EP.378/ How to give your diet an anti-inflammatory glow up without the overwhelm

Podcast

6 Feb

Today’s episode is a nice short, and practical episode as I know we’ve been very science heavy lately!

I was having a conversation with a client this week, who would like to make some changes to her diet not just for endo, but due to some other health issues which would benefit from leaning towards more of an anti-inflammatory, Mediterranean style of eating.

And often, we assume in this day and age of wellness, that changes need to be elaborate, restrictive or include lots of supplements, but often, we really need to get started first with the foundations.

The foundation of a general anti-inflammatory approach to eating typically includes:

Nuts and seeds
Healthy fats including avocados, olive oil and fatty fish
Lots of fruits and vegetables
Whole grains in non-processed forms
Lean, healthy proteins
Beans and legumes

So, this was a rough outline of what my client was typically eating in a day and the simple changes we looked at possibly adding:

Breakfast: Yoghurt, blueberries, chia seeds, honey

This breakfast is already fantastic, but we discussed adding 10-30g of ground flax seeds to support oestrogen metabolism, gut health and overall inflammation levels as flax is one of the most antioxidant rich foods on the planet. I’d also love to eventually look at adding in uncooked oats, for resistant starch, to help boost butyrate levels and also give her some slow release carbohydrates across the morning.

If you’d like to learn more about flax for endo and oestrogen metabolism, and the doses, I’ve linked to some episodes where I discuss the science, and I also recommend looking through my recipes, as I use a lot of flax in these and discuss the benefits. I’ve also linked to my episode on resistant starch and why it’s beneficial for endo.

Lunch: White bread chicken sandwich with mayo

This client’s diet could do with a boost in vegetables, so we talked about easy ways to add two servings of veggies to her lunch without changing too much. We explored having carrot sticks, cucumber sticks or cherry tomatoes on the side, which would be easy to add with minimal prep. We also discussed mixing together a hearty salad at the start of the week to eat on the side, something very simple, for example, grating a bunch of carrot, cabbage and beetroot to create a slaw. And the final idea we explored was simply packing her sandwich out with some veggies, such as avocado, peppers and spinach.

We also explored swapping her white bread to a wholegrain, seeded variety to improve fibre and blood sugar.

Snack: Cassava chips

This snack is a great opportunity to get some nuts into her diet and also further support blood sugar. Processed carbohydrates such as crisps or chips tend to cause blood sugar spikes, but eating 30g (about a handful) of nuts beforehand not only increases fibre, antioxidants and healthy fats, but also helps to slow down that blood sugar release from the carbs, without getting rid of her favourite snack.

I discuss the benefits of nuts for antioxidant levels and blood sugar a lot in my recipes, so I recommend reading over a few to learn about the fantastic benefits!

Dinner: Rice, beans and a protein

This dinner already has the foundations of a great blood sugar balancing plate. We have complex carbs from rice, beans that provide fibre, protein and also help to reduce the blood sugar impact of rice, and we have a protein, which is essential for hormone production, muscle and tissue formation and healthy aging, as well as blood sugar support.

However, antioxidants and fibre could be boosted with some veggies, and if you listen to my show, you’ll know I promote filling half your plate with veggies, to support blood sugar but also to get in those incredible anti-inflammatory nutrients and fibre. I link to some of my episodes and articles on the topic for further listening if you’re interested.

Now, my client has these meals prepared by her mum as she leads a very busy lifestyle, and then she heats them up, so we discussed a few simple options for upping her veg intake. Either, when she is heating her food, which is often a stew, to throw in 2-3 different frozen veggies like broccoli, spinach and runner beans, and just heat them through with the rest of the meal, or at the start of the week, roast a big tray of pre-prepared vegetables, and keep them in a container in the fridge, then add on the side of meals each night. We discussed using prepped vegetables to make her life easier, but if you have time to batch prepare veggies then of course, you can.

And then finally, we also discussed adding a piece of fruit as dessert, to bump her fruit servings from one to two.

Now, to make all these changes at once would feel overwhelming, and would probably cause a lot of bloating as it would be a rapid fibre increase, so instead, we looked at making changes slowly, over several weeks, starting with one change at a time, so for example, adding a piece of fruit as dessert would be week one, week two she could bring in the nuts before her chips, and so on.

Now of course, the idea of this episode isn’t just for you hear what someone else is eating, but to think about if there are any places you can make simple changes to increase your healthy fats, fibre, veggies, fruit, so on - and if so, how to do it in a simple way, that feels doable, not overwhelming.

Okay, that’s it for this week!

I hope this short bitesized episode has been helpful for you, and I’ll see you next Friday. :)

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