The Tummy Whisperer
Welcome to the Tummy Whisperer Podcast. I'm your host, Renee Barasch, a certified digestive health specialist. In this podcast, I'll be discussing how to rehabilitate your tummy so you can sleep better, turn off cravings, increase energy, and feel great. I'm here to provide real answers and practical solutions for those dealing with typical digestive discomforts to more severe issues such as chronic gas, painful bloating, constipation, diarrhea, acid reflux, and ridiculous heartburn. Additionally, I'll explore the connections between seemingly unrelated issues such as allergies, fatigue, and skin conditions through various diagnostic tools and testing. I'll help identify nutritional deficiencies in the digestive tract and develop a plan that is sustainable and effective so you can have better digestion, absorption, and detoxification for optimal health and well-being.Join me each week on the Tummy Whisperer Podcast as we take a deep dive into digestive wellness, a place of understanding, knowledge, and empowerment for finding lasting balance for a lifetime of better health. Follow us now on Apple or Spotify or wherever you stream your favorite shows. I look so forward to talking with you soon!
The Tummy Whisperer
Ep. 9 - Navigating Holiday Eating: Balancing Flavor and Health for a Happier Season
Ready to navigate the oftentimes difficult terrain of holiday eating while simultaneously keeping your health in check? We're rolling up our sleeves and diving right into the nitty-gritty of sugar cravings, starting with the Halloween candy dilemma. Embrace the journey towards conscious decision-making, with our thoughtfully crafted tips and strategies that help resist temptation and foster long-term health. Together, we debunk the myth that healthy food and fantastic flavor can't coexist. We're exploring the delicious world of gluten-free holiday meals that definitely don't compromise on taste.
Roll up your sleeves with us as we delve deeper into maintaining a healthy diet during the festive season with alternative recipes and healthier versions of traditional holiday treats. We share a plethora of ideas for dishes you can proudly bring to holiday gatherings, along with easy ways to incorporate real, whole ingredients into your meals. Specifically, we touch on dairy-free options for those with dietary restrictions. We are thrilled to have Renee, our special guest, who provides valuable insights on improving digestion and overall health, emphasizing the role of the brain in this process. Join us in prioritizing health this holiday season, let's work towards a healthier, happier holiday season together.
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Nine.
Speaker 2:Okay and we are live. Welcome everybody to episode number nine of the Tummy Whisperer podcast. I'm so excited to have everybody here today. I figured it would be apropos to jump right into holiday time, since it's almost Halloween. People are already thinking about should they even go to the store and get the Snickers bars or not.
Speaker 2:So my husband and I live in a nice community but we don't get a lot of trick-or-treaters. So for the past several years we just opted out of getting candy. So you know, if you don't buy it and it's not in the house, you're not tempted. But don't you have trick-or-treaters? Well, I don't know. We don't have a lot of kids in this community and our the way our subdivision is laid out is just, we have like one street that goes into our complex, so we still get a lot of foot traffic really from neighborhood children. Plus, we're off of a busy street. So, believe me, it's a blessing, but you know it's so hard. It's so hard when you have the candy in the house because you maybe you just want one and then one turns into seven and seven can turn into the whole box, and I've got story after story of how it just starts opening up that part of the brain that's like I need more, I need more, I need more, so, so harder. It's the sugar, right? So how do we kind of dive into holiday preparation and it's not even so much preparation, but it's having again awareness around what are we eating and how do we get ourselves through the holidays without having to go off the rails and off the deep end and feel horrible because we have to kind of push through it? Or feeling that person that's showing up to Aunt Betty's house with their own gluten-free pumpkin pie, which, hey, there's nothing wrong with doing that, because I guarantee you, aunt Betty and everyone else will love the pie. I mean, whole Foods even has every year they have a cherry, apple, pumpkin, chocolate, gluten-free frozen pie that you can get.
Speaker 2:You know I'm making, I'm cooking this year, but but again, I want to kind of talk about what it looks like for people to start to take a little bit of responsibility for your eating. You know, just take a little bit of responsibility. Don't put yourself in the mindset of, hey, it's the holidays and I mean, I've been doing this for almost 20 years. You can imagine some of the lame excuses I've heard, and I've again myself as well too. Hey, it's, it's a holiday. But if you could just start to make some kind of change for the better and help reduce the level of inflammation in your body by what you're putting in, you're only helping yourself be healthy and longer. I know it's so much about instant gratification in the moment. Right, just have a bite of this, have a bite of that and you'll be okay.
Speaker 2:And people a lot of times aren't thinking about the long-term big picture, especially if they feel halfway decent. But for people that aren't feeling great and are kind of already thinking about these holidays and how they're going to figure out how to roll out Halloween, thanksgiving, christmas, new Year's and then, of course, resolution start and hopefully people aren't way off the deep end by that point. What do we do? So I wanted to go through some tips and some suggestions.
Speaker 2:In Janine you can pipe in because you pull the trigger on gluten. I know you're going to have your holidays gluten-free. You may have a bite of something because you already know that if you eat it, you already know how poorly you feel. So for the people that don't know that gluten is an issue, it might be worth trying some gluten-free things and seeing if you like them. That's the invitation to start doing that. For everybody else who knows that gluten is an issue, there's so many good gluten-free things out there. It's worth trying to figure out if you can make gluten-free things. So everyone tells me, you know, thanksgiving is so hard because everything's full of gluten. Well, it's really not. The only thing that's gluten is stuffing. That's it. Sweet potato casserole, you know. Turkey and vegetables care. I mean all the stuff that's.
Speaker 1:And if you make the stuffing with gluten-free bread, no one's going to know that it was gluten-free bread in the stomach.
Speaker 2:No one's going to know or really care Exactly.
Speaker 1:Oh, I mean gluten, and you don't have to tell anybody, Just be like, this is super healthy, because if I say this is healthy or gluten-free, people don't want to eat it.
Speaker 2:But if you don't tell them that it's healthy, then you know, that's what I tell my parents who are working with their kids. You know, and they're like I don't tell little Tommy that hey, try this gluten-free bread. Just be like oh, here you go. And then they don't even know and they're like yummy. I have story after story of people telling me from family members saying they tried something that was gluten-free. The minute the family member told them it was gluten-free, they're like oh, I don't like it. Yep, you just said you liked it a minute ago. I changed my mind, really.
Speaker 1:OK, so true. And if so many things are gluten-free that people don't realize potatoes, rice there's so many things. You can have mashed potatoes, yes, and have a nice flavored botsamadhi or jasmine rice as a side and be flavorful. You don't have to sacrifice taste just because it's healthier.
Speaker 2:And that's the thing. People think they're sacrificing taste or they think they're missing something. I had a friend tell me once that her boyfriend said I need to have gluten in my life. I was like why does he feel he needs to have gluten in his life? He didn't really even know what it is. But it's a mental thing that something's being taken away from you and it's not. So. You and I soapbox about gluten almost every episode, but I really want to talk to you about more preparation with sugar cravings, what to do around when you're wanting something sweet.
Speaker 2:So if you are in the unfortunate situation of having Trick or Treaters, we'll go back to Halloween and having the candy in the house. Hide it, law yourself maybe just one piece or something and see if you can have some fruit with it. Maybe if you have a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. Peanut butter and apples is a thing, so why not have a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup with an apple to get yourself that fiber, so that you're more full, instead of having four Reese's pieces, reese's Peanut Butter Cups or maybe a banana, or something you could even do if you're going to do Snickers which again we talked about last episode, with the bioengineered ingredients in Snickers.
Speaker 2:If you end up falling privy to one accidentally falling in your mouth, cut a half of a green apple and you've got a caramel Snickers apple there. Or get something healthy, or make a caramel apple, get some good caramel sauce and some. They make the. I think it's the enjoy life company that makes like a non allergen chocolate chunks and chocolate chips and can kind of roll it in there and give yourself something that's less chemical. Start thinking in terms of less chemicals in the body. I think that's probably a good place for people to start. So what's wrong with the Snickers? Bioengineered ingredients? Can you make something that's similar to that? Sure, you can get some almonds or some nuts and some caramel and some of those, like I said, enjoy life chips.
Speaker 1:And I've got-. I think that's a great idea, renee, and I also think, like, if people are worried and they are trick or treating, buy what. You would feel that you're okay eating so mixed bags of the little nuts. Like if you have that and you're giving that out to the kids, they're not giving you candy, you're giving them that, so you don't have to buy, you don't have to keep that in your house because you're only giving. Or my favorite snack in the world. You're gonna make a face, but honestly, it's gotten me through. It's gotten me through. Everything is a Slim Jim or some beef jerky, because-.
Speaker 2:No, perfect it's like Because it's-. I think we froze. Oops, I think we froze.
Speaker 1:Here we are there, you are here, I am, so we were talking about Slim Jims and beef jerkeys. Yes, slim Jims and beef jerkeys.
Speaker 2:And those are fine, I mean if you can get a cleanish one. You know the gas station ones have a lot of chemicals in them too. But true, um, nix sticks, or they've got those chomps bars. What's that? There's 10,000 clean sources of a of a Slim Jim or a beef stick and they're healthier than I mean.
Speaker 1:They come in their own little individual packs. You can hand those out. It's a. It's a healthier snack. Obviously, you know it's kind of hard to get fruit and vegetables when you're trick or treating to kids. Yeah, these days. Yeah, you don't want to do that, but right, because it's packaged.
Speaker 2:you know it's like you know it's like you know, it's like you know. You know I was going to say you know, remember, hold your thought. Whole Foods I was just talking about this with my holistic dentist because her daughter's like loves the sour stuff Whole Foods has that line of good earth and they make the gummies and they make M&Ms that are. The coating on them is like from beets and from fruits and vegetables, but it's made from fruit and vegetables. So YUM earth, y U M E A R T H. I bet people can order that from Amazon. I always do see it at Whole Foods. Um Woodmans has some of it too, but they've got the healthier versions of the crappy candy. So if you got, get that stuff on your house.
Speaker 1:You know, get the good stuff get the yum earth stuff that's clean. That sounds like a really good idea, and when you are talking about that, it sounds like some sugar content. If it's dehydrated fruit, at least it's. I mean, at least you're eating a dehydrated apricot. It's still healthier than a Snickers bar right.
Speaker 2:Well, that's for sure, and I think there's a lot of those. Again, I'm saying I always talk about Whole Foods. Some of those companies make those little packages of fruit. There's the fruit rollups too.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, the organic ones.
Speaker 2:Organic. The rollups, that, yeah, and they're mostly gluten free and I love ones that Whole.
Speaker 1:Foods are gluten free.
Speaker 2:That's what I love about them they're they're really healthy. You know it's a lot of sugar, but you know kids got to have something Again.
Speaker 1:it's better than genetically modified chemicals.
Speaker 2:That's it. That's it. So start thinking, guys, in terms of, like, putting the healthier stuff you know in the house for not only just Halloween, but when you need a little something. There's that. Um, there's also a. Again, you know, there's a lot of stuff that's more than six or seven ingredients on the box. Steer clear. You know, ron, you want stuff that's more, that's closest to nature. So, like those fruit rollups, I think they only have like four ingredients the fruit water, a little sugar, something else in there, like a citric acid or something to stabilize it. But but yeah, start watching and paying attention to the ingredients. Jeanine, you've seen the boxes and stuff that have like 12 to 20 ingredients in there. So that's another sign that it probably, if you can't pronounce it, you probably shouldn't be eating it.
Speaker 1:Hold on, can you hear me? Yeah, yeah, at least I'm here. It's okay. Yeah, sight unseen, but I'm here. Okay, there, you are no idea what's going on, but I'm Anyway. Okay, I'm here.
Speaker 2:That's okay. So if you can't pronounce it, don't eat it. That's where we were.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can't pronounce it, don't eat it. And also, those are great things to just keep in your If you're a woman or you know, even if you're not a fear of man and you want to bring a bag and put it in your car.
Speaker 1:but if you're hungry, bring something with you. Don't make it an excuse oh, they didn't have anything I could eat. Well, they're not responsible for you and your health. You're responsible for your health, right, Thank you. So if you want a healthy snack, you have to bring that snack. No one's going to bring it for you.
Speaker 2:What I would bring it for you.
Speaker 1:Well, you and I would be courteous to that because we we are on that path. But a lot of times people make the mistake because when I worked in weight loss they always used to say obesity is a disease of procrastination. And honestly it is, and it's a way for people to make excuses, unfortunately, of why they can't do well over the holidays, and people are terrified of this time of year if they're overweight.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean they are. And this kind of ties into what we talked about last week, about taking little, teeny, tiny steps just to try to help yourself and not having to feel like you have to do everything all at once, which cripples you and you become a daring headlight and then you do nothing right Because you say, screw it, I can't. No, take a tiny little bit of something, do something different for 30 days, and if you only do it for 10 days and you fall off, do it then again for another 20 and then you've done your 30. It's not Nobody's keeping score, nobody's holding a gun to your head. This is about taking a little bit of responsibility for yourself so that you can better your health and avoid hospitals, ers, doctors. I'm not saying that we don't need doctors, because we certainly do, but we don't want to have to go right Because there's something wrong. We want to use them for maintenance and our checkups, for that type of thing right, I agree.
Speaker 1:I agree the less I have to go to a doctor because I'm symptomatic of something, the better. It's one thing to go for your annual checkup and be excited because you haven't had to go the entire year, and that's exciting. It's like, yes, yes, that's a doctor's dream. A good doctor, a good doctor, yeah.
Speaker 2:And it's funny that you say that because, like my little puppy, who's going to be three, puppies get all kinds of stuff. They get kennel cough and all that stuff and he got all the puppy stuff. And you know me, I cook for him and he eats pretty clean and even though he had bladder infections in Cuck City and all the stuff as a young guy, I have him on his probiotics. He's on clean food. He gets part of our smoothie every day, whatever he hasn't had anything wrong with him in a year and a half and nothing.
Speaker 2:I mean, he gets a little hound tummy right, cause hounds have sensitive stomachs. So if I give him you know some kind of weird animal thing that I buy that grosses Mark out like I have dehydrated chicken feet and he's like, oh, get that out of here. I'm like gladly give it to the dog.
Speaker 1:That's hilarious, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:I've got little chicken hearts. I've got buffalo lungs in the house. Yeah, I got all kinds of stuff for the dog. He's a lucky boy, but my point is he's not even Snickers. Clearly I wouldn't let him Dogs can't have chocolate but because his diet is pretty good, he doesn't get really sick, he doesn't have immune issues, he doesn't get kennel cough again and he's around a lot of dogs. He goes to a daycare and he's pretty healthy. So you know he doesn't have a choice, right? He eats what we give him, but for us it's the same thing.
Speaker 2:You know, we really need to start paying attention to what we want for our future health wise. Do we want to lose time with our family because we're sick and we can't go somewhere? I mean, these are definitely things to think about. So again, I'm here to answer questions. I love questions. You guys can email me, you can reach me at thetummywhisperercom, happy to answer questions and give people a sort of starting set point and put them on a path to better health. As we're talking about holidays, whether you're hosting or you're going somewhere, if you are going to go somewhere, bring a dish, bring something that you can share that may be healthy, even a one pot meal. You're familiar with the term one pot meal, where you just throw the meat, you throw the rice, you throw the veggies, you got the grains in there, you got a full soups, you know a stew, bring it, bring that, and maybe that's your meal. You have some turkey, you have some sides, you bring a little sweets to share you know, be creative.
Speaker 2:I have a lot of my clients who do like to bake and they like to cook not the majority, but some can really throw it out in the kitchen and they'll grab the King Arthur's gluten-free flour, coconut flour, and make cookies Like even for my Frisbee league is so amazing. My birthday was early October and Alex brought me some gluten-free pumpkin muffins that were so good. She said they were really easy to make. She used the coconut flour, almond flour, egg, I think, a few of it, the pumpkin cinnamon. They were delicious and you know it's so easy. It didn't take her long. It was so nice of them to do that for me and you know it's just, it's easy to do. That's what I'm saying. It's easy to do. If you want to make it decadent, throw some frosting on there. You know, get some frosting, make your own frosting and do it like a chocolate pumpkin muffin or something. Does that sound good it?
Speaker 1:sounds great and I I mean I've done every diet out there, but not that this is. I mean they call it, you know, like a fat bomb or a keto bomb, but it's you know healthier. Healthier because you're using real ingredients. Like maybe you go to Whole Foods and you get peanut butter that you grind, that it's just the actual peanuts.
Speaker 1:Or you get some oil and now with the oil and stuff like that, and then you can make your own. You know fat bombs that you put in the freezer and things along that nature that's healthier, a sweet or an alternative that you can bring.
Speaker 2:Yes, then something you know, I've got a recipe from a coach of mine for you. It is a carnivore cheesecake and so I'll send you the recipe. It's eggs and heavy whipping cream and maple syrup and a farmer's cheese, I mean, and like I haven't made it, but I think I want to. But it's just, she said her and her husband, she made the mistake of making it and then we're just gonna have, like they had a piece and they're like okay, one more, one more piece, and the pieces were slivers. Well, that's where you, that's where you fuck off. Don't cut yourself a sliver, guys. Since you think you're doing yourself a justice, cut yourself a honkin' piece, eat it and be done. Well, I mean, their piece is turned into the whole cheesecake. It's not a big one, it's. You know, they were both pretty sick the next day, but they couldn't stop.
Speaker 1:So yummy I love. Now, cheesecake is a weakness of mine, since I haven't been doing dairy.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:I wonder what alternatives there are to that.
Speaker 2:Well, the farmer's cheese is supposed to be okay. I don't know. I'll ask her about it next time I talk to her. But you know, there again, there's a lot of things that you can do that are really delicious, and I mean gosh, you can just Google anything in terms of how to make a sweet treat, a cookie, a muffin, you know a soup of if you're like gluten-free soups, gluten-free casseroles noodles, I mean. There's just so many things that you can do.
Speaker 1:It's endless and you know, I just that sounds like a great well, you can do a vegetable casserole with like gluten-free noodles and make like a. There's so many different recipes that you could make that are super helpful that you don't have to tell anybody, yeah, and people start eating it and they're like, oh, that's gluten-free, by the way, but it's all gone.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was really good. My favorite gluten-free noodle is a. I might have mentioned this A-N-D-E-A-N. It's the company Andine it's. I always find them. They're the spiral like the rotinis. Yes, I just find those at Whole Foods all the time and they cook up really nice. It's quinoa and rice noodle together and it's fluffy. Some of the gluten-free process can be a little a little, you know, like it's missing something.
Speaker 2:Al dente yeah or not well, maybe not even chewy, just kind of like something's missing and it is the gluten. So but that and Dean is really, really good. But yeah, getting creative guys with, just you know, looking up a dish or something and trying it in the kitchen, I mean you're already. You're already making stuff to eat anyway at home. And if you're not really much of a cook, there's still things you can do.
Speaker 2:You can buy a box of vegetable broth right, pour it in the pot, throw some carrots and celery and onion and chicken breasts in there and you've got soup. I mean, done easy, right. And if you want to throw some noodles in there, you can have a vegetable chicken. I mean how? If you want to make it vegan, you can. If you want to throw meat in there, you can. If you want to throw extra vegetables in there, you can. I mean there's so many things that you can do, depending on what you like. And I just think if people start to even just step into you know, thinking about a different way to do something, I think that they'll their health will definitely pay them back in spades by having less inflammatory things in their body.
Speaker 1:And they have to want. It's got to be a mental, it's got to. They have to think of it. More of this is something I have to do my whole life, not something like if you think of it as a diet, you're always going to fail because it's always going to sound restricted. Exactly, by all means. If you want to eat something, then eat it.
Speaker 1:We always used to say in weight loss when I worked in weight loss, like the two bite rule is still better than than not. Tasting something in two bites of something is less likely to to do. You know, if you have a bite of lasagna, for example, it's, it's healthier than like a piece. So like, don't guilt and don't shame yourself If you do eat something, just no. And then we also have tips, like we also used to have tips to our our members that were trying to lose weight. That would be things like it's only one meal, meaning like people say the holidays. Well, it's really only two holidays. It's one Thanksgiving meal and Christmas meal and maybe you know, rosh Hashanah yes, something, but really in New Year's. But that's four meals. Okay, we eat. Normal people eat two to three to four meals a day.
Speaker 1:A day right Four meals in a span of like three months should not be a problem. Nor is it an excuse to go and eat a smorgasbord like Templeton in Charlotte's flat, oh, templeton, so cute. I gotta watch that movie. Yeah, I love Templeton.
Speaker 2:I know. But that's a great reminder, though, for all of us too, is that you don't have to make this a big effort. But you do have to make some effort, you know some, do a little something and get out of your headspace. That you know. I'm not falling into that gluten-free lifestyle because it's annoying. It's this, it's that people, it's full of shit, like. Whatever people think about it, they certainly can't and, yes, some people can absolutely tolerate it without an issue. But you know, when your body starts showing symptoms like diarrhea, hives, rashes, poor sleep, bloating, constipation, blood pressure dysregulation, headaches, vertigo, nausea, vomiting should I continue? Yeah, exactly, exactly let's then then it's time to take a check-in and be like I wonder if what I'm eating could be causing some of my weirdo symptoms, and the answer always is yes, the body.
Speaker 2:I kind of laugh. I don't mean to laugh because I live in it. But you know, autoimmunity, where the immune system attacks itself. That is a false, wrong way to think about autoimmunity, because the immune system doesn't attack itself. The immune system goes after food, right, and maybe viruses and infections and food. Guess what gluten is grown on? It's grown on the streptococcus virus, right?
Speaker 1:So when you eat, it.
Speaker 2:Your body thinks whoa, we gotta you know, we gotta go after this Incoming right. Here's the enemy. Start thinking in terms of what you're putting into your body, so that your body doesn't have to react in this kind of response against food, which should nourish us and help give us energy and help fuel us and help keep us strong and healthy for a really long time right.
Speaker 2:So true Renee With all right with also having some, some sweets. You know, I mean your sweets don't have to be ten thousand grams of sugar. Like I said, you can have a half of a Granny Smith apple, you can have a, roll it in a little, you know, put some of those chocolate chips I was mentioning earlier and or and spread a little sunflower seed butter. You can have it to go. I mean, that's that is going to satisfy anybody's sweet craving. You got the crunch of the apple, you got the tart of the Granny Smith, you got the sweet of the chip and you got the fat of the sunflower seed butter. You've got every group in there. Crunchy salty. You can even, you know, if you like you can put a little salt on there if you're a sweet salty person too. I mean, there's so many things that you can do.
Speaker 2:So I want to invite everybody for this upcoming holiday season and think about what you want, right For yourself, for your health, for your family, for your kids, for your pets, and take a little action. And please don't be shy, guys, reach out Again. You can find me at the tummy whisper dot com. I'm here with Janine every other Tuesday at one thirty central time and always excited to share what I want to do with you. I want to help somebody along the way on their health journey. Then I'm I'm excited.
Speaker 1:I love that. You did a great job, Renee. This was such an informative episode that I truly believe will help people.
Speaker 2:Thank you, and that's what I want. I want people to just get the help and not feel afraid that they're not going to be able to do all of it, because it's. You know, health is always an ongoing project. You know you have to switch with your health, you know you. You have to kind of step in and do some things and then you take a break and see how your body is. When you take a break and know what your threshold is and learn how to give your body longer, bigger windows of threshold that you can tolerate more things by being, you know, inviting the good stuff in, and I'm not just talking what you're putting in your mouth.
Speaker 2:And really, you know digestion starts with the brain. So how are you preparing? What are you thinking about for for dinner? What are you, what are you going to have for breakfast the next day? Get a little bit prepared and start that digestion process in the emotional part of your, of your brain, so that you can get a little bit prepared. Otherwise it's going to be really hard. So take a moment to prepare, um, make some time and again, reach out if you have any questions for us?
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, renee, of course, of course, thank you.