Nutrition
The common blocks to eating nutritiously that I hear regularly from patients include:
I don’t have time
I don’t have money
I don’t know how
I am confused by all the diets, and they are always changing and contradicting each other!
I don’t like vegetables
I only like certain foods
Do any of these beliefs resonate with you? Would you like to change them? Then I suggest you check out some of my recipes, as they are all incredibly quick and easy, inexpensive, delicious, easy to follow, and tried and true (meaning, the foods have consistently been found to be healthful for pretty much any condition and all are anti-inflammatory).
As we change our eating habits, our palates change. After about 6 weeks of eating fruit instead of a refined-sugar snack when we crave comfort and sweetness, dessert tastes sickly sweet. Our palates have changed, and even fruit can become too sweet if we don’t eat it often.
We also begin to enjoy the foods that make us feel energetic and give us vitality. Refined sugar lights up the areas of our brains associated with reward and the neurotransmitter dopamine. One published medical journal article found in a research review that “sugar and sweet reward can not only substitute to addictive drugs, like cocaine, but can even be more rewarding and attractive.“
I also have found through years of clinical practice that when we have dysregulated gut bacteria (through antibiotic usage, eating foods that don’t promote a healthy gut flora, eating meat of animals that were given antibiotics or hormones, which is most factory-farmed meat), we succumb to a yeast overgrowth.
If you’ve ever baked with yeast, you know that adding warm water and sugar to a packet of inert powdered yeast causes a magical reaction of bubbles and rising dough! So if you’ve experienced eating a doughy, sugary snack and then feeling bloated, you now have a visual of what is happening in your gut.
By replenishing the normal, healthy gut bacteria and eating foods that promote their growth, the yeast “starve” and die out naturally as a result. These are fermented foods, and foods rich in fiber, such as lentils (click link).
Many of us struggle with disordered eating, which experts say can be more difficult to overcome than other addictions, due to the fact that we cannot abstain from food! Someone courageously deciding to quit dependence on alcohol can make changes in routines, choose new friends and social activities and clean the house of liquor. When food is a trigger, however, becoming overwhelmed by food choices, diets, how we “should” look according to unhealthy cultural standards is something to be faced daily – several times daily. Learning to self-nurture and heal is the work required. I work closely with nutritionists and counselors to make appropriate referrals as needed when a discussion of nutrition proves to feel triggering. Ultimately, the goal is to honor ourselves by tending to our hunger signals by nourishing ourselves with foods that will most effectively build us healthy cells and tissues, allowing our bodies to balance at the weight that is healthy for each one of us as an individual. Our goal becomes a humble acceptance and gratitude for health rather than one of achieving a smaller pants size.
It’s not an overnight process and there is absolutely no need to be perfect. But with gentle and consistent efforts, our kitchen cupboards and shopping lists do change. That’s when we notice our energy is increased, confidence and mood are improved, skin is glowing, and we have a new bounce in our step. Food is life. We are what we eat!