My friend and business associate Mary Cravets sent this out to her audience earlier in the week. Thanks, Mary! (Such a great win-win!)
Great opportunity for me to expound on this way of eating and tell a client success story.
Simply stated, the components of this diet; less animal foods, more plant foods, and little or no dairy feed the good bacteria in your gut Microbiome.
Those bacteria are responsible for making dopamine, serotonin, and GABA. They all positively affect our moods. And keep our heads clear.
And when you eat more of these foods, you’ll have more of these bacteria and they’ll crowd out others.
The others are responsible for increasing inflammation, and often our cravings for fatty, salty, and sweet foods.
Feed the inflammatory bugs and that, as you might imagine, can get into a vicious cycle.
But what are whole food starches and are there more reasons to eat them?
Whole food starches are among the healthiest foods on the planet.
Most are fairly nutrient-dense.
But here’s the key, they’re Calorie-dilute.
That means you can eat lots of them and not be concerned about gaining weight as you fill your tummy. (An entire pound of potatoes has only 330 Calories! By way of comparison: that’s about the same calories as 4oz. of french fries; 1/4 the amount of potatoes. )
One result is that my clients can stop calorie and carb counting and still lose weight.
My client, Lorna is a great example. Lorna walks with crutches after surviving polio as a child. That makes exercise difficult for her. It also tends to make her less active than others. She spent her lifetime counting calories to maintain weight and going hungry to lose it.
After about 3 months of this approach to eating, Lorna has been able to lose almost 10 pounds. More importantly, she started to realize that she didn’t really need to count calories anymore. She felt satiated with the amount of food she was eating and was still losing weight. (Her name & story are being used with her permission.)
You see, an extra advantage to this way of eating is that thylakoids get all the way down to the colon before they are digested. (Thylakoids are good chemicals in unbroken cell walls, unique to plant foods.) So, they use more calories being digested AND their arrival undigested, in our colon signals to increase production of leptin. That decreases your appetite. (Thylakoids are broken down by grinding grains & overcooking vegetables.)
And here’s the REAL advantage: this means we eat less for as much as 12 or more hours after they arrive in our colon. So, eat oatmeal for breakfast and you’ll likely find yourself still wanting SOME, but less lunch. And eating far less at dinner and not snacking that evening.
So exactly what are whole food starches?
Beans of all types, whole (unpulverized) grains, and seeds like quinoa, brown rice, millet, barley, corn, sweet potatoes, and winter squash to name a few.
The one important thing to mention is minimizing the addition of fats that could quickly counteract the calorie saving. It can also feed the pro-inflammatory bugs.
You can use salsa, marina sauce, or a variety of other nutrient-dense & low calories toppings. Or try mixing your starches with other veggies, or balsamic vinegar. Creamy sauce made with a small amount of nuts, nutritional yeast, and herbs is another alternative.
The possibilities are endless.
Want the recipe for my quick creamy cashew sauce? Email me.
In my next blog, I’ll talk about the connection to more energy.
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