Our bodies convert a great deal of food energy every day and use this energy for many things including healing, creating or reducing inflammation, fighting off bacteria, fungi and viruses that don’t belong and running around the block.  Wouldn’t it be great to have more energy and to know that the energy that you do have is being used for, well, energy?  When we use less of our energy on inflammation, detox, digestion and repair we have more left to energize us for a marathon game of monopoly or running around the farmers’ market on a Saturday joyfully and enthusiastically.

The following is a step-by-step to making sure that you are optimizing the energy from your foods so that you can rock your day full.

Step one:  Eat foods that don’t zap your energy.  For a full list of foods check out this week’s video “Foods for Energy” that demonstrates 12 foods to eat for energy.  Foods that might zap energy are rich in toxins, sensitivities (unique to you) or foods that are just plain difficult to digest.  Foods rich in toxins, that’s pretty straightforward… or is it?  For me the solution to this is basically to avoid foods with labels as much as possible but it isn’t really limited to this.  We each just have to do the best we can.

When buying produce I stick to organic as much as possible.  I really notice a difference the less processed foods I consume.  Foods that you are allergic to might include the top 5 of corn, soy, wheat, dairy and eggs but will be unique to you so if there is a food that you notice you usually feel exhausted after eating that may be a culprit for you.  Testing or well designed elimination diets can help.

Lastly foods that are difficult to digest.  Raw well chewed fruits and veggies are the easiest to digest for many people however depending on your situation you may find cooked veggies less irritating or easier to break down or you may be on a specific carbohydrate diet.  Generally the more complex a food is the more complex digestion it requires causing energy to be diverted away from anything else and directed toward simply digesting foods.  You likely already know which foods are difficult for your current system to digest.

Step two:  Eat foods that give your body what it needs to heal.  This can be mineral rich foods and foods high in good fats and vitamins, in particular the Bs.  If you are working on healing or nurturing a particular part of your body make sure that you are taking in the nutrients that you really need to do so.  For example for adrenals it can be important to eat foods rich in vitamin C or for intestinal repair it can be important to have enough D3 and L-Glutamine (and C too).  If our bodies are going to expend valuable energy to heal something let us help them by giving them what they need so that the healing can be quick and effective, afterward freeing up the energy for more fun uses.

Step three:  Eat foods that enable you to produce more energy right now.  Some examples of this are green peas, squash, macadamia nuts and sunflower seeds.  These are high in Thiamin or B1 which can help to increase energy and ATP production.  Adequate B12 can also help by maturing your blood cells so that they can carry oxygen around the body more efficiently.  It can be beneficial to consult an acid/alkaline food chart and aim to eat 80% from the alkalizing side.  There is a good one here http://www.fhsblog.com/?p=135.  One thing I find that helps me to feel energized is a good vegetable-only green juice.  If you do not have sensitivities that prevent this you can try too.  I can just feel the difference it makes in my energy levels all day as the minerals and the vitamins in there are so easily absorbed.  This brings me to step four…

Step four:  Optimize absorption so that you can actually digest all this good food.  Not only will poor digestion cause unwanted side effects and waste energy for digestion but it will also reduce nutrient absorption.  Poor digestion can lead to no-fun situations like “leaky gut” and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth.  Whatever we don’t digest well will be digested by bacteria, often with unwanted side effects, inflammation and byproducts.  Poor digestion can further contribute to if not cause auto-immune conditions.  Nothing zaps a person’s energy like immune dysregulation trust me I’ve been there!

So what is “poor digestion” anyway?  It could be so many things that it can get quite complicated.  Good bacteria are an important part of optimizing digestion but not the only important thing.  Stress can cause “poor digestion”, reduced vagal nerve function and so can insufficient stomach acid, the minerals needed to produce stomach acid or the minerals necessary to produce bile.  You can reverse each of these by optimizing your stomach acid, the ph of your large and small intestines, healing leaky gut, eating a mineral rich diet and working through stress imbalances.  Nothing has to be “fixed”, certainly not right away, we are not machines.  Once the momentum starts to flow toward more energy and away from energy depletion it IS possible to feel better and better every day.  Sometimes it takes a while for the body to catch up but do not lose hope.

Which foods are your go-to foods for energy?  Let me know in the comments below 🙂

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A letter from a friend…

Hey Hun,

Loved your newsletter this week.
A couple of questions for you on emotional eating, I think this is a powerful topic that everyone needs to know.

Is it true that if our body is craving something, it needs it?
ie chocolate?

This is a really good question that is fraught with misunderstanding and confusion.  I have come to see cravings as associations in the body between foods and particular states of being. Perhaps we remember feeling happy and eating chocolate cake.  This association can lead us to feel happy when we eat chocolate cake, use chocolate cake to feel happy in the future or crave chocolate cake when we are feeling or want to feel happy.

When we are craving a thing I believe that it is not that thing that we necessarily need but something that we did receive from that thing.  This could be a nutrient, a mouthfeel or texture, an associated benefit, a nutritional component or something else entirely.

What can we do about this? When we have a craving it is great to step back and ask three questions

• What is happening right now and is there anything similar to other times when I have craved this food?
• How am I feeling emotionally right now?
• What might this food be giving me nutritionally that I might need today?

The answers to this last question might simply be salt or healthy fat or magnesium. The first two questions can bring to light patterns that may have been sabotaging us for ages.

I recently had a large mirror fall on my hand when doing a handstand and went into shock. When my body experienced shock, and an overwhelming amount of adrenaline release, I uncharacteristically craved a peanut butter sandwich. I had just eaten a full lunch and I don’t even eat bread. I wondered if it was the pain my body was in that was making me crave food I wouldn’t normally eat. Is that possible?

This is absolutely possible. There are three very likely possibilities here:

Possibility 1: Your body thinks that there are giant mirrors falling from the sky (and it’s right) and it has to get ready to run away, therefor it is craving carbs so that it can get the job done fast. Your body is trying to save you.

Possibility 2: Your arm hurts and you are craving comfort food. Fair enough! Try almond butter with chocolate or straight out of the jar in a pinch. It’ll do the trick.

Possibility 3: Your body is craving the opiates from the Gluten peptides to literally numb the pain. This might not be so likely for you if you’ve been off the bread for a while but then again…

[if anyone else can think of a possibility here please post something in the comments]

Should I then give in to the craving to numb the pain? or what should I do?

Focus on other methods to calm your body down such as deep breathing (seriously) and going to your happy place… but before you do that maybe you can go to the hospital and make sure your arm is ok. Ice…

Would emotional pain have the same effect?

Chronic emotional pain and chronic physical pain can be very similar in the body. Blunt trauma to the wrist, maybe a bit different. Definitely the chronic emotional pain can cause cravings for carbohydrates because the stress will have an effect on blood sugar regulation. Yes, stress does make you fat (not you personally) and it needs carbs to fuel the fire of dysregulated hormones.

If someone was an emotional eater what should they do to curb it?

I think the first thing to do is to witness what is happening.  I think we are all emotional eaters to some extent, to deny this would make you a robot.  Keep a journal of what happened each time you craved a peanut butter sandwich.  Is there a person or situation in your life that is not serving you?  Is there a person that is serving you too many sandwiches?  Just because we are craving something doesn’t make it good for us.

Seriously… There is a still, small voice within each of us that speaks the truth quietly and can only be heard when we are tuned in to the radio station of our authentic selves. It is not the voice screaming for popcorn, ice cream and chips.  It is not the voice urging us to check our emails every five minutes.  It is not screaming anything top-of-mind but it is there when we listen.  Familiar, this voice has been there all along.  The more we can get to know this authentic self the less we will fall prey to the chocolate cake or peanut butter sandwiches and the more we will feel safe.

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Peace in the heart…

Sometimes I find it easy to take in other people’s aggression and difficult to let it go.  There was much anger in my family and I always thought they didn’t like me… It turns out we were all just a bunch of celiacs suffering from the symptoms of delayed food allergies.

I love to joke about this but in reality many people are dealing with aggressive impulses that are perpetuated if not caused by food.

Inflammation can cause pain. Pain can cause… people to yell at each other.  Sometimes it really is that simple.  Sometimes it is a deeper imbalance with methylation or neurotransmitters or LPS from the gut that directly affect our mood without any other symptoms.

What causes inflammation?

In short inflammatory foods, triggers and intestinal dysbiosis cause inflammation.

What are some inflammatory foods?

Some of the most common are sugar, meat and dairy products, coffee, peanuts, chocolate (sorry), gluten and trans-fats. There are more of course.

What can we do about this? Well I know this is unpopular but we are not going to get anywhere by drinking coffee with kale added to it or having a cookie with kale on top or having a kale salad with a dressing loaded with sugar and rancid fats or even trans fats on it. We can replace these foods with foods that are less inflammatory to the body. It is worth it.

Something else to consider is the acid/alkaline forming foods and working toward eating 80% foods that are alkaline forming. This is a great start.

What are some triggers?

Anything could be a trigger. This could be a toxin such as a heavy metal or infection in the body, it could be an environmental allergen like pollen or mould or it could be a food as well. This is specific to each person and environmental triggers including foods are the most common here. It could be a hepatitis B shot too just saying… (one of these days I’m going to get in trouble)

What can we do about this? Identifying the triggers that affect you would be the first step for sure and then eradicating those that are within your control. We are exposed to many toxins and triggers that are outside of our control but even so knowledge is power. The good old food journal or just plain journal is an excellent tool here. If something makes you feel sick/angry/yucky then absolutely avoid it.

What is intestinal dysbiosis?

Dysbiosis is an imbalance in the bacteria in the small and large intestines. There are many types of gut infections that are common that are overlooked or are not tested for effectively so many people are not aware that this may be an underlying cause of their inflammation. Underneath an overt gut infection there are some “bad” bacteria that can grow out of balance and others that are just kind of neutral but opportunistic and will get out of control when they have the opportunity. The bad news about this is that most people do not realize this is going on for many years. The good news is there is something you can do about it.

For a start make the Pomegranate Masala Parfait (or even just the yogurt from this parfait) and start to get some good bacteria back in. This will be more effective than buying store bought yogurts because you can control the quality of the bacteria and you will be consuming it while the bacteria are still live whereas after they sit on the shelf for some time they do die off. You can get waaaaaay more bacteria in a yogurt like this than in capsules as well if you are eating 2/3 of a cup.

Is food the only way to peace in the heart? No absolutely not but it is one gateway that we can control and it is one element that can stand in our way. Do I believe that food can make a difference in building peace in the world? Yes I absolutely do. That is what gets me up every day

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