Stressors

Today’s post is suitable for those with MS and those who live in the world, generally. Stress is everywhere and it’s worse for us all than we might at first think.

Apologies Shakespeare for paraphasing the start of Sonnet 43:

Sress, how do we love thee? let me count the number of ways (in no particular order)

  • Sugar causes our body to make changes (normalise elevated blood sugar) to get back to a level  playing field (homeostasis). This requirement of extra chemical processes is a stress on our body. Although as the last chocolate brownie post said, if we consciously choose sugar enjoy the experience that can come from it (breaking sweet bread together).
  • sugar, is just one of the addictive substance which all present a psychological aswell as physiological stress for us: We’re no longer choosing that last cookie/insert preferred naughty but nice poison here. Instead we’re in the grasp of something we have no control over.
  • Lack of control in all sorts of arenas can cause our bodies stress.
  • Lack of sleep: I started this post in my head whilst lying awake unable to find sleep. I’d done all the ‘concentrate on your breathing’ and ‘watch intrusive thoughts drift past on a waterway of calm’ but the waterway of calm was more of a babbling brook and had the potential  to reach rushing, Niagran proportions.
  • In this age of 24hr rolling news, with its wails of heightened terror alerts and tales of impending doom every day our body and brain can be forgiven for being in a state of constant arousal. This is fine for short bursts, it allows us to do the living of life.

stressors come in all shapes and sizes.

Our brains can get stuck in the fight, flight or freeze mode (deadline brought forward or an altercation with someone from work are our modern equivalents of a sabre tooth tiger).

Unfortunately, this gives us a permanently elevated cortisol level.

When these stressors come into our life the sympathetic nervous system throws out cortisol as if our lives depended on it. The body can’t spend any time in ‘rest and digest’ mode. Food doesn’t get digested effectively and nutrients aren’t absorbed. Our body is ready for the ‘off’.

These somewhat avoidable states of stress also use up our store of various B vitamins which can further impact on our body’s ability to cope with stress…

Essential maintenance gets pushed to the bottom of the body’s priority list, including essential, unpanicked functioning of our immune system. If we’re stuck in this mode for extended periods of time the immune system can start going a bit postal. Some argue our increased stress levels are contributing to the increase in auto-immune related disorders.

 

When the parasympathetic nervous system is engaged, our body can start spending time and energy repairing and protecting itself.

Both these nervous systems are part of the autonomic nervous system. (We’re a complicated little kit of no instructions, aren’t we?) Mostly, the ANS is in charge of stuff so we don’t have to consciously think about it: like when to start panicking, breathing, sweating and when to get roused into anger or lust.

Stuff we don’t need to have much control over.

But some of it… we can shape.

The jolt of coffee feeling that cortisol produces (a release of adrenaline accompanies caffeine and contributes to many of the cells in the body getting focused. They are undistracted and better able to prime themselves for flight); This feeling can become quite addictive. I’m curious myself whether this might explain some of the interactions in our lives that seemed to erupt from nowhere?

Are some of us addicted to that caffeine free, self produced little buzz of hyper-alertness?

How can we get our bodies under the parasympatheic nervous system’s shielding wing?

Look out for the next installment which explores some of the strategies to get to that calm, healing space most of us visit briefly most days.

Gorgeous gluten free brownies

After speaking to a number of people I feel assured that the batch of dairy and gluten free ginger brownies made recently is worth sharing.

It’s been tricky trying to be mindful of following a reduced sugar diet whilst also testing chocolate brownie recipes (bearing in mind my candida/leaky gut posts of the last few months). Notice my use of the word ‘mindful’. I wouldn’t have made the brownies at all if I were following a strictly low sugar lifestyle 100% of the time.

But, I figure life needs to be considered in the round: making these brownies has given me an excuse to consume more sugar but it also causes me to see the appreciation and enjoyment in people’s faces when they eat the product I’ve made.

I think my soul benefits more from that social interaction than my digestive tract suffers from dealing with its temporarily higher sugar contents!

I’d love to enter into a debate about whether its healthy to use sugar as a reward in society but it seems pretty ingrained and I’m trying to address my ease to fall into argument (it doesn’t make our cells happy but that’s a topic for another post)!

(I’m not an anthropologist or dietician (not even sure how to spell it) so the above statement hasn’t been scientifically verified).

There does seem to be quite a lot of delight seen in people’s faces when they taste these gluten free brownies. Especially when you introduce them as a reduced sugar, vegetable based, gluten and dairy free, sweet treat.

People don’t tend to expect an awful lot with that sort of billing.

 

Ginger and chocolate brownies using sweet potato allows for reduced sugar and serves as the sweet route to one of our five a day!

I’m glad I saw this post online recently. Apart from the sugar you could call this recipe a healthfood 😉

sweetpotato

Ingredients and method:

  • 2x100g slab of dark chocolate
  • 2x eggs
  • 2x teaspoons of vanilla extract
  • 5x balls of ginger in syrup chopped up (from cake making aisle of supermarket)
  • 200g of cooked sweet potato
  • 125g of brown sugar (no need to use special sorts)
  • 100g of gluten free plain flour
  • 100g of coconut oil
  • A pinch of baking powder (less than a ¼ teaspoon)

Optional extras

  • Up to 100g of whatever else you like in brownies; flaked almond, crushed walnuts, brazils and pecans all work.
  • fresh blueberries, dried cranberries soaked in ginger wine
  • A rounded tablespoon of cocoa powder
  • A teaspoon of ginger powder.

 

  • Line a shallow baking tray (eg 26x20cmx3cm depth) with greaseproof paper (some recipes suggest putting the oven on at the start but I don’t like working against the clock) turn it up to 180C (160 fan oven) gas mark 4/350f
  • Get two, big mixing bowls (don’t try doing it all in one bowl, it’ll work but the extra washing up extravagance is worth it). The sweet potato flesh can make the finished brownie quite heavy. I know the point of brownies is that they’re not cake but the finished texture is a little less vegetal lumpen)

FIRST BOWL: break up a pack and a half of the chocolate slabs and spoon the coconut oil on top (exact measurements don’t seem to have been essential: if stuff is a few grams under it doesn’t seem to have mattered). Microwave for a minute or so until the mixture is well on its way to melted.

Add the sweet potato flesh and flour, a pinch of baking powder (ginger and cocoa powder, if using), break up the remaining half bar of chocolate, add that + whatever extras you might be choosing.

SECOND BOWL: add the sugar and eggs and whiskn for a minute or two (so the mix is airy but we’re not looking for meringue consistency).  Our household’s first electric whisk a few months back was a revelation.

Tip the FIRST BOWL,into the SECOND BOWL, stir gently together until well mixed, pour into the lined tray and put in the heated oven for 20 minutes (check at 18 minutes, an overdone brownie is a terrible thing!)

Look out for my chocolate beetroot brownie recipe coming soon.