Tending The Garden
In our daily attempts to made good dietary choices, it is important for us to remember our long term healthy eating pattern. Being calorie conscious is only a piece of the challenge as choosing where those calories come from will have an important impact on our overall health. How our health care providers inform us about healthy lifestyle habits, including dietary choices, is an important part of receiving the kind of overall care that will reduce the risk and severity of hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and blood glucose intolerance.
Our bodies serve as hosts for our symbiotic guests, referred to as the human microbiome or gut bacteria. Our microbiota play an important role in our health and we are only beginning to understand the magnitude of the role it plays. The microbiome is affected by many factors, including how we were born, what we eat, and our antibiotic history, and it can exert influence over how hungry we are and what types of foods we crave. The microbes in our digestive system can even influence the activity of our brain by releasing neurotransmitters and hormones into the blood stream.
Helping people create a beneficial dietary plan is a great place to start to promote overall health. Because our gut bacteria can lead us to crave poor food choices, creating a plan that is realistic and builds over time will improve long term compliance and chances of success in the future. Making small, incremental changes in our dietary choices can lead to big improvements over time.
I find that the add and replace method is a great way to make these decisions easier. For example, building meals around vegetables and legumes rather than meat is a great way to introduce more fiber and polyphenols without taking away anything you already enjoy. Burgers are your favorite food? Add sauerkraut to give your gut bacteria a boost! Love garlic? Great! Add garlic to your cooking to keep the bad gut bacteria under control so that the good bacteria can flourish. Do you love a good crunchy snack? Try swapping out potato chips for whole grain pita chips. Craving something sweet in the evening? Keep your favorite fresh fruits in the house so you’re less tempted to reach for the cookies.
That last piece of advice is for me. Cookies are my weakness.