(upbeat music) And welcome back to family Health Matters.

I’m Shelly Irwin.

With me are the experts.

Alyssa Koopman, PT Sports Pro registered dietician.

Paula Kerr, director of nutrition at Meals on Wheels of Western Michigan, and Tessa Sterling, clinical director at Sanford Behavioral Health.

I only get the best, the little women power here we have today.

Ladies, let’s talk about how you spend your day in this important field of food and mood, Tessa.

As the clinical director at Sanford behavioral Health, I’m overseeing all of our mental health programming and our mental health therapist at Sanford, we provide services for substance use disorders, eating disorders, and mental health concerns, um, varying from residential levels of care to more outpatients, so if you’re needing a lower level of support, but ensuring that our patients are well supported and getting the therapeutic services they need and and healing.. Tell us about you, Paula.

All right.

I spend a lot of my day talking to our older adult clients in our home delivered meal program within our community dining sites that we have and then ensuring that we have healthy nutritious food at our food pantry.

I also do a lot of menu and recipe testing with our chef.

Alyssa, your niche, please?

Yes, I am with PT Sports Pro, which is a sport and wellness practice.

And so we offer personal training, physical therapy, um performance testing and nutrition counseling.

And so much of my day-to-day looks like one on-one consultations with athletes, active individuals or just people looking for support with their nutrition habits.

Each of those, you know, one on one sessions can look vastly different for some people, it might look like working on fueling strategies or maybe support with their specialty diet if they follow vegan or vegetarian, or maybe even meal planning support, too.

So while the one on one might stay consistent day to day, really those individualized sessions can vary greatly.

Right.

Well, we’ll talk about food and mood and then maybe tangent into your specialties.

I’ll start with you the same question to each of you.

Are we what we eat?

When I think about, you know, that question, it feels very nuanced.

And when we think about food, it really is the fuel for our bodies.

But it’s so much more complex than that.

Food and nutrients can support so many different physiological processes going on in our body.

But when I think about, you know, who we are in our bodies, I also have to consider things like genetics in the environment lifestyle in so much more.

So while, you know, diet and food is a component and a modifiable component, um I also like to think that there’s like a much bigger picture, too.

Yes.

Your niche in the senior world, perhaps in the underserved world, is what we eat matter.

Does it matter?

It does matter.

It certainly does.

It is one behavior that we have that we have to do multiple times a day if we can, right?

To fuel our bodies appropriately, to keep them healthy and well.

And it’s certainly important.

And like you were saying, it’s a small piece, right?

It is one piece.

But if we look at total determinants, social determinants of health, there’s so much more that goes into our health and well-being than just food.

And Tessa, with your niche as we talk about food and mood, uh it plays an important role in with your clients.

Talk a little bit about dealing with this.

Yeah, certainly.

From a mental health and specifically eating disorder, perspective, nourishment is really vital in in maintaining our mental health.

I often give the example, if you’re running out the door for work, your alarm goes off late, you don’t have a chance to eat breakfast, maybe you don’t have coffee, you’re rushing out the door, you’re really setting up yourself to maybe have an anxious or challenging start to the day.

So nourishing ourselves in in adequately eating and feeling ourselves really sets us up to be able to have a better mood throughout the day.

And when we’re we’re looking at things from an eating disorder perspective, there’s obviously some impairment in ability to nourish oneself or have the insight of what those nourishment needs are.

And so, really, we’re thinking about maintaining those things first, and often we do see an improvement and anxiety and depression, and some of these other challenging symptoms that fol with eating disorders endure once they are better nourished.

Granted, I echo these two in that.

It’s just a small piece of it, but it is really a foundational building block of maintaining mental health and positive relationships.

And yet staying in your world, lack of nourishment can change a brain?

Yeah, certainly.

So there’s several medical complications associated with eating disorders and um granted I’m not a doctor, but there are many there are of um decreased bone density, decreased heart rate, um GI issues, um, really high lethality rate, actually with eating disorders.

Anxy and herbosa has the highest mortality rate of any mental health condition that there is.

So really a pretty risky disorder and interventions really, really pivotal for this.

So as Stanford behavioral health were really working on getting these folks the treatment they need to recover and live a happy and healthy life.

And in part decrease some of those medical complications associated with that and really supporting them, killing their their minds and bodies.

Staying with you, Paula.

What’s your big picture when you plan your meals for your constituents and, you know, do you can consider their moods?

Um, yes, I do.

Yes.

It’s we age, obviously, a lot of things change.

Our taste buds change, maybe our ability to chew and to swallow, the way the foods that we maybe used to like, we don’t anymore.

And so there’s a lot of factors to consider what I really try to do, though, especially with the mood piece, is to plan menus and serve meals that create nostalgia for our older adults.

For instance, collared greens.

We have those on our menu, we serve those at our community dining sites.

Now, for a client that’s eating those, you know, they might not be how grandma made them, way back when, but they can create nostalgia.

It’s something they’re familiar with, they like to eat.

and there is a lot of research that shows, even that feeling of nostalgia, that good food and memory can have really good health outcomes and effect the health and the mood of someone.

So even that little thing goes into menu planning, not to mention trying to cram as many fruits and vegetables as we can in those trays that they get and at the community dining when they eat and certainly having a variety of fresh produce at our food pantry.

So that’s, obviously, it’s a great way to increase moody.

The more fruits and vegetables that you can eat, as we know, it’s kind of a standard message, but, yeah, there’s some unique things with older adults that go into menu planning that really we want them to eat when sometimes eating is a challenge.

All right.

Andathlete walks into the bar, not really.

Walks into your PD sports Pro and says, I need I need a nutritional guide for this upcoming event.

How much do you consider their mood when you do that planning?

Definitely a lot, because, well, something that I think about or that comes to mind first is that typically an athlete is going to have pretty high energy demands.

They require a lot of food.

So, not only does that food need to be nourishing and, you know, combine all of the different components, protein, carbohydrates, fats.

But we also need to make sure that they’re eating enough.

And sometimes, that is finding that enjoyment in food as well.

So, not only thinking about the body and feeling the body, but also considering whether their taste preferences, what gets them excited to eat, to help meet those high energy demands.

Let’s perhaps a couple myths or run with it, I’ll stay with you, Alyssa.

Are there foods to increase my energy?

Can I eat and well, sometimes when I eat an apple, I am a little spunkier, but you know, can I choose?

Yes, that’s that’s a good question.

And I feel like a lot of people might at some point in their life experience low energy or fatigue, but once that becomes prolonged or chronic, that’s when we really want to consider what does someone’s maybe diet looks like.

And as I was mentioning previously, athletes or some active individuals, their energy demands are going to be pretty high, maybe because they have a high training schedule at the moment.

And so, for me, step one, the question’s always going to be, are we meeting those energy demands?

Are we meeting like the baseline needs to support the physiological processes that need to work in our body?

And then we can begin to look at, okay, are there carbohydrates?

Are we meeting those needs?

protein, fats, those macronutrients.

After that, then we can take a look at some of those micronutrients, vitamins and minerals.

And um sometimes if an individual is deficient in a certain vitamin, a certain mineral, sometimes that low energy, um fatigue can also come into play.

So that’s also something to consider when we want to improve someone’s energy, taking a look to see maybe through blood work, working with their health care provider.

Are we deficient at any of those vitamins and minerals and then correcting that either through diet or supplementation as well?

Nice.

Paula, you may work with a a guest, a client who has inflammatory issues.

Do you, when prescribing, are you looking at anti-inflammatory foods?

Does that do those exist?

Um, I believe they do, and it kind of goes back to that fruit and vegetable.

We can’t they’re gonna come up a lot keep steer me, I know.

um because they do help, right?

And like one thing we do on our menus is um you know, for protein sources, it’s not just all meat, right?

Where we think of, oh, meat is high protein, and in fact, it is, but we incorporate a lot of plant-based proteins into our meals, too.

again, the power of plants with the amount of fruits or vitamins and minerals they have in them that really are good for controlling inflammation as well, and then making sure they just get enough calories, right?

And spacing out the carbohydrates and making sure they’re eating more than one meal a day and things like that.

So that can all help with controlling inflammation, too?

Yep.

Back to a very important mood, uh depression.

How is what’s the correlation between eating disorders and depression these days?

Yeah, we see highcomorbidities with eating disorders and depression and anxiety.

um anxiety typically is the highest comorbidity with eating disorders.

um a lot of overlap there.

So when we’re working with clients at Sanford, we are really looking at them holistically, and making sure they’re nervous, if they have an eating disorder, a substance use disorder, that we’re really taking all of those things into account.

We know that the nourishment, um, the substance use, the really mood, it’s all intertwined.

So if we were to pick out, hey, we really wanna just work on just your substance use, just your eating disorder, we’d really be missing the mark.

Um, so, really making sure we’re managing all of those things, providing coping skills to manage depression and anxiety, um cognitive behavior therapy is really evidence based practice for depression, anxiety and eating disorders.

So a lot of roots of cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavior therapy rooted in our curriculum and and how we’re treating our clients.

All right.

I ask if we are what we eat, is a calorie?

what goes in goes out?

Is that a myth or is that true?

I can eat the thousand calories of chocolate and be fine versus apples and oranges.

Yeah.

Yes, the common calories in equals calories out.

I feel like that is I hear that very frequently in media.

And I am going to debunk it a little bit, um that while, you know, the quantity of the things we consume is important, the quality of the things we consume is also very much important.

And so when I use the word quality, you know, looking at the nutritional composition of our food, I touched on those macronutrients.

So are we getting a variety of macronutrients, the carbohydrates, the protein, the fat, quality from those micronutrients, too.

Are we getting color within our diet?

different fruits and vegetables as well?

So the quality in our meals, in our dietary pattern over time is very impactful on our health.

so each calorie um can really have a different effect in our body just the way we metabolize it, the way our gut microbiome uses um different components of food as well, so there can be a pretty big um different outcome depending on the type of food that we’re eating.

Well, I know you work with, uh, obviously the senior, but also perhaps the underserved.

What what do you keep in mind when uh designing programs for for he or she?

Really making sure that we can offer a variety of foods in every form, you know, I’m sure we all hear, you know, fresh is best.

Well, that all of a sudden sets up that what about the things that aren’t fresh?

What about the canned green beans?

What about the frozen berries?

You know, what about juice?

what about dried fruits and vegetables?

What about things that are packaged and processed perhaps?

And if we say that only fresh or only unprocessed, well, we have a lot of people in our community that the things they have access to might come in a box or might be in a different form.

It might be canned, you know, fruits and vegetables.

And you know what?

They have nutritional value, too.

I really believe there is no good or bad food.

food doesn’t have moral value, right?

It is how much you eat of it, how often, right?

And really trying to make sure that any program we offer, any menu that we have, the foods that are available at our pantry, are a variety.

and even a variety of types, how they’re processed even, but that gives, um I think, access and um kind of a level playing field to to say that it doesn’t all have to be fresh or organic or anything else.

because all people can, you know, we want people to have as much access to as much food as possible, and we don’t want to like demonize some certain type, right?

Or even some food.

Remind me about your pantry.

One may not know that you have this pantry opportunity.

Yes, we have a seenior food pantry, and it is for seniors that are low income that are 60 or older and live in Kent County.

and they can shop twice a month.

and like I said, it’s set up like a grocery store.

Like it’s there’s foods from all different food groups in all different forms, and it really helps, like stretch the food budget, especially as it older adult is deciding, like do I buy food?

Do I pay my electric bill?

Do I buy, you know, get my prescriptions or I’m back to food again?

And that competing of like this food pantry really helps in providing extra food for their home for themselves.

essa, when does one know to ask for help?

I want when it comes to an eating disorder?

What mood does one need to be in if we want to go there?

Yeah?

Sure.

Yeah, I think um the answer to that question is is new hands, right?

I think some big things to look out for are are your mental health symptoms impacting your day-to-day functioning in your moods?

So when and doubt seek out a healthcare professional, you can always call Stanford Wavioral’s intake line and whether you think you’re a good fit for our programs or not, we can really give you some more guidance on that.

um, and if we’re not the right place for you, um we will provide referrals.

So I think if there’s concern, if there’s any sort of impact on level of functioning, whether it’s your energy, your mood getting out of it in the morning, difficulty eating regularly, consult with healthcare providers, consult with us.

We love to be a community partner and support those in need and get that information.

Eating disorders is a really specialized field and I think really requires more support from a licensed healthcare professional to determine what is truly an eating disorder or what is not, right?

And there’s a lot of nuance in that, and we also want to make sure we’re rolling out any other medical conditions to other things that could be impacting appetite, how full we are, our energy levels.

Like I said, like you mentioned the the micronutrient levels in the blood.

So there’s lots of kind of things that go into giving and eating disorder diagnosis and when and doubt seek out a health care professional when you’re concerned about about deviations from your your typical.

Yes.

Is still one of your larger target audiences, the the teen, the early adult?

Yeah, I mean, I would say eating disorders don’t discriminate.

We see them in all ages, um all populations.

I mean, historically, we’ve even seen them.

I don’t.

There’s some misconceptions that, you know, social media maybe amplifies those.

I think we have seen eating disorders for hundreds of years.

I think the element of social media certainly doesn’t help the comparison and um just kind of promoting some diet culture trends at Stanford, we practice a haze approach, health at every size.

The principles of the haze approach are anti-restrictive eating behaviors antitiiet.

And the concept is that longevity of life and quality of life is not determined by weight.

So really we see better longevity in life due to lifestyle factors, sleeping, eating appropriately, um and whatever setpoint your body is at when we’re engaging in those healthy lifestyle haitsits is a healthy weight for us.

So we’re really practicing, you know, weight is not the only indicator of health.

In fact, it’s actually a poor indicator of health based on studies from the Hayes approach and so just really working with clients individually to think about, you know, working on those habits and then the weight and the set point that their body is at, that’s that’s what is healthy for them.

Great.

Well, we’ve talked food and food, let’s throw a little water in food and and drinking food.

How important is it that your athlete learn about how much, well, water to it yes.

Yes, water is very important for, you know, lubrication of our joints, moistening skin, tongue, eyes, and then also the transportation of nutrients and waste throughout the body.

And so when thinking about water, um, you know, I think about someone’s fluid intake in addition to their electrolyte intake to find that uh proper hydration status.

And I feel like I hear a common water recommendation is eight, eight ounce glasses, and while there’s no one universal water recommendation for some athletes, it might look more like 80 to 100 ounces of water.

And also just considering that we can get water in fluid through other things, like our fruits and vegetables are going to contain high amounts of water.

We’re also going to get water through tea soups.

coffee.

So there’s multiple ways that we can meet that fluid status.

Um so very important.

um and A, I like to give a practical tip to some of my athletes as a way to take a look at your own check in with your own hydration status, and that can be through a simple year in check, taking a look at the color of your urine.

Are we there’s urine charts out there, are we overhydrated under hydrated as a practical way to check in with yourself?

um, and, you know, consider your own hydration status.

Staying with the the liquid?

When does when is it time to prescribe the the boosts, the insurers, the the whole milk versus the less?

What and how does that affect mood?

Right.

Well, uh we do an assessment with every home delivered meal client, and on that we’re assessing male nutrition risk.

And many times if a client comes back and they’re at risk for malenutrition, or maybe they are malenourished, we can look at, okay, all the foods and meals that they can get from us, but is it time to perhaps have some more liquid nutrition, especially if chewing and swallowing is an issue, especially just low appetite is an issue, and the thirst mechanism doesn’t work as well, either as we age.

So trying to get nutrition in in an easy form is where things like ensure boost liquid nutrition supplements can come into play and really help an older adult still have enough calories when some of the mechanisms of chewing and eating low appetite are affecting that.

So they do they do help in a lot of cases.

You mentioned uh Tess that um Tessa, there’s that co-occurring disorder that happens, eating disorder, substance abuse, we’ll say, I mean, do you see it eating disorder and and an alcohol challenge company?

Yeah, so I think when we’re thinking about eating disorders and substance use, we’re what what science tells us is that um some of our neurological pathways are rewarded, um our reward system is kind of, for lack of a better word, it’s a little bit distorted.

So part of our treatment is rewiring those brains to get those neurop pathways firing in a way that’s adaptive and healthy.

So, as opposed to seeking out substances or restriction or purging these behavors that are not good behaviors for long- lasting health.

We’re really looking at rewiring and getting them in a place our clients in a place where they feel comfortable seeking more adaptive coping mechanisms and how they can seek support with that.

But we really have to intervene on the habit level because um our behavior drives the changes in the neurallasticity.

So there’s a lot of hope and recovery from substance use disorders, eating eating disorders.

Um However, it requires a lot of changes in behavior and that’s what we’re there to support with because we know it’s really challenging to do it on your own.

I, takes a teen.

All right, uh winding down.

I want to stay with you, Tessa in saying our good goodbye.

Do you have an event coming up?

Yeah, we have an event at Rockford High School on January 29th, eating disorders, hiding in plain sight.

It’s a three hour event, um really just teaching the community about how to look out for eating disorders.

They often go under diagnosed and missed, um, especially with the diet culture that we live in.

I think a lot of disordered eating is really normalized, so we want to educate communities, um mental health professionals, dieticians, family members.

um so if you’re curious to learn more, um please attend.

We’d love to have you.

It’s 5:30 to eight 8:30. um you can also check out our website, Sanfordbehavioralhealth.com.

or give us a call if you or someone you know is needing needing support.

um but yeah, our event is January 29th, 5:30 to 8:30 you can register or walk in, but excited to connect with the community and and provide further education.

Great.

Thank you for that.

Polla on behalf of meals on Wheels, Western Michigan.

What do you what’s our action item here?

here when it comes to food and mood?

I just can’t take a pill.

Our action item is we want a community where no senior is hungry or forgotten.

And we have these three main programs that we would love to serve those that are 60 or older in Kent or Allegan County that can qualify for home delivered meals and for our community dining, if you don’t want to eat alone, that in fact will improve your mood.

If you can join others to have lunch, we have 13 dining sites in both of those counties that certainly on our website, we have more information about those, which is mealsonwheelswesternmichigan.org and then obviously, our food pantry as we talked about, so nice.

Thank you for what you do for our community.

Let me spend some time with you unless, first of all, I forgot to ask the question.

How about the chocolate thing?

Is that going to help my mood or uh or or not?

I think similar to what, you know, Paula was mentioning earlier, we do have these foods that, um whether it brings a sense of nostalgia, maybe it brings a sense of pleasure, a sense of joy, comfort.

I think that those foods are also very much important to to include within our diet and those can still help provide some type of boost to mood in that sense.

So I think being able to take a look at your that overall dietary pattern and making sure that we’re able to enjoy some of those foods that maybe just taste good to us or bring that sense of comfort and joy too.

And if I want to live to be 100 and keep on running, a lot of rice and beans.

Lots of variety, lots of everything.

Yeah.

What do you leave us with when it comes to the athlete or the one who needs a well, some guidance, yeah.

um I think just acknowledging that nutrition is a lot, and there’s a lot of information out there and it’s so unique to each body and each lifestyle.

And so when, you know, even considering all the information that we talked about today, maybe taking one small piece in seeing if you can apply it and have that small habit, maybe it’s just incorporating one extra serving the vegetable and starting out small, building the habit and making sure it can be attainable and sustainable.

And if you need support or if you have, you know, additional questions, there are resources out there.

There are dietitians and other healthcare providers out there that are, you know, here to help you along your path too.

It is a long and winding path.

Tell us that we find out more information.

you can find me at PTsportspro.com.

Great.

Never too late to change to start to do better at any point in our lives, getting the heads up and down All right, ladies.

Thank you for what you do and with both of your all of your ditches with Sanford behavioral health, with meals on wheels, and of course, with PT sports Pro, good to have you here.

It has been all about food and mood, make the choices wisely based, of course, upon our experts and live life to the fullest.

Thank you for watching and of course, uh enjoy your super day.

Join us again.

I’m Shelly Irwin.