Diet for Health and Wellness – 5 simple steps
Number 1: Plant Based Diet
This does not mean you are a strict vegetarian/vegan. It simply means plants make up the majority of your food. The more brightly coloured and fresh the plants the better. The benefits of a plant based diet include high antioxidant, high fibre, many anti-cancer nutrients, alkalinizing which helps deter diseases such as cancer, best for the planet, best for your karma :0) See Food as Medicine article below for more info on phytonutrients and cancer prevention/support. It is very important to source low contaminant if not organic food and particularly plant food that can be heavily sprayed with pesticide.
Number 2: Adequate Protein Intake
Protein is found in nuts, seeds, legumes, beans, eggs, fish, fowl and chicken. Eat some protein source every few hours to keep your blood sugar stable and your energy up. If you are a vegan make sure you are getting a wide range of nuts, seeds and grains. If you do not have an issue with estrogen (eg endometriosis, heavy periods, cancer of breast, bowel, prostate, ovary) eat traditional whole soy foods such as tofu or tempeh as they are a great source of protein. If you might have an issue with estrogen avoid all soy products.
Number 3: Good fats
Good fats are found in nuts, seeds and oily fish. In general these are anti-inflammatory meaning they do not encourage and can counter inflammatory reactions in the body. This is opposed to fats such as those found in concentrated, processed vegetable oils (safflower etc) and saturated fats found in animal meat that tend to initiate and aggravate inflammatory reactions in the body. Inflammation is the basis of virtually all chronic disease so this is a very important point. Trans fat is particularly carcinogenic and is formed when fats are heated to a high degree. These are very common in processed foods and so processed foods should be avoided like the plague.
Number 4: Blood sugar management
Excessive rise and fall in blood sugar can lead to many short term and chronic conditions including hypoglycaemia, diabetes and cancer promotion to name only a few. Blood sugars stabilization is the goal. This can be assisted with dietary approaches including: watch the amount of sugars including natural sugars in fruit and grains consumed, do not eat fruit or grain foods on their own – try to combine foods such as nuts and seeds with fruit and grains and follow the protein and good fat recommendations above. Eat a small serve of protein and good fat every couple of hours – if you have functional hypoglycaemia you will notice an improvement in many symptoms from anxiety to fatigue to brain fog!!!
Number 5: Hydration
Are you drinking enough WATER???? No tea, coffee, fizzies and fruit drinks do not count. They are all DEHYDRATING to one extent or another. Coffee and alcohol in particular are extremely dehydrating requiring at least 3 glasses of water per 1 glass of each to replenish you! To work out your MINIMAL daily WATER requirement take whatever your weight is in kilos multiply that by 33 to get the bare MINIMUM of water intake recommended.
