Hydration- the key to all is H2O

Water plays the most important role of all the things that we take into our bodies from the external world and many Americans actually live in a state of chronic dehydration without even realizing it.

Besides making up about 60% of the body and being required by every cell in the body to function, it is also the solvent which allows us to absorb vital nutrients, like electrolytes and glucose and distribute them to our cells where they are used to make energy. Water is essential for digestion, lubricates the joints and improves blood circulation, helps regulate body temperature, flushes toxins out of the body, helps cells maintain their electrical properties, and many other vital functions. We can go up to eight weeks without ingesting food, but only mere days without water.

Just like with everything, individual requirements vary from person to person based on bio-individual needs, but there are a few good rules of thumb that may help you get the most from the water that you are drinking:

-       Most importantly, drink clean water!

o   The environmental working group has shown that there are as many as 38 low level contaminates (such as fluoride, disinfectants, arsenic, lead, medical waste, birth control, antibiotics, agricultural run-off, nitrates etc…) in our tap water. Berkey filters makes a great product that removes 99.99% of harmful pathogens from water, and another great way to get water is to go to find a spring and look for a local spring to visit and bottle your own water (preferably in glass for storage).

-       Add a pinch of unrefined Himalayan pink sea salt to your water

o   Adding a bit of sea salt that is high in mineral content to your water is a great way to increase the absorption of that water through electrolytes and also adds trace minerals such as potassium, magnesium and calcium.

-       Drink the bulk of your water away from your meals

o   The idea behind this is to avoid diluting your stomach acid, thereby negatively impacting digestion.

-       Don’t drink too much water

o   Consuming too much water can be just as harmful to your body as not getting enough. Most people should not be drinking more than a gallon per day, and it is most beneficial to drink water in small sips rather than chugging large amounts all at once.

FAT(ty Acids)- Friend Not Foe!

Fat is good for us, and so necessary for our bodies to thrive! We’ve been told for too long now to steer clear of fatty foods, to eat lean meats, low fat dairy, vegetable based oils, to skip the butter or worse to replace it with margarine. However, fatty acids are essential and when derived from high quality fat sources are critical to the health of all of our organ systems (most importantly our heart and brain), our endocrine system, the structure of our cells, our metabolic system, our microbiome and many other functions that our bodies carry out when they are working properly.

Fat is by far the most misunderstood of all of the macronutrients, particularly saturated fats (solid at room temperature and found generally in animal fat and tropical oils) and monounsaturated fats (olives, avocados, nuts etc.) which are vital for many of our body’s structures and functions. Our ancestors ate these foods in abundance and it wasn’t until the 1950’s that we became convinced through inaccurate science known as the “lipid hypothesis” that these fats were the cause of heart disease, high cholesterol, clogged arteries and obesity. Even though this theory has now been debunked for some time, people who were raised with this dogma have a very hard time coming back to the wisdom of their grandparents, especially since low-fat and “diet” foods are such a staple of food marketing.

The irony of these foods obviously being that when you take healthy fats out of foods, not only do they taste very bland and therefore need to be amended with synthetic flavors and sugar, but they also deprive the body of essential nutrients, weaken the overall cellular structure- thereby creating deficiencies which lead not only to disease, but also to eating much more food (generally refined carbohydrates and sugar) which in turn cause obesity (the outcome that those eating these foods were trying to avoid in the first place).

However,  not all fats are created equally. The Saturated fats found in animal lard or tropical oils do not go rancid easily and are safest for cooking, whereas monounsaturated fats like olive oil, avocado oil and some nut oils go rancid easily and should only be used for cooking at low temperatures. Polyunsaturated fats are fish oils, and seed oils (like flax). These oils, while imperative to our diets, are very unstable and go rancid easily when exposed to light, heat or oxygen, they should never be heated and always consumed raw. Another category of fats are those that are unsafe to consume under any circumstance and are ubiquitously found in most processed and prepared foods, including most restaurants. These are oils that have been extracted generally from genetically modified plants that are heavily sprayed with glyphosate, put through dangerous chemical extraction processes, then deodorized to mask their rancidity. They then sit on shelves in their clear plastic bottles absorbing petrochemicals, only for us to then turn around and use them at high heats which further damages these oils rendering them even more toxic. These oils are canola, soybean/vegetable, cottonseed, corn, vegetable shortening, and all partially hydrogenated oils. 

Digestion- "we are what we absorb"

Because every cell in our body relies on our ability to properly transform and transport the nutrients in our food, it is even more important to consider how this system is taking things in, than it is what we are putting into it.

Digestion is a north to south process, meaning that it starts in the brain with the thought, then sight and smell of food. Before our food even touches our tongue, digestive enzymes are being produced to start our food’s southern journey. Therefore, if any part of this system is in a state of dysfunction, the rest of the sequence is likely to experience some consequences as a result.

Digestion is a parasympathic process, meaning that we must be in a state of calm and rest to be able to properly digest. When we are in a cortisol-dominant sympathetic state, blood is shunted away from our digestive system and brought to the brain for focus and acuity, and the muscles for speed and strength. So while it may seem obvious that while running from a saber toothed tiger is not a great time to eat thanksgiving dinner, in our modern society we are actually doing some version of this almost at all times when we eat. Whether we are sitting at our desk between meetings, shoveling down refined carbohydrates, or feeling slightly annoyed at our children for picking out all of the ‘green things’ from their meal after we’ve had a long day of working and then laboriously preparing a nice dinner for them, simply put, if we are stressed we are not going to properly digest.

Therefore, it is certainly possible to have a really great diet and also experience symptoms like gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, IBS, heartburn, disbiosis etc… all of which likely indicate an imbalance in a northern aspect from where the symptom is showing up.

If you are experiencing digestive discomfort of any sort, try a combination of any or all of these simple things:

-       Really take in your food before you eat it. Take in the sight and smell of it, and think of all the ways you are grateful for the miraculous natural processes and human labor that went into bringing it to your plate.

-       Make time and space especially for eating, try to really give yourself enough time to chew your food fully (20-30 times/until it is the consistency of a smoothie) before swallowing. This is not only an important part of how carbohydrates are broken down, but also this chemical digestion happening in your mouth signals the start of gastric digestion in the stomach.

-       Use digestive bitters before a meal to boost HCL (which is how we digest protein and kill pathogens that potentially ride in on our food), to stimulate digestive enzyme production, and assist in signaling to the gallbladder to release bile which helps with fat digestion.

-       Papaya enzymes are great to take after a meal to further help with nutrient absorption and gastric signaling.