How Intuitive Eating Can Manage the Drama Queen in Your Gut with GI Expert Beth Rosen – Stress Series 3

Hola amigos! Welcome to the One Small Bite!

The digestive system is a complicated and fascinating system in the human body. There’s a lot that goes on there from digesting food to affecting the nervous system to being a major player in the immune system. So, when we are chronically stressed or not getting adequate or quality sleep, we can see a lot of things go wrong. In this episode we will discuss the various types of gut disorders, such as IBS, SIBO or small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, reflux, and EoE (esonophilic esophagitis), which are all very closely linked to the effects of stress and poor sleep quality. We will discuss the latest treatment modalities from an Intuitive Eating and weight-inclusive perspective. And finally, we will also provide some simple approaches we can each try to help manage our gut drama queen.

Highlights of this episode:

• Discussion how stress affects gut health
• Most common GI issues – IBS, SIBO, GERD, and others
• Effects of weight-stigma on stress and gut health
• Intuitive Eating and other tips to help the gut

Guest Bio: 

Beth Rosen, MS, RD, CDN is a weight-inclusive Registered Dietitian specializing in GI nutrition and disordered eating based in Connecticut. She has been working in the field of nutrition for over 25 years. Beth helps clients find relief from digestive disorders such as Irritable Bowel Disease (IBS) and Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO), Gastroparesis, Celiac disease, and reflux, as well as shares her knowledge with other health professionals via webinars, seminars, and peer mentoring. Beth is currently the vice-chairperson of the Dietitians in Gluten and Gastrointestinal Diseases (DIGID) subgroup of Dietitians in Medical Nutrition Therapy dietetics practice group of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. She is also the Director of Nutrition and Dietary Services for GI OnDEMAND – a partnership between Gastro Girl and the American College of Gastroenterology – to provide integrative GI virtual care and support to patients. She has also designed techniques and programs to empower chronic dieters, disordered eaters, and those in eating disorder recovery to mend their relationship with food and their bodies. Beth has written for major online and print media publications, such as HuffingtonPost, VeryWell Fit, and FabUPlus Magazine, and has appeared as a recurring guest on the Fox 61 Morning Show in Hartford, CT. To learn more about Beth, her work, and her philosophy, go to her website at www.BethRosenRD.com.

Episode Show Notes: 

[04:55] How stress affects our gut health
There’s a lot going on in the gut so when things get out of control, there are threats, or things become very challenging, we can start feeling it in our gut. Remember in grade school when the class bully was picking on you? Do you remember those butterflies in your stomach? This is a good example of how the gut and brain are so closely intertwined. Therefore, stress leads to major gastrointestinal challenges for many of us, and even small amounts of food can lead to various GI issues that tend not be very flattering (interject your images here – ha ha). Kidding aside, chronic stress leads to greater inflammation, disruption with the gut microbiome health, and therefore with the health of our guts. Sleep is another challenge that makes thing worse because the less we sleep and the lower the quality of sleep, the greater the likelihood that our guts are overworked and undernourished.

[09:35] Most common GI issues – IBS, SIBO, GERD, and more
Some of the most common gastrointestinal (GI) issues include Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) with all four subtypes D-diarrhea, C-constipation, DC-both diarrhea and constipation, and U-unsubtype, which means mostly pain and discomfort. Other GI issues include Small Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO), Esonophilic Esophagitis (EoE), Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD), Gastroparesis, and others. A lot of these conditions are exacerbated by the effects of chronic stress. In many cases the Low FODMAP Diet has been commonly used as a blanket approach to deal with many of the GI issues, but it’s not helpful for all, and not everyone should be doing this diet. People that are currently diagnosed or dealing with an eating disorder or disordered eating will should be focused on recovery and not an elimination diet like the Low FODMAP. There are others like people that are not tech savvy, children, and those with low socioeconomic challenges, as the Low FODMAP diet can be very difficult and expensive. It is recommended to work with a GI Registered Dietitian Nutritionist to help guide people in the best approach possible for them. There can be other approaches to dealing with GI issues that can be more gentle or intuitive, and help people move away from causing further harm or challenges, including adding more stress in their lives, which only exacerbates the GI issues even further.

[31:35] Other challenges like weight-stigma, sleep problems, and axiety
Over the past couple of years, with the pandemic, we have seen a tick up in these diagnoses of GI issues and there is something to be said for how your body responds to stress. Being in a chronic state of stress also creates chronic inflammation in the body, can lead to many other diseases if it persists. Um, but with reflux and with IBS, two things that I see that are common is one poor sleep habits and poor stress management habits. It’s about getting regular and adequate amount of sleep, staying off your devices prior to bedtime, just so that your brain has a chance to shut down because during sleep, that’s what our brain’s doing. It’s com compartmentalizing the day and resetting for the next day, and if it doesn’t get the opportunity to do that, that stress will carry. Weight-stigma is a diet culture tool that increases people stress levels on a deep chronic and consistent level. This is a form of guilt and shame that falls heavily on people and pressures them to be more active and eat less or healthier, which puts the blame on the individual and not the society at all. We don’t see the insipid and sly methods that diet culture and that mentality creek into society and leads to a common way of thinking, or believing, that only thinness and strong young active bodies are healthy. Well, there are plenty of thin or muscular looking people that are not, and gut health can be one of the major warning signs.

Sleep patterns are important to also consider, as the stress from not getting adequate amounts of sleep can further increase inflammation, dysregulation of the digestive system, and can affect the respiratory system, muscular-skeletal system, nervous system, and really just all our systems. And remember, much of the immune system starts developing and is assisted by the gut.

For more ideas and ways to help improve your gut health, take a moment to listen to the interview with Beth Rosen, registered dietitian nutritionist and gut health expert.

Resources:

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