In this month’s issue of Dishing It Up…

• Unlocking the ‘gut microbiome’ – and its massive significance to our health
• 17 Healthy No-Prep Recipes for the Days When You Just Can’t
• Rethinking Your Post-COVID Relationship With Booze
• Toss your expired sunscreen and opt for physical over chemical products, B.C. doctor says
• 5-Minute Breathing Exercises Can Lower BP, Heart Attack Risk

A bite-sized summary and links for each story …

Unlocking the ‘gut microbiome’ – and its massive significance to our health
“Gut microbes do things the gut can’t do, liberating or synthesising nutrients from food, especially from plants and their polyphenols, living off non-digestible substrates, producing thousands of metabolites – useful chemicals –and making vital short-chain fatty acids that are involved with immunity, with keeping the gut and colon healthy, with moderating the body’s inflammatory responses and with the metabolism of glucose.  To do this, microbes need about 30g of fibre a day, but the average intake in the UK is just 10-15g [and 18g and 16g for Canadian men and women].  Is this why modern, low fibre, ultra-processed, high-sugar diets seem so problematic for human gut health?”  So be sure there’s lots of fibre when dishing up dinner!
Read more on this, including 7 simple ways to keep the right balance of microbes, in this fascinating article …

17 Healthy No-Prep Recipes for the Days When You Just Can’t
The best way to keep your microbiome healthy is to make your own meals from a diversity of whole foods.  When pressed for time (which is a lot of the time), however, we default to takeout/processed foods.  Instead, try some of these no-prep recipes.  And check out the recipes in my most recent Make Calories Count Menu.  You’ll nosh on a rainbow of healthy foods in one day!  And your gut microbiota will thank you.  Remember, if you look after it, it will look after you!
Read more…

Rethinking Your Post-COVID Relationship With Booze
Along with ultra-processed foods, alcohol too has a harmful effect on gut bacteria.  Pandemic stress spurred some people to increase their drinking while it prompted others to decrease or eliminate it.  Where on the spectrum are you?  “Health concerns may be one of the biggest things driving the current sober-curious movements that include committing to ‘drying-out periods’ of several weeks or more, inspirational hashtags like #soberissexy, online sober coaches, ‘sober’ bars, and ‘craft’ distilleries that make and sell plant-based faux booze.”
Read more…

Toss your expired sunscreen and opt for physical over chemical products, B.C. doctor says
“Physical sunscreen, also known as mineral sunscreen, contains active mineral ingredients and blocks UV rays by creating a barrier on top of the skin.  Chemical sunscreens absorb UV rays, convert them into heat, and release them from the body….[but] some of the chemicals used, when exposed to oxygen, can break down into into benzene — a known carcinogen.”
Read more...

5-Minute Breathing Exercises Can Lower BP, Heart Attack Risk
A recent study found that Inspiratory Muscle Strength Training (IMST), which involves inhaling through a handheld device that provides resistance, may “help heart health just as much — if not more than — aerobic exercise”.  Think of it as resistance training for your lungs.  Said senior study author Doug Seals, PhD: “We have identified a novel form of therapy that lowers blood pressure without giving people pharmacological compounds and with much higher adherence than aerobic exercise”.  I’ll still take running, as it gets me outside and really lifts my mood.  But this is a promising alternative for people who are do not have the ability, time or will to pursue more traditional forms of aerobic exercise.
Read more …

 

Want to receive Dishing It Up and other blog posts from The Nutritional Reset direct to your inbox?

Join The Nutritional Reset community here to receive each month’s edition of Dishing It Up, as well as exclusive recipes and more, direct to your inbox!