50 minWhat Causes Autoimmune Disease and Can Diet Help?
With Risa Groux
Guest on the show
Risa Groux
Risa Groux is a functional nutritionist, certified autoimmune coach and author of the book FOODFRAME who helps clients with autoimmune diseases and hormonal imbalances using whole foods and functional nutrition.
Episodes with Risa Groux
50 minWhat Risa talks about
Ep. 155: What Causes Autoimmune Disease and Can Diet Help?
Nikkiey Stott sits down with functional nutritionist and certified autoimmune coach Risa Groux for the show's first conversation about autoimmune disease. Risa shares her own path into the field. She struggled to conceive her second child, was told she'd need thyroid medication for life, and started asking why her body wasn't making enough thyroid hormone. That led her to an MTHFR gene mutation, high mercury, low vitamin D and a hidden abscess in her jaw left over from wisdom tooth surgery 23 years earlier.
Risa explains autoimmune disease as antibodies mistakenly attacking a gland, tissue or organ. In her view, genetics, leaky gut, chemical exposure, viruses, pathogens, low vitamin D and MTHFR are common root causes, and having one autoimmune condition makes more likely unless antibody production comes down. She describes testing every client with a comprehensive blood panel and a stool test, and shares client stories involving rheumatoid arthritis, colitis and inflammation-driven back pain.
On the food side, her rule is protein, fat and fiber. She covers what she looks for in meat, fish and produce, why she thinks most people don't eat enough fiber, where carbs fit, and why she wants people with autoimmune conditions off gluten, conventional dairy and soy. The episode wraps with her views on wine, the habit of not cooking, new targeted probiotics and the supplements she considers foundational, with vitamin D at the top of her list.
- Risa builds every eating plan around protein, fat and fiber, then adjusts it to the person's current health status.
- She defines whole foods as things that crawl on the ground or sprout from the earth: food made on a farm, not in a factory, without a nutrition panel.
- When buying beef, look for grass fed and grass finished, choose pastured chicken and turkey, and ask whether salmon is wild or farmed.
- Buy organic for greens and anything you eat with the skin on, while thick-skinned foods like avocado matter less.
- Risa says that once you're diagnosed with one autoimmune condition, you should look for the root cause, because if antibody production isn't brought down it can find another gland, tissue or organ to attack.
In Risa's words
Common questions
What is an autoimmune disease?
Risa explains that an autoimmune disease is when your body creates antibodies that mistakenly treat a gland, tissue or organ as the enemy and attack it. Which condition you have depends on where they attack: muscles with fibromyalgia, joints with rheumatoid arthritis, the thyroid with Hashimoto's.
What is leaky gut?
Risa describes leaky gut as intestinal permeability, where the tight junctions in the intestinal lining open and let food particles, toxins and undigested proteins into the bloodstream. The body treats them as invaders and makes antibodies, which in her view can lead to food sensitivities, inflammation and eventually autoimmunity.
Can diet reverse autoimmune disease?
Risa says she has reversed her own Hashimoto's and has helped clients do the same through food and supplements by finding the root cause. She shares examples including a client with rheumatoid arthritis whose symptoms resolved after a pathogen found on a stool test was treated.
Do you need to eat carbs to lose weight?
Risa says vegetables and other fiber already provide carbohydrates. In her view, people burning a lot of energy, such as endurance athletes or those building muscle, need more carbs like sweet potatoes and yams, while people trying to lose weight can draw on stored energy.
What should you look for when buying beef?
Risa recommends looking for both grass fed and grass finished on the label. She explains that cattle fed corn for the last 30 days can still be labeled grass fed.
What testing does Risa use to find the root cause of autoimmune issues?
Risa runs a comprehensive blood panel covering blood sugar markers, all nine thyroid markers, iron, inflammation and a white blood cell breakdown. Every client also gets a stool test that looks at 84 pathogens, pancreatic enzymes, fat digestion, inflammation and hidden blood.