We absolutely loved our conversation with Dr. Deanna Minich all about the connection between food, color, mood, gut microbiome diversity and overall health! She dives into the importance of gut health and why we need prebiotics, probiotics and polyphenols, as well as the role color plays in the foods we eat. We also got to learn about the incredible anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects from melatonin, as she busts some myths around melatonin being just the "sleep hormone."

Deanna Minich, MS, PhD, CNS, Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner (IFMCP), is a nutrition scientist, international lecturer, teacher, and author, with over twenty years of experience in academia and in the food and dietary supplement industries.

Throughout the years, she has been active as a functional medicine clinician in clinical trials and in her own practice (Food & Spirit™), which has now become oriented towards groups, workshops, and retreats. She is the author of six books on wellness topics, four book chapters, and fifty scientific publications. Her academic background is in nutrition science, including a Master of Science (M.S.) degree in Human Nutrition and Dietetics from the University of Illinois at Chicago (1995) and a Doctorate (Ph.D.) in Medical Sciences (nutrition focus) from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands (1999). For a decade, she was part of the research team led by the “father of Functional Medicine,” Dr. Jeffrey Bland, and has served on the Nutrition Advisory Board for The Institute of Functional Medicine, as well as on the Board of Directors for the American Nutrition Association. 

Since 2013, she has been part of the faculty for the Advanced Practice Module in Environmental Health offered by the Institute for Functional Medicine and has been teaching a graduate level course in metabolic detoxification at the University of Western States. Over the decades, she has taught thousands of nutrition classes for health coaches, fitness trainers, and healthcare professionals, including for programs offered by the Functional Medicine Coaching Academy and the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. In conjunction with her academic degrees and extensive teaching experience at the university level, she is both a Fellow (FACN) and a Certified Nutrition Specialist (CNS) through the American College of Nutrition. She is Chief Science Officer at Symphony Natural Health, where she leads the medical advisory team, oversees scientific communication, and provide educational leadership for the company’s plant-derived nutraceuticals. 

She is passionate about helping others to live well using therapeutic lifestyle changes that impact their physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health.

SHOW NOTES:

0:51 Welcome to the show!

4:34 Dr. Deanna Minich’s Bio

5:49 Welcome Dr. Minich

6:30 Intro to eating the rainbow

9:59 Can we use our intuition?

10:50 Color connections in the body

12:40 Food & Mood tracker

15:19 Chakras & the endocrine system

17:55 Benefits of using data quantification

19:37 *SilverBiotics Ad

22:48 Are our cravings tied to our intuition?

24:20 The color white & the pineal gland

25:59 Yellow and the fire element

27:05 Red & the link to inflammation

29:50 Every color has its own spectrum

32:40 Food diversity & the gut microbiome

38:08 *Nootopia Ad

40:22 Bioindividuality for blood glucose response 

43:05 Anti-nutrients found in food

45:43 Melatonin production in the body

48:13 The precursors of melatonin

50:27 Carb consumption & amino acids

52:04 Should we supplement with melatonin?

56:54 More uses for melatonin

1:01:20 Her final piece of advice

1:01:54 Thanks for tuning in!

RESOURCES:

https://deannaminich.com

https://www.facebook.com/deanna.minich/

https://www.instagram.com/deannaminich/?hl=en

https://www.youtube.com/user/foodandspirit

https://www.linkedin.com/in/deannaminich/

Herbatonin - https://symphonynaturalhealth.com/products/herbatonin-3mg

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Nootopia – code: biohackerbabes10

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