The Herbal Nutritionist

18/02/2023

Do you suddenly bolt awake between 1 and 4 AM, energy coursing through your veins? This can be one of many low blood sugar symptoms followed by a cortisol spike. Why?

Sleeping through the night represents a long period without food when blood sugar can drop too low. This is bad news for the brain, which depends on glucose for energy. When blood sugar drops too low, the body sounds the alarm bells to protect the brain. In response, the adrenal glands release stress hormones, mainly cortisol. Cortisol raises blood sugar back to a safe level. Unfortunately, sleep deprivation causes your body to secrete more cortisol during the day, perhaps in an effort to stimulate alertness leading to a further imbalance.

Cortisol is a hormone produced by a complex network known as the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis. It is an alertness-boosting hormone. Normally, cortisol production normally drops to its lowest point around midnight and peaks about an hour after you wake up, around 9am.

Researchers have found that when the HPA axis is overly active, it can disrupt your sleep cycles, causing fragmented sleep and insomnia.

So what leads to this cortisol disruption?
➡️ Poor diet and a blood sugar imbalances
➡️ Eating while stressed or skipping meals sporadically
➡️ Chronic prolonged stress
➡️ Exposure to artificial light all day
➡️ Little to no sunlight exposure
➡️ Staying up late, especially on electronics
➡️ Lack of movement
➡️ Poor detoxification & elimination leading to chronic inflammation
➡️ Prolonged infections & lowered immunity

By addressing some of these lifestyle changes, we can balance these systems and get some well deserved full night’s sleep!

05/02/2023

Essential everyday habits for overall wellness! ⬆️✨

Would love to hear any other suggestions so leave yours in the comments! 😊

03/02/2023

These are 2 of my most recent favourite reads. I highly recommend them! ✨

07/01/2023

Magnesium is an essential mineral that we are unfortunately low in, especially in North America due to modern agricultural farming practices that deplete the soil and food processing techniques. Magnesium is also water soluble, so during periods of stress, we lose more magnesium via the kidneys and urine. Many of us also experience low stomach acid and sufficient stomach acid is necessary to help absorb magnesium.

Here are some signs & symptoms of magnesium deficiency:
Hypertension
Muscle spasms and restless legs
Migraines/headaches
PMS & menstrual cramps
Insomnia
Weak bones
Recurrent infections
Nervous system issues like anxiety
Abnormal heart arrhythmias
Fatigue
Constipation

If you’re experiencing any of these symptoms, you may need to dig deeper to determine whether you have a magnesium deficiency. Usually if you’re low in magnesium, you may be low in other electrolytes, which can impede many functions in the body.

The good news is that taking magnesium supplementation is pretty safe, as it’s water soluble. There are no known toxicity levels. If you take too much magnesium your body will excrete the excess. It is important however to ensure you get all the minerals into your diet when possible and supplement as needed. Most adults could use 400mg+ of magnesium, but address this with your health practitioner before supplementing.

18/12/2022

All bone broths (beef, chicken, pork, fish, lamb and more) were staples in traditional diets. This is because bone broth is nutrient-dense, easy to digest, boosts healing and is rich in flavour.

Bone broth is especially beneficial in times when we're feeling ill and have no appetite. It's important to listen to our bodies during this time, and consume lots of fluids. One of the most nutritious fluids you could drink to heal is bone broth. It contains all the building blocks for healing and doesn't put a strain on the digestive system! In fact, it benefits digestion!

The bone broth our ancestors made used every part of an animal. Bones, marrow, skin, feet, tendons, cartilage and ligaments that you can’t eat directly can be boiled and then simmered over a period of days, making the broth super rich in minerals and collagen.

I like to make my own beef bone broth at home, and I do this with bones I've purchased from the farmers market and leftovers from cooked meals that I keep in the freezer. I cook the bones in filtered water for as long as I can until they start to disintegrate, and then strain. I make batches of it, keep it in the freezer, to use in soups and stews when needed.

Now it's not always possible to prepare bone broth, as it requires so much time and quality ingredients. You can use prepared powdered broths such as Organika's beef broth or New Roots beef broth powder which I think are great quality and super easy to use. You can add the powder to hot water, add some seasoning and you have a quick bone broth soup, or add it to other soups you're preparing.

Let me know in the comments if you have a favourite bone broth powder!😊

17/12/2022

Above are a few recommendations, among many, that may help with healing a leaky gut.

While symptoms can vary, a whole body approach seeks out the root cause, which is unique to the individual.

Some major contributors to leaky gut can include:
✖️Consuming highly processed foods
✖️Glyphosate, aluminum based fertilizers & pesticides on our foods (especially on grains)
✖️Anti-fungal coating on fruit
✖️Excess use of conventional antibiotics & even natural antibiotics (e.g. oregano oil)
✖️Processed sugar & high fructose corn syrup
✖️Poor work/life balance, go-go-go lifestyle, chronic stress & trauma
✖️Suppressed emotions, especially anger
✖️Excessive use of NSAIDs
✖️Antibacterial cleaning products, sanitizers/wipes (these wipe out your microbiome)
✖️Repeated consumption of common food allergens (e.g. processed dairy & gluten/wheat)

If you want to address the root cause of your digestive issues with diet and lifestyle, you can book an appointment with me at 905-849-9915 or visit cch-oakville.ca -oakville ✨

Disclaimer: Not replacement for medical advice. Always ask your health provider before supplementing. Contraindications do exist.

27/10/2022

A year ago I never would have recommended snacking. However, after my own failed journey with intermittent fasting I’ve changed my stance. While IF can be helpful in certain situations, I don’t believe it’s an appropriate strategy for everyone. Much of the research on IF was done on men who have more stable hormonal cycles than women. After forcing my body to consume only 2 meals a day and relying on coffee as I felt worse and worse, I crashed my adrenals. I dealt with symptoms of extreme fatigue, brain fog, poor memory, anxiety, mood swings and the list goes on.

I’ve since learned that many women with chronic stress don’t do well with long periods of fasting between meals, as this increases the level and frequency of cortisol secretion. Eventually, as cortisol stays high for too long, you can experience adrenal exhaustion or adrenal fatigue syndrome (AFS).

While our bodies are naturally made to fast overnight, they aren’t adapted to go for longer than 8-10 hours without food. The argument that IF is how our ancestors ate is valid, however, our ancestors did not deal with chronic high stress from pollution, contaminated water, heavy metals and pesticides, GMOs, non-native EMFs, constant go-go-go lifestyle, etc.

There are many things we can do to rebalance our bodies and reduce this chronic stress response. When I experienced dizziness, headaches, and weakness between meals, I started to include these snacks and often it instantly helped reduce my symptoms. This was one of the signs I was pushing my adrenals too hard.

The important thing to consider when snacking is the following:
✅A snack should include some protein, fat or fibre for balancing blood sugar
✅Choose whole food snacks, not highly processed packaged snacks
✅Quality is important. I choose homemade or a local bakery sourdough bread over grocery store ones when I have toast with butter, cinnamon and raw honey.

The idea is to reduce the stress on your body, so if skipping meals or snacks gives you headaches or makes you feel shaky, consider including a healthy snack along with making some lifestyle changes!

27/10/2022

A year ago I never would have recommended snacking. However, after my own failed journey with intermittent fasting I’ve changed my stance. While IF can be helpful in certain situations, I don’t believe it’s an appropriate strategy for everyone. Much of the research on IF was done on men who have more stable hormonal cycles than women. After forcing my body to consume only 2 meals a day and relying on coffee as I felt worse and worse, I crashed my adrenals. I dealt with symptoms of extreme fatigue, brain fog, poor memory, anxiety, mood swings and the list goes on.

I’ve since learned that many women with chronic stress don’t do well with long periods of fasting between meals, as this increases the level and frequency of cortisol secretion. Eventually, as cortisol stays high for too long, you can experience adrenal exhaustion.

While our bodies are naturally made to fast overnight, they aren’t adapted to go for longer than 8-10 hours without food. The argument that IF is how our ancestors ate is valid, however, our ancestors did not deal with chronic high stress from pollution, contaminated water, heavy metals and pesticides, GMOs, non-native EMFs, constant go-go-go lifestyle, etc.

There are many things we can do to rebalance our bodies and reduce this chronic stress response. When I experienced dizziness, headaches, and weakness between meals (low blood sugar), I started to include these snacks and often it instantly helped reduce my symptoms. This was one of the signs I was pushing my adrenals too hard.

The important thing to consider when snacking is the following:
✅A snack should include some protein, fat or fibre for balancing blood sugar
✅Choose whole food snacks, not highly processed packaged snacks
✅Quality is important. I choose homemade or a local bakery sourdough bread over grocery store ones when I have toast with butter, cinnamon and raw honey.

The idea is to reduce the stress on your body, so if skipping meals or snacks gives you headaches or makes you feel shaky, consider including a healthy snack along with making some lifestyle changes!

23/10/2022

I’d like to urge Canadians to please support their local farmers. This topic is dear to my heart, as I grew up on a self-sustainable homestead with our own farm animals, vegetable gardens, & crop fields.

We’re now seeing small farms replaced with larger, profit-driven industrial farms that are far more harmful to our health & environment. Pesticide & glyphosate use will go up, as Health Canada proposes to increase the amount of Glyphosate residue on our food.

Here are some negative impacts of industrial farming:
❌Produces greenhouse gas emission, pollutes air & water, & destroys wildlife
❌Facilitates the spread of viruses from animals to humans
❌Fosters antibiotic resistance, making antibiotics less effective as medicine
❌Large volumes of chemical fertilizers and pesticides are used to increase agricultural yields which are harmful to humans/animals
❌Produces mainly commodity crops (rice, corn and wheat), which are then used in a wide variety of calorie-dense packaged foods.
❌Creates factory jobs with poor conditions for humans
❌Creates soil erosion & depletes minerals as traditional practices such as soil rotation & cover crops are not utilized
❌Major source of acid rain pollution

Industrial agriculture has become less about producing food & more about generating industrial ingredients for processed food products, for Big Business.

If you’re still wondering how it is we got here, consider this. We’re being distracted by plastic straws and cows farting. The issue is far more complex. Since the industrial revolution it’s been roughly 260 years of profit-driven mismanagement of the Earth’s resources by industry.

While the road ahead is difficult, we can make small changes by supporting our local farmers, & becoming aware of which corporations we’re supporting. We can also stop falling for the propaganda, like industrial insect farming, industrial “beyond meat burgers” and lab-grown meat as being healthy. They’re not. ✌️

09/10/2022

Happy Thanksgiving! May your blessings outnumber the autumn leaves 🍂🍁

01/09/2022

Swipe to learn more! ⬆️

15/08/2022

While debates are ongoing on what the appropriate diet for human consumption is, I think the most important distinction that should be made is between NATURAL and ARTIFICIAL. Modern day convenience foods has created a dependency on chemicals.

Here are the biggest offenders to look out for:

❌Fast foods & junk foods
❌Pre-packaged TV dinners or frozen pre-cooked meals
❌Natural & artificial flavours, & dyes
❌Refined grains, cereals, breads, noodles
❌Processed cheese
❌Processed cured meats
❌Artificial sweetners
❌Processed snacks
❌High-fructose corn syrup (it’s in most cheap snacks & fake maple syrup)
❌Pop & certain fruit juices

How do you avoid these?⬆️
Anything in a box or bag with an ingredient list is likely inflammatory. Shop for local produce, animal protein and dairy with the least amount of ingredients. Stop snacking, it’s absolutely not necessary if you eat 2 to 3 balanced meals per day. Change doesn’t happen overnight, it’s tough and these artificial food-like products are intentionally addictive, but you can create change one meal at a time!

If you need help meal planning with real foods, DM me!

08/08/2022

07/08/2022

⬆️ All about plant toxins and how to reduce their negative effects ⬆️ Swipe left for more! 🌱

14/07/2022

Time is precious, spend it wisely.

14/07/2022

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