Influencers and Nutrition Advice: What to Trust 0:00 A lot of the influencers, I'm not going to say all of them because I do think that some of them probably do have backgrounds and qualifications and 0:06 things like that. So, I'd hate to say that all of them don't, but there is a huge amount of them out there that have 0:13 no background or qualifications. So, make sure that if you're taking advice from somebody, you're going to check the 0:19 qualifications of the people. So, do that online as well. Like, look for the right people and understand 0:25 um what it is what it is out there. Yeah. And I think that's that's the key, 0:31 isn't it? To actually properly be discerning about who you're taking your information from, not just because they 0:38 because I mean it's that's what disinformation actually is. It's it's putting in some nuggets of truth in 0:45 order to then hook people and make make them like feel to a degree semi, you 0:52 know, mostly competent. But then you spread uh you know misinformation 0:59 um as soon as you've got them hooked. People who are professionally registered, we have to be careful what 1:06 we say on social media. So if there is a someone on social media praising, you 1:13 know, this cures this, then it's likely they're not professionally registered 1:20 because if they were, they can't say those things. And unfortunately, they're 1:25 the kinds of videos that absolutely get traction in algorithms and then snowball 1:32 and go viral. [Music] 1:39 Hello and welcome to the Metabolic Balance Stories podcast. So, this is 1:45 where we share real stories and insights into personalized nutrition, metabolic 1:51 balance, and generally getting healthy with real food. I'm Cher Wills. I'm your 1:56 host, and I'm delighted to welcome back um the expert panel for metabolic 2:03 balance. And it's always a pleasure to bring these amazing uh people together 2:09 with such um deep understanding of both nutrition uh functional health um 2:16 metabolic balance. So we we're in for a bit of a treat today. What we are talking about today is this critical 2:24 topic of seeking professional advice when it comes to diet, well-being, 2:32 nutrition, health. So what we're seeing and what the the background to this 2:38 topic is that we all know that the internet and social media are now really 2:43 widely used for as one of the top places people go to look for health 2:49 information. So, we've got millions and millions of people turning to these social uh networks platforms, Instagram, 2:57 Tik Tok, YouTube, Facebook, and they're all allowing people to share content and 3:03 share advice and how does the general public wave their way through all of 3:09 this information? And um how easy is it to understand what's verified, what's 3:17 misleading? some of it is is harmful. What prompted this topic was that we 3:24 there was a research paper published earlier this year that actually looked at the um the prevalence of 3:32 disinformation on social media. So I will share the link to that actual paper in the show notes. Um so if you want to 3:40 actually look at that original paper that prompted this idea that um for the today's topic but I do want to go 3:47 straight away to our panel. Um one of the things that was really mentioned um 3:54 is this idea of miracle diets and superfoods. And so I kind of want to go straight to 4:02 um Alex Alexander Brewster who functional um medicine IFM trained Superfoods Debate and Professional Perspectives 4:09 naturopath nutritionist. What do you think about this superfoods? 4:15 It's interesting listening to introduction cuz we can we can get quite iate as professionals going when we look 4:21 at this stuff but we're looking at that stuff because we're looking at that stuff. We ourselves go and look at this 4:27 stuff right? So, in this day and age where it may take you until October to 4:32 get into a doctor if you're in regional Australia or a nutritionist, you're going to look for answers elsewhere. So, 4:39 in defense of the public, I mean, I've been on these pages as well, hence we know what's going on, I guess. But 4:46 superfoods is my particular bug bear. You know, we've done the kale smoothies and um I'm not vilifying kale. Well, I 4:53 am a bit but you know berries and stuff and they're not for everybody. Like I 5:00 always say to my patients cuz I say I'm just feeling so rubbish. I've been doing spinach smoothies and stuff and then you 5:05 find their, you know, a certain um chemical in their blood or urine like 5:10 oxalates are way through the roof or their thyroid suffering and it's because XY Z said on Tik Tok that one must do a 5:18 kale raw spinach smoothie every day and you're going to feel fabulous cuz look at me. Don't worry the fact that I'm 5:24 only 21. I've never had any children and you know all that sort of stuff. None of those balls in the air. And I always say 5:30 to my patients, you know what your superfood is? Your superfood is the food 5:35 that is super for you. And that's why I particularly love metabolic balance 5:41 because metabolic balance gives us a plethora of superfoods just for us. So 5:47 it's the it superfoods basically foods that make us metabolically sing. 5:53 And we're not I don't do well on on kale or spinach and no no it's not on my 5:58 plan. So I do have and and that is such a hashtag cashrol you hashtag superfoods 6:04 and it's you are inundated but it brings back this idea that everybody is the same isn't it? I mean 6:11 everybody one what what works for one person me if it you know you feel 6:16 fabulous by having something for a short period of time oh this means I must have it for the rest of my life and everybody 6:22 else in the world should do exactly the same which it just so does not make sense in any way 6:29 it's like a 21-year-old advertising wrinkle cream isn't it 6:34 there is something about that isn't it yeah I think the um some of the radical diets 6:40 that are promoted on social media like take you know the promotion of carnivore diet is that evangelistic approach that 6:48 this is going to fix everybody and everything and there's absolutely no discussion about individuals um DNA or 6:56 snips that they may have or that they've got a family history of cardiovascular disease or they've they're an ANOE4 7:03 carrier and therefore high saturated fats is not recommended for them and you 7:09 can once you start clicking on the video obviously just more and more and more 7:15 comes. So you end up with this skewed view that you think everyone is actually doing this and it is right for everyone. 7:23 But if you clicked on a superfood video like Alex just said, you'd go down that rabbit hole and you'd think that 7:29 superfoods is going to cure every ailment I've got and whatever else it is, you know, the sugar queens and all 7:36 that sort of stuff. So yeah, people get so so confused and there is not exactly 7:42 what Alex said. There's not one thing that's right for every single person probably except drinking filtered water. 7:48 You know, we can probably all agree on that. But the rest of it rest of it up for individualization. 7:56 And this um you know this attitude of it worked for 8:01 me so I'm going to tell you how to do it and it'll work for you. I've seen 8:07 personal circumstances of that just being so wrong. I remember a uh client years ago went to a personal trainer who 8:15 you know has quite a bit of knowledge about food but that trainer had an incredibly high metabolism. So this lady Case Study: Metabolism, Weight Loss and Food Plans 8:22 wanted to lose weight. So she said, "Oh no, I'll do a food plan for you." So she wrote out basically what she ate. This 8:29 girl had been living on two cups of coffee and one meal a day. So when she started to eat what the trainer ate, she 8:35 had gained 7 kilos and got acne. And she was like, "Oh my god, what's wrong? I'm 8:41 doing everything right." And there was just there was so many more calories than her body had had for decades that 8:49 her body didn't know what to do with all of this carbohydrate and even though it was good stuff, brown rice and organic 8:56 sourdough and all that stuff, she she had a very poor metabolism. So then we 9:01 stripped that all back and changed her two black coffees to some healthier options and it all came off again. And I 9:08 think people watching things online can be exactly like that. They just think, 9:14 I'm doing what they said and it's not working. So, what's wrong with me? There's nothing wrong with you. It's 9:20 just that wasn't the right thing for you. Yeah. I just did a quick Google on superfood. What is a superfood? And it's 9:26 actually interesting on the first few websites that come up. It says a superfood is a marketing term. 9:33 No way. I love it. Which Yeah, like that. That's what it 9:38 says. And it it talks about the fact and then there's another part that says the term is not commonly used by experts, 9:44 dieticians, and nutrition scientists. So like, yeah, I say to my clients, like 9:50 when we're talking superfood, anything that's not labeled a superfood, chances are it's a superfood. Like if you've got 9:56 to label something and tell someone it's a superfood, um, yeah, it's it's got to be that. Like 10:02 an apple. Why is an apple not labeled a superfood? I was just an apple, but it 10:09 can be super for the right people. So, yeah. An aisle in the supermarket just 10:14 like superfoods. Opens a can of worms though, does it not? 10:19 Yeah. Yeah. But I think this is just every real food that actually can be, 10:25 you know, broken down, metabolized, used to nourish the cells of the body. Well, 10:30 that's that that that's real superfood, isn't it? And it shouldn't just be that we get focused on one particular thing. 10:37 What your greatg grandandmother times ate at pre-industrial revolution is pretty much all a superfood. 10:43 That's really really right. Like what you're genetically actually designed to digest, process, and use. And the 10:52 epigenetics will tell you, you know, where your ancestors came from and what 10:58 you've been genetically designed to eat. You can usually actually um determine 11:05 that from what you know about your family. You don't even genetics. It It's 11:10 really sitting just two two two um generations back uh sitting right there 11:19 and available to you. That's an interesting that's a really interesting point because I think a lot of the time 11:25 we kind of try to um you know just go with the late you people will go with 11:31 the latest fad but not just recognize at all where their actual you know genetics 11:37 and there where their um where their their needs truly truly lie. And it's coconut sorry coconut and soy 11:45 come to mind. We're not well I'm not I've got not one iota of Polynesian in me. I have no one iter of of Japanese or 11:52 Asian in me. So my German great great great great great grandmother wouldn't have even recognized what why and 11:59 ironically I wasn't given any of that an MB or I was given butter, you know, or 12:05 ghee. Yeah. Gee. Yeah. Yeah. I think a lot of this advice is very linear. It's like black and white. Do 12:13 this, get this result, which a lot of the advice isn't necessarily wrong per se either, right? Like it's it's not 12:20 that this food has this compound which does this it but there are so many other 12:25 variables that aren't taken into consideration when you you create that cause and effect equation. Um and as Biochemistry, Environment and Health Outcomes 12:33 people we all have these variables in our biochemistry but also in the 12:38 environments around us in our stress levels in all those balls we juggle that absolutely impact how your body uses the 12:45 food that you put in your mouth. Uh so I think that's where there's a nuance sort 12:50 of expertise that comes with being able to talk to someone and then go right 12:57 blueberries are amazing but perhaps the the polyphenols in that are going to 13:03 annoy your microbiome today and that's why it stirs up your skin. Like there's 13:09 just all these variables that I we have to think about which is why we do degrees to do what we do. 13:17 Yeah, I think one of the things that I see a lot of the time when people are talking about, you know, superfoods or 13:24 what everybody needs to do like the the the fat diets, I mean, we don't want to particularly, you know, um pick too many 13:32 of the, you know, there's so many different diets, but um things like the carnivore diet or the even the low 13:38 FODMAT diet. The low FODMAP diet's got mass great amounts of research, but actually it's still not right for 13:44 everybody. It's still hard and it should be long to short term I you know they're all too restrictive. 13:50 They're so restrict but one of the things that I often think about is that when people are talking about this from 13:56 a um not so much of a strong education background they come at it from a very 14:04 high degree of certainty because it worked for them. Therefore they are 100% 14:09 certain that they are saying exactly the right thing. And that is what a lot of people latch on to, is it not? I mean, 14:17 people love that idea. Whereas, when you're coming from a from a professional experienced practitioner point of view, 14:24 you know that there is none of that real certainty out there until you start working. Arreolina, would you kind of 14:31 come in with this because it also talks about the overwhelm of people trying to work out stuff for themselves as well, 14:37 doesn't it? I actually think that health anxiety um is at an all-time high and I 14:45 see it walk into my clinic on a daily basis and it really is often driven by 14:52 um consumption of social media and the overwhelm and overload of the 14:58 contradictory advice that we find there and the fact that as a consumer you do 15:04 not have the education to assess assess the validity of the advice and also the 15:11 suitability for your personal body life um health conditions. 15:17 And one of the key advices advisory things that I do as a naturopath is tell 15:24 people to delete social media from their um their phones to to limit access. And 15:33 I have even done like health advice detoxes like regularly with clients 15:38 where I'm like just unfollow all of them. Stop cons stop consuming health 15:44 advice that isn't relevant to you. It's not creating health. 15:49 Um it's actually doing the opposite. I remember I had a girl worked for me 15:55 once and she said, "I stopped looking at the internet because every time I looked I was either pregnant or had cancer. 16:03 That was what stopped her looking on the internet for health advice because the rabbit holes are so huge and you can 16:11 just fall in and off you go. I think that there's that space of people are always told to do their own 16:17 research. I mean, what would you say about that? We we we're told to do our own research. Everybody said told, 16:25 you know, Arreolina, what would you say about that? I'm actually thinking about a patient that I saw today who had 16:33 arrived um it's probably on her fourth appointment with me. Um and I have a Strategic Approaches to Evaluating Clients 16:39 very um strategic way of evaluating people where um I'm taking notes of 16:48 exactly what's going on, what are we doing, and exactly what are the outcomes. And when people go through 16:55 this process with a professional, I'm sure that my way is not unique. It's, you know, I learned it at university. 17:02 Um, when you go through a process with a professional to help you actually work 17:07 out what is it that's going on, what do I need to do about it, what do I need to eat, um, how should I approach my 17:14 health? It's a systematic approach. Um, and I take really detailed notes so that 17:21 when they come back and sit in front of me, I'm able to ask them, so what's happened here and what's the outcome and 17:28 where are we in this process? And this is a patient that I've identified with health anxiety. Um, and 17:37 what she actually reported on the fourth visit is she's like, "Ah, yeah, it is in 17:43 fact working. what's what we're doing is working. But on the three previous 17:48 appointments, she'd reported back that what she was doing hadn't worked. However, when I actually got into the 17:56 notes and started asking her exactly what was going on and comparing them to what she had said last time, what I was 18:01 doing was working. And I think that this is a really really key cornerstone for 18:09 people to understand about their health and about why they're not necessarily 18:14 able to solve their own health issues, which is, let us admit it, the key 18:20 marketing um hook that health influencers use to make us feel 18:26 uncertain and consume all their health information and buy their products. 18:32 Health uncertainty. uh information overload and also an inability like 18:38 because you when not everybody has four years of training in how to be a health professional or six years or however 18:44 many years um this panel has many many more years um to you know 18:52 people don't have that training in order to evaluate the research or to evaluate 18:58 the information or even to evaluate their own symptoms and That's why you go to see a 19:04 professional and that's why you choose um a practitioner that's got expertise 19:11 and training um like metabolic balance practitioners um and that's why we get results. If the 19:19 powerpoints in your house stop working, do you get onto Tik Tok and find out how to rewire your house? No. you call an 19:27 electrician that's done training because you know full well that messing with a powerpoint could be dangerous. So, but I 19:34 think for our health it it's a little bit different because 19:39 there's so many variables like it it's it's not Yeah, it's just complicated. 19:45 Hey, and I I love people that do their own research. I love that people are 19:50 invested and want to be healthy and well, but I always encourage my clients 19:56 to come with me and go, "Oh, so you know, I I read this on the internet. What are your thoughts on it?" And we 20:02 talk it through and go, "Yeah, so I know this works in this way or people's biochemistry or whatever it is." And 20:09 then we'll say, "Well, you know, for you that might be okay. let's try it, but we'll do it this way because I know from 20:15 experience, from my training that, you know, we need to address these other problems for that to all line up. It's 20:22 it's just so complicated and it does take training and practice and knowledge 20:28 to get there. I think I often think of that kind of analogy you just mentioned Emily um that you know health which is 20:36 so crucial to each and every one of us and to our daytoday just lives is the 20:43 area that we're seem to be told though yeah you can you should do your own research and work it out by yourself or Do-It-Yourself vs Professional Health Guidance 20:50 you know not necessarily approach a professional but everything else like electricians, plumbers um anything that 20:58 actually could be fixed by some, you know, if an if an error happens, oh, you can just, yeah, buy a new one of that. 21:04 You can't buy a new body. You can't buy a new, you know, liver or, you know, but 21:10 that's the area we're told that we can just work it out by ourselves or or people like people should be able to 21:15 work it out by themselves. Pop to the shops and grab a supplement for that. Magnesium fixes it. Yes. Oh, I saw that. I saw that this morning. 21:23 I was in my local health. We're very small here where I live and we have a tiny wee little health food shop and 21:29 it's she's fabulous. She keeps all the organic stuff and and I love it. And here comes this young girl Ian asking 21:35 about her. She's saying, you know, oh, I've got a problem with cortisol. And here's the young girl behind the counter who owns the shop who's well 21:42 intentioned. I mean, I know this is not social media. And I'm standing there. I had to turn 21:48 around cuz I started twitching, you know, because and I'm thinking, well, is your cortisol high? Is it picking in the 21:54 evening? Is it pick how you having your protein? No, just take all these supplements. $125 later, I might add. 22:00 I'll give you a discount. She said, you know, so it amazes me 22:07 how how confused people are. And this is what you were saying, Arlina, with the health anxiety. People are so confused 22:15 and don't really know much when it comes to it about their health. And that's no 22:20 fault of their own because they've got to do their own research. In fact, there is actually a pressure for people not to 22:26 just do their own research, but there's now with the influences, there is this 22:32 pressure that if you are in fact not solving your own health issues that there's something wrong with you. 22:38 Um, and I've really seen that trend and I I don't like it. I don't think it's 22:44 healthful or helpful. Um, and like you 22:50 said, Cherry, would you think that you should maintain your own car? 22:56 I can't. Sorry. I've got to have a mechanic and I go there regularly. 23:02 As much as it would cost you. Yeah, but you could always get a new one as much as it cost you. You can't get a new 23:08 liver or a new heart. I think that's where metabolic balance really starts to 23:14 um become self-generating with clients because when because it's self at the 23:20 end of the day it's people have succeeded with metabolic balance that referred new customers like that's where 23:25 our new business comes from because people have done so well. But when you have multiple people in the same family 23:32 or they're the brother and sister-in-laws and so forth and they see the difference in their plans and then 23:40 they see the the results and they go, "Well, how come I'm only allowed to have an apple and you've got 10 fruit and 23:47 that's, you know, about their skin disorder or something like that?" Or, "How come I didn't get any red meat and 23:53 you've got red meat?" But then when they actually follow their plans and they see the results and the inflammation going 23:59 down and the sleep improving and the hormone balance coming back, then they start to really see live in action what 24:07 we're we're all talking about, which is that every person is individual and everyone needs something slightly different. And then that's a really good 24:15 thing because they're going back out into the community saying, "Well, hang on. I've done this and it worked for me, 24:22 but my plan was very different from my mother's or my sisters or my brother-in-laws, but we all got good 24:28 results. So that's where the power of metabolic balance really starts to pay 24:34 dividends in counteracting all of this oneizefits all talk that's going on on 24:41 social media is we actually have the clients out there spreading the word saying well you know I really wanted to 24:48 eat whatever tomatoes every day and I was only allowed to have them once a week and my joint f pain feels better Addressing Health Anxiety and Confusion 24:55 because of it. So, we've got a great tool to help undo some of this confusion 25:01 that people have. But I think Arolina's right about health anxiety is 25:07 going at warp speed and it's across all age groups. um young men, young women, 25:13 um young mothers, like once they get, you know, if they've been really busy in 25:19 a career and then they're home with their firstborn and they've got a lot more time on, well, that's, you know, 25:26 what do we delineate the time as, but they seem to that's a really critical period where they start to unravel and 25:33 become concerned about lots of things that they weren't worrying about. So, I think we've just got to as health 25:39 professionals get this message out more and more and more that you are an 25:44 individual. There are ways of working out what's right for you. Pick someone that you've established a relationship 25:50 with. And then stick with them. Don't go for two appointments and then say, "Oh, now I've actually seen this thing 25:56 online. I'm going to do that for a month." And I have that, too. Sometimes people say, "I've signed up to a 28 day 26:02 challenge." I'm like, "Well, hang on. I thought we were going to do this for a month, but they've, you know, the 26:08 attention span and off they've gone on to something else. So, we just got to keep reinforcing the message. Yeah. 26:14 Reinforcing. I I refer to that as shiny new solution syndrome. You know, it's that idea that 26:21 there's, oh yes, I've just seen something new now. Oh, that this will work. And actually, we just need, you 26:26 know, you just need that consistency. You you just need to actually give something a real go. That's that real 26:33 natural normal foundation to it. And I think that's the bit that I kind of often wish 26:40 could get across a little bit more about MB. It's just great normal food that is 26:46 just going to give some results. But Heather, you touched on something quite interesting there that I kind of wanted 26:53 to maybe is unpack a little bit more. um is that um as health professionals we 27:00 need to to be more vocal. We need to bring the 27:05 message out louder. But actually we are also can't necessarily do that in the 27:12 same way an unqualified person can do because really at the moment anybody can go onto a social media platform create a 27:20 video uh sing loud and clear any old thing they they could be have no 27:26 foundation in any real truth to it but they can shout it loudly. We are 27:31 professionally registered. We've got we have our indemnity insurance. we have our associations that we have to adhere 27:38 to the good standards of practice and etc like that. So we have to be a lot 27:45 more researchbased and and be using the the the language that is really accurate 27:54 and and not make such wild claims. So I mean Emily you're also you're very aware 27:59 of this aspect aren't you? Yeah. One one thing that I 28:05 have spoken with lots of different health professionals across different um sort of modalities and things and what 28:12 is tricky is that people who are professionally registered 28:18 we have to be careful what we say on social media. So if they are if there is 28:26 a someone on social media praising you know this cures this then it's likely 28:33 they're not professionally registered because if they were they can't say 28:38 those things and unfortunately they're the kinds of videos that absolutely get 28:46 traction in algorithms and then snowball and go viral. Um but the content that we 28:53 can share because of the way we have to talk about certain cause and effect and you know things working or not working 29:01 it's boring because everyone's everyone's everyone's different. So there is no No Magic Pill: The Truth About Lasting Results 29:08 magic pill and none of us will talk about a magic pill figuratively or you 29:14 know metaphorically because there is none. So it it's really complex because 29:19 yeah, we can't just get on there and go we can cure diabetes because the fact of the matter is you can't like and there 29:27 there is no cure. There are lots of things we can do to support your body to work in a different way which changes 29:33 symptoms manage and change things. So it's not an issue but it's not cure. Yeah. Yeah. 29:38 It's not miracle cures. Yeah. There but they're the ones that get the viewer value. Um but and then 29:46 the traction starts and unfortunately that's the stuff that then gets shown to 29:52 a lot of people and it's just sort of the same with AI. AI is amazing. It can do some really amazing things but it's 29:58 only as good as the prompt you give it and the information it's drawing on. And 30:03 so if all the information it's drawing on is that 30:08 saturated fats are bad, well then it's going to tell you that. Now, saturate saturated fats are bad in certain 30:15 situations, but there's certain uh saturated fats that actually are very healthpromoting. 30:20 So, it's complicated. Yeah. And again, disseminating that information, 30:26 um it's it's it's not it's just not as easy and straightforward to understand what's misinformation and what's real. 30:34 Um Karen though I know I want to bring you into the the the discussion at this 30:41 point because you I mean you're a fan of Tik Tok aren't you? 30:46 I'm a huge fan. So um because it was a really 30:53 interesting point that um that uh we were talking about before before we 30:58 actually came on air but um because there's there's a lot of positives about 31:04 the amount about the health information that is also available and I think we've got to bring that balanced view into 31:10 this because it is actually good news that more and more people are aware that 31:16 their food makes a difference that health can be something that you can 31:22 actually be proactive, engage with and make a difference with. Yeah, 31:27 definitely. Look, I um so look, I love Tik Tok, so for the for the the people 31:34 listening, it is mainly to find restaurants and to book my holidays um and probably look at crazy animal 31:40 videos. It is not to obtain any health information. Um but there's a couple 31:46 ways I look at it. one, it's not going away. So, it it's going to be there and it is going to keep growing. And my 31:54 concern, part of my concern is that AI is going to actually start posting. Um, 31:59 so we're not only going to see the influencers posting, we're going to see AI posting as well. Um, it is great in 32:07 the sense that, and I say this with caution, it has raised awareness 32:12 um that people would never have got to before. So people more people are questioning health. More people are 32:18 seeking advice. Not necessarily the best advice, but they're looking for things. They want solutions. They want change. 32:27 What I think needs to come into this is the regulation is there's got to be some form of 32:34 regulation that comes in. And I don't know when this will come in, not only with social media, but with AI, with all 32:41 of these things. And it's going to be up to these big companies and governments to start legislating what can and can't 32:48 actually happen on these platforms. But unfortunately, doing that doesn't make money. So, it's we're in this we're 32:55 really in this kind of area. So, what I what I tend to do with a lot of my clients and and don't get me wrong, I 33:01 certainly do with certain clients, tell them to turn their devices off, tell them to detox, tell them to get rid of 33:08 it, tell them to stop searching for things. Um, but what I also do is kind Educating Clients on Food and Nutrition Choices 33:14 of educate them on what's actually on there as well. Like, educate them on the things that we have been talking about. 33:21 I truly believe that pretty much if anyone's on there making a health claim, if any food has a health claim on it, if 33:27 any food is classed as a superfood, it's probably not because if you've got to tell somebody it is in that public 33:33 forum, I kind of question all of those sort of things. So, it's kind of then coming back and going, okay, if you're 33:40 searching for things, question them, answer them, and then if they come to me and they go, I have seen this, I want to 33:46 do this, I actually go back and go, why? why do you want to do this? And I get 33:51 them to explain to me what they're searching for as well. So, it's kind of changing it around and going, don't 33:57 necessarily disregard it, but work out how we can 34:03 use it, filter it. Yeah. Understand what those filters are and explain what we 34:09 have just said. And hopefully lots of people listening to this will understand that a lot of those a lot of the 34:15 influencers and I'm going to say all of them because I do think that some of them probably do have backgrounds and qualifications and things like that. So 34:20 I'd hate to say that all of them don't but there is a huge amount of them out there that have no background or 34:28 qualifications. So make sure that if you're taking advice from somebody it is the same advice like you said with with 34:34 electrician. You're not going to go and get a painter and decorator necessarily to rewire your house for you. You're 34:41 going to check the qualifications of the people. So, do that online as well. Like, look for the right people and 34:46 understand um what it is what it is out there as well. So yeah, I kind of come in from a 34:53 bit of a a bit of a different angle that I kind of go like and it's interesting like reading that report, a lot of that 35:00 report talks about YouTube that a lot of people are now getting their information 35:05 off YouTube and it wasn't necessarily somewhere when I kind of when we had this topic, YouTube actually wasn't even 35:12 in my mind. It was it was Tik Tok, it was Instagram, it was Facebook, it was Twitter, it was all of those sort of 35:18 things. But I guess we've kind of got to also consider the the YouTube and the 35:24 podcasts because I also said tell people go and have a listen to a podcast but now I'm 35:29 concerned about what I'm telling them to listen to. But yeah, in clinic, I don't know whether anybody else went through this, but probably even going back a 35:37 couple of years ago, there was quite a an interesting discussion between two 35:44 individuals, and I'm not going to mention any names, um, that was talking about genetic testing and um, 35:50 methylation and all of these kind of things and saying everyone's got to be doing this and they've got to be on this protocol and this protocol, you've got 35:56 to be following this diet. And I actually listened to that podcast. It took me I think it was about 2 hours 36:02 long and the first half it I went wow this is incredible information like 36:07 there's somebody actually getting this information out there until it wasn't incredible 36:13 and then it became kind of like wow we're actually now you've got me hooked in this first hour I have the education 36:20 to then know that the rest of what you're telling me is actually not true um but the people listening to it so 36:27 it's it's a really it's a really hard place to in. Yeah. And I think that's that's the key, 36:33 isn't it? Actually properly be discerning about who you're taking your information from, not just because they 36:40 because isn't I mean it's that's what disinformation actually is. It's it's putting in some nuggets of truth 36:48 in order to then hook people and make make them like feel 36:55 to a degree semi, you know, mostly confident. But then you spread uh you 37:01 know misinformation um as soon as you've got them hooked. I 37:06 think that's really the consumerism like that health has become a consumer 37:13 product and people are making a lot of money out 37:19 of it and there are huge incentives for overstating Food Marketing, Incentives and Consumer Awareness 37:25 what you are able to do or um what your product is able to do or what certain 37:31 foods are able to do. there's massive incentive and I think that really people 37:39 need to be wise to that the consumerism that it's not free information that 37:46 they're receiving. It's laced with hooks and um links and a whole lot of that 37:54 sort of complex consumerism that we face now. I mean it just strikes me somebody could be listening to this podcast now 38:00 and thinking that you know we talk about metabolic balance program um and you 38:06 could argue this is something that is also for people to to buy and consume. I 38:12 suppose who would who would just share you know the difference um that that MB 38:18 is because I I always look at MB as education. It's the education of just learning your food and then then you 38:26 know that note food and you you you don't need to buy anything else. That's what I was about to say. was 38:31 going to say that I find MB to be the opposite of consumerism because the reason I became a metabolic balance 38:38 practitioner was that I noticed that as a naturopath that I wasn't able to 38:43 always graduate my clients like that sometimes they became uh long-term 38:49 dependent upon uh my regular appointments with me and that they 38:56 weren't graduating and for me that is a type of consumerism. So I started searching for a solution to that and I 39:03 found metabolic balance and what I discovered was that if I was able to really teach people around listening to 39:10 their body, resetting their metabolism and eating the food that was ideal for their body, that a lot of what I needed 39:18 to do naturopathically actually fell away and we'd be left with one or two key problems 39:24 that were much more fully resolved and that people then graduated. Graduation 39:30 might not mean that they never see me, but they don't need to see me regularly. And I've now got many, many, many 39:36 clients, and I'm sure everybody on this podcast does, who have moved from seeing them very needing a lot of support to 39:44 doing metabolic balance and not needing support. And the way I describe it is if 39:50 your car needed a major service, what would you do? Would you take it in for 39:55 the major service or would you just go every month and have one little thing 40:00 done? And what would it cost you to do it that way to have one little thing 40:06 done every month? Like would your car ever be repaired and on the road and running properly? So for me, I find 40:13 metabolic balance is the opposite of consumerism. It's very empowering for our clients metabolic balance because it 40:20 um whereas a lot of these you know you get on they watch a YouTube thing and 40:25 then they think oh my goodness I'm doing it all wrong and then they watch something else and they're going well is that the right one but with metabolic 40:32 balance you can say because there's so much science behind it let's not forget the science behind our wonderful program 40:38 that we can make it so bespoke for everyone and then they've got this 40:44 ultimately live quite simple eating plan that's basic real food and they go yeah 40:51 I can do this and all of a sudden I feel fabulous and I can remember when I first discovered metabolic balance which took 40:57 me a long longer than I should have hey Cherry just quietly um but and I thought 41:02 wow I had I can remember think racing in to my receptionist at the time and going 41:09 I've got the answer I've got the answer now for each and every one of these patients who, as 41:16 Arlina said, just have that little tail end of somethingness. 41:22 So, I find it makes our patients very our clients very empowered. And I think 41:27 if you're talking about dollars spent, metabolic balance is a there's an outlay at the start. But people save all of Cost Savings Through Simple Home-Cooked Meals 41:34 that and more just by using simple home cooked meals and and catering for 41:42 themselves and not going out as often and not having morning and afternoon teas in a cafe that cost $15 each time. 41:49 So the the cost effectiveness declares itself. I think within about 4 to 6 41:55 weeks they they'd be at break even but feeling better and having a powerful tool to do that. Um I had a client 42:03 recently, she's in South Australia. She she went to Victoria for a 70th and a 42:08 funeral and she was in her first 3 weeks. She packed all of her meals in an 42:13 esky in the car and took them on a road trip and didn't eat anything at the wake or anything at the 70th because she was 42:22 committed to staying on plan. So just that weekend she would have saved 42:27 considerable amount of money on eating out and buying breakfast every day that she was away etc. So it's whilst the 42:36 long-term stuff is there that Arolina was saying, it's also economically 42:42 costneutral at worst, I think, if not cost cost beneficial. And they stick to 42:47 their plans cuz they feel so amazingly awesome. Let's not forget that little bit cuz your client Heather probably was 42:54 loathed to go, "Oh gosh, I can remember how I felt and I'm going to have this weekend away. I'm going to want to feel 43:01 all sort of rubbish again." Ironically, um this lady was doing it for alkalizing 43:06 spondylitis and um all of her pain went by day five 43:12 and uh yeah, she's had incredible results. So, it wasn't 43:17 about weight loss. It wasn't about anything else. It was just like wanting to get that pain down and um reduce the 43:24 pharmaceuticals that she was needing to suppress that pain. The pharmaceuticals and the supplements. 43:29 I think we've all sort of noticed how much we can we can really reduce 43:34 supplements. I mean, we've all got our individual snips and stuff that mean some of us do feel better on certain 43:40 supplements, right? But I think we've all sort of noticed how we can go, "Yeah, cool. Don't need that one. Save 43:46 100 bucks there, 100 bucks there." And then the doctors take care of medicines and things, but we've all had clients 43:52 who've just been able to pull back on all of those other things that they've had to do because they're eating well, 43:58 which then means they move better, they sleep better, they their brain works better. I think as well like I mean 44:04 we've obviously talked a lot about social media and nutrition advice and things like that and I'm sure it's a whole other other conversation but the 44:12 scary thing is the supplementation that a lot of these people they're not only giving diet advice they're giving 44:18 supplement advice and then a lot of these supplements are not coming from Australia they're coming from overseas 44:23 and they're not regulated as well and that can make people feel terrible like 44:29 absolutely terrible so I it's that strange strange idea as well that you oh 44:34 it's a supplement therefore it's it's okay it's it's I can self-prescribe it 44:40 without any issue and you really can't um you can it that at at sort of best 44:47 case it's going to just be that you waste your money but at worst case is actually that you could cause some real 44:54 problems. Yeah, lead lead poisoning being one of them like lead poison. It's not it's not minor the problems that can 45:01 be created and that's well documented that a lot of supplements are laced with 45:06 lead. I did part of my masters on that. Yeah. Horrendous. 45:12 Horrendous. But even in the even when you just buy great quality supplements though, you 45:17 can still cause problems by actually having overload of nutrients. Correct. 45:23 or competing competing. Yeah. That very fine balance between minerals. If you are overloading 45:30 on on too much even too much magnesium or too much calcium or too much iron, 45:36 you are shifting the the delicate mineral balance that we need. And that's why metabolic balance is Metabolic Balance as a Foundational Health Tool 45:41 great. Metab is that foundation. Like I always say to my clients like your food is your foundation. Let's get your food 45:47 right. Let's get your nutrients right. Let's get your vitamins right. all from your food and then we supplement on top. 45:53 We don't replace if needed. Yeah. If needed. Like they should always a supplement should supplement the food we 46:00 eat. It shouldn't be replacing the food that we eat. Um and there's certain circumstances where you need sort of 46:06 different supplements. But yeah, that's I think that's this benefit of metabolic balance as um the superfood diet. No, 46:13 I'm not going to call it that. But um all of the foods are just incredible. incredible superfoods for that person. 46:20 Yeah. But alongside the actual professional advice that each person needs, you know, with MB being 46:28 only from practitioners, that is really saying the importance of what the the 46:34 whole, you know, found the founders of of MB always said, you need to somebody 46:40 should talk to a real professional about their health to get the results. Then they can live a great life. They can 46:47 like you say you can graduate them like Arolina says into well-being. Sovereign 46:52 health. Sovereign health. Ah okay. Describe that 46:58 a bit more for for us what you mean. Look, this is what I think is so beautiful about metabolic balance is 47:03 that really what people receive is an education in what their body wants to 47:10 eat, how their body wants to eat, and how they can live their life in a way 47:18 that just through eating three meals a day that are designed for them but have 47:23 extremely simple to prepare and they can prepare in any way that they want. How 47:28 some Essentially, you're educating people in order to live simply but 47:34 knowledgeably. So, they can tell what their body can and can't do because they know what 47:42 eating their planned foods and being um well balanced feels like. And suddenly 47:48 they don't need to look to search Tik Tok or to search YouTube. They don't 47:53 need to over consume information because actually the information that they're 47:59 looking for is in their body and the information that they're listening to is in their body and they're following 48:06 their own body. And really that's as a metabolic balance practitioner that's what you're teaching people to do. And 48:13 when they're graduating with like sovereignty over their own health, they're graduating and going, "Oh, I 48:19 know how to eat uh for my own personal health." And often I find clients will 48:25 be like, "Oh, I've been trying to convince my mom to do metabolic balance. I've been trying to convince my" And I'm 48:31 like, "Don't convince them. Let go of convincing anybody to do 48:36 metabolic balance. People will do it when they're ready, but also they'll do 48:42 it just by observing you. And I've had a few clients that have said, well, you 48:47 know, in their friendship group, people have done metabolic balance with me and they said, well, you know, when Jen did 48:53 it, I thought fluke. But when Alex did it, I thought, oh yeah, okay. And then 49:00 when Robert did it, I thought, "Oh god, if anybody could help him, then you know, and and then, you know, and it 49:06 took four or five seeing it four or five times and seeing people that they didn't 49:11 think could change change and get amazing health benefits 49:17 and then seeing ah um like Heather said, seeing the cost benefit like it's not 49:23 even costneutral. It's actually that over the course of months you save money 49:29 that that starts to really impact how people perceive metabolic balance. You 49:35 know, yeah, if you listen to a podcast, if you you know, I'm sure everybody here 49:41 has social media pages. If you listen to all of that, then it might sound really 49:47 similar to an influencer, but don't listen to us. Client Success Stories and Real-Life Testimonials 49:53 go out there and listen to people that have done metabolic balance with us. Yeah, I think that um that's um you know 50:00 really nice a fantastic summary really from where you know to draw this podcast 50:06 to a close because it is about taking the pressure off people um from trying 50:12 to discern misinformation and disinformation out there. Bring it back to really what's right for you as an 50:18 individual with taking that pressure off. Unfortunately, well, fortunately, 50:24 we've got to say, we've got, you know, social media and the social networks, they're here to stay, aren't they? 50:30 they're just going to get bigger and and bolder with the But if we can just start 50:36 that real thread of conversation that says you know be discerning with 50:42 what you're actually really listening to and uh make sure that what you know who 50:48 you're paying attention to is worthy of your attention and they're not just trying to yeah either get your money 50:55 because that was the other thing I was going to say what I was thinking actually health whether it's ill health 51:00 or good health. It's a massive consumerrist industry, is it not? People 51:07 want you either to stay ill. You know, we want people because that's a place where people will spend a hell of a lot 51:13 of money or they're going to try and sell you endless products to keep you, 51:19 you know, always needing more kind of thing. Yeah. And who would have thought food could do 51:25 it all, huh? Exactly. Well, it's only been doing it for, you know, tints out, you know, evolution. That's what food has been 51:32 doing, keeping us healthy for for all this time, but no, in the last 10 years 51:38 or so, suddenly it's now the uh fat diets and all that kind of stuff. And and do you think that as people as we 51:45 evolve with social media and AI, people will go back to the professionals 51:51 because they're not getting the answers? Cuz I have a feeling there's there's room for that as well. Well, not everybody, but because you we get these 51:59 people all the time, you know, they go, "I've tried XY Z. I've been on her page. I've done whatever." And but I want to 52:07 be truly well. I I just hope so, to be honest, because I mean, I'm thinking of a few clients 52:14 that I've definitely had over the years who you can see the overwhelm when they 52:19 come in that just the overwhelm of I I don't know what to do anymore. I've 52:24 listened to so many different things and nothing has really worked. I don't know what to do. And often I will just say, 52:32 "Look, just let this now be my job." You just go away and watch cat videos or or 52:38 dog videos on social media. Drink your water. Watch your watch your cat videos. 52:44 Maybe plan a next holiday. Look at if you you know your holiday Tik Toks, but leave the health bit to me and I will 52:51 just do that bit for you. And actually the relief can also become really calm like I don't have to think about this 52:58 just let it that be my job. And that's what I love about you know talking to a professional means that you can just say 53:05 okay they've got it and I'll just read my book or watch my you know cat videos. 53:13 I think you can tell what I quite like to watch on social media. I'm a bit of a cat video fan. 53:21 So anyway, thank you so much everyone. that's been um that was such an 53:26 interesting unpacking of the whole the issue we have and um it's you know we 53:33 just have to keep on getting the the as much evidence-based true neutra advice 53:39 out there and you know it's it is one person at a time and if anybody would like to know more about metabolic 53:45 balance or find a practitioner you near you do check out the website 53:50 metabolicbalance.com and also check out the show notes as well where you'll also find all the 53:56 details of our wonderful expert panel as well. So, thank you again to Arreolina, 54:03 uh Karen, Emily, Alexandra, and Heather, and we will see you next time. 54:11 [Music]