Elizabeth Pattalis Nutritionist

Personal Trainer - Pilates Mat & Reformer - Whole Life

Basic Nutrition – Protein 101

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Protein’s primary function is building, maintaining and repairing muscle. It is however involved in other processes such as immunity, hormone production and it’s needed to make brain neurotransmitters such as serotonin. We often forget, but protein is at the start of the chain when it comes to making brain neurotransmitters, so with mental illness on the rise, don’t forget it starts with the protein you eat.

Protein is one of the three macronutrients (carbs, fat, protein). It’s made up of 20 types of amino acids that bind together in various ways to create different kinds of protein.

The body can make 11 of the 20 amino acids. But for you to function optimally, you need to get the other nine amino acids from food (each amino acid has different functions).

Depending on what amino acids are in each protein, they can be considered complete or incomplete. Complete proteins contain all of the essential amino acids. In contrast, incomplete proteins do not.

As a general rule – complete proteins come from an animal source with the exceptions of a few plant-based sources such as quinoa, buckwheat, soy, hemp and chia seeds.

Types of Protein:

Complete Proteins:

•   Animal protein: meat, fish, poultry, eggs, dairy.

•   Plant proteins: tofu, tempeh, soy milk, edamame, quinoa, buckwheat, hemp seeds, chia seeds.

Incomplete Proteins:

•   Plant proteins: beans, legumes, nuts, seeds, grains (oats, rice, wheat, bulgur.)

Knowing some foods are complete or incomplete proteins is important as it helps understand why variety in the diet is important. Otherwise, you can end up in a deficiency in amino acids if you were to keep eating the same incomplete ones on repeat.

When planning a meal,  aim for about ¼ of your plate to be a protein source. 

If you were following a recipe on a meal plan that I have designed and it said use tuna, you could substitute with another protein from the above list such as eggs. 

Protein tends to help you feel fuller for longer as it takes more energy to digest in comparison to carbs. For this reason, it is useful if you are trying to lose weight to make it a priority to include protein at each meal.

How Much Protein Do You Need?

Guidelines suggest between 0.8 grams to 1.2 grams per kilo of body weight (1).

To calculate quickly, if you weighed 50 kg, then you need about 50 grams of protein.

Generally, people don’t have a problem ensuring they are eating enough protein unless they are on a muscle-building program. In this case, you are ramping up the protein to about 1.8 grams to 2 grams per kilo of body weight.

Example, if you weighed 100kg, and you wanted to put on muscle, you are then aiming at 200 grams of protein. An egg has 6 grams of protein in it. Therefore you can see the challenge. Now, imagine you are vegan, ½ a cup of beans if about 6 grams of protein and your choices are going to be limited when consuming protein. I encourage eating real foods first, but protein powders do have their places, in particular, where you have a goal to meet with muscle building.

Protein Content Of Common Foods:

Content of protein, in grams (2):

  • ½ cup edamame beans: 8
  • 1 egg: 6
  • ½ cup lentils: 9
  • ½ cup cannellini beans: 8
  • 2 tbsp peanut butter: 7
  • ¼ cup nuts: 4 to 6
  • ½ cup bran: 6
  • 100g cod: 21
  • 100g can salmon: 20
  • 120g sirlon cooked: 24
  • 100g chicken cooked: 28
  • 100g tempeh: 19
  • 200g natural low fat yogurt: 5
  • 1 cup milk: 10

For most of us who just want to be healthy, you don’t need to count your protein each day. Keep it simple: ¼ of your plate protein and rotate the type of proteins you are using.

For more information on the amino acid Lysine, read the post here. Lysine is typically one of the amino acids often deficient in vegan and vegetarian diets.

If you would like a personalised meal plan to ensure it meets your nutritional requirements, orders can be made here.

The Body’s Natural Cycle – The Moon & Menstrual Cycle

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menstrual cycle lunar phases
 
A women’s menstrual cycle is about the same length as a lunar cycle, around 28 – 29 days. In being in sync with the moon, the light of the full moon triggers ovulation and women would bleed at a new moon.
 
However in the western world today, we have somewhat lost our connection as women to both nature and the moon. We live in a man’s world.
 
Traditionally in many cultures, the moon holds sacred significance to the goddess and the female. Going back into time people lived in the open, amongst the trees, the stars, and the ocean. Today’s culture has become detached from this natural way of living, it has become very much artificial and at a cost to our health.

 

Menstrual Cycle

A woman’s cycle can be thoughts of as two phases:
  • The follicular phase – day 1 (first day of bleeding) to day 14 (ovulation).
  • The luteal phase – day 15 to day 28 (until next bleed).
If we track a woman’s mood, it can be further broken down, into four phases. If we work with these four phases, we can move with the cycles of the moon.
 

Moving With The Moon Phases

  • Phase 1 – dark moon or no moon – menstrual phase:
    • With no moon and the shedding of the uterus, ie, the bleeding, energy is low. It is natural to want to retreat and stay indoors. It represents winter. The body wants more sleep at this time.
    • This is the time to reflect, to go within. Reflect on the last month and let go of what isn’t serving you.
    • It is about physically cleansing, bleeding, and purging emotionally.
    • To honor this time, spend time alone, don’t plan any events to fall at this time, rest. You may ask your partner to take care of some of the chores, and de-load your workload at this time.
  • Phase 2 – waxing moon – pre-ovulation phase:
    • This is after menstruation has finished and is the lead up to ovulation, spring.  Energy is building up as hormones are rising.
    • The focus now is outward, you are driven, productive and focused.
    • This time is a good period to get onto any challenging work, the ‘big tasks’.
    • With exercise, you may want to go a bit harder, aim for the personal bests at this time.
  • Phase 3 – full moon – ovulation:
    • This is when a woman is fertile. With the full moon, it is summer, energy is high, and it is bright.
    • Energy is still outward but there are more nurturing elements. The time to do any big cleans may be now.
    • This time is about connecting to others, developing relationships and nurturing current relationships. It’s a great time to make a date, or treat yourself to something indulgent like a massage.
  • Phase 4 – waning moon – premenstrual phase:
    • This is when physical and emotional energy starts to decline, the autumn. Energy starts to shift inwards again as the moonlight becomes dark and empty.
    • Creativity can be higher as well as intuition. Perhaps if you have been sitting on the fence on something, now is the time to tune into what you need to do.
    • This is the time for less logical work and more creativity. It’s a time for self-care, to relax, let emotions calm, read a book and have a long bath.
    • With exercise, you may want to opt for gentle yoga practices and leave the high-intensity training to the led up to ovulation.
If you start to become aware of the phases, you can work with it rather than against it. There are positives to every phase.
 
Being in sync with nature is healing to both the body and mind. It is hard today as we do live in a world where a woman is on the go every day. Life seems to support a man in many ways. But it isn’t to say it isn’t possible to make it work for you. Tell your partner what the phases are so then he won’t go planning his boys night on day 1 and expect you to prepare the food. If you have a personal trainer, tell them too, they can plan your harder sessions at ovulation and de-load you at menstruation or the lead-up. If you are doing a diet where you need to take a break, to break a plateau, then have that break at phase 4 when willpower is lowest.
 
If you are having difficulties with a regular cycle and not sure where to start, you may find this article useful on seed cycling. It can help restore a cycle. Alternatively please get in touch for a consultation. 
 
Trust the body’s wisdom. It knows everything you need to know.

 

Why Detox – And How To Do It

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why detox - beetroot

Research over the last several decades indicates that the pathology of almost all age-related or chronic diseases is caused by multifactorial elements such as diet, exposure to environmental agents (toxins), and genetic risks. The data suggests that nutrition, as well as lifestyle changes, can modify the pathologies of chronic diseases including those associated with toxic build-up (1).

Toxins come from everywhere – air pollution, plastic packaging, canned goods, pesticides, in our food supply such as mercury in fish, cosmetics, medications, toys, flame retardants, and the list goes on. Some people would argue that levels of individual toxins found in our food and environment are not significant enough to cause harm. Evidence is suggesting otherwise, low doses of toxicity are a concern as are compounded effects of multiple exposures which is the greatest concern.

Toxins like to be stored in fat cells. A person who is overweight potentially will carry high loads of toxins. The body in an attempt to rid of them becomes depleted in antioxidants and this is a contribution to inflammatory states (cardiovascular disease, IBS, arthritic conditions, mental health disorders, etc).

The toxins disrupt the bodies endocrine function i.e. hormone function. They can mimic naturally occurring hormones in the body like estrogen’s, androgens and thyroid hormones. The body ultimately suffers from altered metabolism and hormone imbalances (2).

It isn’t just the liver and kidneys that assist in detoxification. The gut is a major player as well. It is estimated about 25% of detoxification processes are within the gut. A lot of the toxins that enter the body comes from food and if a person has a “leaky gut”, ” these toxins aren’t being detoxified in the gut. Instead, they are entering the body’s bloodstream and potentially produce unwanted symptoms.

Furthermore, if a person has too many of the undesirable microbes in the gut, they will also produce more toxins. Healing the gut, therefore is important, maintaining the integrity of the gut lining and ensuring there is the right balance of good and bad gut bacteria.

If wastes build up in the body, a person gets sick. Toxicity is linked to almost every disease thus it is imperative detoxification is working well.

The key to detox can be summarised into three areas:

  1. Enhance the body’s capacity to detoxify.
  2. Get rid of the wastes effectively
  3. Reduce exposure to toxins.

In enhancing the body’s detox capacity, nutritional intervention has been shown to result in demonstrable improvements in health by lowering the toxicant burden of people (3).

Following some guidelines, a person can improve their bodies detoxification capabilities to help eliminate toxins, wastes and reduce inflammation.

Fantastic foods for detoxification include:

  • Brussel sprouts: Brussel sprouts contain good fibre to promote elimination and they boost liver detoxification increasing enzyme activity (4).
  • Beetroot: Beetroot contains an array for vitamins and minerals for enhanced detoxification. It boosts the key enzyme in the liver and reduces cell damage (5)
  • Chia seeds: Chia seeds are loaded in fibre allowing wastes to be excreted from the body easier. They also are high in antioxidants helping protect the liver.
  • Nuts: Nuts are a nutritionally dense food with an array of nutrients. Particularly rich in antioxidants and fibre they help fight free radicals and keep you regular (6)
  • Green tea: Green tea has numerous demonstrated health effects, including antioxidant functions and enhancement of the detoxification liver enzymes (7)

Eating in a way that supports your body’s detoxification pathways every day is the best way to ensure optimal health. However, no one is perfect all the time. Modern-day life also makes it difficult, toxins cannot be avoided completely. Genetics is another issue. If a person has gene variations in the ones relating to detoxification, they need to be more careful than others.

If you feel you need extra detox support check out Elizabeth’s Detox 6 Week Program,

it is your health reset, the foundation to better health. 

Alternatively, if you’d like to read more on detoxification read the post here. on the signs of poor liver detoxification. 

7 Signs You Need To Detox

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Do you consider yourself healthy but experience moodiness, dull skin, constant tiredness, brain fog, body pains, bloating and/or maybe headaches? These types of ailments are common enough and considered ‘normal’ even, so we don’t tend to make a trip to the doctor about it. An all too often remark is ‘it’s called getting old’. But it can have nothing to do with age.
 
The good news is you don’t have to live with it. Wouldn’t it be better to be vibrant and have clarity of mind?
They all may be symptoms of too many toxins in your body. Let’s dig deeper into some of the signs and symptoms of a body that is experiencing too many toxins.

 

Stubborn body fat.

Plastics contain what are called xenoestrogens. These mimic real estrogens and unfortunately, this means fat for the body as we can start to have ‘estrogen dominance’. The detoxification pathways excrete our hormones but if the body is overworked or not functioning optimally (poor diet, alcohol, genes, stress, medication, etc), then we may end up with a build-up of estrogen and a build-up of toxins. Another key point to remember is that toxins love fat. The toxins prefer to accumulate in the fat cells rather than the bloodstream. Therefore it only makes sense the body may hang onto your excess fat because to lose it, would mean the toxins then get released into the body. It serves as a protective mechanism as well.

Fatigue and lack of focus.

If you can’t get out of bed in the morning and feeling ‘foggy’ this is a classic symptom of toxicity. Your body is exhausted from the toxic overload, probably in body and also in mind.

Toxins increase inflammation and our brains get inflamed too, “leaky brain syndrome”. In addition to brain fog, lack of concentration it can impact our moods. Sometimes conditions such as depression and anxiety are due to brain inflammation.

You smell.

A nutritionist will always ask what is going on in the mouth. Bad breath and unusual patterns on the tongue can be strong indicators of toxic overload. Undesirable bacteria in the gut produce toxins and gas. The gas has to go somewhere, that may be in the form of bad breath. It’s worth remember kidneys are one of the organs that participate in detoxification. If the kidneys aren’t working well enough the breathe may smell like sulfur or you may smell an ammonia scent in your sweat or urine. 

Constipation.

The bowels get rid of a lot of toxins every day of our lives. When we’re constipated, we’re storing up all those toxins, allowing them to negatively affect our bodies. Bowel movements should be happening every day, any less and you’re building up toxins and may have further gut issues as well such as bloating, and wind.

Muscle aches and pains.

If you are constantly sore, stiff, and achy for no real reason, it’s a big red flag for inflammation. The toxins in your life are working away at your muscles and joints. Headaches can present themselves as well.

Skin reactions.

The skin plays a role in detoxification. It is one of the ways toxins can leave the body by sweat. Acne, rashes, and other skin problems may signal a toxic overload.

Your Hormones Are Out Of Whack.

Hormones are made in the body and they are also eliminated by the body. PMS, heavy periods, hot flushes, migraines, anxiety, blood sugar problems, stomach fat, and infertility, are all conditions associated with hormone imbalance issues. When we have a hormonal issue we need to ask ourselves why? If your detoxifications pathways aren’t working as well as they should for whatever reason your hormones aren’t going to play nice.
Maintaining a clean diet isn’t always enough. Toxic overload can happen to us all and is.
 
Detoxification can be a simple process. If you answered yes to any of these points you need to up your detox game. Instead of doing some crash detox, try a detox that is more sustainable and make your lifestyle cleansing.
 
For some detoxification tips on what food to eat please check out this post here.
 

Food for Mental Wellness

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The Australian Health and Welfare 2018 Report released recently highlighted that 45% of Australians will experience a mental illness at some point in their lives (1). The need to address mental health is increasingly becoming evident.

A recent study (2) by the Food and Mood Centre at Deakin University in Melbourne, the Smiles Trial, sought to explicitly seek to answer the question, “If I improve my diet, will my mental health improve?” The results indeed were promising emphasising the need to eat a healthy diet to support mental health including managing depression. When it comes to mental health nutrition can be a powerful influencer.

The dietary composition of the diet in the study was as follows: protein 18% of total energy (E); fat 40% of E; carbohydrates 37% of E; alcohol 2% of E; fibre/other 3% of E.

food and mental health

The 40% of daily food coming from fat is not surprising when you consider the ‘dry weight’ of the brain is composed of about 60% fat. The fats we eat directly affect the structure and substance of the brain cell membranes. Saturated unhealthy fats are those that are hard at room temperature, like lard. They make the cell membranes in our brain and body tissue less flexible. Whereas we need a healthy balance of essential fatty acids omega-3 and omega-6 as these provide vital functions in the structuring of brain cells, ensuring that smooth communication is possible within the brain. Both are found in equal amounts in the brain, and it is believed they should be eaten in a ratio of 1 to 1. Unequal intakes of omega-3 and omega-6 fats are implicated in a number of mental health problems, including depression, and concentration and memory problems (6).

Omega 3 fatty acids are found in walnuts, flaxseeds, chia and fatty fish (3). Omega 6 fats can be found in foods such as soybean oil, corn oil, beef, poultry, eggs, and nuts. Omega 6 fats can be found in a lot of unhealthy food such as chips, pizza, desserts, dressings and processed meats (4)

In addition to eating the right ratio of fats in our diet for mental health, the Smiles Trial diet can teach us that a more traditional style of eating is effective for our mood.

This includes eating more whole grains, vegetables, fruit, legumes, raw nuts, fish, chicken, lean red meat, eggs, and olive oil. It is just as important to reduce the intake of ‘extra foods’ including sweets, fast food, sugary drinks, refined cereals, and fried foods.

The take-home message simply put, what you eat affects the structure and function of your brain. For optimal well-being including mental health, eat foods in their most natural forms and avoid processed foods

If you’d like to understand better how food can be used as a tool to improve your mental wellbeing book in for a consultation with Elizabeth. Mental health is an area she is passionate about. By helping one person at a time each of us can make a difference in improving the wellbeing of others too.

Stress Symptoms – How It Affects Your Body

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Modern day life has people saying I’m busy and stressed too often. It is not a badge of honor to be busy all the time. Stress is both physical and emotional. It can detrimental to your health and should be taken seriously. Stress shuts down many parts of the body. The below statement sums it up perfectly. 

“A significant part of the damage is due to norepinephrine (adrenaline), which has a function to redirect the body’s resources away from maintenance, regeneration, and reproduction and towards systems that require active movement”.

Norepinephrine protects the body in a fight or flight situation. The body is not designed to be constantly releasing stress hormones day after day.

Consequences of this include digestive issues, inflammation, irregular menstrual cycles, infertility, sleeplessness, low libido, increased abdominal fat, depression, impaired disease resistance, and addictions. 

Stress is the silent killer. Don’t be complacent and say it is part of the job, or it’s modern day life. We need to deal with it and manage our stress levels appropriately by taking time out to look after ourselves. No job, no amount of money and no one is worth you dying for.  Chronic health conditions don’t happen overnight, it takes years to develop an illness such as heart disease, diabetes, adrenal fatigue and so forth. Prevention is always better than cure, do something before you must make time for yourself. 

Reflect on your current situation. There needs to be a nice happy medium between stress and the sweeter things in life that bring contentment. 

Here are some tips to manage stress:

  • limit alcohol and caffeine.
  • exercise. If you are chronically stressed consider gentle forms of exercise like yoga or pilates are best.
  • get quality sleep each night with regular sleep and wake hours. Have a sleep routine.
  • limit technology two hours before bed to encourage melatonin synthesis (our sleep hormone). 
  • limit time spent with emotionally draining people.
  • play with your pets.
  • spend time in nature, walk barefoot on the grass or sand.
  • eat a balanced diet that supports healthy brain function. 

If your health is suffering from the consequences of stress a nutritionist can help. It isn’t a one consult fix as it takes time to get your body back into balance and heal. A nutritionist will do a thorough case history and put together a health protocol for you to follow with regular follow-ups. The number of follow-ups depends on the severity of your condition. Please get in touch for bookings or enquiries. 

Effects Of Chemicals On Human Health

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Chemicals and toxins in our environment, also known as endocrine disruptors, contribute to poor health. 

Too often people dismiss it and I can understand why. I’m guilty of it too, you don’t see the immediate impact it has on your health, therefore, you don’t worry about. That and you may think, why is it a problem now whereas years ago not so?

I’ll tell you why. We live in a much more toxic world than we did before. We are also more nutrient deficient and stressed which impacts the way we detoxify chemicals. By reducing your toxic load you can improve your weight loss efforts, liver function, aches, digestion, mood and more. On top of that you’re helping minimise lifestyle related diseases.

Where are these endocrine disruptors found? 

  • plastic bottles
  • plastic storage containers
  • tinned food (the lining is BPA)
  • receipts 
  • plastic wrap
  • plastic toys
  • cosmetics and skin care
  • nonstick cookware
  • coatings on furniture and carpet
  • and more 

They include:

  • bisphenol A/F/BPA
  • dioxins
  • pesticides and herbicides (glyphosates)
  • phylates
  • heavy metals (lead, mercury, arsenic)

The impact these chemicals can have on our health varies. It can contribute to obesity, diabetes, infertility issues (PCOS, endometriosis, early puberty, poor both outcomes, reduced sperm quality), hormone-sensitive cancers in females, thyroid conditions, neurodevelopment, anxiety, depression chronic fatigue, and epigenetic changes. 

Certain groups that are more susceptible to these chemicals are children and women. Children have undeveloped detox pathways and also an underdeveloped blood-brain barrier. Women can be more susceptible depending on their stage in life, eg pregnancy.  Women are also the highest consumers of personal care products. Plus women have a higher fat to muscle ratio. Toxins love fat and get stored here. On a side note to my weight loss clients, if you are losing lots of fat, you’re body will need help to detoxify all the chemicals being released by the excess fat being burnt. This is why you may feel lousy if you lose fat quickly, all your toxins are being released into your bloodstream!

Now I know we can’t all avoid endocrine disruptors completely. But we can reduce our exposure. Reducing it by a little still makes a difference! I’ll also add here, I often see clients with health conditions not getting the results that are really hoping for even though they feel they are doing things right. But, they don’t make changes in this area. If you are spending lots of money trying to improve your health, whatever the condition, don’t underestimate what chemicals may be doing to your health. We need to get down to basics sometimes before we spend endless money and time on other approaches such as medication, supplements, other natural therapies, and surgery. 

So what can you do to reduce your toxic load?

  • invest in quality cookware (avoid non-stick, aluminum, copper)
  • buy organic where possible. Eating an organic diet for just one week has been shown to reduce pesticide exposure in adults by 90% (1). 
  • avoid plastic as much as you can. BPA free is no better (avoid codes 3, 6 and 7)
  • avoid heating food in plastic in the microwave
  • reduce the number of personal care products you use or choose organic and chemical free cosmetics. Go make up free :)
  • drink filtered water. Tap water contains lead, copper, and fluoride. When buying water in plastic bottles, don’t reuse the bottle and don’t let the bottle sit in a warm place such as the car. It leaches chemicals when warm. 

Lastly, support your body’s detoxification pathways. There are certain supplements that may help such as vitamin C, curcumin, NAC and also certain foods particularly useful including globe artichoke, brussel sprouts, and broccoli. 

If you are feeling ‘toxic’ and this is one area of your health you know you could do better with, please contact me for a consultation. Tests can be done to pinpoint if you’re liver is functioning at optimal and the level of toxicity that may be present. Or please check out my online detox foundation program.

 

Signs You Need A Detox

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Our body has 5 major organs of detoxification to remove any harmful chemicals and pollutants from our system these are the skin, lungs, kidneys, colon, and liver. In an ideal world, these organs would function optimally, however, too often these organs are becoming overburdened by poor lifestyle choices, environmental pollutants, medications or genetic weaknesses. The result is a weakened digestive and detox function which then leads to wastes finding their way into fat cells and brain tissue

Factors that may indicate the need for a detoxification program include:

  • Pharmaceutical medications.
  • Poor dietary choices (e.g., high sugar diets, junk food)
  • Slow gut transit time and motility (low fibre, highly processed diets)
  • Xenobiotics (insecticides, herbicides, drugs, solvents, and metals)
  • Lifestyle choices (alcohol, smoking, recreational drugs)
  • Mechanical problems (spinal alignment, nasal or intestinal obstruction)
  • Psychosocial factors (stress and trauma)

The purpose of a detox is to ease the stress of the body’s organs and aid the removal of toxins, think of it as a holiday for your organs, a time to recharge and come back stronger and more energised.

 Signs and symptoms of too much toxicity in the body:

  • Brain fog
  • Fatigue unrelieved by sleep
  • Headaches
  • Muscle aching and weakness
  • Nerve pain or numbness
  • Recurrent infections
  • Poor short-term memory and concentration
  • Sensitivity to environmental chemicals, odors and foods
  • Bloating
  • Fluid retention
  • Anxiety and/or mood swings
  • Increased belly fat or visceral fat
  • Cravings and/or sugar issues
  • Acne
  • Insomnia – especially between 2 and 4 am

What you can do:

  • Eat your veggies: Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts contain sulfur, which helps reduce estrogen dominance and support both phases I and phase II of the liver detoxification process. You also need their fiber to move all the toxins along in your colon.
  • Exercise: Daily exercise has numerous health benefits including lowering blood sugar levels, weight loss, bone health, balance hormones and has positive mood effects. Exercise also encourages oxygen to our cells and helps to remove toxins from our cells. It stimulates the lymphatic system to aid in the removal of wastes. By sweating toxins out through your skin, they also bypass the need to be detoxed by the liver and you reduce the workload of the liver.
  • Sleep: Getting a good night’s sleep is essential for our general health and wellbeing. This is the time that our body can repair and heal. Aim for 8 hours of sleep per night. Quality is also important. Ensure you practice good sleep hygiene practices such as sleeping in a dark room without any electronics in the room.

Following these simple tips will ease the toxic burden on your body’s natural detoxification organs. Take care of all of these and more in my  online 4-week detoxification.  To find out more and to sign up click here. However, once you’ve done the program you’ll be able to go back to it any time you need a tune-up!

Relieving Constipation

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Relieving Constipation

It is a horrible feeling when you’re bloated, heavy and uncomfortable. Constipation is a major issue which affects many. Whilst, not a topic people want to talk about, it is an important one. 

Constipation is one of our body’s red flags, telling us something is out of balance. To improve your health in the long term it is important to address the underlying cause. 

What is Constipation?

– Infrequent bowel motions, e.g. fewer than every 3 days
– Lumpy or hard stools
– The sensation of incomplete emptying of bowels
– Straining and painful defecation
– Bloating feeling 

Regular bowel movements are important to ensure we’re removing toxins, waste and excess hormones from our body. When we don’t do this,  then all of these substances are reabsorbed back into your bloodstream. They then recirculate around your body causing toxicity and inflammation throughout the body.

Possible underlying causes of constipation:

– Dehydration
– Overgrowth of bad bacteria e.g. Candida, SIBO
– Food Intolerances- Poor diet eg low fibre intake
– Stress, depression, and anxiety
–  Sedentary lifestyle 
– Certain medications such as codeine painkillers

Relieving Constipation Tips:

– Drink more water! I know this sounds very obvious but people still forget the importance of water. The general guidelines are about 33mL/kg of body weight. So, for example, if you weigh 60kg, your water intake should be approximately 2L/day. If you are active you may need to increase this number.

– Exercise. Physical activity helps to encourage peristalsis of the bowels to get things moving.

– Bitters.  Consuming bitter foods such as rocket, endive, lemon, and dandelion, help stimulate our digestion.

–  Get your fibre right. I recommend about 30 grams per day. Studies show that most of us only eat around half the dietary fibre required for normal bowel habits. Try counting your fibre intake for the day, you may be surprised to realise you’re one of those people. 

–  Have 1tsp of apple cider vinegar with water 30mins before meals to help stimulate digestion. 

– Chew. Sit down and really chew your food – digestion starts in the mouth – again, very important.

– Minimise stress. Find activities that calm your body and mind such as yoga, meditation, colouring, and walking. 

– Allow time for bowel movements.  Give yourself time.  Rushing and straining hard increases the pressure in the blood vessels around your anus which can lead to hemorrhoids.

The key to long-term relief from constipation is to identify the root cause of the constipation. Some investigative tests I may recommend include:

– Extensive Thyroid Profile
– Comprehensive Stool Analysis
– Food Intolerance Test

For more information, contact me directly or get started on your health by booking online!

Nutrition, Methylation and your Genes

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Methylation is a vital biochemical process that happens in every cell and every organ of our body. It is the passing of a chemical fragment called a methyl group (a carbon atom linked to three hydrogens) from one molecule to another.

Some of the functions methylation are involved in include:

  • energy production
  • inflammatory control and other immune functions, including autoimmunity
  • detoxification, including removing toxins and the production of glutathione (the body’s main antioxidant)
  • neurotransmitter synthesis
  • hormone metabolism
  • histamine clearance
  • cardiovascular processes, including reducing homocysteine
  • nerve health such as myelination of peripheral nerves
  • cell division, DNA and RNA synthesis
  • aging and longevity 
  • plus more

The enzymes that the methylation cycle is mediated by include methyltetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR), catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT), and cystathionine beta-synthase (CBS). Each person’s genetic fingerprint in the form of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) influences how well these enzymes work. Methylation also requires certain nutrients such as choline, betaine, methionine, folate, vitamins B12 and B6, as well as minerals including magnesium and zinc. We either make too much or too little methylation. 

In addition to genetics and nutrition, infections, poor digestive health, smoking, alcohol, medication, food sensitivities, environmental toxins, stress of any form (emotional and physical), poor sleep and improper breathing can all effect methylation.

Conditions linked to methylation dysfunction include:

  • anxiety, depression, bipolar and other mood disorders
  • addiction, OCD, ADHD, and other behaviour disorders
  • infertility and miscarriages
  • fatigue
  • migraines
  • allergies, increased chemical sensitivity, high histamine
  • impaired detoxification 
  • accelerated aging
  • dementia, Alzheimers, Parkinsons, autism 
  • nerve pain
  • diabetes
  • immune dysfunction
  • autoimmune disorders
  • cancer

To determine whether a gene and methylation are compromised, proper testing is required. In doing this a nutrition plan unique to you can be put together. Amongst other assessment tools that may be recommended, if needed, is a DNA test. This test looks for genetic SNPs that may be affecting healthy methylation. If you have any SNPs nutrition can play a key role in improving proper methylation. Nutrition has a profound effect on epigenetics.  A modifiable gene which has been affected can be corrected through nutrition and/or other lifestyle changes. Your genes are not your destiny. 

If you’d like to find out more and book a consultation please get in touch via email or book directly online.

methylation