The Berman Method
The Berman Method
Episode #190: Jenni Redid Her Food Sensitivity Test (and it's not good)
Food sensitivities lurk beneath the surface of even the healthiest diets—a reality that hit home for physician assistant Jenni Berman despite her near-perfect nutrition. After experiencing puzzling inflammatory symptoms, Jenny discovered her microbiome had dramatically shifted due to life stressors, requiring a complete dietary overhaul.
The gut microbiome naturally evolves every seven years, but major life events can accelerate these changes. For Jenni, seven pregnancies in seven years, multiple surgeries, and the relentless demands of running a practice while raising young children created the perfect storm for gut dysfunction. Despite maintaining what she describes as a "99.9% healthy diet," her recent food sensitivity test revealed shocking results—egg whites, most nuts, and several staple proteins now triggered significant inflammatory responses.
Dr. Jake Berman frames this personal story against the troubling backdrop of American healthcare's approach to chronic conditions. He shares eye-opening statistics: $110 billion generated from type 2 diabetes treatments annually, $10 billion in food stamps spent on soda, and the American Heart Association (funded by soda manufacturers) approving these sugar-laden beverages in diet plans. Most concerning, 85% of high blood pressure cases are labeled "idiopathic"—meaning doctors admittedly don't know the cause—yet medication is prescribed as the default solution.
Jenni's experience highlights a crucial lesson even for health professionals: everyone needs a coach. Despite guiding clients through similar transitions daily, Jenny needed outside support to navigate her own dietary changes objectively. Her vulnerability reminds us that health journeys aren't static—they evolve with our bodies and life circumstances, making regular testing and adaptability essential components of true wellness.
Ready to discover what foods might be secretly triggering your unexplained symptoms? Visit bermanpt.com/wellness to learn more about our functional approach to uncovering and addressing the root causes of chronic health issues.
This is the Berman Method podcast, featuring Dr Jake Berman and physician assistant Jenny Berman. We are here to treat problems and not symptoms. Disclaimer this podcast is for entertainment purposes only and not to treat anyone or to give medical advice. If you are interested in any information that we are giving and would like to use this for yourself, we recommend that you contact your primary care physician or reach out to us and ask us questions about yourself specifically. Enjoy.
Speaker 2:Here we go with the Berman Method podcast, focused on treating problems, not symptoms. David going against Goliath we're David. Goliath is the corporate medical system, big Pharma, your health insurance companies. They do not have your best interests in mind. They will choose profits over patient outcomes Time and time again. Dr Jake Berman here, my beautiful co-host.
Speaker 1:Jenny Berman, physician assistant.
Speaker 2:We got Walker Ryan Bermanator on the ground here playing on his mat, working on some extension and some rolling. We got rolling now.
Speaker 1:He's rolling consistently.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Mostly one way.
Speaker 2:Mostly one way. We were rolling at like one month, but now it's consistent.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, he's rolling from back to tummy only to the right. He tries left, but he's not very good at it yet.
Speaker 2:So he's probably not going to be a NASCAR driver.
Speaker 1:Nope, he doesn't want to go left. But yeah, he's rolling all over the place, can't leave him on the counter anymore.
Speaker 2:Yeah, can't leave him on the counter anymore. Yeah, can't leave him on the counter anymore, cool. So I got a little bit of a rant to start us off with, and it's going to tie in. What.
Speaker 1:Oh boy, we didn't talk about this.
Speaker 2:It's not a big rant, it's just more stats that play into. It'll be a nice transition into what we want to talk about today, which is, jenny, you redid your food sensitivity test again and posted it on social media and got a ton of questions and comments. So we're going to go over that in detail. But first remember this is for entertainment purposes only, so do your own research. Remember this is for entertainment purposes only, so do your own research. Just some fun facts where we spent or I'm sorry, revenue $110 billion was made on type 2 diabetes last year.
Speaker 1:Wow, $110 million, billion, billion.
Speaker 2:Billion B with a boy. $110 billion was generated on type 2 diabetes in America alone last year.
Speaker 1:From pharmaceuticals, from research, from like what kinds of things? Or was I not? It doesn't matter, it's just I not. It doesn't matter, it's just the money, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2:Okay, what I'm trying to, what the point is that it's $110 billion was generated over this quote. Unquote disease of type 2 diabetes.
Speaker 1:Which is preventable and reversible.
Speaker 2:Preventable and reversible Like this is nuts Now, but wait, it gets better. So the SNAP program. The SNAP program is food stamps.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:It's where, if you qualify, your income is low enough, you can qualify for government subsidized food stamps. Now get this food stamps. Now get this 10 billion with a.
Speaker 1:B 10 billion of the food stamps went towards soda.
Speaker 2:Last year, 10 billion 10 billion dollars of government subsidized food stamps went towards the purchase of soda. So the government is paying for people that can't afford to buy their own groceries to get type 2 diabetes.
Speaker 1:To get type 2 diabetes like are you freaking, kidding me? No, it's not funny, but oh my gosh but wait, it gets even better.
Speaker 2:It gets better. The American Heart Association just came out and approved soda for a diet on your diet. And now here's where it even gets better. The American Heart Association is subsidized by Pepsi and Coke. Pepsi and Coke are giving money to the American Heart Association.
Speaker 1:Which is how they could put soda on the food pyramid. But you've got to be joking. So now we're paying the American Heart Association to give people type 2 diabetes.
Speaker 2:You can't make this up. The only country in the world where this fraud and corruption I mean this is just insane, absolutely insane. Now here's the last thing that I'm going to say, and I think that this will be a really good transition into what you want to talk about today. So let's come back down, calm down just a little bit. I know you're getting all worked up over there, jenny Even Walker, he's down on the ground. He is all jacked up from those quotes.
Speaker 1:I'm just thinking diet soda, like, still has poison in it, even though it's on sugar. It's poison. Aspartame is poison linked to cancer, linked to spiking insulin levels. I had a patient who was supposed to come in for fasting labs and forgot and ate a diet Coke before she came in. Ate a diet Coke, I mean drank one, drank a diet Coke before she came in. Young, healthy individual was seeing me for not weight management and not blood sugar instability, but I still do full panel of blood on her. She comes in after having a Diet Coke and nothing else to eat or drink and her insulin was a 28. Optimal is 6. Diet coke and nothing else to eat or drink and her insulin was a 28. Optimal is six and her insulin was a 28 in a very young, healthy, no blood sugar issue individual. But the aspartame from this fake diet soda spiked her insulin to a 28. So diet soda is not any better for you.
Speaker 2:Arguably it's worse.
Speaker 1:And now it's on the food pyramid.
Speaker 2:Yeah, arguably it's worse because it's not real sugar, it's fake sugar.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's all bad.
Speaker 2:It's all bad. So it spiked her insulin five times what it should have been in a healthy young female.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:What do you think it's doing to you listener?
Speaker 1:From a Diet Coke. And just because it's diet doesn't mean it's good. Oh man, okay, all right. What was the last thing?
Speaker 2:Okay, here's the last thing, and I think that this will tie in really nicely. So those stats, look them up for yourself, do your own research. But I mean, come on, it's out there. People are getting more educated. The truth is coming out. It's getting more blatantly obvious what is and what is not happening. Now here's the big thing.
Speaker 2:High blood pressure is one of the most common things that general practitioners find with their clients. As you get older it's just I'm doing air quotes right now that's a normal part of aging. Okay, you're getting older, your blood pressure is getting high. Let's put you on a blood pressure medication. Here's the crazy thing 85% of all diagnosed high blood pressure is idiopathic, meaning that they don't know why you have high blood pressure. If there's 100 people that are diagnosed with high blood pressure, 85 of them are diagnosed with idiopathic high blood pressure, meaning they don't know what caused it. Meaning that there's only 15% of people diagnosed with high blood pressure that there's a reason why they're diagnosed with high blood pressure. They can say what's a good reason why somebody would be diagnosed with it in Western medicine.
Speaker 1:I mean structurally with the heart Exactly. The valves aren't pumping appropriately.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so just be really simple. There's something functionally structurally wrong with the heart, so the pump is not pumping the way that it should and you have high blood pressure. That's a reason 85% of them are diagnosed with idiopathic high blood pressure. We don't know why your blood pressure is high, so let's take this little tiny pill every single day to bring it down.
Speaker 1:Right, that's an easy fix. Just take this pill. It happens in everybody, right? As you get older, your blood pressure just goes up, right. It's like what in the world I was being sarcastic.
Speaker 2:What planet are we living on? We're the only country in the world that thinks like this. It's absolutely insane, absolutely insane. So there's my rant. I got it done in less than 10 minutes, surprisingly. That's good, and this should tie in very well to why in the world would you redo your food sensitivity test and why would anybody do it on a regular basis? You can't just do it once and be done with it. It changes.
Speaker 1:It does and so, generally speaking, the microbiome, meaning the environment of your gut, is inside the intestinal tract. The environment of the intestines and of the gut itself changes every seven years. The microbiome changes generally every seven years. However, with that being said, certainly different stressors or traumas or surgeries, medications, can make the microbiome change sooner. So it may not be a full seven years before something happens. And if you have a surgery and you're put on antibiotics or if you have a huge life stress with a lot of cortisol response, your stress response occurring, that can also affect the gut lining and change the microbiome itself too. So certainly the microbiome can change at any point with whatever you're going through in life, but generally speaking it's changing about every seven years.
Speaker 1:So with our clients I'm usually not recommending a repeat of food sensitivity testing unless it's been three or more years. Most commonly, if it's been three or more years, most commonly, if it's been three or more years, I'm saying okay, yes, we need to repeat this, see where we're at now, see what kind of adjustments need to be made within the meal plan, unless something has happened. They had a big trauma, they were pregnant and had a baby, they had a surgery, they had an infection and had to take antibiotics. They lost their parents, so their parents passed away and they had a big life stress for a long time getting resettled and getting the estate done and all the stress that comes along with losing a family member.
Speaker 1:These are all reasons I'd say okay, that's very possible that the microbiome has changed and most commonly, with that we're seeing a new onset of symptoms. So we're seeing new onset of inflammation. Inflammatory symptoms Doesn't have to just be GI related with diarrhea and constipation, can be skin related hives. It can be headaches and migraines. It could be that their sleep pattern has totally changed. They're gaining weight instead of losing, even if the macros haven't changed much. So lots of different reasons of inflammation that we're going to consider repeating food sensitivity testing with these stressors occurring.
Speaker 2:So just life happening. Life changes and so does your body, and the physiological effects from the psychological stresses are significant. The gut we've said multiple times over the years that your gut is your second brain, so it affects it. Things happen.
Speaker 1:Oh for sure, sure, for sure. We've said it many, many times that when we have, uh, these different stress responses, that the cortisol, the, the actual stress hormone of cortisol can break down the gut lining, it's affecting how picking back up, had to press pause there after listening to stella's podcast.
Speaker 2:didn't't realize that Vera, being 10 feet away, came through so clearly. So I'm sure you heard Walker telling us that he was hungry there. So, getting back, we're talking about the physical and psychological effects of a big stressor and how that affects your gut and the gut is the second brain and we've been talking about this for a while. It's hard to not believe that it can change.
Speaker 1:Right, right for sure.
Speaker 1:So, coming back to me, I repeated my food sensitivity testing as I was having have been having some inflammatory type symptoms really since having Vera, but it increased pretty significantly after having Walker, to the point that, three months in, I'm like okay, this is not heading in the right direction.
Speaker 1:I kept blaming it on not sleeping a lot, my cortisol level being high, which it's been high for several years, just with the amount that I work and the lack of sleep and having three kids in five years and all the things. So, fast forward, another two months, walker's five months old now, and just the inflammatory type symptoms. Treating with how I know and how I've been treating for the last six months has not been improving. So I decided it was time or actually you totally commenced me that it was time to repeat my sensitivity testing. I was hesitating because I knew it was going to come back showing some things that I wasn't quite mentally prepared to give up, but I repeated it anyway and now I'm going a hundred percent all in to remove everything on my sensitivity list, which is quite a lot.
Speaker 2:It's pretty much everything except for venison.
Speaker 1:And chicken.
Speaker 2:Venison and chicken and broccoli.
Speaker 1:No, broccoli did show up.
Speaker 2:Oh, not broccoli.
Speaker 1:I can have most proteins except for beef and turkey and whitefish no beef, no turkey, no whitefish. And I can have majority of the vegetables except for broccoli I think was the only vegetable that showed up, actually Carrots.
Speaker 2:Oh, and carrots, yes.
Speaker 1:But it did show almost everything in the nut family, with the exception of coconut and pumpkin seed and sunflower seed. Pumpkin seed, sunflower seed and coconut were the only nuts that didn't show up. Every other nut almond, walnut, macadamia nut- peanut. Brazil nut yeah, like every single nut showed up except for coconut, and egg white was off the charts the highest reaction to egg that I've ever seen on anybody in the 10 years that I've been practicing functional medicine.
Speaker 2:And it was on you.
Speaker 1:And it was on me and so that was interesting and I was eating a lot of egg white. I was using a lot of the Julianienne bakery pro granola, which is egg white based, and then on the weekends, of course, I would eat eggs as well. So I was getting egg into my diet every single day along with peanut. I was getting in my diet every single day a lot of beans, so kidney beans, black green pea, soy showed up, so I really shouldn't be consuming pea protein or soy-based products since both pea and soy showed up. So it's been quite an overhaul where I've had to do even more research to find different types of products to where I'm not just relying on seed-based protein powder. I had to go through and find different products for protein powders and snacks that I could utilize. I've had to just like I recommend to my patients and like I do for Jake every weekend prep some snacks to be able to use throughout the week.
Speaker 2:The one good thing about all of this is that chicken and peppers did not show up Right, corn did not show up Right, which means Amigos did not get taken out. So we still get to have our Amigos on a regular basis chicken fajitas with corn tortillas.
Speaker 1:Except I don't even eat the tortillas. I always just make a salad, but yeah.
Speaker 2:So the corn chips at least. Yeah, the chips.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So there was some light and I think one of the big things to note is um, when you got that back, it was very overwhelming because it was 95% of your diet showed up and said you cannot eat this anymore. And I think one of the big things there's two big things to take away from this. Number one is well, what else is there? And the answer is there are other options. You just got to figure it out and you got to get creative and work around it and it will happen. But then the second part of it is this is not going to be the rest of your life.
Speaker 2:Right, you have gone through a major, major stressor in the past few years multiple back to back stressors seven pregnancies in five years, three kids two within two years five years three kids two within two years. The cortisol is through the roof. Running a business. You never sleep, you're constantly working, 80 hours a week, working plus raising kids, plus trying to keep up with me and my addiction to boating trips. So it just never, ever ends. And then there was just these little things that were just getting more and more prevalent. Can we talk about some of the things that we knew were not right?
Speaker 1:Like my symptoms? Yeah, sure.
Speaker 2:Okay, do you want me to go, or you?
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, I'd go. So, first and foremost, starting 18 months ago, I started with what I thought was an ear infection, or maybe a fungal infection of the inner ear, and so I was just kind of treating it on and off myself. Whenever it would flare up, I'd treat it with some drops and then it would go away and it would come and go. And that came on probably five months ago, pretty consistently, where it just hasn't gotten better despite what I've been doing as far as treatment. So that was one of the first alarming symptoms that came on.
Speaker 2:Then I started Wait, wait, wait, wait. Before you go to the next thing, notice what Jenny said right there 18 months she's had an ear infection. For 18 months she's had an ear infection for 18 months. And this is every one of our clients where we're living with something that is just not bad enough for us to make a decision, where your ear was not that big of a deal, where you're like I've got to figure out what's going on here Until, finally, it was.
Speaker 1:But it took 18 months, right, and it took the consistency of it, along with having other random inflammatory symptoms that I was like, okay, my body is reacting. I'm at a constant state of inflammation at this point. Of course I'm tired, always in the afternoons, and I said to Jake I was like I just don't know that my thyroid is doing as well as it should be because I hit a wall in the afternoon, just like a lot of my Hashimoto's hypothyroid symptom patients. And I do have a history myself of autoimmune disease. I have a known positive ANA that I've had for many, many years and I actually reversed it before I even got pregnant with Stella. I went from having a very high level ANA that I've had for many, many years and I actually reversed it before I even got pregnant with Stella. I went from having a very high level ANA if you know anything about them, it was one in 320 and ended up reversing it to totally normal.
Speaker 1:I haven't rechecked my ANA in quite a while since having kids, but I, you know, growing up had asthma and had psoriasis and seborrheic dermatitis and I've been able to cure all of those things through a gut healing process. So none of that flared back up. But I knew that, with a history of autoimmune disease and going through this in the past where I had terrible seborrheic dermatitis, I was on oral steroids in high school because nobody knew at that point that it was my gut. And now I'm proud to say it's been 12 years since I've taken any prescription medication, topical or oral, for seborrheic dermatitis, since I was actually able to figure out the triggers of gluten and dairy causing that problem.
Speaker 1:But anyways, I just backtrack. So, moving forward, besides the ear and being tired, I started having some symptoms of what they call eosinophilic esophagitis, which essentially I just felt like something was sitting on my throat. All the time I felt like I had a necklace around my neck, a choker around my neck that was just choking me. Something was sitting on my throat, difficulty swallowing at times, but really just uncomfortable feeling. So I think that was one of the more triggering symptoms that I had too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was a big one, because I'm going, okay, do we have an orthopedic problem? And I don't want to go down that rabbit hole, but there are some very serious orthopedic conditions that present with similar symptoms to what Jenny's talking about, and I'm going well, wait a minute. We don't have a mechanism of injury, so it's unlikely that that's the case. Plus, coincidentally, you had an MRI of your neck two years ago or so.
Speaker 1:It was right after Vera's first birthday 15 months ago.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it came back really pristine.
Speaker 1:That was the word the doctor used.
Speaker 2:You have a pristine neck, yeah, so it's like, okay, we didn't have a mechanism of injury and the MRI just said it was pristine 15 months ago. So it's probably not a good differential diagnosis to say it's an orthopedic condition. So that means it's your ballpark.
Speaker 1:Right, right. So that was happening and then, just like randomly, when I would be working out, my feet would fall asleep, which was weird. I just started having a lot of just strange different inflammatory type symptoms where we put it all together and I said, okay, I've been in an autoimmune bundle before where I had to do my food sensitivity testing and strip everything out and go through a gut healing process and even though I still eat very clean, this proves that it's not always about just what you're eating, it's about the internal and external stress response that's happening. So, like Jake said, seven pregnancies and I actually it was over a seven year period I had seven pregnancies. I had four pregnancies within two years between a loss having Vera, another loss and then having Walker, two surgeries, two C-sections I mean three in five years but two in the last two years. So there's a lot that's been on from a stress response mechanism to where now I have to go back to square one pull the food out, heal the gut lining. It's not just about removing the food, it's about getting the right amino acids and resetting that microbiome.
Speaker 1:And, as Jake said, it came back last week and it was extremely overwhelming. I do this every day for a living and helping individuals, but I'm too close to the situation for myself where I threw a little pity party that I had to remove all these things that I love. I reached out to a friend that is a diitian herself and working for a different company and said I think I'm just going to need to pay you to help be my coach, because I do this every day for other people. I can't do it for myself. I need an outside coach that can take away the emotional connection to food for me and guide me on some recommendations. So here's the point that even if you're a professional, you should be using a coach.
Speaker 2:Yeah, professional or not, everybody needs a coach. Everybody does. And I think that let's wrap things up here and say the big take home message If you know Jenny, if you've ever went out to dinner with Jenny and watched what she eats, if you see it. You see dinner with Jenny and watched what she eats. You see it. You see her videos. She posts them every day, or at least on a weekly basis. What we're making she's 99.9%, spot on as far as healthy goes, and I'm not. I might be 90% and that might be generous.
Speaker 1:I think you're 90%.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, let's go with 90%, but you're 99.9% Like they're very. You're not just going to eat a deep fried donut, you're just not going to go hard in the paint on a gluttonous piece of pizza. No, like it's going to be a cauliflower crust dairy-free piece of pizza. Versus me, I will. So when you hear that Jenny's gut is jacked up, this should be screaming sirens that it has very sometimes it has very little to do with how healthy you eat and a ton to do with the external stressors that's being placed on the body and how the body reacts. So that's why it's important to regularly update a food sensitivity, because if you did one five years ago, an egg showed up five years ago doesn't mean they're showing up today.
Speaker 1:Right, right the microbiome changes.
Speaker 2:Yep, or if nothing showed up five years ago doesn't mean that nothing's going to show up today. Life has changed. It's constantly changing. That's. The one constant in life is that change will occur. So this is all part of getting healthier and being more informed and taking your own health into your own hands is doing a regular food sensitivity screen.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and reach out to your coaches, ask questions Awesome. So there's my story. Hold me accountable, one day at a time, making changes, finding new products, and it's nice because now I have new products that I have physically tried and can recommend to our clients, who are in a very similar boat as me.
Speaker 2:Perfect, love it.
Speaker 1:All right, ciao for now. Thank you for subscribing on your social media and podcast platforms to the Berman Method Dr Jake Berman with Berman Physical Therapy and Jenny Berman, physician Assistant, with Berman Health and Wellness. You can find more information on our website wwwbermanptcom for physical therapy, wwwbermanptcom forward slash wellness for the health and wellness. You can also find us on social media Facebook, instagram and on your podcast platform, so be sure to follow us, like us, subscribe to us and, if you would like any further information, definitely visit our website and reach out to us. You may also find our free reports on the websites as well, where you can download this free information for yourself. Have a great day.