digestive health

Enzymes and Probiotics for Digestive Health

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This time of year can be rough on our digestive systems with rich foods and drinks, plus an extra dose of stress which can cause digestive distress with even the best of diets. It’s no wonder January is the time for resolutions and high motivation, because as fun as celebrating and indulgence can be, if it makes us feel unwell, we innately want to heal ourselves. It seems to just be human nature. Actually, more like nature nature, or life nature, or however you want to call it because it’s not just humans who intuitively curl up and focus on healing when they need to. We don’t have to hermit ourselves away in a cave with nuts and berries though, we can get through the season of indulgence with a little less bloating and a little more health with a couple of natural helpers: enzymes and probiotics.

Enzymes are found in our bodies, saliva, and fresh fruits and vegetables. They are one of the main reasons raw foodists (those on a raw foods diet) tout eating raw foods only. Cooking kills enzymes, and certainly processing and packaging does as well. Needless to say, most of us do not get the quantity of enzymes that we used to in our diets, nor enough to keep our digestive system working optimally. You may have heard about enzymes in regards to juicing as well, because fresh juice has a bunch of them, but then they quickly die off which is why fresh juice is supposed to be so much better than bottled juice. Enzymes can also be taken in supplement form, or bitters can be taken to encourage your own body to produce its own enzymes before eating. Both forms of supplementation should be taken before meals, usually about ten minutes before eating is optimal. There are different kinds of enzymes, so if you want a broad array, pick one with many listed, or if you are interested in just one or two for specific reasons, such as lactase to break down lactose, you can find those as well. Personally, I like Rainbow Light’s enzymes because they have a broad spectrum and additional herbs to help digestion.

Bitters usually come in a dropper or spray form, and the taste is important so you leave the liquid in your mouth a few seconds before swallowing. My favorite are Herb Pharm’s classic Better Bitters. If you suffer from food intolerances, even just mild ones, enzymes and/or bitters supplementation can help. Enzymes help break down the food so the digestive system can handle it properly and assimilate it optimally. Too large of pieces slow down the digestion, resulting in buildup and bloating. When you take in enzymes, or use bitters, you are priming your body for the work it needs to do, and assisting it.

Probiotics work deeper down in the digestive tract and should be taken after meals or between meals. Probiotics are the good bacteria in the intestines which help break down food there, and help keep the bad bacteria and yeast in check. Probiotics are talked about in terms of balance because the correct flora balance in the intestines is key to good health throughout the body. It is always important to take probiotics after a round of antibiotics because those kill probiotics and upset the flora balance in the intestines, which can lead to bad bacteria or yeast (candida) taking hold. Probiotics are found in fermented foods such as kombucha, kefir, yogurt, and kimchi. Eating and drinking these foods can be helpful, but most western diets have a negative cumulative effect on the good intestinal flora in the first place from eating too many processed foods and not enough fresh foods which contain prebiotics that the probiotics need to survive and thrive. And of course sugar has a negative impact on intestinal flora by fueling the harmful bacteria and yeast.

A balanced intestinal environment leads to healthy digestion with less bloating and gas, and improved immune system. It has also been linked to better mental and emotional health with the gut being named ‘the second brain’. As with enzymes, there are many types that can be taken in a pill, so picking one with a broad array of strains and a high potency is recommended. Many people change brands each time they buy a new bottle in order to introduce the broadest spectrum of probiotics to their bodies, but if you find one that works well for you, there is no need to abandon it. My two favorites are Vsl3 and Visbiome. The one pictured above with given to me as a sample and is focused primarily on the immune system.

There are other digestive helpers out there, but these are a great place to start to get through the richness of the holiday season which can be especially tough on those with food intolerances or other digestive issues.

Stay healthy and enjoy the season.

Mind-Gut Health Connection

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I wanted to share this short article from New Hope Network that shows recent findings linking gut health with digestive health. This is something that has long been documented by Ayurveda, the oldest healing system in the world, by linking both to the vata dosha. There have been other studies as well, and even products aimed at optimal health for both. If you suffer from psychological issues such as anxiety, depression, OCD, and/or others, it is worthwhile looking at healing your digestive health as well. Here’s the article:

(This part of the post was provided by New Hope Network. I am a member of the New Hope Influencer Co-op, a network of health and wellness bloggers committed to spreading more health to more people.)

A Columbia University study has found that adversity early in life is associated with increased gastrointestinal symptoms that may affect children’s brains and behavior as they mature.
“It is too early to say anything conclusive, but our study indicates that adversity associated changes in the gut microbiome are related to brain function, including differences in the regions of the brain associated with emotional processing,” said Nim Tottenham, a professor of psychology at Columbia and senior author on the study.
The study, “Mind and Gut: Associations Between Mood and Gastrointestinal Distress in Children Exposed to Adversity,” was published online March 28 in the journal Development and Psychopathology.
“One common reason children show up at doctors’ offices is intestinal complaints,” said Tottenham, who is an expert in emotional development. “Our findings indicate that gastrointestinal symptoms in young children could be a red flag for future emotional health problems.”
Scientists have long noted the strong connection between the gut and brain. A history of trauma or abuse, even in the second through sixth weeks after birth, is associated with a higher risk of irritable bowel syndrome and more than one third of mental-illness diagnoses in one’s lifetime, according to previous research. This study was designed to determine when childhood adversity begins to affect the gastrointestinal system.
“The role of trauma in increasing vulnerability to both gastrointestinal and mental health symptoms is well established in adults but rarely studied in childhood,” lead author Bridget Callaghan, a post-doctoral research fellow in Columbia’s psychology department, said in a released statement. In addition, animal studies have demonstrated that adversity-induced changes in the gut microbiome—the community of bacteria in the body that regulates everything from digestion to immune system function—influence neurological development, but no human studies have done so, she said.
“Our study is among the first to link disruption of a child’s gastrointestinal microbiome triggered by early life adversity with brain activity in regions associated with emotional health,” Callaghan said.
The researchers focused on development in children who experienced extreme psychosocial deprivation due to foster or institutional care before international adoption. Separation of a child from a parent is known to be a powerful predictor
of mental health issues in humans. That experience, when modeled in rodents, induces fear and anxiety, hinders neurodevelopment and alters microbial communities across the lifespan.
The researchers drew upon data from 115 children adopted from orphanages or foster care on or before they were 2 years old and from 229 children raised by a biological caregiver. The children with past caregiving disruptions showed higher levels of symptoms that included stomach aches, constipation, vomiting and nausea.
From that sample of adoptees, the researchers then selected eight participants, ages 7 to 13, from the adversity exposed group and another eight who’d been raised by their biological parents. Tottenham and Callaghan collected behavioral information, stool samples and brain images from all the children. They used gene sequencing to identify the microbes present in the stool samples and examined the abundance and diversity of bacteria in each participant’s fecal matter.
The children with a history of early caregiving disruptions had distinctly different gut microbiomes from those raised with biological caregivers from birth. Brain scans of all the children also showed that brain activity patterns were correlated with certain bacteria. For example, the children raised by biological parents had increased gut microbiome diversity, which is linked to the prefrontal cortex, a region of the brain known to help regulate emotions.
“We observed that early adversity was associated with gastrointestinal symptoms in youth aged 3-18 years (with the largest effects observed in late childhood),” the authors wrote. They also found that adverse caregiving experiences in the earliest days of life alters the gut’s biome; that variation affects how the brain’s emotion networks develop.
“The fact that early experiences of caregiving adversity increase the risk for both GI and mental health problems, as well as being associated with changes to the GI microbiome, suggests that the timing of this exposure (infancy to early childhood) coincides with the sensitive period for the maturation of each of these systems,” the authors wrote.
More research is needed, but Tottenham and Callaghan believe their study helps fill an important gap in the literature.
“Animal studies tell us that dietary interventions and probiotics can manipulate the gut microbiome and ameliorate the effects of adversity on the central nervous system, especially during the first years of life when the developing brain and
microbiome are more plastic,” Callaghan said. “It is possible that this type of research will help us to know if and how to best intervene in humans, and when.” Callaghan and Tottenham are working on a larger study with 60 children in New York City, New York, to see if their findings can be replicated. They expect the results later this year.
The study was supported by the National Institutes of Mental Health, the Dana Foundation, the American Australian Association and the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia.

(Me again) If you missed my digest blend DIY (above) a while ago, the link is here. Thank you for reading and please share with anyone who has digestive or emotional/mental issues! Best health to you and yours <3.

Natural Bloat Busters to Always Have on Hand (and You Probably Already Do)

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The discomfort of trying to sleep with a bloated stomach is terrible. It’s always evening and nighttime too when the bloat is at its worst, after all the meals have been eaten and certain foods throughout the day trigger our digestive systems to retaliate. Bloating is often caused by food intolerances, but can also be caused by other things such as eating too fast or too much. We often know what will bloat us~ dairy, beans, wheat, soy, or some other food or food group that we know we personally should avoid but sometimes we just can’t. It’s hard when food is such a communal activity and you don’t have a true allergy as an excuse to avoid certain foods, and sometimes it’s a favorite food and we just eat it anyway and hope for the best. There are some things that can be done in prep of those trigger foods though, and things that can be taken after eating the foods, or even later when the bloating is intense and maybe you don’t even know what triggered it.

Before you eat, enzymes can be taken to help break down your food. A broad spectrum enzyme will cover all the bases, but if you have one particular food group that is your personal trigger, you can take an enzyme supplement that targets that specific food. Some examples are: for gluten and casein intolerances take these, this one for lactose intolerance, or for beans, this one can help.

You can also take herbs called bitters to help stimulate the body’s natural enzyme production. You should take both bitters and enzymes about 10 minutes before you eat. Enzymes can also be found in fresh produce, so having fresh fruit and/or vegetables at every meal will also help with digestion. You can also prepare your stomach for work by drinking a tablespoon of organic apple cider vinegar (with the mother) in a cup of water before eating. Doing so can also help ease heartburn issues for some people.

Right after a meal, you can eat about a nickle-size amount of fennel seeds to help digest your food, or mix some fennel essential oil into a base oil like sweet almond oil or sesame seed oil, and rub that on your stomach. (Five drops of essential oil in 1 tsp. of base oil.) Fennel is also the main ingredient in Gaia Herbs’ Gas and Bloating tea. Traditional Medicinals has a helpful tea too called Gas Relief. Having a soothing herbal tea on hand to sip after meals is a nice way to fight the discomfort of bloating.

Probiotics can make a huge difference in how well you digest your meals. Taking them regularly will help keep your microbiome in optimal shape, but taking them right after eating possible trigger foods is especially important. It’s a good idea to switch brands to get a wide spectrum of probiotic strains in your system, but if you find one that works really well for you, stick with it. My all time favorite is VSL-3 and I highly recommend it if you suffer from IBS, colitis, or have had multiple rounds of antibiotics in your lifetime. My kids like Rainbow Light’s probiotic gummies.

If those don’t work, you can use activated charcoal to make the bloating go away. This is not something to use all the time though, because it soaks up not only the bloating agents, but also the good nutrition, so only use it when you have tried other things first. It really does help one to get to sleep though if you have a bad case of the bloats keeping you up at night. Activated charcoal is also something you can use if you suspect food poisoning, so it really is a good supplement to have on hand at all times.

Some people get relief from food intolerance issues by drinking kombucha daily. This hasn’t been a magic bullet in my family like it has with some other people I know, although we do drink kombucha, we still need other digestive aides to tackle our multiple food issues here at times. We are much better than we used to be, but dairy, soy, and many other beans still cause problems. If your food intolerances are mild, adding kombucha to your days just might be all it takes to keep you bloat-free and pain free.

Digestive discomfort can be such a nuisance, so it’s nice to know there are things that can help ease the issue, especially when it’s disrupting sleep. Thanks for reading and please share with anyone who might need some tips on keeping away their ‘bloat baby’.

 

Cleansing for the New Year

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This is a repost of a blog I wrote around this time last year. Happy New Year everyone.

Is anyone else ready to put away the dairy and desserts and cleanse for the New Year? I personally love a good cleanse, though I’m partial to the low-suffering kind. I know people who think it’s not a real cleanse unless you take in nothing but fresh juice and water, but that never made sense to me. Our bodies like balance, and balance by extremes is not really balance at all at the human level. Just look at how bad yo-yo dieting is for people or how hard it is on the body when there are huge weight fluctuations. Gentle detox is a way to cleanse while giving the body support to adjust, instead of shocking the body and then reeling from its effects. Of course, there is a time and place for everything and if you know what you are doing and have the right support, then by all means juice away your days. If you prefer a cleansing reboot that doesn’t leave your blood sugar levels bouncing and your mood-o-meter permanently set to hangry, keep reading for some options.

Adding powdered greens to your daily routine is one way to activate detox mechanisms in your body. While cleansing you should be drinking extra glasses of water anyway, so adding a scoop or packet to one of your glasses or bottles of water is a great way to get extra goodness. It is worth noting that some green mixes, like Paradise Herbs, are formulated for energy~

while others, like the Food Science one below, are formulated more specifically for cleansing. Greens in general, whether in a powder or in a whole fresh or cooked form, are cleansing though so an energy greens mix will still work towards detoxing your system. Both these mixes came in my New Hope Blogger Box and they are tasty as well as healthy blends, but there are of course other reputable greens out there. Just be sure to read ingredients lists thoroughly.

Adding a cup or two of detoxifying herbal tea a day is another easy way to help your body cleanse. There are plenty of blends out there, such as detox teas by Yogi and Traditional Medicinals that are as easy as boiling water. Flora makes a tea concentrate that you just pour a bit out and add hot water to. They promote their cleanse every year on Facebook so you can actually join a group of others using their product to get tips and expand your knowledge a bit into the world of detox. (Plus if you join in you just might get a coupon I believe.) They do have a dry blend as well.

If you want to do something a little more involved than greens and teas, making up a batch of kitchari is what one of my herbal teachers drilled into us as the most healing, cleansing, tri-doshic thing you could do. Kitchari is a meal from the tradition of Ayurveda that is made up of mung beans and basmati rice (brown or white depending on your preference), spices, and ghee. You can eat it once a day to support a general cleanse, or you can eat kitchari three times a day and nothing else but herbal teas for 6 days straight for a more intense detox. As with all things herbal, kitchari is a traditional dish that you can find a thousand variations for so this recipe can be modified as you like. What follows is how my herbal teacher told us to make it and it has never failed me. It’s a calming meal, easy on the digestive system, and healing.

Kitchari Recipe:

1 C mung beans

1 C brown basmati rice (my herbal teacher actually used white basmati rice, so your choice really)

1 tbsp. ghee (vegans can use coconut oil)

1 tsp. each turmeric, cumin, and coriander

After soaking the mung beans overnight (or at least 6 hours), cook them in 4 C of water until they are thoroughly soft, about half an hour.

Cook rice according to its instructions, depending on white or brown, then mix together with beans.

Warm the ghee in a sauce or sauté pan and add the spices, cooking until fragrant, about 2 minutes or so.

Mix the spices and ghee with the rice and beans and you are finished. Eat as often as you like.

I’ve never been big on resolutions, but I do like the spirit of renewal that January sweeps in. A gentle cleanse sets a nice tone for the year~ a reminder to think better, feel better, act better, and be better. Best wishes for health, fulfillment, beauty, and peace to everyone for the New Year. Please subscribe for weekly posts about herbs, natural health, and green beauty, and please share this with anyone who might be interested.

 

Iron

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There used to be a point in many afternoons when I’d feel so fatigued that it was sickening. A full-body tiredness that if I did not lie down and close my eyes it’d take all my faculties to keep functioning. This would often happen shortly before I’d have to meet my kids at the bus stop and I’d worry that I wouldn’t have the energy to get out there, or even fall asleep and miss it. When I talked to my doctor about this, she attributed it to my being a busy mom and said I was probably just tired for understandable reasons like pretty much all moms out there. I tried to explain it was beyond a regular tired feeling, but in any case it was dropped. I brought it up with my naturopath who checked my thyroid levels (my thyroid levels are checked yearly because of a family history of low thyroid anyway) and a whole slew of other levels that had the person taking my blood rather shocked at the number of vials she had to fill. The naturopath attributed the fatigue to sub-optimal hormone production across the board, a lack of protein, and my multiple food intolerances. And actually, all those things could have been the reason for the fatigue, except that they weren’t.

When my youngest son went to that same naturopath, she immediately knew he needed an iron supplement because he was not a big meat eater, nor a big greens eater. And here’s the catch with the greens, it is hard for the body to absorb iron from greens, and greens as well as iron supplements should always be accompanied by vitamin C, either a supplement or in food form. Plus my son had food intolerances which meant that his digestive system was impaired, another indication one might need iron supplementation. When I did further research on iron for him, it occurred to me that I had all the symptoms of low iron too, so I started taking the same liquid iron that he did and guess what- that sickening afternoon fatigue went away.

You see, in all those blood tests, iron was ignored even though my naturopath and I talked ad nauseum about my being vegetarian or pescatarian for most of my life and she was the one who got me to eventually add chicken and turkey to my diet, after about five years of insistence, to help build up lifelong deficiencies. (I’m still squeemmish about the poultry, but my naturopath would actually like me to eat liver and beef, so it’s a compromise.) My physician also was aware of my dietary habits but has never to this day ordered an iron test. But when I told both of them that my fatigue was better with iron supplementation, they both had the same reaction of, “oh, that makes total sense.” It’s not just my experience either. I’ve talked to several women of child bearing years who don’t eat any or much meat who have never had their iron tested. It just doesn’t seem to be a common test doctors think to run.

So I’m harping on about this because it is just my way of saying, you might need to ask for your iron to be checked if you have a mostly vegetarian or vegan diet, are a woman in child bearing years or are currently pregnant, have Celiac disease, IBS, or any other digestive system disorder, have heavy periods or internal bleeding, or have unexplained fatigue or other symptoms. It just seems to be one of those things that you have to be your own advocate on because it doesn’t seem to be en vogue for medical practitioners to think about iron straight away. If you need another reason to look into your iron levels, running low contributes to anxiety and cloudy brain.

It seems like iron maybe got a bad rap, or at least regulated to the ‘no need for supplementation’ space because too much iron causes constipation and ‘too much’ is likely more common in America than too little, considering the amount of red meat most Americans traditionally consume. I don’t know how it is in other countries, but most multivitamins/minerals here are iron free with the assumption being you’ll eat plenty of it in your daily diet. Those food habits are changing though, and thoughts on iron haven’t quite caught up with the decrease in red meat consumption and the increase of digestive disorders. It’s important to keep in mind though that even just taking an iron supplement can cause constipation if you aren’t taking the right kind. An interesting thing about combining iron with vitamin C is that while iron can be constipating, vitamin C can have the opposite effect, so not only does the C help the body absorb the iron, it actually helps counter the potential negative digestive effects.

The best way to take iron though, for both absorption and for avoiding constipation, is to take a liquid form.  Flora, Garden of Life, and Gaia all make liquid iron supplements that are much easier for the body to assimilate than pills, and the vitamin C is included in the formulations. I prefer the taste of Gaia’s but iron is just never going to be a great tasting liquid so consider yourself warned. If my picky son was able to drink it when he was around age 6 though, anyone can do it  And it is worth it to feel like you are fully functioning all day long, instead of battling fatigue and other confusing symptoms.

There are several herbs high in iron as well, such as Nettle and Dandelion. Both of those herbs are known as blood builders and purifiers with the added bonus of being excellent for your skin. Both are often taken to combat skin issues such as eczema. The leaves of each can be eaten fresh in salads (be careful of nettle’s little stingers), made into an herbal pesto, or the dry leaves make a delicious tea, either separate or combined. Tinctures and pill forms are also available and considering we are quickly approaching the season where we find nettles and dandelions growing wild, that also means it’s traditionally the best season to take these two herbs. Eating seasonally and locally applies to herbs too after all.

Best health to you and yours and please subscribe for weekly posts about herbs, natural health, and green beauty, and please share with anyone who might benefit from this article.

 

Wheat: Is it the Gluten or the FODMAPs?

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When I first went to a gastroenterology doctor to discuss my blood tests that were positive for gluten reactions, his advice to me was not to go through the scope for celiac testing because, and I quote, “Lots of people have trouble digesting wheat. You just don’t eat wheat. That’s all you could do if you were diagnosed celiac anyway.” This struck me as mighty unconventional in an industry that loves to order as many tests as possible, but I followed his advice and I think I now understand that he must have seen people with wheat issues day in and day for decades to form that view. (And this was over ten years ago, before the gluten awareness explosion.) It isn’t just the gluten though, people can have trouble with wheat because of the FODMAPs, which makes wheat a particularly hard food for a lot of people since the protein and/or the carb can be the problem. It’s no wonder so many people find some relief when taking it out of their diet, but it might not be the cure-all they were hoping for. If that sounds like you, don’t get discouraged, there’s more you can do.

While gluten, which is a protein in wheat, rye, and barley, is the issue for celiacs and other people with gluten sensitivity, for others it might be the carbs of wheat, which fall under the FODMAPs acronym. FODMAPs stands for Fermentable Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, Monosaccharides and Polyols, which are molecules in certain carbohydrates that some people have trouble digesting. Wheat is one of the culprits but other items which fall under the FODMAPs category are beans, many dairy products, some fruits like apples and apricots, and a variety of vegetables such as broccoli and cauliflower. For a complete list, check out Fodmaplife.com but before checking it out you should know two things: 1. the list is extensive and can be overwhelming at first glance, but don’t let it deter you because 2. not everyone reacts to all the items the same. When you start to explore if you are one of the people whose digestive issues stem from FODMAPs, you will need to limit all foods high in FODMAPs, but you then can start adding some back into your diet and experiment with what really bothers your personal system and what can actually be tolerated and at what doses. So, in other words, the list is not a list of foods you can never eat again, think of it merely as a starting point.

An easy way to experiment with this and take the guess work out of your meal planning is to try Delicious Living’s Low FODMAP Menus for a Week. They have put together meals that avoid all the high FODMAP foods and instead focus on healthy foods that are easy on the digestive tract. Here’s a preview of what you’ll find:

lowfodmapmealplanpreview1

If you have gone gluten-free and have found some relief but not total relief, it is worth a week of effort to try low-FODMAP eating to see if you can’t be healthier (and therefore happier). Time to go shopping~

lowfodmapshoppinglistpreview2

The low-Fodmap diet is often encouraged for people who suffer with IBS. It is worth trying if you have consistent digestive issues that do not fully respond to other diets or remedies as many people find it to be just what they needed. You deserve to feel your best so don’t give up searching for ways to make you feel great on a daily basis. Best health to you and yours. Please subscribe for weekly posts about herbs, natural health, and green beauty, and please share this with anyone who might be interested.

 

Cleansing for the New Year

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Is anyone else ready to put away the dairy and desserts and cleanse for the New Year? I personally love a good cleanse, though I’m partial to the low-suffering kind. I know people who think it’s not a real cleanse unless you take in nothing but fresh juice and water, but that never made sense to me. Our bodies like balance, and balance by extremes is not really balance at all at the human level. Just look at how bad yo-yo dieting is for people or how hard it is on the body when there are huge weight fluctuations. Gentle detox is a way to cleanse while giving the body support to adjust, instead of shocking the body and then reeling from its effects. Of course, there is a time and place for everything and if you know what you are doing and have the right support, then by all means juice away your days. If you prefer a cleansing reboot that doesn’t leave your blood sugar levels bouncing and your mood-o-meter permanently set to hangry, keep reading for some options.

Adding powdered greens to your daily routine is one way to activate detox mechanisms in your body. While cleansing you should be drinking extra glasses of water anyway, so adding a scoop or packet to one of your glasses or bottles of water is a great way to get extra goodness. It is worth noting that some green mixes, like Paradise Herbs, are formulated for energy~

while others, like the Food Science one below, are formulated more specifically for cleansing. Greens in general, whether in a powder or in a whole fresh or cooked form, are cleansing though so an energy greens mix will still work towards detoxing your system. Both these mixes came in my New Hope Blogger Box and they are tasty as well as healthy blends, but there are of course other reputable greens out there. Just be sure to read ingredients lists thoroughly.

Adding a cup or two of detoxifying herbal tea a day is another easy way to help your body cleanse. There are plenty of blends out there, such as detox teas by Yogi and Traditional Medicinals that are as easy as boiling water. Flora makes a tea concentrate that you just pour a bit out and add hot water to. They promote their cleanse every year on Facebook so you can actually join a group of others using their product to get tips and expand your knowledge a bit into the world of detox. (Plus if you join in you just might get a coupon or more, depending on if you are one of the firsts to sign up.) They do have a dry blend as well.

If you want to do something a little more involved than greens and teas, making up a batch of kitchari is what one of my herbal teachers drilled into us as the most healing, cleansing, tri-doshic thing you could do. Kitchari is a meal from the tradition of Ayurveda that is made up of mung beans and basmati rice (brown or white depending on your preference), spices, and ghee. You can eat it once a day to support a general cleanse, or you can eat kitchari three times a day and nothing else but herbal teas for 6 days straight for a more intense detox. As with all things herbal, kitchari is a traditional dish that you can find a thousand variations for so this recipe can be modified as you like. What follows is how my herbal teacher told us to make it and it has never failed me. It’s a calming meal, easy on the digestive system, and healing.

Kitchari Recipe:

1 C mung beans

1 C brown basmati rice (my herbal teacher actually used white basmati rice, so your choice really)

1 tbsp. ghee (vegans can use coconut oil)

1 tsp. each turmeric, cumin, and coriander

After soaking the mung beans overnight (or at least 6 hours), cook them in 4 C of water until they are thoroughly soft, about half an hour.

Cook rice according to its instructions, depending on white or brown, then mix together with beans.

Warm the ghee in a sauce or sauté pan and add the spices, cooking until fragrant, about 2 minutes or so.

Mix the spices and ghee with the rice and beans and you are finished. Eat as often as you like.

I’ve never been big on resolutions, but I do like the spirit of renewal that January sweeps in. A gentle cleanse sets a nice tone for the year~ a reminder to think better, feel better, act better, and be better. Best wishes for health, fulfillment, beauty, and peace to everyone for the New Year. Please subscribe for weekly posts about herbs, natural health, and green beauty, and please share this with anyone who might be interested.

 

Digestive Herbal Blend

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Most of the herbs in our kitchen cabinets, such as basil, fennel, and ginger, not only taste delicious, they also promote healthy digestion in one form or another. I like to make up a powdered blend of digestive herbs that is basically a version of chai without the tea but with cacao. It not only improves digestion, helps balance sugar levels, improves circulation, and is anti-inflammatory, it also is anti-aging because it is chock full of antioxidants. Those are a lot of benefits for just a half teaspoon at a time, twice per day in smoothies and coffee! It could also be sprinkled on granola, added to oatmeal, fruit, or yogurt. You can add turmeric to this mix, or really any other powdered herb that you would like, and in fact all the ingredients are subject to personal tastes and can be reduced or eliminated if desired. As with all things herbal, this recipe is to be used as a rough guideline, not something that needs to be followed exactly, though you certainly can if you want to. The cacao has a bit of caffeine in it and is not a traditional component of chai, but I add it because I like the depth it gives the flavor profile, plus it is full of antioxidants. If you are mostly looking for an evening, after dinner tummy tonic, then leave the cacao out.

My blend is equal parts cinnamon, ginger, and cacao powder, then a quarter the amount of cardamom, then about 1/2 again (1/8 cup) of ground cloves and nutmeg combined, with a few turns of a black pepper grinder added at the end.

So here’s an example mix:

1 cup cinnamon powder

1 cup ginger powder

1 cup cacao powder

1/4 cup cardamom powder

1/8 cup cloves powder

1/8 cup nutmeg powder

A bit of fresh ground black pepper to taste

I use it in morning smoothies and in my after lunch coffee. If my stomach needs a bit of digestive help after dinner, I tend to eat a small handful of fennel seeds and if that doesn’t help, drink an herbal infusion of whatever I have on hand that is caffeine free and has digestive benefits. Of course taking bitters 10-15 minutes before a meal helps start the digestive process off on the right track, and taking a probiotic can ease tummy woes as well. This blends smells amazing and is tasty enough for gift-giving. Please share with anyone who might need a little digestive support during the holidays.

Please subscribe for weekly posts about herbs, natural health, and green beauty, and please share this with anyone who might be interested. Happy Solstice!

 

 

 

 

 

Immune Boosters for Winter

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The samples I received from the natural marketing co-op I belong to were so good this time around that I’ll be doing two posts with some of the contents. We don’t get any compensation for these posts by the way, we’re just asked to write about anything that we like, and I like quite a bit. These are the immune boosting supplements that came in the #NewHopeBloggerBox which we’ll be using this winter to ward off the seasonal sickies.

New Englanders have a traditional herbal tonic that is catching on around the country which I’ve been wanting to try, but honestly been too nervous to make myself. This one is from Shire City Herbals and the ingredients include: Apple Cider Vinegar, Honey, Oranges, Lemons, Onions, Ginger, Horseradish, Garlic, Turmeric, and Habanero Pepper. So now you know why it has the name ‘fire cider’ and why I was hesitant to try to make my own. If a shot of this a day doesn’t keep the ickies away, I’m not sure what will, because it’s wicked strong.

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For a more travel-friendly vinegar option, these apple cider vinegar shots from Vermont Village have a variety of flavors and can be thrown into your gym bag or backpack. I had to add the shot to water myself because downing vinegar, even with ginger and honey added, is still not my favorite thing. With water though, it was tasty and apple cider vinegar is so good for your digestion (as long as it has the mother, which these do.)

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Probiotics are important year-round, but most important after a round of antibiotics. If you do happen to get sick this season, don’t forget to load up on a good probiotic during the antibiotic regimen and definitely after. This one from Ora Oraganic is very clean with no gluten, dairy, soy, GMOs, tree nuts, added sugars, filler ingredients, artificial colors or flavors, sweeteners, or preservatives, plus it has prebiotics which feed the probiotics.

This probiotic from Jarrow Forumulas targets women’s issues specifically, so it is a great one to take if you tend to get bladder or yeast infections, especially after a round of antibiotics. The box even reminds you to take it two hours after taking antibiotics which is a good rule of thumb for any probiotic during an antibiotic regimen. Then when you are all finished with the antibiotics, hit those probiotics hard.

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For an overall immune booster, this powdered drink mix from Oxylent is a great way to take in extra vitamins, minerals, and extra immune-boosting ingredients. It tastes like a liquid sweetart to me which is a nice antidote to the vinegar shots! 13C35F30-B2D6-40DC-9997-F2310C153E1D[1]

Oh dear, I missed one for the group pic! This supplement from Source Naturals is a unique combination of immune boosting herbs and ingredients to help one sleep, which is perfect for when the sniffles threaten sleeplessness. It is chock-full of good stuff so I’ll definitely be keeping this stocked in my medicine cabinet for when someone starts feeling a cold coming on at night. (It always happens at night, doesn’t it?)

Stay warm and stay well everyone! Please subscribe for weekly posts about herbs, natural health, and green beauty, and please share this with anyone who might be interested.

 

Healing from Food Intolerances

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2730B37F-B732-45B4-8C22-BD6DD51DD537[1]Food intolerances are rampant these days, and it’s no surprise once you understand the relationship between optimal digestive processes and our modern world’s challenges to that system. First there’s the fact that our food is mostly not what our ancestors would have recognized as food. Unless you are eating heritage grains, organic, non-gmo produce, meat and dairy products, and very little processed food (canned food, frozen foods, boxed products you just stick in a microwave) then you are taxing your body’s digestive system. Many people blame Monsanto alone for the extreme rise in gluten intolerance, but I think there’s a lot more to it than that. Despite the challenges to keep your gut healthy, as promised in my last post about managing food intolerances, there are ways to heal and kick intolerances to the curb.

Antibiotics are also a major player in the weakening of our digestive systems, because they inevitably kill off the beneficial bacteria in our intestines while doing their rightful work on the bad bacteria they are supposed to be targeting. Practically no one has escaped a round of antibiotics in their life, and some people have taken them every year of their life, even multiple times. Antibiotics are necessary, but so are the probiotics that they are known to destroy, which leads to an imbalanced ecosystem in the gut. If you don’t make a conscious effort to reestablish the beneficial bacteria environment in your gut, then the bad bacteria, and especially candida, gain momentum and the ecosystem spirals downward. We’ve all heard a lot about probiotics lately and they are in fact major players in more than just digestion. They are a huge part of your immune system and studies show a major link to mental issues and what’s happening in the intestines, so much so that the gut is often called ‘the body’s second brain’. So, probiotics are really important all the time, but when you take a round of antibiotics they are even more important, and if you have food intolerances they are essential in recovery. My all time favorite probiotic is VSL3 which is the highest potency probiotic that I’ve found, but I linked to a couple of other good ones above. My sons love Rainbow Light’s gummy version which doesn’t require refrigeration which is a bonus for traveling.

But there’s more you can do to beat food intolerances and eat freely once again. First of all, just taking steps to curing yourself instead of only avoiding trigger foods sends a message to your brain that you are on the mend. This is important because it relieves feelings of hopelessness and that horrible feeling of being out of control which leads to stress. You are in control and you can get over food intolerances and in fact be healthier than ever so phew, less stress already, right? One thing you will want to figure out is if you have a candida overgrowth. This can be tested at a doctor’s or naturopath’s office, or you can self diagnose through questionnaires found on the web (there are quite a few!) and if you think you have an issues with it, get on a candida cleanse. Now some people do a cleanse that is quite restrictive in food choices which is great if you want to go that route, but personally I’ve always liked taking a candida cleanse supplement, and there are several good ones to choose from but the one I linked to is my favorite. Some doctors or naturopaths will prescribe medicine for candida, so if you are getting diagnosed that way then you can discuss options at that time with them, as well as the possibility of a prescription probiotic. If you have no idea if you might have candida then I’ll give you three clues to consider~ Have you had two or more rounds of antibiotics in your life and did you replenish your system with probiotics afterwards? Have you have ever had a yeast infection or jock itch? Are your cravings mostly the dairy and sugar kind? If you answered yes to any of those, it’s time to start seriously looking into candida cleansing. The good news is that once you kick candida then you are well on your way to recovery, the bad news is that candida really messes up your intestines so you’ve got some repairing to do.

Now, to repair the gut you want to obviously stay away from the trigger foods, but you also want to eat foods that will be easy to digest and provide the most nutrition for rebuilding a strong intestinal lining. Can you guess what is the best macro-nutrient for rebuilding? If you guessed protein, you’re right! Make sure you are getting plenty of protein in your healthy diet, and supplementing with extra L-glutamine is one way to give your healing an extra boost. There are products containing L-glutamine specifically for rebuilding your intestines so it’s easy to add to your daily routine, plus most of the products come with herbs and other nutrients that add extra support to the healing. My favorite is by Renew Life. I put it in a jar of water first thing in the morning and let it settle for a couple of minutes so I can easily shake it, then drink it. If I don’t let it sit and settle first, it is clumpy.

BittersBack to that easy to digest part I mentioned above, in order to get the nutrients out of the foods we eat and also to make digestion optimal, we rely on our bodies’ enzymes to break down that food into bits small enough for the body to assimilate in a healthy way. For many reasons, people can lack the ability to make sufficient enzymes in order to start that whole digestive process off right. If it doesn’t have the right start, things can only go (ahem) down from there. Seriously though, enzymes are important and there are two ways you can supplement in this case. You can take enzymes when you eat, or you can take bitters before you eat (about 15 minutes) to stimulate the pancreas to start pumping out enzymes. Bitters are a classification of herbs that are usually taken in tincture form so that you add a dropper of the liquid herbs to a couple of ounces of water, hold them in your mouth for a few seconds because it is the taste that stimulates the action, then swallow. If you know you are not digesting your food well to begin with, you can actually take both bitters and enzymes, then slowly decrease your enzyme usage as your pancreas gets more efficient.

These will help get you over your food intolerances and onto your best health. I’ll post an article about other herbs for the digestive system as well because there is a lot more healing that can be accomplished with herbs, but I wanted to just get the basics out there first and let you ‘digest’ them. And if nothing else, at the very least take a high potency probiotic supplement. That’s going to give you the most bang for your buck and treat the issue where it most likely started~ in an unbalanced intestinal ecosystem. Fermented foods like yogurt and drinks like Kombucha are fabulous additions too, but a high potency probiotic is truly essential in turning a food intolerance situation around.

The links above are for ease of shopping. Keep in mind that herbs and supplements are not something to buy based solely on price point. Use trusted brands from known stores and assume that for any natural product it will probably take 6-8 weeks before you see a difference, although sometimes it happens much faster. Also, if you are adding herbs into your healing mix, be aware that herbs have fiber and if you add more than your body is used to then you might get diarrhea. Your body can adjust to more fiber intake but it has to be done slowly so dial back your new herbs if that happens, and of course discontinue if you have a severe reaction.

Also, I have a background in herbs and also of working in the natural foods/products industry, which led to me figuring some of this out, but the whole picture came about from seeing a physician, Gastroenterology doctors, a naturopath, and a Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner, plus loads of reading. I strongly suggest you also consult the medical professionals in your life because we are all unique in our bodily needs and healing.

Best health to you and yours! Always remember, you deserve to be optimally healthy to live your best life. Please subscribe for weekly posts about herbs, natural health, and green beauty, and please share this with anyone who might be interested.