10 Healthy Foods to Incorporate into your Diet Now According to a Holistic Nutritionist
If we were stranded on a desert island and only had access to ten essential foods to optimize our wellness, what would they be? Which foods would not only keep us alive but also help us avoid illness and make it easier to recover from injury, ensuring that we’re thriving when the rescue boat arrives? We asked veteran dietician, Lana Scales, MS, RD, CNSC, ACSM, EP-C to help us curate a list of the foods that make us thrive, whether we’re stuck on an island or, say, trying to stay healthy through a global pandemic.
Lana is a veteran Clinical Dietician and Nutrition Support Specialist and is currently the Acting Chief of Nutrition and Food Services at John D. Dingell VA Medical Center in Detroit, Michigan. She completed her Bachelor of Science in Sports medicine at the University of Detroit Mercy, Bachelor of Science in Dietetics from Madonna University, and Master of Science in Human Nutrition from Eastern Michigan University. Lana is certified by the American College of Sports Medicine as a Health & Fitness Specialist. She is also a private Nutrition Consultant who specializes in diabetes and gastrointestinal disorders. Every day, Lana sees patients suffering from the devastating effects of poor nutrition and aims to help us make good choices now, to save us that pain. She says, “In the end, food is either going to heal you or kill you.”
Here are our Clinical Dietician’s ten foods that will heal you:
1. Wild-Caught Salmon- is a great source of protein and Omega-3 fatty acid. Naturally-sourced means we don’t have to worry about mercury and other contaminates farm-raised fish often contain. Protein is critical for tissue repair as well as recovering from illness and injury. Non-fishy sources that provide this density of protein (including all the essential amino acids) include other lean meats, soy, quinoa, and amaranth seeds.
2. Nuts and Seeds- It’s no coincidence that when you split a walnut in half, it looks like a brain or lungs: walnuts are great for organ health, offering high levels of Omega-3 fatty acids. Why are fatty acids so important? They are necessary for cell repair, and since our body does not make then on its own, we need to obtain them from outside sources. However, not all fatty acids are created equal. All fat-containing foods have a combination of Omega-3’s (anti-inflammatory, naturally, safely blood thinning) and Omega-6’s (inflammatory, increase coagulation), so the healthiest fats are those with high Omega 3:Omega 6 ratio. Walnuts and flax seeds both have a fantastic Omega 3:Omega 6 ratio.
Macademia nuts and almonds are other fantastic sources of nut-rition, providing monosaturated fatty acids that are important for keeping our cholesterol levels balanced.
If we were stranded on a desert island without a multivitamin to maximize our health and prevent illness, Lana says seeds would be a great source for Calcium, Vitamin E, and Zinc. Specifically, sunflower, poppy, chia, hemp, pumpkin, and flax seeds. These can be eaten raw by the handful or as a crunchy addition to salad, ground into butters, or mixed into smoothies. Read preparation recommendations — some require certain care to maximize their nutritional and taste potential.
3. Brown Rice or Basmati Rice- Look for unprocessed, natural versions of these phenomenal carbohydrates. Carbs are broken down into glucose (blood sugar) via insulin from the pancreas, and glucose is what powers our brains, which is pretty important! Carbs get a bad rap because choosing the wrong kind of carbs, or eating too many means we overtax our pancreas, which leads to diabetes, and overuse our liver, which leads to carbs being stored as fat. We need to be selective about the carbs that we eat. If we limit our intake of heavy, starchy, sugar-dense carbs like dairy and gluten (wheat pastas, cereals, and breads), and instead choose fibrous carbs that come from the ground (fruits, vegetables, and simple grains like rice), we’re getting the same energy the plant uses to thrive. Lana says that, in addition to consuming too many carbs, factors like aging, genetics, and the environment can make our insulin response sluggish. When that happens, glucose starts to build in the blood vessels in organs like our eyes, heart, and kidneys, and to cause us to be snackish and gain weight (especially around our middles), and often have joint and digestive issues.
Why do so many people avoid gluten? Gluten is a very inflammatory protein and Lana says that many people have found a gluten-free diet helps them feel better, even those without an official diagnosis of Celiac Disease (a very serious sensitivity to gluten diagnosed by blood test and endoscopic biopsy). For those who do have Celiac Disease, there are some three-hundred symptoms that have been found to be related, and often other autoimmune conditions are triggered in those patients, as well. She says that she recommends a gluten-elimination diet (and official testing) to any of her patients having energy, mood, mental clarity, pain, or digestive issues. Thankfully, for those of us who find they feel better without gluten, there are a LOT more gluten-free products on the market today than there ever have been — just be mindful of the sugar content! Lana recommends almond or coconut flour as healthy gluten-free alternatives when baking breads and pastries.
4. Buckwheat, Amaranth, and Quinoa, Oh My! These gluten-free pseudo-cereals are full of fiber and antioxidants and have a low-glycemic index (this tells us how quickly a food raises blood sugar after a meal). They can be eaten cooked on their own (as you would rice with a meal) or can be found processed into noodles or flour for breads or pastries.
5. Sweet Potatoes- What’s life without a little sweetness? Sweet potatoes provide a natural source of sweetness and fiber (critical to heart and gut health), as well as Beta Carotene/Vitamin A which enhance immunity and eye health.
6. Kale and Collard Greens- Dark leafy greens? Talk about maximizing our potential! There are few foods more “super” than the superfood, kale, which is chock-full of fiber and vitamins A, K, B6 and C, calcium, potassium, copper and manganese. Cabbage and other leafy greens are also fantastic for your overall well-being. You can eat them raw, blend them into smoothies, add them to soups and other recipes, or simply sauté them with garlic and onions (both full of vitamins and probiotics).
7. Coconut- When we’re down, coconut will pick us up! The water in coconuts has a high amount of potassium and is a great replenisher for dehydration. Also, the meat of a coconut is another perfect source of fat to build and repair our cells. Thankfully we can buy processed coconut water, milk, and meat in the store and don’t need to tackle whole ones with drills and saws ourselves.
8. Avocado- Another fantastic source of good fat, as well as vitamin E, folate, iron, potassium, and fiber are avocadoes. They can be eaten raw on sandwiches and salads, with beans and rice, or even blended into smoothies and puddings with a little cocoa powder and natural sweetener.
9. Blueberries- Lana said that foods with immune-boosting properties, like berries, are trending in 2022. Blueberries contain Vitamin D and Zinc, antioxidants, and fiber, and have the lowest amount of natural sugar of all of the fruits. Amazing! It’s not often that something so tasty is also so good for us.
10. Chocolate- FINALLY! The right kind of chocolate gives us joy and antioxidants without giving us a massive sugar load. Dark chocolate or milk chocolate with no added sugar is what we should seek.
In general, regarding sweets: Lana says our diets need to be “livable,” as in, it’s unreasonable to expect us to deprive ourselves all the time of desserts. So, as with all things, we need to consume sweets in moderation and with discernment. We know that sugar turns to glucose and can overwhelm the liver and pancreas, so how do we get sweet treats without sugar? Lana’s preference, for health and flavor, is Stevia, a natural plant source that’s been used since the Aztecs discovered its tasty benefits hundreds of years ago. Regarding artificial sweeteners, there are some carcinogen concerns, but she recommends that her diabetic patients choose treats with small amounts of artificial sweeteners like sucralose over spiking their blood sugar with regular sugar.
Lana cautions us to read food labels in processed foods. For example, yogurt is marketed as the perfect healthy breakfast food- and it does offer microbes and protein- but it also sometimes contains as much sugar as a dessert! We are most insulin resistant in the morning, so we should especially avoid high-glucose foods then. Now that we know, we can add our own seeds, nuts, and berries to plain, sugar-free yogurt for breakfast and start our day strong.
For those of us finding it difficult to get in a good food routine post holidays and in the midst of a pandemic, Lana we use the MyPlate model now used by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Notice how different it looks from the Food Pyramid we were taught growing up! Lana says that by making mindful decisions and following these recommendations, we will feel more energized and comfortable in our bodies in no time!
Sarah Zimmerman is a freelance writer in Northern California and is working on her first novel. In past lives,, she has been a Physician Assistant in Women's Health and the owner of a vegan ice cream business. Sarah writes about marriage, sex, parenting, infertility, pregnancy loss, social justice, and women's mental and physical health, always with honesty and humor. She has written for Ravishly, Cafe Mom, Pregnant Chicken, and more and can be found at sarahzwriter.com and on Medium, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok at @sarahzwriter.