Eat Real To Heal Podcast

When Joseph Gucciardi was diagnosed with Crohn's disease in his 20s, following in his father and brother's footsteps, he sensed the pills and procedures weren't the answer. Guided by a deep inner knowing, he spent decades forging his own path with nutrition, yoga, and meditation. The final piece of his healing puzzle came with discovering detoxification, which ended his pain and led to a 40-pound...

What if anxiety and chronic illness were glitches, not life sentences? Host Nicolette Richer talks with Dr. Don Wood, a psychologist who discovered the direct link between unresolved trauma and "incurable" disease while trying to save his daughter. He explains his revolutionary “glitch and reboot” method to reset the nervous system in just 4 hours, redefines addiction as a "code" for pain, and sha...

When a lifelong competitive athlete and varsity basketball player suddenly couldn’t breathe, it wasn't a call to push harder—it was a call to stop. Nicolette Richer sits down with Emily Kane, owner of Yoga Cara in Whistler, who traded her “boot camp” mindset for a spiritual and restorative yoga practice after nine months of chronic bronchitis. They dive into why eliminating dairy cleared her lungs...

When a leading breast cancer surgeon became a patient, it shattered her worldview. Dr. Nicolette Richer talks with Dr. Jen Simmons, who left her prestigious surgical career after her own diagnosis led her to functional medicine. They discuss why cancer is a symptom, not the root problem, the controversial truth about mammograms, and the new technology changing screening forever. This is a powerful...

Description: What does it mean to choose love in your hardest decisions? In this powerful conversation, Rya—a Pilates instructor, nutrition student, and mother—shares her raw journey of conscious uncoupling, finding lasting sobriety through AA, and reclaiming her health through food. She reveals how she separated from her partner with love, not resentment, to create a new model of co-parenting and...

What if the most powerful tool to fight everything from chronic disease and climate change to social injustice was already on your plate? In this profound episode, Nicolette sits down with Mitali, the founder of The Vegan Publisher. With insights from working with over 40 authors, Mitali reveals that veganism is not a restrictive diet but a powerful, unifying lens through which we can address the...

Welcome to today’s podcast episode, where we dive into a critical and often misunderstood subject with survivor-expert Alexandra Ford. Alexandra shatters the stereotypical image of a trafficking victim, sharing her journey from a "normal, boring, middle-class" childhood to being trafficked at age 20. As a former child advocate and high-achieving student, her story reveals how master manipulators e...

Welcome to today’s podcast episode, where we dive into the deeply personal and transformative journey of Janine Züst, a mother, artist, and author who navigated her partner's devastating struggle with addiction. She opens up about the moment everything changed, the hidden weight she carried while raising two young children, and the choice she had to make to protect her family. What followed was a...

Welcome to today’s podcast episode, where we dive into the transformative journey of living with Cystic Fibrosis (CF) and exploring unconventional therapies. Our guest today, who was diagnosed with CF later in life at 37, opens up about her personal battle with the disease and the incredible healing path she embarked on after the diagnosis. At the time, she was a healthy yoga teacher and integrati...

Jane McLelland is a chartered physiotherapist who worked extensively in both the NHS and the private sector. After being given a terminal diagnosis with only a few weeks to live, Jane embarked on a desperate search for answers, uncovering research — some of it decades old — in her quest to survive. Rather than focusing on curing cancer, which is often unachievable, her strategy was to stop the dis...

In this compelling episode, we dive into the remarkable story of Chris Freer, a man who faced a life-changing Multiple Sclerosis diagnosis at 43 and took the bold step of reversing it through food as medicine. Once a successful businessman running pubs and clubs, Chris was suddenly confronted with the reality of life in a wheelchair. Refusing to accept a future dictated by his diagnosis, he embark...

Dr. Dominic Brady, an award-winning plastic surgeon, was diagnosed with incurable Multiple Myeloma in 2017. Determined to augment his conventional treatment naturally, he did a deep dive into extensive cancer and nutrition research. As a result, Dr. Brady adopted a whole food, plant-based diet, regular exercise, and targeted supplements. His remarkable remission has surprised his oncologist, and h...

Join us for an enlightening conversation as we sit down with Anthony Masiello, a seasoned healthcare veteran with over 25 years of experience. Anthony's journey began in the 90s at the prestigious National Institutes of Health (NIH), where he contributed to groundbreaking research for the Human Genome Project. His passion for innovation led him to Research and Development at Novartis Pharmaceutica...

Get ready to be inspired! In our latest Eat Real to Heal episode, we sit down with Kelley Gilberry, a trailblazer in the health and wellness sphere. Kelley's journey from being in the Navy to becoming a holistic nutritionist is nothing short of remarkable, and his insights into the mind-body connection will leave you feeling empowered.    Tune in as Kelley shares his personal odyssey of overcoming...

In this compelling episode, our host, Nicolette, engages in a profound conversation with Maxime Sigouin, the visionary founder of Fit Vegan. Maxime's personal journey is marked by the loss of his grandfather at the age of 63 and his ex-fiancée at 39, both succumbing to bone and breast cancer, respectively. Having spent over 4.5 years as a caregiver, Maxime witnessed firsthand the toll that losing...

Mixalhítsa7 Alison Pascal is a passionate Indigenous community leader, educator, and advocate based in British Columbia, Canada. She is a member of the Sk̲wxwú7mesh Úxwumixw and the Líl̓wat7ul Nations, and her career is focused on advancing the rights and interests of Indigenous peoples in her community and beyond. Alison is particularly interested in language revitalization, land stewardship, an...

Dr. Marie Mihalicz is a respected researcher, consultant, and founder of White Lightning Consulting, an organization committed to community-based healing and wellness retreats. She completed her Ph. D. at Royal Roads University, where her dissertation focused on Indigenous methods of healing and their potential for addressing the high rates of suicide and mental health issues in northern Saskatche...

Dr. Nana Kwaku Opare MD, a physician, author, and health coach discusses the importance of having accurate information about nutrition and the impact of economic and social conditions on people's eating habits. With over 30 years of experience in practicing medicine, Dr. Opare has a strong focus on lifestyle medicine and believes that many chronic diseases can be prevented or reversed through chan...

Dr. Milton Mills, MD is a practicing urgent care physician in the Washington DC area, with a focus on the use of nutritional measures to reduce the risk of major chronic diseases. He is an Associate Director of Preventive Medicine and a member of the National Advisory Board for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), where he has been a major contributor to position papers presen...

In this episode of Nicolette’s PhD Podcast series, Dr. Warren Bell, a family physician based in Salmon Arm, British Columbia, shares his expertise on social and environmental issues. With past presidencies of several organizations, including Physicians for Global Survival, Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, and the Association of Complementary and Integrative Physicians of B.C...

Suzanne Methot is a highly accomplished author with an impressive track record in creating and applying equity and anti-oppression frameworks. Her non-fiction book, Legacy: Trauma, Story, and Indigenous Healing, has won several awards, and she has also co-authored the Grade 11 textbook Aboriginal Beliefs, Values, and Aspirations, and contributed to Scholastic’s Take Action series of elementary cla...

Dr. Breeze Harper, also known as Sistah Vegan, is a highly experienced diversity, equity, and inclusion expert with a PhD in the social sciences. Her work focuses on the intersections of food and racial and nutritional health justice, drawing on her background in cultural food geography and black feminist perspectives. In her interview with Nicolette on the third PhD Podcast, Dr. Harper shares her...

Dr. Psyche Williams-Forson is a distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of American Studies at the University of Maryland College Park. With a passion for material culture, Dr. Williams-Forson focuses her research on African Americans' lives in the United States from the late 19th century to the present. She is a multidisciplinary academic, serving as an affiliate faculty member of the...

Dr. Adrianne Lickers Xavier is a remarkable academic who is currently serving as the acting Director of the Indigenous Studies Program at McMaster University, where she has made valuable contributions to the fields of Indigenous Studies and Anthropology. She earned her undergraduate degree in Anthropology from McMaster University and went on to complete her MA and doctorate at the esteemed Royal R...

As a well renowned fitness expert, John Lewis has spent over 2 decades in the health and fitness industry and played Division I College basketball. John is highly passionate about not only his own health and fitness, but that of others as well. Today, John has taken his passion for health and is now directing his first feature length documentary focused on food and social justice. John has teamed...