Exclusive Dr. Hyman+ Functional Medicine Deep Dive: Meal Planning Tips & Setting Up Your Kitchen for Optimal Health

Hey, podcast community, Dr. Mark here. I'm so excited to offer you a seven day free trial of my revolutionary new platform called Dr. Hyman Plus. For seven days, you get special access to all the private content included in Dr. Hyman Plus entirely free. It's so easy to sign up. Just go to Apple podcast on your phone and click try free button on the Dr. Hyman's Pharmacy podcast. You'll get exclusive access to ad-free Doctors Pharmacy podcast episodes and functional medicine deep dives where a practitioner dives into topics like heart health, muscle health, insulin resistance and more to help you understand the root cause of specific ailments and walks you through the steps to improve your health today. You'll also get access to all my Ask Mark Anything Q&As where I answer the community's biggest health and wellness questions. Because I'm so sure you're going to love this platform, I'm offering you free access to all of this content for seven days and a teaser of my brand new Functional Medicine Deep Dive episode diving deep into one of the most important topics in health. Head on over to the Doctor's Pharmacy podcast on Apple Podcasts and sign up for your free trial right now. Okay, here we go.

First, we're going to start off with covering the pillars of our healthy plate and what makes up a balanced meal. so these are the four pillars of your plate. They are protein, fat, fiber, and polyphenols. And fiber and polyphenols can kind of be roped into the same pillar because we're going to be getting these from plant-based Foods. We're going to be getting these from fruits, vegetables, whole grains, All of those foods that are packed with vitamins, minerals, and also these beautiful polyphenols that are incredible food for our gut bacteria that allow them to feed and to grow and to thrive and produce postbiotics like short-chain fatty acids and butyrate that help to lower overall levels of inflammation in the body and also help to protect against chronic disease. protein and fat are super, super important on your plan. We wanna also make them centric to our meal. And that is by calorie, that is not by volume. So this next slide is gonna give you an idea of what your plate should look like. Now, as you can see, we have 75% of our plate with fiber and polyphenols, that's your fruits and vegetables, that's your whole grains, your plant foods, those beautiful phytonutrients, the more colorful the better, the more diverse the better, the more color means more polyphenols, and the more polyphenols means we get all of their unique anti-aging, longevity, anti-inflammatory, disease-fighting benefits. Now we have fat and protein, which are also incredibly important, and they are going to take up about 25% of our plate. And we're gonna focus on getting these from high quality sources. Now this presentation contains guidelines that can be applied to the general population. But it's really important to note that all diets require personalization. And the foods that might meet the guidelines for fat and protein and fiber or polyphenols is going to look different for everyone. And that's based on your individual preferences, your likes, your dislikes. Also, if you have certain food sensitivities or food triggers, they are also gonna be considered when designing your meal plan. and if you have any sort of dietary restrictions or health conditions that require a little extra attention, it's important to first become aware that certain foods are triggering gastrointestinal upset or, you know, if that's bloating, if that's mal digestion, if that's food in your stool, if that's, you know, eczema, we need to become aware of the relationship between our food and how we feel, and also lean on the support of your doctor or a functional medicine practitioner that can work with you to get to the root of the issue of whatever is imbalanced in your system to be able to incorporate as many nutrient-dense foods as we can without experiencing a reaction. So if that's you, if I'm speaking to you right now, Dealing with IBS or diverticulitis or colitis, anything along those lines, it's best to consult a functional medicine doctor or a nutritionist or dietitian that has a background in functional medicine and using food as medicine. Here is an example of what your plate could look like. Your meal prepped plate following the pillars of our plate guidelines. so you can see that we have our healthy fat and protein here with a gorgeous filet of what it looks like wild-caught salmon that's been seasoned with herbs and spices and baked in the oven with a little lemon wedge. My mouth is already watering. And you can see, so 75% of our plate is filled with the fiber and polyphenols, and we're getting them from a variety of different sources. So ideally, you would love for your to be covered with a couple of different vegetables instead of just having the same one. Again, we're talking diversity and how important that is for our gut health. And the more plant foods we can incorporate, the more color, the more polyphenols, the better. Let's start with protein. The first question I have written here is, how much protein should I eat per day? And this is going to be different for everybody. and like I said, personalization is key. So it's important to consider your age, your activity level, and what your goals are. So protein is, in my opinion, a nutrient that is under eaten, especially in the standard American diet. A lot of people struggle with getting in enough protein, and this macronutrient is especially critical as we get older. So if you're, you know, 35 or older, it's really important to prioritize protein and you want to make sure you're on the higher end of this range here. So 0.8 to 1.6 grams per kilogram per day is the general recommendations for protein intake. Now, the older we get, the harder it is for our body to digest, absorb, metabolize protein, and be able to distribute it throughout our body to where it needs to go. Now, in particular, this is very important for preserving our lean muscle mass because we are less efficient at metabolizing and absorbing protein as we age. We want to make sure we're upping our protein intake and prioritizing it so that it can be integrated into muscle mass so we don't suffer from sarcopenia or muscle wasting as we age because that is a big telltale sign of the aging process and how well we age. And we want to make sure we're really taking care of our lean muscle mass. Now, what I recommend to my clients, just a general rule of thumb to follow, and this is at minimum, again, we need to consider age, activity level, if you're trying to put on muscle, you know you're going to want to go towards the higher end of this range as well. And a good rule of thumb to follow is two palm-sized portions of protein per day. So that's going to be different depending on your age and that's why this rule applies to everyone. So smaller, younger kids, two palm-sized portions would be smaller portions, right? And for adults, older people, men, we are following the guideline of a palm size portion, and that is going to coincide with your specific body frame and size and how much protein you need. And we're gonna do this palm size portion twice per day. And again, this is at minimum what we want to shoot for. It's about four ounces or 28 to 30 grams of protein twice per day. Now, when we're sourcing our protein, we want to make sure we're focusing on quality. Quality is super important because the higher quality source the food is coming from, the more nutrient dense it's going to be, the better the amino acid makeup, the better the fat composition is going to be. So this is gold standard. You know, this is what to strive for. grass-fed meats, small wild caught fish, plant-based protein that's non-GMO and pasture raised or free ranged poultry. So chicken, turkey, duck, pheasant, Cornish hen, that kind of thing. And, you know, again, this is gold standard. If these sources aren't as accessible to you, whether they're not available financially or in your grocery store, that is totally, totally fine. We don't want to substitute perfect for good. Good is fine. And if we have to lean on conventional meats, that's okay. I have some strategies for you to be able to optimize the nutritional density and composition of conventional meats, this is just the gold standard that we wanna strive for when it comes to quality protein. And again, totally conventional meats are totally, totally fine. And this is what we wanna avoid, okay? When it comes to protein, we wanna avoid the fattier cuts of conventional meats. So like I said, conventional meats are totally fine. They are not the devil. They protein is centric, right? We don't want to just say, oh, I can't access grass-fed protein and kind of throw it out the door. No, conventional is fine. We just want to make sure we're focusing on leaner cuts of conventional meats. And I say that because the fattier cuts of conventional meats are the ones that have a lot of marbling in them. And these tend to contain higher levels of toxins like pesticides, hormones, and antibiotics. Now, conventionally raised meats that are factory farmed are typically not in the greatest living conditions, and they're exposed to more toxins in these living conditions. So, there toxins tend to be stored in the fat of the animal. The fat acts as a reservoir and it holds on to the things that we don't necessarily want. So if we avoid the fattier cuts of meats and we stick to leaner cuts, we're going to reduce our toxic burden, reduce our toxic load, and not have to be as worried about these. pesticides and hormones and antibiotics. Now, another type of protein that we wanna avoid is protein from larger fish. This is your swordfish, your tuna, king mackerel, and again, this is because the larger the fish, the more toxins it tends to contain and it tends to store. So we're talking mercury, we're talking PCBs, we're talking BPA, and phthalates, which are found in plastics. And it's such a shame, but because our oceans are so polluted, our aquatic life is exposed to all these toxins. And the bigger the fish, the more it contains because these toxins bioaccumulate up the food chain. So we wanna make sure we're avoiding the larger fish and sticking to the smaller, fish. So I'm going to go back real quick and the smaller wild caught fish are your smash fish. That's sardines, mackerel, anchovies, salmon, and herring. And the last thing we want to avoid, and I am kind of a stickler with this one with my clients, is we're going to want to avoid genetically modified soy. And this stuff is just low quality, right? The way that soy is farmed in the US is not with nutrient density in mind, it's not with quality in mind. They tend to be heavily sprayed with pesticides. The monocropping, industrialized agriculture is just very damaging, not only to the soil, but it's not producing the highest quality of plant food. So we're gonna wanna stick to non-GMO soy.

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Hi everyone. Just a reminder this podcast is for educational purposes only. This podcast is not a substitute for professional care by a doctor or other qualified medical professional. This podcast is provided on the understanding that it does not constitute medical or other professional advice or services. If you're looking for help in your journey, seek out a qualified medical practitioner. If you're looking for a functional medicine practitioner, you can visit ifm.org and search their find a practitioner database. It's important that you have someone in your corner who's who's trained, who's a licensed healthcare practitioner, and can help you make changes, especially when it comes to your health.