Embarking on a journey from competitive swimming to navigating the choppy waters of an eating disorder, Mary Ellen Banevedes joins us as a beacon of hope and expertise. Through her story, we peel back the layers of intuitive eating and interoception, revealing how a profound understanding of our body's cues can lead to healing and a harmonious relationship with food.
Our conversation transcends personal experience, casting a light on the intricate road of eating disorders and the collaborative care essential for addressing them. Whether you're looking to support a loved one or understanding the complexities of conditions like ARFID, this episode offers a compassionate guide through the multifaceted challenges and solutions, including the increasing role of telehealth in providing lifelines across distances. Mary Ellen's insightful perspectives shine a light on the power of language and environment in fostering well-being—a crucial discourse for anyone touched by the shadow of eating disorders.
Mary Ellen Benavedes info:
Website: https://www.maryellenb.com/
Phone/text: (559) 572-2990
National Eating Disorders - https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/get-help/
Project HEAL- https://www.theprojectheal.org/
Thank you for listening. Please subscribe to this podcast and share with a friend. If you would like to know more about my services, please message at fueledbyleo@gmail.com
My YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0SqBP44jMNYSzlcJjOKJdg
Embarking on a journey from competitive swimming to navigating the choppy waters of an eating disorder, Mary Ellen Banevedes joins us as a beacon of hope and expertise. Through her story, we peel back the layers of intuitive eating and interoception, revealing how a profound understanding of our body's cues can lead to healing and a harmonious relationship with food.
Our conversation transcends personal experience, casting a light on the intricate road of eating disorders and the collaborative care essential for addressing them. Whether you're looking to support a loved one or understanding the complexities of conditions like ARFID, this episode offers a compassionate guide through the multifaceted challenges and solutions, including the increasing role of telehealth in providing lifelines across distances. Mary Ellen's insightful perspectives shine a light on the power of language and environment in fostering well-being—a crucial discourse for anyone touched by the shadow of eating disorders.
Mary Ellen Benavedes info:
Website: https://www.maryellenb.com/
Phone/text: (559) 572-2990
National Eating Disorders - https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/get-help/
Project HEAL- https://www.theprojectheal.org/
Thank you for listening. Please subscribe to this podcast and share with a friend. If you would like to know more about my services, please message at fueledbyleo@gmail.com
My YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0SqBP44jMNYSzlcJjOKJdg
Hey, hey, welcome back to another episode of the Simple Nutrition Insights podcast. I am your host, leonila Campos, registered dietitian, and today I am super excited to have my colleague, mary Ellen Benavides, registered dietitian too. So I'll let her introduce herself and then we'll get started with the podcast.
Speaker 2:Leonila, thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here. Yeah, so I'm a registered dietitian nutritionist, a certified diabetes care and education specialist and a certified intuitive eating counselor.
Speaker 1:Awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I've been a dietitian for over 25 years. I have been working specializing with eating disorders for the last four to five years and I'm down here in Hanford, just south of Fresno.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Thank you so much, mary Ellen, for joining me today and for accepting to do this interview. So the reason why I wanted to do this interview? Well, actually for many reasons, but one of the main reasons is because I wanted to talk about eating disorders. Right, this is a topic that we don't really talk about much, for maybe different reasons, but you work in this area, and so I guess the first question would be like, maybe what led you to work with eating disorders? Um, and yeah, let's start with that first.
Speaker 2:So, um, like you, like you mentioned um, you like you mentioned um, that well, I guess I mentioned it that I've been a dietitian for over 25 years and I originally went into dietetics because I was a competitive swimmer and I just found nutrition fascinating and how it can affect a person's body and their sport, and it ended up that I did clinical dietetics for a very long time.
Speaker 2:I didn't end up going into sports, um, and yeah, I'm sorry, I'm just trying to think of how much should I talk about here, um, because so many little details, um, and so I think, to start with, uh, it just an overall picture. As a dietitian, I um think I was trying to eat according to the picture of a dietitian and trying to be very healthy, and um and um ended up specializing in diabetes. And then eventually, um, I had a very stressful situation occur in my life for about a year, and I didn't know what was happening at the time, but I was spiraling down into an eating disorder and it was actually intuitive eating that helped me to get out of that eating disorder. I was able to recover on my own and that was what sparked me into starting to work with eating disorders and seeing the need for help with that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you for sharing that super personal experience, right, and you know, essentially going into this specialty, going into this focus or area of expertise in nutrition, it's so personal right, because you were going through it and you found a solution to help you get out of it. And so I think a follow-up question would be okay what is intuitive eating? Right, when we obviously hear those words, what does that mean? What is the definition I guess of of that eating, intuitive eating?
Speaker 2:yeah, it's taking food into account from our rational minds, from our emotions and from our physical bodies, and that food isn't just energy to get us throughout the day. That food can be used for celebrations. We can want to eat food out of simply just interest and trying different cultures, foods, um. So there are so many other different reasons for eating besides just energy to move about. And it also takes into account, um, our interoception, which means feeling our bodies from the inside, so, like when I'm touching something that is proprioception I can feel that when I'm putting my foot down on the ground, I can feel my foot on the ground. So that's outside the body. And then inside the body, like feeling our heartbeats, for example, feeling a growling stomach, just feeling how a person feels inside their body. And so intuitive eating takes into account helping people to move back towards being inside our bodies, because in our go-go-go culture, we kind of live from the next up and we're not always paying attention to how we feel in our bodies.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, I love that explanation so much because you're absolutely right. Right, we live in this go-go go environment and stressful environment and we're almost don't pay attention to what our bodies need ever right, and so that can be very difficult. And so I love that you know you focus on that and you mentioned and you described that, because listening to how our body feels right internally and externally can have a huge impact in our nutrition. So another question here how do you see that fit in, maybe developing an eating disorder when we don't pay attention to our body? And I guess let me back up a little bit let's first define what an eating disorder is and then maybe some of the causes or reasons why someone can develop an eating disorder.
Speaker 2:And I'll ask you the third question after that An eating disorder is an extreme of disordered eating. And what do I mean by disordered eating? Disordered eating is really a broad category. It can look like dieting, it can look like eating for a lifestyle, it can look like a template protocol, it could look like paying attention to a single nutrient in a food. So when those types of behaviors are taken to an extreme, then that's when it becomes an eating disorder. And eating disorders are considered mental health disorders and they are listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual that psychologists, psychiatrists and therapists use to diagnose mental health disorders.
Speaker 1:Thank you for explaining that, and I forgot the third question. But that's okay, we'll ask so then. Okay, so then we have that. And then how? I guess, how, not being intuitive right to our own bodies, how does that maybe lead to an eating disorder, right? And then follow up on that question, how dieting can also lead to an eating disorder yeah, and, and I think that those um are intertwined.
Speaker 2:So if someone is um trying to eat fewer calories, for example, but their stomachs are growling, then that is not listening to your body and you're ignoring how your body is feeling. Did that answer your question?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And so then that can lead to an eating disorder, right? Essentially, you're ignoring what your body needs and what your body wants, for whatever reasons, right? Maybe these restrictions that we're putting ourselves in, which could be dieting, right, okay, and then I'm hungry, and so then there's all these other effects that are happening as well.
Speaker 2:And then there's also binge eating disorder, and this is when people eat to an excess and they are not compensating for it. And what I mean by compensating is that they're not vomiting what they've eaten, they're not doing extreme exercise to work off the calories, and that's also not listening to your body.
Speaker 1:Once your body is overly full, but you keep eating, um, that's also a form of not listening to your body so we have the almost these two sides, right opposite sides, science, how we eat less because we're not listening to our um, to our, our bodies, that our bodies need a little bit more fuel, versus the other end, right, where we just eat too much, essentially Again bypassing the satiety cues. Right, okay, we're satiated, and I think this is really sad, right, because, as you mentioned, we live in this go go go environment and we have no idea what's happening, right from from our chin up and then down, and so then sometimes we even forget OK, did I even eat today? What did I eat today? Right, and? And we actually ate, we had a meal, but we didn't pay attention to that ate. We had a meal, but we didn't pay attention to that.
Speaker 1:So, what are some of the things, maybe some tips that you can give somebody that is like, okay, I do that a lot. Right, I want to be able to be more in tune with my body, I want to be able to learn when I'm hungry, to learn when I'm satiated and practice those tips Like, what are some of the tips that you can provide the public or the listeners that want to do that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a great question, and the number one thing that I would suggest is to eliminate distractions, because we eat in a distracted manner a lot, and what I mean by that is are we watching TV, are we on our phones, are we working, are we reading, are we standing up while we're eating because we're in a rush or it doesn't feel like this isn't a full meal, so you just kind of stand there and eat before you're on your way again. So eating without those distractions can help us to tune in to our bodies.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Yeah, Thank you for sharing that. And I know we are just. You know we're busy people. It's not always going to be perfect, right, but I think just overall, practicing some of these tools can help right, and checking in with yourself often can really help as well. So, for example, what are some of the practical tips that maybe you can provide to someone that is extremely busy and that, like I, can't sit down to have all my meals right and have no distractions, Especially if you're a mom or a parent, right that you have a kid asking you for a million things and you can give to like these busy people that still want to be able to listen to their bodies, listen to their cues, to help them with overall well-being.
Speaker 2:So if they're doing something else at the same time, if they can at least check in with themselves while they're doing multiple things. How does this food taste? Do I even like what I'm eating? Am I enjoying this? Do I want something different next time? At least it brings a little bit more attention back to how do I feel in my body.
Speaker 1:Awesome, thank you, yeah, so some of the things that you can do, right, even if you're really busy or you're doing multiple things which you know, unfortunately, is going to happen, but you know this is something that you want to work on or that you want to try to add. That's one of the ways where you can start. So let's move more into the eating disorder area. Right, I wanted to ask you about maybe some of the changes that you have seen from before the pandemic to after the pandemic and how significantly but maybe more so to some other people, some other population that had these issues already, and so any data that you have or anything that you notice that, working with that population, that has changed since then.
Speaker 2:So I'm not sure about the statistics since the pandemic happened.
Speaker 2:I'm sure that they are out there. This is how I ended up going into noticing how many more people I was seeing with an eating disorder area, that I was having difficulty getting these people referred out to providers because we were having to refer them to people in San Francisco or Los Angeles because we didn't have people here in the Central Valley. And then that's how I just I couldn't, I just got to the point where I felt like I couldn't turn another person away to say I need to talk with your doctor and refer you out. And so I started my practice so that there were more opportunities for people in the community to be able to access the care that they needed locally. So you know, as I mentioned earlier, I've been working for over 25 years and in 2019, it just it became I just was seeing so many people. Yeah, um, I do know that, um, eating disorders have increased by over double between 2000 and 2019. So my, my personal experience working in the clinic is pretty consistent with that research.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and I saw that too by receiving just many calls from parents or from patients themselves, like I'm looking for an eating disorder dietitian, and you have to know that this is a specialty that requires collaboration with other healthcare providers, so it's not just like, oh, I'm going to go with one healthcare provider and address all these issues that I have which, although I think I feel that any condition requires a collaboration but eating disorders, more specifically, because they need a lot of support and a lot of help, and so this is a specialty, an area where I don't focus on right, and so, as Mary Ellen said, I would have to turn them to someone else right, or find a different provider for them.
Speaker 1:And we are in the Central Valley and I, honestly, before meeting Mary Ellen, I would tell them you know, I don't know anybody that specializes in eating disorders. So let's look into San Francisco, like these bigger cities right that are going to have more resources, and so the need is there, and I know a lot of other. You know, listeners, if you know of anybody that has an eating disorder right and that you haven't found the help, you can share this podcast with them. Mary Ellen can help them, and so I'm so happy that you were able to see the need and then open your practice to help the population. So thank you, thank you for that, because again, it's tough, like I said, to turn people to someone else or like say, oh man, I don't know anybody that sees eating disorders and it's such an area that it's needed.
Speaker 2:What I can say is based on observation regarding the pandemic and that is and I don't have the research statistics to be able to give to you or your listening, your listeners, but I can get back to you if you would like.
Speaker 2:You know that, we know it's very clear that anxiety has increased significantly among children and adolescents since the pandemic, and eating disorders, particularly the restrictive type, can be a way, a coping tool for anxiety that people experience. People experience, so if things seem overwhelming to a kiddo, they might. One coping tool might be to start to not eat because eventually, over time, our hormones that tell us to eat they start to decrease when there's a lot of restriction and our metabolism starts to decrease over time and so a person is in a starved body, all their thoughts start to go towards food and then they don't have to think about the things that are creating the anxiety for them. And so eating disorders are a tool. You know I was talking earlier about how we kind of live from the neck up. Eating disorders are a tool to not be able to feel emotions. Most of the time, with eating disorders it's a secondary diagnosis and it's being used as a coping tool for the main thing that's going on with the person.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, this is huge and this is where the collaboration with other health providers is so needed, because we can focus again. Our scope of practice is focused on the nutrition aspect of it. Then, as you mentioned, it's a mental health issue, some mental health illness, and so if we don't address that right, where, where are we doing? Where are we going, right, um, and so in your expertise, right, um, because you mentioned before our podcast, right, that you, there's a lot of things that you do, not only the one-on-one right, but there's a lot more that you do for your patients, again, because this is something that is so needed for them, and the collaboration with other providers too. Is that right?
Speaker 2:Yes, so always collaborating with the therapist, um, and we try to get the doctor involved as well, um, and then there might even be additional people that we're collaborating with. Like I, also work with people who have ARFID avoidant, restrictive food intake disorder. An easy way to think about that is extreme picky eating. To be technical, it can show up as three different variations. One is people just don't have enough hormone to tell them that they have an appetite, so they don't eat. And then we have another group that they have what is called sensory defensive, or they might have very heightened sensitivities, so they're acutely aware of textures, smells, taste, noises in the environment can affect their eating. And then the last category under ARFID is they might be concerned that they might vomit if they eat or something bad is going to happen to them. They might have their fear of an allergic reaction, the sensory um things going on with the food. Then we'll, we try to get them. I try to get them hooked up with an occupational therapist also.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so coordinating um these different providers, yeah, looking at food logs outside of um, of um, the time that I'm actually meeting with the client, yeah, right right, right, this is not just like, oh, we had our appointment, okay, bye, see you next time, right, like you have to look into that and you have to look into creating this plan to help them. Right, essentially because this is for recovery, right, you're helping them recover and you'll help them live a healthier life, right? Um, and so it's a lot. That is that is going on. Uh, I'm so, thank you.
Speaker 1:I'm thankful that you explained what artif is, right, in, in, in, in the groups, because not a lot of people know. I actually didn't know the three different categories. I'm so glad that you were able to mention that as well. Hence why the reason you have to see an expert in that area. It's not just like, oh, that person or that child is extremely picky, almost finding out, okay, but why? Right, is there are there underlying reasons as to why that is happening, or why those behaviors are happening? Um, and then I love that you, you know, you look at at other professionals, okay, that they're having sensory issues. Okay, let's find an occupational therapist, right. Or they're having swallowing issues or chewing issues. Let's look at a speech therapist, right, or something like that. Again, it's a collaboration, because there's so much that we can do as dietitians, again within our scope of practice, that we have to resolve, you know, asking for the help of other health professionals so that they can help this patient as a whole right, not only one simple thing again for their recovery of that patient.
Speaker 2:To borrow from Hillary Clinton, it takes a village in recovery from eating disorders, and this is actually something that I talk about with my eating disorder clients on the first visit is the importance of the relationships with their providers, because we can't heal alone. It's we heal in community.
Speaker 1:I love that so much because it's so true. We do need a community, right, we can do it alone, essentially to be able to heal. And sometimes that is very difficult from a patient standpoint, right, like how can I open up? Right, how can I find a provider that I can have that communication right, that rapport that I feel comfortable? Um, and I think that it's important you know, from a client standpoint right, that if you don't feel comfortable and it's okay to find someone else because, again, yeah, this is, this is your livelihood, this is something that is going to be for your own benefit, 100%. So, yeah, thank you for sharing that.
Speaker 1:Okay, so let's talk about more. So from families and friends, right, that maybe see a loved one that is maybe struggling with some of these issues and that can be really difficult, like how can I approach them? I know I love them so much and I want to help them. Difficult, like, how can I approach them? Right, I know I love them so much and I want to help them. Do you have any tips for family members, parents or friends?
Speaker 2:that. Can, you know, help this person to get the help that they need? Yeah, and typically those people will at some point get included with the care of that person. For example, with children and adolescents, I might do a separate session with the parent, or I might start out with the child adolescent and the parent, and then I spend most of the time with the adolescent. I work with 13-year-olds and up, so I don't work with young children, and then we might have a recap at the end. We might have a recap at the end, and then also, I give all of the parents and caregivers a packet that has been put out by the National Eating Disorders Association for what is it like to be a family member, caregiver of somebody with an eating disorder?
Speaker 2:And I also give them a list of support groups free lots of free ones out there that they can attend so that they are getting their own support.
Speaker 2:So that's one of my first tips is that they need their own support because it is really difficult to watch and live with somebody who has an eating disorder. Difficult for them, for the caregivers and loved ones, family members, family members Um, and also other tips aside from getting the support for yourself is um to to not talk about food in a dieting way in front of this person with an eating disorder, to not make comments on their food, to not make comments about your own body, to not make comments about their bodies, and that actually might be a good practice for all of us, in all situations, whether there's a person with an eating disorder or not involved. So those are my two big tips to you know, and that might look like oh, I shouldn't eat this cookie because I'm watching my weight, kind of thing, or you need to eat all of this food to recover, but I'm on a diet so I can't eat. That's why I have less food than you. So avoiding those kinds of comments.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for actually bringing that up, because you know, I do see that time after time of you know, parents or just anybody that is in front of kids, right, talking negatively about their bodies and kids, teens, they are little sponges, right, they are going to imitate whatever the caregiver, whatever the parent is doing and saying, even if we think that they're not listening, right, they are listening. And so obviously we say, oh, I'm on a diet, right. Or I want to lose weight and I shouldn't be eating that. To them, that is normal, right, okay, that's what we do when we don't have to eat that or whatever. And so then we develop this disorder of eating right.
Speaker 1:Or, oh, I need to work out after I have this cookie because this is bad. And so now we're associating the food with being bad, right. And so then we have all again, we're going into this other area. But then we have these other negative feelings and we put this food in like this bad and good category, which it shouldn't be right. Food is just food. But then again, associating the feelings towards that food then can cause either more issues you 100% to not talk about one bad about yourself, about your body in front of your children or in front of your caregiver, and same thing with food right or comparing children with other kids or anything around those lines, because it can create such a huge impact in the development of that child right and possibly in developing that disorder eating too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's research that shows that children as young as three years old feel the pressure to be thin of thinking that eating candy was bad, that their bodies were bad and their disordered eating that turned into an eating disorder started. Then Lots of stories of that. Their disordered eating started when they saw their pediatrician who talked about their BMI in front of them during the appointment and thinking that their bodies were wrong and that they needed to do something about it. And unfortunately, some of my clients I don't see them until they're in their 60s and unfortunately, some of my clients I don't see them until they're in their sixties, and so they've lived for decades with this. And, yeah, I know that the longer someone has an eating disorder, it really elongates how long it takes to recover.
Speaker 1:I hate such a long time.
Speaker 1:It's so sad that it and it's also seen, you know, maybe personally or in the past like, oh, it's bad to have that, and like you don't get help, right, and that's not true.
Speaker 1:I think, recognizing that, hey, I have, you know, these behaviors or maybe I'm restricting too much and I'm noticing that this is happening more often it's okay to ask for help, right. It's okay to reach out to somebody and say, hey, I want to make sure that I don't continue to go down this road, right. And, like I said, sometimes it's difficult to really reach out to somebody if you don't know who to reach out to, right, and sometimes, even when you ask a health professional or a doctor or whoever, and then if they don't know where to send you, it's almost like you left in a limbo, right, ok, well, I don't know how to deal with that, but I think, knowing that, hey, wherever you are, there's going to be somebody there, even virtually right that you can reach out and get the help that you need, which, thankfully, you know, at least one of the things that we got out from the pandemic is that just the availability of telehealth and virtual appointments that you can get nowadays.
Speaker 2:I think that is one of the positive things from it. Yeah, and so just to put that out there, about finding help, that the National Eating Disorder Association has a helpline. People can go to nationaleatingdisordersorg or they can call them at 1-800-931-2237 or they can text them at that same number, 800-931-2237. 2237. And there's another organization called theprojecthealorg theprojecthealorg that they offer free initial assessments and can sometimes help financially, if that is needed, with finding help for an eating disorder.
Speaker 1:Sometimes it can be very expensive to get help for your eating disorder. Yeah, but thank you so much for giving those resources. I'll make sure to add them in the show notes so you can have access to them. Okay, all right, mary Ellen, thank you so much for all the information that you're providing us and providing to the listeners and the topics that you've talked about, and so any final tips or any final information that you want to provide, any final thoughts that you have.
Speaker 2:What a great question. First thing that comes to mind is that we cannot tell by looking at a person if they have an eating disorder, because eating disorders come in all body sizes, um age, race, gender, um, it doesn't matter that. Anyone can have an eating disorder. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And in fact a majority of the um people that have eating disorders are not in the thin, anorexic type of body that we think of. We think of typically privileged upper middle income to rich, white, young women, and that's not just the case. We see it across the spectrum. And that's not just the case. We see it across the spectrum. And I don't think I mentioned finances.
Speaker 1:but across the spectrum of where a person is financially too, from food insecurity to no insecurity, right, there's not like an immunity right to it. It's like, oh, this person gets it, this person doesn't get it right. It is essentially across the board this person gets it, this person doesn't get it right. It is essentially across the board. And so, not having that judgment for it or assuming, right, that it's something they can be struggling with, right, yeah, yeah. Thank you, mary Ellen, also for all the information that you provided and for your expertise. And so where can the listeners find you, right? Where can they reach out to you if they have any questions? Again, mary Ellen is an expert in this area, and so if someone is wanting to get in touch with you, how can they do that? Where can they reach you? Get in touch with you how can they do that? Where can they reach you?
Speaker 2:Thank you, leonila. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate this. It's been nice talking with you. So yeah, I am at MaryEllenB B, as in boy MaryEllenBcom. They can call or text me at 559-572-2990.
Speaker 1:awesome, thank you so much, mariel, and I'll make sure to again add that information in the show notes. So if you're driving or if you're busy, don't worry you'll. You're able to access that and thank you to you, my listeners, for coming back to another episode, and I will be seeing you or talking to you very soon. Remember to stay safe and stay strong and bye, bye for now.