Fiber, Fads, And Kidney Health

We unpack why fiber and water matter more than diet trends and share a real-world cautionary tale of an all-meat plan gone wrong. Practical, simple steps help you reach fiber and protein needs, protect your kidneys, and choose foods that actually make you feel better.

• role of fiber in gut health, cholesterol, and blood sugar
• risks of extreme diets and kidney strain from low water
• soluble vs insoluble fiber and realistic targets
• fiber strategies for weight loss and fullness
• protein pairing with hydration for kidney safety
• non-bread fiber sources and plant-forward options
• listening to post-meal signals and inflammation
• meal planning, snack setups, and sustainable habits
• year-end reflections and next season preview

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Chapters

• 0:58 Welcome And Year-End Setup
• 1:23 Disclaimers And Influencer Diet Fads
• 2:50 The Carnivore Cautionary Tale
• 3:55 Why Fiber Matters
• 5:40 Soluble Fiber, Cholesterol, And Satiety
• 7:17 Water Intake And Kidney Protection
• 9:26 Fiber For Weight Loss And Non-Bread Sources
• 11:30 Protein Without Overdoing Meat
• 12:57 Listen To Your Body And Inflammation

Transcript

Kelli: 0:43

Good morning, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Tattoos and Telehealth. As you all know, we are coming up. You might not know if you're not following us along, which, if you're not, you need to follow, like, subscribe, all the things. We are coming into the middle of December. We've passed Thanksgiving. We're coming up on Christmas. And so we are wrapping up 2025 and it has been an incredible, fantastic year. We've covered a lot of topics. We are going to wrap up with some information today about fiber. That's been a very interesting topic, I feel like. I've had a lot of patients that I've had this conversation with. Nicole has had to hit this kind of hard with patients. And I think I feel like it's a little bit of a fad thing. So before I jump on that, I'm going to start out with, you know, our lawyers make us say this is this does not constitute medical advice. This is not a patient-provider relationship. And that anything that we say here does not mean that this is medical advice for just two gals chatting it up. So always please follow up with your primary provider. If you don't have one, please get one. But Nicole, I I think that, you know, especially right now, we see patients that are really into the different fads and influencers. And that's fantastic. I'm glad those people exist. But I also feel like there's a gap in knowledge and research about the truth behind some of those fads, like carnivore diet, keto diet, and those things have their place. But you know, like I'm in physical therapy right now for my shoulder, and there's there's a kid that is in there. I call him a kid because I'm old, that is in there and he's on, like he does carnivore, not because it's a diet, because that's just what he chooses. Like the boy just eats meat and that's all he wants. Well, he spent the Thanksgiving holiday in the hospital because all he does is eat like three or four grams of meat every day, and that's it. Turns out, like what you and I already know, your kidneys don't like that. You didn't drink enough water, didn't eat any fiber, didn't have anything else, just meat. So, Nicole, tell tell our listeners why that is significant, and then why we push our patients to eat fiber and why that matters. And drinking water, why why do we tell our patients that?

Nicole: 2:57

So I mean, fiber is is is part of the plant, and it is a good thing. Like it helps keep you regular, prevents constipation, and it even feeds the gut bacteria. And we all know better gut health, less bloating, less abdominal cramping, abdominal pain, all the things. But it also helps lower cholesterol as a soluble fiber. The soluble fiber does really well with keeping cholesterol within normal limits, helping it. It doesn't treat high cholesterol. There's a difference, but it can help lower cholesterol. You know, you can eat Cheerios and it says this may help lower cholesterol. It's got fiber in it. Like that's where that comes from. So, you know, soluble fiber can can help with that. It also steadies your blood sugar, slows absorption, fewer spikes and crashes in your and your in your glucose. Also increases your fullness so you stay fuller longer, so you eat, you eat less. You know, I mean, it's super, super important. And it, I mean, it helps with with weight, blood sugar control, GI side effects across the board. Super, super important. Women should get around 25 grams a day, and men should get around 38 grams a day, but most people only get half of that. And so there's tons of ways to get fiber now. Now you can get, you know, metamucle or whatever brand in the pills, you can get mix it in your drink where it doesn't taste like anything. There's so many ways to get your fiber, but it is so, so important just to to our body health in general. I can't say, and I'm not saying it doesn't exist. I'm saying I can't say that I've met anyone that didn't do the carnivore diet, got off of it, and did not gain the weight back. Like it's just not for the for the majority of the population, it's just not sustainable. It's just not, it's just not sustainable. There's been some people in my family that try it. Their cholesterol raises because all they're eating is eggs and meats and butters and all the things. I mean, just eat a stick of butter. And but butter's fine, but in moderation, it's not sustainable. You can't not have fruits and vegetables and expect to be overall healthy. Like you it fruits and vegetables definitely play a role. And it's just not, it's just not sustainable. Even for this kid, like it wasn't sustainable. The minute he went off of it, the body's like, what the heck? The kidneys take a hit. Like it's just it's there's so many needs for fiber in our diet.

unknown: 5:25

Yeah.

Kelli: 5:25

Well, and and I try to stress to people, and I do this even, you know, even with my ladies that are like perimenopausal, you know, kind of where my wheelhouse sits. I see a lot of women that are perimenopausal, menopausal. We talk about hormone therapy, and I stress and hit home, you know, working out, lifting weights, you know, you know, movement as medicine, and and you know, three or four or five days a week. But a lot of that conversation steers around getting adequate protein. But then I chase that with water. I always tell them, you know, you've got to have plenty of protein, but you got to chase that with water because protein is a big molecule. And if you think about it, your your kidneys have to filter everything that you put in your body. It's got to filter it, it's got to come out. Um and your kidneys have to be able to run that through. And so I think of it as this you can either run it through cheesecloth or you can run it through a strainer. And the more water you run it through, it's like running it through a strainer. It's a whole lot easier to pass it through. If you don't chase it with water, it's like a cheesecloth and it's just gonna sit there and be heavy, heavy, heavy. Your kidneys don't like that. And so oftentimes we'll start to see those kidney numbers go up and we'll start to see people with acute kidney injury, and they'll have some what you know, what we call pre-renal, prereenal damage. And that's you know, your your renal numbers, your kidney numbers are going up. And that's oftentimes dehydration. That's you're not drinking enough water to chase what you're putting in so your kidneys can filter it. So it's super important. That's why we ask people to you know, eat your fiber, drink plenty of water. Nicole has been talking a lot with some of her weight loss patients about, you know, take getting in plenty of fiber, people that take medications to help with weight loss. That's pretty significant. I know that oftentimes we kind of miss the mark when we talk about different things. And and I even have patients say, but Kelly, I don't, you know, I don't eat bread. Well, you know, like like Nicole just said, you don't have to eat bread to get fiber. Like you have metamucil, you've got little capsules, you know, you you can do all those things to get plenty of fiber in your diet. Um, and I just want to be sure, you know, patients understand we still have to have a well-rounded diet. And I know that those are fads, and and everything works differently for different people, but just please understand, you know, fruits and vegetables are around for a reason, fibers around for a reason. Your body still needs those things in order to have, you know, a very well-balanced nutrition, keep your cholesterol in control, keep your kidneys healthy. And at the end of the day, just make sure that while you still want to meet your goals, that you're doing it in a healthy fashion and that your your organs aren't, you know, get suffering in the at the end of the day.

Nicole: 7:51

Yep, for sure. Definitely, definitely important, especially for patients that are trying to lose weight. I mean, it helps protect muscle and nutrition, uh, reduces those nausea swings, um, prevents constipation, which we talked about that, but it also supports long-term weight maintenance. And so, you know, you can get there's tons of fiber in vegetables and very specific vegetables. There's great fiber. So you don't have to get it from bread at all, at all. In fact, I I don't like to eat a whole lot of white bread, but I like potatoes and I like I like French fries. Like there's things that I like, but like when I whenever I eat pasta, I just feel crummy. I just feel uh. And so, especially as I get older and in my 40s and I'm paying more attention to kind of how I'm feeling with what I'm putting in my body. It's definitely something I I try to avoid. If I go out to dinner, I don't order pasta. I just feel crummy. I just feel crummy. And so there's other ways that I have to get, you know, I have to get fiber, not really from the breads either, but I have trouble getting my protein because I don't eat a lot of meat. So I know you touched on protein. So I get it from the cottage cheese, I get it from the yogurt, I get it from protein shakes, protein bars, things like that. So I have to get it. I do eat some meat, but I don't eat enough where I could get my daily protein from it. So I have to, you know, kind of be very cognizant of that and make sure that what I'm putting in has protein in it, even if it's not a meat. So it's just a struggle, I guess, because I'm kind of all over the place with what I with what I eat. That's doable. I mean, and people that have different lifestyles or different, I guess, food intake choices, people that are vegan, people that are pescatarian, people that, you know, people that have different choices of what how they want to eat, it's still doable. You can still get your fiber, you can still get your protein, you can still, you mean you can still get those things, healthy fats, etc. Just kind of have to change and think about what you want to eat. And so I just want to encourage patients to, you know, research the different ways that you can get those macros into your diet and still honor how you want to eat your meals. You know, I tell patients, like Nicole just said, you know, she eats pasta, she feels yucky. If you eat a meal and you feel badly or you feel like you should go take a nap, that's uh that's a food you shouldn't eat. It's not, it's not something that your body wants. Your body's telling you, I don't like this, it's inflammatory to me, it's not good. Um, and you shouldn't have that food. Food should food should give you fuel. Food is fuel. So it should give you energy. It should, it should increase your metabolism, it should speed you up, it should get you ready to get through the next part of your day. That's why we eat breakfast to get through the first part of our day. We eat lunch to get us through the second part of our the second part of our day. And so I just tell people, if you're eating something and it makes you feel like Nicole just said, you should be avoiding it. That's an inflammatory food for you. So I think that it's it's just reasonable to think about how you want to still honor what you're eating, but get the things that you need, you know, your fiber and and your healthy fats and your protein, but still make sure you're getting plenty of water to chase that through and filter. So something that I have, I heard it, gosh, uh probably a hundred years ago, but it's important that we eat to live, not live to eat. Agreed. So if you live to eat, really think about that. Try to change the focus to eat to live.

Kelli: 11:06

I think you know, a lot of my problem that statement resounds with me because I get so busy during the day, or I'm thinking about, you know, I gotta get my workout in, I have this to do, that meeting, these patients, or you know, whatever. I'm reviewing these labs or I'm going over this. And then I look up and it's two o'clock and I'm like, hmm, I haven't had lunch, I haven't done this, I haven't drank my water, I haven't, you know. So my prop my problem is I forget to eat. You know, like I'm just I stay so busy that I forget. And so I think that sometimes it's just often a matter of, at least for me, and that may not be for everyone else, making my meals a part of my routine, scheduling that meal. You know, people meal prep. I should meal prep, it might help. Or you could keep a snack basket on your desk. Some protein bars in my drawer. But that's absolutely true. I love that statement. That's awesome. Yeah.

Nicole: 11:58

All right. Well, as we close to 2025, we want to thank all of you guys for listening, watching, tuning in, liking, subscribing. We will be back in 2026 for a another season of Tattoos and Telehealth. We hope to get a little more personal, a little more raw in 2026, more about us, about just our everyday, everyday lives and struggles. And anything you guys want to know, just reach out. And uh we're pretty open. So we're looking forward to getting a little bit more information out there that is uh, you know, still good, still health, health information, still all the things that we've been doing, but a little bit more raw. You know, we're real people too, and we struggle with things just like everybody else. But I think patients and and just listeners, they just want to relate. And so we're hoping to make that a top priority in 2026. So that is all for today.

Nicole & Kelli: 12:51

Anything else, Kelly? I think that's it. You guys have a wonderful Christmas, a happy new year, and we will see you guys in 2026. See you in 2026. Take care. Bye.