Glyphosate Lawsuit, MAHA, & the New Food Pyramid | Courtney Swan

24:52We need to change this. we never heard Obama say it Trump never said it his first um yeah he never said it his first four years uh Biden never said a word and I just kept sitting here going Americans are really sick and this is a big deal we're talking 74 percent of our youth 18 to 24 are ineligible for military service like we're starting to talk about national security threat and everyone ignored it until finally Trump and Bobby Kennedy got on a political stage and they said Americans are sick and we're going to fix it. And I mean, just that alone to me, what do they say in the step program?

25:27The first step is admitting we have a problem. We admitted we have a problem publicly. So that I'm very excited about. What else? The dietary guidelines, absolutely amazing win in my personal opinion. I think we've already gone over that. Some things that I'm really excited about that I am hopeful will get fixed. Bobby Kennedy was talking about how the formula has not been re-evaluated since... Oh, infant formula. Yes. Oh, my gosh. One of the absolute worst. I mean, think about the most important time of your entire life is developing as an infant. And these infant formulas are toxic. Oh, it's horrible.

26:01They're terrible. It's terrible. I mean, the first two ingredients are generally, when you get away from water, it's corn syrup solids and canola oil. That's right. It's just crazy. And then it's a bunch of synthetic vitamins, most likely not bioavailable for the body, not to mention they're putting folic acid in there. and if the baby has MTHFR, they're not even going to get folate from that. So it's a mess. Yeah, yeah. I have frequently talked about how important breastfeeding is and if you can do it, do everything you can. If you can't, try and get breast milk. And if you can't, Weston A. Price had a really great formula they put together.

26:38It was like, you know, goat's milk and then all these other ingredients to make your own at-home formula. and that is just such a better option than what today's infant formula is. I'm so glad you brought that up because it's just so bad today. It's a travesty. Yeah. Well, and you look at too, so we were just talking about the dietary guidelines. So the dietary guidelines are going to have a huge ripple effect on what we do with WIC recommendations, SNAP recommendations, funding, where we put the funding, what kind of foods that we're going to really like push forward. and you know I look at because when I talk about formula a lot on my page and I'm similar as you I'm such a proponent for breast milk and I get in trouble every time I say this but I just believe the breast is best I just do I think it was God's perfect design it works perfectly with in sync with you and baby and there's this hormone exchange that happens where your breast milk creates certain properties that your baby needs it was funny I was sitting down with my uh my we were spending Christmas in Florida and my sister was there and Chelsea was there, my wife, Chelsea, and, uh, Chelsea was nursing our two-year-old.

27:43And then, uh, my, uh, my sister had said, Oh, like, you know, I missed that cause she hasn't breastfed for about six months now with her. Cause her oldest is like three and a half or four or her youngest. And, um, cause they were just sharing like, you know, that oxytocin, that just connection you feel to, to, to the baby at that time. Well, and I think, you know, it's, it's unfortunate because we don't teach this a lot. I didn't learn any of this in school, by the way. And I took nutrition courses. I took prenatal nutrition courses. And there were certain things that they just didn't teach us at all.

28:14But there's this symbiotic relationship that happens where at night breast milk actually has melatonin in it to help baby go to sleep. Wow. And if the baby is sick, your body can sense it and it creates more antibodies to help their immune system. Like there's certain things that happen that science, we will never be able to replicate that. And so that I just feel like with formula and, you know, I would be remiss to not say this. My heart goes out and I'm so empathetic to women that are unable to breastfeed. And that's a real reality. And it's horrible. And I know that women feel guilt over it and they really struggle with it.

28:49and I pray that when my baby's here that I'm going to be able to breastfeed and I'm going to fight like hell to be able to do it. So formula needs to be there, but we really, really need to clean it up. Yeah, it needs to get so much better. And by the way, we don't say this to make anyone feel guilty. If you can't breastfeed, listen, all we're called to do is do our best. So if you can't, then let's find the best formula for you. The problem is the formulas are so bad today that they've got to get better. Exactly. And, you know, and this is not women's fault. You know, I think they feel so guilty after they find out later, oh man, like I get all these messages from women that are just like, I'm kicking myself because I gave my baby this formula and I wish I hadn't.

29:27And, you know, hindsight's always going to be 20, 20 and your baby's going to be fine. You know, it's just like, we have to move onwards and upwards. And once you know better, you do better. And you just have to forgive yourself for the past, you know? But so that's another thing I'm very, very excited about. Um, cause we need to clean up formula and I brought up WIC and snap and you know, a lot of the, the issue that I'm seeing right now is, you know, lower income families that are on WIC and they, they aren't able to breastfeed for whatever reason. And they're getting this formula that's recommended by WIC.

29:57And I mean, it's the worst of the worst. And I don't think a lot of people know this, but the reason Bobby Kennedy is doing this reevaluation is because we have not evaluated baby formula since 1984. It was the last time that we evaluated the standards for it. And if you think about what we were doing back then, we were really demonizing animal foods. And we were propping up canola oil and margarine and saying that this is heart healthy and it's really good for us. And we need a higher amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids. And now what we know is that too much polyunsaturated fatty acids can actually cause inflammation.

30:29So we really need to go back and restructure how we build baby formula and really put an emphasis on putting healthier fats in there. So I'm very excited about that. Um, another thing that we had brought up, we talked about briefly, Bobby Kennedy is, uh, hopefully going to change the requirements for doctors where they're going to need to take some sort of nutrition course. Yeah. Um, I've heard him talk about this just to be very clear. I don't know that there's any standard put in place or any plan as of yet, but I hope that that's something he's going to tackle. Yeah. And I really hope that we start pushing medicine towards a more root cause preventative model versus the sick care, you know, model that we have right now.

31:07Absolutely agree. Absolutely. Because right now it's just so pharmaceutically focused. I mean, really, that's it. Doctors learn how to diagnose condition and prescribe a drug for that condition. That's what they learn. Yeah, exactly. So really hoping that gets changed. And then you asked me what I'm not excited about right now. So kind of in alignment with what we talked about at the very beginning with what's happening with these agrochemical companies. Unfortunately, we are having a bit of an issue with the EPA right now. There's been a rollback of PFAS, which is known as Forever Chemicals, in our drinking water.

31:44So they're rolling that back right now, the regulations on that. They approved two new Forever Chemicals or PFAS-based chemicals that we can spray on our food. Another one we're really not excited about. And it's very confusing because the EPA is coming out and saying, well, we're Maha and we're doing this for Maha and we're trying to create all these Maha regulations. and they're telling us that these new pesticides that they're approving are actually not PFAS. But what they did was they actually just went back and they redefined what a PFAS is. And so now they're saying, oh, no, these don't actually go into the classification of it.

32:22And so I myself and many other activists have been very critical of what's happening at the EPA right now because they're telling us one thing and they're doing the opposite. And then they're kind of telling the general public, oh, no, but we're not doing that. but they're just redefining what it means to do that. So I've been very critical and not happy about what's happening with the EPA. And you think about, you know, I was thinking about this really heavily over the weekend with the dietary guidelines. There is, it's amazing that we're pushing for more real food, right? But what that is ultimately going to look like is as we start steering people away from ultra-processed packaged foods and we're steering them more towards more whole, unprocessed real foods, they're going to be exposed to more pesticides if they're not buying organic.

33:05And again, I don't say this stuff to scare people. I say this because the EPA needs to regulate this more. Yeah. The average person applies over 100 endocrine disrupting chemicals before breakfast just from everyday personal care products. That's why I want to spotlight a business that's taking a totally different approach, Primely Pure. It's one of the first brands that treats the skin like the microbiome it is. Instead of formulas loaded with synthetics, Primely Pure goes back to what humans used to do for centuries, real recognizable ingredients from plants and animals, including grass-fed tallow.

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34:48whole foods, sometimes I'd go like, okay, animal crackers. These are not healthy. White bleach flour, canola oil, this other junk in there. And so what are some of your rules and teaching people how to read food labels? I also want to mention too, I always find it's funny, the veggie chips where people think that they're vegetables and they're actually just like potato starch with some spinach dusting on top. It's just, you know, they really try to trick us. Okay. So I will tell you, so I have a couple little guidelines that I utilize that have made it a lot easier for people to navigate the grocery store.

35:21The first and foremost one is that I would say, whenever you're trying to decide if you're going to put something in your cart, just simply ask yourself, if my great grandmother was to time travel and join me in the grocery store right now, would she even know what this is? And I think that's a great indicator of just number one going, okay, so a Twinkie, my great grandmother is going to go, what is that? Like, I don't even, is that food? I don't, is this like food for the livestock? I don't know. So that would be number one. Second of all, don't ever take what the front of the label says as the end all be all.

35:54You have to think about that as a billboard for the company. This is an ad campaign that they are trying to use to sell you the product. Cause you'll see things like low fat, low sugar, gluten-free. and you know if you have to eat gluten-free that's fine but I'm just saying don't use that as a guiding force that oh this means it's going to be healthy right so then you want to turn around the back and the first thing you want to do is you want to read the ingredients your first red flag is if it is really long chances are you're probably going to want to put that back on the shelf you know what they do in a lot of those really long labels too like I there was a we were at a health food store in Park City here this last week and I flipped it over and it's like and this was you know, this was still even a brand that was trying to be healthier, but it was like coconut sugar and honey and maple syrup.

36:43And so they had all of these others in there. But they do this a lot where it's like three different types of sugar to push it lower on the label. So it's not the first ingredient. Yeah. They do that all the time. Yeah. Because the order of the ingredients on the label are based on how much of that ingredient is in there. And this is what's unfortunate is these food companies have gotten very sneaky and they know that consumers are starting to catch on to some of their tricks. So they're trying to come up with new ideas because a consumer, because if I look at a package and the first ingredient is sugar, I'm going to want to put it back.

37:17That's right. But to your point, exactly what you just said, it's like, oh, it's, you know, I don't know, brown rice first. And then they have all these other sweeteners underneath. But, you know, it just tricks your brain to think that it doesn't have a ton of sugar in it. I mean, everything I buy, I read the label. Yes. I mean, there's not a single thing I read where I don't look at the label. Everything. You have to now. You can't trust that companies are doing greenwashing. I mean, they will put a picture of cows grazing in grass on the front and try to trick your brain into thinking, oh, this is healthy.

37:47That's right. Exactly. And then you turn it around and it has natural flavors. It has canola oil. And it's just so you have to just disregard the front of the package. You have to read the ingredients. And then I would say, this is my number one easiest tip to follow and will never steer you wrong. When you're reading that ingredient label, you don't even have to know what some of these things mean. If there is an ingredient in there that you could not physically go buy while you're in the grocery store, if you're looking at this and you're going, okay, this is BHT, am I going to find that in aisle six?

38:15No, you're not. That is a clear indicator that you want to put it back on the shelf. You always want to make sure that every single ingredient in there is something that you would either have stocked in your kitchen or something that you know that you could readily buy in the grocery store already. So what do you think? So like when you think about a health, I want to talk about health food stores specifically. Yeah. What are the least healthy things that people typically buy today in the health food store? Well, a lot of packaged stuff. So I would say packaged crackers, packaged cookies. You know what?

38:46Bread. So bread is a really big one. We have been conditioned to just think bread is a loaf of bread, right? But if you look at the ingredients in most store-bought bread, it is loaded with whether it's preservatives or they add a ton of sugar in there. There's a bunch of different ingredients in there usually that do not even deserve, that they don't need to be in bread. And this is another thing, too, is you've got to take a step back and think, okay, what is bread made out of? It should be, you know, maybe four or five ingredients, right? Flour, yeast, salt, maybe some honey. I mean, that's about it.

39:23Yeah. And then if you look and you read it, all this other stuff in there. And I mean, we can go into enriched flour if we want to. But there's there's so many things that we're adding that are unnecessary. And that's when you start getting into the realm of ultra processed, which I think we should talk about. So there's different ratings. Obviously, there's completely unprocessed whole food, which would be, you know, let's say an apple, for example. And then if you're looking at something that's processed, that would be, let's say applesauce. Exactly. Almond butter. Exactly. Where, you know, it's very close to the original thing and maybe they've added a little bit of honey or something, right?

39:55And that's okay. I think a lot of people start getting confused and they start hearing processed and they think, oh my gosh, I can't have this. Bread, a loaf of bread that they would have made in biblical times would be considered processed. Yeah. Because there was a making, there was a process that had to happen in order to make it into bread. Yeah. When you start getting into ultra processed foods, that's what we want to avoid. That's when you start seeing things like natural flavors, BHT, mono and diglycerides, which are an emulsifier. You start seeing all these additives in there that if you were just cooking this at home, you would never use these ingredients.

40:27You would never recognize them. What's the problem with emulsifiers or also things like your gene and a lot of these thickening agents? Why are those an issue? Yeah. Well, OK, so a lot of people will maybe remember this. A couple of years ago, food companies were required to take out partially hydrogenated oils because we figured out that they were trans fats and they wreak havoc on our metabolic system. So they took those out. And what companies started doing is they were replacing the partially hydrogenated oils with mono and diglycerides, which are essentially another form of trans fat. And what these emulsifiers do is they take a food like, let's say, like mayonnaise, for example.

41:03If you've ever made homemade mayonnaise and it sits in your fridge for a couple of days, it'll start to kind of separate, right? Like certain things that they start to separate. So these companies put these emulsifiers in there so that when it sits in your fridge for a month, it stays intact the whole time. It's like, you know, when you're trying to put water and oil together and it doesn't fully mix, you add an emulsifier in there and it makes it mix. And this is a symptom of a larger issue that I think people need to understand is that a lot of these things that we're putting in our food products are more beneficial to the food companies and to these food products that are sitting on the shelf all the time.

41:36It helps them stay shelf stable for longer. There is no health benefit to you whatsoever. In fact, it's just so that these companies can make more money and they don't have to worry about their products sitting on the shelf. And we've also created this unrealistic expectation for Americans that our food needs to be absolutely perfect. God forbid I have to stir my mayo before I put it on my bread or God forbid I have to mix something a little bit because it's separated. But we've created these unrealistic expectations. And what's happened is that now we have created what normally would be a typically decent, healthy food like mayo.

42:10If it's just, you know, the standard ingredients, I would say it's pretty healthy. but then we start adding in things like monodiglycerides to emulsify it and we add in canola oil and we add in a preservative and then that's when you start getting into the ultra process territory that you want to avoid so so what was eating like for you growing up like did you were you kind of born into this were your parents pretty healthy or is this something you had to kind of kind of learn along the way because i know like my help my family growing up um my mom she brought in this at the time juicy juice at the time was only 10 juice so we felt like we tried So we thought, oh, we're drinking all this fruit juice.

42:45We're doing really good right now. And then we did some home cook, you know, Western or Midwest, you know, casseroles, that sort of thing. So and tried to get some veggies and things, but it was mostly like iceberg lettuce. So, you know, we grew up trying, but definitely was not hitting the mark at all. But how was it for you and your family growing up? I love sharing this, actually, because so growing up, I was very fortunate to have a mom that was I mean, my mom was Maha 30 years ago, 40 years ago before I was given a thing. Yeah. In fact, I actually remember as a kid complaining to my mom because she would take me to all these.

43:21Cause I mean, you know, you think about I'm 41, so I'm, you know, 30 years ago, she's taking me to these little health food stores that I used to tell her all the time. I'd be like, mom, these like stink. And like, all my friends are getting Dunkaroos and you're taking me and getting me these weird, like off-brand cereals. I had this conversation with Will Cole, because his dad was a functional med doctor growing up. And so like he was saying the same thing. Like my parents were having me do like green juice shots when I was five years old. I always love hearing because that was not me, but I love that this was Jordan Rubin too.

43:52His dad was like that. Yeah, it's so funny. Well, and it was, it was. You were like the 1 % because then, I mean, now a lot of people do this, you know, then there was nobody doing this. There was nobody doing this. In fact, like I was kind of embarrassed to have like friends over and stuff sometimes. sorry mom because I would go to friends houses and they would have a full pantry and when you think about like I grew up in the 80s and I just think it's like peak dunkaroos pop tarts Doritos and my friends pantries would just be loaded with all this stuff so I would go over there and I would like binge on all of this not proud of it now but you know as a kid like you know 13 years old all you want is sugar and so so I had this interesting dichotomy where I was actually pretty unhappy with my mom growing up about this because I had a very close girlfriend, my best friend who lived in an exact opposite lifestyle as me.

44:42So we'd go to her house. I would love to have sleepovers over there because I mean, we'd be eating all the junk food all weekend, you know, watching movies, eating junk food. And her parents would get us Burger King for dinner and she'd get Burger King two or three nights a week for dinner. And I would come home and I'd be like, mom, I want Burger King. You know, they have the new toy that I want and I want the chicken nuggets and you know, whatever. Right. And we would get in these huge fights over it, actually. And my mom now it's so funny because my mom is her favorite thing, not in a rude way, but it's her favorite thing to bring up now.

45:11She's like, aren't you glad that I didn't let you eat all that Burger King? And now, you know, you know, and and I am. I mean, I'm forever grateful. And I always I like to remind parents because I know a lot of parents are really struggling with this right now because their kids are going to school and they're getting fed. God knows what they're going to birthday parties. And I just feel like parents and kids right now are just under assault with these ultra processed foods and they're really fighting these battles. And I think so many parents are concerned that they're going to create like an eating disorder in their child or that they're depriving their child.

45:41And I will tell you that I'm one of those kids that despite getting in fights with my mom and being upset about it, I had a come to Jesus moment in college where I grew up not sick at all. I mean, you talk about like, I think maybe I had antibiotics once my whole life growing up, never had ear infections, never had issues, like just never had any issues. I go to college and I just have a free for all. I'm like, I'm out of the house. I'm eating fast food because at the time I had not fully made the connection. Right. Like for me, it was more like, oh, I'm living in this household and my mom's not letting me have these things.

46:18And I didn't fully grasp the concept of it. and by the way my mom was making everything from scratch i have memories of myself sitting on the kitchen counter and my mom hand cranking pasta that she made with like italian flour i mean just incredible like making her own bread like she really i mean she made everything that's incredible in fact when i went to college there were fast food chains i had never even tried before just because you know when you're when you're a kid i i didn't really have money to go out so i'm not I'd be like, no, you're coming home. We're not going to give you money to go to Taco Bell or whatever.

46:54Like you're going to eat at home. So there was a stark difference from when I went to college and I just had this total free for all. I mean, I gained so much weight within a year. I was so, I mean, I look back at photos. I was so inflamed. I had cystic acne I'd never had before. I started dealing with just little things I'd never dealt with. I couldn't focus in school. And I'm so grateful because I had the opposite effect that many people go through, which is I think many people finally start waking up to, oh, this is not normal. I shouldn't be feeling sick all the time, where I never got sick.

47:26And then all of a sudden in college, I'm like, oh, I do not feel well. And I know what it's like on the other side to feel better. And I started making this connection with what I was putting in my body. And I started realizing, OK, I think my mom might actually be on to something here and did a full 180. And so I'm just here to remind parents that it may feel like a battle right now. And your kids might be fighting you. And just know that you're up against a beast of a marketing campaign with these ultra processed foods that really want to get your kids addicted to these foods. And I'm just here to tell you that it may be hard right now, but your kids are going to be so grateful when they grow up and they realize that they're not dealing with the issues that a lot of other kids are.

48:09I can't think of like, you know, I know a few, you know, several people that kind of grew up Jordan Rubin one will call yourself that grew up in those sort of households. And all of them are just eternally grateful, you know, even though it was hard when they were, you know, kids, I know, because I, you know, having a two year old and our five year old now, you know, we, you know, we send, you know, we send, we pack her lunch every single day, you know, it's extremely healthy. and um it's not to say you know we're i will say schools are a little bit more conscious now at least the one we send her to because like if they're having a certain birthday party sometimes you know um parents are conscious of that and they actually have healthy cakes or cupcakes or something or better options so yeah but it's uh it's a you know i applaud all parents out there who are navigating it because it's more work it's what it's work it's definitely work yeah yeah and And I'm about to enter into that myself.

49:00And I'm my husband. I've started having conversations. I mean, you know, we're down the line from that. But like, how are we going to how are we going to face this? You know, because I hear from parents now that I mean, they're getting it at birthday parties. They're getting it at school. They're getting it, you know, everywhere. After school activities, sports activities. It's hard. If you want practical science backed guidance for living a healthier, longer, more vibrant life, you need to check out the biohack it podcast. It is hosted by my good friend, Aman Hassan, and it brings a thoughtful, compassionate perspective to wellness that so many women have been looking for.

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50:10If you want a show that speaks directly to health challenges women are navigating today while offering hope, clarity, and real solutions, tune in to Biohack It every Thursday wherever you listen to podcasts. It is one of the most educational and uplifting shows in the wellness space, and I think you're going to love it. So another thing I wanted to ask you about, because I see this a lot more now, I was having this conversation with my parents. And, you know, I'm 44, and I have a two-year-old and a five-year-old. So I had kids, you know, a little bit later in life. And I know this has happened.

50:45I mean, I don't know that this is statistically accurate, but I would say, I don't know, a lot of people are having kids much later on in life now. And so I have so many women I'm friends with that I know that are, you know, trying to or are having kids in their 40s. Yeah. How's that been for you being 41 and about to have your, you know, or on your way here to have your first baby? me? Yeah, well, I first want to say, you know, so there was a couple things I felt like that happened to me in my 20s and 30s that I have no, let me be very, very clear. I have no regrets about what I've done in my life.

51:24I'm very passionate about speaking out about this, where I feel like women in my generation, we were really pushed into our careers and really given this narrative of like, your worth is based on your work and, you know, climb up the ladder. and it could have been different for, for different upbringings. And, you know, maybe brought up more in the church, which I was, but I just, I really, there's a whole other story there, but basically I really threw myself into my work and I'm so grateful. I mean, I look around at everything I've been able to create and I mean, I I'm so grateful for it, but there is a part of me that I would say around 34, 35, where I started kind of going, Oh man, why didn't I really try to focus harder on finding my partner because I was so focused on my career that I think some of the other stuff kind of went to the wayside.

52:12Right. And so I unfortunately, and two, I just, unfortunately, I just, I was unable to find my partner until a little bit later in life. And so, cause a lot of people ask me, well, why did you wait so long to have kids? And I, it was not by my purpose. Well, the other thing is you got to find your right partner, right? I mean, you got to find your spouse. And Chelsea and I, like we have, we have about a six and a half year age gap. So she's 37 about to turn 38 but that's the other thing right you have to find that because when did you get married we got married we got married uh last year in june okay so yeah yeah but it was one of those things where we just like knew you know and i really the last couple years i really i mean i just i did so many things differently i mean and i prayed so hard i put myself through therapy to really deal with a lot of like things that i felt like maybe were were hindering me and i just was really surrendering to finding my partner and and this is kind of what i mean and And I think everything happens for a reason.

53:04But I was so hyper-focused on my career that I gave no space for my person to even come in. And I think that was part of what I needed to shift some of how I was working and showing up in the world to really allow my partner to come in. And I'm so grateful. And I would never take any of this back. I mean, I found the most amazing man. And I'm so happy. And I'll tell you that part of my upbringing and finding health and wellness when I did, and my mom really setting the foundation for that, I say this all the time. I am so incredibly grateful that my mom gave me that gift and that I never went on birth control.

53:37I did a lot of things for my health where I look around and I see so many women are struggling to get pregnant right now. And I want to be very clear because I know this is a really sensitive subject. I am by no means saying that it is anyone's fault that you're doing something wrong. I'm just saying that what I've noticed now being older and being pregnant is that the medical system treats you, they just put a blanket statement on you and they just treat you like you're geriatric. There is no, there's no room for, okay, well, what does your health look like? What is your metabolic health? Are you overweight?

54:13What does your blood work look like? It's just automatically, they're just like, oh, you're geriatric just based on your age. And I've really been pushing back on this. Do you know the number ages of being geriatric for? 35. Yeah. That is insane. I've had some doctors say it's 30, which is even crazier. Oh, my God. And then there was a famous singer. Was it Kelsey Ballerina, I think it was, that just had a post. I guess she wrote a song. And then I saw an Instagram post about it. I believe she's 32. She's 32 or she's 34. And she just wrote a song about how she missed her opportunity to have kids.

54:45And I'm over here going, I just got pregnant in 41 and I'm having a baby. I'm really pushing back against this narrative right now. There's this narrative in the medical system that at 35, you're geriatric. You're going to have a horrible pregnancy. You're going to have a really hard time getting pregnant. Also, the narrative is, oh, good luck getting pregnant after 35. And I'm here to tell you that if you do the right things, you really take care of your health. Again, you can't control everything. And who knows? There could be other things happening that you just have no control over. But I really believe that if we tell women how incredibly important it is to take care of your health and make sure that your metabolic health is in order.

55:24Really take care of your inflammation and your A1C and get off birth control as soon as you possibly can. Regulate your hormones. There are so many things that you can control and that you can do. Yeah. Yeah, I totally agree. You know, my perspective in working with a lot of women in fertility is we really need to nourish your body. Like I tell them, we've got to do everything we can to allow your body to feel safe, secure, warm, just really well-nourished. Yes. And keeping those stress levels low is so key as well, because I think some women are so busy every moment of the day. They're doing something.

55:58So if you can create some margin and really just to do your point, nourish your health, your odds go up incredibly. And I'll tell you, too, I want to say this. Something that I noticed, if you are going into pregnancy a little bit later in life, once I shared on my social media that I was pregnant, it's really interesting. I've been noticing so many women have fear around it because the medical system is hammered into them that after 35, you're geriatric and you need to be concerned about this, that, and that, and that. And I actually avoided the allopathic conventional medical system entirely.

56:33I don't want to deal with it at all. I have a midwife, and we're doing it very, we're doing that route, the midwife route. I don't even have an OB-GYN, and I'm probably, people are going to freak out on me about that. We didn't. We just had a midwife, Chelsea, and we've done two at-home pool births. Yes. Yeah. And I just want to tell women that for me, this has been the most amazing experience that I've had. And I am blown away by the messages I've been getting. And this is not a judgment. This is purely an observation is that I think the medical system really preys on women's insecurities and fears.

57:08And when you're pregnant, you're incredibly vulnerable because you are so concerned about this life that you're growing. and you want to do the best that you can and you want to have a healthy pregnancy, want to have a healthy baby. And I can tell you that avoiding that medical system and just going the midwife way, my age has not come up once. There has not been a single concern. There has not been a single, well, because of your age, we're concerned about this, that, and that. Every conversation we've had has just simply been, okay, next step. We're going to monitor you. We're going to do blood work.

57:39If we see anything we're concerned about, we're going to deal with it then. but there's no like ramping up to, well, you know, just because of your age, you could be concerned about this. And I live in such peace and I don't have fear around all of this because I'm not having the medical system tell me that something's wrong with my body just because of my age. It's so powerful. It's so powerful. One is very much aligned with God's design and one is very much aligned with them thinking they are God. I mean, one of the issues I've had with the entire mainstream medical industry is, they have a God complex.

58:10I mean, we've seen this with so many doctors, with so many people in the industry, they literally have a God complex. They feel like everybody should worship and bow versus what you're sharing is a lot more aligned with, hey, let's let God's amazing design do its work. Let's support it. Let's live with hope. Let's live with peace, as the Bible talks about, versus living in a state of fear and anxiety. I mean, this is something I saw through the whole COVID thing. It's like, we're going to strike like fear into the heart of everybody. A lot of times, I remember when my mom was diagnosed with cancer, it was, you have a 40 % chance to live.

58:43Or my brother-in-law, a 1 % chance to live. So all that being said, I see this all the time with people, the medical industry is this sort of fear-based tactics versus hope and love and encouragement. So I'm so encouraged to hear that's been your experience with the midwife. It's been amazing. And I just want to be very clear because I don't want people to take things out of context. It's not I'm not saying that we're not monitoring me and doing anything. I mean, we still do everything that you do. I mean, we were just talking about I'm going in for anatomy scan next week. Like I'm getting scans.

59:17I'm getting blood work. And she's told me many times if something comes up and you happen to be high risk, we'll deal with it then. So it's not like we're just going la la la like we live in, you know, rainbow land. And we're taking it seriously, but there's no fear being instilled in me just because based on my age. And I just I the messages I was getting from women, I just it made me so sad because the medical system is really instilling a lot of fear that I think in many cases is unnecessary. Yeah. And I think women to forget because the medical system really hammers this into us. We forget that this was how this is what our bodies were designed to do.

59:54That's right. That's right. Right. That's powerful. Yeah. I think living with that in mind and knowing God is for you, not against you. You were designed to be healthy. You just need to align your lifestyle and your diet with the Bible and what we know to be healthy. Yes. All right. I want to do some rapid fire questions here. Here's the first one. What are the three ingredients people need to most look out for when they're reading food labels? I would say first and foremost, look and see what type of oil they're using. If they're using something like canola oil, cottonseed oil, soybean oil, chances are that's going to be an ultra processed food just by nature of having that oil in there already.

1:00:31You want to look for things like olive oil, avocado oil, butter, even coconut oil would be great too. Number two, this is kind of a blanket statement, but I would say really just be cognizant of how much sugar is in there and be cognizant of what type of sugar it is. You really want to avoid the ultra processed forms of sugar like corn syrup, corn syrup solids. Look for things like, I mean, this might be a little bit controversial, but just if it's just cane sugar, that's way better than having corn syrup. Maple syrup would be, maple syrup and honey would really be your top options, but just see how much sugar is in there.

1:01:07And then number three, I would say mono and diglycerides. These are an emulsifier that you see in a lot of ultra processed food like products, and they essentially are trans fat. What are your top pieces of advice for women trying to get pregnant in their 40s? First and foremost, I would say, this is what I did personally, cancel out all of the noise. You are going to hear so much from experts in the medical field. They're going to tell you that your chances of getting pregnant are really low. They're going going to tell you all these scary stats. They're going to tell you, you know, what it looks like for a woman in their 40s and, you know, the average population.

1:01:41Anytime I came across information like that, I would turn it off and I would tell myself that is not my story. And I would repeat that over and over again because I did not want to let that noise get in the way of what my personal journey was. And I really didn't want to let fear in. Also remember and trust your body, that your body was designed to do this and your body was meant to do this. So just remember that and trust yourself. And then I would say to really just focus on eating whole real foods as much as possible, really nourishing your body because a really nourished body that doesn't have nutritional deficiencies and it's really getting the nutrition and exactly what it needs is going to be more fertile, whether or not what the medical system will tell you that nutrition and diet has nothing to do with it.

1:02:25It has almost everything to do with it. What are the top five foods you'd recommend for women looking to balance their hormones? Yeah, so if I think balancing hormones, I'm definitely thinking really good, healthy fats that are gonna support healthy hormones. So extra virgin olive oil would be a great option. Butter is actually, I think, a health-promoting food. If you do okay with dairy, I would actually say dairy, I think, is a fertility-promoting food. If it's organic, grass-fed, A2 from really good sources, and I'm not just saying have a free-for-all with dairy, but I really think that it can have some hormone and fertility supporting properties.

1:03:03Salmon, I think salmon would be a great one because it's really high in omega-3s and omega-6s, and it's a good fat that's also really satiating and full of protein. And I would say avoid refined carbohydrates and go for more things like oats. Sourdough would be a great option. A little bit of rice. avoid really starchy carbohydrates and go for things like sweet potatoes would be another great option. Because one of the things I think that really is going to make a difference is your blood sugar, your A1C, and really making sure that you're not spiking your glucose throughout the day and sending it on a roller coaster.

1:03:41You want to make sure that you're avoiding those refined carbohydrates. And then lastly, I would say, you know what, I would say meat. I think red meat would be great for hormone balance and for fertility. That's so helpful. Well, Courtney, Thanks so much for coming on today. It's been a pleasure. I just, you know, I, again, I've been so inspired by all the things you've done in, you know, trying to get glyphosate banned and getting the food dyes banned and all the things you've done and just so grateful for you and all your hard work and the things you've done. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me.

1:04:14Yeah. Let people know where they can find more out about you and all the great things you're up to. Yeah. So I'm mostly active on Instagram, which is at Real Foodology. I also have a podcast, which you were just recently a guest on. So definitely go and check that out. It's on all major podcast platforms. It's called Real Foodology. And actually, you can find me, Real Foodology, pretty much across the board on X, TikTok, website, realfoodology.com. And yeah, that's it. Thanks so much for coming on today. Thank you so much. This was so fun. All right. Hey, I want to say thanks to everybody for tuning into this podcast.

1:04:45Remember, each and every week, we're diving deep into the science and principles of how you can heal physically, mentally, spiritually, and take your health and your life to the next level. Thanks again here to Courtney Swan for sharing all of our wisdom with us today. And if you're watching on YouTube, let me know what is the biggest piece of advice or the thing that Courtney shared that you walked away with? Maybe something surprising when she talked about glyphosate in the Supreme Core or infant formulas or getting pregnant in her 40s. We'd love to hear from you. Again, thanks so much for watching and taking part.

1:05:15By the way, the number one thing you can do here to support the show is to subscribe. This allows me to bring on really high profile guests like Courtney and others. And sometimes the show can get shadow banned because we talk about things that are very controversial, like cancer and even things like glyphosate actually sometimes can get shadow banned. So do me a favor and subscribe so it always shows up in your feed. Thanks so much for watching. Thanks for sharing. I'll see you on the next episode.

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