What is impacting your family's immune system?

Winter is just about on us and it is never to too late to start building a strong, healthy resilient immune system.

 When the immune system is weakened is when it is open to invasions from bug, bacteria and viruses.

@kellysikkema

 We can positively support our children’s immune system by making better choices, so that they can bounce back quickly should a nasty come their way. Keeping in mind, it is not about them or you never getting sick, as that is how the immune system learns, but how resilient it is to bouncing back.

 So  much of their health and yours in largely in  your control should you wish to exercise that priviledge. At the core of immune health is the health of the gut where 70-90% of the immune cells reside.

Let’s start to look at what factors have a negative impact on the immune system:

• Refined sugar in the form of packaged cakes, sweets, biscuit etc,

• Any processed and packaged food in general,

• Trans fatty acids in the form of margarine, table spreads and processed foods

• Insufficient quality protein daily

• Prescription medication without repair work

• Lack of sunshine and exercise

• Living in an environment that is too sterile and clean

• Chemical cleaning products

• EMF radiation from electronic screens, mobile phones and power lines

 As you can see from above, some of the factors are hard to avoid, but there is corrective measures than can be taken

Simple steps to boost your family’s immune system:

1. Optimise digestion and improve gut health

2. Include healthy fats and proteins at each meal – by default that includes fat soluble vitamins such as A D, E & K

3. Plenty of broths and soups

4. Includes lots of onions, garlic, ginger and spices

5. The rainbow for vegetables, obviously seasonal

6. Include probiotic & prebiotic rich foods or drinks DAILY

7. Dirt - yes I did say that

8. Exposure to lots of sunlight and fresh air, especially during the winter months

As you can see, most of what is required is a healthy, wholesome clean diet which 100% in our control.

Keeping in mind, during sickness when we resort to the typical over the counter options, these are not supporting health or building a strong immune, they purely serve to manage a symptom. Which in a acute situation is OK, it is not want you want to be relying on too often, especially when there are so many better natural alternatives that work better and are safer.

 To get the deeper result you are after, i.e. less sickness and the resiliciency to bounce back quickly should they fall prey, you need to follow the above guidelines which are all just choices and a decision at the end of the day.

Understandably whilst simple, they could be difficult to implement in one go if you are a big leap away from the recommendations.

If that is the case and you need some assistance with the way forward, you can always reach out for a free 20 minute chat to help you move forward in the right direction FOR YOU. You can request that HERE.

Check out my work with me page and see which program will  be a right fit for you!

Chantal is an Accredited and Certified Nutrition & Wellness Coach with a very special interest helping busy and overwhelmed mums transform the health of their family using gut healing nutrition and transformational mindset practices.

Accredited Certificate of Nutrition & Super Nutrition, special focus on Childhood Nutrition - Cadence Health

- Certified Level 1 & 2 Wellness Coaching - Wellness Coaching Australia

- MINDD Forum Health Coach - Mindd Foundation

- Accredited Real Healthy Kids Facilitator having personally trained with Sally Gray ND

- Clinical Evidence Based EFT Practitioner - Evidence Based EFT

Gut Healing Foods

Ok, ok, you get it, the health of the gut plays in a humungous role in terms of your physical and mental health.

You also get that you IF you are suffering with any sort of symptom, there is an issue with the gut, and that there is some work to do heal it. From what you’ve seen or heard, it’s all rather complex and just too hard.

The real truth of the matter is that it is not complex.

So what are the gut healing foods?

• Whole and real food is step #1. It really cannot get much simpler than this. Cut out the crap and start eating real and wholefood. This by default will start healing the gut as the body no longer needs to deal with additives, colours and preservatives.

• Bone Broth – this is a liquid containing stewed bones and connective tissues. An assortment of vegetables, herbs and spices can also be added to further boost the nutrient profile.

Benefits of bone broth:

• Highly nutritious as it is rich in calcium, magnesium and phosphorous, collagen. If the bones you are using also contain marrow, then the broth will also be rich in iron, vitamins A and K, fatty acids, selenium, zinc and manganese.

•    Protective to joints – this is due to the gelatin, which breaks down into collagen in the body

•    May help reduce inflammation and heal the gut. This is due to the amino acid glutamine that is present within bone broth

• Helps with a better night sleep. Once again due to the amino acid profile of the broth, in particular glycine. This alone is enough reason to have a copious supply available!

• Probiotic Foods – Probiotics are live bacteria and yeasts that are good for you, especially your digestive system and typically referred to ‘beneficial’ bacteria. Incorporating probiotic rich into your diet it one of the easiest ways to rebalance your gut bacteria, not to mention far cheaper than probiotic supplements that can be inferior in quality.

  • Types of probiotic foods:

    • Dairy products: such as aged cheeses (cheddar, gouda and mozzarella)

    • Kefir

    • Traditional butter milk

    • Yoghurt

  • Non Dairy:

    • Non diary yoghurts

    • Kimchi

    • Kombucha

    • Miso

    • Natto (fermented soyabean)

    • Sauerkraut

    • Tempeh

    • Water or brined cured olives          

• Prebiotic foods – these are foods that actually feed the “beneficial” live bacteria to promote their growth. This is done via the fermentation process when it reaches the large colon.

  •         Foods rich in prebiotic fibre:

    •         Chicory root

    •         Onions and garlic

    •         Oatmeal

    •         Wheat bran

    •         Asparagras

    •         Dandelion greens

    •         Jerusalem artichoke

    •         Barley

    •         Apple with skin

    •         Foods rich in resistant starch

Depending on your symptoms, it may beneficial to remove a number of other foods for a short period of time to enable faster healing to occur such as:

• Gluten

• Grains

• Dairy

• Sugar

• Nuts

• Eggs

• Fish

Foods containing naturally occurring chemicals such as amines, glutamines, salicylates and oxalates.

When you start removing these types of foods, you start entering the world of therapeutic nutritional protocols such as GAPS, Paleo, AIP, Fodmaps etc

These protocols are not to be entered into lightly and are best performed with specialist assistance and support.

Steps to heal the gut:

1. Remove processed and packaged food and any known trigger foods

2. Replace with real and wholefood

3. Restore with plenty of broth, probiotic and prebiotic foods

 If you are feeling overwhelmed with the concept of healing the gut and unsure where is best to start, then please send me an email to info@chantalkhoury.com.au or send me a message via my contact page to see if any of my programs are fit for you and your family.

Chantal is a Certified and Accredited Nutrition and Wellness Coach with a very special interest helping mums restore the health of their family using healing nutrition and transformational wellness practices.

A day with the world's leading microbiologist

So two weeks ago I got to spend the day with one of the world's leading microbiologist talking all things bacteria and the profound effect it has on our health & wellbeing. Their research is mind blowing and so fascinating.

Whilst the day was mostly dedicated to the impact of an undergrowth, overgrowth, colonisation or infection of specific bacteria and their role in brain-gut conditions, there were so many take away points that I thought were very useful to take on board.

More importantly, it is things that are in our control and can make all the difference before we head down a slippery slope of symptoms and debilitating conditions. Let’s not kid ourselves, that is definitely the predicated outcome IF we do not address the below points.

You can watch a summary of this post below:

Signs of a healthy gut:

1. Must absorb adequate nutrition, i.e no nutritional deficiencies

2. Good laxation, i.e regular, good formed bowl motions

3. Be without infection, i.e. bacterial infection within the digestive system.

The biggest factors affecting our gut ecology:

• NUTRITION – Nutrition plays a fundamental part in the health our gut ecology. What you eat, feeds the bacteria, good & bad. If your gut bacteria is out of whack and you are eating a highly processed and packaged diet, this is essentially fueling the fire. Nutrition is key when healing the balance of our gut microbiome. Their research has also shown that little difference is made to the balance of the microbiome when short term dietary changes are made. The real benefits are had when there is proper compliance to a healing wholefood way of life for a minimum of 2 years, 3 ideally. The foods that fuel the health of our gut ecology and should be consumed on a daily basis include:

  • Broth – multiple times a day

  • Plenty of vegetables – eat the rainbow

  • Fat – essential for cellular health

  • Soluble & insoluble fibre

  • Moderate protein

• SUGAR – This little sucker got it's own mention. It was suggested that refined sugar is evil in terms of bacteria and should be removed from the diet at all cost – no real big surprise here

• STRESS -Do not underestimate the impact that long term and short term stress have on the gut ecology. It was suggested to find ways of managing stress on a daily basis and to maybe meditate for 20 minutes a day.

• PHARMACEUTICALS – The persistent and recurrent use of the likes such as Panadol, aspirin, ibuprofen and antibiotics are particularly damaging to the gut microbiome when no rectification methods are put in place after use. They are also known as gut scrapers.

In Summary

 - Eat a wholefood real food diet with plenty of vegetables and include multiple cups of broth daily

 - Manage stress on a DAILY basis to calm the nervous system

  - Avoid EXCESS use of common pharmaceuticals. If needed, ensure repair/healing work follows soon after use.

If you need help addressing the health of your gut or improving your wellbeing, get in contact for a FREE 30 minute coaching session or book in a 90 Minute Nutrition & Wellness Audit to get you started in your journey.

Chantal is an Accredited Nutrition & Wellness Coach with a special interest helping mum's transform the health of their family using healing wholefood and transformational wellness practices.

Packing a Gut Friendly Lunchbox

Holy Moly – here we are again. Back to school and packing lunches.  It was fabulous to have a break from it, but I’m keen to get back into all things routine until I’m not again! Lol.

Today’s article will be short and sharp.

We are all busy doing the best we can, but let’s not forget that the health of our children is in our hands. We have such a short period of time to have a profound effect on the foundation of their health, and that is primarily through nutrition and wellness practices. For the purpose of today, the focus will be on nutrition.

You can listen to the audio summary of the article here:

Here are some of my top tips for packing a gut friendly lunchbox:

1. Wholefood ingredients AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE is the first start. Look at what you are currently packing and ask how can you improve it from there. Just start somewhere.

2. Make the base ingredients the best quality you can afford. For example:

   1. Use sourdough bread instead of conventional commercial baked bread to avoid the plethora of additives and preservatives

   2. Use spelt bread for a lower gluten load

   3. Try making your own loaf from time to time using quality ingredients

   4. Use good quality grassfed butter, even better, make it organic – AVOID MARGARINE AT ALL COSTS, even the so called “healthy ones”

   5. Check the ingredients of cheese, it should only contain 4 ingredients, NOTHING ELSE. Stay away from the plastic wrapped cheese....need I say more?

3. Do not be afraid to use butter liberally (if it can be tolerated of course)– it contains amazing fat soluble vitamins that is needed for optimal development, not to mention great for cellular health and stabilisation of blood sugar levels. I know what you are going to say next, but it doesn't spread that easily. Solution - take it out 2 minutes before you need it - PROBLEM FIXED - USE REAL BUTTER

4. Instead of a packaged/processed item for recess, include a homemade baked goodie. When using quality ingredients and wholefood sweeteners (in moderation) these actually provide nutrients rather just empty calories and a chemical sh&t storm. Try out a new recipe at home for a snack or on the weekend BEFORE putting it into the lunchbox.

5. Use left-overs where ever you can, either as a sandwich filling or in a thermos container

6. If you are incorporating a packaged item of some sort - CHECK THE LABEL. Ask yourself, will my child's body recognise these ingredients as a food?

7. Avoid those sugar laddened poppers claiming to be healthy. Did you know one 250ml popper can contain 5-7 tsp of sugar??!!!! There is nothing wrong with water. Make fruit infused water if they need some flavour

8. If you are wanting to move to a more wholefood lunchbox, include food items your child will like. For example, if I was to put a blueberry muffin into my son’s box, I can guarantee you it will not be eaten. Put in a savoury type muffin and it will be gobbled up. Vice versa with my daughter.

9. Lastly, but most importantly.....PLAN IT & BATCH IT. I am not even going to pretend that it is super simple and easy to just whip up healthy nourishing lunchboxes EVERYDAY for weeks on end. However, you can simplify and move through it with ease by planning first and foremost and then batching it.

To combat the issue of the food not eaten or going to waste. I have a rule – “What is not eaten at school will be eaten as a snack when they get home BEFORE anything else is provided” I am very firm with this and so far this has worked really well.

To help you with some inspiration beyond the humble sandwich, I’ve put together a Snacks & Lunches Guide that provides 26 Snack & lunch ideas (sweet & savoury) and 10 of my favourite recipes that are well recycled and on high rotation in my house. The majority of the recipes are freezer & batch cooking friendly.

Click on the BUTTON below to get it delivered straight to your inbox.

Chantal is a Certified Nutrition & Wellness Coach with a special interest helping stressed and overwhelmed parents implement gut healing protocols using a personalised step by step approach to improve the health of their family.