Episode 4: Food as Medicine

Hi, I'm Dr. Tabitha, the functional gynecologist. I'm a board certified OB, GYN and functional medicine physician. I've embraced the world of functional medicine and wellness through my own personal health journey. And I'm super excited to share my wisdom and unique perspective as it pertains to women's health. So if you're struggling with hormone imbalance, weight gain period issues, anxiety, insomnia, you name it, then you've come to the right place. I want to be your functional gynecologist. So welcome. Hi again, it's Dr. Tabitha, your functional gynecologist. Today I'm going to be talking about food as medicine. Such an important topic. Pretty much since the beginning of civilization, we have known the importance of food on our body. Hippocrates once said, let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food. As a physician, I've really come to embrace this and understand the important role that food plays in our body. For the past few years, I've been on this journey just studying functional medicine and really trying to figure out the root cause of my own diseases as a way of truly healing instead of just using medications to control my symptoms. This has opened my eyes to what a huge impact food and nutrition has on our physical and mental health. So today I'm going to review the negative impacts of the SAD diet, the standard American diet. We're going to explore, explore the core principles of a healthy diet. I'm going to point out the factors that contribute to our poor eating habits and how we can be more mindful with our eating. I want to instill in you the idea that food can be medicine. It's information that your body receives with every bite. And what information we give, it determines our health. Some people actually argue that food really isn't that important. And unfortunately, I have had pain patients tell me that physicians have told them that it doesn't really matter what they eat. But I want you to think about this. Something as simple as coffee, obviously it makes you feel different. You know, people say, oh, I can't start my day without coffee, it gives me energy. Or some people can't drink it at all because it gives them heart palpitations and makes them feel shaky. That is a direct effect of you ingesting a food having an effect on your body. So same with something like ice cream. Some people, it makes them feel happy and it hits your dopamine receptors and you are just feeling good. Other people, you start having cramping and you're running to the bathroom with diarrhea. Because of that direct effect ice cream has on your body. And we can't forget the emotional aspects. You know, Grandma made you biscuits and gravy as a child. You, you may crave that as a comfort food as an adult, because it brings you back to the feelings of love and safety that your grandma gave you. So I just want you to realize that food does directly affect how we feel. Food can either be nourishing and provide us with energy and health, or it can actually be depleting and be the cause of what's making us sick. The standard American diet has been coined the SAD diet, because it is full of added sugars and sweeteners. It's super highly processed foods. We created something called trans fats that we've been putting in our food. Now that's really been detrimental. We also have GMOs. In general. The SAD diet is very high calorie, nutrient deplete and highly inflammatory. I'm going to discuss how the food industry over time has increased our sugar consumption to an alarming amount. And I'm going to explain trans fats and GMOs. And then I just want you to understand that as a country, we are overfed and undernourished, and this is the driving force behind the majority of our chronic medical diseases. So back in the 1800s, Americans ate about 2 pounds of sugar a year. This, that actually isn't too bad. You know, pounds seems like a lot, but two pounds a year for an average American was nothing compared to in the 1970s. That increased to 123 pounds per year for one person. And today we average 152 pounds per year. That equals 3 pounds of sugar a week. If I was Alive in the 1800s, the amount of sugar I ate in an entire year is less than the amount of sugar I eat per week. Now, as an American in 2020, we really should only be getting 10% of our calories from sugar, which is about 13 teaspoons a day. And we're averaging 42 to 43 teaspoons a day. So why is this happening? I'm not sitting there with my bag of sugar eating it all day long. How am I getting this? Sugar was added to all of the highly processed foods that we as Americans eat. It is in salad dressings, sauces, frozen meals, soups, coffee creamers, cereal, crackers, condiments, pop, our fruit drinks, our sports drinks, our teas, our flavored milks, our yogurt, peanut butter breakfast bars, tuna pouches. That one was pretty eye opening. Why are you going to add sugar to my tuna pouch? Canned fruit. The list goes on and on. And if you think you're doing better drinking a diet pop, you're not. Those artificial sweeteners are actually much more concentrated and really hit our dopamine receptors even harder than regular sugar and reinforces our sugar addiction. Another reason you might not realize you're ingesting as much sugar as you are is because they, they go by many names. So even if you're reading the labels, you might not realize that things like barley malt, brown rice syrup, blackstrap, molasses, evaporated cane syrup, honey, sorbitol, stevia, turbinado, xylitol, these are all names of added sugars and sweeteners that are in the foods that we're eating. Why did this happen? Why is the food industry adding all of this sugar? So I just want to talk a minute about food processing in general. You know, food processing is fine. We mill our grains into flour, we crush our seeds into extract for their oils. We churn milk into butter, we smoke fish, we dehydrate meats into jerky, we pickle vegetables. Those are all good fine food processing systems. It's the highly processed food that is the problem. So, so in the 1950s, the food industry started making trans fats or partially hydrogenated oils. They took a liquid fat and they wanted to make it into a solid so that they could create food with it. So they added a hydrogen to these liquid vegetable fats. But it didn't taste good, so they had to add sugar to make it more palatable so that we would eat it. By making these solid fats, they were able to mass produce food and snacks in greater quantities very cheaply. So these trans fats, we found out, you know, half a century later that they are really bad. They increase our LDL cholesterol, our triglycerides, and they decrease our protective HDL cholesterol. In 2003, the the world Health Organization finally recommended that trans fats should not be more than 1% of our diet. Really it was about 80%. So once that recommendation came out, the governing bodies had to start making changes and enforce it. In the food industry, however, it took another 10 years. So in 2013, the FDA finally said partially hydrogenated oils are no longer generally recognized as safe in human food. It wasn't in for another five years that they finally introduced a six step guide to eliminate these trans fats from our food supply. That's pretty sad that we realized it and it took almost 20 years to actually remove it out of our food. So we have been eating trans fats for 70 years now. You're gonna see these in shortening, margarine spreads, doughnuts, Commercially fried foods, baked goods, cake products, cookies, crackers, salty snacks is one reason that we have become so obese and have seen a rise in chronic disease. But I'm gonna get into that a little bit later. Next I want to explain GMOs. GMOs are genetically modified organisms. They're living organisms like plants, animals, or microorganism whose genetic material has been artificially manipulated in the lab through genetic engineering. These genetically modified crops that most that I'm going to be talking about have been created to withstand the application of herbicides, pesticides, and for the plant to produce its own pesticide. It was first introduced in the 90s. Now most of our food processed with, and there's no label on that, the top 10 genetically modified foods. Corn, soy, cottonseed, papaya, rice, potatoes, tomatoes, dairy products, peas and canola. Originally scientists thought, let's figure out a way to feed more people at a cheaper cost. So by modifying the corn crop to be resistant to insects, the crop yield was higher. Unfortunately, what we've seen is that the crops have required more pesticides because they also become resistant. So they use toxins like Roundup, which is called glyphosate, is the chemical product on these crops. What we're now understanding is that it is a cancer causing agent. It's been linked to non Hodgkin's lymphoma. Many researchers believe it's a factor contributing to cancers and autoimmune disease. There's a lot of controversy around this. Unfortunately, many studies that are being done are controlled by the industry that's actually financially benefiting from its use. So as a physician, I just feel really strongly that we should be using caution and try to avoid most GMOs because of the unknown threat. It's not worth the risk. And there are alternatives available. GMOs, you know, the pro side of it is they're resistant to insects, they're tolerant to heat, cold and drought. You can get a bigger crop yield. But what we're now realizing is the downside is that we're seeing a significant increase in food allergies, antibiotic resistance, disruption of the gut mucosa, increase in autoimmune diseases, risk of toxicity, and an increase in cancers. In March of 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer through the WHO or the World Health Organization, it classified it as probably carcinogenic to humans. This is the most abundantly used chemical in GMOs. An independent research group looked at the levels of glyphosate in common foods that we eat. So the study published results saying that the amount of glyphosate that alters gene function in the livers and kidneys of rats was 0.1 parts per billion. In Europe, the amount of glyphosate in tap water that's legally allowed is 0.1 parts per billion. The toxic effects on the livers of fish is about 10 parts per billion. We see about 700 parts per billion alterations in the kidney and liver function in rats. 700 parts per billion is the acceptable level of glyphosate in the in the United States tap water. What this independent study found was that the level found in in a serving of Cheerios was 1125 parts per billion. That is way above the permitted level that we allow in our tap water. And that was just in a serving. Can you imagine eating that level once or twice a day, multiple times a week for how many years? They measured a few of the most popular processed foods. Cheerios topped the list like I said, at 1125 parts per billion. Corn flakes was 78 parts per billion. Ritz crackers was 270 parts per billion. Oreo cookies 289 parts per billion. Dollar Doritos, 481 parts per billion. And the list goes on. So what's that that's showing is that our number one genetically modified crop corn modified with glyphosate. That glyphosate is staying in that product and we are ingesting it at levels way above accepted levels. And it's finally been acknowledged that this is a cancer causing agent. It's a very controversial topic and that's all I'm going to say about it right now. But there are other options. That is why I always go for organic first and foremost if I can just to decrease the amount of glyphosate I'm putting in my system and in my child's system. I do want to mention a side note. There is an environmental impact, you know, the agricultural industry has on our earth and the food industry in general. It's clearly been linked to climate change, water pollution, soil depletion, cutting down of our rainforests. We've lost species of animals because of it. So that we can mass produce cattle and corn. Our water is being polluted with glyphosates because it's runoff from the GMOs that we are producing. We really don't need to be mass producing this much corn and soybean crops. We are doing this to mostly make snacks like candy, chips, cookie pop, high fructose corn syrup. And this is all making us sick. So we really should not be supporting and subsidizing an industry that's making us sick. The other major issue is the dairy industry. We've created antibiotic resistance, which I'm going to talk about in a little bit. Just something to think about and maybe research a little more on your own after you're done listening to this one. So let's talk about dairy. Is it healthy? Lactose is a simple sugar. In milk, about 60% of people are actually lactose intolerant. By about the age of three to five, we should be weaning off our mother's breast milk. That's how mother nature intended it. And our bodies stop making lactase, the enzyme that's needed to digest lactose, because our bodies don't think we're gonna be ingesting milk any longer. Most adults cannot tolerate lactose. The other issue with dairy are there two proteins called casein and whey. Our bodies have a hard time digesting these proteins, so oftentimes our immune system will attack. Actually, 80% of our immune system lives in gut, which is pretty surprising, but makes total sense because you want that first line of defense. If you're ingesting something your body doesn't want in there, you want your immune system at the front lines ready to attack. Unfortunately, when you eat dairy, a lot of people get IBS symptoms, like irritable bowel, symptoms of constipation, diarrhea, gas, bloating. But it can also lead to things like eczema, headaches, sinus congestion and acne, because your immune system is responding to that. So casein is similar in molecular structure to gluten, which is found in wheat, and that's the second most inflammatory food behind dairy. So the milk industry is pretty smart. It caught on to this. And so now when you go to the grocery store, you see about 50 different options for milk, and one of those is a2 milk. So a2 is trying to combat this casein issue. So casein exists in two variants, A1 beta casein and A2 beta casein. A1 is more inflammatory. Actually, goat's milk and sheep's milk lack the A1, so they're better tolerated by humans. So you're gonna see a 2 milk for sale. And for some people, that's what they drink, and they have decrease in their symptoms and that is beneficial. Some would argue, you know what, you don't need to be ingesting another mammal's milk. We're just not designed to do that. So that's where that argument comes from. Another issue is that milk isn't as beneficial to our health as it's been portrayed. You know, we have all seen the ads for milk makes us strong, gives us strong bones. But the research actually shows the opposite. Milk does not reduce fractures. The nurses health study showed that it actually increases a risk of fracture by 50%. The reason for this is that it's very acid forming, so it pulls from the alkaline reserves stored in your bones. It pulls the calcium, magnesium and potassium out and weakens the bones. Studies have also shown that higher intakes of dairy may increase a man's risk of prostate cancer by 30 to 50%. That's crazy. That alone would be reason enough for me if I was a man to stop drinking milk. Dairy increases insulin like growth factor, which is a known cancer promoter. And the dairy farmers know this. They have been injecting cows with growth hormone to increase milk production so that their cows are producing milk year round. What happened is this caused udder infections because their udders were being used so much and then they had to give them antibiotics for those infections and all of that stuff went into the milk that we have been drinking for decades now. So I'm not saying that you should ban dairy. I just want you to stop and think about it. I want you to inform yourself of what you're putting into your body so you can make an informed decision of whether you want to subject your body to that. You know, I have many patients who've been able to heal themselves of their chronic conditions after they eliminate dairy from their diet. This subject is like super near and dear to my heart because my own daughter struggled with severe constipation and fecal accidents. She is now nine years old and the only way to manage that is to have her avoid dairy. Make sure she's getting enough fiber and magnesium, which I'm also going to talk about later. The impacts that these have on our health can cause anxiety, interfere with school and work travel activities. It can be a major issue and something as simple as eliminating a food source that we don't need in the first place. That's really empowering. So I want you to just know that and don't freak out. There's plenty of non dairy sources of calcium. You can get them in your almonds, your asparagus, Your apricots, your citrus fruits, broccoli, you name it. There's so many sources of calcium that are not from dairy that you are not going to be deficient, that is for sure. So the second most inflammatory food is wheat, and part of that is the glyphosate issue, but part of it is from a protein called gluten. Gluten is found in many grains, and now it's in most of our food. They put it in pasta, bread, medications, meat substitutes, sauces, our deli meat, our personal care products. Our body is being exposed to gluten at levels that it never was in the past. And so our immune system system is on fire. There's an actual disease called celiac disease, which is an autoimmune disease that develops from eating gluten. The immune system attacks the small intestines and destroys them, so they can't absorb nutrients, and people can get really sick. And it actually increases your risk of cancer. There's also non celiac gluten sensitivity. If you have increased intestinal permeability that I'm going to explain in a little bit, and you are eating gluten, you can have all kinds of symptoms like constipation, diarrhea, heartburn, chronic pain, bloating, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, brain fog, depression, eczema, psoriasis, and develop autoimmune diseases. We tell you to eat whole grain wheat, things like that, but not everyone can tolerate it or should eat it because of the gluten. What happens is gluten releases zonulin. It's a chemical that causes the little gap junctions in our intestines to break down, and then particles pass through our gut into our bloodstream and cause an inflammation response. All of the little cells lining our gut, there's only one cell layer between our gut where all our food is and then our bloodstream. And so it's like a little toll booth. These little gap junctions are supposed to only allow certain nutrients and tiny proteins to get through. But if those toll booths are broken and things are busting through that shouldn't be, then your immune system is going to see all kinds of stuff in the blood that it responds to because it's trying to protect you. So it's actually doing something it's supposed to. Our system has never seen, you know, in decades past in the levels like they do now. The other theory behind gluten is molecular mimicry. So gluten structurally looks like our own body tissues. The thyroid gland in particular gets attacked when you have non celiac gluten sensitivity. So what destroys those little gap junctions between all of our intestinal mucosa cells? Things like gluten and dairy proteins, but also antibiotics, stress, toxins like glyphosate in the gmo food, pregnancy, any changes in physical or emotional stress, like I mentioned. So these destroy those little gap junctions and stuff gets into your bloodstream that shouldn't. If this happens, occasionally the body can clear it, those gap junctions are reproduced, things are, you know, fixed and you go on your way. But if you are constantly bombarded with these triggers every day, most meals chronically, then they don't allow for it to heal. And then you develop chronic inflammation and chronic disease. So think about it this way. Back in the olden days, we used to worry about diseases like tuberculosis. Tuberculosis was caused from a bacteria that you'd be exposed to. It would make you sick and you would need medications to kill that bacteria and be treated and cured. These new diseases that we see in society, chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease, are not from a pathogen that you catch and get infected with. They're the result of chronic low grade destruction to our cells from what we eat and don't eat, how we move and don't move, how we handle our stress, and all the repeated toxins that we're exposed to on a daily basis. With this concept in mind, I want you to start to understand that these diseases are reversible. You don't have to like get a diagnosis of diabetes and just lay down and be done. You can fight back. You can make major changes in your life and get your health back. It's pretty amazing. Although I said that diabetes isn't actually caused by an infection from a certain bacteria, bacteria do play a major role in your health and disease process. Humans, we found out, are actually only about 1 10th human DNA. The rest of our bodies are made up of bacteria, fungi, viruses, and other microbes. Our GI tract has about a trillion bacteria living in it at any time. And they are actually running the show. We average about 500 to 1000 different species species in our guts at any different given time. So scientists are finally understanding which species are beneficial and which contribute to disease. According to the nih, the National Institute of Health, our gut microbiome, that's the guys living inside of our GI tract, they directly impact our physiology. They contribute to digestion, metabolic function. They protect us against pathogens or bad bacteria, and they educate our immune system. One cool example of how important it is a brain neurotransmitter called serotonin, which is really Activated with antidepressants like SSRIs. Those try to keep serotonin around to make you feel better. Our gut and our intestinal bacteria actually directly affects the production of serotonin. It also produces vitamin K, which is a necessary cofactor in the production of blood clotting. So without good, healthy bacteria, you could actually bleed too much. That's pretty amazing. I like to think about the bacteria living in our gut as good guys and bad guys, although it's definitely more complex than that. If we eat garbage, we help the unhealthy bacteria live there. Like squatters who come in your house and live there and mooch off you. They. They're going to deplete your nutritional banks. They're going to destroy your house, you know, your body. If you want a nice, beautiful house, fully functioning, you need to supply it with good house guests or good bacteria that will pay rent and contribute to the upkeep of your house and add to your nutritional bank. A really cool example of how important the gut bacteria is. As an obstetrician, you know, I deliver babies. When a baby is born through the vaginal canal, it's inoculated with the microbiome from its mother. It gets the vaginal bacteria and the gut bacteria, they go into the baby's system and set up residence through that delivery process. So when babies are born through cesarean section, they don't necessarily get inoculated with mom's bacteria. And. And many of those babies have initial struggles with digestion, and they can't do the intricate chemical processes in their guts and lungs that are needed because they don't have the right bacteria living in them yet. They're more apt to have colic and reflux and inflammatory issues. So there's studies and research going on about six seeding babies with vaginal bacteria after C sections to help decrease those issues. It's pretty amazing stuff. So I want to go back to chronic disease and talk about obesity for a minute. So if you go to, like, the CDC website, you can look at how our country has changed just in past few decades. So back in 1994, they have this graph showing America in 1994 versus 2014. And in Michigan, where I live, less than 14% of the population was considered obese. And in 2014, over 26% was considered obese. I wish you could see the graph. It's sad, but the majority of our country is in the over 26% range. So the rise in diabetes has gone along directly with the rise in obesity since the 90s. So back in the 50s we started making synthetic organic chemicals. I know that name is an oxymoron because synthetic means man made organic means natural. So what these chemicals are is they were created in a lab with a carbon base, so that's what makes them organic. But they are foreign to our system. So that is what pesticides are made of in defoliants and fuel additives. These have been seeped into our soil and water supply since the, you know, early 60s or whatever. And because they are carbon based, our body is able to absorb them, but then we can't get rid of it. So we get this toxic buildup. The rise in chronic disease and has directly increased in parallel with the increased use of these synthetic organic compounds. Not surprisingly, the rate of autism has shot up exponentially since the 90s when we started genetically modifying our food, all of our crops and using these synthetic organic chemicals like Roundup in our food food. You can see the rise in autoimmune and neurological diseases. They've all gone up parallel to the use of these chemicals like Alzheimer's, thyroid disease, celiac disease, multiple sclerosis. That's very sad. But it's obviously a direct effect to what we're doing and what we're consuming. So now that we've talked about all of the scary negative stuff that we've done in our country to our food supply, let's talk about healthy eating. How can we counteract everything that we've done? So the core principles of healthy eating, this is eating real whole foods like the way God created, Mother Nature created, they came out of the ground or the animal that was born. That is what we should be getting back to. We should be focused on eating organic non GMO foods. Importantly, we should be eating a variety of color. I'm going to explain all the phytonutrients that are in our fruits and vegetables and why color is so important in our diet. I'm going to explain the difference between healthy fats and why you should be eating mostly plant based and fish. If you are going to eat animal products, you really should be eating grass fed beef and bison, pasture raised poultry, meaning they're eating the bugs and insects out in the pasture. They're not, you know, eating the GMO corn. You want to get away from those highly processed foods that I talked about. And no more trans fats. The properties of food. Food gives us energy from calories. There's three types of macronutrients, protein, fat and carbohydrates. Our bodies cannot produce these. We Must eat them. Food is fuel. For decades, we were told, calories in, calories out, it doesn't really matter what you eat. As long as you stay under 1800 or 2000 calories a day, you. You won't gain weight. But this totally disregards the intricate nature of our human body. We're complex. We were designed to interact and coexist with plants and other animals on this planet. Really, there's only three macronutrients. There's protein, fats, and carbohydrates. And most fad diets want to villainize one or another. So be careful, because we really do need all three macronutrients in our system. They were designed all for a purpose. So in the long run, it's not safe to cut any one of those out. Avocados are my favorite because they provide healthy fats, proteins, carbs, vitamins, and nutrients all in one amazing package. That was not an accident. The Earth gives us the tools we need to thrive as people. We just need to focus and get back to that. Where we went wrong was thinking we could make food better than our creator, and it's just not possible. All the Earth's natural food source gives us exactly what we need. Nothing is missing. And combining different foods actually can enhance their nutrition and benefit us even more. So diversity is key. So energy. We eat to move. We eat to think and feel and breathe. Energy comes from the macronutrients and the micronutrients. Every cell, tissue, and organ in our body needs fuel to function. A person's quality of life is largely based on how well their body can work, move, and act, right? So you want to provide your body with the highest quality fuel and ensure that your body's functioning well and your systems are optimized. But here's a really interesting fact. Protein and carbohydrates provide about 4 calories of energy per gram, whereas fat actually yields 9 calories of energy per gram. So fat is more efficient of an energy burner. In future episodes, I'm going to be stressing the importance of getting back to being a fat burner as opposed to a sugar burner. That's where intermittent fasting comes in. So when we eat, food is mixed with acids and enzymes in our stomach. Carbohydrates are broken down into glucose and sent into the bloodstream. You can either use that immediately for energy, like to go for a run or whatever, or it can be stored as fat for later. Fat is primarily used to store energy. It's held as a reserve for when your body needs Some energy. Fat is also super important because it's needed to make all the membranes of all the cells in our body and our hormones. So listen up women. Fat is important. Protein is a longer lasting form of energy. It's broken down more slowly. Protein is usually used as energy when the total calorie intake is really low and energy can't be obtained from carbs or fat. So you're going to see protein breakdown with periods of prolonged fasting where you are not tapping into your fat stores and burning fat is energy. So proteins are the building blocks of life. They're necessary to repair and make new cells. They support muscle growth, they maintain lean muscle mass, they stabilize blood sugar and insulin levels and helps control your hunger. For animal proteins, you want to focus on grass fed and pasture raised beef, wild caught fish, free range poultry. Think about it this way. You want to eat animals that themselves have eaten well, because you will be ingesting whatever they ate. So if your cow was fattened up and made plumper with GMO corn and growth hormone and antibiotics, then you are also going to be plumper and fatter because that meat is much higher in saturated bad fats. So you want to eat animals that themselves have eaten well, if you eat animals at all. For plant proteins, soy is an actual complete protein, but you really need to eat that 100% organic, because like I mentioned earlier, soy is one of the top genetically modified foods full of glyphosate. So you really want to make sure you're getting that organic. So for vegetarians and vegans, it's really important to be combining your foods and eating a variety so that you can get the complete set of essential amino acids that you need, like from your legumes, your seeds, your nuts and your grains, because most of those lack different essential amino acids. Fats. That's the third macronutrient. They stay in your stomach longer, they help you feel satisfied for a longer period of time. You want to eat a high quality, minimally processed, organic fat or oil. You're going to get that from avocados, olives, olive oil, ghee, butter, dark chocolate, coconut milk. Fats are not only used for energy, but like I said, they're needed in all the membranes of every cell in your body. And you need them to make your sex hormones like estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, cortisol for stress management, aldosterone for blood pressure control. It's super important. I would say you should get at least 4 servings of a good healthy fat every day, along with a Couple servings of nuts. So the low fat diet of the 90s, do you remember that? Oh my gosh. Everything went low fat. And that is another reason why so much sugar got added to our food supply. But that left people so depleted and hormonally imbalanced, it was a nightmare. So we had increased cell damage because the cell membranes were not able to be produced correctly. Hormone receptors weren't functioning well, Toxins couldn't be removed. It was bad when all of that sugar got added into our food supply. That also wreaked havoc on our gut microbiome and started creating sugar cravings. Before, when you feed those bad bacteria, they actually metabolize and break down your food. So then they crave it more and you get signals that you want more sugars and sweets. Even the salty snacks are full of sugar. You just don't realize it. So that's where addiction to your food comes in. You can blame it on the bacteria. You don't have to take all the blame on that one. So stop blaming yourself. Cut those bacteria off cold turkey. Your brain will thank you when it's no longer consumed with thoughts of eating garbage all day. Believe me, I went through this. I used to. The food used to talk to me. There'd be donuts in the break room and I would literally think about it all day until I gave in and ate it. And once I stopped eating that stuff, it no longer talked to me because I killed off those backs bacteria. I wiped them out. And I inoculated my gut with healthy bacteria that didn't have those bad cravings. Okay, some more on healthy fats. You want to make sure that you're getting good omega 3 healthy fats. You're gonna get that from cold water, fish, algae, enriched eggs and nuts, wild caught salmon. If you eat that twice a week, it decreases your risk of coronary death by 36%. That's pretty amazing. It's also super important to decrease the intake of saturated fats and omega 6 fats. Those are in vegetable oils, canola oil, corn oils. They're common in like coffee creamers and salad dressings. The problem is they're very inflammatory and they make it difficult for your body to turn healthy fats into DHA and epa. So get away from those coffee creamers or use coconut milk or almond milk instead, or drink green tea, but get away from coffee mate creamer. Those are terrible. And then carbohydrates. Unless you are a child running around all day or a triathlete, you really don't need a steady stream of simple carbs in your diet, and they probably don't either. We lead pretty much sedentary lifestyles these days, and we probably eat way more calories than we need. Food has become our major pastime in our social life. We go out to eat, we go out for coffee and drinks. And so we really just do intake too much food on a regular basis. That's why the idea of intermittent fasting has become so popular and science is really backing this up. The idea that we do not need to be eating all of the time, we should be done eating around 6pm Most of the time and probably not eating again until 9am or 12pm noon the next day. Our bodies weren't designed to continually be intaking and digesting food. It actually creates work to be digesting food. And you want to give your body time and take a break from that. In history, we didn't have food readily available to us at all hours of the day and night. Our bodies were designed to go through periods of fasting and then we find food and we feast and then we fast again. So really, this idea of eating all of the time was created by the snack industry and it's really contributed to all of this obesity and chronic disease. So if you take nothing else from this podcast, stop snacking. It's so detrimental to your health. Okay, onto another important topic. If you want to lose weight, prevent cancer, have normal bowel movements, you need to increase your intake of daily fiber. It's in plant based foods like whole grains, nuts, legumes, vegetables, fruits, and it's super important. It feeds that healthy gut microbiome. All those bacteria I've been talking about. There's two types. There's soluble and insoluble. The soluble fiber attracts water and swells things up, creating a gel like mass that slows down digestion. This helps bind the toxins in your system, the excess hormones you're trying to excrete, and the bad excess cholesterol. And then your body removes them. When you poop, the insoluble fiber acts like a broom. It sweeps out all the debris from your intestines and helps move food along. Soluble fiber is in like carrots, apples, oats, beans, peas, lentils, psyllium. Insoluble fiber is in whole grains, beans, potatoes, cauliflower, nuts. So you can see that there's definitely an overlap in food, but you want to really be eating plant based. Like I said, it normalizes our bowel movements. We're definitely not getting enough in this country. The recommended minimal daily allowance is 35 to 40 grams. We're averaging about 11 grams a day. The newer studies is has shown that we really should be eating 50 grams or more of fiber a day. So we are not eating enough vegetables in this country. It lowers your risk of colon cancer, your bad cholesterol levels, it helps control blood sugar, it helps you achieve your ideal weight and it helps you live longer. So onto phytonutrients, another great reason to eat plants. These compounds are what give them their beautiful color. They are full of antioxidants, anti inflammatory properties. These compounds communicate with the cells in our body and change how it functions. There's over 10,000 phytonutrients identified today. That's pretty amazing. There's bitter compounds in arugula and green leafy vegetables. Resveratrol is probably one that you've heard of from grapes and red wine. Astringent compounds and green teas. These phytonutrients help regulate your blood sugar, lower bad cholesterol and reduce your blood pressure. When you think about fruits and vegetables, you think of the rainbow. Like the reds, the yellows, the orange, the blues, the purples, the tans. You want to be eating at least 2 servings from every color every day, so eat the rainbow. The orange category are the carotenoids, the beta carotene, found in yellow orange food. Like carrots, winter squash, cantaloupe and papaya. They actually tackle free radicals and damaged tissues that are in your body. Lycopene is in grapefruit, gives it its pretty pink color and tomatoes their red color that decrease men's risk of prostate cancer. Then you have lutein and xanthine found in spinach, kale and collard greens. These protect against the development of cataracts and macular degeneration. So if you want good eyes, start eating those greens. Ellagic acid is found in strawberries, raspberries and pineapples. Pomegranates, they actually slow the growth of cancer cells. How amazing is that? Polyphenols are another amazing class of phytonutrients. Like I mentioned, resveratrol and grapes and red wine. They actually decrease the risk of heart disease and cancer and may extend your life. Curcumin is found in turmeric. It's the yellow orange spice in many Indian foods that supports healthy brain and joint function. I personally take a curcumin supplement every day for for my joint pain. Green tea increases your energy level, oxidizes your fat cells and helps your metabolism. Olive oil extract keeps Your arteries healthy and normalizes your blood pressure. Green tea also contains catechins, which prevent certain types of cancers. Hesperidin is in citrus fruits. That actually helps with venous. Venous stasis issues. That's hard to say, like varicose veins, hemorrhoids, and poor circulation. Another great bioflavonoid is quercetin. You'll find those in apples, berries, kale, and onions. These decrease your risk of asthma and coronary artery disease. Here is my favorite phytonutrient for women. Glycosinolates. These are found in cruciferous vegetables like brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale, broccoli, and cauliflower. These actually decrease the development of cancer. They reduce inflammation, they balance your blood sugar, stimulate immunity, protect your brain, and balance your estrogen. So eat these every day. Phytoestrogens have been a little controversial. They can exert estrogen and anti estrogen effects on your body. So isoflavones like soy, tofu, and legumes, they can decrease your risk of endometrial cancer, your risk of bone loss, and actually have been shown to decrease mortality and recurrence rates of breast cancer. The important part is you need to make sure they're organic 100%. So Nutrigenomics is the newer science that studies the impact of food choices on our gene expression. How amazing is that? Food actually has the ability to turn on or off genes that control our disease, risk, our lifespan, our metabolism. So we truly are what we eat. That is so cool. Not only does food aid our hormone production, neurotransmitter production, give us energy, but it can actually reverse or create disease. So what I want you to understand is what food is not just calories. Bad food negatively impacts our blood sugar levels, triggers allergic reactions, inflammation, and autoimmune disease. When we eat this SAD diet, we become overweight and undernourished, and this is becoming an epidemic in our children. So we really need to nip this in the bud. We need to focus on the type of food our kids are getting, not just the quantity. We also need to talk about our habits and beliefs about food that we're passing on to our children. If we're not thoughtful about what we're eating, they won't be either. I've really taken this advice to heart. My husband and I, we have six kids and one grandchild. They're still really impressionable. We have made a commitment to try to cook our meals at home and teach them to respect the food and where it came from and how to Take time to prepare it and see it as a some quality time together, not as a nuisance to just ignore. It's important to teach our children how to cook and nourish themselves properly. So we make them put down their electronics and we're mindful of what we're eating. I try to point out how they feel after they eat different things. So I was super proud of myself recently. We went to McDonald's. Okay, I wasn't proud of that. We don't usually go there, but we went there for the first time in a long time. But about half an hour after my son had eaten a cheeseburger and some fries, he said, I don't feel good. And before I could even respond, he said it was probably because I ate that McDonald's. And I was so proud to hear him saying that, that he finally understood, understood that what he eats directly affects how he feels. So bad. Mom and good mom moment right there. One last thing, it's also super important to be mindful about our eating. Often we eat out of boredom, availability, stress, addiction or misunderstanding. So like I said, food is central to our social connections. We use it for celebration and interaction. But we really need to be more mindful and intentional when we eat. You need to be knowledgeable about proper portion sizes, balancing meals with the nutrients that I talked about, managing food cravings through awareness and behavioral techniques. We need to develop an appreciation for the path our food has from the soil to the table, and becoming aware of the benefits of plant based eating. We need to eat a variety of colors and flavors to get the full spectrum of the healthy compounds from food in every meal. We need to take time to enjoy our meals with others. When possible, avoid eating while you're working, driving, watching TV or just scrolling through social media. And then get back to finding pleasure and joy in cooking and preparing food and eating the food and tasting the food. Making meals and making healthy food is not an annoyance and something that we shouldn't make time for. It should be a priority. It's nourishing our bodies and we need to teach our children how to take care of themselves and love themselves through good food. So just to recap, we should be eating real whole foods, organic, non gmo. We should be getting a variety of colors with the phytonutrients. You should be focused on healthy fats, mostly fish and plant based eating. If you're going to eat beef and make sure it's grass fed, poultry should be pasture raised. Just completely avoid highly processed foods. No more eating out of bags and boxes. Eat from the fridge, not the pantry. Eat with purpose. Feel empowered that you can directly impact your health and your children's health by making better food choices. Also become concerned about the global impact of the SAD diet and advocate for change by starting with yourself. So thank you for joining me today. I hope you learned great, useful information. Food is medicine. Embrace it. Okay, I'd be super honored if you'd leave me a five star review on itunes. Let me know how I'm doing. Is this worth your time? What other information do you want me to get out there to you? Okay, Follow me on Instagram or Facebook. Dr. Tabitha Tabat if you have any questions or comments, please direct message me. I want to hear your feedback, your questions. Hopefully I can answer them on future episodes, if not directly. I am here to support you. I want you to look into 2020 with optimistic eyes and feel empowered that you can make the changes you need to make. So thanks for letting me be your functional gynecologist and I'll talk to you again soon. Have an awesome day. Sa.