72: Ancient Remedies, Natural Focus: Exploring the Power of Mushrooms with Jordan Higgins

When we talk about food systems and eating experiences, we often are quick to bring up the ideas of exclusion – what we should remove or limit or restrict – through veganism, vegetarianism, paleo diets, carnivore diets, and more. My guest this week, Jordan Higgins, is one of the entrepreneurs of Higgins and Phillips Innovations, and is looking to create more inclusive and holistic solutions for food and medicine.

Jordan has a BSc in Earth Science and a minor in Biology from the University of Guelph and worked as a scientist and project manager in environmental remediation projects for many years. After his brother passed away from a chronic illness in 2016, Jordan took time to travel across Central and South America on a quest to reflect on his relationship with family: he had two siblings pass away as a result of cancer, and he had battled cancer himself at the age of 21.  In response, Jordan and his business partner began creating 2 natural health products, Life Spice Mushroom Cacao Blend and Dock Walkers Pain Reliever as a way to complement modern medicine with natural and effective ways to help those living in a state of chronic pain.

AnthroDish IG templates.jpg
LifeSpicePromo2.png

The products are coupled as offering a one-two punch for tackling inflammation and pain. Jordan says that in a society where we have diets that are plagued with nutrient depletion and inflammatory ingredients, he aims to bring harmony back to our bodies through the power of nature.

We speak today about how his relationship with the natural world shaped his products and his experiences, and we also explore more deeply how different mushroom varieties offer various health and performance benefits. I always love having conversations with folks who see how we relate to the land and environment, and how we can use holistic approaches to create new solutions for health, so this felt like such a treat.

Learn More About Jordan! 

bkn ads.jpg

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!

71: Food's Role in the Spread of Past Diseases with Jessica Hider

Jess Hider main promo.jpg

So this week is particularly heavy, and I don’t feel right starting out this episode without addressing that. I have been thinking for a long time about the role of podcasting in pandemics, and whether it’s silly to produce and share episodes when everyone’s minds are riddled with panic, fear, and an ever-growing awareness of just how much food you have in your pantry.

But then I remembered that this show has ALWAYS been about us as a community. This isn’t about me, it’s about what we can offer each other in terms of sharing knowledge and experience. And right now, it’s also about what I can offer you as a break from the endless Twitter feed refreshes and breaking news briefs. So we continue, and hope we can offer you a little peace and distraction, if only for a half hour.

Jessica doing labwork!

Jessica doing labwork!

Okay, so this week we’re exploring the role of food in disease outbreaks with my friend and McMaster colleague, Jessica Hider. She’s a PhD candidate in my anthropology department at McMaster and works in McMaster’s uber-cool Ancient DNA Centre. Jess looks at the spread of pathogens in pre-Rome and ancient Rome. She combines ancient DNA analyses with bioarchaeology and paleopathology (or the study of ancient diseases and pathologies on bone). Her main focus and interest is a disease known as brucellosis – which is a lesser known but absolutely fascinating disease to explore. I will let her do the expert explaining on what it entails in the interview!

We’re chatting about the differences between food-borne diseases, zoonotic diseases, and the ways that food can help spread disease in the past. For those of you who are really tired of hearing about COVID-19, don’t worry – we don’t really touch on it. But we do talk about Typhoid Mary, and she’s a real hoot.

A pie chart detailing the amount of brucella pathogen DNA found in Jessica’s research sample

A pie chart detailing the amount of brucella pathogen DNA found in Jessica’s research sample

Jess doing fieldwork in Italy

Jess doing fieldwork in Italy

70: Learning From Past Farming Strategies to Adapt to Our Changing World with Ayushi Nayak

1.jpg

Do you ever wonder how scientists come to understand what we ate in the past, or how they know what types of farming and irrigation methods were used? Or wondered why it’s important to understand past diet and farming strategies in today’s globalized world? My guest this week is here to help answer some of these questions!

Today I’m chatting with Ayushi Nayak, who is a Doctoral Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. Her research focuses on the nature of agricultural societies in the past that led to the hyper-diversity defining the Indian sub-continent today. Using different archaeological approaches, she explores diet, early farming strategies, population movement, and cultural changes.  Additionally, Ayushi is interested in decolonizing archaeological research and public engagement with cultural heritage.

We speak today about the ways she uses different methods to explore past people’s experiencing of farming, crop choices, and how they cooked and processed the foods they grew or collected. Ayushi strongly believes that developing a better understanding of human societies and choices in the past – particularly in times of flux – can help us prepare and mitigate against the rapidly changing world we live in today. I’m really excited for you to learn more about how she weaves the past and present together to tell these incredible food stories! 

Learn More About Ayushi:

Ayushi also very kindly (and awesomely… is that a word?) made and shared a recipe with us, based off of the archaeological plants she analyzes for her research!

Pesarattu Recipe.jpg
bkn ads.jpg

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!

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.

AnthroDish IG templates (3).jpg

Learn More About Lauren! 

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

AnthroDish IG templates (1).jpg

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:

bkn ads.jpg

 

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

AnthroDish IG templates (2).jpg

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: