Have you ever asked yourself if the benefits of organic food is worth the cost? Are you trying to eat healthy and wonder if going organic may be your next step?
Many people believe that it is enough to stop eating processed foods, focusing instead on eating meat, vegetables, and fruit. But is that really enough? What happens in our bodies when we are exposed to the toxins in conventional food sources.
Let’s take a look into this issue so that you can decide if the cost is worth the benefit!
A New Perspective
A few years ago, I was at a nutrition seminar when I had a “lightbulb” moment. The doctor speaking was explaining that toxins are stored in fat cells. Since the body is designed to protect itself, it creates a buffer from these toxins in the form of more fat!
People usually think that you put on fat when you consume too many calories. In reality, fat accumulates when our hormones and blood sugar are out of balance. What we eat impacts our hormones, and our bodies intentionally contribute to hormonal changes in order to try to protect us.
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Are you struggling to find quick snacks when you are on the go? Do you find yourself grabbing fast food or other processed snacks because they are easily available. Eating clean can take a little extra planning, but if we really want to take care of our bodies it is worth the effort.
Even when we try, it can be hard to find a great snack that is healthy and can be eaten on the go. That's why I am excited to share with you Paleo Valley Beef Sticks. They are a great clean protein made from grass fed cows. Their are five different varieties for you to choose from.
I want you to find good clean snacks so much that I bought a bunch to have in the office. Just ask me for one when you come in for your next appointment, and I will let you have one. Once you try them, you can decide for yourself if they are something that would keep you full and eating clean.
If you decide to order some, use this link and we will both get a coupon for $20 off!
Dr. Jamie
P.S. I would love to hear about your favorite snacks!
My husband and I are doing something called Whole30. It involves eating only meat, vegetables, fruit, tree nuts, seeds, and healthy fats for thirty days. So, we will not have sugar, grains, legumes, dairy, alcohol, or processed foods during January. Jared and I think it will be a good reset for our system after the holidays and get us eating a lot more veggies.
One of the hardest things is finding healthy shelf-stable snacks to eat on the go. I'm so glad that I found Paleovalley to help us with this. They provide nutrient-dense snacks that taste great and are free from ingredients we do not want in our bodies. They are great for anyone who wants to eat healthy.
The Paleovalley Story
Paleovalley was born from necessity when experts could not resolve co-founder Dr. Autumn Smith's severe digestive issues. After suffering for a decade, she experienced the transformation that came with an ancestral diet, which cured her IBS and led her to a career in holistic nutrition.
Frustrated by the lack of genuinely healthy food products, Autumn, her husband, brother-in-law, and a close friend, founded Paleovalley. Their mission is to offer nutrient-dense products that can enhance health, made with integrity and free from harmful ingredients.
Products
Paleo Valley Beef Sticks include five different varieties of great clean protein made from grass-fed cows. My kids prefer the original and the garlic summer sausage, but I like all of the ones we have tried. You can also choose pasture-raised chicken sticks, grass-fed venison sticks, or pasture-raised pork sticks.
Paleovally also makes superfood bars, organic supergreens, grass-fed bone broth protein, grass-fed whey protein, electrolytes, superfood golden milk, organic coffee, olive oil, and spices.
You can see the details about their products at Paleovalley.com
If you want to hear more about our Whole30 journey, just ask me about it at your next appointment. And, if you have any quick snack ideas, please suggest them!
Dr. Jamie
If you are trying to eat a healthy diet, you are probably aware that too much sugar spikes your blood glucose levels. This gives you a short boost of energy followed by a blood sugar crash that leaves you craving more sugary foods.
It can be very hard to eat healthy once you find yourself in this cycle. To help stabilize your blood sugar you may have tried to eat foods that have a low glycemic index. This makes sense because foods with a low glycemic index do not raise your blood sugar level as much as those with a higher rating.
But the glycemic index is not the best way to determine which foods are good for your body because it doesn’t give us a complete picture. Let’s take a look at a measure that is even more helpful for stabilizing your blood sugar and balancing your hormones than the glycemic index.
Insulin Index
Many people are familiar with the glycemic index, but very few have heard of the insulin index. While foods on the glycemic index have been categorized based on how fast they raise blood sugar, foods on the insulin index are categorized based on what these foods do to insulin levels.
Looking at insulin levels in the body is extremely important and can give us a fuller picture of what is going on within the body - but first we must understand what insulin is and how it works.
Insulin’s Role in the Body
Insulin is a fat-storage hormone that pushes sugar into the cells of the body to be used for energy. When we have excess insulin in our system for too long, we can become insulin resistant.
Insulin resistance causes us to need more insulin to handle the sugar in our blood. Unfortunately, the high levels of insulin cause your cells to be more resistant to insulin creating a vicious cycle.
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What if there was a way to lose weight without changing what you eat, taking any pills, or increasing the amount of exercise you get? It sounds too good to be true, but it isn’t!
Research has found a natural way to lose weight simply by changing when you eat the foods you normally eat.
Let’s take a look at this research to see the benefits of this method.
It’s All About Timing
If you’ve ever tried to lose weight, you probably have thought about WHAT you are eating, but perhaps you didn’t consider WHEN you were eating.
A study from 2013 looked at the difference between those eating a high caloric breakfast vs. those eating a high caloric dinner.
They split women into 2 groups. The first had 700 calories at breakfast, 500 at lunch, and 200 at dinner. The second group ate 200 at breakfast, 500 at lunch, and 700 calorie at dinner time. Both groups were on a reduced calorie diet of about 1400 calories.
The Big Breakfast Group
- Lost more weight
- Lost more inches at waist
- Had greater reductions in fasting glucose
- Had greater reductions in fasting insulin
- Greater decreases in triglycerides
- Had lower hunger scores and higher satiety scores
This study was on overweight and obese women.... BUT... another study had similar findings of better blood sugar and insulin control in lean women with PCOS.
Effects of caloric intake timing on insulin resistance and hyperandrogenism in lean women with polycystic ovary syndrome - PubMed (nih.gov)
So, they weren’t lying… breakfast really may be the most important meal of the day!
Dr. Jamie
One of the main concerns people have when trying to eat a nutrient-rich diet of whole foods is time! It takes time to plan a meal, shop for ingredients, prep the meal, and cook it. Even people who know food cooked at home is healthier option can feel overwhelmed by the time it takes to prepare a meal.
It is important to recognize this reality and look for ways to make cooking from scratch a little easier. Once we become more confident in our ability to create a tasty meal quickly, we will be less tempted to grab a meal of processed food.
Since fruits and vegetables are important ingredients in most real food recipes, learning to cut them quickly will be important.
Chopping Quickly by Hand
Learning to chop and dice vegetables is a game changer. If you are a slow chopper, making meals can seem to take forever. Cutting will go so much faster for you with the proper knife, a little practice, and the following cutting trick.
Let’s start by considering the best type of knife for the job. Many people feel more comfortable with smaller knives. But chopping will be quite a bit more efficient with a big sharp knife. It can be intimidating to use a large knife, but don’t let that hold you back from trying. Just start slowly as you get used to it, and before long you will be chopping like a pro.
Now that you have a good knife for the job, here is a trick that is especially helpful for those circular vegetables - onion, zucchini, carrot, eggplant - that keep rolling around as you try to cut them.
- Cut the vegetable in half long ways
- Place the flat sides down, so the food doesn't roll away from you.
- Make quick slices lengthwise.
- Slice in the other direction, across all the strips.
- Use them in your recipe or eat them straight.
It takes time to master any skill. But the more you chop, the faster you’ll get!
Using a Food Processor
Many people are intimidated to use a food processor, but it is such a helpful tool. It slices and shreds things so efficiently and evenly.
Once you set it up, you can slice (or shred) a bunch of vegetables really quickly. It’s helpful to think about what vegetables you will need for the next several days. Even if you aren’t ready to cook all your meals at once, you can prepare the vegetables. This keeps you from having to set up your food processor and clean it multiple times throughout the week.
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