Do you pass the Diet Health Check?
One Minute For Your Health #20
Are you one of those people that’s convinced your diet is healthy?
When people learn I’m a nutritional therapist they often talk to me about how they eat. They tell me ‘I think I generally eat a really healthy diet’. And I’m pleased.
As they tell me more though, I often become worried. Because their diet doesn’t sound all that nourishing to me.
Unfortunately, in a friendly conversation it’s pretty difficult for me to say
‘Hm, I think that your diet might not be as healthy as you think.’
And yet I go away from these conversations worrying about these peoples’ health.
So I came up with an indirect solution. I developed a free Diet Health Check that anyone can complete and receive personalised results.
In this email I’ll explain the science behind the principles of the health check.
And who knows, perhaps you’d like to know if your diet is as healthy or unhealthy as you think?
First of all…
… I think it’s important that I start by saying that what’s healthy for one person is not necessarily healthy for another person.
Our genetics, microbiome, lifestyle, health conditions and hormones can all affect whether we benefit from a food or not.
This is why I advocate personalised nutrition. Getting to know your own body and your own needs (perhaps through working with a nutritional therapist like me 😉) plays an important role in making your diet healthy for you.
The principle of my diet health check is therefore not to see if you are eating ‘healthy foods’ or not. Instead I check how your diet might be affecting 3 areas important for good health.
Your gut microbiome.
Researchers are now generally agreed that the composition of the bacteria in your gut (a.k.a. the microbiome) affects your health.
Among other things gut bacteria:
Produce and help your body absorb vital nutrients
Protect you from invading pathogens
Help to regulate the immune system
Produce neurotransmitters that affect our emotions, energy and cravings
Help to regulate weight
Whilst we don’t know the perfect bacteria composition (and again it seems to vary from person to person) researchers are in agreement that a diet rich in a colourful variety of fresh, whole foods is most likely to nourish the right kinds of bacteria.
Diets full of processed foods, refined grains and sugar tend to feed bacteria that make us fat, tired and sad.
Blood sugar balance.
I’m forever talking about blood sugar balance. Because it’s SO IMPORTANT.
Among other things poor blood sugar regulation leads to:
Increased risk of mood disorders
Increased risk of type 2 diabetes
Increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia
Increased risk of weight gain
Increased risk of heart disease
Increased risk of infertility and miscarriage
Diets that have a good balance of protein, fats and complex carbohydrates support good blood sugar regulation. A lack of protein in the diet or an excess of refined carbohydrates typically leads to poor blood sugar regulation.
Inflammation.
We now know that many chronic illnesses are partly caused by or exacerbated by elevated levels of inflammation.
Among others these include:
Mood disorders
Anxiety disorders
Obesity
Diabetes
Autoimmune conditions
IBS
Heart disease
Alzheimer’s
Diets rich in processed foods, vegetable oils (except olive oil), refined carbohydrates and too much meat may promote inflammation.
Eating a broad spectrum of colourful fruit and vegetables on the other hand reduces inflammation, as each colour indicates a different antioxidant. Additionally omega-3 in the diet seems to play a key role in regulating inflammation. This can be found in oily fish, walnuts, linseeds, chia seeds and grass-fed animal products.
Summary:
Every person reacts differently to food, so no one food is healthy for everyone. To make sure your diet is healthy make sure you are feeding the right gut bugs, regulating your blood sugar and not fuelling inflammation.
Know someone who worries about their diet? Share this post with them so they can do the Diet Health Check too.
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Links and References:
Manor, O., Dai, C.L., Kornilov, S.A., Smith, B., Price, N.D., Lovejoy, J.C., Gibbons, S.M. and Magis, A.T. (2020). Health and disease markers correlate with gut microbiome composition across thousands of people. Nature Communications, [online] 11(1). Available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18871-1 [Accessed 15 Dec. 2020].
Oliphant, K. and Allen-Vercoe, E. (2019). Macronutrient metabolism by the human gut microbiome: major fermentation by-products and their impact on host health. Microbiome, [online] 7(1). Available at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40168-019-0704-8 [Accessed 15 Dec. 2020].
Gupta, V.K., Kim, M., Bakshi, U., Cunningham, K.Y., Davis, J.M., Lazaridis, K.N., Nelson, H., Chia, N. and Sung, J. (2020). A predictive index for health status using species-level gut microbiome profiling. Nature Communications, [online] 11(1). Available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18476-8 [Accessed 15 Dec. 2020].
De Filippis, F., Pasolli, E. and Ercolini, D. (2020). The food-gut axis: lactic acid bacteria and their link to food, the gut microbiome and human health. FEMS Microbiology Reviews, [online] 44(4), pp.454–489. Available at: https://academic.oup.com/femsre/article/44/4/454/5859486 [Accessed 15 Dec. 2020].
Stanner, S.A. and Spiro, A. (2020). Public health rationale for reducing sugar: Strategies and challenges. Nutrition Bulletin, [online] 45(3), pp.253–270. Available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nbu.12460 [Accessed 15 Dec. 2020].
Manoogian, E.N.C., Chaix, A. and Panda, S. (2019). When to Eat: The Importance of Eating Patterns in Health and Disease. Journal of Biological Rhythms, [online] 34(6), pp.579–581. Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0748730419892105 [Accessed 15 Dec. 2020].
Nolan, C.J. and Prentki, M. (2019). Insulin resistance and insulin hypersecretion in the metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes: Time for a conceptual framework shift. Diabetes and Vascular Disease Research, [online] 16(2), pp.118–127. Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1479164119827611 [Accessed 15 Dec. 2020].
Gangwisch, J.E., Hale, L., St-Onge, M.-P., Choi, L., LeBlanc, E.S., Malaspina, D., Opler, M.G., Shadyab, A.H., Shikany, J.M., Snetselaar, L., Zaslavsky, O. and Lane, D. (2019). High glycemic index and glycemic load diets as risk factors for insomnia: analyses from the Women’s Health Initiative. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, [online] 111(2), pp.429–439. Available at: https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/111/2/429/5673520 [Accessed 15 Dec. 2020].
Schwingshackl, L., Morze, J. and Hoffmann, G. (2019). Mediterranean diet and health status: Active ingredients and pharmacological mechanisms. British Journal of Pharmacology, [online] 177(6), pp.1241–1257. Available at: https://bpspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/bph.14778 [Accessed 15 Dec. 2020].
Panchal and Brown (2019). Cholesterol versus Inflammation as Cause of Chronic Diseases. Nutrients, [online] 11(10), p.2332. Available at: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/11/10/2332/htm [Accessed 15 Dec. 2020].
Furman, D., Campisi, J., Verdin, E., Carrera-Bastos, P., Targ, S., Franceschi, C., Ferrucci, L., Gilroy, D.W., Fasano, A., Miller, G.W., Miller, A.H., Mantovani, A., Weyand, C.M., Barzilai, N., Goronzy, J.J., Rando, T.A., Effros, R.B., Lucia, A., Kleinstreuer, N. and Slavich, G.M. (2019). Chronic inflammation in the etiology of disease across the life span. Nature Medicine, [online] 25(12), pp.1822–1832. Available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-019-0675-0?fbclid=IwAR3DAUfM0Ee0gnHOGBU0juIEfsvkDAXQ3Ew1RY0ORRWmjZtkXCQzPW-wZkg [Accessed 15 Dec. 2020].
ACS Chemical Neuroscience. (2019). Understanding the Role of Systemic Inflammation in Alzheimer’s Disease. [online] Available at: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acschemneuro.9b00333 [Accessed 15 Dec. 2020].
Images from www.canva.com
Learn more about me at www.efiaskitchen.com