Thought For Food Podcast

The next installment of listener Q&A is here! This is the forum where you, the listeners of this show gets to ask us questions and then we answer them. This week we hit questions regarding: How to start a running routine What a typical day of eating looks like for us Losing weight on a flexitarian diet Maintaining a high-carb vegan diet as a freshman in college Thanks to everyone who submitted questions! We hope we answered them sufficiently. If you’d like to get your question answered in the future, send us an email to: thoughtforfoodpodcast@gmail.com. Go eat some plants, and what’s your thought for food? -Jackson and Aaron Show Notes: Follow Thought For Food!  Snapchat: TFFlifestyle Instagram: @tfflifestyle Facebook: www.facebook.com/TFFlifestyle  Twitter/Periscope: @TFFlifestyle iTunes Page: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/thought-for-food-podcast/id1076175941?mt=2 Subscribe to Thought For Food TV: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCT3Z3kL6Nsbhb0AY8mzpQhA Contact us: thoughtforfoodpodcast

In May of 2016, I graduated college. I attended the University of Colorado, Boulder where I studied Integrative Physiology and Public Health. This period of my life was profound, and I felt the need to reflect and discuss what it meant to me, why I went, and what I plan to do now that I’m a free from the university setting. In the episode, I cover stuff like: Why I decided to choose CU Boulder What I liked and disliked about my college experience What I learned in and out of the classroom My advice to those thinking about college or are just starting college What I plan on doing in the near future now that I’m a graduate   And of course I must thank everyone that has been a part of my time in school, so if you’re listening to this and had any connection with me, thank you. I also want to express my deepest gratitude to my parents who were integral in getting me to the place I’m at now, and helped me financially to attend the school of my dreams. They were also the best influence ever to seek out

Today we have another plant-based professional ultrarunner named Ashley Erba, originally from California and current resident of Boulder, Colorado. What’s interesting about Ashley is the fact that she has been vegan since a very young age, and vegetarian since birth. She’s now 20 years old and absolutely killing it in the ultra scene, claiming the top spot on the podium in many events including the Flagstaff Sky Race, El Vaquero Loco 50k, and the Moab Red Hot 55k. She started running from a young age on the track and cross country, but struggled with injury and iron deficiency in high school. She is now focused primarily on Sky Racing, a type of ultra event that is characterized by running up huge mountains. Ashley is also a passionate vegan activist, volunteering most of her free time at the local farm animal sanctuary and rescuing animals. She is energetic, determined, and engaging to say the least. We had a blast sitting down with her and talking: Ashley’s background in running and veganism Her strugg

A lot goes into raising children: keeping your child safe, happy, teaching good values and skills, and of course, nourishment. In today’s world there exists so many different styles of parenting philosophies, and the process can be overwhelming for new parents. At the same time, there is a strong myth that is perpetuated throughout the nutrition world, from the medical system to the general public, that raising your child on a vegan diet is not only unhealthy, but downright dangerous and negligent. Today on the podcast, Jackson sits down with Ellen Fisher, also known as the “Mango Island Mamma” to bust this myth once and for all. Ellen is a beautiful, passionate, and compassionate mother of two living on the insanely beautiful island of Maui. Ellen and her husband raise their children Elvis and Sandy on a primarily raw vegan, fruit and vegetable diet! Sounds preposterous right?! Just mangoes and lettuce?! What about protein?! Well, her family is a shining and gorgeous example of why a plant-based diet is opti

Today is the final part of the Real Talk with Robin series, where Jackson sits down with his girlfriend Robin to get a unique perspective on topics such as eating disorders, exercise addiction, and now anxiety and stress management. We bring Aaron into the mix and hit topics like our own histories with these issues, how they’re related to the other series’ topics, and how to manage them. It’s a fun, informal, and hopefully useful conversation. WARNING: there is a lot of adorable but sometimes distracting babbling from Aaron’s daughter, Lilah. Stay up to date with Thought For Food by following us on Snapchat: TFFlifestyle, Instagram: @tfflifestyle, Twitter: @TFFlifestyle, and Facebook.com/TFFlifestyle (where we’ll be doing more regular livestreams). We also just started a YouTube channel called Thought For Food TV! Please go subscribe! Tell your friends and family about TFF, especially if you think they could benefit from our show! Also be sure to join our email list and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes to

Heart disease is our number one killer in the United States and worldwide, killing 7.4 million people in 2012 according to the World Health Organization. That's insane. Yet, according to many doctors such as the esteemed Caldwell Esselstyn of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, claim that with lifestyle intervention with a whole foods, plant-based diet, this disease can be reversed and even prevented all together. The power of plants is undeniable. On the show today we have Dr. Andrew Freeman, a cardiologist at National Jewish Health in Denver, Colorado. Dr. Freeman studied at Cornell University and moved onto the Buffalo School of Medicine and completed his residency at Brown. He is now part of the leadership team of the American College of Cardiology and runs the regional branch of a program called Walk With a Doc. His expertise in the field of cardiology is obvious, but what we found quite interesting is that Dr. Freeman is also a passionate vegan after coming to discover and understand the research about a pla

When does too much of a good thing become unhealthy? Exercise is such a beneficial component of lifestyle; it's incredibly healthy for physical and mental health. However, it often can become an obsession that can actually become a problem. In part 2 of the "Real Talk with Robin" series, we jump on this topic and take a look at our experiences with exercise addiction, and how we've found to manage it. Living in Boulder, Colorado, it's common to see lots of extremely intense athletes that have very little balance when it comes to exercise. We are passionate here on Thought For Food for having conversations about how to look at exercise and nutrition critically. In this episode, we talk about: Our own experiences with exercise and exercise addiction When does too much exercise become unhealthy? What it's like to be an athlete and not compete, and how that shift can be difficult How nutrition and exercise are linked, and the connection to eating disorders This informal conversation brings up a lot of importan

Ultrarunning is one of those sports that, from the outside, seems completely insane. Only a year ago I would have totally agreed. Why would anyone elect to run a marathon, let alone 30, 50, or 100 miles?! But once you realize just how much this niche sport is growing, how much it tests the human potential, and the incredible community it builds, it all starts to make sense. Professional ultrarunning takes an immense amount of grit, passion, and physical and mental strength. The demands put on the entire body over the course of hundreds of miles of training and racing is up there with the toughest endurance challenges in the world. Clearly you must consume meat and eggs and tons of protein right? That's what we love about this week's guest, Sage Canaday. If you're familiar with the running world, you've probably heard of this extraordinary athlete. Sage ran D1 for Cornell University where he won the 2007 10k Ivy League Conference title on the track and qualified for the 2008 Olympic Trials his junior year. He

This week on the Thought For Food Podcast, we're trying something different. Episode 15 marks the first installment in a series with Jackson and his girlfriend, Robin Hacker-Cary. The focus is the interconnection between mental issues such as eating disorders and disordered eating, exercise addiction, and stress. Eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and orthorexia, are pretty prevalent in our society. Both Robin and Jackson have had issues with their relationship with food in the past. In Robin's case, it was a pretty severe case of anorexia, while Jackson was in a place of unhealthy caloric restriction in order to perform as an athlete. In the episode, we talk about: Each of our experiences with unhealthy relationships with food The difference between an eating disorder and disordered eating Consequences for males and females What is the Female Athlete Triad? Dispelling the myth that a vegan diet is just another eating disorder Robin's tips for recovery One goal of Tho

Following up on our last episode, Eating Animals, is it Ethical?, we're keeping on the topic of animal ethics and philosophy, this time with an expert, and one that encapsulates beautifully the Thought For Food mission: Educational, engaging, and entertaining. Today on the show we have Alastair Norcross, a professor at the University of Colorado in the philosophy department. Alastair hails originally from Oxford in England, but came to Syracuse University to pursue his PhD in  philosophy. He focuses primarily on utilitarianism, which is a "theory in normative ethics holding that the best moral action is the one that maximizes utility. Utility is defined in various ways, but is usually related to the well-being of sentient entities." He teaches an animal ethics course at CU Boulder, and is a passionate marathon runner, vegan, and animal lover. In the episode, we discuss: Running and endurance sports Animal experimentation His journey towards philosophy and eventually animal ethics A synopsis of his popular e

Here on Thought For Food so far, we have primarily focused on the health and nutrition side of living a plant based, vegan lifestyle. While that was initially our impetus for adopting this way of living, we quickly developed an awareness of greater social and environmental issues that are at stake as a result of our food choices. We now consider the three main tenets of veganism: Health, Ethics, and Environment. Today on the show, we focus on animal ethics and welfare, which is the primary reason we both continue living this way. Like Jackson talked about in his conversation with Lisa Rimmert about activism, our goal with TFF is to provide information and education in a way that isn’t dogmatic or judgemental, and let our listeners come to their own conclusions. Neither of us are the type of person who feels the need to go out and picket at slaughterhouses or demonstrate in Whole Foods, but rather lead by example and express our concerns in a logical, mature manner through conversations and online activism.

Imagine filming, editing, and publishing a video chronicling your life...every single day. That's exactly what Jackson Foster of Plantriotic does, daily vlogging his everyday life in beautiful, extremely well crafted videos. Jackson is also a passionate animal rights and vegan activist, senior at Colorado College, a master potter, yoga teacher, and fellow podcaster. He's also a plant-based strength athlete, aspiring tattoo artist, and social media activist. Basically, this guy does more than the average twenty-something. He's a badass representative of the vegan movement, and is easily making the best videos on YouTube in the vegan vlog scene. Jackson has a huge personality that's filled with compassion and hard work, and we're proud to call him our friend. In the show we discuss: Living the college lifestyle as a sober, passionate activist How Jackson balances all of his commitments and his emphasis on productivity A day in the life of the Plantriotic empire Jackson's artistic outlets Goals for

When science and compassion towards animals, the planet, and ourselves are aligned, beautiful things happen. The world is largely devoid of compassion in recent times, and our goal is to help change that. Today's guest, Liz Specht, is a rockstar in the science world: A Ph. D. and Post-Doctoral researcher in Biochemical Engineering at the BioFrontiers program at CU Boulder. Her focus is on developing diagnostics for public health and environmental applications. Liz is also interested in the intersection of scientific research, public perception, and public policy. In addition to her research, she is pursuing a science policy graduate certificate through CU Boulder's Center for Science and Technology Policy Research. While Liz is not hard at work studying microorganisms and other crazy stuff in the lab, she’s an avid animal lover and activist, and an advocate for a plant based lifestyle for the welfare of animals, humans, and the planet. She's a super inspiring, passionate, compassionate, and engaging person

Today marks the first edition of the Your Thoughts For Food series, where we answer listener questions for an hour. We both love Q&A parts of podcasts. Some of the questions we address include: What to eat before an intense CrossFit workout How to combat a family history of disease with nutrition How to balance a plant-based diet as a college student What our takes are on the exploitative banana industry Our opinions on honey How to ensure proper nutrient absorption on a vegan diet compared to a Paleo diet Thank you for choosing the Thought For Food Podcast. It's amazing to know that we are reaching a broad audience around the world, and the feedback has been really positive. One of our big goals with this podcast is to have it be a dialogue and not just a monologue with you. Interaction and conversation is a beautiful part of the human experience. This is why we want to be doing regular Q&A segments on the show to get our listeners more involved, and hopefully help answer specific questions t

"Antarctica is the absolute key to maintaining stability of climate on this planet. The fact is that it is the motivating force for ocean circulation” -Craig Cary Today on the Thought For Food Podcast, Aaron and Jackson sit down with esteemed microbiologist and Antarctica researcher Craig Cary. Craig is a passionate microbial ecologist focused on studying the most extreme bacteria on the planet, called extremophiles. From the depths of the ocean in deep sea hydrothermal vents, to the slopes of Mt. Erebus (the southernmost volcano in the world), bacteria can exist in some fascinating places. Craig started out studying marine biology in Florida, quickly developing a love of microorganisms and eventually landed in San Diego where he completed his PhD at UCSD. He became part of one of the first teams of researchers to study hydrothermal vents in the ocean and the bacteria that inhabit them. In 2001, he found his way to New Zealand on sabbatical with his family, where he was offered a job in Antarctica and de

Nutrition is an integral component to any athlete's quiver of performance, yet it's often underestimated or neglected. One of the main goals of Thought For Food is to change the paradigm on nutrition in the sports world by helping athletes think about food to maximize performance, health, and compassion, while doing away with fad diets, misinformation, and disordered eating. The thought that going plant-based or vegan can't be done as an athlete is still a widespread myth. We both get a lot of questions regarding how to eat around exercise as a plant-based athlete.  This episode covers the basics of what to eat before, during, and after training or racing in a pretty general manner. It's primarily dedicated to endurance athletes, since that's what Aaron and Jackson have the most experience with. However, a lot of the information we provide can be applied to most sports. There's no way we could cover everything on this topic in an hour, but we definitely plan on revisiting this area in plenty of future epis

Standing up for what you believe in is critical for change. But what is the best approach for actually catalyzing that change? There are countless ways to be activists, from nonviolent protest to radical and forceful activism. Feeling a passion for a cause can create judgements towards others and a need to voice our concerns and ideas to everyone around us. This is why the vegan lifestyle is often criticized as radical or extreme. Clearly, the conditions animals are faced with is disturbing and appalling, and it’s incredibly frustrating to figure out the best ways to address such issues. Like any social movement there are polarizing sides of the coin, and the more "extreme" side includes the examples most characterized in the media: PETA protesters throwing fake blood on people walking out of fur stores, marches in Whole Foods, etc. But not everyone is cut out for that method. Today's episode is all about practicing nonjudgement in activism. Jackson sits down with Lisa Rimmert, the Director of Development at

In today's episode, Jackson and Aaron go deep into the science of the controversial and extremely popular topic of protein.  Let’s face it, Americans have a love affair with this stuff.  As a society, we obsess over it. Protein has become synonymous with health, strength, and weight loss. It's plastered on nearly every food item, and high protein diets are all the rage. Athletes of all types worship this nutrient as the secret to their gains and the more the better, drinking protein shakes like their lives depend on it. The media strangely makes protein seem like the most important macronutrient for both weight gain and weight loss. Sometimes it seems like you can’t have a conversation about nutrition, health or performance without mentioning this word. Protein has also become synonymous with animal flesh and so when you make the leap to go plant-based, It’s no surprise the most common question you will get from people is where do you get your protein? It’s also a common excuse to not adopt a plant-based die

College is an amazing time. Getting out of our comfort zones and going off somewhere new, meeting lots of different people, and learning a variety of subjects is terrifying. But college is also a significant time of growth, change, and development. It can definitely be exciting, stressful, and super fun. That's why it's really important to do our best to lead healthy lifestyles to set ourselves up for success. Diet is an integral part of that. But, for most, college is also equated with the requirement for frugality and budgeting. Plant-based, vegan eating is constantly associated with elitism, privilege, and accessible only to those with a Whole Foods within reach. If you're subsisting on Goji berries and Acai bowls, then yeah, it's gonna be expensive. But it's 100% possible to exist on a plant-based lifestyle as a college budget. It's also socially intimidating to be vegan in college. It's still a fairly fringe lifestyle (although growing very rapidly!), and as a result, there can be criticism, question

In episode 4, Jackson and Aaron sit down with Allison Hartlage, the manager of Animal Training and Behavior at the Humane Society of Boulder Valley. Allison is also a Certified Nose Work Instructor, a graduate of the Karen Pryor Academy (KPA-CTP), and holds her Certified Pet Dog Trainer Knowledge Assessed (CPDT-KA) and CTC from the San Francisco SPCA.  She is a passionate advocate for force-free, science-based training and behavior modification. She also happens to be Aaron's wife and mother of their daughter, Lilah. We dive into topics such as: Growing up as a vegetarian and animal lover Her career in animal training and behavior Common misconceptions about dog training Why you should think twice about listening to Cesar Millan Pros and cons of adopting pets vs. using a breeder Vegan parenting This is a fun conversation that will hopefully open your perspective to new information about the behavior of animals and how our actions towards food and animals are deeply connected. While our overal