Why Diet Alone Won’t Heal You: The Soul Hakker Method | Danielle Pashko | Ep. 89

Introduction to Danielle Pashko 0:00

I was in the worst shape of my life as a vegan. I'm not knocking being vegan, I think it's better for the planet, but my brain felt terrible as vegan What do you say, it has to be more of a personalized approach? It has to be personalized. These vegan restaurants, it's crap. There's fake burgers that are out there. Oh yeah, they're terrible for you. This week, we're talking to Danielle Pashko, author, certified health coach, and founder of Soul Hacker. She uses martial arts practices like Tai Chi and Qigong to help heal chronic illness.

I started working in functional medicine practices. At about 25 years old, worked in some of the best in the city. On a picture of health, then at 30 I get cancer. What kind of cancer was it? This was thyroid cancer. Rounding is very real. When you're feeling that ungrounded and you can start doing those practices while doing the Qigong and the Tai Chi, it helped so much with nervous system regulation. In order to pray, to have your connection with your creator, you need to be in good health. That's your responsibility.

COVID. You experienced long COVID, is there anything nutrition wise? Absolutely. So what does that look like? It really dysregulated me in terms of my blood sugar. I thought I was eating super healthy. Were you utilizing a continuous glucose monitor? So I ended up doing that because... Our hospital system. The food that the hospitals serve sick patients. Oh, it's terrible. How do we fix that? Welcome to another episode of a Healthy Point of View podcast. I'm your host, Sam Sahara. And as usual, we're bringing experts from around the world to talk about health, wellness, beauty, and mindset.

Today our guest comes all the way from New York, beautiful city in the Northeast, where there's a lot of sick people up there and they gotta get well. So our guest today is a functional nutritionist, but she takes a completely different approach when it comes to actually healing. It's not just about nutrition, it's also about your inner soul. So today we have Danielle Pashko. Hey Danielle, how are you? I'm great, thank you, happy to be here. Thank you. Welcome on A Healthy Point of View podcast.

You know, you have a wonderful story, healing story of your own that I want the listeners and viewers to kind of understand that what you do as a functional nutritionist, it's not exactly what started doing when you first got involved as functional nutritionalist. A lot of things have changed from your experiences. So let's talk about who is Danielle. Wow. I have been in the health and wellness world since probably since I'm 18 years old, similar to you. And the reason I got into it is because I had a very sick mother growing up.

Early Holistic Influences and Career Path 2:51

She had breast cancer and the traditional therapies were not working for her. So she started doing visualization, meditation, using homeopathic remedies, macrobiotic diet, and she got me into this whole holistic world. And eventually she just, she didn't make it. The cancer had spread too far, but she left me with these really amazing books. When I was 13 years old, I many lives many masters about reincarnation and the soul and its purpose and also from Dr. Bernie Siegel love medicine and miracles and about how our emotional state can affect our healing and you can heal from Louise Hay which talked about affirmations and positive thinking and I thought, you know, I don't want anyone to suffer like my mother did, and I want to do something in this field.

So I first started studying with a healer who did this shamanic work when I was 18, And then I became a yoga instructor, a polarity therapist, massage therapist. I got my degree in nutrition. And I did all these different healing modalities. Then I started working in functional medicine practices. At about 25 years old, worked in some of the best in the city. I'm like a picture of health and then at 30 I get cancer So what kind of cancer was it? This was thyroid cancer. My mother had breast I got thyroid but I was like A vegan I worked out twice a day.

I did a stronger yoga every day I Was so healthy And I'm like, I don't understand this. So it led me to really further put the connection together between our emotional state, trauma in our lives, and knowing that there's so many things you can do for your health nutritionally or on the outside, but you still have to work on your spirit. I bring that into my work. And then after I recovered, I wrote a book called Smile at Your Challenges. I thought, like, that was it for me. Lost my parents when I was young.

Had the cancer. My karma should be kind of complete at a young age. Seven years later, get Lyme disease, which turned chronic, turned my life upside down. Recovered. And after just recovering, COVID comes around. At that point, feeling really great. But I get a mild case of COVID and I'm thinking, No big deal, I'm strong, and resilient. And it literally just shook up my world so much. I became so sick. That led me really into working with people that had chronic illness. So to go back on some of the things that you're talking about when you got diagnosed with the thyroid cancer Yeah, what were some other symptoms that?

You started to experience where you you then you found out that he had cancer so I am I mean I'm already thin to begin with I Am 510 and I went down to 109 pounds for no reason so that's a little frightening. I was like a walking skeleton and I was having a lot of digestive issues, insomnia, like I used to sleep like a baby and I just, I would go like two, three days without sleeping. And I felt like was going manic because I wasn't like, you know, just couldn't understand what was happening to me and was just going through a divorce at that time and thought, even the doctors were like oh, maybe it's just stress, we're going to all this emotional stuff and, and it was definitely gaslighted by the medical community, they were just like you're young, healthy, your just stressed.

And I was working in a functional medicine practice at the time.

Thyroid Cancer and Medical Gaslighting 6:32

And then finally, we were checking everything and they thought, oh, maybe it's heavy metals. Maybe it this, may be mercury, whatever. Since I read lab work and I just said, can we just like look at my thyroid and looked for antibodies and saw that I had some Hashimoto's and later we found out it was thyroid cancer. I kept pushing to find answers and must have, I don't even know how many doctors I went to and got this treatment of it's all in your head and That's how I really started getting very upset with the medical system how they treat patients And I just feel like I wanted to start advocating for people to let them know they're not crazy absolutely That something that could happen very common you know and then all of a sudden You start feeling like you're crazy because you've been labeled as a crazy person totally.

You're looking at this person with authority and yeah, and you start thinking, you know, what's wrong with me? Maybe it's in my head. Maybe I am anxious. maybe I'm this, maybe on that. And no, it was something really wrong. Thank God we found it because it spread to my lymph nodes. I mean, I could have gotten really bad. We caught it just in time and I had to like go into emergency surgery basically because we had just get rid of it. Now the Lyme disease, usually Lymedisease happens because you're out in the wilderness and you get bit by a tick.

Yeah. Well, we were talking about the Hamptons just before, so I was in The Hampton's and I didn't see the tick, but I can recall the weekend when I started feeling terrible. Oh, wow. So, yeah, just being out there. And I went to the beach. I did some yoga on the Beach with my friend. Walking through brush like there was a bunch of trees to walk to this private beach Walking to the brush and that can be kind of dangerous ticks can get you that way but I never really thought about it because I grew up hanging out in the Hamptons and There you don't have to get a traditional bullseye rash To or even see the tick right to you get bit by one.

So I ever saw it and Yeah, so it wasn't diagnosed until a year. I was checking for a million things a million things and didn't think it was Lyme disease. So one of the things that you're a big proponent of is your soul hacker where you are blending science and energy. And when I say energy, I'm not talking about like the energy in an electrical socket. I am talking your internal energy the type of frequency where your vibrating at a certain level. energy and also for me a lot of it is Chi when you think of like traditional Chinese medicine and then Chi which is your life life force that moves through you and and Indian culture they call it Prana but for Me building up my life Force and building on my Chi was a huge part of my recovery So so let's talk about that.

Yeah, that's um, what is chi? so chi is essentially the the lifeforce that move through that it moves to all your energy centers and your Meridians in your body, if you're talking about traditional Chinese medicine, the meridions in our body are associated with different organs that are connected to different emotions. Like, for example, you are talking, about you having not a lot of energy flow to your stomach and spleen. and those emotions, sorry, those organs are associated with anxiety, worry, stomach spleen, or if it's like the kidneys and energy's not flowing there, it may be fear.

So that's how the changes are. Is this related to like, the chakras also? Actually, yeah. It's all connected. Okay. So do you use any kind of other energy work or what is it that you do? I actually practice a lot of Qigong, which is a type of practice that's internal, where it moves the energy through the body to the different meridians. And I have used that for healing. I found an amazing teacher, Sifu Gary Tong, who has worked with me and he helped me use Qigong and Tai Chi to really free up a lot of the stagnant energy

Lyme Disease, COVID, and Chronic Illness 10:45

and regain a lost when I was really feeling sick, especially after COVID. I mean, I got like wiped out between vertigo and migraines and fainting spells and blurred vision and just not fun. Like I felt like I had traumatic brain injury, like, couldn't function like a normal person. And it was so frustrating to me because I worked in one of the best clinics in Manhattan. Amazing people who practice there, but no one really knew what to do with me and I knew all the biohacking stuff You know, I was injecting myself with peptides bpc 157 thymus thimus and uh, i miss an alpha 1 and Uh kpv and i mean I, was just going I Was going at it right hitting myself With everything and im like why is it not working and there was still something missing So so like would you experience something like the vertigo like what what is It what process would he put yourself through?

Just you mean in terms of healing? Yeah, to like prevent it from happening. Oh, so now I do a lot of different things, but originally my balance was so bad I would walk outside and I'm an ex-yoga teacher for 20 years. I taught at Equinox. You got good balance. Three of Oxworth Club LA, Exhale, like I thought everywhere I could stand in a headstand for twenty minutes. Wow. And I'd walk out side and the street felt uneven and like really freaked out. And through doing the Tai Chi and Qi Gong in nature So grounding is very real and people who don't know the idea of grounding It's it's like earthing as connecting to the earth being barefoot putting your feet in the sand or the grass and it sounds like yeah, right, but when you're feeling that ungrounded and you can start doing those practices while doing the Qigong and the Tai Chi, it helped so much with nervous system regulation.

And you always hear this term about the nervous cyst. I know everyone's talking about being in a more parasympathetic state, but it's real. and I was doing brain retraining programs like it did not work for me. Unfortunately, there's a lot that are out there that you're supposed to talk to yourself to help you change the neuroplasticity in your brain and whatever. And I was like, I did all those programs. I do everything and it was not working. This really helped me to start to get regulated. And then when I started to go back to making even more drastic dietary changes, I went drastic with my diet, but I needed to regulate my nervous system before I can do the drastic diet.

Before I could do like the intense detoxes and things like that because someone who was weak, whether they're trying to detox from mold or whether just they are sick and they were trying get heavy metals out of their body or whatever, if their nervous system is not regulated, they tend to have poor detoxification pathways and it's too strong for them. And then they have this Herxheimer response where they can't handle all these invasive therapies. So you need to be rooted first and then the peptides work better, the diet works better.

The IVs work, better the, you know, hyperbaric oxygen, all of these things you do. Work for a regulated person. So what would be the first step for someone who wants to get? You know grounded and rooted before actually starting a lot of these different programs to detox and everything else I would say try to get out of a big city. If you're, especially in New York, I think it's very overstimulating and find your way into nature somehow and really start with grounding, spending time outside. It's so important.

We are so Involved and being on the computer or being inside or everyone's glued down to looking at their phones and all this Electricity all the emf all these stuff is like dirty frequency for our brains too much. It's too, much so we really need to get back in nature and you know I always did visualization and meditation, and that's great, but it wasn't enough. And I find that even the yoga, as a former yoga instructor, it Wasn't working the way that Qigong has worked for me. So I'm not, you know, I don't like when anyone says like, this is the answer for everyone.

But for Me personally, that was the work with it really helped me to the point that other therapies that I did later, had a tremendous positive impact on me because I became so regulated. That's amazing. So we were talking about detox earlier, so that leads me to the next about the reset versus the traditional detox, which, you know, there's a difference between both of them. I want the listeners and viewers to kind of understand your process between Right, so I offer two types of programs with people.

So the reset is not just a detox. It's really helping people spending a period of time with them, normally three months, where I really just get them back into their bodies and help them just work on their health. And whether it's, I kind of work like a concierge. Not only do I help with their nutrition and then help then with different protocols to work their nervous system. taking the guesswork out of finding the right doctor that you need to go to, finding therapies, even similar to like what you're doing, like whether it's IV therapies or whether they need a really good acupuncturist or someone who does cranial sacral or they just, I help them to really navigate because it is very intimidating when you are not feeling well and you just like, what do I do?

And there's so many so, many things out there, especially now that the health of wellness, functional medicine, biohacking space has grown so much. So every every time you turn your head, there is something new. You know, this is the next best thing. And the thing is, is a lot of people want to jump into bio hacking. But I I work with all types of. People, but I also work at a very sensitive population that has chronic illness. Right. Some of the bio-hackin therapies that are great for a healthy person and we'll just make them healthier and give them better longevity and all of that.

Qi, Grounding, and Nervous System Regulation 17:20

For my client that's sensitive, I can normally sit with them and say, you're really not ready to do that. Let's start slowly first. So I curate something for everybody, but it's very individual. That's the reset. It's just kind of curating a program for them to help them heal. Or just maybe not even to heal, maybe just someone who just wants to be really healthy and doesn't even want to completely change their life. And then otherwise, if someone, the other, other programs that I just offer are just really more, it's more like one-off sessions.

So maybe not a program, but if it was someone wants to get their feet wet, like, what does it like to see a nutritionist or what is it? What is nervous system regulation? How can you help me to work through this? So it, I offer that as well. People who were just curious to just see what I, would I do? Why three months? I feel like 3 months is a good period of time to really see an outcome. It's like working with a trainer. You go for 2 or 3 sessions and you're not going to see that much. But if you can commit to 90 days, I just feel that's when you really start seeing outcomes.

When you work with clients who really aren't all in and committed, then it's like you don't feel like they're gonna get good outcomes. I feel you on that. And that's one thing that we always talk about is that anywhere between 90 to 100 days for you to see those notable effects of it. Definitely. You know, when you're working with a lot of your clients, I would only assume that you have a lotta clients that have been to multiple different doctors that are just consistently feeling unwell. So how do you start off with those patients?

Because they must be approaching you in a sense of frustration to begin with. Totally frustrated, and they're seeing me, but almost kinda like, what can you share with me that I haven't already learned from this doctor or this practitioner? I've seen a million people, someone gave me your number about like So first I want to make sure that they have really good lab work and that's where the the functional nutrition I've always worked in functional medicine practices. So it's not just like if someone just gives me labwork is just showing me You know, it CBC a glucose panel panel that is not enough to really give good information So, you know if we can look at their hormones look a viral panel Maybe look at heavy metals.

Look at mold make sure they don't have Lyme disease things like that. I think that gives a lot of clues and I Like to work based on lab work. So it's very rare that'll take somebody on have actual diagnostic objective data, right? So, it just I don' that's why I Don't believe that there's like one-size-fits-all diets for anyone. I don't subscribe to any one philosophy, I really think it depends on what is going on with your body. It has to be personalized to the individual. Absolutely. And that's what we call precision medicine, which is personalized for the individuals.

So I like that, and that is important. Now, going back to martial arts topic, especially for chronic illness, a lot of people that are listening right now are like, if I'm really that sick, how am I going to do martial art? Well, there's a variety of different types of martial arts out there. We're not talking about going into the octagon and, you know, doing some MMA fighting. So tell us a little bit more of the type of Martial Arts that we're talking. This comes up all the time. so this was what happened to me.

I was so weak. i was having a nurse come to my house every three to four weeks doing IV IG. It's immunoglobulin IV immunoglobuline therapy. It's like human plasma basically injected into you because I was so sick and I needed for my immune system. And when I done with my treatments, I felt like I had meningitis. My migraines were so bad, it felt I need to be hospitalized just with migraine. I said I just can't live like this anymore. was like, okay, I'm gonna die if I just continue on this route.

This is not me. I am this healthy person. And I started doing very heavy visualization, and in my visualizations, i would watch myself doing martial arts, like serious kung fu. i grew up watching kung-fu movies.I had not practiced yet, but I was so into Bruce Lee. But all these crazy movies from the 70s and 80s, 36 Chambers of Shaolin, all this iron and silk,I was into all of these movies, And so I would replay the moves that I recalled in my head. And then I will come out of my visualization and I get depressed.

Because I'm like, you're right. How am I ever going to do martial arts? I go outside and just too dizzy. I said, well, Tai Chi is technically kung fu, but it's internal. It's slow. You think of Tai chi like a bunch of elderly people in the park. Youngish and fit, but I was like well if this is where I have to start and it taught me to really learn patience and learn how to appreciate the slowness because I've always been so type a and I found this amazing teacher and and he was so sensitive. He's like a Buddhist.

Like he always tells a story when he's teaching. I've been teaching for 50 years and I love him. And he worked with me several days a week. If you kind of think alike how Daniel Son, Mr. Miyagi, that was our relationship. It was very sweet. and he would just start off slow with me and get me to to move in ways where I was building up my chi and I would do these like intestine exercises where i'd be smacking my stomach or breathing in a certain way and that would help me get rooted and and do all these things from my balance and i would say within three months, 90 days, about that time.

I was really feeling a lot better. My vertigo started to lift. That's pretty cool. Like I started socializing a bit, started just doing more things. And then about in six months' time, I told him how it was like obsessive kung fu. Yeah. He said, ''I think you can do it. '' I think should actually start practicing Wing Chun.'' And I said isn't that like the form that Bruce Lee is known for. And he said, no, you can do it. Just make sure that when you go in, like you're, your staying more like yin and yang, be soft, use your breath.

Don't burn out. Like, focus on your breathing. So I, I found this Kung Fu studio in New York city.

Reset Programs and Personalized Functional Nutrition 23:58

It's like six flights of stairs, so intimidated. I had just gone through, felt like I went through a war with my body. And now I'm going up the six flights of stairs. I go and I find my teacher and they don't know about all this chronic illness and all the stuff. And I tell him the song and dance, if I pass out in your class and if this and that. He's just like, whatever. Giving them the whole list. Yeah, and this guy's like whatever, you know? And it turns out that I really took to it. It did not burn out.

and was shocked how much Wing Chun Kung Fu, so many of the drills, are so amazing for the brain and really work on neuroplasticity. You do these partner exercises, something called chi-sao, which literally translates to sticking hands. And you work with your partner, you even do chi sao sparring, but it takes so much brain capacity and it is like a brain retraining for me. What is it that you do specifically? So you're doing these drills with a partner like you are taking their hands and you going back and forth but you doing attacks on them but it's like in a way where it not It's not like violent, like we're not putting on gloves.

Like we do those drills to where we are actually doing like sparring. But it's like partner exercises and you anticipate their next move and then you follow up with an attack. It is through using breath and it is actually made. They talk about the nervous system or proprioception. And when I was in a class hearing my Sifu, my teacher talk and like I'm such a geek when it comes to the brain and I am like, wait, he's talking about neuroplasticity, proprioception, and people sometimes get bored doing this because they just want to go fight and you know, you think of kung fu, like they want learn how to be in a street fight.

For me, I like this is amazing. You're taking it in in whole different way. I take it and then even the forms that you do in the beginning, there's a first form called the Sunam Tao which all the different forms of like Wing Chun are within this three and a half minute practice. But it's like a moving meditation. So you're doing that first form and the second form is called Chum Q. It's beautiful to me. I see Kung Fu differently than many people see it because I look at it actually as an amazing health practice You know, my father, he was a black belt kung fu, and he very into that.

And my sifu growing up was also kung-fu, so my dad would come and help teach the class as well. I love that, you're lucky enough to have that where you grew up with him, practice together. He was always a big fan of the praying mantis. So, let me ask you a few questions about your kung fu, your love for kung-fu. Do you wear tabby boots? No. No? I don't. When it comes to Bruce Lee movies from back in the day, what's like that one scene that you always remember? If someone says like, hey, Bruce, Lee movie, like what that scene in your head?

Oh, gosh. It's just like... There's so many it just like the way he moves his neck and his eyes when he's just about to come after somebody like I don't know. I'm just I go back to like like everything to enter the dragon. Like it's been so long since I've seen it. The dragon is the one with all the mirrors, right? Where he is going through like all of the mirror. Yeah. So I see, I dunno. Just think about like his face when is getting ready and the he tilts his head and he just, like, he has got those intense eyes.

Oh, no. No, the move that I am most inspired by, but he There was one of the movies, I forgot, it had Chuck Norris in it with Bruce Lee. And I remember Bruce like, like fighting him and then grabbing his chest hair and ripped off his chess here and just blew up. You remember that one? That was, for some reason that always sticks in my head because I found this, that was a kid. I find it so weird. He just ripped his hair chest off of Chuck Nors chest. But, no, I had to ask you that because obviously I grew up watching a lot of kung fu movies.

My dad used to watch a lotta kung-fu movies that they weren't in English, you know? Same, same. I mean, my father has been a strange since I'm a child, but... When he was in my life, that was our thing. We just used to watch kung-fu movies, and then they were not in English, then he would do the funny dubbing with them. He was a very funny guy. That's funny. COVID, which I know a lot of people don't like to talk about COVID. Yeah. But you experienced long COVID? Yes. Which long, COVID is something that a a of these effects post COVID which include everything from mental fog, fatigue, chest pain, shortness of breath, all of that stuff.

Right. What were some of the signs and symptoms that you experience when you were going through that? So everyone has different things going on. I find that COVID is like a long COVID for people who get really sick. And a lot of them will say, you know, but I was healthy before, like I hiked, I did yoga, it was athletic, and now I have all these problems. Typically, viruses or things that we've had in the past it works like a laser. It goes into that, it's almost like it goes back into the point of time, and it pulls out whatever your weak spot was.

Wing Chun, Neuroplasticity, and Martial Arts Healing 29:28

So it was different for everybody. And for me, my weakspot was that I had chronic Lyme, I recovered from it, but my Lymes symptoms came back, like on steroids. When I have Lymen I've had some vertigo, affected my vision, this was like, Like my vision was just completely out. Like I literally felt like, like I said earlier, traumatic brain injury. I mean, it just felt so bad. Vertigo, I was having fainting spells. Just terrible neurological for me is where I really, really hit. Whereas other people, let's say they've had Epstein-Barr, which is the virus that causes mono.

So basically they have mono as a kid, and now they reactivated Epsteen-Bar. Or maybe the cytomegalovirus they had, or maybe they have some kind of herpes or shingles or something like that and it's been dormant and now suddenly it comes out again. So I find that people, even like diabetes, like some people were diabetic and you know, but then they've had it controlled and suddenly they're, they'll have total glucose dysregulation. Yeah. It seems like it hits people where they were originally weak.

Interesting. So you as a functional nutritionist, when you were going through a long COVID, is there anything nutrition wise? Absolutely. What does that look like? So, it really dysregulated me in terms of my blood sugar. And I always ate a very, like, pretty low glycemic diet. I lived like a, I guess like paleo, AIP, autoimmune protocol kind of diet, you know? I thought I was eating super healthy. Ate tons of vegetables, fish, maybe a little bit of meat here and there, but honestly. Were you utilizing a continuous glucose monitor?

So I ended up doing that because I was like, I looked fit. I mean, was I ripped, but I felt like crap. Why is my brain so like what's going on? It has to be related to my glucose. So I started wearing a glucose monitor and I sort of the carnivore diet and was very reluctant, But I have a friend who's a practitioner and he was just like you gotta do it, you got to do. And I'm like okay, am I gonna eat meat all day? And didn't have to eat all meat day. Actually I ate red meat but also had Fish, I had egg yolks, not the whites, because they can be inflammatory.

I have chicken with some fat on it. And I've had avocado. But doing that, and I cut out a lot of vegetables, Because a lotta vegetables are high in histamine. and histamines for people who are dealing with long COVID could be problematic. So not having all those vegetables and having this, you know, the oxalates, histamin, electins, it was unbelievable how my glucose readings were when I was wearing the monitor, how much better I felt. And I use that a lot with people dealing with long COVID who were having neurological symptoms.

It makes sense because even like a ketogenic diet with someone who has traumatic brain injury tends to fare really well with that. So now I don't stick with it entirely, but I still tend to feel really with a high fat kind of You know, I would say not carnivore, but like a I Would say the keto ish a little diet. Oh, it feels really good for my brain. That's pretty and my symptoms. Yes. Nice. So Danielle, right now, there's a huge movement that's going on. It's called the MAHA movement. Make America healthy again.

Yeah. What do you think about this movement? And what do think? Great. I think it's really great. And I hope that enough will happen and things will be passed while, you know, RFK is in this position to do that. I think banning food dyes and that's really important. He's addressing the chronic illness, epidemic, he talks about vaccines. There's a lot of good that I hope will come out of this and he's bringing awareness to it. So I'm totally on board. One of the things that I'm concerned about is being able to hit certain cultural groups through the Maha movement.

Yes, which I am very supportive. I partake in a lot of their events and work with a of the leaders. But growing up in the inner city, you know, Everything, unfortunately, it should be nonpartisan, but it's been so politicized in a way. I know. Whereas just like now you have a certain group of people that look at it as like, oh, this is under Trump. This is no good, you know? It's a huge problem. What would you say would be something important for us to be able to bring this to other cultures? I mean, I think having ambassadors within that culture that can go out and really educate, you know, so whether it's going into a Hispanic neighborhood, having someone who can be an ambassador who could speak their language, even for myself, like I'm Jewish, and I was a nutritionist for a Jewish day school for very big synagogue in New York City, unfortunately a lot of the orthodox Jewish population very intelligent when it comes to business and things like that, but their diets are just not great.

So like, if I had to speak in those circles, I'd have to bring in something that would be identifiable to them to make them want to shift. You know, so it's finding like a common ground with people that you're speaking to. But yes, it's totally partisan. It's like, you know, that people say so many things about RFK who hate Trump. And it' like if you can just like see the good and what's happening, like come on. There's, It' such a mess about this, the crisis like everyone's dealing with with their health and young people.

We've never seen these rates of Cancers and these like autoimmune diseases and it's just terrible so yeah It's like take your heat away and just really try to work on You know that the positive aspects of it and and you're just trying to fix humanity Yeah. It's almost like it's a whole another level of toxic behavior. Totally. When we should really be detoxing that behavior, right? Absolutely. So you mentioned about the Jewish community and bringing a lot of the holistic health into these different communities.

How is that, how is, that process? Is that a difficult process to do that? Yeah, I mean, it has been in a way, but if it's kind of like speaking, so for example, if I'm, and this is how people can kind ease into their communities. But like when I would speak to people religious, i would bring in Mamonides, who Mammonides was a doctor, a philosopher, or a rabbi here at Mamontides Hospital. Okay. but a lot of the wisdom that he spoke about You know thousands of years ago now still holds true and he always would talk about that in order to pray inorder

Long COVID, Blood Sugar, and Diet Changes 36:38

to have you know. To have your connection with your creator you need to be in good health that's your responsibility so bringing that to people maybe they don't understand like. eat organic because there's toxins and chemicals and glyphosate, that might not reach them. But if you talk about prayer, maybe that'll connect with them because they're like, oh, it came from a modernity. So that can translate in any circle, Christian communities, Muslim communities. When you're bringing it in from the place of spirituality and your body and honoring it, I think that could maybe hit home.

Yeah, I'll tell you and the Christianity or I mean in the Bible it says the body is the temple of God Absolutely, right and you have to take care of it. If not, it is a sin and it's it since interesting enough It's the one sin that you're not doing outside of your body, you know So to me, if you say if your not taking care your of body This is really bad thing definitely and its you I find a lot a problem with our culture today is there's so much Pardon me saying this, but with a woke movement about the body image and about like you can't say anything like it's okay to be super overweight or so.

It's not healthy. There should be no body shaming. You should have be confident in your body and be healthy, I mean, and you should be confident in your body, but you also need to be healthy. Right. And I think it's like not about being skinny or it is not as about aesthetics necessarily. It's just about like we need. To live well, to to. Be able to perform well to have a healthy brain to either for our families lead by example, all of that. All of. That. Yeah. I and I. Think there there has to me more focus on that . So how do you fight a lot of this misinformation when it comes to chronic illness?

It's very hard and a lot of allopathic doctors would definitely try to take me down with what I have to say and I just have know who I'm dealing with. And I guess people who come to me have been so So disappointed with the medical community. I'm not saying all doctors are bad. There's some amazing doctors out there, but the ones that they've experienced that have put them all these medications that made them worse or label them crazy or have gone through this, then at that point they're open to talk to me and have a conversation about maybe something a little bit different that might work.

So I haven't done it on a big scale because I'll tell you with social media and all of that, they are very quick to take down accounts. I'm very reasonable about the way I communicate, but I definitely have my opinions and if you work with me, I think of definitely share more. Amazing, amazing. Danielle, if there was one policy that you can change when it comes to national wellness, what is that policy you would make a change with? This the schools and one the I was a nutritionist for a day school and I really worked hard and worked with the kitchen and the chefs and this and then the Board of Education to be able to get healthy food within the.

Within the schools and they the kids used to call me like the broccoli pusher because I used To have to stand online with the teachers and make sure like The kids are getting the vegetables healthy But like I think that is so important to start start them at a young age to really get into Good habits so they can continue that within their life So I just wish the school's would really participate and and better health programs I know it's expensive but I don't know, there was a way to do it. Yeah.

I mean, that's part of what they're working on right now. Part of the Maha movement as well too. Del Bigtree is really big on that. He actually believes that if you start with the kids, the kid will actually potentially teach some of these things to the parents that are not living that healthy. There's that and also the mind-body practices. Kids I mean I've Ive taught yoga to children and I ve seen how they do respond to it and i think it's so good for their their racing minds and to get them to just disconnect and just be present for a few minutes so practices like yoga Qigong like things like that like I think this world and this newer generation, I think they're starting to become open to that.

And these kids don't think it's that weird. I wish it was taught in the schools more regularly, like, you know, have gym class, but also have time to incorporate these type of practices and make it normal. Yeah, that would be amazing. That really would. So, as a functional nutritionist, There's something that I've personally have always had a problem with, our hospital system. The food that the hospitals serve sick patients. Oh, it's terrible. Or patients that just went through a triple bypass and all of a sudden they're in the recovery room and you've seen what they serve people.

Absolutely. How do we fix that? That is a huge issue. I don't know, maybe RFK has some ideas because I always say the same thing. And I really don' know who's in charge and why that's acceptable in these big institutions, these massive hospitals. It's ridiculous. They're literally giving them the food that actually got them there. Yeah, I know. Then you start looking at some of these cereal boxes that they give there in the recovery room. You know, you get a box of Froot Loops and it has a big logo of the American Heart Association saying that it's approved by the America Heart.

It's unbelievable. I just I don't understand it at all. And I wish I knew how to get through.

MAHA, Community Outreach, and School Nutrition 42:38

But it I agree with you. That's a huge problem. Yeah. Danielle, as we're talking about a lot of these things and some of your experiences, if there's someone listening to the podcast and they resonate with today's message. What is that one thing that you can leave them off with? not lose hope. And I, and I know that sounds like, Oh, yeah, sure. I'm really going through something and, but There are ways out, and not every stone has been left unturned. And for me, I did 100 things before I got to where I am now.

So you need to not lose hope, but also keep searching. Don't think you're crazy, And really keep search until you find your answer. Absolutely. You know? And that's what I really push people to do. I love that, I loved that. Danielle, you know, we were talking just a few days ago, and you were talkin' about how there's a lot of people that are living this healthy life, but they're really not living a healthy live. because they don't understand how much of what to eat, what they should eat. And you know, Brian Clements, was on the podcast, director of Hippocrates, and he brought it up.

He says there's a lot of little fat vegans all over the place, where you get people that are just like, oh, I'm healthy, but they actually end up gaining a lot of fat because they're eating too much carbs or whatever. So I know that's something that you've addressed. But I think that that is a topic that has to be talked about because it's not just about eating the healthy organic foods. You could eat a healthy, organic food and you'll eat too of it or maybe foods that really don't fit your body type or your genetic type that will actually become unhealthy for you.

Definitely, I mean overeating anything excess really is like poison to us. We can drink too much water and you can die from that. 100%. And I think that people believe that if they have something that's kind of healthy, they can have license to just have whatever they want and I really think You know where it's a problem and I was in the worst shape of my life as a vegan I'm not knocking being a being and i think it is better for the planet I think its you know more as in terms of like ethically.

I understand. It makes sense I love animals, but my brain felt terrible as vegan. Um, I Was eating so many carbs, you now eat all those green juices with apple and all that sugar in it I felt like my blood sugar spiked so much like I feel like crap for 10 years when I became a I you know, it's 25 pounds heavier and I I didn't know I had muscles underneath like the all the skin I Had because I was just bulking up because i was I always hungry because, I wasn't having you Know, good quality proteins and so I would like eat these bowls called planet platters it was like rice and beans and seaweed and this and that and tofu and i'm like, oh it' healthy but like It was just huge.

And then it was all carbs. It just was not good. So it's not for everyone. If people are, their goal is to really get fit, I don't necessarily recommend it. Then again, everyone's metabolism is different and some people do okay as a vegan. I'm sure someone's gonna say she's wrong. But for the majority of people that I know, especially that have come to me with weight loss issues and they are vegan, we can turn that around. What do you say has to be more of a personalized approach? It has to be personalized.

Some people, it's doing vegan in the right way, too. If you're doing Vegan and you are having a lot of vegetables and not overdoing it with the fake proteins, if you have things that are like tofu, tempeh, fine, but you start having TVP, texturized vegetable protein, which is gluten, or a lotta these vegan restaurants, its crap. I used to do menus for What is it the these fake burgers that are out there? Oh, yeah, they're they are terrible for you. And they also have like excitotoxins that can end up messing with the brain.

They can they can cause too much too, much glutamate. So you can have your brain is too excitatory. The impossible burger. The Impossible Burger, Beyond Meat. I bought that once when it first came out. Because people were like, it's just like a real burger. And I didn't cook it in the grill, I cooked it inside my house. My house had this really bad smell from it. It lasted almost a whole week. Really? Yeah, It was bad. Just because my home smells like this for a week, this should not go in my body, you know?

Regardless of what's in it, but whatever lab meat this is that we're messing around here, I'll just take, if I'm gonna go vegan, then I just gonna eat vegetables at that point. Most people who go vegans, they're eating like a vegan pizza, or their vegan.

Vegan Diets, Ultra-Processed Foods, and Closing Advice 47:48

You know what I mean? They're doing it just because it's vegan and then afterwards they have their gluten free cookie from the health food store and they are like, oh that's healthy, with their oat milk that is like super glycemic and like full of like crap and it is just, It's all done wrong and then they're like I don't understand like why my brain doesn't feel so good and why I'm tired and Why I am gaining weight and I bloated and i'm just like because your diet it's not you know It you might have bought everything at the health food store, but it is still like ultra processed.

It is ultra-processed absolutely like eat real food like that is just That's my motto with everything like I don't I cook everything. I mean, I spend a lot of time, you know Going to farmers markets like i can whip up anything quickly. It's like, okay, like let me you, know I make some squash or a bok choy found at the farmers market and then i'll just you Know buy a piece of like wild salmon and boom that's dinner. Like I, make it on the spot I Don't have like a I. Don' use a. Lot of season if it's really fresh food You don' t need a ton of sauces and dressings and I d n't use any of that stuff.

Yeah clean Good natural food. That's the way it should be. Yeah. Danielle, what is the next big thing for Danielle? Well, Soul Hacker is is fairly new. And I really want to focus on just growing that more and getting people to realize that they need to they to work on their health and see their body as a whole. You know, it sounds cliche, but mind, body, spirit. and that's really the message I want and really bring that out more that it's not just about what you eat or what this external thing you do.

You can't forget about the soul. And I think I just want to be sharing that more and more, and get people to look at themselves more holistically, I guess on a bigger scale. Yeah, that's what I'm working on. I just really want to spread the word. Amazing. And we're going to do that. We'll do it together. You know, it's all about collaborating together and making it happen. Danielle, if people want you, where do they find you? They can go to my website, which is soulhacker.com, S-O-U-L-H-A-K- K-E-R dot com.

Or Instagram, I am always posting the soul hacker with a T- H- E. Amazing. And we'll include all those links down below. Great. Danielle. Well, it was a pleasure having you here on the podcast. This was great meeting with you in person. Thank you for having me. All right, so guys, you guys heard it. Danielle said it very clear. It is more than just nutrition. This is something that you have to work from the inside out. You have tap into your soul. We have the have right energy, the right frequencies.

Before you even start any of these crazy detox programs and all this biohacking, because it can become a very difficult process if you don't. Your body might just not handle it properly. So this is a personalized approach. This is something that you want to find out your own personal health data before you even start doing some of these things. Sometimes you might not even need it, right? We don't want it just supplement to supplement. We want a supplement based off of the raw material that your body actually needs.

Guys, make sure you guys follow, share, subscribe. Make sure, you bring this to your families and friends. And make you follow Danielle's page. Again, thank you for watching and we'll see you in the next one.