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Julie: Hey there, welcome to episode 380 of the Find Your Food Voice podcast. I am Julie Duffy Dillon, registered dietitian and your host. This mini episode is jam -packed with very specific information. You’re gonna hear from my friend and colleague, registered dietitian Donetta Floyd, who is also a diabetes expert, has extra training to be a diabetes educator. And I wanted to know from her point of view, what do folks need to know about GLP -1s before they start? Like, I think I phrased it like, what do you wish people knew before? And I specifically wanted to talk to Donetta about this for a reason, because of her expertise in diabetes, know, GLP -1s had been around for many, many years for, with people with diabetes getting access to it. And so she has seen people go on and off the medication and seen kind of the short and long -term experiences. So I’m very excited for you to hear the information that she And we are hoping that this information provides you more informed consent. You know, it gives you more information to help you discern what your next best step is in managing your health, your chronic conditions, whether you have diabetes or not, and deciding whether or not to take a GLP -1. This is an episode in cases, it’s like the first one you found that is a part of a series. that started with a longer full episode with Jessie Spence, a therapist who has been doing lots of anti -diet work for years and years that started using Ozempic to help manage their diabetes and really just wanted to have a frank discussion on that. And then we also have an episode with registered dietitian, Megan Hadley, who used to work in pharmaceuticals and specifically in the area of GLP 1s. And so she helped us break down actually what’s happening in the body when people are using this as a medication. So I hope it helps. And before we get to the conversation with Donetta Floyd, we’re to take a quick sponsor break, but we’ll be right back.

Julie: Welcome back. Hey there, Donetta. It’s nice to see you. Thanks for joining me.

Donetta: Hey Julie. Absolutely, it’s a pleasure. Thank you for having me.

Julie: My gosh, it’s so great. Well, of course, like, I get to chat with you. So this is like selfishly like, feels nice for me. But I also am excited to talk to you about this medication and diabetes specifically. But before we get to that, can you let the listener know about like, who you are and the type of type of work you’re doing these days?

Donetta: Absolutely. So I’m Donetta Floyd, as I already stated. I am a registered dietitian, nutritionist, and I absolutely love my job. I love what I do. I work mostly with eating disorders, disorder eating, as well as type 2 diabetes. I see all diagnoses, but those are like my top clientele. And so I love it.

Donetta: I am located here in Greensboro and I also do virtual clients, I see virtual clients as well. So yeah.

Julie: Yes. So working with people who experience diabetes and eating disorders at the same time, is that like your, that’s the spot that you really like working?

Donetta: Yes, that is a sweet spot. Absolutely, absolutely.

Julie: Well, that’s why I wanted to talk to you. So, yes, I’m so glad that you’re doing this work. And yes, you’re doing great work. The community is lucky that you’re like have that sweet spot because there’s a lot of people experiencing that combination. So and with that being said, you know, everyone like it seems like everyone’s talking about GLP ones and especially as it relates to diabetes, but then also the big like weight talk with it. So I was thinking like, I really want to know what Danana thinks about this. What do you wish people who are just interested in taking this medication, what do you wish they knew about it before they started?

Donetta: Okay, so lots of things, right? So one, I wish people would like just knew just kind of just knew all the ins and outs about it, as if like the side effects that come with it. A lot of times digestive challenges do come with taking this medication. And so more often than not, from what I’ve experienced and heard from my clients, so It could be nausea, could be vomiting, upset stomach, like diarrhea, those types of things. Certainly it does decrease appetite. And so one thing that I wish people knew too, is that, and I thought about this as I was preparing for this, is that it does decrease appetite, but also to like nutrition education is still needed in there. Like the medication is not gonna do it all. So if it’s decreasing appetite and you’re eating, right, but we still wanna have balance in what it is that a person is choosing to eat to really give your body adequate nourishment and do what’s best for your body. I will also say too when people are taking these medications and they don’t have diabetes, that’s important to be aware of that. Especially if it’s you know we go V or something like that because I’ve had clients that take it temporarily, take it for a short period of time.

Donetta: And again, nutrition education is needed because at some point you’re going to stop taking this medication and life after medication will need to be, you want to be mindful of that. establish habits along the way that’ll be beneficial whether you’re taking the medication or not.

Julie: Right, right. Yeah, that’s something that Jessie and Megan all mentioned about this medication is like, coming off of it, or even when your body gets used to a certain dose, like, just like, things will change. And I know part of like the magic that people promise with the medication, which the four of us are like, Whoa, whoa, whoa, and the magic, but like, but that it’s like, going to be this magical thing, but all three of you basically have said that like, yeah, there’s gonna come a point where your body’s gonna like, let you know what it needs. And let’s make sure you’re as prepared as possible, whether you stay on it or whether you don’t, your body still has these needs.

Donetta: Exactly, absolutely. And I think sometimes that can be overlooked because I think we live in a culture where medication is expected to do everything and it’s like, no, there’s still like a part that we have to play in that and just make in trying to make as best decision as possible in that process. And right, the more I like the word prepared, the more prepared we are, the better.

Julie: Yeah, so that’s the other thing I don’t think people are acknowledging often, because, and I feel so out of the loop, but so much of this is just coming from secondhand and people’s experiences. But it sounds like for a lot of people, they just will ask their doctor to go on this medication. And there’s not lots of preparation. And whether you listener decide to go on a medication like this, it’s okay to like, take some time to get prepared. And, and The reason why I wanted to record these two was just to like have some kind of informed consent on like, okay, this is what you’re getting yourself into. Let’s just help make sure you have, you understand all that and you’re prepared. Is there anything nutrition wise people you recommend like to be prepared?

Donetta: Absolutely, and which as you were talking, it made me think because I’ve had people that will reach out to me or reach out for appointments for the purpose of knowing that they’re going to be on this set medication temporarily. They’re like, hey, I’m going to try it out, but how can I make the best of this time that I’m on it and what can I do for life afterwards? And so nutritionally, That’s the approach that we take. And so we do talk about, you know, even though the medication is known to decrease appetite. So I try to encourage people to still eat throughout the day. Granted, it may not be the amount that you were eating before the medication, but we still want to eat a balanced meal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, ideally, because likely once you stop, when the point comes and you stop taking this medication, like your appetite will change.

Julie: Yes. Of course, yeah.

Donetta Floyd: because that medication won’t be doing what it was doing. And so you want ideally want to have this balance in place. The amounts may change a little bit and we’ll work with that when that time comes, but at least your body will be used to the frequency of having food consistently throughout the day and that won’t change.

Julie: Mm hmm. Yeah, I would imagine with diabetes, that would be extra important to like, have that consistent like glucose kind of coming in the body. Yeah. Yeah.

Donetta: Absolutely, absolutely. Because the body likes consistency and it likes what we show when we teach is like these heels. so heels meaning like when glucose goes up, which is very normal and natural and expected. But we want like these like bunny heels, right? Not the first drop on a roller coaster kind of thing.

Julie: Yeah, my kind of skiing are like the bunny hills, if I’m going to ski at all. So those big ones now. So yeah, like the little tiny baby ski hills is what you want. Yeah. Yeah. So and I would imagine if some folks don’t have the education before or maybe kind of just start using it without putting all this together, there may be more times without eating. So there’s going to be more of those spikes. Yeah. So

Donetta: Absolutely. Yep. And I think it’s, I was just thinking too, I think it’s important to know that and expect that in being prepared that once you stop taking the medication that knowing that your appetite it’s likely to change. Sometimes I think people think that I’m going to take this medication for a certain amount of time and then once I’m like, it’ll set this foundation and then come off the medication expecting to still have the same appetite that you had while you were on the medication. And it’s not really realistic.

Julie: Mm -hmm, mm -hmm. Yeah. Has that been jarring for some folks that you’ve worked with? 

Donetta: It is, it is. And so I try to share with them, like, based on research and based on people’s stories, in the sense of, like, alternating between different medications over years and how this is why this happened when a person did. Medication A or Program B is because when we stop taking these things or implementing these things, that was the job of what you were taking. And so once you stop taking it, physiologically, everything kind of kicks back in. And so you just want to be able to manage that. And it’s manageable. You can do it. Yeah.

Julie: Mm hmm. Yeah, yeah. It’s normal for our body to want to repair when there’s been malnutrition. And so it’ll often communicate that urgently through appetite, right? Yes. So if you’re thinking about it, just consider that part, you know, watch for it. And when it happens, know, Jessie spoke about this part for them, like it felt really jarring and kind of It almost felt like came out of nowhere, you know, but yet also at the same time, logically, they were saying like, of course this would happen. This is just how our body, our bodies like to make sure we’re safe. yeah, I really appreciate your insight. This is super helpful. Before we wrap up any, any other things, or do feel like good to go with what we said so far?

Julie: Awesome, good. Well, so if people are interested in learning more about the work you’re doing or want to work with you, I know you have some diabetes groups coming up. How can they get in contact with you?

Donetta: Sure thing. So I host or I teach a diabetes group class for type 2 diabetes about three times a year. You can find that class or that group on our website, which is at simplenutritioncounseling.com. And there’s a tab there that says contact us where you can fill out your information. And there’s a box in there that says what you would like to learn more about. In that box, just type in type 2 diabetes group and when that class, when we open enrollment for that class, we’ll be sure to send you some information.

Julie: Awesome. Of course, we’ll put it that like in the show notes below too. But thank you so much. I appreciate you Donetta And I hope you have a good rest of the day.

Donetta: Awesome, thank you so much. Thank you again for having me. This is great.

Julie: So there you have it. I hope you enjoyed my episode and conversation with Donetta Floyd. And I have all the links in the show notes from what we talked about today. And this wraps up our GLP One series. So let me know what you thought about it. I hope it added some more information for you and again, helped you to just feel a little bit more aware about your next best steps as you’re navigating the conversations around GLP-1s. And before we close next week, we are going to have a new mini session episode. Mini sessions are this concept that I’m trying out right now in the season of Find Your Food Voice, where I take a piece of education that I normally would do in sessions with clients and share them on the podcast. And it’s a way for you to experiment with a new educational tool to maybe take to your therapist or dietician to see what it can help you as you are discerning. your current kind of complicated history with food. So that episode will be dropping next week and until then, take care.