Speaker 0 00:00:00 Nutrition after a brain injury can be such a hot topic With so many people having different opinions on food lists or what to eat or not to eat, it’s no wonder that many of the survivors I’ve worked with have been confused and honestly, I’ve been confused too. My guest today, Crystal, is a registered dietician. She has years of experience and is a survivor herself. She talks about intuitive eating and diet culture and how it’s really messing up and causing more stress and anxiety than it does in good. She talks about tangible, simple, and easy strategies that can help you and your nutrition after an injury. Let’s listen to this wonderful survivor and practitioner. Hi everyone. Welcome to the TBI Therapist podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Jen Blin chat, where we explore the heart of brain injury. Hi Crystal. Welcome to the TBI Therapist podcast. It’s so great to have you.
Speaker 1 00:01:15 Thank you for inviting me here today.
Speaker 0 00:01:18 Of course. So if you welcome, you just share where you’re talking to us from and just maybe a little bit about you and your journey in the brain injury world.
Speaker 1 00:01:28 Yeah. So, uh, I am in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and that’s, uh, the capital of Canada. Um, I always feel like it’s necessary to say though, I was like born and raised in Winnipeg. Um, you know, go win a peg <laugh>, but I moved to Ottawa for my internship, uh, and also cuz I could work here in both languages, in both English and French, uh, a bit more easily. So I was, uh, I was one year into being a dietician here in Ottawa when I got, uh, my first concussion, and that was the first of maybe six. It depends how you count them <laugh>. And, um, and yeah, throughout, throughout, uh, throughout that journey, I discovered a lot of things about myself. Um, and being a part of, you know, this concussion community and seeing all the questions and stress and things that come up about nutrition, it just felt, uh, it felt like I needed to contribute. So, um, yeah, after my last ish bigger concussion, which was I’ve just passed my six year anniversary, um, I slowly transitioned out of kind of the work I was doing in the community and started building my practice and getting information out there about nutrition and concussion and tbi.
Speaker 0 00:03:00 Awesome, awesome. So talk to me, I know that we messaged a little bit about intuitive eating, which, so, so I’m hopeful you can kind of talk a little bit about what that is and maybe why someone with a brain injury might want to think about that. And I’m sure I’m gonna interrupt you with questions and be like, Oh my gosh, say more.
Speaker 1 00:03:19 <laugh>. Absolutely. <laugh>, this is such a big topic. So I wanna preface this a bit. I think, uh, my, I think one of my biggest reasons for getting into this work and like offering this different approach to eating is, you know, a friend of mine through the Brain Injury Association here came to me and asked if I would ever do nutrition for brain injury. And I was like, Well, you know, I don’t know. And she was just like, Crystal, like I, I’m seeing this other practitioner, they have me on the most restrictive diet Jennifer that I’ve ever heard of, and she was taking like hundreds of dollars worth of supplements. And she was like, I don’t even know if this is working. Like, we need your help. Um, and I was like, Yeah, like that diet was stressing her out. It was hard to access food, It was hard to pay for the food anyway.
Speaker 1 00:04:09 It was just, it was so many of the things that are difficult to do in brain injury, um, all in one in a diet that probably was, you know, that has lots of side effects. So, um, yeah, so as I started like, you know, being a more part of the community and looking at the questions coming up about nutrition, I’m like, nobody is offering this more intuitive style. Nobody is offering or talking about nutrition that, um, looks at the bigger picture of what’s going on. Yeah. So, um, intuitive eating like itself, it was, um, <laugh>, this is where like, you know, I retain, I don’t memorize a lot of information. I saved my cognitive energy for the problem solving and the creative thinking. So I can’t remember the names of the people who started Intuitive eating <laugh>, but
Speaker 0 00:05:08 It’s ok. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:05:11 It’s a set, anyways, it’s a set of 10 principles and what it does is, at its core, it’s about reconnecting kind of with your body’s sensations of hunger fullness. That’s one part of it. And not everybody starts there mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, but beyond that, it’s understanding that the culture we are all swimming in gives us a lot of diet information. It gives us a lot of advice about cut these foods out, restrict this, restrict that, and that that culture itself is harmful. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So how to identify it and how to be resilient in the face of it. Um, and at the end of the day, it’s all about, it’s all about feeling good in your body. You know, when we can eat in more of an intuitive way when we can find movement, you know, people saying workouts, exercise, but it’s like when we find movement that’s good and feels good in our body, our body finds its natural shape and size that reflects that. Um, so that’s kind of, yeah, nutshell.
Speaker 0 00:06:31 And I guess I have a question a little bit about, you know, I, I think there’s, there’s a layer of, we have a lot of diet culture that are, you know, we have to eat in a certain way to be a certain body size. That’s one layer I think of diet culture. But I think when the brain injury world, there’s also this other layer of certain foods are not good for my brain because I’ve had a brain injury. And I think it could be very confusing for folks to say like, Oh, I can’t have sugar, or I can’t have this because these things are, are bad. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, and I dunno if you could speak a little bit to that, you know, maybe either from the research or your personal experience about maybe where that comes from or Yeah,
Speaker 1 00:07:11 Yeah. 100%. Like <laugh> diet culture is pervasive just in our every day. But in the world of any chronic illness or disability, it’s, it’s just, it feels like it’s so much more heightened because foods are, are labeled as villains. Like, if you eat blank, then your brain is gonna explode. That’s maybe not what they say, but I’ve had a lot of my clients come to me who have been given a very long list by another practitioner or by just searching the internet saying, Don’t eat these foods, don’t eat that food. And it’s, and it’s like whittled them down to very few foods they can eat, um, which I know is not great for their recovery. But then on top of that, it is causing people to fear food. I have a number of clients who have been told so many times, Don’t eat sugar, don’t eat these foods, don’t eat that food. That they’re actually afraid to eat more foods again, and foods that would be very beneficial to their recovery. Um, and you know, the effect that that has on like, broader, like mental and emotional wellbeing. If you have such a restricted list of foods, can you eat with others? Can you go out, can you go to a friend’s house and eat the food they’re offering? You know, like it really isolates people even more as if the brain injury wasn’t isolating enough.
Speaker 0 00:08:59 Makes a lot of sense. Makes a lot of sense. And I think a lot of times I see folks that are coming to me with a lot of trauma symptoms and a lot of fears regarding like, you know, am I gonna fall again? Or, um, is something bad gonna happen to me again? And so I think the messages of, well, if I eat this food, then I’m hurting my brain. If that message gets in there, then it’s like there’s fears around other things like food that don’t necessarily need that fear from, from my perspective of my nutritionist, you know, I’m a psychologist, but you know, it just seems like I could have been included in that at some point in my career, <laugh> might be instilling fear in that like, oh, if we eat these processed foods or sugary foods, then we’re, we’re increasing the inflammation in the brain, and then that means that maybe something bad is happening. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> instilling fear, I think when there’s already so much fear that’s inherent that comes with the brain injury.
Speaker 1 00:09:56 Yeah. Sometimes with clients, um, what I do is, you know, when we’re talking about kind of like what’s going on in the brain and so how nutrition can help and, you know, inflammation that like very, we hear that word all the time. Yes. And foods have been labeled as either inflammatory or pro-inflammatory. And it’s, it’s not, it’s not so black and white, it’s not so cut and dry. Um, but when I’m speaking with people, I’m like, Okay, let’s zoom out and take a look at the bigger picture. If, if, because your brain injury has made it difficult for you to cook, it has made it difficult for you to access food. Um, it has made it difficult to just remember to eat, which is something that comes up too.
Speaker 0 00:10:40 Yes. Um,
Speaker 1 00:10:42 Not eating, restricting not getting enough energy for your brain to heal, that also contributes to inflammation as well as, and I’m sure you know, stress <laugh>,
Speaker 0 00:10:58 Yes. Pumping cor a bunch of cortisol is also totally inflames the brain. I know this for
Speaker 1 00:11:03 Sure. Yeah, absolutely. And I see so many people stressing out over, Oh my gosh, can I eat that food or is it gonna harm me? Where on the flip side, it’s like, you know, if you, if we got you to just eat, doesn’t matter what it is, if it’s a frozen pizza, but that’s the energy and ability you have today. And if the frozen pizza beans we’re gonna get food into, then that is gonna help your recovery much better than trying to assemble the perfect anti-inflammatory meal. So yeah, I mean, and we, you know, and we know from, we know from research looking at like malnourishment, um, or, you know, disordered eating certain kinds that when people aren’t getting enough energy, they aren’t getting enough nutrients from food that that is affecting their brain. It affects their, uh, cognition, it affects memory, it affects stress in the brain. And sometimes you will even see changes in the brain. So like, first and foremost, we need to eat <laugh>. And so this approach of starting off with, okay, brain injury, this food’s inflammatory, don’t eat this, cut out that it’s like we are literally just adding fuel to the stress fire.
Speaker 0 00:12:31 Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I think, because generally when people come to me, my approach is figuring out like, how can I lower your stress level? Mm-hmm. <affirmative> in general in the brain, anybody really, But especially when I see someone with a brain injury, they are so overwhelmed and over attack. What can, how can we make your life easier? How can we streamline anything? Uh, but I think generally my approach is like, calm the storm before I add anything else to your life that might, you know, I’m not giving you homework. If you’re coming to me and you’re overwhelmed with your brain injury. I’m just like, okay, let’s just, let’s just make an easy plan. How can we incorporate some simple things in your life that is manageable today?
Speaker 1 00:13:15 Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah. And that, I think, I love that Jennifer, praise that approach, <laugh>, because it’s, it’s very similar to what I do with my clients. It’s like most people hear dietitian and they think I’m gonna give them a diet or a meal plan. It’s like, I know after over a decade of working as a dietician that that doesn’t work for most people. Right. So where are we gonna start? Well, we’re gonna start with like, you know, a step-wise kind of process of assessing where are you at right now in terms of energy, like functional ability, Um, and so and so what foods can we feed you at this level? And then once we’ve like satisfied that level and we’ve given you the foundation, okay, now we’re gonna move up to, to looking a bit more closely at, Okay, is there a way we can get more balance? Okay. Once we’ve achieved that, can we get more variety and so on and so forth. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, yeah, you really gotta meet people where they’re at. And when I look at nutrition information that’s kind of out there, it’s just nobody’s offering that <laugh>, nobody’s considering, you know, um, you know, when you look on social media and stuff like that, it’s, it’s lists of foods and it’s like, that’s not appropriate for everyone.
Speaker 0 00:14:39 No, I think especially for the clients I work with, I think that, that the list, the super detailed, like recipes not gonna work at all. I think I shared in the pre-interview about a podcast interview where the person was saying like, I just ate cottage cheese every night for dinner because that’s all, If I couldn’t figure out the recipe, that’s all I could know how to do to feel my body. And that’s, she was saying Carol Star, she’s, she’s a great, great person speaker, but she was saying, that’s my yardstick for knowing that my self care is kind of going off balance if I’m not incorporating other things in my diet that maybe I need to eat other things that for dinner than cottage cheese. But yeah. But that’s how, that’s what worked for her for a while. That’s what she needed to do.
Speaker 1 00:15:22 Yeah. Well, it, you know, and it like blew my mind, no pun intended, but like going through my own recovery, like I’m a dietician. I also consider myself a foodie. I have, you know, like when I used to travel, I collected a cookbook from every country I went to, like, you know, so I, I have all these cookbooks, I have all these recipes, I have recipes that I’ve done, you know, hundreds of times. And then after my concussion, I would open the recipe book, look at the words and be like, I don’t know what to do <laugh>. Like, or like, I’d read a sentence, I would turn around to the stove to do the thing. And in turning around had forgotten what it was I had to do. Like I couldn’t, I couldn’t make a recipe I was very familiar with to save my life <laugh> mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 00:16:12 <affirmative>. And it was a very, it was a very humbling experience, um, to realize like, there is so much cognitive processing that goes into planning a meal, going grocery shopping. Oh my gosh. I <laugh> I laugh at it now and I probably laughed at it then too, but I used to get lost in the grocery store. I would just be like standing in the middle of an aisle holding my cart, being like, Where am I right now? <laugh>, what am I looking for? You know, And I’d have my list and then I’d remember I have a list, I’m like, right. Um, but yeah, it, you know, those things that we otherwise pre-injury might have taken for granted. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> just requires so much decision making and multitasking. And so, like, part of my work is helping break that down for people so that food doesn’t become this like, like energy drainer in their day. Um, which is what, you know, I, I see happen a lot when people are like, Well, I heard this diet was good for me, so I spent like, you know, whatever, like five hours this day trying to follow it. And it’s like, well, you’ve got other things to do in your day, so let’s, let’s simplify that.
Speaker 0 00:17:26 Yeah. Yeah. And I, I think there was so much in that that I wanna pick apart <laugh>. Yeah. I mean the recipe made me think of, um, so on my post doctoral residency we had, we had kitchens in, in the Neurorehab. So a lot of the ot, I didn’t do the work, but oftentimes I would, you know, cook with clients, which I always found really, I love to cook actually. Uh, but they would use that as an executive functioning skill so that like a higher level skill because you’re right, it does take so many different cognitive processes to plan the meal. Like make your list, follow the recipe, knowing like how to time things. There’s a lot hold attention and memory. And so having the brain work together on a concert to be able to do that can be really, really challenging. And they use that as cognitive rehab. So I even like to, you know, celebrate when clients are able to, you know, hey, could, did you plan something you really felt like you wanted to eat? And that has been, um, kind of illuminating to me to figure out like, what, what do you actually like, like to eat? Mm-hmm. <affirmative> not what people are telling you to eat, but what is your, like what is your body kind of telling you that you want to eat?
Speaker 1 00:18:38 Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:18:38 Which seems like it should make no sense, right?
Speaker 1 00:18:41 <laugh> <laugh>. Yeah. Well, and that’s where, you know, I think like, like my tagline is that I help people with TBI find healing with food and nutrition. And to me there’s sort of like a double entendre there of like, yes, there’s the nutrition piece where we’re gonna give your brain the energy it needs cuz there’s that energy crisis going on in the brain. It has a higher need for energy and nutrients and blah, blah blah. Um, but then the other part of how food is healing is connecting with what we like is the enjoyment you might find in putting together, um, putting together a meal that is like traditional to your family. Um, there’s like the healing aspect of, uh, like sitting, sitting down to a meal and potentially with another person. I know at one point in my recovery it was difficult to eat with another person, like with other people at the table. It was very overstimulating. And, and that was very heartbreaking for me. Um, but like finding ways to, to have food still be like a social connector point. Um, there’s so much, so much healing in that as well. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 0 00:19:55 <affirmative>. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah. So I was wondering like from that, if you could share maybe a few tips, um, or tools that maybe you would highlight for someone who is recovering from a brain injury, either from your own journey or from your work as a dietician.
Speaker 1 00:20:12 Yeah. Well, um, I will say like, it’s <laugh> it’s what we hear all the time, but like routine, the brain loves routine and the body loves it when it comes to food as well. It is super cliche for me to say like, get your three squares a day, but I am gonna encourage it <laugh> like three meals, three meals a day, um, definitely helps like stabilize blood sugar, which can help with like pain and like headache management. It helps give you like stable energy and it does help kind of build a routine for you, which can sometimes help people with the decision making because it’s like, okay, well, like I have these set meals each day. So, you know, it’s, it’s um, um, it also helps with, uh, another thing I see come up a lot post brainin injury is, uh, like changes to appetite and mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 00:21:12 <affirmative>, there’s so many reasons for that. I, I have an article on my website and it’s recorded in audio for low screen time. Um, it’s probably my most popular, it’s like 10 reasons why your appetite might be off post injury. Um, and most people come to me thinking like, well, you know, I’ve sort of brought it up with my doctor before, but, uh, I guess I’ll just have no appetite for the rest of my life. And it’s like, well no, that’s not, we can, we can actually change that. So yeah, three meals a day helps with that as well. The second tip I’ll give is to focus on what to eat instead of what to cut out. I, I don’t know about you, but, um, even if you could like take in your own personal life, is it easier to add something or to take away something? The moment we cut something out, we’re like thinking about it and we want it. We see that with food all the time. The moment you say I can’t have a donut with sprinkles on it, that is what then you want
Speaker 0 00:22:18 <laugh>. Yeah. I, I call it the pink elephant rule. Like if I tell you to stop thinking about pink elephants, what are you gonna think about?
Speaker 1 00:22:23 Yeah, absolutely. Cause it’s at the forefront of your mind. And not only that, but like biologically when it comes to food and restriction, when we restrict ourselves, um, whether it’s in like total food or whether it’s in like certain, uh, certain like nutrients or whatnot, our body might be triggered to think, Oh, we’re in a famine <laugh>, so so now we’re gonna like slow down metabolism. We’re gonna like slow down the processes and I’m gonna make you search for food because we need to survive. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So for some people we see, like I often see that as well. So focusing on what to eat and whether that’s making like a list of your favorite meals, like you were saying in, uh, in your experience talking to people about like, what do you even like to eat? Um, just like starting there with like, what do I like to eat and what are some things I know I can make? Um,
Speaker 0 00:23:27 Right. Like the ease. I think I often help clients figure out like, what’s easy for you? Like how can you execute it now and does it work in your life?
Speaker 1 00:23:38 Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, so that would be my second, uh, tip. Um, and then my third one is focused on like, how can food be healing in more than ways than one. So I have a client for example, where for, for them is very important that they started cooking some of their family’s traditional meals because they, you know, they have a very like distinct cultural background. And so they were like, Yeah, you know, I don’t get to see my family very much, but I wanna start reaching out to all those members of the family who have those recipes <laugh> that everyone knows, but like nobody else knows how to make. And so that was very, very healing for that client. Other, other ways is, is thinking of meal timing at the time itself. Uh, one thing I like to do with people, especially if they have that food fear, um, or if they have digestion issues or appetite problems is before the meal. How can we try to kind of bring ourselves down out of that fight or flight if we’re like constantly in that sort of stress mode. Um, so how could we use meal time to to, to first bring that down? Maybe it’s lighting a candle, maybe it’s TAing a few breaths at the table, um, maybe it’s putting on some like, like music that you like. Um, how can we bring that down to just like, get the body ready and prepped for eating and that can make a difference as well.
Speaker 0 00:25:19 Hmm. Awesome. Well I think moving on to our quickfire round, which I pace, don’t worry
Speaker 1 00:25:30 <laugh>.
Speaker 0 00:25:32 I know. Should I have a jingle for that one? <laugh>. So what’s one habit or routine? We talk a little bit about routines that works in your recovery in your life or that you’ve seen in your clients’ lives. Cause you are a professional as well,
Speaker 1 00:25:47 <laugh>. Yeah, yeah. Um, this one is a bit abstract, but I’m gonna say it. Uh, one of the things I didn’t put in my intro is, uh, I’m also an improviser. I do improv theater, I teach it sometimes. And um, so for me routinely having laughter in my day, um, I definitely, I definitely make it a point to be able to laugh at myself and if I’m with other people, um, which right now is mostly my partner as we are, um, where I am, we’re still in sort of a lockdown <laugh>. Um, so anyways, my partner gets my best comedy. Uh, we make each other laugh every single day.
Speaker 0 00:26:29 That’s great. I love that. So you might have a great answer for this. So what is your favorite holiday food and who does it remind you of?
Speaker 1 00:26:39 Okay, so I said I was from Winnipeg, so my favorite holiday food is my birthday cake. And if you’re, if you’re from Winnipeg, you automatically know what I’m talking about. There’s a bakery in Winnipeg, it’s been there since like 1923 I think it is. Um, it’s called Genie’s Bakery. And they make these very specific cakes that they’re like log cakes. They have the world’s best buttercream. It’s like you can get it rolled in chocolate and as if that’s not enough, there is like a shortbread cookie crust bottom. I can’t even, gosh, <laugh>. Yeah. So I only get that cake maybe once a year if I go back home to Winnipeg, uh, around my birthday. But yeah, that to me is like, it, it’s the definition of cake and it reminds me of like my family and like all my friends back in Winnipeg cuz uh, it’s, yeah, it’s, it’s kind of a classic birthday cake
Speaker 0 00:27:39 <laugh>. So if you’re in Winnipeg, you have to go to Jeanie’s
Speaker 1 00:27:43 Bakery.
Speaker 0 00:27:43 Yeah. Okay. Plug for Genies.
Speaker 1 00:27:46 <laugh> plug for Genie.
Speaker 0 00:27:47 <laugh>. My last question, what I like to end with is what is one thing you would tell your younger self if you could at any point in your life?
Speaker 1 00:27:58 Yeah, this one. So, you know, it was my first concussion that led me to the, my mental health like diagnosis of having like anxiety, depression and then, um, like some OCD tendencies. So, but like I knew that there was something wrong before and I can, I have distinct memories of when I was a teenager and when those problems were starting and how I just thought, oh there’s something wrong with me. But, you know, ashamed to talk about it. Um, and thinking that there was nothing that could be done about it. So I feel going back to my younger self, my teenage self, I would be like, Yes, this, this is a problem and you don’t have to live with it. You can get help, you can ask for help and it’s gonna be okay.
Speaker 0 00:28:58 I love that. I love that. Yeah. So where I think people are gonna get a lot of value out of our conversation and wanna reach out to you. So how can they connect with you in the innerwebs or otherwise?
Speaker 1 00:29:12 Yeah, so my, um, on the socials, which is mostly Instagram and Facebook, I’m at brain dot mind dot nutrition at brain dot mind dot nutrition and uh, on the internet. Um, my website is K j Mnu Nutrition. That’s my initials. Crystal Joy mes k j mnu nutrition.com. Um, yeah, and I have a ton of resources on there and everything on my website is recorded in audio and it’s my voice. It’s not a computer. So, um, Yeah. And
Speaker 0 00:29:51 A bonus. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:29:52 Yeah, a bonus. I know sometimes like I have all these articles on different topics, um, related to nutrition and sometimes I’m like, the audio is so much better than the written <laugh>. Cause it’s like, sometimes I throw in random weird jokes or I think I’ve sung once or twice on them. I don’t know,
Speaker 0 00:30:11 <laugh>. So you get a little improv. Are you, you’re saying get some improv with the audio?
Speaker 1 00:30:17 Oh yeah, absolutely. It’s like improv is everywhere. You gotta, Anyway, <laugh>, my, my partner is like, especially in the past week, he’s like, Oh, someone give her a stage <laugh>. So yes, there’s a little bit of improv in there.
Speaker 0 00:30:35 Yeah. I mean, are you thinking of getting to a stage after all of the pandemic is over?
Speaker 1 00:30:41 Oh, yeah. Yeah. We it’ll be, it’ll be a bit, uh, it’ll be a bit for us to, to recover and get. I, I was talking with some improv friends, um, some people like Arou I was on and we’re like, Yeah, when, when we’re able to get together, we’re gonna have to just do a lot of bad improv first. Like, we’re gonna be like rusty the j like it’s all gonna be. Yeah. So it’s like we’re gonna have to like work out the, work out the rest,
Speaker 0 00:31:07 Work out the kinks. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:31:09 Work out the kinks and just do a lot of bad improv and then we’ll put it on a stage.
Speaker 0 00:31:14 Awesome. Well it’s been great talking with you. I, you know, I hope to connect with you again maybe on the podcast if you’re willing to come back. Cuz I think this topic is so important. We didn’t even get into some of the other things that I have in my brain about food and brain injury and just shame and all that stuff. So yeah. Um, I hope we’ll hear from you again as well.
Speaker 1 00:31:37 Yeah, I’m here <laugh>.
Speaker 0 00:31:39 Cool. Well thanks for being on the podcast.
Speaker 1 00:31:42 You’re welcome. And thank you for having me.
Speaker 3 00:31:48 Thank you for joining us today on the TBI Therapist podcast. Please visit tbi therapist.com for more information on brain injury, concussion and mental health. The information shared on today’s podcast is intended to provide information, awareness, and discussion on the topic. It is not clinical or medical advice. If you need mental health or medical advice, please seek a professional.
