Jo Whitton and her son Isaac join me to talk about their journey with OCD and anxiety and the impact that the GAPS diet or life-changing food had on their health. This is an incredible story of the power of listening to your body and nourishing it with traditional foods from the perspective of mother and son. The changes that they made a big difference not only to their lives but has also impacted a much wider community on the quirky journey.

Selected Links from the Episode

Terry Wahls "Living Proof: Food As Medicine"

Jo Whitton website and podcast "A Quirky Journey"

Mindd Foundation

Quirky Cooking

Life-Changing Food

Download the PDF transcription

Dr. Ron Ehrlich:                   Hello, and welcome to Unstress. I'm Dr. Ron Ehrlich.

Food is medicine. You must have heard that before. We actually did a show, episode 19, with Dr. Terry Wahls, called Living Proof: Food As Medicine, where food transformed Terry's life from advanced, wheelchair-bound multiple sclerosis sufferer, to someone who now walks and rides pushbikes, and horses, and lectures around the world, including Australia.

Two and a half thousand years ago, Hippocrates said, "All disease starts in the gut." Importantly, he didn't distinguish between mental and physical disease. He said all disease. And then he also went on to say, "Let food be your medicine, and medicine be your food." You can see why he is considered to be the father of medicine. Those messages are even more relevant today than way back then.

My guests today are mother and son, Jo and Isaac Whitton. Jo is a mother of four. She's personally had a history of health issues growing up, and then some issues within her growing family. Isaac, at the age of 11, was suffering from, at times, debilitating anxiety and depression. Just to put this in a broader perspective, we touch on some statistics about the issue of youth mental health, and as you'll hear, well, it's pretty alarming. It was at 13 years old that Isaac literally woke up one day and was suffering from a severe condition that threw up some serious challenges to him and his family. Well, I'll let them tell you about it. It's quite a story.

They explore a diet focused on a link between the gut and the brain. It's called the GAPS diet. I'll let them explain that, as well. You will have heard on this show before that the gut is the second brain. There's a strong connection between mood and food. But when it's really not functioning properly, things can really start to go even more seriously wrong. Jo has written a fabulous cookbook, in fact, two. Her first is called "Quirky Cooking," but following on from her family's experience, her latest book is called "Life-Changing Food." The title actually says it all, and I thought it's such a powerful story, I'd let them tell you about their journey.

I hope you enjoy this conversation I had with Jo and Isaac Whitton.

Download the PDF transcription

Welcome to the show, Jo, and Isaac.

Jo Whitton:                           Thank you.

Isaac Whitton:                     Thank you very much.

Dr. Ron Ehrlich:                   Jo, in our family, I think we were just talking about this, your book, the "Life-Changing Food," holds pride of place in my household, and in both my daughters' households. But for you, this really was life-changing. Can you give us a little bit of a background as to what prompted this book, and this title?

Jo Whitton:                           Gosh, I think how far to go back? When I was growing up, I had issues with food. I didn't realize it was that at first. I didn't realize it was food reactions. I just thought it was just me. I was always getting sick. I always had colds. I always reacted to dairy, but I didn't know that that's what was going on back then. And as I got older, it got worse, and then I started having, late teens, I was having the hormonal issues, and the skin breakouts, and I was very underweight.