227-SYNCPodcast_FBLiveAlyssaBroadwaterPt2

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[00:00:58] Jenny Swisher: Welcome friends to this episode of the Sync Your Life podcast. Today I’m sharing with you a small clip of a recent live Q& A that I hosted with Alyssa Broadwater. Alyssa is a registered dietitian. She’s actually the person that I filmed the fertility awareness course with that launched earlier this year.

[00:01:15] Jenny Swisher: So this is not her first time on the podcast. In fact, I will link up in the show notes for you. All of her previous episodes here on the Sync Your Life podcast. But I recently asked her to do a Q and A with my Sync digital course takers. So we went live together in our Facebook group. We answered questions and it really just blew my mind.

[00:01:32] Jenny Swisher: I love talking about nutrition. It’s one of my favorite topics and to have a registered dietitian who is very familiar with working with women, especially women who are either looking to conceive or women just really looking to optimize their hormone health. is just bar none. Like you’re really, it’s the best advice out there to hear from somebody who is literally working in this space.

[00:01:51] Jenny Swisher: So on this episode, you’re going to hear her talk about different things. We talk about fiber. We talk about protein. We talk about how much women should really be eating, especially if we are training females and so much more. So without further ado, here’s Alyssa. I hope you enjoy.

[00:02:06] Jenny Swisher: Okay, so I’ve got so many more things that I want to touch on. I know we’re going to be mindful of your time. So I’m just going to kind of rapid fire these and if you want to Want to touch on them. So we talked about protein and the importance of protein.

[00:02:17] Jenny Swisher: You also alluded to fiber. I would love for you to talk about, you know, fiber and its role in detoxification when it comes to, um, hormones specifically, and also touch on the importance of healthy fats, because I also find that women want to, you know, they want to restrict the fats too. So let’s talk about both.

[00:02:36] Alyssa Broadwater: So let me start with fats. Um, so fats, especially animal fats, I think are important to get in when we’re thinking about like optimizing hormone health because those saturated fats and even the dietary cholesterol is so important for so many of our sex hormones. Many of our sex hormones are what are called steroid hormones, meaning that they have a cholesterol backbone.

[00:03:02] Alyssa Broadwater: So if we’re not eating enough fats overall, we’re not eating enough saturated fats, then that can be negatively impacted. We just don’t, we basically just don’t have the raw materials around to make these hormones. So that’s kind of like the simplest way to think about fat. Um, it also plays a role in blood sugar regulation.

[00:03:23] Alyssa Broadwater: If we could have enough fat in each meal, um, it helps make sure that spiking as high, even if we have the, you know, same amount of carbohydrates. If we have a meal with, you know, whatever, 50 grams of carbohydrates, it’s going to spike your blood sugar so much. But if we have that same 50 grams of carbohydrate, but we add some fat to it, it’s not going to spike as high.

[00:03:47] Alyssa Broadwater: And again, those like spikes of your blood sugar are those like. Kind of dangerous signals to your body.

[00:03:54] Jenny Swisher: So I think what’s interesting is I think what happens is we get so caught up. Like I said before, I think a lot of these women are maybe come from like a macro counting background.

[00:04:03] Jenny Swisher: I think that’s pretty popular in the fitness arena. Um, so I’m glad we touched on micronutrients, but I also find that when we, we start to aim their focus more toward getting enough protein. Getting enough fat, then we start to see where the fiber, the fiber dwindles and we need both, right? We need fiber to be able to really digest the protein and to be able to also play a role in detoxification of the liver and that kind of stuff.

[00:04:27] Jenny Swisher: So I’d love for you to just touch on like why fiber matters. Um, and any tips you have around that too.

[00:04:34] Alyssa Broadwater: Yeah, the detoxification piece is huge. Um, for, for so many levels. I mean, this is a generalization, but from what I see many women in this day and age tend to have this kind of estrogen dominance type of picture, whether their estrogen is actually just higher than what we want it to be, or simply their estrogen maybe is where we want it to be, but their progesterone is lower.

[00:04:55] Alyssa Broadwater: So we still get that, that scenario where estrogen is. in relation to progesterone. So, um, estrogen is kind of the perfect example of why fiber is so important for that detoxification. Um, your body is constantly like recycling hormones and Through our stool is one way that we get rid of these hormones.

[00:05:20] Alyssa Broadwater: So, for example, if we are not having a, you know, good, well formed, easily passed, at least one bowel movement each day, that can actually potentially lead to like this backup of estrogen, where there is. Your body is trying to get rid of this, um, kind of old estrogen, if we want to call it that, through your digestive system.

[00:05:49] Alyssa Broadwater: But if that estrogen is sitting in your digestive system too long, your body can actually reabsorb. the estrogen, thus making it more likely that then you have a higher estrogen than we really want. And that’s where we can get a lot of those symptoms that we mentioned earlier, like those kinds of typical PMS type of symptoms or like really, really symptomatic periods.

[00:06:12] Alyssa Broadwater: So like heavy, painful, clotty periods all tend to be a sign of like that estrogen dominance. So that’s a big piece of it. Just like eating enough fiber and making sure that our gut health is good. Is critical to making sure that we’re basically taking out the trash properly each day. Um, and that trash isn’t like just, you know, building up.

[00:06:36] Alyssa Broadwater: And then of course I think fiber kind of ties into the, the micronutrient piece, right? If you’re focused on getting enough fiber, you’re often, um, focused on simply eating more. Whole foods. I mean, you know, the, the, your fiber is going to come from minimally processed foods, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, um, legumes, things like that.

[00:07:00] Alyssa Broadwater: So if you’re just focused on getting enough fiber, you’re also focusing on simply a more like whole food, real food diet, and you’re going to get more micronutrients that way as well.

[00:07:13] Jenny Swisher: I think that a lot of women are under eating fiber. And I tell people that I try to aim for seven to nine cups of vegetables a day.

[00:07:20] Jenny Swisher: They’re like, Oh my gosh, what? And I’m like, yeah, because I, I really need to find a way to get proper fiber, proper micronutrients. I’m not caught up as much in my grams of carbs as, as most women are. It’s for me, it’s more about just making sure I’m getting those things. So. I’m glad you touched on that.

[00:07:36] Jenny Swisher: Okay. 3 more topics that I want to hit on if we can. I didn’t tell you this 1 in advance, but I think you’ll be good to go with it. And that is, um, I’m seeing this pop up in my private conversations. Frequently recently, um, and also as part of my story too, um, but I’m curious your, your take on this. And that is the low ferritin conversation for training women.

[00:07:57] Jenny Swisher: Uh, a lot of the women that we’re doing consults with, we’re seeing low ferritin numbers. And the first thing I’ll say to you guys, as you know, is. Normal is not optimal. So your regular doctor might be looking at your ferritin number and saying it’s normal. But from what I’ve seen, anything below 60, 65 is considered not optimal.

[00:08:16] Jenny Swisher: So I would love for you to touch on ferritin if you’re willing. Um, maybe just share, you know, what it is and why it matters and stuff

[00:08:23] Alyssa Broadwater: like that. Yep, I totally agree. So I tend to use the cutoff of like 50. If we get below 50, then my kind of flags go up. Um, but even that like 60, 65 is a reasonable cutoff as well.

[00:08:35] Alyssa Broadwater: So ferritin is our storage form of iron. When we start getting insufficient iron, ferritin is the first one to go because of course when you’re, when you stop eating enough iron, for example, your body’s going to go to its storage place of that first. So that’s the first place that we’re going to see be affected if we’re not eating enough iron.

[00:08:57] Alyssa Broadwater: Um, you know, well before your hemoglobin or hematocrit or any of those things would be off. So ferritin can kind of be that canary in the coal mine for what’s going on with iron. Um, I, I think this is becoming more and more, prevalent, honestly, I think one of the main reasons is because of this kind of society wide push towards more of a plant based diet.

[00:09:23] Alyssa Broadwater: Um, by far, in a way, our best source, sources of iron are animal foods and the animal foods that tend to get demonized the most. Red meats. For sure, even like egg yolks are a really great source too. Um, I am not a fan of certainly a vegan diet. I think a vegetarian diet can be done if you’re supplementing really, really well and you’re super, super conscious.

[00:09:52] Alyssa Broadwater: But this is one of the reasons I’m not a fan, especially when we’re thinking about fertility. Um, and preparing for, for pregnancy, our iron needs go up tremendously in pregnancy and many women are already starting out their fertility journey low in iron. So then they’re really having to like supplement a ton and there’s all kinds of issues that can potentially come with iron supplementation.

[00:10:20] Alyssa Broadwater: But um, yeah, I think it’s a really important kind of topic to focus on when I am working on. Fertility for sure, but honestly, most women I work with, that’s always a recommendation is to get your ferritin tested. Um, and if that’s low, what I would consider low would be less than 50. It’s a, it’s a sign that we need to focus on iron more.

[00:10:44] Alyssa Broadwater: So to me, the, the first place is red meat. I mean, I truly believe that women should be getting good quality red meat at least a couple of times a week. Um, Eggs, gosh, daily, if you can, and focusing, especially if you’re not eating those things very often, focusing on maximizing the absorption of iron when you do eat those.

[00:11:09] Alyssa Broadwater: So the simplest way to think about this is calcium inhibits iron absorption, vitamin C helps iron absorption. So when you have a red meat meal, tacos, let’s say, whatever it is. and you’re making tacos with ground beef, adding a source of vitamin C. So it could be a squeeze of lime. It could be some salsa.

[00:11:29] Alyssa Broadwater: It could be some, um, you know, raw bell pepper, any of those like raw fruits or vegetables are good sources of vitamin C. That vitamin C will help you absorb the iron in the red meat. And then, um, calcium hurts. So if you’re trying to maximize your iron absorption in that meal, it would be best to forego the cheese and the sour cream, maybe using like an avocado as your fat source instead.

[00:11:54] Alyssa Broadwater: That, that really only matters most when your iron or your ferritin is low, or when you’re only having red meat every so often, and you really want to like maximize that absorption when you are eating it.

[00:12:08] Jenny Swisher: So good. And also I’ll throw in there red wine and coffee, um, with your red meat is also going to hinder that absorption.

[00:12:15] Jenny Swisher: I was, I was the girl who really liked a nice fillet with red wine, but my, my ferritin started tanking. And so I had to pay attention to, to that. Okay. A couple of things on that. Number 1, we as women, obviously with our periods, we are losing blood each month. And so a lot of times we’ll see this correlation between a woman who has low ferritin and she’s also complaining of heavy periods, which may or may not be related to.

[00:12:38] Jenny Swisher: The estrogen thing that we’ve talked about already, um, or low progesterone, but. Of course, if she’s bleeding, then it’s going to be, it’s, I always like to use the analogy of like, you’re trying to fill a bathtub with an open drain. So, we as women really have to focus on those heme iron sources. The other thing I’ll just throw in there without going into my full story is, I did the Ultimate Reset, I guess it was 10 years ago, which is a Beachbody program.

[00:13:01] Jenny Swisher: It’s like an elimination diet. It’s very focused on like a whole food, plant based approach. The first week, I think there’s a little chicken and fish and eggs, and then the second and third week there, it’s just completely vegan. And when I, when I did that the first time, I finished the three weeks, I was having regular bowel movements, probably because I was getting enough fiber, finally.

[00:13:19] Jenny Swisher: My skin started to clear up and I started to feel fantastic. And so I knew there was something about my previous diet that just wasn’t working. So the first thing my husband and I did was we were like, okay, we, we must just need to go off of animal product. And so we just immediately were like, okay, we feel so good.

[00:13:34] Jenny Swisher: We’re going to go off of animal product entirely. Dairy and meats. Except for fish, we’re going to keep fish in there. So we became sort of pescatarian and we did that for almost two years. And again, this was in my very like lean muscle years, um, when we owned the gym too, and very similar to my hormone journey, where I eventually saw my hormones kind of tank when I started to do the lab work and started to wonder like, why can’t I hold myself up in a warrior too, without feeling completely winded or why do I get winded going on a hike?

[00:14:02] Jenny Swisher: Right? Like, why am I really struggling with this fatigue? My iron was in the tank. It was in the tank because I wasn’t including those sources in my diet. And so as much as I don’t enjoy, I don’t enjoy a burger. Like I’m not a burger girl. I would much rather have a more vegetarian meal. I have to really find ways to incorporate it for myself because my body just functions better on it.

[00:14:24] Jenny Swisher: And so I realized there are other, you know, There are other reasons why people choose to be vegan and all that and I totally appreciate and respect all of those decisions. But I just want to say what I see is very similar to Alyssa in that most women do need those sources or need to be supplementing really, really well.

[00:14:40] Jenny Swisher: Um, and also just wanted to throw in there that as training women, this is really important. So if you guys want to go deeper on that, I have a podcast on ferritin, I also have a podcast, or I have, uh, Dr. Stacey Sims has some articles on ferritin and iron too. Okay, last two thoughts. One is, we talked about blood sugar a little bit, and I know that that could be like a whole topic in and of itself.

[00:14:59] Jenny Swisher: But if you had to give us, you know, these ladies have heard from me about the fact that 80 percent or more of hormone imbalance issues are really rooted in blood sugar dysregulation. Um, especially in perimenopause, we see this more common insulin resistance thing happening. We start to see, I find that most women are either like skipping breakfast, or They’re trying to follow that like fasting window idea, or they’re underfueling, and you know, like you said before, they’re on this sort of blood sugar rollercoaster.

[00:15:29] Jenny Swisher: If you really had to nail it down to like, your top tips for regulating blood sugar throughout the day. What would you say?

[00:15:39] Alyssa Broadwater: Protein number one, get enough protein and distribute it well throughout the day. So making sure that you’re getting enough protein in the morning hours, trying to get just as much protein in the first half of your day as you’re getting the second half of your day.

[00:15:52] Alyssa Broadwater: Most of us struggle to get enough protein in the first half of our day. So that’s where I would really focus on. Um, and that also leads to probably my number two tip, which would be eat enough in the first half of the day. I feel like a lot of, uh, so that in and of itself is going to help blood sugar, but a lot of us I think tend to get into trouble when, because it’s, it’s for whatever reason, easier to control what you’re eating in the first half of the day than the second.

[00:16:21] Alyssa Broadwater: It’s. I don’t want to call it a willpower thing, but that’s what most of us perceive it as. We have more willpower in the morning. So if you’re going to skip a meal, it’s easier to skip breakfast than dinner, for example. And then by the end of the day, it’s harder to say no to certain things. Um, so making sure that we’re eating enough, specifically eating enough protein in the first half of the day, it’s going to make it more likely that you don’t then end up with, you know, sugar cravings and all of these kinds of things that are going to lead you to eating more Simple carbohydrates and things that are going to impact your blood sugar more in the second half of the day.

[00:16:57] Alyssa Broadwater: That makes sense. So honestly, I would keep it simple. And like those two things would be the biggest ones, getting enough protein, especially in the first half of your day, and then really making sure that you’re eating adequately in the first half of your day

[00:17:10] Jenny Swisher: overall. So good. Yeah, like if you go on a big road trip, right?

[00:17:14] Jenny Swisher: You’re not gonna like just fill your. Your gas tank a quarter of the way, right? Or else you’re gonna have to stop frequently. You’re gonna fill it all the way up and get ready for that road trip. So we have to think about that as far as our energy expenditure over the day, right? Like fill it up early on.

[00:17:27] Jenny Swisher: I know I’ve learned that through just my own struggle. Like I used to hit an 11 a. m. crash where I would literally be like almost where I would feel faint or I’d feel lightheaded or I’d start to get like jitters. And I realized it’s just because I wasn’t eating enough. And so making my, my breakfast, the high protein breakfast and including a healthy fat.

[00:17:43] Jenny Swisher: Including some fiber and really filling me up helps me go the rest of the day. And also it just helps you like combat those other cravings throughout the day too, because you’re giving your body what it needs. This was actually a quick story that I was going to share earlier that I’ll share with you in a nutshell.

[00:17:57] Jenny Swisher: I heard a registered dietitian speak, um, this has been a long time ago, like 13, 14 years ago. And they said, they gave the analogy of like, they said, okay, you know, if I were to hand you a McDonald’s French fry, would you want another one? And The answer is yes. And after the second one, would you want another one?

[00:18:17] Jenny Swisher: Yes. And they were like, well, what happens if you’re hungry and I give you a banana? Would you eat it? Yeah. Okay. Would you want a second banana? Most likely not. A third banana? Probably not. Right. And so the point behind that was your body, the reason it is hungry, the reason it requires fuel is because of those nutrient needs that we’ve talked about throughout this entire thing.

[00:18:38] Jenny Swisher: When it doesn’t get the nutrition that it needs, that’s when we start to reach for the other things. So Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, who I’m a huge fan of. She’s got a new book out called Forever Strong. Um, she talks about protein. She’s kind of the queen of protein. She talks about protein is the key to longevity.

[00:18:54] Jenny Swisher: Muscles, the key to longevity. Protein is, is, is queen. And she talks about like when we’re not getting enough protein, our body is sending up these alert signals that that nutrient aspect of things has not been fulfilled. And so that’s when we reach for the more carbs. That’s when we reach, right?

[00:19:09] Jenny Swisher: And so I think her phrase is, we are not over fat, we’re under muscled. And it’s like the reason we’re putting on more fat is because we’re not getting the nutrients that we need to build the muscle, right? We’re not getting the nutrients that we need to, to satiate our bodies. So I don’t, again, I don’t want to beat a dead horse, but I’m glad, I’m glad we touched on that too.

[00:19:28] Jenny Swisher: Okay. So functional fertility. We’re going to wrap this up with that because that’s how we kind of started. And that’s your jam. If you want to go deeper on functional fertility, you know, I encourage you to check out the course when Alyssa and I sat down to create it in my mind. I’m like, let’s do this little mini course.

[00:19:41] Jenny Swisher: Like, we’ll, we’ll, we’ll help people understand what I wish I would have known. It became so much more and it really blew my mind, like how much value we’re giving away in that course. And there’s so much to it. So we could go on a total tangent about endocrine disruption. We could talk about, you know, the differences in nutritional needs between men and women, which we talk about in the course.

[00:20:01] Jenny Swisher: We could talk about proper testing for both men and women. We could talk about how functional fertility differs from what you might find in a traditional fertility clinic. So we could go on and on about that, but I knew that you guys being my cycle thinkers, um, you know, you wanted to hear more just about in general, like proper nutrition for you, but I want to just ask Alyssa to tell us, like, in your opinion, what is the magical thing about a functional approach to fertility?

[00:20:30] Alyssa Broadwater: You’re just not, you’re not guessing. You’re looking at exactly like what’s going on in your particular case. We’re using the menstrual cycle ovulation as that fifth vital sign. And you can see exactly what’s going on and exactly where you need to focus depending on, on what you’re seeing there. Um, You know, the conventional approach is very cookie cutter.

[00:20:53] Alyssa Broadwater: Everyone’s going to kind of go through like the same process. Okay. If, if you go through the first process and that doesn’t work for you, then you go down this pathway and it’s just very cookie cutter where the functional approach is much more individual. Um, and I think that’s where the power lies because you, you know, you can use things like what’s going on with your menstrual cycle to feel empowered and know.

[00:21:20] Alyssa Broadwater: That cookie cutter approach isn’t going to work for me because I know what this is going on in my case. These are the things that I need to focus on. So yeah, I think that’s the simplest way to put

[00:21:30] Jenny Swisher: it. Yeah, that’s so good. I mean, you know, I know there’s, there are women in this group who have, you know, we have women in here who’ve, who’ve gone through IVF, women in here who’ve had different experiences when it comes to fertility.

[00:21:42] Jenny Swisher: I know for me, like I, like I alluded to earlier, I was, I stepped into the fertility specialist’s office thinking. I have regular menstrual cycles. Like I’m fine. And, um, there’s, there’s, you know, nothing at play here. And fast forward a year and a half later, I had endometriosis. I had laparoscopic surgery.

[00:22:02] Jenny Swisher: I had, my husband had varicocele surgery. We saw multiple more specialists. It was like a whole thing. We did the abdural injections. We did the time sex, which don’t even get me started on that. Like, it was the whole thing. Right? Um, And I look back on it now, like 13 years later, and I say, I can’t believe that I didn’t even really understand how to like chart my menstrual cycle, or what to look for when it came to mucus changes in my body or body temperature changes in my body.

[00:22:31] Jenny Swisher: I can’t believe that I wasn’t really focused on like my husband and I didn’t give up alcohol. We weren’t like by any means drinking it often, but we didn’t give up alcohol. We didn’t look at endocrine disruption. We didn’t make any swaps in our skin care or household. Like, I look back and I’m like, we didn’t do anything lifestyle.

[00:22:46] Jenny Swisher: We walked into this fertility specialist off and there’s nothing wrong with it. Please, please don’t hear me wrong. Like, there’s, I thank God for it because, I mean, I have, um, my cousin, they just, they had twins through in vitro, right? Like, it’s a blessing. Like, I’m not trying to shame it. I just wish I had known more about the lifestyle approach, um, because it could have really helped in conjunction with what we were going through, through modern medicine too, but it’s what we don’t learn about, right?

[00:23:11] Jenny Swisher: You guys know that when we talk about it in the course, like, women are just not educated about their bodies. I don’t think well enough. I think middle school sex ed class has done us a huge disservice in that department. And finally, I don’t know if you do this, Alyssa, but hormone health was the number one trending topic last year on Instagram toward the end of the year.

[00:23:27] Jenny Swisher: So we’re starting to see women say like, Hey, wait a minute. Uh, I don’t feel right. And I’m not going to just accept that normal is supposed to be fine. Like people are starting to finally say like. Wait, teach me about my body. What is birth control? What’s what’s happening here. So I’m excited for that. And I think, um, the more we know, I always say if women can know the why they will apply.

[00:23:49] Jenny Swisher: So I just want to thank you for sharing your time and knowledge and expertise with us because, um, they hear these things from me often, but I always like to say when they hear them from you, when they hear them from Dr. Page, when they hear them from other people, they can feel empowered and they can feel educated and they can understand.

[00:24:05] Jenny Swisher: What their body really needs. So, all right, tell us where they can find you on Instagram and wherever else, or how they can get in contact with you if they want to work with you.

[00:24:12] Alyssa Broadwater: Yeah. So Instagram and website are both the same. It’s just my name, Alyssa Broadwater RD, um, both on Instagram. And then that’s my, my website.

[00:24:20] Alyssa Broadwater: And then I’ll be, I’ll hang out in the group for a little bit. So if you guys have questions and stuff, um, let me know and I’ll do my best to answer them.

[00:24:28] Jenny Swisher: Yeah. And let me just throw in there for you guys too, like. You know, you hire a lawyer for your legal needs. You hire a doctor for your medical needs.

[00:24:35] Jenny Swisher: If you are in a place where you’re struggling with nutrition, or you’re struggling with a background with a disordered eating pattern, or whatever the case is, you need a registered dietitian. And there is a large, I’m a nutritionist, there’s a huge difference between a nutritionist and a registered dietitian.

[00:24:51] Jenny Swisher: She’s able to help on a much more nitty gritty detailed level. So I highly recommend, you know, if you’re in the position of really wanting to dial it in, reach out to Alyssa. She’s a wealth of knowledge. Thanks you guys so much for tuning in. We’ll talk soon.

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