Tis the season of seasonal allergies!!

While many just pop an antihistamine and go, few take a step back to recognize that chronic allergies, even if mostly triggered by weather, is one of the most classic signs of inflammation. 

As odd as it may sound, sinus health is fundamental to both the neuro-respiratory and gut-brain axis. The sinuses actually have their own microbiome and that little microbiome is the frontline of defense against respiratory infections. A healthy microbiome supports the epithelial barrier in the sinuses and gut, operating as a foundational element of the innate immune system. Simply put, the sinuses’ microbiome dictates our respiratory health and is fundamental to the metabolic and immune function of the gut. If we can lower the inflammation in our gut, our sinuses will reap the benefits.

Sure, there are a number of ways to help the sinuses like breathing clean air and using a nasal rinse. However, those actions act more like a tourist, they come in for a bit but then are gone shortly after their stay. If the root issue (inflammation) is not addressed, we will continue to experience symptoms. 

In a world where inflammation-causing obstacles seem to be everywhere we turn, the one thing that remains constant for survival is our nutrition intake- thus making food the most powerful combat weapon of all. Lucky for us, it also happens to be the tool that we have the most control over! 

Now that many of us are in the trenches, battling seasonal allergies, there is no better time to fight inflammation.  Let’s start by making a few tweaks at the kitchen table. 

Here are the top 7 food categories to limit or avoid when it comes to inflammation:

1. Processed/Refined Sugar like High Fructose Corn Syrup- Why? Digests quickly leading to blood sugar spikes. Also contains high fructose to glucose ratio which can contribute to inflammation-based conditions like fatty liver.
2. Processed Soy- Why? While non-processed, organic soy can be very beneficial to human health, overly processed soy tends to be much higher in sodium and less in vitamins and minerals. A few studies on rats suggest the processed form of soy can hinder thyroid and hormone function.
3. Vegetable Oil like Sunflower and Canola Oil- Why? Vegetable oils (especially those that are hydrogenated = trans fat) cause inflammation in the body, particularly when heated. Heating causes oxidation and oxidation can damage our cells.
4. Artificial Sweeteners- Why? Our body struggles to digest artificial ingredients. The body sees these particles as foreign and begins to attack. This results in inflammation.
5. Food Dye- Why? Artificial dyes contain small molecules that are able to attach to proteins in our body which can trigger the inflammatory cascade.
6. Gluten- Why? While each individual is biologically unique, many struggle to tolerate gluten without even realizing that it is a problem. The gluten content in basic foods today like bread and pasta is significantly higher than it was years ago. Additionally, chemicals such as glyphosate are sprayed in abundance on wheat.
7. Dairy- Why? As mentioned, it is always best to listen to your body. However, for many of us, when genetics and gut health are combined with the poor quality living conditions of feedlot cows, and the processing of their milk, we may experience an immune reaction to cow's milk-based products, thus encouraging inflammation in the body.

If you're looking to decrease inflammation or avoid causing inflammation, these are 5 foods that you should avoid: 

1. Agave: This might crush a few souls, however, agave should not be used daily. While all-natural, agave lags behind options like pure maple or honey because it is mostly comprised of fructose - roughly 85%!! Fructose can only be metabolized by our liver cells. Glucose on the other hand (most prominently found in other natural sweeteners) can be broken down by every cell in the body. When agave is consumed routinely, it causes our liver to work harder than it needs to. This accumulation of fat in the liver can lead to inflammation which eventually impairs liver function.
2.  Margarine. Certain companies are still touting that their margarine is “healthier” than butter when in reality, the trans fat used to make margarine is significantly more inflammatory in the long run. Trans fat is strongly linked to a decline in brain, heart and cardiovascular health. 
3. Fatty, Feed-Lot Red Meat. If red meat is something you enjoy, it is no problem to consume in moderation alongside a plant-based diet. High quality, grass-fed, red meat is a nice source of protein and iron. However, cows that were not raised and fed humanely will produce meat that is highly inflammatory. You will find less omega 3 healthy fats and more saturated fat in this meat. This is what we mean when we say “know your farmer, know your food!” If you do not live in an area where local farm fresh meat is available, there are a variety of reputable stores online now like Butcher Box or Thrive Market.   Pro Tip: If red meat or other similar food items make you feel ill after consumption, yet it is something that you would like to eat, it is best to work to improve gut health and function instead of removing large amounts of food/food groups from your diet.
4. Common Vegetable Oils. Many of us assume we are doing ourselves a favor when we see “vegetable” and “oil” in the same sentence. However in reality, many of these oils contain an inflammatory ratio of higher omega 6 fatty acids to lower omega 3 fatty acids. Repeat consumption of this unbalanced ratio can greatly increase our risk for disease. Avoid corn oil, peanut oil, sunflower oil, grapeseed and standard vegetable oil when possible.
5. Dairy/Cheese. Multiple studies suggest that dairy rapidly alters the microorganisms residing in the gut which thereby can increase inflammation in the gastrointestinal lining. One study from the University College London states that 60% of the world’s population is unable to digest cow’s milk. Some of us struggle more with the lactose (sugar) in cow’s milk and others tend to see more of an issue with the casein and or whey (protein) in cow’s milk. If you suspect your skin issues, sinus trouble or gut disturbances may be related to dairy intake, consider strict removal for 7-10 days and monitor symptoms. 

Feeling sluggish? Struggling to maintain lean muscle mass? Constantly sick? Experiencing brittle hair and nails? Low protein intake may be to blame!

Adequate protein intake is critical for overall health, especially when it comes to energy, metabolism and injury prevention, yet many of us women still fall short. 

Let’s jump back to human physiology 101. Amino acids, the building blocks of protein, are responsible for building every cell in our body from enzymes to antibodies. When our intake of protein is chronically low, our body gradually stops running like a well-oiled machine. In fact, research tells us that inadequate protein in women can contribute to everything from increased risk for swelling, bone fractures, insatiable appetite, and infections. 

Aiming for a palm full of protein- plant or animal based- at each meal is a great start. Here are 5 unique ideas to help add extra protein to your diet:

1. Cook an egg into your oatmeal while it is simmering on the stove. (Great trick for kids as well as it is not noticeable, especially once you add toppings! 
2. Try adding ¼-½ cup soft or silken tofu to your smoothie.
3. Add a packet of Call Me Collagen to your green juice
4. Dip apple slices in pumpkin seed butter for a snack. (One of the highest protein contents of all nut and seed butters!)
5. Bread your chicken or fish with crushed almonds instead of bread crumbs.

Love yourself a little extra this month by making this delicious recipe. These freeze well, so if you find that you just can’t stop at one…or two, freeze and pull them out one at a time when you crave a treat!

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 ripe bananas, mashed, about 2/3 cup
• 1 egg
• 3 TBSP pure maple syrup
• 1.5 cups almond flour
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. 
2. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
3. Peel and mash bananas in a bowl until creamy. Add in egg and pure maple syrup. Whisk well. 
4. Add almond flour, cinnamon, sea salt and stir until the mixture is combined. It should be fairly wet and sticky.
5. Drop  ~2 tablespoons of the cookie dough on the baking sheet and form it into a cookie shape. Repeat until all batter is gone.
6. Bake on the center rack of the oven until the cookies are golden-brown around the edges. Depending on your oven, this will range from 20-28 minutes.
7. Let cool/set for a couple minutes and enjoy!

While terms like “detox” and “reset” may sound a little hoaky, it can be very worthwhile to be conscious of the load we place on our bodies each day.

It is the job of our liver and kidneys to act as a built in filtration system for our body. However, when “the cup overflows”, or we end up in a situation where these organs cannot clear the abundance of toxins we are exposed to, we may find ourselves in a bit of a funk. A few dead giveaways include but are not limited to brain fog, painful periods, skin issues (eczema, psoriasis etc.), experiencing a lack of motivation, multiple food and environmental allergies, headaches, and fatigue.

So, what can we do to help pull ourselves out of this slump? A little spring detox! As the birds begin chirping and the sun is really starting to shine again, it’s the perfect time to focus on a reboot for our body, brain and immune system. 

Here are 5 ways to completely refresh your body:

1. Perfect Your Personal Products. It is incredibly important to be mindful of what we are putting on our body each day. Lotion, shampoo, serums, and makeup are just a few of the products we want to make sure are made from pure ingredients. Our skin is an organ and essentially “ingests” everything that it touches, therefore making an effort to use clean beauty products is one of the most important steps in a true detox. Check out this article from @Dr. Gabrielle Francis  to learn more!
2. Remove External Toxins. It might make sense to choose toxin free beauty products, but it is equally as important to remove the toxins around us in our home. Think about what you may be breathing in or exposing yourself to in your home, and start to read labels. Candles, plug in air fresheners and dryer sheets are some of the most common offending agents. 
3. Focus on a Healthy Home. If we are not conscious, sometimes the inside of our home can be the biggest hindrance to our health. The amount of women I treat whose health is declining as a result from toxins inside their home is astounding. Interestingly enough, for many, a sudden change of working from home led to a sudden decline in health.  Pay attention to how you feel when you wake up in the morning or after you’ve spent a significant amount of time in one room. If you find yourself not feeling well, take a deeper dive into the quality of your water and air. Many of us forget to change the vents on our air filtration system. You may also want to consider sleeping with a window cracked if you sense air quality might be an issue. Lastly, be sure to investigate for water damage or leaks. In some cases, mold can produce mycotoxins, a substance very harmful to human health.
4. Purify Your Pantry. Eating food made from real ingredients is the foundation of any detox. Make it a goal to have 80% of your pantry consist of food that does not have a barcode. Any processed food should contain 5 ingredients or less. When you open your fridge, most of what you see should be brightly colored produce. Bonus for incorporating additional, all-natural detox support  such as lemon water, fresh herbs and dark leafy greens. Curious what to avoid? Check out this article. 
5. Find a Detox Modality that Fits You. Many find it helpful to incorporate additional detox support to take their foundational efforts further. Infrared saunas, ozone therapy, dry brushing and salt caves are among the most commonly used methods. However, please keep in mind, it is always best to speak with your healthcare provider first as your medical history may dictate a specific plan for you. 

“I eat the same food every day! I don’t even mind. It’s so easy and helps me stay on track!”

Does this sound familiar? While many individuals like to make this statement as a flex, the habit of eating the same food day in and day out can be detrimental to human health.  Even more specifically, the health of our gut health essentially dictates the health of our entire body. The more diverse the bacteria in our intestines, the greater our health but what many do not realize is that consuming a variety of plant based foods is the absolute most effective way to change our gut bacteria for the better. Dr. Will Bulsiewicz is most well known for discovering this data.

Now, if you are consuming fiber-rich, nutrient dense foods each day like dark leafy greens, legumes, chia seeds and bright colored fruits, this of course will affect your gut microbiome much less negatively than white bread sandwiches, crackers, snack bars and cereal. This may not surprise you as we’ve been told for years that these foods can make us feel tired and increase our chances of weight gain BUT what hasn’t been explained very well is that these inflammatory foods actually kill our good bacteria. This is the reason for all of these negative symptoms and knowing the “why” behind it all can make a difference for those of us out there who don’t particularly love shoveling vegetables down the hatch. 

Quick summary: the way we feed our gut bacteria is much more beneficial than attempting to count specific nutrients in our diet. Aim for a diversity of whole, fiber rich foods and you are on your way to fighting cancer, Alzheimers, heart disease, autoimmunity and an entire slew of other conditions with every bite.

So, what exactly is the “right” amount of diversity? A large collection of data, published in 2018 found that the dream situation is consuming 30+ different types of plants a week. Now, before anyone panics, please note that fruits and vegetables aren’t the only plants out there! Nuts, beans, seeds, legumes, herbs, and whole grains are plants too. If you make a few one pot meals a week like soups, or veggie-packed bakes, it’s not as difficult a task as it sounds.

I will leave you with one last interesting thought regarding the monotony of an eating routine.

Speaking anecdotally from years of clinical experience, we often found in our clinic that someone with poor gut health was more likely to develop a food sensitivity or allergy to the food(s) that they are consumed day after day. While not completely proven in research yet, we believe much of this has to do with the fact that intestinal permeability is often a component of suboptimal gut health and when food (and pathogens, parasites, environmental toxins etc. for that matter) start to slip through the “cracks” in our lining, our body begins to attack that food particle, mistaking it for a foreign invader. Symptoms then manifest with repeat consumption.

It’s all so Interesting right? What will you change about your grocery shopping routine? What will you add to your cart that was not there before?

Colorful fruits and veggies have always been in style, but the most important reason for this is often not recognized. While fresh produce is a low calorie, high fiber and nutrient dense way of fueling yourself, the biggest benefit to consuming ample amounts of fresh produce is to help reverse DNA damage at the cellular level!

Whether it be a sunburn or sore muscles from an intense training session, eating 2-3 colors at each meal can really help to repair and rejuvenate the body at the deepest level. And don’t forget, batch cooking on your least busy day of the week can help make this a simple process. Most foods can be made in advance and frozen for a simple blend or reheat when needed.

Check out the examples below to incorporate more colorful foods into your life:

• Blueberries, bananas, and spinach in a smoothie.
• Blackberries, raspberries and green apples in a smoothie. Beets would also be a nice bonus!
• Kale, mango, and pineapple in a smoothie. (A pinch of coconut is nice too.)
• Pumpkin puree, apricots and banana in your oatmeal. (Blueberries work as well.)
• Chopped yellow pepper and tomatoes tossed in a kale salad.
• Chop, sauté and blend leftover onion, asparagus and potato for a hearty soup. 
• Parsnip, butternut squash and turnips in a soup or chopped, sautéed and mixed together as a side.
• Pico de gallo on farm fresh chicken.
• Celery, carrot and onion is always a nice soup base (Honestly, just about any leftover veggies can be made into a soup. 
• Add avocado, grilled pineapple and caramelized sweet onion to a grass-fed burger.
• Tomato, avocado, pickled radish or beets on a fish or chicken wrap.
• Add a fruit or veggie kabob as a fun side dish to any of your meals. 

Whatever your favorite combo of fruit or veggies may be, make it happen!

Research tells us that quality sleep can make or break our health, especially in the long run. The problem however, is that most of us don’t even realize we are not allowing ourselves to have refreshing sleep. I often say to my clients, just because you are laying in bed for 7-10 hours, does not necessarily include an adequate amount of sound sleep. Our goal as adults should be 6.5-8 hrs of sleep per night with roughly 20-25% of that sleep being deep REM sleep, For most of us, that is roughly 90 minutes. 

While sleeping in a cool, dark room can be incredibly beneficial, so can avoiding foods that may potentially disrupt our sleep. In addition to leaving a 2 hour gap between your last bite of food and bed, try to avoid the following:

• Spicy Foods: greater chance of reflux, gastrointestinal turmoil and increase in core body temperatures.
• Greasy/High Fat Foods: very difficult to digest. Our body will spend more time focused on breaking down this heavy meal vs. focusing on restorative sleep.
• High Protein Meals: along the same vein, a very high protein meal can be difficult to digest as well, thus leading to poor quality sleep. Now, a light meal or snack that contains protein would be appropriate, but if you have not eaten all day and then you sit down to a 14 ounce steak, you are not likely to experience refreshing sleep.
• Cheese: quick and easy to eat but cheese is not the best choice before bed. This is because cheese contains an amino acid called tyramine. Tyramine has been shown to increase our stress hormone, norepinephrine. 
• High Sugar Foods: many reasons why sugar intake, especially before bed can be highly disruptive. A few of the top reasons include, sugar’s ability to create large swings in blood sugar, the depletion of magnesium and an increase in the overall human body inflammatory response. 

Beautifully colored Buddha Bowls are everywhere now on social media but what are they and how do you make the perfect Buddha Bowl?

A Buddha Bowl is a plant based, nutrient dense food bowl inspired by Buddha himself many years ago. It is believed that Buddha would go from town to town, collecting small bits of food that residents were willing to spare in order to help feed those who were less fortunate.

The coolest thing about Buddha Bowls is that there are hundreds upon hundreds of combos for you to mix and match. Understanding the foundation of the bowl will help you to create a bowl according to your liking. Here is the ultimate template for success:

• Grain: Brown, red, white, purple or black rice. Quinoa, millet, farro and buckwheat are also popular additions!
• Legume: Lentils, black beans, chickpeas etc.
• Cooked Veggies: Whatever your heart desires! Don’t forget sautéed onion and garlic for the ultimate flavor boost. Red, sweet, or purple potatoes are always a nice add on.
• Raw Veggies: Broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, sprouts, snap peas etc.
• Leafy Greens: Kale, spinach, collards, bok choy, or mustard greens.
• A pickled vegetable: The possibilities are endless! From pickled onion to pickled watermelon, sauerkraut and kimchi, experiment and see what you enjoy most.
• Tasty sauce: herbed tahini, chimichurri, spicy hummus! 

At the turn of a new year, most of us begin to self-reflect as we hear our inner conscious whisper. “What has this past year taught me and brought to me?” “How can I improve my health, my relationships, and love for myself going forward?”  “Can I find new ways to add more meaning, passion and joy to my life?”

While there are a number of ways to improve and enhance our day to day existence, there is one common theme that my entrepreneur brain and heart can’t help but notice at work, out in public, and even just within my own group of friends: after a global pandemic, we as women have forgotten how to sell ourselves. In other words, we have lost the art of the perfect elevator speech. 

Whether you are the CEO of an international company or you have stayed home the past 10 years, it is still so important to be able to talk about who you are and what you do with an effective and captivating story. I believe this is truly how great impressions are made. Many of us are interviewing for new jobs at the moment, transitioning back to the office, and even considering drastic career changes. So, let’s dive into the perfect elevator speech.

An elevator speech is a 30 second introduction where you have the chance to articulate who you are and what you can do for that individual (or company). Having a perfectly crafted elevator speech can improve your networking and interviewing abilities as well as other key tasks such as gaining new clients or creating a website from the ground up. 

Here are my top tips for crafting a successful elevator speech:

• Brainstorm before you begin. You are uniquely you and only you know your story. Brainstorm bullet points of what sets you apart and use this as the core of your mini speech. 
• Keep it brief. When I said 30 seconds, I literally meant an ideal elevator speech is roughly 30 seconds long!
• Make it simple..initially. Start by a general explanation and if the listening party is interested, that is your cue to dive deeper.
• Incorporate a call to action. Introduce yourself, sell your story, and most importantly, include a call to action at the end of the conversation. Job interview? Express your enthusiasm for the role and ask for contact information in case you have further questions. Hoping to gain a new follower or book a client? Provide an Instagram handle, or a link to download your latest newsletter.
• Practice, practice, practice. Just like anything else in life, your delivery will be much smoother if you rehearse a few times outloud. 
• Don’t forget to follow up! No matter where you were or who your speech was given to, make sure you follow up regarding what was discussed. For example, my hairdresser told me this week she suffers from fatigue and gut issues. I explained to her that her concerns are my exact specialty and my call to action at the end of the discussion was providing her with my website URL to learn more or book an appointment. When I saw a week had passed and she had not reached out, I sent a follow up text thanking her so much for the awesome hair cut and provided my website link again.

Now that you are ready to craft the perfect elevator speech, you are one step closer to conquering the world!