Blog - Inner Connected Wellness

The Fatigue Spiral

No get-up-and-go? Wake up exhausted? Feel tired but can’t fall asleep? Lie awake for hours in the middle of the night? Pump stimulants during the day to keep going?

You could be experiencing a blood sugar dysregulation which is causing disrupted nights. Unfortunately, the worse your sleep patterns, the more blood sugars tend to spin out of control.

What causes blood sugar imbalances?

Here are some common contributors:

An excessive amount of refined carbohydrates in the diet (breads, crackers, pasta, pastries, baked goods, etc.).
Chronic low-grade emotional stress or frequent high intensity emotional stress.
Unidentified physiological stresses, such as food sensitivities, inflammation, or infection.
Insulin resistance.

How do disrupted blood sugars make you fatigued?

Let’s try an analogy. Your nose is designed to be evenly moist. When you have a cold, the excess mucous congests it to the point that you can hardly breathe. At the other extreme, it sometimes becomes so dry that it bleeds.

Now, let’s imagine the the individual cells of your body to be something like a nose. An excess of insulin will eventually prohibit the passage of nutrients into them, just as mucous prevents the smooth flow of air. When cells don’t get fuel (vitamins, minerals, amino acids, fatty acids, and glucose), they can’t create energy, perform their work, repair, and reproduce. Then you feel chronically fatigued – almost like a nose without enough air.

On the other hand, stresses – both emotional and physiological – take energy away from the cells, like hot, dry wind pulling moisture from a nose. A constant stream of stress will eventually leave a body exhausted and empty like a parched nose. The irony is that any stress triggers cortisol production, and rest is almost impossible when cortisol levels escalate. So no matter how weary you feel, you can’t seem to restore yourself.

Cortisol is a mobilization hormone. When it is high, melatonin drops like the heavy side of a teeter-totter. Melatonin influences your ability to sleep. The less you sleep, the more you want to use sugar and other stimulants to make it through your day. These, in turn, trigger more insulin resistance and more cortisol production. So, instead of having smoothly-regulated blood sugars, the highs get higher and the lows get lower, like a nose that alternately plugs and bleeds repeatedly. Having enough energy becomes a mirage in a desert of fatigue.

How can you stop the spiral?

Of course, you will want to work with a practitioner to find the root cause of your insulin and cortisol spikes. But there are also things you can do at home. These include:

Eating a diet that is balanced between natural fats, appropriate proteins, and slow-burning carbohydrates from unprocessed whole foods.
Syncing your body with circadian rhythms of light and dark by being in sunshine during daylight hours and limiting your exposure to artificial light at night.
De-stressing throughout the day, but especially taking time to wind down in the evening with regular relaxation practices, such as meditation, gratitude, journaling, aromatherapy, breathing exercises or yoga.

To learn more about intercepting the Tiredness Spin, you can register for a local, live class on Taming Fatigue.

in Education / Lifestyle

Easy-Peasy Probiotics

Do you think of pills when you hear the word “probiotics”? Perhaps you envision yogurt. Or sauerkraut. So, if I told you to eat your probiotics every day – for life – you’d probably roll your eyes at me.

Probiotics Help with Cravings, Stress and Fatigue

The microbes in your gut are really a kind of organ that aids digestion, boosts immunity, manufactures vitamins, and communicates with your brain. The kinds of foods you eat influence the kinds of strains that live in your digestive system, and the kinds of strains that inhabit your body, in turn, influence the types of foods you crave, the emotional responses you feel, and the optimal wellness you attain. To feel better, most Americans need to boost their probiotic populations in both diversity of strains and sufficiency of each strain.

Probiotics Can Be Condiments At Every Meal

From kimchi to pickled beets, and from miso to capers, foods have been naturally preserved with probiotic cultures for centuries, with almost every society having vegetables, dairy products, or beverages that were probiotically active – until the industrialized age, when food preservation techniques changed to involve heat processing and sealing. Today, you can buy Gherkins and herring that aren’t actually pickled. You need to look for the words “live active cultures,” “on the label to know that you are getting a product that actually contains beneficial living organisms.

But while soy sauce and giardiniera may be mass produced today without adding helpful bacterial strains, you can easily turn your kitchen into a laboratory for probiotics without any fancy equipment. Some vegetables, a few mason jars, and some sea salt are all you will need to begin making your own active foods.

Then you can whir them into smoothies, dress up your meats, complement your salads, and enliven your desserts. Some of my favorites are Dilly Beans, Gingered Carrots, and Creme Fraiche.

One of my preferred sites for recipes is Cultures for Health. Traditional Cooking School also has some great resources. Below is a very simple, family-friendly recipe for gingered carrots that comes from Firefly Kitchens. Firefly’s recipe book, Fresh and Fermented, uses a few simple sauerkraut variations to make everything from peanut sauce for chicken satay to strawberry salsa for your fish fry.

But the gingered carrots are a good place to start because even children love these crispy, tangy shreds on their salads.

Yin Yang Carrots

8 c. (about 2 lbs.) coarsely grated carrots

6 teaspoons sea salt

2-4 teaspoons grated fresh ginger

Put the carrots in a large bowl and sprinkle them with the salt. Use your hands to thoroughly work the salt into the carrots. When the carrots have shrunk down to about half their original volume and have generated a briny, watery base, taste and add more salt or water if necessary. Add 2 teaspoons ginger, making sure it’s evenly distributed throughout. Taste and add additional ginger if stronger flavor is desired.

Pack the carrots tightly into a quart jar until they’re about 2 inches below the rim, pressing them down until the juices completely cover the compressed carrots by about an inch. You may need to weigh the carrots down with a small glass object or even a sterile rock. Add the lid to the jar, not so tightly that gasses cannot escape, and leave at room temperature for about a week. If needed, add more liquid to keep carrots covered (using a ratio of 1 1/4 tsp. salt for every cup of water). When flavor has developed to your liking, transfer to refrigerator and store for up to 6 months.

in Food & Cooking

Allergies Raise Blood Sugars?

What has nutritional therapy got to do with hayfever? A lot, actually. Here’s just one piece: the more histamine is released in response to an allergen, the more cortisol it takes to control the inflammation that histamine initiates. And cortisol raises blood sugars!

So if you have a lot of food and environmental triggers setting off allergic reactions, your blood sugars may be unstable. Imbalanced blood sugars contribute to cravings and fatigue.

While it is part of my work to find and eliminate food triggers, this can be frustrating if you are sensitive to a lot of allergens. You might feel very restricted and wonder what there is left to survive on after you take away all the foods that are causing a histamine response.

NAET treatments are a non-dietary approach to allergy treatment. The acronym stand for Namudripad’s Allergy Elimination Technique, and was developed by Dr. Devi S. Nambudripad, a nurse, chiropractor, acupuncturist, and doctor, who overcame her own debilitating struggle with allergies after combining chiropractic and acupuncture principles to reprogram her body’s response to the allergen.

Although there are 14.000 trained practitioners who use NAET treatments globally, the technique is relatively unknown here locally in Southeast Idaho. Lucky for us that Dr. Wade Davis practices this therapy regularly. It takes less than 15 minutes to clear an allergen, and most treatments remain in effect for life.

While most of us connect allergies to runny nose, sneezing, watery eyes, hives, and itching, here are some other sneaky signs that might indicate that you have a hidden food sensitivity:

frequent headaches, or migraines
skin conditions: acne, rosacea, eczema, or other rashes
dark circles under your eyes
chronic joint pain
digestive issues: frequent stomach aches, gas, bloat, constipation, or diarrhea
intense food cravings, especially if you feel there are certain foods you could NOT live without!
chronic exhaustion, even if you are sleeping well
seasonal allergies that last all year long

Finding what you are reacting to can be done in conjunction with NAET treatments, or through testing available in my office.

in Education

Savory or Sweet: Breakfast the Nutrient Dense Way

I’m a “cereal killer.” You could say my vendetta is to avenge the health wrongs instigated by the refined carbohydrate breakfasts of the American people: enriched flour waffles and pancakes drenched in maple-flavored high-fructose corn syrup; shortening-filled, baseball-size muffins and donuts; insulin-triggering juices; and energy-zapping cereals that create alternating waves of high and low blood sugars in the body.

If you look at non-westernized cultures, their breakfasts look the same as their lunches as dinners: an appealing blend of raw and cooked produce dressed in natural unrefined fats, paired with slow-burning whole starches (like plantains, cassava and brown rice) and wild-caught or traditionally raised animal products.

With the two recipes below, courtesy of the Nutritional Therapy Association, you can return to eating that is in harmony with your physiology. You can satisy your appetite for sweet or savory while eating an optimal balance of carbs, fats, and proteins that won’t send your energy dipping, your blood sugars soaring, and your health plummeting.

Savory Kale and Hemp Salad

The apple cider vinegar marinade makes this massage kale salad as tender as if it had been cooked, while still retaining all of the live enzymes. Serve it with egg and avocado for a well-rounded breakfast.

Ingredients:

1 bunch dinosaur kale, washed, thick part of stem removed, and cut in chiffonade (fine ribbons)
1 tsp unrefined salt
2 tsp raw apple cider vinegar
3 Tbsp hemp seeds
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 cup cherry tomatoes, sliced in half

Place kale in bowl and add salt. Using your hands, massage the salt into the kale. Almost immediately, the kale softens. Continue for 1-3 minutes. The longer you massage, the softer the kale becomes, acting as if it is cooked. As when you cook greens, the volume reduces greatly. You will create a deep green sauce as well from the massaging technique.

Then add raw apple cider vinegar and toss. Add hemp seeds and toss. Drizzle extra virgin olive oil and add chopped tomatoes. Toss once more and serve.

Sweet Omega 3 Smoothie

Spring is all about enjoying the abundance of fresh produce available using easy preparation. Boost the antioxidant content of your smoothie by using dark berries as the fruit component!

Ingredients:

1 serving of your favorite protein powder
1⁄2 cup fresh fruit
1⁄4 cup frozen fruit
1 tsp of your favorite liquid Omega-3 supplement
1 Tbsp full fat plain yogurt or coconut cream

Blend and enjoy!

in Food & Cooking

5 Ways You Crave Sugar

You feel deprived. Or desperate. Or foggy. Or you’re keyed in to a particular food. Or you need a stimulant.

These different ways of craving sweets can be indicative of why you’re craving. And knowing the reason for your craving will multiply your success for stopping your sugar addiction in its tracks!

Would you feed bananas to a cat, or fish to a monkey? Of course not, so why would you correct an emotional addiction with probiotics, or low blood sugars with social interaction?

Sometimes you crave because your customs, habits, and circumstances induce powerful brain cues. For example, you think about cake on birthdays, hot chocolate when it snows, or millk and cookies on Christmas Eve.

But that’s not the same as the signals your body sends out when it is deficient in amino acids or when you’re dehydrated, or when you need fatty acids. In short, nutrient shortfalls cause cravings completely separate from socio-emotional cues. This category includes lack of fuel from hypoglycemia, and also fuel shortages because of insulin resistance.

Then there’s the rush you get because you are addicted to a food. It’s a literal physiological occurrence. The body’s histamine reaction to a food that you are sensitive to is followed by a dopamine hit and an endorphin release. In a strange twist of nature, you want more of the very food that is harming you!

When your gut bugs talk to your brain, it’s a different sort of craving, born by the microbiome’s need for food. Different strains of yeasts, bacteria, and parasites have different fuel requirements. While certain desirable strains feast on vegetable fiber, other less beneficial strains pig-out on simple sugars.

Lastly, you often crave because you are stressed or tired – or both! In either case, you are trying to run on empty and you need a quick fix.

There are different nutritional answers for each of these scenarios. That’s why I have created a class to guide you through the key characteristics of all five types of craving and the strategies you can employ to overcome them. Join me locally here, or request the introductory price when our online version becomes available.

in Education

The Skinny on Fats

The 74 trillion cells of your body need fuel to do their work – of seeing, hearing, tasting, digesting, growing, hugging, loving, and all the other things you do as a human being.

These cells also need raw materials to repair themselves, and to reproduce. When you don’t have enough energy, that’s a sign that your cells are short on fuel.

Nutrition on a cellular level

Maybe you didn’t eat what they needed today, or maybe the supply line has been hijacked. That happens when the membrane around the cell is defective. Every cell is encased by a lipoprotein bi-layer. That’s fancy talk for a two-way window that passes nutrients in and toxins out. It’s made from fatty acids and proteins. For your body to make this bi-layer without appropriate fats would be like weaving a blanket without yarn.

Not only that, fats provide essential building blocks to produce vitamin D when sunlight hits your skin. And dietary fats enable you to absorb vitamins A, D, E, and K from food. So a low-fat diet is a low-vitamin diet! Certainly you can’t expect your cells to work for long without vitamins!

And what about energy production itself – the ATP cycle you learned about in your high school physiology class. You body can use ketones (from protein), glucose, or fatty acids.

Fatty acids are the most efficient way to run the ATP cycle. Ketones are used in extreme situations, but are not the body’s normal fuel choice. Glucose comes from carbohydrates and is the fuel your cells use when under stress. But glucose is like kindling. It burns hot and fast and extinguishes in an instant. It must be replenished constantly. So, fueling on glucose actually creates cravings! The body experiences a drop in blood sugars when the fuel runs out, and you feel exhausted and unsatiated.

Fats however, burn slowly and evenly. They create sustained energy. They tell the body that you feel satiated. They free you from dizziness, brain fog, and mood swings. They take you off the roller coaster and restore your energy.

Eating the Right Kinds of Fats

The big question about fats, then, is not whether to eat them, but rather which ones to eat. Some fats are definitely damaging. Consuming trans-fats and hydrogenated fats is like putting a pancake in a CD player – it just gums up the works!

Fats should be real! A real food occurs in nature, it is just one ingredient, you know where it comes from, and it works in harmony with your body as it has for thousands of years. Some such real fats include butter, ghee tallow, lard, coconut oil, olive oil, red palm oil, nuts, seeds, and avocadoes. Real oils are expeller-pressed and have not been exposed to high heat or chemicals.

Do not use cottonseed, canola, corn, or soybean oils, as these industrial seed oils are often made from genetically-modified seeds, contain high levels of pesticides, and have been processed with toxic chemicals. Do not use shortening or margarine, as they have been hydrogenated.

Try these five ways to get more healthy fat into your diet:

Butter your vegetables. It helps absorb the vitamins they contain.
Cook with heat-stable fat that is solid at room temperature, rather than a liquid oil which is susceptible to oxidation at higher temperatures. Throw away your vegetable oil, and save your olive oil for salad dressings.
Eat fatty wild-caught fish. It is a substantial source of essential Omega 3 (not made by the body) and DHA and EPA, both of which decrease inflammation in the body, lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of cancer.
Eat fatty cuts of pastured, organic meat, because this is where the Omega 3 fatty acids are stored. However, cut the fat off of feedlot and factory-raised meat because toxins are stored in fat, and these animals have been exposed to pesticide-laden grains.
Eat pastured eggs. The yolk is almost all fat, and if the hens have been free to eat their natural diet in the sunshine and chase crickets, the amount of essential Omega 3’s can be up to 5 times higher than eggs from factory-raised chickens.

in Education

Parties Without Party-Pooping

Fall off the diet wagon and enjoy yourself, or stick to the plan and avoid the social event. That seems to be the quandry you face repeatedly when you make a commitment to eat healthier.

These 12 tips can help you navigate the buffet line, the potluck, and the dinner party successfully.

Meal principles, not meal plans

The goal of a meal plan is to teach you how to eat. So take what you know, and go to the party, confident that you can follow general guidelines for health without counting portions or over-analyzing ingredients. Start with the basics: balance your carbs, fats, and proteins; eat only until satiated; avoid empty calories; eat color and variety.

Food quality over food quantity

Research is now showing that the type of food is much more important than how much of it you eat, because you will stop after consuming a certain volume, regardless of what was in it. Brussels Sprouts and pretzels are both carbs with equal filling power. Which will nourish you?

Watch hunger cues, not calories

People who only eat when hungry and stop when they feel satiated are more successful at maintaining a healthy weight and normal metabolism than those who try to outsmart their bodies’ needs by calculating an externally-specified number of calories. Do you think that a coach on the internet knows your daily needs better than your own body does?

Progress, not perfection

You are on a continuum of growth. You know how to nourish yourself better today than you did when you were 2. But you are still learning. Bodies change, and science continually adds new knowledge and research to our understanding, so it is unlikely that you will ever reach a state of flawless food consumption. The point is to do a little better each day, perhaps hydrating more, selecting a few more fresh vegetables, or simply adding more Omega 3’s to your routine. Wherever you are, shun complacency, but be realistic.

Your uniqueness is a gift

Instead of being ashamed that your are making different food choices than those around you, who may be over-indulging or piling detrimental options on their plate, see yourself as a ring leader. Perhaps your family and friends just need a little encouragement to follow suit. Your initiative could be the factor that changes your office culture.

More water, less soda and coffee

Have you ever mistaken thirst for hunger? Have you consumed too many calories by drinking them? Since the body is 80% water, you can never go wrong by asking for a glass of fresh water to hold in your hand while you socialize.

The best diet is whole foods

There are many conflicting philosophies out there, from vegan to keto, and from intermittent fasting to eating every 2-3 hours. But all nutritionists will agree that food from nature is superior to processed food. So regardless of what food plan you are following, opt to eat REAL.

Add before you subtract

No one wants to feel deprived. In fact, going without something can actually drive you to it! So instead of sitting at the table with an empty plate, grab a safe option to fill up on. You might try fruit, olives, avocados, crudites, or even nuts to replace dessert.

More IS better with veggies

Fill half your plate with vegetables, if possible. They are so low on the glycemic index, so high in phytonutrients, and so full of fiber and vitamins and minerals, that by the time you finish them, you probably won’t want more food. Even if you do, you will have provided yourself with a nutrient-dense foundation.

Eat protein for breakfast

Breakfast buffets are killers for blood sugars. The swings set up with those pastries and pancakes will plague you with fatigue and cravings for the rest of the day. So do yourself a favor, and opt for the eggs, meat patty, and plain Greeek yogurt to keep yourself stable all day.

To reduce sweets, increase natural fats

Sugars can leave you hungry and roaming for more, like an exhausted fire waiting for kindling. Fats are satiating, providing long, slow, burning fuel, like a log on the fire. Stick to unprocessed choices, like butter, coconut oil, olive oil, or avocados.

DIY is always in style

Special diets are accepted these days: there’s always the gluten-free, the dairy-free, or the meat-free crowd, so by all means, if you are uncomfortable with the menu, bring your own! It’s not hard to say, “I have food sensitivities,” or “I have special dietary considerations.” Most people won’t even ask why, but if they do, you have an opportunity to share your food philosophy!

in Lifestyle

Canary in a Coal Mine!

If you could predict your risk of Alzheimer’s Disease with a single marker, would you use that marker to define your lifestyle from now on in order to prevent the disease?

Insulin Resistance may be that marker – the canary in the coal mine, says Amy Berger, author of Alsheimer’s Antidote.

Alzheimer’s Disease is the Result of an Energy Crisis!

The AD brain is a shrunken brain. The axons and dendrites – the fingerlike sending and receiving ends of the neurons – are shrunken. In this condition, signals cannot cross the synaptic gap between two neurons, and messages fail be to be relayed. According to Berger, the atrophied condition is a protective measure by the body to conserve energy when there is a shortage.

But why would there be a an energy shortfall in the brain? Because of Mitochondrial Dysfunction, which is always found in AD, Berger says. Mitochondrial Dysfunction and the resulting energy shortage triggers the neuron shrinkage!

Mitochondrial Dysfunction Means the Generator is Damaged

Inside every cell is a tiny powerhouse, the mitochondria. It is surrounded by two membranes – an inner one and an outer one. These membranes act like bouncers in a bar – they let the good guys in and kick out the bad ones. For a cell, good guys are nutrients and bad guys are waste materials. The nutrients fuel the mitochondria’s process of creating energy. When the bouncer membrane shuts out nutrients, the mitochondrial generator is incapable of providing enough energy.

Well, the modern diet is beating up the cell membranes around the mitochondria the way a scoundrel might rough up a bouncer. The membranes need proteins for their construction. But unfortunately, proteins are subject to glycation. That’s a condition where proteins become sticky and cross-linked because of chronically excessive glucose in the blood (think high refined carbohydrate consumption.) A glycated mitochondrial membrane can’t accept nutrients into the mitochondria.

Berger warns that the predominant abnormality in AD is a 45% reduction in glucose utilization in the brain, meaning even when the raw materials are available for energy production, they aren’t being consumed. This reduction in fuel consumption can be observed years – even decades – before AD symptoms present themselves!

High Insulin Precedes Glycation Damage

Insulin actually has a protective role of removing glucose from the blood before it can do any damage. The higher your blood sugars go, the more insulin is released to sweep the glucose into the cells. So if mitochondrial membranes are glycated, that means insulin is no longer doing its job! In other words, you have become insulin resistant! See the cascade? Insulin resistance can occur years before blood sugars become chronically elevated, and chronically high blood sugars are damaging the mitochondrial membrane and causing dysfunction. That dysfunction is a pre-cursor to the manifestation of AD.

What if You Could Stop Insulin Resistance?

You can! By eating a nutrient-dense, whole foods diet, properly balanced! Start by eliminating white flour and white sugar. A nutritional therapist can help you fine tune your diet further.

in Education

A Love Affair with Curry

This is a guest post from Kathryn Akomah-Mordi, owner and mastermind of Mordi Photographie. She loves ethnic cooking almost as much as she loves natural light photography.

The first time I ever had curry, I fell in love! The flavors were incredibly warm and bright!

Not too long after, I came down with strep throat. I vividly remember sitting in the doctor’s office waiting for the lab results while my mom read a magazine. She excitedly quoted that curry could help relieve sore throats!

I currently have over 8 varieties of curry in my pantry, but only recently did I learn that the health benefits of curry extend beyond sore throat relief. Curry is one of those foods that supports gut health. It helps us break down and assimilate our food.

A good curry is a balance of all 5 flavors: sweet for building the body and storing energy, salty to maintain fluids and for electrolyte balance, sour to tonify the liver and improve sluggish digestion, bitter for detoxification and movement, and umami to insure enough protein to create blood cells, anti-bodies, enzymes and hormones.

Not only are curry dishes balanced in flavor, they also have a balance of macro-nurients. This means that the ratios of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats (the healthy ones, like coconut milk) are just what your body needs to stay fueled for hours. This balance even helps curb your cravings, so that you don’t go looking for potato chips or cookies later on!

Finally, curry is a blend of many spices, each of which have their own health benefits, such as improved immunity, decreased inflammation, lowered blood sugars, and better digestion.

Here are some of the most common curry ingredients, and what they purportedly have to offer:

Cumin – aids digestion, improves immunity
Turmeric – anti-inflammatory, improves antioxidant absorption
Coriander – lowers blood sugar, eases digestive discomfort, decreases blood pressure, improves cholesterol
Ginger – aids bile flow, digestive stimulant
Fenugreek & Fennel – anti gas/bloating
Mustard seed – omega 3 fatty acids
Cloves – reduce inflammation, improve digestion
Nutmeg – relieves pain, soothes indigestion, detoxifies, improves cognitive function
Cinnamon – antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, fights diabetes and infections, supports heart health
Cardamon – GI protection, cholesterol control, improved circulation, helps fight infection
Cayenne – relieves migraines, prevents blood clots, supports detox, boosts metabolism, supports weight loss
Lemongrass – treats digestive tract spasms, stomach ache, high blood pressure and vomiting; relieves muscle pain
Kaffir Lime Leaf – helps the liver and lymphatic system cleanse the blood, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, stress reducer
Galangal – anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antioxidant, eases stomach pain

Now, I don’t go around promising any food as a guaranteed cure to illness, but I definitely like to stack the odds in my favor! So why not use curry as often as you can? You can use these 3 basic principles for creating a good curry dish:

Principle 1: Be generous with your spices. Spices not only bring flavor, but also texture to dishes. Most supermarkets sell spices in misleadingly small containers, so it’s easy to skimp on how much you use. You can buy bigger packets from Asian supermarkets or online to encourage spooning in the spices with a freer hand. (You can store them in the freezer to stop them from going stale.)

Principle 2: Decide what to add to your curry (which meat and vegetables), then how to cook your ingredients. Many curries start with onion, ginger, and garlic. This trio provides the deep base flavor of most curries, equivalent to onion, carrot, and celery in the French tradition. You may choose to simply sweat them for a lighter curry, or cook them long and slow to carmelize them for a richer, darker dish. Next decide whether you will sautee/stir-fry the meat(s)/vegetables, grill them, or simmer them in the sauce.

Principle 3: Choose what will give your curry sauce its body. This will normally be one, or a combination, of the following: tomatoes, pureed peppers or chilies, yogurt or cream, coconut milk, spinach, or finely diced onion.

As you follow these basic principles, you will find the use of curry to be simple and enjoyable. With a little practice, you will be improvising and creating your own curry recipes! You may even wish to create your own curry blend. Heres is a basic yellow curry spice blend to get you started. Adapt it to match your palate perfectly!

Yellow Curry Recipe

2 Tbsp ground coriander

2 Tbsp ground cumin

1 1/2 Tbsp ground turmeric

2 tsp ground ginger powder

1 tsp dry mustard

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cardamom

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper or ground chilies

in Food & Cooking

You Might Be Hypoglycemic If…

Hypoglycemia: (also called low blood sugar) a lack of the body’s main source of fuel, glucose. Characterized by confusion, heart palpitations, shakiness, and anxiety. There are over 200,000 documented cases per year. But for some, it’s a chronic way of life.

Why Does Hypoglycemia Occur?

In the most common scenario, a non-diabetic individual eats a high-carb meal, which is rapidly converted to glucose. This glucose enters the bloodstream quickly and triggers a surge of insulin to escort it into the cells for energy, into the liver for temorary storage, and into fat tissue for more permanent storage. Picture insulin as a roll of paper towels and blood sugars as a basin of water. The more paper towels you use, the more water you absorb out of the basin, right? So, the more insulin secreted, the lower blood sugars will drop in response.

Google says, “Consuming high-sugar foods or drinks, such as orange juice or regular soda, can treat this condition.” Using the analogy above, sugary foods and beverages will add more water to the basin and will require another roll of paper towels to mop it up, so the cycle continues perpetually. A better preventative treatment would be to avoid eating in a way that causes high levels of glucose to enter the bloodstream to begin with. In other words, eating nutrient-dense whole foods, adequately balanced. That means adequate fats, proteins, and unrefined, unprocessed carbohydrates – like vegetables.

Why is Hypoglycemia Harmful?

Hypoglycemia is the first step in what is now being called the Black Plague of the 21st Century – a pathway toward insulin resistance, Metabolic Syndrome (characterized by weight gain, high blood pressure, and rising triglycerides), pre-diabetes (chronically elevated blood sugars), diabetes (blood sugars over 200 mg/dl), and Alzheimer’s (called Diabetes Type III).

If you don’t want to be on this path, you need to take steps now to reverse your direction.

Know the Signs of Hypoglycemia

You notice an afternoon slump when you crave, feel lethargic, can’t think, and get sleepy – otherwise known as the 2 p.m. coma.
Your food groups seem to be coffee, sweets, and energy drinks – you need stimulants to keep going.
Your moods change as rapidly as the Idaho weather.
You wonder if you’re experiencing an earthquake because you’re shaking so much. The hungrier you are, the shakier you get.
When you can’t bite into food, you bite someone’s head off. Hangry is the word!
Although no one startled you, and it’s not flu season, you could still faint because you get so light-headed.
Eating brings such sweet relief! Fasting is out of the question.
“You’re not you….” You’re:confused, knucklehead, blonde, hot mess, befuddled, klutz….
You’re as nervous as a June Bug in a henhouse.
Your vision seems like an unadjusted pair of binoculars.

If these sound familiar, please contact me to get some help before your health gets worse!

in Education