New Blog Address!

No, you are not crazy! My blog address has changed officially to www.simplynourishedsimplybalanced.com! I hope to share even more content with you now that I have migrated my website over to WordPress. Please feel free to leave any feedback or comments if you have trouble viewing posts.

Power House Foods - Coconuts

I should start by saying that I love coconut!. They are such an amazing, nutritious, and versatile food :) My husband and I drink coconut water during exercise; cook with coconut oil and coconut milk; top meats and fruits with coconut butter; and add shredded coconut to shakes. Yum! A coconut is loaded with many different health promoting properties and is definitely worth adding into your diet. Below is a summary of the health benefits of coconuts that I collected from several articles by Dr. Mercola.

To start, it's probably worth differentiating the many ways you can find coconut:

1. Coconut Oil - this is the oil that is extracted from the meat (white part) of the coconut. It is solid at room temperature but clear under heat.
2. Coconut Milk - the ground up 'meat' with plain water added to form a liquid mixture.
3. Coconut Water - this is the clear liquid that is found in young coconuts
4. Coconut butter - this is the ground up 'meat'
5. Shredded Coconut - shredded 'meat'

Now, a little information on the health benefits of coconuts:

Coconut Oil/Butter:
A healthy saturated fat that can be attributed to:

• Promoting your heart health³
• Promoting weight loss, when needed⁴
• Supporting your immune system health⁵
• Supporting a healthy metabolism⁶
• Providing you with an immediate energy source⁷
• Keeping your skin healthy and youthful looking
• Supporting the proper functioning of your thyroid gland⁸
• Promoting construction of healthy cell membranes
• Supporting prostaglandin formation

The lauric acid in coconut oil is converted to monolaurin, which has anti viral properties. Lauric acid is a powerful virus and gram-negative bacteria destroyer, and coconut oil contains the most lauric acid of any substance on earth!

Coconut oil is comprised of 2/3 medium-chained fatty acids which contribute to the following:

• MCFAs are smaller. They permeate cell membranes easily, and do not require special enzymes to be utilized effectively by your body.
• MCFAs are easily digested, thus putting less strain on your digestive system.
• MCFAs are sent directly to your liver, where they are immediately converted into energy rather than being stored as fat.
• MCFAs actually help stimulate your body's metabolism, leading to weight loss. 

Coconut Oil in You Kitchen

Use for low to med temperature cooking. Coconut oil is more stable than other oils like Olive, canola, soy, or vegetable which oxidize when used with heat.

The problem with Olive oil for cooking...

-Olive oil is primarily a monounsaturated fat. This means that it has one double bond in its fatty acid structure. It is less stable than a saturated fat and can oxidize at temperatures over 350*. 
-Olive oil is its overabundance of oleic acid, which creates an imbalance on the cellular level that can inhibit prostaglandin production, which can increase the risk of breast cancer and heart disease. 
-Also, when the body is inundated with too many Omega 6 fatty acids, the excess is shunted over into the PG2 Pro-inflammatory pathway. 



Coconut water is:

• Rich in natural vitamins (especially the B vitamins), minerals, and trace elements (including zinc, selenium, iodine, sulfur, and manganese). Vitamins are necessary for the enzymatic reactions your cells need in order to function.
• Full of amino acids, organic acids, enzymes, antioxidants, and phytonutrients.
• Rich source of electrolytes and natural salts, especially potassium and magnesium.
• Light, low calorie and nearly fat-free, as well as low in sugar but pleasantly sweet—contains about a fifth of the sugar of other fruit juices, like apple or grape juice, as well as containing a little fiber to moderate absorption.
• Rich in cytokinins, or plant hormones, which have anti-aging, anti-cancer, and anti-thrombolytic effects in humans.

Coconut water also has an alkalizing effect on your body, which can help correct the cumulative effects of acidifying foods that make up most diets today. For a complete nutritional profile, refer to the tables at the Coconut Research Center site. The list of health benefits of coconut water is impressive, and growing by leaps and bounds with each new scientific study.

Coconut Water's Abundance of Health Benefits

Addressing every one of these areas is beyond the scope of one article, but I would like to touch on a few of the most impressive areas where coconut water may give your health a boost. According to Bruce Fife, author of Coconut Water for Health and Healing and one of the leading coconut experts, scientific research and clinical observation have shown coconut water to have the following broad-spanning health benefits:

Rehydration (water and electrolytes)	Increased exercise performance	Cardioprotective (rich in potassium and magnesium); helps regulate blood pressure, improve circulation, reduces plaque formation
Anti-inflammatory; reduces swelling in hands and feet	Prevents abnormal blood clotting	Aids in kidney function (preventing and dissolving kidney stones, UTI remedy)
Helps balance blood glucose and insulin levels	Digestive tonic (rich in enzymes); feeds friendly gut flora	Remedy for constipation and diarrhea
Anti-aging properties	Enhances skin health (elasticity, age spots, wrinkles), improves wound healing	Enhances eye health (cataracts, glaucoma)
Supports good immune function; antimicrobial (contains monolaurin)	Helps prevent osteoporosis	Anti-cancer properties

References:

Articles found on mercola.com

Help Your Heart: 71% of Those Who Drank This Lowered Their Blood Pressure; 2011

This Cooking Oil is a Powerful Virus-Destroyer and Antibiotic…2010

Olive Oil: good for health, not for cooking. ..2003

 

Slow Cooker Chicken Recipe & Money Saving Tip

Good Morning! I hope you all are having a nice weekend. It's a little dreary here in San Diego. I really hope the marine layer breaks up soon so we can enjoy a little sunshine!

Each week when Sunday rolls around, I start to think about my weekly meal plan. I really like simple. Time always seems to move a little faster during the week, especially the weeknight when all the 'to-do's' need to get accomplished in a relatively short amount of time. So I like to look for ways to cook less yet get more out of it. I really like to lean on my Crockpot when time is short because they generally require little work and have a nice payout.

Last week  I received a 6.5lb organic pastured chicken from one of my food clubs. This thing is like a little turkey! I am going to pop it in the crockpot today and we'll be able to enjoy the meat for most of the week. One trick I learned recently to stretch our meat a little bit longer is to shred it. I know it probably doesn't make sense as to why it would last longer, but it just does. I think if I were to cook up chicken breasts, my husband and I would generally eat more meat because they come in a set portion size. Whereas when the meat is shredded, that association is no longer there and we tend to grab enough meat to fit our appetite. Try it out, and you might be surprised. I'm always looking for ways to save a little money and this is actually a nice little compromise. Each day, I will usually add different spices or maybe a sauce to change up the flavors a bit.

Below is a recipe that I love from Everyday Paleo. It's a simple and delicious chicken recipe. The meat is so flavorful and tender when it's done. The great part is that there aren't any over powering flavors in the meat so that you can easily adapt it to different recipes on another day. Enjoy!!

Slow Cooker Chicken recipe by Everyday Paelo
http://everydaypaleo.com/scrumptious-slow-cooker-chicken/

2.5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs

3 parsnips

3 carrots

4 celery stalks

1 red onion

10-12 whole garlic cloves

¼ cup coconut oil

1 cup chicken broth (preferably homemade)

1 tablespoon dried thyme

1 tablespoon rubbed sage

Sea salt and black pepper to taste

Cut the parsnips, carrots, celery, and onion into large chunks making sure that the carrots and parsnips are cut roughly the same size for even cooking.  Place the chicken in the crockpot and sprinkle with sea salt and black pepper.  On top of the chicken layer the onions and whole garlic cloves followed by the parsnips, carrots, and celery. In a glass measuring cup mix together the chicken broth, coconut oil, thyme and sage (it helps to melt the coconut oil first in the microwave).  Pour this mixture evenly over the chicken and veggies and cook on high for 5 hours or low for 7.

Do you have any favorite time-saver recipes?

Smoothies - 5 Ways to Add Protein Naturally

Happy Thursday! I hope your week is treating you nicely. I've had great energy this week. Maybe it's the sunshine, maybe all the yummy food I've been eating, maybe it's from good news that I've been hearing from friends.. (one that just got engaged! yay!) who knows, but it's just a good week! (lPharrell's song "Happy" is playing in my head right now, lol).

Ok, back down to earth and on to today's post..

I am sure most of you know that good quality protein is an essential part of every diet. Your body uses amino acids contained in the protein to build tissues including muscle and bone, hormone production, and detoxification among many other vital processes.  It's important to get your protein from a variety of sources because each source also contains a broad array of micro-nutrients. So if you broaden your spectrum, you're more likely to ensure you get all your vitamins and minerals each day. This applies to all the food we eat. Variety is essential to optimal health.

I came across an article today on StumbleUpon (really cool website if you haven't already checked it out) that offered different ways to add protein to your smoothies without having to use store bought powders. Below are some of my favorites from that list:

1. Nut Butter - Almond, Peanut, Cashew, Nuttzo... your choice. Nuts are a great way to add about 7 grams of protein per serving to your smoothies, plus different varieties contain Omega 6 and 3 fatty acids for cellular functions and L-arginine for building lean muscle!

2. Chia Seeds - not only are these guys loaded with omega 3 fatty acids and fiber, they bring in 4 grams of protein per tablespoon.

3. Sunflower Seeds - These guys have about  1.5 grams of protein per tablespoon and are loaded with the minerals Selenium and Zinc which are needed as metabolic co-factors in your body. Most people are deficient in both of these!

4. Raw Eggs - Before you crinkle your nose, hear me out...Raw, organic, pastured eggs are a great source of protein and omega 3 fatty acids. They are also packed with B vitamins and antioxidants. Once you blend them up, you wont even know they're there :) If all you have are conventional eggs, I would skip this option.

5. Yogurt - Greek yogurt has up to 14 grams of protein per serving and contain those valuable probiotics (good bacteria) that help out digestion. If you have a dairy sensitivity, try using coconut or almond milk varieties of yogurt if tolerated. Be sure to read the labels as many commercial yogurts are loaded with sugar. I personally like Wallaby's Organic Greek yogurt which you can find at Whole Foods, Jimbos (local San Diego), or other grocery stores.


To view the original article and other protein ideas, visit the following link:  http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1qRqKF/www.buzzfeed.com/deenashanker/chemical-free-ways-to-add-protein-to-your-smoothie/?_nospa=true

I would recommend staying away from adding SOY as a source of protein as it functions as a xenoestrogen in the body and can disrupt your endocrine pathways/cycles.

Enjoy!!

Do you have a favorite protein source to add to smoothies?

Healing the Gut

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a lovely weekend and were able to enjoy some of the beautiful sunshine! It was gorgeous here in San Diego and felt a lot more like summer than spring. No complaints here. I love the sunshine. It has such a healing energy and it always seems to make me smile. :)

Today I want to share a few tips on how to heal the gut naturally. I'm sure many of you have heard about Leaky Gut Syndrome. For those of you unfamiliar, Leaky Gut occurs when the intestinal lining becomes permeable and food particles are able to pass into the blood stream. The immune system views these food stuffs as foreign and launches an attack! This can give rise to food intolerances/allergies, asthma, seasonal allergies, candida overgrowth, hormonal imbalances and auto-immune disease among other issues. Symptoms can manifest in a variety of ways, even those that seem unrelated. 

If you suspect you have a possible Leaky Gut situation going on, there are many things that you can do at home to start the healing process. Below are a few strategies that I have found to be useful with my clients.

1. REMOVE gut irritating foods. Sugar, corn, wheat, dairy and soy are the top most common food allergens.In order to determine if any of these foods could be contributing to poor gut health, try eliminating them for at least 21 days. Then reintroduce the foods, one at a time and record any symptoms. Typically you will want to consume the the food for up to two days and on the 3rd day record any symptoms. If you have a strong reaction sooner, don't wait until day number 3 and instead eliminate the food immediately. Give your stomach a few days to recover before introducing the next suspected food item. Continue until you have identified all the foods causing distress in your gut. Also, do not limit yourself to only the top allergens. If you suspect another food might be causing trouble, try eliminating it just the same. 

2. CHEW your food! This is an easy one. Undigested food in the small intestine can cause blunting and inflammation of the villi and microvilli which increases permeability. Chewing your foods can help your enzymes work better and reduce the impact to the intestinal wall.

3. ADD fermented vegetables and foods into your diet. Support the good bacteria in your intestines by consuming fermented foods like sauerkraut, kimchee, and kombucha. 

4. HEAL the gut lining by consuming homemade bone broths regularly. Be sure to add a few chicken feet for extra gelatin. The minerals and gelatin in the broth heal and sooth the gut lining.They also provide a good source of minerals that are easily assimilated. 

5. ADD foods rich in L-Glutamine. This powerful amino acid is one of the best healing supplements for the gut lining. Good sources include grass fed bison, pastured eggs, and red cabbage.

6. HYDRATE. As with any healing process in the body, you need to add plenty of clean fluids to transport nutrients and flush toxins. 

For a further in depth look at Leaky Gut Syndrome, I would recommend reading the book Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride. Dr McBride is a brilliant physician who has done extensive research on diseases caused my a leaky gut. She recommends healing the body, starting with gut health through the implementation of the GAPS diet.  http://www.gaps.me/

*Always consult your physician before starting a new nutritional protocol. 

Liver and Gallbladder Support & Beet Kvass Recipe

We often take for granted that our bodies will continue to function regardless of what we put into them. It's easy to fall into the trap of justifying a poor quality meal by spending a little more time in the gym or by starting a new diet, etc. We've all been there. Let's face it, sometimes we need to indulge a little...this doesn't mean daily though! :)  It is important that we build a nutritional foundation of nutrient dense whole foods that can support our bodies and its many daily functions.  In addition, there are ways that you can support specific organs and pathways in your body through the use of certain foods. Today I'd like to discuss a few ways you can support your liver and gallbladder naturally.

The liver is one of the most dynamic organs in your body. It is responsible for over 500 different functions including participating in energy metabolism, cholesterol production, and detoxification. In optimal conditions, the liver is able to plug along and meet the demands of the body. However, this is not typically the case for most of us. Because we tend to live in that stressed (sympathetic) state, this puts an extra load on the liver and disrupts it ability to  filter, breakdown, and recycle the increase wastes floating around the body. Next, layer on a poor diet loaded with inadequate nutrients and toxins from pesticides & other petrochemicals...and on top of THAT, continue to layer on the toxins from our skin products, air pollutions, medications, synthetic additives in food...the list goes on. The poor liver is forced to prioritize functions for survival and will put other functions (the ones that wont kill you today but can accumulate into very serious situations over time) for another less stressful day. This whole cycle contributes to a less than optimal functioning liver and the liver's neighbor & (bile) storage center, the gallbladder.

One of the ways the liver removes toxins from the body is through the production of bile. The liver uses good quality fats and other nutrients in order to produce bile. The bile serves several purposes including the removal of wastes and toxic materials, and it emulsifies fats that are digested from food. After the liver produces bile, it is stored inside the bladder of the gallbladder so that it may be released 'on-demand' as needed during the digestive process. There is one caveat to the gallbladder's function - if you consume a low-fat or no-fat diet, your gallbladder will not properly release bile in necessary amounts! This results in your body's inability to properly digest and absorb fats...Take that full circle and if your body can't digest fats, your body wont have the building blocks needed for healthy bile production (and hundreds of other precious body functions).  All the while, the bile that is in the gallbladder, becomes viscous and can form stones. This can cause a lot of pain in many people and sometimes results in having their gallbladders completely removed! Without a gallbladder, you body will not be able to release sufficient bile on demand and the whole cycle is disrupted.

So what can you do to break the cycle? Here are a few strategies:

1. Always start with a NUTRIENT DENSE, whole foods diet. Eating a variety of high quality fats, vegetables and meats will provide you body with the building blocks it needs for every bodily function.

2. AVOID trans, hydrogenated, and partially hydrogenated fats. These poor quality fats wreck havoc on the body. In addition, these poor quality fats can result in poor quality bile production.

3. HYDRATE. Supply your body with clean pure water. Aim for half your body weight in ounces per day. Even consider adding a little sea salt or trace minerals for better absorption. Your body is over 60% water and requires daily intake in order to flush our toxins and perform many metabolic functions.

4. EAT FAT!! Consume healthy fats daily in order to 'exercise' your gallbladder. Try adding a little avocado, pastured eggs, ghee, or coconut daily. Restricting or eliminating fats from your diet will result in poor bile production and can lead to painful gallstones!

5. Add a few organ supporting TONICS like Beet Kvass and water w/lemon. Beet Kvass is a fermented beet juice that helps to thin the bile and breakup stones. This tonic can be prepared at home and taken daily in the morning and night. Water with lemon first thing in the morning will also support liver function and detoxification.

I personally love beet kvass! It is a simple and easy way to support the liver and gallbladder at home. Please find a recipe below from Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions

Beet Kvass

3 medium or 3 large organic beets, peeled and chopped up coarsely (do not shred)
1/4 cup whey
1 tablespoon sea salt
filtered water

Place the beets, whey and sale in a 2 quart glass jar. Add filtered water to fill the container. Stir well and cover securely. Keep at room temperature for 2 days before transferring to the refrigerator.

Start by consuming 1 oz once a day. Increase to 2 oz twice a day.

When most of the liquid has been consumed, you may fill up the container with water and keep at room temperature another 2 days. The resulting brew will be slightly less strong than the first. After the second brew, discard the beets and start again.

Do you have any liver supporting tips strategies that you use??

Cooking through my CSA box - Mixed Mushroom Soup

Happy HUMP day everyone! I hope your week has been treating you nicely! I have been busy with all the usual. :) While at the gym today, I had a craving for some soup with mushrooms.  Random, I know. I am reading the book the Omnivores Dilemma by Michael Pollen and towards the end of the book, he describes the taste of Chanterelle mushrooms as having "a delicate flavor, fruity with a hint of pepper, and a firm but silky texture."Well, I had that in my head all afternoon. So after the gym, I popped over to Whole Foods in search of some mushrooms. They didn't have the Chanterells, but they did have some locally grown Maitake and Bunashimeji mushrooms that I swooped up. With my loot in hand, I headed home to see what I could make. I ended up throwing together a soup of mushrooms, goodies from my weekly CSA box, a little brown rice and some homemade bone broth. It was soooo tasty that I had to share it with you tonight! It's loaded with vitamins and minerals and is also very healing for the gut!! I hope you enjoy!!!


Mixed Mushroom Soup with Rainbow Chard & Spring Onions

Ingredients:
1 bunch of Rainbow chard, chopped. Leaves and stem separated.
3-4 large spring onions chopped
1 bag (3.5 oz) Bunashimeji Mushroom (or mushroom of your choice)
1 bag (3.5 oz) Maitake Mushroom (or another mushroom of your choice)
1/2-1 cup of pre-cooked brown rice per serving (I soaked mine over night in whey and bone broth)
Homemade Beef Bone Broth
1 tbsp of gelatin per serving (I recommend Great Lakes gelatin)
1 1/2 tbsp Ghee
Salt to taste

Directions:
1. In a Dutch oven, melt 1 tbsp of ghee over medium heat.  Add chopped onions and cook 4-5 mins. Stir. Heat bone broth in small saucepan.
2. Add chopped up chard ends and allow to cook another 3 mins. Stir
3. Add chopped chard leaves and chopped mushrooms
4. Allow to cook for 5-7 mins
5. In a separate pan, heat another 1/2-1 tbsp of ghee on medium heat. Lightly fry brown rice until you smell nice nutty aroma. approx 3-4 mins.
6. Prepare serving bowls. In each bowl mix approx 1 tbsp of gelatin with 1/4 c cold water. The mixture will be very gelatinous. Top with 1/2 - 1 cup of brown rice. Next, add about 1-1/2cups of the vegetable mixture. Add 1 1/2 - 2 ladles of hot bone broth. Salt to taste. Enjoy!!!

I'm choose to assemble this soup separately because I personally do not like soggy rice in my soup. I'm sure you could combine all the ingredients into one pot, but I recommend trying this one first! :)

Paleo Banana Bread

Good Morning! I wanted to share with you a very tasty recipe for Paleo Banana Bread from Civilized Caveman Cooking. I have made this recipe a few times already, and I love it! It's a nice healthy treat that isn't loaded with added sugar! Enjoy!!

Paleo Banana Bread

Save Print

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

60 mins

Total time

1 hour 10 mins

Serves: 8

Ingredients

• 4 bananas, (2 1/2 cups mashed or 575 grams)(they can be yellow bananas)
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup almond butter (140 grams)(or coconut, sunflower seed, macadamia nut, etc butter)
• 4 tablespoons grass-fed butter, melted (can substitute coconut oil)
• 1/2 cup coconut flour (75 grams)(or almond flour, macadamia nut meal, etc)
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder (gluten free or homemade)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• pinch of sea salt

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit
2. Combine your bananas, eggs, and nut butter, and grass-fed butter in a blendtec, blender, food processor, or mixing bowl and mix well (if using a mixing bowl you need a good hand-mixer)
3. Once all of your ingredients are blended, add in your coconut flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla, and sea salt and mix well
4. Grease a 9×5 glass (see notes) loaf pan with a fat of your choice (I used grass-fed butter). If you use a metal pan it will probably bake in 35-40 minutes so start checking at 35 to ensure the middle stays moist
5. Pour in your batter and spread it evenly throughout
6. Place in your preheated oven and bake for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean
7. Remove from oven and flip your bread out onto a cooling rack
8. Slice and serve

Variations

1. Cranberry Orange – Only use 3 tablespoons of butter. Add zest of one whole orange diced, juice of one whole orange, and1 cup dried cranberries or fresh if you want
2. Chocolate Blueberry – Add 1 cup of fresh blueberries and 1/2 cup of cocoa powder
3. Pumpkin Pecan – Reduce the almond butter to 1/4 cup and add 1/2 cup of pumpkin puree and 1 cup of roughly chopped pecan pieces

Notes

If you want to make these into muffins, use the same recipe and for mini muffins bake approximately 25 mins and normal size muffins 30-35 minutes.

http://civilizedcavemancooking.com/grain-free-goodies/paleo-banana-bread/

Do you have a favorite banana bread recipe or other treats you like to make??

Digestion Part 2

Happy Friday Everyone! I hope the week has been treating you well,  and I hope you found time to relax a little while enjoying your meals. This week has been pretty busy filled with all the usual tasks of everyday life - a little studying, working, and relaxing.

Today I'd like to expand on last weeks post and talk about the digestive process, start to finish as well as provide some strategies you can employ to support your digestion naturally. Here it goes..

Digestion Part 2

Digestion is a North to South process. It begins in the mind (as discussed last week). Once food is consumed, it works its way through various 'compartments' where food is broken down into nutrients and absorbed. Toxins are packaged for shipment out of the body, and wastes are then excreted. Sounds simple enough right? Well, let's break it down a little more...

There are 3 key players (organs) in the digestive game - Stomach, Pancreas, and Gallbladder. Each one plays a critical role in how our food is broken down so that it can be absorbed and assimilated into our bodies.

The stomach is the main holding tank, if your will, where the food is liquified and proteins are broken down. As you take your first bite, your stomach is releasing copious amounts of hydrochloric acid, hormones (gastrin), and enzymes, namely Pepsin (which digests proteins). As food is received by the stomach, it is met by a bath of hydrochloric acid where it starts to liquify. Pepsin begins to act on the proteins by breaking them down into smaller polypeptides and peptides (smaller strings of amino acids). The pH of the stomach is very acidic. It sits between a pH of 1.5-3 during digestion. This highly acidic environment serves several purposes:

1. Helps break the chemical bonds of food and turn it into a liquid form.
2. Activates pepsinogen (inactive form) into pepsin (active form). If pepsin were active in the stomach all the time without food, the stomach would start to catabolize itself (meaning you would die). It's very important that the acid levels remain below pH 3 because as the pH increases above this level, the ability to activate pepsin drops sharply - meaning you won't be able to breakdown proteins!
3. Disinfects the stomach and kills harmful pathogens before they can enter your bloodstream. (Yay for your immune system!)

Once this highly acidic liquified food, now referred to as Chyme, is ready, it is released into the small intestines for further breakdown.  As the chyme enters the small intestines, the pancreas is signaled to release bicarbonate to neutralize the acid level as well as pancreatic enzymes for further nutrient breakdown. At the same time, the gallbladder is signaled to release bile which will emulsify the fats into smaller fatty acids. The villi and microvilli of the intestinal walls begin to absorb the broken down nutrients into the bloodstream and the lymph system.

The chyme will continue its path down the small intestines and large intestines where more vitamins and minerals are extracted, water and some bile is recycled, and eventually formed into feces and excreted.

Whew, that was a mouthful (no pun intended).

So the above description is how digestion is SUPPOSED to work. Although, you can probably guess that's not quite how the story plays out for most of us. Because of the type of food we ingest, highly refined carbohydrates and poor quality fat or no-fat/low-fat, the stress that surounds our everyday lives, and the toxic load we put our poor liver through on a daily basis, it's safe to assume that most people have a digestive track that is out of balance. So what can you do to even things out a bit??? Below are a few easy strategies you can employ to support your digestive track start to finish.

1. CHEW YOUR FOOD! this is the single easiest change you can make that will have a huge impact on your digestion. Undigested food particles can cause trauma to the intestinal walls and can create a leaky gut situation (we'll save that for a later post).

2. Eat real whole food. Reducing or eliminating highly refined carbohydrates can have a positive impact on your stomachs ability to secrete hydrochloric acid which is needed for all the above mentioned reasons.

3. Eat high quality fat with every meal. You gallbladder will not work optimally if you don't consume fat. What happens instead is the bile can back up in the gallbladder. It can become viscous - eventually leading to it's inability to squeeze and release bile or it can lead to the formation of stones. The quality of fat you put in your body is just as important. If you eat trans fats, your liver will not be able to produce high quality bile and package toxins appropriately. This will increase your overall toxic load.

4. Eat plenty of fermented vegetables and consume fermented drinks! The beneficial bacteria in fermented foods nourished the healthy bacteria in your gut. These helpful little guys aid your body in breaking down and absorbing vitamins and minerals. They even produce vitamins themselves from wastes in the large intestine! These types of food include kimchee, beet kvass, and kombucha.

I hope this helps to shed some light on the various processes in the digestive tract. It's easy to not think about what happens next after we put the food in our mouth. Hopefully these tips will help you to bring a little more balance to your digestive tract.

Coming up next, I will be sharing  specific tonics you can make at home to help support digestion including the use of apple cider vinegar to stimulate hydrochloric acid secretion (YES, more HCL is a good thing!) and beet kvass to help you gallbladder. Stay tuned!

As always, please feel free to leave comments or provide any feedback! Thank you!

Digestion Part 1

Digestion.....it all begins in the mind...

We live in an 'on the go' culture. We are often rushing from one meeting to the next, checking email on the fly, running errands, squeezing in a workout, chores, etc. Our days are filled with an endless list of 'to-dos' that never seem to end. While meeting the demands of our day, we often inhale our food with little or no thought. This results in our food being mal-digested, and we can experience bloating, cramps, heartburn, headaches, mood swings, and the list goes on. We repeat this pattern day in and day out, and it isn't until a chronic or serious health condition sets in that we decide to re-evaluate our situation. It doesn't have to be like that!

Digestion is a parasympathetic process. This means that optimal digestion occurs when we are in a relaxed state. As we begin to think of or smell our food, the brain signals the salivary glands in the mouth to start secreting salivary amylase (an enzyme needed to breakdown carbohydrates). The brain also signals the stomach to start secreting hydrochloric acid, pepsin (enzyme for breaking down proteins) and several other digestive enzymes and hormones. The pancreas is also signaled to prepare for the release of insulin.  All of this occurs BEFORE we even take our first bite! 

Now imagine how most people eat most meals... scarfing food down before work/class/next appt, eating in the car while stuck in traffic, eating in front of the tv/computer/phone, and the list goes on. Hours later we end up with bloating, heartburn, headaches, mood swings, (insert your symptom here). We often put very little thought into the actual process of digesting our food.

Many of us eat our food in what is called a sympathetic state. This is basically the opposite of the relaxed, parasympathetic state. When we are in a sympathetic nervous system state, our body is preparing for 'fight-or-flight'. Gastric secretions are halted. Blood is shunted into the muscles; blood vessels constrict, airways dilate, and your body prepares to take on a life threatening or stressful situation. When we are eating on the go, inhaling our food, arguing at the dinner table, etc - we are putting our body in a stressful state and therefore impairing the digestion process. The result is poor digestion and usually some kind of gastrointestinal upset.  Never any fun. 

Fortunately, we can change this! By setting aside at least 30 minutes to eat meals, ensuring you are in a relaxed state, not eating in front of the tv/computer/at our desk, this can have a significant impact on the digestive process. I personally like to start each meal by taking a few deep breaths. This allows me to calm myself down, focus, and enjoy my food. It really helps me connect to my body. By taking a few deep breaths and being relaxed, this aids proper brain/gut communication so that my stomach is ready to receive and process the foods I'm about to eat. 

While the digestive process can be very complex, my goal is to break it down in small pieces so that readers can learn and incorporate strategies that might be helpful to improving their health. Stay tuned for my next post as I expand upon the digestive process and how important proper digestion is to the rest of your body. 

Do you have any strategies for eating in a relaxed state?

A place for sharing...

I have decided to start a new blog where I can share information on living a healthy lifestyle through nourishing foods and functional movement. I hope to share tips on how to bring balance to your body, healthy and nutritious recipes, products I love, and how to eat healthy on a budget. I am open to any suggestions on topics of interest, and I welcome feedback!