The second pillar will explore Nutrition and how it impacts health and wellness.
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” – Hippocrates, 400 BC
Nutrition is more than just fuel for the body; it is a cornerstone of holistic health that influences every aspect of our well-being. A balanced diet rich in essential nutrients supports physical vitality, mental clarity, and emotional stability. Our modern diet, often characterized by high consumption of processed foods and a reliance on convenience, has significantly impacted our health. Industrial farming practices have led to soil depletion, reducing the essential vitamins and minerals in the crops we consume. Consequently, even whole foods are less nutritious than they were decades ago. This decline in nutrient density, coupled with the prevalence of processed foods high in sugars, unhealthy fats, and artificial additives, has contributed to a rise in chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular conditions. Additionally, food toxins and nutrient deficiencies can impair immune function, reduce energy levels, and affect mental health, illustrating the profound and multifaceted impact of these dietary and environmental changes on our overall well-being.
In my Integrative Medicine practice, nutrition education and coaching is foundational to true health transformation. Changing how we eat can be challenging for most of us, given the highly-palatable foods at our fingertips, emotional eating, and factors such as cost and accessibility. My first strategy with patients is to focus on nourishing our bodies so we have all the nutrients necessary to function properly. Instead of listing all the foods a patient should NOT eat, I emphasize what foods they should be incorporating more of: a variety of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, lean meats and fish and healthy fats. Our bodies have evolved over thousands of years to expect whole foods – foods that are minimally processed and as close to their natural state as possible. If a food is in a box, bag or some sort of package – it is processed and often contains ingredients that are inflammatory such as sugar, seed oils and other chemical additives. When food shopping at a supermarket, focus your purchases on the periphery of the store, where you find the whole foods: fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, poultry, and dairy (if you tolerate it). When possible, fruits and vegetables should be organic, fish should be wild-caught, and meats and poultry should be grass-fed and/or pasture-raised to ensure less toxins getting into our gut.
Nutrition is integral to gut health; and gut health is WHOLE-PERSON health. Our gut and its unique microbiome play a profound role in hormonal and mental health, detoxification, and metabolism. Hippocrates also said “All disease begins in the gut”; research is finally proving this to be true. If you spread out the human gut lining – with all of its millions of microscopic folds – it would cover the surface of a tennis court! The membrane between what we put in our mouths and the inside of our body is one-cell layer thick. This is why 85% of our immune system is housed in our gut, because it is where our body is seeing the majority of potential danger in the form of harmful toxins, chemicals, bacteria, viruses, fungi that can trigger immune responses and inflammation. Nourishing our gut lining and the healthy bacteria in our microbiome is essential to overall gut – and whole body – health.
At Villa Milagro, the meal offerings are thoughtfully created by a trained chef with all of the aforementioned nutrition tenets in mind. The ingredients are carefully sourced from local farms and fishermen. Visitors often share that they don’t feel heavy or “overly” full after a satisfying meal, which speaks to the freshness and beauty of whole, unprocessed foods. Dietary restrictions and preferences are accommodated with multiple options for every meal. You will be delighted with a variety of local fruits, vegetables, fresh fish and meats.
Your retreat at Villa Milagro will inspire you to tune into your mind and body. Not only will you be nourished on your plate, but with endless opportunities to explore all of the pillars of wellness.
| Hillary Bassett, MD, IFMCP is a licensed and board-certified physician specializing in Integrative, Functional and Longevity Medicine. At The Heart of Wellness, she partners with her patients to achieve optimal wellness through deep connection, advanced testing, root-cause resolution and cutting-edge approaches to longevity. She cares for patients residing in California, in person and virtually. You can learn more at www.theheartofwellness.net or follow her practice on IG @heart.of.wellness |
