Back to school, Part One
By Dr. Brenda Gill
September is usually a time when everyone gets back into their routines, whether work, school or home. This a great time to think about setting a good foundation for the winter months ahead. Let’s start at the base of health- sleep.
It’s extremely important that everyone has at least 7-8 hours/night of non-interrupted sleep. This is the time children should be back in the habit of getting to bed early enough to get that 8-10 hours. If your children or yourselves have insomnia or wake at night, you need to seek ways to remedy this. The adrenal gland is responsible for handling stress and needs to recover at night. Consequently, it cannot repair itself when sleep is broken.
Some ways to minimize insomnia is reducing coffee to 2-3c/wk and drinking a calming tea instead, meditation/yoga/stress tapes or consider seeing a practitioner to see what strength of herbs and/or supplements would be best to support your adrenals.
Secondly is water. Many of us have a shower/bath everyday, so we should be cleaning the inside of our bodies as regularly by drinking 5-8 glasses/d. One of the easiest ways to make sure you get enough water is to carry a water bottle with you or have one you can fill on your desk. I find if you have to get up to fill your cup it doesn’t happen and most drink only 1-3c/d.
Water helps flush by-products, toxins and waste materials from the system regularly, helps prevent constipation and maintains all the fluid levels in your body. For example, did you know water helps keep the vertebral discs full to minimize back pain from rubbing vertebrae? A great water carrier is a “Nalgene” water bottle. It is a stable plastic that doesn’t leach into the water, like most do, and can be bought at any outdoor store. Always drink water and other fluids away from meals, otherwise, the salivary enzymes are diluted therefore reducing the proper breakdown of food in the mouth.
So, now we have laid a foundation, next we will discuss basic nutrient requirements and foods.
When I ask folks what they eat during the day, one of the common problems is lack of consistent protein at each meal. Three meals are extremely important, even if you are trying to lose weight, because it is the first meal that “starts the engines” in the body to burn the fuel. Therefore, by having breakfast, you increase your metabolic rate and start using up those calories. If you have a hard time with breakfast, a good start is a fruit smoothie made with soy or almond milk. You could also add an egg or almond/sunflower seed/cashew/macadamia butter or soy/rice protein powder for protein. This makes a light breakfast that you can take with you if necessary. Another possibility is a handful of raw nuts/seeds (excluding peanuts).
For those who like to have a more substantial breakfast, eggs, cereal with some nuts/seeds sprinkled on, pancakes/waffles with ground nuts/seeds, burritos all make great breakfasts. Note all these have some carbohydrate and some protein. Grabbing a bagel, muffin, or a piece of toast for breakfast is primarily carbs, which break down quickly and therefore raise your blood sugar too high. This results in getting that 11 o’clock fade, due to the blood sugar drop. These blood sugar fluctuations put too much load on the pancreas, which tends to lead to weight gain, irritability, mood swings, fatigue and diabetes.
Next time we will talk about lunch and dinner.
Brenda Gill is a naturopath practising in Rossland and Nelson.
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