Haleh Banani – How Dr. Nosheen Ahmad Helped Her Children When The Doctors Couldn’t!
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the challenges of healthy eating, anxiety, and stress related to COVID-19. They emphasize the importance of acceptance and avoiding certain foods to manage one's health and well-being. They also discuss the benefits of functional medicine, including addressing root causes and symptoms, and the importance of avoiding diet and drinking alcohol. The speakers suggest moderately healthy eating, finding healthy alternatives, and joining a group to get help with weight loss and one's health. They also mention the benefits of protein foods and the challenges of reverseing fatty liver damage.
AI: Summary ©
What would you do if your children were suffering from physical ailments? And none of the conventional medicine was helping? What would you do in that situation? Would you give up? Or would you pursue and research and try to figure things out on your own? Salaam Alaikum My name is Holly banana. And I am really passionate about this topic today about food being medicine because my family and I really struggled for years from 15 years ago, I had a son who had eczema all over his body, we took him to the best physicians with in different parts of the world with the best education. And they didn't have the answers, and it left us searching and looking for answers. We
wanted to relieve him of the itchiness. We wanted to relieve him of all of that he was experiencing. And that led us to changing the way that we were eating. And in that process of doing food intolerance, test and finding out all the allergies that we had, we were able to find some relief and some cure. And today, I have a mother, that Anna doctor Mashallah that was faced with that same challenge. Dr. nooshin Ahmed, who is a toxicologist with over 20 years of experience was faced with the challenge of having his her kids experience gastrointestinal problems, migraines, other issues, and she was not getting the answers. And that led her to become super passionate about healthy
eating. So today, I'm very honored to have Dr. nooshin akhmat on salaam aleikum.
Mashallah, you have a very strong background in science, you have the toxicology, how did that experience or having that experience of being a toxicologist helps you in, in discovering what's going on with your child. So my job is really risk assessment of product and you know, for products and all of their ingredients. So, it is it is tied, we look at all of the data that is generated for an ingredient before and then when you putting out a product, you have to calculate exposure numbers, etc, etc. And so you're one of those, when you read the, when you read the ingredients, you know exactly
what the harms are right? It's not mumbo jumbo to you. It makes sense. Right, right. Yeah. But overall, people don't have to worry, everything has good safety numbers, it's just that there's a lot of new data coming out and a lot of new information coming out on how the immune system reacts to those ingredients. And I think that's a new and emerging field and
maybe not as adequately addressed in my field, because they just didn't think it was that important. And now with all the new data over the years, there's, you know, attributing a lot of diseases due to the immune system. Okay, overreacting, or how the immune system tries to address the issue, which then leads to so many symptoms. Okay. Tell me what your experience was, as a mother what was going on with your kids? What turned you know what turned on this new passion, fascination with healthy eating? Can you kind of take us through that experience? Sure. It started with my daughter and she had
uncontrolled vomiting for no reason as a child. And we, you know, the doctors gave her some antacids, and we use them sporadically. And then she'd be okay. And then it would come back. How long was she? Probably around 780. Wow, that's young. So from seven he was vomiting uncontrollably, and you have no idea why. Right? And you know, and then she would complain a lot about stomach pain. And you know, you just say, Oh, it's okay. Oh, you'll be fine. You think the child is, you know, you don't really take it as seriously, you're looking to it to that level, and the doctors didn't take it seriously either. So you move on. But unfortunately, by the time she hit middle school, she had
reflux, and she started getting migraines. then by the time she hit high school, it was a migraine three times a week. Oh, wow. I mean, non functional. She would wake up in the morning with such severe nausea and vomiting. She couldn't function at all. So so militating it completely. How did that affect you? Like as a mom watching her just, you know, suffer like that. She's not sure she's vomiting. She has headaches. How did that affect like the quality of her life? The quality of your, your life as a family? Yeah, the worry, the stress the inability to help? I was Yes, yes, helplessness.
too, I went to so many doctors, different pediatricians, different gi specialist, they ran all kinds of tests, neurologist, EMT,
what was the like, what was the
verdict?
Well, we did sleep study, we did MRI, we did CAT scan, we did other more invasive tests. And you know, the, the one gi specialist just said, I don't understand what's going
through office. And that's what we got when we went with, you know, getting used to it himself from the eczema to the point that he was bleeding, and went to the best of the best, you know, allergist. And he said, there's no, he goes, my daughter has the same issue, and I can't help ours, I can't help your son. So it is a very, you feel very desperate, right? You feel like, Okay, if the if the best of the best can help, what are we going to do? Right, and this last gi doctor said, I'm having a lot of patients come in with this in the morning, they feel these issues, but I don't really understand what's going on. So at that time, the EMT had said, do this, this surgery on her. And he
said, Okay, so when you schedule the surgery, for the end, with the end, I'll do an endoscopy and we'll see what's going on. But I just was not comfortable. I just knew in my heart that surgery was not for her eye, she was already so delicate, so frail, underweight. And I knew that surgery was just just too much for her to handle. And so after that, I gave up with all of them. And I just started searching on the internet. And I found the Institute of functional medicine. And from there, I saw the light. Yeah, I saw the light functional medicine. So tell us a little bit more about that. What is what is it about functional medicine? How is it effective? And what kind of results Did you
see?
functional medicine is addressing the root cause of the problem as opposed to addressing the symptom. And I was lucky enough to find a functional medicine pediatrician in Frisco. And I took her there and the first thing she said was, you know, it's the antacids that's causing the reflux. So she weaned her off the antacids. And but you know, she's a pediatrician who has many patients, she has limited time. So then we had to, you know, go outside of what she initiated and triggered in my head and all then related, you know, that resulted in me doing all the searches and you know, going from there, and what did you do? What was what was the issue? What did you notice? That is the
issue, and how did you address it?
When we did the food intolerance test, we did the food allergy test, we found out her gut was in really bad shape, extremely leaky gut, she was reacting to everything. So we had to put on a rotational diet she had to go on, which means that you eat one thing one day, you can't touch that thing that for the next four days. Wow, that takes a lot of discipline and a lot of organization. And for those of you who are not familiar with the food intolerance test, this is blood work that is done. And then they tell you a list of things that you're allergic to, which sometimes, if you do an allergy test, which is on the skin, it doesn't pick up on the food intolerance, right. So I always
recommend for my clients who have these kind of issues. I'm not a nutritionist, but I know that from my own personal experience with the family, and working with so many of my clients who suffer from different like the intestinal issues, right? And whenever there is a question mark, you know, they call it the, what is it called? IBS, right. And i ne generally IBS is a result of just having some kind of food allergy that you're you're not aware of, you're eating something that's reacting with your body, and you just need to figure out what those are and avoided and it makes things so much better. So just for layman's terms, yes. And you need to give your gut time to heal. And that was
the procedure with her we had to remove the items give her gut time to heal. She had to go vegan for a little while because she was reacting to every animal protein. But the good thing was that over the period of six months, we were able to introduce foods back in her gut healed her reflux disappeared. We've had to use a variety of products. And but she got there and a handle and now she's 20 she's doing great. A lot that is remarkable. The fact that within six months you were able to reverse a lot of the issues, the symptoms that she had, and the vomiting went away nausea. The reflux went away the nausea went away my migraines that she was having three times a week that must
know much of relief. So she's a believer.
She is
she's studying pre med and she wants to do functional medicine. Oh, that's amazing. I didn't know that that you know, and Subhanallah that sometimes the wisdom behind going through certain experiences in your life. I always say there is
wisdom to everything that happens and many times it has to do when you personally experience the discomfort, the you know whether it's the headaches and nausea and then there's just going to be so much genuine empathy that she's going to have for her for her patients inshallah. So that's, that's fascinating. But that wasn't it. You had also a son who was yes about your son. Oh, my son story is a bit more difficult. He got four vaccinations. And when he was five years old, right after that, those four shots, he started having patches of hair loss, took him to a dermatologist. She said it's alopecia. At that time, I was like, Okay, and so she said, It's okay, it'll come and go, if it gets
even worse, then we'll do steroids. And unfortunately, after four years, it did get a lot worse. And he poor guy would wake up in the morning and say, Mom, there's so much hair on my pillow. And you know, he was only in first grade. That's it was very, very traumatic. The kids are just they're brutal at that. He tried with the he experience bullying and teasing at that point. He did I you know, kids or kids, it's okay. They don't know better that age. And yes, he did. You know, they would say to him, oh, you have 50 year left? Oh, you know, so and it took about nine months, and then all his hair fell off. And during that time, the dermatologist did steroids. Oral topical thing
was helping nothing else. Nothing. Nothing. And so what did you What did you decide to do? To help him? We did the food intolerance test food allergy test found out he has gluten allergies, soy allergy, nut allergy dairy. Welcome to our world, the long list of what you cannot eat, but it's such a blessing to know what it is right? Because I know before we did the test, and we just like you think it's randomly happening like what did I eat what happened? But once you know, once you do the test at first, it's a little bit sad because you have to say goodbye to all your beloved foods. But then you're like once you avoid it, then you see that you don't get the same set, you know, you
don't get symptoms. So once you got the food intolerance test, and you stopped those, the food did it change
it so yes, so the eyelashes, his eyelashes came back, you know, we saw sporadic hair growth on his body. And then so then we introduced eggs back, he was okay, then we introduced dairy back and then his eyelashes fell out again. So there was like, This is not something you can compromise on. Okay, there is not something he could do, he cannot do gluten.
Soy and nuts is the true allergy for him. So we just remove that anyway. So we're still working, he has a significant amount of growth on his body. A lot of it has, you know, it's still very sporadic on his head, and his eyelashes and his eyebrows. And we've had issues that if we do eat out and we try to be as careful as possible, but I guess there's contamination or
whatever the reason is, we have we have setbacks, and then again, and then you know, so it's a difficult journey, but it is very challenging, you know, as a mom to go through this. And you know, I know nooshin and her family on a personal level and our sons are very close friends and so we have you know, we go to each other's home and Mashallah, what I notice about your son that has gone through this he's such a happy young man, Mashallah. And that is, you know, that's a testimony to your upbringing. Because many times when, when a child is experiencing this kind of whether it's bullying because of because of weight because of illness, whatever it is, it can really affect their
self esteem. But what I like is that he is just Mashallah confident, happy young man. So you guys have done your part and not in building him up despite despite all of these challenges, Mashallah. And we have you know, resorted to a man and religion and you know, praying and when Allah gives you a challenge, he also gives you benefit. So, you know, to try to not let him you know, not have any resentment or anger, right. The acceptance is so important and, you know, my, my son actually has a fatal as you know, fatal allergy to peanuts, and we figured that out very early on, I think I was six months old and my husband adores peanut butter, so he decided to give him a lick and he just
he's, he got all swollen and we found that he has a peanut allergy. So it that has been a very
big challenge for us just making sure that people take it seriously that they don't expose him to it. And that I know, as a mom, every time like from first grade, whenever I had to hand them over to the teachers, and I would tell them about this fatal allergy, I would be in tears, because I was like, if they don't take it seriously, I could lose him. Right. So it's a it is it is a very emotional process.
Having having a child that has these kind of, you know, the challenges because many people don't understand they're not very maybe empathetic because they haven't experienced it. Did you find like, your your community was supportive? Were they understanding? Or did you feel ostracized? Oh, no, the community was very supportive the school he goes to the friends at school.
I have the law handler? Well, I think it's, it's all about the, you know, biohack, right. There's Dr. Mark Hyman, that, you know, he talks about that there needs to be a paradigm shift, right, there needs to be a paradigm shift, instead of just looking at the symptoms, you have to look at the causes, instead of looking at the organs, you have to look at the organism and, and this shift has to occur, because if we don't, we find that more and more people are getting sick, and it's actually affecting the mental health as well. There's that correlation between what you're eating, and you're like depression and anxiety. So it is, what, what do you feel is,
it's critical about the bio hack.
Ah, so there's a lot of things that we can do, there's a lot of good testing out there to get more information. Now, there's tons and tons of products that are tested and tried and are really helping people. So you just have to have an open mind. Think of these other things that are out there and just have willpower, you know, and
reach out to all these other people that are out there, go on the internet, there's, you know, I like to read lots of books, I like to listen to a lot of lectures, there's so much valuable information out there that can really help you. It can and, you know, this is very near and dear to my heart. Because as I said, you know, my, our whole family family of five we have we have you know, food allergies, and that's that's been a challenge. But on a much more critical note, you know, both my parents had autoimmune disorders, they had the neurodegenerative diseases. My mom suffers from ALS, my father, he, Allah got him who passed away from Alzheimer, and you know, I look at the way
that they ate, or you know, what they did, and, you know, in so many ways, I want to emulate them. But as far as that I really want to change and I wanted to revolutionize the way I live my life in order to avoid those. So for me getting healthy is not just about weight loss, right? It's it's so much more than that. It's about living a life with that is, you know, it quality life, being able to be healthy, being able to to be full of life and energy, and not full of diseases. Yeah. And then also, it doesn't have to be where you're just stuck in something, you know, let's say you want to follow keto, paleo, low carb, you know, whatever you want to do, you can cycle you can say, Hey, I'm
gonna do this for x amount of time and then give it a rest, then I'm going to go back and do this and, and let your when you heal your gut and heal your body, your body, you become more in tune with the symptoms that your body's telling you. And then you you will realize things and you'll say, hey, okay, I can't do this. This is working for me, this is not and this is what I can maintain. And it's okay to cycle. I'm totally a big proponent of cycling. So it really does help I started off my, my husband actually was the one who, you know, for a year, he was talking to me about paleo, and I was just kind of like, I don't know if I want to give up my, my bread and rice. And then and then he got
all my friends on board. And they were all ready to do it. So we did the Paleo diet. And and we did it because we felt Okay, it's only 30 days we can last 30 days. After 30 days, we felt phenomenal. We're 40 and we were feeling like we're at 25. So that was and we kept that up for about a year and a half. We've been gluten free for over 15 years and I am actually so grateful for the fact that my son had that eczema, you know, there's always that blessing in disguise because if he didn't have that we wouldn't have ever known about this kind of healthy eating. So I feel like it's it has improved our ability to focus right because as soon as you have bread or some you should have this
mental fog right.
So the
Being gluten free eating and the keto, I tried like this at six months, and I saw the results very effective. But it wasn't something I could do ongoing. So like you said, being able to alternate is it's very critical. And it's actually good for your microbiome, you know. So when you change things up that your gut bacteria change, so it's okay to switch from things, you know, after periods of time, it's Riley. So everything keeps going back to the gut, I
keep hearing about how you have to fix the gut. And it's something again, my husband's been telling me you got to fix your gut.
I always tell him, he plants the seed. Everyone else waters that and then you know, then it goes into partition. But the thing is that now I'm recognizing how important it is. And I think it's something I've neglected and I, I want to learn more about it. I want to fix it. How important is the gut? Everything starts in the gut. Everything is he is he yet
to heal? Yeah. Okay, you know what I got sold on when I found out seratonin my happy hormone is in the gut. That's what I'm like, Ah, no one's messing with my happy hormone. So that that got my attention. I'm like, okay, we're gonna heal the gut. And, you know, during this pandemic, I feel that it's been a it's been a big turning point. And it's been actually a litmus test for people's faith, their perseverance, their optimism, it is a litmus test, because there are some people who chose to just kind of give up, right? They gave up there are a lot of people who just turned to emotional eating, they, they became very pessimistic that there's a rise in depression and anxiety.
Suicide is up 400% since the pandemic, so it is it is a big turning point. And it is a litmus test. And, you know, you have to ask yourself, what are you going to do during the summer? Are you are you really going to just give up and be pessimistic? Or are you going to strive and thrive and I personally chose to thrive and one of the things I wanted to do is be more committed to improving my health. So I started to get healthy with Hala it's healthy Muslim women and we have Dr. New sheen on there. We have also nutritionists, my dear friend Suzanne Baraka then we have cancer survivors serene hottie and Mashallah, it is it is a group that is we're just wanting to provide this service,
you know, a free service for the community to help people of women get their health back regain that sense of the confidence and taking charge of their life. What do you what do you think about the group so far? And what's your perspective about the like, instead of just surviving youth, you thrive in an environment like this, from my friends that have joined and many people that I know they find it very motivating, very encouraging. And all the wonderful food items that people are women are posting are just excellent. You know, it's just ROM Shas, right.
My mouth starts watering, I'm looking at all this I should require to have tasters, right?
I would love to taste everything and people. They're just from all over the world. And you guys can get on here. It's for free. Get Healthy with Harlan, it's healthy Muslim women. And we have excellent advice you have been providing wonderful advice about, you know, healing the god what to do,
as far as improving the digestion. So what are some things you know, a person may be listening to this, and they're overwhelmed, right? A lot of this unless you have gone through the, you know, this process of researching and learning and making little steps at a time, it can be quite overwhelming, because suddenly a person is like, told you can't eat anything you're eating now, right?
Like my daughter's results. Oh my God, when we saw those results, I was like, What am I gonna feed her? Right, right, we felt the same way. We It was like several pages long as far as like what we cannot eat. But, you know, I think the key if we look at it from a psychological perspective, right, focus on what you can eat, right? It's like when things are forbidden or something is hot on there are a few things that are hot on and then there's so many options of how long right? So it's if you focus on what you can have, and I think having healthy alternatives, right. Right. And then also the results right? So for her, we had to give up so much, but within two weeks, she was so much better.
mocking the nausea in the morning went away very quickly. The reflux went away very quickly. And then, you know, we realized, hey, this has been two weeks you haven't had a migraine. So
Yeah, just those results are motivating. Right? Right. You know, there's the pleasure pain principle. And I've had to use that with myself and with a lot of clients who suffer from a lot of different kinds of addictions. And sometimes addiction could be food addiction, right? You could be addicted to sugar, and it is just the same part of the brain lights up, then you know, when someone is having cocaine, right? So it's a very severe addiction. And it's about linking pain to the item that that is bad for you. Right? So whether that is whatever it is, that is that is harmful. Let's say if someone is allergic to gluten, and they can't have bread, you have to just create a negative
association like this bread, what is it going to do to you, oh, it's going to cause me bloating, I'm going to be foggy, I'm not going to think clear, I'm going to have migraines. Okay. And then you link a lot of pleasure to things that are good for you. Like, oh, you know, this, the salad is going to be amazing, my body's going to thank me. So I think that's probably something you had to do and help your help your kids to develop that. Right? Right. And that goes back to food is as medicine, right? So that's, you have to consider this food, this amazing stuff that Allah provided us. And this is what's good for my body. This item is not good for my body. You know, and that takes it is a
paradigm shift, even in the way we eat. Because, you know, we usually associate fun times with eating and eating junk, right. And I'm noticing certain triggers, you know, so there's a place you know, my husband and I go on the weekends, and it was by the lake. And any time we used to go there, we'd get cold stone ice cream. You know, as I remember, as soon as we drove up my my instinct was Ooh, ice cream.
And, and then I realized, no, I have I have a lot of people to answer to.
And that's why accountability is so important. And I, you know, created this for us to be accountability partners. But we do associate having fun with junking app, right. And it also from a psychological perspective, you know, if parents used food as as a reward, then you know, as soon as you feel sad, you want to turn to food. So it's, it's a very, it's kind of a deep issue. And it is important to look into it because some, you know, people try these different diets, and then they give up, and because they haven't addressed the deeper, deeper issues, right, right. And then for the moms out there with younger children, start them young, start them now introduce different
vegetables. Why?
And it is important to start them young, because, you know, my daughter Layla was, you know, probably wrong, or when we started like paleo, and, and I remember we would always, you know, the table just we just had such healthy options. And once she came, and she was crying, she said, mama, everything's agreed.
He was so frustrated. And me or my son was like, you know, there's, there's no junk and he confessed later that he would take white bread and put sugar and it's like, I just needed
but you know, but what happened is that as they grew older, then they they chose to be gluten free, actually, me or surpassed us and how healthy he was, like we would we would be flexible and go to a restaurant. He's like, no, what kind of oil do they use on my Oh, come on.
So that kind of training. They complain about it initially, but they feel so good when they eat it. So they end up choosing not when when they can. Yeah, yeah. And and you can learn your own body's level of tolerance, right? And then you get us in that he Okay, I can handle this thing, this amount, you know, and you learn that and then it's okay, right? So there's there's so many gurus out there there's so many like health gurus and so much conflicting information, right?
Who do you know how do you know who to follow?
I well, as much as I can, I will post books to read and people that I I like what they're saying I like understand, but it's not so much that it's conflicting information. It's because everybody's so different. It's everything is so bio individual. One thing that works for you, it may not work for the other person. So it's really figuring out what your body needs what your what works with your body. Okay. All right. So you're going to be posting on the Get Healthy with Hala healthy Muslim woman you're going to tell us which books to read, which you know, people that you
Feel are, you know, very trustworthy and you've had good experience, and you're going to be offering also like one on one consultation as well. inshallah, inshallah we're both of us, you know, we're working towards that. So we're, you know, yes. And how important is it to get that guidance, like, especially if you have some, like, let's say severe medical issues, how important is it to work with a nutritionist that rather than trying to figure it out on your own, also, because maybe you need some information that you can give to your physician, you know, you know, you need studies, you need a book, you need something to convince that physician with this line of thinking was this way of
thinking or trying something or ordering a specific test, sometimes they're not willing to do you know, order that test or so you need that help as well. Okay. So the nutritionist will basically educate you on what tests you need to get, and they will guide you so that you're not overwhelmed because it is it's a it's a very overwhelming process. So there are some questions here. Thank you, sisters, for joining in Mashallah sister Ayesha saying, Do you recommend supplements like flaxseed supplements calcium, magnesium iron, or that's not good idea Plus, I have, what is it a hiatal hernia, or haitus.
So, if you can, let's see, if your gut is in really bad shape, you need to heal your gut first. And that may involve removing items that are irritating it. So food intolerance, testing, I am a big proponent of that it really, you know, targets which ones you need to stay away from, stay away from those items for a period of one month, three months or six months, depending on what your results show. And then you give your gut time to heal. During that time, you can use supplements to you know, fix the deficiency bring you back to sufficiency. And then after your gut heals, then you rely on food and rely on getting all your nutrients from food. Okay, so that's a difficult condition. So
it's like when the esophagus the opening is herniated? Right there. Yeah. I mean, and again, I repeat that part, I would leave that part with the physician doesn't Okay.
Let them deal with that one. Okay. This one sister Satya is saying, Where do we go for food intolerance testing.
So, quest labs, lab core do provide some testing. So that is one option, you can get results from them. But there are a lot of better labs out there. Your doctor needs to be a be familiar with that lab set up with that lab and prescribe to that lab. And then if you search the internet, there's all kinds of other companies that do you know, intolerance, food sensitivity testing as well. Right. So the key is intolerance tests right? Not just allergy. Right? allergy is IGA IE intolerance or sensitivities. I GG so you need both of those numbers. Okay. It says I've been on what is it Emma puzzle for eight to 10 years trying to get off of it? Yeah, my daughter was on all of those antacids
are ppis. And you know, you have to slowly wean off of them. And they unfortunately, reduce your stomach acid so much that your stomach lining them thins out. So you have to gradually bring back the stomach acid gradually bring thick in the stomach lining. And then also from my daughter, it led to cebo, which is small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, and we help address that as well. That's what causes the bloating, right, the CBOE? Yes, the bloating you have bloating and it's not just from overeating
because sometimes realize I'm bloated and it might be more than bloating, right? So if but if you're eating like healthy food and you're not eating excessively and your stomach does get bigger from the foods you're eating than it is, it could be Siebel, right? Okay, so Sister najma sang from a young age My fondest memories was coming home from school to a home cooked meal by my mom and sitting with my mom and eating it. It was followed by a pot of tea and cookies. Although I practice low carb and no sugar, I have to have that cup of tea and something because it has a deeper meaning. Yes, we do connect a lot of there's just a lot of emotion connected to the meals I mean, sometimes just an
aroma a scent you know sometimes I become the style chick and I I want to make a meal that my mother is to make or my father and and just those sense brings back so much memories. The key is to have healthy alternatives. It's not about living, deprived.
Life. That's what I love about paleo, right? Your eat for me meals. Yeah, tell us a little bit about it. You can do substitution. So you know the tea, maybe the black tea is too much caffeine for you, maybe you will need some herbal tea. You know, Matcha Green Tea is really tasty. It's good, very, very healthy for you. And there's also matcha green tea with reishi mushroom, which is even more healthy for you. Mushroom Reishi mushrooms. Yeah, they're really, really good. There's teas out there, and they taste great. So you know, it's just little substitutions, that cookie that you really like, try to look for something that's a paleo cookie or eat with no sugar. You know, so just
little substitutions, and you'll still get the same pleasure. Yes. And I think that was the thing that made it easier was knowing that you can have, you know, you can have paleo pancakes, you can have, you know, paleo or Kido, cupcakes, whatever it is, it's just about using the right ingredients. And mainly, it's about doing away with flour, whole wheat flour, and replacing it with almond flour, coconut flour, instead of using sunflower oil, you use avocado oil, or coconut oil. And it's like these small substitutions that make a huge difference in our health. Right? Absolutely. Right. So what would be your advice to
everyone joining in today? If they have a you know, maybe maybe they're suffering from some kind of ailments that they can't find answers to? Or maybe they have children? And they're just so overwhelmed. What would you tell them?
Oh,
I guess I turned to finding a functional medicine doctor. Because at that time, I was still like, I need a doctor to guide you know me through this. But then I learned over time that, you know, I had the I could access the knowledge out there and figure out things myself. And so that's what I did. But then I went a step further, because I was so fascinated by all this. I went and you know, did a course in nutrition, functional nutrition. So
not everybody, of course has to do that you can reach out to functional nutritionist to help you.
I think now, there's a lot of options out there a lot of options, and you don't have to reinvent the wheel. I think it's so much better to go to someone such as yourself, you're already You're so experienced, and you've gone through this and it's just it's so easy, rather than trying to figure it out on your own. Yes. And sister Satya saying My doctor told me I might have irritable bladder, could you please give me some guide? How do I fix it with food?
Ooh, that's a tough, that's a tough one. Okay, so what we can do is, you know, join our group on get healthy with holla. post the question and then we can you can have some time to reflect on it and answer How about that? Right. It requires a detailed, you know, analysis. Yeah. And intake form? What are you eating what you know, so a lot more can always get those quick answers. Everyone wants to give me give me the answers. But it really does have to take analysis. I was talking to another functional, a holistic doctor. And she said the intake form is like 10 pages long, right? So if you want a thorough analysis, and you don't want just a quick fix, you got to go through the procedure.
Right? What about probiotics? are they safe? Oh, totally safe. Yes. totally safe. Effective. Not all of them.
Yes. All right. So
there's two ways of thinking there's a lot of products out there that say, you know, there's just take this pill and it'll get to your colon and it'll populate and it doesn't work like that.
A lot of the bugs don't survive your stomach acid. So there's a type of probiotics called spore based probiotics are based biotic. They're the actual bacteria is encapsulated in a spore. So it makes it through the stomach and small intestine, and then they are actually able to populate in the colon. And there's many studies showing that so that's one you know, good one to use. And the other best way is actually to feed your gut bugs the food that they need to to live happily. So the female What did you say
to those bugs? feed those bugs? Okay, like the bugs in our intestines. They're good. fiber, right anyway, right? From vegetables and fruit. And so you need fermented foods is a really great way to feed those gut bugs. So kimchi sauerkraut, pickles.
What do you think about
kombucha I personally don't like the taste. I've tried it once and was
a no go. Okay, so, um, this sister is saying, how often should you weigh yourself?
Oh, um, I weighed myself probably once a week, in the morning, because I'm supporting my husband doing keto. He's unfill keto. I'm on low carb keto. So my issue is I lose too much weight. So I have to watch my weight. So I weigh once a week, you know, usually on a Monday bar saying I wish I had that problem.
Sister, tell us tell us how do you live?
by the verschil law? It's you know, and and, unfortunately, some people don't have sensitivity or understanding of how difficult it is I've had clients who are underweight, they can't get the, you know, they can't get to their optimal weight. And that can be an issue as well. So
isn't that the I'm sorry?
The doctors say their toughest clients are the ones that are underweight. Oh, I can't get weight gain weight. So yeah, that that's a whole nother challenge. Right. All right. And then sister, my son has fatty liver, he is 14, where can I give him to deal with this problem. So I would say all of us have fatty liver. And that's because of the way of the amount of carbs we eat. So if you really want to help your son, you have to get him off carbs and all sugar. No carb, no sugar. Bye bye. Yep, of ice cream. Bye bye.
That fatty liver very easily. You can reverse it. So that's good news. Yeah. Okay. Very good. And what are some of the alternatives for you know what we're talking about? So we have lots of junk that we're, we've become accustomed to a lot of people relying on fast food, they're grabbing that bag of chips, the candy bar when they're feeling hungry, at work, or at school? So what are the alternatives? Um, like you're doing the Paleo, which is the whole food diet. So yes, that requires a lot more cooking. But cooking can be fun cooking can be adventurous, or it can involve all the kids, you know, hobbies to
get them on board. Yes, yeah. So whole food diet is the best way to go. But now there's so many products out there, whether you're paleo or keto. Just read the ingredients and see what works for you. Okay, I have a funny story to share. So this was over 12 years ago. Okay, tall fifth, maybe the top 15 years ago.
It was gluten free was just you know that they were just starting to find out about it. Right. And what happened was that we were in New York and New York is very, it was very progressive. So they had like the Paleo cupcakes and paleo pizza. So we went to we were in New Jersey, okay. And I went to a restaurant and did I tell you the story before
I go to the restaurant. I'm like, I want to make sure that they have gluten free bread. I'm like, excuse me. You have gluten free bread and ladies like you want free bread. I'm like, No, no, no, I'm just saying it really loud. Okay, and I like that gluten free she goes we don't have free bread
it's gluten free look it up it's going to be big.
So that was my funny story with gluten free bread. But the thing is Yeah, we just have to be more aware and educate ourselves and and it's so helpful to get the support of you know the sisterhood encouraging one another so hard when you're by yourself so you know we need to support one another inshallah you you guys can join us on the healthy Muslim woman get healthy with holiday and one sister is asking cooking and airfryer Is it okay? Yes, just what oil are you using? Right use avocado oil right. Coconut Oil avocado oil ghee. Yeah. Okay, there is a
freak tafta
the audience out? Yeah. Okay, I know we have to really learn we have to dismiss a lot of the myths and maybe our next talk could be about the myths that are out there right thinking that fat is bad for you. You know fat is your friend. I like to keep saying that.
the right kind of fat right.
Thank you so much for you know for your time for sharing your you know, amazing story about how you reverse these ailments in your, you know, in your children, and we're very excited to have you on on the Facebook page. Thank you. Thank you for honoring me
Thank you for including me. So far, it's been amazing. It is fun. It is a lot of fun and we just have this beautiful sisterhood everyone is you know, cheerful and encouraging one another and that's what we need especially during this pandemic.
Thank you so much and thanks everyone for tuning in inshallah we will see in the group. So now Malika go bye bye