Unlocking Nutrigenomics: How Food Influences Your Genes and Women’s Health Journeys with Dr. Tamar Lawful

Have you ever wondered how your genes influence your health and weight loss journey? Join host Heather Carey in this enlightening episode of Real Food Stories as she sits down with Dr. Tamar Lawful, a pioneering expert in nutrigenomics, to unravel the fascinating connection between food, genetics, and our overall well-being. As a pharmacist and nutritional genomics specialist, Dr. Lawful brings a wealth of knowledge to the table, particularly for women navigating the complexities of midlife and menopause health.

Throughout the conversation, Heather and Dr. Lawful delve into the common struggles women face regarding weight management and health. With a focus on personalized nutrition, Dr. Lawful explains how nutrigenomics studies the impact of food on our genes, revealing that our dietary choices can activate or deactivate specific genetic predispositions. This groundbreaking insight is essential for understanding how certain foods can influence the risk of conditions like diabetes and obesity, making personalized nutrition based on genetic testing not just beneficial, but transformative.

The episode is packed with practical nutrition advice and healthy eating tips that empower women to take charge of their health. From the significance of healthy fats and fiber to the importance of lifestyle changes, Heather and Dr. Lawful provide actionable insights to help listeners make informed decisions about their food and lifestyle choices. They discuss the seven pillars of abundance that can lead to a nourished body and mind, encouraging listeners to embrace their personal food journeys.

Dr. Lawful also shares inspiring weight loss stories from her coaching program, illustrating the real-life impact of tailored nutrition plans. These success stories highlight the power of culinary wellness and the importance of understanding food beliefs and culture in achieving lasting health outcomes. As they explore the future of nutrigenomics, listeners will gain valuable insights into how this innovative field has the potential to revolutionize dietary practices for better health.

Whether you’re curious about the Mediterranean diet, looking to debunk weight loss myths, or seeking to navigate hormonal changes and skin health, this episode offers a treasure trove of information. Tune in for a friendly and empathetic conversation that not only addresses the challenges of midlife health but also celebrates the joys of cooking and nourishing your body. Join us on this journey to uncover the secrets of nutrigenomics and empower your menopause with knowledge and delicious, real food recipes.

Let’s Be Friends
Hang out with Heather on IG @greenpalettekitchen or on FB HERE.

Let’s Talk!
Whether you are looking for 1-1 nutrition coaching or kitchen coaching let’s have a chat. Click HERE to reach out to Heather.

Did You Love This Episode?
“I love Heather and the Real Food Stories Podcast!” If this is you, please do not hesitate to leave a five-star review on Apple or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Transcript:

Speaker #0
Well, hello, everybody, and welcome back. And if you are just tuning in with me for the very first time, it’s so nice to meet you. And I’m really glad you’re here with me today. I am your host, Heather Carey, nutritionist, chef, mom, and a woman who has been around the block with food. I want to open up about real food in relation to health, weight, and our bodies so you can make peace with what you eat. Hi, everybody, and welcome back to the Real Food Stories podcast. So women are on an endless hamster wheel of looking for the secrets to weight loss, gaining energy, feeling younger, and getting healthier. I know that there’s always a new diet, a new program, or a new theory on why women gain weight and have trouble losing weight, and it’s intriguing to look at the genetics and DNA as a factor in our health. I don’t know that much about this. I am not the expert, so I’m calling in the experts today, and I have Tamar Lawful with me. So let me tell you a little bit about Tamar. A trailblazer in the integration of pharmacy, nutrition, and genomics, Dr. Tamar Lawful is a doctor of pharmacy, advanced practice pharmacist, and certified nutritional genomics specialist. Beyond her academic achievements, she’s CEO and founder of Life Balance, and she designed the In Her Glow health coaching program, which empowers working moms towards optimal health and reducing the need for medications. Dr. Lawful offers practical insights into weight management and reversing diabetes by utilizing nutritional genomics for a customized health approach, ultimately helping them enjoy life and thrive. once again. So welcome, Tamara. I’m so happy to have you here so we can get to the bottom of just using our genetics as far as losing weight and feeling good as busy women. I wanted to start out, I wanted to ask you just to maybe define what genomics is and what the field of genomics is doing right now.

Speaker #1
Yes, first, thank you so much for having me, Heather. It’s a pleasure to be here on your show. So when it comes to genomics, my specialty is nutrigenomics. So we’re looking at nutrition, we’re looking at food, and the impact it has on your genes. Many of us don’t realize that food actually has the ability to, in a sense, turn on or turn off our genes. So we might be, we might be coded genetically to be at high risk for, say, diabetes. The foods that we eat can actually turn on that gene, making it very active so that we are going to present with diabetes based on how we’re eating. Or there are certain foods that we can eat to limit that risk of diabetes so that it’s not going to actually present or manifest itself. So the science of how food impacts your genes.

Speaker #0
Okay, so… Tell me then a little bit more about how food can turn on certain genes and then turn off certain genes. So are you saying that some, and we’re just going to talk about women today. I know that this can affect all people, but can women get affected by then certain foods when others can’t because of their DNA and their genetic makeup?

Speaker #1
Yeah. So we’re. we’re all we’ve already when we’re born with the genetic code already we’re already coded for whatever it is right so our environment and our food will impact whether it’s triggered let’s just say that whether the gene is going to activate pretty much the gene is there but it may not actually come activate to manifest as what it’s coded for unless we are eating certain things or being exposed to certain things in our environment.

Speaker #0
So. One woman, for example, could eat, I guess, a lot of high sugar, high carbohydrates and never develop diabetes, right? Where another one can be eating the same diet and possibly develop those health issues.

Speaker #1
Exactly, exactly, Heather, because the woman that is eating sugar and eating carbs and not ever manifesting with diabetes, she likely never had the genetic code for. Being at high risk for diabetes, she probably has other genes that are helping her metabolize sugars better, release insulin, be more body, be more insulin sensitive versus insulin resistant versus the women who is at higher risk for diabetes based on her genetic code. The foods that she eat is going to likely enhance the risk of developing that disease.

Speaker #0
Okay. And so genomics then can help us figure this out.

Speaker #1
It can definitely help us figure it out.

Speaker #0
Okay. And tell me what then, how do you go about finding out if you have these certain genes that you can turn on and off?

Speaker #1
We do nutrigenomic testing, which is a saliva swab from the mouth. And it runs a panel sequence of genes that are specific to nutrition, specific to how we metabolize fat, how we use energy. and a various of other nutrition and physical related genetic variations. And when I say variations, it means just our gene sequence, there might be a slight alteration in it that as a result of that, that puts us at higher risk because of that alteration, higher risk of certain diseases or not being able to process foods a certain way. So once that test… is complete, the report actually analyzes the sequence of genes and will let us know specifically we’re looking at systems like how methylation is handled by our bodies, how our body handles oxidative stress, inflammation, and a variety of other factors. And from that, it’s then able to give us very specific information on the type of foods. And lifestyle changes such as exercises, stress management techniques that would be helpful, specific to that individual. So the clients I have, they get different results. Someone might be dealing with inflammation, inflammation as an underlying or root cause of something that’s going on with them. Another person might be dealing with a methylation issue, potentially. And that genetic test will give them very specific recommendations on what they can do to start getting their systems on the right track.

Speaker #0
Okay. So these are also some bigger words that my audience might not be that familiar with. I am familiar with these, but things like methylation, oxidative stress, inflammation. I know we’ve all heard of inflammation. Eating an anti-inflammatory diet, that’s supposed to be good, I think, for everybody. But what happens if you… what run more at risk for methylation? What is methylation exactly?

Speaker #1
The methylation has to really do with how we use energy in our body. And a lot of people, it’s necessary for how our cells work down to the core of our cells. So someone who’s having methylation issues may have a lot of problems with symptoms of fatigue and also you possibly even crossing over into detox and being able to clear toxins out of the body as well when it comes to methylation as well can cross over into that. So genetically if they have a variant that puts them at higher risk for methylation issues this test will actually give them foods and recommendations that they can take and lifestyle changes that they can do to be able to overcome that. And I think a more common one that we all can relate to is inflammation. The test does look at how your body is handling inflammation or the risk of not being able to really deal with inflammation that well. So, for example, a lot of people come to me because they want to lose weight. And inflammation is one of the top identifiers that usually come up on their report. Because when our body is consistently in an inflamed state, it’s very difficult to lose weight because in a way that inflammation is kind of encaging those fat cells. So until we start addressing inflammation, it’s going to be very difficult to lose the fat and to lose weight.

Speaker #0
Okay, so you’re talking about chronic inflammation, right? There’s acute inflammation that’s like if we just cut ourselves or something, right? And then there’s chronic inflammation, which is sort of your body’s like under attack. You might not even know it.

Speaker #1
Exactly.

Speaker #0
You might even, but, but so it sounds like that. So getting this. testing really pinpoints and targets specific areas, right, that we might want to be looking at?

Speaker #1
It does. But one thing I do want to point out is that it’s not, unlike other genetic tests, like that will diagnose you with a certain illness, like genetic illness, these nutrigenomic tests don’t do that. They’re designed only to look at factors or genes that will affect me better. affected or impacted by nutrition and exercise, things like that.

Speaker #0
So what you’re saying is that this kind of genetic testing isn’t testing for like the breast cancer gene or, right? Is that what you’re saying?

Speaker #1
That’s right. That’s right. So the way I explain it to my clients is this is letting you know your risk of, you have a risk of getting diabetes, a risk of having problems with your blood pressure, a risk of of obesity and then genes that are tied to that, explaining why that risk is present.

Speaker #0
Okay. Does this test for the obesity gene specifically? It does. Oh, okay.

Speaker #1
There’s over 400 of them, so. Oh,

Speaker #0
are there? Okay. Oh, that’s okay. I didn’t understand that either. Okay. That’s interesting to know. So it targets, it looks at all of these different markers for the obesity gene.

Speaker #1
Yeah, it considers all the different markers related to obesity, also genes that affect your ability to feel full, your satiety, your risk of being an emotional eater or stress eater. All those genes are looked at as well to come up with your ultimate plan.

Speaker #0
So that’s interesting. I mean, that you could have a genetic marker for emotional eating or to eat. for other reasons besides like physical hunger.

Speaker #1
Yeah, it’s genetic. It’s genetic. And for example, I’ve worked with other practitioners that use nutrigenomic testing and I’m going to go through the experience of this one person I talked to because it was so significant to me. She shared that one of her clients had been struggling with obesity for a long time and she’s told usually, you know, you have to exercise. But she’s in so much pain from the weight that she carries that it’s very difficult for her to exercise. So once looking at her nutrigenomic report, started working with changes in how to eat, within a week, she realized that because, you know, people feel that guilt. Like, oh, what am I doing? I can’t stop eating. I know I need to lose weight, but it’s so hard. But once you start eating certain foods, it can actually turn off that gene to. that’s triggering you to eat so much. She realized that by now incorporating the foods in her, from her nutrigenomic report, it helped her with her appetite. It helped her with her cravings naturally. So then she was able to not overeat and not resort to that stress eating that she was doing before.

Speaker #0
Okay. So that’s a really interesting point. That’s something I haven’t heard either, that certain foods can maybe turn off those genes because you know that in you the news right now. I mean, the advent of Ozempic and Govee and all of these weight loss medications, their big claim to fame is that they turn off the food noise in your head, right? They turn off that need to be constantly thinking about food. I haven’t heard that there could be certain foods that turn off that noise. So let’s talk about that. And I know because you are a pharmacist, right? So you’ve been schooled in the world of medications and everything. What’s your thought on Ozempic and those other kinds of medications as a way to help you lose weight? I know that, I mean, and being in the world of nutrigenomics.

Speaker #1
Yes, indeed. These medications, I feel like Feel that for those who have truly been struggling with weight loss for a extended period of time, they’re definitely a good resource, a good medication to go to. They’re effective. They’re some of the most effective weight loss medications that have come out since weight loss medications have been being created. Of course, they have their side effects. The thing is, they work. They’re hormones. They’re mimicking the hormones that naturally happen in our body. So the GLP-1 and their effect on insulin and being able to control our glucose levels, our blood sugar levels. Naturally, being that it’s a hormone we already have in our body, it makes sense that the foods, by changing our nutrition, we can trigger those hormones to work better as well. And so they are the pharmaceutical way of enhancing those natural hormones we have to work. I work with my clients whether or not they’re on these medications to trigger their bodies to naturally work, have these hormones work for themselves and also learn the habits of healthy eating. What exactly is healthy eating and understanding why the foods have the effect on their body that they do.

Speaker #0
So I want to just talk a little bit about those foods that can turn off the, like the food noise. What, what would it be a couple examples of those foods? Because I mean, shouldn’t everyone be eating those foods then?

Speaker #1
Yes, everyone should be eating the foods. And important is also the combination. So the foods, of course, are foods that are going to make you feel full. So you want things, you want fiber, and you also want fat. So low fat diets are a no-no. When our body, our cells are surrounded by fat, they need that fat layer to function properly. But the key is healthy fats. So we’re not going to go to KFC and get… some fried chicken and say, oh, well, I’m eating, I’m getting a fat from the skin of that chicken and the oil they fried it in. We want healthy fats, coconut oil, olive oil, avocado oil, healthy fats, and then good sources of fiber from fruits and vegetables. So those two are the main, of course, protein. But when it comes to protein, even our vegetables, we want to make sure that it is from a good source. preferably organic because it’s going to be free of those extra chemicals and pesticides. So those, I would say the two, the two, those three are what’s really going to trigger those, those hormones in our gut that help with feeling full, which would be the fats, the healthy fats, fiber, and good sources of protein.

Speaker #0
So do most of your clients or patients come to you Without, I mean. Tell me about like an example of what they would be eating and that would kind of prompt that food noise.

Speaker #1
So one, most of them, they’re eating out, take out every single day. They’re not cooking home-cooked meals, pizza, Chinese food, chips, french fries. That’s typically what they’re eating. So when they start learning. how to eat differently. I don’t do calorie counting, macros, micros. What I encourage them is to eat whole foods. So when they start eating these foods that pretty much, if you pluck it from the ground and you can put it in a pot or pluck it from the ground, eat it fresh. That’s what we want. We don’t want anything that in a bag that crinkles. That’s what I tell them.

Speaker #0
Oh, I like that.

Speaker #1
Yeah. Shop in the perimeter of the grocery store. So let’s get plenty of fruits and vegetables. And so switching. that mindset over from it’s so easy to just order, it’s so much easier to just order, I don’t have time to cook, getting them to now enjoy preparing their meals. And it doesn’t take long. Within three days of them doing that, they actually see the effects that it’s having on their body that new way. So they want to continue it. And it’s actually a really good, interesting experience for me to witness. Although I know it’s going to happen, but when it happens, like, see, wow, every time it works. So, for example, I have one client who fast food, her and her husband every single day, fast food, fast food. She was diagnosed with prediabetes. He already had diabetes and they ate out every day. Once they got their meal plan that matched their genetic profile. Well, she she was she was in a program. Her husband wasn’t. But by default, he kind of was. So once she got her profile from the Nutrigenome Report, that let her know what… what potential problems she was dealing with, which the problems typically match what they’re presenting with already. And hers was a lot of inflammation and detoxification issues, clearing out the toxins in her body. And she, there’s a meal plan that I share with them that matches their genetic profile results and they use it for recipe ideas. So her and her husband started doing the recipes, even making ice cream naturally. And, um, Her husband became a shopaholic in the grocery store. He loved going to the grocery store to shop for fruits and vegetables and food. And they would come home and cook together. So they were now spending more time together. And between the two of them, they lost over 40 pounds. Within, at that time, it was an eight-week course of being in a program. So that was a huge turnaround and change in their lifestyle for them. And they actually enjoyed it. They enjoyed how they felt. They were sleeping better. Her husband’s insulin dose had to be reduced. Her A1C dropped. She was no longer pre-diabetic. So great results with. training your body how to release its own natural hormones and also to work for your health and being able to enjoy healthy foods.

Speaker #0
So it sounds like it really like just the bigger point of doing the testing is that it really targets you very specifically. And then you can set up meal plans and a plan of action for people that’s very, very exact for them. Rather than just here’s the healthy, I mean, because what you’re saying is things that I would do for my clients too without testing. I mean, everyone should be eating fiber, healthy fats and protein, right? We all should be doing that. But the testing helps to really target in and give some information and to show your risks, right?

Speaker #1
Versus actual diagnosis. And some might already come in with what they’re saying they’re at risk for because they haven’t been, you know, having that lifestyle with the healthy eating. Another unique portion of the test is your exercise, the type of exercises that would work best for you when it comes to weight loss or heart health. For like, I’m going to share my personal experience. I always share this because it was so shocking to me. I used to do high intensity training, interval training, like six days a week. before I had my baby and it worked like I lost 40 pounds in 12, 24 weeks. And, but after I had my baby, my hormones changed and I was no longer able to do, well, I did high intensity training, but my weight wasn’t going anywhere, anywhere at all. So I did a genetic test and it told me specifically that I struggle with oxidative stress, meaning that there’s just too stress going on in my body. And that can cause cell damage, leading to fatigue and a whole bunch of other issues. And that’s exactly what I was experiencing. I was always tired. And it also recommended that high intensity training I shouldn’t do maybe no more than twice a week because that’s just adding more stress to my body. My body doesn’t know if it’s running from a lying or exercising. And so once I stopped doing a high intensity training, I went to Pilates, yoga, just did walks. the weight just came off easily because now my body wasn’t in that stressful state. So it also gives you insights like that as well that are very specific to you versus someone else that might say, yeah, sure. High intensity training wouldn’t be a problem for you.

Speaker #0
Yeah. No, that’s important to know that what, just even what kind of movement is, is more beneficial for you versus others. And now with all this information, you know, women, I know the women that I see, they’re… busy, right? They’re working, they’re busy. Is it too much information sometimes? Or do you think information, like all this information is beneficial? And, you know, too, I mean, because you said like your example about the husband and wife who had, they followed the meal plans. They were really excited about, you know, using the specific foods and they were a success story, right? Yeah. How do you, how do you target, you know, like, I mean, how do you, how do you address the busyness? This is just a general question, I guess, you know, that we’re all really super busy and wanting like quick results and, and, you know, even that like quick diet, like, just tell me what to eat. And like, so how, how do you, how do you address that with your clients?

Speaker #1
So we all, we all want quick results. So you can give somebody the directions. and then send them off and hope that they follow it. What I do is, because that’s what I used to do as a pharmacist, I was counseling patients in the hospital about to be sent home on, this is your medication, this is why you should take it, this is how much you should take. By the way, you have heart failure, limit your sodium intake, try to walk, exercise five days a week, 30 minutes, that’s all, 30 minutes, five days a week. And two weeks later, they’re back in hospital. So I realized that I need to be more on hand. with my clients and I created my program to be that way. And that’s why I have a 90-day health coaching program. So for 90 days, I’m working with them to implement the recommendations. in their nutrigenomics report. And also, I focus on what their goals are. What did they come to me for? The nutrigenomic report will give them information on a lot of things, but what is it that they want to work on? And that’s what we’re going to focus on for those 90 days. That’s what we’re going to start with. And then as far as time to implement these changes, I have designed my program digitally so that it They can go self-paced at their own pace that they want to take in the information to two weeks. It’s designed for two weeks to work to build a habit and then add on the next phase that I go through for another habit for two weeks. And the coaching process helps them stay accountable. And I’m keeping up with them throughout the week in between our coaching sessions to see how they’re doing, what do they need help with. They’re able to text me through our platform. and say, hey, take one to find a picture of some keto bar that she was going to buy because she was trying to be low carb. And she said, Can I eat this? I said, Absolutely not. No, I didn’t tell her absolutely not. But I said, Look at the back of it. Look at the ingredients. And she says, Yeah, like no carbs. And I said, How much fat does it have? And she told me and I said, And what are you going to have for dinner? Of course, she’s going to have carbs, pasta, whatever for dinner. And I said, So that’s a keto bar when you’re doing keto. It’s really have to be low carb. You can’t miss high mix, high fat with carbs, you know, with high carbs. And it’s, and she wanted to lose weight. That’s going to make you gain weight. And she said, Oh, let me put that back. And I said, first of all, why are you not on the perimeter of the, of the grocery store?

Speaker #0
Right.

Speaker #1
Just things like that. So they are able to talk to me. I’m able to remind them, keep them accountable and help them along their, their journey, their health journey.

Speaker #0
Yeah, I think the accountability is really key rather than like your example of when you were just a practicing pharmacist, you know, here’s your medication. Here’s your like couple of go walk five days a week and good luck. You know, and that’s like almost like noise. Right. And people’s had some times like I have to go, you know. walk five days a week and how do I do that? How do I start? And so I think the accountability is super key. And then I think having the testing, the genomic testing is, as you were just talking, like you can’t really argue with data, right? I mean, you can’t argue with your genetics,

Speaker #1
right?

Speaker #0
So if these things pop up in your reports that you have a tendency towards diabetes, or other markers, you know, for inflammation or methylation, you know, things like that, you really can’t argue with it, right? I mean, the science is the science, right?

Speaker #1
It is a science. And that’s a good point you bring out, because I do have clients who don’t use the genetic testing, but still go through the 90-day health coaching program. And those who don’t use it, those who do, the ones who use it 100% success rate, they reach their goals. 100% of the time. And I think it’s because they are seeing, oh, hey, this is science. This is me. This is what my body is telling me I need and how I can get to where I want to go. So they’re more likely to follow it versus those who haven’t done the genetic test. They’ll get results, but they don’t necessarily stay up. That’s just what I’ve experienced. They don’t necessarily stay on course for the, they’re more likely to fall off the wagon, so to speak. Yeah. Yeah. it take a little bit longer to get the results. Yeah.

Speaker #0
Yeah. No, I could see that because I can, I can imagine that people just exercise more, eat less, you know, it’s just like, it’s like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right. And our heads are probably like that message that we’ve been hearing our entire lives. And, but with the, with the testing, you really have a reason to do certain very specific things. What else besides, we’ve talked a lot about diabetes. What other, and obesity, what other health issues do you usually see come up in these tests?

Speaker #1
With the high blood pressure is one, and a lot of mental health, for example, is another one that comes up. And so with that one, for example, if someone has, I shouldn’t say mental health, but like, for example, migraine ability issues, they might have issues with migraines. that will come up. And because like I said, it’s not there to diagnose you with medical, like it’s not going to say, oh, you have depression or anything like that.

Speaker #0
but just it takes a, what we call a systems-based approach. So it’s looking at, like I said, those systems, methylation, things on a cellular level that will then translate to what’s going, what could potentially happen medical-wise. But yeah, migraines, menopause, menopausal hormonal issues, gut health. Gut health is definitely on there. The risk of celiacs, the risk of… digestion issues, potential for that, those markers come up as well. So we definitely cater to a lot of gut health issues that people come up with. And then they see the results and to them it’s like, oh, it all makes sense now. Now I understand why. Now I understand why. It’s kind of like some people can say, well, it’s in my genes, there’s nothing I can do about it. But they’re realizing, yeah, it’s in my genes, but there is something I can do about it now. And it makes sense as to why I was feeling that way and why this was happening. They just, there was, they couldn’t put a pinpoint on it and why it was happening. And this test has given them that answer.

Speaker #1
Yeah, no, I think it does give you some clarity. It’s almost like going to see a psychic or something, right? It’s like, oh, that’s why I have. whatever, you know, every time I eat wheat or I feel like digestive issues or, right. I mean, if it gives you the information that you didn’t know you had, right. So it’s, yeah. So it would be really helpful. So it was like, okay, so let’s talk about just hormones then. What would it show up? Because a lot of my, a lot of my listeners are women in midlife and going through hormonal issues. What would show up there then that… they have what more of a risk for like menopausal symptoms or?

Speaker #0
Right. They will have more risk for menopausal symptoms. The hot flashes, mood is a huge aspect of that as well. So that plays into, into, into the menopause as well. And actually mood is one of the, one of the factors that are pulled out. for specific recommendations regarding nutrition and lifestyle changes. And so it just depends when it comes. They’re not giving you the exact hormones, just more so it’s more so related to the possible symptoms that are related to menopause that can be drawn out from your genetics. My actual first patient, she came to me because she was having serious hot flashes and mood swings. and issues of losing weight over the past three years. And she was going through menopause. And she’s like, I turned vegan. I did acupuncture and nothing is working. I’m still miserable. And within the first two weeks of just applying the nutrition plan in her from her genetics, genetic report, the hot flashes were gone. Mood swings were gone. Now we’re three years later and she’s still not on any. She was actually considering taking hormone replacement and she’s still not on anything for years later and she’s still applying what she learned from her genetics.

Speaker #1
So by neutrogenomics, right, is you are just prescribing the food, correct? So she, okay, so that’s encouraging that she was able to eliminate her hot flashes and other symptoms through food.

Speaker #0
Yeah. So in my program, it’s food, but I also focus on other factors. Um, so it’s, I think it’s a combination of everything really. So food definitely plays a huge part. Um, cause like I said earlier, what we eat does can impact our hormones, right? As our body changes, um, gets improved and gets healthier. Um, in my program, I also address sleep. She was a lot of my clients do not sleep well. And, um, I spent two weeks working with them on developing their sleep routine. Um, there’s also. the movement activity, the exercise activity, they’re inactive. So I think, and also self-care, stress management is something I work with them on. All that comes together really to have those rapid results, but their habits that take time, the things that I see immediately are from their nutrition. Because right away, they’re making those changes within three days, four days, they feel different and are on the right path, the right track.

Speaker #1
So the top things, sleep, food, movement, self-care and stress. Right. Yes. Tall order sometimes, but yeah, if we could all like get these running smoothly, I think we’d be.

Speaker #0
Yeah.

Speaker #1
Yeah.

Speaker #0
Yeah. It’s, and it’s hard, it’s hard to, to implement these, these habits when your whole life you’ve been doing things a different way, you know, and it definitely takes time. It takes time. And it just popped in my mind, going back to the question about the menopause. I think that also comes down to detoxification, which is something the test looks at. So if you’re having an imbalance of hormones, for example, you might have estrogen overload. And so that will detect it. So certain pathways in your detoxification process genetically are looked at and they’re likely not to work as well. Then we know that certain hormones are likely to be accumulating. in your system and you can have an issue with that as well.

Speaker #1
Okay. So it really, yeah, targets in. So, and when you say detoxification, I want to just clarify that too. You’re not talking about going on a detox diet or a juice cleanse or anything like that, correct?

Speaker #0
That’s correct. I’m talking about our actual mechanisms in our body. We detox through our liver. So naturally, we have the ability to go through certain phases of detox in our system. So if those processes aren’t working on their own in our liver, then we have a buildup of a lot of things that can cause us to feel horrible, absolutely horrible. So some people might want to detox through. It’s funny because I’m actually in the process of writing a book about detox, but using our genetics to do it. And yeah, some people think juicing. Juicing is a juice cleanse. That’s temporary. We want something to actually be long-term to get our detoxification systems in our body functioning the way they should, again, naturally.

Speaker #1
Right. So, right. We have a natural detoxification system in our bodies. If we didn’t, we would all be dead. Right. If we couldn’t clear out drugs and. you know, other harmful substances out of our bodies naturally. And a three-day juice cleanse is not going to kickstart you into cleaning out. So that’s a myth. So I just wanted to clarify that when you talk about detoxing and detoxification, that it’s just to boost your natural detoxification system.

Speaker #0
Yes, yes, indeed.

Speaker #1
Okay. All right. Great. Well, Tamar, this sounds, I mean, really you Interesting. And I think if you are a person who loves information, especially this would be really, you know, great to get tested and to see where you fall in your with your genetics. How do people go about doing that? How do they get in touch with you and and work with you?

Speaker #0
Great question. They can contact they can go to my website, the life balance dot com. T-H-E, life is spelled L-Y-F-E, balance.com. And L-Y-F-E stands for love yourself first every day because that’s where it starts by loving ourselves first every day to reach our optimal health. Or you can find me on social media at Dr. Tamar Lawful.

Speaker #1
Okay, great. I will link those all in the show notes. And yeah, and thank you so much. This has been interesting. And I’m just really looking forward to see where this field of

Speaker #0
nutrigenomics goes because i think it’s really exciting and and kind of in its infancy right it’s it’s like new relatively newer it’s been around for a while but it’s taken a long time to get some traction um i feel like in in the nutrition world a lot of research uh needs to be done and it’s kind of a little bit harder than the pharmaceutical world to get that that the good type of studies done for that so but it’s building some traction it’s getting yes

Speaker #1
Yes. Great. Okay. Well, thank you so much.

Speaker #0
You’re welcome. Thank you, Heather.

Speaker #1
And as always, if you loved this podcast, please consider gifting me with a five-star review. It is so helpful for me to get the word out on real eating, our real bodies, and real food stories. Thank you so much and have a great week. Bye for now.