On today’s show, five simple tips to get started with a food as medicine approach. I’m thrilled to have Janet Jumper back on the show. Janet was featured in episode 21 talking about her journey with Crohn’s disease, which she’s had for over two decades. She is so full of wisdom and grace and practical advice, and I’m so glad to have her back.
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On today’s show, we’re going to be talking about five simple tips to get started with a food as medicine approach. And I’m so thrilled to have Janet Jumper back on the Gutbliss Podcast by popular demand. You may remember that Janet was featured in episode 21 of the podcast. She was talking about her journey with Crohn’s disease, which she’s had for over two decades. She’s been a nurse for almost 30 years and a nurse practitioner for 20, and she is so full of wisdom and grace, and I’m so glad to have her back.
Thank you so much for having me again. I’m so grateful to be back again.
Before we get started, Janet, you have a personal philosophy that you bring to your nursing, your approach to food, I think your approach to family. Tell us a little bit about that.
I think what I really want everyone to feel when we talk about this today, and we talked about it a little bit on the last episode, is all are welcome. No matter where you’re starting, no matter what your struggles or difficulties are, this is not an exclusive idea. It’s not an idea that’s unique just to Robynne and Janet. It is for everyone, and if you have a pot and a fire source and a knife, you’re good, and we’re going to help you get there. You’re going to kick off your Food is Medicine journey and feel great about it. And, you know, I want to bring my nursing experience into this a little bit because it’s such an integral part of my life. And one of the things I love about being a nurse is caring for people in a hands-on kind of a way, not in a fancy ICU, all the equipment kind of a way, but in the dead of night when everyone’s asleep and someone’s awake and they’re struggling, that you can go in and rub their back or make them feel better. I know during COVID, one of my things that I really liked to do to give comfort was at the end of a phone call when I was explaining a very difficult medical situation to a family member, I would say “I want you to know that I care about your loved one as if they were my own family member, and I’m going to take that kind of care of them tonight”. And so I feel that same way about the listener. You know, I want you to know that I care about you. I care about what your issues and concerns are, and we’re going to get started today.
I love that, and I echo it, absolutely. I remember telling people in my office who worked with me that it’s great when we can cure disease, but what we’re really here for is to relieve suffering. And sometimes that relief of suffering comes from curing disease, but often it is just the validation. It is a hand on the shoulder and saying, I hear you and I’m so sorry this is happening to you and I’m gonna do my best to help you. So thank you for bringing that to the podcast. So let’s get started with actual food.
So what do I actually do to get going in the kitchen? And two things that I feel really strongly about within this tip is number one, you need a recipe plan. So either if you have a recipe app or recipes that you’ve already started, that’s great. But if you don’t, then you need to get a recipe plan or five good recipes. I think I told you, Robynne, when I started this journey back in 2016, where I really changed the style of my eating to really include more plants, I left my sister’s house that day with five recipes and that was it.
And tell us a couple of the five recipes that were the foundation for your journey?
I had a potato, kale, and sausage soup that I made, a chicken and veggies stir fry, and a tomato and chicken slow cooker dish, and then I remember there was a carrot and oats dish that I did. And there’s one more I can’t remember now, but anyway, I sort of started there and then once I got started, all of a sudden, because just like the advice says, you know, just get started, I was then able to pull more recipes in and do more things. And really quickly, I was able to figure out, oh, I can manage this, I really can. So get your recipes. And then in the same vein as the five simple recipes, don’t overwhelm yourself with, oh, I need to be doing this, and Robynne said legumes. Well, I don’t have legumes in there this week. I need to figure that out. And because of that, you then slow down your momentum. So just get going with what you’ve got.
And you can’t see us here in the studio, but to my right is a huge poster in red. And it says: “You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great”. And I look at it every time before I record an episode. We do this because we have a message, we have information to share, and we want as many people as possible to listen, but you just have to get started. I bought my podcasting equipment seven years before my first episode… I’m not kidding. 2017, I purchased the equipment, 2024, the podcast launched. Because I was so afraid of getting started. What if it’s not good enough? What if nobody’s listening? What if…, you know, all these different things. And then I just decided I am going to do this podcast. Every week I’m going to put out information that I think is relevant and important and can help people. And I think the same can be said for the Food is Medicine journey. Just get started.
So thank you so much for that. We’re so glad you did.
Thank you, I’m so glad I did! When we come back, tip number two. We are back with Janet Jumper talking about her five simple tips to get started on your food as medicine journey. We talked about tip number one, which is having a plan, getting familiar with a recipe plan, having five good recipes, and avoiding decision fatigue and getting overwhelmed. Janet, what’s your second tip?
I think this is a great one about kitchen gadgets. So I want to keep things simple.
What are your three things? What are your three gadgets that you use all the time in the kitchen?
Well, mine is my Vitamix. I would say toaster and food processor are in a tie. And then my final one is my slow cooker. But you know, we talked about this a little bit too. I want to love the air fryer. Everyone I know loves the air fryer. I bought a very expensive air fryer, and it is in my pantry never getting used. And I finally had to say, this is not something I can conquer right now because I’m trying to conquer these other things for my family. So same if you feel that way about the slow cooker then that’s not your thing or the instant pot don’t feel like you have to figure that out in order to get these recipes going. Use your three things and move on. And in the same way I want to talk about the offerings that you have in your kitchen either for you or your family. We talked about too also when you open up your pantry does it have to be a supermarket? No, it doesn’t. Three snacks for your family that they can go to all the time. You know, apples with nut butter, a healthy snack that you’ve made, or veggies and hummus. And that’s it. Don’t feel like you have to offer more things right now while you’re getting this sorted out.
But you do rotate yours, right? You were mentioning that sometimes the girls are like, okay, I’m tired of this apples and nut butter in heavy rotation, and then you bring something new out. But I love that, this idea that it’s not a buffet every time your kids come home or for you yourself. And having fewer options actually makes things a lot easier. I feel stressed out sometimes when I go somewhere and there are so many different things to eat. I actually like having fewer options.
Well, and also, this is not a pro tip, but this is a tip. One thing that’s also happened because of that, because my girls know what are acceptable snacks or what they’re allowed to go for, is now they make them themselves. So I’ll come in and Chelsea will have cut an apple and put nut butter on it herself and I didn’t even have to get involved in that. So that’s been great for me to be able to do that.
It also helps people, and particularly young people, understand what a treat is in that context, right? A treat is something that’s special. It’s not something that you have every day. And so when there is something available that maybe isn’t as healthy and maybe a little bit processed, that you’re saying we’re having this and a little bit of this today, but this is not our everyday offering. And the same thing for us. When you think about a treat, a dessert, or something like that, that it isn’t something that we are eating every day, but it’s okay to have some every now and again. So, three favorite snacks? Tell us again, for the girls.
I have a dupe recipe for like an oatmeal cookie that is made with honey, and they really like that. So that’s one of them. We do nut butter and a fruit and then also veggies and hummus, which to my dismay is still not the first thing that gets picked, but it’s often maybe the second or the third thing. And then I do often go in search of recipes that are like things that they’ve tried. So, you know, I do a lot of searching for duplicate or similar recipes, but that are made with healthier options.
And you modify them yourself?
Yep, as needed. Yep, absolutely. Tip number three: uncomplicating your situation, thinking of things in yeses or nos. Is this a processed food? And if the answer is yes, we’re moving on from it.
And I have a simple suggestion for people when they’re trying to figure out if something is an ultra-processed food or not, and that is to think: did this food come from the factory or did it come from the ground, the land, the sea? So, for example, an apple came from the ground, it doesn’t have a list of ingredients. Applesauce, there’s no applesauce tree or bush or root vegetable. It doesn’t mean that applesauce is terrible for you, but it’s a processed food. Lentils versus lentil chips. And so just think, did this food have to make a stop in a factory somewhere to get to you?
Absolutely, and I think you’ve mentioned the classifications of processed food and ultra-processed food, so I do want to clarify, if you’re using a healthy can of canned tomatoes that’s organic in your recipe, that is a processed food technically, but it’s not ultra-processed.
Correct, you’re referring to the NOVA classification that was developed by Dr. Monteiro and his colleagues. And it’s a great classification to familiarize yourself with. And to your point, the ultra-processed foods are really the category four. Those are the ones we want to avoid. I personally like making beans myself from dried beans because they taste better, but that doesn’t always happen. Sometimes I’m making a salad, and I put in a can or a container of cannellini beans because that’s what I have and that’s what I have time for. And that’s very different from a bag of Doritos.
Yes, exactly. For sure. So just really understanding those concepts are important because you don’t want to feel like you’re bound by these rules of “I can’t take anything out of a can or a box”. I would say a box would probably be more ultra-processed than a can. So I do want to not put those restrictions on people.
And then with your uncomplicate thinking in terms of yeses and no’s, what’s your second thing?
So really, when we’re all looking for these bio hacks or these nutritional hacks, people really want to feel good about a supplement or something they found that’s going to help make one thing easier. The green smoothie is a great idea. I have people all the time coming to me, what do you think about this green powder? What do you think about this? And I say something similar to what you say, which is it’s not kale that grew in a garden somewhere. So that’s really what we’re talking about. So just is this a powder? Is it a gel? Is it a supplement? If the answer is yes, then move on.
This whole idea of hacking and biohacking, I tend to have a fairly strong negative reaction to it. And we were looking at a video earlier, some little post I’d done years ago about putting in the miles. I was training for a race, and I wasn’t at my ideal weight, and I hadn’t really been running enough, but at the end of the day, you have to put in the miles. I can’t take a pill to get to the finish line, right? You may not put in all the miles that you need to, but you have to do the work. When you think about sports, and you think about something like tennis and Serena Williams. I’m sure there are things she does to enhance her training, but at the end of the day, she’s got to get out there and whack some tennis balls if she’s going to win grand slams, right? That’s not to say that there may not be some additional things she does. So I think about the supplements that way. At the end of the day, having a green powder is not the same as actually eating fresh vegetables. And so you can have a green powder in addition to that, but you can’t replace eating a vegetable with a green powder and think that, okay, now I’m nutritionally replete and I’m going to get the same effect. Because again, most of these supplements are essentially ultra-processed foods. They are made in a factory and a green powder does not have the same nutritional density and microbial impact as actual vegetables from the soil. And that’s just a fact.
Yeah, it’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing, really, and I think it’s marketed as a wellness product, so we forget that it’s really not healthy for us.
Well, my concern, too, is I think one could argue that this does not have deleterious effects on our bodies. Sure. It’s not necessarily going to harm us, but the problem is when we are having that instead of the actual food, and we think that we’re accomplishing the same goals and we’re not. So I think that’s really where some of that danger is. When we come back, I love this next one: ABC, when we come back. We are back with Janet Jumper, Crohn’s patient, nurse practitioner extraordinaire, and her five simple tips to get started on your food is medicine journey. Janet, tip number four, I love this one: ABC. Tell us about that.
ABC, Always Be Cooking. So what this does not mean is that you have to be in the kitchen 24-7. What it does mean is that anytime you are in the kitchen, you need to be cooking multiple things. So for instance, when I am making breakfast for my girls and I’m making a smoothie, half the smoothie goes to them, half the smoothie is my breakfast. When the oven is on, if I’m cooking a whole chicken, I’m also roasting two sheets of pans of vegetables. Those might be for a later recipe. If I’m chopping fruit for the morning, I’m also chopping an onion for the evening. So always have something going on in the kitchen if you are in the kitchen. I do also want to say that there is cooking involved. This is not an idea that works without us doing some cooking, but I will also tell you that I am a single mom, I have two busy girls, I work. We’re all doing these things and so it is about figuring out how to add these into your lifestyle in a way that’s meaningful and this is one of the ways that you can, just when you’re in the kitchen, be preparing.
One of the things I like to do is, almost everything that I’m cooking involves onion, garlic, and leeks. And I don’t really love chopping onion, garlic, and leeks. I don’t mind the leeks, but the onion and garlic, you know, it stays on your hands. And so I chop a lot. And then typically, Eric is using them for the lentils that he’s making. I’m putting them in a soup or something else and I’ll chop a lot and stick it in the fridge so that whatever we’re cooking the next day, we still have some more in terms of the chopping. The other thing too is that you can be cooking half the food and buying the other store-bought. I tell my patients all the time, if you want to eat some animal protein and you don’t have time to roast a chicken, get a good quality, organic, roasted rotisserie chicken and make the vegetables and make some rice or make some beans or whatever else it is. So if you don’t have time to make the entire meal, make what you can and augment the rest. Do you have some suggestions for folks along those lines?
Well, we didn’t really talk about this earlier, but the recipe plan that I use does actually use the same food sort of for that week. And in that vein, I think it’s very helpful because I know that if I’m chopping up a butternut squash for recipe number one and I’m using it in recipe four, I can do that.
And what’s the recipe plan that you like?
So it’s from the Fresh 20, and I’ve used it for years. I really like it. It is just the physical recipes. It’s not the ingredients. You purchase the ingredients yourself. But what it trains you and teaches you to do is that you can add in, like I said, things for the week that you’ve already prepped. And the other thing that I really like is as I’ve gotten more familiar with the recipe system, and I made reference to this in episode 21, when I’m chopping four vegetables, if I have three more left over or they’re getting ready to go bad in the fridge or they were from the farm share, I can chop those up too and I have enough of a repertoire with this that I know when to add those in. And so that’s where I’ve really been getting more bang for my buck with the plants. And then of course the leftovers are what we eat for our lunches.
Fantastic. I have my basic recipe staples too, but I laugh because I remember when I met my husband about 24 years ago he said to me one day: “does everything you cook involve curry or jerk?” And I’m like, “I’m Jamaican and Indian so yes, it involves some kind of jerk seasoning and some kind of curry except maybe not the breakfast”. But, sometimes even that too, so I think I’m a little a little over indexed on the jerk seasoning and the curry, but what can I tell you? I love it. Okay, tip number five, and this is arguably the most important one. Tell us about it.
Well, it’s about change of mindset. And this is whether this is for you, or if you’re including your whole family, which I highly recommend if there’s more than one person in the house to include everyone in this. But taking a hard look at your mindset. Things like, I don’t get up in the morning, or I don’t cook. Those are attitudes and behaviors that you are espousing out there, putting that out into the universe and then believing it for yourself. And so I would challenge you in this time, if you’re re-looking at ways to do things, for instance, I’m up early in the morning, I do a lot of my prep in the morning while the girls are eating breakfast and I’m up doing things. So revamping that, if you say: “I’m not a morning person”. Could you take a hard look at that and maybe change your mindset?
I am not what people would think of as a morning lark. I am a night owl. But self-identification and labeling is so important. And if you say you’re a night owl, not a morning lark, what you’re really doing is you’re giving yourself permission to stay up much later than you should and not get up in the morning like you want to. And it’s the same thing, I have patients who say, well, I’m not a good vegetable eater. If you say you’re not a good vegetable eater, you are giving yourself permission to not eat vegetables. So I am constantly saying, I am a morning lark. It doesn’t always go well. I am groggy eyed, my husband is coming back from his trail run and I’m sort of making my way out of the bed going, “I am a morning lark, I am a morning lark”. I was actually excited when I read Matthew Walker’s book, Why We Sleep, to find out that there are chronotypes, that this is sort of baked into us from an evolutionary point of view. That some of us are designed to go to bed at different times and wake up at different times, so that back when we were out living in the caves, the community would be safe because not everybody would be sleeping at the same time. So I do take pride in the fact that I think some of this is genetic! But in reality, it is really so important how we self-identify because I’ve seen it myself that the self-identification can sometimes be a way of staying in our comfort zone and giving ourselves permission not to try and be that morning lark.
Yeah, absolutely, and then you’ve spoke to this a little bit, but also the food myths. So, you know, one of the things that people say to me when we talk about this is, well, vegetables don’t fill me up. And I would say that we need to overcome that sort of 1980s version of eating vegetables, which is maybe some super thin supermodel nibbling on a piece of iceberg lettuce. If you’re sauteing five or six vegetables in quality olive oil, and you’re putting that with some type of plant or animal protein and making a giant bowl of that, that will fill you up, and that will last you until the next meal. And in fact, you and I have talked about this too, but you know, I’m rarely hungry. And it’s not because I’m some ultra amazing person or I’ve honed my skills in such a way that I don’t need food. No, I need food just like the rest of us do. But because I have reprogrammed my hormonal response and my desires away from ultra processed food to actually real nourishing, dense fiber and nutrient-dense food. I don’t need more than that, that’s enough.
I’m a big fan of Chris van Tulleken’s book, Ultra-Processed People. And in it, he talks about the scientific data behind the fact that ultra-processed food is designed to make you want to eat more. It is not fulfilling and sating. And so when you’re eating real food, you typically have less desire to overeat. I know one of the other things we were talking about earlier is the idea of calorie content and calories being somewhat of a mythical concept, right? Because it tells you nothing about the nutritional value of the food. So I know when I go to a restaurant, I’m never looking at what the calorie count is. I’m thinking, okay, what is the food that I actually want to eat? And what looks healthy and nutritious and maybe seasonal. I’m never going to swap a lower calorie food for the thing I want to eat. And when you pay too much attention to calories, what it really does is it encourages you to eat lower calorie food that often is less nutritious, less filling, less sating, because you think in your mind that you’re somehow doing something good by eating fewer calories.
Yes, and I really think getting away from that sort of dieting space and into the nutritional space is important. When I look at a label, I don’t look at the upper part at all, I only look at the ingredients, and I think that’s also what you feel and what you’re referring to. And one of the other myths that I really want to dispel is what we’ve thought of as natural but unhealthy foods in the past, you know, that those are sometimes good and healthy foods. So specifically speaking of fats; good, healthy, quality olive oil, quality avocado oil, coconut oil, those are good fats. I know in our family we also use butter. I use grass-fed butter. Now again, I don’t want to go into the salt situation and talking about low or high sodium diets, but sodium in processed foods is very different from natural sea salt. I put butter and salt on a lot of things, and that’s how I’ve gotten my children to eat vegetables since birth, and I feel good about that, and I know they’re getting quality nutrition from those foods.
Absolutely, and we’re always better off eating a real version of something than an adulterated version. So a real full fat whatever it is, as opposed to a low fat that is typically a much more processed food. If you’re concerned about the fat content, just eat something else, but don’t eat a low fat version or a sugar-free version of a food because in that case, you’re getting artificial sweeteners, which are arguably much worse for you, metabolically worse for your gut microbiome than natural sugar. So try eating less sugar or something that’s not sugary. But I’m a big fan of avoiding the adulterated versions, the low-fat, the low-sugar, etc., of those foods. So, Janet, if you had to sum it all up for us in terms of I hate to say food rules, plus Michael Pollan already did that with his great book. And I still think that Michael Pollan’s book, In Defense of Food, those seven words wrapped around the head of lettuce on the cover: “eat food, not too much, mostly plants”, that’s really great advice. That is pretty much the best advice I could give someone. But the problem is the first two words: “eat food”. And it’s the food definition that so much of us struggle with because there are so many things out there that are edible, food-like substances, but are actually not my definition of food, which is something that nourishes us. So if you were to sort of sum it up, your approach to food as medicine, and really just your approach to food as somebody who is a healthcare practitioner, but also has a serious autoimmune disease, has other medical issues in the family. What is the sort of overall advice that you would give someone?
Yeah, so one, that it’s simple but it’s not easy. So just know that when you get started and that’s why we keep saying over and over again, start with one thing. So it’s simple but it’s not easy. Focus your mind on a plant-forward diet. So everything that we’re talking about is really about getting more real, unadulterated plants in your diet. That doesn’t mean you’re a vegan, that doesn’t mean you’re a vegetarian, because I think people confuse that and they say, well, I’m never going to be that. No, it doesn’t have to mean that, but it just has to mean more plants than anything else. And then I love Michael Pollan’s tips and book and also that we referenced the Ultra-Processed People book. So just understanding what real food is.
And I just want to remind everyone that the largest study and probably most profound study that was done asking the question, how can you create a healthy microbiome? The American Gut Project study that was published a few years ago, what they looked at over 10,000 people from over 40 countries asking that question: “what are the most important factors for a healthy microbiome?” And what they found, it was the number of different plant foods people ate. It was not whether people describe themselves as a vegan or vegetarian or omnivore. In fact, they were vegans who were eating fewer than 10 different plant foods per week, which was associated with a less healthy microbiome. And they were omnivores who were eating more than 30. And when we talk about 30 different plant foods, we’re not talking about just vegetables. We’re talking about fruits, vegetables, root vegetables, nuts, seeds, grains, herbs, spices, all of it. And I love to talk about how you can dress up a bowl of oatmeal with oats and pumpkin seeds and raisins and walnuts and berries and coconut flakes and even a little bit of maple syrup and get up to seven or eight different ingredients. Same with a salad, etc. Same with a grain bowl. So focus on those 30 different plant foods a week, and if your preference is to have some animal protein with that, go for it.
Yep, I totally agree. And I think we’re going to be talking a lot more about this, Robynne, as we go on, because the other thing that’s really funny about this method is it’s not total rocket science. It’s really been talked about a lot, but we just want to make it talked about in an accessible way. You and I are going to be talking about the Gutbliss Method as we go forward, and that’s your brain child. I’m talking about these simple tips. I’m excited about that.
I’m excited too! I want to thank my guest today, Janet Jumper, for sharing her experience using a food as medicine approach to control her Crohn’s disease. Janet always such a pleasure to have you on the podcast. Before we go, 3 takeaways about getting started on a food as medicine journey:
Have a plan. Just 5 good healthy recipes is enough to get started.
Seeing yourself differently and identifying yourself as that person you’re aspiring to be will help you get there faster. Whether that’s getting up early when you’re really a night owl or identifying as somebody who loves vegetables, even if maybe you don’t.
Small incremental changes can make a big difference. Adding one extra vegetable at lunchtime, giving up one bad habit like diet soda, cooking two things instead of just one when you’re in the kitchen. It all adds up to move you in the direction of better gut health.
So that’s it for this week’s edition of the Gutbliss Podcast on five small steps to get you started on your food as medicine journey.
