Food As Inflammation And Information

Dr Kirstey Holland 0:07

Food is inflammation. How what you eat speaks to your hormones and your metabolism. Food is inflammation. How what you eat speaks to your hormones and metabolism. Hi, beautiful.

Cecilia’s Data Changes Everything

Dr Kirstey Holland 0:24

I want to begin with a woman I call Cecilia because her story shows you exactly what this week is about. Cecilia came to me at 44, angry with her body and worn out by doctors who could not help her. By the time we reached this part of her healing, we had already repaired her gut and brought her hormones back into balance. What changed everything for her was not another rule about food. It was a small glucose monitor on the back of her arm. She had been ordering what she thought was the cleanest meal on the menu, a Thai chicken salad, and the monitor showed that same salad sending her blood glucose up to seven. She could not believe it. For the first time, she could see what her food was actually doing inside her body. That is what I mean when I say food is information. Every meal you eat sends a message to your body. It tells your blood sugar what to do, it tells your insulin how hard to work, and over time it shapes how your hormones and your metabolism behave. Most of us were taught to think about food as only calories in and calories out, numbers to keep low. I want you to think about it completely differently. Your food is a set of instructions, and your body is always listening to those instructions.

Why Perimenopause Shifts Blood Sugar

Dr Kirstey Holland 1:45

In perimenopause, this matters more than it used to because your body handles food differently now. As your hormones rise and fall unpredictably, your cells can become less responsive to insulin, the hormone that moves glucose out of your blood and into your cells for energy. Dr. Ben Bickman's work shows that when insulin stays high for too long, your body gets stuck burning sugar and struggles to reach your fat stores for fuel. His book is called Why We Get Sick, and I highly recommend it. It's a brilliant read. That is why the same meal that was fine at 35 can now leave you with an energy crash an hour later, a wave of hunger, and stubborn weight around your middle. Your metabolism is not broken, it is out of balance, and food is one of the clearest ways you can bring it back. This is also really frustrating because it isn't your fault. We are more predisposed in perimenopause to insulin resistance, and this is really frustrating. This is reclaim work, and I want to be honest with you about the order. You reach this phase after you have healed your gut and rebalanced your hormones. When those foundations are in place, learning to read how food affects you becomes a tool that keeps your energy steady, your mood level, and your weight where it belongs. That is body literacy. You stop guessing and start choosing from knowledge. Blood glucose monitor can literally make the invisible visible. I'm so glad you're here, and I want you to know that nothing I'm about to teach you is about eating less or being stricter with yourself. This is not another diet. This week is about learning to understand the messages your food sends your body so that you can make choices from a place of knowledge instead of guilt. Let me tell you about Cecilia. When she first came to see me, like I said before, she was angry at her body and angry at every doctor who had missed what was wrong. By the time we got to this part of her healing, we had already repaired her gut and brought her hormones back into balance. And then one small thing gave her the insight that changed how she ate for good. It was the blood glucose monitor. And I'll come to I'll come back to what it showed her. You are not imagining the change. So many women say the same thing to me. What used to work with my eating just doesn't work anymore. I have not become lazy, and you have not become your you have not lost your discipline, I promise you. Your body genuinely handles food differently now that it did, or your body handles food differently now than it did in your early 30s or 20s. When you understand why the frustration starts to improve and something more useful takes its place, which is curiosity about what your body is actually telling you. Your body needs different things now. I want you to think about food as text messages. So your food actually sends particular messages to your hormones. So what happens when you eat? Let me explain the biology as simply as I can. When you eat, your food is broken down and glucose enters your blood. Your pancreas releases insulin, and insulin's job is to move that glucose out of your bloodstream and into your cells so that we can use that glucose for energy. The same thing happens when you go for a walk, for example. The cell opens, glucose goes into it, and we start to burn that sugar for fuel. In perimenopause, as your estrogen rises and falls unpredictably, your cells can become less responsive to insulin. This is why there has never been a time in your life where you have been more inflamed with less energy. So because your body is less responsive to insulin, it can start to make more of it.

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Dr.

Dr Kirstey Holland 5:33

Ben Bickman's research shows that when insulin stays high for too long, it changes how your body responds, and you get trapped burning sugar for fuel instead of reaching into your fat stores. Now, what we want to do is reach into your fat stores so we can burn fat as fuel. This is one of the things that the power cover helps you to do. That is the reason you can feel hungry all the time, crash between meals, and struggle to lose weight, even if you're eating less.

Clues Your Insulin Is Struggling

Dr Kirstey Holland 6:01

Lots of women with insulin resistance have something called acanthosis nigricans, which is a darkening of the skin around the neck, under the armpits, or in the groin. They also notice much thicker skin on the soles of their feet and a hip-to-waist ratio measurement that isn't looking good, as well as skin tags. So if you have any of these and you've done your hip-to-waist ratio measurements and they're not looking good, you may be insulin resistant. We can also measure fasting insulin on a blood panel, which I highly recommend. Fasting insulin is part of the foundational blood panel, and it is absolutely imperative, in my opinion, because it can change 10 years before blood glucose levels do. Now, here is the part that I love. Your food is not just fuel, it is information for your whole system. A meal built around lean protein and plenty of green vegetables sends one particular message to your insulin. A meal that is mostly refined carbohydrates and sugar sends a completely different message.

Gut Bacteria That Calm Inflammation

Dr Kirstey Holland 7:04

Your gut is also really important and part of this connection too. The beneficial bacteria in your gut produce short-chain fatty acids, particularly one called butyrate. And butyrate helps your body respond to insulin better and calms inflammation. So the food that feeds those good bacteria is quite literally improving the way your body handles every meal that follows. One cup of color, three cups of green is the food that is feeding your beneficial gut bacteria. Make sure you feed your microbes at every single meal. Three cups of green, one cup of color, and the protein is for you.

Why “Healthy” Foods Can Backfire

Dr Kirstey Holland 7:43

The same food is not right for everybody. I want to tell you about two women because they taught me something I now teach every woman I see. The first I'll call Carla. Carla came to me after following a popular hormone program she found online. It was built on cheer seeds, flax, lentils, and chickpeas. All the foods, we are told, are healthy. Carla followed it exactly, and all she got was weight gain, joint pain, and constipation. Her question to me was, why is this not working? The answer was that her body carries more fat and is more prone to insulin resistance genetically, so a very high carbohydrate way of eating was working against her, not for her. When we built her meals around lean protein and green vegetables, and were more careful with the carbohydrates, her body started to respond. The second woman, Mary Ann, was reacting badly to the nitrate family, to tomatoes and peppers and eggplant. Foods that are perfectly good for most people. Once she took them out of her diet, her skin and her digestion settled. The lesson from both women is the same. A food is not simply good or bad. What matters is whether it supports your unique biochemistry or works against it. That's why it is imperative that we all create our own ideal food protocols through a full elimination and reintroduction program. This gives us food freedom for good. That is everything that the Heel Seal Repair Protocol is about. Your food is information, and the same message is received differently in two different bodies. Learning to read the message. This is where Cecilia's glucose monitor comes back in. A

Continuous Glucose Monitoring In Real Life

Dr Kirstey Holland 9:31

continuous glucose monitor is a small sensor you wear that shows you in real time how your blood sugar responds to what you eat, how you sleep, and how you move. For Cecilia, it was the aha moment she needed. That seemingly healthy Thai chicken salad she kept ordering sent her glucose up to seven, and she could finally see it. She wasn't guessing anymore. A blood glucose monitor makes the invisible visible. She could watch her own body answer back. I encourage a blood glucose monitor, try to say that quickly, in reclaim for exactly this reason. It turns food from a source of anxiety into a source of information. When you can see that a certain meal spikes you and leaves you crashing, and that a good night's sleep keeps your blood sugar more stable the next day, you start making choices from knowledge rather than from fear. This is the body literacy I want for you. And it is why reclaim comes after the harder work of repair and rebalance. You've earned the tools by then, and your body is ready to use them. What this makes possible. When you learn to read your food this way, something shifts that goes well beyond one meal. You become metabolically flexible, which means your body can move easily between burning glucose and burning fat for fuel, the way it was designed to. You stop being stuck in sugar burning mode with its consistent hunger and afternoon crashes. Your energy holds firm and your mind feels much clearer, and your weight becomes easier to manage because your body is finally getting its fuel properly. This is what Cecilia found. Once she could see what her food was doing, she began cooking simple meals at home, and that one change improved both her gut and the way her body handled insulin. She did not need to be perfect, she needed to understand, and then she could choose. I actually really believe that it was probably the source on the chicken salad that was causing the issue for Cecilia, because when she started to make homemade chicken salads, she said that the blood glucose represented completely differently. So cooking from scratch at home with beautiful fats like olive oil, coconut oil, ghee, MCT oil, using your high-quality protein, your three cups of green, and your one cup of colour is really what your body wants. And again, your microbes will be will be fueled. So here is what I want you to keep from this week. Your food is not a number to fear, it is information your body is always reading. In perimenopause, your body handles that information differently, which is why what used to work no longer does, and it's not your fault. When you learn to notice how food affects your energy, your mood, and your sleep, you stop guessing and start choosing. That is body literacy, and it is the heart of reclaim.

Track Patterns Without Diet Mentality

Dr Kirstey Holland 12:28

If you would like to notice these patterns for yourself this week, let us know. Use your perimenopausal symptom tracker along with the lifestyle, food and mood and pain diaries. You can use the food and mood diaries to notice how you feel an hour or two after eating. I have some powerful reflection questions for you now. Number one, when in the day your energy crashes tend to come, and what did you eat before them? Which meals leave you feeling clear and steady, and which leave you foggy or hungry soon after? What have you been told is healthy that does not seem to agree with your body? Number four, how do you feel about food right now, and how much of that feeling is guilt rather than information? Number five, if you could see exactly how a meal affected you, what would you most want to know? Number six, what would change for you if you trusted your own body's responses more than a diet rule? Number seven, where in your week do you eat on autopilot without noticing how you feel afterwards? Number eight, what is one meal you already know makes you feel good? And could you have it more often? Number nine, how does your sleep the night before seem to affect your hunger and cravings the next day? Number ten, what would it feel like to choose your food from knowledge rather than from fear? Some practical implementation for this week. None of this asks you to eat less or to be strict with yourself. I want you to be well-nourished and satiated. All of this is about noticing. For a few days, notice how you feel about an hour or two after eating. Are you steady and clear or hungry, foggy, or flat? Use the food and mood diaries to jot it down. Build one meal a day around lean protein, plenty of green vegetables, and one cup of colour and see how your energy holds compared with other usual meals. Notice your afternoon. If you crash and reach for sugar around 3 or 4, look back at what you ate at lunchtime. Try to eat protein before 10 a.m. in the morning if you find you're crashing at lunch. Pay attention to the morning after the poor night of sleep and see whether your hunger and cravings are stronger that day. Cook one simple meal at home this week instead of ordering in the way Cecilia did, and notice how your body feels. If you're further along in your healing and curious, give us a call, send us a message, and let us know whether you would like to try a glucose monitor. It may be the sensible next step for you. Some clinical insights I want to share with you. The order

The Right Order Matters Clinically

Dr Kirstey Holland 15:29

does matter. It actually makes it so much easier and it ensures that we don't need to do U-turns. Reading food and using a glucose monitor does belong to Reclaim. If a woman has not yet healed her gut and rebalanced her hormones, tracing glucose numbers can add pressure without giving her a stable body to work with. I always make sure the foundations are in place first. Watch for the woman doing everything right and getting nowhere. Kala is the pattern to recognize. A high carbohydrate hormone program is sold as healthy, yet for a woman prone to insulin resistance, it works against her. When a woman is frustrated that a clean diet is not helping, the food may simply be the wrong information for her body. We all need an individualized food protocol. The monitor is a teacher and not a test. Cecilia's breakthrough came from seeing, not from being told. It gives you very valuable information. Framed as a grade, it becomes one more source of anxiety. The gut is part of the metabolic picture. Short-chain fatty acids from beneficial gut bacteria, butyrate in particular, improve insulin sensitivity. This is why the repair work is not separate from the metabolic work. A healed gut is part of how food gets read correctly by your body. I've

Journal Prompts And Next Steps

Dr Kirstey Holland 17:04

got some gorgeous journal prompts for you inside of the Vitality Clinic and some QAs or a QA teaching guide from all of the questions that have come in this week. So make sure to have a look at it inside of the platform. Take it easy and have a beautiful day.