Module Two: Plant Based Nourishment
In this module, you will learn the fundamentals of basic nutrition along with the plant Candida Diet (Phases 1-3) so that you can begin integrating these practices and bring your body back to balance. This model is critical in developing the lifestyle changes that lead to balanced Candida. Proper nourishment is fundamental in this protocol.
Audio Lesson: Audio Lesson: Your Inner Ecosystem
THE FUNDAMENTALS OF DIGESTION
Digestion: You are what you digest (you are your microbes).
What is Digestion? Why does this matter for microbial and full-body health? Digestion is the complex and automatic process that filters nutrients through your body and eliminates unnecessary ingested materials. Without digestion, we would never gain the nutrients from food. Seems pretty straight forward right? So, it’s easy to say that without a highly functioning digestive system, we are missing out on key processes of what digestion provides.
As it turns out, digestion is a lot more than transitioning food throughout the colon for elimination! Digestion is an especially interesting part of the body. While most of the digestion is an automatic process, thanks to your enteric nervous system, it begins as an entirely conscious process. This process is something you engage in multiple times a day— eating!
While digestion is for the most part on autopilot, the rest of your digestion aims to go on with ease. Digestion begins even before you eat— it starts with smells, sights, and even thinking about food that can trigger digestion to begin.
In the mouth, saliva creates antibacterial enzymes that protect against harmful pathogens (another reason why dental hygiene is essential for gut health). From there, it transitions into the small and large intestine from the esophagus, where it begins all the dirty work. Your body then uses mucous and acids to secrete nutrients from the food source and starts filtering it through the rest of your body. It pulls insulin from the pancreas. It filters fiber, and the microbes in your Microbiome start breaking down your food for you (and for them). In the large intestine, your vitamins are ingested. Interestingly, about 3-5 pounds of microorganisms known as flora also live in the large intestine.
FUNDAMENTALS OF PLANT-BASED NUTRITION
Building up healthy terrain through the use of prebiotics, probiotics, fiber, and a whole-food style of eating are the fundamentals for a healthy body, your microbiome, and your lifestyle.
Protein: 3x a day
Full Chain Proteins: Plant-based examples are rice and beans (paired together), hemp protein, quinoa.
Fats: 3 x a day (Omega 3 and 6) – ideally taken Separate from Fiber. Examples are avocados, olive oil, flax, and hemp
Fiber( With every meal): examples are beans, grains, veggies, fruits
Prebiotics: examples are veggies and fruits
CANDIDA AND YEAST: BALANCING WITH WHOLE FOOD
The overall goal for the plant-based Candida diet (and this course), is to balance (not eradicate) Candida. To do this, we must focus on supporting the good bacteria, and limiting all factors that can contribute to bacterial overgrowth. The Plant-Based Candida Diet, as suggested throughout this course, aims to balance the gut bacteria at large while also targeting Candida through specific herbs and practices. By working with the microbiome as a whole versus targeting Candida alone, we allow for deeper healing, and our journeys with Candida or other bacterial problems are tackled for the long haul.
The basics of the protocol are listed 1:1 in the worksheet for this module. Use that as your guide for navigating this protocol. This will target all nutritional needs, Candida, and enhance general microbial health.
BIO INDIVIDUALITY: FINDING THE FOODS THAT ARE BEST FOR YOU
Guidelines are as they sound: guidelines. I never structure any protocol with the mentality of eating this for breakfast, that for lunch, and those for dinner. This protocol asks for diversity, creativity, and your own gut instincts. In the Plant-Based Candida diet, some guidelines will help you reach success. The main idea? Although your diet is already structured very vigorously, approach meals with a less rigorous attitude, and don’t eat the same things every single day. Which foods do you love? Which ones will you enjoy eating? How can you welcome those foods into this protocol? How can you welcome plant diversity as well? Pay attention to how your body responds to food, this protocol, and the herbs. Use it as your compass.
To do this successfully, we must set ourselves, our fridge, and our pantry up for success. Please download the Plant-Based Candida Diet Shopping Guide and the Crafting A Healthy Pantry Workbook in the downloads section of this module.
Have you ever gotten really cranky or sad when you were hungry? Have you felt like you just HAD to curb a sugar craving?
Cravings are one of the many cues our body gives to us. It’s a way for us to navigate our wellbeing, moods, and satisfy all the necessary functions of our body. Did you know that your microbes can give you cravings, too? Our bodies adapted to live in symbolic reactions with bacteria. They support us, and we support them. Unfortunately, for generations, we began to ban breastfeeding, increase sugar, consume factory-farmed foods, and limit vegetables and fruits. Our guts and wellbeing suffered from this.
So did our emotions and intuition.
Intuitive eating is all the craze these days. In theory, it’s a great direction. However, we’ve neglected the steps that it took us to get to the opposite end of the spectrum.
This leads me to gut bacteria and our mental health.
You have more neurons in your gut than in your spinal cord. Your gut is connected directly to your brain through the vagus nerve. The gut has been referred to as the “second brain” for this reason. There’s a lot of communication between these regions, and bacteria influence both of their functions, including cravings, mood, hunger, inflammation, and your immune system.
I’ve always found it fascinating that the gut aligns with the solar plexus. The solar plexus is a place of personal power. When I think of the many factors the gut plays in wellbeing, I feel a sense of empowerment. It brings me to that place where the veil is lifted, where I and the beloved become one. This is my role in the macrocosm.
My hope for you in this course is that you take aligned action towards finding your balance, both bacterial, and transcendental. This is your self-healing power and why we do this work to support our bodies and internal ecosystems.
How can we manage cravings? With willpower and personal power. This is why I have included the meditation and audio download for this segment focused on solar plexus work and personal empowerment.
DOWNLOADABLE DOCUMENTS
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