Want to learn about natural weight loss from our experts? Don't miss this episode with Amanda Yue, our functional medicine practitioner, and Shannon Davis, our registered dietitian. They share practical tips and personal experiences for sustainable weight loss.

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Show Notes

• Introduction

• Welcoming Amanda Yue and Shannon Davis

• Overview of their expertise in functional medicine, dietetics, and metabolic health

• Amanda Yue's Background

• Functional medicine practitioner and pharmacist

• Transformed her own health using holistic modalities

• Passion for healing the whole body

• Shannon Davis's Background

• Registered dietitian specializing in metabolic health

• Experience in various medical fields including organ transplant and bariatrics

• Passion for addressing insulin resistance to heal chronic disease

• Discussion on Natural Weight Loss Solutions

• Introduction to GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide)

• Differences between natural GLP-1 and synthetic versions like Ozempic and Wegovy

• Side effects of synthetic GLP-1: nausea, vomiting, muscle wasting, and more

• Concerns about long-term use of synthetic GLP-1

• Natural Alternatives to Synthetic GLP-1

• Yerba mate tea and its benefits

• Fiber matrix drink and its effects on gut health and glucose absorption

• Personal experiences and success stories with natural alternatives

• Practical Tips and Advice

• Importance of diet, nutrition, and exercise

• Benefits of intermittent fasting

• How natural GLP-1 alternatives support weight loss and overall health

• Conclusion

• Encouragement to explore natural solutions

• Invitation to connect for personalized health strategies

Key Takeaways

1. Natural GLP-1 Production: Yerba mate tea can naturally increase GLP-1 levels, aiding in appetite suppression and weight loss without the severe side effects of synthetic drugs.

2. Synthetic GLP-1 Concerns: Synthetic versions like Ozempic and Wegovy can cause severe side effects, including nausea, muscle wasting, and even severe gastrointestinal issues.

3. Holistic Health Approach: Combining natural supplements with diet, exercise, and intermittent fasting is crucial for sustainable weight loss and overall health.

4. Personal Success Stories: Both Amanda and Shannon have seen significant health improvements and weight loss using natural alternatives, which they share from their personal and professional experiences.

5. Quality of Supplements: The natural supplements discussed are of high quality, undergoing rigorous purification processes to ensure safety and effectiveness.

Transcripts

 Welcome back to Better Than A Pill. Today, I'm so excited to have Amanda Yue and Shannon Davis on as guest Amanda. She's been on the podcast before she's back. She's a functional medicine practitioner, a pharmacist, a mountain yoga instructor, and an insulin IQ certified coach. She's passionate about healing the whole body, not just fixing symptoms. 

Which is what she's doing as a retail pharmacist, right? She was able to transform her own health. Through different holistic modalities her mission is to help others achieve health outcomes sustainably. She's found a product that often works better than medication for chronic health issues and studies show that mental health is strongly correlated to metabolic health.

And Shannon is a registered dietitian of 18 years specializing in metabolic health. She has experience in organ transplant, bariatrics. Forced nutrition, nephrology, and pharmaceutical sales. Her passion is helping people shift their focus to insulin resistance in order to heal from chronic disease.

Shannon also enjoys CrossFit, weightlifting, running, riding horses, and other outdoor activities. So welcome Shannon and Amanda.  Thank you.  We're excited to be here. I'm so happy you guys are here.  And today we're going to be talking about natural weight loss solutions.  Natural GLP 1.  I'm excited to get into this.

Let's start off for everybody listening to that. Is struggling with losing weight or maintaining their weight  and maybe some people don't know what GLP 1 is. What, what is that? Yeah, I'll, I'll chime in. So GLP 1 stands for glucagon-like peptide. It is an incretin hormone. It is produced by our body. So our body makes this in our gut, but it makes very small amounts in response to food.

And so this hormone tells our brain we've had enough to eat and it also  plays a role in gut motility. And so what these pharmaceutical companies found was that if we  give you a lot of this, then your appetite is going to be suppressed and people call it the food noise in their head. It's shut off. And then as far as digestion goes, food kind of sits in your belly.

And if you have a belly full of food, you really don't get hungry. The problem we get with these humongous synthetic doses and we've heard, all of us, unless we've lived under a rock for the past year, have heard of Ozempic and Y Gobi, they're the same drug, Y Gobi is just the quote unquote weight loss version, whereas Ozempic is the diabetes version.

So they're the same drug, but they are a synthetic form at a much, much higher dose that keeps that elevation well over like a week span. And so that's where we get some of the terrible side effects because it's just not that natural. And so  if we can find ways To increase our body's own GLP 1 production, then we can get some of the benefits by leaving those nasty side effects out of the equation. 

I see. And so the synthetic versions of this GLP 1 from Ozempic or Wagabi, have side effects like you just mentioned.  What, what kind of?  What kind of side effects?  I'll go, since this is in my wheelhouse, because I just spent a lot of Olympic and Rigobis I've found in the,  I don't know, past  six months or so.

And the main one is nausea, nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, just severe side effects. Just the severe nausea itself, it just makes you not want to eat. Just that itself, you will lose weight that way as well. And what study has shown is also that the weight loss that people are losing, they're losing. muscle mass.

They're not losing fat mass. So that is concerning. And, because of the intestinal side effects, many people end up in the emergency room for blocked intestines, for gastroparesis.  So those are the main side effects that people end up in the hospital.  Yes. And I've heard people share that they couldn't take Either of them because they were experiencing diarrhea.

I've heard that a lot. There's many. Carrie, there's also Chymen with Amanda. Those are the most prevalent. But you will also hear thyroid cancer. You will also hear pancreatitis. We're seeing extreme muscle wasting, they call it the Ozempic face. And now, Dr. Ben Bickman just was talking about, he's a top metabolic specialist, somebody that I highly respect, was talking about Olympic babies.

So people are getting pregnant now, their birth control is failing because it's sitting in their gut. And it's not being metabolized properly. So whoops, we're going to start to see some babies.  Oh my goodness. Wow. So there are pregnant women taking Ozempic and Wagabi.  Is that what, is that what I'm hearing?

They were on it. Okay. Um, and on birth control and their birth control failed because one of the things that Olympic and Weigobi do is they slow down gut motility. So, you know, if you ingest an oral contraceptive and it doesn't get digested and properly metabolized, Then you don't get the benefits of, Amanda can speak probably better on that as a pharmacist, as the MOA, but yeah, I don't think that it's a long term solution.

I know, like I have, I've worked with people. For 18 years in nutrition as a dietitian, I have seen people struggle with lifelong obesity. And so I truly empathize with people when they make the decision to do that. I do not judge because. I can only, no one wants to be overweight. That's the first thing I say is no one ever chooses that route.

And so if people have struggled and tried or felt like they've tried everything and Amanda and I have another alternative that we'll, we'll speak to, but if they feel like they've tried everything and now. There is a solution. I understand. I understand  with everything that I have in me why they are going that route.

All I want to educate and inform people on is if you do go that route, you must understand we don't know the long term side effects. There are some short term side effects that we're seeing very  prevalent today. And  you have to make healthy food choices. You have to change your food. And that's one of the things that people are so hell bent on not doing is the work, is changing the food and doing the exercise.

And we want the easy way out sometimes without thinking about, okay, what are the consequences? From that and so that's I don't want people to think that I am completely against it or hate it or anything like that. I do think that it does serve a purpose. I just think that. It's being abused right now, severely abused by people that don't need to lose, but maybe five to 10 to 20 pounds when what could happen long term.

We don't know.  Yeah. That makes sense. It's like, they're almost like we're going to use this drug instead of wanting to make the changes to their lifestyle, which if we take a drug and we're not. making the changes to our lifestyle. It's more than just weight loss that we're talking about here. We're talking about our overall health and being so we can lose weight in an unhealthy way.

or healthy manners, right?  Correct. Especially these GLP 1 agonists, such as Ozembe Guaygovis and Seb Pound, they do work. Yes, they work very well, but the thing is you have to adjust your lifestyle. You have to, you have to implement diet, nutrition, and exercise, weight resistant exercise. If you're not doing all those things and just Simply using the injections, like Shannon said, we don't know the long term side effects.

And from what Dr. Bickman, Benjamin Bickman had shared with us in the insulin IQ community that in about 24 months, these medications could show the decrease in the efficacy of it. And then, and also some insurance is not covering these medications long term. And when people come off, if you're not implementing diet, nutrition and exercise, and you're just using the injection and you stop the injections, you're going to get these rebound side effects.

You're going to gain the weight back and you're gaining  fat mass back. You're not gaining those muscle mass back, especially people with people who are in menopause, people like myself, people, elderly, especially women. We need our muscle mass as we get older. And we're not gaining those back, so that is a concern. 

Yeah, that's always been a question of mine, is like, when you stop the injections, do you gain the weight back? And how long do you have to take these injections? Is this something you have to be on for life, or? I think the drug companies would want you to be on for life because then you become a moneymaker for them for long periods of time.

I think that  where, where maybe they could  use this for the good is okay. Implementing a what's next protocol for people. And that's where Amanda and I come in because we have been working with people. That either were on these medications or could not tolerate these medications and working with some weight loss centers in providing them with an option to what's next.

And if  patients or clients are on, say, a six week protocol of a semaglutide towards the end of their six week journey. Implementing this natural alternative that Amanda and I use to keep appetite suppressed, to maintain the weight loss in a natural, healthier way, so that everything they've accomplished isn't just thrown in the trash.

And so now they can feel confident coming off and not afraid because they do have a what's next. And even working with us as far as  Picking better food choices, food choices that don't spike insulin. And we can talk about insulin at a later point, but not spiking insulin. That is the master hormone that controls hunger and fat storage, making sure that you've Amanda mentioned resistance exercise, because believe it or not, muscle is longevity.

Yeah, that totally makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. From a metabolic standpoint, we need that. Not only that, we could talk for, I think that's my area, so I'd love to tell you that, but yeah. So it sounds like there is a natural solution. Let's talk about this. So what is that? Natural solution for weight loss. What the people listening today, what can somebody do if they've been on Ozempic or we'll gotta be there coming off, they need a next step, or if they don't even want to go that route and they don't want to put that drug in their body, but yet they are struggling with weight loss, what can they do?

We, Shannon and I, we, we take these. So, basically, this is tea. I'll do the tea. Shannon can do the other one. It's a fiber matrix. So this is what I drink. I woke up in the morning. I mix one of these into this bottle here, about 30 ounces of water, and that's what I drink in the morning. I drink it in a fasted state.

Intermittent fasting will help to bring down insulin. The problem with insulin resistance is that we have too much insulin. It's not a matter of not enough insulin. It's that our cells, some of our cells are not functioning properly. Uh, they're resistant to insulin. And how you can fix that is to practice intermittent fasting to bring down the insulin level.

And that is intermittent fasting. And this kind of helps you to suppress it. This tea here, it's a concentrated yerba mate tea. It helps to suppress hunger, and according to the latest study, it can increase your GLP, one similar to the ozempic and the rygovy, up to 60-70%. in a fasted state. So it shuts off the food noise, decreasing your cravings for carbs and sugars.

I used to be a snacker. I used to eat every couple hours. I have snacks all over in my pocket at work, in my cars, in my purse, like protein bars, thinking that they're healthy, nuts. And I would just feed myself every hour, half an hour or so. So what this can do is to help  you to sustain that fat  and then it has other benefits as well.

So the major compound in this tea is chlorogenic acid. It helps to decrease inflammation, suppress your hunger, but it also helps to slow down gastric emptying. It does similar things as the ozempic and the wegovy. What other things can this do? It helps to improve muscle efficiency. Remember, so I go read Manjaro.

It makes you lose muscle mass, causing muscle wasting. This actually helps you. The muscle helps with muscle efficiency and it also increases fat inefficiency. So meaning that you burn more fat. Yeah, in a fasted state. Anything else? What's the tea here? And it's very easy and it's very tasty. So it can, it, the chlorogenic acid, if you Google chlorogenic acid.

I'm going to chime in to add on to what Amanda said. She covered it almost perfectly, but you'll see you've got some anti carcinogenic properties. It's fantastic at lowering blood pressure. I don't really know the mechanism of action. But I've had so many clients come off of their blood pressure medication after implementing this protocol.

It clears brain fog. I have a lot of children that are on the Unimate because they don't, their parents don't want them on. ADD meds. So it really truly helps with focus. Fantastic energy. But again, back to the chlorogen. You'll see anti diabetic, anti carcinogenic, antiviral, antioxidant, anti inflammatory.

It's an amazing compound. And so it's unlike anything I've seen in my 18 year career. I can tell you that. I'm super excited. Thank you guys. So I, so those of you listening, I am starting to drink this tea. It's a yerba mate tea and I'm using it personally. I'm for gut related issues. I'm having a lot of gut health, a separate issue from weight loss.

So I'm not. Really struggling with that, but  I like the taste of it.  I can tell you, and I'm very new to the process. I love to hear that it has all these positive side effects. It obviously can help with curbing our appetite, the GLP one for people that are listening in specifically for weight loss, but it helps with  the collagenic acid that's something that is.

The power in this product, it sounds like, and the yerba mate, the natural has natural antioxidants as well, which is awesome. And it can help with mood and focus, which I have to tell you, I've been feeling really great. And I'm just, I'm, I trust you all and very much. I wouldn't do something like that. A product that wasn't obviously  recommended by you and studies have been done on this product from understanding Cleveland Clinic.

You guys have done your research. Yes. Right? It's not like this is just a, it's just a product. It's and you have experience.  So speak a little bit about your experience, which is a lot more than mine. Sure. I'll tag on the remaining part. And it's funny that you said, Carrie, that you just feel good because it's called the feel great system.

And for that reason, the second part, so Amanda went over the T, we call it the T. It's called Balance. It's a fiber matrix. And so what is so cool about this, it's a blend of seven different types of soluble and insoluble fiber. So it's, you go to the grocery store, you buy Miralax, or you buy Metamucil.

Those are single source fibers. And they're pretty low grade quality. When you mix a soluble and an  insoluble fiber in this combination, it forms a matrix, an impenetrable membrane. Dr. Robert Lustig is a pediatric endocrinologist. He talks about looking at this matrix. under a microscope and it's almost like a net, like a mesh that serves, we can look at it like a carb blocker.

It slows the absorption of carbohydrates or glucose and fat and cholesterol. And so, also, speaking of you, I know you're working on improving your gut health because gut health is so important for so many things, for nutrient absorption, for our mood. Our gut is our second brain, and that's where our neurotransmitters are produced.

So it is imperative that we have a healthy gut. So when we feed our bugs good stuff, they grow and flourish, and the bad boys die off. And so this is not only a quote unquote carb blocker, but it's also a prebiotic. So you mix this up, you drink it directly before your largest meal or your largest carb containing meal, and it slows the absorption of the glucose.

or carbohydrates, fat and cholesterol. So it expands in your gut. So you get fuller faster and stay fuller longer. And our most recent study published the participants. Now I love this. It makes me giggle. They ate  waffles, two waffles, and some orange juice with syrup. Now that is. Sugarbomb City right there.

So that's what they had. And after consuming the balance, they had that, and they had their postprandial, or after a meal, their glucose was 43 percent lower in the group that drank the balance than in the control group. So we have significant improvements for people with diabetes, and it's pretty incredible.

So that's the second part. But as far as I know you asked, I'll tell, since I'm already talking, I'll tell my experience and then Amanda can go. I've been using the product now for almost a year and a half, October. Or September will be two years. I got on the product because I struggle with familial hypercholesterolemia.

It runs in my family, and I have been prescribed a statin for  as long as I can remember, at least ten years, which I choose not to take because I personally think they're trash. Um, and I'm not putting that in my body. And so I have always been practicing what I preach. I've always been an avid exerciser.

I've always tried to eat to the best of my ability, but yet I could still never get my numbers within range. And I got on this product as a self experiment to see what it could do for me. And within 12 weeks, my triglycerides went from 2 50, 2 50,  and my HDL or your good cholesterol went from 53 to 122. I was wow. 

Blown away, but that was just the lab work. I had acid reflux my whole life. That's gone. I am a sugar Fanatic like an Attic with a capital A and if my cravings on a scale of 1 to 10 were 20  They are now about 4 so that sugar doesn't control me anymore and so IT will take this for the rest of my life because  I believe in it that much.

Wow.  That's awesome. Thank you so much for sharing that. That's powerful. Very powerful right there. So like Shannon said, I will also be taking this for the rest of my life. Cause we got questions like, how long do you need to take this? I say you decide for me because of the benefits from it. I was able to cut my triglyceride, which is the bad cholesterol, which is the lipid that's flowing in your bloodstream, which is the.

Um, cholesterol that's causing plaques. I was able to reduce mine to about  45%, both my husband and I, and my husband also has, um, cholesterol runs in his family as well. The main reason why I started this journey was for my daughter who has PCO, PCOS and Hashimoto's and she's 23 and her cholesterol was like up in the 200  and it's okay, we got to do something.

Um, about this and I'm already a functional medicine practitioner. I already taught her how to eat fat protein and fiber and stress management and all that. And we still are not able to get her triglyceride down and then the weight around her thigh. So after being on this for four months, she was able to lose the weight.

She was able to bring down her cholesterol too. The normal range, ideal range. She lost weight around the hips, around the belly, and she has energy.  So it's just, again, there's just so many nutrients in the tea. And then the fiber in this package, it's like you're eating a big  bowl of salad every time when you take this.

Many people do not get enough fiber into their diet, let alone soluble and insoluble fibers of this quality.  And these products are especially good for tea. So some people might google  Yobamate tea and they're going to go get it from the store. Our advice is that this tea undergoes a patent extraction  purification process compared to the tea that you would get from the store where they just  fire roast and then steep.

So you don't, you still have carcinogens, you still have contaminants in those tea, whereas this, um, it gets removed. And ours is 365.  times the amount of chlorogenic acid that's in one glass of regular yerba mate tea. So I'm glad you pointed that out, Amanda. They concentrate it so that you're getting the beneficial compounds without the impurities.

Okay. So this is a very high quality that you can't find on the shelves. Correct. Or Amazon. Okay. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. Just to end this, which is the reason why they could not sell this in the store? Because the package doesn't talk, but we talk. We can educate people. We can explain why these supplements work the way they do and why it's, it's, these are high, they're quality supplements.

And so that's why we're selling the product this way. That's why the company  uses us to educate people and what's right,  don't worry if it comes to you, let me know. But yeah, it's your living proof. This is what I'm looking at right now. It's like living proof of something that's working and that's where the power is and it's not a pill. 

This is better than a pill, right?  Absolutely.  Better than a pill.  And I think in knowing you and trusting you, you wouldn't just take something just to take. You obviously  are a functional medicine practitioner, so there's a lot of different products you can choose from. And so that's what really began to get my attention when we were speaking back earlier.

And so I'm like, okay, now I'm, okay, I'm going to try this with the fiber drink. For me, what I am doing for my digestion is I'm taking a half a pack before lunch and before dinner. Is that, and that's okay. You just split up the pack and everything. Absolutely. Absolutely. A lot of people that may have gut issues or unhealthy gut will do that and then work their way up to a full pack.

I have a gut of steel, I say. And so I just went full blast in and did not have an issue, but you can't, there is no wrong way by going about it slowly and introducing your gut microbiota to this new diverse form of fiber. Got it. I also want to mention the caffeine issue because that was something that was concerning to me when I started.

Now, I like coffee, but I drink it as a treat and then I'll do like natural stuff or whatever. So I thought my body really reacts to caffeine. I can tell you that I haven't really had a problem and that's amazing. And I'm drinking two cups a day or two of the packs a day because it doesn't do the same thing to my body that other caffeine does.

And I can't explain that, but I can tell you that it also has not affected my sleep, which I am very happy about because I was concerned about that as well. Cause I'm, I have a sleep schedule. I follow, I go to bed early, I get up early. And so I'm like, oh no, but that has not been an issue. And so I'm here to share that so far, my experience.

And just thought I'd throw that at you guys as well, as you're more knowledgeable on that too. Just to explain that why you're not experiencing those side effects as you would in coffee is because the caffeine in this tea does not elicit the same response of, it does not increase the amount of epinephrine release as the coffee, as the caffeine in coffee.

So only elicit about 15%. So therefore you don't get the same side effects. You don't get that jittery feeling causing insomnia at night. So even people who are caffeine sensitive can tolerate this, but  that's cool. And if, but if you are, you can just drink half of a pack rather than the whole pack. So everybody's different, right?

Yeah, absolutely. And that's important. And I think having you guys here as experts and also knowing that you're using the product in your lives is powerful because people are going to have questions. And I know myself, I've reached out to you. already several times because we're all uniquely made. God did not make us the same and we're not going to assume we're going to respond the same or it's just not, it's not true.

And that, that would have scared me away from using something. Oh yeah, you just do that. No, because I know I'm different. Yeah.  Yeah, the symptom from the symptoms from our body is information is your body's way of communicating with you. Hey, Carrie, this is not what I need. Or Hey, Carrie, this is good.

Oh, Carrie, give me more or give me less. So listen to the symptoms. It's part of your data, right? Like the lab work you get from the doc from the lab facility is one and your symptom is one your family history is also one. another data. So you use all of them together to make an informed decision for yourself.

Very well said. Thank you both so much for coming on here today and making people aware. about this product and also how it is an alternative for Ozempic and Wegovy and a natural alternative for weight loss. A lot of people out there need to hear that. You know that I've gone public. I'm using the product for different reasons here.

So I'm grateful to have you guys on and explaining. And I know you're going to be coming back on the podcast, which I'm really excited about too. And I, in this episode for people listening, I will have included the link for the feel great system. So you can find out more information. about it. And thank you, Amanda.

Thank you, Shannon. Carrie, may I say one more thing before we hop off? Absolutely. I want people to think that these products are in the pdr. net, which is a reference that medical practitioners use to look up any medication. So it's very well respected. We have  over a dozen clinical trials backing these products up, but Every person that purchases these products gets a 90 day money back guarantee carried.

So if for whatever reason, You're not satisfied. You can request a full refund. No questions asked. I just want everyone to know that, but I am so blessed to be here. I appreciate it. And if there's, if any of your listeners have questions, please don't hesitate to reach out.  Absolutely. Thank you, Shannon.

And thank you, Amanda. And yay. If you are ready to live pain free and you want to enjoy your favorite activities with confidence, let's connect with a consultation. I'll provide you with personalized insights and strategies to help. Jumpstart your health and wellness goals. And you can schedule your consultation by clicking the link in this episode or reaching out to support a movement craft.

com. And because you are an exclusive listener to the better than a pill podcast, you will receive significant savings for your consultation. And remember we release new episodes every other week on Wednesday, and I truly look forward to having you join me then.