Food As Nutrition, Part 1

A healthy diet is one of the foundations of a healthy life. But figuring out what a healthy diet is for yourself can be tricky. Each of us is unique and what works for your friend or partner, might not work for you. Over the years I have sought help in figuring this out as the answer seems to change over time. And going through menopause has been one of those moments where what used to work, no longer leaves me feeling my best.

Recently, I worked with Brigid Titgemeier, MS, RDN, LD IFNCP, a leading dietitian in the field of Integrative and Functional Nutrition, to understand the impact of blood sugar control on my energy, sleep, and focus. It has been extremely helpful! So, today’s issue is an interview with Brigid where we discuss personalized nutrition, how to listen to your body, and common midlife diet and nutrition questions.

Let’s dive in…

Karyn: You are a Functional Medicine Registered Dietitian. What does that mean?

Brigid: Functional Nutrition takes a systems-based approach to identify the primary contributors in your diet and lifestyle that are leading to the manifestation of symptoms of disease and adverse health outcomes.

It uses food as medicine to identify what each individual needs on a biochemical level to support every system in their body. This approach helps to decrease inflammation, improve blood sugar control, and improve gut, hormonal and cardiovascular health. 

Karyn: How do you approach personalized nutrition for your clients?

Brigid: Personalized nutrition means no one size fits all when it comes to what people need to optimally fuel their bodies.

For example, one person may do well on a gluten free diet, another on a low-fat diet, and yet another on a lower carbohydrate diet. It depends on the unique biochemical individuality of each person. It is like a thumbprint; every person is unique. You can’t take a template of someone else’s nutrition plan and expect it to work without customizing it to your preferences and what your body needs.

A person’s preferences are an important piece of creating a plan which is sustainable and brings them joy and comfort in the food they eat. If a plan is too rigid and does not contribute joy to a person’s life, they won’t stick with it.

Karyn: How do you assess what approach is going to work for someone?

Brigid: The first thing we have everyone do is complete an in-depth intake form. This helps us get a better understanding of the person's history, experiences, whether they've used antibiotics in the past, a proton pump inhibitor, etc. 

It also helps us understand their relationship with food. We ask if people have a positive, negative, or neutral relationship with food. At what age they started dieting. All these different inputs help paint a picture of their health needs and their goals.

In addition to the intake form we review any labs their doctor has run to get the most comprehensive health profile possible and to create a baseline. We want to see total cholesterol, HDL and LDL levels, small LDL particles, triglycerides, hemoglobin, fasting insulin, and hs-CRP. 

If we want to go deeper, we might also look at nutrient deficiency, gut microbiome, and genetic tests. I am quite interested in nutrigenomic testing as I believe it is the future of testing. Being able to understand someone from a genetic and microbiome standpoint can really help guide our recommendations.

Karyn: How long does it typically take someone who starts working with you to see some improvement?

Brigid: Sometimes the improvements can be very fast. 

For example, we offer a 10-day blood sugar reset program twice a year. It is a free program, and the improvements people experience in only 10 days are inspiring. Simply by changing the fuel they put in their bodies transforms their energy levels and joint pain.

And it is not unheard of for some lab markers to also improve after doing just the 10-day program. This is important as sometimes people can get discouraged if they think they won't get a return on their investment for months and months. But truly you can change your physiology quickly.

Having said that, most of our programs range from 12 weeks to 6 months. In my experience it is difficult to get people long lasting results with just one-off appointments. Results that stand the test of time can require behavior change, establishing new routines, and resetting a person's mindset. Changing beliefs and setting new routines takes time as does seeing broad improvement in lab results. Our 1:1 VIP program is a 6-month program for these reasons.

I also have worked with some people for 3 to 4 years, because they need consistency and/or need adjustments to their plans to meet changing needs as they go through different seasons of their life. For example, going from working to retirement or going through perimenopause to menopause.

Karyn: In terms of nutrition, what does it mean to “listen” to your body?

Brigid: It means paying attention to the foods you eat and how different meals affect your digestion, or make you feel energetically, or cause joint pain the following day. By tying the food you eat to the symptoms you experience you can start to identify trends and patterns. This way you can figure out what works best for you.

Listening to your body can be difficult if someone is not used to doing it. We teach our clients how to do this, but it is like learning any new skill. You must train yourself to do it and work to master it. 

Being able to identify what is working for you and how you feel after you engage in specific activities is one of the most powerful things you can do for your health and something no doctor or nutritionist can do for you.

Karyn: Many women experience a lot of changes to their bodies during midlife, what are some of the common nutrition questions you get from people in this phase of life?

Brigid: A lot of our female clients in midlife come to us for help with osteoporosis, hormonal changes dues to menopause, joint pain, and brain health, specifically preventing Alzheimer’s and dementia. 

The most common menopausal symptoms women are looking to address are breast tenderness, hot flashes, mood swings, decreased sex drive, brain fog, feeling scattered, and not being able to remember things easily. In addition, they are often looking to lose weight, specifically around the abdominal area which may not have been an issue until this phase of their lives. 

From a lab’s standpoint issues with blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol are quite common. These are issues which are typically exacerbated in midlife if a person has had poor metabolic health earlier in life.

Parting Thought

If this conversation resonates with you and you want help in figuring out what good nutrition looks like for you at this stage of your life, I highly recommend working with Brigid! You can learn more about Brigid and how to connect with her below.

Brigid Titgemeier, MS, RDN, LD, IFNCP is a Functional Medicine Registered Dietitian and health advocate on a mission to help you transform your health through personalized nutrition. Throughout her career Brigid has worked with more than 5,000 clients. She founded the functional nutrition and health consulting business, Being Functional Nutrition in 2019 to offer virtual programs and coaching that provide a personalized, food-is-medicine approach to health that is data-driven. With a Masters in Public Health Nutrition and Board Certification in Integrative and Functional Nutrition, Brigid was a founding Dietitian at the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine working under Dr. Mark Hyman. Follow Brigid on Instagram and sign up for her newsletter to learn about her programs.

To be continued…