Summary: Thanks for joining us for episode 60 of The Ancestral RD podcast. If you want to keep up with our podcasts, subscribe in iTunes and never miss an episode! Remember, please send us your question if you'd like us to answer it on the show! Today we are answering the following question from a listener: “In an earlier podcast, you said it was very important to have a wide variety of foods in one’s diet. Could you explain why we need variety?” Do you find yourself buying the same foods at the grocery store week after week and eating basically the same foods day after day? Many of us have a tendency to stick the same foods for the sake of convenience or due to a restrictive diet. We often find ourselves in a food rut as a result. You’ve probably heard the phrase "variety is the spice of life." But when it comes to our diet, is variety really that big of a deal? Join us today as we talk about why food variety is important to health and share how balance and diversity in food choices can cultivate a healthy enjoyment of eating. Here's what Laura and Kelsey will be discussing in this episode: How lack of variety in the diet makes it difficult to get the different types and amounts of micronutrients you need Laura’s work with real food recipes for tube feeds How the microbiome is affected by the diversity, and lack thereof, of foods in your diet The other components of plant foods that feed your gut bacteria besides fiber How often you should diversify the foods in your diet to avoid problematic effects on gut bacteria When lack of variety leads to under eating How to add diversity to your diet even within the context of restricting certain foods due to a health condition How eating too much of the same foods can lead to excess exposure of natural toxins and compounds in foods The effect of our current food system on food diversity and how your choices can influence both your health and the health of the environment How lack of variety in our diet can impact enjoyment in eating and thereby enjoyment in other areas of life as well The importance of balance in eating for health and eating for pure pleasure to cultivate a healthy enjoyment of a variety of foods Links Discussed: KettleAndFire.com - Use the code AncestralRDs for a 15% discount off your first order of Kettle and Fire bone broth! TRANSCRIPT: Kelsey: Hi everyone. Welcome to episode 60 of the Ancestral RDs. I’m Kelsey Marksteiner and with me as always is Laura Schoenfeld. Laura: Hi everyone. Kelsey: How are you doing today, Laura? Laura: Good. Just had a pretty busy weekend with some work on my new branding that’s going to be hopefully coming up in the next…well I’d like to say soon, but it seems every time I talk about it it’s soon. So hopefully this summer at some point I’ll be making that transition. I did a video shoot with a friend of mine and her husband who they’re like amateur photographer, videographers. They don’t have a business or anything, but they’re pretty good at it. So I paid them to help me create a video for my site. Kelsey: Cool. Laura: Yeah. It was super stressful because I mean you and I have been doing this podcasting thing for I guess like two years at this point? Kelsey: Yeah. Laura: When we first started doing podcasts it was super nerve wracking and we were really awkward, or at least I was super awkward. I don’t know if you felt really awkward. Kelsey: We were both awkward. Laura: There was so much nerves involved. I feel like you just get used to doing stuff and things get easier as you do them more and more. Kelsey: Yeah. Laura: And I’ve done a few video interviews, which I’m usually nervous during those as well, but there’s something about having a specific script that you want to portray and trying to do it in a way that’s very succinct and…. Kelsey: Natural? Laura: Yeah well natural but also like using specific words and not repeating yourself,
