nutritionist, inflammation

Risa Groux: Episode Link

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TRANSCRIPT:

Welcome back to Hop Flashes and Cool Topics. Today we are talking with functional nutritionist, Risa Groux. Welcome to the show. Thank you so much. It’s great to be here. We appreciate it because we get a lot of questions from our listeners about nutrition, what’s happening with their thyroid, they may have other, you know, concerns coming up. up. And so anytime we can talk to them about stuff that helps with inflammation, helps them feel better, we’re excited to do it. So as I mentioned, you’re a functional nutritionist, you also have a book called Food Frame, Diet is a four letter word and yes it is.
Let’s start with this, what do you think is one of the biggest mistakes women in midlife make when it comes to nutrition? You know, there’s so many philosophies out there.
There’s the low fat, there’s the low carb, there’s the, you know, there’s a myriad of things. And I think there’s so much food confusion that of course people are confused. So I think the biggest mistake that people make is not finding out their exact way of eating that works for them.
The new book comes out by some amazing doctor or some scientist or something and everybody reads the book and everybody tries the diet and we all have that friend, that co -worker,
that neighbor who lost 42 pounds and you try it and you are bloated, you’re not losing weight, you can’t sleep, you’re worse off than you were, or maybe you lost five pounds and not 45 pounds.
So why I wrote my book and developed my my methodology food frame is because we’re not a one size fits all. We have different genes. We have different microbiomes and we have different stress levels.
Our guts are very different. Everything is different about us. So why would we be eating a one size fits all if we’re different? So I created food frame through years.
I’ve been doing this for decades and I used to put people on the same anti -inflammatory diet and then I would say, “Okay, let’s do some food allergy testing to find out. Let’s get some data.” And I realized all these people had food allergies or food sensitivities.
And after a while, I thought, “This doesn’t make sense.” And then I realized that all those food sensitivities were actually a side effect. They were just the symptoms of a leaky gut.
So, So it wasn’t the root cause, but leaky gut was really the root cause. So I started to focus on that. I realized after all these years that there are two foundational issues that I focus on because they either optimize your health or they hinder your health.
They turn out to be systemic inflammation, which we know is the driver of disease. If we didn’t know that before COVID, COVID, we should absolutely know that now. And the other one is gut health.
And gut health is extraordinarily important. So it’s where our microbiome lives. If we have leaky gut, as I mentioned, if we have pathogens, if we have H. pylori, if we have overgrowth of something,
we have not enough good guys, we have inflammation, of course we’re going to have a suboptimal health. So those are the two things that we need to know. foundational issues I look at and eating could be very different for you than it is for me because we have different circumstances.
So I developed Food Frame and there’s a quiz on my website that it’s just 12 questions and it really helps to determine which food frame is right for you.
And these are eating lifestyles. It’s not about restriction. It’s not about… you know, deprivation. It’s different. These are six different eating lifestyles that I use most often with people.
occasionally I’ll have to go outside that box, but it’s rare. So most people fit into six different diet types or eating lifestyles. I always start people off with my detox because I feel that we’re so toxic.
We have major toxic loads, toxins live in fat cells and fat tissues. so of course we lose weight when we do a detox, but it’s not a weight loss program. It is a wellness program and weight loss is a scientific weight of wellness.
So I focus on cleaning up the blood, the liver, which is the key to the castle, and then eating according to what is best for you. What do you find are some of the,
are there things that are more common in most people? that cause inflammation or cause problems than other things? Absolutely. So I hate to say this,
but we all pretty much know this. Sugar is the devil. Sugar is inflammatory. We have this love affair with sugar. Everybody does, right? And it feeds the bad guys.
So we actually crave sugar when we have the bad guys in there. We have a lot of yeast or we have a lot of pathogens, we’re going to request sugar. That’s what they thrive off of.
So sugar is absolutely the devil across the board. There isn’t anybody I would say, “Oh, you can have some sugar. It’s good for you.” Right? Gluten is not horrible for everybody,
but it is not what I would call health food. It is very effective at eating our intestinal lining. We only have one layer of epithelial cells on our intestinal lining.
We have seven on the outside layer. So it’s very fragile. On top of that, we have villi to protect that, and then we have a mucosal lining where things happen and it recreates.
It’s like the soil for the gut where good microbiome gets recreated if you have the right microbiome. So when those holes open in the intestinal lining, things like…
like toxins and organ malfunctions and stress is a huge one. Bread sugar, dairy and alcohol, I mean bread gluten, all go through the intestinal lining and it goes through the bloodstream,
through the back door and the body says, “Who are you? You’re the enemy.” And it starts to create its own defense system. It creates antibodies and inflammation. Now, we do this long enough and those antibodies need to find an organ or a gland or a tissue in which to park itself.
And that’s a very effective way to get autoimmune disease. And we, if we don’t shut that, that if we don’t, you know, reinstall the integrity of the intestinal lining,
we’re just gonna continue to collect autoimmune diseases. – Before we get to autoimmune diseases, ’cause I wanna kind of get a definition of what that is. I just wanted to ask you, you know,
you talk about sugar being the devil, but there’s a difference between natural sugar and processed sugar. Can you explain that so people understand it? Yeah, great question. So processed sugar is something that’s used,
you know, it made in a factory and it’s probably grown with some GMOs, perhaps some sugar cane GMOs are very, very common. And then they bleach it, they process it,
they strip any potential nutrients, which there really isn’t much to begin with, and it’s processed. So it really has no natural fiber to it. And so what happens when you eat it is it’s going to spike your blood sugar levels,
you’re going to just go right out. The way to avoid that is to have a natural sugar that’s usually has fiber in it. And that is going to decrease that spike, and it’s going to cause less damage in the long run than the short run.
So we always want to some people say, put a coat on it. I would say, have your sugar with a protein fat or fiber, so you decrease that spike. It’s very helpful for that.
There are, agave I know is really the big thing about what, 10 years ago, but it’s comes from a cactus plant, but it’s highly processed and they strip the fiber again,
and so it’s gonna spike blood sugar levels. Honey will do that as well, but it has more natural properties to it. It’s got a lot of immunity properties, so honey, local honey would probably be my best recommendation there,
but there’s so many things now that I’m like a huge fan of allulose. Allulose is natural, it comes from figs, raisins, or jackfruit, and it doesn’t spike blood sugar levels.
It doesn’t cause gastric up. And we don’t really absorb it, but can’t digest it. So there really are no calories or carbs in it,
even though the FDA makes us put it on the label. So it’s like a free food. So I use allulose if I’m baking or if I’m making chia pudding, I don’t usually use it for myself.
But if I’m making it for a dessert for other people, I’ll put a little allulose in there. And I have a lot of people I work with who want something sweeter. I use to recommend alulose. It’s starting to become more mainstream.
It’s definitely going to be more of the future. I can now get chocolate bars with alulose. So it’s really becoming more popular. Stevia is another natural sweeter.
It comes from a stevia plant and that’s really good. It doesn’t also spike blood sugar levels and monk fruit. Monk fruit is great. It tends to be very very expensive.
It’s from a fruit called Luhan Gao from China. And so it is expensive. So typically it’s very hard to find without erythritol in it. They cut it with erythritol.
And if you have IBS or SIBO, that’s not something I would recommend for you. And erythritol is a natural sugar alcohol. It’s a little processed. It’s not terribly dangerous, but too much of it will definitely give you some gastric upset.
right? I was going to ask how how can you find a lot of these products readily because a lot of them I’ve never heard of and You know here we live in Tennessee calling it I live in Tennessee So I’m sure that California is probably going to have those more readily available Do you know how readily available they are you can get them on Amazon?
Okay, yeah, I do see them sometimes a target. I don’t go to target all that much, but I do see it sometimes. Any natural stores will have it typically,
but just read the label. Trader Joe’s has it, but they have it with the Rithritol allulose. So I don’t buy that. You can buy monk fruit extract and just make sure that you are not using the same dose or the same quantity because it’s concentrated.
It’s an extract. I did a TV show a few years ago. ago and they used, I didn’t know they were using extract and they used the same amount that was in my recipe and they were like, oh,
this is so sweet. So let’s make sure it’s an extract, so it’s really strong. – Right. – I actually, I’m a huge proponent of monk fruit. I mix it every day and Lakonto is a company.
Certain products in their line do have erythritol, but the– the drops do not. It’s just pure mongrel. Yeah, that’s what you’re always carrying around as an colleague. I’m always when she gets a tea.
That’s what she has. That’s perfectly fine. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Have you found as you know, you said you’ve been doing this a while, as more processed food is introduced,
have you found that people are suffering more from these different autoimmune issues? Absolutely. I don’t see it as much in my office because I think I get a fairly sophisticated person for the most part,
but we see it in our statistics, our national averages, and we see it in our obesity and our disease rate. We are seeing autoimmune record numbers.
I mean every year I do a presentation on a sugar presentation. and I show the US math, and I show the obesity rates. And what you see from the year 2000 to 2020 is what I have.
It’s unbelievable. It is unbelievable. I just got back from Europe. I was in three countries in Europe. And I was hard pressed to find anybody obese. And in Paris,
I mean, all you. see is a lingerie and a pâtisserie on every single corner. So and people are eating this, but they are not eating obscene amounts. They’re not added processed ingredients.
Our additive flavoring business, this is an old statistic, but this is about five years ago was at $4 .1 billion. That’s our presence in our additives.
additives. So, you know, and for instance, the FDA has approved 86 ,000 chemicals for us to use to breathe, to put on our skin, to eat.
Other countries don’t have that. If you look at labels like, let’s say Cheerios or something, you’ll see at the US the ingredients are this long and in the UK they’re this long because they don’t permit,
they don’t permit dyes and… and chemicals and BHT and I mean, all these really dangerous chemicals and endocrine disruptors. So those endocrine disruptors that we’re having over and over and over again,
the carrageenan, the TBHQ, the BHT that are in cheez -its and Fritos and Oreos and how many Oreos do we need? Do we need? No,
I know. And red and mini and chocolate dipped and I mean, how how many do we actually, I went down the cookie aisle a while ago and I was like, holy smokes. I couldn’t believe how many different Oreos we have,
right? – Right. It’s just chips, you know, chips. When we were younger, the chip aisle, you had maybe five brands of chips. And now it’s up and down two aisles each side.
Chips, chips away, chips ahoy, chips, whatever. Don’t take away my chips. ahoy But it is true the whole year that you know the European the things that aren’t allowed and then you look back at The chemicals that we had as children that they found out later Caused cancer the red dye and everything you’re thinking What’s happening now if they’re allowing that many what is happening now to our foods supply?
so Right. So the inability is going to be worse and worse. I was in Italy over the summer and I took a video and put it on my Instagram because I was just bored.
They had five frozen doors. That was it. There were like four ice creams to choose from and we’re in Italy. They had like two different frozen pizzas too and then it was just a couple of you know vegetables and fruit and things and their chip aisle was like you know know,
like maybe, you know, five feet, that’s it, maybe, maybe four feet. So it, they are used to eating real food. We are eating way too many processed foods that are void of nutrients.
Let’s talk a little bit about autoimmune diseases. And can you explain first what they are and how they can affect us? Yeah, so autoimmune basically means that you have a created these antibodies and they need to find a place to park,
right? So they’re gonna find a gland, a tissue or an organ in which to park. And so it’s basically your defense mechanism is creating antibodies because they feel that there’s a foreigner, there’s an intruder.
And so for instance, if it’s Hashimoto’s, they are gonna start attacking the thyroid gland and they’ll just start eating away at the thyroid gland. If it’s fibromyalgia, they’re going to hit your muscles.
If it’s rheumatoid arthritis, they’re going to hit your joints. So it’s all different autoimmune has different places that it attacks, but it is the same principle.
It’s when I don’t want to get too technical, but at your Treg cells, we have a T H 1 and T H 2. When you’re in autoimmune state, your T H 17 gets activated and we have what’s called a sighting cytokine storm.
Cytokines are molecules that are caused by inflammation. And so I put together a list, it’s in my book because I couldn’t find one when I was going through it. And it took me years,
probably about 10 years to figure out all the root causes to autoimmune. A third of it is genetic. So if your mom or dad have it, you have a very high likelihood of getting it.
And the other main cause of autoimmune is a very high likelihood of getting it. is a very high likelihood of getting it. is a very high likelihood of getting it. is a very high likelihood of getting it. And the other main cause of autoimmune is a very high likelihood of getting it. And the other main cause of autoimmune portion is leaky gut. We’ve talked about that. And so you’re going to continue to get, collect
autoimmune diseases typically if you don’t get to that root cause. But then there’s other things like vitamin D deficiency, which is so rampant. There’s MTHFR,
that gene mutation that’s very, very common. 90 % of the population has it. I test every single person for it. It’s a methylation of either your B12 and /or your folate,
or B9. So you just need a simple B vitamin that’s in methylated form. It could be a pathogen, so it could be a parasite that can cause it. It could be an overgrowth of bad bacteria.
It could be a virus that’s become activated. So like Epstein -Barr virus, for instance, we all have it pretty much dormant. By the time we’re 40, the stats are 90 percent of the population.
population has it. And it comes from the mono. So if you had mono, you have EBV dormant in your system. And if you’ve swapped spit with anybody at any point in your life that has had mono or EBV,
you have it in your system. So almost everybody has it. And it lays dormant until something happens that can activate it. So a very stressful situation, not enough sleep,
a bad diet, too much sleep. alcohol, too much sugar processed foods, things like that. And when you activate a virus, that can cause, like EVV, it can dysregulate blood sugars and it can dysregulate thyroid and be the cause of up to 33 autoimmune diseases.
You find that women, you know, our demographic of listeners, women and menopause, do you see an uptick in patients that… that come to you that need help with autoimmune problems?
– Yes, unfortunately, pregnancy is something that really spawns it because we have this hormonal shift. We have a traumatic change in our body. And if they didn’t get you after pregnancy,
then likely you’ve got a high chance of getting it after menopause or during menopause because it’s that major hormone shift that can cause that. – So my family,
one of my sisters, two of my sisters have been diagnosed with Hashimoto’s. I went to get the test, but I know that doctors don’t give all the tests that you ask for.
Can you talk about that, what you really need to ask for if that’s in your family? Because I believe I wasn’t given the right test the first time I asked. – Well, shocking. actually. Nobody gets the right test,
right? Unfortunately, conventional medicine is really predicated on insurance. And insurance doesn’t want to pay for all those things, so we don’t typically get the right information. So we’re kind of playing darts with the lights off when we cannot see the target.
So I order all nine markers of the thyroid. What conventional medicine usually tests for is TSH. TSH. That’s thyroid stimulating hormone. That’s probably what you were tested for.
And that is made in the pituitary, which is the size and shape of a P in the brain. And it gets the ball rolling. That TSH has to go through the liver and it converts it into T4.
T4s are inactive thyroid hormone. It’s inactive. It is 93 % of the equation. We have to cleave off a little bit. atom of iodine and then we convert it into T3.
That is the star of the show. That is what makes us feel good or bad, right? So those symptoms are fatigue, hair loss, hair thinning, nails brittle,
outside of the eyebrows go, fatigue, constipation, anxiety, cold extremities, easy weight gain, impossible weight loss. Those are typical. thyroid issues.
You might not have all of them, but you have some of them for sure. So TSH, well, I usually tell people it’s like this. So when you went to the science museum,
you took your kids and you were on the third floor and there was a track that went down and you dropped a ball and you went down the track and then you went through the tunnel and then you ring the bell and then you went through the domino set and you did all these things.
And a few minutes later, the ball went down. landed in a cup and you’re like whoa isn’t that amazing all those things that had to happen. That’s basically how complicated the thyroid is. All of those things have to happen in order to get the ball in the cup.
TSH tells us if the pituitary is dropping more balls because the theory is that if we’re not getting a ball in the cup it’s going of course somewhere we’re going to start throwing more balls.
because we have a higher percentage rate of getting a ball in the cup if we throw more balls. There’s several problems with that. The first problem is the range is so wide. So in functional medicine,
we like that TSH between 1 .0 and 2 .0. And in conventional medicine, most labs will go to 4 .5. So you’re already in disease state by the time you get out of lab range.
But the other problem is, is that I like that TSH between 1 .0 and 2 .0. at labs all day long, and TSH sometimes doesn’t respond to a ball that’s not getting into a cup. So in addition to cleaving off that atom of iodide and converting it to active thyroid hormone,
we also have sex hormones. So if we have an imbalance of sex hormones, we’re gonna compete for that thyroid site, but they don’t look for that. That’s called T3eptic.
We also, I, too, for reverse T3. Reverse T3 tells us if your inflammation or your high levels of cortisol are depleting your stores of T3,
your active thyroid hormone. I look at all those tests, plus I ordered two antibodies to thyroid proxies, antibody, TPO, and thyroid -lobulin antibodies because you may have one,
you may not have the other, so I look at both. [BLANK _AUDIO] and that will give us a very true picture the lights are on I could see the target we know exactly what’s going on I look at labs all day long and I can tell you that most people are not converters they’re just not converters even if they’re taking synthroid which is a synthetic T4 the doctors give it to you and say I hope you convert because they just
assume that conversion takes place but it doesn’t I think I get very excited when I find a converter. I go, oh, I think I’m gonna convert. It’s rare. – Wow.
– Right. – Yes. – So what can, all right, so now you’ve discovered you have a thyroid issue, which you had to beg for the test because the doctor probably doesn’t even know what you just explained to test for,
but you’ve gotten either hypo, hyper, Hashimoto’s. but you’ve gotten either hypo, hyper, Hashimoto’s. – And you’ve gotten either hypo, hyper, Hashimoto’s. – And you’ve gotten either hypo, hyper, Hashimoto’s. – And you’ve gotten either hypo, hyper, Hashimoto’s. – And you’ve gotten either hypo, hyper, Hashimoto’s. that there are six different types of, I hate the word diet, but meal.
– I think I’ve said that. – That people fall into. Can we talk about those and which one the thyroid issues would fall into? – Absolutely. So if you come into my office,
whether you know it when you walk in or we find it after your blood labs and you’ve got antibodies, we are absolutely after your detox it’s gonna put you on the AIP. protocol. So that is the autoimmune protocol.
And it’s pretty strict. It is a 30 to 90 day protocol. I always recommend to go 90 days because once you’re on it, you might as well just do it to the max. And I cannot tell you how many results I see with just that.
We’re eating basically paleo. You’re having a little bit of fruit, but we are taking out all grains, all legumes, all grains. all dairy, all sugar, all gluten, all processed food,
bad oils, and we are in grains, did I say that? And then we’re eating really good fats, lots of vegetables, and good clean quality animal protein,
little bit of fruits, and some sweet potato and yams. There’s no seeds, there’s no eggs, there’s no nuts. So it’s strict, but, you know, know, I’m working with somebody right now with major young gals,
she’s three young kids, she is in massive pain every day, at least when she came to me, fibromyalgia, she is almost completely pain free, and she’s on day 45,
at least last time I talked to her last week, she was on day 45 of AIP. Once you finish that, I’m going to put you on either low lectin, because lectins are what we call anti -nutrients that can cause inflammation.
So you’re either going to go on a low lectin program or you’re going to go on a paleo program. So you can try each and see which one you do well. I will sometimes say let’s do paleo and just take out the nightshades.
Those are really high in lectins. So that’s what I recommend for people with Hashimoto’s or any kind of antibody. I have a dummy. question.
Can you give us some examples of lectins, what different lectins are? – So that’s not a dumb question at all. So lectins basically they’re, as I said, under the umbrella of anti -nutrients, and all living organisms have the ability to protect themselves,
right? If humans, if we’re being attacked, we can kick, scream, yell, flee a situation, call 911. But plants can’t do that. is that they can’t do that. So what they have to protect themselves from, is that they can’t do that. So what they have to protect themselves from, So what they have to protect themselves from, So what they have to protect themselves from, innately,
is I call a hard candy shell around their germ or their seed that protects them. And those are called lectins. So basically, we all have two goals as living organisms.
One is to survive and the other is to procreate. So just like us, they have the same. They want to survive and procreate. So if you’re trying to destroy that germ or seed, they’re going to do what they can to protect themselves.
Now, you have a really acidic stomach that you’ve got great digestive enzymes, you have plenty of pancreatic enzymes, hydrochloric acid, you’re probably not going to have any problem breaking that down.
But if you don’t, you’re going to be that person who goes I can’t eat hummus, I bloat like crazy. So legumes are really high in lectins.
Nightshades, that is peppers of all kinds except for black pepper, but any kind of pepper. pepper. Tomatoes are big, goji berries,
eggplant, and potatoes, potatoes except for sweet potato and yams that’s a different potato family but all white potatoes are high in lectin so those are the those are what we call the night shades so those I say absolutely take out.
The lectins are usually found in the seeds and the skin. So you can have a cucumber or a tomato just take off the skin and the seeds. When you sprout or you pressure cook beans,
it decreases the lectin load. There’s a manufacturer eating food. They have lentils and beans that are already pressure cooked.
So those are less lectin. lectin -containing beans. But if you are autoimmune, I’m gonna tell you don’t even try that yet until we reverse your autoimmune or you get into a really good place and you can autoimmune occasionally.
– As someone who has had digestive issues my entire life, I’m often handed a sheet that says FODMAP and say, “Good luck, this should help you.” But…
But I think, you know, can you explain what the FODMAP is and does it really provide that much help? – Yes. So FODMAP is an acronym for fermented oleosaccharides,
disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols. So in plain English– – That’s a mouthful. – Right, it is a mouthful. Those are foods that contain all these certain types of– of carbohydrates that will absorb water and gases,
right? Depending on what you’ve got, but they absorb. So you’re the person who can’t eat the hummus. You would absolutely tell me, uh -uh, I’m gonna be nine months pregnant after I have that hummus and celery, right? So is that sound ring -a -bell?
– Yeah, I had hummus for lunch today. – So I won’t stand up. – It’s the baby do, when’s the baby do? – Right. Oh my gosh,
that’s a funny. Foods that are high in FODMAPs, like onions are hugely high and garlic, apples, beans, though,
and carbohydrates. So all foods that have carbohydrates, like vegetables all have carbohydrates. You can have a little bit, but not a lot. So what happens there is it’s typically recommended and it’s recommended for people who don’t have carbohydrates.
people with SIBO, which is small intestinal bacteria overgrowth, which means when you have a bacteria that parks itself in the small intestine rather than the large intestine,
high -fat foods like the ones I just mentioned will feed that. So that’s the person who’s like, oh my god, I am bloated all the time. I might have some chronic diarrhea.
I might have chronic constipation or alternating of those. That is a person who would be perfect for low FODMAP. Again, it’s an elimination, so it’s 30 to 90 days.
It’s really strict. You’re basically eating a lot of animal protein and you can have things like corn, rice, but quantity is critical.
You can have a little bit, but you can’t have a lot. So it’s not easy. I’ve done it myself. I did 90 days. There’s a lot of companies out there now that make products for low -fat maps.
So that’s really great. They didn’t have that when I was doing it. And it’s easily accessible recipes online. So it’s not as difficult, but it is a difficult way to go.
Now, I will have people I work with all the time with SIBO and I’ll put them on the low -fat map. I usually do that in conjunction. with a killing agent. So that’s killing that bacteria.
We’re trying to starve that bacteria. And once it goes away, SIBO is very recurring unfortunately, but we see it go away. And if you have a very severe case,
there’s different ways we can treat that and it may take a while. So pack your patients and be consistent. Do you find it’s really hard for people? to stick with this?
Because I could see where if you’re starting to feel better and you want to feel better, you don’t want to go back to the old ways, but I wonder how difficult it is to keep doing this.
– Most of the people that come to me have already been to a million doctors and they are fed up and they’re willing to do anything. But sure, I have people who come to me and go, “Oh, I feel better.” better after the detox,
I just took this out, I’m good to go. They’ll be back and it just happens. So everybody has a different threshold and everybody’s at a different point in their journey.
So some people come into my office and say, tell me what to do and I’ll do it. And other people say, I gotta go slowly, I gotta take this bite size. And so I work individually with whatever.
that person needs. So we’ve been through FODMAP, we did low lectin, we did autoimmune protocols. So that’s three. And you have keto,
paleo, and vegan, which do you talk about the Mediterranean lifestyle plan at all? Yeah. So Mediterranean is really very much like paleo.
Paleo is basically from the Mediterranean. Paleolithic times. So we’re eating like the caveman. And I love this philosophy and it’s really my mainstream one. So if most people are eating this way after we address whatever it is we’re addressing,
because almost everybody does great on this. I eat paleo personally. And basically what it focuses on is quality. So back in the Paleolithic times,
we didn’t have glyphosate, we didn’t have additives and preservatives and carrageenan and things like that. We didn’t have dyes, chemicals, we just had real food, things that were crawling on the ground and then sprouting from the earth.
So you’re basically eating like that, good clean animal protein, unlimited vegetables, sweet potato and yams, good fats, eggs, nuts, seeds, avocado,
avocado oil, coconut, coconut oil and olive, olive oil. And you… can really sustain your life on that. So now we have a lot of options, right? We have paleo, we’re doing a lot of paleo,
ice cream, and you know, you can have paleo cookies and things like that. So you can go, you know, off course a little bit. And if you, you know, if I was just in Paris,
as I mentioned, I had some cheese, I had goat cheese. I don’t eat cheese all the time. I don’t do well with it. I do a lot of genetic tests. testing so I know I don’t do well with it. And so I do it very rarely.
But I can do a little bit. I’ll do goat cheese because it’s more easily digestible. So paleo is more of a broad stroke and that is what the majority of people I recommend without any really major health issues or after we’ve already taken care of the gut and all that stuff.
Pito is awesome for certain certain people. And keto is basically when you switch your fuel source that we currently have as carbohydrates and sugar carbohydrates turn into sugar.
That’s what we are our insulin converts it into glycogen and glycogen is then placed in every cell in the body. And our little mitochondria in our cells is what makes ADP our energy.
Those are our fuel factories. So when we switch to keto, we are switching our fuel source to fat. In order to get into ketosis,
not everybody can get into ketosis. I can’t get into ketosis without exogenous ketones. But some people can, men do better than women do. And people with stress don’t typically do well.
But if you’re coming into my office, let’s say you have been diagnosed with cancer, let’s say you have diabetes, I’m going to most likely put you on keto.
If you have known problems with fat absorption, so I’m going to check your steatocritin, your stool, I’m going to check your GGT to see how sludgy your bile is on your blood test. And if you have your gallbladder,
you’re the perfect fit. But if you have any of those, if you’ve removed your gallbladder, keto is not for you. So if you are, you know, know, there’s certain people with fat malabsorption,
I would not recommend keto. And there’s so much science about keto being so beneficial for long -term use. I don’t put anybody on keto or recommend anybody on keto for longer than three months.
It’s hard to find fiber to get enough fiber in your diet with keto because you’re eating just bacon and eggs and protein. and there’s just not a lot of fiber because all fiber, as I mentioned earlier,
has carbohydrates. So those people, I feel like they need to take a break after three months, have some fiber and reassess if you want to get back on keto.
You mentioned the testing, what you test. Yeah, you talked about stool testing, different testing. Can you talk a little bit about what type of testing that you do? Yeah, so everybody who I work with,
very first day, I’m going to order a comprehensive bio screen, which is going to give me all four markers of your blood sugar, see if you’re insulin resistant, prediabetic, diabetic, or hypoglycemic. I don’t get all nine markers,
you get thyroid, we talked about that. I’m looking at your iron, I’m looking at inflammation markers, which conventional doctors don’t do. I’m also looking at your white blood cells. So I can see if there’s a pattern, a bacterial pattern,
a viral pattern. So So I’m looking at that in blood and then I’m looking at stool test. I order a stool test for everybody no matter what. I’m looking for 84 pathogens, so H pylori which could be problematic and lead to gastric cancers and peptic ulcers.
I’m looking at Giardia and yeast and fungus and the good guys. Is there enough good guys? Is there an overgrowth of the bad guys? I’m looking for inflammation. I’m looking for pancreatic…
pancreatic enzyme production. I’m looking for fat malabsorption. I’m looking for gluten sensitivity, and I’m looking for leaky gut blood in your stool, potentially microscopic blood as well.
So I really have a thorough testing, and then of course I test everybody for MTH of R. And so at that point, I usually have what I need. There are times I may need more, or if you are having hormone issues,
you’re in menopause, or you’re menopause. and there’s hormone symptoms, I’m going to suggest a hormone panel. How can someone in their area,
you know, find a functional nutritionist? Are there websites that we can go on and say, okay, let me find a functional nutritionist in my area? Yeah, so I work with everybody across the country and I do it through Zoom so I can help anybody who is needing help.
But there is the Institute of Functional Medicine as well. So you can look up there, they have a directory and you can find a functional neurologist or an endocrinologist or something like that.
– Well, we’ll have your website in our show notes. So we’ll definitely let everybody know about that. Thank you so much, Risa, for coming on and talking to us about functional nutrition, the different types of food that we should be eating.
eating, and just sharing all your information because knowledge is power. Thank you so much for coming on today. Thank you for having me.

How Functional Nutition Can Help with Autoimmune Diseases and Inflammation

Risa Groux: Episode Link

TRANSCRIPT:

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