BITESIZE | 5 Food Rules To Balance Hormones, Boost Energy & Transform Your Health | Dr Mindy Pelz #544

Summary

Feel Better, Live More with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Episode: BITESIZE | 5 Food Rules To Balance Hormones, Boost Energy & Transform Your Health | Dr. Mindy Pelz #544
Release Date: April 3, 2025

In this enlightening episode of Feel Better, Live More, Dr. Rangan Chatterjee hosts Dr. Mindy Pelz, a renowned nutrition expert and best-selling author of Fast Like a Girl and Eat Like a Girl. The conversation delves deep into five foundational food principles aimed at balancing hormones, boosting energy, and transforming overall health. Dr. Pelz introduces her "Foundational Five" health principles, specifically tailored to empower women but equally beneficial for men. This summary captures the essence of their discussion, highlighting key insights, expert advice, and actionable takeaways.

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1. Blood Sugar Matters, Calories Don't

[03:09] Dr. Mindy Pelz:
"Blood sugar is... one of the most important things you can do for your short-term health, your long-term health, and for how good you feel."

Dr. Pelz emphasizes the prioritization of blood sugar management over mere calorie counting. She argues that while calories are a metric in an ideal scenario where one can meticulously track intake and expenditure, the reality is far from it. Instead, she advocates for monitoring how one feels post-meal to gauge blood sugar stability. Indicators such as sustained energy, mental clarity, and prolonged satiety serve as practical measures for most individuals.

Key Insights:

• Self-Assessment Over Tracking: Instead of obsessively counting calories, individuals are encouraged to assess their energy levels, focus, and hunger cues after eating.
• Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGMs): For those interested, tools like CGMs can provide real-time feedback on blood sugar levels, aiding in dietary adjustments.
• Stabilizing Blood Sugar Reduces Cravings: Maintaining stable blood sugar levels minimizes unhealthy cravings and the temptation to overeat.

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2. Eat Nature's Food

[09:36] Dr. Mindy Pelz:
"The carb that is gonna be the healthiest one is the one that came out of the earth."

Dr. Pelz critiques the modern obsession with macronutrient counting, particularly carbohydrates, which has led to a proliferation of “health” foods laden with additives and preservatives. She advocates for a return to unprocessed, natural carbohydrates, which are inherently high in fiber and beneficial for blood sugar regulation.

Key Insights:

• Nature vs. Man-Made Carbs: Prioritize carbohydrates that are whole and minimally processed, such as vegetables, fruits, and whole grains.
• Avoiding Processed Foods: Processed foods often contain hidden sugars, unhealthy fats, and artificial additives that disrupt metabolic health.
• Simplifying Nutrition Labels: By choosing natural foods, individuals can avoid the complexity of deciphering ingredient lists and nutritional information.

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3. Eat for Your Microbes

[15:02] Dr. Mindy Pelz:
"Your gut bugs are telling you what kind of food to eat."

The foundation of this principle lies in the symbiotic relationship between our diet and gut microbiota. Dr. Pelz explains how imbalances in gut bacteria can influence cravings and overall health. By nourishing beneficial bacteria with fiber, polyphenols, probiotics, and prebiotics, one can reshape taste preferences and enhance metabolic functions.

Key Insights:

• Gut-Brain Connection: The state of the gut microbiome directly impacts cravings and mental clarity.
• Dietary Fiber and Fermented Foods: Incorporating high-fiber foods and fermented products supports a healthy and diverse microbiome.
• Impact on Hormones: A balanced microbiome aids in hormone metabolism, particularly estrogen, which is crucial for women's health during stages like perimenopause.

Notable Quote:
[17:03] Dr. Rangan Chatterjee:
"You have to ignore those [cravings] until you get through it, and then you can tune into your body's cravings and desires at that point."

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4. Protein Is Not Just for Men

[20:31] Dr. Mindy Pelz:
"Your hormones need those amino acids. Please make sure you're eating protein with every meal."

Traditionally associated with muscle building and male fitness, protein is equally vital for women. Dr. Pelz highlights that adequate protein intake supports hormone production and overall metabolic health. She urges a shift in the narrative, framing protein not just as a means to build muscle but as a crucial nutrient for hormonal balance and sustained energy.

Key Insights:

• Hormonal Health: Protein intake supports the synthesis and regulation of key hormones in women.
• Broadening the Protein Conversation: Moving beyond the stereotype of protein solely for muscle gain to encompass its broader health benefits.
• Inclusion in Every Meal: Ensuring that each meal contains a source of high-quality protein to maintain steady energy levels and hormonal equilibrium.

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5. Fat Doesn't Make You Fat

[20:05] Dr. Rangan Chatterjee:
"If you put it with something with healthy natural fats like avocado or nut butters..."

Challenging the longstanding misconception that dietary fat contributes to weight gain, Dr. Pelz underscores the role of healthy fats in appetite regulation and blood sugar stabilization. Incorporating natural fats into meals can enhance satiety, reduce hunger hormone levels, and provide essential nutrients for cellular functions.

Key Insights:

• Healthy Fats as Satiety Builders: Fats from sources like avocados, nuts, and olive oil help maintain fullness and reduce unnecessary snacking.
• Blood Sugar Stabilization: Fats slow down carbohydrate absorption, preventing rapid spikes and crashes in blood sugar levels.
• Essential Nutrients: Fats are crucial for the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins and overall cellular health.

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Practical Applications for Breaking a Fast

[21:50] Dr. Mindy Pelz:
"The first meal in is the most important... feed your microbes. I got to put protein in here. I got to put some fat."

When breaking a fast, Dr. Pelz recommends a balanced approach that includes fiber-rich foods, proteins, and healthy fats. This combination nurtures the gut microbiome, preserves muscle mass, and ensures sustained energy levels.

Actionable Steps:

1. Incorporate Fiber: Include vegetables, seeds, or nuts to support gut health.
2. Add Protein: Ensure each meal contains a source of protein to maintain muscle and hormonal balance.
3. Include Healthy Fats: Add avocados, nut butters, or olive oil to enhance satiety and stabilize blood sugar.

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Addressing Modern Food Challenges

[12:34] Dr. Mindy Pelz:
"We are living in the worst food time ever."

Both Dr. Chatterjee and Dr. Pelz acknowledge the challenges posed by the contemporary food environment, characterized by an abundance of processed foods laden with unhealthy additives. They emphasize the necessity of establishing personal dietary frameworks to navigate this landscape effectively.

Key Points:

• Food Environment: The prevalence of processed, chemical-heavy foods contributes to chronic health issues.
• Personal Frameworks: Developing individualized dietary rules helps mitigate the impact of unhealthy food options.
• Shift in Cultural Norms: Moving away from society's misconstrued notions of health towards intuitive, body-centered eating practices.

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Conclusion and Empowerment

Throughout the episode, Dr. Pelz and Dr. Chatterjee advocate for a return to simplicity in nutrition. By focusing on blood sugar stability, natural foods, gut health, adequate protein, and healthy fats, individuals can reclaim control over their health amidst a confusing and often misleading food landscape. The conversation underscores the importance of personalized approaches, encouraging listeners to tune into their bodies and make informed, intuitive dietary choices.

Encouraging Quote:
[08:31] Dr. Mindy Pelz:
"How about we start asking you what your intuitive sense is around your body? And now we have just in that question, we have taken a woman and we have put her at the beginning of a health path."

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This episode serves as a comprehensive guide for anyone looking to simplify their approach to nutrition and enhance their well-being through informed dietary choices. By integrating these foundational principles, listeners are empowered to navigate their health journeys with confidence and clarity.

Transcript

[Dr. Rangan Chatterjee]

Today's bite sized episode is sponsored by AG1. One of the most nutrient dense whole food supplements that I've come across and I myself have been drinking it regularly for over five years. It contains vitamins, minerals, probiotics, prebiotics, digestive enzymes and so much more and can help with energy, focus, gut health, digestion and support a healthy immune system. For the month Of April only, AG1 are offering a free morning person hat, bottle of vitamin D and five free AG1 travel packs with your first subscription. Just go to drinkag1.comlivemore to unlock this exclusive offer and get started on your journey to better health today. Welcome to Feel Better Live More Bite.

[Unknown Host]

Size, your weekly dose of positivity and optimism to get you ready for the weekend.

[Dr. Rangan Chatterjee]

Today's clip is from episode 474 of the podcast with nutrition expert and best selling author of Fast Like a Girl and Eat like a girl, Dr. Mindy Peltz. In this clip, Mindy shares how food can be a powerful tool to support your health and well being where we explore her wonderful Foundational five health principles. Please note the advice in this episode may not be suitable if you are suffering with or recovering from an eating disorder. Also, if you have an existing health condition or are taking medication, always consult.

[Unknown Host]

Your healthcare practitioner before going for prolonged periods without eating.

[Dr. Mindy Peltz]

Food is actually a tool to give you the life that you want. It can take away from the life you want or it can give you the life you want. It is one of the greatest tools we have access to. We just haven't been taught about it.

[Unknown Guest]

Yeah.

[Dr. Rangan Chatterjee]

So I just love to help people understand what are these foods that we need to focus on, like foods we need to avoid and foods we need to bring in.

[Dr. Mindy Peltz]

Right. So the first that I call it the Foundational five. So in the new book we talk about, there are five guiding principles that every woman needs to follow. I would say men probably need to follow these too, but I do feel like female bodies are not as forgiving and the large reason behind that is because a male body number one priority is survival. A female body has two priorities, survival and reproduction. Just so we're clear, one of the things I'm very concerned about in the health world right now is we have overcomplicated food. Right?

[Unknown Guest]

Yeah.

[Dr. Mindy Peltz]

So when I put these five principles together, I literally thought if I was sitting with somebody who knew nothing about nutrition, was a part of the whole cultural zeitgeist of eating foods to lose weight, diet foods and not reading ingredients, what would I say to them? And These were the five, I would say.

[Dr. Rangan Chatterjee]

Yeah, I love it. Well, let's go through these foundational five then for people, you know. Start where you want to start.

[Dr. Mindy Peltz]

Okay, well, number one, I hope you see why I put number one on there. So number one, for those of you who are not seeing it is blood sugar matters, calories don't. Now let's. I thought about that sentence a long time because a lot of people are like, calories still matter. Okay. Yes. If we lived in a perfect world where everybody could scan their calorie output and their calorie input every day and figure out exactly how many calories they needed to eat every day, then the calorie would matter. But we don't do that. We don't have. Nobody knows how many calories they can even chart it. Nobody's going to keep that chart forever to even figure that out. It is not an attainable health target. Blood sugar is. And with blood sugar, one of the things that we can do is we can get a cgm, we can get like a little keto mojo blood sugar reader or something like that, but we gotta find ways to help women that have no money. And what you can do is ask yourself, how do I feel after I eat? Am I energized? Am I focused? Do I wanna take a nap? Am I hungry again? If within two hours after a meal, your energy drops, your brain fog kicks in, you're hungry again, you didn't nail the blood sugar rule, you didn't get that blood sugar combo. Right. And that's what I unpack in the book is what does that look like with food? So you should be energized after a meal.

[Dr. Rangan Chatterjee]

Yeah, I love that. That's a very simple way that doesn't require people to spend any money. They can self assess. And I think it speaks to this wider societal problem at the moment with respect to food, which is we're so far removed from how we're meant to eat, how our bodies are meant to eat, that many people think it's normal to feel hungry every two hours, right? Yes.

[Dr. Mindy Peltz]

Or sleepy in the afternoon.

[Dr. Rangan Chatterjee]

Yeah. They think it's completely normal. And I get it's the norm for them. It doesn't mean it's normal.

[Dr. Mindy Peltz]

Right.

[Dr. Rangan Chatterjee]

And eating a way to stabilize your blood sugar is arguably one of the most important things you can do for your short term health, your long term health, and for how good you feel. I will put a CGM on at this stage, maybe twice a year. A CGM being a continuous glucose monitor, they last about Two weeks, I can learn which are the foods and which is the style of eating that keeps my blood sugar the most stable, whether I have it on or not. When I'm eating like that consistently, I feel great. I sleep well. My focus is great. I don't feel hungry much. I find it easy to resist temptation. And that's, I think, the other thing which people forget, Mindy, is if you eat in a way that stabilizes your blood sugar, you're having to resist temptation less.

[Dr. Mindy Peltz]

Yes.

[Dr. Rangan Chatterjee]

Do you know what I mean? If your blood sugar is plummeting because you had a sugary cereal at 7am and at 9:30 or 10, you're feeling jittery and hungry, your blood sugar probably is dropping, and you do need to have that bagel. You're gonna struggle, but that isn't the issue. The issue was what you had two to three hours beforehand.

[Dr. Mindy Peltz]

That's right. I had a really interesting situation. I'm sure you have this with your kids. You know, when your kids are in different sporting events, you end up hanging around the parents that are on the sidelines. I got to know this one woman really well. She would always ask me questions around nutrition. And every time I would tell her what I ate or what I did, she'd be like, I couldn't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. After about a year of this, she said to me one day, she looked at me and she said, okay, I've watched you almost every weekend, three days a week after school, our kids are here, and I've finally come to one conclusion about your nutritional theories. And I'm like, oh, okay, tell me what that is. She goes, you are not deprived. I said, I'm not. I'm not deprived at all. I eat amazing food. I feel so good after I eat. I sleep so well. Food is medicine for me, and I am not depriving myself at all. And I'm not over there eating, like, granola bars all day. And, like, food can be incredibly satisfying if we look at it from these five angles that we're going through.

[Dr. Rangan Chatterjee]

Okay, so keep your blood sugar stable is an important principle. I would have to say that your foundational five, they're pretty sensible.

[Dr. Mindy Peltz]

Thank you.

[Dr. Rangan Chatterjee]

What I mean by that is you'd struggle, I think, to find people these days disagreeing with those principles. And I love principles, because I think there is too much confusion out there. I think we have to get to the point where we can listen to experts, but then tune into our own expertise.

[Dr. Mindy Peltz]

Thank you.

[Dr. Rangan Chatterjee]

Right we have to be able to go, okay, that expert said that. That other expert said that. I like them both. I trust them both. Let me figure out what works for me.

[Dr. Mindy Peltz]

Yes. Yeah. And one of the things I know from my community is that I have a lot of plant based people and I have a lot of omnivore people. And this is what you do this with your podcast. Let's bring everybody into the conversation and let the listener go, hey, when I pull out that tool, that works for me there, and then I put it down and I pull out this tool and that works for me there, I think we will free people from being either frustrated and confused or from people just going, you know, I feel like I'm failing it at all. Which is what I hear a lot of women say. It's like, I'm just failing at it. I'm failing at health. Well, you're failing at the culture's idea of what health should look like for you. How about we start asking you what your intuitive sense is around your body? And now we have just in that question. Now we have taken a woman and we have put her at the, the beginning of a health path. And that is what I know you and I are trying to do.

[Dr. Rangan Chatterjee]

Okay. Eat nature's food. That's number two, right?

[Dr. Mindy Peltz]

Yes. Okay. So this was another interesting one that I saw is that everybody started, instead of counting calories, we got obsessed with counting carbs. And it got to the point where even the food industry has gotten so sneaky, they started to see that, oh, keto is popular. Let me go ahead and create keto foods, or let me create gluten free foods that everybody's gonna wanna because they're like, oh, it says, it has these buzzwords on it. And so I started to tell my community, like, okay, let's just make it easy for you. The carb that is gonna be the healthiest one is the one that came out of the earth. If it came out of the earth, there is a good chance it has fiber in it, which will help with rule number one, which is support your blood sugar. So it's getting really difficult to teach people how to read an ingredient label. Now. The food industry is really crafty at how they put head, so I needed to find a new way to explain this. And we got like, so many messages of like, oh, Today I ate 60 grams net carbs. Is that gonna mean I'm gonna gain weight? And I thought, oh, God, this is not. We need to free women. I don't want women counting carbs instead of calories. So let's just all of a sudden look at a carb as, is it nature's or is it man made? If it is nature's, it's probably a great tool for me. If it's man made, not a great tool. So the more we alter nature's food, the further away we take its nutritional value.

[Unknown Guest]

Yeah.

[Dr. Mindy Peltz]

So if you keep going back to what was the original source, that nature provided this, and how close can I get to that? We're going to be able to be in a place where we avoid chemicals and we stabilize blood sugar. So I have a really interesting concept that would apply to both men and women. And have you ever gone bowling with your kids where you put up the bumper rails?

[Dr. Rangan Chatterjee]

Yep.

[Dr. Mindy Peltz]

Okay. You do that so that the ball doesn't go into the alley. So I think we should do that with food. It is a crime at this particular moment what's going on in our food system. And if you don't have a personal value system, if you don't implement rules for yourself, you are putting yourself on a collision course with chronic disease, men and women, end of story. That is the moment we're living in.

[Dr. Rangan Chatterjee]

Yeah, maybe it's an uncomfortable truth, but it's a truth nonetheless. Certainly the way I see life is that in the modern food environment, if you don't have some sort of framework that you apply around foods, I think most people are going to struggle because the food is gonna encourage you to eat more. You're gonna crave more unhealthy foods. You have food available all the time, everywhere you go. On an evolutionary level, we've never had this before.

[Dr. Mindy Peltz]

Never. We are living in the worst food time ever.

[Dr. Rangan Chatterjee]

Yeah. It's not necessarily your fault or the fact that you are weak that you can't resist. Thank you, humans. If you take our hunter gatherer ancestors and pop them in this environment, they'll also get sick.

[Dr. Mindy Peltz]

Yes.

[Dr. Rangan Chatterjee]

But it's not as if they have more discipline than us. It's just they're in a food landscape where they're not having to make all these choices. So I think we all need to figure out certain rules that work for us. And I think that's why so many different diets can work for people. Because that diet, or the name of that style of eating, low carb, low fat, whole food plant based, whatever it might be, it gives people a framework and a structure which means that they cut other foods out. And I know people don't like to talk about restriction, but I just don't really see how you do navigate this modern food environment without a degree of restriction?

[Dr. Mindy Peltz]

Yeah. No.

[Dr. Rangan Chatterjee]

Do you know what I mean?

[Dr. Mindy Peltz]

Yeah. That's why I go back to nature's carbs. Not man made carbs or human made carbs. If you looked at every food you went in contact with and you said, okay, how close to this? If we're going back to that original conversation, how close is this to nature's food? If it appears very close, you're probably gonna get it right. But if all of a sudden you're looking at especially the box stuff that's in the center aisles at the grocery store, you're going in there and it has a list of 20 plus ingredients. There is a good chance that one of those ingredients has not been fully vetted for your health. It's been vetted as a preservative, it's been vetted as a taste enhancer, but it has not been vetted for your health. Now here's where it gets crazy. And this is why I'm so irate about this. And this was a huge motivator for writing Eat Like a Girl was that when we look at so many of the chronic diseases and we look at these horrible toxic foods, they are ones that many people are eating every single day. And they are known carcinogens. They are known to change your direction with obesity. The food industry has infiltrated with so many chemicals that if you're just constantly going into this toxic food, you are setting yourself up for chronic disease.

[Unknown Guest]

Yeah.

[Dr. Mindy Peltz]

But you have to understand that the modern world is taking you off track.

[Dr. Rangan Chatterjee]

Exactly.

[Dr. Mindy Peltz]

And that's what I don't think people are getting yet.

[Unknown Guest]

Yeah.

[Dr. Rangan Chatterjee]

Point number three of the foundational five eats for your microbes.

[Dr. Mindy Peltz]

Do you know why I'm saying that?

[Dr. Rangan Chatterjee]

I don't know. Hit me.

[Dr. Mindy Peltz]

Okay. This I love too. So whenever we go to choose a food, what do we usually do? We say, what am I in the mood for? Every time you say what I'm in the mood for, you are asking your taste buds. But what controls your taste buds?

[Dr. Rangan Chatterjee]

Your gut bugs.

[Dr. Mindy Peltz]

Your gut bugs. So your gut bugs are telling you what kind of food to eat. So the bad gut bugs are gonna tell you to eat the sugars. The bad gut bugs are gonna make you crave the processed foods. So when you actually ask yourself, what do I need to eat right now to feed my microbes, you flip that whole scenario on its head. And as you start to feed your microbes with things like fiber and seeds and nuts, I put lists after lists in the Book of polyphenol probiotic prebiotic foods. What happens is your taste buds now change. And the greatest study ever done on fasting was the every other day diet. This was years ago. And the every other day diet took people who ate toxic western food and basically said, you eat those every other day, so eat whatever you want. If you're going through fast food, eat whatever you want, but on the days off, you're not going to eat. And what they found, and they had to do this over a course of a year, what they found at the end of the year was that not only did everybody's metabolic markers improve, but what surprised them is their taste buds and what they craved was massively different a year later. And that's because in the fasted state, especially when you go a full day without food, you are killing off those old bugs and you're creating an environment where new bacteria can grow and those new bacteria give you new signals to your mouth and make you crave new things that are healthier so that they can stay alive.

[Dr. Rangan Chatterjee]

Yeah, this is where the idea of listening to your body gets a little challenging, doesn't it? Because we want people to tune into themselves and listen to what their bodies are telling them. But sometimes we can get waylaid by that. Right. So if you have an unhealthy balance of bugs in your gut, you may well be craving foods because of that gut dysbiosis.

[Dr. Mindy Peltz]

Candida is a great example of that. Candida is a fungus that lives in your gut and it makes you crave sugar, alcohol, carbohydrates. This is what I had when I had chronic fatigue syndrome. I had massive Candida. So it kept telling me to eat these toxic carbs over and over again. So the diet that this doctor put me on was one that was absent of all those foods. Now, let's talk about what happened the first couple of days. I went on that. That fungus just screamed at me, I want more carbs, more sugar. So the first couple of days are hard as those gut bugs start to scream at you. But then they quieted down, and after a week, as little as a week, I started to actually crave the things that I knew supported my health. It's a little bit like you fake it till you make it.

[Dr. Rangan Chatterjee]

You have to ignore those until you get through it, and then you can tune into your body's cravings and desires at that point. Yes, these principles so far all seem to be just as relevant for men as they are for women. And of course, they are. Right. Stable blood sugar Eat natural foods, eat for your microbes. And the last two, which we're gonna get to. Protein is not just for men, and fat doesn't make you fat. Okay. These foundational fibers, you call them, I think they're just as relevant for men as they are for women, broadly speaking, when it comes to diet. What are those core differences? What are the things that men can do and maybe thrive on but women can't?

[Dr. Mindy Peltz]

Well, let's go back to the gut bugs.

[Dr. Rangan Chatterjee]

Okay.

[Dr. Mindy Peltz]

The gut bugs are breaking down estrogen. So men, we talked about this on the last one. They make testosterone, and testosterone goes up into the brain and converts to estrogen.

[Unknown Guest]

Yeah.

[Dr. Mindy Peltz]

So estrogen is hanged. Its whole process is different in a male body than a female body. You need to have good bacteria in your gut to metabolize estrogen. If you are 43 years old and you are going through perimenopause and you have a decimated gut microbiome and you are trying to hold on to every little bit of estrogen that your body's giving you, if you don't have these gut bugs that will help break down estrogen, your symptoms are going to be worse. That doesn't happen to men.

[Dr. Rangan Chatterjee]

So women need good amounts of fiber to help nourish their gut microbiome, which is going to help with the metabolism of hormones.

[Dr. Mindy Peltz]

That's right.

[Dr. Rangan Chatterjee]

But men also need good quality gut bugs for other things.

[Dr. Mindy Peltz]

Yeah. Maybe they'd be a guiding light for a man. For a woman, they are an absolute. Like, we've got to use these as. That's why I call them foundational. They are a foundational part of a woman's health.

[Unknown Guest]

Yeah.

[Dr. Rangan Chatterjee]

Let's go back to the final two of your foundational five. Okay. Protein is not just for men.

[Dr. Mindy Peltz]

Yeah.

[Dr. Rangan Chatterjee]

Please explain.

[Dr. Mindy Peltz]

Yeah. So, you know, it's interesting. I think protein is having its moment, and it's beautiful. You know, I think for women, we haven't prioritized protein. In general, women, I mean, we have a lot more bodybuilders and a lot more fitness advocates. But in general, women don't think of protein as a crucial nutrient. So if I'm listening to somebody say you need more protein so that you can have more muscles, so that you can be more insulin sensitive, your brain, as a woman, may actually translate that into, well, I don't. Every time I build muscle, my clothes are tight. Every time I build muscle, the scale goes up and I'm addicted to the number on the scale. So all of a sudden you dismiss protein and amino acids come in the form of different forms of protein. What I'm saying is let's expand the conversation and say your hormones need those amino acids. Please make sure you're eating protein with every meal. So when we keep it in the conversation of men, we tend to keep it in the conversation of muscle. And I'm asking us to even go beyond that and put it in the context of your hormones want you to eat protein.

[Dr. Rangan Chatterjee]

Do you think it's starting to change with women, the idea that protein is important?

[Dr. Mindy Peltz]

Yeah, I think it's a conversation that's gaining momentum for sure.

[Dr. Rangan Chatterjee]

One thing I haven't asked you yet, which I've been asked to ask you by someone who's a fan of yours, is what should somebody eat when they're breaking a fast?

[Dr. Mindy Peltz]

Oh, yeah, I know you cover this, but I think we must cover. Yeah, I did a whole chapter on this, so I'm gonna make it really simple. There are three things you need to think about if you want to improve your microbiome like we were talking about. You need to add in more fibery foods, fermented foods. I call them polyphenol, probiotic and prebiotic foods. But they look like a lot of salads and a lot of seeds and nuts. So I have lists in the book. Second thing you want to eat to make sure that you keep your muscle in good shape. That's protein. We talked about protein. And the third is you want to bring fat in. So fat curbs the appetite, it turns off the hunger hormone, it stabilizes the blood sugar. So when you put that meal together, ask yourself like, is there enough fiber here? Is there enough of the polyphenol probiotic prebiotic fits. Do I have some protein here and do I have some fat?

[Dr. Rangan Chatterjee]

So you put it with something with healthy natural fats like avocado or nut butters or something like that.

[Dr. Mindy Peltz]

In the book, I lay it all out. I have recipes. But that's a general guideline for the sake of this podcast, is it should be intentional. The first meal matters. It is the most important meal of this whole conversation is that first meal in. So what healing do you want to keep going? And if you keep that in mind, I've got to feed my microbes. I got to put protein in here. I got to put some fat. You can never go wrong.

[Unknown Host]

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[Dr. Rangan Chatterjee]

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