The past 15 years I studied health and wellness, worked as a personal trainer, wellness coach and nutrition consultant. It has been amazing to discover the connection between my grief recovery and what I put in my body. It is with my own experience and research that I made the correlation between my health and grief. I now share it with you, so you do not have to re-create the wheel. You get the benefit of my knowledge.
In Part II, you learned the effect dehydration has on your body and brain’s ability to function. It is important to drink ½ your body weight in ounces of water to reduce inflammation caused by stress and detoxify your body.
In part III, you will understand how gluten and dairy impact your physical healing.
Reduce or Eliminate Gluten
What is gluten and why you should avoid it? Gluten is a general name for the proteins found in wheat, rye, and barley. Gluten helps foods maintain their shape, acting as a glue that holds food together. I am not sure about you, but I do not like the idea of eating glue. Gluten provides no essential nutrients. Gluten and its byproducts are commonly found in processed foods such as bread, pasta, pizza, and cereal.
Gluten is inflammatory and adds to the natural inflammatory response caused by grief.
Gluten can have serious consequences for your microbiome and for those with celiac disease. The microbiome is a collection of friendly bacteria that lives in your gut. They help to regulate your immune system and control digestion. Gluten may be responsible for stomach pain, irritable bowel syndrome, and bloating.
It can also cause brain fog (also known as grief brain), increased fatigue, and higher risk of autoimmune diseases and may contribute to depression. When it all adds up, gluten does not serve you, especially in grief. It really is beneficial to your physical and mental health to remove gluten from your diet.
Reduce or Eliminate Dairy
One of the health concerns from dairy is that organic milk still contains hormones. Cows produce the stress hormone cortisol that passes through to their milk. When you drink cow’s milk or consume other dairy products, you absorb their cortisol. As someone who is grieving, you have enough of your own cortisol! Do not add more by eating dairy products.
Milk can be a source of inflammation and, as mentioned earlier, when you are grieving it is important to reduce your inflammation. It is highly recommended to reduce or remove dairy from your diet.
Keywords
#nutrition
#mentalhealth
#griefrecovery
#healthymindandbody
#wehelpyoumoveforward
