Rooted in Wellness with Mona Sharma

Most of us assume that if we are thin, eat well, and get normal lab results, our metabolism is in good shape. Yet about four in ten young American adults are insulin resistant, nearly half of them are not obese, and the gut may be driving that shift long before a blood test flags it.

In this episode of Rooted in Wellness, I sit down with Kiran Krishnan to explore how the gut microbiome shapes blood sugar, cravings, and the way we age. We also chat about why fiber may be the most underused longevity tool we have, when fermented foods help or backfire, and the everyday symptoms that signal your gut needs attention.

Kiran Krishnan is a research microbiologist trained at the University of Iowa with more than 20 years in microbiome science and nutrition research. He co-founded Microbiome Labs, where he served as Chief Scientific Officer, and has designed or overseen more than 35 human clinical trials. He is the Chief Scientific Officer at Just Thrive and is named on multiple U.S. and international patents for microbiome technologies.

What We Discuss:

(5:44) What happened to Kiran’s father’s health after an early retirement.

(7:44) Rapid fire: being thin, eating healthy, fruit, sleep, and intermittent fasting.

(9:12) The biggest metabolic health mistake, and why it is not only about calories.

(10:36) What identical twins and mouse studies reveal about the microbiome and weight.

(12:25) Why fiber may be the most underused tool for longevity.

(17:06) How the colon works as a fermentation organ and what happens when it loses that capacity.

(22:53) When fermented foods help a struggling gut and when they backfire.

(27:34) The gut symptoms many people have learned to call normal.

(30:50) Why lab results that are “normal” but trending up still deserve attention.

(31:46) Signs of post-meal endotoxemia to notice in the hours after eating.

(38:20) How AI modeling was used to build Good Glucose strain by strain.

(47:34) Kiran’s four daily foundations for metabolic health.

Special offer: Start a 90-day Good Glucose subscription and get a free 90-day supply of Just Thrive’s spore-based probiotic, a $130 value, at justthrivehealth.com/mona 

Thank You to Our Sponsors:

Lifeboost: head to lifeboostcoffee.com/ for a special discount on your first order. And if you’re already a customer, use my code MONA10 for 10% off.

Learn more about Mona Sharma:

Download Your FREE Guide, 12 Wellness Tips to Unlock Your Best Health Now: Ready to reclaim your vitality? Download Mona’s 12 Wellness Tips and take actionable steps to transform your health, energy, and mindset. Get started at monasharma.com/12tips

Visit Mona’s website: monasharma.com

Follow Mona on Instagram: @monasharma

Learn more about Kiran Krishnan & Just Thrive:

Instagram: @kiranbiome

Just Thrive: justthrivehealth.com 

Good Glucose: justthrivehealth.com/products/good-glucose 

Listen to Kiran’s first episode: 67. The Gut Healing Secrets You’ve Never Heard Before with Kiran Krishnan

When we do not feel well, the instinct is to do more: another supplement, a stricter protocol, one more number to track. But that constant striving can keep the body locked in urgency and fear, the very state that makes healing harder.

In this episode of Rooted in Wellness, I sit down with Dr. Cynthia Li to explore coherence, the embodied state of flow that allows the body to shift out of survival mode and into healing. We talk about why she now spends more time removing supplements than adding them, when wearable data becomes a blockage, and why letting go of the goal can help healing happen faster.

Dr. Cynthia Li is an integrative and functional medicine physician in Northern California and a certified qigong teacher. Her earlier work centered on public health, with a focus on HIV/AIDS and underserved communities, and she served on the faculty of Rachel Naomi Remen's The Healer's Art program at UCSF Medical School. She is the author of the memoir Brave New Medicine and The Medicine of Flow, and the editor of a book on contemplative qigong.

What We Discuss:

(7:39) How an autoimmune thyroid condition progressed into chronic fatigue syndrome and dysautonomia.

(10:49) Why gluten, toxins, and stress may share one deeper root cause.

(16:34) Rapid fire: the habit people think is helping them heal that actually keeps them stuck.

(22:18) Why Dr. Li now spends more time removing supplements than adding them.

(26:50) When a wearable device stops supporting your health and starts blocking it.

(29:05) What a second health crisis taught her about surrender and self-worth.

(32:04) Why flow is not always blissful and what purification reactions can feel like.

(33:39) The paradox of letting go of the goal so healing can happen faster.

(38:52) How to take healing seriously without approaching it in a serious way.

(42:21) What coherence is and how it differs from relaxation.

(44:17) How one person's coherence can help bring others into coherence.

(48:36) How a five-minute centering practice changed an entire appointment.

(51:41) How coherence helped a patient navigate a high-risk genetic result.

(58:19) How much daily practice it takes to make coherence your default state.

(1:06:06) The difference between releasing stress and transforming the program behind it.

(1:11:39) What qigong is and what embodied flow feels like.

Thank You to Our Sponsors:

Timeline’s clinically proven formula is now available at a new, lower price. Mitopure now starts at $79, when you go to timeline.com/MONA 

Learn more about Mona Sharma:

Download Your FREE Guide, 12 Wellness Tips to Unlock Your Best Health Now: Ready to reclaim your vitality? Download Mona’s 12 Wellness Tips and take actionable steps to transform your health, energy, and mindset. Get started at monasharma.com/12tips

Visit Mona’s website: monasharma.com

Follow Mona on Instagram: @monasharma

Learn more about Dr. Cynthia Li:

Website: cynthialimd.com

The Medicine of Flow audios and videos: cynthialimd.com/flow

Instagram: @cynthialimd

Facebook: Dr. Cynthia Li

Most of us choose skincare by the front of the bottle, trusting words like clean, natural, and grass-fed. But many of those labels have no legal definition, and our skin is not the sealed wall we think it is: what we apply every day can make its way into the body.

In this episode of Rooted in Wellness, I sit down with Emilie Toups to explore how to see past greenwashing and choose products the skin actually recognizes. We talk about why "natural fragrance" is still fragrance, what lab testing revealed about imported "grass-fed" tallow, and why going unscented for three months can change how your home smells to you.

Emilie Toups is a mom of five and the founder of Toups & Co Organics, a skincare and makeup brand that began with a batch of tallow balm made in her farmhouse kitchen for her daughter's eczema. Nearly a decade later, Toups & Co has thousands of loyal members and sources its tallow from local, regenerative, grass-fed farmers. She and her husband have built the company without outside investors.

What We Discuss:

(8:45) Why "natural fragrance" on a label is still fragrance.

(9:38) Rapid fire: why Emilie thinks retinol is overrated.

(14:07) What two decades in the cosmetic industry taught Mona about fragrance.

(17:12) Why fragrance is so hard to give up and what changes after three months unscented.

(20:00) Why your skin behaves more like an organ than a wall.

(23:22) The doctor's ultimatum that sent Emilie looking for another way to heal her daughter's eczema.

(34:09) Whether tallow can carry toxins and why the source matters.

(37:16) What lab testing revealed about imported "grass-fed" tallow.

(49:17) Why "clean beauty" labels can mean almost anything.

(51:24) The one ingredient to avoid that weeds out most greenwashed products.

(53:32) Why Mona still found parabens in her urine 20 years after cutting them out.

(55:39) Why not all seed oils belong in the same category for skin.

(1:01:00) What to do when you are doing everything right and still not seeing results.

(1:06:47) Three ingredients to put back on the shelf when shopping for aging skin.

(1:15:27) How a family with five kids eats an ancestral diet without cooking all day.

(1:21:18) Why Emilie stopped keeping snacks in the pantry.

Exclusive Listener Offer: New customers get 25% off the Toups & Co online shop with code MONASHARMA at toupsandco.com/pages/mona-sharma-x-toups-co  One use per customer.

Learn more about Mona Sharma:

Download Your FREE Guide, 12 Wellness Tips to Unlock Your Best Health Now: Ready to reclaim your vitality? Download Mona’s 12 Wellness Tips and take actionable steps to transform your health, energy, and mindset. Get started at monasharma.com/12tips

Visit Mona’s website: monasharma.com

Follow Mona on Instagram: @monasharma

Learn more about Emilie Toups & Toups & Co Organics:

Website: toupsandco.com

Instagram: @toupsandcoorganics

Facebook: Toups and Co Organics

Pinterest: @toupsandco

The grocery aisle is full of foods that appear to make healthy eating easier. A package says “high protein,” “natural,” “organic,” or “sugar-free,” and the decision can feel as though it has already been made for us. But none of those claims tells us everything about what is inside.

In this episode of Rooted in Wellness, I sit down with Julia Putzeys to look beyond the front of the package. We talk about why the ingredient list matters, how ultra-processed foods can be marketed as wellness products, and how to make better choices without becoming fearful or replacing everything in the pantry overnight.

Julia is a certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, former software product manager, and the founder of Trash Panda, an independent food-scanner app that helps shoppers understand ingredients and compare packaged foods. She created the app after realizing how many products she had considered healthy were relying on marketing claims that did not match what she found on the back.

What We Discuss:

(5:36) Why the nutrition facts panel can distract us from the ingredient list.
(6:50) How the high-protein trend can make ultra-processed foods appear healthier.
(8:15) The flavored yogurts, dressings, bars, and powders that often receive a health halo.
(9:04) What research associations between ultra-processed foods and chronic health conditions may reveal.
(12:24) Why ultra-processed foods make up more than half of the average American diet and over 60 percent of children’s diets.
(14:42) How dyes, added sugars, and other additives may affect children’s energy, focus, and behavior.
(20:32) What “natural,” “fortified,” “sugar-free,” and “organic” do not tell us about a product.
(31:08) The discovery that led Julia to create the Trash Panda app.
(41:51) How foods can be engineered to keep us eating and why that matters for self-control.
(45:42) Practical guardrails for buying mostly whole foods while leaving room for convenience.
(51:20) The nuance around seed oils, omega-6 intake, and ultra-processed food.
(1:06:03) The packaged snack categories Julia checks most carefully for her children.
(1:12:57) How cost, access, and food deserts complicate the conversation about healthy choices.

Thank You to Our Sponsors:

Timeline: Timeline’s clinically proven formula is now available at a new, lower price. Mitopure now starts at $79, when you go to timeline.com/MONA

Learn more about Mona Sharma:

Download Your FREE Guide, 12 Wellness Tips to Unlock Your Best Health Now: Ready to reclaim your vitality? Download Mona’s 12 Wellness Tips and take actionable steps to transform your health, energy, and mindset. Get started at monasharma.com/12tips

Visit Mona’s website: monasharma.com

Follow Mona on Instagram: @monasharma

Learn more about Julia Putzeys and Trash Panda:

Website: trashpandaapp.com
Instagram: @trashpanda_app
LinkedIn: Julia Putzeys
Download the App: Trash Panda

Most of us know when our period is coming because we have learned how to prepare for it. But how much do we know about what happened in the weeks before it arrived? Would we recognize whether we ovulated, understand why the same symptoms return at the same point each month, or know when pain has crossed from common to something that needs attention? We are taught to handle each symptom as it appears. We take something for the cramps, cover the breakout, push through the exhaustion, and wait for the mood shift to pass. The cycle itself is rarely treated as one connected story. Yet if it is considered a fifth vital sign, how much information have we learned to ignore?
In this episode of Rooted in Wellness, I sit down with Kaya Purohit and Yasmin Nouri to question what many of us have been told about our periods. Can food meaningfully change how a cycle feels? What can be missed when symptoms are quieted before they are understood? How can stress, undernourishment, and blood sugar changes show up in the cycle? And what do women need to know as their hormones begin shifting through perimenopause and beyond?
Kaya and Yasmin are the co-founders of Beeya Wellness. Kaya holds a master’s degree in nutrition and leads product development and education at Beeya. Yasmin spent a decade in finance before her experience with painful periods and more than a decade on birth control led her back to a practice she had dismissed for two years because it sounded too simple to make a difference. What happened when she finally tried seed cycling changed the direction of both of their lives. This conversation may change the questions you ask before calling a symptom normal.
What We Discuss:
(11:41) Why period pain should not automatically be accepted as part of being a woman.
(14:24) Why seed cycling may be a more accessible first step than hormone testing for some women.
(19:23) How the menstrual cycle can act as a fifth vital sign and a monthly report card.
(23:20) What irregular cycles, heavy bleeding, severe cramps, and acne may be signaling beyond reproductive health.
(28:04) How seed cycling works across the follicular and luteal phases.
(30:40) What changed after Yasmin tried the practice she had ignored for two years.
(36:18) Why women also use seed cycling through perimenopause and other hormonal transitions.
(42:55) What women should understand before starting or stopping hormonal birth control.
(48:09) How chronic stress, undernourishment, and blood sugar instability can disrupt the cycle.
(57:44) The everyday products that may increase exposure to hormone-disrupting chemicals.
(1:01:59) How to begin seed cycling and why consistency matters more than perfection.
(1:07:26) Why magnesium became the second product in the Beeya line.
(1:12:05) The free habit that can help women understand their hormonal patterns.
Learn more about Mona Sharma:
Download Your FREE Guide, 12 Wellness Tips to Unlock Your Best Health Now: Ready to reclaim your vitality? Download Mona’s 12 Wellness Tips and take actionable steps to transform your health, energy, and mindset. Get started at monasharma.com/12tips
Visit Mona’s website: monasharma.com
Follow Mona on Instagram: @monasharma
Learn more about Kaya Purohit, Yasmin Nouri, and Beeya Wellness:
Website: beeyawellness.com
Instagram: @beeyawellness