By: Jennifer Brindley RD, LDN

Have you ever heard about how the gut and brain are connected? Well, they are! The gut and brain are connected through the vagus nerve. If our gut doesn’t have the right number of good bacteria within it, it can cause inflammation. The inflammation that’s present can lead to things like a “feeling of depression” in the body and or set up the stage for some type of dis-ease. 

If our current diet is primarily filled with lots of packaged and processed type foods, then it may be safe to say that we could have a lack of good bacteria in our gut.  The problem is that when we eat too many foods that are high in refined sugars this can lead to what is called "leaky gut syndrome." Symptoms of this could be fatigue, digestion problems, bloating and the list goes on...

The great news is we can begin to put good bacteria back into our bodies by way of certain foods and or there are plenty of good probiotics out there but one in...

Sleeping a full 8 hours every night isn't going to result in weight loss by itself but it can help your body from gaining unwanted pounds. When you don't get enough sleep your body produces a hormone called ghrelin  and that is a hormone designed to boost appetite.  Your body also decreases the production of leptin, a hormone that tells you that you are full.  When we put both of these together it can cause an increase in poor habits like late night snacking and uncontrolled portion control.

 There are so many benefits to getting plenty of rest and putting a preventative measure in place to keep these hormones in check can make a difference!

Bananas contain numerous benefits for our bodies! From being a good source of potassium to helping with blood sugar to lifting mood due to the tryptophan within- it can do it all! 

What is tryptophan you wonder? 

Tryptophan is an amino acid that converts to serotonin that can help to boost our mood! Who would’ve thought? 

In addition to boosting our serotonin levels, tryptophan also can help improve our sleep! 

So be sure to eat your bananas and reap the good benefits.

Overcome the sugar habit!

Why is sugar so addictive but yet taste so good?

• Sugar stimulates the dopamine reward center in the brain. Dopamine is the neurotransmitter that makes us feel pleasure. When we eat something very sweet, our brain really likes that and want us to continue doing so. With a repeated pattern of this habit, our own natural dopamine receptors begin to diminish leaving you to rely on sugar and other modes of ‘pleasure’. (hence the addictive quality). We are all born with 5 dopamine receptors with their modes focusing on impulse control, mood, attention, regulation of renal function and locomotion. When we consume copious amounts of sugar, our brain senses that as pleasure because it tastes so good, and the more that we consume, the less natural dopamine we have and then our body has to solely rely on external sources of dopamine to keep getting that ‘pleasure/fix’; aka the sugar. Similarly, to alcoholism, the body starts to rely on sugar...