Lindsey: Welcome back to fresh focus… Today we are wrapping up this series of pain and nutrition and talking all about inflammation. Beth and I are here and we want to welcome back our friend and nutritional expert Nancy.

Beth: Nancy thanks for being back with us today, I loved the last episode, you really are a wealth of information when it comes to planning an anti inflammatory nutrition plan. So much good information!

Nancy: Thanks you so much for having me back,I have enjoyed being a guest and host of the Fresh Focus. My goal and objective for the pain and nutrition class I teach each week is for our veterans to develop an understanding of balanced eating and be able to identify foods to increase in their own diet with their own personal nutrition preferences and plan. Nutriton plays a critical role when talking about pain and inflammation. Its important for our veterans to know about that.

Beth: When veterans are experiencing chronic pain sometimes what to cook or prepare they feel like isn’t their top priority because maybe they are in too much pain and feel like they don’t want to stand by the stove and cook and that is we as dietitians can help someone see the benefits of following an anti inflammatory meal plan it can be an easier transition with making nutrition changes.

Nancy: yes and as we know as dietitians that you don’t have to stand in the kitchen for several long hours to prepare healthy foods there lots of quick and easy ways to add in anti inflammatory food items such as snacking on fruits or nuts or adding a side of vegetables to what you are already cooking.

Lindsey: that’s a great point, so many healthy meal and snack options for veterans to choose from, the VA out of Chicago did a healthy teaching kitchen class this summer on cooking without a stove. Such a great way to demonstrate the concepts we teach in the clinic. So hey Nancy, What do you feel is the biggest benefit of anti inflammatory nutrition?

Nancy: that is a great question I don’t think there is just one benefit I feel like there are 4 main benefits that I educate my veterans on, preventing and or managing chronic health conditions, managing chronic pain, ending complicating dieting and reconnectiong with your body physically, emotionally and mentally.

Beth: can you tell our listeners what leads to developing or worsening chronic health conditions?

Nancy: absolutely, on a cellular level inflammation disrupts normal body processes cells stop functioning approrpriately, organs can stop functioning appropriately and that is when develop chronic illness. Its something that happens over time and we don’t even realize its happening in the beginning stages. Type 2 Diabetes, for example, typically starts developing many years before someone is diagnosed and often those signs and symptoms aren’t noticed until we have already developed the dx of diabetes.

Lindsey: And to our listeners, just a reminder that in episode 42 Megan talked all about some foods that can cause inflammation like processed items.

Beth: and inflammatory foods can impact our body by worsening chronic pain

Nancy: increasing systemic inflammation meaning whole body inflammation leads to increase risk or worsening chronic disease, increased weight gain, could also increase risk of diabetes and when you are eating high sugary high processed food items it can make managing diabetes more difficult in addition to that this inflammation increases our chronic pain.

Beth: I want to bring up what you just said earlier because it was so good…. You mentioned ending complicating dieting and reconnecting with your body physically, emotionally and mentally. That is a great goal for all of us.

Nancy: its so important and its something we miss in the past in our nutrition classes. I worked with a Veteran who traditional dieting just didn’t work for, he had met with other dietitians and tried different approaches and different diets and in fact he kept gaining weight when he was trying to lose weight, he ended up adding medications and trying to manage multiple conditions and he almost gave up and when he decided to come to see me, we did things differently he hadn’t heard of an anti-inflammatory approach to food, kept his favorite foods in his diet because, we love food and when we have to avoid foods it can be discouraging and he’s an artist so instead of journaling his food he drew his meals. He was able to lose over 80 lbs, stopped taking 8 different medications, and is in his best health he’s been in in decades. In that process he determined foods his body liked and what foods that made him feel good (salmon) and didn’t like (potatoes). I like to work with veterans to balance meals by eating more plants and limiting processed foods; that particular Veteran shares now that when he stopped eating red meat his body said “it’s about time”. He started listening to his body and how he feels. We want to really work on listening to our body, when we eat high sugar ultra processed food items our bodies don’t feel that great. But we don’t even realize how bad we feel until we start feeling better by changing our food choices.

Beth: this is reminding me of a dietitian I used to work with always said we should all be keeping a food, mood and poop journal so you are interested in journaling like your veteran you mentioned he drew his meals out… it could be a good way to put down how you feel too not just what you are eating but how you are feeling and can really help us learn more from our food patterns and our bodies, if something you eat really is causing more bloating and not feel well we need to look at how make some changes to make our bodies feel good and function properly.

Lindsey: so true, I just love these discussions, you guys brought up some great points and I want to get into more on digestive health a little bit because our gut plays such am important role in inflammation.

Beth: gut health, so important… we as dietitians talk to veterans who have chronic pain, some veterans also have diagnoses such as IBS or other inflammatory diseases that affect gut health. Nancy what are some of your helpful information that you give to your veterans?

Nancy: great question Beth chronic pain isn’t just a stand alone issue, we have other things going along with that.. and we know the microbiome a fancy way of saying our gut, it looks different in people with inflammatory diseases that affect our gut such as IBS , IBD, which includes chrohns or ulcerative colitis but also non digestive conditions such as eczema, heart disease, obesity and diabetes. Our microbiome the bacteria we have in our digestive tract it changes based on some of these chronic conditions. It is important to note that we do not know if the changes in the gut microbiome cause these conditions or if the condition is changed once we have those health issues, chicken before the egg egg before the chicken we aren’t sure but we do know there are differences and these differences are important and impact our health even more down the line.

Lindsey: I agree Inflammation in the GI tract so important to know leaern about and understand sometimes that wrong type of bacteria moving in increases inflammation. it may move in because of food choices that support unhealthy bacteria or for other reasons like hospital stays or infections or anti-biotic use. It just reminds me that you may have some symptoms that would be great to see a dietitian for. I just spoke to a veteran the other day who had a long hospital stay with repeat very strong antibiotics. She was complaing of upset GI when she was discharged, some memory fog, had a white tongue, reflux among other things. It was determined that she had a thrush and bacterial overgrowth. So there were a few key nutritional innterventions that we got started right away working together as a team.

Nancy: that’s so great you were able to work together as a team to help that veteran and this is something that happens quite often sometimes we miss that nutrition piece its scary to be in the hospital with a lot going on and we can don’t want to forget that nutrition component that’s so important… we see that often…. Inflammation degrades the inner lining of our intestines which can cause pain, diarrhea, malabsorption. and our goal as RDNs is to use all the tools at our disposal including food, pre and probiotics and stress management even to create an environment where the good guys flourish and the bad guy bacteria are crowded out.

Beth: the good news is an anti-inflammatory diet will naturally contain prebiotics that help support a healthy digestive system with that healthy bacteria. What are some probiotic foods your recommend?

Nancy: great question, yes, food first right, probiotic/fermented foods such as Greek yogurt, kimchi, or sauerkraut a few days a week to boost your healthy bacteria these are several I recommend. Good news you don’t have to eat an entire jar of sauerkraut right just need a small amount a few days a week to help that digestive system. And of course plenty of fruits and vegetables that contain prebiotics to nourish our good bacteria in our gut.

Lindsey: such great information, I hope everybody listens to what Nancy is saying this food first approach and even if some of those fermented foods have a more bold flavor, give it a try even sauerkraut with just one meal can be so beneficial.

Beth: you know, my mother in law actually makes a savory oatmeal…. she adds sauerkraut, hot cherry peppers and pumpkin seeds!
Lots of ways to add some different food items and variety to any of your meals. Hey Nancy we may need to bring you back on for another series on gut health.

Nancy: I’d would love that so much I’d be glad to come back on and chat with you guys I had so much fun thanks again for having me.

Lindsey: yes great ideas all around, Thank you both for being on today. And to everyone at home, be sure to subscribe to this podcast, rate the series and leave a review! The team at Fresh Focus thanks you for listening!