Almost everybody should be eating a, Paleo diet, It's very safe and you could do it long term. It's how I eat and really it goes down to the Paleolithic times. With the, Paleo diet, you can have unlimited vegetables. And so, you're eating the philosophy of when we were created.

The, keto diet, stands for, ketogenic, and it's basically getting the body in the state of, ketosis. When we are in the state of, ketosis, it basically changes our fuel source from carbohydrates to fat.

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Bio

Risa Groux, CN is a Functional Nutritionist and Certified Autoimmune Coach and author of FOODFRAME: Diet is a Four-Letter Word .  She has always been passionate about nutrition and good health. Risa was so concerned about purity that she made her children’s baby food from scratch. Today she is passionate about cooking and creating healthy, nutritious food. She works with a wide array of clients from professional athletes, adults, and kids to the Biggest Loser from season four.

Risa works with issues like diabetes, autoimmune disease, cancer, digestion, thyroid, and hormone imbalances, to name a few. Risa firmly believes that the body can heal itself with whole foods we obtain from the earth and sees living proof of that in her office each day. She looks at root causes using functional nutrition guidelines, blood and stool tests, and knows that, weight loss, is a side effect of wellness.

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Diet and weight loss

We have to understand the root causes of, weight loss.  Why is it that we have headaches, right? It's not because we have a deficiency in Tylenol, right? Why do we have high cholesterol? Why do we have constipation? Why do we have depression, whatever it is anxiety, there's a root cause to that it's not because we have this deficiency and mitigation. We're born with that.

Myrna: Are you saying that, weight loss, can always be linked back to our, diet, and what we are eating?

Risa: Not necessarily always what you're eating, but what you're eating is definitely hindering or helping, okay? So, if there could be a pathogen in your gut, there could be blood sugar dysregulation, there could be, low thyroid, all of these things. Where food absolutely is contributing to the growth of it or to the reverse of it. I'm always looking at those root causes. That's why I do extensive blood tests and stool tests, because I want to know what's going on. I'm not really good at guessing. I don’t play darts with the lights off.

That's what we they do in conventional medicine, not, functional nutrition. So, we're looking at, in addition to root causes, we're looking for prevention, because in allopathic medicine, we look at our reference ranges, they get wider and wider and wider. I say to people all the time, you've got this raging fire in the basement, your doctor might give you a little squirt gun or you might be trying it with a squirt gun yourself, but I've had to bring in the hose and get that fire out because if we have a fire in the basement, we're gonna hold on to all of our resources.

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What we eat is either helping or hindering weight loss

The body is not going to give it up because it may need it in the future. Right? It's like I always say to people, you've got a raging fire in the basement, but somebody is on the second floor saying can you help me change the light bulb? Why I got this fire and you're happy to change the light bulb once again. That's another consideration is how much of a fire do you have? Right? What is making you not lose the, weight. So those are what we look at and, in my office.

I look at two foundational issues. One is, systemic inflammation. As I mentioned, that is the driver of disease we know that for sure with COVID people going into third stage, inflammation. The second is, gut health, and, gut health, is extraordinarily important.

In addition to some, inflammation, one is blood sugar dysregulation which we you know, I test for, insulin resistance, and most allopathic doctors do not test for that. So, I'm looking at a C peptide and a fasting insulin in addition to the C and glucose. So that's number one is if you have insulin resistance, it's very difficult for, weight loss. Number two thyroid dysregulation that is our metabolism. Our temperature gauge, it's how we burn up fat and tells me why you are not able to lose weight.

The third marker for, weight loss, is cortisol, that is the stress hormone, right. So, stress really does drive up, cortisol, we will not lose weight when we have high, cortisol, or really low, cortisol, for that matter, either. And then for you've just named it, sex hormone, imbalance. That's a huge reason why we can't, lose weight.

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Toxins prevent weight loss

The fifth we can’t, lose weight, is an overload of, toxins. So that's why I'm big on, detoxing. I do a detox all the time. I just had a detox shake just now. I'm always, detoxing, and it's really important because we are inundated with chemicals. The FDA in America. This is a brand-new number. I hate to report it. We have been approved for 86,000 chemicals.

Myrna: Well, let's spend a little time there. So how do you, detox, or how do you suggest that people, detox?

Risa: So, let me just give you some more stats there that 86,000, toxins.  Over 3000 of which are foods that we can eat right? And let me just tell you that Europe just came out with a list of 1600 chemicals that they banned just for their cosmetics. At the same time, the US banded 11, so we have, toxins, everywhere. They're in our makeup, they're in our clothes, they're in our paint. They're in our furniture, they're in our food. They're in our cosmetics, they're in our sunscreen in our shampoos or conditioners, our Perfume is, toxins.

But, detoxing, the right way is really important when, toxins, come into the system, the liver kind of deciphers.  If it is an enzyme, typically even if it's a, toxin, that goes to an enzyme, it goes out that's great, but if it isn't, it gets stored in fat tissues and fat cells. This is why we, lose weight, when we, detox. But, toxins, do a tremendous amount of damage. It stays in the intestinal lining, where they get reabsorbed all day over and over and over again. And one of the markers that we look for on blood tests is called the homocysteine and that tells us if you're able to, detoxify, your own heavy metals and your own, toxins, so really important to look at that marker as well.

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Detoxify your liver to aid weight loss

But I, detox, probably three times a year. I have a lot of people in my office who do it four times a year even if you just did it twice here, you'd be way better off than not doing it at all. But I have my own, detox products, which your listeners have 10% off the detox for three months after it drops. Use coupon code Transform10 at Functional Certified Nutritionist | Risa Groux Nutrition You're drinking collagen shakes filled with amino acids and antioxidants that help open up pathways one and two. And then you're eating real foods, you're eating animal protein, you're eating unlimited vegetables, sweet potatoes, yams, and some good fats, eggs, nuts, seeds, olives, avocados.

Myrna: Okay, so that's awesome. But yeah, you probably hit the nail on the head regarding my, weight loss, issues. I haven't detoxed in a long time.

Risa: So yeah, let me tell you the philosophy that drove me to write this book. I've been doing what I do for many years. And I started to do their blood labs. And I realized that everybody is different. If you have low blood sugar, you're going to eat very differently than somebody who has high blood sugar. If you have thyroid, you're going to eat very different than somebody who doesn't have your autoimmune same thing. So, what I started to gather is that we should all be eating according to our health status.

Benefits and drawbacks of the Keto Diet

Lot of books come out and tells us this is what to eat, some say go on the, low lectin diet, it works for a lot of people, but it doesn't work for everybody. And same thing with, keto diet. Keto, is great for a lot of people, but not everybody. I personally couldn't get into the state of, ketosis. I kept trying and trying and I just couldn't get into, ketosis, without exogenous health. So, I didn't want to do that. People who don't have gallbladders should not be doing, keto. People who have a lot of adrenals cortisol production stress do not do well on, keto.

Women typically don't do well on, keto. So, I'll start with, keto. I broke this down and created my, Foodframe method. And that is why I wrote the book, because I think it's so important that not one size fits all. Keto, is not this new diet type that is going to be the miracle. It might be for some but not for everybody.

Myrna: Well, let me ask your question right there because, I wasn't aware that, nutritionists, take blood. So, you're testing your clients, and then you're deciding on a nutritional plan for them. Is that only with, functional nutritionists, or, nutritionists?

Risa: I don't know other conventional nutritionists or dietitians who take blood, but I do I order blood labs and stool tests because I don’t like guessing.

So, then I know right? I know if you have H Pylori, or if you have Giardia or you have Candida or you have parasites, how do we know that we've got a fire in the basement ongoing?  So, keto, stands for, ketogenic, and it's basically getting the body in the state of, ketosis. When we are in the state of, ketosis, it basically changes our fuel source. Everybody is born to have a fuel source from carbohydrates, sugar, carbs are turned into sugar and the pancreas to pumps that insulin.  It creates that insulin and that insulin converts that sugar or carbohydrate and puts it into converts into glycogen puts it in the cell and it's used for energy.

ATP is what we make from the, mitochondria, within the cell. This is difficult for people who have insulin resistance. I mean, it's good for people who have blood sugar issues, because it helps, but when you go into the state of, ketosis, you're changing that fuel source from a carbohydrate to fat. So, you have very, little carbohydrates and I mean less than 20 net carbs in a day, which is low, and maybe 5% of your diet is in carbohydrates. All foods have carbohydrates except for animal protein and fats like oils. Olives are really low. And so, what happens is your fuel source, you're starting to create, ketones, we would see, ketones, in your urine. That means you're burning fat for fuel, and it's great for that person. Most men do really well with, keto, not all women do well with, keto.

Myrna: My husband does, ketosis, with intermittent fasting. He has lost over 30 lbs on this, keto diet.

Testing for the state of ketosis

Risa: Yeah, so that's a perfect person for the, keto diet. Women don't do as well.  But again, this is not something I would recommend if you don't have a gallbladder and don’t any fat malabsorption issues.  If you have a lot of stress, it may not work for you either, but I would recommend getting a, urine stick, so you can check it every morning to see if you're in the, state of ketosis.

Myrna: And let's stop there for a minute. So, you can get a, urine stick, and check for, ketosis?

Risa: Yep, at Walgreens or CVS? That's what I did is, I would pee on the, urine stick, every morning to see if I'm in the, state of ketosis.

Myrna: Yeah, that's beautiful. That's a great tip. Thank you.

Benefits and drawbacks of the Paleo diet

Risa: So almost everybody should be doing, Paleo, rather and you can be doing it. It's very safe. You could do it long term. It's how I eat and really it goes down to the Paleolithic times. And so, you're eating the philosophy of when we were created. We ate animal protein as clean quality as possible because there's another source of, toxins. We have a lot of, growth hormones, and antibiotics in our meats. And then our chickens are just eating just grains and things that they're not supposed to be eating and they weren't born to eat, and our fish is farmed and filled with chemicals also.

So, it's really important to eat good quality. With the, Paleo diet, you can have unlimited vegetables. Any way you want them except for deep fried. We make a couple exceptions like no corns, peas or string beans really very often. We take out legumes, we take out grains, we take out dairy, we take out sugar and processed foods. So, you're having sweet potato, yams, good fats very similar to my, detox. My detox is very, Paleo.  It's really the easiest one to do. You can stay on it long term, and you're really removing the high carb foods and the inflammatory foods, bread, sugar, dairy, alcohol, you can have a little bit of alcohol on, Paleo diet, like tequila, gin, vodka, things like that. No beer.

Myrna: One of my sponsors Greenchef set me up with, Paleo recipes. And I've been I've been cooking, Paleo, but I don't know much about the, Paleo diet.

Risa: Benefits of, Paleo diet, is to decrease that, systemic inflammation, and increase good, gut health. So, it has a lot of fiber, which is really good for the microbiome. For general good diversity and, gut health. We're removing the sugar are the dairy, the grains and the legumes. I'll get into that a little later. We talked about, lectins, but they're hard to digest.

Drawbacks of the Vegan diet

If you don't have enough digestive enzymes in the system, you're gonna have a hard time breaking down, and they're also filled with tons of carbohydrates. I am a former, vegan, myself and I lived on beans, specifically a little bit of grains but not much and my blood sugars I just watched it go through the roof. I was almost pre diabetic. And it was just because I was eating so many beans at every meal. Lentils and garbanzo beans and hummus and black beans.

Myrna: I gained 3 lbs in the last 2 weeks because I was eating beans and oats!

In my book, I go in great detail with this such different types of, vegetarians and the, vegan, diet.  Vegetarians, are eating Bread and Oreos, French fries, Cokes. You know, these are all vegetarian foods, but they are not good for us. They're processed foods, so you can fall into that trap of processed diet. And occasionally I do meet a real, vegetarian, who actually eats vegetables, but they have to have some protein soy.  So again, there's the beans and the grains, nuts and the seeds. So, vegan, is not something I recommend for everyone.  I really don't recommend eating vegetarian or, vegan, for most people. But I do recommend eating a lot of plants food no matter what, because we were born to eat plants.

Autoimmune Protocol Diet is Paleo without nightshade

The, autoimmune protocol diet, is fairly restrictive. It's an elimination diet. So, it's 30 to 90 days and I wouldn't recommend if you have one or two or more autoimmune, you go for 90 days as best you can. It's very restrictive. It's the, paleo diet, however we're removing, nightshade vegetables. So that's tomatoes, potatoes, opportunities except for sweet potato and yams, eggplant and peppers of any kind.

So, anything but black pepper, soy, paprika, red peppers, and you know jalapenos and then and goji berries and then we're moving on nuts, seeds, eggs, so it is very restrictive. They bring it a little bit of fruit, but very little berries a little bit of apple things like that. But it's pretty restrictive. And the whole point is to quell the, inflammation, that's driving these antibodies that are causing that cytokine storm.

Myrna: I'll circle back, so you're saying that the foods that you remove are foods that contribute to, inflammation?

Risa: if you have, autoimmune disease, nightshade vegetables, are foods that are high in, lectins, which we'll get to next. But, lectins, can cause inflammation. Yes.

Nightshade vegetables can cause leaky gut

Myrna; Dr. Steven Gundry has been talking about, lectins, and how these things go through your intestinal lining of your stomach, and you shouldn't eat them? And I listen and I'm thinking why are tomatoes bad? But you're just saying exactly the same thing, I don't eat eggplant.  I'm allergic to it. What are some of the, nightshade vegetables, again, I know there's tomatoes what else?

Risa: Tomatoes, all kinds of potatoes except sweet potato and yams, different family eggplant, and peppers, any kind of pepper except for black pepper. So, Gundry he endorsed my book. He's on the cover of my book. I'm doing his podcast actually in a couple of weeks. But he is actually right and all the research he did about, lectins. Lectins, basically, you know we all as human living organisms, we all have a defense mechanism, right?

If we're being attacked, humans, we can kick bite, scream, flee, call 911 right plants don't have that ability. So, what they have is what I call a hard candy around them and it's around the germ or the seed. So, they say, I want to just survive and procreate, just like humans, right? Those are two main goals for the organisms. And so, they have this protective coating.

Now if you have a very acidic stomach, you have enough digestive enzymes in your gut, you're going to be able to break, lectins, down. But even if you break those down, those, lectins, can cause a lot of, inflammation, especially somebody with a, leaky gut. So, Dr Gundry talks about a lot about, leaky gut, and I'm trying to I always try to explain it to people because we only have one layer of epithelial cells in the intestinal lining, just one and we have some villi there protecting it. But once you damage that layer, we have poke holes called tight junctions. And Gluten is a great helper to open up those tight junctions causing, leaky gut, and then next thing we've got food intolerances and, inflammation.

What is a leaky gut?

Myrna: Can you explain what's bad about a, leaky gut.

Risa: So, you don't want a, leaky gut, because things are going through stress, toxins, food particles, organ malfunctions, bread, sugar, dairy and alcohol are all going through and causing your body to go in the state of, inflammation, and cause food sensitivities not food allergies, but food sensitivities. And if you do that long enough, you'll create an, autoimmune disease, right? The antibodies are created so it's got a place to it's got to park itself, organ gland or tissue. So, for fibromyalgia, it's your muscles. If it's rheumatoid arthritis, it's your joints.

So, you don't want antibodies passing through your gut, you don't want, autoimmune diseases. So that's why you don't want a, leaky gut. Also, it just impairs everything, brain fog, I mean, it goes on and on digestive issues, things like that.

Your FODMAP is an acronym and it stands for fermentable, oligo, saccharides, disaccharide, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols. And in plain English, that means different types of carbohydrates that cause a lot of gas production. This is what happens if you have, IBS irritable bowel syndrome, which is basically a non-diagnosis for some, inflammation.  I find out on the stool tests how much you have, but if you have inflammation in the intestinal lining, you either have IBS or IBD irritable bowel disease, or SIBO, which I test people for which is small intestinal bacterial overgrowth and that is constant chronic bloating, and it's paired with either chronic diarrhea or chronic constipation.

 

The FODMAP diet

So we'll have either of those three, that is something that I recommend doing low, FODMAP, so these are carbohydrates that absorb water, and they tend to make you bloat and they create a in house, cellulite. It helps muscle it helps on hair, skin and nails. It helps joint pain. I have probably two servings of collagen every single day. It's really good. It's a great protein source and very low in carb, protein, fat and fiber. I started with coconut milk; I had coconut cream.  I used it today, I had my chocolate collagen plus, which has the amino acids and antioxidants to help open up those detox pathways. And then I put some fiber in so I put in today I put in hemp seeds and spinach. So usually, I do a seed and a green and it is very, very filling, takes through the distance, your body doesn't need anything else.

Myrna: Where can we pick up a copy of Foodframe: Diet is a Four-Letter Word? Your website, your Instagram handle and how people can get a hold of you for this amazing information that you're given.

Conclusion

Risa: Thank you. I recommend everybody find out what their foodframe is and you can take the quizzes, only 12 questions on my website risagrousnutrition.com. There you will find my book, there you will find my course, how to achieve optimal thyroid health, there you will find tons of articles and my product line, my detox, my collagen, and collagen plus that's more the detox collagen. After you're done with the, detox, you can stay on that for more liver detoxification. And then a plethora of other supplements. I have I have these amazing collagen bars that are delicious chocolate bars that are only eight net carbs and they're great. I have one almost every day.

My Instagram is @risagrouxnutrition. My tick tock and Facebook are the same. I work with people all over the world. We do advise on zoom. So, anybody's welcome to make an appointment. And we'll order labs. We'll send you a stool test at your home and then we'll have you go to your local lab for blood work and then we'll just watch you heal and, lose weight.

Additional Resources

How Ketogenic Diet Helps Reverse Diabetes