023: Clarifying my Nutritional Philosophy, What is Holistic, and My Stance on Medications and Surgeries

By Cody Cox

Podcast

Posted: April 26, 2025

Welcome to the Real Food Mental Health podcast, where we explore the powerful connection between

mental and physical health. My name is Cody Cox, a holistic nutritional psychotherapist, and I'm here to

guide you on a journey to true wellness mind, body, and spirit. If you're tired of quick fixes and want real

solutions that address the root cause, you're in the right place. Let's get started on your path to lasting

wellness. Welcome back to Real Food Mental Health. My name is Cody Cox, a holistic nutritional

psychotherapist. At the time of recording, I believe I'm the only holistic nutritional psychotherapist in the

state of Utah. Um, the fact of the matter is, I've got a backlog of recorded episodes that have yet to be

edited and published. But this week I decided not to do that. I decided to do a solo recording instead. I've

gotten some feedback that people enjoy that, so hopefully that's still the case. But I've also been thinking

about some topics that I felt really needed to be addressed that aren't necessarily addressed when I

interview guests. So I thought I'd do a solo recording and just. Address it directly. One of the biggest

glaring issues that I seem to have come across is when I interview a guest. I don't always agree with

everything they say, and I do my best to screen them before I invite them on the show before I even do a

recording with them. But sometimes they still say something that I honestly kind of want to correct. Um,

I try to do so respectfully if I do that during recording, but um, this extra episode can help clarify my

philosophy, I think. I don't want people to get the wrong idea, and to assume that I promote a low fat,

high carb diet because, uh, some guests have actually promoted that. And I'm trying not to get more

guests who are going to promote that ideal. Um, because to me, that's backwards. I'm more of a high fat,

low carb diet, um, ideal for most people. Of course, it depends on your bio individuality. That's not going

to be the case for every single person, but, uh, I come from an ancestrally informed background, which

tells me that if we ate now the way our ancestors ate a few hundred years ago or even longer ago. Um,

essentially we'd be eating mostly a low carb diet, if not even a ketogenic or a carnivore diet. I think a

carnivore diet is a bit extreme for most people. Um, but we should be eating very few carbs most of the

time, especially if you don't live anywhere near the equator, and that is most of the world's population. So

if you don't live anywhere near the equator, you probably need to eat some meat and more so during the

winter time when you can't get plant foods, uh, so occasionally you'll hear a guest on my show promote a

mediterranean diet. In fact, I just recorded one with with a naturopathic doctor who was promoting a

mediterranean diet. For most people, I don't think a mediterranean diet is necessarily a bad diet. I think

it's a significant improvement from the standard American diet. So I do think it's a good diet, but it's still

not optimal for most people because it doesn't include red meat. It's mostly about the fish and the low fat

meats, uh, typically chicken. So fish and poultry mostly, um, as long as those foods are from clean

sources, I do think most people would do well on such a diet. But at the same time, I would recommend

most people eat red meat. If their bodies can tolerate it because you're getting certain nutrients,

particularly saturated fat and fat soluble vitamins that you might not get very much of from those

Mediterranean sources of meat. Red meats are not bad for you. It really depends on where they come

from. If they are pasture raised, they're fed a a natural, organic, hopefully diet, then they're probably

going to be a very nutrient dense source of food, both in the dairy. So if it's Cowdery obviously then it's

going to be more nutrient dense. But also the meats are going to be more nutrient dense and lower in

toxins. And that's a very important point to establish, because if you are getting some more conventional

meats, uh, like just conventional factory farmed red meats from the grocery store, the cheapest stuff that

you can find, most likely that animal was raised on a very poor diet, which means it wasn't a very healthy

animal. It had a body full of toxins by the time it was slaughtered. And that means you're buying the

lowest quality meat, which ends up being full of the toxins that were in that animal, and you're putting itinto your body. So I think a lot of people. Stigmatize the idea of eating organic, pasture raised, wild,

caught, etc., etc. but there is a very significant reason that that is important, and that's because we want to

both reduce the toxins in our diets. We don't want to put more toxins in our bodies. That doesn't make

sense if we know that we're doing it and we can avoid it. So we want to reduce that toxic exposure, but

we also want to increase the nutrient density and properly raised foods. Organic, wild caught, pasture

raised actually tend to have a higher nutrient content than the factory farmed foods. Now, I wanted to talk

more about fats before we move on to the next topic. Um, fats are not necessarily unhealthy, despite what

we've been taught for the last several decades, particularly since World War Two and industrialization.

Fats are not necessarily unhealthy. Now, if you think about it, if you know anything about history. The

Industrial Revolution brought us a lot of factories, a lot of technological advancements. And because of

that, that's also when we started seeing a lot more ultra processed foods. Now, if you owned a big

business with a factory and you were producing this ultra processed food, what would you do? You

would do everything in your power to promote your products. And that's exactly what has been done in

the last several decades in the United States of America, particularly since World War two. We have this

boom of factories because of the war. We have this boom of technology, because of the war, and because

we have these factories with better technology, we can produce ultra processed foods at a much lower

cost and a much higher profit margin. And so naturally, these companies are very clever with their

marketing, and they teach the general public and the US government. That saturated fat is bad for you. It

causes heart disease. It causes all kinds of health problems because by telling people that, that gets people

to buy their product instead, which is the ultra processed vegetable oils. Or in recent years you've been

hearing more, um, people say seed oils because that is a more appropriate term, considering that most of

these actually do come from seeds rather than vegetables. So these seed oils have a very high profit

margin for the producers. And naturally, as a business owner, I would want to push my product and get

people to buy my product more too. And so that's what's been done for the last several decades in the

marketing. And you could technically call it propaganda as well. But in this marketing, that's really what

they're trying to do, is to just get more business by pushing their product. So saturated fat isn't necessarily

a bad thing, it's just that we've been kind of indoctrinated to think it is a bad thing. It's actually very

necessary for brain health, for cell health, for overall organ function. And so make sure you're getting

saturated fat from healthy sources. So like I said, organic, pasture raised, wild caught etc. if you can. But

even if you can't, it's still better than no saturated fat. And I mean even other fats are healthy. It depends

on where they come from. But those seed oils that I mentioned are actually chemically unstable, and they

go rancid at room temperature very quickly. So most often, even by the time you pick it up off the shelf

at the grocery store, it's already rancid because they don't refrigerate these oils. And by the time you put it

on your frying pan to make a stir fry, it oxidizes because it has a very low smoke point. So ideally we

wouldn't be using these seed oils at all. Saturated fat is actually more chemically stable, more shelf

stable. It has more of a heat tolerance. So if we're cooking with any oils, it should be saturated fat rather

than the unsaturated fat. Now, what are some saturated fats that you can cook with? Contrary to popular

belief, not all saturated fats come from animals. So, for example, coconut oil is a saturated fat. Saturated

fat really is just any oil that is solid at room temperature. So coconut oil if you'd like to avoid the animal

fats, I don't always recommend that, but if you would like to, coconut oil is actually a pretty good oil for

cooking with because it has a pretty high heat tolerance, otherwise known as a high smoke point. Um, it

kind of depends on the coconut oil, but I've seen them as high as, like 500 degrees and as low as maybe

350 degrees. So that's a pretty decent temperature range that you can use for cooking. Uh, but if you don't

mind the animal fats, bacon grease is a good option. Lard, tallow. Uh, butter. I'd be cautious with butter

because it does have a lower smoke point of like 250 degrees, although I do cook with it, sometimes at alow heat. Um, but butter, if you're eating it raw, it's an excellent source of fat, very nourishing to the

brain. Now, I did have somebody just last week actually ask me about vegetable shortening. And like if

you look at there's a very popular brand called Crisco, which is actually short for crystalized cottonseed

oil. But interestingly, they don't use cottonseed oil anymore. They typically use palm oil sometimes like a

canola oil or something else. But if you read the label quite often, it'll say palm oil, which is not a seed

oil. And so the question was, is it okay for me to use this vegetable shortening that's made out of palm

oil? My answer to that is no, because it is still highly processed. It's hydrogenated. It's not in its natural

form. I don't recommend using shortening. If you have a recipe that calls for shortening, just use butter or

coconut oil instead. All in all, the recipe is really asking for is is just asking for a thick source of fat. You

can. I guess you could use lard too. It just needs a thick source of fat for whatever that cookie recipe or

whatever it is that's calling for that shortening. So you can substitute any of those saturated fats instead of

the shortening. So there you go. There's the first important point that I wanted to share that might not

clearly come across when I'm interviewing guests. Many people still believe in the low fat, high carb

ideal. In fact, I even had a pitch from a medical doctor who, um, he calls himself a medical

psychotherapist. So he is both a medical doctor and a psychotherapist. And at first, he sounded like a

really great guest for my podcast. But as I did more research and I looked at his website, I found that he

was promoting that low fat, high carb diet avoiding saturated fats. Saturated fats are not necessarily

unhealthy. But as soon as I saw that on his website, I was like, oh, he's just not a good guest for my show.

Um, I don't want to get anybody caught up in confirmation bias. I do recognize that that is a problem,

especially nowadays with all the social media, all the stuff that's going on with censorship and people

getting caught in these echo chambers of bias. I don't necessarily want to promote that, but quite

honestly, I don't want to give my listeners the wrong idea on what my philosophy is, because I also offer

services, and I don't want people to have this idea that I promote a low fat, high carb diet, and then they

up disappointed. So I wanted to make that very clear. I promote a higher fat, lower carb diet. For most

people. That does not necessarily mean ketogenic for everybody, but at least a low carb diet with proper

fats. A quick break I know my voice can kind of put people to sleep sometimes, so I thought I would

throw this in here and then we'll get back to our episode. But if what I was just saying about eating

nutrient dense whole foods. Higher fat, lower carb. Is appealing to you, but you're not really sure where

to get started. Or maybe you just want some social support and some extra education on this. Check out

my group nutrition program. It's called restart. This program goes for five weeks and we meet online.

And the reason it's online is. So I can basically allow pretty much anybody around the world to join. But

this is a more affordable way to get started with my services. And if you want more information, check

out Beaver Creek Wellness. Another important point that I wanted to clarify is in my profession as a

psychotherapist, I have noticed that many clinicians call themselves holistic when they're actually just

being integrative. What's the difference? Well, it took me many years to realize what the difference is.

And there is a difference. The way I see it is integrative means that you have training in many different

areas, and you might call it eclectic training, where you're you're using bits and pieces of all your training

to tailor to each individual client's needs. I don't think integrative is a bad thing. I think it's good to have

diverse training and to have different skills that you can draw from to meet a person's needs, but that is

not holistic, because holistic is about not only seeing the person as a whole person. But it's also about just

backing up and seeing just the whole picture. So not just the whole person, but the whole picture, which

includes environment as well. Anything that could influence the whole person. And so if you were truly

being holistic and like, say you are a psychotherapist and you were truly being holistic, you wouldn't just

focus on mental health by just focusing on mental health. That makes you a specialist rather than aholistic practitioner. So in essence, being holistic kind of means that you're being a generalist, a general

practice practitioner. Um, but then there's also a very common sign to look for if some if you really want

somebody who has a holistic approach is that they are promoting organic foods, and I know organic

foods are pretty well stigmatized. Um, there's a growing appreciation for organic, pasture raised, wild

caught foods, nutrient dense foods in general. And so if somebody is truly being holistic, they're going to

be promoting clean, whole foods. Even if they don't know anything about nutrition, they're still going to

be promoting that because they recognize how clean, whole foods affect the overall wellbeing of a

person. But they're also probably going to at least allude to the importance of drinking clean, filtered

water, having clean air, staying away from toxins. Um, they're going to allude to the importance of

spirituality, which many therapists don't do. And so this to me is a very important distinction. And quite

frankly, I don't like talking to most therapists because they have the wrong idea of what being holistic

actually is. It is not being eclectic. It is not the same as being integrative. Being holistic means that you

are recognizing that all truths are circumscribed into one great whole. So you're seeing the whole picture

rather than hyper focusing on a diagnosis or a symptom. And quite frankly, many therapists and doctors

focus solely on a symptom or a diagnosis, and that's all they do with their patient, and then they move on.

So that is the antithesis of being holistic. When you're only focusing on a symptom or a diagnosis, a

label, and not seeing the whole picture. Now, I kind of did mention this before, but this isn't just about

therapists. This is about pretty much all health care providers. Uh, chiropractors, traditionally speaking,

are are meant to be holistic, but there are many chiropractors who will just pop your joints and just call it

good. That's not really holistic either. So if you want to find a holistic chiropractor, you want to find one

who promotes that whole food, organic eating, healthy lifestyle and doesn't just pop your joints and send

you on your on your way. Medical doctors I think there is a growing trend for medical doctors to be

converted for lack of a better term from conventional medicine. So pharmaceutical medicine and going

more toward the functional side of things. What's the difference between functional and holistic? I think

there's a difference there, too, that a lot of people aren't quite understanding. Uh, to be fair, functional is a

fairly new term when we describe healthcare, and I think it's a good thing. But the difference, the way I

see it is the difference is functional, is more commercially driven. So that means if you are seeing a

functional practitioner, they're probably going to push lab work, supplements, maybe even medications

sometimes. But they're going to be pushing these commercial products as part of their holistic health care

that they're providing to you, where if you are being truly holistic or your practitioner's being truly

holistic rather than functional, they're probably not going to be pushing the supplements and the

commercial products at all, or not as much. That is the camp that I'm in. I'm in more of the holistic rather

than the functional camp, because even though I do have some training to do lab work and I do sell some

supplements, I am a diet and lifestyle practitioner before everything else. So if you come and see me as a

client, I'm probably going to say focus on these diet and lifestyle things first. And as you have mostly

corrected those things and you still have problems, that's where I'm probably going to start suggesting

some supplements. I might have some lab work ordered for you. Things like that. But if you're truly

being holistic, you're not going to care so much about the diagnoses or the lab work or the supplements

or any other products for that matter, you're going to focus more on the lifestyle stuff. Now, obviously, I

have a real issue with commercial products because the way I see it is it's based on the philosophy of

man. So it's it's all just man made stuff. And typically when something is man made, it tends to not be

nearly as good as what nature could provide, because we're always missing factors that nature takes into

account when it designs things for us or or has been designed for us, depending on how you look at it.

Nature is the prime example of things being truly holistic because nature, it all is interdependent. Every

little bit of nature influences each other. They all work together. They all, uh, they have this synergisticrelationship between trees and plants and animals and and the soil and the air and the water. Everything

influences each other and it all works together. But as soon as that system is messed up. All of nature

suffers from that. And so it's the same with human health. As soon as one part is messed up, everything is

influenced and suffers from that one thing. So it doesn't really make sense to hyper focus on only one

symptom or only one diagnosis. Now, we do live in a society that is highly regulated, at least, um, in

terms of health care and what labels and what terminology we can legally use. So for me, as a licensed

psychotherapist, legally I can only say that I treat mental illness and that I can diagnose mental illness.

Um, but if we are truly being holistic as practitioners, theoretically we should be able to at least support.

So not necessarily treat but support other systems of the body than what our clinical license says. As long

as we are still alluding to the scope of practice that our professional associations or the state governments

or whoever dictates what it should be. So for me, um, typically I will still be treating mental illness and I

will work with people to improve their physical health through nutrition, exercise, sleep. But that always

translates to better mental health too. And so of course I document that and show that I am treating

mental illness after all. Now, this is only when I'm doing psychotherapy. I claim that I'm treating mental

illness in psychotherapy. So if you're in Utah and you signed up for psychotherapy, that's essentially what

I do. But if you're outside of Utah, or maybe if you're in Utah and you signed up for my strictly nutrition

package or my group nutrition program, then the laws are a lot looser. And I still can't say that I'm

treating physical symptoms, but I am supporting your overall physical and mental health in that role.

Another thing I wanted to clarify is that I am mostly anti pharmaceutical medication. As a practitioner, I,

I do see that it has a place in the most extreme circumstances, especially because I've been a therapist for

several years and I've had my fair share of people who were sitting in front of me, and they're just

downright suicidal and not functioning in life. Those are the kind of people who probably would do well

on medication, at least temporarily. I don't recommend that anybody is on medication permanently. And

so I think that is probably where I differ from many other therapists. I'm not a pro medication person

unless it's really an extreme circumstance and the the person just will not get better in any other way.

Um, I do think it has its place, like I said, but I think medications are pushed much more than they should

be in the United States. But then going back to the the business of things, it really makes a lot of sense

that we are where we are in America, at least in terms of conventional medicine, because pharmaceutical

companies have a very strong financial interest in medical schools. So it makes sense that they would

influence these medical schools to make the bulk of their curriculum to be focused on pharmaceutical

drugs and surgeries, because pharmaceutical drugs and surgeries are the most lucrative. So you you

might even think about medical school as being this glorified business school, uh, very expensive and

takes longer. But it is basically a glorified business school because you're taught to sell your

pharmaceutical drugs, which is really just a product. And to do surgeries, which is your service and not

you're not really taught anything about helping people prevent disease or even so much as cure a disease.

Notice how in Western medicine, they never say that anything can be cured because they make a lot of

money off of the perpetual treatment that they offer. And so they kind of frame it like, you should be on

this medication for the rest of your life. You should get surgeries every once in a while until you die. And

then we'll move on to our next customer, which is your son or your grandson, or the next person in your

family. Uh, but that's really kind of how it is. I mean, call me a conspiracy theorist. In fact, I think in

some ways I would call myself a conspiracy theorist. I'm not I'm not gonna lie. But there's honestly

nothing wrong with being a conspiracy theorist. It just means that you have this strong sense of critical

thinking, and that you notice that there are people who conspire against the general public. And I think

that's just the reality of it, that just that happens. There are certainly people who are dishonest and and do

unethical things in the name of personal gain. There's there's no question about that. So, uh, so call me aconspiracy theorist, but that's really kind of what my stance is on the medications. Uh, you might hear

some of my guests on my show who are really pushing the medication ideal, where to me, it's just kind of

lazy healthcare, to be honest, where even among therapists, if if we feel like we can't help somebody, we

will say, go to the doctor and get a prescription just because we're being lazy and we don't want to have

to try any harder. That's kind of the way I see it. Um, but really, that's not how health care should be. It.

In fact, there are many people who don't even call it health care anymore. They call it sick care because

that's really what it is. They are managing people's sicknesses or illnesses or diseases through perpetual

medication. They're not actually helping people improve their health. And so technically it's a misnomer

to call it health care. I actually met somebody last week who used to be the director of marketing for a

hospital, and she told me that hospitals are not in the business of making people well. And, I mean, this is

coming from the director of marketing. So this is just based on her experience. I don't know how long she

was in that position. It was at least several years. But this is based on her experience doing marketing for

the hospital. They were really just pushing the medications and the surgeries and basically promoting that

lazy health care. Because for one thing, prescribing a prescription doesn't take any effort on the part of

the doctor, but they make a lot of money off of it at the same time. So of course they're going to do it. A

guest recently told me that something like 95% of podcasts fail within the first few episodes. And I can

see why, because there is so much time and energy that goes into the production of a show like this one.

If you would like to support me in the production of this podcast, go to coffee. That's fine. You can pay a

couple dollars or you can pay more if that's something you can afford. But either way, I'm going to

continue to produce free content for as long as I possibly can because this information is so important

and I want everybody to be able to access it. Thanks so much for listening today. So pharmaceutical

drugs are mostly unnecessary in my opinion, except in extreme circumstances. And I would say the same

for surgeries. There are certain routine surgeries, I think, especially a couple decades ago, that are just

totally unnecessary. So, for example, I'm going to share personal experience here. The only surgery I've

ever had. Not counting wisdom teeth removal was a tonsillectomy when I was really young. Now this

was in. Oh, how old was I? I think this was in the early 90s. I had my tonsils removed because I was

having sore throats, and back then they didn't think that that was a problem to remove a person's tonsils.

They just thought it was like some relic of our evolutionary ancestors. It was just this unnecessary

biological material that was in our bodies. And so the solution for them, when a person was having a sore

throat was to cut out the tonsils. Now, looking at today's research, we now know that the tonsils are a

very necessary part of the immune system. And thankfully, tonsils sort of grow back over time. It kind of

depends on the person. But, um, I think mine have kind of grown back. I'm not entirely sure of that. I've

always still gotten sore throats. It didn't actually fix the problem, but I'm really mad about that as I look

back on my life and I'm like, that's just something that was totally unnecessary. They probably made

thousands of dollars or even maybe even tens of thousands of dollars. I'm not a surgeon. I don't know,

but, um, they probably made a lot of money off of that surgery. That was totally unnecessary for me

personally. And you hear similar stories of like people getting their appendix removed, people getting

their gallbladder removed. Uh, knee replacement surgery. There are a lot of these surgeries that are just

really common. But I think in many cases, not all cases, but many cases, these surgeries are totally

unnecessary when all you really have to do is change your diet and reverse whatever that problem is that

you're having. So like knee replacement surgery, for example. Uh, I've known some people who have had

both knees replaced or a hip replaced or some other joint replaced. Typically that is caused or the need to

replace it is caused by chronic inflammation. Well, think about what causes chronic inflammation. Lots

of things. But it could be dysregulated blood sugar. It could be an overload of toxins that your body's

having a hard time getting rid of. So, like, um, a stagnant lymphatic system is a great example of that, uh,which could be simply from being dehydrated, not drinking enough water, uh, not exercising. Um, maybe

you're eating a food that you're sensitive to. So you have digestive issues and you're, you're eating a lot of

gluten, and your body's reacting to that gluten by creating chronic inflammation in the joints. That's

actually a really common thing, by the way. If you have joint pain, I think gluten would be one of the

first things I would have you cut out to see if the inflammation goes down. Um, but what I'm saying here

is many of these surgeries are unnecessary, just like the pharmaceutical drugs are unnecessary. It's really

just a matter of educating yourself or seeing a practitioner who can help educate you on what nutritional

changes you need to make, what lifestyle changes you need to make to reduce that inflammation, to

reduce that anxiety, to to solve whatever problem you're having before you go to what I consider to be a

last resort surgery, where you actually have an organ removed or replaced, or somehow or otherwise

altered in an unnatural way that, quite frankly, isn't usually sustainable. Take a lobotomy, for example.

So a lobotomy was a surgery that they used to do to remove part of the brain to treat mental illness. Now,

I mean, this was in the days of pretty early psychiatry, or maybe you could call it psychology, but, uh,

they actually removed part of the brain because they thought, oh, well, there must be something wrong

with this physical tissue. That's what's causing this mental illness. But if you think about it, we still kind

of do that today, but just with other organs. And so, uh, doctors really want to push that surgery as much

as they can. And if they can't, they push the medications as much as they can. Now, do I still believe in

surgeries, at least in a minimal sense, like I do with pharmaceutical drugs? Yes, I think in emergency

situations, like if you get in a major car accident and your leg gets pinned between two chunks of metal

and they have to do surgery to remove debris or to make some repairs, I do think surgery is necessary.

Um, but this Western medical model, we call it allopathic medicine, where we hyperfocus on the

symptoms rather than the root causes of disease. This allopathic model of medicine, I think, is blown way

out of proportion and has been that way for maybe the last century, at least in the United States of

America, where we are pushing allopathy far more than it really needs to be pushed. Um, they kind of

frame it as even a prevention. They frame it as a routine. They, they pretend that it's not very invasive or

aggressive, even though ironically, it is very aggressive and very invasive. Uh, I'm actually I'm a student

of homeopathy right now, which I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty reluctant to do this training because there

was just something about it. Maybe it was the the stigma against homeopathy. I'm not sure why I was so

reluctant, but, uh, I deep down, I still kind of felt like I needed to learn about it. So I went ahead and just

started this training. Uh, I guess it's been a few months now, but. I've been very surprised at how

complex homeopathy is. It is another system of medicine. It is not illegitimate just because it's not

conventional medicine. It's just a different system of medicine. And what I love about it is that it's not

invasive and it's not aggressive. And if you do it right, I think in most cases you're not going to have any

side effects whatsoever. So I mean, on the other hand, if you look at pharmaceutical medications, most

often you'll have side effects like, uh, you'll get liver problems, you'll get digestive problems, you'll have

problems with your kidneys, you'll have night sweats, you'll have anxiety, you'll get a lot of side effects

from conventional medications. But with homeopathy, you don't get any of that. And so my philosophy is

go with the least invasive, the least aggressive approach first and just work your way to more aggressive

and more, more invasive if it seems to be absolutely necessary. Now, as I said, those words are absolutely

necessary. That reminds me of another personal experience that I'd like to share. Several years ago, it was

probably five years ago I had oral surgery done, and looking back, I do think this was a necessary surgery

for me personally. I don't think a lot of oral surgeries are, but this one was, and I specifically sought out a

holistic dentist. They're actually called biological dentists. So if you're looking for a holistic dentist, look

for those words biological dentistry. But I had this biological dentist who I think he was kind of new at

being a biological dentist because he wasn't entirely holistic, but he was the best I could find at the time.Uh, he himself, he was pretty great. He was very, very nice, uh, open to learning new things, which is

really what you want out of a health care provider. But then he referred me to an endo dentist for surgery.

And this endo dentist was not holistic in any way, shape or form. Um. To me, it's a bad sign when you

walk into a waiting room and it looks like you're in a temple. Like, I mean, these are like bright white

floors, bright white couches, bright white everything. Everything is very, very clean and expensive

looking. And so my initial impression impression was, whoa, this guy probably way overcharges for his

services, for one thing, so that he can afford this office. I kind of wonder what his house looks like. Um,

but anyway, so I went in to get this surgery and he prescribed me. It was like 4 or 5 different medications.

And I was, you know, kind of out of it, like when you're when you're under the knife, basically you you

have no willpower, like, you don't want to you feel like you can't advocate for yourself or stand up for

yourself. So at the time when he gave me the medications, I didn't really think to question it. But then

when I got home, I certainly started questioning it before I started taking any medications. So I called the

office and I said, are these absolutely necessary? Because I don't want to take anything more than I than

what I absolutely need. And of course the surgeon said, yes, they are absolutely necessary. Now, to be

fair, he was coming from his bias that he was taught in dental school. He was not taught that anything

else could be a viable option. And so he was really just going by his biased training and trying to give the

best advice that he could. But the fact of the matter is, he said that they were absolutely necessary. I don't

necessarily recommend that everybody does this, but I did not heed his advice. And I took like 1 or 2 of

the medications. But I did not take the antibiotic. I did not take the the high strength ibuprofen. And

guess what? My mouth healed just fine without any infections. Or I had some pain, of course, but my

mouth healed just fine. I went back a couple weeks later and he confirmed that he he said, oh yeah, you're

healing up just fine. No infections. Everything is great. I'm not sure if I ever actually told him that I didn't

take all of the medications, but I can't help but focus on that very important point here that the doctor

said, yes, these medications are absolutely necessary, as if I was going to die. If I didn't take them, I

didn't take them and I was fine. So that goes to show that they weren't absolutely necessary. Was my

surgery absolutely necessary? I think so, uh, sadly, I do believe, however, I have been a victim of

predatory dentistry, um, particularly in the form of, uh, I'm not sure what their technical term is for it, but

getting cavities filled. Looking back, it seems like I had 3 to 5 cavities every single time I went to the

dentist when I was growing up. And so I've got a mouth full of fillings, which now I greatly regret. But

then at the same time, you can't really blame me, because when I was young, I didn't know better. Uh, I

just did what I was told. Doctors are authority figures. It's hard to ignore what they say. And of course,

my my parents were kind of in that boat, too. You can't ignore your authority figures. Uh, so I have a

mouthful of fillings and a couple of crowns even. And now I have to look back and I'm like. Were those

absolutely necessary? I did get my wisdom teeth removed when I was. Oh, I was about 20 years old and I

have to wonder if that was absolutely necessary. I think for some people who have a proper jaw

formation, uh, typically that comes from eating nutrient dense whole foods. So, yes, dentistry is very

closely related to nutrition as well. Uh, but if I had eaten more nutrient dense foods, I wonder if I could

still have wisdom teeth and be okay. And I wonder if I could have avoided getting my cavities filled and

I would still have pretty solid teeth. So am I totally anti healthcare or anti authority figures? Definitely

not. I do think uh healthcare providers obviously I am one myself. I do think we have our place and um,

there is a time when you should hire a nutritionist or a therapist or a medical doctor or a dentist. But I

also think that we have focused a little bit too much on profitability. Uh, therapists, sadly, we don't make

very much money, but all other health care providers make a lot of money. Uh, but we focus so much on

profitability, and that has really confused the general public. So, for example, like your annual physical

or your twice a year cleanings from your dentist, those are really just marketing things. I mean, those arejust practitioners way of getting you back in their office on a regular basis. And maybe it is just once a

year, but they're still making money off of you once a year. And so it's very sustainable for their business

model. But I have to say, I'm not so sure that's always really necessary for the patient. Uh, we live in a

society where even still, I think we're starting to question authority figures. Uh, but we still really look to

authority figures. And we have been fed this propaganda for decades that we have to get our annual

physicals. We have to get our our teeth cleanings. We have to get our, you know, all of these routine

visits that are totally necessary. Otherwise you're going to die tomorrow. Uh, that's not the reality of it all.

I know people who haven't seen doctors in decades, and they're still in really good health. And to go back

to my dentistry experience. I actually didn't see a dentist for over a decade, mostly because I didn't have

dental insurance. But during that decade, I got really serious about improving my nutrition. And I

mentioned earlier that I used to get 3 to 5 cavities every time I went to the dentist. Well, when I finally

did go to a dentist, it was actually that biological dentist. He confirmed that I had no tooth decay, and it

was just because I started eating better. And so which, you know, for dental health, that means reducing

sugar. Obviously, I think we can all agree on that one. But also from a holistic standpoint, it also for me

meant that I was eating more fat soluble vitamins and healthy fats, mostly in the form of butter and fats

from red meats, which really nourish the bones, particularly the teeth. And so whatever cavities I might

have had before actually healed themselves using these fat soluble vitamins and the other nutrients that I

was consuming. And in many cases, we can reverse these cavities or inflammation or whatever, these

diseases are just from improving our diet and lifestyle. And that's really what my main message here is.

It's all about diet and lifestyle. If we have any any ailments of living in a physical body, it's because

there's something about diet and lifestyle, with the exception of a very small percentage. And I

emphasize that it is a small percentage of genetically inherited traits. I think I mentioned this in a

previous episode, but only 6% of diseases are actually hereditary. The other 94% are driven by

epigenetics. That means diet and lifestyle. So. So yeah, you might have a predisposition for arthritis or

for depression or for something else, maybe diabetes. But most of that isn't going to manifest until you

make it manifest through your diet and lifestyle. So it is very much preventable with the proper education

and application of that knowledge. Looks like I pretty much have a full episode at this point. I actually

did have a few more things to say, but I'll save that for another time. I hope you enjoyed this episode and

it provided some clarification. Or maybe you already had a pretty good idea of my philosophy and it was

more of an educational experience, and you gained some new insight that you hadn't thought about

before. Either way, if you enjoyed the episode and if you are listening to the show on a platform that

allows you to leave reviews, leaving me a review can really help me out because it can boost the

algorithm and get me more of an audience. I started this podcast because I really wanted to get this

information out to people for free as much as I possibly could, because I get it. Psychotherapy is

expensive. Hiring a nutritionist can be expensive, and I really want people to have this knowledge

because this is not something that's taught in schools, even though I think it should be, and it's not even

taught in medical schools. And so this is for me as a psychotherapist. This is something at least the

nutrition side of things. This is something that I had to seek out on my own. It was not a continuing

education, And, uh, I guess partly it was, but it was mostly something that I just sought out on my own

because I saw that it was a necessary part of my training that wasn't being provided in graduate school.

And even medical doctors don't get this kind of training. So I'm hoping to get this out for free. So share

this with friends and family. Leave a review and thank you so much for listening today. Real Food

Mental Health is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. The information presented

on this podcast is not intended to replace any medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. While I am a

healthcare provider, I am not your provider. Always seek the advice of an appropriate health carepractitioner with any personal questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard

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