CRAFTING YOUR IDEAL DIET - KRISTINA HESS LECTURE AT KETO SYMPOSIUM NYC 2022

Alright, well for those of you who don't know me, my name is Christina Hess. I am a licensed dietitian nutritionist and your host for today. My approach is functional and integrative, which just means that I take a look at so when someone works with me we take a really deep dive into all the pieces that Could potentially affect your health, which is not just diet. It's a lot of other pieces, too so I I like to consider myself a bit of a detective and And to dive deeper to the root cause of what what things are going on what's happening So, how do we get best results? Well, my philosophy is that 80% of your success is Psychology, right? It's your mindset. It's your your adherence Compliance, right? So a lot of it is up here and then 20% is strategy now, you know a lot of people say well, you know that 80% like that's everything but What if you have? the wrong strategy Right, and you have an excellent mindset and you're just following the wrong strategy and you're not getting those results So that is what I'm gonna talk about today because years ago I I decided to become a vegetarian and then I Escalated I became vegan. I even went even farther than that and became a raw vegan for four months and What happened to me was I fractured a couple bones Over a series of months. And so my body just completely fell apart and I knew nothing about The genetic piece which is what I'm going to talk about today, and I didn't realize that well I don't really convert nutrients very well From you know, the genes that pertain to certain nutrients where you would derive them from plants so If you have the wrong strategy that you're employing but an excellent mindset Bad things can happen to now you can have a great strategy and then you don't you know comply and we're gonna hear from Robert Sykes today. He's gonna talk all about that Which is super super important about how to stay true to your low-carb diet Because that's actually you know a lot of people can lose the weight and then they fall off, you know, they get bored or just there's fatigue and You know and the carb creep happens So a little bit about me. I used to suffer from something called PMDD, which is premenstrual dysphoric disorder So like the three days before my period I would just go super dark all of a sudden, you know, very very gloomy The world was falling apart and I didn't realize I have some pretty serious issues with magnesium conversion Insomnia had that since I was a kid. They can't couldn't fall asleep. I have sleep genes there too and melatonin would have helped me a lot would have been good to know good to take as a child and IBS they suffer from IBS, but I didn't I didn't know it was IBS and I wasn't super connected I had a lot of cereal a lot of pasta with Skim milk like with every meal. So that combo was just you know deadly So there are a lot of different ways to get into ketosis who's completely new to the ketogenic diet here I mean who got okay. All right, so Keto is not really a diet Ketosis is a metabolic state where you are burning fat Preferentially over glucose. Okay, so you're like a hybrid car. So you're if you're running on Glucose primarily you're just that's that's your primary fuel source and you're not really utilizing fat super effectively And so when we dial down the carbohydrates we can flip that switch to using fat your own body fat more efficiently So there's just lots of different ways to do the ketogenic low carb diet Okay, and you know some people feel very passionately about one way of doing it And that's great because it works really well for them but that may not work the best for you, so Where I come in is kind of looking at these different Issues that are pretty divisive for people to argue about them like political issues, right? Like it's super heated, you know, it's coffee healthy or not It's saturated fat terrible. Well, yeah, if some for some people it actually isn't great And then dairy right I'm gonna get into that So the human genome project was a 14-year project Sorry, 13-year project to sequence all of all of our genes and you know Unfortunately that this the genetic piece is kind of and this is where it's important to talk about genetics and How your entire metabolism works because the genes are not everything not at all, it's just a blueprint Okay, but to say that they don't matter is definitely missing an important link because your genes code protein and It's very important information To make sure that that information is correct. So Just to give you a sense like how new what I do is Vitamin a it was really only discovered a hundred years ago Okay, vitamin a is the first one that was the figured out and there was b1 and then b2 and so on and so on That's how they outlined the sequence Now in genetics, there's kind of like three major buckets. Okay, there's your ancestry There's you know, okay, there's a gene and that that one single fixed gene is a huge problem huge disease That geneticists are trying to figure out and solve for that's not what I do I look at gene snips actually pertain to your nutrient usage and Your detoxification and how to optimize your diet so that you epigenetically optimized in your genetic blueprint So Neutrogenomics neutrogenetics, it's a little bit interchangeable Neutrogenetics is really where you look at the spelling changes You're like what are my variants and then neutrogenomics is a little bit more of an art of how to optimize those spelling changes and Make you better So this concept nature versus nurture, right? So nature is really your genetic blueprint and the nurture piece is your lifestyle, right? I say how are you gonna live to optimize that and there's this saying which I don't really love But there's no better one your genetics load the gun and your lifestyle pulls the trigger So really it's that's the most epi means above genetics So how you live what you eat how you exercise what how you handle stress all of that whether you're sleeping or not sleeping Is far more important because again just the blueprint but diet is the single most important influencer of Your gene. Okay. Now food is not just fuel. It really is information So if you're gonna put in poor information, you're gonna get poor quality output. I Like to tell this story because it really made things real for me in this in this realm a few years back you know working on zoom now mostly and My computer was totally taken over, you know, one of these like frozen moments flashing and call this number and So I called the number and they're like just give us control and we'll you know Pay us $300 and we'll unlock your computer and protect you from all the hackers. And so Okay, totally, but I needed my computer unlocked and I just realized like we are this such a complex, you know Biochemical computer and You know if we're putting poor information in then we also can get hacked we get the malware we get the viruses. So It's really really important and this is really so Inflammation is really the name of the game, right? So we want to manage inflammation acute inflammation is You know your immune system online Instant there's a problem. It usually hurts. Maybe you need to go to the ER and That's okay, because it's signaling that there's a very real issue But chronic inflammation is where now you have this low steady state irritation in your body that needs to be addressed and that leads to cascade of problems and There are some some genes that I can look at to see if inflammation is active It's really important when I'm going over Neutrogenomics tests to see is it actually real for you because you're not just a bunch of data, right? You're not just a bunch of numbers and letters. It has to also clinically correlate to what's going on in your life But these are all the different things Right sleep deprivation dehydration the artificial sweeteners are just awful smoking processed food. Now dairy is a huge but we'll talk about that sugar wheat trans fats Vegetable oil you guys are gonna hear many people today talk about vegetable oil The seed oils are literally hands-down the worst thing you can put in your body MSG preservatives alcohol, you know, let's be mindful with that Molds plastics this this this is a huge thing to consider Some people don't detoxify well, and this can have a huge impact and then electromagnetic frequencies So our goal is not just to live longer right live Live to maybe be a centenarian or beyond but to have you know Not just great lifespan, but have great health span. So you want to you know, if we if we If we do our part we can live well beyond this sort of average age of 78 if we do our part Okay, and You know, we're sort of fascinated with these centenarians that what are they doing? and This comes from dr. Peter Atiyah who I admire very much. But You know, these are Five components that he yeah, he says are the most important pieces to health span So we've got nutrient sensing versus autophagy, which is that protein cleansing that happens when you fast When you don't eat so what do you when you're eating what are you putting in and then what's happening when you're not eating and Then your mitochondrial function. Is it efficient? Is it damaged? Right? So cancer cell is Damaged and and then management of inflammation Great reactive oxygen species. This is super important your insulin sensitivity and glucose disposal and then this is stem cells versus Zombie cells like dead cells in your body where autophagy can kind of clean those up So a couple things we know for sure about longevity is that social support is Actually the most important thing for living a very healthy life. Okay We also know for sure that caloric restrictions are just eating a lot less and so fasting is really important For living longer and that as I mentioned diet is the biggest Epigenetic influencer of your genes and can influence up to four generations down the road So this is huge for parents, right? And you know, we have a very renowned fertility doc here So this is super important that what you eat both both the the mother and the father influences down the road So what's DNA DNA it's present and nearly every cell in your body and it's important to note that 99.9% of us are all the same right but in this point one of differences We have three to four million DNA variations just to give you a sense wolves and dogs They they also share ninety nine point nine percent So DNA is just a language I consider myself an interpreter and I'm constantly learning because this is very new science and It's it's just spelling changes I don't you know, we say it's mutations and variations but it's a strong word and When you look at this These three images goat boat and coat Those are three very different things and all you've done is one spelling change So that's a lot like, you know reading reading the DNA okay, and that's what it could these are three people and oops and We just have this one spelling change makes all the difference So When we're looking at something wild type is what's considered normal so most of the population has that and there's heterozygous and homozygous, but as I said before This is the gene sniffs that I'm looking at. We they're they're very malleable Genes, they're not fixed genes. They not high high impact. Some are a little higher impact than others like an apo E gene, but You want to look at together at them like families Okay family groups and that is where a story gets told, you know Words get put together like sentences and then paragraphs This is an interesting one though this one is a higher impact The the collagen because it can impact the difference in how people train Okay, so Protein and you heard Maria speak about it yesterday protein is supremely important. It comes from a Greek word meaning first place So there are a bunch of there are a bunch of interesting gene snips to look together there on How you may do with say whether red meat can actually spike your glucose or not? Or whether bacon, you know is okay for you or not or that you need more fish in your diet Now carbohydrates are kind of confusing to people they don't understand that carbohydrates are really all the plant foods and They're broken out into three major categories. We've got sugars starches and fiber and and It's true about the fiber We don't really digest it well, but for some people who have issues with their gut bacteria It actually is helpful. So that that may be a point of disagreement that I may have with some of my colleagues, but And there's some other genes. That's where fiber the the green leafies are actually pretty helpful, especially the issues with methylation so But all people who are this is the one area where we can agree. We want to remove Sugars and starches from in when we're doing a low-carb ketogenic plan and These are just some gene snips to look at TCF 7l2 is a higher impact gene regarding grains and diabetes and this one is Correlated to amylase. So the breakdown the ability to break down those carbohydrates starting in the mouth So fats, all right We literally will go crazy or die because essential fatty acids means that the body Does not make them and so we need them from our diet and your brain is 60% fat omega-3 is essential for proper cellular communication and Fat produces all of our hormones. Okay. There's a so such confusion around cholesterol and We you know, we're just that's something a conversation I feel like I have every single day so these are just and these are you know, some of the The letters I look at with regards to that. Those are just some of them Now it's really interesting So the Inuit are the only population on planet Earth who Cannot get into ketosis Okay, so they're the only only in there actually follow a ketogenic plan But the reason so their genes evolved Right to prevent it so that they wouldn't get too lean So literally that means that everybody else on planet Earth Can do keto now You may have some issues with PPAR PPAR, which is this gene and this this whole family of PPAR is all important for fat usage. So some people who Have variants here really benefit from supplementing with l-carnitine because l-carnitine is something that shuttles Your fatty acids into the mitochondria to help you be more efficient and Some people who are great with PPAR G are really great with endurance exercise because they have better vo2 max and Literally, there are no Olympians who don't have what we call the Olympian genes So that's all potential right? So if you exercise your potential Then, you know you can optimize This is a this is a newer one to me and Newer one to the test. I use MTN r1b. It's it's about melatonin. It's a melatonin receptor gene and This has been shown to have very very strong impact on your insulin sensitivity Especially if you eat late at night higher risk So there's newer research on early time restricted feeding that it's beneficial to Stop eating even by 2 or 3 or 4 p.m. And that's pretty hard to do It's terrible for socializing But if you can kind of use that more often in your life and and stop eating earlier I Mean I've eaten late my whole life Just you know, we grew up in Europe and and my family likes to eat late and it's it's it's hard to break that pattern So I struggle with that myself But I've been doing doing more of that lately and I should feel feel really good when I do it Okay coffee so right yes, we heard about how terrible coffee is yesterday So There is a there there is a distinction between the slow metabolizer and the fast metabolizer and the fast metabolizer is What we'd call a mutation. Okay, it's it's actually an anomaly but people with the that genotype it's a a actually will reap the benefits of the antioxidants from the coffee and Feel good now, I'm not saying drink, you know 10 cups of coffee a day That's not good and you also want to correlate it to a CGM and see if Coffee really is spiking your blood sugar and causing a problem or does it kick you out of ketosis if you're measuring that? Which you should be so But for the CC type Okay, the slow metabolizer. They'll get anxious. They'll have the heart palpitations and they won't feel good Okay They really won't and so you can sort of clinically correlate now a lot of people sort of already know that about themselves like oh Coffee really doesn't make me feel that good and I and I get angsty and I feel weird and they avoid it Maybe they they switch to something else, but there's a reason why Okay dairy so this this gene is correlated to lactose and something called lactase Persistence which is weird, right? We're supposed to You know be weaned off of milk by age six okay, so it is also an adaptation a mutation to be able excuse me to Break down dairy. So little three-quarters of the planet does not do well on dairy and this is a big confusion in the in the keto world because you know, I know when I bump up against just regular folks that like a keto they just have this idea that we're just all eating a boatload of cream cheese and sour cream and and and You really shouldn't be doing that. Anyway, because it's pretty inflammatory now You know smaller amounts of cheese or dairy. It's okay. And it's interesting is one of my parents Should not be having dairy The other one is totally adapted for dairy and so I landed in the middle and I love dairy by the way So it's it's a little bit of you know, it's a crutch to have the dairy to help you along in your ketogenic plan But just check also again correlate to how you feel and are you getting no skin breakouts and things like that? So there's a bunch of mental health genes that I look at in my report as well and You know, these are all Super important to optimize as well, right? We have we have almost like a depression and anxiety epidemic in our country as well mostly because the diet is so poor but There's there's places to optimize here as well Okay, so detoxification is a whole pathway that I also look at in my report and these are your five major detoxification pathways now it's interesting right because there are some centenarians that smoke and they live to be 105 and and it's and it's weird, right? We know that smoking is not healthy, but that is good genetic clearance That's all it is Okay, it's not because we know that's really bad for us, but that is really fast detoxification at work Okay, so Environmental toxicity this is super important and not to be discounted. So your cookware is Very very much. That's what you eat. But what you're cooking on is very very important to consider Literally a true story I was talking about this and I talked about Teflon toxicose toxicosis, which is what they know that off-gassing of the Teflon from your nonstick cookware and It can kill a pet bird right cuz like canary in the coal mine situation and Literally this this this young woman came up to me and she goes now I know what happened to my bird like I just didn't know if I I killed my bird and and You can tell maybe you have like an air filter and cook with something and air filter turns on so I Encourage you to to change up that cookware and also invest in a good air filter We have a molecule and it's wonderful there's a test that I run if you are a Stubborn clinical case like you're eating. Well, you're doing all the things but something's not right You got to go deeper. So there's a good to check for toxic load And this is this is also a very fascinating topic that you know I could spend a whole half hour on here, but mold and mycotoxins are are something also newer in the health community that is really getting more attention and You know, there is mold present in foods. So anything stored dry like grains beans Yes, coffee can be moldy so you do want to buy coffee that has been sort of cleansed of that and And this is also there's there's urine testing for this That I do as well. That's great. If again stubborn cases, especially with skin issues So if you're not getting the results that you want You know, you want to see if it's hormone imbalance aren't you eating the wrong foods for you? Maybe you have sensitivities. Maybe you do have environmental toxicity Maybe it's malabsorption, right? You know Gut bacteria you have a lot of external life stressors who doesn't have that and then this piece Not eating for your genetic code and you want to put all these things together, right? Because you are a complex puzzle a very advanced biochemical being So, thank you so much