Protein Bar

1/3 cup sunflower seeds
1/3 cup pumpkin/ pepita seeds
1/3 cup cashews
1/2 cup almonds
1/2 cup walnuts
1/4 cup flax meal/ seeds
4 Tbs sesame seeds (or hemp seeds/ meal)
1/4 raisins
1/4 dried goji berries
1.5 cup oats- quick/ rolled
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup almond butter
3 Tbs. cocoa powder (preferably raw)
1/3 cup brown rice syrup
1/4 cup agave nectar

If you have a food processor, blend all nuts and seeds, adding oats in for last few seconds. Mix all other ingredients in as well. (This can also be done in a bowl with no processor.) Then press into a 8x8 baking dish and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Once cooled, cut into squares and store in fridge or freezer.

Optional: Add to recipe:
1 Tbs of spirulina along with 1 more Tbs of agave nectar and 3 more Tbs of cocoa powder

Understanding Macronutrient Balance: Fats, Proteins and Carbohydrates

The macronutrients in our diet are proteins, fats, carbohydrates, (and water)

Fat is the New Healthy: Eat Fat, Get Thin.

A common imbalance in our modern day diet is the consumption of too much unhealthy fat. These fats are the refined and hydrogenated kinds.

Many of us might be consuming significant amounts of unhealthy fats due to false advertising of food or simply by eating out a lot. However there is a large percentage of our population that is so fat conscious, that we’re not eating enough fat as a result of its bad rep.

We live in a nation with the largest fat-free food industry and yet we are the most obese. Our collective weight issues lay in the quality of fats we eat, not in fat itself. Most fat free products are extremely low in quality: yogurts are filled with processed sugars, foods are filled with chemicals, and milk is chemically altered and flooded with hormones.

Headlines news- Low fat diets are passé! Science has changed. Most low fat diets are rooted in a toxic belief that fat in food equals fat in the body. This is not an absolute truth and is often a misconception.

If we are on a fat free diet and not losing weight, chances are that our bodies have gone into starvation mode. If the body does not receive the basic macronutrients it needs to function, it will consider itself in famine. Not knowing if it will receive these nutrients anytime soon, it begins to store fat and inhibits the building of muscle in order to sustain energy. 

It’s time to get over the fat phobia. The phobia itself might be making us fat.

Poor quality fats as well as the processed carbohydrates and artificial ingredients that supplement fat-free foods tend to lead us to craving more carbohydrates and more unhealthy fat. If we are low in fat and protein, we will almost definitely find ourselves binge eating.

A fat deficient diet often leads to dry hair, dry skin, brittle hair or skin, mood issues, digestive, redness around the eyes, deficiency in fat soluble vitamins A D E, and the already mentioned inability to lose weight. Fat deficiency also tampers with memory, cognition and brain function.

When adding in EFA (Essential Fatty Acids,) we will most likely see a difference in skin and hair as well as the stabilization of our mood within as little as two weeks. Within a few months, chances are we’ll be losing weight rather than gaining it. These fats are found in unrefined oil present in food such as extra virgin cold pressed olive oil, unrefined sesame oil, fish, avocado, and nuts. We can also take a fish oil (or flax oil if vegan) supplement, which tend to be most digestible when consumed during a meal.

Carbohydrates: Forget Simple; Keep it Complex

Most of the population has a diet excessive in processed carbohydrates. If the bulk of our diet contains processed carbohydrates, we will often experience symptoms such as weight gain, fatigue, binge eating, cravings, indigestion, heightened PMS and mood swings. If consumed in large quantities over a long period of time, we may develop a variety of conditions such as diabetes, depression (as insulin blocks serotonin,) yeast infections, and ADHD.

These carbohydrates appear in fast food, junk food, packaged food, breads, and all the sugars added to our pre-packed foods. Often referred to as “empty calories,” these carbohydrates are stripped of all their nutrients during a refining process. Since the body taps into its own storage of minerals and vitamins when digesting, empty calories not only provide no micronutrients (minerals and vitamins,) but we end up further depleted after using our stored ones to digest them.

Like with fat, many of us have become carbophobic. Carbohydrates are extremely important to our health! They provide us with the energy we need to function. They are not bad! They become hazardous when the majority of our carbohydrates intake is in its lowest quality versions. We have been educated through past diet fads to fear carbohydrates and often we forget that not all carbohydrates are created equally. Be sure to get complex carbohydrates in the form of vegetables, beans, and grains. When eating whole grains, try to have the majority of them in an unprocessed form. While a whole wheat bread or pasta is preferable than its white flour version, it is still a refined food that plays its effects on our blood sugar levels.

Protein Deficiency:

Often when we try to lose weight and cut down on calories, the first calories to go are breakfast calories. We may have nothing more than coffee or a bagel and work till lunch with out fueling the body with any sustenance. If lunch then is just a salad, we may not be having much protein till dinner.  

Overeating at evening and night often has to do with daytime starvation. If this could be you, reevaluate your intake of protein and healthy fats during the day. These foods help us feel grounded and satiated. If we consume little more than carbohydrates and caffeine during the day, when its time to settle down in the evening the body will gorge on anything to help it feel grounded… going from one extreme to the other.

Focus on protein earlier in the day and include meat, fish, eggs, nuts, tofu and tempeh. Beans might work for some but as they are pretty low in protein, if this is your main source and you have some health complaints, you may need to reconsider your protein resources. If you are vegan, consider adding a high quality protein shake into your diet. Hemp, pea and brown rice are all good sources.

Too little protein can lead to sugar and carbohydrate cravings, low energy, low mood, and the inability to build muscle and lose weight. Our response to stress tends to last longer and have a stronger impact.

Stress and Micronutrients:

When the body is in stress mode, it excretes nutrients. Water-soluble vitamins like vitamin C and B as well as all minerals get released through urine (as well as through perspiration.) When stressed, a urine test will reveal a 50% increase in calcium, zinc, and other vitamins and mineral that have leached.  The body releases the micronutrients and holds onto macronutrients as fat.

Quality of Food:

When it comes to macronutrients, we need to be sure that they are nutrient dense.

The basic combination of fresh, real, home cooked, and cooked/served with love all effect nutrient density.

Much of our diet is mass-produced in a way that leaves little to no nutrients in our food. This means decreased nutrition to the body, which in turn increases our appetite and cravings because the body is looking for its needed nutrients.

When we are not getting what we need from food, the body sends out more hunger signals. This increases appetite and food cravings and will lead to binging. Often at this point we beat ourselves up thinking it’s about lock of will power.

Increase the quality: upgrade meats to antibiotic and growth hormone free (grass fed is best,) free-pasture laid eggs, home made pizza with organic cheese, organic produce, etc’. Many people have reported that taking hormones out of their meat and dairy products has resulted in weight loss.

When we mostly eat out and order out, our internal body wisdom gets dumbed down (it gets dumber!) As we start to eat in a more conscious way (simply by cooking for ourselves or taking a moment to notice and appreciate our food before eating,) we start to connect to the subtle messages we receive from our body regarding our personal nutritional needs (i.e. what foods we need and when.)

The nutrition world pulls us in various dietary directions, resulting in us losing our confidence to connect to our own body wisdom. Start a dialog with your body and you will discover things on your own.

Related Articles:
The Pros of Protein
The Food Pyramid... What Should I Eat?
Understanding Digestive Rhythm
Overeating- It's Not About Willpower

Understanding Digestive Rhythm

Starting to surf this summer, I find myself gaining a deeper understanding of the rhythm of the ocean. I watch the more experienced surfers tune into a rhythm that I have yet to feel. It reminds me of musical rhythms. I am often in awe of musician’s ability to tune into each other’s beat. This too is a rhythm I don’t truly understand.

The rhythms I find myself most intrigued by are the rhythms within our body. We all experience them, yet we may not be truly grasping their wisdom

Rhythm is everything; we find it in our heartbeat, our breath, our brain waves, or in a woman’s cycle. When rhythm is on, we are on. When it becomes erratic, we become erratic. Through yoga we discover that when the breath finds its rhythm, the mind finds peace.

When it comes to digestive rhythms, there is much to be said about timing and frequency. Some experts support three meals a day while others advocate lots of snacking. While there may not be one true way to eat, if we are experiencing weight, mood or health issues, our own rhythm is out of sync.

It is not uncommon in our culture to skip meals, or to have the first meal late in the day. Often trying to minimize calories, we have a small breakfast and supplement our appetite with a dose of caffeine. Immersed in work, we may push through lunch not feeling hungry until 2-3pm. These actions are most commonly not based in rhythm but rather in stress or in fears such as of gaining weight.

When we do this, we are over-riding our body wisdom. Our body temperature fluctuates through the day. When body temperature is at its highest, then metabolism is at its peak. This happens around noon, when the sun is highest in the sky.

Put simply, the peak metabolic hours are between 12pm-1:30pm. When we postpone lunch until 2pm-3pm, we miss these hours.

Between 2pm-4:30pm our body temperature naturally drops. Historically in Japan (before it was influenced by modern Western diets,) Sumo wrestlers would eat the same foods as all other Japanese but in bigger quantities and late at night. Mostly at 1-3am, when digestion is at its lowest.

Many of us have our biggest meals at night. One study has shown that one group of people ate a 2000-calorie diet at night and they all gained weight. The other group ate the same 2000-calorie diet during the first half of the day resulting in some losing weight and some maintaining weight.

Skipping breakfast and lunch is not sustainable- it leads to fatigue, sugar cravings, headaches, weight gain, and binge eating later in the afternoon or night. Perhaps we don’t experience it within a day but within the spectrum of a week. Holding back on calories during the week and binging on the weekend.

When the body is going through its days starved of nutrients, it is triggered into starvation mode. In order to survive what it perceives as scarcity, it begins a hormonal process to slow down the capacity to burn calories and refrains form building muscle in order to conserve energy.

The same effect can happen through a diet rich in food but lacking in nutrients. But we’ll save that for the next article about Macronutrients.…

What We Judge We Can't Digest

Our number one goal is to become relaxed eaters.

Recently I sat down to eat lunch; a home-made stir-fry of homegrown kale and organic grass-fed beef. Sounds pretty healthy. And yet as I was about to take a bite, a thought popped into my head about the “pesticide ridden tomato” I mixed into the stir-fry. A tomato I bought last minute at a local 7/11 just for the convenience. Was I really judging this beautiful meal as unhealthy due to a tomato?! I put down my fork, took a breath and took a long look at my food. The kale began to look greener, the smell of the beef got juicier. My digestive system had turned on. It looked amazing and I was once again excited to eat.

Our digestive efficiency is dependent on our nervous system which in turn is dependent on our mental state. When our body is under stress it goes into a state of “fight or flight” which physiologically halts our digestive efficiency. The same switch in the brain which turns on stress, turns off digestion. Digestion is at its strongest calorie-burning power when we are in a relaxed state which is when we breathe deeply and feel okay with ourselves and the foods that we choose.

We could be eating the healthiest of meals, but if we feel any degree of stress, anxiety, fear, or judgment, we are unable to assimilate its nutrients. Hence, we decrease the nutritional value of the meal because our metabolism is impaired.

It is basic science and yet we are never taught this. Everything to do with advertized diets has to do with food and not with ourselves. Quite simply, this type of information can’t be packaged and sold.

Stress will decrease the blood flow to the gut needed for digestion, and will prevent the production of important growth and thyroid hormones. These hormones boost metabolic rate and are important for growth and healing, building muscle and burning fat. Stress will cause the excretion of vitamins and minerals. When we are under chronic low-level stress on a daily basis, we decrease our oxygen intake.
Stress will increase inflammation, change the chemistry of our cells, and alter the physiology of the digestive system. Inflammation is a major contributor to weight gain, blood sugar imbalance and diabetes.

If we are multi-tasking or rushing our meals,  we are eating under stress. If we say to ourselves, “I’m too fat, I shouldn’t be eating this, food is bad; this will make me unlovable,” these are all stresses.

Even if we eat less food, we are still chemically training the body to store fat because that is the body’s natural response to stress.

Our ongoing process is to recognize our mental state when engaging in activities of self-nourishment. Not just with food, but also in conversations, our exercise (movement practices), or anything else we do to nourish ourselves. 

We can create a powerful difference if we learn to modulate and influence our state of mind and heart.

Beef and Arugula Stir-Fry

1/2 pound beef sirloin, cut into thin strips
2 tablespoons of oil
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 medium red peppers, cut into thick strips
1-2 bunches arugula, well washed
2 teaspoons kuzu
2 tablespoons tamari
2 tablespoons rice or cider vinegar
¼ cup water


Stir-fry beef in pan with 2 teaspoons of oil over medium-high heat for 2 minutes or until browned.
Remove beef with tongs or fork, allowing excess oil to drip off and set aside.
With remaining oil, stir-fry ginger and garlic for 2 to 3 minutes and then add bell peppers. Cook another 2 to 3 minutes.
Mix together fresh arugula and bell pepper mixture in a serving bowl.
In a small bowl, combine kuzu, tamari, vinegar and water.
Place mixture into skillet and cook over medium heat until sauce starts to thicken.
Return beef to skillet and cook for 1 minute, just enough to warm up beef.
Add beef to serving bowl with arugula and bell peppers.
Mix and serve warm.

*What is Kuzu?

Kuzu is a substitute thickener to corn starch. without the health hazardous effects of corn starch, kuzu is alkalizing, relieves upset stomach, controls diarrhea, and can strengthen the body from prolonged weakness. It easily dissolves in cold water and thickens in hot, Use ti thicken sauces, stews and puddings.

Recipe by Integrative Nutrition

What Causes Us To Have cravings?

Our bodies are amazing.

The body knows when it needs rest, when it needs to go to the bathroom, how to maintain 98.6 degrees, how to recover from a cold, and how to heal cuts or scrapes. The body knows the miracle of pregnancy and childbirth. The heart never misses a beat and the lungs keep to the rhythm of the breath. The body never makes mistakes.

With such inner intelligence, why would the body experience unhealthy cravings? Many of us view cravings as weakness, but really they are important messages meant to assist us in maintaining balance. Our bodies are designed to always heal and maintain balance. Even the unhealthiest of cravings contains something that the body needs.

If we pause long enough to deconstruct our cravings, we can figure out how to meet the body’s needs in a healthier way.

Cravings Caused By Physical Aspects

Dehydration: Most people do not think to drink enough water and walk around in a constant state of dehydration. Our thirst mechanism is impaired which often mistakenly translates a craving for water into mild hunger.
Water has a very light and expansive energy to it. If your body is too tight or tense, or you suffer from stress-related disorders, the body will search for the light expansive energy of water. Sugar has a similar energy to water, both causing us to feel ‘lighter’. Often the body’s signal of dehydration will be confused with the cravings for sweet treats. A glass of water may subside the craving.

Nutritional Deficiency: If our diet does not contain the various needed nutrients to maintain health, we may be driven to overeat in search of the required fuel. Salt cravings, for example, may indicate a lack of minerals. Adding more leafy greens as well as seaweeds to our diet might calm the craving. If our diet lacks nutrients due to a low variety or high quantities of processed foods, we may find ourselves constantly thinking about food as the body remains unsatisfied. Commonly this type of deficiency is tied in to a dependency on caffeine or sugar. Be sure to incorporate all macronutrients and an abundance of micronutrients in your diet. 

Hormonal (women): the female body goes through cycles of fluctuating testosterone and estrogen levels that may cause strange cravings.

Cleansing: As we take better care of ourselves, our body goes through a cleansing process. As part of this process, the body clears out old cellular memory, surfacing old memories or experiences. This may cause a craving for a certain food that once we start eating, does not actually taste as great as we remembered. In this case, stop eating and let yourself cleanse out the old, making space for a healthier you.

Addictions: Similar to an alcoholic or a smoker,we may be craving what is harming us most; convinced that is the only thing that is going to make us feel better. Common food addictions include caffeine, sugar and dairy. Do you have foods or people that you are addicted to in your life? 

Cravings Caused By Emotional Aspects

Emotional Dissatisfaction: When we are not truly satisfied in our relationships, not inspired by our career, or have not found a spiritual practice that gives us a sense of peace, we may turn to emotional eating to fill the void.

Fear of Change: Change is scary. Sometimes when things are going extremely well, we find ourselves self-sabotaging. We resist letting go of old ways even if we know that they do not serve our greater self. While we may recognize that old habits are preventing us from moving forward, these are the ways in which we have come to identify ourselves. If we let go of what we know, who are we? The process of self-improvement involves trust. Create a supportive environment for yourself so that you feel excited to grow in new directions.

Craving Caused By Energetic Effects

The Energetic Qualities of Food According to the Modality of Yin and Yang:
Yin & Yang present a system of opposites: Yang being a more masculine, grounded, contractive energy and yin being a more feminine, uplifting, expansive energy.
For example; drinking coffee, eating sweets, or drinking alcohol all provide a lighter and more expansive energy, making them yin. Eating a diet rich in red meat, salts, eggs, or hard cheeses, provides a denser and more grounded feeling, making them yang.   
Eating foods that are either extremely yin or extremely yang cause cravings of the opposite to maintain balance. A common craving is the sway between sweet (yin) and salty (yang). Another example is seen in people who enjoy a diet rich in dense animal proteins (yang) and experience cravings for sugar or alcohol (yin).

Stress: When looking at cravings through the modality of yin and yang, it is not only our diet that will create cravings for the opposite. If we are easily and commonly stressed out, we are in a contracted state of yang. Such a state of being will create a craving for yin foods to make us feel lighter. If most of our day is spent in a yang state of being, we can easily get hooked on yin. Examples of this would be the craving for alcohol at the end of the workday, sugar while at work, or perhaps ice cream late at night. Learning to balance our stress levels and decompress in healthier constructive ways is what is needed to eliminate such cravings.

Cravings Caused By Environmental Aspects:

Seasonal: Often the body craves foods that balance out the elements of the season. During spring, the earth produces detoxifying foods like leafy greens, as our body naturally goes through a post-winter cleanse. In the heat of summer, the earth produces fruit and vegetables that help cool our body temperature. In the fall the earth delivers warming foods like winter squash. During winter we may crave hot foods with heat-producing ingredients such as meat, oil and fat.
We feel different in each season, but when we are in tune, our cravings will change accordingly. This correlates with the system of yin and yang; craving cooling foods when we are hot, and vice versa.

Summer Coolers

The heat of summer can have us reaching for the cold and creamy... commonly in the form of ice cream.

To satisfy the craving in other ways, keep cold apple sauce or your favorite yogurt in the refrigerator. Often a serving of these moist cooling foods will meet your needs. For a cooling crunch, freeze fresh blueberries and eat them right out of the freezer. This is also the perfect time to get creative with smoothies.

Blueberry Smoothie

recipe from: Ani's Raw Food Kitchen

3 cups of water

2 cups blueberries

1/2 cup cashews

1/2 pitted dates

1 Tbls. pure vanilla extract

In a blender, blend 2 cups of water with berries, nuts, dates and vanilla until smooth. Add last cup of water and blend again.

Will keep for 3 days in fridge

Mango Smoothie

recipe from: Ani's Raw Food Kitchen

3 cups of water

2 mangoes, peeled & cubed

1/4 cup almonds

1/2 cup pitted dates

1 Tbls. pure vanilla extract

In a blender, blend 2 cups of water with mango, nuts, dates and vanilla until smooth. Add last cup of water and blend again.

Will keep for 3 days in fridge.

Creamy Coconut Pudding

recipe from: Ani's Raw Food Kitchen

2 cups cashews

1.5 cups water

1/4 cup pitted dates

1/2 cup shredded dried coconut

Blend water and cashews until smooth. Add coconut and dates and blend again until smooth.

Will keep for 3 days in fridge.

Banana Ice Cream

4 ripe large bananas

2 Tbls. pure vanilla extract

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

Peel & cut bananas into chunks. Spread chunks on a plate and freeze for 1 hour. Place in food processor/ blender with vanilla and cinnamon. At first, process in "burst mode" until bananas soften and then process continuously until creamy smooth.

Top with either chopped walnuts, tahini paste, or maple syrup.

Serve immediately.

Variations: add cacao powder and agave nectar, add berries, or add spirulina.


Chunky Monkey variation:
2 frozen bananas 
1 tsp vanilla extract
Handful of walnuts
1 tsp cocoa nibs (or 4-5 squares of dark chocolate.) 


Blend in blender until creamy. Voila! Ice cream on a hot day.

USDA's Replacement of Food Pyramid Makes Little To No Change

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is serving us a new plate. Throwing out the food pyramid and replacing it with the image of a plate, the USDA hopes to make nutritional guidelines easier to understand.

The plate icon is a colorful circle graph divided into four sections representing fruits, vegetables, protein and grains, plus an additional small circle on the side for dairy.

In introducing the plate icon, First Lady Michelle Obama said feeding our children should be easy, as long as their plates are “half full of fruits and vegetables, and paired with lean proteins, whole grains and low-fat dairy.” 

The image of the plate will no doubt make it easier for both parents and kids to understand balanced nutrition. The symbol also serves as a reminder to control portion sizes and to consider various options for each category.

There are no foods pictured on the plate, just words that represent each food group. On the My Plate website, the USDA provides tools to determine more specific serving sizes and other dietary guidelines.

In a country where obesity and fatal diseases related to unhealthy eating habits are continuously on the rise, is making the guidelines even more abstract a sufficient strategy to address a nation’s nutritional health?

My Plate may offer a more understandable illustration than the previous My Pyramid, but nothing more has been improved. My Plate still keeps the lobbying for food subsidies for the sake of economic gain instead of prioritizing citizens’ health.

Dairy: Since the plate differentiates between fruits, vegetables, proteins, and grains, why aren’t dairy products included with the “protein” group?  After all, dairy contains as much protein as meat, poultry, fish, beans, nuts, and seeds.

Keeping dairy as a separate food group has little to do with the USDA’s concern for calcium intake. Some green vegetables offer just as much calcium as milk yet they remain unmentioned in the generalized vegetable group. If the concerns were truly about calcium intake (rather than political ties with the dairy industry), it would make a “calcium-rich” group and include dairy along with kale, broccoli, brussel sprouts, sesame, quinoa, and other fortified dairy alternatives. Considering that over half of the American population is suspected to be lactose intolerant, is this really in our people’s best interest?

Fruits and Vegetables: The problem is not that Americans lack awareness that fruits and vegetables are healthy. It is that fruits and vegetables compete with cheaper junk food and false advertizing. Many of today’s breakfast cereals, breads, yogurts, spreads and most packaged foods are marketed as health foods despite their content of artificial flavors, preservatives, trans-fats, and copious amounts of sugar. These foods can be marketed as healthy and cheap because they are made with crop subsidies.

As an example, "Total Blueberry Pomegranate Cereal" is positioned as a highly nutritious cereal with the words "100% nutrition," "Blueberry" and "Pomegranate" appearing on the front of the box. While the cereal contains no actual blueberries or pomegranates, it does contain eight different sweeteners (Sugar, Corn Syrup, Barley Malt Extract, Brown Sugar Syrup, Malt Syrup, Sucralose, Molasses and Honey.)

The blueberry-like appearance of small bits in the cereal are made through the use of artificial colors like Red #40 and Blue #2, combined with various oils and sweeteners such as soybean oil and sugar.

Until blueberries are as affordable as the artificial subsidized soybean version , I suspect we won’t see much improvement in America’s health.

A South American friend told me that back home, he would feed his family fruits and vegetables because it was cheaper than McDonald’s. Now living in America, he can only afford to feed his family McDonald’s because it is cheaper than fruits and vegetables.

Grains: The simplicity of the plate icon in comparison to the previous pyramid is much to be admired as well as appreciated for the elimination of the processed flour products that were pictured as examples for healthy grains. However with no images on the plate, there may well be even more confusion over what a healthy grain would be. Some of us might know the difference between whole grain flour and white flour but most of us still mistake servings of cereals such as Total as a healthy whole grain. These cereals may have started as whole grains but have been processed to a point that they no longer offer the body the same nutritional benefits. While cereals and breads might have a place in our diet, they cannot be the only type of whole grain that we eat. We must also incorporate unprocessed grains such as oats, brown rice, quinoa, buckwheat, and the many other grains available.

Fats: Much like the old pyramid, this plate does absolutely nothing towards differentiating between healthier and unhealthier fats.  In fact, on the new plate there seems to be no room for fat despite its vital importance to our health.

When presenting ‘My Plate,’ First Lady Michelle Obama mentioned the importance of increasing access and availability of fruits and vegetables. No specific actions or policies to achieve this goal were mentioned. The USDA says that vegetables and fruits should make up half of our diets but only 1 percent of its food subsidies go to farmers who grow produce. Until unprocessed foods are made largely available, our new colorfully illustrated guideline serve little to no purpose.

Overeating? It's NOT Lack of Willpower! It's Physiological...

"I'm glad you're overeating," I told my friend, who was complaining she has no willpower around food and consequently is overweight.
"How do you feel right after you eat?" I asked.
"Guilty," she answered.
"And before that?"
"Calm."

Exactly!

Overeating, or any other symptom or unwanted behavior always has a beautiful reason for its presence. In my friend's case, her overeating calms her, fills her, and medicates her. While it may have negative consequences in the immediacy, it is relaxing. When we are overly stressed we have to do something overly relaxing. We each have tools to bring us down.

Our nervous system is structured in a way that we can respond to each moment in a way that contributes towards either stress or relaxation. Its either/or.

If we are concerned with weight issues, impaired digestion or matters of immunity, we often examine the body and forget to take into account the effect of life itself on health, weight and metabolism.

When we are affected by stress, we contract both physically and emotionally. When our emotional energy is stuck, metabolism is stuck. We can continue to try to battle the symptom, but unless we learn ways to increase the relaxation response and care for ourselves within times of stress (career, relationship, finances,) symptoms such as overeating will most likely prevail.

Overeating is not the problem. It is the symptom.

Overeating has little to do with willpower!
Why is it that we find ourselves eating more than we think we should or make unhealthy choices despite "knowing better?" How is it that we eat a meal and hardly remember what it tasted like?

Stress desensitizes the pleasure response in the body. When we experience stress, the body is programmed to go into fight or flight, making it hyper aware of its own pain as a survival mechanism. Decreasing sensitivity to pleasure will increase sensitivity to pain. (This is why deep relaxed breathing reduces awareness to pain.)

Without pleasure we can't physiologically enjoy the foods that we eat. Stress shuts down digestion so the neural connection between the gut and brain is severed. Without this connection, the brain can't radiate pleasure to the gut and the gut can't signal fullness to the brain. When we feel full in the belly but the mouth still wants more, the connection between gut and brain is impaired.

When calm, we are able to connect to the parts of the brain that govern wisdom and reasoning around food and digestion. Under stress this part of the brain containing the knowledge of what foods make us feel good, what makes us bloated, what energizes us, or what gives us a headache is neurologically isolated. When the survival part of the brain is activated and the connection between gut and brain is impaired, it is neurologically harder for us to listen to the wisdom around which food types or quantities make us feel more guilt than pleasure in the long run.

Pleasure helps regulate our appetite. When the body feels pleasure, the brain is able to communicate to the gut the right amount of food that will maintain pleasure. When under stress we can't feel the pleasure so we eat more in search of it.

Overeating is not about willpower. We simply don't have the proper physiology to register what we're eating and how much. When stressed, the body requires more food to taste the sense of pleasure.

Stress is not bad: it is natural. Often it keeps us on our growing edge. Detrimental stress is the self-induced kind created either by our thoughts or by holding on to stress that is no longer prevalent.

We are naturally self-correcting beings and we can physiologically produce powerful healing in the body by learning to modulate our frame of mind and heart.

As a start, make sure to improve your conditions around meals. Fast eating activates stress, multi-tasking when eating causes stress, negative self-talk or judging your food ("this food is bad for me") equals stress and equating food as fat or viewing it as the enemy is ultimately stressful eating.

Making our meals more relaxed can be as simple as adding 5 minutes to breakfast, taking 5 breaths before and after each meal or turning off the computer at lunch.

Fast eating is a reflection of fast living, i.e. living in a way that is not always self-nourishing. When we slow down, we connect to feeling. The switch in our brain that turns on relaxation turns on digestion and body wisdom. We can be eating healthy foods, but if we eat them in stress or judgment, we change our metabolic chemistry.

Where else do we move too fast? Usually we are too fast in our interaction with others- a true sign of not being present.

Back From Israel!

Having recently spent a couple of weeks in Israel, I am inspired by the fresh foods readily available at the food stands on the street: Freshly made hummus, freshly made juices from fruits and vegetables, salads deliciously dressed with nothing more than lemon juice and olive oil, and teas that are commonly brewed with fresh mint herbs. Keeping foods fresh and free of preservatives is one of the most important nutrition guidelines for good health.

Quick and Easy Home Made Hummus 

1 15oz can of chick peas, commonly called garbanzo beans* (or 2 cups freshly cooked)
3 Tbs. tahini (available in most supermarkets, tahini is made of ground sesame seeds)
2-3 Tbs. lemon juice
1 garlic clove (optional)
½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. pepper
1/8 tsp. cumin (optional)
1/4- 1/3 cup of water (adjust for desired consistency)

Blend all ingredients in a blender, adding water as needed, till the hummus is of a smooth consistency.

Hummus can be served garnished with unrefined olive oil, paprika and chopped parsley.

* When purchasing a can of garbanzo beans look at the ingredient list to make sure there are no added preservatives in the can. The ingredients should include nothing more than beans, water, and salt.