Module 3: Get Past Food Sensitivities & Create Your Personalized Good Mood Meal Plan – Ingredients for a Healthy Gut & Balanced Mind
My Goal for this week: Eat a more variety of plants (vegetables)
- 1. Food Sensitivities:
- Research has shown that the key driver in mental health disorders is inflammation.
- Food sensitivities contribute to inflammation by basically activating your immune system.
- Anything that activates an immune response is going to trigger inflammation in the body as the types of chemicals that are secreted by immune cells (e.g. interleukins, interferons) activate inflammatory pathways in cells.
- Food sensitivities will thus affect the health of the brain which is very sensitive to inflammation.
- Contributing factors to the increase of food sensitivities and food intolerances: unhealthy diets, environmental toxins, overuse of antibiotics and other medications, increased number of caesarean births, the sterility of food supply, and stress.
- A true food allergy, known as an IgE allergy response, is a response by your immune system to something it perceives as foreign or harmful.
- These immediate reactions include anaphylaxis, hives, asthma and swelling. Usually this immune reaction caused by the production of immune molecules known as IgE’s are not difficult to identify because the reaction occurs immediately after the ingestion of the offending food.
- Delayed onset food reactions (an IgG allergy response), otherwise known as food intolerances or sensitivities are more difficult to identify as the reaction is not immediate and occurs hours or even days after ingestion.
- It causes a similar immune molecule to form but the symptoms are far broader. These reactions are not life threatening and may or may not be present for life.
- Food intolerances can lead to “leaky gut” where your gut lining becomes porous, allowing foreign particles such as pathogens, bacteria, viruses and more to enter into your bloodstream. This can wreak havoc on your health and lead to a host of chronic diseases.
- 2. Fiber and Plant-based Diversity:
- 3. The Importance of Being Well-Hydrated:
- 4. Key Nutrients for Mental Health:
- 5. Action Points for Week 3:
- 6. Notes from Episode 3:
- Food sensitivities doesn’t just affect the gut. It also affects the brain.
- Food sensitivity is an IgG response. It may take over 24 hours before having a reaction/response. Therefore, it may be hard to tell what caused the reaction.
- If the gut is leaky, then the blood-brain barrier is also leaky.
- Plant-based diet is important for gut health. They provide fiber, pre-biotics and pro-biotics.
- Our microbes love fiber.
- Eat the colors of the rainbow – all kinds of plants.
- Eat fruit with a meal. Snacking is not good for you.
- The minimal recommended fiber is 25g/day for women and 30g/day for men. Eat a predominantly plant-based diet, in diversity.
- The diversity of plants in your plant is the single most important indicator of a healthy gut microbiome.
- Not all fibers are created equal. Different microbiomes prefer different types of fibers. By eating a diversity of plants, you feed all your microbiome.
- Minimum of 30 different plants per week.
- 7. Q&A Session:
- Anxiety, OCD – Be aware of unknown sources of sugar in your diet. Can be due to gut dysbiosis.
- Chronic stress, cortisol: meditation, take deep breaths
- Uma Naidoo, MD (@drumanaidoo) • Instagram photos and videos