#naturopath

Do You View Your Number 2s?

Stool, poo, number 2, bowel movement, poop, whatever you want to call it, you should be looking at it! I know this makes some people squeamish, but it is so important.  Your digestion is the cornerstone of your health and your stool gives you a lot of clues about what is going on in there.  To learn more about what happens in your gut and how important all the little bacteria friends that live there are, check out my article 10% Human.

So, what should you look for?  To start with you want to check the consistency.  Check out this chart to give you an idea of what you are looking for.  Too hard or too soft are both indications of trouble brewing. You want your stool to look like Type 4.

You also want to look at size, colour and frequency and if there is any mucus or undigested food in there.

Check your stool for a few days and if you have any issues you really want to sort them out as issues in your gut are associated with health issues in all other parts of your body. The solution depends on what the problem is.  Every problem has a different solution.  It is really best to talk to a naturopath if you think there is anything going on with your digestion so that you can get the right answers and be on the road to a healthier you.

Happy viewing!

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Dairy and Snot Connection

Is there a connection between dairy consumption and nasal secretions? (we’re talking snot here people).

There is much controversy around dairy and its health benefits versus drawbacks. I’m not going to get into the whole thing today. I just want to talk about nasal congestion and dairy. Many people will try to say that no matter what you should always consume dairy for its calcium content. There have been studies in the past, but I found a recent one clearly showing that drinking dairy increases nasal secretions.

The participants had no allergy nor intolerance to dairy, and all had a history of persistent nasal mucous secretions. All participants went completely dairy free for 6 days and then after that had either a dairy smoothie or soy smoothie each day for 4 days. All participants had less secretions during the initial stage. The dairy smoothie group had significantly increased nasal secretions compared to the soy group. This was a double blinded study meaning that neither the researchers nor the participants knew who drank the dairy and who drank the soy.

So, if you have persistent nasal secretions (or lots of snot), or have a cold, it might be worth taking dairy out of your diet for a few days and see what happens.

Here is the study if you would like to take a read: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30178886/

For more information, give me a shout!

www.natactive.com.au

Naturally Active Naturopathic Clinic – Natural Family Healthcare

Healthy Lemon Chia Muffins

Usually we go home to Canada in July which is just when my lemon tree in Australia is ripening. I end up picking them all before I leave and handing them out to friends. But things being what they are this year, we didn’t go anywhere. So trying to find the silver lining (if you really want to see it!), I have been baking lots of lemon recipes. My family loves muffins, so lemon muffins was an obvious choice. So without any further ado, here is my healthy lemon chia muffin recipe!

Lemon Chia Muffins

4 Tbsp chia seeds

1 cup lemon juice (juice from 3-4 lemons)

2.5 cups self-raising flour (whole wheat preferably)

¼ tsp salt

½ cup maple syrup (the real stuff from Canada)

1/3 cup coconut oil melted

1 cup milk (I used macadamia, but you could also you almond or dairy)

½ tsp almond extract

Method

  1. Mix the chia seeds with the lemon juice in a small bowl and set aside for 10 minutes
  2. Preheat oven to 180C
  3. In another large bowl, mix the salt and the flour.
  4. Add the maple, coconut oil, milk and almond extract to the flour and mix well.
  5. Add in the lemon and chia mix.
  6. Divide out into muffin trays.

Depending on how big you make your muffins, cook between 12-16 minutes.

Add blueberries, raspberries or other fruit to mix it up.

Enjoy!

How do you get Incidental Exercise?

Do you take the stairs at work?

There are two different kinds of exercise – incidental and planned.  Planned is when you go out to just do exercise.  When you go for a run, to the gym, for a bike ride, boot camp etc.  Incidental exercise is all the exercise that you get through your day-to-day activities: walking to the train, walking to school, walking around the office, running after the kids in the backyard.

Planned or structured exercise is great, but this doesn’t always fit into the day. One of the barriers to exercise is that people often don’t feel like they have time to go to the gym for an hour.  Whereas planned exercise takes time, incidental exercise is often done while doing other things and it can be really helpful for our health as we do it more often.  Any amount of exercise is beneficial and lots of short spurts of exercise can have the same effect on your health as a longer session.

Several years ago

I like to turn planned exercise into incidental.  Don’t get me wrong, I love to just go for a bike ride or walk the dog.  But I also like to go out with purpose. I have a bike trailer that I used to use with the kids but now I take it to the shops to get groceries instead of driving.  And the kicker is no matter how tired I might be; I have to make it back.  Really this only adds about 10 minutes each way, but now I have incorporated exercising into shopping.

Now

The kids’ school is about 10 minutes away.  If I walk there and back that’s 20 minutes.   If I do that twice a day, at least 3 days a week I’ve done 60 minutes of walking!  So I’ve made a big dent into my 150-minute goal and I haven’t even gotten started on my planned exercise yet.  

Some other ways you can add incidental exercise into your day are parking further from the train and adding a 10-minute walk there and back each day. Take the stairs instead of the lift or escalator. Do squats while brushing your teeth – 2 minutes per brush, 2 brushes per day times 7 days equals 28 minutes of exercise and you haven’t taken time away from anything else in your day.

The possibilities are endless.  You just have to be creative and see what fits into your lifestyle.  So, what are some ways that you get incidental exercise?

The lemons are ripening! Yay!

As the lemons start ripening on my lemon tree, I thought it would be timely to write about them.

I’m sure you have all heard of drinking lemon water.  It can actually be quite helpful. I don’t suggest only drinking lemon water (seriously if you ever see something telling you to only do one thing, run don’t walk away!), but a glass of lemon water in the morning can be great.

Lemons are acidic.  If you drink a glass in the morning it can help stimulate your digestive juices and get them ready for digesting breakfast.

Lemon water can help with constipation.  The combination of lemon and warm water can help to get things moving in the morning.

Lemons are loaded with antioxidants and flavonoids.  This means they can help boost your immune system and decrease inflammation.

Lemon water can help with kidney stones.  This is due to their high citrate content. If you have kidney stones though, seek professional health advice.  Don’t just drink lemon water and hope they go away.  Talk to your naturopath to see if this is appropriate for you.

Drinking a glass of water in the morning will help you stay hydrated.  Over night we don’t drink anything and can become dehydrated.  Drinking water in the morning can get us going on the right path.

You want to drink this in the morning, ideally half an hour before eating breakfast.  Consistency is best for seeing results.  

  1. Squeeze half a lemon of juice into a mug (real never artificial).
  2. Add hot water
  3. Drink
  4. Feel great;)

Teriyaki Chicken and Veggies with Rice Noodles

I love this recipe! It is so easy to make and super delicious. And 2/3 of the kids will eat it! Ok not ideal, but if I only shared recipes they would all eat, you wouldn’t have much to read. You can easily scale this up or down depending on how many people are eating and the leftovers are awesome! Experiment with how strong you (or the kids) like it. I am always adding different veggies depending on what is in the fridge, so don’t focus too much on the specific veggies I use, just add some and enjoy!

  • 1 small onion
  • 1 large clove of garlic
  • 1 head of broccoli
  • 3 medium carrots
  • 1 medium zucchini
  • ¼ head of cauliflower 
  • Ginger – depends on how strong you want this to be.  I use about an inch long piece.  This gives a mild-medium ginger flavour.  Good if feeding kids.
  • 2 Tbsp of coconut oil
  • 400-500g chicken thighs cut into pieces
  • 2-3 Tbps of soy sauce – You may want more or less for your taste.  Experiment here.
  • 2 Tbsp honey – a big squirt of honey
  • 200g Rice vermicelli noodles

Cut up all the veggies into bite sized pieces.  Cut up the garlic and ginger until it is super tiny.

Stir-fry all the veggies, garlic and ginger in the pan with some coconut oil. Once these are about half cooked add the chicken.  Once the chicken is cooked, add the soy sauce and honey.

Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook the rice noodles as per the instructions.  I just pop mine into boiling water for 2 minutes and then strain.

Mix the rice noodles in with the veggie chicken mix.  Only put a small amount in at a time to make it easier to mix around.

All done! Enjoy!

Healthy Chocolate Avocado Pudding

Pudding in bowls with fruit

This recipe is certainly a family favourite.  I had to fight off little hands in order to take pictures for this post! This is a different kind of chocolate pudding in that it tastes amazing while being loaded with healthy ingredients.  It is also very easy to make, just blend all the ingredients together. We like to mix in some fresh fruit just before eating, but you can also just eat it plain.  If you have any leftover it also freezes well, although I rarely get any into my freezer!

Pudding ingredients

So why is this pudding so healthy? The ingredients are loaded with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, good fats and fibre.  How could you go wrong?

Avocados are a great source of healthy fat and fibre.  Read my other articles to learn more about what fats are and the truth about fats and why they are an important part of your diet. They also contain vitamin C, E, K, B6, folate, magnesium and potassium. Don’t shy away from an avocado, they are great for your health.

Cacao powder is considered a ‘super food’ in the media.  It differs from cocoa in that it hasn’t been roasted.  This retains its natural vitamin, mineral and antioxidant content as well as being a good source of protein, chromium, potassium and magnesium. Watch out for cheap cacao powder though.  I once bought a cheap version and it tasted awful.

Cinnamon is a super tasty way to add a bit more healthiness into your pudding.  It can help lower resting blood sugar, it contains lots of antioxidants, has anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties and it may even improve your memory (I think;)

I know many of my readers are in Australia, so you may not understand the beauty that is maple syrup, but trust me there is no substitute.  You need to get 100% pure Canadian maple syrup, not a sugar knock off.  While maple syrup does still contain glucose and fructose, it is much lower than regular sugar and has a lower glycemic index.  It is also high in antioxidants, riboflavin, zinc, magnesium, calcium and potassium. Oh and did I mention it tastes fantastic!

We have all heard that bananas contain lots of potassium, but did you know they also contain calcium, manganese, magnesium, iron, folate, niacin, riboflavin and B6? Now enough of this explanation as to why this pudding is so healthy, lets make it!

in-blender.jpg

Ingredients

  • 1 ripe avocado
  • 1 ripe banana
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 5 tablespoons cacao powder
  • 5 tablespoons real maple syrup

Instructions

  1. Put all the ingredients in your blender.
  2. Blend all the ingredients until smooth.
  3. Enjoy!

I have a Vitamix.  I would suggest using either a Vitamix, Thermomix, or Kitchenaid processor to ensure you get a smooth texture.

Pudding 2