Eating To Heal
What we choose to eat is one of the biggest contributors to health or disease, there is no doubt about it. When it comes to diet and nutrition, we often get overwhelmed trying to find the right answers, thanks to the countless opinions about the right way to eat. If you do find success with a diet, it’s often short lived because its demands are unrealistic in our current way of life.
We tend to overlook that our success with a new diet also has to do with a change in how you are eating, not just what you’re eating. When you adopt a new diet, you become more intentional with your meals; you cook more and you cut out many processed and convenience foods. This is true whether you try a vegan diet or an Atkin’s diet (remember that one?).
While there is no one-size-fits-all approach, there are certainly nutritional recommendations that we can all benefit from. I’ve compiled a list here that contains the best of traditional wisdom and modern nutritional science. This is just a simple outline. In the future, I will break down each section and talk about them in more detail.
Our modern-day lifestyles make it nearly impossible to do all of the following 100% of the time, and that’s ok because perfection is not the goal.
Use this outline as a goal post to keep in mind when you shop, meal plan, order and cook:
Eat to nourish, love, take care of, and satisfy yourself.
Eating is one of life’s great pleasures. Do everything you can to keep it that way. You can eat healthy food in a way that feels like a giant hug with every mouthful. Don’t make eating certain foods feel shameful or bad--ever. Sure, there are foods that nourish and support our health, and foods that do the opposite, but eating with guilt or shame is never a good thing. We should be grateful for all food that we eat, because it’s all a gift.
Focus most of your attention and effort on eating a variety of plants and eat your leafy greens.
No one is out there arguing this one. Eating a wide-array of nutritionally dense vegetables gives us the nutrients, as well as the detox capacities, we all need. Eating greens and the full rainbow color of vegetables should be the main focus of our meal design and eating goals. Vegetables are there to help us thrive. Eat leafy greens such as chard, collard greens, kale, spinach, cabbage and romaine.
Eat all colors and flavors.
The different colors in our fruits and vegetables (red, green, purple/blue, yellow, orange, white) contain a variety of phytochemicals that help our body function its best. Eating a rainbow ensures we are eating all of the nutrients we need. The five flavors of foods are bitter, sour, sweet, pungent and salty. Each flavor serves a different function to support our health and should be eaten in a balanced way.
Here are a few examples:
Colors:
Red: tomatoes, beets, strawberries
Orange: carrots, sweet potatoes, bell pepper
Green: lettuce leaves, avocado, broccoli
Purple/Blue: blueberries, blackberries, plumbs
Yellow: squash, ginger, turmeric
White: onions, garlic, coconut
FLAVORS:
Sweet: yams, corn, dates
Bitter: rye, asparagus, grapefruit
Sour: lemon, yogurt, tangerine
Pungent: onion, pepper, radish
Salty: seaweed, seafood, brined foods
Eat mostly cooked, warm foods.
Cold, raw food puts an extra burden on our digestive system. While there is a place for some raw food in our diet, we have become obsessed with juices, smoothies and salads, and our digestive systems are paying the price. Lightly cook and eat your food warm most of the time.
Smoothies can be a great way to pack a lot of nutrients into one meal. However, most smoothies spike our blood sugar and upset our digestive systems. Learn h...
Eat to support your digestive system.
We should all know how to make it easy on our digestive system to break down food and absorb the nutrients from it. Acts such as proper chewing, slowing down, correct food combinations, eating warm/cooked foods, adding digestive supportive spices and teas, make it so our digestive system can process and eliminate with less hiccups. It also helps to eat mindfully, without multitasking or when very stressed. Digestive dysfunction is one the main causes of hormonal issues. Our guts are at the center of our health.
Eat a variety of fruits, mostly berries.
Fruits are abundant in vitamins and antioxidants, and also juicy and nourishing for our yin. Be mindful of your intake, sometimes we tend to replace our sugar addictions with fructose and that doesn’t help with blood sugar control. Just like the vegetables, eat a variety of color and try to eat seasonal fruits. Eat blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and any local berry in your area whenever possible.
Eat protein at every meal.
Plant and/or animal sources. Avoid GMO-industrial and processed soy when you can. Keep your animal sources of protein wild-caught, sustainable, grass-fed, free range whenever possible.
Protein keeps us fuller longer and more satisfied. It helps regulate our blood sugar and keeps us strong.
The source of protein we eat can make a huge difference to our health and the health of our planet. For example, if you want to include beef in your diet: grass fed beef is less inflammatory than grain fed beef because of its higher Omega-3 to Omega-6 ratio, and pasture raised cows are regenerative to our soil.
Treat animal meats more as a side and less like the main event.
This is a very large subject and controversial subject, but an extremely important one.
Eat fat and eliminate inflammatory fats.
Healthy fats fight inflammation in our body. They keep us full and happy, and nourish our skin and digestive tracts (olive oil, avocado, flax seed oil, coconut oil, ghee, butter, fish oil). Trans fats and refined vegetable oils and some seed oils (corn, cottonseed, soybean, margarine) contribute to inflammation.
Eat to balance your blood sugar.
This is a cornerstone of proper hormonal balance. When our blood sugar is constantly spiking and dropping, it creates problems with cortisol production, and our insulin and leptin responses, which then create a downstream of sex hormone imbalances. There are a few ways to go about it. Learn to balance your blood sugar by eating the right foods first (i.e. eat fiber, protein, healthy carbs and fats at every meal & keep your meals smaller and more frequent), before you give something like fasting a try.
Eat to support a healthy bacterial ecosystem in your body.
Adding plenty of probiotic and prebiotic foods into your diet will build a healthy and diverse microbiome, just like we like it. These microbiomes exist outside of the GI tract too, like in the uterus and breast, and rely on your nutritional input to support those environments.
Probiotic rich foods: yogurt, kimchi, sauerkraut, kefir, miso, apple cider vinegar. Prebiotics: garlic, onion, leeks, bananas, Jerusalem artichokes.
Eat locally and seasonally.
We were created and supported by nature and its seasons. Watermelon is cooling and hydrating and grows in the summer. Plants grown in your region contain information useful to your body when ingested. Eating locally reduces waste, supports your local agriculture, and the food is fresher with more nutrients still intact.
Eat organic when possible.
Pesticides and herbicides are big endocrine disruptors, it’s best to avoid them whenever possible. Try talking to your farmers and food vendors at your local markets. Some farms are not certified organic, but still strive to farm without the use of health disrupting chemicals.
Eat specifically for your Chinese Medicine Pattern.
As I mentioned, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to almost anything in life…diet included. One way to navigate all of the information out there is to know your Chinese Medicine Pattern. If you’re a hot and dry type, you should be choosing different foods than someone who is cold and lethargic. Learn about your pattern by booking a consult with me or by visiting your local acupuncturist.
Follow the 80% rule, “Hara Hachi Bun Me”.
Hara Hachi Bun Me in Japanese means to stop eating when you’re 80% full. When we eat quickly or mindlessly it’s very easy to overeat. When you can slow down a little and stop when you’re about 80% full, by the time your stomach gets a chance to process your meal you’ll discover you’re 100% satisfied. This helps our digestive system work its best and helps you get more in-tune with your visceral sensations.
Eat a variety of seeds and nuts.
Full of healthy fats and protein, they are a blood sugar balancing superfood not to be missed in the diet.
Nuts: walnuts, almonds, brazil nuts, pecans. Seeds: chia, flax, pumpkin, sunflower, hemp.
Eliminate food allergies and minimize all inflammatory foods.
This is also a much bigger subject, but dairy and gluten tend to be problems for some. Taking at least a month off of these foods, and then reintroducing them one at a time can be a game changer. People with many food allergies tend to have larger problems with leaky gut and toxic burdens, and sometimes healing your gut will create a better tolerance of more foods. Sugar, processed meat, excess alcohol, and refined carbohydrates can drive inflammation in our bodies and should be minimized.
Keep processed food to a minimum.
This is something that we’re mostly aware of now, however, even the smartest of us get fooled by health bars and packets. Many foods that come in a wrapper seem healthy at first, but with further investigation they have oils, additives and glues that don’t have any place in our digestive system. Eating whole foods will win just about every time.
