Ep 10: The one with the Nutritionist
We chat with Rhya, Nutritionist & dietician from the Charlotte, NC area. She starts explaining her journey to us, she followed her own passion after hitting brick walls, not getting help and not feeling like she was getting the right help with her own body. Wanted to pay it forward and help others. Masters in nutrition with undergrad in pre-med and biology. Licensed dietician and nutritionist vs. nutrition coach - the main difference is that she can give nutrition advice to someone with a diagnosed medical condition such as, crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, food allergies, hashimoto’s (autoimmune hypothryroid) rather than general nutrition education.
Elimination Diets
We wanted to chat a bit about elimination diets today and all the different diets out there. Rhya’s family all has autoimmune disease and she has made the decision to have her kids gluten free to avoid these struggles. No shame in trying a gluten free diet to see if it helps resolve your issues but it’s not a silver bullet. There are some real clinical applications for it though. The goal for Rhya is usually to add in as much as possible without provoking symptoms. Food sensitivity is not necessarily a lifetime issue it’s typically a sign of a deeper gut issue. Are there ever concerns with adding something like gluten back in if they have been off of it for so long? More like your body has finally calmed down and you can now see how your body reacts.
The source of food itself, is it good or bad? No, there isn’t a specific food or item that is bad. Through labs you can find that people have different sensitivities - maybe it’s the wheat not gluten or even the herbicides that are sprayed on the wheat if it’s not organic. It may not only be the food, you can find out so much more about the labs.
Nutrition Advice Through Data
Let’s talk about the data and labs. Sorting through layers of health issues can be much easier through testing. The most common is stool testing because you can directly see what’s going on in the gut. Especially with autoimmune, and many other conditions, there is always a gut component.
Autoimmune - what is it, what does that mean? Rhya uses a test that looks at inflammation, it can be more helpful than eliminating foods. Any symptoms of any kind are inflammation. Not always bad, it’s how your body heals. Chronic inflammation is not good.
What are the steps to take if you can’t do the testing? Or you don’t have a big budget. Just try taking one thing out for a couple weeks - like gluten or dairy and you can learn about the trigger.
The amount of something is really what's going to matter. Alcohol and sugar come up the most as things clients don’t want to get rid of and for the most part they don’t have to unless there is a medical reason why it’s really important to cut if out for a certain amount of time. In healthy adults it comes down to frequency & volume whether we are talking about food sensitivities or trigger for gut issues and prolonged healing.
Steps for an elimination diet:
Know your why, help you figure out what is triggering or making you sensitive
Usually best to pick one category to eliminate first, gather data
Eat as many types of whole foods as you can without triggering your symptoms so you don’t get anxiety and have a restrictive mentality
Quality & Moderation
Quality and moderation of food is the main takeaway.
Gluten free shampoo? It is actually a thing - keratin is derived from wheat and can actually give someone a rash if they are highly sensitive to gluten.
Instagram @carolinafunctionalnutrition
website: www.carolinafunctionalnutrition.com
