Dr. Vera Tarman – Author, Speaker & Food Addiction Expert

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Food Junkies Podcast Ep. 106: Brian Baumal

Brian Baumal, a Registered Psychotherapist in Canada

Brian Baumal is a Registered Psychotherapist in Canada who helps people who Eat emotionally, binge eat, and/or have a food addiction; Just want a normal relationship with food and their bodies; Don’t want one slip-up to lead to an entire binge, purge or downfall; Constantly or obsessively think about their weight and/or food; have gained/lost hundreds of pounds in their lifetime; Are any weight on the scale, whether in a thinner or heavier body; Engage or think about any sort of binging, restrictive and/or purging; Are pre- or post-bariatric surgery; or Wonder why they jeopardize their health and life.

TODAY’S EPISODE:

  • Brian’s personal and professional journey
  • What are eating disorders vs food addiction and how he treats clients who have either or both
  • Differences in working with men vs women
  • Our Signature question and more!

Food Junkies Podcast Ep. 105: Esther Kane, MSW, RSW, RCC

Esther Kane

Esther Kane, MSW, RSW, RCC, has been an Eating Disorders Psychotherapist for 25+ years. She lives in Victoria BC but works all over Canada. She is the author of “It’s Not About the Food: A Woman’s Guide to Making Peace with Food and Our Bodies”. She is also the host of the Compassionate Conversations Podcast & YouTube Channel, where she has recently done a series on food and body image.

TODAY’S EPISODE:

  • Her personal journey to recovery from eating disorders to food addiction
  • What is a Highly Sensitive Person?
  • The connection between HSPs & Food Addiction
  • How to take care of your HSP-specific needs
  • What she has found in the difference between men & women when it comes to FA
  • How she differentiates between food addiction & eating disorders
  • The intergenerational transmission of disordered eating
  • How she helps clients with emotional eating
  • Her thoughts on volume
  • Her audio program: Making Peace with Food & our Bodies
  • The obstacles she finds working with clients
  • The pushback she’s received from colleagues about her perspective

Food Junkies Podcast Episode 104: Dr. Jennifer Reid, MD

Dr. Jennifer Reid Headshot

After leaving academia to start a private practice, she wanted to find a way to reach a broader audience with practical, evidence-based mental health information. In addition to her private practice, she writes and podcasts as The Reflective Doc. She is also a regular contributor to Psychology Today, Doximity, and Kevin MD and a frequent podcast guest.

Dr. Jennifer Reid, MD is a Philadelphia psychiatrist, award-winning educator, writer, and podcast host. She trained at Columbia University and UCLA and is on the clinical faculty at the University of Pennsylvania. She is married to a physician and a proud mom to 2 boys. She grew up in rural North Dakota in a family of physicians and studied zoology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. You all have something unique to say, and the world will be better for hearing it.

TODAY’S EPISODE:

  • Dr. Reid’s personal and professional journey to becoming The Reflective Doc
  • What is Anxiety? Symptoms? Treatments?
  • Sleep deprivation and insomnia
  • Alcohol, Cannabis, Melatonin, and Sleep
  • Circadian Rhythms, naps, and caffeine
  • Seasonal Affective Disorder
  • The relationship between anxiety and procrastination
  • Establishing Safety
  • Clients in recovery
  • What’s next for Dr. Reid
  • Our signature question

Food Junkies Podcast Episode 103: Dr. Rachel Brown

Dr. Rachel Brown

Dr. Rachel Brown is a Consultant Psychiatrist in the UK who specializes in metabolic health. She graduated from Edinburgh University in 2003 and has worked in the field of psychiatry since 2004. She is a Nutrition Network Advisor and Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner. She also holds a master’s degree in medical laws and Ethics and is involved in ongoing research into ketogenic diets and mental disorders. Dr. Brown is an advocate for therapeutic carbohydrate restriction and dietary modification to address underlying metabolic dysfunction and gut dysbiosis as underlying causes of mental disorders, as well as other lifestyle measures for optimizing health.

Food Junkies Podcast Episode 102: Paul Churchill

Paul Churchill

Paul Churchill was a normal drinker in high school and most of college. He loved to drink. He played several sports in high school and football at Chapman University where he majored in Business and Spanish. His love for alcohol led him to Granada, Spain where he bought a bar in January 2006. He walked away from the bar after 34 months since he was drowning himself with alcohol. He attempted the geographical cure, moved back home to Colorado for a year, and then went to graduate school in Seattle at the University of Washington. He then moved to beautiful Bozeman, MT where he currently resides.

Paul was alcohol-free from 2010- 2012 but he looks back at that duration of sobriety and says he was a dry drunk and was staying away from alcohol on willpower alone. In 2012, his unconscious mind got the best of him and he drank after being AF for over 2 years. Later that same evening around 2:30 am when gas stations couldn’t legally sell alcohol, Paul found himself googling if he could drink rubbing alcohol or hydrogen peroxide. Talk about picking up right where he left off. Paul struggled to quit drinking for another couple of years until September 7th, 2014. In the summer of 2014, there was a DUI, a release of employment from a job, and a failed suicide attempt. After reaching out to family, and specific friends, starting a podcast, and a sobriety counter app, selecting a sponsor, eating right, and exercising, Paul Churchill took his last drink of alcohol on September 7th, 2014, and got his life back.

Food Junkies Podcast Episode 101: Food Addiction Research Clinical Study (FARCS)

Food Addiction Research Clinical Study

In Today’s episode – Food Junkies Podcast brings you Dr. Jen Unwin, Heidi Giaever, Charlotte Schon Poulsen, Frida Sandin, and David Wiss to discuss our audit of Food Addiction Treatment and the first paper Jen has published on the findings.

Dr. Jen Unwin, a Clinical Psychologist, works with the NHS helping patients manage chronic illness and achieve wellbeing. She also works with her GP husband Dr. David Unwin helping patients stick to lifestyle changes. Dr. Unwin is a fellow of the British Psychological Society and a former chair of the UK Association for Solution Focused Practice.

Heidi Giaever is a Nutrition Consultant & Lifestyle Medicine Practitioner, X-PERT Diabetes Coach & Food Addiction Counsellor with a Primary focus on Metabolic health, sustainable weight loss and healthy weight management, remission of diabetes, real food and holistic health, practical help with addictive food behaviours. She is also the Director of Huntsland Nutrition CIC, a not-for-profit community engagement company with the tag line; “Health comes before ALL else”.

Charlotte Schon Poulsen is an Alcohol & Drug therapist, health coach and nutritional advisor. She is passionate about dietary and behavioral effects on the mind and body.

Frida Sandin is a Holistic Addiction Medicine therapist, behavioral scientist, and nutritional advisor. She is a “sober addict” with a big heart to help others relate and quit the drug.

Dr. David Wiss, PhD, is an advocate for change and improvement in the emerging fields of nutrition and behavioral health. Being a dietitian, he welcomes new ideas and encourages critical thinking when collaborating with other professionals, colleagues, and students. As a leading Health Nutritionist in Los Angeles, Dr. Wiss hosted several annual non-profit conferences in Los Angeles that focused on controversial issues in nutrition. This led the California Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics to award him the “Emerging Dietetic Leader Award” in 2020.

In This Episode, you Will Learn:

  • How did Jen and Heidi come up with the idea to audit Food Addiction Treatment
  • The design of the audit study
  • What made the groups want to be involved?
  • What did we audit? What did the interventions look like
  • The food plans
  • Surprises, Assumptions, and Results
  • What do the findings mean for us as clinicians? Researchers?
  • What is the significance of doing this audit?
  • What changes have been made to how we work with clients since running this study?
  • What related research do we hope to see in the future?
  • What can we expect from each group moving forward?

Food Junkies Podcast Episode 100: Dr. Ellen Vora, MD

Dr. Ellen Vora, MD

Ellen Vora, MD is a board-certified psychiatrist, acupuncturist, and yoga teacher, and she is the author of the bestselling book The Anatomy of Anxiety. She takes a functional medicine approach to mental health—considering the whole person and addressing imbalance at the root. Dr. Vora received her B.A. from Yale University and her M.D. from Columbia University. In her book Anatomy of Anxiety, she has a whole chapter on Food for Thought in which she shares her own personal story of discovering she had a food addiction.

Today she shares her journey to recovery with food and how that has influenced her professional career today. Namely, in how she treats the whole person, looking for places where states like anxiety and depression might be rooted in the body, whether it’s less-than-ideal nutrition and an out-of-whack gut, or poor sleep and breathing.

In This Episode, you Will Learn:

  • Ellen’s personal story
  • How food addiction plays a role in eating disorders
  • How we need to watch out for contributing to eating disorders through a food addiction treatment modality
  • The difference between true and false anxiety
  • Why it’s important to treat false anxiety first
  • The importance of a BOTH/AND approach in recovery: that multiple things can be true at the same time and that everybody has a right to their experience, regardless of what somebody else is experiencing.
  • Why Ellen believes she can tolerate some of her addictive foods when she is in different countries and on different soil
  • Does gut permeability combined with opiate-like addictive foods create a landscape for higher levels of food addiction in North America?
  • Why do we have such a hard time asking for help?
  • Why living in an Emotion-phobic culture can lead us to seek food rather than address our unmet needs
  • How advertisers prey on our fear response which activates us into that unmet need scarcity mindset
  • How do we get quiet to determine our needs in a world full of noise and adverse? Can you be radically intentional in the life choices you make?
  • How do we find the middle in bringing the eating disorder world and the food addiction world together rather than them remaining so far apart and offering opposing treatments?

Food Junkies Podcast Episode 99: Dr. James M. Greenblatt

Dr. James M. Greenblatt

A pioneer in the field of integrative medicine, James M. Greenblatt, MD, has treated patients since 1988. After receiving his medical degree and completing his psychiatry residency at George Washington University, Dr. Greenblatt completed a fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Medical School. He currently serves as the Chief Medical Officer at Walden Behavioral Care in Waltham, MA, and serves as an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine and Dartmouth College Geisel School of Medicine. Dr. Greenblatt has lectured internationally on the scientific evidence for nutritional interventions in psychiatry and mental illness. He is the author of seven books, including Finally Focused: The Breakthrough Natural Treatment Plan for ADHD. He is the founder of Psychiatry Redefined, an educational platform dedicated to the transformation of psychiatry, which offers online CME-approved courses, webinars, and fellowships for professionals about functional and integrative medicine for mental illness.

In This Episode, you Will Learn:

  • Personal/Professional Journey
  • What is Integrative Medicine
  • Nutritional Psychiatry
  • Lithium
  • Magnesium, Zinc, Vitamin D
  • ADHD & Anxiety
  • Children & The Standard American Diet
  • Substances of Abuse
  • Ghrelin & Leptin
  • FA & ED overlaps
  • Sweeteners
  • Obstacles and pushback Dr. Greenblatt has received
  • Antidepressant withdrawal
  • Signature Question

Food Junkies Podcast Episode 98: Dr. Daniel Lieberman

Dr. Daniel Lieberman

Dr. Daniel Lieberman is an award-winning educator, researcher, and professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at George Washington University in Washington, DC. He received his medical degree at New York University, where he also completed his psychiatric training. As a researcher, he provided insights on mental health topics for the US Department of Commerce, the Office of Drug and Alcohol Policy, and the US Department of Health and Human Services. Daniel has published more than 50 scientific papers and book chapters, and he shares his expertise on the neurobiological basis of human behavior as a frequent guest on podcasts, television, and radio.

Daniel Lieberman co-authored the international bestseller The Molecule of More, which has been translated into 16 languages. His second book, Spellbound: Modern Science, Ancient Magic, and the Hidden Potential of the Unconscious Mind, reveals how to join forces with your unconscious mind to find more meaning in everyday life, make better decisions, and develop a richer and more balanced way of living.

In This Episode, you Will Learn:

  • What is dopamine?
  • What is its value in the human mind?
  • What is Reward Prediction error and why do we need to be aware of it?
  • What are some of the dangers of dopamine dysregulation?
  • What is the role of dopamine in addiction?
  • Can you explain control dopamine over desire dopamine?
  • What is the rule of dopamine in willpower?
  • How is addiction logical to a person with Substance or Food Use Disorder?

Food Junkies Podcast Episode 97: Dr. Kerstin Uvnäs Moberg

Dr. Kerstin Uvnäs Moberg

Kerstin Uvnäs Moberg got her MD and a Ph.D. in Pharmacology at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. She has been employed as a full professor of Physiology at the University of Agriculture in Uppsala, Sweden. She has worked with research on the physiology of labor and breastfeeding for more than 30 years. The focus of the research has been on the role of oxytocin and sensory stimulation, in particular, stimulation of cutaneous sensory nerves during labor, skin-to-skin contact after birth, and breastfeeding. She has worked with animal experiments and also studies involving humans. She has studied the physiological mechanisms involved in birth and breastfeeding and short- and long-term physiological and behavioral maternal adaptations induced during birth and breastfeeding. She is also working on the role of oxytocin during human-animal interaction and in menopausal women.

In This Episode, you Will Learn:

  • Dr. Moberg’s personal and professional journey
  • What is Oxytocin?
  • The Satiety System
  • Volume/Comfort/Emotional Eating
  • The Anti-Stress System
  • What Ultra-Processed Foods are doing to humans
  • Grazing
  • Oxytocin Deficiency Syndrome
  • Pharmacological Interventions
  • Raising Oxytocin
  • Fasting
  • What’s next?
  • Signature Question

Food Junkies Podcast Episode 96: Dr. Bunmi Aboaba

Dr. Bunmi Aboaba

Dr. Bunmi Aboaba is a Food Addiction Coach who helps clients achieve a healthy relationship with food to meet long-term health goals. Dr. Bunmi’s work covers the full spectrum of disordered eating, including overeating, compulsive eating, emotional eating, and other associated patterns.

She runs seven-day self-care retreats for clients suffering from food addiction and is the author of ‘Craving Freedom’, a book for those wanting to build a healthy relationship with food.

In This Episode, you Will Learn:

  • Bunmi shares her personal and professional journey
  • Her recovery journey at the beginning vs. now
  • The book! Craving Freedom
  • How Bunmi works with clients
  • What Bunmi found helps her clients be successful
  • What she has become more flexible around in treating Food Addiction
  • What Bunmi offers that is different from other Food Addiction Professionals
  • What she is still working on
  • What’s next?
  • Signature Question

Food Junkies Podcast Episode 95: Esther Helga Guðmundsdóttir

Esther Helga Guðmundsdóttir

Today, in this reprisal episode, Vera interviews a mentor and colleague – Esther Helga Gudmundsdottir.

Esther is a pioneer in the field of food addiction treatment. She opened one of the first food addiction treatment programs in the world, MFM. The MFM program in Iceland has treated approximately 3000 Icelanders. Esther’s program gives them hope and the tools to achieve long-term recovery and is based on the twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Esther is the founder of INFACT, an international training program for any type of professional willing to learn about food addiction and how to help those suffering from it, and Executive Director and Chair of the Food Addiction Institute, an independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to support the healing of all food addicts.

In This Episode, you Will Learn:

  • Esther’s personal and professional journey
  • A message of Hope
  • The Food Addiction Institute
  • MFM/Food Addiction Counseling Center
  • The International Food Addiction Counselor Training (INFACT) program
  • The components of Food Addiction Treatment that Esther feels are essential
  • What Esther has had to change in how she treats Food Addiction
  • What are Esther’s unique contributions to the Food Addiction Field
  • What’s next for Esther
  • Our Signature Question
Addictions Unplugged, The Power Is Ours