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Phytonutrients: the Key to Your Health

With: Dr. Deanna Minich

About the Episode

Get more varied micronutrients by eating the rainbow!

Join nutrition researcher, educator, and functional medicine-trained clinician, Dr. Deanna Minich, as she shares her unique approach to nutrition that combines physiology and psychology. She discusses the importance of phytonutrients, the impact of organic farming on micronutrients, and how you can detox from the inside out.

Start listening and add color to your meals!

What We Discuss

If you only eat monochromatic foods, you start missing nutrient density. That’s why Dr. Deanna suggests “eating the rainbow.” While creating this approach, Dr. Deanna looked for what was tried and true, scientific, sustainable, and artful to the large majority of people that could have the greatest impact on their lives.

When most people think of nutrition, they think in terms of protein, carbohydrates, and fat. Unfortunately, because so much energy in the nutrition space is focused on those three macronutrients, there’s much less information on plant-based phytonutrients. Phytonutrients don’t have calories but work in the body in a variety of different ways that are critical to optimal health. There’s an entire phytonutrient family tree that includes carotenoids, flavonoids, alkaloids, and so many others. Within the carotenoid family, you have over 700 different compounds, even if most people think only of carrots and beta-keratin.

Make It Manageable, Meaningful, and Effective

If the best you can do is make a small change or add something in, that’s better than doing nothing at all. However, Dr. Deanna warns about concentrated plant powders, since the process concentrates whatever else is in that plant, including pesticides. Additionally, many of those powders don’t have the complexities nature provides because they are human-made.

Many studies show different results on whether nutrient content varies between organically grown and conventionally grown produce. Pesticides, herbicides, and insecticides can displace some of the nutrient content, but many variables are at play.

Balance the Microbiome

Any toxins in our food, air, and water will infiltrate our bodies. Still, science shows that having better nutrient reserves can offset the inflammatory cascade, oxidative stress, and the DNA damage caused by those toxins. So we might not be able to control what’s on the outside, but we can control what stays inside.

Sweating has shown to be incredibly good for flushing heavy metals from the body, which is another good reason to exercise and hit the sauna. Eating organic foods also helps us avoid and release man-made toxins from pesticides, herbicides, and heavy metals. It also ensures we’re getting microorganisms critical for a balanced microbiome.

Start stocking up your micronutrients with Dr. Deanna Minich and optimize your diet today!

Guest Bio

Dr. Deanna Minich is a nutrition researcher, educator, and functional medicine-trained clinician with a unique approach to nutrition that combines physiology and psychology. She has served on the Institute of Functional Medicine’s Nutrition Advisory Board and curriculum committee, in addition to being a faculty member, teaching nutrition for the Advanced Practice Module for Environmental Health. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the American Nutrition Association and is President of the American College of Nutrition.

Her academic background is in nutritional science, including a Master’s Degree in Human Nutrition and Dietetics from the University of Illinois at Chicago (1995), and a Ph.D. in Medical Sciences (Nutrition) from the University of Groningen in The Netherlands (1999). In conjunction with her academic degrees and extensive teaching experience at the university level, she is a Fellow of the American College of Nutrition and a Certified Nutrition Specialist.

Dr. Minich has over twenty years of experience working in both the food and dietary supplement industries, is the Vice President of Scientific Affairs for Organic India, serves as advisor to various food, academic and health organizations, and has more than forty published scientific articles in journals such as Nutrients, Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism, and Nutrition Reviews. She teaches for the graduate program (MS) in Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine at the University of Western States. She is the author of six books on nutrition, wellness, and psychology, and is passionate in helping others to live well using therapeutic lifestyle changes.