As we get older, many of us begin to notice changes in our gut health. Foods we once enjoyed now leave us feeling bloated, uncomfortable, and sluggish. Our digestion slows down, our energy drops, and even a small meal can leave us feeling like we just finished Thanksgiving dinner! And for many women, one of the most frustrating changes is struggling to lose weight, even when we're eating healthy and staying active.
We often blame these changes on aging or hormonal changes. While both can play a role, what if there's more to the story?
What if the real key to understanding these changes lies in something we often overlook - our unique biology and what's happening inside our gut?
Let’s jump into diet (i.e., what you eat). When it comes to integrative/ functional medicine it’s all about personalized care focused on bio-individuality and root cause. Bio-individuality is foundational and looks at your genetic potential as well as your lifestyle, diet, mind-body-spirit, life experiences including trauma, etc. to provide whole-person care that addresses the root cause.
Bio-Individual Eating Patterns
Relative to diets that support nutritional intake for optimal energy production and health, eating based on your blood type is a theory that some use. Why? Because it is believed that blood type has a major influence on your metabolism, digestive processes, detox processes, etc. and blood types have variations in nutrient optimization. Within the functional health space, there is another pattern of eating theory which focuses on your metabolic type.
Metabolic Typing Diet
What is it? The Metabolic Typing Diet is an alternative to standard nutrition approaches and focuses on matching your diet (what you eat) to meet your genetic requirements and nervous system disposition. Metabolism is how your individual cells produce energy (i.e., fuel) from the foods (i.e., micronutrients and micronutrients) you eat to support your body systems for life – respiration, circulation, tissue repair, growth, reproduction, digestion, etc. Another aspect of metabolism is how fast your cells burn the fuel it produces, which is called oxidation.
What’s the benefit? Although there have been no clinical research studies performed on eating according to your metabolic type, those who have adopted this way of eating have found it to be supportive to digestion and detoxification, energy production, weight loss/ maintenance, provides better sense of fullness (satiety), and more.
How does it work? The Metabolic Typing Diet assessment identifies your rate of oxidation (i.e., breaking down of food for the purpose of producing energy) - fast oxidizers require slow burning fuel (a diet higher in protein and fats) or slow oxidizers require fast burning fuel (a diet higher in complex carbohydrates). In addition to this, it also identifies your nervous system dominance (autonomic nervous system) – sympathetic dominance (fight or flight disposition) or parasympathetic dominance (rest & digest disposition) since this also influences your digestion for metabolism to occur. Once your profile is identified, the food types supportive to your unique system and the micronutrients (proteins, carbs, and fats) are defined to match with your metabolic type.
At this point, you might be asking “How can I find out my metabolic type?”. Your metabolic typing can be identified through a feed-based online assessment. In lieu of an assessment, some simple tips to figure out what foods work for you is paying attention to how your stomach feels after eating certain foods, discerning if you have a healthy sense of fullness (satiety) and how long it lasts after eating a meal of snack, monitoring your energy and activity level after eating, and determining if you’re having healthy bowel movements (in a perfect world it should be 3 times a day (one after every meal). Note: If you have sweet cravings, it’s likely NOT related to your metabolic type but more so your gut microbiota, nutrient deficiency, and blood sugar level.
Conclusion
Three book recommendations to learn more about alternative nutrition approaches are The Metabolic Typing Diet by William L. Wilcott and Trish Fahey, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston Price, and Eat For Your Blood Type by Dr. Peter J. D’Adamo. Contact us to find out more about the metabolic typing and take the assessment to find out your type.
