00:00:01 Shireen
In today’s episode, we are in conversation with Jermaine Guy, a dedicated renal dietitian with a passion for promoting health through nutrition. Jermaine shares his journey from growing up in South Louisiana with a rich culinary heritage to becoming a health conscious dietitian. He discusses the challenges he faced in his career, the significance of cultural diversity in nutrition, and his initiatives to supporting aspiring dietitians. Stay tuned to learn about Jermaine’s story and his valuable insights into the world of nutrition and dietetics. Jermaine Guy has been a registered dietitian since 2013. He specializes in acute and chronic kidney disease, but also has experience with diabetes, cardiovascular disease, weight loss, whole foods, plant based diets, and nutrition coaching. Welcome, Jermaine.
00:00:57 Germaine Guy
Thank you for having me on your platform.
00:00:59 Shireen
Of course. And such a pleasure having you on. So, Jermaine, I do want to start out by asking you a little bit more about your own journey into nutrition. Tell us a little bit about your background, what brought you to nutrition? What was it in your environment that really influenced this journey?
00:01:16 Germaine Guy
Okay. So my passion for nutrition started off when I was in high school. I’ve played sports ever since I was 8 years old—football, baseball, basketball. But when I got to high school, that’s when I specifically focused on football. And I’m not the biggest guy. I’m only 5 foot 6. So I was like, if I’m not going to grow that tall, I need to get stronger. So that’s when I really started focusing on lifting weights and I started reading fitness magazines and things like that, learning about how nutrition impacts performance not only in the weight room, but also on a football field. So that’s where the initial interest in nutrition came about. And then when I went to college, I went to Louisiana State University. I really didn’t know what I wanted to major in. I started off in biology and within the first semester I knew that’s not what I wanted to do. And looking through the different majors that were offered at the university I was at, I saw that I can major in nutrition and dietetics. I didn’t really know too much about being a dietitian. I just thought you just work with athletes. And so since I already had a passion for nutrition, I thought this would be the perfect major for me. And so I just followed the path through there. So finished in four years at Louisiana State. And then to become a dietitian, we had to do a dietetic internship which lasted nine months. And throughout the internship you basically rotate in clinical setting, community setting, you do research, food service. And one of my last rotations was at a pretty big hospital, and I got hired basically right out of my internship. So that’s how I started my career as a dietitian.
00:03:08 Shireen
What drew you to this field? What was it about this field that really got you interested in it and wanting to pursue a career out of it?
00:03:18 Germaine Guy
Like, just. Just my passion for nutrition. I was just. I really liked how just changing my diet for the better, cutting out soft drinks and processed foods, and how I only—I got stronger, how I saw my body change and just realizing that I can not only make myself healthier, but help other people reach their goals, whether it’s weight loss, if athletic performance, or just to be healthy. And then I just felt like that was just the perfect route for me. And it was something going through college that was kind of easy for me to continue on, because college is so—it was so hard for me, and taking all these classes and just being able to take nutrition classes, a topic that I’m already familiar with and a topic that I have a passion for, just made things a lot easier for me. And that’s when I knew that this is the route that I need to go as a career.
00:04:16 Shireen
You know, in the dietetic space today, there are not a lot of people of color. There’s not a lot of—there is some. I think it’s getting better, certainly, but there isn’t a lot of diversity within the types of foods that we’re talking about or sort of those lived experiences. What has—what has your experience been like as a dietitian? Where do you think you connect best with individuals as you’re providing them nutrition? Nutrition education?
00:04:42 Germaine Guy
So, like, like you said, it’s very few people of color. There’s also very few men. So I’m like a minority and a minority in a dietetics field. And so being from Louisiana and starting my career in Louisiana, we—we definitely have a specific cuisine, whether in New Orleans. I know a lot of people know about that. Crawfish, jambalaya, gumbo, and things like that. So working in that population, you have to really understand what type of foods people eat to help people, because we can just like, if I was to create a menu for somebody, I can go over, like, the generic fruits, vegetables, whole grains and stuff, but if it doesn’t fit into their dietary practices, their—their culture, their food culture, then they may not follow it. So that’s very important. Knowing your demographic, knowing the culture, and having those people eat the foods that they’re used to, but just being able to modify it to where it’s healthy for them. That definitely plays a big impact on causing positive outcomes.
00:05:53 Shireen
You know, you bring up something very interesting because just within Louisiana itself, there’s like this rich culture of, you know, this New Orleans cuisine, for instance. And when we’re looking at that and when you’re approaching providing nutrition education, what kind of approach do you take in providing that guidance or that advice to someone who’s working with you?
00:06:15 Germaine Guy
So first you want to do a nutrition assessment that gives you kind of the background of the person. You know, their age, you get like a brief history of what kind of medical conditions they have, and you also kind of learn their culture as well. And that kind of helps you customize things to where it can fit to their individual needs. Because if you, like I said, if you give somebody food recommendations that don’t really fit in how they eat on a regular basis or their cultural cuisine, they’re probably not likely to follow that. So definitely during the nutritional assessment, that’s when you get all the background information that’s going to help you better provide a custom meal plan for the person that you’re trying to help.
00:07:06 Shireen
How do you believe people can strike a balance between cultural foods and really be able to make them healthy? Right, because the default is, well, my cultural foods is X and I only eat a certain way. And it also doesn’t have to be all or all or nothing. Right. How do you go about striking that balance for somebody?
00:07:27 Germaine Guy
So I always start off with small obtainable goals. We can, I guess, since I’m so familiar with Louisiana cuisine, there’s always small things that you can change within, like a recipe to make them healthier. You don’t have to completely change it, but making small changes over the course of time is something that you want. So, for example, red beans and rice is a big staple in Louisiana cuisine, which is actually a healthy dish—it’s mostly usually cooked with white rice. So a change that you can make is why don’t you try brown rice with your red beans. You can also find substitutes for butter or not use as much butter. You can also accompany meals with fresh vegetables and fresh fruit. So instead of a dessert that may not be as healthy, try a fruit that’s in season that that person will usually eat as a dessert. So just making small changes—also with beverages. Instead of drinking a soft drink, maybe you can drink water. And so just make small changes that can be easily obtained and done. And then as time goes on, you can make more changes and more changes to where you actually—now you’ve adjusted that cuisine to be healthier, even though it’s still traditional.
00:08:53 Shireen
You know, I find the role of a dietitian to be so encompassing of such various skills that you need to have. So not only is there sort of this inherent understanding around somebody’s cultural foods and being able to adapt and being able to provide that type of nutrition education that really is customized for someone, but then even if we look across, for instance, disease states in itself, that in itself has its own specific nuances. And what you’re telling to someone or how you’re guiding someone who has diabetes versus end stage renal disease will look very different. How do you strike that balance? What are the types of things that you look at when considering how best to provide and how best to guide someone in their health journey?
00:09:43 Germaine Guy
So I don’t want to make too many drastic changes at once. Like I say, I like to do small obtainable goals. And I try to find things that try to address the acute problems—the problems that can cause the most risk early on—I try to address that first. So, for example, the number one cause of kidney disease is diabetes. The number two cause is high blood pressure. So a lot of my kidney disease patients have diabetes. And I get that question all the time, especially if they’re in a rehab facility or they’re in a nursing home: “Oh, they have me on a diabetic diet and I’m on a renal diet, and I feel like I don’t know what to eat because there are so many restrictions.” I tell them those diets kind of go hand in hand, but you can make it fit. So I give them a list of foods. I like to tell people what they can eat instead of what they can’t eat. I tell people, even if it’s something that you shouldn’t have—or the recommendations say you shouldn’t have—you can still have it, but you need to have it in moderation. And you can make other changes to where you can still incorporate foods that you like and enjoy, but you can just replace them for foods that are not as healthy. Like, for example, potassium—if their levels are really high, that’s something you want to address first. So if a patient has a decent blood sugar level, but their potassium is high, I won’t just tell them to restrict all their carbs right here. I’d be like, okay, these are some of the foods that are high in potassium. Let’s try to limit those and replace them with something moderately high in potassium. And once we correct that, then we can start working on other things. So like I said, I just try to slowly integrate healthy eating in their diet and not try to hit them all with a bunch of information at once and just let them know that you don’t have to eliminate anything from your diet, but there are things that you want to eat in moderation. And I let them know that there are a lot of foods that you probably like that you can eat more of to replace the ones that aren’t as healthy.
00:11:59 Shireen
And I find that to be interesting where your approach is really not focused on what not to eat, but instead what to eat more of. Right. Like moving that focus away out of the "don’t do this" and "don’t do that" into "do more of this or that." As you sort of think of that approach there, can you tell us a little bit more about, and specifically as you started talking about even kidney disease, can you help us understand one, this connection between diabetes and kidney disease—why does that exist? Right. What even leads to kidney disease, chronic kidney disease to happen, and how that can morph into end stage renal disease? And if you wouldn’t mind, as you’re talking about it, also talk about some of the nutrition requirements for each of those stages.
00:12:46 Germaine Guy
Okay. Yeah. So like I said, uncontrolled diabetes is not only the number one cause of kidney disease, it’s kind of like a silent killer because if your blood sugar levels are high—whether 200 or 300—you don’t really feel it. And a lot of people don’t realize how much damage having high blood sugar levels can do. So the reason why that happens is that high blood sugar damages the filtering units of your kidneys called nephrons. And over a period of time, your kidneys will start losing this filtering ability. You’ll actually start excreting protein, which further damages the kidneys. And like I said, a lot of times people get on dialysis and they have no idea that they even have kidney disease. So there’s actually five different stages of kidney disease going from one to five, with five being the worst—which is end stage. And stages, I would say 2, 3 and 4 have pretty similar recommendations. And it’s all based on blood work and the individual person. One of the main things you want to do if you’re in stage 3 or 4 is to limit your animal protein intake. A lot of people don’t realize—because such as fish, chicken, and eggs—you actually want to follow more of a plant-based diet because animal protein causes more stress on your kidneys. But once you, if you unfortunately have to get to the point of dialysis where your kidneys almost completely fail, your protein needs actually increase. So those recommendations of limiting animal protein don’t even matter really anymore once you’re in end stage. And then you also have to worry about your potassium levels, phosphorus levels, calcium—because your kidneys do a good job of filtering those minerals and keeping everything in balance. You also have fluid restrictions as well. But I always tell people these are general recommendations. I always look at individual labs because everybody is different. While you have most people that have potassium and phosphorus restrictions, there are some patients—for whatever reason, maybe their kidneys are working a little better than normal—those levels are low. And I tell them you actually need to eat more potassium or eat more foods high in phosphorus. So like I said, there are general recommendations, but you also have to do it on a patient-specific basis.
00:15:29 Shireen
And as you’re working with individuals, especially as they’re—you know, with kidney disease in particular, it is quite hard because you see it sort of progressing from stage two to three and you know, only getting progressively worse. What are the types of things perhaps one should keep in mind, even if a caregiver, for instance, is listening here on this episode today? What are the types of things a caregiver can keep in mind about how best to protect, care, nurture, love their loved one?
00:16:01 Germaine Guy
So if you’re—I would recommend, if you have a family member or you yourself have any form of kidney disease, whether it’s two, three, or four, I would recommend seeing if you can see a registered dietitian. Most people with kidney disease in those earlier stages do not see dietitians. And I’ve realized that a lot of kidney doctors—nephrologists—they don’t really know to refer them to dietitians. And I feel like if you were to see a dietitian and you can change the way you eat, make healthier life choices—because it is pretty complex—you can probably prolong the health of your kidneys and not have to get on dialysis. I see that all the time. Most of my kidney patients that are on dialysis, they had no idea they had kidney failure or they had no idea what they should have changed in their diet to kind of slow the progression of kidney disease. And so that’s definitely something that a family member can do. Also do some research—do some research online. Even when I go to the doctor, I like to do my own research. There’s nothing wrong with that. I actually like when I have patients do their own research and then I can come in and let them know if that’s a good source of information, if it’s right, or my opinions on it. If they are at end stage and are on dialysis, just be there for them. It’s a huge life-changing event—having to go to a center three days a week and sit on a machine for three to four hours. Just be of support for these people. If you’re on dialysis, you will see a registered dietitian in the United States. And just be there. We do labs every month. We have very close contact with the patient. You can always speak with us and just help that family member. Because like I say, it’s a lot going on and it’s a big life change.
00:18:04 Shireen
One of the things that you do actually, Jermaine, is you have a YouTube channel. It’s called The Eat Right Guy. I want to switch gears real quick and tell our listeners about it, but also tell us what inspired you to start this channel.
00:18:19 Germaine Guy
Okay, so I’ve had that channel for a long time. So I first started that channel as a fitness channel to do like workout videos and stuff like that. But I didn’t realize how hard it was. And I’m not a very outgoing person, so setting up a camera in the gym wasn’t something that I wanted to do. And I was at the point where I was actually becoming a certified personal trainer. And I like watching YouTube videos. And so I wanted to—I was looking at YouTube videos on what to study to pass the exam, and there were like no videos on any help—on what to study, what study materials and stuff like that. So when I finally took the exam and I passed it, I was like, you know what? I’m going to make a YouTube video telling everybody what to expect, what to study for and everything like that. And that reached over really well. I got a lot of views—over like a hundred thousand views on that video. And so I was like, you know what? I’m going to make a video like that on how I passed the registered dietitian exam. And so that’s how I did that video. That got a really good response. And then I kind of just switched over that channel to helping people become dietitians because there wasn’t a lot of information like that on the internet. So I would just make videos every step of the way to become a dietitian. And that’s what I did. I ended up starting a Facebook group to help people study for the exam and everything. And so that’s basically how that channel started.
00:19:57 Shireen
I love how you’re taking your own experience, putting it out there, and it of course resonates quite well with your audience as well. You also have had some interesting experience providing RDN services in prisons. Can you talk a little bit about that?
00:20:14 Germaine Guy
So my second job as a dietitian was working in dialysis. So it was my first dialysis job. And when I got hired, they were like, you’re going to be working at a prison as one of your clinics. So if you’re a full-time dietitian in a dialysis clinic, usually you have two clinics. And so I was like, okay—I didn’t even realize that they had dialysis in prison. That’s something that you don’t even really think about. And so I was in Louisiana. It was the prison Dixon Correctional Institute. So this prison houses all the dialysis patients that are incarcerated that have been convicted in Louisiana. Once they’re convicted and they’re sent to prison in Louisiana, they ship them to this prison and they actually have a dialysis clinic in the prison. And people are like, aren’t you scared? And I’m like, it’s not really scary at all. Like, they’re very respectful and it’s just like a clinic outside the prison. Everything is the same. They come in three times a week, they do their dialysis, and they go back to their dorms. But it is definitely a unique situation. And not a lot of dietitians actually work in that population or even know about that population, especially in the dialysis field.
00:21:34 Shireen
It is such an interesting experience because you’re absolutely right. I mean, even if someone is in prison, they need to get care. Their health needs to be taken care of. Right. So you don’t consciously sort of think about it, but what a unique experience.
00:21:46 Germaine Guy
I even had a patient on death row.
00:21:49 Shireen
Oh wow. Interesting. What was that experience?
00:21:52 Germaine Guy
It was weird. He was actually the only patient that wasn’t at my prison. He was at another, more higher-security prison. And we would just every month do, I guess, teleconference with the doctor, myself, a social worker, and the nurse. But for somebody to be on death row, he was very interested in his health and he wanted to know all his labs and he wanted everything to be right. So I thought that was pretty interesting.
00:22:19 Shireen
Remarkable. As we wrap up this episode over here, Jermaine, what are some common misconceptions about nutrition that people tend to have that you come across that you wish you could tell them better about?
00:22:33 Germaine Guy
I think being a dietitian, one of the big misconceptions—and I’m pretty sure most dietitians can agree with this—is that most people think we’re the food police, which we are not. Whether you’re going to a family gathering or a work function, it seems like everybody’s on pins and needles about what they eat around us. They think we’re this big health freak. And I’m like, we really don’t care what you eat. I’m not here to criticize what you eat or anything. We’re just here if you need help. If it’s something—if you want to improve your diet, if you want to lose weight—we’re your resource. We’re not here to criticize anybody. So definitely, everybody thinking that we’re the food police, especially at family gatherings, that’s definitely a misconception.
00:23:23 Shireen
I absolutely love that. It actually makes me want to chime in as well, because while I’m not a dietitian myself, Yumlish is a dietetics-focused company. We build nutrition literacy, nutrition education—and that is absolutely hands on. And again, like I said, I’m not even a dietitian, but at family gatherings, it’s always kind of like, “Should you be eating that? Should I be eating this?” There’s a lot of policing going on. It’s like—I’m not trying to tell anyone how to do anything. Do what feels right to you. You go work with the dietitian to understand what’s right for you. But what you said there just really resonates with me with that.
00:24:01 Shireen
Jermaine, we are toward the end of the episode at this point. Can you tell our listeners how they can connect with you, learn more about your work?
00:24:08 Germaine Guy
I think the best way to connect with me is probably on Instagram. You can just type in Instagram Eat Right Guy. That’s my handle for everything—Facebook, my YouTube. I’m also starting a private practice. I kind of had a private practice years ago, but I’m kind of starting that back up. It’s through Fay Nutrition—so F-A-Y Nutrition, all one word, dot com. And it’s a website where you can find dietitians all over the country and you can use your insurance to see us. Some dietitians see people in person and some people see them over the web like this. And so I’m starting that up. It’s all going to be video appointments, and I’m currently licensed in Florida, but I’m in the process of getting a license in Illinois, Louisiana, and Texas. So if you would be interested in having a consultation with me, you can find me on that website.
00:25:07 Shireen
Lovely. And with that, Jermaine, thank you so very much for your time. I truly appreciate it. And to our listeners, thank you for listening to another episode of the Yumlish podcast. Head over to our social media and ask and answer—excuse me—this quick question: How do you balance your health and culture within your diet? So again, head over to Yumlish on both Instagram or Facebook, whichever you prefer. Find this podcast post and comment below to tell us: How do you balance health and culture in your day-to-day in your diet? We’ll continue the conversation there. With that, Jermaine, thank you so much again.

Connect with Yumlish!
Yumlish Website: Yumlish
Yumlish on Instagram: @yumlish_
Yumlish on Facebook: Yumlish
Yumlish on Twitter: @yumlish_

Connect with Germaine Guy
Website URL: https://www.faynutrition.com/dietitians/germaine-guy
Instagram URL: https://www.instagram.com/eatrightguy/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjY8tPKwAvgSjPwm-wqwE5w