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Gaining Doesn’t Have to be Painful: Sustainable Habits From the Comfort of Your Green Zone

By Dr. Tamara Kung, ND

A couple of years ago I watched a Ted Talk given by Dr. Stephen Seiler, a professor in Sport Science at the University of Agder in Norway. He described a surprisingly contradicting phenomenon he noticed in top-performing endurance athletes that went against the frequently quoted and deeply embedded “No pain, no gain” mentality so prolific in our society. 

So many of us grow up learning that to improve, we have to push ourselves through pain and sacrifice. Cue all the brutal montages in the movies of super-intense training with scrunched-up faces gasping for air and bodies dripping with sweat, and the illusion they are training this way every single day. 

What piqued Dr. Seiler’s interest was when he was out for a run one day and saw one of the top athletes he had previously studied in his lab, approach a hill while on her run. He knew she was capable of high levels of performance, so was taken aback when she stopped running and began walking up the hill. To him, if there was a hill, he’d push himself to run up there as fast as he could, so why was this talented athlete not running when she could clearly do so?

What he discovered was that most of the elite athletes stay in their green zone most of the time. 

  • The green zone is defined as the level of activity where you can hold an easy conversation and feel only a mild level of exertion. 
  • Yellow zones are when you can respond in a few word phrases and feel a moderate level of exertion. 
  • Red zones are where you are gasping for air and feel extremely pushed to your exertional limits (what we see in the movies).

An example was taken from the all-time winter olympian Marit Bjørgen who let researchers gather data from all her training years. During her peak years of training, Marit’s year would be in the green zone for about 800 hours and less than 100 hours in her yellow and red zones. 

Furthermore, the best marathon runner in history, Eliud Kipchoge, takes the same approach. “I perform 80 percent on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday and then at 50 percent Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday”. Lots of green zone in his training.

Spending most of their practice in the green zones allows the most successful athletes to build a strong foundation for those moments of yellow and red zone intensities. It’s a place where they can practice comfortably, enjoy it, and recover, day in and day out. And that’s where the success comes from.

Practice needs to be sustainable, that’s where our bodies and minds rewire and create new adaptations and improve our performance.

Daily moderately high intensity can lead to burnout and stagnation, and unfortunately, this is what happens to a lot of people when they get excited about hitting a new workout regime hard. They believe they will see more benefits if they go all out every day and get frustrated when they can’t sustain this. It’s because it’s not sustainable, and this idea of No pain, no gain is not realistic.

Now, let’s apply this theme to other skills as well.

Nutrition

  • Green zone examples:
  • Replacing one processed snack with berries / your favourite fruits and nuts instead. 
  • Having a hearty, colourful salad for lunch 1 day per week
  • Incorporating one new fruit, vegetable, bean, or any plant food per month
  • Yellow zone examples: 
  • Having a cup of berries on alternating days for your snacks
  • Having a colourful salad on alternate days for lunches
  • Avoiding eating after dinner on weekdays
  • Red zone examples:
  • Avoiding added sugars and processed foods 
  • Having colourful meals that contain all 7 colours daily
  • Enjoying at least 40 different foods a week

Sleep

  • Green zone examples:
  • Putting blue-light-blocking glasses on as dusk approaches to protect your melatonin
  • Turn on a salt lamp or light candles in the evenings
  • Silencing device notifications 2 hours before bedtime
  • Yellow zone examples:
  • Take your phone/ any device out of the bedroom when you sleep
  • Avoid sitting on the couch watching tv at night, and discovering alternate activities to do instead.
  • Red zone examples:
  • In bed at a time where you achieve 8 hours of sleep
  • There are no devices or screen use at least 2 hours before bed

As you can see, we can apply this green zone style of training to the lifestyle habits that we want to practice supporting sustainable health. Your green zone practices should be relaxing, and most importantly enjoyable. Configure a green zone practice that feels best for you, something you look forward to and will be able to sustain and build up your strength and success in!

Reference:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237096628_Does_Polarized_Training_Improve_Performance_in_Recreational_Runners

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Are Big Cushioned Running Shoes For You?

By Tim Irvine

One of my favorite health and wellness authors, Alex Hutchinson, wrote a great article on running shoes and how cushioning is all the rage. Almost everyone has a pair of ‘joggers’. Those are the ones that distance runners use and are specifically designed to help make running safer, more efficient, and faster. Well, at least that’s what the manufacturers are trying to do.

It only takes a moment in front of a wall of shoes at your favorite running store to see the huge variety in styles. In particular, we are in a time of big cushioning. Ten to fifteen years ago it was minimalist shoes with as little cushioning as possible. ‘Let the foot do what it’s supposed to do’ was the rationale. In part, that is still true, but we’ve evolved since then.

In Alex’s article, he references the Vaporfly by Nike as one of the reasons cushioning has taken off. It made a controversial improvement in elite running times. The improvement was substantial, and people questioned whether it was even fair. To their credit, Nike nailed the ‘performance’ side of their goal. The other great thing was it inspired lots of needed research about cushioning. You can read Alex’s article to find out lots of cool detail about research methodology, but the point of this article is to help educate you on your decisions when picking your own runners.

The most important part, which is also referenced in the article, is to choose a shoe that is comfortable and feels good for you. When I was running marathons, I used New Balance 501s. As I learned more about running, and shoes, the 501s would not have been a recommendation for me based on my foot mechanics and what that shoe was made for. But I have a wide foot and it was a wide shoe, so that was a comfortable fit. Don’t get me wrong, I do believe in matching your foot with a shoe that supports it properly, but if it’s not comfortable, it may create problems for you.

When you are buying that new pair, try at least three different models/brands. The more you try, the better your education and ability to find that perfect comfort level. Be cautious about any claims, as peer-reviewed research is growing but the evidence is still light.

Understanding your foot mechanics is also important. If your salesperson can’t provide some basics, then see someone like Victoria Lavinskas or Katie Snowden at Totum. They are exceptional therapists as well as runners and they can provide you an understanding of your own unique mechanics.

Eventually, the research will catch up and provide us with some more definitive guidance on how these different shoe designs help or hurt us. In the meantime, we take in all available information, match it with comfort, and get out and enjoy ourselves.

PS If you are looking to improve your running, or to get started in running and want to do it right, take a look at our RunSmart program. It’s an amazing education!

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How to get the most out of everything you do

By Tim Irvine

The rest is as important as the work! I remember my strength coach in university talking with us about this very fact. In retrospect, it was probably the best program I have ever been on. Lots of variety in programming as well as intensity, and room for some fun too. What I didn’t know at the time was how universally the message applies. I’ve now seen it in action for two decades (plus) with a wide variety of clients, but also with research and real-world experiences.

Let’s start with the obvious, the highest levels of sport. Twenty-five years ago, it was rare to hear about an elite athlete competing at the highest level beyond 30 years old. In 2022, it is commonplace with more and more of them still competing at 40+. The biggest change by far is how much recovery the athletes receive. The old methods applied high intensities in practice along with the same in individual workouts. Fatigue was a natural result and that lead to a greater incidence of injury, performance lag, and in most cases, retiring before 30.

The emphasis on recovery has been incredible, particularly in the last five years. If you heard the term ‘load management’ ten years ago, you would think it related to a forklift in a warehouse. Now it’s common to manage an athlete’s overall workload to ensure proper levels of recovery so they can perform at their best at the most important times.

Moving into the real world, the same theme can apply to non-athletes who are incredibly busy. Imagine a person who works 60 hours weekly. That means long days, as well as weekend time, focused on work. (As I write the number 60, it doesn’t seem dramatically high, but when you think about it, that is a big, big number). Sixty hours a week for 50 weeks will create fatigue that you may not even be aware of. It will compromise your work performance and not allow you to achieve the quality you would like. It will also dull your experiences outside of work. That fatigue is real and if you carry it into your close personal relationships, they will not be as positive as they otherwise would be. Events that should be fun feel like work. This can create a vicious cycle by increasing stress which, in turn, makes it more difficult to recover.

Circling back to the title of this article, the way to get the most out of everything you do is to make sure you have the energy to make it successful, but also enjoyable. Constantly ‘powering through’ life is not a positive strategy. If that is more your norm, then focusing on one or more of the following is a good idea.

  1. Sleep hours each week – >50
  2. Work hours each week – <45
  3. Hours focused on your personal enjoyment each week – >= 7
  4. Social time each week – >=7

As one of my peers recently said to me after going through a tough patch in his life, “You need to persevere, but you also need to live life”. He couldn’t be more right about that and everything you do will get better as a result. The rest is just as important as the work!

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Avoid Loneliness: How to Build Friendships from Scratch!

By Dr. Tamara Kung, ND

Loneliness is almost as prevalent as obesity, with up to 60% of adults reporting they feel this way. In my clinical practice, I often ask patients whether they feel lonely, and the majority respond with a “Yes.”

Feeling lonely, as research has uncovered, is as detrimental to our health as smoking and can it take 8 years off our life. The physical impact of this is real. New studies are showing that feeling lonely triggers chronic inflammation in our bodies. In our previous articles, we’ve written about how chronic inflammation can damage our systems and lead to preventable diseases and conditions. 

In her recent book, “Your Better Instincts”, Dr. Stacy Irvine has written about the instinct to form relationships with others. It is instinctual to want to belong, to feel like you have someone there for you, to help you through tough times. Evolutionarily, if we didn’t have that kind of support, our chances of survival greatly diminish. Feeling bonded and having reliable relationships that provide support and interaction, are what helps increase your chances for survival.

One of the things I marvel about kids is how quickly they can make friends. Sure, they can be a little shy in the beginning, but once they figure out, “Hey, do you like ice cream? I do too! Let’s play!” 

As adults we believe we have less opportunities to meet others and collect new friends. There’s been a shift in how we interact with people , and it’s mostly behind screens and in short, often sporadic, blocks of text. What I’m finding is that people are a little nervous about real life/ real time communication these days. The preference is to text over calling, or to meet in the virtual space. As convenient as these methods are, they pale in comparison to full on, real life, deeper connections. We demonstrated in a previous article that it’s the quality of our real-life, positive relationships that matter most to our health and longevity. 

I’d like to challenge this common belief and open the options to build new friendships from scratch just like kids do!

How to build friendships (from scratch):

When you’re in an elevator or at the gym, smile and say hello. A small, simple act with no expectations. Do this time and time again, and you’ll eventually repeat this with the same few people. And this is where the confidence can start to build. A familiar face, maybe a new haircut, or a bike in hand. You can ask them a question… “Where are you biking to today?” and see where the conversation can flow. Being curious about others is a great way to connect. People love to talk about themselves and share with others their experiences and recent adventures. It makes them feel good and lets you focus on learning about someone or something else.

Examples:

  • Invite your neighbour out for a weekly walk
  • Learn the name of your grocers, baristas, or front desk staff at offices/clinics you go to
  • Join a weekly/monthly club (hiking, running, book, gardening clubs), or make your own!
  • Join a gym, rock climbing studio, or a fun fitness class
  • Invite that new workout buddy out for a snack or coffee
  • Have weekly lunch/dinner parties that rotate through various homes

The point is to step slightly outside your comfort zone to cultivate new friends, integrate with the real world, and build your community. Don’t be afraid, because now you know that many people suffer from loneliness, and the impact of building friendships goes both ways. This is one pillar of health we don’t want to forget, and the research is showing us to follow our intuition for meaningful connection and we will reap the rewards.

Are you up for the challenge? 

Reference:

Friends: understanding the power of our most important relationships. Robin Dunbar

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/the-power-and-prevalence-of-loneliness-2017011310977

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnbeh.2021.801746/full

Lomanowska, A. M., & Guitton, M. J. (2016). Online intimacy and well-being in the digital age. Internet interventions4, 138–144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.invent.2016.06.005

Francis, J., Giles-Corti, B., Wood, L., Knuiman, M. 2012. Creating sense of community: The role of public space, Journal of Environmental Psychology, vol. 32, pp. 401-409.

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Lessons From the Longest Study on Happiness

Dr. Tamara Kung, ND

Taking care of our body is important, but so is tending to your relationships!

The power of our relationships, and how happy we are in those relationships influence our physical and mental health. One of the world’s longest studies on adult life and aging has amassed a huge collection of detailed data on what factors in life correlate to happiness and quality longevity. That last part is important. It’s not just living longer but doing so with a great quality of life.

Many aspects were measured. Money, fame, career status, relationships, mental health, and physical health measures like weight and cholesterol levels. One of the strongest correlations was health and happiness to relationships with family, friends, and community. People who were most satisfied with their relationships were the healthiest in their 80’s. This was a stronger predictor than cholesterol levels!

Satisfying relationships do not just mean when things are smooth and positive. Studies of couples bickering daily still show their mental health remains intact if they feel supported and could really count on others when times get tough. 

The key to healthy aging is relationships, relationships, relationships.

-George Valliant, psychiatrist (professor at Harvard)

We often think of health as coming from abstaining from smoking, reducing alcohol, eating well, and being physically active. But this study shows a stark absence in our valuation of relationships and the impact that our community plays on our health as well.

I often ask patients to list the qualities in others they enjoy being around and use this to guide how they allocate time spent with others who contribute to their positive relationships. Traits like passion about something, kindness, loyalty, intelligence, being open-minded, etc. 

The number of friends doesn’t necessarily matter, as many of us can still feel lonely despite having lots of people around. We want to make sure we pay attention to the quality of our relationships, enjoying ones that uplift us, challenge us, and make us feel supported with a little tough love thrown in.

Your list is like your home base to help recenter your priorities when we sometimes get swept up with life. What qualities are on your list? Now go enjoy them.

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/04/over-nearly-80-years-harvard-study-has-been-showing-how-to-live-a-healthy-and-happy-life/

https://www.adultdevelopmentstudy.org

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Tighten Up Your Immune Defensive Line – Gut Health Series Part 2, Partners in Slime

Dr. Tamara Kung, ND

Humans are essentially a giant, elaborate tube. We have an outside layer (our skin), and an inner layer (our gut lining) that encases all our innards and protects us from the outside world. 

We are incredibly vulnerable organisms and need protection from the harsh external environment, so our skin which is multiple layers thick, and constantly regenerating, contains sweat, and specific pH levels to protect us and kill off any unwanted intruders. 

Our gut starts at our mouth and ends at our bum, and represents the inner part of the tube. Unlike our skin, our gut is only one cell layer thick! One integral layer that separates your blood and internal organs from the external environment.  If there’s so much as a tiny, inflicted wound, there’s no other cell layer there to stop food particles, waste products from bacteria metabolism, or toxins released from dying microbes from entering places they don’t belong. This can light up our immune system, and lead to chronic inflammation!

Common symptoms of a damaged gut barrier are food intolerances, excessive gas, bloating,  persistent or recurring skin rashes, breakouts like acne, eczema, psoriasis or rosacea, and autoimmune conditions (from a confused and inappropriate immune response) like hypothyroidism. 

While avoiding foods by following a LOW FODMAPS diet, or eliminating nightshades (tomatoes, eggplant etc), can provide temporary relief, it’s missing the root cause, resulting in a strategy that effectively “shoots the messenger”. Real food isn’t the problem. The lasting solution is to have a robust and healthy gut barrier that prevents these food proteins, molecules and toxins from getting into our bloodstream in the first place.

One major disruptor of our thin intestinal lining is protein gliadin found in seemingly benign wheat. Hang on! Isn’t wheat a real food? Yes, but modern-day modifications to this food have left us in an evolutionary mismatch, with our body having little to no time to adapt to these new structures of wheat.  As a result, modern wheat can increase the permeability of our gut lining by loosening up the tight bonds that naturally help keep our single-cell layer tightly bound together. 

For this reason, sticking with our real, unprocessed foods (no package, no problem, and your 5-ingredient rule, you know the drill), help us prevent gut damage. To take it one step further, here are specific nutrients we want to include to give our delicate intestines all the support they need.

Game Plan: Building a tight defensive line

  1. Fiber again! All plants contain fiber, and help build up and maintain a strong healthy, tightly packed intestinal cell layer! Growing healthy intestinal cells require short-chain fatty acids (SCFA), which are a by-product made when healthy bacteria get enough fiber to eat (best sources are vegetables, lentils, legumes, fruits, nuts, seeds).
  2. Curcumin, a compound found in turmeric root, is one such gut healer. It helps repair the tight junctions between our gut cells, so that the single layer remains tight and less penetrable. However, curcumin needs to stay in our gut for it to work its healing touch. That means we are looking for turmeric that is NOT absorbable as curcumin is a potent anti-inflammatory and can help reduce inflammation in our body which is helpful for conditions like pain and arthritis. This is more of a band aid solution compared to helping our gut lining stay healthy, strong which will in turn reduce and prevent inflammation from happening in our blood in the first place. When looking for curcumin, or eating turmeric, avoid those that are combined with black pepper (aka. bioperine). Add turmeric to your avocado with some salt, paprika, and cumin for a quick snack or roasting veggies.
  3. Vitamin D is deficient in over 70% of Canadians, and integral not just to bone health and our immune system. But new studies are showing how it positively impacts the growth of healthy gut bacteria, who in return make butyrate (another favourite food for growing healthy intestinal cells), and protective mucosal layers (as described in part I).
  4. Omega 3 is showing similar benefits in terms of optimizing the growth of healthy gut bacteria that give the gift of mucosal protection, and intestinal rejuvenation fuel sources such as butyrate and SCFA. Omega 3 has the additional benefit of reducing inflammation and protecting and increasing the resilience to intestinal damage. 

Begin incorporating more of these defense mechanisms and you will begin to feel the differences. Happy eating!

Reference:

Costantini, L., Molinari, R., Farinon, B., & Merendino, N. (2017). Impact of Omega-3 Fatty Acids on the Gut Microbiota. International journal of molecular sciences18(12), 2645. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms18122645

Lammers, K.M., et al. (2008). Gliadin induces an increase in intestinal permeability and zonulin release by binding to the chemokine receptor CXCR3. Gastroenterology, 135(1), 194-204. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2653457/

Markowiak-Kopeć, P.; Śliżewska, K. The Effect of Probiotics on the Production of Short-Chain Fatty Acids by Human Intestinal Microbiome. Nutrients 202012, 1107. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12041107

Schwalfenberg GK, Genuis SJ, Hiltz MN. Addressing vitamin D deficiency in Canada: a public health innovation whose time has come. Public Health. 2010 Jun;124(6):350-9. doi: 10.1016/j.puhe.2010.03.003. Epub 2010 Apr 21. PMID: 20413135.

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/82-624-x/2013001/article/11727-eng.htm

Coates, M. et al., (2019). The skin and intestinal microbiota and their specific innate immune systems. Frontiers in Immunology. Retrieved from https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2019.02950/full

Singh, P., Rawat, A., Alwakeel, M. et al. The potential role of vitamin D supplementation as a gut microbiota modifier in healthy individuals. Sci Rep 10, 21641 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-77806-4


Wang, J., Ghosh, S. S., & Ghosh, S. (2017). Curcumin improves intestinal barrier function: modulation of intracellular signaling, and organization of tight junctions. American journal of physiology. Cell physiology312(4), C438–C445. https://doi.org/10.1152/ajpcell.00235.2016

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RunSmart!

Are you or someone you know hitting the pavement or trails this spring? If so, we have two awesome resources for you.

RunSmart Workshop

We are hosting a RunSmart workshop on May 10th, 6pm at our King location. Our running physio, Victoria Lavinskas, and our running nutritionist, Tara Postnikoff, will help you…

  • Run Faster
  • Run farther
  • Stay injury free
  • Nutrition, technique, resistance work, and more

There is no cost to the workshop, but all attendees will receive 15% off a massage. Sign up here

RunSmart Immersive

If you are looking for the latest and most comprehensive look at running performance from all angles, we have you covered. Whether you are just getting started with running or you are experienced and looking for an edge, this program is a great match.

  • 20+ videos
  • Nutrition advice
  • Warmups
  • Injury prevention
  • 5k and 10k programs
  • Direct access to our professionals

Find out more or sign up here.

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Easily Add Some Cross-Training To Your Outdoor Excursions

Tim Irvine

It won’t surprise you that our society is forward-focused. This is also true with how we move our bodies.

Typically, we move forward in a straight line for our activity. Walking, running, and cycling are good examples of this. While any movement is positive, as we get back to outdoor activity after a long winter there is an opportunity to move differently as well. Mixing up directions of movement to keep your body guessing and promote cross-training is a good example.

Let’s focus on walking/hiking and running. This article by Alex Hutchinson shows how rough trail running requires greater energy use than smooth trail running. This isn’t entirely surprising, but the reason this happens is related to the amount of side-to-side movement necessary to avoid some of the ground covers on a rough trail, including rocks and tree roots. The idea of making your run harder may not be particularly appealing but the benefits for your body are substantial. Sideways steps, small jumps, the landing of those small jumps, long steps, etc. All this extra motion takes more energy, but it also requires your body to move in different ways. This ‘cross training’ helps you be a better mover overall.

Here are some ways you can accomplish these bonus movements in your regular routine:

  1. Walking/running
    1. Typical – paved or cement trail
    2. Cross Training – dirt, grass, or gravel trails; incorporate sideways or backwards steps (safely)
  2. Hiking
    1. Typical – smooth, low incline trails
    2. Cross Training – higher incline trails; rough trails; a combination of these two
  3. Biking
    1. Typical – road riding on paved trails
    2. Cross Training – dirt, grass, or gravel trails; mountain biking

As a bonus, you can also stop on your outdoor adventure and do some step-ups onto a tree stump, push-ups against a low branch or rock, and more.

As with anything that has higher levels of difficulty, proper safety approaches are important. Some considerations include proper footwear, avoiding wet or slippery surfaces, making sure there is adequate light, bringing along a friend, etc.

This spring and summer, get outside and enjoy the world around you a bit differently. Your body and brain will thank you.

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This little-known way we can help our overall health – Gut Health Series Part 1, Partners in Slime

Dr. Tamara Kung, ND

Did you know that we produce 10 litres of mucus a day?

That gooey, slimy stuff we cough up, is a lubricant for our food as it makes its way through our digestive tract. As icky as it seems, it has a crucial role. Imagine swallowing a bite of an apple in a mucus-free esophagus, food would stay lodged in there for days! We need mucus.

It’s like living in a house with a sturdy roof that keeps you sheltered, warm, and protected. Now imagine life without a roof, leaving you vulnerable and exposed to harsh elements and triggering pain and suffering.

Why is mucus so important?

Mucus is our protective shield from the caustic elements of digestion (think stomach acid and digestive enzymes), and is our front-line barrier, preventing food particles and the trillions of microbes that live in your gut from passing through into your blood. The health and strength of our mucus layer mean the difference between resilient health and conditions like ulcerative colitis. 

How do we produce mucus?

Our intestinal cells secrete some, but a significant amount comes from healthy bacteria (aka your microbiome) as well!  The bacteria that produce our protective mucus layer thrive and feed off prebiotic fibers. But less than 3% of us get enough prebiotic fibers daily, finding it a struggle to pack in such fibrous plant foods like lentils, beans, vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds. Add onto that, when we consider the near-sighted benefits of high fat and low carb diets, paving the way to long-term digestive problems and symptoms related to chronic inflammation.

What destroys mucus?

When there isn’t enough food for our healthy bacteria, they turn to munch on our mucus instead! This leads to the destruction or loss of our mucosal layer inviting digestive dysfunction and body-wide inflammation that can take many forms such as constipation, chronic fatigue, irritable bowel syndrome and disease, as well as other autoimmune conditions.


Even worse, processed foods use emulsifying agents. This is how food chemists prevent the separation of ingredients, so things stay creamy and uniform. Think ice cream, salad dressings, and nut butter which are some of the most common culprits for their emulsifying effects. Emulsifiers like polysorbate 80 and carboxymethylcellulose disrupt mucus-like dishwashing liquid and disperse oily film. It thins and breaks apart the mucus layer, opening holes for bacteria, and harmful proteins to get direct access to our intestinal lining. The best way to avoid emulsifying our protective and precious mucus is to eat Real Food and avoid foods that have more than 5 ingredients, or ingredients you can’t picture in your mind.

A 3 Course Meal for Mucus Building

  1. Enjoy lentils and beans ¼-½ cup daily, you may need to slowly ramp up the amount as your body regrows bacteria to help you break this down.
  2. There’s a species of mucus-producing bacteria that thrive off olive oil. So, while there is no fiber in this product, some of the anti-inflammatory benefits of olive oil can be due to this mechanism.
  3. Matcha green tea contains compounds that provide extra scaffolding for our mucosal layer. It makes mucus thicker, stronger, and more resilient to damage.

We are just scratching the surface of what our incredible microbiome can offer us, so stay tuned as the science continues to unfold better ways to understand the components of health and longevity!

Reference:

Charlotte, A. et al., (2020). Impact of diet and the bacterial microbiome on the mucous barrier and immune disorders. European Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 76(3), pg 714-734. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/all.14548

Paone P, Cani PDMucus barrier, mucins and gut microbiota: the expected slimy partners?Gut 2020;69:2232-2243. Retrieved from https://gut.bmj.com/content/69/12/2232

Annika Braun, MD, et al. (2009). Alterations of phospholipid concentration and species composition of the intestinal mucus barrier in ulcerative colitis: A clue to pathogenesis, Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, Volume 15, Issue 11, 1. Pg 1705–1720. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1002/ibd.20993

Davis, W. (2022). Super Gut: reprogram your microbiome to restore health, lose weight, and turn back the clock. Harper Collins, Toronto CA.

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Belly Laughs Are Good For You

By Dr. Stacy Irvine

I was reading a fantastic book called “Train Your Brain Like an Olympian” and I came across a very interesting passage.  Did you know that on average children laugh approximately six times per day?  This number drops off dramatically as we get older, and our lives become more serious.  Here is the problem…Laughter provides both our neuromuscular and hormonal system with essential feedback and stimulation that helps keep us healthy and ultimately happy.

Now let’s talk a bit about the last two years.  How much do you think you missed out on great belly laughs?  I am sure, like almost all of us, that joyous sound and feeling has been hard to come by.  Anyone living in Toronto has had a particularly hard time with our extreme levels of lockdown and restrictions.  This is part of living in the largest city in the country.  Hopefully you and your families are working towards a full recovery and are starting to feel like life may be returning to a time where laughter becomes a part of your regular life again.

But how can we make sure of this?

Try these three things:

  1. Social Time – A critical component to mental health, as well as physical health, is social activities. These are situations where you are spending time with friends and family, and they almost always involve laughter.
  2. Sign up for a daily laugh – There are many sites that will send you daily content that will make you laugh. Daily Laugh is a good example.
  3. Turn Up Humor – It is virtually impossible to avoid bad news. The media loves it and for some reason we love consuming it. Instead of trying to avoid it altogether, let’s reduce the amount we take in and replace it with content that makes us laugh. Just searching for the ‘funniest’ anything will be sure to discover many segments that put a smile on your face.

And to help you kick off some laughable time in your day, take a look at any of these three segments. Enjoy the amazing feeling that laughing brings you.