What's New in Natural Foods

In This Issue:

Hello Everyone:

Stress happens. It’s an unavoidable fact of life. How you handle it makes the big difference.  As a natural food educator, I can steer you toward the kinds of foods that will help your body cope with stress better - so keep reading. You’ll learn that stress and immunity are closely related, which is a good thing to know with all the flu business going around. I want you and yours to stay healthy during the upcoming holidays, so I’ve provided some information to help you eat defensively. I’d also love to see you this month at my “Stress-Busting Foods” class at the Wedge in Minneapolis, or at the Weston A. Price Conference near Chicago, where I’ll be attending / teaching / exhibiting. Come say hi. And have a rich and warm Thanksgiving celebration.

Staying a Step Ahead of Stress

Your first line of defense in fending off the effects of stress is taking care of your adrenal glands!  The adrenals are two small glands that sit on top of your kidneys and are responsible for making special hormones, such as adrenaline, that help you manage stressful situations. Making sure the adrenals are nourished and have the raw materials they need to manufacture your stress hormones goes a long way toward helping you not feel burned out by stress. Some of the most important nutrients for the adrenals are:

Zinc is one of the building blocks necessary to create stress hormones, and it’s a key player in the immune system. You’ll find zinc in red meat, oysters, pumpkin seeds, egg yolk and liver. If you’re using up all of your zinc dealing with stress, your immune system can take a hit – and having low immunity due to stress is a well-documented condition. 

Cholesterol is one of the most valuable nutrients for coping with stress. As I have written before in this newsletter, cholesterol is not the culprit it’s made out to be. You’ll find the necessary cholesterol in animal products, including butter, eggs, liver and bacon. Known as “the mother of all hormones,” deficiencies in cholesterol can rapidly lead to adrenal depletion.  Low cholesterol levels are associated with anxiety, depression, irritability and feelings of being overwhelmed.

Vitamin A is needed every step of the way when your adrenals convert cholesterol into the hormones you need to cope with the regular stressors of life, as well as the extraordinary ones. Our bodies can make vitamin A from beta-carotene, a nutrient found in orange colored vegetables and fruits (carrots, yams, apricots, etc.) as long as we have enough healthy fats in our diets. If you’ve been under a lot of stress, I recommend getting your vitamin A from animal foods, because our bodies can use it more easily: butter, full fat dairy products, fatty fish (or fish oils), eggs & liver.

The B vitamins are another essential nutrient for adrenal health and overall anti-stress benefits. Luckily, they’re found in a wide variety of natural foods: whole grains, red meats, poultry, dairy products, nuts and seeds and most vegetables, especially green ones. Virtually all of the B vitamins are particularly  concentrated in liver. Note: refined carbohydrates, such as sugar, corn syrup, white rice and white flour products, deplete our tissues of B vitamins, as does caffeine. 

Learn more and ask questions
If you’d like to learn more about what and how to eat when you’re under stress, come to my “Stress Busting Food” class at the Wedge Co-op Wednesday, November 11th  in Minneapolis. You can register by phone by calling the Wedge: 612-871-3993.

Flu Defense: 5 Natural Weapons

With all the hype about H1N1 these days it seems we have forgotten that whether or not you choose to vaccinate, there are ways to prevent flu naturally. Here are my top five dietary recommendations:

1. Healthy gut flora is our first line of defense in protecting us from pathogenic organisms that cause illness. Keep your gut flora in good shape by enjoying probiotic foods such as unpasteurized sauerkraut (or your favorite home made lacto-fermented fruits and vegetables), kefir, yogurt and miso – pick up more details here.
   
   
2. Vitamin D increases our bodies’ production of antimicrobial proteins that destroy cell walls of viruses, including influenza. Our bodies make vitamin D from fats and cholesterol when we are exposed to sunlight, but how many of us are spending a lot of time outside year-round?  It’s difficult to get enough D from food alone (D is found in butter, egg yolk, fatty fish, liver, and in lamb, beef and pork fat), so I recommend taking a cod liver oil or fish oil supplement.
   
   
3. Zinc, as noted above, is essential for the immune system.
   
   
4. Avoid refined foods such as white flour products, white rice, corn syrup, sugar and refined vegetable oils (soy, corn, canola).  These foods damage our gut flora, deplete our bodies of nutrients we need to stay healthy, and depress the immune system.
   
   
5. Coconut oil is a great source of lauric acid, a fat that has anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties. You can use it for cooking by itself or mixed with other oils. I like to scramble eggs in coconut oil mixed with butter – yum.  You can also use coconut oil topically as a moisturizer on your body and hands – protection from flu literally at your fingertips!

Nutritious November Meals

Make your meal times less stressful – let me do the planning.  Subscribe to Dinner with Jennette and you’ll have 12 new meals to choose from each month. Each easy-to-prepare meal plan comes with a shopping list to make getting dinner on the table even easier. The meal plans are all nutritionally balanced and loaded with nutrients that support adrenal health!

Many of this month’s Dinner with Jennette recipes would make great Holiday side dishes, as well as being delicious at everyday dinners too.  I’m thinking about including “Warm Spaghetti Squash Salad with Walnuts and Cilantro” at our Thanksgiving this year. I’ve also included a meal plan that is all holiday fare this month – why not add something new to your traditional Holiday table?  I recommend the “Pecan Crusted Pork Loin” – yum – and the “Cornbread and Roasted Chestnut Stuffing” – delicious and gluten-free (as all my recipes are) to boot!

Dinner with Jennette makes healthy eating fun and convenient. I invite you to join us!

Do you know others who are concerned about their food choices? Use the forwarding button to share this newsletter with them. And be sure to contact me with ideas about topics you’d like to see addressed in this publication.

Happy Thanksgiving,
Jennette