Dr. Deanna Minich, nutrition researcher, functional medicine doctor, and advisor to MADE SAFE, recently appeared on the Discover podcast with Dr. Dan to discuss the benefits of eating a varied and colorful diet. Dr. Minich describes phytonutrients, compounds found in plants that benefit the gut microbiome and overall health, and how to incorporate these into your diet.
Some of her tips include eating a varied diet, as colorfully as possible. She recommends “counting colors” in the foods we eat, as different colors in foods can indicate the presence of phytonutrients that benefit various areas of the body. Her color code: Red—related to inflammation and the immune response; Orange—related to reproductive health, fat tissues, and hormones; Yellow—related to digestion and biotransformation; Green—related to cardiovascular health, and Blue/Purple—related to brain health.
Beyond striving to include a rainbow of colored foods in your diet, Dr. Minich also touches on the benefits of eating organic whenever possible. She highlights emerging research demonstrating the many advantages which go beyond avoiding elevated pesticide exposure found in conventionally grown food.
"My approach is to explore WHY & HOW not just the WHAT. The deeper you go into trying to understand something, the more intricate and interconnected the root causes become…”
–Dr. Deanna Minich
Want to learn more about Dr. Minich’s work and dive deeper into the details?
- Listen to the full podcast episode here.
- Visit Dr. Minich’s website to explore more of her work.
DEANNA MINICH, PhD, FACN, CNS | Nutrition Researcher, Functional Medicine Doctor, and Advisor to MADE SAFE
Dr. Deanna Minich is an internationally-recognized lifestyle medicine and detox expert, creative visionary and author of five books. Founder of The Detox Summit
, she led the 3000-person, online Detox Challenge together with the Institute for Functional Medicine in 2014. Her twenty years of experience in the nutrition and functional medicine fields led her to develop an integrated, “whole self” approach to nutrition called Food & Spirit, which is the practice of understanding one’s eating and living through seven core symbolic themes.
Dr. Minich has had a diverse, well-rounded experience in the field of nutrition including clinical practice, research, product formulation, marketing, writing, and education. Dr. Minich received her nutrition education during her Doctoral (PhD) study at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands where she researched essential fatty acid absorption and metabolism, and from her Master’s Degree (MS) at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she focused on carotenoids and oxidative stress. She is a Fellow of the American College of Nutrition (FACN), a Certified Nutrition Specialist (CNS), Certified Nutritionist (CN) by the Washington State Department of Health, and a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT). Her passion is teaching a whole-self approach to nourishment and removing toxic barriers to health.