This is one of those episodes that I was teasing last week – a clinician who is immersed in the functional medicine world but not necessarily the non-diet culture world, but who takes a non-diet approach to therapeutic elimination protocols. This is one of those people for whom if you were only in the non-diet-culture world, you probably would never seek him out or hear his expertise. But our conversation with Dr. Will Cole today, we’re focusing on nutrition science from an intuitive eating middle ground, while talking about bioindividuality and how body image and stress play into health, and finding freedom from food …which you might never expect to hear from someone who previously has done a lot of work in the keto world. We’re digging into inflammation and intuitive eating, and finding food peace within a functional medicine approach with Dr. Cole today!

Disclaimer here. We’re talking about on this episode on how it’s so important to do the mindset work before you can really get to the anti-inflammatory work (which involves removing non-food triggers, but sometimes involves making some food changes) – if you feel like even hearing someone talk about making these kinds of food changes may be triggering for you or put you right back into yo-yo diet mode, the end of this episode might not be for you. But I’d encourage you to listen up to at least 40 minutes because there is some fantastic information in here about managing inflammation in a totally non-food-related way, talking about stress around food and body image and finding food peace that I know you will love.

Discussed on today’s episode:

What food freedom means to Dr. Cole in the scope of functional medicine.

How to find balance between a complicated history with food, and finding real healing and food peace

Finding the middle ground between “eat whatever you want because it doesn’t matter” and the orthorexic tendencies of dieting dogma

The key piece of intuitive eating that most people are missing out on, and lowering inflammation in order to be able to hear your intuition

Inflammation 101: how it isn’t evil – it’s when inflammation gets out of control that it can cause ill health effects, and the different sources of inflammation

How inflammation manifests in the body in different ways – and why this means that there isn’t just one “anti-inflammatory diet” that will work for everyone

Why you might have inflammation going on even when you’re only eating healthy food. 1) how does this happen 2) what can you do about it? 

How does stress impact inflammation?

How, for some people, even the prospect of going on an elimination protocol can be extremely stressful, especially if they have any history of chronic yo-yo dieting or disordered eating – and different ways you can work on inflammation without even touching food. 

Where does body image and body stress play into inflammation?

Hang out with Dr. Cole!

Dr. Cole’s new book!! The Inflammation Spectrum

Website: Dr. Will Cole

Instagram @drwillcole

Book Recommendation: That’s What She Said, by Joanne Lipman

the Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle

More episodes on inflammation and intuitive eating:

50 | Why you Binge around the holidays and Inflammation 101 with Brianna Diorio

96 | Compassionate Nutrition, Intuitive Eating and Elimination Protocols with Cristina Curp