[Kevin] (0:03 - 0:10)
(Sneezes) Oh, sorry, excuse me. Sorry about that, Michelle. Didn't mean to do that.

[Michelle] (0:11 - 0:12)
Gesundheit.

[Kevin] (0:12 - 0:32)
Thank you. So it is summer and it is allergy season, and I have always struggled with allergies, as you can tell. So I was wondering, as part of our summer short series, if you had any insight on seasonal allergies, Michelle, and how nutrition can impact them.

[Michelle] (0:32 - 0:34)
Seasonal allergies, like hay fever in particular?

[Kevin] (0:35 - 0:35)
Yes.

[Michelle] (0:35 - 0:40)
Okay. So, because allergies can be, that can be a rabbit hole for me.

[Kevin] (0:41 - 0:44)
Everything. Of course. Of course.

We're keeping it to a nice summer short.

[Michelle] (0:45 - 1:00)
Okay. How about this? How about this?

Why don't we, why don't I just, we just kind of talk about hay fever and like maybe some of the key things that you need to know and, and, and how you can maybe help your body with that. And then we'll go deeper into allergies later.

[Kevin] (1:01 - 1:02)
That makes sense.

[Michelle] (1:02 - 1:03)
In the fall. That sounds good. In the fall.

[Kevin] (1:04 - 1:07)
Yes, exactly. When we have more time and more in-depth. Yes.

[Michelle] (1:08 - 1:30)
Sounds good. So, okay, where do I start here? Hay fever.

So seasonal allergies, sneezing, itchy eyes, watery nose, all of those things, like you're probably triggered by pollen. I don't know. Pollen, trees, grasses, and weeds.

[Kevin] (1:31 - 1:31)
Yep.

[Michelle] (1:31 - 1:41)
Right. And fun fact, in the tea world, people that have hay fever also usually have allergic reactions to chamomile.

[Kevin] (1:42 - 1:53)
Oh, that's interesting. I've never liked chamomile all that much. I don't think I have an allergic reaction to it, but I just don't like it.

So I wonder if that's my body saying, you shouldn't be drinking this. Maybe.

[Michelle] (1:53 - 2:04)
I don't know. I don't know. There's different species of chamomile, too.

You might like one better than the other. Anyway, that's- Maybe. Anyway, I digress, as always, because tea has my heart.

[Kevin] (2:04 - 2:05)
How dare you?

[Michelle] (2:05 - 2:06)
Tea has my heart.

[Kevin] (2:07 - 2:08)
Of course.

[Michelle] (2:08 - 3:14)
So anyway, we're familiar with those environmental triggers, and for the people that in particular that are sensitive, but here's the thing. Really, what underlies every condition we now know is the gut microbiome to some extent, and I know I keep saying this over and over again. I keep repeating myself.

I keep always bringing this back to our gut. But it's true. And the amount of diversity in your gut has a direct relationship to the strength of our immune system, and hence it also has a direct relationship to our response to seasonal allergies.

So by increasing our microbial diversity, we empower our immune system, and it's better able to discern between those exposures such as pollen particles as less harmless as opposed to those that are potential threats where it launches more of an attack. Basically an allergy is an immune response, right?

[Kevin] (3:15 - 3:22)
Right, exactly. Your body just thinks that this pollen is somehow really super nasty, and it's like, hey, relax, relax.

[Michelle] (3:22 - 3:27)
It's good. And don't get mad at your body for trying to protect you. That's what it does.

[Kevin] (3:27 - 3:29)
Exactly. I just would like a little less protection.

[Michelle] (3:29 - 3:49)
Thank you very much. Yeah. So about having a more balanced gut, increasing that diversity, building up that microflora is going to help us in all the ways that we've already talked about as well as help to protect the body against these types of allergic responses with more precision, if that makes sense.

[Kevin] (3:49 - 3:49)
Yep.

[Michelle] (3:50 - 4:31)
Right? And one of the keys to that are the short-chain fatty acids that those little beautiful little microbes will produce that have these very powerful anti-inflammatory properties. So one thing that's interesting, though, is that we know, so that means not only increasing your leafy greens and all of the colors of the rainbow, eating the rainbow on your plate and all of those things that we know of.

I can point you to some particularly potentially helpful foods for this type of seasonal allergy in particular.

[Kevin] (4:32 - 4:32)
Please do.

[Michelle] (4:32 - 4:32)
Yeah.

[Kevin] (4:32 - 4:33)
Please do.

[Michelle] (4:33 - 5:41)
So we know that beta-glucans are really a very powerful substance that we can find in certain foods. And there was this one study that did a nasal provocation test with tree pollen, and they then siphoned off some of the mucus and- Nice job for that, researcher. And those that had been taking beta-glucans had lower levels of some inflammatory compounds, you know, like the type that induce phlegm.

And then just based on that, this suggested that it might be helpful for people with hay fever. And then there was another randomized placebo-controlled double-blind study, which is, you know, considered one of the gold standards of scientific study, yeah, of research. And they compared the effects of daily supplementation of beta-glucan for about a month.

And what they used was a teaspoonful of nutritional yeast worth of beta-glucans versus the placebo.

[Kevin] (5:41 - 5:44)
That we talked about last episode. There we go.

[Michelle] (5:44 - 5:45)
See what I did there?

[Kevin] (5:46 - 5:47)
I'm impressed.

[Michelle] (5:48 - 6:23)
And anyway, so they found that this had a beneficial effect on the physical and the physiological health of the subjects. And they self-described, you know, whether they had moderate ragweed suffering or, you know, severe or whatever. So ragweed family is one of the leading causes of hay fever.

So that's why that's relevant. Right, right. So, but if they gave people a placebo in that study, nothing happened.

[Kevin] (6:23 - 6:24)
Okay.

[Michelle] (6:24 - 6:44)
The beta-glucan group had a significant drop in symptoms and symptoms severity. They had fewer runny noses, fewer itchy eyes, fewer sleep problems. And that translates into less tension, less depression, less anger, less fatigue.

[Kevin] (6:44 - 6:47)
I'm going to go take me some nutritional yeast.

[Michelle] (6:47 - 6:49)
Yeah. More vigor. Yes.

[Kevin] (6:50 - 6:51)
Or some marmite.

[Michelle] (6:52 - 7:08)
Yeah, yeah. So like all of this from a single teaspoon of nutritional yeast, which costs... So we talked in that episode.

I think that, you know, people can see the bag of nutritional yeast and have a little bit of sticker shock. So we're talking about five cents worth.

[Kevin] (7:08 - 7:10)
A little bit. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

[Michelle] (7:11 - 7:11)
Right.

[Kevin] (7:11 - 7:15)
Cool. Are there other nutrients or foods that can help?

[Michelle] (7:15 - 8:09)
Yeah. So then I looked up, okay, we know nutritional yeast is high in beta-glucan. What else is high in beta-glucan?

And beta-glucans are also found in a lot of grains, in oats, in barley, in rye, in sorghum, in maize, and mushrooms. So here, mushrooms, in Dr. Greger's How Not to Die, so it's his book of, you know, scientifically cited links between diet and disease, mushrooms may be a really effective way to boost the part of the immune system that fights infection while also downregulating the part of the immune system that causes chronic levels of inflammation. Oh, okay.

And all of those annoying symptoms. So that's why these are special.

[Kevin] (8:10 - 8:10)
Right.

[Michelle] (8:11 - 8:23)
So thousands of edible mushrooms grow naturally with worldwide annual commercial production in the millions of tons. And they're not very expensive.

[Kevin] (8:24 - 8:24)
Right.

[Michelle] (8:25 - 8:36)
So he even says the common button mushroom can be really, really powerful for this. A lot of people kind of pick on the button mushroom, right?

[Kevin] (8:36 - 8:52)
Well, because it's the most generic, boring mushroom. I mean, if you want something with flavor, you know, an oyster mushroom or a shiitake or a portobello has more flavor, more umami. Buttons are okay.

[Michelle] (8:52 - 8:54)
And they sound so sexy.

[Kevin] (8:54 - 9:16)
But to me, they're like a spaghetti sauce type. Like you just sort of bury them in spaghetti sauce. But by themselves, even cremini is tastier, I find.

Personally, if I'm going to eat them, you know, sort of by themselves or with a simple sauce. If I want that mushroom flavor, yeah, buttons aren't my go-to. But it's good to know.

Obviously, I'm going to start because I'm allergic.

[Michelle] (9:16 - 9:48)
Yeah. Well, listen to this. There were researchers in Australia that split people into two groups.

And one group ate their regular diet while the other ate its regular diet plus one cup of cooked white button mushrooms every day. Okay. And after just one week, the mushroom eaters showed a 50 percent boost in their IgA levels in their saliva.

So that's the levels of your of those immunity cells. Right.

[Kevin] (9:48 - 9:49)
Okay. Okay.

[Michelle] (9:50 - 10:06)
These antibody levels remained elevated for about a week before they started to drop. So not only did they help to increase your anti-inflammatory, your immune boosting function, it had sustained benefits.

[Kevin] (10:07 - 10:09)
It lasted a while. Yeah. Okay.

Interesting.

[Michelle] (10:09 - 10:22)
Yeah. Yeah. So if you make mushrooms part of your steady diet during this season, that and then in addition to increasing the colors on your plate, that's going to go a long way.

And then I would also say staying hydrated.

[Kevin] (10:22 - 10:23)
Of course.

[Michelle] (10:23 - 10:28)
Of course. Because when you're leaking all over the place, you're, you know, you need to.

[Kevin] (10:28 - 10:32)
And I've been leaking a lot these last few months. So yes, I'm aware.

[Michelle] (10:33 - 10:44)
Plus I do think, I think you were right and you said this to me before. I do think that there are maybe with all of, we didn't really have a winter the same way. And I think we've just got elevated pollen levels.

[Kevin] (10:45 - 10:46)
I think so.

[Michelle] (10:46 - 10:47)
Yeah.

[Kevin] (10:47 - 11:03)
I think so. And I have heard that just generally pollen levels are increasing year over year. And part of that is like cities are apparently planting more male trees because female trees are messier, but male trees create the pollen.

[Michelle] (11:04 - 11:04)
Hey. No.

[Kevin] (11:05 - 11:08)
I'm talking about trees here. Okay. I'm talking trees.

[Michelle] (11:08 - 11:09)
I'm offended.

[Kevin] (11:10 - 11:11)
No, but apparently.

[Michelle] (11:11 - 11:14)
Female trees can do everything a male tree can do.

[Kevin] (11:14 - 11:34)
But they won't get paid as much, unfortunately, until there's equality of pay for the female and the male trees. We shouldn't be supporting these male trees. No, but apparently cities are planting up to like 95% male trees versus female trees in new growth.

[Michelle] (11:34 - 11:35)
Gender bias.

[Kevin] (11:35 - 11:56)
Because female trees are messier apparently because they drop the pods or whatever. And so in a park or whatever, there's more to clean up. Whereas the male trees just have the pollen that goes into the wind.

So there's just generally more pollen, especially in cities, because there's too many guy trees. See, guys are the source of all problems.

[Michelle] (11:56 - 12:05)
Well, of course, the female trees have to produce the pods. They have to nurture the pods, take care of the pods, handle everything when they're arguing with one another.

[Kevin] (12:06 - 12:10)
And the guys just have like a passing wind and just let go of everything.

[Michelle] (12:10 - 12:16)
Yeah. It just, it doesn't seem right. Yeah.

Once again, another thing that is unfair between women and men.

[Kevin] (12:16 - 12:32)
Exactly. The trees. Damn it.

Okay. Well, thank you, Michelle. What a digression.

This has been very, very interesting. All about trees and pollen and allergies. So it's time for another Father's Day dad joke.

[Michelle] (12:32 - 12:33)
Bring it on. I'm excited.

[Kevin] (12:34 - 12:45)
Okay. This is, he is in, my son is in grade five, but this is the one joke that was a little bit, when he said it, I was like, really? How do you make holy water?

[Michelle] (12:47 - 12:49)
I don't know. How do you make holy water?

[Kevin] (12:50 - 12:51)
You boil the hell out of it.

[Michelle] (12:51 - 12:52)
Oh my gosh.

[Kevin] (12:56 - 13:03)
Okay. Okay. Well, thank you again for another great summer short, Michelle.

[Michelle] (13:04 - 13:06)
No problem. I like my shorts.

[Kevin] (13:06 - 13:10)
Until we meet again. Exactly. I like your shorts too.

Do you like my shorts?

[Michelle] (13:11 - 13:15)
I love your shorts. That's so weird. Edit that out.

[Kevin] (13:15 - 13:21)
That is very weird. We're editing that out. And until we meet again, eat your greens.

[Michelle] (13:22 - 13:28)
And be real, everyone. Yeah, be real, everyone.

[Kevin] (13:33 - 14:34)
This has been Nutrition for Noobs. We hope you're a bit more enlightened about how your fantastic and complicated body works with the food you put into it. If you have a question or a topic you'd like Michelle to discuss, drop us a line at n4noobs at gmail.com.

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