After surviving a week of midterms and too many assignments to count, my arms felt like they were going to fall off and the idea of writing a blog post was the last thing I wanted to do. Luckily my incredible intern at our school clinic was able to fix my sore arm with a couple acupuncture needles, so it was back to the writing for me! I follow a couple blogs and Facebook groups regularly, and lately there were several articles that caught my eye and resonated with me on multiple levels. I felt these would be great articles to share on a Thursday Link Love and expose my readers to some of these posts.
14 Healthier (and vegan friendly!) Halloween treats you can enjoy from the comfort of your home.
This has got to be one of my all-time favourite blogs. Her recipes are simple, allergen-friendly, and I enjoy reading a lot of her personal posts like breaking up her unhealthy, addicting relationship with running, and how to not impose your food views on others. This chocolate pumpkin fudge looks absolutely divine and I plan on making this in the future.
Why You Must Listen to your Body when it Comes to Dietary Habits
Elana is an incredible blogger who tests and re-tests all of her recipes before posting. Lately, I noticed she adding dairy in a lot of her recipes, which was strange as she just wrote a Paleo cookbook. After reading this post, I understand why she made the change after listening to her body and allowing it the foods it needs to stay healthy. For her, grains and sugars are a no, but physically and emotionally dairy agrees with her body and prevents her from feeling deprived. This is why I HATE diets that restrict food groups and have ridiculous rules that everyone must follow. I’d much rather my future patients experiment and find out what foods they are sensitive too. For example, almonds may be super healthy, but maybe this, not gluten, could be source of all their digestive stress. Forcing someone to give up bread when they don’t need to will only cause more harm and daily stress than good. I encourage everyone explore what food they are sensitive and listen to their body when’s its talking.
A Sweet Treat and a Rant All in One
I chose this blog post because I love how Megan so eloquently combined a delicious looking treat with a rant about perfectionism. It’s easy to fall into a trap of eating junk food, it’s also easy to fall into a trap with being too perfect with the food you eat. I like her advice on accepting yourself, and not getting down when slips happen, because hey we’re all human and nobody’s perfect!!!
Which Foods May Be Addictive? The Roles of Processing, Fat Content, and Glycemic Load
I saved the most nerdy but coolest link in my opinion for last. This research paper looked at how qualities of highly processed junk food such as consumption at a high dose (who only eats one cookie or potato chip??) and rapid rate of absorption mimics that of highly addictive drugs. This study further validates the idea that junk food is addictive, and can be thought of like a drug, where users feel better after getting their high (insert bag of chips) before the inevitable crash (blood sugar drops) and then the searching behaviour begins for their next hit (24 hour Sobey’s to the rescue). Just another reason to reach for the veggie sticks over anything that comes in a bag or box at your next party!