Episode 1

Metabolic Syndrome Is Not a Willpower Problem: Weight Gain Is a Symptom

In the first episode of The Doctor Nadia Podcast, I address the often-misunderstood symptom of weight gain. Instead of blaming willpower we should consider why people feel so hungry. This episode covers: weight gain as a symptom, the biology of hunger and cravings, metabolic syndrome, the ineffectiveness of blame, advancements in obesity science, and the importance of understanding your biology for healing. My goal is to help you fight smarter, not harder.

Episode 2

Building Your Healthcare Team

Episode 2 - Building Your Healthcare Team | The Doctor Nadia Podcast In this episode, discuss tackling metabolic syndrome alongside infertility by assembling a collaborative healthcare team. We'll explore my role, the of complementary medicine, and how to choose the right professionals while emphasizing accountability. My goal is to help you understand your biology for fighting strategies. Visit DoctorNadia.com for more resources. If you enjoyed this episode, please like, subscribe, share.

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Episode 3

What is Metabolic Syndrome

Most people have heard the term. Few people know what it actually means. Metabolic syndrome isn’t one disease—it’s a collection of signs that your metabolism isn’t working the way it should. And one of its most visible symptoms is weight gain. For too long we’ve treated weight as the problem. What if it’s actually a symptom? In this episode, I explain what metabolic syndrome is, why it develops, and why understanding the biology behind hunger, cravings, food noise, and insulin resistance changes everything. Because when you understand the cause, you stop blaming yourself—and you can finally start treating the problem. 🎙️ Listen now on The Doctor Nadia Podcast.

Episode 4

What My Culture has Taught me about Eating

I have a mixed heritage, raised in Canada, in a Portuguese household. My Portuguese culture taught me a lot about eating. Still today, most Portuguese people in Portugal, mostly eat whole, one-ingredient foods, at a table, in front of a plate. They start their meals with a soup or salad and leave the higher-palatable, sweeter foods for the end of the meal. This culture has shaped the way I teach and many of my Therapeutic Eating strategies and courses. Visit DoctorNadia.com 

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Episode 5

What I Bring to the Table

What do I bring to the table? I’m a doctor, yes. But I’m also a mother, a wife, a daughter, a woman who has lived through PCOS and menopause, and someone who has lived across four countries and four continents. I bring science. I bring clinical experience. But I also bring culture, history, anthropology, food traditions, lived experience—and an autistic brain that needs to turn complicated things into systems, plans and patterns that actually make sense. Because none of us comes to the table as just one thing. And maybe the better question isn’t “Who has the perfect answer?” Maybe it’s: What do you bring to the table? 🎙️ Episode 5 — What I Bring to the Table Available now on The Doctor Nadia Podcast.

Episode 6

TAMING MY OWN INSULIN BEAST

​It’s the cravings for me, that made me wonder why I could know exactly what I should eat… and still feel pulled toward the things I did not want to eat. The cravings that eventually sent me looking for answers — and played a part in why I became a naturopathic doctor. More than 20 years later, after treating women, teaching, writing books and living through PCOS and menopause myself, I understand those cravings very differently. They weren’t a character flaw. They were a clue. And learning to understand what was driving them changed the way I eat, the way I practice, and the way I teach women.  I have two places to start: My Insulin Page and The Recovery Plan 7-Day Reset.

Episode 7

We've Removed the Traffic Lights 

​What if the problem isn’t that we’ve forgotten how to eat… but that we’ve removed all the traffic lights? Imagine driving in a world with no traffic lights. No stop signs. No right of way. No speed limits. I think something similar has happened with eating. We’ve removed the beginnings and endings. We’ve removed the pauses. We’ve made eating available everywhere, all the time. I’m talking about what our grandparents understood almost automatically: eating had structure.  Just boundaries. Meal. Gap. Meal. Sit. Pause. Eat. End. And yes — when you’re accustomed to highly rewarding things being available all day, putting those boundaries back can initially feel boring or restrictive. Maybe we just need to put the traffic lights back.

Episode 8

Losing weight starts with sitting down.

Episode 8 of The Doctor Nadia Podcast: Losing weight starts with sitting down.

This week, I’m talking about a simple starting point for changing how we eat: sitting down for a meal.

Eating while standing, driving, working or picking at food in the kitchen can make eating something that happens all day, without a clear beginning or end. Sit. Pause. Eat. End.

In this episode, I explain what that practice means and how to bring it into everyday life—even before you decide what to eat or how long to fast.

Episode 9

His heart deserved care, her mind did too.

I watched my grandmother care for my grandfather after his strokes and heart attacks while her own anger, anxiety and distress were met with criticism. His illness was recognized. Her suffering needed care too. In this episode of The Doctor Nadia Podcast, I explore depression and anxiety across girls’ and women’s lives—from puberty and PCOS to pregnancy, postpartum and menopause—and briefly discuss women’s burden of Alzheimer’s disease. We know some women are particularly sensitive to hormonal changes. We still need better answers about why, better research, and care that reaches women when they need it. This is also a personal conversation about my grandmother, my own experience after menopause, and what I want to be different for our daughters. References for the statistics and studies discussed are below. This episode offers education and personal reflection, not an individual diagnosis or treatment plan.

Episode 10

​HRT is the new Cholesterol

One of the biggest mistakes of my professional life was telling my mother and her friends not to take HRT. Today, I wish I could have that conversation again. I explain why I call HRT “the new cholesterol”: how frightening headlines shaped our understanding of a complicated subject, and why changing that understanding has taken decades. We revisit the Women’s Health Initiative, what it actually studied, and why the type of hormones, how they’re taken and when they’re started matter. I also discuss the FDA’s changes to hormone therapy warnings. This is personal, too. As a woman who has experienced menopause and uses HRT, I want us to consider hormones alongside sleep, mental health and everything else affecting how a woman feels. Women deserve clear information, individual assessment and a proper conversation about their options. If you—or someone you love—were frightened away from asking about menopause care, this episode is for you. 

Episode 11

​“Men come home to rest, and women come home to work”

When does your workday actually end? Between work, children, meals, appointments and the mental load of running a home, many women could keep going around the clock. In this episode, I share what my grandparents’ routines taught me about rest, why my nephew once said, “I’ve never seen a mother sit as much as you,” and how I’ve learned to give myself permission to stop. I also talk about cortisol, sleep and metabolic health—and making room for cortisol-lowering techniques, whether that’s crochet, painting by numbers or reading a book. And also, “We can do all things, but not all at the same time.” You can also read my new BLOG on this same topic here.

Episode 12

We're still blaming people for obesity.

​We’re telling them, “You should be able to fix this WITHOUT medication.” And when they seek medical treatment, we judge them for that, too.  I discuss the headlines around GLP-1 medications and potential vision loss, the importance of putting medication risks into context, and the blame and shame that still surround obesity treatment. Dr. Rocio Salas-Whalen (@drsalaswhalen on Instagram) highlighted that Viagra and Cialis also carry warnings about potential vision loss. Obesity physician Dr. Spencer Nadolsky (@drnadolsky on Instagram) raised another important point. People deserve to understand the possible risks of treatment, its benefits, and the risks of leaving a condition untreated.  Science has evolved. Has society caught up? Read the blog here.