All Episodes

July 10, 2024 13 mins

Ready to demystify the gluten-free craze and make informed choices for your health? Join me, Susie Garden, on this myth-busting episode of Ageless and Awesome, where we tackle the misconceptions surrounding gluten in our diets. Inspired by a consultation with my client Brooke, we discuss why it’s not always beneficial to go gluten-free without a specific reason. Discover the science behind gluten sensitivity, the impact of modern farming practices, and why organic sources of gluten might be a better option for you.

We'll also explore the nutritional pitfalls of supermarket gluten-free products and why many of them might be doing you more harm than good. From the importance of proper diagnosis for celiac disease to selecting nutrient-dense options like paleo breads, this episode covers all the essential tips you need. If you're navigating perimenopause or menopause and aiming for optimal health, positive mindset, and bold confidence, this conversation is a game-changer you won’t want to miss!

Send me a text!

Want my FREE Radiant Reset Hormone Detox for Perimenopausal Women? Of course you do! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Click here and download now.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠


Are you a woman feeling stressed, flat and experiencing the challenges of perimenopause?

It’s time to reclaim your youthful energy, radiance and self-assurance (and your ideal weight).

I’m here to help with my proven method.

Here's how I can support you -


1. Hit your health and wellbeing goals this year, balance your hormones and lose weight with your own personalised protocol, based on your body's biochemistry. Sounds awesome right!! Book a free 30 minute Introduction Call with me so we can discuss your health and wellbeing goals and also see how I might be able to support you. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Book your call here. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. The 10 Day Radiant Reset Hormone Detox for Perimenopausal Women has been designed to give you the tools to nourish and detox your body at a cellular level while supporting your hormone balance and your gut health so that you feel revitalised and in control without feeling deprived. Click here to learn more.

3. Follow me on Instagram and Facebook - ...

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Susie Garden and this is the Ageless and
Awesome podcast.
I'm an age-defying naturopathand clinical nutritionist and
I'm here to bust myths aroundwomen's health and aging so that
you can be ageless and awesomein your 40s, 50s and beyond.
The Ageless and Awesome podcastis dedicated to helping women

(00:24):
through perimenopause andmenopause with great health, a
positive mindset and outrageousconfidence.
Hit, subscribe or follow nowand let's get started.
Hello, gorgeous one, andwelcome to Q&A Thursday with me,
susie.
And today's episode is more ofa general naturopathy

(00:46):
nutritionist kind of episode.
It's about gluten and why I'mnot a massive believer in just
going gluten-free for the hellof it.
And this comes after I had aconsult with one of my clients
today, beautiful Brock, and sheasked me to remind her of
because she knew that I.
Today, beautiful Brock, and sheasked me to remind her of cause

(01:06):
she knew that I didn't like itand she asked me to remind her
why that was that, that I didn'tkind of think that just going
gluten-free was a great idea.
And uh, I do have anotherepisode that I recorded back in
March If you want me to go alittle bit more in depth.
It's about gluten andperimenopause, so you can go

(01:28):
back into the archives, as itwere, if you want to.
But yeah, today, becausetoday's just more general kind
of nutrition, naturopathy, andso, yeah, let's talk about it.
A lot of people seem to thinkthat going gluten-free is a
really healthy thing to do, andyou know what?

(01:49):
It's not a bad thing to do.
I mean, I'm not a believer inexcluding foods just for the
hell of it, and gluten isactually a protein.
It is something that, if youdon't have a sensitivity to it,
it's generally pretty okay toeat.

(02:10):
I would always recommend,because the thing is with gluten
is that wheat it comes fromwheat, as well as a couple of
other grains, and those grainsand wheat are very highly
modified and processed comparedto what our grandparents ate and
so many, many people havereactions to it.

(02:31):
And also there is a thoughtthat the use of certain
pesticides also transfer throughthat food that we're eating,
and that could be one of thereasons that gluten sensitivity
is just so rampant at the moment, way more than certainly when I

(02:51):
was a kid or even a young adult, and speaking to friends of
mine that are celiacs, they'resaying, oh, it's so much easier
now to get gluten-free food andto eat out because there's a
knowledge of gluten-free eatingand, yeah, so there is a thought
that it's just the farmingpractices, the mass production,

(03:14):
is one of the reasons why manypeople are reacting to gluten,
and so what I do recommend isthat you have good quality
sources of the foods thatcontain gluten.
I would always, if possible, gofor organic.
That is almost always going tobe a better option, and

(03:37):
particularly for things likebreads and pastas, which are
probably the big ones thatpeople are consuming reasonable
amounts of gluten in.
Going that more organic routemeans that that wheat is not
going to be as highly processed.
It's also not going to have allof the pesticides on it, and

(03:58):
that can be really helpful.
And the thing is, with a lot ofthe gluten-free breads like
particularly the ones you buyfrom the supermarket, a lot of
the gluten-free breads, likeparticularly the ones you buy
from the supermarket they'rejust pretty much nutritionally
devoid of any kind of nutrientin it and, like any of you that
have had the gluten-free breador wraps that are in the
supermarket, it's generally verywhite bread.

(04:18):
It's just nothing to it.
It's going to bounce your bloodsugar up like you wouldn't
believe, make you feel likerubbish.
So, if you can go somethingthat is more of that.
There's some fantastic paleobreads, for example, that are
full of nuts and seeds andthings like that.
They're great.
It's got lots of nutrition init.
I'm kind of deviating a littlebit, but yeah, that's kind of

(04:43):
what I would recommend.
Now, with regard to why I don'tlike just blanketing putting
people on gluten-free eatingplans, is a couple of reasons
actually.
Probably the most important one, though, is that there are many
, many people that areundiagnosed celiac.

(05:06):
Now, celiac disease is prettyimportant, because if people
have celiac disease and they'reeating gluten, it really
increases their risk of certaintypes of cancer.
So it's really, reallyimportant that if you are celiac
, you are absolutely gluten-free, and I'm talking having a
separate toaster at home thatgluten-containing breads never

(05:30):
go into, that you have separatecondiments like things like I
don't know peanut butter,vegemite, et cetera.
You have your own ones of thoseif you're celiac, because you
don't want knives going in therethat have touched bread that
has gluten in it, because eventhose traces of gluten are a

(05:52):
problem.
If you have wooden cookingutensils, they must be thrown
out if they've ever been usedwith gluten-containing pasta,
for example, or sauces.
So it's really really full onthe level of gluten avoidance
that a celiac needs to deal with, and that includes putting

(06:13):
gluten containing products onyour skin or using, you know,
hair shampoos that have glutenin them.
And I remember years ago,before I did any of this
training, seeing gluten-freeshampoo and thinking what a load
of crap, why are you gettinggluten-free shampoo?
But if you're celiac, you don'twant to be putting anything

(06:34):
that's got gluten in it on yourbody.
So, as well as in your body,it's super important.
Whereas if you have some of theother forms of gluten
intolerance, such as non-celiacgluten sensitivity, such as
wheat allergy, gluten allergy,things like that unless you're

(06:54):
anaphylactic it's not going tobe a life-threatening thing.
You might get symptoms and someof those symptoms you might
experience that may be tellingyou you have an intolerance to
gluten.
Most people think of bloatingand diarrhea, but actually it
can be also be constipation, itcan be skin itching or skin
rashes, it can be brain fog, itcan be sleep disturbances, so it

(07:16):
can be abdominal pain.
So it can be quite a fewdifferent things that you may
not necessarily think glutenintolerance would cause.
So, and the reason why I don'teven if someone comes to me as a
client and says oh, I can'ttolerate gluten, my first
question will always be one haveyou been tested for celiac?

(07:37):
If they say yes, I will saywere you eating gluten at the
time you were tested for celiacdisease?
And if they say no because alot of people take themselves
off gluten, and this is my wholething you take themselves off
gluten prior to being diagnosedand then they don't want to go
back on it because the glutenmakes them feel so horrible and

(07:59):
so they don't have a diagnosis.
But what research has told usis that these people that don't
have a diagnosis of celiacdisease tend to be more likely
to bring gluten back in.
And I see this all of the timein my clients.
Like if I say to them look,let's do gluten-free for two
weeks and see how you feel, andthen if people improve, then I

(08:19):
would always say them go and seeyour GP and get celiac tested.
I can also do a level of celiactesting.
I can do blood testing, but thegold standard is actually to
have a gastroscopy.
But you must have been having asignificant amount of gluten so
that the testing comes uppositive, because if you're not

(08:40):
having gluten, you're not goingto have the inflammation in your
body and it's not going to showup on a test.
The thing that will show up isthe genetic test.
If you have the gene for celiacand there's a couple of
different genes that they testfor, then that doesn't mean that
you have celiac disease, but itmeans you may have a
predisposition to it andtherefore you need to probably

(09:01):
get further tested, and thatwould include the gastroscopy,
with the biopsies of yourduodenum, which is the first
part of your small intestine.
So anyway, going back to, yeah,if I have someone that does a
two week gluten free period, um,I would always ask them to get

(09:21):
tested.
And if, sometimes, if we do itfor a little bit longer because
we, because we know there arecertain things going on their
gut and often with gut healing,we can get lots of improvements
in our um, uh, food and abilityto tolerate foods, then, uh,

(09:42):
what I find happens if I havepeople that are maybe going on
an extended, like six or eightweeks, of no gluten and if I say
to them, so, have you beenabsolutely strict?
They'll say pretty much andthat says to me no, you haven't
been absolutely strict, and thisis what the research tells us
that people that do not have adiagnosis of celiac are not as

(10:03):
strict.
If people know they're celiac,they are absolutely all over it,
and that is the reason why Idon't blanket put people on
gluten-free eating plans unlessthey've been tested for celiac
disease, because you can't testfor it if you are already
gluten-free.
So that's probably the gist ofwhat I wanted to cover today.

(10:29):
If anyone has any questionsfurther about this, I'm more
than happy more than happy toelaborate and do a whole podcast
episode on it.
I don't know if it needs it,but please let me know.
You can email me hello atsuzygardencom or you can message
me on Instagram atsuzygardenwellness.
I hope that's been helpful foryou.

(10:51):
Enjoy the rest of your week,have an awesome weekend and I
will see you next Tuesday withmy usual long form podcast ep.
Thanks so much for joining metoday on the Ageless and Awesome
podcast.
If you liked today's episode,please make sure you click the
little plus button if you're onApple Podcasts, or the follow
button if you're on Spotify, sothat you get each new episode

(11:14):
delivered to you every week.
If you like free stuff, thenhead to the show notes and click
the link to receive my freeRadiant Reset.
Hormone Detox Guide forperimenopausal women.
Or, if you'd like to continuethe discussion, head over to
Instagram and DM me atSusieGardenWellness.
I'd love to connect with you.
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

1. Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang

1. Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang

Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.

2. The Joe Rogan Experience

2. The Joe Rogan Experience

The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.

3. Dateline NBC

3. Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2024 iHeartMedia, Inc.