Because of the way most people are living today, stress is never too far behind. While stressing from time to time is not a problem, chronic stress can take a toll on your overall health, especially your adrenals. That’s why it’s important to learn to eat right to support your adrenal health and prevent adrenal fatigue from taking over your life. Fortunately, healthy foods like berry granola can be both tasty and nutritious.
When you are suffering from adrenal fatigue, your body is already exhausted from having to deal with constant episodes of stress. Typically, your body’s adrenal glands help you manage stress by releasing hormones like cortisol. This is responsible for prompting a fight-or-flight response in your body. Once you are feeling calmer and more relaxed, the amount of cortisol being released automatically decreases.
With chronic stress, however, the adrenal glands are forced to keep releasing cortisol into the body, disrupting your body’s NeuroEndoMetabolic (NEM) Stress Response. Over time, your adrenals will reach maximum cortisol output capacity, which leads to a deficit in cortisol and makes it difficult to keep dealing with stress.
Under these conditions, you will start to suffer from Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome (AFS), which is characterized by overworked adrenal glands. As a result, you will also experience symptoms such as joint pain, muscle pain, heart palpitations, foggy thinking and depression. Moreover, chronically high levels of cortisol in the body have also been associated with conditions such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and coronary heart disease. To avoid this, you need to commit to eating better, starting with breakfast.
When you are already suffering from AFS, skipping breakfast is not a good idea. Because the condition is associated with a significant imbalance in the stress hormone cortisol, the last thing your body needs is to be forced to produce more of it in the morning to help you start your day.
The moment you wake up, you are essentially in a fasting state, as you did not consume any calories while you were asleep. As you start your day and the fasting continues, your body starts to require more glucose. This is because it needs to start feeding your brain and fuel any physical activity you have at the same time. Because you haven’t eaten yet, the tendency of your body is to get glucose from your liver or to make glucose using fat and protein. The problem is, both activities can lead to an increase in your cortisol levels. In fact, one study conducted by the University of California, Western Human Nutrition Center, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that females who skip breakfast tend to have elevated cortisol levels.
As you can see, a good breakfast can help keep your blood sugar levels stable during the morning. Because of this, there would be no need for the adrenal glands to produce as much cortisol just to keep up with your energy levels. At the same time, by eating breakfast, you are essentially keeping your adrenals from becoming further overworked. You allow them to recover so you can eventually beat adrenal fatigue.
As far as breakfast goes, you must learn to choose wisely, especially if you are suffering from adrenal fatigue. Some of the best choices are foods with high dietary fiber. This includes granola.
Granola is a popular breakfast food that contains a good amount of rolled oats, making it particularly high in dietary fiber. Hence, many recommend granola if you are dealing with adrenal fatigue.
Dietary fiber comes in two types: soluble and insoluble. Oats are high in soluble dietary fiber. This means they tend to absorb water while in your intestinal tract, slowing down the amount of time that it takes to empty your intestine and keeping you full longer. This type of fiber can also help lower the levels of bad cholesterol in your blood, thereby helping protect your heart.
Dietary fiber has also been shown to help relieve stress and affect your mood. In fact, one recent study conducted in Japan found that athletes who took fiber supplements for four straight weeks showed better resilience against stress.
While plain granola may be good on its own, it certainly doesn’t hurt to add more flavor to it, especially when you are adding in other healthy ingredients. Some of the most popular foods to add to granola are berries.
Berries have various essential vitamins and minerals that benefit your overall health. These include vitamin C, vitamin K, manganese and folate. At the same time, berries are rich in powerful antioxidants. Anxiety is said to be linked to having relatively low antioxidants in the body. Loading up on these berries may help you ease anxiety and may also prevent a spike in cortisol levels.
Aside from this, several studies have also shown that consumption of berries can protect your body’s cells from high blood sugar levels. This is particularly helpful since your body would need more cortisol to control excess sugar if your blood sugar levels spike. Hence, berries can help ensure that your adrenal glands are not further overworked.
As you may have realized, making your own berry granola from scratch can be much healthier than eating store-bought varieties.
Just remember, however, to make sure you don’t have any intolerance or sensitivity to any of your chosen ingredients before you start making your granola. The best way to check is by consulting with your physician and undergoing a food sensitivity test or a food allergy test. Using the test results, you can determine which ingredients to avoid and which ones you can incorporate to the recipe regularly. Moreover, you can also work with your physician or nutritionist to determine how to tailor a granola recipe according to your needs.
That said, here is an excellent recipe for berry granola that can help make you feel better if you’re already suffering from adrenal fatigue:
Making your own berry granola from scratch is easy and can even be quite fun. It also doesn’t take many ingredients or much time to make. Even better, you can play around with the flavors by changing the type of berries that you add. You can also change the type of nuts that you add to make your granola more interesting.
Indeed, if you are looking for a healthy and satisfying meal in the morning, berry granola is a good idea. It can help keep your adrenal health in check and even prevent adrenal fatigue from worsening. With every bite, you will realize that taking care of your adrenals can be quite tasty.
© Copyright 2018 Michael Lam, M.D. All Rights Reserved.
Berry granola is a delicious blend of rolled oats, honey, nuts and an assortment of berries. One of the most popular breakfast foods around today, this can be taken with milk to make a complete meal. At the same time, it can be enjoyed with yogurt.
