Learn to Respect your Bio-Individuality
One of the most important aspects of health is respecting and honoring our bio-individuality. Bio-individuality is a dynamic circumstance in which a person’s current circumstances change their nutritional needs. While there are certain nutritional principles that all people benefit from, there is no one-size-fits-all diet. Your current circumstances, challenges, environment, lifestyle, bodily strengths and weaknesses, all influence what particular foods will serve you best in the moment. Nutrient needs change depending on many things not limited to pregnancy, stress, sickness, increased physical activity, and dietary allergies and preferences.
Understanding and respecting your bio-individuality can play out across many aspects of your life, one of them being how to balance your plate. Balancing a plate refers to the relative balance of macronutrients in your meal: carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. No one can tell you, nor is it static, what your personal balance of macronutrients looks like. Understanding your bio-individuality and respecting and honoring what your body needs, in this moment, is crucial to your foundational health.
During times of stress, many of us can tend to crave and eat high-carbohydrate foods, desiring the boost they provide, only to crash and need another pick-me-up a couple hours later. Doing your best to make sure to have a balanced plate of protein, carbs, and fats, as well as consuming adequate water throughout the day will help keep your energy and blood sugar stabilized and provide your body with all the important building blocks that it needs to function.
How to know when you’ve found the right balance for you? Some indicators of optimal macronutrient balance for your body 1-3 hours after eating consist of:
You feel full and satisfied.
You do not have sweet cravings or desire more food.
You do not get hungry soon after eating or need to snack before your next meal.
Your energy is restored and long-lasting; you feel refueled and restored.
Improved sense of well-being, uplift in emotions, improved mental clarity.
You are calm and hungry (but not ravenous) at your next meal.
Feeling unsatisfied, hungry, snacky, restless and anxious, low energy, jittery, unable to focus, or mentally sluggish after your meals? Consider adjusting your macronutrients at your next meal to find more satiety. Adding more protein and fat to your meals can help increase feelings of satiety, slow gastric emptying, and help moderate how quickly glucose enters into your bloodstream.
Imbalanced macronutrients can contribute negatively to immune health. Finding your bio-individual proportion of whole food fat, carbohydrates, and protein is something you can do, every day, to support optimal immune function.
How are each of the macronutrients important for immune health?
Carbohydrates
Provide an immune cell’s preferred fuel during times of active infection or chronic infection.
Necessary for our mucus-producing cells to proliferate. Mucus is important as it is our first line of defense against incoming pathogens.
Glucose is used by cells to generate antibodies to defend the body against pathogens.
Prevents intracellular nerve damage during viral infections.
Critical component of the lymphatic fluid that is the highway of our adaptive immune response.
Nutrient dense sources of carbohydrates: Starchy root vegetables (potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnips, beets, plantains, carrots, squash), non-starchy carbohydrates (leafy greens, broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, cabbage, herbs, peppers), fiber-rich fruit (raspberries, blueberries, huckleberries) soaked and sprouted legumes, and soaked and sprouted grains.
Protein
Cells, immunoglobulins, and many mediators of inflammation are made up of amino acids.
Increasing protein in your diet can directly increase immune cell production.
Ample dietary protein, and proper digestion of that protein, is one of the best ways to support healthy immune function.
Nutrient dense sources of protein: Grass fed beef/pork/chicken/lamb, pastured organic eggs, seafood, non-denatured whey protein, and organic full-fat raw dairy.
Fatty acids
Omega 3, 6, and saturated fats are necessary building blocks for our cell membranes.
Eating poor quality fats (vegetable oils, poor quality & damaged oils) could result in inflammation and compromised cell membrane integrity
Fatty acids are necessary for the production of hormones, in particular, pro-hormones called prostaglandins and eicosanoids that are important in localized inflammatory and anti-inflammatory processes in the body.
Fatty acids provide fuel for immune cells during times of normal security and maintenance of health.
Proper digestion of fatty acids is key!
Nutrient dense sources of fatty acids: Grass fed butter, organic and cold pressed olive oil, coconut milk, lamb, nuts and seeds (raw, soaked/sprouted), ghee, avocados and avocado oil, egg yolks, wild-caught fish, olives, cold-pressed nut oils, and fats from pasture raised/grass-fed animals.
Finding your personal bio-individual needs can feel like a bit of a guessing game, but the more you tune in to your intuition and honor what your body is asking for, the better you’ll understand how to support yourself and your ever-changing needs.
Please note: This information is intended for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.