Shots and Bone Broth

It is that time of year.. Everything is ‘going around.’ Kids have runny noses and adults are waking up with scratchy throats. Pharmacies everywhere are bombarding your senses with TV, radio and print ads to come and get your flu shot.

Over the last week, the topic of vaccination has come up frequently and I just had to write a little bit about it.

Choosing to get vaccinated is a personal decision. Please inform yourself and do what is best for you and your family.

Here is a little bit of information.

Every year the World Health Organization chooses the 3 viral strains that they think will be the most common for the season. Based off those predictions, drug companies will mass produce and distribute vaccines. Studies show that when the predictions are good and the vaccines are well matched to the viruses that are circulating, people who have been vaccinated are 50 to 60 percent less likely to catch the flu than people who are not vaccinated. That is when they guess right.

That is just one part of the picture. Every time you are vaccinated you are introducing chemicals into your body. There is a chance that your body my not react well to these chemicals.

Another factor to consider is that your body has many lines of defense against pathogens, not just antibodies. Vaccines encourage antibody production but they by-pass other parts of your immunity. Your skin, mucous membranes and natural flora provide physical and chemical protection against infections.

The immune responses initiated by cells lining the airways, skin and intestines are very important in creating "memory" and protection against the microorganisms you naturally come into contact with every day.

Research in this 2011 article from the Journal of Virology found that the seasonal flu vaccine may weaken childrens' immune systems and increase their chances of getting sick from influenza viruses not included in the vaccine. The unvaccinated children naturally built up more antibodies across a wider variety of influenza strains compared to the vaccinated group.

Instead of getting the flu shot, I take steps to ensure that my immune system is functioning as well as it possibly can be. I get my spine checked so that my nervous system can properly run my immune system. I get extra rest. I eat food that will ensure my immune system has all of the nutrients and energy it needs to be optimal. I also avoid things that cause inflammation (which is extra stressful to the immune system) – grains, legumes, processed vegetable oils and processed sugar all impair your immune system.

If I do feel that scratchy feeling coming on, my strategy is:

A Beef & Swiss Chard Soup made with Bone Broth

1)    See my chiropractor

2)    Whip up a crock pot of bone broth

3)    Go to bed early

Why bone broth?

Bone broth contains minerals in a form the body can absorb easily—not just calcium but also magnesium, zinc, phosphorus, silicon, sulphur and trace minerals. Your immune system needs these minerals to work properly.

 Broth also contains the broken down material from cartilage and tendons. This includes chondroitin sulphates, glucosamine and gelatin. Chondroitin sulphate and glucosamine are sold as supplements for arthritis and joint pain because they decrease inflammation.

Gelatin helps to heal leaky gut and contributes collagen which improves hair, skin and nails. It can help tighten lose skin. It also is anti-inflammatory.

Lots of people in the blog-o-sphere call bone broth a ‘Super Food.’

I really do not like the word 'Super Food.' Food is either healthy or it is not. Bone broth is contributes a wide variety of nutrients that help you immune system and body to work at its best. 

So instead of taking shots or drugs, I have found that the best thing for me is to meet my body's requirements and to build up my immune system against everything -- not just the flu.

Cheers!

To Candy or Not to Candy? That is the Question.

A couple of months ago I wrote a blog called Squishy Buns. This blog was about the dilemma I face when my niece comes over to my place. I know that her parents do not feed her By Design.

At home, she typically has all the bread, pasta, crackers and cereal her little heart desires. But when she comes to my house, it’s my rules. I have decided that I will not compromise my values and feed her food that I know to be unhealthy.

I have a similar dilemma with Halloween. The only difference is that I do not necessarily know these children.

So, do I hand out candy? Does it really make a difference if I add one or two more mini chocolate bars to the mountain of high fructose corn syrup that these children are collecting? If their parents do not care, why should I?

This is why: I am on a mission to change the world.  If I stop telling people the truth about food and health, if the other people like me step back and stop being ‘extreme’ and start falling in line with the cultural norm, then people in our society will continue to get sicker, our children will continue to have more diseases and shorter life expectancies. I am not okay with that. That is why I am a chiropractor. It is why I blog and coach and talk to as many people and families as I can reach.

It would violate my integrity to hand out candy.

I do still celebrate Halloween though. I love dressing up. I love ghost stories. I love seeing the creativity that other people have put into their costumes. 

What is it about Halloween that you love? Is it walking around the neighborhood seeing little princesses and goblins? Is it carving pumpkins? Is it seeing how excited your children get to dress up and be what ever they want for a day?

Can you ensure that you and your children get the fun out of this holiday while staying healthy? Or maybe this is one of those occasions where you do let lose and have some candy.

I am not trying to tell you what to do. I am hoping that you will put some thought into what your Halloween will bring and why you draw your lines where you do.

If you are looking for alternatives to candy, here are a few:

1)    Mini Lara Bars

2)    Snack Packs of Craisins, raisins or Other Dried fruit

3)    Halloween stickers

4)    Mini Play-Doh

5)    Fake tattoos

6)    Halloween themed plastic jewelry

What about for your own kids?

If you have like-minded friends, get together and have a Halloween party! Serve healthy snacks and let the kids play fun Halloween games.

If you do want to participate in trick-or-treating, here are some ideas for what do to with all the candy that your child receives:

1)    You might allow them to keep a few pieces and then trade in the rest to you for a quarter or a dime each. Then you can take them to the toy store or dollar store to get something fun!

2)    If you would rather not give each piece a dollar amount, offer your kids the choice to trade in all their candy for a trip to the toy store or for something else they have been really wanting.  A fun way to do this is to have a Halloween Ghoul (similar to the tooth fairy). The children put their bags of candy on the doorstep at night and in the morning the Halloween Ghoul has replaced the candy with a toy, movie tickets or something else your children will enjoy.

3)    Allow your children to donate the candy. There may be dentists in your city who participate in a Candy Buy Back. For each pound of candy they typically give $1. Many dentists will match the cash and donate it to a charity. Some also give raffle tickets for prizes and do other fun activities surrounding the buy back.

Break Ups and Bad Food

Before I get started with this blog, you should know that this is not going to be me rehashing some recent love life drama as the title might have led you to believe.

For those of you who do not know me (Dr. Justine), I am an unmarried, 26 year old chiropractor.

I am now at an age and place in life where many of my friends are either getting married or breaking up. Everyone is concerned with finding Mr. or Mrs. Right.

All of a sudden, many of my peers have decided we are too old to squander the prime years of our adulthood on someone who is not potential marriage material. So I have had MANY relationship talks with friends over the past few months.

Since I am always thinking about food and living By Design, it should not surprise you that I have started to see patterns in these relationship talks and have applied them to eating By Design.

How often have you said and/or heard someone say, “You should end it. Never stay in a relationship that does not make you happy. He/she is not good for you.”

Great advice! Look at the qualities of the person you are dating, determine how much their values align with yours, if they are not making your life better, it is time to walk away. Or you never should have dated them in the first place.

And hey, since you are single and emotional, we should eat a tub of Ben & Jerry’s and drink a lot of liquor.

It is funny how the principle behind this great relationship advice does not get applied to the other areas of peoples’ lives. Like health.

Can we talk about breaking up with bad food, like grains? Well-meaning advice: “You should end it. Never eat food that does not make you healthy. Grains are not good for you.” It’s the SAME advice. Look at the qualities of the food you are eating, determine how much value that food is adding to your health, if it is not making your health better, it is time to walk away. You never should have eaten it in the first place.

And whatever you do, DO NOT get back together.

We all know the on-again-off-again relationships always end badly. You say you want to end it, you say you know it is not the best thing for you, but you keep going back for the familiarity and the comfort. You do it even though it makes you feel crappy, even though it is a roller coaster ride of confusion, self-doubt and self-sabotage.

Eating unhealthy food is the same pattern of comfort seeking behavior. Every time you go back to it, for comfort and familiarity, you get burned. It does not feel good, it hurts your self-esteem, it confuses your body and sabotages your health goals.

In bad break ups and bad food, it is best to cut it off completely and never look back. It is hard, emotional and uncomfortable. But you CAN form new habits with food and people who are healthy for you and contribute value to your life.

Here is a fun activity:

Next time you catch yourself looking at a cup cake, piece of pie or chocolate chip cookie, which somehow got a million times more attractive since your ‘break up,’ think about how much better you are with out them in your life. And maybe, sing a little Taylor Swift – “Weeeeee are never, ever, EVER getting back together!”

What does food intolerance look like?

This week I was doing some reading and researching about great foods for babies. What should be introduced when and how different foods help to meet the requirements of a growing infant. One of the things I came across was a list of signs that indicate a baby is not tolerating a certain food well. Here is what was on the list:

·       Bloating

·       Gas

·       Irritability

·       Fussiness

·       Over-activity

·       Excessive waking/ Difficulty Sleeping

·       Constipation

·       Diarrhea

·       Frequent Spitting Up

·       Nasal or Chest Congestion

·       Skin rashes

There are a couple of things that I found particularly interesting about this list.

One, is that you can use an identical list when talking about food intolerances in older children and adults. The only change I would make is taking out ‘spitting up’ and adding in ‘difficulty focusing.’

Two, is that many of the things on this list are not signs that most people would immediately link to the idea of food intolerance.

In general, people tend to believe that if a food does not cause them to have stomach upset, diarrhea, bloating or cause them to go into anaphylactic shock, then they do not have any problems digesting it.

Studies have shown that all people experience disruption in their gut barrier when they eat grains. All people have an inflammatory reaction to this disruption. What this means is that all people have intolerance toward grains. However, not all people notice that they have had disruption or inflammation after they eat grains.

Inflammation is an interesting phenomenon. The signs and symptoms show up very differently from person to person. Some people experience joint pain and arthritic conditions, others have skin issues like acne and psoriasis. 

Unfortunately, most adults expose themselves to so many different stressors on a regular basis, it is difficult to connect any sign, symptom or condition that they have to just one factor. In addition, most people eat foods that cause inflammatory reactions so routinely that they think their body is behaving normally.

There is a big difference between your body behaving how it always does and your body functioning properly.

For the vast majority, it takes removing these offensive foods for a period of time before a person is able to connect the dots between the condition they were in and the food that they were eating.

Then, when the food gets added back in, WHAM! Nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach…diarrhea! (Yes, I did rip that off of a pepto commercial.) Or more subtly, skin break out, trouble sleeping, low energy in the middle of the day, or inability to focus on a task.

The point is, that every time I hear someone say “Ya, but I don’t have problems eating grains” almost invariably, after gentle inquiry, I will discover that they have at least one of the above mentioned signs that they eat foods that their body does not tolerate.

If you think this might be you, try taking the next few weeks without grains or legumes or low fat dairy in your diet. You will probably be surprised by the outcome!

If you need someone to talk to about it, to hold you accountable or work on some good strategies with you, I know a few great coaches who are more than happy to help!

Probiotics 101: Part 3

The last two blogs have been all about probiotics. Why they are good and why you might not have a healthy probiotic culture.

This post is about taking action. There are lots of links that you can follow for more information. Here are some steps you  can you do to get more probiotics:

If you are limited on time and are having difficulty getting your hands on good quality fermented foods, taking a probiotic supplement will be beneficial. 

There are plenty of probiotics on the market. A good supplement will indicate the number of live colonies in each capsule before its expiry date. Shoot for a brand that has several different types of bacteria with a minimum 10 billion per capsule and take the supplement daily. For children, I would recommend buying a probiotic powder that can be mixed into pureed foods or sauces.

One good product that I have looked into is VSL#3. This supplement comes in a powder and has 450 Billion live cultures per packet. For people who have significant GI problems or inflammatory conditions, who are aggressively trying to bring their gut flora back into balance, there is significant research behind this product.

Here are some links if you are interested in seeing some of the research:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23836895

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15984978

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19067432

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16903771

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24029785

That is all I want to say about supplements.

A better way to improve your gut culture is to eat probiotic foods. We only recommend supplements because people do not eat enough fermented foods.

It is always best to get nutrients from REAL FOOD. This is always our first recommendation. There are components in fermented foods that support the growth of the microbes. As well, there is a wider variety and greater number of bacteria in a small amount of food than you would receive in a supplement.

The vast majority of fermented foods that you can buy at the grocery store are pasteurized or contain preservatives that kill all of the bacteria. For this reason, I do not recommend that you purchase pickles or sauerkraut from you local store UNLESS they are a brand you know to be unpasteurized and preservative free. One great brand for pickles and saurkraut is Bubbies. I have seen this brand at several health food stores. You can find it in the fridge. Here is a link to their page http://www.bubbies.com/bubbies_products.shtml

Good options for probiotic foods include:

Sauerkraut (Unpasteurized and preservative free)
This is pickled cabbage that can be put on burgers or hotdogs or eaten as a side dish.

Pickles (Unpasteurized and preservative free)
Whether you like them sweet or dill, pickles contain a good amount of probiotics for your system.

Kimchi

Kimchi is a popular Korean dish that is fermented and pickled cabbage. It can be very spicy.

Olives (in brine, preservative free)
Olives in brine have large amounts of probiotics because the brine allows the probiotic cultures to thrive.

Yogurt
I rarely recommend that people eat yogurt. Most yogurts are filled with sugars and syrups. The milk is pasteurized and then probiotics are added back into it. If you are going to eat yogurt, look for high fat varieties that have natural ingredients and say “live and active cultures.”

You can ferment pretty much any combination of fruits and/or vegetables at home. Here is a link with more information and recipes: http://paleodietlifestyle.com/fermented-food-recipes/

Lastly.. my favorite source of probiotics:

Kombucha tea (fermented tea)

SCOBY

Kombucha is a fermented tea that is contains probiotics.  The production involves making sweetened tea, adding a SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast), and letting the SCOBY breakdown the sugar to produce a drink full of B vitamins, amino acids, organic acids, enzymes, and probiotics.

The SCOBY looks like a jellyfish or a mushroom.  It sounds kind of gross, but it is worth it!

Here is a link for making your own:  http://www.westonaprice.org/food-features/continuous-brewing-kombucha

You can buy bottled kombucha at many grocery and health food stores.

Make sure you check the labels. Some kombucha teas are loaded with sugar!

One last note, when you are introducing fermented foods, do it slowly. Give your body time to adjust. 

Enjoy!