The acronym of the Standard American Diet provides a pretty good description of what it does to our bodies and how it makes us feel: SAD. Scientific studies show it promotes inflammation, works against our microbiome, could be exacerbating mental illness and cognitive decline, and could certainly shorten our lives. Enter Julia Nordgren, pediatrician and graduate of The Culinary Institute of America. In the 12 fascinating lessons of Eat for Your Health: Simple Science and Fantastic Flavor, Dr. Nordgren will bust the myths the food industry has been propagating, explain the truth about how nutrients work in the human body, and teach the basic cooking skills that will allow you to create healthy and delicious meals in your kitchen at home.
Eat for Your Health: Simple Science and Fantastic Flavor
Learn the basic nutritional science that can help you make better food choices and apply your newfound knowledge in your own kitchen.
Overview
About
Dr. Julia Nordgren is a Clinical Instructor of Pediatrics at Stanford Medicine. She earned her MD from Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine and is board certified in Pediatrics. She is also a graduate of The Culinary Institute of America (CIA). She shares her unique expertise in food and health with patients in her medical practice and medical students at Stanford, where she teaches culinary medicine. She speaks regularly at the prestigious Healthy Kitchens, Healthy Lives conference, presented by the CIA and the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. She also authored the cookbook The New Family Table.
Trailer
01: Simple Science, Fantastic Flavor
Explore the world of fast food—right in your own kitchen. Learn to create a quick and flavorful burrito buffet with grains, beans, veggies, fruits, chicken, and crema. As you watch your expert prepare all parts of the buffet, you’ll be surprised how easily it all comes together. Even if you’re a novice cook, you’ll develop the confidence you need to create this beautiful spread in your own home.
33 min
02: Heart-Healthy Foods for the Family
Learn how to interpret your cholesterol blood levels—low-density lipoproteins, high-density lipoproteins, and triglycerides. You’ll discover how the three are related to the production of plaque that can clog your arteries, leading to heart disease. And you’ll be surprised to learn about some higher-fat foods that can work to improve your heart health.
38 min
03: Eating to Reduce Inflammation
Your cholesterol numbers do not tell the whole story. Discover other factors that contribute to your risk of heart disease, especially the role played by chronic inflammation. Explore how your dietary patterns can reduce inflammation and heart risk and watch Dr. Nordgren prepare a delicious anti-inflammatory dinner.
34 min
04: Eat, Sleep, and Be Merry
Humans need consistent sleep, uninterrupted, night after night, to be mentally clear and physically fit. Learn about the relationship between sleep deprivation and weight gain, the role of caffeine, sleep-friendly foods, and obesity and sleep complications. You don’t have to give up coffee; but when the science is so clear, you’ll want to give yourself the best possible chance for the best night sleep.
40 min
05: Breakfast and the Sugar Spike
Have you ever had that mid-morning “crash,” when you want nothing more than to take a nap at your desk? That’s what comes after a breakfast full of refined carbohydrates. Learn about the glycemic index, glycemic load, and how to make a delicious breakfast that will give you a slow rise of energy throughout the morning.
30 min
06: Understanding the Science of Sweetness
Brain scans show that sugar acts on the same reward pathways as drugs like heroin or cocaine. In response, the food industry has created highly processed foods with the excess sugar we crave, leading to increased inflammation, oxidative stress, and the parallel epidemics of obesity and diabetes. Learn about the different types of sugars and how natural sweetness can bring its own health benefits.
38 min
07: Mental Health and the Mind-Gut Connection
Is it possible that what and how we eat influence our moods and even mental health? Explore the gut-brain axis, the constant communication we are just beginning to understand. Learn the role our gut biota plays in this important communication, and about mindful eating and its potential positive effects on both mental and physical health.
33 min
08: Feeding Your Brain to Protect Your Memory
In addition to affecting mood, your food can also affect cognition, memory, and neuroplasticity. Learn how the Standard American Diet negatively affects the way brain cells communicate with one another, potentially leading to cognitive decline. Explore the Mediterranean diet, which the data show has a strong link to good health and longevity, and the MIND diet, which has shown a remarkable slowing of age-related cognitive decline.
37 min
09: How to Get the Protein You Need
Delve into the science of protein to understand the role it plays in the human body and to separate fact from marketing. While it’s true that proteins are vital for many bodily functions, it is not true that you must ingest the exact protein you need. Your body accesses your pool of amino acids to build the proteins it needs. And your best bet for making sure that pool has the amino acids you need? A very diverse diet of whole foods.
35 min
10: The Keto Diet and Low-Carb Eating
Explore the science behind the ketogenic diet and learn the difference between keto-friendly foods and the medical use of the state of ketosis. Strict adherence to this diet is extremely difficult and can even be risky. But it can be a good idea to incorporate keto-friendly foods into your own eating plan.
37 min
11: Amp Up Your Food Prep and Veggie Technique
Let’s face it, cooking takes time! There’s the shopping, prep, cooking, and cleanup. A huge industry has come up to sell us prepared foods instead—convenient foods that have taken a toll on our nation’s health. Learn three simple steps you can take to make cooking at home easier than you’d thought possible—and of course, healthier, too.
26 min
12: Build Flavor with Umami (with or without Meat)
What is the main reason we eat meat, even knowing that it isn’t good for us? Flavor, always the flavor. Meat is unique in that it offers a rich, earthy, salty taste experience called umami, the fifth basic taste in addition to sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. Explore how to capture umami from vegetables by using the “protein flip” concept in your cooking, using meat as a flavoring instead of the focus of the dish.
38 min
