How to Choose the Best Supplements with Kate Mahoney, Supplement Academy Founder and Expert
Summary:
Kate Mahoney is a global supplement educator who founded the Supplement Academy in 2020, and created its courses so health practitioners worldwide can navigate the ever-changing world of supplements with confidence and ease year after year.
Kate is a board-certified functional health practitioner, former NTA instructor, and a supplement expert with over 25 combined years of extensive education and professional experience. She is also Vice-Chair of the Certified Dietary Supplement Professional board for the National Association of Nutrition Professionals, where she contributed to exam and study guide creation, and was the primary contributing editor of the Dietary Supplement Quality Reference Guide.
In her free time, her soul is fulfilled by being in nature, spontaneous living room dance parties which are often DJed by her spouse, and bonding over delicious food with loved ones.
WEBSITE https://www.thesupplementacademy.com/resources
SOCIAL MEDIA @katemahoneyntp
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katemahoneyntp/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KateMahoneyNTP
In this Podcast Episode: Kate Mahoney discussed her journey to becoming a supplement expert, including her rare autoimmune condition, her experience with reformulating recipes, her collaboration with master herbalists, and her enrollment in a functional health practitioner program.
Kate Mahoney, Supplement Academy Founder, realized she was a supplement expert after multiple people she looked up to told her at the same time. She then went on to teach and create courses, and emphasizes the importance of sourcing real food before supplementing. She also warns against taking methylated folate unless it is needed, as it can lead to toxicity issues.
Kate dives into the three categories of supplements: support, cofactors, and repair. She also suggests that people drink enough clean water every day and not drink water with meals as it dilutes the gastric juices needed to digest food. She also suggests that due to depleted soil, people may need to supplement their diets with vitamins and minerals to get the nutrients they need.
TRANSCRIPT
Anna Esparham
Okay, hey everyone, welcome to Health Is PowHer! we have a special guest with us that I'm super excited to introduce you to. Her name is Kate Mahoney. She ahi kay. She is amazing so she really specializes in supplements she founded the supplement academy in twenty twenty and created many courses so health practitioners worldwide can navigate the difficult and ever changing world of supplements with confidence and ease um she's also a board certified functional health practitioner and a supplement expert with over twenty five years of extensive education and
12:40 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Hell.
13:11 - Anna Esparham
Professional experience She's also super professional because she's vice chair of the Certified Dietary Supplement Professional Board, which is amazing for the National Association of Nutrition Professionals, where she contributes to exam and study guide creation and was the primary contributed contributing editor to of the Dietary Supplement Quality Reference Guide. Thank you, I know about that guide. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.
13:33 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
That was a labor of love.
13:35 - Anna Esparham
It is, no, it is so intense. Working at that level is pretty, it's a labor of love. So I totally get it, in your free time. Love being in nature. Yes, amazing me too. So aligned. Oh, spontaneous living room dance parties which are often jed by her spouse, which she's gonna demo, demo today on the live Facebook feed and Loves delicious food with loved ones as well. So welcome to the show, Kate. So glad to have you.
14:06 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
I am so happy to be here. Anna Um, it was a joy to connect with you, and it's just, it's an honor to be able to connect with and empower all of your listeners too. Give them information so that they can make better informed choices for themselves and their loved ones, which is my whole thing. Like that is the big umbrella that I live under in my world.
14:29 - Anna Esparham
and you're just so well rounded. I mean, you're not one of those people who is just dedicated solely to selling supplements.
14:35 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Thank.
14:38 - Anna Esparham
You want to educate people,
14:38 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Oh, knew.
14:40 - Anna Esparham
you want to give a broad overview of the right way to do it, if you're going to do it and,
14:45 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Exactly.
14:46 - Anna Esparham
and, and you even talk about, I mean with me before this recording, about what can you do to even avoid that, to not even depend on supplements. So I think you just have a very well rounded you, you're very grounded, you know, it just have a lot of integrity in this field. And so,
15:03 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Thank you.
15:03 - Anna Esparham
so I'm so excited.
15:03 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Yeah,
15:04 - Anna Esparham
Yeah,
15:04 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Well, the truth is that for most people the answer is not going to be found in supplements, so. I'm, I don't feel right about just steering people to buy supplements. It's like, no, that's not how this works. Let's cover the foundational basis 1st. And then figure out if you need anything on top of that to like push the needle further. So yeah.
15:29 - Anna Esparham
Perfect, no, that's the way I love it. And and 1st off I wanna talk about everyone talks about their origin story and kind of how they got to where they are and I just think, you know, I resonate with that, I just love to hear everyone's story. How did you get where you are today?
15:48 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
oh well the story of my health journey a lot of people can probably relate to this it's a very long and complicated one where in all honesty so many things about me and my life didn't make sense until suddenly everything just came together and in that one moment I could see that everything that had happened previously in my life was to prepare me to fulfill my life's purpose which is empowering people both clients and colleagues to make informed choices about health so I'm gonna try to summarize that as well as I can the condensed version starts with my onset of puberty in nineteen eighty eight which came paired with a rare autoimmune condition before autoimmune conditions began to be better understood and part of the common health professional vernacular like they are now that means my health complications were completely misunderstood by conventional medicine and that led to decades of professional study and personal experience and then in nineteen ninety five I started reformulating recipes for friends and loved ones with special dietary needs so they could still enjoy their comfort foods you know like making a pumpkin pie for a friend who's borderline diabetic and can't have dairy or wheat and that kind of began my journey of learning about food and food sensitivities and food substitutions and like all of the amazing chemistry that goes into reformulating recipes which is just fascinating to me now during that time I was also collaborating with and learning from master herbalists at local local herbal apothecaries in my area which is the greater seattle area so if you're familiar with seattle you might recognize these names some of the herbal apothecaries that I was learning from were tensing mammal and the herbalist and this eventually led to my participation in a really unique supplement education programm that sadly no longer exists but it was geared towards being a supple woman specialist, not necessarily a holistic practitioner, but I used my skills and knowledge as a health and wellness consultant from what I learned from that education for quite a while.
18:03 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
But there was a turning point towards the end of my five year supplement education because as my supplement knowledge grew, I honestly became increasingly frustrated with the pervasive selling supplements bias of the education I had received. And that led me to enroll in a functional health practitioner program because I really wanted to fill in the gaps from what I felt was the biased supplement education I had received. And that moment signing up for that program and going through that program is when everything my V layers of education and experience finally started to come together.
18:43 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
I consumed the curriculum, but as I did, it was really interesting because my critical thinking cerned simpler systems and methods that streamlined my client work. And an unexpected bonus was that the methods and systems that I created had exponentially increased my client success compared to what the curriculum was teaching and what my student, what my fellow students were experiencing on their end. And this is also when I finally began to understand the rarity of my comprehensive supplement knowledge, because not just my fellow students but also my course instructors continuously came to me with inquiries about the optimal uses of supplements as I went through the program, and they always seem to benefit from what I shared with them.
19:34 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
And then, by graduation, what became? My colleagues were begging me to create courses so that they could do what I can. And this trend just repeated with each continuing education training that I completed after that initial functional health practitioner program. Now, the culmination of Realizing that I was a supplement expert is actually kind of an amusing end to my origin story, which is that it literally took an intervention of a few amazing colleagues that I have great respect and regard for coming together to give me a reality check that I'm a supplement expert.
20:16 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
When you have multiple people, you look up to telling you at the same time, like kind of confronting you so that you can't get away from it, that you're an expert about a certain topic. It becomes a little harder to ignore what so many other people had been saying for me, saying to me for so long and after that intervention is when I finally started to own it.
20:42 - Anna Esparham
is hilarious. But it's interesting though, because a lot of life coaches or even business coaches, they'll ask you, like if you're lost or you need direction or you need help, in terms of what your strengths are, what your weaknesses are.
20:56 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Yes.
20:57 - Anna Esparham
Always ask your friends, always ask your colleagues, and they'll tell you, they'll see what maybe you don't see. And then you're just like, finally the light comes on.
21:07 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
I was part of this practitioner mastermind and honestly, I couldn't believe my luck because the people that were part of this intimate practitioner mastermind asked me to be part of it. And I was like, oh, because they're like, you know, when you kind of idolize people and you're putting them on pedestals, you're like, oh my gosh, I can't believe they has to be. And then you get in there and they find value in everything that you have to share, and they're constantly asking you questions and they're telling you that they're learning more from you than they did from like their master's programm or their Phd program covered about supplements, you know, they're like, you literally are the holder of the information that I have been seeking my entire practitioner life about supplements that no one else addresses or covers, and I'm like what I was like,
22:03 - Anna Esparham
That's huge. Wow, it is, it is. Yeah, that is interesting. I'm kind of looking back at my training and a lot of my training, well, a lot of my training. I had to go out and research on my own, but yeah, that was a big one, so that totally makes sense. And so everyone's telling you, yeah, we need your Energy, your knowledge, your expertise. And so then how did you decide to put all that together?
22:43 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Oh, that's a good question. So that actually brings in another layer of my journey, of how I really learned to teach and that teaching was a part of my purpose, not just being a supplement expert, but being a teacher, a mentor, an instructor. Someone who kind of walks beside people on their journey as they go down their path to help them become their best self and that's because when I graduated from my functional health practitioner program I was actually asked by both of my instructors if I wanted to be an instructor for the program and so they kind of grandfathered me in immediately and by two thousand fifteen I was teaching for the nta and I taught for them for five years then I was like you know it's it's time for me to do this it's time for me to take what I know about teaching and try to convert it to curriculum.
23:48 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
And I'm just telling you the 1st time that I tried my poor beta testers it is deceptively complex to translate twenty five years worth of knowledge into a systemize structured system that people can benefit from it's much different than actually conversing with people about the topic right because if you converse with someone there's the back and forth there's the give and take there's the ability to fill in the gaps but creating a systemize structure that builds on itself that makes sensee that clearly takes someone from point a to point z that is a whole different ball game and at this point I have completely rewritten my curriculum because fortunately for me one of my beta testers had twenty five years of course creation experience and offered to come on to my team if I agreed to mentor her After she graduated,
24:52 - Anna Esparham
Wow.
24:52 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
she helped me like level up.
24:57 - Anna Esparham
Yes, divine intervention for sure. I, I was actually going to 2nd that because I do a lot, of course, creation and immensely complex and difficult,
25:10 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Yes.
25:11 - Anna Esparham
and it takes a lot of innovation and creativity and strategy and like it's a knowledge that's, it is so hard to describe, but it's like converting it into something that's tangible so other people understand,
25:19 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Yes. Yes.
25:23 - Anna Esparham
which is, it takes talent and it takes skill. And creating these courses is something that takes quite a bit of energy and quite a bit of time.
25:32 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Yep, yep,
25:33 - Anna Esparham
It is way more than anybody thinks because I,
25:34 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
yes.
25:36 - Anna Esparham
I have done a ton. I teach courses all over. I'm a professor and I mean, and I create a ton of curriculum based courses like from scratch. And it, the intensity, if you do it correctly,
25:48 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Yep.
25:48 - Anna Esparham
the intensity is pretty high level.
25:53 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Because it's like you have to identify required reading, you have to ident. Like in our line of work, there's the required reading pieces that help to build on to and provide additional context to what you're teaching. Then there's all the sourcing of the material. Because if you're teaching higher education to professionals. Better have the ability to back up what it is that you're talking about with like scientific study and references and all those things and it wo and as you know, Inside of the health profession field, things are constantly changing, so it's not like you just write the curriculum and then it's done.
26:36 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
If your course is for other health professionals, you are constantly needing to update that material like all the time. Well, the world of supplements is always changing, so I'm always updating my material.
26:55 - Anna Esparham
am with you right there, and in fact, I was just updating one of my courses today. Because the quizz, I just, it wasn't a good quiz and so I had to just redo the whole quiz. So that's interesting, Okay, So then since we're talking about supplementation. Why do you want to really hone in on high healthy nutrition from good foods? Tell us a little bit about that before we even start supplementing. Like what should be our foundation before supplementation?
27:30 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Oh, that is such a good question, Okay? So um, something that I say to all of my students and I'm gonna go ahead and share with your listeners right now is, I may be a supplement expert, but I am a Food 1st Practitioner. And if you are wondering why I am a supplement expert who is a Food 1st practitioner, Your critical thinking and discernment should be telling you that that is your 1st clue about how many low quality supplements there are out there. Okay, most supplements are low quality, they are not effective, they are cheap, they are made with things that you probably don't even realize.
28:10 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
So let's quickly talk about the four primary thing. Well, actually know, before we address that, Oky, a lot of people have a misconception that supplements are derived from food. That is the rarity, not the norm. Let's talk about the foremost common raw materials that nutrients. Synthesized from like man made in a lab in order to make these nutrients. And number one is corn. Let's look at the statistics for how much corn is Gmo. It is almost 90 %. Number two is soy. Guess what else is also mostly Gmo?
28:56 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
So basically whatever corn cannot be synthesized into, soy can or a combination of, so soy and corn is used. Number four grains. So if you have gluten sensitivities or grain sensitivities or things like that and you react to supplements, will, there's probably a reason why, very last thing, night shades. If you're someone who is night shade sensitive, there is another reason why you might be reacting to supplements. Now the other common reason why a lott of people have a bad reaction to supplements is because most.
29:40 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Synthesized nutrients have to be made using a fermentation process or causing things to mold. Literally mold. You want to know how citric acid acid is made. They make corn mold and then they collect that mold and they synthesize that into citric acid. Wow, doesn't that sound great? Doesn't make calcium citrate and magnesium citrate look so good anymore, does it?
30:09 - Anna Esparham
I heard about that.
30:09 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
And it's really not. It's like it is the cheapest mineral form you can get and that's why so many people use it in their supplements, not people. That's why so many brands use it in their supplements, not because the any of the citrate forms of minerals.
30:25 - Anna Esparham
Magnesium citrate.
30:26 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
So calcium citrate, magnesium citrate, okay, let's talk about ascorbic acid for a minute.
30:31 - Anna Esparham
Okay.
30:32 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Ascorbic acid, not even vitamin C. If you look up ascorbic acid, you will find out it does not cure scurvy, it doesn't. Because they figured out that it is lacking a whole bunch of the phytonutrient co factors to actually cure things like scurvy. So ascorbic acid, not real vitamin C, doesn't contain all the nutrients to do the things that your body needs. Just source real food seriously. Like, and how is vitamin C made? It is made from fermenting corn dextrose, like block. I mean that's basically corn sugar.
31:16 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
They ferment corn sugar, they turn it into a corb acid and then they call it vitamin C. So that's the other super cheap form of minerals that you can get is when you get a, They call it buffered vitamin C. It does not increase the efficacy at all, and that's like magnesium ascorbate or calcium ascorbate. That is when they have molecularly cheated the mineral molecule to the Ssc. Acid. And I'm just saying, don't waste your money, just buy fruits and vegetables that are naturally high in vitamin C and eat those things.
32:01 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
I mean one of my favorite things to make. I call it a liquid cream sickle. I've got my little vitamin splendor. I take tangerines or mandarin oranges. I don't even take off the skin because the skin is where most of the vitamin C is. I pop four those in a blender with some vanilla, a can of whole fat organic coconut milk. I top it off with water and I turn it on high and I'm telling you it tastes ohh yeah, and some dates and it tastes like a liquid cream sickle. It is so good, like mind blowing,
32:33 - Anna Esparham
That sounds good.
32:36 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
so there you go.
32:38 - Anna Esparham
I bet you could make those in a popsicle like in the summertime and freeze them and then it would be,
32:42 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Yes, yes, but you don't want to add as much water,
32:44 - Anna Esparham
oh, that s because it,
32:46 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
you want it to be more concentrated.
32:46 - Anna Esparham
it freezes it. Okay, yeah.
32:48 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Yeah, but yeah, I have colleagues that when I've shared this recipe with them, they've done that, yep.
32:57 - Anna Esparham
I love popsicles. It's like my favorite thing in the summer. Yeah, that's interesting because I did hear. When I 1st was doing my fellowship and integrative and functional medicine, I actually had patients tell me about that. I didn't even know about that in the very beginning and they were like, well, can't I? They asked me I need B vitamins without yeast or mold and, and I was and, and corn too, I think it was grown on corn or so. And I was because they had a corn allergy or a corn foods food sensitivity and they had yeast overgrowth and and I was like, I had never heard of that before, but that was the beginning where I started to learn about that.
33:38 - Anna Esparham
So it's interesting.
33:40 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Yep, yeah, it's, it's a whole world of synthetic, manmade stuff.
33:46 - Anna Esparham
It is, I know, and Pe and yeah, even a lot of, doctors, I mean, don't know and, and a lot of like even synthetic, you know, F Aid and, you know,
33:58 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Yep.
33:58 - Anna Esparham
versus other. Versus the real form is like some people develop an issue with it and they don't really know that that's what they're having the issue too. So yeah, this is interesting,
34:09 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
and that I like that you brought that up having to do with the full aight,
34:10 - Anna Esparham
Wow, okay.
34:12 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
because that's a really complicated issue too. One of the things that chops my hide is the fact that so many supplement brands are now using the methylated form of Fate in their supplements, thinking that it's better when it's not. That's not the form that is naturally found in nature, that is what our body methyls it into. And for someone who doesn't need the methylated form, a full it can actually lead to toxicity issues. And we don't want to do that to ourselves, we don't want to do it to our clients.
34:45 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
The best forms of B vitamins are known as Co enzi and that would be like calcium. Fulani would be a really good example of a Co enz folate, one that our body can use. Methylated folate should only be used by someone who either has the Mth Fr variation. That is expressed, which means your genes aren't always expressing that variation. So nutro genomics and epigenetics come into play and everything and it's like you only take it when you needed to. And some people when they are having serious toxicity issues, they're having difficulty with methylation for a time and maybe they need a methylated folate for a period of time on their repair journey, but please don't take a methylated folate unless you actually need it.
35:45 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Don't cause an inadvertent imbalance, Toxicity, toxicity. Like there's all these synergistic and antagonist relationships between nutritional co factors in our body. And if you don't know what you're doing and if you don't have the oversight of a practitioner who is well versed in those synergistic relationships and those balances, and making sure that you're getting what you need at the right time, at the right pace for your body, you can really mess yourself up. And I speak from experience, because on my journey I have messed myself up a few times.
36:21 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
How about you, Anna?
36:23 - Anna Esparham
Yes, and yes, because everyone was like, Anna, you're not methylated. And so let's get you started on. I think it was S adeno methionine or Sammy. Zinc and then B vitamins. And I remember, I think like the 1st couple weeks I did, that I was so irritable and anxious and so I knew there was something not quite right.
36:49 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
To me, it's like just based on your symptoms from what I've seen in my clinical practice and tell me if you've seen this too. When someone's liver is not able to process and convert things correctly, or if they're given the synthetic versions, like the synthetic isolates of the B vitamins rather than the co enzi mad forms, it can make you so gritty.
37:14 - Anna Esparham
I have the synthetic ones, yeah, yeah,
37:16 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
The Iso Lips Mhm Oh,
37:16 - Anna Esparham
uhhuh, yeah, the methylated forms.
37:18 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
I'm so sorry, I've done that. Yeah, I've done that. That's part of how I learned. It's a process.
37:26 - Anna Esparham
We, yes, that's why we're here. We learn from experience,
37:28 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Yes.
37:29 - Anna Esparham
guys, we, we do the damage to ourselves and then we're like,
37:32 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Don't do that.
37:32 - Anna Esparham
don't do that.
37:33 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Yeah, yeah, oh my gosh, okay, Do you mind if I like add in another little tidbit? Okay, here's another experience that I had. Shortly after I graduated from my functional health practitioner program, I was working with a practitioner, a fellow graduate, we were exchanging services and she helped me identify this supplement. That was life changing for me and I felt so much better on it. I was like, I'm gonna take this for the rest of my life. And so I kind of ghosted her for a while and she didn't hear from me for like three or four months and she finally contacted me and she's like, so how's it going?
38:12 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
And I'm like, I messed up, she's like, What do you mean? Like, well, I fell in love with the supplement so much because it made me feel so much better that I wanted to take it forever and I tried to do that and I think my body only needed it for a specific period of time. And I'm really feeling the effects of creating some imbalances now. And I needed your help. And she was like, I understand Kate, I mean she was so sympathetic in understanding, which is exactly what I needed at that very vulnerable, I messed up moment.
38:53 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
I'm really grateful.
38:56 - Anna Esparham
is so funny. Yep, I, I've had some clients and some patients who've done that too.
39:04 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
I'm very human. I keep it real.
39:06 - Anna Esparham
That's why I just, I, I love it because I mean all these experiences we just learn from and they're not, they're not bad, you know,
39:14 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Yes.
39:14 - Anna Esparham
it's really good actually. I, I really find that a lot of our mistakes, I've, I've done it so I can help others with, all my fault.
39:23 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Exactly. Yes, I feel you there, Anna.
39:32 - Anna Esparham
tell us, as we were talking about A lot of, you know, real forms of the vitamins and the nutrients that we wanna get obviously from food. 1st before supplementation, watching out for some of those four common issues in supplements, what is like one of your major tips for, maintaining health and well being?
39:54 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Oh, well, it's not about supplements.
40:01 - Anna Esparham
Yes, I figured.
40:04 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Okay, so Tip is Drink enough clean water every day. I've got a little story to share about that. As health practitioners go through my program, the most common question that I get asked over and over again is what I've gotten paid to help people with more than anything else. And the answer that I always give to the health practitioners and they're like, What? Which is why it is throughout my entire course is I have gotten paid the most to help clients figure out how drinking enough clean water every day fits into their life because it looks different for everybody, everybody has a different life, everyone has different lifestyles.
40:53 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
There is the healing reaction because when you're dehydrated, water will not taste good to you, in fact, it'll make you feel sick, it'll give you a headache, it will make you feel nauseous. That is a healing reaction because guess what water is supposed to do. Water helps us carry cellular waste outside of our body. Not only that it transports nutritional co factors to all of our cells, so we need enough clean water every day to optimally transport the nutrients to ourselves, but also to optimally clean out the cellular waste that builds up from our cells.
41:37 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Like just doing what they do so that we can function on a regular daily basis. Like blinking my eyes or talking right now. Or just being a Muppet in general, which is kind of what I do. So if you don't drink enough clean water every day, what happens when you finally start trying to drink water is you are mobilizing what I like to call cell poop. You mobilize the cell poop cause the cells are like, oh my gosh, we can finally get rid of this toxic waste build up that's been accumulating in the cells.
42:12 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Quick, cells open, open, release the cell poop, get it out and you're like a I feel sick to my stomach. I have a headache. Guess why? Cell poop. I always walk people through. It's like I have a process where I'm like, okay, do you want to go through the healing journey fast and hard, slow and steady, or somewhere in between? We can always alter it and tweak it on the way there. And how does drinking enough water fit into your life? And that's the other thing. So a lot of people are like, Oh, I hate drinking water because it makes me pee all the time.
42:49 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Guess what cell poop your body is trying to get that out. Yes, you are peeing all the time, but if you drink enough water every day for four days in a row and you continue on the 5th day, it's like a miracle, you stop peeing as much, you'll pee half as much because guess what your body has gotten out most of the cell. Poop, woot woot. You also won't have that headache anymore from drinking water. You won't be sick to your stomach anymore. But there's all these Tricks like you can add, you can chop up fresh herbs and add them to your water, you can add pieces of fruit, you can add, you know, slices of citrus.
43:34 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Like there's, so you don't have to drink straight water, you just don't want to drink things that are diuretic like coffee or caffeinated beverages or sugary beverages or soda and think that it counts towards your hydration total because it doesn't, it's actually a deficit. I mean, I know you know all this, Anna. So I'm just preaching to the choir, but I'm just keeping it real and honest, because for your listeners, listen. Anna is not the only one who knows that this is true. Any functional practitioner who is worth their muster realizes that the base of hydration and dehydration hass to be hit, it hass to be covered before we're going to be able to make any progress with anyone that we work with and that's just keeping it real.
44:27 - Anna Esparham
exactly the, what was really in lightning to me was um, the how rare clean water exists,
44:38 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Oh, yeah.
44:40 - Anna Esparham
especially in old, you know, buildings and old facilities, and so I remember when I was doing my fellowship or maybe when I was working at this big large hospital, this medical center, they, our colleagues in the integrated functional medicine field, ran tests on the water in terms of what chemicals are in there, what heavy metals are in there. It was so it was rough and there were,
45:04 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Oh, goodness.
45:07 - Anna Esparham
it was way higher arsenic levels, parts per million than it should have been. I mean that was one of the highest ones on there, but it just goes to show how that's not being looked at. Okay, well this is over the parts per million that arsenic should be in this water and so started. I don't know how much this helps because charcoal fil filters only get so much, but I bought a water bottle with a charcoal filter.
45:36 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
ma.
45:41 - Anna Esparham
so that if I go to any hospital now, because a lot of hospitals are older, I actually just do that. But I just put by, even though it's filtered already, I actually filter it again with my charcoal filter water bottle.
45:55 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
I get it I mean I I take my my little half gallon water bottle everywhere with me, with my distilled water in it. I distill my water at home. If I travel, it's like the very 1st thing that I do before I travel is I figure out where and how can I source clean water. And I have a couple different brands, one that is my favorite that I source, that I use for clean bottled water when I'm traveling and that is, I think it's called Mountain Valley and it's in a green bottle. And it is spring water that is really super clean.
46:35 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
It comes in a glass bottle, not plastic, which is also important because if you think about water, it's the master solvent, and the cleaner and more pure your water is, the more likely it's going to be leaching toxins from its rounding because that's what it's supposed to do. When it's clean, pure water, it acts like a sponge and it draws toxins out. It does that to plastic, which is why I try really hard, as much as I can, to not drink water from plastic bottles. But the other thing that goes in keeping with that is okay.
47:17 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
If water is the master solvent and it leaches things from its surrounding environment, that means guesss what we should not be drinking with our meals or around meal time. Water. We should be drinking our water separate from our food because we have all these gastric juices that are meant to help us digest our food and if you drink water around your meal or your meal, you're actually diluting those gastric juices, so you're making the digestive process even harder on your body.
47:51 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
But guesss what gastric juices are, They're juices, they're liquid, so what is the number one? Co factor necessary for the body to make gastric juices. Water, but that means it needs it in between when you're eating so that you're already hydrated and saturated to make those optimal levels of gastric juices so that you can digest really well. So I tell people I'm like drink foods with your meal, like drink bone broth drink. I have this great recipe for electrolyte lemonade, it tastes like lemonade.
48:28 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
It has naturally occurring electrolytes in it because you either use coconut nectar or um, maple syrup to sweeten it. It tastes wonderful. It helps to support digestion because of the acidity of the lemons. Like there's all these you can drink, drink coffee with your meal, even if it's a decaf coffee, because the bitter from the coffee helps to stimulate gastric juice secretions. Like drink food with your meal, drink water away from your meals. It just kind of makes sense when you Think about it.
49:02 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
It's like, oh, that's logical, okay, you know,
49:05 - Anna Esparham
Oh yeah, no, I, I, I think I was told that many times and I, I kind of, you know what, I've gone away from it and lately whenever I have my stressors, I sometimes have to take Beane Hcl and some digest Imes, for some indigestion, especially late at night before bed, and I'm gonna try that and not drink my water. I'm such a water hound when it comes to meals, I always chase a ton of water with it, but I'm gonna try that and see if I needed to use less butane and digest Smes.
49:36 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
works, works wonders for a lot of people. I always tell people I'm like if if you have a hard time drinking water, take three swallows of water every 15 min, set a timer, stop drinking a half an hour before you eat, and start drinking an hour after your meal is donee. I mean, that doesn't work for everybody. I have to like strategize differently with different people. But for a lot of people, just kind of play around with it. Maybe it's six swallows of water every 30 min. It's like you figure out where and how It fits into your life, and you'll find that by the end of the day you will have consumed about three quarters of a gallon of water.
50:17 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Easy, Peasy, and you'll be like, Whoa. What if you did?
50:24 - Anna Esparham
No, and it's good to actually go slow with the instead of like chugging it all at once anyway.
50:27 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Yep.
50:29 - Anna Esparham
So some of some of my teenage patients love to do that. I'm like, could you spread it throughout the day?
50:38 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
I mean, okay, sure better than nothing,
50:39 - Anna Esparham
better than nothing, but you next?
50:40 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
just especially don't do that with a meal. Oh, I see people do that, it's like they sit down with a big glass of water and the 1st thing they do before they eat is they drink like a pint of water and I'm like, No.
50:52 - Anna Esparham
Yep, yep, I know it. So this might be more of a bigger question, but and we'll just answer this as concisely as possible,
51:00 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Hear.
51:03 - Anna Esparham
we may go down a rabbit hole.
51:04 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Okay.
51:04 - Anna Esparham
I apologize, but why, why do we need supplements, Kate?
51:11 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Oh. That is a hard question to succinctly answer because there's so many varied layers, but Um, and the answer can vary from person to person. Like bio individuality really comes into play as far as like the root cause of why someone is experiencing the health concerns and the symptoms that they are, we always have to get to the root cause for every single person that we work with. Dysfunctional practitioners. But I would say that there are two. Primary reasons. One primary reason is that at this point, thanks to big business agriculture.
52:00 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
We have depleted our soil and it no longer has the nutrients that it used to. And that's part of the reason why as a Food 1st practitioner, I'm someone who is huge ally and supporter of Um regenerative and sustainable farming methods because we need to find a way to repair the damage that we've done to our planet in order for to be able to be getting our nutrients solely from our food. We can't do that right now. And I find that with my clients that is a big reason why a lot of people, like I see people who are eating really well, like they're eating as good as they can and they've really donee so much work trying to figure out, what foods work best for their body.
52:55 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
They're, you know, keeping their water away from their meals. They're doing all the things and they're like, I still have these huge health issues that I haven't been able to move the needle on. And that's when we have to dig a little bit deeper and say, okay, let's look at this from a nutrient level is what their body needs. And I. Kind of categorized supplements into three categories. Do they need support, which is usually long standing? Genetic issues can fall under support.
53:31 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Just to provide an example of that, like Llers Down Lose syndrome, people with Llers Down Lose syndrome have an exceedingly difficult time digesting their protein. So they are most of them, once you do a certain amount of repair work to make sure that their body is ready for Hcl and Batan or something acetic like an apple cide or vinegar Shaw or electrolyte lemonade, because their stomach lining has that protective mucus to make sure that the stomach isn't eating itself. Then they need that to make sure that the contents in their stomach become acidic enough that their body releases the pepsin to break down the proteins on the physical level, right?
54:14 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
So I'm sorry, I'm probably going a little bit. It's like I'm doing practitioner talk rather than Listen. Talk.
54:22 - Anna Esparham
It is no, and but this is but this is important because there, this, I mean, this is a very common question that. Even actually mainstream. Many conventional journals are just like there's no need for supplements when unfortunately, just like what you said, there's actually research to show while most of us Americans we cannot meet our recommended Dietary allowance, let alone actually our needs,
54:47 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Yep.
54:49 - Anna Esparham
if we have a chronic health issue which ramps up that recommended allowance even further.
54:51 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Yes.
54:54 - Anna Esparham
And so if we can't meet 70 %,
54:54 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Yep.
54:56 - Anna Esparham
like 70 % of Americans can't meet, you know, their zinc, you know, allowance. I mean, that's, I mean, zinc is, you know, kind of everything. It's just like magnesium is for the whole body and so, so that it's, it's a big issue and and also when there's chronic health issues, certain supplements that have been studied that are beneficial for that specific condition where there's actual evidence for it with obviously the bio individual. Because we have to take in the whole person.
55:26 - Anna Esparham
Because again,
55:27 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Yes.
55:27 - Anna Esparham
like I mean the love research,
55:29 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
for one person won't work for everybody,
55:30 - Anna Esparham
right? exactly.
55:32 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
so please do not just look at what influences are saying about this is a magic pill and take it, do not fall for that. Work with a health practitioner who knows about supplements to help you figure out what you need specifically and make sure that it's actually compatible with your body.
55:54 - Anna Esparham
That's exactly right, it's all about personalizing. And exactly what you said in the very beginning, before you started talking about why we needed supplements, is that bio in visual of supplementation, which even though I, I really love research and it's great,
56:09 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Yes.
56:09 - Anna Esparham
it's, it's wonderful and it, but again, we as practitioners still have to understand that person in their environment and their body,
56:17 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Yes.
56:19 - Anna Esparham
their genetics, just like you talked about Eilers Dan Lo syndrome.
56:21 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Yep.
56:22 - Anna Esparham
If they're having indigestion, if they're having difficulty with their gut health, we kind of have to think, okay, maybe we need to consider something to help them with their protein needs, with assimilating nutrients, because maybe they can't digest it down all the way, or maybe even helping them with certain supplements to digest.
56:38 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Exactly, yeah, exactly like there's so many different layers, just like what you spoke to, the approach with each person is going to be different. So with some people you might give them hydrolyzed collagen, right? The collagen peptides. Because it's like immediately providing those amino acids in a very absorbable, usable form for the body. But then we also have to look at things like, okay, is this person sensitive to, to glutamine, like do they have a reaction to it?
57:10 - Anna Esparham
Yeah.
57:11 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Is it over exciting to them? So maybe that's not the right direction to go.
57:16 - Anna Esparham
Hey. hey.
57:17 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
We also needed to be thinking about the fact that the collagen peptides are not a whole protein. The gelatin is, but the peptides aren't, right. So are we potentially going to be creating a nutritional imbalance if this person is on it for too long? Like there's so many different factors. And just going back to what you said about sync, what is so tricky about zinc specifically is 1st of all, the form of zinc that is most commonly promoted is not the most absorbable, and that is zinc pollinate.
57:53 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Like the most absorbable form of minerals is going to be an amino acid chelate every time, every time. And please do not ever waste your money on the oxides or the sulfates or anything like that, because those are the least bioavailable forms. Go for the amino acid chelate. But with zinc specifically, there's something known, and you're probably familiar with this. Anna It's known as the zinc paradox, which is when the body becomes deficient in zinc, the enterocytes that line our small intestines become unreceptive to being able to absorb the zinc, and so we have to source the most bioavailable forum and we have to start really low and slow.
58:43 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
And kind of help the body and the entero sites, remember, hey, look at this nutrient over here, ooh, isn't that nice? You want it, you want to absorb it and like get the body back to a receptive state because its zinc is sufficient again.
59:02 - Anna Esparham
talking about the minerals especially because this I, this is what I had. The problem was is I had zinc deficiency, I also had copper deficiency, which it kind of the,
59:11 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Oh, that's interesting.
59:13 - Anna Esparham
I know it's very interesting.
59:13 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
That's rare.
59:14 - Anna Esparham
Usually you have high is very rare.
59:14 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Yeah.
59:15 - Anna Esparham
I had both zinc and copper deficiency. It was probably because of that weird autoimmune disease I had. I had a very strange auto immune disease and so that,
59:22 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Hey,
59:24 - Anna Esparham
hey, we're scared.
59:24 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
I see you.
59:28 - Anna Esparham
we did they prescribed zinc, picolin. And I remember I,
59:33 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Yeah, of course.
59:34 - Anna Esparham
oh my gosh, I could not get it up. I took both copper and I took zinc. I took them at separate times like I was told to cause they compete with each other. And I also try to eat a lot more zinc containing foods, a lot more copper containing foods. I could not get my zinc or copper up at all. And it may, it may have been related to that, to maybe my interior sites were just not because I did have trouble with some gut health issues. So that that's interesting that you say that the other thing that I wanted to talk about when you're talking about minerals and then the antero sites are not absorbing those minerals is iron.
1:00:09 - Anna Esparham
And what I've been studying more recently because I have a lot of patients with chronic health issues with iron deficiency or iron, iron storage, which is ferritin and They have trouble with different types of iron formulations and what other hematologists are now finding out is that a lot of patients can absorb the iron better when it's given every other day. So I was like, hum, I wonder if that might be similar with other minerals because other people go low and go slow. But what they're finding out with iron is that you go, you give a big dose and then you wait a day and so you have like every other day.
1:00:58 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
What about the nutritional co factors? Because I know a lot of people that I've seen that really struggled with iron. It mostly was a cofactor issue, like their body was lacking the cofactors to actually utilize the iron and make the cells receptive to it.
1:01:12 - Anna Esparham
What.
1:01:13 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Have you seen that in your practice as well?
1:01:15 - Anna Esparham
Well, it previously when I was doing more integrative and functional medicine, yes, I mean there was ten, I mean all kinds of nutrient issues, but but with the, when I'm doing more conventional practice, I don't often get the other labs, I just kind of get traditional labs and the only ones I get typically are vitamin Dd and then iron and ferritin, iron labs and ferritin. So yeah, I don't really assess the others because it's more of a, a conventional practice. That was in that was this job that I recently quit though, so we'll see what happens next.
1:01:48 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
You're like, not in a lineman.
1:01:52 - Anna Esparham
you can see well.
1:01:53 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
I've been there.
1:01:57 - Anna Esparham
and it was also just because, you know, several colleagues were just you know, not interested in getting iron, checking iron for patients when it was causing issues for the patient. And so it's just a tough sell sometimes in trying to get other conventional practitioners to order these nutritional labs. When there, it's almost. I just wonder if we have more data on this. Even now, I just wonder if it, it does continue to get lower and lower just with our nutrients.
1:02:31 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
I know it. It honestly, it wouldn't surprise me. Ohh, I realized that I didn't finish answering my question about why do we needed supplements,
1:02:38 - Anna Esparham
That's what I wonder.
1:02:43 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
I only spoke to one of the three categories that I put supplements in. So there is, there's support, usually long standing, like I said, due to some kind of genetic condition, like people with Llers, down lose syndromes are probably going to require some type of digestive health support to make sure that they're getting their protein needs met regularly so that they have less issues. Genetically speaking, epigenetics, nutri genomics, it's like a, it's a relationship. The 2nd category is cofactor.
1:03:18 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
So cofactors like I spoke to earlier in the podcast, there all these synergistic and antagonist relationships and we have to be really careful if we are giving our patients or our clients. A therapeutic dose of a specific nutrient, that we're only doing it for a short period of time, that we are monitoring their levels regularly to make sure we're not creating inadvertently another nutritional imbalance. And usually with things like minerals or B vitamins. It's really important if we're doing a therapeutic dose of one B vitamin or one mineral, that we are also providing our clients or our patients with a comprehensive, bioavailable, low dose B complex or multi mineral because that helps if they're taken apart.
1:04:11 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
It was like you were speaking about the copper and the sink. It's like you were staggering them. And I do the same thing with my clients and I encourage the practitioners who go through my program to do the same thing. I'm like you give the therapeutic dose, you monitor their levels and then you give them the complex, the same like taken separately but at the same time Um, and just doing that really simple approach and adjustment when you're working nutritionally with co factors is so essential.
1:04:42 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
And then the very last category that I put supplements in is repair, and that is when we are dealing with like really serious health issues that are going to require specific supplements that are more intensive and have the likelihood of doing more serious damage if they are not taken with practitioner oversight. So just an example of that is, activated charcoal, not something you wanna be taking every day or bentonite clay, not something you wanna be taking every day. Like there are certain things uh, having to do with like parasites or mold detox or all these other issues.
1:05:28 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
It's a repair protocol and those are not regular daily supplements. And it's so important And make sure that you're working with a practitioner who can navigate the ever changing waters that your body is going to be going through as you do the repair process. So those are the three categories.
1:05:49 - Anna Esparham
Ah, so perfect. No, it just puts it, yeah, in very concise ways. That, that actually helps me when I'm talking to other more conventional healthcare practitioners. So what a great, what a great way. Okay, So what takeaways do you want my listeners to have from our conversation today?
1:06:11 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Okay, I've got one for you. If you don't know how to identify which supplements actually meet your quality standards and what supplements you actually need, you are better off spending your money on the cleanest, highest quality food you can source. Also, drink enough water every day and drink it away from food. That's it.
1:06:35 - Anna Esparham
that is so good. I mean, some of these little tidbits, I'm just gonna apply for myself as well because I just completely forget it.
1:06:43 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
I know right,
1:06:44 - Anna Esparham
oh,
1:06:44 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Don't we all?
1:06:45 - Anna Esparham
it does.
1:06:45 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
It gets lost in the mix.
1:06:45 - Anna Esparham
And I, I learned this back in my physiology class in med school, and I think our physiology professor told us not to do that too. And, and then I threw that, yeah, to the wayside. So back on it, how, okay, So this is really super important for everyone because Kate is just a wealth of information. I, you know, you know,
1:07:09 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
I'm thinking in up.
1:07:09 - Anna Esparham
way more than I do. I mean, seriously, I gotta take your class.
1:07:15 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Well, supplement Expert I it took me a while to own it, but now I do.
1:07:20 - Anna Esparham
It's so good and I think anybody who is doing integrative or functional medicine has got to take this course and and so tell us, how can people find you to learn more about supplements? Who are the type of people that can learn more about supplements from you?
1:07:37 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
well the truth is that anyone can benefit from learning more about supplements and um I have been a guest on multiple podcasts as a supplement expert a lot of the podcasts that I am on I am speaking more at a consumer level rather than a practitioner level um there are a couple that i've been on where I'm talking more at a practitioner level but they are the rarities and I have them all on my website if you're a consumer if you're a practitioner if you want to learn more about supplements and you want access to free resources that you can just listen to in your car while you're doing housework just easy peasy you know however it works best for you to intake that information you can find them all at www dot the supplement academy dot com slash resources and they're all right there on the resources page um I'm all about uh evidence community.
1:08:44 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
And just helping people make well informed choices. So yeah, happy to serve, happy to serve and provide information.
1:08:50 - Anna Esparham
oh my gosh and I'll have that for everyone in the podcast details and the show notes as well so you can go over to um either health is phar dot com and find the podcast episode in the podcast page or in the podcast details whatever you're listening to itunes stitcher or spotify you can just pull it up and all the links should be in there to find kate and learn more about her supplement academy and get her resources as well so thank you so much yeah and Yes,
1:09:20 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Great, Thank you, Anna. And of course your, your podcast, once it drops, is gonna be able to be found on that page too.
1:09:26 - Anna Esparham
that's awesome. I'm so excited.
1:09:29 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Yeah, I'm excited too.
1:09:31 - Anna Esparham
Oh, my gosh, I had so much fun.
1:09:33 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Me,
1:09:33 - Anna Esparham
well,
1:09:34 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
too.
1:09:35 - Anna Esparham
anything else that you want to leave the audience with? You want to wrap up?
1:09:43 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
You know, I think those two takeaways of just if you don't know enough about supplements, spend your money on the highest quality clean food that you can and try to drink enough clean water every day. Those are the two takeaways I want people to have from our time together.
1:09:59 - Anna Esparham
and then also obviously if you can't find um, the clean sources of water, in glass bottles, I actually know Mountain Valley, I drink that at the Iowa State Fair all the time they have that there so cool side note. But anyway, you know, it's not obviously super clean, but They do have water bottles that have, the charcoal filter in it, as long as you change the charcoal filter on time depending upon how much you use it. Because it gets old pretty quickly and it can mold, so you have to dry it, that charcoal filter and then you also have to clean the straw because the straws get a lot of mold on it too, especially when it's laying their wet, so you gotta have to make sure it's kept dry.
1:10:44 - Anna Esparham
So yeah, just a little tid bit I wanted to add to that tooo.
1:10:48 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Thank you for sharing that. Anna Because yeah, it's just leaving your listeners with a simple ability to drink cleaner water as they're going throughout their day and may not have accesss to the best sources possible, but also the care of what you're recommending. A You are such a wealth of information, your listeners are really lucky to have you.
1:11:13 - Anna Esparham
Thanks so much, I am so excited. You were here on the show today. Kate We'll have to do another one, one time,
1:11:19 - Kate Mahoney, SA Founder
Sounds great.
1:11:19 - Anna Esparham
so I know, yeah, we had a lott of fun. I, I had a blast doing this, so thanks so much for coming on the show. Everyone, I'll see you guys in a couple weeks. If you have any questions, just send them over to us and um, I'll get back with you all right, take care everyone.