Category Archives: Gluten Intolerance

Eat Yourself Happy: How Food Affects your Mood

Are the winter blues getting you down? Do you feel tired, or have trouble concentrating? The concept of comfort food isn’t just about warming you up on a cold day; what you eat really can change the way you feel. Your food choices can either leave you feeling happier, or can inflict bad moods and mild depressions.

Carbs make you Happy

Not so fast! Before you reach for the pizza, its only smart carbohydrate choices that help to improve your mood. You see carbohydrates are rich in tryptophan, a nonessential amino acid which, with a little help from the B vitamins, is used to create serotonin in the brain. Serotonin is the ‘feel good’ hormone with helps to elevate your mood.

When you binge on bad carbs, your gut can’t handle all the gluten and this may lead to a number of side effects including depression, irritability, digestion issues and headaches; certainly not a recipe for smiles. So instead, reach for the whole grains, sprouted grains like BIO-BUDs, gluten-free healthy snacks, and organic artisanal breads which are low in gluten.
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BIO-BUDS: Sprouts Made Easy

So what’s so great about sprouts anyway? They’re unbelievably good for you! Did you know that sprouted grains, legumes and pods have three times the nutrients then their unsprouted counterparts? You see, seeds have all this potential energy locked up inside them. In order to access all this goodness, all you need to do is sprout those puppies!

Sprouts are good for you

Research shows that sprouting releases the vitamin content of your grains, pods and legumes which means that they have 24 times more vitamins, four times the amount of niacin and nearly twice the amount of vitamin B6. The fiber content of sprouts is also significantly higher and they have a lot more folate too.

Another study found that sprouts have 100 times more enzymes. Enzymes are essential as they make chemical reactions in your cells possible. They are also essential to your digestive system and are responsible from extracting the essential fatty acids, amino acids, vitamins and minerals from your food. In fact, grains, pods and legumes that have not been sprouted actually contain enzyme inhibitors. These attach themselves to enzymes and prevent them from effectively doing their jobs.
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Why Carb-free Diets are Not the Answer

From Atkins to Paleo, low-carb diets are all the rage. Touted as the best thing since sliced bread, low-carb diets are credited with everything from weight loss to curing acne, but are these high fat, high protein diets really the answer? Carbohydrates do cause high blood sugar and modern baking methods flood the body with gluten, but cutting carbs out completely is probably not the long-term answer to weight loss and other health issues.

Are low-carb diets bad for me?

At first the low carb high fat (LCHF) diet seems brilliant as you pile your plate with bacon and cheese and slather your veggies in butter. You get to eat foods traditional diets would balk at and you lose weight as well. Not only are you slimmer and trimmer, you also start to notice that your blood pressure drops, triglycerides (blood fats linked to heart attacks) and cholesterol are reduced and you may feel more energized. But before you give your grains and pastas the boot, there are some things your low-carb gurus aren’t telling you.
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Are you Gluten Intolerant?

Gluten, gluten everywhere and the effect it’s having on our bodies is astronomical. The increase in hamburger buns, pizza dough, unhealthy snacks and processed bread in our diets has introduced more gluten than our poor digestive tracts can manage. You see, modern baking methods don’t leave enough time for the gluten to convert into digestible sugars and this causes a negative reaction in the immune systems of those who are gluten-intolerant leading to a number of unpleasant, and often debilitating symptoms.

Celiac disease and gluten sensitivity

Celiac sufferers are allergic to gluten which causes damage to their small intestine. The damage is actually caused by the auto immune system which attacks cells in the digestive tract called tissue transglutaminase that make up the intestinal wall.

This causes intestinal damage which can lead to nutrient deficiencies, anemia, fatigue, digestive issues and an increased risk of other serious diseases.
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6 Amazing Benefits of Sprouted Grains

Who knew that just adding water to your favorite organic grains could unlock so much potential? Sprouted grains are nature’s little miracles as they have almost three times the nutrients of legumes and beans, can help with digestion and weight loss and they are packed with fiber too. The sprouted grains that are popping up in your veggie aisle, healthy snacks and organic bread are there for good reason; packed with vitamins, fiber, and protein, these pint-sized sprouts sure pack a healthy punch!

Research shows that sprouting frees the embodied energy of grains and improves the vitamin content up to 24 times. From the study: “…germination dramatically increased total phenolic compounds and total flavonoids up to 4.5 and 6.8 times. Quercetin-3-O-glucoside content was significantly increased in mung bean sprouts after germination. The total antioxidant activity of mung bean sprouts was increased by 6 times.”

As humans, we aren’t able to break down or absorb all nutrients from the food we eat but by eating sprouted products we are able to absorb a minimum of 3 times more nutrients from our favorite foods.
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