NUTRITION Eating well and eating the right foods is absolutely essential to reaching and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Knowing what to eat, and what not to eat, will be your first step towards health, happiness and a balanced mind and body.
Foods to focus on
Eat a rainbow of coloured foods every day. The properties that give each fruit or vegetable its rich colour are the same elements that help protect our immune systems and keep our bodies strong.
Each colour family is rich in unique and important micronutrients.
Red: Tomato, watermelon, red pepper, beets, strawberries, raspberries, cherries, grapefruit, pomegranate, apple, guava, red onion, persimmon
Orange / Yellow: Orange, sweet potato, mango, winter squash, papaya, carrots, orange peppers, tangerine/Clementine, nectarine, peach, apricot, Asian pear, Japanese squash
Green: Spinach, kale, swish chard, mustard or collard greens, avocado, asparagus, artichoke, bok choy, green cabbage, Chinese cabbage, brussels sprouts, broccoli, green pepper, watercress, kiwi, apples, avocado, basil, parsley, mint
Blue / Purple: Blueberries, aubergine, concord grapes, purple cabbage, blackberries, plums
White: Garlic, cauliflower, onions, ginger, Japanese radishes, burdock root, parsnips.
Daily Juicing and/or Blending is a great way to load up on nutrients and antioxidants. It’s one of the quickest, easiest and tastiest ways to load yourself up with enzymes and vitamins.
Please visit our recipes section for ideas.
To help prepare them, we highly recommend a ‘Nutri-bullet’ for making small, on the-go type smoothies or a Vita-mix for larger quantities – both blenders are very easy to clean!
Which is better: juicing or blending?
This is a question that I get asked all the time!
Does one offer more health benefits than the other?
Juices and smoothies both play an important role in any wellness and I believe that both juicing and blending are very beneficial, but in markedly different ways.
Our rules for juicing and blending
We’ve been making and drinking smoothies for years and they are often a big component of the dietary changes we recommend for our naturopathic clients. Here are our top tips for getting the best from smoothies and pressed juices:
1. Careful combinations It is best not to combine fruits and vegetables (unless it’s apple). This can affect how well digestive enzymes function.
This doesn’t matter too much in green juices and smoothies; but vegetables like carrots, beetroots, broccoli and zucchini don’t combine well with fruit due to their high starch content.
In his book ‘Food Combining Made Easy’, Dr.Herbert Shelton explains that starchy foods have to be eaten alone because starches are digested with different enzymes from those used for any other food group.
Combining starchy foods with fruit may therefore cause fermentation and gas. It’s worth noting though that Dr Shelton found that green leafy veggies combine well with pretty much everything.
2. Fresh is best Try to drink your juice or smoothie straight away.
After 15 minutes, light and air will destroy much of the nutrients. If you can’t drink it straight away, transfer it to a dark airtight container until you’re ready.
3. Rotate your greens Rotate your greens regularly - this is very important for four key reasons:
Different types of Greens carry different health benefits - adding a variety of leafy greens to your diet promotes nutritional diversity. Different foods have different amounts of nutrients. By eating a variety of leafy greens, you’ll get a more balanced amount of vitamins and minerals.
Certain greens have unique phytonutrients that you might not get at all, or in smaller amounts, by eating only one or two types of leafy green. It would be a shame to eat nothing but spinach when kale and dandelion have much higher levels of calcium, iron and protein.
Potential overdose toxicity – perhaps the biggest reason you should rotate your greens is that all leaves contain small amounts of toxins as a defence mechanism to protect a plant from predation. For example, goitrogens in kale and other brassicas can interfere with thyroid hormone function in susceptible individuals. Oxalic acid in spinach can be problematic for people who are prone to kidney stone formation.
Overdose toxicity explored Consuming a couple of handfuls of spinach or kale in a green smoothie every day is perfectly safe for most healthy people who do not have a pre-existing health condition that could be aggravated by these foods. It is highly unlikely that you will experience any sort of toxicity from eating larger than-average portions of leafy greens as part of a healthy, whole foods diet. The problem, however, arises if you currently have a medical condition that may be exacerbated by certain compounds found in some leafy greens. Two cups of fresh baby spinach per day probably isn’t going to lead to any problems, but one pound of spinach or three bunches of kale per day might.
How to Rotate Your Greens Rotating greens becomes more critical for people who follow a raw vegan diet, where the amount of leafy greens is generally higher in order to obtain sufficient calcium and iron.
My strategy to get a variety of leafy greens in my diet is to eat up to two bunches (6-8 cups) of greens per day on average.
I make sure that my intake is varied to avoid an overabundance of any particular food that could cause a nutritional imbalance or antinutrient toxicity.
For example, I might eat dandelion greens and romaine lettuce every day for two weeks, and then I’ll switch to beet greens and kale for a couple weeks. Then I might have lettuce and spinach for a few days.
It is important to rotate greens among different plant families. Rotating one brassica-type vegetable like kale with another brassica like bok choy isn’t a good rotation, because you are still getting the same anti-nutrients that are in all brassicas.
A better rotation then, for kale, would be a non-brassica like beet greens.
The N&S Alkalising Smoothie Guide - Making a Smoothie the Right Way.
A super sweet smoothie, a super sour smoothie or a smoothie that’s hard to swallow due to too much ice or fat. Every committed smoothie maker has experienced this! And we wonder, how can I be going so wrong just making a smoothie?!
The truth is, it’s quite easy to go wrong. People have different ideas on what a smoothie should be. Some say ½ cup water, ½ cup ice, and a few berries makes a smoothie. While others say that 7 bananas and a cup of milk make a smoothie. The ideal balance is actually quite delicate and the ordering of the ingredients can be crucial.
Just as there is a rule for food combination, there are tricks to make a smoothie delicious and nutritious, with great texture and consistency.
Get your components right
A great smoothie has five key components: • A liquid base • A fruit • A green • A (natural) fat • A protein
Top Tips Vary your base.
• In a rush? Try coconut water (very hydrating).
• Fancy something more filling? Try almond milk.
• Pick a ripe fruit. The type of fruit isn’t so important – pick to your own tastes – but its ripeness is crucial.
• Go for a tasteless green like spinach, particularly if you’re just starting on your blending journey. Spinach can barely be tasted in a smoothie.
• Add your fat in the second round of blending to avoid a ‘blobby’ smoothie.
• Add a protein powder. Ideally one with additional contents, like live enzymes and amino acids. I like Garden of Life Vanilla Sport Protein and Biomel Complete Gut added in.
Note: Your body needs a good balance of healthy fats (Essential Fatty Acids EFAs) and oils with plenty of Omega 3 Oil. Approximately 20% of your calories should come from these healthy fats.
Good choices of cold pressed oils include Hemp, Coconut, Borage, Linseed, Grape seed and Linseed. Healthy snacks high in Omega 3 and 6 include nuts, seeds and avocados.
Foods to avoid We’ve talked a lot in this guide so far about what you should eat, but what should you be actively avoiding? During your consultation at the Nature & Science Clinic you will have learnt what your body is intolerant and sensitive to, which will help tailor your diet. But certain foods are more generally negative influences on a diet and should ideally be avoided by all.
Many of the below are ‘acidic’ foods, which should be avoided as much as possible. Here’s our list of foods to avoid:
Processed Vegetable Oils All commercial processed vegetable oils - including soy oil, corn oil, safflower oil, margarine, hydrogenated oils and shortening. These oils are heat damaged and too high in omega-6 fats.
Refined Carbohydrates Sugar cane, high fructose corn syrup, glucose, fructose (stick with indigenous lower sugar fruits such as pears and berries and apples) and dextrose.
Refined Grain Products Most ready-to-eat breakfast cereals, puffed grains, white rice, rice cakes, instant oatmeal and granola bars.
Wheat Flour Products Avoid foods made with enriched or commercial flour: breads, pastas, baked goods, crackers, biscuits, cakes, bagels, muffins,
'multigrain' products, whole wheat, bran, semolina, couscous, bulgur, white flour, gluten, MSG, sauces and soups thickened with flour.
Corn Corn syrup, fruit juices sweetened with fructose or glucose, soda pop, corn start and granola bars.
'Whole Grain' Processed Foods Most “whole grain” products are actually refined wheat with small amounts of other grains and seeds thrown in. These foods have a high glycemic index and usually contain more than 70% refined wheat flour.
Fruit Juices Many ‘off the shelf’ fruit juices are a refined carbohydrate. It is much better to eat whole fruit. For a treat, have a fruit smoothie, or try some freshly prepared vegetable juice.
Food Additives Avoid artificial flavouring, colours, preservatives, MSG – Avoid Artificial Sweeteners: Nutrasweet, Aspartame, Splenda - AminoSweet etc. Genetically Modified Foods Note: There is a lot of great literature online concerning genetically modified (GM) foods. Take a look at the GeneWatch website below for much more information than we can go into here. Visit http://www.genewatch.org/sub-568547
Supplementation Ultimately, you only have so many hours in the day, so much money for grocery shopping and so many meals within which to fit all the nutrients, minerals and vitamins your body needs. With those limitations in mind, supplements can be invaluable – allowing you to ‘top-up’ on the missing elements without all the time involved in crafting a full meal around them.
The Natural Dispensary. As a naturopathic practitioner, I often recommend a bespoke series of supplements to my clients – targeted at addressing particular imbalances or deficiencies. You’ll have your own list of recommended supplements in your Holistic Health Assessment Report, and I highly recommend that you purchase them from a company called The Natural Dispensary.
Visit www.naturaldispensary.co.uk.
Claiming your 10% discount As a result of a long relationship with the team at the Natural Dispensary, we have set up a 10% client discount for all of my clients under the code of ‘MG010’.
To claim your discount: 1. Head over to the website 2. Browse the site for your recommended supplements 3. Register with them and include Marianne Greenwood as your Practitioner 4. Checkout and enter the code MG010 into the promocode box 5. Your 10% discount should appear!
Not so web savvy? Call 01453 757 792 and tell them Marianne Greenwood is your practitioner. They will look after you!