HouseCall: Vata Foods, EMFs & Saunas, Meat Eaters, Canned Food, Check-Ups, Tender Nipples

Welcome back to our 1st Cabral HouseCall of the weekend!

Here are our community questions for today:

Anonymous: Hi Dr. Cabral! Long-time listener, first-time caller! 😉 My question is about raw foods & being a classic Vata. I am a whole-foods vegan with very occasional dairy here & there. I am a classic Vata… very small-boned, always cold (I wear pants all summer in Phoenix), high anxiety, and frequent trouble digesting heavy or complicated foods/bloating/gas/lower abdominal pain/abdominal bloating to the point where I look a little pregnant by the end of the day even though my upper waist/stomach area stays very small. I am 36 years old, 2 kids, a normal weight (110 lbs/ 5’2″) and have been stable at that weight for 15 years, other than a foray into paleo/high fat/keto, which was awful and made me instantly gain 5-10 pounds and feel like crap, but I lost the weight immediately when I went back to vegetarian/vegan. Whenever I go through a phase in my diet where I want to commit to taking my diet to the next level… staying completely gluten-free, dairy-free, or even grain-free, going raw or at least high raw, cutting out fats, juicing until dinner, eating pounds of cruciferous veggies to stave off basically everything bad in the world… my lower abdomen gets so swollen and bloated that I look pregnant. I end up with extremely low energy, gross burping that is the worst with raw lettuce, sharp gas pain that sometimes requires me to lay on my stomach and basically sleep it off, food cravings, and anxiety… even mild depression that actually goes away immediately when I eat something less “perfect” like a bowl of veggie soup in a sourdough bread bowl. I tell myself these are “cleansing” symptoms and I need to stick it out, but end up back at a more regular vegan diet after a while just to get my energy back & stop the bloating… still whole foods-based, no weird fake meat, but more grains & cooked foods, soups, baked sweet potatoes, roasted veggies with olive oil, sourdough bread, etc. I find it sort of hard to believe I could still be having cleansing symptoms, as I did my first 5-day water fast in 2005 and have been cleansing ever since! Juice cleanses, colon cleanses, candida cleanses, parasite cleanses, colonics, enemas, liver flushes, you name it I’ve done it! When I’m not cleansing I’m always food combining & trying to drink as many green smoothies as possible (although they make me so cold it takes me a good hour to stop shivering.) I’ve been reading up on Ayurveda, and wondering now if perhaps a high-raw diet is just never going to work for a super-vata like me? Maybe I am supposed to be eating grains and soups and not this idealized perfect raw foods diet that’s in my head? It looks like the Vata pacifying diet is identical to my natural baseline diet, which coincidentally is the diet that makes me the least bloated. But I always feel like I should be eating more huge kale salads, raw veggies all the time, smoothies, fasts, etc because of all the living nutrients & enzymes & all of the things I read about. I also feel almost guilty when I eat wheat, because wheat is supposed to be the worst thing ever, even though it actually makes me 1000x less bloated than raw veggies. So basically: can I still be healthy & live to be 100 to play with my great-great grandkids on a Vata-pacifying diet full of warm, cooked whole foods & grains instead of what I have pictured as the ideal health superfoods diet full of literally pounds & pounds of raw cruciferous veggies and smoothies? I feel like I need to hear reassurance from an expert on this. Any other tips on Vata pacifying foods/lifestyle would be so appreciated! Thanks so much!!

Hayley: Hi Dr. Cabral! I have a quick question about saunas. I have heard that infrared saunas are the best, but my gym only has a regular dry heat sauna. I’ve also heard that EMFs can be a concern. If I have to make a choice between the gym sauna which could have high EMF, or no sauna at all, which is the best choice? Thank you for all that you do! Your podcast is a daily staple in our house. The only bad thing about it is that our two parakeets freak out when they hear your voice and chirp loudly to drown you out. I guess they don’t want to hear your healthy tips, hah!

Jill: Hello! Thank you for everything you do! I love your podcast! I have been on my health journey for the past year or so and I have a question regarding diet. What is your opinion on meat/fish consumption? I currently do eat meat/fish and it is all organic/pasture-raised/wild-caught/etc. There has been so much debate on this topic and I’m honestly not sure what to believe anymore. I would love it if you could give me some guidance. Do you believe it is healthy? Does it depend on body type/genetics/etc.? Thank you so much!!

Adrienne: Hi! I have heard that canned food is dead food. Do you agree? What about home canning? Thanks so much, love listening to your podcasts each day on my way to work!

Laura: I just discovered your podcast and I love it! It’s hard to find health podcasts where there isn’t some strong lean towards a very specific lifestyle. I find your information to be very useful and presented in a way that everyone can understand. My question is – I am a 44-year-old female and I’ve had a higher heart rate for years now. However, it seems to be worse the past few months. It jumps up to 120 sometimes just upon standing and almost always runs close to 100 even when sitting doing nothing. I do have a history of autoimmune/connective tissue disease but I don’t require medication at this time. I have had a tremendous amount of stress the last few years as I gave birth to my first and only child at age 41. Then my husband was diagnosed with AML (Leukemia) and had to have a stem cell transplant, my mother passed away and another grandmother had a stroke. I don’t doubt I have adrenal fatigue although I haven’t taken an official test yet. I’m at a loss as to what is causing the high heart rate. As of now, the stress in my life has lessened a great deal compared to the peak. I’ve had a history of low potassium as well. Where should I start in figuring this out? I went for a checkup with my MD and I’m not diabetic and my thyroid panel was fine. However, I was slightly anemic and borderline low Vit D. Thank you for all you do!

Tom: Dr Cabral l do a lot of working out and have had some personal problems in the last year ! A lot of stress! My nipples have become tender which l believe is because of elevated estrogen levels. Do you agree? Are there any supplements you recommend? DIM? Could it also be low T or elevated cortisol levels? Great podcast ltd like going to college! Thank you so much, Doc!

Thank you for tuning into today’s #CabralConcept HouseCall and be sure to come back tomorrow where we answer more of our community’s questions!