Category: Health

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What’s the Hype with Chia Seeds?

Chia seeds are known to have been consumed since the 13th century by Aztec cultures for the strength, stamina, and endurance that they provided to their people. One tablespoon alone of chia was enough to sustain Aztec warriors for an entire day! The seeds were also used as medicine and prescribed for wounds, joint pain, sore throats, and sore eyes. Those ancient aztec warriors were clearly onto something. Made into a pudding, sprinkled into smoothies or salads, or added to baked goods, these seeds are nutritional powerhouses that can add benefits to our health. They are a great source of plant based omega 3 fatty acids (bonus for brain health), can improve blood sugar control (more steady energy and mood), feed healthy bacteria in the gut such as lactobacillus and help maintain bowel regularity to name just a few ways we can improve our health with consumption of these tiny seeds! These seeds they are so shelf stable (lasting up to 2 years) they make a super smart addition to anyone’s plant based pantry. 

My favorite way to consume chia seeds is with chia pudding at breakfast – try this recipe, which is so basic and takes just a few minutes to assemble. A weekly staple in my fridge for a healthy breakfast, grab and go snack, or even dessert. Your taste buds will be happy, the microbes in your gut health will flourish, and your mood and energy will be stable thanks to all the delicious fiber and the blood sugar regulation benefits chia seeds offer. Click here for this easy and delicious recipe.

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Is your child getting enough Omega 3?

Research has shown that consuming 1-2 grams of omega 3 fatty acids per day can help improve mood, attention, and hyperactivity in kids. For parents who wish to improve the quality of life and mental health status for a child who has emotional and behavioral issues, this is a key nutritional area to focus on.

Omega 3 fatty acids can be found in certain foods such as salmon, sardines, avocado, walnuts, flaxseeds, chia seeds and dark leafy greens. EPA and DHA (found in fatty fish) specifically are the long chain fatty acids associated with anti inflammatory and neuroprotective effects.

Recognizing the challenges associated with getting kids to ingest fish regularly, fish oil supplementation can be a substitute for food sourced EPA and DHA. Here is a supplement from Nordic Naturals I give to my daughters and also recommend to families for their kids (age 12+) given it is third party tested and has a mild lemon taste that doesn’t offend.

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How Does Food Effect Sleep?

And how does sleep effect nutrition? What is the connection and why does it matter? 

Research suggests that our circadian rhythm plays an important role in digestive physiology. When we don’t honor the natural cycle our bodies are meant to follow on an evolutionary basis (eating during daylight hours vs late night and sleeping on a diurnal, nocturnal schedule) we can end up with suboptimal digestion plus disturbances in sleep patterns, potentially causing alterations in the gut microbiome that over time can even lead to digestive disorders such as IBS and IBD. 

Human studies have demonstrated that lifestyles associated with later bed times night are associated with lower levels of melotonin production, making it harder to fall asleep and stay asleep. And when we wake up after a poor night of sleep, this has a downstream effect on our body’s ability to balance blood glucose levels (impacting mood, energy, cravings) as well as hormones involved in the metabolic processing of food and appetite regulation (ghrelin and leptin). 

If you have kids involved in sports after school you know first hand that by the time the games and practices are over, and you are home trying to make dinner, its well into the evening and you are lucky to have a hot family meal on the table before 8pm. 

So what to do? Try earlier meals whenever possible to sync with the body’s natural prime time for digestion. Putting a soup or stew together in the slow cooker or instant pot can help reduce the time spent preparing meals after a long day and speed up serving a nutrient dense dinner. Also encourage kids/family members to eat more nutrient and energy dense foods earlier in the day – this will be easier on digestion since it is aligned with circadian rhythms and lead to better quality sleep. It can be a vicious cycle with late night meals/poor sleep quality/compromised digestion- but one that can be fixed with a proactive approach, grounded in knowledge on WHY it matters!