ALL EPISODES
The Funk’tional Nutrition Podcast
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Episode 208: Weight Loss: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know
A recurring theme on the show over the past month has been weight loss, and today’s episode is actually getting pulled from the archives because it’s SO relevant to the concepts discussed lately. It's an info-dense doozy that really speaks to the physical reasons your body might be holding onto weight or not be willing to release weight and things to consider before attempting weight loss.
Episode 207: Gallbladder, Bile, Gut Health & Hormones: What You Didn’t Know
When it comes to overall gut and hormonal health, the gallbladder is an unsung hero. It plays a crucial role not just in digestion and your ability to access nutrients in food, but also with detoxification and your hormone systems.
Unfortunately early gallbladder issues are often missed in conventional treatment, leading to the formation of gallstones and eventual gallbladder removal surgery. While there are certainly instances when gallbladder removal is necessary, removing the gallbladder typically doesn’t resolve the gallbladder issue. This is because it doesn’t address WHY the gallbladder issues arose in the first place. It’s not a root cause approach.
Today Erin packs an information-heavy episode all about the importance and roles of the gallbladder, bile production, and alerts you to some of the warning signs you may be having issues with your biliary tract. The purpose of sharing this is so you can not just take in this information and comprehend it, but to really take preventative measures BEFORE you get to the point of surgery.
If you deal with bloating, acid reflux, constipation, hormonal issues, thyroid issues, leaky gut, and particularly if you’re female (and over 40)… you’ll want to listen up!
Episode 206: Weight Gain in Menopause: What Gives??
Menopause is a phase in women’s lives that involves big physiological changes. Like during puberty and pregnancy, women going through menopause experience huge hormonal shifts that can have cascading effects on blood sugar, gut microbiome and adrenal health. These changes can also affect body composition: women who never struggled with weight are suddenly dealing with more belly fat and love handles. Understandably feeling a lack of control, many seek out answers to help understand what’s going on.
However, many in conventional health still tell women going through perimenopause and menopause to simply work out more and eat less, which can oftentimes exacerbate the new issues these women face.
Like Erin discussed in last week’s episode: if the approach isn’t working, try a new approach. If the physiology changes, we NEED to change the approach.
Today Erin peels back the layers on not just what is happening during perimenopause and menopause, but WHY these changes occur and highlights underlying factors that can lead to problems like insulin resistance, adrenal fatigue, cortisol dysregulation, sleep issues, gallbladder problems and weight gain. She also outlines things to consider for adjusting to these physiological changes and ways to support your health during this phase. If you or someone you know is going through menopause and wants to know what a new approach could look like, this will be a valuable episode to hear.
Episode 205: The Shoulds & Shames Behind Weight Loss Goals
Women hear an enormous amount of “you should…” statements on a daily basis—from social media to our family to our friends to our own self-talk. And when it comes to weight, body image and our intentions surrounding it, women often receive messaging that promotes weight loss as salvation AND anti-diet messages that promote body acceptance.
These conflicting, black and white, either/or messages creates fragmentation within ourselves and shame surrounding whichever direction we lean. There’s no room for gray area, for both thoughts to be true, and this can be especially pronounced for those who have struggled with eating disorders or even dealt with chronic illness. It’s not wrong to have a body image goal, but in order to achieve sustainable change, health and wellbeing, it’s necessary to understand the “why” behind these goals first.
Today on the show Erin taps into these whys to really get to the root of our body intentions and offers up thought provoking questions to uncover our own belief patterns. You might hear yourself in some of the examples Erin showcases, and you wouldn’t be alone if you did—these are conversations Erin has had with others both in her group programs and 1:1 work, as well as in real life with friends and family.
If, like so many others, you’ve ever found yourself somewhere in the gray area between diet culture and anti-diet culture, this will be an especially important episode to hear!
Episode 204: Cortisol, Blood Sugar & Improving Your Sleep Hygiene
Being healthy in today’s world can often come with a high price tag. Fortunately sleep doesn’t have to be one of those things, and in today’s episode Erin discusses the top three things that might be impeding your sleep at night and what you can do about them. From circadian rhythm to cortisol, bladder function to blood sugar, Erin highlights why making sure you’re getting the basics down is the very first thing you should be doing to improve sleep hygiene.
If you have trouble falling asleep, if you often wake up at night needing to pee or wake up with a racing heart, or feel tired and sluggish no matter how many hours you slept, this will definitely be an episode for you to hear!
Episode 203: Bladder Dysfunction, Gut Problems & Pelvic Floor Health
If you’ve got gut problems, have you considered your pelvic floor function?
The pelvic floor is a grouping of muscles that encompasses the center of your body and today, Erin brings back to the show Dr. Cristin Zaimes of Oceanside Physical Therapy to discuss all things pelvic floor and why it’s so important to our overall health. Cristin is an expert in pelvic floor physiology and brings deep knowledge on the subject. Tune in to hear her highlight how pelvic floor health is about so much more than doing Kegals - our gut, bladder, sexual health, and even breathing can be tied to how well our pelvic floor is functioning.
If you’ve ever experienced leakage when you sneeze or exercise, have experienced back pain when lifting, have any sexual pain or dysfunction, or have gut problems like constipation, diarrhea or even recurring SIBO, this will be a really informative episode for you!
Episode 202: When Your Doctor Doesn’t Believe Your Pain: Sexism in Healthcare
What do you do when your doctor doesn’t listen? When your provider doesn’t believe you?
A 2019 interview with Selma Blair on Good Morning America brought to light a scary fact: women are not being heard by their medical providers. Chronic conditions are going undiagnosed for YEARS, despite the fact that women are reporting real physical problems. When you layer in intersectionality, the issue gets even worse. This lack of care can have irreversible consequences, and despite increased awareness, the problem still persists today.
In this episode, Erin interviews Dr. Cristin Zaimes of Oceanside Physical Therapy to discuss how sexism in healthcare creates shame and distrust in our own bodies. While this episode originally aired in March 2019, Erin and Cristin highlight why this conversation is just as relevant and important today. Tune in as they discuss what we can do to change this—including ways to tap into our innate power to heal.
Episode 201: Parasite “Cleansing,” Food Combining & Alkaline Diets with Natosha Ash
Today on the Funk’tional Nutrition Podcast, Erin sits down with Naturopathic medical student and TikTok aficionado Natosha Ash to separate fact from fiction with the latest fad diets trending on social media. Speaking from both personal experience, through research and in working clinically with real people, Erin and Natosha clear up the confusion surrounding parasite cleansing, food combining and alkaline diets. On top of bringing evidence-based research to the table, they also touch on bigger picture topics like orthorexia, body resiliency and mindfulness surrounding health information sources.
If you’ve ever wondered about the validity of trending diets on social media or have gut issues and considered one of these diets, this will be a great one to hear!
A Special 200th Episode: How it Started, How it’s Going & Answering Other Listener Questions
Today on the show Erin celebrates some big podcast milestones: 200 episodes and 2 million downloads!! Tune in to reminisce with Erin and hear answers to a smorgasbord of listener questions ranging from career pivots (is it ever too late? How about with a baby?) to whether coffee enemas are actually beneficial (and how to do one properly!) She also covers questions about molecular mimicry with gluten and thyroid, detoxing mycotoxins, what you should know about binders and serves up thought provoking questions to ask yourself when healing feels like a struggle.
Episode 199: Creating Space for YOU to Exist in Your Work & Your Life
What did you do to grow your business? What strategy did you use to expand your social media presence? How do you get more clients? These are the questions so many business owners and health practitioners ask when trying to grow or expand their own business; however, the answers don’t lie in steps and how-to’s.
Our subconscious beliefs and how they influence our health has been a theme on the show lately, and today Erin highlights how these beliefs can affect how we show up (or don’t show up) in our work, our business and our life. Tune in to hear takeaways from conversations about business and life that Erin has had with other business owners and practitioners, how she uses intuition to guide decisions, creating authentic connections on social media (or any platform), investing in personal growth and why creating a safe space for you to exist in your own work is paramount to success.
Episode 198: Protocols, Elimination Diets & the Pursuit of Wellness with Jessica Flanigan
A functional approach to healing is a root cause approach. It attempts to unearth, understand and resolve unique root causes of any imbalances going on within the body. Where it can get a bad rap is when it becomes too cookie cutter, relying too heavily on protocols, elimination diets and supplements.
Today’s conversation is with clinical nutritionist Jessica Flanigan and taps into this growing trend in the wellness world. Erin and Jessica discuss problems seen in our modern culture of healing, how to find a skilled clinician, authority and power versus experience, how restriction can affect oral tolerance and the power that belief work and spirituality have on our healing.
While this interview originally aired in 2018, Jessica showcases why, even today, she’s always been lightyears ahead of the functional medicine space by offering ways practitioners can approach going deeper with clients to find the root cause of their issues… and ways we can go deeper with ourselves. If you’re struggling to get to the root of your health issues, feeling exhausted by the pursuit of wellness, or are wondering if the health answers you seek fall outside the echo chamber, this conversation is definitely one to hear.
Episode 197: Secretory IgA & Gut Health: What You May Not Know
When it comes to gut health, Secretory IgA is kind of a big deal. Secretory IgA is the dominant antibody in our gut mucosal layer and acts as a “first line of defense” against pathogens. When Secretory IgA is low, it’s like the bouncer at the bar is GONE - which means anyone who wants to get in, can. In fact, the lower the SIgA is, the more prone you are to acquiring infections AND the less likely you are to clear up existing infections in your gut.
Inspired by recent stool test results, today Erin covers Secretory IgA and why it’s so important when it comes to overall immune and gut health. She discusses where this antibody is found (not just the gut!) and reasons why it may be low or high on a lab test.
In this episode Erin also highlights an important contributing factor that even functional medicine can miss: your mindset. If you’re a gut geek, if you struggle with food sensitivities, if you know you have low Secretory IgA, or if you are looking for another way to improve your own immune and gut health, grab a pen because this episode is one you don’t want to miss!
Episode 196: Confidence, Clarity & Courage for Practitioners: The #1 Thing in Your Way
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.”
We SAY we want success / financial freedom / bigger audience / more clients / private practice / fill in with your own personal goals… but deep down there is some part of our subconscious that is TERRIFIED of this. (Ain’t that a kick in the head?) In order to achieve our goals, hopes and dreams, we have to first acknowledge any mental blocks, limiting beliefs and/or fears that are standing in the way.
You MUST have practices in place to clear them, to move beyond them, to recognize them as untruths. (Because PS: It’s not that you have LESS limiting beliefs and fears as you grow, it’s that you get better at NOT believing they are true.) Because of this, we do A LOT of belief work in the Funk’tional Nutrition Academy. As Erin says, FNA is a container for growth. We won't let you sleep on your come up. In today’s episode Erin discusses one place where your limiting beliefs may come from, and how to recognize if this is holding you back.
Episode 195: Why Wine Makes You Feel Terrible: A Case for Natural Wines
If you’re mindful of what you consume and you also drink wine, or if you’re looking for a way to enjoy wine without feeling terrible, this is a conversation for you. Today Erin sits down with founder of Dry Farm Wines Todd White to discuss how we can consume and enjoy natural wine in a way that’s in alignment with our overall health - and the health of the planet. Tune in to hear about the environmental impact of conventional and natural winemaking, organic, biodynamic farming, the importance indigenous yeast, how wine additives, alcohol content and sulfites affect your health, and even touch on the spiritual and community aspects of wine. While we’re not about to tell you that wine is a health food, this conversation does make a good case for enjoying what you consume.