Healthy Game Day Snack Option: Eggplant Pizzas

Fall is coming and football season is now in full swing. Along with it comes the desire for fried chicken wings, pizza, and an abundance of chips.   Instead of turning to these processed, fake foods that will leave you feeling lethargic Monday morning, these Egg Plant Pizza’s are a great real food alternative that will satisfy the junk food craving in the football fans in our lives, without leaving the unpleasant side effects.

Mini Egg Plant Pizza’s

Ingredients:

• 1 whole egg plant (the wider the better for a bigger “crust”)
• Pizza sauce (homemade of look for one with only real food ingredients and no sugar)
• Cheese, preferably raw and organic (we LOVED the smoked cheddar on the ones pictured)
• Optional toppings (uncured pepperoni, onion, bell pepper, mushrooms, etc)

Directions:

Slice egg plant into ¼ to ½ inch thick slices. Lay slices in a single layer on top of paper towels. Sprinkle eggplant slices generously with sea salt and let sit for 30-60 minutes. This step is VERY important to remove moisture from your eggplant, otherwise they will be soggy. After 30-60 minutes, blot egg plant with towels to remove excess water. Place in a single layer on a baking sheet and cook at 375 for 25-30 minutes. Once cooked, top egg plant slices with pizza sauce, cheese, and toppings as desired.   Place under broiler for 5-10 minutes. Check every couple of minutes to avoid burning. Enjoy!

Article by: Joelle Kurczodyna, NTP

Pregnancy Series Part 2: Pregnancy and Digestion

Naturally Minimizing Nausea, Constipation, and Heartburn

Before we get into the specifics of pregnancy and digestion, for anyone wanting a healthy pregnancy, first following the diet and lifestyle components that we discussed in the first post is critical.  In fact, often doing those things will eliminate these other common pregnancy complaints.

Ok, back to pregnancy and digestion. Because each of these digestive conditions are unique and have different causes in the body, we will cover ways to naturally minimize nausea, constipation, and heartburn individually.

Nausea

This unfortunate side effect in pregnancy is experienced by up to 90% of pregnant women ranging from food aversions, nausea, and vomiting, according to Midwife Meghanne Reburn. Thankfully, this symptom is typically constrained to the first trimester and can by managed with some easy actions.

The most common argument for why pregnant women experience nausea and food aversions are to protect themselves from potential unwanted toxic or harmful food that could affect the growing baby. The most common aversion that women experience is to meat, which is the place that the most bacteria and parasites would reside in the food of our ancestors before modern storage techniques were developed. The body, in its genius, knows that these are potentially harmful substances and through aversions and nausea specifically lets the woman know to stay away!  This is why women have a hypersensitive sense of smell during pregnancy, so they can sniff out any potentially rotten food to avoid.  However, we know that meat is an important part of a healthy diet so check out the helpful food tips at the bottom for ways to include more protein in your diet.

Additionally, women tend to experience more drastic symptoms of nausea when blood sugar levels are low. In general, the blood sugar levels in pregnant women run higher than normal to supply enough energy to the growing baby.  Therefore, when blood sugar drops, the body uses nausea to signal to the woman to eat because the baby needs some more fuel. Because of this, it is important that during pregnancy to not let yourself get too hungry as this could cause a sudden and unwanted bout of nausea and sickness.

Helpful Food Tips to Reduce Symptoms of Nausea:

• Always carry snacks with you to prevent yourself from getting too hungry (nuts, hard boiled eggs, veggies and guacamole, or fruit with nut butter are good options)
• Creamy foods tend to be easier for women to tolerate in the first trimester – I lived off of cauliflower mash, full fat yogurt, avocado pudding, and baked sweet potatoes with butter.
• Scrambled eggs are a good alternative to meat. Extra yolks are great for adding important nutrients.
• Smoothies made with full fat coconut milk, nuts or nut butter, fruit, greens, and some gelatin to keep blood sugar stabilized.
• Sip on some bone broth throughout the day is a great way to increase nutrients and avoid nausea.
• Small amounts of ginger root have been known to be effective in reducing nausea.

Constipation

That’s right, we are going to talk about poop. Pregnancy related constipation effects around 40% of women at some point. This constipation is caused by those lovely pregnancy hormones, specifically progesterone. During pregnancy, your body produces more progesterone. The main job of progesterone during pregnancy is to relax muscles. The relaxing effects of progesterone balance out the muscular uterus and prevent you from going into premature labor. A very important and necessary job! Unfortunately, progesterone’s muscle relaxing powers can also have the same affect on other parts of the body, like relaxing the muscle contraction (peristalsis) of the colon. Peristalsis contributes to easy to pass stools, so when it is relaxed; those stools have a harder time coming out.  

What can I do about it?

• Remove processed foods to help your bowels function most efficiently
• Drink plenty of water, which helps to make stools softer and easier to pass
• Engage in light exercise like walking or yoga, this can stimulate peristalsis and more regular bowel movements
• Magnesium supplementation stimulates peristalsis by drawing water into your bowels. I’ve had tremendous success with Natural Calm Magnesium sold at most health food stores.  With magnesium supplementation, start small (begin with 1/2 tsp and work your way up to 2 tsp) if you notice loose stools, lower your dose.
• Healthy gut flora can aid bowel movements tremendously. You can increase your beneficial gut flora by eating plenty of probiotic rich food like whole milk yogurt, kefir, or sauerkraut and taking a quality probiotic supplement.

Heartburn

That darn progesterone is at it again, this time moving its relaxing powers to the esophageal sphincter. This is the muscle between your esophagus and your stomach that ensures that once food is swallowed, it stays in the stomach along with all of the acid in the stomach needed for proper digestion. When progesterone relaxes this sphincter, it can cause it to open letting acid from the stomach up into the esophagus (aka heartburn). This, in combination with the growing baby pushing up on your stomach leaving a smaller area for food cause this very common pregnancy system, especially later in gestation.

It is important to remember that heartburn is not caused by the stomach producing too much stomach acid. This acid is crucial for the proper digestion of food. The heartburn is simply caused by the relaxation of the sphincter that holds that acid where it should. Therefore, I would not suggest taking antacids or other heartburn medication as this can cause poor digestion and sub optimal ability for the body to absorb nutrients. Check out this great video to learn more about the importance of stomach acid in digestion.

Instead, try these simple tips to help keep heartburn at bay:

• Eat smaller meals throughout the day to prevent excess food in the stomach and a greater likelihood of heartburn.
• Avoid drinking with meals as this can also cause the stomach to be overly full, leading to heartburn. Instead, drink water throughout the day. As a bonus, this will help with hydration and bowel movements.
• Eat SLOWLY and chew your food well. I know this can be difficult for a hungry, pregnant women but it can work wonders at preventing heartburn and other digestive stress.
• Sit after meals, don’t lay or sleep. This is simply letting gravity do its job.
• Keep a food journal for a few days and keep track of what foods trigger heartburn and avoid these.

Keep in mind that these symptoms are extremely common in pregnant women. By eating a nutrient dense diet and reducing stress like we talked about in this post and following the suggestions listed here should greatly help in reducing these unpleasant pregnancy side effects. Have more questions or want to learn more? We’d love to hear from you!

Article by: Joelle Kurczodyna, NTP

photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/29333334@N06/3158385504

References: Reburn, Meghanne. "Troubleshooting Your Digestive Issues: Tips for Common Digestive Issues in Pregnancy (part 4)." Balanced Bites. N.p., 30 June 2013. Web. 18 Sept. 2015.

Pregnancy Series Part 1: 6 Tips to Get Pregnant Naturally

How can your diet and lifestyle affect your chances of getting pregnant and the health of your future baby?

Something that we are passionate about here at DuPage Family Wellness is the health of the whole family. One specific aspect that has been near and dear to our hearts of late is creating and raising healthy babies and children. As we are both currently pregnant, we are going to take the next several weeks to do a series specifically on tips to achieving and having a healthy pregnancy. We realize that this might not directly impact all of you but you probably know of a close friend or family member that it would, so please pass along this information.

Even if you aren’t trying to get pregnant, these six tips are important for everyone!

Like many others out there, my personal journey to getting pregnant wasn’t a one and done sort of thing. You can read more about my story here. There were three years and lots of tears, sadness, and pain along the way. However, I also learned more than I could have imagined, grew more than I knew possible, and have been completely changed as a result. My hope in this post is to share what I learned along the way that I believe played a huge part in allowing me to conceive and have a healthy pregnancy.

1. Eat the RIGHT Fat…and lots of it!

This is definitely number one because fat in the diet is critical for rebuilding cells and making hormones. However, not any fat will do. Our bodies were not created to consume the fats that man created in the vegetable oils that we have been told are healthy. These processed vegetable oils are not stable and oxidize easily, leading to inflammation and cell mutation. “When these oils are incorporated into cells in reproductive tissue, some evidence suggests that this can spur problems like endometriosis and PCOS” (From this article). What our bodies WERE created to consume are the healthful, unprocessed saturated and monounsaturated fats. These fats are stable and can be used by the body to create healthy cells and hormones.

Man Made Unhealthy Fats to Avoid-  vegetable oil, peanut oil, canola oil, soybean oil, margarine, shortening, or anything with the words "hydrogenated" or "partially hydrogenated" on the label

Healthy Naturally occurring Fats to Enjoy in  Abundance-  coconut oil, real butter, olive oil (unheated), omega-3 containing fish, and healthy sources of animal fats (beef tallow, pork lard, duck fat, bacon grease, etc).

2. Eat Real, Unprocessed Food.

I love NY Times Best Selling Author, Michael Pollan’s quote, “Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.” This is what I mean by eating real, unprocessed food. If it didn’t exist when your great-grandmother was alive, don’t eat it. The processed food industry boomed with the industrial revolution in the early 1900’s. Along with it, boomed the modern diseases so common today (infertility, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, etc). If it comes in a package and has more than a few of ingredients, it’s not worth eating. These foods are often devoid of nutrients that the body is able to recognize and absorb and often have ingredients that are actually toxic to the body. We cannot expect our body to work optimally if we are not giving it the necessary building blocks from high quality proteins, beneficial fats, and nutrient rich vegetables.

3. Ditch the Sugar

This goes hand in hand with eating real foods. Too much sugar has been known to cause infertility in both men and women because it causes insulin resistance and changes to estrogen and testosterone levels. You can read more about the detrimental effects of sugar here and here.

4. SLEEP!!!

The topic of sleep deserves an entire post in itself but especially when trying to restore hormone levels and build healthy babies, sleep is so important. When we sleep, this is the time the body has to work on all of the repairing, rebuilding, and detoxifying that needs to happen from the stresses of the day. If we don’t give our body the optimal quality and quantity of sleep, we can’t expect it to be running on all cylinders. Being in bed by 10 pm and getting at least 7-8 hours of quality sleep is crucial.

5. Remove the Stress.

Nowadays, stress comes at us from every which way. Whether from our morning commute, a fight with a friend or family member, a stressful job, or experiencing some sort grief or loss (ahem, infertility), stress is everywhere. Our body was not created to handle the constant stress whether from physical, emotional, or environmental causes that we are throwing at it today. This especially can throw off the hormonal system as the body will prioritize addressing these stresses over reproductive function. I know stress can be a difficult thing to avoid but working to remove stress by taking 20-30 minutes every day to relax and do something that is restful and enjoyable to you can make a big difference. As a side note, I do not find in coincidental that my baby was conceived shortly after leaving a stressful work environment.

6. Move your Body, Healthily.

Exercise can be a great thing; however, it can also be a stress on the body if it is done too intensely for too long while not being supported nutritionally (you can read about that in my story). Moving your body in a way that is fun and stress relieving like walking, swimming, or even playing can greatly support systems of the body, including the reproductive system.

I am confident that following those 6 principals were paramount to my success in conceiving and having a healthy pregnancy. However, I want to stress that depending on where you are coming from, incorporating these things will not guarantee getting pregnant over night. In fact, I would recommend committing to them (both male and female) for at least 6 months to a year before even beginning to try to conceive to ensure that your body is in the best possible position to support you and a healthy baby. Have more questions or want to learn more about increasing your fertility and having a healthy baby? Call or email us today!

Healthy Food Prep Tip for the Week: Make a Giant Salad!

I must admit, that while I try my best to eat healthy, one of the hardest obstacles is having food prepped and ready to go. Oftentimes I find that I have about 45 seconds left to pack a lunch in the morning before work. Other days, my husband gets home from work after his long commute, and is famished when dinner is not quite ready. Having a ready made option in the fridge during times like these is a lifesaver!

I find that our healthy diet stays on track so much better when I have at least 1 bulk made dish prepped and ready to go to supplement the other food that we eat!

Last week, this item was… The Giant Salad!!

Ingredients for Salad

2 Large Heads of Romaine Lettuce (washed, dried, chopped)

2 Large Avocados (diced)

5 Slices of farm fresh bacon (cooked and diced)

Chicken (I used the leftover shredded meat from a half chicken that we cooked the day before)

2-3 Tomatoes (diced)

4 Hard Boiled Eggs (peeled and diced)

Ingredients for dressing (Homemade Honeymustard)

1/4 Cup Apple Cider or White Vinegar (I used champagne vinegar) or juice from a lemon or lime

1/2 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2 Teaspoons Dijon Mustard

2 Teaspoons Honey

1 Teaspoon minced garlic

Salt and Pepper to Taste

All I did was prep and chop all of the ingredients, and toss them in the largest glass bowl that I own. I love the large bowl from this set that is 4.5 quarts and has a lid.  I use this separate container to make and mix my salad dressing so that the salad doesn’t get soggy. That way I can add as much as I’d like when I am ready to have some salad. Making my own salad dressing allows me to avoid the unhealthy processed ingredients in most store bought dressings. The dressing container that I linked to even has the recipe and fill lines for honey mustard and a few other dressings right on the side of the container.

The possibilities for a salad like this are endless! You can try different forms of protein (steak would be delicious!). If you want to add some crunch, try adding whatever nuts you like. Some other vegetable options are zucchini, cucumber, olives, sweet peppers, onions, mushrooms, carrots, broccoli, etc. You can mix up the greens by trying spinach, kale, or other leafy greens. If you don’t do well with cheese or eggs simply leave these ingredients out and add some others! The proportions listed above were simply what I did, but use whatever you have and whatever you like! The beauty of something like this is that you really can’t screw it up, and you can make it different every time you make it!

Good luck, be creative, and enjoy!