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Episode 18: Reality Called — The Real Reason Everyone’s Sick During “Cold and Flu Season"
44 Plays1 month ago
Is it really “cold and flu” season… or are sugar and stress the real culprits? In this episode, we break down how sugar, lack of sleep, stress, and nutrient gaps quietly suppress your immune system and how small, smart shifts can help keep you well this season.
We dive into:
- How sugar can turn off your immune system for hours
- The real “immune suppressors” hiding in plain sight
- Seasonal food and lifestyle tips to stay strong
- Simple “hard no’s” to protect your health
Links/Resources:
- Related Episode: Blood Sugar and Your Energy (Ep. 17)
- UK Government Food Labeling Regulations: https://www.gov.uk/food-labelling-and-packaging/food-and-drink-warnings
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38928929/
- Better choices for Halloween:
- Smart Sweets
- Yum Earth
- Unreal
- Homemade favourites? DM us @whatsmyageagain.podcast and we will send you ours!
Where to find us:
IG @whatsmyageagain.podcast Or email us at: wmaapod@gmail.com
Where to find Tanya:
IG @tlcholistic / FB @tlcholistic
Book with Tanya: https://tlcholistic.janeapp.com/locations/tlc-holistic
Join the TLC Community: https://www.patreon.com/tlcholistic
Where to find Kim:
IG @kimdesmarais.nutrition / FB @KimDesmarais
Book with Kim: Complimentary Connect Call
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to 'What's My Age Again'
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to What's My Age Again, the realest podcast for women who are done chasing trends and ready to feel empowered. Hi, I'm Kim. And I'm Tanya, holistic nutritionists and childhood best friends who've been there, done that, and bought the collagen.
00:00:16
Speaker
more than once. Each week we provide actionable steps that you can start today to help you thrive through every decade to come. We're cutting through the wellness noise to bring you honest conversations about aging, hormones, health, beauty, mindset, and everything in between.
00:00:33
Speaker
You see, we're also on a mission to age gracefully one WTF moment at a time.
Excitement About Today's Topic
00:00:39
Speaker
Backed by research and real life, we're here to share what actually works, what's a waste of time, and how to truly thrive through the messy, magical midlife transition.
00:00:49
Speaker
We're so happy you're here. Let's dive in. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. Thank you for being here with that with us again. And Kim, what's up? How are you?
00:01:02
Speaker
Hi, Tanya. I'm good. I'm excited for today's conversation. Kim, I am so excited for today's conversation. And I'm also like Tanya... tone it down because I get really passionate about this and I don't want to come from a place of everybody's like, well, that was rude. It's passion. No. And you know what? I feel the same way. It's well, we'll, we'll get into it.
00:01:27
Speaker
and it's a passionate It's a topic that's close to both of our hearts for sure. And it comes out of a space of compassion. But yeah if you know me, I'm a fiery Sag. So sometimes my compassion can come across as a little aggressive and it's all out of love. So here's the reason why.
Impact of Sugar and Stress During Holidays
00:01:45
Speaker
Today we want to talk about the, I'm air quoting Kim, cold and flu season, which is not cold and flu season, my loves.
00:01:56
Speaker
It is sugar and stress season. And we want to- love that you just added stress. It's so true. I always call it sugar season as well, because let's face it, next week is Halloween and it's the start of sugar season, Halloween, all of the, like then the holiday season and then, you know, New Year's, then Valentine's Day, then Easter, we could go on, but there is a reason for sugar from now until the end of time. So yes. Sorry I cut you off, Kenya. But I love that you added stress. It's so true.
00:02:31
Speaker
Thank you. And like, so cold and flu, no. Sugar and stress. And then sprinkle in there, you probably have a dozen birthdays because everybody seems to around this time. And your kids probably have a dozen birthday parties, some which they've probably already attended since school started.
00:02:49
Speaker
So it's a frigging sugar fest. And your kids might not necessarily be stressed. We're stressed because it is the holiday season and it's go and it's Thanksgiving and it's Halloween and it's family photos and have people over and Christmas drop-ins and cookie exchanges and over scheduling over scheduling.
00:03:10
Speaker
So, and something's really important here that we probably don't even realize during this season We will talk about how we can boost and love our immune systems, but we don't even realize that we're actually actively suppressing our immune systems through this season, which is making it even worse. And here's the passionate part for me, if I didn't already sound passionate.
00:03:38
Speaker
Everybody that I know right now, okay, not everybody, stop exaggerating, Tanya. Lots of people that I know, my friends and my family, they're sick. They were sick a week into school starting.
00:03:51
Speaker
And this is where the passion comes in because we can take so many steps together. to help just even activate and nourish our innate healing immune systems and not suppressing them going through this crazy, busy season.
00:04:09
Speaker
Oh yeah, exactly, Tanya. It's so funny. I had the same conversation with someone the other day because they were talking to me about how do I boost my immune system? What do I do? And I was absolutely, and we'll get into that in this podcast today too, hopefully if we have time.
00:04:24
Speaker
We'll talk about what Tanya and I do to help boost and support our immune system. But let's talk about the foundational piece, which is what Tanya all and I always go to, foundations.
00:04:36
Speaker
What are we doing? that is suppressing our immune system? Because that's step one. Let's eliminate those things first. And then we can get on to boosting and supporting. Absolutely. Remove the obstacles at the base level. And guess what, friends?
00:04:52
Speaker
The obstacle number one, actually both of them, surprise, surprise, are in the title, sugar and stress. So if we think about what sugar does to the immune system, which I think we should take a moment to discuss, Kim, it's actually mind-blowing.
00:05:10
Speaker
And can I tell you when I learned some of these facts way back in the day, it literally changed my life. And sometimes when I am indulging in things that I know I shouldn't be and that I don't normally do, I'm like, and I think I'm like, you just turned off your immune system.
00:05:27
Speaker
So I think we should explain why this keeps popping into my mind and traumatizing me. Absolutely. and Sugar suppresses our immune system, period, at the end of that sentence.
00:05:39
Speaker
That's exactly it. So one sugary snack, one cookie that I may have indulged in last week and thought about it, I was like looking at the clock, can literally actually suppress your immune system for up to five hours.
00:05:55
Speaker
And what do we mean? Like it can literally turn it off. Like turn it off for five hours. So that means your first line of defense is Those white blood cells. They're on a coffee break.
00:06:07
Speaker
but They're on a sugar high, actually. They're gone to party on a sugar high. They're not doing their job. and And so what that means is if you're exposed to viruses, your immune system isn't fighting them off.
00:06:20
Speaker
Exactly. So you have that sugary treat and whatever. You go out somewhere, you're with a bunch of people, and you're confident because you know you have a good immune system, or maybe you're not confident because you know you've got work on that.
00:06:33
Speaker
Little do you know, your immune system's off. So all those lines of defenses, they're not there for you. And what does that do? It obviously makes you a more hospitable host and it makes you more susceptible to any of those germs or viruses that you may be coming into contact with that normally- come into contact all the time. Exactly. All the time. And our immune system is so- wonderful and so smart. And we can get into that too in another podcast.
00:07:01
Speaker
We're contacting, we're coming into contact with bacteria, germs, all the things on a regular basis. And our immune system is fighting them off on a regular basis. We just don't know about it.
00:07:12
Speaker
Exactly. So there's the double-edged sword where we have a whole bunch of people, which we'll go into, well, i don't even think it's pretty obvious as human beings that we know that when summer ends,
00:07:25
Speaker
those beautiful slower days it feels of summer. It just is a more stressful time. Our plates increase in the amount of things we need to get done. So there we are turning off our immune system, which is one huge, obviously protecting force with the one thing that we seem to be consuming the most of during this time, sugar. So it's a vicious circle again. It's that hamster wheel.
00:07:49
Speaker
We often are more stressed and overloading ourselves and because of all of these holidays, we're stuffing our faces with sugar and it's making it even worse. A hundred percent.
00:08:01
Speaker
And I mean, for those of you who listened to our podcast last week on blood sugar, you know, what are we doing? We're putting our body on this roller coaster that we talked about last week, which also, you know, it's, it's, it's,
00:08:16
Speaker
of suppressing that immune system. Well, and even think about it. Think about our kids. I remember when my kids were little and, you know, somebody was like, oh, sugar high.
00:08:27
Speaker
Look at them now. We just, you know, they just finished their dessert and now they're running around. Like we literally see what's happening and they're on this sugar roller coaster. And then all of a sudden the drop and you see the tantrum. And so, you know, like,
00:08:43
Speaker
Go back and listen to that episode if you haven't already, but that's another piece of the puzzle. Yeah. Yeah. And by the way, um that sounds zero fun for me, which is another reason maybe why I chose not to have kids. That sounds absolutely terrible, but I have seen that and it's wild. We have the evidence right in front of our faces about that roller coaster.
Concerns About Artificial Ingredients
00:09:05
Speaker
And little do we know at that time too, like we're completely just shutting down, you know, immune health and the body's main defense system.
00:09:14
Speaker
100% and Tanya, we're not, and for all of you out here, out there, like we're not the no fun police. Absolutely not. You know, it's just what I found and what Tanya finds is that this time of year, it's the amount of sugar that we are consuming.
00:09:30
Speaker
The amount and the kinds, the types of sugar are key. You know, like it's a very big difference between um maple syrup and high fructose corn syrup or a white refined sugar, you know, and even a cane sugar an organic unrefined cane sugar. And it's, yeah, those two things together are crazy.
00:09:51
Speaker
um And this is where we come to a hard truth, but also like a beacon of like light for knowledge as well is that We see all these commercials now, ah you know, get take your vitamin C or have this tonic and here, support your immune system. But unfortunately, as you mentioned, Kim, there are no quick fixes even when it comes to boosting the immune system. You just said earlier, we have to look at the base level first.
00:10:22
Speaker
And the base level is... the amount of sugar that we're consuming during this time. However, i know that can be hard. And I know that can be hard, especially with children as well.
00:10:34
Speaker
I can't imagine you have kids going to school and they're going to parties and there's probably a lot of opportunity for a lot of sugar there, you know? And yeah, well, and Halloween's next week. So, you know, we're getting ready we're getting ready for that as well.
00:10:48
Speaker
um And yeah, I mean... You know, for all of you parents out there, one of the things that we do in our family for Halloween, my kids do enjoy the treats on Halloween.
00:11:03
Speaker
Not in excess, but they they have their fun. And then they get to you they get to choose a few candies to keep and to enjoy, but they don't need the entire bag of candy. So what we do in our family, it's called the switch, which I mean, now our kids, it's more of like an expression, but even Owen today, oh today we were talking for some reason, we were talking about sugar, probably because I'm doing this episode.
00:11:29
Speaker
And he was like, um I said something like, oh, well, you're going to have a ton of candy ah in a couple of weeks with with Halloween coming. And he goes, ah yeah, but I think I'm going to do what I do every year and I'll just sell it to you because I already know what I want to get.
00:11:44
Speaker
It is an expensive holiday in this in the Demaree family. But... But it is true that he, you know, so that is an idea for some families. Enjoy, have some of the candy, but maybe trade it in for a little present or something that the kids really want and been looking forward, you know, to getting.
00:12:02
Speaker
I agree. And I can attest to that too, actually. The last time I was um at your house, it was amazingly awesome. We were, I can't remember. we You were looking for something. We were looking, I don't know. something for a hot drink and you're like look at this look at this and from the top shelf in the corner of your kitchen kim's pulling out like candy from like valentine's day past like and halloween past and she's like i gotta get rid of this i gotta throw this out this these are the things that were the switch which probably when they actually thought of which was coming to switch which is
00:12:35
Speaker
And it was just so funny. And I think that this maybe can bring us to a discussion on some of our hard no's. So like Kim said, like, we're not saying like there's absolutely no treats. And especially when it comes to kids, like I can't imagine how difficult that balance is. But I think there's a difference between The types of things that we feel better having our children consume and consuming ourselves.
00:13:03
Speaker
And there are some hard no's for me. And Kim, you know, I'm pretty fluid when it comes to to balance. That's the kind of nutritionist and human that I am. But my balance is still within reason.
00:13:16
Speaker
My balance isn't going to be, I want a sweet treat out of the norm. Let me get a bag of Skittles. Absolutely not. So some of our hard season no's are the things that will suppress our immune system the most.
00:13:28
Speaker
And it's looking at the ingredients of your treats, which are so important and realizing the effect that they're going to have on your immune system and the rest of your body. And if I can start, one of my hard no's is high fructose corn syrup.
00:13:44
Speaker
That you will probably see in most of your Halloween candies and probably all the seasonal things when you go to HomeSense, shopping for gifts for people for Christmas.
00:13:55
Speaker
Turn them around. Like high fructose corn syrup is so damaging. um And don't get it twisted. Fructose, yeah, that's the sugar in fruit. Fruit is whole.
00:14:06
Speaker
Fruit also comes with all of the universal things that was packaged together, that it was made with the vitamins, the nutrients, the phytonutrients, the fiber. When you isolate fructose in a lab...
00:14:18
Speaker
and then added corn syrup to it, it is highly, highly damaging. We'll talk about liver. It completely overloads your liver because liver metabolizes fructose and it's not meant to have that much at a time. And it's like, whoa, don't know what to do with this.
00:14:34
Speaker
We talk about fat accumulation. And if you haven't listened to the blood sugar episode, go back and listen to it. When our store, Kim had the best analogy, our store and back of house are full, the liver,
00:14:48
Speaker
And the liver can't handle anything anymore. Excess glucose is stored as fat. It's inflammatory, major issues driving up insulin resistance, high blood sugar. So number one for me, that's a hard no in my sugary treats that I may choose to indulge in in this season.
00:15:07
Speaker
Good one, Tanya. And one of my hard no's is the artificial food coloring, which is really... And guys, I completely know what people are probably thinking in their in their brains right now. It is really hard to get away from that.
00:15:23
Speaker
I will give you an example. My son, we went to Bulk Barn one day because it was next to an appointment And the person suggested, oh, you should go to bulk barn after. so my son had it in his mind and I was like, okay.
00:15:35
Speaker
So we went and I was like, yeah, pick a candy. I looked, Tanya, down the aisle of candy. There were two options out of all, I don't know how many, maybe 25 bins. Yeah. I don't know how many are on each side, but out of all those bins, there were two options for him that did not have color in them.
00:15:57
Speaker
Like um artificial food colorings in them. So what I'm saying is I understand for all of you out there how difficult it is. Our government doesn't make it easy for us because it is not banned from our food.
00:16:09
Speaker
I will tell you, I'm just looking it up right now. Mm-hmm. One second. Okay. Government of UK, if you go to their website, they do ban artificial food colorings in their food. And in fact, if a company puts Allura Red, for example, or um yellow or Tardisine in their foods, they must have a warning label on it that says may have at may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children.
00:16:43
Speaker
like We know. If that's not clear, I don't know how much more clear it can be. I know. and And it's so sad because there are literally, if you go to PubMed, if any of you listening go to PubMed, which has which has got tons of research articles that have been um published on PubMed, take a look, put in the food coloring and look at what the research says and what studies have been done on attention in children.
00:17:11
Speaker
And so we know that it's not good. So anyways... I could go on a tangent about artificial food coloring, but that is a hard no for me. So when we get the the candy, we look through and we remove the stuff without artificial food coloring. And then they can choose to keep some of the other stuff or trade it with the Switch Witch.
00:17:29
Speaker
Kim, remember, I'm sorry, but I, how can I not bring this up? Remember in like high school when you worked at Bulkburn? I sure did. It was my first job. And then the amount of codes I couldn't.
00:17:42
Speaker
couldn't do it. I worked there for three months and then our lovely friend Tara Lynn stayed with there for a long time, but was like, couldn't And our lovely friend Tara Lynn would get so much candy. We would literally have garbage bags of candy.
00:18:01
Speaker
Like it was amazing. Not even exaggerating. And yeah, that probably explains a lot of things that I had to work through and fix in my healing journey. But Hey, what we didn't know, we didn't know.
00:18:12
Speaker
And yeah, hard no. That's a good one, Kim. Absolutely hard no for me as well as an adult human. And you know what we're going to do, guys, as we continue going down our hard no's in the show notes.
Engagement with Listeners and Corrections
00:18:23
Speaker
um And we promise we're going to put them in this time. Sorry for last week's glitch. We're learning. We're human. We fixed it though. So um Kim and i are going to list some of our favorite, you know, Halloween treats that are free of these ingredients that are better choices as well.
00:18:38
Speaker
So you've you know, have that there for you for sure. Um, another one, another big one, hydrogenated oils. I'm not going on a tangent because we went on one when we talked about our episode in what the O hydrogenated oils are the original what the O do not consume them.
00:18:55
Speaker
Go back and listen why, but it's an absolute hard. No, when I see that, um, same with anything artificial, artificial colors, you just touched about artificial flavors.
00:19:06
Speaker
Kim, there's no, again, our government is failing us. There's really no guidelines to where those can come from. And they don't have to list it. So who knows where artificial birthday cake icing flavor is coming from and what kind of chemicals are in there?
00:19:22
Speaker
I'm not willing to- And food companies are extremely, well, they've got teams of people researching, right?
00:19:33
Speaker
They know that flavor. They know the perfect crunch. They know what they're putting in there to make those foods highly addictive is the proper word to use yeah so that you're constantly going back for more and your body thinks that it's getting a nourishment or calorie.
00:19:46
Speaker
Anyways. We could go on. And it's a comfort factor too, though. I do want to go on for that for one second. Exactly. It's yeah addictive for that taste in your body thinking it's nourished and it's an instant hit of dopamine. And they do that on purpose. It's a feel good food. You want to sit down in front of the TV with that Mars bar because it's programmed to hit that dopamine. so and So one more actually before we kind of talk about how we can really love our immune system to end off the episode is TBHQ.
00:20:13
Speaker
tb h q Listen, I'm not going to say the full thing. Kim, if you want to try to say the words, God bless. yeah Those who know me know I butcher pronoununced pronunciations. But TPHQ is a preservative. It's a so synthetic preservative.
00:20:27
Speaker
And you know what it's a form of? Butane. Like the stuff that lights your fire and lighters. It is literally a form of butane. um I feel really passionate about this one because it makes me really angry because there's a lot of other things that can be used as preservatives.
00:20:42
Speaker
And this is in specific Halloween treats. Like, for example, I'm going to call you out. Reese's peanut butter cups. Absolutely not. Like, and it's in not for this episode per se, certain cereals.
00:20:52
Speaker
So please look out for TBHQ. It has been linked to vision disturbances, liver enlargement, childhood behavioral problems, and in animal studies, stomach cancer. So that's a no for me as well.
00:21:07
Speaker
So you have our hard... It's banned in other countries as well. It is. Thank you for mentioning that. It's banned in other countries. So you have our hard nose. We've already talked about sugar in general and really keeping you know your eye out on how how much you're consuming in this season, but...
00:21:23
Speaker
Let's end today on a positive note and talk about some of the things we can really do to nourish our immune systems and support them at this time.
Importance of Taking Breaks for Health
00:21:31
Speaker
Totally. And Tanya, can I just go back for one second? Please. Because we talked about suppressing the immune system.
00:21:38
Speaker
And just quickly, like we always talk about the foundational aspects, things that suppress your immune system during this time, lack of sleep, right? Absolutely. Sedentary lifestyle, no movement.
00:21:52
Speaker
We talked about sugar, but also nutrient deficiencies, right? Tanya and I love to talk about eating the rainbow, making sure that you know we're getting all of those nutrients, vitamins, minerals in our diet.
00:22:05
Speaker
Another big one is that low protein intake, right? Protein is literally the building blocks of our immune system. It builds our white blood cells.
00:22:15
Speaker
Right. right So we need to make sure that we're getting so low protein intake is suppressing your immune system. And that big one that Tanya said at the beginning, stress. and so So now I think, yes, like let's talk about a little bit about What can we focus on? How can we support our immune system during this stress and sugar season? For sure. And again, going through that, there's not a quick fix. Now you said this too, Kim, when we were chatting, like before we started recording and I love it. And I always think of it. You can't be eating candy for months on end and taking your immune supporting supplements and expect to have like this ravenous, beautiful immune system. We need to start at the foundations and absolutely nutraceuticals can be a part of it. But what do we focus on?
00:23:01
Speaker
I'm going to speak. to what I focused on to start because I'm somebody who did have every single cold and flu from, i used to get summer colds too. So let's just say year long, I just trickled in and out of colds and flus and viruses.
00:23:17
Speaker
And it was definitely um a combination of stress for me and my diet, sugar being a huge part of it, but others. So I'm going to tell you my number one thing for me and it's changed my life and it's new for me, Kim. It's literally within the last eight months.
00:23:32
Speaker
It's keeping breaks in my schedule. And you're like, people are probably like, that's how you're, you know, boosting your immune system. Absolutely. Because, This is the season where I used to overbook everything.
00:23:48
Speaker
Oh, you want to, let's do this get together. Let's do this. Oh, here's this holiday drop-in. Oh, I should feel like I should have a holiday drop-in. Oh, I should make everything from scratch. I should have seven different kinds of cookies for the holidays and this and that.
00:24:01
Speaker
No, no more. Keeping breaks in my schedule, even if they're five or 10 minute intervals, we honor that everybody has different responsibilities. It allows me not only periods of rest and stillness, but then in these breaks and not over, you know, booking myself and over promising things, it allows me to make the sweet treats and the beautiful things that I crave and that bring me joy during this holiday season.
00:24:31
Speaker
I want to enjoy my holidays. I want to eat the things I like for Christmas and I want some sweet treats around Halloween. But the ones I'm making, those are the ones that are going to be nourishing me and, you know, making me happy to eat. And if i if I'm overbooked, when am I making those?
00:24:47
Speaker
I'm going to go to Costco and grab a box of freaking dairy milk instead. That's how I got myself into bad situations before. Totally. And you know what, Tanya? Like, it's interesting that you say this because this year has been my year of supporting the nervous system as well. Like, that is the one thing, and you know me too, like, go, go, go, go go yeah right?
00:25:08
Speaker
And that is, as you always say, the bottom of the pyramid, right? The bottom of our pyramid of all of the supports that we need for not only our immune system, but our hormones and everything else.
00:25:22
Speaker
And why you're, we're switching, you're switching by taking those breaks into the parasympathetic nervous system. Absolutely. We're not in the sympathetic anymore, that fight or flight, which affects blood sugar, like we talked about last episode. It affects, it suppresses our immune system if in that for so long.
00:25:41
Speaker
You're putting your body into that rest and digest, that supportive, where you're healing, that healing phase. And What i love to talk to my clients about too is this doesn't have, we don't have to overcomplicate it.
00:25:54
Speaker
Adding breaks to your schedule, as Tanya said, is one is a wonderful way to do it. Sometimes right after, for example, this, you know, i will go and put my feet up the wall or I'll go and take a second and stand outside or I'll go for a quick quick walk.
00:26:10
Speaker
Finding those moments throughout your day to really put your body into that parasympathetic is so supportive of your immune system. Yeah, when you're not back to back to back to back, you're keeping your stress low. And as we just talked about, sugar and stress season, there's one of the foundation's baseline, keeping that stress lower by not over committing.
00:26:33
Speaker
Kim, I now take it as a bad badge of honor to say I under commit. And before, I guess I was tied up in societal norms over a decade ago. where it was a badge of honor to overcommit and look how busy I am, boss babe. Absolutely.
00:26:46
Speaker
Absolutely. That was me. And now I'm like, I proudly undercommit. Oh, what are you doing, Tanya? Oh, I'm just staying in and reading for the whole entire night, doing nothing because I am under committing and I am supporting my stress levels.
00:26:58
Speaker
And exactly like you said, putting myself in rest and digest, which supports our immune system. Totally. And if if that's one thing I wish I could like scream to the rooftops for people, because I don't think people, women specifically understand just how important that is for our body, for our immune system, for hormones, for cardiovascular, for everything.
00:27:23
Speaker
So it's so funny. Like I'll have come people come in and be like, what supplements should I take? The nutrition that I take. And then I tell them, okay, schedule five minutes at the end, like every three hours or say something like that.
00:27:35
Speaker
And they're like, oh, I couldn't do that. but it's it's It's not because they couldn't do it. It's just that they didn't realize how important it is because it seems so important. easy. Like it just seems so, you know, it just, it's not on our to-do list. Not that, you know what i mean? that's Right.
00:27:52
Speaker
Like Kim, such a good point. I feel like a lot of people leave after a session with me and it's like, who is this woo woo lady telling me to slow it down? I just want to take something for my cramps.
00:28:04
Speaker
Let me tell you, this is going over time help your cramps more than you will ever know. So you put that perfectly. So that's for me, That's one of my main focuses going into this season, really year round.
00:28:17
Speaker
But this season's a lot busier for us all, you know? I love it.
Dietary Tips for the Holiday Season
00:28:22
Speaker
And then another big, big one is nourish yourself. And what I mean by that is like, yes, we are all going to have, we're all going enjoy a sugary treat, right? And not feel guilty about it.
00:28:36
Speaker
But it's more about the balance. And what I always say to people too is how are you eating throughout your day, that breakfast, lunch, and dinner and snacks? You know, we want to make sure that we're getting those nutrient-dense whole foods in our diet.
00:28:51
Speaker
so that we don't have any mineral or nutrient deficiencies, that we are getting that protein that's building our immune system. And maybe, Tanya, we can talk about some amazing foods that you can add to your diet at this time. One thing I love to say is Mother Nature is amazing.
00:29:10
Speaker
And always provides us what we need in season. Right? We talked about this in our, in one of our other podcasts, but right now, so if you're listening when we are releasing this episode right before Halloween, it's October.
00:29:24
Speaker
And so things like winter squashes are in season that are literally full of antioxidants to help support our immune system. Vitamin A, all B vitamins, vitamin C, fiber, like supporting our gut health, digestion, immune system, all the things. We've got red cabbage in season, which in my opinion, Tanya, is a superfood.
00:29:46
Speaker
I'm with you. There's always one in my fridge, sliced and diced and ready to go. Absolutely. Yep. I'm with you on that one. And I see that in your stories. You cook with red cabbage all the time. dude um they it literally has antibiotic properties.
00:29:59
Speaker
It contains L-glutamine, which supports our intestinal walls. It's gut supporting, immune system supporting. It contains indole-3-carbinol to support that liver detoxification, which we always talk about, you know, and other like We've got garlic, we've got onions that are, you know, antiviral, antibacterial. It's just, you know, adding those foods to your diet can be super supportive of our immune system.
00:30:27
Speaker
Yeah, having them on your radar and making them a priority because they're not crazy weird foods. They're easy to incorporate in your day-to-day. And when you have them ready and available, they really are easy to use. Like I said, I buy a red cabbage, an organic red cabbage every week.
00:30:43
Speaker
And every week I slice and dice it and I put it in a container. And it's so easy to either have it raw, add it to soups, to stir fries, whatever. It's there to use. um And to piggyback on that, which I love eating for the season and you explained it perfectly.
00:30:58
Speaker
Around this time too, things that are really important for me are adaptogens. And I'm not necessarily necessarily saying like tinctures or nutraceuticals that you have to take, although I'm not not necessarily taking that, saying that. but work with a practitioner for that. But like adaptogens like maca, for example, is one of my favorite and it's a beautiful caramel taste. So incorporating that in my day to day.
00:31:23
Speaker
Mushrooms. And can just jump in, Tanya, for a second? Adaptogens, meat, are basically something. An adaptogenic food is something that helps you deal with stress resiliency.
00:31:35
Speaker
Thank you. It's food for your adrenal glands. It's food for your adrenal glands, for your nervous system. It's wonderful during stress season. Thank you. Mushrooms go on. that and Mushrooms are immunomodulating.
00:31:48
Speaker
Yes. So that means it literally dials your immune system up. If it's a little sluggish and needs a little bit of help, or if you're in a period of having a hyperactive immune system, which is just as detrimental, it's like calm your tits and it dials it down a bit. So it modulates.
00:32:03
Speaker
which is absolutely amazing.
Benefits of Adaptogens, Mushrooms, and Broths
00:32:05
Speaker
All the different kinds too. And again, you can get some really good mushroom products and powders out there, but don't discount the actual food and all the different kinds of beautiful mushrooms that you can, you know, find in season in your area.
00:32:19
Speaker
Absolutely. Adding your diet. Mushroom soup. Perfect for this time of year. Absolutely. Another one is herbs. I think you touched upon that, Kim. Oregano and definitely an oil of oregano. I love to have around.
00:32:32
Speaker
um And again, some of the foods that you already touched upon. I call them the OG medicine, these powerhouse nutritional foods, ginger, garlic, microgreens, and broth.
00:32:45
Speaker
Don't underestimate the power of a bone broth, a reputable one that you either make or a mineral broth. Or a veggie broth. Yeah, veggie that's a mineral broth. Beautiful ingredients and sip on it in the morning. Our bodies need that warmth during this. This is also a tricky season.
00:33:03
Speaker
Fall is very tricky because it goes from warm to cold. All of a sudden, we were looking at the weather for this week. Some places it's snowing. Some places it's raining. It's like, it's a tricky season and that affects our immune system, right?
00:33:17
Speaker
We need to keep our bodies warm. so in So swapping out those cold juices that you might have been using for a warm broth is really nourishing for this time of year. I couldn't agree more. And I think that we've really kind of encapsulated what we wanted to say.
00:33:34
Speaker
Again, not cold and flu season, definitely sugar and stress season. um It's very apparent why our stress levels are high. and It's very apparent why there's more sugar hanging around because there's a reason for it every single month apparently.
00:33:47
Speaker
And the fact that these simple things, these just few things that we touched upon are really a way at the basic level to stop actually suppressing your immune system, get out of your own way and let it do what it needs to do.
Teaser for Future Episode on Immune System
00:34:04
Speaker
And I'm thinking, Kim, maybe in the next couple of weeks, we can actually do a full episode then on kind of What are the things that we go to to actively then boost our immune system um during this time of year? And I think that would be a really good follow-up to this in the next coming weeks.
00:34:21
Speaker
I completely agree. And Tanya, just before we sign off here, this episode is not meant to make anyone feel guilty or bad for feeding their children candy. No, or yourself. Or feeding themselves candy or having...
00:34:35
Speaker
This is really just an episode for us to be mindful, mindful of what we are consuming. And what Tanya and I always love to educate people with is the ability to take a look at those ingredients, understand them, and be very intentional about what we feed ourselves and our families.
00:34:57
Speaker
And that's really just it. I couldn't have said it better myself. Guilt free, be mindful. And I'll leave you with this for myself personally. When I enjoy a little indulgence here and there, and you all know that happens with me, I'm guilt free because I have not gone against my hard nose.
00:35:16
Speaker
But I will tell you from now on, you're probably going to look at the clock and say, all right. My immune system suppressed for five more hours. I know I did it, but it's going to be okay because I'm not going to do it as often as I might have used to because that's what I do.
00:35:31
Speaker
Good one, Tanya. I love it. yeah I love it. Okay, guys. So thanks for tuning in and we'll see next week. See you next week, everyone. ae Happy Halloween.
00:35:43
Speaker
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00:35:57
Speaker
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00:36:15
Speaker
Kim and I aren't doctors or your healthcare care practitioners. Everyone's body is unique, so always consult your own healthcare care provider before starting something new.