Your trickiest healthy eating questions, answered
Plus Week 2 of our 21-day plan—it's all about food, baby.
Hello friends!
When did eating healthy become so confusing? (I know it’s not the whole answer, but certainly social media and the way it’s algorithms work is a huge part of the problem—I get into how to tell what’s true and what’s not online here).
If you listen to the shouting voices on social media, you can get caught up in debating the 5% of our diet that still has a lot of disagreement around it. But in truth, there’s quite a bit of scientific consensus around the core tenants of what makes a healthy diet—and it’s a lot less confusing than you might think.
I sat down with Tim Spector, one of the top 1% of cited scientists in the world, to talk all things healthy eating. A few things that stood out to me:
🍔 Calories are only part of the picture: Dr. Spector that focusing solely on calories is not going to get you to lose weight (that you’re able to keep off). Instead, the quality of food matters more. Ultra-processed foods, despite their low-calorie count, can increase hunger and disrupt our gut health. There’s research proving that UPFs disrupt our hunger cues and can cause us to eat more, which means that we just consume more calories anyway. So if you want to be in the best health, focus on plant diversity and whole food consumption rather than caloric intake.
🦠 Our microbiome is about so much more than our gut: Our gut microbes significantly impact our mood, energy, and even our immune system. A diverse diet rich in fiber and fermented foods can enhance gut health, leading to long-term benefits. Some of Dr. Spector’s research is done on identical twins over a period of 30 years, and he found that even with identical genes and environments, the one difference in twins is their gut microbiome, thanks to exposure to different foods, viruses, and infections through their diet and social life. This one difference, divergent gut microbiome, was the indicator of many health outcomes that varied between the sets of twins, including cancers.
From this week’s episode:
“Ultra processed food, they've done studies, giving a burger meal that's made in a factory is going to make you 25 percent hungrier by having the ultra processed version compared to the made from scratch version. And they've done a whole series of studies for a couple of weeks of people in a closed hospital clinic environment to look at this.
We know there are a number of mechanisms. We don't know which ones are the most important. The current top ones are: firstly, the junk food is generally softer, it's like baby food, so it's much quicker to eat and digest. It gets broken down by the body much faster, and so enters the bloodstream and the gut much faster than real food. And so that can overcome some of the hunger protection mechanisms, the fullness signals that you'd normally get when you're eating a real food.”
For more on this topic, including Tim’s research on cancer, our immune health, and the foods that make our gut microbiome best equipped to fight disease, check out this week’s episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Make sure you’re following the podcast wherever you listen so future episodes show up right in your feed!
The Takeaway:
Aim for 30 different plants each week to diversify your diet and enhance your gut microbiome, and try to incorporate fermented foods daily if possible.
To make it easy, I made you a free 7-day nutrition plan, as part of our 21 Days To Change Your Life: A Science-Backed Plan For Nutrition, Movement, and Mental Health.
The plans are additive, but can also be done on their own—last week, I gave you a comprehensive workout plan based on the latest science to maximize your health in the minimum amount of time (download it here!).
Now, we’re talking nutrition. This plan has our three pillars of nutrition, and everything you need to get there.
At the end of the 21 days, you’ll have more energy, less stress, more strength, better relationships, and higher levels of happiness—and you’ll have made a true investment in your physical, mental, and emotional health. Make sure you’re following The Takeaway because next week, we have our FREE one week plan for mental health utilizing all of the latest research.
Here’s to giving our bodies the nutrients they need to thrive! Love you guys.
xo,
Liz
PS: If you want delicious breakfast, lunch, and dinner recipes I created for each day for the full 7 days, upgrade to a paid subscription to get access to the meal plan.
What you get:
A full shopping list
A detailed plan will make sure you’re getting 30 different plants a week, a daily dose of fermented food + so many more functional benefits
Everything is zero waste, quick to make, and designed to make feeding yourself well as easy and fun as possible
Get it by becoming a paid subscriber, below!
Paid subscribers will always be able to access the second half of the newsletter—there's something extra you'll want to see every week like follow up questions with podcast guests, in-depth meal plans, workout plans, and so much more.
Download the full detailed week long meal plan here 👇👇👇
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