Amy Myers's Blog, page 65

Mint Chocolate Brownies

These mint brownies truly are a decadent dessert that just happen to be paleo and egg-free! They are rich and fudgy, and to top it all off have a delightful touch of mint! Plus, I’ve added paleo protein for a pure, clean source of amino acids that pack in the protein! This is a more wholesome version of everyone’s favorite chocolatey treat.

I am certain they will satisfy any chocolate lover’s craving.

Mint Chocolate Brownies





CourseDessert

ProtocolAutoimmune Solution (AIP), Elimination Diet, Paleo, Thyroid Connection





Servings16 brownies







Ingredients








1/3cup

coconut flour

1/4cup

cassava flour

1scoop

The Myers Way® Chocolate Paleo Protein

1/2tsp

baking soda

1/4tsp

salt

1/4tsp

cinnamon

1/2cup

mashed banana

1/3cup

coconut oilmelted

1tsp

apple cider vinegar

1/4-1/2tsp

peppermint extract

1tbsp

grass-fed gelatin powder










Instructions









Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8x8 baking pan. Combine dry ingredients, except gelatin. In a separate bowl, combine banana, coconut oil, apple cider vinegar, and vanilla extract.



Combine gelatin with 1/4 cup water and allow to bloom 2-3 minutes. Whisk into wet ingredients. Once combined, add this to dry ingredients.



Pour mixture into baking pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until cooked through.

The post Mint Chocolate Brownies appeared first on Amy Myers MD.

Following The Myers Way® While Traveling & On the Go

As a busy person who is constantly on the go and travels a lot, I understand how hard it can be to stay on track when your normal routines are disrupted. When you’re away from home, you may be eating out more or reaching for “grab and go” options, which can lead to accidentally eating inflammatory foods. This can leave your progress derailed, and you feeling frustrated and stressed.

However, I want to encourage you to prepare for success and to try to be present over perfect. This is something I have really had to learn over time, and that’s particularly important to remember when you are traveling and on the go.

Achieving and maintaining optimal health is a lifelong journey, and I call my programs The Myers Way® because they genuinely are a way of life, and it IS possible to stay on track when you are away from home!

Let’s talk about how to protect your gut and your health, relieve stress, and how to recover as quickly as possible if you do get off kilter while you’re busy and traveling!

 

How To Stay on Track While On The Go

 

1. Defense

You likely know from following my programs, reading my books, and doing an elimination and reintroduction phase that there are certain “no” foods and some that you can do in moderation.

 

Absolute No Foods: Gluten and dairy are absolute no’s, especially if you deal with autoimmunity, and these highly inflammatory foods can wreak havoc on your health. Additionally, know your own personal no’s and sensitivities.

Foods to Enjoy: Quality proteins such as beef, lamb, pork, poultry, and wild fish are all foods to enjoy. Healthy fats and vegetables such as avocado, coconut oil, broccoli, celery, kale, and brussels are all readily available and easy to find. If you have successfully completed a reintroduction phase, potentially inflammatory foods that you can tolerate in moderation are okay. For me, these include: rice, eggs, and legumes.

2. Prepare

When traveling and on the go, it’s so important to take care of yourself and make your meals and snacks ahead of time.

 

Prepare For Eating on The Go. Prep and pack your own meals and snacks in a cooler bag to take with you. The Myers Way® Recipe eBooks are filled with simple and delicious recipes that are approved for all of my protocols.

For on-the-go options, my Paleo Protein for delicious, creamy smoothies is an all-time favorite of mine and others following my programs.

Plus, I am so excited to announce that I now have on-the-go bars to offer you! My NEW Coconut Joy Fiber Bars contain 11 grams of prebiotic fiber to encourage optimal health for your gut, contain only 1 gram of all natural sugars, will keep you full, and taste just like a popular chocolate and coconut candy you can find in any grocery store!

 

Take digestive enzymes. I always have digestive enzymes with me. In fact, I recommend that those with celiac and gluten intolerance take enzymes with DPP-IV when dining out.

 

Do your research. I always look up the menus at the hotel where I’ll be staying or restaurant I’m planning on going to and make sure I have options. That way, if I have questions, I can call ahead and talk to the staff and come up with some options for myself while I’m there.

 

How To Recover if You Get Off Track

If you do accidentally eat something on your no list without knowing it, there are steps you can take to help and minimize the effects. If you get glutened or have another food you have a sensitivity to, I have a 3-step approach to recover:

If you get glutened or have another food you have a sensitivity to, I have a 3-step approach to…
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1. Get it out of your system as quickly as possible

 

Digestive Enzymes. Digestive enzymes help speed up the breakdown and absorption of macronutrients. Be sure to take an enzyme that includes dipeptidyl peptidase (DPP-IV), which helps break down gluten specifically.

 

Binding agents. Activated charcoal, such as the kind in my GI Detox, binds toxins and helps reduce gas and bloating. It’s best to increase water intake when taking charcoal to avoid constipation, which will only delay healing.

 

Flush and Hydration. Fluids will help flush your system and keep you hydrated if you’re vomiting or have diarrhea. In addition, taking glutathione will support your digestive system and work with the binding agents to safely remove the toxins.

 

2. Reduce inflammation to minimize reaction and damage

 

Omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 fatty acids support your immune system and optimal inflammatory response. I recommend my patients take 1-2 grams of omega-3 oils daily, and going up to 4 grams a day for a week after accidental gluten ingestion.

 

Curcumin. This is derived from turmeric, which is part of the ginger family. Curcumin is known for its antioxidant benefits and powerful support for a healthy inflammatory response.

 

3. Repair Your Gut

 

Probiotics. Routinely, I recommend taking a highly concentrated probiotic (25-100 billion units) a day. I advise my patients to “double-up” on their probiotic dose for a week after a gluten exposure.

 

L-Glutamine. Glutamine is an amino acid that supports the gut lining as it grows and repairs, undoing the damage caused by gluten. I advise my patients to take 3-5 grams a day for a week after exposure to their no foods.

 

My Tips for Reducing Stress While Traveling

Remember, we cannot eliminate stress, but we can RELIEVE that stress so that it doesn’t affect your health. Again be prepared and present as best as possible and don’t try for perfection!

Remember, we cannot eliminate stress, but we can RELIEVE that stress so that it doesn’t affect your…
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1. Manage Your Time

Managing your time so your days are more organized can give you more opportunities to spend time with friends and family, and less time worrying. A few things I have done in recent years:

 

Shipping things ahead of time: I like Butcher Box for grass-fed meats, and Thrive Market for pantry items.

 

Asking for help: Stress can cause an upkick in your symptoms, and one of the most important things to do to relieve that stress is to ask for help before you get overwhelmed.

 

2. Pack These Important Supplements

These are in my own personal arsenal to support my gut health, immune system, detox pathways, and adrenals and I always make sure to pack them with me while traveling!

 

The Myers Way® Adrenal Support. Adaptogenic herbs help reduce stress hormones when they are high and increase them when they are low. I recommend taking Adrenal Support if you are chronically stressed or going through a stressful time.

 

Collagen. The toxins we are exposed to every day must be processed by your liver in order to be detoxed out of your body. Glycine, which is found in collagen, supports your digestive system during detoxification and reducing the damage to your liver.

 

The essentials. I recommend these essentials for a strong all-around foundation: multivitamin for all of the essential vitamins and minerals you need. Probiotics to maintain healthy gut microbiome. Omega 3 to encourage a healthy inflammatory response, support thyroid health, and promote cognitive function, and Vitamin D/K2 to support your immune system.

 

3. Stress Relief Activities

Find what stress relief activity works for you and make time for it regularly:

Walks
Listening to music
Meditation or prayer
Yoga
Find quiet time for you
Epsom salt baths
Find what works for YOU!

Remember to pick your battles. Give up on being 100% perfect and instead focus on doing the best you can and being present!

 

On-The-Go Sweet Treat: Coconut Joy Fiber Bars!

Coconut Joy Chocolate Fiber Bar is a sweet treat lover’s dream. It’s a buttery coconut bar covered in silky dark chocolate, with only 1 gram of all-natural sugars.

These bars are made with absolutely NO inflammatory ingredients such as gluten, dairy, GMOs, or harmful sugars. There’s no need to feel guilty for enjoying this treat! Plus, this bar contains 11 grams of prebiotic fiber to support a thriving metabolism, keep you full, and promote optimal immune function.

The post Following The Myers Way® While Traveling & On the Go appeared first on Amy Myers MD.

Root Veggie Latkes

As you start planning out your holiday menu, I’ve got the perfect side dish option: Root Veggie Latkes!

They’re my The Myers Way®-approved take on traditional Latkes, that are just as mouthwatering and delicious!

In this recipe, I used sweet potatoes, parsnips, and beets to add the perfect amount of sweetness to this crispy treat. While the onion and spices balance out the sweetness with a savory touch!

The gelatin serves as a binder, so you don’t have to reach for eggs. Plus, you can get creative with toppings from salmon to applesauce to serve at any time of the day. Your family will be asking for these long past the holidays!

Root Veggie Latkes





CourseAppetizer, Main Dish, Side Dish

ProtocolAutoimmune Solution (AIP), Candida Control & SIBO, Elimination Diet, Paleo, Thyroid Connection





Servings4 people







Ingredients








2 cup

shredded sweet potato

1 cup

shredded parsnips

1 cup

shredded beets

1/2 cup

onionfinely chopped

1/2 tsp

salt

1/2 tsp

black pepper

2 tbsp

cassava flour

1 tbsp

gelatin

1 tbsp

avocado oil










Instructions









In a bowl, combine sweet potato, beets, parsnips, onion, salt, pepper, and cassava flour.



In a separate bowl, combine gelatin with 1 tbsp of water. Add in 2 tbsp of boiling water to mixture and whisk until frothy. Add to sweet potato mixture and combine.




Heat cast iron skillet to medium heat. Add avocado oil and coat pan. Drop ¼ cup of the mixture into the skillet and flatten. Cook for about 2 minutes on each side. Continue with the rest of batter until all the latkes are done!

The post Root Veggie Latkes appeared first on Amy Myers MD.

How Antibiotics Wreak Havoc on Your Gut

As we head into winter and the coughing, sniffling, and sneezing begins, you might find yourself visiting your doctor to get a prescription for antibiotics, or even reaching for last year’s leftovers. You certainly wouldn’t be alone, right now antibiotics are one of the most commonly prescribed drugs in the United States.

According to a 2014 report published in BMC Medicine, broad-spectrum antibiotic prescription use has doubled from 2000 to 2010. The report goes on to say that nearly 50 percent of antibiotics prescribed for home use are unnecessary. Antibiotics are being commonly prescribed for conditions that aren’t even associated with a bacterial infection – like the common cold and flu, which are caused by viruses. On top of that, the animals we eat, unless certified organic, are typically given courses of antibiotics as well, to prevent disease in their crowded and dirty living conditions and to stimulate their growth.

So what’s the harm in overexposing ourselves to antibiotics, aren’t we “better safe than sorry”? The answer is no, taking unnecessary antibiotics can actually do more harm than good. While antibiotics have saved millions of lives over the years, the excessive use and over-prescribing of these medications are wreaking havoc on your health because of their impact on your gut. In this article I’ll explain how antibiotics disrupt your gut microbiome, how that disruption affects your overall health, and how you can restore your gut’s balance if you do have to take antibiotics.

 

Your Gut’s Thriving Ecosystem

Your gut is its own ecosystem, providing a home to 100 trillion microorganisms, including 400 different species of bacteria. These microbes in your gut play crucial roles in digestion, immunity, metabolism, and mental health. Sixty to eighty percent of your immune system is located in your gut and ninety percent of your neurotransmitters – the chemical messengers that help regulate mood – are produced in your gut. In fact, the gut is often nicknamed the second brain because of how significantly it can affect your mood and mental state. Maintaining the proper balance of bacteria and other microorganisms in your gut is crucial, not just to your digestion, but to your overall health and wellbeing.

 

How Antibiotics Mess with Your Gut

Antibiotics work by blocking vital processes in bacteria that either kill the bacteria or stop them from multiplying. Unfortunately, antibiotics cannot differentiate between the “bad” bacteria that may be causing a bacterial infection and the “good” bacteria that belong in your gut. Instead, antibiotics come through like a tsunami, destroying everything in their path.

When antibiotics kill the bacteria that belong in your gut, it disrupts the delicate ecosystem, creating a state of dysbiosis – or bacterial imbalance. When the number of good bacteria in your gut falls, it leaves you susceptible to the overgrowth of other organisms, like yeast, frequently referred to as Candida, because Candida Albicans is the most common strain of yeast. Yeast is opportunistic, which means that when given the chance, it will grow and multiply, especially when given its favorite food source – sugar. When yeast starts to multiply, it can damage the lining of your intestinal walls, leading to what’s known as leaky gut.

 

Leaky Gut and Autoimmune Disease

Technically, everything that’s in your small intestine is still considered to be outside of your body. It’s not until substances pass through the intestinal lining that they become a part of your bloodstream. A healthy small intestine keeps toxins and undigested food material out, while a small intestine that has become “leaky” allows microbes, toxins, partially digested food, and other particles to pass through.

When foreign substances make it into your bloodstream, your immune system flags them as invaders and begins to attack. Over time, this causes your immune system, liver, and lymphatic system to become overwhelmed and overworked. When the immune system can no longer keep up with this demand, your immune response goes haywire, and you can develop autoimmune disease. This is why “Heal Your Gut” is the first pillar of The Myers Way® and is the first step towards preventing and reversing disease.

 

How to Defend Your Gut While Taking Antibiotics

If you do need to take antibiotics, there are a few simple steps you can take to protect your gut.

 

1. Be sure to take Saccharomyces boulardii.

Saccharomyces boulardii is a species of good yeast that helps fight bad yeast, and has been show to help prevent antibiotic-associated diarrhea. Studies have also shown that supplementing with Saccharomyces boulardii while taking antibiotics enhances the success of antibiotic therapy.

 

2. Make sure you’re taking a high-quality probiotic.

Probiotics will help restore your gut’s population of good bacteria that may be killed by the antibiotics, in order to maintain a healthy gut and immune system. My 100 Billion Probiotic is perfect for this. Or, if you’re taking the 30 Billion Probiotic you can double your dose while taking antibiotics.

You’ll want to make sure you’re taking your antibiotics 2 hours away from your probiotic so that the aren’t killing the colony forming units.

 

3. Add in Collagen and l-Glutamine

The villi of your small intestine, which is where you absorb your nutrients, are made of collagen, so taking collagen will help repair your gut lining and ward off leaky gut. L-Glutamine helps your gut cells repair and rejuvenate even faster, so I like to use the two hand-in-hand while taking antibiotics.

 

How to Repair Your Gut If You Have Taken Antibiotics

What if you have taken antibiotics in the past that have disrupted your gut? Luckily, there are things you can do to help protect your gut and keep the bacteria in balance, using Functional Medicine’s 4R approach.

 

1. Remove the Yeast Overgrowth

Antibiotics, as well as a diet high in sugar, refined carbohydrates, and alcohol are key risk factors for developing yeast overgrowth. If you think you may have Candida overgrowth, take this quiz to find out. To get your yeast population back under control, you’ll need to follow a low-carbohydrate diet to starve the yeast, and take anti-fungal supplements to kill it. I offer a complete Candida Control program including meal plans, recipes, shopping lists, and supplements to help you beat yeast overgrowth in 30 days.

 

2. Restore the Good

Add back in the essential ingredients for proper digestion and absorption that may have been depleted by your antibiotics. Including digestive enzymes is a key component of this step, because they help you digest your food properly, reducing the strain on your digestive system and ensuring that you receive the full nutritional benefit of the foods you eat.

 

3. Reinoculate Your Gut with Healthy Bacteria

Probiotics are live bacteria strains that help repopulate the gut and restore bacterial balance. I recommend taking a highly concentrated, multi-strain probiotic to make sure your gut’s microbiome has adequate diversity. If you do not have Candida overgrowth, you can add fermented foods like kimchi, sauerkraut, and kombucha into your diet to naturally boost diversity in your gut flora. If you do have yeast overgrowth, I recommend treating that first before adding in fermented foods, as they can feed the yeast as well as the good bacteria.

Prebiotics come in the form of soluble fiber, and help promote the growth of beneficial bacteria in the gut by providing them with a food source that helps them grow and multiply. But, they feed yeast too, so you’ll want to take these after you’ve treated the yeast overgrowth. Prebiotics are available in supplemental form – or you can up your intake of soluble fiber-rich foods like chicory root, dandelion greens, garlic, leeks, onions, white potatoes, and sweet potatoes.

 

4. Repair Your Gut Lining

GI Repair Powder provides the nutrients necessary to help the gut repair itself by combining l-glutamine, an amino acid that rebuilds the mucosal lining of the gut, with deglycyrrhizinated licorice (DGL) and aloe vera, which also support the gut lining. As a convenient powder, it’s easy to toss into your blender to make a gut-healing smoothie

Collagen, the raw form of gelatin, is rich in glycine and proline – two amino acids that most Americans don’t get enough of since they’re mainly found in the bones and organs of animals. Glycine and proline are not only good for your immune system, they help restore and repair the gut lining. You can take collagen in supplemental form and it’s always best to find a source from grass-fed or pasture-raised animals like the one I carry in my store.

Bone broth contains a wide variety of minerals and a specific amino acid called glutamine, which can help repair the lining of the gut and restore normal gut function. For more on the benefits of bone broth and a recipe for making your own, check out this article.

 

5. Extra: Support Your Liver

Because antibiotics can tax the liver, as well as the gut, it’s also a good idea to take supplements that help support the liver’s detoxification process, such as the one I carry in my store that includes milk thistle, alpha-lipoic acid, and N-Acetyl Cysteine.

 

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