Why Vitamin C is not going to save us
Amongst the immediately sold out items during the panic buyer season were Vitamin C supplements. Fear goes around for surging prices of citrus fruits.
While it is generally a fabulous item to buy, undoubtedly more useful than toilet paper, I hate to break it to you, buying a Vitamin C supplement is merely a drop on the hot stone. You have to follow swift by adjusting certain lifestyle factors.
1) No lemon is going to save you if you follow it up by a big junk food meal. Nutrition is key.
2) Did you know that your gut is home to approximately 80% of your immune system?
So what we put into our stomach in form of food ultimately will impact the immune system. You can feed the friendly gut bacteria and boost your immune system or feed the little opportunistic buggers. Your choice.
We have all heard about inflammatory food. I suppose we can all agree that it is the kind of food we don’t currently want to consume.
We don’t want our immune system distracted by heavy meals, food additives and preservatives. We want our gut to be strong and responsive.
3) Ever thought about it why some people respond to stress with diarrhea? Gross, I know. Well, in ancient times when we would be confronted by a fight or flight situation, such as a bear chasing us, we would literally run and burn off the cortisol and adrenaline, produced by our adrenal glands.
These days we sit at our desks and sofas, scroll through social media and get stressed by data overload. The brain doesn’t know the difference between a real threat or merely the imagination of it whilst reading about it. So where does the cortisol and adrenaline go? Well a big part is handled by the gut, hence the response. However, the gut can only do one thing at the time digest or deal with all these other situations, which will weaken the gut over time.
4) Work with our circadian rhythm or body clock. Its an ancient clock in all of us. It makes sure our body is working for us and not against us, we should honor that. There is a time for healing, recovering and resetting and most of that happens during the night while we are asleep. Ever heard the saying sleep heals all wounds …well there you have it. A rested sleep is of utmost importance for our health and wellbeing. If you have difficulties falling asleep, staying asleep or feeling rested after sufficient hours of sleep then your circadian rhythm is disturbed. By the way, so is your cortisol level and adrenal gland function as they play a role in our sleep-wake-pattern. In that case time to get help, early help can fix the problem easily. Let me tell you, I have been there from adrenal fatigue via insomnia to burn out.
5) Opt up the good health it doesn’t matter what lifestyle diet you want to follow they come in many names but most have this in common they recommend: -No dairy as its mucus forcing -No gluten -No processed sugar or any of its evil 60 siblings with high fructose corn syrup amongst THE worst. -No processed food or anything that doesn’t resemble food in the fresh section -Enriched food we don’t really know what artificial vitamins do to our body -food dye and coloring Lets promote real food with single ingredients aka fruit and vegetable
6) Then there is the whole topic of Alkaline forming foods. Where there is alkalinity there is no disease. Sadly, it isn’t so straight forward as it seems. For example, the gut is not alkaline its quiet acidic, so drinking or eating products that have an alkaline pH- level is not cutting it. But there are alkaline forming foods, which help the body maintaining homeostasis. Those we want and like in our diet.
7) Drink more water. Drop the alcohol, coffee and soda consumption.
8) No smoking
I know that seems a lot and a daunting task but I have been in that situation and I can tell you if you know where to start its easier than you think. It all comes down to your own best motivation. Being healthier for the sake of my kids was reason enough. Did you know that the generation of our kids for first time in history has a lower life expectancy than we as parents do? I found that worrying Those that have worked with me know, I don’t like the phrase CAN NOT. Specifically if followed by can not EAT. We focus on nutritional upgrading our favorite meals by swapping or adding other ingredients. And the best I can help to add more goodness so you want crave the bad.
If you need help at any of the aspects, please contact me.
All lifehacks on how to stay sane in quarantine can be found here