Geeky wellbeing favourites: June 2022
Food, glorious food (mostly bread) and the usual yoga science highlights
Image credit @hippiechiara and delicious food by @remko_the_healthy_chef
I love food. If you know me, you’ll know that already. Food is one of life’s greatest pleasures. Fortunately or unfortunately, good food makes me happy.
Last month I was lucky enough to attend a yoga retreat/teacher training in Ibiza – beautiful weather, amazing people, restorative practices (who doesn’t like two yoga nidra sessions a day?) and gorgeous food. And I mean gorgeous in both senses of the word, delicious and really pretty to look at (just look at the colours in the photo above).
This meant that we ended up talking about food, A LOT! The various nutrition ‘myths’ (carbs are bad), what really makes food healthy and what that means for our gut microbiota (ie the bacteria and other microorganisms that live in our gut). Which, as you may know, affects literally everything to do with our health and wellbeing, including our immune system and our mood – more on that later, but know that I am a major gut microbiota geek.
So this month, let’s talk food and wellbeing. Enjoy!
(As a disclaimer, I am not a nutritionist. I just like science-based advice.)
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Listen
Like many people, I grew up in a culture which believed that bread makes you fat (which is kind of weird considering that traditionally the Greek diet includes quite a bit of bread but is meant to be one of the healthiest diets out there). These days, it’s also about being gluten intolerant, gut inflammation and so on. So what’s really true?
Check out the bread episode of the Zoe podcast to find out that bread is actually healthy and it can help to keep your gut microbiota happy, if you eat the right kind of bread of course. Most of it is common sense (eg very few people are actually gluten intolerant) and some of it is actually kind of shocking (eg some supermarket brown bread is not whole grain at all!).
Also, good news if you are a coffee lover: coffee has fibre (!) and is healthy as long as you can tolerate it, according to this podcast episode.
(Fun fact: In 2019, I came across a science writer role for a start-up focusing on the gut microbiota. It was freelance and part-time, so I was a bit too nervous to let go of my well-paid, secure job to go back to the stress of freelancing, and didn’t go for it. That start-up eventually became Zoe. Hindsight is a wonderful thing).
Read
Ok so I am a Zoe geek (because I am a gut microbiota geek; I can’t wait for their programme to be available in the UK), but it is evidence-based and you can’t beat that.
Here’s a summary of a study they published last year that link our gut microbiota and our responses to food, and a news article (that may be a little more interesting an accessible) covering the same research.
Read a bit more
On the subject of bread, here’s an old article by my favourite food critic, Jay Rayner, ranting about food fads, including imaginary gluten intolerance. If you don’t want to click through, here’s the full quote in all its glory:
You’re not gluten intolerant. That bloated feeling you have when you eat too much bread is because you’ve eaten too much bread. Stop it. You’re just a picky eater trying to control the world around you through food and, in the process, making life harder for people who are genuinely coeliac.
Practice
I wish I had recordings to share of all the wonderful yoga nidras I practiced on my training retreat – I hate the word ‘bliss’ but it is fitting here!
Instead, I thought I’d try something a little different – check out this moon dancer yoga nidra by Nids Nida. It’s a little weird and I don’t know how I fully feel about it, but it’s nice to experiment.
Yoga science highlights
This month we see more-than-usual studies in mainstream journals (or rather, journals that published a wider range of science and medicine topics), which is great news!
Stretching and inflammation. Interested in the effects of stretching on tissue inflammation? This systematic review consolidates existing research studies on this topic and tries to draw conclusions on what this means for yoga practice. (disclaimer: most studies have been done in rats, which makes it quite difficult to draw conclusions).
Meditation and yoga for IBS. I wouldn’t normally mention a study protocol here but as someone with gut issues I’m excited to see the results of this study when it comes out – the researchers have designed an 8-week meditation and yoga programme, delivered virtually, for those living with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). This is a randomised controlled trial, where the programme will be compared with an advice-only control.
Yoga and CBT for adolescents with depression. Both interventions, delivered in a group setting, were effective at reducing depression, although the researchers caution that sustaining a yoga home practice may be a challenge for this age group (and, let’s be fair, everyone).
Wide or short stance in Trikonasana? The width of the stance affects whether the front or the bag leg receive the most loading, with a wider stance leading to more loading on the front leg and less on the back leg. Not something I would normally cover here but I thought it was interesting given that some teachers cue to shorten the stance when transitioning from Vira B and some don’t. I don’t have access to the full study but I think what it’s suggesting is to adjust to support leg injuries and perhaps that a slightly wider stance might be more accessible to beginners?
Highlights from the blog
Mindfulness is not just for stress – Two new studies reinforce that mindfulness meditation can help not just to fight stress but also maintain a healthy and balanced immune system. Time to work on my meditation practice!
Why everyone should practice yoga – Yoga has been linked to being more actively involved with your health, which may also mean healthier food choices (but beware of the food myths that run rampant in the yoga community)
How to form a yoga habit – Tips and tricks for establishing healthy habits from behavioural science
Until next month, eat lots of delicious and healthy food! Your gut will thank you.