How do you nourish yourself?

"Diet is the first medicine. When diet is right, medicine is of no need." When diet is wrong, medicine is of no use. -Āyurvedic Proverb

When it comes to building health through diet, these principles will help you get there:

• How to Eat:

  • with ease of being and gratitude for food.

  • with awareness of the process.

  • until satisfied rather than full to the brim (slowing down usually takes care of all of these).

• When to Eat:

  • Eat 2 - 3 meals during the day, aiming for a larger lunch and an easy to digest supper at least 3 hours before bedtime.

  • After supper, close the kitchen and fast until the following day's breakfast or brunch: breakfast if you're hungry in the morning, and brunch if you're appetite doesn't come up until 10 am or later.

  • Snacking between meals is a little like throwing more dirty cloths into a wash cycle that's in process. None of the cloths will be well washed. Wait until the first cycle is complete before adding more dirty cloths. Similarly, wait until the previous meal has been digested (you're hungry again) before eating more food.

• What to Eat:

  • Eat whole unprocessed foods: beans, legumes, grains, roots and leafy green vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds, organic, sustainably sourced animal products (meats, dairy) if they're part of your diet.

  • Eat the whole foods you ate growing up, or that your grandmother's ate--these are often foods that you've adapted to digest well.

  • Eat a variety of seasonal plants: Research into the microbiome shows that we can strengthen ours by consuming 30 different plants in a week. This might seem like a big ask until you consider that a plant includes grains, beans, legumes, seeds and nuts as well as vegetables and fruits. Most of us would benefit by increasing the number and variety of plants in our diets, especially the omnivores.

  • Eat plenty of good quality fats: olive oil, ghee, avocado oil (2 tsp - 2 Tbl day depending on body type) and nuts and seeds (no more than 2 handfuls a day--ideally soaked and then drained to remove phytic acid and other enzymes that interfere with their digestion).

  • Cook your water. Boil spring or purified water for 10 minutes. Cover and let cool, or put in a thermos and enjoy warm or hot. This cooked water is easier to digest (try it for yourself and see). Sip warm to hot liquids with meals, but hydrate mostly between meals.

  • Avoid ice cold foods generally, and raw foods in the colder months, except for a Tbl of ferment (sauerkraut, kimchi, yogurt) at room temperature with meals. Miso broth is a warm ferment that's nice in the colder seasons)

RECIPE: Here's one simple way to put a meal together.

A FEW MORE CONSIDERATIONS

Grains, Beans, Legumes, Nuts and Seeds are better for you (and in the case of legumes and beans easier to cook) if you soak them first.

All vegetables serve as prebiotics for the friendly bacteria in your gut.

• Focus on eating a wide variety of seasonal plants each week.

• include a small amount of fermented food with your meals to feed a healthy microbiome (Using a probiotic supplement occasionally is not a bad idea, but regularly eating a variety of plants has been shown to be a better strategy for repopulating a more robust variety of probiotics, than supplementation).

Invest in the highest quality food your budget allows.

• This is not only good for you and your family; it's good for the planet!

• Support those organic and biodynamic farmers whose mission it is to love and care for the earth and grow our food. We can fairly assume that big industrial food giants' organic is barely making the grade. Most local coops track this stuff, and stock their shelves with companies that are meeting the standards ethically.

Know the clean 15 and the dirty dozen

• know which crops are grown with the most toxic pesticides, and you can invest in organic for those

• know which crops you can buy conventionally grown for they have the least amt. of pesticides, if you want to save a little.

• Meats, dairy, nuts and oil are important to buy organically grown because they hold onto the chemicals more than some other foods.

How to take action on all of this

• How you feel on your current diet?

  • There's no one diet that is right for everyone, or for everyone all of the time.I was a vegetarian most of my adult life, and then in perimenopause started eating meat, and I feel much better at this stage of life as a meat eater. Some people grow up eating meat, and shift into more vegetarian diets with age. If you sense you're not getting what you need from your diet, don't be afraid to change it up.

• Review the how to eat principles.

  • If you could improve, pick one thing and one meal at which to practice. Example: I realize I race through lunch at my desk each day. New practice: I'll step away from my desk, sit down somewhere quiet, and after taking a few deep breaths, eat my lunch each day.

• Review the when to eat principles

  • If you could improve, pick one thing to work on and create a clear goal. Example: I graze through lunch and am starving by mid afternoon, and eat sugary snacks. New practice: I'll take a lunch hour (1/2 hour) between 12 and 1pm, and eat a proper meal.

• Review the what to eat principles

  • If you could improve, pick thing to work on, and create a specific goal. Example, I eat the same three plants each week. New practice: I'll buy 1 new seasonal vegetables and learn how to cook it and incorporate it into my diet.

Would you like some help with this?

I offer Āyurvedic assessments where I take a deep dive into your health history and current state, and make more specific diet and lifestyle recommendations for you, including helping you with getting organized with food shopping and food prep if needed.

Remember: you can meet your dietary needs on many different kinds of diets: vegan, vegetarian, carnivore, keto, mediterranean--and often aspects of the diet you grew up with, or that your ancestors ate will work especially well for you, as you've evolved to digest it.

But before adding in a bunch of supplements and superfoods, dial in the basics of when how and what to eat, and watch your digestion and overall health improve within 30 days.