What should I eat ?

"So, WTF should I eat ?" This is one of the most common questions that I get. Many of my clients have come from a background of restricted eating, diets that are super low in calories or eliminate whole food groups, so when it comes to what to eat, it’s baffling – with so many opinions out there, from fruitarian to carnivore, all of which put forward a good case as to why theirs is the “right way”, it’s harder and harder to navigate.

As I too have tried all the fads, and observed many others who have tried even more, I have come to the conclusion that those people who talk about a ‘healthy balanced diet’ are likely onto something. Although I am all for short term cleansing and detoxing, eliminating any natural food group long term often leads to deficiencies, and it seems that with everything that is good for us, too much of a good thing can also lead to problems.

Bio-individuality

The reality is that what works for one person won’t necessarily work for you. Another reality is that our needs change throughout life. We need to eat differently as a baby to how we eat as a toddler. Teenagers have different needs to retirees. The only way to really know what works for you is to study yourself, and because we are continuously changing through our life stages and lifestyle demands, this is an ongoing study.

Our dietary needs change depending on our lifestyle and life stage

If you choose to do some coaching with me, I will invite you to consider the process as a PhD, where you are the researcher and the subject of your research is you. I will be there to guide you in terms of things you might like to investigate, but you will be doing the experiments, observing the results and drawing the conclusions. The goal is always to find what works for you, in all your uniqueness, and to learn how to adapt and change as needed.

The importance of metabolic health

The one thing that I have found which seems to underlie everything is the importance of metabolic health. Metabolic health refers to how well the body processes food, converts it into energy, and how it functions and maintains itself. This includes managing blood sugar, fat storage, blood pressure, cholesterol and more. Good metabolic health means we feel better and we reduce our risk of common lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, high cholesterol, PCOS, obesity, hormonal issues, heart disease, stroke and even cancer.

Metabolism

Metabolism is slightly different in meaning to metabolic health. Metabolic health is all of the above together, how well we break down food and how well we use it and how well our body is doing. Metabolism describes just the chemical process of turning food into energy.

Dr Mindy Pelz explains that we actually have two metabolisms, by this she means we have two different metabolic pathways which create energy for our cells. One pathway uses sugar to make energy, the other uses fat.

When we eat, our body breaks down food into glucose and uses that to make energy. Glucose is our body’s preferred way to make energy because it’s the easiest and most efficient way to do so.

Any extra glucose from when we eat is stored. Some can be stored in the liver to use later, and when the liver’s storage container is full, the rest is put into long term storage, which means it is converted into fat.

Fructose is also metabolised in the liver and can be turned into energy, glucose or fat. High fructose intake can therefore lead to both increased glucose and increased fat, and excessive intake is known to cause non alcoholic fatty liver disease NAFLD and high LDL cholesterol and triglycerides.

All of the carbohydrates that we eat (yes this means fruit and vegetables as well as processed and starchy carbs) will be broken down into glucose. Protein is broken down into glucose and amino acids.

Our body won’t burn fat when sugar is available. This means that in our modern lifestyle, our fat metabolism often lies dormant. We eat, use the energy we need from the glucose and store the rest as fat, adding to our fat stores. Unless we get into a situation where our body has no available glucose, we won't burn fat.

Ways to make your body burn fat

There are two ways to turn on your fat burning metabolism. One way is to eat a very low carb and high fat diet. This way your body doesn’t get enough energy from the glucose metabolism pathway and has to burn fat. This is what is commonly known as the keto diet. It works for burning fat, and may be good for short periods of time, but the body also needs fibre, and fruits and vegetables have a lot of beneficial nutrients that we don’t want to miss out on.

The second way is fasting. Once your body has used up all the glucose from your food and from its glycogen stores it will then start burning fat. This is called ketosis. The fat is turned into ketones which is another energy source your cells can use. Depending on your metabolic health and what you eat, extending your fast each day can mean that your body starts to turn fat into ketones. However, daily fasting often doesn't work out well for women long term as it causes hormonal imbalances such as high cortisol, low progesterone and estrogen dominance. Fasting can still work very well for women though if you tune in with your monthly cycle. If you are post menopausal, you still need days where you don't fast to keep cortisol in check and support progesterone. Book a free call with me if you would like more clarity on what this means for you.

However, in some cases, when a person is not metabolically healthy, the fat burner system doesn’t kick in. The person feels ‘hangry’ wanting some carbs for energy, and may break their fast because of the way they are feeling. Another thing which can happen is the body breaks down muscle to get glucose. We want to avoid this.

Best of both worlds

One of our main goals in my Health Coaching Program is to become metabolically healthy, so that our body can burn both sugar and fat, without us feeling hangry or losing muscle.

We don’t do an extreme keto diet, or any extreme fasting to do this, but instead, our goal is to develop sustainable eating habits that give us all our nutrient needs, and to fast a little to allow that fat burning metabolism to work for us too. This is not a quick fix, but a long term sustainable strategy that supports muscle growth and burns fat - essential for longevity.

The longest fast that I recommend for most clients do is 3 days. This preserves our muscle mass, because even if our fat burner system is working so that the body doesn’t need to break down muscle for glucose, it will eventually use the muscles as a source of amino acids (essential for making all the enzymes and proteins your body needs to operate), in the absence of food.

Sustainable long term strategy

This isn’t about doing a fast or a cleanse or a one off thing that will “fix” us, it’s about getting to know our body and what it needs, and supporting it to become metabolically healthy.

When you are metabolically healthy, the body is much more able to heal itself. If you are goal is to lose weight , this is a big point of difference to note – this approach is not focused on losing weight to get healthy, it’s focused on getting healthy to lose weight (if you need to).

For most of you (my client base at the time of writing, who have been on high fruit vegan diets), the program is going to mean eating less carbs. Making changes slowly works best, so that your body can gradually get used to burning fat. This will help you to avoid the “keto flu” (symptoms such as headaches, fatigue, brain fog, irritability, constipation, nausea, and muscle cramps).

Reducing carbohydrate intake

A great way to begin this process by wearing a continuous glucose monitor and observing how your diet and lifestyle are impacting you. Then you will gradually make some changes to reduce your highs and lows so that you have sustained energy and clarity.

If I am eating less carbs, what can I eat instead?

Reducing your carbs inevitably means eating more fats and proteins, let’s make them good choices.

Good fats

Good fats keep hunger at bay and tell the brain that it doesn’t need to make you crave carbs. When you add more fat to your diet it’s important to make healthy choices. We want to avoid the inflammatory fats and focus on those that support our cell health.

These include:

• Avocado oil

• Avocados

• Black seed oil

• Coconut

• Coconut oil

• Coriander oil

• Flaxseed oil

• Grass-fed butter

• Grass-fed dairy

• MCT oil

• Olive oil

• Olives

• Raw nut butters

• Sesame oil

  
  

Good Proteins

Just like good fats, healthy proteins should be eaten in all phases of the female cycle. These will help build and maintain muscle. Muscle is vital for keeping us mobile as we age, and as our amino acid sensors become less efficient as we age, it’s important to eat good amounts of healthy protein. This can come from animal or plant sources – it is possible to do completely plant based if you choose.

Below are some protein-rich, muscle-building foods:

• Chia seeds

• Chicken

• Cottage cheese

• Eggs

• Fish

• Mushrooms

• Pork

• Quinoa

• Red meat such as lamb and beef

• Shellfish

• Tofu

• Turkey

So what should you measure?

In all honesty, long term I don’t believe measuring everything you eat gives you food freedom or supports you to tune in to what your body is telling you, but in the short term it can be useful while you are settling into a new eating style.

Counting calories alone, the way we have traditionally done it is pretty meaningless. It’s not just about calories in, calories out, as 100 calories of vegetables is obviously very different to 100 calories of cotton candy, and as we discussed above, calories of sugar are going to trigger a whole different metabolic pathway to calories of fat.

If you would like to keep a track of your macros though, I think that is a great idea for a few weeks until you learn what works for you. I think there are two important things to track as a woman.

One is protein, as building and maintaining muscle mass is one of the most significant factors for a long active life. There’s a lot of different recommendations out there regarding how much protein you should be eating, (you can read my summary of why and what that means for you here), but the most widely accepted view is that you should aim for 1.0 to 1.6g protein for every kg of ideal body weight. If you are really active, aim for the higher end of that scale.

The second is fibre. This is essential to help food move through the system and to keep the bowels regular, and also supports detoxification and healthy metabolisation of hormones. Aim for at least 25g of fibre a day.

I honestly feel that if you get adequate amounts of those two things - protein and fibre - the rest falls in to place much easier.

If you have any questions regarding what this means for you, or to discuss if coaching with me is something that could help you please book a free call.

Disclaimer: This information is for education purposes only and should not be taken for medical advice. Always consult your own trusted physician prior to making any changes to diet and lifestyle or following any protocols you may find online. This article may contain affiliate links.