The Link Between Food and Emotional Wellbeing
In this podcast, Lisa Jones, MA, RDN, LDN, FAND, interviews Julie Feldman, MPH, RDN, about the psychological pieces of how dietitians help create nutrition change for patients and understanding the role of trauma in the process. This is episode three of a four-part series on trauma-informed nutrition counseling.
Additional Resources:
- Collectively Rooted. Accessed March 26, 2024. https://collectivelyrooted.com/
Listen to part two of this four-part series here.
Listen to part four of this four-part series here.
TRANSCRIPTION:
Host: Hello and welcome to Nutrition411: The Podcast, a special podcast series led by registered dietitian and nutritionist, Lisa Jones. The views of the speakers are their own and do not reflect the views of their respective institutions or Consultant360.
Lisa Jones: Hello and welcome to Nutrition411: The Podcast where we communicate the information that you need to know now about the science, psychology, and strategies behind the practice of dietetics.
Today's podcast is part of a series of short episodes featuring Q &A with Julie Feldman. Julie Feldman is a registered dietitian nutritionist, nationally recognized nutrition expert, consultant, counselor, speaker, spokesperson, author, and owner and founder of Thrive Nutrition and Wellness, LLC, specializing in trauma and nutrition counseling for teens and adults. Julie is from West Bloomfield, Michigan.
Hi, Julie, and welcome.
Julie Feldman: Hi, Lisa. Thanks for having me.
LJ: All right. Our next episode, we're going to be talking about exploring key topics in dietetics. During our recent episode, we were talking about emerging technological advances. And I'm curious if you had to sum up that conversation in one to two sentences, What do you think are the key takeaways?
JF: I would say the key takeaways are use technology to help you to create an initial connection, but then remember that we're people.
LJ: Yes. keep it real. Definitely. I love that. Great takeaway.
All right. Our next topic, talking about dietetics now: the key topics in nutrition-informed counseling. What would you say would have significant implications for trauma-informed nutrition counseling? What topics specifically? I know you mentioned some earlier, like eating disorders, obviously. Do any other ones come to mind that you want to speak to?
JF: I think actually, in the world of eating disorders, it's long been talked about. Like when you think about treating eating disorders, the psychology behind that has always been like “duh, obviously there's an emotional thing going on here.” We can't just tell them to eat more or not to purge or whatever disorder we're talking about.
And we can't just say, “Don't do that.” And the person will be like, “oh, that's such a great idea. Thanks for telling me.”
So, I think that the topic and the understanding of the psychological involvement as it relates to food and food choices has long been discussed in the eating disorder world. And that's really where I even became aware of some of the skills and tools that I use every single day with all of my clients, whether they're diagnosed with an eating disorder or not.
What I think is new and I hope continues to grow– I'm trying to do my part by talking about this at conferences and so on– is this is not just an eating disorder thing. This is a people thing. This is a food thing, and we never talked about this as it related specifically to weight loss.
It was just like never talked about, but what I realized–and I realized it a long time ago, and I'm super grateful that I have some really cool people in my life, that are in my sphere, including my mom, who's a social worker and a sister who's a social worker and a stepfather who's a social worker. And so, like this is sort of Sunday family dinner conversation at our house, so I'm super lucky in that– but what I realized really early on is, why are we talking about this with eating disorders, and we're never talking about this with all of this other stuff?
And then the other thing I realized is all of my clients that were coming to me saying “I need to lose 30 pounds before my son's wedding” kind of a thing would start to tell me about their stories, and their stories were really deep. And I really learned that trauma is relative. We think of trauma as something really bad happened like I was a victim of sexual assault, I was the victim of verbal abuse. I grew up in a home, my dad was an alcoholic. Things like that, right? Just sort of obviously traumatic things. But what we don't do a good job of talking about is sometimes people refer to as smaller traumas. I don't really think of them as small because our life is our life, and we only know our life, so if something felt really big to me, it doesn't have to feel big to somebody else for it to have been big to me.
And things that register like that are, for example, having a sibling who was just an all-star. I'm not saying this is my story, but somebody's story could be “I had a sister who was captain of the cheerleading team and got all A's and went to Harvard. I was smart, but everybody talked about me as being that person's sister.”
Now, nothing dramatically terrible happened to this person where everyone's like, “Oh my God, I'm so sorry that that was your life.” Right?
Yeah, that person very likely never felt safe, never felt seen, never felt validated. And I think, I just learned and kept seeing it over and over and over and over and over again, these stories. And I was like, "Okay, what is going on here?" And that's where I started to do more learning around trauma and how it changes us and how it changes our decision making and how it changes our ability to stay present and all of these pieces.
I hope that is what is emerging. That this is not simple and straightforward.
And then, and I think it'll be interesting to see what happens with some of these weight loss medications too. And I'm not anti-weight loss medication, by the way. But just, I think that they're being prescribed to a lot of people who have undiagnosed eating disorders, number one. So, that's really kind of scary. Two, I also think it's going to be really interesting to see what happens if somebody can't be on these medications forever. Whenever that happens, we've created this weight loss, but haven't really addressed their relationship with food or perhaps some of the other things that were going on in their life that they used food to kind of mask or soothe themselves from.
And so, are they going to just sort of hop from one thing to the next, to the next? So, maybe it was food, but then it switches to something else. So, I'm really hoping that with more communication that we get more clinicians to understand the role that all of this plays, so that people can be successful. You know, I think it's so miserable when you think about it.
And if you look around you, you see all these people, they maybe change a lifestyle for three months or six months. But if you really think about it, it's hard to think of people who have made changes and made them consistently and in a permanent way.
And I think one of the main reasons, if not the reason why that is the case is because we're just not addressing these underlying emotional pieces for people.
LJ: What you said that was so powerful is that trauma is relative, and it really can't be categorized. The things that you listed off in the beginning when you were answering of this question, that's a great point that you bring up. Your trauma could be big to you, and then somebody tries to minimize it, and that created this lifelong trauma for them. And people are like, “Oh, that's not a big deal. So, your sister excelled, and you didn't go to Harvard.” That makes a big difference. Thank you so much for bringing that up because we often don't look at it through that lens. So, I think it's how you're looking at it, and all trauma is trauma, basically, right?
JF: That's how I see it. I mean, it’s not like we have to pay to get that designation, right? And I don't think that we're giving somebody excuse. I don't think of trauma as an excuse at all. I actually think for so many people, it is the most validating conversation they have ever had in their life to understand that what has happened to them has made it really, really hard for them to be able to make changes.
And for decades, perhaps, they've just been thinking that they suck, that they have no willpower, that they're unworthy, and incapable. And for somebody to be able to say, “That makes total sense that this is hard for you. Have you ever made that connection before?” And they're like, “Oh my God, no!”
It is so incredibly valid. Really, as a clinician, it's incredibly rewarding. I also think, I'm in private practice, so I don't want this to come across in a bad way. I'm not saying like I'm doing this to make money, but obviously, I support myself doing this. In terms of client retention and from a business perspective as a dietitian, it makes a lot of sense to be able to talk about more than just “What did you eat for lunch?” And if somebody really feels safe with you to talk about deeper things– and I'm not saying I'm a therapist. I collaborate with therapists all the time– but you cannot pull apart the teeny tiny threads that connect food and our emotional well-being. You can't, in my mind. You cannot have a conversation about food without talking about our psychological well-being. And so, if you're able to do that, I think you create beautiful, long-lasting relationships with your clients that are validating, not just for them, but also for you.
LJ: Yes, that's another excellent point that you bring up too, which leads me to my next question. As a nutrition counselor, how do you stay informed with emerging research that comes out to support a trauma-informed practice? Do you have any advice on that?
JF: Yeah, I do a lot of my continuing education in the field of mental health. So, stepping a little bit outside of just learning about things that are particularly advertised to nutrition professionals. I encourage people to tap into some mental health resources. There's a ton of stuff online. It might not all count towards your continuing education credits, but it's so impactful. I think, as a clinician to learn about that kind of stuff, it helps. It's frustrating. I mean, this can feel like a frustrating practice sometimes, and I think it helps to alleviate a lot of burnout and frustration on the clinician side to learn about this stuff.
I would subscribe to some newsletters from various organizations. Collectively Rooted is one that delivers some really fascinating presentations.
Also, a lot of the eating disorder organizations in the community, like the residential programs, they'll offer a lot of continuing education that is more on the emotional side of things, so even if you don't do eating disorder work, take advantage of some of those.
Most of them are free and can be really helpful, interesting information. Anything that's geared towards treating an eating disorder is going to help you in delivering nutrition content in any capacity.
LJ: Thank you for sharing all those resources because I was thinking as you were talking, like mental health and burnout, they could be two separate topics. They're so big and stand alone. And the resources are great recommendations. Thank you, Julie.
JF: Yeah, of course. Also, I like Medscape. You can subscribe on Medscape. And if you type in certain topics that you want to get new and emerging research on– sometimes it can feel like a little overwhelming because on certain days you might get a lot– but I get a ton of information from that. It's free too.
LJ: Oh, fantastic. Thank you. I'm going to put that in the show notes. All right. Well, thank you for sharing all your wisdom in our episode talking about hot topics and dietetics.
JF: You're welcome. Thank you.
Host: For more nutrition content, visit consultant360.com.