Nutrition's Role in Disease Prevention and Patient Care Innovation with Dr. Amanda Adkins

Dive into the world of plant-based eating with Dr. Amanda Adkins and me as we debunk common myths and offer a practical guide to conscious nutrition. Learn how diet influences chronic diseases and discover the minimal role nutrition plays in medical training. I'll share my 90/10 rule for balanced eating and explore the benefits of organic and alternative foods. We'll also discuss the global impact of our dietary choices and how to make mindful, sustainable decisions for your health and the planet. Join us for a conversation filled with actionable advice and inspiration to enhance your health and live purposefully.

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*This podcast and its contents are for informational purposes only and are not intended to replace professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your physician or a qualified health provider for any questions concerning a medical condition or health objectives. Additionally, the advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every individual and are not guaranteed for business or personal success. Use discretion and seek professional counsel when necessary.

Transcript

Nika Lawrie: 0:06

Welcome to the Inspired with Nika Laurie podcast. Dr Amanda Adkins, welcome to the show. I'm so grateful to have you join me today. How are you?

Dr. Amanda Adkins: 0:22

I'm great, it is an honor to be here talking with you, so thank you for having me.

Nika Lawrie: 0:26

Yeah, I'm super excited to talk to you and connect with you because I think so we're going to talk about kind of plant-based diet or plant-based eating today, and I think it's such an important topic that there's a lot of confusion around. So my point is that I'm really excited to talk to you, just kind of pull out the good information out of you so our listeners can decide how to implement that in their lives. So, thank you, yeah, so before we get into all of that, can you take a few minutes to kind of tell us your backstory, tell us who you are and how you got so passionate about plant-based eating?

Dr. Amanda Adkins: 1:01

Yes. So I actually decided to become a doctor when I was young, like 12 years old oh, wow and yeah. So that was always on my mind. But the nutrition part kicked in when I actually found out that I weighed 199 pounds as a 14 year old and I was just like, yeah, devastated. I was like I'm not ever going to let a two be the first number in my weight, and so from that point on, I've been trying to do different things to help me lose weight and keep it off.

Dr. Amanda Adkins: 1:34

And then, at the age of 16, I became a vegetarian. But I tell people I was the junk food vegetarian like eating Big Macs and French fries with no meat, you know something like that, yeah. And then, as I got older and learned about my family history of my diabetes, heart disease, cancer and seeing my family member die from those things, I was like it has to be a better way. And I learned more about nutrition and how it actually causes some of the more common chronic diseases and I just, you know, dove into it more, trying to see what I can find out to not only help myself but actually change my family tree.

Nika Lawrie: 2:16

So, yeah, I mean amazing story. It's amazing that you were able to identify both what you wanted to do at such an early age. I still, like I still am trying to figure out what I want to do, but I think also identifying, you know, the health issues that you felt, even if it was just weight at the time kind of understanding the future and and wanting to change that for yourself at such an early age. So that's kind of an incredible thing.

Dr. Amanda Adkins: 2:44

and wanting to change that for yourself at such an early age, so that's kind of an incredible thing, yeah, and you don't think about it at the time. When you're that young, it's just like oh, I don't want to be this overweight kid in the class and people laughing at them, stuff like that. That's on your mind initially, but then as you grow older, you're like okay, this is really something to this.

Nika Lawrie: 3:11

I really got to change my lifestyle. If I want to be around for my family, absolutely yeah. And I think the other thing, the thing that kind of really sparked my interest in wanting to talk to you, is being a doctor who also thinks about nutrition. And I think you know there there are those, you know unicorns, that really think about nutrition and include it in their practice, but I feel like there are so few that you know it's not their fault because they haven't had the education it's not taught in med school, and so I think it's I'm excited about that, that you're into it and that some doctors are starting to kind of see the light. And I guess come to the quote unquote dark side of nutrition.

Dr. Amanda Adkins: 3:48

Yes, yes, you're so right. Like we do not. I mean, if nutrition is a part of it, I don't even remember that in med school, you know, we just so focused on how the body works and then the disease state and then what we can do to fix it, as far as you know surgeries, procedures, what we can do to fix it as far as you know surgeries, procedures, medications. So yeah, to learn about nutrition is like eye-opening, like why wouldn't we be taught this in medical school? Like this is number one.

Nika Lawrie: 4:12

You know, yeah, I know it's always kind of mind-blowing when you actually think about it, but but you know, hopefully you know I I'm slowly starting to see it change. I see more med schools starting to include it and add it in you know, um, it's still not where it needs to be.

Nika Lawrie: 4:28

I think the top med schools that include it. It's still only like 20 hours of trying on it. It's still pretty minimal, but but at least to start and there's the conversation is starting and so I think that's exciting. So I want to get into kind of our topic, but I think it's great to start kind of at a base area foundation and I want to talk about chronic diseases and just kind of give a explanation of what is a chronic disease and why do we need to be aware of them.

Dr. Amanda Adkins: 5:00

Right. So chronic diseases I mentioned a few of them before, like heart disease number one, number one killer in the US Usually before people thought about it for all the men, but it's actually for women now. Yeah, cancers that we get, high blood pressure, kidney disease, diabetes disease, diabetes I mean it's just so many things and it's people are developing these chronic illnesses because we just we have actually come up with treatments for them to where they're actually able to live longer with them. But it's not a good quality of life, you know so. So that's why, like most people, when they actually get um diabetes, they're like oh okay, you know, maybe that's okay, you know, I'll take a pill or whatever, and then they don't change.

Dr. Amanda Adkins: 5:46

But the pills actually keep them at bay for a little while and then, as they continue on their lifestyle, then it actually gets worse. That's when the complications come in and people end up, you know, losing their limbs or end up on dialysis, blindness, all sorts of things. So, even though we have treatments with pills, that that's not the end all of everything, because then if you end up blind or amputated or God forbid have a stroke and, you know, not able to care for yourself, then no one wants to live that way, right, and you're. You feel like you're now a burden to your family members who now have to care for you, and it's just. It's not a good thing, and most people want to avoid that and they forget that what they're doing to their body, this is the route that they're going and we want to try to reverse that.

Nika Lawrie: 6:38

For a lot of people, I think I think there's a big misconception around that too sometimes is that we assume, you know, if our parents had diabetes or heart conditions, that you know it's inevitable, we're just going to get it too and it's just a matter of time. And I think I think that's such a misconception because there are so many things that we can do to help prevent that from occurring. And so I think you know, eating vegetables, like we're going to get into, is a big part of that. I think for me, from my perspective as kind of environmental health person, the other thing, so nutrition is a big thing, and I really think you know toxin exposure, thinking about, you know, different chemicals that are coming in our homes and how that affects us too, plays a big role in that, and so there are a lot of things that are in our control that we can help support our body and avoid those chronic diseases.

Dr. Amanda Adkins: 7:32

Exactly, exactly. So, like you were saying, just because we have the gene doesn't mean we need to turn them on so they can be in our body and never be expressed. And so I emphasize that to my patients also. It's like just because your mom and dad have it doesn't mean you have to. We can actually intervene right here and stop it from going any further. So don't take that as you're sitting just because you suck sitting in your family. So I'm glad you mentioned that.

Nika Lawrie: 7:59

Yeah, it's a big thing and people need to really be aware of that so that they feel empowered to really take control of their health.

Dr. Amanda Adkins: 8:10

Right.

Nika Lawrie: 8:11

Yes, so let's talk about the role of nutrition and how it has an effect on chronic disease. What is the role nutrition plays?

Dr. Amanda Adkins: 8:22

So the top 10 causes of death, the seven of them are linked to nutrition. Ok, so I mentioned those chronic illnesses. Some are already. So, if we think about it, if we go down the path of eating the Big Mac versus eating the fruits and vegetables, we can actually, you know, cut off that fork in the road. So we can decide this way or this way. And even when we do studies in medicine and they actually look for how certain medications may work, the first thing they actually put in there is that diet and exercise and then they add on the pills. So we forget that first step and that's like the most important. And again, certain foods that we eat will turn on those genes for like cancer and for diabetes that run in your family. So if you can actually know that that's in your family, then you can actually say, okay, if I eat this, then I'm actually feeding that negative gene, versus if I eat this, I'm actually turning off that gene and I can go towards health, right, right and wellness.

Dr. Amanda Adkins: 9:33

Yes, so nutrition is definitely number one and it took me a while, like after reading a few articles, I'm like, ok, well, when this medication was actually looked at, they actually thought about nutrition, but they just didn't emphasize that they were just looking further at the pill. So when someone comes to my office, I always ask them always what are you eating and are you exercising? Like that's your lifestyle. Always what are you eating and are you exercising? Like that's your lifestyle. And some of them just kind of look at me like are you really asking me what I eat? Cause they're kind of like they call it like well, I don't know what I eat. So trying to bring that to the forefront of people's minds is actually important. So you're like what do you actually put in your body? Everything you ingest, it's actually either pointing you towards health or pointing you away towards health.

Nika Lawrie: 10:17

Yeah, yeah, I think you know I'm a functional nutrition counselor by trade and the thing that they teach us above anything else, you know you learn about all these testings and all these different supplements and all these different things, but they're like, just start at the basics. Like literally just look at how people are eating, how people's digestive system is moving, how their energy levels are, how they're sleeping. It's literally like look at the basics and usually 80 to 90% of the health issues can be addressed with those simple basic things. It's very rare that there's, you know, some kind of specific issue that really needs other investigation. Like, once you get the body back to where it's supposed to be, it really starts to kind of heal itself in a sense.

Dr. Amanda Adkins: 11:10

Exactly, exactly. Food is our best medicine.

Nika Lawrie: 11:14

Yes, yeah, I totally agree. So. So we're talking about plant-based diet. Can you kind of explain what is a plant-based diet, kind of elaborate on that?

Dr. Amanda Adkins: 11:25

Yes. So, uh, what do you eat when you're on a plant-based diet? Cause most times people think, uh, like, they call it rabbit food to me, right? Yeah, like carrots and lettuce, that's all you can eat. So no, it's actually fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, beans, nuts, seeds. So you just think about that's just the category of foods and you think about all those foods, that's in each of those categories how much food you can actually eat. That's actually, like I said, pointing towards health and wellness, versus you know your meat and dairy and you know processed foods, things like that.

Dr. Amanda Adkins: 12:03

So people always think they're going to be limited. But you have all those different foods you can try and the different combinations of foods that you can try. Because I had someone say you know, well, I think I'm going to be bored eating. You know just fruits and vegetables and grains. I'm like, have you tried every single vegetable? Have you tried to come combine them in different ways?

Dr. Amanda Adkins: 12:24

You know, so I mean there's I mean so many different recipes and cookbooks and things that's out there that people can try. That. The different spices, the way your taste buds kind of light up when you actually put in all those herbs and spices and it's just wonderful. And one other thing I actually was watching a documentary and they were talking about, you know, people saying how they wouldn't have much to eat if they were on a plant-based diet and they were like, well, if you think about it, to actually flavor your meat you're using plants, so why would you just eat the plants instead of adding in the meats that you're using to flavor it? So, um, yeah, so there's a lot of things that you can eat, plant-based nutrition. Again, we just go over the high level categories, but I mean, if you just Google vegetables, you'll see how many different ones come up.

Nika Lawrie: 13:11

You know really is incredible how many there actually are. And you know, I know, um, you know, other cultures around the world really have incorporated plant-based into their culture and so it's become this, you know, I don't want to say it's become it has been really well developed in the sense of flavor palettes and spices to include and different recipes. You know, and these, these things have been passed down for eons, you know for thousands and thousands of years, and so you know if people can eat this way for thousands of years, there are a lot of food options out there.

Dr. Amanda Adkins: 13:48

Exactly, exactly, yeah. And I just eat beans and rice every day. That's not it, yeah.

Nika Lawrie: 13:55

So so I want to you kind of touched on this earlier when you were talking about how you got started in the kind of plant-based nutrition focus, but I want to kind of address the idea of I see a lot of people that are quote unquote vegans but then they live off of Oreos and soda and you know, and so I want to make sure that we're clear about you know. Maybe there's a place for a couple of those things here and there, but the reality is what you really want to do is eat the quality food. How do you see people kind of addressing that?

Dr. Amanda Adkins: 14:31

Yeah, so, like you said, when I first started, that was me, the junk food vegetarian being where I was like if I just take the meat off and the dairy off then I'll be fine. Yeah, that's it. But yeah, to actually get those benefits for your health, you need those nutrients that are in the whole foods. So it's not going to be the Oreo that are just sugar and fat, are just sugar and fat. You want the actual what your lentils and you know quinoa that has so many different nutrients in there, different vitamins, that your body actually needs to improve its health and your immune system, especially during this point in time. You want to actually eat the foods that are going to enhance your body. So, yes, like you said, you can eat those things at times on special occasions and I tell people, wednesday is not a special occasion, so you could like have those in there and you have to be careful because there's a lot of marketing behind. You know, plant-based and vegan, because they see people are moving towards that. But again, it may be slightly healthier than the, you know, animal based version, but you're still trying to get all the way over here, you know, with the actual whole foods, eating your fruits, your vegetables, put them. You know you can make that into your own smoothie or make it your own ice cream with the actual whole foods and not use those processed foods. So I always emphasize that the whole foods.

Dr. Amanda Adkins: 16:02

Look for stuff that doesn't need a label. It doesn't have. You know a hundred ingredients on there. You know, uh, ingredients that you can read and you actually know what it is. That's what I look towards.

Nika Lawrie: 16:13

Yeah for sure. So that actually leads to a question that I had specifically for you is is when I really started to cut down on my meat consumption. I still eat some meat but I'm very particular. I I almost always just eat pastries or grass fed, grass finished and it's, and it's usually. When I do eat it, it's usually a side dish opposed to the main dish on the plant or the plate. Eat it, it's usually a side dish opposed to the main dish on the plant or the plate.

Nika Lawrie: 16:43

But when I was kind of changing that and learning about kind of plant-based and cutting out meat and all those kinds of things there's a whole environmental side that we can have a whole separate conversation on. But I saw all these alternatives. Like Morningstar is a big one that has kind of plant or meat alternatives and then you see like Beyond, beyond seems like it's blown up and kind of gone everywhere. And I know there are two very different things. But one of the concerns I had and I don't mean to call out Morningstar, but one of the concerns I had with Morningstar was it had a lot of ingredients in it. Some I could pronounce, some I couldn't, some were a little bit concerning to me. I want your opinion on these meat alternatives. How do you feel about them?

Dr. Amanda Adkins: 17:26

Yeah, so I tell people it's like quitting smoking. It's, uh, if you use something to help you quit, so you use a meat alternative to help you quit eating meat. That's not where you want to stay right. So it's a healthier, somewhat healthier option. But again, you're still not at that goal line. So I use that for people that were big meat eaters as a transition point.

Dr. Amanda Adkins: 17:52

So it's hard to go from eating hamburgers every day to eating lentils and beans right, so we can come in the middle. And that's where I think the plant-based alternative meats play a big role. So for those people that thought I never can give this up, they're like, okay, well, let me try this. And then, once they're there and they get comfortable, then that's when I push them a little bit more. I'm saying, okay, so now that you're there and you're doing plant-based alternatives, let's actually go to the whole foods and eat those now, okay. So again, it's just a transition point, you don't want to stay there. It's a healthier option than probably the animal-based products, but it's still not the healthiest to eat.

Nika Lawrie: 18:33

Yeah, so it's like my meat nicotine patch. Yes, exactly, exactly, I love that. So my other question for you around this is when we're transitioning to a a hopefully, hopefully larger plant-based I? You know, I'm hoping that people are eating some fruits and vegetables already, though I know that's usually pretty minimal in the standard American diet. Right, um, what are your? What are your thoughts about? Um, conventional versus organic plants? Um, when, when making this transition?

Dr. Amanda Adkins: 19:09

So, um, there's certain organic foods that you want to actually try to get if you can't do all organic, and the environmental working group usually lists out their dirty dozen and I usually tell people to actually start there if they're like, ok, buying organic is too much, because we still have to remember the other things that they do to our food that we don't need ingested in our bodies Like you talked about earlier, the chemicals, different things like that that are not going to be good for our body.

Dr. Amanda Adkins: 19:38

So if you can start with the dirty dozen on the environmental work with organic, that's the first step and then try to buy as much organic as possible. Now I can say initially I was one of those people's like organic is way too much, I'm not going to buy that. But then again I go back to my why of why I'm actually changing my diet and it's to prevent chronic illnesses. So if I know that they're spraying stuff on my food, then I want to try to do what I can to decrease that as much as possible. So we want to think about our budget, but we also have to remember that we get one body and we can always make more money, but we can't get a new body. There's no body transplants, absolutely yeah.

Nika Lawrie: 20:23

I think that's such a key thing to think about. You know, we we hear a lot like if you don't pay now, you'll pay later, meaning that if you aren't going to pay the costs for slightly better, safer food now, you're likely going to pay the costs in quality of life and health costs, insurance, that kind of stuff. So I think that's something to kind of keep her in perspective. But I love that we can get more money. We can't get a different body. I mean that's kind of black and white in that sense.

Nika Lawrie: 20:50

So, exactly yes, do you? Do you? So I know from from me one of the things that when people ask me, well, why organic like? Why like? Why is it really worth it? One of the things that I always try to share with people is that some of these chemicals, um, like, we can use weight loss. For example, in some people they can be what's called obesogens and they can prevent people from actually losing weight. The way they are processed through the body and the effects that they have on ourselves can make people weight loss resistant, and I think you know, and and the role of those different chemicals play is very different in each person. But, like you know, for the weight loss example, this is a big deal, and so people may be eating really healthy and doing the exercise and all these things, and they're still not losing weight One of the things you can look at is your toxin exposure.

Dr. Amanda Adkins: 21:44

Exactly, exactly. Yeah, that's good. I never thought about that way, but that's right. When we have those toxins, our body just stores them, and then that's where the fat goes. You try to block it off. So yeah, that's definitely true.

Nika Lawrie: 21:55

Yeah absolutely so. How can someone kind of start to change to plant-based diet and what are some of the challenges that you've seen your clients face in the beginning and maybe overcome?

Dr. Amanda Adkins: 22:07

Yes. So challenges that people may face is one they think they can't do it right Because they've been a meat eater all their lives, their family were meat eaters, and so then I usually tell them the story about me and how, growing up, I was a daughter of a meat delivery guy, so all we've had in our house was meat, and we had the processed meats like bologna hot dog. You could come to a birthday party without getting hot dogs. Yeah. So I said I definitely understand, but again we have to dig down deeper and say, why are we wanting to make these changes? Um, if you want to actually, you know, be around to see your grandchildren grow up or walk your daughter down the aisle once she gets married, like this is the deeper things that you have to think about, because we're just thinking about putting something in our mouth that tastes good and that's it, but we want to think of the long term consequences for people, and so usually I tell them the first step is because you alluded to this earlier is that adding in, you know, fruits and vegetables at every single meal? Because we do not do that?

Dr. Amanda Adkins: 23:11

Most of Americans do not eat fruits and vegetables. Not do that. Most of Americans do not eat fruits and vegetables. So if you start there and then start to make that more of the center of your plate like you said, when you eat meat it's kind of the side dish and that's what I tell people to do, like focus on getting in more fruits and vegetables, because that's where the nutrients are right. So if we do that and people start to feel better, and once you actually get that buy-in from them and they start to feel better, and once you actually get them that buy-in from them and they start to feel better because they're eating them, then it's easier for them to actually continue on the journey to going more towards plant-based totally.

Nika Lawrie: 23:44

Absolutely. Do you find that people struggle with like meat cravings or like meat withdrawal kind of when they're when they're so accustomed to eating it all the time?

Dr. Amanda Adkins: 23:57

and yes, and that's when I'm pulling the plant-based alternative meats. Okay to say you can try, you can eat that. Um, that's my husband. I was like okay yes, you know, eat that beyond burger or the beyond meat he's a big one on the beyond meat and you can do that. So you know, satisfy that craving. But then again we still got to add in those fruits and vegetables so you can get in those nutrients that you need. But yeah, that's a great transition point and you can have that if you need it, absolutely so.

Nika Lawrie: 24:26

Dr Amanda, I have a couple of quick fire questions for you, but before we wrap up, I want to commend you for the work you're doing, Cause I think it's so powerful and, like I said earlier, you know, there's so few doctors looking at nutrition specifically and so, um, I I'm just so excited to see you focusing on this and working with your clients. So so, thank you for doing that.

Dr. Amanda Adkins: 24:48

Thank you, I appreciate that.

Nika Lawrie: 24:49

Yeah, um. So when we uh start to wrap up here, I want to ask if there's anything specific that you think people should know in trying to make this transition that maybe we haven't addressed already, and what kind of encouragement you have for them too illnesses like diabetes or high blood pressure and on a medication.

Dr. Amanda Adkins: 25:16

The best thing you can do is let your doctor know that you're making this transition and sometimes you can educate the doctor on what you actually found out. Because once you actually start to make that transition and if you go, you know full in your blood sugars and blood pressure can drop quickly and you definitely want to talk with them about adjusting your medication. So always give that caveat that people need to know that and look out for it quickly because they don't want to you know their blood sugar to drop low. When they end up, you know, in the hospital because they made those changes, then they'll have a negative association with eating healthy right? So we want to always give that caveat and then just know that there's people here to support you.

Dr. Amanda Adkins: 25:54

Encouragement I tell um my patients when they come in. I'm like, do not avoid coming in, I'm not going to yell at you, it's just another session to where you can come in. And I'm like okay, this is where we are, let's go back out there, do this. I'm here to support you, you can keep going, you can do this. Know that it's going to be a struggle, because every time we have to think about what we need to eat. It's going to be this or this, and then sometimes you're going to pick this Big Mac with no meat or the Oreos, but then you just give yourself some grace and say, ok, this is where I went, that's OK, but you know, the next meal I'm getting back on track, and each meal you can do that and just give yourself grace and know that we're out here rooting for you, for your health.

Nika Lawrie: 26:39

I love that. I think you know the big thing I always try to teach, I know, especially with with toxins, is it can become scary and overwhelming. And the thing I always tell them is this isn't about perfect perfection. It's really about making conscious decisions and each day trying to think about those decisions. So same like each mealtime. Let's be conscious and think about those decisions and you know, maybe you pick a 90, 10 rule where 90% of the time you eat really well and 10% you just live life and you enjoy it, kind of thing. Figure out what that line is for you based on your health and working with your physicians, preferably Dr Amanda.

Nika Lawrie: 27:18

Thank you, yeah, yeah, um. I I did want to ask too you you mentioned um it was a really good point about uh addressing your medications as, as you transition your diet Um are there? Are there um specific things that we should be aware of or concerned about? You mentioned a couple of them. There are there um specific things that we should be aware of or concerned about? You mentioned a couple of them there. But when making these transitions, are there any health concerns that come with that, other than the medication changes?

Dr. Amanda Adkins: 27:45

So sometimes people feel worse before they feel better, but the the negative effects are usually more like you're trying to rid yourself of that excess stuff that you didn't need but to actually transition. No, there's not any other negative health effects that usually that I'm aware of that your body would go.

Nika Lawrie: 28:06

Yeah, good to know, just making sure I want everyone to be prepared as they kind of go through this transition. So yes, yes. So I have three quick fire questions, but before I get to those, where can people connect with you? How can they find you online?

Dr. Amanda Adkins: 28:21

Oh yeah, so you can find me on Facebook and Instagram at Dr Amanda Atkins, and my last name is spelled A-D-K-I-N-S. And then I also have a website, dramandamdcom.

Nika Lawrie: 28:33

Perfect. I will link to everything in the show notes too, just make sure you can see, as possible. Yeah, so are you ready for the quick choir questions? I hope so. All right, so what is your favorite or most impactful book, podcast or documentary, and why?

Dr. Amanda Adkins: 28:52

Um, I would say forks over knives. I did not know about that and that actually transitioned my mind. I actually was at a vegan soul festival and a person sitting next to me was like oh, have you ever seen forks over knives? I was like I've never seen it in my life, and just the way that they talked about how animal products actually impacted our body and what the animals go through and the environmental effect, I mean that just opened my eyes, because at that time I was just vegetarian, I wasn't vegan, I wasn't plant based or anything like that, and that's what I dove deeper into plant based nutrition from that point on.

Nika Lawrie: 29:31

So, yeah, yeah, it's a great documentary and I think so few people are aware of the environmental effects and the treatment of the animals too. I know it's becoming more kind of popular knowledge about it, especially with all the conversations going on with climate change right now, but it is a huge, huge issue and got to do something. We're going to, you know, be able to solve this problem.

Dr. Amanda Adkins: 29:59

Exactly, exactly.

Nika Lawrie: 30:01

So with that, my next question for you is actually what is your best toxin-free or eco-friendly living tip?

Dr. Amanda Adkins: 30:09

Of course, eat plant-based Takes care of both. Yeah, course, eat plant-based. Yeah, it takes care of both. Yeah, um, so, like I said, like you said, the the thing that we do um and actually eats. Um, I was surprised how much um land, space and how much water, things like that it takes to just make one hamburger. Um, that was another um vegan soul festival that I went to that they mentioned that. So just actually eating less meat will actually help the environment. Yeah, yeah absolutely.

Nika Lawrie: 30:44

I think you know, like I mentioned earlier, trying to eat meat as a side dish, opposed to the main course. If you know if you aren't going to give it up completely opposed to the main course. If you know if you aren't going to give it up completely, reduce it and then be really aware of where you're getting your meat from and what process that meat has gone through too, yeah, so my last question for you is what does living consciously mean to you?

Dr. Amanda Adkins: 31:11

So let's see, living consciously, thinking about how what you do is impacting others. I'm a very spiritual person, so I believe that what we do and we're here to actually be a service to others. So that's a big reason also for my why of preventing chronic illnesses, because I want to be around and be healthy, to do things like I'm doing today and spread the word of health and nutrition, because if we're sick, tired and in the hospital, we're not going to be able to live out that purpose.

Nika Lawrie: 31:47

Absolutely. Oh, I love that so much. I think it's so true. So many of us often feel lost or like we don't know what, what our purpose is, or you know why are? Why are we here? What are we supposed to be doing? And the the base answer is it. It sometimes doesn't even matter. You just have to serve others, just do something to help somebody else, and that ultimately leads you in a direction of enjoyment and and joyfulness and passion and excitement for life. And joyfulness and passion and excitement for life. Yes, yes.

Dr. Amanda Adkins: 32:16

So true.

Nika Lawrie: 32:17

Yeah Well, Dr Amanda, this has been phenomenal. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to connect with you. I'm grateful for all of your knowledge and sharing that with the listeners today. So thank you for coming on the show.

Dr. Amanda Adkins: 32:29

Yes, thank you so much for having me. I enjoyed being here, thank you.