126: Almond Moms, Metabolic Diseases, and Pediatric Obesity (Part 2) with Dr. Karla Lester
This episode is the second part to my conversation with Dr. Karla Lester about food shaming, weight bias, metabolic diseases, “almond moms,” and more. Dr. Karla lends her professional expertise to the discussion of these important topics. Join us!
Show Highlights:
The effect of “almond mom” parenting on kids: food shaming, eating disorders, and more
The start of binge eating disorder in very young kids
Guarding against “opposite” mistakes with your kids in making good food choices
From KC, a parent’s perspective on food choices and neurodivergent kids
A switch from compliance to compassion
The goal in feeding kids should start with a focus on intentional, daily protein intake (Start with protein at breakfast!)
Aim for habit change in a positive direction.
Understanding “food noise” and what it means to bust common food myths
Dr. Karla’s advice to parents: “Get to neutral.”
Red flags for parents to look for in their kids’ food behaviors
Responding as a parent to your child’s weight gain/loss
The truth about insulin resistance: “It is an epidemic that we cannot ignore!”
Understanding the term healthism
Resources and Links:
Connect with Dr. Karla Lester: IME Community, Dr. Karla, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and Dr. Karla's radio show
Connect with KC: Website, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook
Get KC’s book, How to Keep House While Drowning
We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: www.strugglecare.com/promo-codes.
-
KC Davis 0:05
So what are some of the like? What's some of the damage? You know, if, because we're still kind of talking about this first mistake of, kind of the almond moms, of, kind of weaponizing thinness and believing in this sort of myth of calories in, calories out, and that, you know, as long as you're thin, you must be healthy, and any means necessarily, what's the effect of that kind of parenting that you're seeing in kids? Well,
Dr. Karla Lester 0:28
what I've learned is there's a ton of food shaming. There's eating disorders that are perpetuated or caused by those kinds of actions parents have maybe good intentions, but sometimes we can cause harm even with good intentions. See, I knew that from my work, like I can develop a whole nonprofit and do some amazing things I'm proud of, and at the end of the day, I feel like we were too BMI focused. I feel like I had really great intentions. I did a ton of work, but let's face it, like I contributed to some harm. So I don't, I don't want to do that anymore. So that's the thing that I don't think parents understand. They think that when they say, Oh, why are you going for seconds when you just ate, or their kid goes to the cabinet after they had dinner and they're just activated. Maybe their child has gained weight, and that kind of weight talk is very intergenerational. There's a study I talked about on my radio show last week about InterGen, generational parent weight talk and how it affects kids. They did a study in age five to nine looked at different ethnicities, races, and they found that you know how you talk, when you talk to your kids about weight, even if you have intention to focus on health, most of the time, parents are bringing that toxicity that they've learned in to their home, and they're causing, like, a broad range of harm. So it can be that the parents are going to get into more like restrictive eating. So the kids going to restrict, and then they're always going to binge okay? And that's one thing I've learned too on Tiktok from people who are adults who grew up, you know, they were singled out, they were restricted with their intake, and their binge eating started really young, so maybe even six to eight. So we in practice screen. We have adolescent binge eating disorder screening. Well, we need to talk about it earlier so the kids really confused. They get into what I call food shaming, so they don't know what to eat. They're food policing themselves. And I all say, you know, amazing parents who really want the best. They're very educated. I'll talk to their kid, and I said, Why can't you get seconds? And they're like, Oh, I could never do that. Why not? Oh, my mom would give my dad a look, or my mom would give me a look. And so some parents, luckily, who I work with, they want to do the work to deconstruct that, because I'm like that, stop that. Can you stop that? What's coming up in you? You know, like, what is coming up in you? Or they'll say, my kid's a lazy eater. There's Oreos there. They'll eat the Oreos. Well, yeah, if I've cut up vegetables, they'll eat that. And so they say, my kid's a lazy eater. No, they're not. They're just, you know, environment predicts behaviors. They're just doing their kid thing. So, and I've seen parents who have had, I worked with parents and teens who have different perspectives on the same experience. So I had a mom who I love working with her, but she's, like, very compliance based person. She's like, really, like, gets a lot of stuff done. Let's fix this, you know. And she's that way with her daughter, who's struggling with really severe eating disorders. And so with her daughter, she said she did amazing during the pandemic. She with her weight and her eating. Well, I go and talk to the daughter. She's awesome, hilarious. Prefer working with the teens, and she's like, I was dying during the pandemic, like I was eating less than 500 calories a day. I watched my mom just like, let people praise me on my weight loss. And I was literally dying. And, you know, to be honest, obviously, I'm like, put on my pediatrician hat, you know. Let's stop here. Talk to mom like, this is somebody who needs treatment, probably inpatient, you know. But it was just so interesting to see that, you know, mom is like, so feeling like her daughter, who was literally dying, was doing so, great, yeah. So that's an extreme.
KC Davis 4:55
It still illustrates like, what the issue is. And. With that kind of those myths and how damaging they can be if we don't unpack them from ourselves. Carla, side note, we're at the top of the hour. I want to be respectful of your time. I We haven't really even gotten into the second half of it. Do you have time to keep going? Or would you like to reschedule to Okay? I feel like that's a really good setup for kind of this second, or the opposite mistake, which is kind of where I find myself as a parent, right? Like, I know all of those things that we just unpack. I don't want to make weight comments, I don't want to make food comments. I've done all the things that they've said to do. You know, don't make sweets taboo, and don't make them you know, have to eat their broccoli before their dessert. And, you know, now I have kids that only want cake, right? And then also, like, learning about my own stuff with PCOS and ADHD and how, like, it actually doesn't work to just say no rules at all. Eat whatever you feel like, eating like that's not helping me. That's causing some health issues for me. So I need to make some diet changes, but I don't have any tools for making diet changes that didn't come from diet culture, right? And so that's where I am personally. And I'm looking at my kids, and it's like I'm at a loss of what language to use with my kids so that I can equip them to make good choices, to eat food that will fuel their body to because, you know, I ate everything and anything I wanted, and my metabolism in my youth, like made it so that it looked, didn't look like there were any effects of that. And now, you know, I have some health stuff, and I'm being told to eat differently, and I don't know how, and it's like this, the ADHD and the PCOS and the food noise kind of clashing with this. Oh, there are no food rules. And it's like, I need something else. And so I guess I'm just curious, like, how it's making me do this sort of reactive like, just don't say anything about food, you know. And I'm curious, like, where, what does it look like when we kind of do this opposite mistake of, okay, I'm so afraid to say anything that I might not be giving them the tools that they need.
Dr. Karla Lester 6:57
Yeah, this is such a great question. And first of all, I want to tell you that you are doing a lot. I mean, you're interviewing me, but you have so much information about your children's health. You know them so well. You know what works, you know what could cause harm, you know what's going on with them. I mean, you're totally engaged, and you know a ton about your own health, and you really know a lot about the science, so that is going to be like you, I can tell you, debunked and kind of let go and challenged a lot of the myths and recognizing the harm that and also really want you to understand that it's not just all on you. Okay, you don't cause and you don't control everything. So what we can do first is to reclaim health and a definition of health and how you think about health. And I think it's very challenging. It's even hard for me as a physician, is like it was the absence of disease, prevention of disease. You know, what does it mean to you? And then think about that, like, for your family, leave weight out of it. Okay? We don't want to food police. So we don't want to have like, here's good food, here's healthy choices. You know, think about the language that can be really triggering, and we don't want to do that. We also don't want to like, I don't know if you're familiar with the work of Ellen Satter. She's a dietitian who's been around for decades, and she has a division of responsibility, which I think is really amazing work. Her work is beautiful, but it's like, parents, you know, you bring the food into the home, and you provide some routine and structure and some positive experiences around eating, and then the kids decide what and if they eat, you
KC Davis 8:35
know, oh, I have heard of that, that kind of split of responsibility, yeah, that was one. That's one that I've tried really hard to do, where it's like we I put the food on the plate, and then you decide what you are aren't going to eat. And so I think that's beautiful, this idea of that way, I don't argue about what you do eat, what you don't eat, all this kind of stuff. Here's what I ran into as a parent, is I ended up having neuro divergent children that have safe foods, children that will break down in tears if you're asked to try a food that is slightly different than another food. And I think it's hard when you have that. And it's like, you see your kids palette kind of narrow, narrow, narrow, narrow, and you're going, well, like that may not be like, the healthiest thing for like, your whole palette to be just these foods, but at the same time, you know, I think we find ourselves as parents starting with this idea of, oh, yeah, I'll put it on the plate and you'll it's like, well, sometimes my kids just wouldn't need anything on there. Like, it's not true for all kids, that they'll eat if they're hungry, right?
Dr. Karla Lester 9:34
Yeah, it's kind of like the intuitive eating, you know? It's like, that's great in theory. Okay, so what we want to do, what I do is it comes from the coaching principles of so a lot of diet culture is like compliance based. And what we do as physicians, too is like me telling you kind of authoritatively what to do. And so then parents do that to their kids, and then that's why they resist. And it's like you've put up this, like, demand. Avoidance type situation, which you're going to especially have when you have neurodivergent children. But so what we want to do is switch from compliance to more compassion. Compassion doesn't mean that we're not doing anything, okay? Compassion means we're working on our relational health. We're working on it together. So what we want to do is get positive emotion activation, so we want it to be a positive thing. So for you, your work is probably going to be around like, what's our why, like, what's my why for doing this? And do some work around that, because that's going to be really epically powerful to keep you motivated. And then we get into the how, and it's really adding in the positive, so we're not restricting or taking anything away. And so some things that we maybe think about that our diet culture are really not and are just really helpful for taking action and health behavior change. So those are things like making decisions ahead of time about food. It doesn't mean we have to meal prep and everything, unless that's helpful. But you know, I'll do that like for a week, and then I drop. But anyway, yeah, whatever. Anyway. So what I always do is we add in protein first, because what do we want to do? We want to decrease glycemic variability. We want to stabilize blood sugars. So whether we have a weight issue, whether we have insulin resistance, when you know, I have patients who did a CGM, actually, and he went off his anxiety medication because he was finding that his anxiety was related to blood sugar fluctuations from some of the foods that He had been eating in different times a day, and the irritability and things like that. So, okay, so what we want to do is balance our blood sugars decrease. Blood sugar is going up and down, so we've got to do daily intentional protein intake. And then when you look at, you know, if you look at how damaging with our toddlers, it's like, oh, they're snacking all the time, all the snack foods. Look at what it was and what's marketed to us, and then we're heroes as parents. Is a high carbohydrate, a lot of processed stuff, and low fat. They need fat for their brains to develop. I mean, it's an amazing energy source, and so we add in protein first. You don't have to count macros, but it's just like every time we're eating even a snack, we're gonna have protein daily intentional protein intake. You don't even have to tell your kids. But with my patients, I actually like working. I've paid several patients who are on the autism spectrum, and I love working with them, because they choose. You know, like, here your power of choice, agency, autonomy. Here's why. What are five protein options that you like? And we get them in every time, and we're not going to talk about it. It gets boring over time. We don't need to duplicate and keep redoing this work. That's what diet culture tells us, you know, it's not on or off, you know. And it's like, do a seven day habit challenge this week. We're gonna add in protein at breakfast, and that's gonna start your day. You're gonna focus better, you're gonna have energy. I mean, your good blood sugars are gonna be more balanced. And then, and you usually have to think ahead of time to get protein in at breakfast. And then, you know, what do you reflect on that, you know, and maybe as a parent, depending on your kid's age and where they are developmentally, you're the one who's reflecting on it. Like, how hard was that, that was? We want to have it, stack it, okay, then you're going to add in other things, you know, fiber is a little bit more tricky. Like, what are we doing? Fruits and vegetables. We're not going to demonize or we're not going to push things. You're going to do a 20, maybe 50% on that habit change in the positive direction. Okay, maybe it's sleep. What's the biggest problem in front of you? You know that's what you're going to address first. Okay, you're developing self trust. You have the evidence tracking too. Is not diet, culture, self monitoring. Now, unless you're gonna, like, put it in a it depends on what you're using. Like, I don't like tracking, unless I do, like, three days and I don't have time for it, I get an idea, and then I know, like, this is what I'm getting, and I can have an idea of, like, how much protein I'm getting, and I it's too boring for me. Yeah, I never count my
KC Davis 14:27
total, not a lifestyle, you know, I like what you're saying here, because it reminds me of, kind of that approach, of, like, eat what you want, add what you need, so that it's not kind of this restrictive, but it's just making sure and that I feel a little bit better, kind of a my approach first, personally with my kids, because that's kind of what I've been trying to do. I've noticed that, you know, the reality is, is that the type of food I eat does affect some of my health conditions, and I've learned that prioritizing protein. And what happened was, for a long time, I had doctors telling me to do low carb, do low carb, do low. Carb, and it never, ever, ever worked. And I could not sustain it until I finally had a doctor say, I want you to prioritize protein. And what happened was, naturally, when I was prioritizing protein, I was just eating, like refined carbs, but it wasn't a restricting, and I realized that's what it was. Was I would say, Okay, I'm not gonna eat that carb. Not gonna eat that carb. But then I was just I was just hungry all the time, and when I started prioritizing protein, it was like the protein was giving me more of what I needed. It was helping with satiation. I would there was no restriction. And so I've been trying to do that, and what I've noticed is I'm running into some of that, like, you know, I call it food noise, but I think you refer to it as, like, food cue reactivity.
Dr. Karla Lester 15:43
Yeah, that's a scientific term for food noise. And,
KC Davis 15:46
you know, it's difficult, because I'm trying to make these diet changes, and I'm doing things that my doctor is asking, and I'm finding that I'm really struggling with, okay, I can do this, and my brain won't turn off, and it's weird to be like, I think I know enough about anti diet to know, like, this isn't a willpower problem, so I'm not gonna move in the direction of, oh, you know, try harder, try harder. But it's weird because it's like, I don't know how else to support myself when I feel this, you know, and I think sometimes people say food noise, and you see in there that they're on a really restrictive diet, and you're like, maybe that's just hunger. Like, you're gonna think about food all the time if you're not eating enough, but like, I am truly talking about something very different around like, the way that my brain sort of, like perseverates around certain foods, because regardless of whether I'm full or hungry or any of that, and it's difficult to go, I think I need support here and again, I don't want to go in the diet culture direction, but it's kind of like I don't know where else there is to go.
Dr. Karla Lester 16:54
Well, it's a medical issue. It's in your brain. There's nothing wrong with your brain. You're just getting some data. Okay, so those cravings are real, or food noise are maybe your body is telling you to, you know, what happens if you're making some changes, if your body's changing, your body is just trying to keep status quo. And so it's like that we might activate more of the, you know, food scarcity, but also like cravings, so that it gets your body back up to where was. It's also really hard in our society, because we're very visual people. You know, our senses are activated. So food noise is so easy. It's all around us. So if you're doing, I mean, it's so hard when doctors say, eat low carb, but there, I mean, it takes so much support to help somebody navigate that in our culture, and there's different degrees of it, and your body eventually will become what's called like fat adapted to where you'll be able to mobilize your energy stores. And it sounds like you were noticing some of that Casey, like you were noticing that your body was having less cravings. You were probably becoming more insulin sensitive and more insulin responsive. Things were starting to work how they were. But you have a long history of, you know, these, like any food, maybe feeling restriction creates a scarcity mindset that creates more cravings and more food noise, you know for
KC Davis 18:36
sure, and I've done the work of like, I know that like, carbs have been demonized, and brain needs glucose, like you need the like, carbs are not the enemy, but so that's why it feels weird to be in this spot where it's like, I don't want to get, like, eaten alive for like, engaging in some sort of, you know, myth about carbs. But like, the reality is, even after I've unpacked all of that, I am struggling to have a diet that supports my health. It's really not about, you know, fat phobia. It's not about, you know, diet culture, or any of those things, which I guess I'm just saying all of that to say that I really appreciate your platform and what you're talking about and recognizing that there is this ideological importance of talking about sort of busting these diet myths. But then there's still individual people struggling with things that need support. And it's not as easy as just saying, You know what? No food rules. Just intuitively eat everything. And I know part of intuitive eating is eating for health, but there's not really a mechanism that explains how to do that when you're really struggling. Yeah,
Dr. Karla Lester 19:46
it's individualized. It's very individualized, as you're seeing. So we don't have to even think about, you know, for you like, what would it be like for you to create what would be your preferred future? So. So we don't have to stay attached to things that haven't been serving us. So you don't have to keep pinging back and forth every time you eat. You know, it's like, oh my gosh. You know, you're just being super hard on yourself, I can tell. So you can step back, be a little more curious, but also come up with some mantra that's going to help you, that resonates that you really believe that's like, you know, you're I'm doing enough. I am enough. You know, I'm working it out. You know, I'm working it out like there's nothing going wrong here. You know, it's just like something to get to neutral. You know, I tell parents that like get to neutral, don't say and you believe this. You know, you're beautiful. You're when your kids hating on their body, or they don't have clothes to wear, and they're you're noticing they're doing body checking, or maybe find wrappers, and they're binging, and you know, it's just so horribly activating for us as parents to go through that, or to see that, and we don't know how to help, but it's like, we don't want To get into the where we're, like, trying to convince them of something that they don't believe. Okay, so it's like, you don't say, Oh, you're beautiful. Don't say that. But be like, You got a body. Everybody is different. Everybody is different. Every body is different. Get to neutral. Get to just neutral with everything. So
KC Davis 21:20
in that vein of getting to neutral, you know, I think we talked a little bit about, like, things as a parent that I don't want to be reacting to, like, Oh, they've gained weight, there's a problem, or they're going back for seconds. We can't allow that and but I don't want to over correct and, like, not look at anything health wise. What would you say to a parent, like, what are some of the signs that should actually be cueing my curiosity around food or diet or weight with children. That's not coming from this reactive fat phobia, weight stigma, thin privilege, but it might genuinely be, hey, let's investigate this. Let's make sure we're taking healthy steps around this. Let's maybe see a doctor about this. What kind of steps would you say that? What kind of like, little flags should we be looking for as parents? And I just thought that when you mentioned the like, the candy wrappers. So, yeah, share this. Well,
Dr. Karla Lester 22:12
first of all, you're gonna be the one that knows your kid and that sees the behaviors. And so whether it's things like maybe they're binge eating, or they're restricting food, or they're saying things about their body that are negative. Because the reality is, when you look at body image, body dissatisfaction, which teens are so stuck in, that happens really young, and when you look at all the influences on that, you know, with phone, social media, everything that's out there, even really young kids are exposed to so much like negative body image, and they just, it's really hard for parents, so we don't fully control that. So you may be seeing that in young kids, and it may be very activating. And you may be like, I don't know where this is coming from. Obviously, if you notice that they're gaining weight in a short period of time, maybe they have more stress at school. Let's just think about, like, what could be going on at school? Are they being bullied? Do they have don't ignore things and focus on weight that are going on so, like, food can be a very powerful coping mechanism. It can be so helpful when you're stressed. And I've even had patients and coaching clients where I've said we can be grateful to food for helping us get through these really toxic times, but is something going on at school, like they have a learning issue in a specific area, and we need to address that? Don't be afraid of addressing what's really going on, talking to teachers and learning. You know, what could be, maybe the cause for some of this. So then the other thing is, you know, I wish that we as pediatricians had been more open and less weight biased and less BMI focused, because a lot of parents will be like, well, I took them in, and then they said they're fine, and they made me feel weight shamed this whole time. And then now that I know that they meet the criteria for the medication, the GLP, one medication, now that I go in and mention that, then I'm seen as like this almond mom, so they can't win, but there are a lot of amazing pediatricians out there. So looking at, I think it's more helpful to look at weight, separate from height and then follow trends. So, you know, obviously weight gain most likely can be just a part of normal, healthy growth and development for a child. But let's see. You know, what are those causes, comorbidities, potentially going on and contributing factors? Is there a medication? Is there? Yeah, some sort of disordered eating, some new stressor. I mean, there's so many different possibilities for what could be causing, you know, is there something genetic going on? And then, you know, getting the data to see, you know, do we need to screen their. Fasting lipid profile. Do we need to screen their hemoglobin, a 1c get a cmp to check for fatty liver disease, and their blood sugar levels and thyroid, you know, looking at their height, some things that might affect their height, you know, are they having pubertal development early or delayed? I mean, there's, it's very complex. It's different than adults, and so getting to the pediatrician is going to be really helpful, too. And
KC Davis 25:27
I would also guess, you know, thinking back on that story you told us, is that if we see the inverse, like, if we see rapid weight loss, because I do think there's probably a lot of parents that might initially respond to that as like, Oh, this is great. They're getting healthier, they're making better choices. But I kind of hear you saying, like, you know, don't like, you said, like, separate it, take it as a data point and make sure that we're not just projecting our own sort of, like, cultural biases onto that. So we don't want to see weight gain and go, This is bad. There must be no health. But we also don't want to see weight loss and go, Oh, this is great. They must be making great choices. It could be, it could be those things. So we don't want to also just like, over correct, and go, like, I It's fine. Every body is fine. So we're just not going to look into this at all. But I think that's a helpful thing for parents of you, saying, like, you know, disconnect it from sort of, maybe your cultural projection onto what it means. But also don't ignore it completely, exactly.
Dr. Karla Lester 26:29
And the main thing, though, is, if the restriction is happening and you're seeing weight loss in a child, you really need to get in. I mean, I think that's just, do not pass go, go straight to the pediatrician. That is, you know, once that cycle starts, that just becomes so powerful, it's so protected, and yes, parents cannot ignore that. That's extremely dangerous. It
KC Davis 26:53
sounds like you would be more concerned with a child losing weight than you are with the child gaining weight. Absolutely.
Dr Carla, I want to kind of land the plane with this. One of the things that you've talked about is insulin resistance. And what's funny is that I found myself having kind of a reaction to that term, because that term has also, like, made itself, like made its way into what I call, like the wellness grifter buzzword. And this is what happens a lot of times, I think, with like wellness culture and wellness Grifters, where they're selling, they're trying to sell you something, some tea, some ridiculous whatever, and they really are trying to get to this part of our insecurity, where we go I don't like the way I look or the way I feel, and it's this promise of this quick fix. And I see this all the time, and I see it with things like cortisol face, like, you're not overweight, you have cortisol face. We can fix it if just drink this tea, right? Or like, oh, you know, are you stressed? Do you have brain fog? It's probably the MTHFR gene mutation, or whatever. And what I think is really unfortunate. See this with the MTHFR gene mutation. I see it with insulin resistance. I see it with cortisol phase. I see it with mast cell activation syndrome, where it's like these real terms that are real medical issues, but once the like Grifters get a hold of them, it's like they become this kind of like stereotype, this sort of like woo, woo, like snake oil, selling whatever. And there's two things that are really unfortunate about that. The first is obviously all of us now kind of believing we have some health condition that we don't have, so that we can buy some ridiculous detox tea or food plan or hire some trainer to do something. But I think the second really unfortunate effect of that is that it delegitimizes the very real medical issues that those things can be. So we kind of have, like this overreaction to it, where it's like, you know, oh, everyone has cortisol face, and it's like, no, I've legitimately had my cortisol tested, and I just have a round face, you know what I mean? But then it's like, what if someone does have cortisol face? And we're all going, No, that's not a real thing. It's like, no, wait, slow down. So can you talk to us a little bit about like, that term of insulin resistance, and how it's maybe, like, it's made its way into that wellness grift. But that doesn't necessarily mean it's not real.
Dr. Karla Lester 29:36
Yeah, insulin resistance is real. It is the epidemic that I think we absolutely should be worried about, especially when I'm looking at teens. And we look at a study called the today two study. It's today in all caps, everybody should check it out and talks about how type two diabetes in adolescents is different. It's more severe, and they have early cardiovascular disease within. One to two years of diagnosing it, and once a hemoglobin, a 1c reaches 6.3% it's hard to turn it around. So I mean, it's, to me, it's like this metabolic health emergency. And so I had a friend say, Carla, I just can't believe it, you've talked about insulin resistance. You're like the expert on this. You've been on Tiktok talking about it, and now everyone is just talking about insulin resistance. And I'm like, Oh, I know. I mean, it's just the way of the world. In America, it's what we are. We're consumers. Everything is a market. You know, every and diet culture teaches us that, you know, we can buy something, look for the singular fix and solve. Oh, here's what's broken with me. And then we can, with certainty, buy this thing. And then we think that we can cause and control it. It makes us feel safe. I mean, there's a lot going on in the world. I have to give parents a break too. I mean, it's a scary place. And for teens, you know, there's a lot going on. And so this is something that we can believe that we can cause and control and is causing us harm. So I get it. I get kind of into dogma too, and wanting to buy things and the latest and greatest, but just recognize that cortisol face can be a part of Cushing's. I've never heard the term cortisol face until I got on tick tock. But yeah, there are patients who have Cushing's disease, and they're going, it's very severe or Cushing syndrome, and taking care of several and over the years, and it's not something you're going to find out on the internet. Of parents be like, do you think they have Cushing's and they have cortisol face? I'll be like, no. But anyway, okay, work with your doctor if you think you have Cushing's disease or syndrome. Okay, so part of it is healthism. Okay, so you can look at the kind of separate out. What is healthism? Healthism is where we put and this actually started in the 80s. It's so interesting. Healthism is when we feel like we can that our health is up to the individual is in control the individual and can be blamed. And so we really get into that. We get kind of wacky. And then in America, with our consumerism that we're addicted to, we want to look for the singular fix and solve that's, I can buy it. This has certainty, and we want certainty, right? This is gonna work, and then we don't have to blame ourselves, because the other side of things has been this, like, harmful, dis, uncomfortable. You know, once we get into the health behavior change that maybe we want to make it's so uncomfortable, and some of us get and I a victim of this, I get into, like, a more restrictive thinking space that can kind of feel kind of safe to me, but I'm going to over function on that. And so that's one reason why I don't do anything. So then we get into healthism and believing that our that we can control it and fix it, this problem. And then the other thing is that with social media, especially experts, are not listened to. And so it's that, it's this kind of weird thing that I see, and I look at the comments of some of these influencers who are glorifying eating disorders, basically, and these people who have then privilege and who are using it as creators and her selling you stuff, these people want to be like them. And they just like, believe that if I buy this, I'm going to look like that, you know, whether it's a dress or, you know, so we want to stay out of the extremes of like, the diet culture and then like the do nothing. But it's also staying out of this extreme of like, thinking that nothing we do is going to improve our health or make us feel better, improve our well being, or over here with healthism, consumerism, singular fix and solve. And I'm almost lately, I've been thinking about that kind of shift, and that's kind of almost more helpful to me, because it kind of leaves weight out of it. Well,
KC Davis 34:01
Dr Carl, I really appreciate all of your help. I feel like there's a lot of people out there that need to hear these truths about the way that we have thought that weight and health is connected for so long, and the way we've been told for so long that that that is not accurate. And then I think there's also a lot of us that need to hear that as we deconstruct from those things, to not be afraid, to have to address, you know, our health struggles. You know, because we're we have this fear that we're gonna, you know, go back to the dark side, and it's like, no, there really is an empowered way forward. And I really appreciate that. Can you share how people can watch your content, but just kind of plug yourself? Oh,
Dr. Karla Lester 34:45
thank you. And this has been a great discussion. It's just brilliant. Your questions, okay? So you can find me at I m, e community.com, so the power of the individual and support of a community, and you can find. Find me on my other website, Dr Carla, with the kmd.com and that's where you'll find coaching. And I have a course called Health yourself, which is a reverse your insulin resistance course that I do in group coaching. And I have a metabolic telehealth practice that's for ages five up to age 21 that's licensed in 15 states. You can find me on Tiktok at ime community or Dr Carla MD, and I'm on Instagram and Facebook, but mainly on Tiktok. And then I have my weekly radio show, and that is 80s mixtape with Dr Carla at Casey u m.org let's see this week, I talked about bullying yesterday on my show and I played, we're not going to take it by Twisted Sister. So very cool.
KC Davis 35:47
All right. Well, thank you so much, and this has been delightful. Thank you. You.