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How can you apply the food as medicine diet for gut healing?

 ‘Let thy food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.’ – Hippocrates (400 BC)

This week I began Week 10: Ayurvedic Nutrition via the Chopra Ayurvedic Health Certification Program through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition.

Not only was the information about food as medicine, but it also emphasized digestion and the gut. 

I thought it might be super fun (and helpful?) for me to share some of these pieces with you.

What is Food as Medicine?

If food is energy and information. And the information is talking to our genes. Then the concept of food as medicine is pretty clear.

But at its core, for context, the American Society for Nutrition says that food as medicine, “sits at the crossroads of nutrition and healthcare.”

They continue on to make note that:

It may take many forms, including medically tailored meals, medically tailored groceries, and produce prescription programs. 

Food as medicine is more than just a definition. 

The Rockefeller Foundation states,

Access to affordable, nutritious food is crucial for good health, yet many Americans, particularly in under-resourced communities, face barriers. The result? A $1.1 trillion healthcare bill for diet-related diseases — equal to all the money we currently spend on food itself.

It has been proven through research:

1. Food is medicine: actions to integrate food and nutrition into healthcare
2. Food as medicine: translating the evidence
3. “Food Is Medicine” Strategies for Nutrition Security and Cardiometabolic Health Equity: JACC State-of-the-Art Review

Besides the research, we know that food can be and is medicine.

Here are 3 ways:

1. Using nutritious food to help combat chronic conditions
2. Healthy eating as a way to manage increasing healthcare costs
3. Understanding the power of food and that some foods contain properties which mimic powerful medicines (i.e. berries are packed with antioxidants, which can help protect against cell damage and disease)

As a whole, a healthy diet can play a crucial role in both disease prevention as well as reduce the effects of different health conditions.

Food as Medicine: For Your Gut

Because my focus is always on the gut, I want to help you better understand how food as medicine plays into it.

When there is high richness and diversity of the microbes in your gut, your immune system is stronger and more stable. – Deepak Chopra

And many health outcomes are highly dependent upon the state of the gut microbiome.

Here are 5 facts about the gut microbiome:

1. ​There are 10x the number of microbial cells in the human gut than in the whole human body.
2. Gut bacteria are involved in harvesting energy from food, balancing the good versus bad bacterial composition and metabolic functions.
3. Diet plays a role! The gut microbiome of Urban populations is less diverse than that of people from rural, less developed populations.
4. Fibers – including food-based resistant starch, are some of the key nutrients for promoting fermentation and ensuring a diverse microbiome.
5. Gut microbiota differ in obese individuals versus lean individuals, but the significance of these differences is not yet understood.

Gut-microbiome richness and diversity are two important concepts to understand:

• Richness is the total number of bacterial species in your gut microbiome.
• Diversity is the number of individual bacteria from each of the bacterial species present in your gut microbiome.

Both of these are crucial, and yet due to the rise of fad diets in recent years, we are lacking one or both.

How to Increase Gut Microbiome Diversity

In How to Achieve Optimal Microbiome Diversity, I lay out the following 6 steps:

1. Weed first; if you’ve been living off ultra-processed foods and poor nutrition, you’ll need to start here.
2. Increase daily fiber.
3. Incorporate a variety of healthy food.
4. Clean up your meat sources.
5. Take a probiotic.
6. Eat (or take) prebiotics.

Following these 6 steps address both the richness and diversity of gut bacteria.

Food As Medicine Diet

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But what exactly is a food as medicine diet? And how can you implement it, no matter where you’re at on your gut health or gut healing journey?

Something taught in the course this week really stood out, as it relates to this, and I wanted to pass along to you as well:

We need to learn how to pay attention to our body’s signals and notice which foods make us feel healthy and alive, and which foods make us feel unhealthy, tired, or out of sorts.

And this is KEY.

​What is food as medicine for one person might be harmful for the next due to diet-related conditions, pre-existing conditions, and overall genetic makeup.

Here are some examples:

• While there might be potential benefits of whole grains, there are no benefits of gluten if you have Celiac Disease.
• High vegetable consumption might be ideal, but if you have a form of Inflammatory Bowel Disease, that might not work for you.
• Nuts are a good source of healthy fats and can help balance blood sugar levels, but if you have Diverticulitis, eating them raw is not likely going to work for you.
• Shellfish is low in calories and rich in protein plus omega-3 fatty acids, but if you are allergic to shellfish (they are a top allergen!) then quite obviously it’s not for you.

There are so many different ways that food can help or reduce chronic inflammation, which is why it’s important that you understand the ‘weeding’ step from above first and foremost.

As a general rule, though, here are ways you can implement a food as medicine diet.

1] Take your condition and work backwards

Choose the foods that are conducive for your condition, avoiding those that are not. 

Instead of following a templated diet, pay attention to your body’s signals, and adjust from there.

Include more, not fewer, foods for achieving optimal diversity.

This is something I hit hard on in Reasonable SIBO.

2] Learn how to navigate grocery stores

You’ll find the best foods for your gut microbiome on the perimeters of the grocery store.

Some of my favorite items found in the perimeter of the store are:

• berries- strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries: all have high amount of phytochemicals and are lower in sugar which can be helpful for preventing inflammation
• leafy greens- arugula, spinach, lettuce, and Brussels sprouts: while Brussels sprouts can be a bit hard on the gut I have had success cooking them in olive oil to break down some of the harder to digest components
• vegetables- squash, bell peppers, carrots: all of these are great staples to cook and put into a soup or salad
• fresh meat- sliced turkey and chicken breast: both great sources of protein and can be saved in the freezer until use, chicken is the best option for a lean protein source extremely high in protein
• fish- salmon: perfect source of protein and high in omega-3 fatty acid chains
• dairy section: almond milk, coconut yogurt, eggs, boiled eggs: try to pick products that contain no “gums” or other added ingredients
• bulk bin section – the bulk bin area is typically on the perimeter (though not always) and again provides bulk quantities in their whole state (mostly and usually)

3] Small Changes; Healthier Foods

If this is your first time truly understanding food as medicine then you need to start where you’re at.

Do what you can with what you have.

You do not need to make an overhaul of your diet overnight (unless you’re really sick, and in that case, I recommend working with your health care professionals on a complete overhaul).

But you can start implementing small changes and swapping inflammatory-promoting foods to non-inflammatory ones:

• Swap vegetable oil for olive oil
• Increase whole fruits instead of fruit juices
• Choose fresh produce over packaged, sauce-filled vegetable mixes
• Make sourdough bread over using white bread
• Use unsweetened coconut yogurt or organic dairy vs. sugar-filled commercial yogurts
• Instead of refined, white sugars choose honey, maple syrup, stevia or monk fruit
• Swap out the candy bars for 70%+ dark chocolate

I could go on for days with these!

4] Healthy Cooking at Home

One of the most effective ways towards better health is by simply cooking your meals at home.

In fact, it’s my top dietary change one can make.

To help with this, check out:

1. A Gutsy Girl’s List of 36 Essential Cooking and Baking Tips
2. 4 Benefits of Knowing Basic Cooking and Baking Skills

5] BONUS: Nutrition Education

Learn everything you can about the gut microbiome, food, and how food is medicine.

You do NOT need to go to medical schools for this. In fact, ask medical students who have gone through medical school how much nutritional information they received. The answer is ‘not very much.’

Instead, learn everything you can on your own about food and its properties.

The information is all there – you just have to be willing to spend a little time investing in your​ health.

While I have done thousands upon thousands of hours of research on my own, I have also studied through these programs and learned so much. In case you’re ready to take the next step, here is more information on them:

1. Institute for Integrative Nutrition
2. Gut Health Course
3. Chopra Ayurvedic Health Certification Program

The Full Ayurvedic Series

This article is part of my full Ayurvedic series.

In addition to the hundreds of articles and thousands of hours I’ve spent in the last decade devoted to all things gut health and gut healing, I am working on becoming a certified Ayurvedic practitioner, so that I am able to give my clients the best, most comprehensive guidance for healing – 100% on an personalized level.

If you’re interested in working 1-on-1 with me, you can sign up HERE today.

Here are all the previous articles on Ayurveda you can binge-read now:

1. What is Ayurveda – [The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide]
2. Ayurveda for Balance
3. Ayurvedic Food List
4. Mindful Movement Exercises
5. Yoga vs Meditation
6. Emotions Worksheet
7. Printable Self Care Activities
8. No More Fight or Flight Digestion (Is How We Eat as Important as What We Eat?)
9. Kitchari Cleanse Recipe [One Pot Kitchari]

I have also put together an ‘Ayurveda in Gut Healing’ Pinterest board where you will find a ton of resources.

Xox,
SKH