Knowledge Base > Deb Kennedy, PhD - Culinary Medicine: Ask Me Almost Anything

Culinary Medicine: Ask Me Almost Anything

Deb Kennedy, PhD - Culinary Medicine: Ask Me Almost Anything

This event was on Thursday, June 05, 2025 at 11:00 am Pacific, 2:00 pm Eastern

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Recorded

Question:

What food helps with hair growth and prevent baldness?

— Roshni Nair

Answer:

What you need to grow hair, I'm just gonna start there. You need a good source of protein, zinc, iron, biotin, and vitamin C, A, D and E, right? Those are really important vitamins for hair growth as well as your protein intake. However, all you need to do is look at your mother's father and that's where you're gonna go no matter how much of the nutrients that you actually get. What it can do is make sure that the hair that you are genetically destined to have is great hair. Um, but preventing baldness a diet in and of itself isn't going to prevent baldness. It will help you create strands of hair that are stronger, uh, more lush maybe, but it's not gonna prevent your baldness. Um, in that way you would have to seek out other types of treatments for preventing baldness. And I know 'cause my 23-year-old started going bald at the age of 22, and it's really hard. And again, I'm at fault 'cause my dad looked like that too. So as a mother, I am sorry, he just walked by. All right, here we go. Um, and then feed your skin, right? So I actually was just on a call for about an hour with Mark Tagger, and there's a link here, excuse me, hairball. All right, Dr. Mark Tagger. It's about feeding your skin, right? And it's not just about you need these vitamins. Um, he also goes into what is your genotype? So we're all born with genes. He actually, and what is your phenotype, right? So just because you have something genetic doesn't mean that you can't influence it, especially with, um, nutrition and nutrients because your genes like this. But what turns on and off certain switches, inflammation not absorbing vitamin A, not absorbing vi folate, not so, for instance, I don't have the gene that takes the inactive form of folate and makes it into the active form of folate. So, um, I need to take the end product that goes past that enzyme. I know this is sounding complicated, but if you read his book, he, it, he lays it out in a very simple, um, methodical way, and you can do some genotyping and phenotyping to see what your genes look like as well as, uh, what foods can really help you with your skin. And, um, he doesn't mention hair, but what's good for the skin is good for the hair.

Links:

Deb Kennedy, PhD

Deb Kennedy, PhD

PhD Nutritionist

drdebkennedy.com