#my friend described it as 'you need therapy: the art movement' which. yeah

[white-tulips]

OMORI & SURREALISM

OMORI is often described as a “surreal RPG”, actually, it’s quite literally marketed as such. this would lead one to believe that they’re in for a Surrealist experience, however.... I don’t think it quite hits that mark. I feel like people that aren’t very exposed to Surrealism as an artform tend to generalize it as “weird for weirdness’ sake”, but it’s a lot more deep and complex than that. OMORI has a lot of Surrealist influence, and those influences are clearly recognizable, but in the end I think it’s too far removed from it to be called a Surreal piece of art

(it’s kind of like how a lot of Post-Impressionist art gets mistaken for authentic Impressionism just because there’s a lot of overlap in technique and style, but Post-Impressionism is a divergence from the reasons artists started the Impressionist movement in the first place. Van Gogh is not an Impressionist painter!!)

Surrealism is based around dreams and the unconscious mind, so it’s not hard to see why OMORI is categorized as such since most of the game takes place in dreams. but, again, these dreams feel more.... loosely Surreal-adjacent. like there’s more of a nostalgic comfort in them, rather than something inexplainable and uncanny. I’d say the only parts of OMORI that try to dive into actual Surrealism are the Black Space areas (but even a lot of those visuals are either blatantly taken from Yume Nikki, or they feel like there’s a lack of understanding of what makes Surrealism Surreal)

I feel like there’s no way for me to describe the artform better than other people already have, so here’s the concise wiki description that plainly gets the point across:

���Surrealism was a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was to ‘resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality into an absolute reality, a super-reality’, or surreality.”

Surrealism is like taking the ephemeral feeling of a dream and laminating it so it becomes tangible; it’s stark, abrasive, and feels like the corners of your subconscious are being ripped up out of you so you’re forced to confront them. it’s uncomfortable, yet there’s usually an uncanny familiarness to it

this has been on my mind because I recently went to the Surrealism Beyond Borders exhibit at the Met. I don’t think the exhibit is running anymore, but you can still view a digital gallery! 

a couple of my favorite pieces that I think get the point across well:

“Time Transfixed” René Magritte

“Night Flight of Dread and Delight”  Skunder Boghossian

I really don’t think there is any way to describe Surrealism, which is just so fitting since usually people can’t even describe their own dreams. it’s so... unexplainable!!

and I think what makes OMORI miss out on a lot of that feeling is the fact that a lot of it is easily explainable or recognizable? there are many things that can be clearly defined, that have a meaning that can be found outside of the dreams. there isn’t a wishy-washy cloudlike haziness that most dreams have, there’s influences from Sunny’s life that can be pinpointed. the dreams in OMORI are more of a narration, a story. of course this is perfectly fine!! but... it’s not very Surreal. again, the influences are clearly there, but OMORI is kind of doing it’s own thing

a more accurate representation of Surrealism in video games is, of course, Yume Nikki; the visuals of which accurately depict the vague, ever-changing landscape of a dream:

...I could compare and contrast Yume Nikki and OMORI all day, but I already have a post about that

none of this is to say that what OMORI is doing is inferior, I just think it’s interesting to look at the kind of art that the game is inspired by, and see what it’s doing in contrast to it! there’s a reason Sunny’s dreams are the way that they are: they’re an escape. they’re meant to be comfortable, safe, and repress reality, whereas Surrealism aims to take that repression and shout it out to the world and make people confront it. I do think that’s what makes Black Space stand out so much, since that is when things are starting to Be Confronted. it’s very interesting to me!!!!!!!

[bubblesandgutz]

Every Record I Own - Day 378: ENDON Bodies 

This is a 12″ featuring remixes of the Japanese band ENDON by Justin Broadrick and Vatican Shadow. I received it from the band’s manager after Russian Circles played with ENDON in Tokyo back in 2014. The band impressed me so much that I interviewed them for Noisey. The article is reposted below:

The first time I went to Japan on tour, I was treated to a performance by an opening act consisting of two tiny Japanese girls at a small club in Shibuya. One girl played acoustic guitar and sang in a cute, sweet, elfin voice not unlike Satomi Matsuzaki from Deerhoof. The other girl was playing some sort of motion-activated sampler device. She would make karate chop movements over the small glowing piece of equipment that would trigger samples of gong hits. It was the most Japanese thing I’d ever seen. I just wished there was a hologram Anime character doing lead vocals.

I toured Japan again earlier this year and our host informed me that we would be playing with “the most extreme band in Tokyo”. More extreme than the girl duo with the gong sounds and the martial arts moves? Doubt it. But then I bore witness to ENDON. I can’t say how the band weighs up against other acts in the region—this is a culture that birthed Melt Banana and Masonna, after all—but I’d be hard pressed to envision any other Tokyoites coming close to their level of aggressive dissonance. The drummer plowed through the set with an unrelenting barrage of blast beats. On stage left, a guy was beating a black box strapped to his chest. At first I thought it was old piece of stereo equipment—an old CD player, perhaps—but on closer inspection I realized it was some homemade device with a series of springs stretched across the front. He was beating the springs the way a heavy-handed guitarist strummed guitar strings. Harsh noise thundered out of his amp. Stage right, a guitarist churned out a caustic wash of distortion that sounded Burzum’s Filosofem and the Mohinder discography getting sucked into a turbine engine. Next to him, another band member hunched over a bank of blinking lights, cranking out electronic squalls. At the front of the stage, vocalist Taichi Nagura loomed over the crowd. Built like a tank with a shaved head and a well-groomed moustache, Taichi would be perfectly cast as the intimidating bodyguard Tamaru in a movie adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84. While the band doled out their sonic punishment, Tamaru shrieked, howled, whinnied, growled, and bellowed his way through the set, occasionally chucking a beer cans at the audience along the way.

I was shell-shocked by their set. A few weeks later, I was able to get a hold of Taichi to talk about what I’d witnessed.

Brian (B): I remember talking to you over dinner before seeing you play and you described ENDON as “noise metal”. That’s probably the most straightforward description of what you do. But in the States, noise metal usually refers to bands like Today Is The Day, Dazzling Killmen, or Deadguy. Those bands seem tame in comparison. For the sake of not confusing or misleading American readers, we need to come up with a different genre name for you guys. How about power-electronics-violence? Or white-noise metal?

Taichi (T): I love both of the suggestions, really appreciate it. They hit the mark. I know I should be modest, but how about “catastrophic noise metal”?

B: “Catastrophic noise metal” it is, then. So how does a catastrophic noise metal band like ENDON even start? Did you have an idea of what you wanted to sound like when you first got together?

T: Originally, we started ENDON in order to make noise music more functional on an entertainment level. In the extreme music scene in Japan, combining general rock sounds and noise has been a very popular subject for many years but it has mainly been made through collaborations between established bands and noise musicians. We were not satisfied or comfortable with it, because there were very few bands that focused on it as one unit. I think there should be more artists with these terms. Typically, these collaborations tend to add harsh noise as an addition to the higher frequencies of the guitar, like a shoegaze sound. We would like to stay away from that. We wanted to offer listeners a different style. And there is another reason we wanted to make our own sound: general noise and avant-garde styles in Japan have been too close to free-jazz or free music. We still like that stuff, but it’s gotten to be too much, too limiting in its criteria.

B: I would guess that the songwriting originates around guitar riffs, since the guitar seems to have the most concrete and recognizable structure. Am I right? Does the creative process ever start around the noise elements? Lou Reed has that famous quote about cymbals eating guitars—do you ever run into the problem of the noise eating the guitar?

T: Exactly. In most cases we wrote music with guitar riffs first just because metal and hardcore music was a major reference for most of the songs on this album. However, the guitar in “Pray For Me” was written last. For our previous EP, we did lots of jamming and improvisation over and over again to arrange and shape songs. But now we write more with the guitar first. When there is no context or specific ideas, a tiny little motif from an instrument is a great lead. With the invention of black metal, combining noise and metal is not so difficult to imagine anymore. Harsh noise and black metal have an affinity. At the same time, an affinity means a competitive frequency level, especially between guitar and noise. It is very important how we control and arrange them. That’s fun though; we never feel that the structure between guitar and noise is annoying. It is the best part of our songwriting. We usually adjust the equalization between noise and distortion, which leads to a definitive result for listeners. For example, we adjusted our amplifiers a little bit before a recent show and played our usual set. We saw a review later that said ENDON played a bunch of new songs that night.

B: I know Atsuo from Boris helped record your new album MAMA, and I could imagine there being some crossover between ENDON’s audience and Boris’s audience, just because you both have one foot in the metal world and one foot in the experimental music world. And Boris obviously has the occasional collaboration with Merzbow to add the noise element. But aside from that, ENDON and Boris are very different beasts. Do you feel like you have any musical peers in Tokyo? Do you feel a kinship with the Japanese hardcore scene?

T: Atsuo knows exactly what we would like to do, even more so than us! I am so proud of our first full-length being so well made despite our noisy and complicated style. I know we are absolutely in Atsuo’s debt. Yeah, Boris and ENDON have similar tastes in some ways, though they are the pioneers of this genre and no one can be like them. We respect them a lot. ENDON has also been very good friends with a sludge-core band called Zenocide and an industrial unit called Carre. They are the same age as us and often do collaborations together. We also have lots of friends in Tokyo’s grind and noise scenes. Personally, I don’t think ENDON belong to the hardcore music scene in Tokyo, though our favorite venue Earthdom is a mecca of the local hardcore scene. You can still see legendary Japanese hardcore bands there, bands we grew up seeing over and over again. My impression is that the cool and interesting bands at our age used to be hardcore bands that then try to do another thing. Zenocide, who I mentioned earlier, used to be crust punk guys, for example.

B: I think the hardcore vibe I was picking up on comes from the strong antagonistic vibe to your live show, as if the music and performance is meant to punish the audience. Do you feel hostility towards the crowd? Or do you ever feel like the crowd is hostile towards you?

T: No, it’s not intended to be against the audience at all, but against myself. It’s me against the world. In order to act like that, I prepare songs without words. I have no idea what makes me so irate. I see no major difference among each and every individual besides an unspecified mental condition. I try to put myself in that headspace for the purpose of the show. It is not only a punishment but also a sweet pleasure to me. When I act like a master and try to pretend to punish the audience during our show, I feel like I am released from my sin and am buried in happiness. My shows with ENDON are kind of a tragedy in that way. In fact, during the early days of ENDON, there was a lot of fighting between the audience and me…

B: A lot of singers in the world of extreme music tend to fade into the background on record because they have a limited vocal range. With ENDON, it sounds like you have 5 or 6 different singers because the timbre of your voice changes so much. It literally sounds like an entire family—father, mother, son, daughter, family dog—attacking each other. Is this a response to the monotonic quality of metal vocals? Or is it just what naturally came out of your mouth at the first practice?

T: To me, screaming and shouting within the limited range of extreme music sounds so boring. It’s just laborious, a kind of duty they have to fulfill. Of course, what I do is partially a response to monotonous metal vocals, but more than that I would like to keep myself happy as opposed to responding to or attacking others. In that sense, my vocals need to be done unconsciously. Most importantly, ENDON as a whole should prepare our sounds and arrangements to make our music operate unconsciously. As you’ve pointed out, I have tried to do several vocal styles, like one voice that has multiple characters. And I show a relationship among those characters in a psychoanalytical way, like family therapy role-playing. Certainly, there have been good examples of other people doing this. A few singers from great depressive black metal bands have an impressive scream that has both the characters of victim and assailant in one. Multiple characters in one voice… I wanted to move ahead in that direction.

B: Speaking of family therapy, have any of your parents ever come to see you play? And are you still welcome in their homes afterwards?

T: It’s annoying to say that my parents don’t recognize I am crazy at all even though I am doing crazy stuff in ENDON. They are baby boomers that enjoyed Western art, culture, and music during their youth, and they view themselves as the first generation that brought that Western culture over to Japan. They still try to tell me what is best when it comes to music. That is one of the major reasons why everyone in ENDON and I try to focus on musical and cultural “parricide” with songs like “Parricide Agent Service” and “Etude For Lynching By Family”.

B: So I take it that’s a “no” then.

[goblinkind]

Even numbers for the newest ask meme!

These are actually hella fucking cute y’all

2. Do you like the feeling of cold air on your cheeks on a wintery day?

No I do NOT like it because I hate it!!!

4. How do you take your coffee/tea?

I either drink black coffee or coffee with cream in it. I do not like sugar in my coffee ever at all.

I do like to pour honey in my tea, though.

6. Do you keep plants?

Yep! I have three plants at college and one plant at my grandma’s house. (I used to have more, but I gave them to my friend Cassie.)

8. What artistic medium do you use to express your feelings?

Pencils, ink and markers are my go-to. I also use watercolor pencils on occasion.

10. Do you sleep on your back, side, or stomach?

Sometimes I sleep on my back; sometimes I sleep on my side. Never on my stomach, though, because my boobs don’t like it.

12. What’s your favorite planet?

It hasn’t been discovered yet, but I know it’s out there!

14. If you were to live with your best friend in an old flat in a big city, what would it look like?

Gay.

16. What’s your favorite pasta dish?

It’s, uh, Velveeta mac and cheese. I just bought an eight-pack of it last night!

18. Tell us about something dumb/funny you did that has since gone down in history between you and your friends and is always brought up.

Uh, well… there was the time I introduced myself to this dude (who’s literally always stoned) and he thought my name was Genevieve. My friend Eli went to correct him, but I interrupted them and just went along with it.

It’s been like three months and the dude still thinks my name is Genevieve.

20. What’s your favorite eye color?

Brown!

22. Are you a morning person?

Noooo.

24. Is there someone out there you would trust with every single one of your secrets?

Honestly, no. My secrets are secret for a reason.

26. What are the shoes you’ve had for forever and wear with every single outfit?

It used to be my black studded boots, but I basically wore them to death. So now it’s my white Nikes.

28. Sunrise or sunset?

Sunset!

30. Think of it: have you ever been truly scared?

Uh, yeah. I get “truly scared,” like, every single night when I remember that one scary movie series I watched two years ago.

32. Tell us a story of something that happened to you after 3AM when you were with friends.

Okay. One night morning, my BFF K and I were, y’know, havin’ a sleepover

And I think he left the room to like, to go pee or something

And I kinda just rambled to myself the entire time he was gone

And he came back but I didn’t notice

And I told this loooong bullshit story about a dude who, like, does weird stuff to freak out his neighbors or some shit

And that’s how my OC Mug was born.

34. Tell us about the stuffed animal you kept as a kid. what is it called? What does it look like? Do you still keep it?

Her name is Birdy and she’s a canary from IKEA who gets nosebleeds. She’s yellow and has embroidered-on big red nostrils and blue eyes and K’s mom sewed up her wings (which were starting to fall off) and my roommate sewed up her tummy (which got bitten by a dog). Of course I still have her. She’s in my dorm room right now.

36. Which band’s sound would fit your mood right now?

Fall Out Boy! They make me feel tough but also nostalgic. I was listening to “Where Did the Party Go?” today in the shower.

38. Tell us about your pet peeves!

That’s easy: when someone tries to correct me but it turns out they’re the one who’s wrong. (This happens a lot with grammar.)

40. Think of a piece of jewelry you own: what’s its story? Does it have any meaning to you?

Cassie gave me a necklace with an agate and amethyst pendant on it for Christmas. There isn’t really a story behind it other than that, though. I just really love Cassie.

42. Do you have a favorite coffee shop? Describe it!

I really like the Panera next to my old outpatient facility! I used to show up early and go there and draw Rick and Morty fan art. It was nice to have some time to ground myself before a long day of therapy.

44. When was the last time you remember feeling completely serene and at peace with everything?

Uh, last night, probably. Last night when I was falling asleep.

46. Tell us the worst pun you can think of.

I can’t. I can’t think of one at the moment. But here’s a good one that somebody else made!

48. What was your biggest fear as a kid? Is it the same today?

It was “people with scary smiles who wanted to hurt me”

And yeah, that’s still my biggest fear. I’m also still scared of scary music.

50. What’s an odd thing you collect?

I collect hex codes! Sometimes I’ll thumb through them when I’m taking a study break and it’ll calm me down.

52. What are your favorite memes of the year so far?

I still don’t entirely understand it, but I do enjoy the “you know I had to do it to ‘em” meme!

54. Who’s the last person you saw with a true look of sadness on their face?

Uhhhh, Max.

56. What are some things you find endearing in people?

I like people who say things in a funny way. Like, what they’re saying isn’t necessarily funny, but the words they use and their inflection are.

My dad is one of those people. One time, my family was all packed into the car after a vacation in the mountains. My mom got out to check that we hadn’t left anything in the hotel room, and when she came back, my dad yelped. He’d spilled some of her Diet Coke on his hand.

My mom: What? What’s wrong?

My dad: *very agitated* It’s this—this—this Coca-Cola!! >:( >:( >:(

58. Who’s the wine mom and who’s the vodka aunt in your group of friends? Why?

At one point, Max has figured out who was whom. I don’t remember what they ended up deciding, though. I’ll have to ask them later.

60. Do you like poetry? What are some of your fav[orite poems]?

I do! My dad is actually a published poet. When I was little, he wrote a poem out of a bunch of nonsense that I’d said and he’d written down and saved. That’s my favorite poem.

(P.S. If you want to read two other poems by my dad, click here.)

62. Do you drink juice in the morning? Which kind?

I know it’s kinda weird, but I’ve fallen into the habit of ordering a lemonade every morning before class.

64. What color is the sky where you are right now?

It’s like, kinda white. White-grey I guess. Mostly just white.

66. What would your ideal flower crown look like?

It would look just like the one Eli made me for my birthday, but with spikes!

68. What’s winter like where you live?

In a word? HORRIBLE.

70. Have you ever used a Ouija board?

Yeah, with my friend Spooks. It spelled out “E-D H-E-L-M-S.”

72. Are you a person who needs to note everything down or else you’ll forget it?

Yes! Because of my OCD, I get very anxious whenever I forget anything. So the writing stuff down that I do can actually be an unhealthy compulsion in my case.

74. Describe a good friend of yours without using their name or gendered pronouns.

Uh, okay. Well I have this friend who’s kinda sassy and says weird stuff. They’re gay and they talk about their S/O a lot. Also they always make jokes about how they’re ready to die and it’s kind of concerning.

And they have a soft pretty voice and like to wear long skirts. And I love them. And I wish I could see them more but I know there’s a good reason why I can’t.

Oh! And they’re really smart.

76. Is there anything you should be doing right now but aren’t?

…I don’t like this question.

78. Are you in the Minion hateclub or fanclub?

I do hate Minions, but I wouldn’t say I’m in their hateclub because I also associate them with my therapist. And I love my therapist.

80. What color are your bedroom walls? Did you choose that color? If so, why?

My bedroom walls at home are lavender. I chose the color when I was younger because it used to be my favorite. (I’m still really happy with the walls.)

82. Are/were you good in school?

Nope!

84. Are you planning on getting tattoos? Which ones?

Probably not. My parents don’t believe in tattoos.

86. Do you like concept albums? Which ones?

Does Crybaby count as a concept album? I like Crybaby!

88. Are there any artistic movements you particularly enjoy?

I like the meme-y one that made everyone confused and angry. Dadaism. I like that one.

90. Talk about your one of you favorite cities.

I really like Seattle! It has a lot of jerks in it but it’s fun to walk around and it has fun festivals and art fairs. Plus, I hear it has some really cool gay neighborhoods.

92. Are you a person who drowns their pasta in cheese or a person who barely sprinkles a pinch?

The former. I love cheese.

94. Who was the last person you know to have a birthday?

Eli! Their birthday was last Friday.

96. Do you install your computer updates really quickly or do you procrastinate on them a lot?

I tend to stay pretty on top of my computer updates.

98. When’s the last time you went hiking? Did you enjoy it?

It was over the summer and NO. I HAAAATED it.

100. If you were presented with two buttons, one that allows you to go 5 years into the past, the other 5 years into the future, which one would you press? Why?

I’d go to the future. Everyone knows it’s safer to mess with the future than with the past!

[juliettespencerus]

Wisdom from a Functional Nutrition Dietician Interview with Kathie Swift

Marc David, Founder of the Institute for the Psychology of Eating interviews Kathie Swift, a registered dietician, and nutritionist, who has pioneered and directed leading-edge nutrition programs at Dr. Mark Hyman’s UltraWellness Center, at the famous Canyon Ranch Health Resorts, and at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health. Kathie speaks about how her personal struggles with fatigue led her to switch gears in college and why she started studying nutrition. Kathie shares how nutrition is not just for the body, but true Nutrition is at a much deeper level. Nutrition is of the mind, spirit, and heart. Learn some of Kathie’s insights on how she helps her clients navigate all the influx of information and technology we have available to us.

  Transcript:

Marc: Welcome, everybody. I’m Marc David, Founder of the Institute for the Psychology of Eating. Here we are in The Future of Healing Online Conference. I’m here with a wonderful friend and amazing colleague, Kathie Swift. Welcome, Kathie.

Kathie: Welcome, Marc. It’s a pleasure to be here with you.

Marc: Oh, absolutely, absolutely! You and I go back a long way. I’m super proud of that. Let me say a few words about you for our listeners and viewers so they can get caught up, and then we can jump in.

Kathie Swift is a registered dietician, nutritionist, who was awarded the first­ever Visionary Leadership Award by the Dieticians and Integrative and Functional Medicine Dietetic Practice Group and recognized by Today’s Dietician as a dietician making a difference.

Kathie Swift has pioneered and directed leading­edge nutrition programs at Dr. Mark Hyman’s UltraWellness Center, at the famous Canyon Ranch Health Resorts, at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health. She’s been the Education Director for the Center for Mind­Body Medicine’s premier Food As Medicine professional training program for 15 years.

Kathie serves on the advisory board for Integrative Medicine: A Clinician’s Journal. She’s a scientific reviewer for military medicine and served on the Institute for Functional Medicine’s nutrition advisory board. Kathie has spoken all over everywhere in the universe. She’s been interviewed in hundreds of articles, published in the U.S. and internationally. She’s also the cofounder of the Integrative and Functional Nutrition Academy, and that’s an online training program for registered dieticians, nurses, all kinds of practitioners and health professionals.

Kathie is the coauthor of The Inside Tract: Your Good Gut Guide to Health. Her latest book is The Swift Diet, and we’ll be able to talk about that as well. You’ve been a busy lady for the last—since you’ve been born it sounds like! You’ve covered a lot of turf and I’m just wondering if you can start out just by sharing how you got on the journey into being a dietician and just specializing in functional nutrition.

Kathie: Well the beginning of my journey, Marc, I started off in my undergraduate in nursing school. By my third year, I think I had compassion fatigue already, and I decided, too,

that there was, perhaps, a better pathway to helping people heal. I felt that doorway was through food and nutrition. I switched gears and started studying nutrition, went on for my Master’s degree at Arizona State University and really then had a life­changing experience with a chronic illness.

That’s when I had to—so I was trained as a traditional registered dietician, and then became unwell and had to figure things out. It was through my own personal health crisis that I began to explore nutrition on a much deeper level, which led me to some of my mentors like Dr. Jeffrey Bland and Dr. Sidney Baker and others. It really made a big difference in my life and how I have been able to help others.

Marc: Kathie, are there any kind of big­picture pieces that you could share with us in terms of here you are, and you’ve been in this field for a while. Any big picture pieces in terms of what you’ve learned over the years as an educator and practitioner when it comes to people and food? Any just kind of broad brushstrokes you can give us from your perspective?

Kathie: Okay, broad brushstrokes. Well, as a nutrition practitioner, people seek my help to manage chronic health conditions, whether it’s autoimmune or a digestive disorder, weight issues. Many of the patients I work with are highly motivated. They’re convinced that food is medicine, and they want personalized nutrition information.

I think that is really key. People are seeking what is right for me? I think that what I’ve learned over the years is that for true healing to take place, it’s nutrition for the physical body, of course, is so important, but nourishment on a deeper level for the mind, the spirit, and the heart, which truly is our greatest teacher, is vitally important.

I’ll just share, if I can, a couple stories of patients come to mind. Of course, the names have been changed, but I think about Rose, who came to me because of irritable bowel syndrome and she’d been struggling with weight issues. She had read my latest book, The Swift Diet, and just really wanted to know exactly what supplements would help her IBS and help her lose weight.

But in the course of our conversation, what I really—her story—what really I uncovered was that she was stuck in a job that she really hated. Interestingly, Marc, her chief compliant, so to speak, was chronic constipation, IBS/constipation predominant. She was constantly sleep deprived. She had, because of her work schedule, a lack of social

connection and friends. It was that shifting of someone who came seeking short­lived solutions to a journey of self­discovery and true healing.

I guess when you say big­picture broad stroke it’s this partnering of both nutrition, the science, and this art of nourishing, nourishment. Just recently I met with another patient who I had actually seen about 10 years ago. Someone had referred to me. She came. I’m going to just call her “Diane.” Diane came to me. She drove over four hours to see me. Just when I met her in the waiting room, I could sense her anxiety, her fear, and she began to ramble very nervously.

When we got to my office, instead of, of course, sitting across from her, which is how the office and this clinic was set up, I sat next to her. I invited her to breathe with me. I think this is another broad stroke, and she really became more relaxed, and it was also important that I, myself, as someone to help facilitate her healing, was centered.

I think those are what I really have gathered as broad strokes for healing to truly take place. It’s important that we integrate mind­body practices along with the nutritional therapies that we know can be so very helpful. I think that’s part of the clinical wisdom that I feel is so important.

Marc: For me, I’ve noticed that the first times ever that I did something like you’re describing. “Okay, Mr. or Mrs. Client. Let’s just breathe together.” I was so scared. I was so scared. I thought, “Okay, this is going to be the death of me. This is going to be the end of my career.” I think what I’ve noticed is that not only didn’t I die, not only didn’t it ruin my life, but people were actually hungrier for it than I could have even guessed.

Kathie: I love it! I, too, had a little trepidation, Marc, in this encounter in starting the session off, but I really felt there could be no better way to help this person. I will say we had a really, really powerful, powerful session. I appreciate you sharing that because even for us these techniques and skill building require an eagerness and a willingness to proceed.

Marc: Yeah, I’m also thinking. Let me make a comment and then just get your thoughts on the comment. It seems like, on the one hand, when people come to a practitioner such as yourself, they’re coming for information, for wisdom, for guidance. “You’re going to help me move in a direction that I don’t really know what I’m doing.” In a sense, you’re the expert, but at the same time, doing something like, “Hey, let’s sit down and breathe

together.” There are these moments where, in a sense, you’re becoming equal with your clients. You’re just sort of sitting alongside them.

It seems like there’s this interesting balance, maybe, between being in the position of leadership with a client or a patient and also letting them know somehow that, “Wait a second. We’re all equals on some levels.”

Kathie: Love it. Absolutely. You’re reminding me even thinking about how this session unfolded was that at another point in time I invited her to do a Qigong movement because we’d been sitting for a while, and she loved that and wanted to explore Qigong. Even though she came seeking, and in fact, in her own words she said to me, “I’m scared. I’m so far gone. I need the right diet, the right diet to help me.” Even though that’s what was part of her expectation, by shifting gears and helping her tap in, appreciate, and access the healer within, it was really powerful and can be life changing. So yes, it really is—it’s relationship­centered care, isn’t it?

Marc: Yeah, let me ask you another big­picture question. Just in your observations working with a patient, client population over the years, have you noticed any greater trends and I’m asking you more from just observational—have you noticed any trends in health?

Like, “Oh, my goodness! I see more people coming in with this complaint than ever before,” or “I see less people coming in with such­and­such complaints.” Anything you’ve tracked that’s caught your attention.

Kathie: Yes, there definitely have been some trends that I’m seeing in practice. These trends, Marc, are quite different than I would say even certainly a decade ago, perhaps even five years ago. I am definitely seeing more individuals with what are referred to as “adverse food reactions and chemical sensitivities.” Adverse food reactions, the umbrella term for food allergies and intolerances.

Interestingly, not something I’m solely observing in my practice, just last week I was at a dinner meeting and was chatting with a woman next to me, and she shared with me that her daughter—she had recently lost her daughter, 27 years old, to a food allergy. She had a lot of fear around food and such.

Yeah, it’s an emerging problem. A few years ago, I think it was in 2011, the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, the cover story was on this exact topic. I think the World Allergy Organization, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases,

they’re really examining this very, very closely, looking at the epidemiology and the diagnosis, the management, the controversies, the gaps in our knowledge. It’s something that I’m definitely, definitely seeing more of.

Another thing that relates to this, as I mentioned, is chemical sensitivities. A couple of my favorite researchers in this area, Claudia Miller at the University of Texas­San Antonio has published some great work. She came up with the TILT hypothesis, which TILT means Toxicant­Induced Loss of Tolerance and how that impacts different individuals and different systems in an individual.

She also came up with what’s called the QEESI. It’s an assessment that can be used even in primary care to evaluate toxic burden. She’s done some great work in this area. Then another one of my favorite researchers in this area, so I follow these people and their work because I think it’s really important that we, as providers, stay up­to­date on this evolving, emerging area.

Stephen Genuis, he’s a Canadian researcher and just published a great paper in behavioral neurology on toxic burden bioaccumulation and cognitive function and dementia.

That’s one thing I’m seeing. Along with that, the other trend and I don’t think it’s just because I’ve written a couple books on digestive health, but is the increase—stealth­like increase in digestive disorders, and along with that, brain health. I put gut and brain together because, of course, we know that they’re intimately connected via the lovely wandering vagus nerve, the brain and the belly and the central nervous system.

I think that the good news in this is that we, through integrative and functional medicine, nutrition therapies, we are definitely seeing ways that we can repair and even reverse some of these really serious conditions. I think the appreciation of what I call the “four domains of the gut,” which are the great wall, the intestinal barrier, the immune system in the gut, and the nervous system in the gut, the enteric nervous system and also, of course, the hottest topic it seems like in medicine and nutrition, the microbiome.

You can see how they all relate. More food allergies, food intolerances, chemical sensitivities because of gut distress and then also brain, mental health disorders. In fact, there was a white paper recently published that was a call to action globally because of

mental health disorders impacting­­I mean one­third of the world’s disability is due to this. I think these are the things I’ve definitely seen an increase.

Some other things that are, of course, changing I think the practice of nutrition is what I would call the quantified self. More and more patients are coming in to our office because of wearables and watches and apps and gadgets and such with a lot of personal data. Data with regard to their food, their dietary intake, their sleep patterns, their stress patterns, their anthropometrics and vitals, and their expectation, of course, is that we can—we, as providers, can interpret this in a realistic and reasonable way, make sense of it, so to speak, with recommendations that are personalized to their condition and their lifestyle. I think we all need to be prepared for that.

I think an important thing that I found is we can get really excited about technology, too, and we have to, I think, be aware of the latest app that we really love came out. Is it a fit for them, for that individual?

Funny, I had a patient just this morning who I’ve been working with and I felt like the FODMAP app, which she had irritable bowel, so we were experimenting with the FODMAP diet. I felt that it would be a good match for her. She said to me this morning. She said, “Kathie, that has been so helpful.” Because how it helped her was some of it is color­coded and she saw that it didn’t mean total exclusion of a particular food. She could have a small amount.

I think that’s changing the practice of nutrition in medicine. Certainly Skyping with patients, tele­medicine, tele­health, the whole landscape is changing, so that’s another trend. Along with that and I didn’t mention as far as with this data is more and more patients just in the last year, Marc, have asked me to interpret their genetic test. Just yesterday at a clinical rounds meeting in a clinic that I work that, that was our discussion. We were evaluating and looking at a number of different genetic tests and the various profiles, whether the profile, for example, weight management, which interestingly they’ve identified some snips, some gene variants that have to do with exercise responsiveness, insulin sensitivity, the satiety, taste. I mean you start reward, the whole dopamine pathway.

I think we are going to see more of that in the future. I know I’m seeing more of that in my practice even right now. I certainly see both the promise and also I guess I also like high­touch, low­tech. I think where genetic information can be useful is it can provide

insights and awareness, but I think that there’s a lot more that we’ll be learning from this as the OMICS revolution continues to unfold.

I think another interesting part of this story is the research that’s looking at various conditions, and again, how personalized treatments, how personalizing even drug therapies can be really, really useful. I’ll mention one other trend that is, I think, a really positive high note and that is the recent data that U.S. adults now over 30% are using complimentary and integrative approaches. In fact, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine changed their name recently to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Care, meaning to reflect the evolution that’s happening that alternative medicine is no longer alternative, that a larger umbrella is the entire healthcare landscape, team­based care, a number of different providers.

They do a survey every five years. In this latest survey, interestingly, what they found and they defined two broad categories of integrative approaches. They define them as natural products, supplements, and mind­body practices. I thought it was really interesting that in both adults and children the use of natural products was quite high. Fish oil being the #1 with melatonin and probiotics growing. Then the mind­body practices, everything from spinal manipulation, meditation, Qigong, yoga, stealth­like growth in yoga by both children and adults. I’m really encouraged by that, just as an observation, as a practitioner, too, certainly seeing that in practice.

Marc: It seems like we’re in a time now where there is such an explosion of let’s just say information or information that’s available. I think on the one hand we now have just unbelievable access to endless amounts of information around nutrition, around health. And there seems to be more interest, so there’s more information coming out. I guess my comment/question that I would love to hear your thoughts on is it seems to me a lot of times that people, the average consumer of information, the average person, they’re taking in a lot.

You can read nutrition information because you and I are educated in this realm, so we can at least make our assessments, check it out, do I like this, do I not like it? Wow, is the average layperson exposed to so much! How do you help people navigate that or how do you see your role or even answer the question what can people do to kind of help them digest the different amounts of information?

Kathie: Marc, what’s coming up for me is a quote and I don’t know who said it. “We’re drowning in information and starving for knowledge.” Digest is the perfect metaphor here. I will say it really depends on the person that I’m working with. For some people, I actually encourage a sabbatical from trying to digest so much information. There’s a lot of anxiety and fear, and this has really been a good practice for some.

On the other hand, and I like the use of your term “navigate,” I do help individuals navigate. I think one of the things is they’re coming to me because they trust me and they feel that—and they want help evaluating, whether it’s a new food that they’ve heard has been extolled for health benefits or whether it’s a dietary supplement. It’s my role to be that navigator in a trusting relationship.

For myself and for all of us as providers, I’d learned to kind of distill it down to a few of my favorite resources, and I’m certainly—and even if something, say, for example, you read on a website or from a food blogger or such and you kind of even—as we should. We should have what? The curious mind, the inquiry around it. I would then, first off, go into PubMed and what I’m thinking about was years ago when someone first mentioned—asked me about oil pulling. Well, one of the first things I did—and I always acknowledge if I’m not aware of something. I think it’s good to be honest and authentic, but I want to check that out and I’ll get back to you.

Sure enough, I went into the National Library of Medicine and there were some articles, some research on it. And even in looking at a study, is there bias? Is there disclosure? Who funded it? There are all those things that we learn in research methods, so to speak.

I guess I certainly see myself as a navigator to help people who trusted me to share my opinion on some of the information, often prescribe sabbaticals. It’s an interesting experiment. How did that feel to them? Then distill it down into resources that I’ve found especially helpful in my own life to keep up with the latest information, which it is a tsunami.

Marc: So favorite resources that you would recommend for the layperson who’s educated and wants to stay up on things, educate themselves better in terms of on the Web.

Kathie: Okay, for the consumer. My mind immediately went to some of the ones that I use, which for the consumer, I like MindBodyGreen. One of the reasons I like it is, because as we

know, one of the challenges that many people have is time constraint. People often love their simple style of five ways, 10 things, six.

I found that the information certainly can be backed up. Of course, my colleague Dr. Hyman. I think Dr. Mercola has some very interesting things. I love Science Daily.

Marc: So do I! It’s so great!

Kathie: You do? Yeah.

Marc: Yeah, love it!

Kathie: That one I really look at science that even a layperson can understand, and then there are links for those of us who want to learn more. There’s the journal article or such.

That’s actually one of my favorites. Medscape, I use Medscape. As the member of the Academy of Nutrition, I get a daily newsfeed, and it’s been interesting how many dieticians weren’t aware of this, but it doesn’t include just research journal articles, but it also includes a lot of articles from food bloggers and a lot of consumer information. It’s actually really, really good.

I love SmartBrief. I don’t know if you’re familiar with that one. SmartBrief for nutrition. They also have digestive briefs that I enjoy. Again, these are really nice for the layperson, the consumer.

Marc: Great! Good insights, good info.

Kathie: Another one, Marc, since supplements are certainly on the rise is Consumer Labs. Yeah, Consumer Labs, I think, does a really nice job.

Marc: Yeah, yeah, I totally agree. Tell me about your new book.

Kathie: Well, my new book—it’s The Swift Diet, like The Slow Down Diet. I actually didn’t pick the name—the title, I should say, but it really focuses on the latest research on the gut microbiome. I sat down a few years and thought, “Well, how do I work with individuals to help them with digestive issues and also weight issues? Kind of what I call irritable bowel, irritable weight.” I came up with this acronym when I thought through it and that is what I used in the book. It’s M.E.N.D.S.

The chapter begins, the first chapter, with M, which is for Mind your digestion. It’s about integrating mindfulness into your life to help that enteric nervous system, the brain and the belly. The E stands for—that chapter is on Eliminate. That is for eliminating dietary incitants, foods that may be aggravating your digestive system. N is for Nourish, bringing in, how we can feed our gut garden, our microbes and optimizing our digestion through nourishment. Then D is Dietary supplement chapter. I really honed in on the supplements that I found in my years of practice that have been most helpful for digestive issues. Then the S is really about bringing about—it’s bookends. It’s Supporting practices. I expanded on things like Qigong and yoga and how these practices can be very, very helpful for mind­body­spirit. Thank you for asking.

Marc: Yeah, it’s exciting! Congratulations!

Kathie: Thank you.

Marc: As you were saying when I’d asked you earlier about trends that you were noticing, it seems like not only are we living in a time when digestive challenges seem to be on the increase. At the same time, there’s so much new, fascinating research coming down the pike and new insights into the gut, obviously into the gut microbiome. It almost feels like not a moment too soon is this new information exploding because we need it. It really feels like we need to mind what’s happening in our digestive tract like never before.

Kathie: Absolutely. It is an exciting time. I’m very hopeful that the attention and research on the gut and the microbiome is going to—as we know, I mean I referred to the gut as our highway to health, our pathway to pathology. This is everything from brain health to skin health to every system in the body is affected by the ingestion of food and this journey through the digestive tract. It’s an exciting time, and I really am very grateful for all the scientists that are in the field and in the clinics and in the laboratories that are exploring this.

In fact, when I was just over in the U.K. recently at one of the museums, it was all about the gut and the gut brain. They had a wonderful artificial gut that they’re studying and every single thing that goes on in the gut. It was kind of fun to see in this. so even in our travels we’re going to see…

Marc: You’re still bumping into your own digestive tract, so to speak.

Kathie: Exactly.

Marc: Yeah, it’s so fascinating, because on one level, we sort of know that it’s ground zero intuitively. If your gut is doing fine, you sort of never notice it. You don’t notice it and you don’t complain, and you might never in your entire life talk about it if it’s just functioning fine, but as soon as it’s off, wow, do we know it and are we talking about it, thinking about it, and worrying about it!

Kathie: Yes, 24/7. You bet!

Marc: Right. I like that phrase that you used. What did you say? It’s either the highway to health or the…

Kathie: Pathway to pathology.

Marc: To pathology. How true is that?

Kathie: Yes, yes.

Marc: Either or.

Kathie: You bet! You bet. So hopefully we can employ these nutritional strategies to further the highway to health now.

Marc: Where do you see healing going when it comes to the nutrition profession? When you look into your crystal ball, what are just a couple of pieces that you see unfolding into the future or that you would like to see unfold into the future?

Kathie: Well, what I would like to see unfold in the future, Marc, is #1 what I’m feeling right now is more integration, team­based care. I really think that the patient, our clients, are served best when we are working in teams. I hope to see the delivery of functional medicine in an affordable, in an affordable and accessible way for all patients to take advantage of this. I think that another thing that comes to mind for me is more group.

I think the connection—I love teaching workshops. I teach at Kripalu, and in fact, I have a workshop there next week. There’s so much to be shared and learned, and it’s such a

rich, rewarding experience, the group, the power of the group. I also do work with the Center for Mind­Body Medicine, and that is their whole model, small group work, and just recently experienced it myself in their advanced mind­body medicine training.

All of those things come to mind. Of course, I feel very passionate about the promise of integrative and functional nutrition. So much so that my colleague, Dr. Sheila Dean and I just launched the new academy, the Integrative and Functional Nutrition Academy, with our mission being to transform the practice of nutrition by educating, educating dieticians and others in integrative and functional nutrition therapies.

It’s a bit different than our conventional model. if I take GERD, for example, we may conventionally—GERD diet, right? And avoiding these things, whether it’s spicy foods, citrus, peppermint, you name it. Whereas an integrative and functional approach, we’re going to think about what are the root causes of the dysfunction? What tests might be helpful? Is there a breath test or stool test that might uncover infection or something? H. Pylori or another root cause. Is there a dietary incitant that’s aggravating their system that needs to be removed? We’re thinking about their nervous system in the gut. We’re thinking about are there natural products, DGLs, N­carnosine.

Then mind­body practices that could be integrated, whether it’s imagery or meditation or dancing, who knows? It’s a more holistic approach. I’m really excited about launching this both online and onsite training program. Really!

Marc: Good for you! You have some amazing projects going and I would love for you to share with viewers and listeners how we can keep up with that, how we can learn more, how we can plug into you and your world. Tell us where we go.

Kathie: Thank you, Marc. Well, for any listeners interested in training through the Integrative and Functional Nutrition Academy, going to the website www.ifnacademy.com. They can also send an email to info@infnacademy.com. Then to keep up with things Kathie Swift, www.kathieswift.com and that’s k­a­t­h­i­eswift.com.

Marc: Well, Kathie, I’m just in awe of the body of work that you’ve created over the years and how you really just beautifully blended being a practitioner, being an educator, really diving into the research and just getting a big­picture view from all angles of what nutrition is and isn’t and what works and what doesn’t. To me, you’re one of the icons in

this field and in this universe, so tons of respect and just thank you for all the great work that you’ve done.

Kathie: Thank you, Marc. I really appreciate it.

Marc: You are so welcome and I’m so glad we had this conversation. Very inspiring for me and I’m sure inspiring for a lot of people. Thank you everybody for tuning in. Thank you, Kathie and I’m Marc David, on behalf of The Future of Healing Online Conference. Lots more to come. Take care!

Kathie: Take care. Bye­bye.

from Healthy Living https://psychologyofeating.com/wisdom-from-a-functional-nutrition-dietician-interview-with-kathie-swift/