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You’re listening to the Balanced Bites podcast episode 251.
Welcome to the Balanced Bites podcast with Diane Sanfilippo and Liz Wolfe. Diane is a certified nutrition consultant, and the New York Times bestselling author of Practical Paleo, The 21-Day Sugar Detox, and co-author of Mediterranean Paleo Cooking. Liz is a nutritional therapy practitioner, and the best-selling author of Eat the Yolks and The Purely Primal Skincare Guide. Together, Diane and Liz answer your questions, interview leading health and wellness experts, and share their take on modern paleo living with their friendly and balanced approach. Remember our disclaimer: The materials and content within this podcast are intended as general information only, and are not to be considered a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
Liz Wolfe: Hey friends; welcome, welcome to the podcast. It’s me Liz, here with Diane.
Diane Sanfilippo: Oh, hey! I’m back.
Liz Wolfe: Oh hey. Hello. I forget every time what I’m supposed to say at the beginning.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} Well, what every happen to “hey everyone!”? That was my favorite intro. “Hey everyone!”
Liz Wolfe: I don’t know. I forgot if it was, “hey everyone,” or “hey friends.”
Diane Sanfilippo: Well, lately it’s been “hey friends”, but I just miss the “hey everyone!” because I don’t know, it’s nostalgic to me.
Liz Wolfe: I’ll try to remember to go back to it.
Diane Sanfilippo: It was, you know, episodes one through one million were “hey everyone,” and then we changed it {laughs}. I don’t know what the point of the change is. Just kidding. 251. This is a lot of episodes. This is; are we coming up on some kind of anniversary? How many weeks are in a year, how many episodes do we do a year?
Liz Wolfe: 52.
Diane Sanfilippo: There’s got to be some kind of something soon.
Liz Wolfe: So, I don’t think so.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. Something. Soon.
Liz Wolfe: 208 would have been something.
Diane Sanfilippo: We’re almost at 5 years.
Liz Wolfe: alright.
Diane Sanfilippo: 260 will be 5 years.
Liz Wolfe: How about we hear from one of our sponsors.
Diane Sanfilippo: Ok, fine.
Liz Wolfe: Ok, ok. Shut it down. Let’s hear from one of our sponsors.
Liz Wolfe: The Balanced Bites podcast is sponsored in part by the Nutritional Therapy Association. The NTA trains and certifies nutritional therapy practitioners and consultants, including me, I’m an NTP, emphasizing bio-individuality and the range of dietary strategies that support wellness. The NTA emphasizes local, whole, properly prepared nutrient dense foods as the key to restoring balance and enhancing the body’s ability to heal. Nutritional therapy practitioners and consultants learn a wide range of tools and techniques to assess and correct nutritional imbalances. To learn lots more about the nutritional therapy program, go to http://www.NutritionalTherapy.com. There are workshop venues in the US, Canada, and Australia, so chances are you’ll be able to find a venue that works for you.
1. News and updates from Diane & Liz [2:51]
Liz Wolfe: Alright. So, Diane. I think you have some pretty big potential updates. What’s going on?
Diane Sanfilippo: So, {laughs} I’m not quite sure how to word this, other than I kind of feel like vomiting, and I’m….
Liz Wolfe: You're pregnant.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} No, that would be. No. {laughing} So the big news that I’ve been dying to share with everyone that I actually thought I wasn’t going to be able to share for another few weeks, but found out I can share it sooner, because as a handful of you guys have noticed, and have come to me and commented and asked questions about, that Practical Paleo is listed as temporarily out of stock on Amazon right now, so if you go to the listing for the book and you see my face in a blue T-shirt and all that stuff, it says temporarily out of stock. Well it’s not really temporary. The book is actually going to be out of stock {laughs} indefinitely because I’m releasing a second edition! I feel like throwing up right now {laughs} just telling everybody.
Because I’m super excited, super anxious, super eyeball deep in very, very last little edits because this thing is printing this week. So second edition of Practical Paleo will be releasing on September 6th; this is the first place I’m announcing it. I don’t know if it will be available on Amazon by the time this is released this week on Thursday, but right now {laughs} you probably can’t find the listing for it because it’s currently listed as a book titled Blank by Anonymous {laughs} published by Victory Belt and releasing September 6th, so if you do some digging in that way you’ll find it. If for some reason Amazon hasn’t updated yet, they’re supposed to be updated. It was supposed to update today; and today is Tuesday we’re recording this. But I don’t know what’s going to happen. I’m just super anxious, super nervous, super excited. I have so much to tell you guys about the book, but that’s not going to be in today’s episode.
The one thing I’m going to tell you guys, because you’ll notice it if you do dig up this listing for it and it says “Blank by Anonymous”, it’s listed as having 1 page. That is not true. {laughs} The book is going to have 480 pages; it was originally 432 pages, so it’s going to be 480 pages. And it’s being released as both a hardcover and a paperback. So I’m really excited about that. It’s the same book either way, it’s just one has a hardcover, one doesn’t. And I know so many of you guys who had the original version were just wishing it was a hardcover book. And amazing things from the publisher, because I just was dying to get this thing released in a hardcover for those of you who are longtime readers, longtime fans of the book have been recommending it to all of your friends, and have been beating up that soft cover book. Well, this is going to be a whole new version.
So much to talk about with what’s been updated, but I’ll do that hopefully next week when the listing is for sure there. But if you guys, as our pack of amazing podcast listeners can check it out. I don’t know; go over to Amazon and see if you’re seeing an update. You’ll see a brand new cover; it’s the same but different. {laughs} So you’ll recognize it, but it’s going to look different. It’ll have a picture of me that actually makes sense; {laughs} looks like me; a few more wrinkles and all that good stuff. Just so much to talk about, but I have to wait until, you know, I know that it’s really there. So we’ll see what happens.
But that’s why, if you’re like; why can’t I order a copy of this book? It’s because it will not be available anymore. There are probably copies in bookstores, it will be in bookstores for at least the next couple of months until the first edition starts getting sent back and the new edition comes in in September, but yeah. More news, more details coming soon; and of course, you guys, there will be a tour so stay tuned for details on that. Ok, now I’m going to go throw up. {laughing}
Liz Wolfe: Ok. Bye; we’ll press mute while you do that.
Diane Sanfilippo: So yeah. So much more next time. What’s up with you? What’s going on?
Liz Wolfe: I’m a little preoccupied. The kid is feeling a little under the weather and it kind of came on super suddenly; so whatever I had prepared to say as my updates have completely slipped my mind and I’m not entirely sure. We were talking, before we started recording, that this is the same kind of stress you and I are feeling right now; like, oh my gosh, I don’t know what’s going to happen. My friend Kristine Rudolph from Exploring Wellness; I was talking to her about this. I immediately sent her and Julie Mayfield a text, because they’re my wise-mama sounding boards.
Diane Sanfilippo: Mm-hmm.
Liz Wolfe: Or, I sent them Facebook messages and asked them what they thought of this situation with my little one; and they were helping me out with that, and Kristine said, “you just don’t have enough data points right now. She’s young, it’s scary because you just don’t…”
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.
Liz Wolfe: You don’t have enough data points to say, “This is how she usually handles this,” or “this is what this might be.” So that’s just what makes it so hard and so freaky. And it’s like that pit in your stomach where you just want to evacuate everything out of whatever.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: You know, area that will come out of.
Diane Sanfilippo: #poopemoji {laughs}.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah, exactly. But we were talking about how people think of chronic, the type of chronic stress that affects your health as this kind of stress. Where you’re just like; on the brink of losing it, and freaking out. And of course, if this was going on for a long time, you would probably be on the floor, unable to function if this was the type of chronic stress you are experiencing. It’s just that step below that; that chronic low-grade readiness to alarm that is really what people are living in; that state that people are living in and that’s what’s really affecting people’s health. So even if you don’t think you’re living in this state of, “I’m going to poop my pants.”
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: You may still be living with just that mid to low-grade chronic alertness or readiness to extreme stress that is definitely affecting your health. So, folks watch out for that.
Diane Sanfilippo: This is definitely acute; the spike in the heart rate, the shaky hands.
Liz Wolfe: Yes. The feeling in the joints of your fingers where you’re like;
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.
Liz Wolfe: What is that?
Diane Sanfilippo: And where I’m like; honey, can you take my pulse, I feel like my heart rate is really high right now {laughs} and I’m not running. Yeah, for sure.
Liz Wolfe: So that’s all I got. {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: Alright. Well, I hope everything is ok. I’m sure she’ll be fine.
Liz Wolfe: Thank you. I’m sure.
Liz Wolfe: Our podcast sponsorship today comes from Vital Choice, an online purveyor of the world’s best wild seafood delivered right to your door; because juggling a busy life shouldn’t mean you have to forgo healthy meals. At www.vitalchoice.com, you’ll find wild Alaskan salmon, halibut, tuna, sable fish, and cod, as well as prawns, crab, and scallops. You’ll also find grass-fed organic Wagyu beef, free range heritage chicken, fresh frozen organic berries, and dark organic chocolates. Make a vital choice by eating the highest quality food you can. Vital Choice; come home to real food. Use code BALANCEDBITES to save on your first order at www.vitalchoice.com.
2. Weekly Shout out: Kristine Rudolph, Exploring Wellness [10:52]
Diane Sanfilippo: Do we have a shout out this week? Do you have a shout out?
Liz Wolfe: I would like to shout out my friend and fellow Beautycounter consultant and mama wisdom woman, Kristine Rudolph {laughs}. Because she keeps me sane in so many different ways, she has no idea. She listens to the podcast. And I just think everybody should go check out her stuff, or follow her on Facebook. It’s Kristine Rudolph, Exploring Wellness. I’ve shouted her out before, but she posts things about movement, and restorative exercise. She’s a restorative exercise specialist, and almost; she’s one of those people that anything she puts up on her Facebook page, I read. Whatever it is. Because it’s always something good and something worth reading. So just a little shout out to her. Folks should follow her.
3. A new thing that I’m into: Odd Mom Out [11:46]
Liz Wolfe: Alright, so Diane, I think you have a new thing that you’re into lately.
Diane Sanfilippo: I do, and it’s not food related, but this seems kind of funny considering I’m not a mom. But the show Odd Mom Out, have you seen it? On Bravo?
Liz Wolfe: I have.
Diane Sanfilippo: Or on Bravo on Demand, which is how I watch everything.
Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: Odd Mom Out. I find it hilarious. I actually; I think I started watching it last year at some point. I don’t think I saw the whole season, but then the star of it, who is also one of the writers for the show; I can’t remember her name but she has dark hair and she’s amazing and hilarious. I think she wrote some Mom-zilla books or something like that?
Liz Wolfe: Oh! I didn’t know that.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah, so she was on Watch What Happens Live; which you guys, my life is full of just very opposite things. I’m all serious and I’m into nutrition and I’m talking about digestion, and then the next minute I’m watching Housewives. This is; it’s fine. I need to have some levity in my life.
I think I read a review of ours on iTunes where somebody was commenting on that; the fact that we might watch that kind of drivel would be, you know.
Liz Wolfe: Didn’t the review say “dribble” instead of “drivel”?
Diane Sanfilippo: I think it might have.
Liz Wolfe: Yeah. {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: Or, I mean I was using that word, but I’m like, whatever drivel I want to watch is up to me. I feel like it’s really funny; I don’t feel like that’s; I feel like it shows a broad sense of a person who is not only sitting here studying all day. I have a broad personality and I’m into a lot of different things. Anyway, long story short, the show is hilarious. Being able to have a mental break from anything kind of stressful or work oriented; I watch these shows. I think they’re tackling a lot of just hilarious topics. And yeah, I don’t know, I like it. It’s funny. Watch it. If you watch it, let me know.
Liz Wolfe: I do like her best friend. She’s like; they kind of have a Mary and Rhoda thing going on.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yes.
Liz Wolfe: But a new-age Mary and Rhoda thing.
Diane Sanfilippo: Totally.
Liz Wolfe: Love it.
Diane Sanfilippo: I think we are like that.
Liz Wolfe: {laughs} that would be cool.
Diane Sanfilippo: When we’re together, I think it’s pretty funny. It’s a little Thelma and Louise; Mary and Rhoda. {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: Laverne and Shirley.
Liz Wolfe: Carl and Groucho.
Diane Sanfilippo: Schlemiel Schlimazel.
Liz Wolfe: Oh jeeze. Alright cool. Well, let’s move on from the “dribble.” Or drivel.
Diane Sanfilippo: Drivel.
4. Skin breakouts and pain during intercourse [14:35]
Liz Wolfe: And let’s get into some questions. Alright; this one is a little in depth. Skin breakouts and pain during intercourse. “Hi ladies! First of all, I’d like to thank both of you for your amazing podcast and the amazing information you keep sharing with the world. Keep up the good work; it’s very much appreciated. My question is regarding skin health. I never had skin issues in my teenage years, and it wasn’t until I turned 20 that my skin started breaking out. I used harsh skincare products since I was quite young, and when I tried to ditch those later on, that’s when my skin started getting bad. I was in a very intensive and high-stress university program for 4 years, during which my skin became really bad. I’d get deep, red acne breakouts all over my cheeks, jaw line, upper neck, and all over the rest of my face. I even got breakouts on my chest and shoulders.
About 3 years ago, I discovered Liz’s Skintervention Guide, now called the Purely Primal Skincare Guide, as well as the paleo lifestyle and started following it religiously. I’ve been mainly paleo for the last 3 years, and fully paleo for the last one and a half, with an exception over this past Christmas; couldn’t say no to the cookies. My skin has improved dramatically since I went fully paleo, even by 80%, now to the point that I feel ok to go outside the house without skin makeup on for the majority of the time. The problem is that no matter how clean my diet is, or how much I try to relax; my skin just seems stuck at the same place and doesn’t seem ever to fully heal. Even if it gets great for 2 weeks, it also gets bad again.
I recently started working with a natural health practitioner, and was diagnosed with adrenal fatigue and leaky gut. When I started working with my practitioner, I was tired and hungry all the time, and that has since gone away, which is amazing news. However, my skin still keeps breaking out, usually 2-3 weeks after the start of my period. I also sometimes experience extreme pain during and after intercourse. It’s more of a deep inner stomach pain, and I can’t help but think all of this is related. I feel like I’ve tried everything I can to heal my body and it’s just not happening fully. Any insight or tips on what I can do to try to get fully better would be much appreciated; thank you so much.”
So this is kind of my wheelhouse. But there’s a lot here. So first of all, it’s not real surprising that when you get into a really stressful situation in your life that these things can happen. It’s probably a convergence of things. The food probably suffered during the university program; there was food, there was stress, there was probably sleep suffering. And that just kind of brings your body down a notch in its capability to deal with a lot of insults in general, and to keep itself healthy. So that it started there is not super surprising. I would be curious as to where potentially hormonal birth control could have fit into this equation, if she’s ever taken that at any point in her life. Because really, around the mid-20s, when you’ve started at the time that a lot of people start, which is later in high school or late teens, right around there, 6, 8, 10 years into taking birth control you can really start having some of these issues. Part of it is just the hormonal manipulation, and part of it is the nutrient depletion, probably particularly B6. So that would be interesting to know.
I also think that; my line of dealing with things, especially when they seem to be hormonal in some way is supporting the liver, supporting the adrenals, supporting the thyroid, and then thinking about the skin. So that probably goes down a road that we really don’t need to go down; talking about how to support the thyroid and all of that, but I just want people to focus first on the liver, because when your liver is, I guess let’s use the word congested. That’s not really a clinical term, I guess, but we’ll use that term. But when the liver is just kind of backed up and congested and just not functioning properly, or having issues packaging and exporting, say estrogen. You can end up with all of these other issues; skin issues, you could end up with some taxation to the adrenals, and you can end up with everything just kind of slowing down and not seeming to get better for long periods of time to be maintainable. Improvements don’t feel maintainable. So one of the things you're going to want to do is probably just do what you can to support liver and detox phases. I think you actually had an interview, Diane with; who did you talk to that has a detox program? A liver program?
Diane Sanfilippo: Mmm, I don’t know why I’m not thinking of it off the top of my head.
Liz Wolfe: I know. I’m trying to think of the Instagram handle. Ginger?
Diane Sanfilippo: Oh, was it Ginger Newtrition?
Liz Wolfe: Yeah, I think so.
Diane Sanfilippo: Well I’m just going to throw in, as you’re talking about it, that I included three new meal plans in the second edition of Practical Paleo, and one of them is liver detox support; one is hormonal health, but liver detox is actually more foundational to that. So exactly what you’re talking about, where it covers a lot of information about what you can do to support your liver in detoxifying naturally, which is exactly what you’re talking about.
Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: Just getting your liver in that tip-top shape and making sure you're doing things to support that first; because like you said, if you do whatever you want to do to get hormones balanced, but your liver is not continuing to detoxify the estrogens that you don’t still need in your system. I mean, that’s a process that I don’t think a lot of women are aware happens in the liver.
Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: You know, we think about it detoxifying plastics, and xenoestrogens that come in from outside the body; we think about it detoxifying alcohol, but we don’t think about the fact that it’s also detoxifying used hormones or excess hormones that we don’t need for normal body functions. So, if the liver is not able to do that, then that’s where we can experience a lot of the issues with the excess estrogen. It’s not just our body producing too much or getting too much from environmental factors; it’s that our liver maybe can’t clear it optimally as it needs to. So yeah, for sure.
Liz Wolfe: And part of that, too; saying skin breaks out 2-3 weeks after the start of my period. Here’s kind of how I would trace that. So right after ovulation; estrogen is supposed to fall and progesterone is supposed to take over. If you have a wonky; and that’s a clinical term, wonky; progesterone to estrogen ratio, at that point, when you're body is supposed to detoxify all of this estrogen that is no longer needed and progesterone is supposed to take over; not only are you feeling the effects of a ratio that’s too high, but you’re also feeling the effects of the fact that your liver is overwhelmed with all of these hormones that it needs to get rid of.
And a lot of times, I look at the liver before I even look at the gut, because it’s also the liver’s job to detoxify endotoxins. If it’s overwhelmed, it’s not going to do that, and the endotoxin can affect your gut. So while you’re working around the adrenal fatigue and the leaky gut stuff, just keep your liver in mind. You can support your adrenals with good nutrition, with vitamin C, with stress relief techniques, with modifications to your exercise, but at the same time really look at what you can do to support your liver, and that should also be a part of a leaky gut protocol.
Diane Sanfilippo: I’m nodding along.
Liz Wolfe: Yes.
Diane Sanfilippo: Totally.
Liz Wolfe: It might also be worth doing some testing; you can really actually order your own tests through requestatest.com. And you can look at; it’s actually really hard to test for where you’re at as far as estrogen and progesterone ratio, because what they test is levels in the blood, I believe, and what we really want to know is tissue levels, and that’s just something you kind of have to figure out by symptoms. There are some multipliers that you might be able to use, but I can’t think of them off the top of my head; it would probably involve going to some message board buried deep, dark in the internet.
But it’s just one of those things where, we can’t always get a great picture from testing, but it might be interesting to know I’m guessing the natural health practitioner probably helps if you have an official diagnosis, but you never know. Sometimes they just tell you what they think you’re dealing with; other times they actually do some extensive testing. So you could look at that, as well. But that’s really where I would start. It’s good that you’re looking at this as to when it is relation to your period, because that’s always kind of a truth teller, as well.
As far as the pain during and after intercourse; “deep inner stomach pain.” I’m not entirely sure what this could be. First thought is being a lubrication issue due to a hormonal imbalance. I’m wondering when in her cycle this is happening, or if it’s always happening. It might actually be worth just getting a transvaginal ultrasound to see if there’s anything going on. But as everything else starts to resolve, this very well could as well.
Diane Sanfilippo: Indeed, and I think when people are talking about going paleo and having a lot of benefits from just the shift in food, and shift in what’s happening in their digestive system, there are tons of people for whom changing their food doesn’t do it. There are tons of people for whom following a 4-R protocol where they’re actually going through the steps of not just removing the foods, but then repairing the gut lining, reinoculating, and reintroducing foods; for some people that does it, for some people it doesn’t because as you were saying, the rest of the landscape in the body, if you healed the gut but you're trying to get rid of some of these endotoxins, some of the toxins that are getting through the small intestine lining and the immune activity that’s happening there, you’re liver is responsible for part of that, as well.
So as you were saying, for some people, this is another reason why “going paleo” doesn’t just magically fix everything. It’s not just; oh there are more foods that you’re allergic to or intolerant to that you’re not eliminating. It’s not just about paleoing harder. Sometimes it’s about looking at additional systems in the body that need to be improved in terms of function in order to get everything working together in concert.
Because, you know, it’s amazing what happens when we change one part of our body, or we change our nutrition and we really do improve what’s going on with our function, you know. We’re improving our liver function by improving our food, right? Because we’re getting more nutrition, which our liver needs. But if we’re not detoxifying properly, then the whole thing is not going to be giving you the same kind of results that other people might be getting because for various reasons, we have different levels of liver function. So I do think that that’s a really important thing to talk about in a context of any health issues that we’re unsure of why it’s not resolving. Because our liver; you know, our digestive system is kind of at the crux of it, but our liver is too. You know, we’ve got a lot of work horses in the body, and the liver is definitely one of them.
5. Yeast allergy [25:48]
Liz Wolfe: Alright. This one is about a yeast allergy. “Dear Diane and Liz. My son and I have recently undergone a repeat series of blood tests for allergies after working hard to improve our diet and heal our guts, I’m delighted to say that many of our initial allergens no longer test positive. However, we both have persistent antibodies to yeast; both brewers and bakers. I haven’t been able to find out much about this type of allergy, and am wondering if you can provide suggestions for acceptable foods and beverages. For instance, do I to assume we are to avoid leavened bread and fermented alcohol, such as beer or wine? What about fermented foods? Yeast is so prevalent, I really do not know where to draw the line. I appreciate any advice you may have. Thanks a bunch.”
Dear Diane…
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs} Well, the basics of it, yeah. What she’s pointed to there are breads and alcohols and all those things that have been fermented; even sometimes, you know vinegars that we don’t think about, but vinegar is made through fermentation as well. Some cheeses aren’t going to be ok; sauerkraut, obviously. Sometimes this can also be a problem with just leftovers that you have that you have sitting a little too long in the fridge that can develop things; you know, to a system that can handle a little bit of bacterial and yeast exposure, it’s fine, but to somebody who might have a yeast allergy or some kind of fungal infection, for example, leftovers are typically recommended to be avoided for those people.
So honestly, if this were an allergy that I had, I probably would be somebody who is continuing to test the waters on it moving forward, and looking for ways to continue to support your system in all different ways. Just like we were talking about; she says she’s gone through and done a lot of gut healing. Well, maybe the next step is to do some digging into liver detox support and all of that. But in general, exactly what she mentioned are foods to avoid. And anything that has had time to have an exposure like that to develop yeast or to develop an additional type of growth; I know that sounds weird, right, it sounds kind of freaky. But the fermentation process is what’s going to develop that.
I don’t know if there’s anything additional that you can think of to recommend for her. But I feel like she does already understand what she’s talking about. There are yeast-free breads out there. I know Brittany Angell has recipes for yeast-free breads, so if you want to make something. And you might be able to find some other brands online, just looking for a yeast-free bread, you might be able to find that, but I don’t know what else.
It’s not as prevalent as you would think in fresh foods; it’s just we’re talking about fermented foods here. It’s just I think some people don’t realize what all has been fermented, things like meats and cheeses; not fresh meat, obviously, but like cured meats. So those could be a little confusing, perhaps. Did I lose you?
Liz Wolfe: No, I’m here.
Diane Sanfilippo: Oh ok. {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: I just wanted to make sure you were done.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah. Do you have any other thoughts on that, or that’s pretty much it.
Liz Wolfe: No, I don’t know a whole lot about the yeast stuff. I do know, as far as Candida goes, it’s a little sketchy because some of the really aggressive Candida diets can actually make things worse. It’s just this balance, because starving Candida can almost make it worse sometimes, because it’s a food seeking situation, and I forgot what the little tendrils that it sounds out are called. But I don’t think this is what they’re dealing with; I don’t think we’re talking about Candida. But I’m just not that well versed with yeast.
Diane Sanfilippo: The only other thing I’m looking at in her wording was, “we both have persistent antibodies to yeast,” And I wonder if that’s simply because of an excess prevalence of it. So if it is a case where she could go to a practitioner who is going to test for Candida overgrowth, Candida is present in our bodies, but it’s whether or not we have an overgrowth of it that it becomes an issue. So I’d be curious as to whether or not this could just be a Candida overgrowth causing the intolerance to it. I know Christa Orecchio's program; we did an interview with her you guys can check out in the archives. But her program, she definitely doesn’t recommend people are eating any fermented foods or any of that while they’re trying to cure a Candida overgrowth, or heal a Candida overgrowth, but that is one other thing I would just look into; because, is it really an allergy? Or are the persistent antibodies just because you’ve got the infection going on that you need to work on clearing, and then you might be able to eat those foods.
I mean, any time we’re dealing with some kind of intolerance or something like that, I always want to challenge the system and say, is there something we can heal, so that then those foods aren’t irritating you. It’s different if it’s a food allergy; we don’t really want to mess with those. But if you just feel like you’re not sure that you tolerate certain things, then that could be worth looking into.
6. Formula-fed baby, dairy allergy later? [31:06]
Liz Wolfe: Alrighty. Ok, this one is from Bella. It’s a formula question. “Hi girls! Thank you for a great and informative podcast. I have a question about something you guys mentioned in the previous podcast about infant formula.” And just as a note, this previous podcast could mean any podcast previously. {laughs} I’m not sure when we talked about it. “For someone raised on formula, would that affect them as adults; like a dairy allergy, digestive issues, etc? I was never breastfed as a baby, and have suffered a lot from ear inflammation as a child, and anxiety and depression as well as digestive issues. I’ve tried to take dairy out of my diet, but it’s so addictive. I always fall back on the dairy wagon. Any thoughts on this? I can’t find information about it anywhere. Thanks, and love you both.”
Well, sorry Bella but I just have to say that all of these things, they depend. And it sucks so bad. I was just talking; who I was talking to, probably Arsy from Rubies and Radishes about how hard in particular motherhood is because you just never know what’s wrong. And I wish, and this applies to everybody, it would just be so nice if we could just have a computer readout on every exact thing that was going on and why, and trace things back to why things are happening and when they started.
This is something that I’ve done a ton with regards to my/our birth story. Just trying to figure out why things went the way they went. But there’s no clear moment where I can say; this is what lead to this which is what lead to this, and etc. So it’s just so hard, and I think a lot of us in these situations where we just can’t figure things out and we want to know the root of the issue so we can fix it; we just have to somehow find a way to come to peace with the not knowing. Because I just don’t know if this is something you will ever figure out the root cause of. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t heal it; that you can’t bring it into harmony.
I guess it’s possible. I think there are some little ones raised on formula that end up having some issues establish themselves that perhaps would not have if the feeding situation were different; yet the exact same thing is true of breastfed babies. The exact same thing is true of every human on the earth. {laughs} Something maybe was being eaten, or something that happened very early on, maybe even in utero or before that; maybe that thing set a landscape that affected you in these different ways and set off some kind of chain reaction. I don’t know; it’s just impossible to know. Some babies actually end up amazingly well on formula when they don’t tolerate breast milk for whatever reason. So I don’t know; from that perspective, fed is best. You’re here, you’re figuring out what’s going on with your body. Just because something took root a long time ago doesn’t mean it can’t be healed now. So it just might be one of those situations where you just need to forget about what happened when you were a baby.
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: {Laughs} Not worry about it. I’ve always kind of wondered if the fact that I was not breastfed for very long had anything to do with my vision, or had anything to do with some eczema that I had. But you know what; I guess it doesn’t really matter. It’s just one of those things that you just have to figure out with the tools that you have in your toolbox. You’re never going to get that tool back, and maybe you didn’t even need it. Maybe it made no difference whatsoever at that point. So yeah.
And as far as the whole addictive dairy thing; I don’t know, if you feel like you're addicted to dairy there’s probably maybe some physical stuff behind that, but there’s probably also some emotional stuff behind that, you know.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.
Liz Wolfe: Diane, you talked a lot about this in a recent podcast, just kind of the mental side, did you not? Maybe two or three podcasts ago?
Diane Sanfilippo: {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: I know, it’s so hard.
Diane Sanfilippo: You have mom brain; I have book editing.
Liz Wolfe: Book brain.
Diane Sanfilippo: Feels like I rewrote a whole new book brain. Well, I mean I’m with you on this in the sense; well, first of all, I’m actually not sure what she’s saying are the ill effects she experiences now other than trying to remove it, but it’s feeling like it’s addictive. She said what she experienced as a kid, which we don’t know if that had to do with the dairy or not. But I’m not sure of what she’s suffering from now with dairy in her diet other than feeling like it’s addictive and she can’t just make a logical decision about whether or not to eat it.
But who knows? We have no idea what’s setting the stage for any of that. And it’s never one thing. And I think the problem with trying to pin it on one thing is it becomes like a blame game; or, it becomes a situation where we’re trying to absolve ourselves of the blame in a sense. Where we’re trying to find; can I say that the fact that I wasn’t breastfed is what’s responsible for this issue that I have; so then I am not responsible. You know?
I think to some degree, we’re not. To a large degree, we’re not responsible for the landscape that’s going on in our bodies and things that happened, coded into our genes, right? Like, generations ago. But that’s not really that important to look at at this point, because you can’t change that. So I think it’s more important to take a stance of; ok, how does it affect me now? And do I want to deal with the consequences of it when I eat it, or not. Do I want to not be addicted to this thing? When I wrote the 21-Day Sugar Detox, I honestly felt like I had a problem with a sugar addiction. I really needed to have sugar and carbohydrates so often, it was like I could not escape those cravings and needing that food; not one specific thing, but in general. And now, if I eat something sweet, it’s not because I’m craving it and I feel like it has a hold on me. Which, I mean, it sounds like that’s what’s happening to her. She’s trying to remove it; I don’t know why she’s trying to remove it. Is she feeling sick eating it? Or is it just arbitrary because it’s “not paleo”. You know? That’s the thing I’m also unclear on just based on the question. And it being addicted; well, cheese is really f-ing good, so, sorry. {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: {laughs}
Diane Sanfilippo: Cheese is delicious. But there’s a lot of great nutrition in cheese; I just think we need to know is it causing ill effects, and if not, is it something that you just want to meter your intake of because you feel like it’s taking over your plate and you're not eating other foods that you think might be healthy. I mean, I think 80% of this might be just more of an emotional thing than a physical/physiological thing.
Liz Wolfe: You know something else I was just thinking about?
Diane Sanfilippo: What?
Liz Wolfe: Maybe find out, and this would be interesting. Don’t hang your hat on this, but maybe find out why you were never breastfed. My situation and my suspicion is it had something to do with pain caused by an undiagnosed tongue and lip tie for me. Both of which actually ripped at some point when I was a kid for various reasons. But there’s a lot of information now about tongue and lip tie; some of that could be tied back to basically the way the jaw and the palate develops and the way it moves that maybe could have something to do with the function of ear inflammation and things like that, and then some of the underlying factors for a tongue tie could also be tied back to anxiety and depression. And if you’re an adult struggling with tongue tie and palate function, then that could also lead to digestive issues.
So there are a ton of different things that you could look at. I don’t want to overwhelm and make you freak out about things that you don’t need to freak out about, but if you just approach it as maybe an item of interested that maybe could set you down an interesting path.
Diane Sanfilippo: Perhaps.
Liz Wolfe: The end.
Diane Sanfilippo: Yeah.
7. Natural remedies for stomach illness [39:20]
Liz Wolfe: Ok. This one is from Whitney; tummy illness natural remedies. “Hey Diane and Liz! In the past year, I’ve had both food poisoning and the stomach flu. You had that one episode a couple of months back where you discussed natural remedies for colds, and I was wondering if you could do the same for tummy illness; specifically what to do to address the symptoms of food poisoning or stomach flu; vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, but also what to do after. My stomach always takes about 2 weeks to get back on track with digestion. I end up feeling nauseous, too full, bloated, burpy, etc. I’ve tried probiotics and apple cider vinegar, which help, but wanted to know if you know of anything else that could help. Thank you both.”
Diane Sanfilippo: Alrighty. I think, this is a time when looking at the types of food you're trying to eat after the fact; I think there are a wide variety of solutions in terms of the apple cider vinegar, different things that can help ease issues with nausea and diarrhea and vomiting, but those are all kind of acute issues, and in the moment I’m not sure that there’s a ton that’s going to ease the pain or stop what’s happening. And I’m not sure that you want to stop what’s happening. I know that might sound a little crazy, but we’ve talked about this specifically in relation to diarrhea in the past where, if your body is in an “everybody out” state, you don’t want to stop it, right? And that’s what a lot of us used to do with something like Imodium AD; we would take this and it would stop the diarrhea because it would stop the natural contractions that our muscles were taking to get that stuff out of our body. But our body is reacting to something, and getting rid of it for a reason.
So it’s really more about following up with foods that you can tolerate well that are easily digested. This is where I would say we’re looking at soups and stews and pureed foods and pureed soups, smoothies. Those kinds of things that don’t put a lot of stress and don’t tax a digestion too much. It’s not really the time for a lot of raw salads, leafy greens, and kale, and all of that. It’s really more of a time to look at recommendations I would say in the digestive health meal plan in Practical Paleo where it’s looking at what’s going to be easier on the body. And those are the kinds of things that I would probably be introducing at that point, just to keep it calm, and not try and stir things up too much with food that’s going to take a lot of chemical digestion.
Like, you want the mechanical digestion to kind of be done for you in the pre-cooking, the slow-cooking, the blending, all of that. When you think about what cooking does, and what pureeing does; it predigests food for us. So we’re taking some of the stress off our system, and I think that’s a good ease back into setting our body up to just digest food more easily.
8. Maca for hormone health [42:33]
Liz Wolfe: Very good. Alright, so this is going to have to be the last one; I kind of have to dart to check on the baby. This is from Susan about Maca for hormone health. “Hi Diane and Liz; thanks so much for sharing your expertise with the world. I’m wondering if you have thoughts on using Maca powder to promote hormone health. I’m doing baby led weaning with my daughter, and I’ve heard that decreasing nursing sessions may put things out of balance for a while.”
This is so unbelievably true; the decreasing of nursing sessions putting things out of balance. This is another thing that I had to message Kristine about; I was like, what is going on with my body? And she was like, you know what, just calm down. This is a familiar thing. When you have these crazy swings in hormones because usually a decrease in nursing sessions, things can go wacky for a while. And me personally, when this was happening to me very recently, when we night weaned quite a while ago, it was like; my period started again, and that stuff was expected. But then you have these other shifts that go on that nobody tells you about over time after you get your period back when things seem to be fairly normal, and it can involve bulging of your vasculature, vision changes, your gums start to bleed; there are so many things that can happen. I think most of it can be blamed on estrogen, and some of it can probably be blamed on liver detox. So really, yes, first of all, you’re not alone, this happens.
Second of all, Maca powder can be an interesting tool. I don’t think it’s a good fit for everybody, and not knowing more about you I probably can’t really just say, “Yeah! I would do that if I were you.” Or “no, I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” But I do think it’s always about supporting your liver first. And it just so happens that we talked about that earlier in this very podcast. So just making sure that these hormones that are circulating and needing to come out of circulation are able to do so with relative ease, and it starts with supporting your liver. Before you go to something like Maca, in my opinion.
Diane Sanfilippo: Sounds good to me. Yeah.
Liz Wolfe: Cool.
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9. Listener follow up: loose skin [45:35]
Liz Wolfe: Alright, so Diane before we close out, you have a little listener follow-up to share.
Diane Sanfilippo: I do! We had an email from a listener who asked us about loose skin. I think it was just a handful of weeks ago if you recall that question. Do you recall? {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: I do.
Diane Sanfilippo: Anyway, we recommended that she check out radiofrequency for skin tightening. It’s a treatment that’s definitely not an inexpensive treatment, but effective; definitely effective. She said “I listened to the episode, thank you so much. I actually started doing radiofrequency skin tightening the next week, and have seen a significant difference. It was solid advice; thank you again for this and all that you ladies do.”
Yay! I’m really excited about that. You know, it’s easy to recommend coconut oil {laughs}
Liz Wolfe: Mm-hmm.
Diane Sanfilippo: Or something that’s accessible and inexpensive, but honestly sometimes, some of the best recommendations are not going to be cheap. They’re going to be working with a naturopath. They’re going to be taking up one of these treatments that if you want real results, this is sometimes what has to be done, and I’m really glad that she’s doing it and it’s working for her. So awesome, congrats, really glad to hear that.
You guys; let us know if you have followed some of the advice on the show, if it was a question that you asked or not; maybe it was something that just related to you, we’d love to hear it, definitely. If it’s something that you don’t want to make a comment on the Instagram page or any of that, you can certainly just shoot an email through http://blog.balancedbites.com through the contact page, and we get all of those emails. So thank you so much; and love it. Love to hear your feedback.
Liz Wolfe: Alright then. That’s it for this week. You can find me, Liz, at http://realfoodliz.com/ and you can find Diane at http://dianesanfilippo.com. Join our email lists for free goodies and updates that you don’t find anywhere else on our website or on the podcast. While you’re on the internet, please leave us an iTunes review; we’d greatly appreciate it. See you next week.