Selected Podcast
Nutrition for Women
Women's Health and Wellness podcast featuring the importance of focusing on health and wellness in women.
Featuring:
Nichele Salazar, Certified Nurse Midwife
Nichele received her bachelors of science degree in nursing from Georgetown University in Washington, District of Columbia. For her masters degree in Nurse-Midwifery, she attended the University of New Mexico located in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She previously worked in Albuquerque at Lovelace Hospital. Transcription:
Caitlin Whyte: In our last podcast episode, we discussed nutrition for pregnant women. But a healthy lifestyle is of course essential for all women, mothers or not. So today, we're shifting our focus to overall women's health and wellness. And we are joined again by Nichele Salazar, a certified nurse midwife at San Juan Health Partners Midwifery and Women's Health.
Welcome to Celebrate Health, a podcast from San Juan Regional Medical Center. I'm Caitlin Whyte. Nichelle, you know, so many women put their health last behind work and friends and family. Why should we bump this up on our to-do list and make health a focus instead?
Nichele Salazar, Certified Nurse Midwife: So like I tell my patients, and I even have to tell myself this, we can't take care of anybody if we don't take care of ourselves. We do, we tend to put our kids first, you know, work usually comes before ourselves and whatnot. But if we don't put ourselves first, we can't do that work. You know, we end up getting sick or, you know, the stress gets a little bit too much or, you know, there's just a lot. So really, I try to stress it as much as I can to my patients, is you need to put yourself first, even if that's taking five minutes, you know, a day for yourself to just breathe and relax and recollect your thoughts. We need to put ourselves first because ultimately too, we are the main ones in the house and the kids will follow us. So if they see us not taking care of ourselves, you know, when they get older, they're not going to be able to, you know, really put boundaries down in certain places too, because they're like, "Oh, well, mom worked really, really hard and didn't take care of herself. And, you know, I'm going to be a hard worker like her." So we really need to look at those little people that are looking at us.
Caitlin Whyte: No, that is a very good point and something I also always have to remind myself, to put myself first as well. So what are some common mistakes that you see women or your patients making when it comes to just maintaining a healthy and balanced lifestyle?
Nichele Salazar, Certified Nurse Midwife: So I think the biggest thing is that not taking time for themselves, you know, like there's so much to do. There's little things that you can do to help like meal prepping. You know, looking at your sources of, you know, water. Are you drinking enough water? You know, getting yourself a nice little water bottle that can help you throughout the day. Nutrition-wise, you know, we work really rough hours if you're a working mom, but you know, like even when you're in the home, you're still working really rough hours to where sometimes it's easy to just stop and get a meal, you know, on your way home. You know, I think taking the time to kind of do a little bit more planning can help decrease that.
I think like with the meal planning, one of the biggest things is that you get like the same meal for like the whole week. And sometimes that can be a little bit boring, so, you know, creating variety. Variety really helps people sustain changes to their nutrition so much better. Moderation, you don't have to take everything out. When you start restricting yourself so much with certain things like, "Oh, I can not have a soda," then that's when people have a harder time staying away from soda. But if you treat yourself, you know, with a soda every now and then where it's not completely off limits, I see people do so much better. And some people do better, you know, like where they just cut it off completely. But sometimes, people say having that ability to be like, "Okay, if I have a really stressful day and I just need to have one soda, I can do that. And I would be okay." It just kind of depends on how they feel or what they feel works best for them.
Caitlin Whyte: No, that's understandable. Well, let's go on that topic to nutrition specifically. What are some supplements or foods that women need to be eating? And what should we just overall know about nutrition?
Nichele Salazar, Certified Nurse Midwife: You know, supplements, you can do a multivitamin, like I said, with prenatal vitamins, they aren't the end all be all. They fill in the gaps of what our diet may be missing. So super important to make sure, again, balance and a variety to make sure that you're getting all those sources met. Vitamin D is super important. Even if you're not getting a lot of sunlight, you know, you need to have at least the vitamin D supplement. I would say in this area probably about 70% to 80% of my women are deficient in vitamin D. And a lot of them are actually deficient to the point where we don't even have a number for them. You know, vitamin D, we're kind of seeing maybe it can even increase the risk of depression. So, you know, you think about that infection, you know, it helps with immunity. You know, we saw it really big even with COVID. Think about all of that and it's like, "Okay, maybe we need to do a little bit more education about vitamin D." With vitamin D sources, you know, you think about, "Okay, well, what can I do to increase that in my diet?" And again, it's going to be a lot of your fortified foods. I think they have butter that's fortified, orange juice that I've seen, cereals. You could do yogurt. Sardines are really good in vitamin D, salmon, mackerel, tuna fish, your milk sources of course. But those are all great sources of vitamin D that we need to increase a little bit. And I think that'll definitely help with immunity and help even maybe in the depression area.
Calcium is another big one, especially for teens. You know, think about your teenage girls. When you're that young and even in your 20s, you know, you're still building bone, bone mass. And so you need to increase those sources. Here in this area, you know, we don't do a lot of dairy sources primarily because of lactose intolerance. So talk with your provider or your nutritionist and see what are other sources of calcium that you can get? Or do you need a supplement of calcium? You know, women should be doing about a thousand milligrams, teens maybe like 1300 milligrams. The other thing with calcium that I think about too is if you're on birth control, that can also take from your bones. So you need to talk with your provider about that and just ask the question, because sometimes, as providers, you know, you kind of assume because this is our world that we live in all the time. So I always tell patients, "Please ask me if you have a question about nutrition and if I don't know the answer, we'll find it out together."
Folic acid, again, if you're a woman of childbearing age, even if you aren't planning for pregnancy at this time, I always tell people it's better to be prepared just in case because maybe about 46% of the pregnancies here in New Mexico, maybe a couple of years back from the data, were unplanned pregnancies, meaning that, you know, they happen. If we could get everybody to take a folic acid supplement, that will help to reduce those neural tube defects for those pregnancies that may come at us as a surprise. Neural tube defects, which can be caused by folic acid deficiency, usually that occurs in the first month before pregnancy is known. So that just helps to make some prevention there.
Other things with nutrition that I would talk about too is staying active. You know, you want to stay active. It's really important. With COVID, we've seen a little bit of that change too, but now is the time to get out now that the weather's getting better and, you know, just a little bit of walking 30 minutes a day, four or five times a week is beneficial.
The other thing is taking care of your mouth. You know, that's a big part of nutrition. I think that a lot of us tend to forget and that's keeping up with, you know, brushing your teeth, your dental cleanings, protecting those gums because they can have some negative impact on our health later on. If we have a lot of gingivitis, you can be more prone to like cardiovascular disease. In pregnancy, you can be more prone to preterm deliveries and also preeclampsia, gestational diabetes. So it's super important to not forget about that main part of nutrition.
Caitlin Whyte: Absolutely. Well, Nichele, we covered a ton of information here today, and it is a broad topic, women's health. But as we wrap up, is there any more advice that you have to improve a woman's health and wellness?
Nichele Salazar, Certified Nurse Midwife: I think the biggest thing is to, you know, try different things in nutrition. You know, like growing up, I kind of stuck with the same things that I like, and it was very hard for me to step out of the box. But now that I'm older and I've tried different things, I've added a lot more to my diet, which actually helps me get more nutrients because there are foods that I probably wouldn't have even tried before, you know, but they have maybe good amounts of vitamin C or vitamin D that I would have never tried before. So, you know, get out there, try different things, talk to your provider. You know, now we're starting to get more information about nutrition, which, you know, may not have had when we were going through school. But now that we see the benefit of it, we're starting to get a little bit more and so we're starting to be a little bit more comfortable with that conversation.
You know, ask about the different programs that we have in the community. There's some great programs too to help. If somebody's kind of in that prediabetes range and wants some help with lifestyle changes before doing anything with medications, we have a program for that. So there's a whole bunch of different things that your provider can help you get in touch with or get information about. So utilize us as a resource. And biggest thing too is if you are planning a baby, get preconception care so we can look at all that risk and we can decrease that, make some changes to help improve the chances of a nice, healthy pregnancy.
Caitlin Whyte: Well, thanks for stopping by again, Nichele, and sharing your wisdom with us. We really do appreciate your time. Find out more by calling San Juan Health Partners Midwifery and Women's Health at 505-609-2590. That's 505-609-2590. And thanks for listening to Celebrate Health, the podcast from San Juan Regional Medical Center. I'm Caitlin Whyte. Stay well.
Caitlin Whyte: In our last podcast episode, we discussed nutrition for pregnant women. But a healthy lifestyle is of course essential for all women, mothers or not. So today, we're shifting our focus to overall women's health and wellness. And we are joined again by Nichele Salazar, a certified nurse midwife at San Juan Health Partners Midwifery and Women's Health.
Welcome to Celebrate Health, a podcast from San Juan Regional Medical Center. I'm Caitlin Whyte. Nichelle, you know, so many women put their health last behind work and friends and family. Why should we bump this up on our to-do list and make health a focus instead?
Nichele Salazar, Certified Nurse Midwife: So like I tell my patients, and I even have to tell myself this, we can't take care of anybody if we don't take care of ourselves. We do, we tend to put our kids first, you know, work usually comes before ourselves and whatnot. But if we don't put ourselves first, we can't do that work. You know, we end up getting sick or, you know, the stress gets a little bit too much or, you know, there's just a lot. So really, I try to stress it as much as I can to my patients, is you need to put yourself first, even if that's taking five minutes, you know, a day for yourself to just breathe and relax and recollect your thoughts. We need to put ourselves first because ultimately too, we are the main ones in the house and the kids will follow us. So if they see us not taking care of ourselves, you know, when they get older, they're not going to be able to, you know, really put boundaries down in certain places too, because they're like, "Oh, well, mom worked really, really hard and didn't take care of herself. And, you know, I'm going to be a hard worker like her." So we really need to look at those little people that are looking at us.
Caitlin Whyte: No, that is a very good point and something I also always have to remind myself, to put myself first as well. So what are some common mistakes that you see women or your patients making when it comes to just maintaining a healthy and balanced lifestyle?
Nichele Salazar, Certified Nurse Midwife: So I think the biggest thing is that not taking time for themselves, you know, like there's so much to do. There's little things that you can do to help like meal prepping. You know, looking at your sources of, you know, water. Are you drinking enough water? You know, getting yourself a nice little water bottle that can help you throughout the day. Nutrition-wise, you know, we work really rough hours if you're a working mom, but you know, like even when you're in the home, you're still working really rough hours to where sometimes it's easy to just stop and get a meal, you know, on your way home. You know, I think taking the time to kind of do a little bit more planning can help decrease that.
I think like with the meal planning, one of the biggest things is that you get like the same meal for like the whole week. And sometimes that can be a little bit boring, so, you know, creating variety. Variety really helps people sustain changes to their nutrition so much better. Moderation, you don't have to take everything out. When you start restricting yourself so much with certain things like, "Oh, I can not have a soda," then that's when people have a harder time staying away from soda. But if you treat yourself, you know, with a soda every now and then where it's not completely off limits, I see people do so much better. And some people do better, you know, like where they just cut it off completely. But sometimes, people say having that ability to be like, "Okay, if I have a really stressful day and I just need to have one soda, I can do that. And I would be okay." It just kind of depends on how they feel or what they feel works best for them.
Caitlin Whyte: No, that's understandable. Well, let's go on that topic to nutrition specifically. What are some supplements or foods that women need to be eating? And what should we just overall know about nutrition?
Nichele Salazar, Certified Nurse Midwife: You know, supplements, you can do a multivitamin, like I said, with prenatal vitamins, they aren't the end all be all. They fill in the gaps of what our diet may be missing. So super important to make sure, again, balance and a variety to make sure that you're getting all those sources met. Vitamin D is super important. Even if you're not getting a lot of sunlight, you know, you need to have at least the vitamin D supplement. I would say in this area probably about 70% to 80% of my women are deficient in vitamin D. And a lot of them are actually deficient to the point where we don't even have a number for them. You know, vitamin D, we're kind of seeing maybe it can even increase the risk of depression. So, you know, you think about that infection, you know, it helps with immunity. You know, we saw it really big even with COVID. Think about all of that and it's like, "Okay, maybe we need to do a little bit more education about vitamin D." With vitamin D sources, you know, you think about, "Okay, well, what can I do to increase that in my diet?" And again, it's going to be a lot of your fortified foods. I think they have butter that's fortified, orange juice that I've seen, cereals. You could do yogurt. Sardines are really good in vitamin D, salmon, mackerel, tuna fish, your milk sources of course. But those are all great sources of vitamin D that we need to increase a little bit. And I think that'll definitely help with immunity and help even maybe in the depression area.
Calcium is another big one, especially for teens. You know, think about your teenage girls. When you're that young and even in your 20s, you know, you're still building bone, bone mass. And so you need to increase those sources. Here in this area, you know, we don't do a lot of dairy sources primarily because of lactose intolerance. So talk with your provider or your nutritionist and see what are other sources of calcium that you can get? Or do you need a supplement of calcium? You know, women should be doing about a thousand milligrams, teens maybe like 1300 milligrams. The other thing with calcium that I think about too is if you're on birth control, that can also take from your bones. So you need to talk with your provider about that and just ask the question, because sometimes, as providers, you know, you kind of assume because this is our world that we live in all the time. So I always tell patients, "Please ask me if you have a question about nutrition and if I don't know the answer, we'll find it out together."
Folic acid, again, if you're a woman of childbearing age, even if you aren't planning for pregnancy at this time, I always tell people it's better to be prepared just in case because maybe about 46% of the pregnancies here in New Mexico, maybe a couple of years back from the data, were unplanned pregnancies, meaning that, you know, they happen. If we could get everybody to take a folic acid supplement, that will help to reduce those neural tube defects for those pregnancies that may come at us as a surprise. Neural tube defects, which can be caused by folic acid deficiency, usually that occurs in the first month before pregnancy is known. So that just helps to make some prevention there.
Other things with nutrition that I would talk about too is staying active. You know, you want to stay active. It's really important. With COVID, we've seen a little bit of that change too, but now is the time to get out now that the weather's getting better and, you know, just a little bit of walking 30 minutes a day, four or five times a week is beneficial.
The other thing is taking care of your mouth. You know, that's a big part of nutrition. I think that a lot of us tend to forget and that's keeping up with, you know, brushing your teeth, your dental cleanings, protecting those gums because they can have some negative impact on our health later on. If we have a lot of gingivitis, you can be more prone to like cardiovascular disease. In pregnancy, you can be more prone to preterm deliveries and also preeclampsia, gestational diabetes. So it's super important to not forget about that main part of nutrition.
Caitlin Whyte: Absolutely. Well, Nichele, we covered a ton of information here today, and it is a broad topic, women's health. But as we wrap up, is there any more advice that you have to improve a woman's health and wellness?
Nichele Salazar, Certified Nurse Midwife: I think the biggest thing is to, you know, try different things in nutrition. You know, like growing up, I kind of stuck with the same things that I like, and it was very hard for me to step out of the box. But now that I'm older and I've tried different things, I've added a lot more to my diet, which actually helps me get more nutrients because there are foods that I probably wouldn't have even tried before, you know, but they have maybe good amounts of vitamin C or vitamin D that I would have never tried before. So, you know, get out there, try different things, talk to your provider. You know, now we're starting to get more information about nutrition, which, you know, may not have had when we were going through school. But now that we see the benefit of it, we're starting to get a little bit more and so we're starting to be a little bit more comfortable with that conversation.
You know, ask about the different programs that we have in the community. There's some great programs too to help. If somebody's kind of in that prediabetes range and wants some help with lifestyle changes before doing anything with medications, we have a program for that. So there's a whole bunch of different things that your provider can help you get in touch with or get information about. So utilize us as a resource. And biggest thing too is if you are planning a baby, get preconception care so we can look at all that risk and we can decrease that, make some changes to help improve the chances of a nice, healthy pregnancy.
Caitlin Whyte: Well, thanks for stopping by again, Nichele, and sharing your wisdom with us. We really do appreciate your time. Find out more by calling San Juan Health Partners Midwifery and Women's Health at 505-609-2590. That's 505-609-2590. And thanks for listening to Celebrate Health, the podcast from San Juan Regional Medical Center. I'm Caitlin Whyte. Stay well.