Episode 58: Colorful Foods for Mood, Hormones, and Wellness with Deanna Minich, PhD
Show Summary:
How many colors do you eat in a day? Do you know about the powerful connections that color has to our biology, chakras, and deeper meaning of who we are?
We are excited to offer you this conversation with Dr. Deanna Minich, a Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner (IFMCP), nutrition scientist, international lecturer, teacher, and author, with over twenty years of experience in academia and in the food and dietary supplement industries.
This is a really enlightening conversation about the power of the rainbow in our food and how each color connects to different body systems, chakras, and elements in our bodies.
If you want to better understand how food can be a powerful medicine for our health and wellness, don’t miss this conversation.
0:00 - Introduction
5:16 - What motivated Dr. Minich to become a functional medicine practitioner and nutritionist?
8:18 - Why did color become a focus of your practice?
14:47 - How does eating color impact us on a mind, body, and spirit level?
18:50 - Benefits of the different colors
50:24 - What most people don’t realize about eating color
51:21 - What Dr. Minich eats every day
53:35 - How to work with Dr. Minich
Listen to the full conversation:
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Full Transcript:
Deanna Minich:
In the summer, we need antioxidants from those plant foods because the sun can be great, but also very damaging, we tend to be more active in the summer. So we're producing more free radicals. So I think nature takes care of us when we follow those rhythms. So in the summer, having more of the fruits, which have more of these vibrant antioxidants. And what we're also learning, Andy is that a lot of these foods have compounds that are changing our circadian rhythms cycles, actually changing certain parts of the brain that are responsible for overall coordination of the endocrine circuit. So for example, there have been studies with animals not as much with people, but they take animals and they try to mimic winter and summer through longer and shorter timeframes. They put the animals under these situations, and they give them cherries or they give them grapes. So grapes are fall fruit cherries are spring fruit. And essentially what the studies are showing is that if you feed a spring food during what would be like a winter period, you start to create metabolic dysfunction in those animals that you can select it, you change a variety of these different hormones that are related to satiety. And one of the physicians I used to work with at the clinic, Dr. Jack Kornberg would say this to patients, and maybe somebody will resonate with this. He said, When we eat foods that are produced in the summer, but we eat them in the winter, it's like telling our body that it's the summer into store fat. So it there does make a connection there between the food and metabolic cycle. Now, does that mean that you should never have an orange in the winter? No, but we wouldn't want to have that constant signal of an orange every day when oranges if we can, Florida, we don't live in a tropical area, it may not be best suited for our physiology. So I do think that seasons This is one of the things that I think traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurveda excel in is recognition and honoring and respecting the seasons, their circannual rhythm, rather than just say, Oh, I'm just going to eat whatever I want, because it's available, really eating local and seasonal. That's better for us. The plants are signaling to our bodies what we most need.
Dr. Andrew Wong:
I don't know about you, but I really love rainbows. I love all the different colors in the sky as it kind of happens after a rainstorm. And we also know that in nutrition that one of the biggest pieces of advice we often get is to eat the colors that rainbow eat different colors. So I'm kind of curious, how many colors do you eat and a day? Do you know about the powerful connections that color has to our biology, chakras or energy centers, and also even a deeper meaning of who we are. We are excited to offer you this colorful conversation today with Dr. Deanna Minich, a certified Functional Medicine Practitioner, nutrition scientist, international lecturer, Teacher and Author that has over 20 years of experience in academia and in the food and dietary supplement industries. I am Dr. Andrew Wong, co founder of capital Integrative Health. This is a podcast that is dedicated to transforming the consciousness around what it means to be healthy, and understanding the root causes of both disease and wellness. This is a great conversation that was very enlightening today all about food and about the power of the rainbow in our food, and how each color of that rainbow connects to different body systems, chakras and elements in our bodies. If you want to better understand how food and the color of that food can be a powerful medicine for your health and wellness. Don't miss this conversation.
All right, Dr. Deanna Minich, thank you so much for coming on. Deanna today. We're really honored to have you here.
Deanna Minich:
It's great to be here with you.
Dr. Andrew Wong:
So our podcast really focuses on the root causes of health and wellness. And, you know, we know that one of the big causes, if not the biggest root cause of you know, health and wellness is food. We were talking a little offline about how nutrition can be you know, faddish or it can be kind of entities, you know, situations where it becomes sort of a another thing for people to do, you know, almost like another task. So, yeah, we'd love we're gonna have a lot of fun today. I'm really excited about this conversation and talk about nutrition and the color of foods and how that can really impact our health.
Deanna Minich:
Now, it'll be great you know, there's so much to be saying about it. And everybody's out there talking about all the different trends and people have a lot of questions you know, how did something so basic to our survival become so incredibly complicated? So I hope that we can make it artful, simplistic. I can inspiring.
Dr. Andrew Wong:
It's a nice black blank canvas to to work on with all the colors here today. Let's talk real basic first and kind of more personal question What motivated you Deanna to become a functional medicine practitioner and nutritionist.
Deanna Minich:
So I would say if we go all the way back into my, my upbringing, it would be my mother. So when I was about eight or nine years old, my mother really got into health and healing. And at that time, it really wasn't the trend. It was she was kind of a health nut. And I resisted against that. But I always liked science. So I thought I would go into medical school. And what I ended up doing was I was a biology major, but I went into studying nutrition and grad school. So I have a master's and then I have a PhD in medical science. So there was something that turned for me in terms of really looking at, perhaps my mom was right, because I was working with a number of medical doctors. And so I would intern over the summers, and I would see how unsatisfying it was that there really were no solutions. And I was thinking, well, maybe nutrition really is something that I need to be looking at. And then I started to have my own personal issues that I thought, Well, perhaps I need to start looking at food. So what led me to functional medicine was actually I started working, I started moonlighting in a practice with a psychiatrist and a chiropractic physician. I was the nutritionist while I had my full time job. And I came across this company by the name of metagenics, started using their products with patients. And somebody said, You need to go to this seminar by Dr. Jeffrey bland. And I said, Okay, you know, I'll go and he seems to be connected to metagenics, while I went to go see that seminar, and I decided I need to be working with Jeff bland. So I am Jeff bland, by the way, just for everybody's knowing he's the father of functional medicine. That's how he's referred to. So he and his wife, Susan, are the originators of the Institute for Functional Medicine, which certified you and me. So
Dr. Andrew Wong:
they're no longer yet to think. Yeah.
Deanna Minich:
So I went right to the store. So you talked about root cause I went right to the source. And I worked with Dr. Bland for about 10 years at metagenics. I worked in the research and development department. As part of that r&d group. They also had a clinic. So I was a clinician, and as part of that, I became certified through the Institute for Functional Medicine. And now I'm actually I've been teaching for the Institute for Functional Medicine for some years, I teach environmental health. So that's how I landed into functional medicine. I was it started with my mom.
Dr. Andrew Wong:
Well, yes. And I think for me, too, it also started with with my mom, she was really into organic foods, and, you know, not not always listening to the doctor in terms of like telling, telling her kind of what to do. And she helped a lot of her, you know, health issues too. And then that kind of rubbed off on myself and and my sister too. But I would say that yeah, I mean, the root cause and going back to that, that's incredible. Got to work. Dr. Bland, and it sounds like you learned a lot there. And then how did you get into color? You know, what was how was how did you get into color in terms of the focus of your of your practice?
Deanna Minich:
So while I was in an undergraduate school, and I was studying and had all of my science classes, I began taking yoga. You know, at 19, I took my first yoga class, and I really got turned on to ancient traditions while I was studying science. So I had learned about the chakras that I had learned about different healing modalities, Ayurveda traditional Chinese medicine. And I became really curious because I felt at some point that science had its limitations. Science is a method. Science is a way that we discover and uncover, rather than looking at it as a way to just wrap her arms around it and implement it. You know, there's another piece of that that was missing for me, which was more of the esoteric. So I would say that, throughout my healing journey in my 20s, I had endometriosis, I had irritable bowel syndrome, a lot of gynecological and gastrointestinal issues. And I had tried so many things being that I knew about science, I knew about different healing traditions, I would revert back to yoga and as part of the yogic tradition, really keying into these colors, and how they correlate with our body. And that would be codified by the chakra system, but in my Western mind and my training that was telling me oh, that's the endocrine system. That's the adrenal glands, the ovaries, the testes, the pancreas, the heart, the thyroid, the pituitary, pineal gland. So I started to make the connection and not see them as chakras, per se, but to see them as, Wow, there are these very active centers within us and I was really engaged with endocrinology, I had a lot of my own hormonal issues. So the way I got to color was through all of this study, as I had these health issues and explored so many different things. The I would say that the key that unlock the doorway completely for healing for me, was to start making colorful art. And there was this period of my life, it was my late 20s, where, all of a sudden, even though I was living in this very depressed, stressed time of my life, I was finishing my doctoral research, which was very stressful, lots of work hours, I started painting, and I started painting and really bright colors. There was nothing intellectual at all about the whole process, but I would put these paintings up in my room, I would look at them. And every time I was stressed, I would start painting bright colors. So I don't know, I don't know what actually connected that dot for me, I know that during my master's degree, I studied karate noids. So Carotenoids are plant pigments that are colorful. I don't think that that was responsible for me tapping into color, per se, but I had become aware of the colors of food and the colors in my life. And I started to realize that maybe color is like a nutrient for me, maybe it's something that I need, I need to look at the colors, I'm wearing the colors, I surround myself in the colors that, you know, I see my environment, we see a red stop sign, we think to stop, we react. And then I would think in my Western more, I would say biochemical mind that we think of inflammation in the color red. So I started to make these interconnections with color across psychology and physiology. Until I eventually wrote a number of books. One of them is called the rainbow diet. And really seeing that when we say eat the rainbow, there's a lot of science underneath that it's not just a simplistic childlike phrase. It's very much I would say Earth in scientific research. So I love that color wasn't a straight and narrow path. It was kind of wind and
Dr. Andrew Wong:
will definitely highlight your your, you know, Facebook, Instagram, social media, etc. At the end here, but you definitely make the most beautiful post about about different foods and how they relate to the chakras and then the science behind the two, I think that they're they're really great. So we can talk about that and a bit. But the other thing that you mentioned was like integrating that Mind, Body Spirit, integrating the science with the intuition, it sounds like we really need it all, too. We do need
Deanna Minich:
it all. You know, we are people with many different layers. As you know, you're an interesting integrative MD, you know, your, your focal point is vast. So you understand this physical, emotional, mental, energetic, spiritual. And sometimes physical methods will heal somebody, if we just focus on nutrition like I did throughout my career as a nutrition scientist, I did see that many people did resolve issues. There were some However, that did not resolve their issues. And I realized, I need to look in other areas, maybe there's an emotional connection to their physical issue. There's a thinking connection, you know, the power of the mind, why do we have placebos and studies because of the power of the mind. And if we don't account for that, then it's a huge, you know, it's an oversight. So it tells us how powerful our mind is our thoughts, our beliefs, our values, our perspectives, if we can change our perspective on life, it can shift so many things even down to our biochemistry.
Dr. Andrew Wong:
The other thing is we've had I've had physicians on here, doctors here can call so I'm not sure if you know her she's an MD and she does a lot of writing and teaching about our Veda and she was teaching me on our podcast about how how really our Veda is a science yes life right so there's there's the intuition and there's you know, different energetic pieces and then there's the science and they even I even was really blown away by how they even did in the Ayurvedic textbooks the ancient textbook, they even talked about surgery you know, if there's like that gets to that point, they start talking about sort of a almost a more allopathic type of approach that was very vast so you can kind of see that that intuition and science are really integrated. But what does color mean and our foods so when we're picking up a berry or you know, I guess you know, eating a piece of of nice kale or broccoli, let's say are some of those what is that? What is that what's happening? In our in our mind, body spirit? What does that really mean for us when we when we activate an access color in our food?
Deanna Minich:
Well, first of all, just looking at the food, it could look beautiful, right? Most people are eating brown, yellow and white foods, which I would say would be very bland, lackluster, it would be life draining looks burnt out, it doesn't quite have that vitality, we can look at a plate of food and say, Wow, that's really going to feed me on many levels. And it starts with our eyes, I really do think that there's that point of like, we have to engage with the art of food, we have to engage with that sense of being creative. Now, from a science perspective, each of those colors, for the most part, are correlated with certain plant compounds. Many of them have antioxidant activity, many of them are anti inflammatory. Many of them are helping ourselves to better adjust to our environments. So we can go through each of the colors, and I can talk about some sample foods we can talk about, you know, I don't think people need to know all the names of the compounds that what makes those colors. But I do think that there's a color code, I think that red foods are for certain things, orange foods or for other things, you know, we can kind of talk about how the entire rainbow of food is important. If we're missing a color, which many people tend to miss colors like blue, purple, you might be missing optional signature of that food.
Dr. Andrew Wong:
And you've created the Deanna the seven systems of health. So does that go along with the bear it is all right, beautiful.
Deanna Minich:
And everybody can download this, I have it as a free PDF on my website, you can just download it. This is my operating system. This is how I teach no matter who I'm teaching at whatever level of medical doctors to to people without a medical degree. So really, when we're going to go through each of these colors, we're going to talk about the color. We're going to talk about the body system, and we're going to talk about the food as we go through. There are many other levels. So I have a practitioner training course where I teach them about how to assess where we have imbalances and those respective systems. But I think for everybody listening, what they want to know is okay, tell me about the color. Tell me about the foods tell me about the benefits, so we can go through that.
Dr. Andrew Wong:
Great. Let's take a deep dive into that now. That'd be great. Where do you do you like to start at the well unless unless we want to talk about I think that's a great place to start anyway. Do you do you normally start when you teach with, with with people about starting from the top down or bottom up on terms of the chakras?
Deanna Minich:
That's a good question. I usually start bottom up because the adrenal glands are so pivotal for our physical existence, our sense of safety, stability, whether or not we're surviving in a healthy way, it's kind of like there's a triangle Maslow's hierarchy of needs. If we look at the bottom, it's the the largest base, which is our physical needs. So I start with physical because we are physical. And dressed that
Dr. Andrew Wong:
way. Let's go with red. Let's go.
Deanna Minich:
Dive in. I just had an inkling to ask you a question because this is how I work with. So I do groups now I do retreats. And one of the questions I asked everybody and I'm going to ask you this is what is your favorite color right now? Just because it might change. So I'm gonna ask you now what is your favorite color?
Dr. Andrew Wong:
Yes. I'm thinking I'm thinking blue. Even though I wear a red shirt today. I actually had my blue shirt on earlier. And I was like, I'm going to change it. I'm going to change it to red here. So yeah, yeah, I would say I would say blue, which is, which has kind of been my historical favorite color. I do think about sort of, it does offer a sense of safety and stability for me. And if you know about TCM I'm more of a water element person. So I like the beach, I grew up, I grew up near the beach, you know, like I like blue. And then and then I guess you know, in terms of foods, I'm into blueberries. So I would say I would say blue. Red, red would be kind of in that in that secondary mix for me. But I know you were were saying what is one favorite color? So we'll go with blue?
Deanna Minich:
Well, no, it's great. And I'm laughing a bit because I tune into people as a color. So as you were talking as we were getting to know each other, I'm feeling oh, he's blue. He is so blue. He's like, but yeah, you're wearing the red shirt, it doesn't mean that the color we like is always the color we wear. And you know, I kind of looked at my wardrobe as a way of like, okay, what color do I need today? And I consciously thought it before this podcast, what's the color and I chose purple? I know you probably can't see.
Dr. Andrew Wong:
Okay, yeah, there's a little bit.
Deanna Minich:
I thought, okay, there's something about purple I need to bring to this group. So we're at the opposite ends of the spectrum. We're covering it all. Awesome. Great. All right, so let's dive into the color red. So red is the color of urgency emergency, it's about inflammation reactivity. When we look at Red foods in nature, they stand out, don't they? It's like they get our attention. So the small berries and typically, you know, we look at Red foods as being helpful with antioxidant response, anti inflammatory response, so they help the immune system. Now that's just generally it's not to say that orange foods or yellow foods don't do that, but Wed foods have a certain concentration of compounds that are specifically beneficial things like anthocyanins, lycopene, there are certain Hallmark ingredients that coincide with that. So I would say if you're feeling like you need to dampen inflammation, choosing more of those red foods, I think of cherries, cherries tart cherry juice, even Montmorency cherry juice, there are studies on cherries helping with oxidative stress. Cherries also contain a number of other things even like melatonin, you know, there are so many other things that foods contains. So in general, red is about reducing inflammation. Now the flip side of red foods is that some of them can actually cause inflammation that can cause redness. Let me give you an example. Histamine. Histamine is the compound that is liberated and more of an immune kind of inflammatory reaction in the body and it can make us itch. It can cause redness, it can cause hives, as you know. And some foods contain higher amounts of histamines. So things like strawberries could be histamine culprits. Some people are also sensitive to things like nightshade, which can be red, like chili peppers or tomatoes. So I just want to let people know that with red, it doesn't mean that all red foods count for reducing inflammation, there are some cases where certain foods can actually cause that inflammatory cascade in an individual. That's why we have to take a personalized approach with a practitioner so that we can be guided to that process of understanding what food is causing what and how is it reacting in our bodies. Makes sense? Okay, so that's red. The next color is orange. Now, this is the class of compounds that I studied a lot of in graduate school things like beta carotene, things like you. Many people haven't heard of this, but beta crypt is Xanthan, a lot of these orange colored carotenoids that are found in oranges, tangerines, persimmons, goodness, yams, carrots, the obvious a lot of these orange colored plant foods. Now the color orange seems to be connected, at least how I see it through a pattern with hormones, with progesterone with even ovulation and healthy fertility. And by the way, Andy, I do talk about all of this, if you want to reference I have a publication in the Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism, where I detail each of the colors and all of the studies. So if somebody wants to nerd out a bit and say, What is she talking about? I'd like to go deeper into that. How do orange foods relate to hormones that can go to that article in the Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism? And it's a pretty lengthy article, but it's a pretty I would say it's an easier read.
Dr. Andrew Wong:
Yeah, I think I've seen it. It's a really good article. Yeah. Okay.
Deanna Minich:
So there, there is more behind what I'm saying. But we're just doing kind of a top line.
Dr. Andrew Wong:
Do you remember what year it was published? Just so we can find them?
Deanna Minich:
That was published in 2019? I believe 2019. Okay. 20 It was 2020. But I believe it was 2019
Dr. Andrew Wong:
We'll find it and share it with with our audience. So
Deanna Minich:
the science of eating a rainbow it actually has that in the title so that so with orange foods. Now the key thing to remember with certain of the orange foods, you know, I think of them as circular, you know, things like the oranges and tangerines and peaches and even in some cases, Mango have a bit of those orange compounds. Many of those helpful compounds are water soluble. Some of them are fat soluble, so we need fat so things like carrots, if we're trying to get those orange compounds, we're gonna get them better if we add a little bit of fat together with that sweet potato or with those carrots, we need a little bit of fat in order to absorb those plant count pounds better.
Dr. Andrew Wong:
I have an orange question as well. Not not an orange fruit question but orange color question. I believe there's some carotenoids in hemp. Is that correct? Or no?
Deanna Minich:
There might be there might be a pretty pervasive in nature. There's a lot noids so some of them have a lot of color others you know, we basically have about 40 of them circulating in our blood we don't look at that and we there's no as you probably know, there's no really no adequate clinical tests to assess all of those carotenoids. So we really just have visibility into a handful but I'm sure that there could be some in hemp for sure when I think of hemp, I think of fatty acids and I think you know the Omega three omega six balance
Dr. Andrew Wong:
right, right, that makes a lot of sense. So and before we go to the next colors, do you have a favorite color was curious.
Deanna Minich:
Well, you know, I kind of feel so when people when I I asked this question of people, they'll say like, either they've had the same color all the time or that their color changes. And I've had the same color all the time. Like since I was seven, you know, I knew I love the color emerald green. I am just enamored with green. Emerald Green, not lime green, not grass. I'd like emerald green. It really resonates with me. It's like a forest.
Dr. Andrew Wong:
Did you watch the Wizard of Oz a lot as a kid? That's a nice movie. I think they have that emerald green. You know, the, what is that movie? Yeah.
Deanna Minich:
Chicago without a lot of trees. And from a very young age. I told myself and I told my parents I said, I'm moving. I'm moving to the West Coast. I'm going to the trees. I'm going to the forest. And currently I live in a forest
Dr. Andrew Wong:
there. Yeah, there you go. You knew when you were.
Deanna Minich:
So I had to follow the green? Yeah, yeah, I won't get into the green. And what that means I thought about green, it just was always green. So the next color is yellow. And there are some interesting studies on the color yellow. Many people like the color yellow, but they don't wear the color yellow, they might have their environment is yellow, because it's bright, it's cheerful. If you think of the smiley face icon that people have, I mean, it tends to be yellow like this son. So we have so since you're well versed in TCM, and my husband is an acupuncturist, so I've been well versed in TCM for some time, now we're talking about the fire element, and yellow correlates to the digestive tract, the seat of rotting and ripening and transformation through that heat exchange, but also the acid, right stomach acid, the yellow green color of bile, you know, we're breaking things down, things are kind of, you know, it's kind of messy. It's like a big bonfire is happening in the gut. And we want healthy amounts of that fire. But we don't want healthy amounts of fire where we get burned out, we get stressed so that we can't digest. So what do you want to say about in a traditional Chinese medicine point of view about fire? And be curious to hear your thoughts?
Dr. Andrew Wong:
Um, well, the first thing that came to mind we're talking about is ginger. Right, and you just haven't some, you know, ginger, and that's, that's a yellow color when you cut into that that's an interesting. Yeah, I mean, definitely that that just said chi, right, you just want to in TCM, of course, we think about, you know, the warming foods and kind of eating eating for the seasons. But also, we know that I think the stomach temperature is like 99 degrees Fahrenheit or something. So we don't want to have like super cold iced drinks, you know, now, now there's a bunch of bubble teas, and you know, all these like places popping up where you're drinking these ice cold, sugary drinks, and that's probably probably the worst thing you can do for your, for your digestive, you know, tea. So And certainly, seasonally, of course, there's probably, you know, eating seasonally would would make sense to sort of more eating more local produce, you know, colorful produce. Yeah, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts about about sort of the seasonal aspect. So, like in the fall and winter, if you're in Seattle, let's say and the crops are already harvested, like what do people eat in the winter for rainbow?
Deanna Minich:
Well, then we move to more like the root tuber type foods, right. And so food is going to be as bright and vibrant, but they will still have color in the summer. We need antioxidants from those plant foods because the sun can be great, but also very damaging, we tend to be more active in the summer. So we're producing more free radicals. So I think nature takes care of us when we follow those rhythms. So in the summer, having more of the fruits which have more of these vibrant antioxidants. Yes. And what we're also learning Andy is that a lot of these foods have compounds that are changing our circadian rhythms cycles actually changing certain parts of the brain that are responsible for overall coordination of the endocrine circuit. So for example, there have been studies with animals not as much with people, but they take animals and they try to mimic winter and summer through longer and shorter timeframes. They put the animals under these situations, they give them cherries, or they give them grapes. So grapes are fall fruit cherries are spring fruit. And essentially what the studies are showing is that if you feed a spring food during what would be like a winter period, you start to create metabolic dysfunction
Dr. Andrew Wong:
in those animals. Interesting. So interesting.
Deanna Minich:
Yeah. Being selected, you change a variety of these different hormones that are related to satiety. And one of the physicians I used to work with at the clinic. Dr. Jack Kornberg would say this to patients and maybe somebody will resonate with this. He said, When we eat foods that are produced In the summer, but we eat them in the winter, it's like telling our body that it's the summer into store fat. So if there does make a connection there between the food and metabolic cycle now, does that mean that you should never have an orange in the winter? No, but we wouldn't want to have that constant signal of an orange every day with oranges. If we can Florida, we don't live in a tropical area, it may not be best suited for our physiology. So I do think that seasons This is one of the things that I think traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurveda excel in is recognition and honoring and respecting the seasons. There's circannual rhythm, rather than just say, Oh, I'm just going to eat whatever I want, because it's available, really eating local and seasonal. That's better for us. The plants are signaling to our bodies what we most need,
Dr. Andrew Wong:
right? They're affecting our DNA. They're affecting our epigenetics. And that sounds like our circadian rhythm to I assume they would also affect the melatonin as well. Yeah,
Deanna Minich:
absolutely. In fact, I just got an article accepted on melatonin, melatonin IC is like the next vitamin D. Vitamin D is about sunlight. Melatonin is about darkness. And many people don't realize that they need darkness just like they need sunlight. And we seasonally we produce different amounts of melatonin in our bodies, just like we get different amounts of vitamin D. And I think that vitamin D is like young and melatonin like yeah, and yeah, yeah. Even the mitochondria, which is very young, because it produces a lot of these free radicals from metabolism. It's it has a high concentration of melatonin, the yin to quiet and get rid of those count pounds quickly. So again,
Dr. Andrew Wong:
that makes a lot of sense.
Deanna Minich:
Yeah, we need it. I'm so glad you bring up the seasons, because I just made a post on Facebook right before I logged on here about the rhythms and how important those seeds were just about to go into a different season to take note and ask farmers ask the local produce growers what is in season I order from a community supported agriculture type of Yeah, yeah. Right. So I can see what's in season. It's like, okay, fruit is is going out of season, it means you're coming in mushrooms are coming in, tubers are coming in. So I pay attention to that, because I do think that we're getting primed in our body signals by eating what is local and seasonal?
Dr. Andrew Wong:
And the more we connect with the earth, and we're in sync with the Earth, it's likely right. I think that what you're saying, Deanna, is that the greater, you know, our health will be to.
Deanna Minich:
Absolutely, absolutely. And another component of that is diversity. I think there's one of the I have these three messages, color, creativity and variety. What I have most seen clinically with people is that they get in food ruts, they eat the same thing every day, because it's easy, they don't have to think about it, they just buy big bags and boxes of things. But this is one of the worst things we can be doing because we don't have the diversity to fuel our gut microbiome diversity, which helps our immune system our mood, our cognition, so many different things as you know, right? So diversity is the name of the game when it comes to food which is why all the colors are important and then diversity through the year in order to get those different signals for the gut microbiome to protect you and to fortify your constitution.
Dr. Andrew Wong:
What if Costco had a variety pack? You know rainbow little bit of each one a day you know they could have seven days a week you know, red, orange, etc.
Deanna Minich:
Much better much better on to something but yeah, just fine. Plus it you know, food goes bad and we keep opening those those boxes and bags we let more oxygen in heat light and oxygen degrade food. So it's like we may have a lot of food but it may not be nutrient dense by the time we get to the bottom of that box. Yeah,
Dr. Andrew Wong:
that's a great point too. And then there's mold and all that stuff too. That could be happening with with some of the some of the fruits too well, so we've talked about yellow some and digestive fire and then let's go on to your your favorite color green or at least you know emerald green is your favorite color here.
Deanna Minich:
Well usually when I ask people there's no shortage of green that they're getting most people are eating green leafy vegetables like salad in some form. Or or whether it's or maybe they're doing cruciferous vegetables you know, green is everywhere. We live on a blue and green planet. So your color blue in my color green, you know we live on the right planet. Yes, and chlorophyll is what makes those plants green and chlorophyll is one of the most basic antioxidants. And when I teach on detoxification, I talk about how chlorophyll is an excellent binder. So it basically, it just sucks up and helps things to be carried out of the body. So having a spinach salad with a grilled, let's just say people eat a hamburger is better than not having the, the hamburger with the salad because the green chlorophyll will bind a lot of those carcinogens that are formed in that cooking process where we have too much fire. So green is the air element. Here we have the heart, we have the lungs, and they work in tandem with oxygenation circulation. And what's unique about these leafy greens is that they contain a number of nutrients that help our circulation. They contain what's called nitrates. Most people think of nitrates as a bad thing. But nature has its own form of nitrates that are healthy. And those nitrates when they interact with our bacteria create nitric oxide, which allows to our blood vessels to open up and expand so we feel more relaxed, we have better blood pressure. So from that perspective, it's good and also vitamin K one, find low quinone, which is important for clotting. Then we also have magnesium, which is important for the heart, we have folate, which are very important for reducing homocysteine, which is a damaging acid for the vasculature. So overall, you know, green does a lot of different things. It's detoxifying, it's good for the circulation, it's good for expanding the heart, keeping things open. So you know, usually when people are having difficulty getting more color, they're eating brown, yellow, and white, I say, let's just focus on green, because you have so many choices, you have a number of things that you can choose from,
Dr. Andrew Wong:
although would you say that you know, Iceberg lettuce versus a nice dark swiss chard or something? Is there a difference there in the color of green? In terms of antioxidant capacity?
Deanna Minich:
Yes, you're onto something there, the deeper the hue, typically the more concentrated the pigment. So if you have iceberg, it's going to be very light on the chlorophyll. Whereas if you have a rubeola, spinach is very deep. But I would say to rotate, you know, I have grown to have a better appreciation of lettuces, there was a scientific review on all the different kinds of lettuces, and I never realized that there were so many. But if we pay attention seasonally, we'll see some of these different ones coming through. Now one of the things that I've learned from this as well is that some of the lettuces which are a little bit brown, or reddish, so not ridiculous, not where it's completely kind of that magenta color, but more of like, you know, it's, you know, a combination of green and kind of a purplish Brown. Okay, those are very nutrient dense. So make sure when you see those types of lettuces that you get those because you're going to get more complexity of phytonutrients not just the chlorophyll now you have some of the purplish ones, which are good for the brain.
Dr. Andrew Wong:
I like chard because it's dark green, but then you especially if you get it from a CSA or like an organic market there. I think the stem is like all yellow or orange or magenta, there's so many different it's a rainbow. Yeah, all the different little stems there are super colorful,
Deanna Minich:
they are and you know chart is great for making a rap. So to make a rap without using like a tortilla or grain. It's a wonderful way just you know, it's very thick and sturdy. So if I cut off the stem, use that to roll whatever I want inside and then use the stem, cut it up in small pieces and sprinkle it as a garnish on a salad or in a soup. So you will be getting different nutrients in the stem. Those different are like different nutrients. And we don't want to just toss those stems away. Yeah, you repurposed on as I'm describing it a little bit more of a way to
Dr. Andrew Wong:
Yeah, yeah, that's a good, that's a great tip for that for the chard stems. Great. Well, we can go on to I had a question, but I'll try to remember it in a minute. About about green. Yeah, so So I mean, it sounds like we we need to eat more greens for a variety of reasons that the dietary nitrates as you were saying, and it's so good for heart and has all these different, different compounds in it. And also, we even think about you know, if people eat like fish, for instance, right, the fish are getting those, those beneficial omega three fatty acids from the algae, right from the green. So so in a way a lot of those health benefits are from the greens as well.
Deanna Minich:
You know, and I want to speak to that just for a second because some people are asking me about the carnivore diet doesn't have a lot of plants in it by Way of the ANA, I mean, we all you just identified something that is really key, which is, all of these life forms are really starting even from very simple selves, ways of nourishment, so the LG that are feeding the fish that we are getting the benefit of, because the fish consume the algae. Now the closer we can get to the plant, we will get more of those compounds. But I don't adhere to any dogma that people need to be a vegan or keto paleo carnivore or whatever. I think we are still all connected through plants. Because most life forms, you know, when I went to Africa on safari to see those elephants, eating plants, giraffes eating plants, I mean, the stature but then seeing the lions and the Tigers eating meat, I mean, they're all still connected through that ecosystem through AI, as I see it anyway, through the conduit of getting all those plants in different varieties.
Dr. Andrew Wong:
Sure, well, that that makes a lot of sense. Because even though the the plant eaters for those animals and the meat eaters that eat those, they're still getting directly or indirectly. Great. Well, we so we talked about green. Yeah, that's another really great color, like you said, Blue Green Planet. We're living on the red planet here. And then there's that combo blue green, which I think is an amazing color, I guess would would that be almost like a turquoise That almost seems like a turquoise to me, that
Deanna Minich:
marine or blue green, and there aren't blue green foods technically. So the way that I talk about this area, which is more of the thyroid, is I think about seed plants, not seaweed, but seed plants, which would be for the most part, green plants growing in the blue sea. And the sea plants, which are commonly I would say, much more used in cultures that are in Asia. So Japan, I've been to Taiwan, there's much more in the way of more sea plants that are taken in. In the United States. We don't need to say plants as much, but they do contain beneficial minerals that could help with thyroid function. And if we're not getting those from sea plants, although now we see those little snacks, right, like the pressed seat snacks. Yeah, yes. A little bit of salts, right. You know, in terms of, do we get any appreciable amount from that? I think it's better than not having it. Yeah. But yes, that's that's kind of how I see I do like to experiment in the fall and winter months, by having a lot of these different sea plants like Aaron a dulce and Nori, and I add them into soups, and broths in order to create these more mineral rich type of substances, very good for nourishing our chi.
Dr. Andrew Wong:
Great. And speaking of this particular you know, the basically the throat chakra, correct? This is the Yeah, and I think you haven't website to Deanna Minich:.com. But there's this idea of, I think creativity expressions of someone is not, if someone feels like their expression is blocked or something, then this is a good foods to eat, it sounds like to stimulate.
Deanna Minich:
Well, yeah, and I think that this part of us like this whole neck, mouth, you know, this whole interface, it's all about how we eat. And some people eat really quick, they don't have a sense of the mindfulness of eating, the house feeding is just as important as the what of eating. So when we get to this part, I tend to think about how, how do we integrate food into our being? Is it rapid? Is it slow? What time are we eating, you know, all of those factors that surround the what are just as important, the why of eating the when of eating the how of eating?
Dr. Andrew Wong:
So I have to ask you this, Dan about and how many? Because I know we talked about them? IFM how many choose per bite? Do you recommend for someone to try to be all, you know, active in this area in a in a slow way in a deep way?
Deanna Minich:
I know that people have said different things like 50 bytes per food, but you know, I think that if we stay in our head and we're always counting, yeah. Oh, it can be just I call it analysis paralysis.
Dr. Andrew Wong:
I agree with that. Yeah, 50 is too much, by the way. So I was
Deanna Minich:
just saying until it becomes a little bit liquid so that you know, what you're really wanting to happen is that the saliva is produced in the mouth so that the saliva can interact with the food instruct to digest it to make your stuff.
Dr. Andrew Wong:
I was actually hoping you answered the way you did without a number. So thank you. Oh, I
Deanna Minich:
mean, I'll just tell you what, but I don't I never I never have people count calories. I never had people count choose. I say count colors if you're gonna count anything.
Dr. Andrew Wong:
Okay. All right. Well, we're on to number six, which is Indigo here. I believe.
Deanna Minich:
This is yes, this is blue, purple. And I put the two together because they're There's a lot of overlap. And I even include black into this. Because, gosh, you know, black is an amazing color. In nature, we think of choke berries, this is the time of the year, at least in the Pacific Northwest that we have blackberries, they're all over my street. And it's like, wow, Polly fino alert these massive compounds that are gonna help my brain my, you're helping my brain through my gut. So, blueberries, sorry, you're pulling out your indigo color thermos there, that's great. So, blueberries, all of the berries, the smaller the food, just like you, you pointed out how the deeper the hue of those leads of green, I would say the smaller the berry, the more therapeutic and the more concentrated those plant compounds. And if you had the choice, let's just say that you were at the market and you saw blackberries or blueberries, I take the blackberries. It'll give me more nutrition. Now to say I would never take the blueberries because again, diversity is important. But if I was stranded on a desert island, I would say I want the blackberries, I'm going to get more fiber because each of those little sections of the plant, if you were to take out those skins that's fiber, and deeper the hue having black versus the blue, okay, more pigment, which means more protection, more poly phenols. So in this is the time of the year, this August September range where Polyphenols are in absolute bloom in nature, because we need the protection before we go into the winter months. Right? It's kind of like now we are we're priming our physiology to go into hibernation to give us the best of nutrition.
Dr. Andrew Wong:
So we have one more and then I think we want to make sure we get to some of the top tips that you have your data to incorporate more color into the diet. But the last one here is I think one of the most important really is this lavender white color. I think that's such a beautiful, just image of this lavender and white color, which kind of I think represents spirit. Correct?
Deanna Minich:
Yes, so white. So I sometimes that portrayed as lavender because it's difficult to show white in a graphic form. But really, we're talking about white, which represents a number of things. When I was growing up, my mom would say the whiter the bread, the quicker you're dead. So let's not eat any white foods, no white salt, no white sugar, no white flour, no white bread at all, even though at school, that's what all the kids were eating was white bread wonderbread right, I couldn't have done that. And it traumatized me I was like I want to eat like everybody else. And she's like now you don't I'm White can mean it circled around later and like for me to realize that there are healthy white foods there are certain foods that are white like poly flour and coconut and sesame seeds, you know different things that we can bring garlic, you know, just any number of things that can be clarifying, purifying to the body. White also represents fasting. So you know how I talk to your with the throat, talked about how we eat. So with fasting fasting is a big thing right now. So having clearance and in the spiritual in a variety of spiritual traditions, many times fasting is brought in as a practice whether there's a certain duration of fasting, in order to remove ourselves from our physical nature and get clarity on our maybe our purpose, our mission, our sense of connection to something greater. So the white is almost like a blank slate clearance, no food. So but of course, you know, all of this has to be done under the guidance of a practitioner, but I wanted to accommodate the rainbow or also holding space for not having anything physical. And from that white light. As we know going through a prism we do get the spectrum of colors. So that white up at the top kind of like our pineal gland which is receptive to light and no light really connecting Ben into this cascade of all of the different colors and by the way, I just want to say that tan and brown fit into the yellow. So typically the way I see and also sometimes I put certain foods like cocoa and coffee and tea up into the blue purple block because of the different compounds but the fibrous brown foods like you were asking about hemp seed and flax seed and any kind of I would say carbohydrate fibrous foods would go into the yellow
Dr. Andrew Wong:
part into the yellow okay,
Deanna Minich:
yes, there we focus on fibers and digestion.
Dr. Andrew Wong:
Well thank you Deanna for this amazing tour through the rainbow of colorful foods and and, and even you know practices like fast saying are, you know, chewing our food better, etc. It sounds like it's about what we eat. It's probably also about how we eat and why we eat and who eat with and all of that, you know, it's all incorporated. What is one thing that you wish everyone knew about eating whole colorful foods? I think just just to wrap up this part of things, kind of what are your top tips for incorporating more color into our into our diets?
Deanna Minich:
Perfect. So number one, I would say that most people don't realize that eating colorful foods can create colorful moods. Often people think, Oh, I'm just going to reduce my risk for disease. And you know, that just doesn't seem so warm and fuzzy. But if you knew that you could have less depression, less anxiety, and actually a better quality of life, more creativity, more curiosity overall, wouldn't you want that? You know, and so there's a mood food connection. That's what most people do not know about colors of food, make for colorful moods, and I have on my site, it's just free for everybody. You can track colors of food and colors of mood. And I describe what all the colors of the mood are. And then you would just track and then you see if there's a pattern for you.
Dr. Andrew Wong:
That's awesome. That's a big game changer. Well, we have a fun closing question for you Deanna as a nutritionist, author, lecturer. We would love to know what your typical day of eating looks like.
Deanna Minich:
It's variable. Right?
Dr. Andrew Wong:
Right. Right. So it's not typical at odds.
Deanna Minich:
You're away from those ruts for the all the reasons I mentioned, but let me just tell you this. So how I eat is not I would say how other people need to eat. I'm a breakfast eater, though. Like I, I come out, and I really do want a large breakfast. I feel like my body rhythm works about well with big breakfast, medium lunch, and hardly any dinner. Hardly any dinner. So what I do is I aim for the rainbow in its entirety. I make it for my husband and I before we go into our work days, I focus on getting the rainbow and really sitting into that meal, almost like a meditation. You know, my husband and I we kind of talked about like, what is our day like, you know, I try to have that restful repose before we get into the day. And I know not everybody can do that. Because you know, they've got to get kids off to school but that's just my preference. My rhythm is Rainbow for staying on a bed and creating my tent because how I start my day will often be what I have found for myself will be how I feel and how I move throughout the rest of the day.
Dr. Andrew Wong:
Does that rainbow include any teas or beverages? Anything like that?
Deanna Minich:
Yes, it does. I'm drinking green tea right now. I do do coffee black coffee. A very good conscious coffee that doesn't have toxins and has been tested. So yes, I start my day with so late. I don't know if you know what that is. But it's a supersaturated pink Himalayan salt solution to take into water. Just have water just kind of like set my my overall.
Dr. Andrew Wong:
Check that out. Also check yes.
Deanna Minich:
So lay out II. Okay. And then I move into making my meal.
Dr. Andrew Wong:
Great. Well, thank you so much, Deana, for coming on today and the convention. Deana how can listeners learn more about you and and work with you or learn about your books and your your programs and everything that helped help people eat more color and get healthier and more vibrant?
Deanna Minich:
Yeah, I would say everything is on my website. I just have a one stop shop portal where people can find me through Facebook, Instagram. I have a variety of pages. I do online teaching groups. I'm doing a retreat at the Omega Institute. Nice month in September it sounds and hormones. Oh, that's great. It's Deanna Minich:.com, te A and N A mi n IC h.com. If people want to go and check it out, I do have a tab that says resources. And under Resources, it'll say downloads. There are a bunch of free downloads, like eat the rainbow shopping list, eat the rainbow tracker. I mean, people can just help themselves to whatever they'd like there.
Dr. Andrew Wong:
Yes. And I think speaking of eat the rainbow, if someone's listening to this and kind of maybe shopping at the grocery store, as you're listening to this, definitely go through that produce aisle and go through those live foods right? Because that's going to make us more alive too. Absolutely. Thank you so much, Deanna, for coming on today. It's so great to chat with you here and chat all about the colors and I feel more colorful already just from from this hour here.
Deanna Minich:
It's been fine. Thank you so much for the invite.
Dr. Andrew Wong:
Thank you. Thank you for taking the time to listen to us today. If you enjoyed this conversation, please take a moment to leave us a review. It helps our podcasts to reach more listeners. Don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss our next episodes and conversations. And thank you so much again for being with us.