Overcoming Anxiety and Emotional Eating with Food and Nutrients with Trudy Scott

The Functional Medicine Radio Show With Dr. Carri

In this episode of The Functional Medicine Radio Show, Dr. Carri’s special guest Trudy Scott discusses how to overcome anxiety and emotional eating with food and nutrients.

Trudy provides some great tips on uncovering the reasons for why so many people suffer with anxiety, and explains why it’s important to get to the root, underlying cause of your anxiety.

Trudy is a Food Mood Expert and nutritionist on a mission to educate and empower women worldwide about the healing powers of real food and amino acids for eliminating anxiety and emotional eating.

Trudy is the author of The Anti-Anxiety Food Solution: How the Foods You Eat Can Help You Calm Your Anxious Mind, Improve Your Mood & End Cravings.

She is also the creator and host of The Anxiety Summit, a wildly popular virtual gathering of international experts sharing research and nutritional solutions for anxiety.

Main Questions Asked:

• Why is caffeine bad for people with anxiety?
• How does gluten trigger anxiety?
• What are the four anti-anxiety food solutions?
• What are the benefits of grass fed meats?
• What is pyroluria? How does it cause anxiety?
• Is there a test for pyroluria?
• What lifestyle factors are important for preventing and treating anxiety?

Key Points made by Trudy:

• Caffeine can be the underlying cause of anxiety, and can trigger full blown panic attacks.
• Research for Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Panic Disorder showed that cutting out coffee from the diet eliminated anxiety within a week in people who previously showed no improvements with medications or therapy and were drinking 1 ½ to 3 ½ cups of coffee per day.
• Gluten and coffee are common cross reactive foods.
• There is a big connection between gluten sensitivity and mental health, especially anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorders.
• Gluten sensitivity continues to be under recognized and undertreated as a cause of mental health problems.
• Gluten limits the body’s ability to use tryptophan – the building block of serotonin.
• Gluteomorphins act like opiates and can make it very difficult to stop eating gluten.
• Eating real, whole foods can lower your risk of anxiety and depression.
• Trudy uses four different diets with her clients to match their unique biochemistry; three of them are gluten-free.
• Gluten is bad for everyone. Nobody can digest gluten, and it serves no nutritional purpose, so everyone should really be gluten free.
• Grass fed meat contains high levels of omega 3 fatty acids, vitamin E, vitamin C, beta carotene, zinc, iron, and lots of amino acids.
• Common symptoms of pyroluria include: feeling tense or anxious; lack of dreams or having nightmares; morning nausea; poor appetite; poor sense of smell.
• Zinc, vitamin B6, and evening primrose oil are the key nutrients to stop pyroluria.
• Testing for pyroluria can be inconclusive – that’s why using the pyroluria questionnaire is helpful along with seeing how you respond to the supplements listed above.
• Key lifestyle factors to help anxiety include: getting good sleep; getting regular exercise.

Resources Mentioned:

Pyroluria questionnaire

The Anxiety Summit

Book – The Anti-Anxiety Food Solution

Book – Reclaim Your Energy and Feel Normal Again

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