You Can’t Supplement Your Way Out of a Bad Diet - with Julie Burns

On this episode of This is NuCalm, your host David Poole welcomes Julie Burns, functional nutritionist to athletes, coaches, and trainers. Julie is the Team Nutritionist for the Chicago Blackhawks and the founder of SportFuel, Inc. and Eat Like the Pros® – an integrative sports nutrition and wellness consulting firm and organic meal delivery service. She regularly provides nutrition guidance to coaches, athletic trainers, amateur athletes, and health care professionals.

Tune in for an information-packed discussion ranging from where science stands on the foundations of good nutrition, to what all thriving human diets have in common, to some common signs of nutrient deficiencies, and to the basic things you can start today to improve your health and keep moving forward.

Introduction quote

“You’re out to work or you have a big dinner, that’s the worst thing you can do is to have a huge meal, and to have it be a lot of calories because then your body’s not going to be able to rest and digest when you’re sleeping, which is when you do your recovery.” — Julie H. Burns

Guest bio

Julie H. Burns, MS, RD, CCN is the founder of SportFuel, Inc. and Eat Like the Pros® – an integrative sports nutrition and wellness consulting firm and organic meal delivery service. She regularly provides nutrition guidance to coaches, athletic trainers, amateur athletes, and health care professionals.

You can find out more about Julie on LinkedIn | Twitter, and through her companies Sport Fuel and Eat Like The Pros.

Key Takeaways

[:58] David introduces today’s guest, Julie Burns and reminisces about how they met before diving into what brought Julie to become a nutritionist. From attending the same college as her mom to supervising the BlackHawks nutrition program, Julie touches on how her nutrition advice evolved from the ’90s “high carb, low fat” to what it is today.

[6:06] What is functional nutrition? Julie breaks down how a “whole health” approach enables the personalization of nutrition as well as how they go about finding the root of people’s health issues, from initial meeting to specialized, curated testing.

[8:50] Although one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to nutrition, the foundational role of the circadian rhythm in nutrition is becoming more clear as research comes out.

• Your biggest meal should be around noon, coinciding with peak digestion.
• Restrict eating — eat during daylight/fast when it’s dark.
• Mornings are more insulin sensitive.

[11:13] David speaks to a specific personal issue with getting bloated even when fasting which Julie says is a red flag! She asks some pointed questions that could lead to potential answers. Did you know that training naturally elicits a cortisol response which in turn wears down the intestinal lining?

[13:53] What can laymen look for when starting on a functional nutrition journey? People have done really well on a variety of starkly different diets — from Inuit peoples to the Maasai — however, they all have a few key components in common: no processed foods, low toxicity, low stress levels, community, and proximity to nature.

[15:58] Julie offers a very simple process for determining your food sensitivities. By removing inflammatory foods — sugar, corn, soy, dairy, nuts — and adding them back slowly, your body will quickly tell you if there is an issue.

[17:16] Do you get hangry? Do you crave sugar? That’s a nutrition red flag. Julie touches on insulin sensitivity and how real foods and lowering your carb intake can help you flatten insulin peaks and drops and establish a stable base.

[20:00] What’s good breakfast food? IF you eat breakfast is the caveat! Julie recommends around 20 grams of protein, healthy fats, and veggies or low-sugar fruit. (Keep in mind that one oz. of meat is around seven grams of protein.)

[25:21] The body does heal itself, so your age shouldn’t stop you from trying to improve your overall health! Julie lists the tests from adrenals, thyroid, pancreas to the gut, immune and brain function, followed by sex hormones, and finally liver, lymph, and kidney function.

[28:45] Julie does believe in the importance of supplements, but she is adamant that no amount of supplementation will save you from a bad diet. She touches on what to look for in your own life to better inform your supplementation routine, from organ meats to healthy fats and countering medication-related depletions.

[31:59] Muscle cramping is a sign of deficiency, David and Julie discuss Magnesium delivery systems as well as root reasons for this deficiency.

[30:27] Alcohol… The research is all over the place but the more recent information seems to say that anything over two drinks for a man and one drink for a woman is toxic. Julie shares her tips on how to counter some of the negative aspects of drinking.

[38:50] Vegetarian/vegan/carnivorous, which is best? Julie offers her professional opinion starting with “it depends on the person.” She does offer that in the long term, the vegan diet may not be healthy and explains how and why vegetarian and carnivorous can work for some people.

[45:47] Julie talks about epigenetics and the future of nutrition and how much she is NuCalming!

[48:00] David thanks Julie Burns for coming on the podcast and invites listeners to tune into the next episode.

Continue on your journey and until next time, breathe deep, relax and keep looking forward.

Mentioned in this episode

NuCalm

Solace Lifesciences on LinkedIn

Books:

The Power of When: Discover Your Chronotype — and the Best Time to Eat Lunch, Ask for a Raise, Have Sex, Write a Novel, Take Your Meds, and More, by Michael Breus, Ph.D.

More about your host

Connect with David Poole — Chief Client Officer at NuCalm on LinkedIn

More about NuCalm and the podcast

This is NuCalm, the show for those looking to improve sleep quality, manage stress, and boost recovery. Brought to you by Solace Lifesciences, the makers of NuCalm, the world’s only patented and proven neuroscience technology that works within minutes, without drugs, every time! In over one million medical sessions, NuCalm has helped men and women around the world.

NuCalm: stress relief for the way we live today, technology to help you disconnect.