Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. I make a small commission from purchases made through these links, at no cost to you. I share products that I know and use. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
We all know that feeling when we hear a new word and then that word pops up everywhere. I know there’s a word for that “phenomenon” but I can’t think of it. That’s how I feel about resiliency, especially when it comes to food choices and health. (I’ve also written about designing resilient landscapes with permaculture.)
The earth’s capacity to respond to and bounce back from challenges is similar to what happens in our bodies. Flooding may damage property, but it also removes weak plants and lets the stronger survive. Maybe the earth responds with new or wider runoff areas better equipped to divert water in the future, but over time erosion could take all the soil away. When we flood our bodies with certain foods, we experience a similar impact. The cumulative effect of particular nutrients (or lack thereof) contributes to our overall immune function, mental health, and healthful longevity.
“your genes alone are not your destiny; you have the ability, through altering your environmental inputs like diet and lifestyle, to change which genes are active” -Romilly Hodges
I just read Romilly Hodges’ (paid link) IMMUNE RESILIENCE, which Avery-Penguin Random House published last year. Some of the key pieces that stood out to me related to new research about nutrigenomics, nature’s impact on immunity, and the influence of sleep on our health. Nutrigenomics is a fairly new scientific area that focuses on how our bodies use our genes. I’ve often heard people dismiss their accountability when it comes to health concerns by claiming “it’s all genetics.” That used to be the case because we didn’t have scientific evidence to indicate otherwise. According to Hodges, part of the new science exploring nutrigenomics “is that your genes alone are not your destiny; you have the ability, through altering your environmental inputs like diet and lifestyle, to change which genes are active, or ‘turned on,’ and which ones are silent, or ‘turned off.’” The research has validated that people may inherit certain genes, but those genetic outcomes may never manifest if they’re not triggered. We’re not victims or superiors, we’re influencers. We can influence our immune systems through what we eat.
Another recent whisper that I keep hearing on repeat is to focus on the diet of what we eat, rather, what did what we eat eat? (paid link) WHAT YOUR FOOD ATE by David Montgomery and Anne Bikle is on my TBR list. I’m passionate about soil health and, from what I’ve heard from many folks about this book, is that the book follows the food chain back to our soil through science. This universally applies to everyone on earth because soil health doesn’t discriminate between vegans, vegetarians, or omnivores. Soil impacts everyone’s food, and food impacts our immune system and cognition.
Two months ago, ZOE Science and Nutrition hosted Felice Jacka on their podcast. Jacka is a professor of nutritional psychiatry. Jacka shared how our hippocampus manages memory and mental health. As we age, the hippocampus gets smaller, which is linked to age-related memory loss. She also shared that individuals with depression have smaller hippocampuses. However, the hippocampus is the only part of our brain with the potential to keep growing. Jacka shared that “the quality of people’s diets is linked to the size of their hippocampus.” Our food choice significantly impact our brains. According to Jacka, one study showed that diet quality impacts the size of the hippocampus by approximately 60 percent. In the interview, Jacka describes other studies and the malleability of our brain biology based on diet. In some of the studies, brain health improved in just a few days or weeks. Our cognition is directly linked to our resiliency, and the collection of recent research helps support the influence of our day-to-day food choices.
…a person “may have to consume 8 blueberries or 3 carrots to equal 1 grown in an optimal growing condition that favors nutrient density.” - The Bionutrient Institute
All of this talk about resiliency feels empowering, and it’s coming at a critical time. At no other point in history have humans been exposed to the volume and saturation of ultra-processed foods. About half of Americans suffer from chronic diseases, according to a 2018 study from the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. Ultra-processed foods negatively affect our immune systems. According to Hodges, “The more ultra-processed foods we eat, the more harmful bacteria we grow in our gut.” The high caloric dump and nutrient deficit of processed foods makes our bodies think we’re satiated when we’re not, and induces a cycle of consumption as our bodies are ultimately starving for nutrients. Even for folks choosing whole foods, commercial crop production delivers nutrient-deficient food. According to The Bionutrient Institute, a person “may have to consume 8 blueberries or 3 carrots to equal 1 grown in an optimal growing condition that favors nutrient density.”
If any of this sparks action for you, you’ll be happy to learn I have future posts planned diving into different areas of nutrient density. What we choose to eat matters to our resilience, the earth, and people. What we eat matters.