Many health professionals use BMI to judge health and wellness, but is BMI accurate? Learn what we should actually use and what we need to know to make sure we are at optimal health!

Overall wellness is guided by many things, and while weight can be important it isn't necessarily indicative of where we are in our health.

As a country we are weight obsessed, this can lead us to having issues with our mental wellness. Which in turn can affect our overall health.

Alissa Rumsey, MS, RD, CDN, CSCS is a registered dietitian, nutrition therapist, certified intuitive eating counselor, and the author of Unapologetic Eating: Make Peace With Food and Transform Your Life. Alissa is passionate about advocating for people to reclaim the space to eat and live unapologetically.

She is the founder of Alissa Rumsey Nutrition and Wellness, a weight-inclusive nutrition practice that offers virtual counseling and online programs to help people liberate themselves from dieting, cultivate a peaceful relationship to food and their bodies, and live a more authentic, connected life.

Her expertise has been featured in hundreds of media outlets and she speaks regularly at events, online trainings, and conferences around the country. She calls New York City home and spends her free time exploring the city’s food scene and searching for patches of green space to sunbathe in.

Grab her FREE 5 step guide here!

What is BMI?

BMI stands for Body Mass Index and is a ratio between a persons weight and height.

It is used to categorized people into groups of underweight, normal weight, overweight, obese and morbidly obese

So many health professionals use this to evaluate and diagnose health.

How is BMI calculated?

The BMI equation takes a person's weight in kilograms and divides it by the person's height in meters squared.

History of BMI

A man named Adolphe Quetelet developed what was called the Quetelet index in the early 1800's. He was not a medical practitioner, but in fact was a mathematician, astronomer, statistician, sociologist and a eugenicist and had no interest in health.

Adolphe developed this equation to study population models. The data that he used to develop the equation and the categories were taken from white European groups that were mostly male. Which shows how skewed it is.

Meanwhile life insurance companies in the US needed metrics to determine their rates and began using these height and weight tables. Which again were developed using mainly white wealthy men.

Their tables showed higher rate of death for overweight people, and even though later on studies showed the opposite, that they had a lower risk, they never changed it.

Then a researcher in the 1970's was trying to find a different way to evaluate body mass, and he proposed using the Quetelet index which eventually became the body mass index and started being used by health professionals and researchers.

Accuracy of BMI

BMI is not a good indication of whether you are healthy or not healthy. It is simply a plugin of numbers.

It's easy to change categories within the span of your life by small gains or losses in weight due to differences in the stage of life or season of life you are in.

It is also found that when weight related feedback is given to people, they are less likely to make long term health changes.

A study done a few years ago (of about 40,000 people) found that almost 50% of people categorized in the overweight category and 30% in the obese category were all metabolically healthy. This means that all their numbers like blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose, etc was normal.

Also about 30% of people in normal category were found to be metabolically unhealthy.

Another issue is that the differences between the BMI categories are largely arbitrary. If you zoom out and look at the bigger picture you can see that a jump in category may not be that big of a jump in the weight...

When it comes to enjoying food it's important to know what overeating is versus feeling full from enjoyment. Our expert today clears it all up so we can learn to enjoy food when we want!

It's so important to know the difference in order to live a lifestyle with both our mental and physical wellness in mind.

I love food and I love eating! It's not bad to feel overly full from time to time when we are enjoying the food we eat. We need to learn to trust our body to do what it needs to do instead of punish ourselves.

Healthy Emmie is a plant-based nutritionist and founder of the Slim on Starch Program. She has helped thousands of people make massive changes to their lives and build a positive mindset around food and health for long-term weight loss. You can learn more at HealthyEmmie.org.

Get her FREE one day meal plan here!

Difference Between Overeating and Being Full

Being hungry or full are not mutually exclusive. The hungry and full feelings are more of a spectrum that individual feelings. On one end you have the you are so hungry you may faint feeling and on the other end you have you are bursting full.

So you can be anywhere along that spectrum throughout the day.

Overeating means that you are ignoring the signals of your body that it's had too much and you keep eating anyway. You can feel full after overeating and be extremely uncomfortable, but you can also feel amply full and not in pain.

Emotions and Overeating

There are many emotions related to food. We gather to eat with those we love through parties and celebrations and holidays. For some people, food also plays a role in comfort.

The food we eat has calories and calories give us dopamine. The more calories a food has, the more dopamine we get. This is why cookies taste better than carrots because they have more calories.

Dopamine is the motivation chemical, it's a survival mechanism. So whenever we do something that promotes our survival we release dopamine. Things like eating, sleeping, sex...these are all linked to our survival.

When we are trying to get that good feeling, it's often we turn to food, and mostly food with those high calorie levels since those have more dopamine. And the more dopamine we get, the more we self soothe.

We are all different when it comes to our emotions and food and it's important to look at the big picture to see why someone may be turning to food and why overeating is occurring.

How Many Calories Are Considered Overeating?

There isn't one set amount of calories that we use for qualifying overeating. It really all depends on each person, their own body (not just body size but how it functions) and how much they are taking in and using.

So focusing on calorie numbers isn't the best approach. If we focus less on numbers and more on feeling, we can better address the issue.

Another factor is exactly what someone is eating. This is because certain foods will help satiate you better than others. Foods with fiber, fat and protein can help you feel full longer so someone eating these may feel more full than someone eating foods without them.

Signs You Are Overeating

First and foremost, always listen to your body. The main reason behind overeating is a disagreement between what your mind is telling you and what your body is telling you. The signs are both physical and mental. Here are some things you may be experiencing:

Sharp painOverall discomfortRemorse and desire to undo what has just been doneRestricting the next dayBeing caught in a cycle between overeating and extreme restriction

How to Stop Overeating

Many people think the issue is the binging, when in fact it's actually the restriction that is the main issue. So if we focus less on the overeating part and more on avoiding restriction, it can help stop the cycle better.

Here are some things you can do to stop overeating:

Follow a drip system eating where you eat every 2-3 hours.

Learn how to lower cholesterol with diet changes as our expert guest takes us through all we need to know to live a healthier and happier life!

Overall wellness depends on so many things, but preventing and dealing with chronic disease is an important one.

Veggies Don't Bite started due to wanting to help improve my husbands heart health and high cholesterol played a role. As we moved to a more plant rich diet we saw dramatic improvements!

Ashley Reaver, MS, RD, CSSD is a registered dietitian with a Master's degree in Nutritional Sciences from Tufts University and an undergraduate degree in Nutrition and Dietetics from Cornell University.

Utilizing her years of work experience in clinical nutrition, outpatient counseling, personalized blood analytics, and education, she developed a program to help individuals lower their cholesterol naturally.

In addition to the course, Ashley sees clients in her private practice in Oakland, CA and teaches nutrition and dietetics courses at University of California, Berkeley. Find her on Instagram @lower.cholesterol.nutrition.

Sign up for her FREE class on how to lower cholesterol!

What is Cholesterol?

Cholesterol is an important compound that our body creates, it is a type of fat that is in the body. All animals create cholesterol.

It is in every single cell in our body. It is part of the membrane, which is the outer layer. We use it to make sex hormones, it goes into our stress hormones, use it to make vitamin D, and use it as a digestive compound to help us break down fats.

95 million adults have what is considered high cholesterol. However, total cholesterol isn't the thing we need to focus on but instead we need to look at the parts that make up high cholesterol.

What is considered high cholesterol?

Cholesterol numbers are combo of High Density Lipoprotein or HDL (known as good cholesterol), Low Density Lipoprotein or LDL (known as bad cholesterol) and triglycerides. Total levels are considered high if they are above 200, but again the combo of the three parts are more important.

LDL is considered high if it is above 130, but is best less than 100. If you have too much LDL for too long it can become dangerous and can cause the build up of plaque in our arteries which can lead to heart attacks and strokes.

For HDL, ideally you want it above 50 for men and above 60 for women. If you have more LDL you want more HDL to pick it up and bring it to the liver and repurpose it as something that won't cause damage to your body. HDL can act as an antioxidant preventing LDL from becoming dangerous.

With triglycerides you also want lower levels. It is the primary form of fat in our body, and also 95% of fats that we eat. Our body stores excess energy in the form triglycerides, so that we have extra to use. That is why you can see them circling around in our blood in a blood test.

The reason the total cholesterol numbers can be deceiving is that you can hav high LDL and low HDL but the total numbers can still be below that 200 threshold but overall still not good.

On the other hand you can also have high HDL and low LDL but still be over that 200 mark and be considered high when in reality you are still good.

Also, depending on what is high or low will depend on what you want to do to help as far as nutrition changes and other support.

Why Does Diet Matter?

Cholesterol is made by our body from anything that provides us calories. If you are eating excess calories that you don't utilize, that surplus can lead to a higher production of cholesterol.

However if you are not eating an excess amount of calories, then restricting calories to lose body weight will not have an impact on cholesterol. Unfortunately many doctors tell people to lose weight as a strategy but that may or may not be the issue.

Nutrients we take in when we are eating protein, fat and carbohydrates can impact how long that cholesterol stays in the body.

Diet culture and the social media world is in a constant battle of what "diet" is best, fastest, the answer to all your problems. But in reality, it's an overall healthy balanced diet that wins.

When we set out to better our health, it's easy to fall victim to the diet world and the stringent rules that these diets place upon us. However time and time again, studies show that diets don't work.

Why Do Diets Fail?

The focus with eating should be on an overall lifestyle and habits. It's not about one meal, or even one season. Life changes, it brings ups and downs, crazy non stop and more calm days.

In order to get through, we need to let go a little and realize it's about what we do as a whole, not about one specific moment.

Putting rules on your eating, especially those that make you cut out things you love, will only cause you to crave them more and can end up in binging.

This is why we don't put rules on what we eat, and don't like to label ourselves. While we do focus on a plant rich diet, we also allow things we crave and love. Hence, balance.

A big reason that diets fail is that they don't focus on creating life long habits. The focus on results within a certain set of restrictions, but if those restrictions aren't how you want to live your life forever, then eventually you go back to what you enjoy.

What is a Healthy Balanced Diet

This term can mean something different to everyone. Which is another reason why we need to step away from stringent rules.

To us, this means that our foods consist of plant rich options, including all the macronutrients (fat, carbs and protein) but also allows for things we love that may or may not be nutrient rich.

I really like to listen to my body when it comes to food. If I focus on being present and purposeful, I am able to eat what it is I crave, which leaves me feeling satisfied.

One Size Fits All Doesn't Works

What one person may need is not necessarily what another person needs. Sure, we all can benefit from plant rich diets. However there is space for other foods.

My husband for instance cannot do any, or very little, animal based products in order to feel his best. His heart is affected quickly and his body just doesn't process them well.

I on the other hand cannot do any gluten. My body hates it and I immediately feel the inflammation all over.

So when we go out, I focus on avoiding one thing and he focuses on avoiding the other.

Balance is Key

So the main thing we decided to focus on was balance. Avoid what you know affects you negatively and then let go of the rest.

This also plays a huge role in our mental health. While some people may not have the mental health piece, we do. So avoiding rules and labels allows us to be at our best both physically and mentally.

This is the key to wellness. When your mental health is in balance you are able to reduce stress and approach any stress that comes your way without wreaking havoc in your body.

People tend to forget this part of wellness when focusing in diets and placing rules on themselves. While following a diet may help you achieve things like weight loss goals, the mental health toll and rise of stress will eventually counteract all that.

Follow Advice From Qualified Professionals

My number one piece of advice I can give, is follow the advice of those that are qualified to give it. There are so many people online that try to sell things, advise others and get you to believe what they preach is the answer.

I am not a medical doctor, I am not a dietician. I am an educator with a Master degree in education, and an undergraduate bachelors degree in psychology and biology.

I am qualified to teach you how to create amazing gluten-free and plant-based recipes. I can teach you how to make it simple and create meal systems that work.

However I cannot tell you what food does or doesn't work for your specific body.

Many people don't think about food racism, but the diet world can be a big contributor to making what we buy and how we eat a classist issue.

As we scour the online world for recipes under whatever diet we follow, it's easy to assume that everyone has access to the ingredients so often found. But what happens to people that struggle to obtain those foods?

Maya Feller, MS, RD, CDN of Brooklyn-based Maya Feller Nutrition is a registered dietitian nutritionist, nationally recognized nutrition expert and adjunct professor at New York University. In her practice, she provides medical nutrition therapy for the management of and risk reduction of non-communicable diseases.

Maya received her Masters of Science in clinical nutrition at New York University, where she is adjunct faculty. Whether addressing the nation or working one on one and with groups, Maya believes in providing nutrition education from an antibias patient-centered, culturally sensitive approach.

Maya is dedicated to promoting nutrition education that helps the public to make informed food choices that support health and longevity.

Maya shares her approachable, real food-based solutions to millions of people through regular speaking engagements, writing in local and national publications, via her social media account on Instagram, @mayafellerRD, and as a national nutrition expert on Good Morning America, GMA3: What You Need to Know and more. She is the author of The Southern Comfort Food Diabetes Cookbook: Over 100 Recipes for a Healthy Life.

Inequality in The Wellness Space

As a whole, the wellness space struggles when it comes to being a welcome and accessible space to all people. Because of the "look" portrayed, many don't feel represented and therefore they don't believe it is a space they belong in.

But we need to radicalize this space so that it feels more inclusive. This isn't easy as the issues run deep. A few things we can do to help make change are:

Share others in the wellness space that come from all cultures.Share accounts with people who range in size, ability and ethnicity.Recognize your implicit bias and when working with clients don't make assumptions about their diet based on their culture or size. Allow clients to be a part of the process from the beginning.Recognize that foods aren't bad and good, and all foods can have a place in someones diet if planned correctly.Open space to talk about things that may make you uncomfortable.

This issue is seen across diets, whether it's veganism or medical centered diet's like the Mediterranean and DASH diet. The research shows great gains when following these diets so at the core they are great, however they don't translate to race and ethnicity for people that don't eat in those ways.

The bottom line is that there is not just one path to health. There are many ways to reach health goals that can honor the person as a whole. It is possible to support a diagnosed condition with a diet that includes cultural foods.

Food Accessibility

When it comes to wellness, there is an underlying assumption that it needs to be expensive and fit a certain theme. But not only is this not true, it also doesn't recognize that not everyone has access to the same foods.

Depending on where someone lives, whether they have a car, what hours they work and many more other factors, being able to shop for, afford and even find things like fresh produce, specialty ingredients, grains, etc may not happen.

But there are ways to help clients and readers with food accessibility and make wellness more accessible:

Help share ways to look at food costs and determine where people can get the best deals.Encourage eating a combination of fresh foods and prepared foods, including those that are pre cut, canned or frozen to balance time and cost.Help make diet plans that will be sustainable long term.

Keeping social determinants of health in mind when sharing wellness ideas and pract...

It is hard to know how to deal with trauma when you're in the thick of it. Learning strategies you can easily put in place is key!

When we are struggling, it's hard to have the energy to come up with ideas on how to make it through. Which is why having these tools in our back pocket is so important.

Suzanne Falter is a podcaster and the author of multiple self-help titles including The Extremely Busy Woman’s Guide to Self-Care. She also hosts the ever popular Self-Care for Extremely Busy Women podcast and an active Facebook group.

Grab her How's Your Self-Care worksheet here!

What is Trauma?

According to the American Psychological Association, Trauma is an emotional response to a terrible event like an accident, rape or natural disaster. Trauma can have many forms and range in severity.

Nothing prepares you for traumatic events. It is really important to seek help to navigate life after a traumatic event.

The Stages of Trauma

After a traumatic event, we go through a similar set of stages as we process what happened. Here is a general idea of these stages:

Denial- you question the event and often can't believe it is happening.Anger- feelings of anger, getting upset and asking why this happened.Bargaining- making compromises and promises to do something if XYZ would just stop or go away.Depression- a feeling of doom, loneliness and sadness having to adjust to the truth of what happened.Acceptance- accepting the truth of what happened and starting the process to heal.

Best Ways to Navigate Trauma

With traumatic events comes a lot of emotional and some even physical feelings. Being able to move forward as these pass through you is hard but there are things you can do to help. Here are some ideas:

Read to learn more about the trauma or strategies to help.Be open and willing to make it into a transformational experience.Telling the truth about it, instead of pretending it didn't happen.Meditation or self care practice.Exercise or any movement of the body.Eat nutritious whole foods.Surround yourself by supportive people, family, friends and support groups.Find a way to get your feelings out, like writing or painting, etc.

Does Trauma Ever Go Away?

A traumatic event isn't something that will go away, but it can be navigated so that life can move on and even transform into a better place.

We must allow ourselves to feel each stage we pass through in order for healing to happen. Once we reach acceptance and let ourselves experience all the feelings we will be able to slowly move past them. While the pain maybe always be there in some respect, it can begin to fade.

Always remember that this is not to be taken as medical advice and you should always see a licensed professional for your mental health needs.

Having a baby and knowing about starting solids can be scary, confusing and overwhelming. Our guest today walks us through it all!

Caitlyn Edson is a pediatric registered dietitian specializing in infants, toddlers, and young children. She is sharing all the tips to help parents feel secure and confident to start feeding their baby!

She has a passion for helping people feed their families confidently in a way that feels manageable. Caitlyn works with families of children starting solids (particularly baby led weaning), picky eaters, those with growth struggles, youth athletes, and more!

Grab her free starting solids guide here!

Age to Start Solids

There are certain signs of readiness when it comes to starting solids. Here are the main ones:

Sit unassisted: not necessarily long periods of time but at least a couple seconds or in high chair being able to sit upright.Loss of tongue thrust reflex: when you put something into their mouth you don't want them to push it out of their mouth.Show interest in food: things like them watching you closely when you eat, grabbing for your food, etc.

Traditionally we used to start feeding at 4 months but current research shows these readiness skills happen closer to 6 months. But it really depends on the baby. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends closer to 6 months.

How to Start Feeding Your Baby

There are many correct ways to start feeding your baby, you need to do what works best and feels right for you and your family. While there are things you shouldn't do, like starting too young or feed foods that are not the right consistency for their stage, overall their really isn't a wrong way to get started.

There are two main avenues with starting solids:

Baby led weaning- the premise behind this feeding technique is infant self feeding, giving the baby real whole foods in a safe consistency. While some say you don't do purees at all with Baby Led Weaning, it isn't necessarily true. The idea is you want to get the infant to feed themselves. So you put the puree on the spoon and put it in their hand and they get it in their mouth.Puree feeding- starting with purees can mean making your own or buying premade foods. You can choose foods that are naturally soft like bananas, apple sauce, yogurt or you can create your own by cooking foods and blending them.

Before you start any feeding, it's a good idea to take a cpr class and learn the difference between gagging and choking because gagging is normal. You never want to stick your finger in a gagging baby's mouth because it can cause choking.

What Foods to Introduce First

Overall, you can really start with any foods you prefer. However there are a few things to avoid or think about:

Avoid allergens if you have a family history and your pediatrician recommends it. Avoid honey until they are 12 months old.Better to avoid added salt and sugar until they are older. Not only are their bodies not able to process it well, but the flavors are too strong for them.Things like meat can be hard for babies to eat due to the consistency so you may want to avoid it until they are older.

We use to say to start with rice cereal but that isn't necessarily the case. You can start with anything now!

Starting with softer foods is a good first step. Things like avocado and bananas, or cooked foods like apples, zucchini, sweet potatoes and squash.

You want to cut the foods into long thin strips when first starting because they use their 4 fingers to pick up and it's easier for them.

Once they hit 9-10 months old, they develop a pincer grasp where they are able to pick up smaller pieces.

How Much to Feed Per Meal

Babies are good at instinctively knowing how much to eat, but with new eaters you should start small. It can be overwhelming to have a plate loaded with food so putting a small amount on the plate will make it easier for them.

A teaspoon or a tablespoon of a food or one piec...

Throwing a vegan dinner party can be challenging and stressful. Listen in as our guest expert gives the tips and tricks for party success!

Everybody loves a good dinner party, but how do you make it work so you are not drained, stressed and ready to fall apart by the end of the night? We got your back with all you need to know!

Diana Goldman is a Vegan Caterer, Sierra Club Cooking Show Host and Plant-based Nutrition Educator based in Boston. She received a B.S. from Cornell University in Nutrition Science and an Ed.M. from Harvard University. Her blog Beantown Kitchen was awarded one of the top 100 plant-based blogs by Feedspot.

She loves sharing recipes on her YouTube Channel and Instagram. Sign up to receive a free Healthy Vegan Made Easy ebook on her website Beantown Kitchen.

How to Get Started

Sometimes the hardest part of taking something on is getting started. When it comes to having a dinner party, knowing all that you need to do in an easy step by step format can really help reduce the overwhelm. Here are the basics to get you going:

Find a date.Decide who your guests will be, make sure to take note of kids versus adults.Find out if there are any allergies, dislikes etc with your guests.Decide location, where and also if you will be inside or outside.Plan a theme and menu.

Accommodating All Dietary Needs

There are so many recipes available for us to use for free, so we shouldn't be stopped when we need to accommodate allergies or other foods our guests need or prefer to avoid.

All you need to do is search online and look in cookbooks you have. Google, Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook are all great for finding recipes for every diet.

Sometimes the cuisine can guide us too. For example Indian and Thai cuisine use coconut for creaminess so can help if you have a guest that is nut free but can have coconut. While Italian cuisine tends to have a lot of cheese and vegan cheeses are often made from nuts, so it may not be best with nut allergies.

Overall when you are used to making plant-based recipes, accommodating needs and preferences is second nature.

What to Serve

There are many avenues you can take that will help guide you when it comes to narrowing down what to make for your dinner party. Here are a few ideas:

Start with a familiar main meal first and then pick sides that stem off of that main meal. Like if you do burgers, you can do fries, salad, potato salad, macaroni salad, coleslaw, etc.Pick a cuisine and focus your menu around that theme. If you do Italian, you can do lasagna, salad, risotto and tiramisu.Serve food buffet style so you can make a variety of things for people to serve themselves. Salads, and sides do great to get in variety with buffets.Have a build your own theme and allow people to make their own tacos, pizzas, bowls, etc. This is great when feeding people that have a lot of dietary differences so they can pick and choose what to have.

The people coming to your dinner party, where you will eat and your dietary needs can all help guide which direction is best to take.

How to Prep

Prepping ahead can help keep the stress at a minimum. Once you have nailed down your menu, you should use that to find what ingredients you need. Then, check to see what you have at home and what you need to buy, and make a list for the grocery store.

Figure out what you can make ahead. This is what you can do ahead of time:

SaucesDessertsCasserolesDressing for a salad so it's done.Chop and prep the things you can't make ahead so they are ready day of.Cook things like grains, etc so they are ready to use.

You can also set the table ahead of time to have it ready to go. This way the day of you can focus on organizing your space, cleaning, setting up the space more, etc.

Also, if you get things prepared with time left before your guests arrive, you can relax a little so you are rested when the party starts.

Learning how to live with diabetes can feel overwhelming and impossible. Our guest today shares how she not only lives but thrives!

Lynne Bowman has been living with diabetes and enjoying life to the fullest. She loves to share her story to help others do the same!

Lynne has been featured at women's expos throughout the country, speaking on kitchen table culture, community planning and the gift of diabetes. She teamed with actress Deidre Hall to write and publish Deidre Hall's Kitchen Closeup (2010) and Deidre Hall's How Does She Do It? (2012).

In a previous life, she worked with Silicon Valley companies as a creative director, winning national awards. She was Creative Director at E&J Gallo Winery, Advertising Manager at RedKen Laboratories, and held various other positions with agencies and clients in San Jose, Los Angeles, and on the East Coast.

She has also worked as an actress, makeup artist, screenwriter, illustrator, legal journalist and television Weather Person. She is the mother of three grown children, with one absolutely perfect grandchild, and one more on the way.

Sign up for "Lynne's List" and receive the recipe for Mimi's Badass Brownies, plus The Seven Sugar Substitutes That Will Change Your Life.

Can You Live a Full Life With Diabetes?

Yes! Not only can you live a full life but you can thrive. While we now know that we can do things to prevent chronic disease, there are still instances where no matter what we do, we have to live with it. But this doesn't mean you are destined for an unfulfilled life!

Learning how to manage your diabetes is possible, other than medicine, between what you put into your body, how often you exercise and how you manage your mental health there are so many things you can do.

How to Manage Daily Life

When it comes to day to day life, nourishing your body with lots of plants, whole foods and getting in movement along with any medicine you need, should be part of your routine.

A whole food plant-based diet is so beneficial for chronic disease. Plants give us nourishment we need and help us avoid the saturated fat that animal products contain.

While adding some animal products from time to time is still okay when you want to maintain some balance, making sure they are high quality is important.

It's also important to take care of your mental health. Yoga, meditation and mindfulness can all help control stress. As can doing things like family dinners, movie nights and other ways to connect with those you love. When we keep ourselves in a mostly stress free state this helps our health overall. The mind and body are very connected!

Sleep is another thing our body needs in order to stay at optimum health. Our diets, exercise and mental well being can be so influenced by how rested we are!

It's also very important to check in regularly with your doctor and see your doctor should you feel something is wrong.

Things to consider/watch out for

Learning how to live life with diabetes comes with complications and extra things you need to think about. Here are a few things you want to keep in mind:

Read food labels to check for ingredients you can't haveListen to your body and detect any changes earlyThink about your meals ahead of timeLearn strategies that work for youWatching the glycemic index of food you eatYou should always listen to your medical professional

Can Diabetes Go Away?

Everyone is different, so there isn't a one size fits all approach. In general, diabetes cannot be reversed or go away. However, when it comes to type 2 diabetes people can go into remission and symptoms can get better with lifestyle changes if caught early enough.

Some things people have done when it comes to relieving symptoms are:

Changing their diet to be mostly whole food plant-basedAdd more fiber to your dietIncreasing amount of exerciseLosing weight if needed

Tips For Managing Daily Life

Knowing how to reduce inflammation in the body is important for our health. There are many things we can do to help us along the way!

Inflammation can wreak havoc on your body, and the culprits are many. Join us as we chat with expert Dani Williamson to dive deep on how to deal with it all!

Dani Williamson MSN, FNP owns Integrative Family Medicine in Franklin, TN; focusing on gut, autoimmune thyroid (Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis is her passion), hormone and adrenal health with her patients. Her approach embodies a physical, emotional, mental and spiritual process to healing.

Dani is a graduate of Vanderbilt University School of Nursing Nurse Midwifery and Family Nurse Practitioner program. She is on the board of Middle Tennessee chapter of the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention and believes strongly in addressing issues of adverse childhood trauma and its relation to overall long-term health conditions.

You can check out her course, Inflammation is the Devil, for more info and special discount for readers. Her first book Wild & Well Dani’s Six Commonsense Steps to Radical Healing is being released November 9, 2021 by Morgan James Publishing.

What is Inflammation?

Inflammation is a cellular response in your body to some sort of injury. Cytokines are the proteins in your blood that create the inflammatory response. When you have cellular injury you get capillary dilation, increase in white blood cells, redness and warmth/heat.

You have acute inflammation, which you need to protect you and heal you (like if you cut your hand). But there is also chronic inflammation, which is long lasting inflammation and this is the issue.

Things that end in "-itis" basically are types of inflammation. For example like sinusitis (inflammation of the sinuses), gastritis (inflammation of the gut) and colitis (inflammation of the colon).

Inflammation can coincide with other conditions like diabetes, hypothyroidism, heart disease, etc

Dani believes that inflammation is your bodies response to a poor diet, lack of exercise, inadequate sleep chronic bowel issues and lack of community connection.

A few other things that can cause inflammation are mold, breast implant illness and viruses.

Classic Signs of Inflammation

Many things can be signs of inflammation. We need to look at the why and the root cause of things versus just treating the symptom because sometimes you don't even have symptoms until you develop a disease.

Here are some things to look out for that may be signs of inflammation:

AcneHeadachesExzcemaJoint pain, back pain, etc that are not injury relatedFatigueMigrainesSeasonal allergiesDepressionAnxietyBleeding gumsSkin conditions like acne and excema

Ways to Reduce Inflammation

While our western medicine seems to treat the symptoms of inflammation versus looking for the root cause, there are things you can do to keep your body less likely to have inflammation.

First, increase fresh whole foods consumption. The more fresh food we eat, like veggies and fruit, the more nutrients we will get to keep us healthy. A mostly plant-based diet is a great way to eat.

There are also foods we want to avoid. The top inflammatory foods are:

GlutenDairySugarEggsPeanutsSoyCorn

This isn't to say that everyone should not eat these at all, but if you are having issues start eliminating these foods to see what may be bothering you.

There is a big connected with our gut health, inflammation and our mental health so making sure to pay attention to what you are eating is so important.

Other things you can do to help fight inflammation is move your body regularly, get enough sleep and practice gratitude! More and more research is showing how much this is all connected.

Natural Anti-Inflammatory Agents

There are also other things you can take to help fight inflammation. While medication can be necessary in some cases, there are natural ways to help support your bo...