How to Heal Through Nutrition with Veronica Worley on The Healers Café with Dr. Manon Bolliger, ND

we moved. I couldn’t walk because of heel spurs, and I was eating bad, I couldn’t cook and, 20 pounds later, and just depressed, I finally realized, ‘Hey, I can do something about this. I have this nutrition background. I don’t have to eat poorly. I can fix this’. So that’s when I actually started my journey back to health, and then that’s when I went back to school and my business was started as a result of that hill.

 

Manon Bolliger  08:49

Yeah, because I was gonna say that’s because it seemed like there’s a gap.

 

Veronica Worley  08:54

There is. I didn’t understand. I don’t want to go into a lot of detail unless you want me to.

 

Manon Bolliger  09:01

 I find it always inspiring to see what is the step-by-step sort of roadmap of realization, and what makes it possible for people to have a shift in their career to really connect to what mattered to them. So with the children though, you taught them well, how to eat before or after your own crisis?

 

Veronica Worley  09:28

Before.

 

Manon Bolliger  09:29

Okay, so that’s even more interesting.

 

Veronica Worley  09:34

I raised my children without sugar in the home. I mean, we were very healthy and so they were very healthy. So I always had that, not always, but most of my adult life have had this health reality, but it was learning how to help others. Which is where the shift was when I got sick, and I had these health issues, and I became depressed, and hormonally and adrenally dysfunctional. That’s when I realized I have to help myself and learn how to help others.

 

Manon Bolliger  10:04

Okay. And so what happens, because now your story is starting to resonate with so many people that I’ve helped out in my practice, too. And maybe this would be wonderful if you could share this. What knowing better, because you have information, you have the knowledge, you have the practice, what allowed you to go down the slippery slope? What was it? I mean, obviously, you got out of it, and you got out of it with brilliant colors, and now this is your mission. But what allowed you to go down? Because I find that fascinating?

 

Veronica Worley  10:42

That’s a very interesting question. I believe it was because of the stress of a move. So many of us have many stressors, whatever those look like, and my stressor was moving. We were in a new city, a new state, I had left one of my daughters in another state and college and left, our lifetime friends. It was very dramatic, it was very difficult being in a new place and new situation, needing to get out and meet people and re-establish myself and I couldn’t because I was stuck at home because my feet hurt so bad. I couldn’t even get out of my chair to get myself a drink of water without pain. So it was very depressing. And probably if I had had the accountability of someone, I mean, I had my family, but sometimes families don’t really know how to help you, they just feel for you. Maybe if I had the accountability of someone who can look outside of my situation, but it was a stressor, it was a stressor that did it.

 

Manon Bolliger  11:45

Yeah, it does seem that that’s the thing that brings people down, right. And it’s to recognize what helped them in the stress to get out of it. So, for you, what put the light on that, ‘Okay, wait a minute here. I know what to do’. How did you do that?

 

Veronica Worley  12:03

Actually, it was my faith. So I actually decided one day as I was reading and praying, I decided that I need to get up and go start walking my neighborhood and praying. It was the idea that I’m going to quit feeling sorry for myself, and I’m going to look outside of myself, and start looking at how I can help others. And it was through walking. And I began to take a walk, and it took me three weeks to do that. Because I’m looking down at my feet, and I’m saying, “How in the world can I even do this, I can’t even walk to the bathroom”. But I did. I obeyed. And I started walking. I started walking around my neighborhood praying for my neighbors, praying for my feet, praying for these hands,  and I did that. I didn’t do that every day, because it really wiped me out the rest of the day I was in pain, I couldn’t do anything else. But I did that. And as a result, things began to change. And I started having these opportunities. And these opportunities would be to love someone who’s unlovable. You know, I had to figure out how to be with this person and deal with this person who is in my life that’s very unlovable, and so reaching out to someone who is in need, that I was extremely uncomfortable with. And so I was doing these things outside of my comfort zone, including I was asked to give a talk to my local church. And that was outside my comfort zone. And putting all of my information down into a talk like that was a new experience for me, and including stepping out of my comfort zone and changing my career. You know, moving from being a high school teacher who taught nutrition to become an FDN, and starting my own business that was completely outside of my comfort zone. And as a result, one day, it occurred to me that, ‘I don’t think I have to use those carts at the grocery store anymore. I think I can do this without my feet hurting’. And lo and behold, I realized my feet didn’t hurt as much, and I got better, and I was well. Of course, I was also incorporating the nutrition, and eating well, and starting to charge a little more exercise than I could, and all those things had a part to play in it too. But you know, reaching outside of myself, and that is, I think probably the most difficult thing we as human beings have to deal with. How do we get outside of our, our issue, you know, and look out, you know?

 

Manon Bolliger  14:42

Yeah, that’s a very moving point. Because it is taking the first step, in your case literally, with aching feet. Sit around and doing that and having the Faith that you have this inner calling, this inner realization. You don’t know what’s gonna happen, but you have faith that you need to just keep moving forward, right? It’s like trusting life that things will show up for you, and things will shift. Whereas if you just stay in the victim mode, nothing’s gonna change.

 

Veronica Worley  15:23

And I was in that victim mode. I would sit in my chair and I would think, ‘Poor little me. I can’t unpack my boxes, I can’t get out to meet people, I can’t make dinner. Okay, we’ll order another pizza”. So I was there.

 

Manon Bolliger  15:38

Yeah, that’s an amazing journey. Okay, let’s go back into nutrition, though. Because, what I’ve understood in healing is, it’s not one thing, it’s all things, but if you’re missing a piece, that can be the thing that stops everything. So if you have a good attitude, you take the first steps. But let’s say that you’re not eating well, or you think you are, that’s the hardest part. So what are things that people could look at from the nutritional basis now that you’re in practice, and you’re helping people, what are the things that often are overlooked as far as when people gain weight, or they lose energy, what are the main things you’ve noticed? And I know this is not prescriptive, because everyone’s different, but what are the things you’ve noticed?

 

Veronica Worley  16:34

I think a lot of what I get is that people think it’s difficult to eat well. People think it’s expensive, and people think that it’s time-consuming. So, one of my missions with my business is to help people see just the opposite of that, that it doesn’t have to be expensive, it doesn’t have to be difficult, and it doesn’t have to be something that takes a lot of time. And so one of the things I do help with, I do work with my clients on is menu planning, and we look at how they can purchase their foods inexpensively, and how they can save money in that aspect, and how we can they can put simple, easy meals on the table. And I think with our processed foods, and all the food of gourmet things, you know, even like the gourmet shows that are on TV, people have this idea that they have to put out this tremendous seven-course meal,  and it takes all these recipes. And I tell them, I don’t look at a recipe, hardly, if it’s more than five ingredients. Has to be easy, has to be delicious. And crockpot is my best friend. And if people are eating whole foods and staying away from processed foods, it really is easy. If I can use that term lightly, to make healthy foods because you’re looking at meat and vegetable and starch, right? You don’t have to put it all together and have all the spices. And spices are nice, but you don’t have to, it doesn’t have to be that. Start small and then eventually start to work your way into adding more interesting things to your menu.

 

Manon Bolliger  18:14

Yeah, so you’re suggesting as a first start, make it simple, and more like, remove the foods that aren’t real foods. That’s like a very straightforward, simple thing. Shop on the outside and on the inside.

 

Veronica Worley  18:31

Whole foods, stay away from packaged foods. Vegetables, fruit, legumes, whole grains, nuts, and seeds. I mean, simple. And you can put a lot of meals together with those basic ingredients, it doesn’t have to be just meat, vegetable, potato. It can be stir fry, it can be more vegetables than meat, or whatever the person enjoys. And we’ll talk about that too. With each individual, everybody’s different. They eat differently. Some people need more protein than others. Hence my belief and why we have the vegetarian dilemma where people hit heads. Because the meat-eaters, they need more protein, more than likely, but the vegetarians don’t. And so therefore there’s this conflict and they think everyone should eat the way they do.

 

Manon Bolliger  19:22

I’ve never seen the one diet fits all.

 

Veronica Worley  19:25

There is none and we all have different needs. It depends on our body type or metabolism so there’s different tests that I run with clients if they asked me to do that. We find out exactly what their macronutrients, what their needs are, and then we talk about how to incorporate foods into their diet that will help them with that.

 

Manon Bolliger  19:46

So how do you go through that type of assessment because there’s people who have avoided gluten, or who have avoided lectins? Look, there’s all kinds of different theories of things that could be irritants, inflammatory style foods. There’s people that are avoiding fat because they haven’t caught up with the research in the last 30 years. But, the thing is, how do you work through somebody who has now removed all the bad stuff that isn’t real food? They’re eating real food, but nothing’s changing. What’s the next sort of thinking that you do with those people? Because there’s so many in that boat?

 

Veronica Worley  20:32

Yes, good question. I get those people. Those are the people that I get. I don’t get all really healthy people, but I do get those people. They want to know, ‘why is the needle not moving’. So we look at it a little bit deeper. And we do run some different testing, depending upon the assessment. So I have to ask a lot of questions and figure out exactly what their background is of course. All the sorts of things that you do when you onboard a new client, but I look at, probably the first thing I look at is mineral deficiencies. Probably there is a mineral imbalance that is causing the needle not to move.

 

Manon Bolliger  21:10

Like which one, like what type? Which ones are you seeing as a big issue?

 

Veronica Worley  21:17

What mineral imbalance? Well, there’s many, but it depends. So if a person comes to me and they can’t lose weight, for instance, let’s use that one, then I will run a hair tissue mineral analysis test on them. And we look and see what their minerals are, so if they have, for instance, calcium, magnesium, or a ratio, or we’re looking at the sodium-potassium ratio. If there’s an imbalance there, it could point to a sugar intolerance, or glucose intolerance, which means that they’re not metabolizing their carbohydrates. So that means it could mean lots of things. It could mean there’s overindulging, it could mean that they are deficient in chromium, or zinc, or vitamin A, or calcium is not getting to where their bones and their teeth need it. And so there’s a whole host of things that I look at with the hair tissue analysis. And that can also tell me, are they having adrenal issues or possibly symptoms of adrenal issues? I mean, I will never diagnose, but or do they have symptoms of thyroid, is there some possibility today to get for the testing for that? So it points them to what we need to do next. That helps.

 

Manon Bolliger  22:32

Yeah, for sure. So there’s like a system that people can go through? Once you’ve done that the basic clearing that they’re not eating crazy foods, then would you then go to the minerals, as opposed to doing allergy testing? Like, what’s the thinking behind that?

 

Veronica Worley  22:52

Well, again, it depends upon the person. But usually, let’s just use weight loss because that’s a common one, I get that often. Usually, I will run the hair tissue mineral analysis. So we look at their mineral imbalance, and then we look at sensitivities to sensitivities. So what kinds of foods are they eating, even healthy foods, that they may be sensitive to. And I can say for a fact, that was my issue. I was eating perfectly healthy, but I began to have some of these symptoms. And when I found out that I have developed the sensitivity to healthy foods spinach, and avocados, and cashews, and all these things that I was eating every single day, but it was causing inflammation. And as soon as I eliminated those foods from my diet, I lost 30 pounds. It was amazing the first couple of months, and so eating foods that you’re allergic to or sensitive to can keep you from losing weight or getting healthy and can keep you from healing from your other issues. So we look at food sensitivities, look at depending upon again, the questions and how they answer we could look at, do they have a parasite, are there parasites going on? Are there any kind of bacterial infections? Do they have fungal overgrowth? You know, if there’s a lot of sugar cravings, they have a carbohydrate or glucose intolerance, according to the mineral test, and maybe they might have a fungal overgrowth, and let’s see if they have any of these things going on. And any kind of infection, we’ll look at that look at hormone imbalance, you know, are they perimenopause, menopausal, all that, their time in life makes a difference. They have high estrogen or the estrogen is too high. That can mean some things it could mean that their calcium is too low and it’s not getting enough to the bone so they have bone loss, osteoporosis and I could go on. But all these things, you know, point to some of their symptoms that they may be having.

 

Manon Bolliger  24:54

There’s definitely hope. Clearly, and then there is a step by step way of getting to the root cause, finding out what’s going on. Because often people here when they’ve come to see me, in the past, I’m not in practice anymore, but I practiced for 30 years, the first thing they’ll say is, “Oh, my doctor told me that I’m under stress”. And so, because cortisol levels go up, nothing works anymore. And it’s like, Okay, well, then there’s nothing to do. Right. Because what do you do after that? Right? So there is the whole mind and understanding our circumstances and what we talked about earlier, victimhood and all of that to look at for sure. But nutritionally, there’s real steps to take to see what is really going on. Anis that cortisol actually going up. Because that’s not always the case.

 

Veronica Worley  25:58

Yeah. They do a thyroid. I mean, they may be having a thyroid issue, although they have all the symptoms that went that direction.

 

Manon Bolliger  26:05

Exactly. Yeah.

 

Veronica Worley  26:07

It’s really huge, because they could be diagnosed, or they could be given medication when they don’t need it. It could be making things worse. And I have people with thyroid issues often. And they come in and say, ‘I keep going, and I’m not feeling well, and my doctor keeps raising my medication, and it helps for a while, and then it doesn’t’. So we look at it, and it’s really because they have this other hormone imbalance going on. Their adrenals dysfunction there, or their female hormones, or something else is going on, or bacterial infection, or parasite. Once we begin to address these other things, the thyroid comes back into balance.

 

Manon Bolliger  26:48

I have found to that often the thyroid is the secondary symptom, but it’s still not the cause. Right? It’s all going deeper, looking at the adrenals. Much more. Okay, well, that’s an interesting path for people to, to look at. And so what is the name again? Functional Diagnostic Nutritional Practitioners? And so how do you find out about training? Tell us a little bit about the training, what’s involved? People are interested in that, tell us a bit more.

 

Veronica Worley  27:29

It’s about six months to a year, the training and depending upon your background. I have a nutrition background, and also, I had trained as a health coach. So I already had a lot of information already. But basically, you are taught a little bit of nutrition, but it’s a focus on nutrition, it really focuses on how to use lab testing, and food and supplementation to help the body overcome these symptoms. So you’re looking at particular lab tests and learn how to read that and what that means. And then how it all falls into play with the body.

 

Manon Bolliger  28:07

And these tests are they now, with COVID maybe it’s changed, but are these sent to the clients or patients at home now?

 

Veronica Worley  28:18

Yes.

 

Manon Bolliger  28:19

Yeah, so people can really take this time as an opportunity to make these massive shifts?

 

Veronica Worley  28:25

Yes, it’s very, very convenient. And it’s always been that way even before COVID we had lab kits. And I should have had some here to pull up and show you what they look like. It’s just like a little box and it has everything in there including the postage to mail it in. So it’s everything you need right in your home, and you collect your samples, and turn that in, and a week or two later than I as your practitioner, we get the results and we then we talk about what’s going on.

 

Manon Bolliger  28:58

Okay. All right. Well, so I think we’ve covered this subject really well. Is there anything that you feel that we haven’t talked about that you want to share?

 

Veronica Worley  29:12

Well, I always tell people to start with food first, nutrition first. I mean that is the key to feeling well, feeling healthy. You know, there’s all these other things and they probably hear it and they read about it, I get people who are on 10,000 medications or 10,000, maybe not 10,000 I am guessing, on all the supplements because I heard that this is good for this and I’m taking this and this and this. And even though I use supplementation in my practice, I try really hard to go with food first, because that really is our medicine. Hippocrates said it right, “Food is our medicine”. And I’ve used just food with people and nothing else and seen results. So I highly think that food is important. But if you’re doing all the right things, at least you feel you’re doing all the right things, and you’re still not getting results or seeing success, then I recommend seeing a functional doctor or functional practitioner because they can help you get to the root cause of what’s going on.

 

Manon Bolliger  30:19

Yeah, so sometimes it’s beyond food, but you still start with food.

 

Veronica Worley  30:26

Food is before, during, and after. And that’s not always easy. People who are used to the standard American diet, you know. That is a difficult thing in and of itself for some people. And that’s where they need someone who can meet with them on a regular basis, and help them understand how to make the changes, and what to do, and how to make it become a habit. So that it lasts. We all have good intentions, but, if we don’t have someone there helping us, and along the way, sometimes we get stuck.

 

Manon Bolliger  31:03

Now, actually, two questions that came to mind still. So when you discovered that avocado was something you couldn’t have? I think it was in your your own story, and it’s funny how many people that is the case? It’s very strange. Is that temporary in your mind, and then you’re able to bring it back once your body is balanced? Or do you always stay sensitive to avocado?

 

Veronica Worley  31:32

Very good question, thank you. There’s a difference between food sensitivity and a food allergy. A food allergy, a majority of the time to people that’s a permanent thing. Although many people have gotten better as they grow and change. A food sensitivity is something that the body becomes sensitive to, for various reasons, either overconsumption or for various reasons, your body chemistry. But it’s not necessarily permanent. So I usually encourage the people, we talk about how to eliminate those foods from their diet for at least 90 days, probably six months, and 90 days. And then slowly, we add the foods back in one at a time and begin to notice if they feel any different at all. And every single person that has followed their food sensitivity diet has lost excess weight, every single one. I’ve never had anyone that I can recall, anyone who’s not gained tremendous energy from as a result. Now, there are some circumstances where some foods, the person can retest again, because I usually recommend retesting after 90 days or every four months. And they are still sensitive to that food. In fact, for me, I have a food like that it’s barley. I’ve been running the food sensitivity test on myself now for about three years, about every six months or every year, and it’s barley. And I don’t even eat barley. But for some reason, I’m just still sensitive to that. So it could be that as a food that I will not get to eat, or I shouldn’t eat. Same thing with wheat. You know, some people are sensitive to the gluten in the wheat. And some people are able to eat the nongluten parts of the wheat. And so it’s important to understand the difference between the two because if you say with my food sensitivities test says I can eat wheat, it doesn’t mean that you can eat gluten because you weren’t tested for gluten. You were tested for wheat. So there’s that kind of complication that is important to understand. People say oh, I can eat gluten. Well, then they have another test for that we can run to see if they are actually gluten intolerant. And then we talk more about going gluten-free.

 

Veronica Worley  33:48

By the way, most people are sensitive to the wheat or gluten. I found out.

 

Manon Bolliger  33:52

That wheat or gluten. Yeah.

 

Veronica Worley  33:55

Most eight out of 10 people.

 

Manon Bolliger  33:57

Yeah, I concur with that. But I have found though, strangely, that the way a food is made, can differ and how it’s grown can differ.

 

Veronica Worley  34:13

Absolutely.

 

Manon Bolliger  34:14

Which is also an interesting thing. So that the problem with food is really, it’s also an agricultural practice of foods, right?

 

Veronica Worley  34:23

It’s interesting, it’s very true. I thought for the longest time that I was gluten sensitive. But when I ran the food sensitivity test on gluten for me, and I can eat wheat, but I can have gluten without having problems. I’m thinking why is it sometimes when I eat bread or whatever, though I have these issues and I’ve narrowed it down. It’s the chemicals. It’s the processing, you know, is it white bread? Do they have food coloring, or usually they don’t have much food coloring, but preservatives or chemicals in there to make it last. Those are the things that I’m reacting to. So that’s interesting also.

 

Manon Bolliger  35:00

Yeah, or the baking methods, like if it’s sourdough, that can be very different then if it’s not. If it’s more like that cakey stuff that has more yeast and that in it. So sometimes it’s the combination as well. So I think to really differentiate helps a lot. Okay, that was one of my questions so can we bring it back? Which, if you know that that’s a possibility, it’s much less of a compromise, to take something out for six months? And then know that it might not? And the truth is, if you feel fantastic, then.

 

Veronica Worley  35:42

That’s the key.

 

Manon Bolliger  35:43

That’s the key, right? At least, you know that is the food.  That is important because you’ve broken the habit by then.

 

Veronica Worley  35:52

Feeling better is definitely…you notice the difference. So they’re gonna stay away from it because they feel better.

 

Manon Bolliger  35:59

And then as far as allergy testing, there’s so many types of allergy testing out there. I just want to have your experience and your opinion on what is a good allergy test, because there’s some that are 50% accurate, which to me is like, okay.

 

Veronica Worley  36:21

No, I don’t do allergy testing. So I’m not as familiar with allergy testing, as food sensitivity testing. But I do know that it’s important to get a good quality test done for your allergies because you can have one test that says you’re allergic to this and the next test says you’re not allergic to that.

 

Manon Bolliger  36:38

So which ones were a food sensitivity is what I meant, I’m sorry? Which ones do you generally recommend?

 

Veronica Worley  36:46

Yeah, I recommend the one where they’re testing antibodies. So make sure that they’re testing the antibodies to your body, your blood, so their blood testing. When they expose your blood to various foods, I don’t know how they do it, but then the body will create antibodies. That’s the kind that we want because the antibodies tell us that, “Oh, no, something’s wrong, and I can’t eat this food”. And, of course, we want that to happen. But then that’s the best test in my opinion.

 

Manon Bolliger  37:20

Right. Okay. Well, I think I have no more questions for you. But I think this is really a wonderful interview with lots of information. And is there a way that people can get hold of you? Or will that be in our post?

 

Veronica Worley  37:39

Yes, I was going to also just mention briefly that the hair tissue mineral analysis right now is on sale. So if people are interested in getting a mineral deficiency, then I can put a link and give you a link to that, that they can go to and they can check it out. And just see if they think they might have a mineral imbalance. It’s called my mineral imbalance quiz.

 

Manon Bolliger  38:01

Actually, the quiz would be good. Yeah, if you could just send it because I’m not sure when this will view.

 

Veronica Worley  38:10

 Yeah, I can send it to you I’ve got the link right here.

 

Manon Bolliger  38:12

Yah, send it and then we’ll put that in our notes.

 

Veronica Worley  38:15

And you know, how that the hair tissue mineral imbalance is actually…Paul, or Linus Pauling. He said, that mineral, I can’t quote exactly, but he said mineral imbalance is linked to nearly every disease in the body. So that’s where I start with every client, start with your minerals, let’s figure out what imbalance you have, and start to correct that. And all these other things start to fall into place. So that’s what I would recommend is start with that. And the thing is, is that such a nice inexpensive test, yeah, it costs as much as some of the others.

 

Manon Bolliger  38:52

Yeah, for sure. Okay, well, thank you, Veronica, for your time.

 

Veronica Worley  38:58

Thank you, Dr.M for this opportunity. Fun.

 

Manon Bolliger  39:02

Yeah. Bye-bye.

 

Thank you for joining us. For more information, go to DrManonBolliger.com.