♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- Hi, folks.
I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- Together, we are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course, Bob.
- Today, again, we are joined by Jody,
who is gonna share her knowledge which we so much appreciate
because she's been through it all.
There's nothing like having a real patient tell their story.
Our title of our program today is
"Seven foods you should never eat
if you have arthritis/fibromyalgia."
She actually has rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia.
And Jody, before we begin to have you talk
if you don't mind, we're gonna introduce the people here.
If you are new to our channel
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to those people who like us.
Isn't that a nice treat, Brad?
- Yeah. Oh yeah. (Bob laughs)
Now, the mic thing we're kind of getting used to.
- All right, Jody.
So in the first video we had
this was a two part series basically.
Jody talked about some of the trials and tribulations
you went through in trying the normal medical route
with rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia,
really kind of did not go well.
And now we're gonna go ahead and talk about
some of the foods you shouldn't eat
and maybe some of the foods you can eat,
which has really helped you manage your two conditions.
- I think it's time to let Jody start talking.
- Sounds good.
- So yes, I've had great success changing my diet.
One of the things I forgot to say before, but that's okay
it'll fit here well, is when I went to a dietician
for the first time, I did get a little freaked out.
She kind of overloaded me, so if that happens to anybody,
it's okay, take small steps.
So when I first went, she said
"You have to cut out."
and said all these things.
And all these things were things I ate a lot.
Like, number one is dairy.
I'm from Wisconsin.
I am not cutting out cheese.
I just can't do it.
- Oh, before we go any farther,
so the primary goal with the change of diet
was for pain management.
Is that correct?
- I would say yes at first, because I was in such pain.
But, come to find out through a lot of research I've done,
it also will help to slow the progression of the RA,
which is inflammation based.
So if you get rid of the inflammation in your body
it's obviously gonna help the disease.
And when I first had RA and fibromyalgia,
I started going to a massage therapist
and I remember distinctively, she said that she had
a patient who managed his RA strictly
through diet and exercise.
And I went, "Yeah right,"
because I just didn't think it was possible.
And now that's...
well I need to add exercise but that's baby steps.
So I've managed it very successfully through diet
and some of the other, like the acupuncture and the massage.
Those are things that help.
But diet is the number one thing that has helped me
and I can tell you why.
Because when I have, I call it "deflaming my body"
and that's not a technical term.
And please be aware, I am not an expert.
I am not a nutritionist.
This is simply my history.
I've done a lot of research.
I have people in my life who've given me advice
and I followed it and it has worked.
So this is strictly firsthand knowledge.
But when I did "deflame my body" and get to the point
of being pain free, if I added something back in,
I could tell within 15 minutes.
My hands would ache and I had trouble moving them.
So I know...
- So you were getting some good feedback.
You knew exactly what was working and what's not working
because you get immediate feedback.
- Negative pain feedback is what it was.
- And believe me, this is not the first time
I've heard this, where basically
you can look at food as a drug.
And you can use it as a good drug or a bad drug.
So you keep that in mind.
- Right.
- Do you wanna talk about some of the foods that you...
- Yes, I would say my number one thing
that I have cut out is potatoes.
Starchy things, but number one is potatoes.
I can eat sweet potatoes, but I haven't had potatoes
for quite a while.
- And that makes sense,
potatoes have very high glycemic level
and sweet potatoes have a little bit less.
So potatoes are a culprit, unfortunately,
because I love 'em too.
- And then you learn to do, well,
as I talk about this, you learn to do like switching things.
- Sure.
- Because for me... - Substituting.
- Absolutely love pasta.
And when I was told I couldn't have pasta anymore
because it's not just white flour, it's wheat flour.
It's not just white rice, it's brown rice.
- Right. Yep.
- So it's grains, it's wheat, it's potatoes,
all of which I love.
And I love pasta, but then you learn to substitute things
like black bean pasta, or chickpea pasta.
- I'm gonna have to try those because
we've lowered the carbs in our lives
and pasta is a very high glycemic also.
- Well, and it's the simple carbs,
- Simple carbs, yeah.
- You have to be very careful with the simple carbs.
So if you look up what that means.
And so what I did is I cut as much out as I could
at first, to get my...
I had a flare, so to get the flare down.
And then you try adding things back in,
and when you have a reaction you know
you have to stay away from that.
- Stay away from that one.
- And so one of the reactions I have is definitely to rice.
That's a big trigger.
Potatoes is a big trigger.
I sometimes sneak a little pasta and you know
it all depends on how much pain you can put up with,
I guess, for that food. - Sure.
- But, so those are big ones.
She did tell me, "No dairy."
And I think I started to cry. (Bob and Brad laugh)
But, I use a lot of creamer in my coffee
so she gave me ideas like what you threw across
the room earlier is my coconut oil.
- Oh yeah.
- So I put coconut oil in as well.
- Interesting.
- And actually a lot of people use coconut oil
in their coffee.
A caveat here is organic.
So everything, I try to buy as much as possible organic.
So I do organic coconut oil.
I do organic black bean pasta, you know,
whatever I can do organic.
- How about, are you staying away from some fruits?
- I'm not a big, see...
- So that wasn't a problem for you.
- I'm not a big fruit eater.
- So that wasn't a problem.
- But, from what I've read,
carbohydrates in natural form are fine.
It's the more processed ones.
- Sure.
- Sugar is a big one.
Oh, I wanna get back to dairy for a second.
So I love my cheese and I didn't think
I could do without my cheese.
So she gave me some tips on that.
Don't do the pre-shredded cheese
because that's got a lot of process.
So anything that's got a lot of processing.
Flip stuff over, read the label.
- Sure.
- If you can't pronounce it, don't eat it.
I mean, that's kind of a good rule.
The other thing is like say taco chips,
you can find organic...
- Tortillas.
- What am I trying to say?
Taco chips.
(Bob and Brad laugh)
That have three ingredients.
It's got the corn, it's got the oil that it's cooked in
and it's got salt.
That's fine.
- Sure.
- You find other bags.
- It goes on, and on and on.
- And for instance, we do a lot of shopping now
in the organic aisle or the health aisle.
- Gotcha.
- And they have gluten free, everything.
You turn that over and it's filled with rice flour
or this flour.
Right? I can't eat that either.
So you have to start to educate, it takes a little time
to educate yourself and to start reading labels.
- I think you made a good point.
Don't try to toss everything out at first,
try do this kind of like a scientist, go in and experiment.
- I'm just curious, you haven't mentioned anything
about meats or fats.
- Okay, so I had been on a diet for like forever
because and do a lot of low-fat, no-fat.
That actually is kind of harmful for you.
And the first thing she said to me is,
"You need to add good fats back in."
So cook with avocado oil, flaxseed oil, coconut oil.
Add the good fats in.
The meat, organic is best.
Nitrate free, if you wanna do
like sandwich meat or whatever.
Look for anything that's nitrate free.
We buy nitrate free bacon and sandwich meat.
It's a little harder to find, but you can do it.
- So you mean your diet prior to this specific diet,
you were cutting off.
- I was trying to do a low-fat, no-fat type diet
prior to this.
- Right.
- And what I've learned is that's a little more harmful
because of what they replaced the natural fats with,
is chemicals.
So anything I can eat that is chemical free is the best.
- So if you had a steak with some fat in it
as all organic nitrate free, that would be?
- And it doesn't even have to be organic steak, but yes.
- Right. - You know what I'm saying?
Yes. Oh, absolutely.
- Okay.
- Absolutely.
You can have your natural fats.
- Yeah, fats are not the culprit.
- Right.
- I think most diets are discovering that now
is that they went overboard in that direction
and people were gaining weight despite the fact
that they were low fat. - And actually healthy,
natural fats have a high satiation.
- Exactly.
- So it helps you feel fuller.
- Right.
- And if you're doing it right,
that's why nuts, almonds, those kind of things
are really actually quite good
'cause got the good oils in it.
- Anything else, any other group that you were avoiding?
- Yeah, sugar.
- Sugar.
- You have to really, especially white refined sugar,
anything processed, your Hohos and your that kind of stuff.
So when you bake, you now use honey or you use maple syrup.
- Oh, sure.
- So what I found is I'm very much of a snacker.
So I have to now just create some muffins to take along.
And I've got some great recipes for coconut flour.
So you just learn other things.
In all my baking now, I use almond flour or coconut flour,
and that's fine.
You can use that.
And then you use your honey as your sweetener
and clarified butter. - And I think,
even the fact, you know, I don't know
if you are spreading your meals out,
but I mean if you can keep your insulin levels
and talk about, rather than eating three big meals a day
or two big meals eat a lot of little meals,
you're keeping your insulin levels stable.
- Right.
- And then you're not getting that spike,
which obviously can affect your RA, I believe.
- Yes, and then of course if you're hungry,
you're grabbing things... - Right.
- That aren't necessarily good for you.
- Right.
- So sugar's a big one.
And I do like my wine and so wine is not good for me.
So I have to cut that back.
- Sauvignon Blanc has less.
(Brad laughs)
No, it does.
It's a lower glycemic level, by the way.
- It's a white though.
- Oh, you don't like white.
(Jody laughs)
- There's red ones that are really good too
like a Merlot.
- Yeah, I do like a Merlot. - Those are low.
The dryer wines are better.
I know all this, Brad.
- I know.
(Bob laughs)
- But I guess the point too is that you don't have
to cut everything out.
- Right.
- I was reading my notes for my nutritionist,
the first time I met with her, and she said
to cut back grains to half a cup a week or something.
Well, I cut them out completely
just because when I've tried to add them back in,
but some people can don't have to cut things out completely.
It's all personal.
- So it is individual, that you can kinda...
- Absolutely.
- Put it as a broad category, but each person may
be a little bit different in there.
- Absolutely, I think there's some big overreaching,
like the flours and grains are probably.
There's some big things, sugar processed foods, bad.
Let's try to keep those to a very minimum,
take them out, see how you feel.
Start adding a few things back in
and then you'll find your trigger foods.
- So I just wanted to mention you have some particular books
or some websites that you wanted to share
so that people can refer to that as well as
this excellent video that you're doing.
(Jody laughs)
- Thank you. - It really is.
- Yes, what I started doing was looking online
and there's something called mindbodygreen.com.
and they have foods that fight inflammation,
which I can't say.
- We'll put these in the description down below.
- Okay.
- I mean, how many websites do you have, would you say?
- Oh, just a handful.
And really when you Google,
if you Google "anti-inflammation diet,"
Paleo diet is really kind of what we try to follow.
- Yeah, I've been watching, I've been reading
on the Paleo diet.
- Right, so if you start Googling those for recipes
it just takes you everywhere.
And as a caution, a lot of 'em will try
to sell you something, but who cares?
Just use your information and put it into your lifestyle.
- What I like about this, Jody, is the fact that
even if people say you're nuts this isn't gonna help my RA,
this is good for you.
I mean, people...
- Oh my gosh, it changed my life.
- Yeah. People are gonna find out.
And I honestly believe it is gonna help your RA
and fibromyalgia without a doubt.
I think there's people,
remember we had the one guy on here
that actually talked about that his asthma
went away when he decreased his inflammatory foods.
So I think this is...
- Well, and it's not just RA.
I'm sorry, I didn't mean interrupt.
But it's not just autoimmune diseases.
- Exactly.
- There's a whole category that are based
on inflammation in your body.
And so it's not just the fibromyalgia and the RA.
I mean, anybody who's got an autoimmune disease
is going to be helped
by taking better care of what goes in their body.
- Wonderful.
- Right, It just seems like our culture,
you just go to the store
and if you took probably 75% of the stuff
in there's highly processed.
- Right.
- And you just change your whole outlook
when you go shopping, I'm assuming.
- Even the organic aisle, you have to be careful in.
And it does take more time and effort,
but I said, "Pain is a great motivator,"
and of course, I have an awesome husband who cooks for me.
So it really doesn't take that much off of me.
(All laughing)
- All right, once again, Jody, thank you
very much for joining us. - Thank you very much.
- She's done a wonderful job.
Please give her applause out there.
(Jody laughs)
And thanks for watching.