Episode 52: Healthy Food = Happy Life

Transcript

doTERRA: In the US, a majority of people follow what is labeled the Standard American Diet, which is often abbreviated to S.A.D., or sad. And the reason that this abbreviation is so appropriate is that studies show that 63% of America's calories come from refined or processed foods, and half, 50%, of our plant-based calories come from french fries. Now there has been a movement in recent years to abandon this S.A.D. diet and that's what we're going to be focusing on today: what is healthy eating and how you can do it.

Welcome back to essential oil solutions with doTERRA, the podcast where you'll hear exciting, useful, and simple everyday uses for essential oils from experts in the field. If you like what you hear today, rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen. We always appreciate hearing from you. Today, we're excited to sit down with Angela Villa to discuss her views on healthy eating and what she does to keep herself on track.

Angela, thank you so much for joining us today. It is a true pleasure to be able to sit down with you.

Angela Villa: Oh, sure thing. I'm excited, too. I'm excited to chat.

doTERRA: So what we want to talk about today is a really big issue—I think—for a lot of people, and that is healthy eating. I was doing a little bit of background research, and on the health.gov website, it talks about how half of all American adults have one or more preventable health issues, a lot of which are related to poor-quality eating patterns or low physical activity, which is just a huge number. And so we want to talk about how people can overcome this and make that change in your life. So what foods should people be eating?

Angela: That's a loaded question. It's actually true; you're right. We have a problem, and there is—what I'm learning is there is a lack of understanding about food. And it was that way for me. For the majority of my life, I was pushing—I was well over 300 pounds, and it was simply because I didn't understand food, and the people that were teaching us about food didn't understand food either. So, I mean, I don't know if people know this, but doctors get less than four hours total of nutrition education in med school. 

doTERRA: Wow.

Angela: So we have a problem, right? So when asked what should we be eating, we tend to look at the latest guru. Like, what is this person promoting? Are they promoting high fat, low fat, high carb, no carb, no sugar, and we don't really learn, like, what our body does with food. So when I just got fed up with the weight issue and all these things, I turned to learning about what food does in the body. And so when asked, “What should we be eating?” Honestly, we should be eating all foods.

That's not true with sugar, though. That's not really food. So I'll talk about that, but we should be eating all foods. This body was created to be nourished, to be in balance. And the typical American diet consists of extreme imbalances. We go one way really high, or the other way. And the problem is that we send our body into massive imbalance, and it's really unhealthy. So when you ask, “What should be eating?” I say all foods. 

We should be eating proteins. Our body is literally made of protein. And so keeping it out of the diet is an extreme problem. We should be eating fats. Fats are good for our body. We need all forms of fat. You know, all forms of fat. Not just—we don't need to stay away from butter, or we don't need to stay away from whole eggs. We need all forms of fat. We need carbohydrates. I feel like I should say that again because I—people fight with me on this. Literally will fight with me.

doTERRA: Right, it’s kind of an unpopular opinion. 

Angela: It is. It's a problem because nobody really understands carbohydrates. And I am like the expert of carbohydrate living. I get it now. I understand that people are afraid of it because they think that it makes them fat, which is so false. Actually it nourishes our thyroids. Especially for women. It's really good for the brain. We need it. The problem is that we tend to eat a very high-carb, high-sugar diet. And so then we turn and we blame carbohydrates for being the problem. And they're not. They're so good for us.

So we need to have carbohydrates. I could probably talk more. I could go on and on about that, but it's fine. Let's see, we need to have vegetables, and I am the worst with that. I have to blend everything because I'm like a two year old. I’m like, “Oh, I don't want to eat that.” But we do. We need them. They're good for us. They fuel us. They give us iron. They give us so many benefits for the body to function. Fruits and vegetables are key. We need some dairy, not lots of dairy, but some. I feel like I go against the grain on, like, the food pyramid that the government puts out, but it's okay, right? We need to limit some dairies, but it's good for us to an extent. So except for sugar, honestly, everything is important to the body. I feel like it was put on this earth to nourish the body that was given to us on this earth. So why eliminate anything? 

doTERRA: That's incredible, and I think that's the part that all these fad diets miss is that true balance and listening to your body and taking care of it. So you mentioned sugar, which I think is a big one in people's minds, but are there other foods that I should be avoiding, or maybe types of foods that we should be avoiding?

Angela: So here's a really cool thing about the body that I learned is that excess sugar in the bloodstream is not a good thing. And so if a product says nonfat, your body is going to make that a lie because anytime there is an excess of blood sugar in the diet, the body will reject something. So here's what I liked. Here’s—let me make it simple. Any sugar your body cannot use turns into fat, whether or not the package says fat free or not. Any sugar the body can't use turns directly to fat.

doTERRA: Wow. 

Angela: And so the first place that insulin wants to go to—so insulin carries, you know, proteins, fats, glucose through the bloodstream. It’s a good thing, but we've made it such a bad thing, like “insulin makes us fat.” No, it doesn't. It carries things through the bloodstream. And the first place it goes is to your muscle cells, and you kind of think of your muscle cells like, you know, the real tidy, proper—I don't want to label anything—but just librarian type. Once your muscle cells are full, they shut down, and they will not open up. Nope. They won't open up again. But insulin knows that, “Okay, if you're not going to open up for me, I'm going to go to the party animals,” which are your fat cells. They're open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and they never say no. That's what we know about fat cells, is that once they're full they start to duplicate, so you can produce more. So we send everything that our muscle cells won't take into our fat cells, and there's your problem.

So when I say “avoid sugar at all costs,” yeah, it's kind of like a drug. And so you got to look at foods. Anything that's packaged “fat free,” “low fat,” I kind of like to tell people, “that’s a toxic garbage storm.” Don't touch it. Go to your more whole foods. Look at that. 

But besides sugar, another thing I teach people to avoid are your white flours. Honestly, the body looks at that and goes, “sugar.” 

doTERRA: They are basically in everything packaged nowadays.

Angela: Everything. It's crazy. When I got into learning about food and reading labels, I was shocked. And if you think about sugar, it's very, very addictive. The more you eat, the more you want. 

doTERRA: Right, absolutely.

Angela: And so it just becomes this cycle of I'm craving sugar all the time. Sugar is not evil if you are willing to listen to your body. if you're willing to think, “You know, am I really overdoing this? Is my head spinning? Does my tummy hurt? Are my adrenals feeling shot?”

Most people don't want to listen to their bodies. They listen to the most marketed fad because it's easier.

doTERRA: Right. 

Angela: That's our big problem. It's like we're listening to—I hate—like, we’re listening to people who don't have an education on nutrition, or we're listening to people who maybe did some fad and lost amazing weight, but we're not listening to our body, and that's the biggest problem. 

doTERRA: Wow. That is astounding just to think of the things that people are doing without thought, perhaps.

Angela: Yeah.

doTERRA: You know, all of these things that are marketed towards us, all these things that we get in everyday life, aren't really helping our body. 

Angela: No. 

doTERRA: So you mentioned that maybe it's not the easiest thing to do, to seek out whole foods, to avoid the sugar, to avoid the processed food. So what is the draw? What's the benefit of changing that, changing your eating habits, and striving to get these better foods in your body?

Angela: So the benefit is—there are so many benefits. When you start taking—maybe it is a more time-consuming path. It is. I mean, but this is your one shot with this body. What are you going to do with it? 

doTERRA: Right. 

Angela: Treat it right. It’s begging—I love teaching the emotional stuff about eating because it's begging everyday just to be treated right. And so when you start listening to it, one of the biggest side effects of listening to and respecting your body is weight loss. Without a shadow of doubt, it’s a huge side effect, which is awesome. Side effect, weight loss, side effect. I say side effect, but that's the word that most people know. 

doTERRA: A positive side effect.

Angela: It’s positive side effect! Our skin clears up, our adrenals start to function normally. You know, adrenal fatigue is a big like trigger word for people, or maybe that's not the right word, but anyway, adrenal fatigue is something that's being thrown around a lot. Another great benefit to listening to the body is most all skin conditions can be fixed by putting the right things into your body.

You'll actually start to know when you truly are hungry, and when you're just bored. You know, our body makes all sorts of gurgling sounds, and it's supposed to. Your stomach is going to settle, that doesn't mean you're hungry. It just means that it's settling, and other times you'll start to feel, “Okay, that's not a settling gurgle, that is ‘I'm starving. I need to eat. I need to honor my body.’” One of the things I love to say is, “What's the kindest thing I can do to my body right now?” And sometimes it's moving, sometimes it's sleeping, most of the time it's eating something that's going to nourish it in a really respectful way.

So I've had a ton of health benefit turnarounds just knowing more about food and being willing to take that time. I was going to spend that time doing something else anyway, and it was probably, like, TV or scrolling Facebook, so I might as well make myself a really good, nourishing meal that's beneficial not just to me, but to my whole family. So yeah, it's time consuming but you get past that, and you realize there are so many benefits to taking the time to spend on your body.

doTERRA: Well and I love that thought of the time is spent either way.

Angela: Yup.

doTERRA: You have the same amount of time, you have this hour, you're going to spend it either way, why not spend it in a way that benefits you—that benefits your life overall, that's going to be able to effect change down the road? I think that's beautiful.

Angela: And it's true. It's absolutely true. 

doTERRA: So shifting gears a little bit, I want to talk about essential oils. 

Angela: Okay.

doTERRA: So a lot of people have been using essential oils to either help them stay on track with their healthy-eating goals or to enhance their healthy-eating goals. How have you found the essential oils can help with that?

Angela: Well, I use them in everything. I literally can't walk anywhere and not have essential oils in arm's reach. They are everywhere in my house. And we can use them every day to benefit us in the food world. So I use oils not just for—you know—helping me with cravings, helping me with digestion, but I bring them into my wellness routine when it comes to food, where I love to use Lemon. Lemon is amazing for just breaking down toxins within the body and helping to flush them out. Your body already knows what to do. It truly does. We've just kind of programmed it to stop doing some things by bad behavior. But the essential oils come in as a tool to support the body in what it does naturally. So it doesn't fight the body and go, “No, we're gonna break this down whether you like it or not.” It will come in as a tool. So Lemon is wonderful. It's in every glass of water I drink because—I admit—I struggle drinking water for a long time, and it's a great natural flavoring, but it helps to flush and break down, which is wonderful. And it immediately uplifts the mood. So any time you're eating out of a mood imbalance, just drink a glass of water with Lemon. It's awesome. Ginger is wonderful for soothing the stomach, to soothing the intestines the digestive track. It also gives you that feeling of fullness, along with peppermint. It's phenomenal for that as well. 

If you if you just had Slim and Sassy, you basically have them all in one, but they really just support you in your dietary needs. I mean TerraZyme is a wonderful product. I know it's not one of the oils, but it's one that I will never be without because it helps my body to break down food. But it also helps me to get more nutrients from less. So there's not a lot of absorption that takes place when you've been really beating up on your body. It'll kind of just, you'll eat, and it'll bypass. It'll just go right through.

And so until you retrain your body by treating it well—being kind to it, eating whole, healthy foods, lots of vegetables, lots of fruits, carbohydrates, like I said, proteins—once you do that, the body will start responding. But TerraZyme is a wonderful product to help you just start absorbing more from the food that you do eat. So I never keep that out. 

I think that I have to talk about Lifelong Vitality because a lot of people don't realize that because they're not absorbing nutrients, they're missing out on lots of basic staples that your body needs. So I look at the body like a sponge, and a sponge has all these holes, and we can only fill those holes so much with the food that we have on this earth.

So supplementation comes in, and really kind of fills in those gaps. And so that sponge becomes more solid, and then you can build on that solid foundation. And so things like cravings, they are to some extent normal, but when you start craving weird things like chips, sugar, laundry detergent, dirt—you’ve heard those when pregnant women are like, “I was craving dirt!”

doTERRA: Yeah!

Angela: It's a simple nutrient that your body was missing. And so if you give it the right supplementation, a supplementation that actually does assimilate or absorb within the body, you're going to have fewer cravings that are just random.

So I could go on and on. I mean, there are amazing oils out there. All citrus oils are phenomenal to keep on a daily basis. I even make a yummy drink that I can sip all day long that helps to soothe my stomach, curbs cravings, gives me the water that I need, and I simply use Grapefruit, Lemon, Ginger, and then I do a teaspoon to a tablespoon—depending on how I feel—of Apple cider vinegar, and I add water, ice, and maybe a drop or two of liquid stevia. And it's delicious, and it's so good. I actually had a video I did on it go totally viral because doTERRA is awesome, and they love their drinks where you can utilize the oils. But it's helped a lot of people just to get their water in and treat their body just a little bit better. So yeah.

doTERRA: I love that, and I love how simple all of those things are. It is nothing crazy-complex. It's not meal prepping for six hours the night before. It's adding these little things to help you with cravings or to aid in your digestion. I think that's beautiful. So one of the hot topics that I think people have a lot of confusion about is using essential oils when they're actually making food, cooking, different things like that. How can I use essential oils in my cooking and make sure that I'm doing it right?

Angela: So I like to take away that phrase of am I doing this right? Honestly, in my experience, if it's too hot, it's too much. I've just really played around with it. I tell people when you're cooking with your more “hotter oils”—I'm using quote fingers on a podcast, so you can’t see it, it’s fine—when you're using the hotter oils like your Oregano, your Black Pepper, Thyme, Rosemary (even though Rosemary is not really hot. In cooking it can be, meaning intense), I tell people either do a toothpick, like dip a toothpick into the oil and then mix it into your food. Or if you're brave using oil, use like a full drop. I've done that. So like when we prepared our Thanksgiving turkey, I used Rosemary, Thyme, and I just did that with some— you know—a vegetable-based oil and was able to coat the turkey in it. I wasn't afraid to do it. I just did it. Granted, some meals don't turn out quite well, or my kids go, “What is in this?” It's fine. I'll just tweak it and come back to it.

But the good news is is that these oils, you can cook with them, and you actually save on—I mean spices are wonderful, and I think the more people get used to using spices in their meals, the less processed foods they will eat. When I understood spices and how to use them, we backed off of processed foods big-time, and I love it. But you can use your oils as spices, and it saves a lot of money because good spices are really expensive. 

doTERRA: Absolutely. 

Angela: And so if I'm just using—you know—a toothpick drop of black pepper, that's amazing. And there's a really richness flavoring to your food when you do cook with oils. I tell people, “Just experiment.” It's never going to be right the first time, but if you're willing to continue to try, they are a gift. They're a serious gift to cooking. I love making—you know—baked goods with all of the yummy citrus oils. In fact, some of them even have amazing health benefits even after they're cooked, but don't be afraid of it. Understand that the research is done. I mean the quality is perfect. And so you don't have to hesitate. If the oil is a name that you're familiar with, that’s a spice, go for it. Go for it, and there's great resources out there and tools and books for cooking, baking, mixing drinks, just have fun with it. Don't just stick to the basics. Oils got really fun when I wasn't just using them for—you know—being unwell, and then I realized I was able to use some that I kind of just left on the shelf. And that was cool because I don't want my oils to go to waste ever. So yeah.

doTERRA: I love that so much. Angela, I really appreciate you coming and talking with us. I hope that everyone can be a little bit more courageous in their use of essential oils, and I really hope that through our conversation people can try and honor and love their body a little bit more.

Angela: Yes. What is the kindest thing that you can do? Just remember that, and remember that you're your best bet. I mean, you are the one person that you can trust more. And if your body is telling you something, listen to it. And don't worry about what the latest guru says because those who yell the loudest are just trying to sell you stuff. That's what I think. But honor your body, listen to it, and just trust, trust in the quality of what doTERRA offers that you can and should use them very effectively in your life.

doTERRA: Thanks for joining us and congratulations on living a healthier lifestyle with essential oils. If you liked what you heard today, rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen. Also, if you want to try any of the products you learned about, go to doterra.com or find a Wellness Advocate near you to place an order today.