The Only Diet I Recommend To Everyone As An NTP

Your diet is going to look different than everyone else’s. That’s a good thing. However, the building blocks of a diet that will support your body remain the same for everyone.

I always recommend a diet consisting of a wide variety of properly prepared, nutrient dense, whole foods. This should be the starting point for any person looking to improve their health. All the cells in your body are built with the nutrients you consume. As a result, proper function of the cells, organs, and systems are dependent on the quality of your diet. The quality of your diet is what determines the quality of your life.

Let’s take a deeper look at what exactly each of the words mean and how they compare to the standard American diet.

Why Whole Foods?

Whole foods are foods in their whole form. Ingredient labels with as few ingredients as possible and foods that have not been excessively processed. Whole apples instead of applesauce, raw spinach instead of frozen spanakopita with spinach filling, and raw yogurt with raw berries instead of sweetened, prepackaged parfaits. I am not necessarily villainizing the ladder examples (although, if you have sensitivities to any of these foods, whole or not, they will cause inflammation and should be avoided). However, you do lose some of the nutrients that foods have when you eat them in a more “palatable” form.

Applesauce doesn’t have as much fiber or nutrients as apples because it doesn’t contain the skins and it’s cooked, blended, and watered down. Assuming that the spinach in the frozen spanakopita is real spinach and not “spinach flavor”, raw spinach loses some nutrients when you cook it down (although it can also make other nutrients more bio-available). Depending on whether or not you struggle with digestive issues, your spinach-filled spanakopita may also contain some inflammatory ingredients (gluten in particular is not good for leaky guts). Sugar is inflammatory and it feeds potentially harmful microbes in your microbiome. Adding sugar to your yogurt can counterbalance the probiotics in the yogurt. If the fruit in your parfait is dried or more like a jam, it’s lost nutrients in the processing and it can spike your blood sugar more than whole fruit. Raw fruit is the way to go.

The key here is to eat a balance of raw foods and cooked foods. You should also strive to stay away from foods and additives that cannot be found naturally. This includes corn syrup, polysorbate-80, anti-caking agents, artificial flavors, natural flavors, GMOs, red 40, yellow 5, yellow 6, etc. When you do want to cook something, make sure it is properly prepared.

The majority of the American population does not eat many whole foods. We turn to convenience foods like frozen meals, shelf-stable chips, baked goods, candies, and crackers. This is for many reasons. Money, time, and preference all play into these choices. These foods are designed to be hyper palatable and loved by everyone. They are engineered to keep you coming back.

One of the hardest changes I regularly recommend that my clients make is the switch from convenience foods to cooking. This is because we don’t feel like we have the time to cook. There are some things you can do to make this process easier like batch cooking. However, I would encourage you to look at your priorities. Is your health a high priority for you? Is it higher on the list than some of the other things you’re spending time on? What is sucking all your time? Is it something you truly care about? I know these are hard questions, but they are important to ask yourself.

The myth that healthy food is cheaper is just that. A myth. You might look at a box of Little Debbie blueberry mini muffins and think that $3 for 20 mini muffins is a pretty great deal compared to a $4 pint of blueberries. But, you’re not factoring in the health cost that you’re also paying. The pint of blueberries will provide you with nutrients that the muffins won’t. The muffins have very few bio-available nutrients compared to the blueberries. Not to mention, the mini muffins contain inflammatory ingredients. You might be paying a little less for calories, but you will also have to pay money for a multivitamin and possibly medical care later on. Save time and money by taking care of yourself.

What Is A Nutrient Dense Diet?

Nutrient dense foods are foods that are high in nutrients. The most nutrient dense foods are whole foods. Ultra processed foods may be fortified with nutrients, but they will be less bioavailable. Bioavailable nutrients are nutrients that are easily absorbed by your digestive system so they can be utilized. The key is to remember that nutrients both help and hinder the absorption of certain other nutrients.

Fat helps break down fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K for absorption. Water helps you absorb water-soluble B vitamins and vitamin C. Vitamin C helps you better absorb iron. Potassium can hinder the ability to absorb sodium and vice versa. Too much calcium can hinder the absorption of zinc, and too much manganese can hinder the absorption of magnesium.

There are many other relationships between nutrients, but here’s all you really need to know: You need a wide variety of nutrients to function. That means you need to focus your diet on a wide variety of foods that contain a lot of different nutrients. You don’t have to overthink your food choices trying to get your nutrient levels exactly right as long as you know that you’re getting plenty of nutrients.

Many people will not worry about how many nutrients they’re consuming and just take a multivitamin because it’s easier. Unfortunately, many of the nutrients end up being eliminated through your urine due to poor bioavailability. There are some multivitamins on the market that are made from food sources (and are therefore more bioavailable), but ultimately, the most bioavailable nutrients will come from your food.

Some nutrient dense foods include:

• Organ meats
• Fruits and vegetables (the fresher, the better)
• Bone broth
• Sprouts and microgreens
• Eggs
• Nuts
• Fish
• Cold pressed olive oil

What Does A Properly Prepared Diet Look Like?

A properly prepared diet is a diet full of foods that are prepared in a wide variety of ways that allow you to get as many nutrients as you can from the food. Properly preparing your food also limits your exposure to chemicals and bacteria that have the potential harm you.

Eating the same food prepared differently can help you get different nutrients form that same food. We talked about spinach earlier and how cooking (specifically boiling or steaming) can help make certain nutrients more bioavailable. This is because boiling or steaming spinach breaks down water-soluble plant compounds that can prevent the absorption of certain vitamins and minerals. However, different nutrients are more available when you eat spinach raw. So, it’s good to eat spinach both cooked and raw. This is the case for most veggies. Cooking them just changes which nutrients are more bioavailable. Certain fish can be eaten raw as well (like in sushi) and the nutrient bioavailability is a little different than if it were cooked.

Any food you eat raw should be organic and high quality. Fruits and veggies should be washed to help avoid parasite growth in the digestive tract (a problem much more prevalent in the US than most people recognize). Any meat that you eat raw should be extremally high quality, organic, properly raised, and as fresh and clean as possible. Even then, there are some risks for disease and/or parasites. For those of us who are currently struggling with gut health, I would recommend staying away from raw proteins and taking extra care to make sure raw fruits and veggies are CLEAN. Digestive tracts that have imbalances are especially susceptible to parasites and disease.

There are a few more foods that I would always recommend preparing before you eat them. Beans, raw nuts, and raw seeds. Beans, raw nuts, and raw seeds have anti-nutrients that bind to nutrients that are essential for the body and make them unavailable for absorption. Some of these anti-nutrients can even act as enzyme inhibitors. Soaking beans and raw nuts and seeds before cooking/dehydrating can get rid of these anti-nutrients and make it easier for our bodies to absorb and utilize nutrients like iron, calcium, and zinc. Soaking beans can also get rid of oligosaccharides which is especially important for those of us with digestive issues. Oligosaccharides cause gas and bloating even in people with no history of digestive imbalances.

With almost all raw nuts and seeds, you want to soak them for 7+ hours. I usually end up soaking mine for 12 hours. The exceptions to this are:

• Cashews and pecans only need to be soaked for 3-6 hours.
• Sunflower seeds only need to soak for 2 hours
• Pine nuts, pistachios, and macadamia nuts do not need to be soaked.

After you soak them, you can dehydrate them in a dehydrator or oven. I will dehydrate my nuts for about 24 hours at 130 degrees. Most of my seeds only need to go for 12-15 hours at the same temperature.

Beans should be soaked for at least 12 hours before cooking. To get rid of all the oligosaccharides, drain and change out the water a few times over the 12 hours. You’ll see little gas bubbles in the water which is a sign that the oligosaccharides are leaving the beans! I usually change my water out about 3 times.

Preparation matter for other foods too. Vegetables that are cut lose nutrients faster than when they are in their whole form. That means cutting your veggies as close to meal time as possible is the best option for getting the most nutrients out of your veggies (this goes for fruits too).

Cooking foods on the grill or roasting them until they are charred can introduce carcinogens and free radicals into your body. Both of these can cause cancer if consumed frequently, so it’s best to try and stay away from the charred or burnt bits.

Why Variety Matters

Variety is the spice of life. We already saw above that variety is important to make sure we are getting all the nutrients we need, but that’s not the only reason. The microbiome of your gut also thrives when you eat a wide variety of foods. When I talk about variety, the most important food group to get a wide variety of are fruits and veggies. These provide the most benefit to the helpful bacteria in your intestines because they are what provides prebiotics (food for probiotics). However, differing your meat choices prevents heavy metal accumulation (like when you eat too much fish) and keeps you from eating highly processed meats all the time like hot dogs and bacon.

When you struggle with leaky gut, variety becomes even more important. Many people adopt cycles of eating that prevent new food sensitivities. The idea is, if you aren’t regularly eating a specific food for long enough to develop a sensitivity to it. Some people change weekly, others monthly, some can wait until the seasons change while others choose to eat with their menstrual cycle. The worse you leaky gut is, the more often you will have to cycle. For all people struggling with leaky gut, bone broth, plenty of healthy fats, chewing thoroughly, stress management, and possible stomach acid support is incredibly important.

Summary

Even though I do recommend this diet to everyone, it is still just a starting place. This diet will likely not be your end-all-be-all. You may have sensitivities to certain foods. You may also have imbalances and need to concentrate on adding specific foods into your diet to help support your body in the way it needs to be supported.

If you are looking to transition over to this diet, here are some practical ways you can start to incorporate a wide variety of properly prepared, nutrient dense, whole foods:

• Start cooking! Batch cooking in pressure cookers and instant pots save the most time (my family of 7 currently eats meals throughout the week that were made in 4 hours over the weekend).
• Try one new whole food (or one you almost never eat) every week.
• Stop buying ultra-processed, prepackaged foods.
• Keep whole food snacks around (beet chips, fresh fruit, plain yogurt, soaked and dehydrated nuts and seeds, cheese, nut and seed butters, avocados, deviled eggs, fermented veggies, bone broth, roasted veggies, kale chips etc.).

Believe it or not, food can taste pretty incredible on diets like this. Some of my favorite resources for recipes are the Castaway Kitchen and Food By Mars. But, even on the days when you end up having food that isn’t nutrient dense, sticking with this diet ensures you are you are still giving yourself plenty of wonderful foods that support your body enough to be able to handle ice cream at a social function off and on.

For my ladies who have digestive issues and have to be extra careful to not eat inflammatory foods the key is to get creative. Find dishes you love just as much as the ones you ate before. If you need any support or guidance through the process, feel free to reach out to me by scheduling a discovery call. During this call we can discuss how I can best ways to support you and get you closer to your goals.

If you have any comments or questions, leave them below! I hope you all have a beautiful week!