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You’re probably aware by now how important sleep is for good health. Inadequate sleep is a major stressor on the body and has been implicated in obesity, insulin resistance, heart disease, impaired cognitive function, and numerous other health complaints. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
It doesn’t matter how dialed in your nutrition and exercise are; if you don’t get enough sleep, your health will suffer. (7)
The trouble is, making sleep a priority—although an important step—doesn’t necessarily guarantee you’ll get a restful 8 hours per night. Many people can’t fall asleep at a reasonable hour, wake up in the middle of the night and can’t get back to sleep, or consistently wake up too early. According to a review published in 2013, an estimated one-third of the adult population reports having at least one symptom of insomnia. (8)
Luckily, there are several things you can do to improve your sleep. In this article, I’ll give you eight tips to help you fall asleep and stay asleep.
This first tip is one you’ve probably heard me talk about before: restrict artificial light at night. This means devices like computers, smart phones, and TVs, but also ambient indoor lighting. Light from all of these sources—particularly blue light—has been shown to disrupt the production of melatonin, which is the primary hormone involved in sleep regulation. (9, 10, 11)
One easy way to mitigate this effect is to install f.lux on your devices, which will automatically change the display of your computer or smart phone at night to reduce the amount of blue light it emits. However, a better option is to buy amber-tinted glasses to wear after dark, which will reduce your exposure to blue light from ambient room lighting as well. Studies have shown that these glasses are extremely effective at preventing melatonin suppression and improving sleep quality and mood. (12) [easyazon_link identifier="B000USRG90" locale="US" tag="chrikres-20"]Uvex[/easyazon_link] and [easyazon_link identifier="B000LWJCJW" locale="US" tag="chrikres-20"]Solar Shield[/easyazon_link] are two popular, inexpensive brands.
Can’t sleep? Check out these 8 tips for getting your 8 hours.
Melatonin is synthesized in the brain by the pineal gland, along with serotonin, which is a neurotransmitter that is also involved in sleep regulation. An important raw material for this synthesis is the amino acid tryptophan, and carbohydrates increase the amount of tryptophan available to the pineal gland. Studies have shown that eating a carb-rich meal a few hours before bed can shorten sleep onset, and higher-glycemic carbs in particular seem to have the greatest effect. (13, 14, 15) If you have insomnia, and particularly if you’re on a low-carb diet, adding some carbs at dinner could be an easy and effective way to improve your sleep.
On the other hand, high-protein meals can decrease the availability of tryptophan because other amino acids compete for transport across the blood-brain barrier and into the pineal gland. (16) However, the glycine-rich proteins found in skin and gelatinous cuts of meat don’t have this effect, and studies have shown that gelatin consumption before bedtime (say, a mug of bone broth) can improve sleep quality. (17)
You may have already discovered that sleeping in a cool, dark environment makes it much easier to get a good night’s sleep. One of the physiologic hallmarks of sleep onset is a decrease in core body temperature, which the body achieves by increasing blood flow to the skin and allowing heat to disperse into the environment. (18) If the sleeping environment is too warm, it can hinder this decrease in core body temperature and adversely affect sleep quality. (19)
It’s also important to keep your bedroom as dark as possible. We’ve already discussed how exposure to artificial light before bed can impair sleep, and exposure to even small amounts of light during the night can disrupt the circadian rhythm. (20, 21) Installing black-out shades and covering any other lights in your bedroom is one option, but an eye mask is a good alternative.
One common reason people cite for not being able to fall asleep at night is that they can’t “turn off their brain.” Is this really a surprise, considering how busy and scattered most of us stay during the day? If the sympathetic nervous system, better known as “fight or flight” mode, is consistently activated during the day, it’s unrealistic to expect that you’ll be able to switch to parasympathetic—or “rest and digest” mode—the instant your head hits the pillow.
Shifting the balance in favor of parasympathetic activation during the day by managing stress makes it much easier to fall asleep at night, and common stress-management practices such as yoga and meditation have been shown to help eliminate insomnia and improve sleep. (22, 23, 24) I also recommend a program called Rest Assured, which has breathing and movement exercises designed to promote daytime relaxation and a good night’s sleep. You can try a sample exercise (audio and pictures) here.
Supporting your circadian rhythm by avoiding artificial light at night is important, but don’t forget to enforce it during the day, too! The most important environmental factor regulating the circadian rhythm is light entering the eye, so it’s important to let your body know that it’s daytime by exposing yourself to plenty of bright light. (25) Try to spend some time outside every day, in the morning or around lunchtime if possible. Compared to outdoor light, which usually ranges from 10,000 to 30,000 lux on a clear day, ordinary indoor light is a pitiful 10 to 300 lux, not nearly bright enough to have the strong circadian-entrenching effect we want. (26)
Exercise during the day has also been shown to improve sleep quality at night. Several studies have found exercise to be effective at reducing symptoms of insomnia, and some evidence indicates that exercise may be as effective as sleeping pills. (27, 28, 29, 30)
Because the circadian rhythm is regulated primarily by exposure to light, the best way to reset your sleep schedule and get back on the right track is by exposing yourself to as much natural light as possible, with plenty of bright light during the day and no light at night. And one of the best ways to accomplish that is by going camping.
One study found that being exposed to only natural light for a few days realigns the circadian rhythm with sunset and sunrise, resulting in an easier time falling asleep and staying asleep. (31) And if you’re wondering about exposure to moonlight at night, it doesn’t appear to hinder these effects. Despite the fact that the moon can seem quite bright, moonlight is only around 0.1 to 0.4 lux. (32, 33) For comparison, a candle one meter away is 1 lux.
It’s also possible that you can’t sleep due to a health condition such as sleep apnea or restless legs syndrome (RLS). I recently wrote an article sharing several potential causes, as well as ways to address it.
But while RLS is usually easy to identify, people can suffer from sleep apnea without even realizing it. If you have excessive daytime sleepiness that you can’t figure out or you wake up frequently at night, it’s worth having a sleep study done to rule out sleep apnea as a cause. This is especially true if you are obese, have high blood pressure or diabetes, or have a history of snoring, all of which are risk factors for sleep apnea. (34) Remember, you don’t need to be overweight to develop sleep apnea, so see a sleep specialist to get tested for this common condition. (Side note: I will be discussing alternative treatments for sleep apnea in the near future.)
Finally, there are several supplements that can be helpful for relieving insomnia and improving sleep. These are the supplements I’ve found helpful in my practice and are safe for most people to try, listed in descending order of what to try first. (Always check with your personal physician before starting any supplement protocol.)
Magnesium. Magnesium has calming effects on the nervous system, and several studies have found magnesium to be effective in treating insomnia and improving sleep. (35, 36, 37, 38) Many people have success with 1 to 2 teaspoons of [easyazon_link identifier="B00HTIZF7Y" locale="US" tag="chrikres-20"]Natural Calm[/easyazon_link] before bed, while others do better with chelated forms like magnesium glycinate or magnesium taurate (400 to 600 mg). It’s important to note that magnesium may have a laxative effect, and the chelated forms are usually better tolerated by those with sensitive guts.
L-theanine. L-theanine is an amino acid found in green tea that has been shown to have calming effects on the brain. (39) The recommended dose for improving sleep is 200 to 400 mg, taken an hour before bed if you have trouble falling asleep, or just before bed if you have trouble staying asleep.
Taurine. Taurine is an amino acid that reduces cortisol levels and increases the production of GABA, which is a major inhibitory neurotransmitter—our bodies’ natural “off” switch. Try taking 500 mg before bed. Using magnesium taurate allows you to get both magnesium and taurine with a single pill.
5-HTP. 5-HTP is the precursor to melatonin, and the recommended dose is 50 to 100 mg an hour before bed. (Note: do not take 5-HTP if you are taking SSRIs or other antidepressants.)
Melatonin. If 5-HTP doesn’t work, you might consider taking melatonin itself. It’s more likely to be effective if your melatonin levels are low. At lower doses of 0.5 to 1 mg I believe it is safe and unlikely to cause dependence (which may be a concern with higher doses). Also, it’s worth pointing out that many people find lower doses more sedating than higher doses.
Now I’d like to hear from you. Do you have trouble sleeping? If so, what tips have worked for you? Do you plan to try the advice in this article? Share your thoughts in the comments!
“Sustainability is greater than abs,” challenges Diana Rodgers.
This modern farmer-nutritionist-podcaster-food activist is trying to change the conversation around clean-eating diets from self to the system at large. And while she admits that you’ve got to fix yourself first, she’s encouraging folks to start taking a larger view about how the health of the planet is also in your hands.
I’ve had the good fortune to hang out at Diana’s organic farm and see how she and her family are improving their local food system, and also to learn from her in my own pursuit of growing food in my tiny urban front yard and keeping my own beehive. She’s truly making a difference when it comes to sustainability and giving you lots of great suggestions for doing what you can given your own situation.
Thanks so much for joining me again this week. Have some feedback to share? Leave a note in the comment section below.
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Join me next week for Episode 18 for an interview with a neuroscientist-athlete who’s showing the young whippersnappers how it’s done on the competition floor. This has been one of my favorite episodes to date!
The post Harder to Kill Radio 017: Why Abs Aren’t Everything with Diana Rodgers appeared first on Stupid Easy Paleo.
I’m coming to Berlin this weekend to celebrate the launch of my German book, which is so exciting! I can’t wait to see the city and meet lots of you. I’ll be doing an event on Thursday evening at 5pm at the Store in Soho House. It’s open to everyone and you don’t need to a ticket to come, and you don’t need to be a member of Soho House either. I’ll be there to chat with everyone and we’ll have lots of food and drink for you all. There will be books to buy at The Store and I’ll of course be so happy sign them all! I’d also love to hear all your favourite healthy spots in Berlin so that I can check them all out – please let me know below and I’ll go and try as many as I can!
The post I’m coming to Berlin! appeared first on Deliciously Ella.
Name: Tanya Maher, from Tanya’s Cafe in London
Where do you live? London, UK
What sparked your interest in health and wellness? When I was 14, raw food healed my badly inflamed internal organs after a car accident and saved my pancreas from being removed. As a 17 year old, I was told that only a change of diet will save me from my pre-diabetic condition. I knew early on that food doesn’t just heal, it prevents, and that’s something I never lost interest in.
How did you build your passion for healthy living into a career? I can’t say it wasn’t challenging but it’s been the greatest journey and experience ever! I began by door knocking on yoga centres, offices and restaurants to run a green smoothie workshop, then signed on my first coaching client through running these classes. I wrote so many detox programs for individuals, that I ended up putting it all into one eBook ‘Purified’ and then wrote another 4 eBooks. I also had so much request to film my workshops from overseas, that I created a DVD ‘Raw Food 101’ and started running international retreats. But my clients were also very busy professionals, new mums and fitness pros, so with little time on their hands they were asking for ready-made meals and this lead to the opening of Tanya’s café, now in three locations! All this lead to my dream book with my dream publisher.
Who inspires you? My closest friends and family have always been my greatest inspiration, especially my mum, dad and husband.
Favourite quote? “If you think you can or you think you can’t, you are probably right.”
What is your biggest achievement so far? Opening a Tanya’s inside the prestigious food hall of Selfridges and publishing The Uncook Book with Hay House.
What’s your typical…
Breakfast: It is different each day, but I don’t be surprised if you find me starting with raw chocolate and peppermint tea or a green Smoothie made with pineapple, banana, apple juice, spinach and spirulina or sometimes even coconut butter for that Pina Colada flavour.
Lunch: I try to make extra dinner so there’s left overs for lunch, otherwise I would usually throw together some salad leaves and grated veggies, soaked seeds and one of my raw dips on a sheet of nori and wrap it like a burrito.
Snack: I love plain fruit or simply cherry tomatoes, but most of all I love to slice a cucumber in half lengthwise, sprinkle a pinch of pink salt on it and carve criss crosses on the surface. It sounds strange but that somehow makes it taste even better.
Dinner: Dinner always varies and depends on what is seasonal and organic in the shops and at the markets. It’s usually half a plate of raw salads and half of something cooked, like quinoa, lentil mix, Mexican bean stew, root veggie mash or gluten free pizzas.
What’s your favourite dessert? I love anything and everything mint flavoured and I’m crazy about chocolate, so when mint and chocolate combine in my kitchen, magic happens in the world!
What’s the best recipe you’ve ever made? That’s tough since I really love playing with food and producing different things every time, but if there was a recipe I make more often than others, it’s probably my Thai Curry Kelp Noodles. The recipe is in The Uncook Book and we even serve this at Tanya’s on top of a kale salad and marinated veggies, which is a combo I don’t think I could ever get over.
Where do you get the inspiration from to create so many awesome recipes? The inspiration usually comes from the ingredients themselves, because I love working with seasonal produce and also new superfoods I often find that no one usually knows what to do with. I always enjoy a fun foodie challenge.
What are the ingredients you can’t live without? Avocado, tomatoes, all berries, cacao, matcha and almonds (mainly for milk).
Where are your favourite places to eat? Can I say Tanya’s in Chelsea? I know it’s a little bias, but I genuinely love the energy, the light in the conservatory, the décor of the terrace, the adorable plants, the loving staff and the food made by passionate chefs. Other than that I enjoy visiting 222 Veggie Vegan, Wild Food Café, Nama, Mildred’s and Jak’s.
What do you do to stay active? I used to be able to give you a whole list of everything from running and gymming to tennis and palates, but having a wellness coaching company, multiple cafes and now a book, I have to really plan exercising or try to be active between meetings and either walk, jog or cycle between locations instead of getting the tube. Since being pregnant, I’ve also taken up aqua aerobics at a gym next door and pregnancy yoga from my laptop.
What is your beauty routine? I’m big on dry skin brushing for a healthy lymph system and to keep my skin looking fresh. I don’t use any moisturisers and when you dry skin the correct way, your skin will also have a natural glow without relying on products. For my face, I do facial yoga and massaging and recently added snail gel to my routine, which I’m really loving.
Do you have any favourite natural skin care products or awesome beauty recipes? To me the sea is everything and my skin feels best after some salty therapy. I also make masks with kiwi fruit, turmeric and cinnamon. My favourite beauty brand is Neal’s Yard Remedies and the snail gel from above is by Dr. Organics. Not to worry, there’s no harm done to the snails, J
Where’s your favourite place in the world? This is such a tricky question because travelling is my favourite hobby ever and I’ve been to some spectacular places. Where ever I am with my husband is usually my most favourite place in the world though.
What makes you happy? You just can’t beat being with family, swimming in warm crystal clear seas, eating a minty coconut ice-cream in the sunshine and hearing genuine hearty laughter… and hopefully all at the same time.
Describe your perfect day. Waking up without an alarm, spending half a day doing work you truly love and the other half by the beach with your beloved.
Do you have any favourite tips and tricks to stay healthy and happy everyday? You have to work at being happy and at times you will get really really busy so to me it’s all about how you handle stress… Next time you start to get anxious or worried about something, think about the issue and ask yourself this: ‘what if it no longer mattered?’ Say it out loud and feel the tension melt away. It’s really quite powerful.
The post Inspiration: Tanya from Tanya’s Cafe appeared first on Deliciously Ella.
Photo by Daniel Gois
Recently a reader asked me a simple question that I’m surprised I don’t hear more often, “Why are processed foods so bad?”
She had been having a nutrition debate with her boyfriend. She reads Summer Tomato regularly, but was having trouble describing the health difference between the Real Food I recommend daily and the processed foods I warn against. What exactly is the evidence?
Great question.
The answer in some ways is just as simple: we don’t know. Unfortunately that isn’t very satisfying intellectually, and our attempts to create theories around the observational fact that obesity and most chronic diseases only appeared after the introduction of processed foods has opened the door to a world of speculation and confusion.
There is no doubt that processed foods are unhealthy. The so-called Diseases of Civilization including heart disease, hypertension, tooth decay, diabetes and some cancers were virtually non-existent before processed foods (usually flour and sugar) were introduced.
We know this because these foods didn’t magically appear in all places at once, but gradually became available to different populations. The longer cultures were shielded from these ingredients, the longer they remained healthy. There is a fascinating account of this phenomenon in Weston Price’s book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, but he is not the only one who made these kinds of observations.
Still we do not know why processed foods have this effect. There are many hypotheses about what the problem is. Some have blamed “carbs,” others have blamed fats. These days it is fashionable to point fingers at particular kinds of sugars like glucose, fructose or sucrose. People have argued that excess blood glucose and insulin are the issue, while others point to the metabolism of fructose in the liver.
Some say it isn’t the carbs at all, but the gluten protein in wheat that is to blame. If you prefer to pick on animals, there are plenty of people who think animal proteins are the true culprits.
It has also been suggested that the processing method itself is what renders foods unhealthy. Processing food typically removes or destroys nutrients and fiber, which are present in the whole foods that remain healthy. It is possible that these nutrients are required for health, though adding them back in the form of supplements does not seem to solve the problem.
Added preservatives, chemicals and other synthetic substances present in processed foods may also play a role in their unhealthfulness. Or perhaps it is our own biology that has not adapted to quickly digesting foods, or foods that have been processed in a particular way. Trans fats, for instance, are synthesized when oils are hydrogenated by a specific method, and these are almost never found in nature.
Some folks even go so far as to blame pH levels and blood types for our ailing health, though these claims are rarely made by real scientists.
You can find circumstantial evidence to support all these claims, and people do. It’s relatively easy to develop an opinion about nutrition and find a camp that is adamant about its validity. They’ll show you all sorts of data about things that happen in test tubes, in large uncontrolled human populations, or in mice, and insist that you’re a fool for not believing them.
There’s even a good chance they’ll lift their shirt and show you their six-pack as additional evidence of their correctness. And who can argue with abs? I know I can’t.
It’s confusing because a comprehensive scientific explanation of our observation doesn’t yet exist, and probably won’t for a long time. As I explain in chapter 4 of Foodist, nutrition science is very complex and still in its infancy:
“Humans are omnivores, which means we are adapted to eat plants, fungi, and animals. The nutrients in the plant foods we consume depend on the genetics of the individual species, the quality of the soil they are grown in, and the weather conditions during that time. For animal foods, nutrient levels are dependent on what the animals eat throughout their lives and are also affected by their stress and hormone levels. Any toxins or environmental pollutants that the animals and plants are subjected to have the power to impact human health as well.
Nutrient levels of raw foods change depending on the amount of time between harvest and consumption (sometimes going up, sometimes going down), and your cooking method may destroy some nutrients while making others more available. Individual nutrients within a food do not work in isolation, but interact with each other to affect bioavailability (i.e., how our bodies are able to use them). Similarly, the nutrients in one food can interact with the nutrients from another food if they are consumed in combination.
Your metabolism starts responding simply to the smell of food.* How quickly you eat and how much you chew also impact how your body handles it. Your own genetic makeup as well as your fitness level dictate how you respond to different levels and combinations of nutrients, and your digestive tract contains trillions** of microorganisms that affect what you can and cannot absorb. Individuals vary greatly in their sensitivity to different micro and macro nutrients, and all of us have different personal health and fitness goals.
* Amazingly, smell has been shown to significantly impact longevity in some species via the insulin-signaling pathway.
**Not exaggerating.”
We really have little idea how all these factors work together to impact the health of an individual, and it will likely be several decades before we do. Still the debates will rage over the various theories about what constitutes the healthiest diet, and people will continue to miss the point entirely.
At the end of the day it really doesn’t matter what the reasons are, since we already know what to do. Simply eliminating or drastically reducing the amount of processed foods you eat vastly improves your health. The scientific mechanisms that explain this are certainly interesting on an intellectual level, but you don’t need to understand them in order to eat well.
This is why my work focuses almost exclusively on behavioral change and psychology. Understanding how to actually eat well (instead of just telling yourself you should and hoping for the best) is far more important than theories about why some foods are healthy and others aren’t.
In fact, if you don’t have a background in science focusing on nutrition theories is likely to be counterproductive, since there is a good chance they will lead you down a path of extreme diet rules, such as avoiding all grains and legumes. Yes it is possible to be healthy without including everything, but it is more work. And more work tends to derail healthy eating.
A more practical approach is to tinker with your behavior until you find a set of habits that make it easy for Real Food to become the majority of what you eat. You know it is working if your new behaviors are easy––essentially automatic––and don’t feel like hard work.
You should also be able to measure the benefits, like being a healthy weight, having lots of energy, normal blood lipids, etc. Maybe you will need to eat fewer grains or more protein, but science can’t tell you that. Only trying it for yourself and seeing how it affects you can. Author Nassim Taleb might call this approach more antifragile.
Nutrition is complicated, but eating is not. Spend your energy discovering what works for you and try not to get too caught up in the science.
Has letting go of nutrition theories helped you get healthier? Let us know in the comments.
Originally published July 30, 2014.
You guys know that I love to eat meals that are quick, easy, and healthy. Insert superfood bowls. Most of the time I don’t make them look as pretty as all of the photos on FFF because when I’m hungry, I’m hungry, which means waiting 5 extra minutes to make it look pretty just isn’t...
The post 15 Superfood Bowl Recipes appeared first on Fit Foodie Finds.
