The Impact of Food on Your Health and Well-Being with Dr. Nadia Rizzo and Niki Papaioannou

Good morning and welcome to Essential Ingredients. I'm Justine Reichman, your host. Today, we have Nadia Rizzo, ND, and Niki from Niki Inc.. Hi, ladies, how are you?

Hi, Justine.

Fine, thank you, excited to be here joining you.

Well, I was super excited to have you both here today. Nadia, I would love to just have an opportunity to introduce you to our guests. I never like to introduce people myself because I never feel like it gives anybody the justice and the well deserving intro that they deserve. So Nadia, would love for you to just take a minute intro yourself so our listeners can get to know you a little bit better.

Thank you. Okay, so I'm a mom. I live in Windsor, Ontario. I'm a naturopathic doctor. And basically, I work to make health very easy for people. Very practical, and help them understand what is going on in their body, and empower them to make better choices for healthy living.

Wow, that's amazing. I love that. Especially in this day and age as everyone is staying home, and there's such an opportunity for us to make the wrong choices. Take the easy way out and get lazy. A little bit lazy, right? I mean, we're all a little guilty of that just a little bit. Thank you for that intro. I have so many questions, but let's just take a quick minute to have Nikki intro herself, and then we'll get the conversation going.

Hi guys. My name is Niki Papaioannou. I own Niki Inc. boutique PR firm in Toronto. I'm a mom of two, what I call chicklets right now. I have two kids, my kids. And I have a book that I am a co-author called The Growth Hacking Book 2. And I'm a producer on the Social Movement, Season 2. So life's a little busy. And I'm so proud that I get to work with Nadia Rizzo.

Wonderful. Well, I am so glad to have you both here. And you both have such great and vast experience that I want to share with our listeners. I just want to start a little bit and talk to you both a little bit about what you're both doing because you both have experience in the food industry. Nadia, your experience is really about empowering people to make informed choices, which really resonates with both NextGenChef and Essential Ingredients. Our movement here at NextGenChef and Essential Ingredients is to really empower people to make more informed choices. And when Nikki had talked to me about having you on Essential Ingredients, I was really excited about it because our goal here is to give people access to the information so that they can make more informed choices. So with that said, as a doctor, you really empower people with the information so that they can make those more informed choices. I know as a child, I grew up with all sorts of issues with whether it was allergies or I constantly have stomach ache, but it was all rooted in my gut, and it was all rooted in my congestion in my nose. And according to my mom, it all came down to what I was eating. And in the 70's and 80's, that was really advanced. But now, I feel like people are talking about this left, right and center. Can you talk to me about that? It seems like people are much more open to this now. What does that look like for you as a doctor now?

Yeah. It's exciting because people are more receptive. I'm not someone who tries to convert anybody so I'm only really willing to talk to those who want the information. But it's there, and you plant the seed. So it's very exciting that it's kind of coming to the forefront now, and that more people are aware of the impact that food has on their overall health. And are becoming more mindful, or at least open to getting the information as to how they can make better choices because there's so much information out there, and it can be very overwhelming.

Yeah, it can be. And I think that if we look at food, and we look at it from soil to shelf, as I like to say, there's so much to consider. What are your thoughts on that from plants to food? It starts in the very soil. Do you have a thought on that? And the way that it comes from the seed, and then it cultivates, and then it becomes food, what's your position on that, and your thoughts on that?

If I can be honest, my very first thought when you said that was, well, some things are being eaten that actually don't come from soil, and that's a problem.

That's true.

That would be like a really great place to start if what you're eating actually never really came from Earth, from Mother Earth, natural, maybe just starting there with opening your awareness. I think that's a great place for people to start.

Yeah, I think so too. I just think that so many times people are, they don't think about how this impacts their health. And I think the one thing that I want us to talk about as we move into this conversation is the impact of what we're eating on the future of our health and on the well being of the planets. I know none of us are experts on the planet, but we are talking about how food impacts our health, and how businesses and consumers can be more mindful about the choices they make. And what I'd like to just discuss are some of the choices that we can maybe just think about, maybe we could just pose some questions for people. So I'd like to throw that out there to you, Nadia. Are there any things that, there may be three questions that you might recommend for people to consider that they should ask themselves as they're thinking about their business, or what they're eating as they're going to the grocery store or creating something new?

Yeah. So remember that the way the food industry, at least in my opinion, operates it's a business. Businesses have to make money. There's nothing wrong or bad about that, but I really wish that it was more geared towards health. So because marketing can be very misleading. When you're walking through those aisles at the grocery store, you really want to be looking at your labels and see where did it come from? How is it grown? You might have done some background research. And in the very quick instant of the moment, the three things I look for are protein, carbs and sugar. So if I'm looking at an actual label, I'm always looking as a mom, and for myself, and as a naturopathic doctor, what is the sugar content in here? What is the carb load? Because that will spike your blood sugar. And what's the protein?

I think those are great tips, and they're really usable. They're really useful. I don't want to belabor this topic, but you did mention as people are talking about this, and I do want to include Niki in this conversation because we did talk about promoting these things and how people are doing this. I want to talk to Niki because she is the guru on all this. We have chefs, and we've got restaurants, and we have all people that are promoting their products. And one thing is to be really respectful of how people are doing this and thoughtful, and you need to have integrity when you're doing it. So I'd love Niki, if you wouldn't mind just talking us through what the best way is to do that.

I guess from you, like from the perspective of the restaurant, what's the best way to proceed when you're presenting a menu? I often say that restaurants could simplify their menu offer maybe a third of what they're offering, but offer the best version of every plate. And sometimes, I speak to chefs and then they get overwhelmed because they're dealing with 80 menu items and a lot of food that goes bad, and they can't seem to work around that cycle. What if you had 10 menu items? The 10 menu items were perhaps organic. You try a little more and you found a way to make people salivate over their dishes. I went to a concept in Toronto before the lockdown called PLANTA. PLANTA is a vegetarian concept. I'm not a vegetarian. The food was exceptional, and their menu has eight menu items. The restaurant was packed, and I guess that's like a flip side of how we look at food. Sometimes, less is actually more. So I consider myself a foodie. To me, a good olive oil, a good sea salt and a fresh arugula leaf are heaven. But arugula tastes is so different when it's organic and it's grown in your home garden versus when you buy it in the store. It's almost like, if we could get chefs to not have the stress of 100 menu items, but let chefs play with food. Another thing I thought of too, just a random idea girls. I was at a restaurant before the lockdown that had a garden outside and I thought, wouldn't it be so cool if restaurants were growing their own greens?

Yeah. And there are some restaurants that do that. I know in New York, there's some that have their own gardens that do that. There are a bunch. I think it would be amazing. It would be amazing. I think there are a couple in California where they do have their own gardens,and they make what's on the menu from their garden.

I love it. Yeah,

I think it's such a great idea. There's actually a restaurant here locally in San Francisco, in Marin, where the chef and owner actually has a garden in her backyard. And so she gets all the blackberries, and she gets all the fruits from her backyard. And so it will say on the menu, San Anselmo lemons, because it comes or [inaudible] because it comes from her backyard.

Oh, my god. That's amazing.

So you have also mentioned, I just want to circle back to it, you were talking about the chef's needing Instagrams.

Yes. I've been dealing with a lot of chefs lately who might not be working, and they don't know how to build their brand, gain momentum around the brand. And I say to them: "Listen, you're cooking everyday at home, you've cooked in the restaurant. Create an Instagram handle and show us what you cook every day." I think living with the chef is such a privilege because you're eating the best food on the planet. But if you say to a chef that you're a brand, they don't always know it. So I will say to chefs right now, whether you're working or not working because of the pandemic, photograph your food, set up an Instagram account and use the proper hashtags. Because I have food service clients who want to hire these chefs. I've got a food service brand who says: "Find me the best 10 chefs to cook with our food." And I would employ so many chefs right now if I had them on Instagram.

That would be super smart. I'd love to just bring Nadia into this conversation. Because one thing that I think is just top of mind to me is that these chefs, it would be so smart for them to be working with Nadia because these naturopath's have insight into what it is to build food that is healthy, and that can work with all sorts of different kinds of food issues. And more than ever, people are very health conscious. I'm curious, Nadia, do you ever work with chefs in venue planning and helping them create meals?

That would be a dream come true for me because, even when I show dishes on TV on other segments, I was on CTV in September for back to school. And I was even saying to Niki: "I'm a nutritional planner. I am not an artist, I'm not a chef. I can tell you what to eat, but I don't make it look that pretty." That would be a dream come true for me. So I do a lot of nutritional planning with my one on one clients, my patients. But in terms of actually having the spread made and presenting it, that would be heaven.

Niki, I think we have an idea here. What do you say?

How brilliant would it be if a restaurant, a breakfast house said to Nadia: "Nadia, evaluate our menu and tell us which one are your top three picks." I think the next health conscious client would look for Nadia symbols on their menu and would be like, oh, wow, an ND recommends this dish. And even if they don't ask why, they'll order it.

What I think is, this is my idea Niki, I think we need to find a couple chefs and a couple restaurants, and we get Nadia to do it. And it's an ND approved, but it's NextGenChef approved. So it's NextGenChef approved with an ND. And it's got all the Essential Ingredients. Oh, okay. I think we have a new project.

Yeah. That's cool. That's cool.

In the meantime, can you share with us some of the challenges and maybe some of the impacts you've been able to have with some of your clients? Of course, not sharing any names, but by being able to change their diets and alter the food that they're taking.

I always say this, and I say it to Niki as well all the time. What I am doing is, I call it Good Tour Naturopathic Medicine. It's a really good tour so not off the rack because when it comes to nutritional planning, people are constantly looking at these, I don't do diets. like I'm so not into diet, and they'll be like asking me about different diets. And what do you think of keto? What do you think of paleo? And the problem with all of them, in my opinion, is they don't take into consideration your individual factors. It's not a cookie cutter approach here. So the thing that I do the most with, and especially because it changed my life, especially postpartum after I had my son, the one thing that I implemented that had me feeling better post baby in my 30's, I did when I was in high school was identifying my food sensitivities, and what foods were causing inflammation in my body. So not everyone has the same food sensitivity. It's so important that people identify their individual food sensitivities. And that's the biggest game changer that I've had in my practice and in my own life.

Yeah. I would agree. I find the same thing. I know for years, I was constantly nauseated and I couldn't figure out why, and then I constantly got congested. Do you know that every time I eat anything with sugar, I'm constantly congested. What is that? Is that normal? I've never heard anything like that.

[inaudible] to me, my nose runs when I have chocolate and so I don't eat them anymore.

It's not fair.

Well, sugar in general is inflammatory. So that's one that I guess we could apply across the board after I just gave my couture speech, but it is inflammatory. So that's the one thing--

Turmeric, I take, and ginger, anti inflammatory to try to avoid all of that.

My first thought with that is, and I won't get into specifics here but just in general, I tend to think when people say that is, is it food form? Is it supplement form? If it's supplement form, what's the dose? Are their gut issues? Some people are taking amazing supplements, and they haven't identified that they actually have gut issues, and they're not absorbing their supplements. Or some people--

We're gonna have to have it offline chatt. Otherwise, all our listeners are gonna have to hear about all my issues. That's just not fair to them.

I'm sure that you're not the only one experiencing--

I'm sure, I'm not the only one. So that being said, I do want to circle back on something you mentioned before that I thought was super interesting, which was this iron. Because you talked about iron, and I know on a personal level, I always like to check in with something that I experienced. Because I figure, if I'm experiencing it, tons of other people are experiencing it. One thing I've learned is I'm not the only one. I'm not that special. Special for lots of reasons, but not in that way. And I tend to take iron once a month. I need that iron. I cook on a cast iron, I take a little extra iron. But you had talked about it as an issue and some other remedies for it, could you tell me more about that?

Yeah. It is so common especially with those gals, we do lose iron with our cycle, with our menses, in our flow. So that's part of the puzzle. And a lot of times, women are never actually told why iron is so important. Another piece of the puzzle could be with our dietary intake, that we're actually not getting enough. Another reason could be we actually have an identified gut issue. And again, here's that absorption piece. If you're having inflammation in your gut or gut issues, you're not going to be absorbing nutrients from, whether they're coming from your diet or your supplements, you're going to have a compromise in your absorption there. So a lot of times, that's a huge piece that often gets left I find behind.

Okay. So I think that there's more often than not people do experience this. And I think that that's a lot of the reason, correct me if I'm wrong, that people don't absorb their vitamins or their supplements that they take, and they don't actually reap the benefits. Did you say that's accurate?

Yeah, it's a huge piece of the puzzle. And we have a really high tolerance, I think in today's day and age, for feeling rushed, for feeling stressed, and for feeling really crappy, if I can say that. So I feel like people just don't even remember, or maybe have never even known what it actually feels like to feel good.

I would say that's really a huge piece of the puzzle. So now going back to this, you did mention this three day iron class that you had talked about, can you talk to us a little bit about that? Because I know myself, I have a challenge with iron. I'd love to know more about that.

So thank you for asking. It's a three day video series on my website. So it's completely free.

Before you go, maybe you could just tell us what that website is for our listeners.

Yep.

I know that we will put it in the show notes. But for those listening, this way, they can jot it down. So maybe just spell it out.

It's N-A-D-I-A-R-I-Z-Z-O.C-O-M.

Perfect, thank you Nadia.

No worries. And I was sure to say the Z there because I do live in a border city, and I was mindful of that. Okay, so with the iron series, it's really just empowering the person, the listener, to understand what iron actually does in their body. Because I find oftentimes women will say, Oh, yeah, my family doctor told me I was low in iron and to take a supplement, but they don't realize that by not taking it, what that could actually lead to. So I take them through what iron actually does in the body in terms of fertility, pregnancy, thyroid, all those things. And when someone actually understands this, they're much more motivated to actually stay on top of that.

I can imagine. I can imagine that. So Niki, I want to get back to you. I don't want to leave you out of this conversation.

Whenever Nadia talks, I would just like taking it in.

I know. When we first started this conversation, I learned something. Niki says that Nadia is like the Google for, what did you say?

She's like the health Google, my fairy godmother for health. Like, I asked her some random questions, and then I have to write down the answer.

Everybody needs one of those.

I used to say you need a lawyer, you need an accountant, you need some odd best friends, I think everybody needs a naturopath in their life.

And as I'm working to change the future of food, working to really give greater access to this information is really important for me to have access to these great people and these great minds like you, Nadia. So what are some of the insights that you can share, or that you want to share to some of our listeners? Are there any key insights that you feel like our listeners should know?

Justine, I have something that I can answer for Nadia. And then Nadia, maybe you could speak to it. Nadia has our monthly Instagram show called, with her friend, Dr. Laura Belus and it's two naturopathic doctors who literally give you so much information from their perspective. Again, you need a notepad when you can join Instagram Live. Nadia, you can talk more about that.

Okay.

Thanks Niki. And thank you Justine for your kind words. So we are based on Tea Talk, Dr. Belus is actually one of my dearest friends. And a couple years ago, we were sitting in a Starbucks and we were talking about protocols we had for weight loss with our patients. We were kind of grilling each other, Oh, you do that, you do that, kind of back and forth. And then we got into some real life conversations, and relationships, and things like that. And at the end of the night, I looked at her and I said: "This is what people want to hear. This is what people want, like they want to be a bug on the wall." As to ND besties are sitting in Starbucks having tea, that's when the real juice comes out. And then two years later, Niki goes, I really want you to do a show. And I was like I've already got it. And I've already had the co-hosts. So we don't script it. It's so organic. I never know what's going to come out because it's just on the fly. And we always talk about hormones, we talk about food, we talk about lab testing, and blood tests, and stress hormones, and all kinds of things. And then we talk about real life, it's really fun.

That's great. I love that I think part of these podcasts is meant to be like that too not quite in depth in that. Talking about changing the future of food, and these conversations, even this conversation is organic, right? We didn't know where it was completely going to go, but it's meant to be that way so that we have the room to be able to talk about what's top of mind, so that it's not so controlled and refined within these four walls that we can only talk about A, B, C and D. Because that is so contrived, right?

Yeah. And it feels totally different when you're listening, right?

It's totally different. Okay, so what do you recommend Niki for yourself? What can you tell our chefs and our end consumers as the best way to represent themselves and be authentic and transparent?

I would say to consumers, and this is something I think Nadia has taught me, to understand how you feel after you eat something. And you'd be surprised by how much better you can feel if you weren't eating that one thing that your body hates. For example, I used to work as a director of marketing for casual food chains, and I used to eat a lot of dairy. And I always felt so bloated, I had terrible skin. When I stopped working with the food that I was working with, my skin cleared up. And I noticed that I didn't drink milk naturally, I don't drink milk. So suddenly, my body changed too and I felt a lot better. So I would just tell consumers like, make a diary of what you eat, and grade how you feel after every meal. And if nothing else, you'll realize what foods feel terrible for you. But I would ask consumers to think about where their food comes from. Do we all know where chicken wings come from? Because most of the chicken wings on the planet come from Brazil. Brazil regulates food the way we regulate in North America. That's a question people can ask. When you look at cheese at the store and you look at conventional dairy cheese, it's made of skim milk powder. You're not really getting what you think is cheese anymore in the store. A lot of cheese now is called pizza, mozzarella, which is even more modified cheese. So I would encourage people to go buy cheese from cheese specialists and look at labels, because you don't really know what you're eating anymore unless you're even reading the label of cheese. So that's my little two cents on how I would inform people to eat differently. And I hope everybody takes this advice because I feel a lot better since I started doing this.

Yeah, I have a question for you. Do you ever feel like you get such a craving? You try it, and then you're like, oh, why did I do that?

Yes.

I do that. I feel so stupid when I do that. I'm like, I really wanted that. And why did I do that?

And you're like, oh, I knew it. I knew I felt terrible after eating that.

How about you, Nadia, you're probably too smart for that.

We're all humans, right? Human. We all have our moments. Mine's usually intentional, like a family member who makes like the best, my family's from Italy. So when my aunt makes a really good [inaudible], I know that I'm gonna feel like a junk for three days.

So ladies, during COVID, question for you, how has this impacted you in terms of your choices that you've made. Has it changed what you've done? Have you made better choices, worse choices? Niki, why don't we start with you?

I struggle with COVID because I can't see the food before I get it. I'm ordering food, it's getting delivered to me, but I'm very much a person who stares at the food before I buy it. Struggling here, and then a lot of my vegetables get substituted. I ordered bok choy, I got celery. Last week, I got like 11 celery stalks, a lot of soup. But I think I'm making a lot more soup just because I think I love what broth does for the body. What are you doing Nadia?

I actually feel like it's motivated me to be more on top of my diet. You can believe it or not, because I feel like when I don't, I really feel like I'm just gonna suffer more. I don't really like the word suffer, but I feel like I've challenged enough during this time. Single mom, childcare is very limited, schools are close, working from home, I don't really need another drop in the bucket of tipping the scale towards another challenge in terms of feeling like junk in my body. So it's just motivated me to be that much more on top of things.

Awesome. Thank you so much ladies for joining me, I really appreciate this. Nadia, let's start with you. If our listeners, or founders, or anyone wanted to get a hold of you, what would be the best way for them to reach out to you?

Yeah, the best way would probably be my Instagram handle, which is drnadiarizzond, or you can go to my website which is Nadia Rizzo, R-I-Z-Z-O.-C-O-M (nadiarizzo.com), and click the contact tab to send me a message.

Wonderful. How about you Niki.

You know what? The best place people can find me is also Instagram, @nikiincto. We're really active there, and I'm trying to cheer people up during this lockdown period. And to all the chefs out there, I just encourage you to get up, get an Instagram account and show us where you're cooking.

I want to thank you both for joining us today. I want to thank our listeners for joining us today. This podcast is sponsored by NextGenChef. So if you like this, please follow us on Essential Ingredients. You can download the podcast, you can subscribe. We have a new podcast each week, and we also have an app for NextGenChef. So whether it's you, Nadia or Nicki, we hope that all of our listeners as well as our thought leaders will download the app, subscribe and download the app as well. It is free. You can connect with other people in the community, email each other, download all the great content that we have. It's a great place to connect with other people in the food and beverage community. They're looking to build new beverages, new food, and it's a great place to connect with food and beverage entrepreneurs looking to build better for you food and beverage businesses. So again, thank you both for joining us, and I hope to see you again soon.

Thank you so much, Justine, it's a great podcast.