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Over the years I have occasionally worked with people that have told me they cannot afford to buy high quality, organic food, yet I have noticed that they are driving fancy cars, wearing designer clothing or they are telling me that they just bought a flat-screened TV and home audio system with surround sound for their vacation home. In these cases, clearly it is not about affordability, but about choice. How frequently does one see BMWs or Mercedes lined up at McDonalds? Perhaps in these cases I have not done an adequate job of explaining why, for example, grass-fed beef is so much healthier than grain-fed, and the real difference that food choice can make over time to pain levels, and disease processes. Perhaps I have not explained that one can't wash off all the pesticides, as the soil has been sprayed too, so the pesticides are taken up by the plant. Maybe with more education, these people will decide to afford healthy food.

That said, many of us live on a fixed income, and in these difficult economic times, trying to eat healthy and save money can be a challenge, as often the cheapest foods are the most processed ones, and therefore the least good for us. Seems strange to me that salted butter is cheaper than unsalted butter, and that powdered milk is cheaper than the liquid stuff that is fresh from the cow. Hopefully in time, as more and more people become aware that the quality of the food we eat has a direct impact on our health, and more of us demand whole food grown or raised without chemicals, the prices will come down. In the mean time, here are some tips that will hopefully prove helpful.

• Plan, plan, plan, plan. Plan meals based on what is in season, and create a shopping list from the menus. Buy only what you need based on your meal plan.  This reduces wasted food.
• Know what you are going to have for dinner tomorrow, so you can prepare as needed. (Soak legumes/grains etc.)
• Shop when you are full.  We tend to buy more when we are hungry.
• Cook big batches of food, and bring the left-overs for lunch the next day to save on meals out.
• Skip the prepared foods, pre-cut foods. Prepared food often costs twice as much as the raw, whole ingredients.
• Go to farmer's markets to buy LOCAL, in season produce. Even if the produce is not organic, freshly picked produce has far more nutrition than organic produce that has travelled for a few days, and sat on the grocery store shelf for a week. Also, many farmers do farm organically, but have decided not to pay for the expensive organic certification. So, we can get top quality food without the organic price tag. AND we get to know the farmer that is growing our food.
• Buy whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds in bulk from the bulk bins, when on sale.
• Choose GRASS-FED or FREE-RANGE animal products over organic, if you can't afford organic and grass-fed.
• If you must make a choice between organic produce and quality animal products like butter, free-range meat and poultry and eggs, choose the quality animal products, since animal foods concentrate the toxins. Conventional butter contains 20 times more pesticides than organic butter does. Buy what you can in bulk for extra savings, and freeze. Buy half a grass-fed cow, for example, or join a meat coop. Butter can be frozen, so buy lots when on sale.
• Buy whole free-range poultry with the skin on. Generally cheaper than buying skinless or cut up.
• Buy a Community Supported Agriculture share (CSA) – you pay a fee and get a weekly box of fresh, local produce during the growing season.
• Grow as much of your own food as possible, pesticide-free, of course! This reconnects us to the land, and is very useful for teaching kids where our food comes from. Nothing tastes better than a home-grown tomato! Even small window gardens can provide fresh herbs for cooking which can save us money.
• Waste nothing. Chicken carcasses and beef bones can be turned into stock, along with those left-over veggies, and the other vegetable scraps can be composted to help our gardens grow.
• Buy too much cream or milk and can't drink it before it goes bad? Ferment it – turn it into cultured cream (put a tablespoon or two of plain yogurt into a jar of cream, sit on counter for a day or two), kefir or yogurt which greatly enhances nutrition, and extends shelf life.
• Soak dried legumes like black beans, kidney beans, chick peas etc. – cheaper and healthier than buying canned. This does not much take time to do – just planning to start soaking early enough before you need to cook.
• Don't buy boxed breakfast cereals, crackers, rice cakes, unsprouted bread. Spend the money on rolled oats, steel cut oats, millet or other whole grains to make hot cereal if you like cereal in the morning.
• Don't buy juice, soda pop, sweet beverages. Drink filtered tap water instead.
• Don't buy potato chips, cheesies, cookies, puddings, fruity yogurts and other sweet, processed unhealthy snacks, even if the label does say organic. Save your money and your health.
• Eat smaller meals, making sure they include enough protein and quality fat to be filling. For many (except protein types who may need more) 3oz of meat per meal should be adequate. If you get hungry between meals, play with your food ratios.  Most people last longer between meals by cutting out the starch altogether. For example, most will be hungry sooner if they eat a piece of chicken, some broccoli, and some roast potatoes, than if they ate only the chicken and the broccoli.   You will have less need to snack, cutting down on costs.
• Plan your snacks, making sure they contain some protein. A hard-boiled egg and a tomato brought from home is cheaper than going out for a muffin, and you won't be hungry in an hour.
• At local harvest time, consider buying in bulk and preserving food through fermenting, drying, and freezing, to reduce higher shopping bills in the winter due to food being shipped from great distances. Fermenting adds nutrition, and drying preserves nutrition as long as the foods are not dried too hot.  Dried foods can be rehydrated if desired before consuming. And making your own beef jerky, salmon jerky etc. provides you with healthy protein snacks, and means you can control the ingredients, as the store-bought versions are not only expensive but full of chemicals.
• If you can't afford to buy all organic produce, choose based on pesticide use. Here is a list of the produce that is sprayed the most:
  • Peaches
  • Apples
  • Bell peppers
  • Celery
  • Nectarines
  • Strawberries
  • Cherries
  • Lettuce
  • Grapes
  • Pears

We pay for convenience, so to save money we need to put in the time to plan, locate, prepare our food. The other benefit, besides a more balanced lifestyle, is a greater appreciation and reverence for our food and where it comes from. And in the long run, the money spent on eating healthy will be more than saved in health bills later. Considering how much money many people spend on medical drugs and procedures, and how much quality of life is compromised from ill health, can one really afford NOT to spend the money on good quality food?

If you want to search for other posts by title or by topic, go to www.wellnesstips.ca.

Related tips:
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Improving nutrition by staying out of the grocery store
Choose local and save the world!
Food, our raw material
Conventional vs organic vs pasture fed meat, poultry, eggs and dairy
Processed food is taking over our supermarkets

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Insomnia affects 1 in 4 people, and can have significant affects not only on one's enjoyment of life, but also on one's health.

First of all, I want to thank every one of you that took the time to respond to my survey – I am so very grateful. Your insights are very valuable indeed and have given me a lot to think about.

Those of you that know me may be wondering how I can possibly give advice on the topic of insomnia, as this is the major ongoing issue that I struggle with and have not personally resolved to my satisfaction. I know first hand how difficult it is to deal with. It is as if the body has completely forgotten how to fall asleep, which seems absurd to those that don’t have this problem. Sure, we all go through rough times where problems keep us awake, but I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about lying awake night after night, even if there is no major problem to mull. Or waking up in the middle of the night and being unable to fall back asleep again. Needless to say, this hugely impacts how one feels during the day, and with too many days in a row with little or no sleep, it becomes very difficult to function. Some insomniacs actually sleep, but do not feel refreshed at all in the morning. It becomes very understandable why insomniacs rely on caffeine to get through the day, and on sleeping pills or alcohol to sleep, neither of which is a solution to the cause of the problem, and may instead make the underlying situation worse. Alcohol disrupts sleep patterns, and sleeping pills can be very addictive and can create other problems in the body. After a while, sleeping pills stop working.

Although insomnia certainly does affect men, it seems to affect women more frequently, and often becomes a problem in peri-menopause/menopause when hormone function changes, although it can happen at other times in one’s life. I think women suffer more frequently, because hormonally women are more complicated than men, and it doesn’t take much to throw the hormone balance off. And not sleeping has very serious health consequences, impairing organ function, making one more susceptible to heart disease, depression, not to mention the increased possibility for accidents due to daytime drowsiness.

Most insomniacs have probably tried these common solutions:

• No caffeine past noon (or none at all, if possible)
• Plan what needs to be done for the following day and write down an action plan so you don't worry about it
• Address problems and plan action steps so you don't worry about them in bed
• Get some exercise during the day
• Turn off the TV/computer an hour before bed
• Remove TV and computers from the bedroom
• Meditation
• Breathing exercises
• Hot bath before bed
• Turn down the temperature in the bedroom
• Black-out drapes so bedroom is completely dark
• Eye mask
• Lights out by 10pm
• Use a light box in the morning once up
• Comfortable mattress and pillow (feather pillows have less allergens)
• White noise (fan?)
• Read something light/inspirational or listen to relaxing music to wind down before bed
• Protein snack before bed (amino acid tryptophan aids sleep)
• Turn off the breaker to the bedroom to remove electromagnetic fields
• Warm full-fat milk if you are not sensitive to it, before bed (amino acid tryptophan aids sleep)
• Camomile tea (mixed with lemon balm can be good)
• Valerian Root
• Wear socks to bed
• Comfy headphones with binaural beats to bring brain waves down to delta
• Keep a sleep schedule – same bedtime and wake time every day including weekends

Often insomnia is caused by another problem such as chronic pain or sleep apnea, and won’t be adequately resolved until the underlying issue is addressed.

The suggestions above address a variety of potential causes of primary insomnia. Circadian-rhythm stress is quite common these days as we tend to keep artificial lights on at night, suppressing melatonin, which is the hormone that is activated by darkness and helps us sleep. Turning the lights out by 10pm, having black-out drapes, turning off computers and TVs, and keeping to a sleep schedule can make a big difference for some. Using a light box in the morning may also help regulate one’s circadian rhythms by emphasizing the difference between light and darkness.

Others (particularly protein types) wake up in the middle of the night when blood sugar levels drop too low, which is why a protein or fatty snack before bed can help. Also, the amino acid tryptophan which aids in serotonin production and sleep, comes from protein sources. Carbs before bed will more likely cause an insulin spike, driving down blood sugar a few hours later, creating a bigger problem. Alcohol before bed would also be counter-productive, as alcohol is sugar.

Prolonged stress of any nature (psychological, nutritional, physical – like pain, chronic illness, lack of sleep, relationship issues, money problems etc.) may eventually lead to adrenal fatigue, which impacts most hormones of the body, as particularly the sex hormones will be sacrificed to make the stress
hormone, cortisol, to help the body cope with the stress. (This is why often the true cause of hypothyroidism and fertility problems may be adrenal fatigue). If you have significant sleep problems that are not resolving with the above suggestions, get your hormones like cortisol, DHEA, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, melatonin, growth hormone, and thyroid tested with either a 24-hour urine test or a circadian saliva test through a functional medicine doctor or possibly a naturopathic physician. That way, once the hormone picture is known, appropriate treatment can be decided upon. Emotional issues often underlie adrenal issues and sleep problems, so getting psychological help, or using NLP, EFT or whatever technique works for you may make all the difference. Scheduling down time each day, or better yet, a relaxing vacation my be exactly what is needed. Recovering from adrenal fatigue can take well over a year, so do not expect a quick fix, but hopefully the treatment protocols will get you sleeping again in the meantime.

If you want to search for other posts by title or by topic, go to www.wellnesstips.ca.

Related tips:
Light pollution is messing with our hormones
Melatonin, our rest and repair hormone
Sleep apnea, snoring, and a lack of sleep
Adrenal fatigue
Cortisol, our stress hormone
How hormones, neurotransmitters and steroids work
Mind and body, psyche and soma