Speaker A [00:00:00]:
Hi, everyone. So today on the podcast, we have fellow dietitian Casey Farlow. Welcome to the Paralysis Nutrition Podcast, where changing your eating habits is the key to losing weight, improving bowel health, and feeling your best. I’m your host, Fatima Fakouri. I’m a registered dietitian who’s married to a quadriplegic and specializes in nutrition for paralysis. Get ready to be inspired, educated, and motivated so you can take control of your health using the power of food. Let’s get started. This is the Paralysis Nutrition Podcast.
Speaker A [00:00:34]:
Welcome, Casey, to the Paralysis Nutrition Podcast.
Speaker B [00:00:38]:
Thanks so much, Fatima. I’m so excited to chat with you today. Thanks for having me.
Speaker A [00:00:42]:
Of course. So we have a lot to talk about, but before we do that, why don’t you tell everyone where they can find you on Instagram.
Speaker B [00:00:49]:
Yeah. Hi, guys. I’m Casey Farlow. I’m a registered dietitian specializing in healthy hormone weight loss. You can find me on instagram@hormone.weight loss. And also on TikTok. Yes, that’s right.
Speaker A [00:01:01]:
You were on the TikTok. Yes. Okay.
Speaker B [00:01:04]:
Is it the same name? It is the Same name on TikTok. Yep. Yep.
Speaker A [00:01:07]:
Hormone weight loss. So I’m very excited to talk to you because you are also in the weight loss space, but you focus on balancing your hormones so that you can lose weight. And, of course. Well, I have no problem saying this, so I am Casey’s client. We work together this summer because I. Not for the weight, but for the hormone balance stuff. And you taught me so many things that I didn’t know. Right.
Speaker A [00:01:34]:
Which is so awesome that there’s, like, a dietitian for everything now. So when it came to me needing to balance my hormones, and, you know, for me, it was a lot of, like, anxiety and things like that, but mostly what you do is weight loss with hormones. So what do you think that most people have no idea about when it comes to weight loss as related to, like, hormone health?
Speaker B [00:02:00]:
Yeah. I mean, listen, your hormones play so much into your metabolism. So we know estrogen, testosterone, cortisol, all of these things affect your inflammation, your blood sugar, which we know is essential for metabolism. And then we have your hunger and your fullness hormones like ghrelin and leptin. And those literally signal to your brain when you’re hungry or when you’re full. So if those get out of whack, your hunger cues might be all over the place. So you could be hungry all day. If you have leptin resistance where it’s not telling your brain that you’re full.
Speaker B [00:02:34]:
So all of your sex hormones, your adrenal hormones, your hunger and fullness hormones, your insulin, which also is a hormone that regulates your blood sugar, all of these things affect your metabolism. And not just your metabolism, but also your mood. So they can cause you to emotionally eat more. Right. If your estrogen is too high or too low, your serotonin will be low. And so you’ll be reaching out for sweets and sugars and high starchy foods to replenish that serotonin and dopamine and GABA and all those neurotransmitters that are also made in your gut, which is impacted by your hormones too. So hormones are so big when it comes to weight loss. And I feel like it’s one of those missing pieces that people don’t really talk about all that often.
Speaker B [00:03:21]:
I don’t even know of any other dietitians that are covering hormones and weight loss. And I know. So Fatima, you learned some of this stuff, you know, that you’re able to provide your clients, you know, because all of the foundational aspects of hormone health is going to boost your clients metabolism and how easily they’re going to be able to lose weight and their mood that’s going to regulate emotional hunger, which is so huge. Right.
Speaker A [00:03:48]:
You have so much knowledge. I swear, I feel like this could be so many episodes. So I want to talk about metabolism because people with paralysis this have a slower metabolism, right? And it’s for a variety of reasons. One is they have lower muscle mass, right? So when you have a spinal cord injury, you lose a lot of muscle, right? So your metabolism does slow down also because of the changes in the gut after a traumatic spinal cord injury, you have changes in the way that your body metabolizes carbs. So when you say metabolism, right, what I guess what do you think that most people are not understanding about metabolism? Like people just kind of say these kind of silly things like I have a slow metabolism, I have a fast metabolism. And I try to tell my clients like there are things that you can do to like wake up your metabolism. Because with paralysis, yes, it is slowed down. One thing is to build muscle mass, right.
Speaker A [00:04:54]:
Wherever possible. But the other thing is to eat enough. So can you tell us? Because I just this week I have two clients that are under eating and they’re not able to lose weight. So can you enlighten us? Why in the world, when we under eat, can we not lose weight? Shouldn’t we be losing so much weight?
Speaker B [00:05:15]:
Yeah. So the problem is if your calories are too low Your body will compensate for that and slow everything down, including your thyroid function, which is really important for a healthy metabolism. So, you know, eating enough is a huge part of boosting your metabolism. You do have to be in a slight calorie deficit. I don’t know if you work with your clients on tracking and things like.
Speaker A [00:05:38]:
That, but, yes, we do. We track. We track macros, but we do also do calories. And I always tell them, like, you need to be in a slight deficit. Not like 500 calories less, not a thousand calories less. And what’s so sad is it’s like, I have people who are trying to eat 800 to 1,000, and they’re not losing any weight, but the truth is, only if they would eat, like, a few hundred more calories, like 1200. I know that sounds very low, but I do have people who are quadriplegic, they’re petite, they don’t move around a lot. And so, yeah, some people are eating 1200 calories in my program.
Speaker A [00:06:20]:
Some people are eating 15, some people are eating 18. But so many people are undereating eating, and they’re not losing weight, and it’s so frustrating for them.
Speaker B [00:06:29]:
And also, people do a lot of crash dieting in their lifetime that maybe has messed up their metabolic health. I have to reverse diet a lot of my clients to get their metabolism. So it’s slowly increasing your intake to get your metabolism to come back online. So things like ideal protein and all of these very restrictive diets will throw your metabolism into the trash can. And we essentially have to tell your body that things are safe and that you have a food source so that it will turn your metabolism back on. So what we do is we slowly increase intake, try to keep your weight stable over. I mean, it can take up to six months to reverse diet. This is why I became so passionate about this subject, because so many women were doing these crazy crash diets and destroying their thyroid function, ruining their metabolism.
Speaker B [00:07:21]:
And they’re like, at 800 calories, and they’re gaining weight at 800 calories. I’m like, if you are gaining weight at 800 calories, we need to reverse diet. You, like, you have to heal your metabolism in order to lose weight. Like, fat loss probably cannot be a goal in the beginning of that journey. And that’s really hard to say. You know, like, somebody comes. Somebody comes to you for weight loss, and you’re like, you cannot have a weight loss goal right now. We care about your health.
Speaker B [00:07:51]:
We want your hormones to come back online. We want your body to feel safe. And the only way to do that is to eat enough, like you said. I mean, you have to get those hormones to come back and feel safe and your thyroid function to return to normal. Because your thyroid. Your thyroid hormones are so big into your metabolism as well. And if you eat too little, your thyroid function goes down. And just like we talked about with the keto diet, keto diet also can slow your thyroid function and put your metabolism, you know, in the trash.
Speaker B [00:08:22]:
So you have to really start to increase intake for many people to turn their metabolism back on. But metabolism is essentially how your body utilizes macronutrients, right? And there’s many ways to boost metabolism. You know, like, weight training is one. And for your population, that’s probably a hard one. But it’s intake, but it’s.
Speaker A [00:08:42]:
But it’s doable. It is. You know, even quadriplegics, like, my husband’s quadriplegic, but he does weight training. You know, it’s like, not the same, obviously, but I get a lot of people who do, like, resistance bands who do, like free weights. Some people go to, like, adaptive gyms or have, like, we have, like a couple of adaptive gym, like, machines here in our house. So it’s like, yeah, you are able to do it. Now, what is just so counterintuitive and what is just so hard for people to understand is that drastically undereating, essentially starving yourself is not going to result in weight loss. Like, and I.
Speaker A [00:09:25]:
And you know, there’s a mo. There’s an emotional toll there, right, of undereating for years, not seeing success, and then having a dietitian tell you you need to eat more. I have so many people, I swear, where it’s like, it takes them several weeks to even just trust that that is safe. So I appreciate you saying it can take like six months to even just, you know, get back on track. So that’s a really important takeaway for people who are listening. Like, if you’re out there, you have paralysis, you want to lose weight. Eating as little as possible is not what you need to be doing, Right?
Speaker B [00:10:05]:
It is not the answer.
Speaker A [00:10:06]:
Yeah, it is not the answer. And so your metabolism has slowed down so much because you are under eating, and then on top of it, you have paralysis, Right? So it is hard, I think, to even know that. It is hard to hear that. That you need to eat more. So tell me about. Well, I know, but tell our listeners. You say it better than me. Tell us about these hunger and fullness cues, right? We have the different hunger Hormones.
Speaker A [00:10:41]:
Yeah.
Speaker B [00:10:42]:
So we have. It’s called leptin and ghrelin. And they literally tell your brain when you’re satisfied and when you’re hungry. And I believe it’s leptin. I should know this. I believe it’s leptin is made in the gut. So, you know, your gut bacteria literally create that leptin, which tells your brain when you’re hungry or you’re full. So your gut bacteria really plays into you producing those hunger and fullness cues.
Speaker B [00:11:09]:
And that’s why gut health is one of the foundations of my program and I think for yours too, right?
Speaker A [00:11:14]:
Yes.
Speaker B [00:11:15]:
Yeah. Because it plays into also blood sugar control, it plays into insulin production. So. And your blood sugar control plays into your metabolism. So gut health really is the foundation of your hunger, fullness cues and your insulin. So really important to get that right off the bat.
Speaker A [00:11:34]:
Right.
Speaker B [00:11:34]:
And that’s kind of what you were talking about before, about that slow weight loss. Sometimes I have to tell my clients, like, listen, I only want you to lose a half a pound a week.
Speaker A [00:11:44]:
They get mad.
Speaker B [00:11:46]:
They get so mad. And I’m like, listen, slow weight loss is good.
Speaker A [00:11:51]:
Weight loss is sustainable, is real. It’s not just like water weight.
Speaker B [00:11:56]:
Yeah, it’s sustainable. But also, if you lose too much fat too fast, that creates a toxic burden on your body because you have a lot of toxic stuff stored in your body fat. So we don’t want to go really slow with that. We don’t want to overwhelm your system because you can get actually sick. And we don’t want that to happen. Right. We don’t want you to have kind of those detox symptoms that you can have if you lose weight too fast. So we have to sort of start to normalize that slow weight loss as really good for your metabolism long term and start to build that patience because that’s how you’re going to see long term results.
Speaker B [00:12:35]:
I just wanted to mention that before.
Speaker A [00:12:37]:
No, that’s actually. Yeah, that’s a really important point because I do get clients who, you know, they did something like Optavia or they did something like. Right.
Speaker B [00:12:50]:
Don’t get me started.
Speaker A [00:12:51]:
Yes, I know, I know they did something like that or they did something like keto and they lost a large amount of weight, like 30 pounds, 40 pounds in six months. Of course, they gained it all back once they got off of that super restrictive diet. But it is really interesting, the things that they tell me that they experienced during that time, like hair loss. They’re basically, Casey, they are going back to the clinical nutrition days, they are symptoms of like malnutrition. It’s malnutrition symptoms.
Speaker B [00:13:27]:
Yeah.
Speaker A [00:13:28]:
And of course the weight comes back and that’s such a, you know, downer. That’s so mentally and emotionally difficult to lose a large amount of weight. First of all, you suffered, right? To do that, right? Weight loss should not be a painful experience. It really shouldn’t.
Speaker B [00:13:46]:
No, it doesn’t have to be.
Speaker A [00:13:47]:
No, it doesn’t have to be. And then you gained it all back, right? And then you meet me and I tell you you need to eat more and that you can’t eat carbs, it’s okay to have a glass of wine. And people are like, oh, she’s nuts, like she’s going to make me gain weight. But the truth is for it to be sustainable, it has to be slow. So I appreciate that. Now what do you tell people? Because I get a lot of breakfast skippers. Oh, I know you’re going to love this question. I know you’re going to love it.
Speaker A [00:14:19]:
So people who say I’m not hungry in the morning, why do they say.
Speaker B [00:14:23]:
That’S a sign that you have a poor metabolism?
Speaker A [00:14:27]:
Yes, it is.
Speaker B [00:14:29]:
First thing in the morning.
Speaker A [00:14:30]:
Say that again. If you don’t feel hungry at breakfast, you have a poor metabolism and you need to eat something. I’ll also say this, about 90% of the people who start my program don’t eat breakfast. And I think, first of all, I think it’s just related to my population. And they go to the bathroom in the morning. So they do like this kind of this bowel program and there’s a suppository and there’s a whole situation and it’s just like, when am I supposed to eat? And so I tell them you have to eat before you do that to get your gut moving so that you can actually have a bowel movement that doesn’t take you three hours. So your response to people who say, I’m just not hungry, that’s why I skip breakfast. Go.
Speaker B [00:15:18]:
Yeah. So, okay, so again, that’s a sign of a slow metabolism or something going on metabolically. Typically what happens is you’re restricting during the day and then you’re overeating at night. So that’s creating a whole metabolic mayhem of blood sugar instability throughout the day. Then you’re overeating at night and then it’s carrying over into the next day. You’re not hungry probably because you over ate in the evening. So it kind of creates a vicious cycle. Right.
Speaker B [00:15:47]:
So if you eat breakfast Which a lot of my clients do as well. There’s a hack where you can add collagen protein to your coffee or add a little bit of fat to your coffee. This is the only time I would ever recommend, like, a bulletproof type.
Speaker A [00:16:01]:
The butter in the coffee.
Speaker B [00:16:03]:
Yeah, butter and the coffee. But, you know, that’s the only way to get some macronutrients in you in the morning. You can start there. I mean, it’s an easy fix. You just add.
Speaker A [00:16:11]:
It’s better than nothing. It’s not going to better. Yeah. To clarify, Casey is not saying, put butter in your coffee. It’ll help you lose weight. She’s saying, if you absolutely have such a hard time eating breakfast, you can try something like collagen powder in your coffee. You can try something like butter in your coffee. So you can get some sort of macros in.
Speaker A [00:16:33]:
I did the collagen powder in the coffee. It was okay. It was all right. I have woken up my metabolism now because I worked with you. So now I eat breakfast, and I keep things around that I really enjoy for breakfast. And I think that just knowing that the reason why I wasn’t that hungry in the morning was a bigger issue other than I’m not a breakfast person. You know, like, so many people are just like, yeah, it’s just, like, not my thing. And I just.
Speaker A [00:17:04]:
It’s not your thing. It’s not your personality, you know, being a breakfast person is not a thing. It’s a slow metabolism. It’s hormonal mayhem or whatever.
Speaker B [00:17:14]:
Yeah, it is. It is. And I often see it with PCOS clients with blood sugar issues when they are not hungry in the morning. And when we start to turn on that mechanism in the morning, their blood sugar stabilizes and they’re not overeating at night. A lot of my clients don’t eat breakfast, have little lunch, and then they binge eat at night. Right. And again, that’s creating an insulin spike in the evening, which is the wrong time that you want to have an insulin spike.
Speaker A [00:17:42]:
So it’s interesting because a lot of my clients, when they start off, have a really similar pattern where they don’t eat breakfast, they have coffee for lunch, and then for dinner, it’s like two dinners plus every snack. Maybe sometimes like some alcohol. Like, it’s just like everything when the sun goes down.
Speaker B [00:18:06]:
Yeah. And you’re the most insulin sensitive when the light is the brightest outside.
Speaker A [00:18:12]:
Tell us about the light. Because this. This summer, Casey gave me such good advice to heal my hormones, and I’m feeling a Lot better, thank you very much. And it has to do with sleep and cortisol. Cortisol is your stress hormone, Remember? My cortisol tests came back and it was just so wacky and through the roof. And Casey was like, what are your sleep hygiene habits? And I’m like, what is sleep hygiene? I didn’t even know what that is. And so some of the tips that you gave me were so, so helpful. And of course, I’m still doing them.
Speaker A [00:18:51]:
And so tell us about the light and the dark. Tell us about that when it comes to your metabolism. Daytime, nighttime, for.
Speaker B [00:18:57]:
So your insulin production, which is produced by your pancreas, is on a light and dark cycle. So when it’s the most light out, it tells your pancreas to produce insulin, and insulin helps glucose to get into your cells. So you’re the most insulin sensitive when the light is out. Right. So not after dark. Right, Right. So you really should be eating with the light and dark cycles. So eating when it’s light out, trying to have your dinner before the sunset.
Speaker B [00:19:28]:
Right. That’s going to help with blood sugar control. So instead of like the intermittent fasting, just eating with light and dark cycles is going to be beneficial for your metabolism and your blood sugar control and maybe even help kickstart your metabolism in the morning. So if you’re not hungry, maybe try to get outside and get some sun in your eyes and it might trigger that hunger response. Honestly, didn’t even think about that until just now. But light is really important for balancing cortisol. So first thing in the morning, you guys need to be getting light in your eyes. This is also going to help with melatonin production at night so that you sleep better, which is also important for metabolism.
Speaker B [00:20:08]:
And then getting light in your eyes throughout the day has been shown to increase testosterone, increase libido. Right. I mean, those are things that women really care about, and nobody’s really telling us this stuff. That light alone can boost your libido. So just getting light in your eyes is going to boost testosterone, which also is important for metabolism as well.
Speaker A [00:20:29]:
So I have to just interrupt a little bit here. So a lot of men with a spinal cord injury, no surprise, have low testosterone because they have lower muscle mass. Right. And so, guys, if you are listening, if you want to boost your testosterone, get some light in your eyes in the morning. Right? I started to get at least like 20 minutes of light in my eyes within two hours of waking, you told me. And it helps me sleep so much better. So many people with paralysis struggle with sleep because, I mean, for a million different reasons. But a big reason is like spasticity, like muscle spasticity and you know, having to wake up in the middle of the night to go pee.
Speaker A [00:21:20]:
And it’s like there’s just like a number of reasons why people have disturbed sleep. And so I always, I always, always try to tell people that sleep hygiene is really important. You know, no cell phones, no scrolling TikTok unless you’re watching Casey, then you can do it. No scrolling the TikTok at 10pm in bed. You know, no sleeping with the TV on. And get that light in your eyes in the morning and it will help you sleep better because if you don’t sleep well, you will have very hard time losing weight. So can you shed a little light on that? Why is it that poor sleep makes it hard to lose weight?
Speaker B [00:22:00]:
Yeah. So deep or I think it’s slow wave sleep in the beginning of the night. So before 12 midnight, that’s when you produce growth hormone and testosterone. So really, really important to get that sleep before midnight because that growth hormone is going to boost your metabolism. Also helps to regulate cortisol levels, your stress hormone and cortisol levels impact your blood sugar. So really important to get that cortisol regulated by getting eight hours of sleep, seven to eight hours. But that slow wave sleep is really the key to weight loss and hormones. And it’s most predominantly those first two hours of sleep and before midnight.
Speaker B [00:22:44]:
I thought that was really, really interesting. I read a study.
Speaker A [00:22:47]:
It is really interesting. People, you need to go to bed. You need to go to bed. And it is not at midnight or 1am Because I got to tell you, I do have especially, I think since the pandemic, like a lot of people are very off on their schedules because they don’t have to be in the office at 8am anymore. And I will also say in the process community, a lot of people have kind of different schedules. Like my husband, for example. He has worked from home for years. He is an early riser.
Speaker A [00:23:22]:
But it is not like a big priority for him to go to bed at a certain time. Right. He is just kind of like, oh, when I finish, when I feel like it, I do. For me, I love to be in the bed by like 9:30, which I realize makes me a grandma. But I have to wake up at six, you know, I have to wake.
Speaker B [00:23:40]:
Up at six o’clock.
Speaker A [00:23:41]:
I have to drop off the kids. I got a lot of stuff to do. So a lot of people, I think in the paralysis community have this, like, I mean, I don’t want to make assumptions about anyone’s schedule. So I’m just going to use Ray as an example. He doesn’t have to go to bed at a certain time because he doesn’t necessarily have to be awake at a certain time. And so I think that telling people about this sleep thing is going to be very beneficial. Because now that you know people, that that growth hormone, you’re going to miss it. If you’re up at 12 or 1am you missed it.
Speaker A [00:24:16]:
Right. And so I think that’s really helpful. And you are just full of tips, Casey. You really are full of tips.
Speaker B [00:24:23]:
You are just a full of tips. We can talk about.
Speaker A [00:24:25]:
No wonder I worked with you.
Speaker B [00:24:26]:
Hi, Jean. We can talk. This dietitian, that’s a big one.
Speaker A [00:24:31]:
This dietitian hired you as a dietitian, Right. I feel like we. We have so much to learn from each other. So with the hormones, like the sex hormones, right. The testosterone. Right. What are some other ways that we can boost testosterone? Because I do want to do an episode eventually on infertility, but this is a huge, huge thing in the SCI community is, you know, not so much for the women. There’s a different kind of approach, I think, with men, because the sperm quality, because of the.
Speaker A [00:25:08]:
Just like, you know, the paralysis.
Speaker B [00:25:10]:
Right.
Speaker A [00:25:11]:
So a lot of insemination or IVF and things like that. And there’s a study that is not about spinal cord injury, but it’s about obesity and IVF outcomes. And so this study showed that when the male partner was obese, the chances of the IVF resulting in a successful pregnancy was a lot lower. Right. And it’s super interesting because I feel like it is what it is. Most people think of infertility as a. As a female issue, and it’s really not. And in the STI community, it’s really largely a male issue.
Speaker A [00:25:51]:
So things like boosting testosterone. I do have a lot of clients who have shared that. They’re on hormone replacement therapy and things like that. So when it comes to fertility, right. From my perspective, it’s like, okay, if you’re a man and you have a spinal cord injury, the best thing you can do is be at a healthy weight. Because we have this research that says being obese is not going to have a good effect on your IVF outcomes. So now that study didn’t say why. Right.
Speaker A [00:26:31]:
It just said, you know, if you’re a male and you’re obese, you have a less chance, you have a lower chance of having a Successful pregnancy through ivf. Why do you think that is?
Speaker B [00:26:42]:
I think it’s because the adipose tissue, so fat tissue, is creating inflammation and systemic inflammation throughout your body is going to lower your testosterone levels for men. So if you can get some body weight off, that’s going to improve your inflammatory markers, which is going to improve your testosterone levels. We know that in plenty of literature. So I think, you know, they’re not talking about that as being the potential like cause reducing inflammation.
Speaker A [00:27:08]:
No, it didn’t say anything. It really didn’t say anything. It was just kind of like one of those observational studies that said, hey, we pulled data and we found that obesity has this kind of negative effect on IVF outcomes. So when it comes to boosting the testosterone, what else can we do? Go to bed. Go to bed at night?
Speaker B [00:27:28]:
Yeah. It’s important to mention that, you know, your body fat acts as an endocrine organ. I think that people think like body fat is just this benign thing that’s like aesthetic and that’s it. No, it actually produces pro inflammatory cytokines which create inflammation throughout your body. But we don’t really talk about that. It’s like, oh, no, it’s just body fat. I’m okay with being over, like, I’m okay with my body fat. I have good body image and I feel fine.
Speaker B [00:27:58]:
It’s like, well, but we have to talk about like how that excess body fat is impacting your quality of life. Your sex hormones, your inflammation levels, all of these things are impacted by having too much body fat. All of your sex hormones are impacted by inflammation. Your mental health, your mental health is impacted. Your brain chemistry is impacted by inflammation. And having too much body fat creates more inflammation.
Speaker A [00:28:23]:
So spinal cord injury is systemic inflammation. So I mean, I feel like I, you know, my program is really geared towards constipation and losing weight. But a lot of, I feel like I have all these new ideas now speaking with you, like how I always, you know, will, it will touch on anti inflammatory foods and things like that. But I feel like, and you know how it is because you work with people with weight loss too. There’s just so much to cover and people are in all different kind of places. So if someone is eating fast food six times a week, you know, I just want them to start eating at home. If someone is skipping meals, I just want them to eat three meals a day. So it really just depends on the person.
Speaker A [00:29:12]:
But this is really important. Right? And actually something that I think I’m going to double down on when, when I do take new clients is that we need to be eating more anti inflammatory foods. Now luckily a lot of the foods that are just readily available and healthy are anti inflammatory foods. So run us down the list. What are your top favorite anti inflammatory foods?
Speaker B [00:29:37]:
Okay, so fatty fish. So things like salmon, curcumin and turmeric is very anti inflammatory. All fruits and vegetables, especially cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, bok choy, cauliflower, kale, brussels sprouts, cabbage. What else? Cabbage. Yeah. I’m trying to think of other, other anti inflammatory foods, but berries are really good. Citrus. Berries and citrus.
Speaker B [00:30:03]:
I try to have my clients eat a serving of berries and a serving of citrus every day.
Speaker A [00:30:08]:
I’ve been doing my berries, I’ve been doing my berries or citrus every day.
Speaker B [00:30:12]:
Okay, good, that’s good, that’s great.
Speaker A [00:30:14]:
And also leafy greens. I’ve been trying to get them into, into my omelet in the morning or into my lunch bowl. And of course you mentioned like salmon. Also like avocados.
Speaker B [00:30:26]:
Avocados, healthy fats. Olive oil. Olive oil is a big one. Avocado oil, coconut oil, I’m kind of on the fence on, but me too.
Speaker A [00:30:35]:
Olive oils, it’s a lot of saturated fat.
Speaker B [00:30:38]:
Olive oil has just been proven in the research over and over to be anti inflammatory. So that’s just kind of what I stick with. Or avocado oil. But we don’t have much research on avocado oil, so we don’t really know. But we know eating the avocado is, you know, eating the avocado for sure. Eating healthy fats in general, nuts, seeds, beans, fibrous foods help inflammation because inflammation starts in the gut. Right. If you can feed those good gut bacteria, you’re going to reduce your inflammation.
Speaker B [00:31:08]:
And how do you feed your good gut bacteria? Will you eat more fruits, vegetables, whole grains? It is that simple. Yes.
Speaker A [00:31:15]:
And I, and I love that you, I, you sound like exactly what I sound like when I’m on a coaching call. I’m like fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Because people who want to lose weight are scared of fruits and grains. They’re scared of carbs. They are scared of carbs. And I just, I kind of have the benefit of. Also everyone is constipated in the program. So they absolutely will listen to me when I say they have to eat the carbs because there’s no other place to get fiber.
Speaker A [00:31:47]:
Right. So it’s hard to convince people who especially like you said, have been doing so many crash diets and trendy diets. And stuff. Hey, carbs are good. Plants are good. I noticed that if I say plants, people like that better. So I’m saying plants because all carbs are plants. Right.
Speaker A [00:32:06]:
So it is hard when you have been dieting for years to now all of a sudden eat carbs. That’s difficult for a lot of people. And then when we look at blue.
Speaker B [00:32:17]:
Zones where people live the longest, they’re eating a lot of fruit, they’re eating a lot of whole grains and beans, which are so demonized in the United States. It’s really interesting. But they’re having mangoes, they’re having tropical fruits, they’re having whole grains. And so interesting that it’s been so demonized. But, I mean, ultimately, we want to live long, healthy lives. So let’s look at the populations that are living healthy lives. What are they eating? Well, they’re eating whole, real foods, including fruit. But again, diet culture has kind of taught us that fruit is evil, which.
Speaker A [00:32:54]:
Is like, the biggest lie, right? Like, biggest lie. I have people who I. It’s. And it’s just. It’s so rewarding. Well, you know, being a dietitian is the best. Right. Like, when people just feel so good and they’re eating so much better, and they just feel so awesome.
Speaker A [00:33:11]:
I have had so many clients who were, like, afraid of fruits, and they were so constipated and they were, you know, craving sweets. So it’s like they would. I mean, it seems so. I don’t even know what the word is. Right. I’m not going to eat fruit, but then later, I’m going to binge on, like, ice cream. Yeah. Or Oreos or whatever.
Speaker A [00:33:33]:
And I’m like, you can have pineapple. You can eat strawberries. Like, you can eat fruits. Like, they are so good. And then when people are reintroducing these things into their diet and they’re like, it’s so good. I’m like, I told you. It is so good. And so I love that you have that kind of same.
Speaker A [00:33:55]:
I mean, I don’t love that you have it. It’s just a frustration that we have with these diets. But it’s, you know, it’s important to have a sense of humor about it or we’ll go crazy.
Speaker B [00:34:05]:
Fruit also is a great source of minerals which are really important for blood sugar control, like potassium. We need potassium to regulate blood sugar. And.
Speaker A [00:34:16]:
Yes.
Speaker B [00:34:16]:
You know, I think the statistic is, like, 95% of us are deficient in potassium.
Speaker A [00:34:22]:
And similarly for the magnesium, which I talk a lot about.
Speaker B [00:34:27]:
Yeah, magnesium, too. For sure. But fruit is just such an easy way to get vitamin C to get these minerals. It’s often overlooked.
Speaker A [00:34:36]:
And you don’t have to eat these fancy, ridiculous, expensive fruits. You can eat them frozen. You can eat grapes. Oh, my God. I have clients who tell me grapes have too much sugar. And I’m like, ice cream has too much sugar. Not.
Speaker B [00:34:52]:
Yeah, it’s really funny how people will eat ice cream. Cream over grapes. It’s always been a confusion for people. Like, how does that make sense?
Speaker A [00:35:01]:
We’ve gone mad. We’ve gone mad.
Speaker B [00:35:03]:
That’s diet culture. Like, really kind of running amok and brainwashing us into thinking it’s bad.
Speaker A [00:35:09]:
Don’t you sometimes feel, Casey, that our job is to un. Brainwash people?
Speaker B [00:35:14]:
Oh, a hundred percent.
Speaker A [00:35:15]:
Like, to undo the damage of these, like, Weight Watchers, Atkins, Keto, Optavia. God knows what else is out there. Like, I don’t even know that social media algorithms have learned that I hate those diets. And so they don’t show me the ads. And then my clients will be like, have you heard of. I’m like, no, just tell me what it is.
Speaker B [00:35:38]:
Oh, God. What is it? You know, my doctor sent out an email. My doctor in Austin. I don’t live there anymore, but I got her email and it was promoting ideal protein. And I’m just like, from my doctor. And I literally had to respond to the email and be like, this is malpractice.
Speaker A [00:35:56]:
Like, oh, my God, horrible.
Speaker B [00:35:58]:
You’re literally ruining people’s metabolisms. And they will not stay on ideal protein. And when they get off, they’re going to have weight rebounds and gain even more weight when they stop protein, get depressed because they feel like they failed. And then there’s this endless cycle of restriction and bingeing, and it’s horrible. I mean, it’s, again, should be outlawed in my opinion. I could go on and on about it, but, I mean, it’s creating metabolic havoc for so many people.
Speaker A [00:36:27]:
It is. And I know when it comes to doctors in my kind of corner of the Internet, paralysis, nutrition, it’s a lot of, like, bad information from GI doctors. And I will also just have to put it out there. There’s not a lot of nutrition information for people who have paralysis at all. So when I think your doctor tells you to do something, especially when it’s like a specialist, like a GI doctor or something, you listen. And so in the spinal cord injury rehabs, right? Like, it’s acute rehab, right? So you have usually, like an accident or something, and then you Go to rehab and they immediately put you on Miralax or Senna or Colace or all these things. And there’s no nutrition education. So I mean, I could do a whole.
Speaker A [00:37:24]:
I will do an episode on gut health at some point. But when it comes to like constipation and feeding your gut healthy things, what are your like, top few tips for like a healthy gut?
Speaker B [00:37:40]:
Yeah. So I mean, the first is nutrition. Right. So feeding your good gut bacteria, the prebiotics, which is the fertilizer for that good gut bacteria. And the prebiotics are things like fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Right. And then there’s the lifestyle factors, reducing stress. I mean, in my program I teach you all kinds of mindfulness techniques and neuroplasticity and rewiring your nervous system because it really is so essential to your gut health.
Speaker B [00:38:08]:
I think it’s the foundation of gut health and hormones. And I could go on and on about that.
Speaker A [00:38:12]:
I need to read more about neuroplasticity. So you’re going to send me some professional resources, please, when we hang up. But yeah, neuroplasticity, Right. Like your whole wiring, all of us, our wiring is messed up.
Speaker B [00:38:29]:
Yeah. And our nervous system affects our gut bacteria, so you cannot ignore that piece. And then getting enough sleep, getting movement where you can. So for your community, you know, trying to get as much movement as possible, you know, using hand waves.
Speaker A [00:38:44]:
Yeah. Stretching, range of motion. Yeah, Anything.
Speaker B [00:38:47]:
Yeah. Using like little hand weights. I mean that can make a huge difference. Right. Getting sunlight, sun exposure, vitamin D, really important for those gut bacteria. Getting light in your eyes, also really important for gut bacteria. What else am I missing? Things. I’m sure I am.
Speaker B [00:39:06]:
Stress reduction, sun exposure, getting those prebiotic fibers, really important for feeding your good gut bacteria.
Speaker A [00:39:15]:
Probiotic foods too.
Speaker B [00:39:17]:
Yes, probiotic foods like kimchi, kefir, anything fermented. Right. Anything that’s fermented is going to help boost your gut bacteria and your gut bacteria.
Speaker A [00:39:28]:
You drink a lot of kefir in this house, do you? A lot, yes. It’s so funny because I buy it for my husband, he loves it. But my 3 year old started drinking it and she loves it too. So it’s. Kefir is fermented yogurt. Okay. And so they sell plain. They sell.
Speaker A [00:39:48]:
We got a cherry flavor this week, which I had never seen before. And what we do is we mix half plain and half flavored because the flavored one is higher in sugar. But I’ll be honest with you, if that’s the only source of added sugar, that my husband is eating on a regular basis, like, so be it. You know, it’s.
Speaker B [00:40:05]:
It’s not that big of a deal, right?
Speaker A [00:40:06]:
It’s not that big of a deal. It’s. And it tastes good, right? Nothing should taste bad that you eat. So, yeah, eating those probiotic foods as well. So the probiotic foods contain the good bacteria and the prebiotic foods, like you said, are the fertilizer. So they help feed that good bacteria. What’s your opinion on probiotic? Like, just everyone taking a probiotic pill?
Speaker B [00:40:34]:
That’s a great question. Honestly, I don’t take one. I don’t either. I find that the fertilizer is the most important for building that good gut bacteria. Honestly, the research that I’ve seen is not like crazy convincing when it comes to probiotic use. And it’s a very expensive stuff.
Speaker A [00:40:56]:
Is expensive. You can buy some $5 probiotic. I don’t know what’s in it, if anything in there is really alive. But a lot of people tell me, no, probably not. And a lot of people tell me like, oh, I take a probiotic and I’m like, okay, but what are you eating? Well, what.
Speaker B [00:41:14]:
And what probiotic are you taking too? So there’s a really good probiotic called Bisbiome. It’s been proven in the research over and over to help IBS and ulcerative colitis and things like that. And you can get it from their website. There’s also a prescription that’s even higher dose by the same company. So that’s the one I would recommend people try if they do want to take a probiotic. But you have to ease into probiotics. Like, you have to start with one every three days and then slowly increase to two a day. But again, I’d rather you, like you said, I’d rather you eat the prebiotics than worry about a probiotic because that’s in your lifestyle.
Speaker B [00:41:54]:
I mean, that’s going to be more important for boosting your gut bacteria than just taking a probiotic. Right. And we have to look at all.
Speaker A [00:42:03]:
You are a person who likes supplements. You do you take some supplements. I’m taking some supplements that you put me on. But they’re very targeted. They’re not just like random, you know, like the ones that you ordered for me were like for cortisol, were for my adrenals, were for. You know, they’re really specific. And so I try to tell people food first. You know, there are some things, like for example, the magnesium we were talking about that most people are deficient okay.
Speaker A [00:42:30]:
And magnesium can help with constipation as well. So I do kind of recommend here and there some supplements, but I really don’t think that the majority of people need them on a daily basis. I mean, unless you are deficient in something.
Speaker B [00:42:46]:
Right.
Speaker A [00:42:47]:
So like I take vitamins.
Speaker B [00:42:48]:
Yeah. My philosophy on supplements has changed a lot over my career. I don’t think that our body is made to take in mega doses of specific synthetic micronutrients. Like if I’m going to recommend a multivitamin, it’s going to be like a beef liver supplement that has micronutrients and the right amounts that our body knows how to handle. Yep. So all the supplements that I take for like vitamins and minerals are from whole food based sources. I don’t take a synthetic multivitamin anymore because I just don’t think it betters our quality of life. I mean, I just don’t think it does also Absorption, right?
Speaker A [00:43:28]:
Like, is it absorption? Yeah. Is it even being absorbed? I now I do take vitamin D. That’s probably really synthetic.
Speaker B [00:43:36]:
It is, but that’s like one that might just have to be necessary.
Speaker A [00:43:40]:
Yeah. There’s no way. Casey in New York in October. It’s just now I’m wearing a sweater, it’s cloudy. I’m not getting enough vitamin D. And I think getting your blood work done is super important because I’m not just randomly taking these supplements. Right. I’m looking and saying, oh, am I deficient here? And I will say if you’re deficient in almost anything but vitamin D, you should be getting that from food.
Speaker A [00:44:08]:
But doctors are very quick to just put you on. I don’t know what, like, for example, iron. Like they’ll give you an iron pill and then you’ll, oh, gosh, don’t take.
Speaker B [00:44:20]:
Okay, here’s the thing about iron is like it’s typically not an iron issue. It could be a vitamin A issue because vitamin A is really essential to utilizing iron. It could be a vitamin C issue because vitamin C is important for iron absorption. So what are you eating with like red meat? Are you having a vegetable or are you just having white potatoes and rice? Right. I mean, that can impact your iron absorption. So we always have to think like, what is the root cause of anemia? Not just supplementing iron, because supplementing iron can be very pro inflammatory for women, especially if they’re not menstruating. And I know most of your clients are male, so even more important for them it’s 50.
Speaker A [00:45:01]:
50, Casey. It’s 50 50.
Speaker B [00:45:04]:
So you know, for men especially, they should not be supplementing with iron because they’re not excreting blood every month like we are. But it’s not good to supplement with iron if you’re anemic. We have to figure out, like, why are you anemic? Is it a dietary issue? And if you’re vegan, you might have to supplement with iron, and that’s okay. But we have to be really. You guys have to be really careful about supplementing micronutrients, especially by themselves. Right. Like, you probably need it in combination with other things like vitamin D and the.
Speaker A [00:45:35]:
Yeah. And the way that you get these vitamins in food, they are packaged like perfectly to be absorbed. Right. They’re packaged with, like, other things. When you eat, you know, real food, whole foods, they are so much more bioavailable. Right. Like they get absorbed. And when you’re having these.
Speaker A [00:45:58]:
People love supplements, Casey. I mean, people love.
Speaker B [00:46:01]:
Oh, tell me about quick fix. I’ve been there. I’ve been there. And there are specific ones that are synthetic that I might recommend. Like NAC is a good one. Coq 10. Like some of these.
Speaker A [00:46:18]:
Yeah. For heart health.
Speaker B [00:46:19]:
Yeah. But, yeah, but that’s really targeted.
Speaker A [00:46:23]:
Not everyone needs to just go take that.
Speaker B [00:46:26]:
Buy a Coq 10 supplement. Right?
Speaker A [00:46:29]:
Yeah.
Speaker B [00:46:29]:
So I recommend, like whole food based as much as humanly possible, because you want those micronutrients to be in the food matrix because that’s how you properly absorb and utilize them. Like, vitamin D acts with K2, it acts with magnesium. So you need all of those things together to utilize that vitamin D. You shouldn’t just take vitamin D by itself. That can cause the vitamin D that.
Speaker A [00:46:52]:
You gave me has other stuff.
Speaker B [00:46:56]:
It has K2 in it. And then you’re also taking the magnesium. So I make sure that you’re supplementing things in combination to not deplete your stores of other micronutrients.
Speaker A [00:47:07]:
There’s a science. Yeah. There’s such a science together. Yeah. And I don’t go down the road of like, recommending supplements to everyone. I will say, if you have something like a wound. Yes. I do think, you know, it is important and there’s so much good research around it.
Speaker A [00:47:25]:
But yeah, not everyone needs. I mean, we started off talking about the probiotic. Not everybody needs that. And I think there’s also this, like, false sense of security that when people take these supplements, they’re like, oh, but I take this and it’s like, right. But look at your life, Casey. I feel like we could talk all day long. But thank you so, so much. This is so much information for our community here and about hormones.
Speaker A [00:47:49]:
And you are. I mean, Casey is my dietitian, right? So she. She must be good.
Speaker B [00:47:55]:
Well, thank you, Fatima. It’s been such a pleasure and an honor. And I’m honored to call you my friend as well. And I know we could talk forever. And I’m happy to come back anytime.
Speaker A [00:48:05]:
Awesome. So you guys, you can find Casey on Instagram or TikTok, tell them again.
Speaker B [00:48:10]:
Your handleormone weight loss. You guys can follow along. Send me a dm, let me know a little bit about yourself. And you guys are in good hands with Fatima.
Speaker A [00:48:21]:
Awesome. Thank you so much, Casey.
Speaker B [00:48:24]:
Very short.
Speaker A [00:48:25]:
All right, everyone, until next time. That’s our episode for today. Thanks for listening. I hope you enjoyed it and that you learned something new. Remember, if you want to lose weight with paralysis, improve your bowel health and feel your best you can. It’s possible. You just have to change your eating habits. If you need inspiration on how to get started, check out The Paralysis Nutrition Cookbook 101 Recipes to Help you lose weight and improve bowel health.
Speaker A [00:48:51]:
The cookbook comes with a bonus 30 day meal plan and is the perfect way to start eating healthier. You can find it online at paralysisnutrition.com cookbook I’ll talk to you again soon.
