Adults often need more vegetables than they tend to consume. Many people feel that as long as they include some with dinner, they have eaten their vegetable portions for the day. In reality, for most people, they should be included with each meal. Yes, that means even eating vegetables with breakfast!

Vegetables and fruits are not interchangeable. Fruits contain much more sugar than vegetables do. While it is natural sugar, in high enough quantities, it can mess with your blood sugar levels. This can lead to more cravings throughout the day, a slower metabolism, and more energy crashes.

At first, this may seem difficult to do. You just have to get creative! Here are a few suggestions to increase your vegetable intake with breakfast.

1. Omelettes, frittatas, and hashes

Adding vegetables to foods like omelettes, frittatas, and breakfast hashes seems necessary. They add great flavour and texture to your meal. Vegetables that work well for these types of meals include broccoli, asparagus, onions, spinach, kale, mushrooms, and bell peppers.

2. Add them to smoothies

Have you heard of green smoothies before? Leafy greens are often added in along with fruits in order to mask the vegetable taste. However, you don’t need to stick to leafy greens in your smoothies, if you don’t digest them well. You can try zucchini, cooked squash, cucumber, or carrots with your smoothies without affecting the flavour too much.

3. Make it an English breakfast

If you like the bacon and eggs breakfast, turn it into an English breakfast! Add some fried tomatoes to your plate. Try The Curious Coconut’s Fried Green Tomato recipe. I also enjoy chopping up some onions, and frying them with tomatoes sliced in half in a skillet.

4. Eat dinner for breakfast

There’s always that weird person who suggests eating dinner for breakfast. I happen to be one of those people. It’s actually one of my favourite breakfasts. A nice full dinner meal keeps me going longer than most breakfasts do. And of course, any dinner I make will contain vegetables. My favourites include soups and curries.

5. Make it sweet

There are all kinds of ways to incorporate vegetables into sweet foods. Let’s be clear on one thing. Sweet doesn’t have to mean sugary. Stevia, when used properly, is a great replacement for sugar, and is healthy. Pro tip: if you don’t like the taste of stevia, use a few hacks to make stevia taste better.

Think of those zucchini loaves you like. Or that pumpkin spice smoothie you crave. You can also incorporate sweet potato mash into your pancake recipes, and sprinkle some cinnamon on there instead of syrup.

How do you eat vegetables with your breakfast? Tell us in the comments!

There was a time when fats were demonized. Food companies tried to come up with as many fat free products as possible. It was an unhealthy trend because extra sugar was added in foods to compensate. But on top of that, it became unhealthy because healthy fats were avoided for a long period of time.

Avoiding an entire important food group can have devastating effects on health. The importance of healthy fats for reducing PMS and getting back to having healthy cycles is often forgotten. These benefits also extend out to PCOS, endometriosis, and infertility.

An overview on fats

Sadly, the low fat trend created a fear of all fats. Dieters are under the false impression that eating fats will make them fat. So, here’s a science lesson in a few sentences.

Healthy fats have a ton of functions in the body. This includes reduction of inflammation, quick recovery, production of some of the components of our blood, being a building block for hormones, boosting our metabolism, and cancer prevention. They are also important for the health of cells, skin, and the brain.

Unhealthy fats, on the other hand (like trans fats), don’t have as many roles in the body. Both healthy fats and unhealthy ones can be stored in the body to be broken down as energy. However, because the healthy ones have so many other roles to fill, the body doesn’t tend to store them in our fat cells.

In simple terms, unhealthy fats are the ones you should avoid, such as fried foods. Missing out on the healthy ones, on the other hand, leads to a host of issues.

Healthy fats and PMS

Anytime we consume food products that contain shelf-stable vegetable oils (like crackers, or peanut butter that looks uniform), or meats that have not been raised organically, we take in unhealthy fats.

These unhealthy fats encourage the body to produce inflammatory molecules in the body. Let’s call these molecules PG2 (short for prostaglandin 2). Healthy fats, on the other hand, produce two categories of molecules in the same family. They produce PG1, which is an anti-inflammatory molecule. They also produce PG3, which has the purpose of blocking PG2.

Let’s put this in hockey terms. PG1 is the forward or the centre on your team. It does what you need in order to “win” or feel better. PG2 is the other team, who tries to score against you, or create inflammation. PG3 is the goalie on your team, who focuses on not letting the bad guys score, or blocking PG2.

PMS is the result of inflammation in the body. It’s usually a symptom of other health concerns like digestive issues. So, reducing inflammation in the body by providing it with an important nutrient is a crucial part of helping PMS.

Healthy fats are also needed to produce our sex hormones. These are the hormones that tend to be out of whack in people who experience PMS. An increase in infertility has been observed over the last few decades, coinciding with the low fat trend.

When we don’t provide the body with the building blocks that it needs to carry out its functions, said functions begin to falter. As mentioned earlier, PMS is symptom of other health issues. It’s the body’s way of saying that something isn’t working right.

Eating more healthy fats

Great sources of healthy fats include olives, coconuts, and avocados. Nuts and pure nut butters are also loaded with fatty goodness. The same goes for seeds and seed butters. Animal fats can also be healthy, when sourced from farms where the animals live healthily. This includes meats, eggs, and oily fish.

Most of the posts I publish on this website are related to problems I keep seeing in my acupuncture practice, or questions I often receive. Since one of the focuses of my practice is digestive health, I see many patients who come in with complaints of IBS, short for Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

What is IBS?

First, let’s start by making some distinctions. Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), which includes both Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis, shows actual structural changes in the bowel. On the other hand, IBS does not. It is often a label that is slapped onto people who have digestive issues outside of IBD. It’s generally seen as an issue that affects the colon.

People are often grouped into sub-categories of IBS based on their symptoms. Those who see mainly constipation as a result of their digestive issues may be given the label of IBS-C. IBS-D is a label given to those with more diarrhea. Some experience both, and are labeled as IBS-M (mixed).

Symptoms may include gas, bloating, cramping, and mucus in stools.

What’s really hiding behind IBS?

The issue with the label of IBS is that it is a bit of a “catch-all” term. It is given to anyone whose digestive problems cannot be helped with drugs, or where the root cause can’t be identified. People are then told that they’re stuck with their condition.

The truth is that there is often something hiding behind Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Bowels don’t just defect for no reason. Thankfully, more and more doctors are advising their patients to test for Celiac Disease, which can cause many of the same symptoms.

But what to do when your symptoms aren’t a result of Celiac Disease either? The investigation is actually not over! Some people with symptoms similar to Irritable Bowel Syndrome are actually dealing with an issue in the small intestine called Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth, or SIBO for short. A Naturopathic Doctor may be able to diagnose you in that case. Undiscovered food sensitivities can also cause these symptoms.

How to manage your symptoms

If your digestion is struggling, I highly recommend working with a few experts to make sure you don’t spin your wheels while trying to feel better. An Acupuncturist can help you see improvements right away. I also suggest working with a Naturopathic Doctor who can recommend the right course of action to re-establish the balance in your gut.

Many people see their symptoms improve by making some dietary changes. For some, it may be as easy as switching from raw vegetables to only steamed vegetables. Unfortunately, most people need to do a bit more work.

For some, a complete diet change can do the trick to relieve their symptoms short term. Some diets which have seemed to work include the FODMAP diet and the GAPS Diet.

One thing to keep in mind is that most diets will manage symptoms without getting to the root cause of the issue. Taking care of your gut health is crucial to saying goodbye to IBS for good.

For many, life can move at a very fast pace. It’s easy to get caught up in everything that’s constantly going on. Before you become overwhelmed, try one of these easy strategies to destress.

 

1. Do a breathing exercise

Breathing exercises are convenient because you can do them pretty much anywhere. When you feel that tension is rising, try this simple 4-7-8 exercise.

Close your eyes and take a deep breath in through your nose for 4 counts. Then, hold that breath for 7 counts. Finally, exhale fully over 8 counts. You can repeat this exercise throughout the day as needed.

2. Fake smile

Fake smiling when you’re stressed or in a bad mood can turn your day around. Simply holding that fake smile for 30 seconds can change your mood. Your brain notices that your muscles are positioned to smile, and catches up to it chemically.

3. Fake laugh

Let’s be honest. You can’t fake laugh without eventually laughing at yourself. Give a try. I dare you! Once that fake laugh turns into real laughter, you’re set to destress. Laughing increases oxygen intake and produces endorphins, those feel-good chemicals.

4. Take a silly selfie

Along the same lines as fake laughing, you’ll be able to destress by pulling out your phone, making a funny face, and snapping a picture of it. Remember when you were a child and you would make funny faces? You probably couldn’t stop yourself from giggling (until your parents told you your face would get stuck that way).

As a bonus, you can upload it on social media so that you and your friends can continue to share a laugh over it throughout the day.

5. Gratitude

When you’re stressed, it can be hard to remember the good things and see past the stressful events. Get in the habit of naming 3 things you’re grateful for when that happens. It will help temporarily distract you from what’s stressing you out. It will also help you keep an overall positive outlook to help you better deal with stressful situations.

Which methods do you use to destress? Tell us about it in the comments.

Menstrual problems are far too common these days. There is a widespread misconception that PMS is normal and just sort of happens if you have unlucky genes. In reality, issues like PMS, PCOS, and endometriosis are your body’s way of telling you that there is an imbalance somewhere. Often, digestion is involved.

Your gut flora

In a previous post, I went into detail about the organisms found in the gut. This is important to understand for pretty much any health concern.

Simply put, you have friendly organisms in your gut that produce some of your nutrients, help you digest, heal your gut lining from wear and tear, and keep unfriendly organisms under control. The unfriendly guys, on the other hand, produce waste matter which is toxic to us. In a healthy gut, there are enough of the friendly guys to keep the unfriendly ones at a harmless level. However, an imbalance in the ratio of friendly to unfriendly organisms is far too common. Contributing factors include pesticides, sugar intake, antibiotics, chlorine in water, and low stomach acid, among others.

The downward spiral of digestion

Once the unfriendly organisms start to take over, it becomes harder to reestablish balance. Their waste irritates the gut. The pores that naturally exist in the gut lining (normally only large enough to allow digested food into the bloodstream) become larger. At this point, undigested food can get into the bloodstream.

Since the immune system doesn’t recognize these large particles, it launches an attack on what it sees as an outside bug. It keeps a memory of this so-called threat in an attempt to prevent it from hurting the body in the future. This is often how food sensitivities begin.

One other major issue that comes with an excess of unfriendly organisms is the burden caused on the liver. One of the hundreds of functions of the liver involves turning toxins into a molecule that the body can safely flush out. The liver finds itself working overtime simply trying to break down the waste and gas produced by the unfriendly organisms.

How troubled digestion affects hormones

The function of hormones is to carry messages to the right cells. When they’ve completed their duty, they are ready to be broken down. The liver breaks them down into inactive compounds so that they can be flushed out through bowel movements.

When the liver is burdened, it struggles to carry out some of its functions. Some of the hormones that should be broken down may keep on circulating in the body, repeating their outdated message. This can wreak havoc on the body.

Estrogen dominance leads to menstrual problems

Estrogen is a female sexual hormone. Males also have estrogen, but in smaller quantities than in the female body. Estrogen works against progesterone, another female hormone, to stay in balance (think of an arm wrestle between estrogen and progesterone).

Estrogen dominance happens in one of two possible scenarios. In the first, there is simply too much estrogen in the body. In the second, progesterone levels are too low, allowing estrogen to win the metaphoric arm wrestle. A burdened liver can struggle to regulate levels of estrogen.

Estrogen dominance can be responsible for symptoms like mood swings, fatigue, headaches, acne, menstrual cramps, back aches, and low libido. In other words: PMS. Sadly, this is just a shortlist of symptoms. Excess estrogen can also lead to other menstrual problems like PCOS, endometriosis, and eventually infertility.

Why menstrual problems often come with digestive issues

In my practice, I’ve noticed that those who come and see me for PMS related concerns have underlying digestive issues. Food sensitivities are also fairly common in PMS cases.

The factors that lead to menstrual problems are similar to the ones that lead to food sensitivities and other digestive concerns. In both cases, the liver and the gut flora need some TLC. Additionally, once inflammation begins in the body, it is common to see a variety of health issues develop.

When you get those killer cramps during your period, what do you do? If you answered “I pop a pill- DUH!” here’s what you should know. NSAIDs, a category of drugs (which includes Midol, Advil/Ibuprofen, and Naproxen) have been linked to increased gut permeability. They can worsen inflammation in the gut lining and make those pores bigger.

In other words, the drugs you’re taking, while helpful in that moment, could be increasing your suffering in the long run. While you may be nervous to take the leap into more natural methods, I do highly recommend considering it. For instance, acupuncture can help with dysmenorrhea (period cramps) so that you can reduce your intake of NSAIDs.

Additionally, research is finding a correlation between endometriosis and microbiome imbalances in the reproductive tract. There also appears to be a relationship between gut flora and the onset of endometriosis. In fact, a study showed a link between endometriosis and IBS.

While simply addressing your digestive health most likely won’t resolve your menstrual issues, digestion is an important piece of the menstrual puzzle.

When we eat, our bodies produce enzymes to break down what we eat. However, as we age, our enzyme production begins to decline.

Enzymes are needed to avoid and reduce inflammation in the body. When foods are not broken down fully, large particles of food find their way into corners of our bodies where they shouldn’t be. This is one of the reasons we develop food sensitivities. The immune system sees these large particles that it doesn’t recognize, and attacks them.

Some choose to supplement enzymes with their meals to help break down their food. While this is still argued, some healthcare practitioners believe that simply supplementing enzymes may teach your body that there is no need to produce enzymes. Your body sees that the enzymes will come from elsewhere, so natural enzyme production declines with time.

Prepare your food

Taking time to prepare your meals actually helps your body produce enzymes, believe it or not. Have you ever noticed that when it smells like delicious food, you become hungry? That’s because you send signals to your body that food is coming.

This is exactly what preparing your meals just before eating them does. Since we’re all so busy and don’t have time to prepare meals 3 times a day, enzyme production tends to be less than optimal.

Chew properly

Chewing mechanically breaks down what we eat. When we don’t completely chew our food, our bodies needs to produce more enzymes to break food down properly. Additionally, there are enzymes in saliva that are meant to break down starchy carbohydrates. By chewing less, these enzymes don’t get to do their job properly.

Take smaller bites of food to tempt yourself less to swallow before you’re done chewing. Ideally, your food should be liquefied before your swallow.

Eat nutrient dense foods

Our bodies require nutrients to produce enzymes. Boxed and canned foods no longer have their natural enzymes. These foods require an extra amount of enzymes from the body in order to be broken down. Nutrient dense foods, on the other hand, provide the body with the materials needed for enzyme production.

Boost enzyme production in the stomach

Some of the enzymes that digest proteins are produced by the stomach cells. Stomach acid “tickles” the cells in the stomach wall, which encourages these cells to produce the enzymes. However, with age and because of stress, stomach acid production can decline with age.

Many people with acid reflux actually produce too little stomach acid. The burn experienced is the result of food which takes too long to digest and ferments in the stomach. To increase enzyme production, a teaspoon of raw and unfiltered apple cider vinegar in a few ounces of water 15 minutes before a meal can help.

Eat bitters

Bitter foods, like dark leafy green vegetables (which are nutrient dense, by the way!), actually help stimulate the natural production of enzymes by pretty much every organ involved in digestion. This is especially important for those who have troubled livers or lack a gallbladder.

The gallbladder usually holds bile produced by the liver until there is a need for it in the digestive system (such as when you consume fats). Without a gallbladder, bile spills into the intestines constantly, like a dripping faucet. This means that there may not be enough bile to go around when it’s actually needed. Bitters helps stimulate the production of bile with meals.

The microbiome is the combination of all the organisms living in our body, or gut flora. Some of these organisms are healthy, and some not. Hundreds of different strains exist. The combination of strains in the gut is determined at birth. If the baby is born through the birth canal, baby will receive mom’s bacteria. Babies born through C-sections do not have the same benefit. They can be more prone to infections and food sensitivities, unless probiotics are supplemented.

The healthy organisms in our gut produce vitamin K, which is essential for blood clotting, and some of our B vitamins. They also take part in digestion, repair the intestinal wall, and keep the harmful organism levels manageable. The levels of good organisms can be negatively affected by sugar, chlorine in water, low stomach acid, pesticides, antibiotics, allergenic foods, and artificial sweeteners.

The harmful organisms thrive when not enough stomach acid is produced. Their waste matter is toxic to us. As a result, when the balance of healthy to harmful organisms is thrown off, inflammation can be seen in the body. They even have the ability to make healthy organisms convert into harmful ones (picture a Jedi going to the dark side).

Intestines are naturally porous, in order to absorb nutrients and digested food into the blood stream. When the bacteria ratio favours the harmful bacteria (also known as dysbiosis), these pores become too big, especially without the needed number of healthy organisms to fix the intestinal walls. This allows larger food particles to find their way into the bloodstream. Since these particles are not fully digested, the immune cells in the blood do not recognize these particles. The cells see these food particles as intruders, and attack the particles. This can help food sensitivities develop.

The state of your gut flora also affects emotional well-being. Neurotransmitters are produced in the gut. If the gut is damaged, the necessary neurotransmitters are not produced properly. This can lead to depression, anxiety, and other psychological troubles. Additionally, nutrient absorption is impacted by gut injury. Nutrients are crucial because they are the building blocks of the neurotransmitter.

Weight loss highly depends on a healthy microbiome. Healthy organisms are partially responsible for blood sugar management. Fluctuating blood sugar levels are responsible for cravings. Additionally, unmanaged food sensitivities make it difficult to lose weight. They can cause the body to retain up to 15 pounds of water weight, and disrupt proper hormonal function. The healthy bacteria are also responsible for managing hormone levels. Since many different hormones play a role in weight management, it is crucial to keep healthy levels of desirable gut organisms.