Episode 75 - Eating For Mental Health - How To Fuel Your Brain With Natasha Coughlin, Part 2 (Full Transcript)
This is a full transcript of the Nirvana Sisters podcast Episode 75 .
Editor’s Note: Please know that this podcast transcript is automatically generated and may contain minor errors such as typos and word switches. For more information, be sure to listen to the podcast here or view our podcast episode guide.
Amy: 0:06
Welcome to Nirvana sisters podcast where we take the intimidation out of well being and beauty to help you achieve your highest state your nirvana. We are sisters in law and your hosts. I'm Amy Sherman.
Katie Chandler: 0:18
And I'm Katie Chandler. So let's get into some real conversation
Amy: 0:28
hanging around the sisters family hope you enjoyed part one last week with Natasha Coughlin. And if you missed it, feel free to check it out. Great episode lots of good information shared and in this short part two continuation of the episode, we finish our conversation on eating for mental health. We talk about top tips for improving gut health and digestion, how to know how much protein and fat you need, and Natasha's thoughts on organic food and more. Enjoy this part two episode.
Katie Chandler: 0:58
I'm curious what your top tips are for improving gut health? Because that's obviously the number one thing for you. It's when you start, do you feel like you start there with your with your clients as making sure that their gut health isn't as in place? What do you do to get there?
Natasha Coughlin: 1:13
Well, we test I mean, I usually do a stool test. I mean, it's not the most popular option with adults, but people kind of tend to do it. You know, they say if you know, I trust you, if you think it will be helpful, you know, I'll do it. So yeah, so we look to see kind of what they're you know, they have enough digestive enzymes, enough stomach acid, what they're, you know, the big thing now is the microbiome, right, kind of what the microbiome are doing, what kind of bacterial composition is there. So we look at all of those things, but, you know, ultimately, you know, gut health is depending on whether you're kind of where you're starting, if there's actually you know, repair that needs to happen, then we do, you know, we do certain supplements, some herbs and some vitamins, and nutrients that kind of feed that lining to make sure it becomes nice and impermeable, again, right, nice and tight. And, you know, again, foods like bone broth are really good. Anything with probiotics, right fermented, like the like, you know, pickles, sauerkraut, those kinds of, you know, yogurt, I'm not, I'm not a fan of dairy. So some kind of do not usually recommend non, some kind of non dairy yogurt. But, you know, really, gut health is so individual, like I do kind of approach it with, you know, based on test results, and really, you know, talking to a person. So, but yeah, so those are, you know, some of the foods like bone broth is very healing anything. You know, again, you know, the general formula is kind of your, your plant heavy, Whole Foods, you know, try to avoid pesticides, so organic food as much as possible, because I think there's not, you know, not a lot of understanding about, you know, what, what pesticides are, and they're really, you know, they're kind of meant to affect that it's almost kind of like combust the digestive system of pests. So you don't glyphosate right, in the in the pesticides. So So basically, that's kind of what it does to us as well, if we eat foods that are conventional, and, you know, it sounds a little too dramatic, perhaps. But yeah, it does, you know, eating conventional foods can contribute to that hyperpermeability. So you know, organic food as much as possible, and just, you know, real Whole Foods, and then, of course, you know, chewing your food really well and making sure we're eating in a mindful manner. And we're sitting down and actually, you know, looking at the food and smelling the food, and, you know, taking a few deep breaths to put the nervous system in that rest and digest state, because usually we're in a fight or flight, right, we're going and then, you know, then we sit down and we grab something while doing something else. So the brain actually has to catch up. Yeah, the brain has to ultimately send the signals to the digestive tract, the food is coming in and you know, the enzymes have to be produced, the stomach acid has to be produced. So if we are not even looking at the food, we're just kind of grabbing an eating, we are ready, you know, a couple of steps behind so digestion is gonna start after you've already started eating and that's kind of too late.
Katie Chandler: 4:24
That's so true. And it's also like it's, it's too late for your brain to tell you that you're not hungry anymore. Like I know when I'm on the go. I just I feel like I'm constantly hungry. It's because I didn't slow down and take the time for my brain to catch up with the fact that I've eaten and I enjoyed my meal and right you know, so yeah, that's interesting. I'm just really quickly how do you feel about collagen supplements? I have been taking one recently and I believe it's good for gut health as well.
Natasha Coughlin: 4:53
Yeah, yeah. Collagen I mean, that's what's in your bone broth because Bone broth has all the you know, vitamins and minerals as well, but I Um, I think collagen is good. I mean, I like to, I like to use collagen in kind of alternating with just a whole, you know, protein powder, not just the collagen because collagen is, you know, missing one amino acid. So it's not a complete complete protein. But, you know, generally I like it, I mean, it's good to you know, add to your smoothies mix into a yogurt and mix it into pancake batter. It is important to get that protein in the morning so, I do I do like to use collagen as you know, as a source of protein, but also I have some kind of a whole protein powder as well, you know, perhaps on like alternating mornings,
Amy: 5:43
do you have any collagen or collagen or collagen protein powders that you recommend?
Natasha Coughlin: 5:50
I use vital Vital Proteins, Vital Proteins collagen, for the collagen powder. I like that be well by Callie. Because it's you know, she, she says, um, and you know, of course I trust what What would her company are, are saying that it's you know, very, very clean, you know, it's breast that produced without any chemicals. So that's the one I like, I don't like vegetarian protein powders, because you know, brown rice again, there's so much to talk about brown rice, even organic being contaminated with arsenic. I just kind of thought, you know, and vegetable protein is not that bioavailable, so I would rather go with something like collagen or just a whole, like grass fed beef, you know, based protein, rather than any of the brown rice based protein powder. I mean, I can you know, something like a ham protein with very minimal ingredients is, you know, would be a good way to go. But otherwise I go with no animal. And yeah, cuz
Amy: 6:55
I keep hearing like a lot of controversy about pea protein, as well. And I don't really know, I can't remember exactly what they're saying. But I just feel like I hear noise about that.
Natasha Coughlin: 7:04
Yeah, again, it's, it's all about how it's produced, like, a lot of times it's, you know, heavily heavily processed, and how they sort of extract things, there's a lot of that, that it's not, it's not a very, you know, clean process. And again, you know, peas, you know, peas are kind of an issue for a lot of people, I actually, this sort of triggers a memory, I had a client who was a vegetarian and was just using pea protein bass powder every day. And when we did her food sensitivity testing, that was the first thing that came up was like peas was like in the red, the highest, you know, IgG levels of, you know, antibodies to that. And, you know, in her case, it was you know, she had digestive issues, kind of weight loss resistance. And, you know, one of the things we did was we swapped her people just she did start eating some seafood and fish. So I kind of took you know, she wasn't a strict vegetarian anymore. But we also replaced her protein powder with something else and just actually some real sources of protein not just you know, not just something that comes from a you know, from a bottle. And we saw some great results especially, you know, weight was like weight loss that was kind of almost miraculous and she she kind of lost all those unwanted pounds very quickly that were just they're not not budging, and nice. So, yeah, so, yeah, so pros. I mean, I think protein powders is super helpful. And again, there's, you know, a variety of when people mix them into coffee, certainly smoothie, yogurt, pancake batter, you know, things like that. So in chia pudding when I make my chia pudding, even though chia seeds have the, you know, protein, and you know, good fiber, too, I still put a scoop of protein powder, just to beef it up a little too. And beef up. I mean, like beef up on the coast.
Amy: 8:58
Yeah, I always go back and forth with protein powder. I feel like I'm really into it and making shakes and doing all those things, or I'm like, not at all and I like just try to eat protein, like real protein, but um, it just reminds me like, I should just add it to things as you're cooking, it's a really good reminder.
Natasha Coughlin: 9:15
I think that's how it goes. I think we all go through that right in the smoothies. I mean, sometimes you're just absolutely sick of smoothies. And again, like we are now going into colder months like I know I'll be making soup you know, a lot more soups and a lot you know, fewer smoothies so so there's really no right or wrong I mean food is you know, it has to be done for enjoyment Right? Like you have to be actually enjoying where you're eating. And we get sick of things you know, if you if you made them your sort of same smoothie all the time, you would definitely want something different and as I tell my clients, you know, there's no right or wrong. Usually breakfast foods seem to be the tough ones. And I always say you know there's no right or wrong if you want your leftover chicken with veggies from the day before like you can have that For breakfast, like who said you can't. So so anything, anything kind of goes as long as it's, you know, nutritious as long as it's, you know, something your body is enjoying. And, you know, again, this kind of breakfast makes me think of the whole intermittent fasting as well, and people, you're skipping breakfast. I'm a big proponent of eating breakfast, I think it's much better and then delaying eating until later in the day, like all the research says that finishing your eating window earlier in the day is much better than not starting until like two o'clock in the afternoon. So, so breakfast, you know, maybe not the most important meal of the day, because I feel like that was the Cheerios message, you know, but it is like it really is important and having enough protein, but breakfast is I would say kind of like, you know, protein and fat, right? Because we always get the carbohydrates somehow, you know, from fruits, vegetables some way, but it's getting enough of the healthy protein and fats, and especially to start your day like that.
Amy: 11:06
Do you have a recommendation? No, this is like, hard to do, because it's very individualized. But like, how someone can determine how much protein and fat they need, because like, sometimes I will eat a healthy fat like nuts or salmon or whatever. And then I like won't have something else that's a healthy fat because I'm like, oh, maybe that's too much. But without tracking, which is like I've done and I hate doing is there a way to just generally kind of know like, if you're having enough protein or fat?
Natasha Coughlin: 11:34
Well, protein, I mean protein is kind of is more straightforward. The general formula is one gram of protein per kilogram of body weight. So your, you know, you divide your pounds by 2.2. And that's your, your weight in kilograms. And so one gram of protein per kilogram. So for, you know, for me, it's about, you know, 4550 grams of protein. So I know it's an equivalent of like, two chicken breasts. And, and I know I may not have two chicken breasts, but you know, I always start my breakfast with protein. And you know, no matter what I'm eating, I'm kind of like, I know that I'm getting that 10 to 15 grams of protein with my breakfast, whether it's in like a you know, Greek yogurt with like an added protein or I'm having like a chia pudding, or I'm having you know, something with nut butter with like, extra seeds on top, you know, something so 10 to 15 grams with your breakfast, and then the rest will be divided between lunch and dinner. But yeah, whatever kind of whatever fits in, like a piece of animal protein that fits in the palm of your hand is about 20 grams, you know, can be 20 to 25. So and then what about Yeah, you know, fats, there's really no requirement for fats, we just know that they have to be healthy. So rum Satish, I know, you know, I know my if I'm eating salmon, you know, I'm getting my good omega threes, olive oil is a really healthy fat. So just you know, dressing your, I always Drizzle olive oil on either salads or cooked vegetable. So that's kind of always there. And I never measure. Again, if we're dealing with you know, weight loss, you know, you may kind of need to look at the total calories in calories and see how much of that is coming from fat. But, you know, some people overdo things on the nuts. So nuts are about like, 10 nuts as a serving, like, that's kind of what you want to have per day. So not just like, keep grabbing from a bag and then at the end of the day, you realize the bag is empty and you know, you know, 12 ounces or something. So, but otherwise, if if fat is healthy, you know, whether it's you know, half of an avocado, you know, tablespoon of olive oil, you know, a piece of salmon, you know, in you know, even something like coconut oil I know there's some controversy because it's a you know, saturated fat but I think coconut oil, olive oil, coconut oil is healthy and like, tasted delicious on you know, certain foods, so, so, ya know, a
Amy: 14:03
lot of people put that in their coffee in the morning to coconut oil.
Natasha Coughlin: 14:07
Yeah, I like MCT. So MCT oil is derived from coconut oil, but it doesn't have that flavor. And it's much it's digested. Like it doesn't go through digestion the same way as others. Yes. Yeah. So I have to do Yeah, I like MCT like powder in my coffee. Or I use it as a liquid just to like put on a toast or pancakes or in a smoothie actually makes a smoothie just like tastes. It gives smoothies, this sort of round flavor. If you're a little bit of MCT oil. It's a good it's a good you know, speaking of mental health, it's a good brain fuel.
Katie Chandler: 14:42
Yeah, I love my MCT oil. Is it every morning? Yeah, you
Amy: 14:45
got me into that.
Katie Chandler: 14:47
Just really quickly before we move on to our wrap session. I so I love that you have mentioned organic, organic, organic because I actually had someone tell me the other day that it is is like complete nonsense. And that it's just the like the organic farmers are all paid off. It was like this total, like ridiculous the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. I want to hear from your nutritionist mouth. organics the way to go yes, if you can do that.
Natasha Coughlin: 15:19
Yes, I mean, I don't think it's like some big hoax. I mean, there's certainly you know, we can't control how, you know, 100% exclusively, you know, organic food is because again, there's a water supply, right, there's a air, we can't you know, nothing is grown in a silo, right, you can't really protect your fields from anything that's possibly coming in. But if food is not sprayed with glyphosate, that's pretty much as much as we can control. And I think that's what, you know, that's what's better for us. So because, again, that, you know, glyphosate is a, you know, it's, it's actually meant to disrupt the digestive tract of, of the pests. So therefore, it kind of does it to us as well. So, so I would say, organic, organic, organic, I do follow the Dirty Dozen clean 15 You know, every year when they put out their list, because there's some things that are just too expensive, organic or not available, or, you know, I know something has a thick skin and it's on the clean 15 You know, I just peel it and I know that I'm you know, I'm not getting the I'm not getting the pesticides from that. So, so that's, I would say at least do the dirty dozen clean 15 and kind of by those by those foods organic because I certainly, I mean, I honestly hate to see people who are like juicing their spinach or salary in their conventional you know, when I see people buying big bunches of conventional celery or conventional, you know, bags of spinach, because they're clearly for some kind of mass, you know, either juicing or smoothies or something like that. You know, yes, you're you're getting you know, you're you're getting the good but you're getting the bad a lot of battle with Yeah, with the goods. So, yeah, so I do like organic, of course, if it's available, if it's not cost prohibitive. The way to go
Katie Chandler: 17:18
next, thank you. Okay, I'm glad to hear that up. All right. Well, really quickly. Where can our listeners find you Natasha,
Natasha Coughlin: 17:25
integrative health, rd as an registered dietitian, integrative health rd.com. That's my website. And then I'm on Instagram at Natasha Coghlan. Fantastic.
Amy: 17:38
And do you do virtual appointments as well as people are able to do
Natasha Coughlin: 17:41
most of my appointments now? Our zoom? Yeah, nice.
Katie Chandler: 17:45
That's great. Okay. All right. Well, we're gonna get into our signature wrap session, we just have a couple questions for you. We want to know the first one, what is your favorite wellness or beauty hack?
Natasha Coughlin: 17:57
I would say my favorite wellness hack is going outside in the morning. I mean, that is my hands down. That's what I preach. That's where I practice that, you know, we have to go outside and get that first morning light just to turn off the melatonin, get the you know, get the other things started. So really so much research on that, that we need that first morning light and if it's combined with movements, even better, so like, like a 2030 minute morning walk out, of course, you can't if you can't do 30 minutes, just do something like around your yard or something that just exposes the eyes to the natural light. And, you know, as far as beauty definitely non toxic, just non toxic, you know, clean beauty. I used to harbor quite a bit because she's a friend and you know, I've kind of got to try a lot of her products. But anything, you know, anything that's from the non toxic brands, I would, you know, definitely I've been in I've been doing that for like, you know, the last 15 or 20 years. So really not exposing yourself to chemicals through beauty. Because that's again, it's not just it's not just for skin health, you know, we expose ourselves to chemicals that are disruptive to their immune system to their hormones. So really watching that and you know, kind of going minimal I would say you know that with beauty it's you know, you want clean beauty and fewer products if possible. And you know, my big pet peeve is perfume definitely like fragrances you know, like the chemical perfume I just cannot do because I read somewhere there's five to 700 different chemicals mixed. So I was like, I don't want that I might try to do some kind of you know, essential oil blend or something like that.
Katie Chandler: 19:45
It's it's weird. I just like the last couple of years I've had a complete aversion to perfume and I used to wear it every single day I need to do just like I couldn't. It was always like so offensive to me for some reason. I don't know why.
Amy: 19:57
Yeah, yeah, I can't wear anything. I used to wear stuff
Unknown: 19:59
too because Yeah,
Natasha Coughlin: 20:01
yeah, well, you know what it is, again, I think we're so overloaded right our bodies are so overloaded with toxins that we have this you know, threshold of detox where we're just dealing with so much that adding this another kind of layer of of a toxic and that's just, you know, offensive sort of, you know, offensive to the body and the liver has to, you know, metabolize it in you go through it and get rid of it. That I think that's just kind of like the straw that breaks the camel's back. Yeah, you know, it's just to agree
Katie Chandler: 20:32
with that. Okay. All right, this next one, we'll call your five minute flow you just got out of the shower and dried off and Uber pink, do their five minutes away. What are you going to do to quickly get yourself together and ready and out the door into that Uber on time?
Natasha Coughlin: 20:46
Okay, so shower, I guess I've taken a shower, cold shower, the end, just you know, 30 seconds of like a super cold shower at the end. That's I guess I would say that's my other you know, wellness hack is the is a cold shower, you know, minimal minimal skincare or some kind of a you know, moisturizer and yeah, either like a touch of Harper or OSHA or Malibu or what else do I use? You know, I usually have a few so some Yeah, some kind of just a daytime moisturizer and mascara, usually just mascara, a little bit of blush, actual blush that I use on my lips as well, you know, like a one of those creamy, creamy blush things. So kind of a non toxic mascara, and Ilia or Pacific or something like that. And what else I'm I'm totally crazy about my theory, like jogger pants that I got, I got a couple of pairs two weeks ago. And now like that's what I put on in the morning, but like a white t shirt. And they're kind of cute and stylish, but they're still comfortable like joggers, almost so and I don't know how I lived without them until I bought them two weeks ago,
Amy: 22:01
but sounds amazing. Yeah,
Natasha Coughlin: 22:05
they're, you know, they're these high waisted. I mean, that's what I wear. Like there are pants
Amy: 22:11
but there's a really cute,
Natasha Coughlin: 22:13
very versatile anyway. Yeah. So that's, that's what I would do. Yeah, but I think just you know, again, having it's good having a schedule, having a plan, Ryan kind of like doing things consistently, like day after day. Like I know, I really went outside and got my little bit of, you know, a few minutes of sun I did my cold shower that always wakes me up. And that's kind of what it's meant to do. Right sort of grabs up metabolism gives you that jolt of energy. And yeah, from there, it's pretty, pretty simple, really nice. So it'd be prepared, I think being prepared, right? I really have my kind of my outfit in mind. I have my dis few, you know, skincare things on the calendar, it's all their glass of water, you know, always glass of water in the morning for mental health because again, like I tell my clients, you know, we all kind of feel slightly fuzzy and foggy in the morning because brain does shrink, you know, kind of microscopically overnight. So we do we do need a glass of water in the morning to kind of get get things going not just from the metabolism perspective, like it's good for for metabolism and sort of general energy, but the brain needs it as well.
Katie Chandler: 23:25
Get out of that morning brain fog. Nice. All right. Well, it sounds like you also gave us how you maintain your daily Nirvana from the outdoors? And would you say in your showers? Is there any other maintainer dealing?
Natasha Coughlin: 23:40
Oh, that's a tricky one. I don't know if I do we know. I think we covered it. It's hard, right? Yeah, it's just you know, things things happen, right? I mean, Life is stressful. So true. The things always happened. But um, well, I have to mention in this again, going back to mental health, alcohol, like I don't, I don't drink alcohol at all. And I feel like it does, again, there's research that you know, alcohol, lowers our stress resilience. So I feel like that's might be one of the things that's helping me you know, it's like you get up in the morning and you don't have that little bit of a, you know, hangover thing. And, you know, you can sort of deal with whatever life throws at you that day. Better. You know, because I kind of have a good start, right and sleep. I mean, I know we didn't even touch on sleep, but obviously, so huge. You know, sleep is like, disrupted sleep is the best way to drive someone crazy, right? Yeah, physically. So yeah,
Katie Chandler: 24:41
I can. I can everything. Okay. Yeah. All right. Well, Natasha, thank you so much for your time. This gave us a lot of great information. I know our listeners are gonna love it. We really appreciate your time. And before we go, we like to wrap with a mantra or an affirmation. So let's wrap up this one. I think it's appropriate. Good health is a practice and I have patients. So just to remember to set it right.
Natasha Coughlin: 25:10
All right, but like that, yeah, nothing nothing happens overnight. I mean, all of these practices that we've been talking about, like they only work if they're consistent, like you can't just do it for a couple of days and say, you know, throw in a towel, you know, this doesn't work.
Amy: 25:25
Consistency is every soldier. Yeah. Yeah, well, so nice to meet you. We could like talk to you for hours. I feel like we need to have you back safe like so many more questions in my head. But this has been so informational and helpful, and I know our listeners are going to love it. So thank you again for being on the show. We'll make sure to be thank
Natasha Coughlin: 25:41
you guys it was so while it was so fun.
Amy: 25:45
Thanks for listening to Nirvana sisters. For more information on this episode, check out the show notes please subscribe and leave us a review. also find us on Instagram at Nirvana sisters. If you loved what you just listened to or know someone that would please share it and tag us. Tune in next week for a fresh new episode of Nirvana sisters will continue to watch out for all things wellness so you don't have to. Bye.