Blake Shusterman The Cooking Doc: Looking After Your Health

Edited 29/01/2022: There is a full transcript below the audio.

Are you looking for a way to improve your health? Dr Blake Shusterman the cooking doc offers an innovative and transformational approach to cooking and eating that can help you look and feel your best. In this podcast, Dr Shusterman shares his expert advice on how to keep away from eating junk food to look after your health. So if you’re ready to take charge of your health, listen to this podcast! You won’t regret it.

South Carolina-based Dr Shusterman is especially aware of the importance of high-quality food. His passion for getting people to eat and live better led him to write his book, “Kidney Healthy Cooking.”

dr-blake-shusteman-the-cooking-docs-kidney-healthy

His book is available both in ebook format and on Amazon includes a number of delicious and kidney-friendly recipes and guidance to look after your kidneys and to keep your potassium levels low.

You may also want to check out this blog and podcast Mastering Mindsets: Health, Mindset And Exercise Interview: Change Your Life as these elements are all crucial to a healthier, happier life.

Dr. Blake’s recipes are also featured on kidney nonprofit The American Kidney Fund’s “Kidney Kitchen” portion of its website. As an ambassador for AKF, also, Dr. Blake Shusterman the cooking doc regularly co-hosts Facebook Lives and virtual events to inspire and educate people concerned about their kidney health.

This was another really fun episode hosted by Nadya Rousseau (CEO Alter New Media) and Nathaniel Schooler

These are just some of the questions that Nephrologist Dr Blake Shusterman the cooking doc joins us to answer:

  • Tell us about you, who are you and what drives you to do what you do?
  • Why does positivity matter to you?
  • What is your personal “positive superpower”?
  • Not many nephrologists also moonlight as “Cooking Docs.” What was the inspiration behind your platform and the #Changeyourbuds movement?
  • How do you motivate your patients who are struggling to enjoy healthy food?
  • Do you have a particular memory of a challenging patient who felt particularly discouraged about improving their health?
  • Why do so many Americans struggle with their health?
  • How can we motivate them to make a collective shift?
  • You recently became an ambassador for the American Kidney Foundation. How will this relationship manifest? (Talk about Kidney Kitchen, Panels)

Dr. Blake is now in an exclusive ambassadorship with the American Kidney Fund, the nation’s largest leading npo on kidney health. This relationship will amplify the positive impact in a big way. Here is a link to their recent press release.

Find Blake here https://www.thecookingdoc.co/

You can also get Nat Schooler here: https://natschooler.com/

If you would like to read the transcript that is below.

Nathaniel Schooler

00:00:49

Okay. Alrighty. So welcome. I am very happy actually, because not only am I joined by Nadya Russo, founder, CEO of purpose forward marketing agency Alter New Media, but we are joined by Dr. Blake Schusterman. Hope I pronounced your name. Right. Perfect. Good. I learned that from Stanley touchy. He does that a lot. He goes like this and you are South Carolina kidney doctor on a mission to change your buds with your delicious and modern recipes. And I might like to add that I have looked at your website and it did make me hungry.

Dr. Blake Shusterman

00:01:39

Glad to hear that. That’s good.

Nadya Rousseau

00:01:42

Well, that’s a good thing. We all want to be hungry for healthier stuff as opposed to the bad stuff.

Nathaniel Schooler

00:01:48

Yes. And it’s very difficult. I see all these cakes and ice creams everywhere and all, I do like a nice cake, but anyhow, let’s get down to it. Tell us about you. Like who are you and what drives you to do what you do?

Dr. Blake Shusterman

00:02:08

It’s kind of a big question, Nat, just start off.

Nadya Rousseau

00:02:15

I’m a little bit down. Maybe

Dr. Blake Shusterman

00:02:19

I am, a kidney doctor, as you said in Greenville, South Carolina, which is in the Southeastern part of the United States. And I’ve been here for about 11 years and that’s my day job taking care of people with kidney disease, whether they’re at risk for kidney disease, they and I have kidney failure where the kidneys fail completely. So my day job is working as a kidney doctor and then I’ve started on the side, a YouTube channel and a website where my goal is to get people to eat healthier food because what you eat has such a tremendous impact on your overall health and your kidney health even more.

Dr. Blake Shusterman

00:03:01

So that’s kind of who I am. What drives me. I could think I could talk forever about what drives me, what drives you? Come on, tell us a few things. So, you know, I think if you get down to it, you know, from, as you get older in life, different things drive you along the way. So, you know, you start off, I’m a firstborn child. I am a driven type of personality. What drives me is to succeed in whatever I’m doing. And you know, as you go through life, maybe your drive isn’t so much to succeed and then you kind of want to support your family a little bit. And then you want to take care of your patients and make sure what you’re doing in life has a positive outcome on people. And I think by this time in my life, I kind of balance all three of those things as what drives me in my day-to-day life.

Nadya Rousseau

00:04:00

I mean, a big part of what you do is having this awesome platform, the cookingdoc, which is obviously, you know, you designed it to really encourage people to eat healthier, to learn how to enjoy food without, you know, seeking Taiz, which is a big concern. Would you say, like, what was the impetus for that? Was it a patient of yours that was kind of, or maybe several going on about how they can not give up some of their bad foods? Like what started this movement and this platform? What was the impetus?

Dr. Blake Shusterman

00:04:33

Th that was certainly part of it. Nadia coming down to South Carolina and a lot of people don’t know what healthy food is and they don’t know how food affects what they eat. I’m sorry, about how food affects their health overall. And people really do not want to eat food. That doesn’t taste good. So if you have food that is healthy, but doesn’t taste good, nobody’s going to jump right in and eat that because they think it will be better for their health. So you have to make the healthy food tastes good and live up to this kind of Southern standards or else people won’t go that direction. So part of it is exactly what you said, really trying to get people to eat healthier food. And then another part of it was seeing the down here in South Carolina physicians and the medical establishment wasn’t necessarily providing a good example for people on what to eat. So whether or not that’s food delivered to people in the hospital that’s totally unhealthy or at the dialysis centers looking and seeing candy and chips and soda served to them. Yeah, it was crazy. I mean, how can we expect people to eat healthy food and know what’s healthy if we’re serving them things that don’t fit in those categories,

Nadya Rousseau

00:05:53

Mixed messages, not, I don’t know if you know this, but my dad actually has kidney disease. So one of them, I mean, obviously it was like, oh my gosh, like, this is somebody that a spouse is the advice that my father has started to adopt. You know, he’s always been pretty healthy, but there were still some issues, you know, too much cheese, too much red wine, you know, different things and like go into the issues of a high potassium diet, hear about whether that would just be going off to sidebar, but he suddenly had a medical appointment and he was very pleased to learn that he’s practically kidney disease free because of eating so well on a really healthy diet. So it does work, but of course, you know, it’s subjective as well cause everyone has a different situation. So, you know, do you get some resistance from your patients when you make these suggestions? Are they kind of like, oh, this is important. This is going to be gross. Like I’ll never be able to change.

Dr. Blake Shusterman

00:06:56

I mean, I think it depends. I certainly get people that say I can’t eat anything other than what I’ve been raised on, but I more T more than that, I think I get people that say, yeah, that sounds like a great idea. I would love to eat in a way that benefits my health, but then, you know, I see them three or six months later and basically, nothing has, has changed. I think that’s more common than anything people want to do it, but it’s really hard if you don’t have the tools to succeed.

Nathaniel Schooler

00:07:28

Can I jump in on that? Do, do you, do you think that it’s a lot to do with their environment and not just what they’ve been brought up on, but actually the people around them? I mean,

Dr. Blake Shusterman

00:07:38

Yeah. I mean, those people that have like the really severe morbid obesity, I mean, that’s like, that’s a whole different side, I think. And there definitely is more than just that one person, you know, going overboard with what they’re eating. I think the environment plays a huge role, but it’s not, it’s often like, you know, your, your friends and your family and what’s on TV. You’re bombarded with advertisements, I’m healthy food. I drove down the road in one of these rural offices that I work at. I work at a rural office and then there’s a dialysis clinic and I drove those two miles and I counted and there were 60 fast food options along the side of the highway in those two miles. And I think just being in that situation where you can have easy access to unhealthy food or at the grocery store, thousands of unhealthy items, processed foods, just right in your face, it’s really hard to find the right things to eat, especially if those are the cheap ones.

Nathaniel Schooler

00:08:43

Shoot. I just had a Big Mac today. You know what? I really enjoyed it. I haven’t had a Big Mac for months. Yeah. And it was delicious. Seriously.

Dr. Blake Shusterman

00:08:54

I haven’t had a Big Mac

Nadya Rousseau

00:08:55

The map is a little less bad in Europe. I mean, I remember when I was in Spain and like I went into a McDonald’s and then a Starbucks and everything was much more like artisinal and it didn’t seem like it was loaded with preservatives and stuff. I mean, who knows, but I mean, I know that the requirement

Dr. Blake Shusterman

00:09:16

Audio

Nathaniel Schooler

00:09:18

Good, really this big map, it’s the F it’s the mayonnaise. Yeah. And the gherkins, I was just talking about it. It’s like the way the cheese, it’s the texture of the cheese, the gherkins, like the barn, like the piece of bread in the middle. Like, it just worked some, sorry.

Nadya Rousseau

00:09:39

You have people that are coming in are like, it’s describing their daily diet, which I’m sure some people like probably are not so honest all the time with you about what they eat. But if you get the sense that this is like a daily thing, like what food, like, you obviously have a big recipe, like a roll of huge Rolodex of recipes that are healthy. But I mean, obviously, somebody who’s used to like just going in and getting a big magnet. Not only is it delicious to them, but it’s convenient. It’s fast. Itas cheap. Like how would, like what type of food or activity, would you recommend to help them transition out of that habit? Especially if it’s daily?

Dr. Blake Shusterman

01:10:15

Well, first let me, let me address with that Big Mac there because that is the problem because that big Mac tastes so good and you can just pick it up and it just hits all those flavours inside your mouth. And it’s just like the perfect bite. And that’s what, that’s what we’re up against to try to solve the health problems. When somebody takes a bite of a Big Mac, I mean that first kind of high salt has fat flavour just gets ya. And so to try to compete with something like that is very, very difficult. That food is only made for flavour and not made at all for health. And so it’s hard to compete with that. And so when somebody comes in and they say, they eat the big Mac, whether they’re doing it every day or once a week, you know, I think kind of the first step is finding something that is going to work for them.

Dr. Blake Shusterman

01:11:12

So not everybody that comes into my office that has difficulty figuring out what the right thing to eat is gets fixed with the same solution or, or, or understands the same solution. So, you know, if we find something that works well, so if you have a soda every day, or if you have a Big Mac every day, I’m often not going to say, just cut them out completely because people don’t often respond to that. So if you have a Big Mac every day, maybe we cut it out to, you know, three a week and you make your lunch the rest of the days or something like that. We kind of it’s about,

Nathaniel Schooler

01:11:50

Is that it three a week? Is that all I’m allowed? Come on, man.

Nadya Rousseau

01:11:55

I want to look bang. I want to have everything. I would have chicken.

Nathaniel Schooler

01:11:59

Okay. Oh, I like the chicken nuggets with the sweet and sour sauce.

Nadya Rousseau

01:12:06

I’m sorry. I’m more of a Chick-fil-A person now.

Nathaniel Schooler

01:12:10

I’ve got a confession to make though. My girlfriend said, oh, you can have half my chicken wrap as well. And I was like, okay, wait a minute. But I didn’t eat the chips. Okay. I don’t eat chips with a Big Mac. Cause it’s a rip off, you buy a meal to rip off. Yeah. And I don’t do the milkshakes cause there are too many calories. Right. But I did have a soda. I had a Sprite Fries, French fries bar,

Nadya Rousseau

01:12:44

Like a confessional

Nathaniel Schooler

01:12:47

Confession. Yeah. Serious. I feel really bad. I feel bad.

Dr. Blake Shusterman

01:12:53

Let’s tackle your eating habits. Then

Nathaniel Schooler

01:12:56

Recently I’ve been having a lot of cakes and desserts and mango ice cream and stuff, you know?

Dr. Blake Shusterman

01:13:05

Yeah. It’s not, it’s not easy. Once you get caught in a route have eaten a lot of unhealthy things. It takes a lot of work to undo some of those habits. You know, some of those things, when I see somebody who’s 50, they’ve been eating the same way for 35, 40 years. And so we have to work slowly to unwind some of those patterns of what they like to eat, what they think tastes good and, and it can take years, but you’re better off doing that over a five-year period and making it stick rather than kind of cutting everything off at once or going on a fad diet. Well, in six months, they’re back to where they were before.

Nathaniel Schooler

01:13:45

I’m not 50 yet for five years, six years actually. However, I’m not, I’m not making a habit of eating all these cakes, but I was on a holiday like, yeah, come on.

Dr. Blake Shusterman

01:13:58

Hey, I got nothing against that in enjoyment on holiday, on that forward.

Nathaniel Schooler

01:14:02

Yeah. So I know you’re a positive guy, right? You were really positive guy. Yeah. So I’ve got a good question for you. We asked this one to everyone, even actually Stanley Tucci. We didn’t ask him because we didn’t have these amazing questions at that time, but what, why should I say, why does positivity matter to you? But like,

Dr. Blake Shusterman

01:14:31

Well, when I think about positivity, first of all, it’s much easier to be positive when things are going well. Right. And it’s much easier to be positive if things aren’t going well if you know that you’re able to deal with whatever the consequences are of things going totally wrong. And so that’s kind of where I look at positivity because deep down I’m a, I’m a realist. Okay. So I can, I can look at things and I see I’m not going to be positive about things that don’t have the capability of ending up with a positive outcome. But if I can look at something and say, well, even if things don’t go the way I want, we’re going to really make the best of it. And I’m going to get through this. It helps me get through any kind of situation that I find myself in. But again, when things are going well, staying positive is much easier. Everybody knows.

Nadya Rousseau

01:15:33

Yeah. I have a spin-off question on that because obviously, you know, in your line of work and dealing with people at all different stages of, you know, kidney disease and other issues, like how do you navigate like realism and positivity. If you’re dealing with somebody that doesn’t look like they’re across, you know, the future is not looking very bright based upon like their issue, their situation, perhaps they’re going to have to go to dialysis and it just doesn’t look like it’s going to be a positive outcome at this point. But so how do you navigate that when you’re dealing with your patients?

Dr. Blake Shusterman

01:16:15

That’s a hard situation to be in. And in the course of my years, as a doctor, you know, the amount of positivity that my patients can bring to a difficult situation is really, I mean, it’s incredibly inspiring. It’s, it’s mind blowing the way you can talk to somebody and say that they’re going to end up on dialysis. And there’s not much that I can do. And the, they will have a period of kind of understanding and maybe tears, but then, you know, they’re there, they’re ready. This is, they say, when, when the time comes, I’m going to get through it. We’re going to work towards a kidney transplant. You know, from my standpoint, I try to focus on how we’re going to have the quality of life and how your life is going to change with dialysis, but how we’re going to focus on the things that are going to be positive in that life. Because there are certain things that I can’t change. And sometimes when people are developing kidney failure, no matter what I do, or no matter what they do, things are just going to end up where we don’t want them. And so if we kind of takes that as a given, then we can really make the best of being on dialysis or, or getting a kidney transplant. And people are absolutely amazing in their ability to change their mindset and be positive about a really difficult situation.

Nathaniel Schooler

01:17:44

Yeah. Yeah. I can imagine. It’s very tough. My godfather had a heart and two kidneys last year in the states. Yeah. Out in, out in California, he’s from the UK, but he looks amazing. He said they had him running up and down Hills. Like it’s incredible. Yeah. It’s, it’s just incredible really what you, what you can do now with medicine, but like, you know, your, your focus on diet is, is really, really good, really inspirational for people. I’m sure. And so what is your personal positive superpower?

Dr. Blake Shusterman

01:18:23

Can luck be a Personal Positive Superpower

Nadya Rousseau

01:18:28

Luck?

Dr. Blake Shusterman

01:18:30

That’s a good question. So, I mean, I feel that a lot of, a lot of the, a ability for me to be positive in my life comes from Robert. I’ve really been very lucky. You know, I have, I was born with great parents. I was born in middle-class family. I was able to go through medical school and do okay. You know, I, if I got into trouble, I, I got out of it. Okay. And that’s, that’s allowed me to stay positive because I’ve been lucky. But you know, if we’re looking kind of beyond the luck, I think that, I think kindness towards people is probably the way that I approach most, most of my situations to try to keep them positive. And by being kind and understanding where somebody is coming from, it really has the ability to take a situation and, and put a positive spin on it.

Nadya Rousseau

01:19:34

Yeah. There’s thing that, you know, kind of just like the advantages of meeting people where they’re at and just understanding that not everyone is going to be necessarily receiving the advice and the information at the same way that somebody else might end is understanding, like, just being compassionate, I guess, like understanding that not everybody is at this level. Well, even though there are advantages of being at this level, being willing to kind of take them through it, which I think your platform is really helpful at doing.

Nathaniel Schooler

02:20:10

Yeah. So now I’m sure you’ve got a really in-depth question here, for Blake.

Nadya Rousseau

02:20:21

Lots of in-depth questions. I mean, I think that you know, already, there’s just so much that we’re opening up here, but I mean, just by virtue of living where you live, I mean, you grew up in Maryland as I did, which, you know, Maryland is not too far behind South Carolina when it comes to these health issues. I grew up in Western, Maryland. I grew up in a little town called Hagerstown, Maryland, where there is a huge obesity problem. I mean, probably, I mean, I hate to say it, but probably one in three people are obese. You know, maybe one in five are morbidly obese. I mean, it’s very pervasive. So I mean, how would you say, like, what do you think the main issue is with America in particularly these smaller communities? Why is America struggling so hard with food and health?

Dr. Blake Shusterman

02:21:17

So I, if you can figure that out for certain audio, I think that’s a Nobel prize, the answer right there. But I think there are some things that really that factor in the one is we talked about it a little earlier, the availability of processed foods and unhealthy foods, no matter where you go, whether you’re in the supermarket or driving down the highway. I think also poverty is certainly a driver of obesity and poor health outcomes. If people don’t have access to money, they don’t have access to shelter. They don’t have access to fresh food. They don’t have a kitchen that they can cook in. They don’t have somebody to care for their kids while they work, or they don’t have a job. If you don’t have those things available to you, then it’s much more difficult to really focus on your own health. And those kinds of things affect your stress levels. Stress levels can be a risk factor for obesity. And if you’re not, if you don’t have that security, then oftentimes changing the focus onto your health and what you’re eating and making sure that you can focus on those things becomes much more difficult. So I think it’s a, it’s a multifaceted problem. And I don’t think there’s one quick, easy answer to it. Yeah.

Nathaniel Schooler

02:22:41

It’s very true. I was thinking about, I was thinking about privilege earlier. I was literally just talking about earlier and how, you know, when I was immature and young, I used to think that everyone had the same privilege, the same opportunity, but we don’t like it, we just don’t. Yeah. Like, you know, there’s the colour thing and then there’s, and then there’s the poverty thing. And then there’s the health thing and they’re all related and it’s, it’s very, very sad. Very sad.

Nadya Rousseau

02:23:10

Yeah. I mean, I do think that more people need to take control of their health. I mean, obviously like when we look at second and third world countries and people who are in poverty like they’re emaciated, they’re not morbidly obese. So I mean, there is an issue here that we need to look at as a culture as well. I mean, it’s just craziness. I mean, I forced myself to drop almost 55 pounds as a 14 year old, you know, not many people can do that was, you know, shoving honeybuns and doughnuts steaks and all kinds of stuff down my throat. And I was like, I’m tired of being bullied. So I’m going to start walking the track three miles a day, you know? So I think we need more advocates like yourself out there that are kind of doling out this really this helpful, inspiring advice, but also, you know, not being afraid to be a little, getting a little bit of tough love as well. Do you consider yourself somebody that likes to give a little tough love? Do you ever give tough love to your patients when they’re being resistant? Because you are a realist, you said after all

Dr. Blake Shusterman

02:24:24

I am a realist and I, I sometimes I do give tough love, you know, especially if I think that there are ways for that person to make changes in their, in their diet or their health to really improve their themselves. So, you know, if I see somebody who I think really can, can do better, who has the means to do it and the availability, but they’re not, then certainly I can give a little tough love. I’m also very kind of an individualist though. And so I’ll do the best I can. I’ll tell you what I think is good. I’ll give you a little bit of tough love. And then if you, if you don’t follow that or you’re not able to, then when you come back in three months, I’ll still give you the same care and we’ll talk about it again. And I’ll be positive about making that change at that time because I understand that if somebody doesn’t make the change one time, it might not be the right period in their life to do it, but it may be six months later, the time comes. So sometimes I’ll give a little bit of tough love. It’s a fine line though, because you, you don’t want to discourage somebody. And some people don’t respond well, to tough love. So, you know, if I see 30 patients in a day, it’s, you have to really kind of navigate, who’s going to respond to what certain types of motivation.

Nadya Rousseau

02:25:43

Right? Excellent. Cool.

Nathaniel Schooler

02:25:46

Yeah. I’m a big believer in exercise, you know, exercise every day. Yeah. So important. But I think a lot of people are just caught up in and they haven’t found the exercise regime that they enjoy. And I think that’s, that’s really unfortunate. It’s sad for a lot of people, you know,

Dr. Blake Shusterman

02:26:04

I call exercise. That’s, that’s the only thing that I have as a miracle drug. It’s really amazing. Even if a lot of people don’t lose weight with exercise, the way it helps your mental health and your joints and your strength is I don’t have any medicine that I can give that’s as good as exercise five times a week.

Nadya Rousseau

02:26:28

Oh yeah. That’s a great way of releasing stress. Of course, out here in Vegas where it’s, you know, you’re dealing with triple digits and then you’re dealing with gym closures and other things you kind of got to create your own little space in your house, which of course can be a bit redundant, but better that than nothing at all. Right?

Dr. Blake Shusterman

02:26:46

Yeah. I just got a treadmill. I, because I can’t go to the gym. So I ordered a treadmill and it basically takes up about half of my living room and looks for redness.

Nathaniel Schooler

02:26:58

Yeah, it is. It is what it is. Yeah. I just, I just started Tai Chi when I was 20 and I’m fortunate enough to have stuck at it for nearly 25 years. And that’s just my, you know, my what an hour, two hours a day. Exercise of choice. Right. But

Dr. Blake Shusterman

02:27:16

How often do you do it now? Every day.

Nathaniel Schooler

02:27:19

That’s great. Yeah. It keeps me sane. Yeah. It means that when, when, when Nadia is rude to me, it’s okay. I can

Nadya Rousseau

02:27:28

Release that stress.

Nathaniel Schooler

02:27:30

I’m mirroring her head as well. It’s this way, my head is this way you see,

Dr. Blake Shusterman

02:27:36

And exercise keeps me a hundred percent sane. That

Nathaniel Schooler

02:27:42

It sounds like you’re doing a fantastic job over there though. So can you, can you give, can you give some advice on, on, on these recipes? Like what’s, what’s your favourite recipe right now? Like a healthy, healthy salad. Yeah. Like some kind of Saturday.

Dr. Blake Shusterman

02:27:57

Yeah. I’ve seen, I’ve been making, you know, it’s summer here. So we’ve got lots of fresh tomatoes and cucumbers. And so I’ve been making a lot of cucumber tomato salad with a whole bunch of different dressings on them. Some fresh Bazell I’ve been experimenting with some new spices, one called sumac. I don’t know if you’ve ever cooked with sumac.

Nathaniel Schooler

02:28:17

Yeah, no. What is

Dr. Blake Shusterman

02:28:20

That? I think it’s a ground Berry, but it’s, it’s used in Middle Eastern cooking and it gives a little Tang, little lemony Tang to it. And so I make a little Mediterranean vinegarette with sumac, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, olive oil, and a pinch of salt. And then it just goes over some freshly cut, cucumbers, tomatoes, little onion, whatever herbs you have around. And it’s fabulous. Sometimes I throw some chickpeas in there. If you’re looking for a plant-based meal, no,

Nathaniel Schooler

02:28:53

I’m getting hungry now. I think maybe I might experiment with that.

Dr. Blake Shusterman

02:28:57

Are you getting hungry or now than we were when we were talking about the big Macs,

Nathaniel Schooler

02:29:02

Much hungry. Yeah. Because you know, I know there’s no, I know there’s no goodness in those things, but I enjoyed it. It’s a memory. You see, this is, this is, this is what you’re trying to break people away from. Yeah. Is childhood memories of eating Big Macs. Yeah. Because that burger has not changed in however many years. Right. Like my dad took me to have a Big Mac when I was like probably 10 years old. He comes from Connecticut. Yeah. And, and, you know, he came to America. We even had root beer here in England. Well, when I lived in England, we had, we had root beer there and he would order the root beer. And, unfortunately they stopped serving that. But you know, I’m much hungrier thinking about better quality food. Definitely. You know?

Dr. Blake Shusterman

02:29:51

So that’s, that’s exactly what I’m talking about now when I talk about changing your buds. So, you know, those taste buds with that big Mac are associated with those memories of childhood and that delicious bite and other people have that around here, whether it’s with fried chicken or macaroni and cheese. And so that first bite that the taste buds just kind of bring that all together and breaking those patterns so that you now associate a healthier food with kind of the same nostalgic feeling is really one of the keys to building healthier eating habits, to sustain you for the rest of your life.

Nathaniel Schooler

03:30:32

Got it. I’ll tell you some of the food out here in Poland is incredible. Like really? Yeah. Like they do this, they do this Borsch soup. Yeah. Which is like beetroot soup. Right. Is just amazing. But you can

Nadya Rousseau

03:30:48

Put,

Nathaniel Schooler

03:30:49

There you go. Right. So, but you, so you can put, you can put these noodles in a, like dumplings in and, and it’s just, wow. Like incredible people don’t understand how good the Polish food is. Like, I like the sauerkraut, I’ve got a whole new thing for sauerkraut because one day you get the sauerkraut. Right. And it’s not that Sally. Yeah. But then you leave it in the fridge and it gets sourer and sourer. Yeah. Incredible really

Dr. Blake Shusterman

03:31:20

Sounds amazing.

Nadya Rousseau

03:31:21

Like a delicious fusion of like Eastern Europe and like German, because Germany has such an influence and Poland, you know, obviously for bad reasons and for not so bad, but the food there, as a result, has been, become very interesting, like kind of a fusion.

Nathaniel Schooler

03:31:38

Yeah. And a lot of Ukrainian, there’s a lot of Ukrainian cooks here, Ukrainian food.

Nadya Rousseau

03:31:44

They have like their own take on it.

Nathaniel Schooler

03:31:46

Think. Yeah, they do. That’s the word parochial. Yeah. Amazing. Like there are so it’s, it’s, there’s a wealth of really healthy food, but the problem is is that they still like the cakes and there are huge cake shops. And I mean, literally everywhere I go, I just, and they displayed really well. And you look through the window and you’re like, oh, and you can just imagine the sugar rush. Right. When you, when you, when you stuff your face with that, but it’s bad. Right.

Nadya Rousseau

03:32:18

You have more self-control though over there. I mean, you don’t really see a big obesity problem and Poland or other, you know, Eastern European countries. There probably are some people who are overweight, but it’s not at the level of America. So, you know, I have another question for you. Like, we actually have a question and a thought because obviously, I mean the whole reason you’re doing the change, your buds movement and your website and all of these amazing things, the cooking dock is really to amplify your reach, to get more people, to understand the importance of healthy eating and to kind of ease them into this transition of a healthier lifestyle. So in this process, you actually have partnered up with the American kidney fund, which is one of the largest, if not the largest nonprofits in America, really focusing on kidney health. Can you tell us a bit about that partnership and how you think this might lead to a greater impact?

Dr. Blake Shusterman

03:33:15

Sure. So the American kidney fund has a spot on their website. That’s called the kidney kitchen and it’s a really great resource for people with kidney disease, because it, it allows you to see where a recipe fits into your specific stage of kidney disease. Not only that, but the food tastes really good. They don’t put just kind of junkie recipes up there just for the sake of putting a recipe up there. That’s good for kidney health. So I think that by working together with them, we can really amplify the message. And I can put some of my recipes up there to show people that eating well can not only improve your kidney health, but it can taste good. I think that’s the bottom line. The food that we’re putting up there tastes good and is good for your health and the combination of their reach to people all across the United States and my knowledge about healthy cooking and how to make food tastes good, as well as my understanding as a kidney doctor about kind of the basic science of things I think, is going to be an amazing combination, which I hope really starts to change the direction, the trajectory of kidney disease in the United States.

Dr. Blake Shusterman

03:34:32

Cause right now there are 37 million people in the us who have kidney disease and that number continues to grow. And the earlier on that we can hit that people with early stage kidney disease, getting them to eat healthier food and really focus on stopping the progression of their kidney disease is going to be hopefully really beneficial for everybody out there.

Nathaniel Schooler

03:34:59

Can I just, I’ve got a question, right? I know it’s not in the pre-prepared questions, so I’m sorry about that. But, but I just want to know what the main causes of, of kidney disease and also kidney problems are like, what, what would you encourage people to do on a, on a, on a daily basis to look after their kidney health?

Dr. Blake Shusterman

03:35:24

So the main two main causes of kidney disease are high blood pressure and diabetes. Diabetes is certainly number one. And that is why the focus on healthy eating is so important because if you catch diabetes, either by preventing it or by maintaining good control from the very beginning, you may be able to significantly lower the incidence of kidney disease, but, and, but kidney disease can be caused by a whole lot of things. There are genetic factors involved. There are medications that can cause kidney problems, but diabetes is the big one hypertension under that high blood pressure. And a lot of these things can be managed with diet. And the tricky thing about kidney disease, we’re going to talk about it is that there are really no symptoms until it gets near the end stages. So there are five stages of kidney disease, and people often don’t have any symptoms until they get to stage four or even stage five when it’s too late. So things like screening for people at risk for kidney disease is incredibly important with a blood test or urine test if you have diabetes or high blood pressure or a family member with kidney disease. And so if we can catch it earlier and focus on a diet as a means to prevent things from getting bad, that’s where I think a lot of this stuff comes in.

Nadya Rousseau

03:36:48

What percentage of your patients would you say present a pre-existing issue like high blood pressure or diabetes?

Dr. Blake Shusterman

03:36:57

90, 90 to 95%. Wow.

Nadya Rousseau

03:37:01

That is incredible. I mentioned earlier that my dad is doing really, really well with his kidney disease and he actually had neither of those preexisting conditions. So definitely in the minority of suffers and perhaps that is why he was able to really kind of self medicate, if you will, with food, you know, much easier level, perhaps in those who have these other underlying conditions. But I do believe he was at like stage three or something, something like that when he discovered that he had it. And now with his recent testing, he said, it’s practically like unnoticeable. So

Dr. Blake Shusterman

03:37:40

That’s, that’s amazing. You know, one of the things Nadia that I think about people like your dad who have stage three kidney disease, which is, which is relatively early on in the, in the progression. But, you know, I think about kind of the way I used to handle people with kidney disease. Like your dad had before. I really understood how this stuff works. I work. So I saw a patient probably about eight to 10 years ago, and she was right in the same level where your dad was. And she was looking to me for changes in her diet that she could make to really help kind of either reverse her kidney disease or prevented it from getting worse. And at that time I didn’t have anything to tell her. I basically told her, you eat a low sodium diet and you’re good to go. And she fired me. She wanted more than that. She, she wanted more than that. She was so unhappy with, with the advice I hear, and for years I thought that she was in the wrong, but then kind of, as I’ve learned more about diet and the way it affects kidney disease, I’ve learned that I should have given her much more than what I gave her and important

Nadya Rousseau

03:38:52

That’s it’s so straightforward. Like, you know, get a, on a low sodium diet, what is it called the dash? Would you say it’s called the dash diet

Dr. Blake Shusterman

03:39:00

Or just,

Nadya Rousseau

03:39:03

Yeah. So, but then it’s like someone who’s not doesn’t even understand like sodium or like how to identify it or what foods might like naturally carry it or anything later it’s like, oh, what, like, what do I do? Yeah,

Nathaniel Schooler

03:39:16

Yeah. But then, but then it, so, so basically we’re talking about two things too, to attempt to look after your kidneys, right. We’re saying diet exercise. Yeah. And we’ve diet, we’re talking about drinking a lot of water and we’re talking about keeping the sodium levels, the salt intake low. Right. And eating lots of fruits and vegetables and healthy proteins with some carbs and whatever. Right. Like it’s, it’s no more complicated than that. Is that correct?

Dr. Blake Shusterman

03:39:47

Yeah. So exactly. A couple of things on that one is it what’s good for your kidneys, especially in the early stages of kidney diseases is the same thing. That’s good for the rest of your body. So you eat in a healthy way, just like you said, fruits and vegetables, watch the animal protein, whole grains. Those kinds of things are great for your kidneys, just like their brain for your heart and your brain and your gut health. So it’s very similar. The other thing is when we talk about drinking water, so people, there’s this whole thing out there about drinking eight, eight ounce glasses of water a day, and you really don’t need that for your kidney health. And I see that you’ve taken a nice little sip of water. That’s perfect.

Nathaniel Schooler

04:40:31

So I couldn’t help it.

Dr. Blake Shusterman

04:40:33

Right. But, the key with drinking is to make sure you’re drinking mostly water. So it’s not necessarily that your drink needs to drink eight, eight glasses of water a day, but did she, you don’t go for the sugar-sweetened beverages as a substitute for those waters. That’s where people get into big trouble. Okay.

Nathaniel Schooler

04:40:59

That’s very helpful. So w what about drinking tea? Because we love tea

Dr. Blake Shusterman

04:41:05

T good for you. Especially unsweetened tea, you know, down here in the south of the United States, they, they serve iced tea and it’s with tons of sugar in it. So that’s not so much, but regular tea and black coffee, they just keep showing study after studies of the black coffee show that it’s good for your health, especially your kidneys. So drinking.

Nathaniel Schooler

04:41:27

That’s interesting. So I’ve heard that the tea actually can replace the water and your water intake. Is that, or do you need water on top of the T?

Dr. Blake Shusterman

04:41:36

No. I think for the most part unsweetened tea, especially if it doesn’t have, if it’s not one of the really high caffeinated tea, then that water in that tea can certainly hydrate you. You know, I, I suggest people at least have a couple of glasses of plain water a day, but, but tea is absolutely hydrating.

Nathaniel Schooler

04:41:56

Super, super. So I’ve got another question here for you. Believe it or not. Let’s see. So why do you think so many, I mean, you’ve covered a little bit about this, but why do you think so many Americans struggle with their health and how can we motivate them to make a collective shift? Do you think?

Dr. Blake Shusterman

04:42:25

So? I, you know, I, I often think about a couple of patients that I saw because I think the answer is it’s complicated. And I don’t think that it’s a one size fits all answer for people. So, you know, I had a couple of cousins that I remember from about five, five years back, their fathers were brothers and both of their fathers had kidney failure were ended up on dialysis. So both of these cousins were, were at high risk for kidney disease and ending up on dialysis. And so they came to see me early on in their stages of kidney disease. And the first one really was able to make a ton of changes to his diet. He and his whole family decided that they were motivated and ready to do it. And his kidney disease really kind of flat stayed stable. And, and that was through talking about avoiding the processed foods and the fast foods and the things that were really getting him into trouble.

Dr. Blake Shusterman

04:43:30

And what I think really gets a lot of people in the United States into trouble. In addition to those kinds of social determinants of health, like poverty that we talked about, his, his cousin didn’t do that. And he didn’t do it because he, his, I think it was his mother got sick. And so when his mom got sick, then his wife had to take care of his mom and they lost another source of income. They lost some caregiving at home. He had to do everything he could to keep food on the table. And so he went out and he worked 70 hours a week as a truck driver to support people because he didn’t have any other help. And when he did that, he didn’t take his medicines all the time. Sometimes he couldn’t afford his medicines, he couldn’t come to see me and his, his outcome was much different than mine.

Dr. Blake Shusterman

04:44:27

And so, you know, if we think about kind of, I’m sorry, this outcome much different than his cousins who ended up doing fine, this guy ended up on dialysis. And so when we think about the whole United States and really try to focus on how to make a healthier movement, a healthier change, if we don’t change the whole culture where people do not have healthy food, kind of put in front of them at an affordable cost and the time to make the healthy food and the support for their family that they need, I think it’s going to be a tough battle, naughty and a tough battle that,

Nadya Rousseau

04:45:09

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think it just right now with, there’s so much stress and, you know, affecting the world, but, you know, particularly in the United States and particularly in some of these more rural areas where, you know, there’s a lot of push and pull and back and forth, you don’t really know what’s happening with the pandemic and everything else. So it’s really, you know, people are going to turn to things that comfort them.

Dr. Blake Shusterman

04:45:38

That’s very true, but, but I, and I wanted to let, let me say something really positive because I think that, that I have seen people make changes in difficult situations in their diet. And I’ve been down in South Carolina, for 11 years and the knowledge that people have now compared to when I started about how to eat healthily, how to eat plant-based foods, the options in the grocery stores and even at some of the restaurants is healthier than it used to be. And so I really do think that we’re making progress by offering people the opportunity and the knowledge to eat healthier foods. So I, it may sound like, I think things are really difficult, but I think that we’ve made a ton of progress. And I think that there is a way to get people healthier.

Nadya Rousseau

04:46:31

Absolutely. And I think people are willing to open up and try and figure out a way to change, particularly, you know, when you’re looking at, when you did a lie, for example, what the American kidney fund, and just seeing all of the people like asking questions and really enthusiastic about the information you were providing. So I certainly think that you’re really on the right track to getting people into a better mindset around food.

Dr. Blake Shusterman

04:46:59

I hope so. I find that people really do want to change, and they really do want to do the things that are good for their health. We just have to give them the education, the tools and the opportunity, to make it happen.

Nadya Rousseau

04:47:13

Yep. Yeah.

Nathaniel Schooler

04:47:14

What a fantastic purpose you have. I think it’s great, you know,

Dr. Blake Shusterman

04:47:20

Really

Nadya Rousseau

04:47:24

Awesome. Well, thank you so much. Do you have any parting words for us that you to leave with the audience about, you know, maybe one action item that someone could implement in their life today to feel a little bit healthier and on a better track, what they’re eating?

Dr. Blake Shusterman

04:47:42

Sure. So, you know, if you’re struggling with how to eat healthy food or what changes to make in your diet, take a, take a step back. And most people can see one habit that is not working for them, whether or not that’s stopping at the gas station for breakfast or stopping at McDonald’s for lunch and having a big Mac, or it’s having a doughnut or it’s having a soda every afternoon. So rather than trying to overhaul everything at once, why don’t you pick one of those habits and work on that for the next six months, and really try to see if you can conquer that one, find something to substitute for that habit that’s healthy. And once you can kick that habit, that’s making your health go the wrong direction. Then you can have the confidence and know that you had the ability to make even more changes to work on bettering your health over time.

Nathaniel Schooler

04:48:44

Absolutely. Super well, thank you. It’s been, it’s been, it’s been really, really interesting. I don’t think there’s enough information about this and we will drop some links to your website and obviously this movement, this change your buds movement that you’re behind. Right. And I’m sure that has got a load of legs.

Nadya Rousseau

04:49:03

Yep, absolutely. Do you want to shout out your website, Blake?

Dr. Blake Shusterman

04:49:07

Sure. Check out my website. It’s the cooking doc dot C O and I’ve got lots of healthy recipes on there. Videos teach you about how to incorporate healthier habits into your daily life. We usually have a new recipe or a new tip once a week with a video. So make sure you sign up for my newsletter. Subscribe to my YouTube channel. Also Facebook and Instagram. We’d love to see you there. I think that we can really help you make a difference.

Nadya Rousseau

04:49:38

Fantastic. Well, thank you so much. And as not sad, we’ll be leaving all those links for everybody. So you can easily find Blake and reach out with any of your questions. Now, do you have any parting words on your side?

Nathaniel Schooler

04:49:51

No, it’s been a pleasure. That’s it? Thank you.