Real whole food

What’s lurking in your food: book review of The Pantry Principle

August 1, 2014 By Trudy Scott 10 Comments

mira-exhibittable — The fun and enlightening quiz Mira did at the Weston A. Price conference

There is so much lurking in our food and The Pantry Principle: How to Read the Label and Understand What’s Really in Your Food does a wonderful job educating us about all the nasty stuff that can make us anxious and sad, affect our digestion, give us ADHD symptoms and so much more.

Mira Dessy is a certified food educator, is known as the Food Ingredient Guru and is a Real Food Advocate. We are colleagues and I was honored to have been asked to do an advance review of her book for inclusion on the book cover. This is what I said:

“Mira Dessy’s book, The Pantry Principle is a real gem! If you eat, this book is a must-read – so you really know what’s in your food. It is a user-friendly, comprehensive, well-researched and eye-opening resource. I look forward to recommending it to all my clients!”

I work with anxious, stressed, overwhelmed women and I do now recommend it to my clients. It’s a perfect companion to my book The Antianxiety Food Solution for taking shopping and eating to the next level.

Initially I wondered how relevant it may be since I recommend real whole food to my clients, rather than packaged foods. I found out very quickly that is it very relevant!

Here is a great example of the relevance even when you are eating real whole foods:

a possible new coating for bananas which will delay the ripening process by up to two weeks
the product is made from chitosan, which is in turn made from shrimp and crab shells.
as Mira says: “this could present serious problems for those with high-level seafood allergies.”

I really do like that it contains the most current information. The banana coating information is from a 2012 report. I also really like that I learned about things I had not heard of before! I’m a nutritionist and I learned new facts!

And Mira keeps us up to date with this ever-changing world via social media and her great blog called Grains and More.

It is also quite provocative. Just wait until you read about castoreum and other surprises you will find in your food! Mira mentions castoreum in this blog post about shellac and candy: shellac is:

“confectioner’s glaze,” “confectioner’s resin,” “candy glaze,” or even simply “natural glaze.”

It’s essentially the insect version of castoreum. Harvested from trees where the female lac bug lays down cocoon-like secretions, it is scraped off the trees (often along with bark and insect parts) and heated until it liquifies. It’s strained and then allowed to cool in thin sheets. This is then reconstituted with denatured alcohol when manufacturers are ready to use it to give foods that shiny coating.

Here is a sampling of what Mira covers in the book:

How to read a nutrition label
Understanding Additives
Artificial colors
Sugar and where it’s lurking
Fake fats
Packaging
A GMO ingredients list and much more

You can see the complete table of contents via the Amazon preview and buy your copy of The Pantry Principle via my Amazon link.

Mira will be exhibiting with me at the upcoming Integrative Medicine for Mental Health conference next month so if you’re at the event come on by and meet her and get a signed copy of the book.

Mira was also one of the guest experts on the recent Anxiety Summit. Her topic was “How Additives in Your Food Can Make You Anxious” and it was a great interview (you can check out the other speakers here.

Please ask questions below. If you have already read this book do share some of your favorite tips in the comments below.

The Anxiety Summit: Rooibos – A Functional Food in the Management of Stress

June 26, 2014 By Trudy Scott 28 Comments

Amanda Swart, associate professor from the Department of Biochemistry at Stellenbosch University in South Africa was interviewed on the Anxiety Summit by host of the Anxiety Summit, Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert and Nutritionist, author of The Antianxiety Food Solution.

Rooibos: A Functional Food in the Management of Stress

The role rooibos plays in the maintenance of normal cortisol levels
The influence of rooibos on cytochrome P450 enzymes
The polyphenols and flavonoids found in rooibos
Other health benefits of rooibos

I am such a research nerd, and I like to keep up with the latest research on anxiety and stress and mood. I immediately contacted the author when I came across this study, “Rooibos Influences Glucocorticoid Levels and Steroid Ratios In Vivo and In Vitro: A Natural Approach in the Management of Stress and Metabolic Disorders.” For you research nerds out there, this was published in March this year, 2014, in Molecular Nutrition and Food Research.

Here are some great gems from my interview with Amanda:

The plant world is amazing, that’s where our medication comes from usually. The drug companies base most of their drugs on what is available in nature, and they just change structures a little bit.

If you can remember… back in the seventies and eighties, people weren’t really that stressed out yet. Stress is a very modern disease.

In the human study, they drank rooibos for six weeks, and they had six cups and they soaked the teabag for ten minutes. We didn’t see that cortisol levels decreased significantly, but what we did see is that the ratio of active to inactive was vastly improved.

If the ratio active cortisol to inactive cortisol is high, this is normally associated with metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes and hypertension.

Here is a link to the rooibos publications on Amanda’s ResearchGate site

Here is the prostate cancer study that Amanda discussed – how one of the adrenal androgens – 11 hydroxy androstenedione, may be implicated in castration resistant prostate cancer. (This in unrelated to rooibos consumption but Amanda’s rooibos cortisol work lead her to this work)

~~If you are not already registered for the Anxiety Summit you can get live access to the speakers of the day here www.theAnxietySummit.com~~

UPDATE: the summit concluded on Tues 6/24 – season 2 of The Anxiety Summit will be in November 2014. If you’d like to be on the notification list just sign up here www.theAnxietySummit.com

Missed this interview? Or want this and the other great interviews for your learning library? Purchase the MP3s or MP3s + transcripts + interview highlights and listen when it suits you

The Anxiety Summit: coffee, chocolate, fish, water and more

June 21, 2014 By Trudy Scott 41 Comments

This is day 14 of the Anxiety Summit and the final wrap up call by host of the Anxiety Summit, Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert and Nutritionist, author of The Antianxiety Food Solution.

Anxiety: coffee, chocolate, fish, water and more – and where to go next

the anxiety-provoking effects of coffee! and what about chocolate?
the bad-mood effects of gluten
wild fish, water, pumpkin seeds and laughter to boost your mood and calm you down
questions answered ( a few from the blog and facebook page)
what you can get out of the summit, resources and where to go next

This is the great quote by Jamie Oliver (I saw it on Josh Friedman’s super Facebook page):

Homicide is 0.8% of deaths. Diet-related disease is over 60%. But no-one talks about it

We’re talking about it! And we’re being heard! There obviously a big need for this information – as of the end of the 13^th day of the summit we have officially reached just over 10,000 people!

This is the cover of Time magazine: Eat Butter. Scientists labeled fat the enemy. Why they were wrong. About time ! (no pun intended)

For decades, it has been the most vilified nutrient in the American diet. But new science reveals fat isn’t what’s hurting our health”

Here is the blog post that has the video of Angie trying the DPA/Endorphigen for low endorphins. She calls it a miracle, no longer desired chocolate and felt euphoric!

amazing nutrient DPA (d-phenylalanine) or Endorphigen. It is SO effective if you’re low in endorphins! Just watch Angie’s reaction when she sampled some….she actually called it a miracle! – See more at: https://www.everywomanover29.com/blog/end-emotional-eating-no-willpower/#sthash.ocYcUhhQ.dpuf

This is the blog post that mentions the research on how water affects serotonin and dopamine levels, thereby affecting your anxiety levels.

Based on the food mood research done by Dr. Felice Jacka and the results I see when my female clients add back red meat into their diets I am a proponent of grass-fed red meat. You can read some of Dr Jacka’s findings and information about our interview here. Be sure to check out the comments in this blog – I mention other research on grass-fed red meat and mood,

In line with this we have the new Anxiety Summit quote:

Sugar is the most abused anxiety drug

Grass-fed red meat is the most underutilized antianxiety food

~ Trudy Scott, host of The Anxiety Summit and author of The Antianxiety Food Solution

This is from the editorial called Nutrition and Psychiatry in the American Journal of Psychiatry. It was published when Dr. Jacka’s Western diet/traditional diet study was published in 2010.

It is both compelling and daunting to consider that dietary intervention at an individual or population level could reduce rates of psychiatric disorders. There are exciting implications for clinical care, public health, and research”

I always say “yes compelling but not daunting with what we know” and with we’ve learned on the Anxiety Summit.

~~If you are not already registered for the Anxiety Summit you can get live access to the speakers of the day here www.theAnxietySummit.com~~

UPDATE: the summit concluded on Tues 6/24 – season 2 of The Anxiety Summit will be in November 2014. If you’d like to be on the notification list just sign up here www.theAnxietySummit.com

Missed this interview or can’t listen live? Or want this and the other great interviews for your learning library? Purchase the MP3s or MP3s + transcripts + interview highlights and listen when it suits you

The Anxiety Summit: Misunderstood and Mistreated – Reinventing Psychiatry

June 20, 2014 By Trudy Scott 8 Comments

[REPLAY on Saturday 6/21 – ENJOY!]

This is day 1 of the Anxiety Summit. Dr. Kelly Brogan, M.D., Holistic women’s health psychiatry, is interviewed by host of the Anxiety Summit, Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert and Nutritionist, author of The Antianxiety Food Solution.

Misunderstood and Mistreated: Reinventing Psychiatry

misconceptions around causes of mental illness
the danger of psychiatry and a better model of mental illness
bodily problems that masquerade as psychiatric
top lifestyle interventions and powerful natural treatments

Here are great gems from my interview with Kelly:

there is never a realm in health where you have more opportunity to turn things around through these lifestyle changes than in mental health

we can use inflammatory markers like c-reactive protein to actually tell us which patients are going to develop depression

I have been most compelled by the fact that there is absolutely no mortality benefit for prescribing statins to women. Period

Lifestyle, diet, gut and inflammation

Kelly has a huge focus on lifestyle changes and a healthy Weston A. Price type of diet. She advocates for animal protein and teaches her patients about eating healthy fats. Isn’t that so wonderful? Here is one of her blogs on the topic: Western Diet Causes Cognitive Impairment, Anxiety, and Depression

I just love that she no longer writes prescriptions for SSRIs. She only writes benzodiazepine prescriptions when it’s acute post-partum or psychosis.

We talked about the role of the gut and inflammation in depression and anxiety. Here is a great article by Kelly on her website: Inflammation in Depression

We also talked about the role of the gut and microbiome. Here is a very interesting and recent article that Kelly wrote for GreenMedInfo – Primal Bugs: The Amazing Hunter Gatherer Microbiome.

GreenMedInfo

Kelly is an advisory board member for GreenMedInfo.com. It was at the recent NANP (National Association of Nutrition Professionals) conference that I met Kelly and Sayer Ji, founder of GreenMedInfo, for the first time.

GreenMedInfo.com is a cool resource I’d like to share with you. They are “The World’s Most Widely-Cited, Open-Access, Evidence-Based Natural Health Resource With 20,000+ Articles!” and are “dedicated to bringing the public information on the science behind natural healing methods, as well as to make available research on the inherent dangers associated with the use of chemicals in our food, drugs, water and environment.”

Here is a great GreenMedInfo infographic on what anxiety does to your body.

If you are like me and get all geeky about the science and research, the GreenMedInfo Professional Membership comes highly recommended. I wish I had been a member when I was writing my book! Here is an example of how they have gathered the research related to stress and anxiety

Kelly is not a fan of the low serotonin theory of depression and anxiety

The interesting thing is that Kelly is not a fan of the low serotonin theory of depression and anxiety. We had a rather interesting discussion around the topic, and we respectfully disagree with each other. Surprisingly enough, this is the only real difference of opinion in the whole summit. I had decided that I wanted to air Kelly’s interview on Day 1, and I could have moved it to a later date because of the difference of opinion that we had, but I think healthy debate is a good thing. Hopefully, we can convince Kelly that serotonin is a factor when it comes to anxiety and depression, but also I would like to learn more about why she feels low serotonin doesn’t play a role.

Julia Ross interview on low serotonin and the amino acids

Please do check out my interview with Julia Ross – Eliminating Anxiety: Amino Acid Therapy and Adrenal Balancing. We spend a big part of the interview discussing the role of low serotonin in anxiety and depression and how effective tryptophan and 5-HTP are for alleviating symptoms.

Meme Grant: Client success story with tryptophan

I use tryptophan and 5-HTP with great success with my clients. Be sure to listen to Meme Grant’s success story on Sunday June 22. She shares how she used amino acids to end her anxiety, panic attacks, insomnia and emotional eating. Tryptophan and GABA made a world of difference for her.

Get your free gift from Dr Kelly Brogan

Top 7 Therapeutic Foods

~~If you are not already registered for the Anxiety Summit you can get live access to the speakers of the day here www.theAnxietySummit.com~~

UPDATE: the summit concluded on Tues 6/24 – season 2 of The Anxiety Summit will be in November 2014. If you’d like to be on the notification list just sign up here www.theAnxietySummit.com

The Anxiety Summit: The Research – Food to prevent and treat anxiety and depression?

June 20, 2014 By Trudy Scott 12 Comments

Dr. Felice Jacka, Principal Research Fellow at Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia, is interviewed by host of the Anxiety Summit, Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert and Nutritionist, author of The Antianxiety Food Solution.

The Research: Food to prevent and treat anxiety and depression?

Organizations and collaboration in nutritional psychiatry research and prevention
Study: Traditional diet lowers the risk of anxiety and depression in women
The surprising benefits of grass-fed red meat for improved mood
Food and mental health research in Norway, Japan, UK and Spain, across all ages and socioeconomic levels
Ongoing research on diet to prevent depression and future research on the gut

These are the two organizations we talked about:

International Society for Nutritional Psychiatry Research

Dr Jacka said she “initiated this society at the end of 2012 really in recognition of the need to get people collaborating and working together and creating those synergies to push this field forward”

Alliance for the Prevention of Mental Disorders

Here are some great gems from our interview:

we take the point that prevention is better than cure

there is no mental health without physical health

treating the whole person- their physical health as well as their mental health – is critical

We’ve now seen data from right around the world right across every continent and across age ranges, showing that diet really does matter to the prevalence and incidence of depression and anxiety.

Study: Association of Western and Traditional Diets with Depression and Anxiety in Women

We discussed the results of her Ph.D. paper that was published in the American Journal of Psychiatry in 2010: “Association of Western and Traditional Diets with Depression and Anxiety in Women.”

This study was published on the front cover of the journal with a big editorial and was nominated the most important study of 2010 in psychiatry research. It was considered really huge news in psychiatry.

a “traditional” dietary pattern characterized by vegetables, fruit, meat, fish, and whole grains was associated with lower odds for major depression or dysthymia and for anxiety disorders. A “western” diet of processed or fried foods, refined grains, sugary products, and beer was associated with a higher odds of mood disorders

We discussed the connection between red meat and mental health especially in women.

Dr. Jacka shared this: “One of the hypotheses that I had during the Ph.D. was that increased intake of animal foods would be toxic” and “would be associated with more mental disorders.”

This did not turn out to be the case. “In our study, out of every single dietary food grouping that I looked at including vegetables, fruits, salads, beans, etc the strongest correlate of mental health was red meat intake,” grass-fed red meat of course.

“Consistently, women who have less than the recommended intake of red meat seem to be in an increased risk for common mental disorders” (like anxiety and depression) “and bipolar disorder.

Women only need a small amount (a palm-sized serving) three or four times a week.

These are pretty profound results, especially in this day and age where people are being cautioned to eat no red meat or to eat less. I encourage all my clients to eat red meat, grass-fed of course. It’s a wonderful source of amino acids, zinc, iron and omega-3 fatty acids – all important for depression and anxiety.

The first randomized controlled trial

Dr. Jacka is looking for participants for the first randomized controlled trial looking at diet as a therapeutic approach for depression. They are seeking the following study participants: those with major depression, who are over 18, with no dietary restrictions and who live in Melbourne.

There is additional information on the Diet Depression Study page.

UPDATE March 2017:
Here is the outcome of the study: SMILES diet depression trial: reduced depression and anxiety

It’s the first randomized controlled diet depression study and ONE THIRD of the dietary intervention group saw improvements in their depression symptoms. This was just diet alone and switching from processed/junk food to real food with no specific dietary restrictions.

With regards to quality animal protein, it did include fish (at least 2 per week); lean red meats (3–4 per week), chicken (2–3 per week) and eggs (up to 6 per week).

Anxiety nation: why are so many of us ill-at-ease

May 1, 2014 By Trudy Scott 12 Comments

Anxiety nation – this is what we are!

I recently received a call from a school in New York City asking me to present to the parents of the autistic children who go to the school. The school director said the biggest issue their kids face is …anxiety and OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder).

“For a condition that affects so many of us, there is very little agreement about what anxiety actually is. Is it a physiological condition, best treated with medication, or psychological – the product of repressed trauma, as a Freudian might suggest?

Is it a cultural construct, a reaction to today’s anomic society, or a more fundamental spiritual and philosophical reflection of what it means to be human?

For most sufferers, the most pressing concern is whether drugs work, and if therapy is a good idea.”

This is an excerpt from a recent article with this same title on newstatesman.com – you can read the whole article here.

The author also states:

“The most recent nationwide survey, which took place in 2007, found that three million people in the UK have an anxiety disorder.

About 7 per cent of UK adults are on antidepressants (often prescribed for anxiety, too) and one in seven will take benzodiazepines such as Xanax in any one year.

Mental health charities warn that our anxiety levels are creeping even higher”

Something is NOT working, both in the UK, here in the USA and in other developed countries – it’s time to be open to more than only medications and therapy.

I’d like to suggest that we rather look at the beneficial effects of real whole food and nutrients (like zinc and GABA and tryptophan) and exercise and yoga and nature.

Here are a few examples:

Low blood sugar can result in anxiety
Good levels of zinc and vitamin B6 can help many anxious introverts not feel anxious in social settings
Red meat is good (provided it’s grass-fed) and coffee is not – listen to an audio interview on these topics

This questionnaire is taken from chapter 6 of The Antianxiety Food Solution: How the Foods You Eat Can Help You Calm Your Anxious Mind, Improve Your Mood and End Cravings, now available in major books stores, at Amazon and via www.antianxietyfoodsolution.com. – See more at: https://www.everywomanover29.com/blog/low-gaba-questionnaire-anxiety/#sthash.UI3XqHNv.dpuf

Read more in The Antianxiety Food Solution: How the Foods You Eat Can Help You Calm Your Anxious Mind, Improve Your Mood and End Cravings, available in major books stores, on Amazon and via www.antianxietyfoodsolution.com