Aching Feet & What You Eat

August 27, 2016

If aching feet are causing you to miss out on your favorite activities, listen in to learn the connection between what you're eating and how your tired feet are feeling.

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Transcript

CASSIE: Welcomed to Dishing Up Nutrition. I’m Cassie Weness, registered and licensed dietitian, and this show is brought to you by Nutritional Weight & Wellness, a company specializing in life changing nutrition, education, and counseling. Every week we bring you information on how eating real food can help to heal your body. And certainly today's show will be no different. We have a great show lined up. We bring you information every week on how eating real food can heal your body. Today's topic is called Aching Feet and What You Eat, a little bit of a Dr. Seuss rhyme there, right? So if you are one of the many, many people that is struggling with achy feet, it might surprise you that what you're eating is probably affecting how achy your feet feel and that voice you hear in studio with me today, she’s going to help me out with the ins and outs of this topic. My colleague, JoAnn Ridout is here. JoAnn is also a registered and licensed dietician and not only welcome, but hey, this is the first time we're on the show together.

JOANN: Yes. Good Morning Cassie, it's good to be here with you today. This is a great topic. I have also struggled with achy feet myself. About five years ago, before I was working with Nutritional Weight & Wellness, I developed plantar fasciitis and I went out and had to buy shoes with higher arches and all of that. So I didn't even realize that my food was a connection back then, so I changed a bunch of shoes. I always tried to eat healthy but didn't really realize there was a sugar connection.

CASSIE: And what healthy eating was to you back then was more low fat.

JOANN:  Although probably about that time I was starting to incorporate some healthy fats. But now very, very little foot pain ever. So it did gradually heal over time.

CASSIE:  You know that you mentioned to me, we were visiting on the phone last night and I thought that was so profound how you said, because we're all human, you know, every once in a while you get off track to go on vacation or there's a holiday.

JOANN:  And I do notice foot pain. They do tell me when I've gone off track a little too much at holiday or vacation time. So, there is definitely a connection.

CASSIE:   Well, I have a story that tells a connection too, and this relates to one of my clients. This was a client I had several years ago and I forget the particular reason why she came in to see me for a consult, but I remember her telling me about her plantar fasciitis and a couple of years prior to coming to see me she had been diagnosed with plantar fasciitis. And she made the food connection on her own before ever sitting down with me. And what she said was she went on a mission trip every year. I forget if it was through her church or what it was, but she did these yearly mission trips like Haiti, one year, Africa, one year, so very remote areas, third world type of country. And she said, you would think that my foot pain would get worse because we didn't have cars to drive. We were walking everywhere. And I remember her saying very hilly terrain. So you think walking everyday up and down rocks and hills. And she said, but every year during the mission trip, my foot pain would go away. She had had a definite correlation. So after two years of doing that mission trip, two years in a row, she made the connection. Oh my goodness. When I'm here on this mission trip, I'm eating meat, I'm eating vegetables and fruits that we picked either that day or the day before. There wasn't processed food, there wasn't sugar, there wasn't gluten. So, huge connection.

JOANN:  That was a huge connection. So the topics we're going to focus on today are plantar fasciitis as we've been discussing. We're also going to talk about neuropathy and a little bit about gout. So the root cause of all of those is too much inflammation in the body. So the overall theme of our show is going to be how to eat to reduce inflammation. And we'll talk more about each of these foot conditions over the next hour.

CASSIE:Yes. The information we’ll be leaving you with by the time this hour is over, is what foods can I be putting in my mouth day in and day out so that my foot pain goes away?

JOANN:  Yes. So what do you do to get rid of this terrible foot pain? Let's start talking about plantar fasciitis. So this is the most common type of foot pain and 80 percent of the visits to the doctor for foot pain are for plantar fasciitis. And I mentioned I had it earlier, a couple of years before I had it. My sister also had it, so it was kind of interesting that we both had it.

CASSIE: Hearing you say that, I'd be curious to look up the statistics. Has it increased over the years because of processed food? Yeah. So probably many, many listeners have heard of plantar fasciitis. Probably several of you are suffering from it, but if you don't really know what it is, let me give you sort of a brief description. It's a condition. Well it affects the foot. I think we've established that, but it's where the Plantar fascia, which is a ligament, basically a little muscle that runs from your heel to your toe. That is what is hurting with plantar fasciitis, so if you're in the position right now where you can lift up your foot and look at the bottom of it, of course you're not gonna see that plantar fascia because it's underneath your skin, but you can see where it lies. Again, it runs from your heel up to your toes and its job is to stabilize your arch and keep that arch high enough and it also has the big job of helping to support the weight of your body.

JOANN:  So when that ligament becomes inflamed, this creates a lot of pain on the bottom of the foot. And what does that inflammation feel like? Well, you might touch it, it might feel hot, it could swell up a bit, and the pain is usually worse in the heel when you have plantar fasciitis. For me it was just in the middle to the bottom of my arch. I have a high arch and it was just, that arch was just aching sore. But it can be anywhere in the bottom of the foot, actually.

CASSIE:  So just hearing you describe that, JoAnn, because I've never experienced that. Just standing must have been painful, let alone walking.

JOANN:  And standing not as much, but I did have to cut back on my exercise. I did have to cut back on my walking throughout that time because I could walk so far and then it was too much pain.

CASSIE: So the other thing I want to mention about plantar fasciitis is that one of the telltale signs of it is if that foot pain is really bad when you first get out of bed in the morning, that's often a symptom that it is plantar fasciitis. Did you notice that too? Right away in the morning?

JOANN: Yes, definitely. I just remember throughout the day. It's always there. Off and on throughout the day. So what is causing you to have achy feet? And the first thing to look at as we always talk about sugar, we are going to talk about sugar again today because it's so important with foot pain. And does that surprise you that sugar causes achy feet?

CASSIE:  I'm sure there are listeners out there who are saying, “What?! Sugar and my feet?!” I'm sure many of the listeners out there that have suffered with plantar fasciitis, have gone to the podiatrist, the foot doctor, right? Just like you did and maybe you were recommended a splint at night to stretch the area. Or sometimes they'll tell you to ice it. Oftentimes they'll say, get new shoes with better support. You know, certainly these are all good tips or adding arches in your feet. You're buying your shoes. So again, good tips, but they're not addressing the real cause of your pain. The question you have to ask yourself is why are my feet hurting every day? What is causing this?

JOANN: Exactly. And if you're planning on going to the Minnesota State Fair this year, if your favorite stop is at Martha's cookie booth, you're not going to be able to walk very comfortably by the end of the day. You might want to think twice because those chocolate chip cookies are going to make your feet hurt. All the more sugar, sugar, sugar.

CASSIE:  Or maybe it's the piece of blueberry pie that you got for free at Perkins last Monday night. Have you seen that advertisement, JoAnn, that many of the Perkins restaurants, not all of them, but many of them are offering a free piece of pie on Mondays. If you order an entree, I mean right away I think, “Really, is a free piece of pie worth not being able to walk comfortably the next day?” Not for me, but again, it all goes back to sugar. The cookies you talked about JoAnn, the pie I just mentioned, they turn to a lot of sugar. So if you can imagine, you know, if I was teaching a class right now, I'd love to have a whiteboard here with a marker. And I’d draw a line going up, up, up, up, up, because that's what happens to that blood sugar when you eat the pie or eat the cookies or eat the cake. And sugar creates inflammation and that equals pain.

JOANN: And you know, we've talked a lot about what we eat, but also what we drink. So you might've worked hard to give up that daily soda already. Maybe you stopped eating desserts and candy, but maybe the plantar fasciitis is still bothering you. And that is what I remember because I haven’t been a soda drinker for several years and I wasn't big into desserts and candy, but I was eating a lot of low fat carbs and low fat high carb foods at that time. Even though I cut the sugar I hadn't identified yet all of those high sort of hidden sugars. So we're going to talk more about that when we come back from break.

BREAK

JOANN: Welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition. I'm JoAnn Ridout, registered and licensed dietitian. And this show is brought to you by Nutritional Weight & Wellness. Today's topic is foot pain and the connection between what you eat and your plantar fasciitis, neuropathy, or gout. So before we talk more about foot pain, Cassie promised that we would give you a couple tips on healthy Minnesota State Fair food options. We're not big fans of the state fair. Sorry. So there are great parts of the Minnesota State Fair, but you know, I just don't go there very often. But just because you're at the fair doesn't mean you want to have a food fest and doesn't mean you have to have cheese curds. You don't have to have Sweet Martha's cookies. But you could get a chicken kabob. Maybe you could get a pork chop. You could get a fresh ear of buttered corn on the cob if you do okay with corn. I couldn't have that one. That causes a lot of pain for me. But then for dessert you can indulge with a dish of fresh Izzy’s ice cream. Izzy’s offers full fat ice cream with just a few natural ingredients that might work.

CASSIE: That one actually sounds good to me for a little treat out there. Yeah. Not a whole day of stuffing food in your mouth. Exactly.

You know, I've had that question in class before, too. Sometimes I'll be teaching a class and people will raise their hand and say, “You know, I've been listening to Dishing Up Nutrition for a long time. I've given up desserts, I don't drink pop because of all the Nutritional Weight & Wellness has told me, but I still have pain.”

JOANN: And there are a lot of carbohydrates that do have that same effect as sugar on your body. One example is cereal or a muffin or a Bagel. These are hidden sugars that will cause foot pain. And I do have to say I had cut a lot of sugar out. I cut my wine out. I had cut a lot of things out just in this quest of being healthier around that time that I was having the foot pain, but I was still eating the high fiber cereal at that time because I still felt the need for a high fiber diet. And isn't that interesting? It's the marketing and all the education. You still think you need that.

CASSIE:  And you know what? Well, you know this JoAnn, but listeners might not realize this. Usually those “high fiber” or “healthy breakfast cereals” turn to more sugar than the junky ones, like the fruit loops that are half air. So you were getting a sugar spike there. And it certainly wasn't just you. A lot of people eat the cereal for breakfast or eat the Bagel. Those are very typical American breakfasts, but if you're struggling with foot pain, they are not doing you any good, but let me give you another option. Here's a great breakfast that I love and it would be a much better way to start the day and it will help to reduce pain and inflammation. Crack a couple of eggs in your pan. I like to cook my eggs either in a little olive oil if I'm going to use a very low temperature. Otherwise I'll use organic butter and throw in vegetables. I like to throw in whatever I have, which is usually some red onions and bell pepper. Some mushrooms, I know you like to throw spinach in your eggs, so that's another option and sauté all that up together and I always need to add a starch to give me energy. And I think most people do just a little. So one of my favorite starches to add at breakfast is about a half cups worth of a baked sweet potato. Now, don't get me wrong, it's very good, but I don't want people to start visualizing that I get up extra early to scrub potatoes and put them in the oven and bake them for breakfast. No, to be done ahead in the evening. Whenever I make sweet potatoes, which is at least once a week for an evening meal, I make double or triple what I know we're going to eat. So I have that leftover to warm up for breakfast and don't forget, put extra butter on your sweet potato at breakfast in the morning. It's so good.

JOANN:  Exactly. And my granddaughters love them so I always have extra sweet potatoes. You are a great grandma feeding them that. Right? So we also have a delicious Turkey breakfast sausage recipe on our website at weightandwellness.com. Sometimes I will make this ahead of time for my protein so that way you're all prepared. A lot of clients come in and talk to me about, “I don't have time to cook in the morning.” So this is a perfect option for something quick to have on hand. Having that sweet potato ready up ahead. Having that Turkey sausage up ahead makes it super easy. Or if you don't want to have the sweet potatoes then apple with almond butter is a perfect pairing with the Turkey sausage. So that is super quick. You can even eat it in the car on the way.

CASSIE:  And that is like dessert, an apple sliced up with almond butter. So longtime listeners are noticing. We're really talking about the magic number three. That's what keeps your blood sugar stable so you don't send them sky high where they cause pain. The magic number three and Joanne's example was the Turkey sausage being the protein, the apple being the carbohydrate, and the almond butter. Being the healthy fat. One, two, three. It's delicious. You know, it's not just the breakfast foods that can turn into a lot of sugar or that can have hidden sugars. There are snacks, there are lunches, there are dinners that do the same thing. So if you are having foot pain, I want you to stop right now and think how many crackers or how many potato chips am I sneaking in throughout the day?

JOANN: That's right. Or do you have pretzels in your bottom drawer at work? I used to eat pretzels a lot. Or are you someone who munches on crackers. So would you open a bag of chips and have a hard time putting it down?

CASSIE:  So these snacks are going to increase your foot pain. And you know, if people that really know me know that I come from a family of storytellers, that's my Schmidt side of the family. I have another story I just thought of. This doesn't involve a client this time, but it involves a Nutrition 4 Weight Loss class participant. This particular lady signed up to take our 12 week class series. Of course, her main goal was weight loss, but she was so pleasantly surprised when her plantar fasciitis pain went away after just one month of being in the class. Well, it makes sense to us, JoAnn, doesn't it? I mean, you take the class, you stop eating the bread. Which this lady did. She stopped eating bread and replaced that bread with a lot of vegetable carbohydrates. She increased her animal protein and she increased her healthy fats. This is basically an anti-inflammatory food plan and that's what helped to get rid of that foot pain.

JOANN:  Yep, that's exactly right. So we have a caller. Mary is on the line. Good morning. Mary, do you have a question for us this morning?

CALLER: I really liked your radio show. I think it's very good. I would like to know how can I get rid of a fungus on a toenail and how can I prevent fungus in the future? And one is a fungus.

CASSIE: Oh, great question. So, where does your mind go?

JOANN:  I think of liquid advantage, but I also think of yeast.

CASSIE:  Yeah. So it's sort of an immediate thing I'm having you hear you say that. I had my dad do that when he came to visit last summer and had athlete's foot and soaked his feet in liquid advantage. We have a product. I know you can get it other places too, but we sell it at our office. Just a little bottle of liquid advantage. The main ingredient there is grapefruit seed extract and it's Antifungal. And so if you put a few drops of that in some warm water and soak your feet in that it can really get in and start working on that fungus immediately. But the deeper issue, typically if you have toenail fungus that you can just not get rid of it’s yeast overgrowth in your gut. Most all health conditions we can trace back to our gut health, and so you need to address that too, and certainly eating well and staying away from the high sugar foods is a big piece of that. And beyond that I'm going to give one more recommendation and I'm going to let JoAnn chime in, but I would be sure to be taking a good bifido bacteria supplement. That's a probiotic to help crowd out the yeast overgrowth and replenish your intestines with good bacteria.

CALLER: I do take some bifido bacteria. Maybe I'll just add more.

JOANN: Yeah, I would take it at least three times a day and then even if it's a real stubborn case you could add acidophilus, which is another probiotic, in the evening. Just to switch it up a little more power for crowding out that fungus. The other thing I was going to say is for simplicity’s sake, it might be hard to soak your feet several times a day. Just put a few drops right on your toenail.

CALLER:  Okay. Thank you.

CASSIE: Alright, thanks for your question. It’s time for break.

BREAK

JOANN: Welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition. I'm JoAnn Ridout, licensed dietitian. We've been talking about chronic foot pain and plantar fasciitis especially seems to affect a lot of runners and avid exercisers. So if you are a runner and you're listening to our show, has this been happening to you?

CASSIE:  And what I always think of when I think of runners and any type of pain and inflammation is are you loading up on carbs? Because so many athletes are told they need to carb load, so if you are somebody that thinks you need that big pasta dinner the night before a race, you might want to think again because it could be that big pasta dinner that turns to a lot of sugar that's causing you more pain.

JOANN: That's right. And you know, three cups of cooked pasta, which is really a restaurant portion. Sure, that equals 100 grams of carbohydrates and that's the amount of carbs that most people should eat in one day, not in one sitting. And then we divide that number by four. We know that plate of Pasta has 25 teaspoons of sugar right there.

CASSIE:  This is why one in three people in America have either diabetes or prediabetes, just obnoxious. So imagine going to let's say olive garden or any restaurant where you can get that pasta and you order a plate of Spaghetti or Lasagna and you look down at it, and it's a big bowl of sugar. Really, that's what it is. You are sitting there spooning 25 teaspoons of sugar down your throat and up, up, up, up, up, go your blood sugar. And high blood sugars equal pain and inflammation. Not only that, but I don't know if you've noticed this with clients, but I remember seeing many clients over the years that were runners that would gain weight from eating a lot of pasta even though they were runners and out training several times a week. Many of them that I saw struggled with their weight. It's the carbs. They're eating too much pasta, too much bread, too much cereal.

JOANN: And research shows that for athletes, the best type of eating plan contains plenty of protein. So fish and chicken and eggs, beef. Also a few carbohydrates coming from vegetables and fruits, lots of vegetables, and then lots of healthy fats, butter, olive oil, Avocados, coconut and nuts. So these fats act like joint lubricants.

CASSIE:  And boy, if you are an avid exerciser, you want to keep those joints lubricated and healthy. So again, no need to carb load the night before with pasta, you know, and on that note we should mention snacks as well because if you are a busy person that's also trying to fit in that regular workout routine, you might find it tempting to grab for a granola bar or a Cliff bar and wash it down with maybe a Gatorade or a PowerAde. But have you looked at the ingredients of that Gatorade or PowerAde? They turned to a lot of sugar. The Cliff bars, the granola bars are really high in carbohydrates, which turn to a lot of sugar, not the best solution. That's not the best solution for getting rid of foot pain, that's for sure.

JOANN: Exactly. So instead of a granola bar, Cliff bar between meals, try making a protein shake with whey protein powder, fruit, water and coconut milk. It's really quick and it will not cause inflammation like the Granola and other bars that are very high in carbs and sugar. So they often also have trans fats and other bad fats like soybean oil in them.

CASSIE: You know, and I think a lot of people don't realize that because that’s the section where the power bars are the protein bars, the cliff bars and our mind just thinks, okay, healthy, right? But if you start reading ingredient lists, it's amazing the amount of junk, the trans fats and other bad fats like you're mentioning, JoAnn, that are found in those bars.

JOANN: Absolutely. And the protein shake recipe is on our website and it's delicious. So we have another call. Linda is on the line with a comment. Hi Linda. Welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition.

CALLER: Oh, good morning ladies. I always listen to your program and the thing that had me fly across the room to the phone was the plantar fasciitis issue. I had two bouts, long suffering physical therapy and all that. I happened to watch another TV program, I probably shouldn't mention it, but they had a model and they put these lines on her leg going down to her a foot and they had her in a plain old shoe and the line was skewed. They put her then in Bionics heels. Are you familiar with those? And the line straightened up. I ordered a pair and I was in the middle of bad, bad plantar fasciitis and a bone spur on top of it. It disappeared. I went to my doctor and I said, “Am I imagining this?” And he said, “No. You need that kind of support.” I said, “Well, why didn't you come up with it?” But to make a long story short, all my non bionics are gone except now they come out with the insert and if you have a pair of shoes where you can rip the insert out and put theirs in, you save a lot of money. And it just disappeared. I don't understand why, but I wear them. They have them in slippers. Unfortunately they don't have any winter shoes and we are a country that has winter. I did go to a new podiatrist recently and she's looked down at me and my shoes. She said if you weren't wearing them I would prescribe them for you.

JOANN:  It is a part of it is the arch support, but then also the sugar is a big piece too. So we're connecting both to help the healing.

CASSIE: Thank you for listening to Dishing Up Nutrition. You know, and I always have wondered if in some people there is a bit of a genetic piece, you know, you hear about people with flat feet, which is where that arch falls and I know exactly what she's talking about because I was watching a couple of different videos last night with some podiatrists talking about plantars fasciitis. And there are some cases where that arch falls so far, and then when you do look at the back of your foot, you do see that skew and then you can imagine putting something to push that arm back up. So I think there are different stages or different scenarios.

JOANN: There are and sometimes you know, with a high arch, you do need to support it.

CASSIE: Well, what were we talking about? Oh, the bars with all the junk in them. You know, the other thing I do want to try to get in before we have to go to yet another break when we're talking about healing any type of pain, really we want to look at what oils we’re eating. And I know I've heard some of the gals on the radio, some of my colleagues say you might need to give your body an oil change. You know, we give our cars an oil change. Maybe we need an oil change too. And you can probably describe that as well as anybody, JoAnn. What do we mean by an oil change?

JOANN:  So it means I'm not going to eat soy bean oil anymore because I know that would inflame my feet and it would make them hurt. So I use olive oil instead, which is a very healthy oil, extra virgin olive oil instead.

CASSIE:   So that's really good. That's just one of the fats to avoid. I'm going to tell you some more fats to avoid when we come back from break. So no turning that dial. I do want to thank everybody for listening today. As we come upon our last break, if you're just tuning in, today's topic has been all about ways to reduce your foot pain. We've talked a lot about the power of eating real food. We've talked about eating less sugar or no sugar, get the bad fats out. And we're going to be talking more about how to reduce that foot pain on the other side of break. What I want to mention though, before we break, give you a little food for thought. If you're somebody that has a lot of cravings, whether it's the sweets or the potato chips or the pop, it's really time to consider an appointment with a licensed nutritionist or a registered dietician because there is a biochemical reason why you're having those cravings and you're not going to be successful lifelong with a healthy eating plan until you get to the root cause of those cravings, and we'll talk more about this when we get back.

BREAK

JOANN: Welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition, brought to you by Nutritional Weight & Wellness. I'm JoAnn Ridout, licensed dietitian. And before break, Cassie mentioned how helpful it can be to meet with one on one with a nutritionist. We offer in person and phone appointments. We work together with you to make a practical meal plan that fits with your schedule and your individual needs. And clients find once they start eating protein and vegetables and healthy fats five times per day that their cravings for sugar, soda, bread, and alcohol actually go away. So that's great. It's amazing how quickly that happens.

CASSIE:  And that magic number three: protein, carb, and fat has a second part to it. You also want to eat about every three hours. In other words, like you said, JoAnn, eat about five times a day. But we know too, don't we? Sometimes there's other stuff going on that needs to be addressed, whether it's gut health or brain chemistry and that's where an appointment with a registered dietitian or licensed nutritionist can really be helpful.

We were talking about bad fats when we went to break. You mentioned soybean oil being one of those very processed oils that can contribute to that foot pain. One that comes to the top of my mind is cotton seed oil. That has to be like the worst of the worst. And if you're in your kitchen right now, go to your cupboard if you can and start reading ingredient lists you might find that cotton seed oil there. I know it's in some of the granola bars. It's in the roasted nuts if they're in oils, so avoid that one. A better option would be some real butter. I keep it simple at my house. I have extra virgin olive oil, I have organic butter, and I have unrefined coconut oil. Keep it simple and watch those aches and pains go away.

JOANN:  Exactly. And our joints love it when we feed and nourish them with real healthy fats. So I like to add Avocados, olives, nuts and seeds to my salad along with full fat salad dressing. With the base of that being olive oil.

CASSIE: Full fat, she said, ladies and gentlemen. You know, coconut products are delicious and healthy fats. Our protein shake recipe or some people call it the protein smoothie recipe that's on our website, actually calls for full fat canned coconut milk. So just another example of a healthy fat. The brand I like to use because it doesn't have any added chemicals are junk is Thai kitchen. That's really delicious. You can find it in the Asian aisle at any grocery store.

JOANN:That's right. And our third recommendation for healing plantar fasciitis is to add in a high quality omega-3 fish oil. Most Americans are deficient in omega three fatty acids.

CASSIE: I read one statistic not that long ago that said 98 percent of Americans, I know you can read different things, but most of us need to be supplementing with Omega threes. You want to take at least three Omega three soft gels a day if you're having foot pain. If you've had foot pain for several years, you've been dealing with this chronic issue, you might want to start with six and see if that does it, and then you can slowly back off to that three a day. Make sure you're getting a high quality good brand at your house. We take the Nutrikey brand, we sell that at our office. I've done all the pricing of all our fish oils, that's the most affordable ones. And it's a great brand that doesn't have any lead or mercury contamination.

JOANN: And it is possible to get those Omega-3 fats from food. But the food sources are pretty limited. One of our nutritionists eats a can of sardines every day. She gets enough Omega-3s from the sardines. That isn’t my first choice. But Omega-3s do help.

CASSIE:  Yes. And I think one other thing when, as we're talking about supplements, isn't there one you wanted to mention, JoAnn, that if you are having some chronic nagging pain you could take to relieve that?

JOANN: The Kaprex. Yeah, there is a natural alternative to taking advil and aspirin and a supplement called Kaprex contains rosemary and hops and that works on the same pathway as advil. And you need like two to four day. Depending on your level of pain. So we want to cover a couple more common foot conditions today. Besides plantar fasciitis neuropathy as the other foot condition our clients often experience, and if you've not heard of that before, it is nerve damage that typically affects our feet.

CASSIE:You know, and I've had clients describe it as sort of a burning or tingling sensation. Sometimes you might feel a numbness or weakness too. And if you want to kind of imagine how this might feel, I'm sure everybody listening has had a time in their life where their arm or their leg falls asleep. Maybe you slept wrong on your arm and you wake up and it's all like pins and needles, right? Imagine feeling that way every day, all day because that's what neuropathy feels like.

JOANN:  And the same prescription for healing that neuropathy would be increasing your healthy fat, decreasing your sugar consumption, and increasing your protein. So last summer we had Dr Richard Jacoby on Dishing Up Nutrition and interviewed him on his book, Sugar Crush. Doctor Jacoby went into a lot of detail on neuropathy. It looks like we're running out of time today. So I would encourage you to go to our website, click on radio shows and listen to the previous show. You'll see the show titled Neuropathy: The Sugar Connection. And there's also a Dishing Up Nutrition app that has many of our past shows. That is an excellent show. I think it’s one of our very best shows. It puts an emphasis on sugar and the cause of pain.

CASSIE: Yes. So do listen to that past show if you get a chance. I listen to the past shows on iTunes. So yet another way we’re free on iTunes if you just typed Dishing Up Nutrition in the search engine. So lots of options. I do think we've had a great show, JoAnn. We've given some really great tips on how to change your eating to reduce aches and pains in your feet. I want to recap here the main points of the show. We talked about plantar fasciitis. We talked about neuropathy. What was kind of the first diet recommendation we gave? First we talked about have to stop eating sugar. So this means dessert, cereal, bread, pasta, crackers and chips. Also sugar causes more foot pain and inflammation.

CASSIE:  If you can get that equation stamped in your brain, sugar equals inflammation and pain, that'll help you to steer clear of those high sugar foods. And replace any bad fats that are still lurking in your diet with the healthy fats like the butter and olive oil. Thank you all for listening to Dishing Up Nutrition. If you found this show interesting, please share it with a friend or family member. Thank you for listening.