
Guest Episode
November 11, 2021
Episode 45:
Networking Nutritionists with Veronica Jean
Listen or watch on your favorite platforms
Veronica Jean is a Holistic Nutritionist and host of Networking Nutritionists.
Veronica’s personal experience with digestive issues, anxiety, and panic attacks led her to study holistic nutrition to learn to care for her own body.
She has now worked in the nutrition field for 15 years, and has been fortunate to gain experience in various roles — from directing a 7-figure health food store and multi-disciplinary clinic for a decade, to education and government contracts, to maintaining a private practice at capacity and contributing to the non-profit sector.
Veronica believes in the power of connection. She brings her diverse experience and passion for learning to Networking Nutritionists to create a positive and powerful space focused on what nutritionists need!
Today we will discuss Veronica’s experience with EMPower Plus, Truehope Canada’s flagship product, as well as her experience with government health agencies and her new venture Networking Nutritionists.
We will also touch on how she supports the Natural Health Products Protection Association to spread the word to Canadians that our natural health freedoms are at risk.
Hi, Veronica.
Thank you so much for joining us on the
show. How are you today?
I'm good, and it's my pleasure to be here.
Thank you for inviting me.
No, of course. I'm excited to get into some stuff.
You've got a new venture that you've just got into,
so I wanna learn a little bit about that.
But first off, let's get into a little bit about your,
your past and your journey into becoming
a natural health practitioner.
Uh, I got into natural healthcare
by accident, to be honest.
Um, when I was a teenager, my career goal at that time was
to get into architecture.
Um, I come from a very, uh, industrious family.
Lots of people working in trades
and architecture really spoke to me.
Um, but in my teenage years, I was very sick.
I had a lot of digestive health issues,
a lot of mental health issues.
And so when I was actually in college studying architecture,
I was too sick to keep up with it.
Um, ended up dropping out of college.
Uh, and so that was really disappointing.
And so when I started looking into natural health, it was
with the only goal of getting myself well enough to go back
to college and study architecture.
Uh, so I went to school, became a nutritionist,
and in the process really fell in love with the industry.
And there's actually a lot of similarities.
There's lots of, um, technical aspects and kind of art
and wisdom aspects to it,
and lots of puzzling things together.
So, um, it was completely by accident
that I fell into this field, but I absolutely love it.
Cool. So when you, you say you got kind of sick in college
and you had to have a bit of a life reversal Mm-Hmm.
What, what was happening for you?
Was it, was it this something
that happened like quite quickly at the age of
what, like 1920?
Or was it something that was building up?
So I both, I guess I,
I was not a particularly healthy child.
Um, most of my childhood, I had, you know,
the frequent ear infections and lots of strep infections
and IBS type symptoms and some anxiety.
Um, but a around my late teens, um,
I was struggling with addiction.
Um, self-medicating my mental health, um, challenges.
And then, um, I had a really close family member pass away,
and that was like the straw that broke the camel's back,
and all of my symptoms went through the roof.
Um, and so the mental health was even more challenging than
the physical health issues that I was having with my gut.
Um, because I was having panic attacks, um, could not sit
through classes in a college setting
with 300 other people around me.
Um, and it was really overwhelming.
And normally, uh, I'm a person
who just sees everything through to the end.
So that decision to, to drop out of college
and take care of my health was a really difficult one.
Good for you. Because a lot
of people would've fought through that.
I know, I think of a couple of guests off the top of my head
that have already had on the show did exactly that.
Like they got to those college years when, you know,
there's a lot more independence.
You're kind of having to take care of your,
the food yourself, and you don't quite have the, um,
the care and the comforts of being at home.
Mm-Hmm. So these other things,
and just, you know, just going into the environment
of university or college is, is so stressful anyway.
And as you say, like your body can only tolerate so much.
And then just sit symptoms just go, just go wild. Mm-Hmm.
But your, your parents had a health
natural health food store, right?
So tell us about that.
Yeah, it was my in-laws. Um, so I, I came into that.
My husband and I were high school sweethearts, so, um, they,
they are like a second set of parents to me.
Nice. Um, but I started working at their health food store.
Um, my father-in-law was Ill, um, started working there,
just part-time to help out the family.
And that's where I first learned of natural health at all.
It was completely new to me.
I did not come from a family, uh,
that had anything to do with natural health.
So I was seeing these people come in every day
and saying, you know, I took such and such product
and it was amazing, and thank you so much
for the recommendation.
Uh, my mother-in-Law is a registered nurse by training,
and she was practicing in the realm
of nutrition, uh, at the time.
And, uh, she was seeing her clients and they would come in
and they're waxing poetic about this change in their life.
And here I am getting sicker and sicker,
and I'm thinking like, hold on a second.
Maybe I need to apply some of this to my own life.
So really working with them, just the happenstance of
that occurring, um, was my first little tiptoe into, um,
natural health myself,
and gave me that inkling that, you know,
I should pursue this further for, for my own benefit.
How long did you work at the, the health food store for?
Oh, boy. Um, so I started there when I was 18.
Uh, so how long? Almost 12 years, I guess,
uh, that I worked there.
Uh, we re closed it just
before Covid, uh, which was a really difficult decision,
but again, hindsight, uh, looks like a pretty decent one.
Um, and so the 1212 years I was working there,
obviously very different capacities.
I started out part-time not knowing anything, got trained.
Um, we expanded, uh, so we had a multidisciplinary clinic
as well, um, that I was managing for many years.
Uh, and then the health food store, um, on the front of it.
Very cool. So working in a health food store for 12 years,
starting at the age of 18, where you said you didn't really
have any experience with, with natural health
and you know, how powerful and,
and wonderful it can be, which makes sense
because, you know, you grow up as a kid, you get ill
or you get sick, you go to the doctor,
you get a drug or something for it.
Right. So it would make sense that,
and I think most people that go to a natural health store
are of a certain, certain age group, let's say 50 plus.
Yeah. Like classic demographic of somebody
who goes into a health food store
because they probably had 30 years experience in
the conventional model,
and they've not really found a route.
You know, not everybody has ha has had hippie parents,
so they're not like born into that kind of thing.
So that's interesting.
But how has your, like personal health development changed
from being 18, starting
to work in this natural health food store
and being surrounded by a completely different care system?
Yeah. And then, you know, you go into university
and then, you know, you start using probably the experience
and exposure and education
that you're getting at a health food store.
How does that progress through tho
through those 12 years? Mm-Hmm.
So, um, early on I recognized that this was something
that I needed to look into for myself.
And that was my, my sole motivation for, um, going
and studying nutrition, becoming a nutritionist.
Um, I really thought I was just gonna do this for me,
get myself well, so I could meet my goals.
Um, and I just completely fell in love with the industry.
Um, I found it so collaborative, um,
which was an entirely different way of looking
at work, um, from what I was used to in the field
of architecture, which was so competitive.
Um, and especially as a female, uh, in the field
of architecture, I was usually one of maybe one
or two females in the room.
Uh, and that was the complete opposite in nutrition.
It was all of these wonderful women
who I was learning amazing things from.
Uh, so from the, just the culture side of things, it was
so welcoming and it,
it just felt like the right place to be.
So I, I started off, like I said,
really just wanting to learn for myself.
Um, and once I got into it
and I got certified, um, I decided that I wanted
to pursue a private practice.
Um, so for the first five years
or so of my career as a nutritionist, I mainly worked, um,
in private practice one-on-one with people.
Um, and then when we expanded the business
to include the multidisciplinary clinic, um, I was managing
that aspect of our business.
So, you know, working with naturopathic doctors
and chiropractors
and, um, mental health therapists, um, to,
to build out our programs
and make sure that we were delivering
really collaborative care.
Um, and so that was really, really fun to, to be able
to kind of grow, um, with the business as well.
Well, that sounds very different from the beginnings
of just going in the, uh, for a part-time job
Entirely. Absolutely.
That's great. And that's how passions flourish.
And I I love that. That's great.
Um, tell, so tell us about your experience with, um,
'cause I think it's very interesting.
We've had Sean Buckley on the show a couple of times,
and we've spoken about how, um, small health food stores
are, you know, quite heavily surveilled by
governing bodies like Health Canada.
Did you have much experience with, um, with like,
with like he Health Canada
and any like, kind of like agents kind of keeping tabs on,
on what's happening in the store?
I, I'd love to get your perce your perception on that.
Yeah, so, um, I was 18 in 2008.
Um, so that was when there was a lot happening with NPS
and Reregulating Natural Healthcare products in Canada.
So there was a lot of, um, upheaval,
I'll say, within the industry.
We lost a lot of brands
that we had been purchasing outta the us, uh,
that we were no longer able to get across the border.
That was the first thing, um, that I noticed.
And I recall my in-laws being really frustrated about, um,
you know, that our clients needed these things
and we could no longer access them.
And we had whole shelves that would be bare,
that we were trying to find new products to be able
to fill those gaps for, for the needs of our clients.
Um, we did get rated, uh, at one point
by a health candidate agent.
Um, there was, you know, those products that used to keep
behind the counter in healthcare, uh, in health food stores,
which was a very common thing.
Um, and that was not okay anymore with the,
the new legislation.
So, um, it wasn't necessarily about being discreet,
but it was really following a new law Mm-Hmm.
That didn't seem to benefit Canadians, frankly, um,
really lost access to a lot of good products
that people were using to manage their health.
Um, but we weren't allowed to stock those things anymore,
even if we were only using them.
Um, if it was, you know, my mother-in-Law
as a registered health practitioner recommending those
products, still, that was off limits at that point.
Um, when those changes happened with Health Canada.
Uh, and then moving forward, we just noticed more
and more restrictions, um, from that whole NHP framework
where products were needing to be licensed and numbered
and approved by Health Canada.
Um, there was just no innovation, um, was,
was the first thing that I noticed.
Um, people weren't doing research,
they weren't taking chances to develop new products.
Um, and then you really started
to see products become watered down.
So, you know, there is a product that's been on the market
for 20 years, and suddenly the key ingredient is no longer
present in that formula.
And they haven't mentioned anything about that.
Just, you know, uh, tweak the label
and keep selling it as it is.
Um, but they were really watered down versions of
what we once had.
So those, those were the two, the two biggest things I think
that I saw change over those years.
Yeah. It's such, it's so interesting
that these entities are, are supposed to be in place
to look out for the health of Canadians,
but when you are literally coming into a store
and taking products off the shelf and reducing the choice.
Yeah. And in many cases, you know,
an individual might require this product
that's coming from overseas,
and that's very specific towards them.
It's not, it's not like they can just go
and get a, a mimicking drug or go
and get a product that's just made in Canada.
Like, it just doesn't work like that.
And, you know, that was, that was
my personal experience as well.
Like, I tried all the drugs, I did all the things,
I had the different cocktails
and, um, I did what my doctor told me to do,
and I just kept getting worse.
And so my foray into natural healthcare was out
of pure desperation.
Right. Like, it's my body.
I was the one experiencing these challenges.
I wanted to feel better, I did feel better
using those products.
It did allow me to heal.
Uh, so, you know, if certain things are coming off the
market that's impacting me personally,
and I know so many other Canadians as well,
were experiencing that desperation of, I need this
to maintain my health,
and now I can't get it. What do I do?
Yeah. Just, just wild stuff that's,
that happens in like these small stores
and when we're using the words like raid mm-Hmm.
And take and taking things off the shelf, it's just like,
it's quite phenomenal that these things happen.
I don't think a lot of people act actually know
that these things happen quite frequently.
And yeah.
Small health food stores are being really like carefully
watched and Mm-Hmm.
The, the reduction of of choice
and products on the shelves really does a massive disservice
to Canadians opposite to what you would expect
a Health Canada agent would, would kind of want to do.
Yeah. So, yeah, that's a significantly frustrating thing.
I think that anyone that's either worked in,
in a health food store, owned one, or, you know, visits one
and has a community base within it.
Right. 'cause these small health food stores
are very community based.
Mm-Hmm. That's something that's very different
to conventional medicine is like, you've got people
collaborating and, and talking and discussing.
It's a very, very different world.
You know, you have to be interested in people to,
to jump into the natural health world,
which is very interesting.
'cause you know, you're talking about architecture,
being interested in things
and then going to natural health products is about people.
It's a very, it's a very different, uh, interesting contrast
of, of, of interests.
So why don't you tell us about your experience with, um,
with True Hope Canada?
Because we've got, we've now we've had a whole,
a whole career of controversy with Health Canada,
but what's your experience with, with, with True Hope
and, um, our flagship product, empower Plus
as a natural health practitioner? Mm-Hmm.
So, my first experience with Empower Plus, uh,
was personally, so I had mentioned my biggest challenge
as a teen was with my mental health.
Um, and so I had a, um, a friend of, a friend I guess,
who had already gone and studied nutrition
and had heard of Empower Plus during their studies
and said, you know, this is
something you might wanna check out.
I've heard some cool things about it that, you know,
it might help with mental health.
Um, so that was my, my first introduction, uh,
read up about it online
and decided like, what did I have to lose?
I might as well give it a go. Yeah.
Um, I was already in pretty rough shape,
so I was pretty sure it at least
wasn't gonna make me any worse.
Okay. Um, and I, I honestly, within the first 10 days,
just an immense difference in my mental health.
My panic attacks were reduced.
I was feeling like I could leave the house,
which I was having a lot of difficulty doing.
Um, and so personally I used it
before I knew about it, um, from, uh, professional
or, um, any of the knowledge to know, you know,
why it functions the way it does.
I was really just rolling the dice and giving it a try.
Um, and then later as, um, someone practicing one-on-one,
I've certainly had those clients
where mental health was a really
significant concern for them.
And, uh, empower Plus many times has been a product
that has been absolutely life-changing for clients of mine.
How, when you recommend it, considering your,
your education and your personal experience of using it
for those 10 days, how important is it to get the,
the point across to your clients that, listen,
you can't just like, take one capsule one day
and then, oh, I forgot
to til my capsule was 10:00 PM
I'll just take one before bed.
You know, so like, you know, how important is it
to follow the guidelines
of your Na natural health practitioner Very,
to get the, to get the results right?
Yeah. Very important.
So, like I said, I noticed a difference
within those first 10 days.
Um, I, I think I took it for at least a couple of years,
might've been longer, um,
where I was taking this every single day,
and my health was improving over time.
Right. Um, my, my health had decreased down that slope
of health, and I needed to climb my way back up.
So it was not a quick process, um, but to see the results
and to feel like, okay, this is working, was really fast.
Um, which was nice because like I said, I, I tried
so many drugs where just felt like I was getting worse
and worse everything that I tried, um, with clients.
I think having that, um,
initial improvement in symptoms can be such a motivating
factor, especially for folks who have tried everything else,
which is most of the clients that I would see,
they were people who had done all of the things
that they could think of doing.
And this was last ditch effort to try to feel better.
Um, so having that quick, um, impact on symptoms,
having symptom reduction really is a motivating factor
to continue this on a longer term
and continue to see those improvements.
That's really cool. Do you,
do you use your personal anecdote
of using the product when you talk to clients?
Sometimes, yes. And sometimes no.
It, it depends on how well, uh, I know the client right.
And have to gauge it.
I think personal case studies are really important, um,
and it's a type of evidence I think
that we should have more access to in relation
to natural health products.
Um, but I'm also careful that, you know, I don't want to,
um, assume that someone would have the exact experience
that I would have, um,
because we are obviously all biochemically unique.
Um, so I, it it depends sometimes yes, sometimes no.
Um, oftentimes I would give a product like that to a client,
let them have their own results,
and then later tell them, uh,
that I had had a similar experience.
But try not to, to taint things right off the bat
or give them any sort of, uh,
expectation on what would happen.
Sure. It could be so difficult sometimes to, uh, to
motivate that individual to really buy into the, the dosage
and the, the, you know, the
frequency of taking that product.
Because, you know, when you, when you took it
for those 10 days, you were in a pretty significant place.
So your motivation was really like,
yeah, it was really endogenous.
I would, yeah. I was all in. I was gonna do it. Mm-Hmm.
Yeah. That's great. That's awesome.
Um, I'd love to get your opinion on like, where we're at
with natural health in like 2021.
Like, you know, you've had your experience working in,
in, in the, in the stores.
We've had this two years of insanity. Mm-Hmm.
Um, you know, where, where do we lie,
especially like here in Canada, where do we lie,
do you think, in regards to like,
natural health, like right now?
I think, um,
I think natural health has really been vilified,
especially over the last couple of years.
Um, I, I mentioned we made the decision
to close our health food store, um, that,
that community aspect just wasn't the same.
There was more
and more government hoops that we had to jump through
to be able to stay open.
And so the profitability from a business standpoint was
becoming very, very difficult.
Um, and, you know, wanted to make the decision
before the decision was made for us at some point, was
what it looked like we were doing, um,
natural health products specifically.
I think we're continuing
to see them watering down products, like I said.
So in order for a company to apply for an NPN number
to be able, uh, to sell a natural health product in Canada,
um, folks that I know
who work in regulation in natural health product companies,
manufacturers, they're consistently experiencing
frustrations with that, that, you know, we used
to have 600 milligrams of this ingredient,
and now Health Canada's only allowing us to put 150.
Uh, and so, you know,
people aren't gonna wanna take 12 capsules a day Yeah.
To get a therapeutic dose. So that kind of difficulty.
Um, I also think with social media, there's been a lot
of censorship, um, in regards to discussing natural health,
especially related to, uh, COVID-19
and all of the things that go with it.
Um, personally, you, you mentioned my new venture.
So networking nutritionists, uh,
started as a Facebook group.
We were just a free Facebook group
of about 2000 nutritionists, uh, speaking amongst ourselves.
And we kept having posts taken down, uh,
Facebook threatening that they would close the group.
Um, and we weren't allowed to talk about things,
even though we're evidence-based.
So sharing, you know, published articles about vitamin D,
reducing the frequency of hospitalization wasn't,
wasn't okay with Facebook that Yeah.
That flagged the algorithm and, uh, would get taken down.
So that, that sort of, um, censorship of speech as well,
and discussion about different ideas
and different ways of handling this crisis,
I think has really been stifled.
Yeah. If you've got Health Canada
and the government taking, taking one step in regards
to actually blocking the physical product, being able
to get into my hands to use,
and then also controlling the language
and what people are allowed to speak about.
Like, that's just like,
when it comes from like a government point of view,
it's a really powerful place to be in.
If we can't even communicate
and talk about these, these topics,
be them controversial or not.
I mean, like using vitamin D
to boost your immune system is like, you know,
you're gonna find a hundred thousand
studies on pub meant for that.
Like, it's completely anti-science, not,
it's not ground that conversation.
Yeah. It's not groundbreaking. It's got common knowledge.
But if they're able to censor that
and, you know, have these, you know,
people in Silicon Valley, like really, like hammering hard
to just not allow people to have the, you know,
the social conversation.
'cause I think social media can be really powerful
and really wonderful way, like, you know, you've connected
with 2000 nutritionists on Facebook.
That's a really positive thing.
But once, you know, you start having conversations
that are deemed, I don't know, controversial, not necessary,
don't go, you know, against the, the narrative.
I don't know, like, there's so many ridiculous things,
but that's, that's a problem.
And if people aren't even allowed
to have the conversations about these things,
people really need to recognize that conversation.
And, um, and dialogue is a really, really important part
of science and society, that if we want to evolve
and move forward and step out of this twi twilight zone,
it has to have, you know, I constantly have conversations
with people about controversial things,
and people usually get like emotions, like, get volatile.
But we have to be able to have these types of conversations
that do spark emotion
because they're the really important topics.
Mm-Hmm. And if we can't communicate about these things,
that's a really, really big problem
because we've clearly like got this lack of skill
of being able to converse without it going immediately
into this like, argument. Yeah.
You're, you're touching on something
that I've definitely observed myself as well, um,
increasing over the last number of years where it's,
it's almost forbidden
to have a moderate opinion about something.
Like you have to be all in one way or the other.
You can't have want something that's in the middle
or have an opinion that's in the middle.
Uh, it's just not allowed. Uh, you gotta pick a side.
And I think that's, that's really, really challenging.
Like, you can be pro-science
and also want more research to be done on natural products.
Mm-Hmm. Like, both of those things
can happen at the same time.
Um, but the sort of the mainstream narrative is
that there's one side and there's the other side,
and there's nothing in between that.
Um, and I think it's that really false dichotomy, uh,
that certainly is playing into some of the,
the controversies that we have in the world right now.
Yeah. And if you stick to a system like that
where you're one solo or the other,
and there's no, there's no middle ground
to even have a conversation,
you get a political system like the USA.
Exactly. Yep. We won't get into that.
We're gonna move on to, um, yeah, we're gonna move on
to your, um, work with N-H-P-P-A, which if you,
if people don't know, is the Natural Health Products
Protection Association.
Mm-Hmm. Um, so why don't you tell us a little bit about
that association and what that organization is,
is attempting to do?
Yeah. So N-H-P-P-A, if I had to sum it up in a sentence,
what I think they're all about, uh,
it's protecting Canadians access to natural health products
and practices as well.
Um, so head up, it's, you mentioned Sean Buckley.
He is the president at N-H-P-P-A,
and he is worked alongside, uh, Julia Ricker is their,
um, campaign manager there.
So they've been partnering together
for the last 15 years at N-H-P-P-A.
Uh, it all came about, um, around Bill C 15.
So going back, you know, to 2006, 2007 in Canada.
Um, and there was huge public
outroar about these new government restrictions.
And N-H-P-P-A came to be around that time Since then,
that public, uh, outrage has really dwindled,
and a lot of people have accepted this narrative that, um,
you know, the government is just trying to protect us.
And, uh, you know, maybe we don't need as many choices
because, uh, the government has our best interests in mind.
Um, and so N-H-P-P-A really underlying everything
that we do, it's about that freedom of choice.
The, the belief that we should have uncensored
access to information.
Uh, and that people
as Canadians are competent individuals who,
sovereign individuals who should have the capacity
to make decisions for themselves
and have freedom of choice, access to products
and practices that allow them to,
to exert that freedom of choice.
And how is the best way to get.
'cause I think that's a really important point,
because you were talking about, how initially was it,
sorry, was it 2006?
2008? I think
2006, seven ish. Okay.
In the past, you Can't quote me on
that exactly. Somewhere in there.
Okay. Yeah. There was this, this is really
before social media was like a really big thing,
and people were probably getting their
information from different sources.
And there was definitely a bigger community based approach
in the natural health world.
So if, you know, there was this bill being passed,
it would be quite probably wild, wildly,
probably simp simpler to get that message
through the community Mm-Hmm.
15 years ago than it, than it is today because of,
because of censorship and opinions and,
and certified beliefs.
Yeah. So I think that's, that's really interesting.
But how can people, like, learn a little bit more about
N-H-P-P-A and get involved?
Yeah. Uh, so we do have a website@nhpa.org.
Um, there's a, a button there about us
where you can learn a little bit about the history.
Um, we have information about past campaigns
that we've done, um,
and then there's a page for any current campaigns.
So we've got some good stuff coming up this fall, um,
and into the winter, so you can stay tuned for that.
Uh, if you wanted to sign up for the email newsletter,
that's an option to stay up to date.
Um, so you see when those new campaigns are coming out.
And I am a part of that newsletter personally.
And it's not something you're gonna get,
not gonna get spammed three times a
day or even three times a
Week. No, we don't.
Spam. It's very, like, it's very, like,
it's once like every few months
and it's very important information.
It's more of like a call to action.
This is what you need to know, this is what you can do.
And it's really informative.
Yeah. Yeah. That's exactly it.
Uh, maybe once a month
or so that we're sending out an email with all
of the really important bits
that we need people to plug in on.
Beautiful. Um, let's, I wanna talk a little bit more about
you and networking, nutritionists.
Sure. So we've spoke, spoken about community
and how important that is, especially Ima just, it's just
as a human being in general.
But, you know, we talk about the natural health industry is,
has, has these close communities,
but there's definitely a reductionist single point
of view in many different natural health practitioners,
products, associations, companies, et cetera.
But what's the, in your experience, what's the value of
community in the natural health world?
So I had mentioned, um,
when I transitioned from architecture to natural healthcare,
um, that difference in the culture being
not about competition, but rather about collaboration.
And that that's truly remained the, the biggest, uh,
gold just little nugget I guess,
that I can take away from that community.
Um, because I really believe there,
there's such an amazing synergy, um,
that happens when you're with like-minded people, um,
having open conversations, lifting each other up,
supporting, uh, a single cause, whatever
that may be, supporting each other.
Just that entire collaborative approach, uh,
really lifts everyone up who's involved.
And, um, that's very, very different from
what I experienced, uh, in school before.
Uh, I studied nutrition.
And so that is the thing
that I love the most about my work now, um, is being able
to do that collaboration and help to lift other people up
and then them do the same as well.
I love it. That's really, really cool. Mm-Hmm.
So like, in this insane divided world, like even
before Covid, you know, we're divided.
The, the, the more easily we're segregated
and divided, the easier we are
to manipulate and control, right.
Whether that's sex, gender, religion, politics,
list goes on vaccine beliefs, you know, like,
which was arguably one of the most spiteful things
we have like right now.
And another big thing you just like can't talk about,
because people just go immediately into like anger
or defensive or attacking right away.
So people can't even have that conversation
with their family members, you know?
Mm-Hmm. So how do we start building community
and like, you know, being neighbors
in such a divided world right now?
Do you have any tools for us?
Yeah, so that really is, um, networking nutritionist.
We've moved to a new platform off of Facebook recently,
so we're not dealing with the same censorship.
So I think you touched on it earlier.
Step number one is just having those conversations
and some conversations will be difficult.
Conversations, that's where growth lies.
Um, so I think as people, uh, just in general,
especially in westernized societies, we need
to get a little more comfortable with being uncomfortable.
Um, like, heaven forbid we have to walk anywhere
or, you know, we don't have a climate controlled
environment, or you have to entertain yourself
with your own thoughts for five minutes instead
of looking into the meta.
Uh, we just, we're not good at being uncomfortable.
And I think starting those conversations
can feel uncomfortable.
So just being okay with that discomfort for a little while,
it does lead to those opportunities for growth,
for looking at how to connect with the people around you,
how to collaborate and, and support
and uplift your community.
Uh, and I, I really, I think that's a huge opportunity
that we all have and we can all decide to do and,
and make a part of our character
and a part of our everyday life.
Um, doesn't cost anything to do that.
Um, but, but it's a huge cultural shift.
It's, it's not consistent with how most, uh,
north Americans are behaving right now.
Yeah. You're spot on there.
I think when I, I, when it comes to controversial topics,
when, the way I think about it now, I've gone,
I've certainly gone through a learning process in my mind,
is that if I have a particular opinion
or belief about a certain topic,
and somebody else who I know has got the complete opposite,
that looking at that from the
outside can look like we're very, very different people.
Mm-Hmm. But we're not, at the end of the day, you know,
like, I think it's important to grab onto the
commonalities that we have.
You know, like you're a human being, so am I, I like
to feel good, you like to feel good,
and coming from a place of compassion and understanding.
And, you know, obviously, like I'm, I'm always super open
to being wrong as well.
Mm-Hmm. And I just, I genuinely like to understand
how people get to a point of view.
And I think when it comes to something like, let's say covid
and vaccines and like,
everyone should get vaccinated, and it's a great idea.
I think that, um, people, if they really take a step back
and figure out how they've come to that belief, you know,
from a, you know, they've taken in some information,
create some thoughts, creating an idea, creating a, um,
opinion, and then a belief as you re re, you know,
you regurgitate that in your mind
and it becomes so solidified right.
Into a point where you will, you will attack somebody
who attacks it or you will defend it, you know?
And I, I feel it's very important to take a step back from
that and realize that, okay, look, we are all,
we're all exposed to
so much unbelievable hyper information in such a hyper novel
way that, you know, our bio,
our biology cannot keep up with it.
So we should certainly have an understanding about that.
And at the end of the day, everyone just wants to feel good
and, and ha and I feel gen people wanna have a community.
They wanna have friends. They wanna go out
and do all these wonderful things and
be happy and feel good.
Mm-Hmm. But it's quite difficult to do
that these days when you've got no idea if the neighbor next
to you is a vaccine lover or not.
You know, it's, and it's, it's, it's troubling
because it's, it divides people up from
like a visible platform.
When you look outside of your house
and you've got your neighbors, you know, it's really,
it's a, it's a real problem.
Mm-Hmm. And there are certainly solutions that,
and I, I think you're, you're right with that.
And I think, I think just,
just in my own personal experience, having some,
some gratitude
and some understanding
that people are gonna be different from me.
My thoughts and my beliefs be them right
or wrong, whatever, they need to be plastic, they need
to be fluid, they need to be able to change.
I can't consistently watch just the same person talking
about the same thing 'cause their opinion's just gonna keep
regurgitating and filling that part of my mind.
You know, I need to be taking information from,
from both sides to come up
with my even own opinion, you know?
'cause I think most opinions people have about big
things Mm-Hmm.
Aren't, they're not like they've really thought about it
and taken both sides and made an opinion up.
They've basically like gone onto their favorite YouTuber
or watched CTV
and then that's gospel. Yeah. That's a problem.
And I think with, with those major, um,
social media platforms especially,
and to a slightly lesser extent with, with mainstream media
as well, um, if you do have a particular opinion
that is already sort of formed, those platforms are built
to bring you deeper into that opinion that you already have.
Right. Going, we've all heard the phrase,
you're going down the rabbit hole.
Uh, that's easy to do on a place like YouTube
or Facebook, where you just see more
and more extremist versions of your own opinion, um,
being delivered to you.
So that was another, um, factor that we,
we took into account in moving networking,
nutritionists onto a new platform as well, was what,
what else are we consuming when we're going onto Facebook?
You know, to scroll and check in on a group that we enjoy.
What else are we being bombarded with?
And as you said, there's so much information coming to us
that we just, we can't process it all.
So that was part of it as well,
to have this really dedicated space
where you are intentionally going to check in
with your colleagues and do the collaboration
and have some opportunities for learning,
and you're not having all of the other stuff, uh,
coming into your brain at the same time.
Yeah. Huge point in regards to, you know,
whoever's got the mo eyes
and ears, like, you know, Facebook, you know,
they've got 90% of people on the planet,
like engage with them.
Mm-Hmm. And if they have as a company a,
a particular philosophy or a goal
or something, then it would be very, very easy to cultivate
that through to other people.
And then people start believing that it's, that
that's their own belief or opinions.
Um, yeah. That's, that's wild.
And yeah, I think a lot of people don't recognize
that the power that that type of exposure has.
Yeah. I mean, there's entire
industries built around it, right?
That's why advertising is a job because it works, works.
Mm-Hmm. You can easily manipulate other people
to taking actions that you want them to.
So being really aware of the environments
that you're putting yourself into,
what media you're choosing to consume,
uh, I think is really important.
Absolutely. Um, so yeah, networking nutritionist,
it's network nutritionist.com, right?
Networking nutritionist.com Yeah.
Has all the information about our platform.
Uh, there's little buttons there
where you can join us if you want to.
Um, so we do, uh, vet all of our members
to make sure everyone is actually a nutritionist,
uh, who comes into the group.
And so we're having, uh,
and we do have a holistic, uh, lens on things.
So not necessarily, uh, university level
clinical dieticians coming into the group,
but more holistic nutritionists
and natural, uh,
medicine practitioners are, are within there.
And then we get to chat amongst ourselves.
We have opportunities for continuing education interviews
with experts in the field.
All kinds of fun stuff is happening in there.
That's really cool. So if I, I'm a nutritionist, I've gone
to your website, I can sign up, I can check it out.
And then what type of, uh, do you do like live,
do you do like live live things
so I can meet different people
across the, across the world? Yeah.
Yeah, we do. So we do interviews, uh, every month.
Um, so our experts, uh,
this month we have Joy McCarthy coming on, um,
and Julia Rickard as well from N-H-P-P-A,
but she's coming on for a different reason.
Okay. Uh, and then, um, next month we're doing some, some,
uh, webinars with metabolic balance, uh, training program.
Um, coming in we've got, uh, Brett Hawes coming on
to do some talk about autoimmunity
and, um, having really effective intake
process as a nutritionist.
So there's lots of good stuff
that's just the next few weeks.
Um, so we do try to, um, spotlight those in our industry
who are doing really cool things
and, um, open up opportunities to continue our education
and have those conversations about different viewpoints.
Very, very cool. I think being able to connect
different practitioners that, you know,
obviously they're all coming into natural health
and they wanna learn about like, what they can do
to help people feel better,
but there's so many different ways in which you can do
that in so many different ways you can communicate that type
of healing to a practitioner.
And is, is there, is there sort a space where you're able
to, um, like, you know, I've got this, I've got this client
who's dealing with this, this, and this,
and you know, I've tried this and this,
and then has anyone got any experience?
Like, I would, I would certainly find that to be really,
really helpful tool.
Yeah, definitely. So, um, you're able
to post your question just in like the discussion board
within the group, um, if you wanna get written answers.
And then every month we also have, uh, group coaching.
So that could be business related,
marketing related, client related.
And then we have specifically another meeting
where we do case conferencing.
So exactly what you said, you know,
I've got this difficult situation,
feeling stuck, not sure where to go.
And we'll just kind of brainstorm it out
and discuss some, some other alternatives, things that,
you know, might be overlooking
or things you might not have considered.
Um, so it's really nice to, again, that, that collaborative,
um, environment,
Case conferencing, I like that a lot.
That's really cool. Um, we'll just kind
of wrap things up a little bit here,
but I've got a question for you.
So you've got network nutritionist,
N-H-P-P-A family.
I do. Like what, um, what do you do to,
and obviously we've just got like all this stuff coming at
us all the time anyway.
Like what do you do to relax and chill and reenergize
and re bring that energy back to you? Yeah,
So I have often joked that like, if
lifelong student was a job, that's the one
that I would've, uh, picked.
So I am a university student right now as well,
and I know that's unusual to say, like that's what I do
for fun, but it is so fun to me.
Uh, so I am doing classes
and then to really just wind down, I'm also an avid reader.
So my goal for this year was to read a hundred books.
I think I'm gonna hit it again pretty close.
So reading is also something that I love to do, to, again,
different viewpoints,
look at the world from a different way,
and just be able to relax and,
and tune, tune down a little bit.
What's your, been your favorite book so far this year?
So far this year I reread,
so this is maybe not like the feel good book you're looking
for, but I reread, uh, brave New World,
which I read the first time when I was in high school.
And given the, the current circumstances of our world,
it was really fascinating to, to reread that book, um,
considering some of the government policy
that is occurring right now.
So that was interesting, uh, to, to read, given the time.
So, and I, I loved that book from the beginning, so
that was a really enjoyable one.
Um, I also have read a few Hank Green,
uh, and John Green Books.
They're like young adult novels
and I just, I like their style of reading
or their style of writing, so I enjoyed those two.
Very cool. Do you have your books like
lined up for the, for the year?
Uh, I think, I think I do probably have enough to get me
through to the end of the year at this point.
Um, I've got a little shelf beside my bed where I,
whenever I get a new one, I just stick it on the end.
Yep. There's another one.
Uh, but I've got my bookshelf where all of the ones I've,
I've read are, I'm still, uh, a, a bit old school.
I like physical books and, you know, writing in the margins
and me too, uh, being able
to put my energy into it that way.
So I I I love my book collection and, and adding to it.
Yeah. I love the idea of building a library.
I think that's wonderful. Something you can physically pass
on in regards to, like, do you have, is it,
do you have like, any like, um,
natural health books that are in there?
Cool. Yeah. If you're gonna recommend,
if you're gonna recommend one to
me and the listeners, what would it be?
Oh, goodness. Only one. That's so hard.
Um, maybe Fats That Heal,
fats That Kill By Jensen.
Okay. That's like a, it's an oldie,
but it's still so relevant.
Uh, so if I could only recommend one that might be,
or maybe his Better Bowel Care book,
that one's pretty good too.
Cool. Probably a Jensen book though.
Excellent. I certainly don't do a hundred books a year.
That's wild. That's really impressive.
Um, but I just finished reading, uh,
the Hunter Gatherers Guide to the 21st Century
by Brett Weinstein
and Heather, her, I can't remember
what her second name is, but it's fantastic.
It's super relevant. They literally finished it like
in June this year.
So it's super relevant
and it's just a really beautiful, wonderful book.
And it starts, yeah, it's asks
and answers a lot of really good questions,
but I think a lot of the things we've spoken about in
regards to censorship, taking a step back
and being understanding of other people,
looking at our environment, what we can learn from it,
definitely what we can learn from,
from nature and natural health.
Mm-Hmm. Um, very, very important topics.
And obviously they're very, very, um, well versed,
intelligent individuals.
So that's that, that's one I'd certainly recommend if you
can squeeze that in. Yeah,
I'll have to put that on my list.
Get in there. That would be great. Beautiful.
Well, thank you so much for your time today.
What's the best way that people can
connect with you, Veronica?
Uh, I would say the best way is
through networking nutritionists, uh,
you can send an email there as well.
It's hello at networking nutritionists
with an S on the end.com.
Uh, is that as the best way to, to get ahold of me?
Beautiful. Well, I'll make sure that is in the show notes
as well as the information about N-H-P-P-A as well.
Thank you very much. I
really appreciate it. That was a good chat.
Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Of course. I really appreciate it.
Well, thanks very much for listening, everybody.
This is True. Hope Cast the official
podcast of True Hope Canada.
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