Fibre, plants and why more isn’t always better
With nutrition trends constantly evolving, Claire is pragmatic about popular frameworks like “30g of protein, 30g of fibre, 30 plants a week”.
“It is a really balanced strategy for people to think about. I think it’s great that we have fibre as the current star, for example… but, she stresses, for some women, more fibre can actually make symptoms worse.
“There are people who cannot do 25 to 30 grams of fibre, where their bowel absolutely hates it, and their gut microbiome rebels against it, and they feel absolutely awful.”
Instead, she encourages working with your body rather than against it. “If you find that eating more than 15 grams of fibre makes you feel awful, then it is a good idea to find out why that is the case… and take it at your gut’s pace.”
When it comes to the “30 plants” piece, she starts somewhere very simple: Your cupboards.
“I would start with your spice and herb cupboard. There’s probably a lot you could add. So like, ideally you would have turmeric, ginger, cumin, coriander, maybe some cardamom… they are things that we could use every day, and we could use more of them – and they’re anti-inflammatory, as well as very healthy plants and sources of fibre.”
From there, she breaks down just how many plants you’re probably eating already – often without realising it.
“If you’re making something like spaghetti bolognese or you’re making fajitas for dinner… you’ll have say, the tomatoes, you have peppers, you have maybe onions, you have parsley, you have paprika, cumin, coriander, maybe a little bit of turmeric in there. They’re all plants.”
Even your hot drinks count: “Your herbal teas, your coffee, your ordinary tea, they’re also plants as well… If you are having oats, flax seeds, and chia seeds, you’ve got three plants.”
The overall message is reassuring: “When you start to kind of look at it that way… you’re probably already around 20 without realising it.”
The smallest changes can make the biggest difference
Perhaps the most refreshing part of Claire’s approach is how simple it is. No overhauls. No extremes. Just small, consistent shifts that fit inside a real day.
She starts with how you breathe.
“When we’re busy, or we’re nervous, or we’re not sure, we breathe in here instead of into our lungs or into our diaphragm,” she explains. “If we can do some diaphragmatic breathing, where we’re breathing into our rib cage instead of into our stomach or into our chest, then we can regulate the nervous system, and we can also control our digestive system better.”
You don’t need a yoga mat or an hour-long routine. “You could definitely breathe in the car or in the queue in the shop or whatever, you know, or when you’re waiting for the Zoom call to start and everybody’s saying, ‘Hi, how was your weekend? How’s your day?’ Take a moment to breathe.”
Then there’s a tiny ritual you can do in bed, before you even get up.
“I would do some abdominal massage in bed, either at night or first thing in the morning. It just relaxes the body, gets everything moving and the way it should… in a clockwise motion, all the way around from the top underneath our breastbone down to the like, our pelvic bone, and back around again, just really gently… it’s really grounding, and it really helps with all forms of digestion.”
Even something as basic as chewing properly can change how safe your body feels.
“Chewing as much as we can… physically gets the nervous system to relax by releasing the muscles in the jaw and muscle tension,” she says. “It also sends that like unconscious signal to the brain to say if we are like chewing, then there are no predators around to steal our food, and competition for food is not very strong… that we can relax and eat means that we are safe.”
You’re probably already doing more right than you think
For all the noise, Claire is clear: most women are doing brilliantly already.
“A lot of women are already doing brilliant things for themselves… they’re trying so hard. I think women… are naturally investigators. They want to know what’s at the root of all of this, and make changes.”
The real issue isn’t lack of effort; ultimately, it’s a shift in mindset: “Their body is trying their best to support them… And… they’re probably already doing a really good job.”
To listen to Claire’s full episode, click HERE.
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