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Zero sugar parfait for better healthMy goodness, do I have a treat for you today. I had to restrain myself from running into the kitchen to whip this one up. This healthy dessert recipe will certainly bring a smile to almost anyone’s face. This zero sugar parfait is an awesome way to start your day, or end it. Best of all, this breakfast, dessert, or easy snack supports a healthy NeuroEndoMetabolic (NEM) stress response system.

Why is this recipe so amazing? Let’s take a look.

Zero Sugar Parfait Has Probiotics!

This awesome meal contains yogurt—a well known source of probiotics. Probiotics, of course, support the “second brain”. The term “second brain” refers to your digestive tract, which has recently been recognized as having a direct connection to the brain itself. This means that supporting a healthy gut not only helps balance the metabolism network of your NEM stress response system, but can also impact the neuro-affect circuit.

Over time, a healthy intake of probiotics leads to a healthy gut microbiome and improving your gut microbiome can have profound effects on many parts of your body.

A healthy gut microbiome can:

  1. Promote bacteria that produce vitamins B12 and K12.
  2. Create enzymes that destroy other harmful bacteria.
  3. Stimulate and support T-cells.
  4. Crowd out destructive bacteria.

These actions can prevent certain bacterial infections, promote immune health by stimulating T-cells, and improve digestion. These are just a few of the things a healthy gut microbiome can lead to.

This Zero Sugar Parfait Has Prebiotics!

Zero sugar parfait and prebioticsLong overlooked, prebiotics are as essential to gut health as their probiotic cousins. Many plants naturally contain prebiotics including asparagus, garlic, dandelion greens, and most importantly, raw wheat bran. Raw wheat bran can be added to nearly any breakfast and is an important ingredient of our parfait recipe.

Prebiotics are largely just fiber and act as transportation for beneficial gut bacteria, helping them to grow in number. Fiber of course is not digested but passes down through the gut network and as it travels, picking up beneficial gut bacteria and providing them with them a place to reproduce. Moreover, as fiber passes through the gut, bacteria are carried with it along the way and transported throughout the entire digestive tract.

The prebiotic effect of bran makes it an important part of our parfait recipe, serving to promote a healthy gut lining. This can lead to many of the same benefits seen with probiotics, making them truly helpful to the metabolic and neuro-affect NEM circuits. A combination of probiotics and prebiotics are a great way to refresh your NEM stress response system, beginning with metabolic effects that filter through to other NEM circuits. Maintaining a regular daily intake of both pre- and probiotics can make a world of difference to your health.

Bring on the Berries

As if the pro- and prebiotics in this healthy parfait were not enough, we’ve also included not one, but two types of berries. What does this mean? Loads of vitamins and antioxidants.

Health Benefits of Blackberries

Some of the most prominent health benefits of blackberries are high levels of vitamin C, vitamin K, and manganese. Blackberries also contain phytonutrients such as ß-carotene, a-carotene, lutein, and zeaxanthin. Blackberries have a wide range of benefits for your skin, hair, and may even be used as a poultice to treat wounds.

Health Benefits of Raspberries

Raspberries are loaded with cancer-fighting antioxidants and have one of the highest antioxidant levels of any fruit on earth—nearly 10 times as many antioxidants as tomatoes. Raspberries, like blackberries, contains phytonutrients. Animal studies have revealed that phytonutrients can lower oxidative stress and inflammation. This limits the stress on your body and is beneficial for balancing the inflammation circuit of the NEM stress response system.

Raspberries also contain potassium, which helps regulate your heartbeat and blood pressure. Furthermore, they contain copper, manganese, and iron, which are used in the production of red blood cells. Therefore, adding these berries to your zero sugar parfait will promote the health of your cardionomic NEM circuit. The inflammation-reducing effects and key nutrients found in berries makes them a great addition to your diet, particularly for those seeking to maintain a healthy NEM stress response.

Enough Talk, Let’s Get To The Recipe

Now that you know all about the amazing health benefits of this delicious recipe, let's actually make some zero sugar parfait.

Fruit and Nut Zero Sugar Parfait

Creating your own zero sugar parfait

  • 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
  • 1/2 cup blackberries
  • 1/2 cup raspberries
  • 1/4 cup bran cereal**
  • 1 tablespoon sliced almonds

Instructions:

  1. Toss the berries, almonds, and bran into the yogurt.
  2. Gently mix the ingredients together.
  3. Serve and enjoy!

*If you want to go dairy free, that’s no problem. Just make sure your replacement yogurt contains healthy probiotics or you will be missing out on some of the major health benefits of this recipe.

**Some bran cereal may contain high fructose corn syrup.

Zero Sugar Parfait, the NEM Stress Response, and AFS

What is the NEM Stress Response?

The NEM stress response is a method for understanding your body’s health. The NEM stress response system contains six major circuits that can be separated into two categories: metabolism and neuroendocrine. The three circuits included in metabolism are inflammation, metabolism, and detoxification. The three circuits of the neuroendocrine system are hormone, cardionomic, and neuro-affect. All of these circuits are finely tuned and must be balanced with one another while maintaining their own balance. Together, these circuits make up the NEM stress response.

What is AFS?

Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome (AFS) is a condition that occurs when the adrenal glands become overworked for long periods of time. When your body experiences stress, the adrenal glands produce hormones including cortisol and adrenaline. Stress can be caused by outside influences or one of the six NEM circuits. When the adrenals overproduce stress hormones, they eventually become fatigued resulting in the condition known as AFS. If Adrenal Fatigue is not addressed soon enough, it could result in adrenal failure. This is why we so strongly urge addressing AFS immediately.

Zero Sugar Parfait and Your NEM

This recipe can have a beneficial impact on your NEM stress response in two major ways.

Benefits the Metabolic Circuits

This food plays a key role is aiding your metabolic networks: inflammation, metabolism, and detoxification circuits. The biggest reason for these effects are the pre- and probiotic functions of this parfait, which lead to a healthy gut microbiome. When your gut flora are healthy, you can really feel it. And your body can too. Food becomes easier to digest since your gut flora are now loaded with helpful bacteria that produce enzymes and perform other functions that help your body digest food. This symbiotic relationship means your body has less work to do and maintains more energy. And this is perhaps the least important function of your gut flora.

Gut flora can cast out harmful bacteria by crowding them out so they can’t return. Healthy gut flora also stimulate detoxification and metabolic functions, process that naturally lead to decreased inflammation, particularly, of the stomach, gut, and intestines.

Furthermore, recent science has even linked good gut bacteria to optimal mental health. This brings us to the second group of circuits that can benefit from this recipe.

Benefits the Neuroendocrine Circuits

The brain and a zero sugar parfaitNext, let’s take a look at the effects this recipe can have on the three neuroendocrine circuits: hormone, cardionomic, and neuro-affect. This zero sugar parfait can improve hormone circuit performance, which also impacts the neuro-affect circuit. And this recipe benefits the cardionomic circuit as well.

Groundbreaking evidence has shown that gut health has a major impact on brain health and the neuro-affect circuit. Improved gut health has been linked to improved cognitive performance, as well as improved mood. These and other potential links to mental health are largely influenced by your hormonal networks. When gut health improves, inflammation decreases, and stress on your body is reduced. This gives your adrenal glands a moment to breathe and a break from producing stress-related hormones. These benefits don’t even begin to scratch the surface—the high levels of minerals and phytonutrients provided by berries can hugely benefit your cardionomic circuit too.

Word of Caution

Absolutely no food or recipe is a cure-all for AFS, or for balancing your NEM circuits. Although the ingredients of this recipe offer numerous benefits, you must only include them as part of a balanced diet. Treating AFS takes time and patience. A varied diet rich in whole foods is a must. Make sure you include a variety of foods, especially wholefoods. Although a balanced diet can offer significant health benefits, everything has its limits. Furthermore, AFS can be brought on by both internal and external stress, therefore, a holistic approach is required.

To Wrap It Up

This Zero sugar parfait is healthy for a variety of reasons. Best of all, its delicious snack you can eat for breakfast and still feel good. This recipe is easily one of my favorite guilt-free foods. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to make some parfait.

© Copyright 2018 Michael Lam, M.D. All Rights Reserved.


Dr. Lam's Key Question

Here’s the thing, I am here to let you know that eating right doesn’t have to be difficult. Don’t believe me? You need to check out this zero sugar parfait. Best of all, it can be eaten as a guilt-free snack or even for breakfast.

zero sugar parfait

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