Episode 94: Food as Medicine

 After being told she’d never have children, aerospace engineer Katherine Lawrence changed her diet—and changed her life. Hear how she reversed serious health conditions, became a nutrition educator, and why the Food Saved Me Institute is on a mission to teach science-based nutrition that can prevent and even reverse disease. 

Food Saved Me Institute – http://foodsavedme.institute/

Eat Thrive Live (Savannah Alderink) – https://eatthrivelive.com

NutritionFacts.org – https://nutritionfacts.org

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine – https://www.pcrm.org

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Transcript

Nutrition podcast

Robin Rountree: Welcome to Informed Aging, a podcast about health, help, and hard decisions for older adults. 

I'm Robin Rountree, a former family caregiver. I've worked in the home care industry and now work for the Alzheimer's and Dementia Resource Center. The thoughts and opinions expressed on this podcast belong to me and my guest, not our lovely employers and sponsors.

Before making any significant changes in your life or your person's life, please consult your own experts. Today we're talking about food and how it impacts our health, and it's not the same stuff we hear all the time. So stay tuned and we're gonna talk to the people behind the Food Saved Me Institute.

I. We are back, and today I'm talking with Katherine Lawrence, president and founder of Food Saved Me Institute, and Savannah Aldrich, an FSMI, which is Food Saved Me Institute, certified Nutrition Instructor. Hello ladies. 

Katherine Lawrence: Hello. Thank you for having us. 

Robin Rountree: So glad to have you Now, Katherine Lawrence, I always like to have people explain the letters behind their names.

BCAS. What does that mean? 

Katherine Lawrence: that means board, board certified autism specialist. I have a son who has autism and I work in the neurodivergent community, teaching nutrition to, to help kids and adults with autism and A DHD and, and what foods can support them. 

Robin Rountree: Okay. So board certified.

So that is, takes a couple of extra steps to do that. 

Katherine Lawrence: Yes. Um, you've 

Robin Rountree: also got over 17 years of experience in plant-based nutrition and disease prevention. 

Katherine Lawrence: Yes. Mm-hmm. I've been teaching for quite a while. I didn't start out, , this way. I don't know if you want to, um, go down that road, but I used to be in engineering and then eventually my life changed and I ended up, uh, pursuing nutrition and that became my passion.

Robin Rountree: And before we get to that story, I want to make sure our listeners know this is all science based information that we're getting you. I know on social media there's a lot of noise. Yes. A lot of people claiming to be experts, but again, we remind you to make your own decisions and do your own research.

But I like to have guests on the podcast that are science backed, so that's important. So Katherine, tell me this story. You're an engineer and something goes wrong with your body. 

Katherine Lawrence: Yes, I live in Texas and I was in aerospace engineering, um, working with a big contractor and I was in my.

I think I was about 26 years old, 27, and, um, started to have terrible symptoms, and it's a long story, but they eventually discovered, I had stage four endometriosis and ovarian and uterine cysts, and basically my reproductive system had shut down at 27. I was told yes, my case was very aggressive.

My endometriosis was wrapped around my digestive organs and I was told I was completely infertile. I would never have children. And that was the first time I, I asked my doctor, well, you know, that I'd even thought about my food and how it affected my health. Um, 'cause I never had any issues before.

And I remember asking him, is it the food? Is it something that I'm eating? 'cause I had a terrible diet. And he said, no, no, there's no cure for this. And so they decided that I needed a full hysterectomy at 27 and um, and it wouldn't be able to have children. It was, it was a lot to take in. 

Robin Rountree: Right.

But you're an engineer. Mm-hmm. So you like to problem solve, correct? 

Katherine Lawrence: Oh, yes. Yeah. Thank you for seeing me. I have to remind a lot of people in my life.

So that's, yeah, that's what happened. Um, but it, I really, owe it to my mom. Um, I'm her only child, and she said, you know, I wanna have grandchildren.

Mm. So she kind of pushed me and did the research and made me go talk to a nutritionist. And I was very reluctant and I mean, my diet was terrible. I was previously in the Air Force and so I was eating like, you know, I was like a 22-year-old man kind of. I was having a lot of burgers, a lot of sodas, um, just not really thinking of vegetables and things like that., So my mom made me go see a nutritionist and I did, just so I could tell her that I had tried everything, but I didn't think it was gonna work. And that woman, uh, saved my life. She did. It took, wow. She talked to me about how certain foods can benefit our health and our reproductive system and which ones aren't so good for the reproductive system, I never heard anything like that.

And she wanted me to eat a lot of fiber. The only thing I knew about fiber is that, you know, my grandfather used to like scoop some into his juice at night. I thought that was fiber. So it was just this wild, you know, learning experience for me. But we, I changed my diet, uh, to lower fat and lots of whole plant foods, a lot of fiber and more antioxidants and we were able to reverse it.

It took about six weeks and it was that quickly. It was remarkable. , It wasn't completely reversed then, but it was when I went in for the hysterectomy six weeks later. You know, my doctor stopped the procedure early and, and when I, I came to woke up, he said, you know, I've never seen anything like this.

You have tremendous scarring but none of your endometriosis is active. I had some adhesions he had to take care of, but he said the cysts and everything that had been there over a year consistently, he said, these are gone. I haven't seen anything like it. This is a miracle. And my mom said. Well, she's been trying this weird diet and he said, no, that's not it.

It's a miracle. And he said, I didn't, I didn't want to perform the hysterectomy. Like, let's just wait and whatever you're doing, let's keep going and see what happens. And I remember feeling a little disappointed because I, I really hadn't worked out. How to enjoy whole foods, you know, and being here in Texas 20 years ago, I, I felt a little bit alone.

I didn't really have community in that. People already thought I was being weird with the way I was eating. So, so I stayed with it reluctantly and kind of, you know, found resources and things to help me. And it was about six months later when I fully just embraced like, wow, this is, I had lost about 50 pounds and um, none of my symptoms came back.

My blood pressure went down, my cholesterol came down to a healthy level. , The fibroid cysts and my breasts had dissolved. And, and that's when I realized like, oh wow, there really is something to this. And, and that's when I made the decision that I wanted to leave engineering and teach others about nutrition because what if I had just had the surgery and, and would never have children? Um, so the, the best part of my story comes later. I went on to have three children. I have three boys. They're eight, 11 and 13, so I'm in the thick of it.

But every time I, you know, I look at them, I remember like, wow, if I hadn't asked questions. You know, and if, if this nutritionist, random nutritionist in North Texas, you know, if she hadn't been offering what she did and, and was willing to work with me, my whole life would be different. You know, I wouldn't have the children.

I would probably get more sleep, but, um, but it's good. 

Robin Rountree: You know, there's a plus and minus to everything, but I think you're pretty happy with those three pluses you've got. Absolutely. 

So that's just, uh, mind blowing to me as, as a person who's had surgery to remove fibroids, no one ever mentioned nutrition.

Mm-hmm. And it's just, is it the secret sauce that people just don't know about? 

Katherine Lawrence: I think in a lot of cases it is. And when I think about, 17 years ago or so when I was going through this, my doctors at the time, you know, they had gone through med school 20 years prior, and nutrition is not something that is regularly taught in medical school.

Most doctors graduate with only two hours of nutrition education. And so, I can see where, you know, we look to doctors for authority on, um, medical decisions, which I think is really important, but it's not possible for doctors to keep up with the latest nutrition and all of the research.

You know, there's just so much on them already. So that's why I advocate for people, learning for themselves and pursuing, because there's so much more information now that's out there. And it does get mucky, like you said, yeah. On social media. But I think that, that we've come a long way with physicians learning.

And there are organizations who are pushing to get more nutrition into medical schools. But on the whole, we need to advocate for ourselves and do our own research and find organizations that are, are trying to to spread that information.

And, you know what surprises me? I work with a lot of patients with heart disease and diabetes, and they were never told, or it never occurred to them that, it's primarily if it's type two diabetes, especially, it's preventable with nutrition and in most cases , heart disease and type two are reversible with nutrition and they just never heard this information. And that's part of why I founded Food Saved Me Institute because we need to shorten this gap between when nutrition information is, is proven as effective and true. And the time it takes to get down to the to the common public, you know? 

Robin Rountree: Yeah. So if a person goes to the doctor, let's say I go to the doctor and I get a diagnosis, should my step be first to ask, is there something I can do about this? And if the doctor says no, like your doctor said to you, like doing my own research, should I

go to Google? Should I look for a registered dietician? What? What should I do? Or Doctor Doctor Facebook. He's pretty scary too. 

Katherine Lawrence: Well, if I, if I got a diagnosis, especially a serious one, um, yes, I would, I would definitely start there in my doctor's office with the doctor asking is he aware of any nutrition and lifestyle connections, that I can investigate further?

And what are his recommendations? Does he have someone on staff who's, qualified to talk about nutrition and things like that? And then I would still, I would still do my own research because there's, there's so much coming out, regularly and I would look for nonprofit organizations. The challenge with, social media and um, and things on Google is that there a lot of

times there is a product at the end of it, right? There's a product or, or service or some sort. And so that's where you know, being discerning, trying to help them understand how to be discerning about the research and in trying to just investigate a little bit like on who is profiting off of my decision.

Like, does someone make more money If I am gonna have broccoli for dinner tonight, or if I'm gonna havea steak et cetera. So mm-hmm. I think starting with nonprofits who are in the research field would be in, in nutrition science field would be advantageous. That's why for Food Saved Me Institute, we are a nonprofit so that we can stay unbiased, unaffected by industry influences.

But there are other great ones. Um, nutrition facts.org is a nonprofit founded by Dr. Michael Gregor. Um, just has wonderful short videos on the latest nutrition science. I think it's important to use the resources we have with our physicians and our medical team, and then also seek out information.

Um, physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has a lot of research out there too.

. I've been thinking about this a lot growing up in the eighties and, um, mm-hmm. You know, I was born in the seventies and, and I think about that with nutrition, what I was taught, I mean, very, very little. I grew up in the eighties, so that would put me in the middle of like the low fat craze.

So then we introduced chemicals and lots of salt and sugar to replace the fat. Um, yes. And I, I think about there is so much information available at our fingertips, um, now that I would hate for someone just to, I just can't imagine just taking one person's word for it. I would, I would always wanna go see, well, let me see what I can find.

And maybe there's other people out there in communities who are who are in the same situation as me, who are, who are trying different approaches. So I think it's important to ask more questions now. I think when we get a diagnosis, there's, there's more support and resources than we think.

Robin Rountree: I like that. I like that. I think, yes, there are resources out there. You just have to be proactive and ask yourself the question, who is making money off of this? 

Katherine Lawrence: That's very important. Yeah. Yes.

Robin Rountree: And Savannah, I wanna talk to you. You've recently become an FSMI Food Saved Me Institute, certified Nutrition Instructor.

Savannah Alderink: Yes. Love. 

Robin Rountree: What led you? To, 

Savannah Alderink: to do that? Well, that's a great question. It's basically what you're talking about, the confusion, um, not knowing what to eat or if you do switch to whole foods, they get boring because we just know, we just eat them raw.

And so I didn't have a lot of variety. And I also wanted to, uh, working in this with the senior industry and seeing chronic illnesses and knowing that our food choices do impact us and our health, I wanted something that I could share. And so that's why I pursued my certificate with Food Saved Me is hearing Katherine's story, knowing how passionate she is, seeing, um, how great the classes are.

So that's what led me here. 

Robin Rountree: Awesome. Since you're just getting out of those classes as we age,

what would you recommend it? Should we make huge changes to our bodies? Small changes? What should somebody with my silvers, um, start to think about when I'm planning my meals? 

Savannah Alderink: Well, I feel like it's with anybody that I talk to about fruits and vegetables, right? We wanna make changes that are gonna be long-term.

And so I always encourage people to like meet themselves where they are, look at what they're already eating, and seeing where they can make better choices. Mm-hmm. And I find that if we phrase it that way, people are more willing to hear you when you talk about the benefits of fruits and vegetables, depending on what they're dealing with, with their health.

And so it's just very simple, just getting more into your diet. Uh, period Right. Can benefit. Yes. 

Robin Rountree: Mm-hmm. And, and I can testify to Savannah. We sat next to each other at a networking thing and I ate a donut in front of her and she did not stab me with a pen. She did not shame me. So that's definitely not the approach that you take, is the shame on you if you do X, Y, or z. 

Savannah Alderink: No, absolutely not. You know, with people, we want them to make the changes that are gonna be best for them and it's quality of life matters and consistency matters.

And so, um, yeah, that's. That's how I approach it. 

Robin Rountree: Alright, Katherine, as we age, same advice, focus on the fruits and vegetables and what you can do. 

Katherine Lawrence: Oh, I completely 

agree with Savannah, especially about meeting people where they're at because it's gotta be, it's gotta be sustainable and it can't feel like a, you know, a diet or restrictive or anything?

I think, with aging in particular, I would encourage focusing on berries. These are brain foods. Very, very important for, cognitive health, right, and fighting cognitive decline. And then for vegetables, if I had to pick a favorite group for those who are aging, it would be, uh, leafy greens.

And then fiber, I think as, as we age, our digestion slows.

And then also, and some groups of older people, they are, they're having to have a lot of softer foods and things like that. And so their fiber intake tends to lower. So if they can find a way to increase fiber intake, um, I think that would be very, very valuable. Like from from beans, even if they need to be mashed up, uh, whole grains.

And then of course the fruits and vegetables, because that fiber is also going to lower risk of diseases that they're at, higher risk of at that age, like heart disease, diabetes, cancer, , it's gonna benefit with arthritis as well. So, so berries, leafy greens and, and fiber would probably be my top three.

Robin Rountree: Okay. And of course with the Alzheimer's and Dementia Resource Center, people will ask about, um, you know, what should I eat? Mm-hmm. And we often hear the plant-based diet. And then recently in the news, um, a rather famous woman. Not everybody is going to know her. That's okay. Her name is Lizzo. Mm-hmm. And she was talking about she's lost a lot of weight.

Um, and she said that she had put on weight, let me quote her. When I was a vegan, I was consuming a lot of fake meats. I was eating a lot of bread. I was eating a lot of rice, and I had to eat a lot of it to stay full. But really I was consuming like 3000 to 5,000 calories a day. So I'm like, okay. A lot of us are thinking we should eat a plant-based diet, but there's definitely a wrong way to do it.

Katherine Lawrence: Yes. And I think this is important. , I'm really glad that you asked because I think the majority of the public associates a vegan diet with a plant-based diet that those are the same thing, and they're actually completely different. Um, in a lot of ways. Like for example, Oreos are vegan.

Um, the Oh yeah. Right. I mean, don't go eat 'em. But no, there's a lot of vegan foods that are, are not healthy. I would say. You know, vegan by definition excludes meat and dairy products, and fish and eggs. Okay. But it leaves in all the other stuff. So, like you could live on Oreos and you'd be vegan, for example, or just pasta every day.

And so we, uh, again, we follow the science. The science actually supports whole plant foods over vegan. And so when I, when I look at Lizzo and I have read, you know, people keep sending me, did you see Right, Linda Lizzo is not vegan anymore? I'm like, well, I don't really teach vegan.

I teach plants like whole foods. And when I, when I just take a 30,000 foot view of what she's eating. I mean, she's eating a lot of processed foods, so one, she was likely nutrient deficient if she's doing a lot of fake meats, white rice, bread, you know, I didn't hear any mention of vegetables in there or beans.

So that's one she probably nutrient deficient. Um, and, and way too many calories it sounds like. But then also because she's not having whole plant foods, she is probably very deficient in fiber. And the great thing about fiber is that it fills you up. I mean, we know for every 14 grams of fiber someone eats it reduces their calorie consumption by about 10%.

Simply, really Because they're full. Yeah. It's kind of nature's ozempic, if you will. , When I'm working with patients who wanna lose weight, we start with, um, talking about breakfast and adding beans. Adding a cup of beans to breakfast, it will change your life. It really will. . So let's just say fiber. We need at least 40 grams of fiber a day.

More will not hurt. But fibers only found in plants. So yes, it is in the fruits and vegetables that Savannah mentioned those will have, you know, four to five grams per cup. It's in whole grains now. She was having white rice, if she had had brown rice, she'd get about five grams of fiber in that cup of it.

Mm-hmm. And she wouldn't be able to eat a full cup probably 'cause it's so filling. Um, but beans. If we're talking about numbers, I mean, one cup of beans has about 14 grams of fiber, so, so to simplify it with my patients who are looking to get down to a healthy weight, we start with beans. Because usually people are not getting enough fiber.

Breakfast and lunch is where we wanna consume the majority of our calories, our protein, our fiber, so that we get good sleep. So I've encouraged my, my students in that situation to try to have at least half a cup of beans at breakfast.

With whatever else. And then a cup of beans at lunch, just that is gonna give them over 20 grams of fiber. And the average American is eating like 10 grams of fiber the entire day. So, so my thoughts with Lizzo is like, well, I mean, it makes sense that you lost weight, you got off of, of all of these processed foods.

A lot of the fake meats, um, you know, some are better than others, but many are very high in fat. So that would not help with weight loss as well. And so I think, okay, she got off of processed foods and hoping that she got more fiber in there, but I would imagine a lot of the weight loss came from just simply getting off of these kind of

nutrient deficient empty foods. That's what I would say. But I hope that she's gonna swing towards whole food plant-based now, towards lots of fruits and vegetables and, and beans and things like that just for her overall health.

I find. You know, there's there's people in my life even they wanna lose weight and they don't care what that means for their health later. They don't care if the method they're using is gonna increase their risk of Alzheimer's or heart disease or diabetes. And so I hope that that Lizzo will take that into consideration and, and come back to get some antioxidants and fiber.

. Come back to plants, I mean,

Robin Rountree: Well, I have learned a lot today.

If we want to learn more, got the website and let me make sure I've got this right. It is Food Saved Past Tense Food Saved me.institute, correct? 

Katherine Lawrence: Yes, that is. Was gonna ask if I could share a couple of our resources on there so they know what, what to look for.

Absolutely. Okay. So on our website, food Saved Me Institute, we do have, free downloadables that you can get. There's a tab. There's even one, seven ways to get more leafy Greens into your diet. Mm-hmm. You know, ways to get more fiber. So a bunch of resources and recipes that are free. , We also have a certification like Savannah did.

My passion is teaching people how to do what I did. Go in the community offer classes, preferably free or low cost because people are so much more, successful I think and open to this when they can try the sample. So we have the certification if someone wants to teach, um, and this is why we have

instructors like Savannah, who want to teach in their community. And so if you're looking for attending these classes live, then definitely reach out to her because now, now you get to taste the food. You get to have that live experience. You can host a class. And if you're not in her area or another one of our instructors, we do have a lot of our classes online as well as a lot of neurodivergent programs.

Um, but I'll I, if it's okay, I wanted to share Savannah's website. Yeah. 'cause I'm hoping that people will host, so her website is eat thrive live.com. And again, if you wanna host classes, these classes are so popular. We teach them in doctor's office waiting rooms, you know, hospital conference rooms. And then, I mean, everywhere I've taught in yoga studios at the local library.

, I continue to be surprised how many people are out there trying to find nutrition information. Yes. And the bonus of being able to try the food with her so much better than on a computer, right? 

Robin Rountree: Absolutely. We will have your website, Savannah, and of course yours, Katherine, on our show notes and of course the links to the other, uh, places, the nonprofit food places that you mentioned earlier.

That's all gonna be in our show notes. So, uh, thank you ladies so much. And Savannah, if they wanna reach out, you're in the Orlando area, correct? Orlando, Florida. 

Savannah Alderink: Yes, I'm doing, all of Orlando. If there's anyone that would like to have, you know, set up for hosting classes, I'd be happy to do that.

Robin Rountree: Wonderful. We are worldwide, so I just wanna clarify where you are. 

Katherine Lawrence: And we have, so we have instructors in 16 countries. So if they're not in Florida, hopefully they can find another instructor in their area. 

Robin Rountree: . Ladies, thank you so much for being on the podcast and the work that you are doing. Uh, hopefully we'll become all a little bit healthier after talking to you today, even if you just throw some berries into your diet.

Yeah. 

Katherine Lawrence: Thank you for letting us share. I appreciate it. Helping us get the message out. 

Robin Rountree: Thank you. You're welcome. Please make sure to subscribe to our podcast Informed Aging, tell Your Family and Friends about us. If you'd like to support the work that we do at the Alzheimer's and Dementia Resource Center, the website is adrc cares.org/donate.

You can find us at facebook.com/informed aging. That's it for now. We are looking forward to our next visit.