Fuel Up with Dr. Dana Cohen: Rational Wellness Podcast 385

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Dr. Dana Cohen discusses her new book, Fuel Up with Dr. Ben Weitz.

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Podcast Highlights

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Dr. Dana Cohen is a practicing integrative medicine for over 25 years. Currently in private practice in Manhattan, she is a nationally renowned internal and integrative medicine specialist whose multidisciplinary approach has helped successfully treat thousands of patients.  Her new book, which she wrote with Colin Sapire is Fuel Up: Harness the Power of Your Blender and “Cheat” Your Way to Good Health.  Her website is DrDanaCohen.com.

Dr. Ben Weitz is available for Functional Nutrition consultations specializing in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders like IBS/SIBO and Reflux and also Cardiometabolic Risk Factors like elevated lipids, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure.  Dr. Weitz has also successfully helped many patients with managing their weight and improving their athletic performance, as well as sports chiropractic work by calling his Santa Monica office 310-395-3111.

 

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Podcast Transcript

Dr. Weitz: [00:00:00] Hey, this is Dr. Ben Weitz, host of the Rational Wellness Podcast. I talk to the leading health and nutrition experts and researchers in the field to bring you the latest in cutting edge health information. Subscribe to the Rational Wellness Podcast for weekly updates. And to learn more, check out my website, drweitz.com. Thanks for joining me and let’s jump into the podcast.

Hello, Rational Wellness Podcasters. Today, we’ll be speaking with Dr. Dena Cohen about her new book, Fuel Up, Harness the Power of Your Blender and Cheat Your Way to Good Health, which she wrote with Colin Sapphire. Dr. Dena Cohen has been practicing integrative medicine for over 25 years in Manhattan, New York.  She’s a nationally renowned integrative and internal medicine specialist whose multidisciplinary [00:01:00] approaches help successfully treat thousands of patients. So Dana, thank you so much for joining us.

Dr. Cohen: Thank you so much for having me.

Dr. Weitz: So what inspired you to write Duel Up?

Dr. Cohen: Actually Colin, so my co author.  Okay. Inspired me. So he is the inventor of the NutriBullet and then sold that company and started a new company called The Beast Blender, which is an incredible, beautiful, personal blender, very powerful becoming like Instagram’s favorite blender. And and he reached out to me from my first book, Quench, about hydration.  And so for a long time, we were trying to figure out how can we work together? What can we do? And then, and he is loaded with what I call colonisms. So he has all these little sayings that are, he’s a, he’s an incredible marketer, but he’s he lives the life that he, that he talks about.  He invented the blender because he hates eating vegetables, and he’s a marathon runner. So it changed his life. And, you know, [00:02:00] me as an integrative doctor know the benefits of that. And so one day in just our talking, I was like, Colin, why don’t you, would you ever be interested in co authoring a book on this for with me?  And and he said, yes. And then it just went from there. And this is, this is our baby. And. I’m so, it’s, I’m very proud of it. I will say right off the bat, Ben, I don’t know, you know, who your audience is, how nuanced they are. The truth is we all need to hear this, right? No matter how great or perfect our diets are, we all need reinforcement and reminding even with hydration.  But the, but my dream is to get this in the hands of people who have never picked up a health book before. Right? So. If you have a friend or a family member that you think would benefit from this, like, you know, I know me personally my, my own family, like, you know, I can talk all day long, but it’s really hard for me to give them advice.  So these are for the people who just don’t know where to start. You know, this is, start [00:03:00] here, this is a great place to start.

Dr. Weitz: We all know the benefits of vegetables and phytonutrients, and we’ve heard all about it, but you’re right, a percentage of people don’t like eating vegetables, so I guess a smoothie is a way to increase your vegetable intake.

Dr. Cohen: Well, 100%. It’s not just smoothies though. And there’s, you know, there’s science in the book. There’s that, that study that talks about people who eat more than 30 different plants a week have better microbiomes. So wherever we can find the science, we put it in there. It’s not just, we can’t just eat smoothies, right?  We have to chew. We have to have community sit down and eat. Um, but you know, We, the other sort of going back to what made me write this book, I think about there is a steak sauce, a very famous steak sauce that I love. And the only reason I love it is because it has horseradish in it. And I any vehicle for horseradish I’m in.  And for years I’ve been using the steak sauce because I just, I love, love, love the [00:04:00] taste of it. And one day I looked at the label. I never, I don’t know why I never looked at the label and I was like, I’m gonna look at the label, which I should have never done because now I can’t eat it anymore. You know, four different kinds of sugars in it, a thousand other ingredients high fructose corn syrup.  And I was like, you know, I only like this because of the horseradish. I can do better. So, the book also contains other ways of up leveling your nutrition any way you can, sneaking it in by making, you know, condiments, cocktails, mocktails, desserts, you know, surprising ways to use your blender, like pâtés and chicken salad.

And then the other thing we also do in the book, which I love, is we teach people how to roast a chicken, how to grill a steak, how to grill a cauliflower steak, so we’ve lost the art of cooking. You know, so it’s not just a blender book. There’s so much more in there. We even go a little bit into the psychology of how to make some habit changes in your life.  We touch upon that and try to meet people where [00:05:00] they are. No judgment and most of all, no judging yourself, no beating yourself up. Just start, take a step, try to get more plants and vegetables in your diet wherever you can. And a great way to do it is with condiments. And a morning smoothie, so there’s a lot in there.  And it’s an easy, fun read. The reason I’m being so, you know, I it’s always scary for me to talk to a bit of a health nut kind of thing, like yourself, because I always think like, Oh, I’m going to get the eye rolling, another blender book, that kind of thing, but it’s not, there’s more to it.  And once again, we all need to hear it, right. Your audience needs to hear it. So, so there you go. There’s a full chapter on hydration also, going back to my first book, Quench, that you and I talked about a few years ago.

Dr. Weitz: I remember on this vegetable thing, I think it was Datis Kharrazian, I remember at a seminar, he talked about when you’re cutting up vegetables, when you’re making things, the part at the end that you don’t use, put it all in a bag, stick it in the freezer, and then you can add, that’s a great way to get like a variety of all these extra vegetables.

Dr. Cohen: Oh, we totally talk about that too. What vegetables you can use, you know, the tops or even the piths. You know, like so more, more nutrients are in the white of the watermelon than the pink of the watermelon. Right. You know, eat like, I don’t know why we like eat the whole strawberry, throw the whole thing in your mouth, including the greens on top.  You don’t taste it. And there’s a ton of nutrients in there. But yeah, and especially throw it in your blender. Cause you

Dr. Weitz: won’t. It’s interesting. I can’t tell you how many vegetables I buy. We’ll buy carrots and take the top and throw it away. And, a lot of vegetables come that way. Beets come that way.

Dr. Cohen: Beet tops are great. Colin actually taught me like, why peel the your ginger? Make sure you wash it really well, but there’s no reason to peel ginger. Throw it in your blender,

Dr. Weitz: everybody always says to wash your fruits and vegetables really [00:07:00] well, but I wonder how many people do.  I know I don’t. We go like this under the sink, and the guy washed it.

Dr. Cohen: Yeah, so we do give you in the book, we tell you how to wash your vegetables. It is important. There’s, there’s God, I remember this from medical school. We did this is going to be gross. I’m going to just tell you right now.  We did an experiment where we cultured different things, like, you know, including like the bottom of our shoes to some, you know, fruits and stuff and the literal crap that grew. Well, sorry. It’s you know, so yes, we do need to, to wash better, but we also like, you know, we live in a grab and go, how much faster can we do this?  So we get great tips on how to wash things in bulk, how to clean up easier. Like that’s also part of the book, just to make your life easier. And once again, I hate to, you know, I don’t want to keep sort of patting myself, but the book’s got it in there. It’s great.

Dr. Weitz: Really good. How do you wash fruits and vegetables?  I saw you in your book, you [00:08:00] recommended using baking soda. I have a friend of mine, Suzanne Bennett, she recommends using powdered vitamin C in water. People have recommended using vinegar. There’s scrubbing things. There’s special soap at the store for cleaning fruits and vegetables.

Dr. Cohen: I used to use grapefruit seed extract as to wash vegetables too.  I think baking soda is probably the cheapest way to do it, more than powdered vitamin C, although that’s not that expensive, but all of the above are good. You know, I gotta go back. I wrote a blog on this many years ago about do it yourself. Fruit wash or hand wash. You know, I can’t even remember what I had written on it.  Do you just maybe remind me of that? I’m going to find that blog. Um, but yeah, it’s, those are all good ways of doing it. I’m sure you Google a recipe. There’s one online on how to do that. But you do have to, you know, you have to, you have to put a little bit of effort into it. Not a lot, but a little bit.

Dr. Weitz: Now, some people advocate juicing rather than smoothies. They say you get more [00:09:00] concentration of nutrients that way.

Dr. Cohen: Maybe you know, I don’t know. I don’t know. I think juicing, there’s a place for juicing but you’re missing out on the fiber, which none of us get enough of, so that is the real difference for me.

Dr. Weitz: And, and with the fiber, you getting a lower glycemic response as well, which is good.

Dr. Cohen: Yes. And also you’re feeding your microbiome that, that resistant fiber that we need, so there’s lots of reasons and honestly, none of us are getting enough fiber. That is, and that’s a real difference in my own way of thinking as a doctor.  You know, coming from Dr. Atkins, who I initially worked for 28 years ago and not, there’s not a lot of fiber in the Atkins diet or the keto diet, so that change over the last 10 years of like, we really need to up our fiber and you’re, you know, you’re hearing more and more of it. I think a lot of us.  Holistic people are really changing our minds about the fiber story and and really upping that [00:10:00] fiber is, is a big, is, it is a big point in the book that we make. So juicing and not getting the fiber.

Dr. Weitz: Right. How much fiber should people get a day?

Dr. Cohen: Yeah. I don’t know the number. I don’t know the answer to that.  I think, I think, I

Dr. Weitz: think I typically hear the 30 to 40 grams a day. Uh, and the average person gets like 10 or 15. Yeah.

Dr. Cohen: Yeah. 30 is the one that is the number that comes to mind, but it might be different. And, and, you know, the part of that story that we need to be a little bit careful about too, is that if you’re not eating that much fiber, And you all of a sudden need all that much fiber, you’re probably going to get sick.  You’re going to feel bad. You’re going to feel really moody and, maybe constipated. Do it slowly. If anybody’s going to start.

Dr. Weitz: And of course being an integrative practitioner like yourself and treating a lot of patients with gut problems and conditions like SIBO, there’s times when you have to restrict fiber.

Dr. Cohen: Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. And that’s You know, that, that then becomes more often when you’re [00:11:00] treating somebody with SIBO, the issue then is reintroducing or on such restricted diets to expanding their diets is really important. Hard and difficult. So there’s, it’s, it’s a nuance. I, anybody who’s suffering with SIBO, please see, you know, an integrative or functional doctor.  I think it’s I think they do the best with those kinds of things. And, and. 

Dr. Weitz: One of the trickier things to do is some patients are happy to expand their diets, but some of the patients. Once they start feeling better, they, I have had a number of patients say, that’s okay. I’ll just stay like this. I don’t want to add anything.  I don’t want to go back to feeling bad again, but I always push them as much as I can to expand the diet, to get back to eating fiber because you want that diversity of nutrients. You want to feed the microbiome. We want to rebuild. We don’t want to reduce. have a restricted microbiome, even if they’re SIBO scarred.[00:12:00]

Dr. Cohen: Yeah. Well, and inherently it’s going to, it’s, they’re going to get worse again. Like it’s, you know, and those are, those are even harder to treat than what they had in the first time. I, you know, I want to just, I want to tell you the story of and he allowed me to say this, my husband, who All he knows in this world is the Atkins diet because that’s the thing that made him feel the best.

You know, like he lost the weight, but the truth is the reality is he yo yos his whole life. He goes up and down a lot, 30 pounds, you know, up and down. And, and he thinks that when he goes off the Atkins diet, like food is a bad thing for him. Like, you know, it creates eating disorders in a sense, like you can’t think.

So I’m trying to also. you know, change that way of thinking. There is no diet talk in the book. There is no deprivation. There is nothing off limits because the truth is Ben, and you just, you know, you even just proved my point. We, all of us health practitioners do things that we’re not supposed to sometimes, right?

[00:13:00] You know, we’re not all perfect and we don’t want to be perfect. You can’t be in this world. And especially with diet. I, you know, I used to, Go out to dinner with Dr. Atkins. And I could say this ’cause he’s no longer with us, but he’d be like, and he was pretty famous at the time, and he’d be like, you order the dessert

You know, so like, we all do it and there’s a time and a place. You’re right.

Dr. Weitz: Yeah. I’ve, I’ve, I’ve been to dinner with other famous doctors who tell everybody not to eat certain foods and then, and then they help themselves to bread and things like that.

Dr. Cohen: Right. But if you up level your nutrition wherever and when, and most whenever possible, you’re, you’re, you’re going to be fine.  You’re going to live a healthy, longer life. You know, the one thing we didn’t even mention the big thing, which I totally just forgot is, um, ultra processed foods. you know, trying to get rid of ultra processed foods in your diet. Like, you know, it’s about anywhere from 50 to 65 percent of our diets are made from [00:14:00] ultra processed foods, everybody.  And so if we can, you know, gradually get that ratio, that number down, we’re going to be doing so much better off.

Dr. Weitz: It’s interesting. For years, the term was junk food or processed food. Somehow it became ultra processed foods.

Dr. Cohen: Well, it’s, it’s good because, you know, I think, um, think about this. I, I do recommend protein powders, right?  That’s an ultra, you know, and they’re medical foods. 

Dr. Weitz: It’s a processed food.

Dr. Cohen: Right. But that’s a good, healthy, you know, for most people. It’s

Dr. Weitz: processed, but not ultra processed.

Dr. Cohen: Olive oil is processed. You know, it’s, it’s mushed down. It’s processed. Yeah. So there is, there is a, um, category system, the Nova system.  It’s not perfect. It’s okay. It’s good. It’s good enough on, on what that means of what’s ultra processed. So, you know, and we give, we give a good description and in layman’s terms, what to think about when you’re doing ultra [00:15:00] processed foods, like cereals. Breads, anything with ingredients that have a huge list of ingredients that you don’t understand.  Those are all processed stuff.

Dr. Weitz: In, in your book, you make it, you make a distinction between additive and restrictive diets. And that goes along with kind of what you’re saying, which is, you don’t want people to have this eating disorder behavior.

Dr. Cohen: Yes, yeah, yeah, exactly. Like my husband, you know, he still thinks that if he eats a Mediterranean diet, because he’s having maybe too much, even, you know, rice or grains, you know, that it’s that he’s cheating, But the truth is he’s so craving some of those things.

And maybe if he did that, he wouldn’t be eating all the junk food because he’s not on the Atkins diet anymore. You know, like, cause I said, he yo yos and he has a sweet tooth more than anybody I, I, I know. So I, maybe if he did eat more, you know, carbs, more well [00:16:00] rounded diet, he maybe wouldn’t go to so many sweets.

And then when he goes off and, you know, so there is. It’s, it’s absolute. And this is, if this is the one thing I’ve learned in my 28 years of doing this type of medicine, um, I know that diets don’t work. They work for very, very, very few people. Um, and those people for the most part, aren’t that happy with their diets.

Dr. Weitz: You know, our metabolic systems are very complex. There’s feedback loops and, you know, you decrease one thing and then the body upregulates that. Production in the body. I was listening to, uh, Joel Kahn on his podcast was talking about some guy who’s eating, um, like 75 eggs a week and found out that his cholesterol went down because there’s an enzyme that when you consume a huge amount of cholesterol, the body says stop making cholesterol.

Dr. Cohen: So interesting. However, I can, I would be very curious. Um, I am [00:17:00] seeing more and more egg sensitivities in people because they’re eating, all they’re eating is eggs every single day. So yes, the cholesterol is one part of the story, but the other part of the story is, um, um, you know, diversity in your diet.  Right. You know, I think that that really is a thing, and we need to cycle our foods. You can’t be eating the same thing day in and day out. Mix it up a little bit.

Dr. Weitz: Now, are you seeing this based on food sensitivity testing?

Dr. Cohen: Both. Both. You know, so, food sensitivity testing is a tool. It’s not perfect, but an elimination, uh, trial of an elimination diet is, there’s no better test.  Right, so you eliminate a certain food for a period of time, reintroduce it, and your body will tell you whether or not it likes it.

Dr. Weitz: How long do you typically eliminate it for?

Dr. Cohen: I think a minimum of three weeks. That’s, that’s typically what I go for.

Dr. Weitz: Right. Okay. That’s pretty doable.

Dr. Cohen: Yeah. And I, I, [00:18:00] I’ll, you know, just to give some people, I’ll typically start with like the five most common things that I think, and I see up.  So it’s eggs, dairy, all day, you know, uh, dairy, Um, Gluten, Corn, and Soy. Those five things are, are a great way to start with the, eliminating those five things for a matter of, and I, and I’m making this number up, but I would say probably more than 90 percent of food sensitivities lie in those five things.

So, eliminate those five things for three weeks, Reintroduce them methodically, one at a time and and do it for three days, right? So, if you’re dying for your eggs, reintroduce eggs, eat, eat your eggs once or twice a day for three days, and if nothing happens, Fabulous. Go on to the next one. And the other part of that is I often separate out dairy.

I’ll separate out cow’s dairy, sheep dairy, and goat’s dairy when you’re reintroducing, because I find that people, some people can reintroduce, sheep, And goat dairy, but still can’t [00:19:00] tolerate cow’s dairy. So like feta cheese is, you know, or goat yogurt or goat cheese. So, um, that’s a real simple down and dirty, not only will it, you know, 90, 90 percent of food sensitivities, my number, not scientifically formulated.  But, um, I think a huge amount of gut, you know, gut issues could be, um, super helped by just that alone.

Dr. Weitz: Yeah, I, uh, I got real gung ho on the food sensitivity testing for a while and felt like I just needed to do certain, um, higher quality food sensitivity testing. And then I kind of got soured on it. Um, I, I definitely noticed that there were percentage of patients, just basically whatever foods you’re eating, those were the ones that were coming up positive.  And sometimes they were like the healthiest foods. Like you shouldn’t eat olive oil and avocado and eggs and chicken. And, and, you know,

Dr. Cohen: it’s a, it’s a [00:20:00] tool. Um, sometimes I use it for ammunition. with a patient, you know, like here, look, um, but, uh, I often find that if somebody, and I’ll tell them this before they even do the test, if you’re sensitive to a ton of things, nobody is sensitive to that many things.

Dr. Weitz:  That means you have a leaky gut, right? Your gut

Dr. Cohen: is messed up, you know, so if one thing comes up though, it’s screaming at us, that’s a really good test. That tells me that you’re going to eliminate that food and you’re going to feel better.

Dr. Weitz: So what’s your current favorite, uh, testing company for food sensitivities?

Dr. Cohen: Um, I use Vibrant Labs. Okay,

Dr. Weitz: yeah, yeah, we use Vibrant America as well.

Dr. Cohen: Yeah, it’s, it’s fine, it’s not perfect. I like it because it also does some of, you know, your, um, your leaky gut, what’s the test I’m thinking about? Zoomer. No, but your, your, your Oh, the

Dr. Weitz: zonulin.

Dr. Cohen: Yeah, it measures zonulin and a couple other markers that then give you a little clue as to some further things that you could or should do.[00:21:00]

Right. Yeah. It’s a good test. It’s not great. No, no, no food sensitivity test is great.

Dr. Weitz: Right. Um, what, what are, um, Talk about how, how making smoothies helps us macro, maximize our micronutrients and phytonutrients.

Dr. Cohen: Yeah. So, um, first of all, um, it’s almost impossible to put ultra processed foods in your blender, right?

Nobody puts cake in their blender. Nobody puts. So you’re only, you’re only putting real food in your blender, right? You’re putting fruits and vegetables and seeds and, you know, so it’s, it’s that in and of itself is worth everything, right? Um, and, and we just are not getting enough vegetables. So you can, You can put, um, spices and herbs in there, you know, so that it makes it really simple to get that 30 different plants in a week, number one.[00:22:00]

And, you know, I don’t know about you, but it’s rare that I have vegetables for breakfast, right? So whenever I make a smoothie, no matter what it is, even a dessert smoothie, I’ll throw some greens in there just to get those extra greens, you know, um, and, you know, plants are amazing. We have not even begun to to really understand or know the healing benefits of plants.

There is such wisdom, true wisdom in them from a health standpoint that we have no idea. You know, we as the medical community really have no idea. So, I mean, it just makes sense. You’re getting concentrated. greens in a, in a, in a blender, you’re putting things in there that you maybe wouldn’t eat for breakfast.  So it’s just a simple cheat, you know,

Dr. Weitz: I get it. I’m an exception. No, I think I had five, six vegetables with my breakfast and I made up a big thing of egg white omelet with, uh, I had kale and two different kinds of mushrooms and I had onions and [00:23:00] I had avocado. 

Dr. Cohen:  So, so, so yeah, you don’t, you don’t necessarily need a greens.  And that might not be you. You’re the person. However, the condiments and the up leveling wherever you can in your blender, the desserts. One of my favorite things in the book, we have a section called salad shooters. Um, so I don’t know, you know, when you have leftover salad, you put it in the fridge, hopefully you’ll eat, you know, saying I’ll eat this tomorrow.  You never eat it. 

Dr. Weitz: You throw it out. Yes.

Dr. Cohen: Try throwing it in your blender and drinking, you know, drinking it as a snack the next day. Sure. It’s a, it’s a hit and it tastes really good. Sometimes it’s not, you know, throw it away anyway, but what a great way to get a little extra and not waste food. So like, that was,

Dr. Weitz: I can’t tell you how many vegetables we throw away because we load up the fridge and

Dr. Cohen: I know, I know.

Dr. Weitz: Stuff always gets pushed in the back that you forget about.

Dr. Cohen: That’s the other thing, like the blender, you know, to, to lessen food waste. So, um, it doesn’t have [00:24:00] to be, it’s necessarily a meal. It could be a little afternoon pick me up or snack, a way to, you know, get those used. How many times do you put a cut pepper in the fridge in a baggie and don’t use it?  You know, or your, your, you know, stuff that you don’t use in your salad.

Dr. Weitz: A million times.

Dr. Cohen: Throw it in. Yeah. Yeah, make a little blend. Sometimes it’s great. And if not, you wasted five minutes, three minutes of your time.

Dr. Weitz: Right. You talk about adding certain gut helpers to your smoothies. Can you talk about that?

Dr. Cohen: Um, yeah. So fiber is definitely one of them. Um, I’m trying to think what the section was. So

Dr. Weitz: I think you said fermented foods, resistant starch.

Dr. Cohen: Yeah, fermented foods is a big one. We have a whole nice section on fermented foods, um, which going back to what you said earlier, could be a little difficult for some people who, especially if they have SIBO or something like that, right, fermented food, but we really discussed a whole lot about fermented foods and how in other [00:25:00] cultures there, there are so much more widely used than they are here.

in the U. S., but what a great way to get, uh, good beneficial bacteria in your, in your body. Um, and, and that’s, that is a method of processing that’s good, you know, for example, you know, and it’s, it’s the original way of how they, um, Uh, what’s the word I’m looking for? How they kept food, um, stable and, and extended their shelf life.

What’s the word? Expired. You know, it doesn’t, I’m blanking on the word. Um, simple word. Uh, so fermenting was a way of how they kept foods stable and fresh for longer. Um, and for centuries it’s been, it’s been done. Um, and so, uh, really nice way of, of, um, Keeping foods longer. Um, but I wanted just a little, you know, pickles in the gross, in the food store have no, uh, they don’t add bugs to there.  It’s just vinegar, right? So [00:26:00] most pickles are not a fermented food.

Dr. Weitz: Right. Even though they are. Yeah.

Dr. Cohen: Right. It sounds like it was

Dr. Weitz: probably the same with a lot of yogurts that claim that they have all this probiotics when, you know, the way they’re made commercially, they probably don’t have very much, or they may have strains that are not particularly beneficial.

Dr. Cohen: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So, um, there’s a great cookbook. Donna Gates wrote the cookbook on fermenting foods. Okay. Fabulous, fabulous book on how to learn to ferment yourself. Um, if anybody is, is interested in that, but I do think that there’s some real good. Yeah. Benefits for fermentation, but also be careful if you’re not used to, to doing it.

Dr. Weitz: Yeah.

Dr. Cohen: Yeah. Yeah. I

Dr. Weitz: had some, uh, beet kimchi on the side with my eggs this morning and

Dr. Cohen: Oh, what a fabulous breakfast. I think you should wait. Tell, tell me your breakfast again, because I think this is a total learning point for everybody.

Dr. Weitz: I, I cut up two different kinds of [00:27:00] mushrooms. I had reishi and I had, um, I, I, I had, um, uh, what did I have?  This morning I had oyster mushrooms, and then I cut up onions, and I cut up kale, and I put it in a pan with olive oil, and then poured it in a container of egg whites, and then added some avocado on the side, and also put a side of kimchi, and put a little hot sauce on top, a little jalapeno sauce.

Dr. Cohen: Gorgeous. Wow. What a meal. I bet if we counted the vegetables in that it’s, it’s like over 10 in our 30 a week that we’re supposed to be getting. 30 different ones a week. That’s incredible. Gorgeous.

Dr. Weitz: Yeah. Always try to do that. Maximize the phytonutrients and diverse. Why do you

Dr. Cohen: use egg whites? I’m curious.

Dr. Weitz: Uh, cause I’m stupid. I’m old school bodybuilder from, you know, the [00:28:00] eating cholesterol is bad. But, uh,

Dr. Cohen: it

Dr. Weitz: makes it easy for me. I, you know, I can just pour it in and I don’t have to take the eggs and chop, you know. Mix them all up. It’s, it’s ready. It’s there. 

Dr. Cohen:  I love that. That’s a cheat right there. I’m

Dr. Weitz: basically using the eggs to get the protein.  Love it. You know, sometimes when I, I take some time and put some, uh, you know, blend up some regular eggs and pour them in, but.

Dr. Cohen: Yeah. I’m just curious what the thoughts are. Yeah, because I just to just to be clear that I think all, you know, eating eggs with egg yolks doesn’t raise your cholesterol, you know, it’s, it’s all the other things and in a rounded diet that counts,

Dr. Weitz: right?

No, I know. And I, I, we, we actually, I mentioned that study where this guy’s eating some extraordinary number of eggs a week, like I think it was like 72 eggs a week and found his cholesterol actually [00:29:00] went down because of some enzyme that down regulates, uh, cholesterol production, but, you know, still trying, everybody’s trying to maximize their cardiometabolic health.

Dr. Cohen: Yeah, yeah, no, it’s, and there’s nothing wrong with eating egg whites at all. I just was curious on people’s, you know, yeah, yeah. I will say though, you know, there is also some, um, research that, um, you, you could be deficient in biotin if you’re eating too many of the egg, egg whites.

Dr. Weitz: Yeah, I understand, but, and then there’s also the issue of choline, you know, the cholines in the egg yolks, and you got Stanley Hazen saying that choline’s going to increase your TMAO, and that’s going to increase your cardiovascular risk through another mechanism, but, you know, I think Once in a while None of Given the amount of supplements I take, which is about at least 30 twice a day, um, I’m sure I’m not [00:30:00] biotin deficient.

Dr. Cohen: I don’t even do that either. Um, but yeah, so the, I, I think, uh, yeah, you’re, you’re, you’re good. I just, you know, for, for people listening, just.

Dr. Weitz: Yeah, I’m constantly doing large arrays of, uh, blood testing and trying to maximize everything and getting everything to the optimal range and get my omega 3 level to 12 and get my, you know, everything.  Yeah. Just playing that game.

Dr. Cohen: Yeah. I just came back from a conference, as you know, we talked about earlier, and Mark Hyman spoke at the end and he talked about his function health. program, which, um, you know, I think

Dr. Weitz: the design to undermine integrative physicians by having patients treat themselves, but okay.  Uh, it’s so interesting.

Dr. Cohen: The person who spoke up in the audience was one of his doctors at the Cleveland health clinic for integrative medicine. So, however, however, Um, I do think that there’s something about putting the, you know, for the [00:31:00] people who can’t get to these practitioners.

Dr. Weitz: Sure.

Dr. Cohen: There’s something, you know, about being able to do these blood tests for yourself and having that information.

Dr. Weitz: Sure. It’s just you and I both know how complicated it is to interpret these and look at the whole milieu and look at the history and look at everything else.

Dr. Cohen: Yes. Yeah, I think, I think there’s a place for it. Um, and like you said, like you’re doing your own blood testing. Like, you know, how nice is that, that you have that luxury of being able to do that?

Dr. Weitz: A lot of people don’t. Right. But you know, because of all this consumer testing, I can’t, I don’t know about you, but I get. So many inquiries, emails and stuff from patients. This one level is a little low, this level is a little high. What does that mean? Oh my God! You know, am I gonna die because my, um, you know, monocytes is one tenth of a fraction below where it’s supposed to be, you know.

Dr. Cohen: Well, that’s why I think there’s always

Dr. Weitz: a place

Dr. Cohen: for us.

Dr. Weitz: Personalized

Dr. Cohen: medicine is still super [00:32:00] important. Um, and you know, if, uh, but I, I do, I still think that it’s, it’s, there’s goodness in being able to take charge of your own health, doing so.

Dr. Weitz: Absolutely. It’s important that people get access. Not everybody can afford to see a functional medicine doctor.  I get it.

Dr. Cohen: Exactly. But I’m right there with you, by the way, because that was my question in the audience. I was like, I’m listening to him and I’m thinking. You know, this is the person who was the president of the Institute for Functional Medicine, trains doctors, you know. 

Dr. Weitz: And it is to some extent undermining a little bit.

Dr. Cohen: I think so too. 

Dr. Weitz: And by the way, I think Mark Hyman is great. And I’m happy that he’s going to get a big payday out of this whole thing. And I think he deserves it.

Dr. Cohen: Yeah, no, he’s put himself out there. He

Dr. Weitz: really,

Dr. Cohen: you know, yes.

Dr. Weitz: Yeah, I think he’s great. I appreciate everything he’s done for our profession, for me.  And you know, I see where he goes to Congress and argues for Functional Medicine. [00:33:00]

Dr. Cohen: It’s the most important stuff. You want to talk about ultra processed foods and changing the system. He was right there at the forefront.

Dr. Weitz: There’s no better representative for our profession. I appreciate Mark Hyman. Yes. And I think his books are great, too.

Dr. Cohen: Exactly. Exactly. Um, but we’re, we’re still on the same, same wavelength as that. Yes. I love it. I love it.

Dr. Weitz: Okay. What else? What else? Anything else that we haven’t talked about? I’m sure you have some other things.

Dr. Cohen: Um, I, you know, there’s a whole chapter on hydration, which was my, which is my, you know, my, my whole thing, uh, about learning how to hydrate.

Dr. Weitz:  Mention again, the title of your first book on hydration.

Dr. Cohen: It’s called Quench, um, coauthored with Gina Brea, um, written five years ago, still continues to sell, bestseller, done, has done really well. And I still get letters from that, how that [00:34:00] book changed their lives. Um, and it’s also. a very simple message, easily practical, easily implemented and very practical.  Um, and, uh, learning how to hydrate is, is always the first step before you go on any, uh, diet or nutrition or even supplementation, you have to start with learning how to hydrate first. Um, and the good news is that can be done in one day, you know, but you have, it’s the one thing that I am a stickler on.  Like you have to stay on top of your hydration. every single day, you know, that 80, 20. 

Dr. Weitz:  That means not just drinking water, but eating these water rich fruits and vegetables. So you get water in this other form that’s particularly beneficial, right?

Dr. Cohen: Exactly. Exactly. So, you know, the truth is both books are very similar in the message.  One is, is. is just more in the blender kind of thing. The other one is, is hydration. But if you put them together, it’s the same, it’s the same [00:35:00] information, right? You’re, you, the, the bottom line, get more fruits and vegetables and plants into your diet. Um, and that doesn’t mean you know, being a vegan or vegetarian at all.

Um, it just means eating more, more additive, eating more plants and vegetables. And then the, the quench book does go into, um, different phases of water. It goes into more on movement. Um, fascia is a hydrating act. Um, you know, that there, there’s a lot more in that book that’s really focused on hydration and, and yes, drinking eight glasses of water a day is not necessarily the answer for most people.

Um, some people can do one glass of water if they were eating a super hydrating diet and some people need eight glasses, but it just depends. Everybody’s different. Um, I will say one thing about that, which I think we talk about in this book, I can’t remember now. The best thing you can do to know if you are optimally hydrated is to look at your urine output.  Um, so we are meant [00:36:00] to pee every two or three hours while we’re awake. And if you’re not doing that, you’re not hydrated. And that’s, that is like that one message is really important. So anybody listening, make sure you’re doing that.

Dr. Weitz: And you should be having a good poo every day, potentially two or three times a day.  That’s another key to hydration as well.

Dr. Cohen: Yes. Yeah.

Dr. Weitz: Yeah. Great. Great. So, um, your book is going to be out, um, probably by the time this podcast is posted, your book will be out and you’ll be able to get it wherever books are sold, I’m assuming?

Dr. Cohen: Yes. Everywhere books are sold. 

Dr. Weitz:  And I recommend going to a real bookstore if you can, like Barnes Noble, because we’d like to keep a few of the remaining bookstores still in existence.

Dr. Cohen: Yes. Please visit your local bookstore, ask them to carry the book. I would be forever grateful, um, because yeah, we need, we need those stores staying open. [00:37:00]

Dr. Weitz: And listeners can also get more information from your website.

Dr. Cohen: Yes. Which is great. DrDanaCohen. com.

Dr. Weitz: Great. Thank you so much, Dana.

Dr. Cohen: Thank you, Ben. Be well.

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Dr. Weitz: Thank you for making it all the way through this episode of the Rational Wellness Podcast. For those of you who enjoy listening to the Rational Wellness Podcast, I would very much appreciate it if you could go to Apple Podcasts or Spotify and give us a five star ratings and review. Thank you. As you may know, I continue to accept a limited number of new patients per month for functional medicine.  If you would like help overcoming a gut or other chronic health condition and want to prevent chronic problems, and want to promote longevity, Please call my Santa Monica Weitz Sports Chiropractic and Nutrition office at 310-395-3111 and we can set you up for a consultation for functional medicine.  And I will talk to everybody next week.