Nightshade-Free & Low FODMAP Pozole

I am sensitive to nightshades and high amounts of FODMAPs, so I wanted to recreate a pozole recipe without nightshade with low levels of  FODMAPs.  And why I decided to recreate this traditional dish using a pressure cooker, which helps with adding more flavor to dishes.

Let me know how this works for you!

Ingredients

• 4 cups of dried Hominy or 8 cups of canned and drained hominy (you can decrease this amount to decrease your carbohydrate intake if appropriate - I normally use 1/2 of this amount) 
• 4 lbs of Pork shoulder, diced into 1 ½ inch cubes
• 2 T of minced garlic chives
• 4 t of dried mexican oregano
• 4-6 whole bay leaves
• 1 pig feet (pig feet may be hard to find, so worries if you don't use it; you can use bone marrow or skip this ingredient)
• Bone broth
• Sea Salt

The following are ingredients you can add after cooking your pozole:

• Crushed dried oregano
• Sea salt
• Minced jalapeno (you can share this ingredient with people who can eat nightshades)
• Minced onions soaked in lemon juice (not a low FODMAP food, but you can offer this ingredient to other people who are not sensitive to FODMAPs)
• Chopped cilantro
• Sliced radishes (fermented ones work too)
• Slices of lime or lemon to squeeze over this stew

Directions

1. Soaked the dried hominy overnight in at least 12-15 cups of water
2. The next morning, braise the pork shoulder pieces in your pressure cooker.  
3. Pour soaked hominy (if you are using the already cooked canned version, don’t add the hominy until the end), garlic chives, oregano, bay leaves, pig feet, bone broth, and sea salt into mixture.
4. Add enough bone broth or water so that it covers mixture (this can be about 6-8 cups). If you are using bone broth, feel free to use more.  
5. Cook at a high pressure for 40 - 45 minutes minutes.  Then turn off heat. Allow the pressure  to cool down before removing the cover.  
6. Uncover the the pressure cooker when the pressure has been completely released
7. Remove the garlic cloves with a small sieve or just be careful not to eat them if you have trouble digesting them when serving yourself a bowl of this delicious stew.

The following can serve about 8 people.  

Easy & Delicious Salmon Salad Recipe

Ingredients

• 8 ounces of wild caught roasted salmon, canned salmon, or sushi grade salmon.

• 1 cup of shredded carrots (lightly steamed them for easier digestion) or pickled diced carrots

• 1 cup of diced cucumbers

• 8-10 Green olives sliced in quarters

• 2 stalks of green onion (only the green part)

• 4 romaine lettuce

• ½ of avocado, sliced

Dressing

• 2 T extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) or avocado oil (avocado oil is less favorable than EVOO and goes better with seasoned rice vinegar)

• 1 T lemon juice or seasoned rice vinegar

• A dash to 1/8 t sea salt (canned salmon may already be salted enough, so adjust accordingly - meaning add the minimum amount).

Additional stuffing or side entree for wraps

1 Cup of vermicelli noodles, cooked and drained

1 cup of sushi rice

Roasted potatoes with vinaigrette

Directions

1. In a medium size bowl, place salmon in it

2. With a fork smash your canned salmon so that it pulls apart (with sushi grade salmon or roasted salmon, you may want to use a sharp knife to dice it into 1/4 inch pieces).

3. Add carrots, cucumbers, olives to salmon to mix together.

4. In a small bowl, mixed dressing ingredients together.

5. Pour dressing over mixed ingredients and mixed together.

6. If you would like to add vermicelli noodles or sushi to this dish, you can add ¼ cup of noodles onto each lettuce wrap or leave it as side dish.

7. Divide mixed ingredients into four parts and place each part into a lettuce.

8. Top each lettuce wrap with green onions and two slices of avocado.

As an appetizer, this recipe serves 4 people.  As a main dish, this recipe serves 1-2.

Pressured Cooked Chicken Soup

3 lbs of chicken thighs

5-6 cups of bone broth or water

2 medium sized carrots or 1.5 cups of it, chopped

2 celery sticks or 2 cups of it, chopped

1/4 cup onions, chopped*

1/4lb or 1 cup of green beans, chopped

3 crushed and peeled cloves of garlic*

2 bay leaves

boquet garni

A bush of parsley

3 t of sea salt

apple cider vinegar (ACV) or lemon juice 

1. Salt the chicken and place on pan in low medium heat.  Braised Chicken until skin is golden.  
2. Add bone broth or water until chicken is covered in it. Then add bay leaves, bouquet garni, parsley, and garlic. 
3. Pressure cook chicken at high for about 8-10 minutes. Then turn off the heat and allow to cool so that you can remove the cover.
4. After removing the cover, remove meat from pot to cool down.  Remove bouquet garni and parsley or sieve it out.  
5. Add the carrots, green beans, onions to liquid soup.
6. Pull chicken apart and add back to the liquid in the pot.
7. Recover the pressure cooker.
8. Cook the mixture at medium heat at low pressure for another 1 minutes .  Allow to cool if you like vegetables with a soft texture or immediately cool the pressure cooker by pouring water on your pressure cooker or use the pressure release valve on your instant pot - depending on the type of pressure cooker you use, and uncover ASAP for crunchy vegetables.  
9. I like to add lemon juice or ACV to each serving size of this dish. Normally I use a 1/2 lemon or a teaspoon of ACV for each serving of 4 ounces of meat in each soup. 

This dish will make about 6 serving sizes as a main course. 

*If you are on a low FODMAP diet, take this ingredient out of the recipe or remove it after cooking.  You can used infused olive oil with garlic or onion for flavoring as well.  

Stress Management For PMS - An Holistic Approach

1. Eat a Nutrient Dense Diet To Avoid Nutrient Deficiencies.  

Nutrient deficiencies are associated with increase risk of PMS symptoms, so make sure you are eating a diverse amount of fresh fruit, vegetables, and animal meat to maximize your intake in nutrients. Women with dietary intake low in vitamin E, essential fatty acids (EFAs), selenium, calcium, glutathione, and vitamin D have been shown to have a higher risk in experiencing PMS symptoms.  

Food Sources For Vitamin E

Spinach, Almonds, Chard, avocados, wheat germ, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, and sunflower seeds.  

Food Sources For EFAs

Wild caught salmon, mackerel, egg yolks, herring, sardines, anchovies, cod liver oil, tuna, walnuts, flax seeds, chia seeds, and hemp seeds.  

Food Sources For Selenium (caveat: the amount of selenium in food depends on the soil it was grown in) 

Brazil nuts, halibut, sardines, wild caught salmon, grass-fed beef, beef liver, chicken liver, and pasture raised eggs.  

Food Sources For Calcium 

Raw milk, broccoli, sardines with bones, watercress, kale, cheese, bok chop, okra, and yogurt.  

Food Sources For Glutathione

I have written an article that goes more into depth about food sources for glutathione here.  

2. Get Light and Experiment with Eating Dark Chocolate

Direct natural light and the polyphenols in dark chocolate induce the release of Nitric Oxide (NO), which promotes blood vessels to dilate.  The caveat with direct natural light is to avoid sunburns and the caveat with dark chocolate is that if you are sensitive to theobromine (a stimulant in dark chocolate), try experimenting with how much works for you and maybe eating it earlier than later in the day to avoid negative effects on your sleep.  I talk more about theobromine in the following video.  

My last thoughts on light and dark chocolate is that at the end of the menstrual cycle, estrogen takes a dip. Since estrogen works as an antioxidant and blood vessel dilator, I am guessing that getting direct natural light and the polyphenols in dark chocolate may function to subsidize this dip in estrogen levels for people with nutrient deficiencies. This is a guess and still needs to be tested, but I wanted to share my thoughts in case any researchers are looking for new hypothesis to test. Hint, hint!

You can read the following articles for more information about direct natural light and dark chocolate.  

Why Direct Natural Light And What To Do After Getting Sunburned

Dark chocolate For Stress Management

3. Practice Meditation and Yoga

Practicing meditation and yoga can help manage stress help and with emotional self-regulation, so I am not surprise that research has shown that both practices can help manage PMS symptoms.  

You can listen to some of my meditation recordings on my website and Youtube.

These tips are part of a longer project I am doing on Instagram, called 30 Days Of Stress Management. If you want more stress management tips, check out past blog posts or my Instagram account at Riosstrength.  There is a link to my Instagram account at the bottom of each page on my website, if you cannot find my account through my handle.  

Got Questions?

If you would like more help, I offer private sessions in San Francisco and online. For a free consultation, please email me.   In May, I plan to offer an integrative group programming (movement, meditation, and holistic nutrition).  Click here for more information. 

References

Nutritional Deficiencies

1. Fathizadeh, S., Amani, R., Haghighizadeh, M. H., & Hormozi, R. (2016). Comparison of serum zinc concentrations and body antioxidant status between young women with premenstrual syndrome and normal controls: A case-control study. International Journal of Reproductive Biomedicine, 14(11), 699–704.
2. Chocano-Bedoya, P. O., Manson, J. E., Hankinson, S. E., Willett, W. C., Johnson, S. R., Chasan-Taber, L., … Bertone-Johnson, E. R. (2011). Dietary B vitamin intake and incident premenstrual syndrome. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 93(5), 1080–1086. http://doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.110.009530
3. Chocano-Bedoya, P. O., Manson, J. E., Hankinson, S. E., Johnson, S. R., Chasan-Taber, L., Ronnenberg, A. G., … Bertone-Johnson, E. R. (2013). Intake of Selected Minerals and Risk of Premenstrual Syndrome. American Journal of Epidemiology, 177(10), 1118–1127. http://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kws363
4. Saeedian Kia, A., Amani, R., & Cheraghian, B. (2015). The Association between the Risk of Premenstrual Syndrome and Vitamin D, Calcium, and Magnesium Status among University Students: A Case Control Study. Health Promotion Perspectives, 5(3), 225–230. http://doi.org/10.15171/hpp.2015.027
5. Deutch, B. (1996). Painful menstruation and low intake of n-3 fatty acids. Ugeskr Laeger. Jul 15;158(29):4195-8.
6. Sohrabi, N. Kashanian, M. Ghafoori, S.S. Malakouti, S.K. (2013). Evaluation of the effect of omega-3 fatty acids in the treatment of premenstrual syndrome: "a pilot trial". Complementary Therapies in Medicine. Jun;21(3):141-6. doi: 10.1016/j.ctim.2012.12.008. Epub 2013 Jan 16.
7. Shaik, M. M., & Gan, S. H. (2015). Vitamin Supplementation as Possible Prophylactic Treatment against Migraine with Aura and Menstrual Migraine. BioMed Research International, 2015, 469529. http://doi.org/10.1155/2015/469529
8. Dadkhah, H., Ebrahimi, E., & Fathizadeh, N. (2016). Evaluating the effects of vitamin D and vitamin E supplement on premenstrual syndrome: A randomized, double-blind, controlled trial. Iranian Journal of Nursing and Midwifery Research, 21(2), 159–164. http://doi.org/10.4103/1735-9066.178237

Direct Natural Light and Dark Chocolate

1. Einon, D. (1997).The influence of ambient light and menstrual status on the moods of a nonclinical population of young women. Psychosomatic Medicine. Nov-Dec;59(6):616-9.
2. Mendelsohn, M.E. Karas, R.H. (1994). Estrogen and the blood vessel wall. Current Opinion Cardiology. 9(5):619-26.
3. Aan Het Rot, M. Miloserdov, K. Buijze, A.L.F. Meesters, Y.  Gordijn, M.C.M. (2017). Premenstrual mood and empathy after a single light therapy session. Psychiatry Research. Jun 16;256:212-218. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2017.06.052. [Epub ahead of print]
4. Magrone, T., Russo, M. A., & Jirillo, E. (2017). Cocoa and Dark Chocolate Polyphenols: From Biology to Clinical Applications. Frontiers in Immunology, 8, 677. http://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2017.00677
5. Wan, Y. Vinson, J.A. Etherton, T.D. Proch, J. Lazarus, S.A. Kris-Etherton, P.M. (2001). Effects of cocoa powder and dark chocolate on LDL oxidative susceptibility and prostaglandin concentrations in humans. Am J Clin Nutr. Nov;74(5):596-602.

Meditation And Yoga

1. Wu, W.L.  Lin, T.Y. Chu, I.H. Liang, J.M. (2015). The acute effects of yoga on cognitive measures for women with premenstrual syndrome. Journal of Alternative Complementary Medicine. Jun;21(6):364-9. doi: 10.1089/acm.2015.0070. Epub 2015 May 12.
2. Bharati, M. (2016). Comparing the Effects of Yoga & Oral Calcium Administration in Alleviating Symptoms of Premenstrual Syndrome in Medical Undergraduates. Journal of Caring Sciences, 5(3), 179–185. http://doi.org/10.15171/jcs.2016.019
3. Tsai, S.-Y. (2016). Effect of Yoga Exercise on Premenstrual Symptoms among Female Employees in Taiwan. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 13(7), 721. http://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph13070721

Day #25: Expressing Your Thoughts For Stress Management

Today, I would like to talk about expressing your thoughts for stress management.  Most likely, you feel busy.  And I going to assume that living an on the go life is more accepted than slowing down to allow self-reflection in your world, but by not allowing yourself space and time to listen to your thoughts, it can be easy to wait until you fall asleep to process your thoughts - which can make it hard to go asleep and stay asleep.  To improve your sleep, which is super important for so many reasons, I highly recommend you create a time and place to process your thoughts before you go asleep.  You can do this by writing or expressing your thoughts to someone who knows how to listen - this person could be a therapist or really thoughtful and mindful friend.  

For example today,  I went to a class on vlogging (blogging for videos) like a boss with Amy Schmittauer from www.vloglikeaboss.com.  I had time to speak with Amy who really listened to me. From this conversation, I realized the obstacle for me that I was trying to solve was actually the way I was thinking about it.  By Amy holding space and allowing myself to express these thoughts, I was able to resolve my issue and reduce my stress stress levels.   

Got Questions?

If you have more questions, I offer private sessions in San Francisco and online. For a free consultation, please email me.   In May, I plan to offer an integrative group programming (movement, meditation, and holistic nutrition).  Click here for more information. 

Day #19: Body Scanning For Stress Management

Today, I want to talk about body scanning.  Body scans is a yoga practice to help calm the mind and prepare oneself for meditation. It is also a technique to connect with the present moment and a higher being. In today's world, it is easy to get lost in one's thoughts. Practicing body scans can help with moving beyond thoughts and to one's physical self and more.

I recommend doing this practice after exercising or doing some type of movement - like walking, weights, or an asana practice.
You can start with larger parts of body (ex. sensing your legs, trunk, head). Then you can practice opposites (ex. the left leg, right leg; left arm, right arm; left ear and right ear). 

Here are two YouTube video for a meditation I did outdoors at a park in 2015.  I hope to get better audio in the future, so stay posted!

For the next video, The Parrots from Telegraph Hill seem to have traveled to other parts of San Francisco.  And boy, do they like to let everyone know they are around.  For this edition, they fortunately didn't squawk at audible distance, but boy were they having lots fun before this recorded version.  Going with the flow with nature was an opportunity for me to practice mindfulness!

If you have more questions, I offer in private sessions in San Francisco and online. For a free consultation, please email me.  

Day #18: Glycine For Stress Management

Glycine! Oh how I like thee and what was I doing when I avoided you - for the most part - as a vegetarian for 10 years (caveat: there is some glycine in plant food but not enough in plant food when dealing with a lot of stress). Glycine is important for feeling relaxed, getting better sleep, and creating a powerful antioxidant called glutathione. You can it in collagen, which is found in chicken skin or soup, bone broth, organ meat, and more. You can also buy collagen powder and put in a smoothie too. A product I like using because it taste great and comes from grassfed cows is called Vital proteins. If you want more information about glycine, you can search on my website for more reason why you want to use it and recipes that have a ton of glycine in it.