Dr. Stacy Sims

From there, we want to, of course, decrease all your ultra-processed foods, healthy fats.

Fat is the backbone of cholesterol, is the backbone of your steroid hormones.

So if you want to make hormones, we've got to have some cholesterol, some healthy fats coming in to provide the backbone for that.

So things like olive oil, nuts, your avocados, seeds, these are going to provide some of those healthier fats that are easier to use for you.

And when it comes to protein, there's a lot of different protein sources.

We know that the data is so hard on nutrition because I can quote a study that says for every serving of

plant protein that you take over animal protein, you have a higher chance of ovulating regularly.

And that's true.

A lot of that, though, is nuanced by the fact that people who eat plant-based sources of proteins tend to eat other plants in general and less ultra-processed foods than people who have the highest quartile of meat intake.

If we go to a micro level, though, not all meat, animal meat, is created equal.

Animal meat does not have fiber in it.

So we know it's not...

So if we want to talk about carnivore diet, things like that is definitely not microbiome friendly for you and not hormonally healthy.

So we really want to really have those whole foods, the fruits, vegetables, the healthy fats, the proteins that are going to be good sources.

And just like we talked about other things, it's not all or nothing.

Red meat every day is probably going to be inflammatory.

Having it on the weekend is probably OK.

And the way I describe this to patients is let's imagine a scale where every decision you make can kind of tick up the inflammatory marker or bring it back down.

If you are making active decisions that are more anti-inflammatory, you can tolerate the glass of champagne, the birthday cake, these little things that we know will cause inflammation in your body.

But your body is meant to respond to inflammation and get back down.