Maria Marlowe: [00:00:28] Welcome back to the Happier and Healthier Podcast. Today I decided to do something a little different than usual. I was recently interviewed on my friend Basel’s podcast, which is called Basel Meets, and I thought it was a really great conversation. So I decided to take that interview and release as today’s episode. Basel doesn’t come from the health world. So he had a lot of really, really great questions that I think many of you may have as well. So I wanted to make sure that you got to hear this interview. You can, of course, also check out his podcast, which is again, Basel Meets. In this episode, we talk about a wide variety of topics from how I healed my acne with food to why I recommend the pegan diet. That’s paleo plus vegan. Why you should choose organic produce. Why everyone should consider going gluten free even if you’re not celiac. How to choose the healthiest seafood. Why? I’m pro intermittent fasting. How to order healthfully at just about any restaurant. I don’t believe in cheap meals and so much more. So without further ado, here is the interview.

Maria Marlowe: [00:02:01] Definitely. You definitely should.

Maria Marlowe: [00:02:12] Like, yeah, like three weeks. Yeah. Yeah.

Maria Marlowe: [00:02:18] Great. I love it here. I can’t complain. It’s snowing back in New York. Okay. Oh, I see. Everyone’s Instagram photos with snow boots and piles of snow. And I’m here and there’s palm trees. Right.

Maria Marlowe: [00:02:32] Yeah, no, it’s a wonderful city and it’s really exciting and so cool. I think it’s also so inspiring to see the city and to be in this city because of what Dubai has accomplished. Forty years. And it just I feel like it really inspires you to think really big.

Maria Marlowe: [00:03:57] I did not grow up thinking I was gonna do anything in the nutrition or wellness space. I wanted to be Britney Spears’ backup dancer. Right. That was my career aspiration. And I grew up in a typical American family eating a standard American diet. I pretty much a just pizza, cookies, cheese, Danish, steak and soda. Like that was literally my diet.

Maria Marlowe: [00:04:25] And so I you know, I come from a family, though, where obesity, cancer, chronic illness, those are the norm. They’re not the exception. So I saw all the people around me suffering with their health problems. And for a long time, I just thought that was our genes, that we’re this is just how my family is. But as I got a bit older and then I started getting my own health problems in high school, I realize that a lot of our health problems were more because of what we were eating and our lifestyle vs. our bad genes. So for me, I had many health problems. I was overweight, I had digestive issues, I had very low immunity, so sick all the time. But that stuff actually didn’t care about. What bothered me the most is that I had a really bad acne.

Maria Marlowe: [00:05:11] And of course, you know, 16 year old girl in high school and your face is covered in pimples and you’re like dying inside.

Maria Marlowe: [00:05:21] Yeah. It’s it’s people don’t realize just how it really affects your self-confidence and your self-worth and all of these other things, because every time you look in the mirror, you’re like, oh, my God, I’m deformed. So that’s really upset me. I tried everything. All of the over-counter over-the-counter things. I tried proactive and the infomercial stuff. I went to multiple different dermatologists, tried different prescription medications. And at one point they prescribed me Accutane, which is a pill for for acne. Yeah. And I filled the prescription and then I happened to read the side effects. And one of the side effects was severe depression that could lead to suicide. And I was just like with it, like, woah, like that is pretty serious.

Maria Marlowe: [00:06:03] So I decided not to take it. And I was just like, I must be curse because no one had an explanation for why I had acne and my brother and sister didn’t. Right. Anyway, fast forward. I got to college. I met a classmate there and I was eating my daily lunch, which is pizza and chocolate chip cookies and soda. And she’s like, you know, your skin problems, like they might actually be from what you’re eating.

Maria Marlowe: [00:06:28] Oh, well, no, I don’t think she would have said like like it. Right. I think what happened was I was complaining about my skin. It was like, you know, it might actually be from what you’re eating. And so I was like, wow, that’s a revolutionary concept, because I’ve been to all of these dermatologists and not one of them have ever asked me what I was eating. But I was desperate. I was willing to try anything. So she recommended a book that talked about the connection between skin and diet. But the book drastically changed my diet, cut out the junk food additive and vegetables, which I was not eating before, except for tomato sauce and pizza and french fries. And my skin finally cleared up.

Maria Marlowe: [00:08:45] This sounds like a smart doctor I like.

Maria Marlowe: [00:09:18] Well, of course, I mean, if you think about it, a skin has two sides. Right. And skin is actually an organ, which I think sometimes people forget. And as an organ, it needs specific nutrients in order for it to function properly until. That’s interesting. Right. So I never thought of it that way. Yeah. So that’s why we really need to nourish it from both sides. It from the inside for sure. And then topically helps. But really it’s what we put inside our body that’s going to make the biggest difference on our skin because that’s where the inflammation starts and that’s where the problem start is internally. And typically unless if you wear a lot of makeup or put things on your face and things that are comedogenic, then yeah, you can get pimples from that. But for most people who have chronic acne. And it’s not coming from makeup or something topical, it’s coming. Coming from an internal issue. So you really need to fix that internal issue. Otherwise, you’re never you’re always gonna be playing whack a mole with zit cream on your face. It’s never going to fully clear up.

Maria Marlowe: [00:10:30] So, yes, it did. So I think that once I realized that my food was affecting my skin, I started becoming really, really interested in nutrition and I started doing more and more research. And let me just back this up one second. So I changed my diet, my skin cleared up, and I was like, what a miracle from heaven. I finally grew out of my acne and must be a coincidence that I just happened to change my diet and my skin cleared up. So I went back to eating the pizza and the cookies and all that stuff. And of course, immediately my skin broke out again, gotten nothing. Oh, OK, fine. It is actually the food. There is something to it. So then that’s when I was like, okay. I’m really interested. I want to learn more. What else does food affect? Because I thought it only affected weight. Up until that point. Did more research, I found that it affects our immune system. It affects our risk for chronic illness and disease and cancer even it can affect our mood and really everything in between. So studying nutrition became this passion and side hobby of mine. And I would, you know, my friends and family would come to me and like, oh, I have this problem, like, what should I eat for it? And so I just I was actually studying nutrition. By the time I was in college, I was studying excuse me, I was studying finance and I graduated with a degree in finance, got a job in the hedge fund industry. Interesting. And I just was so interested in health on my own and on the side. That’s what I would spend all my hours doing after work and on the weekends that I eventually just decided that, you know what, I really could have benefited from someone telling me earlier on to change my diet and why isn’t anyone teaching us this? So I said, okay, I’ll go and I’ll be that person that teaches us.

Maria Marlowe: [00:12:26] So how it started is I first actually started taking cooking classes. I went to the Natural Gourmet in New York and from there I then started studying nutrition. And so I did a program on the side while I was working full time. And I initially started a health coaching business. And so I would work with people one on one. And then eventually I would teach. I taught group classes where I was just teaching people how to eat and how to cook healthy foods because it’s something, you know, I know personally, like, my mom hated cooking. Cooking was a chore. And so she never did it. We always ate out and had takeout because why not? Right.

Maria Marlowe: [00:13:08] Yeah, to do it right. So I just I didn’t even know. I like to go to a grocery store. I didn’t know what anything was. I definitely didn’t know how to cook it. And it was all very overwhelming and confusing. So I started creating these programs that would help people figure all this stuff out. And eventually then I turned that work with really hundreds of people and so many classes. And I ended up turning my grocery store tour into a book because it was ended up being my most popular offering where I would literally take my clients. I would walk them through the grocery store explaining the produce, what the health benefits are, what the concerns are, how how do you choose it. The ripest one, the best tasting one and literally did that throughout the entire every single aisle of the grocery store. And it ended up I wasn’t expecting it to be so popular, but ended up being super popular. It was written up in a bunch of different magazines and online outlets. And I was like, okay, well, I guess people really are interested in this, so let me turn it into a book. And that’s what I did. And that’s the Real Food Grocery Guide, which came out in twenty seventeen.

Maria Marlowe: [00:14:12] Oh yeah. They’re, they’re totally fine with that. And sometimes I would even take groups like what I would do my group class, I’d have 10, 15 people at one time literally walking through a grocery store. Yeah. Like a tour guide.

Maria Marlowe: [00:14:33] Right. Yeah. So the podcasts I launched last year and I just realized I have a website that has tons of healthy recipes on it and lots of nutrition tips, meal plans, online courses. And what I realized is that people are consuming media differently and they’re learning differently. And one way that we learn is through podcasts. Right. So I personally was listening to podcasts and loved them. And so I decided to start my own. So that’s why I launched Happier and Healthier. And with that podcast, I interview health and wellness experts, also functional medicine, doctors, integrative medicine, doctors. And really the goal of is it goal of it is to help people live their happiest and healthiest life by taking care of themselves.

Maria Marlowe: [00:15:26] Yeah. That’s a great question. So I’m. I eat mostly plants, so mostly vegetables and fruits and anything that comes from the earth. Right. But I do eat a small amount of animal products as well. So technically it would be called pegan, which is kind of it’s kind of a mix of paleo and vegan. Okay. And I think or it’s very similar to the Mediterranean diet as well. But I think the biggest difference or the biggest I guess differentiator is that with a pegan diet, you when you’re eating animal products, there’s a really large focus on the quality of the animal products and making sure it’s organic or pasture raised and at is the highest quality that you can get.

Maria Marlowe: [00:17:11] Yes. So the Carnivore diet, I have seen that that’s becoming popular. Yeah. Or I don’t know if it’s becoming popular but you’re seeing it. I’m seeing it in the news and stuff.

Maria Marlowe: [00:17:20] I think that is not an ideal diet because we need fiber. And it first of all, if you’re just kind of backup and you look at there’s actually a great book called The Blue Zones. And this Dan Buetner, he is a researcher and he basically traveled the entire world and looked for the communities where people routinely live past 100 years of age and they’re healthy while they’re doing you know, they’re not in a hospital bed. They’re they’re living their life. Yeah. And so he found these different pockets mostly in the Mediterranean and Japan. And the things that these places had in common were that they had plant based diet. So they weren’t vegan, but a very large majority of their diet was made up with fresh vegetables, fresh produce, beans, lentils, those sorts of things. And they did consume some more protein, but it was in a much smaller amount. OK.

Maria Marlowe: [00:18:15] And there is plenty of research to suggest that we do thrive on a diet that is made up with plenty of nutrients and antioxidants and fiber that we get from plants. Right. Which you just you don’t get the fiber in and meat or any animal products. It’s just not there. And we need it for digestion. So I don’t know how he’s going number two with all that meat.

Maria Marlowe: [00:18:42] Yeah. Yeah. So I think, you know, I don’t think I can. You have a healthy vegan diet. Yes. But do you have to be vegan? No. I think that you can. You really want to have a little bit of both. And again, if you look just through history, through human culture, typically we’re eating a little bit of both. Yeah.

Maria Marlowe: [00:19:10] So when I tell people I like. If you think of your plate as a pie chart, you want at least 50 to 75 percent of your plate to be made up with plants. So that could be vegetables. That could be beans, lentils. Any of that stuff. And then the other 25 percent of your plate could be some sort of healthy protein, such as seafood, wild seafood or organic pasture raised meat. Or you could use beans or lentils as your protein if you’re a vegetarian.

Maria Marlowe: [00:19:52] Well, you can get everything you need out of plants,that’s for sure. I mean, with a vegan or vegetarian diet, the only places that you would just want to be careful is making sure you’re getting enough B12 and enough iron. If you’re eating a proper vegan diet. You can get enough iron from plants, but you do have to be cognizant. So sometimes what happens is when people go vegan, they go for ethical reasons or whatever reasons, and they’re not really doing it from a health standpoint. And you can eat a vegan diet of Oreos and French fries and you know. Oh, that’s true. Right. Yeah. Have to make sure that you’re actually eating whole fresh foods and that you are getting enough protein from your beans and lentils. Yeah. Because there is a little bit of protein in and vegetables and whole grains and things like that.

Maria Marlowe: [00:20:40] But really the bulk of it in a vegan diet is going to come from beans, lentils or organics away. And so you do have to be cognizant and make sure that you’re getting that in and at your meals.

Maria Marlowe: [00:21:52] Great question. So I think using our body as a science lab is a great thing. Right. Your friends who probably cut out gluten because they were feeling bloated or tired, just not feeling right. They cut it out to see if it makes a difference. And then when they cut it out, it did indeed make a difference. So that’s just a great sign that, OK, this is not really suitable for your body. It’s not helping you at all. It’s making you feel worse. So I think doing elimination diets are really helpful and important because you can see for yourself how different foods make you feel. Now, in terms of gluten, a lot of there is a rise in, I think the just the awareness of gluten going gluten free and the benefits of going gluten free. But there’s a lot of also skepticism. So here here’s what it is. Gluten and bread has been in our history for forever. Yeah. Is one of the first foods.

Maria Marlowe: [00:23:01] Mine is coconut. You can make so much from coconut. So. Here’s the thing. First of all, the way that we were making bread was very, very different. And traditionally, the way that bread was made, it was all sour dough, bread. The bread was fermented sometimes for months or weeks before it was actually edible. And during that fermentation process, that gluten would actually be broken down, making it easier to digest. So even someone who does have sensitivity to gluten, they fight. You typically find eating sourdough bread, even though it is made from wheat, tends to be easier to digest and causes problems for them. So the problem, though, with gluten, well, there’s two there’s two issues now. So one, just the nature of gluten, it does open the tight junctions in our intestinal lining. So you may have heard of leaky gut or it’s something technically called increased intestinal permeability.

Maria Marlowe: [00:24:00] And so if you think of your digestive system as a tube, it’s really what your your digestive system is preventing or it’s keeping everything from the outside world in your digestion digestive system and not letting it go into the rest of your body. Right. And it’s supposed to kind of be like a a tube that only lets nutrients into your body, but doesn’t let the other stuff. Right. The other stuff comes out the other side. Right. So with when you’re eating gluten, your intestinal lining is only one cell thick. And so all these cells are lined up next to each other and they’re connected by what’s called tight junctions. And so the tight junctions are supposed to let the nutrients out, but keep the food inside your gut. And what happens is when you eat gluten, it actually loosens those tight junctions. So now there’s a little passageway for food particles and other things to actually go out of your gut and into your bloodstream. And that’s when problems happen. And it’s believed that autoimmune conditions very often are tied back to Leaky gut. Wow. Right. So, yes. And there’s even this whole for anyone that does have an autoimmune condition, which is on the rise, an auto immune. It’s called AEP. The Auto Immune Protocol diet is very, very helpful at reversing symptoms. And one of the biggest things that they cut out, of course, is gluten to heal the gotten to heal the body. Wow. So that’s one problem.

Maria Marlowe: [00:25:29] The other problem is what’s happening today with our agriculture is that there’s not really a small I mean, there’s, of course, some small farms, but it’s usually these huge mega corporate farms and they’re relying on agricultural chemicals to grow and process the food. And so there’s a chemical called glyphosate, which is being sprayed on the crops. And that is what some researchers and experts believe is also the problem for the rise in gluten intolerance is because the wheat crop and other grains actually are sprayed with glyphosate on this. Glyphosate is causing a reaction in people. And so it’s not so much the wheat or the gluten as much as it’s the chemical.

Maria Marlowe: [00:27:12] Yeah. That’s a great question. And that’s exactly why I wrote The Real Food Grocery Guide, because it is so confusing and there’s so many terms on the packages from cage free to free range to pasture raised vegetarian fad. Like there’s just so many buzz words on all of our animal packages that it’s overwhelming and confusing. Right. And what makes it a little bit more confusing is that there’s the definition for what these things mean, as sometimes might be different than what you you’re picturing in your head.

Maria Marlowe: [00:27:46] Like you’re thinking like, oh, a red barn with all this grass and the animals are just not around. But I see grass-fed, for example. I’m like, oh, this cow had a bunch of grass. So that was ethical. But but I know. Yeah.

Maria Marlowe: [00:27:58] So with conventional farming, the animals are typically confined in very small cages. They’re typically not fed. They’re natural feed and they will be fed like some sort of pellets or some feed that is made specifically for conventional like farming or animal raising livestock. And the problem when you take the sort resemble cows, right. Grass fed is more expensive and it’s higher quality because the cow is being allowed to eat its natural diet, which is grass on a conventional farm where a cow is not eating grass, where they’re eating pellets or whatever they’re giving them.

Maria Marlowe: [00:28:38] The problem is that that’s not what the cows digestive system was designed to digest. And it’s not giving them the nutrients that they need. And so you end up with a less healthy cow. You then end up with less healthy meat on your plate. It’s actually less nutritious. And, you know, do you really want to be eating an animal that is not its healthiest? Right. So that’s why conventional farming is is not great. One of the reasons another problem with conventional farm, any conventional farming is that they do use antibiotics routinely. And what they do is they give what’s called a sub therapeutic dose of antibiotics, because what farmers found was that when you feed animal antibiotics, it fattens up and they get paid on the pound. They don’t get paid on the quality. So, of course, they want a fatter, heavier animal. And so, my God, is this actually a really big problem in the World Health Organization and a lot of health, large health organizations are ringing the alarm bells because this is problematic, because we have this growing threat of antibiotic resistant bacteria, because we’re using antibiotics just so heavily in our food supply in various different places, even just taking them so quickly and easily.

Maria Marlowe: [00:29:59] There is this growing threat of antibiotic resistant bacteria, which means bacteria that were once very easy to treat with taking a penicillin or taking some antibiotic your doctor would give you. They may become resistant to those antibiotics. So when you get that, it will be much harder to treat and maybe impossible to treat. So that’s how you want to choose organic because they cannot use. They won’t use antibiotics therapeutically.

Maria Marlowe: [00:30:47] Yeah. Well, I hope that we can trust it. So. And I’m speaking mostly, you know, each country has their their own standards, so I’m speaking. I mean, this is pretty much generally across the board. But specifically, more U.S. standards. The ones that I’m most familiar with. And so when it comes to produce, organic produce is grown without the use of some of the most toxic pesticides. It can’t be irradiated. It can’t be genetically modified. So it is grown more naturally. That said, they do you still use some chemicals on organic? Really? There are. If you go to a smaller farm, typically, I think they try to use the more natural stuff. But there are about 20 synthetic chemicals that are approved to be used on organic produce. Typically, if you’re buying from one of those larger farms, organic farms that you see grocery stores across the entire nation, they’re probably going to be using more of this synthetic stuff. Whereas if you have like a local farmer’s market or local farm nearby, I think there would be a little bit more judicious with what they’re spraying. Right. Right. So so organic, though, is healthier. So organic is healthier for many reasons, because, one, it’s has much less chemical residues on it compared to the conventional stuff.

Maria Marlowe: [00:32:04] So conventional produce typically has at least four times more chemicals on it than organic number one. Number two, those chemicals that are sprayed on it are typically more detrimental to our health. Number three, research has shown that organic food is typically more nutritious. So one of the many benefits of eating produce is that it has a variety of different antioxidants and phytochemicals that support our health. So I’m not even just talking like vitamin A, vitamin C. I’m talking things like anthocyanins and flavonoids and all of these other parts of the plant that are really important for our health. And so research has shown that organic produce has as sometimes as much as 50 percent more of these antioxidants than conventional and also organic is better for the planet because when we’re not spraying all these chemicals, they’re not running off into our water. And so there’s only a lot of reasons to choose organic in terms of if it’s actually organic or not. Usually if it has in the U.S., if it has a USDA organic seal, that means it was third party verified that it actually is organic.

Maria Marlowe: [00:33:13] And so typically on produce, if it’s it says it’s organic. But most likely is the place where it gets a little bit dicey as more in the packaged foods where you don’t really know. And if it’s not third party verified with some sort of seal, whether it’s USDA seal or some other certifying body, you don’t really know for sure. Right. They’d have to hope. They’re not lying.

Maria Marlowe: [00:35:07] And that brings up a good point that I forgot to mention with organic. I just where there is a great study, I believe it was published in the British Journal of Nutrition, which was a meta analysis. So they looked at over three I think it’s three hundred and forty studies on the the impact of eating an organic diet. And the researchers found that the people who eat the largest amount of organic foods and most of their diet was made up with organic foods. They had twenty five percent less incidence of cancer compared to those who eat the lowest amount of organic food. Oh, yeah. So it’s definitely important. And another thing that I point out, in Western cultures, when we think of aging, we usually think of, oh, the person gets old. They get sick. They lose their memory. They’re hunched over and just they’re not. Well, right. We think of aging as getting sick.

Maria Marlowe: [00:36:01] When you look at some other cultures, like Asian cultures, when you get older, you get wiser and your brain is still sharp and you’re still intact. And you’re not necessarily interesting.  So I think that, you know, even if we just think about pesticides, right. Pesticides are designed to kill a very small, teeny, tiny creature very quickly. If we’re ingesting traces of these chemicals, even if it’s in a small amount over a lifetime. What is that doing to us? Just wouldn’t. Yeah. So we don’t really know. And I think that it’s always better to air on the side of caution. And I think there is plenty of research that suggests that eating a healthy whole food diet and eating as naturally as possible with as minimal chemical exposure as possible is really the best thing that we can do as an insurance policy for our health.

Maria Marlowe: [00:37:23] So I’m a huge proponent of wild seafood because I do think that the farming standards for fish are not great. And what ends up happening is we’re taking what is a healthy food, fish, wild seafood, and we’re making it less healthy. So a few differences between let’s talk about the salmon, farmed salmon and wild salmon. So farmed salmon is typically less nutritious. So a lot of times people will eat the salmon because they want the omega 3, those anti-inflammatory benefits and typically farmed salmon is actually going to have more mega six, which is pro-inflammatory and less omega 3. So you’re not actually getting those anti-inflammatory benefits. Another problem with farmed seafood is that while salmon in particular, because the farms because the animals are so tightly packed together and fish don’t like being that, you know, bumping up to next to each other and they get nervous and they get anxiety. And so they are not as healthy. But what also ends up happening is there is a type of pest or  parasite that is rampant in fish farms. And so they actually use a pesticide to get rid of that, to get rid of that past that is prevalent in these fish farms. So you’re getting actually pesticides. They do use antibiotics in farm fish. They also farmed fish are also typically higher in mercury and PCBs, which are both toxins. And what that’s an issue with anyone who eats a lot of seafood. You want to make sure that you’re getting your mercury levels checked and making sure that those are normal because that can cause a lot of health problems. And we know that the wild seafood is is lower in mercury and PCB is. So all of those reasons make it a wise choice to choose wild.

Maria Marlowe: [00:39:16] I love intermittent fasting. I think it’s really great. Well, again, we have a lot of research on it. And I think, you know, I remember growing up, my grandma always used to say, don’t eat after 7:00 PM. And I think it’s something that, you know, people have have done and not even realizing the benefits of it or why they’re doing it. But so with intermittent fasting, you give your body a break. It could be anywhere from 12 to 16 hours where you’re not eating. And the benefit of this is that you’re allowing your body to fully digest whatever you’ve eaten and then to start the repair process, because digestion actually takes a lot of energy. And so when we’re constantly eating and our body is constantly digesting, it doesn’t really have the time to start and go to work repairing whatever needs to be repaired. And I feel like intermittent fasting. Do you intermittent fast?

Maria Marlowe: [00:40:42] Well so. Of course I’m a proponent of eating the healthiest foods. Right. But what the research shows is that even if you eat those unhealthy foods, but you eat them in that smaller window of time, you’re actually still going to get the benefits of intermittent fasting, which is quite fascinating. So I’ve seen research, a lot of it has been animal research where they they fed the rats eat like a junk food diet. And so they had two groups. Right. The one that eat the junk food diet all day long. And the other one that eat the same amount, food. Same junk food. But only in that smaller period of time. And those ones that were intermittent fasting, actually, they lost the weight. They were healthy, their metabolism, everything was fine. But the ones that were eating and all day long, those are the ones that gained weight and had all the health problems and the metabolic issues.

Maria Marlowe: [00:41:38] Exercise is always good. I will say you can get the benefits just from intermittent fasting two or three days a week. Gotcha. So you don’t necessarily have to do, you know, every single day. And that’s a great way for people to ease into it. And I think exercise is great for so many things in our body. Just getting the blood pumping and oxygen. And it’s great for our immune system. So I think exercise is always a good idea.

Maria Marlowe: [00:43:55] Yeah. I mean, I think well, first and foremost, I like to focus on all the amazing things that you can add in versus dwelling on the things that we have to take out. And, you know, I grew up Italian, so my main diet was bread. Pasta. You know, cheese, dairy.

Maria Marlowe: [00:44:12] That’s basically all I eat for breakfast here and dinner. And so for me, I had to cut out gluten and dairy because it was causing a lot of health problems for me. Right. And so I decided that it was more important for me to feel better than it was for me to eat my favorite food. Right. And I eventually I don’t even miss it anymore. I think you get used to it once you find great replacements for these foods. And I’ll see you again. But like you said, once you start feeling better and you start seeing the results, you’re like, I’m not going to eat that stuff that was making me sick or bloated or those two problems. And then the other thing is, I think we can upgrade whatever our healthy are, our favorite comfort foods are. There’s always a healthy upgrade. So I agree. Yeah. So for pizza, I love pizza, I used to eat pizza literally every day. And I’m so happy that here in Dubai you guys have Freedom Pizza which is amazing. And they have a cauliflower crust.

Maria Marlowe: [00:45:04] They have all these organic veggies from Green Heart Farms, which is a local farm here. And they even have vegan cheese options. They are amazing. And you can’t even get this in New York. Wow. I’m like, so excited whenever I’m in Dubai. I like Freedom Pizza.

Maria Marlowe: [00:46:35] I think mindset is definitely a huge part of getting healthy. And I think we what happens is sometimes we start prioritizing other things over our health. Right. Whether that’s convenience or work or whatever social life. And if you want to be healthy, you really need to make that your number one priority. And the great part about it is that when you do feel better, you’re going to be more productive and do better in your work and be happier in a better mood for your family. So it really has this whole ripple effect. And I think it starts with just understanding what your goals and priorities are and making healthier priority. Who wants to feel bloated and who wants to feel sick all the time? Yeah. You know, I think that unfortunately, because these issues are so common and so prevalent, people think that they’re normal. Like I remember when I had a really bad, bad digestive issues, I just thought it was normal, like to have these issues all the time because people around me had them. I had them every day. So it must be normal. It’s like, no, it’s not normal. You’re never supposed to be in pain. You’re always supposed to feel good. You’re supposed to be in a good mood. Yeah. And once you kind of pull yourself out, you get out of that fog or out of that cycle and you see how good you can feel. It makes it a lot easier to keep it up.

Maria Marlowe: [00:48:41] I think that we can eat healthier almost anywhere and at most restaurants. They do have healthy options, but it is a matter of you’re gonna have to mix and match things and maybe ask for things off the menu. Right. So I know an Italian restaurant. What they do typically have a lot of vegetable sides. They’ll typically have a lot of vegetable starters or appetizers, like different salads or roasted artichokes, soups, things like that. And so what I tend to do is I’ll just mix and match things to make sure that. That 50 to 75 percent of my plate is made up with veggies. And that other 25 percent could be some sort of protein. So sometimes it’ll be vegetarian. I’ll use beans or I really love octopus because little fun fact. Octopus is always wild, it’s never farmed. Oh, and just delicious. Yeah, it’s really good. That’s what I’ll typically have. And you know, that restaurant actually does have gluten free bread and gluten free pasta. Oh, you have to ask for it. Well, they do have it.So I will when I’m there, I’ll usually have a little bit of the gluten free bread, dip it in some olive oil.

Maria Marlowe: [00:49:42] So I think, you know, it’s all about balance. And one thing that’s important for me, like I tell people, like I don’t do cheat meals, like I don’t I don’t believe in this philosophy of cheating. And I you know, if I want to eat a French fry, eat the French fries, if I want a piece of bread, I’ll just choose gluten free, because if I know if I eat the gluten, I’ll be running to the bathroom. I don’t want that to happen. You know, I think that we have to have standards for our food and know when we can relax them and when not to. And I think if there’s a food that, you know, you have an allergy or sensitivity to and you know, it’s going to make you sick, then not just take it off the table, because why are you going to hurt yourself? But if there’s something like a French fry which is fried in probably terrible oil, it’s not great, but it’s not going to like really make you physically ill. Then, you know, once in a while, if you want it, it’s there,have it and don’t feel guilty about it. Just move on with your day. I think the most important part is making your plate 50 to 75 percent veggies. And then what’s a ever’s on the other side when you’re out with friends? You know, give yourself a little leeway.

Maria Marlowe: [00:51:23] So dairy is a common allergen. So a lot of people have trouble with digesting it and have digestive issues from it or other problems because of it. Personally, it caused digestive issues for me and skin problems for me. That’s why I cut it out. Some certain cultures actually are better at digesting it. So a lot of the Nordic countries that have been eating dairy for much longer than the rest of us, they tend to digest it better. But for a majority of people, they lose the enzyme that’s needed to really break down milk and lactose when they’re quite young. So I prefer dairy free and so all my recipes and everything are dairy free. OK, yeah. Okay.

Maria Marlowe: [00:52:20] Yes. So it’s OK if you think about what milk is. A lot of there’s this misconception that cow is automatically just produce milk all year long. And that’s not true. They only produce milk at one very specific time, which is the same time humans produce milk and that’s when they give birth and have a baby because that milk is designed for that baby to help it grow into a very strong six hundred pound plus or whatever it is cow.

Maria Marlowe: [00:52:47] And so in no other animal species or anything, do does one mammal drink another mammal’s milk. Right. And I don’t usually drink it past being a baby. You know, once that baby is weaned, they’re not drinking it anymore. And if you if you think it’s actually quite interesting, the research even on a mother’s milk. So when child latches on to the mother, the what the nutrients and what’s in the milk actually changes based on what the baby needs. Because you’re the two bodies are communicating through saliva. And it’s just so interesting how intricate our human bodies are and what goes on. And so, you know, that milk is made specifically for that baby to give that specific baby what it needs to grow strong, grow its immune system. So do you really want to be eating or drinking the milk of a animal that is going to grow into a, you know, huge hairy cow like, no, I don’t want to drinking that.

Maria Marlowe: [00:53:54] So what what basically how the dairy industry works is they’ll impregnate a cow. Once the cow has given birth, they’ll take the babies away and typically they’ll leave wondering how that will mean other other cows, babies. So all those babies are getting milk from one cow and. And the other moms are just giving milk for for humans.

Maria Marlowe: [00:54:18] Here’s a great vegan cheeses, so there’s one called Vio Life, which I have found in Dubai, and it is amazing. They have mozzarella cheese, feta cheese, like every type of cheese you can imagine made from plants. OK, so that I think that’s interesting. Yeah, cheese is actually. There’s a doctor called Dr. Neil Bernard. He is the head of the Physicians Committee for a Responsible Medicine. And he’s a big proponent of cutting out dairy. And in his research, he’s pointed out that cheese is one of the hardest things for people to give up. They can give up milk, they can give up ice cream, other things. But she is the last thing that usually goes for people because it’s so good. It’s good and it’s addictive. And he noted that there is something in that she is called cows endorphins and they actually act like morphine, like a drug in your brain. So they’re lighting up these pleasure sensors whenever you’re eating it. And that’s why it’s so hard, so to say goodbye to it. Does it? Choosing a vegan cheese that tastes like it, I think is the best way to wean yourself off.

Maria Marlowe: [00:55:40] Well, what what often happens is that when we’re eating a food day in and day out, day in and day out, if we do have an intolerance towards it, our body is just trying to keep us going and to keep us, you know, as healthy as we possibly can. So it sometimes blunts some of those negative side effects. They’re still there, but they, you know, tries to keep a little handle on them. When we cut the food out, we get it out of our system and then we feel great and our bloating is away. Like our skin looks great, everything’s good. Our energy is good. When we then introduce it again, it’s like a huge shock to the system. And that’s why we typically end up having even worse reactions than OK before. So I don’t think it’s that if we cut it out, then we’ll develop a tolerance. What’s happening is that your body is getting used like has finally gotten rid of it and has gotten used to not having it. And then when you introduce it, you’re that a fact of it is just going to be that much stronger.

Maria Marlowe: [00:56:45] Exactly. You’re taking back a little bit. You’re like, oh, my God, I can’t believe I used to do that. But again, as you start smoking more and more, you get more used to it. And it’s not you know, each time you do it, it’s not as that the first time.

Maria Marlowe: [00:57:19] Yes. So I have seen that there is a rising popularity for insect based foods. I’ve seen grasshopper chips.

Maria Marlowe: [00:57:32] How do you like that?

Maria Marlowe: [00:57:39] Yeah. So I think the biggest hurdle that industry is going to have is getting people to actually want to eat grasshoppers. And in fact. Yeah. Because we do get in kind of mindset. Both of us are over here like uhh! I’m surprised even in it. So I’ve had them in front of me and been asked to try them. And honestly, like, I just I can’t because it freaks me out.

Maria Marlowe: [00:58:04] But again, it’s all our our mindset and our perspectives about things. Right. Like so, for example, certain cultures eat dogs. Whereas in America, that is like unheard of. Like you would never eat a dog. Yeah. Dog is your best friend. Right. So it’s just how we view things and we view things, insects as disgusting. Yeah. It’s so and like we’re scared of them and like. So I think the idea of getting people to adopt this on a mass scale is gonna be quite challenging. And I think there are probably multiple ways to to end hunger. And so, yeah, I don’t know if this is the best way.

Maria Marlowe: [00:59:08] But I think that’s why most people get them when they’re deep headed. Right. You know, clean. Yeah. Yeah. I will say, actually, I do like shrimp. And so I usually like eat them out. And so I decided to get them. And I you know, I had a friend coming over and I was like, oh, can you just pick up some shrimp? And usually when I get it, I get it already cleaned. Right. So she brought them and they were not cleaned. And I looked at them and I was like, oh, my God. And you had to like devein them and take out their little intestines. And I was like, oh, I could not eat them afterwards.

Maria Marlowe: [01:00:45] I think we’re very removed from our food. I think so because we through history, if we wanted to eat a lobster or any sort of animal, we had to hunt it and kill it like you had to kill it. So before we could eat it. Yeah. And so like now we get everything cleaned. Like the blood is gone. Like everything’s gone. All the organs are out. And we just got this slab of meat. And so we’re just like seeing it as food and we’re not associating with the animal.

Maria Marlowe: [01:01:51] Yes. And that’s I really have to be grateful for our food, I think. I think so. Grateful for all the people that bring it to us.

Maria Marlowe: [01:03:04] Yes. I’m really happy to be here. And just remember what our health is a reflection of what we do most of the time. Not once in a while. So you don’t have to stress her out self out once in a while. You have a chance, whatever. Not a big deal. It’s what you do the majority of the time that’s really going to impact your health.

Maria Marlowe: [01:03:21] Thanks for tuning in this week. If you’re listening to this episode on your feeling really confused about what’s healthy or finding the right diet for you. So maybe you’re struggling with different ailments. Maybe you want to lose weight or maybe you have digestive issues that just don’t seem to go away. You’re always bloated or gassy or something, just not right. Maybe you’re really low energy and you feel like you’re doing all the right things, but something just feels off. I highly encourage you to check out Eat Slim by 10-week online nutrition and cooking course. I designed this course to help you be your own doctor, to help you be your own body detective and start figuring out what is causing your ailments. Because our body is meant to be in perfect health. You should wake up every morning feeling super energized, feeling healthy and vibrant. If you’re not, then there are probably some things within your diet and lifestyle that are hampering your health. I want to help you get to the root cause of your ailments and remedy them with food and lifestyle changes. I want to help hold you accountable to your goals so that you stay on track and you don’t throw in the towel a week or two later. I want to help give you a very clear guide map to follow so that you know what changes that you need to make in order to look and feel your best. If this sounds like you and you want help getting healthy, then head over to mariamarlowe.com/eat-slim and I would be honored to be your guide to better health.