Cornerstone 1: Whole Foods

We all know about the plethora of evidence that shows the overprocessed diet we eat in the Western world is a major contributing factor to our overall poor and declining physical and mental health.  We are addicted to processed fats, sugars and refined carbohydrates which are calorie-rich, nutrient-poor fillers.  This is fast food for fast lives, and sadly leads to lives that may be over faster as a result.  These foods tip our bodies into a pro-inflammatory state because our immune and nervous systems encounter them and react appropriately to them as foreign molecules.  Our bodies quite correctly identify these substances, such as trans-fats and chemical food additives as invaders and start an inflammatory cascade against them.  What’s more, a diet high in simple refined sugar or glucose load forces our pancreas to produce far more insulin for more of the time, than is natural.  Over time this leads to erratic blood sugar control and insulin resistance of our cell receptors; tissues and cells become bathed in glucose and insulin.  This sugar-loaded state is also pro-inflammatory, and many rigorous cardiovascular studies have now linked this metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes to the formation of obesity and artherosclerosis. These then lead to heart attacks, strokes, angina, high blood pressure, and even Alzheimer’s disease.  In each of the following sections the key take-home message is in bold; these messages are backed up by rigorous evidence.  These statements have helped me to overcome the feeling of being overwhelmed when tackling personal health improvement one step at time: remember each small change gives tangible benefits.

Calorie counting and fad diets

If there is one thing I’d like you to take away about food it is this: nutritional value is far superior to calorie counting for gaining control of weight and overall health.  Our Western diets are leaving us overweight and malnourished.  If we get the nutritional content of our diets right our bodies tend to self-regulate calorie intake.   When we focus on calorie counting, we often leave ourselves deficient in the vast array of vitamins, minerals, bioflavonoids, antioxidants, fibre, and pre- and probiotic nutrients that help our bodies’ rest, digest and repair systems to function adequately to repair our bodies after a busy day.  Fad diets involving calorie counting or swapping out whole foods for shakes, bars, powders or breakfast cereals are only ever going to give you short-term results which deplete the body’s essential nutrients and leave you back at square one when trying to go back to “normal”.  In addition to this, food is for enjoyment, it’s a social experience to be savoured. Fads also rob us of this part of life that is here to be enjoyed. Food is more than nourishment: it is also profoundly social and an integral part of our relationships.

Whole foods and healthy carbs

A food which is still in the form in which it was grown from the earth or the animal from which it came can be called a whole food.  Use this as an underpinning principle for everything you eat: the less a food resembles its natural state the more processed and refined it is, and the more likely it is to promote chronic inflammation, microbiome destruction and free radical damage.  This rule of thumb therefore calls into question one entire section of our diet, carbohydrates.  There is a lot of confusion over what constitutes healthy carbs, with some health-focused websites, blogs and social media channels suggesting that we need to eat less and less carbs.  Our bodies need complex carbohydrates and starches for energy, but we need to be clear that the whole food message also applies to this food group.  Anything which is made from refined white flour is as good as pure glucose syrup for causing chaotic blood sugar spikes, therefore behaving metabolically as empty calories which drive sugar addiction and overeating.  Pure glucose has a Glycaemic Index or GI of 100 and white bread can be anything above a GI of 80.  Anything with a GI of 70 or above will cause a rapid spike in blood sugar and therefore cause the chaotic fluctuation in blood sugar that gives us sugar craving, brain fog, irritability and ultimately contributes to the hidden epidemics.  The process of refining grains and rice removes the bran (fibre, B-vitamins, prebiotics and phytonutrients) and the germ (Vitamins B and E, some proteins and healthy fats) and leaves the endosperm, the carbohydrate-rich part which also contains a very small amount of protein.  This would include most breads bought in the supermarket whether white or brown: they are rarely wholemeal and contain a large number of ingredients which are unrecognisable as whole foods.  The same goes for white pasta, white rice, and peeled white potatoes (all the nutrient content lies immediately below the skin).  In order to feel fuller for longer and gain all the health benefits of eating wholegrain foods we must take a personal in-depth look at what we are eating in the carbohydrate starchy food group.  Rather than just reaching for the pasta or white crusty bread every night, try some different grains and starches like couscous, buckwheat, quinoa, wholegrain rice, and try replacing peeled roast potatoes with roasted colourful root veggies.  Some nutritious and flavoursome whole grain flours include rye, spelt and polenta: give them a try, if you haven’t already. Having worked with the paediatric diabetes team during my career I was acutely aware of the detrimental effects of white processed carbs, but I could never seem to change my own bad habits.  In the end it was simple, I just stopped buying them, and one by one replaced them with a variety of other options.   

Going organic, and quantities of plant-based foods

We now know that five portions of fruit and vegetable foods per day are not adequate for optimal health.  We have to consider the portion size, eg a lettuce leaf in a sandwich doesn’t constitute a portion.  The portion rule of thumb for fruit and veg is: a portion for you is how much you can comfortably hold in your hand.  You can really improve your overall nutrition by increasing this to 10 portions of plant foods per day, and by eating a rainbow of coloured foods each day.  Each different colour is loaded with a variety of different nutrients and prebiotics needed for feeding different species in our gut microflora.  Figure 2 shows a simple starting guide to the array of health benefits from employing this change to our diet.  Moving to organic foods also reduces the load of glyphosate-based pesticides, which harm our microbiome, and also some studies show that organic whole foods contain more vitamins and minerals per mg, although research in this area is less comprehensive.  There are two lists that it is worth being aware of: the clean fifteen and the dirty dozen of organic fruit and veggies: it’s worth looking at these lists regularly to get an up-to-date guide to pesticide load on non-organic foods and see which ones are best bought organic.  These lists are incredibly useful because organic food is more expensive, and at a glance, you know where to prioritise spending on organic produce.  It’s also worth investigating local organic farms, as buying directly from the supplier is also cheaper.  There is also good emerging evidence from the Newcastle University farm that choosing organic cows’ dairy is much more nutritious than regular milk, butter and cheese.  I personally would like to reduce the load of pesticides I’m feeding to myself and my family by choosing as much locally sourced organic whole food as I can find.  It is clear that this will at least help the microbiome, and perhaps give us a bit more nutrition per mouthful too.

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