69: Are Plant-Based Meats Healthy? with Plant-Based Dietician Lauren McNeill

This is the first episode in a special two-parter series dedicated to taking a closer look into the rise of plant-based meats. This week we’re looking specifically at the nutritional elements to plant-based meats with a dietician, and then next week, armed with some of this new knowledge, we’ll be exploring the psychology of plant-based diets, the marketing rhetoric around plant-based meat products like the Impossible or Beyond Meat burgers, and some of the consumer trends around plant-based diets and meat consumption in Canada. I was going to originally try and piece these all together into one episode, but I don’t think it does these conversations justice to do that… thus, two parter!

So this week, we have the awesome Lauren McNeill on the show. Lauren is a registered dietician who specializes in plant-based nutrition. She has a Masters of Public Health in Nutrition and Dietetics, with a collaborative specialization in Women’s Health. What’s really impressed me with Lauren’s work, is that she provides virtual nutrition counselling for clients across Canada, for those who are already vegan or vegetarian, and for those who simply want to incorporate more plant-based foods into their everyday eating patterns. Additionally, she’s a media-based dietician and is fantastic at sharing her knowledge through this – she. Has a large Instagram following, a blog, and a YouTube channel, where she posts plant-based recipes, along with nutritional and wellness information.

Today, Lauren breaks down some key differences between a nutritionist and dietician (because that’s something I always confuse!), and shares some nutritional information around plant based meats, along with some tips and tools to start exploring plant-based diets in general.

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Learn More About Lauren! 

68: Why Do Some Humans Eat Earth? with Dr. Sera Young

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When you think about dirt, what comes to mind? Probably not eating it! We teach our children not to put dirt in their mouths from the moment they start crawling away from us in infancy, and we throw insults like “eat dirt” at people when we want to really stick it to them. Yet… humans have eaten earth, on purpose, for more than 2300 years. Humans also crave starch, ice, chalk, and a whole roster of unorthodox food items. Some even claim they become addicted and can’t get by without these non-food food items… but why is that so?

My guest on the show this week is medical anthropologist Dr. Sera Young, an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Global Health at Northwestern university, who earned her PhD in International Nutrition from Cornell University. She draws on nutrition and medical anthropology training to take a biocultural approach in understanding the questions around eating and craving earth, a practice known as pica, and more broadly looks at how mothers cope to preserve their health and their family’s health. She wrote an award-winning book called Craving Earth: Understanding Pica to explore the idea of phenomenon of eating dirt or earth.

Today we explore the evolutionary history of humans eating dirt and look at who in particular is most likely to eat it, and the potentially harmful and healthful effects they have. She reveals how pica is remarkably prevalent across every human culture, the substances that are most frequently consumed, and the many methods used to obtain them (even the Internet!).

Some of my favourite episodes are these ones, where we look to the food histories of the past to help understand current food-related behaviours, so I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did! 

Learn More about Dr. Young's Work:

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This episode was sponsored by Beekeeper’s Naturals, the company on a mission to make healthy your new normal using bee-based products. To save 15% on your first order, use the code ANTHRODISH at checkout!

67: How CBD-Based Drinks are Targeting Millennials in the Anxiety Economy with Alicia Kennedy

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Have you ever had just one of those days where everything felt like it was on fire, maybe literally in the world or metaphorically in your own career… and you just wanted a quick way to chill? If you stumbled across a pastel beverage in a convenience store that could offer you chill in a bottle… would you go for it?

This week, we’re exploring the rise of the calming beverage industry with the incredible food and beverage writer, Alicia Kennedy. Her writing focuses on climate, culture, and cocktails, with a heavy emphasis on veganism (it’s history, politics, and ever-evolving definition). Currently based in San Juan, Puerto Rico, she’s been covering the island’s culinary scene and foodways since 2015. Additionally, she’s a contributing editor to Edible Brooklyn and Edible Manhattan, a food columnist for How We Get to Next and EATER magazine, and she has a podcast called Meatless, which featured conversations with chefs and writers on issues around culture and meat consumption. So basically, she finds genius ways to explore politics and culture through food and beverage.

I first came across her work in an article she did for EATER which explores how new CBD-based and herbal beverages are expanding what the wellness industry covers, and its impact in the anxiety economy. It was one of those essays where the connections she pulled between beverage and gender and wellness truly just blew my mind. So I invited her on the show to talk about this a bit more – which we do today! 

If you loved this conversation, do yourself a solid and check out her writing, I can’t speak to how much I love her perspective enough! I included some of my favourite essays of hers below as well. 

Learn more about Alicia:

66: On Craft Beer's Diversity Problem with Ren Navarro

“You go into bars and it’s basically the United Nations of drinkers, so it was really interesting to see that the sales force [of craft beer] wasn’t as diverse. It has changed over time, but it’s still got a long way to go. And I think that was kind of the start of Beer.Diversity.”
— Ren Navarro
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When you think craft beer, what - or who - is most likely coming to mind? It's an industry that is so often dominated by straight white dudes, but that doesn't mean it needs to stay that way. My guest this week, Ren Navarro, is working on improving diversity in beer. Navarro is one of the most well-respected members of the Ontario beer industry, and has worked for years as the face of breweries within her respective sales regions and uses her fervent love of craft beer to bring it towards more diverse audiences.

Navarro is on the front-lines to initiate change both in and out of the industry. Using her perspective as a queer black woman within the industry, she has talked extensively about diversity in craft beer through her company, Beer.Diversity. Ren’s goal is to educate, enlighten, and make craft beer approachable for a more diverse audience. Additionally, Ren is the co-founder and former co-organizer of the Society of Beer Drinking Ladies, which is a Toronto-based monthly beer event that provides a safe and relaxing atmosphere for female-identified people. 

Today she’s on the show talking about her work through Beer.Diversity and we explore the culture around craft beer in Ontario. She highlights some ways in which breweries and the industry are starting to shift towards more diverse audiences, and the ways in which diversity makes for better beer and better working environments. Can't wait for you to listen, Ren was the most fun to interview! 

Learn More About Ren:

This episode was sponsored by Beekeeper’s Naturals, the company on a mission to make healthy your new normal using bee-based products. To save 15% on your first order, use the code ANTHRODISH at checkout!

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65: Telling the Stories of Immigrant America Through Our Place Cookware with Shiza Shahid

“So ultimately for us [at Our Place], wellness means just cook more. It’s not being preachy or deductive… just cook more and with people that you love and care about. It’s the amount of disconnection we’re experiencing that is perhaps the thing that is leading us furthest away from being well. ”
— Shiza Shahid
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This week’s episode is truly such an honour and treat for me to share with you all, as the guest this week is Shiza Shahid. Shiza is someone who is an incredible inspiration, a force for positive change in the world, and a woman who knows how to creatively shake up the status quo in business ventures so that they can be rooted in community building and diversity.

Shiza is already known as the co-founder of the Malala Fund, as well as NOW Ventures, but she’s on the show today to share some exciting details her latest venture, the direct-to-consumer cookware company Our Place. Hospitality is sacred in Shahid's native Pakistan and feeding someone is an expression of love. Shiza brings her home country’s passion for hospitality into all of her business ventures. She has a strong desire to leverage philanthropy, entrepreneurship, technology, and the media to drive scalable social impact in business. Our Place, her e-commerce brand, is making unique cookware rooted in the modern multi-ethnic American kitchen, cofounded with Amir Tehrani and Zach Rosner, further embodies this passion.

Our Place sets itself apart from its competitors by focusing their efforts on sustainable packaging, non-toxic non-stick coating on their signature Always Pan free of Teflon and PFAs. The brand launched in September 2019 with its Essentials Collection at Hank's Mini Market in South LA in partnership with the LA Food Policy Council to end food deserts in the region. Their following collections focus on unsung cultural traditions such as Nochebuena and Lunar New Year and give back to the communities they source their products from.

Whether it's artisans in Oaxaca, MX or female-owned and operated factories in China - Our Place's main focus is doing things better, better for the environment, better for the community and better for their workers. Shiza shares today how Our Place came to be, the way her relationship with kitchen and culture influenced how she runs the business – from the product development to how it’s shared and styled. 

Learn More about Shiza and Our Place: 

64: Growing Real Meat Without Animals to Revolutionize Dinner with Paul Shapiro

“We can have a world in which we divorce meat-eating from animal slaughter, and where people can continue to eat the foods that they love with a far lower footprint than the foods today make.”
— Paul Shapiro
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Today marks the kickstart to our 5th season! I don’t want to give too much away about this season, but so far we’re really digging into questions around meat and identity and also branching out into the very fun topic of beverages, which we haven’t covered much before! But that’s all the spoilers I’ll give.. I’m very excited.

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To start our exploration of meat, we’re looking into the future of it – and questioning how we define it in the era of climate change and sustainability efforts. My guest this week is Paul Shapiro, who is the author of the bestselling book Clean Meat: How Growing Meat without Animals Will Revolutionize Dinner and the World through Simon and Schuster. He is also the CEO of the Better Meat Company, a four times TEDx Speaker, and the host of the Business for Good Podcast, all while being a long-time leader in food sustainability.

Based out of Sacramento, California with his wife Toni Okamoto Shapiro, Paul bases a lot of his work on finding common ground with folks across agricultural and tech industries while looking at the future of clean meat. He asks the question what if we could have our meat and eat it too? I know when I first heard about clean meat, I just assumed it was a plant-based alternative to animal meat… but it’s not! It’s real, actual meat that’s grown (or brewed?) from animal cells, as well as other clean animal products that ditch animal cells all together and are simply built from the molecule up… Wild, right?

Paul’s book Clean Meat really captures the tales of the innovators and investors that are racing to commercialize the world’s first real animal products that are grown without animals. And today, we’re diving into what a world with cell-based clean meats might look like, the moral and ethical discussions surrounding the products, the responses from industries, and breaking down the idea of what “natural” foods are and can be. It’s such a fascinating world that I knew very little about going into this conversation – I can’t wait for you to listen and learn from Paul!

Learn More from Paul: