Today’s mineral rich and low sugar dessert is a remedy to sugar cravings recipe and will actually help you handle stress better. Here is why.
Minerals are essential for balancing the nervous system, taming stress and supporting the adrenals. When the adrenals are burn out, gut healing doesn’t happen.
We get stuck in a cycle of eating sugar (which burns through minerals), feeling more stressed and reaching for carbs and sugar to calm or comfort us.
I offer you a way out. And will teach you a bit about why minerals are so essential for healing. And to put this info into practice I’m sharing a mineral rich swap for inflammatory (sugar/gluten/processed) treats.
Why minerals are important for healing
I got rid of all my IBS symptoms for good by balancing my minerals. I did not take one antimicrobial herb. I used food, vitamins and minerals to boost my adrenals, support my immune system, stabilize my nervous system and regulated my thyroid.
What I did restored my body’s resilience. I did not eat sugar, other than fruit for one year and it transformed my body. I also ate a lot of pumpkin seeds which is a mineral superfood.
Minerals are the unsung heroes of the body’s metabolism, controlling how efficiently we assimilate carbs, proteins and fats and build cellular energy.
When your adrenals or thyroid lack the minerals they need to function, they’ll slow down to conserve your energy. This can slow or stall healing and be extremely frustrating.
Many people take herbs to kill the bad guys, without first supporting our body’s built in defense systems to build resilience. We build resilience by giving the body what it lacks. Both on a dietary and lifestyle level.
Mineral balancing worked so well for me that eventually I became a health coach and studied mineral balancing.
And it’s not about just taking more minerals, it’s about understanding which ones you need and why they are low in the first place. Taking too much of one mineral it can throw off the others.
Once understand your mineral status through testing and you can shape your diet, habits and lifestyle to support your unique needs. But it always starts with food and nervous system balance (minerals are a part of this).
The role of food
Our primary source of minerals is our food. We burn through minerals due to stress. The stress can be emotional, mental or dietary. It could also come from lack of sleep, movement or rest.
Low minerals are a sign of whole body depletion while high minerals are a sign of inflammation and stress.
How and what you eat does matter but taking the whole person: habits, lifestyle and thoughts into account, is the foundation of mineral balancing. I love working this way. It has produced encouraging results. One client beat SIBO without taking one killing herb.
We can’t focus on healing a gut without taking the whole person into account.
Other mineral depletors
Certain medications deplete the body of essential minerals. Diuretics can cause loss of sodium, potassium, and magnesium. Antacids, painkillers, and hormonal contraceptive pills can lead to imbalances as well. If you are on any of these medications it is important to replace lost minerals.
Binders like charcoal also remove minerals from the body.
The power of the pumpkin seed
One of my favorite mineral super foods is the pumpkin seed. You can buy raw pumpkin seeds and grind it yourself in a blender to make pumpkin seed butter or buy it ready made online. Of course you can also swap other nut or seed butters in this recipe.
This is truly a treat that heals. It is full of protein, immune-boosting zinc and won’t spike your blood sugar. Pumpkin seeds are the highest vegetarian sources of zinc, which is also crucial for making stomach acid and balancing your hormones.
On a side note, pumpkin seeds also fight parasites.
Pumpkin seeds are also rich in magnesium, which is depleted with stress and sugar consumption as well as iron, selenium (for thyroid), potassium (for adrenals), calcium (for bones) and other trace minerals.
How to know your mineral status
You can test your minerals with a hair tissue mineral analysis test (HTMA) to measure stress levels, metabolism and see if your diet is working for you. You can oder the test here.
I often combine the HTMA with the GI Map stool test because the GI Map show us WHAT is out of balance in the gut and the HTMA tells us WHY.
We understand what internal and external stressors are preventing or slowing healing.
You can take it slow and start your mineral balancing journey with this pumpkin seed bread. Bananas provide extra potassium and apples have pectin which supporting gut lining integrity and the intestinal immune barrier.
If you can’t tolerate eggs just leave them out or add ground flax seeds and a splash of liquid. You can replace banana with pumpkin puree and sweeten with dates or maple syrup. If you are intolerant to apples, swap it with kiwi, melon or blueberries.
For fun, add shredded coconut (antimicrobial) and/or cocoa (magnesium and iron). And if you want a mineral rich tea to enjoy it with I have one here.
Pumpkin seed fruit bread
Ingredients
1/2 cup of pumpkin seed butter (can sub almond butter or sunflower seed butter)
1 egg
1 very ripe banana
1 apple, peeled and diced into small chunks
Optional: fun add ons are cocoa powder (will raise iron and magnesium content), sour cherries, and dates.
Double or triple this recipe for bigger portions.
Bake for 15 or 20 minutes in a preheated oven at 350 F or 180 C in a small silicone baking pan.
Angela Privin is proof that IBS is NOT an incurable disease, but a cry for help from a gut out of balance. When the body AND mind are complaining, it’s an opportunity to examine what’s not working and change it. After solving her own IBS mystery almost two decades ago, Angela became as a health coach to help others. Angela uses root cause medicine protocols personalized to the individual to solve each IBS mystery. Her tools are lab testing, dietary changes, supplementation, subconscious mind work and nervous system rebalancing . Learn more here.