If you’re like the many do-it-all gals around you, you’ve probably determined that your adrenals are in need of some TLC. So, let’s begin with diet.
Stress can deplete the stores of the minerals magnesium, calcium, zinc, potassium, sodium, and copper from your body’s tissues. Unfortunately, dietary deficiencies in these important minerals are already common because of soil exhaustion, overprocessing of foods, careless cooking habits, and the eating of nutritionally empty junk foods.
To support your adrenal system, be sure to include mineral-rich foods in your diet. Minerally packed foods include all of the richly colored fruits and vegetables: green vegetables, such as broccoli, collards, kale, and mustard greens; the yellow-orange vegetables, such as squash, pumpkin, carrots, and sweet potatoes; and fruits, such as bananas, strawberries, and cantaloupe. Legumes have a high iron content, and fermented soy products like miso and tempeh are rich in copper. Sources of manganese include leafy greens, sea vegetables, whole-grain cereals, nuts, and seeds. Lean red meats, eggs, seafood, pumpkin seeds, and whole grains supply ample amounts of zinc, and are important especially for women.
Seek Out the Sea
The very best food sources of naturally balanced minerals come from the sea. Sea vegetables, sold in dried form in health food stores, provide high amounts of magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, iodine, iron, and other key trace minerals like manganese, chromium, selenium, and zinc. You may not be familiar with sea vegetables, but they should be present in every woman’s pantry because of their extraordinary nutrient content. They are also versatile and can be used as side dishes and condiments.
Hijiki, for example, a sea vegetable that tastes a bit like licorice and looks like tangled black strings, contains significant amounts of both iron and calcium. One-half cup of cooked hijiki is higher in iron content than two eggs and contains almost the same amount of calcium as one-half cup of milk. Sea vegetables are also high in protein. Nori, a nutty-tasting seaweed that comes in sheets and is used with sushi, contains almost 30 percent protein. It can be toasted and crumbled over fish, vegetables, and pasta. I recommend that my clients toast a sheet of nori every morning and crumble it over their whole grain cereal. In addition to being a good source of minerals, sea vegetables like blue-green algae or spirulina, kelp, nori, arame, wakame, hijiki, and sea palms contain a substance called sodium alginate that pulls toxic heavy metals from the system.
The B-complex vitamins, known as the anti-stress vitamins, are crucial during stress. Even a slight lack of vitamin B2 can cause adrenal gland damage. Pantothenic acid is essential to the production of many of the adrenal hormones; it also nourishes the adrenals, and a deficiency of this important B vitamin can cause atrophy of the glands. The best dietary sources of B-complex vitamins are desiccated liver, legumes, blackstrap molasses, and whole grains.
Do be vigilant to verify that anything you eat from the sea came from a clean source, as issues with contamination from heavy metals and more is now a common issue.
TL—Vitamin C
The need for vitamin C has been found to increase dramatically during times of stress, with our bodies needing as much as two and a half times more than normal. Vitamin C-rich fruits and vegetables include citrus fruits, cantaloupe, green peppers, and broccoli.
A surprising number of my clients suffering from adrenal burnout report strong cravings for chocolate. Interestingly, chocolate is a fairly high source of both magnesium and copper, two of the essential minerals required for energy production in the adrenals. Chocolate’s call may indeed be the body crying for nutrients that have been lost because of stress. Obviously, chocolate is a poor choice for magnesium and copper supplementation because it contains large amounts of sugar and saturated fats. When you feel this craving, instead of having some chocolate, try to include more mineral-rich foods in your next meal.
To ensure that the foods you buy don’t lose their vitamin and mineral content during shipping, try to purchase foods that are locally grown. Labels that certify that the produce is organically grown provide good assurance that no pesticides or herbicides have been used in the growing process.
Supplements and Herbals Remedies
We have our adrenal rebuilding diet down, but there’s still a critical component missing—supplements and herbal remedies. We’ll round out this regimen next week.
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