Episode 44 The Art of Listening: Interpreting Body Signals and Cravings

Are you quick to blame certain foods for your digestive woes? What if I told you, it’s not always the food that’s the culprit?

I have always taught my clients to listen to their body and see which foods sit well and which foods don't. It is not as simple however, as blaming the food for the symptom. It is important to look beyond that, and rule out other reasons for the symptoms you get when you eat that food.

I delve into body signals, exploring the surprising link between sodium deficiency and reflux, I also discuss the role of proton pump inhibitors (common reflux medications) and their unintended consequences. Stressing the need to unearth the root causes, rather than resort to quick fixes that may manage your symptoms, but may not be a long term solution for you.

Ever wondered why your taste buds seem to change over time, or why you can't resist those sugar cravings? I explore how nutrient deficiencies can play havoc with your taste buds. And how those relentless sugar cravings might be signaling low blood sugar, a poor diet or an out of balance gut microbiome. I discuss the evolution of children's taste buds and how this can influence their acceptance of previously shunned foods.

Lastly, I touch on the complexities of interpreting your body's signs, an endeavor that can sometimes seem confusing an overwhelming; and may require an experienced practitioner (like me) to help you uncover the mysteries of our bodies' signs and signals.

Learn more about Fiona's speaking, radio and consultation services at Informed Health: https://informedhealth.com.au/

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Credit for the music used in this podcast:

The Beat of Nature

Music by Olexy from Pixabay

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:31

Hello and welcome to the Wellness Connection podcast with Fiona Kane. I'm your host, fiona Kane. Today I'm going to talk to you a little bit about kind of the opposite of what I normally talk about, as, in one of the things I talk about, a lot is about listening to your body. I want to talk about when not to listen to your body, or not so much not listen, but when to not make assumptions about what messages you're getting, and when to look for more information, to dig a little bit deeper. So I'll give you some examples of what I mean.

Speaker 1: 1:17

So one of the things that I see in my clinic is I do see a lot of people with digestive issues, and I hear a lot of people talk about various digestive issues, and what they often do is they relate that issue to a particular food. So, say, I have an issue with gluten or dairy or whatever it is. Now, sometimes that is absolutely true. Sometimes it is a specific food and the solution is not to eat the specific food or to have less of that food. However, it is worth diving in a little bit deeper and seeing what is the actual cause of those symptoms. So and then symptoms can be quite varied, so the causes can be quite varied. So, for example, I see people often say that they have difficulty when they try and meet. They have difficulty digesting meat, and meat generally is fairly easy to digest. So if you are having that problem, then the question is about your digestion whether or not you're making enough digestive enzymes that you've got enough hydrochloric acid in your stomach to deal with that meat, because we need hydrochloric acid in our stomach to break down the meat. Now a lot of people have nutrition deficiencies and if you are deficient in certain minerals, you will not be able to make that. You will not be able to make that hydrochloric acid. So one of those minerals in particular is sodium that your body uses to make hydrochloric acid, which is needed to break down food in your stomach, particularly proteins. It's very useful for things like steak and meat. So having a sodium deficiency, which is not uncommon because people are avoiding it like the plague, because they're told it's evil and like a lot of things in nutrition, there can be as factual parts of that and less factual parts of that.

Speaker 1: 3:26

If you have an issue with blood pressure issue, if you have high blood pressure, then you probably will benefit from having a lower sodium diet, not a no sodium diet, but lower sodium. But if you have normal, healthy blood pressure, then having sodium slash salt in your diet is quite alright. That's just all about dose really and the dose for that person. The other thing too is that with sodium, with salt, if it's something that is just coming in natural food, like it's in your fish, or if it's something that you're adding a good quality salt to your meals, it's not an issue in most cases. If it's coming in your packaged foods and it's enormous amounts of sodium in a packaged food, different story. So, generally speaking, often it's not the natural food itself that's the issue. It's kind of how it's packaged and how much you have all of that sort of stuff.

Speaker 1: 4:25

So anyway, getting back to the person who doesn't have enough hydrochloric acid, they're not going to be able to digest certain foods very well Even. For example, one of the common reasons that people will have low hydrochloric acid in their stomach is because they're taking antacids or they're taking proton pump inhibitors, so things like nexium and I think the other one might be, so mac, if I'm getting it right. I sometimes forget the names of medications, but essentially there's a class of medications called proton pump inhibitors and the reason that they are used is to reduce the acid in your stomach, to reduce symptoms, and the symptoms are usually symptoms of acid reflux, that kind of issue. So if you're getting a lot of reflux, a lot of acid sort of coming up through your esophagus and sort of burning and maybe even a little bit of omity, that sort of stuff coming up, then that's acid reflux, and even though it's actually not caused by too much acid, it's caused by acid being in the wrong place, but not too much acid.

Speaker 1: 5:35

One of the things that can I won't say the word fix, but can reduce symptoms and resolve it at least short term is proton pump inhibitors, which inhibit the stomach's ability to make stomach acid, the body's ability to make stomach acid. So what happens is you end up with less stomach acid, so your symptoms reduce. However, you now can't digest your proteins very well and so proteins will sit in the stomach for longer and they're more likely to. Actually it's sometimes it's what's caused the problem in the first place, because if you've got low nutrients, you're not making enough stomach acid already, and then that steak meal sitting in there for two, three hours, we just can't digest it. It is going to start coming back up. So sometimes the solution for the thing, you know the cause of the thing, it's a circular right. So the reason you had the symptom is because of low stomach acid and then you treat and then you get the acid up, comes up higher, so you assume it's high stomach acid, so you take a medication to reduce the stomach acid, which makes the problem worse. As far as they're not having enough acid to digest your food, it might make the symptom better, but not necessarily there Overall could fix the problem.

Speaker 1: 6:52

Proton pump inhibitors have their place and sometimes if people have various sort of functional structural issues, like if you have a hiatus hernia where your stomach is sticking up through your esophagus Sometimes in those situations they are appropriate and they are required, because Burning your esophagus is a really bad idea too. So you know they have their place, everything has its place. But sometimes it's like if you look further into it and you realize it's not this a structural problem, but it's that you know I don't have enough stomach acid. Maybe we need to treat a nutrition deficiency first and when we treat the nutrition deficiency there's less of an issue. Maybe you're not making enough of the, of the digestive enzymes, and Some of that comes from nutrition deficiency. Sometimes there's certain herbs or herbal teas or different things you can do to encourage that along, but it's kind of looking it's going a few steps back.

Speaker 1: 7:47

So, yes, listen to your body, absolutely listen to your body. I always pro listening to your body, but it's kind of about saying okay, don't make sweeping assumptions when you listen to your body. Listen to your body and then do some exploration, ask some questions, but don't listen to your body and going, oh okay, I can't eat that thing. And it is a very common thing I I see it a lot in people who do more vegetarian or vegan style diets. And when you do that, often you end up with a lot less nutrition, a lot less nutrients and You're not absorbing some. Some of it's due to the fact that you're not eating it and some of it's due to the fact that you're not absorbing it because it's harder to absorb some vegetarian style foods and nutrients.

Speaker 1: 8:34

And Then what happens is, if you reintroduce meat or you have some meat, you have trouble digesting it and then you say, yeah, see, that's proof that I should be having this vegetarian diet, because it just don't seem to be the digest the meat. But it's a vegetarian diet that's often causing the problem of digesting the meat. So it's just. You know it's a bit more complex than A equals B. Sometimes that does, that is the thing. But sometimes it's just more complicated than that. So I invite you to just be a bit more inquisitive about it, be a bit more curious about come and see someone like me or another health professional, but essentially don't make sweeping judgments or or or conclusions about things until you've explored them a little bit more.

Speaker 1: 9:24

Another example of not listening to your body or listening to it, but but being inquisitive about about it is if you sort of don't like, if you don't like the flavors of a lot of foods, if you're struggling with eating foods of all different flavors. Sometimes, again, nutrient deficiencies can cause that issue. So, for example, if you are zinc deficient, you things don't taste quite as they should, so things might taste bad to you. So sometimes it's a case of you know, once you, once you've Increased those nutrients either in your diet or maybe you've had some supplements and things to get those nutrients up, once you do that you go back and try that food again. You actually might find that you like the food. So it's. It's worth exploring that and also to from it.

Speaker 1: 10:20

You know, if you're a young person, particularly a child, will often reject certain foods. They have loads more. They have loads, loads more. What are the one brain, brain, come back, brain loads more Detectors taste. What are they called taste buds? It's like one of those things called taste buds. They got loads more taste buds on their tongues and so they will taste like things taste stronger, and so sometimes they kind of they don't like the taste of certain things but they do what. They will like it in the future. And so if you kind of immediately say you know, my child doesn't eat X and doesn't like X, when they're too, when you just say that forever, they often don't go back and explore it again when often a few years later, even a few months later, that it'll be quite acceptable to them. So instead of kind of saying that's a food that so-and-so doesn't eat, let's just like remove it and not have it around, just just casually reintroduce it a few weeks, a few months, a few years later, whatever it is, and you'll often find that that person can eat that food.

Speaker 1: 11:27

So you need to explore things like With children it's just about taste buds and as they have less, things taste a bit better. But even with children and adults, often it is as in deficiency. So when someone has as in deficiency they just will. Things will taste weird to them, so they won't enjoy certain flavors. So it is worth exploring things like a zinc deficiency. If someone is, is someone is not enjoying certain flavors or things. Things taste a bit funny. I'm even I've seen that with them a lot of people who I'm I won't name it cuz you choose a bit weird, but the virus that's sort of having its go around again. I was people with the c virus. I'm not a side effect or a result of it can be that people have that they can't taste very much, so sometimes with those people, actually even dosing them up on zinc can really help get their taste back again. So just be aware that lack of zinc can really affect Flavors and then how you perceive taste.

Speaker 1: 12:38

So the other one here to is just checking my notes is this when you, when you're craving sugar, so Is a sign and I think all of these things are a sign and like your body just gives us this message is right. So we get messages all of the time from our body, and so when you're craving sugar, it's not necessary a sign that you should go and eat a bunch of sugar. I'm sorry, you know he doesn't need to be a good be sort of thing but it is a sign that this you've got to explore, why you're craving a whole lot of sugar. I think I might have mentioned this before, but my grandmother used to always say that you crave what you need, and that is true and it's not true at the same time, because when you are healthy and well in your body is in balance, it is absolutely true.

Speaker 1: 13:29

You do crave what you need and sometimes in your craving that sugar will you're craving carbohydrate. It is because your blood sugar is going to be low and it's because you have me for five hours, six hours and of course, of course you're craving carbohydrate. Doesn't need to be a snickers bar. It can be your next meal or a piece of fruit or something like that, but but that you know. So sometimes you do crave what you need or you will crave more foods with you know. So women crave more sort of, say, chocolate around Primestral time, and you know chocolate contains magnesium but it also contains sugar, so it's like which one they're going for. There's an emotional element and possibly a physical element there as well, but yeah, so we can. And pregnant women often crave so really weird things, but often crave really high densely nutrient foods. I know that Nutritionist, rebecca, who works for informed health she, which is my business she was craving a haggis in her last pregnancy and so she started eating and there's a lot of nutrition in haggis. So All of a sudden she's having haggis for breakfast and and, yes, so it is so that my grandmother was right.

Speaker 1: 14:48

However, if you have a really poor diet, so if all you eat is kind of junky stuff and all you eat is, you know, cereal, followed by muffins, followed by mac is followed by Coke and chocolate chips and whatever, you are going to crave carbs and things, because and salt and just really really that's a refined foods that are really really salty, I really really fatty and not necessarily good kind of fats and really really sugary or a carby. You're going to crave all those because you're gonna have to be low in minerals and nutrients, other nutrients, and you're going to have blood sugar dysregulation. But you're all over the place and you know, and also you just when we eat in the imbalance diet, blood sugar just goes up and down and down and down is the sort of no kind of nice sort of I know I slow up and downs, which is what you have when you have protein with every male and don't over to the carbs and eat good fats and things like that. So, generally speaking, poor quality diet will be lower protein and lower and good fats and things like that. So, generally speaking, up and down, so Go up and down. Cravings go up and down, blood sugar goes up and down, so you'll be craving carbs and also I in that situation or in other situations, for various reasons, you could have Got bacteria, could be out of balance, and when your gut bacteria is out of balance, then you will often crave a lot of carbohydrate, a lot of sugary foods, because sugary foods actually feed the bacteria and they feed that kind of wrong bacteria that's causing the problems. So you answer your mother's more of those bacteria and then you have stronger craving because there's more of them that want to be fed. Right to see, it's around around.

Speaker 1: 16:39

So again, it's a case of listen to your body, listen to listen to signs and signals better Don't always. The first interpretation of that is not always accurate or is not always the whole story. So it's kind of a yeah, listen to your body, but be curious. Be curious about what the answers might be curious about what to do when you hear that from the body. The other thing to would be just to finish in. The other thing would be anxiety.

Speaker 1: 17:11

When we have anxiety, listening to our body. So Of course anxiety is an important signal and sometimes you have anxiety for a really good reason. You know you're walking into a car park late at night. There's a reason you have anxiety and sometimes that you know that there's intuition there, kind of what we're going maybe should go back inside. Sometimes you know we have anxiety, that's the reason we have it and absolutely listen to that. Sometimes we have anxiety because we're just pushing ourselves out of our comfort zone. We're trying something new, and so we're just pushing ourselves a bit. We're doing something that's a bit scary and and it's healthy because it is actually pushing us to the next thing.

Speaker 1: 17:58

So again, that's a. You might sort of Observe a sort of an anxiety, but it's about it's not just saying, oh, I feel anxious, that's always bad, I won't do the thing. It's like I feel anxious, what's it telling me and I see the telling you you know, go and find help, going, ring for help, go back into the crowded place you're just in and don't stand a car park on your own. Or it's telling you to that's okay, this is all of your stress. Hormones are coming in to help you meet the challenge of the new thing Speaking, engagement all the job interview, all the first day on the job or whatever it is that you're feeling anxious about.

Speaker 1: 18:45

So I just want to remind you that, yes, our body does give us all sorts of messages and it is important to listen to them. So I'm all about listening to your body. So it's not so much saying don't listen to your body. Absolutely do listen to your body, but be aware of how you, how you interpret what your body is telling you, the story you tell yourself about what your body is telling you and what you do about it, because sometimes it is an invitation to explore.

Speaker 1: 19:19

It's not, that's not a complete answer. So just be aware that, yes, listen to the signs, but it's not always as simple. As I don't feel good when I eat this food. Therefore, I should never eat this food, unless, of course, you come out spots immediately or having an anaphylactic response. That's very different, of course, but if it is Particularly difficulty with digestion, it's good to explore all the reasons why that might be the case. Anyway, I hope that was useful to you. Please like and subscribe and share and comment and give me feedback, and I really appreciate, especially if you share any of my episodes and let your friends know about my podcast. That is much appreciated and I hope you have a great week. I'll talk to you again next week, okay, thank you, bye.