End achy fatigue in 48 hours by dodging the anti-nutrient in healthy food draining 80 percent of us
Despite her medical background, Anne Rhody, 47, couldn’t explain her fatigue, headaches and joint pain. But a chance chat led her to the sneaky culprit — and the fixes that turned her life around
Sorry, guys,” Anne explained to her sons. “I’m just too exhausted…I’m not going to be able to make it to your game.”
“Two of my boys played baseball, but when fatigue became my new normal, I could barely muster the energy to drive them to the field, much less stay to watch them play. Although they were disappointed, they said they understood. ‘There’s always tomorrow, Mom,’ they’d tell me, but the guilt stung. I wanted so badly to be the mom I had always been.
No more to give
“That was two years ago, when fatigue became so overwhelming and persistent that I never knew what the next day would bring. With five kids to take care of, I knew fatigue well, but this was more than just ‘mom fatigue’—this was completely different. I was constantly drained and no matter how much sleep I got, it didn’t seem to help.
“I worked as a physician’s assistant for an integrative medicine provider, and I struggled to get through each day. I talked about it with the doctor, and his advice was to support my adrenal glands, which I was already doing with herbal supplements.
“My lifestyle was pretty healthy overall, but I started trying to eat even healthier—adding more foods like spinach. I also started to drink tea for energy. I thought the changes would give me a boost, but my health continued to spiral downward.
“The fatigue got so bad that it made it hard to work—and exhaustion wasn’t my only issue. I also had headaches, joint pain and achiness throughout my body. I never would give less than my best to my patients, but I started to worry that I wouldn’t be able to provide the best level of care. I ended up resigning, which was devastating emotionally and financially. Since I had been making more money than my then-husband, we had to move to a new state where we would be better able to make ends meet.
“The whole thing really affected my kids. I was homeschooling them, but I lacked the energy to take them on field trips. If I was lying on the couch or in bed, they would cuddle up with me so we could do our work from there. I realized it wasn’t healthy for them to see me in bed all the time, so I enrolled them in public school. Everything worked out fine, but the transition was stressful on all of us.
“Even more upsetting was that since I had a background in integrative medicine and a degree in nutrition, I thought I would’ve been able to figure out what was wrong with me. I took
a close look at my diet, but it hadn’t changed much in 15 years—mostly vegetables, some meat and a small amount of grains. In fact, as I got older, I was eating better and better. I seemed to be doing everything right. I just couldn’t come up with any reasons for my spiral. I spent hours researching and spoke to every health expert I knew. No one could give me answers.
Relief at last!
“I continued to give it more thought and I realized I was especially tired after eating certain foods. But it was odd…it was healthy foods like green smoothies made with spinach that left me feeling spent. And healthy snacks of nuts and avocado seemed to drain me. I thought that couldn’t be right, so I didn’t change my diet, but I did mention the connection to a friend of mine, nutritionist Ann Louise Gittleman, Ph.D. Since we ate similar diets, I thought she’d tell me I was doing everything right, but instead, she said it sounded like I had pinpointed the problem. What I was actually dealing with, she suggested, was a sensitivity to oxalates— plant compounds found in healthy foods that the body can’t digest. She explained that when oxalates build, they prevent cells from producing ATP, the body’s main energy source. I was shocked! I’d spent years learning about health and healthy eating, but this was news to me. My pride took a hit, but I decided to follow her advice.
“I immediately eliminated high-oxalate foods from my diet, including spinach, nuts, grains and tea. Within days, the fatigue lifted! Once I felt better, I tried to reincor- porate some of these foods into my diet, but my fatigue, headache and joint pain returned—although to a lesser degree—so I knew I was on the right track. I focused on eating healthy alternatives with lower levels of oxalates. One of my favorite meals is to load up a cast-iron skil- let with plenty of veggies tossed in grass-fed butter and olive oil, then add a piece of chicken or beef and roast it all in the oven.
“Now that fatigue isn’t holding me back, I’m busy living my life again—taking my kids to their after-school activities, traveling to visit family and working as a health writer. And I’m always at my sons’ baseball games, cheering them on!”
—as told to Julie Revelant