Diversify Your Diet
Illustration © D. Yael Bernhard
We are creatures of habit. Nowhere is this more apparent than in our dietary choices. In our quest for comfort and familiarity, most of us frequent the same supermarkets over and over, and eat the same foods day after day, year after year. From a nutritional perspective, this can be either a blessing or a curse. Regular intake of nutrients is certainly important. Water-soluble B vitamins and C vitamins, for example, cannot be stored by the body, and must be consumed every day. But should they always be eaten from the same sources?
Recently I was invited to a friend’s house for Sunday dinner. Along with the main course were delicious baked yams. Proudly announcing his practice of cooking efficiently, my friend showed me the five additional yams he had baked at the same time, to be reheated and eaten during the work week. He also showed me the same go-to granola he ate for breakfast each day, as if maintaining this habit were akin to his devotion to morning meditation practice.
I winced inwardly at the sight of the five large yams. For although yams contain wonderful nutrients – vitamin B6, potassium, fiber, carotenes, and more – they should not be eaten every day. Nor should a breakfast of the same granola. These high-carb foods will keep you alive, but they won’t provide optimal nutrition.
Optimal nutrition requires diversity. Our distant ancestors were foragers. Wild plants, grains, fruits, and fungi were seasonal and often found in small quantities. The prehistoric diet was necessarily varied, simply because few foods were plentiful or reliably available. This variety provides a plethora of micronutrients, many of which are only needed in trace amounts – but are crucial just the same. Eating the same foods over and over leaves dietary gaps that may build up over time into nutritional deficiencies, which in turn degrade the functional health of your body’s systems. Just as a bricklayer needs the right mortar in order to build a sturdy chimney, your cellular functions can’t operate smoothly without the necessary raw materials.
Eating the same foods all the time may also create allergies as the body builds up sensitivities to them. A recent blood test revealed I have too much carotene in my system, the result of eating too many carrots. Too much carotene can result in bruising and joint pain. I think I’ll try daikon radishes to add crunch to my salads for a change! Lack of diversity in your diet may also lead to increased cravings, as your body will continue to put out hunger signals as long as the nutrients you need are missing. Or it may ask you to eliminate a food that’s been on the menu for too long. A neighbor of mine was recently puzzling over his chronic stomach pain. When I suggested he try eliminating gluten from his diet – the most obvious culprit – he said, “No, it can’t be that – I’ve been eating bread all my life.” But it’s precisely because he’s been eating gluten all his life that he may not be able to handle it anymore. The body says “enough!” – but too often we don’t hear the signals, or just don’t listen.
We are made up of complex and dynamic systems. In my undergrad nutrition class, I learned just how interconnected these systems are. Imagine if, each day, the siding of your house were ripped off, broken down into its core elements, and used to build new railings or steps – only to be dismantled again the next day to reinforce your roof. The glass in your windows may be melted down, or the framing taken apart and dedicated to a new architectural feature. This dizzying array of activities happens every day in our bodies, and makes our organs far less separate than commonly believed. In this systemic, functional view of health, the body is an ever-changing, interrelated whole rather than an assemblage of separate parts. Accordingly, our bones are not fixed supports like sticks of dead wood, but living banks of minerals that are stored and exchanged for numerous bodily functions. They’re also factories that produce blood cells, platelets, and lymphocytes; store stem cells, and more. The minerals in bones are in constant flux, with formation and dissolution taking place every minute of the day and night.1 Similarly, your skin cells must replace themselves every ten days.2 Your gut does not just digest food, but also produces neurotransmitters that are used throughout your nervous system. Your salivary glands don’t just produce digestive enzymes, but also send signals to your pancreas. And your pancreas not only produces insulin, but also acts as a sensing organ and manages the pH threshold between the stomach and the intestines.
Many of these remodeling tasks are performed by enzymes that convert one type of molecule into another. Vitamins and minerals act as helpers for enzymes as they do their work. These hard-working helpers pick and choose the raw materials they need from the smorgasbord of nutrients you eat. Many nutrients are cofactors in cellular processes. Micronutrients act as lock and key to get cellular reactions to work properly. This comes from a diet of diversity – the rainbow of foods that nourish your biochemistry.
Let’s take one example: Selenium is necessary in order to build the proteins of immune cells and antioxidants. Antioxidants are needed to neutralize the oxidative damage (inflammation) created by toxins and free radicals. Selenium is also necessary to convert the inactive thyroid hormone to the active form, which in turn governs your entire metabolism. The typical “SAD” diet (Standard American Diet) is deficient in selenium. So if you’re in the habit of reaching for peanuts or pistachios, consider Brazil nuts for a change — only two are needed for a daily dose of selenium (but don’t overdo it, as selenium is one of the few minerals on which you can overdose).
Your body is healthiest when given all the tools and raw materials it needs. Even a healthy food, eaten day after day, doesn’t provide this variety. Similarly, pasture-raised animals that graze on a variety of plants and insects transmit more nutrients into their meat and milk; and vegetables and fruit grown in soil with a wide range of minerals, mycelia, and microbes offer better taste, color, and nutrition. You are what you eat — and what your food eats.
Diversity begins in your shopping cart. Do you always frequent the same food stores? Try a farm stand for a change, even if it means an extra stop. When you shop for salad greens, do you always pick the same kind of lettuce? Why not try red leaf for a change? The pigment that makes the leaves so lovely contains anthocyanins, which help prevent cardiovascular disease, and have also shown antioxidant, anti-diabetic, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and anti-obesity effects.3 Consider clementines instead of oranges; or Gala apples instead of the usual Granny Smiths. Pick up a pomegranate or papaya instead of watermelons and pineapple. Have you ever tried a kumquat? They can be eaten peel and all, and make convenient take-along snacks.
Perhaps the easiest way to diversify your diet is to vary your herbs and spices, which contain an impressive array of trace minerals and micronutrients. The wider the variety, the better, even in small amounts. A cup of black tea contains approximately 5mg of the calming amino acid l-theanine,4 while green tea contains antimicrobial, antioxidant catechins.5 Try switching from time to time! Matcha green tea has a different nutritional profile than sencha green tea – you don’t have to know what those differences are, just do yourself a favor and pick something different next time you shop. Rosemary contains rosmarinic and carnosic acids, immune-boosting phenolic compounds that fight infection.6 Fresh turmeric root contains curcumin, a powerful anti-inflammatory. Black pepper contains peperine, which aids in the absorption of curcumin.7 These phytonutrients are your friends, gifts of the earth as colorful and varied as life itself.
The same is true of produce. Cabbage contains different polyphenols than spinach or broccoli; why not choose a different cruciferous veggie next time you shop? Mushrooms contain different blends of polysaccharides, terpenes, and beta glucans (to name just a few), each with its own unique properties — why not take a break from the usual white button mushrooms and choose shiitakes, oysters, or maitake? Are you attached to eating nori as your one-and-only seaweed? If yes, consider picking kombu or dulse next time, and enjoy the benefits of these different sea vegetables. Do you always start your day with the same cereal? Try a different form of oats such as steel-cut or thick rolled oats for better protein, more fiber, and a lower glycemic index. Change the type of beans in your chili or grain in your stir-fry, and you’re on your way to better nutrition.
Breaking out of your dietary comfort zone brings other rewards as well. A wide variety of foods introduces more microorganisms to your gut. Studies show that cancer patients with diverse gut bacteria are more likely to survive treatment and go into remission.8 Like any living ecosystem, your microbiome thrives on diversity. Gut microbes are part of the immune system, and activate different biochemical pathways. They also physically crowd out unfriendly bacteria, denying them living space. Studies have also shown that Alzheimers patients have reduced microbiome diversity, which could contribute to the pathogenesis of the disease.9
If you think eating yogurt is enough to stock your gut with probiotics, think again. Yogurt contains only a few strains – Lactobacillus bulgaricus, Streptococcus thermophilus, and sometimes Bifidobacterium – while its cousin kefir contains up to twenty different strains, including the beneficial yeast probiotic Saccharomyces boulardii, which survives antibiotics.10 Goat yogurt and kefir are also different from fermented cow dairy. Give them both a try! Your gut will be grateful.
Do you always eat the same kind of seeds? The same sauerkraut or kimchi? Do yourself a favor and treat yourself to a different fermented vegetable. It’s no wonder countries in Asia that make a habit of this have lower rates of cancer. Over 1.5 million phytonutrients may be found in fruits and vegetables, many of which are enhanced by fermentation. These phytonutrients play a role in governing brain chemistry, cellular immunity, gene expression, nutrient sensing systems, and even longevity.
Most of us are incredibly fortunate to have diverse foods at our fingertips. It’s both easy and fun to try new foods! Personally, I’m infatuated these days with golden beets, tulsi tea, and curly mustard greens. I also pluck wild chickweed from my flower beds, and let dandelion leaves grow among my kale. These are terrific additions to my salads. One of my foodie friends strives to include thirty different fruits and vegetables in his diet each week – a laudable goal that brings a rainbow of colors into his kitchen. There’s a world of foods and spices out there waiting to be explored. Dive into diversity, and you’ll be taking a significant step toward better health.
To your good health –
Yael Bernhard
Certified Integrative Health & Nutrition Coach
Yael Bernhard is a writer, illustrator, book designer and fine art painter with a lifelong passion for nutrition and herbal medicine. She was certified by Duke University as an Integrative Health Coach in 2021 and by Cornell University in Nutrition & Healthy Living in 2022. For information about private health coaching or nutrition programs for schools, please respond directly to this newsletter, or email dyaelbernhard@protonmail.com. Her art newsletter, “Image of the Week,” may be found here. Visit her online gallery of illustration, fine art, and children’s books here.
Information in this newsletter is provided for educational – and inspirational – purposes only.
Sizer & Whitney, Nutrition: Concepts & Controversies, 15th Edition, 2017 Cengage Learning, Inc., pp282-283.
Sizer & Whitney, Nutrition: Concepts & Controversies, 15th Edition, 2017 Cengage Learning, p. 69
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8535348/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0308814610011416
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6076941/
https://www.webmd.com/diet/health-benefits-rosemary
https://www.webmd.com/diet/health-benefits-turmeric
https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=cancer+survival+and+gut+bacteria+diversity&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-31730-5
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2022.857720/full