With me, I have Risa Groux, who is a functional nutritionist and certified autoimmune coach in private practice in Newport Beach, California. She has always been passionate about nutrition and good health. Today, she is passionate about cooking and healthy, nutritious food. She works with a wide array of clients from professional athletes, adults, and kids, to The Biggest Loser season 4 winner. Risa works with issues like diabetes, autoimmune disease, cancer, digestion, thyroid conditions, and hormone imbalances, to name a few. She firmly believes the body can heal itself with whole foods we obtain from the earth and sees living proof of that in her office each day. Risa looks at root causes using functional nutrition guidelines as well as blood and stool tests. Thanks so much for joining us, Risa.
Risa Groux:
Thank you so much for having me. It’s great to be here.
Dr. Eric:
Look forward to talking about your wonderful book, FoodFrame… Diet is a 4-Letter Word.
Risa:
Yes!
Dr. Eric:
I was going to ask if you could talk about your background. I know you mentioned in your book you had Hashimoto’s. If you could talk about that and what led you to write your book.
Risa:
I do have Hashimoto’s although I am just about 10 points from reversing it at this point. I want to join the crew in my office that have reversed it already, so I’m getting there. I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s after I had my second child. I was diagnosed with hypothyroid when I was trying to conceive my second child. No problems with the first. We just started having all these issues getting pregnant for the second child. It took a long time.
I did everything. I looked at everything. Why do I have hypothyroid? The doctor handed me a script and said, “Take this med every day.” I asked, “For how long?” He said, “No, every day.” I asked, “For how long do I take it every day?” He said, “For the rest of your life.” Isn’t that odd? Why would I be taking something synthetic that my body was actually born to produce? That started me on my journey.
I started to put together a little list of why you would become hypothyroid. When I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s, I realized this is a pretty comprehensive list. I could not find a list anywhere, so I put my own list of root causes together. Why is my body in a state of attack? It’s just landing on my thyroid for me, but autoimmune lands in different tissues and organs and body parts. Let’s see if we can reverse this attack. I have compiled a very comprehensive list of root causes, which is in the book.
I have done extensive research and realized a lot of it is what we eat. I have seen thousands of patients through decades of work that I have been doing. I first started out with putting everybody on this one diet type, usually the diet type of the book I had recently read. It had all these great success stories and science to back up the success. I realized that not every diet type is right for every person. When that new diet book comes out, it says, “This is the great proven science.” Yes, all of those things are probably true. It’s probably going to work for a really good group of people. It’s not going to work for everyone.
I started customizing diet types according to your health status. FoodFrame is the methodology I created that basically says you should be eating according to your current health status. If you have blood sugar dysregulation, you should be either on Paleo or keto, depending on which one you qualify for. If you have IBS or IBD (irritable bowel syndrome or disease) or SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth), which is very common with thyroid, you should probably be eating on a low FODMAP plan, at least an elimination diet, for a period of time.
I realized that all these different health statuses should be eating according to different diet types. They are all matched up. In my book, I have highlighted six major diet types or eating lifestyles that I usually refer to. It usually hits pretty much everybody on the spectrum regardless of what your health status is. That is the book.
I wrote the subtitle “Diet is a 4-Letter Word.” I struggled with that one for a long time, but I couldn’t find the right words to say that we have this horrible relationship with the word “diet.” The actual real definition of a diet is what we eat throughout the day. It’s not starving and deprivation and restriction. I don’t like that idea, that people feel they should be restricted or starving or depriving themselves. Animals don’t do that. “Oh, I shouldn’t eat those berries on that tree.” They eat when they’re hungry; they don’t when they’re not. That is the premise of which I base my FoodFrame on.
Dr. Eric:
I do love the title and the subtitle. It makes sense that not everybody should follow the same exact diet. I work with a lot of patients who have Graves’ and Hashimoto’s, which are autoimmune thyroid conditions. I commonly recommend an autoimmune protocol as a starting point. I know that’s one of the recommended diets in the book. If someone has SIBO, then they probably shouldn’t follow an autoimmune Paleo diet, unless they have autoimmunity as well. Sometimes it gets complex if there is overlap.
What I’d like you to do is talk about the different FoodFrame diets. I know you also mentioned the book The Four FoodFrame Steps. I don’t know which one you want to talk about first.
Risa:
The four FoodFrame steps are basically find out what your FoodFrame is. Either take the quiz on my website, RisaGrouxNutrition,com, or get your bloodwork and stool test done. That is typically what I do during the first phase.
Find out do we have insulin resistance? Most allopathic conventional medicine doctors don’t typically test for more than just a fasting glucose. Occasionally, they will test you for hemoglobin A1C, especially if you are overweight or have diabetes in the family. But they don’t really ever test for C-peptide and insulin, which is what I test every single person for. I want to see if you’re insulin resistant.
What I do is functional nutrition. Functional nutrition is based on four pillars. We look at root causes. Why is this happening? Why am I having headaches? Why is my cholesterol high? Why, why, why? It’s not because we have a deficiency in statins that brings our cholesterol high. We know that’s not the case.
We also look at prevention. How do you prevent things, unless you have the information? We’re not really good at playing darts in the dark when I cannot see the target. I need all the lights on, and I need to be perfectly in vision with where I’m aiming.
Then we believe the body is one interconnected unit. Everything has to do with each other.
The fourth thing that I base my practice on is data. I have to see what I’m looking at. I order extensive labs. Insulin resistance is a precursor to prediabetes and diabetes, so I order that.
If you have a blood sugar dysregulation issue, fatty liver, congested gallbladder, or autoimmunity or SIBO, you have to find out what your particular health status is, so we can match your FoodFrame to it.
After you do that, then we do the RGN detox, which is super helpful because it cleans out the liver and blood. It optimizes your body, so you are operating much more optimally rather than sluggishly. We take out the trash of the body. Yes, you lose weight. Everybody does. But it’s not a weight loss program. Everybody loves to come in and do the detox to lose weight, which is fine. It’s a side effect of wellness, but we focus on wellness. The detox clears things out. Oftentimes—I see this all the time. Yesterday, I probably saw it three or four times—people’s main complaints already go away within those two weeks. You’re eating real food. You’re having collagen shakes. It’s not about starvation. Eat when you’re hungry; don’t when you’re not.
Then we do the recommended supplements for that health status. If you have blood sugar dysregulation, we do balanced berberine. Vitamin D deficiency, things like that.
Eating healthy food. I have a boatload of recipes on my website. Any food in your FoodFrame category is good to eat. That’s how we stay healthy.
The FoodFrame book highlights the six different diet types. As you mentioned, low FODMAP is for people with SIBO and IBS and IBD. That is meant to be an elimination diet. I would recommend that for 30-90 days. If you’re experiencing any chronic bloating, and you realize that it’s probably not a deficiency in digestive enzymes, then I would definitely recommend low FODMAP, whether you have been diagnosed with any of those things or not. It’s going to help you. It’s not calorie-restrictive, but it’s portion-restrictive for certain types of carbohydrates.
FODMAP is an acronym for fermented oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols. In plain English, those are certain carbohydrates that absorb water when you eat them. They tend to be a lot of prebiotic foods like onions, garlic, artichokes, and cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, and kale. Those things will make some people bloat and with major discomfort. What we’re trying to do is starve the bacteria that has inadvertently parked itself in the small intestines rather than the large intestines. We can do that through food. We see tremendous results from that.
Anybody can do that, but I wouldn’t recommend it for everybody because it’s a little restrictive. It’s those people who are really experiencing chronic bloating. Usually, it’s coupled with either chronic constipation or chronic diarrhea.
Then we have AIP, as you mentioned, the autoimmune protocol. That is what I recommend for anybody with autoimmune. Doesn’t matter if you have been recently diagnosed or at some point down the line. If you have family members who are autoimmune, and you feel like you are going down that road, it would be great for you to do it. It’s an anti-inflammatory eating lifestyle, so it wouldn’t hurt anybody to do it, but I really recommend it for those who have been diagnosed with autoimmune. You can jump on that anytime.
Again, it’s an elimination diet, so 30-90 days. It’s basically Paleo, but a little stricter. Remove nightshades, nuts, seeds, and eggs. A little restrictive, but you will really quell the inflammation that is ongoing that cytokine storm. That is helpful for anybody, but mostly autoimmune people.
Then we have keto. Keto is very popular, and it seems to stay popular for the last few years. Keto was when you switch your body’s fuel source from carbohydrates, which turn into sugar, to fat. You’re needing to eat about 75-85% of your calories every day in fat. Eating less than 20 net carbs. This will get you into ketosis. Ketosis is great because you’re burning that fat for fuel.
This is the diet type for all the bacon and egg lovers. You can eat all the cheese you want and lots of fat. Avocados, nuts. Lots of meat. Hard to get a lot of fiber in this one because carbohydrates are found in vegetables, so it’s very hard to get enough vegetables that you’re getting enough fiber without getting out of ketosis.
This is not a diet type that I would recommend for anybody without a gallbladder or who have a hard time absorbing fat. On a stool test, I test for steatocrit. If GGT on your blood test is high, this is not for you. It’s also very difficult more so for women. Some women thrive with it, but more women have a struggle with it. Men do great with it. Pretty much all men that fit that description. People who are really stressed with a lot of cortisol production, mostly women, not a great fit.
I personally tried to get into ketosis, and it was very difficult for me to get into ketosis no matter what I do. I have to use exogenous ketones to get in there. I recommend people use a urine stick to find out if they are in a state of ketosis because it’s very frustrating. Very easy to get out of ketosis. Hard to get into it. It can be very effective. There is a lot of science that proves it’s very good for heart, cholesterol, all that. But it is really aimed at people who have blood sugar dysregulation. If you have very high diabetes or pre-diabetic, going into ketosis will be effective for you.
Again, I don’t recommend it longer than three months. Some people can go a long time, but I personally see it being more advantageous for people to stop after three months, take a break, and then you can get back on.
Then we have Paleo. Paleo is the one I would say has the broadest appeal. Paleo is eating like our caveman, our carnivores did back in the day. We are eating quality animal protein and quality vegetables. Unlimited vegetables, any way you want them, except deep fried. Sweet potatoes, yams, good fats, nuts, seeds, eggs, olives, avocadoes, good oils, good quality. We are trying to decrease that systemic inflammation and increase that good gut health. That will do it for Paleo. It will help with blood sugar regulation. That is a really good bonus for Paleo.
I find Paleo to be easiest to travel with and maintain. It is a lifestyle. I pretty much follow Paleo myself. I never really go off the grid there. It’s very easy to maintain.
Then we have low lectin. Lectins are under the umbrella of antinutrients. We all have our ability to protect ourselves and cope with any kind of danger. Humans can flee, bite, scream, kick, yell, call 911. Plants don’t have that ability, so they have what I call a hard candy shell around that germ or seed. They protect themselves, so they say, “If you are going to try to destroy me, I will stay as whole as possible, so I can survive and procreate,” our two main goals as living organisms. It can be very difficult to break them down. When they get into the system, they cause some inflammation.
We find lectins in nightshades: tomatoes of all kinds, peppers of all kinds except black pepper, eggplants, and potatoes, except for sweet potatoes and yams. Goji berries as well. These are foods that are high in lectins.
I recommend the low lectin plan for anybody who is just getting off AIP. Go low lectin or go Paleo after that. It’s aimed at being anti-inflammatory and good for gut health and decreasing systemic inflammation. Those two main foundational issues I believe are the definition of health: good gut health and no inflammation.
There is vegetarian or vegan. There are different types of vegetarians and vegans. I break this down in the book in detail. I believe that pretty much 60-80% of our plate should be plants, living things that were pulled from the ground or a tree. With vegetarian, there is different types.
I find too many times, people come into my office as a vegetarian or vegan and are on the carbohydrate diet, or carbivores. They are sustaining on bread, pasta, Oreos, French fries, Diet Coke. These are all vegan, but they are not real food. I recommend eating plants and plant proteins, like beans, legumes, nuts, seeds, grains, and vegetables. Watch blood sugars because a lot of people can increase their blood sugars because they are eating so many grains and legumes and carbs.
Dr. Eric:
Thank you for sharing that. I agree with your thoughts about Paleo being more of a wellness diet and lifestyle. That’s also what I follow most of the time.
A few questions. You mentioned that if someone has elevated GGT on the blood test, they probably shouldn’t do a ketogenic diet. Is it the same with if someone has elevated AST, ALT on a comprehensive metabolic panel? Or would that be okay for them to follow?
Risa:
AST and ALT is liver congestion basically. It depends how high it is. If you are confirmed fatty liver, it might be a good idea to do ketogenic. I would follow your labs and make sure that they’re okay. You should start to decrease that fatty liver. Depends what the source is. If it’s alcoholic fatty liver or non-alcoholic. Oftentimes I see it from sugar consumption. In that respect, for sure, keto would be really good for you.
GGT is a measurement of how sticky and gooey your bile is that your gallbladder holds. If your GGT is high, functionally, we like it less than 20. If you’re very elevated there, I wouldn’t recommend doing keto until you get that down. Have some bile salts and some enzymes that will help you break down that bile. You will get sick and not do well on a high fat diet.
Dr. Eric:
What’s the difference between AIP and a low lectin diet? Autoimmune protocol as well as even regular Paleo minimizes the lectin. Is there any difference between them? I imagine there is, or else you wouldn’t have put it in the book.
Risa:
Yes. In low lectin, you can eat eggs. In AIP, you cannot. In low lectin, you can eat specific nuts. In AIP, you cannot. Certain seeds in low lectin. No seeds at all in AIP. In low lectin, it is not recommended that you eat cucumbers, or at least the skin and seeds. In AIP, you are perfectly fine with doing that with cucumbers and squashes. There is a little bit of alcohol and coffee allowed on low lectin, but not on AIP. I sold a bunch of people there, didn’t I? There are certain sugars, like sugar alcohols, that are allowed on low lectin but not on AIP. AIP is really a very strict flushing of any kind of processed foods. The point is to live on plants, animal proteins, good organ meats is encouraged, and a little bit of fruit. In low lectin, it’s really only berries and only in season. Very little fruit. AIP has a little bit of fruit on it.
Dr. Eric:
How long again do you typically have someone follow AIP for?
Risa:
AIP is 30-90 days. If you’re having flare-ups or noticeable symptoms, I would go as long as you can go. If you can get to 90 days, I did that when I first discovered AIP. I had been diagnosed with Hashimoto’s long before that, but I did it. You can see numbers. I work with people all the time who do it, and they see remarkable changes in their flare-ups. I work with somebody who had Tourette’s, and their Tourette’s was dramatically down. The whole point is to decrease that systemic inflammation, just like low lectin. I would do that for 90 days. Then I would either hop on low lectin because it’s going to continue to take out those inflammatory foods, or Paleo.
Dr. Eric:
What advice would you give for someone who has been following a vegetarian diet or is a vegan, and they’re autoimmune? Ideally, they should follow AIP. Would you modify the vegetarian/vegan diet?
Risa:
Great question. This is a tricky situation. I’m working with somebody right now who is vegetarian. I spoke to her yesterday, and she tried eating meat and said, “I just can’t do it.” I got her labs back. Her sugars are just starting to come up. She is now insulin resistant. She has been living on grains and beans and bread. I always urge people to get their bloodwork done, so they can see.
I was vegan myself. Same thing happened. I was just 1/10 of a point shy of being prediabetic. I stopped immediately and brought back in animal protein a little bit. I just think that it’s better for most people to eat that way. I understand that people want to be vegetarian, and I completely support that.
I would say watch the grains. Make sure you’re having millet, which is low lectin, and higher in protein. Quinoa, which is a seed, not a grain, but it’s higher in protein, lower in carbohydrates. A little bit of brown rice, which is higher in protein and fiber. A little bit of legumes. When I was a vegan, there wasn’t a salad or meal that I wasn’t having hummus beans, garbanzo beans, black beans, or lentils. I loved it. It’s a great source of protein. We also get protein from vegetables as well.
It’s important to know where your blood levels are, where your blood sugar is, where your protein levels are. We have to make sure you’re getting the right proteins. Nuts are a great way. Seeds, too. Start to calculate how much protein you’re getting, so you understand.
Dr. Eric:
Makes sense. I briefly brought up a scenario earlier where someone has autoimmunity, like Graves’ or Hashimoto’s, and they have SIBO. In that situation, would you have them follow both diets, AIP and low FODMAP? Would you prioritize one over the other?
Risa:
Another great question. SIBO is something I address immediately. I would do a stool test to make sure there is no H-pylori, which is very common. I would address the SIBO. If you kick that can, it will just get worse. It’s hard for you to heal when you’re in this inflamed state. If you have SIBO, I would do a stool test to determine it. There are SIBO tests we do as well. I treat that.
There are three ways to treat SIBO. One is with an antibiotic, which I don’t know that everybody needs. Severe cases may need that. No matter which way you go, it’s not 100% effective for anything. They are all about 70-80% effective. SIBO is very recurring. You may have to do it again.
I do a supplement protocol with a low FODMAP diet. I keep somebody on that for a good 30-60, maybe even 90 days, depending on how bad they are. The stricter you are at the beginning, the better off you’ll be. You are trying to starve that bacteria. Once you starve it and can kill it with supplements, then you are good to go.
I of course had that because it’s on the list of triggers for autoimmunity. I am always looking for root causes. When I had it, I was pretty one and done. I did it, and it’s never come back. I have tons of patients who will experience recurring SIBO. It depends on how you eat afterwards. It depends on how you live. It’s important to get your stool checked all the time, so you know where you are and where you stand. If you’re bloating, you should absolutely look into that.
Dr. Eric:
I agree. If I am working with someone who has Graves’ and Hashimoto’s, and they have SIBO, I usually tell them to hold off on the AIP and focus on getting rid of the SIBO. I usually try to do the herbs first. There are times when someone will choose the antibiotics. There is that elemental diet, which most people won’t choose to follow, unless they have a severe case. If nothing else works, or if they are just an extreme situation. Even then, they will usually go with the herbs. We take a similar approach.
Risa:
Exactly. No food for 14-21 days is pretty brutal for most.
Dr. Eric:
Agreed. In your book, you mention that you use and recommend reverse osmosis water. You told a story of why you use reverse osmosis water. Can you share that here?
Risa:
People should learn from my mistakes. I moved into this home. We were remodeling it pretty much floor to ceiling. I have this plumber I worked with for a long time, and he was great. I said, “I want the best water filtration system you can find.” I had instant hot because I do tea. When I cook, I always want to drink out of that filter. Then I had my tap water. We did this research, and I was so busy doing all these other things with the house that he said, “I got this great filter.” He put the whole system in and charged me a fortune. I said, “This tastes so good.” I was drinking it. I’m pretty good about tasting chemicals, and it tasted really clean to me. I used this for quite some time.
One day, I thought, Hmm, I wonder if I can just check it and see how many things are in my water. I found a meter on Amazon for like $10 or something. I came home and was so excited. First, I tested the tap water, and it was 498. I said, “Oh, great, good start.” Let’s go to the filtered water. It was 494 or 495. Just shy of that. I went, “What?” I redid it again. Sure enough, it was just a hair below. I was devastated. I couldn’t believe it.
I immediately got on the horn and looked into reverse osmosis. I bought this tank that was not even that expensive. At the time, I probably paid about $200. I had it installed under my sink. It took so much space under that sink, but I said, “Forget it. If it’s good, it’s fine.” It was installed. I tested it, and it was 11 versus 490-something. I was absolutely thrilled. Reverse osmosis is, I think, the best water to drink. That’s what I do. That’s what I recommend.
Filtered water tells us really nothing. It really is just tap water. It just contains a ton of fluoride. 70% of the water that we get in the United States is fluoridated. Fluoride is a halogen that blocks iodine absorption. Not good for a thyroid person. We need our iodine. I wouldn’t recommend chlorine in the water as well, fluoride, bromide. It’s what we get from bread. That was an interesting lesson.
Dr. Eric:
I also use reverse osmosis in my home. Sometimes I actually commonly drink Mountain Valley Springs water. I have a glass bottle as well. Most of the time, it will be the reverse osmosis.
One other thing you mentioned in your book: Sugar is the devil. I’m sure people realize they should avoid sugar. For those who aren’t aware of that, can you talk a little bit about that?
Risa:
First, sugar doesn’t really glean any nutrition. There is no value to it. I have these foods I call food for sport and food for survival. That would be in the food for sport category that we could occasionally have. There is not a bonus. There is no value to it.
Sugar, table sugar or most sugars, even natural sugars, spike our blood sugar levels. We go high, then we go low. This causes a lot of imbalance in the blood sugar. It causes the pancreas to pump out a lot of insulin. It causes the cells to require an influx of a surge of sugar. We want to make sure that those receptors that are on those cells are alive and functioning. We don’t want them impaired, which is what happens when we get insulin resistance.
The other reason I don’t like sugar is it eats up our white blood cells, which are our army, our protector, our immune system. Even a tablespoon of sugar can deplete your white blood cells for about 50% up to five hours. If you’re feeling that tickle in your throat, I wouldn’t recommend sugar at all. You have no way of fighting if you kill your army.
Sugar causes a fatty liver. I was talking about that earlier. Lots of sugar and carbs will cause a fatty liver without a doubt.
Sugar feeds cancer cells. It proliferates cancer cells. It is astonishing to me that in hospitals, when they are giving you chemo, they are giving you Coke, brownies, cookies, chips, bread. They are giving you sugar. There is tons of sugar in hospitals. It should be banned. It makes us unwell.
Sugar makes us fat. Sugar causes that pancreas to pump out insulin and puts it in the cell. If we have excess energy for the cell, then it just parks it in fat cells and fat tissues. This is how we get fat. To lose weight, we want to give the cell less than it needs, so it has no choice but to pull from the storage unit.
Sugar makes us tired. After that spike, we come down, and we are tired. We want a coffee or another cookie or another pick-me-up.
Sugar comes in many forms, not just in a cookie or cake, but it comes in your wine glass, lemonade, big glass of orange juice. Especially if you take the fiber and protein out, you will spike big-time.
I am not a fan of sugar at all. It tastes good. We now have so many other things we can eat that taste sweet and don’t spike our blood sugar levels, cause gastric upset. I am a big fan of allulose. I use that in all my sweeteners and products, like my collagen bars. It really protects your blood sugar levels.
Dr. Eric:
When you speak of blood sugar, some of the testing you mentioned, like insulin, which I also recommend fasting insulin. You also mentioned C-peptide. With insulin, which range do you look for? What would be your optimal range?
Risa:
For fasting insulin?
Dr. Eric:
Yes.
Risa:
Less than 5. 4.9, 4.7. You can even go down to 3.9. Something less than 5.
Dr. Eric:
That’s what I ideally look for as well. What other tests do you recommend in your practice?
Risa:
I do a full comprehensive bio screen for everybody that I work with. I’m looking at all four markers of your blood sugar. I’m looking at all nine markers of your thyroid. I’m looking to see if you have reverse T3, T3 uptake, free totals, antibodies. I’m looking at fatty liver. I’m looking at your GFR, your kidney filtration. I’m looking at GGT, the breakdown of your white blood cells, your eosinophils, your monocytes, your neutrophils, your lymphocytes. I’m looking at your Vitamin D levels of course.
I’m looking at the size of your red blood cell that is your MCB. That will tell me if you are likely to have MTHFR, if you have methylation issues. MTHFR is a gene mutation that I commonly test people for. You should know if you have MTHFR. I have it. Both of my kids have it. 90% of the population has it. It is 100% genetic. It tells us if you are having trouble methylating your B12 and/or your folate. You should know which one you have. Make sure you are taking a methylated B vitamin.
I also look at inflammation markers. How do we know how you are if we don’t look at inflammation markers? I always order a C reactive protein, CRP, cardiovascular inflammation, and general inflammation. I look at homocysteine, which is a methylated marker. If it gets driven high, and it stays high for a long time, we look at dementia, cardiovascular disease, and other things. I am all about looking at systemic inflammation.
Gut health is what I was talking about earlier. I send everybody home with a stool test. I am looking at 84 pathogens. I want to see if there is H-pylori. Are there any pathogens, parasites? Blastocystis hominis is a root cause of Hashimoto’s. If you have these parasites, pathogens in the gut, if you have these autoimmune triggers, let’s kill them. See if we can reverse this autoimmune situation.
Whether it’s fibromyalgia or colitis or anything else, I am looking at gut health. I order a zonulin to see if you have leaky gut. Leaky gut, leaky brain. I am seeing an influx of a lot of Parkinson’s lately. I am seeing a lot of brain deterioration. Leaky gut, I am focusing on big-time.
I look at if you have fat malabsorption, if you are producing your own digestive enzymes, which is your secretory IGA. Your immune system is doing it in your gut. I am looking at all those numbers. How inflamed you are in the intestinal linings. Do you have IBS? Was that just a name your doctor gave because they don’t know what else to say?
I look very comprehensively. When I look at the breakdown of your white blood cells on your blood test, I can see if there is a viral pattern or bacterial pattern. If there is a viral pattern, I will do further testing and see if there is Epstein-Barr virus or Cytomegalovirus. Those are also root causes to immunity. I am always looking at those root causes.
Dr. Eric:
Sounds good. I order a lot of the same tests. I also have the MTHFR polymorphism, the C677T. The way I found out was the elevated homocysteine, which led me to further testing.
Finally, can you discuss some of the supplements you recommend? Maybe expand on the RGN detox. Why you recommend it and how it differs from other detoxes.
Risa:
I love my detox. I have made several. I have tried every one on the market practically. I love this one the best. The reason is because it’s fully doable. You can work, travel, eat. You’re having two shakes a day. They are collagen-based. Collagen is the grout for leaky gut. I am always about protein, fat, and fiber. Then you are eating food. You are eating animal protein, unlimited vegetables, sweet potatoes, yams, good fats. We stay away from a couple of foods. We are not drinking alcohol for 14 days or coffee, hopefully, if you can. If you can’t, bring it down to one cup, and don’t put any cancer-causing chemicals in it. Put full, non-dairy fats. We are taking out dairy. We are removing grains and legumes. You should have plenty to eat, and it’s very good.
People feel amazing. I had two people yesterday on the detox say their body aches went away, just from the detox. It really quells that inflammation. It’s there to support gut health, get the ball rolling, and decrease systemic inflammation. There are a million benefits to it. It’s all good.
That is 14 days. Sometimes I recommend people do it for 28 days if they have fatty liver or just feel good and are thriving on it.
I have a line of supplements that I am picky about. I am picky about what goes into my body, my kids’ bodies, so I make my own. My Vitamin D has Vitamin K in it for absorption. I don’t have any gluten, dairy, soy, sugar, or anything artificial in my supplements at all.
I make these amazing collagen chocolate bars that are sweetened with allulose, so they don’t spike blood sugar levels. They are low carb but packed with protein, fat, and fiber. They are delicious. We all need a little something to eat.
I have a myriad of products to help with gut, blood sugar, inflammation.
I have a Fab 5 that I have everyone who has autoimmune on. That is Vitamin D, my Omega Max, resveratrol quercetin, turmeric max, and glutathione. Glutathione is our master antioxidant. It helps protect us against any oxidative stress. That is anything that wants to come in the body and cause disease. That is the Fab 5 that everybody who is autoimmune should be on.
If there is thyroid, I have some opti-thyroid. I have AI balance for people with general autoimmune. All the products I have are to decrease systemic inflammation, support the body, and increase good gut health.
Dr. Eric:
Wonderful. Thank you so much, Risa. Where can people find out more about you? Of course, your book. I found it on Amazon. What is your website or any other resources?
Risa:
My book FoodFrame is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Target online. It’s also available on my website, RisaGrouxNutrition.com. You can find me there. You can reach out and set up an appointment. I work with people all over the world. On Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, RisaGrouxNutrition. I have lots of healthy meals and tips. I do lots of videos. Lots about thyroid. You can see all the yummy food I cook and eat and enjoy.
Dr. Eric:
Thank you so much for being here. I appreciate you sharing your wealth of knowledge with us.
Risa:
Thank you so much for having me. It was great to be here.