Diets Vs. Nutritional Principles - How to Maintain Good Nutrition for a Lifetime!

Are you sick and tired of yo-yo dieting? Looking for a better approach to nourishing you? This episode of me&my health up is for you! We discuss why dieting does not work and how adopting evidence-based nutritional principles, complemented with a healthy lifestyle can better serve your health goals. Anthony Hartcher - Clinical Nutritionist and Lifestyle Medicine Specialist will set you on the right path for sustainable health outcomes.

About me&my Health Up & Host

me&my Health Up seeks to enhance and enlighten the wellbeing of others. Host Anthony Hartcher is the CEO of me&my wellness which provides holistic health solutions using food is medicine, combined with a holistic, balanced, lifestyle approach. Anthony holds three bachelor's degrees in Complementary Medicine; Nutrition and Dietetic Medicine; and Chemical Engineering.

Credits
Podcast editing: Ivan Saldana

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Any information, advice, opinions or statements within it do not constitute medical, health care or other professional advice, and are provided for general information purposes only. All care is taken in the preparation of the information in this Podcast. [Connected Wellness Pty Ltd] operating under the brand of “me&my health up”..click here for more

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Transcript

Anthony Hartcher 0:00
Diets, fad diets, you're probably sick and tired of hearing about all the different diets constantly in the media every day you pick up a paper or listen to the news or radio is another advertisement for a weight loss program. A, you know, lose so many kilos in X amount of time. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm on a new diet. It's fantastic. Yes, we now all diets work because you become disciplined, whatever it is, for a period of time, however. If it's not sustainable, it won't last the results won't last and so today's podcast is on nutritional principles. Because if you live by these nutritional principles, it is a diet that you can tailor towards yourself that is based on principles that work that are evidence based.

I'm Anthony Hartcher. I'm your host of me and my health up and today, we're gonna get into nutritional principles. I'm sure you're already and can't wait to go. So let's start. So I want to start with the principles. It's a good starting point, isn't it? So the first principle is around prioritization and preparation. The second principle is around traditional, and a mindful mindset. Mindful mindset or mindful relationship and third principle are around balance, balance, and moderation. I'm struggling with the words today, I don't know what it is something in the air and fourthly, it's energetic and digestion, the readiness of the food is the fourth principle.

So yes, there is something in the air today. There's backburning happening in Sydney and it's really given me a headache and it's hard, it really struggled when there's a lot of pollution in the air. So back to those principles. Number one, is priority preparation, the second principle is a traditional and more mindful mindset. The third principle is around balance and moderation and the fourth principle is around the energetic properties of food and digestion readiness. So how well is the food prepared? So, you know, Is it cooked? Is it raw should I have raw cooks, or wonder, let's chat about it.

So let's start with nutritional principle number one, so around prioritization, and preparation, this is where a lot of people become unstuck. Because essentially, they're not prioritizing the food that they put into their diet and as a result of that, it's not a priority. It's always a sort of reactive situation where I need something to eat, I don't know what to have, and then it's a stressful dilemma and that whole process of going through, what am I going to eat, I can't have that because you know, it's calories or fat or that sugar. Then it results in all these negative thoughts and if I eat that food, it's going to make me fat and so that just sends this spiraling of thinking into this negative why and, and the feelings as a result of that negative thinking is not good.

And it can result in self sabotage, in which you'll end up just grabbing probably the worst out of all your choices because you've had that cascade of negative thinking. So we need to prioritize food as a fuel for us so that we can have peak or experience peak performance as human beings. Food is our fuel. Just like when you turn up to the service station, you've got a choice between what fuel you put in your vehicle, there's certain fuels your vehicle will take, and within that range of fuels, there's the high octane or the lower octane or the one that's diluted with ethanol.

I'm not sure if you've ever put diluted ethanol into your petrol tank or diluted petrol with ethanol in your petrol tank, the car performance is poor, versus putting high octane fuel into your petrol tank. Hey, I'm not advertising fuel here but what I'm the point I'm making is, I want you to put high octane fuel into your body so that you get the best output and you feel great about yourself. This starts with prioritization. Now, if you've got the mindset that I'm going to prioritize what I eat, then you want to put it in your diary. Yes, because if it's not in your diary, it probably doesn't get done. If it's not at the top of your to-do list then it doesn't get done.

It's the last resort and you end up with that takeaway decision that you probably think I shouldn't have done that because you're unprepared. So make sure it's at the top of your to do list and next to your to do list, create a to be list. So if I have a to do list that, you know, I want to prioritize my food, I want to, you know, source high octane fuel, and it's going to be good foods, and I'm going to be ready and planning it, then how are you going to be as a result of that, so you'll be more clearer, you'll, you'll be able to make better decisions, your emotions will be better regulated, you'll be better in control, you'll sleep better, you'll have more energy to exercise.

So that's what's going to happen as a result of having food at the top of that priority list. Because to be is next to the to do list and, you know, what, who do you want to be, I want to be a happier, healthier person. So therefore foods are always up the top of my list of things to do along with exercise along with sleep and as a result of that, I always feel great, even when there's pollution in the air, through to because of backburning. So once we've prioritized food, then we then have to book in time for preparation. Because as we know, failure to plan is preparing for failure. So we want to just like you do at work, just like you do with your family.

You know, you prioritize and plan, the effect the households, things to do for that week, and you lock them in the diary, well food needs to be at the top of that list and our priority and we need to put aside time to do that. So we need to put aside time to shop, we need to put aside time to prepare food for those situations where we're not. We don't have much time. For example, you know, if you look at your week ahead, you'll see a particular day, that's busier, and it's really flat out, you're back to back all day and you're thinking and we're gonna get home, I'm going to be stressed. So not going to feel like cooking.

So, therefore, that's the day that you want to already have a meal prepared and so yes, it does start, as Jack Gibson said, winning starts on Monday. Well, I think your you know, your willingness will start on Sunday, in terms of food preparation, because that's the opportunity when you can put aside some time in the afternoon to go and shop and then you know, when you go and shop, you actually want to have a list. Otherwise, you will be fooled by the foods that are most heavily advertised by the pretty packaging by the labeling gluten free, fat free, sugar free, it all looks great on you know on the label at all, then when you dig into the details, such as the ingredients you start to see it's not that great. So don't be fooled by the advertisement.

Go to the shops with a shopping list and, you know, in order to create that shopping list, you actually have to think about what you're going to have each night of the week or for each lunch and breakfast says so it does start with a lot of preparation. But it's worth it. Because when you have that preparation done, it makes the week sale and it makes you feel good that you're fueling yourself with great food, you have the energy then to exercise, you have the energy to respond to stressful situations better, you have the right nutrients to help you sleep. So this is why it's so important to put aside the time to plan your week out and prep.

It's setting yourself up for a high octane fuel week so that you can have high performance and that's what we all want, isn't all want to perform at our best every day. We need the right fuel. We need to plan to get that right fuel and we need to plan for those situations that could send us off track. For example, I just mentioned that busy day that you can see coming but you're not planning for it right you plan all the papers and everything but you need to think about your high octane fuel so that you can deliver that fantastic presentation so that you can get through that day.

So food or your fuel needs to be at the top of the priority list along with that action that needs to be done such as prepare for that meeting or prepare for that presentation that speech, prepare for that deadline. You prepare in your work and you probably get great results, you prepare your nutrition you will get great results and this is why diets do work. Because you know the I guess the principles are there. The formulas there and you just copy it.

However, it generally is not a great formula that works for a lifetime. It is a formula that works for a short period of time. But what you need to do is embrace nutrition, embrace these principles and you'll be able to navigate your way through a lifetime of good health through these principles. I'm not telling you what to eat. I'll give you some ideas. I'll give you some, you know, evidence base theory, in terms of what works. However, I'm not telling you what to do, it's up to you to tailor it to your situation. So let's get into how you know in terms of some savings tips around time, okay, so that you can have more time during your week.

Well, how about you batch make food on a Sunday? Yes, put aside some time. So go shopping, and then batshit and then this can be a family affair. So you can get the whole family involved, you can get nothing, you delegate responsibilities, okay, and when we go to the shops, I want this person to find this in this aisle or whatever you can send the little troops around the supermarket, they love it, they love this little bit of responsibility, and they take great ownership and so it can be a fun activity doesn't need to be our got to go to the shops. You can make it fun, you can run theme nights through the week so that your children know that the family knows that we're going to have a Mexican night, Wednesday night, who's going to be in charge of Mexican night.

And let them be responsible for looking, you know, searching for recipes on the web, coming up with a recipe then working out what ingredients they need for that recipe and, you know, you might want to dress up to even make it more fun and so it can really incorporate the family. It can be bonding, it can just be a great time around food like we used to, and one of my principles around adopting more traditional practices around food that being mindful eating, but we'll get to that one.

Okay, so that this is a tip around batching do some batching if your time poor, and make it fun and get the family involved cooking Sunday afternoon is you know or Sunday afternoons are cooking fun time we get in the kitchen, we make a mess. We enjoy what we're doing. Do it, if Sunday doesn't work for you. Maybe it's Monday or another day a Saturday. But just putting aside the time will set you up for success for the week. Okay, That's principle number one. So principle number one is prioritization, preparation.

Nutritional principle number two is around this traditional, more mindful relationship, the more mindful mindset around eating, and the enjoyment that food brings to us. So what I'm seeing in terms of what's happening in society, is we're becoming very disconnected with food in terms of our relationship, we're labeling food, labeling is not great. It's, it's terrible because you're actually not capturing the essence of what their food is. So for example, you know, nuts ain't just fat, right? Within nuts, there's protein, there's carbohydrates, you know, like you look at, say, what people do with rice, for example, as just carbohydrates.

No, there's minerals, there's vitamins, there's a protein within rice, okay. Rice is a good protein source. Rice is great to help us sleep. So it contains some proteins that help us sleep. So we shouldn't label foods because we're not capturing the entirety of what it really is. It's just you coming up with a label or you know, someone else giving you that label the media feeding you that label. You know, for example, some people see red wine as a powerful antioxidant.

Well, it's not the greatest source of antioxidants, I can label so many more powerful sources of antioxidants. But however, you know, that's what has been labeled by the media and you can think of red wine haven't had a glass of that. I'm just getting lots of antioxidants. Yes, you are. But you're also getting a lot of other things that aren't so great as well. So, we want to remove the labels and seafood for what it is its entirety, the wholesomeness of it like we traditionally would have.

We embrace food, we were grateful that it was in front of us and this connection, this more mindful relationship around food will put you a in the right mindset to digest it will put you in the right mindset to make a better eating choice. If you get into that situation where you need to buy takeaway, because, you know, whatever. We all make mistakes and you didn't get that Sunday preparation done. So, therefore, Monday comes around, and you're scrounging around for your lunch and you go out to a food court. Well, this greater connection is labeling food and seeing it for what it is, and going with your intuition.

What? What do you intuitively feel? If your body's craving carbohydrates, listen to it, there's a reason for that. If your body's craving protein or you know, something like that, generally our body knows, we just need to get more in tune with it. Okay? So this more mindful, this more mindful concept around food is so important. So get in touch with your body, okay? Because at the end of the day, if you're depriving yourself of something, whether it be carbohydrates, you'll want it more, okay, you'll want it more and it'll be like, the sort of like the yo yo effects you're in, or the pendulum, you know, you won't have any for ages, and then all of a sudden you'll binge on it, right?

I think the better point is that middle point, right, so where it's not, you know, you're not restricting yourself, you're actually enjoying some to give you some satisfaction, but therefore, you're not binging right, binging is worse because then that results in negative emotions and not feeling great and feeling unhealthy about ourselves. So let's get this more mindful connection. Unlabel food, see it for what it is, and get connected with how your body is feeling towards that food, less thinking, more, listen to your gut, your intuition, and this other sensory feedback that you get from your body.

Recently, my body was always telling me in a recent, my in my exercise increased, right, I increase the intensity of my exercise, but I'm still eating the same and I was constant hunger and it was my body saying, look, you've increased your calorie output, you need to bring some more in if you want to keep producing at that output, if you want to keep being able to exercise that that output you need more and so I listened to my body, I then upped my intake of calories. And yes, I can maintain that level of activity if I do that. However, my goal was around activity performance, it wasn't weight loss. So if you're looking to lose weight, then it's probably let sit with the hunger then you know, you want to run a calorie deficit.

But so what I'm getting at is it's really you tailoring this to your goals. My goals are different from yours and your goals are different to your friends or another family member, we all have different goals around health. So let's embrace our own goals and do what works. Okay, so this connection with food will bring more joy and more satisfaction when eating that food. You know, traditionally, we sat around together and we enjoyed it, we end up eating less because we're having a great conversation, we're very present, we were relaxed, whereas today we're busy, we're stressed we're not even picking up that satiety signal to say whether we're full, right.

We're just so busy thinking about the next thing and we're scoffs something down and we've got it when we think well, I'm still hungry, and I need to scoff something else down. But if you had been present with that food, and connected with what you're about to eat, you wouldn't have eaten so much, you'd be more in touch with the social signals coming back to your brain. But when your brains are preoccupied doing 1000s of other tasks, instead of that focused, being present without one task around eating, then, of course, you're going to eat more.

Okay, so we're going to eat more when we're distracted when we're watching television when we're not engaged with our food. So if you're looking to eat less, it's very easy. If you become more connected, more mindful, and more grateful around the food you eat. Yes, I mentioned gratitude, gratitude, we've lost that as well, which we don't, we take for granted what comes in front of us what's available here in Australia, we have an abundance of food, we have a choice and we take that for granted, we make the choice for granted.

There's parts of the world that don't have a choice, they just want food, okay, they just want some food source in front of them in order to survive. We've taken that for granted that we have a choice, that we have an abundance of food, we should be grateful for that, that gratitude will help you become present with that food, it will help you unlabeled that food because you'll see it for what it is and you'll feel privileged for having that food. As opposed to this you know, this, I guess selfish mindset that, you know, we just take for granted that the food is you know, we're not putting any thought into it, who's put the love into that food to get it to where it is today.

So it's in the form that we like, you know, for example, there's farmers out there that are farming the food, they're looking after nourish, putting energy and love into that food. There's the transporters that are then transporting that food. There's the companies that package that food, so it's ready to eat. Also, you can grab it in a size that you can enjoy and then there's the person in the household that does the cooking. We take all this process for granted, think of all the love points that go into their food and we're not appreciating what's in front of us. So I think I've harped on this point, but I really want you to become more connected. Unlabel the food, see it for the whole, not for just one part of it.

As I mentioned before, rice ain't just carbs, okay, there's so much more to rice, than carbohydrates. So that's a really poor label, you know, red wine isn't just antioxidants, there's so much more to red wine. So, see it for the whole, enjoy it, embrace it, and we're going to get to another point is balance and moderation. Okay, so I'm not saying, you know, grab it, you know, just go full on into the carbs because my other points around nutritional principles is around balance and moderation. So let me get to that point before you get too excited. Okay, let's move on.

Okay, so now, the next point, which is this balance and moderation, so, I don't like diets, because they're swinging the pendulum too far, one extreme, okay and then what happens we have the rebound effects is that was so restrictive, I missed, or, you know, I'm missing living life, and I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna enjoy life a bit and then we swing the pendulum too far back the other way because you would die, you know, you're dieting and you missed out and all these great food and life and whatever. So, therefore, you're going to do the extreme to the other end. And then the pendulum swings back to the other side.

What we want is more balanced, okay? More moderation in the way we behave. You know, I'm seeing this with the unceasing, or the fewer restrictions we have on us around COVID-19 in Australia. We're taking it to the next extreme. Now that we're liberated, we've broken out of jail, we haven't been able to do this, I'm going to do everything I can, within a week, people are exhausting themselves, people are just so busy and I'm thinking they're going to get to a point where they're gonna have to pull back. So why can't we just sort of taking things, you know, in a more, you know, not this all or nothing crime, we, we need to think more balanced in moderation and that will really help with the foods we consume.

As I said, I don't suggest you restrict or eliminate carbohydrates or eliminate fats, they serve a purpose in our body, you know, and they're more than fuel sources. Because those carbohydrates come with nutrients, they come with vitamins and minerals, the right types of carbohydrates, the whole forms, right. So I'm going to get into this a bit more. Okay, so balance and moderation and there's three key areas that I've labeled under labeling, we're talking labels now, under balance and moderation, is this notion of acid alkaline, so we need to support our body to balance the blood pH.

If we don't, the body needs to compensate or then grab minerals that are stored elsewhere to help balance they'll buffer the blood and that's not great, because that can, you know, result in bone decay, you know, so your bone mineral density drops, we don't want that we don't want osteoporosis. So we want to support our bodies, so it's easier for the body to balance itself, it wants to maintain a nice blood pH what I mean by pH back to chemistry days acid-alkaline, so it's not necessarily what you think, is acid foods or generally, I think we've got the right idea of alkaline foods, I think it's more the acidic foods people think Apple Cider Vinegar, vinegar, lemon juice, all that is acidic.

It's, it's how it's metabolized within the body. So it's not the taste, let's get away from the taste, it's how it's metabolizing within the body. So apple cider vinegar and vinegar and those things I just mentioned are actually more alkaline in terms of the metabolites that are formed. So acid foods when we have these high protein diets, so you know, we get acid or predominantly our acid, from our foods from protein sources and fat sources. So that's why you don't want to go keto, right keto fat diet, right fat diet, reduce everything else, right.

You're going to increase the acidic load on your body, that's not great. It's going to send your body out of balance is going to have to compensate and as we said, we don't want to be drawing minerals from our bone to compensate for blood pH to buffer the blood pH. This acid environment within the body is quite inflammatory in nature, we don't want to feel inflamed, you know, inflammation makes us feel our mood, affects our mood, affects our mental health, we don't want that. So, you know, acid when you hear about the Atkins, this high protein, high fat, it's very acidic that diet okay, if I were to label it, what I want you to get to is more balance. So it's fine to have protein but bounce it out with alkaline foods.

It's the same thing, we don't want to have 100% vegetables and fruits, we need to balance it out with good protein sources and good fat sources okay, we got to find this balance. It's not about going or vegan, or, or keto or anything like that, we know we don't need to go to those extremes, we can just find this nice happy place where we're having a good balance, I'm going to talk about what that balance looks like on the plate right here and now.

So alkaline foods, which I didn't touch on is predominantly fruit and vegetables, okay, and you can imagine the western world is really low in fruit and vegetables and it's where we need to improve hence why these green juices are very popular, and quite trendy because we know they're alkalizing. Same way spirulina and all those sorts of trendy drinks or adding a bit of this green seaweed or whatever, we know it's quite alkalizing. Okay, so we want half the plate, right, and the plate size is really dependent on your age, the amount of exercise you'll do so I'm not going to tell you what size of your plate, you're generally known roughly what a good plate size is for you.

If you're in tune with your body and eating slowly. Okay, so let's put plate size away, for now, let's go for how the portions should look on that plate. We want at least 50% of the plate to be vegetables, okay and it can be a mixture of vegetables and fruit. I'm not going to get into the technical definition of what a tomato is. But yes, it is a fruit. So yeah, so let's have 50% of the plates and predominantly more vegetables. I don't think we have a big problem in society eating fruit and fruits not bad because of this no sugar movement, okay.

Fruits, are fantastic for us, it's a better antioxidant source than red wine. It's got more, more, more, what can I say? It comes with more health benefits. So the 50% of vegetables, and you want you know, and then there's 25% of your whole grains, whole grains. So you know, rice and amorous and quinoa and buckwheat. And then you've got another 25% and again, this all depends on the amount of activity you do. For example, if you're a weightlifter, then this is going to change a bit, you're going to need more protein in your diet. Okay, so I'm talking very generic, but so 25% is basically your protein on the plate. So that's and what is 25% is 25% is like your palm of your hand.

Yeah, so don't get carried away with thinking you need half a plate to steak. That is too much unless you're doing a lot of you know, serious weight lifting or you're a powerlifter, then yes, you need fair bit amounts of more protein than the average person. However, we need to balance that with a good amount of vegetable matter. So it's always getting this nice alkaline acid, you know, look, for example, if you have a more acidic meal, like it's more protein, and it's more fats, then make sure your next meal is predominantly alkaline. That's how you can balance that it doesn't need to be balanced perfectly each meal.

Just make sure that you're thinking about okay, you know, I had a fairly protein dominant breakfast I had a couple of eggs and you know, maybe a piece of toast, so therefore that's a bit more acidic. But my next lunch is going to be a salad for example. Okay. So just think more about balancing this acid-alkaline. If you want to talk more about it, please get in touch with me and I'm happy to, you know, share more information.

In terms of macro, micronutrients. Again, you hear a lot about macro, micro and we seem to be so obsessed with micro. Let's get the macro on this. If you do the right forms of macro, you're going to cover your micro. What are the right forms of macro? So macronutrients are the nutrients we need in large amounts such as fats, carbohydrates, and protein. Okay, So if we get good whole sources of each of those for you know, like so for example, you know if our protein is a good lean source of protein, you know, not marbleized beef you know, not this Wagyu beef, for example, that's it, but it's more your sort of animals that are, you know, had the freedom that is eating their natural crew zine.

Such as you know, cows should eat grass and, you know, if we're getting our fats from our better sources of fats, such as you know, avocado, for example, is a great fat, olive oils fantastic. You know, we're having our oily fishes, our salmon, our sardines, our mackerel. Okay and then what we want to chase in terms of the variety and colour aspects of this balance and moderation is making sure we're getting lots of variety in our diet. So, you know, when they talk about gut health, you hear a lot about gut health right, there's, it's another trend, okay.

If you look after your guts by getting a large variety of lots of plant based foods, or a large variety of plant based foods, but then I said, you know, as I said before, we need to balance that with having some good quality sources of protein, some of those lean meats or oily fishes that I mentioned, they're good quality protein, if you're vegetarian or vegan, then it's getting a mixture of nuts, seeds, grains, and legumes, you know, you need to be mixing all those three to get the complete protein sources. Okay, so that's where this balance and moderation come into it. And we know we talked a lot about making sure you're, you know, you're not labeling things and worrying too much about your micros and, you know, I need to worry about this vitamin and this mineral.

As I said, if you get whole sources of food and focus more on getting the macronutrient balance, then you're generally going to cover your micros, however, I'm talking generally here. And, you know, depending on your situation, your health goals, you know, you may need to supplement some micronutrients to support your goals. And, you know, supplementation should really be short term.

Okay, so let's get into the energetic digestive readiness of food. Okay, so why is this important? Because we can put great food into our mouths, but if we're not assimilating the food, that means breaking it down and actually getting it to where it needs to go to ourselves to our organs, you know, throughout the body, then, you know, you know, if it's just going straight through us, then you know, we're not actually getting the nutrients from the food, so why is this important? Because we want to eat great foods, we want to assimilate the goodness from these foods and we need to do this by looking after our digestive pathways.

Okay, and to really support your digestive pathways, we need to be relaxed as I mentioned before, okay, so relaxed and chill when you eat, do some deep breathing exercises if you're not chilled before you're eating. You want to switch on the digestion system, that digestion switch system is switched off when we're stressed. Okay, we want to really switch it on by relaxing our state, to relax our state we can do breathing exercises, meditation, go for a walk in a park, just take some time out okay, relax, be in a resourceful state to receive food that's in a relaxed state and a present state connect with your food as I said, be grateful for what's in front of you.

Cooking versus raw, well, it depends on the season, it's going to be easier to digest foods that are raw when where our body is not trying to create energy to keep us warm in a warm environment. Hence out our body can then you know move resources into digestion as opposed to prioritizing keeping us warm and this is the thing with winter we shouldn't have you know really be eating raw foods in winter. Our bodies expending, you know a lot of energy resources towards keeping us and maintaining a good body temperature. And you know that digestive function is not enhanced when it's doing that so yes, I reckon you want to be eating more cooked foods in the winter and raw foods in the summer hotter months okay.

It makes sense, you won't feel like salads in the winter you'll feel like more curries and things like that, listen to your body, as I say, get in tune with your body, your body knows what it needs and what's How's how the food's gonna digest within there too, if we're more in tune, so, you know, if you're feeling like cooked meal verses a raw, go with cooked. If you're feeling like a raw, and generally, you know, we feel like salads and more raw foods in the summer, then go with that feeling, okay, so really adjust yourself to the seasons, more cooked foods in the winter, more raw foods, because that will help the digestion of food.

It will reduce the load, it will allow your body to better balance, assimilate the food better and break it down, some digestive aids in relation to you know them, how you can help better digest the food. What I suggest is you you can prep yourself so you digest the foods with things like apple cider vinegar, you know, a bit of apple cider vinegar, a bit of lemon, you know, like a squeeze of lemon and water squeeze of apple cider vinegar, that's really helping switch on the digestive system, you can also put this on your salad to help the digestion and the breakdown of the salad.

Bitter greens, for example, are also good, what I mean by bitter greens, that's your rocket leaves, your cherry leaves, your dandelion leaves, they're all quite bitter in nature. And they do help the secretion of bile and things like that, you know, bile helps break down fat. So it's just priming your digestive system to really be optimal when you eat the foods. You know, fermented foods are fantastic, because they're partially on the way to you know because our body in order to break the foods down or fermented within our intestines.

And so if you're having fermented foods, they're pretty ready for digestion, how they're really digestive ready foods, so fermented foods, such as sourdough, bread, you know, you have your yogurt, you have the cabbage, the sauerkraut, the kimchi, so all these, you know, any vegetables that are pickled, and things like that, there's, you know, they've been through part of this fermented processing, which is helping the digestive readiness of that food.

Other things that can really help so you know, for example, in the winter, it's, you're more warming spices, such as chili, cinnamon, ginger, that all helps the digestion of that food because it's bringing heat in the body, okay it elevates heat within the body so that helps the digestion process. You can help protein breakdown by consuming foods like pineapple, which is rich in bromelain, bromelain helps break down proteins. So you know, pineapple, if you're having you know, can be good after a protein dominant meal, for example, that can help.

You can have kiwi fruit, for example, is another one. So yeah, so it's really, you know, thinking about what's going to support your digestion, that's really going to help propel you forward. And now I must put all this into context with holistic health. So I've just been talking about nutrition, but we can't lose sight of how important the other aspects of health care in the context. Okay, so, yes, we don't want to just focus all our energies in nutrition, because if we're not doing self care, if we're not getting a good night's sleep that impedes our ability to digest food, and assimilate the nutrients and nourishment from that food if we're not exercising, that also affects our ability to make better food choices.

You can always know when you're exercising, you're eating better, eating healthier, because it helps our moods puts us in a better frame of mind, makes us feel healthier, feel better about ourselves. And we generally want to keep that momentum by fueling our bodies with the right types of fuel. It also helps our gut health as I mentioned before, more activity, helps with you know, getting the food out like all the toxins out of our system, so it helps with that detoxification. Helping that digestive pathways, again, is exercise. So we can't lose sight of the importance of doing things holistically in this, you know, although I'm just talking about nutrition.

So that's it for this episode on the four principles as I said, There it is prioritization preparation, it is the balance and moderation It is then looking at that traditional and more mindful approach to food and not labeling it, embracing it for what it is being grateful. And then you know there's a fourth principle around the energetic the digestive readiness of food is essential to supporting the digestive health and the breakdown in the assimilate assimilation of nutrients.

I hope you enjoyed the episode. If you have please like and share it with others so we can get the great word out to more people and help them on their health journey so that they don't go on and off dieting so that they find what works for them for a lifetime and look after you know them themselves through just adopting nutritional principles and tailoring it for their health goals. So, please like and share, and stay tuned for more insightful episodes of me and my health up.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai