““Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food.” ”
FOOD IS DAILY MEDICINE
Unless you’re fasting, you eat every single day. Anything we do daily is a practice -- and practices can either help you grow stronger, more resilient, and buoyant; or they can harm, creating disease, inflammation, and feelings of un-wellness. Regularly eating nourishing, fresh, nutrient-dense foods is a foundational aspect of creating health, vitality, and a feeling of true wellness.
FOOD AFFECTS EVERYTHING
When it comes to nutrition and diet, most people’s focus is on the physical - with concerns about weight, fitness, cardiac health and the like. Research shows that nutrition also affects our brains and mental health (not surprising! Great book on this topic by Harvard psychiatrist here.) We also eat food to cultivate community, feel pleasure, create identity, and so much more. What and how we choose to eat is so much more than fuel or a collection of nutrients for our bodies.
WHY SO COMPLICATED?
Gone are the days where windows of homes waft the delicious scent of meals being carefully prepared at home with whole, fresh, local ingredients.
It’s an unfortunate reality that food has gotten ultra-complicated in the modern era. Between our busy lives, the imprints of our culture/family of origin, marketing from every angle, and attempting to understand our own values, it can feel truly difficult to know how to nourish yourself.
To make things even more complicated, consider:
- the ubiquity of highly processed packaged (“Franken”)foods loaded with sugar/high fructose corn syrup (commonly labeled under one of its 50+ synonyms), salt, unhealthy fats, and preservatives. (Think about it - these foods are found literally EVERYWHERE - ask yourself, why are there candy bars and soda in the Best Buy check out line?)
- poor monoculture farming techniques that are leaching our food of essential and high quality nutrients.
- the copious use of pesticides and industrial runoff which is adding a huge toxic burden to our bodies, the land, the water, and environment. This in turn affects our food sources, especially dairy, fish, and meat supplies, which are higher up on the food chain.
- the long distances our food often travels to get to us, directly affecting its freshness and further leaching its nutritional value, while simultaneously burning fossil fuels (think: apples from Chile, tomatoes from Canada…)
- the uptick in food sensitivities and allergies, likely due to the inflammation and environmental toxin burdens our bodies are facing, leading to more difficulty figuring out what to eat.
- the pervasiveness of fad diets and confusing misinformation on the internet and media.
WHAT DO WE DO?!
First off, take a long and deep breath. (Maybe a couple.) The info above is a lot to digest (pun intended.)
I am a big fan of Michael Pollan’s work because of how he un-complicates things for us. He says so simply, “EAT FOOD, NOT TOO MUCH, MOSTLY PLANTS.”
By food, Pollan means real food. Try making sure the majority of what you eat is unprocessed or minimally processed. Or, if the food comes from a factory, try to make sure it’s an assembling of real foods - think: around 5 or less ingredients of real/whole foods.
Try to choose foods that are closest to the way you might encounter them at their source.
At the same time, don’t stress yourself out -- it’s impossible to always make the “best choice.” Try to make the better choice most of the time. We’re not after perfection, we’re after good enough.
I personally live by these tenets and urge my patients to do the same.
WHY WHOLE FOOD PLANT-FORWARD EATING MAKES SENSE
Plants are powerhouses of nutrients, antioxidants, cancer-fighting compounds and anti-inflammatory agents. They are also loaded with fiber and nutrients to keep your microbiome happy. They literally stave off disease.
Furthermore, because plants are low on the food chain, they get their energy from the sun -- this means they are less loaded with potential environmental toxins.
I tell my patients to “eat the rainbow.” In this way, you can get a wide variety of these colorful disease-preventing phytonutrients (phyto = relating to plants, nutrients = substances that provides nourishment essential for growth and the maintenance of life). Check out this article from Harvard Health for more info on the different phytonutrients you get when eating the rainbow.
Eating the rainbow can also mean incorporating a variety of spices and herbs into your meals - these are also nutritional powerhouses for disease prevention.
Eating more plants is also healthier for our environment. Learn more the BBC and CNN - here and here.
A flexitarian diet that is predominantly plant-based can be a great choice for your health and for the environment. It’s a win-win. It’s all about being thoughtful, rather than dogmatic. The Blue Zones, where there is a concentration of some of the longest lived humans in the world can be useful when thinking about plant-forward flexitarianism.
I have a mini-farm at home, where I grow microgreens for eating year-round.
IN SUMMARY
Michael Pollan’s words can be reiterated here, with some additions from me in [brackets]: EAT [REAL] FOOD, NOT TOO MUCH, MOSTLY PLANTS, [LITTLE TO NO SUGAR], [AS LOCAL + FRESH AS POSSIBLE], [AND TRY FOR GOOD ENOUGH RATHER THAN PERFECTION.]” If we all did this, we’d be much healthier, happier people, living on a healthier planet.
Need help with eating in a better and more balanced way? Need to help reverse your chronic disease? Need to lose weight?
I am here to help! I have a wonderful toolbox of resources including science-backed nutritional advice, recipes, helpful herbs/botanicals + supplements, and other supportive measures to help you optimize your nutrition.
We can also work on evaluating and creating care plans for problems like chronic illness/diseases, chronic pain, mental health issues, and just feeling unwell, which can greatly affect your eating habits.
Eating can feel manageable and joyful and more balanced too. Let’s make it happen for you.