You asked for it, so here it is! Courtesy of Flavors of Health by Ed Bauman, PhD, and Lizette Marx, NC, my new favorite cookbook.

Cilantro Pesto with Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

Ingredients:

1 cup raw unsalted pumpkin seeds
2 cups fresh cilantro leaves
2 TB extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic
¼ cup filtered water or more, as needed to make pesto smoother
Sea salt to taste
Juice of ½ lemon, used to taste

1. Toast pumpkin seeds in a dry sauté pan over medium heat for 1 to 2 minutes or until they start to plump and slightly pop. Shake pan from time to time to prevent burning.

2. Combine toasted pumpkin seeds, cilantro, olive oil, garlic, and water in a blender and puree until smooth.  Add more water if necessary to bring ingredients together.

3. Add lemon juice and salt to taste. Use pesto on chicken, fish, in soups, pasta, or over sautéed veggies.

Enjoy!

It is not surprising that regular consumption of sugary drinks like soft drinks lead to an inefficient metabolism; resulting in the reduced ability to burn fat.  However, it is surprising that the switch to inefficient metabolism can occur in lightly active lean males and females drinking soft drinks for only four weeks!  A recent article citing this research published in the European Journal of Nutrition summarized that sugary drinks change the way muscles use food as fuel; making muscles prefer burning sugars over fat…similar to muscle metabolism in Type 2 diabetics and obese individuals.  And to make matters worse, our bodies, adjusting to regular soft drink consumption, prepare for the future (sensing that more sugary soft drinks are on the way!) by changing muscle metabolism to prefer burning sugar over fat.  A double whammy!

Take home message: drinking soft drinks even for a short amount of time reduces your body’s ability to burn fat.  Swap out the soft drinks for water, unsweetened beverages, and iced herbal teas!  Your muscles will thank you with an efficient metabolism!

We CRAVE energy.  Anyone up for a quick trip to Starbucks or Peet’s for a little caffeine?   Sure, why not… we all want energy to be productive and do the things we love to do!  And the things we DREAM about doing!  We want energy to be productive at work, meet deadlines, start a new project, clean out the closets, go for a hike or bike ride, connect with our friends, hang out with our family, or take on a new challenge like learning how to cook, dance, or surf!  We want energy to live out our dreams, like starting a new business or completing a marathon!  So why are we still so tired with a Starbucks or Peet’s on virtually every street corner?  Hmmm, could it be that too much caffeine is actually making us more tired?

Yes, caffeine can be extremely useful!  If you had a bad night’s sleep and need to be alert at 8:00 in the morning for an important meeting, a cup of coffee or tea will save the day.  Or if you need to get somewhere and have a long drive ahead, caffeine will help you from getting sleepy and nodding off.  Pretty important when you are driving!  But drinking excess caffeine everyday will eventually wear you down.  What is the definition of a lot of caffeine, you might ask.  For some people, one small cup of coffee or tea may be too much, especially if they happen to be slow metabolizers of caffeine.  And how much coffee are we really drinking when we get a tall Starbucks coffee?  A lot more than one cup!

Why does drinking caffeine over time take a toll on our energy?  Drinking caffeine stimulates brain chemicals called the catecholamines, which include dopamine, norephinephrine, and you know this one: adrenaline.  The catecholamines make us alert, motivated, and get our brain going!  We temporarily feel mentally sharp and energized.   We feel GOOD when we are producing a lot of the catecholamines!  But the effect is short lived and we crash, unless we get more caffeine, sugar or other stimulant that demands more release of these chemicals.

Our little adrenal glands, which sit atop our kidneys, are responsible for secreting adrenaline and cortisol.  We secrete adrenaline in time of fear, panic, and anger.  This is a good thing!  We want to be able to react to a potentially life threatening situation!  After adrenaline is secreted, cortisol, our main stress hormone, kicks in to keep us strong and resilient in the face of stress.  However, even chronic stress, like commute traffic or dealing with a difficult co-worker causes the adrenals to produce adrenaline and cortisol.  And guess what? Drinking too much caffeine every day also over-stimulates the adrenals, and over time wears them out so that they are no longer producing enough cortisol and the catecholamines!  And there we have it, our adrenals get tired, fatigue sets in, and alas, even caffeine is no longer keeping us perky and alert!

Wouldn’t you love to jump out of bed in the morning reeling refreshed, without having to gulp down a cup of coffee to wake up?  And wouldn’t you love to have even energy all day, without the highs and the lows?    It feels GOOD to have energy to work out, be productive at work, start a new project or hobby, get organized, re-connect with friends, and have fun! Can we get our natural energy back?  Absolutely!  It requires commitment, but is easier than most people think.  Please check out my 21 Day Detoxification program to learn how you can get your natural energy back in … yes, you guessed it, 21 days!  Having more sustained and natural energy is one of the star benefits that participants of the program report on a continual basis!

Check out Detox program options: http://www.nutritionwithbeth.com/programs/

A special note for you if you have been extremely stressed and exhausted for a long period of time.  You might want to start with testing the function of your adrenals glands and ruling out low thyroid function first.  Please apply for a complementary strategy session to assess if this would be beneficial for you!  Apply by clicking here.

Uh oh, I am craving salt again.  And feeling more thirsty than usual.  Always a sign for me that I am not getting enough rest, have too much on my plate, and need to let a few non-necessary activities go!  Craving salt can be a sign that our adrenal glands (the little glands that sit on top of our kidneys and secrete our stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, hormones like DHEA and pregnenolone, and aldosterone) are taxed and tired.  Why?  Aldosterone is responsible for the regulation of sodium, potassium, and fluid volume.  Fatigued adrenals will secrete less aldosterone, which means decreased sodium retention, loss of sodium and water, leading to decreased sodium in the blood.  And then we can end up with salt cravings, increased thirst, light-headedness upon standing (caused by decreased blood pressure), and lethargy.

What can you do to help your taxed and tired adrenals?  In the morning, avoid a high fruit breakfast (which is high in potassium) and instead eat a protein rich breakfast and add sea salt if necessary.  This morning I ate 2 pieces of turkey bacon and one egg lightly salted with sea salt on top of a bed of spinach.  I felt my energy go up after breakfast and I will have my fruit later in the day as a snack.

A natural response to increased thirst would be to drink more water.  Of course!  However, if you drink more water when you have low sodium levels to begin with, you actually might feel worse because you are further diluting the amount of salt in your blood.  What can you do?  Add a little salt to your water, ¼ to ½ tsp. sea salt two times per day.  Or you can add some kelp or other seaweed powder to your veggies or proteins.  One of my favorite seaweed condiments is Eden Organic Seaweed Gomasio.  Or if you have a Vitamix or juicer, make a veggie juice and add some sea salt!  I am certainly not advocating excessive salt, and especially not from processed foods! Just enough to help relieve symptoms. When you no longer need the salt, you will no longer crave it.

Most people with fatigued adrenals tend to have low blood pressure.  However, if you are one of those people that has fatigued adrenals and high blood pressure, I do not suggest the above strategies for you!  And one last note, sea salt is not a rich source of iodine, it is important not to confuse salt with iodine.

Check out the book Adrenal Fatigue, The 21^st Century Stress Syndrome by Dr. James Wilson for more information on this topic!