The Swift Diet

Chapter 4 N: NOURISH THE BODY, AND THE BELLY

Lauren

A lot of my clients come to me as self-proclaimed sugar addicts. My client Lauren, an office manager for an insurance company in western Massachusetts, jokes that as a toddler her first words were “juice” and “cookie,” not “Mama” and “Papa.” She was able to keep her weight under control when she was younger, but over the course of her fifteen-year marriage, and meeting the demands of raising her daughter and holding down her job, she’d added sixty pounds to her “wedding weight.” By the time she’d hit her forties, occasional digestive problems, especially persistent bloating and gas pain, had arrived and, along with it, eczema. Clearly, the candy and the baked goods weren’t doing her any favors in the empty calorie department but, just as clearly, a disordered gut was compounding the problem. I put Lauren on the same 4-week Swift Plan that I’ll describe in Chapter 7—lots of veggies, limited gluten-free grains and just enough fruit to satisfy that sweet tooth. She had been a late-night eater so I created a new family ritual for her. Every evening after dinner, Lauren, her husband and her six-year-old daughter would enjoy a piece of fruit. (I didn’t care if it was pineapple, berries, citrus or whatever, as long as the peanut M&M’s didn’t come out.) Unlike every other attempt Lauren had made to lose weight, this time her husband had agreed to go along for the ride, at least for the first four weeks. She felt like she had a partner. They’ve both been on it for a year now and Lauren has lost fifty pounds, ten pounds to go. Not surprisingly, her skin and abdominal issues have cleared up.

Lauren is like so many of the clients I’ve worked with over the years. She had some nagging digestive issues, IBS-type symptoms, and when we eliminated the gluten, they went away. But she’s not Susan, whom we met in the previous chapter. Lauren’s digestive issues were annoyances, not life changers. What they really were was a wake-up call. The way she was eating didn’t suit the person she wanted to be or the life she wanted to live. Her diet was chockablock with MicroMenaces, especially the dense carbs that fed her lifelong sweet tooth. The result was the creeping weight gain that was draining her vitality. While it’s likely she did have some degree of sensitivity to gluten, the bigger, underlying problem was that she was “allergic” to her processed-food and convenience-driven Standard American Diet. That’s true for virtually all of my clients, women and men.

When I first met Lauren she asked me the question that as a nutritionist I’ve heard more than any other: “Everybody tells me what I can’t eat. But what can I eat?” Now that we’ve covered the MicroMenaces in the previous chapter, we can answer Lauren’s question. I call these “yes you can” foods the MicroMenders: working in concert with the microbiome, they help heal the gut and promote weight loss. Another common denominator: they are divinely delicious, as you’ll discover in the recipes to come. Your gut bacteria may not care about this (although we are learning that there are taste buds in the gut!), but the pleasure you take in preparing and eating these foods is the best and most reliable incentive to stay on the healthy eating path.

Before we move on to the list, let me briefly explain the concept of “Nourish,” the third step in the MENDS program. It means something bigger than “eat good food.” That’s key, of course, but as important as the “what” of eating is the “where.” Lauren, like so many overscheduled women in this country, had fallen into the trap of relocating the family dinner to a nearby budget “family restaurant” or resorting to takeout menus. I see this at both ends of the age spectrum; for instance, the woman who’s retired or whose kids have grown up saying to herself or her spouse, “Why bother; let’s go out.”

Practically speaking, this is usually a dietary dead end. Even if you’re trying to order sensibly, the meals you get are likely to be full of cheap, mass-produced oils. Bread and bread products are going to be almost irresistibly arrayed around the table. Portion sizes will be fit for a lumberjack.

There’s no avoiding it. The road to health and weight loss leads back to your own kitchen. Choosing the right ingredients and preparing them thoughtfully for most of your dinners is at the heart of what it means to nourish yourself and family, if you cook for more than one. Yes, it takes some time, which these days is a precious commodity. (In Chapter 7, “The 4-week Swift Plan,” I’ll take you through some smart, efficient shortcuts.) But study after study has demonstrated that home cooking pays dividends in health and weight loss. More than that, I would add, it can also be an antidote to the fractured ADD mind-set that our plugged-in, digitalized culture seems to encourage. When you cook, you have to pay attention to what you’re doing, one thing at a time. (If not, watch out!) I like to say that cooking is a mindful act. In this book, you’ll be introduced to a number of mind-body practices that can reduce stress and develop your powers of attention. Although we don’t usually think about it this way, cooking is itself a powerful mind-body practice! (The workshop I launched five years ago at Kripalu, titled “Nutrition and Cooking Immersion,” is now one of its most popular healthy-living programs. The students love the physical and sensory connection with the food.)

Here is the Swift Diet summed up in a picture—the Swift Plate. Half the plate is filled with non-starchy, often colorful vegetables such as carrots, spinach, kale, herbs and spices. A quarter of the plate is filled with starchy vegetables like sweet potatoes or acorn squash, complemented with whole grains such as quinoa or wild rice and fresh, seasonal fruit. And a quarter is lean, clean proteins such as wild fish and skinless turkey. You’ll also see eggs and legumes as part of the protein picture. The droplet at the center of the plate completes the picture: healthy fats and oils, like extra-virgin olive oil, with a smattering of nuts and seeds.

Oftentimes, I advise clients to avoid processed foods. The advice is good, but it can be a little confusing since “processed” could mean anything from extra-virgin olive oil to a bag of Doritos. Certainly, we do want to steer clear of food that comes packaged with a long list of hard-to-pronounce ingredients, some of which made an appearance in the previous chapter. As a general rule, we’re shooting to eat food that has had as little “done” to it as possible. Another way to think about it is, your refrigerator and freezer should be full and your pantry nearly empty, save for spices and oils. The Swift Plate is what we’re aiming for. In Chapter 7, I’ll give you the step-by-step to get there.

The MicroMenders

As you’ll see, whole plant foods are at the heart of my MicroMenders list, and the core of the Swift Diet. They’re that valuable for three big reasons:

1. High in fiber

2. Low in calories

3. Rich in micronutrients and phytonutrients

Prebiotic and Probiotic Power

We’ve always known that foods rich in fiber are good for regularity, which is no small thing. But for a long time, the evidence was staring us in the face that fiber did more than that. Back in the late seventies, a famous British surgeon, Denis Burkitt, wrote a best seller in which he pointed out, much like the researcher Ian Spreadbury did recently, that traditional peoples who ate a plant-based diet high in fiber rarely developed our modern diseases of aging. (Burkitt proposed that the smaller the stool, the larger the hospitals!) In one 1959 study, for example, South African researchers looked through the records of over thirteen hundred autopsies of the Bantu people of South Africa and saw only a handful of instances of heart disease, our leading killer. Burkitt was convinced that fiber provided the single most significant heart-protective effect. But at about the same time he wrote his book, the American public health authorities were cranking up their campaign to warn us about the dangers of fat in the diet. Over the next thirty years, the story about what we should eat, fiber, was overshadowed by the one about what we shouldn’t, fat.

The case against fat has gotten weaker, especially after a major meta-analysis published this year in the Annals of Internal Medicine couldn’t find any connection between saturated fat consumption and heart disease. The case for fiber has only gotten stronger: improving insulin sensitivity and blood sugar, escorting excess cholesterol out of the system, cutting hunger. A 2013 analysis of twenty-two studies found a consistent association between fiber intake and fewer heart attacks and less heart disease. And yet, according to a recent University of Minnesota study, only 8 percent of adults and 3 percent of kids—you read that right, 3 percent—in this country meet the government’s recommendation for consuming fiber in the diet. Those recommendations range from 19 to 38 grams a day depending on age and gender, but don’t worry, when you follow Swift Diet meal plans and recipes, you’ll get plenty. You don’t need to count.

The new microbiome research has given us a clearer picture of how fiber operates inside the gut. The fibers that feed the friendly bacteria in the gut, for instance lactobacilli and bifidobacteria, are called “prebiotic.” As we’ve discussed, these bacterial species maintain the integrity of the gut wall and tamp down inflammation. Jeff Leach, the cofounder of the American Gut Project, says we should take our cues from our Paleo hunter-gatherer ancestors and forage as widely as we can. Maybe it’s our local farmer’s market and not the savannah of Africa, but we can go farther afield and try out vegetables and fruits we’re not familiar with, whose names we might not even know. Jeff calls it the “re-wilding” of the gut. The broader the range of fibers we consume, the broader the range of bacteria will be fed. In our inner ecology, just as in the ecology of the planet, diversity equals resilience. The more types of friendly gut bacteria we harbor, the better job of digestion the gut does, the less chance that a particular food or food component will cause localized gut upset or trigger a harmful inflammatory response.

Just about any vegetable or fruit you can think of can have a probiotic as well as prebiotic effect. That is, instead of being cooked or eaten fresh, they are prepared by putting them in a Crock-Pot or a mason jar and letting bacteria ferment them in there—before the bacteria inside your gut have a go at them! Certain common bacteria, like lactobacilli, break down the sugars in the plants into acids, preserving the food and imparting a distinctively salty, tangy flavor. When we eat them, fermented foods like sauerkraut and kimchi, both made from cabbage, provide fiber for our resident gut bacteria as well as a fresh shipment of transient bacteria just passing through. One fermented food, tempeh, made from fermented soybeans, delivers a fantastic fiber boost. Fermented milk products such as yogurt and kefir don’t provide dietary fiber at all. But in every case, the new bacteria enhances the diversity of our gut microbes during their one-way transit and, in ways that scientists are just beginning to unravel, help the resident bugs do their job better.

A food that is prebiotic contains ingredients, mostly fiber, that the bacteria in the gut feed on, producing fermentation by-products that benefit our health. Here are some of the most potent prebiotic foods:

Swift Shopping Tips: Here are a few of my favorite fermented food brands to get you started. Many excellent products are in the pipeline!

Nutrient Density

As I described in the previous chapter, the calories of food are bound up in the macronutrients, the carbs, proteins and fats that fuel us and maintain the body’s basic structure and metabolism. We couldn’t live without them. But many of us eat more calories than our bodies need—we’re overfed and undernourished. Really, healthy eating boils down to eating food with a generous amount of fiber and micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals, which play a macro role in making sure the body runs as cleanly and efficiently as possible. They protect us against metabolic wear and tear that over time can usher in the common diseases of aging—type 2 diabetes, heart disease, possibly cancer. As it turns out, many of the foods richest in micronutrients tend to be some of the lowest in calories. Vegetables in particular take up a lot of room on the Swift Plate, and in our stomachs, without contributing very many calories due to all that fiber and water. So when we combine the low calories with the big micronutrient payload, we get what’s called “high nutrient density.”

That’s exactly what we want when we’re trying to protect our health and, yes, lose weight. Compare veggies to a grain-based carb-rich food like a bagel or a bowl of pasta. Most of the calories in these foods are readily digestible starches. Carbs are the body’s basic energy source, so a certain amount of carbohydrate is good and necessary, but, again, if we’re taking in more than the body needs to function properly, we’re converting these calories to fat—or, at any rate, stalling our weight-loss program—without any health gain in return. Whenever we can swap out foods that are less nutrient dense (like the grains) for foods that are more (you guessed it, vegetables), we’re shifting our metabolism in the right direction. So, the formula for healthy eating and healthy weight loss is pretty simple: consume as many micronutrients as you can and no more macronutrients than you need. Too many empty calories means weight gain and inflammation. The road back to health, and healthy weight, is lined with nutrient-dense food, especially vegetables.

More on Micronutrients

Vitamins are organic compounds, part of the living world, made by plants or by animals who eat the plants (or by animals who eat animals who eat the plants). These vitamins are essential helpers for a range of physiological processes. Vitamin A, for instance, is involved in immune defense; B vitamins are the spark plugs in energy production. What they all have in common is that our bodies can’t make enough of them—we depend on our diets to provide them for us. Minerals perform similar regulating functions in the body. They keep our bones strong (calcium, boron, vitamin K, etc.) and our cells able to maintain the proper fluid balance (potassium and magnesium). They’re part of the inorganic, nonliving world, found in the soil and taken up by plants and the creatures who eat them (including us).

All of the nutritional elements we’ve talked about—fiber, vitamins, minerals, and the amino acids in protein—join forces to rid the body of metabolic waste and environmental pollutants. This multiphase physiological process is called “detoxification.” Orchestrated by the liver in partnership with other organs like the skin, kidney, lungs and the microbiota, it’s at work every second of our lives to maintain our resilience in the face of a toxin-tainted planet and food supply. This kind of nutrient-driven natural detox is especially important for people losing weight. As fat cells shrink, toxins that had previously been stored there escape into the system. Select nutrients (such as amino acids; vitamins C, E and the Bs; the minerals magnesium, selenium and zinc) neutralize these harmful compounds and speed their transit out of the body. Magnesium and potassium help to alkalinize the system when they’re absorbed into the bloodstream and the tissues. The scientific evidence is mixed, but it may be the case that a diet rich in vegetables and fruits, healthy for so many reasons, may also help preserve bone health specifically, and tamp down inflammation generally, by assisting the body to maintain an optimal pH, or acid-alkaline, balance.

I confess, it bothers me when I see people selling the idea that you must buy their special “cleanse” or their boxes of detox powders, potions and pills. In my opinion, this amounts to boxing yourself into a pseudoscientific regimen that hasn’t been well studied and might even get in the way of your body’s own detoxification processes. The Swift Diet plan is the foundation for food-based detoxification!

Phytonutrients and Antioxidants

You may have come across the term phytochemicals or phytonutrients. These are organic compounds in plants (“phyto” means plants)—thousands of them as compared to the dozen or so recognized vitamins—which play an important role in protecting our health. We still don’t know enough to say any of them are essential (as in, we would die without them) or to establish a recommended daily allowance the way we do with vitamins. But over the past few decades, scientists have been studying different tribes of phytochemicals, mostly the phenolics, especially the flavonoids and the carotenoids, to parse out their benefits. Phenolic compounds such as lutein in orange bell peppers, for instance, helps maintain eye health, and the lycopene in tomatoes appears to protect against cancer.

And finally, that brings us to antioxidants, a term that identifies compounds not according to their chemical family but by what they do for us. As the name suggests, they protect us from the ravages of oxygen. We need oxygen to live, of course, but in the course of the chemical reaction that converts oxygen to energy in our bodies, free radicals are created. These are destabilizing molecules that damage our DNA, which can lead to cancer and neurological decline, and they set in motion the accumulation of toxic metabolic waste products that often add up to chronic disease. Fortunately, we have our internal defense system, antioxidant enzymes that neutralize the free radicals.

We can also use some help, and this is where vegetables and fruits come into their own. They’ve evolved their own compounds to protect themselves against oxygen poisoning and the sun’s ultraviolet rays. The same chemicals in plants and fruits that neutralize the free radicals also give them their distinctive colors, our tip-off as to which antioxidant phytochemicals they contain. They come color-coded and contain vitamins and minerals such as vitamins C and E, selenium and other antioxidant superstars! Luckily for us, humans have coevolved with plants, so when we eat them, these chemicals join forces with our own antioxidant defenses, sometimes directly, sometimes indirectly when the plant chemicals stimulate the production of our human enzymes.

Vegetables simply have no rival in the food world in terms of the number of species, the number of families of species, and the range of colors, textures and flavors. (For that matter, the genes in the plant world, like the genes in our gut bacteria, far outnumber those in the human genome.) This diversity puts them in a league of their own when it comes to enhancing health and weight management. The research is so strong and so consistent that a diet rich in vegetables and fruits pushes down the rates of chronic disease, the government’s 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends at least nine servings of vegetables and fruits a day. You can also use the Centers for Disease Control’s fruit and vegetable calculator, which takes into consideration age, gender and physical activity: http://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/everyone/fruitsvegetables/howmany.html. Since vegetables are such low-calorie health-promoting powerhouses, the first two entries on my MicroMender list are devoted to them, non-starchy and starchy. I’ll highlight a handful of both non-starchy and starchy vegetable groups in the pages that follow, but please don’t get the idea these are the only ones worth eating. The full edible menu deserves its own veggie nutritionary!

#1 Non-Starchy Vegetables

Everything I’ve said about the virtues of vegetables in general goes double for non-starchy vegetables. They are the stars among the stars, with the highest amount of health-protecting micronutrients packed into the lowest number of calories. Besides the compounds that protect them from oxygen, they’ve got other valuable chemicals that ward off both dangerous soil microbes and animal predators. Some impart a sharp or bitter taste that animals generally don’t like. But we’ve evolved side by side with the veggies in a clever way. Over the millennia these same sharp tastes, while they may take a little getting used to, are pleasing to us, and the compounds responsible for them bolster our own antioxidant defenses. And there’s exciting research suggesting that one family of phytochemicals in particular, the polyphenols found in a wide range of vegetables, fruits and herbs (and tea, coffee and red wine) helps with weight loss. The polyphenols work to stabilize blood sugar and insulin levels, discouraging fat storage, and they’re a favored food of a common species of gut bacteria associated with healthy body weight. By now, it might not surprise you to learn that a whole new research avenue has opened up that looks at the polyphenols not as antioxidants but as prebiotics that feed the good bacteria, which are in turn responsible for many of those vaunted health benefits.

Here are few that make my list, and if you want to find out if your favorite foods are on the polyphenol hit parade, link to: www.phenol-explore.eu-reports.

And, as we’ve discovered, fiber is just as important an ally in health and weight loss. The fiber type that has been studied most intensively for its ability to feed our bacterial friends in the microbiome is called inulin, found in garlic, leeks, onions, asparagus, artichokes, bananas and chicory root. Consuming a range of plant fibers is our best bet, which is where the non-starchy vegetables, almost countless species in all shapes, sizes and colors, excel. They contain both soluble fiber—that is, the fiber that ferments in the gut—and insoluble fiber, which has a limited ability to interact with the microbiome and mostly passes through the system, enhancing regularity along the way. These terms are a little dated, even though nutritionists still use them. There are actually scores of different types of fiber that together combine to form a matrix that the body needs for optimal health and digestion.

There is a yin and yang to vegetables, as with almost everything else in the food world. The same fibers that enhance our digestive health, of which inulin is a prime example, can cause over-fermentation in the gut for people whose microbiota are seriously out of balance. As we mentioned in the previous chapter, that’s why vegetables that are otherwise nutritional superstars find themselves on the FODMAP cautionary list.

Leafy Greens

Leafy green vegetables like kale, Swiss chard, mustard, collard, dandelion greens and spinach are packed with vitamin K, important for bone health and proper blood clotting, as well as magnesium and potassium, which relax the blood vessels and help maintain healthy blood pressure. These minerals are a counterweight to the salt (sodium) that’s poured into our processed foods, which in some people can have the opposite effect, constricting blood vessels and raising blood pressure.

Purslane, a seasonal leafy green popular in China, Mexico and Greece, was found to have the highest levels of heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids of any known edible plant, and ten to twenty times more melatonin, an antioxidant with possible anticancer properties, than in any other vegetable or fruit analyzed. For all that nutritional muscle, it has a mellow, lemony taste and mixes well in a salad.

Arugula is a leafy green that’s actually a member of the brassica family but, unlike broccoli and cauliflower, it comes without any digestive baggage. And because it hasn’t been cultivated on a mass scale until recently, it’s still got most of the nutrient punch of the primeval plant. (As Jo Robinson explains in her excellent book, Eating on the Wild Side, most of the vegetables and fruit we eat today have been for centuries selectively bred for sweetness and increased calorie content.) Arugula’s wild peppery taste tells you that some powerful compounds are at work here. The glucosinolates protect the plant against toxins in the soil and may protect us from cancer. This is in addition to the usual nutrient boosters you find in leafy greens: high levels of vitamin C, folate, calcium and iron. Add arugula and other wild greens to sandwiches, salads, to smoothies or as a colorful and edible garnish to your entrée and leverage the power of plants!

Two other families of vegetables belong among my non-starchy standouts. Yes, they can present digestive challenges for some, owing to their high FODMAP content, but when they’re integrated into the diet, step by step, the payoff is truly “food as medicine.”

Brassica Family

Vegetables in the brassica family, such as broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and cabbage, serve up a full plate of vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals. (They’re also called cruciferous, for their cross-shaped flowers.) They’ve probably attracted the most attention for a nitrogen-based family of compounds I mentioned a moment ago, glucosinolates, which may help prevent stomach, breast and prostate cancers. The brassicas are key players in an ensemble cast of foods and nutrients that help the body detoxify. A number of studies have found that broccoli consumption can reduce the levels of a harmful estrogen by-product that both raises the risk of breast cancer and, for some women, contributes to many of the unpleasant symptoms associated with perimenopause and menopause.

Allium Family

The members of the allium family—chives, garlic, onions, leeks, scallions—have a medicine chest’s worth of medicinal properties between them, as well as a pungent flavor that makes them a culinary mainstay. In the phytochemical department, they’re high in sulfur compounds, quercetin and anthocyanins, associated with anticancer, antimicrobial, antifungal and blood-thinning effects. Many of garlic’s healthy compounds are bound up in a substance called allicin, which gives the plant its unmistakable aroma and is released when you let garlic stand for a few minutes after peeling. But as you learned in the previous chapter, garlic and onions are also members of the FODMAP family and are temporarily eliminated in Weeks 1 and 2; but no worries—other aromatic vegetables pinch-hit in the recipes.

White Vegetables: Overlooked and Misunderstood

Nutritionists have been so effective driving home the message that brightly or deeply colored vegetables are good for us—the carotenoids in carrots and red peppers, the anthocyanins in blueberries and beets—that sometimes white vegetables get overlooked in the mix. A mistake! Cauliflower, a mainstay of the brassica family, and mushrooms are a nutritional jackpot! Mushrooms, a tasty fungus, are one of the few great sources of vitamin D in the plant world. They’re rich in minerals and they contain a number of cancer-fighting compounds that research science is just beginning to get a handle on. In Japan, more exotic and expensive varieties like shiitake and maitake have been prized for their health benefits for ages, but a few years back researchers discovered that the humble white button mushroom delivers as much or more antioxidant power. New research has also found that mushrooms exposed to sunlight can capture the ever-so-important vitamin D—we boost our intake of this vital nutrient when we consume them! Another fascinating fungus fact: the often-discarded mushroom stems make effective prebiotics, feeding our partner in gut health, the lactobacilli, in the colon. Whether it’s a grilled portobello replacing a fat-laden burger and providing that umami taste and meaty texture, or crimini, white button, or shiitake added to stir-fries, soups, salads and pasta, those pale mushrooms can nutritionally light up a plate.

Non-Starchy Vegetables

Artichokes

Asparagus

Bamboo shoots

Beans (green)

Beets

Bok choy

Broccoli

Broccoli rabe

Brussels sprouts

Cabbage (red, green, Napa, savoy)

Carrots

Cauliflower

Celery

Chives

Cucumber

Eggplant

Endive

Fennel

Garlic

Greens (arugula, chard, chicory, collards, dandelion, endive, escarole, kale, mesclun, mustard, radicchio, romaine, spinach, tatsoi, watercress)

Jicama

Kohlrabi

Leeks

Mushrooms

Okra

Onions

Peppers (sweet bell, hot)

Purslane

Radish (daikon, red)

Rutabaga

Scallions, green tops

Snow peas

Sprouts (broccoli, sunflower, mung bean, etc.)

Squash (spaghetti, yellow-summer)

Tomatoes (cherry)

Turnips

Zucchini

Swift Tips

These non-starchy veggies should make up the bulk of your plate—ultra-low calorie and super-high nutrient density! Feel free to include additional servings from this list in your Swift Plan if needed—for instance, an extra side dish of steamed greens or a crunchy raw salad. Let this be your first go-to list!

Color-code your daily fruit and vegetable intake by including each of the following color groups: red/pink; yellow/orange; blue/purple; dark green; white/green; white/brown.

Enjoy both raw and cooked vegetables as there are nutritional benefits to both—for example, glutathione, a powerful antioxidant, is far more plentiful in raw vegetables and fruits, while phytonutrients such as lycopene, found abundantly in tomatoes, become more available to the body when the food is cooked and topped with a touch of olive oil.

Prioritize organic choices per the Environmental Working Group’s “Dirty Dozen” list (ewg.org), see page 115.
Be adventurous about new, interesting choices—orange cauliflower, rutabaga, tatsoi—and experiment with sea vegetables such as arame, hijiki and nori to boost minerals naturally.
Choose fresh vegetables in season and shop at farmer’s markets; support CSA (community supported agriculture) whenever possible.
Don’t love a particular vegetable? Try, try again . . . and after about the fifth or sixth try, your taste buds will say yes—the same advice we would give to our kids!

#2 Starchy Vegetables

These are the root vegetables that store their nutrients underground in bulbous root structures—potatoes, sweet potatoes, beets—and they’re joined by aboveground plants like winter squash, and corn and peas, which technically are fruits, not vegetables. What they all have in common is a lot of starch, the storage form of glucose in plants. And that’s why, traditionally, starchy vegetables had a bad reputation. They pack more carb calories, gram for gram, at least three times as much as their non-starchy cousins. But what gets overlooked is that most starchy veggies are also loaded with vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals, so they still manage to be a fairly nutrient-dense package. When it comes to providing dietary ballast, sweet potatoes and peas, to mention two, are excellent replacements for pasta and bread.

Potatoes and Peas

The sweet potato, a tuber but not actually a member of the potato family, is every nutritionist’s friend. The antioxidant beta-carotene, which gives it the nice orange color, may protect vision and boost immunity, and for pregnant women, the B vitamin folate is insurance against birth defects. But the humble russet potato, too often written off as the plant world’s answer to junk food, is also a source of vitamins and minerals, and the skin bumps up the fiber. Add yellow and red potatoes to that mix and you have multicolored nutrition. The purple potato is a relative newcomer with an ancient pedigree. It’s a great example of a “wild” food, a direct descendant of the original plant eaten by the Incas; compared to the russet, it’s smaller and even more nutrient dense and delicious!

The problem with potatoes isn’t the potato; it’s what we do to them, turning them into processed foods like French fries or potato chips, or slathering them with sour cream and fake bacon bits. Potatoes are good examples of something called “resistant” starch, also found in unripe bananas and legumes. As long as the potato hasn’t been overcooked to a starchy mush, when it cools, let’s say in a potato salad, the structure of the starch changes, making it slower to digest. Instead of being quickly broken down and absorbed by the small intestine, it passes down to the colon, where it acts as a prebiotic, food for the friendly bacteria.

Peas are another quality starchy vegetable (if, technically, the seed of a legume) that doesn’t get the respect it deserves, probably because some of us grew up eating the canned variety. They’ve got protein, vitamin K, crucial for bone health, and a first-rate package of vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals, including two, lutein and zeaxanthin, that protect against the sun’s rays and age-related decline in vision. While more and more people are taking the time to shell fresh garden peas, snow peas and snap peas, frozen peas are a handy alternative that preserves most of the plant’s nutritional punch.

Starchy Vegetables

Corn

Parsnips

Peas

Pumpkin

Plantain

Potato (purple, red, white, yellow)

Rutabaga

Salisfy

Squash (winter: acorn, butternut, hubbard, kabocha)

Sweet potato

Water chestnuts

Yam

Swift Tips

Starchy vegetables contribute many valuable vitamins, minerals and substances essential for gut health and immunity.
A tennis-ball-size serving partnered with some protein and lots of non-starchy vegetables, along with some healthy fat, is the way to build your Swift Plate.
Potatoes are on the EWG’s Dirty Dozen list (see page 115).

#3 Fruits

Fruits, like vegetables, are nature’s gift to humans, filled with micronutrients and fiber. Unlike vegetables, they haven’t always been appreciated and sometimes they’ve even been maligned. The calories in fruit come mostly in the form of sugars, both glucose and fructose. We know that these sugars added to processed food are bad news, driving up insulin production, taxing the liver and promoting weight gain. But locked within the cellular walls of fruit, these same molecules break down slowly in the gut and, in modest amounts, are nature’s answer to our sweet desires. One or two pieces a day should be fine in addition to the fruit you might add to a smoothie. As I mentioned earlier, even fruits with famously high sugar content, like pineapple, still have a relatively, and reassuringly, low carb density and glycemic load, thanks to all that fiber. Last year, in the pages of The Journal of the American Medical Association, Dr. David Ludwig surveyed the research literature and found that fruit consumption was associated with lower body weight and a decreased risk of type 2 diabetes. (I have always been pro-fruit, so I was glad to see the New York Times draw attention to Dr. Ludwig’s study.) The exceptions are fruit juice and dried fruit, both with concentrated doses of sugar that can disturb a sensitive gut, drive up insulin and promote weight gain if consumed in excess. My recommendation: add a splash of an antioxidant-rich fruit juice (pomegranate, cranberry or wild blueberry) to seltzer, not more than a couple of ounces, or to a marinade, not more than a quarter of a cup. Limit the dried fruit to one small serving; for instance, a chewy fig or a coconut-rolled date instead of some processed snack food.

For people with sensitive bellies, those FODMAP compounds found in certain fruits can be a concern. That’s why in Weeks 1 and 2 of the 4-week Swift Plan, I stick to lower-FODMAP fruits that are unlikely to cause belly upset—low-risk, high-fiber propositions. First, the berries—blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, cranberries. The phytochemicals in the flavonoid family that give them their deep and different colors are some of the most potent antioxidants yet discovered. Another group, the anthocyanins, are thought to have powerful anti-inflammatory effects. You’ve probably heard this story—blueberries in particular get a lot of attention. My friend John Bagnulo, PhD, MPH, much-loved nutritionist, farmer and environmentalist, conducted extensive research on blueberries and confirmed their “super food” status. And recent animal research from Texas A&M and the University of North Carolina is beginning to fill in the microbiome picture—in an animal study, the consumption of blueberries increased the number of friendly bacteria in the gut.

Another favorite is the kiwi, which deserves to be more popular. The green flesh of this fibrous egg-shaped fruit delivers a ton of tart flavor. Hidden inside is a huge dose of vitamin C and a range of other antioxidants. Included in the mix is a compound called actinidin, which, according to research published in 2013, looks like it may stimulate the growth of the gut’s protective mucous lining. And who knew? Kiwi are grown not only in New Zealand (hence the name) but also in Maine!

Fruits

Apples

Apricots

Avocados

Bananas

Berries (blackberries, blueberries, cranberries, raspberries, strawberries, etc.)

Cherries

Clementines

Coconuts

Figs

Grapes

Grapefruit

Kiwi

Lemons

Limes

Mangoes

Melons (cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon, etc.)

Nectarines

Oranges

Papayas

Passionfruit

Peaches

Pears

Pineapples

Plums

Pomegranates

Star fruit

Tangerines

Swift Tips

Choose fruits in season for maximum taste, nutrition and thrift.
Prioritize organic choices per the EWG’s “Dirty Dozen” list (ewg.org).
Bake fruit for a delightful dessert and top with spices such as cloves, allspice, nutmeg or cinnamon.
Freeze fruit such as grapes or pineapple for a cool treat.
Dried fruits (cranberries, dates, dried plums, figs, raisins) provide minerals such as calcium, iron, fiber and many phytonutrients. But go easy, as they’re also a concentrated source of sugar and FODMAP.

The Lowdown on Pesticides: the “Dirty Dozen”

Frankly, we don’t really know how much harm parts-per-billion pesticide residues are causing us. It’s fair to say that corporate America isn’t rushing out to do the studies that might prove that the combinations of chemicals that we consume with our produce are making some people sick or pose a real health risk to our children. But yes, ideally, you want to avoid fruits and vegetables that have been bathed in hard-core industrial pesticides. At a minimum, I’d avoid the Dirty Dozen, the nonprofit Environmental Working Group’s famous roll call of the twelve most pesticide-laden foods in the supermarket (www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary.php), a list that has actually crept up to fourteen. Also worth checking out is their mirror-image list, the Clean Fifteen. Be aware, these lists are updated periodically, but if you download their app, you get the latest revisions.

Don’t misunderstand. The Dirty Dozen are all great plant foods and frankly, I’d rather you have the “dirty” versions than none at all. But if you’re able, get the nutrients without the industrial chemicals by buying produce labeled ORGANIC, and thanks to the mega food retailers who’ve embraced it, it’s widely available. And, yes, expensive. But you can still significantly limit your exposure to the bad stuff; for example, by buying food that’s grown locally and sold at the farmer’s market. It’s not worth fretting about achieving 100 percent food purity, and it’s not possible anyway. (Remember that study I mentioned in the second chapter—“food fretting” was an eating style associated with overeating!) But by applying some pragmatic mindfulness when you buy your food, you can significantly reduce your toxic load.

Dirty Dozen Plus

Apples

Celery

Cherry tomatoes

Cucumbers

Grapes

Hot peppers

Kale/collard greens

Nectarines—imported

Peaches

Potatoes

Snap peas—imported

Spinach

Strawberries

Sweet bell peppers

Clean Fifteen

Asparagus

Avocados

Cabbage

Cantaloupe

Eggplant

Grapefruit

Kiwi

Mangoes

Mushrooms

Onions

Papayas

Pineapples

Sweet corn

Sweet peas

Sweet potatoes

Here’s a digestive healing visualization exercise from Belleruth Naparstek (healthjourneys.com), who is the guru in the guided imagery field. Read the following script a few times, find a comfortable chair, close your eyes and imagine it! It will relax and reassure you about the healing power of food.

You’re eating fresh vegetables and fruit. Imagine the carbohydrates breaking down to glucose that is delivered to your cells to burn as fuel. But the fiber in the food slows down the process, so it’s clean and orderly and the sugar doesn’t build up in the blood. Imagine the fiber massaging the gastrointestinal tract so it relaxes and gets rid of waste efficiently. Picture the healthy fats in the food building up the membranes that protect the cells and that allow messages to go in and out, directing essential jobs all throughout the body. As this food energizes you, makes you stronger, imagine the neurochemical communication between the digestive system and the brain, everything tuned to exactly the right frequency, like a two-way radio sending and receiving a perfectly clear signal. Let that series of images sink in. Allow the real purpose of what you eat to inform which foods you choose throughout the day.

#4 Legumes

Legumes like beans, lentils and chickpeas are the nutritional backbone of the world. The majority of humankind gets most of its protein from plants. Every culture has its own favorites and its own ways of preparing them. In the industrialized West, because we can afford it, we get most of our protein from animal foods, but we’d do well to go back to the plant, for ecological as well as nutritional reasons. Legumes are a relatively cheap, high-powered source, not only of protein but of fiber, minerals and vitamins. They are rich in folate, which reduces homocysteine, a measure of vessel inflammation and heart disease, and they contain a class of phytochemicals called lignans, which may lower rates of hormone-related cancers such as breast cancer and prostate cancer. And we’ve discovered that eating low-glycemic foods such as legumes at one meal keeps your insulin from spiking at the next meal, no matter what you consume. It turns out that the gut bacteria breaking down those plant fibers are largely responsible for this “second-meal effect.” Although you may come across nutritional myths to the contrary, legumes are your friend when it comes to blood sugar.

For all that they do for us, keeping our weight down and protecting our health, legumes sometimes get a bad, and mostly undeserved, rap. Vegetarians were for years advised that they had to combine specific foods at meals, typically a legume matched with a grain, to get the necessary full complement of protein-building amino acids. The good news—you don’t have to worry about particular food combinations at every meal. True, different plant foods have more or less of particular amino acids, but eating a wide range of protein-packing plant foods over the course of the day—legumes, nuts, seeds, gluten-free grains—will more than take care of your protein needs, whether you eat animal foods or not.

Soy can help out here as well. This legume has a full lineup of all of the important amino acids, a “complete food.” But soy attracts its own bad press. Some people are allergic to soy and must avoid it at all costs. Soybeans contain isoflavone phytochemicals that mimic, mildly, the effect of estrogen, so the fear was that eating too much of it might stimulate the growth of hormone-sensitive cancers such as breast cancer. But the best current evidence says that, if anything, high-quality soy foods have a mildly protective effect. I am a fan of moderate consumption of organic whole-food soy, either fermented as tempeh or miso, or fresh in-the-pod edamame. But avoid the processed soybean oil and foods (textured soy protein, soy protein isolates and other junk soy) in those burgers, bars and chips that have infiltrated our food supply.

Here’s another complaint about the legumes (and about the grains we cover in the next section). Advocates of meat-friendly Paleo diets like to point out that these plant foods contain “anti-nutrient” compounds, such as phytate, which interfere with the absorption of valuable minerals. In other words, these foods aren’t as good as they look on paper and you’d better order that steak if you really want to satisfy the body’s nutritional requirements. Well, phytate and its chemical cousins do reduce mineral absorption, so that part holds up. But the latest research tells us that phytate also serves as an antioxidant, cleaning up harmful oxygen free radicals generated by normal metabolism. So phytate and other anti-nutrients giveth and taketh away, yin and yang. And even cooler, friendly bacteria being fed by the fiber in the legumes help break down the phytate in the gut, freeing up some of those minerals to be absorbed by the system.

We’ve already discussed the major issue with legumes, those highly fermentable FODMAP compounds. They tend to be high in both fructans and galactans, which can irritate problem guts and, frankly, may contribute to a little unwanted gassiness in any of us. In the Swift Plan, we’ll start out with easier-to-digest, lower-FODMAP legumes such as organic firm tofu and tempeh (a fermented food choice) and work up to the denser beans like black beans and chickpeas as the plan unfolds.

You can also avail yourself of some traditional methods of legume preparation that will begin to break down both the FODMAP compounds and the phytate. Less gas and more minerals—you can’t beat that! So, for instance, soak the beans in a pot overnight (at least twelve hours), then rinse them off and cook them in fresh water. For the full treatment, place the soaked beans in a sprouting jar or sprouter and wait three to five days, until a small sprout appears, then cook.

If legumes sometimes require a little experimentation, they’re worth it. They’re valuable for what they have—nutrient-dense calories packed with fiber—and for what they don’t have—the dense carbs or gluten that makes some grains so problematic. As the Harvard researchers discovered when they substituted one daily serving of beans for one serving of rice, switching from the grain to the bean is a major health upgrade, lowering by a third the risk of developing metabolic syndrome.

Legumes

Beans (adzuki, black, cannellini, chickpeas/garbanzo, Great Northern, kidney, pinto, etc.)

Lentils (black, French, green, red)

Peas (black-eyed, green, split, yellow)

Soy products (edamame [green soybeans], miso, natto, tempeh, tofu)

#5 Great Ancient Grains

You can have the best of both worlds, whole grains that don’t contain gluten and are better tolerated by sensitive bellies. Best of all are the pseudo-grains, high-fiber, low-glycemic-load seeds that provide the feel and taste of grains without the gluten. Many of them have ancient and quite fascinating pedigrees: wild rice, amaranth, buckwheat and quinoa (pronounced “KEEN-wah”).

A thousand years ago, Native Americans were harvesting wild rice, the seed of a tall aquatic plant, and the Chinese may have been eating it centuries ago as well. (So bound up was wild rice in the Native American culture that even today, in Minnesota, it can only be harvested from a canoe, according to state and tribal law.) The first European settlers in North America immediately took to its chewy texture and complex nutty taste. Today, it’s often mixed with brown rice to increase the protein and B vitamins and up the flavor.

The consumption of amaranth may go back about eight thousand years. The tiny seeds of the plant were a nutritional staple of the Aztecs, who went so far as to mix them with blood in their religious ceremonies. The conquistador Cortés banned amaranth, as either food or religion, and cultivation of the plant went underground, only to reemerge centuries later in both Asia and the Americas. Today, the mild nutty-tasting seeds can be enjoyed in morning porridge, as a side dish or added to an entrée, or ground into flour or pasta. They’re packed with fiber, protein, iron, zinc and magnesium.

Buckwheat’s origins as a food go back to Asia, maybe five thousand years ago. It eventually made its way to Europe, and German and Dutch settlers brought it to the United States in the seventeenth century. Today, it’s probably best known as the flour used to make the blini pancake. Roasted hulled buckwheat kernels are known as kasha. Combined with vegetables, they make a hearty and fiber-full all-plant meal. In any form, the seeds are a fine source of protein, iron, magnesium and B vitamins.

Over the past decade or so, quinoa has become the star of the ancient-grain world, available in supermarkets or upscale restaurants almost as readily as in health food stores. Breakout success has been a long time coming. It’s been continuously cultivated for over five thousand years—the Incas ate it for sustenance, just as the Aztecs did amaranth. They knew what they were doing. Quinoa is a bona fide “super food,” with all of the essential amino acids well represented, loaded with fiber and a great source of B vitamins and minerals such as magnesium and potassium. Maybe best of all, its crunchy texture and nutty flavor should put to rest any lingering longing for wheat. Not to mention, it is a super-swift-cooking grain!

Here’s another good choice: oats, which I rarely recommended because so much of it was cross-contaminated with gluten. But because certified gluten-free oats are now available, that’s much less of a concern. They’re delicious, not only for you but for the friendly fellow travelers in your gut. Recent research shows that the beta-glucan compound in oats may be a potent prebiotic and that the polyphenols, also part of the package, have anti-inflammatory, anti-itching and possibly anticancer effects. With oats, as with any food, the less refined and the more packed with fiber, the better for you, so steel-cut oats trump instant oatmeal every time.

Gluten-Free Whole Grains

Amaranth

Buckwheat (kasha)

Corn (maize)

Millet

Montina (Indian rice grass)

Oats (certified gluten-free)

Quinoa

Rice (all types)

Sorghum

Teff

Wild rice

Swift Tips

Soaking or sprouting grains may improve digestibility. Placing the grains in a fermented liquid (kefir, for example) can offer probiotic benefits.
Add flavored tea bags, fresh/dried herbs, ground ginger, etc., to the cooking water for grains or use an organic vegetable broth.
There are many delicious wheat pasta alternatives:
Noodles made from lentils, mung beans or black beans are loaded with protein and fiber.
Kelp noodles are another interesting alternative and very low in calories. They provide the mouth feel of a noodle and can be used in soups or salads.
Tofu shirataki noodles, made from konnyaku (yam cakes made from a Japanese plant’s root) and tofu. Extremely low in calories, House Foods brand is verified GMO-free; prior to cooking, pour boiling water over noodles to enhance freshness.
Veggie “pasta”—spaghetti squash or other noodles you can easily make on your own from carrots, zucchini, yellow squash, etc., with a fun and inexpensive spiral noodle gadget!

#6 Animal Protein: Lean, Clean and Not-So-Mean

By now, you’ve gotten the idea that I’m passionate about plant food, for nutritional and ecological reasons. But sustainably and humanely produced animal foods merit a place in the Swift Diet. To borrow a term I love from the nutritionist blogger Ashley Koff, I’m a “qualitarian.” While I have a deep respect for the vegetarian option, I endorse fish and modest amounts of skinless poultry and lean red meat, in smaller quantities, let’s say 4 ounces or less as a typical serving.

Let’s start with eggs, the marquee item in this category. For years, eggs were demonized in the public health war against dietary fat. Egg yolks do in fact have a lot of cholesterol in them, but now we appreciate that dietary cholesterol doesn’t seem to pose a significant heart-health risk. The humble egg contains plenty of protein and the yolk is a nutritional mother lode—vitamin A, riboflavin, choline, carotenoids, which together protect and nourish brain and eye health.

There are a lot of confusing terms on egg cartons these days, so here are my rules for egg selection:

Fish Tale

Fish, as we’ve discussed, is the best source of the omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA. Without some fish in the diet, or supplements that contain fish oil or algae, it’s tough to get enough of these fatty acids in the diet from whole foods. Our bodies don’t do a great job converting the ALA in seeds and nuts into DHA and EPA. And there’s a mountain of research literature parsing out omega-3’s specific health benefits, including studies showing that societies that eat a large amount of fish, the Japanese and the Scandinavians, for example, or a moderate amount, as in the Mediterranean regions, on average live longer and healthier lives than the rest of us.

For all of its health advantages, and sheer deliciousness, fish can be a fraught subject. Mercury toxicity is a real concern, especially as you move up the food chain to the predator fish like swordfish and mackerel. I like how my friend Dr. Cynthia Geyer, the medical director at Canyon Ranch in the Berkshires, puts it: “Throw the big ones back.” The small, oily fish like anchovies, sardines and herring are great, safe bets, as are shellfish like oysters and mussels. Beyond that, choosing between popular larger species like salmon, cod and bass is tough. If it’s a wild fish, is it being overfished and the stocks depleted? If it’s a farmed fish, has it been raised in unsanitary conditions, leached of its natural nutrients, and treated with antibiotics? The calculus changes from species to species and sometimes from month to month. The best advice I can give is to check the Web sites and apps of either the Marine Stewardship Council (msc.org), Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch (seafoodwatch.org) or the Natural Resources Defense Council (nrdc.org) for the best and latest information on supporting sustainable fishing.

Where’s the Beef?

There’s no question that poultry and red meat are excellent nutritional packages: rich sources of protein, minerals and B vitamins. In the case of red meat, we want the leanest cuts available, such as filet mignon or sirloin. Bison is leaner still and growing in popularity, and game meats in general are a good way to go. With poultry, I suggest losing the skin, tasty as it is. The concern about the saturated fat in the skin has waned in the past few years, but fatty tissues in the animals we eat are a repository of toxins, hormones and antibiotics, so I still proceed with caution. Pork, if the meat comes from humanely raised pigs, is acceptable. For all the meats we’re discussing, I’m concerned about the industrial processing of animals and the nutritionally inferior and potentially harmful product that this system produces. To search out the more humane alternatives and improve the nutrient quality of your food (grass-fed beef has some omega-3 fatty acids, almost absent in the grain-fed animal), visit the Humane Farm Animal Care’s Web site, certifiedhumane.org; or Animal Welfare Approved’s Web site, animalwelfareapproved.org.

Animal Protein

Dairy (cow, goat, sheep): cheese, kefir, milk and yogurt

Eggs

Fish, shellfish

Poultry (chicken, duck, turkey)

Red meat, lean cuts (beef, lamb, pork)

Wild game (buffalo, ostrich, venison, etc.)

Swift Tips

Whenever possible, purchase organic, certified humane animal foods.
Avoid high-mercury fish such as shark, tilefish, swordfish, and king mackerel.
Dairy products that contain lactose (milk, yogurt, soft cheeses, etc.) may bother the sensitive gut. Greek yogurt and hard cheeses are lower in lactose and can be included in moderate amounts for the person who is dairy tolerant.
The type of animal may matter when it comes to allergy potential. For example, you may tolerate goat and sheep products but not cow’s milk products. Even the breed of cow may make a difference, as proteins from the milk of the Jersey cow may be less allergenic than from the more common Holstein cow.
Use safe cooking methods with fish, poultry and meat, such as low-temperature (less than 350°F) baking, roasting, poaching, and stewing. If you grill, use a marinade and do not char the flesh food, to avoid creating toxic compounds.

Dairy is excluded from the Swift Plan in Weeks 1 and 2. There are nondairy alternatives available in the marketplace, but be sure to check on the ingredient list, because some of these food items may contain sugars, gums, gluten and other ingredients that irritate a sensitive belly and you are better off without them.

Nondairy Alternatives

Beverages (organic, unsweetened/plain: almond, coconut, hemp, rice, soy, etc.)

Cheese (made from almond, rice, soy, etc.)

Yogurt (organic, unsweetened/plain: almond, coconut, hemp, rice, soy)

Swift Tips

Experiment with making your own nondairy products if the choices available in your supermarket contain problematic ingredients.
Explore my friend Caroline Nation’s Web site, myfoodmyhealth.com, and whole-foods chef Leslie Cerier’s book, Gluten-free Recipes for the Conscious Cook, which is chock-full of interesting recipes, like how to make your own nondairy milks and other delicious vegan staples.

#7 Healthy Fats

While the scientific battle rages over animal saturated fats, we can soak up the benefits of whole-food fats that can and should be part of a gut-friendly weight-loss program . . . in moderation. All sources of fats and oils that exist in nature are a mix of fatty acids, some of which the body can make and others that are essential, meaning they must come from the diet.

As we discussed in the previous chapter, the omega-3s are the stars of the polyunsaturated fats, the PUFAs. They’ve been the most intensively studied for their health effects and found to benefit everything from helping to stabilize heart rhythm to reducing platelet “stickiness” in the blood, to lifting mood and supporting brain health.

The monounsaturated fats (MUFAs), in nuts, seeds, olives, olive oil and avocados provide antioxidants that may help protect cells and other compounds in the body, such as cholesterol, from excessive oxygen damage. Remember, we can use all the help we can get from plants to protect ourselves from the side effects of oxygen.

Cutting-edge research points to saturated fatty acids as one of the most potent disruptors of the gut micro-ecology, so I’m cautious about them. But it’s a case-by-case proposition. In the Swift Plan, I restrict the amount of meat in the diet for a number of reasons that we discussed in the previous chapter, not just because of saturated fat. Dairy is its own story. In the plan, I’ll introduce it gradually, as an option, over the course of Weeks 3 and 4. The fermented dairy products, primarily yogurt and kefir, can be great belly allies. And I’m OK with small amounts of whole milk or half-and-half in the coffee—that’s how I take my one cup in the morning. Again, I’m more concerned with quality. Ideally, you should go with organic milk from pastured cows, and my preference is whole milk or cream that contains the valuable fatty acid CLA (conjugated linoleic acid), which may help improve insulin function and aid with weight control. Keep in mind that skim and low-fat milk have correspondingly higher levels of milk sugar, lactose, which, as we discovered in the previous chapter, comes with its own problems.

The saturated fat in tropical oils such as coconut oil and palm oil and cacao butter is another special case. These oils contain some medium-chain saturated fatty acids, which behave differently in the body than the marbled fat on a sirloin steak. Coconut products have become quite trendy. Sometimes these “flavor of the month” foods don’t fare so well over time. But based on everything we know now, they’re delicious choices to include in reasonable amounts.

Seeds

In the plant world, walnuts have a good supply of ALA/omega-3s, but otherwise, it’s the small, edible seeds where you find it: chia seeds, ground flaxseeds, hemp seeds and pumpkin seeds. That makes sense. Seeds are a plant’s storehouse of nutrients, ready to supply a new plant that takes root. They’re even more nutrient dense than nuts (most of which are technically seeds, of the larger variety), rich in the good stuff: protein, minerals and essential fats. Seeds are enjoying a well-deserved boom right now, especially chia seeds. Aztec warriors used to eat them to keep up their energy on long marches. Today, we’re more likely to add seeds to our smoothies to fill us up without adding too many calories.

Nuts

Nuts are more than the sum of their MUFAs and PUFAs. (I hope you enjoyed saying that sentence to yourself.) Nuts like almonds, pecans and walnuts are packed with minerals and the antioxidant vitamin E. The skin of these nuts is rich in flavonoid phytochemicals that support the immune system. The whole package tests out as a major health boon. In the famous Nurses’ Health Study, which tracked over one hundred thousand women for decades, replacing carbs in the diet with the same amount of calories from nuts lowered the risk of heart disease by about a third. And numerous studies have found that eating nuts regularly is a reliable predictor of a long life span! When it comes to gut health, the fiber in nuts is a major plus, both the type that enhances regularity and the type that prebiotically feeds our friends in the gut microbiota.

With all that going for nuts, you might think you could eat as much as you like without regard to calories. Over the years, that’s certainly what a lot of my clients thought. When we would put our heads together to figure out why they weren’t making the weight-loss progress we had expected, the problem often turned out to be the nuts. Dietary fat, any kind of fat, contains over twice as many calories per gram as carbs or protein. There is some truth to “calories in/calories out,” even if it’s far from the whole story. (I’ve always been suspicious of a handful of small studies that suggest you can shrink the size of your belly by sipping tablespoons of vegetable oil every day.) So, sorry, no blank checks. You’ll get a reliable read on how much is not too much of a good thing in the recipes in the last chapter. Let’s take a look at a couple of my favorite healthy fat sources that are noteworthy when it comes to gut health and healthy weight.

Almonds

Almonds are mentioned quite a few times in the history books, and even in the Old Testament. That’s fitting because almonds are particularly distinguished nuts. They’ve got the usual fine lineup of nut nutrients—magnesium, vitamin E, a collection of anti-inflammatory and possibly cancer-fighting flavonoid phytochemicals. And they’ve got more than the usual amount of fiber, 3 grams per ounce, which makes them excellent prebiotic candidates. A study in 2014 found that eating about 2 ounces of almonds a day for six weeks significantly increased the populations of our two most reliable friends in the microbiome, the bifidobacteria and lactobacilli.

Avocados

A luscious fruit that because of its low sugar and creamy texture is usually considered a vegetable, avocados are a rich source of monounsaturated fat, vitamin E and potassium, more than you’ll find in a banana. They do contain a fair number of calories, about 300 for a nubbly Hass avocado, but I’m not so concerned about people inadvertently eating too much. They’re not nearly so portable as nuts! And although you might not associate the rich-tasting, creamy avocado with fiber, it’s loaded, about 13 grams, mostly the soluble kind that forms a gel in the gut. In a 2013 study out of Loma Linda University, adding half an avocado to the lunches of the overweight volunteer subjects significantly increased their feelings of fullness, or satiety, after the meal, suggesting they would be less prone to between-meals snacking.

Fats and Oils

Plant:

Avocado

Coconut, unsweetened (coconut manna, flakes, shredded)

Nuts, raw or roasted, unsalted (almonds, Brazil, cashews, macadamia, peanuts, walnuts, etc.)

Nut butters, raw unsalted

Oils (cold expeller-pressed: extra-virgin olive, grapeseed, virgin coconut, walnut, etc.)

Olives (black, green)

Seeds, raw (chia, flax, hemp, pumpkin, sunflower, etc.)

Seed butters, raw unsalted (pumpkin, sunflower, tahini, etc.)

Animal:

Butter

Cream

Ghee (clarified butter)

The Swift Diet on Fat

1. Eat whole “fat” foods: avocado, coconut, olives, nuts, seeds, nut and seed butters.

2. Choose cold expeller-pressed oils and use the one that best fits your cooking needs. Store oils in a cool, dark place.

3. Moderate your saturated fats and choose the highest-quality meat and dairy products (butter, cheese, ghee, kefir, yogurt, etc.). The way livestock is raised affects its nutrition and overall healthiness!

4. Avoid mass-produced vegetable oils and trans fats—soy, corn, cottonseed, partially hydrogenated oils and products containing these ingredients.

5. Avoid high-temperature cooking especially with certain fats and oils; for instance, extra-virgin olive oil. Refer to the kitchen cooking guide found at Spectrum Organics’ Web site if you do turn up the heat: http://www.spectrumorganics.com/?id=116.

#8 Herbs and Spices

Pound for pound, or I should say ounce for ounce, nothing beats the antioxidant power of herbs, the strong-flavored plants we use to season our foods, either in whole-leaf form, such as basil or mint, or ground up as spices. Usually, a food’s antioxidant activity is measured in the test tube, which leads to different results depending on which measuring technique is used, and raises the question of how much of this ability to mop up free radicals actually translates to metabolism inside the body. A 2012 study out of the University of Florida helped answer that question. The study subjects ate a number of spices—the amount that you’d get in a spiced dish, not a concentrated supplement—and then they had their blood drawn and tested. If they had eaten turmeric, rosemary, cloves or ginger, their blood produced significantly fewer inflammatory cells after being exposed to oxidized cholesterol, compared with the subjects who hadn’t consumed those spices.

I know this sounds technical, but imagine, and please only imagine, that you’d eaten a plate of fried chicken. The spices that proved to be the most potent in the Florida study would limit the inflammatory fallout in your bloodstream. And we know, inflammation, besides promoting disease, also drives weight gain. The polyphenol phytochemicals in these spices help keep insulin in check and feed the good gut bacteria.

But maybe the best weight-loss assist that herbs and spices offer us is their pungent flavor. Humans have a hunger for taste. When we honor our “taste hunger” by cooking with nutrient-dense herbs and spices instead of eating sugar-and-fat-and-salt-laced processed foods, we pamper our palates to guide us to healthy weight. In fact, some research suggests that the flavors in herbs and spices modulate gut hormones that regulate hunger so that when we eat a flavorful meal, we reach fullness faster, with fewer calories. Some hot spices (and spicy vegetables in the pepper family) may even temporarily turn up the metabolic furnace a degree or two so that we burn calories more efficiently! Here’s a look at a couple of my favorite herbs and spices.

Turmeric

Turmeric is a plant in the ginger family. When its underground stem is cooked and ground up, turmeric gives both curry powder and some mustards their yellow color. Its warm yet slightly bitter taste is one of the foundational flavors of the cuisines of South Asia, where the plant’s medicinal properties have been appreciated for centuries. Modern research looking at the chief polyphenol in turmeric, curcumin, has found evidence for broad anti-inflammation effects. It’s a valuable nutritional ally in the fight against metabolic syndrome, a constellation of common chronic problems like insulin resistance, high blood pressure and weight gain around the middle, all driven by inflammation. And add a bit of black pepper, as this helps boost absorption of curcumin!

Mint and Aloe Vera

The fragrant, refreshing taste of mint is welcome in a salad, in tea, iced or hot, or as a perky ingredient in homemade pesto. Loaded with minerals and phytochemicals and easily grown in an herb garden, fresh mint has been used for relief of digestive symptoms for centuries. It can quiet IBS-type symptoms and it can also be useful as a diuretic, to flush out toxins. Modern research is looking at both mint and aloe vera as antifungal agents. One 2013 study found that an extract from the fresh leaves of the aloe vera plant seemed to inhibit the growth of Candida albicans, a common and troublesome fungus that often resists conventional drug therapies.

#9 Drink Up!

Our bodies are mostly water, about 70 percent, so hydration is, of course, essential. Unless you’re lost in the desert, it’s not likely that you’d let yourself become so dehydrated that your life is endangered, but if you’re not paying attention, it’s easy not to drink enough to keep your gut happy and functioning properly. Water keeps wastes running through the system the way they should, especially important on a high-fiber diet, which, without adequate irrigation, can actually block things up. Constipation is an invitation to all sorts of digestive maladies and, as I’m sure we all know, it feels miserable. Here’s a basic hydration guideline: drink whenever you feel thirsty. Thirst is a good indicator of your fluid needs. Many factors affect hydration requirements, such as age, exercise, environmental conditions and medications. A general guide to calculate your approximate daily fluid needs: divide your body weight by two. That gives you a rough estimate of the total number of fluid ounces you need daily, and good news, all fluids count in hydrating the body! There are also physical signs that give clues about your fluid needs; for example, your urine should be a light, straw color (note that B vitamins, beets and some medications may discolor urine). Clean, filtered water should be your beverage of choice, but let’s take a look at some other beverages that you can enjoy, with a few caveats.

Coffee and caffeinated black tea are often viewed with suspicion in holistic health circles. Typically, they’re among the first items on the “thou shall not” list that comes with the latest “cleanse.” Well, I’m a pragmatist. Yes, too much caffeine can pump up the stress hormones and upset the gut. But there’s no convincing evidence that a limited amount—for instance, the option of one daily cup of coffee or a few cups of tea on the Swift Plan—causes any harm. But pay attention. If you notice that even one cup is bothering your digestion, do without!

Over the past few years, the research on coffee and tea has actually shifted to studying the positive effects, mostly attributed to the polyphenols. Coffee has shown preliminary promise in reducing the risk of both Parkinson’s disease and type 2 diabetes, and evidence for other benefits is brewing. White, green and black tea all contain caffeine, but black tea has the stronger dose—the leaves are fermented, which liberates the caffeine. A particular polyphenol compound, EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate), found most abundantly in green tea, has been shown, mostly in animal and cell culture studies, to increase the sensitivity of insulin response and to help keep blood sugar levels stable. That should help with weight loss, in theory anyway, which is why you’ll find it in lots of weight-loss supplements. Generally speaking, I’m not a fan of these supplements. You never know exactly what you’re getting, and some of the ingredients could be harmful. But I’m all for tea, black, green or white—a few cups a day is fine.

Herbal teas are a wonderful treat with medicinal benefits, and no caffeine. Cinnamon and chai tea (without added sweetener) deliver sweetness and can improve blood sugar; hibiscus tea is good for the vascular system. Growing in popularity, red or rooibos tea contains compounds that have been found to lower stress hormone levels. Ginger and peppermint tea, along with teas that contain a mix of herbs, have gut-soothing effects and can be used for occasional help with constipation.

As we discussed in Chapter 3, when it comes to alcoholic beverages, it’s best to limit yourself to no more than two drinks a week. Try a splash of bitters, good for digestion, in seltzer with lemon or lime in place of an alcoholic beverage.

Treat yourself to a new water filter to minimize heavy metals and industrial chemicals. Check out the Environmental Working Group’s Web guide to water safety and water filters (www.ewg.org/research/ewgs-guide-safe-drinking-water).
Invest in a portable glass water container or water infuser bottle to take with you when you are on the go.
Avoid purchasing water in plastic containers for your health and the health of the planet.
Add fresh cucumbers, ginger slices, citrus wedges or fresh-fruit ice cubes to add a flavorful zing to your water.
Bubbly waters can cause more gas for some people but can also be soothing to other digestive tracts. Keep in mind that club soda has added salt while seltzer is sodium-free.

#10 Sweet, Not Sorry: Chocolate and Honey

Chocolate is made from the cacao bean, which has a sky-high concentration of a particular group within the polyphenol family, the flavonoids. It sounds too good to be true, but in study after study, the consumption of dark chocolate has been found to reduce heart-disease risk factors, lowering blood pressure and improving insulin sensitivity. This isn’t a case of having your chocolate cake and eating it too. Avoid the sugary, fatty desserts and stick to pure dark chocolate—I recommend at least 70 percent cocoa/cacao solids. The higher the percentage of cacao, the lower the sugar. A couple of small squares a day shouldn’t add up to enough calories to interfere with your weight-loss progress. If you can’t limit yourself to that, skip the chocolate altogether.

Honey is more than a natural sweetener. It’s an all-purpose food that is also a medicine. For over twenty-seven hundred years, it’s been used as a topical treatment for burns and boils. An antimicrobial when it’s applied to the outside of the body, when it’s consumed it becomes an inflammation fighter on the inside. It helps to lower the levels of prostaglandins, chemicals made throughout the body that can cause blood vessels to constrict and blood platelets to clot too strongly. Honey does contain fructose, so it’s capable of disturbing some FODMAP-sensitive guts. Use it sparingly and source a raw, local honey. But unlike table sugar, it actually serves as a prebiotic—food for the friendly bacteria.

Before we leave the topic of sweet nourishment, let me mention a few other sweet ingredients besides honey that you’ll find in my pint-size pantry: blackstrap molasses (a nutrient dynamo that our grandmothers blessed), 100 percent pure maple syrup and coconut sugar. If a recipe calls for a touch of sweet, I’ll use these instead of the white stuff!

#11 Fermented Foods: Cooking with “Cold Fire”

I’ve saved fermented foods for last, to set them apart a bit. Here we’re not talking about a specific type of food but rather a particular way of preparing it, what Michael Pollan calls cooking with “cold fire.” Using a few simple kitchen implements, such as a Crock-Pot and some mason jars, we’re creating an environment where bacteria, and sometimes fungi, can begin the process of breaking down more complex nutrients into simpler ones. Basically, we’re “predigesting” the food, re-creating in the kitchen what goes on in the gut every moment of our lives!

In the case of fermented vegetables, it’s bacteria that’s already on the plant that goes to work on the sugars and starches, converting them into compounds such as lactic acid, acetic acid and carbon dioxide. Whatever or however we’re fermenting—vegetables (sauerkraut, beet kraut) or fruit (pick your favorites) or soy (miso, tempeh, tofu) or milk (yogurt, kefir)—the process preserves the food from spoiling while giving it a distinctively tangy taste. Conjure up the salty crunch of sauerkraut or the refreshing pucker of unsweetened yogurt. But for most of human history, fermenting food was more a matter of survival. It’s how food could be stored over the winter (or in the case of milk, in summer) before refrigeration or canning. And yet over time these bacterial cultures became an important part of human culture. Traditional societies still invest a lot of their identity in these foods—kimchi in Korea or yogurt in the Georgian foothills of Eurasia. And today, these same foods are enjoying a renaissance with people who never grew up with them. They’ve acquired artisanal chic! This is how author and teacher Sandor Katz, the Johnny Appleseed of the “fermento” movement, describes the allure in his book The Art of Fermentation: “Between fresh and rotten, there is a creative space in which some of the most compelling flavors arise.”

Actually, a lot of the food and beverages that we routinely enjoy are fermented at some stage in their production: coffee, black tea, chocolate, cheese, bread, wine, beer, ketchup, soy sauce. But for the MicroMenders list, I’m interested in foods where the bacteria are still hard at work when we consume them. The fermentation process boosts their nutritional value, breaking down “anti-nutrients” that can interfere with mineral absorption and often increasing the levels of B vitamins. The live cultures themselves interact with our own gut bacteria in interesting and not entirely understood ways. Even though the food bacteria mostly passes through and out the digestive system in a matter of a few days or weeks, the home-team microbiome still seems to benefit from the visit.

In one intriguing experiment, a leading researcher, Washington University’s Dr. Jeffrey Gordon, found that the resident bacteria in mice were able to ferment a wider variety of dietary fibers after they had been exposed to a strain of bacteria commonly found in yogurt. Something is going on with the microbiota to explain the studies that have found, for instance, yogurt consumption associated with a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes or that adding kimchi to the diet can reduce cholesterol and blood sugar levels. In animal studies, fermented foods have shown promise as an immune system booster as well, even inhibiting cancer cell production.

In my clinical experience, fermented foods can be a valuable ally in helping my clients overcome gut issues such as IBS symptoms and GERD, and even lose weight. It’s difficult to tease out the effect of these foods by themselves. But, as I mentioned in Chapter 2, new research showing that the consumption of yogurt can change brain function or that kimchi can protect memory in mice is telling us that we’ve just begun to scratch the surface of what these foods can do for us.

Here’s a brief sketch of some of my favorites.

Sauerkraut

Sauerkraut is certainly the best-known fermented vegetable dish. Back in the eighteenth century, Captain Cook forced his men to eat it on those long South Sea voyages so they wouldn’t come down with scurvy—the fermentation preserves the vitamin C. And one of sauerkraut’s active compounds, sulforaphane, looks to have cancer-fighting properties. And maybe most important, it just tastes good! Use a mason jar for a small batch or a Crock-Pot for a larger one and follow the almost foolproof directions laid out by Sandor Katz: “Chop, salt, pack, wait.” (See my Pink Sauerkraut recipe.) Remember, you don’t have to restrict yourself to the traditional combo of cabbage leaves plus juniper berries and caraway seeds. You can ferment most any veggie this way. I recently went to a fermentation workshop offered by a progressive-minded hospital, Fletcher Allen in Burlington, Vermont, and we fermented green beans, garlic, radishes, carrots, lemons and limes and had a blast in the kitchen! Not only is it good for your gut, but it’s good for the environment (less food waste) and good for your pocketbook (you can buy produce on the sale rack!).

If you are going the store-bought route, your best bet is the refrigerated section of a health food store (those live cultures need to be kept cool). Read the label: it should say FERMENTED. If it says PASTEURIZED, that’s a deal breaker: the cultures have been wiped out by pasteurization. RAW, CULTURED, NATURALLY FERMENTED—these are words to look for and the ingredient list should be simple. For example, Real Pickles brand of naturally fermented and raw organic ginger carrots contain: carrot, ginger, filtered water, unrefined sea salt—and that’s it!

Tempeh

Making it yourself requires a starter mold and a MacGyver touch with the oven, so I confess I leave the DIY to Katz and buy the refrigerated little rectangular cakes at the local health food store. And this Indonesian whole-soybean food is very healthy indeed, with more protein, fiber and vitamins than its soy cousin, tofu, with a chewy texture and an earthy, slightly sweet taste. You can add it to almost any dish or use it as a meat substitute. In general, fermentation agrees with soy. It eliminates the gassiness that so often accompanies eating legumes of any type. And research done in Java, where tempeh first made its appearance in the 1700s, suggests that tempeh can build up the gut’s resistance to infection, lowering levels of diarrhea caused by food poisoning.

Kefir

Kefir comes from the Turkish word keif, which translates as “good feeling.” That should give you an idea how highly this slightly sour fermented milk drink is valued in its homeland in the Caucasus Mountains. The drink is a storm of probiotic activity thanks to the “grains”—actually a matrix of proteins, lipids and sugars—that drive the fermentation process. Because the proteins in kefir have already been partially digested, it’s often a good choice for the lactose-intolerant. For anyone, it’s an excellent source of B vitamins, as well as calcium, phosphorous and vitamin K—a milk cocktail for bone health! A number of studies have found antifungal and antibacterial properties in kefir, and one study showed that bacterial strains from the beverage have potential as a treatment for an inflammatory colon condition, colitis.

Swift Summary

So now you should have a pretty good picture of the foods that are and aren’t part of the Swift Diet. If we eliminate or markedly cut back on the MicroMenaces discussed in the previous chapter and we pump up the MicroMenders in this chapter, we’ve got a lifelong food template that could be summed up this with these 5 Fs:

Fiber: This is the quintessential food element to nourish your microbiota. Focusing on diverse sources—have another look at the Swift Plate—is the way to go!

Free: Food that is free of toxic ingredients and won’t cause adverse reactions.

Flexitarian: Plant-centric but including some sustainable fish and high-quality lean meats and poultry for a diversity of flavors and nutrients.

Foraged: Scout some “wild foods” and “weeds” that are close to the ancestral vine to populate your plate.

Fermented: Reinoculate your gut with fermented foods that help the resident gut microbiota do its job.

Full-Circle Nourishment

In this chapter, we’ve talked about how to choose your food wisely with your weight-loss goals and your health in mind. But as we discussed at the end of Chapter 1, these decisions can have an enormous ripple effect. They connect you to the farmers who grow the food and the soil in which they grow it. When you take the trouble to buy produce that is organically or locally grown (and your local farmer may likely be producing fresher and more environmentally friendly food than what is labeled ORGANIC in the supermarket), you’re not just buying good food; you’re buying good soil! As my colleague Dr. Daphne Miller has described in her brilliant book, Farmacology: What Innovative Family Farming Can Teach Us About Health and Healing, soil that hasn’t been blasted with chemical pesticides and chemical fertilizers contains a richer community of soil microorganisms—bacteria, fungi, nematodes—which in turn is more likely to produce nutrient-dense food. (Researchers from Washington State University were able to establish this using state-of-the-art DNA sequencing technology!)

Let’s step back and appreciate this daisy chain. Your food choices support farming practices, which support a soil microbial community. That community in turn builds more nutritious plants, which feed a community of bacteria in your gut, which supports your own health and weight loss. The ecology of the soil is intimately connected to the ecology of your digestive system. Talk about full-circle nourishment!