Tag: fruits and vegetables

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Metabolic Health

Our metabolism, which refers to how well we produce energy in the body (among other things), requires proper functioning and cellular biology in order to maintain health. Metabolic health can also be defined as the absence of any of the following markers: elevated fasting blood glucose, high blood pressure, excess waistline measurement, high triglycerides, and low HDL.

As we realize more and more that keeping our blood sugar levels stable can be key to maintaining metabolic health, it becomes important to familiarize ourselves with the foods that do not raise our blood sugar significantly. These low-glycemic foods can still impact some people’s glucose responses to a greater degree, so it is up to you to progressively figure out which foods work best with your biology. What follows is a basic list of foods (vegetables and fruits, nuts and seeds), that will help you better control your blood sugar levels.

Vegetables

Root vegetables (even though healthy and better than grains for many) may raise blood sugar slightly more. See how your body responds when eating them.

  • Artichoke
  • Arugula
  • Asparagus
  • Avocado
  • Bok choy
  • Broccoli
  • Broccolini
  • Brussels sprouts
  • Cabbage
  • Carrots
  • Cauliflower
  • Celery
  • Celery root
  • Chard
  • Collards
  • Cucumber
  • Eggplant
  • Endive
  • Fennel
  • Green beans
  • Hearts of palm
  • Jicama
  • Kale
  • Kohlrabi
  • Leeks
  • Lettuce of all varieties
  • Mushrooms
  • Mustard greens
  • Okra
  • Onion
  • Peppers
  • Pumpkin
  • Radishes
  • Rapini (broccoli raab)
  • Rhubarb
  • Rutabaga
  • Snow peas and snap peas
  • Spinach
  • Sprouts
  • Summer squash
  • Tomatillos
  • Tomato
  • Turnip
  • Turnip greens
  • Zucchini

Fruits

Berries are the ideal low-glycemic fruit. Portion-size matters of course. Also, eating fruits along with nut butters or seeds, for instance, will help lessen the blood-sugar spike from fruits.

  • Blackberries
  • Blueberries
  • Raspberries
  • Strawberries
  • Coconut
  • Lemon
  • Lime
  • Orange
  • Kiwi

Nuts and Seeds

Nuts and seeds are awesome snacks providing fat, protein, and micronutrients, whether you are on the go or not.

  • Chia seeds
  • Flaxseeds
  • Pumpkin seeds
  • Sesame seeds
  • Almonds
  • Brazil nuts
  • Cashews
  • Hazelnut
  • Macadamia nuts
  • Pine nuts
  • Pecans
  • Pistachios
  • Walnuts

In Summary

If we manage to stabilize our blood sugar levels and keep them in the optimum range throughout our lifetime, this may be the simplest way to maintain health and wellness, have longevity, and feel good all along!

Until next time!

References

The Levels Team. “110 Foods Unlikely to Spike Your Blood Sugar.” Levels, 25 May 2021, http://www.levelshealth.com/blog/here-are-foods-unlikely-to-spike-your-blood-sugar. Accessed 28 Aug. 2021.

“The Secret to Longevity, Reversing Disease and Optimizing Health: Fixing Metabolism with Dr. Casey Means | the Doctor’s Farmacy with Mark Hyman, M.D.” Shows.acast.com, 11 Aug. 2021, shows.acast.com/the-doctors-farmacy/episodes/the-secret-to-longevity-reversing-disease-and-optimal-health. Accessed 28 Aug. 2021.

You can also find me on Instagram.

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Thinking About Going Primal/Paleo for the New Year: What Does That Entail?

Going primal/paleo is about adopting a new lifestyle that emphasizes building new habits to clean up our diet, exercise more optimally, have better sleep hygiene, and learn how to manage the stress in our lives. It focuses on adopting an ancestral health approach. 

Embracing a primal/paleo lifestyle means we apply ourselves to mimic the way our ancestors lived, as reasonably as possible, within our modern world boundaries. 

We want to eat whole foods rather than processed foods, get enough exercise and low-intensity movement throughout the day, get adequate sleep, and minimize stress triggers on top of learning how to better handle overall stress. 

It is important to carve an optimal lifestyle for ourselves that works along with our ancestral roots, not against them. 

So What About the Food?

When it comes to the primal/paleo-approved foods that are okay to eat for most people, here’s an overview of the main staples you will want to have on hand (as highlighted in The New Primal Blueprint, by Mark Sisson):

  • Baking ingredients: coconut, almond, or other nut flours, tapioca starch, and arrowroot powder.
  • Beverages: water, unsweetened teas, full-fat coconut milk, or unsweetened almond milk (great for smoothies).
  • Coconut products: butter, flakes, flour, milk, and oil offer medium-chain fats; good substitutes for dairy, refined vegetable/seed oils, and wheat flour.
  • Dairy: raw, fermented, high-fat, and organic products are best (cheese, cottage cheese, cream cheese, kefir, whole milk, yogurt) –  to eat in moderation.
  • Dark Chocolate: my favorite snack/treat! It has to have a cacao content of at least 75 percent, ideally 85 percent or higher.
  • Eggs: local, pasture-raised, or certified organic for high omega-3 content. If you buy eggs from pasture-raised chickens, the yolk is going to have a deep-yellow/slight orange color. This color is a sign of a nutrient-rich egg.
  • Fats and oils: I like to use avocado and extra virgin olive oil. Coconut oil, grass-fed butter, and animal fats (bacon grease, chicken fat, lard, tallow) are best for cooking.
  • Fish: wild-caught from remote, pollution-free waters. Small, oily, cold-water fish are preferred: salmon, mackerel, anchovies, sardines, and herring (SMASH). Certain farmed fish are okay (domestic Coho salmon, trout, and some shellfish – not shrimp). Check the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch (seafoodwatch.org) for up-to-date recommendations.
  • Fruit: locally grown (or wild), organic, in-season preferred. Berries are best as they are low-glycemic. Go strictly organic with soft, edible skin fruits. Moderate intake of higher glycemic fruits.
  • Meat and Fowl: local, pasture-raised, or USDA-certified organic. If you must eat conventional meat, choose the leanest possible cuts and avoid consuming the fat as it is where some of the meat toxins are stored, not in the liver. 
  • Nutritious carbs: go for abundant vegetables, low-glycemic fruits, nuts and seeds, dark chocolate, sweet potatoes, yams and other starchy tubers, quinoa, and wild rice.
  • Prebiotics: cooked and cooled white rice and white potatoes, green bananas, raw potato starch.
  • Probiotics: fermented foods like kefir, kombucha, pickles, sauerkraut, and yogurt, and even dark chocolate!
  • Snacks: berries, avocados, canned sardines, dark chocolate, hard-boiled eggs, jerky, nuts, olives, seeds, and other high-fat and/or high-protein, low-carb primal food.
  • Vegetables: locally grown, organic, in-season is best. Opt for strictly organic for large surface area (leafy greens) and soft edible skins. Eat the rainbow!

To get a nice sum-up of the above list of primal/paleo-approved foods, you can check out my post about The Primal Blueprint Food Pyramid.

Happy New Year!

Reference

Sisson, Mark. The New Primal Blueprint : Reprogram Your Genes for Effortless Weight Loss, Vibrant Health, and Boundless Energy. Oxnard, Ca, Primal Blueprint Publishing, 2017, pp. 480–1.

You can also find me on Instagram.