How Changing Your Diet Can Change Your Health with Anthony & Staci Lo Cascio on The Healers Café with Manon Bolliger

both of you? Or?

 

Staci Lo Cascio  02:24

Yeah, I…you know, I went for a long time in my life, really believing and following doctor’s advice.

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  02:35

Like so many of us.

 

Staci Lo Cascio  02:36

Taking the medication and doing the things until I realized it was really actually harming me, specifically, for me, the things that I had taken over the years, all the antibiotics, all of the….and it had really kind of…

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  02:55

Adverse effects.

 

Staci Lo Cascio  02:56

Come to a head kind of thing. And Hashimoto’s presented itself to me. And so, it was a choice of I mean, I had, I had a rheumatologist who was not from America. And I believe that that definitely helped push me into, you know, towards the alternative medicine side, she was also very into, okay, well, here’s the prescription that I’m going to give you. But you should also do this. And she introduced me to the blood type diet. And so that’s kind of where I started all of this. And then it just kind of went from there.

 

Manon Bolliger  03:41

And so how, I mean, what I find just, you know, wonderful is that when people make a shift, that is usually kept somewhat secret, you know, they do their thing, they get better. Their doctor usually doesn’t ask why they got better. You know, because I’ve said to a lot of people, Hey, maybe you want to educate or something. Like not really an interest, you know, but you you’ve made it a public thing, and you’re having fun doing it. At least it looks that way to me from what I’ve looked in a little bit.

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  04:22

Part of our job is to have fun and to bring fun into other people’s lives through our own experiences, and through our teaching. Teaching of dance teaching of entertainment and life itself. Yeah.

 

Manon Bolliger  04:37

Yeah. And so now that you know what, you know, I mean, you know, this, this part that I’m sure you were people wanting philosophically to have fun, but if you’re in agony, pain, bleeding, and dealing with all of this stuff, you know, that’s limited, right. So, how much…you know, because people say the attitude and mentality, your belief systems, all of that really are even predominant over your food.

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  05:17

Well, mindset matters. I say that all the time. Mindset matters. Mindset man, it’s like the old man and the kid who says, you got two wolves that live inside you the good wolf and the bad wolf and which wolf wins? Well, whichever wolf you feed, right? Yeah, so we have choices to make in life, you know, people say, oh, happiness is a choice. Well, it kind of is, if you could see the silver lining and lean that way. I mean, everything’s got balances, both things are always going to exist. But wherever you sit on the spectrum is going to be the experience that you have, because perception is infinite, right? And whatever your perception is how you’re going to experience things.

 

Staci Lo Cascio  05:55

Yeah, you create your own environment. And if you’re, if you have an environment that is harmful, of course, you’re not going to feel very good. But if you have an environment that is helpful, and lifts you up and makes you healthy, you’re gonna feel really good.

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  06:13

Yeah, a great example, in this specific thing that we do you know, with the food and how we change our food. It’s like, when someone says, well, you have to cut out gluten, corn, soy, dairy, like all you think about, I can’t have this, I can’t have that I can’t…

 

Staci Lo Cascio  06:26

What do you eat?

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  06:27

Right! And people say, what do you eat? Well, I know what I eat. And she knows what she eats because we actually sat down and wrote a list of everything that we could eat. So, our focus became one of the things that we could eat. At 40 something, almost 50 years old, I learned a whole new thing about my palate, what foods I like different spices to use. And let me tell you, I was already pretty good. I come from an Italian household; we know how to eat. We’re good at it. We spend our lives in the kitchen with the family eating delicious things. So, you know, if you focus on one part of something rather than another part of something, that’s the experience you’ll have with that thing.

 

Manon Bolliger  07:05

And I totally agree with you. And it’s interesting, it’s easier to understand how you could thrive now, right, but what I’m interested in also is prior to fixing all this, how did or what impact do you think your mentality had? Like were you always searching for something, therefore, you didn’t think this was permanent? Like, how did…how did you survive that more difficult part?

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  07:47

When people accept what’s around them and don’t and…listen, if you find yourself in a hole, you can either try to climb out of it, or you could get buried in it, right? And I see a lot of people when they think that they’re in a hole, that they just get buried in it, and then they can’t help themselves. And then they, they don’t thrive. And then they just think, well, this is the best it is and then like, okay, I can do it like this, even though it’s not, you know, but then you see other people like, I know that there’s a better way. I know, there’s something wrong I got, and I believe it, and I’m not going to ignore it. And I could sense it, and I am going to chase it and fight for this. And every once in a while the universe gives me a sign. And there is a way out. There is a better way, and you hear that voice in your heart and soul. And you believe it and you fight for it and you find it. And it took me 20 years to figure out while I was internally bleeding, you know, that’s a long time to not have an answer. But it also I wasn’t going to use the traditional methods, because anything else that I did traditionally didn’t work, including a solution for that problem.

 

Staci Lo Cascio  08:50

Yeah, I mean, I feel like I’m, I’ve always been a person who just keeps going, regardless of anything. Like, I don’t know, like, to me, it’s never I don’t know, if I may have spent some time settling, but down, you know, in the place where you know who you really are, you feel like this is not…I’ve got to do something to change this, whatever it is at that moment, you know, but all of those little steps that you take prior lead up to this, which feels like a big step. Because it’s so different than probably what you’ve been doing for your whole life.

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  09:39

It’s all those little steps you took that got you there.

 

Staci Lo Cascio  09:41

Yeah, yeah. And that makes you ready to be able to embrace that final larger step.

 

Manon Bolliger  09:49

Yeah, it’s very interesting what you say, and it sort of concurs with which is probably why I like it, but no, you can be controversy. Controversial. So, but it feels like you’re always essentially who you are. And your attitude to life allowed you and created the opportunities that came your way that then allowed me to fully heal itself.

 

Staci Lo Cascio  10:16

You weren’t who you were, you wouldn’t see those opportunities.

 

Manon Bolliger  10:19

Exactly. Exactly.

 

Staci Lo Cascio  10:21

If it came in front of your face. You wouldn’t see it. Yeah.

 

Manon Bolliger  10:25

Yeah. Well, that’s the victimhood, right. It’s…

 

Staci Lo Cascio  10:28

Yeah. And it can be overwhelming. You know, it’s overwhelming to remain in that type of situation. But it’s also overwhelming to change your situation. You just have to figure out whether you want to do it or not. What does it mean that much to you?

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  10:47

And it has to be presented to you in a way that you understand.

 

Staci Lo Cascio  10:50

Yeah

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  10:51

Right. Like, you’re ready for something, but it’s not being presented to you in a way you understand. It’s, why you have to keep seeking because, like, I would say I say this with the kids, when we teach, it’s like I tell all the teachers or the studio owners, that sometimes they’re like, well, these kids on here, I’m like, Well, you have to say something that some to a group of people 100 times, and on the 100 and first time, maybe just maybe you’ll say it in a way that one of them hears you differently, and it opens up their whole mind and changes their whole entire life. So, you know, persistency being consistent, you know, there’s a lot of there’s a lot of parameters that come into the conversation that we’re having that apply to it, you know,

 

Manon Bolliger  11:32

Yeah. So, what have you found to be the biggest challenge in…I mean, you’re converting people by your own life experience by your, the fun you’re having in life by these.

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  11:48

A couple of them

 

Staci Lo Cascio  11:48

I think…

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  11:49

People ask you ask you for your opinion, but then they’re not ready for the truth, and then they deny it. That’s, that’s a big one. Another thing, people think that the all the food is going to taste terrible, and they’re never gonna get to go out to eat, again. Never gonna enjoy life again, because some of the monitor their life is attached to the idea of food. Did you have one in particular, you’re gonna say that I jumped all over you.

 

Staci Lo Cascio  12:14

I had no idea what I was gonna say

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  12:16

But the biggest challenge is that we find that to convert people. They’re scared. It’s unknown,

 

Staci Lo Cascio  12:23

Right, oh, that reminds me. There’s not a whole lot of quote unquote, peer reviewed science, right? There’s a whole lot of personal experience out there. And people keep attesting to their personal experiences and saying that all of these things worked for me, you’re gonna have your own things that work for you. But at least I can put you down a path to discover those things for you. And, you know, I think a lot of people don’t believe something, if it’s not tangible. Or if it’s, you know, until it happens to them. Or if until it happens to a friend or family member, I just saw, you know, one of the big influences that caused us to write the book was, we’re on some groups on social media platforms, and people kept asking the same questions over and over again. And recently on one of the soy boards that I’m a member of someone said, I just got a call from a family member, who was recently diagnosed with a soy allergy and now she’s had to cut it out. And she called me to apologize for the trouble that she gave me when I had to deal with that allergy. Because now she’s realizing what a pain in the butt it is to have to, you know, remove soy in this particular case, and still live life and go out and you can, but people who don’t have to deal with it, don’t really understand what it takes to do that. I think that’s the biggest one of the biggest challenges.

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  14:14

Your knowledge, knowledge is power, and this knowledge is power. And this the more you know, when it’s time for you to change your life like this, the easier it is to do. You know, but if you don’t know, and like I said, unknowns can be scary.

 

Manon Bolliger  14:29

Yeah, and I…

 

Staci Lo Cascio  14:30

If someone in your life, I’m sorry, if someone in your life is telling you that they have an allergy. Believe them, help them, learn anything that you can about it. It just feels so hard already. It’s already hard enough for that person to make those changes.

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  14:49

It’s not, I’m not trying to compare these things. But when people when people say well, I’m gluten free or so they’re like, oh, what do you eat, air? Or they make a joke or there’s like a winter someone came in and they said, Hey, you look tired today. I’m like, Well, I had to go to chemo. What do you got cancer? Like nobody would ever in their right minds make that joke. I’m not trying to compare the ailments at all in any way, shape or form. But if someone is dealing with something, how dare you decide for them the severity of it without living a day in their life a day in their life or living in their shoes, or understanding what you need to fundamentally change in your life to successfully be healthy at that point?

 

Manon Bolliger  15:28

Yeah, yeah. I completely agree with you on that point. You know, it’s what we don’t know we, you know, people tend to judge or ridicule or shame or whatever. It’s…it seems to be our lovely conquer and divide aspects, which is insane really, if you think of it.

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  15:51

I feel like we live in a divide, deceive distract society a lot of times, which doesn’t make it easier for us to thrive. It makes it harder.

 

Manon Bolliger  16:00

For sure. So have you found that…well, actually, I want to stick around and change my mind. Okay. In your, in your diets, and the recipes that I’ve saw on your website? What do you find that the biggest challenge outside of the theoretical understanding, okay, you’re gonna do this? What do people need to know what makes it easier? I understand making the list of what they can eat, I get that. I’m assuming read the labels so you can see how hidden all this stuff is. That would be you know, I mean, once you get that, you kind of got that right. But after that, is it the fear of the unknown that they haven’t tried these foods, they were never exposed to other things or spices or is that?

 

Staci Lo Cascio  16:55

Some people want to try everything no matter what.

 

Commercial Break  16:58

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Staci Lo Cascio  17:40

And other people are just like, no, no, thanks, I’m good. I stick to what I know. You just have to have a little bit of adventure. You know, just a tiny sense, you don’t have to want to go off the deep end, you know, just a little bit one thing at a time, that’s new. Don’t try five things that are new at the same time. That’s too much, you know, just try one thing at a time. Like if you’re not used to having peppers in something. And now you’re like, ooh, let me try that. Cool. Try something with peppers. Just make that one dish or that one, whatever. And then, and then you can start to add them to your list of good things.

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  18:31

Awareness helps. Awareness helps a lot too, the more you’re aware of the easier it becomes. Yeah.

 

Manon Bolliger  18:38

And so your book, which I have not read, just letting you know, at this point yet. Thank you. “Food as Prescription|. What do you cover in in your book? What can people learn from it, and…

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  18:56

We teach people how to eat out, or go on vacation, or those kinds of things that can be one of the barriers, you know, that people want to put in place… There is a couple of testimonies and stuff like that, but it helps people understand that. Basically, if you get diagnosed with something like this one morning, it’s 72 pages long. It’s a handbook to help you through your life from now on moving forward. And after reading it, you should feel better and more secure about where the direction you’re going. Like, if a doctor gives you a prescription for something, you can go to the pharmacy and fill it. If a doctor gives you a prescription for a gluten free soy free corn free diet. This is the this is how you fill it. You read this, right? If you read the book, it’ll tell you a little bit about our story. It’ll give you a couple of antidotes. It’ll like you said there’s a food diary in there. There’s some recipes in there. There’s enough recipes that you can have like…we show you how we make our flour. You know chocolate chip cookies, or my likes chocolate chip cookies is a breakfast item. There’s a dressing there’s a salad, you know the dinners, right? And then there’s also like we said, the test that we took and how the tests respond and what tests some tests are better than others and why. And, you know, it’s just, it’s a handbook to guide you through this process of changing your life, fundamentally through your food. And we also talk about some of the benefits we’ve experienced, and other people have experienced. I mean, you know, if the 20 years you change your food, you stop internally bleeding, you want to shout out from the rooftops, because every other pill on TV is telling you about ulcerative colitis, and how this pill is going to help you but you’re still eating the poisonous food that’s making you sick in the first place instead of just removing the foods. So, you know, we connect a lot of the dots for people in the book. And, you know, there’s a foreword by a doctor, We try to take some of your fears away.

 

Staci Lo Cascio  20:51

…for when they’re when they think, Oh, my gosh, I have to change all of these things. Not only do I have to change the way I cook at home, but now I have to travel, and I have to do when I travel, you know, but you can travel and not be sick. You know, that’s the real key here.

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  21:10

We talk about mindset, a little bit

 

Staci Lo Cascio  21:11

Traveling and not feeling sick.

 

Manon Bolliger  21:15

Yeah. So, benefits that you have…that you receive that you are not expecting. Because when you start

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  21:26

My finger works. My phone wasn’t working anymore. And she said to you, it’s that gluten, it’s the inflammation in your diet. But before I did this, I was eating a more a diet that was that that was more inflammatory. And now this diet is a lot less is more inflammatory,

 

Staci Lo Cascio  21:46

Its anti-inflammatory.

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  21:49

Words are not my specialty. Take my time, right. And that’s because I didn’t want to get the words wrong. I think we just lost you. Can you hear us?

 

Manon Bolliger  22:00

Yup but you can turn it on.

 

Staci Lo Cascio  22:03

It’s very sensitive. When it gets bumped. It’s like, we’re out.

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  22:10

But um, but yeah.

 

Manon Bolliger  22:12

Yeah. So yeah. So those are the things that you notice right away are the benefits. Not necessarily right away, but  with time. Now question.

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  22:23

I lost 35 pounds.

 

Staci Lo Cascio  22:24

More energy.

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  22:25

I have more energy. I’m sleeping better.

 

Staci Lo Cascio  22:27

Less joint pain.

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  22:29

I’m not internally bleeding anymore. You know, less joint pain. Yeah, it’s quite a few benefits. And I don’t have the side effects that regular medication has. I’m not going into a coma because I’m eating better. I’m not going to suddenly have a blood clot because I’ve changed my food for the better. I’m not going to suddenly have anal leakage because I’ve changed to some frickin crazy oil. These are real side effects of things that we take. Like crazy.

 

Manon Bolliger  22:59

That we take for granted. Yeah. And people say oh, yeah, just because it’s common doesn’t make it mean that it’s normal. Right? We have such a low expectation. Exactly. Yeah. So I’m specifically interested in Italian cooking so tell me, so what happens now to the the pasta aspect of it.

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  23:25

I still have pasta. I love my pasta. But I have pasta that’s made of brown rice, or I have pasta that’s made heavily of eggs. I have found a couple of places that make very very nice either homemade pasta. The Puma that I love saying that name, the Puma up in New…up in New England like Massachusetts, I have to get it in the mail. Or we use like Jovi. I love telling people brand names because that’s one that’s one of the tricky.

 

Manon Bolliger  23:52

Then they can look it up.

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  23:53

Holy Moly, we even we put a lot of brand names in the book, because it’s expensive to make mistakes. When you’re living like this. You don’t want to make expensive mistakes. It’s the other reason why we want we want you to do this so that people don’t feel like they’re making expensive mistakes, which becomes a deterrent to fulfilling the needs they need or the needs that they have. You know, but yeah, I use a Jovial is another great one Jovial makes great pasta. Yeah. And then you know, I’m Italian, so I just cook it a little bit less because I like it el dente. I don’t want mush.

 

Staci Lo Cascio  24:23

He’ll take his out and I’ll leave mine in.

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  24:25

We practice and it’s great. It’s great,

 

Manon Bolliger  24:28

Okay. Now what happens when you want to do like a cream sauce? What do you do then?

 

Staci Lo Cascio  24:33

We can have dairy.

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  24:34

I can have dairy.

 

Manon Bolliger  24:36

Ah, okay

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  24:37

I can do that. She can’t. However, depending on what we’re doing, there are some alternative milks that are excellent that don’t have a lot of extra things in them . We love Elmhurst 1925, that’s great. You can make your own, you know, alternative milks at home on stuff you want, but we liked that almost 1925 He’s put a little bit in there’s also some nice cream cheeses now, you know.

 

Staci Lo Cascio  25:02

The products have gotten better and more prevalent since I  first started this over 10 years ago.

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  25:08

It’s like a $27 billion industry now. So, if you make food products, they’re making them for us because they realize there’s a lot of people that need this and if they’re gonna end if the people that own the places that make the things know they’re gonna make money while then they’re going to do the thing that makes it.

 

Manon Bolliger  25:26

Yeah. And removing soya, have you noticed specifically an impact on either of you?

 

Staci Lo Cascio  25:35

Well, I, when I accidentally have it, it takes me about five minutes, and I wind up in the bathroom. That’s what it does to me. In addition to several days, you know, of joint pain affects and brain fogginess, that kind of stuff. It affects him on his skin

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  26:00

My skin right away. I get little red and itchy.

 

Staci Lo Cascio  26:03

And he has these like, they’re not ulcers but like his skin affects his skin. It’s like a zit kind of type of thing.

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  26:13

That’s hot.

 

Staci Lo Cascio  26:16

What are you gonna do? Um, and we think that that is what happens to him also on the inside when he accidently eats it. Yes, yes. So that sounds like fun.

 

Manon Bolliger  26:29

Yeah, you have mentioned, you know, removing wood looks like mostly the top allergens and reducing inflammation. Have you noticed impact one way or another with whether you’re eating meat or no meat? Or does that impact

 

Staci Lo Cascio  26:50

We eat specific meat.

 

26:51

We eat specific meat. If you go to our website, you can see it on the Affiliates Page

 

Staci Lo Cascio  26:55

We do pasture raised, you know, we poultry and things, grass fed beef.

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  27:00

Yeah. So, we use crowd cow. Yeah, we use crowd cow. We like crowd cow a lot. They you know, they have higher quality.

 

Staci Lo Cascio  27:07

Yes, there are some other regional services that are like crowd cow as well, if that’s not available in your area, just do a quick internet search for…

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  27:18

Local farms

 

Manon Bolliger  27:19

Local farms

 

Staci Lo Cascio  27:21

Grass fed meat delivery, something like that, you know, and they’ll pop up.

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  27:27

That’s one of the other reasons why we’re moving and why we want to move to a place that is a little bit more farm oriented.

 

Staci Lo Cascio  27:37

I was just at the store today. And I’m like, oh, man, New York sucks. It’s just, you know we just got back from traveling, we drove all the way out to Oregon and all the way back this summer. And it’s amazing. The quality of food that once you leave New York

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  27:56

Densely populated areas.

 

Staci Lo Cascio  27:57

It’s so much better.

 

Manon Bolliger  28:01

Well, yeah, I think it’s gonna be interesting times, you know, because of also what’s happening you know, I don’t know you were mentioning going up north to Finland and all those areas. But in in Holland, the farmers are fighting hard to be able to keep their lands right and in Canada. Oh, my God.

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  28:22

It’s happening in America, there’s some stuff some weird food, fire related land things subsidies going on that I can’t really get a handle on yet, but I keep seeing different mention. I’m trying to keep my eyes and ears on to understand.

 

Manon Bolliger  28:38

I think in Canada, we’re about to open the biggest cricket farm, I suppose to replace meat, in the idea of better ecology, which is sort of the new movement here anyway, and it’s, um, it’s terrible, because, you know, I do eat meat, but I, you know, specialized meat as in meat that hasn’t been tampered with. Grown, where I know where it is where there’s local farmers, and, you know, and yeah, and the thing is that we were made natural. So, it makes naturally sense that putting natural things in us is probably going to be better than processed anything or injected anything or whatever.

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  29:26

You would think.

 

Staci Lo Cascio  29:30

When those animals are not injected with things, their natural body systems produce natural things for the environment. And methane isn’t as big of a problem because the cow, the cow who’s fed all hormones has a different type of methane than the cow who’s not fed all of those types of hormones.

 

Manon Bolliger  29:55

Yeah, that I yeah, I hadn’t heard that but I’m thinking you know, cow farts compared to private jet planes…I don’t know. There’s the commonsense piece. Anyway, but we’re detracting from the very serious discussion we’re having.

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  30:15

So it was on his jet that had five cows.

 

Manon Bolliger  30:23

Okay, well, look, I mean, our time is almost up. We shared your book. Any, any last comments you would like to share?

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  30:34

I always like to remind people, please be an advocate for yourself. If you’re not getting the medical advice from one professional, that you feel that feels genuine for you, true for you, or really, then there’s a reason for a second opinion, when you get a second opinion, go to a different approaching doctor so you can get opposing views and then figure out what’s best for yourself. Like functional medicine is a great place to start. If you’re not, if you’re not feeling like you’re getting the attention, or the understanding and respect from the doctor that you’re currently with, that you need from them. Aside from that, please come find us on social media and like ask us questions. And we love to help. Come to our website foodisaprescription.com or Local Foods Inc. and, you know, grab the book.

 

Staci Lo Cascio  31:21

Or find us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter,

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  31:23

Yeah, grab the book. And if you’re the kind of person that likes to get things, you know, from the mom-and-pop shop down the block, we have an ISBN number, you could grab our ISBN number of Amazon, and then go to the shop locally, given the number and they’ll get the book into the store for you. You know what I mean? Like, this is this, this is no joke. Y’all save your own lives by, you know, learning things like this about yourself. So don’t stop. Don’t quit. Be an advocate for yourself. And you can do this and there are other people out there who have done it too. And they want to help you so know that.

 

Manon Bolliger  31:54

Great. Perfectly said, Thank you so much.

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  31:58

Yeah, thanks for having us.

 

Staci Lo Cascio  31:59

Thanks for having us.

 

Anthony Lo Cascio  32:00

Thank you for doing this for people so that they can hear from other people from all over and get different ideas and understandings of the world. If it wasn’t for people like you’re doing this, then your audience wouldn’t have someone to listen to so good on you. Well done.

 

Manon Bolliger  32:15

Thanks.

 

ENDING: 41:33

Thank you for joining us at the Healers Café with Manon Bolliger. Continue your healing journey by visiting TheHealersCafe.com and her website and discover how to listen to your body and reboot optimal health or DrManonBolliger.com/tips.