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3 Ways Processed Foods Keep Us Up At Night

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exauted
I know.  You already avoid packaged foods as much as possible.  You already know that sleep is essential for health.  Sometimes it is just really good to reinforce what we already know but from a different perspective.  Processed or non-foods impact digestive flora which can offset the melatonin signalling as well as glucose regulation.  This is especially true if those foods are high in processed fats.  This can disrupt or prevent our sleep and make it less restorative when it does happen.
Why sleep?
I used to say “sleep is for the weak”.  Until I got sick.  In my former life as a musician the middle of the night was my best and most productive creative time when I could really connect to the muse, practice hardest and do my best work.  Now if I’m awake in the middle of the night I know my body is designed to be sleeping at that time but it is not always easy to follow the “should be sleeping” advice.
There are important metabolic processes that happen during sleep:
-The brain cleanses itself and refreshes its fluids, releasing toxic byproducts that have built up over the day
-Growth hormone peaks, allowing the body to repair and rebuild muscles
-Fat burns
-The digestive tract heals
Here are some of the things that happen when we don’t sleep:
-Temporarily reduced insulin sensitivity for 24-72 hours following (induced insulin resistance)
-Feeling brain dead
-More fat less muscle
-Increased cortisol
-Increased inflammation
The 1st way processed foods interfere with our sleep:
Hidden or delayed allergens.  I mention it first because, well, it’s not that exciting and gets glossed over and overlooked but we have to make sure that we’re on the same page here.  Don’t ignore the mundane or obvious, that is usually where the most valuable information is.  If a person reacts to lectins or phytates or really any “ingredients” in foods that are often hidden… this can raise their heart rate, raise their cortisol and up the inflammation and immune reaction.  Most food sensitivities and true allergies are to the proteins in foods or the peptides that make up the proteins.  This would be a sensitivity to a food itself.  These can all be difficult to trouble shoot.  This effects sleep pretty much in a way that feels like coffee.  There are often excitotoxins in foods that affect our dopamine metabolism and can actually damage our brains while keeping us up.  Think about how you would feel after coffee and this is just a really exaggerated picture of how you might feel “stimulated” after processed foods.
Some ingredients that excite and feed the night owl are:
gluten and non-gluten parts of wheat
corn
anything you’re personally allergic (IgE reaction) or sensitive (IgG reaction) to
beans and grains with lectins in them (not prepared thoroughly)
preservatives
chemicals
undisclosed ingredients like “harmless markers” and “generally recognized as safe”
anything hidden in the “natural flavours” category
artificially and naturally concentrated sources of MSG (soy sauces, hydrolyzed yeast extract, most things with the word “Umami”, fermented mushroom or garlic products…)
The packaging itself
The 2nd way processed foods interfere with our sleep:
Nutrient insufficiencies.  Again not that exciting at first but the struggle is real in getting nutrients from packaged foods.  They are made to be tasty, predictable and shelf stable, not to nourish our bodies.  Which nutrients are the most important for sleep?  Where can we get them?
B6 (spinach and cashews for example)
Potassium (apricots, avocados)
Magnesium (can be found in leafy greens)
Calcium (leafy greens, chia, broccoli)
Omega 3 (chia, walnut)
Tryptophan (hemp, collards, seaweed)
If you end up eating packaged food once every couple of days and the rest of your food is pretty nutrient dense maybe this won’t affect you, as long as you avoid sensitivities and excitotoxins.  BUT…
The top way processed foods interfere with sleep:
They mess up the circadian rhythm of our gut bacteria!!  Yup!  Our gut bacteria have a circadian rhythm.  Short chain fatty acid producing bacteria in the large intestine send signals to our nervous systems night and day.  Part of the role of these signals is to let us know when to be tired.  One of the most important factors in this is Butyrate, a short chain fatty acid produced in the large intestine.  The bacteria in a healthy colony produce a good amount of Butyrate which can help heal leaky gut and can help reset OUR circadian rhythms.  If there is too much fat or too many processed foods in the diet the balance of bacteria will change to be one with less butyrate-forming species’ and they will not send signals like they should.  What increases butyrate and helps those bacteria reset our circadian clocks?  Fresh fruits and veggies!  The butyrate bacteria literally need the spectrum of carbohydrates and phytonutrients that can ONLY come from vegetables and fruit in order to produce butyrate at all.  Too much fat in the diet and too much protein creates and environment where these bacteria cannot thrive and are in fact reduced in numbers, reducing our Butyrate and thus our digestive healing and hormone signalling including estrogen balance, insulin receptivity and melatonin (I know but it’s close enough to a hormone).  Look to Bifidobacteria to support a healthy balance of bacteria in the large intestine and to a diet as full of healthy fresh fruits and vegetables as possible.  Check out some further reading on this topic HERE 
So put down the chips (if you can), grab yourself a bunch of spinach or collard greens and find those “visions of sugar plums” with just plums.

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10 Antihistamine Strategies

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Here are ten strategies for seasonal allergies or indoor IgE reactions like dust mites etc.  Let’s talk about the plants, bacteria and other elements that can calm the mast cells or reduce histamine in the body.

Here are three antihistamine strategies that really don’t work for me:

1. Eating pollen. Not joking. Some folks recommended it and I tried it and I have to say um, no, not working.

2. Lemon, lavender and peppermint essential oils. Cleared my sinuses but no, kept sneezing.  Also peppermint and anything with menthol has been shown to just make it FEEL like we are breathing better (and smell good) but not actually increase oxygen or decrease congestion.

3. Acupuncture. I wish this worked but it just didn’t 🙁 I will keep trying!

 

OK now onto what DOES work.

We must go deeper to the root cause.

If you are having springtime or full-time environmental allergies it is important to figure out why. So before getting into ten easy strategies for allergies that are already taking place I want to talk about an overarching plan. Taking away as many distractions for the immune system and then balancing it and removing the offending allergen are really all that are needed.

Taking away immune distractions means dealing with gut infections, sinus infections, tooth infections. It may mean doing a liver cleanse or a water fast to help with detoxifying or reducing those foods that can distract the immune system. This step may mean dealing with yeasts in the body.  Even if you are a practitioner it can be very helpful to work with someone who can help you trouble shoot this systematically.

Balancing the immune system means communicating with the two main branches of immunity, the swat team and the pencil pushers as I like to call them, tH1 and tH2 immunity. These branches of the immune system usually come into balance after long term infections and irritants are resolved but if not then the careful use of some herbs can be helpful. For example mangosteen, cardamom, moringa, watercress, nettle and so on.

If allergies catch you by surprise here are ten useful strategies:

  1. Netipot – about five times daily. This may not be for everyone but lessens the symptoms to some degree. When I have the schedule to be extremely vigilant with this I feel better.
  2. Vitamin C – liposomal, 1 gram five times per day three days per week and then back down to 1 gram three times per day for the rest of the week (doing too much for too long is not helpful to the body for how it uses vitamin C)
  3. Quercetin – at least 500 mg daily, I like 500 mg 3x per day.  Did you know onion skins are a great source of quercetin?  You’d have to tincture them…
  4. Plant resins and essential oils as a throat spray – I have thyme, savory, black spruce and lemon mixed with black cumin oil in a spray bottle
  1. Nettle tincture – Click HERE for the Wild & Grounded Green Smoothie Recipe is good but you will be getting more of the antihistamine properties and less of the histamine itself if you are using a tincture of nettle instead. I take dropperfulls throughout the day in springtime.  This has to be nettle LEAF tincture and the amounts to take are actually quite substantial.
  2. Having someone else clean my house for me – I’ll admit this agrees with me on so many levels however I have yet to find a really positive way to sell the benefits of this to my family who should do the cleaning. If I stir up dust in the springtime it’s not pretty. The same goes for mowing the lawn…  I couldn’t afford to hire outright so I am doing a trade and it works for me.  Do whatever you need to do to keep yourself away from the dust/cat/grass that is bothering you.
  3. Bai Hua oil – a mixture of essential oils from China (literally means white flower) but I don’t know exactly what is in there. This is helpful to me when I rub it directly under my nose. It can be a bit stingy though so watch out.  Don’t put something on your face without first testing it to see if it irritates the eyes or skin.
  4. Hard core 100% raw foods diet – Honestly this was the only thing that ever completely stopped my allergies. I know it’s not for everyone but I have to admit I notice the difference even between mostly raw and totally raw in my seasonal allergies depending on what I am doing with my food.  It may be the lectins, fats or just the grains consumed otherwise.  If you can figure out what diet is the most anti-inflammatory for YOU then stick to it.  And you can’t know until you’ve tried them all.  You may feel good but not know that there is an opportunity to feel better.
  5. Watercress, moringa and lotus daily – These do seem to make a tangible difference to me
  6. Cleansing yeasts – Candida, Penicillium, Brewers’ Yeast and others. Yeasts are big producers and releasers of histamine so they can exacerbate if not directly cause this issue.

 

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Digging to the Root Causes of Blood Sugar Imbalances

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Solving Blood Sugar at the Root Cause Level
Have you experienced weight gain, fatigue, an afternoon slump?  It probably doesn’t surprise you to hear that the most common cause of all three of these inconveniences is blood sugar dysregulation.  Call it hypoglycaemia, hyperglycaemia, metabolic syndrome, syndrome x, type two diabetes all are on the spectrum of blood sugar dysregulation.  For any situation in which blood glucose is having a hard time getting into the cells or is on a bit of a rollercoaster there are a few factors to consider:
1.  Genetics – about a quarter of people can’t develop this problem no matter what they do.  Everyone else can enjoy the blood sugar rollercoaster, situation dependent.
2.  Nutrient deficiencies – four of which are Chromium, Magnesium, Omega 3 fats and B1 (we’ll leave the rest for now)
3.  Lifestyle – stress, sleep, fun, drinking water, EXERCISE
4.  Diet – but you knew that
Today we are going to go further into these four nutrient deficiencies and some important ways that gut bug imbalances can contribute to them.
Let’s look at Magnesium and Chromium first.  What might cause a deficiency in these minerals?  A diet of processed foods and sugars will put a drain on them because they are used for blood sugar management.  Foods that have been grown in nutrient deficient soils will also not have these nutrients.  It is really important to know that a pumpkin seed without much magnesium looks the same as one with plenty.  For those of us who don’t buy food with labels, the dirt is our label.
But let’s say we are eating mineral rich foods as part of a balanced diet.  Are we absorbing those minerals?  Bacterial imbalances in our small intestines or stomach bugs such as H. Pylori will get in the way of our mineral absorption.  For example H. Pylori can lower stomach acid which is normally used to break the minerals apart in order to ready them for absorption in the small intestine.  If the minerals don’t get broken down by our stomach acid there is very little else that our digestive systems can do.  Having the right bacteria in the small intestine ensures a healthy mucosal layer through which nutrients are captured and carried through the digestive barrier.  The wrong bacteria in the same place can change the pH of the digestive lining making this less effective.  Not good.
Bacterial imbalances can also alter our nervous systems directly and contribute to stress and adrenal fatigue.  This increases the body’s need for these minerals and exacerbates blood sugar issues.
So many minerals (really all of them) are dependent on this absorption and when minerals are low many of our endocrine systems such as our thyroid hormones and our digestive hormones can suffer.  This can slow digestive motility and lower cellular metabolism and reduce blood sugar tolerance.
It sounds like a total nightmare when I write it like this but… the solution is mind-blowingly simple.  Eating more fresh green foods and drinking clean water can help to balance bacteria along with great quality probiotics, the right varieties of course will depend on the individual.  For those with a large enough imbalance to be classified as SIBO more time may be needed and a customized approach may help but in the end, even after killing the bad bugs, it is through maintaining the good community of bacteria through fresh foods, sleep, water and physical activity that you can protect your minerals.
Many people supplement with blood sugar balancing minerals including the ones mentioned here, but I don’t see a lot of people addressing the most common root cause of why the minerals are not being absorbed in the first place, digestive imbalances.  I want to get my magnesium from food and I bet you do too.  Sometimes supplementation is necessary for sure but if you want to get off the supplement train you must work on balancing the bacteria within.
Essential fats.  Just like in the mineral example above anything that interferes with stomach acid production like H. Pylori or any bacteria changing the environment in the small intestine will affect the signalling of the liver to produce bile.  Bile from the liver is essential for digesting fats.  Tthe liver doesn’t receive its signal to start working without adequate stomach acid and the liver won’t have what it needs to produce bile without minerals which – wait – can be depleted by the same bacteria that are causing this problem.
“I’m going to get some algae omega 3s, sure hope I can absorb them….”
OK last but not least, B1.  B1 is important for our brains and nervous systems and also for blood sugar management, the topic of the day.  Our suspect here is Candida.  Candida can deplete B1 in the body by creating toxins that we have to clean up.  Candida produces something called acetylaldehyde which is actually really hard on the body and is a priority for our detoxification pathways to get rid of.  In order to rid ourselves of this acetylaldehyde our livers use molybdenum and B1.  Coincidentally our bodies also really need B1 to bring glucose into our cells.  So coincidentally candida uses up all our B1 and then gets to feast on our extra sugar.  Those jerks.
Isn’t nature cool?
Definitely a long term solution is necessary and cannot be achieved with grumpy yeasts and bacteria running the show. For now consuming some B1 rich foods such as asparagus, broccoli, nettle, burdock and dulse can be a start.  Check out this weeks’ Broccoli Soup and also Cheesy Asparagus Soup for an easy B1 snack.
Can we blame Candida?  Let me know in the comments below 🙂

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5 Warning Signs: Have You Been Exposed??

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Here are five not-so-obvious warning signs that something may have gone wrong with your food. If you are experiencing any of these symptoms please check your foods for hidden ingredients, especially gluten if you are sensitive. I know there are more obvious signals that are unlikely to be missed like vomiting or losing consciousness but let’s focus on the warning signs for exposure that are likely to go unnoticed shall we?

1. Really really tired
Have you ever been really really tired? I’m talking about the kind of tired where you could sleep a full night of ten hours, get up for two, go back to bed for a nap, wake up for a while and then go back to bed at the end of the night? Tired where your arms and legs are really really heavy? Stay in your pyjamas all day? Or your yoga pants double as pyjamas for several days? If being tired is interfering with the flow and productivity of your day of course make sure you are sleeping well at night, check your thyroid levels and thyroid hormone conversion, check your adrenals but… all of these things could be off because you have been exposed to something. A toxin, an allergen, a chemical.. These insidious ingredients could be hiding in a supplement or food source or they could be in the environment surrounding you. Did you know that gluten free and even certified gluten free products can contain the rest of the wheat, just leaving out the gluten protein specifically?  Yup.  The point is if tiredness creeps up on you and is becoming a problem don’t get lost in blaming yourself for being lazy and don’t let time just pass you by while you are missing out on life. Make sure to double check your environment for mould and chemicals in your cleaning supplies. Make sure to check your supplements for hidden sources of ingredients that you are allergic or sensitive too. In my case the last exposure was gluten through supplements but I have also heard about this happening from seafood based ingredients or corn based ingredients in supplements. Take care of yourself. If you are too tired to live your life there is something wrong and chances are it’s not “your fault”.

2. Negative self talk
This one is a doozy. The truth is negative self-talk and mental patterns are very much influenced by our biochemistry. This is why when a person is experiencing depression they simply cannot think their way out of it. We all have tapes that play in our brains.  Our ability to turn the tape off is completely dependent on the down-regulation of certain genes through good methylation and anti-inflammatory processes.  Being stuck in a loop can be great for practicing a skill but is terrible when that loop is negative.  Our brains get stuck in this differently depending on our genetic predisposition, current state of health, nutrition, digestive bacteria and triggers that activate genes more toward OCD tendencies.  I have been fascinated by the chemicals created by yeasts and bacteria that can affect our brain function and nervous systems, for example Arabinose, Quinolinic Acid, D-Lactic Acid and Propionic Acid. These are just examples of some of the chemicals and substances that are very normal in our environment to help you see that this is not some far-fetched connection. If you notice changes in your thought patterns they could be caused by an imbalance of bacteria or a chemical or allergen in your environment or food. Again if this is interfering with your day-to-day activities it is not normal and there are answers. Of course it is a good idea to seek the help of a professional counsellor if you are experiencing damaging self-talk. We all need a little help. Don’t forget to check for hidden exposures that can change the way you are thinking however. Your brain doesn’t malfuncion. A person’s brain inclined to do this is a real benefit when looking for foods in the wild or keeping watch at night, real survival stuff.  your brain is doing the best that it can to function and we must seek to find what is getting in the way and overstimulating certain pathways. Changing mindsets can be difficult when biochemistry is involved.

3. Brain fog
A mentor once asked, “Why do you use the term brain fog? Nobody knows what that is.” I said “Trust me. If you’d ever experienced it you would know exactly what … wait a minute… what was I talking about again?” Do you ever walk into the kitchen, open the fridge and then wonder what it was that you were supposed to be getting there? Do you ever wonder if you said something out loud or if it was just in your head? Tell me – right now – where are your keys? Brain fog. Again biochemistry and toxins can change the way our brains work. If you are already eating organic, avoiding the top allergens, getting regular exercise and sleeping enough perhaps the fuzzy-headedness is not a diet/lifestyle problem. Digestive bacteria can produce something called Lipopolysaccharides and if we have leaky gut they can create autoimmunity in many body systems including our brains and nervous systems.  The lipopolysaccharides can even be found in Bacillus probiotics.  Usually fine but maybe not with leaky gut.  Eep and uck!  Check your supplements!!! Check your environment!! We need your brain!!!

4. Body symptoms like rashes/weight gain/headaches
Any unexplained body symptom… take note of it. Not everything needs to lead to a full blown investigation for everyone. That being said if I get a weird rash or recurring headaches you can redouble your efforts (this time) to check for exposures. Rashes, weight gain and headaches can all be signs and symptoms of the body trying to rid itself of something and beginning to be overloaded. If you have a way to lessen the “bad’ stuff going in so that the body has time to recover you can help yourself. Some skin rashes and other body symptoms are of course bacterial, viral or something systemic that need to be seen by a doctor or specialist… but if they can’t tell you the CAUSE of the rash or headache do not just let it sit. Do not just accept strange symptoms as normal.  Helping with phase 2 detox can help to reduce these symptoms and protect our livers but don’t ignore the signs from your body.  For phase 2 detox you can look into turmeric and also the bacteria B. infantis and L. plantarum.

5. Stolen Digestive Chi
Not hungry? Stuck? Not feeling the fires of digestion getting you going in the morning or like ever? Our digestion is supposed to be activated in the morning. If you are not hungry in the morning and even throughout the day something is going wrong. Take every opportunity to resolve the problem before it contributes to something even less convenient. You know how to work on cleaning up your diet so add to that an investigation for hidden allergens or toxins that could be stealing your digestive fire.  This can definitely happen.  Remember if something is going wrong every day it is probably related to something that happens every day, a food or eating pattern, an exposure.  Put yourself first and keep on digging.

If you are working with a practitioner there are three tests I would like to tell you about:
The Cyrex Array for gluten sensitivity:
https://www.cyrexlabs.com/CyrexTestsArrays/tabid/136/Default.aspx

The Great Plains Labs Organic Acid Test:
(giving information about substances like D Lactic Acid and Oxalates affecting your biochemistry)
http://www.greatplainslaboratory.com/organic-acids-test/

The Great Plains Labs Chemical Test:
(New but revealing, just to see how many chemicals are still floating around in our bodies even after choosing to eat organic)
http://www.greatplainslaboratory.com/gpl-tox/

I am a big fan of the following Vibrant Wellness tests for this specific investigation:

Mycotoxins

Food allergens

Food sensitivities

Gut zoomer 3.0

Please spend time thinking about whether something in your food or environment could be affecting your mental and physical health. It will make me feel like we can still help each other.

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Keeping positive

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Keeping Positive Through Chronic Autoimmunity; An Interview with Maura Kennedy

Mindset. We’ve all heard our beliefs and outlook are critical to our health. Even my rheumatologist, brilliant at western conventional medicine told me that “if you are doing something that makes you unhappy for more than three hours a day you will eventually get sick”. I’m not sure how to quantify that and for the longest time the whole MINDSET piece was something I put off. You see for me it is easier to change my diet and go to pilates than to change my outlook.

But just how does our outlook actually affect our health?

First our outlook affects our willingness to try new approaches or take the actions required to reclaim our health. Hey if we already think something won’t work we’re not going to bother right? Or if we do bother we may not be bothering 100%, all in.  Or if we try something with the expectation of failure that’s pretty much what will happen. As Yoda says, “There is no TRY”.

Secondly if our outlook contributes to overt or underlying stress then we will eventually experience its’ damaging effects. Stress can affect digestion and absorption, it can affect blood sugar regulation, cognitive function, pH, muscle breakdown, our adrenal glands and our thyroids… of course none of it in a good way.

Maura Kennedy has been an inspiration in her ability to stay positive no matter what she is feeling on a physical level.

In this interview you won’t find a sales pitch, you won’t find all the answers. You will find two friends talking about the struggles of chronic illness, relationships, recovery and state of mind. You will also find three simple things that you can do every day to help improve your state of mind.

Know that you are not alone.

See you in the interview below.

CLICK HERE to download the interview

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