The Modern Health Nerd Podcast Theresa Houghton

“Don’t worry so much about what you don’t know. Just step into it and try it.” ~ Kathy Davis

For some people, going plant-based can be intimidating. There are so many unknowns: Does it require shopping at special stores? Subsisting on mock meats and cheeses? Spending countless hours trying recipes that may or may not taste good?

Cyd Notter, Kathy Davis and Chuck Carroll agree that the answer is a resounding NO.

In fact, they can all say from experience that going plant-based was much easier than they expected—and it’s led to other positive changes in their lives, including better health and more confidence. So much so that Chuck calls the plant-based lifestyle “Life 2.0.”

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🥗 Episode Highlights

- Tips for going all-in with a plant-based diet if you don’t know where to start

- Encouragement for anyone who’s afraid going plant based will be too hard

- How to overcome the struggles many people face when going plant-based

- Why it’s important to have a solid reason—not just a short-term goal—for adopting a plant-based diet

- Why plant-based diets are the gateway to long-term health

- How going plant-based can inspire confidence and vitality in other areas of life

Get takeaway tips for brands here: SITE LINK

About Cyd, Chuck and Kathy
Cyd Notter is a graduate of the Center for Nutrition Studies, a certified instructor for The Starch Solution and other dietary courses, a past newspaper columnist, and the author of the award-winning book The “Plan A” Diet: Combining Whole Food, Plant-Based Nutrition with the Timeless Wisdom of Scripture.

Kathy Davis is a plant-based lifestyle and mindset coach, the CEO of VegInspired, and the author of three plant-based cookbooks. Kathy empowers high-achieving professionals to elevate their energy by adopting healthy living habits so they can show up at their optimum performance and achieve their goals.

Chuck Carroll is known as “The Weight Loss Champion” for a reason — he has lost and kept off 280 pounds for more than 10 years! Now he is using his new lease on life to inspire others and host The Exam Room Podcast by the Physicians Committee, which has been downloaded millions of times to become the No. 1 nutrition podcast in nearly 80 countries!

Connect with Today's Guests

Cyd: https://cydnotter.com, https://www.facebook.com/groups/ThePlanADiet

Kathy: https://veginspired.com, Instagram @veginspired, @eatmoreplantsacademy

Chuck: https://www.pcrm.org/podcast, Instagram & Twitter @chuckcarrollwlc, Facebook @WeightLossChampion


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“What ends up happening is the patient is now in charge of their health.” ~ Dr. Niki Davis

Traditional medicine addresses chronic disease with pills and procedures that control symptoms or attempt to fix damage that’s already been done.

Plant-Based TeleHealth takes a different approach: lifestyle medicine that uses a plant-based diet and personalized care to get to the root of diseases and help patients heal.

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That’s what attracted Dr. Kim Scheuer, Dr. Niki Davis, Dr. Colin Zhu and Dr. Chris Miller to this unique new practice that serves patients across the U.S. They wanted to stop “putting band-aids” on patients’ problems, go beyond what they were able to do in traditional practice and start giving patients the time and attention they needed to get better—for good.

Through Plant-Based TeleHealth, these doctors and their colleagues are able to help patients reduce their medications and improve their health. The patients get less of what they don’t want (more pills) and more of what they do want (freedom from symptoms and disease).

Episode Highlights

- How taking a holistic look at the whole person instead of just their symptoms changes the way medicine is practiced and enables a lifestyle approach

- Why the ability to spend more time with patients is critical to helping them make lasting diet and lifestyle changes

- The need to dig deeper and go beyond nutrition to discover all the potential factors that influence patients’ health

- The importance of understanding what potentially conflicting information patients will get from traditional doctors who don’t understand plant-based lifestyle medicine

- The need for a paradigm shift in health, wellness and medicine to get people back to the basics and on track for long-term healing

- Success stories from the doctors’ practices

About Plant-Based TeleHealth

Plant Based TeleHealth (PBTH) provides offers lifestyle medicine care for patients who have chronic disease and other conditions. Through the powerful, evidence-based practice of promoting healthy behaviors and lifestyle modification, including a whole food, plant-based diet, doctors work with patients to help them go beyond managing symptoms to experience real healing.

Connect with the Doctors Online
- https://plantbasedtelehealth.com

- Dr. Scheuer: https://dokslifestylemedicine.com/,  Instagram @drkimscheuer

- Dr. Davis: https://drnikidavis.com, @nikidavismd on Facebook and Instagram

- Dr. Miller: https://eatandlivehealthfully.com

- Dr. Zhu: https://chefdoczhu.com, @thechefdoc on social media, host of Thrive Bites podcast at https://www.youtube.com/c/TheChefDoc


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“Our health is not determined by one single meal or one single food that we eat at one point in time. It’s about consistency over years and years.” ~ Simon Hill

Simon Hill’s journey into the plant-based space started at age 15 when he saw his father have a heart attack. Since that first brush with the effects of lifestyle disease, Simon has immersed himself in the science of diet and plant-based nutrition in his career as a nutritionist, podcast host and author.
Rather than supporting any particular dietary dogma in the plant-based space, he provides research-backed advice backed to help people plant their diets appropriately according to goals and life stage.

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“I think it’s important to not always reduce everything to black and white,” he says, “because science is not black and white.”

Simon believes it’s going to take more data collected across demographics to settle some of the persistent questions about plant-based nutrition and ensure that people have the best information to tailor their diets to changing needs as they age.

He believes “every diet needs to be appropriately planned” and continues to use his platform to provide information and guidance that helps people adopt and stick to healthy plant-based diets.

Episode Highlights

- Why educating people about healthy food isn’t the key to improving diets or health outcomes

- How the food environment may prevent people from making healthier dietary choices

- A scientific look at common myths and misconceptions in the plant-based space

- Why being aware of nutrient needs specific to plant-based diets and current life stage is a smarter approach than obsessing over single nutrients or foods

- Why it’s important for the plant-based community to be opened-minded about new discoveries in nutrition science

- Simon’s tips for maximizing nutrition and health on a plant-based diet

About Simon & Plant Proof
Simon Hill is a nutritionist and qualified physiotherapist and the the founder of the popularPlant Proofpodcast and blog.

On top of his formal education, Simon spends hours deciphering scientific studies so that he can break down how to fuel your body to promote longevity and reduce the chance of developing disease while simultaneously achieving whatever health and fitness goals you may have.

Follow, Listen to & Read Simon’s Work
- https://plantproof.com

- Twitter: https://twitter.com/theproof

- Facebook: https://facebook.com/TheProofPod

- Instagram: https://instagram.com/plant_proof

- The Plant Proof Podcast: https://plantproof.com/all-podcasts

- Buy The Proof is in the Plants: https://plantproof.com/book/


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“Whether it’s in whole food plant based or ethical veganism, ... there is a way for everybody to adopt this diet.” ~ Ginny Messina

As a registered dietician and a vegan of almost 30 years, Ginny Messina has a lot of experience in the plant-based space. She spends a lot of her time writing books, articles and tweets relating to vegan and plant-based nutrition.

Her goal with all this work? To “ensure that vegans have the best information that will allow them to stay vegan.”

Ginny brings a balanced and reasonable perspective to some of the most common questions and controversial issues within the plant-based community, including protein and fat, oil consumption and whether “ultra-processed” foods and sweet treats have a place in a healthy diet.

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Sam on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/theresahoughton/

While she maintains that anybody can be vegan, she also acknowledges that doing it right requires some attention to nutrition. But she doesn’t see this as a shortcoming for plant-based eating. In fact, she believes taking the extra time to get educated and supplement properly is more than worth it for the health and environmental benefits the diet offers.

Full show notes here: https://www.modernhealthnerd.com/podcast/getting-a-balanced-perspective-on-vegan-diets-ginny-messina-vegan-rd

Episode Highlights
- Giving vegans good, accurate nutrition and health formation to help them succeed on a plant-based diet

- Ginny’s balanced views on protein, fat and other hot-button vegan nutrition issues

- The changing nutritional requirements throughout life that vegans need to pay attention to

- Psychological benefits of eating higher protein for people who come from SAD/meat-centric diets (satisfying, helps them stay vegan)

- Why it’s okay (and even beneficial!) to add some oil to your plant-based diet

- Essential and important supplements for plant-based eaters

- Why Ginny thinks veganism is “the ideal way to eat in our world today”—and it’s not *just* due to the health benefits

- Why the fat shaming in the vegan space needs to stop

- Importance of balance and realism when talking health in the plant-based space

Connect with Ginny’s Work
- https://theveganrd.com

- Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheVeganRD

- Facebook: https://facebook.com/TheVeganRD

- Instagram: https://instagram.com/GinnyMessina

- Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/Virginia-Messina/e/B000APSLC4?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1644950218&sr=8-1


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“Always be open to learning. Don’t assume that what you have is what people want, and that it’s the right solution.” ~ Zoë Geller, co-founder, Fire Ox Foods

After working with Americorps and food distributor Zoë Geller realized there was a huge gap in both knowledge about and access to nutritious food. It wasn’t long before she did something to address the problem—by founding Fire Ox Foods.

Fire Ox is using delicious flavors inspired by world cuisines to make vegetables attractive and simple to prepare so that people can easily incorporate more whole plant-based foods into their diets.

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Sam on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/theresahoughton/

Zoë and her co-founder, Jason, drew on their mutual love for dishes from around the world as inspiration for their products and are bringing these meals to consumers in a convenient frozen format.

Fire Ox focuses on taste first to make their meals both enjoyable and nourishing. And Zoë keeps her ears open to customer feedback to continue improving Fire Ox products. Whether it’s increasing the amount of food in each meal or calling out the number of vegetable servings on the package, she’s all about staying flexible.

Because, she says, there’s a difference between driving trial and getting repeat customers. “You can get a lot of people to try your product, ... but you need them to keep coming back.”

The secret lies in paying attention to sales data, talking to customers and being willing to stay nimble as the brand adjusts its messaging. Zoë has some great insights into what to look for and how to make those changes to get products in front of more people.

Episode Highlights

- Seeking opportunities to bring unique products to market by identifying gaps where your passion could fill a need

- Supporting brand goals by staying consistent in every area—from naming to ingredients to packaging to messaging

- Using customer feedback to differentiate your products from others in the market

- The importance of being open to learning more about your customers and how they use or consume your product

- Tips for testing messaging before and after coming to market

- Using sales data, customer data and feedback to hone in on the problem you’re solving for consumers

- Going beyond product to educate and empower consumers through content

About Zoë

Zoë Geller founded Fire Ox to create a more sustainable food system. Her time at Americorps and Common Market taught her how to grow food and opened her eyes to how the unjust industrial food system shapes our diets and bodies, and this sparked her passion to create good, nourishing food that is better for people and planet.

About Fire Ox Foods

Fire Ox is on a mission to help people eat better for themselves and the planet by making delicious, vegetable-based foods accessible to all. Their line of vegetable-based frozen meals is inspired by cuisines from around the world.

Connect With (and Try!) Fire Ox Foods

- https://fireoxfoods.com

- Instagram: @fireoxfoods

- Facebook: Fire Ox Foods

- Email: hello@fireoxfoods.com


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“First, I think you have to understand the goals of the individual before you start assigning what products will work for them and what products should be on the market.” ~ Elysabeth Alfano

Elysabeth Alfano, David Benzaquen and Irina Gerry are no strangers to the plant-based space. Their collective experience spans from hosting a plant-based business podcast to investment and advising to marketing roles at some of the most well-known plant-based companies.

And they have a ton of insight into how brands can position their products and attract consumers in today’s growing plant-based market. With sub-niches spanning from cultivated meat to unprocessed plant foods, there’s plenty of room for innovation.

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One of the biggest areas of opportunity for brands? Fresh and minimally-processed produce.

With whole food plant based becoming its own category, it’s more important than ever for brands to understand who they’re marketing to, what those consumers need and the best ways to deliver it through products and messaging.

Episode highlights


The broad spectrum of plant-based food and consumers’ perceptions of health
How brands play a role in plant-based diets—including encouraging consumers to eat more produce
Getting super specific with marketing to position plant-based products in ways that reach unique market subsets
Defining and positioning animal-free, plant-based and whole food plant-based products
Recognizing and overcoming barriers to people incorporating whole plant foods into their diets
Using branding and marketing campaigns to help consumers understand how to choose, use and prepare whole plant foods

About David, Elysabeth and Irina

David Benzaquen is one of the world’s leading experts in the plant-based food industry. He invests in and advises plant-based and alternative protein food disruptors through his firm Mission: Plant. He is also the co-founder of consumer insights firm Moonshot Collaborative and plant-based ecommerce grocery store, PlantBelly.com. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidbenzaquen/

Elysabeth Alfano is the CEO of VegTech Invest, the founder of Plant Powered Consulting and the host of the Plantbased Business Hour. A respected thought leader and international speaker on trends in plant-based business, Elysabeth speaks globally on the state of the industry, including recently at the United Nations. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elysabeth-alfano-8b370b7/

Irina Gerry is a Chief Marketing Officer at Change Foods, a precision fermentation food tech startup, creating animal-free dairy products. Irina has over a decade of experience in consumer marketing space, including 5 years working on two of the best-known plant-based food and beverage brands, Silk and So Delicious. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/irinagerry/


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