Phytonutrients have been called the ‘dark matter’ of nutrition, a significant but often uncharacterised and poorly understood class of nutrients that have a profound impact on human health. In this remarkable interview, Dr. Deanna Minich dives into her specialist area, the relationship between phytonutrients, health and wellbeing. She discusses new research that is changing the way we think about plant foods, controversies such as diets that restrict plants, and weaves in several practical clinical takeaways that bridge the connections between food, biology, behaviour, environment, and spirit.

Guest:

Dr. Deanna Minich, MS, PhD, CNS

About our guest:

Deanna Minich, MS, PhD, CNS, Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner (IFMCP), is a nutrition scientist, international lecturer, teacher, and author, with over twenty years of experience in academia and in the food and dietary supplement industries.

Throughout the years, she has been active as a functional medicine clinician in clinical trials and in her own practice (Food & Spirit™), which has now become oriented towards groups, workshops, and retreats. She is the author of seven consumer books on wellness topics, four book chapters, and over fifty scientific publications. Her academic background is in nutrition science, including a Master of Science (M.S.) degree in Human Nutrition and Dietetics from the University of Illinois at Chicago (1995) and a Doctorate (Ph.D.) in Medical Sciences (nutrition focus) from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands (1999). For a decade, she was part of the research team led by the “father of Functional Medicine,” Dr. Jeffrey Bland, and has served on the Nutrition Advisory Board for The Institute of Functional Medicine, as well as on the Board of Directors for the American Nutrition Association. Since 2013, she has been part of the faculty for the Advanced Practice Module in Environmental Health offered by the Institute for Functional Medicine and has been teaching a graduate level course in metabolic detoxification at the University of Western States. Over the decades, she has taught thousands of nutrition classes for health coaches, fitness trainers, and healthcare professionals, including for programs offered by the Functional Medicine Coaching Academy, the Integrative and Functional Nutrition Academy, and the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. In conjunction with her academic degrees and extensive teaching experience at the university level, she is both a Fellow (FACN) and a Certified Nutrition Specialist (CNS) through the American College of Nutrition. She is Chief Science Officer at Symphony Natural Health, where she leads the medical advisory team, oversees scientific communication, and provide educational leadership for the company’s plant-derived nutraceuticals. She is passionate about helping others to live well using therapeutic lifestyle changes that impact their physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health.

Guest websites and links:

https://www.foodandspirit.com

Selection of our guest’s publications:

• Minich DM. A Review of the Science of Colorful, Plant-Based Food and Practical Strategies for "Eating the Rainbow". J Nutr Metab. 2019 Jun 2;2019:2125070.
• Petroski W, Minich DM. Is There Such a Thing as "Anti-Nutrients"? A Narrative Review of Perceived Problematic Plant Compounds. Nutrients. 2020 Sep 24;12(10):2929.
• Minich DM, Brown BI. A Review of Dietary (Phyto)Nutrients for Glutathione Support. Nutrients. 2019 Sep 3;11(9):2073.
• Bush CL, Blumberg JB, El-Sohemy A, Minich DM, Ordovás JM, Reed DG, Behm VAY. Toward the Definition of Personalized Nutrition: A Proposal by The American Nutrition Association. J Am Coll Nutr. 2020 Jan;39(1):5-15.

Dr. Hemilä became interested in the possible benefit of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) when exposed to conflicting opinions on its clinical efficacy. He has spent decades specialising in vitamin C research and, as a result, has addresses important issues such as the efficacy of vitamin C, sub-groups most likely to benefit, and dose-response relationship. Dr. Hemilä has also published several important papers that reveal methodological and analytical problems as well as bias in vitamin C research that, at least in part, explain why vitamin C has been sidelined in medicine and erroneously dismissed. In this informative interview he speaks to the history of vitamin C research for infection and its clinical implications.

Guest:

Dr. Harri Hemilä, MD, PhD

About our guest:

Dr. Harri Hemilä first studied biochemistry and received his PhD (biochemistry) in 1993. Thereafter he studied medicine and receive MD degree, and thereafter PhD (epidemiology) in 2006. His major scientific interest has been the effects of vitamin C on the common cold, and on infections in general. He has not done experimental work of his own in this field, but he has carried out several meta-analyses that have estimated the effects of vitamin C from studies published over half a century. He has also analyzed the effects of vitamin E on infections and on total mortality in the ATBC Study data set of 29,133 Finnish male smokers. Most recently he has carried out meta-analyses on the treatment effects of zinc lozenges on the duration of the common cold. Along with research, he is doing clinical work in the GP context. By the year 2021, he has 155 PubMed publications, 76 of which are focused on vitamin C, 28 on vitamin E, and 12 on zinc lozenges. Dr. Hemilä is Adjunct Professor at the Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki.

Guest websites and links:

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Harri-Hemilae-2

Selection of our guest’s publications:

• Hemilä H, Chalker E. Vitamin C for the common cold and pneumonia. Pol Arch Intern Med. 2025 Jan 30;135(1):16926.
• Hemilä H, Chalker E. Vitamin C reduces the severity of common colds: a meta-analysis. BMC Public Health. 2023 Dec 11;23(1):2468.
• Hemilä H, Chalker E. Bias against Vitamin C in Mainstream Medicine: Examples from Trials of Vitamin C for Infections. Life (Basel). 2022 Jan 3;12(1):62.
• Hemilä H, de Man AME. Vitamin C and COVID-19. Front Med (Lausanne). 2021 Jan 18;7:559811.
• Hemilä H. Vitamin C and Infections. Nutrients. 2017 Mar 29;9(4):339.

Dr. Yanuck provides a deep but practical understanding of how to approach complex immunological problems from an evidence-informed, hypothesis generating perspective that can provide a foundation for personalised clinical interventions. He explores the theme of the NLRP3 inflammasome, its intersection with autophagy and why this is relevant to many common immunological challenges including autoimmunity, metabolism, thyroid function, inflammation, T cell polarization and the capacity to clean up cells.

Guest:

Dr. Samuel Yanuck

About our guest:

Dr. Samuel Yanuck, DC, FACFN, FIAMA is an adjunct assistant professor in the Program on Integrative Medicine, in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.

With his wife, Cheryl Yanuck, MD, a psychiatrist, Dr. Yanuck runs the Yanuck Center for Life and Health, a functional medicine clinic in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. His practice is primarily focused on the care of patients with autoimmune disease, chronic infection, persistent inflammatory process, chronic GI disorders, or other immunologically involved challenges. Dr. Yanuck also provides online consultations for clinicians.

Cogence Immunology is the creation of Dr. Yanuck the company’s CEO and Director of Education. Dr. Yanuck began studying immunology in 2001, after he observed that focusing on specific patterns in immune function could profoundly influence the outcomes of challenging cases. The more he learned, the better the outcomes became. Cogence® Immunology reflects Dr. Yanuck’s more than two decades of immunology study and clinical experience.

Dr. Yanuck has published a number of research papers in peer-reviewed medical journals on topics related to functional immunology, including neurological, inflammatory, infectious and autoimmune disorders as well as the cancer immune microenvironment.

Guest websites and links:

https://cogenceimmunology.com

Selection of our guest’s publications:

• Yanuck SF. Failed Induction of the TH1 System in TH2 Dominant Patients: The Cancer-Permissive Immune Macroenvironment. Integr Med (Encinitas). 2024 May;23(2):24-35.
• Yanuck SF, Pizzorno J, Messier H, Fitzgerald KN. Evidence Supporting a Phased Immuno-physiological Approach to COVID-19 From Prevention Through Recovery. Integr Med (Encinitas). 2020;19(Suppl 1):8-35.
• Yanuck SF. Microglial Phagocytosis of Neurons: Diminishing Neuronal Loss in Traumatic, Infectious, Inflammatory, and Autoimmune CNS Disorders. Front Psychiatry. 2019 Oct 3;10:712.