Wellness News and Views: Food for Thought - HOW you eat can be as important as what you eat!

Fall is the perfect time to think about our nutrition habits, as we enjoy our warmer foods, soups, stews and take advantage of the harvest. The nutrients we get from eating start far before we put the food into our bodies.  It starts with how they are grown and how, when and where they are harvested. It also depends on how we optimize our digestion and develop healthy habits around how we eat and when we eat. Developing a healthy relationship with food and nutrition starts with realistic and sustainable lifestyle habits and not holding ourselves to an “ideal” or restrictive diet, but one where we can enjoy food, while still fueling our mental and physical health.  For us to be able to think clearly, balance our moods and keep our bodies in check, we don’t just need to eat, but we need to eat the right foods AND make sure we get the maximum nutrients from them.

So instead of starting with what we eat, we thought we would start with some pointers on HOW to eat.

The Digestive Roadmap

Digestion is a complicated topic that warrants its own headline, but for the purpose of understanding our nutrition, I wanted to share to some initial thoughts.  Without digesting and absorbing our food, it really isn’t doing much for us. Pointers for optimizing digestion that we can start to work on include:

Eat mindfully, without distraction.  Most have heard about the “fight and flight” response to stress, but what about “rest and digest”.  Have you ever noticed how in a stressful moment you often feel like you can’t think of food.  Too nervous, jittery, or focused? That’s because when we are stressed our body shuts down the digestive process, reducing the secretion of digestive enzymes, moving blood away from the digestive tract to other areas of the body like the brain and the limbs.  It also slows peristalsis or the movement of our intestines, slowing down digestion. This was to maximize our energy and brain power during dangerous situations. When we eat we should be doing so when we are relaxed, can pay attention to our food, enjoy our company and not be focusing on stressful activities, or watching TV (especially the news) or working and staring at our phones.  Think of mealtime as free time to step away from stress and step into an enjoyable experience.

Avoid drinking 1/2 an hour before or after meals. We need digestive enzymes to process our food both in our stomachs and in intestines.  While we need hydration as well, we want to avoid diluting these digestive enzymes so that our food can be broken down and absorbed to the best of its ability. There are a lot of factors at play with this process, but separating our fluids (hopefully filtered water) from our mealtimes or only taking small sips during meals can enhance the process.

Food combining. We will talk about this in more detail about how to maximize food combining for balancing blood sugar, optimizing digestion and improving cognitive function but for now, some simple rules to follow at some meals (not all) include:

Fruits with non-starchy vegetables and a healthy non-animal fat (coconut, avocado, nuts and seeds) to help balance blood sugar

Non-starchy Vegetables + Protein + Healthy Fats

Carbohydrates and non-animal fats (nuts, seeds and oils)

This is simplistic guide, but you can optimize your digestion by eating your veggies first and keeping protein and carbs timed differently. It enables your body to optimize the digestive pathways and balance blood sugar. Remember we are realistic, and the idea is to try this maybe once or twice a day, or maybe you start once or twice a week, to see if you can feel the difference.

WHOLE FOODS – “You are what you eat!”

The starting point for anything we eat should be real, whole foods.  What do we mean by this?  Foods that come from nature, aren’t processed, or refined like packaged foods, that contain refined oils and GMO’s and are free from preservatives, fillers, and dyes.  One benchmark is if you can’t understand what is on the label, maybe you should consider a substitute until you understand more.  Whole fruits, vegetables, unrefined grains and legumes and high-quality proteins are a good base for any diet.

SEASONAL, LOCAL FOODS

Just like our bodies follow a natural rhythm, so does how we harvest and grow our food. While greenhouses and certain processes increase the longevity of the seasons, the best rule of thumb for food is to eat seasonally and if possible, eat local. These foods tend to be the most nutrient dense.  When you start any meal plan, take the season and where you live into consideration.  One substitute for this can be flash frozen fruits and vegetables, which maintain their nutrients in the freezing process.  In the spring, look for the fresh berries and veggies that pop up with the flowers and during the fall harvest, opt for rich squash stews and dark leafy greens and cabbages and fresh apples, pumpkins, and grains.  It’s also a great time to experiment with rich and aromatic spices. Make a visit to your local farmer’s market on the weekend and enjoy the process of supporting local.

ROTATE WHAT YOU EAT AND EAT THE RAINBOW (we aren’t talking about skittles either!)

Rotating what you eat, including proteins, fruits, vegetables and healthy fats ensures that you get a variety of vitamins, minerals and essential amino acids to support healthy cognitive and physical functioning.  When we are stuck eating the same foods everyday it can contribute to food sensitivities or indicate you are lacking in a certain nutrient.   Often, we will crave foods as a response to an allergy, sensitivity or lack of certain vitamins or minerals so it’s important to keep this in mind when choosing your meal plan.  Think about trying new foods and eating from a variety of dark leafy greens, rich coloured berries, bright coloured peppers, tomatoes, and squashes, as well as different proteins and healthy fats and oils like avocado and olive oil.  A robust diet will support the maximum amount of nutrients available to you from a whole food diet.

ORGANIC vs NON-ORGANIC FOODS

Eating organic full time is almost impossible and, let’s be real, cost prohibitive.  When you can, choose organic where it makes sense.  The Environmental Working Group (EWG.org) is a great reference tool for finding the best value for money when it comes to eating organic including their Dirty Dozen and Clean 15 lists.  When choosing animal protein try to keep it grass fed, hormone and antibiotic free, as well as sustainably sourced.

HYDRATE AND GET ADEQUATE FIBRE

Lastly, hydration and fibre are key to ensuring we maintain healthy detoxification pathways, that we keep our intestines and kidneys moving and flushing out unnecessary waste and toxins.  Fibre provides pre and probiotics to keep our gut health in check, while water supports a plethora or cellular functions, flushes the kidneys and both help with optimal liver function, our major detox organ.  Being well hydrated and having a healthy microbiome support optimal cognitive functioning, reducing brain fog and supporting the neurotransmitters produced in our gut, enhancing the gut-brain relationship. A variety of healthy fruits and veggies, as well as clean, filtered water are best.

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