Lower Your Lectin Intake

Not all plant foods are created equally. Some plants contain LECTINS. A single or group of proteins that act as the plants defense mechanism against predators, ie. hungry mammals that want to eat the plants. Lectins act as anti-nutrients in the human body preventing us from absorbing other essential nutrients from the foods we are consuming. In other cases, these proteins can really harm us, this depends on how sensitive you are to lectins and which specific lectin is at play.

You Can Still Eat Lectins, Just Follow my Tips!

Some of the foods that contain lectins are: beans, legumes, most nuts, tomatoes, seeded vegetables (which are actually fruits), and grains.  Whole grains contain higher levels of lectins, becauselectins are found in greater concentration in the outer bran.
It doesn’t mean we can’t eat these foods ever again. If you know how to lower the load of lectins that you give your body, you will be way ahead of the game. You will avoid damage to your body and you will be able to properly digest and absorb the nutrients in foods containing lectins. Read on for a few ways to reduce lectin toxicity and increase the digestibility and nutrition absorption of lectin containing plant foods.

• SOAKING: Reduce lectins in grains, beans and nuts by soaking them overnight preferably in baking soda water, rinsing them out a couple of times prior to cooking them.
• PRESSURE COOKING: For further elimination or reduction of lectins, cook these foods in a pressure cooker. Modern electric pressure cookers are a better and less scary option than the old fashion manual pressure cookers.
• FERMENTING: I love fermenting foods! This method has so many benefits, apart from helping us attain or maintain a healthy gut biome and digestion. The bacteria in the foods being fermented, pre-digests the food, doing the hard work for your digestive system while using those foods to feed themselves, this process significantly reduces the lectin content. It’s a win win!
• PEEL AND SEED: According to Dr. Steven Gundry(Read his great book on lectins,) the most harmful part of plant foods high in lectins, such as eggplant, squash, cucumbers and tomatoes is the peel. So remove the peel as well as the seeds which also contain lectins before you eat these foods.

Proper Cooking

Along with reducing lectins, proper cooking of foods is essential for optimum digestibility and assimilation of nutrients. Many people, like me, have a weak digestive fire, aka Agni, in Ayurvedic terminology. There are many reasons for weak agni, one of them being one’s constitution. When someone has a weak agni, it is somewhat difficult to properly digest the food we eat, especially when cold and raw foods are thrown into the mix.

Digestion is a process that requires lots of energy from our bodies, so we must strive to make the very exhausting task of digestion as easy as possible.

For the longest time I noticed that my belly would get very bloated after eating certain foods. One day, I noticed that this would happen especially when I consumed raw and cold foods like cold smoothies, acai bowls and raw salads. Since then, I’ve been lightly cooking my vegetables and even steaming the veggies I put in my smoothies. This has really helped me prevent getting bloated.

Lubricate Your Plant Foods

Now, after eating a carefully constructed plant based diet, I’m able to handle some raw vegetables every now and then, but I absolutely make sure I add plenty of olive oil or avocado oil and mix it in with my salad really well about 10 min before I eat it. I “marinate” my veggies because the oil breaks down the cell walls the longer it sits in on the vegetables.

One other reason to add plenty of good fats to our veggies is enhanced bioavailability of nutrient absorption, since many of the vitamins and minerals contained in vegetables require fat to be optimally absorbed and utilized.

Ayurveda very accurately suggests – we are what we digest– if we don’t make sure that our bodies properly digest and assimilate what we eat, it doesn’t matter if we are eating the purest of the foods, we won’t be able to completely reap the benefits of the foods we are ingesting.

Food Diversity

With so much availability and diversity of plant foods within our reach, it’s very surprising to me how little variety of plants make it into our diet. Diversity is very important! When we eat the same foods over and over, we run the risk of becoming nutrient deficient and developing food sensitivities. It is to our benefit to begin experimenting and start trying out new foods. Next time you go grocery shopping, buy a new vegetable that you’ve never tried before.

Last week when I went grocery shopping, I picked up a few sunchokes, a new one for me (by the way, at the end of the article I’ll attach a simple recipe for sunchokes). I’m so happy about these because they actually contain prebiotic fiber which is my gut microbes favorite food. Yay!

Fruits

Fruits have so many amazing nutrients and benefits for your health, but most of them are loaded with sugar. You might say, but it’s from fruits and they’re natural. Well, you can say what you want but, sugar is sugar and there is no way around it. As you may already know, consuming a diet high in sugar negatively affects your health. Sugar causes inflammation, weight gain, and other issues. You must consider the amount of sugar you consume daily. Don’t completely avoid fruit for the rest of your life. You just need to choose wisely and eat responsibly. Some of the fruits with the highest sugar content are: mangos, ripe bananas, grapes, pomegranates and all dried fruits, especially raisins. Berries on the other hand, are ones that contain significantly lower amounts of sugar and hold high amounts of antioxidants, so, start eating more berries! When in season of course.

A final factor to consider when adopting a plant based diet. Keep it simple and follow your internal GPS, aka your intuition, it knows how to best care for your body. Intuition + information, basic knowledge and common sense will help you fully reap the benefits of eating a great variety of plant foods provided by the mighty and abundant MOTHER NATURE.

You will feel supported, full of energy, more alive, lighter and more joyful adopting this way of eating and applying some if not all of the tips I’ve given you.

To your health, cheers!

My Favorite Recipe for Tandori Sunchokes

Crispy Rosemary And Tandoori Sunchokes (Aka Jerusalem Artichokes)

strong>Ingredients

• 2 tbsp ghee (or as much as you want)
• 1 tsp tandoori powder
• ½ tbsp dried rosemary or 3 sprigs fresh rosemary
• ¼ cup bone broth
• Salt + pepper to taste

Preparation

Heat ghee in a large skillet, over medium-high heat. Add the quartered sunchokes and the remaining ingredients. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally until sunchokes are tender (to test, stab with a fork), about 8-10 min.

Uncover skillet and cook until broth is evaporated and sunchokes begin to look crispy, about 5-7 min longer. Remove from skillet, serve and top off with a bit more ghee.

Information Overload

There’s so much information out there about food, nutrition and the perfect diet. It’s easy to become overwhelmed and confused. One thing that everyone can agree on is that a plant based diet is the most beneficial diet for humans to thrive on. It’s ancient wisdom and common sense.

Ever since I can remember, I’ve had a weak digestive system. By trying to heal myself and achieve better health, I became somewhat of an expert on adopting a nutrient dense plant-based diet.

I want to share tips that I have learned along my journey and want to share how you can make better and informed decisions when it comes to what you feed your body.

I was a vegetarian for about 6 years. At the time, I didn’t know much about nutrition.  I decided to become a vegetarian to uplevel my health. When I first started, I ate a diet full of sugar and processed vegetarian foods.

That diet had nothing to do with being healthy. As I started to learn more about nutrition, I began to incorporate a variety of vegetables and plant foods into my diet. I began to understand what a plant-based diet really was. I’m no longer exclusively vegetarian, I have come to the conclusion that my body needs some good quality animal-based foods. But that doesn’t mean I no longer eat a plant based diet, on the contrary, I eat more plants now than I have ever before.

What Is A Plant-Based Diet?

To me, the definition of a plant-based diet is just that- a diet based on plants. This does not mean exclusively plants, however. While some people could thrive on a diet solely composed of plants, other people like me, need the help of animal based foods. It is undeniable that a diet largely composed of plant-based whole foods is the most beneficial for our bodies to thrive and receive the all the nutrients that it needs to function best. Whether or not you eat animal-based foods, fill most of your plate with unprocessed or minimally processed good quality plant foods. This rule is essential to achieve optimal health. To give you an example, my dinner plate is usually filled with 75 – 80% plant foods. The remaining portion is some kind of animal based food, like good quality wild-caught fatty fish or organic pasture raised chicken. Many days a week, my plate is filled with a 100% plant-based foods.

Not So Fast!

You might think that the process of eating plants is pretty simple and straightforward — fill up your dinner plate with a bunch of kale and sprouts and poof your health and body will shine and improve magically. Nope. Here are a few tips on how to get the most out of your diet.

Eating Locally And With The Seasons

These days, we have almost unlimited access to all kinds of foods, from exotic fruits to vegetables, herbs and even meats and animal based products coming from all over the globe.

Thanks to modern transportation and chemical preservation of foods, we have been able to enjoy blueberries in december, cucumbers in january, and tomatoes in February. What many people may not be aware of, is that most produce gets transported great distances. It’s picked from the tree or vine UNRIPE to prevent them from spoiling during transit. The longer a fruit or vegetable sits after being picked, the more nutrients it loses. Not only does your body suffer from the long distance it travels from farm to table, but so does mother earth.

Natural Foods Are Seasonal Foods

Having unlimited availability of foods makes us unaware of the seasonality of the food we are eating. What is naturally grown in nature during the current season gets lost and this separates us from our original ways of living in tune with nature.

We get disconnected from our ‘source’ and our instincts. When we respect nature’s rhythms and live in sync with them, we become healthier by allowing nature to support our needs with her inherent and infinite wisdom. We are meant to eat foods that are in season. Fresh foods, organic and real (in all sense of the word), harvested not too long before they are eaten.

Nature knows Best!

Eat with the seasons for optimal assimilation of nutrients and to support for your bodies’ seasonal needs. The Fall offers tubers, squashes and variety of plants foods that can either  be eaten immediately or stored in the pantry for later use.

Nature understands the scarcity and austerity of winter and spring seasons, providing the perfect foods for the season. The light, young and leafy plant foods of early to mid spring help us lose and scrape away all the weight gained and toxins stored from the seasons prior. The high sugar, high carbohydrate, cooling and watery produce from the summer are there to keep us cool and hydrated and provide all the energy that such demanding and productive season requires from us.

A Diet that’s Downright Dirty

Many people might not know this, but soil contains vast amounts of microbes that actually change with the seasons, so when we eat the plants we are also ingesting the microbes they acquired from the soil they grew in, helping us diversify our microbiome. If we are eating with the seasons, our own gut microbiome will also seasonally change which will positively impact our health.

Please comment below on how you fill your plate, what works and what doesn’t?
Stay tuned for Thursday’s blog-Part Two of Adopting a Plant-Based Diet, I have more to share with you, especially if you have weak Agni.

Habits Were My Game Changer

I made it my mission to find ways that would help me feel better. I’ve changed my diet many times. I went vegetarian for 6 years, gluten free, paleo, and even keto. I deepened my yoga practice, tried herbs, relaxation, energy healing, and cannabis. I couldn’t find any relief. Nothing seemed to work. I just kept feeling more tired, weaker and less energetic. Then, in the spring of 2016, I came across Yogahealer. I learned about Ayurveda and habits. I got the support I needed and I found tools to evolve my habits and implement them into my daily life. That was a game changer.

Even though I still have a chronic condition, my daily routine has supported me in enjoying a better quality of life. My daily practices helped me to get in touch with my body and listen to it with awareness and intention. I now give my body what it needs on a daily basis. The habits have taught me to love myself fully, and to be at ease with what is. My daily routine has helped my digestive system heal and sync with the rhythms of the nature that surround me. I now care for my senses, and most importantly, I live in integrity with my own values.

The 10 Habits of Body Thrive Have Power and Wisdom

Earlier lighter dinner, early to bed, start the day right, breath body practices, plant based diet, self massage, sitting in silence, healthier eating guidelines, sense organ care, easeful living. These 10 habits rooted in Ayurveda contain such power and wisdom, that if you introduce them into your life and stick with them, your experience on this earth will improve greatly in many different and surprising ways. These are all simple practices that when done daily, they’ll start to become automatic behaviors that form a healthy routine. That is the goal.

In the science of habit change, we have what are called keystone habits. These are a single or a set of behaviors that hold all of the other habits in place. In my case, I have a couple of keystone habits.

Early to bed is my first keystone habit. This habit is so important to me because a big part of my condition is fatigue and low energy. Going to bed early guarantees I get enough time and quality sleep for me. I usually go to bed in between 9:30 pm and 10pm. After I get in bed, I normally don’t have any trouble staying asleep and resting all night.

My Tips on How To Get Your Zzzzs

I get that this is not the case for everyone, so if you have trouble sleeping throughout the night or resting fully, I recommend you try a few things. One of them is self massage with warm oil before bed. You can massage your whole body, your feet, or just your head, whatever works better for you. Another tip is to try reducing the amount of fluid you consume after 6pm to avoid having to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. My final tip is to make sure your room is as dark as you can possibly make it. Close all the shades or try wearing a sleep mask. Stop all interactions with electronic devices at least an hour before bed, to avoid mental stimulation and the amount of blue light that your eyes receive. The blue light tricks your brain into thinking it’s daytime.

I Sit in Silence And It Really Makes A Difference

My second keystone habit is to sit in silence. The nature of my condition and my own ayurvedic constitution is strongly Vata. I have an overactive nervous system, and doing a silent meditation first thing in the morning has helped me tremendously to start my day in a calm, grounded and aware state. The way I sit in silence is practicing mindfulness meditation. I’ve been doing this for several years, and it has had a huge impact in my life. It’s given me perspective, as well as helped me to see and accept things as they are. Using meditation, I have become much more in touch with myself. Keep in mind that meditation is not the only way to practice this habit. You could just sit in a quiet and comfortable space and breathe. Or you could practice contemplation. Really, the point is to do something that provides a space for you to calm yourself and shed any worries or stress. Meditation allows you to get quiet and into a grounded state. There are many ways to do that.

Another couple of habits that I’ve found helpful for my condition are self massage and an earlier lighter dinner. Self Massage provides me with a sense of comfort and groundedness to my body. The oil brings an element of heaviness which is just what I need for my light and airy constitution and my nerves. An earlier lighter dinner helps my body wind down and relax before bed without a heavy and full feeling in my stomach. Eating an earlier, lighter dinner allows space for my body to do housekeeping overnight without any strain.

I Need to Keep Moving!

Because of the feeling of weakness and fatigue I often have, I tend to avoid major physical activity and in turn I find myself settling into sedentary behaviors. Thankfully, I usually catch myself. For me implementing a breath body practice has been quite challenging, but very beneficial. I see how easy it is for me to just sit around when I don’t feel well, but my body needs movement to be able to circulate and awaken energy. Think about it, if you feel tired and unenergized and you sit around and become stagnant, those feelings are going to keep sinking you down deeper. If you move your body intentionally a little bit every day at different times throughout the day, you’ll start to awaken and produce the energy that your body is lacking.

Baby Steps Lead The Way

I’ve been approaching the implementation of this habit with small incremental improvements otherwise known as KAIZEN. The idea is to start introducing practices or actions in small increments. You can start easy and working your way up. One habit changing idea that has worked for me is is this. I start with five minutes of yoga everyday after meditation. Then I apply a 5-minute increase in my practice every other week until I reach my desired goal regarding the length of my practice. So far, I’ve found this to be the easiest way to implement new habits or behaviors into my life.

Simple Actions Can Change Your Life

In conclusion, no matter what your condition is – healthy, chronically ill or somewhere in between, the implementation of these practices will improve the quality of your life in many different forms. The way these practices have helped me and the results I have received may be very different from your own experience with them. Yet me sharing my own story is just a way of showing the power and wisdom that the habits inherently contain. My hope is to give you the push you need to start to practice these simple actions and make them part of your life, one habit at a time. And if you are already doing it, to encourage you to continue and cherish your daily habits like your life depends on them, because let’s be honest, it kind of does.

Fat Makes Us Function

Our bodies need fat to function, period!  Some types of fat, such as dietary cholesterol help us create and maintain optimally functioning hormones like progesterone and testosterone. Other kinds, Omega-3 and Omega-6, help us feed our brain, which in fact, is the fattiest organ in our body, consists of up to 60% fat. We need fat to create the coating that protects and insulates our neurons. Fat is essential for proper function of our nervous system. We even use fat for fuel in the form of ketones to create more efficient energy for our mitochondria and our body to function at its best, better than when we use glucose for energy. Fat is essential for a healthy and proper functioning body.

If you’ve been on a low fat diet, please stop! Fat is important for good health. If you don’t consume much fat, start adding good healthy fats to your diet, it will aid you in becoming more grounded, nourished, and help your brain function better.

What Is a “Healthy” Fat?

It’s a common question that I love to answer! Healthy fats are found in many different types of food. Some examples are, avocados and their oil, nuts, seeds and their oils, fatty fish like wild caught salmon, olives and their oils, grass-fed butter or ghee (clarified butter), whole eggs, grass-fed and pasture raised meats, coconut and it’s derivatives, like oil, butter and full fat milk. These are just a few examples of great sources of healthy oils and fats that you can consume on a regular basis.

Your Skin Needs Healthy Fats To Thrive

Although eating fats and oils is great for our health, it doesn’t stop there. Our skin, the largest organ in our body, also needs oil to be fully nourished and cared for. The skin has its own microbiome, and oil is just one of the best ways to feed it and keep it alive, thriving, and beautiful. In fact, oil is what keeps the skin young, taut, and supple.

I use oil on my skin in the form of self massage, also known as abhyanga. Apart from delivering the oil directly onto the skin, abhyanga provides those that do it with nourishing love and deep care. Abhyanga nourishes the senses, calming and grounding the nervous system, reducing stress, improving digestion and circulation, and helping the body to flush out its waste products more efficiently.

I now do a daily practice of self massage. Before I did self massage every day, I would walk around with this feeling of vulnerability, exposure and anxiety. I felt un-protected and as I implemented the practice of abhyanga, I realized that abhyanga acted as a safeguard, like a kind of protective blanket. Abhyanga made me feel safe and cared for because the heavy quality of oil, helps me to get and feel grounded. For me doing this practice daily is worth the small time investment.

Give Yourself Some Love

In Sanskrit the word for oil is sneha and it also translates to” love” or “affection.” When we practice abhyanga, and use oil to massage our bodies, we literally coat our vessel with a layer of affection and love as well as a healing touch, providing comfort, vitality, strength and flexibility. Abhyanga increases the flow of prana in our bodies and minds. We are straight up loving our bodies through touch! As Katie Silcox points it out in her book Healthy, Happy, Sexy, touch is 10 times stronger than verbal or emotional contact.

Abhyanga is a great daily practice to have for all Ayurvedic constitutions, especially if you are Vata, and especially if you are an imbalanced Vata. Self massage will bring your scattered mind and thoughts back to center helping you feel grounded and embodied in your own physiology.  An excellent oil to use to balance Vata constitutions is cold-pressed organic raw sesame oil, due to its warm, nutritive and penetrating qualities. To stabilize Pitta it’s best to use organic cold-pressed coconut oil, which is unctuous and cooling in nature and for Kapha constitutions it’s best to use organic sunflower oil, or maybe even skip the oil and do a dry massage just with your hands or a dry brush.

My Tips On How to Oil Your Body

• Start by warming the oil. We warm the oil because it cures it, allowing it to be more easily absorbed by the skin and tissues. You can warm your oil by putting the oil in a small glass bottle and placing the bottle in a coffee mug with hot water, letting it sit for 10 minutes or until it’s warm enough.
• Gently massage just enough oil onto the face and the rest of the body. On the arms and legs use back and forth strokes. On the joints, use circular strokes. Massage your whole body including head, neck and feet. On the belly, use circular strokes in a clockwise motion (if you’re looking down at your belly) as this is the direction in which our large intestine moves and it will stimulate proper digestion.
• Move from your head towards your toes for a relaxing feeling, from your toes to your head for a stimulating energy or massage towards the digestive tract for a detoxing action.
• Shower to rinse the extra oil off.

Take Your Time For Best Results

Take 15 to 20 minutes to carefully and lovingly massage your body. If time is an issue, spend at least 5 minutes in deep presence with your own vehicle. Notice the parts of the body you tend to avoid. Is it your belly? Is it your thighs? Spend a little more time in those places as these are your places that need the most love.

While you’re doing your Abhyanga practice, take advantage of the time and the oil you’ve got handy. Put a small amount of the liquid on your hand, dip your pinky finger in it and start rubbing the oil inside your ear canals as well as the inside of your nostrils for extra lubrication, especially when it’s really cold and dry outside.  You can also rub oil in your belly button to keep it clean and moist. I hope these practices help you to feel fully embodied, nourished and comfortable in your own skin.