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May 31, 2020
A Dangerous Food Additive to watch out for!
Do you want to know about Dangerous Food Additives such as Carrageenan & how they impact our health? Do visit iTHRIVE's Blog to know more!
Watch out for the ingredient carrageenan.
Carrageenan is considered a harmless food additive by the US government. Unfortunately medical research has proven otherwise. Carrageenan is known as Irish Moss and is actually a seaweed. Most people would assume that this food additive would be nutritious considering it is a sea vegetable. On a positive note this sea vegetable is high in iodine, sulfur, trace minerals and vitamins.
But it is important to know that the bad far outweighs the good when it comes to the consumption of carrageenan.
In over 40 studies, carrageenan was found to create ulcers and cancers in animals. It easily triggers inflammatory disease in the human colon as well. And many researchers believe that it promotes not only irritable bowel but breast cancers and more.
It changes detoxification in sulfur pathways (needed for hormones, toxins, etc.,), and may even be responsible for DVT (deep vein thromboses or blood clots in the lower legs).
Chemists have discovered that carrageenan suppresses gamma interferon, a cytokine crucial for tumor and infectious control (like hepatitis), as well as control of inflammation and autoimmune disease, arthritis, and more.
Finally carrageenan has been found to be part of the cause of the epidemic of diabetes, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, and more.
The average intake of carrageenan for most individuals is 100 mg a day.
It prevents separation in foods containing milk or chocolate, and improves the texture of not only foods, but cosmetics and even toothpastes, room deodorizers and pesticides.
It’s commonly found in cottage cheese and ice cream to infant formulas, dietetic beverages and low-fat meats and yogurts. For decades it was used as a thickener in puddings.
So the take-away is read the labels on the foods and products you consume and stay clear of anything that has carrageenan listed.
Article published with compliments from Functional Medicine University
Visit: www.FunctionalMedicineUniversity.com
It’s been over 4 months since the lockdowns were imposed and like it or not, it’s made us all relook at our lives and rethink how we were getting through each day. BLD (Before Lock Down), most of us at some point have imagined a life where we-
< note to reader> before you read the next lines, play beautiful piano music in your mind, you may add a rainbow or two if you please
-where we..
Imagined getting up early in the morning, starting our day with some meditation and a workout of our choice, making an insanely healthy breakfast that pampered our taste buds and then having an really great work day, coming home, relaxing a bit with loved ones, having a healthy dinner and then falling asleep into deep restorative sleep and then another day like this and another day like this.
Sounds exactly what you’ve wanted to do for a long time but couldn’t ever get around to doing it because life was too busy and you never had the time to plan a day like this?
<piano piece can stop now if you want>
Well, now we all have more time than ever- no commuting to office, no wasted time in traffic so we’ve really been presented with a great opportunity to create a lifestyle around self care practices. Yet, this seems to have become an even more distant reality for most people in today’s challenging times. Work life and personal life seems to have gotten blurred further and everyone seems more burdened with work than ever before.
So how does one grow? How does one change past patterns to create one?
We’ve been talking to members of the Thrive Tribe to figure out how most of them have been able to actually use this time to work on themselves and create growth.
And here are some of their winning hacks.
Being locked down where time seems infinitely fluid, it is very important that you set in a routine for yourself. Make sure you have a schedule even if it’s a flexible one: wake up, meditate, exercise, get dressed and work (from home). Take it one day at a time and stick to the routine, One day at a time is an easier way to build habits than thinking of 21 days, 1 month, 2 months or 6 months.
Your brain is your biggest asset in these times. Your ability to think critically, do research and reject fear based narratives comes from here. Do ensure you are not loading it up with toxins, inflammatory foods and stimulants. Be aware of what you are putting in your mouth because of the old saying that goes- You are what you eat, digest and absorb. Most Thrive tribe members look at food as information, and not as entertainment- by that virtue they have become really conscious of every bite they eat. As one of them says, “eating clean, unprocessed, whole, non-GMO food has really helped in keeping my energy levels stable throughout the day’.
For most of us, it’s peak summer as we are in quarantine and summertime calls for better hydration. Water is a cleanser, a supplier of life. Drinking water is like washing out your insides and improving the function of all your tissues. Optimal hydration is extremely important. It helps regulate body temperature,boosts skin health and beauty, flushes out body waste, improves digestion and prevents random snacking (some of those hunger pangs are actually thirst signals). One lady from the tribe is really creative with her water- from lemon to cucumber to mint to pomegranate water, she makes the act of drinking water a fine art. The color of your urine is a good indicator of your hydration levels, as also as it’s clear, light yellow you are doing good.
Most people want a break, a change of mood after a full day of work and netflix/ amazon prime seems like a savior, but both are designed in such a way that it’s easy to binge watch and lose track of time. The flip side of this is that you might push away sleep to watch one more episode and one more and one more and end up sleeping really late. The thing is changes in the patterns of sleep cause tremendous changes in our health too. Lack of sleep will make you groggy, unfocused and irritable the next day. One of our tribe members went the Netflix way in the first week of the lock-down and soon realized how it was impacting his mood and energy- he says tongue-in-cheek, “I’ve now set an alarm clock to shut down my electronic devices at 9 pm.. That way I actually fall asleep at 10 pm and surprisingly I don’t need an alarm clock to wake me up. It’s the best use of my alarm clock.”
This tip is from Thrive’s founder Mugdha- She says, every time you feel low on energy or your mood changes, check if you are HALT- Hungry, Angry and Afraid, Lonely or Tired and take appropriate action for each of those. P.S. If you are hungry, make sure that you do not binge on junk food, that would eventually lead to even worse energy levels through the day. Stick to clean, unprocessed, whole food.
As Cynthia Ozick has rightly said- “We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude”. Creating a gratitude journal would make it easier for you to focus your attention on all the positive things around you and stay grateful for everything in your life.
The only good thing that’s come out of this lock-down is it has allowed a growing number of people to question the life we led BLD. Use this time to learn skills that will be of value to self and others, no matter what happens in the world. Growing your mind is the number one personal growth hack in our books. If you don’t have any subjects you feel motivated to learn about, then dig deep into what’s going on our planet currently. Why is humanity under a collective pause mode. Who’s running the show? These are important questions to ask as well.
Not just experts but even our tribe members have now found that moving their bodies throughout the day as one of the best forms of physical activity without having to go to gyms. Most of them are incorporating functional fitness in their household chores (doing squats while mopping or balancing on one leg while doing the dishes/ cooking for example). For those of you sitting for long periods for work, make sure you do a couch stretch at least once every hour to keep those quads and glute muscles functional.
We honestly think the media is the real virus. You don’t really need to know what the Nation wants to know. Mind what you are watching and avoid news that creates stress and panic within you. Mainstream media thrives on creating panic, confusion, anger and hatred. Do not hand over your mind to them. Look for alternative sources for information about the current scenario.
This is a personal growth hack that the founder of Lifeplugin Summit Gautam Khetrapal taught us and we really love it. As soon as you wake up and go to the bathroom, look at yourself in the mirror and say this to yourself
Dear <your name>
In the last 24 hours,
I feel proud of for these 5 things
I forgive you for these 5 things
And I commit towards doing these 5 things in the next 24 hours.
Try it out.. It’s pretty magical
Breathing is the first thing we do when we are born and the last thing we do before we die but how much importance do we give to breathing? We can stay alive for long periods without eating, drinking or sleeping, but if we can not breathe, we die within a few minutes. If our way of breathing is short and quick our minds will be nervous and agitated. If our breathing is irregular, the mind. Knowing how to breathe also helps us to control our emotions (anger included) and fears and keep a clear and sharp mind. If our breathing is deep, slow and regular then our mind will reach a state of tranquility and calm. When we are upset or stressed our breathing becomes quick and shallow. Breathing deeply and slowly instantly calms us down mentally as well as physically. is anxious and disturbed.
At Thrive we use a specific breathing technique that we share with all our tribe members. Contact us on the number below and we’ll share this with you too for free.
What this lock-down has done for most of us is that it has made us come face to face with our fear of our death. We are mortal beings. Most of us have gone through our lives trying not to acknowledge this or forget this important piece of existence. We’ve never sat and ruminate over the fragility of our human existence. Until now. And this scares most of us. The fear could be about your own death or the death of your loved ones. How to address this? For starters, you could read our earlier article about this. If you fear losing your job like one of our tribe members did- have an honest talk with your employers and ask them what are the chances of that really happening and what would it take to prevent it from happening. She did that, and it turned out that her fear was unwarranted. One thing that we’ve learned from coaching so many people, hiding from your fear makes it worse- looking at it in the face and acting on it is really what resolves it. Like Thrive’s Founder Mugdha says,
True courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is the ability to look at fear in the face, see where it came from and work on the triggers one by one until there is no fear left.
It is what the Thrive Tribe has done to stay sane and grow during the lock-down. We’ve now opened membership to Tribe to anyone who feels they deserve to be part of this beautiful collective. Here’s the link to our Facebook group
If you need help with your eating habits or anything else we’ve spoken about, reach out to us and we’d be happy to talk to you.
Over the last week we’ve been hearing numerous stories of friends, family members and loved ones of Thrive Tribe getting impacted by what’s happening to the air in Delhi. With crop burning and Diwali crackers, the air in Delhi and surrounding areas is now a poisonous mix of particulate matter, volatile organic compounds, carbon monoxide, sulphur oxide, nitrogen oxide, cadmium and other chemicals and heavy metals.
How do these affect your health?
Particulate matter(PM) is a complex mixture of extremely small particles and liquid droplets. These when inhaled affects both the heart and lungs, numerous studies have proven the negative impact of PM on your heart and lung health.
Volatile Organic Compounds or VOC’s are carcinogenic in nature and can trigger genetic mutation at a cellular level
Carbon monoxide can cause dizziness, sweating, restlessness, visual distortion, nausea and even loss of consciousness
Sulphur oxide and Nitrogen oxide are both irritants and can irritate mucus layers in your eyes, nose, throat and respiratory tract which explains why everyone’s eyes are burning
Apart from this, this air can also impact your cognitive ability- your ability to think and work productively. Your brain needs oxygen to function optimally, and when you are breathing poisons instead of oxygen it starts creating symptoms like excessive irritability, anger, and loss of productivity.
Of course, this (the Gas Chamber called Delhi) is a monstrosity that we have created and it teaches us there really are no limits to human stupidity.
However, now that the problem is created and damage is being done, here are some solutions from Thrive to help you get through this situation and allow your body to heal.
Invest in a good quality air purifier at least for your bedroom– this is where you spend the longest time and sleep is when your body is naturally in a recovery mode. Ensure that you are breathing clean air in this room. Get a H12 or H13 HEPA filter with a Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR) of 2 at medium speed. Ensure it has a carbon filter that weighs at least 500 gms. Pick one that has a noise level below 50 DB at medium speed with a washable pre-filter. If it has sensors to indicate Air quality then that’s even better. Keep the air purifier on for as long as there are people in the room.
Bring in indoor plants, they are a gift from this planet to us. They remove pollutants by absorbing harmful gases and VOC’s and create clean air for us. The best ones to get are Money plant ( Five 8 inch pots per person), Areca Palm (Four shoulder high plants per person), Snake Plant (Six plants per person), Bamboo (Four shoulder high plants)
Avoid lighting agarbattis, using candles and room fresheners and loose powders- these add to indoor air pollution
Wear a good quality air mask when outdoors
Food is central to healing. Making sure your diet is healthy-including adequate protein and nutrients from quality sources devoid of harmful processed entities is crucial.Check out our article on the basic principles of healthy eating for more details.
Which ones?
If you have a regular breath work practice like Pranayam, you could continue with it. IF you don’t have one, then this one by Soma Breath is absolutely incredible. Click here for a link to the Breath meditation
Implement these 5 steps, and we guarantee you will breathe a little easier despite the pollution. If you need to learn more or need help with specific symptoms, please reach out to us and we’ll be more than happy to help.
As a Functional Nutritionist I have often asked my clients the crucial question – ‘Why do you want to lose weight?’ The answers vary from ‘I want to look good’ to ‘I cannot take the back pain anymore’. Rarely does anyone tell me that they want to ease the strain that they are putting on their body every day.
Yes, obesity wreaks havoc on your body and is proof of bodily functions gone wrong within. I think returning your body processes to optimum is the number one reason you should be shedding those extra kilos immediately.
Being overweight puts a lot of stress on your organs and sets you up for misery that will come sooner than you think. This might sound harsh but it is the scary truth that reveals itself once you know your body.
This post will educate you on the workings of your body the relation of obesity with various illnesses and health risks. Bear in mind that most of the below health risks are not the effect of obesity but go hand in hand with it. Some of them are even the cause of obesity. For example, insulin resistance or Type 2 Diabetes leads to weight gain and not the other way round.
But first, let’s define what being overweight or obese is. This is determines by your BMI or Body Mass Index. Calculate your BMI using the following formula:
BMI Interpretation
18 - 23 : Normal
24 - 25 : Overweight
26 and above : Obese
Obesity is closely related to increased risk of type 2 Diabetes, hypertension, sleep apena, heart stroke, asthma, certain cancers, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. In fact, obesity is said to be linked with more than 50 different health problems.
Extra fat in your body puts strain on your cardiovascular system. Your heart has to work harder to pump blood to all the extra fat and lymphatic fluid you are carrying around. Although being overweight increases all these problems it is not at the heart of all the illnesses. To know the real cause we must get to the root of weight gain itself.
Obesity is not the normal way of a body. A lot of people think that obesity is just a matter of too much eating and too little exercise. While these factors do play a role they are not enough to get you on the path to become obese. Consider the case of childhood obesity.
There are more than 10 million cases of childhood obesity in India alone! Cases of obesity are seen in children as young as 2 to 5 years today. Clearly, it’s not the result of too much food and too little exercise. Something else is going on here. Weight gain is actually a case of your cellular metabolism gone wrong.
The truth is- it can happen to anyone. Insulin resistance, a thyroid dysfunction, toxic load in our environment, stressful lifestyle, sedentary jobs, inflammatory, poor diet and nutrient deficiency are all to be blamed for the metabolic syndrome.t is the seed that grows into a host of other chronic illnesses including obesity. Obesity is hence a marker of metabolic dysfunctions in your body and the start of many chronic illnesses.
There have been numerous studies linking weight gain with diabetes. In fact, experts have coined the term ‘diabesity’ as diabetes and obesity go hand in hand. The famous Harvard study that studied 170,000 people over the span of 10 years found that obesity increases the risk of diabetes by 20 times! However all these studies measure risk of diabetes by correlating obesity with presence of diabetes? It doesn’t necessarily mean that obesity is the cause of diabetes. In fact it may be the other way around.
Insulin resistance is at the heart of type 2 diabetes. Insulin acts as a gate pass for glucose to enter into cells for its conversion into energy. Insulin resistance happens when your cells refuse to take in the glucose and shut off to the insulin in your blood. This is caused by poor lifestyle factors, consuming too much PUFA's or genetics. This extra glucose in the blood is then stored in fat cells causing you to gain weight.
Insulin resistance points to a metabolic syndrome in the body and it usually precedes weight gain. This means that if you are overweight there is a good chance that you are already suffering from metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance. This is more likely if you easily put on weight on your waist.
Hypertension is the measure of pressure that blood applies to the inner walls of your arteries. Abnormal glucose metabolism increases inflammation and can lead to plaque in the arteries and thickening of the arteries. This leads to high blood pressure. Again, your heart has to work harder to pump blood around your body and leading to increased risk of heart attack.
Observational studies have shown that obese persons are at a higher risk of many types of cancer. This includes endometrial cancer (cancer of uterus lining), liver cancer, brain tumor, gall bladder cancer, breast cancer and prostate cancer.
The exact mechanisms of how obesity causes cancer are yet to be discovered. As of now, there are only theories that best support the evidence of higher incidences of cancer in obese people.
One of the theories is that the chronic low-level inflammation that obese people often have leads to DNA damage that leads to cancer. Yet another link is the excess estrogen produced by fat tissue in obese people. Excess estrogen is known to be associated with breast, endometrial and ovarian cancer.
Fat cells also produce adipokines, hormones that can mess up the growth stimulation and inhibition mechanism of cells. Increased level of insulin in the blood is also known to help certain cancers.
All the extra body mass obviously puts strain on the organs of your body which are meant to handle much less. Increase in fat tissues means that your heart has to pump harder to reach through more blood vessels in your body. Fat deposits also diminish the lung’s capacity to hold air according to studies.
Extra weight also causes structural burden on your skeleton. Obesity usually leads to osteoarthritis, back pain and joint pains.
The relation of mental health and obesity is again the story of chicken and egg. We do not know for sure which one comes first. People with mental health issues have a two to three times higher risk of obesity and people with obesity have a 30% higher risk of mental health issues.
The reason of overlap could be the common risk factors such as stress. Cortisol levels are known to be higher in both obese and depression patients. Inflammation in body and increased stress can lead to a flight or flight response in body which can cause both depression and weight gain. Depression and obesity can lead into a vicious cycle where loss of self-esteem can lead to binge eating which leads to more weight gain. Mental health issues associated with obesity include anxiety, depression, PTSD.
The social effects of obesity may not be acknowledged medically with a term, but they are just as damaging. Not being able to fit into your favorite dress and gaining weight every week attacks your self-esteem. Constant low energy takes away your favorite activities and hampers your daily routine. Repeatedly failing to lose weight despite your intention is enough to lose confidence and give-up on life itself.
Many people with obesity become averse to interaction and avoid social events. Obesity affects not just your relations with the outside world but also your relation with yourself. Emotions of frustration, guilt, self-loathing and self-victimization are common because of the illnesses and stigma attached to obesity.
Obesity is a result of metabolic processes gone wrong. This root cause is common to many other illnesses like diabetes, cardiovascular complications and mental illness. This is the reason that weight gain goes hand in hand with so many health problems and many times is a marker for chronic illnesses to come.
If you've struggled with weight issues all your life or if excess weight is a recent issue that's cropped up, set up a consultation with us and we'll help you find out the root causes for your weight gain
If you are a woman reading this, you need no introduction to the subject. If you are a man reading this, then you aren’t too much of a stranger to this subject either, unless you’ve been living on Mount Athos
For 80% of all menstruating women, that time of the month when your uterus makes it’s presence known loud and clear is not a laughing matter. More than 150 symptoms have been attributed to PMS! The symptoms are so common that the medical community considered discarding the term “PMS” and accepting the symptoms as normal! This attitude trivializes the daily significance of PMS for the millions of women who suffer from it.
For at least 5% of all menstruating women, the symptoms of PMS are so severe that they are incapacitated on a monthly basis. For many women, even moderate PMS can interfere with work and can disrupt everything from parenting to social relationships. In addition, if PMS symptoms weren’t enough, for most women menopause has become something to dread. Plus, now that little girls as young as 8 and 9 are hitting puberty (which isn’t normal, but more on that subject in another blog post), that’s far too many years of you being your held hostage by your biology right from puberty up until you hit menopause.
But is it really your biology holding you hostage? What’s really going on? Most theories blame your hormones, inflammation, prostaglandins, neurotransmitters etc making you believe that you really have no control over what’s going on in your body.
Symptoms such as depression, diarrhoea, bloating, anxiety, insomnia, migraines, and mood swings are often blamed on PMS. That blame is inaccurate.
These symptoms, like the supposed symptoms of menopause (night sweats, hot flashes, fatigue, dizziness, weight gain, digestive issues, bloating, incontinence, headaches, moodiness, irritability, depression, anxiety, panic attacks, heart palpitations, trouble concentrating, memory issues, insomnia and other sleep disorders, vaginal dryness, breast sensitivity, joint pain, tingling, hair loss or thinning, dry or cracked skin, and dry or brittle nails), are actually from underlying health conditions such as a sensitive central nervous system, IBS, heavy metal toxicity or chronic viral and bacterial infections.
These symptoms become more apparent at this particular time in your cycle because the menstruation process takes up 80 percent of your body’s reserves. The 20 percent leftover cannot manage the health conditions that your immune system normally keeps at bay. This is another prime example of how far conventional medicine is from understanding women’s health.
Rather than pointing to the reproductive system as the reason for a woman’s suffering at her time of the month, we should look at it as a messenger. Rather than drowning the signals in painkillers, steroids, immunosuppressants and antibiotics we need to support both the immune system and the reproductive system with healing foods and herbs.
Your uterus is a maker of life. It sustains life for 9 months. It’s a space where a living being has to be nurtured and protected. Your uterus is a fierce protector of life. This is its primary role. Does it make any sense at all that a healthy and natural life process should be causing so many problems?
Over the last few decades thanks to an overload from the environment, we have been overexposed to radiation, toxic heavy metals, mutated versions of viruses and bacteria and chemicals like DDT. These are invisible intruders in our lives, and are the root cause of the chronic illness epidemic that we are witnessing in our times. We are exposed to these and absorb these over our lifetime.
These can even be passed down generation to generation and can get stored in our internal organs like the brain, the gut, the liver, pancreas and even the uterus. These cause your underlying health dysfunctions, the ones that become so apparent during PMS and menopause.
Your biology is not holding you hostage. It’s in fact sending you signals that there are intruders in your body that need to be dealt with. Your depression, diarrhoea, bloating, anxiety, insomnia, migraines, and mood swings are all indicators that something deeper needs to be fixed.
Well, the space in our abdominal and pelvic cavity is actually quite cramped. Every organ fits in there snugly and there’s no empty/ extra space. When any of the above factors triggers lymphedema or fluid retention, this excess fluid starts putting pressure on everything around it, there really is no place for your internal organs to go.
This pressure itself makes everything uncomfortable. The nerves in your abdominal and pelvic cavity are being touched by this pressure and start sending pain signals to your brain, and that is what triggers the pain. To relieve yourself of the pain and discomfort, here are 3 things that you can do to reduce your pain and suffering.
1. Include the following foods in your diet
Wild blueberries, Asparagus, Avocados, Apples, Spinach, Black grapes, Cranberries, Cruciferous vegetables, Leafy greens and Cucumbers
These will boost your immune system and support your reproductive system
2. Add the following herbs and nutrients to your daily routine
Lemon balm, Red clover, Nettle leaf, Licorice root, Zinc, Vitamin B12, Folic acid, B-Complex, Vitamin D3, and Plant based Omega-3’s
3. Exclude the following foods from your diet
Dairy, Wheat, Eggs, Corn, Canola Oil, MSG/ Natural Flavours/ Preservatives, Refined Sugar, Processed Foods
These foods not only cause inflammation, but also feed pathogens leading to a higher toxic load on your system.
If you struggle with issues you’ve always thought of as PMS, reach out to me to explore what could really be causing your symptoms and let’s address that true cause. Periods should be easy. You needn’t go through the pain. You deserve a stress-free menstrual cycle.
The word stress is thrown around quite loosely and as a condition, it is real…. often having a bigger impact on our health than any of the external factors we’ve discussed in the past. (Know about 'the stress response' in your body from the link-https://www.thrivefnc.com/blog/the-stress-response/)
I’ve seen this stress in every case I’ve worked with- a constant, underlying primordial fear based response to the environment around us. And I have been questioning the root cause of it for almost 2 years now and this is what I believe is at the root of it.
It’s the loss of the Collective. We as humans were meant to exist in a tribe. To work together towards the greater good of the tribe out of feelings of mutual love, trust and connectedness. In return, as a whole, the tribe always had your back. You could make mistakes, fail and the tribe would always hold the space for your learning and growth. This is how we are designed as a species.
Somewhere a few thousand years ago, this structure was broken and we started living in smaller and smaller units called families where each unit was forced to fend for itself. In the event of real or perceived threats and calamities you are expected to turn to these 1-2 people- most of whom are stuck in survival mode themselves and you don’t receive the support you need as an organism, as a being.
This is the reason the body ends up always staying on guard. There’s this constant message that the body is receiving that your survival is under threat. None of the passive aggressive people around you can help (sometimes they are the abusers) and as a being you feel you really need to figure out a way to make way out of this big holocaust- this big catastrophic event where anyone who had your back is missing. And you are left wondering, you know what was that great big event that occurred that took away everyone? Like where is everyone right now? That’s the question everyone is asking, where are those real connections, and where in the world is my Tribe?
It’s this loss of the collective, this loss of a sense of belonging that puts in you a flight or fight mode because every person you meet, you are questioning is this person friend or foe. And the other person is doing the same. Your body is the armor for your soul and having to stay in this state of high alert 24/7 starts wearing it down. It's painful for both the mind and body.. and to numb this pain, this lack of connectedness we get addicted to food, alcohol, media, work, toxic relationships etc.
So what do I think is the solution?
I think one beautiful way to deal with this stress is to start finding your tribe, start finding your community where you feel like you belong, where you can open your heart, where you can be vulnerable, where no one’s going to attack you. Where, even if there’s a threat from outside, there are others who got your back.
If you think I am wrong about this, ask yourself, how many relationships do you have in your life where you can be truly completely transparent and honest and vulnerable without having to ever be defensive ever? And then you know you have a good relationship. If you are defensive, if you’re putting up a fight, if you’re constantly making excuses for your existence, if you’re worried about being judged…then, you know, you’re not in your tribe.
I just think it's so important that you have spaces and you have people who you are not bound to by any social ties, not related by blood but all that they do is make you feel safe. These are the people that are going to be your tribe. The people that are going to have your back. These are the people where you are free to go miserably wrong, have really large failures and these people will still be there for you without drama. Because that’s our design- to fail, learn and grow. The tribe is essential for you to feel safe in this process. And this is one of the things I really, sincerely want to do- create tribes for you and me, create safe spaces only driven by a common goal of learning and growth and nothing else.
Simply so that you can tell your body to stand down and take a break and allow yourself to heal. Because when you heal, I heal.
If this is something that resonates with you, reach out to me and we’ll see what magic comes forth.
I am part of two such Tribes- The Thrive Tribe and The Heart Coherent Tribe- both extremely safe places, if you want to be part of either of these, let me know and we’ll figure out how to get you in.
Coffee is the favorite wake-up drink for millions and a go to necessity for even more. Caffeine is the primary ingredient in coffee and many other beverages like tea, chocolate, cola soft drinks, energy drinks and even some medications. Most people are unaware of the harm their morning cup of coffee is doing to them.
But do you know what coffee does to your body and (if you're a coffee addict) how you can quit it with minimal withdrawal symptoms?
But first, let’s clear all the confusion there is about caffeine on the internet. Like any other topic on nutrition and health, there is an overload of contradicting information on coffee. Before you make up your mind on what is true, consider this fact:
Coffee is the second most traded commodity on earth after oil!
You can imagine the commercial interest vested in this commodity. It’s no surprise that many articles and organizations say coffee is safe (Some even claim it prevents cancer!). The FDA recommends upto 400 mg of coffee despite it having no nutritional value whatsoever. Of course, the FDA also considers it is safe to consume up to 50 gm or 12.5 teaspoons of daily sugar which is more addictive than cocaine.
Caffeine has no nutrients that we cannot survive without. In fact, it just gives you a temporary high that masks your nutritional and psychological problems, only to cause a slump in your mood later. In fact it messes up many delicate balances in your body.
Visible and felt effects of caffeine include alertness, better concentration, frequent urination, increased heartbeat and of course the ‘feel-good’ high.
This is what is going on under the surface every time you have caffeine:
Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant. This is what causes alertness and even inability to sleep if consumed after evening. Caffeine competes with adenosine (a sleep inducing molecule) and binds to adenosine receptors in your brain to cause alertness and loss of sleep.
Caffeine stimulates dopamine production in your brain. It also increases the serotonin receptors triggering reward systems in your brain. This is what gives you the happy feeling when you consume caffeine.
Drinking coffee re-creates the stress conditions in your body. Here is how this happens.
Caffeine stimulates the adrenal gland to produce adrenaline in your blood. This is the natural fight or flight response of your body. The body releases stores of glucose, increases heart rate and shoots up cortisol levels to prepare for the fight. This response aided us in fighting off threats in ancient times. However, triggering this response without any real stressor leads to a cascade of problems and takes a toll on your body.
Because of the release of glucose stores during this process, caffeine leads to high blood sugar which calls for higher insulin in turn causing a slump in your sugar levels soon after. The low sugar level causes further mood dip and lethargy forcing you to reach for another cup to begin the next cycle of adrenalin rush. This vicious cycle messes up your delicate sugar levels in your blood.
Studies have also shown that caffeine affects estrogen levels in women, increasing the risk of hormonal imbalance and altered ovulation. Pregnant women need to be even more careful as caffeine crosses into the placenta and can affect the functions of the fetus as well.
In line with the stress response triggered by caffeine, it diverts energy and attention away from your digestive system. Caffeine also stimulates the stomach to release more Hydrochloric Acid. Morning cup of coffee on an empty stomach is hence disastrous. It reduces the amount of acid available for digestion throughout the day and breaks the natural rhythm of your GI tract.
Apart from the systemic ill-effects, polyphenols contained in coffee (caffeic acid and chloro-genic acid) can damage your DNA make-up, present even in a single cup. Further, high concentrations of these polyphenols may have cancer-causing effects too.
Coffee addiction also has negative psychological effects including raising heart rate, blood pressure, blood glucose, anxiety and also as worse as depression.
Coffee beans, often stored during processing, can become moldy and contaminated mycotoxins. Last but definitely not the least, coffee crops are sprayed with pesticides like glyphosate, which is linked to cancer and have been shown to disrupt human health.
As you may have concluded by now, the fake high of caffeine is really not worth all the trouble it causes to your body. The regular stress response takes a toll on your body and eventually leads to weight gain, insulin resistance, dependency and many more problems.
But how do you quit it? Caffeine is after all a mild drug that causes dependency. The typical withdrawal symptoms like headache, energy slump, lethargy, muscle pain, irritability can all be minimized by managing your blood sugar levels and taking the right supplements. Here is how it works.
Lack of caffeine as a stimulant in your body will cause an energy slump in your body. It is essential that you take the right food that gives your body a steady supply or energy. Converting glucose to energy also requires the right nutrients, vitamins and amino acids. Therefore you should also supplement your low GL diet with all the required supplements.
Slowly your system which was fuelled by adrenalin response will start running on natural processes for energy conversion.
A steady flow of energy also means there will be no more energy slumps in your day. Soon, you will not feel the need to go for that 5 pm coffee cup.
With the right diet, supplements and a deeper understanding of your own body, caffeine can be easily eliminated from your day to day life. Getting rid of this psychoactive drug will clear your way for the other 7 steps in iThrive’s Weight Loss Protocol.
Obesity is defined as a weight that is considered above the normal, desired amount. It can be attributed to many factors. Some of them are junk food, unhealthy routine, lack of exercise, or chronic diseases.
Being obese can be a constant source of criticism. The stereotype that being fat means that you are ugly is completely ridiculous and not true. But, while we fight to keep these stereotypes at bay, we must also consider the serious side effects, health wise, that come with being obese.
The Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) focused on the relation between mortality and obesity. The study showed that the prevalence of obesity has more than doubled since 1980 and is now 5% in children and 12% in adults. These findings show similar global trends. The finding that we should worry about the most is the tripling rate of obesity in young adults and kids. This trend is mainly seen in kids belonging to developing and developed countries. The study shows that an early onset is likely to transform into type 2 diabetes, hypertension and chronic kidney disease.
“A BMI in the 50th to 74th percentiles, within the accepted normal range, during adolescence was associated with increased cardiovascular and all-cause mortality during 40 years of follow-up. it is strongly associated with increased cardiovascular mortality in adulthood”, said a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Obesity in women was linked to higher rates of osteoporosis, breast cancer, arthritis and other complications, A study showed . It also contributed to 40% of their heart problems. Moreover, your chances of developing diabetes goes up by 77% if you are overweight. There are over 200 million obese people in Europe alone, which tells you the extent of this epidemic.
According to Stanford Health Care, it has these long term effects on your body :
High Blood Pressure : Additional fat tissue in the body needs oxygen and nutrients in order to live, which requires the blood vessels to circulate more blood to the fat tissue. This increases the workload of the heart because it must pump more blood through additional blood vessels.
Type 2 Diabetes : Obesity is the major cause of type 2 diabetes. It causes a resistance to insulin, which keeps the blood sugar level high.
Heart Disease : Obesity can cause deposits of fat to build up in the arteries which cause a reduction of blood flow to the heart. This is a major cause for coronary heart disease, atherosclerosis (hardening of the artery) and stroke.
Cancer: Several studies have explored why being overweight or obese may increase cancer risk and growth.
The possible reasons that obesity is linked with cancer include:
-Increased levels of insulin and insulin growth factor-1 (IGF-1), which may help some cancers develop
-Chronic, low-level inflammation, which is more common in people who are obese is linked with an increased cancer risk
-Higher amounts of estrogen produced by fat tissue, which can drive the development of some cancers, such as breast and endometrial cancers
-Fat cells may affect processes that regulate cancer cell growth.
Joint problems: Being overweight or obese can cause the cartilage on the end of your bones to become damaged or worn and this can ultimately lead to stiffness and sometimes swelling in your joint.
Sleep apnea and other sleep related problems: Sleep apnea is a potentially serious sleep disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts. Excess body weight contributes to sleep apnea by causing increased pressure on upper airways, leading to collapse and decreased neuromuscular control from the fatty deposits. These fatty deposits contribute to decreased lung volume and make it more difficult to breathe.
In conclusion, only one thing can be said, even if it’s a long and painful process : there is a road to recovery. Healthy changes in one’s lifestyle can help. Changes such as a healthy diet, plenty of exercise and taking help for your mental problems go a long way. Also, restraining yourself from sugars and caffeine is essential. Obesity is a dangerous epidemic, but with careful and efficient planning, it can be countered effectively.
Food has always been the cornerstone of any regimen that one undergoes to improve his or her health. Yet, we tend to often overlook it as a cure for all the root causes of health problems that we face. That is where functional nutrition comes into the picture.
Functional Nutrition (FN) is defined as the analysis of the molecular way in which food affects the human body. Functional nutrition aims at addressing the imbalances in the body by restoring function through food, lifestyle and supplement interventions.
FN transforms dysfunctioning bodily systems into optimal, functional health. While Functional Nutrition uses food as medicine, it is not just about food, but overall lifestyle change. Instead of prescription of drugs, functional nutrition addresses the root cause of the problem.
FN does this by asking vital questions such as, “Why do you have the problem in the first place?” and “Why has this function been lost?”
It views the individual as a different set of functional cells. FN provides a diet according to that. It supports the normal recovery mechanisms of the body rather than attacking the symptoms or the effect directly. FN stresses that health isn’t only the absence of any illness but the state of immense vitality.
Firstly, let us look at what nutrition means. Nutrition is the intake of food, in consideration of the body’s dietary needs. Good nutrition – adequate, balanced diet, enough intake of water, protection from toxins and toxic thoughts and a proper exercise regimen – all contribute to a healthy body.
When it comes to caring for our body, we focus on masking the symptoms rather than treating the root cause. For example, if a person is overweight, he or she will usually go join a gym for an external weight loss regimen rather than treating the root cause, which is dietary glycemic overload, food sensitivities, inflamed intestine, intestinal permeability or a chronic hormonal disorder like metabolic syndrome, thyroid or diabetes most of the times. Functional Nutrition addresses the root cause of the problem rather than trying to artificially mask the symptoms.
Think of a leaking boat, conventional efforts are like taking a bucket and bailing out the water as it fills up. That’s like working out to lose weight. It's physically and emotionally exhausting and when you stop the water fills up again. That’s why people who reduce or stop their workout become overweight again. The same goes for other efforts like reducing calories and going on ketosis etc. The moment you stop the effort you become overweight again.
Functional nutrition says a normal boat should not fill up with water, so we find the leak and fix it. The boat is then normal again. The boat can have multiple leaks in multiple locations, different boats can have different kinds and sizes of leaks. No matter what the problem is, we can find and fix it. We presented weight gain only as an example, because it's very visible. Even if you aren’t overweight, if you aren’t filled with vitality, motivation and joy your boat is leaking in some way. And we would be honoured to fix it. Because we believe a human life is precious, beautiful and divine.
We stress on the optimal food and way of eating for each person to regulate the normal function of his/her body. The most important thing that it does is realign our relationship with food. With the increased intake of fresh, uncontaminated, unadulterated, organic food our body begins to regain an ability to heal from an injury or illness. It improves our energy drastically and also our satiety.
We emphasise the importance of subjective nutrition choices for you according to your body. For example, by lab testing, we can find out the particular foods that you are allergic to that are causing inflammatory responses within your body. This test would detect if you have an inflammatory condition due to food. You can cure many inflammatory diseases just by eating the right kind of food meant for you and your health.
Consider this example of a 40 year old male patient who came to us with diabetes. His fasting blood sugar would often cross 110 mg/dl and after his meals (postprandial) it was often 140 mg/dl, this was due to his habit of having a small bowl of yogurt (curd) and some ghee after every meal. His IgE antibodies food allergy test showed he was allergic to yeast present in the yogurt and his IgG antibodies food intolerance test showed he was intolerant of milk and milk products and yeast. So his lifelong habit of having a bowl of yogurt and some ghee had created a chronic inflammation in the gut, triggering intestinal permeability.
This in turn caused the immune IgE and IgG antibodies to trigger a systemic inflammation which led to elevated cortisol levels, which led to elevated blood sugar, which led to diabetes and was going to lead towards cancer had we not done the blood work.
If you recall the leaky boat example, having yogurt and ghee was the leak. Which he easily fixed by giving up the habit, we taught him how to make a satisfying low saturated fat and low glycemic load alternative to the yogurt and the ghee. Next was to take out all the water that had come into the boat, chronic inflammation, leaky gut and diabetes. We managed to reverse this completely in 3 months, with key support molecules taken as supplements, just in time for his 41st birthday. And he reported 15 kgs of weight loss and better sleep, vitality, clarity and positive mood. He also managed to double his turnover in his monthly business in just 3 months of clear mindful time.
Functional Nutrition is the future of healthcare, not because it’s new or fancy, but because it brings us back to the foundation of what healthcare should be about — the needs of the person.
The blog covers functional nutrition, chronic conditions, gut health, hormonal health, autoimmune conditions, sleep, mental health, and root cause analysis. Every article is written to help you understand what is actually happening inside your body, not just manage symptoms.
All articles are written by the content writers in collaboration with iThrive's clinical team of functional nutritionists, guided by the same methodology used in the ALIVE programme. The content is rooted in functional medicine and real clinical experience, not generic health advice.
No. The blog is an educational resource to help you understand your health more deeply. If you are experiencing symptoms or managing a chronic condition, a personalized Root Cause Analysis with a functional nutritionist is the right next step.
Book a Root Cause Analysis. For ₹2,500, a dedicated functional nutritionist will assess 60+ blood markers using optimal ranges and explain exactly what is driving your condition. It is the natural next step after reading about what might be happening in your body.
Yes. Many of our readers come with existing diagnoses and find the blog helps them understand why their condition developed and what their body actually needs. The articles are designed to give you clarity, not replace the guidance of a practitioner.
