eggs

The Anxiety Summit – Eggs, broths, sprouts, almond flour, questions and what to do next

November 16, 2014 By Trudy Scott 31 Comments

The host of the Anxiety Summit, Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert and Nutritionist, author of The Antianxiety Food Solution talks about:

Eggs, broths, sprouts, almond flour, questions and what to do next

Are eggs a superfood? and choline for a better mood and less anxiety
More superfoods: broths, sprouts and curcumin
Reconsidering almond flour for baking
Questions answered (a select few from the blog and facebook page)
What you can get out of the summit, resources and where to go next

We’ve gathered all the speaker/topic blogs into one blog called Anxiety Summit Season 2 speakers and topics so you can find them easily. These have snippets from our interviews, links to research, and links to speaker books and gifts. You can also use these blogs to comment, share your experiences and ask questions.

Here is the New York Times article U.S.D.A. Approves Modified Potato

The potato’s DNA has been altered so that less of a chemical called acrylamide, which is suspected of causing cancer in people, is produced when the potato is fried.

A Huffpo blog announces Doritos-Flavored Mountain Dew Is Real

Here is New York City’s first take-out window devoted to sippable broths

I recently spoke on Dr. Josh Axe’s Natural Cures summit and here is a great broth recipe on his site

I love this picture in the LA urban farming article

The dinner menu lists “our home-grown items”: broccolini, baby carrots, blueberries, figs, snap peas and heirloom tomatoes.

Here is a link to Julia Rucklidge’s TEDX talk: The surprisingly dramatic role of nutrition in mental health. I love how she opens with:

what I’m going to share today may sound as radical as hand-washing sounded to a mid-19th century doctor and yet it is equally scientific. It is the simple idea that optimizing nutrition is a safe and viable way to avoid, treat or lessen mental illness. Nutrition matters. Poor nutrition is a significant and modifiable risk factor for the development of mental illness

Eggs are one of the most nutritious foods on earth! Here is some of the egg research:

“Orally administered whole egg demonstrates antidepressant-like effects in the forced swimming test on rats”

Skipping breakfast can increase depression, anxiety and stress levels and eggs can be part of a healthy breakfast. “A cross-sectional investigation of depressive, anxiety, and stress symptoms and health-behavior participation in Australian university students”

Eggs are an excellent source of choline. Research shows that plasma choline levels are related to anxiety levels

The lowest choline quintile was significantly associated with high anxiety levels.

Results from an October 2014 study in Behavioral Brain Research suggest that

high choline intake during early development can prevent or dramatically reduce deficits in social behavior and anxiety in an autistic mouse model

An article on Webmd, Egg-Rich Diet Not Harmful in Type 2 Diabetes suggest that

eating two eggs per day, 6 days a week can be a safe part of a healthy diet for people with type 2 (that’s 12 eggs a week – yeah!)

I blogged about eggs and that you can eat the yolk this last month. You can read about TMAO concerns in the comments of the above blog.

Grow your own broccoli sprouts to get sulforaphane! Here is the study called Sulforaphane treatment of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), published Oct 2014

improvement in social interaction, abnormal behavior, and verbal communication

… oxidative stress, depressed glutathione synthesis, reduced mitochondrial function and oxidative phosphorylation, increased lipid peroxidation, and neuroinflammmation

Here is the curcumin depression study

In a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, 56 individuals with major depressive disorder were treated with curcumin (500 mg twice daily) or placebo for 8 weeks.

From weeks 4 to 8, curcumin was significantly more effective than placebo in improving several mood-related symptoms

Here is my healthy travel foods blog that includes pemmican, THE energy bar of the 21^st century. You can purchase pemmican from US Wellness Meats.

Here is my carob blog with the yummy Carob Cinnamon Delight al la Trudy

I mentioned a number of studies related to PTSD symptoms. Here they are:

Lower EPA (one of the omega-3 fatty acids) levels are associated with the severity of clinical symptoms in PTSD.
One factor could be low levels of vitamin D
Another factor in PTSD could be cortisol and DHEA
And a new study found a connection between PTSD and low HDL and high triglycerides

Here are the Amino Acid Precautions. They will also be added to my blog Targeted individual amino acids for eliminating anxiety: practical applications.

If you are wanting to find out more about pyroluria, do check out my session from season 1 “How zinc and vitamin B6 prevent pyroluria and social anxiety. And here is the pyroluria questionnaire from my book.

If you missed my opening interview here are a few lines from “Top of the World”

A new beginning, a brand new day
All of my fears are gone away
I feel so calm, so free, so whole
Right now, I’m feeling on top of the world

Grab your copy of the song here if you don’t yet have it!

“Food and nutrients provide a very powerful approach that can dramatically reduce and very often completely eliminate anxiety- and can totally prevent it in the first place too.”

You can have zero anxiety! Really! You deserve to feel on top of the world.

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

Eggs are ok, even the yolk!

October 17, 2014 By Trudy Scott 12 Comments

eggs and spinach

We’re seeing more and more research showing that eggs are ok and can be part of a healthy diet. It’s about time! Myself and my fellow nutritionists/integrative doctors have been saying this for years. I even say “yes, you can eat the yolk” on the back of my business card.

Here is some of the recent research:

An article on Webmd, Egg-Rich Diet Not Harmful in Type 2 Diabetes discusses the results of a new study to be published later this month. The findings were presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes 2014 Meeting last month by Nicholas Fuller, PhD, from the Boden Institute Clinical Trials Unit, University of Sydney, Australia

The findings suggest that eating two eggs per day, 6 days a week can be a safe part of a healthy diet for people with type 2 (that’s 12 eggs a week – yeah!)

Eggs don’t have a bad effect on cholesterol levels in people with type 2 diabetes.

…those in the high-egg group showed a trend toward HDL improvement

Researchers also found that eating an egg-rich diet for 3 months was linked to better appetite control, and may also provide a greater sense of feeling full.

The high-egg group also reported more enjoyment of foods, less boredom, and more satisfaction with the diet (I really like this finding!)

A paper published last month in the British Journal of Nutrition : “Cholesterol and egg intakes and the risk of type 2 diabetes: The Japan Public Health Center-based Prospective Study“ found that:

higher intake of cholesterol or eggs may not be associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes in Japanese populations

This interesting animal study “Orally administered whole egg demonstrates antidepressant-like effects in the forced swimming test on rats” published in August:

demonstrated that whole-egg treatment exerts an antidepressant-like effect

It is suggested that whole egg may be an excellent food for preventing and alleviating the conditions of major depression

Skipping breakfast can increase depression, anxiety and stress levels and eggs can be part of a healthy breakfast. This May 2014 paper “A cross-sectional investigation of depressive, anxiety, and stress symptoms and health-behavior participation in Australian university students” found that:

For males, depressive symptoms were associated with skipping breakfast and poor sleep quality.

For females, depressive symptoms were associated with skipping breakfast, inadequate vigorous physical activity, and short or long sleep hours.

You don’t want to skip breakfast – ever! Low blood sugar can result in anxiety, mood swings, irritability and feeling easily overwhelmed, so it’s really important to get a good start to the day with good quality protein like eggs. Here is a simply yet delicious Egg Muffin recipe from Make It Paleo: Over 200 Grain-Free Recipes for Any Occasion.

We’re going to be talking more about the health and mood benefits of eggs (and animal protein) during season 2 of The Anxiety Summit. It runs from Nov 3-16 and you’ll learn about this and many other nutritional and natural solutions for anxiety, panic attacks, OCD and social anxiety. We’ll cover the research and practical solutions too.

Egg muffin recipe from Make It Paleo

October 17, 2014 By Trudy Scott 2 Comments

Low blood sugar can result in anxiety, mood swings, irritability and feeling easily overwhelmed, so it’s really important to get a good start to the day with good quality protein like eggs. And we’re seeing more and more research showing that eggs are ok, even the yolk!

Here is a deliciously simple and quick recipe from one of my new favorite recipe books called Make It Paleo: Over 200 Grain-Free Recipes for Any Occasion, shared here with permission from one of the authors, Hayley Mason.

If you’re on the go you will appreciate the simplicity of this recipe. These delicious little quiche-like muffins are easy to make ahead of time and grab at a moment’s notice. If you’re doing intermittent fasting, this delicious source of protein and veggies can be paired with a healthy fat like avocado and be eaten midday or later. When I travel I always make them ahead of time and take them with me for “padkos” (South African slang/Afrikaans for “food for the road”).

Egg Muffins

Ingredients:

½ tsp coconut oil
½ medium onion chopped
1 cup broccoli, chopped
¼ green pepper, chopped
¼ red pepper, chopped
8 eggs
Salt and pepper to taste

Prep time: 10 minutes; Cook time: 18-20 minutes
Makes 4 large muffins or 8 small ones

Process:

Preheat oven to 400 deg F
Grease muffin tin with coconut oil
Rinse and chop vegetables into ¼ inch pieces
Divide vegetables evenly between muffin tins
Whisk the eggs, then pour into the tins, dividing it evenly
Sprinkle with salt and pepper, then stir the vegetable and egg mixture briefly to evenly disperse the vegetables throughout the egg
Bake the egg muffins in the oven for 18-20 minutes

Here are some pictures of my attempt at these while on my recent trip to South Africa. We were getting ready to head to the Natal midlands for an overnight trip to the cheetah breeding project and needed some healthy “padkos” (South African slang for “food for the road”) so my niece Tamara and I whipped up a few muffins just before we left for the trip.

Since raw onions were not a favorite in my sister’s family, I pre-cooked the onions in a little coconut oil. I think you could lightly steam the other veggies too if you don’t like them crunchy. It’s going to add to your prep time unless you use left-over veggies from the night before.

In our case, we didn’t have quite enough veggies so we ended up with two egg-only muffins! They were all delicious!

Muffin pan ready to go with an assortment of veggies: broccoli, peppers and pre-cooked onions

My niece Tamara helps to pour the beaten eggs into the muffin pan

egg muffin 3 — A quick peek shows the egg muffins rising nicely in the oven

Tamara sampling one of the egg-only muffins right out the oven

Make It Paleo is a wonderful recipe book with many simple and basic recipes as well as some pretty fancy ones too. One quick caution – I do think there are rather too many desserts and baked goods featured – so be warned and keep to recipes in the front! Enjoy!

Authors Hayley and her husband Bill Staley are the dynamic cooking duo behind Primal Palate. Their lifelong passion for food and cooking has led them to write an internationally recognized blog, three bestselling Paleo cookbooks, as well as create a widely popular app and website.