June 30, 2016
UAB News, by Shannon Thomason
The key to eating for wellness is not necessarily what foods to eat, but rather how and when we eat them, says Suzanne Judd, Ph.D., associate professor in the University of Alabama at Birmingham’sDepartment of Biostatistics.
There is no definite right or wrong. It’s often a matter of personal taste and unique body chemistry. Food influences the way a person feels, how he or she sleeps and interacts with others. Too much food can lead to extra weight, and extra weight is associated with cancer, cardiovascular disease and decreased physical function. Diet can affect how people with chronic illness feel. It’s important to feed the body in a way that optimizes your own health, and the hard part is crafting the right diet for your body’s and mind’s needs, she says.
Many of the body’s chronic illnesses result from inflammation, a catch-all term used to describe an over-active immune system or an immune system that is responding when there is not a germ to fight, Judd says.
“Since one-third of the body’s immune system lies within the gut (large intestine, small intestine and stomach) what we eat is tightly tied to the amount of daily immune response, or inflammation, the body creates,” Judd said.
Diets like the Whole30, a monthlong clean-eating program, and Paleo, which attempts to mimic what our ancestors ate, do work to reduce the number of pro-inflammatory foods the gut has to address, and therefore lead to lower levels of inflammation, she says. These diets emphasize whole, simple foods that nourish the body and advocate eating vegetables, meat, fish, nuts, seeds and some fruits, while cutting grains, sugar, alcohol and dairy. However, for many people diets like these are tough to maintain. One good option is to take breaks from a regular diet and follow the ideas behind these diets to periodically lower the body’s inflammatory load. That’s a great way to give the gut and body a rest but not feel as though you can’t eat some of your favorites from time to time, Judd says. Another option is the 90:10 rule, she says.
“Try to have 90 percent of the food you eat come from clean foods, and then the other 10 percent of the food can be from more processed items,” Judd said. “You may find with time you feel better eating 100 percent of your diet from nonprocessed food.”
As for the best foods to eat for wellness generally, Judd recommends that people start with fruits and vegetables and try to get about half-full on those before starting on the meats and fats.
“I would also suggest people make a list of their favorite foods — not prepared foods, but actual food that came from the ground or had a mother,” Judd said. “Macaroni and cheese did not have a mother.”
After identifying what real foods you enjoy eating, be sure to eat that as your fruit/vegetable/meat/grain/nut/seed every day. This will ensure that the body is getting tasty food that it craves. Eating for hunger and not emotion is also a huge first step to understand what the body needs; real hunger is felt at a physical level, and usually in the throat, she says.
Judd’s recommendations to maintain a healthy diet:
“Developing and maintaining a healthy relationship with food is a lifelong pursuit and not a sprint to the finish line,” Judd said. “But once you start, it is a downhill race and gets easier every day.”