Manage Stress With Ease: Day 3
On the final day of the Manage Stress with Ease tiny course, we are covering the awareness of your diet. Holistic nutrition concepts and inflammatory foods are discussed, in an effort to help you shift towards healthier foods.
Transcript
Welcome to day three.
Is your diet helping you?
Alrighty,
So I want to talk briefly about gut health and why it is so important.
And if you guys have ever heard me talk before,
You know that I usually can't get through a conversation without bringing up digestive health.
And there's a really good reason for that.
And that's because your gut health is at the core of your entire well-being.
You know,
Our digestive systems are responsible for doing so much.
We digest food,
We assimilate and metabolize food,
And then we eliminate the waste that our bodies no longer need.
But also we have digestive organs like our pancreas that produces digestive enzymes,
As well as the hormone insulin that regulates our blood sugar.
We also have our liver that neutralizes and removes toxins from the body and just so much that's happening on an ongoing basis.
And so I want to just remind you or let you know that although our digestive system plays those roles,
Our guts are also responsible for manufacturing certain nutrients.
And so when you are eating a poor diet,
A diet that's rich in processed foods with food additives,
Colorings,
Flavorings,
And refined foods,
These things can actually zap your health because you are eating foods that are,
You know,
Devoid of any nutrition.
And so when we look at nutrients like our B vitamins,
Most of us have heard of taking a B complex,
Right?
And that is the group of B vitamins that work better together than on their own,
Which is why they're typically grouped together as one.
And our guts actually make our B vitamins.
B vitamins are water-soluble vitamins,
And they are very important.
They're important for energy,
They're important for our blood health,
They are important for our cognitive functions,
And for so many other processes happening in the body on a daily basis.
Our guts also make the vast majority of our serotonin.
Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that is linked to our mood that basically regulates how good we feel,
How happy we are.
And when we look at people with depression,
Serotonin is always,
Always affected.
Well,
95% of that serotonin is produced in the gut.
And so when we are not addressing our gut health,
We are doing a disservice to our mental health as well,
To our mood,
To our hormone balance.
And so if you've never thought about why it's important to address your gut health before,
I hope that you're starting to see the bigger picture now.
Now,
We talked a little bit about in the article today,
In the text about foods that you want to avoid.
Let me just kind of explain why.
I don't want you thinking that,
Oh,
I'm just telling you to get rid of sugar,
Gluten,
And dairy.
And I know that it's probably not the easiest thing to do,
But I'll just briefly tell you why they are not the highest food choices,
That we can definitely choose some healthier alternatives.
Sugar,
Number one.
Sugar zaps our immunity.
About 80% of our immune system,
Again,
Lives in the gut.
And with sugar consumption being as high as it is,
It actually can weaken our resistance to germs and other pathogens by weakening our immune system functioning.
And that we don't want.
So we definitely want to make sure that we are reducing our sugar intake.
And obviously it has other issues as well.
Aside from the decreased immune function,
It's also inflammatory.
It can cause our body to be in a state of inflammation.
And of course,
It's not the best for our dental health.
And it also can produce energy in the beginning,
But a crash later on.
And so there are a lot of things with sugar that we definitely want to watch out for.
Some of my favorite sugar alternatives are coconut sugar,
Coconut nectar,
Which do not taste like coconut.
They do come from the coconut tree,
From the palm tree that bears coconuts,
But they don't taste anything like coconut.
Those are a couple of my favorites,
Stevia,
Monk fruit.
And I find that you really have to play around with it.
It's trial and error,
Right?
So you have to play around with it to see what works for your palate.
And it also depends on what you are sweetening.
Using stevia or monk fruit in a cup of tea might work well.
But if you're baking something,
Then you might want to go with something that you can pretty much swap white sugar out for,
Like a coconut sugar or something like that.
So there are different things to think about when consuming sugar and thinking about how to replace it.
But that's definitely one that I want you to have at the top of your list.
Number two,
Wheat gluten.
Now,
Every type of grain produces its own form of gluten.
Oats produce oat gluten.
Rice produces rice gluten.
And if you think about it,
Gluten is really what gives a grain its starchy,
Sticky texture.
So the problem with wheat gluten is that scientists have found that there is this protein called alpha-gliadin in wheat gluten that tends to be highly inflammatory and allergenic for a lot of people.
So even if you don't have symptoms of digestive distress or abdominal pain or cramps after consuming foods with wheat gluten,
It can still be affecting you by causing your body to produce inflammation,
Which is not good.
Inflammation serves its purpose if you fall and twist your ankle or if you bruise yourself.
Inflammation does have a role.
But when it comes to eating food on a daily basis,
We definitely do not want our bodies to be in a state of inflammation and producing those inflammatory markers on an ongoing basis.
Now,
Gluten,
The alpha-gliadin strain of protein that I mentioned is found in wheat,
Rye,
And barley.
And so usually people who are sensitive to gluten,
So when I say gluten,
I'm referring to the alpha-gliadin in wheat,
Rye,
And barley,
Usually people who are sensitive to that can typically tolerate rice and oats and that sort of a thing.
But there are gluten-free,
Like certified gluten-free oats out on the market that you can find if you are someone who is sensitive.
And if you think that you might have a gluten sensitivity or a gluten allergy,
Which are two different things,
Definitely let us know if you're looking for more personalized assistance to help figure out what to do.
And definitely if you're thinking that you could have celiac disease that runs in your family,
In which case people get really sick from consuming just a very tiny amount of wheat gluten,
Then you definitely want to make sure that you are seeing a doctor,
Working with us as well to really help you figure out your plan,
Your path forward.
And then third on the list is dairy.
And I know how hard it can be to not have your cheese,
Your butter,
Your milk,
Your cream,
But the thing with dairy is that it does cause inflammation.
It also is prone to causing allergies,
Eczema,
Asthma,
Or at least worsening those conditions.
And so limiting your dairy intake can definitely benefit those things.
Eliminating it altogether absolutely can obviously free you up from some of those symptoms.
So if you're dealing with anything like that,
Eczema,
Skin rashes,
Asthma,
Allergies,
Whether it's food allergies or seasonal allergies,
Try giving these things up.
And even if you don't have any symptoms,
At least challenge yourself to maybe going one week without any of these and then reintroduce them one by one and see how your body responds.
And technically speaking,
You should eliminate things like this for longer than a week.
I would say at least three weeks would be a really good place to start.
But listen,
It's better to start somewhere than to not start at all.
So now that you know what you really want to work on avoiding or definitely restricting in your diet,
Now you can start to look at what foods you definitely want to get more of.
And I've gone a little bit more into detail about this right inside of the lesson.
All righty,
Guys,
I hope this was helpful.
I will see you in the next one.
Bye bye.
