Feel like you absolutely need that piece of chocolate, pint of ice cream or huge plate of mashed potatoes to satisfy your craving? Rather than true hunger in a physical sense, cravings are more likely a sign of one of two things: an emotional hunger or possibly a deficiency in some key nutrients. Follow these four steps to restore balance.

Step 1: Eliminate the bad stuff Get rid of sugar, caffeine and anything processed and/or refined. If you really struggle with mood swings and depression, eliminate gluten, dairy, red meat and alcohol. Do this at least until you feel the symptoms are under control, or you have healthy doses of serotonin being produced and maintained in the body.

In my opinion, sugar and caffeine are the main two culprits and cause the greatest amount of damage. You’d be doing yourself a huge favor by releasing them from your diet. Sugar can, indeed, make us momentarily uplifted because this refined molecule temporarily boosts blood [...]]]>

Feel like you absolutely need that piece of chocolate, pint of ice cream or huge plate of mashed potatoes to satisfy your craving? Rather than true hunger in a physical sense, cravings are more likely a sign of one of two things: an emotional hunger or possibly a deficiency in some key nutrients. Follow these four steps to restore balance.

Step 1: Eliminate the bad stuff
Get rid of sugar, caffeine and anything processed and/or refined. If you really struggle with mood swings and depression, eliminate gluten, dairy, red meat and alcohol. Do this at least until you feel the symptoms are under control, or you have healthy doses of serotonin being produced and maintained in the body.

In my opinion, sugar and caffeine are the main two culprits and cause the greatest amount of damage. You’d be doing yourself a huge favor by releasing them from your diet. Sugar can, indeed, make us momentarily uplifted because this refined molecule temporarily boosts blood sugar and actively alters brain chemistry. But like any drug, the depression after it wears off is far worse than the brief happiness it appeared to give us. And in the worst cases, we sometimes fall into a pattern of treating that mental rut with yet another hit of sugar to keep the happiness going.

This downward cycle of sugar dependence leads us to long-term obesity, diabetes and depression. Sugar also contributes to adrenal exhaustion, metabolism malfunction and overall poor health, which opens the door to a whole host of illness and disease.

While there are six definite tastes that we need for balance (salty, sweet, bitter, astringent, pungent and sour), the sweet taste is not abundant in whole and natural foods. We’re meant to have it in small amounts and seasonally. In the summer, the days are longer and we’re more active. We have more of a need for the bursts of energy that we get from berries, melons and other fruits. Maple syrup in the spring, and sweet vegetables, honey and apples in the colder months provide the sweet taste year-round.

Step 2: Add more good stuff
· Adaptogens: yerba mate, ashwaganda, ginseng, rhodiola, cordyceps mushrooms, etc. Adaptogens stabilize moods, ease stress and promote feelings of well-being. They also add an infusion of balanced and sustained energy without stimulation like caffeine. Herbs like St. John’s Wort help fight depression and can be taken with dandelion root and milk thistle to aid in liver detoxification and cleansing.
· Healthy fats that contain omega 3′s: nuts like almonds, pistachios, pecans, macadamia and walnuts; avocados, coconut and other cold-pressed oils; seeds like pumpkin, sunflower, sesame, hemp, chia and flax; olives as well as good quality fish oils.
· Green vegetable juices. These alkalize the body and help bring everything back into balance and release our cravings for sweet and processed foods.

Step 3: Bring in (or get back to)
· Living in the present moment.
· Removing complication: simplify, simplify, simplify every area of your life that you can. Move away from rampant multitasking and being plugged into a myriad of technological gadgets constantly. Take technology breaks and focus on one task at a time as much as you can. Eliminate clutter. Clean out your cupboards (which will probably lead to healthier eating as well) by throwing out or donating the packaged, canned and less than optimal things buried there.
· Moving out of the thinking mind and into the feeling heart.
· Meditating. Any amount of being still brings immeasurable benefits into our lives even if it’s five minutes when you’re waking up or falling asleep.
· Enjoying everyday moments. There are a million beautiful things that pass through our days. What are five of them that have happened today so far?
· Exercising, through yoga, dance, or whatever you prefer, to release endorphins. When we feel good about our bodies and are generally happier, we move more, so we become fitter and have more energy, so we move more. This creates a positive circle of cause and effect.

Step 4: Release and Be Empowered
During any cleanse it’s inevitable that not only will you clear out toxins and old sludgy buildup, but old emotions will most likely be released as well. For some, this is unexpected and a little unsettling, but the best way to handle it is to look at those emotions or feelings as they’re surfacing. Don’t delve in and live in the past, just let them go. They no longer affect you, after you realize that they brought you to the place you are now, and that it’s exactly where you’re supposed to be. They do not affect your future. How you act and think right now is the only thing that affects your future, and that’s not meant to make us anxious or stressed, but to excite and enliven us as every moment is truly a gift full of promise and a chance to create exactly the future you want!

Photo Credit: canadapost

Recently I saw a generic brand of knock-off Oreo cookies. Not surprisingly, the first ingredient was refined sugar and the second was bleached, white flour. Across the front of the box, larger than the name of the cookies, it said: omega-3. That was the most prominent text! And while omega-3 is vastly important (essential even), the way its suggested usage is being promoted has become somewhat misguided. As with many healthy foods or nutrients grabbed by the mainstream, omega-3 consumption is slightly misunderstood.

An upswing in awareness of omega-3 began to develop soon after a World Health Organization (WHO) report was released. The report suggested that the average North American eats a diet with a vastly out-of-balance ratio of omega-6 to omega-3, which was linked to serious health problems. Consumers of the Standard American Diet (SAD) commonly ingest 20 times more omega-6 than omega-3. This was of great concern since the WHO determined in their extensive study that the ideal ratio for optimal health is 4:1, provided both sources of [...]]]>

Recently I saw a generic brand of knock-off Oreo cookies. Not surprisingly, the first ingredient was refined sugar and the second was bleached, white flour. Across the front of the box, larger than the name of the cookies, it said: omega-3. That was the most prominent text! And while omega-3 is vastly important (essential even), the way its suggested usage is being promoted has become somewhat misguided. As with many healthy foods or nutrients grabbed by the mainstream, omega-3 consumption is slightly misunderstood.

An upswing in awareness of omega-3 began to develop soon after a World Health Organization (WHO) report was released. The report suggested that the average North American eats a diet with a vastly out-of-balance ratio of omega-6 to omega-3, which was linked to serious health problems. Consumers of the Standard American Diet (SAD) commonly ingest 20 times more omega-6 than omega-3. This was of great concern since the WHO determined in their extensive study that the ideal ratio for optimal health is 4:1, provided both sources of omega-6 and omega-3 are of high quality and in their natural, unrefined form.

Those eating a SAD were consuming five times more omega-6 than the ideal. A significantly out-of-balance ratio such as this was being blamed for a broad spectrum of ailments. Inflammation contributing to joint pain was one of the chief concerns, but the list was long and varied. Difficulty sleeping, general mental and physical fatigue, sugar cravings, the inability to burn body fat effectively, dry skin and even poor memory were all suspected of being a result of this off-kilter ratio. Serious implications indeed.

As a consumer-minded society we immediately concluded that these findings meant we should get more omega-3 in our diet to compensate for the lopsided ratio. Was this a bad approach? Not particularly, but it certainly wasn’t the most logical. Seemingly overnight omega-3 became a buzzword and everyone wanted to increase their omega-3 intake. Of course the next question was, “can I buy omega-3 supplements?” The answer very quickly became yes. This was a good thing, but it was far from optimal.

Another finding that emerged from the same WHO study was not as celebrated. The report also suggested that the problem was not merely created by too much omega-6 but rather by its sources. In addition to a distorted ratio, denatured, refined and highly processed forms of fat containing omega-6 were found to be part of the problem. Essentially eating too many high-temperature fried foods, denatured oils and manufactured fats (commonly used in cheaper baked goods to increase shelf life) was being blamed.

Taking into account the WHO’s findings on the ideal ratio, those of us who eat a diet that does not regularly contain large amounts of high-temperature fried foods, hydrogenated fats (such as those found in some margarines) or trans fats have no reason to use supplements with a greater ratio of omega-3 to omega-6. It’s just not necessary. If, however, a large part of your diet consists of denatured fats, fried foods and manufactured oils…stop eating them! Don’t just supplement your diet with omega-3 and think that you’ve solved the problem by balancing your ratio. It’s false hope and nothing more than a bandage that will offer a mild reprieve of symptoms at best. The cause will remain, and the problem will continue to worsen until it is addressed.

There are many highly corrective oil formulas on the market that offer 1:2 ratio of omega-6 to omega-3. Because of the reasons I’ve stated, I believe the best approach is to eat a healthy, balanced diet of whole foods as opposed to taking a highly corrective formula. A healthy diet includes balanced cold-pressed oils that yield a ratio between 4:1 and 2:1. I often make a salad dressing that combines cold-pressed, organic hemp seed oil (70%), flax seed oil (20%) and pumpkin seed oil (10%). Straight hemp oil is another good choice.

The WHO report concludes the best way to bring the ratio back to a healthy balance is to simply cut back on all processed, denatured and manufactured fats with a goal of complete elimination. Cold-pressed forms of omega-6 are perfectly healthy and essential to optimal health. As long as their quantity does not surpass four parts for every one part of omega-3, optimal health will be obtainable.