CS_Natalie Jill- Gluten Free Myths Dispelled
Jeffrey: Welcome to the Chalene Show. Your host has one of those names that’s difficult to pronounce. It’s not Jaylin or Charlene, nope. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s pronounced Chalene.
So, now, everyone, say it with me. Let’s welcome your host, Chalene Johnson.
Chalene: Do you ever see people and you’re not sure how to say their name or worse yet, you should know their name and you don’t know like, “What’s up girl,” “Hey, girl.” They’re like, “Oh, what’s up dude?” And you just go to, “Dude, I’m so excited you’re here. You’re not offended that I called you dude, right? I call everybody dude.”
Once we’re like on this level, I call my husband dude, I call my kids dude, I call my black lab, Maui, dude. And now, I’m calling you dude because that’s just how I refer to people when I love you, when we get on that level.
And today, you get to meet one of my favorite dudes. It’s funny saying that now that I’m looking at a picture of her. It’s Natalie Jill.
Now, you might know her if you also listen to my podcast show called Build Your Tribe because Natalie is one of the leading experts in social media marketing. This girl has figured out how to build a brand in less than four years, transitioned herself out of Corporate America, and figured out how to help hundreds of thousands of women and men. And in the process, build this incredibly loyal tribe of people who have transitioned onto a gluten-free lifestyle. And in the process have learned how to be better human beings.
Natalie’s just one of those super cool people that you want to hate when you see her social media like, “Oh, man, look at those abs,” “Look at that body,” “Look at that face,” but she’s so totally cool down-to-earth. She’s over 40, she’s a mom, she’s a dude, and she’s here to bust some myths about going gluten-free.
What’s up Natalie Jill?
Natalie: Hello.
Chalene: How are you?
Natalie: Good.
Chalene: Today, I wanted to because everyone is like, “We need to understand more about a gluten-free diet,” I’m getting bombarded with questions about going gluten-free and what does that mean. And I’m not the expert but I’m like, “I happen to know one.”
Natalie: Yeah, I know. It’s so funny because – I have celiac.
Chalene: What does that mean?
Natalie: Which means I have an autoimmune disorder which means my body doesn’t digest or recognize gluten. So, I didn’t even know what gluten was 15 years ago. I had no idea and I just knew I was really sick, had a lot of ongoing problems.
And after numerous tests, I learned I had what’s called celiac sprue. And your body basically attacks its immune system if you give it gluten. So that’s my first intro. This was before I was a sports nutritionist before I really knew anything about food at all.
Chalene: Did you say you are a celiac sprue?
Natalie: It’s called celiac sprue.
Chalene: Okay.
Natalie: So we say, “You’re a celiac,” or, “You have celiac.”
Chalene: Celiac. And it this a disease or is it an allergy? Explain it for us.
Natalie: So, it’s an autoimmune disease or disorder. It’s related to other autoimmune disease. There’s a lot of autoimmune disease out there.
With gluten, some people have the autoimmune disease where they don’t do well with gluten, they can’t have it. And then there’s also people that are allergic to it, that’s much more rare. And then there’s people that are just intolerant to it, so being like lactose intolerant.
Chalene: I see.
Natalie: Where they just don’t do well with gluten.
Chalene: How would someone know if they actually are celiac?
Natalie: The only way to truly know is to get tested. There is a couple of ways, one you have to have a blood test to know that you have a gene that can have this. So if you don’t really have the gene for it, you really can’t get it.
And the second thing is if you’ve already done damage to your stomach, if you’re eating gluten, typically you have these things in your stomach called villi, little fingers, and they would get blunted by eating gluten because your body is not digesting it and it’s attacking that and those go away. So, an endoscopy where they put a tube on your throat and check your stomach is the way to confirm that you have that reaction and celiac.
Chalene: Can you share with us what are the most common forms of gluten and then maybe if we can do a follow up on things that people might be surprised to find have gluten in them?
Natalie: Yeah. I want say this because this is really important. So, gluten is basically the protein found in wheat, rye, and barley. So anything that is white and processed pretty much you could think of is going to be that. So you think of pasta, crackers, cake, anything that has wheat, rye, or barley as an ingredient is going to contain gluten.
Now, what’s interesting is when you look at eating a natural unprocessed food diet. So if you just think like things that ones grew, so fruit, vegetable, meats, even potatoes, those do not have gluten because there’s nothing there that has wheat, rye, or barley.
So it’s funny to me that years ago when I was first diagnosed with celiac and people would talk about gluten, I didn’t know what it was. Nobody talked about it. All I knew is to go eat these natural foods and I would avoid it. Now, it’s become this trend, go on a gluten-free diet, eat these gluten-free foods, and all of these processed foods have popped up, gluten-free brownies, gluten-free cookies, cakes, whatever. Those are not diet foods.
Chalene: I got it.
Natalie: And it’s funny because people think, “Should I eat gluten-free?” And they automatically go to these processed foods which is not helping anybody.
Chalene: I see. Well, and that’s just consumers at its finest realizing there was a trend and then I just think it’s funny when you see things labeled, “Organic soap.”
Natalie: All right.
Chalene: You’re like, “Really?” It’s just like everyone jumps on a trend, so it’s buyer beware.
Now, you said it’s white things, so the first thing I flashed to was a load of brown wheat bread.
Natalie: Okay, so white or brown. I’ll say white brown, tan yellow.
Chalene: Okay.
Natalie: Most processed foods.
Chalene: Okay.
Natalie: Most processed foods are going to contain some type of gluten. So when somebody says, “Oh, I’m so overwhelmed of gluten-free diet,” “This is so hard,” “It’s in everything,” the first thing I tell them is, “Go on unprocessed food diet,” because as soon as you take out processed foods, you’re pretty much getting more of gluten.
And this is where I’ve gotten into arguments with other nutritionist before because they’ll say, “A gluten-free diet is not healthy for everyone,” and I say, “Yes, it is. Because if you do an unprocessed food diet and you’re eating real natural foods, that’s better for everybody.”
Chalene: All right.
Natalie: It’s better for everybody.
Chalene: Yeah.
Natalie: Yeah. A gluten-free processed diet that can create weight gain and all kinds of problems.
Chalene: Now, what about Ezekiel bread?
Natalie: Not gluten-free. Now, that’s sprouted wheat.
Chalene: Yes.
Natalie: So if we have somebody sensitive to wheat or they have an intolerance, they may do better with that.
Chalene: Okay.
Natalie: But if you have celiac, you would not be able to do that.
Chalene: So, girlfriend, are you telling me you can never eat bread?
Natalie: I can have gluten-free bread.
Chalene: How do we find gluten-free bread?
Natalie: Then you will be getting into a processed food, but you can make it yourself. There’s a lot of things you can do, there’s almond flower. There’s all types of things you get around it.
The problem that happens is when you take out wheat, rye, and barley, you are getting rid of the fiber you can think about it that way. So if you are somebody that has-- you’re dealing with insulin spikes, or you have a weight problem right now, or you tend to get a lot of cravings, eating gluten-free white foods or processed foods may trigger more cravings and hunger because you don’t have that fiber in there and you’re changing the glycemic index. There’s a host of things that goes on.
So, I say pretty much stay away from that. If you really want it as a treat, that’s a different story. So you really want to be different.
Chalene: That makes sense. Yeah. So you’re now like, “Okay, if I want to have this, I just have to look for a gluten-free option. That doesn’t mean that now that I’ve discovered I’m gluten-intolerant or that I have celiac, but now I am going to go to the gluten-free section of the cake isle and that I’ll be well because I’m eating gluten-free brownies and cakes.”
Natalie: No. You will gain weight, and you’ll be hungry, and you’ll get more cravings so that’s not what I suggest.
I try not to get in an argument on social media, “I know better and then you could tell me,” don’t do that. But I actually did last night on my YouTube video because I had a YouTube video on what gluten-free is, and how that relates to a processed food diet, and what that is. And a guy jumped on and was saying that I’m the only celiac he’s ever seen that’s not overly skinny and pale and I’m healthy. And I said, “I don’t know where this information came from but that’s just not the case.” If you’re eating an unprocessed natural food diet, that is a very balanced diet and you can be more healthy than anybody.
So celiac that do it right, they can live a very long life and be extremely healthy and be completely symptom free.
Chalene: I bet it with some executive from Wheat Thins.
Natalie: Probably.
Chalene: Just kidding. So when we think about trying to figure out if we are gluten-intolerant or have an allergy or insensitivity, what are some of the symptoms?
Natalie: The biggest one is bloating. Especially women, they say, “I’m so bloated all the time. Every time I eat, I’m bloated, I’m bloated.” If it’s not directly related to hormones in that time of month, there’s a few triggers in gluten tends to be a big one just like lactose with some people.
So being intolerant or having an intolerance to something doesn’t mean you can never have, it’s just it’s going to create those symptoms and it’s not comfortable.
Chalene: So when we’re bloated is that a distended stomach or you’re saying, “Are you going to feel gassy?”
Natalie: Yes, where you feel the gassy, bloated, just big stomach, feeling really uncomfortable after you eat, definitely. Also, stomach aches. I know before I was diagnosed with celiac, I used to have horrible stomach aches every time I ate and I couldn’t figure it out. And it was my body didn’t digest gluten. It was just sitting there. It didn’t work well.
If it’s celiac, swollen lymph nodes, joint pains, there’s a whole bunch of problems that can go on because your immune system is under attack, so you start getting all kinds of symptoms. If it’s intolerance though, it’s usually just discomfort stomach and bloating that type of thing typically.
Chalene: Now, you said swelling and joint pain, so is there some inflammation that goes on when people…?
Natalie: Yes.
Chalene: Okay.
Natalie: You’ll definitely get inflammation. And joint pain is less common with celiac. Sometimes it can be that’s more of you could have that with rheumatoid arthritis which is another autoimmune. Gluten is actually recommended to not be on any one’s diet with an autoimmune because you want to eliminate anything you could have a response like that to, but yes, you could definitely get swelling and joint pain; and the swollen lymph nodes is a big one. People will have canker sores in their mouth all the time and cold sores.
Chalene: Wow.
Natalie: That a lot of times could be cause from the gluten.
Chalene: Now, I have friends who say, “Well, I don’t know if I’m gluten-sensitive and I don’t know if I have inflammation,” but how does somebody who’s not sure, what does that feel like when you’re talking about joint inflammation?
Natalie: Pain in your hands or they just feel like they’re swollen even. But here’s my thing, it’s really important if people don’t feel well any at all, you got to look at your diet first obviously. And on my 7 Day Jump Start program, I think about that. I take out all allergens for this reason. Because as soon as you take out allergens and you get back to a natural food diet, it’s amazing how symptoms start to go away.
So anyone that says, “I don’t feel well after I eat,” or, “This is going on,” the first thing I’m going to say is, “Let’s clean up your diet and go to an unprocessed food diet,” because typically symptoms start to go away.
Chalene: Yeah.
Natalie: Relate it to foods that you’re eating.
Chalene: Is that the train coming to pick you up?
Natalie: I live right by a train station. It comes every hour.
Chalene: You live right by the beach. That’s so gorgeous.
So let me ask you this, if people don’t feel well and they need to take, “I need to fix my diet,” and, “Everything sounds like it’s bad for me now,” “I’m afraid to know what to eat.” Okay, let’s say this, if I have to take out one thing should it be gluten first? Is that what you believe?
Natalie: No. I actually don’t believe in saying, “Take out anything.” I say, “Focus on eating real natural unprocessed foods. Things that ones grew or had a mom,” that [inaudible 0:12:31].
Chalene: I love that perspective. So rather than saying, “Here’s what you can’t eat,” you say, “Here’s what I want you to eat.”
Natalie: Yeah. And just like you would with exercise, you would tell somebody first, “Just start moving.”
Chalene: Yeah.
Natalie: You couldn’t say, “Stop doing this,” you could say, “Start moving.” So I say that you put more of the good stuff in. And the other I would tell people is read labels because unprocessed food, there is no label. It’s an apple. It’s something that’s just there.