everywomanover29 blog

Food, Mood and Women's Health – Be your healthiest, look and feel great!

How to get a great night’s sleep

By Trudy Scott 26 Comments

“A 2009 poll by the National Sleep Foundation found that only 28 percent of those surveyed regularly got eight hours or more of sleep a night. The average was around six and a half hours on weekdays and seven on weekends. Those who slept less than eight hours a night typically had mood problems, including worry and anxiety, ate more sugar and unhealthy food and drank more caffeinated beverages!”

~ Trudy Scott, The Antianxiety Food Solution

It’s amazing how many people don’t get enough sleep and there is so much we can do from a nutritional point of view to change this.  Here are six things to consider:

  1. One of the first things I think about when a client can’t sleep is low serotonin.  Low serotonin symptoms include insomnia, depression, negativity, worry and anxiety, irritability, PMS and afternoon and evening cravings.  And low serotonin can be boosted with tryptophan, taken as a supplement and/or in food sources.
  2. Research has actually shown that a medical or functional food made with pumpkin seeds improved sleep, due to the good sources of tryptophan and zinc. In another study this same functional food was also shown to reduce anxiety and social phobia.Pumpkin seeds can be soaked in water overnight and then lightly roasted with olive oil, sea salt, pepper, turmeric and ginger.  Food-wise, pumpkin seeds are a favorite of mine for a healthy snack and my clients love them.  Here is an blog post that discusses the benefits of soaked nuts and a roasted pumpkin seed recipe
  3. When tryptophan is taken as a supplement, some is converted to serotonin and some to melatonin.  Melatonin is fabulous for resetting your circadian rhythm so your sleep cycle gets back to normal. If taking tryptophan doesn’t quite get you sleeping through the night then taking additional melatonin may help. Sublingual melatonin helps you fall asleep and the timed-release form helps you stay asleep.
  4. Other factors that should be considered when sleep is an issue: low blood sugar,  addressing low serotonin levels,  addressing low GABA levels, checking for parasites and dysbiosis, and making sure you don’t have high cortisol.
  5. Other nutrients that may be helpful:  vitamin B6 (which helps improve mood and reduce anxiety too), zinc (which is also important for skin health,  reducing anxiety, improving mood, helping with blood sugar balance and PMS), and magnesium (which is also calming).
  6. Of course, it also helps to use a comfortable soft eye patch to keep the room dark and to use earplugs to keep things quiet. Also, keep clock radios and cell phones away from your head and don’t use an electric blanket!  Having a warm bath with essential oil of lavender is also a great help to help you wind down at the end of a hectic day.

Try some of the above tips and get those eight hours of sleep and you’ll have less mood problems, experience less worry and anxiety, eat less (or no) sugar and unhealthy food and drink less (or no) caffeinated beverages!   Sweet dreams!

Roasted eggplant pate recipe

By Trudy Scott 16 Comments

1 eggplant, chopped into cubes
1 onion, chopped
5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped (or more if you like a stronger flavor)
3 small sweet peppers or 1 large green/red/yellow pepper, chopped
Olive oil
Sea salt and pepper
Cayenne or chili pepper (optional to spice it up)
Tomato, chopped (optional to add during blending)
2 T tahini (sesame paste)

Add chopped vegetables, seas salt and pepper to a casserole dish and add olive oil. Stir well to make sure everything is covered in olive oil. Bake/roast covered at 350F for 45 minutes, stirring at least every 15 minutes.

Remove from heat and add to a blender with the tahini. Blend to a fine paste and spoon into a loaf pan and leave to set in the fridge. Serve as a pate with crackers or chopped fresh veggies (like carrots, tomatoes, zucchini, mushrooms and celery) or as a side-serving for a main meal.

Option: serve warm immediately after you’ve removed it from the oven and blended it. It makes a nice “sauce” for serving over baked potatoes or other vegetables.

This recipe was inspired by the produce box we get each week. Right now eggplants, tomatoes and peppers are in season!

We are a member of the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Farm Fresh to You. As stated on their site, CSA’s are a great way to get organic produce and support local farmers.

As people are becoming increasingly interested about where their food comes from and how it was grown, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is becoming a popular alternative for getting high quality food from a trusted local farm, Farm Fresh To You. By joining our CSA, families are connecting directly to our farm, Capay Organic, and are receiving regular deliveries of nutrient rich, mouth watering, organic produce delivered directly to their home or office.

If you’re in Northern California, contact Farm Fresh to You with promo code 6164 and you’ll get $10 off your delivery. If you’re elsewhere, use the Local Harvest site to find CSAs and farmer’s markets in your area.

Note: Please do keep in mind that eggplants, tomatoes, bell peppers, chili peppers, paprika, cayenne pepper and potatoes (just white potatoes, not sweet potatoes) are in the nightshade family, together with tomatillos, garden huckleberry, tamarillos, pepinos and pimentos. Tobacco and withania are also in the nightshade family. Some people are affected adversely by nightshades, so if you suffer from joint pain or arthritis, you may find that nightshade removal may reduce your symptoms.

Food does improve mood: 2012 research

By Trudy Scott 19 Comments

A recent blog post on the GoodTherapy.org site featured this article: “Can Social Anxiety Be Caused by a Nutritional Deficiency?”. I was thrilled to have been quoted and to have shared my experience with pyroluria, a form of social anxiety, shyness and inner tension, that responds very well to the supplements vitamin B6, zinc and evening primrose oil.  It was also a wonderful opportunity to get folks thinking about the role that food and nutrients play in mental health.

I was rather surprised by this comment from Nerina Garcia-Arcement, a licensed clinical psychologist and clinical assistant professor at the NYU School of Medicine: “Having a healthy and balanced diet is overall beneficial, but it won’t cure social anxiety or a mood disorder. I am more likely to recommend my clients get enough sun exposure to improve their moods (seasonal affective disorder) than recommend diet changes.”

I certainly support the recommendation for sun exposure and write this blog post to provide additional resources for those who may be unfamiliar with the recent food mood research. And I will address pyroluria, zinc and vitamin B6 in a separate post.

Here is just some of the 2012 food mood research:

Dias GP, Cavegn N et al. 2012. The role of dietary polyphenols on adult hippocampal neurogenesis: molecular mechanisms and behavioural effects on depression and anxiety. 2012. Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity Epub 2012 Jun 28

“Studies on the effects of dietary polyphenols” (such as those found in green tea and turmeric), “on behaviour and AHN” (adult hippocampal neurogenesis), “may play an important role in the approach to use diet as part of the therapeutic interventions for mental-health-related conditions.”

Michalak J, Zhang XC et al. 2012 Vegetarian diet and mental disorders: results from a representative community survey. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. Jun 7;9(1):67. [Epub ahead of print]

“Vegetarians displayed elevated prevalence rates for depressive disorders, anxiety disorders and somatoform disorders.” The authors also state that because “vegetarians exhibit a wide diversity of dietary practices, future research should more carefully define vegetarian diet to enable closer examination of the associations between diet and risk of mental disorders.”  Since this was an epidemiological study, it shows association only. But it’s a great start.

Davison KM, Kaplan BJ. 2012. Nutrient Intakes Are Correlated With Overall Psychiatric Functioning in Adults With Mood Disorders. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. 57:85-92

This study looked at Canadian adults with mood disorders. Intake of carbs, fiber, total fat, linoleic acid, riboflavin, niacin, folate, vitamin B6, B12, pantothenic acid, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, iron, magnesium and zinc were measured and “higher levels of nutrients equated to better mental health.” (This study was included on my poster presentation at the 2012 Anxiety Disorders Association of America conference)

One of the study authors, Dr Kaplan, PhD was quoted as saying: “Doctors should consider counseling their patients to eat unprocessed, natural, healthy foods and refer them to a nutrition professional if specialized dietary consultation is needed.”

Torres SJ, Nowson CA. 2012. A moderate-sodium DASH-type diet improves mood in postmenopausal women. Nutrition. Sep;28(9):896-900. Epub 2012 Apr 4.

“In addition to the health benefits of a moderate-sodium Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension diet on blood pressure and bone health, this diet had a positive effect on improving mood in postmenopausal women.”  This diet did include lean red meat, which “was associated with a decrease in depression.”

Dr Felice Jacka, an Australian researcher, has a number of papers that I’ve blogged about in the past. A more recent one from 2011 looked at Norwegian adult men and women, and found that “those with better quality diets were less likely to be depressed” and that a “higher intake of processed and unhealthy foods was associated with increased anxiety.”

In a recent bipolar post, I also mention some of the research around eating a real food traditional diet and a lower risk of bipolar disorder, and the relationship between gluten and bipolar disorder.

All in all, there is much recent evidence pointing to some very real benefits for making dietary changes in order to improve mental health outcomes. Clearly, more research is needed, but we have growing evidence that the food mood connection is NOT “just a bunch of hooey” (as one of the readers stated) and we need to keep our minds open if we are to help those in need of our services!

Bubble gum flavored apples anyone?

By Trudy Scott 9 Comments

Guest Post by Mira Dessy, Certified Nutrition Educator and holistic health columnist helping others eat well to be well.

fake apples | photo: LeemanS

One of my readers, sent in this picture and comment/question about these apples.

“We came across these apples at Stop & Shop here in town. We could not believe our eyes when we saw flavored apples!! I told my husband to take a pic to send to you because I wasn’t sure you would believe me when I tell you that they had bubblegum flavored apples. I believe there were four flavors total to choose from. 

I’m curious what your thoughts are. I walked away all kinds of confused. Was this an attempt to help kids with poor eating habits cross over the healthy eating or the other way around? How exactly did they alter this apple to make it flavored? And of course the obvious…yet another example of FAKE food.

Oh and as you can see it’s was placed right next to the apples and the packaging says ready to eat snack. What’s so difficult about preparing an apple for eating? hmmm you wash it?!?!”

Good eye, and good thinking. This is very similar to something I just saw in my local grocery store called grapples. Research indicates that the flavoring comes from “natural” (read possible MSG ingredients) and artificial flavoring. It seems that the apples are marinated for several days in an undoubtedly chemical concoction which allows the apple to soak up the flavor. This process has apparently been approved by the FDA.

grapples | photo: Qrd2006

The Grapple company website assures the consumer that the product has not been genetically modified and there are no added sugars or calories. Unfortunately there is a huge chemical load, not just from the flavorings, but one assumes these are not organic apples and therefore potentially high in pesticide residue.

The Crazy Apple company website says they can’t tell you how they do it but I assume it’s the same sort of process. They do however assure you that their apples are gluten free (duh!), dairy free (again, duh!), and contain no soy or nuts.

I believe this is seen as a way to market apples to kids but I’m not really sure why this sort of adulteration is seen as a positive. Since apples by themselves are sweet, crunchy, and tasty I’m not sure what the appeal is here. Unfortunately I see this as a big step backwards as items like these further dull the taste buds to what food should taste like.

Update: It turns out these apples are being spotted all over the place and most of you are not happy about it. My friend Adrienne says, “If you want a grape flavored apple take a slice of apple and some grapes. Eat them together. It’s a party in your mouth!” Good advice.

Eat to be Happy and Calm in Chatelaine Magazine!

By Trudy Scott 8 Comments

 

What do these have in common? grass-fed red meat, pumpkin seeds, real food, oysters and home-made salad dressing? They are all foods that are part of the Happy Diet, and featured in the July edition of the Chatelaine Magazine. I’m thrilled to have contributed to this super article and am happy to share it with you here! I really enjoyed working with Kat Tancock. I hope you enjoy it – and enjoy the wonderful pictures too!

Eating real foods like this, and doing things like treating a friend to lunch can bring you great joy and happiness, as well as keep anxiety and stress at bay.

(Click on each image below to enlarge.)

The author Kat Tancock (www.kattancock.com) holds the copyright to this article. Please contact her regarding reproduction or any questions you may have.

Exercise and nature for mood, social anxiety, memory and hot flashes

By Trudy Scott 9 Comments

Beautiful sunset at Lake Natoma, CA – after a fun time windsurfing

June is Celebrate the Great Outdoors month and June 15th was Nature Photography Day. These are just one of the many great reasons to get outside to exercise and enjoy nature.

I’ve blogged a great deal about exercise and the outdoors a great deal – when I reported back about food-exercise-biofeedback from the ADAA conference and nature and calm in Yosemite.

Here is some very recent research on some more great health benefits to motivate you!

(1)  Improved mood and better memory

A recent paper and titled Interacting with nature improves cognition and affect for individuals with depression and published in the Journal of Affective Disorders found that something as simple and easy as 50 minute walk in the park improved cognition and mood.

(2)  Improved sleep and reduction in hot flashes in menopausal women

Another recent paper titled Sleep quality and aerobic training among menopausal women-A randomized controlled trial and published in the Finnish Journal Maturitas found that aerobic training for 6 months may improve sleep quality and reduce hot flushes among symptomatic menopausal women.

(3)  Less social anxiety and depression

This recent paper titled A Randomized Trial of MBSR Versus Aerobic Exercise for Social Anxiety Disorder and published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology found that both mindfulness-based stress reduction and aerobic exercise “were associated with reductions in social anxiety and depression and increases in subjective well-being”.

Exercising has always been a big part of my life and I feel really flat when I don’t exercise. I grew up in a tennis family and played tennis for years and then switched to squash (similar to the US racket ball) when I got to high-school. In my 20s and 30s I did a lot of 5K and 10K runs, trail running and a few half-marathons – all in the beautiful Colorado mountains. I actually met my wonderful husband rock-climbing and we spent many fun years rock-climbing, ice-climbing and mountaineering!

These days we love to windsurf, hike and mountain bike in the summer. In the winter I telemark ski and Brad does snowboarding.

So I encourage you to get outside to celebrate the great outdoors, have fun exercising and take some beautiful photos.

At your next social event you’ll be chatty, calm and happy, will remember everyone’s name and you won’t be having hot-flashes! And you’ll come home and have a wonderful deep restful sleep.

Have fun and please share what you love to do for exercise now and what you loved to do as a child.