Healthy Habits Series Cultivating Healthy Habits

Day SIXTEEN: NOURISH

HEALTHY HABITS DAY 16: Nourish

Using food as medicine is one of the healthiest habits to cultivate. Your food quality, quantity, and variety can and will impact how you look, feel, and think. The foods you eat have the capacity to help you feel fantastic and vibrant or sluggish and depleted.

Here is a summary of what food as medicine means for me, based on 25+ years of my own nutrition research, experience & education.

The approach is to have some of these, most days: FOODS, SUPERFOODS & SUPERHERBS.

1. EAT REAL FOOD, NOT TOO MUCH, MOSTLY PLANTS: entails a nutrient-dense diet consisting of whole, natural foods as close to their natural state as possible (i.e minimal to no processing).

Plant foods are our richest, most abundant sources of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fiber. They contain hundreds of thousands of phytochemicals, many of which possess life-giving and disease-fighting properties.

Eating fruits and vegetables, good fats & moderate protein are some of the best things you can do for your immune system, for weight control, for prevention/reversal of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and most of the Western illnesses that now afflict our society (chronic pain & fatigue, autoimmune conditions, etc).

Load up on the vegetables, and some fruit (goal is to get to 6-10 fruits and vegetables per day with a ratio of 6-7 vegetables & 3-4 fruits per day)

EAT THE COLOR OF THE RAINBOW: Fruits and vegetables get their color from their micronutrients− the vitamins and phytonutrients vary in each and every plant source

Nuts & seeds (in moderation): Raw, organic whenever possible. Almonds, walnuts, pecans, pumpkin seeds, brazil & pine nuts

High-quality fats like extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, avocados & avocado oil

High-quality protein (preferably organic, grass-fed)

Whole grains (in moderation, if tolerated): quinoa, organic oats, rice, sprouted wheat

2. SUPERFOODS: have a dozen or more unique properties, not just one or two. When it comes to real nutrition, only superfoods can meet and exceed all requirements.

These are both our food and our medicine. Superfoods nourish our bodies on a deeper level and can correct nutritional imbalances in the long term. Many can be incorporated as a nutritious addition to meals and smoothies.

Examples include:

➢ Hemp seeds/hemp protein, flaxseeds, Chia seeds

➢ Goji berries, blueberries

➢ Coconut oil & coconut products, Cacao

➢ Bee products (honey, bee pollen, propolis, and royal jelly)

➢ Spirulina, Chlorella, wheatgrass, etc

➢ Sea vegetables, marine phytoplankton & blue-green algae

➢ Bone broth & collagen

3. SUPERHERBS: have both adaptogenic and tonic properties. They support the body systems, boost immunity, and balance hormones. Superherbs are our natural medicines.

Some of my favorites are:

💖 Mushrooms- reishi, chaga, lion's mane, turkey tail, cordyceps

💖 Turmeric & black pepper, ginger & cinnamon

💖 Ashwagandha, Astragalus, Holy Basil, Rhodiola and Licorice root

💖 Ginseng, Maca, Mucuna

💖 Dandelion, Milk Thistle

💖 Shilajit, fulvic acid, Zeolite

💖 Essiac Tea

What foods are your medicines? Please share / comment below 👇

Frequencies to support Food As Medicine