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Everybody Eats! (with Camille Adams)
107 Plays1 month ago
New year, new vibes, and a brand-new type of episode! 🎉 This week, I’m joined by a very special guest—my fabulous friend and registered dietitian, Camille Adams—to chat all things diet and nutrition. 🍎✨ I get tons of questions over on @afunctioninggay about my health and wellness journey, but let’s be real: I’m not a certified expert. That’s where Camille comes in! Together, we dive into how nutrition ties into mental health, food accessibility, and so much more. Grab a snack (healthy or not, we don’t judge) and tune in!
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Transcript
Camille's Poise and Latina Criticism
00:00:00
Speaker
you're always you're always on task you Camille you are probably the most prepared person in the world even if you're like not you you don't let you're kind of like JLo like the world could be throwing shit at you and yours you're never gonna let people know that you're upset or sad you're gonna look beautiful you're gonna look ah what ah unbothered like that's that's Camille Adams in a nutshell mita latino mi andratino ju she's go
00:00:29
Speaker
The interview with her and the man with the gay with the big veneers. Yes. Which he was handsome, but those veneers were too much. but And he was like, shouldn't it be? I was so kind of in among it.
00:00:45
Speaker
Exactly like poor thing like she's her and like Selena Gomez like they don't speak like fluent Spanish because of their like they were born and raised in America and so it's just like one of those things where I don't know I feel like they get a lot of shit for it and I'm just kind of like how do you feel as a Latina woman?
00:01:03
Speaker
Because I speak Mexican. Because you speak Mexican. For those who don't know, someone at our at my prior workplace came up to me and asked me that, and Zach was right there. I was right there. I was gagged. I was gagged. You were gagged.
00:01:21
Speaker
we boy we both looked at each other and we were just like, Oh, like you you did not just ask her if she spoke quote unquote Mexican. And for those out there that may not know Camille Adams, you should know her. But Camille is is not in fact Mexican. No, I'm not. No, not at all.
Racial Identity Complexities
00:01:40
Speaker
Don't just gag you all. Yeah. But so let's celebrate that, though. the Come on. ambigu Ambiguity. Ambiguity. Ambiguity. I think and but racial ambiguity. mutual Ambiguity.
00:01:52
Speaker
Yeah, so let's just start it off strong. Black History Month is coming up. I am half black. This is true. but This is true. oh Yes. How do you feel about celebrating half the month?
00:02:09
Speaker
Oh my God. I'm like, do I keep that in here? Keep it. Keep it. Keep it. Keep it. Yeah. I was about celebrating half the month. you know it's so People don't understand like what us birations go through. It's like, which half do we pick?
00:02:26
Speaker
And you know what? That's actually very real. I know that we're like, we're shitting and giggling right now. But like, that's ah like a very real conversation that you and I have had a lot of times is like you you do encounter a lot of colorism and and whatnot through from both communities, right? Yes. Let me tell you, I appreciate you for that. I was still on the joke of which half of the month do I pick? Oh, I'm sorry. I got real deep. but I got dark and deep real quick. I thought I chose the dark half.
00:02:55
Speaker
yeah ah You know, for people's knowledge, like my dad is not very dark. And of course, my mother is white. And that's why I, you know, you can't do anything about genetics, but that's why I look like but Right. Yeah. Well, oh, my gosh. So we like got started off. We. Yeah. We got started off real strong, real quick.
Introduction to Camille's Expertise
00:03:17
Speaker
ah Welcome back to Homophonic, everyone. I am joined by my dear friend Camille Adams. This is going to be a different kind of episode. I know that we you know, we love. Yep. Tap it. Tap it. Tap it. We love that. You know, obviously we love pop music. We love pop culture. I'm sure that we will throw in lots of pop culture and pop music references throughout this episode. But Camille is a dietician.
00:03:39
Speaker
And I worked with Camille at my current employer is still, her previous employer. We worked together um on several projects together. um And I thought it would be really cool to not only bring you on, because obviously I love you and adore you. And and we just have such a great bond. But oh, look at that. we just we just say For those that can't see, because it's not a ah visual medium necessarily, but we just had hearts. Yeah, we just had hearts flying. green Yeah, we love that. But um Camille is a registered dietician. And being that it is kind of the new year, people on my Instagram often ask me, like, how did you get your body? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, things like that. And you know what? I appreciate. I appreciate the your body's great. Thank you. And so is yours. Thank you.
00:04:30
Speaker
and i I appreciate like you know all of the like nice words, but the reality is is that like I am not a health professional. I work in a health and wellness facility, um which will not be named on this show. We're not giving them any more coins.
00:04:47
Speaker
We're not giving them the coins, but we, you know, I, I work in their marketing department. So it's like, I am familiar. I'm surrounded with health and wellness professionals, but like I myself, I'm not one before i just health and wellness, adjacent, adjacent. Exactly. Exactly.
Community Nutrition Commitment
00:05:04
Speaker
And, um So I just want to have you on to kind of just talk a little bit about the diet nutrition aspect of it, because I just feel like I don't know, I just feel like using my platform, I think it's important to bring on like subject matter experts in those fields. And instead of like hearing what I did, and then trying to follow that, like maybe having someone like you who is just
00:05:29
Speaker
And let me tell you guys, Camille, you are like truly every time I've just watched you in a presentation or filmed one of your presentations, you' like you are just so enigmatic. Like you make all of this sound so interesting and fun. Yay. So like, yeah, I don't even know where you'd like to begin, but like,
00:05:51
Speaker
Yeah. Well, first of all, thanks for having me. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. I'll give a little bit of an intro about myself, but I think it's a great time of year for those who are listening currently. It's January. New year, new me. I actually don't believe that it's new year, new me. You're the same person, but we can always continue to make changes. And hopefully the changes don't stay in January. Hopefully they go throughout the year. Right.
00:06:19
Speaker
um so Yes, I'm a registered dietician. I specialize in community nutrition. Dieticians can do a lot of things. I remember when I wanted to go into this profession in college, I had a lot of people asking me, what are you going to do for your job? and I was, as I am, an honest person. and I remember saying to them, I don't really know, but everybody eats. I've never heard anything more true.
00:06:44
Speaker
And it has rang true because I booked him busy. Literally. Everyone eats, but not everyone eats, but everyone eats. Not everyone devours, but everyone can eat. And there's a lot of people who serve.
00:06:59
Speaker
And I was a waiter at one point, so I was serving and eating. Let's ah it's a at let's celebrate that. But anyway.
Barriers to Healthy Eating
00:07:09
Speaker
So I specialize in community nutrition for a lot of different reasons, but I feel like ah the the core of why I like to go out into the community is that we cannot keep nutrition education within the walls of a hospital.
00:07:26
Speaker
especially if people are not ready to hear about it. You know, if you're a patient, if you are in there post-surgery, it's just not always the best time. I don't feel dieticians are utilized the best in the hospital. And honestly, nutrition is prevention. It's the base of medicine. And we have to be out talking about it, out and proud.
00:07:46
Speaker
Out and proud. Out and proud. Out and proud nutrition for gays. Out and proud. Which we need it. We need it. Yeah. um But yeah so I just I love doing anything in the community and I and I absolutely love I was a musical theater kid so anything in media um I absolutely love as well but to me of course Camille the performer enjoys it but I feel I'm also getting back to the honestly the root and the purpose of my place in this world is to inspire a healthier community. So I love doing things like this in my current job. I work for a very large health system and I'm building a culinary medicine program for them. I love to cook and show people that healthy food can be good. It can taste good. ah You just got to season it up a little bit.
00:08:35
Speaker
season. We love to season. Love the season. Zach's a great chef as well. Oh my gosh, you are too kind. That is not true. I try. I try. But Camille, so the one of the ways that you and I kind of bonded is that I had kind of reached out to you for some of your dietetic services when you were when we work together because i one of the struggles that I have is that I so live in such a tiny apartment. You guys literally see the kitchen behind me. Well, you don't because this is an audio. and you hear You hear the kitchen. You hear you hear it. No, but i have my kitchen is behind me. On the other side of me is my bed. like I live in a tiny little studio and that's my apartment.
00:09:16
Speaker
And the issue that I run into is that just there's just not a lot of space. like I don't have space to have all these different you know cooking utensils and and things like that. So I'm very limited, and that's why I reached out to you. And you have been so kind to like kind of give me some really amazing recipes and show me how to really simplify and still make really delicious, healthy, nutrient-dense foods.
00:09:41
Speaker
um and And you've cooked me for, for me plenty of times, which has also just been a godsend. Like, Oh, thank you. Thank you so much. Well, I, you know, I just love you so much. And cookies away, I show love. And honestly, I tell people like, so many people are ah There's so many layers, let me back up, there's so many layers of possibly why people are not eating healthy. Cultural norms, do they have access to the education? Are there healthy people around them? We really, in the general public here in America, are fed terrible food and we're given misinformation when it comes to nutrition because large supplement companies want to make money and large diet companies, they want to sell you a dream.
00:10:24
Speaker
And so it's it's really leaving people out with absolutely nothing. And one of those many layers that people have come and shared with me about healthy eating is they're afraid that they won't love the food or that their family or the people that they're cooking for, their children, their grandparents, their parents won't like the food. And food is central to everyone yeah globally.
00:10:48
Speaker
And so that's why it's really important to me that I get people back to cooking. You can cook with limited equipment, with a lot of equipment, and it and it's because you know exactly what's going into your food. It brings people together. And so I say you could still have those wonderful feelings.
00:11:06
Speaker
we can just change the ingredients a little bit so that not only are you feeling good in the moment, you're all laughing and cooking and eating together, but it also feels good that you could relish and I'm adding to my health. I'm adding to my longevity. And so that's why I really encourage people to cook.
Community Engagement in Benton Harbor
00:11:24
Speaker
Zach was an amazing client. He was very easy to work with. Let me tell you.
00:11:28
Speaker
it was open to the changes but yeah everyone every client i don't want to say gives resistant they share with me things that they perceive as barriers in their life and it's important that i look at it from a ah ah eagle eye perspective and say i know you see this as a barrier but when i see the bigger picture This is my opinion on how this doesn't have to be a barrier anymore. And I applaud you for being open to listening to me. And I'm i'm glad that you have ah seen results and in some way, but you're already very dedicated to your health, which helps quite a bit.
00:12:07
Speaker
Absolutely. Well, thank you so much. I mean, honestly, it was truly just eye opening, hearing you and everything that you've kind of presented to me. You know, i also, if people are aware, like I somehow just managed to like, what's the word I want to use? Like I'm i'm a magnet to dietitians, apparently, because i yeah you are a dietitian. My friend Jeff is a dietitian. My friend Kyle is a dietitian. My friend Kara is a dietitian. You just met an old friend of mine from high school. Whitney, shout out to Whitney.
00:12:37
Speaker
shout i love Whitney hey girl. I hired her actually as a dietician on my staff and I just added her on Facebook and I saw that Zach was a mutual friend. I said, oh, you know her? Long story short for people who are listening, I work in a city that Zach is from.
00:12:55
Speaker
I do a city around an hour away. Yeah, Benton Harbor, Michigan, which someone today, this is so funny, it's someone today on my Instagram was like, Benton Harbor is not really a small city. It's 45 minutes from Chicago. And I was like, first of all, it's like 90 minutes from Chicago. And second of all, if you go to Benton Harbor, Michigan, sure, is it like a population of 100 in the middle of a cornfield? No, but it is very tiny.
00:13:23
Speaker
And it is surrounded by even smaller cities in the middle of cornfields. I, you know, I've been working in this community um since about ah September. And first of all, I love it, love it, love it. It is Benton Harbor specifically is a predominantly black community. And so yeah it It feels great, of course, for me culturally to be back there. But I mean, the community has just embraced me. And it's difficult. It's very difficult to come in, especially to somewhere that that I don't know. I try to take a very humble approach in saying before I can put out any nutrition information, I must learn.
00:14:02
Speaker
And we must ask. I think this is something that a lot of dieticians struggle with is we have so much passion for nutrition and we want to throw it up and vomit it all out because we can see the bigger vision. But you have to ask what the community wants. And the community's been receptive and they've been vocal. And and and I absolutely love it. And I feel so embraced, but it is small. Everyone knows each other. Everyone someone who was a great grandmother in one of my high blood pressure culinary medicine programs to a child who's in middle school at one of my youth programs later in that day.
00:14:42
Speaker
Wow. Oh my gosh. Yeah, truly a small community tight knit community, which everyone knows one another. Part of me feels like when you think of that holistically, though, like, wow, I have I have a ah matriarch of the family over here. And then I also have I also also have a matriarch of the family over here.
00:15:02
Speaker
And then I also have ah one of the youngest members of the same family. And they both have this the same mission, even though I'm touching and inspiring them in different ways. ah it's It's really beautiful to see, because it will carry on. It's like you're leaving the lasting impression that will carry on throughout the generation.
00:15:22
Speaker
That is incredible. And one of the things that I admire about you so much Camille is how much you love people and how much you do. You love it. Like you guys, whenever I hang out with Camille, we we love to go on walks together. we She will say hello to every single person. You smile, you go and pet their dogs. Well, you ask if you can pet their dogs. I do. um You do ask. You do ask. um ken Consent is important. Consent is important.
00:15:49
Speaker
be i mean yep
00:15:53
Speaker
And it's but no truly like you love people you love getting to know people and I think that you you always see like you want to help people essentially you are you and you're so passionate about human beings you're passionate about um Obviously, the LGBTQ community, you're obviously passionate about um you know communities of color. You're passionate about just everyone. and and I love that. and I love that you're so you know you're trying to so find the best possible version of people within themselves. and Then you're passionate with health and wellness too. like it just like
00:16:30
Speaker
all just It just all flows together so beautifully. And you just make everyone that you encounter feel at ease. And ah it's just amazing. It's so good. Baby cry. Thank you. But no, you're right. I like i don't know how to describe it. i i I just said to somebody the other day, if I could meet every single person on this earth, I would. like When I look at somebody, I just see,
00:16:59
Speaker
love, I see them. I see... Now don't get me wrong, y'all, I am drama. like It's never like I've never had a problem with somebody. There are some people who really make me mad, but usually not first. Right, right. And so that's why I love nutrition and patient care. Before I was a dietitian, I always knew I wanted to help people. Zach knows a lot about my childhood and my life, and I've gone through a lot of very, very difficult things.
Nutrition's Role in Health
00:17:24
Speaker
um But I wouldn't change them because it does let me have that urge to help people um and love them.
00:17:35
Speaker
And don't have i I'm going to be honest, I don't have a lot of bias or judgment because people could very easily judge me for the things that I have gone through. um And so once I figured out that nutrition can help people and not to toot my own horn because we need every profession.
00:17:54
Speaker
in the healthcare field, but nutrition is the base. A lot of these medications, other than you know the anesthesia, insulin, right there are so many medications that are important, and I'm i'm with my partner as a doctor, so I don't want to speak too right right bad.
00:18:08
Speaker
but But a lot of, ah specifically chronic disease, high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, all these things, the healthcare system is acting retroactively.
00:18:21
Speaker
We need to be proactive and that's what nutrition can do. And so not only do I feel in my heart, I want to to help people and and see them for who they are and love them and give them a hug. I feel I can truly in a way cure them. It is so powerful. And it's so powerful. Sometimes everyone's health conditions are different. It's not like just because you start eating fruits and vegetables, you're going to be cured, right? There are things that we can't. There are things with cancer we can't do anything about with, you know, if you're on dialysis. So so there so there are things I know that I can't cure, but when I think of one in two Americans have high blood pressure, which is a silent killer. When I think of um almost,
00:19:03
Speaker
well, the obesity ah rates actually have gone down. Oh wow, that's amazing. Yes, in the in the first time for 2024 and the first time, and I don't know how many years obesity rate has gone down, but it's still in the 40% of Americans are obese. When I think of one, ah I think it's maybe one in three people have type two diabetes, or that could be
Dietitians vs. Nutritionists Explained
00:19:23
Speaker
wrong. But when I think of these things, I'm like, I can really help people. I can really, really help people with nutrition. And I want more dieticians who are passionate about getting out in the community and helping people.
00:19:37
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And even when it comes down to maybe something that's not so like, maybe medicinal is not the right word. But like, how many people do you hear about um talking about like, Oh, like, abs are quote unquote made in the kitchen, right? Like, Oh, we got a thumbs up that our our computers are they're giving us thumbs up. They're giving us hearts. We're gonna get reactions. I don't know is is the AI is real. AI is real. I use chat GPT this morning.
00:20:05
Speaker
let's celebrate that. Let's celebrate that sip sip it. But um, but I mean, but what I guess what I'm trying to say is that like, you know, nutrition is is so important to just everyone's daily life. And I think that we just don't give that enough. One thing I want to ask you, I don't know if you're comfortable kind of talking about this or not. But like, I think the biggest thing that I come across is like, when I talk about you or my friend, Jeff, or my friend Caro, whomever, people don't really know the difference between a registered dietician and a nutritionist. I know that these terms can kind of get mixed up and obviously we live in America and so like i I'm the unsure about these terms outside of America and if they mean anything different, but in America they mean something different. Are you comfortable kind of talking about the difference between the two?
00:20:47
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And i can I don't know everything about international, but I have a few international dietician connections, so I can kind of speak on what that means from a global level too. But yes, here in America, so a registered dietician, I always tell people to think of a registered nurse.
00:21:04
Speaker
right? How you have to go to school. And when you have a licensure or a registration by your professional name, that means that you have a higher board holding you ethically accountable for what you're doing. Same as like a CPA.
00:21:23
Speaker
okay Same as like, you know you know, anything where there's a higher board that is saying these are the ethics and these are the standards that we require you to have. And you know, money goes into that in examination. So to be a dietitian, actually now you need to have an undergraduate degree. You need to do a dietitic internship, which is very similar to um teachers, actually how they do a postgraduate internship if there are any teachers listening. Shout out. Love y'all.
00:21:50
Speaker
Yeah, hey. I wish I could give y'all all the money. yeah But I need the money. yeah and but so And then now dietitians are required to have masters. And so a nutritionist is a more blanket term, even though now we're called RDN, registered dietitian nutritionist, I think to help people realize, because sometimes for a long time people didn't know what a dietitian was. so if you So people recognize nutritionist as somebody who specializes in nutrition.
00:22:22
Speaker
But here in America, for our health system, nutritionists, you cannot work clinically. You cannot work clinically. So that's just the biggest difference. There are a lot of programs where people can be nutritionists. I have friends who are nutritionists, and they're very competent in nutrition education. It's just the clinical part that I do not believe that they are necessarily taught.
00:22:46
Speaker
so um Again, just just being able, and and insurance does the same thing. you know If you want to be covered by insurance, you have to be a dietician because we're giving clinical um advice. And so that's the biggest difference in America. It's usually difference in schooling and scope of practice. Internationally, though,
00:23:06
Speaker
um Sometimes nutritionists are doing the roles of dieticians in their hospital setting. Yeah, so I believe that that term internationally they is much larger than what it is here in America because, you know, everyone's health system by country is different. um But I know a lot when those people will come to the U.S. to work, they'll say, oh, I basically have to like re-enroll in school.
00:23:31
Speaker
um Wow. Yeah, even though I was functioning basically like we are here as dieticians, you know, for here in America, I have to redo and and go to their schooling. um But it's so funny because in America, dieticians do a lot of ah chronic disease management. That's our main focus. Whereas internationally, we do something totally different. We usually is looking at deficiencies. So people, yeah, so people who are not getting enough nutrients and and minerals for whatever reason. So it's very interesting the differences in scope of practice.
00:24:07
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, my gosh. this ah To me, this is so fascinating. And I think just because I think, you know, to to kind of a quick backstory, I don't know if many people know this ah as far as my followers or listeners go.
Personal Nutrition Journey
00:24:19
Speaker
But I long story short, ah decided to take it upon myself back in 2019 and met with my friend Cara, who is a dietician, because I had ah gotten health insurance for the first time in God knows how long it was like first time in like over a decade. And I went and got a physical and my primary care provider said that my cholesterol was a bit high. And at the time I was about 33 and she was like, you know, it's nothing to necessarily worry about now. But she was like, real talk, you're not getting any younger. So she was like, the more that you can manage this now, the easier you will, easier time you will have down the road. And I took that to heart and met with my friend Kara, who just kind of helped me kind of
00:25:00
Speaker
start my journey of like weight loss and like actually kept it off. And so that's why to me like working with dieticians and learning about food and learning about you know trying to how do I say this like unlearn all of these like myths and things that we're kind of taught as you kind of mentioned earlier you know we grow up in the society where we have a lot of health ah professionals that kind of feed us kind of misinformation about supplements or different types of diets or different you know labeling food as bad versus good, things like that.
00:25:39
Speaker
and ah Meeting with her and then meeting with Jeff and meeting with you and meeting with with my friend Kyle like it's all of you have helped me learn so much about food and diet and nutrition and like what and like the the science behind it and like I don't know it's just been so such a wonderful journey and I wish that it was stuff that I knew when I was young.
00:26:01
Speaker
because I probably would have saved myself a lot of ah you know grief from you know worrying about body dysmorphia and like all sorts of things. So I'm very, very appreciative of people like you and your profession and what you do. Well, thank you. And i you said so many things that I want to touch on. um ah First of all, a journey. Even if somebody buys five sessions with me, which is better than not, that's not covering much when you think about it. And that's not a way for me to make money. It's just that it's all a journey. Us as dieticians go through our own journey ourselves, even separate from everything that we learn of years and years and years ah of school. And and in you grow and change. I love how you said even though you met with four different people,
00:26:50
Speaker
The foundations of what you learned is the same, and it's reinforcing the same concept. We can all say it different ways. We can all find different ways to inspire you and connect with you, but it's the learning and the unlearning that is so, so, so important. um You know, something that you said that that I'd love to to touch on is how to know, especially with January here and people are a little bit focused on their health, is how do you know when you should meet with a dietitian? Yeah, I would love that.
00:27:17
Speaker
Yeah, so so so you shared something that's a great example. You go to your primary doctor and they say that you have um a biomarker of something that could be wrong. So for you, it's high cholesterol. um And she made a great point. ah Maybe you're not seeing symptoms of this now, but you should try to get a hold of it before you do, which is true.
00:27:40
Speaker
So, I mean, I think that people could see a dietician whenever, but here are some really key moments where you know you should see a dietician and things can be fixed with nutrition. One is high blood pressure. High blood pressure, people often ignore it because they don't feel symptoms. When you start We got that thumbs up. We want a thumbs down actually. we want a Thumbs down. Thumbs down. Thumbs down to that. Take it down. Take it down. um People often ah and sometimes primary providers because they're so rushed maybe are not talking about the gravity of it.
00:28:16
Speaker
Sure. Even though medication is an intervention it's not going to fix it.
Community Nutrition's Impact
00:28:21
Speaker
There are genetics involved but high blood pressure has a lot to do with activity and nutrition. So that's one of the first things that people get diagnosed with before and that if you fix that you can save yourself so much trouble in your 50s, 60s and 70s.
00:28:35
Speaker
and fixing your high blood pressure and all these other biomarkers I'm talking about will take you from living a good life up until your 50s to taking you to live a good quality life up until your 70s and 80s. I mean, seriously, when I worked in the hospital, I see people who are dying in their 70s. And then I see people who are dying in their 90s. And think about if you had that 20 years, right? That's a that's basically a lifetime, right? Like,
00:28:59
Speaker
That's incredible. That's a grandchild. That's a great grandchild. You know what I mean? Yeah. So high blood pressure, high cholesterol too, definitely. And it's honestly, those things are very easy fixes. That's why I said before they get deep and complicated, let's fix them. High cholesterol, high cholesterol can lead to clogging of the arteries. It's basically bound to have a heart attack if that's not something that's managed. And sometimes it is medication.
00:29:22
Speaker
But it's ah you can't forget the nutrition. The medication can never do what the nutrition will do, but sometimes you need a ah combined approach. Pre-diabetes, which thankfully this is starting to get recognized and covered by insurance. Because I have had countless clients tell me in the past, because my my insurance doesn't cover me seeing a dietitian with pre-diabetes, so I'm going to wait until it's full fledged type 2.
00:29:46
Speaker
and then I'll see you. And that's obviously a whole nother conversation about insurance that we do not need to get into in this part. Girl, oh my god, that, yes yeah. You're fine, though. Hey. Oh, girl.
00:30:00
Speaker
but pre-diabetes Okay, that is because I like to tell people when type 2 diabetes is diagnosed, even though you can make great strides with type 2 diabetes and get your A1C down and get your blood sugar controlled, we can never say that it is reversed.
00:30:16
Speaker
because of the damage that that is done to the cells by the time it gets to type two. Pre-diabetes, on the other hand, so if that A1C is higher than, well, technically now we don't want it higher than 5.7, but really six for your A1C or those high fasting blood sugars, um that is something we truly can reverse.
00:30:38
Speaker
truly, truly can reverse without that deep cellular damage. And we're starting to recognize prediabetes because we're realizing it doesn't go from normal to type 2 diabetes overnight. It takes years and years and years of insulin resistance, which means you are producing insulin, but your cells are not taking it up.
00:30:57
Speaker
because of the poor diet choices, but this has to happen for years until you're diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Obviously type 2 diabetes does go hand in hand with obesity, but I have seen people with normal BMIs who get this. So it really is nutrition choices, genetic risk,
00:31:16
Speaker
food environment, right, access to food, sometimes, and that's why I like working in community, nutrition, because all these things that I've presently said, all of these chronic diseases, when we see people with low nutritional security, they don't have access to fresh foods, you can almost guarantee that these diseases will come. And so sometimes it's not, and I try to tell dieticians, sometimes it's not that people don't want to eat healthy,
00:31:40
Speaker
Even if they want to, even if they're willing, do they have access to the food? Those are the questions we have to be asking. Those are the questions the primaries need to ask. Those are the questions that we need to put on our navigators, our social navigators in the doctor's offices. Because I can sit here and talk to someone about healthy eating all day. If there's no grocery store within miles of them, it doesn't matter. We need to get them in a different type of programming.
00:32:06
Speaker
Yeah, because sometimes the communities like maybe so the the communities that you serve, the communities that my ah place of work serves, like there are people who live in communities where like you just said, grocery stores are miles away and they don't have a car. And we live in Michigan. And so they have to either rely on public transportation, sometimes maybe it's a bicycle, sometimes it's walking. I know that I myself, I can speak at first hand experience. this is something This is also when Camille and I first bonded.
00:32:32
Speaker
that a lot of people don't know about me is that for 12 years, I went without a car in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The majority of that time was pre-Lift, pre-Uber days, and therefore, and public transportation in Grand Rapids was not as good as it is now. I would still argue that there's still improvements that need to be made. But I walked- Oh, and I walked two miles to work, two miles to school or two miles to the bus stop every single day would then have to walk two miles back. I did that every single day for 12 years. And it's like it sounds like I'm repeating some sort of like wives tale about, you know, like I walked two miles to work in the snow. I literally did. And I was also so broke at the time, broke college student working, you know, part time jobs here and there, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
00:33:24
Speaker
I could not afford new shoes. every i could Let me take that back. I could only afford new shoes once every couple of years. So basically, I had one pair of gym shoes and one pair of like boots that I could like you know kind of either dress up or down, and I would wear holes in the bottoms of these things. And you'd think, oh, I would get some new shoes. Nope, nope. Didn't have the money. So what would I do is I would duct tape the bottoms of my shoes.
00:33:49
Speaker
Do I get the bottoms of my boots? I would then wrap my feet in grocery bags, slip them into the boots and still continue to wear them and would walk through the snow, walk through the rain, walk through the heat in these things. And it sounds crazy, but when you go back to the access of it all, it's like there are people that, like and so then going to the grocery store was difficult for me. I didn't, at that time we didn't have, so Grand Rapids now has Bridge Street Market, um but we didn't have that at the time. We didn't have the food desert where that was. It was a food desert, yeah. So I had to plan meticulously, i and a shout out to my friend Gretchen, who is truly an angel on earth. She let me borrow her van every Monday.
00:34:34
Speaker
for like two or three years. And so on that Monday, I was able to go get my hair cut. I was able to go get, um oh my God, I'm gonna start getting emotional. um i could go get I could go grocery shopping and like and do all these things. I was not able to do that without that. And people didn't really understand that. There were there there were times when I would like you know be closing down the shop at work,
00:34:58
Speaker
we'd be getting out at 10 o'clock. I would ask friends, it would be, you know, we're in January, right? Like it would be 20 degrees outside, six inches of snow. I would ask friends, hey, do you mind if I get a ride home? And there would be times where people who would say, no, sorry, I'm busy. And now here's the thing, people don't owe me a ride, right? Like I was in my own situation. That's not the thing. But I just also, I just say that because people don't necessarily understand until they're in it.
00:35:24
Speaker
ah And I think that that's where you and I, we've had these backgrounds where we have been in the trenches. We have faced really difficult situations and really challenging times. And we, first of all, came out of those situations, right? let's So let's celebrate that. But then also like we appreciate life so in such a different way than others who may not have had to face those things. Right. And I'm not saying that you have to face these types of challenges in order to appreciate life, but it's just like it is different. It is very different. And so, yeah. So that's my long story about like access and and things like that. Well, thank thank you for sharing that. I mean, very powerful story, Zach. Here's the hard part about things like this is that
00:36:15
Speaker
People don't realize people are suffering yeah because people who are suffering don't share. And I don't blame them. Why would you want to sit in front of people? Let's take that same a conversation of you having to ask for a ride. It's much easier for you to say, oh, can I have a ride? Oh, no.
00:36:33
Speaker
then you having to then open up all your trauma because people have questions, which is also normal. Why don't you have a car? And it's so much easier for people who are suffering to just keep that in. But that is the problem.
00:36:48
Speaker
That's the problem is is is we don't know. But also that's why we have to do better as a healthcare system and bringing all these things back about meeting a dietitian and why I work in community nutrition. Community nutrition gives me the ability and the privilege to create equity.
00:37:07
Speaker
within these fields so that I have the the ability to ask about food access. If somebody doesn't have food access, I have the ability to put them in a program where we give them produce boxes every week. And if they don't have a car, we can deliver. All of my culinary medicine programs are free. We don't even have insurance because we know a lot of people in our community are either underinsured or or don't have it.
00:37:31
Speaker
um ah Sadly, our health systems are not like this. I work in health equity, which I know people politicize and and they say what they will about it. But I think every person, regardless of who you voted for, if they heard your story, their heart would feel for you. yeah And that's why stories are are important and food access is important and people don't realize, right? So let's go back to you're seeing your dietitian for high blood pressure, you're seeing your dietitian for high cholesterol.
00:38:00
Speaker
And the dietician is doing your intake, and they're doing your assessment, and they're saying you know all these things. I really want every health professional who's possibly listening out there to think that someone could have a story like Zach, and they're not sharing it. And they just go, oh, I'm sorry, I didn't have time to get to the grocery store to to to add that broccoli and cauliflower that you recommended me to add in every week. And that's sometimes the only thing that the patient will share with you.
00:38:27
Speaker
But we have to think about before we sit here and judge, why wouldn't they do that? Oh, they're just not ready. Oh, they're just spending their money elsewhere. People don't realize possibly why people aren't eating healthy in the first place. But we also see chronic disease throughout all incomes. I saw a wonderful graph one time that America is one of the only place that if you look at all incomes, you see um chronic health.
00:38:56
Speaker
issues. So rich people can have diabetes, poor people can have diabetes. And they're all for different reasons. One of the biggest reasons, of course, is lack of nutrition education. But when we look at low income, it's always usually food access.
00:39:13
Speaker
And so I really want people to think about things like these before you judge. People don't realize, for example, when you're in health care, you probably have enough money to have a car. I'm not saying everybody does. I'm not saying every single person does, but dieticians do, nurses do, doctors do. And so it's very difficult for them when they're given these counseling to to to even be able to stop and think about, could this be a possibility for this patient? Right. Yeah.
00:39:41
Speaker
but Sorry, these thumbs ups. Right. These screens mean thumbs up to no cars. like oh i mean Maybe sometimes. Part of me is like I love that you were walking. Right. Yeah. you'd thought you You would thought you wouldd have thought that I would have been in better shape at that time with all the walking that I did. but so you know so so It's so funny and and and all of these things are so important for people to think
Nutrition and Mental Health
00:40:05
Speaker
about. and ah One same thing I wanted to say,
00:40:08
Speaker
um is because we're talking a lot about physical health, mental health. Nutrition 100% plays into your mental health. Exercise or lack of plays into your mental health, and it's a synergistic relationship. If you have bad nutrition, bad things in your mental health can come. For example, I tell people when there's low serotonin, when we're depressed, our body craves more carbohydrates.
00:40:33
Speaker
that Interesting. That is something that we see constantly, right? And so let's think about if we have a diet that's high-processed food for whatever reason. Sure. That's just feeding into each other, into each other, into each other, and creating inflammation in the body and then creating more poor mental health outcomes. But um let's pretend the mental health is bad because of the situation.
00:40:56
Speaker
You got three kids at home, you have no car, you're trying your best, who knows what's going on in your personal life. That can affect how your body processes food. And so I tell people, one of the number one things I hear my clients say when they start eating better, I feel so much better. I'm sleeping better. And I say, this is why we do the nutrition.
00:41:18
Speaker
Sometimes I don't even want my clients to step on the scale because if they're too worried about their weight, they ignore the things that are so much more important than weight that are going on. You're improving your mental health, you're improving your sleep. Sleep will help you lose weight. yeah you know youre Your mental yes yeah rental hall you know mental health improving will also help your physical health.
00:41:39
Speaker
And I just want people to realize that it's a relationship. And that's another um motivating factor for when you think about the rest of your life. Do you want to have poor mental health the rest of your life? Of course not. And so we also have to discuss the factors that could be contributing.
00:41:57
Speaker
to that poor mental health, but I love that nutrition can also help strengthen that as well. And so if you're looking for something to motivate you in January, let's set the weight loss aside. Let's set the um whatever short-term goals that that are not going to play into longevity health. Let's think about mental health. Let's think about sleeping better. Let's think about all these things because if you get that in order, weight loss will come, honey.
00:42:21
Speaker
oh Oh, my God. And will it come? Let me tell you, like this is the thing that I that was like the toughest part to learn is that it's all about being sustainable. It's all about making these. It is a lifestyle change. It's these conscious decisions and it's challenging. It's not going to happen overnight. And I think that being real with yourself, being real with, you know,
00:42:42
Speaker
ah and And everyone's situation is different, right? Some people want to lose weight, some people want to gain weight, some people need to manage some of these ah different type of health things that they're going through. um But it's none of these things are going to happen overnight, and it's okay to take the time to learn. And you're gonna and I don't even want to say you make mistakes, right? Because like I don't ever want to do that.
00:43:03
Speaker
Yeah. But like I was going to say, like like if you happen to eat you know whatever, right because I don't want to label anything as good or bad, necessary or bad, I should say. like you know If you have a slice of cake, okay, you had a slice of cake. We don't need to spiral about it and be like, oh no, like my whole journey is over now. No, that's okay. I eat cake all the time. We love cake.
00:43:24
Speaker
yeah we We love a cookie, but it's you know it's managing, you know do I need three cookies every single day you know as snacks? No, like you know things like that. And i don't again, I don't wanna speak on you know what people should and shouldn't be doing, but it's- No, but you are letting go, and that's something that I had to too, ah you're you're having food freedom. You're letting go of those notions. I tell people all the time, it's better to let yourself have that slice of cake and then stop. you know Eat a protein ah focused, veggie focused meal beforehand so that you don't feel like you need need five pieces of cake. You can just enjoy the one. yeah But let yourself have it and then let go.
00:44:06
Speaker
right Don't feel guilty about it. The guilt is what spirals you into those binge eating patterns because you think, oh, I've ruined it anyway, so let me just keep ruining it. Your body will, other than like red dye, your body will use anything. I tell people a cake or brownie, it has eggs in it. It has oil in it. It has carbs in it. Your body will use those things.
00:44:27
Speaker
And I like, and you know instead of, because I want to start ending this with some tips, some general good for your health tips, one of the one of the things is is that um Instead of thinking of good or bad, think of food as is this how nutritionally dense is this food? And then you can plan your daily meals or the the rest of your activity for the day kind of around these things. We just got off the holidays. But I honestly am glad I enjoyed those things because you don't be because you don't get that time back.
00:45:04
Speaker
And so thinking about things as either maybe this is more nutritionally dense or less nutritionally dense, right? um A grain bowl with peas and beans and and chicken and vegetables and rice is a lot more nutritionally dense. Your body can do more with that than a bag of chips.
00:45:25
Speaker
But it doesn't mean, so we want those nutritionally dense foods 80% of the time, but those bags of chips are not going to kill you. If you eat them every day, that's a problem.
00:45:36
Speaker
But when you're eating like ah the nutritionally dense foods 80% of the time, the chips don't matter as much. You can have them occasionally and you don't have to worry about it because you're fueling your body with what it needs. It's usually when it you're not getting the the base of the things that you need, those plant-based foods that you need, and then you're filling it up with those nutritionally undense foods. But everything happens with each other.
00:45:59
Speaker
right All right, another tip I have is make smart goals.
Setting SMART Health Goals
00:46:05
Speaker
Zach knows about this. Yes, yes, yes, yes, speak on that. I hope a dietician who is watching, maybe it's Jeff, I hope so any dietician who's watching just applaud it to themselves because we live and breathe those smart goals, honey, but smart goals can be for anything. So obviously I'm here to talk about health, but I've used smart goals for my finances before, which I'd love for you to have someone on the podcast about that because your growth struggle.
00:46:28
Speaker
ah Right. Right. Exactly. I need help. I need help there. I need help there. I'm trying to invest, you know, whatever. um right well A SMART goal is an acronym that we use because it takes something from I want to lose weight, which is great, but just throwing that out there is not going to help you do anything. SMART goal stands for a specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time bound.
00:46:50
Speaker
So it's how much weight do you want to lose? Is it a realistic amount? Healthy weight loss is about half a pound to two pounds, so on average on one pound per week. That's a healthy amount so that your body won't go into fight or flight mode and you can continue to lose weight gradually. So if you want to lose 50 pounds in four months, that's not, you got to go back to the drawing board.
00:47:14
Speaker
You're not relevant. You're not going to keep it off. Time bound. How long do you want to give yourself to reach this goal? Specific. How much weight do you want to use? Measurable. How are you going to measure? Are you going to weigh yourself every week? If the numbers are are triggering, measure. Use measuring around your waist and your hips.
00:47:34
Speaker
so So, I tell people make your goals very specific and really dig deep into some self-reflection and think about, is this goal working for my budget? Is this goal working for my family size? Who do I need to support me in this goal? Is it my dietician? Is it my partner?
00:47:53
Speaker
right If you're trying to eat healthy, but that's not the that's not your household, you need to sit down and talk with your partner. We gotta get rid of these chips in here. We gotta get rid of these ah these cookies in the home. I will just sit here and eat them. We need to replace them. Let's sit down and grocery plan together. So I would say also make your goals smart.
00:48:13
Speaker
Hey, I love that. I think that that's so, so, so important because that's, again, I think that people, especially, you know, when it comes to discussions about health and wellness, that oftentimes it goes to like weight loss, right? And people will, yeah. and And so I think that, and people will try to do anything, they want to do it quickly. And that's the thing and that you just touched on. Cause that's what we've been told. That's what we've been told. You can lose 10 pounds in two weeks. Just because your body can, doesn't mean that's the right way.
00:48:43
Speaker
Right. And then what happens is that people will will not make any sort of lifestyle changes. They try to do these quick fad diets or quick, you know, exercise routine things that they're kind of being sold and whatnot. And then you stop them. And then what happens is that you gain that weight back. Sometimes it's even more. I know that I've been there. It usually is more. That's what people realize is because you put your body in a fight or flight state by losing it so quickly, so drastically.
00:49:12
Speaker
yeah It will retain more fat once you start going back to how you're eating. and Actually, new research shows that yo-yo dieting and yo-yo weight loss, which is what we were sold for generations, is terrible for your cardiac health, terrible for your heart health. We can just see so many ah issues with your heart health, so it is good to do it sustainably.
00:49:37
Speaker
Yeah, Camille, thank you so much for joining me on this episode today of homophonic everyone listening. Thank you so much for taking the time to listen. I know this is a different kind of subject matter, but I do that is something that is really important to me and really passionate about and something that you have made me feel so passionate about.
00:49:53
Speaker
And I just love that you took the time out of your day to come to this episode and enjoy me. We typically end every episode with a song that we don't talk about enough. I know that we didn't talk much about music today, but Camille, I was wondering if you have a song that we feel that we don't talk about enough.
00:50:12
Speaker
Yes, so I have a song that I have recently rediscovered, but I never remember like on this whole album, this is not necessarily maybe the star song. I could be wrong because you know much more niche music than I do, but a song that I love is It's Like That by Mariah Carey featuring Jermaine Dupree. Oh my God. Yes. And Fat Man Scoop. Let's go now, what?
00:50:38
Speaker
Well, maybe that's not what he wants to be called anymore. Oh, right. Well, all right. are not Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Rest in peace to this man, because I believe he passed away a few years ago. Yeah. Oh, he died. Oh, oh, oh.
00:50:53
Speaker
All right. No, but like, but in all seriousness, great choice. I do feel like because Mariah carries, it's like that. What's interesting about that song. It was the lead single from the emancipation of Mimi. And it was that was Mariah's comeback album. Right. Yeah. Obviously we belong together. That gold and obviously we belong together. The album is a huge success. The thing is, is that like, I feel like the average person doesn't really remember. It's like that that much.
00:51:22
Speaker
It's a banger. Banger. The production quality on it is so good. I love hearing something different. I mean, we all know the girl can belt. We all know Mariah has one of the best voices of all time. But I love like her getting kind of back to her roots. A party with Jermaine Dupree, of course, is great as well. I really hear that like Atlanta in there.
00:51:44
Speaker
I just think that it's a nice mix up. You know, when you listen to the whole album, she just has that that album, I think, in my opinion, was her trying to showcase everything, yeah everything about her. She's like, don't forget, just because I can sing doesn't mean I can't pop some flavor in there. Doesn't mean I can't do a ballad. Doesn't mean I can't do romance. Doesn't mean I can't do sexy. I think it's It's a great little switch up and I love that.
00:52:14
Speaker
du did it did yes like These chickens is ashen, I'm lotion. Hello, moisturization is important. EOS lotion.
00:52:27
Speaker
I love that so much. That's an excellent choice. And you know who's going to eat this up is Jeff. Oh, I love Mariah Carey. That is his favorite Mariah Carey album. He is. ah Yeah. he What we put together is is Jeff's favorite song of all time, I believe. If you were to put.
00:52:48
Speaker
Oh my gosh, and surprise everyone Camille can sing so well and that was like nothing. Like I've been in the room with her and she just, oh my God. One of these days. And and and Mariah Carey is also biracial and light looking just as I. Yeah, absolutely. He's a skinny queen. Skinny queen? Let's celebrate that. Let's celebrate that. um Excellent choice. Excellent choice. I'm proud of you. Oh my God, thank you. I thought about it for a week.
00:53:18
Speaker
ah Just everyone stressing out. I'm going to really quickly go with mine is is I don't know if you're going to know this song. I was recently ah thrown back to this one, my friend Jesse, we recorded an episode, I believe his episodes coming out the episode before this one. So and this kind of works, works out really well. But he and I were texting the other day, and he brought back into my life the song. Look at us by Serena Paris. It's For all the times that we wrote down, look at us baby, look at us now. It's like this like silly little trancy pop song. and i listen who It's like Serena Paris.
00:53:58
Speaker
ah Yeah, because I heard the song, but I don't know if I'm familiar with the artist, the artiste. Right. And you know what? I don't think anyone's familiar. No no shade to this woman. She's a beautiful. Excellent. Excellent human being. But like, I don't think anyone is familiar with Serena Paris. They only know this song, most likely. And it's probably and it's one of those songs where people are like, you know, like, Oh, yeah, I know this song. But like, ah who sings? Like, who is this? So it's a cheesy little dance number. But it's so fun. And I was like, I remember actually hating it when it originally came out back in like 2001. And now it's like, it's just giving me so much nostalgia. And I was like, listening it to the other day. And I was like, Oh, let's give this a moment. Let's give we love you Miss Paris. But now yes. Oh,
00:54:42
Speaker
ah but
00:54:46
Speaker
no every No disrespect to French people because I was just there and y'all treated me actually very well, but it's a lot of throw. Okay, a lot of throw, which a lot of I have an experience in other ways. I can expand it.
00:55:00
Speaker
Yep. Yep. Let's celebrate that. Camille, I love you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for being on the show and everyone. Thank you so much for listening. And until next time, we'll just check you later. Have have a good one. Yeah. Have a great one, everyone. Happy January. Thank you, Zach. It was a pleasure. And I can't wait to see you because we're best friends and we see each other it's outside of the podcast. ah exactly Exactly. I can't wait. All right. Love you. Bye. I love you. Bye, everyone.