Food Freedom: Integrating Faith, Nutrition, and Mental Health

Camille McDaniel, LPC (00:03.702)
Welcome back to another episode. Thank you so much for joining us today. I am going to be sitting down with Brittany Braswell and we are going to be talking about some really good stuff that’s going to help you and also help your clients navigate this time of the year.

Let me start by letting you know who Brittany is in case you are not familiar. She’s a registered dietitian. She’s a public speaker and she is also the host of her own podcast called The Joy -Filled Eater. She specializes in the treatment of disordered eating and negative body image and just, you know, allowing people to be coached from a Christ -centered perspective for Christian women.

She has worked with women around the world who are ready to break free from the bondage of food guilt and body shame, which I know many of us can relate to. Brittany speaks on both live and virtual stages around the world as an educator, as an advocate, again, to help women ditch food and body obsession so that they can overcome the lies of diet culture and rediscover their God -given worth.

and value. She is married and she and her husband Chris have been married happily for 11 years and they have three precious children and they live in Alabama. So it is so nice to meet with you and thank you so much for taking the time to share with us.

Brittany Braswell, RD (01:45.151)
Yes, I’m really excited to be here and chat with you today, Camille.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (01:48.238)
Thank you. So then if we just jump right in, the first thing that I think not, I don’t think I’m the only one who wanted to know the difference, but if you could just help us understand, you know, a bit about like your journey and becoming a registered dietitian, like, you know, what inspired that route. And then later I’m going to ask you also to please explain to us the difference between a registered dietitian, you know, nutritionist, like there’s,

Brittany Braswell, RD (02:14.228)
Yes.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (02:17.96)
I have in the past, I have worked with individuals or supported individuals in my counseling journey who have been both. And honestly, I probably could have done a little more digging, but I don’t know as well the difference. So please share your journey with us in those differences.

Brittany Braswell, RD (02:30.441)
Yeah.

Brittany Braswell, RD (02:34.323)
Yeah, so thank you for having me today. I think my journey to becoming a dietitian actually started with…

I changed my major in college like so many college students do. Still in the healthcare field, but I wanted to go into dentistry. And so as I was going through a lot of my science classes and physiology and chemistry, something about nutrition stuck out. I think I had to take just like a basic nutrition class because of the college that I was in. And I just thought, wow, that is so practical. People eat, you go to the dentist twice

a year for most people and you eat you know three to six times a day for most people. And I thought I’m a bit of a foodie at heart anyway so how fun would it be to help people and coach people on kind of some of the preemptive nutritional things to try to help keep our bodies healthy but also how do we use food in a way to really help somebody nourish both their physical and mental health to help them recover or to help them feel better.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (03:14.798)
Okay.

Mm -hmm.

Brittany Braswell, RD (03:42.953)
And so that just really piqued my interest. I ended up changing my major and thought for a while I wanted to go into sports nutrition and work with athletes. But the Reader’s Digest version is as I got into the sports nutrition kind of field a little bit more with studying and with working with some college athletes, I just noticed the prevalence of disordered eating. It’s really, really high among athletes more so than most other groups for a lot of different reasons.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (04:06.851)
Yeah.

Brittany Braswell, RD (04:12.785)
reasons depending on the sport. And I kind of just felt the Lord impressing on me to say, hey, this is why I gave you this interest in sports nutrition, because I wanted you to see this ministry that I have for you. And so the rest is kind of history. ended up, I got my master’s in nutritional sciences. I got an undergraduate master’s and then if y ‘all are not familiar with dieticians, there’s a whole long like one to two year process depending on the program that you have to go through.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (04:13.325)
I

Camille McDaniel, LPC (04:27.446)
Awesome!

Brittany Braswell, RD (04:42.719)
to get supervision hours and to get board certified and all the things before you can get that RD credential and work with people doing medical nutrition therapy. So maybe I’m jumping the gun a little bit here Camille, but I know you were saying like, what’s the difference in, Yes, yes. So when people, I get this question all the time, weekly at least, like what’s the difference in a dietician than a nutritionist?

Camille McDaniel, LPC (04:57.376)
Yeah, no, help. Yeah, no, you’re you’re fine. I’m just taking it in. Help us out. Yes. Yeah.

Brittany Braswell, RD (05:12.079)
Well, the biggest difference really comes down to the credentialing because anybody on earth, don’t have to have any education, any training, whatever. Anybody can slap the name nutritionist on anything and go, I’m a nutritionist. I like nutrition. Let me teach you about something and it may or may not be accurate.

Registered dietitian you’ll see the credentials either RD or RDN for registered dietitian and they just in the last few years gave us the option to say RDN because the N stands for nutritionist because that’s just such a widely recognized term that when people hear dietitian they don’t always like immediately go that’s someone that can help me with nutrition so but for someone who calls themselves a nutritionist

Camille McDaniel, LPC (05:48.791)
Okay.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (05:54.2)
Right.

Brittany Braswell, RD (06:01.673)
they could have a dietician credential or they may have that RD or RDN credential.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (06:06.392)
And it sounds like it’s kind of a higher level based on what you’re saying. So if you’re an RDN, it’s more than just saying, you know, I may or may have not gotten all of the training necessary. you know, like, or excuse me, if you say you’re just a nutritionist, then you may or may have not gotten all the training. But to say you’re an RDN indicates that there were certain levels of training, of testing that you had to go through. Okay.

Brittany Braswell, RD (06:09.78)
Yes.

Brittany Braswell, RD (06:19.945)
if you are a say nutritionist, yes.

Brittany Braswell, RD (06:31.325)
Yes, yes, you have to get your four -year undergraduate, a master’s degree, then supervise practice and sit for a board exam. So it’s a fairly rigorous process. Now that is not to say I have a lot of incredible colleagues who are other types of nutrition practitioners. They don’t have the RD credential, but it doesn’t mean they’re not qualified either. So you really just have to do your research. I’m a big fan of education.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (06:47.406)
Mm

Camille McDaniel, LPC (06:56.898)
Yes.

Brittany Braswell, RD (06:57.961)
but there are a lot of things that I’ve learned and specialized in, even in my particular field, that I don’t have a separate credential for. And so being able to just do your homework, make sure you know, and I’ll say this too, all RDs or nutritionists are created equal in the sense of like, if someone specifically has renal issues and they’re on dialysis, their kidneys are failing, yes, I can give you some information on that, but that is not my specialty.

doing you a disservice to say sure let me just take you on and so it’s really helpful to know hey what are my specific goals what do I want to work towards and then who’s going to be best suited and specialized to help me with that.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (07:41.404)
nice. Thank you very much. Because, yeah, I actually remember supporting somebody who was, I guess then they were a registered dietitian, but they, the example that you gave, they specialize in kidney failure and a lot of their clientele or individuals who working in that area, but.

Brittany Braswell, RD (07:54.601)
Mm

Camille McDaniel, LPC (07:59.978)
it basically let me know, so there’s like specialties within this. And I guess that’s the same way that sometimes people think about mental health, because they’re like, you counsel, right? Great. Okay, so then here’s my issue. And it’s like, we all, we have different specialties. So, you know, I may not be well -trained in that area. All right. So then I guess, so with that, you know, what, what are some of the, I don’t know, what are some of the overlaps that, that relate to?

Brittany Braswell, RD (08:08.116)
Yes.

Brittany Braswell, RD (08:14.665)
Yes.

Yes.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (08:27.074)
what you’re doing as a registered dietitian, and then the mental health concerns that come along with the individuals that you serve who are struggling with disordered eating.

Brittany Braswell, RD (08:39.851)
Thank

This is like a marriage, to be totally honest. So because I’m specialized in the field of disordered eating, eating disorders, body image, that is very much a mental health struggle with physical implications. And so some of the ladies that I work with have diagnosed eating disorders and some have maybe fall on the spectrum of disordered eating somewhere. Maybe they don’t meet all the technical criteria for an eating disorder, but

It is a mental health issue. And so a lot of the work that I do with clients is

working together too with a therapist, letting the therapist really dig into the trauma and a lot of the, what were some of those contributing factors and where did maybe some of those hurts come from? And then I’m able to work with the client and oftentimes coordinating with a therapist and saying, okay, based on this trauma that you had, based on these experiences that you’ve had, they have really tainted your relationship with food or your body.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (09:32.77)
Okay.

Brittany Braswell, RD (09:46.687)
Knowing that, how can we move forward to really challenge a lot of those beliefs and behaviors you have about food and about your body? And then nutrition is a piece of that. I would say…

of the way that I work with clients, probably 15 to 20 % of the conversation is actually about food or nutrition and the rest of it is how do we, what do we believe and how do we behave when it comes to the way that we care for or withhold care from our bodies.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (10:17.294)
Okay, okay. So then, interesting, because I noticed that I don’t even, I steer away from like the term diet, which that’s why I’m so glad that you explained. What’s a registered dietitian? Because you also, in a lot of the talks and supports, you get away from like the societal version of diet. And you know, I tried to, which I do not go into that area that is not my lane, but I do try to use verbiage that talks to like nourishing our body well.

Brittany Braswell, RD (10:28.0)
Yeah.

Brittany Braswell, RD (10:36.362)
Yeah.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (10:46.99)
caring for our body. When you’re working with your clients as it relates to just how they’re seeing food, is there also some verbal language changes that have to be done surrounding that?

Brittany Braswell, RD (10:47.369)
Yeah. Yeah.

Brittany Braswell, RD (10:59.463)
Yes, that’s a huge component. That’s a huge huge component because honestly, there’s so much wonderful information about nutrition But it’s the way we communicate about it that causes people to have either healthy or unhealthy relationship with food or with their body and so a lot of like I’ll just give you quick tidbit if you all are listening and you are a provider or you’re a loved one who has somebody who is struggling with their relationship with food or yourself the number one like quick

language hack trick that I try to tell people, if you’re going to take one step to try to have a better relationship with food, is to drop like drop black and white language when it comes to food. So drop things like labeling food as this is healthy or this is unhealthy. It’s not helpful. Drop things like this is clean, this is junk, right? Those kind of things because as soon as we do that, we are unintentionally or sometimes intentionally assigning morality.

to something that doesn’t have the capacity for morality. And we inadvertently go, okay, well, that’s a bad food and I ate it. So now I should feel guilty. And because I did that and I can’t seem to stop, now I’m feeling all this shame. And so it just, it’s kind of this, this spiral. So when we can let go of that good food, bad food language and move to neutral language around food, and we can switch to the one question here’s like bonus tidbit on this with language.

is instead of saying like should I eat that right now or is that healthy to go how might that benefit me right now swap healthy for benefit and that’s just a quick a quick way to shift your perspective on how you are seeing that food or that meal because yeah because health healthy is yes

Camille McDaniel, LPC (12:45.774)
Okay, that’s good. like that swapping and I really like when you’re saying you’re assigning morality to something that cannot hold that. It’s food.

Brittany Braswell, RD (12:57.418)
Yeah.

Yeah, my pizza can’t go rob a bank or run a red light and my salad’s not gonna walk some sweet lady across the street, right? Like, there’s no way food can be good or bad. The one exception I will say to that is if food has spoiled, you might just go, that’s gone bad, right? That’s the one exception. So that’s a great way to just initially, like even just keep a little tally mentally or jot it out. Like, how many times did

Camille McDaniel, LPC (13:00.91)
crying

Bro!

Camille McDaniel, LPC (13:10.285)
Camille McDaniel, LPC (13:16.182)
Right. OK. OK. That’s awesome.

Brittany Braswell, RD (13:27.913)
label food is good or bad today and just start increasing your awareness around how frequently you’re using that language.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (13:31.104)
Yeah, I like that. That’s helpful because that even challenges us not to go into that all or nothing thinking because the truth is is that you know what if I had a slice of pizza I mean that really isn’t good or bad. Now if I actually have like two boxes of know pizza by myself well that might not be a good thing for my body. Again, not saying that the okay but I look I’m not gonna try to walk down your lane that’s really but it’s helping me as I’m

Brittany Braswell, RD (13:39.584)
Yeah.

Brittany Braswell, RD (13:44.778)
Yeah.

Brittany Braswell, RD (13:57.951)
Yeah!

Camille McDaniel, LPC (14:00.142)
as I am processing it because every now and again, I do have clients who they do not meet criteria for getting a referral regarding an eating disorder, but I do see some disorder thinking and it is helpful to just understand how to possibly help to reframe some of that for them when that’s not my specialty or the…

resources that we might need to provide them with or people to speak to if that’s not our specialty. And I know talking about specialty, so you support a lot of Christian women. And so, you know, how does your faith influence the way that you approach your work as a Zionist?

Brittany Braswell, RD (14:25.887)
Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Brittany Braswell, RD (14:35.391)
I do, yeah.

Brittany Braswell, RD (14:43.263)
I love that question because it really infuses everything. And I don’t want that to sound like cliche, but when it comes to language, right? One thing we have already touched on Camilla’s language and getting rid of that good food, bad food language. There’s so much language that we use in the way that we describe our bodies and how they are made and being able to bring the Lord in and invite him into that process and not throw scripture at people and say, you should believe this and not this.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (14:49.848)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Brittany Braswell, RD (15:13.862)
but to be able to uncover some of the lies that people are believing and say, what does scripture actually say about that? I know you think this way, but if you believe that scripture is the word of God.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (15:21.347)
Mm -hmm.

Brittany Braswell, RD (15:27.253)
then you can’t just cherry pick, like, believe these three chapters of this book and this one here and this one here, it’s all God’s spoken word. And so being able to say, if you’re coming into agreement with this lie that the enemy has fed you, how can we combat that?

Camille McDaniel, LPC (15:45.035)
Okay.

Brittany Braswell, RD (15:46.889)
with scripture. And then also being able, it comes back to just the heart posture with the way that we approach things. again, working on like, okay, we gotta peel back that shame and that condemnation that is not what you’re meant to have, right? That’s not from the Lord. How can we again, fight lies with truth? So rather than, this might be a little bit of a controversial bit. I’ll say it gently.

I’m not, I’m not a, well I get real blunt on my show, but I try to be aware when I’m on others. Like, toting it back just a little bit, I’m not a big fan of affirmations. And the reason why is because most affirmations are very much like, I’m brave, I’m strong, I can do this. And there’s nothing inherently bad or dangerous about that, I don’t think. But where it can become that is when we start saying, okay, if I’m hyping myself,

If I can talk myself into believing that I’m strong and I am capable, somebody else or the enemy can talk me out of it. Because it is just like a…

I’m telling myself this until I believe it kind of thing and somebody else can convince me otherwise. But what I like to use, I kind of refer just to combating those lies with declarations, meaning like I’m declaring something from scripture over my life because that is an inarguable truth, right? Again, coming back, if I believe scripture is truth, then I can’t argue with God. I mean, I can, but I’m not gonna win, right? So if,

Camille McDaniel, LPC (17:12.173)
Okay.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (17:18.624)
Yes. Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm. Right, right, right.

Brittany Braswell, RD (17:26.313)
if something from scripture directly combats what I’m trying to tell myself or what I’m trying to, what the lie in my head is trying to tell me I am, then instead of just saying, okay, on my own strength or my opinion, I’m actually capable of this. And then they’re like, but you messed up on that thing yesterday, so you’re not really, right? Like, you said you were gonna take care of your body, but you did this thing.

than being able to go to scripture and say, but I am more than a conqueror, right? So, so little controversial, but that’s my, that’s kind of my approach when it comes to challenging a lot of untrue or disorder thoughts around food, body, anything else.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (17:54.7)
Yes.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (18:06.21)
Well, I think that, yeah, that’s a benefit of placing our faith in the God of the universe, right? And so, because you’re right. And I’ve seen this, you know, in my counseling practice over the years. So when you’re trying to, like you said, if I’m trying to hype myself up, then what happens when I mess up? Then that contradiction comes in to say, yeah, you’re just saying it to make yourself feel better.

Brittany Braswell, RD (18:14.655)
Yeah.

Brittany Braswell, RD (18:29.001)
Mm -hmm

Camille McDaniel, LPC (18:33.858)
but you messed up here, look at what you did there, look at how you messed up there, you know, and I remember actually just having that conversation with somebody because they were having some challenges overcoming this thing that kind of has a bit of a stronghold in their life. And they were just like, yeah, but if I could just get my armor up, if I could just get my armor up and I just keep on trying, I just got to make that armor stronger. Now they happen to be a believer of Christ.

Brittany Braswell, RD (18:34.037)
Mm

Yep.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (19:02.4)
So I said, yeah, well, how about this one? And it was. I gave them a scripture and I’m like, how about every time you have that thought?

you then use this. basically the scripture was creating me a clean heart, renewing me a right spirit. I think it’s search all my anxious thoughts. so, you know, it was like, it’s saying, you know, Lord, help me in these ways, you know, and they’re like, okay, because it wasn’t working for them to try to hype themselves up because they had had a significant amount of years in their life where they had exemplified those same challenges over and over again.

Brittany Braswell, RD (19:24.691)
Yeah.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (19:39.808)
And so it was really hard to make the argument that they were capable and strong to get over it. So yeah, I like, I do, I hear that. No, that’s good. That’s okay. That’s not, that’s a very welcome thought on this podcast, a new way to think about it.

Brittany Braswell, RD (19:44.853)
Yeah. Yep.

Brittany Braswell, RD (19:54.203)
Awesome. Yeah.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (19:56.338)
and to walk with our clients because I also did here when you said, know, instead of throwing a scripture at them. And then as you were talking, it really kind of painted the picture in my mind of traveling with someone through the journey, you know, not just giving the scripture and saying, all right, well, you need to think on this scripture because this is what the Lord says. But, you know, let’s not take for granted that maybe someone doesn’t know how to put it in proper context and apply it to their life at that time and how we all do need support. And so walking them

Brittany Braswell, RD (20:20.341)
Yes. Yep.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (20:26.144)
through that scripture journey. Yeah. Okay. That’s.

Brittany Braswell, RD (20:28.681)
Yeah, that’s where I think it becomes so invaluable to have somebody to do that with you. Have a therapist, have a dietician, have somebody that’s close to you that can call you out and call you up when those thoughts are runnin’ rampant and you’re having a hard time challenging them on your own strength. yeah, that’s what we’re all here for.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (20:49.676)
Thank you. So then the next thing I wanted to ask you about, because I was listening to your podcast episodes and I and I your website is so extensive, very, very nicely done. And I saw on there like you’re talking about food freedom and, you know, all that goes into that. And I was wondering just more about it. Could you kind of explain what is that? What is this food freedom kind of movement that that you’re referring to? And and I guess and then how does it

how does it really differ from other approaches to our relationship with food?

Brittany Braswell, RD (21:22.503)
Yeah, so when I use the term food freedom, can’t speak for everybody, but I’m talking about breaking free from food rules. So rules that we have placed on ourselves, that we have adopted from parents or friends or family, that we heard somebody say one time, you should never eat after X o ‘clock, whatever. Okay, well, that’s a food rule for me now. Because what happens is when we make all those food rules, Camille, is rules get broken, right? And so when we break

Camille McDaniel, LPC (21:42.754)
Mm

Brittany Braswell, RD (21:52.399)
a rule, then we start giving ourselves again all this guilt, all this shame, all this condemnation thinking well we’re bad, I’m bad or can’t do this or now I’m gonna be unhealthy because there’s one right best only perfect way to eat and I just messed up. And so when we’re talking about food freedom, when I’m

talking about this on my podcast, with my clients, with my students, we’re really looking at, we’ve got to break free from all those rules, all that shame, all that condemnation. And the way I kind of teach it is this sort of three -part framework where in order to find freedom, we’ve really got to look at three big components. And I know we won’t have time to go into this today, but I’ll just mention it so y ‘all can be thinking about it. It’s really looking at the combination of science, body wisdom, and faith.

Science being like, again, the short version here is looking at nutritional science, looking at neuroscience and how our brain works and our thought patterns, pairing that with body wisdom, which is essentially in a nutshell, being able to recognize what’s happening in your body. So maybe recognizing when you have a headache or hunger, pains, or all different kinds of things. So recognizing what’s being able to know, okay, this is probably

what’s leading to this. Like having some awareness around that, around, here’s what it means. So that’s kind of that observation, interpretation, and then application. So what do I do with it? Now that I know what’s going on, what do I do with that in order to honor whatever my, you know, my body is needing right now?

without, and here’s where the big nuance comes in, our bodies can’t be our God either. We can’t just listen. It drives me nuts when I hear people talking, like throwing the phrase intuitive eating around and thinking like, it just means eat what feels good and eat what sounds good and hunger fullness diet kind of mentality. And so.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (23:46.646)
okay. You’re getting us today. All right.

Brittany Braswell, RD (23:50.747)
So, so, so we can’t just, if I honored everything my body said, I’d be a wreck, right? I don’t like to wake up early in the morning. But if I listen to my body and my body said, you just turned that alarm off. It is, you’re too tired. You need more rest. Well, that’s probably valid to some degree. I probably should have gone to bed earlier. I have an almost amythol that doesn’t always sleep through the night.

But there’s a lot of consequences if I do that. My kid’s gonna be late for school. I wouldn’t have made it to our podcast recording on time. All the things. So we want to listen to our body. We want to understand what’s happening, what’s going on. And we can’t, our bodies need to be an indicator and not a dictator of our day.

We need to recognize, we need to not let it take the driver’s seat. So that’s where the faith comes in and we’ve got to have that submission to the Holy Spirit going, okay God, here’s the science, here’s what I know about food or about how my brain’s operating right now. Here’s what my body is indicating to me that it needs or wants or what’s wrong with it. Now give me the wisdom to know how to, like what to do with that and to steward it well in a way that’s gonna honor my body and honor you in the process.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (24:39.597)
Yes.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (25:00.738)
That’s wonderful way of integrating all of those because again, as with the faith integration, it makes the Lord still the anchor to all of it. Okay, awesome. So then I’m gonna ask you for some tips because you know, there are a lot of different times of the year where this might, the issue with food might be exacerbated. So whether we’re talking about anniversaries, birthday parties, Super Bowl, know, Thanksgiving.

Brittany Braswell, RD (25:10.079)
Yes. Yes.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (25:30.208)
Anything, Christmas, all the things, all of the times that we really could be partying or if we’re just going out with friends and we know this is just not our area of strength and we’re still trying to get it together. Just what are some practical tips for ourselves and then practical tips, you you can just put it all in one if you want, that we could actually use to help our clients to just maintain a healthy balance and mindset during those difficult times, more difficult times.

Brittany Braswell, RD (25:52.928)
Yeah.

Brittany Braswell, RD (25:58.025)
Yeah, so.

One of the biggest things I will say about the holiday season is I love food. Like foods are so many purposes outside of just nutrition. I literally released, I don’t know if it was this week or if it’s coming out soon, a podcast all about the different purposes, some of the different purposes food plays besides nutrition in our lives. And so one of the big things that I tell people, whether it’s Christmas or Thanksgiving or a birthday or a Tuesday, is that if you are

are going, so often we think, okay, well I’m gonna have this, you know, all this food available, this big meal, I need to quote unquote save up for it. And so we eat less during the day and we end up bingeing or overeating to the point of discomfort. And so that puts this trigger in people’s mind that holidays equal overeating, holidays equal a binge, holidays equal X, Y, I can’t control myself around food.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (26:41.496)
Yes!

Brittany Braswell, RD (26:54.059)
PS, if you think you have a control issue with food, everybody I work with has a control issue with something. Camilla, that every person you’ve ever worked with has a control issue with something in their lives. If you feel out of control around food, that’s a little red flag that regardless of what it is, that there’s some work that can be done. You don’t have to live that way. So when it comes to those larger veals,

Camille McDaniel, LPC (27:03.918)
with something, yes.

Brittany Braswell, RD (27:21.449)
The thing to remember, number one, your body doesn’t know it’s a holiday and your needs don’t change based on…

you know, the event, right? Our needs fluctuate day to day and based on the things that we’re doing, based on, you know, am I sick? Am I totally well? Am I tired? All the things. Where am I in my menstrual cycle? If you’re a female, that hugely affects it too. And so being able to say, okay, I still need to nourish my body even though I’m having more food is going to be available. That doesn’t mean you have to put more food on your plate, right? It doesn’t, it means you can still have some of everything you may want

Camille McDaniel, LPC (27:43.15)
Bye.

Brittany Braswell, RD (27:59.231)
eat a little more than normal because it’s a time maybe where you’re getting some foods that you don’t typically have, right? I eat probably a little bit more at a Thanksgiving over the course of the Thanksgiving day or Christmas day than I might have on a normal basis, but I have enough of the body awareness that I want that to be an enjoyable event. I don’t want to feel sick to my stomach because I was starving all day so that I could have this giant meal that

does not sit well in your stomach that leaves you feeling horrible after. So, especially coming into the holiday season.

being able to say, let’s don’t restrict your body is not going to say, okay, I know you’re having more later, so it’s fine. You’re going to feel cranky. You’re going to have all these other signs of hunger besides just your stomach growling or being empty. And so if you will continue to nourish your body throughout the day and then enjoy whatever you have in the evening, you’re not going to overeat near. mean, your, your risk of like overeating or benching drastically declines when you eat enough.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (28:40.054)
Right?

Brittany Braswell, RD (29:03.971)
during the day. You would be surprised Camille, at the number of people that come to me to work with me and they’re like, I just binge at night. I can’t help it. Or I’m sitting in front of the TV and all of a sudden I’m at the bottom of the bag of whatever the snack is. And we go through and they did not eat enough during the day. But they’re like, I’m afraid to eat more because I know I’m going to eat all this at night. We’re like, you gotta flip flop it. Eat more during the day, that’s not going to happen. So we tend to do that. That’s probably my quickest or most practical tip for holiday season is don’t resh…

Camille McDaniel, LPC (29:25.464)
Yes.

Brittany Braswell, RD (29:33.805)
because it you’re really just creating space for a planned binge later. Yeah.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (29:38.274)
Yeah, that makes sense. And like you said, your body doesn’t know it’s a holiday. So when you’re not eating earlier and your body’s like, what’s going on? Are we starving? Are we struggling? Like, is this a crisis about to come up here? And then like you said, all of those symptoms that end up impacting our life in a lot of other different ways, and we’re not putting it together, that goes back to the science that you were telling us about. That’s like, this is just how the body works. Doesn’t matter if it’s a holiday, doesn’t matter. This is just how the body works.

Brittany Braswell, RD (29:42.537)
Right.

Brittany Braswell, RD (29:47.967)
Mm -hmm

Brittany Braswell, RD (29:51.658)
Yeah.

Brittany Braswell, RD (30:01.535)
Yeah, yes.

Brittany Braswell, RD (30:07.402)
Yes.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (30:07.81)
Let’s work with it, not against it. Yeah, that’s okay. This is good. I could definitely talk to you much longer, because I’m like, okay, I have other questions now. then tell us. So that, know, if we want to, as mental health professionals, get a better understanding of, you know, nutrition and its impact on mental health, if we want to refer clients to…

Brittany Braswell, RD (30:10.507)
Yeah. Yes.

Brittany Braswell, RD (30:18.57)
Part two.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (30:33.598)
some of the work that you put out because like I said your your website and your podcast I mean, it’s really extensive. So can you kind of share with us what you have going on? What’s available and how we might be able to you know connect with you?

Brittany Braswell, RD (30:47.421)
Yeah, so I try to make, I know not everyone has either financial access or time access with their schedule to sometimes get therapy or see a dietician. And so that was kind of the heart behind starting my podcast as well as trying to have some free resources. So whether you are a provider as a therapist or another mental health provider, or if you’re just listening and want to glean some knowledge from Camille every week, I do have the podcast. also have, you have,

someone in your practice who you know is struggling with their relationship with food. Whether they have a disorder like an eating disorder diagnosis or not. Maybe it’s a body image struggle. Maybe it’s hey I just get really anxious and fearful around what to eat. I also have kind of a I have a private podcast and so the reason I did that was just to I get questions all the time on Brittany there’s like a hundred episodes on the podcast where do I start? So I put six just a short six part

Camille McDaniel, LPC (31:43.084)
Yes.

Brittany Braswell, RD (31:47.251)
series together in this private podcast to walk you step by step through like A to Z. Here’s what my process looks like and here’s some of those practical application things that you can start doing now on your own and then decide, hey, do I want to reach out for some additional support? Whether that’s with me, maybe that’s with you, Camille, maybe that’s with somebody else. So that is you can find the Joyful Deed or private podcast at Brittany Braswell rd .com slash secret. And there’s some resources there.

There’s a resource page on my website, but I send out right now I send out a once a week email kind of with some insights on the podcast It’s getting ready to get a big revamp because I’m gonna start adding some new things to the the weekly newsletter So if y ‘all are interested in just like staying up to date with what’s going on or if you just want some? Insight as a provider like what are some things I can get like a little tidbit each week to help my clients who struggle

Camille McDaniel, LPC (32:17.357)
Nice.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (32:31.744)
Okay.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (32:35.436)
Yeah!

Camille McDaniel, LPC (32:42.966)
that would be great. this is, and you know, the idea behind the podcast is for people to be exposed to other Christ -centered providers who could then help them to help support their clients. So yeah, that would be great.

Brittany Braswell, RD (32:51.081)
Yes.

Brittany Braswell, RD (32:56.564)
Yes.

Yeah, yeah, so we spotlight in the newsletter other resources and other podcast episodes and things coming up. So if y ‘all want that, you can head to BrittanyBrasilRD .com slash VIP. And I send that information only to those on my newsletter about events coming up and here’s a podcast episode that was really great that I listened to that’s maybe not on my show or here’s a resource coming up last year with the holidays. I sent out a long resource about like here’s your holiday survival guide.

food freedom. So those are some some great ways to just get some free bonus tips and resources and strategies. Yeah, yes!

Camille McDaniel, LPC (33:33.678)
That’s awesome. Thank you so much. And thank you so much for sitting with me today, Brittany. This has been great. Yeah.

Brittany Braswell, RD (33:42.389)
Well, thank you so much for having me, Camille. It’s been a joy. I love especially getting to collaborate with providers who invite the Lord into the process. So thank you for everything you’re doing on the podcast.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (33:54.882)
Thank you so much. We will talk soon.

CPP Ep. 14 Food Freedom: Integrating Faith, Nutrition, and Mental Health