When Food Meets Medicine | The Functional Medicine & Health Podcast

Dr Remi Olukoya
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When Food Meets Medicine is a health podcast hosted by Dr. Remí Olukoya, PharmD. Each episode features medical experts, oncologists, pharmacists, and functional medicine practitioners in evidence-based conversations about how food, supplements, and lifestyle choices affect your medications and health outcomes. From cancer nutrition to diabetes reversal, GLP-1 drugs to food-drug interactions — this is the medical podcast for patients, caregivers, and clinicians who want the full picture.

  1. Oct 12

    Kidneys, Culture & Corticosteroids — What Your Meds Are Doing to Your Labs

    What if the foods your family has eaten for generations are now on your "do not eat" list because of kidney disease — and no one explained why? Areli Gutierrez, RD is a bilingual Latina renal dietitian, founder of Latina Kidney Dietitian, and host of the Food Culture Curious podcast. She joins Dr. Remi Olukoya, PharmD to have the conversation most CKD patients never get from their care team: how to protect your kidneys without abandoning your cultural food identity. They cover: - Why the standard renal diet feels like an attack on cultural foods — and the nuance that changes everything - How phosphate binders work (the magnet analogy that finally makes it click) and why timing with meals matters - The double boiling method for beans that reduces phosphorus, so your favorites stay on the table - ACE inhibitors, ARBs, and the potassium connection your prescriber may not have mentioned - Star fruit toxicity in CKD patients — and why this one comes up fast in rapid fire - How to ask better questions so you're actually a partner in your own care This episode is for anyone living with or caring for someone with CKD who has felt lost between their prescription pad and their dinner plate. Connect with Areli: latinakidneydietitian.com | @Latina Kidney Dietitian on TikTok & Instagram 📖 Foods That Clash with Your Meds — available now 💊 MediMeal Safe — free food-drug interaction checks at pharmaplansystems.com

  2. Oct 6

    What Happens When the Mediterranean Diet Meets Ozempic? | Dr. Anna Pleet, MD

    Dr. Remí Olukoya, PharmD, speaks with Dr. Anna Pleet, MD, an internal medicine physician and lifestyle medicine specialist, about GLP-1 medicines, Mediterranean-style eating, appetite changes, gastrointestinal tolerability, and medication-safety questions. The discussion explores how food intake, symptoms, insulin or other diabetes medicines, and a complete medication list can belong in the same clinical conversation. Dr. Remí and Dr. Anna also discuss questions people can bring to their pharmacist, prescriber, or dietitian before making significant changes to a medicine or diet plan. GLP-1 medicines may affect appetite and can delay stomach emptying. FDA-approved prescribing information also warns that use with insulin or an insulin secretagogue can increase the risk of low blood sugar. The right next step depends on the person’s medicine, symptoms, medical history, and full treatment plan. This episode is for education only. It is not individual medical advice. Do not change a medicine, dose, injection schedule, or diet plan based on this discussion without consulting your prescriber, pharmacist, dietitian, or other qualified clinician. MediMeal Safe helps users check food-drug, food-supplement, and drug-drug interactions. It is an educational support tool and does not replace personalised advice from a qualified clinician. Follow @medimealsafe on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. Learn more at pharmaplansystems.com.

  3. Sep 28

    When Your Loved One's Confusion Might Be the Medications: A Geriatric Pharmacist Explains Polypharmacy

    Dr. Remí Olukoya, PharmD sits down with Dr. Katie Cozart — board-certified geriatric pharmacist and the Resilient PharmD — to talk about the conversation most families never get to have: what polypharmacy is really doing to the aging brain. This episode covers anticholinergic burden, prescribing cascades, the Beers Criteria, deprescribing, and the specific medications every caregiver should know by name. Plus: what to say at the pharmacy counter, how to build a medication timeline that actually helps your doctor, and why silence is costing Black and Brown elders their cognitive function. The medication list is not a life sentence. This episode is your starting point. New episodes every Tuesday.

  4. Sep 15

    PCOS, Metformin & Food: What Your Doctor Never Told You | Jillian Greaves RD

    One in ten women of reproductive age has PCOS. Most of them were told the same thing at diagnosis — here is a pill, here is Metformin, and if you can, lose some weight. That is the conversation. And that is the end. In Season 2 Episode 7 of When Food Meets Medicine, pharmacist Dr. Remí Olukoya sits down with Jillian Greaves RD — functional dietitian, women's health specialist, and creator of the PCOS Root Reversal Program — to have the conversation most clinical appointments never make time for. What this episode covers: What PCOS actually is — and the new name PMOS that better reflects its systemic nature. Why four women with PCOS can have four completely different symptom pictures. Why long-term Metformin use depletes B12 — causing fatigue and brain fog that looks exactly like PCOS. Why the contraceptive pill depletes B6, folate, magnesium, and zinc — and what low B6 does to your mood and serotonin production. Whether berberine and Metformin can safely be taken together. The biggest diet mistake women with PCOS make. Whether PCOS can be reversed. And why remission never comes through restriction, punishment, or extreme diets. Plus — three real listener questions answered at the Pharmacy Counter. Subscribe to When Food Meets Medicine wherever you listen to podcasts. Learn more at pharmaplansystems.com

  5. Sep 8

    Antidepressants and Food: Questions for Your Psychiatrist

    What happens when your antidepressant stops working? What does grapefruit have to do with your psychiatric medication? And why does a psychiatrist call MAOIs the OGs of antidepressants? In Season 2 Episode 6 of When Food Meets Medicine, pharmacist Dr. Remí Olukoya sits down with Dr. Nicole Washington — board-certified psychiatrist, women's mental health specialist, and host of The Nickel podcast — for one of the most honest and accessible conversations about mental health, medication, and food that you will hear anywhere. What this episode covers: Why grapefruit interacts with so many psychiatric medications — and what your liver has to do with it. The antidepressant zombie myth — and what a psychiatrist actually sees when medication causes emotional blunting. When and why MAOIs are still prescribed for treatment-resistant depression — and why the food conversation becomes critical when they are. The tyramine interaction that makes certain foods dangerous on specific antidepressants. Why lithium patients need to pay attention to their sodium intake. Why women are the most important person in their own ecosystem — and what happens to everyone else when they go down. What Dr. Nicole would put on every psychiatrist's wall. And the answer to the question this show is named after — what does When Food Meets Medicine mean to a psychiatrist? Her answer: food is not alongside medicine. Food is a category of medicine. Subscribe to When Food Meets Medicine wherever you listen to podcasts. Learn more at pharmaplansystems.com Resources: Book https://pharmaplansystems.com/physical-book App https://pharmaplansystems.com/app Meal Plan https://pharmaplansystems.com/meal-plan Subscribe to When Food Meets Medicine wherever you listen to podcasts. Learn more at https://pharmaplansystems.com

  6. Sep 1

    Your Grandmother's Kitchen Is a Pharmacy | Caribbean Food, Medication & Cultural Health | Dr. Marissa Toussaint

    Bitter melon tea lowers blood sugar. Sorrel lowers blood pressure. Moringa thins blood. But your doctor didn't warn you because clinical textbooks were built on Western diets, not Caribbean kitchens. Millions of patients taking lisinopril, metformin, ACE inhibitors, and beta-blockers eat the foods their grandmothers taught them—foods with biologically active compounds that interact with their medications every single day. Yet these interactions are absent from standard pharmacology databases and medication labels. Dr. Marissa Toussaint, a board-certified family medicine and culinary medicine physician, explains why this gap exists, how food-drug interactions work in Caribbean, African, and South Asian communities, and what culinary medicine looks like in practice. She's built her entire clinical practice around one conviction: your culture is not the obstacle to your health. It is the starting point. In this episode, you'll learn: • Why bitter melon, sorrel, moringa, and turmeric are missing from food-drug interaction textbooks • How Caribbean foods lower blood pressure and blood sugar synergistically with your medications • Why asking patients what they actually eat at home is the foundation of safe medication management • How to honor cultural identity while keeping patients safe on therapy • Why pharmacists and physicians must expand their knowledge beyond Western and Mediterranean diets If you take medication and eat food from your cultural tradition, this episode is for you. 📚 Get the Book – Foods That Clash With Your Prescriptions: https://pharmaplansystems.com/physical-book | 📱 Download MediMeal Safe App: https://pharmaplansystems.com/app | 🥗 Get Your Personalized Meal Plan: https://pharmaplansystems.com/meal-plan Subscribe to When Food Meets Medicine wherever you listen to podcasts. Learn more at https://pharmaplansystems.com

  7. Aug 25

    Your Blood Sugar Is Talking. Are You Listening? | Diabetes, Food & Medication | Sarah Hormachea RD

    Your blood sugar number is not a verdict. It is not a death sentence. It is not a measure of how hard you have tried. It is a data point — and it is your body trying to tell you something. In Season 2 Episode 4 of When Food Meets Medicine, pharmacist Dr. Remí Olukoya sits down with Sarah Hormachea MS, RD, CDCES — registered dietitian and certified diabetes educator based in Denver, Colorado — for one of the most honest conversations about diabetes management you will hear anywhere. What this episode covers: How to use blood sugar as information rather than a source of shame. Why starting diabetes medication does not mean lifestyle changes have failed — and why medication and food work best in tandem. The three food changes a diabetes educator would make in five minutes with any patient. Why diabetes is progressive — and why nobody tells patients this at diagnosis. How what you eat around your medication directly affects how well it works. Why the diabetes food conversation has to be culturally honest — and what to say when your doctor tells you to stop eating your traditional food. How to manage semaglutide nausea through food choices. The one diabetes food myth Sarah wants to retire forever. For every person managing diabetes who has ever stared at a blood sugar reading and felt shame instead of curiosity — this episode is for you. Subscribe to When Food Meets Medicine on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube. Learn more at pharmaplansystems.com/podcast

  8. Aug 18

    Your Arroz Con Pollo Is Not the Problem: Diabetes, Metformin & Cultural Food Safety | Lorena Drago RD

    Your metformin prescription says twice daily — but 50% of monolingual patients only take it once because the label is in English, and no clinician asked if they understood. After three years, their A1C hasn't budged. Healthcare calls it non-compliance. It's actually a system failure. Registered Dietitian and Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist Lorena Drago joins Dr. Remi to expose the hidden gaps in diabetes medication counseling: the dosing confusion caused by language barriers, the B12 depletion metformin causes (and why salmon, not liver, is the food your patient will actually eat), the GI side effects that drive patients to quit therapy, and the false choice between culture and health. Key takeaways: 1. Verify dosing comprehension in the patient's primary language — English-only labels are a medication safety failure. 2. Metformin depletes B12; screen long-term users and recommend culturally relevant food sources, not generic supplements. 3. Timing metformin with meals prevents GI side effects that lead to abandonment. 4. Real diabetes outcomes require asking what foods matter to the patient's family — that's clinical, not optional. For anyone managing diabetes, prescribing for multicultural populations, or counseling patients on medication and food: this is the conversation your clinic needs. Resources: - Book: Foods That Clash With Your Prescriptions — https://pharmaplansystems.com/physical-book - MediMeal Safe App — https://pharmaplansystems.com/app - Personalized Meal Plan — https://pharmaplansystems.com/meal-plan Subscribe to When Food Meets Medicine wherever you listen to podcasts. Learn more at https://pharmaplansystems.com

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When Food Meets Medicine is a health podcast hosted by Dr. Remí Olukoya, PharmD. Each episode features medical experts, oncologists, pharmacists, and functional medicine practitioners in evidence-based conversations about how food, supplements, and lifestyle choices affect your medications and health outcomes. From cancer nutrition to diabetes reversal, GLP-1 drugs to food-drug interactions — this is the medical podcast for patients, caregivers, and clinicians who want the full picture.

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