Adrenal Fatigue: Tips to Restoring Your Energy and Your Health
Written by Ritamarie Loscalzo on July 5, 2010 – -
Do you ever wake in in the morning, even after a long night of sleep, only to feel sluggish and wishing you had another few hours to rest?
This is one of many signs of adrenal fatigue.
Adrenal fatigue is a common condition in our fast paced, stressed out society.
Your adrenal glands are your body’s mechanism for responding to stressful situations. In the olden days, this meant getting chased by a tiger or dealing with severe cold without shelter or proper clothing.
Fortunately for us, tigers and lack of clothing are not problems we deal with on a regular basis.
Unfortunately we have our own modern day tigers, and they chase some of us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Modern Day Tigers that Stress Your Adrenals
- Deadlines at work?
- Juggling kids schedules with your own?
- Worry about the economy?
- A sick parent or child?
- An unreasonable boss?
Whatever it is, the response is similar to a real tiger chasing you. Your adrenal glands step into action and do what they do best…shift you into what is often called “fight/flight mode”, and in scientific terms, “sympathetic nervous system dominance”.
In hyper vigilant adrenal state, your heart rate increases, your respiration quickens and the blood supply to your brain and vital organs decreases and is sent to your extremities…so you can run away or fight.
In addition, your digestive track activity decreases and the sphincters– the valves between sections of the digestive tract– tighten. This is to protect you from needing to use the bathroom in the middle of running away from or fighting a tiger.
Translate this into modern life. If you find yourself stressed out and worried quite a bit of the time, you increase your risk of indigestion, constipation, gas and bloating as well as heart and circulation problems due to prolonged increased heart rate.
Oh, and I forgot to mention. In fight flight mode, your sex drive goes away, too.
Doesn’t help to be having lustful thoughts when you’re trying to get away from that tiger. On a biochemical level, the same chemical molecules that make the adrenal hormone cortisol, which gets elevated under stress, are also needed to make estrogen, progesterone and testosterone, all needed for libido and reproductive function.
Another problem with cortisol is that in excess it can cause damage to your mitochondria, the energy producing mechanisms in each of your cells. Cortisol also damages your hippocampus, the part of your brain that helps with short term memory. Ever walk into a room, only to forget what you went there for? That’s likely because your hippocampus has been impeded by the cortisol you produced when you were stressed out.
Yikes! SO if this is you, what can you do to fix things?
In my over two decades of clinical practice, I’ve seem many cases of adrenal burnout and the damages caused by chronic stress.
Fortunately there are actions you can take reverse the damage and repair your adrenal glands. But if you keep getting stressed out, you’ll be a lot like a hamster on a wheel….working hard but never getting anywhere. Repairing your adrenals and transforming your response to stress take some time and retraining, and the transformations you experience when you do can be miraculous.
3 Tips for Combating Adrenal Fatigue
1- Learn stress management and stress transformation techniques. One of my favorites is called Heart Math, and uses a combination of deep breathing, focusing on your heart and feeling appreciation. It completely changed my life. I did a 90 minute stress transformation teleseminar a couple of years ago that guided the participants through the process and the response was dramatic.
2- Nourish your adrenals. Did you know that 80% of the vitamin C used in your body is used by your adrenal glands? Excessive stress depletes your vitamin C stores and can lead to allergies, poor wound healing, easy bruising and increased susceptibility for colds, flu and other infectious disease? Your adrenals also use lots of B vitamins, especially pantothenic acid and B6. That’s why a lot of B complex formulas are called Stress formulas. Eating a whole foods, high raw, high green diet will ensure you have adequate intake of nutrients to maintain your adrenals when they are brought back to normal;however, when you’re in the mode of recovery, supplementation is often needed.
3- Support your body’s detoxification systems by periodic cleansing. Face it, eating on the run, making even occasional poor food choices and being stressed out impair your liver’s ability to do it’s job of cleansing. One of my favorite ways to cleanse my body is with green smoothies. Even though I eat really healthfully, exercise on a regular basis, and do my Heart Math exercises daily, I’m not perfect. I still get stressed out sometimes, I’m exposed to toxins and I eat on the run more often than I’d like.
I personally do a Green Cleanse at least quarterly by taking a week off eating and just drinking green smoothies or juices for 7 days. I am always amazed at how much more energy I have when I do this. That’s why every 3 months, I lead a group green smoothie cleanse. I have hundreds of success stories from people who feel they got their life back after a green cleanse. This time around I’ve added a new component – daily interactive journals. The details about the cleanse, go to my Green Smoothie Cleanse Website.
If you’ve already done a green cleanse or a short cleanse and are ready to take it to the next level, I suggest you do a deep tissue detox like my Six Week Deep Tissue Detox or something similar.
Bedtime and Wake-up Rituals for Adrenal Fatigue Support
One last tip for rebuilding your adrenals – create supportive bedtime and morning rituals that re-establishes
your circadian rhythm. Here’s a starting set that I recommend to my adrenal fatigue patients:
- Shut off all electronics within an hour of bedtime.
- Eat your last meal within 3 hours of bedtime.
- Fill a 16 ounce glass with pure water and the juice of 1 lemon and put it by your bedside.
- Find 3 things to appreciate before you fall asleep.
- Find 3 things to appreciate before you get out of bed.
- Drink the water as soon as you get up.
- As soon as you get up, go outside and get 5 – 15 minutes of sun, even if the sun is not out. Face in the direction of the sun and sip your water.
Get going on these habits, cleanse regularly and master the Heart Math techniques and you’ll soon be bouncing out of
bed in the morning with vim, vigor and enthusiasm for life.
I hope to meet you soon on a green smoothie cleanse.
Love, Health and Joy,
Dr. Ritamarie
Tags: Adrenal Fatigue, chronic fatigue, Cleansing Programs, detoxification programs, Dr. Ritamarie, Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo, DrRitamarie, green smoothie, green smoothie. detoxification programs, Living Foods, Raw Foods, raw foods diet, raw foods recipes, Vibrant Health
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A Quick And Easy Raw Food Living Green Meal- A Great Boost for Adrenal Fatigue
Written by Ritamarie Loscalzo on July 4, 2010 – -I’m often asked, “How do I eat more greens? ” and told ” Raw foods recipes are so time consuming to prepare.” Take a look at my latest video and see just how easy it is to get a nutrient dense green raw living food recipe made in under 3 minutes…and with no cleanup!
What’s your favorite healthy fast food? comment below.
Love, Health and Joy,
Dr. Ritamarie
Tags: Adrenal Fatigue, chronic fatigue, Dr. Ritamarie, Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo, DrRitamarie, fatigue, fatigue symptoms, Gluten Free Diet, Living Foods, livingfoods, raw food recipes, Raw Foods, Raw Foods classes, raw foods diet, raw foods recipes, Vibrant Health, video, whole foods
Posted in Adrenal Fatigue, Gluten Free Diet, Raw and Living Foods | 5 Comments »
Raw Foods Summer Recipes and Raw Vegan Wedding Food
Written by Ritamarie Loscalzo on June 28, 2010 – -This weekend was a raw foods eating extravaganza. It started on Saturday with a raw foods vegan wedding and ended with my monthly raw foods potluck on Sunday.
Have you ever attended a raw foods wedding? I hadn’t before yesterday. It was wonderful.
Not only was the ceremony a beautiful expression of love and commitment in a breath-taking setting overlooking the lake, the food was an amazing spread of delicious and beautiful delicacies.
We started with light appetizers before the ceremony. The center attraction was the “jalapeño poppers”, tiny jalapeno peppers stuffed with a cashed cream and “breading” of crushed nuts. Our beverage was delicious cucumber-lime water. They were delicious.
Along with the stuffed peppers was an array of veggies with delicious southwest dip.
The bouquets included lacinato kale and rosemary along with the flowers.
For dinner we enjoyed spring rolls, stuffed with romaine lettuce, carrots, jicama sprouts and a delicious sauce, along with stuffed pesto mushrooms and zucchini pasta.
The desserts were over the top. 2 multi layered chocolate cakes, with raspberry filling, fudge balls stuffed with cherries, key lime pie, chocolate covered strawberries and brownies. I decided to go for it and try a piece of each. I haven’t felt that stuffed in a long time.
The potluck this evening was a blend of swimming and relaxing, delicious light summer food and an inspiring and informational health talk.
Those that arrived early soaked and swam, or sat around the pool chatting.
The food was extraordinarily elaborate and delicious. We had a variety of cole-slaw like creations, sauerkraut, spring rolls, and all sorts of salads. Dessert was over the top. I made peach pie, and banana coconut cream pie. I can’t believe I forgot to take pictures of them.
The talented Karen Osborne, raw foods chef and instructor, who made the raw desserts for yesterday’s wedding brought one of the chocolate layer cakes minus one piece. Someone made brownies that were the talk of the evening and another made 2 beautifully decorated date nut torte. 3 OR 4 fruit bowls rounded out the dessert counter.
After dinner, we gathered in my living room and I lead a health talk. Our topics ranged from traveling, eating in restaurants, setting goals, and strategies for sticking to the diet and lifestyle habits that support health. We also talked about thyroid issues, gluten free diets, smoothies, fasting and detoxification.
We were honored to host a group of deaf raw food enthusiasts, who brought their own interpreter. The interpreter said she loves coming to out potlucks because she learns so much!
Here are my pie recipes.
Crust:
- 2 cups almonds, soaked for 6 hours or overnight
- 1 cup pecans soaked for 4 hours
- ½ cup pitted dates
- 1 cup dried coconut
Process all in food processor until it holds together.
Press crust mixture into glass pie dishes. This made one 7 inch and 1 9 inch pie.
Peach Mango Pie
- 6 large peaches
- 3 mangoes
- 4 dates
- 1 tablespoon psyllium powder (optional)
Directions
- Cut peaches into bite sized pieces and place in a bowl.
- Peel and pit mangoes and put flesh in blender with dates and psyllium. Blend well until creamy. Add a little water if needed.
- Add blended mango mixture to peaches and stir well.
- Pour mango mixture over peaches and stir well to combine.
- Place peach mango mixture in crust. Sprinkle top with finely ground dried coconut. And decorate with sliced peaches.
Banana Coconut Cream Pie
- 4 bananas
- ½ cup coconut butter (Artisana)
- ½ cup water
- 4 pitted dates
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Directions
- Slice 3 bananas and place in a bowl.
- Put 1 banana, coconut butter, dates, water and vanilla in blender and blend until creamy smooth. Add extra water if needed.
- Pour mixture over bananas and stir well.
- Place banana coconut filling in 7 inch pie crust.
- Sprinkle top with coconut and vanilla, and decorate as desired.
Do you have a favorite summer recipe to share? Please post it below in the comments box.
Love, Health and Joy to You,
Dr. Ritamarie
Tags: Cleansing Programs, detoxification programs, Dr. Ritamarie, DrRitamarie, Gluten Free Diet, Living Foods, livingfoods, Raw Foods, raw foods desserts, raw foods diet, raw foods pies, raw foods potluck, raw foods recipes, raw foods wedding, vegan foods, whole foods
Posted in Detox Program, Gluten Free Diet, Natural Hormone Support, Raw and Living Foods, Vegan Diet, Vibrant Health | No Comments »
Gluten-Free, Raw Foods Comfort Foods Using Your Food Dehydrator!
Written by Ritamarie Loscalzo on June 25, 2010 – -
By learning the ancient art of dehydration, which is, in essence, “low temperature baking”, you’ll be able to eat guilt-free breads, loaded with veggie goodness, and have them taste similar to your old favorites. Gluten free raw foods like pizza, enchiladas and tacos will become your favorite staple foods once you discover how easily you can make them at home.
Dr. Ritamarie and Chef Alicia have teamed up to bring you some great tips and tricks on using your dehydrator to create yummy breads, cracker and more!
About Chef Alicia:
Chef Alicia Ojeda is an amazing classically trained professional chef, who is passionate about gourmet vegan raw and living food cuisine.
Her culinary background includes both cooked and raw cuisine.
Listen to the replay: www.blogtalkradio.com/dr-ritamarie
Tags: comfort foods, Dr. Ritamarie, Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo, DrRitamarie, gluten, gluten free, Gluten Free Diet, living foods recipes, livingfoods, Raw Foods, raw foods diet, raw foods recipes, whole foods
Posted in Gluten Free Diet | No Comments »
Happy Mother’s Day: Raw Foods Recipe for Coconut Parfait
Written by Ritamarie Loscalzo on May 10, 2010 – -
Did you honor your mother today? If you’re a mother, did you honor yourself?
For me, today was a lovely day. I honored myself this mother’s day by giving myself a day off. Yes, it is now 9:30 PM and its the first time I’ve gone to my computer all day! And the only reason I’m here now is to connect with YOU.
Mother’s day is a day that can be celebrated by EVERYONE. I personally don’t know anyone who doesn’t have a mother. Do you? Even if you don’t know your mother, have a less than wonderful relationship with her or, like me, have a mom who is no longer present in the physical realm, Mother’s Day is still a holiday to celebrate. Your mother gave you the gift of life.
I wish my Mom was still here so I could express my appreciation to her for all she gave me. While I can no longer give gifts to my mom to show my appreciation, I can express gratitude nonetheless. And I can give a gift to you instead.
Here’s a delicious new Coconut Pudding Parfait recipe I made for the first time on Friday evening. My son’s almost 12 year old friend raved about it. He’s never had pudding other than the boxed sugary kind his mom makes him and he was delighted that mine tasted so good and was good for him too.
Coconut Pudding Parfait
by Dr. Ritamarie
Ingredients
- 2 young Thai coconuts
- 1/2 cup pitted dates
- 1/4 cup raw cacao powder or carob powder or 1/8 cup of each
- 1 teaspoon vanilla, powdered or extract, or 1 vanilla bean
- pinch of whole unrefined sea salt
Directions
- Open the coconut (there are lots of you tube videos on how to do this).
- Reserve the liquid, scoop out the flesh and put the coconut flesh into your blender.
- Add 3/8 cup dates, 1/2 cup of the reserved coconut water, vanilla and salt.
- Blend until creamy and smooth.
- Add extra liquid if needed.
- Spoon 1/2 of the pudding into a bowl.
- To the remaining pudding in the blender, add the cacao powder, remaining dates and about 1/4 cup of the coconut water.
- Blend until smooth and creamy. If it’s too thick add extra coconut water to desired consistency.
- Into a glass dessert dish or small wine glass, spoon 1-2 tablespoons of chocolate pudding, then 2 tablespoons vanilla and then another 1-2 tablespoons chocolate.
- Top with a cherry or berry and serve.
My second Mother’s Day gift for you is a 50% off coupon for any digital product on my website. There are e-books, audio recordings, videos and combination products, all geared towards balancing your body and creating vibrant health.
All the products are listed here:
http://drritamarie.com/EBookOrderForm.htm
the coupon code is MOTHERSDAY
It’s only good for 24 hours…it expires at midnight eastern time on Monday May 10.
I’m still basking in the joy of the day. What a treat to be honored and appreciated.
My family let me sleep late….until 10AM! My soon to be 12 year old son Kevin climbed into bed with me to cuddle! Wow. I was then showered with flowers, gifts, and beautiful cards. Eric, my 16 year old chose a card that brought tears to my eyes.
After the gift giving, we all sat down to a delicious brunch, including fresh coconut water and a green smoothie!
If you’re a mom of teenagers, you know how special it is to get the whole family together for a meal. We did it twice today…brunch at home and dinner at a favorite Indian restaurant, where I feasted on salad with coconut chutney as dressing.
Well, I’m off to finish my day off with a soak in the hot-tub with my hubby Scott.
Remember to head over my product page for your 50% off coupon.
http://drritamarie.com/EBookOrderForm.htm
the coupon code is MOTHERSDAY
Love, Health and Joy,
Dr. Ritamarie
P.S. Comment below and let me know how you honored and were honored for Mother’s Day.
Tags: appreciation, mom, Mother's Day, raw cacao, raw coconut pudding, raw foods recipes
Posted in Gluten Free Diet, Raw and Living Foods | 1 Comment »
Chia Seeds: A Raw and Living Superfood for Overcoming Chronic Fatigue and Creating Vibrant Health, Stamina and Endurance
Written by Ritamarie Loscalzo on April 22, 2010 – -
I recommend chia seeds quite often in my articles, talks and recipes. It dawned on me though, that I don’t always talk about the many benefits of chia, so I decided to make chia our super food of the month!
Commonly associated with Chia Pets™, chia seeds have amazing health benefits that are often kept quiet and hidden. The use of chia as food has been dated as far back as 3500 B.C., especially in Mexico, where chia was ground for flour, used in medicines and even pressed for oils.
When chia seeds are mixed with water, they form a gelatinous substance. This same substance is believed to form in your stomach when you eat them. The coating this creates, makes it harder for carbohydrates to be digested which in turn slows down the process of transforming carbs into starch and ultimately sugar.
Chia also has a tremendous ability to hold water – up to 12 times its weight. This helps our bodies to hold on to the water and moisture inside, giving strength and support to precious electrolyte balances.
Given the fact our bodies are mostly water, staying hydrated is incredibly important.
Other benefits of chia include:
- A rich source of omega-3 fatty acids
- A favorable .3 to 1 ratio of Omega 6 to omega 3 fats. Research shows that when you eat foods with more omega 6 fats than omega 3 fats, you are much more prone to inflammation, which causes pain and disease.
- An excellent source of calcium
- High in fiber content
- Rich in antioxidants
- Great source of protein
Chia seeds are fast becoming known as a superfood.
In the popular book, Born To Run, author, Christopher McDougall, tells us how chia seed is the secret food of the
powerful runners of the Tumahumara tribe in South America. They make a drink called chia fresca, made with 1 tablespoon chia seeds, 12 ounces of water, lemon or lime juice and a splash of honey.
Chia has long been regarded as a superfood for athletes. Several studies with long distance runners and triathletes have shown superior performance in the groups that ate chia seeds over the groups that did not.
The uses of chia are almost limitless. Breads, crackers, puddings and sprouts are just a few ways to use chia seeds.
You can make a gel from the chia seeds by placing 1 cup of chia and 5 cps of water in a bowl and allowing it to seit for several hours or overnight until all the water has been absorbed and a thick gel is formed. This gel can be used as the basis for purring, added to smoothies or salad dressings or made into dehydrated crackers or crisps.
Chia seeds are available as white seeds or black seeds. There is no significant nutritional difference between the the colors. The black ones are more common. Chia seeds are also sold as Salba and Milo, at a much higher price. These are identical to chia seeds.
When purchasing chia, be sure you are getting organic or a very high agricultural standard chia. Those used for the Chia Pets, are generally loaded with pesticides and not suitable for consumption.
High quality chia seeds can be purchased at Raw Food World and Hidalgo Natural Foods, http://www.hidalgofoods.com.
This month I’m including two of my favorite recipes: Chia Pudding and Chia Crisps. Watch my video on making chia pudding.
Enjoy!
Resources:
http://www.chiaonly.com/chiahistory.html#
http://www.living-foods.com/articles/chia.html
http://www.oprah.com/health/The-New-Superfood
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
Tags: Adrenal Fatigue, chia, chia crackers, chia crisps, Chia Pet, chia pudding, chia seeds, chronic fatigue, Dr. Ritamarie, Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo, DrRitamarie, endurance, fatigue, Living Foods, raw and living foods, raw foods diet, raw foods recipes, Vibrant Health
Posted in Adrenal Fatigue, Holistic Nutrition, Raw and Living Foods, Vibrant Health | 3 Comments »
Gluten-Free Diet for Immune and Hormone Health
Written by Ritamarie Loscalzo on April 22, 2010 – -
Overcoming Adrenal fatigue, thyroid and Autoimmune challenges can be challenging. It’s becoming an increasingly well-known fact that these common health issues are related to one particular food. There are more and more products popping up on the grocery shelves with a new label: Gluten-free!
What does it mean for you?
Let’s start with a short history on what gluten is.
Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye, barley, spelt and kamut, and it’s questionable about oats. It’s in grains, but not all grains. There are non-gluten grains.
It’s a very gluey substance, which I guess is where the name “gluten” came from. When you eat things that contain gluten, it causes kind of a glue-like mass to form in your intestinal tract. That’s one of the many good reasons to stop eating it.
When you eat the gluten in these grains, it can cause health problems. Digestive disorders, depression, migraines, ADHD, autism, obsessive compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, balance problems, epilepsy, inability to concentrate, autoimmune thyroid disease, and dermatitis are amongst the many disorders that have now been linked to gluten intolerance.
It’s kind of scary that one small protein can wreak so much havoc. Gluten works its mischief in several ways.
One is by triggering autoimmune responses, another is by causing malabsorption of nutrients, and the third is through activation of opioid receptors in the brain.
Opiates in Gluten
You know that “once I start I can’t stop” feeling that many people have about bread and other baked goods? That feeling is actually similar to cocaine addiction. And it’s caused by gluten. Some of the peptides that result from the digestion of gluten are powerful opiate-like compounds, known as gluteomorphines.
One of the complaints I hear when people embark upon a gluten free diet is that the cravings are so intense.
This can be explained by the reaction of the opioid receptors to sudden withdrawal of the opioids. Now left unbound they are starving for more, similar to the mechanism found in drug, alcohol and nicotine withdrawal, and cravings result.
Gluten Effects on Your Immune System
Gluten is a problem if you have sensitivity to it in that it causes an immune system reaction.Immune system reactions to gluten are very widespread, and much more common than you may think.
Your immune system is your body’s protective force. It’s an army that protects you from invaders. It perceives gluten as an invader and mounts an incredible attack, so it can take the protein that’s in the gluten and demolish it as if it were a bacteria or microbe that’s going to harm you. In the process of doing that, it creates inflammation. The inflammation is what causes the immune system reaction that gluten is known for. Gluten causes wide-spread inflammation throughout your body.
A little bit of knowledge about how the immune system works really helps in understanding how this gluten problem affects you.
Bacteria are made of proteins. Foods have protein in them. The proteins have little amino acids that run throughout them. What the immune system does is create antibodies that attack the protein on either end.
It’s like a lock and a key. You may have a whole set of keys, but you can only get one key to open a particular door. You can try them but if they don’t look exactly alike, they won’t go in that keyhole. The immune system creates these little antibodies that are very specific for specific proteins. Unfortunately, they’re not as specific as our keys.
If there is a similarity between the gluten protein that the antibody is attacking and some of the proteins in your thyroid gland, the antibody created to attack the gluten then attacks your thyroid gland. That causes the thyroid to become swollen and inflamed. It can’t produce thyroid hormones, which in turn affects your metabolism. That causes all the symptoms of hypothyroidism.
That’s what’s happening in your body when you’re eating gluten and you’re sensitive to it. It creates an army in your immune system that attacks and gets rid of the gluten.
The process of attacking and getting rid of the gluten creates inflammation. It can create problems in your digestion. Then it can create inflammation in various parts of your body that cause malfunction.
Gluten Effects on Your Digestive System
Gluten can cause inflammation in your digestive tract. This resuts in a condition known as celiac disease. Celiac disease is a well-known medical condition that you’ll find in all the medical pathology books. It’s a sensitivity to gluten that results in damage to the cilia in the small intestine.
The cilia are little, finger-like projections in the small intestine that facilitate our absorption. When they get damaged, it causes a flattening. Imagine your small intestine as a tube with finger-like projections. The projections are almost like the little, protective hairs in your nose. They allow the foods that are fully digested to pass between them.
What happens in celiac disease is the cilia get completely flattened. Imagine a steamroller that goes down the road and flattens things out. Imagine it going through your intestine and flattening out all the cilia.
It wreaks havoc in your intestinal tract. It prevents you from absorbing the nutrients in the foods you eat, leading to symptoms of nutrient deficiencies. It causes symptoms like gas, bloating and diarrhea. It can give you that “I just
ate and now I have to go to the bathroom!” feeling. A fair number of people experience that.
If you have a gluten intolerance,in addition to creating damage to the cilia in the small intestine, it’s also likely creating inflammation that can damage in other parts of your body, too.
Getting Off the Gluten Wagon With Living Foods
Because of the addictive nature of gluten, it can be uncomfortable to withdraw form gluten. The cravings can become intense, but the physical intensity of the withdrawal symptoms rarely lasts more than a few days. The negative effects of gluten on your health last much longer and are much worse.
What’s the best way to start in removing gluten? It’s tough to go off gluten hard-core. So I recommend baby steps. Start with breakfast. Because so many start their day with toast, cereal, muffins, etc. it’s a great place to begin. My Power Breakfast Ideas book contains some delicious ways to start your day. Strive for no gluten before noon.
Learn to dehydrate crackers and breads. Or, you can purchase delicious dehydrated breads and crackers online and at some health food stores. Another option is to buy baked gluten-free breads and crackers; however, it’s important to read the labels. They tend to have a high glycemic index, meaning that they cause a rapid spike in blood sugars, usually followed by a rapid decline. They also frequently contain undesirable ingredients like sugar, eggs, dairy and processed oils. You can also make sandwiches with lettuce wraps or jicama slices instead of bread.
Replace pastas with gluten-free pasta or kelp noodles. I have some great recipes on the blog for using kelp noodles. You can also get a Saladacco Spiral Slicer and make your own pasta noodles out of zucchini. Even a simple potato peeler makes long thin slices. I found a potato peeler that’s dual sides. One side is traditional and the other shreds, and makes wonderful spaghetti-like zucchini or cucumber strands.
There are many wonderful raw and living foods options for replacing gluten in your diet. They taste better…and you’ll feel better.
Learn as much as you can about gluten. Listen to my blog talk radio show on Gluten Intolerance. Read gluten-free articles and gluten free recipe books. Get your FREE gluten-free diet survival kit at http://www.drritamarie.com/glutenfree/ containing gluten-free recipes, resource lists, and audios.
Your health is in your hands. Overcoming chronic fatigue, adrenal exhaustion, immune system disorders, digestive problems all start with going gluten-free. Start today. You have so many gluten free diet resources available to you.
Tags: autoimmune disease, celiac, celiac disease, Celiac's Disease, Dr. Ritamarie, Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo, DrRitamarie, gluten, gluten free, Gluten Free Diet, Gluten Free recipes, kelp noodles, Living Foods, Raw Foods, raw foods recipes, wheat, wheat grass juice
Posted in Gluten Free Diet, Holistic Nutrition, Raw and Living Foods | 1 Comment »
Day 14 of the 30 Day Fun and Sleep Challenge: Exercise, Vitamin D and Antidotes for Chronic Fatigue
Written by Ritamarie Loscalzo on March 15, 2010 – -What do chronic fatigue, belly fat, depression and hormone imbalance have in common?
Exercise, sleep, fresh air, sunshine (vitamin D) and fresh foods. A deficiency of any or all of these can create imbalances in hormones and blood sugar irregularities that lead to persistent belly fat, fatigue and depression. So what do these have to do with the 30 day fun and sleep challenges? Plenty! Most people I talk with feel fatigued much of the time and would like more energy.
Lack of sleep is only part of the equation, but it can make you fat. Researchers have found that lack of sleep can cause decreased leptin levels. Leptin is a hormone that regulates your appetite. As a result of not getting enough sleep, you’ll find yourself more hungry and you’ll find it challenging to control the amount you eat. This leads to blood sugar imbalances, insulin resistance and increased belly fat. Insulin resistance results in fatigue after eating, rather than increased energy, which means you’re less likely to exercise. It’s quite the vicious circle.
While I have not been as good as I had planned at writing these blog posts daily, I am pleased to admit that the reason why I haven’t had the time to write the blog posts daily is that I have been fulfilling my commitment to get to bed as close to midnight as possible. Thus, I am sleeping more. As a result of sleeping more, I’ve also been exercising more. A double win! There have only been a couple of later than midnight bedtimes, and that was because I chose to sit in the sauna before bed.
If my lack of posting has in any way effected your commitment to the 30 Day Fun and Sleep Challenge, my apologies. I am committed to resuming writing daily, and have it scheduled in my calendar.
Our weather in Austin has finally become warm and sunny! I’m very happy about that. The mornings have still been cool…40′s, but the afternoons are in the 70′s and 80′s. So I have been out for a run in the sun most days this week. It feels great.
I am usually very consistent with exercise…as consistent as I am with food. When the weather got so cold and cloudy for so long, I got out of the habit of running first thing in the morning, and some days, time and obligations got away from me and I found my exercise dwindling.
In addition to getting your daily dose of vitamin D on sunny days, exercising in the fresh air offers so many benefits. Exercise is super important for hormone balance, weight management, increasing your energy and overcoming fatigue. It’s also good for your heart, your mood and your immune system. Fresh air and exercise are a dynamic duo, so get outside and move as much as you can.
My blog post back in the fall about exercise and burst training is a good one to review for some tips.
My report card for the last few days:
1- getting to sleep at or around midnight: Excellent
2- exercise: excellent
3- writing my blog posts: fair
4- Having fun – good. I’ve spent a lot of time with family and have had some friend fun too.
My commitments for Monday:
1- bed by midnight.
2- finish writing a few projects that are close to completion
3- fun time with kids, who are off school for spring break
4- running in the sun
Commitment for at least one day this week: Get to bed by 10 PM and see if it is really as good as it’s cracked up to be!
What about you? What are you committed to?
Post below in the comments section.
This week we’re having a contest. I’m offering a prize to whoever posts the most this week…genuine commitments and report cards. I’ll post the prize on Tuesday.
Wishing you lots of Love, Health and Joy (and sleep, too)
Dr. Ritamarie
Tags: Adrenal Fatigue, chronic fatigue, depression, Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo, DrRitamarie, Exercise, Exhaustion, fatigue, fatigue symptoms, Living Foods, livingfoods, Raw Foods, raw foods diet, raw foods recipes, sunshine, Vitamin D
Posted in Articles, Fatigue Treatment, Fitness, Vitamin D | 2 Comments »
Taking Care of YOU – Slow Down and Enjoy Each Moment to Protect Yourself from Cancer
Written by Ritamarie Loscalzo on February 7, 2010 – -
It’s been a week to remember and all the messages I’ve received all week were “slow down” and “take care of yourself”.
A couple were obvious…others more subtle.
I don’t consider myself a tired person; quite the contrary. My energy seems almost without limit. I sleep very little, am constantly on the move and I get a lot accomplished. Yet a nagging voice in the back of my mind has been wondering if I may be causing some hidden damage to myself by sleeping so little.
On Wednesday evening I ran into to technical challenges with the teleconference for Week 3 of my Balance My Body Blueprint course. I had a slide presentation ready to go, and was all set to launch into new territory. The technical challenges prevented participation on the web, where more than half my students participate. So I decided to do a question and answer segment. It was just the right thing to do. I was able to answer lots of questions, and even helped a few people to determine the probable cause of long standing health challenges. Wow. Slow down. Most people were not ready to jump into what I had planned. They were perfectly fine with slowing down and getting their questions answered.
On Thursday, I was moving quickly through my kitchen, and caught my slipper on a door stop. It sent me flying through the air and I landed hard on the tile floor. My left arm hit first, and it hurt so badly that I immediately thought it was broken. While I had lots of plans for the rest of the day and the next, I spent most of the time in bed, icing my arm and resting. Slow down. It took an injury to get me to get a good night’s sleep. It’s recovering nicely now, as evidenced by the fact that I can type today. Yesterday I could barely hunt and peck with one hand.
I’m getting small messages, and I’m taking them to heart. Better listen to the soft calls than to wait for a big one.
Earlier this week I received the sad news that a dear friend had died of cancer. She was a young woman, in her forties, and she’s survived by her husband and four children. The children are young. Her oldest is about the same age as my youngest. And now they are without their Mommy, and the world will no longer experience the joy of Anna’s sweet, kind heart and loving and giving nature.
I’ve experienced the loss of a loved to cancer several times over the past 5 years. And while the importance of diet and detoxification are high on my list of cancer prevention techniques, Anna’s death forces me to really look at the bigger picture.
Anna was a raw food enthusiast. I met her at an Alissa Cohen Teacher training. She was the founder of Purely Delicious magazine. She was excited about sharing what she learned about the health benefits of raw and living foods with the world. Still, she got breast cancer. Sure, her diet wasn’t perfect, and we can point fingers at her imperfections, and blame them for her cancer. Yet others, many of my family members included, eat way less “perfectly” than Anna did, and use toxic home and body care products and drink tap water, and they don’t have cancer…yet.
The sad truth is that almost 50% of us will get cancer. Perhaps not all will die as a result, yet it’s an alarming statistic nonetheless.
While it may be easy for skeptics and critics of the living foods lifestyle to use Anna’s story as an excuse to just let it all go and eat whatever they want, it’s important to look beyond, and continue to hold the utmost respect for the value of high antioxidant, unrefined, whole fresh plants as a vital element in keeping you healthy.
I could quote from all sorts of research right about now, and try to convince you from an intellectual level of the importance of diet in protecting you from cancer, yet I’d rather speak to you from my heart. It’s easy to hear Anna’s story and become fearful, and doubt your choice to lead a healthy life and eat a healthy diet. The truth is, there’s a big picture here. And many of its parts are a somewhat mysterious.
Cancer is always caused by exceeding your body’s ability to detoxify and repair. Cancer starts almost daily in just about everyone, and is quickly thwarted by an intact immune system and a working detoxification system.
The choices you make daily effect your ability to detoxify and thwart cancer before it takes over. Those include the quality and quantity of the water you drink, how much sunshine you get on bare skin, your movement, your thoughts, your feelings – fear and judgment create a breeding ground for cancer–how much fun you have, how much deep restful sleep you get, the quality of the air you breathe and of course, your diet.
There are so many elements that determine your cancer risk…and your ability to be healthy. Some may appear to be beyond your control:
- Genetics: some of us were born with genetic variations, called single neucleotide polymorphisms, aka SNPs (pronounced snips), that make it difficult to detoxify our environment without a little extra help.
- Your Mom’s Emotional State when she was pregnant with you. You may have been born with worn out adrenals and low cellular energy as a result, making you prone to cancer and other illnesses.
- Your Mom’s nutritional status and toxic exposures while she was pregnant with you. If she was depleted, you were born with nutritional imbalances.
- Early feeding:Whether you were breast or bottle fed and what your early solid foods were determine the state of your digestive tract and immune system. Leaky gut and immune system problems can increase your risk of cancer and other illnesses.
Many people embark on a health journey and address a single aspect. I see many living foods diet followers who don’t exercise, or stay indoors all the time, or push themselves hard and don’t sleep enough (like me). It’s easy to fall into the trap of believing that the good food can compensate for shortcomings in the others, but very often it cannot.
It’s time to look at the big picture. Sometimes just eating a healthy diet isn’t enough.
As a mother of 4 and editor and chief cook and bottle washer for a quarterly publication, Anna had no time left for herself. Even after she found out she had breast cancer, she continued to put others first, until she had to slow down. Unfortunately, it was too late for Anna. She opted for chemotherapy and radiation out of fear and perhaps desperation.
Most likely one or more of the early factors were at play with Anna. Yet, in spite of your genetics, early exposures and maternal environment, you can do what it takes to give yourself the best possible healthy and happy life. Once you identify the early factors that may be at play, through a combination of family history and genetic testing, there are steps you can take to correct for the inborn and early deficits.
It’s important to take inventory of your life and self correct where you can. If you’re not sleeping enough because you’re not going to bed at a reasonable hour (guilty as charged) then make a different choice. If you’re not sleeping enough because you have difficulty falling or staying asleep, you might have a hormonal imbalance. Adrenal imbalance and insulin dysfunction are the most likely culprits and they are both correctable.
If you have a lot of stress in your life (who doesn’t) you owe it to yourself to master te
chniques for transforming the negative impact on your body to positive.
Enhance your body’s detoxification systems, harness the power of blended greens and drink your greens at least once a day. Look for the positive and practice appreciation. Get in touch with really matters to you, and make daily choices that are consistent with your highest good.
Take care of others, but not at the expense of yourself. It’s important to take time for fun and pleasure each day, even for just a few moments.
No one can predict the length of your life – that’s out of your control. You can effect the quality of your life and decrease the likelihood of suffering as Anna did by making conscious and consistent choices to put your self first. Yes, you need to put yourself first. It is only by taking care of your needs that you have the energy and ability to take care of others. And if we all took better care of ourselves, there would be a lot less need to take care of others.
Love yourself. Slow down and have fun daily. Choose happiness daily and allow good health to follow.
In memory of Anna Tipps, friend, Mom wife, daughter, teacher and kind hearted loving soul. You will be missed.
Love, Health and Joy,
Dr. Ritamarie
Tags: Adrenal Fatigue, Cancer, Cleansing Programs, detoxification programs, Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo, livingfoods, Raw Foods, raw foods recipes, whole foods
Posted in Articles, Immune System Support | 1 Comment »
Avoid Adrenal Fatigue by Taking Time For Self Care
Written by Ritamarie Loscalzo on February 2, 2010 – -So what does adrenal faigue have to do with self care? Everything. When you take care of yourself, your stress levels go down. And when your stress levels decrease, that’s a good thing for you!
Do you have any idea what happens on a physiologic level when you gt stressed out, worry about the future or fret about he past? Your body releases a cascade of chemicals designed to help you escape from tigers. Your heart rate speeds up, your blood pressure elevated, your sex drive goes away and your digestion shuts down. Does that sound like the rpescription for a healthy, energetic and happy life? Certainly not
The stress hormone cortisol gets secreted into your blood stream, and makes trouble throughout your body. Sure, it helps you to fight tigers, but that’s not going to help you much when you’re getting all stressed out about the state of the economy. And it certainly doesn’t help you to think of creative ways you can deflect economic trends and prosper in spite of the world around you. In fact, it does just the opposite.
One of the effects of cortisol is cortical inhibition. That means, it temporarily shuts off the higher-level thinking center of your brain. This is important when you’re fleeing the real tiger, because solving economic problems would be counter productive when those big teeth are about to turn you into lunch. Cortisol activates the primitive parts of yoru brain, the survival centers. It also causes damage to a part of your brain called the hippocampus, which is responsible for short term memory. “Brain fog”, forgetfullness and lack of focus are sigs of adrenal fatugue.
Cortisol also inhibits your immune system and its ability to fight off invaders, to maintain balance, kill cancer cells, and keep you healthy. Cortisol also makes you fat, especially around the middle. Why does stress make you fat? Well, stress leads to increased production of cortisol, which triggers a mechanism in the body to release more sugar into the blood, because you’re going to need it to escape the tiger.
The release of sugar into the blood causes the release of insulin because insulin is what is needed to remove the sugar from your blood and get it into your cells, where it’s needed. That’s great when you have a real tiger chasing you. And it doesn’t present a problem when the stress response is infrequent and short lived. The problem is, in our modern lifestyle we get stressed often and we stay stressed for long periods of time.
And as if it’s not enough to be more prone to illness and cancer, stress kills your sex drive! And it stresses your mitochondria so they can’t produce enough energy, so you get tired.
If being a stressed out sick and overweight individual with no sex drive and no memory does not sound like fun to you, then you need to learn how to take care of your needs and transform the stressful responses to recharging ones.
In my Transforming Stress teleseminars I describe some of my favorite techniques for turning the stressful times into positive physiologic responses, using the power of appreciation.
I recorded a video on how to make the time for self care, in spite of your busy schedule. Consistently taking time for self care allows your adrenals to restore, and can even reverse adrenal fatigue.
What do you do to take care of yoruself everyday?
Write it down below for me.
Thanks,
Love, Health and Joy,
Dr. Ritamarie
Tags: Adrenal Fatigue, Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo, DrRitamarie, Exhaustion, fatigue, fatigue symptoms, Gluten Free Diet, livingfoods, raw and living foods holiday recipes, raw foods recipes
Posted in Adrenal Fatigue | 1 Comment »
