You're alive, Carl.
What?
You're alive.
No.
I always give my editor room there in the beginning, so it doesn't cut, so don't worry
about it.
It's being edited anyway.
Welcome to the VETA Health Show with Dr. J. Apte, and I'm very excited today because
today we're going to be talking with Dr. J and Mitchell Levy.
Welcome Mitchell and Dr. J.
Welcome.
Oh, Carly, it's great to be here, and thanks so much for having us.
I know Dr. J's husband.
We're in a CEO networking group together, and he is an impressive guy, and of course,
he talks about you often, and so he built you up on a pedestal of who you are and how
you, you know, what your goals are and how you change in the world, and you know, so
I had you out of high expectation, and so it was hard to meet that, but meeting you
in person, you've actually exceeded that for me.
Thank you.
You're most certainly welcome.
So how about if we're going to describe real quickly who you are, tell me that.
Who is Dr. J. Apte?
Okay.
Dr. J. Apte, Mitchell, is I'm an Ayurvedic doctor, and this is this Ayurvedic doctor.
Ayurveda is the science from India, and my degree was in both in Ayurvedic medicine and
conventional medicine, but when I came to US and told people that I'm also Ayurvedic
doctor, they had no clue about what I was talking about because it was so foreign to
them.
So I said, okay, I want to practice Ayurveda.
How can I do it?
Then I thought maybe let me get some degree here in the US so people will understand what
I will be doing.
So I got my master's degree in pharmacology from University of North Texas, and then people
thought that I'm doing something.
I have this master's level, plus I have this medical degree from India, and I was working
in the lab with the mice and rabbits and all, and my heart wasn't there because since India
I was used to practice there.
So I said, no, I just don't want to be sitting in the lab in front of all this equipment.
I just want that people interaction.
And my husband was very supportive.
He said, Jay, do whatever you believe in.
I said, okay, that's what I just wanted somebody to boost my enthusiasm.
And I got into Ayurvedic practice, and you won't believe we were in Dallas, Texas, practicing
something which is very foreign in that country.
So what I did in the beginning, I started educating people about this science, which
is mainly focused on prevention.
How you can prevent most of the diseases with a diet and lifestyle.
So since beginning, my heart is into all this food and health and all this, and we know
we met, Atul and I, we liked each other because we are foodies.
We love to eat, and that's how my career also more focusing on diet and lifestyle.
And then in Texas, and then coming to California, I had so many people staying healthy and taking
care of their digestive issues, allergy issues, emotional issues also by giving them natural
herbs and talking about foods and lifestyle.
And then I realized everybody said, Dr. Jay, we know what you're talking about, but we
don't have time and we don't know how to cook.
So what can you do?
So I started just thinking about it, okay, I want to give people something ready made
in their hand, so they can just open the package, put it in the pan and cook within like 10
minutes, so they can eat fresh food, but very balancing and healthy food.
So that's how I began with the Ayur foods.
And you know, Michelle, one day what happened, I saw a series of patients and everybody was
complaining about my family member has diabetes and my child who is 8 year old has diabetes
and my 50 year old mother has diabetes and they don't know what to eat.
There are so many choices, so much information around, but they actually don't know what
is good for them, which will help them to balance the blood sugar.
So that day I told Atul, Yes, we are into this healthy Ayur foods, but now I want to
create something for this rising number, millions of people who are having diabetes or they
are on the borderline and that's how Veda food was conceived and it took a long time
actually to give birth to actual Veda foods.
So this is my long journey from medicine and medicine and health and medicine and food.
So thank you, so let's go back to your education in India, what university did you go to and
degree did you get and what were you thinking at that time?
Oh, okay.
So I was in the city called Pune and Pune is the center for highest education in India.
So we are very proud of our city and proud of all these colleges and when it came time
came to go, I was always kind of dreaming about being a doctor and here I had a opportunity
of going to only conventional medical school or go to the medical school where they are
offering both conventional medicine and Ayurveda and for me to draw more towards this Indian
medicine called Ayurveda is because of my grandmother.
She was kind of the anchor of the whole family.
Anything happened to her, she said okay, take this decoction, take this tea, take this pinch
of spice and your allergies will go away and your stomach ache will go away and literally
that I used to see that happened to many people in our family and even in our neighborhood
and then I said maybe something what she was talking about, let me learn that science
and I can help so many people doing that and when I came to US that's what I thought
there are so many MDs and conventional doctors but here I am something having spatial knowledge
about this unique science, why don't I focus on that and that's what I got into that.
So when you got to the US, you went to Texas and then what degree did you get when you
were, what university and what degree did you get?
Okay, here I got Masters in Pharmacology from University of North Texas.
Got it, okay so what is Masters in Pharmacology, what does that mean, what could you do with
something like that?
Mainly Masters in Pharmacology is not like a pharmacy, it's not like giving drugs to
people, this is more about doing the research in pharmaceutical world.
So in the beginning I worked in doing the research in glaucoma and then I was in cardiology
lab so we were doing some research on finding some genes and all in cardiology diseases.
Got it, okay so after that you decided you didn't want to be a research person and so
did you start a practice and also then get another degree at the same time, tell me about
that.
Yes, I was practicing Ayurveda in Dallas, Texas but my degree in Pharmacology was even
before I did that, okay I got my degree in 91.
I started just practicing with my friends and Indian people even before that but my actual
practice started in US after I got my Masters and I was fed up with this and I said no,
I just want to go back to practicing Ayurveda and when Atul supported me then I, full time
like from 9 to 5, 9 to 6, I got into Ayurvedic practice.
Got it and you did that for 10 years in Texas?
I did that for no even more, yes, officially like from full time 10 years in Texas but
even before that almost 15 years in Texas and 8 years in India because I was in India
after finishing my degree in Ayurvedic medicine.
Got it, so I would assume the transition that you had to make from practicing in India
to practicing in Dallas would be a pretty significant difference in terms of what you
had to do and how you had to treat people.
Definitely, it was like an East and West difference you know because Indian, our culture is very
different, eating habits are very different, so practicing and explaining those people
how they can make the change was very, very different than what I had to do in being in
US and before I started practicing I wanted to know the American culture, what people
eat, what they drink, how they think because I have to explain them in their own terms
but when I started talking about you are eating all this junk food, why don't you eat a fruit
along with it, you are eating all that meat, why don't you add some vegetables to that,
if you are drinking ice cold water just cut down on that ice and maybe for a change try
drinking warm water and you will see the difference, so practicing in India and here was totally
different.
Karli, can you imagine sort of helping Texans 10 or 20 years ago understand Ayurvedic culture
and practices?
That was quite interesting, to me it's always what I call the bridging from the East to
the West.
Exactly, exactly and do you know that's why California was calling me and I was after
that let's go to California, I have a better future there but our kids were not willing
to do that so when kids went to college and one started working I told Atul next month
we are going to move to California and him being in IT and me in Ayurveda I believed and
I'm so happy we made that transition so in 2000 end of 99 we moved to California.
So by the way not at that time, this was the dot com day so not at that time we moved to
Silicon Valley.
That's right but difficulty was finding the house, finding the office to practice.
But one good thing that I knew what needed to be done because I was practicing in Dallas
I also had an office in Houston, I used to go there one weekend per month, I saw so many
patients even in Houston and Austin so I knew exactly what needed to be done so I found
a sublease in one of the hypnotherapist office and then I started practicing there and here
in the Bay Area people are very open minded you know anything new age happens that happens
California is the first state in that so people started coming to me Ayurveda wasn't very
far into them even Indian population is very large here in the Bay Area and all this young
IT engineers and all are very open for alternative medicine and once I started educating other
people writing the articles in the magazine and newspaper so American people also knew
I was present I was here available to give them Ayurvedic therapies and Ayurvedic herbs.
Nice so when you okay so you came to Silicon Valley and that's also where you got a I don't
know if you got the degree but you went you went to get a nutritional education.
Yes in California because that's what I thought that I talked so much about the food and all
so let me do the masters in nutrition so I started the classes in not Dallas University
in Dallas but here in Berkeley I actually completed all my classes the only thing is
I was in practice and to complete my degree they wanted me to do one year of internship
going away somewhere maybe in New York or Chicago or something and I wasn't willing
to do that so I did not complete that but I got all the knowledge and wisdom about conventional
nutrition which also helps me a lot having the clear idea about Ayurvedic nutrition also.
Yeah that makes sense I mean yeah so you have degrees and knowledge from universities including
Berkeley.
Yeah Berkeley and North Texas and India Pune University.
Nice Karli you were talking before and we stopped you what you wanted to make a East
West point or where were you?
I think it's really important because like you said she has studied Western and she's
also studied Eastern obviously because where she comes from I think it's so important
our society today to bridge those two realizing they both have a place and where like Ayurvedic
is basically preventative versus Western medicine tends to be in the moment of crises so I
always like to educate people on the bridging of the two's how do we start using Eastern
more to prevent us getting to the Western place of medicine.
And Karli you made a correct point that these days our health care is more integrative health
is the integration of conventional medicine and all other healing philosophies around
the world and Ayurvedic is one of the main integrative philosophy because WHO has recognized
Ayurvedic as a complete medical science.
You know in thousands of years ago three four thousand years ago Ayurvedic was developed
into eight different branches like internal medicine and Ayurvedic surgery Ayurvedic pediatrics
Ayurvedic OBGYN Ayurvedic toxicology Ayurvedic psychiatry at all and even some of these Ayurvedic
surgery techniques people doctors around the world are going to India and they are learning
all these surgery techniques which are more focused on plastic surgeries and all.
So it is very fascinating to bringing the world together East meeting West.
You know I look behind you and I see the Ayurvedic College of America so let's we didn't cover
that in the in your background so when you talk about that.
Okay so Mitch when I was practicing Ayurvedic and clients seeing wonderful results within
like few months and they say Dr. J we want to learn about Ayurvedic not only practice
but we want to share this knowledge to people around us because so many of our friends and
family are suffering many of them have cancer they have heart problems and all that.
So I said okay I need to create a program so I can educate these people and do you know
I started Ayurvedic school even in Dallas in Houston Texas.
So I started the first class in 1995 and I had about like in every class I had almost
like 15 to 20 students and some of them couple of them used to be like MDE's and couple
of two three were chiropractors and few massage therapist so it was kind of group of many
healthcare professionals and as we are advancing many of these UCSF doctors and oncologists
and psychiatrists are also my students here in the Bay area because they want to find
the answers to many of these problems which conventional medicine cannot answer very clearly
and they find those answers in Ayurvedic and that's what I'm starting this Ayurvedic school
so it's been happening 15 years in the Bay area that more and more students are learning
Ayurvedic and they are helping us to spread that wisdom around.
So 35 years ago my experience was I was such a foreign what people didn't understand what
I wasn't talking about and then now I tell them I'm Ayurvedic doctor and they look at
me with respect because now they know how Ayurvedic wisdom is helping them a lot being
healthy.
You know I told Karoli about you when we first started talking and her eyes and her conversation
really lit up when I said Ayurvedic and what you practice she got very excited about that.
I know there are so many people having the challenges because do you know that research
constantly all this data shows that 25 million people are having diabetes and all these teenage
kids are having type 2 diabetes which was supposed to be like over 40 years of age and all this
and majority of the time our eating habits and our seed entry lifestyle become the cause
for these kind of problems.
Then they can take the medicine but the pills do not solve all the problem so they need
the guidelines about eating and all and when we talk about eating there is so much information
available and you know which people always question is we don't have time to run to the
grocery store and find this spice and this grain and then cook from scratch we don't
have time so we want something somebody should give me the package I can just cook it within
5 minutes and I can just take care of myself which will help me to bring my sugar down
and I always feel that I have this knowledge about this nutrition and health and all so
I should come up with something like this so people's life will be easier and they don't
have to do all this running around they will be happy and enjoying their life.
So I like the as I am listening here is what I am hearing somebody who is very bright very
capable who started something before it was accepted and when you heard so you are listening
with your head when you heard that there was a need for education you started a college
of Ayurveda I mean that is very cool stuff right so you are just sort of cutting the
edge and so what that means is your heart you heard it with your head your heart felt
it your feet actually took action.
That's right.
No I love it and the same process happened with the food products right with your plants
you know they are telling you something you know you could solve a problem but first you
feel it with your heart and then you start taking action and I think with the Veda foods
this has been a process you have been working on researching and developing for what close
to 3 or little over 3 years.
It's little over 3 years and that's why in the beginning when I just had that idea and
Atul just supported that idea then I start looking into my Ayurvedic science and getting
all the food ingredients together and working at it because some of the cooking are very
complicated it takes like an hour or two and I know people here in US nobody has that much
time and of course they are not going to spend so much time cooking they may be enjoying
eating that food but they definitely will not spend so much time cooking so I just experimented
with so many things and finally I am so happy that we are almost ready with all these Veda
foods.
Yeah I think it's very exciting.
I think the one thing I also want to bring out when you are thinking about treating
a patient in your normal way you know if I go into a doctor's office today the goal
of the doctor's office is to look at me, hear a couple words, see me and get me out
in 6 minutes.
That's right.
When you deal with a patient your amount of time you spend I am sure is significantly
greater than 6 minutes or you walk in the door what do you talk about what's an approach
when you talk about the patient first time out.
Yes what happens when you are seeing the doctor is spending like 2-3 minutes with you and
here I want to know about what's happening in that person's mind and the body because
many of the time the cause of the disease is at the emotional or mental state and that
mind emotions reflect in the physical body as a pain or as asthma or eczema or pain or
maybe sometimes even cancer and research is showing that even the stress may kind of lead
into the cancer and all this.
So when you want to know actually what is happening, what people eat, what they do,
what is their stress level, what is their energy level, do you know I need at least
one hour with all my clients for the initial consultation and once I get the clear picture
I know what is causing the problem because that's the beauty about Ayurveda Ayurveda
is not a take a putting a bandaid on the symptom it's not just the magic pill but is the removing
the cause of the problem your symptom is the effect and unless the cause is gone symptom
will never go away that's why when I get all this history when I talk to my clients I get
the idea what is the cause and once the cause then the results start happening so soon that's
why they call me in one month and I'm so happy my digestion is so much better and I'm sleeping
so sound at night and I'm having so much energy and my elimination is good and my work now
I don't get angry so quickly I don't feel anxious so quickly so when you start seeing
all those results and why mainly because we take care of the cause and you may not know
but almost majority of the time the cause is in the diet and lifestyle which in modern
medicine is most of the time it's ignored because doctors don't know what's happening
in patients life but here this science being different this is the body mind spirit science
as much you were saying that feet heart and head so this science includes all those three
aspects the head the heart and the feet so that the body mind and spirit and then we
start solving the problems and people see excellent results I really feel passionate
about it and I want to help more and more people because I think that is my goal in
life that is my dharma to help other people be healthy I don't know it feels to me that
you're the type of person I want to be working with what do you think Carly I love the fact
that it's mind body spirit because for me they're all interconnected and when one is
at the same affects the other and that's the beauty of Ayurvedic it's addressing all
of them and she's spending a lot of time with each person she's finding out about their
mind their body their spirit and seeing what's out of sync and working with them on correcting
the pieces that are out of sync so they can become whole again yes and do you know other
than for interesting thing about Ayurvedic Ayurvedic categorizes all people into different
mind body type because our current science is like one size fits all take this pill and
your headache will go away and take this pill and you will sleep sound at night but Ayurveda
says why your looks are different and why you why you have affinity for certain food
like few people say orange juice doesn't agree with me and somebody says I just eat
bowl of salad and makes me feel good and somebody else is saying no that salad gives
me so much gas and bloating I just love this bowl of soup or the stew and all that because
we all are different and what Ayurveda recommends is a custom made formula which will fit each
individual and that is another reason we need so much time to spend with each client because
we categorize people into different mind body type we call that as a body constitution and
once you know that it just helps you to pick the right foods right career you can do the
right exercise routine even your relationship with your friends and family will improve you
can prevent most of the diseases so there are so many benefits about following this Ayurvedic
lifestyle.
Got it I like it and what gets me compelled about what we are talking about and we will
start introducing the data foods products what gets me compelled about that is your background
what you've gone through how many patients you've dealt with and how long you've been
practicing this and coming up with a solution that's not pie in the sky it's something
that you've researched and spent time on and really it has a lot of benefits besides
the health benefits but ease of getting food ease of making ease of having a product that's
right in front of you I really it feels comforting to know that you're the brand behind or you're
the person behind this brand.
And these foods are not only good or healthy but they are very delicious because lot of
people complain yeah this is healthy food that means it's going to taste so bad which
is very wrong as a matter of fact Ayurvedic when we prepare the food and when we combine
all those spices it is very low in calorie it is high in taste so people just love it
and they help it also helps their digestion and improve overall health and which you know
because having all this background together I'm not going to just stop by offering people
these Vedakur packages we are going to send them the newsletters and we are going to talk
so much about it so I will help them that what exercise will help them to bring their
sugar down and what lifestyle changes they can make there are so many other herbs like
turmeric for example is so popular these days because turmeric is proven in the lab good
for cancer good for skin good for liver good for allergies and Ayurvedically turmeric is
excellent even for diabetes so all our customers will not get only the food but they will get
all this wisdom around it multiple facets about our health and also about diabetes so
I just want to educate people and then make the right choices as Carly is there a question
that was burning in your head that you need to make sure we ask yes as long as the heat
is on well a couple things I'd like to address one is we are also doing a podcast so I'd
also like to make sure that we put out there where can people find out more because obviously
some people are watching us other people are just going to be listening so they can't
see the lower thirds so could you share it with people where they can find out more about
you and Vedafoods and then I'd like to tie it back because we keep on throwing out the
terminology of Ayurvedic Ayurvedic and you came out with a beautiful brand name called
Vedafoods so I'd love for you to share with the audience what does Vedam mean so for those
that are listening on the podcast I'm good at facebook.com slash Vedafoods so it's facebook.com
slash V-E-D-A-F-O-O-D-S Carly really asked good question so Vedafood Vedam in the wisdom
so these foods have so much wisdom in it so you are not just eating food but you are
eating all those six days together with the right proportion of all the spices with the
right proportion of carb and protein and carbs and all the carbs protein and fat along with
it so there is so much wisdom going in your body because remember your food doesn't only
nourish your body but food is nourishing your mind food is nourishing your spirit so all
these Vedafoods this wisdom about the food is helping all your three levels of your
being.
See now that was beautiful because I know a lot of people out there did not know it
better meant and so for me I think that was a really great thing for you to describe and
share that your company your philosophy is around wisdom.
That's right and are your foods literally the what is the meaning of the word are you
with or so Veda is the wisdom and are you means life healthy life so this is the wisdom
about healthy life and do you know in the US are you with is popular as a new age science
and this new age science is only 5000 year old so you can see it's kind of helping people
around the world to be healthy following Ayurvedic wisdom and it's becoming very very popular.
One time I attended one meeting in India Indian government has a special department called
Ayush and they had a world conference and doctors around the world came to India and
they were asking to send Ayurvedic doctors to their country to educate the doctors so
doctors can help their patients so you can see the world has come together it's not
only through the internet but through the wisdom about the health and spirituality together.
So I think we I think we had a really great introductory session Karli the questions were
spot on I appreciate that Dr J is there one question that we should have asked you that
we didn't how would you like to wrap up this session.
I think you covered most of it I just want to tell all our customers and listeners and
everybody that Ayurvedic is part of me it's my passion and believe me it's not only this
live but few lives in the future because Ayurvedic is such a vast science if you start following
it I can tell you this is one thing that it never changes its mind what happens in around
you know like we were talking about no fat diet and now doctors are saying no some good
fat is essential for you and then we are talking about Atkins diet eating only protein and
now we are not talking about it so people get confused what should I be doing because
of this concepts keep changing every six months or a year but Ayurvedic is never changing
science Ayurvedic five thousand years ago Ayurvedic was true and even it is true today
and it will be even true even five thousand years from today because is the wisdom is
the science of nature mother nature will never change our wisdom will keep on changing but
the Ayurveda this wisdom which is based on the mother nature will never change so all
our listeners and viewers and all Ayurveda food customers will be very happy with following
this Ayurveda and its wisdom beautiful thank you so much thank you for the great opportunity
Mitch and Karli I look forward to future episodes where you share more of your wisdom thank
you so much for being with us Mitchell thank you so much for leading the way and I think
we are a wrap for today awesome thank you thank you so much Dr.Jane thanks Karli thank
you bye bye bye bye.
