Picture walking into any grocery store and the shelves are filled with a variety of products and foods for you to choose from (at least in the US, Canada, and most of Europe pre-pandemic). It gives you the impression that you have great diversity and choice in what you eat, right?

Our guest on the podcast today is Dan Saladino, a prominent BBC food journalist, who just wrote a book that proves your impression may be wrong. 

Eating to Extinction: The World’s Rarest Foods and Why We Need to Save Them is an exploration into how the structure and globalization of our food system have caused a loss of food diversity and traditional food cultures. The resulting food monoculture brings with it staggering costs like a lack of resilience in the face of climate change, pests, and parasites that threaten our health and the health of the planet.

Just take a look at these examples:

The source of much of the world’s seeds is mostly in the control of just four corporations. 

Ninety-five percent of milk consumed in the United States comes from a single breed of cow. 

Half of all the world’s cheese is made with bacteria or enzymes made by one company.

One in four beers drunk around the world is the product of one brewer.

My co-host, James Connolly chats with Dan about why he felt compelled to write a book that shines a light on the issue of food extinction and why it’s currently relevant in today’s world. 

Listen in as they cover:

Dan’s background and how he found the topic of endangered foods

The history of seed hunting and seed saving

The worldwide effects of colonialism

How an accidental American cheesemaker saves an iconic British cheese

Why advanced technology in agriculture isn’t all bad

The impacts of the 2008 economic crisis on agriculture

Episode resources and transcript are available at www.sustainabledish.com

Connect with Dan:

Radio Show: The Food Programme on BBC Radio 4  

Instagram: @dan.saladino

Twitter: @DanSaladinoUK

LinkedIn: Dan Saladino

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Episode Credits:

Thank you to all who’ve made this show possible. Our hosts are Diana Rodgers and James Connelly. Our producer is Emily Soape. And of course, we are grateful for our sponsors, Patreon supporters, and listeners.

This episode is sponsored by Levels, a continuous glucose monitor that gives you individualized insight into your metabolism. This is a tool I personally use and recommend to people I work with. It’s helped me figure out what foods spike my blood sugar and which ones keep me level. I can also see how certain tricks like walks after a meal affect my body. Right now Levels has a waiting list of over 150,000 but they are allowing my listeners to skip the line if they go to sustainabledish.com/levels and sign up. Try it out to see how the food you eat affects your metabolism. This is a must-have tool for anyone interested in personalizing their nutrition. 

A continuous glucose monitor (CGM) might just be the solution you are looking for. For most of their existence, these tools have only been available to those diagnosed with poorly managed diabetes. So, in other words, once there was already a problem.

My guest for this episode, Josh Clemente, who when seeking answers to his own health questions, found this barrier to be frustrating and confusing.  Why should you need permission or wait to have a problem in order to get information about your own body? Josh channeled these feelings and created Levels, a CGM available to the general public.

Josh says “the intention of Levels is to generate metabolic awareness” and understand how all your individual choices affect you and use that to piece together tactics to achieve your goals. 

I don’t typically dedicate an entire podcast episode to a single product unless it is one I truly love. Levels have given me insight into how the foods I eat and the context in which they are eaten, effects me. Plus, it gives me accountability at the same time as liberation. I can eat more carbs than I thought and find ways to fit in occasional ice cream (or tequila!).

Listen in to find out more about CGMs and bio-individuality as Josh and I talk about:

- How Levels started and Josh’s struggle to find out information about his own body

- Why healthcare (or rather, sickcare) needs engineers

- The need for a paradigm shift from one of “symptom care” to one that enables people with feedback to make informed choices

- Why the focus should be on metabolic dysfunction rather than specific diseases

- What leads to metabolic dysfunction and why context matters

- The importance of closed feedback loops in making decisions

- Why you should pair salsa dancing with your margaritas

- What the future holds for Levels

Resources:

Lily Nichols, RD

Robb Wolf

Wired to Eat by Robb Wolf

Freestyle Libre 

Dexcom G6

Marty Kendall

CDC stats on diabetes

Weitzman Institute Study on CGMs

Gretchen Rubin and The Four Tendencies Quiz

Glucose Goddess

Connect with Josh:

Website: Levels

Instagram: @levels

Twitter: @levels

LinkedIn: Josh Clemente

Podcast: LEVELS - A Whole New Level

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Episode Credits:

Thank you to all who’ve made this show possible. Our hosts are Diana Rodgers and James Connelly. Our producer is Emily Soape. And of course, we are grateful for our sponsors, Patreon supporters, and listeners.

On this episode on the podcast, we are taking another deep dive into the importance of nutrition for fertility and pregnancy. While women often shoulder the responsibility of all things related to preconception and birth, my guest today, Ayla Barmmer, MS, RDN, LDN says that nutrition in men during this time is just as critical.

For over 15 years, Ayla has been advancing the health and empowerment of thousands of clients, patients, peers, and mentees, at the intersection of nutritional science, functional medicine, and evidence-based holistic solutions.

Ayla and I have a special connection in that as I was completing my dietetic internship, she was one of my preceptors. And I continue to be impressed with all that she has accomplished in her career as a registered dietitian.

Ayla owns and operates Boston Functional Nutrition, an integrative and functional nutrition multi-clinician practice that specializes in women’s health and infertility. She is also the founder of FullWell, a fertility wellness brand, widely endorsed by a diversity of health practitioners for its quality and education. 

And that’s not all! Ayla founded the Women’s Health Nutrition Practice Group and co-founded the Women’s Health Nutrition Academy with recent podcast guest, Lily Nichols, RD.

Despite her very busy professional life, she has taken time out to chat about all things “real-food” as it relates to pregnancy and fertility. Her passion truly shows as we cover:

- Why preconception nutrition is so important

- The importance of men’s fertility health in preconception

- How oxidative stress impacts men’s fertility health

- Why Ayla started making supplements and how they are different from other supplements on the market

- Important nutrients to look out for during preconception and pregnancy

- The difference in nutrient forms

Even if this isn’t the phase of life you are in or simply not interested in becoming pregnant, this episode still has important takeaways for anyone who uses supplements. Plus, fertility is a sign of health so it’s important to have it even if you don’t use it. 

Resources:

FullWell Supplements

Sustainable Dish Episode 179: Ty Beal, PhD

Alya’s blog post about iron

Sustainable Dish Episode 178: Lily Nichols, RD

Sacred Cow

Nordic Naturals

New Chapter Wholemega

Urban Moonshine Calm Tummy Bitters

Real Food for Pregnancy by Lily Nichols, RD

Connect with Ayla:

Website: Full Well Fertility and Boston Functional Nutrition

Instagram: @fullwellfertility and @aylabarmmer_rd

LinkedIn: Ayla Barmmer, MS, RD, LDN

***

Episode Credits:

Thank you to all who’ve made this show possible. Our hosts are Diana Rodgers and James Connelly. Our producer is Emily Soape. And of course, we are grateful for our sponsors, Patreon supporters, and listeners.

This episode is sponsored by Levels, a continuous glucose monitor that gives you individualized insight into your metabolism. This is a tool I personally use and recommend to people I work with. It’s helped me figure out what foods spike my blood sugar and which ones keep me level. I can also see how certain tricks like walks after a meal affect my body. Right now Levels has a waiting list of over 150,000 but they are allowing my listeners to skip the line if you go to sustainabledish.com/levels and sign up. Try it out to see how food you eat affects your metabolism. This is a must-have tool for anyone interested in personalizing their nutrition.

I am popping in your feed for a special episode. NYC schools just announced that in addition to their Meatless Mondays, they will now be serving all vegan meals on Fridays.

As you may imagine, I am pushing back hard on this. To discuss the problematic policy and its consequences, I have the perfect guest, Ede Fox - better known as The Black Carnivore.  Not only does Ede promote a meat-inclusive diet but she also knows firsthand the landscape of New York, its politics, and the children that will be directly impacted by this change.

Listen in to find out more about how taking meat out of schools will have devastating effects on some of the most vulnerable kids. 

Connect with Ede:

Podcast: The Black Carnivore 

YouTube: Black Carnivore

Instagram: @blackcarnivore

Twitter: @edefox

LinkedIn: Ede Fox

***

Episode Credits:

Thank you to all who’ve made this show possible. Our hosts are Diana Rodgers and James Connelly. Our producer is Emily Soape. And of course, we are grateful for our sponsors, Patreon supporters, and listeners.

If you’ve been listening for long, then you know I am a big believer in bone broth. From its gut-healing properties to its nutrient-dense profile, bone broth is always something I have around for sipping or adding to recipes. 

I’ve been making my own broth for years but as we all know, sometimes it's nice to have some stocked and ready-to-go in the pantry. Ready-made bone broth is also a good option for those of us that are time-strapped or maybe just intimidated by the whole broth-making process. Believe me - we’ve all been there. 

My favorite shelf-stable bone broth is Fond and Alysa Seeland, founder, and CEO, is on the show today to talk about her story and why she started Fond Bone Broth. Along with the Fond origin story we also chat about:

- The delicious Fond flavors and how they came to be

- Fond’s setbacks and growth over the years

- Tips and tricks for making broth at home (there’s one that even I didn’t know about)

- The outer and inner results from drinking bone broth regularly

If you are a bone broth evangelist or skeptic, this episode is for you so tune in!

Resources:

Weston A Price Foundation

Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions

Sustainable Dish posts on chicken and beef bone broth

Connect with Alysa:

Website: Fond Bone Broth

Instagram: @fondbonebroth

Twitter: @fondbonebroth

LinkedIn: Alysa Seeland

***

Episode Credits:

Thank you to all who’ve made this show possible. Our hosts are Diana Rodgers and James Connelly. Our producer is Emily Soape. And of course, we are grateful for our sponsors, Patreon supporters, and listeners.

This episode is sponsored by Levels, a continuous glucose monitor that gives you individualized insight into your metabolism. This is a tool I personally use and recommend to people I work with. It’s helped me figure out what foods spike my blood sugar and which ones keep me level. I can also see how certain tricks like walks after a meal affect my body. Right now Levels has a waiting list of over 150,000 but they are allowing my listeners to skip the line if you go to sustainabledish.com/levels and sign up. Try it out to see how the food you eat affects your metabolism. This is a must-have tool for anyone interested in personalizing their nutrition.