When we think about food substitutions, it is almost about eliminating something. Low-fat cooking, sugar-free products: these are just a few of the more common examples. Being true to my philosophy on a healthy diet, I believe that substitutions have a greater purpose: ADDING nutrients!

Below I have listed some of my favorite, and sometimes unusual substitutions that help turn the most common dishes into superfoods.

Rolled Oats
I was watching a cooking show about meatloaf. The chef was using saltine crackers soaked in milk, which is a very traditional way to do meatloaf – right up there with breadcrumbs. What I have found is that you get wonderful results using rolled oats in place of the crackers or breadcrumbs. Although oats are also processed, they are less processed and still resemble the whole grain.

Spaghetti Squash
I didn’t believe this when I first heard about it, but it is true! Spaghetti squash is a wonderful substitute for traditional spaghetti and rice in some of your favorite recipes. Just bake the spaghetti squash, allow to cool slightly, and scrape out the strands with a fork. Rinse with cold water to maintain crispness if the recipe allows, or just serve immediately when it needs to be warm. You will be amazed at how flavorful your recipes are with this substitution

Enzymes
This one is a little geeky but it is hard not to be fascinated. We all know that protein is critical to a healthy diet. Proteins are configurations of amino acids, but so are enzymes. Enzymes are present in raw foods (meat and vegetables) and assist in the digestion of that food. The extra cool thing about getting your protein through enzymes is that your body has to do a lot less work. Where we have to break down proteins into the individual amino acids in order to rebuild proteins, we can also build proteins from a supply of enzymes. This can be handy when balancing the grocery budget.

Coconut Milk
Dairy products are such a huge staple in our culture, but in truth, roughly 80% of the world population does not digest it well. Cow’s milk is by far the most difficult. Fortunately, coconut milk offers a tasty alternative. Check out my website for coconut whipped cream, creamy ranch dressing, and cream of mushroom soup (which makes wonderful gravy and scrumptious green bean casserole).

Buttercup Squash
This is a sweet and creamy winter squash. I picked buttercup over butternut because I think it is better, but butternut is commonly carried in stores and readily available. Buttercup makes a wonderful soup base, and is a great substitute for tomato sauce. I particularly like it ladled over spicy chicken sausage ravioli. I also used a buttercup sauce in a popular stroganoff recipe.

Duck Eggs
This one is a true shocker. Duck eggs outperform chicken eggs in nutrients by multiples. Your taste buds may not be able to tell the difference, but your body knows. If you can get them, duck eggs are by far the unsung hero in superfoods.

Mung Bean Threads
This is another substitute for noodles in soups. Egg noodles are really just a lot of calories for the nutrient bang, but bean threads are a whole food. The flavor they add to your soups is a surprising treat

Bib Lettuce
Whenever you can replace the bread in a sandwich with a big leaf of crisp lettuce, take it! We think of lettuce as having little to no flavor, but you will be surprised at how much better burgers and sandwiches taste when you are not burying all the stuff between the bread…. in bread!

Giant Zucchini
Zucchini boats are a big treat for my family and me every fall. If you have a garden, or know someone at work who does, then you are familiar with the runaway zucchinis. The bigger they are, the better in my book. I call them zucchini boats and recipes vary from pizza to Frito pie. Cut those monsters in half the long way and scrape out the seeds. Sprinkle them with salt and place in the oven at 350 for about an hour to pull some of the water out. Remove from the oven and stuff with all the ingredients to make your masterpiece. Place your boats back in the oven to heat the stuffing and voila, you have an amazingly nutritious meal for the whole family. Zucchini is packed with nutrients!

Vinegar
This is a great way to cut back on salt. Vinegar tickles the same areas of your tongue as salt, so you can use it to create the same salty bite with less salt.

Sea Salt
I recommend this to all my clients. Sea salt is a whole food full of trace minerals your body needs to function at its best. Unlike its counterpart, table salt is just another processed ‘fake’ that may fool your tongue but wreaks a bit of havoc everywhere else in your body.

The list can go on for pages, but give these a try and share your experience. I would also love to hear about your favorite substitutions!

When I embarked on a career in nutrition and nutrition counseling, one of the biggest factors I did not adequately considered is food psychology. Folks can get downright violent about someone threatening their belief systems around eating. Textures, politics, propaganda, and obsessions: these are just some of the topics that make changes challenging. Where the concepts of ‘good food’ and ‘bad food’ are more conscious thought processes, much of the food battle is entrenched in the subconscious. Facilitating change comes from understanding what is going on in your head first and foremost.

One of the more approachable hurdles in nutrition counseling stems from what I call, Food Rules. We all have them, and they can be in the conscious and the subconscious. Regardless of where your rules come from, the first step is to recognize and bring them into your awareness. The topic of breakfast is a great place to start considering your food rules, because most people seem to have a solid idea of what is acceptable breakfast food. Coffee, fruit, cereal grains, toast, eggs, donuts, ham, bacon, hash browns, and pancakes are all pretty standard breakfast food items. Try to add vegetables to your breakfast menu and things are suddenly difficult beyond scrambled eggs and omelets. Green beans, broccoli, and carrots are all perfectly good food that your body would have no trouble putting to use any time of the day, but most folks can’t seem to wrap their mind around dinner foods for breakfast. Fish is another perfect example. We all know that we could benefit from more fish in the diet, but even if you are one of the people who likes fish, I have yet to convince anyone to eat fish for breakfast.

As you embark on dietary changes, I challenge you to take inventory of your food rules to see if they are one of the factors standing between you and your health goals. It can be very enlightening, and who knows, you might develop an unusual food habit that really rocks your world. I mean, … who doesn’t remember how great cold pizza tasted the next morning back in the day?

Just about the time I get some trainer telling me that the ultimate solution for weight loss, muscle gain, or heaven knows what else a client might be trying to conquer, is to just eat more protein, I ask them  if they have ever known a bodybuilder who farts a lot.  Fact is, most protein gorging muscle-types fart all the time.  That’s just funny if you happen to be an 8-year-old boy, but farting can be your first clue that something is not okay.

Digestion is a complex and beautiful thing when things are working as designed.  Farting occurs when digestion is compromised.  Take the situation of excess protein for example.  What happens is that undigested proteins pass into the large intestines where gut bacteria work on breaking them down.  This process produces gas, and those farts smell bad.  Likewise, if you don’t digest fats well, then those extra fats enter into the large intestine and putrefy.  This is another smelly fart.

If you happen to be someone who can fart without being detected, because they just don’t smell bad, then your problem comes from difficulty digesting carbohydrates.  Interesting thing about it all is that the worse you are at digesting a macro-nutrient, the more you crave it – simply because your body isn’t getting that nutrient into your blood stream.

There are also some foods that naturally give you gas.  Beans are my favorite example.  The story with beans is that they have evolved with a survival mechanism to inhibit digestive.  If you do not go the trouble of removing those nutrient inhibitors , well, you know what is going to happen.

Soaking beans in water with a teaspoon of vinegar overnight will make those beans much more hospitable.  If you don’t have time to soak, then the alternate technique is to boil your beans in salted water.  I prefer the soaking method, because it just seems to do a better job.  Nonetheless, farting is hardly a laughing matter when you consider that it just signals an unhealthy condition in your colon.  Instead of buying Beeno, lets get to the bottom of that problem before it affects your health.

By starting your day with donuts, muffins, or boxed cereals you may find that you are hungry two hours later.  Or, maybe you are one of the many people who want nothing more than to crawl under your desk after lunch and sleep for a couple of hours.  Do you find that you just crave things towards the end of your day?  Are you one of those who cannot even think about food until lunchtime?  All of this boils down to blood sugar regulation, and starting the day with sugar sets the pattern for blood sugar highs and lows.  When you hit your lows, you start looking for something to get them back up in an effort to stay motivated throughout your day.  Sugar and caffeine are big players in this pattern.

Breakfast is the best place to start balancing your blood sugars, but can be the hardest meal to adjust when you are changing your diet.  When you think about it, we have a pretty small list of foods that are ‘appropriate’ as breakfast foods.  Paramount to all the other beneficial foods you can add to the first meal of the day is protein.  Protein is fundamental to balancing out the blood sugar patterns for the entire day.

Eggs, whole grains, and meats are a wonderful way to start the day.  Below is a list of cereal grains that you should become more familiar with.  Try making a double batch of grain – or mix it up and have a multi-grain creation – and leaving it in the refrigerator for breakfast over the next couple days.  Visit my website for some grain recipes!

A Few Grains:

Brown Rice

Buckwheat

Corn

Amaranth

Millet

Qunioa

*Wheat

*Rye

*Barley

**Rolled or Steel Cut Oats

* Contains Gluten

**is available as certified gluten-free product

Eggshells present healthy, balanced calcium due to trace amounts of other minerals contained in it. Eggshell calcium is probably the best natural source of calcium, and it is easier for your body to digest and absorb. Dutch researchers have reported recently a highly positive effect of eggshell calcium (with added magnesium and vitamin D) on bone mineral density in a scientific study (double blind, placebo-controlled). Laboratory test and measures of bone density were carefully made in these studies. The eggshell supplemented group had measurable increases in bone density in their hip bones, after one year.
The ideal bone-building combination of eggshell calcium and vitamin D3 was also well documented in Japanese studies. Researchers at the Japan Women’s University, Tokyo studied a combination of vitamin D3 and eggshell powder in animals with osteoporosis. Not only was the eggshell powder with vitamin D3 able to improve bone mineral density, but it did it without significantly increasing blood calcium levels.
You can use any kind of egg (chicken, goose, duck), but it is best to use organic or certified organic eggs from free-range birds. If the bird does not get proper nutrients the eggshells won’t contain the nutrients we need.

How much to take?

One whole medium sized eggshell makes about one teaspoon of powder, which yields about 750 – 800 mgs of elemental* calcium plus other microelements, i.e. magnesium, boron, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, sulphur, silicon, zinc, etc. There are 27 elements in total. The composition of an eggshell is very similar to that of our bones and teeth.
*Elemental amounts are the amounts absorbable.
Most people require a minimum of 400 mgs per day of calcium, in addition to calcium from other food sources, so you would take 1/2 teaspoon of the powder per day. Also take 400 mgs of magnesium citrate at the same time. Calcium and magnesium need to be taken in at least equal amounts, and some people require more magnesium than calcium depending upon how much they obtain from their diet.
If you are getting muscle cramps take extra magnesium (about 150 mgs). If that doesn’t alleviate the cramps within an hour take another 150 mgs, and so on. If you get unusual joint pain and you do not have arthritis, take an additional 150 mgs of calcium. Do not take more than 500 mgs of calcium at one time because your body cannot handle it. If you need more than 400 mgs per day split up the doses during the day.
It is best to take calcium and magnesium with foods to help absorb them.
Don’t forget that vitamin D is very important for absorbing minerals, so take cod liver oil in the winter and get into the sun in the summer! In addition, all of the trace minerals, sodium and chloride are important for mineral absorption and to keep minerals balanced so do take a lemon juice and ocean sea salt drink every day (the juice of 1/2 lemon and 1/4 teaspoon of ocean sea salt mixed into 6 ounces of filtered water 6 times a day; 3 with meals to aid digestion).

How to Make Powdered Eggshells:

1. Wash empty eggshells in warm water until all of the egg white is removed, but do not remove the membrane because it contains important nutrients for the joints which helps arthritis.
2. Lay broken pieces out on paper towels and allow them to air dry thoroughly.
3. Break the eggshells up into small pieces, and grind them to into a fine powder in a food processor, blender, coffee grinder, or a nut mill, or put them in a plastic bag and use a rolling pin to grind them. Please note that some blenders will not grind the eggshell into a fine enough powder. A coffee grinder works the best.
4. Store powdered eggshells in a covered glass jar or container. Keep it in a dry place, like the kitchen cupboard.

How to take eggshell calcium (this forms calcium citrate) takes 3 hours:

1. Put 1/2 teaspoon of powdered eggshell into a small dish (approximately 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 inches across) 1/2 teaspoon equals approximately 400 mgs of elemental calcium.
2. Add the juice of 1/2 a lemon (freshly squeezed), and mix well it will start to bubble and foam, which is what is supposed to happen.
3. Leave it at room temperature for 6 hours the longer you leave it the less gritty it will be, but do not leave it longer than 12 hours.
4. It can be taken by the spoonfuls, followed by mouthfuls of water to wash it down. It is not sour tasting. In fact the taste is quite pleasant.
5. Also take 400 mgs of magnesium citrate at the same time.

Other Eggshell Recipes here are some other ways to make eggshell calcium citrate:
# 1 Lemon Eggshell:

1. Place one whole, clean, uncooked egg into a clean, wide-mouth jar and cover it with freshly squeezed lemon juice.
2. Cover the jar loosely and place it in the refrigerator.
3. A few times a day, gently agitate the jar the mixture will bubble.
4. After 48 hours, when the bubbling stops, carefully remove the egg.
5. The recipe says to take 1/2 teaspoon of this mixture daily, but with the added lemon 1/2 teaspoon would not equal 400 mgs of calcium, so it is hard to judge how much of the mixture to take in order to get enough calcium.

# 2 Lemon Eggshell:

1. Fill a wide mouth jar with 3 clean, whole, uncracked eggs.
2. Cover the eggs with freshly squeezed lemon juice it important that the lemons are very fresh or this mixture will not work right.
3. Clove the jar tightly and place it in the refrigerator. You should start to see bubbles forming on the eggshells. That means the eggshells are being dissolved into the lemon juice. The mixture will gradually turn white.
4. Gently agitate the jar a few minutes about 3 times a day.
5. As soon as the bubbling stops it is ready to take. It should not take any longer than 36-48 hours. If you leave the mixture longer it will tend to get thick and the eggs will begin to absorb more of the lemon juice, or the eggs may split and leak into the mixture. Occasionally this mixture doesn’t work when the lemons are not fresh enough.
6. Carefully remove the eggs without breaking the membrane, and use them as you would normally, i.e. in your raw egg drink. There will not be any shell left on the egg because it has been totally dissolved into the lemon juice, which is calcium citrate.
7. Place a tight lid on the mixture that remains after the eggs have been removed, and shake it well.
8. Take no more than one teaspoon per day initially because it can be very powerful. Start slowly. The amount may be gradually increased over time.

Bee’s note: The amount of this mixture to take is not easy to figure out. One eggshell (size is not stated) yields approximately 1,800 mgs of elemental calcium (amount that will be absorbed). Therefore 3 eggs would contain 5,400 mgs, divided by 400 mgs = approximately 13.5 doses.

About the Author…

Bee Wilder has a wealth of knowledge and experience both as a former sufferer of candida and convener of the candida support group. Since the 1980s when Bee could eat only a few types of foods and was so sensitive to yeasts she had to administer herself an allergy shot every day, she has not only fully recovered but now is more robust than ever. Bee lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and continues to research natural health and nutrition. You can find more articles and support at her website: Healing Naturally by Bee

The Schwartzbein Principle is a well balanced diet based on whole foods and nutrient combinations.  The following is an outline with a suggested menu plan from her book.

First Step

1. never skip a meal
2. eat real, unprocessed foods
3. eat balanced meals
4. choose a protein as the main nutrient in your meal
5. add some healthy fats
6. add real carbohydrates
7. add non-starchy vegetables
8. eat snacks
9. eat solid food
10. drink enough water

Step Two

1. make downtime a daily practice
2. put your life in perspective
3. keep track of stress signals
4. get enough sleep

Step Three

Taper off or avoid toxic chemicals, which include:

1.      nicotine

2.      alcohol

3.      refined sugar

4.      artificial sweeteners

5.      illicit drugs and narcotics

6.      msg, preservatives and additives

7.      fake fats and fat blockers

8.      caffeine

Step Four

1. exercise to improve flexibility and calm your system
2. resistance and adaptive training to improve muscle
3. cardiovascular and stimulating exercise

Four Transition Stages

1. Initial starting point
2. Healing phase
3. Fat-burning phase
4. Healed state

Schwartzbein Square

Proteins

Meat, poultry, fish, eggs or tofu.

Consume 1.0 – 1.25 grams per kilogram of body weight

*150# person would consume 68-85 grams (10-12 ounces)

Divide those total grams/ounces across meals and snacks

Eat a variety of proteins including fish at least 3 times per week

Note that some protein foods contain carbohydrates

Healthy Fats

Fats that are not damaged (trans fats)

Reduce consumption of saturated fats

Cream

Milk, whole-milk cheese, low-fat/non-fat yogurt

Sour cream/ cream cheese

Bacon

Poultry skin

Duck

Ground meats

Highly marbled beef, lamb and pork

Coconut

Macadamia nuts

Butter

Lard

Palm oil

Nonstarchy vegetables

High in fiber and contains 5 grams or less of carbohydrates per ½ cup serving

Eat at least five servings each day – making sure to get at least one serving with each meal.

Eat a variety of different vegetables

Real carbohydrates

Foods higher in starches, but can be grown, picked and/or harvested.  These include starchy vegetables, legumes, grains, flours and meals, yogurt, bread, and crackers.

Fruits are high in simple sugar.  If you are trying to transition from sodas, candies and other refined sugar products, fresh fruits can be a great means of transition.  As you further refine your program – especially as it relates to establishing your ideal weight, fruit should be monitored according to your metabolic state.

Why Drinking Enough Water is Important

• Most people are chronically dehydrated
• Some people mistake thirst for hunger
• Being dehydrated affects your ability to burn fats efficiently
• Drinking a glass of water at night can help eliminate false midnight hunger pangs
• Lack of water can cause fatigue
• Drinking enough water may hekp decrease joint and back pain
• Even being slightly dehydrated can affect your thinking processes
• Drinking enough water can help decrease the risk of colon and breast cancers

15-gram Regular Sample Menu Plan
Meals	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Breakfast	Scrambled eggs with goat cheese and spinach 1 ¼ cup strawberries	2/3 cup oatmeal Grilled nitrate-free chicken sausage with peppers	Sliced turkey on 1 slice Ezekial toast with ricotta cheese, sliced onion and tomato	Scrambled eggs, nitrate-free turkey sausage and ½ cup roasted potatoes with onions and peppers	Melted mozzarella cheese and spinach in 1 corn tortilla.  Grape tomatoes	Mexican scrambled eggs with peppers, onion and lean ground beef.  1/3 cup of beans. Salsa	Vegetable frittata. ½ cup roasted potatoes.
Lunch	Chicken salad with cold-pressed oil mayonnaise on mixed greens with ½ sliced apple and ½ avocado.  Raw carrots	Tomato stuffed with tuna salad mixed with cold-pressed oil mayonnaise, onionm celery and olives.  4 Ak-Mak crackers	Quiche (crustless) 1 cup berries. Mixed-greens salad with vinaigrette dressing	Salmon on mixed greens.  ½ cup red potatoes. Raw veggies	Homemade taco salad (no shell) with lean ground beef, mixed greens, onions, 1/3 cup beans, salsa and olives.	Chicken stir-fry with veggies in olive oil.  ½ cup brown rice.	Lean hamburger patty.  ½ cup corn.  Tomato, feta cheese and green onion salad with vinaigrette dressing
Dinner	Lean steak.  ½ cup oven-roasted red potatoes with rosemary.  Broccoli.  Mixed-greens salad with vinaigrette dressing.	Grilled salmon. ½ sweet potato. Sauteed spinach. Mixed-greens salad with vinaigrette dressing	Pecan chicken.  1/3 cup bulgur. Green beans. Tomatoe and onion salsd with vinaigrette dressing	Beef stroganoff on ½ cup wild rice.  Asparagus.  Hearts of Rommaine salad and feta cheese with vinaigrette dressing	Grilled halibut.  ½ cup butternut squash.  Sauteed green beans.  Mixed-greens salad with vinaigrette dressing	Mint pesto chicken kabob with vegetables. 1/3 cup coucous. Butterleaf lettuce salad and goat cheese with vinaigrette dressing	Grilled lamb chops. ½ cup roasted potatoes. Grilled zucchini. Mixed-greens salad with vinaigrette dressing

All rapidly growing and healing people use substantial amounts of calcium, which the body will attempt to extract from the bones if dietary sources are not adequate. Milk may be a contributing factor in the development of many allergic and autoimmune disorders.

The MOST critical time for formation of the calcium matrix of bone which is specific for women is from about age 9-16. Women also lose calcium from the bone easily, due to metabolic and hormonal shifts, both during pregnancy and during and after menopause.

You must have vitamin D from supplements or sunshine to absorb dietary calcium, as well as adequate hydrochloric acid (HCL).  Daily, one half hour of sun on normally oily skin provides sufficient vitamin D precursor.

Calcium is more poorly absorbed by folks eating a high protein diet, or high phosphorus foods (such as soda pop and milk).  A recent study compared the absorption of calcium from kale with the absorption from milk revealing absorption of calcium from kale was 40.9%, compared with 32.1% from milk.

In the USA, the recommended daily allowance (RDA) ranges from 800 milligrams to 1200 mg for pregnant or lactating women. Research with pregnant and lactating women in rural African communities has shown that they maintain good bones on a much lower intake, less than 400 milligrams per day. These women get plenty of sunshine, use highly bioavailable sources and their diets do not contain excessive phosphorus or protein.

USDA nutrition references report the approximate calcium content in milligrams per 8 oz (1 cup) for many foods.

Speciality foods

Carrot juice, fresh 57
Fish, canned salmon eaten with bones 440
Fish, canned sardines or mackeral eaten with bones 569
Molasses, blackstrap 2820, 176.2 per tablespoon
Molasses, unsulphured 672, 42 per tablespoon
Sesame butter (unhulled sesame seeds) 1022, 63.9 per tablespoon
Sesame butter/ tahini from hulled or decorticated seeds 315.2, 19.7 per tablespoon
Soy beverage, unfortified 9.8
Tofu, firm, prepared with calcium 1721
Tofu, regular, prepared with nigari, 260

Dark green leafy vegetables Many dark green leafy vegetables have relatively high calcium concentrations. The calcium in spinach is however, somewhat poorly absorbed, probably because of the high concentration of oxalate. The study revealed that kale, a low-oxalate vegetable, is a good source of bioavailable calcium. Kale is a member of the same family that includes broccoli, turnip greens, collard greens and mustard greens. These low-oxalate, calcium-rich vegetables are therefore also likely to be better sources of available calcium

cooked turnip greens 450
cooked bok choy 330
cooked collards 300
cooked spinach 250
cooked kale 200
parsley 200
cooked mustard greens 180
dandelion greens 150
romaine lettuce 40
head lettuce 10

Sprouts

soy 50
mung 35
alfalfa 25

Sea vegetables (seaweed)(dried powdered form)

nori 1,200
kombu 2,100
wakame 3,500
agar-agar 1,000, 62.5 per tablespoon

Beans and Peas (cooked, ready to eat)

navy beans 140
soybeans 130
pinto beans 100
garbanzo beans 95
lima, black beans 60
lentils 50
split peas 20

Grains

tapioca (dried) 300
brown rice, cooked 20
quinoa, cooked 80
corn meal, whole grain 50
rye flour, dark 40
oats 40
whole wheat flour 50

Seafood

raw oysters 240
shrimp 300
salmon with bones 490
mackerel with bones 600
sardines with bones 1,000

Seeds

almonds 750
hazelnuts (filbert) 450
walnuts 280
sesame seeds (whole, unhulled) 2,100
sunflower seeds 260

http://www.ellenskitchen.com/faqs/calcium.html

Funny thing about research, if you are trying to get data on things that people are rather passionate about, you are likely to find a lot of conflicting information.  Wine, chocolate, and coffee are great examples: in all three of these cases, we learn that scientific data is not always as black and white as we would hope.  This article focuses on characteristics of caffeine and it’s role in weight loss and general health.

Lets start with an understanding of stress.

Stress can be physiological, emotional, environmental and/or infectious.  Physiological stress can be as obvious as a strained muscle or any other physical injury.  It can also be much more subtle, like the increased demands on your body to adjust to repositioning from a sitting position to a standing position, dealing with traffic on the highway, or working out in the gym.  Emotional stress is the one we think of most when it comes to identifying our own stress levels, and yet, we really only gauge our stress levels based on our perceived ability to adapt to stressors.  Environment stress includes things like air pollution, cigarette smoke, allergens, and processed foods.  Finally, one of the most commonly overlooked sources of stress and resistant adrenal fatigue is chronic or severe infection.  When combined with the other sources of stress, we start to see a cumulative total stress load on the adrenal glands and our total stress levels.

The adrenal glands respond to every form of stress regardless of the source of that stress.  Adrenal fatigue occurs when the amount of stress overextends the capacity of the body to compensate and recover from that total of the combined stresses.  Once this capacity to cope and recover is exceeded, some form of adrenal fatigue occurs.  Clinical weakness of the adrenal glands is known as Addison’s disease, but sub-clinical manifestations of low adrenal function are not typically recognized by the modern medical industry.  Nonetheless, low adrenal function can manifest in changes in your metabolism of carbohydrates, proteins and fats, fluid and electrolyte balance, heart and cardiovascular system, and even sex drive.* People dealing with adrenal fatigue will often rely on coffee, colas and other stimulants to get going in the morning and to maintain energy throughout the day.

Caffeine is a sympathomimetic, which is a very long word for saying that caffeine mimics the effects of the sympathetic nervous system: the fight-or-flight system.  During the stress response, the adrenal gland releases adrenalin into the blood stream, along with other hormones like cortisol, signaling the heart to pump harder, increasing blood pressure, opening airways in the lungs, narrowing blood vessels in the skin and intestine to increase blood flow to major muscle groups, and elevating blood sugar levels. This system is very productive in a crisis situation, but presents a different reality when that ‘crisis’ does not resolve.  Based on the laws of necessity, fight-or-flight also shuts down body systems not required to deal with a mortal crisis.  These systems include the digestive system, reproductive system, and immune systems.

Being under the gun a work to meet deadlines, manage responsibilities between work and family, or just constantly being on the go, results in chronically elevated blood sugar levels.  Over time, your body responds by down-regulating insulin receptors at the cellular levels, which necessitates the storage of those excess sugars in the form of fat.  This process is not isolated to energy you have released from fat cells in order to deal with the perceived threat, but also applies to anything you eat.  In other words, when your cells ignore insulin and stop accepting the sugars in the blood stream, much of what you eat goes directly from your mouth to your fat cells.

Does this mean that coffee is a bad thing? No.

If you are one of the many people who depend on caffeine to get you through your hectic life, and are struggling with weight control, a new calorie restricted diet alone might not give you the results you are hoping for.  In fact, diets can be kind of stressful.  Give yourself a break and switch to decaffeinated options on occasion and participate in activities that engage the parasympathetic nervous system.  Stretching, breathing, yoga, and meditation are just a few parasympathetic-inducing activities that can be simple to incorporate into daily practice.[i]

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• Signs and symptoms of adrenal fatige include:

o        Difficulty getting up in the morning

o        Continuing fatigue not relieved by sleep

o        Craving for salt or salty foods

o        Lethargy

o        Decreased sex drive

o        Decreased ability to handle stress

o        Increased time to recover from illness, injury or trauma

o        Light-headed when standing up quickly

o        Mild depression

o        Increased PMS

o        Symptoms increase if meals are skipped or inadequate

o        Poor mental focus

o        Decreased memory recall

o        Decreased tolerance

o        Low energy between 3:00 and 4:00 pm

o        Second wind after 6:00 pm and a meal

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[i] Adrenal Fatigue, The 21^st Century Stress Syndrome, James L Wilson, ND, DC, Ph.D, 2001, Smart Publications, Petaluma, CA