Welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition, brought to you by nutritional weight and wellness.

I'm going to start off right away with a question for all of you this morning.

Are any of you listening currently struggling with an autoimmune disease?

If you're shaking your head yes to that question, you're not alone.

It's reported that almost 24 million Americans live with an autoimmune disease.

So today, my client and I, or my colleague,

excuse me, not my client, my colleague and I are going to be sharing some information about

the gut health connection to autoimmune diseases. My name is Cassie Weenis. I'm a registered and licensed

dietitian. And if you've been listening to Dishing Up Nutrition for any length of time,

it's likely you've heard that almost all of us and our family either have dealt with digestive issues in the past

or we're still working to heal some intestinal health issues.

So because of my own personal experience and the fact that I have two teenagers who have celiac, which is an autoimmune condition, I know a lot about gut health.

Not necessarily by choice, but I certainly know a lot about gut health.

And in studio with me this morning as someone else who knows a lot about gut health, and that is my colleague

Melanie Beasley. Melanie is also a registered and licensed dietitian with more than 30 years

of experience working with clients in a variety of settings on her resume. And Mel, as a dietitian,

I know you have worked with many, many clients who have some type of an autoimmune disease. And honestly,

some people might just have one autoimmune disease, but there are a lot of people that have two or

three autoimmune diseases. You know, Cassie, that's so true. And I'm seeing it on the rise in

clinic. I have helped many people by helping them

change their eating choices so that they can not only reduce inflammation in their body,

but decrease their risk of developing maybe a third or fourth autoimmune disease.

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