Want to Boost Your Immunity? Start with Sugar

We all know that sugar makes us fat by messing with our blood sugar.  But the lesser known fact about sugar is that it is an immunity killer.  Why? It depletes the body of major vitamins and minerals, especially Vitamin C, zinc, calcium, potassium & magnesium.  Vitamin C and glucose use the same transporters to get into cells, so they compete with one another.  The more sugar you pump into your body, the less VitC gets carried to the cells that need it most.

Poop Like a Champ Even Under Stress

We're closing out "Sleep Love Poop" week with my favourite action of the three: POOP. Maybe it's because I have kids, but I can't say that word without giggling.  Plus, the honest truth is that being constipated is generally the fastest way to feeling grumpy.  And that's because 90% of our feel-good hormone "serotonin" is made in our gut!  Now you know why you feel so rotten when you don't poop and so good when you do! Unfortunately stress can either constipate you or take you to the other extreme.  But this little warm tonic first thing in the morning is what I find helps the most no matter which end of the spectrum you lie on --- AND it has the added benefit of acting as a tonic for your liver.  Because your liver - much like your adrenals - puts in a lot of overtime when you are stressed.

Making Love to Your Adrenals (Also) Takes 10 Minutes

The adrenals are these beautiful, voluptuous walnut-shaped glands that are responsible for producing the hormones we need to deal with stress.  Unfortunately, our fast-paced, modern lifestyle has caused a bit of a communications breakdown with these glands.

They say, "maca".  We say "coffee".

They say "berries".  We say "blueberry muffin".

Soporific Spinach & Salmon

This post is inspired by the Tales of Peter Rabbit.  Most of what one needs to know about the link between nutrition and sleep is in this children's story.  Who knew that eating a massive amount of lettuce could make one sleepy?  But it's true! There are some foods which are in fact "soporific". One of the first casualties of stress is sleep.  How many of us turn into insomniacs when we're stressed or wake up in the middle of the night only to pace through the corridors of our mind until it's almost time to get up?