Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Speaker A: Welcome to the Alcohol Tipping Point podcast. I'm your host, Deb Mazner. I'm a registered nurse, health coach, and alcohol free badass. I have found that there's more than one way to address drinking. If you've ever asked yourself if drinking is taking more than it's giving, or if you found that you're drinking more than usual, you may have reached your own alcohol tipping point. The Alcohol Tipping Point is a podcast for you to find tips, tools and thoughts to change your drinking. Whether you're ready to quit forever or a week, this is the place for you. You are not stuck and you can change. Let's get started.
Welcome to today's episode. I am thrilled to welcome back to the podcast Dr. Brooke Sheller, a doctor of clinical nutrition, founder of functional sobriety, and author of how to Eat to Change how youw Drink. Inspired by her own journey to sobriety in 2021, Dr. Scheller has revolutionized alcohol recovery through nutrition and functional medicine. Her innovative approach has garnered global acclaim, offering profound improvements in mental and physical health, mood energy and more for those seeking an alcohol free lifestyle. Dr. Brooke was on the podcast in June of 2023 and that episode was actually the most listened to episode of all time. So congrat Dr. Brooke on that. And just a reminder, in that episode we talked about how alcohol affects your health, the relationship between cravings and gut health. Brooke offered her number one nutrition tip to help with, to help with cravings. We talked about if sugar was as bad as alcohol and other ways we can heal our bodies after getting sober. And I just want to have Dr. Scheller back to answer even more questions about using nutrition to heal our physical and mental health, especially, especially related to drinking. So welcome back to the show. It's good to have you.
[00:02:03] Speaker B: Thank you so much for having me back. And I'm so thrilled to hear that. It was, it resonated with so many listeners and, you know, I always find it to be so interesting because nutrition really is this key piece of it. It really is. And, and the way that I usually frame it is that it's, it's half of the puzzle. It's 50% of the puzzle. Because if we don't feel good, we are going to look for things to help us feel better, right? If, if we're feeling a lot of stress, if we're feeling low mood, if we're feeling low energy, we're looking and seeking things that can help us feel better. And so if we can address the underlying reasons why we don't Feel good. If we can address nutrient deficiencies and the gut microbiome and some of these other areas, then we can feel better and alleviate some of the cravings that come from us simply not feeling good. And so I'm happy that it's resonating with people and that we're chatting more today and just diving in a little bit more to give folks more support and information that can help their journey.
[00:03:05] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm excited to address it, too, because people are always, especially this time of year, they're always like, really focused on their health, making New Year's resolutions, whether it's to lose weight or go on a diet, eat healthier, quit drinking, you know, that's all huge right now. So how do. How do we tie that all together?
[00:03:31] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a great question. And I think that's so interesting about alcohol and nutrition and health and dieting, and all of that is really now. And something I feel really passionately about is bringing all of this as part of the same discussion, Right. Because for so long, alcohol and drinking sat in this other category, right? Like, unless you have a problem, then it doesn't really need to be addressed. And then when it comes to our health and our wellness and weight management or weight loss or improving hormone balance, et cetera, that alcohol is just, like, simply not a part of that discussion. And I really challenge you as the listener to think about alcohol as part of that overall health and wellness journey. And something that I share with clients often, especially ones who come to me that don't identify with having addiction, that don't, you know, categorize themselves as having alcohol use disorder or really even having heavy drinking history, that health is a very good reason to quit drinking or to cut back on your drinking. So, like, you could do dry January, for example, and focus simply on the, you know, the not drinking component of it. Or if you're going to focus on a broader health journey as part of your New Year's resolutions, alcohol can be a piece of that and should be a piece of that alcohol elimination or moderation. So I think that it's important for us to remember that alcohol is a substance that we consume just like other beverages or foods. Right? And that means that we can think of it as just like we would think of other foods and beverages. And it should and can be a very real part of our health journey and tying those two things together.
[00:05:19] Speaker A: Yeah, it's such a good point. Like, I always put it in another category, too. And even working with dietitians and whatnot and the wellness department I work with, like, it's, it doesn't come up as much. You know, it's always like limit your alcohol and it's very like brushed over. And then it's. When we talk about nutrition and it's, it's focused on the food substance and not, and beverages, juices and whatnot, but not as much alcohol. And I hope that's changing.
[00:05:52] Speaker B: I think it is changing. I think it's going to take more time for healthcare providers to incorporate it more into their discussion points. Because I can say, even as someone who worked in clinical practice for many years prior to getting sober, that it, it was something that maybe we brushed over unless it came up and, you know, kind of caused a red flag or, you know, created a cause for concerns. But otherwise it just kind of gets like pushed aside and not really taken into consideration. And I think some of it has to do with the previous health halo that alcohol had of, well, a little bit is good for you. And so, you know, we see now more and more research coming out. Another study just came out a few days ago from when we were recording this, again presenting that there are no health benefits. It increases blood pressure, increases cardiovascular risk. It is not providing benefit. And so it's, it takes time for that to kind of filter down through the health care providers. But I think we have a really complicated substance on our hands too because it's, it's addictive. Right. And there are a lot of people who are, you know, utilizing alcohol and it's easy to brush it under the rug and kind of not address that. And something that I think is so key and core to the work that I do is really looking at the alcohol piece of how alcohol has affected our health, how it has affected our nutrient levels and how it may actually be a major contributor in some of the things, the health concerns that we experience.
And so maybe we've tried different diets, we've tried all these different things and nothing's really worked. But we haven't pulled the trigger of alcohol yet. And that might actually be the barrier right now to you having improvement in the health symptoms or concerns that you have.
[00:07:41] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. I think that it is.
The alcohol free lifestyle is just like the wellness, like the new health and wellness kind of revolution. It's just like you said, it's not like whether you have an alcohol problem or not. More and more people are giving up drinking because it's shit for your health.
[00:08:02] Speaker B: Yeah. And health is a very good reason to not drink. Right. Like if someone's Asking you, hey, why aren't you drinking? Well, actually, I haven't been drinking as much and my energy is better, my hormones are more balanced, my stress levels are down, my digestion's better. You know, all of these things are very real reasons and justification for you to quit drinking. You don't have to have a problem to stop, right? You can be choosing this, making an empowered choice for your health rather than waiting till, you know, things get worse and you're having more problems in order to, to stop.
[00:08:38] Speaker A: Mm.
[00:08:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:40] Speaker A: Love it. Love it. So we addressed quite a few things in that first episode you were on. So I'll make sure that I link to show notes there. But I, I wanted to go over a few health conditions questions that, that are kind of general, that come up a lot and how that ties into drinking. So one is this like general term of inflammation in the body.
So can you speak to like, what that means and then pull in like how alcohol affects that?
[00:09:11] Speaker B: Yes, great question. I love that question, actually, because I think we throw around the word inflammation a lot and not a lot of people really understand maybe even what that means. And what a lot of healthcare providers do when they're explaining simply inflammation is they talk about if you were to get a cut on your hand, right? If you were to get a cut on your hand, what happens? It would bleed, it would turn red, you'd have, it might get warm, warm to the touch. The immune system rushes there to send clotting factors to help good, you know, scab it over. And that is an example of inflammation. Inflammation has a positive effect on the body in acute situations. If we were to break an ankle, right, the body sends a bunch of inflammatory mediators to that area to help heal it, to help protect it. Unfortunately though, there are, there is this kind of chronic, low grade inflammation that can happen in the body from loads of different things that we're exposed to. It could be from environmental toxins, it could be from infections. If we get exposed to bacteria, we had a foodborne illness.
If we consume alcohol or we consume drugs, you know, if we consume high amounts of sugar or processed foods, right, what happens is we have this kind of low grade inflammatory response that can happen in the body and it's basically taxing the system over time. The interesting thing about alcohol is that it requires a lot of energy from the body in order to be metabolized. And when we metabolize alcohol, we drink the alcohol, it metabolizes to an intermediate which then gets metabolized through another step to be removed from the body. And these intermediates are actually highly inflammatory, they're very toxic. And I know we kind of throw this around a little bit about how alcohol is a toxin, you know, and I explain that to, to a lot of people in saying that when we, the experience we have where we feel drunk, where we can't walk, we can't drive, right? That is because our nervous system is essentially being poisoned, right? That is the effect of a toxin on our nervous system. So that toxin has to get processed and removed from the body. And in doing so, it creates a lot of this low grade inflammation.
So just in a, in a more general sense, but then even in areas like the gut and the gut microbiome, we talked a lot about the gut on our last call that when we drink alcohol and cause, you know, changes to the microbes in the gut, we lower probiotic, our good healthy bacteria. These are also things that can create some of that low grade inflammation as well. And that can manifest for people in a lot of different ways. That could be muscle pain or joint pain, that could be headaches, that could be digestive issues, you know, stiffness in the body. It can manifest in a lot of different ways and a lot of different conditions. So even something like fatigue can be the result of underlying inflammation. And there are schools of thought that really believe that inflammation is kind of the root of all disease and functional medicine. We look at inflammation and areas of the body that are maybe inflamed as, you know, something to address and something to support via food, via supplementation and other lifestyle techniques.
[00:12:51] Speaker A: And so how is that connected to autoimmune disorders?
[00:12:57] Speaker B: Great question. So one of the ways that inflammation is affecting the body and a lot of times we call it systemic inflammation, right? That again, you have this kind of chronic low grade inflammation. It's not just at the cut, it's not just at the sprained ankle. It's kind of persistent throughout the body. And one of the causes or concerns as it relates to that systemic inflammation is the gut barrier. And the lining of our intestinal system, which is broken down for due to many causes, one of them being alcohol. Stress can break down the gut barrier, medications can break down the gut barrier. And the integrity of that gut lining, if it is compromised, it can create something that we call leaky gut. Sometimes it's referred to as intestinal permeability. But it's basically that the lining of the gut starts to literally become leaky in that we have food particles, bacteria from the digestive system, actually making their way into the bloodstream. And when that happens, it creates an immune response. Right. That might look like inflammation. It can also create an immune response against certain foods or certain antigens that make their way out of, again out of the gut and into the bloodstream. And this process is one of the proposed mechanisms behind autoimmunity. So a lot of times with autoimmunity we do see leaky gut and digestive issues. And again, there are several reasons that the gut can break down. And I talk more about this in the book and explain this in more detail, but alcohol is one of, of the reasons that we can have some of that breakdown of the gut lining. So there's definitely a connection between autoimmunity and heavy alcohol consumption.
[00:14:52] Speaker A: Yeah, I've, I've gotten really interested, more interested in like gut health. My dad.
So last summer or this summer of 2024, he was hospitalized for pneumonia. He was developing. Well, he was septic, but he didn't go into septic shock, thank goodness.
However, he also has this history of rheumatoid arthritis, this autoimmune disorder. He had been taking lots and lots of ibuprofen of the NSAIDs. And he developed a GI bleed when he was hospitalized. And they didn't know initially, like why is his blood count so low? Like what's going on here? And he went in for endoscopy, like emergency endoscopy. He had 16 bleeding ulcers.
Yeah, it was, I kind of think that his pneumonia saved him from his GI bleed. And he had always been a drinker, you know, not, not a drinking problem per se, but like a couple beers a day at least. He had his favorite pub he went to. And so it was really shocking just to hear about like how harmed his gut was, how a lot of that was attributed mainly to the ibuprofen. And then of course the alcohol was acidating it. And then good news, he got out, made a full recovery, quit drinking, which is really cool. But my parents have been really focused now on like healing the gut and some, some anti inflammatory diet like changes. And so besides like removing alcohol, drinking less, like what are some things we can do to heal the gut to counteract this inflammation that we're experiencing?
[00:16:45] Speaker B: Yeah, so that's a great question. I'm so sorry to hear. But I'm happy to hear that he's doing well and he, he's on a new journey of healing his gut now from all of that. But yes, NSAIDs, the non steroidal anti inflammatories, they are notorious for breaking down the gut lining. They cause a lot of strain and stress on the gut. I actually have a client I was just working with yesterday, one on one, who has significant indicators toward leaky gut. She has a lot of food sensitivities that she develops later in life. She has some autoimmune concerns that are going on, a lot of skin issues, and turns out that for many years, she was taking every single day ibuprofen and, you know, alcohol playing a role in that as well, too. Those two things are. Are pretty notorious for breaking down the gut lining. And, you know, I think this is especially in something like food sensitivities or allergies that kind of seem like they came out of nowhere or, you know, all of a sudden, these things are getting so much worse. So there's a lot of things that can point to the gut. And. And in one of my online courses, the functional sobriety Academy, where I walk through a lot of these different tests and a lot of these different areas in regards to the overlap with alcohol, we talk more about this in addressing these as well. But, you know, it can be really individualized when it comes to healing the gut. I usually like to run a stool testing if I'm working with a client or for the folks in my groups, because it can be really useful in helping us identify if there is bacterial overgrowth, if there is parasites that are, they come up more than you might think if there is yeast overgrowth in the gut, because those things create. Create a lot of stress and inflammation as well. And if we don't eradicate or properly rebalance the gut, it can be hard to heal the gut lining. But a lot of folks will take something like a probiotic as a good starting point. And if you take a probiotic and you don't notice much change or much difference in your digestion, that is a good thing. If you take a probiotic and you feel worse, you get more bloated, you get gassy. That can be an indicator that there is some of this overgrowth or imbalance that needs to be addressed. But for some people, they take a probiotic. That can be a helpful kind of measure toward healing the gut. You definitely want to limit, eliminate sugar and processed foods because those are contributing to some of that stress and inflammation in the gut. That's in addition to the alcohol. So cutting out the alcohol is definitely going to be a helpful thing. But there are a lot of supplements and things that we use in the space as well to heal the gut lining, like L glutamine, which is an amino acid. We use zinc, we use vitamin C. We'll often use things like aloe vera or slippery elm or marshmallow, which are very coating and soothing to the lining of the digestive system. So there are definitely a lot of different ways to go about it and approach it. And I think one of the top things to do is really go through and just start to identify, you know, maybe foods that are causing you to feel not as good. Try a probiotic and see if that works or create some challenges for you and look into getting some support working with a nutritionist or a functional medicine practitioner who can help you identify what's going on in your own gut biome so that you can get the right support. I'm a big proponent of the testing and kind of that individualized support because I think a lot of us go a little crazy with this new product that comes out on the market, this new supplement that, you know, promises that it's going to be the one that heals you. And we spend a lot of money on these things that we don't know if they're working, which is why I like to test because then we know exactly what you need to take. We know exactly what kind of support you need. So it takes away a lot of that guest work and that questioning.
[00:20:54] Speaker A: And so besides limiting sugar, processed foods, alcohol ideal would be to have no sugars, processed food, alcohol, the less you.
[00:21:08] Speaker B: Have would be better. Right? Because those things are all going to create stress. They're going to feed unhealthy bacteria in the gut, they're going to feed yeast in the gut and they are going to create some of that stress. So the least of that you can have, the better. Not always realistic for everyone, but I would say alcohol would be a big one to cut out because it is so detrimental to the gutline, you know, and then limiting sugar, limiting processed foods is helpful, but it, the, the sugar and the processed foods take longer to break down the gut than something like alcohol would. Right. So that would be a better first step for me. If you're looking to heal the gut.
[00:21:51] Speaker A: Are there other things that you would avoid, like, or limit like caffeine, chocolate?
[00:21:57] Speaker B: That.
[00:21:57] Speaker A: That's what they told my dad, like especially be when he was healing his ulcers before he went for his repeat endoscopy, which by the way, his repeat endoscopy, they had healed. They had all healed. And I think it was.
Was it eight weeks? It was eight weeks.
[00:22:14] Speaker B: Wow. Good for him. You know, it's, it's Interesting, because everybody reacts to things differently. You know, I don't necessarily think that caffeine and chocolate as a blanket statement are problems. I think they can, you know, something like coffee is acidic and can be more irritating to some folks rather than others. But, you know, there are benefits to coffee for the liver in small amounts. Right. Not overdoing it. And, you know, caffeine can also drive anxiety, which is something that not a lot of us realize too. So, you know, I think there's a lot of pieces. And even with dark chocolate, dark chocolate's a great source of magnesium. Cacao has a lot of antioxidants in it. So it isn't necessarily that. Avoiding that, I would rather you have some dark chocolate than have an ice cream cone, for example. But it's also important to pay attention to. If you do have some dark chocolate and you realize that it's causes some pain or discomfort for you, that maybe you do want to avoid those things.
[00:23:17] Speaker A: Would there be other foods that you would put on kind of the limit list?
[00:23:23] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I'm a big proponent of limiting gluten, limiting dairy. I do think that not all instances, people benefit from that, but with different. Especially if you have health concerns or, you know, if you do have digestive issues, sometimes eliminating these potential allergens can be beneficial. So spend a couple of weeks, typically 21 days, three weeks or so, off of foods like gluten, dairy, maybe even avoiding soy or corn. Some of these that are common allergens or triggers. You might find that a lot of your symptoms or things that you experience will alleviate with some time off of that. And it's not necessarily that, you know, a lot of folks are gluten sensitive, a lot of folks are dairy sensitive. About 70% of the population can't actually tolerate dairy. And so there's a good chance that if you take that out, you might notice some improvements, depending on what you're hoping for. But again, doing short periods of time off of these foods will allow you to see how you feel, and you might notice a. A pretty big difference.
[00:24:34] Speaker A: Mm, yeah. And what about foods you would add? Any superfoods?
[00:24:40] Speaker B: Yeah, so these are some of the ones that I'm recommending every single day. Beets are one of my favorite. I have a lot of recipes for beets in the book. And the reason why is because they're a really good source of B vitamins. They're really good for the liver, for the brain. They help with the production of nitric oxide side, which helps to enhance oxygenation. Blood flow through the body, and it can help do that for the brain. So I actually really like to suggest beets for breakfast because it's a good way to start your day with extra blood flow to your brain. That's a big one for me. And if you don't like beets, I have a lot of recipes in the book, like my beet chocolate covered cherry smoothie, which is the best way to get beets for breakfast. Because people think that having beets for breakfast isn't necessarily like everyone's go to. So that is one of my favorites. I also am suggesting cruciferous veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, kale, cabbage. I usually suggest those every day a serving or. Or more because they're really good for the liver, they're really good for waste removal. They help to produce glutathione, which is our body's master antioxidant. And so that's another one that is a great one to focus on every day. And then even like we talked about in our last episode, you know, I think one of the biggest superfoods that people don't necessarily think of as a superfood, but protein is making sure that every single meal and snack, you've got a source of protein. It's not just for building strong muscles. It's for your brain health, your mood health, stabilizing your blood sugar so that you feel energy throughout the day and more stable mood throughout the day. And so I think we kind of overlook oftentimes getting enough protein and making sure that we're having that at every single meal and snack.
[00:26:34] Speaker A: Mm. Yeah. Yeah. I. The protein is a huge trick. It seems to be like the big thing right now. And. And the big thing is like, really a lot of protein, like a hundred grams or more. Do you have any recommendations around the amount of protein?
[00:26:54] Speaker B: Yeah, so it depends on. A lot of times we look at it by body weight. So, you know, depending on your age, your size, your gender, you might have a higher need per pound versus someone else, especially if you're exercising a lot more. In general, some rule of thumb, go £1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. So that can seem like a lot, Right. For women, I think even trying to get to that 100 can be hard, but could be a good goalpost to kind of work toward men getting closer to the 150 up to 200 kind of arena. But especially if you are working out, you do want to boost that even a little bit more. But it is hard to get that Right. Especially if you are vegetarian or plant based, that creates some issues. And I am a big proponent of animal protein, clean animal proteins, because they do have a lot of important amino acids and a lot of important nutrients in them. And you know, I, I, I do think it's a lot, but I think having a goal, even if it's a hundred grams a day and starting to work toward that or you know, one thing I have my clients do a lot is just track their food intake in, you know, a, an app for a couple of days just to even see what they're getting. Because I have a lot of people that say, yeah, yeah, I'm getting enough protein, I'm getting enough protein. And I had one gal who we had said I think we need to get her, you know, 80 or 90 grams of protein and she was getting 38. Right. Which is a significantly low number. You know, even if the, you know, the hundred is too high. But if you know where you're starting from, it can be really helpful to just start thinking about it a little bit more and learning about these different sources of protein so that you can be marching toward a higher number.
[00:28:47] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm, I'm like trying to get 25, 30 grams a meal, but you're right, like it's hard or I'll like supplement with Greek yogurt or cottage cheese or, but if you're cutting out dairy just like, and then you don't want like all just protein powders. What, what's some of your go to high protein meals or snacks?
[00:29:11] Speaker B: Yeah, well, you know, I use a lot of like deli turkey, like an organic deli turkey. I'll do those as snacks and kind of incorporate those things in. You know, eggs are a good one to have on standby of even like hard boiled. You know, even if you do two yolks and three or four whites because that's going to bump up that protein a little bit higher. I do do cottage cheese like a fermented. The good culture cottage cheese is, is good and you're going to get 15 grams or so in a, in a serving of cottage cheese. So that's fairly significant. You know, I, like I said I'm a big proponent of really focusing on your meals getting enough animal protein. So even if you're not getting enough at the snack arena, trying to get like you said, 30 plus grams at a meal, if you're eating a lean protein like chicken, you're gonna get 35 grams or more from you know, 4 or 5 ounces. So again, some of it is learning a little bit more about how much comes from what we eat, because that's going to allow you to, or I think choose a little bit more strategically when you are having, you know, a number that you're working towards, but then knowing, okay, if I have chicken at lunch instead of, you know, I don't know, ground beef or if I'm having, you know, fiends. Right. You might opt for the chicken because the chicken's gonna have more protein and just trying some of these things and see how you feel. Right. It might be hard for you to get to that. A hundred grams a day. Well, once you do, you might notice you have a ton more energy, you have the ability to focus, you feel better, you're not having cravings throughout the day and grabbing snacks or treats. Right. So I know it's hard to do, but a little bit of learning about it can be really helpful.
[00:31:05] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. One of the big things I notice is that the cravings are not as hungry and not as like snacking like you said, thankfully.
[00:31:15] Speaker B: Well, that's the other thing is it's gonna help with stabilizing the blood sugar. So that's why we talk about it for alcohol and specifically cravings. Right. A lot of times when people have that afternoon craving for alcohol or sweets, it is the result of low blood sugar at that time. And that is because we've maybe gone too long without eating or we haven't had enough protein. So you know this, that I'm a huge proponent of that acid afternoon snack and making sure to have something with protein there in the afternoon. Because that is going to be really, really helpful in avoiding that 5 o'clock treat or 5 o'clock happy hour or whatever that might be. Because the protein is helping to stabilize the blood sugar.
[00:31:58] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. So helpful to see.
Okay, let me see.
A question someone wanted me to ask you. Was is it a typical transition to remove one addiction and replace it with another? For example, binge drinking to binge eating, or instead of drinking using marijuana or can you kind of speak to that?
[00:32:24] Speaker B: Yes. So I think it's extremely common for that to happen. This is where some of our recovery and support programs can be really helpful because I think it's identifying a little bit more about what's contributing to that. Right. So if there are emotional factors contributing to that. Right. Because let's just say, for example, you used to open the bottle of wine at 5 o'clock and now you're opening the bag of chips and you're still partaking In a behavior, but it's just with a different substance. Right. And looking at the pieces of that or where, what's kind of underlying that. So, you know, for me, it's looking at the, the mental piece or the emotional piece, plus the physiological piece. Right. So in that instance, is this person hungry and has low blood sugar and they used to grab alcohol, they're still having low blood sugar. Now they're grabbing a snack because they're hungry. Right. So if we can address, well, is, is hunger driving some of that? Can we address that via food and making some of these changes throughout the day? You know, and even with something like the transition to marijuana, it begs the question for me of what is that feeling that we're still looking to try to get away from? Right. And that's where I think we need to address some of the, the trauma, the mental health piece, the, you know, the behavioral health piece around what is underlying why, you know, we may have that tendency toward addiction. And it might be stress related and it might be looking at and identifying how do we cope with stress at that time, getting some support from a therapist or from a community that can kind of help you work through that. But they're absolutely connected. So I think it's looking at a little bit of both sides of the coin of physiological, biological versus mental, emotional.
[00:34:25] Speaker A: Yeah, thank you. And, and speaking of stress, like, what is the role of nutrition and stress?
[00:34:33] Speaker B: Well, great question.
And the first thing that I want to say is, you know, when we are again in a state of low blood sugar, if we're going long periods of time between eating, we're not eating the right foods. That is a stressor on our body. Right. That is going to increase the amount of stress our body is experiencing because it's going into essentially starvation mode right in between meals and things like that. But also, you know, the, the foods that we eat have an impact on the stress that we feel as well. Our stress hormone, cortisol is very closely linked to our blood sugar. And so when we are having dysregulation in blood sugar, if we're having kind of these ups and downs from having sweets and having these drops from not having enough protein, this can create more stress on our body as well. And I think what's really interesting about alcohol is that, you know, a lot of us think that we use it for stress and that it is, you know, helps us with stress. But one of the areas I talk about a lot is there's research that shows that drinking alcohol increases cortisol, which is our body stress hormone. So we might. Being that alcohol is helping our stress, it's actually making it worse. It's actually making us have higher levels of this stress hormone that is going to cause stress on us mentally, physically, emotionally. Right. It again, kind of gets back into that vicious cycle because it then is increasing our stress, and then we're looking for ways to decrease our stress and thinking alcohol is helping. And so, you know, I think that stress is this, like, huge topic at all times. Right. Because we're all stressed. We all have things, whether it's family, it's jobs, it's politics, it's whatever it is. Right. And we can't necessarily run from the stress. But part of our job in, you know, exploring a life without alcohol is finding healthier ways of coping with stress and having more consistent eating patterns, having healthier food choices, Those are all going to take off a layer of stress. So I think that making sure that we're eating consistent meals throughout the day, lots of protein, these are gonna be things that help us kind of manage that stress a little bit better.
[00:37:01] Speaker A: Hmm. Yeah. Thank you. And a good reminder, too. Just like we should. So ironic that we're drinking because we're stressed, but it's increasing the cortisol stress hormone and just kind of exacerbating everything.
[00:37:17] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. It's something that. I do think it's going to take us time to reeducate people on that and away from that mentality because I. I get that kind of rebuttal a lot. I comment a lot on social media and things. Well, but stress is bad for my health, and this helps me manage my stress. And it's not helping you manage your stress. It's giving you a little. A short period of time of relief, but it's actually making your ability to tolerate stress in the future worse.
[00:37:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:37:50] Speaker B: So we can avoid taking that drink and starting that cycle by looking at, you know, other ways of stress relief. Whether that's exercise, whether that's meditation, whether that's finding community and reaching out to a person if you're struggling. Right. There are these other tools that we can use. They just haven't necessarily been. Or go to alcohol. Is the. The easy off button that we've turned toward?
[00:38:17] Speaker A: It sure is. It sure is. Have you seen any other, like, new. You know, you talked a little bit about research coming out earlier in anything you're excited about. Any, like. Because I feel like with this, especially with, like, our gut health, the microbiome, like, there's so much emerging Research like what's, what do you see that's coming out?
[00:38:41] Speaker B: You know, I'm really fascinated about the continued research against alcohol. I think it's, I think we have a slew of it coming out now and it seems like every other month or so we have another study that is, is again refuting the previous health beliefs around alcohol. I'd love to see more specific to some of these areas like the gut. You know, I think that we're at an interesting time because we're shifting a lot out of like high intensity, high stress into more of this like slow down mode. And I think a lot of what's coming out that's interesting me is like even around, you know, we're shifting our beliefs around exercise from high intensity interval training, hiit training to more like wow. Actually yoga is more beneficial because it's helping us relieve our stress. It's not increasing the stress on our body. So I think a lot of what's interesting is we're moving away from this like fast paced, work hard, play hard, that kind of mentality into I think it's time to slow things down and take things easier on ourselves. And I think what we're finding or I think what we're going to continue seeing in the research is that there is more positivity to this slow down, this rest, recovery, relaxation time than the overstimulation that we've talked about in the past.
[00:40:17] Speaker A: That's great. I'm a huge proponent. I've been seeing like more and more research about naps being beneficial.
[00:40:24] Speaker B: I'm a huge example of this. Right. Is 10 years ago, no, no, no, nap's not a good thing. Right. You'd see research coming out saying no, you, it's, it's about the you know, four hour workday where you prank for four hours straight and then you, you know, work out and then you go and you do something else. Right. And that's beneficial because of X. So I think we're going to keep seeing more of this like slow down naps, more recovery work, more recovery physical what I mean like you know, around saunas, around cold plunges, like these things that are more about slowing down rather than speeding up.
[00:41:06] Speaker A: Yeah, I love that.
Well, what do you see? Like what are some of the top questions that you get asked about in regards to nutrition?
[00:41:16] Speaker B: You know I get asked a lot about supplements. That's definitely always a big one. And on my website we do have links to different supplement kits that I've put together for, for you if you're interested in specific supplements to support your alcohol free journey, to improve your mood, to help with hormone balance, et cetera. And the reason why I think I get asked about supplements a lot is because it's just such a tricky topic and there's so much out there on the market and like everything promises that it's going to be the thing that's going to fix you. And so I get asked a lot about the AG1s and the, you know, the superfood powders and things. And again, this is why I'm a huge proponent of doing some testing. That's why my online programs offer those features to users. Because until we really know what's going on in your body, it's really hard to say what's the best thing for you. I mean, there's definitely some general suggestions and things that I, you know, abide by or, or utilize. But I do think that you could be spinning your wheels a lot and getting frustrated and feeling like nothing works or, you know, why doesn't this work for me when the reality is it's just not what your body needs. So, you know, I run nutrient testing on a lot of my clients to see what vitamins and minerals they're deficient in so that we can give them the right vitamins and minerals that they're deficient in. We're not giving you, you know, all of the B vitamins if you don't necessarily need all of the B vitamins or you know, a multivitamin, for example, has all these different nutrients, but it doesn't have really high levels of them. So you might be vitamin D deficient and your multivitamin has vitamin D in it, but it only has a sliver of it. Right. And it's not enough to actually build and rebuild your store of it. So, you know, I get asked about a lot of these different products and things that are on the market. What do you think about this thing? What do you think about that thing? And a lot of times I think it's, it's markets, good marketing, nice packaging and you know, isn't necessarily going to be that cure all thing. And sometimes it's smarter to spend the money on doing some of the tests so that you can have a little bit more clarity around what to take. So that's a big question that I get a lot, you know, I get, I also get asked about a lot of the trendy diets and things. What do you think about keto and intermittent fasting? And you know, I'm, I'm generally not a Huge proponent of those things. Temporarily. Sure, you can try them. Keto is definitely something that has a lot of amazing research on it for brain health and certain brain conditions. But uh, I don't think keto is necessarily ever meant to be like a long term sustainable type of dietary approach. Although some people feel really good with it, some people don't. And that's the same for things like the intermittent fasting, which a lot of people do not feel better, do not lose weight on, especially women. Sometimes that happens when there's hormonal imbalances, cortisol dysregulation, and especially if you are on an alcohol free journey, if you're early on in that journey and having a lot of cravings, I usually advise against any of those extreme diets and just focusing on, you know, I think we get overhyped about these like shiny things, but we're not eating the protein, we're not getting enough veggies. Right. So sometimes just narrowing in and focusing on the basics is the best approach.
[00:44:43] Speaker A: Yeah, I definitely agree with the intermittent fasting and especially if you're new into your alcohol free journey.
[00:44:51] Speaker B: What?
[00:44:51] Speaker A: Ozempic, that's another one. Like now they're seeing research like maybe that's a medication to help reduce alcohol cravings. Gosh. What, what are your thoughts around those type of medicines?
[00:45:04] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, I think there are some people that can truly benefit from them, especially as it relates to those who are, you know, experiencing morbid obesity and like really struggling to get their weight down. I think that just like anything else, it's easy for us to take some of these things and run with it. But my question always begs, like, if, if you're looking to lose weight and you're really struggling and you haven't looked at the gut biome, you haven't looked at hormone imbalances, you haven't looked at certain deficiencies, addressing those things can really help us get to the root cause rather than, you know, using a GLP1 agonist, for example. You know, what's really interesting too is that there are specific strains of bacteria in the gut that help to produce GLP1 naturally. And also alcohol blocks our gut's ability to produce GLP1 naturally. Right. So my concern with some of these medications is, you know, we're going in and utilizing that as a band aid approach and not saying, okay, well are you drinking? What are you eating? What, you know, what things have you tried before? You looked at the gut biome and what's going on there? Is there inflammation? Right and if we aren't addressing those things, then it's still not getting. Might help us with weight management, but it's not helping us with what actually is the underlying cause or concern. The other big thing is there are a lot of side effects, you know, a lot of muscle loss that is happening again, especially if you're not eating enough protein. A lot of the clients that I've worked with who've been on these meds really struggle with appetite. They struggle. Struggle with nausea, and so they struggle with eating protein. And that is, over the long term, problematic. And I think we'll see as more people are on these for long term, what that means long term. So I'm not a huge proponent. Like I said, I think there's some instances where they are really necessary. But I would push you to look deeper into some of these areas, like the gut, and start to uncover if some of these things are the cause of why you might have more of that stagnant weight.
[00:47:19] Speaker A: Yeah. Interesting. Thank you for sharing that.
[00:47:22] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:47:23] Speaker A: Um, yeah, let me see, what else. Is there anything that I haven't asked that you want to address?
[00:47:31] Speaker B: Well, I think just the one thing that, like I said when we kind of got on about one of the areas I'm working a lot on right now is with mood and nutrient division fees.
[00:47:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:47:41] Speaker B: And I launched a course recently that we ship you the test kit so you can get the nutrient testing and then we give you a report based on what comes back and how these deficiencies may play a role in things like depression and anxiety.
And part of the reason why I launched that is because, you know, in. In working with folks who are sober or looking to get sober, the mood piece is a very real piece of it for a large majority of people. And, you know, we take away alcohol and sometimes we don't solve that piece, which is okay. But again, my brain is always like, why? Like, what is the root cause of, of those mood imbalances? And especially with long term chronic alcohol use, we do have depletion of a lot of our vitamins and minerals. And unfortunately, in our standard blood testing, we, we don't find out that information. Unless you were to seek out specifically nutrient deficiency testing, then you're, you wouldn't know. And in 100% of these, you know, test kits that I run, there are deficiencies. And there are deficiencies in things like magnesium and zinc, some of the B vitamins, vitamin C, some of the amino acids, and a lot of these play a role in the production of dopamine. And serotonin, they provide a role in our immune system, in our energy production. So identifying these deficiencies can be really useful. And so, you know, I, I always encourage people, if they do have health concerns and things that they're struggling with and they haven't had some of these tests done, that it can really uncover a lot of information that can, again, help you be more strategic in what you're eating and if you're taking supplements and which ones so that you're not running around in circles saying, should I be doing this diet, that diet, should I be taking this supplement, that supplement? It just gives you a little bit more clarity in. In your journey.
Yeah. Yeah.
[00:49:45] Speaker A: Thank you for that. Well, thank you for coming back on the show and just letting me pick your brain and ask you so many questions. I really appreciate you and all doing. How can people find you?
[00:49:58] Speaker B: Well, thank you so much for having me. I'm happy to be back and I hope that this was as helpful for everyone as the last episode. You can learn more about me and my programs at functionalsobriety. Com. You can also follow me on Instagram @Doctor Dr. Brooksheller, and there I post a lot of tips and tricks and info there. So go ahead and check out our programs, our online communities, and what we have to offer for you.
[00:50:25] Speaker A: Yes. And shout out to your book, how to eat to change how you drink.
[00:50:29] Speaker B: Yes. Available wherever books are sold, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, wherever you like to grab your books.
[00:50:35] Speaker A: Okay, well, thank you so much. Happy New Year to you, Brooke.
[00:50:39] Speaker B: Thank you. Thank you. And I hope we talk again soon.
[00:50:44] Speaker A: Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Alcohol Tipping Point podcast. Please share and review the show so you can help other people, too. I want you to know I'm always here for you. So please reach out and talk to me on Instagram, alcoholtippingpoint, and check out my website, alcoholtippingpoint.com for free resources and help. No matter where you are on your drinking journey, I want to encourage you to just keep practicing. Keep going. I promise you are not alone and you are worth it. Every day you practice not drinking is.
[00:51:16] Speaker B: A day you can learn from.
[00:51:18] Speaker A: I hope you can use these tips we talked about for the rest of your week and until then, talk to you next time.
