HAPPY (Healthy And Plant-Powered, Yay!) with Rachael Brown

Today's guest Rachel Brown discusses her journey toward a whole food, plant-based, no-oil lifestyle after being diagnosed with high cholesterol in her late twenties. Rachel, certified in Plant Based Nutrition and Food and Sustainability from the T. Colin Campbell Centre, emphasizes the importance of holistic nutrition, explaining how unprocessed foods work synergistically in the body. She advocates for shifting from the Standard American/Australian Diet (SAD) to a healthier, plant-powered lifestyle (HAPPY - Healthy And Plant-Powered, Yay!), highlighting benefits like disease prevention and reversal, financial savings, and emotional and spiritual wellness. Rachel also addresses common challenges and misconceptions about plant-based eating and offers practical advice for those transitioning to this lifestyle.


Rachael is offering free consultations and more on her website: https://forforkssakebook.com/

Transcript

Magic Barclay: 0:43

Welcome back to A Magical Life. I'm your host, Magic Barclay. And today, Rachel Brown joins us. Rachel Brown earned a Plant Based Nutrition Certification and Food and Sustainability Certification from the T. Colin Campbell Centre for Nutrition Studies in Melbourne. at Cornell. After being diagnosed with high cholesterol in her late 20s, she discovered the China study and transitioned her family to the whole food, plant based, no oil lifestyle, and her cholesterol immediately dropped 50 points. Rachel has been An adjunct professor in nutrition and wellness, a certified yoga and Pilates instructor, and a licensed massage practitioner. You can learn more about Rachel at www. forforksakebook. com. Welcome, Rachel!

Rachael Brown: 1:38

Thank you so much for having me, Magic. It's nice to be here.

Magic Barclay: 1:42

It's lovely to have you here. And I was just saying off air, I've studied the T. Colin Campbell Institute and holism. Let's just quickly mention that. People treat in reductionism in both allopathic and alternative medicine scenarios. What is holism in your mind so that listeners can kind of see what we see? Mm

Rachael Brown: 2:10

hmm. Yeah. One of the, one of the easiest mental pictures I have is of, something like you take oil for instance, and people will say, Oh, but olive oil might be really good for you. but that. That substance has been pressed from olives, taken out of its natural state, and it has a very different effect on your body when you're just eating oil that's 100 percent fat. then when you would eat, let's say, some olives that have their fiber and nutrients, antioxidants, all these things in this package. Your body treats very differently and it's actually beneficial to your body, whereas your body can have inflammation and all these other issues when something is stripped down, processed, made into something different. So, this idea that things work synergistically. together in ways that we haven't even discovered all the different ways nutrients work together, the chemical processes of all these things. But, we know from many different examples that our bodies work really well using whole foods, unadulterated, unprocessed foods.

Magic Barclay: 3:14

Definitely. And in the work that I'm in, in holistic healthcare, we treat the body as a whole as well. So no system works alone as Dr. Perry Nicholson, one of my mentors says, and then we listen to everything the body says, as my other mentor, Dr. Stuart Gillespie says, you know, you've got to listen to the whispers before they turn into screams and treating with symptoms or following symptoms. Only gives you like every third word in the message. So I love that we're talking about this. Okay. So I ask all of my guests, the same three questions and everyone gives me different answers. So here comes your first one. What can your expertise do to accelerate health, not just physical, but also emotional and spiritual health?

Rachael Brown: 4:07

Yeah, so I am all about accelerating health and I think the fastest way to get there is to get away from I would say the standard american diet, but also the standard australian diet which we call sad and move to happy That's the acronym I came up with just to an easy way to remember from sad to happy So by happy, I mean healthy and plant powered. Yay So just back to what we were talking about with know With the whole kind of idea, eating whole plant based foods can have amazing effects on your body. You know, getting rid of disease, preventing disease, even reversing disease, things like cancer, diabetes, heart disease, strokes, Alzheimer's and dementia, which runs in our family, autoimmune diseases, inflammation, diseases of inflammation, all these things can be treated with antibiotics. helped or sometimes completely reversed by changing just simply what we're putting on our plates, what we're putting in our mouths three times a day. So, uh, I help people move away from the standard diet they probably grew up eating and, change to a more happy diet, a whole food, plant based, no oil diet. And we've watched Disease reversal in our family. we reversed heart disease. my father is in the early stages of Alzheimer's. His father had Alzheimer's. We carry the Alzheimer's genes. So learning about what food can do for you was really big for us. And finding out that 90 percent of, of whether we will get Alzheimer's or not, is actually has to do with lifestyle, including food. It's not just a given that you're going to get Alzheimer's if you, even, even if you carry the gene.

Magic Barclay: 5:46

I love that. Now our next question is around wealth. People think wealth is just the finances, what's in your, your bank or your, your wallet, but wealth can also be personal and emotional wealth. So what are your top three tips to creating wealth?

Rachael Brown: 6:05

Well, first of all, I would say that really, I believe health is wealth, right? I mean, you can have all the money in the world, but if you don't have your health, you really are left with not much. So, you know, so really, I think saving your health first is of utmost importance, and it really helps with, All the other aspects of your life. So this change, though, is a big change for a lot of people. It's something that is simple, but not easy, but it is a skill that we can learn just like learning to drive a car or ride a bike. These are all skills that take a little time to learn. But once we have them, they can serve us so well. So, You know, once you understand that health is something to pay attention to, to invest in, that I think is the first, the first step and, and really the first thing to do. After that, you're going to, wealth, speaking of wealth, you're going to save a lot of money eating whole food, plant based, no oil. You know, when you think you take about, um, All the things out of your cart, the meats, the cheeses, the yogurts, the ice cream, all the dairy, you take out all the oil, you take out all the processed foods, crisps, you know, crackers, all that stuff. And you can literally fill your cart with fresh fruits and vegetables, even frozen fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, whole grains, and you're going to come out way ahead. So you're going to save a lot of money actually, uh, eating this way. you're also going to save time. you don't have to be running to different shops to the cheese shop to, you know, go get your meat somewhere. you don't have to clean. Fish or meat or chicken before you're cooking it, the cleanup afterwards after cooking is much easier. once you learn to transition some of your favorite meals to a whole food, plant based, no oil meal, I mean, we took, you know, we loved lasagna and enchiladas. And once you find some recipes that you like, the same kinds of foods, just transitioning them to whole food recipes. You're going to save a lot of time making things. So learning to batch cook, things like that, are going to save you time as well.

Magic Barclay: 8:09

Great. And the final standard question is around weight loss. Many people battle their weight and, you know, we know that a major factor in that is stress. So have you ever battled your weight? If so, how did you win the war? And what can you offer the listeners who might be dealing with this?

Rachael Brown: 8:28

Sure. Yeah, I would say, my whole life I would, kind of fluctuate, you know, gain 10 pounds, lose 10 pounds, always trying different things, you know, different fad diets. I was, I've always been active, but, You know, in my early twenties, when I was diagnosed with high cholesterol, I didn't want to have to take medication. I'd watch my dad take medication and have different side effects from all the different statins he was on. And I just didn't want to do a bandaid. I wanted to figure out what the issue was. Uh, but at the time I was told, you know, cut out some eggs, cut out some cheese, Be more active. and I would do that for a while and my cholesterol would go down. I would lose a few pounds, but eventually it would always creep back up. So, finding out about eating whole plant based foods was a total game changer for me. I'm not somebody who likes to measure food or count calories or anything like that. And the amazing thing for myself and working with clients, it's just, it's so fun to see people. Let go of stressing about what they have to eat, you know, learning what foods they can have. And then really you can eat as much of those foods as you want learning to eat to satiety. So learning to eat until you're full. And that means if you make a, you know, bowl of amazing, a big, big pot of soup, you can have a bowl of soup. And if you're still hungry, you can have another bowl or. Three bowls or four bowls, but it's all really good food for you and your body is not going to gain weight eating this way. It's going to actually shed weight, but it doesn't need. So I'm learning about calorie density. You know, it's, it's shocking when you start eating this way you usually end up eating a lot more food than you're used to, which a lot of people get concerned and go, Oh no, you know, I'm eating plates of food. but it's really just understanding the calorie density, you know, that big salad, that big pita with hummus and a bunch of veggies and a bowl of soup doesn't even maybe equal two pieces of pizza that you used to eat. So, it's a lovely thing being able to eat all the tasty foods that you want and not having to stress at all about. Food or weight, or if you're going to fit in your clothes, that all just really sorts itself out on its own.

Magic Barclay: 10:45

Now, let's talk about your book. It is a little bit of a tongue twister for Fork's sake. Tell us about what can we expect. So expect in the book?

Rachael Brown: 10:59

Sure. Yeah. You know, it's really a guide for people who are looking for something different, who might have health concerns, or are wanting to get healthy. And it's my hope. attempt at, you know, I love T. Colin Campbell, Dr. Esselstyn, Dr. McDougall, these seminal doctors and researchers who have gone before and written amazing books. Dr. Greger's another one. but they're very scientific books and some people have a hard time reading them. And when I talked with young families or, people wanting to transition, they would say, I just don't have time to read, you know, these huge tomes. So. I set out to write a book that gave enough information, as to why, why is this important? Why is eating this way important for our bodies? Why is eating this way important to the planet? And then how, how do I actually do this? Because it's one thing to know, right? We all know we should pick up an apple rather than a bag of crisps, but that doesn't mean we do it. So how do you actually do it? So I wrote the book in a 10 day guide kind of sequence. So it answers questions at the beginning, all the questions that you might have yourself, or people might ask you when you're embarking on this journey. Like, but where do you get your protein from? You know, um, why no oil? That sounds crazy. I thought the Mediterranean diet was good for you. So why not oil? all those kinds of questions and then really break it down into a 10 day guide so that you can read this in a quick go. The audio book is four hours long so you can read it on a flight, listen to it and then give yourself a chance to try it and see how you feel. I suggest people get their blood work done in the beginning and give it 10 days and, uh, eat this way and then get their blood work done again. Because things happen in our bodies that we aren't aware of when we're making this change. So you can't actually feel your cholesterol lowering. You might feel your blood pressure changing. And if you're on medication, uh, you need to let your doctor know because within even two days, some people have had to reduce their medication. same goes for diabetes. So. Your body adjusts really quickly. and at the end of that 10 days, your taste buds are starting to adjust as well. So, wanted a book that was easy to grab a hold of. I hope everybody reads the China study and how not to die. And some of those amazing books out there, how to prevent and reverse heart disease. But, if they're not going to pick up a big book, start with this, it'll give you everything you need to know to give it a go and go from there.

Magic Barclay: 13:33

Great. Now we've covered a fair bit. Now I want to open the floor to you, Rachel. What's something that we haven't talked about that you think the listeners need to hear?

Rachael Brown: 13:46

I think the biggest thing is, there's so much noise out there around nutrition and health fads. And, you know, the diet industry is a billion, billions of dollars, industry. And, You know, you can talk to five different people and get five different opinions on what is the most healthy way to eat right now, and I'm really hoping to help people clear through that noise, just find some truth, some scientific fact, truth about what is good for our bodies. What do we know actually helps? And and let people know that there is a way forward. It's really not complicated. I think people have this notion that it's going to be something that's really difficult, just too hard to try, that their kids, maybe the rest of family won't like it, but that really isn't true for our family. For other families. I've worked with. That's really not the case. My kids were six and eight when we transitioned to eating this way, and they're not now 19 and 21. They're away at university. And they choose to eat this way. And that's because of how they feel that the way they feel in their bodies, the health they experience, the energy they have. their clear skin, the way they sleep, all these things are, are just natural consequences of eating good, healthy food. And I just, I want everybody to know that it's possible. And that's why I advocate the, Give it a go for 10 days because really in that short amount of time, you can begin to experience some of these things yourself. maybe you have cancer that you're trying to get rid of or you're trying to prevent cancer. this is a proven healthy way to do that. Maybe you have some weight you want to lose. This is a proven healthy way to do that. I mean, I've watched my father in law has. Glioblastoma, brain cancer, and he has survived now three years, changed the way he ate, right after his diagnosis and surgery. He had radiation and, chemotherapy. They weren't able to remove the whole tumor because where it was on his brain, but, it's pretty unheard of to live this long with that type of cancer. my nephew, the whole reason we started on this journey is because my five year old nephew was diagnosed with cancer and his mom was in nursing school. And she had a professor who asked her if she'd looked at the role of nutrition in cancer. And that's what started us on this journey. I mean, she taught me how to pull mozzarella cheese. They grew their own meat. Uh, we had chickens even at the time, but they changed overnight. And, I have a healthy nephew now who's almost 18. So we've seen the effects of this up close and personal, and I really want that for everyone. There's just so much unnecessary suffering in our bodies, in individuals, but also in the planet. There's a lot we can do. We have this idea that if we ride our bikes or drive less, you know, that that's going to help with things that are going on the planet. And while those are really wonderful things, factory farming is a huge. environmental impact on the world right now. So the more we can do to get away from, from animal products in our everyday life, the better we're all going to be. So that's my hope. I hope to reach, all ages. It's funny. I get emails every week from people, people in their eighties who have changed the way they're eating. So you're never too old to do this. people have gotten off their medication at, in their eighties, to young families who have transitioned to eating this way and are experiencing huge benefits. So, uh, that's my hope for everyone who picks up the book.

Magic Barclay: 17:27

And there's something that you were talking about there with the environment and plant based. I just wanted to point this out to the listeners. Plant based meats. They're not plant based as in mother nature created them. They're plant based as in plant being a factory. So please stay away from plant based meats. There is nothing natural. They are fully synthetic. And if you're avoiding meats for your health. Don't replace it with something else that's called meat.

Rachael Brown: 18:02

Yes, that's a really good point. You know, in some ways, it's a little more difficult, I think, for people starting out now. You know, 13 years ago, when we started eating this way, you didn't see plant based things labeled, you know. A lot of people didn't know what a vegan was. But now it's, it's pretty confusing because packages all over the grocery store will say plant based on them. And, um, that doesn't necessarily mean that's a good thing, just like you said. So yeah, I advocate for not eating junk vegan food, not processed food, right? So I'm talking all the time. Whole grains, whole legumes, whole vegetables, you know, so yeah, uh, people ask all the time, you know, is it okay to have a pea protein in my shake? And, you know, add peas to your shake. That's fine. We have a great frozen, uh, chocolate shake recipe that you toss in some frozen peas. It's incredible. But, you know, the pea protein is peas that have been, cooked, processed. Things are taken out of them. Synthetic things are put in them. I mean, it's just this whole thing that you don't need to do. Um, and it's like you said, it's not a real food anymore. It's a processed product that you're eating. So I really advocate for people to eat whole plant based foods. foods that you, your parents, your grandparents would recognize. foods that don't have a face or a mother is the easy way to remember what, what you should be eating.

Magic Barclay: 19:23

I love that. That's a good way to have a look at that. Okay. So we've discussed a lot. All of our listeners love freebies. So what can you offer the listeners and where can they find it?

Rachael Brown: 19:39

Sure. On my website at www. forforksakebook. com, uh, you can find a free guide to cooking and baking without oil. this is something that people get, Kind of weirded out with at the beginning, like how am I going to cook a stir fry? How am I going to roast vegetables? How am I going to bake a birthday cake? So, um, there's a really simple guide in there to helping you get over those hurdles and Discover how to cook and bake without oil as well as i'm offering your listeners, uh free consultation. So if you head over to my website again, there's a place to sign up for consultation. So I love meeting with people one on one we can set up a zoom meeting and talk about where you're at You know, I work with people who this is a brand new thing to them and they're wondering How do I get my family to stop eating meat? You know, what do we even eat or um people who have Been doing this for a while and stopped for one reason or another and are trying to get back to it. all kinds of people. So I love, I love journeying with people, and helping them make some tweaks, you know, some tips that can, can get them over the hump and back on track in, in eating this way.

Magic Barclay: 20:50

Very generous offers there. Thank you. So people can find you at www.forforkssakebook.com. Also on Instagram and Facebook for forks sake book. So thank you so much for joining us, Rachel.

Rachael Brown: 21:10

Thank you Magic. It was wonderful talking with you.

Magic Barclay: 21:13

It's been a delight and a pleasure. And I really do thank you for your time and listeners. I thank you for your time. Also, please do have a look at Rachel's book for Fork's sake and really discover the joy of what plants can offer you both with the. vitamins, minerals, the abundance of tastes, flavors, colors, and for the sheer enjoyment of real food. Listeners, for now, go forth and create your magical life.