Show notes –
Join Shannon & Christine & our guest expert and health coach Alison Brill as we chat about our guts & their impact on Physical Wellness. As Alison says, “Lettuce, Turnip the Beet!”
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Link to hydroponic growing system:
Show Transcript –
NOTE: While it’s not perfect, we offer this transcription by Otter.ai for those who are hearing impaired or who don’t find listening to a podcast enjoyable or possible.
Christine Gautreaux 0:08
Let’s do this.
Shannon M. 0:08
Okay, ladies, welcome to our podcast. I am Shannon Mitchell, a black female, millennial entrepreneur, the founder of shallow glow, a handmade shea butter company. I am a champion for your self care, business care and intentional wellness.
Christine Gautreaux 0:25
And I am Christine Gautreaux, a white social justice advocate, an international speaker, coach and published author who helps you upgrade yourself in community care.
Shannon M. 0:35
Yes. And together, we are women connected in wisdom, a podcast grounded in the eight dimensions of wellness. Welcome, welcome to our show.
Christine Gautreaux 0:44
And we like to get together every week to have intentional conversations about how to be wise in business, relationships, and wellness, and bring on fabulous guests who share their resources with you too. So we have an incredible health coach for you today as we talk about physical wellness. And we’ll jump into that. We’ll jump into that in a minute. Before we jump into that. Let’s take a deep breath and check in with each other.
So you were out last week taking care of physical wellness. How are you doing?
Shannon M. 1:21
I’m good. Last time I had my and it’s interesting, I guess we could tell the story, right? I didn’t realize the effect of the way that I handle my wisdom teeth being taken out the first time. And I was supposed to go for a follow up appointment, I think or to make just a dentist appointment and I left manifestation Mondays told you ladies I was going straight there ended up at work and you ladies were like, wait a minute, why did you not? How did you end up at work and you never went to the dentist. And Christine was like what happened? The last time you went, I said Oh, I did get my teeth pulled out. And I did go straight to work with no pain medication. didn’t hold the space for myself basically, is what I’ve realized. So I’ve taken the space, I was able to take a week off work and also made myself sit down with everything else and take my medicine. So it’s been good as it is gone as well as I feel like I could ask it to go.
Christine Gautreaux 2:20
Right. Well, that’s when we create space for ourselves and allow ourselves to recover. Right. Yeah. And take those days off and take that time and use it for for wellness. Yeah,
Shannon M. 2:33
yeah, hashtag maintaining wellness, so we’re gonna maintain it. What I’m proud of you, thank you.
Christine Gautreaux 2:42
Which part? Which part? It has been an incredibly busy two weeks. You know, we are launching today with our authors about we have a new women connected and wisdom book coming out this year. So we’re getting all that gathered for authors. We are. Yeah, there’s been so much fun and so much connection lately. It has been it has been really good. I I am grateful for what’s been happening, you know, doing this TELUS summits been hanging out on LinkedIn a little with my friend and your friend, Cecile Armstrong, who’s been a guest on this podcast a couple of times. And yeah, it’s been busy. And it’s been good. Today, I had the most fun thing happened. So you know, when the pandemic started, Sheila, my co host, and I were traveling all around the nation, with our books Stillpoint. And we were, we were traveling around the nation, doing books book, we call them perform the books, we didn’t do just traditional book readings. But we were doing before the books where you’re doing workshops, about radical self care, and all that one way in like one day as it did for people in the speaking industry. And because we were booked out for conferences and all this jazz. And so we pivoted to online, we pivoted on to online with the incredible program reimagine, and it’s reimagining life in grief and loss and how do we do it? All right. And so we put on a program there. Well through this program, which I want to give a shout out to let’s reimagine and I’m gonna pull it up real quick because they are about to do I think it’s March 8. Yes, they’re doing reimagine grief, growth and justice begins March 7, and they have some incredible programming out there, y’all and it goes from free to a few costs depending on who’s presenting. So check that out. We’ll put that in our show notes. But so through this program, we were offering our radical self inquiry You care class. And Mary found us in Mary lives in Wisconsin, and started coming to our class on Tuesday mornings. And then where he’s like, Oh, my gosh, this interplay thing is incredible. I want to do more of it. And so she came to my weekend the secrets of interplay. And then she came to my life practice program, which is a is a six to nine month program for helping professionals. And we have just become really good friends through the internet, right through the power of this of zoom in the magic box, right. Today, she was driving from Florida to Wisconsin and her route took her within a few miles of my house. So she stopped and we had lunch outside, we walked my labyrinth, it was just beautiful to meet her in person. And like I was saying before the show, the world is starting to open back up. And I know it because people are starting to stop but my house.
Shannon M. 6:00
Yes. And I love your I love the sunlight that you get in your backyard. So I know you you ladies enjoyed yourself and today’s like one of the perfect days for that. Right?
Christine Gautreaux 6:10
Because you all were here in North Georgia. We’re a little bit north of Atlanta. Shannon’s in Atlanta. And it is a stunningly beautiful day today. We have daffodils blooming, it’s about 67 degrees. The sun is shining. And I don’t know about you, Shannon, but I’m getting a little bit of spring fever. Yes, just a
Shannon M. 6:33
little. Like, I have to put clothes back like it’s not the season yet. Right. You know, the prices are good. I’m not I’m not there yet. And the budget right now I’m still on what I need right now. So that’s the financial wellness coming in with the prioritization, you know, but we were out there early this morning. Shallow glow was with 11 alive for our collaboration with SCAD and Bank of America. So this was good. Yes.
Christine Gautreaux 6:59
Tell me more about that. Tell our listeners more about that. Yes.
Shannon M. 7:03
So if you ladies have been listening, you know that I’ve been working with the SCAD students, both here in Atlanta and in the Savannah campuses. And we’re partnering with Bank of America to reinvigorate excuse me the market. And Atlanta with black small black businesses. Of course, mine is a female owned business as well. So shallow glows going to be in the sweet Auburn area. That’s where I’ve been doing pop ups for the past almost two years now. But to step into retail and start getting in a bigger state, bigger states and bigger markets is going to be exciting.
Christine Gautreaux 7:38
Well, congrats, congrats. Well, what topic are we talking about today, my friend,
Shannon M. 7:44
today we are talking about physical wellness, you ready for the definition? I’m ready. Beautiful. So physical wellness, is the ability to maintain a quality of life that allows you to get most out of your daily activities without undue physical, excuse me, undue fatigue, or physical stress. physical wellness recognizes that our daily habits and behaviors have an impact on our overall health, well being and quality of life.
Christine Gautreaux 8:13
I love that. I love that because it’s not just one thing, right? Often people think, oh, it’s how much you exercise? Or oh, it’s what you eat, or Oh, but when you look at that definition, it maintain a quality of life that allows you to get the most out of your daily activities without undue undue fatigue or physical stress. So boy, there’s a lot that goes into that. And our guest today I think is going to speak to it really well. Yeah. Are you ready to bring our guest up and started? Can you do it? Our guest today, y’all is Alison brill. She is a certified health coach. With over 15 years of public health and mental wellness experience. She provides support and nutrition guidance to people suffering from bloating, gas, fatigue and food sensitivities, and helps them find relief, have more energy and enjoy food again. Yes, Allison helps folks in making the gut body connection and finding a path to physical comfort, clarity, and healing. She provides personalized coaching, group coaching and workshops on gut health and wellness. Her route her work is rooted in health equity, trauma informed body positive Oh, she’s in the right place to talk to us. And we’re gonna put in the show notes where you can learn more about her work and connect with her. But let’s bring Alison up here so we can start this conversation. Hello, Christina. lovely to have you on our show today.
Alison Brill 9:52
Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to be here and have this conversation.
Christine Gautreaux 9:56
And where in the world are you located?
Alison Brill 9:59
I’m in Chicago, Illinois,
Christine Gautreaux 10:02
maybe a little different weather than we’re having here in Georgia today.
Alison Brill 10:06
Not too different, actually almost 60 and sunny here today. Loving the weather outside today.
Christine Gautreaux 10:13
Fantastic. I always when I think Chicago, I think of it was my first grown up road trip, because my roommate, my first roommate in college was from Chicago. And so we road tripped up there and seeing the Great Lakes for the first time was awe inspiring. So, so let’s talk about good health. Let’s do it about when we think about physical wellness. Why? Tell us why. What do we need to know about the gut? What do we need to know about why this is important to our listeners and us?
Alison Brill 10:51
Absolutely. Yeah. The gut is in our digestive wellness is really the epicenter of our entire overall wellness, that gut is where controls are, you know, 70% of our immune system resides in the gut. So it impacts how often we get stuck.
Christine Gautreaux 11:13
Alison, did you just say 70%?
Alison Brill 11:16
Less at least 70% That we know of?
Christine Gautreaux 11:19
Wow. I had no idea was that hard? Okay, sorry to interrupt.
Alison Brill 11:23
No, no, please. Yeah. So it really controls how often we get sick, right, and how how healthy our gut bacteria is, you may have heard of the microbiome, which is made up of, you know, trillions of different type strains of bacteria that are all in a delicate balance, they’re doing it doing a delicate dance all the time. So maintaining that balance is important. It impacts are moving about physical health, if we have chronic health conditions, many of them are related to how healthy our guts are. And then also mental and emotional health as well. And gut health really impacts our moods, you know, we can have mood swings, or depression and anxiety. And all of this is, is heavily impacted by our gut, obviously, mental health is, and physical health is complex. There’s many, many factors and all the dimensions of wellness that you all talk about play into that. And gut health is a really central component to that.
Christine Gautreaux 12:23
How can I love this? I love having this conversation. How can our gut health support our mental health?
Alison Brill 12:34
Yeah, that’s a great question. So if we have a right balance of gut bacteria, it can help us produce the keep the hormones in balance tos. And when our hormones get off balance, that’s when our mood can shift. And over time, this also releases the stress hormone cortisol when we’re when we have the stress. And it’s that chronic stress that can lead to both physical and mental and emotional health problems. So keeping our stress in check, is really important. And when our it’s all of, it’s all a cycle, right? When our gut balance gets off, it gets our hormones out of whack, and that controls our mood and impacts our sleep. And all of it is connected.
Shannon M. 13:26
Right? Yeah. And, Christine, I know you have a story about sleep. But when I think about how good health is so important, Allison, I love that you talked about this, I feel like this is one of the most important under discussed topics when we talk about the immune system and health in general, right. And it’s just like, right now we’re seeing the supply chain hiccups and different things that happen with COVID, right. And that’s how I think about your body if you if the immune system in your stomach is not balanced. Now, certain arteries aren’t getting what they need at a certain time. And over here, it’s not getting the nutrients from the food that it needs to get, again, probably because you’re not getting it or your diet is imbalanced in that way. So it slows it down block over here. Not enough over here. And next thing you know, your your whole system is out of balance. And yeah, and then your brain we know that medically you’re declared no longer with us, right? I don’t know if that is a harsh word. But you know, they wait for that your brain activity. So when your brain is off, that’s really what is the the anchor to everything outside of the gut.
Alison Brill 14:35
Absolutely, yeah.
Christine Gautreaux 14:36
Well, say we have a listener that like, just like when they hear us they’re like, Okay, break it down. For me. That’s kind of a little gut humor, but sorry. Really. Just starting on this journey, Allison, and I don’t even know where to start. I don’t even know like How do I know if my gut bacteria is out of whack? How do I know if I’m in balance? Like when somebody comes to you? What do they usually come to you for? And yeah,
Alison Brill 15:12
yeah, so, so great question. Sorry. No, no great questions. And I appreciate you asking this. posing this question I want to say first, if any of you out there experiencing this, you know, poor digestion or stomach discomfort that I, I can I empathize, I’ve been there. I know, it’s really unpleasant and frustrating. And, yeah, and all the things. So I feel for you. And I do think there’s a lot that can be done that we do have control over to help support our gut health and digestive wellness. So and you’re right that some people may not know if they have poor digestion, they may just not be feeling well in certain parts of their body aspects of their life. So some pretty common signs or symptoms of poor digestion would be the more physical ones like the gas and bloating, stomach cramping, diarrhea, constipation, or alternating those could be some acid reflux type type symptoms. That could also be fatigue too. And that can come in the form of not sleeping well, like not getting good quality sleep and waking up a lot during the night, trouble falling asleep or falling asleep after meals can be excessive burping and belching to after meals. And then there can even be skin issues. A lot of people who have itchy skin or red skin or rosacea. Any kind of skin issue can can be related to digestion, there’s, it can be related to other things as well. But it’s often related to digestion. And then as we talked about, differences in mood, if you’re noticing your your mood is not what it usually is, or if it’s it’s swinging back and forth every day, or you’re experiencing more depression, or anxiety or irritability. All of this can be can be related to digestive problems.
Christine Gautreaux 17:12
And I bet it’s hard to separate out the last two years, like with the pandemic, like isn’t pandemic is it world crisis? Is it what we’re eating? Is it so how does somebody separated out? Like, how do you start with somebody to figure it out?
Alison Brill 17:31
Yeah, and there’s, there’s a lot going on in our world, there always is right? And then you add in a pandemic, and war and so many things that are going on that increase our stress. And there are a lot of people from marginalized groups that experienced a level of stress every single day, right, that minority stress, and then there’s the the pandemic stress, and they’re just Yeah, I think as women too, we tend to experience more stress as being one of the primary caretakers and even not being believed by doctors, a lot of the time to a lot of people will go in and say they have a set of symptoms, and the doctor doesn’t believe them or just says oh, you’re you know, you’re fine, you’re fine, just some stomach discomfort. So So stress is big, and stress really impacts our digestive health. And your to your question of how do you differentiate? I guess when when clients come to me, we do a full, full sort of assessment of their life. Okay, I’d like to get a full picture of what’s going on in someone’s life. You know, food is a big, a big factor in digestion. But it’s not the only thing. It’s, it’s how’s your sleep? How’s your mood? How are your relationships in your life? Are you satisfied with your job, and your financial situation? Like they’re stressed, they’re, you know, you feel like you have purpose in life, and you have a community of people who support you. And all of that plays into digestive health and overall health, of course. So I think it’s really getting a full picture of what’s going on when I talk with folks. And sometimes people have an inkling like, I know this food makes me have this type of reactions. So then we talk about that more. Sometimes folks will fill out a keep a food journal, if they’re not sure if something is is causing a problem. So to get kind of a baseline of what’s going on there are and then I really work with folks to support them and whatever their goals or intentions are for their health. It’s a very individualized approach. What works for someone might not work for someone else, and vice versa.
Christine Gautreaux 19:31
I love that Allison and as you were talking, I realized, Oh, that is right. Allison has a bachelor’s in social work. She’s a systems gal. Like the whole system, right? That’s what I love about your work. And I love about I mean this topic because physical wellness is a piece of the system. The gut health is a piece of the system. Like we have so many puzzle pieces to together for Whole Health and Wellness, and I know, I know myself, I can get frustrated with that right? What is especially something that he takes a minute to figure it out? It takes. Ah, I see you nodding to Shannon, you want to add in?
Shannon M. 20:16
Absolutely. And you know, I feel like I come from extremes of knowing how to take care of myself, you know, not even knowing what my curl pattern would be not knowing about how to balance a plate. Like one time in college, my friend came home from the Navy and had cook some chicken and mashed potatoes and rice she was like, so you have to starches and no vegetables. I said, that makes sense, you know, to listen to Dr. Oz, and of course, all these different places that we get information from. But what really changed the way I think about it? Is when I worked with lupus kitchen, and we made sauerkraut, and kombucha, and Alison, that’s where I really learned about oh, wait, usually as women we think about one type of Pah, right? We might think about urinary tract infections, all these different things that relate specifically to women’s health for the majority of different things that we might deal with. But the gut health is relative to everybody. And especially because my story with shallow glow. And my personal drive for daily wellness is chronic illness. When I find out that alkaline systems a system that is balanced, is harder to to get sick one. So that’s preventative, but then if you do have some type of virus or something that is trying to get in, it’s hard to latch on because it’s balanced. That’s where my motivation comes from, you know, so first I think about water. Of course, if somebody doesn’t know if they’re imbalance, even without the science, how often do you eat vegetables, if not, most of your stuff is coming out of some grease and it’s brown and you don’t see red and purple and yellow and then less you know, is even if you you might be balanced, it wouldn’t hurt to have some more green, it wouldn’t hurt to have some more water. And what really helps me too is probiotics, whether it’s kombucha, which is an acquired taste, because it is based in apple cider vinegar, okay, let’s be honest, but they have a whole list of options now where you’re gonna say,
Christine Gautreaux 22:14
I was gonna say, Okay, this is a good moment to freeze and as to say our favorite flavor of kombucha. Ooh. I don’t mind is Ginger Berry.
Shannon M. 22:26
So right now I just had or what I have here is hibiscus ginger, but I want to say right, it’s good, but I think that the Tumeric is my favorite one actually. Interesting. Ginger.
Christine Gautreaux 22:39
Yeah, there’s a new lemon ginger. That is really tasty that I tasted recently. What about you, Alison?
Alison Brill 22:48
Yeah, I’m taking the ginger too. Yeah,
Shannon M. 22:51
yeah. And I like just ginger tea. That’s what I have here. So I have this actually is lemon ginger with pro bio plus probiotics. And I have the tea bag that I mixed with the other like instant ginger tea that we got to stay balanced
Christine Gautreaux 23:14
lime, sparkling water and trying not to eat my piece of dark chocolate.
Shannon M. 23:21
For the heart, you have your water, you have your scissors. And that’s something else I do is the citrus in the water. You know, making sure that you get that those oranges or lemons and limes throughout the day has helped me balance the acidity versus the sugar and everything in my diet. And when I’m conscious of that, I usually feel better.
Alison Brill 23:42
Shannon, I’m so glad you brought up balance. I mean, it’s all about keeping the body in balance that equilibrium. That’s that’s everything. And the I appreciate that you brought up the fermented foods and probiotics too. And that’s really one small thing that everyone can benefit from if you’re not eating any fermented foods just to add in a little bit each day, like sauerkraut or kimchi or kefir, kombucha, even just a little bit can really do a lot to support our gut bacteria to feed the healthy bacteria.
Shannon M. 24:15
Right? Right. And that’s another thing. So when I think about physical wellness, right, that’s our topic this week. And Christine was talking about my well actually, she asked me and I brought up my oral surgery. I’m okay, how do I balance my pH when I’m taking antibiotics? Right? And I reached out to a nurse friend, she said water and probiotics. Yeah, I said, perfect. Let me go make sure that when I take my antibiotics, I’m also taking my probiotics and taking my water with it. And that has made all the difference.
Alison Brill 24:44
That’s so important, because it’s
Christine Gautreaux 24:48
well and I want to give a shout out talking about the fermented foods because I know you have a workshop coming up Allison about eating healthy on a budget. And one of the things I know to be true is like It’s really easy to ferment foods and it’s not something that has to be expensive like it’s not something that has to be from a high end grocery store like you confirm it cabbage on your counter, or beets or and and the internet. I’m sure you can tell us how to do it Allison but also the internet, y’all Google, like, we get people walk you through how to do fermented foods and and eat it. And we’re gonna put a link to your workshop about eating healthy on a budget that’s coming up next week. Because I know that that is one of the I don’t know if it’s the myth. I don’t know if it’s an excuse. I don’t know where we put it in there. But you know, I often hear that, oh, it’s expensive to eat healthy. And I mean, sometimes it definitely can be more expensive. But what do you say to that? Allison? When? When folks talk about that?
Alison Brill 25:55
Well, it’s I say that it’s it. Yeah, you’re right. It can be more expensive, but it doesn’t have to be. And there’s a lot of there’s a lot of ways to make eating healthy, more affordable, no matter what your budget looks like. I mean, there’s a lot of like grocery hacks and in the shopping hacks that I talked about in my workshop in summer to buy foods in bulk when you can save money that way. Buy produce that’s in season, or at the farmers market. Even if you’re on the you know, getting food stamps or EFT, sometimes they now the farmers markets are taking those and then making your own growing your own food if possible in your backyard. Or if you’re not in a climate like that, then, as you mentioned canning too. So you’re not I mean, a lot of it’s about prioritizing what you’re eating too, and a lot of the processed foods that are not very good, not very healthy for us tend to cost more sometimes they do. And so it’s about trying to maybe buy less of those and buy the ones that are more nourishing for our bodies. So balancing the budget out that way by balancing our our bodies and what our bodies really need.
Christine Gautreaux 27:07
Yeah, one of the things I love of course, I was raised by a farmer in Texas so I’m always seeking out gardening because I was on strike just to be honest, y’all I was on strike from age 18 till probably age 30. Because I was just I did a lot of it. And but what I realized is I got older and really looking at health and wellness and nutrition, like seeking out a community garden. Like where you gardening community with other people, like if you don’t know what you’re doing, or you need support, or you might like where I live. I have so I have a little land around me, but I have all these trees. So I really don’t have a good gardening spot, because I don’t get enough sun. So like seeking out ways to do it. Like you said grocery hacks but also kind of gardening hacks like how do you weave right now for my daughter’s Christmas friend knows her birthday present. I got her one of those little hydroponic planners, and we have fresh salad growing on our counter that it’s just, it’s awesome.
Alison Brill 28:13
I love hydroponic planter,
Christine Gautreaux 28:15
right? I’ll put the link to it in our show notes Shannon and tell you you would love it. Because it just sits on our calendar. It’s you It’s water, and it’s fertilizer. And it’s just growing like and it’s good. Like it’s good lettuce. It’s not bitter. It’s not like you just reach over and snip it off. And we’re on our third grow already and it’s magical. So
Shannon M. 28:39
what I think Christine is because again, I started when I was in college, I helped the kitchen so I had already seen the benefit of healthy eating juicing. Allison, I don’t know if you know this, but when I was in middle school, my dad was diagnosed with cancer like eighth grade ninth grade. Oh, yes, surgery, he had his stomach taken out. So we’re talking about gut health doesn’t have like the gut is different than it used to be, you know. So I’ve been thinking about the health a healthy stomach for a long time. And then my mom got sick with cancer and she passed away from cancer. They weren’t together but definitely relevant for my life. Right. So when we talk about how expensive it is, I was in college working at lupus kitchen learning about sauerkraut and natural medicine. I was like, Absolutely, this is what I need to know about and people would be like, but it’s expensive, especially in college. Right? That’s like when you’re allowed to not have money. Everybody knows you’re a broke college kid, right? But I would tell them well, medical bills are expensive too. So like we have to pick which side we want to be on. And honestly even do the pandemic as I budget now and being more financially literate and I’m looking at if I want to save some money, it’s actually less expensive to be vegan instead of getting the fish and the meat and the steaks and the just minus that with some sauce or something Then over here, and we’re saving a lot of money every two weeks.
Alison Brill 30:05
Absolutely, yeah.
Christine Gautreaux 30:09
I am loving this conversation, y’all. I’m loving the different directions we’re going and I’m hope you’ll forgive me because I have to ask Allison, this question before we get. I know we got a little time. But I know Allison, one of the things you work with clients on is getting off sugar. So I want to have the whole sugar discussion. Okay, let’s do it. All right. So tell us about getting off processed sugar, and why we should be doing?
Alison Brill 30:39
Yeah, this is a this is a hot topic right now. And it’s I can start off by saying it’s not it’s not an easy thing. I think. Keeping in mind what Shana what you just said, which jogged my memory Christine, when you asked me this is about making an investment in your health, right, that certain things may cost a little more, but they’re more cost effective in the long run. And by so processed sugars, sugar that’s added to food after it’s after it’s processed, basically. So it’s not natural sugar, it’s different than the sugars that are in fruits and milk that come naturally and some vegetables as well. And it’s, it’s heavily processed sugar, so like table sugar, you know, cane sugar, or high fructose corn syrup. For fructose, sucrose, there’s a there’s a whole and then there’s the artificial sweeteners, like the, the sucralose, the ones that are like the table, like the equal and those types of sweeteners. And all there’s actually over 56 names for sugars, the sugar industry likes to confuse us on purpose, they know what they’re doing. So when you read a label, or like it doesn’t say sugar, but it might say, I’d say sucralose or something like that. So it’s important to do, you know, do a little research, find out what all of those different names for sugar are. But basically, I think it’s important to look at the nutrition label. And to look at the total sugars plus the added sugars, when you see added that you know that processed sugar has been added to that food. And then to also read the ingredients label to and if you can’t pronounce something, it’s probably not as nourishing for us that have been things you can pronounce on the label. So processed sugar really messes up our gut bacteria, it disrupts the the delicate bacteria balance in there and feeds the bad bacteria. And this is sugar and alcohol as well, as well as sugar that’s in processed foods and like desserts and, and refined carbs, like the white sugars, the white flour, white, and then white bread and those those types of products as well. Sugar can create a whole host of problems, many that I mentioned before, a lot of people have even just a little bit of sugar. Like you mentioned, just having a little bit of wheat or gluten can can do a lot of problems for you. Some people are very sensitive to sugar, and we’re like oh, it’s just a little bit but can really have pretty intense impacts can cause all the Alden indigestion symptoms that we think of, of course, it can change your mood as well. And people break out skin issues. And it’s also related to, to menstrual health as well to people have really, people who have periods have been having really bad periods. There’s a lot of reasons for that. But sugar can definitely be a piece of that too. If you’re someone eating a lot of the processed sugar that has a it causes inflammation in the body basically is what sugar does, which means it literally makes the body on fire, and then causes a whole host of problems.
Christine Gautreaux 33:50
I didn’t ask you this question ahead of time. So if you don’t know the answer, it’s okay. But I thought I heard years ago, that sugar is more addictive than heroin or something like that. Like I remember reading that research. And I was blown away by it. Because I’ve been mostly off processed sugar for the past seven or eight years. I say mostly because your dark chocolate is my Achilles heel. But it I want our listeners to realize that this is something that is often not easy. It’s not like you think, Oh, I’m just gonna go cold turkey and do it. And for a number of reasons I found when I did it is because first of all, there’s withdrawal symptoms. Second of all, it’s hidden in almost everything in America that we eat, like you have to be vigilant to not get it it right. And it is so much of our culture and our patterns of eating that we have. It’s like a societal thing to that we have to talk about an address because when I stopped eating gluten and sugar. People lost their minds like and took it personally everywhere. Like, I’m like, This is not personal, y’all. This is hell. And I mean, But yo, I’m from the south, like, I’m originally from Texas. And now I live in Georgia. And you know, Southern food and Southern cooking, like, people take it personal when you’re saying, I’m sorry, I can’t have that. Or I’m like, you know, my nanny did not understand at all, when she was living that, why? A little bit of gluten or a little bit of wheat, or, you know, and y’all gravy is a thing. So you know, maybe it’s just got a little bit in there.
Alison Brill 35:40
That’s so true. And I just want to uplift what you said about how sugar is so addictive. And it as is, is in fact, as addictive as cocaine, there’s research on that, and, and the gut and the brain is there’s a strong connection between the gut and the brain and, you know, increases the, it’s like that dopamine response is what happens when you eat sugar, so you feel good, right, and you want to eat it again. And it’s this this vicious cycle. So if anyone out there is struggling with the sugar addiction, know that there’s a reason for it, there’s a reason why our body and then back in the day when we’re like our way, way long ago, we would want that sugar for quick energy, you know, so we get whatever food we could find this was like long, long time ago. So there’s sort of that historical context, as well.
Shannon M. 36:27
And there was it was really interesting. One of my classes, I took an undergrad when I was getting my psychology degree, my professor said, you don’t realize this, but every time you step out of bed, you step out on the same foot. And when you go up the stairs, you go up the stairs starting on the same foot, and I started paying attention. I said, she’s right, this is crazy, you know, and our eating habits, habits are the same, just like our spending habits are the same. We might not know where our money goes. But we know it’s not in our account, you know, we might not know what we ate if we don’t keep a food journal. But you know, it wasn’t a bowl of Kale with dried strawberries on it, you know what I mean? And so that’s how I think about it. And so when you put it in, when you put somebody in an environment where that’s the mainstay in the diet, it’s definitely hard to break out when it’s addictive, but to Christine when I lost this way, and I was started with the Dinos fast. And then Allison, I don’t know if you know this story, so I lost like 40 pounds, I need to know the date. So I can like track how long I maintain this weight, but lost 40 pounds. And I started with the Daniels fast and then was vegan for the better part of a year. And I people had their reactions and comments about what I was eating on a daily basis, all this stuff. But my thing was, even if I eat whatever I want, or if I don’t? My question is why is it so hard to find something without bread, meat or cheese in it? You take that away? There’s that’s the majority of a lot of these menus, you know, and it was almost difficult to find anything else, thankfully is getting better, like we talked about earlier. But that that’s the interesting thing for me. So absolutely. It has to be intentional.
Alison Brill 38:09
Yeah, absolutely. That’s sugar and dairy and gluten, and corn and soy, all the top allergens are hidden in a majority of our, our food these days. So and I do want to say too, that I think some foods kind of get demonized, too. And that I do think it’s important that people eat from the culture that they’re from to and to think about what our ancestors ate and whatever country our ancestors came from. And I think that does have an impact on our on our bodies. We’re all you know, individual in that way that we just what’s good for someone might not be good for someone else. So just to keep that that in mind, too. I
Christine Gautreaux 38:51
love that. I love that. Yeah, because my whole mother line is Irish, and I can I can do potatoes, it’s very interesting. It is very interesting, because nightshades give me a hard time. So things like tomatoes and peppers, like it I have to really, I can tell when my body’s under stress, because I can only have a little bit of them. Like I, I when my bodies in balance are healthy, I can have a little if I’m out of balance, I can hardly have none of them without having a big reaction and inflammation. And potatoes are also a Nightshade. But my body is fine with white potato like it’s like and you saying that makes me wonder because that’s where my whole mother line ancestry comes from. And they lived on potatoes and so that’s very curious. I hadn’t thought about that before.
Alison Brill 39:45
Yeah, and that what you just said about noticing I think that’s a such a key part of this is noticing when we’re hungry noticing when we’re full noticing maybe we’re not getting certain nutrients that we need was our body asking for it’s about really being in tune with our body am having a connection to our body. That’s something that took me a long time to learn. I don’t feel like I from a young age was connected to my body it came, you know, like, not that long ago honestly, and but getting getting in tune with your body’s rhythms and what does it need? What’s, you know, does it need water right now? Does it need a certain fruit or vegetable? Sometimes we have cravings for certain things. And there’s a reason why. So I think the asking why is important.
Christine Gautreaux 40:27
I love that. And I love the noticing. Because, you know, often when we were kids, well, I don’t know about y’all in my household. Like it was you eat what’s put in front of you, whether your body likes it or not. And and you eat it all, because they’re starving children somewhere in the world. You know, now, I would like to say parents are saying that to your children, which first of all, don’t say that to your children. But if you are, they’re starving children in America, let’s not put it in other places of the world. Let’s let’s be at home and take care of our kids here. Whoo. So buck, sorry, back here, God help. That, you know, I was raised like you had to eat it like that was it. And so it took me years of undoing some of that patterning. Now the good news was I was raised on a small family farm. So we often had fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, we had we were farm to table before farm to table was a thing. But we also I used to remember, Saturdays were this really special day because my dad would make pancakes and I hated it. But like everybody made such a big deal out of it. And I had to eat them. And what I realized why I hated them years later is because I have a gluten sensitivity. And I felt horrible after I ate them. It didn’t like, I didn’t feel good. My body didn’t like them. I felt sluggish and yucky and irritable. And like all the things, all the things. And but I didn’t, I didn’t have the power as a child to say no to that. And then it took me years to figure out and undo. You know what the world teaches us about it to realize, whoa, this didn’t work for my body?
Alison Brill 42:07
Yeah, yeah. That’s, and that’s hard to when we don’t, we either don’t know, right? Or we don’t have the support of the people we’re living with? Or? Yeah, there’s a lot of education. I think that that needs to come with, with with nutrition for sure.
Christine Gautreaux 42:25
So where do people start, Allison? Because I’m paying attention at the time, and I’m loving this conversation, and I’m knowing we’re starting to need to wrap but where do people start with the education and in getting a guide like you to help them through it?
Alison Brill 42:41
I do you think getting support is helpful, like accountability partner, and whether that’s, you know, a friend that’s also going through something similar, or it’s a health coach or a nutritionist, dietician, I do think it can be helpful to get some support, and there’s a lot of information out there, and it’s not always accurate. You want to make sure you’re getting accurate information. You know, it can be helpful to find someone to as an accountability partner, just like if you want to get outside more anyone know, a walking buddy, you know, that can be really helpful too. So and just doing research with credible sources online to you know, making sure it’s it’s a it’s a real, credible source for information.
Christine Gautreaux 43:24
How would you tell for I know that that, like just saying that like, Yes. And how do people do that anymore? Because that can be tricky online to know what’s real and what’s not real? How would you recommend? They know it’s a credible source regarding nutrition and health?
Alison Brill 43:42
Yeah, I think if it’s the sources coming from a university, like a university, or a hospital system, or PubMed, which is a research journals that they do, they do studies that have been tested, you know, by by folks in the medical, medical public health community. That’s, that’s one way to know, it’s a credible source. Yeah, there’s a medical or hospital kind of kind of context that you can,
Shannon M. 44:13
if somebody is really interested in the details that deeply too pristine after they get to the platform, whereas with whether it’s a medical context, a University Research Center, what I usually look at is the number of research participants, right? So there’s 150 participants. That sounds like a lot compared to the three people that are right here. But when you think about the scale of the nation, we’re you know, what type of people were they were their women, what age were they where did they live? Because again, like Allison said, you know, certain regions might have certain things because of the nature there. You know, it might be different things that affect that certain population, or if it’s a more representative population of people in the research Study. Now it might be able to be relevant on a on a wider basis. That’s usually how I judge research when I read it.
Christine Gautreaux 45:10
You said that Shannon, because so many studies are done on white men. Right? Right. And they may have different results, then women right now. Absolutely. So that is a really good thing to point out and noticed. Yeah, I like
Shannon M. 45:25
and something else too, we were talking about how overwhelming and frustrating it could be with all the different systems and everything that we have to learn right or consider or be intentional about. What makes it easier for me is where the lack of information is or where the pain is, right? If it’s in your body, you know that you’re not sleeping well, or you know that your stomach feels weird. Or maybe it’s your bat, maybe it’s your ankle, that’s what you should research, you know, and then get the specific support around that then get the accountability around that. And for one person, it might be the sugar and alcohol that they’re drinking, because they drink too much wine and somebody else might be the fries that they eat at work. And we can be accountability partners on our wellness, even though they’re slightly different things.
Christine Gautreaux 46:14
Good point, Shannon. And good, good. Noticing from all of us about it really is individual and noticing and you don’t have to do it by yourself. So if you need to make changes in your gut health, if you need to make changes in your physical wellness, like you can do it in community. And whether it’s a single community or a whole group, there’s y’all there’s support groups all over the internet right now. So that’s another way to look at it. But Shannon, you want to kick us off with our wisdom and action? Oh,
Shannon M. 46:43
my wisdom and action. Let’s see. I have one in mind. I think like we were just talking about accountability. And
if I’m talking about let’s see, if I’m talking about physical wellness, and gut health, let’s say hashtag read the label. And this is something that I’ve gotten in the habit of doing right actually do a very good job at standing there. And yes, I’m reading and so the last ingredient, you know, but what I do have an opportunity to continue to work on is the added sugar that you said Allison? I never thought about that. Okay, so sugar has a certain measurement What about the added sugar and those two different categories so going a little bit deeper as I work on weaning this sugar out because I’ve let it add a little a little bit too much to the left then too much more to the left and I would like so that’s my hashtag hashtag Reba label
Christine Gautreaux 47:54
the label. Yours be Alison
Alison Brill 47:58
Oh Hmm Good question hashtag think would be
Christine Gautreaux 48:27
you can have more
Alison Brill 48:31
what keeps coming to mind is, is about different types of medicine. Like for me movement as medicine, which I know we didn’t get to talk about the movement and enjoy that to bring to our bodies. So I think it’d be movement. Because right? Yeah, getting things moving in your body and also connecting to your body through movement.
Shannon M. 48:51
Oh, I love this physical wellness.
Christine Gautreaux 48:54
Right? I like them even though we didn’t get a chance to talk about it this time. Yeah, you can totally have that. I’m going to tag on on that Allison. And hashtag move more. And I Yeah, and and I’m going to do hashtag notice like just checking my body and seeing where I am. And seeing what it’s wanting like just what you said. What’s it craving? What’s it needing? Is it craving more of this? Is it craving more movement? Is it craving more asparagus is it craving you know, what is it what is it loving? And you know, we’re about to enter that season which to me is just magical because we’re about to get into the spring and summer growth season to where there’s farmer markets popping up all over the place and we can get fresh vegetables and we can get you know locally grown sourced things out of our yard or at the at the local market and it’s my favorite time of year for eating Healthy and the just I love it. I love being able to go out in the yard and pick something or go or go to a farm and pick something.
Alison Brill 50:10
Talk about farm to table, right? You know where your food comes from, you know what’s in it,
Shannon M. 50:15
right?
Christine Gautreaux 50:16
Absolutely. Absolutely. I had somebody tell me one time and I know we’ve got a wrap. But I am curious about this, they always used to say, go on the outside of the grocery store. Like that’s where you should you should shop for your best gut health is
Alison Brill 50:34
that perimeter is where the predominantly the healthier food lives.
Christine Gautreaux 50:39
Super yo, if you need to find Allison, we are going to put her contact information in our show notes. But she can be found at Alison brill, Allison t brill.com. And so we’ll put that in the show notes. She’ll reach out if you need some support or help. And we will also put that link to your upcoming class eating healthy on a budget. It’s a free online workshop that she’ll be given next Wednesday, March the ninth. And you’ll check it out. Because physical wellness, gut health all this is important. So thank you for being with us today, Allison. I, I thought oh, we’re gonna have a 20 minute conversation about gut health and look at us go in almost an hour. I love it.
Alison Brill 51:28
Thank you so much for having me.
Christine Gautreaux 51:30
Delighted. Oh, my gosh, that was fun
Shannon M. 51:34
that it was amazing.
Christine Gautreaux 51:36
I really didn’t know that. And we’d still didn’t get to everything either.
Shannon M. 51:40
And I hadn’t thought about I think about gut health a lot. Right. But I hadn’t thought about my dad getting his stomach taken out is probably a huge reason why I focus on good health so much. Sometimes it just takes us a while to connect. You know,
Christine Gautreaux 51:55
right? Well, because you’ve lived with it for so long, right? Yeah, um, yeah, it is a powerful thing to think about. It’s it’s and how it all works together. And then even we didn’t talk about with Allison, but I was even thinking about like, some of our language, right, like gut check. Like, you know, listening to your gut, like, these are all part of phrases that people may think they mean one thing, but they really could literally listen to your gut. What is your gut say? Great. Yeah, and all the science behind that. And then like, it’s your second brain? And it’s just fascinating to me. Yeah.
Shannon M. 52:34
And that’s this is what I think about when we talk about nutrition deserts, access to healthy food, environmental wellness, with Melissa bird, and then she’s an old and we you know, regionally grown food, all of it affects so many things, crime rates, incarceration rates, all these things, but we’re talking about apples right now and water. So sometimes we forget to connect everything together. But yeah.
Christine Gautreaux 53:00
And that’s, that’s what we’re here for. Is these conversations, and how does it affect us in an everyday way? And Allison, right, at the end, say know where your food comes from, right? And that if we were privileged enough to do that, and to have something where we can grow food, that yes, yes, and or accessing a community garden, or, you know, creating one in a neighborhood that has a food desert. So we can infer, though, our listeners that don’t know what a food desert is, that’s an area usually it’s lower economic areas. Often, it’s neighborhoods with people of color, where there are not major grocery stores, like people have to drive miles outside of their own neighborhood to access a grocery store. So what that means is a lot of times of food comes from convenience stores, which we all know, have you been in a convenience store, they’re getting better. To be fair, they’re getting better, but usually you can get a banana, like, yeah, you can get a water and a banana. And if you’re like, but you know that some of my been in lately I’ll have a salad or you know, but to Allison’s point about the hidden sugar, like often, almost everything in the convenience store has processed sugar in it, right, even the quote unquote, healthy stuff, like the granola bars and things like that. So yeah, I mean, it’s real. It affects our nutrition, it affects our health, it affects everything. So we could have a whole nother show on that.
Shannon M. 54:28
I mean, we have seasons to come in. Episode 116. Right, right.
Christine Gautreaux 54:37
Yes. Well, speaking of we, this was episode 57. On season seven, next week, we’ll be social wellness. We have Jennifer H joining us. I’m very excited to have her come on and we’ll tell you all about her next week. Any last words you want to give our folks or anything We will let us know that’s happening over at Shiloh glow before we before we wrap the show today.
Shannon M. 55:05
No, I’m excited. I told you guys about the news. Everything is coming up. physical wellness, sugar. I think I’m good. I would just say let’s keep going, you know, 365 days ago, I personally was in a completely different place, you know, and being intentional about the eight dimensions we’re getting on the more well side, you know, and of course is an everyday thing being intentional and things that still need to get better. But, you know, it works. And if you need community, you have Allison, and you can reach out to you for some gut health. We have women connecting wisdom, calm for our community, and we’re going to have the book soon. So join us and we can support you.
Christine Gautreaux 55:47
Yep, you don’t have to do this alone. No, no,
Shannon M. 55:51
no. And don’t forget, be well, be wise. We’ll see you next week.
Christine Gautreaux 55:58
See you next week, my friend.
Unknown Speaker 56:04
Thanks for listening. This has been the women connected and wisdom podcast on-air live on Wednesdays at 5 pm. Eastern via Facebook and YouTube. Be sure to like, share and subscribe be part of the conversation and get connected at women connected in wisdom.com.
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