1. The most inspiring stories from today's leaders in health and fitness join Rose in today's show welcome to
the Paleo diet magazine show with your host Rose.
Rose: Today we will be interviewing Sarah Ballantyne. Sarah will be sharing a diet she encountered with
health and fitness.
Sarah: Paleo diet has been known to be really fabulous for gallbladder health and other diseases it was
my quest for solutions to my health issues that brought me to a new diet and I had asthma and allergies
and irritable bowel syndrome with constipation, acid reflux syndrome, acne and psoriasis, tendonitis,
eczema and carpal tunnel syndrome and a skin condition called... And I was desperate for an answer and
it was that desperation and searching through the internet looking for potential food allergy causes of
my conditions that brought me to the Paleo diet. The most tremendous things has been when I started
the Paleo diet I was on six different prescription medication and I’m on nothing right now. Most of my
conditions have completely healed, I still have issues with my autoimmune disease but I managed it
completely with nutrition and lifestyle.
Rose: Right! That's right. What are the biggest lessons that you learned from following the Paleo diet?
Sarah: I think for me the big eye opener was just how much every health issue I was dealing was linked
to my diet and I didn’t really realize that they were interconnected. Everything really had different
causes for me which was inflammation and aggravation of the immune system from a leaky gut and I
very likely have extreme food sensitivity to gluten and dairy because those things were really dramatic
when I took them out of my diet in terms of my improvement. So for me I think really the biggest
lessons were all these things that I had was probably cured by removing inflammatory foods out of my
diet. It didn't take me long to figure that out only a couple of weeks and I now look back at the health
issues that I was having nearly twelve years before I started the diet and as all connected. I always just
thought they were separate conditions but maybe we're related to stress but were just isolated events
in my life. Now I see that it was really just all linked to what I was eating.
Rose: So you can say that was the most... What was the most challenging for you in the paleo lifestyle?
Sarah:For me I had followed a low carb diet for the couple of years before I had switched and there are
a lot of similarities. So for me it was the personal discovery process that I needed to be on which was a
more restricted version of the Paleo for people with extreme immune actions and autoimmune
diseases. And that was a challenge to wrap my head around the restrictions and figure out how to do it
and it's been a really, really powerful and effective for me. But I think the andro paleo diet that really
was not that big of a challenge for me. I like eggs, I like vegetables, I like fruits all of those things were
really natural for me to eat and it really wasn't that big of a change. I really didn't miss dairy or the little
bit of grains that was in my diet as much as I thought I would. The big change was giving up my shakes
and eggs, nuts and seeds which were restricted on the andro. And that was bigger challenge for me just
figuring out what I would eat for breakfast, figuring out what to eat for snacks and figuring out how to
do the food preparation that's needed. I would have key ingredients, because one of the things that we
use in a paleo diet is a lot of convenience foods. Most people find that they're spending more time the
kitchen preparing it's not necessarily true but it is even more so when you have to follow an
autoimmune protocol. You're spending more time cooking your freezing food are finding other ways to
store food for emergencies are nights when you don't have much time.
2. Rose: What are you most passionate about outside of health and fitness?
Sarah: Outside of health and fitness? I guess I’m most passionate about my kids and just being the best
mom I can be for them. I gave up a career in medical research so that I can be a stay at home mom, so
that I could be a huge part of their lives. My mom was a stay at home mom and I think that was a huge
influence for me and I really wanted my daughters to grow up with that same experience. So for me
outside of educating people about Paleo nutrition and other activities. Really for me it's my girls they
just helped to keep me going.
Rose: I can tell that by your smile and just your enthusiasm when you talk about your girls.
Sarah: Yeah, they are wonderful.
Rose: What is your favorite paleo project, product or tool that is helping you right now?
Sarah: I guess I have certain foods that I can't live without. Tropical Traditions Gold Label coconut oil is
one of those things I buy by the gallon and I probably use a gallon every month. I cook with it a lot but I
also use it as a moisturizer, I wash my face with it I grab a spoonful of it and just... It's just one of my
favorite products. I have also become, this sounds of a cliché because everybody in the Paleo
community talks about fermented cod liver oil but I have realize that this is the most amazing
supplements and I eat a lot of organ meats so my need for the supplement is not as high as other
people. But I really have noticed a huge improvement in my skin which my big health issues is skin
issues. I've noticed a huge improvement in my skin with using it and I've come to even enjoy the taste
which is a little crazy.
Rose: I like the taste also, I do use some coconut products. I use a coconut soap and also I drink coconut
juice, I like that.
Sarah: I make yogurt out of coconut milk and that's one of my favorite things to have around the house,
that's coconut milk.
Rose: Yes, I do see that on the internet about your coconut milk and I’m going to try that over the
Christmas break. The coconut yogurt, yeah, yeah the coconut yogurt. That sounds exciting. Okay. What
should be the biggest takeaway for subscribers who see this interview? What should the biggest
takeaway be?
Sarah: The biggest takeaway is that a paleo diet is the absolute healthiest way to eat. It provides all of
the micronutrients and macronutrients that your body needs to heal from disease. It is known put to
rest hundreds of different diseases because it boosts immune function and heals the gut and those are
the root causes or contributors to most of the reasons people are facing today. It's a very powerful way
to regulate your weight. Overweight people lose weight easily on a paleo diet, underweight people gain
weight easily on a paleo diet. It is a very, very powerful way to deal with health issues and minor health
issues. It's fantastic just for energy level I don't get tired easily anymore I'm just full of energy
throughout the day but I don't have those highs and lows that people has where they need an afternoon
nap or they need to eat a lot of sugar to wake themselves up. So it's just a diet that is good for people
and I welcome people to check out my blog or my podcast. We are just doing a series now for people
who are new to the Paleo diet to just learn the basics. And I highly encourage everybody to learn more
about it and to try it for themselves. It is really powerful. It's really important to know that it's backed by
3. science. It's on the most high quality nutrition that scientist have and it's wonderful. I mean personally I
wish that I had known about this 20 years ago. I think it would have dramatically changed a lot of issues
in my life that I’ve had with my health. I hope that more people find this and that how these kinds of
health crises pull through.
Rose: What question are you never asked but are dying to answer?
Sarah: That's a weird question to answer. You could ask a lot of questions. I guess I should think of
something that people might not know about me. My bachelor’s degree is actually in Physics and it was,
I did my project in my senior year of my honours degree that was pretty strict, and I actually did cancer
radiation therapy research which launch me into one to get more medical so I specifically looked for a
graduate program that would allow me to do more medical research. I ended up reinventing myself
between undergrad and graduate school. And again I ended up doing something more clinically relevant
medical research and then I did it again, I ended up doing even more basic allergy research. So I think a
lot of people know I have a science background butI don't think they realized I actually have a
background in skin inflammation. That was a common trend in my background and I didn't study
Nutrition it was all self-taught. That is sort of educationally where I come from.
Rose: Okay, that great. Thank you for all your information you've been very inspiring andI really
appreciate the work that you're doing.
Sarah: Thank you so much.
Rose: You just learnt that essentially every health issue is due to an unhealthy diet. Sarah's discovery of
the Paleo Diet has made a positive change in her new lifestyle.
