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524: 95% of Women Are Nutritionally Depleted - No Wonder Women in Midlife Feel Terrible with Julie Sawaya

Midlife Conversations with Natalie Jill: Fat Loss, Hormones & Health for Women Over 40

Release Date: 05/08/2026

525: Most Thyroid Medications Fail: The Thyroid–Menopause Collision Destroying Women in Midlife with Dr. Amie Hornaman show art 525: Most Thyroid Medications Fail: The Thyroid–Menopause Collision Destroying Women in Midlife with Dr. Amie Hornaman

Midlife Conversations with Natalie Jill: Fat Loss, Hormones & Health for Women Over 40

Save your seat in the free Thyroid and Hormone class   If you are a woman in midlife who has been told everything is fine when you know in your body that something is NOT fine, this episode is going to change everything. I have Dr. Amie Hornaman, The Thyroid Fixer, back on the show, and we are going somewhere we have never gone before. One in eight women will develop a thyroid condition in her lifetime. Eighty-eight percent of us are metabolically unhealthy. And yet most doctors run ONE test, look at one number, tell us we are normal, and send us home with an antidepressant. Meanwhile we...

info_outline 524: 95% of Women Are Nutritionally Depleted - No Wonder Women in Midlife Feel Terrible with Julie Sawaya show art 524: 95% of Women Are Nutritionally Depleted - No Wonder Women in Midlife Feel Terrible with Julie Sawaya

Midlife Conversations with Natalie Jill: Fat Loss, Hormones & Health for Women Over 40

If you are a woman in midlife who is exhausted, foggy, losing your hair, and being told it is just aging — this episode is going to change how you look at your body forever. I sat down with Julie Sawaya, the co-founder of Needed, and what I learned blew my mind. Julie is a trained nutritionist with a Stanford MBA. She was doing EVERYTHING right — farmer's market every Sunday, nutrition certifications, incredibly intentional about every bite. And then she tested herself. Almost every nutrient came back in the red zone. If two trained nutritionists were massively depleted, what is happening...

info_outline 523: Your Mouth Is Making You Sick: What Biological Dentistry Reveals About Root Canals, Cavitations, and Chronic Disease with Dr. Dominik Nischwitz show art 523: Your Mouth Is Making You Sick: What Biological Dentistry Reveals About Root Canals, Cavitations, and Chronic Disease with Dr. Dominik Nischwitz

Midlife Conversations with Natalie Jill: Fat Loss, Hormones & Health for Women Over 40

What if everything you've been doing to heal your body has been quietly undermined by something inside your mouth? Natalie sits down with Dr. Dominik Nischwitz, widely regarded as the world's leading biological dentist, who has spent over two decades revealing the connection between dental health and chronic disease. People with gum disease face an 86% higher risk of stroke, a 36% higher risk of heart attack, and if tooth loss conditions are present, the risk of Alzheimer's triples. And almost nobody is connecting these dots. Dr. Dominik explains why root canals become silent, chronic...

info_outline 522: The Protein Lie Midlife Women Have Been Told (And What to Do Instead) with Angelo Keely show art 522: The Protein Lie Midlife Women Have Been Told (And What to Do Instead) with Angelo Keely

Midlife Conversations with Natalie Jill: Fat Loss, Hormones & Health for Women Over 40

What if the protein you've been so carefully tracking is giving you a fraction of the muscle-building benefit you think it is? That question stopped me in my tracks, and I think it's going to stop you too. I brought Angelo Keely back to the show for exactly this conversation. Angelo is the CEO and co-founder of Kion, and he works alongside the top scientists in protein and amino acid research. Our last episode together changed how I think about protein entirely, and this one went deeper. Here's what we get into: your protein needs don't decrease as you age, they actually go up, and most of us...

info_outline 521: The Truth About Statins, LDL, and Heart Disease Risk That Most Cardiologists Won't Tell You with Dr. Philip Ovadia show art 521: The Truth About Statins, LDL, and Heart Disease Risk That Most Cardiologists Won't Tell You with Dr. Philip Ovadia

Midlife Conversations with Natalie Jill: Fat Loss, Hormones & Health for Women Over 40

What if the cholesterol medication your doctor insists could save your life is actually increasing your risk of the very disease it's supposed to prevent? A board-certified cardiothoracic surgeon who has personally performed over 3,000 open-heart surgeries joins us this week with a message he says most cardiologists will not say out loud: the majority of his patients should never have ended up on his table. Dr. Philip Ovadia lost nearly 100 pounds while operating on other people's hearts, reversed his own prediabetes, and spent the last decade asking a question his colleagues are not...

info_outline 520: S-Equol - The Natural Estrogen Support System Most Women Abandoned for No Reason with Dr. Siobhan Mitchell show art 520: S-Equol - The Natural Estrogen Support System Most Women Abandoned for No Reason with Dr. Siobhan Mitchell

Midlife Conversations with Natalie Jill: Fat Loss, Hormones & Health for Women Over 40

What if the belly fat, the exhaustion, and the 3 a.m. wake-ups were never about willpower or effort at all? In this episode, Dr. Siobhan Mitchell, a neuroscientist with 25 years of nutrition and cellular health research behind her, breaks down exactly what is happening inside the body during midlife and why the same habits that worked at 35 stop working at 45. Dr. Mitchell is currently the Chief Science Officer at MitoQ, a cellular health company with over $60 million in research, and she brings a level of scientific depth to this conversation that is genuinely rare. What unfolds is not the...

info_outline 519: The Menopause Gut: What Your Doctor Never Told You About Hormones, Your Estrobolome, and Midlife Health with Cynthia Thurlow show art 519: The Menopause Gut: What Your Doctor Never Told You About Hormones, Your Estrobolome, and Midlife Health with Cynthia Thurlow

Midlife Conversations with Natalie Jill: Fat Loss, Hormones & Health for Women Over 40

What if the bloating, brain fog, sleepless nights, and stubborn weight you've been blaming on menopause are actually a gut problem in disguise? Nurse practitioner Cynthia Thurlow has 25 years of clinical experience, a TEDx talk with over 15 million views, and the number four nutrition podcast in the country. But it wasn't until a near-death experience in 2018 — a ruptured appendix, 13 days in the hospital, and a perimenopause nobody had caught — that she truly understood what declining estrogen does to a woman's gut, immune system, and entire body. That experience became the foundation of...

info_outline 518: Why Most People Stay Broke (And What They Were Never Taught About Money) with Hannah Hammond show art 518: Why Most People Stay Broke (And What They Were Never Taught About Money) with Hannah Hammond

Midlife Conversations with Natalie Jill: Fat Loss, Hormones & Health for Women Over 40

What if everything you were taught about building wealth was designed to keep you exactly where you are? Hannah Hammond became a self-made millionaire before 30, not because she had a head start, but because she stumbled onto a completely different framework for money at age 13 and refused to let go of it. In this episode, she breaks down the asset vs. liability distinction that most of us were never taught, why your house probably isn't building your wealth the way you think it is, and how compound interest can still work powerfully in your favor no matter where you're starting from in...

info_outline 517: Is Biohacking the New Diet Culture? What Midlife Women Need to Know About Peptides, Hormones, and Body Image with Karen Martel show art 517: Is Biohacking the New Diet Culture? What Midlife Women Need to Know About Peptides, Hormones, and Body Image with Karen Martel

Midlife Conversations with Natalie Jill: Fat Loss, Hormones & Health for Women Over 40

What if the thing you thought was finally going to free you from a lifetime of food obsession is actually feeding the very cycle you have been trying to escape? This week on Midlife Conversations, I sat down with hormone expert and host of The Hormone Solution podcast, Karen Martel, for one of the most unexpectedly layered conversations I have had in a long time. Karen grew up with a mother who ran a Nutrisystem weight loss center, which meant that food restriction and body scrutiny were not just things she observed but the constant backdrop of her entire childhood. That early environment...

info_outline 516: The Hidden Reason Your Home Is Keeping You Stuck in Midlife with Feng Shui Expert Marie Diamond show art 516: The Hidden Reason Your Home Is Keeping You Stuck in Midlife with Feng Shui Expert Marie Diamond

Midlife Conversations with Natalie Jill: Fat Loss, Hormones & Health for Women Over 40

What if the reason you cannot sleep, cannot relax, and cannot seem to get unstuck in midlife has nothing to do with your hormones, your diet, or your effort... and everything to do with the four walls around you? This conversation with Marie Diamond stopped me in my tracks. Marie is one of the world's most recognized feng shui masters, a featured teacher in The Secret, and someone who has spent decades helping people understand how their physical environments are quietly shaping their subconscious minds, their brain waves, their stress levels, and their ability to attract health, love, and...

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If you are a woman in midlife who is exhausted, foggy, losing your hair, and being told it is just aging — this episode is going to change how you look at your body forever.

I sat down with Julie Sawaya, the co-founder of Needed, and what I learned blew my mind. Julie is a trained nutritionist with a Stanford MBA. She was doing EVERYTHING right — farmer's market every Sunday, nutrition certifications, incredibly intentional about every bite. And then she tested herself. Almost every nutrient came back in the red zone.

If two trained nutritionists were massively depleted, what is happening to the rest of us?

Here is the kicker. The nutrition standard we are all measured against — the RDA — was created in 1941. For men. Going to war. Based on the minimum needed to keep troops from getting sick. That is the floor we are still being measured against in 2026. As women. In midlife. Going through one of the most nutritionally demanding phases of our lives.

Ninety-five percent of women are nutritionally depleted. Ninety-seven percent of pregnant women take a prenatal vitamin and are STILL depleted. And nobody is connecting the dots between pregnancy, postpartum, and perimenopause as one long depletion pipeline.

We go DEEP on:

  • The 1941 RDA standard, why it was built for wartime men, and why it is still failing women today

  • The depletion pipeline: how pregnancy, postpartum, and perimenopause stack on top of each other and most women never get to refill the tank

  • CHOLINE — the nutrient behind midlife brain fog that almost nobody is talking about (and the brand new April 2026 fMRI study showing a single dose improved working memory connectivity within three hours)

  • Omega-3 and the midlife brain — why 89% of US adults are in the high cardiovascular risk range and why plant-based sources alone do not cut it

  • Magnesium — the most Instagrammed supplement in the world right now, and why most women are taking the form their body literally cannot absorb

  • The supplement trap: folic acid vs. methylfolate, magnesium oxide vs. glycinate, cyanocobalamin vs. methylcobalamin — and why 40% of us cannot even process the cheap forms because of an MTHFR variant

  • Red flags and green flags to look for the next time you flip over a supplement bottle

  • Why the protein RDA is laughably low for midlife women, and what we actually need to preserve muscle as estrogen declines

  • The "repletion not restriction" reframe — why midlife is the time to add MORE of the right things, not eat less

  • Your action plan for this week: how to get a nutrient panel, what to look at on your labels, and the food-first changes you can start tomorrow morning

This is not a thyroid 101. This is not a supplement infomercial. This is the conversation I wish every midlife woman was given the day she started feeling like something was off.

You are not broken. You are not crazy. You are not just aging. You may be running on accumulated nutritional debt that nobody told you to repay.

That changes today.

Use code NATALIEJILL for 20% off your first order at https://needed.sjv.io/c/5810852/1770238/20859 

 

Connect with Julie Sawaya and Needed:

  • Website: thisisneeded.com and use code NATALIEJILL for 20% off your first order

  • Instagram: @needed

  • Backed by 15,000+ practitioners worldwide

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  • Newsletter and resources: nataliejillfitness.com

  • Midlife Conversations is the podcast made for midlife women who refuse to accept "you are just getting older" as an answer

APPROXIMATE TIMESTAMPS:

  • 00:00 — The wake-up call: two trained nutritionists, both in the red zone

  • 06:00 — Where the RDA actually came from (spoiler: 1941, wartime, men)

  • 12:00 — The depletion pipeline: pregnancy to perimenopause as one continuum

  • 18:00 — The forgotten gap between postpartum and perimenopause

  • 25:00 — Choline: the nutrient behind midlife brain fog nobody is talking about

  • 32:00 — Omega-3 and the midlife brain: why most women are not getting close

  • 38:00 — Magnesium forms: why the cheap one in your multivitamin is barely doing anything

  • 42:00 — The supplement trap: what is actually in your generic multivitamin

  • 48:00 — Red flags and green flags on a supplement label

  • 55:00 — Protein in midlife: why the RDA is wrong and what you actually need

  • 62:00 — Repletion, not restriction: what an ideal midlife day of eating looks like

  • 65:00 — Your action plan for this week

 

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Disclaimer: Information provided in the Midlife Conversations podcast is for informational purposes only. This information is NOT intended as a substitute for the advice provided by your physician or other healthcare professional. Do not use the information provided in this podcast for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease, or prescribing medication or other treatment. Always speak with your physician or other healthcare professional before making any changes to your current regimen. 

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