Welcome back to another episode of the Empowered Nutrtition Podcast. In this episode, Erin Skinner and this week’s guest Gayatri Saldivar discuss the importance of addressing root causes for optimal health.
A little bit about Gayatri:
Gayatri Saldivar, MS, RDN, CLT, IFNCP is an expert in the art and science of lab-based protocol design to help clients achieve whole-body wellness. Integrating the Kalish method and the science of nutritional genomics into her work, she named her practice 23 Nutrition Therapy. She is certified in Lifestyle Eating And Performance (LEAP) therapy and customizes anti-inflammation and elimination diets.
In this episode, she emphasizes the gut hormone detox connection and how it can lead to symptoms like brain fog, fatigue, anxiety, sleep issues, and gut problems. Saldivar shares her approach of comprehensive root cause analysis and testing to help clients rebalance stress hormones, heal the gut lining, and support detoxification for sustainable wellness. The episode also explores various testing methods, including gut testing, hormone testing, conventional lab work, and micronutrient testing, as well as the significance of personalized nutrition and lifestyle changes. Practical tips are provided to support gut healing, hormone balance, and detox pathways, while debunking diet misconceptions.
Key Points:
• Comprehensive testing is crucial in identifying imbalances in stress hormones, gut health, and detoxification.
• Correcting the gut hormone detox connection in the right order can lead to significant progress in healing and overall well-being.
• Detox pathways are evaluated, with a specific emphasis on liver function and glutathione levels.
• A clear and structured plan is developed to address specific concerns in a phased approach.
• Misconceptions exist on both extremes: thinking diet alone can solve everything or dismissing diet as unrelated to health problems.
• Struggling with gut breakdown due to a poor diet but still wanting to consume trigger foods or drinks creates a disconnect.
• Quick wins for gut, hormone, and detox health include focusing on chewing food properly and ensuring adequate protein intake.
Whether you’re looking to enhance your understanding of your own health or seeking guidance to support others on their health journey, this episode has something for everyone.
Don’t miss this opportunity to empower yourself with the knowledge and tools to achieve optimal health!
Thank you for being a part of our podcast community. We appreciate your continued support and look forward to sharing more enlightening episodes with you.
Learn more about Gayatri at https://www.23nutritiontherapy.com/
Prefer to watch the interview live? Head on over to our Youtube page.
Ready to dive in? Listen here!
Love it? Hate it? We’d love to hear your feedback!
SUBTITLES:
Hey everyone, and welcome to the Empower Nutrition podcast. I’m so thrilled today to have a guest who I’ve known for many years and greatly admire her work. Gayatri Saldivar, welcome to the show.
Hi. So lovely to be here.
Yeah, thanks for having, for coming on the show. So I just always love to hear more of the backstory about people’s work and you’re, you’re just so special in the world of dietetics with what you do in terms of helping your clients find the root cause and find true health. So maybe tell me a little bit about how you got into the work that you do.
Yeah, so I started my private practice right out of grad school, which I think like you, I had an amazing entrepreneur business entrepreneurship program at Eastern Michigan University. And so they website,
Yes.
Yeah, so good. I think that gave me the leg up in that I literally had my first client, right when I got my credential, I was, you know, having that conversation. I was like, wait, what do I, what do I charge? What do I charge? Wait, okay, I have a website that says all this already.
I made a business plan, like, yeah, so good.
Yeah. So, so I was like, ready. And then on top of that, I did the IFNA program in that last summer stretch before I graduated. So I had some forms, I had some idea about how I wanted to practice, so literally got rolling right away and did not stop there. I feel like I just kept, you know, building, building, growing, growing with, you know, collecting all the tools and resources, kind of like a hoarder. It’s like any tools and resources. I got it. Okay. Yeah, I was, you know, doing various different trainings that nonstop since then, got my I-F-N-C-P credential and then I was literally getting my practice off the ground when the pandemic happened and it squashed everything, everything that I had even just started to build, like all my packages were ending and I didn’t really know how to continue them along. So we just ended and it felt like every, it felt like everything was ended, you know, like everybody was kind of making a lot of changes at that time. Yeah, I did have some in person clients and so of course that’s, you know, I stopped doing that and yeah, so I just didn’t even know how to continue the process. So I, I found Dr. Dan Kali at that time and it completely transformed how I practice. And on top of that, just a few short months later I started to get more clients again and, you know, really build more of a long-term plan. So yeah, that really helped a lot.
Yeah. Tell me more about you and like your interest in like why nutrition, why functional medicine?
Yeah, so I have been in this, you know, field or world for since 2003. I originally had my very first nutrition class, and I’ve always been kind of on that edge of something different. And I, when I learned okay, what a dietician is, I was like, okay, I’m gonna have to play this, you know, shame because I know I’m, I’m built for something else. I know I’m outside the box. And, and they didn’t even have those words. I didn’t even know that word, functional nutrition then yeah, it was like kind of a holistic, you know, was the, the term that was used more. Yeah. So, but I knew from the get go that’s the route I was going. I just had to take a very long route. And mainly I got into nutrition myself for my own personal weight goals. And, and it’s funny because I never wanted to specialize in weight loss only because my own journey brought me to functional medicine, and that was, I wanted to dig deeper, I wanted to look at the gut, I wanted to look at, you know, more root cause and I know the weight loss industry can be pretty surface level and it’s difficult on that end.
Not all because I know, I know, you know, I know you’re doing a pretty in depth version, so, but yeah, so anyways, I, I just wanted to focus more on what was the root cause of these metabolic issues. Yeah. So that’s what brought me into nutrition,
So Good. Yeah, I love hearing people’s stories because I think it just, it just really underscores, I think the need in terms of, so often it seems like people are coming into this kind of integrative and functional space because of a failing of the conventional approaches in terms of their own health journey and just kind of realizing that, that there is another path and that it it, and that there’s such such a need for access to it, and that can, you can, it can be so life changing for people if you can help them address finding address root causes and an effective way that’s not overwhelming and like that’s sustainable. It’s just, it’s such, it seems like such a win-win to me.
A hundred percent. I remember reading, gosh, like I used to call this book my Bible, it was like cracking the metabolic code by Dr by James lavalle. And I just remember, I just remember feeling like, oh, I want to have access to this kind of thing. And I didn’t, I didn’t know anybody at that time who was doing, again, I never heard the word functional medicine. Yeah. And I didn’t know, I just knew that that was the kind of practitioner I wanted to be. Yeah. And I feel like I’m finally living that dream that I have had literally 2003.
Yeah. Getting below the surface and making connections between systems and like, so one thing that I love that you talk about is like, you talk about the gut hormone and detox connection. Tell me how, maybe tell me a little bit about your work in that, in that in terms of like, who are some of the people that you think can benefit from like your type of approach where we look at how like gut health and hormones and, and like toxin clearance is, is all connected and like what can be the manifestations if you have problems in those, in those connections?
Yeah, so great question. I mainly serve clients who come to me based on their symptoms. So, you know, they, they may have a diagnosis, but I’m not as concerned of their diagnosis as I am of like, what’s their symptom manifestation? And that’s, you know, okay, that’s, you know, why we need to look at the root causes of that symptom manifestation. So like people who are struggling with brain fog and fatigue and anxiety, some sleep issues, and of course the big grand gut issues, which can just be a lot of things from upper GI to lower gi. So that could really hold many different diagnoses in there, or many different types of struggles. And you know, even those who haven’t been diagnosed yet as well.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, another thing I love about your approach is like, I know you get quite a lot into testing, which sounds obvious. I mean, you go to get healthcare and they wanna run labs, but I find that often in the more integrative space, it’s kind of crazy town where there’s people that maybe just are very minimal in their testing and next thing you know, they’re recommending a parasite cleanse or whatever. And so maybe tell me a little bit about like, let’s say you do have this person who has some anxiety, some digestive symptoms, some sleep problems. What are some of the types of tests that you’re recommending for that person?
Great question. So the first thing I do is I do a comprehensive root cause analysis, which is a, a thorough assessment of their various systems, their body systems, and what could be imbalanced here. So it’s really just a screening, but I’m looking at, you know, screening their stress hormones, I’m screening their gut issues, I’m screening their, you know, how compromised their detox system is, how sensitive they are to various different toxins. So with this really thorough workup, then we generally, my clients order a minimum of three to four labs right from the get go. ’cause it’s all part of this kind of foundational workup to address that gut hormone detox connection. And this is all using the KLI method. I’m kish trained like earlier. So, so we really look deep into the stress hormones and, you know, balance that as it is, you know, gosh, I feel like in this day, in this time, like who has not, who has not been impacted by some, you know, pretty severe stress, you know, whether it was during the pandemic or you know, other things in life, you know, was it somebody, was it a, a, a death in the family, a divorce, childbirth, multiple children?
That kind of puts a lot of stress on our bodies. So this is kind of how most bodies fall apart. And so looking at this angle that the stress hormones really need to be balanced because when we start to have that imbalance, stress hormones, it starts to break down our gut lining. We start to become catabolic. We start to use resources from our body to keep going to, to get away from that, you know, lion to give us more energy so that we can run away. But if we’re chronically running away from this lion, we are degrading our gut lining. And when our gut lining is getting so compromised, we now have this possibility that even like foods that are undigested can now enter or, you know, basically anything. Now we are susceptible to pathogens and, and so then we can then develop, you know, some sort of infection.
Not everybody, but this is kind of the progression. So seeing somebody’s GPS settings where they’re at in this progression of, you know, this, this inflammation response is happening at the gut lining. Once it’s compromised, we’re gonna, and, and that’s where, you know, some autoimmune situation can come in and start to attack not only the gut lining, but then our own body’s tissues. So, you know, especially if somebody’s, you know, suffering from Hashimoto’s and these are great places to look. And then once we have all these, you know, toxins coming from the gut circulating, then now our liver is getting overloaded in addition to the potential environmental toxins, which that is. Yeah, enormous. Yeah. Like we’re in, I’m sorry to say like it is, it’s kind of a doomsday kind of thought that we are bombarded with toxins galore in our life, you know, whether it’s in our water, in our food, in our, you know, even when we really try hard to eat well.
Like there’s something we’re, we’re still getting something, you know, all the California fires and now it’s like everywhere now even, even the east coast was having crazy fires. So yeah, it’s this gut hormone detox connection is really important because if we can identify where the problems really started and correct them in the order that they occur, for the most part, you know, we can make some good headway. I always like to use the analogy that if, if I’m, you know, trying to save money in a bank account and I’m throwing away some, I’m, I’m putting away money, you know, every week to save and somebody else is taking that money out every week, I’m not getting anywhere. Right? I feel like that’s the same thing. If we aren’t correcting the stress response and we’re only working in the gut and we aren’t correcting the stress, it’s like that same analogy, you know, we’re just kind of spinning our own wheels.
Same thing with the gut in the detox. If we aren’t correcting the gut and we’re only correcting the detox, then we’re just kind of spinning around not really getting anywhere. So yeah, looking at this kind of whole picture and this circular, like how they’re all related is, is super important. Yeah. So, so I combine that foundational workup with also a foundational kind of comprehensive blood workup, so you know, what the doctor should be doing, but isn’t because they’re concerned with whether or not somebody has a diagnosis to confirm whether or not these labs are justified. So I do a pretty thorough workup on everybody with their blood work as well. And then looking at micronutrients and making sure that, you know, the, the fatty acids and the amino acids and looking at other fat soluble antioxidants and minerals are all, you know, repleted because this can all drastically impact somebody’s ability to heal.
Yeah,
Yeah,
Absolutely. So it sounds like there’s, there’s gut testing and then maybe the hormone testing is adrenal testing, and then there’s some conventional more, not, not the lab work that people typically get, but labs that are available at least from a conventional lab. So maybe around like lipids and maybe like a homocysteine and a vitamin D and things like that. And then maybe there’s some micronutrient testing. And then tell me about the detox pathways. What are some, like, how are you testing around that?
So I use the ion, the individual individualized optimal nutrition tests. I know many practitioners can’t get ahold of that, so a good comparison would be like nutrival or metabolomics maybe, but they’re still missing some markers. But yeah, so that is already included in my testing. When I’m looking at micronutrients, I’m also looking at detox. I’m, I’m looking at, you know, heavy metals in there. I’m looking at how is the livers, you know, the pathways, how are they clearing their toxins? Is their glutathione tanked out, which is your master antioxidant? When that’s gone, that’s like the worst thing to happen on the test. Your, your defenses are, are gone. You basically, that that toxin won is winning. And so think of it as a battle. Yeah. It’s like good evil.
Yeah, yeah. The good guys are losing. Yeah. Okay. So
In my practice to, to get that detox component with the, with all the micronutrients as well.
Okay. Maybe tell me what, so like these results come back and then maybe walk me through what maybe a plan might look like. I know it probably depends, but what are some of the types of things that maybe would come out of seeing these results? And then we see that there’s, there’s there’s problems along this gut hormone detox pathway. What, what does the plan typically look like? Yeah,
That’s such a great question. So, you know, we’re, we’re really using that lab work as it, you know, a structure here. Now we have, we, we see what’s going on with the adrenals. Maybe there’s also some neurotransmitters that are out of balance as well from the ion tests. So combining those two together to really see, okay, can we do a really comprehensive brain support program where we can, you know, balance some stress hormones and neurotransmitters at the same time? A lot of times that’s like a really great place to start. So we might do that for a few months. Then we work on some gut stuff. If they find a para, you know, if we find a parasite and, and you know, we got a lot more to work on. So it just depends on, you know, how much is going on. I’m always relieved when that person’s stool test comes back and it’s like, woo, we don’t have to do that. Yeah,
We can skip.
You know, so, so depending on, you know, what’s going on, we might have to do various different steps. And so I segment it all up, but we have a clear pathway now. We have a clear pathway of where we’re going for that first couple of months, the next couple of months, the next couple of months. So that the, I think that helps reduce that overwhelm of trying to tackle it all at the same time. So, yeah. You know, I think, gosh, you know what, I remember Dr. Dan Kali telling us that, you know, his, you know, very first, you know, test and he just tried to give everybody everything and tried to correct everything. And, and then I’m just laughing ’cause I’m like, that’s what I did too. You know? Yeah.
A snake,
I’m sure everybody does. It’s like you, you, you think you’re being really good and thorough and you’re trying to give them everything that you saw. And it’s true. We, we probably do wanna like tell them everything that we saw, but to try to correct that and, you know, and give them 20 supplements is very overwhelming. It’s not doable. You know, I guess we have to think about, would we wanna do that? Do we wanna take 20 supplements? No. Right. So, so it’s really just like being able to stagger the approach and, and work on the adrenals and neurotransmitters first, work on the guts, you know, really spend the time to, to deep dive and go slow and thorough and then get to that detox replete with the nutrients. And, and once in a while there’ll be some variation for, oh my gosh, this is like your biggest problem here. Yeah. And we need to focus on that. You know, so, so it doesn’t always adhere to that same process. Right. Having that structure to begin with is, you know, huge for getting results and getting progress. Yeah. And I think it, it helps the client feel like they’re supported more with some structure while we work on some lifestyle to go with it as well, you know? Yeah,
Of course. Yeah. I mean I, it sounds like there are definitely outliers, but in general, let’s say you have someone who has, they have digestive problems, the findings on their gut test, they have adrenal symptoms and they have an irregular adrenal test, and then they have signs of poor detox and they have outliers on their ion showing poor detox. What would you say is the most common like, order of operations in terms of like how you address those things in terms of, I, I would imagine that like there’s, there’s like a more common way that it’s best to tackle that, but what do you think?
Yeah, yeah, I mean I definitely think that the, you know, working on that adrenal and neurotransmitters first, then the, you know, working on anything related to the gut first, I mean second, and then going into the more of the detox and, and nutrient support. And mainly that’s because again, like I said, if we are not addressing that stress support part, we’re just kind of draining that bank account. We’re draining the gut lining at the same time as us trying to work on the gut lining. It doesn’t make sense. So we have to really support that, you know, brain, gut, brain connection first and then support the gut and then, you know, support that detox. ’cause again, if we’re pumping toxins from the gut, I can’t tell you how many stool tests I’ve now seen where, or, or you know, the detox as well where it seems like they’ve got a lot of heavy metals. We work on the gut. We re we didn’t even do a heavy metal detox. We retest because it just took us so long. And the heavy metal issue cleared itself because all those toxins from the gut have kind of reduced.
Yeah.
So
That’s an interesting thing. ’cause I feel like there’s some teachers that like always say that say like, I think a lot of practitioners think this way. Like, first that you have to get the detox running, well then you work on the gut because the gut work can make a lot of toxic burden. But then again, I could see the other side of the coin where it’s like, well, the gut has a big part, a big role in detoxification. Like that’s the third phase of detox is like clearing the toxins out. And, and the, the gut has a big role in that in terms of like the metabolites made by the microbiome and how they de conjugate things and recycle them versus letting them clear. And so I could see how you would wanna optimize that in order to support detoxification pathways in that way. But then I guess it would just depend on what you’re seeing in terms of like, is it more liver centric? And then in that case maybe you start there.
Yeah. You know, I’ve heard that same thing too. So, you know, just balancing like where are they coming from? Yeah. What is, what is that process about? But I, I do agree. I think that, you know, the, you know, what are we doing when we’re ex screening toxins? We’re pooping. So I do feel like we’re pooping, we’re sweating, we’re, you know, drinking water. So I do feel like those things do need to be addressed. Yeah. Which is all part of, you know, lifestyle too. You know, are we getting enough fiber and water and, you know, are we exercise like all the basics that everybody knows, but needs a little bit of coaching support, handholding sometimes to make it regular. And yeah, so actually I do have a program that I help, you know, with, with all of that lifestyle and diet component to really complement the, the lab-based treatments. Yeah. I have a gut hormone detox program. Yeah.
Yeah. It’s so good because I think where dieticians tend to do well is we tend to be less likely to just kind of give out complex plan and expect the patient to just like implement this whole complicated plan on their own and like figure it out with like very little support. I think maybe it’s just because our job is, has a lot of behavioral element to it, we kind of realize that people do need more support and whether it’s that you meet more often with them or you have a intern that meets more often with them, or you’ve built out a program that sends them ongoing content, I think those are all great ways to help people actually be supported through something that’s very difficult, which is changing their lifestyle. It’s hard.
Yeah. Yeah, I agree. I, I feel like I, you know, I, I did the same thing. Like I said, I just gave somebody 20 supplements and that was it. And then I didn’t realize like, oh, the pandemic’s happening and you know, I have to, you, you know, close everything down, but I just gave somebody 20 something. Like, why was I not thinking that they needed to be supported in this process?
Sure, yeah. Yeah, totally.
It’s a really good, and, and guess what happened? It’s no surprise. Didn’t follow it, you know?
Right, right. Yeah. What about, what about food and nutrition, when, when it comes into play with all this, I’m sure you can individualize every plan, but what are some of the common things that you’re seeing or recommending in terms of either like dietary frameworks for people to follow or like specific things to increase or reduce or focus on? Like how do you, what’s, what are some common nutritional approaches you’ll take?
Yeah, that’s a great question. So at the very, very beginning in that root cause analysis session, I’m giving that nutrition care plan. We’re starting out with some basics and that’s really the opportunity for me to review their food record and see kind of where their starting point is. If I see that they have a lot of just basic stuff, you know, of course me just giving a nutrition care plan, just because I set it and gave it doesn’t mean that it, like, it’s checked off the list and it’s done. Yeah. So I, I, I kind of use that as a gauge too, to figure out, okay, does this person need a lot of support with just basic, you know, and again, in that gut hormone detox program, there is, you know, quite a bit of nutrition, foundational nutrition stuff, but again, just because I gave it doesn’t mean they watched it.
Yeah. So, you know, I’m gonna find out if they need that kind of just basic support just to get them to eat balanced meals and have enough pro, you know, just the foundation here of having enough protein, having enough water, having, you know, enough phytonutrients and, and then yeah, if they’re really struggling with a lot of gut issues and not having any sort of, you know, meal regularity or, you know, just difficulty tolerating meals, you know, then we can get more individualized, you know, I’m, I’m ACLT like you, so I can pull out that, you know, elimination diet, you know, that’s, that’s really tailored to their bodies. But that can get pretty complicated too once we’re doing all these other labs. So
Yeah, a lot of times
Too, we might just stick with something a little more simple. You know, if we need to do some sort of, you know, therapeutic diet, we might do like a low FOD map sometimes just getting them, I might just do a little five day elemental reset if they’re really struggling and they aren’t eating very well, that can just kind of jumpstart things and help us get to a good baseline. Yeah. But yeah, this, this is a big challenge when, you know, just like how to keep it, you know, simple for everybody, but also like in a way that’s going to help them. Because quite honestly what I’m finding too is that when the gut is just so messed up, they’re, they’re not like, we’re definitely not gonna heal it with just diet alone. And I think that there’s a misconception out there that’ll, that, you know, this diet’s gonna be the end all be all. And you know, I don’t, I don’t see that happening when there’s, you know, a parasite involved or, you know, some sort of major overgrowth happening.
Yeah, totally. Yeah. It’s like the two extremes of either, like I, you know, saw some health influencer on Instagram that convinced me that I could just follow them super restrictive diet and fix all my problems. And then there’s the other side of the coin, I literally hear this outta people’s mouths all the time of like, I went to my primary care provider with my insurance and they told me that, that I shouldn’t think about my diet. Like my diet has nothing to do with my problems. It’s
Like,
Truth is definitely somewhere in the middle. Yes.
Yeah, for sure. And I was just joking about this, but I, I hear this a lot, and this is kind of a big, this is kind of a big challenge I hear so often is that, you know, the, the, the client might be struggling with, you know, total gut breakdown in, in some way because of poor diet. That’s how they got there. But their main goal is to be able to consume that food again or consume beer again on a regular ba. I’m like, do you wanna do that? I’m, I am. Is there a dis I feel like there’s a disconnect here of, you know, I just wanna be able to eat, drink beer again with all my friends.
Yeah.
And I’m like, but that’s how you got, yeah.
So if someone thinks they might have trouble along this axis, maybe quickly tell me, like across the three, what are some quick wins that you give people around? Like, so like what, so like gut, gut hormone detox, what are some specific things that people should be doing food-wise to better support their gut, their hormones and their, and their detox pathways?
Great question. So I, it’s funny, I’ve had huge wins in the first couple of weeks just by somebody chewing more.
Mm.
We’re in a fast-paced society. We’re constantly multitasking while we’re eating. And if you can, you know, if we can just chew, slow down, chew food, take longer, it’s okay, we’re gonna get better digestion. And you know, maybe some symptoms are absolutely just because of undigested food. So Yeah. That’s, that’s huge right there. Making sure that we’re having enough protein. I know we’re in a very conflicted environment right now with understanding where we’re at with protein. So
Yeah.
I’m less, and, and I can’t, I, I know so many people think that what we think is considered to be adequate, a lot of people think is too much protein or a lot high protein. You know, I have this conversation a lot. They’re like, I don’t know about the high protein diet. And I’m like, I’m not talking about high protein, I’m just talking about meeting your, your needs. Right. So I think our, our definition of what is high, what is adequate, we need to get really
What sources they’re good versus bad. There’s so much controversy around it. Yeah.
Yes, exactly. Yeah. Is it vegan or is it, you know, animal based and what are the pros and cons of both? And yeah. So understanding that I think is huge and having enough protein, ’cause that’s gonna balance your hormones, having enough protein.
Yeah.
I think, you know, as far as detox goes, it’s like let’s, the first step is don’t let them in. Where can we, and I feel like this is like a huge rabbit hole because so much of how we were brought up, we may not even recognize, you know, right down to the detergents that we use, the soaps that we use, the body care products that we use might be contributing to our toxic load or you know, the food choices that we are accustomed to because of the brands that we grew up with. So, or, or even just kitchenware. And my favorite, if, if you know me, you know, I talk about plastic endlessly and how it is just everywhere. And yes, we’re talking about balancing hormones. This is huge. And also supporting the gut and the detox. So we’re kind of getting all three and it is hard to eliminate all plastic, but I think it’s just like recycling.
We probably won’t have a hundred percent, but if we can, you know, at least be in that 80, 90% proactive, you know, in reducing our plastic intake intake. ’cause it really is coming into our bodies. Yeah. So, you know, switching to glass for liquids and heated items and I find that the biggest challenge is like when we’re traveling or you know, and there’s circumstances we cannot control. They take away my water bottle, they or, or they won’t let me fill it. Or, or you go out somewhere and they’re only using plastic and you have to let you, sometimes you have to go out of your way. I feel like. Yeah. Just, you know, like Absolutely. Can you please
Yeah.
Give you glass instead of plastic?
Yeah. Yeah. I mean I think it’s, the last 10% is probably as hard as the first 90%, but for getting to that, if, if you’re like most people where you really can’t get to a hundred percent, it’s not, it’s just not realistic. Well then get to the 80, 90%, it’ll make a huge difference. It’s worth it.
Yeah. A hundred percent. Yeah.
Yeah. It’s, it’s wild to me how much that, like you’ll just be handed a straw. I’m like, why are you just handing me a straw like that? Like he’s a straw. Like what, what decade are we in? Not everybody thinks like us.
Wow. Not here in the bay though. We outlawed the straws. We don’t need nothing.
Fair, fair. I live in North Carolina. Yeah. We’re caught up here,
But now we’re using these other, you know, what are they, corn Bay? I’m not really even sure. Actually that’s one of my projects is to go, ’cause all of our grocery stores have converted to the bio bags. And one thing, one thing that I noticed though is that they crumble fast and Yeah. And I’m like, wait, what’s in it? I need to know what’s in it.
Yeah.
It’s, I don’t want it touching my food still until I, you know, like it still doesn’t feel right to me. So
It goes deep with the greenwashing and like yeah, it has time to research everything. It’s hard. But yeah, I definitely think that you’re onto something really important, which is like reducing is still helpful even if you can’t fully eliminate.
Yeah.
Well, very cool. So I have three, I know that recently you kind of moved into another realm lately where you’re not only supporting clients with optimizing their health, but you’re helping practitioners who wanna learn more about how to be effective with their cases. So maybe you can share a little bit more about that.
Yeah, so this fall I’m, I’m launching a, the functional clinic immersion mentorship. And I have not seen anybody do this yet, but it’s basically no holds bar. I’m letting clinicians, other dieticians in on the back end of my health record. You can use my note templates, my session, you know, ev my packages really use that to help you structure and build your long-term, you know, plan for client retention. I have a 20 week done for you white labeled gut hormone detox program. I’m now offering that literally with practice better, you’re able to share a code and that will automatically get sent to your health record. So I think it’s like super, you know, convenient, easy to have that, you know, it’s accessible. But not only that I’m offering, you know, opportunity to listen to my consults, listen to my strategy, listen to how I’m talking to the clients, to really establish that long-term relationship and establish the, the plan right from the get go.
So the expectations, I think that’s really important to do it right at the beginning. And then, you know, you know, as you carry the client along, the next time you have to talk about money, it’s not awkward because you’ve already established that in the very beginning. Awesome. So, so yeah, I think it’s a, a great opportunity for new dieticians. Dieticians who have been in a clinical setting and they’re really trying to get out and maybe they reduce that burnout, start their own practice. It’s also really excellent for other dieticians who have done the, if not, or maybe the next level program or another functional nutrition theory. So they, or even the SIBO Academy, you know, so like when they have another level of support, they’ve got the modules, they’ve got the education part of things, but now they need the practical part of things. They need that. Like how do I actually do it? Let me watch, let me do, let me, you know, implement, let me, let me use those resources. So that’s, this is the perfect compliment for any functional nutrition education program. I’m not gonna be giving modules. I’m, you know, that part is, you know, out there already. Yeah. I’m gonna offer q and a support on the practice building part of things and I’m gonna offer that, you know, shadowing opportunity to listen to consults, see how it’s done and provide resources.
Oh, so cool. It kind of reminds me of what I do with my practice. I’ll try to get people who can intern with me for at least a few months and then hire them. And I’m not, it’s not that I’m putting ’em in some kind of like built out online course. It’s that they’re watching me see clients, they’re helping me on the backend with my clients. They’re seeing my notes and they’re watching it longitudinally so that they see the, the process of working over time on a case just to kind of help them connect the content to like reality of like what you’re saying. ’cause I think it is for dieticians what a big gap in terms of like there’s, there’s places where they can go and learn and study, but then they can be sometimes kind of paralyzed in terms of like how to, you know, now I’m like sitting here looking at a client. What do I do? Like helping them to connect. That is, it sounds really valuable.
Absolutely. I, I got started because I was precepting with interns. I’ve been a preceptor for many years now and I know for me, mentorship was the number one thing that really transformed my practice. And I think that, that I have a valuable gift. I mean, in addition to Dr. Dan Kalish, his mentor is Dr. Richard Lord who created many of these lab tests. So I feel like it’s this really special lineage that I’m carrying and I need to do something about it. And, and yes I’ve been precepting interns, but I feel like if I now am able to mentor dieticians I can then, you know, pass this on and you know, my, but the knowledge from my mentors but also the, the knowledge that I’ve gained just along the way. ’cause it’s, it’s a lot. It’s a lot to try to build a practice and it’s a lot to actually be able to live off of a practice and that is, you know, huge. I feel like I’ve done something right.
Absolutely. Yeah. So maybe real quickly, where can people, if they’re interested, where can they learn more about it?
Yeah, so if you can go over to my website, 23 nutrition therapy.com. I have a tab called mentorship. That’s one way, but you can also find it on 23 nutrition therapy.com/functional-dietician-mentorship and find the more information about that.
Awesome. Thank you so much. Guy three, I think people will really benefit from this in terms of if they’re needing support with their just chronic health challenges and they’re kind of, maybe this might help them to kind of start thinking about where along that gut hormone toxin axis they might need support or just to get them interested in working along that axis. And then for practitioners who are interested in getting support, I love that you’re offering this option. I’m excited to get the word out.
Yay. Thanks so much. It was so much fun to talk to you.
Absolutely, you too. We’ll put it all in the show notes and I’m sure if people have any questions I’ll get in touch with you. Talk to you soon.
Okay, thanks. Bye. Bye.
Did you know that Lean for Life is now in the App Store?
Heal your Metabolism with the Lean for Life app: https://empowered-nutrition.ck.page/193bb2cd67
Help yourself feel aligned using our three phase approach: Lean for Life Membership called Heal, Optimize , and Refine where you will be empowered to reverse previous metabolic damage with the assistance of our team of Registered Dietitian Nutritionists. Check out more details on our website!
Want to learn more about our one-on-one Empowered Nutrition coaching? Book a free chemistry call to discuss your story and see if we’re a good fit.
Enjoying the podcast?
Please review the Empowered Nutrition Podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen! Then, send me a screenshot of your positive review to podcast@empowerednutrition.health as a DM on Instagram (@empowerednutrition.health). Include a brief description of what you’re working on with your health and/or nutrition and I’ll send you a free custom meal plan!
Do you have questions you would like answered on the Empowered Nutrition podcast? You can propose your questions/ideas by email to: podcast@empowerednutrition.health
Follow us on:
