Our conversation this week is centered around infertility and helping us navigate that topic is dietician, functional nutritionist, author, and creator of the Mommy Maker Method, Annette Presley.
From genetic, environmental, and nutritional challenges, Annette helps her clients struggling with infertility all the way to postpartum and a healthy baby.
If you are currently walking this walk we hope you find this conversation of use.
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Conversation with Annette Presley
*Text has been edited for clarity
Calla: I'm dying to know what made you get into this work?
Annette Presley: Well, I've been a dietitian for 30 years now. And about 14 years in, I actually found out I had a license to kill. Which is how I describe it.
Calla: Do explain.
Leanne: Yeah.
Annette Presley: So I found out that the advice I was giving out, specifically on fat and cholesterol actually caused chronic disease and obesity.
Calla: Wow.
Annette Presley: Yeah.
Leanne: So what advice was that?
Annette Presley: To eat like canola oil and vegetable fats and donate saturated fats and you know, avoid egg yolks and all that kind of stuff. Like getting rid of cholesterol and saturated fat. So yeah, it turns out, so I spent about a year going through the science on all that, and we've never had any scientific support for this fear of saturated fat and cholesterol. And so that totally changed my trajectory. I kind of got into functional nutrition. And, and then one day, I'm at church, and God told me to go tell Sharon, I can help her get pregnant.
Leanne: Just out of the blue?
Annette Presley: Yeah, I'm just at church and you know how after church you kind of scan the audience for someone you're looking for.
Calla: Totally.
Annette Presley: As soon as she came in my eyesight. God said, Go tell Sharon you can help her get pregnant.
Calla: Oh, my gosh. Were you nervous
Leanne: Yeah, no pressure.
Annette Presley: I didn't know her that well. I didn't even know if she was trying to get pregnant. And of course, I'm thinking who does that? Just walk up to somebody and tell them I can help them get pregnant. That's weird.
Calla: Oh, man, the holy spirit was moving today.
Leanne: Have you ever done anything with pregnancy before?
Annette Presley: I had never done anything with pregnancy before and so this went on for about four weeks. So every single Sunday, every time Sharon would come into my line of sight, I get the message, "Go tell Sharon, you can help her get pregnant." And so finally, I'm like, "Okay, fine just stop harassing me."
Calla: Come on, God. Geez.
Leanne: Loud and clear.
Annette Presley: So I gathered the courage I went over to her and, you know, I'm kind of eyeing the exit while I'm talking to her. And I'm just like, okay, Sharon, this may be nothing, but if you're trying to get pregnant, and it's not working, I can help you. And, and she took a step back, her eyes got really wide. And she told me, you know, we've been trying for almost two years. And we decided we didn't want to do IVF. Which is in-vitro fertilization. And so I was so excited. You know, she needed help. Oh, great, then I can help you. So I didn't have to make a quick exit. So that was good.
Calla: So she was receptive, clearly?
Annette Presley: Yeah. So I met with her and her husband, and I tweaked a few things or a diet and specifically how to take iodine. I did a little skin patch test, and she was definitely deficient. So we did that. And three months later, she was pregnant.
Leanne: Three months?
Annette Presley: Yeah.
Leanne: And that was your first kind of patient that you helped with infertility?
Annette Presley: Yeah
Leanne: Wow.
Annette Presley: But I was homeschooling my kids at the time, and I wasn't really thinking, you know, about having a business or any of that. But then a couple years ago, I was scrolling Facebook, nothing better to do, right?
Leanne: Guilty.
Annette Presley: And someone in one of my local mom's groups posted about her second failed IVF. And I was reading the comments and the number of women who responded with similar stories, and some of them were on their ninth cycles.
Leanne: Whoa!
Annette Presley: Like, I I was floored, I have no idea that this was so common. And that's, I mean, this is just my little area in Texas here, you know, not even nationally. And so, and I just I fell on my knees and I cried, and I said, God, we have to do something about this. I just can't imagine. I mean, I can imagine a little because I actually struggled to get pregnant with my first child. So I understand. Like, the toll that takes on your relationship and sex becomes a chore, and those kinds of things. and it's, it's just irritating, frustrating and exhausting. I quit trying because I couldn't hack it. So, you know, so many women are, this is years of struggle, and I just I just thought there has to be a way out.
Calla: I'm so curious because you said, you needed to find a way out. So then you started looking to food? Can you help me like piece how the nutrition component came into it and kind of how you started walking through that?
Annette Presley: Yeah. So I actually, I started thinking about it. And I'm like, why is infertility on the rise? And I found out, Infertility has been rising by 1% a year since 1990. And so yeah, in like in 1980, less than a million women struggling with it in America. And today, that number is close, we're getting close to seven. And so I just asked the question, okay, what has changed between 1980. And today? What's different? And then it really hit me is that most people focus on the mechanics of getting pregnant, like getting the egg and the sperm connected. But what's really happening is that our biology is no longer a match for our environment. Technology has changed, and that impacts our health. We have hydrogenated oils and canola oil, and you know, all the bad fats, we are told that we shouldn't be eating, like, over. We have, you know, the childhood vaccines have gone from I think I got six. And now it's like 70.
Leanne: 70 between what ages?
Annette Presley: Yes, from like, one to six? I mean, it's 70. It's insane and we've never tested any of this stuff. And then genetically modified organisms were put into the foods by 1990 without telling anybody about it, but they do cause infertility in animals.
Leanne: Can we back up just a second? Because I'm so curious how you made the connection between the vegetable oils, creating chronic disease, and kind of where you turn to to get your information within that next year to kind of learn the science behind it.
Annette Presley: Yeah, I was actually preparing to do a talk on fat and local health food store. And so I just thought it would be good to brush up on my fat chemistry, because it's been a while since I went to school. And I'm kind of a nerd.
Leanne: Same, we get it.
Calla: Why do you think she asked the question?
Leanne: Well, I read a book last year. Sorry, Calla's heard this so many times. It's called the Big Fat Surprise. Ok, so you've read it?
Annette Presley: I have read that. But that wasn't the one that changed my mind. So there is a book called Know Your Fats by Mary Enig. And she had a PhD in biochemistry, and she was an expert on fat chemistry. And so I reading her book, and, and I'm realizing she's contradicting everything I've been taught. So I'm reading the book, it disagrees with everything I was taught. And we were taught in school pretty much to automatically reject anything that goes against what we're taught. That's how the healthcare system works.
Leanne: Yeah
Calla: That's not the first time we heard that statement. Yeah.
Annette Presley: But I knew she was right about trans fats, because I've already seen evidence that those were bad. And so I figured it's right about that. I have to admit, you could be right about everything else. And I'm the kind of person I just want to make sure I'm not giving out advice. You know, I actually want people to get better. And that works. So. So that's when I went through all the references in our book and just looked at all the studies. And what I found is a lot of the studies, like in the 80s, combined trans fat with saturated fat. So you're, you're not going to get results from saturated fat to transplant and skew that. Because we know those are bad.
Leanne: And those are manmade, right?
Annette Presley: Those are the manmade ones like in margarine. Yeah. And so when when you combine those two, you're not getting an accurate result. And then other studies checked for so many things like salt and vegetable intake decision taken all these things? And it's like, well, how do you know, it was the saturated fats that cause problems? Because there are too many other things going on. That could have been responsible. You know, so there's those kinds of things and then one study the lipid research coronary clinical trials or something. Back in the 70s. They might have, it's probably in the 80s. So they study two groups. So one group got a cholesterol lowering drug the other group did not. They were both put on low fat, low cholesterol diet and educated by a dietitian The conclusion in the abstract was that it seems prudent to follow a low fat diet. The problem is that the diet wasn't studied in this study. So you can't say that with any kind of scientific integrity. Because both groups are on the same diet.
Leanne: Why do you think saturated fat was demonized, and targeted?
Annette Presley: I think because the pharmaceutical industry gets a lot of money on cholesterol lowering medications. So that really was the start of it, when we were able to test cholesterol in the blood. And in 1984, they had the cholesterol consensus conference, where they basically determined that a cholesterol under 200 was bad. And so everybody needed to be put on these drugs. But they didn't prevent any or present any science really supporting that. And they neglected to present any of the opposing views. In the they had opposing views at the conference, but in the right of afterward, they left all
Calla: Omitted those out. How convenient.
Annette Presley: Exactly, it's very convenient. So I mean, when you have consensus like that, like, even whats happening now is, you know, that's not science. And it doesn't mean you're right.
Leanne: It's so hard to just do any kind of valid trial on someone's diet, because no one's walking around, you know, telling them not to eat certain things, or making sure they are eating right things that they're supposed to be. There's so many factors.
Annette Presley: Yeah. And they're all based on food frequency questionnaires. And we all know, those are inaccurate, people kind of know what to put in there. You know, to make them look better.
Calla: Guilty
Annette Presley: Not judging, just saying that's what happened. So they're not that accurate. And then when we do these food frequency questionnaires, we lump things together like saturated fat with sugar. And I mean, sugar is going to skew the results of that. So and then the Framingham study, they actually came out that lowering cholesterol, prevented heart disease or whatever. The actual study showed the exact opposite. So those who lower their cholesterol actually a higher risk of dying.
Leanne: How did they get away with that not becoming the new rule?
Annette Presley: I have no idea.
Leanne: Money.
Annette Presley: I mean, yeah.
Leanne: The sugar industry. Yeah. So what would you say contributes to chronic disease if it's not saturated fat?
Annette Presley: Vegetable oils So there's saturated fat polyunsaturated fat volume and saturated fat and trans fats. And so I kind of like in the two Red Rover red. I don't know if you remember that game.
Calla: Yeah.
Annette Presley: Okay. So saturated fat is like a line of 300 pounds football players and the polyunsaturated fats are like a line of toddlers. And so if you have the football player running into the toddler,
Leanne: Quite an image! Hide yo Kids!
Annette Presley: Yeah. Somebody's gonna get hurt, right? Yeah. So that's polyunsaturated fats do they have these double bonds in their structure, that saturated fat doesn't have an every double bond makes the structure weaker. And so it's kind of like wearing a kick me sign, you know, when you're inviting damage.
Leanne: And that's from what?
Annette Presley: From inflammation. So the These oils are just so inflammatory. And they'll get incorporated in to your cells, but the cells can't really use them. Because they need those saturated fats. And, and so this is one reason the aging, anti-aging industry. Because these oils make your skin really weak and wrinkly, and all that. So we have to, you know, put creams on and fix that. Yeah, and then the food industry makes money because it's cheaper to use transparency and last longer, and cheaper. And so, yeah.
Calla: What a mess we've made!
Leanne: Reading that Big Fat Surprise book infuriated me. And then, you know, it's a I'm a personal trainer. So I talked to my clients about nutrition, but getting people to think away from what has been, you know, pounded into their minds for the last 30 years is almost impossible. I mean, especially because I don't have a doctorate in anything. So it's kind of like, "Ha, okay, like my trainer says this", you know what I mean? But it those those studies that they have in that book, were just it's It sounded like a lot of the studies validating that saturated fats weren't bad for you were defunded or kind of swept under the rug, which is manipulative and terrifying. And now our country's, what is it? Over 60% overweight now?
Annette Presley: Yeah. Yeah. And we took that huge increase in weight ever since we put these vegetable oils on the market and got rid of saturated fat.
Leanne: Do you know if if dietitians are still being taught the same way? Like do you take continuing education with any of that information in there or anything?
Annette Presley: Yeah, I tried to do continuing education that's not sponsored by
Leanne: How sad is that?
Annette Presley: It is very sad. But I do, I think they are still being taught that. Because yeah, there's still a lot of, you know, eating more of the canola oil, or avocado oil or olive oil. So it's at least they're switching to like avocado or olive, which is a little bit better. But they're still trying to avoid the saturated fat.
Calla: We talked about this. And because of that, now, there's this infertility issue, on top of it that that is now coming to light, you know, since the 1990s. So when you're helping women with this is, does it always start with food and what they're putting in? Is that where it usually is the baseline?
Annette Presley: Yeah, so I always do, like, the first thing I do is test for iodine deficiency.
Calla: What's the connect there?
Annette Presley: So iodine and we know this, because we've studied, you know, third world countries. But without if you really can't get pregnant, or if you do get pregnant, you're not going to stay pregnant. And if you manage to stay pregnant, you're probably going to have a child that has allergies, asthma, autism, ADHD, low IQ. Like it's, it's huge. We know that iodine makes healthy babies and we know what makes healthy pregnancies. And iodine actually every cell in the body needs iodine. And it's stored in a very high level in the ovaries. So anything like polycystic ovarian syndrome, endometriosis, fibroids, cysts, all of that is probably an iodine deficiency and nobody checks for it.
Calla: I was going to say, I could have used that 11 years ago. That's how old my twins are now we went through IUI and I have PCOS as well as endometriosis. I had all the cysts. I had surgeries to get pregnant, you know all those things and put my body through that. And to know that was never even anything that was mentioned to me. And I hate that.
Annette Presley: Yeah, it is it makes me angry because so much of this we could prevent and and we could reduce so much of the suffering that goes on. I mean, I find is a cheap trick. I mean, it's a cheap cure. It's easy to test for.
Leanne: So would people be taking like iodine drops as supplementation? Or can you get it in your diet from specific foods enough to?
Annette Presley: Yeah, you can't really get enough from foods. So you could try to put like kelp flakes on your food or eat seafood. The problem there is you have to make sure it's clean source because that's contaminated. But generally, if you want to fix an iodine deficiency, you're going to have to take a supplement.
Leanne: Okay. And do you kind of see how deficient somebody is? And then dose their supplementation.
Annette Presley: Yeah. And then you have to look at other nutrients like Selenium that has to be in good supply before you start iodine. Salt is actually hugely important. So that's another thing that we're telling people not to eat. And actually a low salt diet is a contraceptive so it can actually prevent elating pregnant.
Leanne: Why is that?
Annette Presley: Well, the body just needs solved and it actually helps prevent things like preeclampsia and complications of pregnancy. And so there's this Tribe of Indians in Brazil think they're the Yanomami Indians.
Calla: We will fact check, youre good.
Leanne: It's actually "Yahmo - Mahmo"
Annette Presley: They have a very low salt intake. They have a live birth about every four to six years. They're actually violent people too, and so that there might be some relations with salt there as well. But they have a lot of sex. They don't use contraceptives, but their low salt diet just prevents them from having a lot of babies.
Calla: It might be a good thing if they are angry.
Leanne: Yeah, don't need any more Yanomami coming around. What is it about iodine? That is helpful for women getting pregnant?
Annette Presley: Yeah, so iodine actually helps balance the hormones. And, and so like, all the hormones need to dance with iodine, and if iodine isn't available, you might get estrogen kind of doing a dance all alone on the floor naked. You know, which nobody wants to see. Right?
Calla: Yeah, been there.
Leanne: A typical Sunday for Calla. Go ahead. I'm sorry.
Annette Presley: Iodine keeps all the hormones on the dance floor doing their part. So they're, they're doing their part, not kicking everyone else off the floor, doing a solo kind of thing. Yeah. And we are deficient, because all of the toxins that we are exposed to either have bromide chloride fluoride attached to them a. And those three things so I call them... Do you remember The Munster family?
Calla: Yes.
Annette Presley: Okay, so iodine is like Marilyn, she's the normal human face. So bromide fluoride and chloride are like the Munster families. The monster. Yeah. So, iodine lives in a family of monsters. Only they're not nice. Like, the monsters are.
Calla: Yeah. Do they attack the iodine supply? Why don't they cohabitate?
Annette Presley: Yeah, yeah, they kick her out of the way. And so they will actually attached to the iodine receptors. And the bodies of the iodine can't attach. And unfortunately, bromide, chloride fluoride can't use those. They don't work the same way as iodine. And so they kick her out. And then we have all these toxins and we're not getting the iodine that we need to balance hormones so everything's just going crazy.
Leanne: Would you ever tell someone who's not trying to get pregnant or asking for a friend not not trying to get pregnant at the moment? Would somebody like that need iodine potentially, as well?
Annette Presley: Yeah. I actually think every woman should probably test for it. Because it's also involved with breast cancer. And we never hear anything about that either. It's probably one of the biggest reasons why we have such a high rate of breast cancer is because we're iodine deficient. Even ovarian cancer, cervical cancer. So like with Sharon, she actually had the beginning stages of cervical cancer. And she didn't tell me this when I saw her. But three months later, she got up a church, told her story about getting pregnant. And she mentioned that she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. And it was like, too soon, , for the doctors to be able to do anything about it so she had to wait for it to get worse.
Leanne: Oh, my God.
Annette Presley: Yeah. Which is insane. But when she got pregnant, she no longer had cervical cancer. And I think it was the iodine that cleared something in the system.
Calla: Yeah. You know, I've heard with like, estrogen, and especially like after hysterectomy, and things like that, that like the synthetic estrogen can really cause a lot of like the breast cancer issues and things like that. And so I wonder what that correlation is there is if it could be offset by a little bit of that iodine. that's very interesting.
Leanne: Have you done any research on birth control and how it affects the female body?
Annette Presley: Not a lot, but I do know that it does negatively impact the body. And the problem with birth control is it doesn't fix the problem. And so you know, the root cause of whatever hormonal issues going on birth control just mask the symptom. It's like putting a bandaid on. So you're not actually fixing the problem. And so I don't recommend a lot of people take it. It's pretty bad for a lot of people.
Leanne: Yeah, that was my experience. Over and over and over.
Annette Presley: Yeah. And it's an easy quick fix for the doctors, you know, they get rid of your symptoms, and, you know, they don't have to deal with you.
Calla: I need to process that's a lot.
Leanne: How would somebody get an iodine metric? Is it a blood test for iodine is that works?
Annette Presley: The iodine loading test is the best one and it's a urine test. It's not fun when you have to collect your urine for you take a 15 milligram dose of iodine and then collect your urine for 24 hours. But that's definitely the best way to determine how deficient you are and then if your result is less than 90%, your deficient.
Leanne: Less than 90? And how many women that you see are iodine deficient?
Annette Presley: So far? 100%?
Leanne: 100%?
Annette Presley: Yeah.
Leanne: Like heavy periods or terrible PMS symptoms. Wow.
Annette Presley: Yeah, I think any hormonal kind of issue. Iodine should always be checked first.
Calla: Why haven't we heard of this? Why is this like not like a normal and out there?
Annette Presley: Yeah. Well, so obviously it used to be in every medicine cabinet in the military carried it in War. They may still do that. I'm not sure. But it's not in every medicine cabinet anymore. Yeah. And then what happened? They, there was some study that they did on rats and they found that iodine caused hypothyroidism, or something. The study was very poorly done. Nobody has ever been able to replicate it, which is kind of a standard in science, you know? Kind of validate results and stuff. And then penicillin came on the market. And you know, you can't make any money on Iodine.
Leanne: And we're back.
Calla: Im like Why we really do mess everything up for everybody. We're the cause of our own, demise?
Annette Presley: Yeah. And I think one of the reasons, you know, so many people are having a hard time with the infection going on, is because of all the bad advice we've been getting as far as health. And of course, you know, we're handing out doughnuts. which just makes no sense whatsoever.
Calla: No, it doesn't.
Leanne: I heard a podcast, it was on Joe Rogan. And he had a doctor named Dr. Shana Swan, and she talked about phalates in plastics contributed in fertility. Do you have knowledge on that at all?
Annette Presley: Yes. So one of the things that I do is I start helping people get rid of toxins in the environment. So plastic is one of the main ones. And I think plastics either have bromide or fluoride with it, and so that's one of the reasons they're so bad. But yeah, I mean, we just, we have toxins everywhere. And our body just is not used to processing all of that. And some people just can't process it quickly enough. Or it starts accumulating in the body and that's when we have things like infertility, but also things like diabetes, heart disease, cancer, everything is going to be related to these this toxic exposure.
Calla: Is there a process when people say have all these fertility issues, they start in the iodine? Is there almost like a shedding to kind of get that? What does that look like?
Annette Presley: Yeah, so that's where salt comes in. So you will start detoxing bromide when you take iodine. But if you're getting enough salt, you won't notice it. And you might have, like, sniffles or something like that. But if you don't have that salt, you're not going to be a happy camper.
Calla: Really its that intense?
Annette Presley: So I always before I started supplementing, I always thought people start putting like a quarter to a half a teaspoon of sea salt in water every morning for a couple of weeks. Kind of salt load them for a bit. And then they need to keep eating salt while they're using it.
Calla: Would soaking in salt work out of curiosity?
Annette Presley: It would probably help too, yeah.
Calla: With the Epsom and things like that? I was just thinking, Okay, very cool. Thank you.
Leanne: You've got some salt fans over here.
Calla: Yeah, we are.
Annette Presley: Me too. So that's also most Americans are magnesium deficient.
Calla: Yes.
Annette Presley: And that is involved in I don't know. 3000 reactions in the body. And stress depletes it. You know, so everybody's stressed out, especially like infertility, that whole journey. It's very stressful.
Calla: Yeah, it is.
Leanne: Yeah, Cal knows firsthand. I was going to ask, so when you're asking people to start kind of detoxing their lives, what are some things that you recommend them doing like externally, not necessarily by nutrition to get rid of toxins in their life?
Annette Presley: Yeah. So the first thing is to look at the products that you're putting on your skin. So shampoo, conditioner, makeup, lotions, all of that good stuff. And you just want to make sure that you're getting stuff that doesn't have all these phaltes and ingredients in there that are toxic. And really the easiest way to do that is go to a health food store and find something there. Healthy Living is an app and some and you can scan the barcode products. And Think Dirty is another one that does that. Healthy Living is associated with the Environmental Working Group. Now, they don't have like, not all the products to scan are going to show up, but a lot of them and so you can kind of get a sense of how non toxic or toxic they are.
Leanne: Okay, very cool. , I will be downloading those after this. I'll be scanning everything in the house.
Annette Presley: Yeah, it's fine for what you're putting on your body. What are your washing your clothes in?
Calla: That's a big one.
Annette Presley: It's huge. Because I mean, you wear your clothes all the time, right? And your sheets and all that. And then dryer sheets are really toxic. So I don't recommend those at all. So if you need something in the dryer, put wool ball in there. And sprinkle in some essential oils or something. Yeah, and then the one everyone hates and I am such a bad guy, but finger nail polish.
Leanne: So my mom was using because she's got brittle nails. And she was using this top coat to help harden and strengthen her nails. She was getting this like swollen eyelid for weeks and maybe months. And she had no idea where it was coming from. She decided to stop using nail hardener and it was because she would you know, scratch her eye making her eye flare up. And that's just from the outside.
Annette Presley: Right? Oh, yeah, these things are getting absorbed. And then even like, feminine care products, you know, for napkins and tampons and things like that. You know, if they're genetically modified, you're going to get those GMOs inside your body.
Leanne: That is an assault that frustrates me so much that like all the name brand tampons and stuff. They're all they're all that. You have to search for organic, feminine products. But I guess that's what everything now.
Annette Presley: Yeah, everything.
Calla: Use your app!
Annette Presley: Yeah, we all have to be detectives. And we have to read labels. And we have to keep reading them because sometimes they change. And so I was buying a product that was perfectly fine. Then I reread the ingredients one day, and it's like, oh, I don't know about the app, but the high fructose corn syrup or something. You know that I don't eat? So you do have to stay on top of things.
Leanne: Now, do you advise specific types of diets for specific people? Or is it pretty much just like, least process, the better? How do you work with people in their diets?
Annette Presley: Yeah, so my first rule is eat real food. So whether you're plant based, animal based, or anything in between, eat real food. Now, I personally do not work with vegans, because you cannot get a healthy baby on a vegan diet. It's just not gonna happen.
Leanne: Can you explain that?
Annette Presley: Yeah, so one of the things I use DNA testing, and one of the things I do that for is because I find a lot of explanations for things that unexplained infertility can't explain. And one of those is vitamin A deficiency. And so, most of us, genetically just cannot convert beta carotene, vitamin A. So beta carotene is found in plant foods like carrots, you know, orange colored fruits and vegetables. And the body can convert it to vitamin A. But vitamin A is what we actually need. And so if you can't make that conversion, eating beta carotene doesn't do anything for you. And so vitamin A is only found in animal foods and particularly the foods that were told not to eat like butter, cream, liver, those kinds of things. So like animal fats particularly. And so we need vitamin A for healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby. And so I don't recommend vegan for anyone under the age of 25. Because you really should have your brain fully developed before you stop eating animals and make that switch. And then know if you're trying to get pregnant or pregnant or nursing. because that's gonna affect the baby who is under 25.
Leanne: So you say that you don't work with vegans. Is that because you tried and you realized you couldn't help in an effective way?
Annette Presley: No, it's really because I can't with a clear conscience. Help them have a child who's going to be raised vegan, because it's just not in their highest best good.
Leanne: Have you had to have conversations with vegans like that before?
Annette Presley: Yes
Leanne: They are very charged.
Annette Presley: They are.
Calla: They need vitamins!
Annette Presley: Yeah, I actually had, I worked at natural grocers for a while. And I had two clients come in who were both vegan, and they were having horrible digestive issues and just all kinds of problems. So I told both of them, Stop drinking your green drinks for a month, eat butter and eggs. Just add that to your diet for a month, so one of them took my advice, the other one wouldn't do it. The one that took my advice, she came back a month later, and she said I'm feeling so much better. The other one came back, and she's tried to avoid me.
Leanne: Both ends of the spectrum there!
Annette Presley: Yeah, she told the other employees, "I can't talk to Annette. She told me to eat butter."
Calla: God forbid.
Annette Presley: Yeah, she kept coming in because she was miserable. This is like, and so my, my huge thing with diet for getting pregnant. I think an animal based diet is better. You need those animal foods, you need that liver and organs and, and those kinds of foods. But first of all, you need real food. And then the second of all, we need to stop paying attention to what other people are eating, and pay attention to how the foods we're eating, make us feel.
Calla: I support that message so much. Yes.
Annette Presley: Because if we feel good after eating a plate full of vegetables, well, okay, maybe a plate full of vegetables isn't the right food for you. And vegetables do contain toxins like oxalates and things that can negatively impact the digestive system. They can cause joint pain and all kinds of problems. So if you're having pains anywhere, you can't digest food, and you're bloated, then I would experiment. And you know, if you feel particularly bad after eating something, stop eating it and see what happens.
Leanne: It's crazy how most, I would say the majority of people don't make the connection between how you're feeling and what you're eating.
Annette Presley: Yeah. Well, yeah, it's become like, an ideology. And so really, diet is not the right place for an ideology. I mean, you have to get the nutrients and animals do have for nutrients and plant foods as there's no denying. And you can look up the nutrition like, you know, and fruit shop.
Leanne: And a lot of times like because Vegan is a very restrictive diet to be on. So now there's all the Beyond Meats and the you know, just vegan snack foods that are all chemicals. Do you have a view on?
Annette Presley: Oh, yeah.
Leanne: I have a feeling.
Annette Presley: Yeah.
Calla: Let's hear it.
Leanne: The floor is yours.
Annette Presley: Well, so you're eating Beyond Meat and Impossible Burger . Those are real food. They're amazing laboratory. Right. So I mean, if you're getting your food from a laboratory, you really think that's healthier for your body than something that God made? You know, it's like, we keep trying to improve on God. And we're never going to do that. I don't know why we're ever gonna learn that.
Leanne: Yeah
Calla: That's so true.
Annette Presley: Yeah, I mean, we just mess things up.
Leanne: And factory farming is also kind of part of that, you know, play god. Do you recommend people get more grass fed options or free range stuff?
Annette Presley: Yeah, it local grass-fed- because we want our animals treated fairly. I mean, I agree with the vegans, the way we treat our animals is terrible.
Leanne: Yeah. There's a reason why it's illegal to go into some of those chicken farms with a camera. Because it's bewildering for people.
Annette Presley: Yeah, yeah. And we should not be treating any kind of life form like that. Yeah. And so we definitely need to change things. And then with industrialized agriculture, we get all the pesticides and herbicides like glyphosate which cause problems. And so if we would do more sustainable farming and get things local and kind of know our farmers and who provides your food and, you know, maybe if we had a better view of them, instead of making it seem like they're not important, because they're like, hugely important. And you'd also solve things like food poisoning. You're limited to, you know, a certain number of people. But when you have industrialized agriculture, it goes everywhere.
Leanne: Yeah, don't don't eat shrimp at a casino. That'll teach you that lesson real fast. I know from experience.
Calla: That's so funny. I want to jump back a little bit because we were talking, you made a kind of a comment about when women who struggled with infertility or get pregnant but then they have issues come out with their children. that's near and dear to me. Can the supplementation with iodine be used in children once they're in the world?
Annette Presley: Yes. Oh, yeah. Just use a smaller dose.
Leanne: Is there such thing? I guess? Yeah. Iodine poisoning is a real thing. Because they talk about or no, I'm thinking Mercury poising ?
Annette Presley: Well, so yeah, I mean, any mineral could become toxic if you take too much of it. And also, if you take it in isolation, so that's another problem with our food and nutrients is we tend to isolate everything. So like everybody's taking high doses of vitamin D. But vitamin D works with vitamin A and vitamin K too. So if you don't have all three of those cause problems, if you're just taking a D, and that's the same with iodine. So with iodine, you need that Selenium, you need magnesium, the B vitamins, vitamin C, and so you just have to make sure that you're, you're getting all those nutrients around it and then it won't be a problem.
Leanne: Okay. Can we talk about nutrigenomics? Am I saying that right?
Annette Presley: Yes.
Calla: You did it. I have pulled up the the pronunciation and I still can't do it.
Annette Presley: So that's basically the study of how food impacts your genes. And so the great thing, and one of the reasons I do DNA testing, is because it, it shows us areas that like, they can show a possible cooling deficiency, vitamin A deficiency, whether or not you're detoxing properly, methylate, and all these things. And the good news is, our genes are not, they don't determine our destiny. So we can actually turn on genes that express for health and turn off genes that express for disease, simply by the foods we eat, and what we expose ourselves to in the environment. Which is pretty cool.
Calla: That's amazing.
Annette Presley: And so and that's, you know, another reason why you want real food, and you want to avoid as many toxins as possible, because that will actually help turn on the good.
Leanne: Genetics is obviously quite a factor, would you be able to put a percentage on the epigenetics versus genetics?
Annette Presley: I wouldn't know the exact number, but I'm pretty sure it's high. So I've only tested women so far. But I'm just now starting, I'll be starting to test both partners with the DNA. But the women who have the MTHFR mutation where they don't methylate properly in the body, if both partners have that, that significantly reduces their chance of getting pregnant. And so if you fix that, which is a pretty easy fix. You know, then you remove that barrier.
Calla: Is that just a supplement?
Annette Presley: Well, it's Yeah, and, and you have to use more than just DNA. So I also use other lab work. The DNA is kind of like a blueprint. So it can kind of show us what we should be looking for. But then nutrients, like the right form of folate by riboflavin is also hugely important. And in that it gets missed a lot. But sometimes the methylation problem is a problem with riboflavin deficiency, so you have to look at the whole thing.
Leanne: Does iodine don't do anything for men?
Annette Presley: Yes. So prostate cancer is on the rise. That is probably related to iodine deficiency.
Leanne: Wow. So everyone, is probably deficient.
Annette Presley: Everybody!
Calla: Do we know what the most natural source is?
Annette Presley: Yeah. So food wise, like seafood with seaweed. And so the only problem there is mercury poisoning you know that. So the plastics now in the ocean.
Calla: So we really don't have a pure source anymore.
Annette Presley: We don't unfortunately, not to correct the imbalance that we have. And we have such a huge imbalance because we don't eat those foods. But we also have all of these toxins in the environment like bromide is found in everything. It's in carpet, cars, computers. I mean, we can't avoid it. It's just it's everywhere. Fire retardant clothing. And you know, do you think about that we put our children in fire retardant clothing, pajamas every day. Or there's fire retardant mattresses and, and all that kind of stuff.
Leanne: Pajamas or fire retardant?
Annette Presley: Yeah.
Leanne: All of them?
Calla: Every single one .
Annette Presley: I haven't bout pajamas in a long time because my kids are like, 22. But yeah, I would definitely check the label. Maybe they started making some without that or the orders, maybe organic versions,
Leanne: But are like kids lighting themselves on fire all the time. I don't understand why they have to be fire retardant? How many kids burned?
Calla: Who did this so now we have to put a label on here. That question? Yeah, I don't know. That's so wild. So when you're sourcing it? How important is I mean, obviously, that has to be very important. You have to know your source, where you're getting it. And is there iodine? That's probably not as great on the market. Like is that a thing?
Annette Presley: Well, iodized salt isn't all that great?
Leanne: Really?
Annette Presley: So I actually recommend that people eat processed sea salt, like red fins, Real Salt. Himalayan or Celtic?
Calla: Like rock salt even?
Annette Presley: Yeah, anything from the sea that hasn't been processed, and bleached and all that kind of stuff. And then add, you can add Maine Coast Kelp Flakes, or Dulse Flakes or so they test their products for mercury and lead. And they just want to sprinkle it on foods.
Leanne: Does it add a lot of fishiness?
Annette Presley: It kind of does.
Leanne: Don't put this on your cereals what I'm trying to ask.
Annette Presley: I prefer the pill myself.
Calla: Sothere is a pill form? I didn't know if it was like a dropper or how you did it?
Annette Presley: Yeah, the solution comes in liquid. And then it's also pills forms with the combo, iodine, Tyrosine. And those would come in, like, I think a six quarter milligram dose 12 and a half and 50 milligrams.
Calla: Wow. Gosh. So what else has you excited with with your business? Now that you are back? I'd love to hear kind of what you're working on or what you're excited about?
Annette Presley: Yeah, I'm actually doing an online workshop on February 17. Okay, yeah, to get that information out. And, and so I think I'll probably be doing workshops like that periodically, maybe once a month. I'm thinking about starting like, I don't know what I call it, kind of like a support group. And I just recently added Theta Healing to what I do. And so that's kind of a way to help get rid of beliefs that hold you back and unforgiveness and that kind of stuff.
Leanne: Talk to us about that!
Annette Presley: Basically, it's a really fast healing process for trauma. And so what we do is, we ask questions of the client, and kind of find out, you know, based on certain things that have happened to them, we'll come up with statements like "I am obligated to be less than good enough" or you know, "I'm obligated to not be a mother" you know, just various things that they picked up along the way from maybe a miscarriage or, or even younger than that. So like for example, my grandfather actually died in my arms when I was five.
Leanne: Oh, my gosh.
Annette Presley: Yeah. Horribly traumatic. I because I was five. I didn't know what was happening. It's terrifying. And I remember, like about a year later, I skinned my knee and my mother wanted to take me to the hospital, and I threw the biggest fit ever and screamed and cried and pleaded and begged, do not take me to the hospital because I thought I would die. Because that's what I thought happened when you take someone to the hospital. And I found out through all of that, some of the beliefs I had and I also disassociate. And so I spent my whole life feeling outside of everything, like I could never get in, and everything and so that was that. So Theta Healing clears all of that. So now I no longer feel like an outsider. I feel like I'm a normal human.
Leanne: Wow!
Calla: Welcome to the world. Amazing. That's such a beautiful statement.
Annette Presley: Yeah. So it's really powerful. It's super easy. We just go straight to God with these beliefs and and ask them to change it for their highest good.
Leanne: Is their reason you use the word Theta?
Annette Presley: That's what it's called. So it actually changes your brainwaves. That's like, yeah, you're you're dealing with Theta Brainwave. So you're kind of bypassing the conscious. And, and maybe working with both conscious and unconscious.
Leanne: That's like the wave you're at when you're meditating. Is that right?
Annette Presley: Yeah, the client doesn't have to believe in God. Just the practitioner.
Leanne: Okay, Wow. So how did you get involved in that?
Annette Presley: I actually have a friend who does it. And she's been trying to get me into it for a while. And so I finally took the classes. And I'm really glad I did, because I think this is gonna be a game changer. I mean, yeah, cuz that now I've got iodine which nobody does. You know, the DNA testing, that not very many people do. And I find that actually gives a lot of hope. Because you can actually see, oh, there's a reason. And I can do something about it.
Calla: That's important information for people because it is like when you are trying to get pregnant. For as common as it is, it's such an isolating thing to walk through, and you may have known some family members that have gone through it, you may not you may be the first, you know, in your family to walk through that and to have that information at that level is pretty amazing.
Annette Presley: Yeah, it's huge. I think what I wanted to do with this group, I want to create, like, maybe just a monthly group, where women can kind of get together other women, same situation. So they realize they're not alone. Because I think that's huge, because people do feel so isolated, and like, they're the only ones suffering from this. And they don't realize how common it is. But then I was gonna do like, maybe a little Theta Healing in the group.
Calla: Hit it from all angels, Annette. That's what you should do, I love it.
Leanne: Yeah, definitely found your niche.
Annette Presley: Yeah. So I'm really looking forward to this year, because I think we're gonna see a lot.
Calla: That's so awesome. It seems Faith is a very big part of your story. Has it always been that way?
Annette Presley: Yes. So I actually grew up in a cult.
Calla: Whoa, okay.
Leanne: Do you have another hour?
Annette Presley: Yeah, not the gun packing, sex fortunately. So I'm not totally messed up.
Calla: I don't know. They all do damage.
Annette Presley: Yeah. It's like, well, it's mostly messianic do as a bit of Mormon and Jehovah Witness thrown in just to cover the basics. And it was a very strict so like, we didn't celebrate Christmas and you know, the pagan holidays. We have all the holy days in the Old Testament. We thought we're the only true church. We didn't leave Trinity. There's a whole bunch of things there. But God actually changed that church when I was 28. From the top down, so that that never happened in history before. I came from the only cult that has changed.
Leanne: So the cult changed values and beliefs?
Annette Presley: Yeah, so they actually joined mainstream Christianity. We're probably a little bit different. So we didn't believe in heaven and hell, particularly hell like most Christians do, so I don't have I don't have the same indoctrination that a lot of Christians have. And I didn't come into Christianity thinking they had everything right. I was completely wrong. But what I learned from the cult is that it's possible for me to be convinced I'm 100% right, and I'm actually 90% Wrong.
Leanne: That just gave me chills.
Calla: I know me too.
Leanne: Yeah, that's a lesson.
Annette Presley: It was a very powerful lesson.
Calla: That's translated into all of your work.
Annette Presley: Yes. And so coming out of I also came out of the low fat cult. Yeah, you know, and it's exactly the same. So with coming out of the religious cult, whenever you have that indoctrination and we all are indoctrinated somehow someway. But when you have that kind of indoctrination, it's really hard to overcome that because you're like, I get these little panic things periodically and say, what if you're right before and now, you know, kind of thing. It's the same thing with the nutrition. You know? What if saturated fat really is bad. And so yeah, I would just with the religious cold, I go to Bible with the nutrition, I'd go to the Science. And every timeit would be no.
Calla: You can rest easy.
Annette Presley: Yeah. So it really has served me well. So I tend to hold very loosely to things. Except for Jesus, I got a very tight hold on him. But everything else is very loose, so that I can receive new information and process it with the old. And so for me, like with religion, I've been sandbox playing with God, I got these toys. And I'm testing them out, and whatever. And sometimes I leave them in there. Because I don't quite know what to do with them. Sometimes I get mad at them, throw them out. But for me, theology is like playing. And so I test things out, I experiment. And I keep what, what fits. And for me, it's like going, I have this line that goes from fear to love. So whatever draws me closer to love. That's what I accept. And whatever draws me to fear I reject.
Leanne: I love that metaphor.
Calla: Yeah, that's going on a wall somewhere. It's beautiful work you do. It really is. And I'm excited for the future. And like you said, more babies and healthy babies to boot and Healthy Moms too.
Annette Presley: Yeah. And that's probably what I where I stand out too, is I actually start from the healthy baby and work backwards. Because I don't think it's good enough to just get pregnant. You have to be able to stay pregnant, but you want a healthy baby at the end of that.
Calla: And I know, with the change in hormones and stuff to postpartum. Is iodine helpful and that come down too?
Annette Presley: Definitely, yes. Really? Yeah. Yeah. And women are eating the animal foods, especially like the cream and butter, liver, those kinds of things. They're not going to have a problem with postpartum depression.
Calla: Alright Leanne, I know what I'll be getting you when it's time.
Leanne: Yeah, right that one down. I'll just be chewing butter for nine months.
Calla: I'm gonna do the best kit you've ever seen.
Leanne: Make sure it's refrigerated.
Calla: Yeah, yeah. I'll have to drive it over.
Leanne: Thank you so much for your time Annette. in it.
Annette Presley: Yeah. You're welcome. This is so much fun.
Calla: Yeah, I'm so glad to hear that. I always I kind of feel like I'm just processing everything that you told me because I really feel like that would have helped me so much.
Annette Presley: Yeah, it really would have.. I actually had a friend who scheduled a hysterectomy. And her husband lost his job, and they lost their insurance. So she had been cancelled. So I put her on eyeline. And six months later, she had insurance but she didn't need a hysterectomy anymore. I mean, it's it really is criminal.b y not testing that one thing.
Calla: Yeah, I'm furious.
Leanne: Yeah. That's why I don't have much to say because I just want to yell.
Annette Presley: And I almost quit nutrition entirely. When I found out about fat. I was so angry. But I really felt like God said, somebody has to tell the truth.
Leanne: And that's, that's just it. Yeah, if you were to leave, you'd be doing everyone a disservice. You've got to raise hell and fight back. It is the mainstream message. But I think with, you know, podcasts and how easily available information is it'll get out there. I mean, the results speak for themselves, you know, obesity is not going away, heart disease is going away, infertility isn't going away. So it's just a matter of time before we realize what's working and you're gonna be one of the pioneers that is getting that out there in the beginning. I think that's huge.
Calla: Yeah, if we can support your message in any other way, please, please don't hesitate to reach out to us because this is something that we totally want to get behind. It's really important work. I appreciate you.
Annette Presley:Yeah thank you guys getting the word out.
Calla: Of course we'll do our best. All right thank you so much you have a great day.
Annette Presley: You're welcome. You too, bye!