S8 EP5: The Latina Anti-Diet W/ Dalina Soto

[00:00:00] What's up, Primos, Primas, and Primas? Welcome to My Primos, My Primos, My Primo Podcast. Welcome to the My Primos Podcast. My name is Freddy. My name is Kevin Garcia. My name is Elia Maria Matiz. My name is Jonathan Dina. This is Chukumi. Whenever I can make it. My Primos Podcast discusses all things fandom and pop culture. From comic books, movies, to whatever obsession we have this week. But with a Latine, Latine, Latine perspective. Remember, we're all Primos. We're all Primas. Primas. Primos. No matter what the world is.

[00:00:30] What part of the world we're from. Que hondas, Primos, Primas, y Primes? And welcome to My Primos Podcast. I'm your Primo, Freddy. And thanks for coming for the show. Everybody here today, we have some special guests. Guests, you know? We have with us, of course, my Primo and yours, Mr. John Avino. Say what's up, John. What's up, John? John Avino. Of course, always, always, always, always, John.

[00:00:59] And returning to the show, after I think it's been a couple years, it's been about a season or so, we have Aide, the down-ass vata coming back. Oh, yeah. Thank you for it. You remembered the name. I remembered the name. I have a pretty good memory, you know? Hi, y'all. Hey, we'll say what's up, Aide, to everybody. What's up, everyone? Nice to be back. Hello, man. Yeah, I'm glad you're back. You were excited to come on the show because of our guests. And, of course, she's right there with us here in the room.

[00:01:28] My one who's welcome is Dalina Soto. Dalina, I want you to just introduce yourselves to the primos out there and kind of mention why you're on the show today. Thank you for having me. I'm on the show because I've read a book that you all read, which is super exciting. I'm a registered dietitian, and I talk all things food in a good way. I'm not the food police. Please don't ask me what to eat because that's very personal.

[00:01:58] I'm not putting you on a diet. That's not happening. And I love food. Awesome. The book we're talking about is The Latina Anti-Diet, which, by the way, is launching today, the 18th. So, as of recording, this book is available for purchase, primos, The Latina Anti-Diet. Congrats! Thank you! Congratulations, Dalina. Thank you, thank you. Well, primos, let's kind of get the formalities out of the way.

[00:02:24] You guys can follow us at MyPrimosPodcast and MyPrimosPodcast.com. And, of course, today's show is sponsored, guys. It is sponsored today. It is sponsored by Patreon.com slash MyPrimos, where you can go support your primos. Of course, enjoy shows like Meal Mondays, Weekend Wednesdays. And, of course, Mr. Garcia's Comic Book Thursday. So, go check us out there. Support the show. And just let us know this is what you want, primos. Because, again, we're building a community. And unapologetically, primos. All right? Let's make this happen. But today, let's dive right in.

[00:02:54] Dalina, I want to just kind of go around the room here. I'm going to have everybody give you your flowers. And, Aidee, what were your thoughts on the book overall? I mean, I read a little bit. We're not going to give too much away. But just kind of bird's eye view of the book for the primos here. Yeah, I want to make sure, Dalina, you tell me if I'm giving too much away. But I really love the perspective of different storytelling through different lenses of different women and kind of what they were going through. I definitely connected with many of them.

[00:03:23] And I can pick and choose moments where I'm like, oh, yes, yes, yes. And then mostly, I really appreciate all the cussing. I really... I was there with you. I was just like, yeah, fuck yeah, it's hard. Yeah. Yeah. So, thank you. Thank you. John, what about you? Man, your thoughts overall? Quick recap or thoughts on the book? I love food positivity. I come from a family that works in the kitchen.

[00:03:53] So, my grandpa opened a torteria. Yeah. And a lot of times when I see stuff about diet, because I've struggled with that and stuff myself, tortillas are usually the first thing they tell you to cut. They're just like, they have to go. And then so do all the foods that go with it. And I was like, but they're a part of me. So, it's hard. And then even more so, I have five sisters. So, I've been a part of every diet fad since like 2001 along with them. And this really helped give me perspective on what they were going through,

[00:04:23] those times, those specific things. It made me appreciate where they're at now with food and their kind of relationship and really helped me kind of get through that too. Wow. Wow. Me, personally, again, I grew up with sisters. And that hit home as well. Just kind of seeing those struggles and those, you know, me and I have shared kind of conversations about that or our struggles with that because I really do believe there's a, I've heard so many different things. You know, I have trouble with weight myself.

[00:04:51] But it's always been the conversation of food's not emotional. There's no emotional connection to food. And I'm like, totally. They're like, man, there are some times where like a pupusa just hits the right way. Yeah, it does. It does. Like right here. You know what I mean? And I think that what I learned, kind of what I read in the book, and to be fair and honest, you know, I didn't finish it yet. I'm really enjoying it. As one would a great meal, right? The historical aspect of it.

[00:05:19] Like, I really kind of was like, I love, I'm a geek for that stuff. You know, lore and history. And just to kind of, you pinpoint so many factors that, you know what? Yes, you connect the dots. Like, it makes sense why this is how it is now. And how the construct of society and, you know, colonizers. And the isms, you know? All the isms. All that, man. So I was like, yes, you're speaking my language. And it's very, man, it's just happening. Consumable.

[00:05:47] It's not over your head, you know? It's not like you're shoving the textbook down your throat. Like, you know, all these facts and measures. And I'm sure if we wanted to, we could, right? But no, like, I enjoy that. And I kind of jump up right there to my first kind of deal. What inspired you to really write this book and decide, you know what? This is the way that I'm going to do it. Yeah. So, I mean, when I became a dietitian, I didn't think I was going to be on social media or writing a book.

[00:06:16] But, and honestly, I never thought about it until, obviously, someone came to me and was like, do you want to write a book? And I was like, oh, guys, I mean, why not? I'll try. And then, yeah. And then it kind of, like, went from there. I mean, it was a long process. So I wrote this proposal. It sat on my desktop for, like, two years. And then my friend Shauna wrote a book, which is this one. It's called Live Nourished. Her handle is The Nutrition Tea.

[00:06:42] And she was like, hey, you should probably talk to my agent because I know you have this, like, proposal sitting around. I was like, all right. I don't know. I'm kind of over it now. And she's like, no, no, talk to them. So I did. And so this agency has two wonderful women. And so, obviously, the person that I was working with, Shauna, was like, I can't take you on. Obviously, you and Shauna are doing the same work. Your book is going to be very similar. So Kate took me on, which is the other co-founder.

[00:07:11] And she literally shopped my book. In, like, two weeks, she had five publication agencies, like, ready for me. And I was like, holy shit. That's cool. And then it was like, it happened. I was like, oh, crap. Here I am actually writing a book. But what made you go this route? I know. What made you kind of go to that route? Like, man, like, I don't see myself out there in this world. What was it?

[00:07:40] So I think, I mean, I've never seen myself in this world just because, you know, I think the latest data says 13% of dieticians are, you know, identify Latina, Latinx, Latina. Yeah. And I think that, you know, I'll talk about this in the book, but like a lot of them are very white passing. And so like a lot of them assimilate a lot to the nutrition standards. They really, you know, accept what they're being taught.

[00:08:05] And so even from like an Astro-Latina lens, there's very, very minimal representation. And I think even from a Caribbean perspective, right, I think something that I, you know, always talk about when I'm in the field and talking to other dieticians, a lot of our like resources are always written in high, like level Spanish, which is really hard for a lot of our clients and patients to understand. And two, it's very Mexican culture.

[00:08:35] And again, I love Mexican food. It's amazing. But like South America isn't really, you know, identified in that and the food, the Caribbean is like not even there half of the time. And I think, yeah, it's unexisting. And I think, you know, obviously I live on the East Coast. Well, not obviously. I live on the East Coast. And so I grew up very much with like a Caribbean mix of Latinos, right? I grew up very much with like the Puerto Ricans, the Cubans, the Dominicans, Mexican. Yes. But we don't have that big population.

[00:09:03] I think like as the West Coast where I go to the West Coast and people don't even think I speak Spanish. I have to look at me and they're like, so I think that that's something that was missing a lot to like that perspective of like all of the community, all of the cultures and also written from a space where it wasn't just like, here's all the science and this is why you should do it. I really wanted people to understand what I was saying. I didn't want it to be like a medical book. Like that wasn't the point.

[00:09:32] I wanted it to be a book for someone who if they can't go to a dietician, if they don't have insurance, if they just can't afford to work with somebody, I wanted them to get something out of my book where they can start at least having a healthier lifestyle without having to change any of their foods. Wow. John, you know, you talk about how your background, your family, I would say, and your personal life. I mean, cooking is important to you, man. Like what have you heard?

[00:10:00] I mean, we talked about it kind of briefly, maybe offline a little bit, how Latino foods get stigmatized that's fatty and bad for you. And I mean, what are your thoughts on that? Especially after reading Kalina's book. Yeah. Well, like my uncle, so my dad and my uncle still managed a torteria and my uncle was saying the other day that he wanted to go on a diet. So we were in a Mexican neighborhood because that's where the torteria is. And like every place I mentioned, it was being vetoed.

[00:10:30] And he's like, no, it's too fatty. It's too this. It's too that. And I was just, I keep telling him like American food, like there's kind of like the standard of like white food would be the healthier. Like he jumped to salads right away. And I was like, you're going to be hungry in an hour. Like, I know we're, we're working. We're on our feed. We're carrying heavy boxes. I was like, you're just kind of denying yourself in the moment to do more later with it.

[00:10:55] I was like, so just like eat what you want now and just regulate yourself on your downtime when you're not as active. But you know, it's coming from me. So he's like, what do you know? Yeah. You hear, I mean, do you hear that a lot, Alina? I mean, as far as like when, when families or people maybe in your own circle, maybe have, you know, worked with you around you. Um, is the book going to push them to listen? Because it's like my house too. If I say something, they don't care.

[00:11:25] They're like, whatever. You're not doing so. But I mean, what has been the reception from your, your own circles near you regarding the food and how to make those changes or accommodate or no? My family doesn't listen to me. Are you kidding? I was like, right? Yeah. I'm being the first person in human history. Right. Oh shit. You listen to me. It took writing a book. Give for a living. I have to tell you, what do you do? I'm like, why, why are you calling me? Right. Why are you asking me this question? Um, they care about it.

[00:11:55] It's about somebody else in their life. Not about them themselves. You know, like they'll call me about like a friend. Yeah. They'll be like, well, my friend. And I'm like, I don't care. Actually trying not to because it's hard to mix family and business. We know that. But it's kind of like that. I mean, they listen to me. They still see me as like the little kid. Like even my parents, I'm still a little kid. Like they, they really don't take me serious half the time. So I just gave up a long time ago. I just nod my head.

[00:12:24] I say, I'm really okay. And I just don't, I don't, I just don't. You know, it's crazy because we're all parents here. Right. I think my, my, that 15 year old. Okay. And I promise you that, uh, you know, the struggles of food and kind of these things, like John said earlier too, he's like, Oh, it always reverts to chicken breast and, and, and salad. And, and that's the best stuff. Don't eat so much bread. Don't eat so much arroz. And then I'm like, well, shit, if I'm eating carne, I need some rice or some beans. And then I hear, Oh, Hey, go on.

[00:12:53] Don't eat beans. Don't eat beans. They're bad for you. Or el arroz. Nope. Don't eat the brown. Or eat the, don't eat the white rice. Don't eat the white rice. Yeah. It's like a whole headache. Blastomy. You have, you and John have the younger kids, man. Like, um, after reading this, I'll be real with you. Like it made me kind of double thing. Like shit. Like I've deprived my child of some decent ass meals, you know, because of the, the, the shit you get fed, you know, in culture.

[00:13:22] I mean, what do you feel after that? I mean, do you feel it all that way? Well, I have a picky eater and then I have the, the one that eats everything. Like he's into our gut. He's into everything that we eat. He'll even eat like Chile. He'll be like pica. It was like, Oh, but it's good. It's good. And he'll eat it. And then my picky eater. Yes.

[00:13:46] Um, I have to really negotiate with her, but I think that what she really is into is a lot of fruits. Um, maybe not as many veggies as she should be according to her doctor or whatever. But, you know, I don't, I don't feel bad for picking up a pizza or chicken nuggets and fries once in a while, because I know that I offset that at home with, you know, strawberries.

[00:14:12] My berry, um, savings account is always, yes. It's a lot. It's so much. Like it's so expensive to keep up with their gustos, but there's always strawberries. They're into pomegranates. It's like, we're always trying new foods. All the expensive stuff. All the expensive stuff is what they like. But you know what? If that's what you're going to eat. In my head, I'm like, oh, it's good. Congrats.

[00:14:41] And you made the mistake. We're good. Yeah. I made the mistake of introducing, uh, dragon fruit. And they're like, yes, we like. Oh. Oh. So now she's like, when are we going to get dragon fruit? And I'm like, oh, good question. I haven't found any. Or she loves rambutan. It's like this Asian little, uh, it's like red and it has like pelitos.

[00:15:11] And in the middle, it's like white meat with a seed. It's like in the Asian markets. Yeah. Okay. I mean, all to say is, uh, your book really kind of reminded me like, it's okay. It's okay to indulge once in a while, knowing that there's a balance and not feel guilty. Um, I don't know if I can share her name, the name of the story, but Carmen. Oh, there it is. Yes. Those are amazing.

[00:15:41] They're sweet. 60. Oh no. Oh my God. What's that? I'm telling you, these kids have expensive taste. I've never seen this before. I know. You can't get your hands on it. It's very good. This is a special fruit. You know, it is. It is definitely one of those, like you've been, you've been doing a great job. You've been listening.

[00:16:10] Like you want some Ramutan? Wow. Nuh-uh, girl. But what did you say? One of the stories, um, Carmen, can I say? Yeah, they're all, none of the names are like real. I've made them all up as I want. Oh, great. Okay. So Carmen's, um, story really resonated with me because at some point you talked about that mom guilt that she carried of like not taking care of herself. And I think that recently I've had,

[00:16:39] um, to face that like reality that I'm buying all these fruits, but I'm not actually consuming them because I'm so concerned about feeding them and making sure that there's enough for them. And at the end of the day, I'm like, Oh, the berry tray is empty. And now I, was it good? What did it, were they sweet? So I've been really trying to make it an effort to get my share or,

[00:17:09] you know, enjoy that with them, sit down and actually enjoy, because I feel like most of the time I'm just like this waitress being like, here's your fruit. Here's your, this, here's your, that, and never really making time for enjoying that, you know, that fruit and just kind of like that memory of being a child and eating and just not caring about what's going on around you. And just kind of like letting the juices pour. Wow.

[00:17:39] I really want to say that story too, because I, I'm the like main chef in the house. I love cooking. I just love cooking. Oh, I will cook, but I will eat over the stove because I'm making for everyone. And then like, at the end I asked everyone, like, how was it? Was it good? And they're like, well, didn't you eat it? I was like, well, I ate this portion while I was pouring into this portion while I was doing this. And then we'll sit and it never really dawned on me. I'm not really enjoying the meal.

[00:18:06] I'm just consuming because I got to keep going to give out to other people. And then my wife will do that when I'm not home with my son. Like we do have a lot of fruit. Like he loves fruit. Thank God. But she won't eat like the pepinos or whatever we have because she was like, oh, we're saving it for Ben when he wants it. So we have it for him. And I'm like, no, it's okay that we eat it too. Like we could always get more, but there is kind of like a price barrier. I think for a lot of people when they start to look into diet. And I,

[00:18:35] I was going to ask you about that. Do you think like your client base sometimes gets scared when they think about like diets because they see that barrier at like the checkout lane and stuff? I think it's a, it's a lot of things. I think now like in today's climate, yes. Fuso is a barrier. I think more than anything, the organic versus conventional is really where the barrier is because, you know, these wellness people will tell you like, you can only eat organic and they have like the dirty dozen.

[00:19:03] And I didn't go into it too much in the book. Like I explained how like, it doesn't matter, you know, from a nutrition perspective, it doesn't matter. And like even organic, it's still sprayed. How are you going to keep the bugs away? How are you going to keep the critters away? Right. Don't fool yourself. Don't fool yourself. Exactly. Like pesticides are not the problem. It's people not having access to food. That's the problem. And also the amount of pesticides.

[00:19:26] Like I go on a lot of farm tours and like the amount of pesticides that they put in like a six gallon thing of water that sprays, you know, like three or four acres. It's probably like one ounce. Like the amount that's actually going onto the food is so minuscule. Um, and you should be washing your fruit. Anyway, I think you should be washing all of your food anyway. So like, by the time we consume it, there's like nothing there. Of course,

[00:19:53] the issue is when people are actually like spraying it themselves or working with the chemical, if they don't have the proper PPE, obviously that's a whole different conversation for like how we treat our farm workers in this country. But as a consumer, we're not being exposed to it. Right. And I think that that's where I see it the most is that people are like, I have to buy organic, especially berries because it's like one of the bigger ones on the dirty dozen. So I see it from that perspective.

[00:20:16] And I also see it from people like not wanting to buy canned or frozen because they think it's not good for you. Um, and sometimes like you have to lean into those things because foods are not in season. I mean, we live in a huge country and food, most of our food fruits and vegetables are coming from California. At least for me, like on the East coast, like I don't have access to like amazing tasting strawberries all this time. Like this time of the year, my strawberries aren't that great. Um, because you know, they're,

[00:20:46] they're not in season. So I am in the bottom half or fucking dead. You know what I mean? Like it's like one day and they're all brown. Yeah. So it's like, you have to, in an ideal world, right. We would all be buying seasonally. We would all have access. Everything would, wouldn't travel so much. But I think it's like, we really have to view it from a lens of like, what can I do? Like, what can I afford? My kids only eat fruits too. Like vegetables are not something that my kids are like, Oh my God, let me have some vegetables.

[00:21:15] you're like a bad parent. The worst parent here. My kid, my kid. Is the opposite.

[00:22:01] Ready? I'm going out, kids. I'm going out, you can't be vegetables. I would argue that he is. He's a great kid. So here's the thing with James. Here's the thing. Eating lots of vegetables. Doesn't eat vegetables. 15. Doesn't eat vegetables. Wait, this is, this is, I have a, um, sideline. I know Jimmy's, um, is going to edit this. He's editing this by the way.

[00:22:27] But I remember you all coming to visit and you all giving him just the egg wipes because he didn't eat the yolk. And, uh, me and Walter at the time didn't have kids. And like, we're just kind of like, he, he, he, look at them. They're like separating the yolk and like, you know, we're just kind of making fun of you all catering. Um, and now, now, you know, my child, my child running errands to get some coconuts. Right.

[00:22:57] This kid won't eat fruit, won't eat vegetables that go on his own. Nobody does. Right. But like, he just doesn't, we've never, let me rephrase. My wife did most of the heavy, the heavy lifting. I love you, wifey. The heavy lifting. She did the heavy lifting. I did nothing. Okay. Um, but when I did, when we make me, we eat together or whatnot, I'm guilty of it. And tell me, you know, this kind of feeds into the book again, again, the Latina anti diet out today. Primos, please go check it out. Great cover,

[00:23:27] by the way. I love it. Oh, thank you. Well, what I was getting at is the guilt part about, oh, you know, we're worried about what we feed them and we're eating, whatnot. I came from a school of, I don't give a fuck. You're eating that. You eat it. All of it. You, everything on that plate. Um,

[00:23:53] I've even had to get, I got into like a screaming, fit because I wanted my kid to eat a sandwich with mayo on it. Like, I was like, you have to not, I got to gloss my mind. And like, I don't know if I reverted back to my grandfather or something like, and my kid looked at me in tears in his eyes. He's like, I don't want to, I don't want that. And I walked away. My wife's like,

[00:24:22] you overreacted. Number one, it's just a fucking sandwich. And man, it was bad for him anyways. Like, what, what are you, what is your thing? And I'm like, I was so used to, you don't know where your next meal is going to come from. So whatever is put in front of you, you fucking eat it because I can't guarantee you're going to have dinner. I can't guarantee you're going to have the next meal. And have you found, and maybe touch on the book a little bit, because there's a whole ideal of what's considered the body type, you know, for, for work, you know, and my mom,

[00:24:52] my dad worked with his hands. Hey, eat all the tortillas because you need every piece of strength you need. Cause you're going to go dig a hole for 10 hours, you know? And then the ideal of, oh, like, what do you want? Like, you want me to be strong or you want me to be? Like it's massive. But my kid, for example, is to kind of in that he doesn't need a lot of vegetables and he's, he's more of a taster. Like he'll eat certain foods. He eats tofu. Like he loves tofu. Like he never introduced it to him until he was older. Oh, seafood.

[00:25:21] He is very minimal. What he eats, very particular in what he eats. Venturous in certain occasions, but he won't do the things that, and I feel bad. I'm like, shit, like, should I have been more? And this is the thing. I don't want to force my kid to eat fruits and vegetables when he's little. Now he's 15. Forget it. He's not going to do it until he wants to, but. Has that been touched on? And what you do or any, anywhere later in the book, maybe, or in the book that they can kind of attribute to these creencias, these like.

[00:25:49] traditions that we as Latinos have kind of dealt with. Yeah. So there's a chapter in the book where I talk about that. And I talk about, yeah, that like almost scarcity mentality that a lot of our families have because they grew up in countries where you did not know when your next meal was going to be. I don't touch upon the kids. And like how to speak kids. Just because that, you could write a whole nother book. On that.

[00:26:16] But I think it's important to understand that like our job as a parent is to offer. And I talk a lot about in the book, how we were raised and that like, right? Like you didn't really have a choice. And so like we, like they viewed kids as children, like to be seen and not heard. Right. We always heard that. We, we weren't treated as little humans, right? Like a lot of times we had to be adults. We were never allowed to be children.

[00:26:45] And I talk a lot about like the parentification of like many of us, especially like me as the eldest daughter, the one that spoke English, the one that had to translate everything, the one that had to be the third adult. And the equation and my brothers, they didn't have to deal with that. Because we are. Raise your hand. Are we, I think we have a, we have a new podcast. The third adult. The third adult. Yeah. But my brothers did it. Yeah.

[00:27:14] I'm the oldest boy out of seven kids. So my older sister, she got like, I felt bad because nobody would ask her of anything, but they were kind of always prepping her for like, well, she's going to be the first to get married. Cause she was also the first of all the cousins. So, but every compliment for her, every time she was greeted by someone, it was always like, Oh, you're so pretty. Or. Like there was always like that undertone to her where my sister just hated food. And I think to this day, she still does. Yeah. But like,

[00:27:44] but like you could see that relationship between like the worth that they gave you and how they saw your appearance. And it's, that's tough. Like you still can't shake it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I talk about it from the woman's lens, right. In the book, but I think it affects a lot of us, but yeah, like I, I talk about that, but I think more importantly for you, Freddie, like the idea is as a parent, like we want to be better. Right. And obviously we're going to yell and we're going to get upset. Like you did over.

[00:28:14] That happens to me all the time. And I'm, I do this for a living. But our job as a parent is to offer this food and allow them to have choices. Like kids don't have to like everything. They don't like, you can't expect, you don't like everything. You can't expect your children to love everything. But at a younger age, we are supposed to encourage them by allowing them to play with food, smell the food, touch the food and offer this. Right. Like I think another thing that's really fucked up in our parents' heads is the

[00:28:43] amount that children should eat. Like the way that my mom tries to feed my children is like she's feeding my dad. And it's like, they don't, they're little babies. They're not supposed to eat that much. And I think that that's another thing that's very distorted in our communities. It's just the amount that a child should eat. And also, you know, children move a lot. They burn a lot of calories. They should be eating a lot of smaller meals throughout the day. Like they eat a lot. Right. And that's a big thing. Like I already found you. You shouldn't be hungry. Right. So I, yeah, you shouldn't.

[00:29:13] My mom's like, yeah, my mom was always like, like it's enough. Like you're done. Yeah. Like, like,

[00:29:47] you're done. stomach thing. My son was small. This is the thing. Like you said, I think that we're all coming from a generation where it's like survivalism. Right. Yeah. It is. Um, and my wife one time told me that cause she's in the same, the same school of, Hey, you gotta eat. Cause you gotta eat. And we gotta get you done. We gotta get you done. Come, come, come, come, My son's not eating. Right. And then we'll move on past the kiddo stuff here. Right. But what I'm getting at is, it's important. It's still,

[00:30:16] but it helps with us too. It helps with us too. So what I'm getting at is she's told me one time and I, I think because you do, you don't want your kids to struggle like I, like you did. Right. I struggle with my weight. I always throw my whole, my whole life and everything from, you know, the usual that most people fall into these traps of crash diets or you shouldn't do, but some things do stick that are logical. That makes sense. Right. Like I told my wife at one point, she was worried, like distraught.

[00:30:46] My, Hey, our son's not eating. He's just not eating enough or he's not eating enough. And I go, babe, like, you know, his stomach's like this small. Like it's like so tiny. And then she eventually kind of looked at me and went, shit, you're right. Like, and they kind of like a bowl. Yeah. And then we started changing the attitude on, are you satisfied? And he's like, yeah, I'm satisfied. Cool. You know,

[00:31:15] it still gives me chills to throw away food. Like we're done with this. We need some chickens. Yeah. I mean, we're lucky. Right. Walter's parents have chickens. So I'm like, Oh, you didn't eat it. It's for the chickens. It's for the chickens. And that gives us, at least me a little bit of peace of mind, because I know that it's going to feed our next meal. Cause we're going to eat that chicken eventually. Refrescent. Yeah. It's a lot. It's a lot to think of.

[00:31:45] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's a trip. Never think about that. Yeah. And I think that again, think about it this way. If you didn't put so much on the plate, they wouldn't have wasted. See? And it's me. It's the bad parent. You're not a bad parent. We all do it. But yeah, like the portions for the kids, like started. And also, I always tell my kids, like, take a little bit. If you want more, come back for it. There's always more like, right? Like this idea of like, you can always come back for more. It's so important so that they don't, you know,

[00:32:15] overfill their plate. And then, yeah, we're throwing it away. And that's a struggle with my 10 year olds. A piece here that I, I dog eared. Cause I just, my God. I put notes. And I'm, it's just, it hit me and I wanted to touch on it. Cause I don't know. When you guys read this, I've written the introductions. I'm not giving away too much, but it says here, it says, this is not a weight loss book. This book is about nutrition and healing our relationship with food. That said, I do not shame people for wanting to lose weight. Who the fuck doesn't?

[00:32:45] Society has told us we need to be thin, to be pretty, thin, to be accepted, thin, to just be treated with dignity and respect. And that fucking sucks. All we can do is try to find peace. Peace and stability with our weight. What does that mean? What does that mean? It doesn't mean, it doesn't mean, it means it sucks to be a human. Um, especially I think in today's world. And again, as a dietitian,

[00:33:15] I will never sit there and tell someone like, you shouldn't lose weight. You shouldn't want to lose weight. Um, I am not going to restrict you and put you on these crazy ass diets for you to lose 10 pounds in a week. Like, that's not what I'm going to do. I'm also not going to celebrate your weight loss. Like it's the most important thing you've ever done as a human, which we see with celebrities all the time. Or we just see people in general, like they walk into a room and everybody's like, parents look so great. And it's like, you're validating.

[00:33:45] That they lost weight. And then it continues this perpetual cycle of like, I have to be skinny in order to be accepted. I have to be skinny in order to be treated with dignity and respect. Right. Because a lot of the times, la tia, las abuelas, tu mamá, like everybody's like, you have to lose weight. You have to, you know, you look, you know, my mom's name is for me. La bomba. Bomba. And I'm all like, I love you, mom. That's the only reason I don't know. Yeah. Like I love you,

[00:34:15] but you know, but yeah, but we put this emphasis on like the greatest thing you can do as a human is lose weight. And it's like, it's not. And you know, we live in the world of Ozempic now and like Wagovi and all the GLP ones and all my patients are on it. And I'm always like, you need to do it in a consensual way. Right. Like you come to me, I tell you the pros, I tell you the cons, you make the decision. A lot of the times doctors aren't telling them the cons and then they're on it.

[00:34:44] And then they come to us and then they're like, Holy fuck. I didn't know that. And I'm like, you should have known that because you just went on a medication and you're going to be on for the rest of your life. Like you can't just get on and off. You can't get on and off, my friends. It does not work that way. And now some people are like, I'm just going to do it for a few months, baby girl, baby boy. That's not what works. On that note, on that note, on that note, let's take a quick little break. Okay. We'll get, we'll get a little breather here. We're going to come right back. You know,

[00:35:13] kind of touch on that maybe a little bit. If you wanted to sip some tea on that, we'll also spill the tea on that. Cause I'm curious about that. And talk more about the Latina anti-diet.

[00:35:23] Most important thing for,

[00:36:05] uh, for the listeners is that big PSA. Dietitians are covered or can be covered through your insurance. I repeat, check out your insurance coverage. Nutritionists, dietitians, dietitians, right? Dietitians may be covered through your insurance. That was something that this book has taught me. Um,

[00:36:30] and now that's going to be my next thing on my to-do list is see what I can get coverage on. So that was, thank you so much for, uh, including that in your book. I think that a lot of Latinos maybe, um, don't pick up necessarily books because they don't speak to us. At least I can say that, that a lot of books maybe don't necessarily that have to do with me.

[00:36:55] Don't spark my biggest interest because I know that a lot of them are whitewashed or have a very specific lens. So for me to read this book, it really connected with kind of my personal experience. Um, and it was really great to just know all these benefits and just learn that, you know, I can salivate over my tostadas. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, obviously, it came out of that. But obviously I was,

[00:37:24] I was obviously joking it for a second purpose because I have a whole private practice. Sure. I mean, all seven of my dieticians are covered by insurance and, um, you know, we're in four two states. Unfortunately, we don't have universal healthcare. So, I can accept that reassurance and there's licensure in off dates and it's super expensive to get licensed in every state as anybody that's a professional knows, like not all licenses are, um,

[00:37:53] able to be used in different states. Like I can't even say the word. Recipitory. I think it's the word. Recipitory. Reciprocal. Like you can't, like, I just can't be like a dietician here in Pennsylvania and just like go practice in Florida. Like it doesn't work that way. So that's why we're only able to practice in 14 states because those are the states that like either myself or my dieticians are, um, licensed in. But yeah, like you just go on our website and you verify your insurance right there and then, and you get like an email with all the information of how many sessions you're covered.

[00:38:22] Most people, I would say over 80% of people are covered unlimited. So most people work with us unlimited. And then, um, some people get like six visits. Some people get 12. Some people get 24. If there is a copayment, it's like also very minimal. So yeah, it's like something that I love that I'm able to provide because like you said, like a lot of people don't know that they're covered by, um, their medical insurance.

[00:38:47] And that's because like a dietician is a medical provider and not all nutritionists are medical providers. What's the website? You're not the nutrition.com. Nice. And with that, I wanted to touch on your blog. Cause I was like, after reading the book, we went over to the blog to like follow you on your socials and stuff. And on the blog, you have a really cool thing with the recipes. And like the, I noticed it's like different authors kind of like talking on different subjects or breaking things down. And you had one on tamales.

[00:39:17] And because my family works exclusively with masa for our tortillas and stuff, uh, the types of tamales, like masa and tamales and stuff is like a daily struggle at our torteria. Cause people will come in and say, I want a tamal. Like I need masa for tamales. And I was like, from where? Like, where are you from? Cause it's a different kind. It's a different kind of masa for each. We make them all. Yeah. But it's a different type that we have to make. So I need to know what am I grabbing? Cause it's all made fresh the day of. So I was like,

[00:39:46] all right, what are we doing? Yeah. And I was like, it's good to see other people talking about it. Cause I think what people think the amount of they think the Mexican tamales. Yeah. Yeah. And I was like, yeah, my tamales or pasteles aren't like that. Yeah. Cause mine are made from platanos. And we have the masa for that. And we like, I learned how to make them all because I would see people, order it. And I'm like looking at the recipes, but your blog is a great resource. I think too, for people who maybe like once they finish the book or once they start getting into it,

[00:40:15] they want to do more research. Your blog works as a great accompanying like resource for that. Yes. It does. Everything's on the website. Just go on there. Just go on the website. Primos, go support, go support, support Alina. My day, I think you were mentioning a little bit offline about that. I haven't gotten there, but there's different types of, of, uh, eaters is a different type of, maybe you can explain it better. Yeah. So,

[00:40:44] so there's different types of hungers, right? So there's like your emotional hunger. You're like, um, you know, your primal hunger, the, like, I'm actually hungry, hungry. Um, so actually I went and found it up. You know what? I have an index. So if you're looking for a word, you just have to look at the index and then you'll find it. I didn't write the index. The people at Penguin Random House are like, we're going to include an index. And I was like, yeah, I don't know what that is, but cool. And now I know what it is. Thank you, Penguin Random House.

[00:41:14] so there's physical hunger, emotional hunger, social hunger, and practical hunger. Um, so those are the different types of hungers, not to like get too much into it. We actually have a blog on it anyway. So if you want to go check it out now, if you don't get the book, um, you can just look for the different types of hunger blog. No, no, But the Primo one, hit the book, but I'm going to read the Primo one because you said that was your favorite one. The Primo one. What's the Primo one? I described them as like people in your life. Oh, so this is a tricky amiga.

[00:41:45] So, okay, I'll tell you which ones they are. Emotional hunger is your tricky amiga. Social hunger is your tia. And practical hunger is your abuela. Where is the Primo? Oh, the first one. It's the first one. Remember. Oh, does that was physical hunger? You have a feeling when your stomach starts growling. That's your body telling you, hey, I need some fuel. Physical hunger is like that. That Primo who shows up on time, no drama,

[00:42:15] gives you a heads up with, gives you a heads up with a stomach growl or even a little mood swing. Don't ignore this. Feed, feed, I can't even read today. Feed it some love and some nutrients. You don't want to get into the hangry stage, do you? And then, you know, obviously I talk about all the hangry and stuff and all the stages, but yeah, I tried to make it funny because I like, don't like to read a dry ass book. Yeah, it wasn't. That's why it was, that's why I finished it. It was not a dry ass. It was, and I was like,

[00:42:44] I could not write a book where people are going to be dying. Like not wanting to get through the pages. I saw, I flipped through a page. We're not trying to find that portion. I saw a pendulum and it said, the fuck it stage. And I'm like, I've been to the fuck it stage. Yeah. We're in the final one. Plenty of times. And I'm like, oh shit. Like, see, it speaks to me because it also, like you said, right, it's inviting because it's not so like a textbook, right? It's not a medical, I didn't want that.

[00:43:22] Knowledge we talk about, right? It doesn't make it like, oh man, I can't have that platanos con frijoles negros or whatever. Like, oh man, like, you know, like, it makes me feel like, oh, I can't have that. Cause I, I've gone through crash diets. I've gone through really restrictive diets. And like you said, like, I, I lost weight in 30 days and I was shit. Like, whoa, different human being. And then like a month later, I'm like back to this, you know, it's like, um, but not to joke about it, but it's kind of being comfortable in your, in your body, in your space,

[00:43:51] and being healthy. Like the, one of the things you talk about in here, which I do, and I kind of came to me is health. Yeah. How doctors look at you and just immediately go, oh, cause you're overweight. And I go, you haven't even talked to me. And you just said you're overweight. And that's the fix. Yeah. The pendulum is on one 29. I know. I was like, fuck it stage. That's the way to do it. Everybody's on there. It's there in the extreme diet or the bucket stage. There's no in between.

[00:44:21] And I think that, you know, that, I mean, I talk about why that's not good for your health. That's not good for your hormones, especially from a woman's perspective. Everything is like, hormone health, hormone health, hormone health. And it's like, girls, your hormones are going to be fucked up. Right. because there's a lot of things happen. And I think I break down a lot of the hormones and I talk about them, but yeah, I wanted it to be something. I'm going to say I'm writing it from the perspective of a woman for a woman, but I'm happy that you two enjoyed it.

[00:44:49] That's the first book I finished this year. So me and my wife do. Yeah. Everything I've read in a while. Yeah. I, I've struggled so much with like my actual novel reading. And I was just like, I can't get through books. I don't know what it is. Yours. It's your language. It's your honesty. It's you're funny. Like you're really funny. Yeah. And it, it helped. And I, at first I was just like, I hope this isn't like a textbook. Cause I'm not going to finish it. And then I was laughing at reading it.

[00:45:19] And I was laughing so much that my wife was like, what are you reading? And I was like, we can buddy read it. And then she ordered it. She's like, well, we're going to buy it. And she was just like, we're going to get one for my DS. Because if, when the attitude starts up, they're going to go like me. I'm always afraid. I'm like, some people are not going to like it. Cause I, I mean, obviously it's a lot, a lot of shit. That's who we are. You have to. But I always think of like, you know, there's,

[00:45:48] there's a group of Latinos that are not going to be happy. They're never going to be. I got, I posted a, a, like I think, so I posted a thing about comic that I wrote. It got like, a couple thousand views. And I was happy about it. One guy was like, you use the word Aztec instead of Mexica. You're a fraud. Yeah. And that's like, that's all that I was like, nobody's going to hurt you like your own. So I was like, I let it go. Literally, literally the amount of people that are like,

[00:46:17] constantly talking shit on my social media. Oh yeah. I did. I actually, maybe it was like two weeks, like two weeks, right? Two weeks ago or three weeks ago. Somebody was like, um, I don't know why you use the word Latine. Um, we've been Latino or Latina for millennia, blah, blah. The two people that get offended, like that's on them. And I was like, actually. Colonize for quite a long time. Exactly. And obviously, and I'm not going to make too, like, I want those two people to feel,

[00:46:44] feeling heard because we live in a fucking world that wants to like, get rid of them. So no, I'm not going to do that. Yeah. Oh no. So yeah, she immediately, immediately like her comment, but I had a screenshot and I was like, three shots live forever. Yep. Yeah, definitely, man. You know, one thing that, you know, we always do here is we really want to just say, talk about the community, right? Like the creative, the community and the informative, right? Like we talked about, you know, Bimo's podcast talk about pop culture, but he talked about it,

[00:47:14] that food is pop culture. Our culture is pop culture, you know, like it's, it's taken from a soul back to us. And then we're told that it's bad for us, you know? And what I love about the book, but I've read so far, and I'm going to finish it. I promise I am. Cause I'm in the middle of it, especially when I get to that, the bucket phase, um, and read it there. But it's the fact that I want to just kind of praise you, you know, kind of give you your props because it's not easy. Like you said, it's not easy in the book. You said it's not easy to fucking write a book. It's not. And all of us here in some form of fashion,

[00:47:43] know that it's difficult to put yourself out there, you know, and food, what's closer to you than your food, you know, that what you're consuming. And this is food for thought, you know, this is like literally like something you can enjoy and reread and reference and hand out, you know, like, you know what? I told my wife about it. She's like, that sounds interesting. Like, let me get, get it when you're done, you know? And so primos, you know, I'm telling you from, from me to you, check out this book. It's amazing. It's a lot of fun. I recommend it like crazy. You know,

[00:48:13] at this point of the show, we usually do recommendations. Get this book, get your hands on this book. I want to just thank you for your time. I know I went over what I, what I'm allowed to spend with the celebrity, but I want to just give you a moment here, you know, to kind of, you know, tell the primos, you know, why they should pick up the book, you know, why you think that this would just benefit them in general. I think it's a huge benefit, but you tell them you're the author. Tell the primos out there why they should pick up your book.

[00:48:44] Thank you. One, it is on audible and I do read it. I promise I could read. I could have read when I was like reading it to you all now, but I did read it. It's eight days of my life, but I read it. The, the audio process is not this. It's a lot of, can you repeat that? You say, I can, I can get, I can get you in my ear. Like I can listen to you. Yeah. Yeah. And it was a long process. I thought I was just going to go in there and read. No,

[00:49:12] it was not that it was like a lot of like, really say this and say it with this tone. I know. Like you mean it. Oh my gosh. It was so much. Or like, you know, we have accents and I obviously say words and they're like, that's not the correct pronunciation. I'm like, what is the pronunciation? I've said that my whole life that way. Wow. So, you know, there was, there was a lot of that in there. Um, but yeah, I think like I said at the beginning, I wrote this book for anybody that can't work with us.

[00:49:43] You know, just has no idea really, um, about nutrition. I think this is like a great introduction, like a nutrition one-on-one. And I think a lot of the reviews that I'm getting, a lot of people are like, it feels like I'm in a session with you. This is really how I act in the session. I curse. I'm real. You know, maybe not the most professional, like what people think is professional, but you know, I, I'm real too. Um, and I just like, I feel like if, if I can't do something,

[00:50:12] I'm not going to tell somebody like, I've, I've never been on a diet in my life. I just can't, I love food too much and it's just not going to happen. I've never going to do that for somebody, uh, or tell somebody that. Right. Um, but I think that I wrote it because I did. I wanted our community to have something positive. I think that a lot of the nutrition books for the community are very much like negative towards our food. I think some cookbooks are really good, you know, and they do emphasize the foods, but again, then there's people like, Oh,

[00:50:41] they use lard or they use this. So it's not healthy. And it's like, that's not true. So I wanted to have something that people could reference and go back to. Um, and obviously I'm not going to hit every point and I'm not going to, you know, please everybody in the process. Um, um, but I did my best with what I had. And the amount of fact checking I had to go through, trust me, Penguin Random House was not letting anything slip.

[00:51:11] Nothing slip for sure. No. They definitely got something. Any last thoughts? Um, Oh yeah. Any last thoughts on the, on the book? Just for anybody out there watching it. And you know, you know, you enjoyed it and anything. I did a lot. Any more about it? Yeah. I think ultimately it just validated my feeling of like, yes, Mediterranean can be the best diet, but you know what? Like I need flavor. I need my flavors. I need something else.

[00:51:40] Like I can't live off of a Mediterranean diet. Today. I had a tostada de jamon with cueritos. And like you said in the book, you salivate more when it's food that you enjoy. I, the whole time I was just like, I'm building enzymes here. I'm like, I'm going to process this food so good. It has lettuce. It has milk. I was thinking about the plate. So I'm taking away that. Yeah. Mediterranean is not the only way.

[00:52:10] Like we can look within ourselves and within our food, within our cultura. And be satisfied and feel good about what we consume on a day to day and reconnect with that food. That's what I'm taking away. Yeah. That's exactly what I want you to take away. There you go. John, what about you, man? It's great for me because I have a resource now for when I'm in the kitchen and people are yelling at me because I'm cooking for like five or six people at a time. Hit them with the book. Yeah. Well,

[00:52:39] I made so far as a lomo today. Like I happen to make those of us too. And there was a lot of heat because they were like, Oh, there's fat on the lomo. And I was like, well, where do you think the flavor is coming from guys? Yeah. You want to be dry? Yeah. So, but it's that perpetual, we need to always search for the healthiest things. And this book is a great resource. So you don't have to sacrifice your own identity for your, your health. You can, the two things can exist together. If you're willing to do a little bit of work.

[00:53:11] And just view it differently and add. You just need to add. Exactly. You can add nutrition. To make it balance. I, I am, I'm so grateful for your time and, you know, hopefully we didn't scare you off and you can come back. We can go a little deeper, you know, going to, we can talk about that. It was going around, you know, that, you know, but primos, you know, we want to welcome, of course, prima Dalina to the, to the, to the fam here. You know, just go support a prima different.

[00:53:41] Check out your Latina nutritionist. We'll post everything here as well. So you guys can go check out our socials and our website. And I always in the show, but even just go support, you know, these are the things that we want, right? We want our voices heard. We want our stories told. This is what's important to you support, you know? So definitely make sure you do that for the prima here and how I always in our shows, everybody remember no matter where you're from, we're all primos. Take care of each other. See you next time. Adios. Bye. Thank you.