Redesigning Life with Sabrina Soto

Eat What You Love Without Guilt: Nutritionist Kim Shapira's Surprising Method

• Sabrina Soto and Kim Shapira • Episode 113

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Our relationship with food doesn't have to be this complicated. Nutritionist Kim Shapira, and author of "This Is What You're Really Hungry For," doesn't offer another set of food rules. Instead, she reveals why our relationship with food became so fraught in the first place.

Talking with Kim challenged everything I thought I knew about "healthy" eating. She explains how our bodies, with their 37 trillion constantly communicating cells, already know exactly what and how much we need to eat. The problem isn't our appetite or willpower; it's the mental noise that drowns out our natural hunger and fullness signals.

What struck me most was her rule: "eat what you love, as long as the food loves you back." It sounds simple, but it requires actually paying attention to how food makes us feel, which is something most of us rarely do when we're eating standing up, rushing between meetings, or scrolling our phones.

Whether you're tired of fighting with food, confused by contradictory nutrition advice, or just want to understand why eating can trigger both physical discomfort and emotional spirals, this conversation offers a different path forward. One that starts with trusting the wisdom your body already possesses.

Connect with Kim Shapira:
https://www.kimshapiramethod.com/

Kim Shapira on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/kimshapiramethod/

Link to Purchase her book: "This What You're Really Hungry For"

Link to her Masterclass


Connect with Sabrina:

https://www.instagram.com/Sabrina_Soto/

www.SabrinaSoto.com


SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to Redesigning Life. I'm your host, Sabrina Soto, and this is the space where we have honest conversations about personal growth, mindset shifts, and creating a life that feels truly aligned. In each episode, I'll talk to experts in their field who share their insights to help you step into your higher self. Let's redesign your life from the inside out. Welcome to another episode of Redesigning Life. This week I have Kim Shapira, who is my friend and also the author of This Is What You're Really Hungry For. Kim, thank you for coming and having this chat because I have so many questions for you. I'm so happy to be here. I just am so excited. So for those of you listening, Kim and I went on a hike last week, right? Yes. And we were talking about her book and just her thoughts on food and how it is in obviously every day, it's part of our everyday lives, but it's very complicated for a lot of people. Um, your book is not another diet book, which you say in the book. So, what do readers like big ballpark? What are readers getting out of your book?

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, they're finding peace in their relationship with food. I mean, the question to like, this is what you're really hungry for, you know, people might say, oh, donut or ice cream, you know, they might make some remark like that. But the truth is every single person just wants peace in their relationship with food. And then that piece, the side effect of that is normal weight, just a normal relationship with food where it only takes up one important place in your life.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. I want to talk about this because I have a friend who talked, she's she said this. She said that she lost weight when she just became less of like no more fighting with food. But how does that work in the world of calorie in, calorie out?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, oh gosh, it's like, it's such a myth in believing that we have to think calorie in, calorie out. Like, I like to bring everybody back just to their body, right? Like, let's think about this for one second. We have 37 trillion cells. We have an entire universe happening inside of our body and messages all day long. I'm tired, I'm hungry, I have to pee. I mean, the idea that we know we have to pee and none of us even know where our bladder is, but we can figure it out should be kind of clue enough that we should be able to figure out what hunger is and how much we need, right? If there's a personal responsibility that has to come into place, but there's so much noise or the belief that it's going to take willpower or restriction to have success, right? But actually, your body thrives in consistency. It thrives in consistency, number one. And number two, it likes the same amount of food in weight from one day to the next, which is different than calories. So if we were to take everything we ate and put it on a scale and weigh our food, our body will drive us to eat that same amount in weight as we did the day before. And what's really interesting is that we do almost everything, about 47% the way we did the day before.

SPEAKER_00:

Wait, okay. If you say consistency, so but I'm you're not supposed to eat the same thing every day.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, that's one thing. And I didn't know you were going there. That's one thing. The other thing is, what if I overate yesterday, or what if I underate? Yeah, absolutely. So this is again personal responsibility. Like let's say you and I didn't go to hiking and we ended up at lunch and we both ordered chicken parmesan and broccoli and a side salad. The chef who has never seen us prepared something for us and didn't know our size or our appetite, and just assumed that we needed that same serving.

SPEAKER_02:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

That's like blows my mind. Like, there's no way that you and I walked into that restaurant in with like the same level of appetite. No way.

SPEAKER_00:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

But because of all the noise or because the food is in front of us, like I'm more inclined to eat it without paying attention. And right, it's also weird if you're like, Kim, I'm not hungry, and I'm like, oh shoot, Sabrina, I'm starving. Right. Like, there's so much social etiquette and people pleasing. There's so much that goes into a meal. Yes. But what about hunger? Like, why don't we talk about hunger? Why are we talking about calories?

SPEAKER_00:

Because we were we're told that calories in calories in, calories out to stay at a healthy weight. So if I'm eating the same thing every day, going back to the consistency, is it true? Like, are you saying that we should be eating the same thing every day?

SPEAKER_01:

I'm saying that you don't need to worry about it. Like, did you wake up this morning? I know, I know, but that's just like because you trained yourself into that. But like you did not wake up this morning and think, oh my God, I'm gonna have to pee six times today, and I really need to focus on where those toilets are.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, sometimes I do worry about toilets. Sure, sure, sure. I've been eating a lot of eggs, so I'm like, I can't have another egg again. So and what ended up happening is I skipped. I'm gonna tell you what happened today because it goes into the next question. I'm I have this podcast with you. I had many Zoom calls. I know that I have to eat before we get on this call. I realized I don't really have anything healthy. I ended up eating, and I'm telling you the truth, a microwaved meal, followed by, and I think the rappers, no, I threw it away, wrap uh chocolate covered pretzels, like a good big bag of them. I now I have a stomachache. I have I had a microwave, but I that's all I had time to do.

SPEAKER_01:

But but I don't think you have a stomachache because you ate something that was microwaved.

SPEAKER_00:

And I don't have pretzels, I think.

SPEAKER_01:

But I mean, that's gonna get us to like rule number two. So let's save that for a second because um it's it's we're trained to think the microwave is bad. And I have so many clients for like, is it okay if I do a mail, uh a food delivery system? And I'm like, yes, that's like basically having an assistant preparing your food. Oh my God, I love support. Thank God you have your food already waiting for you in the refrigerator. You know what, you know, is going to be available. What you don't know is how hungry you'll be in that meal. And just because that portion is prepared doesn't mean that's your portion.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. But what about the stuff that's in it, like the sodium and the seed oils and all the other garbage? Noise. What do you mean?

SPEAKER_01:

Noise. Okay, we have 37 trillion cells, right? And they know how to put our body into balance when we allow it. When we support our body, giving it everything it needs, when we take care of it, it basically keeps our body in balance. Like you don't tell your heart to beat, you don't tell your lungs to breathe, you're not telling your mind to think or produce these thoughts. Your body heals. That's its job, right? And so there are tons of chemicals. They're in our food, they're in our perfume, they're in our air, they're in our food, they're everywhere. They're everywhere, right? We can't escape them. But our body is so good at detoxing them. We don't have to do a detox, we don't have to do a cleanse. Our body just naturally does it when we allow it to happen. The problem is, again, if we're consistently doing things that are harmful to our body, then our body gets used to it, and that's where we start seeing a breakdown. Okay. But when we give our body foods that it feels good when it eats, when it's having it, then those chemicals, those noxious chemicals, they don't stick around. And so they only stick around when our cells are sticky. And so it gives it something to latch on to. But when we take deep breaths, when we do grounding work, when we create nitric oxide in our body, this makes our cells slippery. And so these things don't slip around. They don't stick around because they slip out. Does that make sense? So there's a lot of confusion. Like seed oils, like if I'm having pumpkin seed or sunflower seed, and there's vitamin E and all the nutrients I'm getting from the seeds, and then I'm pressing it and making an oil, suddenly I'm hurting myself only if I'm sensitive to it.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. So you oh my gosh, so many things. So you're saying, yes, it's okay if you if you for normally feed yourself the fuel that's good whole foods, and you once in a while want to eat a chemically rich. It's everywhere, it's everywhere. But but in you wouldn't necessarily sign up for a food delivery service that's garbage all the time.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And so like I wouldn't even think of things as garbage.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. Like I like to I like to be dramatic, you know?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I I I can appreciate that. I can. But like I always think I'm in conversation with my three daughters. And so I would never tell them they're eating garbage. Right. Because then they're gonna have shame. Right. Or then they're gonna hide it. And, you know, our thoughts matter. And, you know, when we have a negative thought, we produce cortisol. And when we produce cortisol, our entire body is having like 1,400 different sensations that occur simultaneously that are wrecking and wreaking havoc on our hormones. And so I am, I would never label food as good, bad, healthy, or unhealthy. I would call it food. And I would teach my children to eat when they're hungry and to deal with emotions if their mind is telling them food is a good idea and they're not hungry, then I would say, let's look at that.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, this is gonna get us down another rabbit hole, which is fine. But wait, let me just pause on that because then I'm gonna get to rule two in your book. But can you this whole this whole um fascination that you have with food started because you got sick as a child. I mean, now you're a nutritionist, but can you give people sort of the reason why you started down this path?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Oh gosh, do we have enough time? Um I know. Yes, we do. Yeah. So this is where I think the word health plays a huge role. Okay. So in 1986, I was 12 and I ended up having multiple reconstructive surgeries. And what ended up happening is I went to UCLA for six years. Every Wednesday I would go to UCLA. And this started when I was 12. And there was a moment when I was in the car with my mom where I was just crying. And my sweet mom said to me, Don't cry, you know, as any mom would. And she said to me, Well, go shopping after your doctor appointment. And it was like that to me, gave me such a better place to put my mind than the pain and fear that I had. And so it just turned out that every time I went to the doctor, I also went to Bullocks, which was in Westwood. I love Bullocks. Oh my God. And so I would spend all these times I would be at the doctor, you know, the 45-minute wait and then the exam and then the post conversation. My whole time, I the whole time I was thinking about what I would buy. And so this planted like a serious shopping addiction for me. And why this is important comes in a little bit later in my life. But somewhere in high school, a doctor mentor of mine told me that food could make a person sick or healthy. And I was sick and I wanted to be healthy. And so learning that food had a role in my well-being changed my whole life, right? And I thought, I assumed everybody was like me and wanted to be healthy and that this was gonna be easy. I was gonna tell people exactly what to eat and exactly how to do it, and then they were gonna get healthy, which meant that they weren't gonna have any metabolic dysregulation, which looked like overweight, high blood pressure, high blood sugars, high cholesterol, low bones, right? I was gonna fix them through food. And so I went to college, went to grad school, studied human metabolism and clinical nutrition, and I opened a private practice. And my very first client was a therapist. I was 27. She was my age, like 50. And I put her on a diet and she lost 30 pounds. And I was like so proud of myself. I'm like, I did exactly what I tried to do. She got off all her medications, and then she told me she was gonna gain the weight back. So keep in mind she was in her 50s. I was not her first rodeo. She had done every diet and been to every dietitian before me, and she was a yo-yo dieter. And I knew that, but I thought I just had a different touch, right? And so I said to her, why would you gain the weight back? And she said, Well, my husband wants to be intimate with me all the time. And I thought, that's great, good for you. And then she said, and I was molested as a child. And it was in that moment where I realized this is not about food. People don't eat food to be healthy. This is, I don't like really understand the first thing about what's going on inside of people's bodies and their minds and their relationship with food. And that took me down a road of understanding, oh my God, my clients eat the same way that I shop. And every emotion that I have that tells me I need to go buy something new is telling them that food is good or bad, or they have to have it, or they shouldn't eat it. And so I realized that we were sensationalizing food. And what we think is about food has nothing to do with food.

SPEAKER_00:

And here I am. Okay. And so what you're understanding is in some cases, the that you're eating to give you a feeling, not necessarily to just eat for fuel.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So our rational mind knows that food is fuel. We all know we have 37 trillion cells and we got to fuel them. But the second we become irrational, we think food is fun or joy or comfort, entertainment, or even the enemy. And so it's in that space between the thought and the action that I like to spend a lot of time with my clients, right? Because we don't like to be uncomfortable. And our mind doesn't let us stay there long because our mind's job is to help us find pleasure or survive this moment in the most pleasurable way. And if in the past you ate or shocked, your hippocampus reminds you, when you feel this way, this is what you do. And so I really needed to help tweak that in my clients for sustainable results. So I stopped talking about food and I started talking about the about hunger, about what's happening inside our body and why we're feeling and why we're acting this way and what metabolism really looks like.

SPEAKER_00:

But then after you get through that sort of process, what because it then people want to know, okay, I'm now thinking of food just as fuel. What do I eat now? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So that brings us to rule number two.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. Okay. So rule number two is eat what you love. And I think that sounds very dangerous to some people because I love sugar and chocolate. I can't just eat that. I need to eat protein and fiber. So what does that mean? Because I think I'm gonna call no way on that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And I think you can say no way because you didn't say it in completion. But let's let's go back to rule number one because we actually didn't say it. Rule number one, take your normal portion, cut it in half, wait 15 minutes to see if you need more food. So this is based on ghrelin and leptin, the hunger and satiety. And this is where GLP really comes in because GLP is a glucagon-like peptide, which we all have, but it gets like unbalanced when we're ghrelin resistant or leptin-resistant when we can't tell if we're hungry or full, right? But we can get to that later. So, rule number two the rule is actually eat what you love, comma, with the caveat, the food has to love you back. And it really should sound like this eat what you love as long as the food loves you back. When you're hungry, start with half and wait 15 minutes to see if you need more. So there is that fail-safe in the pause because it takes 15 minutes to know if leptin is reading, you know, is sending a signal to your brain saying you're actually satisfied. That's how long it takes to get from your mouth to your stomach to get that signal. And so we can't really eat everything. We we do eat fast, and then we end up overeating and we're like, oh my God, 15 minutes later, I'm so, so full. But if we wait at the fifth at half, what ends up happening is we end up we're we find we're satisfied. And we don't actually need the second half for a couple hours. So now we're regulating blood sugar. We've got this built-in fail-safe, we're not overeating, we're actually eating only what we need. And then we're also recognizing, oh my God, those chocolate-covered pretzels gave me a stomachache and they also made me feel tired. And I don't like those feelings. And so if I want to be healthy, I have to consider a different kind of chocolate-covered pretzel or look at the ingredients to see why this food isn't loving me back.

SPEAKER_02:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

And I can also find an alternative that I love that does love me back.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's I I personally, my problem with food is I eat way too fast. Yeah. I eat standing up and I eat fast just to get it like get to the next thing. And that's probably why I have a stomachache too. I ate so fast that I didn't even stop to think, is this enough?

SPEAKER_01:

That's one, but also, you know, we're meant to smell our food and people don't do this. So, like, actually, digestion begins like before we even put it in our mouth. And so, like you and I, we could talk about like lemons or pickles, and what should happen is like our mouth salivates. And so now that actually means we're ready to put something in our mouth. So people actually aren't taking the time to get that saliva first. And so they're eating their food without those enzymes. And so that's first causing digestive problems. So just smell your food, be ready to eat. If you're not getting those enzymes, you're probably anxious or moving too fast or not really ready to eat. So slow down. And the second is people aren't eating properly. Like we have teeth to chew our food because it's our first source of mechanical breakdown. We're supposed to chew our food between 15 and 44 times per bite. Oh, never happening. Never. Right. Okay, so in the reality, food is boring because we don't want to keep it in our mouth for that long because we're like emotionally rewarded in the anticipation, I get to put it in my mouth. So I can call myself a foodie all day long, but I don't really want to spend time with it.

SPEAKER_00:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

And so if we were gonna like if we actually smelled our food, chewed our food longer, we would have less digestive issues.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I don't do that. And you know, it's funny, you were talking about servings, and I get like with those chocolate-covered pretzels, it was a pretty big bag, but when I was kind of done eating it, like I looked and there were probably five more pretzels in there. So I thought to myself, I might as well finish the bag. You know, what am I gonna do with these five pretzels in my cupboard?

SPEAKER_01:

So I'm so wait, you haven't seen my quote, You're not a trash can yet?

SPEAKER_00:

No, I didn't see that one. Yeah, but that makes sense to me too. A lot of people do that. Okay, speaking of sugar, you did your own sugar experiment. Yeah. So can you sort of tell us what you learned during that experiment?

SPEAKER_01:

So much, like so much. So much, yeah. Have you ever done it?

SPEAKER_00:

I didn't eat sugar for two years.

SPEAKER_01:

So you did do it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, I didn't eat sugar for two years. I actually, I don't know if you remember if you lived in the area. I had a store. I owned a store because I was so obsessed with sugar-free living. It was called Way to Live on in Studio City on Ventura and Tunga.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

That was my grocery store. I opened it with my best friend. Um, but then it was during that like low carb phase. So I didn't, I did know sugar for two years. It was so difficult. I hardly ever went out to eat. I I looked great and I felt great, but I was also eating a lot of chemicals, like a lot of yes, you were.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, yes, yeah, I would agree with that. Yeah. Um, and chemicals are one thing that can make us sick long long term if we don't have like a good variety of foods that heal our gut or keep our gut intact. Um, but in the short term, they can cause a lot of GI distress, like gas bloating, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

I had all of those things.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. Um, okay. So I it would let's see, Natasha, my youngest, was 16. And so I was breastfeeding her. And at that time, this sounds terrible, but I was trying to keep weight on to breastfeed, right? Because I was losing weight quickly. Um, and it needed to keep weight on, is is the excuse or the story that I tell myself, which I was probably eating a roll of Oreos a day and like some um chips of hoy. So I was eating like at least a roll of Oreos and maybe like one or two chocolate insurance because I'm a dietitian and that's what we recommended when we worked in the hospital, these insures. And I was so tired. And my girlfriend said to me, It's not because you have a newborn or a year old baby or because you're breastfeeding, it's because you're having chocolate. And I was like, that's annoying and can't possibly be true. And I'm never giving up chocolate because that's like something I love more than anything. But what was annoying is she planted a seed in me that I kind of had to then like do a deep dive into. And I figured out the only way that I could do that deep dive if I did it short term. So I decided to do an experiment only for five days because longer than that would have been heartbreaking. I really felt like I was being choked at this idea that I was losing something I loved. So I set out for five days to do no sugar. And what I discovered on day one was that I had this need for something that was like a pulling. And it wasn't like the craving wasn't coming from my stomach. It had nothing to do with hunger, but it was coming from like my chest and my hands. And it was like this like pulling situation. And then on day two, it was still there. And like I would have looked under a rock, I would have looked under anything to just satisfy this need, this pulling I had. And what I found was that what I truly understood was that sugar, when I did eat it, it's stored in the same place of your brain where heroin gets stored, where the addiction center of your brain. And now I was having withdrawals from not having it. And that was a pulling. And there's discomfort in that. And when we are in discomfort, remember our mind says, oh no, no, no, we don't want to have any discomfort. Let me try and figure out how to make this more pleasurable for you. And so I just knew that I only had like three more days. So I stayed in it. I was kind of bitchy and moody. I didn't have the headaches or anything like that, but I was like in the need for something. And then day three, it kind of dissipated. Day four, I had nothing. Day five, I stopped even thinking about it. And so there, because of that, I just like kept going. I never even like needed it. It was just like gone from my, from my like whole world. I never thought about it. Halloween came, and even when everyone around me was eating it, I didn't want it. Sure, it smelled good, but I didn't care about it, which was so weird. And then um, honestly, like a Passover came. So now it's like all the way until like April of the following year, and I just didn't have it. And I was standing around the island talking to my mom, and I popped a macaroon in my mouth and didn't think anything of it. And the next day I was in the kitchen with that pulling, with that same feeling, looking under every rock for something that was gonna satisfy. And it dawned on me that, like, oh, I'm back in it. And I was able to track it to the macaroon the day before. And so I just recognized this is nothing more than a thought and a craving, and I'm gonna ignore it and see what happens. And then it went away and it went on and on like that for months and years, where it was like, maybe I would have something, and then the next day I would have the thought and the feeling that I needed it, but I would ignore it and I carried on. And so at this point, 16 years later, like I might have something on Monday, but I may not have something again for two weeks, or I may have something on Wednesday, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm very you never have dessert.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, it depends on the day. Like, I don't care in the I don't need it in the way that like I did need it in the past. And like dessert after breakfast. I'm not kidding.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah I do. I have chocolate after breakfast.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I mean, I I'm not opposed to it, and I don't think you should be like there should be any bad feelings. Like I what happened, I come from a place of like I just want to feel well all the time. And when I learned that it made me tired, I didn't want to feel tired. And so I'm not in a position where I ever want to feel put myself in a position where I'm gonna feel sick. So I just don't. Like I think backward and forward all the time with food.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, tell me speaking of food, tell me like what did you what do you eat on a normal day?

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, I don't really have like every day is normal. Um, let's see. I have cereal for breakfast every morning.

SPEAKER_00:

I saw that on Instagram.

SPEAKER_01:

How'd you feel about that? What are your thoughts?

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, I don't like cereal. How could you not like cereal? You're not talking about like Fruit Loops.

SPEAKER_01:

No, but actually last night my husband made me order him Fruit Loops. It was really funny.

SPEAKER_00:

Nate loves Fruit Loops. I'm like, that's sorry, I'm gonna say garbage, but yeah, okay. So what kind of cereal do you have? I love Cheerios. I love Cheerios. What? Yeah, like honey nut Cheerios?

SPEAKER_01:

No, just like Cheerios, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Nothing. They taste like cardboard.

SPEAKER_01:

I love them. Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

You know what?

SPEAKER_01:

I just think in the morning, like I'm hungry, but I'm not like awake or I don't like that's what I like, you know? Okay, fine. Cheerios with regular milk. Oat milk. Okay. So it's all oats because the Cheerios are oats too. So um, sometimes I add shredded wheat to them. I love shredded wheat too. I love cereal. I love it. It's ridiculous. But I grew up with apple jacks and like fruit lumps. Yeah. Um, then I always try and make like a big bowl for work. So while I'm getting my kids lunch, now I'm only down to one at home. But like when I'm making food, I also make food for myself to take to the office. So I'll just take whatever vegetable I have in the house. Like it could be radishes, carrots, bell pepper, spinach, arugula, whatever it is, and I'll just put it in a bowl and I'll snack on that throughout the day. So just like I I have no problem snacking on a spinach leaf like a cracker.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Sounds weird. Um, then like this morning, I actually had pretzels too. I put I had cottage cheese. I love cottage cheese and pretzels.

SPEAKER_00:

Have you if anyone's listening? I am um not I don't have the yum face on.

SPEAKER_01:

That's so funny. I don't understand cottage cheese and peaches. I don't get that.

SPEAKER_00:

I've actually never had cottage cheese in my life. I'm 48 years old and I've never tried it because I can't understand why anybody would want to eat it's so good.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, we're definitely gonna have to try it the next time I see you.

SPEAKER_00:

Please don't make me it's so and then for dinner. I mean, no one listening to this is like, oh yeah, this is what I want to eat every day. No one's and and they know and they shouldn't.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I 100% do not think that anybody should eat what I eat.

unknown:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

I think everybody should be in their own body. Right.

unknown:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

And then that's that therein lies the problem with all this diet culture of everyone's doing like I was vegan for eight years. I loved it. I love the way I felt, but that's not the case, that's not the case for a lot of other people. Right. Why is that? Why is it just because of our blood type? Why is it that somebody could eat something and it is fine? Like Nate, my fiance, can eat whatever he wants and he's fine. Where I get, I'm way more sensitive. So what what's the deal with that?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Okay. Well, there's two points that I need to come up with. First, I want to talk about gut health. And second, I want to actually start with this the story that I told Sophia because my middle child, somewhere during COVID, I think she was like 13 at the time, and out of nowhere, she came up to me and she's like, I think I'm gonna be a vegetarian. And every red flag went off in my dietitian brain. And I was like, how about you don't label yourself and you be anything you want, and some of the meals you have are vegetarian and you just carry on. And that was the end of the conversation, and I was so grateful that it didn't turn into anything more because I don't, I don't think that we have to have labels around food. I think it's more important to like see how you feel in the moment you're in and choose that. I mean, we're never the same hunger levels, and so we're not all gonna like the same food, and we should have confidence in the foods that we're liking, right? Regardless if you're making a face that you don't like. I mean, first of all, you haven't tried cottage cheese and no idea. Rude. It's super rude. I am not offended.

SPEAKER_00:

Even something I've never tried before.

SPEAKER_01:

Totally. But I am, yeah, it doesn't even matter. So I mean, I actually went to dinner the other night and we had, and I wanted to go to the deli at the Beverly Glen, and my friend wanted us to go to sushi, and I'm like, okay, let's do that. And then we get there, and she's like, What do you want to have? And I'm like, Oh, I don't eat sushi. She's like, What do you mean? And I was like, I love coming to sushi, but I'm not sharing with you. I'm like, you know, what I like at sushi. I'm annoying.

SPEAKER_00:

What do you eat at sushi?

SPEAKER_01:

I love like big crab hand rolls with like jalapeno and avocado. I just don't do raw.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, no, I get it. But not for any reason, just because you don't like it. Just because I don't like it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. But it's funny. So anyway, um, inflammation, like whether we're not sleeping. Whether we're having hormone changes, whether we're stressed out, whether we've taken a lot of antibiotics in our life, we all have different levels of inflammation. And like I think that we should be careful how we label food. Like blueberries are on every super food list. People would call them healthy. They give me diarrhea. And right, because they make me sick. I'm sensitive to an ingredient in a blueberry. That's all that it is. But what actually that means is that something's wrong, or I need to adjust something with my gut to help my gut get stronger. And when, like when you think about gut health, like we have that our digestive tract inside our mouth all the way to our anus, which is the width of a tennis cord, and food should travel down it one millimeter an hour, giving us hopefully a 24-hour transit time, right? But if we're not smelling our food, if we're not chewing our food, if we're stressed out, if we're taking antibiotics, if we're not sleeping, what happens is our food kind of responds, our body responds to food. It creates an inflammatory response. And when that happens, it kind of damages the inner mucosal layer, making it easy for food that is inside your digestive tract to leak into your bloodstream. And this is where we end up with leaky gut and mood disorders and eventually disease. And so what we really need to do is keep our mucosa layer intact. So what when you're sensitive to something and someone else isn't, it's because you just need to do a little work on healing your gut. And the way that you do that is by making sure you're eating a variety of fruits and vegetables, ones that do not make you sick and ones that you absolutely love. You need 25 grams of fiber every single day, and you can do it from any way that you like it, again, from foods that don't make you sick. You need an omega-3, or I like to go with like a flax seed or chia seed or hemp seed because I think most people can tolerate those. Um, and you need to have a variety of whole grains and fermented food. And by incorporating these types of foods every single day from whichever way you want, will heal your gut. So you won't be sensitive to food. And what about parasites too?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I mean, they they exist, but I think like what are you actually but like you're saying don't okay, you could eat all those things, your gut is healthy, but what if, like also I hear to make your health or your gut healthy, you should do parasite cleanses. Is that necessary?

SPEAKER_01:

No, because I think we have like an entire microbiome system. And you know, we have like eight or 10 pounds of like microbiome in our body. And like when we take an antibiotic or when we cleanse, we actually don't ever replace them.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. We we can take a probiotic and eat some fermented food and fiber and and fruits and vegetables that will feed the system that's already existing. But it like a probiotic is kind of like a tourist going into a hotel and it's there, it leaves a message and it moves on. It doesn't stay around. So once we kill off any part of the system, and the system's in our, we have some in our mouth, in our stomach, in our vagina, and in our anus. And when we kill off any of them, we never get them back. Yeah, I didn't know that. Yeah. And so, like if you take an antibiotic, you actually need to be on a probiotic for three months post just to kind of give those messages and and like bulk up, you know, the system that you have. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow. Okay. So if you're eating enough foods, all the whole grains, the fibers, the omega-3s, and your gut biome is fine, then you should be able to tolerate most any food. Yeah, a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_01:

But then again, you may not like all the foods.

SPEAKER_00:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I something that I would like say is don't sensationalize food. Call food a banana. Just think of it as a banana. Because if I brought you a banana, you would like question like why is Kim handing me a banana? You would also put it on hold and then come back to it when you felt safe or when you felt hungry, right? But you would know that it's there. When we sensationalize food, we might think, I don't know when I'm gonna get this again. I should eat it all. Or I don't know, you know, if I'll ever allow myself to eat this, right? So it's better just to like call all food food or banana and eat it when you're hungry and stop when you're satisfied and have it again if you like to.

SPEAKER_00:

You this is oversimplified because it's so comp food is so complicated, and it's complicated too because it's you have to do it. It's not like gambling or drinking or any you have to eat in order to survive, survive. So it's just a very complicated issue. You have to come back on the podcast. I would love to. One last thing about the gut biome before you go. So I had I had a nutritionist or naturopathic doctor, sorry, on the show who was telling me we were talking about food and food being, you know, could be medicine. And they were saying the gut biome that you shouldn't eat uh salads. Is you believe that as well?

SPEAKER_01:

I I don't believe it as well, but I do believe that everybody should do a food sensitivity test and should see what foods they're sensitive to.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, but eating eating um like raw vegetables and having your body have to break those down isn't necessarily bad for you.

SPEAKER_01:

No, and in fact, it's I think it's good for you.

SPEAKER_00:

It first of all gives yourone confused, Kim. Do you see why everyone's confused?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I do. And I I think that's terrible. I'm that makes me feel so sad. I mean, you know, if you're talking to an Ayurvedic naturopath or somebody who's really dealing with like different energy types, I I just think, no, I I I mean, I think there are times for sure that maybe you should cook your vegetables and sometimes you should have them raw. Um, but I think you need to meet your body where it's at and know that it's always changing and that your body's really, really good at putting you back in balance.

SPEAKER_00:

I have for people who are not watching this and just I have my hands on my head because I really do have such compassion for people who have issues around food. I mean, I have my own issues of just mostly like rushing the process and also since I love I romanticize food. I love like a meal and let's get together for a meal. But I don't, it's not anything like I struggle with. And I have such compassion for people who do struggle with it because it it not only is everywhere and it's necessary, but there's so much contradictory information everywhere.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I mean, I I think people should romanticize food. I think, but people should also love themselves more than the food. And like I think one of the things I hear you say that you're actually not saying is that when you are having a plan, when you're gonna show up with your friends around this meal, you're actually showing up hungry to eat this meal and you're not in fear of what this meal is gonna do to you. Right. And so I think that we just need to take a deep breath. We need to trust ourselves a little more. And yeah, we do get in our way in a lot of ways.

SPEAKER_00:

Amen. Kim, thank you so much. Okay, before we leave, can you talk about your masterclass?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, this is like such a great place for people to go and just do the work on their own at their own pace and also join a Facebook group if they have any questions. But like this really helps them get in touch with their body and their relationship with food and do the practice because after all, we can't we can't worry about being perfect. We have to just be on the road of practice and getting back and working on resilience, getting back as fast as we can when we like lose track. And sometimes life gets in the way and it's really easy to lose track and to recognize you have everything you need inside of you.

SPEAKER_00:

So who's the ideal participant for your participant for your masterclass, would you say?

SPEAKER_01:

Anybody who has ever struggled in their relationship with food, anybody who is yo-yo dieted, everybody who's on a GLP one needs to work on their relationship with food, every single one.

SPEAKER_00:

And what do they get in if they join?

SPEAKER_01:

They get seven modules, um, a workbook and a private Facebook group, which I go on every single day and interact with everybody. Um, and so it's a community of people that are working through their relationship with food. And, you know, we're really celebrating the small wins because somebody who has a stomach ache every day, who no longer has stomach aches, somebody who wasn't sleeping, who is sleeping, somebody who is dehydrated, who's now understanding how water makes them feel, or learning that food isn't the enemy. I mean, what a gift that is.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you. So if you're listening and you're driving, don't worry. If once you stop driving, I will have all of Kim's information, the link to the masterclass, her link to her Instagram, and um how to get in touch with Kim. Kim, you have to come back because I'm I still I have like a list of questions I wrote down and I probably went through half of them. So I can't wait. Let's do it. I'll just show up at your house and we'll do it there. Yeah, this is part one. Part one. Thanks, Kim. Thank you.