Did you know soldiers used to carry flowers into battle to keep them healthy? Dr. Liza Dunn joins Michele and Eliz for a fascinating conversation about pesticides, nutrition, herbicides, and why doctors need to stay in their lane.

Liza Dunn is a mom of 3 boys and a hockey fan who loves her pets - a pug, a horse and a snake. She's also an emergency physician and a medical toxicologist who has done relief work in Haiti and Kenya. Her work there opened her eyes to the importance of food security and vector control for public health. She is now the Medical Affairs Lead for Bayer Crop Sciences.

Key points:

Why should medical doctors “stay in their lane”?

• Medical school educates about disease not nutrition or agriculture
• Without a background in nutrition of ag, doctors have less information than they think.
• Registered dietitians are a good place to start for high quality nutrition information
• Gastroenterologist have specific training that general medical doctors and other specialist do not.

As a medical doctor, why have you focused on agriculture?

• Participating in humanitarian missions changed Liza’s focus
• She identified malnutrition and insect born illness were the leading issues
• If you can address those issues, real progress can be made
• The vast majority of the world lives on rice, corn, and wheat - and miss out on vital micronutrients
• Golden rice was modified to contain Vitamin E - and could have a significant impact to end blindness caused by malnutrition
• Golden rice was donated, but has been blocked by activists against GMOs

Why are pesticides important?

• Insect born illness has been a problem for centuries
• War wounds in the past didn’t kill the majority of soldiers, insects did
• For centuries soldiers used to carry chrysanthemums into battle, because the flowers produce natural pesticides

Three tips to overcome Food Bullying:

• Try to look for healthy nutrition information
• Ignore labels about what’s NOT there
• Get good advice: Liza suggests: PesticideFacts.org and GeneticLiteracyProject.org

Links:

Liza Dunn on Twitter

Food Bullying: How to Avoid Buying BS by Michele Payn

Stress-Proof Your Life with Eliz Greene

Food Bullying Podcast’s Facebook Page