
I’m here today with my good friend Dr. Amy Shah. Not only is she a fellow mom, but she’s a double board-certified physician and nutrition expert with training from Cornell, Columbia, and Harvard. Her focus is helping her patients live their best lives with her holistic approach to health.
Today’s talk focuses around the topic of her new book “I’m So Effing Hungry: Why We Crave What We Crave and What To Do About It.” Dr. Amy walks us through what’s causing our food cravings, and how we can take back control over them. We go deep into how gut health affects food cravings and mood and how to positively influence it.
Of course, we can’t leave morning sunlight benefits out of the conversation either! Dr. Amy includes that as one of her non-negotiable health practices. Her mantra, “sky before screens” is an easy way to get a great start to the morning. She also covers the best practices for improving our microbiome, which then impacts our mood.
We cover a lot in today’s episode about the connection between mood and food cravings with lots of practical tips. I hope you’ll join me and listen in as I chat with Dr. Amy!
Episode Highlights With Dr. Amy Shah
- A life lesson she learned from growing up in rural India and riding a horse carriage to school
- Why the gut works with the principle of: take action first and motivation follows. And how to support gut bacteria to crave good things
- The difference between hunger, cravings, and appetite
- How cravings are connected to the dopamine pathway
- Ways to help kids train positive dopamine pathways and avoid cravings later in life
- What are the three “hunger hijackers”?
- How is most modern food engineered? What is the bliss point?
- What are psychobiotics?
- What is your gut microbiome? How can it control our hunger?
- Why our bodies are solar powdered and why we need natural light
- One good easy rule: sky before screens every day
- There are gut bacteria deep in our guts that need natural sunlight to function optimally
- Light is our biggest circadian input followed by food and temperature
- The biggest things women can do to protect against aging and hormone changes is maintain muscle mass
- What’s the first small change we can make today to stop being so “effing hungry”?
- Why exercise is the strongest probiotic you can take!
- What the nova classification of food is and how it impacts our health and mood
- Her personal 80/20 of non-negotiable things she does
Resources We Mention
- Dr. Amy Shah – Website
- Dr. Amy Shah – Instagram
- I’m So Effing Hungry: Why We Crave What We Crave – and What to Do About It by Amy Shah, MD
- I’m So Effing Tired: A Proven Plan to Beat Burnout, Boost Your Energy, and Reclaim Your Life by Amy Shah, MD
- The 7-Day Anti-Inflammatory Detox: Combining the Best Parts of Paleo, Vegan, and Gluten- and Sugar-Free Diets by Amy Shah, MD
- The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity – And Will Determine the Fate of the Human Race by Daniel Z. Lieberman MD and Daniel Z. Lieberman MD
- 422: Dr. Amy Shah on a Proven Plan to Beat Burnout & Boost Energy
- 345: How to Use Circadian Fasting to Improve Health & Slow Aging With Dr. Amy Shah
- 233: Dr. Amy Shah on Decoding Childhood Allergies & Letting Kids Get Dirty
- Just Calm (use code wellnessmama15 for discount)
More From Wellness Mama
- 564: Chris Kresser on Nutrient Deficiencies & Why the Way We Think About Health Needs to Change
- 539: Tina Anderson on Psychobiotics, Gut Brain Connection and Just Calm
- 621: The One About Morning Sunlight – Short Episode
- Gut and Psychology Syndrome Book Review
- The Benefits of Sunlight for Sleep and Hormones
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