all day on and the terrain Theory but yeah we've kind of gone a little bit too crazy in

46:00

regards to keeping everything clean and everything sanitary when you know we are supposed to be engaging in the outside

46:07

world within nature and you know there are bacteria viruses fungi absolutely

46:13

everywhere and we've always engaged with them and they are here to kind of work

46:19

with us in many many different ways I completely agree and and we we're

46:25

only at the beginning of understanding this like the the German viruses were only discovered in the last few hundred

46:30

years so we can't it it makes sense that when we realize these exist and we can

46:35

kill them yeah let's just kill them off and we've gone too far it helped like I'm sure more children survive their

46:42

childhood because they're not dealing with typhoid and and chaa uh but we also

46:48

now have autoimmune conditions that we're struggling to control so how do we find balance in that how do we find a

46:54

way to make sure our children have a safe and healthy childhood while also feeding

47:00

this scut bacteria and I think that we I think it's possible today we just have to actively participate in the the

47:07

seeding of our bacteria yeah we have to be really conscious about what we're doing because what what we also engag in

47:12

now is we're indoors a lot more we are certainly playing a lot less Outdoors

47:18

considering you know like TVs and games and shows and stuff like that uh which are all great and wonderful and

47:23

certainly have their place but you know if we have to be thinking about a couple hundred years ago and you know the hundreds of thousands of years of human

47:29

history we' have predominantly been outside engaging with sunlight engaging with our soil engaging with animals and

47:36

if we're if we're not kind of doing that and we certainly can do that we can certainly engage in nature in a very quick way for most people can um it's

47:44

really part part of your own responsibility to kind of recognize that okay maybe I've been inside all day

47:51

today and even just getting some bre some fresh air and engaging with sunlight you know what what that does

47:57

for your immune system in regards to to chilling you out and relaxing you is a really important part of of providing a

48:02

good kind of basis and and terrain for these microorganisms yeah it's all it

48:08

blows my mind how super interconnected everything is and yeah it's um really

48:15

fascinating when it comes to bacteria how they engage with us how they have always engaged with us and then how

48:22

sometimes we we have this culture that kind of wants to eradicate everything that we don't necessarily understand or

48:27

can't see yeah what we can't what we can't see we we usually don't really understand that well but yeah we've got

48:35

more and more information coming out and more amazing people like yourself coming out and teaching um and educating people

48:40

around the fact that you know we are significantly microorganism and these things synergistically work with us not

48:46

just in our bodies but throughout throughout the world throughout nature absolutely and and there's

48:55

there's a practice iers are starting to come together like this holistic view that everything is connected I find

49:02

really powerful it was as soon as I started connecting all my symptoms I was like oh this is why this is why I felt

49:08

so terrible and if any of your listeners right now are are kind of feeling similar symptoms or just I'm not sure

49:16

where to go just just know that the smallest change in in one area can have Ripple effects everywhere else

49:23

absolutely yeah really important Point um just kind of just before we finish off I'd love to just ask what are your

49:29

kind of goto in regards to brain support and supplementation and also gut support

49:35

as well because obviously they're working together so are there any specific because I in my experience in

49:40

my training as a nutritionist there are a lot of there obviously a lot of supplement companies anyone who's gone into a vitamin shop

49:47

it's wild in there it's a forest of bottles and stuff and if you don't know

49:52

what you're looking for and don't know what you're going for it can be really really overwhelming and it might experience not all supplement companies

49:58

do a great job with the products that they have they are very poorly regulated so they don't have to do that but that

50:04

just shows that there's like a small percentage of companies that do it really really well so can you talk about some of maybe the products and the

50:09

brands that you like to use because I'm sure a lot of people out there would would love to know uh where to start

50:15

absolutely and I've been in the supplement industry for about 20 years and there's there's some amazing products out there and then there's ones

50:22

that are you know not so great um my my first go-to is I was at is this found in

50:28

a health food store because the staff in health food stores I've been training them for 20 years for the better part of

50:34

20 years like these are people who really know what they're doing and if you want to know what products are good

50:40

ask the staff and because they have seen they've tried them themselves um they've

50:45

interacted with the company and they uh have seen the results um I I first heard

50:51

about the true hope supplements from staff and health food stores we're like have you heard about this this this this is working really well

50:57

uh and so there's a lot of really great Brands like I I love Botanica and Mega Foods and uh I really like a and um but

51:05

there's a lot of really good companies that do um that that maybe aren't the the most

51:13

prestigious Prestige like Natural Factors they do a pretty okay job a lot

51:18

of what they do and so when budgets an issue I'm like yeah just grab one of theirs like it's well tested it's well

51:24

studied it's they're good products but when it comes to brain health I always go food first I'm a nutritionist and so

51:30

what I recommend is if you're if you feel like your mind like if you're either having mental health issues or

51:36

you're you're just dealing with a lot of brain fog make sure you're eating every day

51:42

and you're eating fairly regularly um the power of just eating every four to

51:48

five hours for both your mental health and your brain fog is huge because a lot of us when we get stressed out we forget

51:54

to eat and then we don't notice that that's why we're tired and froggy and and grumpy and and so just eating every

52:01

four to five hours and making sure that that you're you're embracing your body's

52:06

wisdom your body knows what it wants and so if you're craving something there's a reason for it and that can guide you to

52:12

what your body might need say you're craving dark chocolate all the time well maybe your whole nervous system needs

52:17

more magnesium and then that will calm down your whole system um our our body is our best ally it's our best friend

52:24

and uh if we turn there first we can find the very specific things that our

52:30

body might need really great recommendations thank you so much you've got a new book that's out I do you do

52:38

You' got a there it is right there UND dieting I think is it freedom from the B bewildering world of fad diets yeah

52:46

Absol yeah um it just came out in September of 2020 and it is uh basically

52:53

it's like my entire philosophy in a nutshell uh it it's looking at Food politics because I because I find that

52:59

as soon as we understand the politics behind food decisions and uh government

53:05

recommendations and even guidelines like the body mass index when we understand the political Mo and lobbyist

53:11

motivations it becomes easier to set them aside and say oh there's no truth

53:16

there uh and then it it gets into how we can tune into our body and start to

53:22

understand its symptoms um as a guide to find what's going on and so I have a chapter on Cravings I have a chapter on

53:28

our digestive system and I have a chapter on our adrenals because those three spots are big guys when it comes

53:34

to sending signals to help our body find balance um and it's the biggest the the

53:42

the biggest takeaways from the book I'd say are that changes should be easy and

53:47

can be easy for great effect and that your body already knows your body is your best friend and when we start

53:53

listening to our body we can stop dieting we can stop jumping on whatever fat diet is out there and really find

54:01

the the the thing that our body is looking for and when you find it your body lights up um one of my um I I

54:08

forgot to mention it when you asked me about my favorite brain food supplements I I take Lion's man every day um by host

54:15

defense and Lion's man is for brain health and I take it every day because within a few days I notice like my brain

54:21

turning on and like feeling like wow this is working and there's research on

54:27

it but I I recommend for everybody to use what feels good and if you don't notice a difference if you don't even

54:33

notice just like I enjoy this stop doing it it's not working for you um our body

54:39

our bodies get it and we don't want to overwhelm our system with too much stuff beautiful that's really cool I think the

54:45

title's great and congratulations writing a book is not easy it was a year ago right now that I

54:52

was like just finishing it it was I was two weeks to my deadline amazing yeah well done where where can

54:58

people get it uh it's available at um all online real real uh retailers so

55:05

it's on chapters and Amazon um if you're in the US it's it's listed in it's in Target stores so you can get it in

55:11

Target in Canada it's in some um it's in some chapters it's in some smaller book

55:16

sellers that or they can order it in and if you're in the Okanagan um it's at um

55:21

all Nature's Fair locations as well and so it's basically everywhere you can find books either you can either they

55:27

carry it or they can order it in for you beautiful I think what we're going to do here is get a I'm going to get a couple

55:32

of copies off you and we'll do a little giveaway to to get that book out to some of our listeners because even just the

55:38

title and even just having this conversation with you I think there's going to be a lot of wonderful information in there um because anything

55:44

we can do to help people um tackle the sometimes very bewildering

55:52

world of even just change it can be really overwhelming but giving people kind of tips and tools and a little bit

55:57

of a guide and support in doing that um yeah I'm on board with that 100% great

56:02

yeah let's give some away that would be great great and if uh if you want to know more if you're listening and you just want to learn more about the book

56:09

go if you go to UND dieting doca it goes it gives you a bit of an overview and also links to where you can buy it

56:15

perfect and how can people connect with you my website is lisak kilgore.com um

56:20

or you can find me on Facebook or Instagram Lisa Kilgore nutritionist um I'll also send you the link so you can

56:26

put them below this as well and um basically you can find me anywhere that

56:32

there's places to be and I'm usually it's my name Lisa Kilgore nutritionist and I do do one-on-one consults I have a

56:39

All Access Nutrition Hub called your beautiful life um if you want uh support

56:44

but also your own you like to gather your own information and so that's that's also available and I I I'm a

56:51

touring speaker so you might see me in your your town when we can go back to touring wonderful well we'll make sure

56:57

that all of that information is available for our listeners thank you so much for joining us today Lisa that was

57:02

very informative thank you thanks so much for having me Simon of course um yeah for more information about anything

57:08

we've spoken about in this episode please see the show notes and don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss out on any other episodes thank you so

57:14

much for listening everybody this is true Hope cast the official podcast of true hope Canada we'll see you next week

57:19

goodbye [Music]