Recovering Well Article 8 Eating Well Guidelines

February 24, 2023

“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants” Michael Pollan

“Your body does not do well on food-like substances” Maggie Luther ND

In the past calorie dense foods were necessary as they kept us alive and were likely nutrient rich.

In modern times we need to re-calibrate to focus on NUTRIENT dense rather than CALORIE dense foods. 

Conversations about diet can be complex. We all eat. We all have different preferences for taste, texture, smell based on our experiences so far. We all have our own favourite foods and our “normal foods”. Added to this our relationship with eating itself, and the complications of also considering those we live with and what they will eat and writing about eating becomes clouded. 

Why talk about food at all when it comes to recovering well? 

Food is a very necessary part of our lives. Nutrition is an important aspect of recovering well after cancer treatments as what we eat is a major source of some of our healthiest nourishing choices we make (or not).  

As part of our recovery our diets need to: 

Support gut health (repair from the treatments and digestion from now on)

Energise us - and have our energy be stable and building over time (Food is meant to make is feel good). 

Provide us with all the nutrients we need to healthy processes in our bodies (including strong immune function)

Support elimination of “toxins” so they don’t get stored in our fat tissues “for later” and build up. 

Taste good (this is a controversial and subjective subject, even within my own household.) 

Luckily our diet has all of this capability - and I think that’s pretty impressive. No wonder there are people who dedicate their careers to nutrition and supporting others to eat well, there are just so many benefits to having a healthy diet and eating well. It’s a complex and fascinating topic, and when we eat well we tend to feel well too. 

So what exactly is eating well? 

It seems like everybody has an opinion about what to eat. Many of the options claim to be research backed and evidence based. This leads to a lot of confusion about how to eat well (Paleo, Ketogenic, Vegan, Pegan, Vegetarian, Ketotarian, FODMAP, Mediterranean, Pritiken, Blue Zones to name just a few of the “diets/ eating philosophies” out there). 

I have found the most helpful thing is to focus on what TO eat rather than what not to eat. I look for common themes among varying information. What I have come to is 7 basic ideas and a set of guidelines that form the base principles of a healthy diet in my view. 

7 Basic Ideas 

1. Micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals are essential for life (the name vitamin comes from vital amine i.e. essential for life). 
2. Fibre is important for cleansing out the bowel (to find out more google “low fibre diet increased risk of”). And yes, there are times when people are advised to have low fibre diets but they are the exception not the rule. 
3. Short chain fatty acids (SCFA) are important as food for the commensal bacteria living in our digestive tract (the good guys that help us breakdown food, manufacture some B Vitamins and so much more)
4. We need water for life, and water containing foods are a great way to hydrate ourselves and support elimination. 
5. Anti-oxidants have many benefits for us and need to be plentiful in our diet (especially if you consider the mitochondrial damage theory of cancer)
6. We need Carbohydrates, Protein and Healthy Fats in the right proportion
7. Our glycemic load needs to be kept low to support healthy stable energy levels

How do we achieve all this? 

The Guidelines

Focus on: 

Nutrient Dense, Water containing Foods

The more VARIETY of healthful foods you eat, the better. 

Keep Glycemic load minimised

Minimal Mammal 

Plant rich diet

 

LOTS of vegetables 

LOTS of water containing foods

Reasonable amount of berries, nuts, seeds

Source protein from a variety of sources - if you choose to have animal protein use lean preferably organic meats and be mindful of your portion sizes

USE herbs and spices to add flavour and diversity to your diet

Drink plenty of water

Eating organic food where possible. It can be hard to source enough of a varied diet when limited to what is available organically, and sometimes the cost is significant. EWG* have a report of the “dirty dozen” foods that have the most pesticides used in their production. I pay particular attention to these ones and source organic where I can, including buying organic frozen berries. 

 

 

Each meal:

 ½ Non starchy vegetables or low GI fruit such as berries

 ¼ Starchy vegetables or pectin rich fruit or grain-like vegetables

 ¼ Protein with a little healthy fats (if using pulse protein have minimal complex carbohydrates)

 

AVOID or significantly decrease: 

Refined sugar I use Stevia as a sweetener, it’s natural and calorie neutral. Monk fruit is another good option. 

Refined carbohydrates (white flour based foods) This includes gluten free refined flours. 

Processed foods

Additives (EWG* produces a report on the top food chemicals to avoid) 

Vegetables Variety and Versatility

As part of Recovering Well I have written about supporting healthy digestive systems and aiming for stable energy levels. The Guidelines are a list of ideals, and you might be wondering if there was ONE thing you could focus on. 

The answer to that is as simple and complex as -  Eat Vegetables! 

Specifically as many non-starchy vegetables as possible. 

Vegetables (especially non-starchy ones) are nutrient dense, they contain a variety of micronutrients. 

Depending on how they are grown and stored vegetables will contain antioxidants, phytochemicals and an abundance of vitamins and minerals (so do berries and other fruit). 

Vegetables supply short-chain fatty acids and they can be fermented. This support healthy bowel flora. 

Many vegetables contain soluble fibre, supporting healthy digestive system and elimination. 

Vegetables can be eaten cooked or raw. 

By loading up on vegetables you will naturally decrease eating other less desirable foods such as simple sugars. 

The general public guidelines are for 5+ a day but from what I have learnt I would suggest it’s more like 9. 

And by the time you have fitted in your 9 servings of non-starchy vegetables (or 6 vegetables and 3 fruit) you will be loaded up with nutrients and won’t have much focus on much else. 

Then you can add a little protein, some seeds and nuts (for healthy fats), and a little complex carbohydrates such as rice/ quinoa. 

How do you get 9 servings of vegetables into your diet every day? 

• My simplest suggestion is that whatever you are making, add one more vegetable. Making a stir fry, add one more veg. Making a casserole? Add one more veg? Making a salad…you get the idea. 

• Speaking of salads, these are also key to the 9 servings - a side salad (or having the meal be a substantial salad) are key to adding in healthy water containing vegetables. 

• Years ago a friend introduced me to seed sprinkle (a combination of seeds that get sprinkled over salad) and I haven’t looked back. I have this in the cupboard pre-made and add it to almost any salad I feel needs “a little something”. 

• You can also make “roast salads” of pumpkin, beetroot, courgette, carrot, etc

• Adding sprouts to salads increases the variety of vegetables you are eating. 

Is variety really needed? 

It’s easy to get stuck into a routine of eating the same vegetables each week, with only a little variation for the seasons. 

Here are a few benefits to having a variety of vegetables in your diet:

1. Different vegetables have different levels of micronutrients, so variety is important to get as many of the micronutrients as you possibly can from your diet. 
2. Different species of beneficial organisms that live in our gut get fed and respond to different nutrients and food sources. 
3. If there are vegetables you don’t like as much you can eat them less often while still getting the benefit of having them in your diet.

My main ways of getting a variety of vegetables into my diet are:

1. Add one more veg to every meal
2. Add side salads to every meal unless the meal is itself a salad
3. Once a week add a massive variety of vegetables (one carrot, a handful of kale, a capsicum, a leek, whatever you can get your hands on) and blend this up in a food processor so it is very fine. You can store this in the fridge, or in little ice cube trays in the freezer as individual serves. Then each morning have a tablespoon of your vege mix (or add it to your morning smoothie/ green drink). 
4. Vege mash  - rather than one vegetable such as mashed potato or kumara have a variety of veg and mash them all together. 
5. Soups 
6. Casseroles
7. Stir frys (actually steam frys) 

It’s not just vegetables, there are other plants 

Many fruits are also nutrient dense and water containing and have soluble fibre. 

Herbs are very flavourful and learning to add these to your cooking makes such a big difference to the flavour of your meal that you will find you don’t need to rely on sugar/ salt/ additive laden flavouring sauces. 

Seeds are highly nutritious and although they aren’t water containing they give us so much (essential fatty acids, minerals, vitamins, anti-oxidants and fibre) that they are worth including into our diets every day. 

This can be done using a blended seed mix (that you make once a week and leave in the fridge). I suggest you use 50% flaxseed and a combination of pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, hemp seeds. 

For more information you can read my article on savoury snacks.  

Individual Variations

There are some foods that don’t work for some people. Whether this is a full blown allergy or just a food that makes you sick even thinking about. 

I advocate building up your tolerance for a variety of tastes and textures by adding small amounts of foods that aren’t your favourite and getting used to different tastes. 

I also advocate supporting your digestion and gut integrity to allow you to be able to have as varied healthful diet as possible. 

In a consultation with clients we work together and can analyse what they are eating and through careful questioning and food diaries we can gain clues to how the food they eat is affecting them. This leads to discussions about what changes will be most helpful, and incorporates each persons preferences, must haves etc

This is not a consultation, and in this setting I can only offer general guidelines. I encourage you to experiment and find what works for you within the healthy guidelines, there really are many ways to eat well and support your recovery by having a nutrient dense healthy diet. 

Overall the goal is to increase or have lots of what helps and decrease or minimise what doesn't. 

Our bodies are extremely complex but what we know is that we need enough protein, carbohydrate and good quality fats (macronutrients) for energy and repair as well as approximately 30 vitamins and minerals (micronutrients).

What you eat is meant to nourish you. 

Next Article - Eating well to support detoxification. 

Cites of Interest: 

*EWG are a non profit organisation that advocate for policies that protect global and individual health. www.EWG.org  

The Everything Guide to Adrenal Fatigue, Maggie Luther ND

The Holford Diet by Patrick Holford

NutritionFacts.org. This site has a Daily Dozen Meal Planning Guide and a Evidence based eating guide that are useful resources you can get emailed to you for free. 

ONE, Jamie Oliver

The Revive 5 Cafe cookbook by Jeremy Dixon

Cancer - The best of both worlds - Julia Davidson

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