Creating a Balanced Daily Diet | Dr. Sherri Thomas | EP 112

Train your children young. I think my children are going to benefit from better nutrition, having grown up with me being a little more cognizant than how my life was. God didn't take stripes on his back just for physical healing. That's for emotional healing. Maybe the answers could be found just in being heard and being seen and finding someone else that understands. I was seeing God's hand in the prayers that I was praying for other people. When you are not focused on yourself, it frees you to actually be part of a miracle in somebody else's life. Welcome to iRefresh, where we talk about the power of prayer and God's Word. Welcome to another edition of I Refresh, I have with me my friend Dr. Sherry Thomas. Welcome. Thank you, Cheryl. Appreciate you inviting me to be here today. This has been so fun. We have a couple episodes out there. A recent one, we talk all things about radical things happening in our life with health. So you definitely need to go back and look at that episode. But today, what are we going to talk about, Sherry? Well, that last episode was radical. So we talked about how just on the very small cellular level, you know, we develop free radicals that steal and steal and steal and cause disease and unhealthy situations. And what can we do to stop those free radicals? So today we'll kind of put it all together. We knew the why, why we should choose better nutrition. Today, we'll try to make it a little more practical. Like what things should we include in our diet? And what would be some healthier choices to just put it all together? So we have a few examples. I apologize for all of you who may be just listening. You're missing out on some good looking fruits and vegetables and nutrition here. But we'll try to describe things along the way too, just so you don't feel too left out. But we'll start off with getting back to the biochemical part of of science and nutrition is that there's four major groups. So there's the carbohydrates, there are the lipids, which we think of as fats, the proteins, and the nucleic acids. And we'll go through each of those categories just to let you know what's included. Obviously, when most people think about carbohydrates, I think your mind goes to bread and rice and potatoes and pastas. I mean, that's what I think of as carbohydrates. But all of these lovely fruits and vegetables are all carbohydrates. When we get those foods in our body, they're healthy. And we sometimes differentiate between like simple carbohydrates, refined carbohydrates, and complex carbohydrates. The refined carbohydrates are things that are processed. So you think of what damage has been done to the food? What have you had to do along the way? And even though I have in my hand is a box of where I've gotten it from a health store. It says gluten-free, it says nature's path. And it says there's fiber in it, there are whole grains, 15 grams of whole grains. It has corn, rice, flax, buckwheat. And it also says it's non-GMO. Also has USDA organic, gluten-free. Does that necessarily mean that this box of cereal in my hand is necessarily what you would recommend is a healthy breakfast? It's going to be a pretty decent breakfast, actually. So it may not be... if you're looking at a continuum of like, what's the very best and what's the worst, it's gonna be on the higher end for sure. So not a bad choice. And definitely better than eating like fruit loops or frosted flakes. Oh, pure sugar. So when we look at a box, you wanna look and see what is the number one ingredient or the top couple ones. And if your first one is sugar or high fructose corn syrup, it's not a good choice. So this cane sugar is the third, which is not the greatest. But cane is better than high fructose corn syrup, so we want to stay away from that as much as we can. But what are the first two on there? So it's whole grain cornmeal and then brown rice flour. So we'll give it a B. And then I'm just curious, what other of these cereals, and it's not your typical cereal in a regular grocery store, but I was looking at thinking, I wonder if this must be healthy, because it says, again, organic. Now it's got buckwheat in it, and it's flakes. And again, it's gluten-free, because my family, a lot of us do gluten-free options. Again, it's telling me it's non-GMO, which I would think that it's not modified. And how are those ingredients on there? So I'm looking and it's a lot smaller print, but it says organic buckwheat grits and then organic brown rice flour and then organic cane sugar. Then organic maple syrup. And are the nutritional, besides that, does it say how many grams of fiber? How about that? So that's what interests me. There's four grams of fiber in there. And the total sugars are a little high at 14, but not terrible. So four grams of fiber is pretty good. The ingredients are important, but fiber is a big part of carbohydrates. The more fiber we can get, that helps to slow down the sugar. When we really go low or eliminate some things out of our diet, it can affect our body. So I want my brain to function. So I do want some carbohydrates in my diet, but I wanna choose some of the healthier ones. And if I do choose a grain, then I want something that's three grams of fiber more because carbohydrates do turn into sugar, but it can be healthy sugar that fuels our body and gives us energy. We don't want to spike our sugar and crash it. So the fiber slows that down, just like oatmeal. I don't know if you have any oatmeal on there. I'm sure there might be some oats in the granola. Yes, we have on the granola. But if you have slow-cooked oats... Those, they take longer to cook, obviously. It's the first thing to eat. But they have higher fiber. So how do you make that little package of brown sugar cinnamon, you know, microwave it for a minute and down it? Well, they're breaking down all that fiber. So then that sugar is just going to spike in your body. An hour later, you're going to be at work yawning and tired and thinking, when do I get my candy bar or my next cup of coffee? So if we have... The higher fiber, that's better. Yes. And so- You hear the story like shop the periphery of the store, that's better than the aisles. Anything in the aisles, you have to be a little more cautious. The periphery usually does have the fruits and the vegetables some of the lean meats and proteins and things. But you go up and down those aisles, it's hard to decide. Like when I have so many choices, what's a better choice? But the sprouted grains are good. Sometimes it's harder to find some of these breads. You might need to look in the freezer section rather than the other ones. This is the Ziegle bread for those who are listening. It's the seven sprouted grains. And it says... then it's a good source of fiber. So you've got 21 grams of whole grains. And it's on GMO. So if you're gonna choose a bread, you know, that Ezekiel bread is a great choice. And even sourdough, I know in this day of economy when people are, you know, conscientious about money, my sister is just amazing at saving money and living on a tight budget. And she has her sourdough and feeds it. bakes bread and makes English muffins that are delicious. And they are nutritious too because they have a lot better of just the building blocks of it rather than just grain that's been processed, processed, processed and really doesn't leave us with much nutrition. So if you do want to have some bread, Ezekiel is a good choice. Some of the whole grain breads as well and even the sourdough. But read the labels. It's interesting what you can find, but also... We see seeds, lentils, all of those fall into the carbohydrate category. But look at all these lovely vegetables. I mean, just how pretty they are with all the different colors of the carrots. There's white and orange and purple. Yeah. tomatoes and then okay let's look at the uh for those uh the carrots we have the long stem we'll actually have the green on the end and then we actually have where i had bought in a bag of the little mini carrots and i was asking you earlier is is one healthier over the other or they're the same because they're both carrots and they look natural what would make one different the other because i don't have to peel the little mini ones that came in a bag Technically, the in-hole ones are just a little bit more healthy. They're less processed to get the little quick, easy ones. They have to skin them and process them and chop them up, and you can lose some of that nutrition that's in the skin. But still, definitely a bag of baby carrots is a far better choice than eating a donut or a cookie or something. If you have a break at lunch or in the afternoon, You know, have a bag of that, dip it in some hummus or a nutritional, you know, kind of supplement just to get some extra. nutrition in with it besides the carrots instead of ranch. We think of like kids dipping ranch. Oh my goodness. Ranch is so popular, but you're right. So hummus would be a better alternative, you're saying. Hummus, salsa, we can talk about some of the, you know, other condiments. So tomatoes are great and you chop up some tomatoes and onions and cilantro and there you have your salsa. We make it all the time now. Cause we've actually have a garden that has all the different elements you need on a salsa. And then we just put it in, The blender, and we have incredible salsa all the time. So I love that you can actually add other different herbs, which we have even an herb garden as well. Exactly. I mean, I even put—I love salsa, so I'll put that on my salad. That will be my dressing. Okay. Instead of a salad dressing, put salsa on it. Exactly. Okay. Some people have to be a little careful with— eating too many tomatoes and things. So you do have to listen to your body, but salsa is a great condiment to add to your food. Put it on some eggs is another way. I love to have it. Chop up some avocado and some, salsa and put that on eggs, and that gives you a great balanced breakfast and a lot of energy for the day because you have the protein, and we'll go on to that a little bit later from the eggs, but then you're adding, you're getting those carbohydrates to help your brain and help your body think and function, and it's that quick reaction. We want to be able to draw on that like healthy sugar in our body from the carbohydrates to help us go and help us be productive. And even I was watching tennis a few weeks ago, I guess it was Wimbledon, and I was curious as to what some of the stars that were winning, what their diets were like. And most of them I saw were eating figs. So that was their, one of the tennis players, he said that's all he eats during a match. He drinks his water and some electrolytes, but he eats figs. That's the only food that he eats during a match. And I thought, wow, the figs just, God put so much nutrition in those. just to give us that quick energy. And if it works for the championship tennis players, I think it's good for us too. So you're saying with the figs too, because I even have down in here too, I have some dried cranberries and then there's some raisins here. But you know, like what we've talked about before too, is you also have the process of some of those, like raisins. Most of the time, if you look at the container of raisins, you're going to have a lot of sugar in the raisin. It's a better alternative than pure processed sugar, well, I guess. But if you can, switch out to maybe, like you have the dates here, maybe a better alternative. Dates and figs, a lot of them have just the plain fruit and no added supplements. And raisins and cranberries are good. I mean, they're dried, so some people even dry them themselves. But if you can try to look and see if you get ones without added sugar, or if you do, have them in some trail mix. So small amounts of sugar are okay. God put sugar in the world, and I don't believe we have to— eliminated 100% completely because it is in fruits and it is in vegetables and it is in grapes and it is in cranberries. And so we get small amounts and small amounts have added, but my goodness, if you look at the statistics on how many pounds of sugar people eat a year, it's just astronomical. I mean, you can just build you know, a whole sculpture with the bags of sugar that people eat. If you're just adding and adding and adding so much in your coffee and your tea and your sodas and Oklahoma sweet tea, who knows how much I saw, you know, my mother-in-law used to get a whole big cup of sugar and dump it in the tea, and that's what the family drank and what they loved. And that's a lot of sugar in your system. So small amounts on a cranberry or a raisin, if you want to add that to your granola or your oatmeal, that is fine. But if you can get it without, then that would be great. But you have to, I think you have to acquire that taste. You have to slowly do it where it's just a little bit less sugar. Or like we talked before in the other episode is using honey. There might be other ones. Agave. Yeah, I've used that with even some cooking as well. I've used that to bring some sweetness. Or lemon and lime, sometimes depending on what it is, even in salsa, you're putting the lime in there and sometimes I get a little crazy with it. Trying to just give it a different flavor so you can kind of modify things. Yeah. Sherry, I was also looking too as a way to even spruce up some of these carbs, which is amazing. Growing up, I didn't think about vegetables being carbs. I always thought it was breads and grains. But you're saying all these vegetables of lettuce and kale and celery, all those are carbs. Yeah. So if we were to enhance the vegetables that we are having, I see here is the sun-dried tomatoes. I actually bought it. I didn't do it. I didn't make it myself. I have it in a jar. But it does show that it has, they say they're antioxidants. Exactly. And they're gluten-free. But you're saying tomatoes are healthy, but for some people may also have to really watch what we're doing, even though we're trying to enhance the flavors a little bit more to entice more of us to eat more of those. Right. You do have to listen to your body. And some people, even though vegetables are great, what are considered like the root vegetables, which can be more turnips and sometimes some carrots and various vegetables, some potatoes and things. eggplants can make people with arthritis stiffer. So you think, well, these are great vegetables, but for some people they might have to minimize some of those. And same like tomatoes. The lycopene is great from the tomatoes, but in some people tomatoes, too much of them are... detrimental to their body or make them just not feel well. Okay. So yes, we do need to listen to our body. And if you have certain medical conditions, you might need to be careful. There's a lot of vegetables that can interfere with people who are taking Coumadin, for example, a blood thinner. Okay. So please don't accept this as a blanket statement for everyone. You need to consult your personal physician as well as listen into your body to see if there's certain things that maybe you shouldn't have. But by and large, for the average person, many of these green leafy vegetables, spinach, kale, romaine lettuce, the green leafy vegetable, the red lettuce is just so healthy for you, adding in celery and onions and, all the flavors to have a lovely plate of food, a stir fry, to get those nutrients in your body. And then small amounts of fruit. Fruit is sugar, so when we talk about, you know, the healthy carbohydrates and the not healthy carbohydrates, You know, donuts are carbohydrates too, and cookies are carbohydrates, and crackers. And so not that we can't have any of those, but you really want to keep those to a small amount. And so when we refer to carbohydrates for our fuel, we want to be using these carbohydrates to fuel our body and lessen the amount of those refined and those processed carbohydrates. So Sherry, tell me more about, okay, the next one is the lipids. What would that look like? Yeah, the lipids, which we consider more of the fats. Fats do a lot of things. They help their building blocks for our body. They help us to store hormones. They help us to cushion our body and wrap around our internal organs. So people who are anorexic and are so thin, don't have that cushion around their body. So we do need some fat on our body, but we don't need excessive fat on our body. So that does help. It helps with our energy reserve. So just like the animals that go into hibernation, they're building fat on their body for the winter because they're not going to eat for months and months. It was meant more in times of starvation that we would have more body fat, but we are certainly not hurting for starvation. Many of our societies these days. Fats also make you feel full. So, you know, if you eat just like say you had a bowl of Rice Krispies, you know, plain, and you didn't put milk or anything on it, an hour later, you're going to feel hungry because those are the carbohydrates, the quick energy, but there's nothing really stored, so you don't feel full. But when you do add some milk to your cereal or you have an egg with it, that would give you some more healthy fats. So we want to add some healthy fats into our body to help us to feel full. Plus, they're also very important with our vitamins. So vitamins D, E, A, and K, those four are stored in our body fat. And as women, we need a lot of vitamin D, especially for our bones. And so we need some fats in our body. And when people go on low, low, low fat diet, they can actually get deficient in some of the vitamins. There is some overlap between like the lipids and the fats, and then we'll move into the protein. So the protein's... You know, think of the bodybuilder. You know, obviously they need those building blocks for muscles, but we need some muscle and we need strength. And so we need to build up our muscles with extra protein. So the proteins we have here can be nuts. We have a little hamburger there, some chicken, some cheese, yogurt. And a lot of those, because of the form that they're in, do have both the proteins and a little bit of fat. But belief here, we have some olive oil. Olive oil, I think, is one of the very best oils you can put in your body. Some of the other oils are very processed. Coconut oil is also very good. And then I'm curious, too. And we also added another one I wanted to know about. It's a grapeseed oil. I don't know. It seemed like it was in that. That area of different, and I don't always know when to use it, but when I'm cooking, I'll sometimes use that instead of the olive oil. Grape seed I don't ever use, as opposed to rapeseed, which is canola oil, which is a more processed oil, which I try to avoid personally, but stick with more olive oil. But yes, any of those can be used in conjunction, but I personally don't use the grape seed oil, but that's not a bad choice. Also, our nuts are kind of in both categories. So all the different nut butters, the peanut butter, the almond butter, cashew butter, it gives you both the protein and the healthy fats. And those are really good, especially I'll do like the almond butter. I love it even now with celery or carrots. So I can kind of, because otherwise you feel like you're getting hungry sometimes with certain things, vegetables or fruit you eat. It kind of helps me for me to get some of my protein in. Exactly. Yeah. When you do have a carbohydrate, if you can add a protein, it also slows down that sugar absorption. So you have less of those spikes. So if you are gonna have a snack, having an apple with a handful of nuts or some nut butter on it, or even a slice of cheese or a hard boiled egg, if you can combine the carbohydrates with the proteins and the fats, it does make you feel fuller longer and keep your blood sugar more stable so you have less of those spikes. Okay, great. So now we've covered most of the three categories and then the last one are the nucleic acids. And that's our internal, I look at it as like the transmitter. So the RNA and the DNA in our cells. And that's the very important thing that transfers energy and transfers information from cell to cell to cell. And even now, after having lived through COVID for the last three years, we hear more about viruses and how can we try to attack their internal RNA and DNA wipe it out or help to combat it and stop the virus. So RNA and DNA and our internal transmitters are important too. And we get most of those products from our lean meats. So kind of like the chicken and the poultry, also vegetables, spinach, beans, and broccoli are a good source of that and berries. We wanna get our berries like elderberry is a good, antioxidant and helps to fight the viruses. So how do we put all this together? We know we need carbohydrates, we need fats, we need proteins, we need nucleic acids. So when I look at all the diets around, and I'm old enough to have seen everything from Atkins to South Beach diet and Mayo Clinic and keto and intermittent fasting, and obviously, if science and medicine can't agree that there's any one best thing, then we take the good and the bad from each one. And a lot of them have good health production, but some of them, like we talked about before, are eliminating some of these important products that help to build our body. So I really feel like as a doctor, the Mediterranean diet seems to be kind of the best catch-all. Yeah, and I actually have a, I just picked this up because I love Mediterranean food. I don't know, tzatziki's is one of our favorites. Oh, I love tzatziki's. Yeah, and when we've gone into travel different areas, when you find Mediterranean, there's something about that food, it's just really enjoyable. But tell me, how does that, over all other diets, what do you see as the benefits of that particular one? So the Mediterranean diet, what I see is it almost like a reverse pyramid, food pyramid to one sense. where the basis of the Mediterranean diet is having all the lovely vegetables with a few added fruits. So you're getting the Mediterranean's have mostly like all the vegetables, some of the healthy grains that you were showing us earlier. They also have a lot of the beans and lentils and peas and nuts and seeds and some of the healthy fats and proteins. But they... have a lower amount of some of the animal products. So not that you have to exclude them completely, but the half of your plate, filling that with all the vegetables and a little bit of fruits, and then filling in some of those little spots. So it allows for small amounts of poultry and fish at least twice a week to get your omega-3 fatty acids. And then also small amounts of the eggs and the cheese and the yogurts and things just to fill in the spaces. Okay. But really, you don't see on the list in that Mediterranean, I think you'd be hard-pressed to see the processed foods and the sugars and the sweetened beverages and the refined grains and vegetables. a lot of red meat. So not that you can't have red meat, but limit it to just a few times a week. So I see that as a big thing with the Mediterranean. It really doesn't exclude anything. You have your carbohydrates, you have your healthy lipids and fats, you have your proteins, and you have your building nucleic acids. So I see that as an overall, it's including everything that would be healthy without limiting too much. Also, have you ever been around any when they're eating, it's an event. And so the other nuance of the Mediterranean diet is not just all of what you eat, but how you eat it. So I know sometimes if I'm just having a meal alone, I feel different than if I'm having a meal with my whole family. So the Mediterranean's really try to have company and have community in their meals and try to share meals with other family, invite people over. And I think that's important in our culture. People are becoming more isolated. And I read some statistics that showed like that a lot of individuals rarely eat meals with other people. They're eating in isolation. And that has led to unhealthier choices. It's led to people eating more than they should because they might be just on their phone the whole time or watching a movie and just eating, eating, eating, not listening to their bodies. And so they're getting more calories, unhealthier foods, And gaining weight. So if we can invite people into our community or I don't know if you've ever done this when your children have been away, but we've sometimes FaceTimed them during a meal. So they're eating and we're eating and we will talk so we can be sharing the meal together even though they're isolated. That's awesome. Or even with friends in a nursing home or whatever. inviting people who were single over to share a meal with you. We did that last night. We had a person who is single and invited them to our dinner. And it was a lot of fun just hearing from them and getting to share a meal together. So really, you're taking time. You're not eating fast because I feel like we're here and we're in a fast food alley. As we're running in, we're impatient. We want the food now. We order on apps, you know, because we want instant gratification. But then we also are shoveling it down to go to the next thing. So you're telling us really it's an experience. It's an evening. It's slowing down, not cramming the food down because you really don't know you're full when you're eating that fast as well. So you kind of stop because all of a sudden you realize I've had enough and we probably eat a little bit more or less because our body is able to tell us that. And we might not have two and three hours to have a meal, but even just sitting down together for 45 minutes, it doesn't have to be. If you have more time, great. But I know we are busy and we have things to do. And I often have a lot of work to do in the evening. So I understand we can't stop, but we still have multiple family meals together a week. And we try to incorporate that into our family to sit down and talk and enjoy a meal and have some time for some conversation and not have the phones and the TV and distractions at the time that can happen. just change your judgment as to how full you are or what you're eating, but just to enjoy it. And then there are better ways to end your meal too. We don't always have to have dessert. We can look at some other alternatives. So let's look at our alternatives then. So how do we end a meal? Often the American way is dessert. And my husband was brought up, his grandma lived with him for a while. Desserted breakfast, dessert at lunch, dessert at dinner. You just lived on dessert. You ate your meal so you could have dessert. But is that the best for us? So in our family, we try to have some fruit as our dessert. And then we have some lovely after-dinner treats, too. There's your fruit. And here's a dark chocolate with raspberries in it. So you get both the best of all worlds. Yeah, that's the best of all worlds. And then you have a little bit of the dark chocolate with almond butter. So get a little protein with it. And it's very satisfying to have just a little square of chocolate. It gives you that little sweet kick. And if you have the dark chocolate and the lesser amount of milk chocolate, then that does give you the good antioxidants that help to scavenge up those free radicals. Also, sometimes sipping on a cup of decaffeinated tea or some herbal tea is very helpful. We know that Coffees and teas are healthy for you in moderation. So you can often finish off a meal with some conversation and sip on. your choice of your beverage and enjoy a little bit of chocolate. That's really great. So that kind of puts together, we don't want to limit our diet. And I think we've come to the conclusion that there is no perfect diet, that it's a lifestyle change and it's small changes, baby steps. Make a few changes. Instead of using ranch, use some hummus. Instead of using a higher fat calorie salad dressing, put some salsa on your salads or on your eggs. Train your children young. I think my children are gonna benefit from better nutrition, having grown up with me being a little more cognizant. than how my life was. So if we can make small changes and if we can start young and train our taste buds, you know, little by little and give yourself grace, you don't have to do everything right. You might mess up and you might just... have a day where you just gotta go have that banana split. Well, don't beat yourself up about it. Just don't eat the whole thing. Right. Just learn that reducing the intake, the amount of something that you enjoy, would make it a lot, lot different than what your old pattern. And then see how much different you feel. Because you said that too, is paying attention to your body and how you feel. Exactly. You know, if you aren't feeling well, you know, pick some things to eliminate. And it takes about seven, eight days minimum up to a week or two to notice a difference. But say you aren't feeling well and you're drinking a lot of milk. Maybe eliminate some milk products for a week or two and see how you feel. And then add it back. And if your symptoms come back, maybe that's not the best choice for you, or maybe you should just have it in small amounts. I believe God speaks to us and he gives us wisdom as to what's best for our body. But we do have, if you're having, you know, a lot of bloating and, you know, digestive symptoms and fatigue and brain fog, you might take some serious steps to look at your diet and see, you know, what might be causing a difference. And there are a lot of nutritionists too that you can go and have some tests done too to figure out like what foods might be more in a red zone that you should avoid as much as you can and what foods might be in more of a yellow zone that you can enjoy some but just limit. And then what foods are... Go full ahead, enjoy these to the max, your green foods, which I believe are going to be a lot of these things that we've talked about today. Really keep added sugar to a small amount. I think we can all agree on some of these things. Sugar is just not healthy for you in big amounts, but limit it. Drink your water. We have quite a bit of water here, and most people need about 60 to 80 ounces of water a day just to stay hydrated. Our body is primarily made up of water. I think we've also come to the conclusion that refined carbohydrates are less desirable than the nature carbohydrates, the way God gave them to us in full form. Just eat real food as much as you can. Eat it in its real form. Have your garden. But I think that the key, too, is just to enjoy your meals. You know, God gave us these lovely foods to enjoy. And. Try to make it not so much a chore. Make it an enjoyable thing. Have the kids come together to help prepare the meals. You know, do it in community. Laugh and enjoy your meals. And I think just I'd like to end with just Psalms 103, verse 105, where the Lord says, Bless the Lord, O my soul. and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Bless the Lord and forget not all of his benefits. There are so many benefits. He forgives all of our iniquities. He heals all of our diseases. He's the great physician. Thankfully, we have so much to benefit to. And I ask him to bless my mind when I'm seeing patients. But he is the great physician. He heals all our diseases. He redeems our life from destruction. He crowns us with loving kindness and tender mercies. And he satisfies our mouth with good things. So we don't want to look at nutrition as I can't have this, I can't have this, I can't have this. You know, we want to look at it. What can we have? There's so many things that we can have that he satisfies our mouth with good things. And then our youth is renewed like the eagle's. So we want to soar. We want to stay young. We want to keep those free radicals away from us. And we just want to enjoy life and be healthy. That's so great. Those are great, really truths. And if you want to learn more and you're like, that was a lot of intake, we're going to have in our show notes on our website at iRefresh.net where you can... kind of look it over, print it out. When you go to the grocery store, start looking at what she is given. We'll have that list out there for you. And thank you so much, Sherry, for sharing with us. You're welcome, it's been a pleasure. These are carbohydrates. Whatever you say so. Let's do a list.