I’ve talked a lot about what I eliminated from my diet, now I want to talk about what I’ve added.  I’m fast-forwarding a bit to when I was earning my Holistic Health Coaching Certification. Which I did because I was desperate to know more.  I’m so passionate on the subject of holistic health these days.  I can’t get enough information.  I’m in constant learning mode.  A couple of books I read in my studies that made the most impact on my diet were How Not To Die by Michael Greger, M.D., FACLM https://amzn.to/2JQ5OsU and The Whole Foods Diet by John Mackey, Alona Pulde, M.D. and Matthew Lederman, MD. https://amzn.to/32I7jCb

The glaring message I got was I was NOT incorporating enough variety of vegetables into my diet, among other things. And I was not aware of the power some of these vegetables hold. Food is medicine has never been so clear. For example, the broccoli family of cruciferous vegetables are just powerhouses in themselves. In addition to broccoli, radishes, cabbage, collard greens, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, artichokes, arugula and kale are all part of the cruciferous family. As stated in The Whole Foods Diet, “Not only are these diverse foods all related, they also share extraordinary health benefits, particularly for preventing cancer. Dr. Joel Fuhrman points out that cruciferous vegetables are the most micronutrient dense of all vegetables, and call them “the most powerful anticancer foods in existence.” Read more about cruciferous vegetables as cancer fighters here. https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/diet/cruciferous-vegetables-fact-sheet

There isn’t a vegetable I don’t like, but I can tell you I was not eating enough vegetables in this category.  A simple change was to add kale to every salad.  Sometimes kale is enough, other times I get another green to fix with it.  I also add broccoli sprouts to almost every salad I make!  I shoot for eating one of two of vegetables from this family every day. 

Flaxseed is another powerful food totally off my radar. Read more about the benefits of flaxseed here. https://www.webmd.com/diet/features/benefits-of-flaxseed#1 This is another salad staple. Why wouldn’t I add it?

As my diet stands right now, my priorities are high quality proteins, large variety of fruits and vegetables at EVERY MEAL, seeds and nuts and healthy oils. If you want to hear an incredible story of how food truly is medicine, I highly recommend that you read about Dr. Terry Wahls, M.D.  She beat her progressive MS with diet and functional medicine.  These stories are out there.  Why don’t we hear them more?  No money to be made in food as medicine is my guess.  It is SO important to understand how much we can help ourselves with the help of Functional Medicine doctors and our diets.  To read more about Dr. Wahls, click here. https://terrywahls.com/about/about-terry-wahls/

Are you looking to add more variety to your diet?  Try the following:

• Shop for raw nuts (remember peanuts are not nuts!) Raw is best, but if you buy roasted look out for ones with peanut oil, and other unhealthy oils. Trader Joe’s and Aldi are my favorite places to find healthy nuts.

• Incorporate more vegetables into your diet and especially look to add cruciferous ones whenever you can. Try cauliflower rice, steamed broccoli, cabbage and kale in salads, roasted brussel sprouts. They are all delicious!

• Snack on raw vegetables. My favorites are red, yellow and orange peppers and baby carrots.

• Make greens a part of your everyday diet. The darker green the better!

Can’t wait to hear how it goes! Comment your questions and feedback below! Thanks for being here!