Stephanie Lottridge: Hello, everyone.
Welcome back to "B-Well Together."
My name is Stephanie Lottridge--
and I am the senior manager
of Editorial Content here
on the 360 Team at Salesforce.
I'm really excited about today's
show because our special guest is
joining us all the way from Australia.
And for all of you out there who are
running low on energy and looking to
improve diet and overall well-being,
you're in the right place.
So it's my great pleasure
to introduce lifestyle food,
healthy-eating expert Lee Holmes.
She's an accredited clinical nutritionist,
founder of Supercharged Food,
offering diet, nutrition,
and healthy lifestyle tips.
She's a yoga and meditation teacher,
"WellBeing Magazine" columnist,
and the author of the best-selling
"Supercharged Food" book series,
including her latest, "Supercharge Your Life."
Today Lee is going to talk about how
food can be a path toward healing,
including an area you may be curious
to learn more about: gut health.
Hello, Lee, and welcome to "B-Well Together."
Lee Holmes: Hello, and thank you
so much for having me today.
Stephanie: Well, I'd love to hear your story.
Would you share a little bit more
about what led you to your passion?
Lee: Yeah, so I'm a clinical nutritionist,
I was working at the ABC.
I was in a big corporate job.
As a single mom, I was working in
the kids' music department,
so I was working with "The Wiggles,"
We were bringing them from a little RSL
in Australia to Madison Square Garden,
and it was a really big job,
and I woke up one day literally
unable to get out of bed.
I had no idea what was wrong with me.
I had hives all over my body.
I had lost a lot of weight.
Like, in the space of about 6 weeks,
I had lost about 12 kilos,
and my hair was falling out in
clumps on the pillow, so I'd wake up
in the morning, and I'd find, like,
handfuls of hair on the pillow.
And you know, as you do as a parent
or anyone, and you're busy working
in a corporate job, I kept on
going to work, and I wasn't really
listening to my body until
eventually I just couldn't go on any
further, and I went to the doctor,
and I went through in Australia,
in Sydney, what I found to be
quite a complex medical system.
I was going from doctor to doctor,
hospitals, lots of needles,
lots of scans, and it took a really
long time to finally be diagnosed
with an autoimmune disease
and also something called fibromyalgia.
I don't know if you guys have heard
of fibromyalgia, but you kind of
feel like a 90-year-old woman.
You wake up in the morning,
and your joints are hurting.
Yeah, so from there, I was put
on a cocktail of different drugs,
anti-inflammatories, antibiotics.
About 20 pills every day I was
taking, and actually, the side
effects of the medication were
quite forlorn, but also, I kind of
intrinsically thought to myself
and wondered whether my diet had
anything to do with it, and I spoke
"Do you think it could be diet-related?
'Cause I do notice when I eat
certain things I get really itchy,
and the hives flare up, and what
have you," and the doctor said
to me, "Oh, no, it has nothing
to do with diet whatsoever."
Even though, you know, I had been
diagnosed with Crohn's, they didn't
make the connection between diet,
so I was continually, you know, taking
the medications until they said to
me--I asked them whether I could
maybe change my diet slightly, see
whether I could make a few changes
and then see whether I could slowly
wean myself off that medication,
and so that's what I did.
I started to cook meals that I felt,
like, were really healing to the
body and very simple, and I went
back to, you know sort of real food,
very simple meals, and from there,
I started my little blog 'cause I
started to feel better, and people
"Oh, wow, you know, you look so good.
Your skin's good, your hair's growing back.
And Facebook had just started then,
and I just put my recipes up,
a couple of recipes up, and it
was actually really amazing
'cause people from all over
the world, all over America,
would contact me and say,
"That same thing happened to me.
They said I had an autoimmune.
I blew up like the Michelin Man."
And yeah, so I started to build this
really amazing community of very
like-minded people, and I started
my blog, "Supercharged Food," and
since then I've written, like, nine
books and yeah, and have products
and things like that, so it's--
I love nutrition, and I love the gut.
That's definitely my area of interest.
Stephanie: Wow, that's really
incredible story, very inspiring.
extensive knowledge of gut health.
increasingly aware of how critical
it is to take care of your gut and
how critical it is in terms of your
overall well-being, and so I'm
wondering if you can describe what
a healthy gut looks like for us--
we have a slide to show that--
and what impact it has on us?
Lee: Yeah, so definitely, definitely,
as you mentioned, the gut is very critical.
It's the epicenter to health
It's connected to the brain.
Yeah, so it's inextricably linked
together, and a healthy gut looks
morning, and you're digesting well.
What might be easier, if I tell you
what a kind of unhealthy gut
You might get tired after eating.
I don't know if any of you guys feel
a little bit tired after eating.
bloated as well after eating.
You might get some skin disruptions,
like some itching on your skin.
regular going to the bathroom.
And some of those things are brought
on by antibiotics, smoking, alcohol.
And diet, as well, really does play
a part in the health of your gut.
So speaking of the gut and the
immune system, 70% to 80% of your
immune tissue is actually located
in your gut, and you have good flora
and bad flora in the gut, and your
gut-immune system actually speaks
to your flora in your gut.
It has its own conversation, believe
it or not, without our brains even
being involved, and so there's this
whole dynamic at play within your
gut, and your friendly gut flora
allies with your immune cells,
so they do actually work together
to keep you nice and healthy.
There's also hormonal things
that happen within the gut as well.
There are so many processes that we
don't really--we're not really aware of
that happen within the gut as well.
Your thyroid hormone, your T4 is
converted to T3 within the gut, so
yeah, a lot of internal processes
happen, and they all happen within
your gut, so it's very connected
to other systems and areas of body.
Stephanie: Yeah, and I mean,
I feel like that's something that's,
I mean, I'm so excited to learn
more about, because as someone
who suffers a lot from anxiety,
I definitely have been paying much more
attention to gut health recently,
so I was excited to learn more.
And then, so I'm wondering--I hear
a lot about probiotics and prebiotics.
They're definitely buzzwords
nowadays in terms of nutrition, and
they've been used a lot in marketing
by food manufacturers for quite some
time, so I'm wondering what are they
exactly, and what is the difference
Lee: Yeah, so there's probiotics,
which are the good, friendly flora
in the gut, the things that keep
you nice and healthy, the little
soldiers, so to speak, and then you
have prebiotics, and prebiotics is
the actual food for the probiotics,
so if you can imagine a little baby
sitting there with its mouth open,
you know, wanting to be fed, so the
prebiotics and certain foods are
really, really good, and I do have a
slide on this, actually, in terms of
what foods are really, really good
for feeding the good bacteria
in the gut, so things like--
I don't know if you like leeks--
onions are really good as well.
things like sweet potatoes
Peas are good, onion, garlic,
asparagus, chicory, all kinds of
foods that are really, really good
for feeding the good bacteria
Now, you can also build up the
probiotic side of things in your gut,
'cause what you want is a healthy balance.
You don't want too much or too
little of either, so you just want
it to be working well, and that way,
all of those connections and systems
will be working properly.
So in terms of probiotic-rich foods,
things like--you've probably heard
of them already but things
All of those kind of funny-sounding
foods are really good for
repopulating the gut and making it
nice and robust and healthy, and in
turn, keeping your gut-immune system
healthy, and that's what makes the
connection to the brain, as well,
and it affects your mood and anxiety.
balance within is really important.
Stephanie: Okay, and when
then what works against the gut?
Lee: I guess things like--I ran
a summit last year, and I spoke
to doctors and scientists all over
the world, all of the big very,
well-known, renowned gut experts,
and they kind of disagreed on some
things but agreed on a lot
of things, and the main thing
that they said really disrupts
So it's kind of bidirectional,
in a way, because when you
think about stress, you kind of
but it can actually hurt the gut.
Having too much stress can strip the
body of good bacteria, believe it or
not, and then when your--
you know that sort of gut feeling
they talk about, the gut feeling?
That can actually--that can really
affect your mood as well,
so it's kind of--it's like
an inter-directional thing,
like an information superhighway
and running around your body.
Stephanie: So, when your gut
Lee: Yeah, you can definitely rebuild it.
I have actually a way that I did it
when I was really sick, and it's
a very, very simple way, and I call it
the four stages, and what it is,
is in the beginning, you know, when
you're feeling like things are not
working well in your gut, it's
really great to just take out
a lot of the things at that time
anything that's inflaming you.
things are really different.
'cause I was--as I mentioned,
I was in corporate as well.
I was eating a lot of Lean Cuisine,
putting things in the microwave,
a lot of additives and MSG,
that were really actually affecting me,
the preservatives in food,
and I didn't even know that.
I thought I was being healthy,
you know, eating all these healthy
microwaved meals, so it's really
just about listening to your body
and finding out those foods that
irritate you and taking those out.
For some people, actually, with
the gut, it could be healthy foods,
so it could be things like garlic and
onion that could make you feel real
bloated, so it's just kind of eating
something and then thinking about
and checking in with your body
"Am I feeling bloated after that?
Am I feeling tired after that?"
You're kind of taking things out,
and then you're kind of putting
things in that are a little bit
more healthier for the gut as well.
Stage two, the second stage of
that--I did something crazy.
I went to India, and I learned
Ayurvedic medicine, and I learned
all about these crazy detoxing
methods, things like oil cooling,
where you put, like, coconut oil in
your mouth, and you swish it around
for 15 minutes; tongue-scraping,
'cause they say the first entry
point, I guess, for the gut, is your
mouth, and you hold a lot of kind
of bacteria in your mouth, so they scrape.
I did all the--I used my body as a
science experiment to do all these
crazy things, so because I'd taken
all that medication, there is
a period of kind of detoxing and
having more of a clean diet.
So, first, you rest your gut with
taking out the things that irritate
you, and then you kind of go through
a period of detoxing, drink more
water, that kind of thing, and the
third part of the four stages is
really about what we were
and that is repopulating the gut
and I can go through those foods.
I think I've got another slide
later on, on what's really great for
repopulating the gut and rebuilding
it, and especially, for me, I really
look to the anti-inflammatory diet.
I think we're gonna talk a bit more
about that as well because those
were the things that didn't kind
of affect my gut-immune system.
And those doctors that I interviewed
for the Gut Summit all said that
inflammation in the gut is key, and
it's key to a lot of diseases and
disorders and especially to do
with anxiety, so there's a whole new
field of kind of medicine coming
out, called "psychobiotics,"
and they're looking at feeding
certain strains of probiotics
into the gut to really help anxiety.
Instead of a lot of the anti-anxiety
medications and antidepressant
medications, they're looking at
probiotics, which I think is just
a really interesting side of sort of medicine
that's coming up at the moment.
And then the fourth stage of healing
the gut is kind of a little bit
about that, and it's a holistic
view 'cause I'm sort of more
of a holistic clinical nutritionist,
at your life and looking at the
external stresses in your life.
And really, you know, for me, I took
Ayurvedic meditation and became
a meditation and yoga teacher
'cause I felt like a lot of the stress
and a lot of those things can really
contribute to your health,
so it's looking at a broader sense,
holistically about the things that
happen in your life and how to sort
of really mitigate stress and what
have you, so they're kind
of the four stages, yeah.
Stephanie: Wow, yeah, and so
speaking of stress and wanting to
eat better, I know we're all kind
of binge eating during the middle
of the holiday season that we're upon.
Could you give us some tips
Like, there's temptation around every corner.
Lee: I think there's a lot of temptations
during the holidays, isn't it?
And I do notice, like, when
I travel to America, and as I was
mentioning before, I love America,
but they always tend to upsize
So, like, there's refillable cups
it's big, like, there's a lot.
It's a lot of them, servings that
you're offered, which is good
in a way, but then you can
So I think that, you know, as we've
mentioned, it begins in the gut,
so just having sort of portion control
is a really good one and just
having--you know, eat until you're
just satisfied, and you don't need
to really overindulge, and if you do,
don't beat yourself up about it
'cause you can always bring it
back the next day and get healthier.
The other thing that I like to think
about when I think about food and
overeating and that kind of thing is
that sometimes when you're craving
craving nutrients, and those, like,
they're full of nutrients,
and they actually keep you full.
You know, sometimes when you're
craving chocolate, it might be also
that you're lacking in magnesium
or lacking in some kind of minerals.
So it's really just about tuning
into your body, eating mindfully,
as well, and just enjoying the moment
and just really thinking about, you
know, when you're eating, where the
food comes from, how you're enjoying
it, how it tastes, and then you'll actually
be able to digest it a lot better as well.
I know there is temptation around
every corner, and that's why I think
the 80/20 rule is really good because
You don't wanna be restrictive
over the holidays, but you know,
if you eat a lot one day, just
pull it back the next day.
The other thing that I like to say
is that looking for color is really
good, so if you're looking, say,
that there's a whole bunch of foods,
go for the colorful, bright foods
'cause they normally have--like,
eating the rainbow, they normally
have more nutrients in them,
and you're gonna feel very
energized afterwards as well.
That's what--they're kind of my tips.
Stephanie: I like them, they make sense,
and you've mentioned leftovers.
There's always room for leftovers,
and I know you are a master
for a zero-waste kitchen.
What suggestions do you have for
all the people who have overstuffed
Well, the things that I like
pull out my crisper drawer.
I've got a whole bunch of things
in there, and what I normally do
I don't know if you guys like
those frittatas over there.
I'll throw everything into a frying pan,
and then I'll crack some eggs
over the top, maybe put a little
bit of goat's cheese in and make
a beautiful stovetop frittata, and
then what I do is I pop it in the
oven afterwards and crisp up the
top so it's all nice and gooey, but
that's a--frittatas are really good.
Wraps are really good as well, so
throwing everything into a wrap.
Sometimes I use, you know,
the lettuce leaves instead
of the carb-filled kind of wraps,
I make things like pesto a lot,
so if I've got leftover greens
and things like that, no matter
what greens, it doesn't have
to be arugula, just that.
I'll put things like spinach in there.
Any greens I've got, I'll throw it
into my blender with some pine nuts,
a bit of lemon, some olive oil,
and a little bit of garlic, and I'll
whip that up, and that's really nice
to have on top of pizza bases,
on top of toast, on top of
Pizza is actually really good
for throwing things on top.
pumpkin on top of pizzas.
That's really nice with a bit of arugula as well.
Smoothies are really good
if you've got leftover fruit.
I freeze everything, and I just
pop it into my smoothie every day.
And so what I do with my smoothie is
I try and make it really colorful,
so all I do is think about colors.
So I'll go, carrot, and then I'll
throw in some, like, an apple,
then I'll do blueberries, so just
any kind of color, throw it all in,
and yeah, that's kind of how
I repurpose my leftovers.
Stephanie: That's super smart.
Speaking of quick and easy healthy
meals, I know that one of your main
goals is to alter the perception
that preparing fresh, wholesome,
nutrient-rich meals is complicated
and time-consuming, but you know,
with the examples that you just
shared with us, it doesn't always
have to be, so could you give us
some tips on how we could work
Lee: Yeah, I think one of the
first tips is don't worry about if
you go onto a health thing, doing
everything all at once, because I
think we put so much pressure on
ourselves, and actually, that stress
is worse for the gut than
So I would say just take it really
slowly and take it in your own time.
Sometimes I say to my clients just
starting off, maybe in the morning,
just do a healthy smoothie, and then
you're just getting all that color
and nutrients into your day, so
healthy smoothies are really good,
and just do one a day, and then
maybe sometimes making a soup.
So the way I make my soups, just to
make it really quick, uncomplicated,
and easy, I'll throw in some pumpkin
or whatever veg into the oven
and roast it up with some garlic.
Then I'll throw it into a pan
with a bit of stock, a little bit of
coconut milk, and usually some cumin
or some kind of spice and then cook
it up, whiz it up, and it literally
takes probably about half an hour,
So maybe one night you could try
that, and then the next day, you
could try, you know, a smoothie, and
that's just little things like that.
Especially, I don't know if it's the
holidays there, but if you're in the
office, after having lunch, if
you're having lunch at your desk,
go for a little walk as well.
Just try and sort of, walk off your
meals afterwards rather than
just sitting on your computer
'cause that's not really good
for digestion as well so--
you metabolize, too, the walk?
Lee: Yeah, it helps you, so in
Ayurveda, they talk about having
your heaviest meal in the middle
of the day rather than having it at
dinnertime, but going for a walk
afterwards 'cause it helps you
regulate as well, and yeah, so
that's another little tip as well.
Stephanie: Yeah, that's really good to know.
I always just assumed dinner
was the heaviest meal, but yeah,
Lee: The reason that they say that in Ayurveda
is because they say your agni--
or your digestive fire, as they call it--
is strongest in the middle
of the day, around 12 o'clock.
So if you think that your digestion
is strongest, then it is better
to kind of eat your food then as well.
Stephanie: So I'm always kind
of curious about, you know,
the different diets that I hear
There's so many out there.
It's pretty overwhelming, and I
mean, I definitely have tried one,
and then it lasts five days, and I'm
like, "I can't do this anymore."
I'm just wondering what are
your thoughts on these diets,
and is there a diet that's right for everyone?
Lee: I think there are so--
as you say, there are so many
different diets, paleo, keto.
It's interesting because I've got a
lot of clients coming to me now who
have been doing keto and paleo,
and their gut health is really
suffering, and the reason that it's
suffering is because they're not
eating their prebiotic fibers.
They're not eating their sweet potatoes.
They're not eating all those carby kind--
but beautifully rich, fiber-rich veggies,
and so now their good flora
prebiotic-rich foods, and so
whatever diet you are on, you're
probably restricting a few areas of
nutrients that you could be getting.
So when I did interview all of the
doctors and scientists around the
world, the gut-health ones, they all
agreed that the Mediterranean-style
diet was probably the best 'cause
they argued about so many different
things, but that was the one thing
that they finally all agreed on.
Mediterranean-style diet is good.
It's kind of quite high plant-based,
and I think if you do--are eating
high plant-based, it's good because
you're getting a lot of those
nutrients and colors, and
you're getting a lot of fiber
antioxidants from fruit as well,
so those things are good.
A little bit of fish is good because
you're getting those omega-3 fatty
acids, which are good for
inflammation, so that's kind of an
anti-inflammatory-style diet as
well, but really, at the end of the
day, it is--the Mediterranean-style
diet is great, but listening to your
body and tuning in and eating
with the seasons and how--
isn't it interesting, you know, our
forebears, when you think about
them, they kind of--they knew
where their food sort of came from.
Maybe they lived on the farms where it was.
They kind of really did eat seasonally.
They worked with, like, spring peas
and summer berries and root veggies
in the winter, so it's really just
about tuning into that and their
kind of wisdom and going, you know,
Do I feel like if it's coming into winter?"
You know, stews and slow cooking
is really grounding, and it's really
good for you, and you kind of do
wanna hibernate a little bit, so yeah.
Stephanie: Wow, thank you for sharing that.
And then I'm kind of switching
to ethical food practices.
I know that's something that people
have been thinking about a lot
recently and kind of wondering
how you suggest people make
What does that mean to you?
take to make the choices?
Lee: I think shopping smart,
like starting on your own plate
and shopping smart is important.
So in Australia, there's this
real--because of COVID, there's this
real movement towards buying local
and supporting local producers and people--
so it's become very more--
much more community-minded.
Less people are going out to big
supermarkets, and they're kind of
supporting their local farmers,
which is really good, because
the farmers over here, they have--
and probably the same in America.
They have a really hard time,
like, especially with the weather,
especially with the price
of seeds and things like that, and so
supporting your farmers, we can
either, you know, really help
support them, or we can plunge them
into more debt, and so over here,
there's this whole movement
supporting local as well.
The other way that we can help,
and it's just a tiny thing, and I do it
at home, but I've just started
growing all of my veggies,
and I'm growing lettuces,
I'm growing--and it's just in a little, like,
veggie pot thing at home--
and so I'm doing all my herbs
for pestos and things like that.
I'm growing a lot of things at the
moment, so even if you live in an
apartment, you can grow a few little
herbs and things like that, so just
learning more about it and getting
invested in it, and eating that way
is helpful as well, so growing
your own is very good as well.
And then there's a lot of
community-based activities happening here.
I don't know if it's the same in America,
but even in workplaces, people are
cooking extra the night before,
bringing it in, and sharing it.
It's much more sort of community-based.
People are buying blenders for their
offices, and people are coming
in and you know, making their
it's just getting more in touch
and supporting people who are more local.
I think those practices are important.
Stephanie: That's a great idea.
I love the sharing leftovers with the--
Lee: Yeah, yeah, they're doing
that in offices here, which I think
is really nice and having a fruit
bowl, you know, having a fruit bowl
in the office, and everyone brings
in extra fruit that they've got.
Stephanie: Yeah, I love that idea.
I love the idea of, like,
building community around that.
Stephanie: I know we're almost
out of time, but I kind of wanna
pivot back to the holiday, and
just, I'm asking you if you have
any healthy holiday recipes
that you'd like to share with us
Lee: Yeah, I have a lot of recipes on my website,
superchargedfood.com, on the blog,
but one in particular that I really
like making in the holidays, and
that's my Christmas eggnog recipe,
but it's not the one that's got all the cream
and the sugar and everything in it.
It's a little bit healthier, so I use coconut milk
and a little bit of coconut cream,
and I use five egg yolks,
and I've got some cinnamon in there,
so it's got that really Christmassy kind of flavor,
and you whip that and shake that up in
a little shaker, and it's really delicious,
and you can add rum to it if you want to.
That's entirely up to you, but
that's a beautiful holiday recipe,
and it looks really nice on the table as well.
Stephanie: That sounds delicious.
I also saw the--was it the
peanut butter mousse on your site?
And I really wanna try that.
The peanut butter mousse is really nice.
I've also got a fantastic Christmas
cake which has got no added sugar.
I'm using dried fruit in there,
some almond meal, some eggs,
and some beautiful Christmassy spices
as well, so that's on there too.
It's called the Supercharged
Stephanie: Lovely, I'll be sure to check that out.
Visiting my dad over the holidays,
so I'm sure he'd love that.
Stephanie: Well, we're about
at time, so I just wanted to say
thank you so much for making
the time to join us today
all the way from Australia.
You know, I also wanna give
gratitude to everyone who took time
out of their day to join the call.
Remember, be happy, be healthy,
and be well, bye everybody.