Food Is Medicine! JJFit Book Club: Good Energy
/There is growing mainstream attention to the fact that many of today's health issues (obesity, dementia, diabetes, anxiety, depression, chronic fatigue and so many more) can be linked to issues in the gut biome (the ecosystem of microbes that live in our intestines) and dysfunction in the metabolism (the body's process for converting food to usable energy). It can be confusing, frustrating and even scary to learn all this new stuff. It's not easy to keep up with and to decipher what is true science from credible experts and what is a scam from a misinformed influencer or company trying to sell us junk.
I recently listened to a two and half hour podcast with Dr. Casey Means, MD. She wrote a new book which was released today (May 14). I was like, dude. TWO AND A HALF HOURS?! No way this will hold my attention. Not true. Likely the most informative, exciting and empowering podcast I've heard in a very long time. She touched on so many usable suggestions for improving health through nutrition and exercise. Far too many for me to list here. But I do encourage folks to listen. And I'm excited to get my hands on her book today.
Please do not take what I'm about to discuss next as a summary of her recommendations or my endorsement of a biohack fad. But as I was running and listening to her, so many opportunities came up for me for how I can easily integrate metabolic health into my diet. For instance
Fermented Foods - Foods like Greek Yogurt, Sauerkraut, Kimchi, Cottage Cheese and Pickles can support the gut biome which supports our immune system. I already eat Greek yogurt with blueberries every morning (win!). But I rarely eat other fermented foods. So I'm committing to adding sauerkraut to my daily routine and am excited to try all the variations friends are sharing with me via my social media post documenting my first bite!
Legumes - Honestly I've heard the term legume so many times and frankly didn't know exactly what it meant. Technically a legume refers to any plant from the Fabaceae family that includes its leaves, stems, and pods. Foods like peanuts, chickpeas and fava beans count. They do a ton of good stuff for us. This one is easy, I love hummus. So I added two tablespoons to my daily snack (om nom nom) and Peter got us these yummy fava bean snack pouches that are actually tasty and a solid amount of protein and fiber for only 130 calories.
Local Honey - this one is a bit more contested seemingly because honeymakers don't have the budgets that big pharma does to prove it. But the idea is that by eating honey from local beas we ingest local pollen which can improve seasonal allergies and our immune system. This is easy for me. As I mentioned, I eat greek yogurt and blueberries every day and I can easily add some local honey (the fiber from the fruit offsets the "sugar" from the honey which has about 20 calories per tsp). So I hopped online and grabbed a bottle from Marshall's Farm which has honey from various California counties. My gut (pun intended) tells me there are benefits to realize here (even if it won't allow me to give up my Flonase entirely). And I'm happy to spend $12 to support a local, sustainably-focus farm and small business.
There is a classic trainer saying in the world of fitness: Movement is Medicine. Yes indeed! And Dr. Casey talks a lot about the need to shift the American mindset from thinking about exercise as something you do once or twice a day at the gym or on a run/jog/walk to something we do continuously via "exercise snacks" like walking in place for one minute every 30 minutes at our desks or using a treadmill desk (like me!).
In trying the things above and the many things I have in my notes to try moving forward as a result of her suggestions, I'm actually EXCITED about food in a new way. Looking for ways to layer food in and use it as "medicine" to heal the body's mitochondria while still maintaining the right caloric balance is a game I'm really into playing. I hope you'll play too with ways that appeal to you!