The perfect spicy warm up for winter, with a touch of nutty macadamia to remind us of Australia and sun. Bulletproof-style coffee is a staple in my diet protocols, and there are a few reasons this type of beverage works for the body. Firstly, when we go off sugar and dairy, we automatically step into a whole new world of the alternatives. But soy and nut-milks are not the only options. In fact, from a metabolic and healing standpoint, they don’t have much to offer. Instead of just defaulting to ‘milk substitutes’, let’s work from a more advanced strategy – dietary fats, which will help us address a number underlying issues and see a whole spectrum of benefits.
Benefit 1.
By adding grass-fed butter, nut butter, coconut oil, ghee, or even heavy cream to our coffee we help slow the release of caffeine, and stabilise the output on the adrenals. Effectively this helps us to ‘more gently’ consumer caffeinated beverages. This is a key lifestyle move for anyone with chronic stress, hormone imbalance, autoimmunity or adrenal fatigue.
Benefit 2.
Fats helps to signal the hormone leptin, which is a satiety hormone. So we feel more full. The calories in fats will also give us some clean slow burning fuel, giving us a two-fold metabolic boost: energy and appetite both are stabilised.
Benefit 3.
Fats are actually quite sweet, so the pleasure factor and enjoyment is completely met, without sugar. When I’m advising on dietary changes, the biggest fear is that it will be restrictive. When my patients realise that they can eat creamy decadent foods, it totally changes the game.
Why not dairy.
In the Mind Body Reset we give up all dairy except butter for 30 days. The reason is that dairy is linked to a number of inflammatory and digestive health issues. And the calcium story is not all that we think it is. Dairy consumption in many studies is linked to hormone disruption, cancer, IBS, skin breakouts, auto-immunity, constipation and poor mental health. Dr Mark Hyman, a leader in the field of Functional Medicine, is also an advocate for dairy free
Why not soy.
After learning about all the reported benefits of soy in my nutritional studies such as anti-cancer, great for menopause and so forth, it honestly took me a while to understand the bigger picture. And I only got this fully when I went 100% off soy myself and healed the massive hormone imbalance it had caused. Soy isoflavones are estrogenic, meaning they can attach to our own estrogen receptor and exert 25% the activity of real estrogen. This sounds like a good idea if you’re low in estrogen, but soy is in so many foods that anyone who consumes it is basically being medicated with a hormone pill. Even children and babies. The impact of daily or even infrequent soy can actually be devastating, and contribute to estrogen dominance, a dangerous imbalance of aggressive estrogen in the body. To learn more about the impact of soy sign up for my special Mindful Hormones 2 part webinar
Changing your coffee or chai ingredients is one simple way you can start to improve your health and promote your body’s natural healing. Hormones are messengers in the body, responsible for all communication near and far. We have to consider how what we are eating is impacting their ability to communicate.
To learn more join me for the next Mind Body Reset and be sure to sign up for my newsletter and get your bonus Beauty Fuel ebook to stay in the loop of upcoming special webinars, recipes, live workshops and events.
Here’s a recipe for Macadamia Butter Chai to support your hormones and ease us in to winter.
Ingredients.
- 2 cups unsweetened natural almond milk
- 2 heaped tablespoons Prana Chai
- 3 tbs. grass-fed butter
- 2 tbs. macadamia butter
- 1 tsp Maca powder (superfood powder from Peru for adrenal and hormone support)
Method.
- Heat almond milk in a sauce pan, then stir in chai.
- Steep for 3-5 mins then pour through strainer.
- Place in blend with butter, maca and macadamia butter. Blend for 15 or so seconds until creamy.
- Pour into 2 mugs and enjoy!
Yours in shining health,
Sita
