Rebekah Fedrowitz is a board certified holistic nutritionist and the founder of You Are Well (http://youarewellhealth.com ), a natural health and holistic nutrition company.
Rebekah is passionate about helping women escape the traps of their so-called “normal” health challenges through scientific and customized approaches that address the root issues. She believes that nutrition is an important part of the body’s healing process, and with the right nutrition, we all can obtain the complete mind-body-spirit wellness God intended for us to have.
Mathea Ford: [00:00:27] Hi there! It’s Mathea. Welcome back to the Nutrition Experts Podcast. The podcast featuring nutrition experts who are leading the way using food starts today, right now with our next guest. It’s great to have Rebekah Fedrowitz on the show today. Rebekah welcome to Nutrition Experts. It’s nice to have you on this show and share your expertise with my tribe.
Rebekah Fedrowitz: [00:00:49] Thanks so much for having me. I’m really excited to be here and have an opportunity to chat with you.
Mathea Ford: [00:00:54] Great! I’m excited to talk with you today we’re going to talk about nutrition and hormones and how they’re related. And women pr men it applies to so that would be awesome! So can you tell my listeners a little more about you and what you do?
Rebekah Fedrowitz: [00:01:09] Yes absolutely. So I am a board certified Holistic Nutritionist and what I do is really helping people identify where food and diet, nutrition and digestion all things related to what we eat impacts our health and particularly around our hormones and how there’s this synergistic relationship between our hormones and our digestion and the way that we use food as much as we can building a foundation for both recovery and good health using food and nutrition.
Mathea Ford: [00:01:41] All right! So what made you interested in this topic of how nutrition and hormones affects our lives?
Rebekah Fedrowitz: [00:01:48] It really started with my own personal story. I began having what I didn’t realize at the time that hormonal challenges and hormonal imbalances in my teens that got worse once I got into college and even after college when things really hit a peak being just not good. I mean I was in my early 20s and facing what seemed like perimenopausal symptoms and I was getting nowhere. I’d been to various doctors and had everything from hormone tests to EKGs to blood sugar tests and everybody just said “oh you’re normal.” And so it’s just something you’re going to have to learn to live with. And that was it. That didn’t sit very well. I was like “there’s no way I can live like this forever.” And so I started doing digging and after a number of things happened I eventually discovered how much of an impact nutrition had on our hormones and started making changes and it didn’t take very long to see improvement and eventually resolution to the problems that I had been facing for years. So I gave up my previous career and went back to school to study nutrition. And that’s where I am today.
Mathea Ford: [00:02:55] So do you feel like hormones and nutrition are intertwined whereas food helps to improve your hormones?
Rebekah Fedrowitz: [00:03:04] When we think about the body and all of our health and how connected our nutrients are to everything from our metabolism to our detoxification to even fueling things like urinary transmitters the hormones are no exception and they are absolutely very connected either to the foods that we’re eating and how we’re assimilating them as well as how food and the nutrients we do or don’t get impact or hormones, it’s a back and forth relationship. So absolutely a connection between what we eat and more importantly what we do at our bodies able to do with what we eat and how we feel and how our hormones are balancing or not balancing.
Mathea Ford: [00:03:43] So when we’re talking about hormones I’m thinking about it in a general sense. But can you give some good examples of what hormones are most affected by food?
Rebekah Fedrowitz: [00:03:54] Sure. So, yeah, you say a general sense and I think that’s a good way to look at it because there’s no way to really fully separate hormones because they’re all part of the endocrine system and that system works in this chain or trickle effect to some degree and so more than often it separates like the thyroid hormones away from the female hormones and the reproductive hormones away from let’s say the adrenal hormones things like cortisol but they do influence each other. That said when we approach hormones and nutrition we often look at hormones in kind of clusters if you will. See for example the thyroid hormones or the female reproductive hormones or the adrenal hormones just to emphasize those three again. So we think that they’re all really influenced by nutrition or can influence nutrition. But when we think of the specific nutrition that the various therapeutic uses of nutrition we kind of look at them in those batches so different nutrients, different supplements are herbs or food may impact the female hormones whereas those same nutrients don’t necessarily do a whole lot or the adrenal hormones for example. But I think that just depending upon what you have going on and whether or not you’re male or female or if it’s something like thyroid or stress you can use food in some way shape or form to support any of it.
Mathea Ford: [00:05:10] Which hormones would you say you kind of notice it. I know and I understand a concept that they all work together but which ones are the ones that people would notice the most being affected and are men and women different?
Rebekah Fedrowitz: [00:05:25] I do think men and women are different. I think a lot of times we want to look at men and women as the same. But our hormones do respond differently. And I think that in general, women tend to notice changes in their hormones based on their diet in a stronger way than men. Not that men don’t still experience as differences as women tend to to be more sensitive to that. While both adrenals in female hormones are heavily impacted by nutrition and part of that is because with the adrenal glands and the adrenal hormones which are related to stress, there is such a strong connection between our stress and our stress hormones and how our digestion is working and if our digestion is off it can create synthetic stress responses in the body. So maybe that’s me being a little partial because that’s the key area that I work with people in this stress-food mood connection so perhaps there is science to prove that female hormones are more influenced by food but I really see and in fact over the eight or nine years I’ve been working with clients the one issue that I see over and over and over again when digestion and nutrition is off is that stress is off as well. So whether or not stress influenced the digestion being imbalanced and that change the way that people are metabolizing their food and assimilating their food where because diet is off and then when our blood sugar and our good nutrients are off that influences stress. One way or another I almost always see stress being involved no matter what else is going on.
Mathea Ford: [00:07:00] So can you give an example of how you would work with a client who’s having some adrenal issues having problems with the adrenal hormones?
Rebekah Fedrowitz: [00:07:10] Yes definitely! So when someone is having adrenal hormones or stress issues you know it’s sort of a two part start to this rate and a lot of times when we start something we start small and we begin in one area. But what we have to look at is managing the stress which isn’t always possible right? If you’re busy at work or you have a lot going on, we can always manage the stress externally and so what we can do is support the adrenal glands with nutrients that help kind of calm the body and then simultaneously we work on the diet in fuelling the body with the right things to prevent internal stressors coming from our food so things like alcohol, caffeine and sugar which can all promote a stress response. We try to reduce and even remove those helping balance blood sugar getting more balanced and foundational diet and getting rid of toxins and additives that can be again hard on the body to process and create more stress. So, cleaning up the diet and creating sort of a foundational structure that supports the overall well-rounded nutrition, balanced blood sugar, good digestion and detoxification. Meanwhile that we’re supporting those adrenals as we’re working to balance out whatever stress responses are going on. And so if we hit it from both sides that’s a very first place to get us to the point where the body is stable enough that then we can step into that next level where we sort we sort of kind of reverse some of the effects that have happened from long term exposure to stress.
Mathea Ford: [00:08:45] So if someone’s having adrenal hormonal problems they’re out of whack. What types of things are they going to notice that’s going to lead them to think I need to do something about this?
Rebekah Fedrowitz: [00:08:56] I think in today’s society because we tend to be overstimulated and overstressed as kind of the norm it’s difficult to notice some of the symptoms because they become part of our normal day to day. This is certainly where I was. So one of the key things that people see is a disrupted digestion particularly things like heartburn and indigestion bloating or even like that’s kind of full full full starving feeling that sometimes describe where you eat and you feel really like really feel like your food is just sitting there and then all of a sudden you go from that stuff feeling to “wow! I really need to eat.” Sometimes you’ll notice again talking about nutrition cravings for sugar or things like that that afternoon crash or getting hangry if you go hungry and angry at the same time. So these are key things that will notice. It’d not just like on a once or twice occasion but people are seeing this three four times a week or maybe even everyday. So, that’s something we might see in with nutrition and digestion or even things like needing caffeine to get started in the morning and something like alcohol to calm you down at night. So, having to have those stimulants on both ends. When you’re sleeping feeling like even if you get adequate amount of sleep like let’s say you get between seven and nine hours, you still kind of just feel tired and fatigued or you have difficulty falling asleep. It’s that wired but tired feeling you go to bed and you’re physically exhausted you can’t shut your mind off. You just feel like you’re unable to calm down and fully sleep waking up in the morning having a difficult time getting up and getting started particularly like I mentioned without caffeine. It can also lead into other mood challenges depending upon how long the adrenals have been taxed and overworked. Sometimes we’ll see it turning into apathy and lethargia even things like depression and anxiety can stem from chronic exposure to stress. Again just depending upon how long it’s been going on. So those are a few of the key things that we might see. And then other things that can trigger from it, a lot of times with other female hormonal imbalances, so, PM issues or just feeling like your menstrual cycle is out of whack. Well, often look at something like that and go “oh! It wasn’t always that way and stress started first because the adrenal glands do produce some of our reproductive hormones such as Estrogen and Progesterone. When the adrenals are off, it can over time influence our female hormones as well.
Mathea Ford: [00:11:30] So those are great examples of like the symptoms that you might feel. Can you talk a little bit about the relationship between how food affects your hormones and maybe some specific examples because I think I have a good idea of what the kind of disrupted feeling is but how does food then come in and what specifically maybe some foods that can come in and help balance that?
Rebekah Fedrowitz: [00:11:58] There are certain herbs and nutrients that we can use in more of a therapeutic scent. So, for example something like Ashwagandha can be used to help calm the adrenals because when we’re chronically exposed to stress our adrenal glands. Well, and not even just the adrenal glands, really what we’re looking at when we’re chronically distressed is what’s called the Hypothalamus Pituitary Adrenal Access and it kind of stays overactive. So if you’ve ever been under stress and you feel like it calm down in the stressful situation is over but every little thing gets you like there’s a noise and you feel like you jump. That’s when those adrenals are kind of always on. And so something like an herb like ashwagandha can help the body calm down so that it’s not always on edge. So there are things that are more in that therapeutic sense but in the sense of day to day diet and nutrition we can utilize foods to create overall balance and support some of the tension that can come from stress in adrenal issues such as things like magnesium or foods high in magnesium to keep our body relax.
Rebekah Fedrowitz: [00:13:05] Chocolate is a good example of this chocolates high in magnesium or cacoa powder things like that. We can also use food to ensure that we’re detoxing and keeping our digestion regular and maintain our blood sugar. So, for example when someone’s under stress if they’re craving a lot of sugar that will just cause more ups and downs in their blood sugar which is not what we want because stress will kind of create that exact same response. So having foods that are higher in fibre and proteins and fats that will keep the blood sugar more regulated is another good way that we can use food to basically halt what stress is doing to our body.
Rebekah Fedrowitz: [00:13:45] And in this case is elevating or fluctuating blood sugar more than we want it to be. And then when we’re under stress because nutrients can sometimes be depleted, getting plenty of nutrition from balanced foods – so plenty of vegetables that are high in B vitamins that can be drained during stressful situations. So, plenty of vegetables and plenty of whole grains that replace the very nutrients that we use in higher demands. That’s another thing we can do so really starting off with a well-rounded balanced diet. Additionally, things like salt which we get a bad rap when we think of salt because of iodized salt and refined salt and the way that it doesn’t really work with our natural mineral balance but when we’re getting a good quality salt like a Himalayan Crystal Salt or a Celtic Sea Salt where we’re not just talking about Sodium but rather various minerals that are present in the salt. That can be important during stress. In fact, we when we study stress and people who are under adrenal what it well what’s commonly known as adrenal fatigue or when their are adrenals or over taxed, we find that they have a higher craving for salt because one of the hormones that is constantly regulated by the adrenals impacts how much sodium we have in our cells versus outside of our cells.
Rebekah Fedrowitz: [00:15:04] So, a lot of heads out will change our demand for those minerals particularly for that sodium ratio and so seasoning your food well during stress can actually help replace the very minerals that are depleted during this stressful situations.
Mathea Ford: [00:15:19] Are there ways that people can manage just even if they’re not experiencing symptoms to eat better and health related to hormones?
Rebekah Fedrowitz: [00:15:29] A lot of times we don’t have symptoms until it’s gone too far. So the best thing to do for our overall health and for prevention is to eat in a way that supports our hormones prior to us having a problem going back to you know to what I was just saying and reiterating foundationally having a good balanced diet is the first and the most important thing everyone can do. So getting those five servings of vegetables a day, eating good quality fats, eating lean not lean proteins but clean. So we’re not talking about proteins that are sourced with antibiotics and hormones but rather getting organic sources so that we’re not adding extra hormones to our system. In going above and beyond just a standard balanced diet, we can look at certain nutrients that we can get even from supplements. Things like probiotics which a lot of people are talking about probiotics these days but what we don’t always understand is that they are necessary for our digestion to stay healthy and when our digestion is healthy, we can better produce and control hormones. So if hormones aren’t being let’s say hormone isn’t used enough. So let’s say you have to produce 100 grams of estrogen. And this is of course just a hypothetical example and you only need 75 grams of it. The body is designed to process out and detoxify the remaining 25 grams but if our digestion is off so is our detoxification and so we can end up with excess levels of hormones. So part of keeping our digestion healthy and regular is having good bacteria. So getting the probiotics and things like plenty of fiber which it’s best to get our fiber of course from food but using foods that are specifically higher in fiber, again, plenty of vegetables. Things that cruciferous vegetables, broccoli and cauliflower or whole grains like brown rice and quinoa. This keeps our fiber and our digestion in a good place. Controlling sugar, alcohol and caffeine. You know there’s a place in everyone’s diet for those things and I’m certainly not going to sit here and say “oh! You can never drink another glass of wine, you never have a cup of coffee or have bowl of ice cream” or anything like that but it is important to know that when some of the early signs of hormonal imbalances and stress and adrenal issues is our cravings for sugar and it’s better if we can avoid that and alcohol converts a sugar, caffeine can change our blood sugar levels and cause us to crave sugar and so keeping these things very moderate in our diet and keeping how much we have it in control even when our stressful situations are high or even when you’re PMSing and things like that can be really important not just for people who are experiencing symptoms but people who have not yet noticed any issues. And then finally, I think that you know going to have balanced diet, we have specific supplements that can be helpful and then things like of eating foods that aren’t great for us. We also want to look at our diet and make sure it’s right for us. And this is a kind of an element that I think we easily overlook when we’re looking at a balanced diet. We go “I’m eating healthy foods” but not all healthy foods are right for you. So, somebody who has a dairy intolerance or dairy sensitivity having that exposure to dairy because of the inflammation from a food sensitivity because of the way it disrupts our digestion can end up wreaking havoc on things like hormones and our detoxification if we’re not careful. So, identifying where maybe you’re not reacting well to a food if there’s a presence of food sensitivities identifying those foods and removing them from your diet so that you don’t potentially increase inflammation, decrease detoxification and influence the production or the removal of hormones from the body. This is one of those things I think it’s difficult to wrap your head around, how mood is related. That kind of complete mind body spirit contact and how our mind and our spirit and how we’re feeling influence what’s going on in our body. And it definitely does. There is there an actual hardwired connection between our brain and our digestion. It’s a nerve called the vagus nerve that sits at the base of the skull and it runs down the spine between the brain and the gut between the brain and the stomach. So there’s literally this hardwiring between our brain and our digestion and our digestion just reaches out to everything and it affects all of our health. And so just even that can begin to show how when our mood is off and our brain is off for whatever reason then it will affect other areas of our health. And I think you know there are so many ways that we can look at this from again kind of going back to that same inverse relationship of hormones affecting food and food affecting hormones I think it’s the same thing with our mood. When our mood is off, it can change how well we digest our food or other how well we handle pain and things like that. And so if you’ve ever had a day like I’m just really anxious and uptight today and you’ve ever felt like when you eat you don’t really have an appetite or you don’t feel like you’re digesting your food the same. Some people describe it as butterflies in their stomachs. Some people say they just feel like foods it’s heavy on their stomach. And so that’s a very noticeable example of how when our mood is off it changes the way that we digest our food. And so if it’s affecting our digestion it’s likely affecting the rest of our body and the rest of our health. And so you know it’s important to note though that this isn’t just mood such as “oh I chose to be in a bad mood today.” This is you know there’s definitely a correlation between the stress the way that we’re digesting food and our mood and then this cycle because when were when our mood is off whether or not that’s a choice like we let a situation get us down or we’re allowing circumstances to change how we feel or if it’s our mood as in like if we’re struggling with anxiety or depression due to biochemical imbalances right? That’s not necessarily a choice, you’re not waking at choosing to be in a bad mood. There’s something going on in the brain and in the body that’s affecting our mood. And so when that happens those things can either way whether or not we choose it or not can impact how well we handle stress and can create stress and then stress can impact our digestion and the way we are assimilating nutrients and then are the rest of our health.
Rebekah Fedrowitz: [00:21:47] There’s always that connection and then going even farther than that when we look at things like our mood sometimes let’s talk about stuff like depression. And if you ever had any issues what are your mood, depression and anxiety you’ve likely heard of things like serotonin. Serotonin being a feel good neurotransmitter and up to 90 percent of serotonin can be produced in the digestive system. So when our digestion is off, when probiotics and good bacteria aren’t there when fiber is offline we aren’t getting the right nutrients because we’re not eating good whole foods then things like serotonin development can be off and we were not producing enough serotonin it can then affect our mood. You don’t feel great. We may notice that we are feeling down maybe not clinical depression or you may not notice it so much because it’s not stopping your life but you may notice it subtly that sort of subclinical level where you’re just feeling down. So there’s definitely so much of a strong correlation whether or not its mood affecting your health or our health affecting our mood. Again, that back and forth synergistic relationship.
Mathea Ford: [00:22:52] But definitely heard of your gut being referred to as your second brain. As far as being able to affect your mood on your body and your hormones and everything. So, are there any specific probiotics that you think are helpful or ways that people could get probiotics? Because I’ve definitely heard a lot about probiotics lately and how fiber is a probiotic even though you may not think of it that way but some other strains maybe of probiotics that people could use to make sure that they have good probiotic health?
Rebekah Fedrowitz: [00:23:30] Here’s what I typically recommend to people. The best way to do this for general health is to get a good broad spectrum probiotic supplement and my Broadspectrum you want to be looking at multiple billions of probiotics total in the supplement. But then there should be 10, 12 different varieties selected Basilius is just an example of a bacterium. So rather than letting you go to the store and you see “oh! Look it’s a lactobacillus probiotic” that’s just one strand. But there’s so many different strands and they all play different roles so some are really good for helping with something like small intestinal bacterial overgrowth whereas others may be good at keeping you regular. If you don’t have a specific issue then a Broadspectrum is the best way to go. And so I particularly loved the Clara Labs Ther-Biotic Complete that’s one that I recommend a lot because it is a broadspectrum you can get I believe that winds of 25 billion. So it’s plenty of good probiotics and a variety to choose from having specific issues. This is where I recommend working with a professional who really specializes in whatever you have going on. So like somebody that I know I don’t work with Crohn’s disease she doesn’t. So when people come to me and they might have an issue like that I referred to her because she knows all about probiotics that are specific to that and other nutrients that are specific to that and I don’t. So finding somebody who is really good at whatever you’ve got going on and they’ll know those very specific strands. But for most people I would do Broadspectrum and then don’t just think supplement think food. So come Bhutta milk keeper sauerkraut and getting these things as you know in the refrigerator section so they’re buying sauerkraut. MCCANN That’s going to change the probiotic level the good bacteria that’s present but if you find it in the refrigerator section which is becoming more and more readily available you can even find it at Costco now. That’s a good way to get them or make your own into making your own temperatures surprisingly easy and milk keeper is surprisingly easy and you can find the grains in the starters to do those things online. So it’s something you can make when you’re making it yourself. You’re likely to get a nice Broadspectrum and a high level of probiotics. So those are some other good ways. And then even you might have heard of having like apple cider vinegar in the morning apple cider vinegar when it’s unfiltered. The mother has good probiotics in it so having that in the morning is one way. And I’ll be honest I can tolerate a lot of things and I do a lot of different things. I personally don’t love the apple cider vinegar in the morning but a lot of people really do and they have found it makes a big difference in their health. So you don’t have to just use a supplement there are plenty of other ways you can get probiotics and then like you mentioned Fiber Fiber is important for probiotics because it acts as a prebiotic. So probiotics the good bacteria are living organisms in our digestion and they need food to survive. And so a lot of times a prebiotics sick come in some of fiber. It’s important that it’s present in order for probiotics to thrive. So it’s like if you put a plant in the ground and you never water it and you never give it any nutrients it will die. And we have to make sure that we we feed that plant so that it can do its job and it can produce and probiotics are no exception. Sometimes you can find probiotics in with the probiotics in the supplement but what I typically recommend is make sure you’re taking your probiotics with your food and you’re getting plenty of fiber and a variety even things like potato starch for example is a great source of a prebiotic. It helps to feed those probiotics.
Mathea Ford: [00:27:07] Absolutely excellent! I know it’s a complicated topic but I think it’s really important for us to understand that we do have a little colony growing in our system that actually works really well with us. So at what age does it really start to show how our intake affects our moods? Is it younger older? Is there any sort of range?
Rebekah Fedrowitz: [00:27:35] If you would have asked me this question five years ago I would have said you know studies have shown that it can impact even children. I would have just then gone on to talk about how I’ve really seen it in my own practice starting in your teens. But now that I have my own child who is three, I can tell you it starts very very early on. I think that you know even not just the intake a few like the specific foods were eating but even how we’re eating. So whether or not we’re snacking too much and not getting enough in any one setting and how it fluctuates our blood sugar. I saw this impacting my own child from even as young as maybe 18 months. So, we can see when we talk about mood you know just veering away from the topic of mood and hormones for just a moment things like ADD and ADHD and hyperactivity that we see in children and just changing their diet and changing not even what they’re eating, the structure of how they’re eating and how they’re structuring their meals it will start to impact it. And so, really it can impact our mood and how we’re feeling and our energy from a very very young age. But as it relates to hormones, you know I see this especially in younger girls, I don’t think that we see it as much in younger boys because of the way that girls produce hormones differently in their adolescent years than boys but girls even at 10 and 11 these days and maybe even younger you will see that and we’ll see if their sugar, blood sugar isn’t meant well managed. If they’re having to have foods that have a lot of hormones and then how that may affect things but as you go on, once you’re in to any point in your life that can be really stressful. Teens that are going through a lot of stress, teens that have menstrual cycle imbalances and hormonal imbalances, we start to really strongly see that correlation of Food and Mood and hormones and how all of it interconnects.
Mathea Ford: [00:29:32] Who do you find is the most likely person experiencing some of these issues with mood and food and hormones?
Rebekah Fedrowitz: [00:29:42] Usually younger moms. That’s the predominant. Sometimes it’s right before they become moms or whatever is with the lifestyle before we become moms or right when we become moms which is the stress that we’ve been able to take for years and years is finally burdened us too much. And when we become moms and we’re still balancing all that life is throwing at us plus younger children and our own self care and our hormones are just all over the board right? Because pregnancy alone even a good pregnancy that has no complications will affect your hormones right? That’s what it does. That’s what it’s all about. And then nursing and so when the adrenals and stress hormones are present while we’re also dealing with changes in our female hormones, lack of sleep, it just kind of causes us to break in a way. And I see this through postpartum anxiety, postpartum depression, adrenal fatigue. That doesn’t hit until our little ones are 1 and 2 and we just feel like “why was I used to be able to handle all of this and now I feel like I can’t get through a day.” It finally has taken its toll and it’s not just that point in life. It’s just that we didn’t you know you ask that great question of what can we do before we notice symptoms. We didn’t notice the symptoms, we weren’t making the changes we needed to. And now we’re at the place where our body says “Oh heck no I’m not doing this anymore. You’re going to have to make changes or I’m shutting down.”
Mathea Ford: [00:31:07] You had your own experience of going through several different medical professionals and trying to find answers. Do you find that this connection, this topic is often ignored by the standard general medical community?
Rebekah Fedrowitz: [00:31:21] In a way, Yes. I don’t think its being intentionally ignored. I think that we have this amazing medical system today and you know I was talking with somebody the other day who knew someone who had to have brain surgery and I thought “Wow! What a hugely complicated thought” but we’ve gone into these kind of rabbit holes of topics and we know our specialty really well but we aren’t always connecting with other professionals and so I think that it’s not always understood. It’s kind of one of those “Wow it doesn’t.” We’re so used to going so deep that when we say “Wow it doesn’t go this deep.” We’ve never seen it in this way. We often don’t know who to refer people to and so you know you might see an endocrinologist who goes up but I’m used to seeing you know bloodwork that illustrates a much more severe issue so I don’t see it, I don’t know where to go with it. They’re not, they’re not trained in that way. Right? And good thing they’re trained the way they are so they can do it they do well. But I think that what we’re beginning to see and what there’s a change in the demand that consumers are having is a more Broadspectrum look, a wider look at these issues and so more and more I’m seeing medical professionals say “maybe there is something to this but I don’t know how to help you go and see this person.” It’s not readily accepted yet. It’s not mainstream yet but it’s getting there.
Rebekah Fedrowitz: [00:32:46] I think you’re seeing that more and I think as consumers, as patients are demanding more, more and more people are either learning about it or staffing their offices are finding people to refer to who can help people.
Mathea Ford: [00:32:59] So that leads me to my next question what do you really think is next in this field coming and how do you see it affecting healthcare?
Rebekah Fedrowitz: [00:33:08] I think that what I see is with so much of the food that has been manipulated over the years. Right? So if we think back to the Industrial Revolution, how there were changes to our chemical processing of food and our manmade food and things like that where it’s gotten to the point where that’s had its effect on our health. It’s been many generations now and we’re seeing it enough that people are no longer just accepting this as a theory. They’re really seeing the impact that it’s had on their health. And so again as consumers and patients are saying “hey, we want answers and we want information and we want to know more.”
Rebekah Fedrowitz: [00:33:46] The next step in this field, in the field of nutrition, in the field of health, in general healthcare is more of a functional approach to our health and by functional I mean that integrative look. So, we did go down those rabbit holes and again we want that. You want your brain surgeon to know your brain inside and out and that’s what your surgeon should.
Rebekah Fedrowitz: [00:34:08] But we also want to have professionals who haven’t gone so deep down one topic. We want those general functional integrative doctors, integrative nutritionist, integrative whatever therapists they are who can say I know a broadspectrum and I can either help you or I know who to refer you to and that’s what I see as the biggest next changes that we not only help but we also refer out. And I know that’s something I strive to do myself and my own practice is know my specialty but also be well versed in who does the things that I can’t because this has to be a team effort. It isn’t just about one person or one profession, we have to be able to work together because our body is so interconnected and I believe that healthcare is changing and we’re seeing teams of people coming together for people to really achieve the wellness that they’re looking for.
Mathea Ford: [00:35:02] My listeners are you know doctors, dietitians, nurses, other people interested in nutrition topics and they seek clients or patients on a daily basis. So, what is a way – a one or two ways – that you think they can use this in their daily life, in their daily interactions with patients? What we’ve talked about to improve?
Rebekah Fedrowitz: [00:35:24] Well and day to day life, I think the first thing we can do is just to start implementing ourselves. Many of the integrative and functional practitioners that I’ve worked with either as a patient, meeting the patient or as a professional colleague, they’ve gotten there because they’ve started to implement and they see the effects themselves. So I think when we start to see the changes in our own life, it’s easier to recommend them with confidence right? Because nobody wants to suggest something that they care about before. So I think that’s first and foremost. Just even making the changes and considering where diet might have an impact in ways we maybe hadn’t thought of before. And then in terms of in their practices and with their own clients and patients. It’s knowing you know it’s certainly not everybody shops near everything but even having a good book or again somebody to refer to or looking at you know if you’re a doctor having a nutritionist in your office or if you’re a nutritionist what are some doctors you can partner with? Because you know my personal philosophy is that nutrition absolutely plays a role in all of our health. It’s not always the therapy or it’s not always going to be what you know quote unquote cures us but no matter what’s going on it’s foundational to ensuring our body has the nutrients it needs to bounce back, to recover, to help fight off or to support whatever treatments are being used. When we’re integrating nutrition in general doctors’ offices, in OBs and in gynecologists offices, in cancer and oncology right? If we can begin to integrate it and utilize that professionals who are already working in this field then I think we’re going to see a lot of changes. And so it is about networking and about finding someone that you say I get you, I connect with you, I like you and I can honestly trust you with my clients and with my patients and let’s do this together.
Mathea Ford: [00:37:20] So it’s something I ask all my podcast guests usually is my final questions usually what’s your favorite food?
Rebekah Fedrowitz: [00:37:29] Oh man! Holds up! such a hard one to choose. I love food so much. Right now, I would say that I love the Tuscan Kale so much. I feel like I could eat every day and I think a lot of times when we think about clean eating and nutrition, we picture these people like with their mouths full of kale and I’ve never really been that way because green and red Kale has to be prepared just right to be tender and tasty but Toscano kale is just amazing no matter how you fix it and I feel like I want to throw it in everything these days so that might be my favorite for now.
Mathea Ford: [00:38:05] What is Toscano kale versus like with the regular kale? How are you going to identify them?
Rebekah Fedrowitz: [00:38:10] Okay the regular kale is bigger wider leaves with these curly edges and this one is thinner and taller and it kind of has a dark green and it kind of has these like dimples in the leaves and it’s just truly you can chop it up throw some olive oil and make white balsamic and some salt. And truly that is all that you need. It is tender immediately it’s so good. Like any of your stores like whole foods I know curries. I live in an area where we have sprouts but I know it’s making its way into more conventional grocery stores as well because it’s becoming quite popular.
Mathea Ford: [00:38:45] All right! Well Rebekah, thank you so much for being on the podcast today. It was a pleasure to have you on the show. I know my listeners have learned a lot about hormones, moods and food. So if listeners want to connect with you what’s the best way to do that?
Rebekah Fedrowitz: [00:39:01] So the best way to find me is on my website youarewellhealth.com and you can find out more about me or reach out. You can always contact me there. I’m pretty much all over at You Are Well Health so I have a podcast You Are Well Health. Anywhere on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram everything at You Are Well Health and you’re always welcome to reach out. You can email me as well at hello@youarewellhealth.com. So, I’d love to chat with anyone and I always love to connect with clients, other practitioners like I’ve mentioned this is such a big community and I love seeing people coming together and making a difference in the health of our world.
Mathea Ford: [00:39:43] I’ve noticed that we have come back to this idea of being a food having so much more value. When I was becoming a dietitian, foods were I guess my best way to describe it is inert like they just didn’t necessarily do anything specific unless it was a protein, carb or fat and it did something specific. But I see definitely with the move towards a more plant based diet and more of the better foods, you know more nutrient dense foods that we are moving to eating better and seeing how that then affects all of our parts our lives and our health and our condition. So I thank you for being on today.
Rebekah Fedrowitz: [00:40:33] Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
Mathea Ford: [00:40:35] All right! Well guys this is another great episode of the Nutrition Experts Podcast. The podcast that is all about learning more so you can do more with nutrition in your life.
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