92 | Fall Foods and Eating Healthy - Seasonal Change

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Alright. Welcome back to another episode of the Real Health Podcast. We are in fall season.

So, today's episode is gonna be short and sweet, and we're gonna talk through, eating seasonally. This is a concept that's really important as the seasons of life change for numerous reasons. And so maybe you're like me who gets caught in habits and routines and tend to eat the same thing over and over again, which is not ideal for your health. We're gonna talk about why diversity is so crucial, so important to the health of your body, specifically your gut and your brain. We're gonna touch base a little bit on organic versus conventional, give you some options as to what foods are great for this time of year, and then talk about nutritional changes as a whole as we step into fall and in winter.

So first thing is, you know, when we have a discussion about organic versus conventional, really there shouldn't be a discussion here. Conventional foods, specifically produce is so nutrients, nutrantly depleted. The soil is depleted. The produce is depleted. The way it's grown, it's not even food: genetically modified.

So organic produce is absolutely essential. When you look through nutrient value, organic produce on average is about 25% more nutrient value, and that's important now more than ever. Seemingly, when we look through the years, a couple decades ago, the salad that you would consume, compared to today, today is a third of the nutrient density compared to that just a few decades ago. And so when we look at organic versus conventional today, organic produce is absolutely crucial to get the nutrients of your produce, to get nutrients like vitamins and minerals and polyphenols and antioxidants that your your body needs so desperately. So organic produce is not just about avoidance of chemicals, glyphosate, pesticides, it's also about nutrient value and getting those proper nutrients in your system.

A third of all produce is grown out of the country. So when we look at produce, sourcing locally is very important as well. Now, there's other benefits to local produce, but just think about that, a third of produce is traveling 100 if not 1,000 of miles to where you live. And so a third, 1/3 of all produce is grown out of the country. So when we look at farmers or farmers' markets or even just supporting local farmers in your grocery store like a Whole Foods or for us Earth Fare.

These are great options to not only support your local economy, but when you eat locally, it ensures you're eating eating fresh, more ripe vegetables and fruits. And why is it important is because the when you buy and source locally, the timetable of that produce from from farmer to table versus, you know, locally versus being on the other side of the country or another country is all about when they pick it. And the riper the fruit or vegetable, the more nutrient value, the more nutrients are actually in that particular produce. So that's another reason why not only eating seasonally is important, so what's being grown right now in your area, but also eating locally. It's interesting that when you look at duration of time that something is plucked, picked, and consumed, Penn State looked at spinach, and they showed that spinach had a 50% less nutrient value in 8 days after being picked.

So just within 8 days, we see a dramatic reduction as it's exposed to heat, as exposed to air, and those nutrients are oxidized and there's natural nutrient value lost, spinach alone, 50%, that's significant. And and so when we think about how long that spinach or that apple or orange or avocado has been, when did they pick it, how was it ripened, what do they put on it to keep it healthy through transit, so, you know, it's usually a type of edible wax that they put a coating, ethylene that they put on it. So sourcing locally, sourcing organically, and sourcing seasonally is is not just about nutrient value. It's not just about removing of pesticides and and residues, but it also supports that, like I said, the supports the local economy. When you look at eating the same foods, one of the conversations I have a lot with patients is really just in this- in the realm of, like plant toxins, for instance nightshades.

Okay. So tomatoes and peppers. We know that nightshades, we know that spinach, we know that there are anti nutrients. Okay. Plant toxins found in certain plants, higher in certain plants than others.

So when we look at oxalates, when we look at phytic acid, this is another reason why. It is important to eat seasonally so that you aren't consuming the same plant toxin in abundance year round, never giving your body a rest, a break and accumulating that plant toxin in the body like oxalates, like phytic acid, which are anti nutrient. They literally will chelate or pull out nutrients out of the body. Now eating them seasonally helps prevent that accumulation of that toxin, and your body can get rid of it and properly detoxify from it, but you gotta give it rest. So that's why we should not be eating almonds year round with all the oxalates or spinach year round because of all the oxalates or certain beans year round because of the phytic acid.

It is important to take breaks from food so that we are also not storing up plant toxins in our body. When you look at, incredible research when you look at actually plants and the polyphenol content, the antioxidant content and this is really where we're gonna kind of, lead into the rest of this conversation. All plants have polyphenols and antioxidants, and diversity is so important to the health of your body, particularly your gut. So actually if you look at, like stone fruits or summer fruits like peaches or nectarines, they are high in beta carotene. And when you consume these, these are actually sun protective.

So consuming summer fruit is actually designed to help protect you against UV rays. So that's another reason why seasonal consumption of foods are so important because it's almost like God had a design here where when we consumed these particular foods in season, they would protect us from the environment we are in like beta carotenes and and stone fruits. So very cool. When we look at fall, fall in particular, this is where you can start to, you know, eat squash and pumpkins and chard and apples and onions and arugula, carrots, celery, garlic, kale, turnips. This is a season to consume some of these foods if you haven't.

Explore these foods if you haven't consumed them before because, again, this is gonna provide a new variety of fiber, antioxidants, polyphenols to the gut. And this is so crucial. This is probably the most important message I can communicate on today's podcast. When we look at the digestive system, your gut bacteria thrive in consumption of certain plant fibers and antioxidants polyphenols. What we know is not everyone's gut diversity microbiome is the same.

And so why it's different? It's different from a number of different factors, but one very important factor is diversity of foods. If you are consuming the same food over and over again and not diversifying your diet, this leads to monoculturing or having a super abundance of one particular organism or one group of bacteria. And this is a problem. This is what drives small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. This is what drives negative outcomes in your digestive system and this is actually what prevents your gut from properly converting polyphenols in your diet.

There is there is evidence to show, like if you if you know, curry is good for you or turmeric is good for you for instance, okay? So those curcuminoids, now that polyphenol, not everyone can actually make it bioavailable. The ability to take, let's just say turmeric and make it a bioavailable polyphenol compound that that reduces inflammation and goes to the brain and helps reduce oxidative stress in the brain. In order for that to happen, you have to have a certain group of microbiome or bacteria in the gut. So if you haven't been diversifying your diet, if you're not eating a a wide variety of plant fibers, there's no way you're gonna be able to digest certain polyphenols or make them active, bioavailability active to the body to be used.

And so one of the most important reasons why you want to diversify your food and start just experimenting with different foods is so that your body, your gut particularly, can grow in diversity of bacteria. And as it grows in diversity of bacteria, diversity is a key component to digestive health, not just quantity of bacteria, but diversity of bacteria. And this then allows you to take plant compounds and make them bioavailable for the body to be used for reduction of oxidative stress, reduction of inflammation, healing of your body and you will your your body's ability to heal and generate repair and growth is contingent upon your your digestive system. So start diversifying your foods, start experimenting. You know, especially when it comes to kids, picky eaters are not born.

They are created, and they're created because we feed kids what they want to eat, not what they should eat. And early on in a child's life, early on, that 1st year, 2 years of life, their palate is exploding, and it's so important to start trying giving them different herbs and spices to expand their palate so that they crave those foods later on in life. And in your home, maybe it's just a simple, okay, Dr. B, I get it. I need to diversify my diet a little bit.

So maybe your first step is, hey, let's diversify the diet and maybe it's not even eating seasonally, maybe it's just eating a little bit of a different variety, adding just a couple new foods a week or a month. That's a great start for most people. Some people are pretty clean in their diet. They're eating whole foods already, but hey, next step would be eating seasonally and eating locally and eating organically as this drives biodiversity of the gut. And then, hey, maybe you're like me and you kind of check-in some of those boxes already and, like, hey, what's next?

And this is where we really start to push, the envelope in helping the body heal and recover and creating rhythms or disciplines every single year. So twice a year, I'll go through nutrition changes. So I will usually fast for a period of time, 3, 5, 7 days of just water, slowly introduce bone broth, and then I'll usually go into like a ketogenic diet. And for most people, a ketogenic diet is going to be extremely effective at helping reduce inflammation, create brain energy, balance blood sugar, restore metabolism. There's so many benefits to it.

This is a great season. When we talk about fall and winter, this is a great season to even experiment with different diets like Keto or Paleo or go to, you know, even like a carnivore type diet. So great season to even just change up your nutrition to like a massive shift and then kind of settle back somewhere in the middle. So, you know, it's not just about diversity of different plants and produce. You can also just radically change your diet and try a different nutrition plan for 30 days.

Experiment with it. See how the body feels. See how it responds. And, and maybe you will be able to find something that works for you. I don't think there's a one size fits all.

I think everyone should be an n equals 1 or you should be experimenting with food and figure out what you feel best off of, and then continue to go down that, that nutrition plan. So take home message, 1, eat organic. If it's like a struggle for you to eat organic, look at at least the dirty dozen and avoid those. Number 2, source locally. Number 3, eat seasonally.

And number 4, make shifts in your nutrition to a completely different nutrition plan and see how that impacts your daily health, and then and then and then kind of resort back to a middle ground. And in this season, paleo, keto are great options for you to look into. I hope that helps. I hope that adds value to your life. I hope that you understand a little bit more about diversification of foods and why they're so critical not just to, you know, the health of your body, but the health of your gut, the health of your brain, and why it's in really important to look outside of the rhythms and and habits of your life and start to diversify your life through food.

So thanks again for listening to another episode of the Real Health Podcast.