Alan Bjerga: Hello and welcome to the Dairy Defined Podcast. Influence, it’s what everyone craves nearly as much as a nutritious dairy snack. Our guest today has plenty of both. Lauren Twigge is a registered dietician and nutritionist with a degree in animal science who has been featured in prevention, health shape, good housekeeping, and other media outlets helping to demystify nutrition and offer sound guidance to her followers across social media and subscribers to her blog, laurentwiggenutrition.com, Lauren offers nutrition at its roots and we’re happy to have her here today. Thanks for being with us, Lauren.
Lauren Twigge: Yeah, thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to chat today and get to know one another.
Alan Bjerga: So you’re very online, you’re also very qualified, but I’m pretty sure that when you got your degree, it wasn’t in influencing. Tell us exactly what you do and how you got into this strange realm that we’re all trying to figure out.
Lauren Twigge: Yes, trust me, if there’s one person who’s shocked that this is what I do for my job, it is me. When I went to school… So background all the way back to my childhood, I was born and raised in Central California. My dad is a farmer. I grew up on a dairy farm, and then eventually we moved off the dairy farm into some of my dad’s orchards. So he does dairy farming, tree fruit production, row crops, kind of just a variety, nuts, a variety of farming. And so I grew up where your food comes from. I grew up seeing how your food is produced. I grew up seeing how farmers manage their cows, how they manage their trees, how they manage the technology. All of those things were just right outside my door. And to me that was a very normal part of life. And I think growing up in animal agriculture and naturally who I am as a person, I’ve always loved animals, I’ve loved animal care, was going to be a vet.
That was my goal. I went to Texas A&M, I was as an animal science major with full intention to attend vet school there. They have a fantastic veterinary program. And as I was there, I was working towards some of my credentials and working towards some of my credits. And I found myself surrounded by people who did not have the same childhood that I did. They did not grow up with food production right outside of their door. They never had an opportunity to see it and to understand it. What I quickly realized is that when you are not exposed to something and you don’t get to see it with your own eyes, very quickly misinformation spreads. It takes root, and that becomes the truth. And so I found myself put in situations. People would hear about my childhood and they would have questions, “Well, what about when a cow does this? Well, what about when farmers spray this? What about organic versus conventional?”
All the things. And I found myself kind of advocating for the farming industry and what it felt like to me was advocating for my family. So it was very personal advocating for my dad’s livelihood and my family’s livelihood. And so that’s really when I started to switch my focus to how can I connect people back to the farm? How can I overcome some of this misinformation? And so the best way to connect people back to the farm is through their food and through the nutrition. Not everybody has the opportunity to see farming, but everybody is touched by farming in some way, shape or form from the food that you eat, clothes that you wear, right? It can go broader than that. But my focus was nutrition. So got my degree in animal science, pursued a master’s degree in clinical nutrition.
And from there I interned with the National Dairy Council. I always knew I didn’t want to be in the clinical setting. I wanted to be more in a health promotion setting and an education setting and trying to get ahead of some of this misinformation, trying to get ahead of just creating healthy habits and things like that. And so I started an Instagram page on the side. My little sister set it up for me in 2019, and that was the very beginning of nutrition at its roots. So when I first started, I was Lauren or I was the dairy dietician, and I found that that was maybe a bit too niche. People see dairy in the name and sometimes they automatically write it off. And so I broadened my handle out to nutrition at its roots with the goal to bring nutrition back down to its roots by educating on farming, by educating on nutrition basics and opening it up to people who want to learn more.
And so that’s really how I got into what I do now. And I work now full-time as a content creator sharing about food production and nutrition. I do recipe development to try to incorporate more foods back onto people’s plates. I do really easy and simple recipes that your whole family will love with the goal to just nourish you and your family with more foods and make nutrition feel a little less complicated. So that’s how I got to what I’m doing now. Never in a million years thought that this is what I would be doing for work.
Alan Bjerga: You had a recent post on Instagram called, “One thing that I wish people knew more about the dairy industry is…” You talked about dairy sustainability, you talked about dairy’s overall value. Why that focus?
Lauren Twigge: Because I think it’s a focus that people think farmers don’t have. It’s interesting sometimes. To me, a farmer that does not focus on sustainability, a farmer that doesn’t focus on the environment, a farmer that doesn’t focus on maximizing natural resource use and maximizing the usage of that and preserving it, that’s a farmer who doesn’t want to stay farming. And I have a hard time finding farmers that don’t want to stay farming. And so the general consumer, I think sometimes likes to come up with solutions for farmers that farmers have already been thinking of. And I think it’s a good educational point.
So that post was really focused on some of these feed byproducts that cows can upcycle into milk, and just giving people the perception that there are things that cattle can do that crops can’t do. So if your suggestion is remove all the cows and replace them with crops, there’s a whole spew of things that could happen that I think consumers don’t realize that cows are helping the environment in that way. And by removing cows from the environment that would have a negative impact in different ways. And so I always just try to share factual information, things that I learned about growing up, things that I saw that seemed second nature to me that a lot of people don’t get a perspective on.
Alan Bjerga: Well, speaking from that consumer perspective, I think that would be understandable for a consumer to think a dairy farmer who wants to stay in business is going to be thinking first and foremost about their bottom line and making sure that they can remain financially sustainable. And the concern becomes that financial sustainability focus may get in the way of other goals that a consumer has for their food, right? Like care for the environment, care for the animals, etc.
Lauren Twigge: You know, just really try to put out content. All of my content is created based off of consumer questions that I’ve received. And so to me, where there’s one question, there are many, and I have always tried to keep my page a place where people can come and ask their questions. I think exactly to your point, but at the same time, reminding people that farming, for a lot of people it is not a hobby, it is a business. And so there are ways that farmers can do both, that they can create a business that’s sustainable from a financial standpoint, while also preserving the things that consumers want in their food. And connecting those dots together through education on how farmers do that is kind of the goal of my page. And so I’ve had many, many questions over the years. What about this type of spray?
And putting into perspective that everything that’s sprayed on crops, everything that’s used in feed is something that needs to be purchased. And reminding people of regulations that are there reminding people of the cost up front for a farmer in order to purchase it. And so they’re going to use it wisely and use it sparingly and use it within the regulations because that also does fit into a financial model at the end of the day as well. So I try to directly take their questions and come up with the answer for them. And social media is a great place to do that because people are allowed to come and ask directly on your page.
Alan Bjerga: What are some of the more interesting questions you’ve received?
Lauren Twigge: Oh, goodness gracious. There’s a lot of really interesting misperceptions of farmers and cows. I would probably say just the way cows are treated. I think that sometimes people forget that cows are mammals just like we are. And so there’s been a lot of really interesting questions related to milk production. How does a cow get milked? How often does a cow get milked? Why do cows produce milk? I think that sometimes you do have to remind people that it follows a very normal biological system the way that our bodies do as well.
So there’s been a lot of really interesting questions related to that. I think the most shocking thing that I have ever heard anybody say was, and hopefully, I mean it is appropriate, but it was a true misunderstanding. I’ve had somebody call cow milk cow urine before thinking it was the exact same thing. Shocking. I think it just shows you sometimes you do truly have to bring things back down to the basics and remind people what milk is and start from there and move up. So I’ve received some really, really interesting things over the years. Most of it related to cows, but there’s also interesting perspectives that people have on what’s sprayed on our food, how much is sprayed on our food, things along those lines as well. I don’t know. Every day the internet surprises me.
Alan Bjerga: You bring up the cow urine. It makes me worry that now the jokes that people make about nuts being milked, that maybe we need to be a little more aggressive in making sure the message for folks that… Because now you’re making me think maybe there are people out there who really do think the nuts are getting milked.
Lauren Twigge: 100%. I have had somebody… Okay, here’s one. When I first started my page, there was somebody, this used to be a running joke, there was somebody who truly thought chocolate milk came from brown cows. That was a comment left in all seriousness. That’s why I have always been… You bring up the nut milks and nuts being milked, I have always advocated for including the word milk alternative and trying to distinguish between the two because there are people out there. I’m very for clear labeling and labeling that makes sense to a consumer at all reading levels, all understanding levels. Nutrition literacy is incredibly important when it comes to labeling your food and when it comes to nutrition education. And so making sure that the message that you’re giving and the message that you’re conveying through packaging is incredibly clear to people of all different nutrition literacy levels. And so I’ve always advocated for the word milk alternative because there are many people who will probably believe that it is actually truly milk.
Alan Bjerga: When a person is online people get a sense of what the character of your presence is and what you’re trying to do. And there’s a lot of folks who’ve made their living online by being very combative. You take a look at what you are doing, it’s not combative. You’re very informative, you’re very patient with folks. Do you ever find yourself though, in combat, whether you want to be or not because of a follower who just can’t let go or somebody who comes on very aggressively? What are some of the occupational hazards of living this life online?
Lauren Twigge: 100%. I find myself in situations with people I don’t know on the internet where I have to go back and forth with them in the comments. My content has shifted a lot over the years. I think when I first started, I’ve always tried to keep education at the forefront and acknowledge that people have different views, they have different preferences. Some people don’t want, we’ll just take dairy specifically, some people don’t want to drink milk, and that’s fine. You don’t have to. My goal is not to influence what you purchase or not, it’s to influence why or why you avoid a product, why you buy it or why you avoid it. I want to make sure that that decision is based off of facts and factual information. That has been my focus, and it’s been something that I’ve been getting better and better at over the years of removing the desire to influence what you buy and to instead focus on your why.
And so when I started to adopt that approach a little bit more, I did start to take a less combative approach and just stick to the facts. I share science. This is what the research shows. Whether or not you take that and apply it to your life is your decision, but these are the facts. And so that’s naturally made my content less combative. But the reality is there are some people out there who do not care what the research shows, they don’t care. Or you can almost always find something that says the opposite if you look hard enough. And so I have very much adopted the agree to disagree approach. Now, I’m a mom. I have two kids. Before when I started, it was just me.
And I would spend hours and hours on my phone going back and forth in the comments with people, but now I just don’t have the emotional bandwidth to do that. You don’t have to agree with me and you don’t have to like everything that I say, I’m going to put out the content that I want to put out, and hopefully it’s educational and you take something valuable from it, but I’m not going to debate with you because I have to focus on my kids and be present in my life. And so I think you also, as you spend more and more time online, you get better at setting boundaries.
Alan Bjerga: And following on that, one of the things that you hear from folks, there have been some very well-publicized cases of people who are very active in the influencer world. They get burned out. There can be a disconnect between who your followers expect you to be and who you actually are. Looking at your photos, you always seem to look happy. Are you always happy?
Lauren Twigge: No. Remember, no, most of the time I try not to take most of this stuff that seriously because why take it that seriously? It’s social media. My goal is to educate. I have no reason to let this keep me awake at night. And I also remember that social media, I think you get the highlight reel of people’s lives. So in general, I’m a very joyful person, but there are many times where the world is heavy, life is heavy. What people say to me is heavy. And no, that doesn’t bring out my joy, but I try to bring positivity. I do feel like social media can be a very negative space, especially nowadays. It’s just there’s a lot of negativity and I don’t want my page to be that for people.
Alan Bjerga: Shifting into a more serious gear, we’ve just seen this with a recent release of the MAHA report. Americans have a lot of public health issues. There’s obesity, there’s chronic disease, there’s also a lot of distrust and misinformation. How do you speak out effectively on public health while also establishing your credibility and combating bad information for people who might be seeing information and having their biases already confirmed?
Lauren Twigge: I think it all goes back to sticking to the science, and that has always been my approach. That has always been my, quote, unquote, defense weapon. I think that you need to always aim to educate with facts and not feelings. And that has been my goal. Like I said, I’m a mom. I think that a lot of times when I have MAHA type content come to my page or questions, it’s people wanting to do best for their kids and they want to know information. And my goal is to provide them with as much information as possible. I don’t touch on politics, I don’t touch on any of that. I take your question and I answer it based on what I see in science, but acknowledging that people do, I educate with facts, but acknowledging that people do have feelings present. And so you have to be respectful for those.
You have to be respectful that some people’s feelings and preferences are going to be different than yours. Like I said, I’ve gotten better at it over the years because when I first started, I was like, “Well, don’t feel that way, that’s not going to work.” But now that’s not true. And as a mom, I’ve developed my own feelings on things, and so I acknowledge that and validate people in that, but still try to give them the science and they are going to take the information that you give them and choose to apply it the way they want to. And so I want to lay my head down at night feeling like I answered a question well, truthfully, and evidence-based, that’s who I deal with. It doesn’t matter if it’s MAHA, it doesn’t matter what name all of these questions fall under. I have been getting these questions long before MAHA was a thing long before MAHA was around. And I think that that’s an important point. These questions have been there. It’s just falls under umbrella category now.
Alan Bjerga: MAHA has had a huge impact in Washington policy circles. And you note correctly that these questions have been swirling around for a long time.
Lauren Twigge: Yes.
Alan Bjerga: Have you noted any shift in the discussion in 2025 that MAHA may seem to be affecting in any way?
Lauren Twigge: Absolutely. Absolutely. I’ve been getting these questions, but the frequency of the questions has increased exponentially. And the type of content that people want to see, this is what I think is one of the most difficult parts about working on social media, is you mentioned you seem happy, your content doesn’t seem combative, things of that nature, unfortunately, that feels to be the content that does the best online, the combative content, the stuff with inflammatory words in it. Nutrition related seed oils is a really huge topic of conversation at the moment. And most of the questions, I do not get questions… How do I build a balanced snack? How do I build a balanced plate? How do I include more veggies if my kids don’t like veggies? I get what type of oil should I be eating? So definitely the questions that consumers have been asking has shifted, and it’s shifted a lot since the start of the year.
Alan Bjerga: But you can have a shift in questions without it being overtly political.
Lauren Twigge: Yeah. Yeah, you can. I experienced that.
Alan Bjerga: And the MAHA movement cuts a lot of different directions, and some folks are very concerned, and yet whole milk is suddenly the political darling of policy circles. So how do you surf this wave of shifting sentiment while being sure that you’re remaining very solidly grounded in what you’re trying to accomplish?
Lauren Twigge: I think it’s being open to different ideas. I think that you really open yourself up to a world of hurt if you get so set in your approach that you don’t entertain other ideas and you don’t entertain fluctuations in people’s views, fluctuations in people’s preferences. So there can be good and bad and things at the same time. So there’s a lot of parts of MAHA that I think are going to be great. I love that whole milk is now people’s preferences. I’ve been advocating for milk since I started this page. I grew up drinking milk. I love to see whole milk in schools for kids, all of it. But there’s also at the same time, things that I’m really concerned about or things that I think could make us… What is that saying, “You lose the forest through the trees?” I think there’s a lot of that at the same time.
And so my approach to separate all of that out is, like I said, sticking to the science. That’s where I feel the safest. That’s where I find the most of my content. And to me, if you can go back into science and show, this is why I view it the way that I view it, because this has been shown in research that is a safe spot to land as a health professional. If you start to step out of that as a health professional, you’re losing the facts and you’re speaking only with feelings. And to me, that’s where a lot of misinformation begins.
Alan Bjerga: So you are listening to this podcast right now, and you’re in the cow of your tractor, or you’re in your office building in Chicago, or you’re interested in nutrition, and you saw that Lauren Twigge is on it and you love all things Lauren, what would you say to that person as they listen to this and they’re like, “You know what? I got to get more active in this social media thing. I’ve got something to say as well.” What would you tell them as advice if they were going on this own sort of journey of their own?
Lauren Twigge: Do it. Do it. I mean, you’ll hear every single influencer say the same thing. If you ask them, “What is your big piece of advice for starting a social media presence?” They’re going to say, “Post the content.” And when I wanted to start my page, I was like, “I had this clear vision of what message I wanted to share, but I held back and I wasn’t quite sure how to start and it wasn’t going to be perfect. And I wanted to have a theme and I wanted it to have a look, and I wanted it to be curated.” And then I had so many people say, “Just start posting. Start doing it. Just put your message out there.” And so for farmers or health professionals like me that want to share facts, start putting the content out there. Your themes, your trends, your approach will come as you go because you’re going to start to get people asking you questions.
You’re going to start to see people’s interests emerge. And I think that nowadays, maybe back 15 years ago when influencing really began, people really wanted to see perfectly curated feeds. Now, I do find that consumers are looking more for personal stories that want to personal connection with an influencer, and they don’t need a perfectly curated feed. They actually enjoy the organic content that comes out, days in the life, showing a day in the life of a farmer, showing a day in the life of a health professional, educating on nutrition, making things really accessible and relatable.
That’s what a consumer wants. And so I think that’s easier for especially farmers to get their minds around. You’ve got so many great farmers online that are sharing their stories, showing days in their life, and I think that it really helps put a face to the industry, and that’s what consumers need to see. So my big piece of advice would be start the content, post the content, share your story, talk about your family, talk about the industry, and talk about why you love it. Connect people with your passion. And that is content that people resonate with, and content that people resonate with is content that people remember and learn from.
Alan Bjerga: We’ve been speaking with Lauren Twigge, dietician, nutritionist, and influencer. You can find her on her blog, on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. The key term to search in all of those cases is nutrition at its roots. Lauren, anything to add before we let you go?
Lauren Twigge: I think just encouraging farmers and anybody who’s listening to keep doing what they’re doing and keep staying passionate about the industry that they’re in. And I love to recommend it online. And if you have any questions or want to get into this industry the way that I’m working, I am an open book. I will answer any and every question, and I’m happy to help the industry in any way that I can.
Alan Bjerga: Well, we might have a few more before too long, Lauren, that be careful what you wish for when you’re talking to the dairy community.
Lauren Twigge: I want to see it.
Alan Bjerga: Thank you so much for joining us, Lauren. That’s it for today’s podcast. For more of the Dairy Defined Podcast, all you have to do is go to our website or go to Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music and search under the podcast name Dairy Defined. Thank you for joining us.
