The Tummy Whisperer

Ep. 4 - Tackling Food Triggers and Digestive Issues: Finding Balance and Enjoying Flavorful Alternatives

• Renee Barasch

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Are you frequently feeling overly full or constantly hungry, and can't seem to figure out why? You might be surprised to learn that certain food triggers could be causing these symptoms, as well as other digestive issues. In this eye-opening episode, we reveal the hidden messages that some foods send to our brains and explain why moderation is essential when dealing with trigger foods. Plus, we explore how symptoms can vary from person to person and share some tasty alternatives to keep your taste buds happy, like hummus, seed crackers, and sunflower seed butter.

Struggling with digestive issues doesn't have to mean sacrificing flavor or the joy of eating. We've got you covered with our favorite companies that whip up mouthwatering gluten-free chips, bars, and tortillas. In addition, we'll share practical tips for expanding your threshold of acceptable foods and the many benefits of cooking vegetables.

Lastly, we dive into the importance of balancing diet restrictions and finding what works best for you when it comes to lightening the load of an inflammatory diet. We understand that it can be challenging, but we're here to support you on your journey to better health. Listen in as we discuss the value of tasting and trying different food products, share simple cooking ideas that can positively impact your well-being, and remind you that the key is to discover what works for you and doesn't. Don't miss this episode jam-packed with valuable insights and helpful tips!

Get to the root cause of your Gut Issues!  Watch the Gut Restoration Masterclass at https://learn.digestivehealthsolutions.com/

For a FREE Gut Health consultation, visit us at  https://thetummywhisperer.com/.


Contact Renee:
Email: Nhsolutions@sbcglobal.net
Website:  www.thetummywhisperer.com 

Speaker 2:

We are live Welcome. Welcome, everybody, to episode number four of the Tummy Whisper podcast. Today we're going to make it nice and simple, we're going to dial it back. We're going to talk about food triggers. So for those of you that are like, oh yeah, i may have some of those, for those of you who don't know what food triggers are, there are certain foods that you may be eating that could be causing some crazy symptoms, and those symptoms can be anything from that feeling of just full all the time or always hungry. Do you ever eat? you know how, like after Thanksgiving, you're like so full but you could probably eat more.

Speaker 1:

It's like after I eat Chinese food. Every time you eat Chinese food, you're hungry an hour later. What is?

Speaker 2:

that? Yes, exactly. Part of that is there's an air traffic control center in the brain called the hypothalamus that is actually sending the messages to the tongue to be like Hey, janine, like we need a little bit more compel over here, or a fortune cookie with like money in it or something. But certain foods will cause any kind of symptoms. Again, we just talked about being too hungry, being overly full, having the appetite be erratic too, digestive dramas, gas bloating, constipation, diarrhea, acid reflux, heartburn this horrific, horrible bowel issues, nausea, that feeling where you just throat is kind of like height Those are the tight feeling in throat definitely can come from certain food.

Speaker 2:

So I wanted to just throw that out there for everybody and say, hey, there are so many times that something that you may be eating could be a big part of why you're feeling crappy or not feeling great, or your bowel is running too slow or running too fast, or you feel bloated after a meal, or you feel bloated in between meals, or you feel bloated first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. Why would that be? I could definitely blame peanuts and peanut butter. So, those of you that are listening, if you would love peanut butter as a snack, which he does. Oh Jeanine, every time I do these, she's covering her eyes. She's oh my God, it's like a food group for me?

Speaker 1:

No, Renee, seriously, peanut butter is a food group.

Speaker 2:

I understand for every, my husband too, and I had to take it away from him lovingly and like he had to do it himself, actually, because his symptoms right, his horrible symptoms You dial it back and he put it in again. And peanut butter is okay for some people It is, but for some people it's not. So if you ever feel wrote issues, tingly, bloated, it could also cause sleep issues. Nuts and peanuts I'm picking on them, but they are something to look at. What do you replace peanuts and nuts with? Templar seeds, or maybe pumpkin seeds, or like macadamia nut is a lower histamine nut when eaten in moderation.

Speaker 2:

And here's another thing You know what's moderation, jeanine? your moderation is different than my moderation. You probably have more wiggle room with your body than I do with mine. I really can't mess around in the middle of spring when the histamines are skyrocketing in the air and my body's okay. You better dial it back, girl. But in the wintertime, when there's not a lot of histamines and airborne allergens, i can maybe have a little peanut butter without too much of an issue. So again, talking to you guys about what these few triggers are there and there's a million of them and they can all relate to your particular symptoms. So, like I said, even just peanut butter alone can cause throat stuff, feeling of nausea, which is a histamine response, bloating gas, slow the bowel down, run the ball 90 miles an hour, depending on what your body, how your body processes or doesn't. Can you have a little spoonful from time to time?

Speaker 1:

Probably, i put a little spoonful in my oatmeal in the morning and I love it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, do you probably don't feel that Like you don't feel like it poses your throat.

Speaker 1:

No.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, or either it causes you horrible gas or bloating.

Speaker 1:

My husband would argue he thinks everything causes gas. I don't know what's tell you there, but that's a guy thing.

Speaker 2:

I think guys in gas they're like it's always a total. But yeah, and then again, i just want to make it really simple today. I want to just talk about these foods that could be a quick, easy snack. What would you do for a snack if peanuts are an issue? There's a lot of different choices. You can have maybe a rice cake and some hummus, or, if you want something sweet, or rice cake with some sunflower seed butter and a little like raspberry jam. In fact, I had that last night when I got home from from doggy trick class, which, by the way, we're now speaking rollover. He, it's so cute I'll have to send it to you.

Speaker 1:

He's like a show dog.

Speaker 2:

He really is a dog, far from it, but he is my guy. So to my little Beagle. But yes, so that could be a sweet, a nice, sweet snack. If you want some savory, you can do like some seed crackers with some hummus or seed crackers with a little guac, if you're not real sensitive to guac, which is another thing, that's a little high in histamine, cause some issues.

Speaker 1:

Avocados really.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, they can't eat. Avocados are one of those things that I think people when I work with people and they're talking to them about glue and they're like, oh, i can hear it in their voice, but I mentioned avocados, like it's like I ran over their dog or their child. Avocados are so yummy and everybody loves them. I would say less is more with avocados if you have digestive issues and it doesn't matter if you have a histamine issue or not. But avocados are one of those things You don't want to eat them overly, right.

Speaker 2:

You don't want to eat them every day if you have digestive issues and you don't want to eat them a large amount of them. So, like for me, i could tolerate a small, a whole small one couple of times a week or half of a large one couple of times a week. That overly ripe. If they're sitting in the fridge for three or four days They're done. Just like people that make banana bread, they always do the overly ripe bananas. The longer the bananas are sitting, the more histamine they become and they can create more symptoms.

Speaker 1:

You were going to say something like, yeah, what are the biggest food triggers? It's different for everyone, but what are, like, the main ones? that, like peanuts, i'm sure would be like a big one for a lot of people.

Speaker 2:

Peanuts can be for the people that come across my desk, not dairy, and a lot of people do know that too, but it's. you need a 12 step for dairy, because who I even less than a leaving class and, like God, i would love to have a culvert shake. I would love to have this. Oh and creamy. It's not as hell yesterday and I didn't. I came home and I had some fruit and I was like oh this is perfect And it was fine after I got over myself.

Speaker 2:

But dairy is one of those can be. I don't think. I don't think anybody can really tolerate dairy. I think people convince themselves that they can because they don't die when they eat it. But the cow protein molecule is large, very large. Our human DNA structure. I don't feel like we recognize it as well as maybe a baby calf would. We're the only species that drinks another species milk. No other species do that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's a little bizarre and I look back on my life and think my parents generation. You had to have a glass of milk with your milk, with your meal. It's so gross. And all the hormones and all the stuff It's like. Why would I choose Like? why are you shoving another animal's milk in my digestive system? Why, i don't understand it.

Speaker 2:

Not even the hormones. There's puss and blood in dairy because those cows are old, poor otters are torn. If you really look at the way milk dairy is processed, there's blood, there's puss in there. You're drinking puss and blood. The first time I ever said to Matthew was like he stopped And that's my nice way of being. Like you really want to eat dairy But you know, when it's like frozen custard form, you're not even thinking about it Because once in a while I will do a culver's and I'm like I don't know myself.

Speaker 1:

Renee, that's. I don't think I'll ever eat dairy again. So thank you for that. I congratulations. job well done on my part, do you not, do you? are you like dairy free? Look at me, i'm like messing with my hair today. Are you like completely dairy free?

Speaker 2:

Like 99.99999. if I have dairies, maybe once in a blue moon, i really I can't though, cause I have thyroid issues and dairy can bitch-slap with thyroid. So for you ladies and gentlemen who have thyroid issues, definitely watch. dairy and gluten is a big one too, but again, people need help rolling out what the gluten-free and dairy-free items are that taste good. I really love the company Veolife, the I-O-L-I-F-E. They're a Whole Foods company And for those of you folks that are listening, that aren't really near a Whole Foods. maybe most grocery stores are so nice if you bring a picture of it to the manager that can you order this for me. I've never heard of a grocery store doing like we're not gonna carry that, like the special order at most grocery stores. you really wanna help And what do you have?

Speaker 2:

in Florida that you have. What's your grocery store there?

Speaker 1:

We have a few now. It used to be just Publix and Winn-Dixie and then Albertsons. But now we've got Sprouts and Aldi And Whole Foods and Trader Joe's.

Speaker 2:

Trader Joe's Sprouts I think would carry, and Publix's. Last time I was in Florida was when Mark and I got married, but Publix had a lot of gluten-free and digger-free stuff And that's how many. We were going on like eight. How long have we mirrored? Almost eight years. So I'm sure they carry a lot more, but there's a lot of. The food has come a long way, baby, since three, five and 10 years ago And it keeps getting better and better. In fact I just made German cucumber salad and then German the other day, and in German cucumber salad you have to use dairy like a sour cream. So I was at Woodman's looking around. I was like I'm gonna try this Kite Hill organic dairy-free sour cream And it was very good It was. You mix the cucumbers in there, a little salt, pepper, dill, a little bit of onion, and then I threw it on top of greens and I put some grilled chicken on it.

Speaker 1:

I need that recipe. I'm going to a potluck barbecue on Saturday.

Speaker 2:

Do you actually have it pinned? not pinned, but I have it at the top of my Facebook page and I can actually send you a picture of the Kite Hill dairy-free if you wanna try it Like where anybody's like yeah, because, if you go to that potluck and people go oh God, that looks good. I'd love to try it, but I can't have dairy. But here you go.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely dairy-free, and then it'll be gone in a matter of seconds.

Speaker 2:

And I'm telling you, like I said, the products have come a long way. So back to like how we can handle some of these food triggers. What are the replacement items? It's always about replacing something too, so that you have stuff to eat and that you're not feeling starving and stuck and looking for something like, okay, i can have that, i can have that. Oh, i can't have that. What can you have? There's so much to have. Even on a vegetarian diet, there's plenty to eat. And vegans who choose to be vegan, for whatever reason, i applaud them. there's still plenty to eat. They're already dairy-free anyway.

Speaker 1:

So what are some good snacks, renee, that someone could, if they have like other than like sunflower seeds, that someone could just eat, it easy, that they could take with them. That's portable.

Speaker 2:

Portable. Yeah, so I don't love corn so much for people that have an in-plane GI tract, but there's a lot of really good. I wish I could like put them in the chat I'm gonna have. I'll put it in my. Actually I'll put them. I'll post them on my Facebook page in this video here so people would see it. But there's a company called Garden of Eaton.

Speaker 1:

I'll put it in the chat. Any spell it Garden E-A-N.

Speaker 2:

G-A-R-D-E-N Garden of Eaton Like I'm Eaton E-A-T-I-N And they make a delicious gluten-free little chip. That's like a low oil and it's like feels like an air-pump chip and it's made with sweet potato and black rice and it's like a low histamine little snack. So I love those. Those are good. There's other little chips that you can have if you want some crunchy and savory, if you want something sweet to take with you. There's a lot of good bars out there. I like the Go Macro bars Have you ever heard of those?

Speaker 1:

I've seen them, but I've never had them.

Speaker 2:

Tell us about that. The Go Macro bars oh, i love the Go Macro bars. There's a heartwarming oatmeal taco chip. Oh man, there is some sugar in there. So these recommendations definitely are not without something. They can't be this perfect food with zero sugar Although you'll get a lot of that on Facebook like zero percent, zero sugar bars now but they're all full of nuts. You got to really watch out if you have a sensitivity nut. So I like the Go Macro bar.

Speaker 2:

I love the company called 88 Acres. 88 Acres makes a nut-free bar that's made with sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, a little brown rice and dark chocolate little chunks. When you want something sweet, oh, does that hit the spot. It's really good. 88 Acres, dark chocolate sea salt bar. The brownie one is a little hard, so texture-wise I don't love that one. The dark chocolate sea salt one, though. When you want something sweet, amazing. So go macro. 88 acres. Those are my two faves, my two go-tos.

Speaker 2:

More savory options could be. It's hard with the savory options for it to go, but, like I'm saying, if you need a little crunchy salt and you have like, even like bag of celery with the set of those chips, i actually just bought from Amazon a car cooler that plugs into this I call it the cigarette lighter, that's what it used to be but plugs into the outlet And it's a cooler that you don't have to put ice packs in. It's like a little refrigerator cooler. So if you're going on long trips, it works as long as your car is running and it stays cold for up to two hours afterwards, which is nice. So if you're thinking about, a lot of my clients travel for their job, how can they have food in the car, either a cooler or a little to go cooler, some chips, some hummus, some vegetables, some fruit to go with your 88 acre bars.

Speaker 2:

What else do we have? If you're at home and you're looking for a snack, i'll take the I like the company CF day. They make a tortilla, that they make an almond flour tortilla, which I don't do because of that but they make a cassava flour tortilla, which is pretty decent, and they make a garbanzo bean, which is a chickpea flour tortilla, and they roll nice, they don't break. So those few tortillas are a big break. So what we'll do is we'll smear a little like a little avocado on there or one of the dairy free dips on there. I'll put some tricky slices on there with some sprouts or some arubula, and you got a quick roll up for a snack.

Speaker 1:

That sounds fabulous. It's easy.

Speaker 2:

And you know them. Yeah, and for the people that really have an issue with vegetables and I know a lot of you out there do and you wish you could have some vegetables without having to run in the bathroom there are certain vegetables that may be safe, and if we start rebalancing out the digestive system, you make room for more of the vegetables that you'd love to eat. So, again, without good digestive balancers that may be including specific enzymes and things like that to start balancing out the gut, it can make it harder to break your food out, and vegetables alone don't naturally have vegetable digesting enzyme in them. We have to actually add a little bit of vegetable digesting enzyme to break those down, and some people need more help with that.

Speaker 1:

Or people cook their vegetables right, So they cook a lot of the fiber. Doesn't that cook the fiber? Soften it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, they soften it And that's okay. That's perfectly fine to do. Yeah, some people do better with the steamed, cooked vegetables and it's easier on their GI tract than raw. I know for me like onions are fine raw, but I definitely feel like they're better. They're hooked on some level, heated up in whatever dish I'm having. So it just really depends on your particular body. And then that window of tolerance too, of what's not okay now, as you start to break your food down better and start working with the diet, starts to increase over time and increase over time and expand. We want to start thinking in the mindset of what we can expand, to do a little work in the beginning, of changing what we can do, and then we work with our threshold. What is our threshold? Can we tolerate a little bit of peanut butter on a crack or something? occasionally, probably, or probably not, or maybe over time? Yes, over time, it doesn't bother you because you know your diet's cleaned up enough to the point of your body doesn't have to respond.

Speaker 1:

You've given us such great tips and now I have to rethink my grocery list because I'm always thinking what's easy, what's easy, and that's how I gained 50 pounds. Because what is easy is to go through a drive-thru or to go to a convenient store, to gas station, and maybe grab something peanut butter and crackers. Yeah, that's my producer, that's David. That's my producer for my show.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, Yeah, and that's okay. But so you could also arm yourself at the store with maybe a different, like a rice cracker or a rice cake, and grab some sunflower seed butter. There's a company I like, called Once Again. There's also the regular sun butter company. I do recommend Organic. You want to have less of a toxic load going in. I don't know these days if it's truly organic, but I always fantasize that it is because you never know what's going on in our food these days. But you can really change it up as long as you're armed in your kitchen. because if you're armed in your kitchen, guess what? You grab stuff out of the cupboard and you're on the road and you can take it to your office.

Speaker 1:

It's like a mindset right. It's the preparation. Yes, They really care about their health. They'll make those necessary changes because they know they're going to feel better when they have them.

Speaker 2:

That's it for today. I always tell people you're already at the grocery store, you're already buying what you like. See if you can find it in a dairy-free option, or try to have some fun in exploring something that might be new. And yes, some of this stuff tastes like shit. but a lot of this stuff I'm not going to lie a lot of this stuff is really more than a panacea. It's delicious. I really have been very impressed with how the companies are really taking heed to trying to work with all of our stuff.

Speaker 1:

So true, it makes me rethink everything, renee, as far as what I'm going to buy. What are some healthier options that I can even keep here at the studio that will be, helpful.

Speaker 1:

And the dairy-free, i think is a great idea. that recipe about that salad with dairy-free sour cream, i think is such a great. If MacGyver, if he hears the word sour cream, he cringes because of IBS and all kinds of issues and lactose intolerance. So for some people they just avoid eating out in public because they don't know what's in what and they don't want to take the risk And for sure, for sure.

Speaker 2:

Mark and I are that couple Not Mark so much, it's more me. If we're somewhere, we're both eyeballing stuff that's on a table. We know this might be okay or this might be okay We might eat before we go and bring something as a piece offering of there. Try this dish, which is We bring a big enough portion of it so that we can eat it and have enough to eat. My friend had a birthday party and I brought three brownies from Whole Foods and they were in here. Everybody loved it. They were like ooey, gooey, chewy. People were like this is great. I got them from Whole Foods in the frozen food section. They were good. I don't buy them a lot, but I'm saying there's plenty of stuff And from a guy where he doesn't have to avoid it, he's like I said, i'll give you some of the recipes and it's easy to do That Kite Hill sour cream. I'll actually take a picture of it and throw it in the chat here from Facebook, so we have people. Give it a try.

Speaker 1:

Even do it if you have a little bit of herb to it. Kite Hill.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, kite Hill is a great company. They make a lot of vegan. All their stuff is vegan. They make a lot of stuff with nuts, be it by or beware. If you can't tolerate nuts, you don't want to use their cream cheese and things like that. But Veolife also makes like a dairy-free cream cheese. It's made from like coconut, a little bit of potato starch. It's very good. They make it like a cheddar one that uses, like that, nutritional yeast, mycenae is made with oat milk and it's delicious.

Speaker 1:

It's delicious, it's delicious, it goes down easy, it's digested well, yeah, so.

Speaker 2:

MacGyver could totally have that because it's dairy-free. Is he a smoothie guy?

Speaker 1:

Not really. He's more. He has to eat it. He's like a meat and potatoes guy. He's got to like physically eat to feel like To the kitchen.

Speaker 2:

I think it's more of a mental thing, but Yeah, i'd be happy to send you some recommendation, girl, and, like I said, i'll put some in the chat here on Facebook and some of my favorite go-tos, and you know if you got, if you're armed. I always tell my clients when we start working together, at least buy this stuff and give them a try and see if you like it. That's step one. Buy a few things, see if you like them, and yeah, this is pretty good. Then that's your new tortilla or your new bread or your new cracker, and then, if it's like a gas station, you're like I'm starving, i'm out. Oh my God, what do I do?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, just do the best you can, if you. For many of my clients too, lightening the load, lightening the burden of the inflammatory stuff makes a wild difference too. So for someone like you, janine, who doesn't feel horrible all the time you definitely have your level of inflammation that you feel lightening your load, your toxic load, lightening that digestive burden could be a really big help for you for sure.

Speaker 1:

I love these suggestions. Renee, you are just a plethora of knowledge, and every time I am so thankful that I get to be a part of your podcast, because I learn as we go. I learn so much, so I thank you for that?

Speaker 2:

Oh, you're welcome. It is my joy to give information to people who are struggling and need some help, and I love doing what I do. I think it's just so important for people to have some help and have somebody to be able to bounce ideas off and give them some direction in whatever way feels comfortable for them. So it's not always about this restriction And for some people it is but restriction with trying for seeing what works, seeing what you like, seeing what that mouthfeel feels. Does it taste good? Does it need a little this? Does it need a little that? Is it a total pass or is it like, oh my God, i'm never going to buy that again?

Speaker 2:

In fact, mark just threw a bread that we bought, a gluten-free bread that I bought many months ago, and I was like we hated it, that I had forgotten about it, and we're like I saw it in a TikTok video and I was like, oh yeah, i can try this recipe and I bought it And we were eating I mean, a sandwiches one night and Mark is so sweet. My husband, he was like honey, it's pretty good And I'm like it tastes like wet shoes. It's horrible. Like wet shoes, this thing, wet shoes that have been in like a month's, a green river or something that was like, i think, algae. I mean, it was just horrible. It's like there's nothing that can make this taste good. Nothing, nothing in the world would make this taste good, and I'm pretty tolerant. So that's what I'm saying Get stuff to try, see how you do, see how you like it, buy a few different styles And, if you like it, you're lightening your inflammatory load by having less for your body.

Speaker 2:

They have to digest, absorb and get rid of the cellular waste. Please be thinking in terms of what goes in must come out. What is happening as a result of not being digested? what's happening as a result of inflammatory food being eaten. So you want to really be as kind to your body as you can and take a little baby step. So take a baby step of the grocery store next time you're there and get some of these things and give them a try and see how you do and let me know.

Speaker 1:

I love it. I'm going to buy those go macro bars. Just I'm going to try everything. They've got the 88 acres in the chat, the garden of eaten the go macro So we put some really good things out there for some suggestions for people, so thank you for that.

Speaker 2:

You're welcome. And just a caveat on the go macro bars. They do have a lot of nut ones, peanut ones, So if you guys are just joining the podcast later, I was being snarky about peanuts and people that have digestive issues. So the heartwarming oatmeal one is a good one. There's a sunny berries and cherries one that's delicious on go macro And there's a sun butter like how one off of the picture in there of the three safe ones for people that have maybe some bloating and some things around histamines if they're having issue Why don't we do a live cooking show too?

Speaker 1:

We could have you like? Oh gosh no, oh gosh no.

Speaker 2:

No, no, but I could have a guest on that can do it. There you go. It would be fun to do five minute recipes, like the prep time is about 10 minutes and then boom, i'm going to make a cucumber salad. Cut the cucumbers, stir in the vegan sour cream, throw some dill in there, a little salt pepper, like boom, it's done. I put some radishes in there too, just for some spice.

Speaker 1:

It was really good. It was good Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And you can get creative What you've. that's what I do in the kitchen for dinner. I'm like what would go with this? I'm not really. I don't think I'm that creative when it comes to a lot of things, but for palate wise I feel like that would be good. That would be good even when I'm making salads. dip in every time Just your typical carrots and cucumbers, and we make it can do some. add some fruit in there. If you want to have a little sweet and tart, you can throw some meat in there. If you're not vegetarian, you can have different styles, like sometimes I like to put squash and asparagus in to give it some weight. There's easy stuff to do it, i guarantee. if I didn't have the dog and had the vegetables and little sweet potatoes for him, we probably would starve. So thank God for my dog, thank God for my little winchkins.

Speaker 1:

I love it. This has been great Renee.

Speaker 2:

Thank you. It's always great to see you, honey, and I'll look forward to seeing everybody next week. In the meantime, everybody make sure you're chewing your food and drink your water, preferably in between meals. But if you're forgetting, have a little glass on your desk. You can throw a little basil and cucumber in there to make it taste good, and then it gives you that sort of summer of refreshing feeling. Walks the citrus, though, for people who bloat a lot. Bye for now.