Your gut health is the key that unlocks the health of your entire body. Today I’d like to share some tasty foods with you that also nourish your gut and boost your health.
It is my passion to work with people like you whose health symptoms are getting in the way of you living life fully and with a sense of freedom in your body. I can help you to regain your health so you can feel great and free to enjoy life fully.
Polyphenols and Your Gut
Polyphenols are a group of naturally occurring micronutrients in plants that give plants their color. They also help to protect plants from various dangers (insects, UV damage, diseases). When you eat plants with polyphenols, you reap the health benefits as well. There are over 500 polyphenols found in different plants!
Polyphenols are processed by your gut bacteria. When your gut bacteria breaks them down, the metabolites contribute to the maintenance of gut health and overall health in a couple key ways:
Polyphenols support gut microbial balance. They enhance the growth of beneficial bacteria and inhibit the growth of pathogens. In this way they help your gut health much like probiotics and prebiotics do.
Polyphenols are rich in antioxidants so they help reduce inflammation and protect your cells (including your gut cells and brain cells) from damage. Polyphenols have also been found to promote cognitive function.
Foods Rich in Polyphenols
The spice cloves are the #1 highest source of polyphenols. Other great sources are cocoa, green tea, olives, olive oil, artichokes, thyme, rosemary, curry powder, star anise, hazelnuts, pecans, berries, coffee and red wine (but be careful not to overdo those last two or you cancel out the benefits!).
It’s best to get your polyphenols from foods rather than supplements. Using this list to guide you, look at how you can add some of these herbs, spices and foods into your diet.
If you’re ready to discover where your best health has been hiding, I’d love to connect with you! Apply for a complimentary Unstoppable Health Discovery Session. http://bit.ly/schedulinghealth (subject to availability).
Until next time, I’m wishing you unstoppable health! ~Rebecca
https://choosinghealthnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/apple.png00adminhttps://choosinghealthnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/apple.pngadmin2020-02-29 07:33:462020-02-29 07:33:48Delicious superfoods that heal your gut
Your liver is one of the most hardworking organs of your entire body. It’s to-do list seems endless!
It manufactures bile to help in the digestion and absorption of fats (and fat-soluble vitamins), filters the blood–detoxifying it from chemicals, metabolizing drugs and filtering & removing hormones, is involved in thyroid hormone conversion for proper thyroid function, stores vitamins and minerals (A, D, E, K, B12, iron and copper), and makes angiotensinogen (a hormone that raises blood pressure). It’s quite the busy bee!
The liver is undeniably very important to your overall health and well-being. This is the reason why liver cleansing or detox has become so popular.
But is it really worth it? And what is liver cleansing really all about?
Since the liver is your body’s natural detoxifier, several practitioners believe that over time, chemicals and toxins accumulate in the liver and damage it. The result: a liver that does not function optimally, leading to a variety of non-specific symptoms and serious diseases such as cancer.
Support Your Liver…and The Rest of You
While I do think that some of the methods for supporting liver detox are excellent, like castor oil packs and dietary changes to reduce toxins coming into your body, they are helpful because they support more than just the liver all by itself. According to the author of The Detox Diet, Elson Haas, MD, we cannot really individually cleanse or detoxify a particular organ separately. Instead, think of liver cleansing or detox as more of a whole body cleansing.
If you want a healthy liver, gear your actions towards an overall healthy body.
5 Easy Ways to Support Detox
By doing small tweaks to your diet and changing some practices to support liver health, you will soon, eventually, create a lifestyle that nourishes the liver and optimizes its ability to do a great job.
Eat clean, organic food (basically, reduce the toxins that are coming into your body)…and while you’re at it, get tested so you know the precise foods that are optimal for YOUR body (ask me how)
Hydrate with clean, filtered water (about half your body weight in ounces daily…work up to this slowly if you are currently not even close to this amount)
Again, small tweaks in your diet and lifestyle add up to much more than a one-time, intense cleanse.
It is my passion to work with people like you whose health symptoms are getting in the way of you living life fully and with a sense of freedom in your body. I can help you to regain your health so you can feel great and free to enjoy life fully.
If you’re ready to discover where your best health has been hiding, I’d love to connect with you! Apply for a complimentary Unstoppable Health Discovery Session. http://bit.ly/schedulinghealth (subject to availability).
Until next time, I’m wishing you unstoppable health!
~Rebecca
https://choosinghealthnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/apple.png00adminhttps://choosinghealthnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/apple.pngadmin2020-02-28 06:23:372020-02-21 06:24:44What is Liver Cleansing or Detox?
Would you believe that not all probiotics are good?
Though probiotics have received a lot of attention over the years for their gut-friendly benefits and overall impact to well-being, it is unfortunate to say that some brands are not only not helpful, but may even make your symptoms worse.
According to the World Health Organization, probiotics are “live microorganisms which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit on the host.”
If you have been reading my newsletters, you know how much I recommend customizing gut support. This may include probiotics because of their ability to keep support a diverse gut bug environment and in turn make your immune system and digestive system strong. A healthy gut gives you more benefits than any other area of health which is why it is considered to be the root of all health (or disease if it isn’t working well).
So in this newsletter, I will shed some light on how you can find a probiotic that actually works for your gut, so you get the maximum benefits.
First, in order for a probiotic to be effective, it must be “alive.” It sounds funny that I should emphasize that because, by definition, probiotics are, in fact, live microorganisms.
Probiotic Essentials
Here’s the gist:
Some probiotics are not bottled in a way that they can survive supplement production or resist the acidity of the stomach. So they are dead even before you take them or by the time they reach the colon, and you have wasted your money on something that you thought could benefit you.
Second, for a probiotic to be effective, it must contain identified strains of bacteria that were proven to provide health benefits to humans. It’s not just about taking something that has a high level of bacteria per serving (in probiotics, this is called CFU or colony forming units). More CFU’s doesn’t mean it’s better or more effective.
Remember that each species of bacteria has thousands of strains. Some have no proven benefits to human health, while others remain unstudied.
All you need are the bacterial strains that have proven benefits and that can survive bottling preparations and the acidic journey towards the colon.
I recommend spore-based probiotics because they are specifically designed to make it through the acidic environment of the stomach. Spores are the building blocks of a new cell and they can remain dormant for a long time and “hatch” or “come to life” in the intestines where they can colonize, increase the diversity of the microbiome, and boost your immune system.
Again, they are more effective than ordinary probiotics because they have an endospore or outer shell that keeps the strains highly resistant to stomach acid.
I also recommend specifically the spore form of the bacillus strains. The benefits are powerful!
One bacillus strain, Bacillus Indicus HU36(TM), produces important nutrients at the absorption site of your intestines. These nutrients are lycopene, astaxanthin, zeaxanthin, beta carotene, and lutein. It’s considered to be the most effective antioxidant probiotic strain on the market.
Bacillus strains can fight SIBO or Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth. SIBO causes diarrhea, bloating, stomach pain among other symptoms. Other probiotics might increase SIBO, but there are specific bacillus strains that don’t such as Bacillus Clausii.
Overall, spore-based bacillus strains are helpful if you are on the journey to healing your gut so that you can reap the maximum benefits of a healthy microbiome.
I pick brands that I believe are worth the price and get the best health benefits. So with probiotics, I choose MegaSpore Biotic by Microbiome Labs. They have tons of legit research to back up their claims and I’ve seen great results with it.
It is recommended that you ease in with new probiotics rather than starting at the full amount on the label and I doubly recommend working with a practitioner to get the most out of your supplementation.
It is my passion to work with people like you whose health symptoms are getting in the way of you living life fully and with a sense of freedom in your body. I can help you to regain your health so you can feel great and free to enjoy life fully.
If you’re ready to discover where your best health has been hiding, I’d love to connect with you! Apply for a complimentary Unstoppable Health Discovery Session. http://bit.ly/schedulinghealth (subject to availability).
Until next time, I’m wishing you unstoppable health! ~Rebecca
https://choosinghealthnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/apple.png00adminhttps://choosinghealthnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/apple.pngadmin2020-02-21 06:22:432020-02-21 06:22:43How to Choose the Best Probiotic
You’ve heard that one person’s medicine is another person’s poison, but did you know that one person’s health food is another person’s junk food?
Millions of Americans suffer from at least one food intolerance/sensitivity. You can be intolerant to any food: apples, lettuce, chicken, and even olive oil. Besides making it impossible to lose weight, food and food chemical intolerance has been found to play a role in many chronic health conditions including:
Celiac Disease
Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Fibromyalgia
Autism Spectrum Disorders
ADD/ADHD
Bloating
Gas
Headaches & migraines
Fatigue
Weight imbalances
Cravings
Skin conditions such as eczema
Heartburn/GERD
Rheumatoid Arthritis
Joint and muscle pain
Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Chronic diarrhea
Constipation
Food intolerance is also considered a major stressor to the adrenal glands. Unhealthy adrenals can wreak havoc on gut health, immune system, detoxification capabilities, hormones, fertility and muscle and fat gain and loss.
What is food intolerance?
Food intolerance is a negative reaction to food that happens when your body is hypersensitive to a food and launches an attack OR because your body lacks the ability to break down a food (as in lactose intolerance when the person doesn’t make enough enzyme to break down the lactose sugar in dairy).
When your body launches an attack on food, it does so with something called mediators. These are chemicals from your immune system such as eosinophils, basophils, neutrophils macrophages, T-cells and NK cells. Think of them as different departments within your immune system. Sometimes one mediator “department” will attack while others will not. This is one reason why it is hard to pick up on food intolerance: a small amount of the trigger food may not always cause an obvious symptom even though every time the trigger food is consumed, your mediators are attacking it (sometimes it will cause a big war with lots of symptoms and other times, it’s smaller).
When we eat foods we are intolerant/sensitive to, it causes systemic disruption and can cause chronic inflammation in the body resulting in a variety of symptoms (see above).
The difference between food intolerance and allergies
Food intolerance is different than food allergies in a couple of ways. One is the way that the body responds and the other is the speed in which the body responds.
With an allergy, your body’s immune system (mast cells) reacts to the offending food very soon after exposure. Food allergies occur in 2-4% of the population. The body releases histamine, prostaglandins and other pro-inflammatory mediators. If you have a strong enough allergic reaction, exposure to the allergic food can result in life-threatening anaphylaxis. Because the reaction occurs so quickly after exposure to the allergic food, most people who have food allergies are well aware of what they are allergic to.
Food intolerance or sensitivity can be much trickier since the reaction is delayed. You can also have a food intolerance that doesn’t give you clear symptoms unless you have a lot of it or eat it a few days in a row (as I mentioned). This is why it can be so challenging to figure out!
The other thing that is important to mention is that food intolerance/sensitivity happens when we lose something called “oral tolerance”. Oral tolerance is when your immune system can tell the difference and not attack food proteins, but instead attacks disease-causing bacteria and other pathogens or chemicals that are harmful. In other words, your immune system works well and attacks what shouldn’t be there and it isn’t triggered by many of the foods you are eating. When you lose oral tolerance, it’s because your immune system (your gut is your largest immune organ!) is NOT functioning properly and it is attacking proteins from your food. It’s seeing everything as an enemy and wants to attack!
Your gut is home to your immune cells that are responsible for oral tolerance. A disturbance in your gut leads to loss of oral tolerance and the result is that you have symptoms and an ever decreasing set of food options.
Food intolerance pathways
This next part gets a bit geeky so feel free to skip to the next section it if that’s not your thing.
There are many, many ways that the body can react to an intolerance because there are multiple hypersensitivity pathways. The four main categories of hypersensitivity are: Type I, II, III and IV. Types III and IV are much more common in people than Type I reactions; 15-25% of population compared to 2-4%.
Type I hypersensitivity categorizes true food allergies as given in the above example. It is also called an IgE reaction.
Type II hypersensitivity has not been found to be linked to adverse reactions to food.
Type III hypersensitivity includes IgG reactions (commonly tested for by most food intolerance tests). Type III reactions usually take place 3-8 hours after exposure.
Type IV hypersensitivity is the most common pathway for adverse food reactions and yet many tests do not test for Type IV reactions. In Type IV reactions, the T-cells react with offensive foods and symptoms occur anywhere from 4-72 hours after exposure. Herein lies the challenge with identifying delayed food intolerances. How many people are going to make the connection between not feeling well with what they ate 72 hours earlier?
Finding out if you have a food intolerance
There are several ways to detect what you are intolerant to. You may already know that there are certain things that make you feel crummy when you eat them. There are also blood tests such as serum IgG and Type IV test. These offer the broadest spectrum of pinning down food intolerance trigger foods. Oxford Labs offers a test called the MRT (Mediator Release Test), which is currently considered one of the best, most accurate food intolerance tests (also tests for food chemicals). This test is offered through licensed nutritionists such as myself with special certification in Functional Diagnostic Nutrition™ and Metabolic Typing™.
Recovering from food intolerance
To heal your body and keep oral tolerance, you’ll need to get a good plan for replacing your trigger foods with gut healing, anti-inflammatory foods. Getting those stressful foods out of your diet for awhile AND repairing the damage to your gut may allow you to eat them later without it causing inflammation and all those other symptoms we talked about. The goal is to eat a diverse amount of foods.
Here’s an overview:
Eat a variety of foods, especially fresh produce. You may get tempted to opt for easy-to-cook processed foods on a daily basis, but you have to be intentional in choosing higher quality foods that are right for YOUR body.
Get to the root of what’s damaging your gut. High sugar, artificial sweeteners, trans fats, lack of sleep, unmanaged stress, environmental and food chemicals, and infections all disrupt your gut microbiome. You can learn more here about leaky gut and how to fix it.
Have a healthy and active lifestyle. Make sure you are doing enough exercise regularly, getting ample sleep, and managing your stress appropriately.
Tailor a healing protocol. Your diet can be customized according to your needs. You can eliminate foods that you’re sensitive to for a time and introduce them gradually back to your diet one at a time once you have repaired your gut, restored proper immune function, and your digestion is working well again.
Your body is designed to be healthy. Sometimes it needs a bit of extra help so you can look and feel your best. As you now know, food intolerance is a major obstacle that may be getting in your way and causing you symptoms. You don’t need to keep wasting your time and energy struggling and guessing.
It is my passion to work with people like you whose health symptoms are getting in the way of you living life fully and with a sense of freedom in your body. I can help you to regain your health so you can feel great and free to enjoy life fully. Part of helping you do that is to help you have the healthiest gut possible.
If you’re ready to discover where your best health has been hiding, I’d love to connect with you! Apply for a complimentary Unstoppable Health Discovery Session. http://bit.ly/schedulinghealth (subject to availability).
Until next time, I’m wishing you unstoppable health! ~Rebecca
https://choosinghealthnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/apple.png00adminhttps://choosinghealthnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/apple.pngadmin2020-02-20 13:53:472020-02-20 13:53:48The truth about food sensitivity and allergies
Boosting your immune system always–and most especially during the cold seasons–is vital.
The outbreak of the coronavirus (or 2019-nCov) has caused global fear, but it’s a reminder of how important it is for us to keep our resistance strong against whatever viruses or bacteria that may come our way and cause disease.
There are many ways to strengthen your immune system. You’re probably already familiar with some of these methods. For example, you can give your immune system the upper hand by living a healthy lifestyle, which includes eating unprocessed and nutrient dense foods, staying hydrated, getting enough sleep, exercising, not smoking, drinking alcoholic drinks in moderation, and managing stress effectively.
But one thing that can help your body’s immune defense tremendously is getting enough Vitamin C…and there’s a catch! The catch is that it’s not enough to get plenty of Vit C daily: you also have to make sure to not rapidly deplete the Vit C you are getting. Two things that deplete your Vit C quickly are sugary foods and stress.
So I want to briefly tell you about how Vit C works and then let’s talk about how to plug the Vit C Drain so that you stay healthy and feel great. Sound good?
Why Vit C is Awesome
Vitamin C has gained popularity over the years because a high level of vitamin C in the body is considered to be the ideal nutrition marker for overall health.
Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, is a water-soluble vitamin that is found in foods, particularly in fruits and vegetables.
Here are some of its benefits:
It works as an antioxidant. — It protects the cells from the damage caused by free radicals. Actually, the formation of free radicals in the body is important because they are byproducts of our cells’ conversion of food into usable energy. However, when free radicals accumulate, they cause damage to cells. Free radicals are also found in air pollution, UV light, and cigarette smoke. Antioxidants, like vitamin C, fight the free radicals. So in a way, vitamin C prevents or delays cell damage, including certain cancers, and promotes healthy aging.
It is needed to make collagen. — Your body naturally makes collagen with the help of vitamin C and the minerals zinc and copper. Collagen is a substance needed for your body’s connective tissues, which is vital to support your organs. Are you familiar with scurvy? This is a condition of vitamin C deficiency in which in the late stage of the condition, the person loses their teeth because there is no more connective tissues holding them in. Collagen is also important for healthy skin and bones and for healing wounds.
It helps in the absorption of iron from plant-based sources. Iron is important in transporting oxygen through the blood, and vitamin C increases the absorption of iron in the small intestines. So, iron must be taken together with vitamin C to get the maximum benefits.
Finally, and our main point here is that it helps in strengthening our immune system.
But how does vitamin C do the work? By supporting various cellular functions of the immune system, vitamin C promotes the cellular activities of the immune cells that ultimately kills the invading microbes.
Studies have even shown that vitamin C deficiency decreases immune resistance and increases the individual’s risk for infections.
How’s your vitamin C status?
Make sure to support your immune system by taking vitamin C every day. You can get vitamin C from a variety of food sources such as citrus fruits, guavas, papayas, Brussels sprouts, black currants, kiwis, kale, bell peppers, broccoli, spinach, and organ meats.
Vitamin C, however, can be easily destroyed during food preparation because it’s sensitive to light, heat, and air so fresh and lightly cooked is best.
As an alternative, you can take vitamin C from rose hips. Rose hips are the seed pods of roses and are rich in vitamin C as well as other compounds that further boost the antioxidant function of vitamin C. A few weeks ago, I also shared some of the best forms of supplemental Vit C (check that out here in case you missed it).
Plug the drain
Lastly, the more mindful you are of avoiding sugar and choosing alternatives like monk fruit or Lakanto or small amounts of honey, the more Vitamin C you’ll retain. This goes for lots of fruit or any foods that cause your blood sugar to increase strongly (this depletes your Vit C!).
Same goes for stress. Stress is like flushing your Vitamin C down the toilet! And I know that you can’t avoid all stress, BUT you can absolutely manage how you respond to it much of the time. HeartMath tools are my favorite way to transform stress right there in the moment you are feeling it (so you plug the drain right away). Other great tools are exercise, music, meditation, getting out in nature, talking with someone, yoga, journaling…the more quickly you can change how you are feeling in the moments you have stress, the better your life experience will be and the better Vit C levels you’ll have.
Truly, prevention is better than cure so build up your immune system well. I’m not saying you won’t ever catch a cold if your immune system is strong, but you’ll certainly be more resilient and quicker to fight it off.
It is my passion to work with people like you whose health symptoms are getting in the way of you living life fully and with a sense of freedom in your body. I can help you to regain your health so you can feel great and free to enjoy life fully.
If you’re ready to discover where your best health has been hiding, I’d love to connect with you! Apply for a complimentary Unstoppable Health Discovery Session. http://bit.ly/schedulinghealth (subject to availability).
Until next time, I’m wishing you unstoppable health! ~Rebecca
https://choosinghealthnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/apple.png00adminhttps://choosinghealthnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/apple.pngadmin2020-02-14 09:22:032020-02-14 09:22:05How to Keep Your Immune System Strong
Let’s kick the New Year off right by giving your body some powerful health advantages.
Vitamin C is famous for making your immune system strong, but did you know that it also has other health benefits?
Yes, in fact, this water-soluble vitamin has attracted attention among researchers over the years. Let’s explore some of its benefits!
Vitamin C Supports Your Immune System
Vitamin C protects you from infections and even helps combat chronic diseases. It supports the cellular processes of the immune system so that they can prevent infectious organisms from causing harm to your body.
Do you easily catch colds? That may be a clue your system needs more vitamin C.
Vitamin C Has Anti-Aging Effects
Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant–meaning, it fights the free radicals in the body. One source of free radicals comes from your own tissues as they produce energy. You are also exposed to free radicals in your environment such as air pollution and UV light from the sun.
Free radicals cause damage to your cells.
One theory about aging is that we age because we have accumulated free radical damage over time. Vitamin C, being one of the most potent antioxidants (stops free radicals from damaging your tissues), can slow down the signs of aging.
Also, vitamin C supports the formation of collagen, a protein that acts like glue holding your body together. It also helps heal wounds, keeps bones and teeth strong, and maintains the health of your skin.
No wonder why vitamin C serum is a popular part of a skin regimen to maintain healthy, young-looking skin.
Vitamin C Fights Cancer Cells
When vitamin C breaks down in the body, it produces hydrogen peroxide. This substance damages tumor cells because they don’t have the capacity to remove hydrogen peroxide, like your normal cells do.
However, you need high doses of vitamin C to attack cancer cells. For example, some therapies administer vitamin C intravenously to bypass gut metabolism and excretion.
For those of you who don’t want to go the IV route, but want the health benefits of vitamin C, a great option is liposomal vitamin C. With this option, the vitamin is encapsulated in spherical vesicles made up of lipid bilayer. The liposome capsule is more effective in delivering vitamin C compared to other oral forms because it increases the absorption rate of vitamin C: PLUS it doesn’t cause irritation to the stomach.
This way, you get all the benefits of high-concentration vitamin C without the invasive method of an IV infusion or irritation to your gut.
It is my passion to work with people like you whose health symptoms are getting in the way of you living life fully and with a sense of freedom in your body. I can help you to regain your health so you can feel great and free to enjoy life fully.
If you’re ready to discover where your best health has been hiding, I’d love to connect with you! Apply for a complimentary Unstoppable Health Discovery Session. http://bit.ly/schedulinghealth (subject to availability).
Until next time, I’m wishing you unstoppable health!
~Rebecca
https://choosinghealthnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/apple.png00adminhttps://choosinghealthnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/apple.pngadmin2020-02-07 09:10:232020-02-07 09:10:25The Powerful Benefits of Vitamin C
Begin by placing the almonds in a small bowl, cover them with water, place them in the refrigerator, and leave them to soak overnight to loosen their skins.
Remove the almonds from the water, squeeze each almond between your thumb and forefinger to remove the skin, place them on a towel, and set them aside to dry.
In a blender or food processor, place the almonds and pine nuts, and process for 1-2 minutes to finely grind them.
Scrape down the sides of the container, add the remaining ingredients, and process for 1-2 minutes to form a smooth puree.
Taste and adjust seasonings, as needed.
Transfer the mixture to an airtight container and store in the refrigerator.
