Book Review: Eat & Flourish
By: Mary Beth Albright
With part of my coaching business focused on health, nutrition and fitness, I often talk to people who want to change their nutrition so they SEE a change in their physical body, on the scale or in the gym. Very few clients come to me with the intention of focusing on improving their emotional wellness through nutrition, yet this is exactly what happens time and again. Eat & Flourish does an incredible job of connecting the dots between the science of what we eat and how we FEEL. Below I am sharing some of my favorite excepts and thoughts about them.
· “Emotions affect both what we eat and how we eat”. I would argue vice versa: what we eat impacts our emotions too! Albright proves in her book - that how we feel impacts what we eat which impacts how we eat which impacts how we feel. (Yeah, read that again… confusing at first but when you think about it, totally true). For better or for worse, our food cycles create our emotional and physical realities.
· One of the opening concepts in the book that resonated with me was this: “Science evolves, and that means changes in recommendations around food and health”. Creating curiosity around the science of food instead of maintaining a rigid viewpoint is one way to create a more dynamic approach to health and nutrition. I am often educating my clients about recent discoveries, or helping them understand that they have options and even though most of them feel like they have “tried everything”, there are always new options! Nutrition research is ongoing and new studies are disproving old theories and creating new ones frequently. Crops, food processing and new products are coming to and departing from market with a frequency that can give us whiplash, so learning to read labels and understand ingredients is important. Creating a nutrition platform that is aligned with our goals – not just physical goals, but emotional wellbeing ones as well because as shared above they “feed” off of each other – is one of the best ways we can support ourselves on our quest for better health.
· “Scientifically, there is compelling research that shows our bodies need more of certain nutrients when we are in different emotional states – and that it can also be harder to make those food choices when we’re in an intensely negative emotional state.” That’s why we often hear about “eating our feelings”. There’s nothing “wrong” with us – it’s how our bodies have evolved to cope, to heal and to process. The SMILES trial (learn more about that here: The SMILEs Trial | Food and Mood Centre) proved that if we change the nutritional intake of people with clinical depression, it impacts their mental health for the better. THAT is the power of food as medicine.
· “You can be a person who loves both eating for health and getting pleasure from food. It’s not an either/or proposition.” This was such a relatable topic in the book because as a health and nutrition coach I often hear people say how boring or unsatisfying it is to “eat healthy”. I always tell them: then you’re not doing it right! It’s why a good portion of my social media feed is dedicated to delicious and healthy recipes – because both can be true! It is also why I convert classic comfort food recipes into healthier versions – because it can be done and should be accessible! Download a copy of my free recipe booklet here and see what I mean: Converted Comfort Foods
· “Your food is literally less nutritious now than when your grandmother made the same meal. This is one reason that it’s possible to be both overweight and malnourished.” To me, this is mind boggling. To think our grandparents could make the same exact meal when they were my age and it would have had a totally different nutritional profile demonstrates the evolving science of food. It points to the changes in our soil, the pesticides used on crops, the scientific modifications being used to get bigger and better crops, the hormones used on our livestock … the list goes on. It also is why I speak with so many people and see so many comments online about “eating clean and working out and still gaining weight or not seeing any changes”. Luckily Albright shares thoughts and strategies on this phenomenon so we can all start to learn how to advocate for our own nutritional outcomes.
· “Focusing on nutrition rather than weight could be far more effective in getting the result you want – a flourishing life.” This concept resonated deeply with me. A lot of times we are approaching the problem backwards. Instead of giving our attention the number on the scale, if we shift our attention to what, when and how we fuel our bodies we can impact our overall health (and that number) so much quicker. In the end, the scale is about so much more than what we eat – it’s hydration, sodium, stress, sleep, the list goes on and on. So when we control what we can control – which is what we put in our mouths – we are able to create a much better internal environment for our bodies to thrive, which will produce external results.
· “Challenge: buy and eat 30 different plants in one week, and make sure they are as unprocessed as possible.” I LOVE that Albright issued this challenge and you bet I took her up on it! At first I thought, “No problem, I eat a ton of fresh produce” but a few days in I realized that I would need to create an even larger source of options in order to meet the 30 different plant criteria. It was really fun to get creative with what and when to add to my everyday plant consumption, and I ended up enjoying the dishes I made so much more with the added flavors and textures. Plus I knew I was doing right by my body by getting this different vitamins and minerals from the new plant sources I added. I highly recommend trying this challenge yourself!
I highly recommend this book – and not just because I nerd out on the information she writes about. The author takes highly sophisticated, scientific topics and turns them into easy to digest (pun intended) and apply steps. There are chapters on what to eat for specific moods, which is a great resource made super accessible. There are also a variety of recipes throughout the book. What I like best about this book is she takes complex, scientific details about health and nutrition and turns them into a practical and useful approach to empowering ourselves for our best emotional wellbeing through food.
You can get your own copy of Eat & Flourish here.
Want To Talk More? Email hi@hellocoaching.info Now!
Email now to connect with me directly, or leave a comment below! Email me here
Comments