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Weight loss. Decreased appetite. Curbed cravings. These are some of the promises from GLP-1 medications. But the meds have serious side effects. And there are natural ways to support the body’s hunger, cravings, and blood sugar control systems.
Colleen Flynn, a functional nutritionist and gut health specialist, goes over today how to optimize the body’s hormones (without the need for injections) for lower inflammation, improved gut health and healthy weight loss.
Visit Colleen’s website: nutritionalzest.com
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Episode Transcript
Within the below transcript the bolded text is Hilda
Weight loss, reduced cravings, diminished appetite. These are the promises of Ozempic, Wegovy, and other GLP-1 medications. These medications have their drawbacks, though few are talking about them. More importantly, people need to know that they can handle the body’s hunger, cravings, and sugar systems naturally without any need for injections. This is episode 564, and our guest is Colleen Flynn.
Colleen is a functional nutritionist and gut health specialist who sheds light on all things related to supporting the body’s natural production of the hormone GLP-1. She covers the role of bile, polyphenols, and even sunlight to improve nutrient absorption, hormonal balance, reduce gut inflammation, and support weight loss.
Colleen gives tips for optimizing the body’s regulation systems naturally, without the issues and risks that come with popular weight loss medications. Before we get into the conversation, did you know that the Weston A. Price Foundation has a free information pack that they are happy to ship to your house immediately?
It includes the popular brochure, The Timeless Principles of Healthy Traditional Diets, which includes guidelines for following the wise traditions’ dietary principles, pictures Dr. Price took so many years ago, and other ways to live a healthier, non-toxic lifestyle. Just go to Weston A. Price and click on the free info pack button on our homepage. I will put a link in the episode description to make it easy for you to find.
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Welcome to Wise Traditions, Colleen.
Thank you. I am excited to be here.
The Hidden Risks Of GLP-1 Medications
This is such an important conversation because peptides are everywhere. People are talking about GLP-1 and Ozempic, and it is the rage. I feel like there might be things we’re overlooking. I want to start off with a conversation about a man that you told me you saw who was on a certain peptide. Tell us about his experience.
The client came to me. He was on Wegovy for five months and was definitely overprescribed. He was at the point where he literally could not eat more than 400 calories, and even that was being forced down. Hilda, he could not drink water because GLP-1 works in the whole motility and the movement of all of the things that bring food and water through your body, and he was paralyzed. We had to thicken his water to even get him to drink water. His hair was falling out.
He lost a significant amount of muscle mass. Fat went, but it was more muscle, and he was an older man. As we know, as we age, building that muscle back is really hard. When he first came to me, the way he spoke, no energy, it was a slow monotone voice because his nutrients were not getting in at 400 calories. Constipation, he had a bowel movement every two weeks. This is just an extreme example, but this is happening, and it is not talked about.
Why is it not talked about?
There are so many reasons. GLP-1 right now is the hot thing. If you go on TikTok, it is like the wild west. It is shocking. Everyone is on it. Everyone feels like they have to be on it. Everyone just talks about the positive benefits. “I am skinny. Look at me, I have lost weight.” There are benefits when it is used properly. I believe it can help some people whose metabolism is just shot from years of abuse.
It is the hot new item. We know in the wellness world, there are goods and bads to anything that comes out. There is the money side of it. If you go deep into how it is being marketed, it is mostly towards menopausal and perimenopausal women. There is that whole thing. There are some benefits, but the negatives are not talked about as much as they should be.
The other thing that is not talked about is the fact that our bodies actually make peptides, right?
Yes, they do. Our body makes GLP-1. As we mentioned earlier, I actually have several people who had no idea that GLP-1 was a hormone that our body made on its own. They thought it was just a medication. To me, that is exciting because that means that we can boost it naturally and not need to take the medications and have those horrible side effects.
What is making people so desperate to cling to this GLP-1? What is making the practitioners prescribe it?
There is a lot behind that as well. In the modern world, we are not living the way we are supposed to as humans. We do not focus on the essentials. The sunlight, eating a nutrient-dense diet, and moving our bodies. GLP-1s could be a quick fix. A lot of people just want to get skinny, not thinking about all the other things that they are missing on this journey to get thin if they just do the shot. It is an easy way to lose weight.
It can be a good tool, but you have to do the other things. Practitioners, too, sometimes working with clients, find it difficult. You want your clients to be happy. You want to help them get to their weight loss goals. I can see some practitioners using it as a little boost to push them along, but you do need to focus on the reasons behind why your body is not producing enough in the first place, because we should not need to inject it into our bodies. Our body does it on its own.
Understanding Natural GLP-1 And Its Role In The Body
Let us define terms just a little bit. Let us talk about what GLP-1 is and why it is important for metabolism, appetite, and blood sugar regulation.
GLP-1 is a natural hormone in our body. It is a short-chain peptide. When we eat proteins, they are broken apart into amino acids. They reconfigure and make all these cool things in our bodies. One of them is going to be GLP-1. There are 30 amino acids in there. It is produced mostly by the L cells in the gut, in the mucosal lining, and they are nutrient-sensing.
When you eat food, the food goes down, hits those L cells, and they are like, “We have nutrition coming in, let me send out the GLP-1.” That will do so much in the body, which is why it is so important. Appetite regulation is the one that most people know about. If you inject it, you have no appetite, you do not eat, and you lose weight. It also works on blood sugar and metabolism.
It works on digestion because it lets the body know when to secrete bile, digestive enzymes, and things like that. It works tremendously on the brain and nervous system, which I actually find very fascinating. There are many studies now on how it is going to help people with drug addiction and alcohol. It also works on the mitochondria and energy production. It works throughout the entire body. It is not just for weight loss and appetite control.
Why is that not doing its job for so many people that they are looking for this quick fix? What is wrong with our natural GLP-1?
In order for our body to do anything properly, it needs to have all of the pieces, including proper light regulation, meaning getting the right types of light throughout the day. Sleep, having a really healthy gut and gut microbiome, digesting food properly, living in more of a parasympathetic state, being calm in that rest and digest state instead of stressed out all the time. Eating the right nutrients and a nutrient-dense diet. Many Americans are into quick fixes. They do not want to put the time into eating and preparing food the way that we are supposed to.
Many Americans are into quick fixes. They do not want to put the time into eating and preparing food the way that we are supposed to.
Interestingly, you are saying this because I was talking to a man speaking at Hacker Health. His name was Jay Campbell, and he was going to talk from the stage about peptides, and he said, unless the basics are dialed in, these synthetic ones that we are doling out are not really going to help people, which I thought was interesting.
They might help short-term, but the way you’ll see it is that many people plateau, or they need to keep going up in the doses, which then brings in more side effects, and then they still plateau. Even if you are choosing to take the medication, the injections, you still need to work on why your body was not making it in the first place, so that you can lower your dose or eventually get off. It is expensive, and we do not know the long-term effects yet.
When you think about it, I found this fascinating, so to think about GLP-1 naturally, you eat within 30 or 60 minutes. The L cells are activated, and GLP-1 comes out. It is broken down by enzymes in just a few minutes, and then it is done. When you do the injections, it is alive in your body for up to 183 hours. You have to think about how that is throwing off the domino effect. Everything in the body, one thing happens, triggers the next. If GLP-1 is just in there for 183 hours, what is going on there? This is a big deal.
The body is probably like, “What is happening? There is an invader.” Tell me if this is true, Colleen. I have heard that just like SSRIs, antidepressants, they might lift people’s mood, but they also flatline their mood. Highs are not as high, nor are the lows as low. There is some benefit to taking them, but the problem is that it just makes you like this. Maybe the same thing happens with appetite suppression. You get that, but then apparently even emotions get with GLP-1s get flatlined, just as you were referring to this client and how his voice even had slowed down and gotten monotone.
This is why people are noticing that when they do the GLP-1 injections with the higher dose, their cravings for alcohol go down, their cravings for gambling go down, but it takes away their drive. It takes away that desire for the dopamine hit, and that is necessary for you to want to take action, to have interest, to connect with people. There are studies out there showing how GLP-1s are actually interfering with people’s relationships as well, because their whole personality shifts, their drive to do things shifts.
Some people have said that it makes them just not care. They do not care about eating. They do not care about anything, which makes sense, Hilda, because food gives you life. The desire to eat is the desire to be alive. When people say, “I am not hungry. It is great.” I am like, “Are you kidding me?” I love hunger. It means my body is like, “Let us go, girl. Fuel me up. Let us go do things.” This complete subversion of appetite is not normal, and it is not healthy mentally or physically.
You gave us the example of that client early on that was extreme, but what are the more common side effects that people might not be aware of?
The one you just mentioned is a big one that many people do not know about. There’s nausea, vomiting, and constipation are brutal. I hear that a lot. Gallbladder issues, the muscle loss is a big one. There are potential thyroid concerns, nutrient depletion because you cannot eat enough, and you cannot absorb. Hair loss is huge. Many women are losing their hair because they’re not eating enough, as well. Loose skin, dehydration, bone loss, and then possible gut microbiome disruption as well.
How many people do you see who are on some of these?
Luckily, we do not have as many in my practice. Many people come to us knowing that I am all about, Let us just do this naturally.” There are more than there have been. I see it with my friends, with people I grew up with, family, just out and about in Austin. You can tell who is on them. Also, sometimes, if the weight loss is a little too dramatic. It is pretty large. All the med spas are having their holiday parties now, “Lose 10 pounds for the holidays.” The latest one I saw, they call it the skinny shot. Take the skinny shot to help with dry January because it depletes your desire to eat and drink alcohol as well.
The skinny shot.
What is a skinny shot? It is GLP-1.
Supporting GLP-1 Through Gut Health
I am all about making sure we offer solutions. I want to talk about how we can naturally support our production of GLP-1. Let us talk about, for example, how we can support our digestion so that we are absorbing the nutrients that we need for a healthy, stable weight and body.
The gut is the biggest player here because it is produced in the gut. It is nutrient sensing. This is where we go back to how we are eating. It is as simple as chewing your food and eating in that calm state. If your body is rushed, that nutrient signaling is going to be off. GLP-1 is also very dependent on the health of your gut mucosal lining because that is where the L cells are.
This is where making sure that you have a gut free of toxins, making sure you are not taking in toxic foods, pesticides, and fake sugars, and too much sugar and alcohol is important. Those are going to weaken the gut mucosal lining, which means less production of GLP-1. The gut irritation as well. If we have SIBO, IBS, or food sensitivities, all of these are going to come into play as well. We want to make sure we are focusing on having a really diverse gut microbiome.
We run the GI map in my practice often, and Akkermansia is one of the key players in the production of GLP-1. Maybe half the people come back with less than detectable levels of Akkermansia, as well as a lot of the other keystone bacteria. If you do not have the right bacteria, you are not going to have a healthy gut mucosal lining. The L cells are not going to work properly. You are not going to produce a sufficient amount of GLP-1.
Where do you get more Akkermansia?
Akkermansia is actually one that is not in foods, which makes it a little more difficult to get. It is one that you could benefit from actually taking supplementation, but you also need to feed it. That’s another thing. Whenever we supplement the gut microbiome, like any bacteria, it needs food, or it is going to work its way out.
That is where polyphenols will come into play. I would love, at some point, to talk about those in a bit more depth because they are beautiful makers and supporters of GLP-1 production. Making sure your gut does not have a lot of dysbiosis is key because that will affect the short-chain fatty acids, especially butyrate, and all of these come into play for a healthy gut and sufficient GLP-1 production.
The Power Of Polyphenols And Bile Flow
Let us talk about polyphenols.
Everyone has heard of polyphenols, but they probably have not.
What’s nice about this show is that people listen at all different stages of their health journey. Some people are newbies, while others are like, “I still learned something even though I’ve been around the block a couple of times.” Talk to us as if we do not know, and we will still learn something.
Polyphenols are like precision prebiotics, and they help reshape the entire gut ecosystem. They are found in plant-sourced foods. Some examples would be berries, dandelion, citrus, walnuts, cranberries, pomegranate, and olives. What they do is they are huge feeders of the beneficial species like Akkermansia and Bifidobacteria, and butyrate-producing bacteria.
They strengthen the gut barrier integrity, the gut mucosal lining, which means that we have much better metabolic and hormonal signaling. They are really great for helping with bile flow. Bile is one of my favorite things in the body, and it does not get enough credit. It does so many beautiful things. It is like our detox river, but it is a really big player in GLP-1 production.
It activates the TGR5 receptors on the L cells, which triggers GLP-1. The release of polyphenols helps with the bile flow, keeping it flowing, keeping it from becoming stagnant. They also help mitochondrial function. The mitochondria are where you get your energy from. If your mitochondria are stunted, nothing is going to work well there. They help with inflammation, which I think many people need help with.
They reduce gut inflammation and remove some of the barriers that come into play when the gut is inflamed for the GLP-1 release as well. Glucose control. They also blunt glucose spikes, which is great. This will slow carbohydrate absorption, support pancreatic beta cell function, and then reduce those post-spike meals that weaken GLP-1 pathways. Cinnamon is a great one, cacao, so you can have your dark chocolate and green tea. All of these are going to help with the production of GLP-1 by having these polyphenols.
If there is one thing I have learned from traveling the world, but also studying the work of Dr. Price, it is that people around the world, indigenous people, had very diverse microbiomes because they were eating locally and they were eating a variety of foods. We tend to always get the same ultra-processed packaged crackers, for example. We fall into these traps, and we are not diversifying our microbiome. I think you might even mention. Do we get polyphenols also from fermented foods?
There are some in there as well. It is mostly the berries, pomegranate, and cranberry that are the key players.
Circadian Rhythm And Timing For Hormone Optimization
Let us talk a little bit about the circadian rhythm, too.
Circadian rhythm is my favorite thing for everything. I feel that is where many of us struggle because it is not talked about a lot. There is nothing easier and more critical for health than getting morning sunlight. If people would just go and the first light that hits their eyes, allow that to be sunlight, and then eat within 30 to 60 minutes after, that is a game-changer. This comes into play with the production of everything, of every hormone, but GLP-1 specifically, because everything in the body follows that circadian rhythm.
GLP-1 is very reliant on the gut clock, on the circadian rhythm clock of the gut, because the gut is what is producing it. The gut clock is going to control that motility. The movement of food through the body. The nutrients can signal the release of GLP-1, GLP-1 secretion, the microbiome activity, and all of that. GLP-1 is strongest in the morning to early afternoon.
This is when we should be in the sun, the sun hits our eyes, body is like, “I am awake. Let us do the thing.” GLP-1 starts to get produced, you eat your food, and you are satiated for a longer time. GLP-1 actually goes to sleep or stops working after sunset. By having those later meals, you are really doing a disservice to your body, because you’re not going to digest as well at all.
I have interviewed and spoken to Dr. Jack Kruse, Thaddeus Owen, Dewey Layman, and others who are in the quantum health space. Some of them are very careful to not only wear blue-blocking glasses at night and to get the early morning sunlight, but also to eat during daylight hours, which is really unusual nowadays.
It is, and I do that. I am lucky. It is easier for me because I do not have kids, so I can do my schedule. For the women that I work with who are stuck in weight loss, that turns the dial. Just eat within the sunlight hours, and they shift really quickly. Their gut heals faster, their memory comes back. We are not nighttime creatures. We should be doing all of our eating in the day, but it is understandably difficult when you want to eat with your family, and you have to work and go to school, and all of those things as well.
Eat within the sunlight hours.
Doesn’t eating during the daylight hours sound so much better than stabbing yourself with some shot?
I think so.
This is the other thing. Tell me if this is true, Colleen. I have heard that the GLP-1 that was prescribed is synthetic. How could you even get that from a natural source? Is that true? Is most of it made up in a lab?
It is. I think 94% equivalent to natural. It is synthetic, but it is not a perfect match. As all the hormones that we take, they’re not going to be. Again, the thing that stood out the most was how naturally GLP-1 is cut off and broken down within minutes, but the injections stay in up to 183 hours. It is wild. Some people, it affects their sleep as well. When you think about it, every hormone works together.
When we’re thinking about the metabolic hormones or even regarding circadian rhythm, we have insulin, we have GLP-1, cortisol, leptin, which makes us know we are full, and ghrelin, which lets us know that we are hungry. All of those are working in conjunction. If you have just one that is stealing the show, what is going to happen to the others? How are they going to feed off of each other? These are just deeper things that I always think about. How is this going to interfere with how everything else is working?
Those are good questions to ask. It does not seem very promising that this GLP-1 that is injected stays around for so long, crowding out the others. They’ll be like, “Wait, what is happening?” You talked about earlier, when you talk about eating, you said it is important to be in a calm space so you can be in that right parasympathetic mode. Talk to us more about the nervous system and how it relates to peptides.
Stress, Nervous System, And Nutrient Absorption
The nervous system relates, again, it is another one, to everything in our health. The nervous system we have to think about when we are in a stressed, fight or flight state, we do not digest optimally at all. That leads to the big problem of the nutrients not reaching the L cells. GLP-1 is not going to be produced.
We are going to have gut issues from having massive chunks of food get down, and they are not being digested optimally. That causes the leaky gut, which causes inflammation, which interferes with GLP-1 production. We are not going to be pulling the nutrients out of our food that we need because they are not being broken down, or we’re not secreting enough stomach acid or digestive enzymes.
Even if you are eating the wise traditions diet, you are eating the sourdough and the ferments and the nose to tail, if you are in a stressed situation, your body cannot access the nutrients that you are taking in. Is that what I hear you saying?
That is the problem. Also, knowing when we are stressed, we have that constant secretion of cortisol, which should again be another one like, you pump it out because you need to run, and then you are done, and your body goes back to normal. High cortisol suppresses everything. Bile flow is suppressed, and we already talked about how that is a major factor in the production of GLP-1. It is going to suppress that bile flow.
The stress is going to put us into the fight or flight response. Cortisol also thickens the bile and slows down gallbladder motility. Motility is slowed down. Nutrient sensing does not happen. GLP-1 is not produced. We also have issues like when you are stressed, your vagus nerve is not doing what it is supposed to be. The vagus nerve actually boosts the GLP-1 secretion. If your vagus nerve is not doing what it is supposed to do, less GLP-1 is being made naturally.
Let us say there is an audience who is clocked in right now, and they’re like, “What she is talking about is what I have experienced.” In other words, I am in a high cortisol state, stressed all the time, fight or flight because of my work or my home environment relationships. What practical suggestions can you offer for them to lower that stress state so that they can take in the nutrients that will feed the natural peptides in their body?
It is really hard. I tend to attract the very high-stressed Type A overworking clients. It is critical to get yourself in a calm state for eating and throughout the day. If the one thing you could do is set up your morning time to be for you, even if it is ten minutes. You wake up, and you do not touch that phone. Do not look at the phone. Get outside, morning light, breathe, and connect. That is one of the best things you can do.
Going for walks. Before you eat, if you could do a quick two. It does not have to be 10 miles, two minutes. Go for a little walk, do some deep breathing, and calm your body down. Another easy thing is the HD frequency music. I am all about it, bin-neural beats, things like that. They work very quickly. If you need to jam it all in, listen to that while you go for a walk, while you are out in the sun. That is a good starting place to be. Stacking hacks are some of my favorite things to do.
I wanted to ask you about standing while you’re eating versus sitting. Someone once told me, “If you stand, that is not the rest and digest, like you are already putting yourself in fight or flight.” Is that true?
I actually do not know. Whenever I go to Europe, everyone stands and eats. Sometimes I feel better standing and eating because I feel like it elongates my entire torso, so everything could just move through. It is more like, how are you breathing? Are you looking at the phone while you are standing or the TV, or listening to a stressful conversation? When you eat, you should really try to just eat and just focus on that. Easier said than done.
Nutrition Strategies To Naturally Boost GLP-1
That leads us to the category of nutrition. What foods really support GLP-1 production in the body naturally?
The polyphenols, I think, are one of the biggest players. We went through that already. Protein. I know protein is another hot thing right now, but it does the job. It also keeps you satiated, so you will not need to eat as much food. Starting in the morning, I feel like it is really important to have a high-protein breakfast because that is when GLP-1 is most effective as well. Another one is fiber. Protein is a hot thing now.
I feel like the fiber trend and the fiber love are going to be the next thing because people are not eating enough, and it is very important. Specifically, bitter foods. Foods like arugula or the pith on the inside of the oranges, the white stuff. I grew up eating that with my mom, and everyone thought I was weird. Now I am like, “See, quite a mind time.” My GLP-1 production is killing it. Hydrating, it is not that complicated, but lots of variety to keep your gut well diverse.
Real food in its whole form. You have your raw milk, you have your grass-fed proteins, and healthy fats. No seed oils, got to let those go. You do need to have some good, healthy fats in there as well. The fiber is another one that we really need to focus on, and the variety of those as well. You will have your resistant starch, your inulin, things like that. Making sure you are having variety with your fibers as well as your other foods.
What is it that the fiber does exactly? I feel like fiber has actually been out of favor for some time, maybe because of the animal-based trend or the carnivore diets. I know the foundation believes in eating nose to tail. They are not saying we all need to be carnivores or necessarily animal-based, but I think fiber has been overlooked. Talk to us about why it is important again.
Fiber is going to be important because it is one of the nutrients that is sensed by the L cells and will help with the release. It helps with constipation, so it is going to help your body clear out things faster. It is going to help move things through the body faster, which is good to help with the nutrient sensing. It is beautiful for the gut microbiome. You have to feed the bacteria in there, and many of them, especially Akkermansia, live on fiber. If they do not have the fiber in there, you are not going to have enough of those keystone bacteria. Your gut mucosal lining is not going to be healthy. The L cells are not going to thrive. You are not going to produce enough GLP-1.
Which foods are high in fiber that you would recommend?
All your vegetables, of course, but we want to eat things more on the raw side, like crunchy. You could cook them a little. Your asparagus, your onions, your garlic. If you choose to eat potatoes, you want to refrigerate them first and cool them down. It will change it to inulin, which is a better fiber. Eat them that way. Fruit, all of the green-tipped bananas, you can buy green banana starch. There are a lot of varieties to choose from.
If someone came to you and said, “My doctor prescribed Ozempic or Wegovy or something like that,” what would you advise them?
I would advise them to use it as a tool. That is how we should use it. I have had the food noise. I come from a history of eating disorders. I have been there. It is truly debilitating and makes change harder. If you are going to take a medication that shuts that food noise off, it allows you to be more in control of what you are eating. Use that as a tool and start to do all of the things to help your body produce it naturally, which means we now focus on nutrient-dense food.
You are not going to want to eat as much. What goes into your body has to be very specific. All the foods we talked about are just natural foods. Processed stuff has to go. Work on your circadian rhythm. It is critical. It will change everything. It will change every hormone in your body. It will change your mood. It will change your life. Start lifting. You have to build muscle. If you are going to lose weight, muscle is going to go too.
You have got to make sure you are rebuilding that muscle while the fat loss is going away. Also using it as a time to tune into yourself. We should not have to weigh our food, measure our food, all of that. We are very intuitive beings. If we have this substance now that we are injecting and it is calming our brain and it is lessening our appetite, it is a really good time to figure out what really works for you, what foods make you feel amazing, which foods do not, what movements work for you, which movements do not.
You have got to make sure you are rebuilding that muscle while the fat loss is going away.
I would be so tempted to say, “Can you do those things for two weeks before you start?” If, as J. Campbell said, you could dial in those basics, you might not even need this other thing.
I do not think you would. Coming as someone who had extreme food noise, we did not have this back then, and I got through it all. It is just more work and being more intentional. Either people do not know, because it is pushed on us. All anyone talks about is the GLP-1 shots. I have had a lot of discovery calls where people ask, “Colleen, do I have to take them?” You do not have to take them. It is very sad to me that people feel the pressure all around that they feel like they have to take these weight loss shots when they do not.
Do you think the pressures of seeing kind of perfect bodies on social media are affecting our perception of our own bodies, shape, and size?
Hilda, yes. It is horrible. That is why I am very fearful now, looking at Hollywood as well. I feel like the heroin chic thing is back, and all these young girls are looking at it and thinking, “This is not the way it is supposed to be.” Some people are naturally thin, but there is a shrinking happening with women right now again.
I have noticed that. It is so alarming. I am like, “What is happening?” These people look sickly and like ghouls instead of people.
The muscle is going. I love a strong, juicy woman. We’re supposed to be strong and juicy. I feel like we are going the opposite way. It is hard because many people look up to Hollywood stars and influencers, and we are shrinking again. It does not feel good to me at all.
We are shrinking, and it is being celebrated. The best thing to do is maybe put those things away, especially from your teens, if you can help it. Help them avoid getting all those images in their mind, thinking they have to be that way. You have shed a lot of light on how our bodies can naturally create these GLP-1s and how dialing in the basics will help us. Is there something we’ve overlooked that you wish we would have touched on, Colleen, that you like, “This is on my heart, I’m going to say it?”
No, I think we covered everything. Honestly, to me, it is just reinforcing. You do not have to take the shots. You can accomplish everything just by giving your body what it needs, and it can seem overwhelming, but it is not. Once you get there, not only will you produce sufficient GLP-1, but every system in your body is going to be optimized. I feel like that is really important. If you are going to choose to take the shots, then do the work as well. It is the perfect time to tune your body, to fine-tune it. Those two things, I think, are important.
Lifestyle Habits For Long-Term Hormonal Health
Now I want to pose to you the question I love to pose at the end of the show. If the audience could just do one thing to improve their health, what would you recommend that they do, Colleen?
Honestly, it is balancing the circadian rhythm. The simplest thing, get morning sunlight as your first light. It is free. It is always accessible, even if it is cloudy. The sun is coming through, your body will sense it, and it is easy. That would be my top thing.
I love it. Colleen, on behalf of the Weston A. Price Foundation, thank you for your time.
Thank you so much. This was great.
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Our guest was Colleen Flynn. Check out her website, Nutritional Zest, to learn more. For the transcript for our episode, visit our website, Weston A. Price, and click on the podcast page. Now for a letter to the editor from our Fall 2025 Wise Traditions Journal. It has to do with the Wise Traditions Baby Formula. This mom says, “I used the homemade formula based on raw milk with one of our daughters. I breastfed exclusively for about six months, and then I transferred to the formula.”
“It was not what I wanted to do, but we were dealing with frequent hospital stays and my full-time job. I just could not maintain a good milk supply. My daughter was born with heart defects that were later corrected. It was an ASD and a VSD by surgery. She ended up with a pacemaker as a result of an accident during surgery. All this to say that she entered life with some real challenges. She was behind developmentally as a result of having had congestive heart failure for quite some time.”
“At the age of five months, when the surgery was done to repair the holes between the various chambers of her heart, she still weighed only nine pounds. I used the homemade formula, and thankfully, even the ladies at the daycare gave it to her, even though it certainly looked strange. Because I used yogurt, I had no access to raw milk. It took a little while for her to get used to it. I introduced it slowly, adding just a little into my breast milk, and then I gradually increased the amount and the percentage of the formula until she happily accepted it without any qualms.”
“I still tried to give her breast milk as much as I could over the next six weeks or so, and then it was over. My daughter did great with the homemade formula. She gained weight appropriately. There were no problems with it at all except for the work involved in putting it all together. I sometimes froze it in breast milk freezer bags. My daughter gradually caught up. She did not begin to stand until about eighteen months of age. By the time she reached kindergarten, she was on track enough to enter with her own age group.”
“She seemed a little immature compared to others, but by second grade, she was completely on target. She is a healthy thirteen-year-old, on the swim team, and getting good grades. I mention all that just because I know she was living on this formula during some critical periods of development and recovery. It did not harm her. She also has no allergies, even though my husband has asthma and strong allergies.”
“Some of her siblings have milder versions of them. She was never a picky eater. Maybe it comes from drinking a strange concoction as a baby. If you are considering using this formula, I highly recommend it. I would certainly use it again if I were unable to breastfeed or if I needed to supplement breastfeeding.”
This is a letter from Krista from New Mexico. Krista, thank you so much for sharing your story. The Baby Formula page, our homemade baby formula, is one of the most popular pages on our website. Go to Weston A. Price and put homemade baby formula in the search bar. You’ll find a podcast or two on the subject and, of course, the recipe for making it. I am so glad your daughter was thriving and continues to thrive. Thank you so much for tuning in, my friend. Stay well and remember to keep your feet on the ground and your face to the sun.
About Colleen Flynn
Colleen Flynn is a Functional Nutritionist and gut health specialist based in Austin, Texas. After overcoming her own complex health challenges — including digestive issues, hormone imbalances, adrenal fatigue, and chronic inflammation — she became passionate about helping others heal at the root level, not just manage symptoms.
Through her practice, Nutritional Zest, Colleen blends Functional Medicine principles, advanced lab testing, and personalized nutrition strategies to help clients uncover the real causes of imbalance and rebuild sustainable, vibrant health.Specializing in gut health, hormone balance (including perimenopause), sustainable weight loss, and digestive disorders, Colleen’s approach goes beyond food alone.
She emphasizes the importance of circadian rhythms, environmental health, stress management, and emotional well-being to create powerful, lasting change. Known for her thorough, compassionate, and empowering style, Colleen brings science, strategy, and heart together to support each client’s unique healing journey.
Important Links
- Colleen Flynn
- Colleen Flynn on LinkedIn
- The Timeless Principles of Healthy Traditional Diets
- Weston A. Price
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