Simple Nutrition Series: Part 2 - Five Nutrition Rules to Live By
Part 2 of Emily's Super Simple Nutrition series
Now that you’re eating mindfully, chewing properly, and hydrating strategically, you’re ready for my list of top nutrition rules! As a recap, the reason I started with the digestive habits is that if your digestive system isn’t working optimally, your body doesn’t absorb all the nutrients in the foods you are eating. In other words, you could be eating the most organic, local, fresh, nutrient-dense foods on the planet but if you’re eating when you’re stressed or gulping your food down in big chunks and diluting your stomach acids down by chugging water with your meals, those beneficial nutrients are just going to pass through you without getting to the organs and tissues that need them!
But now that you’ve been watching your digestive habits at every meal over the past seven days (right? :) ) you’re ready to maximize nutrient intake! Here’s how you’re going to do that.
1. Eat organic (without breaking the bank!)
Number one should be no surprise to you, but maybe you need a little refresher. Choosing organic produce is so important for every system in your body. Many, if not most, conventional food products are sprayed heavily with pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides. These chemicals overburden our livers, wipe out our good gut bugs leading to gastrointestinal symptoms and disorders, increase systemic inflammation, compromise our immune systems, throw our hormone systems out of balance, and much, much more.
Sadly, these toxins are everywhere these days (including your breastmilk, moms). Babies born in the age of mass crop spraying are dealing with more preventable health issues like asthma, allergies, and ADHD, just to name a few, than ever before.
Even if you’re not a parent, you should still be concerned. Unfortunately, these toxins are also found in the air we breathe, in the products we put on our skin, in the vessels our food is stored in, in our clothing, and many more places they just don’t belong. Luckily, you have the ability to choose whether you want them in your food or not.
Buying organic produce and grain (which are especially heavily sprayed) products should be a no-brainer. But sometimes, it’s just not feasible financially. I get that! I definitely can’t afford to buy everything organic at this point, but I do make sure that I’m strategic with which foods I am buying organic.
The Environmental Working Group puts out a couple of lists every year called the Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen. The Dirty Dozen contains the twelve most heavily sprayed crops that year. This year, strawberries, spinach, and kale are in the top spots. The Clean Fifteen list contains the fifteen fruit and veggie crops that are safest to buy non-organic. Avocados take the top spot this year! So don’t worry about splurging on the super expensive organic ones at the specialty organic market!
I always recommend to my clients that they print these lists off and post them up on their fridge so they can write right on their grocery list which of the items needs to be organic and which can be conventional.
Another thing to note on the topic of buying organic produce without breaking the bank is that shopping at your local farmers’ market is an amazing way to get the best quality non-sprayed produce on the cheap! Oftentimes, the big Canada Organic (and USDA Organic) stamp of approval is too expensive for smaller farms, so even though their products are technically organic, they aren’t allowed to label them as such.
My recommendation is to talk to the farmers and people working at the farmers’ market. Get the inside scoop on which farms are organic and which ones aren’t. Another plus of buying from the farmers’ market is that the food is typically local and in season, which means nutrients are at an all-time high.
Organic fruits and veggies should make up the bulk of the food you eat by volume. Ideally, your plate should be at least 70% veggies (or low-sugar fruit) at every meal.
2. You are what you eat, so choose wisely
Again, quality is so important. Not only for fresh produce, but for animal products as well. The second rule you should be mindful of when trying to improve your nutrition is buying the right kind of seafood, dairy, and meat.
Unfortunately, for the exact same reasons that so many crops are being sprayed - overpopulation and overconsumption - a lot of livestock are being raised in abhorrent conditions. These animals are eating GMO and heavily-sprayed grains that they aren’t able to digest properly and other substances that sound like a horror story. (I’ve heard of cows being fed cats and dogs from animal shelters, chicken feces, and hard candy with the wrappers still on them…) So if you are what you eat eats, why the hell would you choose anything but grass-fed beef, pasture-raised poultry, and wild fish and seafood?!
When cows eat grass and are able to roam free on the pastures, they are much less stressed and therefore much happier and less inflamed animals. Their meat contains more vital nutrients and anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids. The same goes for pasture-raised chicken, turkey, and eggs, and wild fish.
Of course, buying this type of meat or seafood is much more costly than the conventional stuff, which makes it tough. Illness is costly too, though, so think of it as taking preventative measures. If it still kills you to cough up $12 for a pound of grass-fed ground beef, simply eat less meat. Cost-effective vegan protein options include organic (well soaked) beans and lentils, pumpkin seeds, hemp hearts, tempeh, and organic tofu.
Ideal daily protein amount is a hot topic right now and deserves its very own blog post. My recommendation is to keep animal protein to one or two 4-6 oz. servings per day, if you’re active, and get the rest of your protein from plant-based, whole food sources. The bottom line here is that nobody knows your body better than you, so pay attention to how different foods make you feel. Some people need more animal protein and some barely need any if at all, so tune into what your body is asking for and remember to choose good-quality animal protein if you’re going to consume it.
3. Feed your gut bugs
Fun fact: Did you know humans and earthworms have approximately the same number of genes (about 20,000)? It’s true! So what makes us such a complicated species in comparison, you ask? Turns out, it’s the bacteria and microbes that live in our gut known as our gut microbiome!
We have trillions of microbes living in our guts. In fact, we have 150 times more microbial genes than human genes in our bodies! So keeping our microbial community healthy and thriving is key to our own health.
Keeping this microbial community healthy is quite simple, though it isn’t always easy. The good gut bugs eat fiber-rich foods like fruits and veggies. The not-so-good gut bugs like to chow down on sugar, refined carbs, and processed foods. Unfortunately, the good gut bugs are killed off easily by frequent antibiotics and NSAID (like Advil) use. ☹
Increasing your fiber-rich fruit and veggie intake and decreasing all processed foods as well as unnecessary over-the-counter drug or antibiotic use can help keep the community well balanced. But I know that’s sometimes easier said than done.
Enter the oh-so-trendy probiotic supplement! These capsules contain freeze-dried bacterial strains that help repopulate your gut with the microbes you want more of - the ones that keep your digestion and elimination running smoothly, keep up serotonin production, and produce essential vitamins like B12 and K - which are especially important for those of you who are plant-based and don’t get these nutrients from animal protein!
Probiotic supplements can be expensive, though, so I much prefer fermented foods. Fermented foods like sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir, yogurt, beet kvass, kombucha, tempeh, and natto contain live cultures that do the same thing as probiotics supplements, only they are delicious, contain more beneficial nutrients, and are much more cost-effective.
After you’ve repopulated your gut by eating fermented foods at least once a day (or taking your daily probiotic), now it’s time to think about the best way to feed these good gut bugs. Turns out, their most favourite foods contain oligosaccharides, which is a fancy word for a type of carbohydrate that contains several single-sugar chains. Oligosaccharide-containing foods include; asparagus, garlic, onions, leeks, fennel, cooked-then-cooled white potatoes, yams, unripe/green bananas, jicama, chicory root, and bitter leafy greens like dandelion. These foods are aptly named prebiotics as consuming them primes the gut to receive the probiotics.
In general, I recommend at least one serving each of fermented and prebiotic foods per day, but the more, the merrier. Just keep in mind that if you aren’t used to consuming fermented foods you should start slow; you may experience a bit of bloating and gas as you build up your tolerance.
4. Eat the Rainbow
Taste the rainbow! You should be having at least one serving of Skittles everyday. I’m kidding! Just making sure you’re still paying attention. Of course, when I say you should eat the rainbow, I’m not talking about colourful candies. Making sure you’re checking off a fruit or vegetable every day that corresponds to each letter in ROYGBIV is so important to make sure you’re getting a variety of nutrients and eliminating the possibility of nutrient deficiency.
Colourful fruits and veggies contain cancer-fighting antioxidants, longevity-boosting compounds like resveratrol, lutein, and zeaxanthin, and immune-boosting bioflavonoids and phytochemicals. Not to mention that they’re also chock-full of vitamins and minerals and fiber to keep digestion running smoothly (and we’re all already experts on why digestion is so important, right?!)
So the bottom line here is to eat a variety of fresh foods and try to have at least one red, orange, yellow, green, purple, blue, and white veggie or fruit per day. By varying the foods we eat daily, we not only keep our gut bugs healthy by increasing their different strains and populations, but we also safeguard ourselves against nutrient deficiency which can happen if you always eat the exact same things.
Print off a chart of the different fruits and vegetables that correspond to the different colours and fill it in everyday if you have to. This is also a fun way to get kids to eat a variety of fresh foods if you have them (note: goldfish crackers and KD don’t count as an orange food!)
A bonus tip for maximizing nutrient intake: sprouts. Sprouts are baby veggies, like broccoli, peas, beans, etc. that contain up to 10x the amount of the nutrient found in their full-grown counterparts. Why, you ask? Because babies need to be fed nutritious food to grow healthy and strong! It’s the same with veggies. So incorporating sprouts into your daily meal plan is a super easy way to get a ton of nutrients!
5. Timing is everything
Number five was a difficult one. I struggled with what I should make it. Avoid sugar? Consume more healthy whole-food fats? Convert to Gluten-Free-ism?!
Nope. I decided the most important place to leave off for the nutrition part of this series, now that we’ve talked about how much quality matters, is how much timing matters. In fact, this rule is much more about not eating rather than what to eat. That’s right, what I’m alluding to is a trendy little topic called intermittent fasting.
In a way, this is only a teaser, as I plan on writing an in-depth post on what intermittent fasting is, who it’s for, whether there’s anybody who shouldn’t fast, etc., etc. But this topic is just too darn important not to mention here.
The truth is, eating is such a huge part of our lives and our culture. We eat when we’re sad, we eat when we’re celebrating, we eat when we’re bored. We really don’t put enough emphasis on the importance of not eating though; of giving our bodies a break to catch up on all the other work it puts off while its always busy digesting our food.
Since this post is already so long, I’ll keep this rule short and sweet. I recommend everyone fasts at minimum 12 hours overnight. This should be easy. If you finish dinner at 7 p.m., you can eat breakfast at 7 a.m.! You’ll sleep better at night if you give yourself at least three hours to digest before you fall asleep. If you find yourself hungry most nights after dinner, have some tea and know that tomorrow you just simply need to eat more.
Fasting improves insulin resistance and metabolism, decreases inflammation and oxidative damage in the body, and removes waste materials in cells (a process called autophagy). If you’re interested in living longer, preventing disease, improving your immune system, and even losing weight, fasting is for you!
If you’re new to intermittent fasting, start with a twelve-hour eating window (meaning your first and last meal should have a max of 12 hours in between the two). If it feels right, you can slowly start to decrease that down to eight hours, but only if it makes you feel good! It’s important to note as well that fasting doesn’t mean calorie restriction.
Wow, that was another long one! If you’ve made it this far, congrats. We’re halfway through the Super Simple Nutrition series and hopefully, you’ve learned lots. Next week, we’re talking about lifestyle habits.
“What?! My lifestyle affects my nutrition?” You ask? It sure does. It may even be the most important component of all.
Here is Part 3 of this series! Let me know what you think of these five rules. Do you eat according to a different set of rules? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below!
