The Healthy Exception

THE 28: Anorexia Reframed – Squashing That Stereotype

Anorexia – what a huge topic, but an important one to start talking about. Sadly, it’s a poorly understood illness, even by those experiencing it. It’s confusing, overwhelming and the current treatment protocol; rapid weight gain (with assistance from highly processed items … I can’t bring myself to call them “foods”), counselling sessions revolving around body image and food intake, physical activity restriction and telling the patient that they’ve got a voice in their head called “anna”, “ED” or “rex”, just seems counterintuitive.
What if we changed the way we viewed anorexia nervosa, saw it as more of a physical illness than a mental illness. If we understood that there is something disturbing neurotransmitter and hormone production and usually there’s gastrointestinal upset as well. Sometimes, anorexia can even be secondary to a primary illness; maybe someone had intestinal permeability which lead to malnutrition which lead to symptoms of anorexia, such as poor appetite, weight loss, fatigue, constipation and depression. It’s not as simple as poor body image and starvation. That’s the stereotypical view – the one that creates stigma and stops us from having empathy or looking for the root cause.
Please I urge you to listen into today’s podcast and learn about this physical illness from a different and more empowering, pro-active perspective. Let’s have conversations, understand rather than judge and most importantly, get our own health on track so that we prevent the chain of events that pre-dispose us to getting an eating disorder.
Share this episode with anyone you feel could benefit from it or be comforted by the message that “its not all in your head”.
I look forward to hearing your feedback – this is a topic super-close to my heart and I hope what mum and I have discussed today has helped you in some way, no matter what side of the table you are on.
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THE 27: From Hyperactivity to Fit and Thriving With Chiara-Lee Soll

This week I interview 15 year-old Chiara-Lee Soll. When she was 10 years old she was hyperactive. She distracted her classmates, she couldn’t concentrate on hew schoolwork and she struggled to stay focused enough to excel in her favourite sport; basketball. Her breaking point was when she didn’t get accepted into the same basketball team as her friends because she’d been too distracted to listen to the coach. She needed a massive change.
Her family came across the Paleo diet and gradually transitioned from Jam donuts, cheesy pasta and large pizzas to organic whole foods – avoiding grains and dairy, two foods that particularly triggered Chiara’s symptoms. Within a week Chiara noticed her behaviour starting to change and now, 5 years later, she is killing it on the basketball court, making excellent grades and has a supportive group of friends. She is enthusiastic about spreading the word that what you put into your mouth can change your life – or in her case, give you your life back.
We chat about how she now sees her siblings, that weren’t even sick to start with, doing better health wise because of the changes her family made. Her younger siblings eat mostly whole foods but can also enjoy a few “treats” (ice-creams etc.) every so often without noticing any ill effects. Thanks to Chiara they have turned their health around early and have so much more flexibility with their lifestyle that those of us that got quite ill and had to come back from there … we will always need to be more cautious.
We also chat about the challenges of eating differently to your peers, especially at a young age and Chiara gives advice on how to cope with the teasing and feeling slightly isolated because you don’t eat the same as everyone else. Finally, we discuss the physical benefits of a whole foods diet; how well you can recover from exercise and injury. So many young elite athletes are still effected by injuries from several years ago – ones that never fully healed. Many young athletes are also quite fatigued and struggle to bounce back after intense training sessions and we suspect it’s because their poor bodies simply aren’t getting the nutrients they need to repair and rejuvenate.
Bottom Line: food can heal and change your life. It’s not a myth, it’s not a fad and it’s not just something we tell ourselves because we think that foods like kale and coconut oil are “sexy”. We are what we eat because every process in the body is facilitated by nutrients. No nutrients, no function – simples.
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THE 26: Q&A Requests With Mamma T

I recently asked one of the ladies that I did yoga teacher training with (she’s also a primary school teacher) to ask her grade 6 and 7 students what they wanted to know about health. I really want to stay relevant to what you guys want and I figured, what better way than to ask directly. So when she got back to me with their responses, Mamma Bear and I decided to have a go at answering them.
Covered today …
How much food can you eat in a general day?
How much fruit and veg should I eat?
Do 12 year olds need to worry about their weight?
Is cold water healthy?
Can you drink too much water?
Can “detoxing” give you cancer?
Will getting healthy NOW actually prevent chronic disease in the future?
This is such simple stuff, the basic 101’s of healthy living, and I think sometimes I forget, as someone that has been researching health and nutrition from a young age, that these questions are still commonplace for most people, regardless of age.
The answers are by no means conclusive, I’m only 2/3 of the way through my nutritional and dietetic medicine degree and mum is a teacher and inclusive educational tutor – we don’t claim to know it all. What we give (as we always try to) are some basic rules of thumb, the basis for a healthy food philosophy and a voice of reason against some of the extreme views in today’s world of health and “wellness”.
We hope you enjoy getting back to basics today and that you find yourselves looking at things differently, or at the very least, nodding along – content in the fact that you are already on the right track.
Big test Hugs lovely listeners, as always, thanks for trusting me with your time and ears and for tuning in xxx
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