Full-episode here
Ari Gronich
So this is part of where the system has broken down. And some of us in the alternative and lifestyle medicine field, have decided that the system broke down too far. And it's time for us to kind of take up the slack. So how is it that you take up the slack, so that you can really get the benefit for your clients. And patients really, you know, we're not allowed to say patient when you're not a doctor. So you got to say client to be compliant with the things that you give them the advice that you give them, so that they can really get the change that they're seeking.
Glenda Sparrow
Yeah, you know, ideally, we wouldn't be able to keep people well, and get people to understand how lifestyle behaviors can prevent them from getting diseases and from getting sicknesses or ailments or you know, whatever the case may be. And if you can even get them to understand that and start making those lifestyle changes and behavioral changes now, then they will feel better, but it's very difficult. It's much easier when somebody gets to the breaking point.
When they get to the point where you know, they've been trying fad diets and they can't seem to lose weight, or they're at the point where they can barely move because they have so much stuff going on with their bodies that you know they're just not functional anymore. And so it's sad to see People get to that point when they could get ahead of it. And so yeah, it'd be great if we could get people to take those steps early on before they get super sick. But other times, it's like, you know, they're just at their wit's end and have no other place to turn.
Ari Gronich
Absolutely. So you know, my thing is what, what I see is that somebody will tell somebody what to do, and they don't explain the whys, and they don't explain the house. And more importantly, the what? So for example, eat healthier. Right?
This is a statement that somebody might make eat organic, eat healthy food. It's expensive. Why is it expensive? And people won't do it because it's expensive, like to eat grass fed meat versus eating pesticide fed, grain fed corn fed meat, for instance. What does that do to a person's body? And how much does that cost in the long run versus eating less, but higher quality?
Glenda Sparrow
Right. And that's something that, you know, I in my programs, I explain all of those details about what I call a food spectrum. So it's kind of like a good, better, best approach to how to buy me what type of vegetables to buy that kind of a thing. Certainly, it's better to eat a large farm carrot than it is to go get fast food. So you know, just try to keep that into perspective.
If you're not able to afford the difference in a pasture raised egg, or pasture raised grass fed beef, you know, it's still better to be buying some beef that you're cooking at home the right way than to be eating packaged food or going to a fast food restaurant.
Ari Gronich
Absolutely. I believe that the number is somewhere close to 70,000 chemicals that we've introduced into society that weren't there before. And that was in the late 1970s, that that really began, right? Out of those 70,000 chemicals that have been pushed into our food, our air, our water, what our bodies do with that is they're not aligned with those chemicals.
They don't know how to process the chemicals. Our bodies are really designed to eat natural foods, what it is that they're supposed to be doing when when they have Dr. Google telling them so many conflicting stories?
Glenda Sparrow
Well, it's not just Dr. Google, we have to remember where we get so much of our information about what foods we should be eating. And that comes from the people who are mass producing them. Right. So why are we told Why do we have this belief? And why does the food pyramid tell us that we have to have, I don't know 20,000 servings of grains every day?
Because the food industry is paying them money to get us to eat those things? So yeah, I mean, when you when you look at what we're told to eat, it shouldn't be as hard as people think that it is. Eat tons of veggies, meats and fats, good healthy fats.
Ari Gronich
How does one avoid these current issues of lack of nutrients? High sugars? When I'm eating fruit, I'm eating healthy. I'm eating the apple a day keeps the doctor away.
Glenda Sparrow
Yeah, so the way that I work with clients is I say, look, if you're going to if you're going to eat if you want sugar, I would much rather that a client is eating an apple than eating a cake or a piece of cake, right? So if you if your body's wanting sugar, if you want to tap into it, you know, okay, there are worse things that you could be eating.
But I also make sure that they understand what even those natural sugars do in our bodies when spiking our insulin levels.
Ari Gronich
That's true. So let's talk about the actual effects that happen in somebody's body when they have too much sugar, for instance, what happens in their body? What's the process that they go through? Especially if they're diabetic?
Glenda Sparrow
Yeah. So when you're consuming too much sugar and your body's not able to react to it, your insulin spikes, anytime that you're eating sugar, and we just end up completely overworking our bodies, our pancreas and everything else when we are not eating from like a real primal strategy. So trying to provide some understanding without getting too nitty gritty into the science for clients, I think can really help.
Ari Gronich
Absolutely. So what are the things that I suggest to people whenever I use When I, whenever I was doing functional medicine consulting, is I would put people on an elimination plan.
So we would literally eliminate anything that was happening that they were eating that could possibly cause an inflammatory or allergic response, food allergy response, anything that would make the histamine system and the immune response go spike, right?
So how does one avoid these things when they're on a fairly strict vegan or vegetarian diet or if they have an autoimmune disease?
Glenda Sparrow
Sure, well, the first thing, especially with with vegetarians and vegans, is to make sure that they're not consuming any processed foods. Because I have a lot of friends who are strict vegans. And they have ethical reasons for doing so which I fully support.
But you see a lot of them who end up supplementing their diet with a lot of processed junk stuff out of a box stuff out of a can, you know, somebody was telling me they're eating spaghettis. Like, there are better choices than spaghettis if you're a vegan.
So just trying to eliminate the processed stuff first. And then, you know, if they're not having issues with the night shades or lagoons, then great, but trying to get enough of the regular vegetables and the good quality fats in their diets to help them you know, kind of figure out where they're at with it. It's I haven't worked with any clients that have been vegan and diabetic.
Ari Gronich
That's an interesting thing have you noted at all? why that might be?
Glenda Sparrow
No, No, I haven't. It's not something that I've really thought about until you asked me that question. Actually.
Ari Gronich
I actually have I've had a number of vegan and vegetarians who have had diabetes, which is why they converted in some cases to begin with. And the issue is that they were still eating a lot of very sugary fruits, and sugary vegetables and things like that. And, and we're eating a lot of processed.
Glenda Sparrow
Yes.
Ari Gronich
Even for gluten free. I see gluten free packaging everywhere. Now, if I look at the ingredient list, and I'll let you kind of talk about why the ingredient list is more important than, say the nutritional panel.
But if you look at the ingredient list, it's full of things like dextrose, which is a sugar, corn syrup, but another sugar. Corn solid. I mean, there's so many different ways of saying sugar now.
Glenda Sparrow
Yes. I think I just read the other day, I think there were 56 different terms for sugar that the food industry can use.
Ari Gronich
Really, I think now natural sweetener is also being used for sugar, or for corn syrup for Yeah, for high fructose corn syrup, natural sweetener for high fructose corn syrup. So it's really important to pay attention to ingredient lists, right?
Glenda Sparrow
Yes
Ari Gronich
A little bit more about the ingredient list versus the nutritional panel.
Glenda Sparrow
Sure. So when when you're looking at most packaged foods, the ingredient list it's really those first couple of items on the ingredient list that we really want to pay attention to. And almost everything that's coming out of a package.
The first couple of ingredients are some type of sugar, and whatever name that they're using, and industrial oils. So those are going to be like your seed oils, your corner oil, or sunflower oil, any of those which are considered industrial oils.
And they're just they wreak havoc on our bodies and our minds. And you know, the longer the list of ingredients, the worse it probably is for you. But really pay attention to those first few ingredients that are on there.
Ari Gronich
Awesome. So talk a little bit more about primal eating, and what that entails what it involves.
Glenda Sparrow
Sure, primal eating is really going back to eating how our ancestors did. And that's the the fats, meats and veggies, and then fruits on occasion. So and when you think about how our ancestors ate fruits, when you're talking about the apple earlier, our ancestors would eat fruit only when it was in season, which wasn't that often they couldn't just go to their local grocery store and pick up fruit that's been sitting in cold storage for an entire year or longer.
So when you look at it, how some of our produce and I did work in an industry that had a lot of involvement with produce growers for four years. And it's very interesting to know that when fans in our country and elsewhere in the world are actually being grown, and how we're able to buy them in the grocery store year round.
Ari Gronich
So let's talk a little bit more about these broken systems that I like to talk about because you just mentioned a broken system, which is the agricultural and produce market. And we're going to piss off a lot of farmers right now, but we shouldn't be pissing off the farmers we should be pushing pissing off the Agra farmers meaning farmers to me, never had to wear hazmat suits. Right, overalls, good to go.
Glenda Sparrow
My grandfather was a farmer.
Ari Gronich
A straw in your mouth and a pair of overalls. And you are good to go. If you get images now of these big Agra farms. They're in hazmat suits. They're spraying pesticides everywhere. And they're they're literally having to wear hazmat suits.
And in fact, I know some potato farmers for McDonald's, they irradiate their foods so much, because they're not allowed to have any brown spots in their potatoes. No brown spots allowed. McDonald's will send them back. And so they have their irradiated you know, very highly toxic food that they grow for them. And then they have their section of nice, healthy organic potatoes that they grow completely separately that they use for their own family and neighbors.
What's the problem with the system that allows for that in a way that is so destructive to our physical health? What why is it that people, especially the farmers accept this kind of poison being put into our food supply, and water supply.
Glenda Sparrow
Everything has to be done cheaply, right? So you end up having any of the small farms that we used to have, whether it be produce or livestock or anything else, they end up getting bought out by the bigger guys.
And the bigger guys are mass producing, because they're dealing with the largest grocery chains around the country. And you know, they're just trying to grow more bigger and cheaper.
So you get into having to spray everything with chemicals, because you don't want the loss that happens when you do have insects that come into the product.
ABOUT OUR GUEST
A message from Glenda Sparrow.
While going through a difficult period in my life several years ago, I spent a lot of time researching what makes people tick, why we are motivated or not motivated, why we are attracted to certain people and not to others. Why a challenge that may seem incredibly difficult for me may be a breeze for you. I learned that I was depressed. I found mindfulness and awareness. I learned that I get to choose my thoughts and responses.
I learned that how I felt, not just physically but mentally and emotionally, was directly impacted by the foods that I was eating and how much physical movement I had each day. I wasn?t aware of the science behind the food-feeling connection yet, but I saw what was working well for me, and what wasn?t. Read more.
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