Transcript
Speaker: I think people should change their relationship with food. Get out of the mindset that everything in the grocery store, because it's in a gro it's healthy. Well, what does it mean to be like a healthy oil versus a bad oil or a healthy sugar versus a bad sugar? We're all so addicted.
Speaker: to some foods, falling into these many, many different fad diets. One thing after another, next week it'll be something else. At the end of the day, you need to eat to support you and your body and listen to your body, because we're not listening to our bodies anymore.
Speaker: Hello and welcome to the Regenerative Design Podcast. I'm your host, Mathieu Maheus, and each episode I interview leading authorities in regenerative practices. People who excel at doing well and doing good.
Speaker: So are you passionate about protecting our planet for future generations while thriving in business? Well, you're in the right place because this podcast is dedicated to making our world better and your business more successful.
Speaker: Hello, this is another episode of the Regenerative Design Podcast. And today we have another amazing guest. Today we have none other than Dr. Jessica Dupont, who is a naturopathic doctor. She's also a health strategist. She's an author. She's a public speaker. And she is, of course, also a mother. And she has also developed an online platform that is supporting other like -minded doctors to spread the knowledge.
Speaker: Well, Jessica, welcome to the show. How are you doing? Thank you so much for having me. I'm very excited to be here. I'm doing very well. Thank you. Looking forward to diving in and giving you as much information as I can and um' looking forward to this conversation because it's so wonderful how everybody's coming together to try everybody with the same common vision and goal, right? And the more people we can educate, the better.
Speaker: Yeah, I love that. I think that that's something really inspiring to me as well, the whole health space, because it's in my opinion, it's completely linked to if we do well for the planet, it also implies that we're doing well for our personal health. So I just want to take a few steps back here. Like where did all of this start? Because you do have a very impressive resume of all the things that you've already achieved. Like where did all of this start?
Speaker: Sure. So ah my entire life, I have always been sort of health focused. I wanted to help people. And so I was on this trajectory of going into Western medicine, right? I wanted to become either a family doctor or an obstetrician, delivering babies. That's sort of where my passion was.
Speaker: It wasn't until I got sick myself, like many people in my field, where we unfortunately get pushed through the medical system, right? We're told that feeling fatigued or feeling certain symptoms are normal, just go home and sleep or just do this. And we're not really ah taken seriously a lot of the time in our healthcare field. And I got sick and um I was put on 30 rounds of antibiotics in a matter of two years.
Speaker: well for something that I found out later on didn't even need antibiotics. There there wasn't even a ah growth of bacteria present, but because of my symptoms, they just put them on, put me on them just in case. And of course, as you know, with chronic antibiotic use, it wreaks havoc on your gut health and microbiome that leads to further disease and further issues. And so I think out of the 30 rounds of antibiotics, I only really needed them twice.
Speaker: And somebody said to me, they said, go see an atropath. And I had no idea what it was at the time. I was 20 years old. I was in university. I was alone. Right. I was just there. My family was in another city and I saw, I saw her and she completely changed my life, like, and my perspective on health and medicine.
Speaker: And she spent an hour with me. She did acupuncture. We worked on my nutrition. We cleansed my kidneys and my liver. We did so many different things. And within a month, I was absolutely symptom free. And I was dealing with these issues for almost five, six years. I was symptom free and I've never had symptoms since.
Speaker: So that was basically throughout your whole adolescence, like from puberty into into your adult life, you were struggling with your health. That's right. Yeah. I was getting like just chronic UTIs like um urinary tract infection after urinary tract infection, which we found out later was not actually urinary tract infections. And so.
Speaker: Um, she, she basically changed my perspective and really worked on the root cause and finding that root cause instead of putting bandaid solutions on things. And I fell in love with that form of medicine and I said, this is what I want to do. And I need to work on the preventative side because this is the only way people are going to heal.
Speaker: And so when I went into naturopathic medicine, you can't become an OB -GYN, like you can't become an obstetrician as a naturopath. And so I kind of naturally fell into pediatrics and so and becoming a doula. So I was a doula and what that means is I attend births and I help assist women during their labor and childbirth and provide care for them.
Speaker: And i so I loved that part of it. And then seeing pediatrics was just sort of evolving from that because they would have their babies, I would then see their babies as patients and etc, etc. And when I was in my fourth year of naturopathic college,
Speaker: um I had a lot of pediatric patients coming in with ADHD, peanut allergies, asthma, autism spectrum disorder. And it just seemed to me almost um unbelievable how much we were seeing it. You know, like when I was in school, there was one child along the spectrum. And because like I know how to recognize it now, I can actually pretty much guarantee that he was the only one along the spectrum in that entire school.
Speaker: And I don't remember any of my friends having peanut allergies. It wasn't a thing, right? And it wasn't a thing for our parents and our grandparents. And so I began to question why this was happening, why we were starting to see these trends. And I fell upon an article from Environmental Working Group where they looked at toxins in umbilical cords of newborn babies. And um what they found was that there was over 230 chemicals and heavy metals found in umbilical cords of newborns.
Speaker: and some chemicals of which haven't even been around for 30 years. So they they were saying that there's five generations worth of chemicals and heavy metals that stick around and are in our bodies. So not only are we subjected to you know, toxins in our environment today and in our lifetime, but now we're dealing with toxins from our parents, from our grandparents, right? And our bodies need to deal with all of that. That's that's amazing though. It basically accumulates over generations. That's something I didn't even know. It does. And our body does have the natural ability to detoxify for sure. But when it becomes overburdened with so many chemicals, which we know since the 1980s, chemicals have just been skyrocketing in our environment.
Speaker: ah The liver has become overburdened and can't really do its job effectively. We start seeing these disruptions in the detoxification pathway, disruptions in the microbiome, which I'm sure we'll get more into today. um But naturally, when i when I saw this, I said, well, how am I going to heal these kids, you know, if they're basically, for lack of a better word, screwed, their birth.
Speaker: Right? theyre like All of these heavy metals and toxins are linked to obesity, childhood leukemia, ADHD, autism. you know And I'm like, oh my god, now I need to kind of try to reverse all the damage that's been done. um So I naturally kind of then migrated into fertility because I thought, if I'm going to heal these kids and set them up for a better future, I need to start in the womb. right I need to start with the parents. And so now this is where my practice my practice actually focuses, is in um working with couples and egg health and sperm health to get toxins and heavy metals out before conception, right? Because it's it's all through pregnancy, even conception, all those chemicals sit there. So we do our best to try to get everything out, you know? And um my practice also does a lot of hormones because naturally that's that's a big part of fertility. And um with hormones comes this whole conversation about communication, right? Our hormones are all about how our body communicates
Speaker: and like with each other, how the brain communicates with the gut, how that communicates with our ovaries, etc. And um what I found out very quickly is the how our body actually fails to communicate, like it's very difficult for our body to communicate anymore. It's almost like everything is just so completely disconnected when it shouldn't be. And so um I started looking at you know, where are these chemicals coming from and the heavy metals and that's in our food. And then furthermore, where is our food getting it from and it's in the soil. Yeah. Let's talk a bit more about that because I know you spent quite a lot of time in in your research to look at the links of all the modern diseases, diseases that weren't around, let's say 100 years ago and the green revolution in agriculture. Give me ah an explanation of that.
Speaker: Right, so if you look at, when was it? In the 1880s, so eighty s so and early 90s, we started um not appreciating our soil anymore, right? We stopped soil rotation, cover cropping, and that led to top soil death, right? And then there was a food shortage, and we had to we had to start exporting food from other cities and countries in order to feed our people.
Speaker: And so this is where in the 1960s they introduced NPK fertilizers. This is your nitrogen phosphorus potassium. And this was what started the green revolution, right? And so um NPK fertilizer did turn the plants green, but what was lacking was the nutrients and the medicine in those plants that should have been in there to help ward off diseases and um and viruses and things like that.
Speaker: And so then what happened is we get these plants that where their immune systems completely drop. Now they're more prone to getting certain, ah you know, funguses and viruses and things like that. So the plants are getting attacked and attacked and attacked. And so in 1974, glyphosate was patented and introduced by Monsanto for agricultural weed control. And so um we started seeing this influx of disease begin in the 1980s.
Speaker: when And is it is it to say it was the cause? ah Can we prove that right now? No, but there's definitely this correlation that we're seeing, right? In 1992, glyphosate began to be used as a desiccant. And so so that accelerates drying and speeds ripening, et cetera. um And in the 1990s, we brought in pesticides and glyphosate to kill off microbes. So that, because obviously these plants for now um becoming resistant to certain bacteria. So now we had to bring in more pesticides to counteract that. And it just became this vicious cycle. And so what we started seeing is these influx ah or an epidemic of disease in the 1980s, where
Speaker: ah We started seeing more autoimmune conditions and neurological conditions so Alzheimer's and um autism and asthma, diabetes. Fertility problems as well. It's been like the last 30 years I think fertility has decreased drastically, right?
Speaker: it's It is tremendous how much fertility has changed. you know In the 1980s, we went from, I think, 2 % of couples using and in vitro fertilization, where then within the 10 -year span of time, it went to 25 % of couples. So you can imagine today how many are needing to go that route.
Speaker: and um The other thing, too, is we there was maybe one in 12 couples around that time that were were infertile or having issues conceiving. That was, again, in the 1980s. And then in the late 1990s, it was one in every six, right? So it doubled. It's very, very, very quickly doubled. And then we also saw, you know, in the 19s, I think in 1975, there were one in 5 ,000 children with autism. And then then it I think today it's a hundred it's one out of 36.
Speaker: right And so we're seeing this doubling time every few years. And if we continue to see that by the year 2035, if we don't change something and and and the autism um diagnoses sort of continue along that trend of doubling every few years, then by the year 2035, we're looking at one in three children being diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. That's absolutely astonishing to me. It's shocking.
Speaker: Right? And it just so happens that we started to see these most common chronic diseases all shift around the same time when glyphosate it was introduced. Right? So um so it's very unfortunate. um And we could talk about maybe how that's happening, like how glyphosate could be affecting and um our bodies and leading to these diseases.
Speaker: um which is all re it's all down to the microbiome and inflammation. right and so When we change the microbiome of the soil, then it changes the microbiome of us as humans because we're eating those plants that are now depleted in nutrients, depleted in medicine. They can't fight off disease. They're void of certain microbes that we depend on as human beings to fight off disease. We need that medicine as well.
Speaker: and so When we're in this chronic state of inflammation, which is caused by this dysbiosis. So dysbiosis is when there's an overgrowth of certain bacteria over other ones and it's just not aligned anymore with our system. um Then we get these pockets of inflammation. We get inflammation along the bowel, which are creating holes and then leaky gut. And this is all linked to.
Speaker: you know, diabetes. And we're seeing this in neurological conditions and reproductive conditions, all, um you know, Crohn's, colitis, food sensitivities are on the rise. It's insane. And so we're seeing more and more our research come out linking the gut microbiome and inflammation to all disease cancers as well. Right. So cancers,
Speaker: Oh, gosh, but what is it? The statistic on cancers has gone up 75 % since the introduction of glyphosate in the 1980s. And so again, again, I need to reiterate that there is no proof, right? You'll notice that many studies, and you have to see, of course, like where are these studies funded?
Speaker: yeah ah That's the one thing. but i have to We don't need necessarily to prove if there's correlations that clearly show. like I've even heard people say like, yeah, but 100 years ago, people didn't live that long and there were they would just die from cancer and it was never researched. But I think it's it's bullshit, honestly, because that it's just so obvious that like,
Speaker: I've been talking to like from early age kids with with cancer like it's it's common like like i think you did that exercise in in one of your speeches that i attended that he said like who do you know or who doesn't know somebody in their direct environment that has any type of diabetes cancer or and like 95 of the people raises their hands saying like they do know somebody. And even me, I just had a friend he's 30, like he's my age over 30. He just got diabetes out of the blue. And then another child two years old got diagnosed with blood cancer. Like it's it's just coming from all angles. And that was definitely not there 100 years ago, or more. That's right.
Speaker: That's right. And you know we could talk, ah like there's many factors involved too. Are we to say that all of this is to blame on chemicals in our environment? No. but Because the food system has also just gone completely. right like The amount of sugar and processing that we do to our foods is also wreaking havoc on our gut, on our microbiome, and increasing the risk of disease. And so it's all this compounding effect. right um And we need to get back to just what food actually is. Like, why is there a health food aisle in a grocery store? Like, if if there's a health food aisle, what is everything else? Right? And like, you know, why are there 20 ingredients in um like a bag of frozen french fries?
Speaker: Like, should it not just be potato? i'm I'm very confused here. And so, you know, you ask a child these days, you know, where their food comes from, and they say a grocery store, right? They have no idea that what it takes to actually plant a seed, grow their food, see the fruits of their labour, get their hands in the soil. And so,
Speaker: um I feel if we can get back to that and we could teach our children how to grow food, teach them what nutrition actually is, what food actually really is, then we could reverse a lot of those diseases. I truly believe, and if you look at sort of the way the trends are going in terms of longevity, um our kids will probably not live as long as we will. And their grandchildren will not live as long as they will. If we keep going the way we are, like our planet is is very sick.
Speaker: Yeah, I agree. I think the whole that's so and in my opinion that can also be seen basically like whatever is happening with our human health, which is ah under a lot of stress stress. We can see that also on ah on a global climate perspective that our climate is also in ah in a stress because I do believe that we are like a whole holistic system, our whole planet, and all the animals, the beings, we all basically are connected in that sense. And that, yeah, we have all these extreme weather patterns, like it's either too hot, or it's too rainy, or it's and and somebody told me at some point, like it's basically like ah we are having fever, like when we are sick, we also have fever, and the planet is is showing exactly the same thing, like the the all all of the extremes.
Speaker: So yeah I think what um we could continue to talk for another hour about what all of the problems are. But um I think that there will be way more value if we now continue to look at ah what are the solutions. Because in my opinion, the solutions are readily available. We just have to shift or pivot a lot of the things that we're doing. So let's let's talk about that from your perspective.
Speaker: What do you think are the solutions?
Speaker: So I feel like a lot of what I talk about, the first thing I say is um you know you could talk and talk and talk to people and tell them what they need to do and tell you know the government what they need to do. But if you're not, if they're still very disconnected from the reason,
Speaker: um and they're still just disconnected from nature as a whole, it's kind of going in one ear and out the other, right? So the first thing I always say is that we need to stop looking as nature as the enemy, right? Like stop looking at like microbes and fungus and viruses as an enemy, because we're always trying to like attack it, right? Because we look at it as like, they're trying to invade us, so we need to attack them. And that's why there's so many antibiotics and chemicals being sprayed on food, etc. So if we start to remember that,
Speaker: nature is um nurture, right? And we look at food as medicine, again, and our soil as medicine, then we could begin to sort of realign with who we are as a human being, our animals environment, environment like how much we disrespect animals in this on there on our planet is absolutely I can't even begin to, you know, you as you know, like mass -produced farming is just, it's it's cruel and and we're disconnected from it. and And that's also leading to global climate change. I think that's definitely one of the symptoms of of the the climate crisis that is also linked to the whole agricultural crisis or food production crisis that we are facing. so Well, that's it.
Speaker: Yeah. And a lot of people blame, you know, the vegans because, oh, look at how much water they're using to, to make soy and make corn and all this. And I'm like, you realize that they're, you know, 90 % of what we're planting, like the soy, the corn is feeding the livestock. It's not feeding us, right? Or it's not feeding a vegan person. It's feeding the livestock to feed then you know meat eaters and so and this isn't to say like you know we're against meat eaters and all of that it's more of like the way we farm and you know the respect that we need to have is needs to change
Speaker: Yeah, let's talk a bit more about that because I'm going to jump in here because I feel there's so much confusion around like what is a healthy diet? Some say like you should be vegan. Others are now claim that you should be purely on a meat based diet. There seems to be a lot of misconception and I'd love to hear from your perspective. What is actually the right answer to what is a healthy diet? Sure. And so, I mean, as you know, everybody's perspective on this is so different, right? So, um,
Speaker: When one diet is not right for everyone, but everybody is very individual. So for example, I might eat a plant based diet and thrive and feel amazing. And then somebody else might eat a plant based diet and not thrive and not feel good. And every diet can be healthy or unhealthy. You could be a healthy vegan, you could be an unhealthy vegan, you could be a healthy meat eater, you could be an unhealthy meat eater. And so what I always say is,
Speaker: primarily plant -based proteins. And if you have a little bit of animal proteins, it should be grass -fed, it should be organic, um you know hormone -free, and free range, all of that. um And you you know healthy fats are critical, and we also need to make sure we have healthy carbohydrates in in there as well. I do believe that grains and carbohydrates are healthy for us. I don't believe they are working against our guts um The only if you're if you can't handle grains, it's because your microbiome is is Disregulated not because the grains are causing the problem, right? We should be able to eat eat those things and feel completely fine
Speaker: And so for those who are saying, ah, the grains, they have, you know, this and this and this and then you should put in beans, you should be avoiding is a little bit absurd to me um that it sounds a little bit uneducated, to be honest. And, you know, those who say that you shouldn't eat fruit because of all the sugar, I'm just like, oh, my goodness, you know, like if if there's one more person that's sorry like just.
Speaker: you know, pumps up fruit fear. I'm going to probably lose my mind. But the way we process sugar and fruits is completely different from obviously the way you process sugar in like, you know, ah a muffin or a cupcake or something.
Speaker: And so I always say, you know, unprocessed grains as much as possible, whole foods, you know, direct from the ground as much as you can. Um, lots of fruits and vegetables. 50 % of our plate should always be fruit or vegetables. And then you have a 25%, you know, should be a healthy protein and 25 % of healthy carbohydrate. Um, but again, you have to listen to your body because there's nobody out there that is in perfect health right now.
Speaker: And, or to them what perfect health might be completely different from someone else. Um, but I know like if I eat a certain way, I feel optimal. I have energy. My hormones are aligned. You know, my iron goes up, but then, um, I have somebody in the same household that if they eat the same way, it's very different.
Speaker: And that's just because we're all made so differently. But I think we all have to get away from the processed food. We all need to get away from the you know refined sugar um and stick to more organic, plant -based, if you're having animal um products, grass -fed. And um yeah, so and you know Mediterranean diet is ah is wonderful. Having the wild fish in there as much as you can. The smaller the fish, the better to avoid high doses of mercury, of course.
Speaker: And so that's normally what I talk to my patients about with respect to the diet. oh yeah If they have trouble, we ah like especially when I know glyphosate is an issue, which we know is ah technically in everybody, um I think getting a soil -based probiotic and taking that for 30 days can really help with leaky gut. And there was a study actually done that showed it can reduce leaky gut by up to 42%. And soil -based probiotics are bacteria found in the soil, which generally contain bacteria strains from the bacillus family.
Speaker: So, um, these are commonly referred to as for forming probiotics. I don't know if you've seen those on the market. No, no, no. So mycelium is a part of, uh, mushrooms, right? Oh, yeah.
Speaker: So, but the spore forming probiotics will be in the bacillus family. So it is ah technically a bacteria. um So there are bacterial spores as well, not just fungal spores, but they are encapsulated with like a hard shell or what they call an endospor. And that makes them very stable and highly resistant to extreme conditions. So ah they're very resistant to kind of those stressors coming in.
Speaker: um And they're they're very good at distinguishing between good and bad bacteria and reducing dysbiosis. So that's one way that we as humans can start to, um because, you know, when we talk about the solution, there's things that we need to do in our own bodies, right? But then there's also things on an agricultural level that we need to change, as you know, with your regenerative framing.
Speaker: um So, as human beings, we talk about, okay, re like basically healing the gut, right? So, getting some good probiotics in there, reducing inflammation. There is L -glutamine and other wonderful amino acids that are really wonderful at helping close those gaps in the walls of the intestines and helping reduce inflammation.
Speaker: and then um changing up the diet and the food and getting toxins out as much as possible and then detoxification, right? So there's, there are some tests that you could do to see, you know, how good of a detoxifier are you, right? Like how, how healthy is your actual glutathione pathway? Your phase one liver detox or phase two liver detox, but nine times out of 10, I would say that not everyone is detoxing perfectly.
Speaker: And so if we can start to ah look at ways to get glyphosate out of the body, get the liver doing its job so that it can effectively eliminate these things, then you're already setting yourself up for a healthier lifestyle going forward, right? um So from a um sort of ah regenerating soil or restoring restoring soil health,
Speaker: You know, we look at biodynamic farming, right? So our goal needs to be re -nourishing the soils and rebuilding microbial diversity. And you'll even see that big pharmaceutical company or big um agricultural companies that are starting to invest in microbes. So there's a reason why. Which is a good thing. yes It is a good thing.
Speaker: But I also worry because these are the same companies that are, ah maybe they're realizing you know that they caused the problem in the first place. I'm not entirely sure, but I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing that they're investing in that. No, let's see how that turns out.
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Speaker: everything that you just explained to me it's like it all sounds music into my ears because I know that The diet that you've described, like being its for some people it can be more plant -based or mainly plant -based. Some others will have some fish, some meat. like The variety of of things that you mentioned, that is exactly what I think is the right way of producing food on a global scale. like Just creating ah a whole lot of biodiversity in the agricultural system,
Speaker: is good for our personal health and guess what how it turns out is that it's also good for our planet and it can actually save the do a the climate crisis that we are in. So that's that's for me the moment I started to realize that it was just mind -blowing because what's also been researched and shown and proven is that di yeah and that's why having what you said like having supplements of of the soil of a healthy soil and you actually eat healthy soil in in ah in that supplement is going to help you immensely because as as as it turns out is that
Speaker: the microorganisms that are beneficial to the plants and that create healthy plants are exactly the same ones that are in our personal gut and health. And probably that I'd love to hear your perspective, but I think that in earlier times we were just roaming around more into the wild. We were in contact with nature all the time.
Speaker: And that's how we got we stayed healthy, right? And we're continuously detoxifying. Because even in in a natural world, there's still toxins, not as much as we have today. So yeah, it it just all sounds like music to me. And that it all kind of falls into place and makes sense, right? That's it. That's it. You know, and this kind of comes back to this whole disconnection that we all have now, right from the earth. And You know, even farmers, a lot of farmers today, they're wearing gloves, they're wearing masks, they're wearing boots in the garden and, um you know, I'm hoping that's not because they're using chemicals, but it might be.
Speaker: no it's definitely I grew up on the farm on ah on the family farm and it was a common practice. like My dad used to spray on the fields and and you have the mask, gloves, the special ah area where they store all of it. It's not even that big where they store the chemicals. but it's just become and Because I've come from that farming background, I don't think there's any Position for anybody to start blaming farmers like look what you've done. You've created this chemical ah Industrial farming system because the one if if the farmers didn't change
Speaker: then they would have been out of business. Like if my father wouldn't have gone that direction of yeah big industrial chemical based agriculture, he would have been out of business. So there's nobody to blame in fact, but now that we do have the research and there's evidence of like how a healthy food system, a healthy general personal life can look like, I think it's really time to to change that for once and for all, yeah.
Speaker: Right. And it's going to take time, right? Like it's, I think it's going to take, you know, 50, 60 years before we could even probably decrease the amount of glyphosate in our soil in half, right? So it's going to take time for this to happen. Just by stopping to use, right? Because it takes so long to, the microorganisms can break down. They can speed up the process. That's right. They can speed up and break down glyphosate if certain microbes can do that.
Speaker: But it's in our water supply too, right? Like 75 % of our air and water supply is contaminated. So it's going to take time for all of that to come out, but we do our best. you know We shifted the more dynamic, regenerative farms, organic farming. A big part is education. Like you said, you're putting together educational course for farmers to start to take this on, how they can make it profitable for themselves. But a big part is that you know, at the end of the day, you know, ah these small family farms are competing with big industrial farms, and it's very difficult. And this is making their family farms die, right? Like the like, um we often see that children no longer want to take over their family farms, because they see how much they're struggling, right? And like, why would I want to do that if i if I'm going to be poor and struggle? And so the government also needs to step up and start
Speaker: um supporting smaller local farms, putting, you know, land in trusts that we can just, this is organic farming, no, you know, big agricultural companies can come in here and use this land and get these families supported, decreased taxes on, you know, the food that they're producing so that we can lower the cost of the consumer level. Because as we know, organic, um buying organic is a lot more expensive now. And so There needs, all this needs to happen. It needs to trickle down. for It needs to be a whole government shift as well. and And it takes time to do that, right? But we need to start with the people and they need to advocate. And I think we're starting to see that shift happen. You know, we're seeing schools now where the the children are getting their hands in the soil and planting and they're getting nutrition education, which is important. With my kids, wear no shoes in the garden. Wear bare feet.
Speaker: ends in the soil, and it's so important for those microbes to get on the skin, build their immune system, you know, they're breathing all that in. And um and I really do believe this is why they're so healthy, right? and um And I love that for them, and I love that they, like when they eat a cucumber that they planted and grew, oh my God, their faces, they're like, this is so great. You know, they eat kale, and they love the kale that they grow. Like how many children do you know love kale?
Speaker: Right? But when you grow it yourself, you just have such more of an appreciation for it. and And it's so much sweeter too. Like when it's organic and not full of chemicals, it's just like, Oh my God, like, you know, when you eat like a vegetable on your own garden, you're like, Oh my God. yeah and Right. For me, it was one of my earliest memories as a child, I was around three years old. And I said to my parents, I want a vegetable garden. Yeah, I started growing radishes. And I was so proud of like having the radishes. And we were eating them. I was like, it's just amazing. And I strongly believe, like you said that the this connection with food and nature, or let's say that food can be the most direct connection to nature that we can experience.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly, exactly. And we really need to get back to you know the no tilling, right, to prevent the breakdown of soil structure. um cover cropping and all of that right like we need to think about like carbon drawdown and did you know that research researchers are actually believe that if we can increase carbon so like the organic matter in global arc ahric agriculture soil by only 0 .4 % it can they'll say like global warming would stop if we could only increase it by 0 .4 %
Speaker: Yeah, there's like and for that the farmers that will be listening will know that 0 .4 % increase is is difficult to achieve, but it's definitely doable. Like if you if you have pressure or grassland, it increases in a couple of years. But I've also so see have seen a similar research showing that if half of the farmers would go to the regenerative practices that ah improve soil health,
Speaker: do all the practices that are good, reduce chemical intake drastically or eliminate it, that if we do if half of the farmers would do that, within seven years would be in pre -industrial revolution amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. So we could basically resolve climate change in seven years with only half of the farmers.
Speaker: yeah yeah it's yeah and That's directly linked to the carbon contact yeah content in soil. We used to think that the leftover plant material right is what's forming a lot of the soil carbon, but now there's strong evidence showing that it's actually formed primarily from the dead microbial bodies.
Speaker: in the soil, right? And so while plants are like the original source of carbon for soils, microbes control, I guess the fate of it by using it as food, right? So it ensures at least some of it will remain in the soil. um Like microbes are amazing. They could take a simple compound like sugar and transform it into thousands of complex molecules found in soils, right? So let's let's make it back to the to the gut health. what What evidence do you have about that, about microorganisms in the gut?
Speaker: Yeah. And so I don't have any sorry particular studies that I could think of like um on the fly, but I could definitely send you some afterwards. But we're starting to see now how much that the shift in the gut microbiome even slightly can have a dramatic effect on our health. right And so um what happens is even if like we were to, for example, have like a lower stomach acid level that causes certain microbes to grow more than other ones, and that will sort of um
Speaker: cause more inflammation and then lead to chronic disease. And so, and this happens, you know, and microbes are also very important for digesting our food. um it's They're important for our behavior our and our mood, right? So it affects us on a neurological level and emotional level as well. um They're highly linked to our hormones and how our hormones communicate. There's actually, even Mike, they've even heard of the estrobolome.
Speaker: Not directly, no. That sounds like Chinese to me. So the estrobolome, so think of like the microbiome but estrogen, okay? It's a collection of bacteria in the gut which are capable of metabolizing and modulating the body circulating estrogen. And so when we mess with that, right?
Speaker: um then it's going to affect our estrogen levels. And what are we starting to see on the rise more than ever today? All these estrogen and hormone -dominated diseases like prostate cancer, um uterine and breast cancers, we're starting to see in women PCOS and endometriosis, fibroids, many women getting hysterectomies because of a lot of these issues, fertility issues being driven because of this dominance in estrogen.
Speaker: and All these estrogen level fluctuations, even if it's not leading to say a disease or disorder, can impact your mood, your libido, your weight. you know we're seeing I've seen a lot of women in my practice who are like, you know i and I changed my diet and I cut calories and I'm exercising like crazy, but the weight in the midsection just won't go away. like I can't lose weight. right And then we start going into the gut. Like what is the gut actually doing? The gut is actually even important for detoxification, right? Like the microbes are essential to um to help with the detox pathway. And we know that glyphosate is actually can displace glycine. So glycine is an amino acid. And when it displaces glycine, that affects the detox pathways. Glycine is so important for our body to get rid of toxins and heavy metals.
Speaker: and so if Glycine is now displaced and it's not there because of glyphosate. Now we're seeing all these diseases linking to heavy metals and the impact of you know toxins.
Speaker: um so It's all related here and we know that glyphosate can even, it can indirectly cause you know microbes to stop communicating. It can directly kill microbes. It can you know just just make our plants void of nutrients. So there's direct and indirect ways that these chemicals can affect our microbiome. um But you have to remember, we as human beings are more bacterial than we are human.
Speaker: Right? like We have trillions. In terms of body weight, right? Well, we have trillions and trillions. We're made of bacteria, protozoa, of fungi. And so to look at it as an enemy is a bad thing. and But this is why we need to look at it as a friend and like these microbes as friends and make sure that they're healthy so that we can be healthy as human beings, so that our hormones can communicate and our and our nervous system can communicate and help us um process. Like there's so many people out there that just have tons of brain fog and they can't even string three words together, right? And or general depression or burnout. Oh gosh, it's just, you know, there's there's a lot of factors, of course, involved, but, um
Speaker: it's you know We have to look at at the gut. It's so important. What we eat basically will establish how we live our life and how we feel, how long we live. um You'll also notice that microbiomes change depending on where you live. right so like youre You in Belgium, your microbiome is it's going to have a very different set of bacteria than mine living in Canada.
Speaker: you know We're subjected to colder environments, so we need bacteria to help us you know resist to that. um in ah In India, you know the the foods that they grow there and the temperatures they have, their gut microbiome needs to be able to handle that as well. so Yeah, the spicy food. I guess some microbes don't like that spiciness. Well, that's it. and so You'll see too, like if you have friends that travel to India and they eat some of the spicy foods, they sometimes their gut can't handle that. right They're running to the washroom or there. And that's because the my our microbiomes are just different. And we can't expect our microbiome to change in a day. right But if you live in that but environment for long enough, your environment your microbiome should be able to evolve to protect you against what diseases are present in that environment, what plants are going to be eating in that environment. But it's so everything is so um kill a killing our microbiome right now.
Speaker: that were just we're we're we're getting disorders and disease because we can't fight anymore. Does that make sense? Yes, totally, yeah completely. I think you' you've beautifully summarized everything around how important it is to to like improve our gut health, like it's basically the start of everything. Now, before we start wrapping things up here, I'd love to still ask, like from your personal practice, when you advise people as a strategic ah nutritional advisor, or health advisor, what do you think is the most important thing that people can do to actually start their health journey?
Speaker: I think the first thing that people should do is change their relationship with food, right? And get out of the mindset that everything in the grocery store, because it's in a it's healthy, right? Get out of the mindset that a French fry in the, you know, through takeout, a drive -through is the same as, you know, baking French fries in your oven, right?
Speaker: um So a lot of the education comes around, well, what does it mean to be like a healthy oil versus a bad oil or a healthy sugar versus a bad sugar? um And changing those relationships with the food because we're also i so addicted.
Speaker: to some foods. right And we are, oh my gosh, like falling into these many, many different fad diets. And um you know now it's all about intermittent fasting. It's all about keto. It's all about carnivore diet. And and it's just one thing after another. Next week, it'll be something else. right And it's just like at the end of the day, you need to eat to support you and your body and listen to your body, because we're not listening to our bodies anymore. Nobody can sit here and tell me that after they eat a cupcake, they feel good.
Speaker: You cannot, right? um And if I ask them, you know, how do you feel when you have a lot of gluten? Because in our country, we process gluten a lot, right? Then we we can't really digest it, we get bloated, and people say, I'm okay. And then I start diving in and I go, okay, well, do you feel bloated often? Oh, yeah, I'm pretty bloated. But you know, that's normal. And I'm just like, but it's not normal to feel bloated every day. People are so used to normal as like, being tired,
Speaker: being bloated a little bit sometimes, burping and um general lethargy. like People think that's normal because it's so common. And I'm like, do you imagine how you can feel if you didn't eat that stuff? And then we we do sort of a trial of eliminating some of those, what I call, Franken foods. right We eliminate the processed oils and the processed sugars and all that stuff. We eliminate all that stuff out and get them eating whole foods again.
Speaker: And they come back to me in two weeks and they're like, Oh my God, like I'm more clear headed. I'm sleeping better. I have energy. My periods were amazing this month. You know, like you're getting just the feedback and I'm just like, that's great. And then they're thanking me and I'm going, you did the work, right? You you finally listened to your body. Right. And then they go, well, you know what? I cheated last weekend and I had, um, I had pizza from pizza pizza or whatever.
Speaker: And oh my God, was I ever tired? I had a headache. I just felt bloated. But before they never even realized they felt that way. Right. And so now they're like connecting to their bodies again. And they're going, Oh, they're realizing there are certain foods that nourish them and certain foods that don't and that don't feel good. And so I always start with just that education of like, listen to your body and get connected because your body is telling you something.
Speaker: right? There's a reason why you're in my sitting in my office is because you don't feel well. And your body's probably been telling you that for a long time. So what is it saying? What is it telling you? Right? Do you need do you need to drink more water? Right? Like are you dehydrated? Like sometimes it's as simple as that, you know, yeah and we just need to start listening again and becoming reconnected.
Speaker: Yeah, I think that's an amazing advice because that also boils down to like, is sugar bad? Not necessarily. It's how the sugar is produced, like if it's from a an orange that is full of vitamin C, go ahead and eat that sugar. It's good for you. but if that But if that orange has been produced in a chemical way and there's no vitamin C in it, then probably the the sugar is not good for you. That's it. It's really debunking. And I love this. that's what This was the purpose of of this podcast to show the world that we are debunking the myth of like meat is good for you or beans are bad for you. There's so much out there. like
Speaker: a lot of misinformation and it really boils down like how is it produced? Like that has it been done in a regenerative practice or in a regenerative way? Can you produce food in your own garden that you know there's no chemicals involved in it? Can you connect with a local farmer that you know he's he's doing it in the right way?
Speaker: And yeah even you can pay a premium price for for that because eventually it will save you a lot of money because I also read that supplement, the supplement industry is the fastest growing industry in the healthcare sector because people are eating unhealthy food and then they think like, okay, I'll just take some supplements and I'll be healthier. And it's like,
Speaker: you you can get rid of all of the supplements if you eat the right food. And it will save you so much money, like even in in in the US where you don't have a healthcare care system, if you can stay healthy way longer, you will not have cancer and and you will save a lot of money with that. So I think yeah that's a really important thing. And I could speak to a little about that bit of that too, because, um you know, we talked about gluten, you know, how it's very processed here.
Speaker: So like when I have wheat, I get a lot of brain fog, I get joint pain. So me to me, it's not even digestive, it's you know other things. But I can have an organic sourdough and it's fine. no yeah you know And so I get some people like, oh, I'm completely gluten free because oh my God, I feel so terrible when I have gluten. And I'm like, well, where are you getting it from? What bread are you eating? but kind of Where are you getting your flour from? right Have you tried organic? Have you tried? Because I have patients who cannot do gluten at all in Canada, but they go to Italy and they feel completely fine. They can eat all the pizza, all the bread, all the, you know, and it's completely fine. Right. And so. And it's actually proven that that Italy, because they have such a long history in food culture, that they didn't went through that whole green revolution that that much that actually like Italy has the highest
Speaker: quantity or or density of biodynamic farmers who still doing it in connection with nature. yeah So the way that they produce their their wheat, it might have gluten, but it's not necessarily bad for you or it's actually can be good for you even. Right, right. you right Exactly. And so I have a question for you actually. um ah So Germany was one of those countries that eliminated glyphosate, right? They did like a glyphosate ban um over the last couple of years, but recently they brought it back in.
Speaker: as like ah they they called it like a temporary lift on the ban for six months. Do you know why? Do you know what's going on there? I don't know the ins and outs of it, but I know that the European Union has decided to, ah well it was like to 2025, all European countries should get rid of glyphosate. So now they're actually seeing that they just put out, like it's basically saying to farmers like from in the next,
Speaker: one and a half years. but like Like I said, they've they've pushed farmers for over 60 years to become heavily industrialized, to fill their soil, yeah to to do all the things in in the way that is not good for for nature. And they've kind of become used to it. And then now, all of a sudden, the European Union is saying, okay, we want to have a green revolution, we want to have a green economy.
Speaker: So farmers from tomorrow, you need to have healthy soil and you have to have a regenerative farm and everything has to be fixed. And then like we're going to cut the away all of the subsidies. You will tax more on your on your diesel consumption. Like all of a sudden farmers in all across Europe and it's in different phases because like the European Union makes a decision and then it's up to the local authorities how they implement it. So it's kind of fluctuating. The Netherlands had a big farmer strike already three years ago because they started to make that shift sooner. But it was also like, okay, now you have to completely change it. So farmers went out on the streets, same thing in Germany a couple months ago. Now Belgium, like it's not in the news, but
Speaker: ah Brussels, the capital of Belgium and of the European Union, it's it's crazy. There's farmers striking there all the time. They're blocking the roads. It's it's it's crazy because the government, like all of a sudden we have to change it. yeah And it's may it may be good, but there's no like room for transition. They're leaving the farmers just... oh Yeah, and eating them that's it. There's no support on how how to actually do it what step by step process of how to make them um transition, right?
Speaker: Yes, ah wow exactly. And then also like all of the farms, literally all of the farms that are maybe not organic not maybe not the the organic farms in Europe, but that's only 5%, I'd say maybe 10, they've become addicted to glyphosate and not in an addicted way like a drug addict, but the whole farming system is ah all the machinery, all the investments, all of the the way it's been going,
Speaker: are adapted to that use of glyphosate. So if you you can't just get rid of glyphosate and expect all all of the things to work. We need more robotic systems. We need ah and a technical revolution. We need more different types of machinery. And all of these things are are starting to be developed, but we have to give farmers the room to actually make that shift. Yeah, 100%. I agree.
Speaker: Well, I think everybody's trying, right? We try to do our best and and it's ah people just need a plan. There needs to be a plan of what's the what's step one, right? And then what's step two and how much time are we giving for step one? But it's just to throw out, you know, do this. It's very difficult to actually get things done, right?
Speaker: Yes, exactly. And then it's really about getting the experts, people like you, people, I'm but i'm also in in the farming and part, helping a lot of farmers that have to like step up or or get the the the ability to support the the system to to change. And it's happening, it's inevitable. Yeah. I'm very hopeful for the future, honestly. Me too, me too. As long as it I feel like on your side of the world, things are going in the right direction. Here I'm a little...
Speaker: but But we're trying. I wouldn't say it's going in the right direction either, but ah it's it's work in progress. People know now. right like People are becoming more aware. I feel like there has been an awakening in people and people want answers now and they want alternatives and they they're questioning things, which is really good, right? And not just trusting the big players.
Speaker: No, I think so as well. and And that's the beauty of this thing. You can just listen to your own body and then this is actually the so solutions. Creating awareness ah around your personal health will actually benefit yourself, your family, the planet, everything. So I think it really boils down to every individual to start start that journey. So yeah, actually on that note, that I want to end our conversation here because I know you have a busy schedule.
Speaker: um I think this was so beautiful to bring everything together, like to show the world, like, okay, if we want to improve our planet, if we want to improve agriculture, we can also improve our personal health. It's like it it's it's a compounding and effect in the good direction. Yes. And that's how actually things can be speed up so fast that the change can be made faster than we can imagine. Absolutely. I think that ah going like going to people and talking to them about their health is going to make them more supportive of organic farming and regenerative farming. If they don't understand how it affects them directly, they're very just whatever, you know, like whatever, like they just don't care as much. But if you're like, Oh, but did you know that these chemicals are what's giving you your heart disease or leading to your depression or could be
Speaker: you know, do you not want to see that change and see and then they go and definitely to your to your children. That's a big part. Yeah, like people will not want maybe want to spend money on their personal health, but definitely for the children. So I encourage people to do that and also just go out to a a regenerative or organic farm, talk to the farmers, see how the product is being grown and how much effort and and love they put into it. So Yeah. Oh, I love what you're doing. And I think that that space that you're in is so beautiful and wonderful. And I can't wait to see what what you guys do over the next you know few years. And I'm excited to see your program come out as well for teaching other farmers. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate having this space to to talk and just educate more people. And I hope that you know people have questions. They can reach out. And I'm happy to to answer questions as well. so
Speaker: Yeah, perfect. Actually, ah that's my last question. How can people best connect with you, reach out, learn more about what you're doing? Right. So do you provide show notes as well? Yes. So I can provide links to and the best way to get a hold of me is probably through email or my Instagram. I actually am on my Instagram quite frequently and looking at messages. So if you provide those links, I have a website as well. And that has a contact page that'll go directly to my email. And that's the easiest way to connect for sure.
Speaker: Okay, perfect. Great. Yeah. Well, on that note, Dr. Jessica Dupont, thank you very much for clarifying everything around personal health. And thank you for being on the show. I think we'll definitely have you back so we can ah talk more about ah how we can actually save our health and how we can save the planet. Thank you so much. Take care. Bye bye.
