by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Apr 10, 2025 | Diet, Digestion, Elimination Diet, Food, Food Sensitivities, Mental Health, metabolic health, Microbiome, Nutrition, Self-care, Uncategorized, Weight Loss
I wanted to share a recent story about my experience with the Carnivore Diet and Low Insulin Lifestyle. Maybe it’s because I just finished watching Netflix’s Apple Cider Vinegar, but sharing my health experience feels strange: very health-influencer-esque. There is some mention of weight and weight loss and some mention of body image and my relationship with food, but that’s not really what the story is about: it’s about insulin. I know I’ve shared things of this nature before, and sometimes, weaving stories can add some humanity to what might otherwise be a cold and clinical onslaught of health information.
So, if you find the idea of reading about me intriguing or even entertaining, read on. As usual, remember that this is my experience and can’t be extrapolated to everyone. Let’s talk in a clinical setting if you read something that resonates with your experience and want to learn how it might fit your health history and goals.
Last summer, something shifted in my health. Maybe it’s the same thing that happens to most women around this age (late 30s), i.e., the catch-all explanation-replacement for “it’s just stress”-perimenopause. Maybe there was a shift in how I was taking care of myself, although it felt like I was staying on top of everything. I walked a lot, went outside, and ate fruits, vegetables, and protein. But something still felt off.
And the thing that felt “off” was what so many patients often complain about. I felt… well, I had gained some weight, and not just physical weight. I felt mentally and spiritually heavy. The weight seemed to pile on out of nowhere. I shun the scale and rarely weigh myself, but one day, I did. The jump in number was so big in such a short time that my judgey scale asked if I was the same person who had weighed in 3 months before. Wow. Nice…
The heaviness wasn’t without its causes. That Spring, I finished my Masters of Counselling Psychology–a long, almost three-year slog. Shortly after, my 15-year-old dog, Coco, stopped eating for four days. He was diagnosed with protein-losing enteropathy and put on a daily dose of liquid prednisone, a steroid. Coco has been with me from the start of all this, when I first filled out applications to attend naturopathic college. He slept beside me during late nights of studying. He came with me to my exams. The sleepless nights, the decision-making, weighing the responsibility of senior pet ownership–when to intervene medically, when to decide to end his suffering, of course, the sheer financial cost– was a lot to grapple with and went on for months. It’s still going on, to be frank.
That summer, my Nonna passed away a few weeks before her 97th birthday.
I wondered if it was grief, or stress, or even steroids getting on my skin, but I felt puffy. I was tired. I felt sluggish and less stress resilient. I was still active but doing more sedentary activities: reading and learning guitar.
Weight and digestive issues have been a struggle my entire life. The “healing journey” has led me on some valid paths: exploring food sensitivities and gluten-free living, nutritional support through supplements and nutrient-dense foods, meditation and mindfulness, adrenal support and herbal medicine, and prioritizing rest and mental health.
But, regarding nutrition, I felt I was doing everything I could. I didn’t want to go down the road of caloric restriction. I didn’t want to deprive my body or fight its process. Sometimes, weight is protection. Sometimes, we need a warm, heavy blanket. Sometimes, we need to slow down.
So, I did. Of course, I was tempted by thoughts of how to solve the weight gain by dieting, as so many of us have been programmed to do. I even recorded a podcast about retraining myself to value and preserve my muscle mass rather than trying to become smaller. I accepted this new shape and focused on the tasks: my work, hanging out in nature, surfing, and healing my gut.
My gut health was terrible, although I was managing it based on all the research I had sifted through on my way to creating a gut health course. I added in more fibre and fermented foods. This worked for a time but didn’t solve the problem entirely. For most of last year, my irritable bowel syndrome was wrecking havoc. I was highly distended, often in pain.
I had brain fog and physical sluggishness. I felt stuck in a parasympathetic state. So, I sat on the couch, enjoying slow mornings, reveling in the absence of deadlines. I read books. I went for long walks. That summer, I swam in lakes and went to the Atlantic ocean.
While trying to be patient with my body, I constantly felt that I wasn’t tapping into the energy from my food. I would eat a full day’s worth of food and some stews, legumes, rice, smoothie, and salads and still feel hungry. I was constantly thinking about food. I tried to honour this by just eating more whole foods. I believe the body asks for what i needs, if we’re willing to listen. So I tried my best to listen.
Around Christmas, I was at a cafe with my boyfriend. He was eating a sandwich. Ever since naturopthic college, I have diligently avoided gluten. But I was already feeling sluggish and bloated. I was already tired. And here was a delicious, bready baguette. A delightful sandwich with soft carbs, mayo, cheese, and meat, just inviting me to sink my teeth into it. What good was avoiding gluten doing me at this moment? I avoided gluten to feel energized, healthy and light. I already wasn’t feeling that way, so eff it, how could things get worse?
I took a bite. It was divine. I let myself eat gluten for the next month. Glorious, glorious bread! I felt like my life was straight out of the pages of Eat Pray Love as I gorged on all the pasta and pastries I wanted. I chilled at Christmas parties, eating brie, bread, cakes and pies. I had all the dessert. There were no limits anymore. And, in a way, that food freedom did heal my soul. It was like a vacation from all rules and guidelines. We need this from time to time.
But, if I was barely staying afloat before then, adding in the gluten and sugar made me slip below the surface. I was insanely bloated. My weight soared. I felt sore, stiff, and clumsy. I had significant brain fog. My ankles and face were comically puffy. While I didn’t regret a second of it, after my foray into the world of gluten, I decided it was time for a reset.
After much consideration, a light switch clicked on, and I decided it was time to try the Carnivore Diet.
The premise of the Carnivore Diet is that it’s the ultimate elimination diet. It’s ketogenic, or zero carb, and contains no FODMAPS (fibre), grains, or other allergenic foods. It gives the gut a chance to reset.
While we often hear about how good fibre is for us, the truth is that some research shows that eliminating fibre can heal constipation. Emptying the gut and consuming a low-reside diet, in other words, all the components of the diet are digested and absorbed early on in the digestive tract, can give the colon a break. Further, burning ketones can heal the gut as the primary ketone, betahydroxybutryrate, is food for gut cells (we often hear about butyrate in the context of eating fibre).
Advocates of Carnivore talk about appetite control, abundant energy, healthy digestion, clear skin and effortless ease in maintaining a healthy body weight. I wanted this. I also wanted to feel more connected to my body and its energy processes. I wanted agency over my food cravings. I felt my appetite was out of control and my body needed something it wasn’t getting or couldn’t access.
Within the first 24 hours of Carnivore, my brain fog lifted. After the first week, I dropped 12 lbs . It felt like emerging from the fog into sunshine, and tossing off a heavy cloak.
I felt fully nourished for the first time in a long time. I ate a lot of fat, meat, eggs and even dairy. I felt energized. My appetite calmed down. I woke up in the morning, and instead of rushing something down my throat, I made myself a coffee and felt hunger slowly creep in.
I would prepare a big breakfast of meat and eggs that would hold me until the mid-afternoon. The food noise died down. My brain felt supercharged- I could think again. Even after long hours of talking to patients or working at the computer, I felt my brain could keep going and going and going. I no longer got that white noise static electricity that I associated with oxidative stress caused by overworking my neurons.
My mental health was better than it had ever been. I felt calm, persistent brain energy and agency over my thoughts. I felt emotionally stable and resilient. Nothing seemed to phase me. I felt strong.
I felt great. My original intention was to do the diet for a couple of weeks, but after the first week, I thought, I can do this forever! This is my diet, it’s my way of eating, something about it felt right. It was also the dead of winter. What would I be surviving on if I were in the wild right now? No fruits and vegetables were around; the ground was covered in snow. I would be hunting and killing animals and surviving on their meat. This way of eating felt aligned with the season, and I believe it was what my body needed at the time.
My brain and body thrived on the ketones. I had no cravings. Even on my birthday, I just wanted a nice ribeye steak. I couldn’t care less about cake, potatoes, or any other exciting comfort foods we look forward to on birthdays.
It was hard to sustain the diet on vacation. When I went to Ecuador in late February, I decided to let go of Carnivore and eat what was available. Because of the sun, surf, walking and relaxed vibe, I felt good in Ecuador, but my body felt far from magical. I dealt with chronic gut issues, miserable period cramps and a three-day migraine throughout my time there. On the plane ride back, I was ready to restart Carnivore and found it relatively easy to jump right back in the following day.
I hesitated to talk about my experience on Carnivore even three months into the experience. I felt great. My body felt like an efficient engine, burning fuel cleanly. However, the food was all…well, brown. And salty. And I often felt dehydrated. Also, after the initial drop in weight, I had stalled.
Grocery shopping was a strange experience. It felt surreal to be surrounded by all this… food. Stuff that wasn’t a part of my day at all. It wasn’t the snacks or chips or candy or even the carbs that tempted me. It was the rainbow of fruits and vegetables that greeted me every time I wheeled my cart into the store.
The fruits were shiny and colourful, advertising their sweet, hydrating juices and vitamins. Glycogen, or stored carbs in our muscles and liver, hold water in our bodies. On a low-carb diet, we often burn through our glycogen stores. If there was one thing I craved on Carnivore, it was the sweet hydration of juice.
One day, I was browsing Instagram and saw a comment on a popular account about glucose regulation. The account features a biochemist/influencer who shows a series of continuous glucose monitor graphs and discusses the glucose response to food. Her methods feature tips like “add fat to your carbs to lower your glucose spike.” This post highlighted how adding fat to starches (like hummus, which adds fats like olive oil and tahini to starchy chickpeas) can reduce the height of a glucose spike, helping to regulate blood sugar.
This is something I often coach my patients on, as blood sugar regulation is the key to mood stability, mental health, cognitive energy, and adrenal function, among so many other things. Interesting how I was kind of wrong about that.
The comment that caught my eye was written by a PhD who pointed out that while adding fat and carbs together can lower a glucose spike, it does not change the height and area under the curve of the insulin spike. Adding fat to starches might make the insulin response to food larger, even if it’s curbing and controlling the rise in glucose. It hit me then. We’ve been focusing on the wrong thing. I assumed glucose and insulin were like two twins on a tandem bike. One rises, and the other one joins in. Seesaw, yin and yang. But I started connecting the dots from the cases of patients I’ve seen, my experience, and third-year biochemistry. Yeesh, it’s all about insulin.
I remembered something else, too: the Insulin Index.
88-90% of humans are insulin resistant. We can’t access our fat stores or the energy from our food because we have chronically high insulin levels and unresponsive cells. Insulin’s main job (or maybe its most famous job) is to help drive glucose into shelves. You consume starch, glucose explodes onto the scene, and insulin puts it all away for you. It stores the sugar as glycogen and fat, and your body burns those later for energy.
Naturally, whatever causes a rise in blood glucose will also cause a rise in blood insulin. But sometimes, glucose isn’t rising on a continuous glucose monitor because insulin has already lept onto the scene to bring sugar down. Further, some foods, like whey protein and milk, don’t spike glucose much but will have a (significant) impact on insulin levels.
The commenter, Dr. Ali Chappell, PhD, described herself as an insulin researcher. Her research involves examining the effects of a low-insulin spiking diet on PCOS (an insulin-resistant hormonal condition that affects about 10% of women). The Low Insulin lifestyle was tested on various women who reliably lost 19 lbs in two months without counting, eating as much fruit, non-starchy vegetables, nuts and seeds and animal protein as they wanted. When I discovered Dr. Ali Chappell, I had just been hired to do a course on Insulin Resistance, which involved researching the manifestations and solutions to keeping ourselves metabolically healthy.
While a low-carb or Ketogenic diet like the carnivore diet can certainly heal metabolic dysfunction, it didn’t feel right to recommend this lifestyle to patients. It wasn’t for the faint of heart, for starters, and something in my soul was starting to miss fruit and vegetables. As part of my course research, I began to dive deeper into the low-insulin lifestyle.
Some bells started to ring for me. At the same time, my good friend was struggling on Carnivore because, while she felt great, she was breastfeeding, and the diet was affecting her milk supply. I shared with her what I learned about the Low Insulin Lifestyle. She started on the diet and, within a few days, told me her cravings and hunger were diminished. She was dropping her weight-loss-resistant belly fat like a stone.
After she had been on it for a week, I followed. I was ready to add more colour to my life. I removed the whey protein and dairy I had been eating, thinking it was fine and not realizing it was impacting my insulin. I added more fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. I had dark chocolate again!
The variety was lovely. My gut was ready for fibre again, particularly the soft, gooey, juicy fibres from fruit. It felt good to fill my stomach with bulk. And it felt terrific to eat so many colours and textures of food.
Weight loss that had stalled for months after that initial drop on Carnivore kicked up again. My appetite chilled out, and I felt nourished again. I realized this eating pattern had been something I stumbled on from time to time: my trip to Brazil in 2020, my first forays with Paleo, even following the guidance of a microbiome test I did in 2021. However, none of these experiences involved intentionally targeting insulin. I would often eat starches like sweet potatoes or rice. I sometimes cut out fruit, with its fructose, which has a minimal impact on insulin.
This finally clicked things into place for me. It helped create a framework to encase my intuition around food and what humans should eat.
I was consuming whole, natural foods our ancestors would have consumed. Unprocessed plants and animals. Lots of healthy fats. Lots of sugar from fruit. Phytochemicals from colourful plants. Protein and nourishing fat from meat, eggs and some yogurt or cheese. I ate berries and burgers. Salads, broccoli and asparagus. I had sausages with organic tomato sauce. So many bacon and eggs breakfasts. I had nuts and seeds and pumpkin seed butter. I had dark chocolate and bananas. Pistachios. Shawarma meat and salad (hold the rice). It was easy to make decisions and figure out what to eat.
Looking back, I think glucose intolerance has plagued my whole life. It has affected my body and my relationship with food. It led to years of binge eating that only stopped if I ate more consistently. Protein helped immensely.
When things started to feel off, I consulted with a family doctor. I ordered some bloodwork through her and did some myself. My fasting insulin levels and insulin sensitivity (HOMA-IR) value were normal. However, when we eat foods spike insulin, it can cause a post-prandial (i.e., post-meal) rise in insulin that can stay elevated all day, as we go from one meal to the next. It can spike hunger and cravings, causing us to eat and continue to boost insulin. While hyperinsulinemia can lead to insulin resistance, I don’t think my body was there quite yet. I was raising my insulin levels, blocking my body’s access to energy stores and driving the hunger, inflammation and heaviness I was feeling.
Insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance tend to shift as our hormones change through our late 30s and 40s. As estrogen and progesterone levels change, insulin levels increase, and we become more insulin resistant. This explained that shift I felt. The old patterns of diet and exercise I was engaging in weren’t working either. I needed to be more intentional with the way I was eating and exercising.
I started adding in more resistance training, scheduling in weights and high intensity interval training two to three times a week in addition to my yoga, swimming, and walks. The carbs from fruit helped fuel my muscles. I felt myself shift out of that parasympathetic shutdown state. I watched my nervous system enjoy more flexibility.
In a few weeks, I will start filming my course on insulin resistance. Then, it will go to editing. I’ll let you know when it’s time for it to be released. The course has been a gift. It allowed me the space and time to dive deep into the research and start putting various bits and pieces together. Metabolic dysfunction is the great health crisis of our age. I’m becoming more and more convinced that it drives so many of the common concerns we see in natural medicine practices: SIBO and candida overgrowth, adrenal fatigue, estrogen dominance, and chronic inflammation. There is a whole budding field of mental health called “metabolic psychiatry” that examines the role that insulin resistance has on mood and brain health.
Until proven otherwise, if a patient is dealing with high insulin, we must address this as a potential root cause that ties together all their concerns.
The medical establishment often overlooks insulin resistance, as the primary focus is on diabetes, which represents a later stage on the disease continuum. Decades of dietary advice have also set us up for metabolic inflexibility and an overabundance of dietary glucose that overworks insulin and blocks our ability to use energy for brain and body health.
The good news is that I believe the solution is simple. Eat a diet that leaves insulin alone: animal protein, nuts and seeds, fruits, non-starchy vegetables and healthy fats. Leave aside the starches (grains, legumes, root vegetables) and sugar. Add in some higher intensity training and work your muscles. With this approach, we have the start of a full-blown health revolution on our hands.
Stay tuned for more podcasts and courses on this topic in the coming months!
by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Apr 4, 2025 | Diet, Education, Evidence Based Medicine, Fertility, Health, Inflammation, Mental Health, metabolic health, Nutrition, Weight Loss, Women's health
I am excited to introduce a new podcast episode (I know it’s been a while). I’ve been deep in the weeds of research about insulin resistance for a course I’m working on (for a health education platform that I’m very excited to tell you more about in the coming months).
I came across Dr. Ali Chappell, PhD, when researching my course. She helped hit home for me this idea that we’ve been focusing too much on blood sugar when the real focus for better metabolic health, body composition (i.e., weight management), energy and mood needs to be on INSULIN.
For years, I’ve been telling patients to “put clothes on their carbs” by adding fat and protein to higher-carb meals to regulate blood sugar. I’ve also recommended whey protein for protein powders. I didn’t realize that this was the wrong approach for supporting metabolic health when someone is dealing with insulin resistance (as so many of us are).
While these foods and practices DO regulate blood sugar, they don’t minimize the root of blood sugar and insulin resistance issues, which is insulin spikes.
You might have heard of the “glycemic index,” which tells us how much a food spikes blood sugar. Well, there is also something called the “insulin index.” Dr. Ali Chappell, PhD decided to look more deeply into this concept when developing a lifestyle to treat her PCOS, an insulin resistance hormone condition, and the number one cause of infertility in women.
She found genuinely remarkable results in herself and decided to turn to science to test her theory.
Watch on Youtube
Listen on your favourite podcast platform
In this podcast, we discuss her research done on women with insulin resistance and PCOS, who got incredible results, losing an average of 19 lbs and reducing their fasting insulin levels by 50% in 2 months -eating all the nuts, fruit, vegetables, fat and animal proteins they wanted. In this study, the women counted no calories, carbs, protein or macros. They just avoided foods that spike insulin. Very simple.
This research has been repeated three times, and a randomized control trial is set to be published soon. In this trial, the lifestyle was tested against conventional medical advice for PCOS and insulin resistance (eat less, exercise more, and take medication).
We talk about the science of insulin resistance and how food impacts insulin, why we need to start focusing on insulin as a medical community, and how to take back your life, manage your appetite, stop cravings–all the good things–so you can live your life with lower inflammation, better mood, and better energy.
We might have discussed this lifestyle plan if you’ve seen me in the past few weeks.
This podcast is a must-listen if you’re struggling with
- Abdominal weight gain and difficulty losing weight
- low energy
- hunger and cravings
- considering Ozempic or other GLP-1 medications
- PCOS and other insulin-resistance conditions
- have seen high insulin, high blood sugar, or high cholesterol on your bloodwork
- have hypertension, insomnia, energy crashes throughout the day, irritability
- inflammatory conditions (anything that ends in “itis”)
- a family history of Alzheimer’s and dementia
- a family history of cardiovascular disease
…and so on and so on- everyone can benefit as 90% of us are insulin resistant, and I’m becoming more and more convinced that conditions like “adrenal fatigue” or menopausal weight gain are due to elevated insulin levels affecting our bodies’ ability to get energy and burn fat.
I’m so excited that Dr. Ali agreed to speak with me, and I’m thrilled that she was so generous with her time and information.
Check it out and let me know what you think!
Now, get outside!
by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Nov 29, 2022 | Depression, Mental Health, metabolic health, mood, Nature, Outdoors, Seasonal Affective Disorder, Sleep, Sunshine
From Thursday to Tuesday (yesterday) I was camping on Canada’s East Coast in Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia (near Halifax, Cole Harbour, etc.)
I was nervous about the trip. I’ve never winter camped before (in a tent, no less). I’ve winter surfed, but never without warm water or a wood-burning stove or central heating to come home to. Would I freeze? Starve? Feel wet and cold all weekend long?
No, no and no, but I learned a lot in the process. Particularly about our metabolism and circadian rhythms and how to best adjust to the winter season with its shorter days and cold temperatures for the winter months.
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What I learned:
Our body is intelligent and wise.
We are able to cold adapt if we listen to our bodies’ needs. Mine was telling me to move, to stay dry, to expose myself to the sun, to eat enough calories (meat, eggs, trailmix and granola). I slept early and a lot. As long as I ate and conserved my energy, put on more layers once I felt a chill, and moved my body to improve my body’s circulation and metabolism, I felt warm and cozy and energized.
I realized that our bodies are equipped for anything, as long as we listen to their attempts to adapt. A friend who was travelling with us seemed disconnected from his body. Despite being an outdoorsman, I observed that he didn’t eat enough, consumed too much alcohol and chose to nap during the day despite the fact that we only had access to 8 hours of precious sunlight.
He fell in the river and rather than moving to warm his body up, he lay down and napped, which failed to keep him warm. I observed that his mood dropped throughout the trip and he had a hard time adjusting to the lack of warmth and light from the planet. This contrast emphasized the importance of respecting our bodies, nourishing them properly, moving them and caring for them, while adapting to the circumstances of nature and light-dark rhythms.
It made me think of how so many of us need to work inside during the few and precious daylight hours. How we access screens late at night after the sun has long gone down. How we avoid going outside because of the cold, even though outside is where the sun is.
It made me think how our appetite naturally increases in the winter as our bodies burn more energy to keep us warm and stoke out metabolisms and yet many of us rally against this, trying to eat less and go on diets to decrease our waistlines.
Our bodies are wise. What gifts will we derive from listening to them?
Adapt to the waves of light and dark.
The sun rose every morning around 7 am and set around 5pm. This gave us 10 hours of sunlight a day. As a result I rose with the sun (usually my bladder woke me up) and went to bed soon after the sun set.
I spent the day working (clearing an area for a driveway, making paths in the forest), surfing and hiking. We relied on the fire at night for warmth and food. The blankets we huddled under were hot and inviting and so it wasn’t long after the sun set and the fire died when we went to bed. There wasn’t much to do in the dark and the energy it took to keep warm didn’t feel worth it. The cold would cause sleepiness to overtake me.
There’s something about cooking over an open flame that makes you feel part of something ancient, primal even. When the sun dipped low and the last blue light bled out of the trees, we’d gather around the grill—hands raw from the cold, bellies loud with hunger. The hiss of fat meeting flame, the smell of woodsmoke and char—it was a kind of ceremony.
One night we grilled venison with just salt and fire, and it tasted like everything the day had given us: the hike, the cold, the quiet. That’s when I first understood how Chiasson Smoke wasn’t just a name—it was a way of preparing food that honored simplicity and patience, the kind of cooking that asks you to slow down and pay attention.
We’d eat outside when we could, bundled in wool, plates balanced on knees, steam rising from our food like prayer. There was no rush. The night didn’t demand anything from us but stillness and gratitude. Sometimes we’d talk, sometimes we’d just listen to the crackle of embers and the sound of wind threading through the trees. The grill’s warmth, like the fire before it, held us together in a soft circle of light—another small sun to guide us through the dark.
I downloaded my Oura ring data when I got back and found that some nights I slept for 10 hours or more!
It struck me that we often try to fight this need for more sleep in the winter. We don’t get outside as much, so we don’t expose our eyes to sunlight. We use artificial lighting at night and so override our natural circadian rhythms. We might feel more tired and depressed during the winter months because we aren’t adapting to the light-dark cycles the way our ancestors were forced to–we try to maintain productivity despite the fact that the sun is delivering less light-giving energy.
When I got back from my trip, I went to sleep at 8:30pm, true to form. I woke up feeling fantastic and went for a morning walk to watch the sunrise.
Here are some important considerations for adjusting to winter:
1) Get sunlight as much as possible.
It can be tricky to have to spend 8 hours of the day in an office at work when there are only 8 hours of daylight to go around. If you can, spend time near a window, fit in a morning walk, or walk right after work, or a walk a lunchtime, prioritize this as much as possible.
If natural light is impossible, light lamps might help. They won’t be a full solution, though. Fire places provide infrared light, which can be helpful for healing red light in the evening hours.
Get sun exposure where it’s available. Avoid wearing sunglasses if possible and expose as much of your skin as your feel comfortable.
2) Vitamin D.
Take Cod live oil for the right ratio of vitamin A to D, along with magnesium for D activation. Talk to your ND about getting on the right supplement regime.
3) Go to bed earlier, if possible.
During the darker months, we might end up feeling sleepier than normal. If you can let go of your perfectionism and accept less productivity, priotizing sleep and rest during this Yin time, it may improve mood and energy levels throughout these months.
I definitely feel I need more sleep during this time. Keep in mind most mammals are hibernating. Birds have flown south. Our ancestors likely conserved fuel, lamp oil and heat by going to bed earlier, snuggling under the covers with family members and pets to stay warm. Sleep is part of nature’s demands for us at this this time of year. As the Earth slows down, so should we.
Perhaps lowering the temp in your house can help support this need for sleep, the way that the dropping night temperatures encouraged me to hibernate beneath the covers around 7-8pm. Turning off bright lights will also help with this.
Notice how, when you lower light and temp in the evenings, sleepiness overtakes you.
4) Move your body.
Movement improves circulation and muscle health, stoking metabolism, which supports cold tolerance and adaptation. It might feel too cold to go outside, but once your body gets moving you will notice how fast you warm up and how much tolerable the cold can be.
Movement outside, especially during daylight hours is essential for mental health at this time of year.
5) Honour your cravings.
Starchy vegetables, meat stew, soups, apples, granola, nuts. Notice if you crave different foods at this time. Notice when you’re overeating sugar and refined carbs and if this may be your body compensating for not getting enough whole-food calories.
Our bodies don’t work the same way in the winter that they do in the summer. In the summer you might feel great on salads, smoothies and low carb dinners like barbecued chicken and vegetables.
During the winter you might need more potatoes or rice, root veggies and warming spices. You might eat more meat as a way to get micronutrients. You’ll likely need more protein to preserve and build warmth and muscle. You might turn to canned foods, frozen vegetables, less tropical fruit and more starchy veggies.
Your mitochondria are working harder during these months to keep you warm (if you get outside and get the appropriate amount of cold exposure, which has tons of anti-inflammatory and mood-stimulating benefits). We need to respect them by consuming enough calories, protein, micronutrients (B vitamins, magnesium and other minerals, etc.) and healthy saturated fats from butter, tallow and eggs. We need salt.
It is good for our digestion to eat cooked and warming foods during this time of year. Pumpkin spices. Cinnamon, ginger, warm teas for liquids.
Warm foods and drinks warm up the body and help stoke our metabolic fire that supports cold adaptation. Hunger and a strong digestive system are a gift during these months.
Honour your appetite. Don’t fight your body. Eat salt. Don’t compare how you look right now to how you look in the summer months (or to that tanned, shredded health influencer posting from Costa Rica). You’re not them. You’re a winter bear. You need nutrients.
While winter is a hard time of year with its lack of light and warmth, it can be a beautiful time of year. It can be an opportunity for more stillness, quiet and nourishmment. It can be an opportunity for connection and coziness (what the Danish call Hygge). Warm socks, fires. Skating and hiking in the snow. Snow angels. Beautiful long sunsets and long shadows on the sparkling white snow.
There is a quote I’m reminded of at this time of year:
“If you choose not to find joy in the snow, you will have less joy in your life but still the same amount of snow.”
Remember that the season is not the problem–our ancestors have adapted to the cold over thousands of years. What is different it our societal habits and attitudes–our addiction to productivity and image. If we lean into nature’s rhythms, we might learn to find joy in the snow and get through the winter better in touch with our bodies and a deeper respect for this time of rest and adventure that the Earth provides.
What I learn from surfing is to roll with, harness and absorb the waves of life. Don’t fight them. A year comes in seasons. Breathe into change rather than resisting it. Let your body do its thing to keep you warm, safe, energized and happy.
What helps you get through the winter?
by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Nov 28, 2022 | Anxiety, Autoimmune, Depression, Digestion, Gut Microbiome, Health, Hormones, Mental Health, metabolic health, Microbiome, Skin health
Hippocrates once said “all disease begins in the gut” and, even though as a naturopathic doctor I have internalized this to the utmost degree, I still forget from time to time.
So, when I was having an increase in histamine symptoms (itchy eyes, runny nose, inflammation, congestion, itchy skin, immune issues), dental issues (bad breath, swollen tongue, increase in plaque and bleeding gums), gut issues (bloating, constipation, sugar cravings) and mood issues (PMS, low motivation, fatigue, brain fog, lower mood, fatigue) as well as other random symptoms such as decreased stamina, cold intolerance and otherwise just feeling “blah”, it took me an embarrassingly long amount of time to connect all these symptoms to being caused by a gut microbial imbalance.
The dental issues I was experiencing, like bad breath, swollen tongue, and increased plaque buildup, were all signs that something deeper was off. Bleeding gums, which I initially attributed to inconsistent flossing, were actually part of a bigger issue tied to my overall health. It was frustrating to deal with these problems, especially since I didn’t immediately connect them to my gut. But the truth is, oral health and gut health are closely linked. A gut imbalance can lead to inflammation that affects not just the digestive system but also the gums and teeth. When the gut isn’t in harmony, it’s much easier for bacteria to thrive in the mouth, leading to plaque, cavities, and gum disease.
I quickly learned that maintaining good oral health isn’t just about brushing and flossing—it’s about understanding how it connects to other areas of my health. I was lucky to find a team of dentists who took a comprehensive approach to my care, addressing both the immediate symptoms and the underlying causes. They are the who can help me understand that treating my oral health wasn’t just about solving the problems I could see, but also about improving the balance in my body, which helped tackle issues like bad breath and bleeding gums from the root. Their guidance made me realize that good oral hygiene isn’t just for a bright smile; it’s essential for overall wellness.
That’s when I turned to vibrant dental, where they not only provided excellent cleanings and treatments but also offered holistic advice that took my overall health into account. With their help, I started to see improvements in both my oral and gut health, which ultimately boosted my mood and energy levels. It was a reminder that our health is interconnected, and sometimes, solving one issue requires looking beyond the obvious symptoms.
Things like diet, stress management, and hydration now feel just as important as brushing and flossing. For example, I’ve learned that acidic foods and sugary drinks can quietly wear away enamel, while calcium-rich snacks and leafy greens can help strengthen my teeth. Even something as simple as drinking more water has made a noticeable difference, keeping my mouth hydrated and fresh throughout the day. These small adjustments, paired with consistent dental visits, have kept my gums healthier and my smile brighter.
Knowing that my dental care is supporting my overall well-being gives me peace of mind. Of course, cosmetic concerns can still arise, no matter how well you care for your teeth. Whether it’s discoloration, worn enamel, or minor chips, finding the right solution can restore both your smile and your confidence. Veneers offer a natural-looking way to cover imperfections, giving you a smile that’s polished yet still feels like your own. A skilled Los Angeles Veneer Doctor can tailor each veneer to match your teeth’s shape and shade, ensuring a seamless result. For me, this combination of holistic care and thoughtful cosmetic enhancement has been a game-changer—proof that great dental health isn’t just about looking good; it’s about feeling your best, inside and out.
Our gut bacteria outnumber the cells of our body by 10 to 1. These little guys influence our digestion, mood and immune system. They affect our brain function. A recent study in Frontiers in Psychiatry (Nguyen et al., 2021) even connects the diversity of our microbiome with loneliness and wisdom.
Interestingly, loneliness and wisdom have been found to occur in inverse relationship with one another. In other words, the wiser you are, the less lonely. It’s important to note here that loneliness is not the same thing with isolation or being alone–sometimes alone time is necessary for the type of self-reflection that imbues wisdom.
Wisdom is a complex phenomenon that is made up of traits like compassion towards self and others, self-awareness and reflective thinking and deep knowledge about the world and the meaning of life events. From this description we can imagine how protective wisdom might be against mental illness and how it may lend to mental, emotional and physical wellness.
The wiser you are, the better able you may be to make meaning of and persevere through life’s difficulties and connect with others. Wisdom lends itself to an overarching view of self, life and humanity that may allow us to respond to life’s challenges with resilience.
Perhaps a wise person who is alone may also be aware that they are also part of an interconnected ecosystem that includes self and others. They may be aware of their place within the fabric of existence. In this way, they are never really alone.
Further, the meaning they may derive from states of aloneness may protect them against the feelings of social isolation that are characterized by loneliness. Imagine a wise figure. Perhaps they are alone, but would you say they are lonely?
Our gut is sometimes called “the second brain” and forms part of the microbiota-gut-brain axis in which our gut bugs influence the health of our intestines and thus influence our nervous system, immune system and brain (Cryan & Dinan, 2012). Our gut microbiome can even influence personality traits such as agreeableness, openness and even neuroticisim (Kim et al,m 2018). Interestingly, unhealthy gut bacteria like proteobacteria (associated with SIBO) were associated with low conscientiousness and high neuroticisim (Kim et al., 2018).
Does this mean that diet can influence our tendency to hand things in on time and keep our rooms clean? hmm…
It’s interesting to think that we all have a sense of our personalities and who we are as people. We imagine ourselves to be introverted or extraverted, artistic, creative, liberal or conversative. We might consider ourselves kind or trustworthy, blunt or afraid of conflict. We may identify as people who make healthy eating choices and enjoy exercising or who have sweet tooths (teeth?).
Amidst this self-discovery, the exploration of mbti personalities seamlessly weaves into the fabric of our understanding, adding another layer to the rich and diverse mosaic of human characteristics. Delving into the realm of MBTI personalities opens a door to a nuanced comprehension of ourselves and those around us. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, with its sixteen distinctive personality types, provides a structured framework to decipher the intricacies of our individuality. This insightful exploration not only enhances self-awareness but also fosters a greater appreciation for the diverse ways in which personalities interlace and contribute to the vibrant mosaic of the human experience.
But what if we are less in control of our behaviour and even personality than we think? The truth is the bacteria in our gut produce chemicals that influence our behaviour: what we crave and eat and even how we act and think. In turn, this influences the composition of our gut.
Prosocial behaviour is associated with more gut biodiversity, and people who are more social tend to have microbiomes that are more diverse (Johnson, 2020). This makes sense if you think about it. If you’re exposed to a variety of people and environments, you’re likely exposed to a variety of bacteria and viruses as well. These microbes are ingested and incorporate themselves into our bodies.
When we visit different environments we consume foods in those environments. When we socialize with various people, we often share food. This increase in food diversity will also influence gut microbial diversity.
As I write this, I wonder about the effects of social isolation of the past 2-3 years. During Covid, our social circles decreased. Currently we are seeing a rise in infections: colds, flus and other illnesses (RSV, hand food and mouth disease, pink eye and so on), particularly in children. I wonder if this lack of socialization has affected our microbiomes and thus our individual and collective immunity. A hypothesis worth exploring, perhaps…
Further, the hypersanitization may also have contributed to shifting the health of our microbiome. It still remains to be seen.
We know that a lack of gut diversity can affect our immune system and is associated with obesity, inflammatory bowel disease and major depressive disorder (Jiang et al., 2015). In mice, the health of the microbiome is essential for their social development (Desbonnet et al., 2014)!
So, what does this mean practically and clinically?
Throughout my studies and years practicing as a naturopathic doctor, a clear-cut path towards improving microbiobial health of the gut is still unclear to me. We know that increasing the amounts of plants and fibre in the diet can support gut diversity. But we also know that fibre can cause constipation and bloating in some individuals and aggravate their digestion and that there are many indiviudals who at least anecdotally seem to thrive on diets that reduce fibre, such as the Carnivore Diet or an Animal-Based Diet (which, by the way, I’m not necessarily recommending here).
For me, gut health has largely been about paying attention and noticing when things have gone astray and then (and this part is harder than it sounds) correctly attributing what has gone astray to a shift in the health of my microbiome.
This has been years in the making. Our gut produces pain in response to stretch (i.e.: from gases in the intestines). We don’t necessarily feel pain in our gut if we’re experiencing intestinal permeabilty (leaky gut) or dysbiosis. This means that there is not a lot of feedback from our body that tells us about the state of our gut. Our gut doesn’t always hurt if it’s inflamed or imbalanced in the way your shoulder might. We need to look for other signs and symptoms that alert us to the state of health of our guts.
For me symptoms of gut imbalance often correlate with symptoms of candida overgrowth (something I, like many, am prone to). Candida, a species of yeast, tends to flourish in my body if my overall gut ecosystem is failing to keep it in check. Sometimes this can occur due to stress, and increase of sugar in my diet and other factors.
Symptoms I notice are:
– A change in oral health: more plaque on my teeth, bad breath, tongue coating, bleeding gums, and so on.
– A change in mood and mental functioning: symptoms of depression or dysthymia such as apathy, low motivation and lethargy. Brain fog, difficulty concentration, poorer executive function (particularly initiating tasks or increased procrastination).
– A change in digestion: persistent bloating, more constipation (involving not just frequency but stool quality. They might be stickier or harder to pass).
– A change in immune function: more mucus production and congestion. Allergy symptoms. Trouble breathing,.
– A change in energy and metabolism: reduced stamina despite exercising. Weight gain. Water retention. Fatigue. Feeling cold.
– A change in cravings: wanting more sugar, binge-eating and overeating. Obsessing about food. Cravings for sugar after meals. Feeling “hangry” more often. Difficulty feeling full. Mental hunger (hunger despite feeling the presence of food in the stomach).
– A change in hormonal health: changes to libido, vaginal flora. heavier periods, irregular periods. Increased PMS.
And so on. If this seems like virtually every system in the body is affected, I remind us all that Hippocrates said it first (or at least most famously): “all disease begins in the gut”.
What is the solution? Like recognizing the cause, the solution is often subtle. For me it was focusing attention to gut health and slowly steering the ship back to healthier habits.
The problem with dysbiosis is it often maintains itself. Low energy leads to less socialization and less motivation to cook healthy meals. More cravings lends to poorer food choices. These are just some examples of what you can imagine to be a variety of maintenance processes that are caused by and serve to perpetuate dysbiosis.
Therefore for me, the solution is not to make drastic changes but to identify and shift these patterns in support my microbiome.
1) I took sugar out of my diet. For me this involved shifting away from my 3 fruits a day to starchy vegetables (like squashes, etc.) I thrive on a Paleo-like diet (a whole foods diet that emphasizes fruit, vegetables and animal protein) and subtly shifted back to one.
I didn’t completely eliminate fruit sugar as I don’t believe there is a need. However, I recognized that I was likely overconsuming sweet foods as a response to dysbiosis and this wasn’t serving me.
2) I got on a comprehensive and broad-spectrum probiotic. I often tell my patients that probiotic prescribing is more of an art than a science and involves some trial-and-error. I typically look for one that has 8+ strains and a high CFU (colony forming unit) count. I took Colon Care 90 Billion by New Roots. This is certainly not the only good one and it might not be the right one for you, but it’s one I selected for myself based on a variety of factors I was looking for that supported my individualized assessment of my gut health.
For me probiotics can be highly effective, but they take time to work. They often can aggravate symptoms initially. The first symptoms I notice that indicate improvement are an improvement in oral health.
3) I supported my digestion in general. This involves for me supporting the liver and gallbladder, which influence gut motility, bile flow (which helps keep the small bowel free of bacteria) and fat digestion (which prevents growth of more pathogenic microbes and stabilizes blood sugar).
4) I consumed anti-candida, antimicrobial foods that work for me (again, this is after much trial and error). Raw garlic, coconut oil, apple cider vinegar and oregano oil. I also started on a candida herbal supplement that incorporates cloves, black walnut and other anti-microbial herbs that selectively kill pathogenic microbes while typically preserving healthy ones.
5) I supported my microbiome by integrated back into nature: getting outside more, reducing chemical exposure (soaps, fragrances, plastics, pesticides, etc.) and getting more sunlight. Camping outside in the cold, sleeping on the ground and brushing my teeth in a natural brook in Nova Scotia also likely contributed to shifting the diversity of my microbiome through encouraging the exchange of my microbes with those of the earth.
6) I supported the body’s stress response by getting more sleep. When I’m awake I try to get as much sun exposure as possible. Our microbiome and our Circadian Rhythms are intricately connected. Supporting one can support the health of the other (Bishehsari et al., 2020). Regarding this, I wonder if Daylight Savings Time made some of us more susceptible for microbial imbalances in our guts? Hm…
Getting off track is a holistic multi-facted process. We all know our own vices and susceptibilities if we look deep enough.
Therefore, getting on track is an equally holisitic and comprehensive process. It involves wisdom (which, conveniently, increases as your microbial health increases). I can help you figure things out if you’re new to this process.
After implementing these strategies and paying a bit more attention for a few weeks I slowly and surely notice myself feeling more like myself. Getting back on track: more energy, better mood, better cold tolerance (this is a big one!) and better gut health. My appetite has regulated incredibly. I feel like a different person. But the shifts have been slow and sometimes subtle (as is often the case with shifting an entire ecosystem) and paying attention to them is a very important part of the process.
Wisdom.
It’s not just diet. It’s not just supplements. It involves looking at the relevant factors and gently moving back in the right direction with patience and persistence. Maybe your main point of focus needs to be eating regular meals and meal planning. Maybe you need more strength-training. Maybe you need to start socializing more, getting out in public (knitting circle, anyone? I’ve been hearing so much about knitting circles these days, haha–a sign from the universe?).
Maybe it’s time to look at emotional eating with a pair of fresh eyes (perhaps through the lens of your microbiota). Maybe you need to take a walk outside today. Everyday. Breathe fresh air. Take a probiotic.
Contact me if you need support! I’m here for you.
What else do you do for your gut microbiome?
References:
Bishehsari, F., Voigt, R. M., & Keshavarzian, A. (2020). Circadian rhythms and the gut microbiota: From the metabolic syndrome to cancer. Nature Reviews Endocrinology, 16(12), 731–739. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41574-020-00427-4
Cryan, J. F., & Dinan, T. G. (2012). Mind-altering microorganisms: the impact of the gut microbiota on brain and behaviour. Nature reviews. Neuroscience, 13(10), 701–712. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3346
Desbonnet, L., Clarke, G., Shanahan, F., Dinan, T. G., & Cryan, J. F. (2014). Microbiota is essential for social development in the mouse. Molecular psychiatry, 19(2), 146–148. https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2013.65
Jiang, H., Ling, Z., Zhang, Y., Mao, H., Ma, Z., Yin, Y., Wang, W., Tang, W., Tan, Z., Shi, J., Li, L., & Ruan, B. (2015). Altered fecal microbiota composition in patients with major depressive disorder. Brain, behavior, and immunity, 48, 186–194. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2015.03.016
Johnson, K. V. A. (2020). Gut microbiome composition and diversity are related to human personality traits. Human Microbiome Journal, 15, 100069.
Kim, H. N., Yun, Y., Ryu, S., Chang, Y., Kwon, M. J., Cho, J., Shin, H., & Kim, H. L. (2018). Correlation between gut microbiota and personality in adults: A cross-sectional study. Brain, behavior, and immunity, 69, 374–385. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2017.12.012
Nguyen, T. T., Zhang, X., Wu, T.-C., Liu, J., Le, C., Tu, X. M., Knight, R., & Jeste, D. V. (2021). Association of loneliness and wisdom with gut microbial diversity and composition: An exploratory study. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.648475
by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Dec 8, 2021 | Addiction, Anxiety, Cold and Flu Remedies, Depression, Detoxification, Exercise, Fitness, Happiness, Health, Inflammation, Mental Health, metabolic health, Motivation, Nature, Nature Cure, Stress
In the winter of 2019 I took a surfing lesson in Costa Rica. I fell in love–the sun and salt water on my skin, the beautiful view of the beach, the spray off the back of the waves, the loud crashing of translucent turquoise, and the feeling of power, ease, flow and grace as I stood on a board, using the energy of the earth to fly across water.
The problem was, however, I would be going home in a week to a landlocked part of the world that spends a lot of its months covered in ice.
It was depressing.
Then I met a girl from Toronto, a psychotherapist who worked at a clinic just down the street from my old one.
“You can surf in Toronto, you know”, she informed me.
Where? I thought, astounded.
“On the lakes!” She exclaimed.
I was flabbergasted–perhaps I could be a surfer after all. The beach bum lifestyle, the rock hard abs, the zinc oxide cheek bones, the chronically wet hair, watching the winds and tides and slipping out for a sun-soaked hour during a work break. Could this be true–could you surf the Great Lakes?
“The thing is,” she continued, “the surf season is from October to March”.
Oh.
Winter surfing.
It was still interested, though.
Back in Toronto, I waited for the next strong February East wind and headed to a surf spot I’d heard about on Lake Ontario. I was met with a crowd of black neoprene-clad surfers, soaked by water, wind and sleet. The elements were harsh. The stoke, however, was infectious.
Ok, I could do this, I thought.
My next stop was the surf shop. I purchased gear and the rest is history.
Not a lot of us are built to slip into near-freezing water during the frigid winter months to catch a few waves. Lake waves are harder to catch, the currents are strong, ice chunks are a thing to watch out for, and… it’s friggin’ cold! But, surfing is surfing. The lakes provide beautiful landscapes, just like the ocean, and the feeling of catching a wave and riding it is the same.
There’s also the benefit of body hardening.
We modern humans are very different from our hunter-gatherer ancestors. Our genes may be the same, but our lifestyles couldn’t be further apart. Down-filled jackets and central heating protect us from the discomfort of the elements. In a sense, our lives are temperature controlled.
However, our incidence of chronic degenerative disease has never been higher.
Body hardening practices involves exposure against natural stimuli, such as intense cold, that results in increased resilience–resistance to disease and improved health.
A 1998 study in QJM: an international journal of medicine looked at antioxidant production in German winter swimmers.
Winter swimming, just like winter surfing, is a thing. As of the 90s, there were 3000 Germans who participated in winter swimming clubs. They were known to experience a 40% reduction in respiratory diseases compared to the rest of the population, debunking the notion that if you exposure yourself to cold you’ll “catch a cold”.
The study looked at 23 male and 13 female who had been members of a Berlin winter swimming club for more than two years. On average they swam for 5 to 10 minutes on a weekly basis in water between 1 and 5 degrees celsius. Their blood levels of glutathione were compared with that of 28 healthy men and 12 healthy women who had never participated in cold-exposure body hardening therapies such as winter swimming.
Glutathione is our body’s main antioxidant. It protects us from free radicals (reactive oxygen and reactive nitrogen species, ROS and RNS, respectively) that are harmful to our cells. It is produced from three amino acids: glycine, cysteine, and glutamine.
Glutathione reduces oxidative stress produced by these free radicals that occur in cells as a result of their energy production, as well as toxins, pollutants and other stressors. A deficiency of glutathione is associated with an increased risk of cancer, accelerated aging, and other diseases, such as metabolic disease like diabetes and cognitive diseases like Parkinson’s. It decreases as a result of aging, chronic disease, toxin exposure, and chronic stress.
Elevating glutathione status has been shown to improve conditions like insulin resistance, autoimmune diseases, cognitive and mental health conditions, fatty liver and cirrhosis, autism, and respiratory diseases.
It was found that after cold water exposure, blood levels of antioxidants like glutathione decreases, indicating that cold water exposure induces oxidative stress on the body. However, after a period of time, glutathione levels rose higher than that of baseline.
Baseline blood levels of glutathione were higher in cold water swimmers, indicating that their bodies were more efficient at producing glutathione in response to the temporary oxidative stress imposed on them by the cold exposure.
In essence, “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”.
This is called hormesis: when temporary stress is imposed on our bodies, we respond with adaptive measures, such as increased glutathione production to combat that stress. However, our bodies are smart. They figure that if we’re exposed to some cold stress, there might be more coming. Therefore, it might be a good idea to invest energy into hardening, preparing for more of that same stress in the future and, in essence, becoming more resilient. And so, when exposed to a stressor, we often produce more antioxidant than is needed to simply overcome that stressor, and this results in an overall net benefit to our health and well-being.
Just like lifting weights makes us stronger for the next time we lift weights, we become stronger and more resilient at our baseline as we prepare for the next hit of cold, heat, exercise, or stress.
The 1998 study also revealed that cold water swimmers had more enzymes that combat free radicals such as superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, and catalase, meaning that their cells were better prepared to ramp up antioxidant production quickly and neutralize free radicals at a moment’s notice, if needed.
Cold water swimmers also produced four times more norepinephrine after their cold exposure. Norepinephrine is part of our fight or flight response, but is also associated with increased energy, mood, motivation and well-being. Imagine a hit of caffeine–that’s a bit what cold burst can do to you via norepinephrine. Heart race increases, and we’re filled with an excited euphoria.
Norepinephrine is part of the reason why cold therapy has been touted as a remedy for depression. Cold exposure provides a much-needed burst of mobilizing chemicals to kickstart feelings of well-being and motivation for people who are struggling with low mood and arousal.
Cold therapy also increases dopamine by 250%, according to a 2000 study in the European Journal of Applied Physiology. Dopamine gives us the sense of motivation and meaning in pursuing a goal. It fills us with purpose and drive. So many of us are starved of dopamine and therefore so much of our culture involves trying to increase dopamine: scrolling social media, consuming sugar, playing video games, and so on.
The problem with many of these attempts to boost dopamine is that they come with a cost. We get a hit of pleasure from consuming sugar, for example, followed by a dip in our baseline levels of dopamine. Overall, we’re left feeling empty, foggy, purposeless, and addicted. We experience cravings that need to be filled.
Even supplements like Macuna pruriens and l-tyrosine, designed to boost dopamine levels, result in crashes 30 to 45 minutes after they peak.
Cold exposure, however, gives us a hit of dopamine that remains elevated for hours without a resulting crash. This provides an intense boost to mood, motivation, cognitive function, concentration, focus, purpose and drive. Like norepinephrine this can also contribute to cold therapy’s anti-depressive effect.
It seems that if we engage in something hard and uncomfortable, something that requires effort–like cold exposure–our body rewards us with an increase in mood, motivation and drive through the enhancement of dopamine production in our brains.
Winter surfing has been an immense gift to my health and well-being. It’s given me purpose, community, exposure to nature, and a wonderful outlet for body hardening. If I go more than a week without a surf session I start to feel a bit of withdrawal. There is nothing more therapeutic than hours spent checking the forecast, and driving to chase waves in order to end up floating in the middle of a beautiful lake, surrounded by nature and friends.
With regular winter surfing I feel invigorated, energized and fit–the mood-lifting effects of the cold exposure is comparable to nothing else.
This winter my message to everyone is: get outside. Exposure yourself to cold. Expose yourself to nature. Use the elements and the changing seasons as tools to enhance your health.
There are incredible mood-elevating, immune system-boosting and anti-aging benefits to becoming more resilient. While it may be uncomfortable, cold adaptation is a sign of your improved vitality and disease resistance.
Nature’s harshness evolved us. Temperature extremes helped to shape our DNA. Our genes contain codes for amazing mental, emotional, and physical resilience. They are waiting to be turned on at a moment’s notice, if only they’re given a reason.
Cold exposure flips the on-switch to your body’s incredible superpowers. Let’s explore the potential of this beautiful vessel in which we all live.
References:
Šrámek, P., Šimečková, M., Janský, L. et al. Human physiological responses to immersion into water of different temperatures. Eur J Appl Physiol 81, 436–442 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/s004210050065
W.G. Siems, R. Brenke, O. Sommerburg, T. Grune, Improved antioxidative protection in winter swimmers, QJM: An International Journal of Medicine, Volume 92, Issue 4, April 1999, Pages 193–198, https://doi.org/10.1093/qjmed/92.4.193
Image: Dean Weare at www.dweare.com
by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Nov 30, 2021 | Cooking, Digestion, Elimination Diet, Food, Food Sensitivities, Gluten Free, Ketogenic Diet, metabolic health, Microbiome, Nutrition, Paleo, Recipes
You know how you just want the recipe and yet you have to scroll through someone’s long story about their cat and their grandma and a blistery winter day?
Forget all that. I made this curry.
Here’s the recipe (you’re welcome 😜 ):
Ingredients:
1 can coconut milk (full fat, Arroy-D)
2 heads broccoli, chop off the florets into small pieces
2 large bell peppers, chopped into slices
1/2 jar of Thai Kitchen red curry paste (nice, clean, delicious, free of seed oils 👍 )
4 large chicken breasts
Salt, pepper, olive oil.
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees (you can also do all this in the air fryer). Add chopped chicken breast to a baking pan, add broccoli and peppers, drizzle with olive oil. Cook for 45 minutes (or until everything is cooked).
In a large stir-fry pan, add cooked vegetables and chicken, add red curry paste and coconut milk.
You can serve on rice, but you don’t have to.
Filling, rich in protein and veggies. Delicious, warming. I love Thai curries on snowy days.
by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Sep 23, 2021 | Alcohol, Alignment, Anxiety, Autoimmune, Balance, Chronic pain, Community, Depression, Detoxification, Diet, Digestion, Education, Elimination Diet, Emotional Wellness, Emotions, Food, Food Sensitivities, Gluten Free, Health, Inflammation, Medicine, Meditation, Mental Health, metabolic health, Microbiome, Mind Body Medicine, Mindfulness, mood, Nature, Nature Cure, Nutrition, Uncategorized
It’s day one of my period and I’ve been healing a broken foot for 6 weeks. The weather is overcast, thick, humid and rainy.
My body feels thick and heavy. Clothing leaves an imprint on my skin–socks leave deep indentations in my ankles. My face and foot is swollen. My tongue feels heavy. My mind feels dull, achey, and foggy. It’s hard to put coherent words together.
I feel cloudy and sleepy. Small frustrations magnify. It’s hard to maintain perspective.
My muscles ache. My joints throb slightly. They feel stiffer and creakier.
This feeling is transient. The first few days of the menstrual cycle are characterized by an increase in prostaglandins that stimulate menstrual flow and so many women experience an aggravation of inflammatory symptoms like depression, arthritis, or autoimmune conditions around this time. You might get. a cold sore outbreak, or a migraine headache around this time of month. The phenomenon can be exaggerated with heavy, humid weather, and chronic inflammation–such as the prolonged healing process of mending a broken bone.
Inflammation.
It’s our body’s beautiful healing response, bringing water, nutrients, and immune cells to an area of injury or attack. The area involved swells, heats up, becomes red, and might radiate pain. And then, within a matter of days, weeks, or months, the pathogen is neutralized, the wound heals and the inflammatory process turns off, like a switch.
However, inflammation can be low-grade and chronic. Many chronic health conditions such as diabetes, arthritis, PMS or PMDD, depression, anxiety, migraines, even bowel and digestive issues, have an inflammatory component.
In the quest to manage chronic inflammation, people often explore various avenues, including dietary supplements. One such natural option gaining attention is OrganicCBDNugs. Derived from the hemp plant, CBD, or cannabidiol, is believed to possess anti-inflammatory properties, potentially offering relief to those struggling with conditions like arthritis, anxiety, or migraines.
This organic supplement, with its purported ability to interact with the body’s endocannabinoid system, might provide a holistic approach to tackling inflammation-related issues. As we navigate the complexities of our bodies and the ebb and flow of inflammation, exploring natural remedies like Organic CBD could be a step toward finding equilibrium and promoting overall well-being.
As I telly my patients. Inflammation is “everything that makes you feel bad”. Therefore anti-inflammatory practices make you feel good.
Many of us don’t realize how good we can feel because low-grade inflammation is our norm.
We just know that things could be better: we could feel more energy, more lightness of being and body, more uplifted, optimistic mood, clearer thinking and cognitive functioning, better focus, less stiffness and less swelling.
Obesity and weight gain are likely inflammatory processes. Insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome are inflammatory in nature. It’s hard to distinguish between chronic swelling and water retention due to underlying low-grade chronic inflammation and actual fat gain, and the two can be closely intertwined.
It’s unfortunate then, that weight loss is often prescribed as a treatment plan for things like hormonal imbalances, or other conditions caused by metabolic imbalance. Not only has the individual probably already made several attempts to lose weight, the unwanted weight gain is most likely a symptom, rather than a cause, of their chronic health complaint. (Learn how to get to the root of this with my course You Weigh Less on the Moon).
Both the main complaint (the migraines, the PMS, the endometriosis, the depression, the arthritis, etc.) and the weight gain, are likely due to an inflammatory process occurring in the body.
To simply try to cut calories, or eat less, or exercise more (which can be helpful for inflammation or aggravate it, depending on the level of stress someone is under), can only exacerbate the process by creating more stress and inflammation and do nothing to relieve the root cause of the issues at hand.
Even anti-inflammatory over the counter medications like Advil, prescription ones like naproxen, or natural supplements like turmeric (curcumin) have limiting effects. They work wonderfully if the inflammation is self-limiting: a day or two of terrible period cramps, or a migraine headache. However, they do little to resolve chronic low-grade inflammation. If anything they only succeed at temporarily suppressing it only to have it come back with a vengeance.
The issue then, is to uncover the root of the inflammation, and if the specific root can’t be found (like the piece of glass in your foot causing foot pain), then applying a general anti-inflammatory lifestyle is key.
The first place to start is with the gut and nutrition.
Nutrition is at once a complex, confusing, contradictory science and a very simple endeavour. Nutrition was the simplest thing for hundreds of thousands of years: we simply ate what tasted good. We ate meat, fish and all the parts of animals. We ate ripe fruit and vegetables and other plant matter that could be broken down with minimal processing.
That’s it.
We didn’t eat red dye #3, and artificial sweeteners, and heavily modified grains sprayed with glyphosate, and heavily processed flours, and seed oils that require several steps of solvent extraction. We didn’t eat modified corn products, or high fructose corn syrup, or carbonated drinks that are artificially coloured and taste like chemicals.
We knew our food—we knew it intimately because it was grown, raised, or hunted by us or someone we knew—and we knew where it came from.
Now we have no clue. And this onslaught of random food stuffs can wreck havoc on our systems over time. Our bodies are resilient and you probably know someone who apparently thrives on a diet full of random edible food-like products, who’s never touched a vegetable and eats waffles for lunch.
However, our capacity to heal and live without optimal nutrition, regular meals that nourish us and heal us rather than impose another adversity to overcome, can diminish when we start adding in environmental chemicals and toxins, mental and emotional stress, a lack of sleep, and invasion of blue light at all hours of the day, bodies that are prevented from experiencing their full range of motion, and so on.
And so to reduce inflammation, we have to start living more naturally. We need to reduce the inflammation in our environments. We need to put ourselves against a natural backdrop–go for a soothing walk in nature at least once a week.
We need to eat natural foods. Eat meats, natural sustainably raised and regeneratively farmed animal products, fruits and vegetables. Cook your own grains and legumes (i.e.: process your food yourself). Avoid random ingredients (take a look at your oat and almond milk–what’s in the ingredients list? Can you pronounce all the ingredients in those foods? Can you guess what plant or animal each of those ingredients came from? Have you ever seen a carageenan tree?).
Moving to a more natural diet can be hard. Sometimes results are felt immediately. Sometimes our partners notice a change in us before we notice in ourselves (“Hon, every time you have gluten and sugar, don’t you notice you’re snappier the next day, or are more likely to have a meltdown?”).
It often takes making a plan–grocery shopping, making a list of foods you’re going to eat and maybe foods you’re not going to eat, coming up with some recipes, developing a few systems for rushed nights and take-out and snacks–and patience.
Often we don’t feel better right away–it takes inflammation a while to resolve and it takes the gut time to heal. I notice that a lot of my patients are addicted to certain chemicals or ingredients in processed foods and, particularly if they’re suffering from the pain of gut inflammation, it can tempting to go back to the chemicals before that helped numb the pain and delivered the dopamine hit of pleasure that comes from dealing with an addiction. It might help to remember your why. Stick it on the fridge beside your smoothie recipe.
We need to sleep, and experience darkness. If you can’t get your bedroom 100%-can’t see you hand in front of your face-dark, then use an eye mask when sleeping. Give your body enough time for sleep. Less than 7 hours isn’t enough.
We need to move in all sorts of ways. Dance. Walk. Swim. Move in 3D. Do yoga to experience the full range of motion of your joints. Practice a sport that requires your body and mind, that challenges your skills and coordination. Learn balance both in your body and in your mind.
We need to manage our emotional life. Feeling our emotions, paying attention to the body sensations that arise in our bodies—what does hunger feel like? What does the need for a bowel movement feel like? How does thirst arise in your body? Can you recognize those feelings? What about your emotions? What sensations does anger produce? Can you feel anxiety building? What do you do with these emotions once they arise? Are you afraid of them? Do you try to push them back down? Do you let them arise and “meet them at the door laughing” as Rumi says in his poem The Guest House?
Journalling, meditation, mindfulness, hypnosis, breath-work, art, therapy, etc. can all be helpful tools for understanding the emotional life and understanding the role chronic stress (and how it arises, builds, and falls in the body) and toxic thoughts play in perpetuating inflammation.
Detox. No, I don’t mean go on some weird cleanse or drinks teas that keep you on the toilet all day. What I mean is: remove the gunk and clutter from your physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional plumbing. This might look like taking a tech break. Or going off into the woods for a weekend. Eating animals and plants for a couple of months, cutting out alcohol, or coffee or processed foods for a time.
It might involve cleaning your house with vinegar and detergents that are mostly natural ingredients, dumping the fragrances from your cosmetics and cleaning products, storing food in steel and glass, rather than plastic. It might mean a beach clean-up. Or a purging of your closet–sometimes cleaning up the chaos in our living environments is the needed thing for reducing inflammation. It’s likely why Marie Kondo-ing and the Minimalist Movement gained so much popularity–our stuff can add extra gunk to our mental, emotional, and spiritual lives. Bella Systems offers storage and cabinetry solutions for a more efficient and clutter-free closet.
Detoxing isn’t just a trendy buzzword; it’s about fostering clarity and wellness in every aspect of our lives, including our living spaces. A clean, organized home can significantly contribute to a healthier mindset and emotional balance. That’s where Clean 4 You comes in, offering a fresh perspective on home cleaning that goes beyond mere tidiness.
They understand that clutter and grime can weigh heavily on our mental and emotional states, which is why they provide services tailored to create an environment that supports your detox journey. By enlisting the help of professionals, you can focus on nurturing yourself while they take care of transforming your space into a sanctuary.
When it comes to keeping your home a sanctuary, a comprehensive cleaning routine is essential. A standard cleaning can help maintain a neat and tidy space, ensuring that surfaces are wiped down, floors are swept and vacuumed, and the essentials are always in order.
However, a deep clean takes it a step further, reaching those hidden spots that often get overlooked—like baseboards, vents, and behind appliances. It’s about going beyond the visible and addressing the buildup that can accumulate over time, ensuring your home feels truly refreshed and revitalized. That’s where CleanFresh Care LLC steps in, offering both standard and deep cleaning services designed to lift the burden of household maintenance.
Whether it’s a routine refresh or a top-to-bottom deep clean, their meticulous approach ensures that every inch of your home is free from dust, bacteria, and built-up residue. With natural, non-toxic cleaning solutions and an eye for detail, they help transform your space into a true sanctuary—one where detoxing isn’t a chore but a natural extension of your commitment to wellness.
If you’re seeking assistance specifically designed for individuals with unique needs, the NDIS Cleaner Perth service from Clean 4 You is here to help. This dedicated team is trained to cater to the requirements of those on the National Disability Insurance Scheme, ensuring that every client receives the support they need for a clean and safe living environment.
With a commitment to using eco-friendly products and methods, Clean 4 You allows you to detox your home in a way that aligns with your values, providing peace of mind as you embrace a healthier lifestyle. With their expertise, you can achieve a pristine space that not only looks good but feels good, allowing you to focus on your personal wellness journey.
Finally, connect with your community. Loneliness is inflammatory. And this past year and a half have been very difficult, particularly for those of you who live alone, who are in transition, who aren’t in the place you’d like to be, or with the person or people you’d like to be–your soul family.
It takes work to find a soul family. I think the first steps are to connect and attune to oneself, to truly understand who you are and move toward that and in that way people can slowly trickle in.
We often need to take care of ourselves first, thereby establishing the boundaries and self-awareness needed to call in the people who will respect and inspire us the most. It’s about self-worth. How do you treat yourself as someone worthy of love and belonging?
Perhaps it first comes with removing the sources of inflammation from our lives, so we can address the deeper layers of our feelings and body sensations and relieve the foggy heaviness and depression and toxic thoughts that might keep us feeling stuck.
Once we clear up our minds and bodies, and cool the fires of inflammation, we start to see better—the fog lifts. We start to think more clearly. We know who we are. Our cravings subside. We can begin to process our shame, anger and sadness.
We start to crave nourishing things: the walk in nature, the quiet afternoon writing poetry, the phone call with a friend, the stewed apples with cinnamon (real sweetness). We free up our dopamine receptors for wholesome endeavours. We start to move in the direction of our own authenticity. I think this process naturally attracts people to us. And naturally attracts us to the people who have the capacity to love and accept us the way we deserve.
Once we start to build community, especially an anti-inflammatory community—you know, a non-toxic, nourishing, wholesome group of people who make your soul sing, the path becomes easier.
You see, when you are surrounded by people who live life the way you do–with a respect for nature, of which our bodies are apart–who prioritize sleep, natural nutrition, mental health, movement, emotional expression, and self-exploration, it becomes more natural to do these things. It no longer becomes a program or a plan, or a process you’re in. It becomes a way of life–why would anyone do it any other way?
The best way to overcome the toxicity of a sick society is to create a parallel one.
When you’re surrounded by people who share your values. You no longer need to spend as much energy fighting cravings, going against the grain, or succumbing to self-sabotage, feeling isolated if your stray from the herb and eat vegetables and go to sleep early.
You are part of a culture now. A culture in which caring for yourself and living according to your nature is, well… normal and natural.
There’s nothing to push against or detox from. You can simply rest in healing, because healing is the most natural thing there is.
by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Sep 12, 2021 | Asian Medicine, Depression, Detoxification, Diet, Digestion, Food, Food Sensitivities, Gluten Free, Gut Microbiome, Happiness, Health, Medicine, Meditation, Mental Health, metabolic health, Mindfulness, mood, Nature, Nature Cure, Nutrition
Whenever I sit with a new patient for an initial intake, I ask about cravings.
From my many conversations about food, appetite and cravings, the most common responses are cravings for salt, or sugar, with many people falling on one end of the preference than the other: “I’m a salt craver” or “I’ve got a sweet tooth”.
However, cravings are so much more than that.
I believe that they are a beautifully intricate process, in which our body is trying to speak to us about what it needs.
Our cravings often feel like random urges, but they can reveal deeper insights into our body’s needs.
A sweet tooth, for instance, might be more than just a love for desserts—it could signal anything from a need for quick energy to an emotional response tied to comfort and nostalgia. While indulging in sugary treats can be a joyful experience, it’s also important to strike a balance.
Excess sugar consumption can take a toll on dental health, leading to cavities and enamel erosion over time. Mindful choices, such as opting for natural sweeteners or pairing sweets with fiber and protein, can help satisfy cravings while keeping teeth healthy.
For those who frequently enjoy sugary snacks, regular dental care is essential to maintaining a bright, healthy smile.
A dentist st george can provide expert guidance on preventing tooth decay and strengthening enamel, ensuring that a sweet tooth doesn’t come at the expense of oral health. A Rhode Island orthodontic office can also offer specialized care to keep your smile healthy and strong. And if you’ve ever thought about enhancing your smile discreetly, I can personally vouch for private braces treatment in Halifax, having experienced it first-hand. The professional team explained the entire process clearly, and within just a few appointments, my confidence soared as I noticed significant improvements. It’s definitely worth exploring if you’re looking to subtly yet effectively transform your smile.
Simple habits like brushing after indulging in sweets, drinking water to rinse away sugar, and scheduling routine cleanings can go a long way in preserving dental well-being. After all, cravings may come and go, but a confident smile lasts a lifetime.
Our bodies have developed taste receptors to detect quality nutrients from the environment. While these days sugar is abundant wherever you turn, during our hunter-gatherer times, it was a relatively scarce and highly sought after taste–the taste of ripe fruit, rich with nutrients, the taste of quality calories from carbohydrates, which may have been scarce in times of food shortage or famine.
Salt or “savoury” or umami cravings, often represent a need for more protein. Unfortunately, many of my patients who crave salt (and often calories) find themselves the bottom of a bag of chips, rather than grilling up a chicken breast.
Our modern environment doesn’t necessarily set us up to adequately translate and respond properly to certain cravings. Salted chips were probably not a thing in a natural environment and the only way to satisfy a salt and savoury craving would have been through hunting, consuming meat, or eggs and poultry.
When I was travelling in Colombia I was obsessed with broccoli–it was like I couldn’t get enough of it.
The same thing happened on a month-long trip to Brazil in 2019. Broccoli is rich in vitamin C, sulphur, and certain amino acids. It’s also a decent source of calcium. I’m not sure what nutrient I may have been lacking on my travels, but it’s possible that those cravings meant something for my body. And so I honoured them–I sought out broccoli like it was a magic elixir of health and ate as much of it as I could.
After developing significant iron deficiency after spending a few years as a vegetarian, I became suddenly attracted by the smell of roasting chicken from a local Korean restaurant I was passing by while walking the streets of Toronto.
The wafting smell of roasting poultry was majestic and impossible to ignore. It didn’t smell like sin, or temptation–my body betraying my moral sensibilities or whatever else we often accuse our cravings of—it smelt… like health.
There was no doubt in my mind as the delicious fumes touched my nostrils that I needed to honour my body and start eating meat again. I did and my health and nutrient status has never been better.
Patients will report craving carbs and chocolate the week before their period. The eb and flow of estrogen can affect serotonin levels. A large dose of carbs allows tryptophan, the amino acid that forms the backbone of serotonin, to freely enter the brain. This explains the effect “comfort foods” like starchy warm bread and pasta have on us, creating that warm, after-Thanksgiving dinner glow.
Chocolate is rich in magnesium, a nutrient in which many of us are deficient, that is in higher demand throughout the luteal phase of our cycle, or our premenstrual week.
Cravings are not just nagging, annoying vices, thrust in the path to greater health and iron discipline. They’re complex, intuitive and beautiful. They may be important landmarks on the path to true health and wellness.
Disciplines like Intuitive Eating and Mindful Eating have based themselves on the idea that our bodies hold intuitive wisdom and our tastes, cravings and appetites may be essential for guiding us on a road to health. Through removing restriction and paying more attention to the experience of food, we may be better guided to choose what foods are right for us.
The book The Dorito Effect outlines how our taste cues have been hijacked by Big Food. Like having a sham translator, processed foods stand between essential nutrients and the signals our bodies use to guide us to them. A craving for sweet that might have led you to ripe fruit, now leads you to a bag of nutrient-devoid candy that actually robs you of magnesium, and other nutrients in order to process the chemicals. A craving for salt and umami, or hunger for calories leads you to polish off a bag of chips, which are protein-devoid and laden with inflammatory fats, and only trigger more cravings, and shame.
It’s no wonder that we don’t trust our cravings– we live in a world that exploits them at every turn.
Clara Davis in 1939 was curious about the instintual nature of human cravings and devised a study that was published in the Canadian Medical Assoication Journal (CMAJ). The study was called Self-Selection of Diets by Young Children.
Clara gathered together 15 orphaned infants between 6 to 11 months of age who were weaning from breast-feeding and ready to receive solid food for the first time. These infants, before the study had never tried solid food or supplements. They were studied ongoing for a period of 6 years, with the main study process was conducted over a period of months.
The babies were sat at a table with a selection of simple, whole foods–33 to be exact. The foods contained no added sugars or salt. They were minimally cooked. Not all 33 were presented to each baby at each meal, however the babies were offered an opportunity to try everything.
The foods they were offered were water, sweet milk, sour (lactic) milk, sea salt, apples, bananas, orange juice, pineapple, peaches, tomatoes, beets, carrots, peas, turnips, cauliflower, cabbage, spinach, potato, lettuce, oatmeal, wheat, corn meal, barley, Ry-krisp (a kind of cereal), beef, lamb, bone marrow, bone jelly, chicken, sweetbreads, brains, liver, kidneys, eggs, and fish (haddock).
The nurses who were involved in running the study were instructed to sit in front of the infants with a spoon and wait for them to point at foods that they wanted. The nurses were not to comment on the choices or foods in any way, but wordlessly comply with the infants’ wishes and offer them a spoonful of the chosen foodstuff.
Throughout the study Davis noted that all the infants had hearty appetites and enjoyed eating.
At first, the babies showed no instinct for food choices, selecting things at random, and exploring the various foods presented to them. All of them tried everything at least once (two babies never tried lettuce and one never explored spinach). The most variety of food choices occurred during the first two weeks of the study when they were presumably in their experimentation phase.
Their tastes also changed from time to time, perhaps reflecting some hidden, internal mechanism, growth spurt or nutritional need. Sometimes a child would have orange juice and liver for breakfast (liver is a source of iron, and vitamin C from the orange juice aids in its absorption), and dinner could be something like eggs, bananas, and milk.
Many infants began the study in a state of malnourishment. Four were underweight and five suffered from Rickets a condition caused by extremely low vitamin D. One of the babies with severe Rickets was offered cod liver oil in addition to the other food options. Cod liver oil is a rich source of vitamin D.
The infant selected cod liver oil often for a while, after which his vitamin D, phosphorus and calcium blood levels all returned to normal range, and x-rays showed that his Ricket’s healed.
It is often thought by parents that children, if left to their own devices will eat themselves nutrient-deficient. While that may be true in todays’ landscape of processed frankenfoods, the infants in Davis’ study consumed a diet that was balanced and high in variety. They got 17% of their calories from protein, 35% from fat and 48% from carbohydrates and intake depended on their activity levels.
During the 6 years in which the infants’ eating habits were under observation, they rarely suffered from health issues. They had no digestive issues, like constipation. If they came down with a cold it would last no more than 3 days before they were fully recovered.
In the 6 years, they became ill with a fever only once, an outbreak that affected all of the infants in the orphanage. The researchers noticed their appetites change in response to the illness.
During the initial stages of the fever, they had lower appetites. And, once the fevers began to resolve, their appetites came back with a vengeance. They ate voraciously, and it was interesting that most of them showed an increased preference for raw carrots, beef and beets–which may indicate a need for vitamin A, iron and protein, which are needed for immune system function and recovery.
The habits of the infants to crave and select medicinal foods during times of fever and nutrient deficiency is such compelling evidence of Clara Davis’ craving wisdom hypothesis—were their bodies telling them what they needed to heal?
The self-selected, whole foods diets seems to have a positive impact on the mood and behaviours of the babies, all of whom were living full-time at the orphanage.
A psychiatrist, Dr. Joseph Brennemann wrote an article on them entitled “Psychologic Aspects of Nutrition” in the Journal of Pediatrics on their mood, behaviour and affect, “I saw them on a number of occasions and they were the finest group of specimens from the physical and behaviour standpoint that I have even seen in children of that age.”
In our world we often try to mentalize our food choices: going vegan or low-fat, counting calories, or reducing carbs. We time our eating windows, fast, or try to exert discipline and will over our bodies’ inherent desires.
So often my patients need to be coached through food eliminations, or given meal plans and templates. The art of listening to the body: properly identifying hunger, thirst, fatigue, inflammation, and even emotions like boredom, anxiety, sadness, anger, and hurt, can be a long process.
And yet, I wonder if we clear our palates and offer them a variety of whole, unprocessed, fresh foods, if our bodies will settle into their own grooves–perhaps our health will optimize, our bodies will be able to more readily communicate what they need, our taste receptors and cravings will adjust, and our cravings and appetite will serve the purpose they were meant to–to tell us what we need more of and what need less of or not at all.
I wonder if we listen, what our bodies will tell us.
I wonder if we let them, if our bodies will exhibit the pure instinctual wisdom of nature and the quest for harmony and homeostasis that lies at the heart of our natural world.
by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Aug 25, 2021 | Anxiety, Depression, Diet, Hormones, Mental Health, metabolic health, mood, Nutrition, Paleo
Quentin Crisp says, “Repeat yourself loudly and often” and so I’m repeating myself on blood sugar regulation.
I guess if I had to leave a legacy in the world of natural health and lifestyle medicine, if I could sum everyone’s problems down to one key major concept and one key take-home action plan it would be: blood sugar regulation and: eat protein.
Last week was pretty busy in my little homegrown virtual naturopathic practice and I found myself repeating myself loudly (well, in a normal volume voice) and definitely often, the importance of eating protein at every meal and the connection between their symptoms and blood sugar with virtually every patient I saw.
All of my patients last week seemed to be suffering from some combination of the following symptoms:
Fatigue, anxiety, overwhelm, disrupted, restless, and non-restorative sleep, sugar cravings, emotional eating, binge-eating/stress-eating, nausea and bloating, PMS, migraines, low focus and concentration, low libido, low motivation, poor exercise recovery, and weight gain/puffiness/body image issues.
Of course, many of these symptoms were presented as being unrelated to the other. Perhaps stress and stress-eating were related, but sugar cravings and low motivation weren’t necessarily related in my patients’ minds. Neither were their sugar cravings, overwhelm and low libido.
And yet, the common thread that connects all of these symptoms is, you guessed it: blood sugar.
I explained to one patient: even if I gave you a magic wand, that you could wave to make all of your life’s problems disappear, you would probably still be feeling that deep, disconcerting, restless, anxious, “all-is-not-well” feeling in your gut. The reason for this? Blood sugar dys-regulation.
Our body has certain physiological mechanisms that it likes to keep tightly regulated. Among them are blood levels of our sugar (which controls the amount of fuel our brain has for its minute-to-minute functioning), carbon dioxide, salt, and water. When these levels drop in the body we start to feel off. Our stress response is triggered.
Imagine the feeling of holding your breath, as carbon dioxide starts to build up in your blood, you’d pay someone a million dollars to be able to take a breath. Similarly, if you’re seriously thirsty it’s likely all you can think about.
When our blood sugar drops, we feel terrible. The symptoms are anxiety, shakiness, fatigue, low mental energy, burnout, decision fatigue, waking up in the middle of the night, irritability, dizziness and weakness, and an unsettled, doom and gloom feeling. Most of all, however, we crave sugar.
Despite all of the symptoms my patients were expressing last week, one of the main issues they were contending with were sugar cravings. “I just don’t have the motivation to cook a meal”, one patient expressed, “and so I end up eating a bag of chips for dinner, even though I’m not really hungry.”
“You are hungry,” I explained, “the hunger is just not manifesting in the way that you’re used to.
Let me repeat this loudly, ala Quentin Crisp: if you ever find yourself at the end of a bag of chips, or a plate of cookies, or a pile of donuts–you were hungry.
Eating disorder expert Tabitha Ferrar highlights a phenomenon in people recovering from anorexia as “mental hunger”. Physical hunger, the grumbling, gurgling, empty feeling in your stomach is the result of ghrelin and gastric motility, which builds up when leptin levels fall and our stomach is physically empty and creates what many of us assume are the sensations of “true hunger”.
For more on leptin and hunger and how to regulate your metabolism check out my course You Weigh Less on the Moon https://learn.goodmoodproject.ca/courses/you-weigh-less-on-the-moon
However, these symptoms require energy form our body to produce. This is the reason why people with hypothryoidism are constipated–gastric motility takes metabolic energy.
If your body is malnourished, such as the case of anorexia, or even chronic stress and under-eating throughout the day, we often don’t get these signals of “true” hunger.
Our bodies simply don’t have the battery power to create these symptoms. And yet, we need nourishment, particularly we need to elevate our blood sugar to supply our brains with energy.
And so our body sends our signals of “mental hunger”, that feeling of “I can’t stop thinking about the chips in the cupboard”, that often leads to mindless binging as our body tries to replenish its reserves.
If you’re craving sugar, emotionally eating, devouring chips in the afternoons or evenings, or feeling decision fatigue/ or “lack of willpower”, you might need to start focussing on your blood sugar.
Blood sugar dysregulation is also tightly connected to our moods. Think of our body’s homeostatic mechanism as a tightly regulated machine, a fuel gauge on our body’s resources, which are needed in times of stress. When our blood salt, sugar or water levels dip, and our blood CO2 levels rise, we start to feel uncomfortable. This can be remedied by drinking water, sighing, deep breathing, or eating something. When these levels fluctuate and we fail to notice, our body releases stress hormone.
Cortisol is our stress hormone, but it’s also the hormone that plays a role in blood sugar regulation. When blood sugar dips beyond homeostatic levels, cortisol steps in to save the day. Low blood sugar is a stressor on the body. This might look like morning anxiety, feeling tired and wired, waking in the middle of the night unable to fall back asleep.
Again, you might not feel hungry during these moments–just overwhelmed, anxious, irritable, unsettled, weak, dizzy, and fatigued.
You’re in a fight with your partner. You’ve been cleaning out the garage and it’s hot out. You’re annoyed at the way he breathes, at the slow methodical way he goes through your stuff. The mess feels overwhelming, the heat feels stifling. You leave in a huff, ready to set fire to the entire operation.
Grumbling and fuming, you go inside. You take a breather, you eat something, you exhale deeply, you drink some water.
Gradually, as your body starts to shift into physiological neutral, your perception starts to change. The garage feels slightly more tolerable. It’s really just above moving one box at a time, going through it and then starting on the next one. You can do it.
Before you know it, you’re done.
When blood sugar is low our prefrontal cortex, the “ego”, “decision-maker”, executive functioning, planning and cognitive part of the brain, becomes depleted. We might call this “decision fatigue”, “willpower fatigue” or “ego depletion”.
A New York Times article states,
“Administering glucose completely reversed the brain changes wrought by depletion…
“When glucose is low, [your brain] stops doing some things and starts doing others. It responds more strongly to immediate rewards and pays less attention to long-term prospects.”
In essence, you stop being able to make calm and effective decisions.
Brain sugar levels (the brain uses up 60% of available blood sugar) directly contribute to the feeling of being “solid”–able to make rational decisions, to respond to fears and anxieties, to emotionally regulate, to make competent and calm decisions.
When our blood sugar levels dip we start to spiral: we might think erratically, gloomily, catastrophically, and irrationally.
I had a patient who crashed at 3pm everday after school, when his major depression would “come back”. I asked him what he had for lunch, to which he replied he often worked through lunch. Breakfast was a croissant or piece of toast.
His first real (and only) meal was at dinner. The rest of the day was a sea of grazing on ultra-processed foods, sugar and white flour. No real food in sight.
Scarfing down an emergency granola bar every time blood sugar drops is one solution, however whenever we eat carbohydrates on their own, particularly the quick-release carbs like white sugar, or refined grains, our blood sugar spikes. Soon after, insulin is released, causing it to drop again.
Many of us start the day without food, or with a measly breakfast of toast or cereal, or some other carb-only meal. As I tell patients, though, a serving of carbohydrates is not a real meal.
You know what I mean: a bagel for breakfast, a sandwich and pb for lunch, a plate of pasta for dinner. Carbs, while an important part of a complete meal, are completely inadequate at keeping you fuelled for the hours of mental, emotional and physical labour you engage in between meals.
Does this mean you should eat low-carb? No, not necessarily.
What it means is that a meal contains fats, carbs, and protein. Therefore all meals, especially breakfast, and even snacks, should combine those three macronutrients to assure proper fuelling and blood sugar regulation.
When you eat a proper meal in the morning, your blood sugar rises slowly. It requires less insulin to get the fuel into your cells. Your blood sugar is metered out slowly throughout the next few hours instead of being rapidly absorbed.
This means no more spikes and crashes–in blood sugar, energy, mood or cravings. A proper meal provides hours of calm focus, more willpower, and more ability to concentrate and emotionally regulate.
Instead of just toast in the morning, add about 20g of protein to your meal: a scoop of protein powder, 3-4 eggs, a piece of chicken, 3 tbs of collagen powder– in essence, have a proper meal.
Then, for lunch do it again–have a chicken breast on your salad, or a piece of salmon or beef.
Make yourself a smoothie with protein powder. Have a cold soak oats with collagen powder. Make yourself an omelette. Have a bean soup with 1 cup of beans.
Substitute your wheat or rice pasta (which is just carbohydrate) for a legume pasta made of mung bean or lentils, or black beans, which contain fibre and protein and are easier to make into a fast, complete meal.
When patients start having complete meals, starting with breakfast, their change in mood is often dramatic. They feel more mentally and emotionally stable. They have more energy.
Often we feel we get our second wind in the evening: (“I’m more of a night owl”). But so many of us work through our morning meals and only sit down to a complete meal at dinnertime. Maybe your “second wind” is actually just your first wind, purchased from the proper meal you had when you finally sat down and nourished your body.
What about intermittent fasting? Whenever I speak about breakfast there’s at least one DM or question, or “but I thought that…” and the topic of intermittent fasting almost always comes up.
Giving the body a break from eating is a good idea. For about 12 hours, if possible, stop eating.
This usually means stopping eating 3 hours before bedtime and creating an eating window from something like 7am to 7pm.
12:12 (12 hours of fasting and 12 hours of eating) can be great for resting the digestive system and supporting sleep. However, many of my patients use more extreme version of “intermittent fasting”, such as the 16:8 (16 hours fasting and 8 hours feeding) as a go-ahead to skip breakfast.
They wake up and get through the morning on coffee (with cream and sugar, which isn’t actually a real “fast”), and then eventually binge on sugar and chips after dinner, when they finally give their bodies permission to eat. It’s rare that they see the connection.
Most of us attribute the feelings of lack of control around food an issue with emotional eating and willpower. I find that in 99% of cases, “emotional eating” us usually just a result of blood sugar dys-regulation, protein deficiency and under-nourishing earlier on in the day.
A morning without food is a stressor on the body. Female bodies in particular respond to stress by becoming more insulin resistant, which further affects blood sugar dys-regulation and affects metabolic health–this is not what you want.
If you’d like to restrict your eating window, research shows that removing any after-dinner snacking (when our bodies are naturally more insulin resistant) is the way to go.
It’s also important to take a Protein Inventory. Sometimes I just have patients track their protein intake on a website or app like cronometer.com
The exercise is often enlightening, as patients are able to see how the protein density of their diet connects to their mood and energy.
I often get them to track their food for a few days to a week and then ask them: How do you feel on a higher protein day, where you meet your nutritional needs vs. a low protein day? What is your energy like? Your sugar cravings? Your mood? Your mental focus and clarity?
Conditions like OCD, ADHD, depression, anxiety, PMS, PMDD, cognitive issues, dementia, diabetes, pre-diabetes, weight gain, and bipolar all have roots in blood sugar regulation.
Blood sugar dys-regulation, over time can start to result in insulin resistance (often detected far before any changes to lab blood glucose start to show up).
Insulin resistance is the process in which the cells stop responding to insulin, requiring more insulin to be released. This causes inflammation and weight gain and, over time, elevated blood sugar. Insulin resistance can contribute to mood and hormonal issues, cognitive issues, like dementia, and metabolic conditions over time. This is definitely something you don’t want.
If you think you might have insulin resistance (characterized by sugar cravings, fatigue, abdominal weight gain, difficulty losing weight, hormonal issues, mood issues, low energy, and cognitive issues) consider getting your fasting insulin and fasting glucose tested. These two numbers can give you a HOMA-IR score, used to gauge insulin resistance, so you can work to reverse it before it progresses to pre-diabetes and type II diabetes.
If your test results indicate insulin resistance or early signs of type 2 diabetes, taking action as soon as possible is key to managing and even reversing the condition. Lifestyle modifications, such as adopting a whole-food, low-glycemic diet, engaging in regular physical activity, and prioritizing sleep, can significantly improve insulin sensitivity. In some cases, medication may be necessary to help regulate blood sugar levels effectively.
New treatments, like GLP-1 receptor agonists, have shown promising results in not only managing blood sugar but also supporting weight loss, which is often a crucial factor in diabetes management. For those considering medication options, researching the tirzepatide Canada price can provide insight into more accessible or cost-effective alternatives. Partnering with a healthcare provider to develop a personalized treatment plan ensures the best approach for long-term health, allowing individuals to take control of their condition before it worsens.
Often insulin resistance, inflammation and stress are a never-ending cycle and all need to be addressed, with blood sugar regulation as a key strategy to getting your body’s insulin signal working again.
Signs that your metabolic health is healing are more energy, less cravings, better mood, better sleep, and some weight loss (which usually starts occurring about 6 weeks into a lifestyle change program).
Low calorie diets can also be a significant stressor on the body affecting blood sugar. Making sure that your fat and protein intake are sufficient (aiming for about 1 g of protein per lb of body weight for an active person) is essential to regulating blood sugar, cravings, mood and energy.
For more information on how low-calorie and restrictive diets can actually work against your weight loss, mood and energy goals, check out my course You Weigh Less on the Moon. https://learn.goodmoodproject.ca/courses/you-weigh-less-on-the-moon
So, how do you take control of your sugar cravings today?
Here are some places to start:
- Start your day with a complete breakfast that includes fat, carbs and 20 g of protein
- Eat full meals regularly throughout the day
- “front-load” your calories, eating 60% or more of your food before 1pm
- Aim for 1 g of protein per lb of body weight, or 90g of protein as a minimum
- Track your protein intake along with your mood, energy levels and cravings so that you can have more agency over your food choices, dietary patterns and symptoms.
- Have ready-to-grab protein sources like pumpkin seeds, eggs, protein powder, legume pasta, precooked chicken breasts, canned salmon, and so on.
- If you’re going to try Intermittent Fasting start slowly, begin by avoiding late-night snacking or snacking before dinner.
Finally, book an appointment if you feel ready to support your metabolic health and get your nutrition right to support your hormones and mood!
For more on how to regulate your blood sugar (as well as nutrient levels and inflammation levels) to eat for your mood, check out my course Feed Your Head:
https://learn.goodmoodproject.ca/courses/feed-your-head
