Eating for Fertility & Optimal Hormonal Health with Astrid, CEO of Agni

Astrid Schanz-Garbassi is the CEO and Co-Founder of Agni. Agni works with a Medical Advisory Board and top chefs to create tasty healing foods for specific life moments, including better periods, gut health, restful sleep, and postpartum recovery. Prior to building Agni, Astrid worked with doctors, nutritionists, and other health practitioners to build two other food businesses. She lives in California, where she loves spending time by the ocean, in the woods, riding her road bike, and watering her many beloved house plants (ping her for advice on how to keep them alive!). You can learn more about Astrid and Agni at agniforall.com. 

What you’ll learn in this episode:

• Why are so many women experiencing hormonal issues today?

• Healing modalities for addressing painful periods, acne, and other hormonal imbalances

• Seed cycling - what it is and how to do it

• Pros and cons of egg freezing

• How to preserve fertility

• Tips on mitigating postpartum depression 

PODCAST HIGHLIGHTS

Aleks:           What does Agni stand for? What does it mean?

Astrid:            So there are many definitions, the most common one, if someone Googled would probably pop up is a Hindu fire God. But there's another definition or use case in a traditional Indian medical system, Ayurveda, that means digestive fire. And its this really beautiful encompassing term that applies to and describes the many processes by which we take in food and turn it in to us and turn it into our energy, into our experiences. And in Ayurveda, in particular, this idea of digestive fire is very essential to health and if you have a healthy digestive fire, then you can have a healthy, vibrant life. And they would probably take that adage, "you are what you eat" and expand it and say, actually, you are what you digest. Even if you're eating amazing nutritious things, If you're not digesting them your body can't access them. And so it's as if you hadn't eaten it at all, to begin with.

Aleks:           How do you know if you have this Agni? How do you know if you're digesting food properly?

Astrid:            There are all these little clues that Western medicine doesn't really pick up on: there is data on how your digestion is doing in your toilet, on your tongue, and in your quality of sleep.

Some of the common ways that these other disciplines teach us to recognize signs in our body are not only regularity of going to the bathroom and elimination, but the qualities of it. So is your poop firm, is it soft? Is it in one piece? Does it float? Does it sink? And so in Ayurveda, a healthy digestive fire would produce, there's a little bit of variation, but essentially a single solid formed banana-shaped poop once a day in the morning at around the same time, maybe twice a day for certain constitutions and body types.

In addition to the data in the toilet, so to speak, there are also a few other ways that Ayurveda teaches us to look out for; signs of strong or weak or overactive Agni. And one of them is actually base metabolic temperature. So if someone is running really hot or really cold, even in a pretty comfortable climate, that can also tell you something about how your Agni is doing.

Also, looking at the coating on the tongue for a substance, they call Alma, a kind of white film that may build up over the tongue. As we know, whatever's going on in the gut is actually connected back to our mouth. Learn more here: What Your Tongue is Trying to Tell You

And then another one is sleep, and if sleep is disrupted in any way, they also tie that back to digestion in interesting ways. So tons of little clues throughout our day is that we're living every day that can tell us about the quality of our digestion. To Learn More: What Your Poop Is Telling You

Seed Cycling

Aleks:            I actually want to talk to you a little bit about seed cycling because I ordered the Agni seed cycling pack over a month ago. And this is now my first month that I've used it and loved it. I love the way it tastes. The first half of the month it's a little bit more sweet and then the second half, it's a little bit more savory. So I've been using the first half in my oatmeal and then the second half as the seasoning in my salads and sometimes I'll throw it in hummus as well. And I've just noticed such a difference in just overall, how I feel throughout my cycle, my PMS symptoms were not as strong this time.

So I want to say thank you for creating such a beautiful product. And I also wanted to ask you if you could talk a little bit about seed cycling and what that is.

Astrid:            So seed cycling is this really beautiful practice that recognizes the natural changes in a female body or a menstruating body over the course of a month and identified as that different nutrient are beneficial to the natural hormones that the body is trying to produce during different cycles. So for the first half of the cycle or the follicular phase, that's when the endometrial lining is building up, you're getting ready for this release of the egg.

First Half of Cycle:

The recommendation is to take a ground tablespoon of flax and pumpkin seeds every day for that 14 plus or minus a few days. And the reasoning there is because flax contains a type of phytoestrogen called lignans, and lignans help support the healthy production of estrogen needed to build that endometrial lining. They also have this great normalizing or adaptogenic effect where if there's excess estrogen, they can help to bind to that and flush it out. So it's almost like a normalizer function on estrogen, which is important to be imbalanced, especially during that first half of the cycle. The pumpkin seeds also contain iron and zinc, which are really supportive of the endocrine system and the hormones that need to be secreted in that first half of the cycle.

Second Half of Cycle

The second half of the cycle, or luteal phase, sesame seeds and sunflower seeds are swapped in: a ground tablespoon of each or even the two combined. Sesame and sunflower seeds continue trends that promote progesterone production. So vitamin E, selenium, which are critical to the luteal phase. The luteal phase is either a) fertilization and attachment of an embryo to the uterine lining if you got pregnant during ovulation or (b) there's a shedding of that uterine lining (otherwise known as your period). Progesterone is important to the healthy experience of either of those.

Aleks:            I was really overwhelmed by everything that I had to do to balance my hormones when going off of birth control, but then when I learned about seed cycling, I was like, “this is great because it's so easy”. It's so helpful. I noticed a difference. If women are experiencing any kind of hormonal imbalance or wanting to go off the pill and wanting to explore natural ways of balancing your hormones after that, I think the best place, in my opinion, is to start just seed cycling before anything else. That's a good segue actually, for me wanting to ask you a little bit more about just the different healing disciplines, promoting hormonal balance, as it relates to just general health, but also fertility.

FERTILITY

Astrid:            Yes, the different healing disciplines that we've worked with through Agni, each definitely have a strong perspective on hormonal health and on fertility. And I think the most interesting thing for me to learn was that most of them see these as synonymous and they almost see fertility and regular ovulation cycles as a vital sign and one that manifests if underlying health is really strong.

And it makes biological sense, but the human body would say “Oh, we're not going to focus on reproduction if we don't have everything we need for us if we don't have the nutrients we need if there's too much stress in our environment, we're going to put ourselves and our offspring at risk if we try to reproduce right now”. So let's get that in line first and then let's go ahead and be able to have offspring. And so a huge part of that is; what do we have enough of or what are we missing? What do we have too little of? And what do we have too much of? So does someone have enough calories, enough sustenance, more specifically does someone have enough micronutrients? And then also on the more emotional and experiential side: does someone have too much stress, does someone have harmful environmental factors or toxins in air and water? Does someone have enough companionship, positive experiences, love, sleep, and all of those things actually also impact the hormones we secrete in our bodies, which in turn impact our health.

And pulling thematically across all of these disciplines on the kind of nutrient side, a big part is just getting enough nutrients and getting enough of all of these critical building blocks of our hormones, which is harder and harder to do in the world today because our soil is less nutrient-dense. Therefore our plants are less nutrient-dense and so eating the same thing that a human ate 80 years ago might supply us with fewer nutrients. So we have to be extra mindful and find and seek out those plants that have both been grown really well and intentionally, and that also naturally are abundant in nutrients. And those actually also happened to be seeds, happened to be really high up there.

On the nutrient side, in terms of what could be damaging or what could be too much, there's, unfortunately, more processed foods that are damaging. And then there are environmental endocrine disruptors that are much more prevalent in everything, in our cosmetic products, in plastics, in our furniture, in our clothing. It can be hard to avoid, but even making a few mindful changes around the biggest ones can make a huge difference for, of course, baseline health but then specifically for the experience of an ovulation cycle and making sure that that's as asymptomatic or as painless as possible. And then for anyone trying to conceive, making sure that the body feels like it has what it needs and like it's not being attacked in order to make that happen.

HORMONAL IMBALANCE

Aleks:            One thing related to fertility and just hormonal imbalances in general, there's a stat out there that shows that around 50% of women are having some kind of hormonal issue, whether that's acne or painful periods or endometriosis, even in my own circle I see it. And I don't know whether it's just being talked about more or whether it's actually occurring more nowadays. I would love your take on; do you think that's always been the case? Are we more aware of it or are there contributing factors? I mean, you mentioned the nutritional deficiencies and environmental factors, but I was just wondering what your take on that is?

Astrid:            Yeah, absolutely. I've observed the same thing and unfortunately, I think it is just way more prevalent. I don't think it's Oh, well now we have the language for it or we have better diagnostics. I think it's truly just that it exists more and it makes total sense when we look at just the evolution of our world over the last 50 years even. There are far more endocrine disruptors present in our environments, some that we are for the most part unaware of, or don't really come into our consciousness, like things that are we're breathing in or drinking in our water, or eating incidentally in our food.

But there also is the massive rise in accessibility of hormonal birth control, which is incredibly empowering for many people and is a great choice for many people. But I am really saddened to know that many people aren't given complete information on the potential risks and side effects when they're presented with hormonal birth control as an option. I mean the selling point of hormonal birth control is that it's going to disrupt your endocrine system in such a way that you won't be able to reproduce and you won't get pregnant. And so that is, of course, a huge factor and unfortunately, it's not just people taking hormonal birth control that are impacted by its prevalence. It runs off as waste product, it shows up in our environment in other ways that can impact other women as well.

So again, when we look at harmful inputs and are we getting too much of those, and positive inputs and are we're getting enough of those. We've had an influx and an increase of harmful, potential inputs into our bodies and then a decrease in the very nutrients that help us cope with those stressors and toxins. So there's kind of more to contend with, and we have fewer resources to check contend with them. So those two factors combined are going to make it harder and harder for many women to experience regular pain-free ovulation cycles. And we're going to have to work really hard to reclaim that and to get those back.

Aleks:            And I think that's beautiful for what you're doing with Agni because essentially, I mean, the foods that you are building are to help support women to have better periods, less hormonal issues, really using food as medicine.

Astrid:            Exactly. And that is so much our intention, is to provide more tools to put into the toolkit, to enable ourselves to live healthy and vibrant lives in the face of a complex and sometimes challenging environment to just live in and to navigate through. And what I've found so much and what's a really fun part of the experience of building Agni is that when people get a new tool and they see, Oh, wow, this is a really helpful tool and having these additional nutrients in my body is changing my lived experience. It opens a whole new set of questions. It opens a whole new hunger for exploration into other related factors.

 So people start to ask, well, what other tools are out there? And some of them are going to be food-related yes, but some of them are going to be psychological and emotional and spiritual. And that's been really fun to see, okay, well, if someone starts with seed cycling, where do they go next? What do they get excited about from there? And what does that unlock in terms of their own curiosity? And so I feel like we have so much to learn always from our community and our customers, which is really fun.

EGG FREEZING

Aleks:            Tying back fertility, women are now having kids later on in life for so many reasons and egg freezing provides a good option to further delay that. I wanted to see what you think about egg freezing as an option.

Astrid:            It's such a great question and I find myself in conversation about this so often because it's such a live decision for so many of my friends. And I think it's so complicated and it's so personal and that for every individual going through, weighing all of the pros and cons for themselves is so important. But I do think there are a few pieces of information that are a little bit quieter and not as often discussed as part of the conversation that sometimes gets missed. And so I think adding those pieces of information would be a really helpful thing for a lot of people in this discussion.

And so starting with the pros, of course, any way to mitigate the stress and the fear that might come along with, Oh my gosh, am I ever going to have kids, or am I going to age out of having kids, is really good. And so if egg freezing is a vehicle for that and if it's a pervasive fear that is keeping someone up at night or impacting their life and their dating decisions and so many things, then it can be really positive. I think on the drawback side, something that doesn't get discussed very often is, well, how will the experience of having the hormone injections surrounding the process of egg freezing impact my health and my baseline health and my longterm health. And I think if someone were to go through the exercise of, well, if I choose to freeze my eggs now, and then I try to conceive naturally without IVF in two years, and there's a chance that the fact that I had done egg freezing would impact that, would I be as comfortable freezing my eggs?

And so I think that's something to think about, could this interfere with shorter-term plans to try to conceive naturally. Another one that doesn't get discussed as much is, are there other levers that would make reproduction later into someone's life, more viable, other than egg freezing. And that could be something like choosing to go off hormonal birth control earlier and stay off it. It could be something like changing diet and lifestyle in a way that promotes and extends fertility. And I think there's a sense now that there's a lot of a fear-based mindset of, okay, well, I might not be able to conceive naturally in a few years, so I better do this. And I'd love to see more people asking, well, what could I do to increase my chances of having kids in a few years or a decade, that isn't IVF, that isn't egg freezing. And I think those would be some really productive questions and considerations to add to anyone's calculation around whether it's right for them.

Aleks:            I totally agree. I think those are such great considerations. The stress that can be alleviated from freezing your eggs, but also the flip side of that is, how can you, one, your period is a vital sign, you mentioned that earlier. Your vital signs like digestion and even blood work, but as a female, we get a free blood test every month, right? We get our periods and it's a really great way to tell, you mentioned that just being able to reproduce and being fertile is a great sign of health. It goes hand in hand and having a natural period that is not the period that you get on birth control, which is not really a real period, and being able to see if you're ovulating way before you plan on getting pregnant I think is wonderful and beautiful and also a really great way to connect with your own body.

So there's other benefits to it other than fertility. I think that for me personally, that's what I've experienced, just getting to know my own body. It's so cool to be able to have that dialogue with myself. And it's also a really nice way to preserve your fertility as long as you're monitoring what your natural period looks like. And if you do experience any hormonal imbalances, which I have personally before using tools like Agni, using tools like food as medicine, to be able to balance that out so you can get to a place where you're like, I feel good in my body, hopefully, this will help me have a good experience with trying to get pregnant later on in life or whenever it is that you're planning to have kids. So I love your points. There's definitely pros and cons to it, for sure.

Astrid:            Yes, and I love what you said about opening that dialogue with your body and being able to start to tune in and listen and say, well, what is my own body telling me about how it's doing? And if it's going to be challenging or pretty seamless to conceive. And I think rather than encouraging that dialogue and that listening, oftentimes the Western system will throw a bunch of stats at us and tell us, well, the probability of you being able to have a child naturally at X age is Y and therefore egg freezing.

And that is very limiting and that doesn't take into account the unique experience of a woman who might say, Oh, I mean, I haven't had regular periods since I was 18, this has always been a challenge. And so egg freezing would bring me a lot of peace of mind versus I haven't missed a period and I've never had PMS, so having a baby at 40 might actually not be so hard for my body. Those are just really different realities to come from.

POST-PARTUM DEPRESSION

Aleks:            Definitely, definitely. And it is such a personal and individualized thing because every single body is different. One last question for you before we sign off about postpartum, postpartum depression specifically, it's something I've been hearing a lot about too. And how do you work to prevent postpartum depression? Nobody wants it, obviously, there are other factors than just food. Maybe I actually don't know, but for me, I'm curious about what do you eat? What do you do to prevent postpartum depression, if that runs in your family, for example, or if you're prone to it?

Astrid:            Yes, it's such an important question and one that I'm so glad is being talked about more and more, and I'll start with purely food and nutritional angle. There's actually some really interesting emerging research around postpartum depression. And it's very, very high correlation with a deficiency in about six key nutrients: Iron, B vitamins, magnesium, selenium, DHA, and Omega-3. And this makes a lot of sense because those are the nutrients that are most used by the human body to create a new life and to create a baby. And so it makes sense that after a pregnancy continuing to give up to 60% of that nutrient to your baby, you'd be running low in those nutrients. And so it hasn't been definitively proven as the cause or the most prominent cause, but it's looking really likely that the deficiency of those nutrients is a huge factor in postpartum depression and then causing it.

 And so one way to potentially prevent or alleviate postpartum depression is to front load and consume a lot of those nutrients throughout pregnancy and definitely throughout postpartum. And one of the intentions for our sesame noir seasoning, that savory seasoning that's also included in our seed cycling seed bundle, is that it's really abundant in all of those nutrients. In iron, Omega-3, B vitamins, etc. And that's because we've used ingredients like nori and mushroom powder, and seeds which are naturally abundant in those nutrients. And what was really cool to see is that the traditional foods in different cultures support this: so for example, in China, it's really common to treat the first 40 days postpartum as a really sacred and important and special time where a woman is nourished with very specific soups and foods. And it just so happens that those soups and foods that are mushroom and seed soups or bone broth are really high in these nutrients that combat postpartum depression.

 So they intuitively and organically figured out that those foods had a lot of benefits to postpartum women. So that's one great way to help prepare the body or to support the body if it's already struggling. Food and nutrition aren't the only factors, so much of this, again, comes back to emotions, experiences, mental health, and support. And unfortunately, in today's society, there's a lot less built-in support for new moms and there are much more expectations. It’s more: “how quickly can you be back at work? Can you still run your household while caring for a newborn?”. For women who have partners at the time of birth, that's great. They have one extra person to support, but that doesn't substitute. That one person can't be expected to be a chef and an emotional support person and be up with the baby all night and clean the house and go back to work. So there are just a lot of expectations placed on couples in general. And I would say planning around that and being okay asking for help and reaching out for help and trying to do as little as possible, which is the opposite of what we've been conditioned to do. It's how self-sufficient can you be? How productive can you be? How much can you get done? And instead of saying how little can you do? How little can you move? How much support can you accept is a really big challenge for a lot of people. But I think it's another one that can really set a new mom up for success.