Dairy is one of the most misunderstood foods in wellness.

Is it inflammatory? Does it increase mucus? Does it raise IGF-1 and breast cancer risk? Or is that fear-based messaging?

In Part 4 of the Nutrition Just the Facts series, Laura breaks down the science behind dairy and separates cultural belief from biological evidence.

This episode covers:

• Dairy and inflammatory biomarkers • The mucus myth • IGF-1 and growth signaling in breast cancer • Lactose intolerance versus milk allergy • A1 versus A2 milk • Grass-fed versus conventional dairy • The influence of marketing and dietary policy

This is a calm, research-grounded conversation designed to help you make confident, personalized nutrition decisions.

Let's Connect! If this episode helped you breathe a little easier, please share it with a friend or leave a review. Every share helps spread this message of hope, healing, and whole-person wellness.

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Why are so many women told to avoid animal foods after breast cancer? And what does the science behind that advice actually show?

In this episode of Better Than Before Breast Cancer, Laura Lummer explores plant-based versus animal-based eating through a clear, grounded lens. She explains why large observational studies like the Nurses' Health Study became so influential, how The China Study was over-interpreted, and where correlation was treated as causation.

This episode is not about choosing a diet. It is about understanding how nutrition messaging is formed, where its limitations lie, and how to apply science in a way that respects bioindividuality, metabolic health, digestion, and recovery after cancer.

If you have ever felt confused, pressured, or fearful around food, this episode offers clarity without rules.

Let's Connect! If this episode helped you breathe a little easier, please share it with a friend or leave a review. Every share helps spread this message of hope, healing, and whole-person wellness.

💌 Join my email list for weekly wellness tips & podcast updates → The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach

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💌 Join the Living Well After Breast Cancer Community → The Living Well After Breast Cancer Community

👩‍💻 Follow me on Instagram for daily inspiration → @thebreastcancerrecoverycoach

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Carbohydrates are often blamed, feared, or oversimplified, especially after breast cancer.

In this episode, Laura continues her Nutrition Myths and Truths series with an evidence-based conversation about carbohydrates. This is not about food rules. It is about understanding how carbohydrates function in the body, how they interact with metabolism, inflammation, and genetics, and what lab markers can tell us about individual response.

If you missed part one of this series on red meat and understanding scientific studies, that episode provides helpful context for today's discussion.

Episode highlights:

• Carbohydrates include vegetables, fruits, and legumes, not just bread and sugar

• Why blood sugar numbers alone do not reflect metabolic health

• How refined carbohydrates influence inflammation and gut health

• What research suggests about carbohydrates and cancer

• Why genetics and SNPs affect carbohydrate tolerance

• The role of insulin, triglycerides, and inflammation markers

• Whether grains are nutritionally essential

Let's Connect! If this episode helped you breathe a little easier, please share it with a friend or leave a review. Every share helps spread this message of hope, healing, and whole-person wellness.

💌 Join my email list for weekly wellness tips & podcast updates → The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach

💌 Join the Better Than Before Breast Cancer Life Coaching Membership → Life Coaching

💌 Join the Living Well After Breast Cancer Community → The Living Well After Breast Cancer Community

👩‍💻 Follow me on Instagram for daily inspiration → @thebreastcancerrecoverycoach

👩‍💻 Follow me on Facebook → The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach

🎙 Subscribe & leave a review on Apple Podcasts → Better Than Before Breast Cancer with The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach

🎥 Watch on YouTube → @BetterThanBeforeBreastCancer

What does the science actually say about red meat after breast cancer?

In this episode, Laura Lummer begins a new series focused on separating nutrition myths from facts. The conversation was sparked by hearing a physician recommend a low-fat, high-fiber diet with no red meat to an entire room of cancer patients.

Laura explains why that kind of advice ignores bio individuality and why nutrition science is far more nuanced than headlines suggest.

This episode breaks down how observational studies work, what statistically significant means, and why one of the most cited red meat studies cannot be used to create universal food rules.

Topics include:

• Observational studies vs randomized trials

• Self-reported diet recall and its limitations

• What statistically significant really means

• The Stanford SWAP-MEAT trial explained

• Why one diet does not fit everybody

Let's Connect! If this episode helped you breathe a little easier, please share it with a friend or leave a review. Every share helps spread this message of hope, healing, and whole-person wellness.

💌 Join my email list for weekly wellness tips & podcast updates → The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach

💌 Join the Better Than Before Breast Cancer Life Coaching Membership → Life Coaching

👩‍💻 Follow me on Instagram for daily inspiration → @thebreastcancerrecoverycoach

👩‍💻 Follow me on Facebook → The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach

🎙 Subscribe & leave a review on Apple Podcasts → Better Than Before Breast Cancer with The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach

🎥 Watch on YouTube → @BetterThanBeforeBreastCancer

Diet plans. Supplements. Protocols. Podcasts. Advice from well-meaning people. At some point, all of that support can stop feeling helpful and start feeling overwhelming.

In this episode, Laura shares a real-life story that highlights how stress and unresolved trauma can impact metabolic health, even when diet and exercise look "right." She explains why consistency, tracking data, and self-honesty matter so much when making changes, and how constantly switching approaches can keep us stuck.

This episode offers permission to slow down, turn down the noise, and focus on what truly supports healing after breast cancer.

Let's Connect! If this episode helped you breathe a little easier, please share it with a friend or leave a review. Every share helps spread this message of hope, healing, and whole-person wellness.

💌 Join my email list for weekly wellness tips & podcast updates → The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach

💌 Join the Better Than Before Breast Cancer Life Coaching Membership → Life Coaching

👩‍💻 Follow me on Instagram for daily inspiration → @thebreastcancerrecoverycoach

👩‍💻 Follow me on Facebook → The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach

🎙 Subscribe & leave a review on Apple Podcasts → Better Than Before Breast Cancer with The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach

🎥 Watch on YouTube → @BetterThanBeforeBreastCancer

At the beginning of the year, affirmations are everywhere. But if you have ever felt frustrated, tense, or discouraged while trying to use affirmations, this episode explains why.

In Episode 446, Laura shares why affirmations that are not believable often create internal pushback, self-judgment, and cognitive dissonance, and why this is not a personal failure.

You will learn how the brain responds to thoughts that feel untrue, how glimmers signal safety to the nervous system, and how to choose words that gently move you forward in healing, relationships, business, and lifestyle change.

This episode offers a realistic and compassionate approach to mindset work that works with your brain instead of against it.

Let's Connect! If this episode helped you breathe a little easier, please share it with a friend or leave a review. Every share helps spread this message of hope, healing, and whole-person wellness.

💌 Join my email list for weekly wellness tips & podcast updates → The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach

💌 Join the Better Than Before Breast Cancer Life Coaching Membership → Life Coaching

👩‍💻 Follow me on Instagram for daily inspiration → @thebreastcancerrecoverycoach

👩‍💻 Follow me on Facebook → The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach

🎙 Subscribe & leave a review on Apple Podcasts → Better Than Before Breast Cancer with The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach

🎥 Watch on YouTube → @BetterThanBeforeBreastCancer

Have you ever wondered why the new year brings so much pressure to move faster, even when your body feels tired and out of sync?

In this episode, Laura shares a perspective that reframes fatigue, resistance, and the urge to slow down through the lens of evolutionary mismatch and seasonal rhythm. Rather than pushing harder, this conversation invites curiosity, compassion, and a deeper understanding of what your body may be asking for right now.

This episode is especially supportive for women navigating life after breast cancer who want to build health and healing without forcing themselves into timelines that do not fit their biology.

Resources:

Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine https://amzn.to/499dt2p The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, and Disease https://amzn.to/49aBrdJ

Let's Connect! If this episode helped you breathe a little easier, please share it with a friend or leave a review. Every share helps spread this message of hope, healing, and whole-person wellness.

💌 Join my email list for weekly wellness tips & podcast updates → The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach

💌 Join the Better Than Before Breast Cancer Life Coaching Membership → Life Coaching

👩‍💻 Follow me on Instagram for daily inspiration → @thebreastcancerrecoverycoach

👩‍💻 Follow me on Facebook → The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach

🎙 Subscribe & leave a review on Apple Podcasts → Better Than Before Breast Cancer with The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach

🎥 Watch on YouTube → @BetterThanBeforeBreastCancer

Cold and flu season can feel extra challenging after breast cancer, especially when energy is already low after the holidays. In Episode 444, Laura shares gentle, practical ways to support your immune system during winter without fear or pressure.

You will learn how the immune system works, why it is not meant to stay activated, and how sleep, stress, and hormone shifts influence immune health. Laura also discusses seasonal food wisdom, herbs and spices, movement during winter, emotional care, and how making choices from self-love supports resilience.

This episode focuses on nourishment, rest, boundaries, and compassion rather than perfection or control.

Resources:

Everyone's Table: Global Recipes for Modern Health https://amzn.to/3Nb70eF

Let's Connect! If this episode helped you breathe a little easier, please share it with a friend or leave a review. Every share helps spread this message of hope, healing, and whole-person wellness.

💌 Join my email list for weekly wellness tips & podcast updates → The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach

👩‍💻 Follow me on Instagram for daily inspiration → @thebreastcancerrecoverycoach

👩‍💻 Follow me on Facebook → The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach

🎙 Subscribe & leave a review on Apple Podcasts → Better Than Before Breast Cancer with The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach

🎥 Watch on YouTube → @BetterThanBeforeBreastCancer

This episode comes out the day after Christmas, when many of us are surrounded by more stuff, more noise, and more overwhelm.

In this episode, we talk about how clutter is not just physical. It can show up in our thoughts, our emotions, and even our schedules. We explore how rumination and constant busyness can keep the nervous system stuck in stress, and why clearing space in your environment and your calendar can support healing after breast cancer.

Using research from the American Psychiatric Association, we take a deeper look at rumination, emotional attachment, and how mindset work is a foundational part of whole body healing.

This episode is also an invitation to consider how you want to use your time in the next season of life and whether it is time to clear space for yourself.

Let's Connect! If this episode helped you breathe a little easier, please share it with a friend or leave a review. Every share helps spread this message of hope, healing, and whole-person wellness.

💌 Join my email list for weekly wellness tips & podcast updates → The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach

👩‍💻 Follow me on Instagram for daily inspiration → @thebreastcancerrecoverycoach

👩‍💻 Follow me on Facebook → The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach

🎙 Subscribe & leave a review on Apple Podcasts → Better Than Before Breast Cancer with The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach

🎥 Watch on YouTube → @BetterThanBeforeBreastCancer

As the year comes to a close, Laura reflects on a powerful pattern many women experience after breast cancer: feeling like an observer in their own life rather than an active participant.

In this episode, Laura explores how trauma, uncertainty, constant stimulation, and comparison can lead to disconnection and low-level dissociation. She explains why stillness is often avoided, how the nervous system actually resets, and why intentional living is key to reclaiming agency after cancer.

This conversation is an invitation to move out of autopilot, reconnect with your body and values, and step back into your life with intention as you move into a new year.

Topics Covered:

• Disconnection and dissociation after breast cancer

• Passive coping and its impact on healing

• Why distraction does not create safety

• The role of stillness in nervous system regulation

• Intentional living as a path back to participation

Let's Connect! If this episode helped you breathe a little easier, please share it with a friend or leave a review. Every share helps spread this message of hope, healing, and whole-person wellness.

💌 Join my email list for weekly wellness tips & podcast updates → The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach

👩‍💻 Follow me on Instagram for daily inspiration → @thebreastcancerrecoverycoach

👩‍💻 Follow me on Facebook → The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach

🎙 Subscribe & leave a review on Apple Podcasts → Better Than Before Breast Cancer with The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach

🎥 Watch on YouTube → @BetterThanBeforeBreastCancer

In this episode, I sit down with Kristie Howlett, NP, to talk about a topic so many women worry about but rarely get complete information on. Kristie brings her years of oncology and integrative experience into this discussion about bone health, estrogen changes, metabolic influences, and the difference strength training truly makes.

I loved the way Kristie explained how muscle communicates with bone, why sunlight and circadian rhythm matter more than most women realize, and what she routinely sees in her practice when women finally receive personalized support rather than a blanket recommendation for calcium. This is a conversation every survivor deserves to hear.

Resources: Smart Scale Laura uses and recommends. DMinder app. Howlett Integrative Cancer Center

Follow Kristie on: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kristiehowlettnp/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kristie.alexanderhowlett

Let's Connect! If this episode helped you breathe a little easier, please share it with a friend or leave a review. Every share helps spread this message of hope, healing, and whole-person wellness.

💌 Join my email list for weekly wellness tips & podcast updates → The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach

👩‍💻 Follow me on Instagram for daily inspiration → @thebreastcancerrecoverycoach

👩‍💻 Follow me on Facebook → The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach

🎙 Subscribe & leave a review on Apple Podcasts → Better Than Before Breast Cancer with The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach

🎥 Watch on YouTube → @BetterThanBeforeBreastCancer