Leah Oladitan: Cultivating Wholesome Nutrition Across Life's Stages and Embracing Dietary Diversity in Autism

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and a better understanding for autism around the world. Hi,
I'm Tony Mentor. Welcome to Why Not Me the World.
Today's guest is Leah A lot of time. She's a
registered diet titian here in the US and the UK.
We're going to talk about nutrition, diet and how it
affects us in our daily lives. Welcome to the show.
I appreciate you coming on.
Well, how are you? Thank you so much for this.
I'm really excited about it.
All the pleasures. Allline, thanks for coming on. So if
you would give us a little information on how you
became a dietitian.
Yeah, So I got into nutrition. Actually I found the
degree when I was already in college. I took one
of those aptitude tests on what you're good at, and
this being a dietitian actually popped up as something that
would be good for me based on my personality and
my interests. I happened to go to a school that
had a really great program for that, so a lot
of cooking information, Like it was a human nutrition and dietetics,
just this study of science and food and how that
impacts health. And so that's what I got a degree
and in human nutrition and dietetic.
When I think of a dietitian nutritionalists, I think about
someone that's going to help me with my food, take
my calories, everything that I need to lose weight or
whatever I'm trying to do. But it's way deeper than that, right,
So when you have a new client come your way,
what's the first step? How do you analyze? What do
you go over? How do you determine what needs to
be done to help the person that's sitting in front
of you.
Yeah, So the very first question that I think is
the most really really an important question is you know,
what is it that you're looking for today? Like, what
is it that they are hoping to get out of
a visit with a dietician? You know, because we all
have different things or ideas in our mind on what's
most important and what we're most motivated to make changes
on and a lot of my career and the work
that I do is helping people get to where and
where they want to be, or for families and people
with children, you know, how how do I get my
kids to where they want to be or where I've
hoped for them to be or what they medically need
to be doing. So that's the first question I think
that I like to answer to see where people's frame
of mind is that and what's kind of the most
important thing to them.
Okay, that makes sense. Now, I've heard of different things
that you can do with tests for foods. It will
tell you if you're allergic to them or if they
affect you in some way. Do you do blood tests
or what is the next step that you would take
once you find out what the person is looking to
do with their time with you.
Yeah, so the next step would be to do just
like any healthcare provider, you do an assessment. Right, So
we're going to ask quite a few questions to get
to know like specifically eating habits, foods that are eating,
pattern of eating, if there's a concern with allergies or sensitivities,
Are there certain things that they notice a reaction to
to having as a dietician. We don't I don't have
the privileges to order lads. I can certainly make recommendations
and say, hey, like, I think based on what you're
telling me, that you could be not getting enough vitamin D.
So you can go to your doctor and you ask
your doctor to do a blood test to see if
you are, in fact, I'm getting enough vitamindeed.
So once you have the assessment done, then you kind
of know where they are health wise. What would be
your next step after that?
Yeah, the next step is to give some ideas on
next steps as far as goals until the next time
I might see someone as a dietician, you know, the
next time I see them, or like what they're you know,
over the next month, until they come back to see
the provider that I'm working with or the provider that
they're working with. So like, what are let's let's talk.
We'll talk through some different ideas on Okay, this is
what you're hoping to change and this these are different
strategies you can put in place in what in this
timeframe to work towards that change or make that change happen.
So do you get into labeling at all, because when
you go into a grocery store and you look those labels,
they are just so confusing. You look at the carbs,
you look at the sugars, you look at the fat,
you look at all the things, and then people trying
to find out their net carbs or whatever they may
be trying to find out. It can be so confusing
and so overwhelming to people and they'll think one thing,
but actually reality is another. So do you get into
that at all and help them so they can read
the labels and understand what they're buying?
Oh? Yeah, definitely. And when you say it's confusing going
to the grocery store, it is so confusing. You know,
there's like you go down, there's an aisle for cereal.
There's so many different kinds of cereal, like a lot
of choices, and trying to understand and comprehend what are
the what are the important pieces I need to look at?
And then what does it mean on that label? Yeah,
I get into that. You know, the nutrition facts which
has like the calories, the protein, the nutrient part of it,
or the ingredient list which talks about the ingredients or
the actual foods and additives that can be added in there.
So we yeah, definitely talking through parts of those things
to help people have a better understanding when they are
at the grocery store so that they can help better
understand what they're seeing there. For sure, that's definitely something
I would I could do, and we do a lot
as dieticians.
Great. So once you get into all that and you
start really digging in with your clients, what is your
typical timeframe? Is it thirty minutes? Is a sixty minutes?
How long do you spend with each person to help
them with what they need?
Yeah, So generally dieticians that work outside of a hospital
setting so that you might call the first appointment is
generally about an hour to get that all that history
and then go through a lot of goal setting and
then education and through all of that, and then the
follow up appointments are generally thirty minutes each time. When
I've worked in hospital settings, you know, when you're in
the hospital and you're sick or you're seeing a medical
writer and they have a dietitian come in, it can range.
I used to be have to do you know, I'd
have about ten minutes because they're about ten providers coming
into a room up to an hour and a half
to two hours for a really intense in depth education
that really and then sometimes even multiple educations.
So when you have that all laid out, what's the
plan after that? Is it once a week, once every
other week, once a month, once every two months, once
every three months, and what's your schedule from that point on?
Once a month is a pretty common frequency or length
of time. Also, it depends on what we're working on.
So some things like trying to change your weight, it's
better to have more touch points more often. So if
weight is a concern, either two month, you know you're
trying to get to a lower weight or trying to
get to a higher with generally it's more often than that,
even up to once a week, and those appointments are
generally not as long they can be, you know, fifteen
minutes or thirty minutes, depending on kind of how much
needs to be talked about.
Those kinds of.
Things need more more regular meetings. Just research has shown
that that's more important to see progress and it changes
more frequently.
That makes sense. So once they start their program, whether
it's to gain weight or lose weight, or just get
some overall help. Once you have that plan in place,
is that something that stage fairly rigid or is this
something that you have them come back, you look at it,
and then once you evaluate, you tweak it to keep
evolving into something that's going to make them closer to
where they want to be.
Yeah, it can be both. So it can make small
changes to a plan. You're trying to gain weight, let's say,
and you know the goal is to add in I'm
thinking about kids now, because that's the population I've worked
a lot with. You know, adding a snack for dinner
time every day, you're eating a snack every day after
dinner time and the weight is going up, then we
just keep doing that. But if you're adding a snack
after dinner time and the weight still isn't going up, Okay,
we need to talk about maybe some other things, and
so then we would make a whole We might make
a whole another plan altogether.
Now, what about exercise? Do you work with them on
that or do you send them to someone that can
help them train and use their weights right to help
build muscle and get them, along with a healthy diet,
more closer to where they're hoping that they can get to.
Yes, that's an option, sending them to a gym somewhere
where they can work out, and part of that could
be setting goals from an activity standpoint too. It might
not just be you know, meals or eating or a
meal plan that we do goals on it. It might
be goals related to exercise too, So that could be
going and finding you know, someone to work with, like
a personal trainer to work with, or it can be
maybe getting a membership to somewhere to work out, or
or going on walks three times a week. If you know,
those are not options from a financial standpoint. Again, it
goes back to kind of what they would like to
do and giving them options. Some people prefer to work
on eating foods differently first, or some people prefer to
work on the physical activity side of things.
You mentioned that you work with a lot of kids
now in my podcast, I talk with a lot of
parents and their autistic children have a real tough time
with texture. Now that's texture of their clothing and of
course textures of their food. So they have a situation
where they have a child that is refusing to eat
a lot of things because they just don't like the texture.
When you have a child that has a texture issue.
How do you handle that? The parents want their kids
to eat right because they need proper nutrition, but yet
they don't like the texture, they don't like the food,
they don't like eating it, and we can't have them
just eating what they like because lots of times what
they like just isn't healthy enough to sustain it. So
what's your approach on something like that?
My first thought that comes to mind is before I
address the question you asked, is you know that adds
there's so much stress that feeding children, especially children who
really are struggling to eat or maybe struggling with you know,
the doctors are concerned about growth in some standpoint, that's
so stressful for parents. So I want to just acknowledge,
you know, first with parents that that is stressful. A
lot of is they feel pressure that they're the ones
like they're doing something wrong. You know a lot of
times it's that's all that pressure and all that anxiety.
The child can beat off of it, right, and it
can sense that, and it adds to the anxiety for
them around meals or eating eating in general. So as
hard as it is trying to get parents to a
place to come calmly to and relax to a meal
or a snack time and not be in that place
of being stressed. That's that's a step. That's that's one
piece of the puzzle.
And this puzzle is a very fuzzy puzzle. When you
have parents of autistic children, many times it's a situation
of their learning as they go. Because it's their first child,
they've never had anything like this happen, so they don't
know exactly what to do, so they're trying to work
with different people to find different things at work. It's
just very very tough for everybody involved.
Okay, So with parents, you know them kind of having
some ideas on what are their responsibilities when it comess
to feeding, what are the things they're in charge of,
So they're in charge of providing nutritious food options. I
think another thing is providing foods that the child is
familiar with. As you said, well, kids in general, and
then especially kids that have special needs or sensory issues
like a lot of children with autism, they struggle with
change and so having foods that are known to them
with foods that may be new or maybe not the
foods that they necessarily have been okay with in the past,
and having both of those at meals and snacks, so
not just catering to only the things that they like,
but going aheading and putting things out there. And when
I say out there, like on the table, even on
the table might not even be on their plate, but
just in the area of where the child is eating.
Even can be a first step. So, like I said,
the parents being calming down off, they're in charge of
what options are provided, and they're offering a variety, maybe
not at every meal, but over time, like right through
the day or through the week, so that's their jobs.
And then having set meals and snack time, So having
a schedule. So another kid thing with kids with who
are sentsory have a lot of sensory challenges or on
our autistic having a very familiar environment, so having the
same plates and cups and utentils, the same place to
set every time, that can sometimes help destress the situation
for them.
Right now, what about the ones that they've kind of
got used to certain things, But there are certain things
no matter how good it is for them, they just
don't like the texture and they refuse to eat it.
So there must be a way to substitute some things
that have good nutrition, but maybe they'll accept it a
little bit better because the texture is not quite as
bad as the other one.
Yeah, it's so what I would what I would tell
first of all, is you know, for kids that don't
have sensory issues, it can take fifteen to twenty different
times of an exposure for them for the same the
same exact thing for them to be willing to accept it.
And children that are sensory, you know, have have trouble
with sensory or texture specific textures, they can take it
might even take longer, so not to get frustrated and
give the child time. You can also offer things in
different formats, but from what with children with autism, they
don't like change very often, so you're wanting to make
it very similar to other foods that they like. Right,
So if you know, if they don't, I don't, I don't.
I don't endorse trying to sneak foods. But if they
you know, if they like, if they like a hamburger,
you know, maybe you could try a soy burger, you know,
something that's just a little bit different, but it looks
it's very similar in the in the appearance or the
texture or the taste. It's it's very similar the children. Again,
it's it's a it's a long process for children who
have sensory issues, and it's not going to be something
that you see huge changes overnight. So parents being okay
with like one percent change or one percent in the
direction of where you want to go, that's still progress
and that you should celebrate that, and you should be
you know, making those kinds of goals that are small,
very very small incremental goals, too few.
Changes, we baby steps in other words, exactly have you
had adults that have come to you that have had
texture problems and they just don't like a lot of foods,
and they'll come to you and say, look, we don't
like this, this, and this, And have you helped them
by giving them other options or given them at least
choices that they can try and figure out so they
can get better and more healthy as well.
Yeah, so I haven't worked with a lot of adults
with those kind of sensory issues. But what I can
say about that is, you know, adults who have them,
if they're motivated to make changes, I could see that
being something where, again we would do really small very
very small incrementals, Like you said, baby steps to make changes, right,
But I haven't really worked with anybody in the adult
realm to do that.
Sure, now, when you talk with people that are just
trying to get a general wellness, do you have people
come to you that's just just looking for general wellness
rather than huge changes, just making subtle changes that they
can add to their diet.
Yeah, yeah, so like making just a few modifications. And
one thing I would do with that is I would
do like a diet analyt Like I would do what
I call a diet analysis. So it's really just having
them write down what they're eating and drinking for several days,
and then I can do analyxit and look at you know,
are you know for small like vitamin level things like
are there a couple of vitamins that maybe you need
a little bit more of or or you know, calcium
or are you getting too much of something that salt
would be one thing that's pretty common, So and give
them recommendations there.
Okay, what's some of the biggest issues that come your way?
And I'm not going to say on a regular basis,
when they do come your way, you can look at it.
You can analyze it and you know right away exactly
what's going on in their life.
Yeah, So the the biggest issue with with kids and
adolescents is the picky eating. So, you know parents, a
lot of parents, they're great parents, and they worry about
their kids and they just want to provide the best
for them, and so they worry a lot vegetables every
meal or their selective it's you know called selective eating
as well. And so that would be one of the
the probably the thing I hear the most from parents,
and that's really common in kids in general, like in childhood.
That's a pretty common thing in the younger years to
toddler age, and kids tend to grow out of it
as they get older for the most part. If parents
are following those kind of their what their responsibilities are
that I mentioned earlier, providing healthy foods, set schedule, and
kids a lot of times will grow out of it.
Over the years, there's been so many changes in the
way that we look at things. So what are some
of the biggest challenges that you think you face on
a day to day basis because of the changes that
have happened over the past few years.
One of the really challenging things for people in general,
and even for me as even as a practicing clinician.
In this field is research and evidence and the knowledge
base continues to grow so rapidly. You know, people a
lot of times get confused because you'll hear one day
you know coffee is good for you, the other next
day coffee is not good. You hear that that back
and forth because there's always more research done. And unlike
a lab with a pill for a medication, where you
can control everything except the pill, you can't really do
that when you're eating day in and day out, multiple
times per day. So it's really hard to navigate that.
And so that's one thing that it's people feel lost
and feel like the evidence changes all the time. They're right,
it does because we get more information.
Okay, that leads me to another question. Okay, with everything
changing so drastically, how do you keep up with it
and how do you implement it to your clients?
Right? And that is a question that you take to
an individual level. So what I like, Taking eggs, for example,
they're a really great protein source, one of the best
protein sources in the egg white. The yolk has a
lot of vitamins, and minutes, like vitamins and micronutrients. It's
high in cholesterol too, So if cholesterol is something that
you're high with, you know, there's a potential that it
might have an impact. But and I don't quote me
on it because I haven't read this research recently on that,
but I think the last thing I read is that
they didn't think it made a difference in your collectible.
But it is high in cholesterol. So like my father
in law, you see two boiled eggs every morning for
breakfast any at high cholesterol levels, you know, And so
one thing I could tell him is like, well you
could try not eating the eggs for every day and
see if that changes your cholesterol level. Like that's a
change you could make, right, But yeah, it's Yeah, the
eggs are a great example of that.
Okay, we've covered kids, we've covered parents. What about older people?
Do you have people coming your way that have decided
that they've gone through life, their bodies have changed and
metabolism has changed. They want to add some things, subtract
some things. They just kind of want to get general
health going again. Do you have that kind of situation
at all?
Yeah, for for older, older people, it can be changes
in you know, tech ability to what they can eat
like from a text. You know, sometimes teeth having trouble
chewing or swallowing can be a common thing, or not
being able to prepare, you know, prepare meals on their own.
They have to for one person. So those are the
kind of the things that older people sometimes struggle struggle with,
you know, being able to provide nutritious foods on a
really limited budget as well they are on a really
fixed income. And in those cases, trying to get people
connected to resources to for food because there are a
lot of them out there, and then giving them some
advice on you know, easy and quick court cheap things
that they can make, or modifying textures of foods.
Right.
Sure.
Now we're in the age of iPhones and apps and
all those type things. My favorite that I use is
my fitness Pal. What do you think of things like that?
Do you think they help quite a bit or do
you think they have air is where they need to
be tweaked a little bit? Do people put too much
stock in their value? What's your thought on apps like that?
Well? I think some apps are really can be really helpful.
Knowledge is power, right, right? If you have knowledge about
things on you know, how many calories you're eating, or
how many steps you're taking in a day, and you
know how many you're supposed to have. Apps can really
help you keep kind of track those things so that
you can be more aware of what's happening in your
day at day to day.
One of the.
Areas that struggles the apps continue to be challenged with
is like more of the the micronutrient so for for
micronutrients and macro experience, so looking at the vitamins and minerals.
That information is not readily available outside of hospital systems
or large medical institutions.
A lot of times you have to.
Pay for software that can provide really evidence based and
analyzed nutrition information at that level. But it is a
good resource for you know, calories or protein A lot
of times can give you pretty good information on that,
and then physical activity happits as well. The other thing
that some apps are great for are you know, giving
you that daily touch base on like positive motivation. I've
seen some out there for that as well, that can
just give you some motivation each day to keep working
towards your goals.
Is it accurate enough to where if anybody uses these
apps that they're going to be close to their nutrients
and where they need to be or do they really
need to kind of check further than that to know
that they're getting at especially if they're picky, and especially
if they tend to not change their diet a whole lot.
Yeah. Yeah, and that's that is what would be concerning
to me, if people were using an app to tell
them exactly how much magnesium they needed in the day,
whether they're getting that enough or calcium. Yeah, at that level,
I don't know that the apps are quite there yet,
at least I haven't one yet, that is right.
Sure. So basically they're just a decent measuring stick for
the basic things that people can look at on a
daily basis. Yes, yeah, So what are some of the
biggest challenges that you come across and you feel like
you've won?
So the thing that really I love and I get
really excited to see is when people reach their goals
or they can hit some big milestones from like a
medical standpoint that they are working towards that I really
I love helping people. That's my favorite thing to do,
and so it's a challenge. There are saying things like
motivational behavioral change is really hard and it can take time.
And when people are able to implement changes that that
is the biggest thing that I have not personally overcome,
but helped people to overcome.
Right, So what do you do You get this person
that comes in, They're totally out of shape, they don't
eat right, they know they have to change, They're willing
to try, but you know, deep down their motivation just
is not there. How do you break down that barrier
where they can see that if they make these changes,
they do what they need to do, that potentially they
could add years to their life.
Starts with Well, one thing is as a dietitian in
general have more time than a doctor does get to
spend with someone. So that's helpful. So we have more
time to go through and in that sixty minutes or
thirty minutes, go through and kind of delve into the
weeds of it has a scientific term, but really what
it is is it boils down to you know, what
are the things that are driving you, like, what are
the important things in your life? And then a lot
of times I'll relate what the health things they can
do to improving that part of their life. So if
they really you know, if they really want to be
around spend time with their kids, you know, I can
talk about, well, you know, in ten or fifteen years, like, Okay,
what are the health things you can do to be
able to do that? Yeah, So I try and relate
talking to them about what's important in their life and
then relating the diet and how health changes that they
can make or their doctors asking them to make, relating
that to the important things in their life. Like I've
I've worked with kids who maybe want to get into
sports or they want to be you know, athletic, and
so talking about nutrition and how that impacts your physical
abilities is one example, and that the things from a
dietary standpoint that they can do to be better performers.
So it's really you know, for older people, sometimes it's
taking more medications, because changing your diet a lot of
times is the thing you can do without having to
add more medicines. The doctor will allow you time to
do that first before you have to add more medication in.
So those are some of the.
Things that when I'm talking to them in that hour
thirty minutes I have I like to go and learn
about them and see what are the things that are
important to them to help them try and be able
to continue to do those things.
Okay, you brought up doctors. Do you work with doctors
one on one or do they send you people that
they feel you could help. What's your relationship with a
lot of doctors in that capacity? I have in the past.
At the current moment, not as much, but yes, I
have worked a lot with doctors and doctors offices in
the past. I'm okay either way. It's if it goes
into the realm of a doctor prescribed something to someone,
then generally I want to have a conversation or some
information from the doctor as well. But for people who
are just looking for general health and wellness related things,
doesn't need to necessarily have a doctor insolved in those conversations.
Okay, since we are in the virtual world now, have
you gotten into doing any virtual consultation at all? Yes?
So I have done virtual visits with people in the
past through the jobs that I've had. Haven't done it
as an individual. It doesn't mean that I can't, though,
and a lot of what I do right now is
more of like an analyze what you're eating or for companies,
look at meal that kind of thing. I do more
of analyzing, like meals now, or like you know, what
you eat over several days and looking at what is
in there and what's missing, or if you have, you know,
some kind of medical thing that you you want to see,
am I getting enough calories? Or I want to get
am I getting enough sodium?
Marketing too much.
I'm someone who would be willing to do things like
this where if somebody wants someone to come talk or educate,
I do a lot of education that's in the realm
of what I'm able to do. If that makes sense.
Okay, that makes sense. So this is the first time
that a person is hearing about a dietitian and a
nutritionalist and knows nothing about it. So they've heard some
information that you've given to me today on this podcast.
So what kind of advice would you give them?
Yeah, let me think on that for a second. Well,
I'll first start by my dad had no idea what
a dietitian was when I went into school, and so
I had to do a lot of education with him.
But I think the most important thing you need to
know is that really a dietician is there to be
an advocate for you and to help you meet your goals,
like what are the things that you want in your
life and help you get there, give you tools to
do that. And so that's you know, if that's something
that you are looking for and that would be something
you would find helpful, then a lot of times the
dietitian can be that for you.
That's great to know. So with all the information you've
given us, now someone wants to reach out to you,
how do they contact you?
Yeah, so they can email me at my email address,
which is my first and last name. It's Leah Alaton
at gmail dot com. It's l e A h O
l A d I t A n at gmail dot com.
Well, this has been a great conversation, a lot of
super information. Thank you for taking the time and coming
on my podcast.
Enjoyed it well, thank you for having me again. I
do appreciate being here as well, and I look forward
to hearing it.
It's been my pleasure. Thanks again. Thanks for taking the
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