Hey everyone!
Today we finish the podcast with Part 2 of my interview with Dr. Edwin McDonald of The Doc's Kitchen.
What we discuss:
- Local and Regional Food Systems
- Getting Back into Your Kitchen
- The Doc's Kitchen
- How to Eat Better
The show notes are down below:
Frank:
00:00 Hey everyone and welcome to unconventional wellness radio, a powerful and inspiring podcast, set to revolutionize and disrupt healthcare. It's time to put you in the driver's seat to be the force of change necessary for the lifestyle you've always wanted.
Frank:
00:17 Hey guys, I'm so excited to bring you part two of my conversation with Dr Edwin Mcdonald of the University of Chicago. You can check out Dr Mcdonald on thedocskitchen.com as well. So enjoy the rest of my conversation today with Dr Mcdonald.
Dr. McDonald:
00:39 Like I, I hate to say everyone wants to talk about willpower and self control. Like I, I feel like these concepts are unsteady to some degree because it's hard out here and there are certain environments where it's actually harder. Uh, so, you know, imagine that being an alcoholic and your neighborhood is as far as the bar bar Bar, that's not a good environment for you to be. And uh, you know, regardless of how much willpower you have for the average person that is just, it's a setup for a struggle, uh, and not many people get through that struggle. Uh, and, and that's what our neighborhoods like. And, and, and another thing that really got me interested in nutrition, so I'm like, I know these nights from these days I live in these neighborhoods and you know, what I have seen over the past 20 years, the rise of dialysis centers and urban neighborhoods specifically here in Chicago.
Dr. McDonald:
01:40 So when I look at a church, I'll see a church with a dialysis center next to, it was like a Popeye's chicken next to the dialysis center and me just looking at that, the image of like there was a dialysis center where there's a church and as a fried chicken place like, well what about this makes sense sense whatsoever. And, and, and, and for me originally I wasn't really interested in nutritional world. Like originally I wanted to be a basic science so I did research in the lab, you know, killing mice and trying to figure out how to, you know, great medications for inflammatory fat and stuff like that. But then when I started thinking about these images that just doesn't make sense. I'm like, man, I have a greater impact on people. So I just talked about food than you know, me being in the lab and you know, killing mice unfortunately because it was never going to be the guy that's going to cure a colon cancer. This is just not in the bed, is not a skill set and I'm okay with admitting that, but you know, I couldn't be the guy to tell people to eat less and there's something powerful in getting people to eat less referrals. It may even be more powerful then gearing going answer.
Frank:
03:15 And that's the thing too is that like, you know, I'm gonna get into the next topic that I'd love to talk to you about. Of course with your conception of what you call The Docs Kitchen, but it's like. We cared. Look at reports were also kind of happening is that in America we're allowing others to cook for us these days. Now. Definitely growing up. I mean I'm Italian and in the heart of the home for most Americans was the kitchen. I mean that's where conversations happen. That's where like my mentors in my family gave me, during what my knowledge, that's where we sat around and just, you know, made pasta at that time and made these different types of foods that it would just create conversations. And uh, fortunately we have definitely moved away from the kitchen being the center of our home and now people who are even listening to this call and have absolutely no understanding of how to make food.
Frank:
04:14 And so, you know, what, what is being delivered to them in these restaurants might be their only opportunity. And so I think that that fuels this whole food swamp idea is that even where I'm at, I'm in a little bit more of a rural area, but yeah, I can drive 10 minutes and there is literally fast food alley in one of the, um, one of the, the cities or towns should say one of the towns that close to me. So I really urge our listeners to try to just take a take charge, say to yourself, I don't want to do this anymore and I need to get back into the kitchen. Or I need to learn how to make food. We'll talk a little bit more about like regional/local food and how you can help support that as well. But let's really dive into, let's get our meat hooks into this whole concept of The Docs Kitchen. How long now has it been like, if you want to just kinda tell us about like, you know, this, this is spurring along that you needed to tell people about food and then how did you finally just put your foot through the door, if you will? And how was Docs Kitchen created?
Dr. McDonald:
05:15 Yeah, so I was looking through on the Internet for websites about nutrition. I felt one, there's too much information out there and information was all over the place. Uh, a lot of information. One, even though there were a few doctors who were actually writing about nutrition. Um, so it was hard for me to find any role models in terms of like actual physicians who are communicating about nutrition. I mean, there are definitely people out there, don't get me wrong, but it's just not a lot of us. Um, and then I, you know, saw a plethora of, you know, self proclaimed, nutritionists, Anaplan for a people that were there, were putting out, you know, there's some good information, there were some not so good information and what people should eat. And I felt like in order to combat that a, I need to create my own, my own platform.
Dr. McDonald:
06:13 So at first I was intimidated. I didn't know anything about starting a website. I didn't know anything about, you know, writing blog articles. This was uncharted territory for me and uh, and I'm a guy like was biology major. I'm with the medical, uh, getting on websites and whatnot. This is not what I did and you're still not my skill set and even writing and talking about it's just, you know, not my skill set and I'm a personality. So at, for many years after I went to culinary school, I just didn't know what to do. Like I had this training, I felt like I had the information, I didn't know how to get out there. And I, uh, asking friends, website healthy start and get started. But then everyone's just like, oh, it's so easy, you just go and work press, or you know, some people would want to charge, you know, give me $3,000 and I'll make it.
Dr. McDonald:
07:10 And I'm like, I don't have $3000, so, you know, one day I just sat down and uh, you know, just made it like I got on wordpress and I would mess with word press people to help people and they will give me certain tips and, you know, a month or two later there was the website. Um, so I started a website and I had no idea what I should put on a website. Um, you know, there's plenty of food blogs out there. So why would I just make a food blog when there's already, you know, thousands of food blogs. So gracious and, you know, people making good recipes. Initially I started just focusing on recipes, but then I just thought about it and like I'm not a good food. Photographers now learned through the photography. Um, so, you know, as I was building my skills as a food photographer, I'm like, well, I'm just going to write about nutrition, so I'll write an article about, you know, questions my patients asked me in clinic, um, you know, will, like, is coconut oil healthy or is, you know, should I drink Kombucha, um, or, you know, is it okay for diabetics eat fruit?
Dr. McDonald:
08:27 Um, so I would research the literature and, you know, answer those questions with the evidence base, not only evidence based but also experienced based. So then I started realize I'm like, you know, all these questions I have experienced in the clinic story, a personal experience, family experience, and then I have the evidence. I'm like, okay, well let's put it all together and make sure, you know, not only an entertaining blog post, but educational blog posts. And then when I started thinking about recipes, uh, I thought about all these blogs, blogs, or they have these great recipes, but no one really explained why, you know, food is good recipe. So I'm like, okay, well maybe if I give recipes, let me give citations and references as to why I put together this recipe of so now it becomes evidence based eating as opposed to just the recipe, you know, people learn something and you know, learn how to cook, but then also people learn the science behind some of this stuff.
Dr. McDonald:
09:30 And I started doing it maybe about a year ago and uh, you know, it's still in its infancy, uh, but you know, people seem to like it and I get a decent amount of view that it's growing and I'm working on trying to figure out some of this Google Seo, search engine optimization stuff. So, you know, when people search certain terms, my website will pop up and uh, it is a work in progress, a blood. I'm committed to it and I'm trying to figure out ways to get better at it. Um, so, you know, the website is www dot [inaudible] dot com. Um, but what I found is that I use it as a resource and clinic. Um, so a lot of times in my weight management clinic also have weight management clinic. Uh, I'll sit down and I'll start talking to people when people say things like, Oh, you know, I'm addicted pails potato chips.
Dr. McDonald:
10:22 And I'm like, Oh, you know what? I wrote a article about potato chip addiction and some of the science behind it. And as a matter of fact, let's pull up my article and in our clinic visit I go through the article and, you know, that it, it's an example. It's just like bringing up a powerpoint is that we're in a clinic visit. Um, so people really appreciate it. And then one of my patients end up following the website and neat and some the articles and asking questions, uh, which for me, I'm just a good example of how the Internet can change a clinic visit and you know, the way we deliver care. And I'm still trying to figure out like how to use this as a resource because it's just not a lot of examples. I mean, I just don't have any other physician I can go to like, oh man, so what do you do with your website and your clinic visit?
Dr. McDonald:
11:13 Um, so in many ways I'm just kind of on my own and trying to figure out how to use this as a resource. Um, and that's one reason why I like that healthy practice conference because it got me in contact with some of the few individuals in the country who are doing some of that stuff. Um, so there was the one doctor visit a young project and she was talking about how she used her website in the clinic visit and I'm like, oh, this is amazing. This is exactly what I'm trying to do. Um, and you know, another issue with the website, that's how they found me for the conference. Someone just randomly go on Internet and it came across the website and they're like, oh, this good guy
Frank:
11:54 speak at the conference. Um, well for the benefit of everybody that was at the conference, I'm glad that somebody google search to you because you definitely have a great story and we're so grateful to, you know, be able to, to, to listen to your story because it's inspiring that there are medical providers, medical doctors, and a doctor of osteopathic medicine and things like that, like people that we go and we see, you know, um, and it's just inspiring to see that people are finally starting to get hip to this. And the downside is, is that access to medical care, um, you know, that is another barrier in our country and it's very difficult for a lot of Americans to be able to see a medical providers at all. And so it's great to see folks like yourself putting out this information saying when they were still here because you still need these tests.
Speaker 1:
12:45 You still need labs. But when it comes to nutrition, you can make a choice and you absolutely can get started with something. And I love the fact that you also have seen on your blog that you also talk about ways to cook food. You know, like that's something that a lot of people once again have a problem with and so, um, there are, you know, what we in the military we call the field expedient lays to still create very nutritious meals and very short periods of time. It requires a little bit more of an input like, you know, like one of the things I remember doing when I was younger was um, I'd make all my protein for the week, you know, so I would, I would do something like that, but now we got like instant pots and you know, we can create a, I can cook a chicken and I think like 20 minutes, you know, whole chicken.
Frank:
13:31 So it's inspiring to absolutely see that you're actually doing this work. And so I wanted to, like, if we could, can we dig a little bit into uh, this, this understanding of where, you know, preventable disease, like what I talked about earlier with the whole 80 percent of Americans can do that. What can we say to other physicians that might be listening to this podcast about inspiring them to also maybe consider doing the same? Because all over the country that data is showing it, you know, the American College of Preventive Medicine is showing a lot of really great data and research into backing the importance of nutrition and considerations for exercise or functional movement in their clinics. What would you say to those physicians out there who might be listening to this podcast? Like what, what can they do? What are some of these steps that they can take that you've already shown your intrepid endeavors, if you will? Yeah. So the first step is really recognizing the severity of the problem. Uh, so, and that's really, that really entails getting into some other nutritional literature and understanding epidemiologists and that public health isn't really taught well in medical school, medical school, learn physiology,
Dr. McDonald:
14:52 pathophysiology, anatomy of a lot of science, but it's not necessarily public health focus and sometimes it is, but most of the times it's not a. So physicians really have to gain a true appreciation for the scope of the problem. So just a couple of facts. Uh, according to the CDC, a 650,000 people die every year from diet related diseases. Um, and, and that number should not be ignored. Um, also in terms of, uh, uh, data from a n, Hanes, one of our biggest kind of, you know, survey cohorts, cohort studies, they found that for the average American, 60 percent of our calories come from ultra process. So culture processes, they're like, I mean, they're like superhero of processed foods. Um, you know, we talk about processes, I'm talking about ultraprocessed foods and the next step up and 60 percent of our calories, those process, uh, and ultra processed aren't even real foods, you know, they really contained industrial ingredients that you can't find at a supermarket or in your kitchen cabinet or your cupboard.
Dr. McDonald:
16:02 Uh, but that's where all our calories are coming from. Uh, and, and that has a huge impact on our overall health and the health of the country. Uh, so a physician as a physician, we have to recognize that problem, um, in the contribution of the way we're eating to health outcomes. So that's the first step. The second step is now figuring out, you know, what to do about it and how to get some training. So for me, some of that training did not happen in, in medical school. Um, and you know, I'm not saying that every physician needs the cloud and go to culinary school. Uh, I, I was lucky to have the opportunity, but you don't have to do that. Uh, so they are simple things that you can do. One Cornell has a good plant base, a program where you can get a certificate and plant based nutrition online just through Cornell and cornell is a legitimate university.
Dr. McDonald:
16:59 Um, and I think that program, and it's not free, I don't remember exactly how much it costs, but I think it was like a thousand dollars. So, uh, but you know, for a physician, uh, being willing to spend a thousand dollars to actually help your patients. So I think that is a small price to pay for the benefit that you may be able to give to others. Um, and then there's also a course, there's an online cooking school, called Rouxby and Rouxby r o u x by, so roux, like a Gumbo roux. And, uh, they have a good course and plant based cooking, a certificate program and plant based cooking, which I also took. So even though I went to culinary school, I took a separate online course, uh, specifically focused on just cooking because, you know, my top 10 cook elementary school, they didn't really teach us how to make Tofu and tempeh and all this Vegan dishes and whatnot.
Dr. McDonald:
17:59 I just, you know, they teach, you know, French culinary, basic techniques. Uh, so I had to seek more education in order to get good at some of that stuff and even learn about it. Um, so those resources are easy and you can do it in the comfort of your own home. Um, and then there's plenty of organizations where you can learn more about how to actually talk to patients about food. Uh, so if you're interested in helping people weight issues, you can join, there'll be deciding and go to obesity week. Matter of obesity week is coming up in Nashville, uh, I think second week of November, a great resources for folks who want to get certified in obesity medicine. Uh, and then there's a lot of resources, uh, the plant tuition project. Um, so, uh, Scott stull a plant based plant based physician has a website called I think plantrition.org, uh, and they have a lot of conferences so they have a plant based nutrition conference that happens, uh, in San Diego every year in September.
Dr. McDonald:
19:09 Um, great resource and, you know, a lot of physicians go there, but a lot enough physicians go there. Uh, so it's a lot of health practitioners, PA's, I mean, that's something that you may want to be interested in checking out. So, um, so I have lots of those conferences and, and got connected with a, you know, a likeminded people all over the country and, and just getting connected with likeminded people. To me it's, it's very inspiring and motivating, uh, because focusing on nutrition as a physician, uh, especially when position and when physicians historically have not necessarily focused on nutrition as much. Um, it, it, it can, some people look at you like you're crazy to, to be honest with you. Um, and seeing other people doing the same things have really just said like, you know, I'm not crazy. This nutrition stuff is important. Um, I remember when I was a resident and I was telling some elemental or is that I didn't want to do basic science research as much as I want to, you know, do a fellowship in nutrition.
Dr. McDonald:
20:16 I was thinking about going to culinary school. They literally said I was crazy and I was going to throw away my uncle Leo and uh, uh, wasn't, you know, going to be effective as a physician. Um, and that was the response and you know, I could have, could have ran with it and said, well, you know, let me just go back to the lab and, you know, and, and people know, there's definitely roles for people in the lab. I don't want to downplay any of the basic science researchers because we either that, but just like we need people doing research, we also need people talking about nutrition and actually implementing that. We are actually researching. Um, so, you know, you mentioned you being Italian. Uh, what is the most popular guy right now when it comes to improving health outcomes and that's the Mediterranean diet.
Dr. McDonald:
21:12 People are research and researchers are researching the Mediterranean Diet actively common up a fault these benefits. So if you like wine, that's why the Mediterranean diet is nice. Oh, right. I mean there's a number of uh, one of the Mediterranean diet is nice, but now we just have to figure out how to get people to adopt the Mediterranean diet and that's where people like me come in and, and, and you know, also have a research background. So I've worked with some of the food scientists. I actually just published a chapter in the textbook food scientist on how to study and you know, the background information for it. Um, so I wanted those food scientists, but you know, ultimately if the science is, stays in the lab, doesn't help anybody. So we have to get designed outside of the lab to the actual people and the Mediterranean Diet. You know, it's funny that like if something new, uh, and it's not that you're like a Thai Italian grandmothers have known this presenter.
Frank:
22:18 Yup. Absolutely. Then all of a sudden, the past 10 years, it's just like, oh, we need for anybody listening on the call for anybody listening or call a promise Pasta and pizza is not the, you know, foundational staple and in Italians diet. I promise you this, it is not, that is the tip of the iceberg. It's the icing on the cake and we enjoy eating it on Sunday, but the rest of the time it's exactly what the Mediterranean diet describes. But, but also, you know, another interesting fact about the Mediterranean diet and it, it, it really is a testament to the, the influence of our western American Diet. So what country has the highest rates amongst the highest rates of childhood obesity in the world and it's not the law in the United States and the countries actually greet on the Mediterranean. Interesting, interesting.
Dr. McDonald:
23:14 That, uh, well, uh, a lot of people in Greece and a lot of other countries are abandoning, abandoning the traditional way of eating. And you know, switching over to the western diet. You go to Dubai or some of these foreign countries in the Middle East, like Dubai in particular is like KFC, Wendy's, and Mcdonald's, and it's very much americanized. But when people grew up on this, you know, Middle East and bad, which is, you know, not too far removed from the Mediterranean Diet. It's like everyone's abandoned. He messed up and they're going down the route of fast and, and, you know, the stuff that, that's delicious, don't get me wrong, it's delicious, but it is doing it frequently. It's just not healthy. And the United States, we've proven that. But that is the way the world, the whole that shifting away from the stuff that, you know, to plc, it was going towards the fast food convenience. Uh, you know, if anything, stuff that promotes food addiction, um, and, and that's a problem
Frank:
24:24 as a know because I'm not going to sit here and I'm not gonna pretend like I've not eaten fast food in my life. I don't think the American are really not touched them. But I would offer to you that I've gotten smarter throughout the years, of course. And when I eat a fast food meal, I actually am pretty hungry within about 30 minutes of finishing it. I don't feel like I've gotten satisfied from a fast food meal. I feel like I'm like ready to consume some more. And I think it's because of all that wonderful ultra processed foods that you were talking about earlier. You know, there's talk full of like super sugars and things that make me want to crave more food. I can eat salads now, you know, and I can eat berries and nuts and fruits and things like that. And I'll tell you what, I have felt more full and satisfied eating a simple salad for a longer period of time than I would if I was to go in and say by like I guess a big Mac or whatever. I just feel so much hungrier after I eat that food and being satisfied.
Dr. McDonald:
25:28 And that's really because the salad has a lot of fiber and fiber. It actually slipped when it combines with water. It swells and so it kind of increased in size and takes up more space in the stomach which can make you feel more full. Um, and
Frank:
25:45 stuff like that, getting more satisfied because I remember seeing a study that showed that, and correct me if I'm wrong, please, but um, you know, that that fast food, it can become synthesized so quickly in the human body that it actually doesn't make it down to the terminal ilium and where the terminal ilium releases the, the I'm not hungry anymore. Unsatisfied hormone back to the brain that say, Hey, you know what? I'm actually good still. I don't need more calories. I'm fine. You know. So I, I, I, I, just. The value of fiber alone. Yeah, exactly. It's incredible. You know, it's, it's very valuable because it actually will make its way through the entire system. And on top of that, we all know that the benefits of fiber art clinically for cholesterol, it's shown to just improve your bowel movements, which is super important. Like if you're not going to the bathroom every single day, that might necessarily be normal for you, but if you increased fiber, we're going to increase the ability for the stuff that's already kind of in there to make a way out.
Dr. McDonald:
26:52 You know, there's a lot of, like, there's a lot of stuff that can sit around and cause a bunch of inflammation in your gut. And yeah, we can have a whole nother podcast about gut health, but we have a podcast about gut health, but a take home point, people need fiber and fiber comes from food. So I'm not talking about, you know, these fiber supplements and get your fiber from foods that has fiber. And you also brought up a good point in terms of not necessarily having to have bowel movement every day. That is true. Uh, so average American according to a large study, large population study. I tried to identify like what is normal frequency for bowel movements where there's a range and that range. So it's basically either three bowel movements per day down to three bowel movements per week. So if you are having more than three bowel movements per day, that's probably not normal.
Dr. McDonald:
27:45 That's outside of the normal range. That does not necessarily mean you have a problem. It just means you're outside of normal range. So you mean anything. And if you're having less than two bowel movements per week, you know, that just means you're outside of that normal range. So That's interesting to say that you're abnormal. Yeah. Just to say that you should be healthy like you shouldn't be. Like one thing I do know about is like stool habits, right? So like if you're like, if your habits dueling where you have to like physically use your abdomen to try and keep this stool into the toilet, that's the lead to a multitude of problems. That's a marker of compensation at the end. And then there's plenty of things we can do for constipation that's including changing your diet. Well, I wanted to round out, this has been such a great call.
Frank:
28:32 I wonder to round it out with just a concept that, you know, maybe I'm going to pull in my, um, you know, my agricultural education degree. If I may for just a little bit in the fact that we have a farm in the western side of North Carolina, we would love to grow our own food and I love that by the way, like I, I actually, I'm so jealous and I wish I can learn how to become a farmer. Just like you've told me that if you want to have me up in Chicago and you're showing me all the sights and everything like that, it stays the same for western North Carolina. We Love Asheville and you're very welcome to come on down and come visit the farm will show you what we do to a. I also have a youtube channel. I'm just going to do a shameless plug here, but I have a youtube channel.
Frank:
29:10 You can go check it out, not for just yourself. Dr Mcdonald Book. For our listeners, you know, you guys can check out like all the things that we do on the farm with the animals and we talked chickens. We talked to all that kind of stuff, but I say all that because it's a segue into this understanding of local regional food and, uh, and we don't need to have this concept of I can't get myself fresh fruit. I mean, please let me know about your experience. Is there a way that a person in Chicago, so we're thinking of major urban area here, can they still
Dr. McDonald:
29:42 in fact put their hand on a farmer's market? Is that possible? Oh, definitely. Uh, so there are plenty of farmers markets throughout the city and even in these neighborhoods that our so called food deserts. Uh, so, uh, I think of the 61st street farmer's market, uh, that's the first thing that comes to mind. And the people who were on the 61st street farmer's market here in Chicago, which has the neighborhood in south side, uh, they actually sponsored all the legislation and ticket, uh, uh, food stamps covered at, at farmer's markets. So for people who do have food insecurity, who do, depending on snap food stamps, food stamps are available. You can use them at farmer's markets. And not only that, there's a program that matches, uh, uh, it's like a matching program, so whatever money people spend on food stamps a, there's a separate funding program that's going to match the funds so that people can actually get more food when they come in with food stamps and then otherwise, um, so that's one option.
Dr. McDonald:
30:46 And you know, looking for the farmers markets, there is a new bill that's really encouraging a lot of convenience stores that have healthy fresh fruit. So there's definitely ways to get a good fruits and vegetables in urban areas. And thankfully a urban farming, urban agriculture, uh, it's really starting to take off, uh, absolutely, uh, on multiple different levels. So just on a community level, there are plenty of community farms. Uh, I mean, uh, I live on the south, uh, and I have my little little garden in my backyard and, and it's not even a garden for a bunch of blocks. A backyard is actually concrete. Uh, so I have these little, I have maybe about eight or so or earth boxes and I, um, have all my herbs that, you know, Broccoli and tomatoes and all that stuff in the backyard, you know, that I, that I use and the inspiration for the earth locks a really came from the sheriff, Rick Bayless, Rick Bayless, Chicago Chef, a famous for Mexican food and on the rooftop of his restaurant, he has, you know, hundreds of Erp box and the vegetables that he serves in the restaurant comes from the vegetables on, on the rooftop of the restaurant.
Dr. McDonald:
32:03 And I'm like, Oh man, if he can do that for a top class world class restaurant, I can do that for my family. Like a opposite, trying to feed, you know, for the people but not a whole restaurant work with people. So that's what I did. And uh, there's also community gardens. So a couple blocks from me. There's a community garden where everybody in the neighborhood plans and we've identified, you know, people, uh, in our kind of block club take care of in certain days. Uh, and, and that, that speaks to community. You know what I mean, that's like he was saying that should be doing
Frank:
32:40 so in terms of not only are we growing healthy food, what the garden is really a, a way to grow a healthy community. You're interacting with your neighbors. And I mean if anything, it's taken us back to, you know, uh, a, a time in the past where neighbors actually hung out and communicating. Um, so now we are in society. You absolutely right. So the foundation of America is agriculture. I mean we, uh, you know, when you, when you think about, I mean just for father's time, just to speak about how our society has evolved over the years is that we started off with people. Yes, they were bankers. There were lawyers, there were all those other types of things. But the fact of the matter was, is that every one of them to include George Washington himself actually at Mount Vernon that loves to retire, to the concept of this, this new coin term called Agra therapy guys.
Frank:
33:37 It's been around forever. I mean, we know that putting your hands in soil is something that will root you and connect you to something bigger than you and you know, use the Internet for what it's worth, but use it for, you know, creating societies, reach out to your local areas, look for these things on facebook and like really get into it. And you don't have to be a farmer to start. I mean there's farmers of all levels here. There's, there's people who are doing it of all levels. If your thing is that you don't want to grow, you know, celery or something like that, maybe you're a fantastic farmer of flowers and you know, there's something about flowers, you know, so there's, there's, get out into your communities and in strive to do this. If there's nothing going on around you started, you know, like, like get up there, mess up because I'm gonna tell you right now like, yes, I'm a farmer, but the fact of the matter is that I will never.
Frank:
34:27 I'm still won't consider myself a good farmer, but I definitely would think that I have worked myself through messing up plenty of times to where I'm okay now, you know, so I had no farming experience. I wasn't born and raised in, you know, an agricultural society, if you will. I was, I was born in the city, you know, I was raised in the city and I made that choice to say I got to get out. It literally back to my roots. And so that's unfortunately what's been going on in America over the course of all of these years is that people have migrated toward urban areas. And so we, we really have lost our connection with food ever since World War II. We have never seen an influx toward urban areas as much as we are now. And so when I, when I throw out the term local regional food guys, I'm talking about like getting out, finding out who these people are, supporting your local farmers markets because you have a choice and you can put your food dollars back into your communities and that will help generate additional opportunities for these farmers that these growers to give you the food that you want.
Frank:
35:35 You don't have to buy the food that has been given to you out of like your grocery store, you know, there's fine food there. But then I can uncover this whole thing about like, you know, yes, it's labeled organic so it must be good for me. Or the fact of the matter is, is, is organic food may not even be grown in the United States. It might be grown in a farm that's thousands of miles away. And so when you bring up Rick Bayless, I love that because to me I don't even have to know that the food is being grown on a rooftop or in somebody's backyard or you know, at the restaurant. I just tastes fresher. To me. Yeah, I can definitely experience a different taste, you know, flavor profile because at the end of the day, not only do we want the food to be nutrition, it's kind of tastes good, you know, so even if it doesn't taste good, we're not eating it, you know, so I'd be happy to have your omelets at Mcdonald's.
Dr. McDonald:
36:22 So I'll tell you that pretty good actually. Other things that you can do a, so a lot of places, I mean pick out with your local farms and, and the best way to do that, it's really just go to your local farmer's market. And when I go to the farmer's market, like I talked to the farmers and a lot of farmers, they have CSA boxes. Absolutely. You sign up for their CSA, you know, once a week you get a delivery of a bunch of different fresh fruits and vegetables, whatever. They have a. and it's the stuff that they pick it and send it to you. And it's not like it's sitting on a truck somewhere or sitting in a warehouse somewhere or he, a lot of food is a whole separate conversation. Uh, it's going straight from the farm and you get an idea of what food is supposed to look like.
Frank:
37:11 A so now not like every vegetable or fruit is this perfect specimen that ends up in the supermarket and that's okay. Like it doesn't have to look pretty, uh, just have to be good for you and be healthy and taste good. So look and taste, you know, somewhat they're connected but not always a race on everything we've been taught to some degree for the CSA boxes are definitely, uh, you know, one way to go for many people and if I can add to that tier, there's folks that are also doing meat CSA as well. So if you need protein in your life and you don't want to just have a plant based diet, which you know, you could sit there and we can talk about pros and cons of all of that anyway. But if you'd like fresh meats as well and make sure that they're grass fed, make sure that these animals aren't grain finished, you know it's going to just have a better, healthier nutritional profile for you if you follow those particular ways.
Frank:
38:13 But then it was just like the CSA box for produce. They now there's a lot of farmers getting pretty ingenious out there and they can actually have CSA boxes for meats as well. So you can have poultry and pork and beef and you know, other seasonal meets if you will, can all be in the same box as well. And really what you're doing when you, when you opt in for something like that for community agricultural programs like this is that you're, once again giving more food dollars to those local farmers so they can continue to support you in your demands of what you want for your. So you have a choice. You don't have to, you don't have to eat what's put in front of you. You can cause there to be better for. To be put in front of you. Yeah, definitely a whole wholeheartedly.
Dr. McDonald:
38:56 And then plus it's just good support to farmers, especially the farmers who are outside of big agriculture. So at the whole the impact of big agriculture, that's a whole separate conversation. Oh yeah, totally, totally. So. Well, I mean, I'm like speechless because I'm just so giddy about like just all of the, all of the hopefully great content that we delivered today. I mean, I'm so thrilled and I'm so honored that you've joined me on this call today. I just, once again, I wanted to make sure that we let people know it's the thedocskitchen.com correct. Not Dot org dot yet becca. Okay. So please make sure that you go check out Dr Mcdonald on the docks kitchen and uh, and we will have a list of resources that you can also look at that we talked about on this podcast today. Um, you know, Dr Yum was brought up.
Frank:
39:50 That is Dr Namali Fernando to guys, if you like, one thing, if I could say it about what I love about her website is that number one, she's a nonprofit positions. So like she set out to say, you know, I want to see patients, this was gonna be my livelihood, but now she's a pediatrician practicing in Virginia and she does all of this like, you know, essentially for free, you know, like she provides this really great resource. She's going to change the name of it, but there's this resource and it's escaping my name, I think it's the machine, the machine or something like that. The eyes you can input, you can input what you want or excuse me, what you have inside your house and you can input these things and it will spit a recipe back out at you. And so you could say, like, I have ginger and I have an onion and I have, you know, maybe some leftover chicken or what have you.
Frank:
40:42 And you can have a stir fry dish recipe in minutes. So please check that out. I love that about the Dr. Yum site And please make sure that you check out the The Docs Kitchen. Uh, you know, I would love to have you back as soon as possible Dr Mcdonald if that's okay with you. I'll definitely, absolutely. And so at the very least, you're going to continue to deliver this content. We're going to bring on folks like Dr Mcdonald guys and we are just going to really unwrap this understanding of unconventional wellness and we want to make sure that you understand that once again, there's hope. You don't have to be a number, don't be a statistic, you can be different and you can be unique and you know what you could be healthy. And so we want to make sure that you understand all of these things. So from all of us over here and unconventional wellness radio. Thank you. So Dr Mcdonald again for, uh, your brilliance and, uh, and we look forward to always seeing you guys on that next podcast. Thanks everybody.
Frank:
41:46 Oh Man, I sure do love bringing you this podcast. And while we're at it, if you liked this podcast, please hit that subscribe button. So you can always be getting notifications when we upload a new podcast. And always, as we love, go ahead and click on that review button, click on that button, send this podcast to a friend because we all could use every bit of education that we could in order to maximize the potential for our wellness. We will catch you guys on the next podcast. Thanks again.
