Episode Transcript
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Hi, this is Rachel recover.
We've got a special guest with us,
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Caroline. She's going to tell us
a little bit about herself and then we're
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going to talk about nutrition and trauma
and how it affects the body. Caroline,
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tell us a little bit about yourself. Amazing. I'm super excited to
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be here and we kept connected online
and we've had a lot of really great
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conversations about nutrition and trauma. So
a little bit about me. I am
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a Dietitian nutritionist and I'm also diabetes
educator by training, so those are kind
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of like my formal titles. And
in my private practice I spend a lot
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of time working with people who either
have been diagnosed with an eating disorder or
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have some form shape of disordered eating, and that, you know, can
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run the Gammut from just feeling preoccupied
with food, having a lot of thoughts
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about food, you know, to
more disordered thinking around food that is really
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taking control of their lives, and
so people tend to come to me when
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they want help with those issues.
And, you know, to your point
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about nutrition and trauma, those are
not typically words that we tend to hear
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together right. So, like trauma
and mental health. We tend to think
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of, as you know, its
own topic, and nutrition and Dietitians tend
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to be their own lane as well. And well, that's true. They
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are separate, they are actually very
connected, and so I'm really excited to
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just dive into that with you and
talk about maybe how having a history of
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trauma, you know, whether that's
big tea trauma or little tea traumas,
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how that can really make us change
our relationship with food over time and maybe
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even use food as a control mechanism
or as a way of soothing ourselves after,
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you know, going through something really
challenging. M Okay, so what
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got you into nutrition? Yes,
so I got into nutrition. I actually
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have a h history of disorder eating
myself, and so, like many dieticians,
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to be honest, I wanted to
go to school to learn a lot
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about nutrition and diets and what the
best things to do are right, and
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that was kind of what got me
into it in the first place. And,
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of course, the more that I
learned and the more that I realized
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that I didn't have a good relationship
with food, that, over time,
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became kind of my new passion.
And, you know, I didn't specifically
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ever intend to work with people who
had a history of trauma. That certainly
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wasn't ever on my radar when I
first got started, but it was something
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that came up over and know,
over and over and especially as I started
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seeing similar types of people in the
disorder eating world who we're trying to change
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their relationship with food. You know, many of those folks we started putting
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those dots together, realizing that there
maybe was an incident in their past that
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kind of started a lot of this
and triggered it. I can say that
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you go into the nutrition or trauma
victims, like I know you kind of
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answered this, but like, yeah, started seeing a pattern of it,
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but really pushed you, you know, hey, this is not just you
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know, patterns. Is something I'm
passionate about. You know, that's such
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a great question. I think that
for me, I started to see a
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lot, and this is the reputation
that a lot of Dietutians have, is
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a lot of the advice out there
when people want to change what they're eating
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is meal plans. Eat this,
don't eat that, swap this for that.
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Right, it's very tangible. Do
this, don't do this, and
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you know, on some level that
is helpful for some people to give them
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a sense of structure and a plan, right, and so often when we
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start a new diet that's exactly what
we want. We want some to let
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that plan out for us. However, you know, I think I started
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to realize that we can give people
meal blands, we can tell them eat
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this, don't eat this, we
can give them the list in the plans
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and everything, and I was still
seeing people come back and not, you
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know, being able to implement that
or make a sustainable change long term.
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And it really started to occur to
me that there's something happening that's not just
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on the surface level, like what
we're eating. It's so much deeper than
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that and they're there are pathways really
carved into our brain, into our psychology
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that drive us to food when we
are stressed and emotional, when we're sad,
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when we're happy, even, you
know, positive and negative emotions.
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And so I think for me it
was really borne out of like realizing that
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just the basic nutrition guidance is only
getting people so far and even beyond that,
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you can diet and still end up
back at square one twelve weeks from
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now. If the die didn't work
for you if you know, you had
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a ton of stress, a ton
of life stuff happened, and so I
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think I just started to fall out
of love a little bit with that nutrition,
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you know, hardcore nutrition stuff,
and I started to really fall in
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love with what makes people change and
what makes new habits stick and, in
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more importantly, and probably why don't
have it stick for some people or why
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can't some people seem to make changes
that seem, quote unquote, easier for
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everyone else? And so that started
to really be more of my focus and
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where I spent a lot more time
and energy with clients and over time,
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you know, that certainly evolved into
the approach that I have now. Okay,
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what are some patterns with Trauma Victims
and Eating Disorders in your field?
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Yeah, so I have a lot
of thoughts on the different types of patterns
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that people take on after trauma and
around food. You know, typically goes
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in a handful of ways. We
live in a world that really prioritizes,
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you know, looking healthy, being
fit, going on diets. So a
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lot of times a typical pattern that
I see is something traumatic can happen and
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we immediately look for a way to
feel better or control this. How we're
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feeling all of these emotions that have
come up in us in some ways that
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we control. That is actually just
going on a diet. We look around
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to the outside world like we're,
you know, covered in all of these
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diet culture messages, excuse me,
and when we are faced with a really
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difficult moment where we don't know how
to cope, we don't know how to
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act, we look, you know, to the outside world. That's what
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people tell us we should be doing, and so a lot of people pick
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up on that early on, even, you know, without any trauma history.
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We pick up on a way of
being that's good, a way of
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eating that's good in a way of
eating that's bad, and that tends to
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be something that people reach for when
they need a sense of safety and control.
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You know, going back to the
meal plan, a meal plan is
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very safe for a lot of people. It feels structured, it feels certain,
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it feels consistent. We know what
to expect, and so, you
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know, even though this following this
meal plan, it might literally be making
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somebody miserable, it also is certain. It also leaves them with a sense
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of safety. I know what's coming
today, I know what I'm doing tomorrow.
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I know what I'm eating for dinner
and that can feel really good.
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So it's like this positive feeling when
it first starts, but over time it
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gets US hooked right and we don't
really develop a healthy coping skill there.
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We're just kind of blindly following a
plan and then if the plan doesn't work,
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we tend to take on that shame
or that guilt or all of those
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negative emotions as a result, when
it really was an us that was a
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problem. It was that the meal
plan didn't work. So, you know,
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again so much that I could say
on this topic, but I think
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that that's a you know, a
really big pattern that I see is is
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just dieting to create a sense of
control, created a sense of safety in
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the world, certainty, and then, you know, ultimately that ends up
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being kind of a negative reinforcement cycle
because most diets and meal plans do fail
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at some point. We can't do
them forever because they are very restrictive,
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and so then we take on this
negative, you know identity that we're a
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failure, that we can't stick to
these things. So that's where that guilt
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and shame can really crop up.
Um, what are some diets that you
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have seen. Just take havoc on
the bobby the body today that are popular
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today, that you just say let's
just avoid those completely. Yes, so
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any diet that is asking you to
cut out a major food group and,
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even worse, a major macro nutrient
would be something that highly suspicious of.
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You know, in ultimately, in
reality, most diets don't work. So,
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whether you're looking at KTO or Atkins
or seventy five, hard right.
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What are some of the other popular
ones? Trying to think? So any
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of those diets are are super restrictive. What would you say? I said
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the Paleo Diet. Yeah, Paleo, definitely, wait watchers. Num Even,
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which is super popular now, is, you know, an APP,
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but it really is just a diet
plan with the coach tacked on in your
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chat messages. So you know all
of these diets that come and go.
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Right, that's kind of the the
definition of a fad, right. It's
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not something that sticks around, it's
not something that has long term evidence.
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Those diets tend to be the most
impactful in a negative way and typically what
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happens is the typical fall up or
the typical pattern of restriction and dieting rather
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is we go on this diet,
we stick to the plan. At some
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point we start to feel like it's
not working anymore, we can't stick with
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it, it's too challenging and we
usually write throw in the towel, and
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that doesn't ever feel very good,
and then we end up back at square
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one and we never really learned.
You know, maybe some of those habits
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stuck with us. If we were
eating more regularly or focusing on a certain
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food, some of those habits can
stick with us, but more often than
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not we really don't learn anything through
that process other than, you know,
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seeking the physical result of weight loss
and dieting. So, you know,
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something to really think about is how
sustainable is the Diet that I'm going on?
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Is it something that I can do
today up until, you know,
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indefinitely? Do I can I do
this forever? Basically, when you start
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a new diet or a habit change, it's a great question to ask yourself
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is, can I do this forever? So a lot of these diets,
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you know, we just see that
that's not the case. Most people can't
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do them forever and most people don't. You know, most diets have an
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endpoint and and that's a huge red
flag to me if there's an end period
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to the Diet. It's like what
are we going to do when the diets
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over? Yeah, I mean,
you know, people and that's what the
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whole Yoyo dieting thing that I think
it's really bad for our culture, you
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know. Yeah, you're so go
and as all kinds of horrible it does.
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Yeah, I mean, Yo die
before her. Yeah, where you
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are going on diet after diet,
on and off a plan that can lower
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your metabolism. It can actually cause
more weight gain, so to and we
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tend to regain the way that we
may have lost on the Diet and then
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actually gain more, even more.
So every time we're doing that, we're
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Yo yoing up and down. Our
weight is cycling up and down. Our
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metabolism is damaged and lowered in that
process. And so, yeah, you're
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absolutely right. In that process it's
just incredibly harmful. What about intermit and
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fasting and fasting in general? Like, you know, there's like people,
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you know, do fasting for spiritual
reasons and you know, and there,
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I mean, you know what what's
tell us a little more about that.
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Yeah, yeah, I mean fasting
is a practice that's been around for years,
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thousands of years, right. So
you know, ancient religions used fasting
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in the religious context to maybe improve
their spirituality or their relationship with God,
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and that's still use today. I
mean Ramadon is a great example that,
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where people fast all day and they
don't meet until sundown, right. And
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so you know, I think when
we think about fasting in that way,
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it's really important to consider your intention
behind fasting. So some people's intention is
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to be closer to God, to
be more spiritual, right, and so
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that your you have this higher purpose
beyond Nastick for fasting. Rather that's beyond
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just yourself and it's not as superficial
as maybe how you look or how your
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body looks that day. Where I
see people getting into trouble with fasting is
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they maybe over eight last night and
so their intention is to fast today to
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overcompensate and make up for what happened
last night or over the weekend. And
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and that is a very vicious cycle
that we can fall onto if we're not
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careful, where we are under eating
all day, over eating at night and
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then undreating again or fasting really the
next day to make up for it.
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So you know, again goes back
to intention behind the action. And certainly
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a lot of people. You know, I have friends and family members who
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just aren't breakfast people. So technically
they're fasting all day, but their intention
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is more that they have more energy
when they skip breakfast. They feel better.
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It doesn't, you know, have
any negative correlation later in the day
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where they're like overeating or having all
these negative kind of reactions to fasting.
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So I'm always looking at, you
know, what people's reasons are for doing
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these things. Okay, I mean
that's that's very helpful. Hey, guys,
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thanks for listening. Right. REACHEL
and recover will be back next week
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with Carolyne with with part two.
As always, follow us on your favorite
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recovery, please be sure to contact
reshout to us either on social media or
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on Rachel and RECOVERYCOM. And there
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website, so check that out.
Guys,
