Cancer - Paulette Kydd RHN

Stress, Diabetes and the Brain

Paulette — Sat, 07 Sep 2019 10:38:19 +0000

stressStress is the root of so many problems. Most of my clients have significant chronic stress that interferes with their ability to achieve their health goals.

Stress is often inescapable but we can minimize the impact on our health. We NEED to minimize that impact. Chronic stress impairs sleep, interferes with weight loss, causes inflammation in your body and increases your risk of disease including Diabetes and Alzheimer’s Disease.

I want to repeat that last point: stress can lead to Diabetes and Alzheimer’s Disease.

Stress increases blood sugar. It’s supposed to do this…giving energy to your muscles so you can either FIGHT or FLEE…fight the enemy attacking you or run away.

If you’re experiencing chronic stress, your blood sugar is constantly elevated. This means that your pancreas needs to keep pumping out insulin in response to this, in order to get the sugar to your cells.

What happens when insulin is constantly present in your blood? Your cells stop responding to insulin.

Your cells become INSULIN RESISTANT. When this happens, the sugar can’t get into your cells.

Insulin Resistance

Insulin resistance has many possible outcomes including (but not limited to):

😱 Pre-Diabetes and eventually Type 2 Diabetes

😱 Inflammation in your body (which leads to all sorts of issues like HEART DISEASE and CANCER)

😱Damage to your brain (shrinks the hippocampus which you need for memory)

😱Alzheimer’s Disease

😱Weight gain

What can you do about this?

Obviously, you can’t avoid all stress. It’s more important, and within your control, to figure out how to RESPOND to the stress.

Figure out what helps to CALM you…yoga, meditation, exercise, deep breathing.

Box breathing: breathe in for 4 counts, hold for 4, exhale for 4, hold for 4. This is the Navy Seals’ tool for dealing with stress. (Hopefully, your life isn’t quite that stressful, but try this simple technique anyway.)

🥑Eating a LOW CARB diet can help stabilize your blood sugar and reduce the impact of stress. Eating a low carb diet can also make you ‘metabolically flexible’, meaning that your body can switch back and forth more easily to burn either fat or carbs for fuel. This is less stressful for your body!

Brain fog? Memory problems?

Stress might be shrinking your brain. Seriously.

When you’re stressed, your body releases cortisol. Cortisol serves many important functions…it’s not a bad thing.

The problems occur when the stress is chronic, like when you’re constantly functioning on too little sleep and living on coffee or when you’re in a bad relationship that causes you to feel anxiety day in and day out, or you have a job that you hate…or simply that you overreact to everyday events because you don’t have the mental resources to cope.

When cortisol is constantly elevated, it causes damage to your brain. It SHRINKS your prefrontal cortex which is responsible for memory and learning.

STRESS SHRINKS YOUR BRAIN…

What can you do??
Exercise is one of the best ways to counteract this brain shrinkage. Get moving!

Want more details? Read this: https://www.tuw.edu/health/how-stress-affects-the-brain/

Ok ladies…this one is for you

Did you know that when you are chronically stressed, the elevated stress hormone cortisol causes a decrease in progesterone?

Decreased progesterone is responsible for all sorts of symptoms including hair loss/thinning, trouble sleeping, headaches, hot flashes, weight gain.

Yeah…it’s important.

Progesterone naturally decreases as we age but you might be making the situation worse by not dealing with your stress.
You may not be able to eliminate the stress but you can change how you react.

If you’re experiencing any of those symptoms above, try some of the techniques that I’ve mentioned above: yoga, meditation, exercise, box breathing…even if you can only manage 10 minutes a day…DO IT!!!

It’s not too late. Even if you’ve had a lifetime of stress, your brain and body can heal, at least to some degree.

Another change you can make that will have a dramatic impact on your brain health and overall health?
Reduce your carb intake and increase healthy fats. Eating a high-fat low carb diet can help reduce inflammation and effects of stress on your body. It can also help to balance hormones.

Check out my online 12 Week High Fat Low Carb Program to learn how to implement this easy, life-changing way of eating.

It’s not a diet. It’s a long term, sustainable way to improve your life.

You might also be interested in: How Yoga Saved My Sanity or Your Mind is a Powerful Tool For Health and Fat Loss

References:
Stress and Insulin Resistance: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4919480/
How Stress Affects the Brain: https://www.tuw.edu/health/how-stress-affects-the-brain/
Progesterone: https://www.bodylogicmd.com/hormones-for-women/progesterone
Carbs and Stress: https://www.marksdailyapple.com/4-misunderstandings-about-carbs-and-stress/

The post Stress, Diabetes and the Brain first appeared on Paulette Kydd RHN.

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I love coffee…

Paulette — Mon, 26 Aug 2019 10:10:49 +0000

I LOVE coffee. Maybe a little too much. I’ve been known to bring my coffee maker with me on vacation so that I can brew my favourite coffee, my way. Crazy, I know. But I’m going to keep doing it anyway.

I’ve been drinking it since I was a kid. I remember hanging out on Saturday mornings with my dad and sister while my mom was at work. We would watch Saturday morning cartoons together and my dad would give us tiny black and white mugs of coffee. It was actually mostly Carnation Evaporated Milk and sugar with a little bit of coffee added for colour, but to us it was COFFEE. We felt so grown up being allowed to drink this adult beverage!

I don’t drink my coffee that way anymore 🙂 Anyway….that’s where it started.

When I went to high school, I became known for the fact that I loved coffee. Not many of my friends drank coffee, but most of them started drinking it because of my influence…sorry guys! or maybe I should say ‘you’re welcome’.

Benefits of Coffee

In moderation, coffee has health benefits such as:

increased exercise performance and fat burning
a good dose of disease-fighting antioxidants
decreased risk of stroke, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Type 2 Diabetes and certain types of cancer
protection against cirrhosis of the liver

How Much is Safe?

Of course, some people experience negatives effects of drinking too much coffee including interference with sleep, heartburn, jitteriness, irritability, or heart palpitations.

Most negative effects occur when drinking more than 4 cups per day (about 400mg of caffeine), although many people can drink more than that without any problems. I try to keep my consumption to 3-4 cups maximum. Beyond that, my stomach doesn’t like it much and Inusually end up with a headache.

Don’t drink regular caffeinated coffee after 2 or 3 pm if it affects your sleep.

No need to start drinking coffee if you don’t like it. You can experience many of the same benefits from eating a healthy, varied diet.

If you’re pregnant or breastfeeding, limit your consumption to 1 or 2 cups per day at most.

If you’re sensitive to caffeine, drink decaffeinated coffee instead. It still has many benefits associated with regular coffee.

Don’t add sugar to your coffee. If you must have it sweetened, use a tiny amount of stevia or Swerve.

Supercharge Your Coffee

I love a cup of bold, dark coffee with heavy cream. Yes, 35% cream. Not whipped, just straight from the carton.

Sometimes I boost the nutrition with organic butter, collagen or other interesting, healthful ingredients. This makes the coffee more like a meal and I usually delay or skip breakfast on these days. I used to think that butter in my coffee sounded strange and kind of gross, but it quickly grew on me and I liked how it filled me up for a few hours. If you’re doing intermittent fasting, you can drink this high-fat coffee without breaking your fast and getting in the way of ketone production. (Some fasting purists disagree, so you will have to decide this on your own.)

If you’d like to find out how you can up-level your coffee, click HERE to get your free guide to the Top 5 Coffee Add-Ins.

You’re going to drink it anyway…so make coffee WORK for you.

You might also like: STEP AWAY FROM THE CEREAL! or Better Breakfast: Part 1

References:

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/top-13-evidence-based-health-benefits-of-coffee

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/the-latest-scoop-on-the-health-benefits-of-coffee-2017092512429

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/how-much-coffee-should-you-drink

The post I love coffee… first appeared on Paulette Kydd RHN.

The post I love coffee… appeared first on Paulette Kydd RHN.

Low Carb Rhubarb Crisp

Paulette — Thu, 04 Jul 2019 12:53:13 +0000

Got some rhubarb growing like a weed in your yard? Make this low carb rhubarb crisp!

Rhubarb contains a compound called rhaponticin that can help prevent Alzheimer’s Disease (1). This unassuming plant also has cancer- fighting properties (2) and the vitamin K present in rhubarb stimulates bone growth and repair…good news if you’re worried about bone health.

This crisp topping in this low carb rhubarb crisp is made with sunflower seed flower, almond flour and ground flaxseed instead of high carbohydrate oats and wheat flour. If you can’t find sunflower seed flour just make your own by processing raw sunflower seeds in your food processor or blender.

Low Carb Rhubarb Crisp

Course Dessert, Snack

Keyword keto, low carb

Prep Time 10

Servings 8

Calories 121kcal

Ingredients

5 cup diced Rhubarb
6 tbsp Water
2 tbsp Swerve Sweetener confectioners (to taste)
1/2 cup Sunflower seed flour for topping
1/4 cup Almond Flour for topping
1/4 cup Flaxseed meal groun(for topping
3 tbsp Swerve Sweetener granular (for topping)
2 tbsp Butter grass fed, unsalted (COLD, for topping)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350.
Add rhubarb, water and 2 tbsp of swerve to a pot and cook until rhubarb is soft. Transfer to baking dish.
Combine flours, flax and swerve in a bowl.
Use a pastry cutter or fork to incorporate butter.
Spread topping on rhubarb.
Bake until golden brown.

Notes

Net Carbs per Serving: 3.5 grams

You might also like: Low Carb Apple Crisp

(1) Misiti F. et al, Protective effect of rhubarb derivatives on amyloid beta (1-42) peptide-induced apoptosis in IMR-32 cells: a case of nutrigenomic. 2006

(2) Qing Huang et al, Anti‐cancer properties of anthraquinones from rhubarb, 2006.

The post Low Carb Rhubarb Crisp first appeared on Paulette Kydd RHN.

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High Fat Low Carb and Cancer

Paulette — Mon, 04 Feb 2019 22:59:35 +0000

Today is World Cancer Day: ‘… the only day on the global health calendar where we can all unite and rally under the one banner of cancer in a positive and inspiring way’ (NCDAlliance.org).

CANCER is scary

The thought of going through the debilitating treatments, the losses, the suffering, the effects on our family members, the financial hardship…and potentially even death. For this reason, most people would do anything to prevent this disease, either affecting ourselves or those we love.

It got me thinking about various articles that I had read over the years about how sugar feeds cancer cells. It’s been a while since I’ve looked at this so I did a bit more digging to see the latest news on this topic.

Sugar and Cancer Cells

Sugar feeds all cells but it’s the idea that it also feeds these terrible disease cells that lead me to do more reading about low carb eating and it’s effect on cancer cells. Keep in mind that carbs = sugar since all carbohydrates break down into glucose in your body. By the way, I certainly don’t claim to be an expert in cancer development and treatment, but what I’ve read is this: If you eat high fat low carb and produce ketones, most of your cells can use ketones for fuel instead of glucose. However, there are certain types of cancer cells that can only use glucose for growth and essentially starve if glucose isn’t available.

Let’s Kill Those Cancer Cells

Wouldn’t it be exciting if we could starve those cancer cells to the point of death by eating a high fat low carb way?

There is promising research being done that points to the potential benefits of the Ketogenic diet in aiding in cancer treatment (Weber et al, Aging (Albany NY). 2018 Feb; 10(2): 164–165.). It’s not a treatment in and of itself but rather a way to support traditional treatment and increase the effectiveness.

Sounds exciting to me! Perhaps researchers will discover that eating high fat low carb can also prevent cancer from starting. Something to think about.

Would you cut down on sugar and carbohydrate consumption if you knew it might help you avoid cancer?

A very effective way to reduce your sugar intake is to start your day with a blood-sugar-balancing breakfast. By eating a high fat low carb breakfast, you keep your hormones balanced which helps to reduce cravings. Reduced cravings = reduced sugar intake.

Better Breakfast

For easy high fat low carb recipes, get my Better Breakfast recipe book by subscribing HERE.Learn how to eat high fat low carb in a healthy way by using the recipes on this blog or contacting me for a free call!