Today’s blog is republished from my friends at TheAlternativeDaily, a leading publisher of daily alternative health tips that I personally read every day… The original article can be found here:

There are certain combinations that for some reason just click. Natural ingredients that work well on their own, but when combined create something only just short of miraculous. One such combination, in my opinion at least, is used coffee grounds and turmeric.

The health benefits of coffee and turmeric

The benefits of both these ingredients are well established. Particularly in India and other parts of Asia, turmeric has a long and fruitful history of both therapeutic and superficial use. In literature, turmeric has demonstrated time and again it’s ability to lower inflammation in the body, fight cancer, ease joint pain and swelling associated with arthritis, moderate the symptoms of diabetes, regulate cholesterol, and so much more.

In the beauty world, the efficacy of turmeric is validated more by anecdotal evidence than scientific findings, but the results are no less miraculous. It can be used to speed the healing of wounds and allow your skin to heal faster, it slows signs of aging on skin and hair, it improves skin elasticity, fights acne, balances dry or oily skin, and lightens stretch marks. The studies that have been conducted in this area verify most of these claims. Turmeric reduces UV-induced skin damage and prevents skin carcinogenesis, so why shouldn’t it also improve elasticity or fight the signs of aging?

Turmeric might be at the forefront of the health food industry, but coffee isn’t too far behind. Beyond conventional fears of the high caffeine content in coffee, whole or fresh-ground coffee beans are absolutely loaded with antioxidants and health-supporting compounds. And, in many cases, the caffeine contained within actually helps our bodies utilize these compounds more effectively. Drinking or supplementing with high-quality coffee beans can alleviate pain, increase fiber intake, lower risk of type 2 diabetes, fight depression and anxiety, and protect against neurological disorders.

And the coffee benefits don’t stop there. Coffee is now a familiar face in many holistic beauty treatments. It can reduce puffy eyes, minimize cellulite, exfoliate and freshen the skin, increase circulation to the skin and hair follicles and plenty more.

As you can see, the healing and beauty-promoting benefits of both turmeric and coffee are almost legendary. But combine the two, and you’ve got yourself something quite extraordinary. Here’s how to make an awesome coffee ground and turmeric scrub to promote healthy, supple skin.

Easy coffee and turmeric scrub recipe

This is one of those recipes that you can adjust to suit your needs. Got super dry skin? Why not add in a little milk or aloe vera for an ultra-moisturizing effect. Suffer from infections or icky skin overgrowths like athlete’s foot? You might want to add in a little raw honey for an antibacterial component. Feel free to experiment with what works for you, because everybody’s skin is different!

Before we begin, a slight word of caution: if you’ve ever cooked with turmeric before, you’ll know that it’s amazingly hard to wash out of clothing and even skin — there’s a reason why many cultures continue to use turmeric to dye their fabrics a rich orange color! With this in mind, those of you with particularly fair skin should take care. Smearing a whole lot of this amazing ground coffee and turmeric scrub onto your face may leave your skin looking a little on the orange side for a few hours afterward (don’t worry, it’s not permanent!), so you might want to hold off on using it until after work. And if you apply the scrub just before bed, consider putting an old towel down on your pillow so you don’t stain your pillowslip and unsightly color!

With those cautions out of the way, it’s time to get down to business.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup turmeric powder
• 1/2 cup coffee grounds (fresher is better!)
• 2 cups water
• 2 Tbsp coconut oil (optional)
• 1 Tbsp honey (optional)

Instructions

1. First, you need to have some coffee grounds on hand. Next time you go to the supermarket, buy some whole coffee beans and the next morning, grind up the beans and make yourself a delicious fresh cuppa. Pour the coffee grounds that are left behind into a jar and place in the fridge, to be used in your scrub within the next couple of days.
2. Next, pour two cups of water into a saucepan and add in half a cup of ground turmeric. Simmer the mixture over medium heat, stirring regularly, until a thick paste begins to form. This may take a while, so be patient!
3. After your turmeric paste has formed, transfer the paste into a wide-mouthed jar or bowl and add in your coffee grounds. Stir thoroughly to ensure it is evenly mixed through, and at this point you can add in your coconut oil or honey. The coconut oil adds more of a moisturizing element to the scrub, while the honey adds an antibacterial element. Keep in mind that both these additions can cause the scrub to turn semi-solid below room temperature, so you’ll need to keep it in a warm spot of the house or put it in the sun for a while before you use it.

How to use the coffee and turmeric scrub

Now that your coffee and turmeric scrub is ready, it’s time to use it! Scoop a dollop out with your hand and apply it to your face, like you would a face mask. You can also apply it to any other area of your body you like! Leave the coffee and turmeric scrub on for 10 to 15 minutes, then remove it with a hot facecloth or in the shower. If your skin looks a little stained afterward, simply apply some coconut oil and gently rub the area with a cotton pad to remove it.

Because the coffee grounds are a strong exfoliant, it’s best not to use this coffee and turmeric scrub more than once a week. Even at this low application rate, you’ll likely see excellent results almost immediately.

With combining turmeric and coffee, the health benefits are tremendous. It goes without saying that turmeric is one of the best know foods to help fight inflammation, but it cannot do it on its own.

This surprising food kills knee, hip & back pain

When you eat JUST turmeric, it does absolutely nothing for your painful knees, hips and back…

It’s probably the most well-known food PROVEN to fight inflammation and joint pain, but NOT by itself.

There are 5 other foods that, when combined with turmeric, form a private squad of firefighters in your body that help control the raging flame of inflammation and joint pain.

Not only will the joint pain in your knees, back and hips become a thing of the past…

But you’ll regain mobility that you haven’t seen in years.

Combine these 5 foods with Turmeric to help your body fight inflammation, faster

The post Try This Coffee Ground And Turmeric Scrub For Better Skin appeared first on thenutritionwatchdog.com.

Ever heard someone say, “trust your gut”?

If your gut microbiome is off, it can cause you to feel anxious and depressed. What’s more, an unhealthy gut microbiome can actually be the cause of more serious psychiatric disorders like bipolar disorder and even schizophrenia. We used to think these mental disorders were all in our head, but really, they stem from our guts.

Even Hippocrates knew this vital fact: disease begins in the gut, and as we have been discovering, he is exactly right. A gut that is disrupted by antibiotics, a poor diet, or stress can cause anxiety disorders as well as depression. Yes, your gut bacteria have a strong effect on your mood and mental state.

Almost 20 percent of the U.S. population suffers from some type of anxiety disorder, and that only counts the ones who are officially diagnosed. The number of people who suffer from anxiety, depression and other mood disorders is probably much higher.

Anxiety can be paralyzing, causing fear, apprehension, and panic attacks. It affects all parts of life too. Many people turn to pharmacological medications to help, but these often have negative side effects, like being addictive or making you sleepy. And these meds don’t get to the heart of the problem—fixing your gut.

Serotonin and other brain neurotransmitters are thought to originate in the brain, but many of these important brain chemicals are manufactured in your gut. Yes, your gut. And if your gut does not have the right balance of healthy bacteria, it will have a definite effect on your moods.

In fact, the field of psychiatry is actually beginning to understand that a wide variety of mood and mental disorders are related to the gut-brain pathway. Even things like:
ADHD, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Your gut and your brain communicate directly through the vagus nerve, as well as your spinal cord. The vagus nerve connects the central nervous system to your heart, lungs, and digestive tract. In addition, many different types of bacteria in the gut help to synthesize 90 percent of necessary neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine and GABA.

These neurotransmitters are responsible for those happy, ‘feel-good’ and calm feelings. The gut microbiome is also directly or indirectly responsible for other important brain chemicals including brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF.

It’s interesting to note that there have been notable differences in the gut microbiome with mood disorders in human studies. In other words, depressed or anxious people have a very different gut profile than a healthy person.

Now, compound the issues of the delicate balance of the microbiome with gluten intolerance or celiac disease. There is a very strong link between celiac disease and psychological state. Anxiety, depression and fatigue are even more common in those with some degree of gluten sensitivity.

Along with an imbalance of appropriate gut bacteria, the inflammation and malabsorption in the small intestine can create problems that result in malnutrition and vitamin deficiencies.

Vitamins and minerals such as B6, B12, folate, vitamin D, vitamin K, iron and calcium are synthesized and absorbed in the gut. Many of these vitamins are also associated with mood, especially the B vitamins, which have much to do with nerve and brain function. A deficiency in these can most definitely cause depression, anxiety and even schizophrenia and dementia.

These vitamin deficiencies and malabsorption severely affect the body’s ability to produce the necessary ingredients for serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine, making someone who has gluten sensitivity even more prone to mood disorders.

In 1967, a doctor discovered that a large portion of the patients in an inpatient psychiatric unit happened to also have had a major history of gluten intolerance. Many physicians have also noticed that their celiac patients were about 10 times more likely to have schizophrenia or other serious psychological disorders, as compared to their non-celiac patients.

In addition, epidemiological studies of Pacific Islanders and other populations have shown a strong, dose-dependent relationship between wheat consumption and schizophrenia. While gluten-free populations studied have extremely rare occurrences of schizophrenia, there are about 1 in 100 cases of schizophrenia here in the wheat eating U.S. And when populations have Westernized their diets to add more wheat products, sugar and beer (which contains gluten) schizophrenia becomes much more common.

Coincidence? I think not.

Gluten also causes tiny micro-holes in the gut, creating a syndrome called leaky gut syndrome. This causes tiny protein molecules from food to leak out into the body, creating an inflammatory immune response and causing food allergies.

The body reacts to these foreign molecules as it would pathogens, attacking them and mounting an immune defense. This not only weakens our defenses against REAL pathogens, but it also creates a whole cascade of reactions in the body like abdominal swelling, joint aches, brain fog, headaches, rashes and more.

Gluten intolerance also can be related to mood swings, depression, anxiety, irritability, anger management problems and social phobias.

A healthy gut microbiome is important to our health and well-being even as babies. It has been found that babies who have been born vaginally have a healthier, more well-balanced gut microbiome than babies who were born via C-section. This is because a vaginal birth helps to populate an infant’s gut with the appropriate bacteria to start life.

Fix Your Gut and Change Your Moods for the Better!

A healthy gut should have a diverse, robust microbiome that protects and nourishes the body.  Unfortunately, many factors present in our daily lives contribute to gut damage:

• Antibiotics
• Refined sugar
• Refined carbohydrates and grains, especially wheat
• Industrially processed vegetable oils like canola oil, soy oil, corn oil, etc.
• Inadequate intake of healthy fiber-especially vegetable fiber
• Drinking too much alcohol
• Chronic stress
• Foods containing grain and gluten

So how do we get back to a healthy microbiome in our guts and back to a happy, healthy, relaxed state of mind? First, realize there is no ONE perfect diet or a perfect microbiome, but we do know the elements that go into creating a healthy microbiome in our guts.

Most importantly, we have to remove the junk food that feeds the unhealthy bacteria and allows it to over populate our guts. Remove foods that contain sugar, refined carbohydrates, and especially foods containing gluten. While there is a lot of controversy out there about who is gluten intolerant and who isn’t, its better to just avoid gluten all together. It’s not so hard to be gluten-free these days, and your body and your mind will be far better off if you just remove the inflammatory substance.

Removing sugar and starchy foods will also help to starve out the overgrowth of candida, and other harmful pathogens, that are most certainly flourishing in your gut if you eat a high-carb diet.

Eat more healthy fiber—from vegetables, primarily. Healthy fiber from vegetables and fruit helps to feed the healthy bacteria in your gut, while ‘sweeping’ away the harmful gunk that may have built up.

Keep your diet to mostly healthy naturally-raised proteins, and organic vegetables. Avoid grains and other high carbohydrate foods. Drink bone broth. Bone broth contains healing ingredients, including collagen and glycerin that help to repair leaky guts and to soothe and nourish your insides, all the while encouraging the growth of healthy bacteria.

Consume lots of naturally fermented foods like (low sugar) yogurt, kefirs, kombucha, sauerkraut, kimchi, and tempeh.

Consider taking a probiotic—especially if you have recently taken antibiotics. Certain probiotic strains of bacteria are especially helpful to encourage growth of healthy bacteria in your gut. And when you have lots of healthy bacteria, that bad stuff cannot grow. There are a few specific kinds that have been known to be especially helpful to improve anxiety or depression in clinical trials.

Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus casei, Bifidobacterium bifidum, and Bifidobacterium longum have all been shown to decrease feelings of anxiety and/or depression in human clinical trials. There are a huge variety of probiotic supplements are on the market, but they can be broken down into five main varieties:

• Lactobacillus
• Bifidobacterium
• Saccharomyces boulardii (healthy fungus)
• Soil-based or spore-forming probiotics
• E. coli Nissle 1917 (healthy form of E. coli)

Everyone’s microbiome is individual and everyone has a different mix of healthy bacteria. It’s best to try a few different kinds of probiotics or try a probiotic supplement that contains 3-5 of the above strains. And give it about 6-8 weeks. While you may feel some relief right away, clearing out those toxic and inflammatory pathogens that are anchored in your gut may take a while—as does re-establishing all those happy, healthy critters.

A healthy happy state of mind starts in your gut. Take care of it, and feed only those healthy bacteria. You may change your entire life for the better!

If you are looking to keep your gut health in check, along with addressing your weight, digestive issues, carvings, and even fatigue, check this out.

Discover the “health” foods you need to remove from your diet NOW.

References:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/evolutionary-psychiatry/201103/wheat-and-schizophrenia
https://chriskresser.com/your-gut-microbiome-and-anxiety-whats-the-connection/
https://www.beyondceliac.org/living-with-celiac-disease/psychological-impacts/

The post The Bacteria in Your Gut Determine Your Moods appeared first on thenutritionwatchdog.com.

By: Cat Ebeling 

We generally eat too many inflammatory omega 6 fats. They are present in the grains we eat, processed foods, and most commercially-raised meat, chicken and fish. Don’t believe that farm-raised fish are better for you, they are not!

Wild caught salmon is especially rich in omega 3 fatty acids, and the health benefits from this mega nutrient are vital to your health! Wild caught fish, especially sockeye salmon, is full of these healthy omega 3 fats—good for fat burning, good for reducing inflammation in the body and great for brain and nerve health. Eating wild caught salmon twice a week will raise your omega 3 better than taking fish oil supplements. Most all sockeye salmon is wild caught and you can identify sockeye by its brightly colored flesh. (Don’t be confused though—many farm-raised types of salmon have coloring added to their flesh to give it that appealing pink color)

Sockeye salmon contains a natural pigment that makes its flesh pink. This is astaxanthin, one of the most powerful antioxidants you can consume! Astaxanthin comes from the microalgae that the salmon eat. Astaxanthin lowers inflammatory markers like C-reactive protein (CRP), which shows inflammation in the heart and the blood vessels.

Astaxanthin is one of the best things you can eat to protect your cells and their DNA. By the way, it is 6,000 times more effective than vitamin C, 800 times more effective than CoQ10 and 550 times more effective than vitamin E or green tea. When your DNA is damaged by free radicals from harmful toxins in the environment or processed foods, astaxanthin prevents further damage.

Eating a diet high in astaxanthin and omega 3 fats actually helps to protect skin against sunburn and the resulting wrinkles and sun damage. The omega 3’s help fight depression and anxiety, improve your memory and learning ability, and decrease ADD/ADHD (Attention Deficit Disorder). Omega 3 fats are also essential to prevent dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

Enjoy this great salad any time of the year!

Ingredients

2 cans (6.5 oz each) canned sockeye salmon, drained and chunked

3 Tbsp organic mayo (see recipe below to make your own)

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1 Tbsp capers, drained

1/3 cup finely chopped fennel root

1/3 cup finely diced red onion

Pinch of organic black pepper

1 Tbsp chopped fresh dill or 1/2 – 1 teaspoon dried organic dill weed

4-6 large leaves green or red leaf lettuce

Directions

Drain salmon and discard skin and any bones (if desired).  In a medium bowl, combine ingredients. Add salmon and stir gently to combine.

Lay out lettuce leaves and place a scoop of salmon salad on each leaf. Serves 2-4.

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The post Sockeye Salmon Salad appeared first on thenutritionwatchdog.com.