Dairy Free & Gluten Free Muffins Recipe!

There is no longer any reason to skip breakfast! Running short on time? Here is a dairy free and gluten free muffins recipe to help you stay on track with your nutritional goals during those days when you just don’t seem to have the time!

Ingredients:

– 1/4 Cup Almond Flour
– 1 Egg
– 1 Tsp Coconut Oil
– 1/2-1 Tsp Cinnamon
– 1/8-1/4 Tsp Baking Powder
– Pinch of salt
– 2-3 Xylitol Packets
– Filler of choice (Some examples might be: 10 blueberries or 1/4 cup chopped ham & 1 tsp goat cheese. If you choose a more savory filler like ham, you can leave out the cinnamon.)

Mix all ingredients into a coffee mug, microwave* for 75 seconds and enjoy!

*Though we do not usually condone microwaves, we are realistic and would much rather you have this healthy recipe at hand than have to run through the quickest drive through on your way to work or children’s school!

By Mila McManus MD|2014-07-31T12:09:36-06:00February 11th, 2013|Recipes|

Cleaning VS Building and Repair

Welcome to 2013! Have you considered your goals for this year? Education? Lose Weight? Find a Partner? Get a Job? Volunteer?

Did you know that your body has several goals in mind? Is it surprising after the holidays that your body wants a good CLEANING on the inside? And what about REPAIRING all the damage done from lack of sleep, stress, poor diet and injuries? Finally, part of staying alive and aging gracefully is rebuilding. Your body replaces and rebuilds in many ways, for example, our skin is replaced about every 35 days.

So coming from your nutritionist, it is no surprise to have me say that what you eat will provide the primary tools for your body to do what it needs to do this year. That is because our food is what will allow your body to accomplish the goals of CLEANING, REPAIRING and REBUILDING. So which foods do which jobs?

Plant foods, especially and primarily vegetables and fruits do the work of cleansing the body. While they do contain many vitamins and minerals, plant fibers are difficult for the human body to break down and digest and it is this very quality that allows these foods to serve as an inner brillo pad, scrubbing and removing accumulated toxins and refuse from the body. This is one of the reasons most people feel very good initially after a cleansing, detoxifying vegetable focused diet because of the cleansing effect. It energizes, cleans and lifts the body. For the same reason, very few succeed with vegetarian or vegan diets because there are no significant building and repairing nutrients in a diet made up only of plant foods. Eventually, the body is unable to repair or build and symptoms reflect it.

It is important to understand that your body needs more than just cleaning. It also routinely needs to BUILD and REPAIR. Vegetables and fruits cannot offer the nutrients needed to build and repair. Only protein and fat can be used to build and repair which includes making new cells, new hormones and new enzymes, for example. Your ability to heal the body, stay youthful in appearance, have beautiful skin, restore muscle or bone and have a strong immune system will require high quality animal proteins and healthy, natural, undamaged fats to accomplish these functions.

Using this information, you can see that there are times in life where cleansing and detoxification would warrant a diet focused on vegetables while reducing protein and fats temporarily to allow the body to cleanse. Our Total Body Cleanse is an example of an approach to cleansing in a safe and effective manner. When we have injury or illness (the need to repair) or are working to build muscle for athletic endeavors and stay healthy during normal daily activities and stresses, it is essential that the diet include a balance of animal protein, undamaged natural fats and good carbohydrates in the form of vegetables and fruits. Our recommendations toward a cave man or paleo type of dietary path will provide exactly this. Eat Well and Live Well in the New Year!

By Mila McManus MD|2013-01-14T21:56:13-06:00January 7th, 2013|NANCY’S NUTRITIONAL NUGGET|

Adrenal Fatigue

The Importance of Cortisol When Addressing Adrenal Fatigue

When thinking about adrenal fatigue, let’s start at the beginning with your adrenal glands. The adrenal glands produce many hormones, including cortisol. Cortisol modulates your immune system, protects your body during times of emotional or physical stress, and sustains your blood sugar and blood pressure. You would die very quickly without cortisol. Cortisol production varies depending on the body’s demand for it. When you catch a cold, cortisol production will increase to stimulate your immune system and fight that infection. Similarly, when you are under severe emotional stress, your body will demand more cortisol to cope with the effects of that stress. Cortisol is also an anti-inflammatory hormone, your natural Advil, if you will.

Adrenal fatigue usually occurs when a person is constantly demanding high amounts of cortisol from their adrenal glands due to chronic stress, chronic pain, allergies and other illness. Your adrenal glands aren’t made to produce at high capacity for long periods of time, so when your body is constantly demanding cortisol, your adrenal glands will eventually burn out. Other factors that compound the issue include sleep deprivation, untreated sleep apnea, food allergies and sensitivities, nutritional deficiencies and toxic overload (such as with artificial sweeteners, colors, flavors, preservatives, pesticides and pharmaceutical drugs). When adrenal fatigue sets in, the adrenal glands might produce, let’s say, half as much as your body is demanding, which leads to a vicious cycle because they can’t give you what you need to fight whatever you’re fighting, so the problems get worse, and then you need even more cortisol. When you have adrenal fatigue, it takes longer to recover from illnesses and you might also have low blood sugar episodes (symptoms include headaches, shakiness, lethargy, sweating, dizziness, behavior changes), and even low blood pressure symptoms such as light- headedness upon standing. Moreover, aches and pains may develop out of nowhere. Allergies and asthma may worsen.

Cortisol in the Media
Cortisol gets a bad wrap in the media and in the “traditional” medical community. You may have heard that stress increases cortisol levels and that cortisol increases belly fat. Based on this theory, supplements have been created to block the production of cortisol. (A side note-the companies advertising these supplements have been sued for unsubstantiated claims). While it IS true that stress increases cortisol levels, it is because your body is demanding it. If you were producing too much cortisol when your body was NOT demanding it, you WOULD develop all of the problems associated with steroids, such as weight gain, fluid retention, diabetes, high blood pressure, acne, bone loss and immune suppression. Too much of any hormone is just as bad for the body as a deficiency in any hormone.

Challenge of Adrenal Fatigue Not Showing Up on Blood Tests
Adrenal fatigue is not easily diagnosed because it usually will not show up on a blood test until it reaches the extreme form known as Addison’s disease. Adrenal fatigue is more of a relative deficiency of cortisol. I diagnose adrenal fatigue based on a person’s symptoms, as well as based on his or her history (e.g., current medical problems, stressors). Because of the method for establishing normal reference ranges for lab tests, I know that the majority of my patients’ cortisol levels will be within normal range.

Treatment of Adrenal Fatigue
Treating adrenal fatigue involves supporting your adrenal glands with certain nutrients and also sometimes with low (i.e. physiologic) doses of adrenal hormones cortisol and DHEA, as well as removing the factors contributing to their demise. This involves dietary changes, vitamins, removing yeast from your body, learning to manage stress, balancing hormones, exercise, treating chronic pain and getting adequate sleep. It would be very difficult to completely recover normal adrenal function without addressing all of these at once. Most traditional doctors in the managed care model of medicine treat one symptom/health problem at a time, usually by masking your symptoms with prescription drugs.

Click here to test yourself for adrenal fatigue, and if you feel that this common, and hugely underdiagnosed health problem is something you might be suffering with, call 281-298-6742 and speak to a wellness consultant today or we can contact you by clicking here. We also encourage you to watch a short video with Dr. McManus about adrenal fatigue, too.

By Mila McManus MD|2020-10-08T09:50:41-06:00December 11th, 2012|Articles|

An Old Tradition Needed Today

Chicken soup has been a well-known folk remedy for the common cold and many of us recall our grandmothers and mothers preparing and providing it when we were small children with a cold or flu bug. So was grandma right in her thinking? She most certainly was! Here at The Woodlands Institute for Health and Wellness we are interested in getting everyone back to good old homemade meat broths and stocks. The reason lies in the fact that meat broths contain a large number of extremely nourishing nutrients in a very bio-available form. And it is no surprise that our grocery store stocks and broths are just not the same thing because industry food processing damages the broth and adds unnecessary and often harmful additives. Home-made broths contain many important minerals, amino acids and vitamins that are very soothing and healing to the digestive tract and the broths provide the essential building blocks for the rapidly growing cells of the gut lining. Broth is also very anti-inflammatory and aids in digestion for this reason. All of this supports a healthy gut, which is mission critical to overall health and wellness.

Broths made from any animal source including fish, chicken, goose, duck, venison, beef, pork or turkey, using bones, marrow, cartilage, joints and giblets are all ideal. If you have a stock pot or a Crockpot, you are ready to make stock! And please, let me urge you NOT to remove the fat content from the stock. We need this saturated animal fat for the healing process and immune function as well. Did you know that most saturated animal fats including beef, pork and lamb fat are actually only about 50% saturated fat while the remainder are mono and polyunsaturated fats? If you do remove it, then I hope you are planning to cook with it!

So as we shift into our coldest months, be thinking about homemade vegetable beef soup or chicken soup or a hearty nine-bean and ham soup and start out with stock made from scratch (see today’s recipe for instructions). Eat Well. Be Well

Reference: Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride MD. 2012

By Mila McManus MD|2012-12-19T15:59:34-06:00December 11th, 2012|NANCY’S NUTRITIONAL NUGGET|

Stock and Bone Broth

We love healthy broth recipes for cooler months. Try this Stock and Bone Broth to warm your family.

Ingredients and Tools:
– Large stockpot or Crockpot
– Filtered water to fill
– Ground pepper to taste
– 1 Tablespoon of natural, unrefined salt
– Bones and joints, giblets, skin and meat, for example:
– Whole Chicken with skin
– Beef Shanks (2-3 lbs)
– Frozen bag of Stock bones and fat from Whole Foods
Ask your local meat market for large bones, tubular and hip/shoulder joints with marrow.
Use the hock from a Honeybaked Ham or similar spiral cut ham.

Directions:
1. Place bones and meat or chicken in the pot.

2. Add ground black pepper to taste

3. Add 1 Tablespoon of salt

4. Cover bones and meat with filtered water, filling the pot

5. Heat on high until boiling then reduce heat, cover and simmer for 3-4 hours. This yields what is called “meat stock”, very soothing and rich in amino acids.

6. For the ultimate in healing nutrition, prepare “bone broth” by removing the meat from pot, return bones and fat to the pot and broth, add 1 Tablespoon of vinegar and cook on low for another 12-24 hours. Bone broth will be gelatinous when cooled and very rich in minerals.

7. Using a slotted spoon, remove bones and large debris, then strain in a fine wire strainer or cheesecloth (recommended). Store in the refrigerator for 5-7 days or freeze. Fat will rise to the top and solidify. Save some for cooking and leave some in the stock for good nutrition and flavor.

Both meat stock and bone broth are very healing and very healthy. Both can be used plain or add vegetables and meat for a variety of delicious soups. Microwaving will destroy the nutritional value of your stock or bone broth! Re-heat on the stovetop or in the crockpot.

By Mila McManus MD|2014-07-31T12:14:04-06:00December 11th, 2012|Recipes|

A Single Step for a Healthier Holiday

As you prepare for the holiday season, find one thing you can do to make it nutritionally healthier for you and your family and do it. Here are some ideas:

Cut the top off of a small pumpkin and hollow it out. Fill it with Roasted Red Bell Pepper or Sundried Tomato Hummus and surround it with green bell pepper strips, cucumber dials, orange and yellow bell peppers and carrot sticks for a beautiful harvest hors d’oeuvres tray.
Prepare your pumpkin pie crust using almond flour instead of wheat flour.
Replace your traditional bread stuffing with a quinoa and roasted winter squash dish. Use the same savory spices of sage, oregano and rosemary. Even include the oysters.
Surprise everyone with mashed potatoes made from cauliflower.
When preparing sweets, reduce the sugar by ¼ cup or replace it with a healthier option such as stevia, JustLikeSugar, or Erythritol.
Prepare less food so that there are not many leftovers.
Save the turkey carcass and use it to make turkey vegetable soup for the freezer.
Order a free range, organic fresh turkey.
Make homemade cranberry relish to avoid the high fructose corn sugar in canned.
Rather than green bean casserole, serve fresh green beans with melted butter, almond slivers and dill sprigs.
Insist that everyone you eat with go out for a walk or a bike ride TOGETHER before or after dinner.
Give Thanks

By Mila McManus MD|2012-11-29T09:26:48-06:00November 16th, 2012|NANCY’S NUTRITIONAL NUGGET|

Put your Heart in your Mouth

Put Your Heart in Your Mouth

By Dr. Natasha Campbell

Review: We all know somebody who suffers from heart disease or who has died from it, including members of our own families. Heart disease is our modern plague. We hear about it in the popular media, every time we see a doctor, every time we talk to friends and neighbors, and every time we buy our food. It has become a background noise for many of us, so we don’t stop and think: what on earth is heart disease and should I be concerned about it?

By Mila McManus MD|2012-11-28T20:15:08-06:00November 14th, 2012|Recommended Reading|

Grilled Chicken Salad Recipe

Eat healthy with this tasty chicken salad recipe.

Ingredients:
– 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
– 1/2 cup olive oil
– 1/4 cup lemon juice
– 2 T of favorite herbs
– 1 t minced garlic
– 1 cup Granny Smith apples, diced
– 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
– 1/4 cup dried cranberries
– 1 cup homemade mayo or Hellman’s Real Mayo

Place 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts and marinade (1/2 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup lemon juice, 2T of your favorite herbs, 1 tsp minced garlic) in a Ziploc bag and refrigerate overnight.** When ready to cook, preheat grill on high. Place chicken on rack and turn after one minute. Reduce heat setting to medium and cover. Cook for 7-8 minutes until chicken juices run clear when pierced. Immediately wrap in aluminum foil and refrigerate. This will seal in moisture.

Remaining ingredients: 1 cup diced Granny Smith apples, ½ cup chopped walnuts, ¼ cup dried cranberries, 1 cup Homemade Mayo * or Hellmann’s Real Mayo. Mix and enjoy!

By Mila McManus MD|2014-07-31T12:21:45-06:00October 11th, 2012|Recipes|

Yeast Free Mayonaise

Go ahead. Enjoy your mayo with this yeast free mayonnaise recipe.

Ingredients and tools:
• 2 cup measuring cup
• 1 cup measuring cup
• 4 egg yolks, 2 eggs with whites
• 2 cups grapeseed oil (canola oil may be substituted)
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 tsp ground mustard
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp paprika

Place eggs in blender. In the 2 cup container measure the oil. In the 1 cup container mix the water, lemon juice, and dry ingredients. Set the blender on high and beat the eggs for 45 seconds, then very slowly drizzle in the oil. The mixture will bind and become thick. When this happens, add any remaining oil and the remaining ingredients. Do not over mix.

By Mila McManus MD|2014-07-31T12:26:04-06:00October 11th, 2012|Recipes|

Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls

Try this recipe for yeast free desserts that are easy to make and a tasty treat.

Ingredients:
• 1 jar Laura Scudder’s natural peanut butter,
• 1 cup oats (Quaker original),
• ¾ C Sweet-n- Natural,
• 2 T cocoa powder
• ½ C chopped pecans

Mix together and form balls. Refrigerate.

This recipe can be modified several ways. Use your favorite nuts, substitute almond butter rather than peanut butter for those with peanut allergies, roll in chopped nuts, eliminate cocoa powder, adjust sweetener to taste or whatever your heart desires. This recipe IS yeast free.

By Mila McManus MD|2014-07-31T12:38:49-06:00October 11th, 2012|Recipes|

About Mila McManus MD