Is Sugar-Free Actually Better for You? What Artificial Sweeteners Health Risks and Label Reading Reveal About Healthy Eating and What to Reach For Instead with Shelley Loving [Ep 82]

What would you find if you turned over every package in your pantry and read the ingredient list, because I came into this one thinking I already knew most of it and left with a list of things to go check on my own shelves.

In this episode, I'm joined by Shelley Loving, an inflammation expert and the author of the Anti-Inflammatory Cookbook What's on Your Fork, who went back to school after her husband survived a heart attack at 41 and now teaches thousands of people through her online community.

Shelley and I get into the Super Bowl Sunday they thought was the flu, the sleep apnea that went undiagnosed until a sleep study showed him holding his breath for up to 47 seconds at a time, and the year they sold nearly everything they owned and traveled Florida by RV before she enrolled at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. Shelley tells me about the class on inflammation that started while she was eating a Pop Tart at her kitchen island, and what she cleared out of her pantry that week. She also walks me through what she eats in a day, from pasture raised eggs to the leftovers she asks her family to eat without complaining, and I share what happened when I cut out sugar, gluten, dairy, and alcohol all at once.

Here's what you'll learn:

• How Shelley went from a hospital waiting room to a career built around anti-inflammatory eating
• Why refined oils are one of the two ingredients she keeps out of her kitchen, including the bleaching and deodorizing steps behind them
• What artificial sweeteners health risks have to do with your body chasing a calorie that never arrives
• How label reading can tell you more about a food than the nutrition facts panel
• Why cutting everything out at once can backfire, and what she recommends instead
• What an anti-inflammatory diet for beginners can look like across an ordinary week
• How swaps for sweeteners, pasta, flour, and condiments may reduce inflammation over time
• Why she wants protein, fiber, and healthy fats on the plate at every meal
• What Shelley orders at a restaurant, and the substitutions she asks for
• How par cooking can bring dinner down from two hours to twenty or thirty minutes
• Why she believes the protein and electrolyte trends come from marketing rather than a change in what our bodies need

Whether you're new to anti-inflammatory eating, partway into your own health journey, or already reading every label in the store, Shelley brings healthy eating back to one thing you can do on your next grocery trip. Her point that your kitchen is where your health starts is one I keep coming back to.

Hit play and let's grow together, Kimberly

Connect with me:

Website: https://www.kimberlyhand.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kimberlyhand_

Shop The Cinnamon Effect Journal here: https://thecinnamoneffect.com/journal

Connect with Shelley:

Website: https://shelleycanhelp.com/

Instagram: @shelleycanhelp

Youtube: https://youtube.com/@shelleycanhelp