Tag Archives: Yeast Infection Treatment

Questions & Answers

Dieting Mistakes That Aren’t Good For Your Gut

There are several weight loss mistakes that can damage your gut health.

1. Caloric restriction: Many people believe that if they cut a certain amount of calories from their diet, they will lose weight. Unfortunately, they won’t only be starving themselves; they’re also starving the beneficial bacteria in the gut. Overly restrictive diets interfere with the critical hormones involved in regulating satiety and hunger. It also sets you up for binge eating. In my experience, restricting calories doesn’t result in sustainable weight loss. Sometimes it even contributes to weight gain!

2. Eliminating whole food groups: For example, there is an “expert” running around at the moment telling people to eliminate foods that contain lectin from the diet. That’s completely false. I’ve heard it all before. “Don’t eat tomatoes!” and “Don’t eat XYZ!” People will take whole food groups out of their diet because someone with a white coat and a stethoscope said they should. Don’t eliminate entire food groups. Weight loss doesn’t work that way, and it puts you at risk of not getting enough nutrients, including fiber.

Instead of eliminating entire food groups on speculation, get a comprehensive stool analysis, so you know exactly what is going on in your gut.

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3. Assuming that all salads are healthy: Not all salads are created equal. Some salads contain too much dressing, and the dressing includes high-fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners.

4. Assuming that all “healthy” treats are genuinely healthy: Many people have this idea that things like granola bars are healthy. It’s incredible how many foods in New Zealand have a high “star” rating but are actually junk food. Many granola bars contain a lot of sugar, and some even contain hydrogenated fats. You don’t need granola bars, have an apple instead.

5. Assuming artificial sugars and diet foods are safe: You don’t want artificial sweeteners in your diet. There are several rat and animal studies suggesting that artificial sweeteners are not healthy. I’ve had clients who have suffered serious health consequences due to eating artificial sugars.

6. Considering fruit juice to be a “health” food: Many people still start the day with a tall glass of orange juice, full of sugar, and lacking in fiber. The fiber in fruit is what allows the sugar to be released very slowly. I suggest you ditch the juice and have the whole fruit instead.

7. Following a healthy diet while having an unhealthy lifestyle: No matter how much healthy food you eat, your gut is going to suffer if you’re sleep-deprived. You need to disconnect from your phone, computer, and television if you want to have excellent gut health. Good sleep, good physical activity, and low-stress living are just as important to gut health as your diet.

Questions & Answers

Too Many Calories, Not Enough Nutrients

The world produces enough food to supply a lot of people. If you look at American, Europe, and other western nations, there are ample high protein and high-fat foods. I once read a study that shows there is a large enough food supply to provide everyone in developed nations with five to six thousands calories a day, if not more.

And yet, despite this abundance, there’s a concern about the micronutrient content of the standard American diet (SAD). The problem lies with a number of factors, including how food is distributed, how it’s processed, and the mechanization of harvesting.

The irony is that while we are swimming in an ocean of food, people still lack micronutrients. Nutrients like folate, vitamin A, vitamin C, and trace elements are getting harder and harder to access.

Folate is one of the most essential B vitamins for brain and heart health. Even the maturation of red blood cells requires sufficient folate. That’s one of the reasons several foods, such as bread, are fortified with folate.

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I believe that one of the reasons for the high rates of cancer in Western countries is that we are eating foods that are too rich in protein and fat and not rich enough in essential vitamins and minerals.

Everybody can do something about that. If you look at folic acid, it’s found at high levels in dark green, leafy vegetables, which are easy to grow for many people. Even if you just grow a few plants, you can now supply yourself with some of the folate that your brain desperately needs.

I think one of the reasons we see so much depression, anxiety, and suicide in modern society is that we lack the nutrition needed to keep our mental health in working order.

Many people I’ve seen in my clinic were magnesium deficient. Some also lacked calcium or vitamin C. These clients upgraded their diets to ensure they were getting enough essential nutrients and ended up feeling so much better.

If you suffer from depression or anxiety, and you have a poor quality diet, you have the potential to make a big difference to your mental health. Don’t just look at the keto or carnivore diets. Thinks about the trace elements and vitamins you need, and design your meals and snacks accordingly.

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Questions & Answers

A Day In The Diet Of A Naturopath

My diet is made up of fresh, healthy foods.

I try and grow as many vegetables and fruit as possible. I also cut and process my food on the spot, to ensure nutrients and flavor are preserved.

For breakfast, I usually have organic rolled oats. I plan on starting to buy groats, mill them myself, and end up with fresh oatmeal with all the lovely oils and flavors preserved. The result is a very creamy rolled oat. Once you cook the oats in water or a little bit of non-homogenized milk, the taste is delicious. It’s so good; you won’t want to eat it any other way. I often cook the oatmeal with raisins and serve it with a bit of honey on top. I’ll have a large banana, a couple of small kiwi fruit, or berries as well.

Other breakfast options include a couple of eggs with grilled tomato, steamed spinach, and avocado. Notice how there’s no bread in with the mix. I very rarely eat any bread.

For lunch, I often have stir-fried vegetables, including bok choy or gai lan. I have some lean protein as well – a piece of tofu. I eat organic tofu two to three times per week. I’ll serve the vegetables with soba (buckwheat noodles) or brown rice. I also include garlic in the stir-fry. I eat anywhere from two to ten cloves of garlic per day. I eat a large range of vegetables, depending on what we have in the garden at any one time.

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For supper, I might have a piece of salmon with a big salad that includes a variety of greens, including purple lettuce and radicchio. I also add spring onion, spinach, edible flowers like borage or nasturtium, tomato, Kalamata olives, and cucumber. Sometimes I’ll also add some goats’ feta. Herbs are another essential part of my salad. I might put a big handful of fresh basil or other herbs into the mix.

For my salad dressing, I’ll squeeze some lime juice over the top and add minced cloves of garlic. Next will be the juice of a large lemon, two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, a dash of sesame oil, and a sprinkle of salt and pepper.

Sometimes I’ll also add a tiny little bit of anchovy sauce to give the salad a fantastic flavor.

Salad is always consumed fresh, and the rest is binned. We never keep what’s left at the end of the meal. I recommend starting each meal fresh rather than eating leftovers.

We like all sorts of different foods in our household. Greek, Italian, Vietnamese, French, and Japanese are all popular around here.

I don’t often eat desserts. I’ve got to watch my ever-expanding waistline. If I’m going to make anything, I might make a dish called hallway, which is semolina cooked in butter. In the summer, I might have some yogurt or fruit if I’m feeling peckish in the evening.

I drink one or two glasses of wine about two to three times per week. Apart from that, I drink a lot of purified water.

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Questions & Answers

Your Gut Biome And Your Bloodstream: An Important Connection

Gut bacteria work in teams, and they influence the quality of your blood.

Gene testing allows us to see how important the microbiome is.

When I started practicing, they didn’t have gene sequencing like they had today. If they wanted to study the gut flora, they had to do it by culturing samples in Petri dishes. In some cases, the bacteria were very difficult to culture in the lab.

DNA sequencing allows for accurate identification of the wide variety of microbiomes in the gut. Genetic analysis also facilitates tracking the interaction between gut bacteria within and outside of the GI tract.

The microbiome is responsible for your digestive and overall metabolism. I believe that over time, thousands and thousands of pathways will be discovered using genetic analysis. These pathways will be the link between specific bacteria and specific diseases. I think it will be the absence of beneficial bacteria that will be most commonly associated with sickness.

Further readings:

The more biodiverse a person’s gut, the more powerful and resilient they will be. People with a more narrowly defined band of gut bacteria have many more health-associated problems. This would explain why people living in the Amazon basin with 4 to 5 thousand species of bacteria in their gut have far more robust health that someone in NYC who only has one-quarter of the biome diversity.

I found it interesting to read about the powerful communication that occurs between the gut and the bloodstream. Whatever you eat, has an extremely powerful influence on your bacteria and what is happening in your blood.

When you eat crap, it negatively influences the blood. Eating healthy food improves the quality of your blood. Your blood is such a vital organ that you want to keep it in good shape all the time. You can do that by keeping your biome in good shape. That means eating the right food and having the right kind of lifestyle.

The bacteria in your gut work together in harmony to provide a robust, powerful bloodstream. Your beneficial bacteria work in teams. That’s no surprise. The best companies, businesses, and families also work in teams.

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Questions & Answers

Protein Powder And Your Weight: What You Need To Know

“Should I take protein powder to lose weight? ” is a question I’ve been asked before.
No, you don’t need protein powder at all to lose weight. In fact, I don’t really like protein powders that much.

Some people do find protein powder helpful, but I prefer that my clients get their protein from whole foods.

In my third or fourth year of practice, which was a long time ago, I used to put people on weight loss programs. I used protocols from different companies as I was learning the ropes of weight loss. I didn’t feel that I had much of a skill set in that area until at least ten years into my work.

In my early days, I put a patient on protein powder. The patient phoned me a few days later and was really upset. They said, “Oh, I got sick, and I vomited the protein powder! What was that all about?!” After discussing the issue with her, it turned out she put the protein powder into Coca-Cola to make a fizzy soda drink. Now, that’s not the right way to use protein powder!

Further readings:

Protein powders work. If you’re going to use protein powder, I don’t recommend white protein powder. I much prefer brown rice and yellow pea protein powders.

Still, I prefer to get my protein really from animal sources and vegetable sources, not from powders. I find it a more natural approach. It just seems more natural for me to eat a beautiful piece of New Zealand fish or a couple of boiled eggs.

I prefer to eat small pieces of protein like that mixed in with some vegetable matter. I don’t usually sit down to eat slabs of meat anymore. I think the biggest chunk of meat I probably would have would be a piece of salmon.

If you want to build weight, protein powders can be good for putting on muscle mass. The problem with these protein powders is when you mix them with drinks that have too much sugar or chemicals.

If you are going to use protein powder, find one that contains no sugar or other sweeteners. Try to get raw, 100% brown rice protein mixed with some yellow pea protein. You can add some unsweetened oat or almond milk to the protein powder.

Again, I prefer to have eggs or fish in my diet than something made in a factory. It’s your decision, but whatever you chose, go the healthy, natural route.

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