8 Stress Causing Foods

8 Stress Causing Foods

Stress is a response we have to external factors but also internal factors like the food we eat. Certain foods are not well digested or processed in the body resulting in gut issues, inflammation, or hormone imbalances. Over time, the body responds in defense, and cortisol levels will increase. Cortisol is our stress hormone and when released too much, this can cause other imbalances in the body. Stress and gut health are tied very closely together so when a food negatively impacts the gut, our stress levels will increase.

The goal of gut health is to make our gut bacteria happy and to properly digest food. Our gut is lined with a variety of healthy bacteria which aid in the digestion and absorption process. Though we do not want to have too much or too little of the healthy bacteria, and we also need a broad diversity of different kinds of healthy bacteria. Certain foods can negatively impact these gut bacteria, resulting in painful symptoms like constipation, bloating, gas, or diarrhea, and over time with regular consumption, this can increase your stress levels. Note that the stress causing foods mentioned here can still be included in a healthy diet regime. It is just important to be aware of how frequently you are eating these foods to limit their consumption, but there’s no need to eliminate them.

8 Exercise Addiction Symptoms

8 Exercise Addiction Symptoms

While exercise is a beneficial habit to work into your lifestyle to prolong your life and decrease the risk of disease, it can become an addiction and cause issues. Decreased risk for cardiovascular disease, decreased blood pressure, decreased cortisol levels, improved sleep, and improved mental health are all evidence-based benefits of regular exercising. All able-bodied people should implement some form of exercise in their life when possible to reap these benefits, but some people take exercise to another level and it quickly becomes an addiction. Just like we should have a healthy relationship with food, we should have a healthy relationship with exercise. It should be done to make us happy and healthy, but we shouldn’t exercise because we feel like we need to. Addictions to exercise stem from bad relationships with food, bad body image, and false information from the media. Here we will discuss how to know what the exercise addiction symptoms are.

9 Reasons Why Alcohol Is Bad

9 Reasons Why Alcohol Is Bad

Alcohol can be enjoyed during celebrations and holidays for socializing, but it comes with a price to your health. It isn’t a surprise that alcohol is not the healthiest beverage to consume. The third most preventable cause of death is from alcohol-related causes coming in at 95,000 deaths per year. Drinking more than 4 alcoholic beverages for men and 3 for women per day is considered heavy drinking and can put high levels of harm on your body. Here we will discuss the reasons why alcohol is bad for your body.

Why Is Diet Culture Bad

Why Is Diet Culture Bad

In today’s society, many people only know how to eat if they are following a diet or meal plan. With so much misinformation and cherry-picked evidence, many companies have been able to profit off the average American’s little education on nutrition by selling diet books, pills, shakes, and meal plans. All of these without any professional unbiased review. Over the years, the diet culture and weight loss services have built up an empire industry of $2.6 billion in market size. One would hope that such a large industry would be in business to benefit the population. Unfortunately, this is not the case with diet culture because in reality, it causes you to have a worse relationship with food, your body, and your health. Diet culture is bad and it can and will take over one’s sense of self and their own health.

7 Best Probiotics for Gut Health

7 Best Probiotics for Gut Health

Gut health is extremely important for digestion, absorption of nutrients, stress levels, and mental health. Foods that contain probiotics help to maintain a healthy gut.

The intestines in our gut contain multiple tiny microorganisms, like bacteria, that are beneficial to improve the absorption of nutrients and defend against toxins. The balance of this bacteria is very important and it’s called the gut microbiome. Sometimes the good bacteria can decrease and the bad bacteria can increase, causing issues.

Probiotics help to support beneficial gut bacteria balance. The bacteria from the probiotics line the digestive tract and act as a defense against pathogens from passing through. Probiotics can help to reduce bloating, gas, and diarrhea by improving the bacteria balance in the intestines. Fermented foods are great probiotic food sources to help support a healthy gut microbiome. Fermentation is the process of a microorganism converting or breaking down a substance in a chemical reaction.

20 Reasons for Heavy Painful Periods

20 Reasons for Heavy Painful Periods

There are many reasons for heavy painful periods. While period cramps and heaviness are definitely common, that doesn’t mean that they are normal. Any sort of pain is a sign from your body to investigate an imbalance in the body.

Endometriosis is an extreme case of period pain and requires a medical diagnosis. This condition has life-disrupting period pain and heaviness characterized by a growth of uterine tissue somewhere else in the body.

A heavy period consists of...

1. A period lasting longer than 7 days

2. Losing more than 80 mL of blood per cycle (or 16 regular tampons or pads)

3. Changing tampons or pads every hour or two

4. Needing to double up on period protection products

5. Having to wake up to change your tampon or pad in the night

6. Planning activities around your heavy period

7. Blood clots the size of a quarter or bigger

10 Best Foods For PCOS

10 Best Foods For PCOS

PCOS, or polycystic ovarian syndrome, is a hormone-related condition that can affect your cycle and fertility. If untreated, PCOS can eventually develop and increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. It is diagnosed by having two out of the following three symptoms listed below. As a syndrome, there is a collection of symptoms that are patient-dependent. Due to this, PCOS can present very differently from person to person. It is important to understand the root causes driving your condition and receive proper treatment for each cause. In addition to treatment, there are certain foods that contain vital components that can regulate hormone levels and blood sugar. Before listing the foods, first, let’s go over the diagnostic criteria of PCOS.

8 Foods To Avoid For Anxiety

8 Foods To Avoid For Anxiety

About 20% of the American population struggles with anxiety and it is the most common psychiatric disorder. Anxiety is a feeling of fear, worry, or unease. Some physical symptoms associated with anxiety are increased heartbeat, sweating, shaking, and shortness of breath. Anxiety can be tied to something specific like something stressing us out, or we can feel generalized feelings of anxiety.

Since anxiety is a mental disorder that can result from too much stress or cortisol (our stress hormone), this means that anxiety plays a role in the gut-brain axis. This axis shows us that our gut health is crucial for the health of our mental well-beingtoo. The gut houses a large diversity of healthy gut bacteria which aid in digestion and absorption of our food. When disrupted, the gut microbiome becomes imbalanced and negatively impacts hormone levels and our stress and anxiety levels. This is why it is important to consume the right foods and know what foods to avoid for anxiety.

Note that the foods to avoid for anxiety mentioned here can still be included in a healthy diet regime. It is just important to be aware of how frequently you are eating these foods to limit their consumption, but there’s no need to eliminate them in totality.

8 Benefits of Omega 3 for Hormone Balance

8 Benefits of Omega 3 for Hormone Balance

Omega-3s are a type of essential fatty acid; essential means we must get it from food because our body isn’t able to make it itself. Omega 3s are forms of healthy polyunsaturated fats. There are 3 main types of omega-3s: DHA, EPA, and ALA. The usable form that the body needs is DHA and EPA – the best food sources are fish like salmon, mackerel, trout, and sardines. Microalgae is really the only good plant-based source of DHA/EPA, and it can be found in supplemental form.

While we hear about omega-3s in nuts and seeds like chia seeds, flaxseeds, and walnuts, this is the ALA form of omega 3s. ALA is not readily used in the body as is, it must be first converted into DHA and EPA but this conversion percentage is very low, about 10%, so it is more beneficial to consume omega 3s in the DHA and EPA form. Here we will talk about all of the benefits of omega 3s.