[00:00:00] Welcome to the Future of Personalized Medicine Summit. I'm thrilled to be hosting this incredible event where top experts in health and wellness share their insights in optimizing performance, longevity, and proactive health care. This summit is all about equipping high achieving professionals, CEOs, entrepreneurs, doctors, leaders.

[00:00:33] With personalized strategies to take control of their health and a very important word here, thrive. Today I have the privilege of speaking with Rene Caruso, who is an expert in nutrition. And I want to give you a little bit of background on Rene here before we get started. Rene has worked with clients for many years to overcome destructive eating patterns and develop a harmonious relationship with food.

[00:01:00] She specializes in addressing the deeper issues behind weight loss struggles, emotional eating, binge eating, digestive concerns, and body image challenges. Through her work, Renee helps individuals transform their lives by boosting energy, reclaiming vitality, and restoring balance to the body and mind.

[00:01:18] And let me tell you, I know Renee, this may sound like it's general, but she gets into the weeds with really great data and testing. And Renee I'm excited to have you on today. Thank you. It's great to talk to you again, Steve, and I'm glad to be here. Great. Before we dive in, I'd like you to share a bit about your background.

[00:01:39] What led you, Renee, to specialize in this nutrition topic? And, what inspired you on your journey into this field? I had an eating disorder when I was in the summer of my eighth grade year. It was very minor at first, and within a very short period of time, I was both anorexic and bulimic, and I was very sick.

[00:02:05] I think at my worst I was 79 or so pounds. My brain wasn't functioning properly, my stomach was bleeding, I was a mess, I was scared, my parents were scared, and that's really what got me on this journey to try and figure out how do I feed myself, how do I take care of myself, and how do I make the food that was an enemy to me at that time, something that could sustain me.

[00:02:33] But it's so scary. Junior high girls have so much on them. I heard this was years ago, when an American Express CEO, a female they asked her, is it really tough being in a man's world? Because this was like in the early 2000s. She has, Not really. She goes, there's nothing they can do me due to me that girls didn't do in seventh grade.

[00:02:54] So I can handle this. That's sad. Actually, I know. I have a daughter. She's 31 and I, they were very difficult. Was there a defining moment as an adult though? And out of that experience and probably finding your own healing Renee what tripped that trigger where I'm going to be in the nutrition business and help women with this?

[00:03:18] It really happened after I stopped competing. I was doing competitive natural bodybuilding because while I had, I thought, got a really good handle on food and nutrition, what I did was turn to another supposedly healthy outlet. that I still had control of food in and out 24 hours a day. And the obsession with it finally just wore me out.

[00:03:46] And the turning point was there were people around me who were living their lives. not tortured by this every day. And I wanted to find a way because what I was doing was also not sustainable. The amount of work I had to put in and the condition that I was in, which was still not healthy, I had massive immune issues.

[00:04:06] I ended up with mercury toxicity from all the tuna and stuff that I was taking in. And I just decided there has to be a better way. And that's when I made up my mind, I was going to figure this out. So you were a competitive bodybuilder, right? And you were probably doing a lot of protein and tuna. You get a lot of bang for the buck and a lot of tuna, right?

[00:04:28] Yeah. And that's when I first learned about quite frankly, functional medicine or alternative medicines because I was in the doctor's office, the fatigue had been getting worse and worse. And I was literally sitting in the doctor's office with handfuls of my hair, saying something's wrong and they kept telling me everything's normal.

[00:04:48] And that's when I found a naturopath. They did testing. That was my experience too. And how I got into what I'm in today. It's the same idea. My, my best friend is a DO primary care physician. He's actually my primary care physician still. And he said, Steve, our system is not set up to address these kinds of issues.

[00:05:11] We're looking at finding pathology, classifying it and treating it. And energy is a generalized condition that they can't put their hands on. And Please hear me if you're listening to this and you're a medical doctor, this, there's nothing in this summit where we want to degrade medical doctors because you all do great work.

[00:05:34] But there are certain things that the system are not, is not built for and root cause, looking at the underlying mechanism, what's going on. The system doesn't pay for that. Doctors can't do it. They don't have the time. And that's why there are functional medicine doctors. I agree with you. 100%. I think docs by and large are really doing the best they can in the system that they're in.

[00:05:58] That they're trained in too, right? Yeah. Why do you believe nutrition is such a crucial aspect and I'm not questioning it at all. I'm just asking the question. Why is it such a crucial aspect to optimizing health, particularly? Probably for the kind of people you work with. These people are high achievers.

[00:06:17] They want to get that last one or 2%. Not even, that's not everybody though. There's a lot of people that just want to feel better and live well. Why is nutrition so important? And I'll tell you, I'm one of those people who wants that extra one or 2 percent just to see if I can do it still, but I want to do it in a sustainable way.

[00:06:37] I think we are beings, we require oxygen, we require. and re require food. There's no way around that right now. And there are not food substitutes that as of yet have been developed that can sustain us in a way that we don't have to go to the grocery store or have food delivered or go out. So these are essential elements to our health and well being.

[00:07:06] There's no way around it. And why is it so hard for people to eat the way that you teach them on their own?

[00:07:18] History, familial habits imbalanced hormones, pressure from daily life. And let's be honest the dopamine hits from sugary treats and drinks and chocolates and donuts are at least if nothing, just an immediate sense of, ah, I've got a moment of, yeah. Yeah, or salty snacks. Same thing. Or salty snacks.

[00:07:44] Sugar doesn't, I, I'm not, I'm honestly not tempted by sugar at all. It's, but put a bag of Doritos in front of me, I cave really quick. We got some, we got to do some talking. I'm definitely not being righteous here, man. I am just as weak as the person with the sugar. It's, for me, it's. Savory bread and all that kind of stuff which can be just as bad.

[00:08:10] So anyway, keep going. I'm sorry Yeah, but it's the emotion around it. It's also that like air and water Unlike alcohol and drugs. Those are non essential to survival But food is everywhere. It's celebration. It's holidays. It's a treat and reward. Like when we were a kid and we skinned our knees or got hurt, right?

[00:08:33] We got a treat. Mom took care of it. And then you get a treat, right? And there's nothing wrong with that. It's just that food is involved in every aspect of our lives. And just like Water or bad water, air or bad air. It has the ability to upregulate or downregulate, downregulate health or disease in our body, but we don't see that.

[00:08:59] No, go ahead and say that again. No, I want you to finish. So food is code to our DNA. It has the ability to upregulate or downregulate health or disease. in our system. And the challenge I think with food is anybody who's ever had food poisoning knows that food can hurt you, right? We know that things can happen to you as a result of food that can actually hurt you and in some instances kill you.

[00:09:30] But by and large, we cannot rationalize how a piece of cake or a dozen Oreo cookies or a bag of Doritos, those things in and of themselves are not really going to cause any damage, but when you have a cumulative load of all these other things and the lack of nutrients in the food that you're taking in, that starts to snowball over time.

[00:09:54] Yeah, the cumulative effect. Yeah, our Dr. McNamee, who's a naturopathic MD that works for Tiger Medical, he says, if you remember anything from this year working with me is that food is either medicine or it's poison. Yes. And that's what you're saying. And Renee, in, in view of this summit, which is about the future of, personalized medicine, I know you are not doing this from a generalized approach.

[00:10:24] There's a lot of rigor in what you do. How do you identify the direction that your clients need to go? And, there are people who are going to be listening, may never work with you. What could you say, tell them? How to go find the real answers that are consistent with precision medicine to find out what nutrients you're missing and things like that.

[00:10:46] I'd say that even starting out a little more basic than that if something's wrong, something's off, you're not feeling your best. Some of the basics you can start with are quite frankly, getting hormones tested. I think that's a very important component and it's the foundation of our home our bodies being our home.

[00:11:04] And then it requires taking a honest look at your days. What are you doing? What are you not doing? What are you skimping on? Are you sleeping? Are you not sleeping? Are you up till 2 a. m. looking at your phone and then you feel like crap, right? Frankly, the next day and so you're jacked up on coffee and then soda after soda or some other equally terrible drink after another and it's but you keep going for these quick fixes and we're worried about having steak, which makes no sense.

[00:11:40] So it's looking at what's really going on with your days. That's a big part of how we start. Are you sleeping or do you have a day shift, a swing shift or a night shift job? Cause all of these things matter. And how do we start to implement changes in one area? Not all at once. And we start to implement changes in a meal, not all your meals at once so that you can start to feel the difference literally meal to meal and I can hear you talk about winning breakfast first, just start one meal.

[00:12:13] Yeah. One meal and actually see what it's like to have a balanced insulin level. Most people don't know what that means and it's not their fault. We weren't taught this, but it matters now because of the lives that we tend to lead. And I have found that for hands down, I'd say 99 percent of my clients, they start to feel change in about four or five days.

[00:12:40] Wow. And that comes from one meal. That is balanced. Yeah, yeah, what you're saying is that, because I, we've spoken before, I know that incorporate and test if a person wants to go down that journey where you can start to narrow it down more and more. How do you feel about genetics in terms of constructing, a more precise approach to someone's.

[00:13:04] This is what I would presume would be after you've gotten some wins and they're started to make progress, they're excited, they want to go deeper. What's the role that genetic testing can play in helping you create a plan for them that works best for them? Oh my gosh, I think it's huge.

[00:13:20] And at the same time, I try not to overload them. When we're able to start with the basics, when we've got their hormones optimized, when we've got them eating consistently 80 percent of the time, right? You don't have to be perfect. Let's say 80 percent of the time, that's way better. When they're exercising multiple times a week and doing the things that they need to do for their structure while incorporating periodic movement all day long.

[00:13:45] Now we start to go or they start to go, I feel this good, what's next? Let's take a dive. Let's really take a dive. If we've got their gut optimized and that process is working efficiently and in a timely manner, let's start to look at some of the other things. And that's where we start to look at the blood.

[00:14:04] What's going on internally? Do we need micronutrient testing? That depends on, in my opinion, on some of the foods that they normally eat and if they're having reactions to them or not. I think methylation testing bears some significance to make sure that they're processing nutrients properly. And then to start to look at every other thing, like even on your lipid profile, we should know what is L, what is Lp little a, we should be tested for that when we're teenagers.

[00:14:34] We know it's there. And I just got my results back. I know. Good. It's exciting, isn't it? Good. Yeah, it is. Because it gives you direction again at primary care. They're not reimbursed for that test. So it's not looked at it's just cholesterol but idiot some insurances and i'm going to only speak for my insurance Everything I want to test it apoe apo b lp little a was all tested and they actually now are starting to do some oxidation oxidative ldl testing through my insurance The doc doesn't know what to do with it, which is okay, but the docs are starting to learn about the LDL particles.

[00:15:16] That's important. Particle size is very important. You're right. Yep. Yes. And I think it is helpful to really look at some genetic markers, especially when there's familial history, right? But in the same vein, I think that when people get those genetic tests back, it's important that they understand the difference.

[00:15:36] or are taught the difference by their provider between genetics and epigenetics, right? So that they know that just because there's something in a gene, it's not inevitable, right? It's not your destiny, right? No. Yeah. And that's what it means when you practice epigenetic medicine, you're okay.

[00:15:58] We understand what your genes are, but that doesn't need to be your destiny. I'll give you a real quick example to build on you. I went through the genetic process, a family history of cancer, lots of heart disease, and I had a reflux for many years, and there were two things we learned in our genetics that were super helpful.

[00:16:18] By the way, I have horrible cardiovascular genetics. I do too. Worst possible you can have. But, I'm almost 61, and my dad by this age had three heart attacks, and I have no blockage, and my risk of a heart attack is extremely low, because 10 years ago I started making different decisions, plus I never smoked.

[00:16:38] But what I learned was I have the MTHFR gene, I don't methylate well, so the implication of that, along with, I also have a genetic marker, I don't absorb starch well. That starch metabolization gene was the key that unlocked fixing my acid reflux. We pulled all the starch out within four to five weeks.

[00:16:59] I was off 25 years of medication. All of my GI and constipation problems were gone. Everything. It was like amazing because now I was feeding my body the way I was designed. Yeah. And then what happened was the convergence of that with the MTHR, basically I've been on keto for five years.

[00:17:19] Yeah. Okay. Because I don't want to have sugar spikes in my system because I am more susceptible to cancer and can't have the starch. Now one of the collateral damages was I lost about 15 pounds, so I'm a little skinnier and I used to be, I don't like it as much, but I feel fantastic. So it's a great trade off.

[00:17:38] And I know that some people are going, Oh, I'm crying a pity party for you, but I'm still sometimes not getting the perfect outcome on maybe weight or something, but you feel great is good. You do all this. That's what, that's my whole point bringing up is you do all of this. And so there's a robustness to what you're doing.

[00:17:57] And there's another side of it. When I'm working with clients and we start going meal to meal and I get them to understand What a macronutrient is right and why you put these in the portions that we do without complicating It's very simple to track and we do not count calories. I don't count calories with clients at all We're looking at the nutrient component.

[00:18:17] The fact that I also have a culinary degree Helps me because I enjoy food. I love food. I love creating I want it to be I want it to matter But I wanted to taste good. I like texture. I like color. I like richness. And so when I'm working with clients, I help bring things in so that they do not feel like they're on a diet, even if we're doing something that's more rigid ketogenically, because we're trying to dial back their HbA1c, for example but there's so many options and to just get people out of the diet mentality is one of the biggest hurdles.

[00:19:00] I think that I'm able to help them overcome. In the way that I work with them, the, there was three big ideas that you shared with my assistant. One was food equals code, which you've covered that nutrient versus non nutrient. I'm not sure we've covered that. So I want to get that in and also the 80 20 rule.

[00:19:21] So do you want to unpack those two for us before we go? Sure. Nutrient versus non nutrient having struggled with an eating disorder and a lot of the people that I work with not only have an eating disorder but they've spent decades feeling shame around what they eat, how they eat because of their external facade.

[00:19:44] So instead of food being good, bad wrong, treat, non treat, I help them understand. It's a nutrient or it's a non nutrient. It's something that the body can use the elements that are in it, convert it along this 30 foot refinery that runs through us and convert it into AMPK or energy. Or, a non nutrient is something the body, when it hits it, goes, I don't even know what to do with this.

[00:20:11] It's bypassing all sorts of signals and maybe hitting other things like addictive pathways we don't want it to. And your body cannot produce any energy from it and in fact has to expend energy to rid itself of it. Or it stores it in fatty tissue in the liver and places you don't want it. So by taking away the emotion around it.

[00:20:33] It's easier to help people understand is ice cream bad. No, but if you want some ice cream, eat the stuff that's real. Yeah, real ice cream, real cream and milk. Yeah yeah, eat the real stuff. And that's where the 80 20 rule comes in because being perfect all the time. What fun is that? We want to go out.

[00:20:56] I love Pinot Noir. I'm from Oregon originally. We have great Pinot Noirs there, but I understand how to balance a fairly non nutrient component of a meal with the other macros that I need, which is the protein and the veggies and the quality of fat that goes into that. So 80 20 is a much more realistic lifestyle because now you don't have to be on or off and on or off is where diets fail.

[00:21:25] They don't work. So you're saying 80 percent of the time try to be compliant and 20 percent of the time, is that what you're saying? So you don't have this illusion of perfection. Yes. And you don't have the guilt and the food guilt that goes with it. Plus, once you learn how to do that more often, your chemistry shifts.

[00:21:45] You tend to not want that other junk so much and then you start to implement strategies like okay, if we're going out for a burger and fries to my favorite place, order the burger, don't eat the bun, eat some of the protein first, then have a couple of fries because you're probably not going to have enough room for them.

[00:22:04] Have a better strategy when you approach your meal. So you're still getting in what you need before you put in the things that you think are, at one point were like a treat or were bad because they're not. They're just a different type that will shift. I was a starch aholic. Yeah. And now I don't even crave them anymore.

[00:22:23] I had a really bad relationship with french fries and now I barely eat them. Like I don't even crave them. 'cause you're right, the body chemistry changes. It does. We we get we I want to make sure we have time to get into, how people can reach you. Do you have a couple of practical tips people can implement right away that to help them in the area of your expertise?

[00:22:47] Yes. I'd say one of one of the most important things you can start to do if you're not doing it is eat breakfast. So within a couple of hours of getting up in the morning, you need to put something substantial in your system and it needs to have a good quality of protein for women. I typically say 35 to 40 grams and for men, 40 to 45 grams, depending on what your goals are fat, some fermented food, which is very good for your gut.

[00:23:16] And stay away from toasts and oatmeal and all that kind of stuff. Do not start your day with sugar based anything, and that includes fruit. Okay. So I'd say that's a really important tip. And I'd say one of the other ones that. I have discovered, and especially working with clients over time, I didn't get the importance of it until I really started to adhere to it, was making sure that you're not going to bed with a lot of food on your stomach because the disruption in your sleep disrupts everything else that is supposed to happen in sleep, which is repair, rebuild, and rejuvenate.

[00:23:53] You can't get there. I, the number one habit, our doctors at tiger medical want people to do first is to get a three hour fast before they go to bed, because as the day goes on, your ability to metabolize glucose diminishes. Yeah. So if you have a bunch of food at night before you go to bed, like the worst thing you have a piece of cake or ice cream right before you go to bed.

[00:24:17] Cause you just your body is in an over taxed state of glucose. All night long, tearing down your, the cleaning process in your brain, you're cutting short, something called autophagy, which is cleaning your cells. And when people do this habitually, they're setting themselves up for type two diabetes and all kinds of bad stuff later in life.

[00:24:40] Yeah, that's huge. So what's what's the one biggest insight from this interview today? Renee, and as it relates to your world, when breakfast is it, or is it Something else. I'm going to go with breakfast because I think the importance of starting the day right is one of the best things we can do, quite frankly, it, we got to start our day because sometimes you're going to wake up and you're going to be grumpy.

[00:25:07] And I don't remember who said this it was Jim Rohn or Zig Ziglar he's can't you just have a grumpy minute. Does it need to be the day? And if we can get some food in our system, we can stop the insulin drop, and we can get some nourishment in, things shift. That's what I'm going to remember is when breakfast and the other thing is you're definitely giving a window at dating yourself.

[00:25:30] So am I when we talk about Jim Rohn and Stieg Ziegler. They're great people though. Oh my gosh, did I learn a lot from them. When it was Zig Ziglar, I've got to, I'm going to end with this. Zig Ziglar and said this, and it's still one of the best quotes ever. Nothing goes in my mouth without my permission.

[00:25:49] That's great. Yeah, it should be the opposite too. Nothing comes out of my mouth That's a whole nother topic. Yeah, I know. Yeah. Yeah I know a lot of our attendees are going to want to learn more from you Do you have any resources guides or tools they can access? Probably on your website, you know Where can people connect with you renee?

[00:26:10] Absolutely. The best place to start is at the website renee caruso dot life, because that will lead you to all of my social media. It'll lead you to blogs, it'll take you to my facebook group, but it'll also give you a real breakdown on different areas that I may be able to help you with if you need it, such as metabolic health immunity building and things along those lines.

[00:26:32] So Rene says R E N E at R E N E C A U R S O dot life. Remember dot life. R E N E R S O Yeah. Okay. Got it. Yep. And we'll get that in the notes for the event. So that'll all be in there. And I just want to thank you, Rene. For sharing your expertise today, it's been super insightful.

[00:26:54] I know that people that attend this summit are going to walk away with really, they're going to remember that one thing when breakfast and what I would encourage everyone, if you're watching today, take action. All right. Your health is your greatest asset. It's your billion dollar body.

[00:27:14] You treat it like it's worth a billion dollars because you only get it once and I just want to encourage everybody to be proactive about it. Renee. Thank you so much. Thank you steve